So I entitled this morning's message, Fatherhood, more than a job. And I went out and got quotes and everything, so I'll do like I do for the mothers. I'll make sure it's a very special day for the fathers. Fatherhood's important. One of the problems with the demise of our nation is the fact that fatherhood is missing. There are a lot of homes that don't have a father in them. Fortunately, you have some mothers that can handle that and take care of it, and they do a good job alone. And they should be commended for it. But the best situation is a mother and father together in a home. That's the best situation. It doesn't always work out that way. And we're going to look at good examples and bad examples in the Bible. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 John. 1 John, you always have to think that through because there is only one chapter in 2 John. So it's sort of, I don't want to tell you to turn to chapter 1 of 2 John and you look at me like, well you'd be right if you did look at me that way anyway. 2 John verse 4, I rejoice greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth as we have received commandment from the Father. So John is writing And he said he rejoiced greatly that he found their children walking in truth as we've received the commandment from the Father. So, that's a good thing to rejoice about. Listen, you know, children are going to be raised in a home. Some are going to turn out good. Some are going to turn out bad. And you can't control the outcome. The only thing you and I can do in our homes is do the best that we can do. You know, raise them up in church. Pray for them. Love them. Nurture them. Do everything within your power to help those children to become what God wants them to become. But you can't force the outcome. No matter how good you do, you can raise two children, four children in the same home. Some go astray and some don't. And it's not something that you can look at and say, well, it's the environment. Listen, the environment helps or hurts. But that isn't the only reason why children turn out the way that they turn out. Everybody has a free will, unless you're a Calvinist. And again, that's a cop-out. Everybody has a free will to do what they want to do. You cannot control every circumstance to make a child do what you want them to do and what you think is the best for them to do. Children are going to do what they want to do, especially when they get their freedom. Some children, they can't wait to get their freedom. Man, when I get out of this house, and man, when I turn 18, I'm gonna do this or that, and they find out, listen, it's a real world out there. It's a tough world out there. The decisions that you make at that age may affect you the rest of your days upon this earth. Sometimes, and I say it all the time, no regrets. When I try to instill in people, no matter what you do in life, is can you get past the week and look back and say, no regrets. Can you get past the month and look back and say, no regrets. The year and say, no regrets. A lifetime and say, no regrets. Now look, we're all going to have regrets, but control the ones you can control. Get God to take over the ones so that you don't have more of them. And then when you turn 18, you can look and say, no regrets. I stayed true to God. I loved the Lord. I listened to my parents who loved me and tried to bring me upright and tried to do the things in my life that I needed. No regrets. Then when you get 21 or 25 or 30 or 40 or 50 or 60, you can look back and say, no regrets. I have regrets. I got away from the Lord for three years. God used that time to help me in a tremendous way. I want to have no regrets. Look at the book of Job. Let's look at a good example of a father. Now look, I'm not Job. In more ways than one, I'm certainly glad that I'm not. With what he went through in his life, But I ought to be like Job in Job chapter one, starting in verse one. Look at what the Bible says about this man. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was perfect and upright, one that feared God and stewed evil. Now look, we ought to all be able to say that about ourselves. Men and women, do you fear God? Do you stew evil? Verse two. and there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels and 500 yoke of oxen and 500 she-asses and a very great household so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East. He was a rich man. You might say he was a billionaire or a millionaire, whatever you want to call it, but he was a rich man and had 10 children. That's a lot of children in today's world and probably a lot back then. Verse 4, And his sons went and feasted in their houses, and every one his day, and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all, For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts, thus did Job continually. Now in that sense, and only in that sense, I want to be like Job. I don't want to go through what Job did in life. I don't want to suffer like he suffered. I don't want to lose my children, lose my substance, and I don't want that to happen. But knowing the book of Job and Job 42 that he got doubled back, you know, okay, if it happened, I sure hope I'd accept it. I sure hope