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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church. If you can grab your hymnals and open up the song 156. Song number 156, Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Song number 156. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. My church, let's sing this out. There have been names that I have loved to hear. But never has there been a name so dear. To the truest heart of mine, has the name divine. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. And he's just the same as his lovely name. And that's the reason why I love him so. Oh, Jesus is the sweetest name I know. There is no name in earth or heaven above. And we should give such honor and such love. And has his blessed name let us all acclaim. And what glorious name of Jesus. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. And he's just the same as his lovely name. And that's the reason why I love him so. Oh, Jesus is the sweetest name I know. On the last, and someday I shall see him face to face. To thank and praise him for his wondrous praise. Which he gave to me, when he made me free. The blessed son of God called Jesus. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. And he's just the same as his lovely name. And that's the reason why I love him so. Oh, Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Thank you for this gathering today. We appreciate you. We pray that you bless Pastor David as he has blessed the soul of the world. And we just love you and thank you for saving our souls and giving us eternal life through Jesus. And to send Jesus the same we pray. Amen. Alright, let's turn to our next song. Song 229. Song 229, Since I Have Been Redeemed. Song 229. Let's sing this one out with all our hearts. Song the first. I have a soul God loved to see since I have been redeemed. Of my Redeemer, Savior, King, since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed, I will glory in his name. Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a price that satisfies since I have been redeemed. To do his will, my highest price since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed, I will glory in his name. Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a witness bright and clear since I have been redeemed. Dispelling every doubt and fear since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed, I will glory in his name. Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a holy prayer for me since I have been redeemed. Where I shall dwell eternally since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed, I will glory in his name. Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in my Savior's name. This is unchanged. Sunday afternoon again at 4 p.m. So today is the last day that we're going to be meeting in the afternoon at 4 p.m. Starting next week, we will be meeting at 5 p.m. All right, so everyone here, we're clear, 5 o'clock next week. So if you show up at 4 for church service next week, you'll just be a little bit early. That's all right, stick around till 5 and you can still join us for church. The whole purpose of this, as I've been mentioning, is to add more time in between the services because we do. That's our biggest soul winning time of the week is on Sundays and I wanted to be able to have more time to do that. And I appreciate everyone who comes and travels from farther distances. I hope this isn't too much of a burden for you, but there really is a burden for the gospel. And I feel like we just quite don't have enough time to do the work that we need to do in between church services. We've been doing it for a little while, but it's time for a change. So 5 o'clock starting next week is our Sunday afternoon service. Then we've got Wednesday night at 7 is our Bible study. We're getting kind of wrapping up through the book of Isaiah. We're in chapter 60 this week. Hopefully you can make it out for that. Soul winning opportunities are listed there as well as our salvations and our baptism for month of June as well as for the year. Let's go ahead and count up any any salvations to report for the week. Anybody have anyone saved this week? Yes, sir. Matt on Friday. One. Was it one? Awesome. And brother Jesse. Saturday. Amen. Anybody else I miss? All right. Very good. We'll keep up the good work preaching the gospel and trying to show people how they can be saved through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We've got the offering told us down there at the bottom of the page through the month of June prayer request. Please keep Mrs. Weatherby in your prayers. My wife was in contact with her yesterday and she she thinks that she might be going into labor. So she's having contractions and stuff. And obviously, those of you who know, some of you may not know before women go into, you know, real labor, full labor. Oftentimes they'll have some contractions and things start to ramp up a little bit. So they were definitely ramping up for her yesterday. So just keep her in your prayers, especially just in the short term, that everything will go well. And then if you wanted to help them out with food, normally we prepare a bunch of homemade meals and we'll bring them over to the people who are having children. For the Weatherby's, we're requesting that if you do want to help them, you can send them a gift card to a place. And my wife has the email address if you want to do that by email. If you don't already have her email, you can speak with her after the service to assist them in their post and after having a child with having meals. We like to be able to provide meals for all the families after children are born to be a blessing unto them and to just just be a help. So things like that, you don't have to worry. There's a lot of a lot of stress, a lot of things going on with the birth of a child. So being able to have some food ready made for you is definitely a blessing. So appreciate everyone who participates in that. Mrs. Estrada is going to be coming up here also with with her due date, her estimated due date in less than a month, just a couple of weeks. So be in keep her in your prayers as well, as well as Mrs. Smith. And then, of course, everybody else on the list here. We added Emily's sister. For those of you who are not in the prayer group, the WhatsApp group that we have. Apparently she's she's not doing as well. She was she was in rehab previously, but as with addictions, oftentimes you have a lot of ups and downs. So she's not doing very well. She is saved. But we want to pray that she'll get get out of this addiction, out of her situation that she's gotten herself into. And just pray that God will help her to overcome her flesh. And then that's about it for updates. I added Holdfast Baptist Church. We pray for a lot of like minded churches and pastors, just that God will bless their ministry and will help them to continue to serve the Lord on the next page. Happy Father's Day. Thank you to all the hardworking fathers in service with us today. And we do have a small gift for everyone who is a father today. You could come on up. We've got we've so we've got we've got two gifts that you're going to receive. You're going to receive two. There's three different things up here. But let me explain this. Mrs. Johnson made some beef jerky for all the dads. So this is from the Johnson family for every father in attendance. You can help yourself to one of these. And then these ones. You get your choice. You get a choice just because we have I didn't know how my dad's going to be here this morning. I think I counted enough. But there's these kits are a survival kit. All right. Case has four locks on it, not just two. So your your standard survival kit, you know, all the cool stuff. You need to break any glass. You've got blades. You've got a compass, emergency blanket and stuff like that. So you've got your standard issue survival kit. Or these were mentioned by someone here. And these are really cool. These are lights that will go on your hand. I don't know. I already opened one of these up to see how it worked. So sorry, whoever, if you if you get one of these. But they go on your thumb. And on your index finger. What's cool about this. Anyone who's ever, you know, worked on vehicles or kind of had your hands in tight places. So you can not have to hold a flashlight. You can do your work with the flashlight right there. This is pretty neat to have, actually, because it keeps you it keeps your hands available to do things. I could have used one of these just the other day when I was working on a washing machine. I was calling out, hey, kids, someone come here and hold the flashlight for me. And nobody came. It was just like it was a silence in the desert wasteland. But if I would have had one of these, I wouldn't needed that. So pretty cool little gift here. So let's let's have all the fathers. First of all, just stand up real quick. If your dad with us today, we're going to give a round of applause for all the dads in attendance. All right. And come on up dads and help yourself. One beef jerky and then one other one other. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. Yeah, you're welcome. I've got one more survival kit. If we I didn't I didn't know how popular those were going to be. Those are good. Awesome. All right. Good job, dads. All right. With that, we're going to continue on in our announcements. Of course, we are in the month of June. We do challenges virtually every month of the year focused on various things in your Christian life, things that you maybe ought to be focusing on. And obviously the challenges. So we're trying to challenge you to do a little bit more than you might normally do in your day to day life. So this challenge for this month is to try to give the gospel to at least one person every single day. So have that at the forefront of your mind to be thinking about going out and mostly seizing opportunities. We have a lot of opportunities in our day to day life, but we oftentimes miss those opportunities because we're not thinking about giving the gospel to people. You're distracted just with what your plan is or whatever you've got planned out for the day. And you're kind of going through your life with, OK, I've got to do this, this, this, this. At least that's how I am. Very task oriented. But we want to make sure that we're sensitive to being able to give the gospel to people. Right? When I say sensitive, I mean we're considering that. That that should be near the forefront of our minds on a regular basis so that we don't lose great opportunities that we have just because we're task oriented. We've got to do this, do this, do this, do this. Sometimes you have great opportunities. They come and they go and we miss them. So we're really trying to keep focused here day to day to day going, no, man, I need to give the gospel to someone. I need to give the gospel to someone. I need to give the gospel to someone. I need to give the gospel to somebody. That is the goal for this month. That's the challenge. And you don't have to actually give the gospel. I understand, you know, this is not the easiest of challenges, but you have to at least try. You have to, you know, try to approach someone, give them the gospel. If they don't want to listen to you, that's fine. You've met your requirement for the challenge even if they don't want to listen. But we're trying to keep that at the forefront of our mind. And even if you miss a day, that's fine. Obviously, you know, we're going to give a prize out for being able to accomplish this. But the whole point is to try to train yourself to seize those opportunities. So please, even if this is the first time you're hearing about this, try to incorporate this. Challenge yourself to do this for the rest of the month. Brother Taylor, why don't you come on up. You get yourself a beef jerky and one of these. You just missed the Father's Day. It was literally, no, don't apologize. Look, Brother Taylor, kind of like Brother Logan, you know, he's got a few children. You might need like a few lights. We appreciate all the dads. We appreciate you being here with us on Father's Day. So thank you all for being here with us. Did I miss any other dads that came in just during announcements? I thought I saw some other people come in, but very good. All right, continuing on, we've got our anniversary weekend. Next week marks our four-year anniversary as a church, Strong Old Baptist Church. So we're going to be celebrating on Saturday. We've got Pavilion III rented at the park listed there. The address is right there. We have that pavilion rented from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Now, unfortunately, I was not able to get water slide for the park this time. We had done it in the past. It was a different company. That company is no longer in business. So I had to find, it was kind of a lot of working to find somebody to do this. And originally they had said that they would, you know, they said they don't ever do it at parks. They only do the water slides at people's houses or private property. But then they said that they would do it, but then I called back again. I talked to them recently, and they said, no, they don't want to do it. There's too much liability or something like that. So, unfortunately, we don't have a water slide, so it's going to be kind of hot. And I'm aware of this, right? And inflatables are going to get a little hot, but we've got a lot of things that you don't have to just sit on. There is a slide, but there's a bunch of other stuff, too. If you have any ideas, I'm planning on bringing some fans. And maybe some type of misting, you know, way to provide a little bit of water out there. Yeah, you know what, maybe we will. I'll bring a hose, and we'll do something on our own. It won't be commercial, right? But we'll bring something out there to help people cool down a little bit. But it's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to have, you know, some food provided, refreshments. It's going to be a great time. Come on out and just help us to celebrate. Everybody's welcome. Bring guests. And actually, right now, I'd like to get just a show of hands. If you're planning on attending on Saturday, you know, this isn't like a hard commitment. But if you're planning on attending, I just want to get an idea of how much food we need to get. Can you just slip up your hand? And, Leslie, will you help me count? It might be easier to count who's not planning on coming. Let's put all the hands down. If you do not plan on coming on Saturday, can you just slip your hand up real quick? Don't be ashamed. It's all right. All right, very good. You got that, Les? That's much easier to count that way. So we'll be able to look at our attendance and say, okay, here's how many are not showing up. So that's great. I'm looking forward to it. A lot of people are planning on coming out to that. And like I said, you can invite other people, invite your family or friends, and it's just going to be a great time. So looking forward to that. We're going to have a lot of fun. And then on Sunday, we're also going to have some food provided in between the services as well. So just continuing the celebration of our anniversary, we're going to have food brought in on Sunday afternoon. Bible memory passage. So we are finishing Hebrews 3. Those other six verses are due tonight at midnight. So the previous six verses to what's listed here, seven through 12, that is due tonight. Now, who has completed that or will have that quoted by tonight? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. All right. All right. Amen. Nine. All right. Very good. Good job. I'm going to use this moment. All right. We're going to use this moment. I know a lot of people will claim, I can't memorize the Bible. It's too hard. I'm not good at it. I'm not good at memorizing things. I've heard that, but I don't want to make you feel bad, but I do want to encourage you and let you know you can do it. You can. You can memorize the Bible. But it does require effort and work. It does. It requires some effort. It requires some work. It requires a little bit of your time to do it, but everybody is capable of memorizing the Bible. Elijah raised his hand as someone who has completed this or will have it completed by tonight. That's six verses. He also quoted all the books of the Bible in order from Genesis to Revelation last week, so he got his prize for that. And how old are you, Elijah? Four. Elijah is four years old. If a four-year-old can memorize the books of the Bible and memorize six verses out of the Bible and quote them back, I think that everybody can. That's at least four years old. Right? Capable of doing it. So I'm encouraging you. I think that's awesome. That's great. I love seeing the kids doing this. But I love seeing the adults doing it, too. And the reason why we do Bible memory, okay, this isn't the same as memory like in history class. You've got to memorize dates and memorize names that can seem pretty pointless and a waste of time. The Bible talks about meditating on the Word of God and hiding His Word in your heart as something that we all should be doing. And I'm telling you this, there is a great value and benefit to memorizing the Word of God. You will understand more about the Bible if you commit His Word to memory. Through the act of doing memorization, you are thinking about those words, and they will stay with you longer, and they'll stay with you even in times when you don't even realize it, where it will become relevant at a later point in the future. Verses you've committed to memory are a lot easier to come to mind. So it is a very, very good benefit to do this. And we try to incentivize it by offering prizes. The problem is I am not the best prize person. And I know I said last week I'm always careful not to promise prizes. I didn't promise prizes. I said I was going to try real hard to get the prizes that I owe, and I failed. Now, we got Father's Day prizes, so that was pretty important. I don't want to be behind on, like, holidays. But you do always get the prizes. Okay, they always come to pass. Even if it is a few weeks or maybe months late, you will get your prizes as long as you stick around and keep coming to church. Maybe that's another incentive. I don't know. But the prizes, those are secondary. The whole point is, again, memorizing scripture is a very good thing. We're going through the whole book of Hebrews. The goal is to memorize the entire book of Hebrews. So we've memorized as a church Hebrews chapter 1, Hebrews chapter 2. Now we're going to be finishing up the last seven verses of Hebrews chapter 3. Okay, then we're going to be moving on to Hebrews chapter 4. For those of you who think, you know, I can't do this in the amount of time that you're setting forth, jump ahead. Start on Hebrews chapter 4 now. Start on Hebrews chapter 5, you know, whatever. Just try to get some Bible memorized. That's the whole point. And, you know, if you want the prize, that is. But this pace is not that much. I mean, a four-year-old is able to keep pace. You say a four-year-old might have more time than you. I don't know. I mean, that's understandable. Everybody's got, if you devote 10 to 15 minutes a day, you could easily have this stuff done. 10 to 15 minutes every single day. The key is doing it every day. If you do that, you can get it done. So anyways, I hope that's encouragement. I hope some of you, at least one of you, will think, you know what? I'm going to try to do this Bible memory passage four weeks, seven verses. That's a month. You get a month to memorize seven verses of the Bible. It's a long time. So try to get this one done. Finish off Hebrews chapter 3. We've got the birthdays and anniversaries listed through July. Have I missed anybody's birthdays in June that has not already, or even if it has already passed, if it wasn't listed in the bulletin, am I failing to recognize birthdays or anniversaries? Or in July, because those are everything that I have for the month of July. All right, I'm assuming my record keep is up to date. If I miss you, I apologize. It's not personal. It just means I either made a mistake when I was making bulletins, or I don't have your information written down. So we'd like to recognize all birthdays and anniversaries. That's it for our announcement. So I'm going to pass the service back over to Brother Peter. Song number three. If you can open up your handouts for song number 377. Song number 377, Rescue the Parishing. Song 377. Church, let's sing the song of the first. Rest through the perishing, care for the dying. Snatch them in bidding, from sin and the grave. Wait for the everyone, lift up the fallen. Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save. Rest through the perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Though they are sliding in his tail, he is lame. Lay in the hand of ten child to receive. Lean with him earnestly, lean with him gently. He will forgive if they only believe. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Down in the humid water, crushed by the standard. Feelings like air in their graves can restore. Touched by a loving heart, wake in my kindness. Wores that are broken will vibrate once more. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Rest through the perishing, do the amassing. Strength for thy labor, the Lord will provide. Back to the narrow way, patiently with him. Tell them of the wonder, the Savior has died. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. The church, while those offering plates are being passed around, if you could open up your Bibles to the book of Joshua, chapter 24. That's the book of Joshua, chapter 24. And as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church, we're going to read the entire chapter and ask brother Devin if he can please do that for us. Once again, that was Joshua, chapter 24. And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel and for their heads and for their judges and for their officers and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nachor, and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood and led him throughout all the land of Canaan and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac. And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau and I gave unto Esau Mount Seir to possess it. But Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. I sent Moses also and Aaron and I played Egypt according to that which I did among them. And afterward I brought you out and I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you came unto the sea. And the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red Sea. And when they cried unto the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and brought the sea upon them and covered them. And your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt and you dwelt in the wilderness a long season. And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side of Jordan. And they fought with you and I gave them into your hand that ye might possess their land and I destroyed them from before you. Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel and sent and called Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you. But I would not hearken unto Balaam, therefore he blessed you still, so I delivered you out of his hand. And you went over Jordan and came unto Jericho and the men of Jericho fought against you. The Amorites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Hivites and the Jebusites and I delivered them into your hand. And I sent the Hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites, but not with thy sword nor with thy bow. And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor in cities which ye built not. And ye dwell in them of the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted, not do ye eat. Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve you the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose ye this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites and whose land ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage and which did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way wherein we went and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, even the Amorites, which dwelt in the land. Therefore will we also serve the Lord, for he is our God. And Joshua said unto the people, ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is an holy God, he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt and consume you. After that he hath done you good. And the people said unto Joshua, nay, but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said unto the people, ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord to serve him. And Joshua said, we are witnesses. Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the people said unto Joshua, the Lord our God will we serve and his voice will we obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God and took a great stone and set it up there under an oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said unto all the people, behold this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us. It shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God. So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance. And it came to pass after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died being 110 years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath Sarah, which is in Mount Ephraim on the north side of the hill of Gash. And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that over lived Joshua and which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel. And the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt buried they in Shechem in a parcel of ground on which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for and hundred pieces of silver. And it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. And Eleazar the son of Aaron died and they buried him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son which was given him in Mount Ephraim. Let's pray. Brother Vernon Miller Sr., do you mind praying for us please? Thank you Lord for this day and for the lives of the brothers and for your worship. Thank you for chapter 44 and the example of Joshua and he blessed all fathers here today with the same zeal and the same trust to preach to you in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Alright, so this morning I'm going to seize on the opportunity of it being Father's Day. And especially because of the culture we live in because of the influences out there today it's a great opportunity to preach on fathers and fatherhood and what the Bible teaches about the differences between men and women and the roles that fathers and husbands have in the household. And this is something that has been under attack for a long time and I know if you've been coming to church here for a while you hear on this on a somewhat regular basis. And the reason for that is because we need, I need to counter, I feel like I need to counter everything that's going on in the world because as a culture, as a society we keep on slipping farther and farther and farther and farther away from the word of God in a way that God designed things to be. And even born again believers who love God can be influenced by the world. It is totally possible for believers to get caught up in this mindset and you keep on getting the same propaganda pushed down your throat you keep hearing these same things over and over again it can have an influence on the way that you think and we need to have the right influence from God's word on the way that we think and we should establish our homes in the word of the Lord. The home is so critical and so important and the job of a father now more than ever is critical and extremely important as we have just continuing to have record numbers of homes without dads in the home. We have a generation of children being raised by mom only and that is a shame because children were designed to be raised by both a mother and a father which is why both are necessary to have a child even to begin with. God instituted the physical relationship that brings children. He instituted that in marriage. So anything outside of marriage is not right, it's wickedness, it's sin. But the reason why God even allowed for that relationship to take place is because children are a result and God doesn't want the children coming forth unless you are in a committed relationship as being married to somebody to provide the stable environment for a child to be raised and to be brought up. It is extremely important. Men and women are different. Mothers and fathers are different and this goes without saying. Anyone with two brain cells knows that fact that men and women are different. Stereotypically different. They are different in general. In great generalities there are very significant differences. Women are nurturing. Women have all these various skills that children need when they're growing up and I preached on that on Mother's Day. All of the feminine qualities that women have been gifted with that are needful for children as they're being nurtured and brought up at home. But at the same time you have masculinity, you've got testosterone that flows through men's bodies and men provide different traits, different skills, different values that are also needful in a child's life. There's an element of discipline, there's an element of there's a lot of different things that men bring to the table. There's strength that is brought to the family by the father, the husband and father. There's a lot of things that go on. Now the title of my sermon this morning is The Man of the House. The Man of the House. And even the title alone these days is going to make people get triggered if they understand what that term means. I feel like the generation that I grew up in might have been the last generation as a whole or as a culture that's been exposed to this thought of there being a man of the house. The man of the house is referred to, you could go back and even see probably still before they all get cancelled, the old TV shows or the old movies, I'm talking like black and white, when it was part of U.S. culture for someone to show up, whether it be a salesman or some public official show up at the house, is the man of the house home, right? Now why? Why do you need to talk to the man of the house, huh? Because in a righteous culture, the man of the house is the one making the decisions for the family. The man of the house is the one in authority. And as we're going to see as we go in, God has given that authority. This isn't the authority that man has taken on himself. This isn't the authority that culture has dictated, well the man has the authority. God has granted the authority of running and ruling the household to the man. And what we need these days, what we need today is more men that could be the man of the house. You need to run things in your