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

Amen, so everyone can hear me okay? Well, good morning, happy Father's Day, and first let me say thank you to Pastor Anderson for inviting me here. Thank you to the Anderson family for loaning us, your dad and your husband. I know everybody in Fresno is excited to have Pastor Anderson there preaching. We're a small group, so it's really cool to see Pastor Anderson come there. I'm excited for them as well. So just thanks for the hospitality. I can't even go through all the things that have been done to get me here and everything, so just thank you. Kind of an interesting story. Somebody just talked to me and shook my hand as I came in and they said, I thought you were a first-time visitor. Actually, I'm a second-time visitor here, okay? I've been here once before, and it's kind of an interesting story. It was several years ago. There was many more walls, as I remember. I think there was walls in the back and definitely walls here, but I actually was here. This is actually the first time that I've been here saved as a believer. I actually, Pastor Anderson, it was a small group, and I had just found Pastor Anderson's preaching online. Just keep your place in Malachi chapter two. I think this story's worth telling you. I just found his preaching online just a couple weeks prior to, I always had this conference in Phoenix every single year, and I'd always bring my whole family with me to this conference, and I found this preacher online. I told my wife, we were Lutheran at the time. I told my wife, we gotta go to this guy's church. We just gotta go and listen to this guy preach. My wife was saved. I was not, and of course, I didn't really know that at the time, but I came here, and Pastor Anderson actually introduced me. I was sitting somewhere over by that window by the mother baby room, and I actually stood up as he introduced us as visitors, and I said, I'm not even Baptist, I'm Lutheran. I kinda cringe now when I hear myself even say that. I'm just like, ah! Anyway, my wife, after the church service was over, my wife actually had a great time talking to the ladies. Immediately, some guy, and I still to this day, I don't know who this guy was, turns around and starts like sort of arguing with me about being Lutheran, right, and eternal security, and I knew all about eternal security and that I didn't believe in it. I knew the doctrinal issues, the differences between Baptists and Lutherans, and I was actually sort of offended. As a matter of fact, when my wife got in the car, she's like, that was just great, and I was like, yeah, could you believe what that guy said to me? It was like, he said, you know, I believe in work salvation, you know, and I was offended, and so, but look, within a couple weeks of that visit, I got saved, and you know, the rest is history. I'm still trying to wrap my head around a little bit, you know, that that happened nearly a decade ago, and now here I am preaching at this church. That's still something that I'm still, you know, I'm kinda, I'm still working that out upstairs, all right? But anyway, thank you, and I just want all that to say this. I want you to know how much this ministry means, how much Pastor Anderson's ministry means to myself personally, to my family, and to everybody in Fresno, and everybody in the world. Think about that, all right. All right, here we go. All right, Malachi chapter two. So Happy Father's Day. I just wanna warn you, I'm gonna beat a little bit up on the men today, this morning and this evening. I hope you ladies don't mind that, but let's get into the sermon. Look at Malachi chapter two. Let's start reading in verse number eight, and then I wanna point out kind of a unique verse in verse number 10 and how that fits with Father's Day this morning. So Malachi chapter two, look at verse number eight. The Bible says, so the Bible here is Malachi is a, he's a minor prophet. You gotta love the minor prophets, you know? They're pretty rough stuff, right? He's a minor prophet. Just think about this for a second. He's a prophet during the time Judah is already in captivity, okay? So they're not going into captivity. They're already there, and he's just like whacking them over the head here, right? So he's really, really hitting them pretty hard here. They're already in captivity, and he's specifically talking to the priests here, okay? He's specifically talking to the priests, which by the way, you are kings and priests. So especially fathers, this is for you. Look at verse number eight. But ye are departed out of the way. Ye have caused many to stumble at the law. Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore, I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but ye have been partial in the law. So we see the problem here is that they were partial in the law. They were doing some of it, not all of it. They were kind of picking and choosing what they wanted to do with what God was telling them to do. They didn't keep the ways. Now look at verse number 10. Now this is a really cool Father's Day verse, because we see two fathers. We see the word father used here twice. The Bible says, have we not all one father? That's talking about God the Father. Okay, that's talking about God. But then the next father is you. Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother? By profaning the covenant of our fathers. Now go back to verse number five real quickly. So he says right there, he says, we have one father talking about God the Father. And then he says that the covenant that you've broken, think about this for a second. He says the covenant that you've broken was the covenant of your fathers. Like your actual father. Think about that. That's what we're gonna talk about this morning. Look back at verse number five, where the Bible says, my covenant was with him of life and peace. So here we have this covenant where it's either gonna be dung on your face or life and peace. He says life and peace and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name. So like I said, in Revelation chapter one verse six, the Bible says that he hath made us kings and priests. Okay, so this applies to us. But the point I'm trying to get at this morning is this covenant of their fathers was one of life and peace. Now I don't know all of you fathers here today. I hope to meet you all as we go through the day. But you know, I can't imagine any father here who wouldn't want to say, you know what, I wish life and peace for my children. I wish life and peace for my family. I mean, what father wouldn't say that this morning? But he didn't want, you know, who wouldn't want that for their children and their family? Now what is a covenant? What is a covenant? A covenant is an agreement between two parties. It's a binding agreement. Like if you do this, I will perform this. And the problem is, is that this binding agreement, turn to Deuteronomy chapter five. Let's look at this idea of a covenant for a few more minutes before I apply it to the fathers. So here we see that the fathers, God the father was mentioned in verse number 10, and then the fathers also had a covenant. Look at verse number 33 of Deuteronomy chapter five. Here's another covenant in the Bible. This is, you know, Moses was given the law on Mount Sinai, you know, the mount of God. Look at verse number 33. He says, you shall walk in the ways which the Lord your God commanded you that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess. Now back in verse number three of Deuteronomy chapter five, so here we see a covenant given to Moses. And then back in verse number three of Deuteronomy chapter five, he says, this law, he says that this law was not the law of your fathers, this covenant, because this was actually given to them personally. So they were the first people, the first generation to receive this specific covenant. But this covenant is if you do this, you know, you will have a blessing. So we see that there's a covenant with Moses. Look at Genesis chapter 18. Look at the Abrahamic covenant. You know, in chapter 12 of Genesis is when we see that listed out. But God says something very interesting in his covenant with Abraham in Genesis chapter 18 that also applies to us as fathers. Look at Genesis chapter 18. Look at verse number 17. So Genesis chapter 18, verse number 17, God is getting ready to go and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And he's talking and he's saying here, you know, should I tell Abraham that I'm gonna do this? Look at verse 17 of Genesis 18. He says, and the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation. So look, none of the covenants, by the way, were just like you're just gonna become great and mighty no matter what you do. I mean, that's just like a gift, right? That's like our salvation is just a gift. You get this by believing on my son. A covenant is, hey, you know, you do this and I'll make you a great and mighty nation. So look at the next verse. He says, you know, he's saying, Abraham will be a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. And then verse 19 says, because this is why. This is why, you know, this is why he will become a great and mighty nation and the nations of the earth be blessed in him. For I know him, I know him. God says, I know he's gonna live up to his end of the deal. God says, I know Abraham is gonna fulfill his end of the covenant. Look what it says here though. Dads, look at this. For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him. So God says, Abraham's gonna be great and mighty. He's gonna have a great and mighty nation. All the nations are gonna be blessed of him. You know, we know that that's Jesus. But he's saying, cause I know he's gonna fulfill his part of the deal. Cause I know he's gonna keep my ways. He's going to command his children. He's gonna make, what God is saying here in Genesis chapter 18 is Abraham's gonna make God's covenant his covenant. And then he's gonna command that covenant in his household. You see what's happening here? You see how this applies to us? If you look back at, go back to, I'm sorry, go back to Malachi chapter two. Go back to Malachi chapter two. So there's some common things. There's some common things with these covenants. First of all, you keep my law, basically