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Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Okay, this evening we conclude the book of Ephesians and we are in chapter number six tonight. And we'll start a brand new book next week. And so let's go ahead and go over some of these principles that we see here in chapter number six. First and foremost, the first thing I want you to notice is are the responsibilities for different roles. That's the first thing that we see in chapter number six being mentioned here. Of course, the children are addressed. We see that fathers, parents are addressed, servants are addressed, employers, employees, et cetera. Let's go through this. Look at verse number one, it says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. So the first commandment that we see here is that children need to obey their parents. Now notice it doesn't give an age, right? It doesn't necessarily give an age of how long you should honor your father and mother. Well, once you hit 20, once you hit 30, once you hit 18, once you hit 50, at that point, you don't really have a responsibility to respect and honor your parents. That kinda is delegated to your younger brothers and sisters as soon as you move out of the house or something like that. No, you should still continue to honor them at your capacity. Now obviously, your biblical roles should never conflict, right? You should never honor them and dishonor your spouse or something. And honor them or dishonor your children by spending more time with your parents than you do with your children, et cetera. It should be that both of those duties should never conflict, you understand? And if you do it in the right way, it could be balanced and you can take care of your family, your spouse, and you can also care for your parents as well. But it says there, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. And then it tells us that this is the first commandment with promise. And what it's referring to is Exodus chapter 20, I believe verse 14, where it talks about that if children honor their parents, that they're gonna live long on the earth, okay? What this is is good insurance, okay? You know, if you wanna live long on the earth, if you want to make sure that you have an extended life, one of the guarantees that God gives you in order to do that is by honoring and taking care of your parents. Now honor, obviously we can translate that as respect them, obey them, kind of reverence them as our parents, but more than that in a practical manner, it's actually referring to providing for your parents. This means that when your parents grow old and they're incapable of taking care of themselves, the responsibility falls upon you to take care of your parents financially, you understand? And that's what it means. You know, the Bible often uses the word honoring, not just in context of respecting, but also providing some sort of resource in order to help them, okay? You know, the Bible talks about honoring the Lord with thy substance, all right? It's referring to your resources. And so, you know, children need to give heed to this. You know, if you're a teenager, if you're a young man, you need to make sure that it's your responsibility to take care of your parents if it ever comes to the point where they can no longer take care of themselves, okay? And, you know, you say, well, you know, I could barely take care of myself. Well, then, you know, you need to figure that out. Because, you know, just because you feel like, well, you know, I can't really take care of myself, I'm having trouble paying the bills myself, doesn't mean that this commandment is null and void. You understand? You still have that responsibility. And regardless of how much income was coming into our account, I've always told my mother, hey, whenever you want, you can come live with us. If you feel like you're incapable of paying the bills, if you feel like you can't buy groceries, if you feel like you need anything, you're always welcome to come live with me and I will provide for you. I will, you know, give you everything that you need. I will pay for your groceries and fun money, whatever you need, I will do so for you. Why? Because my mom took care of me for basically a good part of my life. The Bible says to honor them, you know, in like manners, so we should do the same thing, you understand? And so that's a good promise there because it's talking about the fact that if you do so, you know, the recompense unto you is that God will allow you to live long here on this earth, okay? Now, aside from the commandment that we see to honor our parents, this also shows us proof of what we would consider to be a family integrated church. Okay? Now, what is a family integrated church? Well, we are a family integrated church and what that means is that children stay in the service with their parents, okay? That's why you see all these little ones and the babies and the infants and the toddlers. We don't have, our church is not structured in a way where as soon as service begins, you know, the kids go to the nursery, the kids go to the Sunday school class, they go to the children's church or anything for that matter. No, everyone stays together, okay? And unfortunately, you know, independent fundamental Baptists have followed that model of separating the family when they come to church and not just independent Baptists, just Christians in general, I'm sure, even liberal churches have Sunday school classes and nurseries, et cetera. But Baptists, unfortunately, have been into that. And it's not a good thing, okay? But, you know, and it's often, churches like ours are criticized for having a family integrated church. I'm not sure why you would get mad at that. I'm not, you know, out of all things that we believe, why would you get upset if we had our children in the service with us? You understand? Isn't that weird? It's like, you shouldn't have the kids in the service. You don't tell me what I can do with my kids, first and foremost, okay? You know, it's like when you go visit some churches and they tell you, like, you need to put your kids in a nursery, it's just like, are those fighting words or what? Like, you're trying to tell me what to do with my family? Like, you don't tell me, I do whatever I want with my family, okay? If they're gonna stay here, they're gonna stay here. You know, not all churches are like that. We went to go visit some churches when we were in Tennessee, okay? Went to Tennessee, went to go visit some churches. And, you know, a lady came up to my wife, she saw her with Helen. You know, Helen's, she's an infant right now. And she said, hey, you know, we have a nursery. You know, if you wanna take her in there, my wife just said, no, thank you. You know, she's gonna stay with us. And she's, and the lady, I think, if I remember correctly said, I did the same thing. So, yeah, that's cool. And the lady was fairly, you know, she was up there in age. So, obviously, she came from a time where the infants stayed with their mothers, you understand, during church services. Which, it's always been that way, okay? This is a new thing, segregating the families and all that. And, in fact, Sunday school originated from a guy named D.O. Moody, okay? If you've ever heard of D.O. Moody, he was a Congregationalist who baptized babies. And he made it really, he popularized this thing of Sunday schools. And he would go around, you know, he popularized the whole bus ministry thing, even though they didn't have buses back then. But they had, you know, horse and buggy, and they would pick up kids, and they would have little classes for them, and so on. And so, he popularized that. And the Baptists, and just