I'd still love the Lord. I sure hope I wouldn't turn on God. I sure hope you wouldn't either. But we don't know. You don't know what you're going to go through in life and you don't know how you're going to react to it. All we know is as time goes on, sometimes the days get wicked and evil. Our responsibility is to put God first. Here's a man that looked at his children and said, boy, I don't know. I think I raised them right. I think I did everything I can do, but what if I didn't? You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna intervene for them with God. What a great father. All of us, all of us need to intervene for our children with God. All of us need to seriously consider that our children are really dependent upon our relationship with God in a very real way. Now, they still have the responsibility of standing before God without you there with them. But boy, wouldn't it be great if you did everything you could do to make sure that their lives were according to the will of God? I know that's what I want in my life. I want to pray for my children. They're not in the home anymore, 31 and 33. We adopted them when they were 3 and 5 and poured our lives into them. They're not at home anymore, but you know what? I can still pray for them. You don't have to bring a sacrifice. In fact, the only sacrifice we have is the sacrifice of our bodies to the Lord. We can sacrifice our time for our children and pray for them. Pray for them while they're home. Because it doesn't end when they go out of the house. Pray for them now. Pray for them daily. Pray for them any time they come to your mind. Pray for your children because that is the responsibility of fathers and mothers to pray for their children that maybe those prayers will be answered. God will intervene. and you will spare them from having to learn the lessons of life the hard way in the school of hard knocks, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it'd still be good for us to do what we can to help them to live the life that's pleasing to God. Look at another one, Job chapter 6. I told you I'd give you good examples, and I'd give you bad examples. Here is Gideon's father. He served and worshipped false gods. Job chapter 6 verse 25, And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it. Judges 6.25 Judges, I can tell I messed up from the front all the way to the back. I do this so that all of you can know that I am simply human. Should any of you doubted that I was perfect, I have now proven it this morning. I don't even know how I can say Job. I guess Job's in my mind, but listen, I butcher names all the time. All the time, don't I? Dana, Jan, Pam. You guys are tough too, by the way. You and your sister all the time. I've got to think it through. Which one's in front of me right now? Judges 625. And He said to them, He said, Throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath and cut down the grove that is by it. By the way, let me just rebuke you for a minute. I said, Gideon, you should know it's the book of Judges. So, nanny, nanny, nan, you know? I've never said that from the pulpit before. But here is Gideon's father who had an altar to Baal. And here the son is being told, go cut it down. Do you know that no child should have to do that? But we have a situation in the Bible where God says there's a man, he has a false god that he's serving, and that son's told to go and handle that. Look at what verse 12 says about this son. And the angel of the Lord, this is Judges 6, 12. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. There you go. Here's Gideon. He's a mighty man of valor in God's eyes. What kind of upbringing did he have? Well, we know that his father had an altar to Baal. His father served false gods. So what's your excuse? Oh, well, you know, my dad and my mom, they didn't raise me right. Let me tell you something. I was raised in a good home. They taught me right from wrong. They taught me character, how to be honest and all that, but until I got saved when I was 20 years old, I made some blunders in life. Doesn't matter how you're raised, but God can use it later on and He did in my life. Doesn't matter how you're raised, God can use it if you're raised in the worst home on earth. You still have a responsibility to do right because it's right. You can't say, well, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. You don't understand. You don't understand. And listen, I don't understand because I was raised in the good home. But I was lost as anybody else in that good home until when I was 20, I accepted the Lord as my savior. And that's what my life then became a turning point like this. I could have kept going the way of the world, even as a saved man, I could have done that. But God turned me this way and that's the way I went and thank God and then God used the upbringing that I had in order to bring things back to my mind. I mean, my parents taught me manners and taught me yes, sir, no, sir. But listen, let me tell you something. I watched a movie before I went in the military, and it had a lot of cussing in it. When I went in the military at 18 years old, I had a filthy mouth. The F-bomb. Filthy. Why? Because of the influence of television. I