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Amen. So Ephesians chapter 6. We're going to focus on the first half of the chapter. So Ephesians chapter 6 and that first half of the chapter, we're seeing some advice, some biblical doctrine on children and parents, and then right after that we see some explanation on servants and masters and their relationships with each other. Now I don't know that I'm going to try to explain something this morning and preach a sermon on something this morning. I don't know that I've actually heard a whole sermon on, but we talk a lot about children obeying their parents and that side of things, but then there's also some advice here for the parents themselves. Look down at Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 4. And the Bible says this, specifically to the fathers. The Bible says, And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So the Bible here is telling, you know, it gives the children advice on how they're supposed to honor their parents and obey their parents in the first few verses of the chapter, but then we see this command for fathers, you know, towards their children to provoke them not to wrath. So that is what I want to focus on this morning is this idea of provoking your children to wrath. You know, what does this mean? I want to explore this idea this morning. I want to explore, you know, the idea of what does it mean to provoke your children to wrath? What are the consequences of provoking your children to wrath? You know, and just what does that mean? What could that mean for my family is what I want to look at this morning. So you say you're sitting here and you're a parent this morning and you say, listen, I'm the parent and my kids, they need to just do whatever I say and obey me. And you know, that's true. That's absolutely true. That's what the Bible says. But what does it mean to provoke your children to wrath? Basically, what it's talking about is having your children, you know, turn on you or rebel on you, you know, there to obey you and everything, you know, the Bible says, but this is talking about, you know, children and parents and servants and masters is talking about the balance. There's balance in everything. Look back at verse number one. Your children are supposed to obey you. Look what the Bible says in verse number one of Ephesians six. It says, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Now notice how it says in the Lord there. Verse number two, honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee that thou mayest live long on the earth. That's a pretty powerful message to kids that says they need to honor their parents and obey their parents in the Lord. We'll get to that in a minute. But it basically says that if kids don't obey, you know, there's implication there that it has to do with how long they will live on this earth if they don't obey their parents. And you know, but it does say in the Lord. Now, if you look at what that in the Lord means, it's not the purpose of the sermon this morning. But basically, what that means is that children just don't have to obey their parents, no matter what their parents say, you know, and especially, you know, maybe people that get saved later in life, they may look back and you know, realize the way they were raised wasn't necessarily according to the Bible, or maybe even parents today may not agree with, you know, the direction that children are taking their families or whatever, because you have an unsaved, you know, parents in the mix there. That's why it says in the Lord, it's the same concept as Romans 13, where it says, obey, you know, them that have the power, you know, obey the higher powers, is what it means. It means that look, there's a hierarchy. There's a hierarchy there that we're always to obey God over man. Okay, so look, we're to obey our parents in the Lord. Okay, so how could I possibly provoke them to wrath is the question. They should just listen to me. They should just do whatever I say, you know, whenever I say it, and you know, that should be the end of it, right? So what does this mean? Children now like provoking children, you know, especially older children is the most obvious. Maybe you've seen this happen to people with older children, when you provoke them to wrath, when the children turn on their parents or their family, you know, you'll see it the most in the older children, it's the most visible, you know, when it actually happens. And you know, it happens all the time, unfortunately, if you don't know children that have turned on their parents or turned even on their saved parents, even against the faith, you've I don't think you've lived long enough, if you haven't seen that happen. So I want to talk this morning about three ways that this happens, and thus three ways to avoid this. Okay, so why does it happen? Turn to James chapter two, the first thing I want to do is I want to give you three main reasons that children get provoked to wrath, or they that they turn on their parents. Look at James chapter two, the number one way you can get your children to turn on you and everything that you have taught them is this. The first point is this, live as a hypocrite. Live as a hypocrite. Now really, turn to James chapter two, really, there's two areas where your works count in this life. And you know, I could break it out into many different areas, but let me give you two main categories where your works count. The first one, turn to James two and look at verse 14. The first one is explained in James 214. The Bible says, what does it profit my brethren? Though a man say he have faith and have not works, can faith save him? Now, underline, doth it profit? Because that is the point of that verse and of all of James chapter two, that if you don't have works, your