Christian groups in general, kind of took hold of that, and made it a part of their ministry for whatever reason. But here's the thing, folks, you know, and look, let me just say this, is that, I'm not 100% against Sunday school classes. I understand that there are certain Sunday school classes that do teach kids good doctrine. You say, well, how do you know that? Well, because I was a Sunday school teacher, okay? And when I was a Sunday school teacher, I taught doctrine in my Sunday school class. So, these little kids, I mean, it was hard to keep their attention, obviously. But, you know, when I was at my old church, we had tents for Sunday school classes, and I had my students, and I took it very serious. You know, I was studying throughout the week, and I would print out these little lessons for them, because I wanted them to learn the Bible, okay? And I specifically remember teaching them the Bible, while all the other Sunday school teachers were teaching them just stupid songs, you know, for like 20 minutes straight, or something like that. You know, we'd sing a couple songs here and there, but for the most part, I wanted to teach them doctrine, you know? I wanted to teach them the Bible. I'm not saying that every Sunday school teacher out there is just some lame, watered-down Sunday school teacher that is just corrupting the children, or something like that. I'm sure there's the exception to the rule. Just like, you know, for example, bus ministry, I'm not 100% for bus ministry, or against bus ministry. We'll never have it, but here's the thing, is that because that's not necessarily a biblical model that we should follow, that's why we wouldn't do it. But that's not to say there hasn't been good bus ministries out there. I'll give you another example. I was a bus captain at one point, okay? Yeah, Brother Albert and his family were part of my, they were my bus workers at one point. You know, they didn't give us a bus though, they gave us a shuttle, you know, to work with. And you know what, we went out, we picked up those kids, we got them saved, we made sure they knew the gospel, we taught them the Bible. I would literally pick them up on Sunday morning, I don't know, like around 8.30, nine o'clock, bring them to church, they would go to Sunday school, they would go to the service, then they would go to a main service, and we'd keep them all afternoon for what was called an afternoon program, then we'd keep them for Sunday night, and then we'd take them back home, feed them, and just drop them off like at 10 o'clock at night or something like that. I mean, for the parents, it was like a free babysitting service is what it was. Now, I mean, I had the best intentions though. Like, I wanted to get them saved, I wanted to teach them the Bible, but let me say this, that's not always the case with a lot of bus ministries out there. And in fact, a lot of molestations take place in bus ministry, there's a lot of horror stories. I would say I'm just the exception to the rule, okay? And there's many exceptions, but in general, it's not always the best ministry, all right? And there's a lot of things I could go on, you know, nurseries, for example. You know, I've heard some, I've never seen this personally, but I've heard some horror stories about nurseries where people go, you know, visit a church and they want the baby to stay with them, and the people are just like, you can't nurse here, you need to go to the nursery, you know, or if you don't want to, you gotta go on this little cupboard or something like that, and pull the curtain on yourself, and you know, just crazy stuff. Now look, ladies, if you want to nurse here, you're welcome to nurse here in the main auditorium, you can nurse wherever you want. I don't care, feed the baby if the baby's hungry. But I don't think it's the church's right or the leader's right to tell you how to parent your children unless they are being chaotic, unless they're destroying church property, unless I feel that you're not taking care of your responsibilities as a parent and just allowing your children to be unruly, then at that point I have to step in as the pastor and say, hey, you need to check your child, they need to get spanked, or you need to stop them from like, you know, burning the piano or something like that, you know what I mean? Like, we want to keep our piano. You know, your child is just stabbing every little child here with a pencil, can you stop them from doing that? You know, that's a different story, okay? I'm talking about things that just pertain to just life in general, okay? You know, having your children with you. And look, that's why we have children in the service, that's why you hear them, ah, you know, just kind of scream out and laugh and then they'll cry. You know, don't get distracted, learn how to focus in church, because these kids need this, okay? You say, well, where's your text verse about, you know, a family integrated church? Right here. Verse one, children obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Now, we read this, and we're like, whoa, it's in the Bible though, like obviously it's gonna say that because children will one day read this as well and see that it's for them. Yeah, but this was an epistle that was meant to be read in church. So because it's an epistle meant to be read in church, that means when the pastor was reading it, he was looking at the children and saying, hey, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right, Jaden. I guarantee he will not forget this. Hey, honor thy father and thy mother, right? Which is the first commandment with promise. You know, that's what the Bible says, that it may be well with thee, Bruce, okay? I'm preaching to you, you better obey mom and dad. I mean, this is for them. And you say, well, you know, this is too advanced for them. See, that's the problem is a lot of people, they undermine how intelligent little ones really are. Little ones soak up a lot. They sometimes pay better attention than some of you in church. Because you're too busy thinking about food and your favorite sitcom or whatever, and you know, I don't know, whatever else. They're just kind of like, that preacher's crazy, he sounds interesting, and they listen. You know, I've had my son quote many things that I've said that I forgot that I've said. I'm like, man, I gotta be careful what I preach, you know? Because he remembers everything, you know? And he'll repeat it, he remembers principles, he remembers lines, he remembers title sermons, and he just turned five years old. So it shows you that they are, you know, taken in a lot. Go to Nehemiah chapter number eight, if you would. Nehemiah chapter number eight. So it's pretty interesting that the apostle Paul wrote this. You know, he didn't say, parents, tell your children to obey you in the Lord. Because remember, this is a letter that he wrote to the Ephesian church, right? So he could have said, hey parents, make sure you tell your children to obey your parents in the Lord. And also tell them, honor thy father and thy mother. No, but he specifically put, children obey your parents in the Lord. Because he knew, when this would be read, that children would be present to listen, okay? So don't think that preaching is only for adults. You know, if you're grown up, you're an adult, that's what you need, you need the deep doctrine. No, the kids need it too, okay? Don't stupefy kids. Don't think that, well, no, what they need is like some fun show with all the bells and whistles and the candy bars and the songs and the wildness in the Sunday school classes. That's how they're gonna pay attention. Folks, if those children even survive being in an atmosphere like that, when they grow up, you know what they're gonna want? A liberal church. Because they're gonna want a liberal version, an adult version of that. And every liberal church is simply a matured version of a kid's Sunday school class. They sing stupid songs in Sunday school, they sing stupid songs at the liberal church too. It's a fact, okay? I mean, I know because I sung the songs. Not the liberal songs, but the kid songs. A lot of these songs are just like, you know, let me try to think of one. Marcos, come on, you're a bus worker at one point. What was the song? Baby Shark. Yeah, okay. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaking. You know, how many of you know Baby Shark? Baby Shark, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, Baby Shark, doo, doo, doo, doo, Baby Shark. And you sing that like, I don't know how long. I can't remember how long you've seen that for, but it's just a repetition song. But isn't every liberal song like that? It's just a song on, it just repeats the same thing over and over again. What's another one? Don't act like you don't know. What do we got? Nazzi, what? Okay, yeah. Father Abraham is the exception to the rule, okay? How many of you guys know Father Abraham? Okay, that's a really good song. Do you know why it's a really good song? Because it teaches replacement theology, that's why. You know, Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you. So let's just praise the Lord, saying that we're children of Abraham, you understand? That's the only one that's good, even though the hand motions were really stupid, though. Oh, how about this? Making melody in my heart. You guys know that one? That has nothing to do with the Bible. It's just like, making melody in my heart, making melody in my heart, making melody in my heart. Joy, joy, joy. And I kid you not, and I'm not joking with you, they have you do these hand motions, and you do it for like five times. On the fifth one, you remember this? They make the kids look like they're handicapped. I'm not gonna do it right now, because it just looks bad. And they're going like, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh. So you have like a class of like 50 kids doing that. Like, what kind of doctrine does that teach? It doesn't. It's a repetitious song to take up time, because I guarantee you the preacher who's coming up, the teenager, doesn't even know what he's talking about when it comes to the Bible. It's just to kind of entertain the kids, and distract them while the parents are getting teaching. You understand? And so, you know, when they get that this whole time, and then they grow up, you know, they're either gonna get out of church, or they're gonna go to this liberal fun center, where they sing a matured version of that song, okay? What's another one? Give me another one. Come on, I know you know some. I'm talking to you, Marcos. Nazzy, do you remember any, Nazzy? You just came out of this, man. I'm just kidding. It should be fresh in your mind. Silas, what do you think? Do you remember one? No, good, it's out of your system, huh? I mean, there's tons of them. There's, I'm trying to forget. Oh, how about, what's the song? What the, come on, you know that one. Where you do the hand motions. Yeah, I'm in the Lord's army. That's actually a pretty good song. We're gonna do that in church one day. The vast majority of them are just a repetitious song that, and the reason they're so long, I'm telling you, the reason they're so long is because they're trying to kill time. And then, so they have this preliminary service that lasts for like 20 minutes, and then the lesson is like five minutes, 10 minutes at the most, or something. And I remember, they would ask me, can you preach for the teen service? And I'm like, yeah, I'll preach, and I would rip face. I would get up and rip face, because I knew a lot of them were not even saved, and I told them they were going to hell, and I was just like, I'd just go off on them, because I wanted them to get saved. And you know what, a lot of them got saved. I wasn't invited to preach very often after that. It would be like once every two months or something. You know, but it worked. But a lot of times, people would go up there, because that's the system that they have created. And they wonder why, when kids grow up, sometimes they just get out of church, because they're disinterested in the things of God. You know, I'm thankful that our kids are learning hymns. They're learning how to sing, and can it be. It is well with my soul. They're learning how to sing these powerful hymns that have a lot of doctrine in them. You know, I'm thankful that my daughter likes to sing Psalm 139, the cutest thing you'll ever hear in your life. And this is good, and it ingrains doctrine in them. You know, we should never undermine the capacity of a child's mind to intake all this information. You know, it's making its way in there. And it is transforming them, it's helping them to think. You know, and I can go on and on about this, because I just think of like the beginning of the year, with the bombing, you know. I'm sure a lot of the training that the kids got, that's why they were able to sustain such a traumatic experience, so to speak. Look at Nehemiah eight, verse one, it says, and all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Watergate, and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month. So even in the Old Testament, God didn't say, hey, segregate everyone, you know, if they're babies, get them out of the service. And don't let that confuse you when it says all that could hear with understanding. It's not like, well, I guess this baby doesn't really understand, we'll put them over here real quick and just have them be by themselves. No, it's just basically anybody who can listen and hear, they're welcome to come, okay. Anybody who can understand what's being said from the book of the law, they could come. He that hath in the ear, let him hear, okay. It was open to families, you understand. And so it's important that we understand why we have a family integrated church. You know, it's not because, you know, we just wanna be radically different from the old IFB or something like that. It's because, number one, it's biblical. Number one, it's the most practical, okay, and it yields good results for our children. It's good for our children to be in the service, singing the Psalms, hearing the Word of God preached, you know, and it's good for them to listen to me as their pastor. You know, a lot of times kids grow up in these churches and they're kind of alienated from their pastor. They only know the teenager who doesn't know much doctrine is teaching them a bunch of weird stuff. You know, that's all they know. And so, you know, and you wonder why these kids become disinterested with church. They're just kind of like, this is boring. Whereas kids who often grow up in a strict conservative, so to speak, biblical environment where you have the Bible being preached and it's unfiltered, you know, they develop that type of appetite, they desire it, it's good for them, okay. So we should never have this attitude, well, let's get the kids out of the church and go put them in a nursery or something like that. Now obviously we have mother-baby rooms to accommodate, you know, parents who have little ones who get a little out of hand. And we have a couple kids in here that sometimes get a little out of hand during the service. My kids are some of them, okay. Because we got little ones and sometimes they throw a fit, you know, they need to get a spanking or something like that and, you know, they just need to be distracted. That's why we have the mother-baby rooms there for. But the purpose of it is