remember back that one movie, I remember watching it and it was an impressionable mind, even at 18 years old, it influenced me because they were cool. When they said that language, somebody would laugh or snicker, oh, you know, ha, ha, ha. You know, like they do now when they say the name of Jesus and it's a punchline. And everybody laughs at the name of Jesus. Oh, God forbid. But that's what they do in Hollywood, the cesspool. It influenced me. I was raised right, but yet I had that happen and I needed Jesus. I got saved. My life changed, but I still had a choice. Am I gonna serve God or serve self? For three years, shortly thereafter, I got some sin in my life and I served self for three years. But you can't blame who you are, on how you were raised. You say, well, you know, listen, I'm just telling you. Your parents can do the greatest job ever any parent has ever done, and you can turn out rotten. They can do the worst job, and you can be like Gideon, having to cut down the altar of Baal that his dad built. Wow! Look at 2 Timothy chapter 1. Hey, this is Father's Day, but I think one of the greatest examples in our Bible are also some mothers. You know, Timothy had a mother and a grandmother who gave some great example to him on how to live. 2 Timothy 1.5, when I call to remembrance, The unfeigned faith that is in thee which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also. The unfeigned faith of a grandmother and a mother. That grandmother impacted the mother, that mother and grandmother impacted that son. And that son, his name is Timothy, became a right-hand man to the apostle Paul as he traveled. And God used it in His life. Look at chapter 3, same book, verse 15. Look at what the Bible says about this mother and grandmother and their impact upon this child. 2 Timothy 3.15, that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. You know, it says from a child Timothy knew the holy scriptures. That's why you ought to put those scriptures into your children's mind. The Bible says, Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. You know what will keep you out of more trouble? Keep your children out of more trouble than you know? Hiding that Bible in their hearts. Memorizing Scripture. Being saturated with the Bible. Coming to church and hearing preaching. I talked to somebody the other day. They said, well, I'm just disillusioned with church. I'm tired of going. It just seems like I'm going through the motions. What do I do? I said, well, the only thing I can tell you, and it may sound harsh, I said, is get right with God. Listen, there aren't good churches everywhere anymore. We're in the Bible Belt. I've been all over the world. I've been to far out west in the states, in Hawaii and Alaska, the far north, far west you can go. And I've seen some good churches, but they're getting less and less and less and less. You still have a responsibility to live for the Lord. You cannot blame it on whether you have a good church to go to or your church just doesn't believe like you believe. You still have a responsibility to do right. Do right. I know people get disillusioned. Listen, I've been in churches where, you know, there was manipulation and the pastor was so self-centered at times that the people started leaving in droves. What a shame. And some went to churches where there was compromise and didn't stand upon the Word of God. And they knew better. Listen, you can't blame anybody else for your failures. Your failures are the problem of the one that you look in the mirror and see every morning. They can contribute to it. No doubt about it. But you still have a responsibility to live right and do right no matter how disillusioned you get in life. This world is an insane asylum run by the inmates. I think Lester Roloff said that. No doubt about it. And it's getting worse. But the Bible says in the last days perilous times shall come. What did you expect? All of this preaching now is coming to pass and people are seeing it saying, Hey, it's there. It's real. We're there. We see it. Yes. What do you do? Draw nigh unto God and He will draw nigh unto thee. So what's the answer? Draw nigh to God. People say, well, you've got to tell them how to endure to the end, Matthew 24. You've got to tell people how to, what are they going to do whenever the government comes in and does it? Draw nigh unto God. Do you realize how simple life really is? You know what your problem will be is when you stop drawing nigh unto God? and he stops drawing nigh to you, and then you're going to look around and say, oh no, my problem was this person, or that person, or this church, or this job, or this employer. You can't do that. The problem is, no matter what situation you are in life, draw nigh unto God. You want the solution to being a good parent? Draw nigh unto God. You want a solution to being the right type of child to your mom and child to your dad? Draw nigh unto God. And it's that simple. How do you do that? Church is a good start. Read in your Bible, praying, witnessing to others, telling others about the hope that you have within, being a good ambassador for Jesus Christ. Listen, life isn't that difficult. We make it difficult. We make it so that we got all these distractions and all, oh boy, if I just had the newest gadget, I could do more for Jesus. I got gadgets, man. They can distract you more than anything else. What we need is we need to draw nigh unto God. That's the solution to it all. Look at 2 Chronicles chapter 15. 