faith will be dead, and it will profit no one. It will profit no one. So first of all, you know, your works, they don't have anything to do with your salvation, but they have everything to do with how much you profit others. What does that mean? Your outward benefit of your life towards other people. What other people? Everybody. Towards your family, towards your children, towards other saved brothers and sisters in Christ, and towards the unsaved world. I mean, look, what are our first works? Our first works are to go out and preach the gospel. Our first works are to benefit the unsaved world. Our first works are to get others saved. So, being of no profit to, you know, your children could literally cost them their salvation. I mean, your works have nothing to do with your salvation, but your works could cost the people closest to you their salvation. If you live as a hypocrite, more importantly, it could cause them to turn their backs, or secondly, because there's nothing more important, by the way, than getting your children saved, than the fact that your children are going to go to heaven. That's the most important thing when I think about my children, is that they will go to heaven one day. So look, the second thing that your works could matter, it could cause towards your children, is your works, living as a hypocrite, could cause your children to turn their backs on the Christian life. I mean, haven't you heard, at least heard, of all these stories of kids or young adults leaving fundamentalism? You know, we're fundamentalists here. Did you know that? What does that mean? Does that mean we're crazy and we're in a cult? No, but it means that we believe and we teach and we practice the fundamentals of the Bible. So the main cause of this is that they, and you can read stories about it, and these kids that turned on fundamentalism or turned on the church or turned on whatever, their parents, meaning they turned on their parents for sure, it's because they witnessed hypocrisy. They witnessed hypocrisy from their parents. They witnessed hypocrisy in the church. They witnessed hypocrisy. There was preaching, there was teaching, and then there was living in a completely different way, is what was happening. So you say, you say, I was thinking about this. So we're living as hypocrites. Let's say we're all living as hypocrites. We come here and we dress up and we're church people and we're Baptists. Look at my tie and my suit. I'm a Baptist and we preach the Bible and then we go and we practice none of it. And we practice none of it. So you say, why are the kids the ones that suffer from this? And I'm going to explain it to you. I'm going to give you an analogy. Imagine a guy who goes to work every day and he sells Chevrolets. This guy goes to work every day and all he does, and he's the best salesman in the whole company. He goes and he can sell a Chevrolet like nobody else can sell a Chevrolet. He's got the look of an upright, upstanding salesman. He looks like someone who's trustworthy. He goes and he meets a customer and he tells you, he tells this customer from the core of his very being, that this is the best vehicle made. It was designed by the best designers. It was designed by the best designers. It was built by the best factories and the best people in the world. This is the best machine that can be purchased as far as an automobile goes. And he believes it from the core of his very being. I mean, somebody meets this guy and they're like, wow, this guy has sold me on this. And he's the best salesman in the whole company. And then after work, he gets in his Ford and he drives home. He gets in a Ford and he drives home. Now, who would see the whole picture? He's the best salesman in the company. He's selling Chevys like nobody else has ever sold a Chevy before. But guess what? His family sees the whole picture. His family sees everything. That customer that comes to him, they just see that this guy, like, this is amazing. This is the best vehicle ever because the guy believes it. He looks the part. He's doing it. But his family sees him get out of the Ford and sees him get in the Ford every single day. And they think, look, the person he's selling to, it works. That's what I'm getting at. He sounds good. He's passionate. But his family sees the whole thing. His family sees the whole thing. They know who he really is. They know what he really believes. Are you following me? They see him need a new car. They see him need a new car because his old car is worn out and they see him go to the Ford dealership and get a new car. And then he goes and he sells Chevys every day. They know at that sales job that he's just acting. Now, this is a harmless example. Just now take the job and replace that with spiritual life. And that's what being a hypocrite will do to your kids. They will think that this spiritual life is just acting, is a joke, is not real. I mean, what a terrible look because they see everything. Look, these kids, these kids are living with us. I mean, they see us get up in the morning. They see us go to bed. They see how you treat your wife. They see how the wife treats the husband. They see everything. And they also hear what's being preached at church three times a week. And if those two things are, you know, if those two sides don't match up, you're going to have problems. They're going to start to realize that, you know what, this spiritual life, it's an act. We go to church and we act this way and then we go home and we act like that. If they see a Ford and a Chevy from your real life and your church life, you're going to have serious problems. And you know what, these kids, these kids that turned into young adults that left the church and some of them went out and they wrote books and they did all these things and they're very