house. Because when God gives authority to someone, when God makes you responsible for something, guess what, now it becomes your duty. You are duty bound to be the man of the house by God. If you want to be right with God, then you need to make sure that your family is operating the way that it needs to operate in the sight of God. That is your job, husbands, that is your job, fathers, in the household. And it has to take place, and you know what, you have zero excuses. Zero. And there are different levels of authority, there's an authority structure that God has given. Children are kind of at the bottom when it comes to the whole family unit. Children at the bottom, they have to obey mom and dad, and God. They have a bunch of bosses in their lives. Moms, hey they are ruling over children, but they also are subordinate, they are subject to the authority of their husband, as well as of course the authority under God. And the man of the house, the husband, he has authority over wife and children, but of course is always subject under the authority of God. Now, the higher up that chain you go, the more responsibility you have, and the more important it is, there is always a little bit of a relief or a comfort in being in a position where you could allow someone else to make decisions, right? Whether that be on the job, you know, there's different levels of employees as far as how much authority you have and responsibility you have, but with that great authority comes a great responsibility, and at the end of the day, if something goes wrong, the accountability will always go up the chain to the top. So in the home, if your kids are not behaving themselves the way they ought to, now you could say, yeah, but my wife's at home with them all day, she should be raising them, she should be training them, she should be teaching them to be good and be mindful. But you know what? Yes, she should. But you know who's in charge of your wife if she's failing at her job? You are. So at the end of the day, you know who's ultimately responsible for your children being raised properly? You are, dads. You are. But I'm working, I'm going off, and I need to do it. Yes, you do. But guess what? You've got a hard job. God's given you that authority. You have that responsibility too. So yeah, when you go off and you work your fingers to the bone, that's not enough. Your job of being a dad is not done. In fact, it's far from being done. You need to learn how to rule your house. Just being a provider is not enough. You need to be a dad, you need to be a husband, and you need to be a Christian. Working is only one small aspect. It's one part of the picture, being a provider. Yeah, of course, if you don't work, if you don't provide for your own, if you don't provide for your family, the Bible says you're worse than an infidel. So yeah, absolutely, you've got to work hard. You've got to provide. But there's so much more to it than that. You have the responsibility. You are the man of the house. You need to live up to that. And you need to take it by the horns, take your responsibility, and get in there and start making changes. If changes are needed to be made in your house, I hope you could walk out of here and start saying, you know what, things might have to be a little bit different. And you know what's going to happen? It's going to cause some friction. When you just say enough's enough, I'm going to do things the right way, this is how we're doing it, that doesn't always come with, oh, great, honey, thanks. Okay, I'm being real here. I'm being real. Now, in a perfect world, that would be the case. And that would be great. But especially if you've gotten used to a certain way of living and you start to institute changes, there's going to be friction. I mean, human beings in general can tend to be resistant to change. I deal with this all the time in my job with IT. People don't like new stuff. At least at work. They like their new gadgets in their phones, but they don't like changing the way we do things at work. Oh, this is going to make it more efficient. No, no, no, no, no, I don't want to do that. Well, it's similar at home. It's going to be kind of the same thing. They say, no, look, we're not going to do this. Hey, you know these movies and these TV shows and this music and all this worldly influence? Dad, you're responsible for what's in your household. You might just need to pull your foot down and say, you know what, this kind of wickedness is not going to be in my household. And you have to make our decision that says, no, we won't do this because I'm responsible. If my children fall, it's my job. It's my responsibility. That's why in my house we have all kinds of restrictions on devices and mobile devices and stuff like that because it's so easy to get into wickedness and sin these days with the freedom of the internet and the devices and stuff. Children are getting defiled on a regular basis. You need to make sure that doesn't happen. And you say, well, I don't know that much about technology. You better learn then or not allow it in your kids' hands. It's that important. It's that important. You understand how much filth is out there and how many bad influences are and how easy it is for kids to just go down this path and get into all manner of wickedness and all manner of filth and all manner of sin and learn all kinds of things at ages that they never should be exposed to stuff like that. It's out there. And dads, you are the bottom line. You are going to be the one held responsible for everything that goes wrong in your house. If you have that level of responsibility, how are you going to deal with that? Now, that might make you look like the bad guy. Your kids might have a friend. Oh, well, they could do this and they could do that. It doesn't matter. Let me point out something. As dad, that title does not equal friend. Dad is different. Dad is dad. Now, it doesn't mean you can't have a good relationship, but here's the thing. Here's another reason why it's not just friend because dad gets a different level of respect than friend. And that's the way it ought to be in the home, too. And children need to learn the respect of their father and not just treat him as a buddy because you're not just his buddy. You'll always be there for him, but you're not just his buddy. Now, I haven't even gotten into the Bible yet, right? Man of the house is the title of the sermon. We see an example of this, this great famous story with Joshua, right? The end of the book of Joshua, Joshua 24, real famous passage here. I just want to point this out. Look at verse number 14. The Bible says, Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve you the Lord. So this is the command, right? The right thing is serve the Lord. This is what you need to do. Put away the idol. Serve God. Serve God that saved you. Serve God. That's what he's telling the children of Israel. Then he says this, And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. Say, you know what? If you don't like the Lord, if you don't have anything to do with the Lord, whatever, but choose you who you're going to serve, serve this day, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But then he says this, But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua's not just saying, but as for me, I'm going to serve the Lord. He says, But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Why? Because he has that authority. He has that direction. He's saying, you know what? Not just me. My whole house, we're following the Lord. Do you think my children have a choice whether or not they come to church on Sunday? Do you think they have a choice whether they're going to serve the Lord in my house under my watch? Absolutely not. Now one day, they're going to be adults and they are going to have that choice and they're going to be able to choose whatever they want. And I want to teach them and train them and get them to learn to love God and have their own relationship with the Lord and want to do the right thing. Of course, that is my goal. So the way that you lead is also important. But for the purpose of the point that I'm making here, it's, man, you're in charge. And you make those decisions. And it's not just some virtue. See, people think it's a virtue. Some Christians, I should say. I've heard Christians talk about a virtue. Well, I'm just going to let my kids figure it out. And if they get in, you know, they could figure out whatever. Now usually these people, these Christians aren't saved. Because if you truly believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life and no man cometh in the Father but by Him, if you truly, if you believe that, you're not going to want your kids believing anything else. Because you love your kids and you don't want them to go to hell when they die. So no, my children are being taught Christianity and the Bible and the truth and the Word of God. They still have to decide for themselves whether or not they believe that. But that's what they're getting taught and that's what me and my house are doing. And you know what? You do with your house what you want to do because God's given you that authority to do that, but there is a right way and there's a wrong way. Joshua informed them, hey, here's the right thing. Fear the Lord. Follow Him. Get rid of these idols. But you know what? Choose you what you're going to do. Just choose who you're going to serve. Choice is up to you. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua was the man of the house. He was making the direction of where his house was going to go. You say, well, that's just Old Testament stuff. No, you know, no. It's New Testament as well. It's all throughout the Scripture. 1 Timothy 3. Turn, if you would, to Genesis 18. 