the covenants work this way. You keep my law, you get blessings. You don't, you get dung on your face. You get curses. Okay, that's basically the way the covenants go. But the third thing that we need to understand this morning is this, is that it's given to the father to pass down to the children. You see that? It's given to the father to command that covenant to his family. He is responsible. He is responsible. Okay, that's why it says in Malachi two verse number 10, it says that they profaned the covenant of our fathers. They literally called God's covenant the covenant of their fathers before them because that's what the fathers before them did. They commanded God's covenant to their families. Okay, so look, I wanna give you just two ideas this morning. Dads, I wanna give you two ideas about commanding your covenant in your family. You know, what is your covenant? You know, I'll give you just two thoughts this morning on commanding or securing. Let's talk about that. Maybe securing the covenant of your family. All right? The first thing is this. Look, turn to Luke chapter 14. The first thing is this. So two thoughts. You say, I'm a dad. I wanna command God's covenant in my family. I wanna make that my covenant. You know, and that's what I wanna do. Look at Luke chapter 14. Look, there's a saying that I like to say. It's not in the Bible, but you ever heard the saying the devil's in the details? You know what the saying? I think some German engineer or architect or something made it up from what I understand. But here's the thing. That's a very true statement. Because here's the thing. If you don't look at the details in your life, I don't care what you do. You don't look at the details in your life, you're not gonna succeed in anything. Because the devil's in the details. What that means is you can have the greatest big ideas all you want, but if you don't look into details, I can't tell you how many ideas that have been out there that I've had and you're like, oh, the deep, that's not gonna work. That's a dumb idea. Because you gotta look at the details. Look at Luke chapter 14 and look at verse number 28. So let's look at the details of your covenant. That's the first thing. The first thing you need to do with your covenant, dads, is define it for your family. Look at verse 28 of Luke chapter 14. For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether you have sufficient to finish it? Less happily, after he laid the foundation, he's not able to finish it. And that behold, it began to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. This guy didn't look at the details. This guy didn't look at the details. He just started building stuff. He just started attaching boards together. You know what you have to do before you can figure out how much something costs? You need to have a detailed plan. And then you can figure out, what's going to be the cost of this? Like, if I asked your kids this morning, what's your dad's covenant? You know, what would they say? What would they say? You know, what am I talking about? We're not going to be able to go through all the details of everything. I'm just going to give you some thoughts this morning. But look, you need to detail out the covenant that you're going to command in your family. Okay? Now look, think about the Bible. Think about the Bible. You sit there and you read the Bible. This church encourages you to read and know the Bible. You sit here and you listen to, you know, the best Baptist preaching that's out there. And you listen to this and you hear the preaching, you read the Bible, but look, that needs to be turned into details. That needs to be turned into actions. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. I'll just give you a couple examples. As you turn to Hebrews 10, let me just read for you 2 Corinthians chapter 6 in verse number 17 where the Bible says, Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. In verse number 17 there, we see two actions. First of all, it says come out. It says come out, be ye separate. Those are actions. Okay, those are actions. You're not just hearing things. You're not just listening to preaching, reading the Bible. You're actually coming up with actions to separate. Look, there needs to be more division today. Amen. There needs to be more separation today. I'll get into more details about this later, not to go off on this now, but the point is that all this get together, let's get together all the time, it's all of Satan. There needs to be more separation, more division today, and dads, with your covenant, there better be separation that comes from that covenant. That's what the Bible is telling us that we need to do. I mean, Jesus himself said in Luke 12, he's like, I'm here for division. All of this stuff you hear today about come together, all this, it's all lies from the pit of hell. It's all lies. It's lies to destroy your family and to destroy your children. Men, you need to listen to the Bible, you need to listen to the preaching, and you need to be separate. What does that mean? That means you need to take actions to separate. You need to define actions to separate. Look at verse number 24 of Hebrews chapter 10. So verse number 25 is the quintessential verse that you need to be in church, right? But look at verse 24. Verse number 24, the Bible says, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24. Then the Bible says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together is the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. What am I talking about? I'm talking about creating standards in your family. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about detailing standards in your family. Here we're looking at one of those standards is church. One of those standards is church. Now look, there's four things I'd like to point out here with just these couple verses. First of all, notice how it says in both verses, it says one another. It says consider one another. It says consider exhort, exhorting one another in verse 25. You know what that means? That means coming to church isn't just about you. That means coming to church is about all the people around you, and guess what? Your family as well. Coming to church exhorts your family. Making church a standard of your covenant is exhorting your children. It's exhorting your wife. It's exhorting your brothers and sisters around you. Look, we're a small church in Fresno. We're a small church, and look, that's really evident. It's really evident that people coming to church is like really exhorts the people. You can really see that. You can really see when we get Sundays, when we get a lot of visitors, it just exhorts everyone. Everyone's just all excited. I'm sure it's the same way here, but the point is is that church isn't, consider your family. Consider your family. Going to church is a standard, and it's one. Look, it's one standard, and the reason I list it first is because it's one standard that reinforces all other standards. Think about that. It's like the standard that holds together all your standards that you have. I mean, think about it. I mean, it says, and then it says, and there's so much more, by the way, as we see the day approaching. Look, we need church today more than we've ever needed church in my life. You know, of course, it talks about sinning willfully if we don't go to church right after this, but the point is is church part of your covenant? Is church part of your covenant? Look, I don't know how people think today that they can survive. I don't know how Christians today think that they can survive without a church. I mean, it's like we're living in this crazy rocket ship ride where you're sitting in the rocket ship and then the world's like going insane around you. Does anyone else feel like that? I mean, it's just like every single week it gets crazier and crazier and crazier. And, you know, I mean, I refuse to like, you know, there's this idea that nothing is strange anymore. I refuse that, by the way. I refuse that. I mean, I was driving home from church with my wife about a year ago. We were still satellite leaders at that time, and we pulled up to a stoplight, and some girl, I think it was a girl, but she was wearing like a bunny suit and like a helmet with fuzzy purple hair with these big rabbit ears at the stop sign on a motorcycle. And I used to read like Batman comics when I was a kid. My uncle had all these old Batman comics, and I told my wife, I was like, it's like we're living in Gotham City. I mean, nothing's weird. I refuse that, though. I refuse that. Just last week, I point stuff out to my kids, things that are not normal, because I refuse, just because I live in Gotham City, to accept things as normal. I saw two bums the other day. One was pushing the other in a baby stroller. Two grown men. Driving down the street, I said, hey kids, that's not normal. I do that all the time. I'm not trying to raise cynics in my family, but I'm not accepting this. I'm not accepting this. Look, do you have detailed standards in your family? Look, we have to set standards for our kids, for our families. We gotta teach them how to operate in this world. They need to know how to drive around in this mess. When they start going out on their own, they need principles to guide them. That's why we're here. We need to command this covenant. How about this one? Turn to Hosea chapter four. Look, if we as fathers waffle on our standards, our children won't understand them, and they won't adopt them. You gotta think about that. Okay, so look, I'm talking about standards like where do you go? What do you do? Where do we not go? What do you not do? Why? Look, your kids, look, when your kids are small, like there's a lot of small kids in here, and your kids are small, it's just, hey, we don't go there, we don't do that. We do go here, we do do this. Okay, but when they get older, you gotta start coupling those standards with knowledge of why we don't do those things. So you need to have Bible knowledge. Look, you need to have knowledge of the Bible. The kids need to have knowledge of the Bible, and then they need to couple that with knowledge of this world so they can, look, at least we know what's going on, right? People, I mean, just normal, decent, unsaved