vocal about this, they'll tell you that's why they did it because it was nothing but hypocrisy is what they witnessed. So don't be a hypocrite. That's the first one that will provoke your children to wrath against you and the spiritual life in general. The second one, the second one, impossible standards, impossible standards with your kids. Don't we teach a lot of, a lot of law here? What are we looking at every single Sunday? We're looking at the law. Here's another way to provoke your children to wrath. Hold your children to impossible standards. And this is when, that's when I want to talk about this idea of this. This is when fundamentalism slides into this word legalism. I don't know if you've ever heard the word legalism. I'll explain it to you, but look, I've been told this many times before. I've been told this once we, once we started going to a Baptist church and we started going to church three times a week and we started soul winning and we started just, I mean, we were basically living and breathing church and we were told this by many different people. Why? You guys are legalistic. You guys are legalistic. As soon as you start changing your life, all of a sudden your home starts looking different. All of a sudden you start acting different. You start speaking different. Everything changes. Isn't that what's supposed to happen by the way? Isn't that what's supposed to happen to us when we learn the Bible? Aren't we supposed to change our lives to become that? That's the whole point of the Sunday night personality sermons. I mean, it's neat to talk about these different types of personalities, but look, no matter what your personality is, you're supposed to conform to what the Bible says. So look, people will say they will look at that and they will see those outward changes and they'll be like, you guys are too legalistic. But what does it mean to be legalistic? Here's the definition. Here's the definition. Dependence on moral law than on personal religious faith. That's the definition of legalism, but here's the thing. We're doing all these things and we're changing all these things and we're, you know, we're living a different life. We're coming to church three times a week. We're sold out in this thing. We're sold out in this thing, but here's the thing. I don't have to do any of this. I don't, to get to heaven I don't have to do any of this. Yes. Will I profit other people if I do none of it? No, I won't. We already talked about that in point number one, but look, just like you don't, neither do you. You don't have to be here to go to heaven. You will not profit others and there's danger to your family in that way, but look, this can, you, you can easily fall into legalism. Churches have fallen into legalism. Look, legalism, this idea, what is the definition? Dependence on moral law rather than on personal religious faith. Dependence for what? You know what that turns into? Dependence for salvation. Dependence for salvation on moral law rather than faith is what that is saying. Now look, I used to misunderstand this. Now just stay with me for a minute. I used to misunderstand this because I would hear the Baptist say things like this, oh yeah, they would, we would hear about some guy or the, the subject of debate would be somebody who fell into serious sin and I as a Lutheran would hear the Baptist say, yeah, he was never really saved and I as the Lutheran may have believed, okay, well he lost his salvation. The way I looked at it was it was just semantics and I used to debate this with a very good Baptist friend of mine before I was even saved and I would say, you say he was never saved. I say, he lost his salvation. What's the difference? He's in hell, but it's not just semantics. What's happening is the person, the Baptist, the Baptist that looks at somebody who fell into serious sin and says he was never really saved. Well, you know, in many cases he's having a legalistic mindset about things and he's starting to attach things to salvation is the problem. It was, it's not semantics, but you know, it's not semantics. So look, lordship salvation is the beginning of this. You know, lordship salvation is the beginning of attaching works to salvation. Lordship salvation is basically this doctrine that says, if you're saved, you'll have the works. That's lordship salvation. Look, that's beginning to attach works to salvation. Now look, if you're saved, you should have the works, but should is an important word there because to be saved has nothing to do with works. And look, lordship salvation, this legalism, it comes into lordship salvation and it turns into, I mean, it turns into its close cousin, which is repent of your sins theology is a close cousin to lordship salvation. You know, if you're saved and it starts out real subtle, if you're saved, you'll be sorry for your sins. If you're saved, you'll be sorry. I mean, you see how we kind of move into the gray and then all of a sudden we get into work salvation because look, I mean, don't you have to understand that you're a sinner to be saved? Yeah, you definitely have to understand that. You can't think that you're perfect. Otherwise, what are you being saved from? There's nothing to be saved from if you've never made a mistake. If there's no sin, what are you doing? What are you being punished for? Nothing. I'm perfect. So you have to understand that you're a sinner. You have to understand that you're a sinner now. Oh yeah. You have to be sorry for your sin. And that turns, that turns into you have to turn from your sin. Should you turn from your sin? Yes. That's why we preach so much about sin in this church so we can all learn what the Bible says and turn from our sin. But it has nothing to do with salvation. It has nothing to do with salvation. So what this, you know what