1 Timothy 3 gives this whole list of requirements for people who desire to be a bishop. They desire the office of a bishop. What's a bishop? Bishop's a pastor. There's a few words used interchangeably in the Bible. Bishop, elder, pastor. They all describe the same position within the church just from a slightly different perspective, but I'm not going to get into all that. But here are some of the requirements and the criteria for someone who would be allowed to become a bishop. Now, none of these things should you say, oh, well, that's only for the pastor. No. What this list of requirements is, it's a minimum of things. They have to already be spiritually grown to this position and have that standard already in their life. It's not something extra special for pastors. This should be, hey, if people are at least meeting this criteria, then they could be allowed to become a pastor. So when we look at the credentials or the list of things that you ought to possess in order to be ordained as a bishop, hey, would to God all of God's men were able to fit the bill of being able to be selected to pastor a church? Okay, it's not like, oh, well, only he has to do it. No, this would be for everybody. These rules or this criteria would be good for everybody to meet. One of those criteria in 1 Timothy 3 is verse number 4. It says, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. So one of the criteria for being a bishop is you need to be ruling your own house. Ruling means you're in charge. The man of the house, New Testament teaching as well as Old Testament teaching all throughout the Bible, having your children in subjection. Subjection means they're in obedience to you. Dad speaks, children listen. This is the way that a Christian house ought to run. And then it gives a little bit of explanation on the next verse in parentheses. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? So one of the reasons that criteria is in there, he's saying, well look, if you can't even run your own house, how are you gonna run the church? Right? I mean, you gotta keep things in order at home. How are you gonna keep things in order? When the kids respect you and they listen to you and when you tell them to do something, they do it. That's good order in the house. Well, how are you gonna keep a church going? We got a whole bunch of different people in church if you can't even run your own household. If no one's listening to you at home, why in the world are you gonna have a whole bunch of other people start listening to you? I mean, the people closest to you that should love you and respect you more than other people, if they don't follow you, nobody will. But I also want to point this out in this passage. It says, if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? And part of ruling is taking care of, okay? So I don't want ruling to sound like this horrible word because you're just thinking of Adolf Hitler as like some ruler, right? No, you don't have to be Adolf Hitler at home. Now, you have the authority, right, to make rules and stuff, but obviously the type of leader that you are and the type of ruler that you are matters. As I was just saying before, how you rule matters. Now, as I mentioned before in my opening, you know, this one thing is lacking in so many marriages today because Satan has not only been hard at work through the feminist movement of trying to make women more masculine, getting women in the workplace. You know, it used to be, hey, you know, the question was asked, you know, who wears the pants in the family for a reason? Because in the past, men were the only people wearing pants. Because the person wearing the pants in the family was the person in charge. Because it was a man. Nowadays, who knows? And that's why it's become a joke over recent decades. Well, who wears the pants in your family? And now it's, well, everybody wears pants. No. That's not right. It's not right. The man shall not, the woman shall not wear that which pants her man and the man shall not wear a woman's garment. That's what the Bible says. And it's not talking about men putting on women's jeans. But anyway, that's a whole other sermon. I'm not going to get off on that subject of what we wear. But yes, God does care about what we wear. Yes, he does. Satan's attack has not just been through the feminist movement. He's also been working at feminizing men for a long time. And isn't it funny? I mean, Satan's attack, it's how are you going to attack women? Try to make them more like men? And how are you going to attack men? Try to make them more like women? Make them more feminine? Make women more masculine? That's why the feminist movement is not aptly named. It should be named the Masculist Movement. Because it's trying to make women more masculine and have the attributes of men. It's not, the goal is not to make women more feminine. You would think a feminist movement would be trying to make women feminine. But it's not. It's the exact opposite of that. We ought to embrace the way that God made us as either men or women. And yes, there's only two choices. Man and woman. And yes, I don't care what the scholars and philosophers are going to tell you about gender and you don't understand. It's not the same. Sex and gender are two different things. And gender could have this whole spectrum. And look, no. Because God made man and woman, you say, well, that's the sex. But then the Bible also says that in His image created He Him, male and female created He them. So He created man and woman and male and female. Male and female are genders. But God created two. Male and female. So when it comes to people, yes, there is male and female. And this is the only thing that even makes sense. I mean, even if you speak any foreign language, if you know Spanish, what in the world are you going to do when you refer to someone who identifies male or female? Well, guess what? The whole language and the way that we speak is designed around male and female. Because people who created language weren't insane. They weren't ready to be committed to an insane asylum. They weren't demon-possessed. They understood the facts of reality that God made them male and female. And if you don't know any Spanish, Spanish has gender in their words. Let me give you a real good example. Does everyone know what an amigo is? Like your friend? Amigo. Hey, amigo. Right? Well, if you're a woman speaking to a woman friend, that's an amiga. Ah, oh. Words that are masculine or things that would be associated with being masculine ends with oh. Feminine ends in ah. There's your Spanish lesson for today. And if you want to speak Spanish appropriately, you have to know genders. Male and female. Pastor, why are you bringing this up all the time? Because this is so crazy of the world we live in. And I don't want people getting corrupted through philosophy and vain deceit of people who are going to lie to you and talk about, well, you really understand gender. No, look, there's nothing to understand. It's male and female. That's it. You're an idiot if you think otherwise. Yes, you're an idiot. You're an idiot. But you don't. You're an idiot. You're an idiot. Feminizing men. How is statement feminizing men? How about through the faggy music? The men who have the soft, and the really soft-spoken, faggy voices. Yeah, Bee Gees, I'm talking to you. All right, that's old school. People are like, who are you talking about? Sorry, air supply. This is old. Who's new? Who are the new people? People are looking at me going like, what are you talking about? Sorry, Justin Bieber. Beeble? How about the movies and the TV shows trying to make men more sensitive? And look, it's propaganda. It's an agenda to push the sensitivity of the men. Oh, poor man. And we're going to open up, and he's going to share his feelings and make me want to vomit. But the more you look, it's programming. It is. The TV shows, the sitcoms, the movies, because what do people do? They watch this every day. This is the vision of reality, and one of the ways that God created us as social creatures, you actually pick up habits from other people. You learn, and people are more prone to assimilate in general, which is why your friends and who you choose to be around is so important, because the people who you are hanging around with and spending your time with, you're going to become more like them, really, whether you like it or not. So you have to be careful to choose who you spend your time with, and if you're spending your time with Hollywood just pumping what they want to teach you day in and day out, and you start connecting with fake characters and fake storylines and fake people, trying to show you to act a certain way, that's what happens. And that's an entire sermon in itself, this concept of what is being done, how Satan's been attacking people and attacking you through propaganda through the mass media. But I'm going as far today, even the children's books, and I'm not just talking about the new crazy stuff that ought to just be burned, and not ever even just coming off the press, the garbage that they're trying to teach children these days, but I'll say this, even books like Berenstain Bears, I said it. Now look, I'm not mad at you if you have Berenstain Bears books and read them to your kids, but here's what I pick up on that, the idea that dad's an idiot and just needs mom to run the show at home. How many times have you seen that in those books? I know I have. We've had those books. You know I got those books because I was ready to do them when I was a kid. And then I started looking at them, reading them to my kid, I'm going, we're not reading this to the kids. They're not just going to portray dad as some fool, some buffoon that doesn't know how to do anything right, and mom just needs to do everything at home, and dad just sits on the couch and sleeps. That's not the idea of dad I want my kids to have. That's not right. And look, with your own household, you do what you want. You watch all the TV and movies and you could, you know what, put whatever you want in front of your eyes, but as for me and my house, we were not going to do those things. Because I'm worried about serving the Lord, I'm worried about how they're going to be turning out. And you know what, that's going to make me a little peculiar. It makes me a little strange. But I'm okay with that. Man, you need to understand you're in charge of the home. You need to take charge of your home. Don't wait for someone to tell you it's okay to take charge in your home. You take charge in your home. Because God already told you to take charge in your home. God's put you in that position. It's not up for a vote. Turn to Ephesians, you're in Genesis 18. You keep your place in Genesis 18, you want to turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Turn to Ephesians after 5 if you already probably have it memorized by now because I preach through it so