2 Chronicles. You see, I told you, I gave you an example of a good father and a bad father. Then I gave you a good example of a good mother and a good grandmother. Because some of you have made it to that junction in your life. Congratulations. It's such a great thing. Because once you get to grandmotherhood, I don't know if that's a good word, once you get there, you can always just give those children back. Say, you take care of them. I'm tired. I'm going to take a nap. But Asa's mother... I gave you a good example of father, good example, bad example of father, good example of mother, and now we're going to look at a bad example of a mother. Look at 2 Chronicles 15, 16. Asa's mother. And also concerning Mekah, the mother of Asa, the king, he removed her from being queen. Why? Because she had made an idol in a grove and Asa cut down her idol and stamped it and burnt it at the brook Kidron. You say, well, are there people in the world that are serving groves and statues? Yeah, a lot of it. More of that than what you see here. It's terrible. But yet, look in your Bibles at chapter 14, verse 2. 2 Chronicles 14, 2, And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God. Asa did that which was good and right even though a chapter later he is destroying the idol in a grove that his mom put up. And again, the point is this. You can't blame your parents for everything in your life. That's the point. If you turn out bad, shame on you. Shame on you. You say, well, you just don't understand. My mom, my dad, let me ask you this. Do they have idols and groves that they build and they put up and they get you involved in that? That goes on. I look out there, I doubt that's your problem. Sometimes our problem is we want our way And nothing else matters. Listen, what's important is that you take whatever circumstance you find yourself in and make the best of it for the glory of God, no matter what it is. Let me tell you about the family institution for a moment before I move on. Marriage is a picture of Christ in the church. It's the first institution that God made. Turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Let's look at an example here. And let me say this while you're going there. No matter the circumstances in life, every parent should give their children a fighting chance. In other words, do the best you can do. Parenting isn't easy. Parenting, there's not a set of rules. If you'll just do A, B, C, your children will just turn out right. Yeah, it'd be great if that's the way it was. And here's how you know that. You can raise two children the same way and they turn out totally opposite. And I said that's because everybody has a free will. You and I must do this. Give them a fighting chance. Do everything you can. Pour your life into them. Pour your heart into them and know that they may take that heart one day and squeeze it. But you still got to do right as a parent. Ephesians 5, here's the marriage, picture of Christ in the church, verse 23, 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 and everything. I read that at a wedding one time. It was in a Catholic church and I was the best man. They said, would you read some scripture? I said, okay. And I... Judy was there. I said, Ephesians 5. I made a wedding. I started preaching while I was reading scripture. And that was 30 years ago and it was brought up to me just the other day that that's what I did at that wedding. I don't know that it took. Look at Colossians chapter 3. A good home atmosphere is commanded by God. A good home atmosphere. God commands it. Here's where He does. Here's one of the places. Colossians 3.18. He talks about the wives, the husband, the children. Gives it all in one small grouping Colossians 318 wives submit yourselves unto your own husband as it is fit in the Lord Husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them you realize easy to get bitter against your spouse your wife It's easy to have that happen Because we're all wired differently. And listen, husbands aren't always going to understand your wife. And listen, husbands, your wife isn't always going to understand you. I mean, as they mature, they will. Just kidding. Just kidding. My one year anniversary is in two days. So all you gotta do is make it two more days and I will have made it one year. If I keep talking like that, it will be 364 days out the door. Just kidding, just kidding. I know you love me, you trust me, and you accept everything I say as the gospel. I got an amen out of that. I think it was facetious. Anyway, wives, husband, now children. Verse 20. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. You know what the problem is? When the children don't do what they're supposed to do, when the husband doesn't do what he's supposed to do, and the wife doesn't do... And you see, here's the husband. Well, you're supposed to submit to me. And the wife says, well, you're supposed to love me. Well, if you'd submit, I'd love you. And she could look at you and say, well, if you'd love me, I'd submit, honey. Honey doll, you know, sugar plum. And then the children obey your parents in all things. You know what's hard? It's hard for a wife to submit. It's sometimes hard for husbands to love the way that they should and not be bitter against their wives. It's hard for children to obey their parents. You know why? Here, you know why. Okay, so one, it's unnatural. We're all rebellious. We all want to do our own thing. We all want our way. We're selfish. We're self-centered. That's how we are. The only thing that changes that is the right relationship with God. The only thing that'll change a husband into what he ought to be and a wife into what she ought to be and a child into what he or she ought to be is the right relationship with Jesus Christ. You don't have that relationship, you're not going to have a good outcome. I wrote down some things, and I got a lot of things I wrote down. I got sayings, whole two pages here. I hadn't done one of them yet, and I did a lot of work on these things. I probably won't go into that, but I'm gonna read to you what I wrote down. Children need to feel loved. You know, a lot of the problem would be solved if children would feel more love. Now, look, look, look, wait a minute, wait a minute. Children says, well, I don't feel love, so I don't have to do right. Yeah, really. I don't feel love, so I can disobey. No, you can't. You're still responsible. Children need to feel secure. That includes the security and knowing that mom, or mom and dad, love them. You know what else? They love each other. They need to feel secure. Do you know when a divorce happens, many times the children blame themselves? And you gotta, listen, I already told you, we adopted our children at three and five. You know what we did when we adopted them? I told them, Now their parents, they were terrible. Terrible. They were raising two hellions. I mean, Justin goes to the store and steals something at five years old and the police bring him back to the mission where they live. It was a terrible situation they were raising those kids in. They were at the mission. We got free donuts. So what did they have for breakfast? Three or four donuts for breakfast? You wanna start off the day with your kids bouncing off the ceiling? Give them three donuts in the morning. But that's how they started their day, every day. And they wonder what is wrong? Well, you're dumb. You know what we told them though? Your parents gave you to us because of how much they loved you. We told them they're doing such a bad job at parenting. that they thought the best thing to do was give you to us so that we could do everything we could to try to parent you right. We made sure they felt loved and that the decision was made on love, not abandonment. Reality, probably some abandonment, but it was a terrible situation. We did all the paperwork and they said, well, take the children today. And I had my own secretary. I took her over there. I did all the legal work. I just hired an attorney, paid him $500 for each child. He just stamped everything. I did all the work. I had all the papers done on a Saturday. Went over there, my secretary notarized everything over at their trailer they were living in. They said, want you to take the children today. I looked at him and said, no, we're not taking the children today. You have one week. You have seven days, Saturday to Saturday, to change your mind. If you do not change your mind, you call me. They called me. And we came and picked up those children, but I told them, I said, let me tell you something now. If you try anything, I am gonna fight you tooth and nail over these children. You have one week to change your mind. And that's what I told them. And they needed to give those children up because they ended up having another child. They asked me at 17 years old if I was interested in intervening with this child who was a drug addict and sodomite. She was a mess. Environment does affect children. But you can't cop out on that. I said, look, I am too old and I can't start over again with a 17-year-old that's got no upbringing at all. And I said, no. I had to. Regretfully. Children need to feel secure. You as a father, you as a mother need to be careful how secure your children feel. If they see If they see a situation where there's bitterness and animosity and hatred and all this stuff spewing out, they're not going to feel secure. And listen, grandparents, moms and dads of others that have children, you ought to tell your children the hard facts of life. Straighten up. You're affecting my grandchildren and I don't like it. You know what gives you the right to say it? Because you're the granddaddy of the grandmama. You go ahead and tell them. I know my dad wouldn't have any problems telling me what I needed to hear. Children need guided spiritually by word and by example. Not just your words, but by your example. Children need to be taught right from wrong. Children need their needs met. That includes the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. You know what the wife needs? She needs to know first and foremost that she's loved. I fail sometimes