this turns into? This turns into a bunch of churches. Maybe they even have Baptist in the name where you have a bunch of people in the church. Now we've, we've subtly attached works to salvation and maybe you have a bunch of saved people in that church that all of a sudden have kind of, oh I'll have the works if I'm saved. You know, they're saved. Look, nothing, nothing about them getting mixed up in the head is going to stop them from being saved. But they're all mixed up like, oh I didn't do this right or I didn't do this right. And this is how you get a bunch of people that are doubting their salvation all the time. This is how this happens. Because you got a church that's subtly attaching works to salvation all the time and you get a church full of people, number one, that saved people that that started in on and they're all like, oh am I really saved? Look, I hate to break it to you, but if you're saved today, you're saved whether you think you're saved or not. Can you imagine being in the situation where you're saved and you're like every other day or every, every other month you're like, oh maybe I'm not saved. Look, you're still saved, you know, moron. It, it just, you can't take away your own salvation. I mean, I mean, thank goodness. Thank goodness. But look, this is how you get a bunch of people that think that they're not saved and then you know what, you end up with a bunch of people that come in and that's the only gospel they've ever heard. They're just not saved. So look, this is why, and pastors that do this, you know, then pastors, they do it, they use it because then it's effective tool, it's an effective tool to, you know, control people. Nobody will come to church. So look, you better come to church or you're not saved. I mean, it's just, it just becomes Catholic. I don't know what else to tell you. But look, fundamental, fundamentalism itself engaged in this and people, it turned people to wrath. People got turned away from it. So what are we talking about? We're talking about impossible standards. Turn to Romans chapter 11. The reason, look, the reason that you can't, let me just give you the biblical reason why you can't go down any of these roads. You can't go down, you can't go into the gray here. The gospel is the gospel. It's all the gospel. It's not, there's no gray. Look at Romans 11 six. The Bible says, and if by grace, then it is no more of works. Look, it says no more. It doesn't say a little bit. It doesn't say a tiny bit. It says if it's by grace, and we know it's by grace, for by grace, are ye saved? I mean, it's very clear, folks. It is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. He's saying, look, if you think it's a little bit of works, there's no grace there. If you think it's a little bit of works, if you think, oh, I can't, if I'm saved, I will never fall. I will never fall into, you know, this kind of sin or whatever. I'm not talking about, you know, reprobate stuff. Okay. But look, the bottom line is, and that would never happen, okay, by the way. But the point is, if it's a little bit of works, there's no grace. It's not like if it's a little bit of works, you get less grace. It's one or the other, is what the Bible's saying here. And then, but if it be of works, and he says that the other way, just to make sure we understand. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. So look, we need to teach our children the true gospel. Because our children, look, it's not a little bit of works. We need to teach our children the true gospel, so they know that they're saved, no matter what. It's eternal. It's forever. It's everlasting, the Bible says. So they get saved. That's the first thing. But then, then a separate goal for us is to teach them the law, is to teach them the Bible. Okay. And why do we teach them the law? There's three reasons for the law. To John 14, 15, if you love me, keep my commandments. You, you follow the law because you love God. That's how we show that we love God. We follow the law for our own protection. God gave us the law because he loves us. And then James 2, to profit others. So we follow the law, children. We follow the law, children, because we love the Lord. Because we want that protection for ourselves. And then we want to profit other people. It's very simple. You know, but we are not to beat them over the head with it and threaten their salvation with it. And hold them, look, hold them to impossible standards. Turn to Proverbs chapter 22. You say, what are you talking about? I just let my kids, you know, just go off and sin and it's no big deal. Absolutely not. That's not what I'm talking about. But here's something that you need to understand. The second reason we're talking about is holding your children to impossible standards. Threatening salvation of anyone or questioning salvation of anyone, especially your children after they've been saved. I mean, it's just false doctrine. It's adding works. It's adding things to salvation. Then we should never do it. But look, as they get older, here's something that you need to realize. Here's something you need to realize. Look at Proverbs 22, 15. And don't forget this verse, parents. The Bible says this, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Now look, we talk a lot about the second part of this verse, that the rod of correction. Look, if you're not spanking your children and you're not disciplining your children in a proper way, you are going to suffer the consequences of everything I'm talking about today, first of all. Okay. But look, the Bible says in the first part of this verse that foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. It doesn't say that when they get to be 18 or 19 or 20 or 25 that they get foolish. It doesn't say that they get foolish when they're 12. It's there