much. But I always like to try to show you from Scripture why I believe what I believe. Because I keep on saying, hey, God's giving you that position, God's put you in that authority. But I haven't really just shown it from Scripture. I've been saying it, saying it, saying it. A lot of people already have been saying amen. But here's one example of a place in Scripture where we see specifically that God has ordained a structure and it's exactly what I'm saying. Ephesians chapter 5, verse number 22, wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Well, if you're submitting yourself to your husband that means that he's in charge. He's the authority. So why do they need to submit? God just tells you anyways. Verse number 23, for the husband is the head of the wife. He's the head. What does the head mean? The boss. He's in charge. Husband's the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church. And he is the savior of the body. So how much greater authority could God possibly be ascribing to a husband at home if he's likening the authority of the husband at home as well as much as the church is subject to Christ. Church is the body, right? Christ is the head. The head determines what the body does. I'm pretty sure we would all agree Christ should have full authority over this church, over this body. Yes? Is anyone in disagreement with that? Because you're not in the right place. Christ is the head. Christ dictates what we do through Christ's words, right? We're not waiting to hear something weird in our ear going, oh, go do this. No. It's right here in front of us. And just as much as Christ is the head of the church, the husband's the head of the wife. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. But this isn't a spiritual matter in every thing. But he can't tell me how I should sweep and mop in every thing. Now, that might seem like a silly or extreme example. And you know what? Some men might like to micromanage. I don't. But you know what? They have the authority to. You have the authority to. And you know what? Sometimes, men, you might have to micromanage. Because if things aren't working out the way they ought to, when you're giving a lot more flexibility and freedom, you might just have to step in and say, this is the way it's going to be done in this house. Because you're in charge. And you don't have to yell about it. You don't. I mean, I'm yelling right now to make a point. Doesn't mean you have to yell at home. I mean, there may come a point where you're trying to drive a point home or whatever. But you could rule. And you could rule with a gentleness. You could rule with that. But it needs to be a firmness, too. But what I'm trying to show and trying to illustrate here is that that authority is given by God. I mean, this is in the word of God. This is scripture saying that's where the authority lies. And it's in everything. The only place where everything would be, something would not be included in that is if it's in contradiction to God's laws. Like, if it's something where your husband's telling you to literally sin against God, well, God's authority reigns supreme over the man. So, you know, your husband says, you know, go kill somebody for me. Well, no, you don't have to do that, okay? And, you know, hopefully you didn't make that choice in life to marry someone who's gonna tell you to go kill somebody for him. But hopefully that's a concern no one here ever has to deal with. But even on the smaller scale, right, I mean, you could think about other examples and apply it that way. But this is where the Bible says that. And on and on, there's so many things here, you know, that men ought to love their wives, their own bodies. Verse number 28, he that loveth his wife loveth himself. So obviously there's a duty. There's a call here for wives to obey their husbands, but for husbands to love their wives. And the amount of love that the husband ought to have for the wife is as much love as Christ had for the church. Because the Bible says, verse number 25, husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. So Christ gave everything up for the church. He gave up his life. He was willing to be completely self-sacrificial for the betterment and benefit of the church. And that's the love that husbands ought to have for the wives. And I'll say this, too, that just as much as, hey, women, you need to be submissive to your husband, but men, you can't control if a woman is going to choose to submit. I mean, you can't. I let the cat out of the bag, women, I know. In case you didn't realize that, you actually do have the choice to be submissive. Sorry, guys. I let them know. It's better to let them know the truth. Of course they know that. Of course they have a choice. Of course. Everyone has a choice. But you don't get to choose. You shouldn't. If you're going to live godly, you don't say, well, they're not being submissive, so I'm not going to love them the way Christ loved the church. That would be akin to Jesus saying, well, you're being disobedient and you're being a sinner, so I'm not going to love you because you're being bad to me. But that's not what Christ did. Christ gave himself anyways. And men, you need to love your wives. You need to love your wives. And I'll tell you this much, and this is my advice, I'm going to say this until the day I die. You want to have a good marriage? Men and women, you do what God has told you to do. You can't control what other people do, but the more that you are able to fulfill your role, the easier you're going to make it for your spouse to fulfill their role. Men, the more you love your wives with a self-sacrificial love, the more your wife is going to be inclined to follow you. The more you demonstrate how much you care and how much you love and that your leadership is for her benefit and for your family's benefit, the more you're able to show that, the more willing people will be to follow. And on the flip side, you can look at it from the woman's perspective. Hey, the more you're willing, even if your husband's being a jerk, even if he's telling you to do things you don't agree with and you would do things different, the more you're willing to be submissive to your husband, the more you're going to find that he's going to love you. It works. Now, it's not. If you're having problems, this isn't some overnight fix that is just, well, I just did one thing for you and you didn't change. It takes a while. It needs to be a pattern. It needs to be ripped. But all you can do is what God has told you to do. And men, God has told you to love your wives. God has told you to rule your house. You have your children's objection with all gravity, and that's your job. Things aren't up for a vote in your house. You need to take action, and you may be tired from working. And I know you don't want to have a fight. No one wants to have a fight. I don't want to have fights. The easy thing to do is to start letting things go if you spot it as being wrong but you're like, man, this is going to cause problems. People are going to be upset about this. It's part of the hard part about being dead. You're going to have to just do what's right because it's right, and you're going to have to make decisions that might be hard decisions, but if it's the right one for your family, if it has to do with getting sent out of the family, look, you've got to do it. You've got to do it. And even in, I'll have to turn back there now, even in Ephesians 5, men are given the responsibility of teaching their wife, not just leading but also teaching, and we're going to see that a little bit later. Man, I am, I don't know what I was thinking preparing for this sermon. I'm on page one. The Bible says this. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it 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. So the way that Christ loved the church is to also love the church and tell the church the truth and help guide the church to get sin out, to be without blemish, to be holy, to be separated, to be sanctified, right? Well, that's also part of the job of husbands as well. Husbands, you need to be able to lead your wives and help them in their spiritual growth with God, help them to become more spiritual, help them to get their, you know, to become without spot and blemish in the eyes of the Lord. That's a duty. It's a responsibility. Now, in order to do that, guess what? It's going to require a lot of work because you're going to need to know the Bible. You're going to need to know what God's word says, and if you're going to be a teacher, you're going to need more than the people, you need to know more than the people you're teaching. Now, sometimes people find themselves in a situation where their wives know more than themselves. I understand that. That happens in reality. But as a husband and as a father, you know, and there's some situations where kids know more than their parents about the Bible, about the things of God. I mean, how many families out there might even be sending their kids to Vacation Bible School They don't go to church. They don't know anything about it. I mean, we go out soul-winning and people let us talk to their kids sometimes and just say, oh, yeah, yeah, go ahead and you can talk to them. They don't want to hear it. They don't know anything about it. Their kids are understanding what it takes to be saved and their parents don't even know it. Look, that happens. Just because it happens doesn't make it right. If that's the way things are in your family, then you need to make it right by saying I need to learn and know more than everyone else in my family because I'm in the position of leadership and I'm in a position to have to teach them. That's your job, to be able to instruct. You're in Genesis chapter 18 and I want to see Abraham is this awesome example of a father. I mean, he's called Father Abraham. He's a father of faith. That's the way that we typically think about Abraham. He's a father of faith. But even at home, being that good example of a father, hey, this is someone that we ought to look up to. If you're going to look to anyone, don't look to the modern families and all the stupid TV shows that are out there about all these different alternative lifestyles and this is how we do our family and we have two dads and we have, you know, look, it's garbage. It's nonsense. Look to Abraham to be a role model. Abraham was a good father. Abraham was endorsed by God as being a good father in the word, commemorated in the word of God eternally. It's a pretty good commendation. In Genesis 18, this is when Abraham meets the angels and who I believe to be Jesus Christ incarnate in the Old Testament going forth to Sodom, right? They're about ready because Genesis 19 is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. It's where the angels show up and we know the whole story and God rains fire and brimstone down on the perverts. But right before that, they have a meeting with Abraham. Now, God's kind of deliberating whether or not He wants to tell them what's going to happen and He says this about Abraham in verse number 19. Look at verse number 19. 