not for you to go in there and stay in there until like they're 18 or something like that. Purpose of it is for you to take them in there, train them, help them, and then bring them back into the service, you understand? But I'll say this, I love family integrated church. I mean, it's the best. It's the best for our kids, you know, and I'm thankful that I get to attend a church where we have that. You know, that's one of the perks, I guess, you could say of being a pastor is I can basically say we're gonna have a family integrated church. And I'm thankful that my kids, they listen to my preaching, you know, I'm not worried about them going with some stranger, you know what I mean, into some Sunday school class. I mean, you'd be surprised, folks. You know, years ago, Bob Gray Sr., if you remember, he was promoting that guy, Johnny Nixon, who was trying to say the sodomites needed to be, you know, they needed to be rehabilitated and all these things. And they were trying to get churches to integrate sodomites into their ministries and specifically work with children. That's what they were pushing for. They weren't just pushing for having sodomites just come to the church. Oh no. They wanted to take it a step further and say, allow them to work with children. Let them be a part of, you know, Sunday school class and Sunday, you know, children's ministries and whatnot. It's like, are you out of your mind? Are you out of your mind? These child molesters, these chomos, you know, you're gonna put them in a room with a bunch of kids. It's insanity, folks. It's crazy, okay? And again, I'm not throwing out the baby with the bathwater because I know that there are certain Sunday school classes, there's bus, there's people in our church who are reached by the bus ministry. So obviously, it's not all bad. But you know, they're the exception to the rule and there are definite horror stories. You know what, but there are churches out there that will look down on you for wanting to keep your kids with you. You know? And you know, it's all part of like the old IFB type of way of thinking where if a kid gets loud or something like that, it's like you're distracting the pastor or something. Like the atmosphere in the service needs to be just like you gotta have a pin drop or something like that. Now look, obviously I want it to be quiet in here while I'm preaching. We don't wanna have a doctrine here and a psalm over here or something like that and a tongue over there. But look, when it comes to kids, sometimes they just get a little wow, understand? And you know, that's okay. So you just gotta learn to just kind of, over the last four years I've kind of basically allowed myself to just kind of block that out. Sometimes my wife will come to me after service and say, I am so sorry that his eyes was, I'm like, I didn't even notice. And he's like, oh, he was screaming and yelling and crying, I'm like, I didn't see. Now obviously if it persists, we gotta have a balance, folks, okay? Obviously if your child is just like, ah! And they're like, right there? And they're just like, ah, ah! You know, don't be like, this is family integrated, baby. Like, I'm staying right here, like this is where God wants us. You know, be considerate. Not just of myself but of others around you. You know, if your child is just like, you know, is crying bloody murder and you have half the church like looking at you, they're doing one of these, you know, that's like a little indication you should probably take the child out just for a little bit and then bring him back in or something like that. You understand? So anyways, that's a great passage of scripture to teach that, you know, why we should have family integrated churches because the apostle Paul is addressing children and I believe in sermons we should address children. I address children often, I'll talk to them, I'll call them out in the service or something like that like I did to Jayden right now, you know? But it impacts them in a good way. It's real to them, you understand? Look at verse five, it says, servants be obedient, let me see it. Oh I'm sorry, verse four. And ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. And he's basically saying, you know, don't provoke them, don't give them room to become bitter towards you. And I think that can be an easy thing to do unfortunately. It's possible for parents to provoke their children to cause them to be bitter towards their parents because they're being unfair in certain areas. And obviously, you know, parents, we're not perfect and sometimes we make bad judgment calls but we should not be characterized by bad judgment calls, you understand? So we should desire to not provoke our children to wrath, not cause them to be bitter, not make unjust rules that just kind of have no basis. You know, if your children are old enough to understand the why, you should explain the why to certain things. You know, certain kids, when they're small, they don't need the why, right? The why is just because I said so. It's because dad says so and that's final. But they can get to a point where you kind of have to explain it to them because, you know, they have the smarts and they wanna know why. And often, parents, if they continue that, well because I say so, then, you know, children can become resentful towards their parents and think, well, you know, that's not really a good answer. I'll do it, but that's not really a good answer. And then they begin to lose respect for you and, you know, you basically are not as respectful in their eyes because of it, you understand? You know, your children need to see that you're human. They need to see that you can humble yourself. They need to see that if you make a mistake, you know, you can apologize for that. And I've had times when I've had, even to my five year old, I've had to apologize to him for bad judgment calls or if I did something, if I hurt his feelings or something. You know, go to him and apologize for what I've done. You know, and put your pride aside, you understand? And that means a lot to children when parents are willing to do that. You know, when parents are not willing to do that, that actually builds up a wall, a resentment towards their parents, you understand? And let me just say this, also, provoking your children, not provoking your children to wrath, you know, when you discipline your kids, make sure that there's closure afterwards, you understand? Like, there shouldn't be like this moment of time where you just are not talking to your kids or your teenager or your children between the time that you disciplined them and thereafter. You know, there should be immediate closure to conflicts. And I grew up in a home where that was not practice and it was bad, you know, you kinda wonder like, are they mad at me still, am I still in trouble? Like, you know, and then they, then this is how you know that the conflict's over. You want some food, come get something to eat, you know, they come like, invite you to dinner and it's just like, all right, cool, I think we're talking now, you know? It's when they say something, you know, and they invite you to something or whatever, you know, I remember my brother, he was like, he's 13 years older than me and we used to fight a lot, you know, fist fight and all the arguments all the time. When I was a kid, when we would fight, it would really hurt my feelings because I really like looked up to my brother. Like, I really loved my brother and I looked up to him. He was like a hero to me and I remember like, the way he would always resolve the conflict, you know, he didn't know how to resolve conflict. He's not even a Christian, he's not a Bible believer and he's never received