I guess what I'd like to do, and
I feel led to do, and constrained to
do, because I am greatly impressed with the
home structure, but Dad, I am more impressed
with your leadership.
I really believe that as we're going to
leave here in a little while, we're going
back to various places and, and we're going
to be all moving back into different areas,
but probably the secret of that home, the
secret of that particular situation, the spiritual well
-being of your family will depend largely on
you, Dad, or it should if it doesn't.
And I just pray that God will help
us.
I don't think there's ever a time when
I get more excited when I'm asked to
speak to a men's group, because I think
that's the answer.
I believe when the man knows where he's
going, the wife will gladly follow along, and
the young people will go along if Dad
knows where he's going.
When Dad doesn't know where he's going, it's
another thing.
So I just ask that God would help
us here, and I'm going to pick up
a little bit of where we were this
morning, I'm going to keep on going, and
we will close, and it may be rather
abruptly, and it may not be maybe the
most logical place to close, but we'll close
when we have to close, and I know
about the time that we have to close,
because I have to speak at the Ebenezer
Baptist Church, I think, later.
But we'll have to do this.
But what I would like to say is,
men, don't get discouraged, and don't be too
weary.
Let's just determine by God's grace that we're
going to be spiritual men.
There are lots of spiritual women in the
world, and many a mom and many a
mother is leading the home which God never
ordained, and it may be the thing that's
keeping it together now, but that does not
mean we're living in a women's liberation movement,
when the women are becoming dominant, and they're
becoming aggressive, and they're asserting themselves, and doing
their own thing, and man is running scared,
and he is becoming more effeminate, and many
a men, they don't want to return home,
and he's losing, and one man said, I
have respect every place but at home.
Well, it's time that in the Christian circles,
God's chain of command has not changed.
It's still God, Christ, man, woman, that's the
way it is, that's the way it will
be.
I don't care how many ERA resolutions we
pass in the United States, and how much
we'd like to twist it around, it just
simply will not be.
God has given a man a position, he
should take it, he should hold it, he
should keep it.
I would just ask even here, for you
to listen to something that's nothing to do
with the spiritual, but I think it should
encourage some of the men to do something
about that which they can do, and I
believe it could help us if we would.
This was written by Joseph Prince Johnson, the
founder of the Alexander Hamilton Institute, and he
simply puts this question, the price of success.
Some of us as men, spiritually, the Apostle
Paul said, quit yourselves like men.
We have all kinds of spiritually effeminate men.
We don't need spiritually effeminate men.
I don't particularly care for a handshake of
a man who is rather effeminate.
He comes in, he shakes hands, you know,
and it's like a bowl of jelly, and
so forth.
There's something in it that gives you the
willies.
I don't know what there is about that,
but when you shake hands, it's like to
be a man's handshake, and put it there
and shake, you know, something of the kind.
Why, spiritually, we need some men who have
some muscle or strength and stamina, they know
what they believe, etc., etc., etc.
We'll go into that in a moment.
But even from a secular point of view,
and from a materialistic point of view, and
from a success point of view, we have
men here today who have varying degrees of
success, and it's rather interesting how we got
that way.
Some say, well, they got it from their
dad, gave it to them, and all that
kind of thing.
But let me just read this to you,
and then we will apply it to the
spiritual in a moment.
It says, the price of success.
He said, I often wonder what it is
that brings one man success in life, and
what it is that brings mediocrity or failure
to his brother.
The difference can't be mental capacity.
There is not the difference in our mentalities
indicated by the difference in our performance.
In short, I have reached the conclusion, he
declares, that some men succeed because they cheerfully
pay the price of success, and others, though
they may claim ambition and desire to succeed,
are unwilling to pay the price.
Isn't that what it is spiritually?
That very thing?
There are men here today, they said, would,
that we could be spiritual.
As Dr. Tolles used to say, you'll never
have what you wish to have, you'll have
what you want to have.
Because some people say, I wish I were
spiritual.
You'll never be spiritual until you want to
be spiritual.
Like the man says, he walks, he says,
I sure wish I had a car.
He never will have one if he wishes
for it.
If he wants one, he'll budget his time,
he'll work harder, he'll save, he'll stop spending
his money on gadgets, and he'll have it
there.
And one of these days, he'll have his
car, simply because he wants it.
And we wish things that we don't want.
We get what we want.
Basically, we have what we want.
If a man wants to be spiritual, he
can be spiritual because he's going to do
whatever has to be done to get spiritual.
If he wishes to be spiritual, he won't,
he'll just simply die wishing.
So he goes on and he makes his
conclusions.
He said, this is the price.
And the price is, here's the price for
a man who's going to succeed.
The price is to use all of your
courage to force yourself to concentrate on the
problem in hand and to think of it
deeply, constantly, and to study it from all
angles and to plan.
Sounds good, doesn't it?
Now notice, this is none of those spirituality,
but you're going to apply every one of
them.
Number two, to have a high sustained determination
to put over what you plan to accomplish.
Not if circumstances would be favorable to its
accomplishment, but in spite of all adverse circumstances,
which may arise, nothing worthwhile has ever been
accomplished without some obstacles having been overcome.
Amen.
There we are.
Number three, he said to refuse to believe
that there are any circumstances sufficiently strong enough
to defeat you in the accomplishment of your
purpose.
Beautiful.
Number four, hard, I shall say so.
That's why so many men never attempt to
acquire success and they answer the siren call
of the rut and remain on the beaten
paths that are for beaten men.