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 hath spoken of him. God's saying, I know Abraham. I know him. I know that he is going to command his children and his household after him. He's the man of the house. He's going to teach. He's going to instruct and they're all going to listen and follow because that was the good father and leader that Abraham was when he said something or when he did something, his whole household followed him because he was a godly, righteous man that followed God. This is evidenced in the chapter as he commands his house for the strangers that show up. So some strangers show up and look, get this. Pay attention to this story and think about how this would go in your household and if it wouldn't go this way, you've got a problem and you ought to fix it. Strangers show up to Abraham's house. He meets them. He doesn't know them. They're passing by, but he's going to be hospitable, okay? Now look, I'm sure things were probably more rural and they weren't necessarily stacked up and would live exactly the same way we do, so it makes more sense. I'm not saying you have to do this to someone who's taking a walk in your neighborhood, right? Like to stop them and send them down. Not that there would be anything wrong with that, but when people are making these types of journeys and they're passing by someone's house or Abraham sees them, it is a bigger ordeal, okay? So they're kind of out taking this long journey. He sees them. He says, you know what? I'm going to bless these guys. Verse number 6 in chapter 18 and look up at verse number 6. The Bible says, because this is when he sees the visitors. It says, and Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah and said, make ready quickly three measures of fine meal. Knead it and make cakes upon the hearth. That's a command unto Sarah. There's people out here. Do this. And Abraham ran unto the herd and fetched a calf tender and good and gave it unto a young man, and he aced it to dress it. Here, this one right here. Take this. Butcher that. We've got guests. Take care of that. And then he goes up and says, and he took butter and milk and the calf which he had dressed and set it before them. Then he goes and serves. He's not sitting down on the couch yelling at everyone to do different things. He's involved. He's helping. He's leading. But at the same time, he's in charge, and he's telling other people how they're going to help. And everything works out great. Isn't it nice how everyone at his house was able to participate in being a blessing unto these strangers that showed up that just so happened to be angels that showed up unawares that he didn't know? He didn't know it was being visited by angels, and then all of a sudden, it's like, oh, wow. What an extra blessing because he had it in his heart to be hospitable. So he stands by them on a tree and they did eat. So he's just standing there serving them and waiting on them. Now, husband, if you were to be in a hurry and you come in the door of your home and you say, honey, I need you to make quickly these pancakes. Get it ready. Make them now. We've got company. You need to make them. Well, who do you think you are talking to me like that? Why don't you just come in here and make it yourself? Would you tell me what to do? You've got a big problem. You've got a big problem. You need to work on fixing that so that you gain the respect of your family and of your wife so that you can truly be in charge and do these things. Now, you still need to be in charge. You still need to make sure things are going to happen the way they're going to happen. But if they're not going to play out this way, you've got some problems. You need to work on it. I'm just, you know, let you decide for yourself how well things are like. And I hope for every single person in here, I honestly hope it works just like that. Great. Great. He also, Abraham also demonstrates his character and ability to lead in Genesis 14. You can look there if you'd like, when he finds out about Lot being taken captive after the war with the five kings with the four kings. It says in verse number 12, And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom and his goods and departed. And there came one that had escaped and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eschol and brother of Anner, and these were confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants born in his own house 318 and pursued them unto Dan. Now, he's pursuing after these four kings that had just defeated these five in battle, and they're returning with their spoil, and part of that spoil are these captives. And first thing we see about Abram, he's like, hey, that's my family. Here, it calls him his brother. Obviously, it's his nephew, but he's saying, you know, this is my brother. That's not going to fly. Family is important to Abram. Very important. All right, we're going to go deal with this. So then he tells the few hundred people in his household, hey, we're going to go do this. Everybody listens. Everyone joins him. Why? Because they're going to honor him and respect him and they'll say, you know what, we're going to follow you. We don't care who we're going after. We're going to follow you. They trust Abraham to do the right thing and he's earned their respect. Otherwise, how else are you going to lead a small group of men against armies like in the battle and say, here's what we're going to do. Now, obviously, they weren't going to just have this full-fledged war, but he was going to do a, you know, to do a prison break, as it were. It says in verse 15, he divided himself against them, he and his servants by night and smote them and pursued them in a hobo, which is on the left hand of Damascus. So he does end up just beating them, right? Like he's going there, he's interested in freeing his captives, but he's just, he goes and beats them up and sends them running away and he brought back all the goods and also brought again his brother Lot and his goods and the women also and the people. Abraham's got a lot of people following him. He's a good leader. Because it starts off with his ability to unquestionably follow the Lord and make that the priority in his life. From before all this, when God told him to leave father and mother and to leave his land and leave everything he's known, he did it. He's willing to pick up and move, not be tied down to the things of this world, not to live the comfortable life. So that sounds kind of uncomfortable. Yeah, it is. Well, can you tell me where we're going? No, not yet. Just start going this way. Okay. You're not always going to see the end in the Christian life. You might just have enough information to put your next foot out in front of the other. That's fine. It's part of walking by faith and not by sight when you're walking and making decisions and going a direction based off of what the Bible says. You don't know where God is going to lead you necessarily, but you know it's going to be somewhere good. Abraham was clearly the boss. He was in charge of his household. You can't lead if you don't have the respect of those you're leading. Respect is achieved through your actions. It's not just through your words. You ought to have the right words. You ought to teach the right things, but it's going to come through your actions, your steadfastness, your resolve, your faithfulness, your character, your strength. These are things you have to demonstrate at home to your family. It needs to be there. Lead by example. When your house knows, not just they've been told, when they know that you have their best interest in mind, they're going to be happy to follow. How are they going to know that? You need to prove it. And you know what doesn't just have their best interest in mind when you're just sitting around lounging about and just serve me, serve me, serve me, serve me, serve me. You have the authority to do that in your household. You do. And family, if that's the way that that is at home, then you know what? God's given them that authority to do that. Now, it's not right. It's not the right way to do it. You're going to put people in a position to feel like they have to serve you just because they have to instead of they want to serve you, which are two different things, very different things. You're going to have the best marriage, the best house when people want to fill their roles. And the more you do and the better you are at filling your role that God's given you, the more everyone's going to want to fill their role as well. Now, we've run out of time. I'm going to blow through this super fast. I mentioned earlier, you know, husbands, you're in charge of not only leading, but the instruction at home. 1 Corinthians 14, the Bible talks about women keeping silence in the church and says if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. Husbands, you better have an answer. I mean, you need to be able to teach, if they want to learn, you need to be able to teach them, which means you have to know the Bible. Now, not just with your wives, it's Father's Day, but dads, teach your children. Look, I'm a strong believer in homeschooling, and you know who manages the instruction of the children at my house? My wife does. But she's not the only one that teaches. And she should not be the only one that teaches. It's not right for her to be the only one that teaches the children. I'm going to blow through some verses in the book of Proverbs, okay, but you could read the first eight or nine chapters in Proverbs, and how often are you going to see