this kind of training. He would draw a very intricate, just cartoon and he just would leave it on the table for me and I would walk by and I would see it and I'm like, okay, cool, Melvin's cool with me now. That was his way of making peace with me or something, you know, and he's just like, that's kinda silly. Yeah, but when you're not being taught by the Bible, you don't have an example to go by, you don't really know what to do. But as Christians, we should know, understand? You say, how do I resolve conflict by going to the person, you know, right away, you know, you spank your child, you give them a hug, you give them a kiss, you explain what they did was wrong and you allow them to move on with life. You don't just remain upset or even if you're no longer upset, let them know that you're no longer upset. You know, kids, man, they remember stuff. If they think that you're still upset with them, that can cause a lot of inner turmoil. And you all know, a lot of these people in here know what I'm talking about. There's a lot of inner turmoil that has been caused with unresolved conflict with your parents, okay? Don't be that way. You know, when you discipline your child, make sure that there's immediate closure thereafter, confirm your love towards your child, confirm your love towards your teenager, you know, and let them know that you love them and don't provoke them to wrath. Because one way you can provoke them to wrath is by not creating closure and then bitterness begins to fester and that leads, a lot of the bitterness then leads to insecurities later on in the future. Because they're incapable of discerning like, you know, when something begins and when something ends with their parents, it's a very traumatic experience for a lot of people. And so, you know, I'm not only speaking by experience but I'm also speaking just from God's word, you understand? Closure just in general, not just between us and our children but just with our brothers and sisters in Christ, with anyone, requires immediate closure. It needs to be addressed immediately, okay? And so we'll move on from that. Look at verse number five. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ, not with eye services, men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, you in the will of God from the heart. With good will, doing service, ask to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free, any masters do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. Go to 1 Peter chapter two. So from verse five up to verse nine, we see the instruction that's being given to employees and employers, okay? And he's basically telling those who are employed, hey, you need to make sure that you obey your boss and serve him as unto Christ, okay? And recognize that you not only receive an immediate recompense, which is called a paycheck, you also receive a spiritual recompense because you're doing it as unto the Lord. This is how generous and gracious God is. He not only rewards you immediately by giving you a paycheck through this boss, he also rewards you eternally just for obeying the command to obey your master, your boss, okay? We wouldn't say master today. We would say boss. And this is what he's saying. He's saying with good will, doing service, ask to the Lord and not to men. So what's a good way to obey a boss that is just like a jerk? You do it as unto the Lord. What's a good way to just obey a husband that's just a complete jerk? You do it as unto the Lord. Need I preach my sermon from Sunday again, right? It's the same principle that applies. And you will receive a recompense thereafter from the Lord because you're doing it as unto Christ and not unto men, okay? First Peter chapter two, look what it says. Service will be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, listen to this, but also to the froward, okay? Now I had someone ask me, yeah, but what if they're like, you know, saying all kinds of stuff about you and they're putting you down and stuff, then get another job then. But if the job is important to you, you know, take it. Take it like a man. I just don't think, I think I need to be respected. Well, if he doesn't respect him, you go somewhere where you can be respected then. Simple as that. Look folks, life is not that complicated, okay? If you don't like how one employer is treating you, you know, he's verbally abusing me or something, you know, then you quit that job and you go somewhere else. But look, if the pay is good and you understand that he's just a froward boss, he's just kind of a jerk, he's not saved, but he's paying me, he's treating me well as far as the money's concerned, then just take it. Don't be afraid to get your feelings hurt every once in a while. Especially, I'm talking to the man, okay? Don't be afraid, he's like, well, they just hurt me emotionally or something like that. What is that? Folks, if he hurts you emotionally, don't worry, he's filling up your emotional tank by paying you. Cry your way to the bank. Oh man, I was so mad, I just can't believe he said that to me. There you go. But we live in a society today, this Generation Z society, where like, the strongest men just crumble under any sort of criticism, you know? And look, I don't think it's right for employers to threaten their employees, because the Bible says here, forbearing threatening. Not forbearing insults. Not forbearing curse words. You know, get the F in this, and you know, we've all had bosses like that. I've had bosses like that, okay? And they cuss at you, and it's just like, well, can you say please? You know, it's like, what? If they're froward, they're froward. You know, don't expect that every boss you're gonna work for is just some fundamental Baptist who's just spear-filled, and they're just gonna, hey brother, I know you're late today, but. Sometimes you're gonna have a froward boss, and I don't mean froward as in, I don't believe this is referring to froward as in crooked, as in like, you know, he's breaking the law or something like that. I think when it means froward, it means he has a froward mouth. Because a lot of what we see in 1 Peter chapter two has to do with that which comes forth from the mouth, the persecution that people receive from the mouth, okay? You know, just speaking evil of you, so to speak, okay? And it says, servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good, that's easy. It's easy to be subject to a good master, is it not? That's easy. It's hard, or it's easy to be subject to the masters that are good and gentle, but how about the froward? And he says, for this is thank worthy if a man for conscience toward God endured grief, suffering wrongfully. Oh man, my boss blamed me for what some other idiot did or something like that. Well, I guess you're suffering wrongfully. Is he taking it out of your paycheck? No. Is he giving you, you know, is he, you know, giving you less pain now? No. What do you do, where you like, call me an idiot? Oh man, you're such a martyr, like, wow. Look what it says, for what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently, but if when ye do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even here unto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps, the Bible says. So what does he compare it to? He compares it to Christ suffering wrongfully. Well, then this is referring to something else. It's referring to, like, being persecuted for being a Christian or something. No, it's not. Because we see the same command being given to a wife who is suffering at the hands of her husband, you know, through whatever, you know, just kind of mistreating her or whatever. You know, he's not saved and maybe he verbally abuses her or something like that, you