people out there must be so confused. They must be so confused. Look at Hosea chapter four. So Hosea, another minor prophet, he's a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel during the time that they got taken, they got destroyed, basically, by the kingdom of Assyria. Look at verse number one. Look at verse number one. Look what the Bible says here. It says, we're talking about knowledge now, how we need to, like, part of our standards, part of our covenant dads needs to be imparting knowledge, especially of the Bible, to our children. The Bible says, hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel. For the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there's no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By the way, everything's not true. That's another thing you gotta teach your kids. If everything's true, nothing's true. Everything's not true. Again, division. That's what we need. We need to define truth from the garbage. There is no truth with these people, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. And guess what always happens? No matter what they tell you, guess what always happens when there's no knowledge of truth anymore? By swearing, lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out and blood toucheth blood. Violence always follows. I don't care how much people talk about love. You get rid of the word of God, violence follows. We're seeing that today, too. We're seeing that with the mob today. Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish with the beats of the field, and with the fowls of heaven. Yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. But no man strive, nor reprove another, for thy people are as they that strive with the priests. It's like, don't even try to argue with each other, because none of you are right. But look, what he's saying is, he's saying that in verse number five, therefore, thou shall fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and thou will destroy thy mother. Verse six, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because thou hast rejected knowledge. I will also reject thee, thou shall be no priest to me, seeing that thou hast forgotten the law of God. I will also forget, what, thy children. So there's the father that walked away from his covenant. And God's like, I'm gonna forget your children, too. So look, we must have Bible knowledge as part of our standards. We must have Bible knowledge as part of our covenant to our families, and we must couple that with what's going on, explaining this, and look, then you'll just understand everything. Then you'll just understand, look, there's more and more people today, I don't know if you're seeing this, I'm sure, but there's more and more people today that know nothing about the Bible. I've noticed a difference where we're at in just the last two or three years. I mean, just the fact that how many people do you have to go out soul-winding, you just gotta explain Jesus from zero. Like, they've never heard of him. Look, I'm noticing a different, I'm not 300 years old. You know, I'm noticing a difference in just the last couple of years. It's because there's no knowledge out there, but look, here's the problem. That's why people are totally confused, because they're being destroyed. That can't be us, that can't be our families. People are just getting worse and worse. I just read something last week, and I don't know if it's true, but I mean, it just shows what I'm talking about, that Gen Z, Gen Z is everyone from 25 years old and under. 20%, and I don't know if I believe the poll, but it proves my point anyway. 20% of Gen Z and under defines themself as something, I have two categories. I think Romans 1 uses the word natural four times for a reason, so I've created file folders in my head. One is a natural file folder, and one is unnatural. The natural file folder only has one item in it, but I don't feel like it's my responsibility to learn all these sick, perverted things, but 20% of Gen Z identifies as something unnatural. Can you believe that? I mean, it's because they have no knowledge, and what are we seeing? They know nothing about the Bible. They know nothing, so look, they're being confused. The Bible says train up a child, not confuse a child. I mean, it's just getting worse and worse and worse. Look, train up a child works for the good and for the bad. Children are trainable. You can confuse a child just as easy as you could train them in the Bible. This is what's happening today. We basically, there's a couple in California that have started transitioning their child when they were three years old. We have state-sanctioned child abuse now. That's what's happening in the public schools. It's not just evolution. Look, it's state-sanctioned child abuse. It's legal child abuse now. You're like, you know, I homeschool, I hope you homeschool, so this doesn't affect, but guess what, I care about other people's kids. I mean, the reason that we go soloing is because we actually care about people. I mean, this is a tragedy, what's happening today. Why is it? Because lack of knowledge, that's why. All you have to do