my son, my son, my son, my son, my son, my son? I'll read some of them for you. My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother. Father and mother. He doesn't just say, don't forsake the law of your mother. Hear the instruction of thy father. Dad's teaching you. Chapter two, verse one, my son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, receive my words. Dad's teaching you. Verse five, this is the result. If you'll receive my words, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. So what's dad teaching him? Fear of the Lord. Knowledge of God. Things that are going to help them for the rest of their lives. Things that really matter. You're not just teaching them about all the athletes of old and all their stats and how great they were and Bo Jackson and whoever, you know, like, oh, man, these guys, Michael Jordan, you know, these guys were so great, you don't understand. That's vanity. They don't need to know those things. You know what they need to know? The fear of the Lord. Knowing how great your favorite musician was or how great these other things were has no value. If you're going to teach them anything, make sure you're teaching them what they need to hear. Chapter three, verse one, my son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. Why? Because you're teaching your children. Proverbs chapter four, verse one, hear ye children the instruction of a father and attend to no understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsaking not my law. Teach doctrine to your children. Dads, teach doctrine to your children. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also. He said, look, my dad taught me and I'm teaching you. He taught me also and said unto me, let thine heart retain my words and keep my commandments and live. You want this to be an inspirational thing. Get wisdom, get understanding, forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. Chapter four, verse 10, hear, O my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many. Dads, you care about the length of life of your children? I do. I want to live long, flourishing lives. Receive my sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many. Listen to what I've got to say. I'm giving you instruction, giving you wisdom of wise. And you know the book of Proverbs. It talks about strange women. It talks about drugs and alcohol. It talks about all these pitfalls and all these sins and all the things. It talks about working hard, not being sluggard. It talks about all manner of things, all manner of characteristics, and the way you live your day-to-day life and the choices that you make and don't make friends with these people who want to go and steal from people and walk this wicked way, stay away from them, have nothing to do with them, serve the Lord. If you could follow these words of wisdom, you'll do well in life. Verse 11, I have taught thee in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right paths. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened. And when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. I don't want to see my children stumble. Now, everyone has their failings in life. Everybody does. But I don't want to see it, and I want to try to prevent those as much as possible and that whatever their failings may be, it's not severe. It's not devastating. It's not life-altering to where the recovery is just extremely difficult. I want the failings of my children of hearing them say something they shouldn't say as opposed to trying heroin or something like that. There's such this huge spectrum of things that could be wrong. And when the things that are wrong are all on a small scale, great. Because there are a lot of people who get involved in a lot of different things. And if you're not teaching and training your children properly, there's, I mean, they're ignorant. And they might want to learn by experience. Love your children. Teach them. My son, attend to my words. Verse 20 of chapter 4. Incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes. Keep them in the midst of thine heart. Sounds pretty important. Stress the importance. You know, when something's that important, you don't just say it once and just say, OK, well, that's good. I told them about that. You can't. Think about how you were taught. I don't care where you were taught. You usually learn by repetition, right? How'd you learn your times tables? Well, I saw it once and that's it. It's good, right? No. It's repetition. That's how you learn. Now you probably still know. I mean, I know mine. I still know them. But it took repetition to do it. Chapter 5, verse 1. My son, attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding that thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge. Chapter 7, verse 1. My son, keep my words and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments and live in my law as the apple of thine eye. Teach your children, dads, teach your children they need it from you, they need it from mom, they need it from you. Take the time. I know you work. I know you've got chores. I know you've got a million things to do. Your children are important. Teach your children. Teach them the right ways. You leave a child to themselves, they might make the wrong friends, and they're gonna learn ways from somebody. Teach them the right ways. Teach them the dangers of doing things the wrong way. The way you live, though, you have to take the time to teach. You have to take that time. I'm gonna tell you this. You can't just have the words. I've already said this before. You need to make the times. You need to tell them the instruction. You need to give them the words. You need to give them the truth. You need to tell them that, but at the same time you have to live the way also, because kids are more likely to learn by observing what you do than they are by just hearing words. Your words ought to line up with your actions. Otherwise, they'll see the hypocrisy and start getting confused and going, well, wait a minute. I know you said that, but he's doing this. If he's doing it, I mean, it's dad. It must be right. It must be OK, because dad wouldn't be doing things that aren't OK, right? I must not have understood him right when he said that, because I see him doing that. And if the two are contradictory, you're causing confusion. It's way more impactful when they see it in practice. And just seeing it isn't quite enough, because you need to be able to explain it to them that that's actually a thing. Give them the knowledge. Teach the words. Take the time to teach the instruction to them, but they ought to be able to see it, too. Think about this. The way that you treat your wife, dads, the way you treat your wife is the way that your sons are going to learn how to treat their wives. It is. That's what they're going to learn. How should I be a husband? You learn from the example that you had growing up your whole life. The standard, dads, that you live by, the standard that you live by in your life that you impose will be the same standard that your daughters are going to use when they're looking for a husband in other men. Daddy would never do that. Daddy would never do that. You know what? That's what we're going to look for. Or they're going to find someone and say, I'm excited as that, so must be a good guy. It's important. How do you want your children turning out when they're older? Critical. It's critical that you get your house under control. You get yourself under control. You be the example. You can't change the past. You can't change what's done. Everyone's made mistakes that people have done different things in their life. All you can do is change going forward. If you know the truth, put this into place. Put this into work. Late is better than never. Early is best. From a young age is best. If you haven't done that, okay, well, you can't cry about it. Start today doing right and getting right and repairing relationships. If you need to repair something, if you need to try to start getting things right, start today. As far as I've ordered prayer, Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for all the great instruction that you give us in your word. God, none of us are perfect here, Lord. You know that very well, but I pray that you would please help us to, especially as men, especially the Father, to be strong, that you'd strengthen us, that you'd help us to not only to understand all the great responsibility that you've given us, understand our job, understand the great responsibilities that we have, the duties that we have, Dear Lord, but also to be able to perform them. I pray that you please help us with our priorities, help us to get things right and established in the home, because a home is so important, has been under attack for so long, Dear Lord, help us as Bible believers to have strong homes that our children can be protected and taught the right ways, Dear Lord, and that you could still use us and have a remnant of people who are trying to live righteously. God, impart unto us your knowledge and wisdom. Lord, we love you. We want to serve you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed. Brother Peter, you please lead us in our last song. All right, church, if you can open up your hymnals to song number 407. Song 407, Faith of Our Fathers. Song 407. Let's hear the sound of the verse. Faith of our fathers living still in spite of touch and fire and soil O, how our hearts be tied with joy When e'er we hear that glorious word Faith of our fathers holy faith We will be true to thee till death Our fathers chained in wisdom's dark Were still in harm and conscience free How sweet would be their children's faith If they like them could die for thee Faith of our fathers holy faith We will be true to thee till death Faith of our fathers we still strive to win all nations unto thee And through the truth that comes from God may God shall then indeed be free Faith of our fathers holy faith We will be true to thee till death On the last Faith of our fathers we will love both friend and foe in all our striving and reaching to as love knows how By kindly words and virtuous life Faith of our fathers holy faith We will be true to thee till death Amen. Once again, Happy Father's Day. Great singing. Thank you so much for coming, you guys. We're dismissed. Thank you. Thank you.