already. The foolishness is, it's bound in their heart. It is our job, look, it is our job to drive it from them, to drive that foolishness from them. So we have this child and he's one, two, three, and he's got foolishness bound in his heart. And we need to properly discipline these children and teach these children the Bible and bring them to church and all these things to drive that foolishness out of them. You say, okay, well, I'm going to drive the foolishness out of my children and I'm never going to have any problems. Okay. Raise your hand if you're a perfect parent. Raise your hand if you're going to do a perfect job of driving the foolishness out of your children. Nobody. Nobody. I'm a sinner. I'm imperfect. And so are you. We're not going to do a perfect, look, the better you do at this, the better it's going to be for you, but you will never get it exactly right, which means there's going to be foolishness still there in your children. So there's, I mean, they will be imperfect. They are going to make mistakes. And especially, look, they cannot be destroyed for these mistakes that they're going to be made, they're going to make because they have foolishness bound in their heart. Or you risk provoking them to wrath. You risk it. It doesn't mean it's okay to sin. It doesn't mean it's okay to disobey your parents. But you must understand that this foolishness is something that you're still going to be dealing with even as they get older. I mean, being, look, what did we just talk about? Being saved is not going to drive the foolishness out of your children. It actually has nothing to do with the foolishness in their heart. That's your job. You know, so if you have a child who's 19, 20, you know, in their teens, whatever, and they're getting older and they're a young adult and they're a complete fool, guess what? Blame yourself. Put some blame on yourself. Look, the danger is that these kids are held to such high standards and then they're just crushed for their mistakes. And then they turn on their Christian wife. I've seen this happen too. It happens all the time, actually. The world, don't ever forget that the world is pulling them. The world is always going to be pulling them and as they get older, it's going to pull them harder, this world that they're living in. Why not live in the world? You know, these things that I'm getting destroyed for, these things that I'm getting crushed for, you know, they're normal in the world. I mean, this is the kind of thought process that you could turn your kids to if you're just crushing them for their mistakes. So what's the answer? What's the answer? Sin's not okay. It's not okay that my, you know, kids go and do, you know, get into sin. That's not okay. That's never going to be okay. What's the answer? It's simple. It's one word. The answer is this, mercy. Mercy. The better you are at driving out foolishness, parents, when they're young, the better this will go. But young people, I'm telling you, young people are going to need some mercy because they're foolish. They're going to make mistakes. All you teenagers, you're foolish. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, but you're fools. No, I'm just kidding. But I mean, you are foolish in many ways. The Bible uses the word foolish as not having wisdom. Look, you don't have experience is what I'm saying. You don't have experience. You are foolish in many ways. And teenagers, young people, as you start to figure things out, don't think you know everything because you're still foolish. So humble yourself in that way. Look, teenagers, learn from the mistakes of others. Please do yourself a favor. Once you're saved, and here's the thing, once you're saved, once you're saved, you have to worry about when your kids get saved, when they're seven, eight, nine, 10 years old, whenever that is, when they get saved, they have two things to worry about now because they have their parents chastising them. If you're a good parent, you're still going to be chastising them. And now you have God chastising you too, once you're saved. This is why, and this is my choice. I don't know, other people probably do it different, but I don't spank my teenagers. First of all, I think it's weird. And second of all, the main biblical reason to it is that they have to deal with God's chastisement now. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Look, as your children get older, God and they're saved. Look, they have to be saved. But as they get older, God's chastisement steps in. Look at Hebrews chapter 12. Look at verse number six. The Bible says, For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourges every son whom He receiveth. Look, I talk to my kids about this. I talk to my kids about this. You know, as far as you know, you're not going to get away with things. God's going to chastise you. You know, just remember what the Bible teaches. This is an important reason that we teach the Bible to our kids. But look, as our children get older, they still need direction. They still need direction. They still need discipline. But now they're going to have to deal with consequences from their heavenly Father as they're saved. So show some mercy. Show some guidance. Show some mercy is all I'm saying. The third reason is this. So we see that being a hypocrite will drive your children, turn your children to wrath. You know, not holding your kids to impossible standards, especially if you would work that into, you know, having them doubt their salvation or, you know, that's just wicked. Don't even go there. Churches have gone there. Fundamentalism has gone there. But the third reason is this. Not letting them be kids. Let me ask you this. Are you allowing your children to enjoy their Christian life? As you discipline them, and as you hold them to these high