know, and he compares it to Christ suffering, you understand? So a lot of the sufferings that you'll experience, even though much of it will be from persecution for righteousness' sake, in context of what we're looking at here is just life in general, okay? And look, you shouldn't get in trouble at your job for being a Christian. What do I mean by that? You know, because you're making, you're preaching the gospel on the clock or something like that. Now, you know, if they come to you and you say, what do you think about sodomites? You just tell them, well, I'm on the clock and I can't really talk about this right now. If you want to talk about this off the clock, I can do that, but I gotta get some work done. And we said, what if it's my boss? Just say, hey, I gotta get work done for you. So, and look, folks, if they say that to you, they already know what you think about sodomites. Take it from the expert here. Whenever they ask you, what do you think about gays, just mark it down, they already know what you think about the gays. Just say, sir, you already know what I think about them. Now, what's the next task you want me to do? You want me to work overtime today? It says, for even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was gall found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. So here are your choices, if you have a boss who's cussing you out, you know, making you feel all sad and depressed and, you know, you hurt your feelings and, you know, sticks and stones did break your bones and words did hurt you and all these things, if you feel that that's you, then just go find a different job. But I wanna keep that job, then just take it patiently then. I don't know what else to tell you. Those are your options, okay? And look, when you're married, I guarantee you, you won't care about those insults. Because when you're married, you're just like, well, I'm gonna take it patiently because, you know, I got mouths to feed, you know? I remember working for someone and they're a Christian, actually, they were actually a fundamental Baptist Christian, I was working with, and this guy cussed me out like a couple times, I was like shocked at first because I know this guy, and he cussed me out a couple times because I messed up on one of the jobs and he was just going off on me, but you know what I did? I kept my mouth shut, I was like, you know, I'm sorry about that, I'll never do it again. So why don't you find another job? Because I have to feed my family. I was like, I'll take an F bomb here and an S bomb there and an idiot here or whatever for like, putting food on the table. This is what I have right now, I like this job, you know, I'm kind of surprised that he did that, but who cares, you know? And he's not gonna take pay out of my check, he's gonna pay me, so why not? Some people just need to get a little thicker skin, folks. You get a little thicker skin, and don't cry when your boss yells at you and embarrasses you in front of all the other employees because you screwed up or something like that, don't start tearing up and thinking that the world's against you and get that little frog in your throat, just suck it up. Just be like, damn, this guy's savage. Yes sir. Appreciate him for what he said to you. Appreciate that insult. Say, man, this guy, he's tough. Because here's the thing, you know what? There's a reason he's the boss. You ever think about that? There's a reason he's the boss. And when my friend, you know, he cussed me out like that, I thought to myself, well, there's a reason why his business is successful. There's a reason why he can employ me. Right? There's a reason why he can pay me. He's not some soft-soaked, sour, just-looking, limp-wristed man. He's doing a great job, and sometimes you gotta be a little rough. So don't get mad at me, Ulysses, for cussing you out. I'm just kidding. I've never cussed him out. I've gone on him a couple times. I'm not a forward boss. I can be gentle. Go back to Ephesians. This is just good practical advice. He's gone. See, he knew what I was talking about. Oh, he's right there. Yeah. This is just good practical advice just for work in general. And so, you know, don't be this generation Z type generation where just every little thing hurts your feelings. I can't stand that. I know the Lord can't stand that. We need to be strong, emotionally strong in the Lord. You understand? And again, if you feel like your boss is just way too insulting and you feel like they got something against you, then your option is to move on to another job. And I don't think you are a weak, bad person if you do that. If you feel like, nah, I just can't work here. I need to go somewhere else. All right, great, do that. The problem that I have is just like, well, I feel like I demand him to respect me or something like that. And that's how I'm gonna stay. Well, you know, it doesn't really work that way. So, I'll move on. Verse 10 says, finally, my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. So now we're seeing the reality of spiritual warfare. And when he talks about the wiles, he's referring to the tricks or the stratagems of Satan that he seeks to use against us. He says in verse 12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. He's redirecting our attention to where the true fight is. Okay, you know, we're not the Benny Hinn types casting out demons out of people in church service. You know, we recognize that we're not wrestling against flesh and blood, okay? Our fight is against principalities and powers. It's basically referring to demons. That's what we're fighting with. And it's not a physical fight with demons, okay? And I feel like I have to emphasize that because even people get, they're like, yeah, it's a spiritual warfare. You gotta like, you know, cast out the demon with your words that's a, you're doing it physically again. Like you're getting carnal about it again. It's all spiritual, okay? You know, I remember this Pentecostal pastor, he was the father of my friend, and my friend was telling me, he goes, yeah man, my dad, when he goes to sleep at night, he slays demons. I'm like, that's what he dreams of? And he's like, no, he like literally slays demons in his dreams. I'm like, really? He's like, yeah, he's like killing demons and he's sending them to hell and stuff like that. I'm like, is his name Constantine or something or what? I was like, how can, how is that possible? Like, that's kind of weird, you know? But then you look at his dad and he was, you know, he was kind of big, you know, he was just like, well yeah, he has to do it in his dreams. It's like the demons are looking at him and saying, yeah, in your dreams. That's the only place where it'll take place, you know? How do we fight these things? We fight them spiritually by the word of God. You understand? We fight it spiritually by preaching God's word, by taking a stand through prayer, and we're gonna see in just a bit what specific armor and artillery God gives us in order to fight these things. But we need to understand that, you know, we need to take a stand against the wiles of the devil. So we can't take this pacifist, you know, passive position against Satan and the world and the flesh. We need to be aggressive. The Bible says, you know, thou art repeated upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Gates are a defensive mechanism. So he says, you need to just, you know, plow through hell. You say, for what? To pull people out of the fire, you know? And if some have compassion making a difference, others saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire. That's the spiritual battle that we're involved in. We're soul winning, we're preaching God's word, we're taking a stand for, you know, unpopular things, we're preaching the word of God, we're raising our families correctly, not according to what the world says is acceptable. This is how we fight these things, okay? Look at verse 13. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand. So you can't just go into this warfare, this battle, just with your, just regular clothing on, okay? You know, you have to have armor on. And obviously we understand we have to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh, but we also have to have the armor of God as well, conscientiously putting on these facets of spiritual clothing, so to speak, so we can be effective in our battle, okay? He says, so you can withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand. What is the evil day? It's when Satan comes back at you. Because Satan comes in seasons. You know, he comes and he fights and he fights and he fights and he fights, and you fight back and you fight back and you fight back, and you resist them so much that he flees for what? For a season. But then what? He comes back. So just know this, whatever victory you got this month or last month or three months, you know, or at the beginning of the year, whatever it may be, you know, just know the fight's coming again. Because Satan, you resist them, you resist them, and he flees from you, draw an eye to God and you draw an eye to you, you know, Satan will flee from you, but then he comes back again. And that is what's known as the evil day. Every single one of you, every single one of you will experience the evil day. Our church will collectively experience an evil day as a church, as we did earlier this year, but every single one of you individually will experience the evil day when Satan comes to you. Now, if you don't want that, then don't read your Bible, don't come to church, don't do anything for God, and you'll be just this docile soldier that Satan has no interest in. It was like, well, that was easy. Look, I didn't even have to do anything to this guy. This guy's all soyed up and he's just kinda weak and he's not really even reading his Bible, he's not praying, he's not taking a stand, he's not trying to get people saved. He's not a threat. The people who are a threat are the ones who are doing those things. Then he goes to them and says, all right, this guy, we gotta take him out because he's raising this young man here to serve the Lord, we can't have that next generation, so let's fight him. And he does the same thing with everyone, you understand? And that's what's known as the evil day. So we should never take this, ah, you know, spiritual warfare, you know, yeah, spiritual warfare. No, you need to take it serious because Satan is a formidable opponent. He can destroy you, okay? He is powerful, he can destroy you, he's not, you know, some toothless lion or whatever. He can devour you if he wants to, you know, or if you let him, if you give place unto Satan. You know, if that wasn't the case, then God wouldn't tell us to put on the whole armor of God. He's showing us how dangerous our adversary can be, okay? He says, having done all to stand, now this shows you to what extent he will attack you. What does that mean? You know, having done all to stand is like, you know, you're fighting, you're fighting, I mean, haven't you ever seen a match? You know, like an MMA match or something like that, and these guys are fighting, they're all bloodied, and it's like towards the last round, and they're just kinda like, they're just kinda wiggling a little bit, and they're just kinda throwing these really weak punches, but they're just doing the best they can at the end of the round. Well, this is the picture that God sets forth here. He's like, you gotta fight till you're just like, the only thing you can do is just stand, you know? Where it's just like, I'm tired, I can't throw a punch, I can't throw a spear, I can't, you know, use my sword, what can you do? I just can stand, that's all I can do. Okay, then just stand. He'll take you to that brink right there. He says, verse 14, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. This is referring to making sure that truth is at the core of your being, okay? You say, well, what does it have to do with standing? Well, if you're here for the wrong reasons, then once the battle comes, you're gone, you're done. We've had families here for the wrong reasons. Where are they now? Gone, completely against me, completely against this church, completely against what we're doing. They got caught up in the new IFB zeal. They came with the wrong motives, with the wrong intentions. Whereas if you have your loins girt about with truth, that means what you're doing is because you have the Bible in your heart. You're like, I do this because this is what I believe I should do. I preach the gospel because that's what I believe I should do. I go to church because I believe at the center of my core that this is what I should do. You know, I pray, I win souls, I wanna obey the Lord because I believe in my core that this is what I should do. I have Christian values because this is what I believe that I should do. I don't do it just because everyone else is doing it. I'm thankful for that. I do it because this is at the core of my being. This is what it means to have your loins girt about with truth. And you know what, it's good when a church like ours experiences trials and fightings because it filters out all the fakes and phonies. You know, it takes the people out that probably shouldn't, they were here for a wrong reason. Probably shouldn't be here. Now thankfully in the beginning when we went through our battle, we didn't lose anybody. In fact, we added more people. But I'm sure there's gonna come times in the coming years where we are gonna lose people. Because it's just the nature of the beast where people come for the wrong reasons. You know, they kinda put on a show but their loins are not girt about with truth. They don't really believe it in their heart, okay? He says when you fight, you gotta make sure that your loins are girt about with truth. Having on the breastplate of righteousness, that means be a person of virtue. Make sure you're living a clean life, not a double life. Be a righteous person. It says in verse 15, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. What is that referring to? Well, when you're going to war, you have to fight but you also have to win people to Christ. So the picture here is like when you're going to war, you're not only fighting the enemies, you're rescuing the captives. You're pulling them out of the fire. You're rescuing them from the snares of the devil. You have to do both, understand? You have to be prepared to preach the gospel. And folks, hey, prepare to preach the gospel. We should be ready always to give an answer to every man to ask of the reason of the faith that is in us with weakness and fear, amen? At the drop of a hat, at any time someone talks to us about the gospel, you should be like, let's do it. I could tell you about it right now. You say, what if I don't have the Bible? You should have the verses memorized. You should be able to just open your mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel and just win someone to Christ if you had to write them in there. Prepared! Verse 16, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith he shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. So he says, look, you also need a shield of faith which means this. When he talks about the fiery darts of the wicked, I often picture this as being darts of doubt. Because often in spiritual warfare, when you're in spiritual warfare for a lengthy period of time, these darts start coming