to fail today is leave your children a blank slate. That's all you have, because somebody else will fill it out. Some sick, twisted person will fill out that slate for you. It's a shame. It's a shame. So look, detail a plan, is all I'm trying to say this morning. You need to detail a plan. You need to be in a good church, I'm preaching to the choir this morning, I get it. You need to appreciate a church, you need to appreciate the knowledge of the Bible, and you need to use that knowledge of the Bible to educate your children and set standards in your family. Specific, detailed standards. To do what? What's the point of standards? To divide us. Look, it's all about division, folks. The wheat from the chaff. I mean, it's all about division. You need to be divided from it, separated from it. So now that we've defined it, then what? Then what? You apply the Bible, you have detailed standards, you know, you need to do that, you make that covenant. Here's the next thing you need, turn to Ephesians chapter five. Now that you have those details, and you bust out all those details in your family, this is what we're gonna do, this is what we're not gonna do, we're gonna study the Bible, we're gonna explain things to our kids. Look, as you get older, as your kids get older, you know, you can give them more details on why you do the things that they do, and they'll start walking right beside you. It's a beautiful thing. But look at Ephesians chapter five. Here's the second thing that you need to do. You need to set those standards through church, through preaching, through the Bible. Here's the next thing you need. You need to operate those standards. You need to do what? You need to command those standards, dads. Standards, I mean, standards are nothing if they're not carried out, if they're not followed. And guess what? Your pastor, Pastor Anderson, just preached a sermon that first works on Reuben, unstable as water. You know what? Unstable, if you're unstable, you know what you'll succeed at? Nothing. Unstable in what? Unstable at your job, you will not succeed. Unstable in church, you will not succeed. Unstable in any part of your life, you will not succeed. So you need to be detailing out a plan, a covenant for your family, and then you need to be stable in that plan. You need to be stable in the operation of that plan. At what cost? Look at Ephesians chapter five. You say, at what cost? Look at verse number 22. We love this one. Wives, submit to your husbands, unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. 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. Notice verse number 25, where it says, husbands, love your wives, and it says, what do you mean? What's that mean by, I love my wife. I tell her I love her all the time. Said, no, no, no, even as. Even as. Christ loved the church. Whoa. That's a whole nother level right there. You know what that means? It means in the same way. It means in the same way. He physically gave himself. He sacrificed his body. He died. He sat, I mean, that's what love is. It's sacrifice. That's what the Bible is telling us here. Being a father, and this is for all you young men that wanna be a father, and this is for all the kids that are gonna be a father, you know what, being a father is a sacrificial role. Being a father, I mean, look, you ever heard of like, the women and children, they go in the lifeboats first? You ever read a book like that, or that actually used to be the way things went? You know what happened to the dad? He drowned. The women and children went in first, because being a father is sacrificial. Look, women and children in the lifeboats first, that's actually biblical, is what we're seeing here. Not enough food? That means you don't eat. That's what that means. It's a sacrificial role. So look, go back to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14, where he says, counteth the cost. You're gonna build this tower. That's what we're talking about, building your tower. Counteth the cost. Well, whether you have enough to finish it. So I put all these standards together. I'm gonna separate my family. I'm gonna be dedicated to church. I'm gonna learn the Bible. I'm gonna teach my children knowledge so they know what's going on with this mess out here today. And look, the Bible says, counteth the cost. Well, guess what? You need to be willing to lay it all out on the line to operate that covenant. That's what the Bible is saying, because that's even as Jesus did. That's how Jesus did it. He laid it all on the line. You need to sacrifice for your family to operate this covenant. You say, well, what if, you know, maybe you're a young guy and you're like, I don't know, this doesn't sound too good for me. What if I don't want to? You know, what if I don't know if I can do that? But here's the thing. It's just like any other covenant. If you don't do what you're supposed to do, dung. You know, blessings, dung. That's the way it goes. So you have to be able to do this. 2 Timothy 3, verse 12. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If you start operating a covenant like this, you detail a plan like I'm talking about, you're gonna separate from people. They're not gonna like that. Look, if you haven't separated from people, you're gonna have to separate from people. That's the way it works. It's gonna cause division, even in one house, the Bible says. So, no matter what, that's what needs to happen. Operated at all costs because Jesus gave everything. That's what Ephesians 5 is saying to us dads. I mean, what about this one? What if it becomes, what if it becomes, what if it becomes dangerous to be a Christian? Think about that. Kinda like what I'm thinking's already happening. There was a pro-abortion group that came out last week and said, I mean, just wide open, out there on social media, you know, you can't post something on a vaccine, but they're just like threatening. Anybody that is a pro-life type of organization, they're gonna burn down their building, they're gonna blow it up, they're gonna rip it down, we want more people, it's out in the open. Saying they're just gonna commit violence against these, burn, destroy, it's right there, out in the open. Look, I mean, with the abortion, this has really changed with the abortion thing, by the way. 20 years ago, I don't know if you're over 40, maybe you remember this, but this is how the debate used to go with the abortion thing. All the politicians that were pro-abortion would get up and they would say, we want abortion to be safe, legal, and rare. That's what they would say. And I'd sit there and be like, look, you don't have to be, I've always been involved in the pro-life movement, my mom was very involved in pro-life pregnancy centers and all these types of things, you don't have to be safe to figure this one out. You don't have to be safe to know that murdering children's wrong. It's safe, legal, and rare, and I'm sitting there as a logical human being, being like, well, why does it have to be rare if there's nothing wrong with it? Because the only thing that could possibly be wrong with it is murder. But now, no, it's a different story now. Now it's just these people just love murder. And they're just out there, we just love murder, we love murder, and if you try to stop us from murdering, we're gonna hurt you. That's what they're saying. So what if it becomes dangerous to be a Christian? You know what these wicked pro-life organizations do to get women to stop having abortions? You know what these tricky pro-life organizations do? You know what they do? They kidnap women that are pregnant and then they force them to stay in a room, kidnapped, until they have their child. No, that's not what they do. You know what they do? They provide free ultrasounds. You know why? Because a normal human with a conscience, as Romans 2.15 says, will see their child inside them and they'll say, oh, they will see that ultrasound of that baby sucking their thumb. And they'll say, oh, that's murder. I'm not gonna do that. And these people, they hate it. They hate it. They hate the conscience. They hate the conscience. Turn to Psalm chapter two. And this is why Christians have always had to be oppressed. They always have to stop the Christians from telling the truth. Why? Because they can't compete with it, that's why. They can't compete with the truth. Don't think that it's a coincidence, by the way. It's the same time that all the Christians in this country are being threatened by mobs that they're also trying to remove self-defense. Don't think that that's a whole other thing in itself. But don't think that's an accident. It's almost like it's a coordinated agenda. Look at Psalm chapter two. Operating this covenant, look, you have to be ready for this, dads. You're gonna detail out a covenant, you're gonna put this covenant in place in your family, and you are gonna operate this covenant. You're gonna run this covenant no matter what. You're gonna be stable in this covenant. You know what's gonna happen? Look at verse number one. Why do the heathen rage? And the people imagine a vain thing. Look, it's gonna make the wicked crazy. The heathen are gonna rage against you. Why? Because you know why? Because we have every unsaved person that's not a wicked reprobate, has a conscience. And when we go to them with the truth of the Bible, you know what? It fits their heart. And we win. With what? The truth. That's it. And the heathen rage. And they must, they must burn it down! The heathen rage against that. They always will. They always have. This is not a surprise. So be ready for that. When you detail and operate the covenant for your family, the heathen are gonna rage against you. So look, we need to define a covenant for our families. It needs to become, God's covenant needs to become our covenant as fathers. Then we need to operate that covenant at all costs. It reminds me of a story. You turn to Proverbs 20. Reminds me of a story I heard many years ago. There was this old farmer. There was this old farmer and he was getting older. He was a farmer in the Midwest. He was getting older, he didn't have any sons. The farm was getting too much, getting to be too much for him to handle. So every year at the county fair, there was always like a job center where people