standards, and you know, you see, you know, you see that they're messing up along the way, and that's going to happen, but as you correct along the way, and you drive this foolishness out, are you allowing them to enjoy their Christian life? I mean, one way that parents do this is that they, you know, they have like their kids grow up, and then they start having their kids do their job. They start having their kids, you know, be parents for them. I can see how this could happen. I saw, you know, when our children got older, you know, it was nice to be able to leave the house and be able to go out to dinner and do things with my wife, but look, we have to understand that with older children, especially older children still living at home, this danger is real. Now look, I mean, they're more observant than they've ever been, these young adults. They can clearly see that hypocrisy. They can see that the standards that you have taught, you know, are just a joke to you, if that's what's going on, and on top of all that, they see how other kids their age are living too. Look, when these kids are in church, and they're six and seven years old, they have no idea what's happening out in the world. As kids get older, young adults, and they start to see how the world is, that, I mean, they're aware of it. They're aware of it, and look, without the joy of being married, and without the joy of having that relationship of a husband and a wife, they should not be given the burden of taking care of a family. It will drive them away from the Christian life. It will provoke them to wrath. I'm not talking about helping around the house, chores and things. I'm talking about putting your responsibilities on your children and not letting them be kids. Look, these kids, these young kids, these young adults, they should have, there should be joy in this Christian life, and we should protect that. They should, look, they should have fun coming to church. They should have fun coming to church and activities. They should get joy through worship. They should get to a point as a teenager where they get joy in sitting in church and listening to the Bible and singing hymns. They should get joy through service for the Lord. They should get joy from soul winning. They should get joy from serving their brothers and sisters in Christ, and they should get joy through fellowship with their friends. It's not your children's responsibility to be parents. I've seen this many times as well. So, look, parents can tend to get lazy, especially as kids get older. Make sure that we're not putting that burden on our children, or we could drive them away. We could provoke them to wrath. I'm going to give you an example of this. I had someone in my life, someone that I knew, they grew up on a farm. They grew up on a farm, and from a young age on this farm, these kids, they were expected to work like adults, and they worked like, and this is actually a common story from, you know, where I come from. Their life growing up, their life growing up was nothing but work and loneliness, is what that farm meant to them. And to this day, they became an adult that never even want to go back and visit that place. They turned from it. It turned them to wrath. They turned from it. It provoked them to wrath because it was such a miserable experience for them. There's supposed to be joy here. There's supposed to be joy experience here. Now, replace the farm. I got some analogies for you this morning, but replace the farm with the spiritual life now. You can do the same thing. You can do the same thing. You can turn them away from it. So the reason I was thinking about this sermon this morning is I've just, I've seen so many stories. I've read so many stories. I've witnessed so many times of, you know, kids turning away from even Baptist churches, from fundamentalist Baptist churches, or just rebelling against this idea of fundamentalism itself to the point where fundamentalism, you know, that word, is kind of got a bad name to a lot of people. You know, it's kind of got a bad name to a lot of people. But here's the thing. Fundamentalism, all it means is that we are adhering to the Bible. We are adhering to the fundamental. Look, it's not even just the fundamentals of the Bible. We adhere to the whole thing. We adhere to the whole Bible in a time where people are abandoning the Bible. We are going to stick to the Bible. So if this suddenly goes wrong, I'm telling you, if this goes wrong in your family, if it goes wrong where your children rebel against this, look, it's your fault, not the Bible. It's something that you did wrong. And that's why I'm trying to point out these three things this morning, because the problem, God's Word is perfect. God's Word is perfect. If something goes wrong, it means that we did not do it right. It has nothing to do with God's Word. So does this mean, you know, you say, does this mean we should go easy on our kids? Does this mean we should allow sin? No. Absolutely not. And parents, parents who do not discipline their kids, especially when they're young, will be at greater risk for all of these things. You will be at greater risk to provoking your children to wrath in all of these areas, all three, because they will have little respect for you if you're a hypocrite, because foolishness will be bound in their heart. It will remain in their heart. And the second point is they will not adhere to any standards if that foolishness is still in their heart. And, you know, third of all, rebellion, the rebellion that comes from all of that will make them envy or be jealous of the world itself. As they see others their age, you know, having fun. And they see others doing things that they were never allowed to do. I've seen this so many times, too. I mean, I remember a family growing up. They were