in. And then you start wondering, am I doing it right? Is God gonna rescue me? Is God gonna save us for this? Should we be doing it? All these darts start coming in. And then let me just be transparent with you as your pastor. I experienced this in the beginning of the year. When it came to my front lines, when it came to my house, when the battle came to my house, when people were coming to my home, camping out in front of my house to try to cause me harm, you know there's a thought, there's a little dart that comes through and I'm like, am I really on the right side here? I'm putting my family in danger? I'm in danger? You say, what did you do? I'm like, well, I gotta get the shield of faith. And what does the shield of faith do? It says, just die anyways. It's like, if you die, then all the other thoughts start flooding in. It's just like, you know what? It's all about the Lord anyways. If I die, this is gonna be cool. It's gonna be on the news. It's gonna be great. The gospel's gonna be preached into all. I mean, this is the greatest time in our church. And you know what? God is able to deliver me, but if not, I'm still not gonna bow down. God can rescue me from this. He can cause me to be delivered from this, but if not, I'm still not gonna bow down. That's taking up the shield of faith. It's saying, you know what? God can do it, but if not, well, I guess I'm gonna die. And I get to go to heaven early. It's just placing your faith in God and just kinda diminishing those fiery, it's quenching those fiery darts of the wicked because he'll throw them at you. He'll say, I don't know if you're doing the right thing. I don't know if you're on the right side. And look, if you did it to me, he'll do it to you. Do you really think Pastor Mahiel's right about that? Do you really think he should've said it that way? Are you in the right church? Is this the kind of place you wanna be in? Don't you think he went a little too far? Isn't he a little mean? Didn't he deserve that? Do you really wanna be associated with these people? I mean, they'll come. I'm sure some of you have had those thoughts. You say, what do you do? You put up the shield of faith. And be like, yeah, he was a little mean, but I liked it. Yeah, it was pretty mean, but it was pretty savage. I would have it no other way. And just, no, you know what, this is where God wants me. And that's why it's always good to resolve who you are, where you are, and where you're going when you're in your right set of mind. It's always good to resolve who you are, what you believe, what you're doing, and where you're going when nothing's happening. You just say, in my right set of mind, I believe this and I will never change this. Because when you're into the spiritual battle, you're worn, you're battle worn, you need to look at that right set of mind and say, well, no, this is what I believe here. And I'm gonna go with this. Shield of faith, verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation. This is referring to being vigilant, okay? Salvation is not a helmet. It's saying the helmet of salvation is liking it unto, you know, you think of a helmet protects you from something that might come upon you unawares. You understand, like a dart or something. And what specifically this is referring to, if we reference this with 1 Thessalonians chapter five, it's referring to the fact that we need to be a vigilant people. You know, the day of the Lord can come upon you unawares if you're living carnally, if you're living fleshly, you're not walking in the Spirit. I preached on that many times before. It's just saying be a vigilant person. And here's one of the best parts, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. You know, what does that mean? So you're not just protecting and blocking and shielding, you gotta take the sword out too and start cutting some demons up too. Not like my buddy's dad, but spiritually. You know, we're blogging, we're doing all these things, but what do we do? We got up on a Sunday morning, everyone came to church, on that day, unfearful, and I just let it fly and just let it rip. You know, got up and preached the worst sin in spite of all the reprobates that were outside, and you just let it fly and let it rip like it was gonna be my last sermon. And you know what everyone else did? Everyone just stood there, you guys took the persecution, you said amen, we sang the songs, we were united, what are we doing? We're taking the sword of the Spirit. No one crumbled, no one trembled, we stood firm. Verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching their answer with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. He said don't forget the element of prayer. Prayer's important, you know, make sure you remain consistent in prayer. Pray without ceasing, go to the Lord in prayer, come boldly before the throne of grace to obtain mercy to help in the time of need. Make sure that Jesus said men are always to pray and not to faint. By the way, in context it's referring to spiritual warfare, right? So you know what this tells me, imprecatory prayer should be a part of your prayer life. We should pray against the wiles of Satan and his minions and the people that he uses to thwart the word of God and to not give it free course. We should pray for those things. There's power in prayer, folks. Don't miss the prayer meeting, amen. Verse 19, and for me the utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador and bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. But that ye also may know my affairs and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose that ye might know our affairs and that ye might comfort your hearts. Peace be to the brother in love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, amen. So he concludes the book of Ephesians with saying, hey, you need to make sure that part of the Christian life is not just knowing your biblical rules as a husband, as a wife, as children, as an employee, as an employer. It's not just knowing the right doctrine, which we saw in the first couple chapters. It's not just knowing how to forgive a brother. Part of the Christian life is spiritual warfare as well. And you need to be a fighter. There's no such thing as some passive soldier in God's army, folks. You can't be like, well, I'm here for the preaching, but I'm not into that fighting stuff. The Bible says fight the good fight of faith. Earnestly contend for the faith. That needs to be a part of your repertoire, so to speak. Where it's like, yeah, I wanna win souls, I wanna love my wife as Christ loved the church, I wanna be a better employee, but I wanted some spiritual warfare too because that's what I'm made for. We're made for warfare. We're good soldiers of Jesus Christ, the Bible says. That's part of what we're called to do, is to fight the battles of the Lord, amen? And that's it, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Help us, Lord, as your people to continuously think upon the armor of God that we need to put upon ourselves and be ready for that evil day. And I pray, Father God, that you would help us, Lord, to be conscientious about every facet of that armor, and Lord, help us to have faith in you, Lord, and not take the Christian life lightly and think that Satan will never attack us. Our churches, we're doing our best to win souls to Christ, we're doing our best to preach the word of God and to take a stand for righteousness, and it's for that reason that the attacks of Satan will come throughout our lifetime. And this is not something we should run away from, we should run to it. And we know that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. We love you so much and we thank you, pray these things.