with my wife. I don't let her know how much I love her, but I'll tell you publicly, I love her. I appreciate her. I can't imagine my life without her, and there's not another woman on this earth that could live with me as long as she's lived with me. I've said that 20 times. I've said it here before. I mean that with all my heart. You women think that my feet don't stink. They do. Some people look at the preacher with these glassy eyes. Oh, boy, I bet. No, it ain't no bowl of cherries at home. I'm demanding. I'm hard sometimes, more than I should be. So don't get an unrealistic view of somebody in the pulpit and think somehow, and I know none of you do, so I guess I'm just preaching to the choir right now. We don't have one. But anyway, I just thought I'd say that. I don't know why. Maybe somebody in your church needed it, brother. All right. You know what else the wife needs? She needs to be nourished, cherished. She needs to be honored as the weaker vessel. She needs her physical, emotional, spiritual needs met. She needs to be provided for financially. You know, the people in this world would hear me say she's the weaker vessel and they go, you know, the women's liver. I ain't got no time for that. We will have a woman as president of this country. We will. Maybe very soon. you know, soon as the grandkids finally gather their mind together and get grandpa out of the race or out of the White House once he's in there. Women and men aren't the same. Thank the Lord. I'd hate to be married to me. And you women ought to hate to be married to yourself too because we each help each other out. That's how it's designed. It's designed so that we can help the other to become what they need to become for the Lord Jesus Christ. And listen, if we were both the same, can you imagine how boring in life it would be? Larry and Bill are up here working. Can you imagine if Bill was just like you, Larry? You gotta pick the people that you choose very carefully from these examples, but I was gonna say, Bill, can you imagine if Larry was just like you or you were just like him? They are. They both have pacemakers. And they both work really hard. I had to finally tell him to go home a couple times. I really appreciate it. You have no idea. where we're moving with this. We just need to be able to take care of people that are passing through and have a place for them to stay. Listen, I want a prophet's chamber. I want to be able to house people if there's an emergency or something and we can't do it if we can't have them have a shower no matter how big the sink is in the kitchen over there. It was suggested there was such a thing as a sponge bath for the missionaries. Still wearing that mask. I don't blame you. My breath gets to stinking after a while up here. One last person, the husband. You know what the husband needs? Judy, up here. Just kidding. The husband needs to be respected. Not big macho, but he needs to know that he's reverenced. That's what the Bible says. But listen, I'll admit most of us husbands don't bring that reverence and that respect on very easily. It's like the wife has to swallow her pride, her gumption, and everything about herself to put that out there. But if we do our part as husbands, as fathers, the home would be a little bit of heaven on earth. By the way, the church is supposed to be like that? I don't ever want to get... I mean, I wear a suit and tie, and it's because I have to, and I always will. Because I want people to know I take this pulpit seriously. However, I don't want some stuff shirt congregation to where you come in here and you're like, what's he gonna say today in a very negative way. Listen, I've been to church like that. If you're worried about what I'm gonna say, I just hope it's like today and not like, you know, who's he gonna bash today and how hateful is he gonna be from the pulpit and how's he gonna manipulate people and did he have a good morning, is he... Listen, it doesn't matter what kind of morning I have. It should not ever affect how I get in this pulpit. It should not affect how I treat you from the pulpit. Now, Try to respect the fact that I'm gonna be preaching and don't overwhelm me. I mean, listen, I take everything in, but I am getting old. So it's not as easy as it used to be to be able to take 47 things in, then get up and preach five minutes later. Let's limit it to three. Three, and that's it. Listen, I love you. I appreciate all you fathers, all you mothers. Listen, do right. You children, do right. Do right. And then when you look back five years from now, you can say, no regrets. No regrets. Let's all stand together. Let me pray, and again, it's an unusual time in our society. Invitations are weird. We just can't have a lot of people congregating. Not that you overwhelm my altar at any time, but just kidding. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your many blessings. Just pray, Lord, that you would help us to be better fathers, better mothers, better children to our mothers and fathers, better grandparents, better Christians, better husbands, better wives. Help us, Lord. We need you. We love you. We give you all the praise and glory and honor. In Jesus' name, for His sake, amen. Before we close,