Pentecostal. And we know, what's the mistake that Pentecostals made? They attached works. I mean, the definition of legalism, Pentecostalism. They attached all these works to salvation. And it was nothing but threats of salvation. And we saw these kids growing up, and from the time that they were, you know, seven, eight years old in school, they were always, you know, they dressed like Pentecostals, and they looked different, and they acted different. By the time they were 15 or 16, every single one of them went off the deep end. And pretty soon you're like, I didn't understand it. I was just like, what in the world? I mean, drugs, the worst things, all these kids. Because they were provoked to wrath from all of it. Because it was, you know, they saw that their parents were hypocrites, and that the whole thing, it was just, they were held to all these impossible standards tied to their salvation, and it's just a mess. The whole thing was a mess. Turn to Colossians chapter three. So how do we stop it? How do we do it? So watch for those three things. Hypocrisy will drive them to wrath. Impossible standards and having no mercy on them will drive them to wrath, will provoke them to wrath. And finally, you have to let, you know, your children experience what the Christian life has a lot of joy to offer. I understand persecution will be there, tribulation will be there, but look, there's joy there. When you give the gospel to somebody, and you don't experience joy out of that, something's wrong with you. Something's wrong. I was so joyful after Wednesday. I mean, it made my whole week, maybe the month. Look at Colossians chapter three. Here's the test for you. Here's a, let me give you, before we close, let me give you a warning sign. Let me give you a marker that you can watch for. Look at Colossians chapter three in verse 21. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Underline the last four words. Here's the thing, before any child turns his back on the Christian life, he or she will reach a point of discouragement first, because they will be discouraged. So you need to be checking on your kids. You need to be talking to your kids. You need to be asking your kids, especially as they get older, because like it's obvious you can see how, you know, the kids are when they're three, four years old, but you need to be talking to your kids. How are you doing? How are you doing? How was your day today? Every Sunday night my kids hear this from me. How was your day? Did you have fun? Scale of one to ten. What was it? And I better not hear any nines. And I'm not threatening them with, I'm saying if I hear a nine, that's a red flag to me. Something's wrong. You know, I'm always asking my kids, how are you doing? Did you have fun? You know, these conversations need to be regular ones with your kids. And if you sense discouragement, it means something's wrong and you need to get involved. And you better start the investigation at that point. You know, something's wrong. They're discouraged. They give you a nine. They give you an eight. What's wrong? What's going on? It may be as simple as some kid bothering them or something, but you need to get involved and understand what is going on. For every saved kid that has walked away from the Christian life, look, saved or unsaved, but look, my guess is plenty, I mean, plenty of saved kids do it. Plenty of saved kids walk away from the Christian life. If they're not saved, look, if they're not saved and they're 18 plus years old, you've got bigger problems. You're probably in the wrong church. You know, but look, for every kid that has walked away from the Christian life, especially those vocal ones that we've all heard about, maybe their sons or daughters of famous people or whatever, you know, they started a website. You know, I guarantee you for every single one of those kids, famous or not, they've dealt with one of these three things. And one of these three things is what provoked them to turn on their Christian life. Now you say you're sitting here and you're like, this will never happen to us. This will never happen to us. We're in a good church and we're doing the right things. This will never happen to us. Let me just give you some statistics here. And the closest I could find was the Southern Baptist Convention numbers. Okay, and I understand the problems with Southern Baptist Convention. But in 1989, 76% of Southern Baptist kids, think about that. In 1989, that's not that long ago. I was in high school. Well, middle school. In 1989, 76% of kids that were children as Southern Baptist became Southern Baptist adults. That's three quarters. Three quarters of the church that grew up Southern Baptist, they remained Southern Baptist as, you know, they were adults. In 2018, that number was like almost, you know, just a little over 50%. So half, I mean, I understand this where, you know, it's just a measuring stick here. But the point is that, I mean, you don't have to look too far to find out that, you know, a lot, a majority of kids and a lot of, you know, churches are not continuing in their Christian faith as adults. And it's one of these three things. So you say it'll never happen to us, but I'm telling you that the danger is very real. The danger is very real. Don't ever take these things for granted. Remember these three things. Because, look, I mean, the consequences are too great. It's like I told you Wednesday night. We're playing, look, we're playing for all the marbles here. I mean, the stakes cannot be greater. So remember these three things. Don't be a hypocrite. Don't hold your kids to impossible standards. And, you know, make sure your kids are getting some joy out of this Christian life because if they're not, something's wrong. Okay, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.