looking for work would be there. So he went to the county fair, this old farmer, and there was three young men there. And he went and he talked to the first young man. The first young man told him how good he was with cattle, how good he was working cattle and just dealing with livestock. Went to the second guy and asked him what he could do. He talked about how good he was at fixing things. He could build fences, he could fix machinery. He was a good welder, all these types of things. Yeah, okay, that sounds pretty good. Then he went to the third kid and the kid just said, I can sleep when the wind blows. He's like, hmm, all right. So he went to the fair and he spent some time at the fair and he went back towards the end of the day and the only kid left was the one that said, the answer, I can sleep when the wind blows. So he's like, well, he's the only one left. So he hires this kid. He takes this kid out to the ranch and the kid works for him for a couple months. He's doing okay, he seems to be catching on to things. He's doing fine. The farmer's in town one day and a storm comes on and I mean, the rain's going sideways. The farmer sees the storm, he sees what's going on, and he gets in his truck and he races home and he goes out to the bunkhouse and he starts beating on the door of the bunkhouse and the kid won't come to the door. And the farmer was so mad. He's like, I should just fire this kid right now but he just thought about everything that needed to be done so he just left the door of the bunkhouse and he went out back to the feedlot. All the cattle were in their pens. All the hay piles were tarped down. All the straw was put up in the barn. Everything was taken care of. And then he knew at that point what that kid meant when he said, I can sleep when the wind blows. So look, here's the thing, folks. Here's the thing, dads. Let me read for you Proverbs 11. You look down at Proverbs 20. Proverbs 11, three says, the integrity of the upright shall guide them but the perverseness of the transgressors shall destroy them. The transgressors and the perverted and the unnatural folder. I think that folder was over here. They're gonna destroy themselves. The integrity of the upright shall guide them. That's you. That's you, dad. That's you with your covenant today. Now look at Proverbs 20 in verse number seven. The dad that defines a covenant in detail for his family and then he operates that covenant consistently and diligently and is willing to sacrifice anything to operate that covenant for his family. Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 20 in verse number seven. The Bible says, the just man walketh in his integrity. This is that man. Look what it says. His children are blessed after him. Isn't that interesting? The Bible says that the man who has done this, his children will be blessed. Guess what? You know what that is? That's a promise. That's a promise from the Bible. Define your covenant. Operate it. Your children will be blessed and guess what? You'll be able to sleep when the wind blows. Let me tell you something. It's blowing out there. It's blowing out there. So look, your children will be blessed from it. Kids, you got a dad like this today? You got a dad that no matter what, you're in church? No matter what, you've got standards in your life? Kids, you better appreciate that because not a lot of kids have dads like that today. Better give your dad a hug today and thank your dad for making God's covenant his covenant and he'll pass it on to you. Appreciate your dad. How about you dads are like, this is depressing. We're gonna have to sacrifice everything. I'm gonna go hungry. I'm probably gonna drown. Guess what though? You'll be able to sleep when the wind blows. You'll be able to sleep when the wind blows and 30 years from now, 30 years from now, when your covenant becomes your son's covenant, becomes your grandson's covenant, becomes your grandson's covenant, then you'll really be able to sleep when the wind blows because guess what? You say that's gonna be really messed up in 20 years. Guess what? That promise still works. The Bible still works. That's the beauty of promises. You know, through all the covenants in the Bible, God never broke his end once. Isn't that nice? The messed up variable's always been us every single time. So let's get this covenant right and let's take the blessings from this promise that God gives us and then our children will have that as well. Happy Father's Day. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the opportunity to be here. Lord, I thank you for the fathers here today, Lord. I pray that you just give us all the fortitude to just define the word of God into actions for our family and that you allow us to just not miss any details, Lord. And Lord, just give us the courage that we need to just operate that covenant no matter what comes our way. And we know that our children will be blessed for it. Lord, we thank you for these promises in the Bible. We thank you for the opportunity to be in church today, Lord. And most of all, we thank you for our salvation. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.