Nothing worthwhile has ever been achieved without constant
endeavor, some pain, constant application of the lash
of ambition.
That's the price of success as I see
it.
I believe every man should ask himself, am
I willing to endure the pain of this
struggle for the comforts and the rewards and
the glory that go with achievement?
Or shall I accept the uneasy and inadequate
contentment that comes with mediocrity?
Am I willing to pay the price of
success?
Oh Lord, help us.
What kind of a man do I want
to be?
What kind of a leader do I want
to be?
What kind of a father do I want
to be?
What kind of a husband do I want
to be?
What kind of a church leader do I
want to be?
What do I want to be?
Do I want to be one who just
simply finds himself moving along or do I
want to be one that God has given
and God will give all the way through
the scripture?
We see constantly a division of men.
It was rather interesting in the book of
Ezekiel chapter 22 verse 30.
It says, I sought for a man.
I sought for a man among them who
would build the wall and stand in the
breach before me and for the land that
I should not destroy it.
The rest of the verse declares that he
didn't find the man.
We're still looking for men.
We're looking for men for homes.
We're looking for men for fathers.
We're looking for men for husbands.
We're looking for men for leaders.
We're looking for men who know certain things.
It was rather interesting that Senator Carlson, and
I'm going to keep going here rather rapidly,
and I hope you don't mind because we
only got so much time.
He said this, and I think this is
just absolutely fascinating for what he said.
He said, the world today is looking for
men.
He said, he's looking for men who are
not for sale.
Men who are on a sound from center
to circumference, true to the heart's core, men
with consciences as steady as a needle to
the pole.
Men who will stand for right.
If heaven totters and the earth reels, men
who can tell the truth and look the
world right in the eye.
Men who neither brag nor run.
Men who neither flag nor flinch.
Men who can have courage without shouting it.
Men in whom the courage of everlasting life
runs still deep and strong.
Men who know their message and tell it.
Men who know their place and fill it.
Men who know their business and attend to
it.
Men who will not lie.
Men who will not jerk.
Men who will not dodge.
Men who are not too lazy to work.
Men who are not too proud to be
poor.
Men who are willing to eat what they
have earned and wear what they have paid
for.
Men who are not ashamed to say no
with emphasis.
Men who are not ashamed to say, I
can't afford it.
Amen.
We need men.
That's the kind of thing we need.
We need it in our churches.
We need it in our youth groups.
We need it in our leadership.
We need it in our board, our trustees,
our deacons, our whole realm, in our neighborhoods.
We need men who know what they believe
and stand for something and their family can
gravitate toward them as leadership ought to be
gravitated toward.
This is something that we have to have
and asking God that we can have and
that we will have.
And I believe God.
You say, well, there's always that area where
men will falter.
Yes, indeed.
Take your Bibles and turn to Judges chapter
seven.
We need to see here that God never
wants a man doing anything unless his heart
is totally in it and completely there.
And he has a strange way of separating
men out.
This is an old familiar story for you.
And I'm sure most of you are fully
aware of it, but I want you to
see it.
And we're going to, again, move here rather
quickly in Judges chapter seven.
We know that God has something to do
and his servant is the one who is
going to be used.
His servant has a whole group of men,
as you will see, and they're all gathered
together.
In fact, he has approximately 32,000 men.
They're all there.
And these men are going to do battle.
And the whole context is here.
We don't have time to go into that,
but 32,000 men are gathered together.
First two, the Lord said unto Gideon of
chapter seven of Judges, the Lord said unto
Gideon, the people are with thee are too
many for me to give the Midianites into
their hands.
Lest Israel want themselves against me saying my
hand has saved me.
Now, therefore go to proclaim in the ears
of the people saying, whosoever is fearful and
afraid, let him, what let him go home
or return and depart early from Mount Gilead.
And there returned of the people, 22,000
and there remain 10,000.
Amazing.
Isn't it?
They're already in the army.
They're there.
Only comes right down.
Do you have what it takes?
Can you go to battle?
Are you convinced that we're going to go
out there and we're going to do the
job we're going to get it done?
Or are you fearful?
And are you afraid?
He said 32,000.
He said, let's get rid of them this
way.
All of those who are fearful and afraid
go on home.
22,000 men backed away and said, we're
afraid.
Oh Lord, help us not to have that
type of fear here.
I pray with the Canadian revival fellowship and
those represented here from churches in the area
and all over the dominion of Canada, the
United States, that we can have men who
are going to be committed men, men who
know what they believe, why they believe it,
where they are, what they're going to do,
what they're going to stand for.
They can stand up and they can be
not ashamed of Jesus Christ.
And they know how to go as we'll
see here briefly, what this really means.
Well, they had 10,000 left and the
Lord looked down and he saw the 10
,000.
He said, these 10,000 are not fearful
and they're not afraid, but they've got another
problem.
They've got some appetites that aren't very good.
They just simply are not going to be
dependable because when it comes right into the
heat of the battle, then they're going to
cave in.
We have all kinds of problems in churches
today where you can get some people to
do some things, but when it comes right
down to committed, it's going to take time.
It's going to take work.
It's going to take struggle.
And there somehow or another, they dissipate and
you look and you wonder, this is why
basically I said the other night, this is
why pastors shouldn't be doing this, but they're
doing all the work around the buildings and
they're carrying chairs and they're doing this.
Not the pastors aren't good enough to do
this or too good to do this or
whatever the case may be.
It's just the fact that someone else should
be doing it.
But those who will do it are those
who don't say, well, if you ever need
me, call me.
It's the case that I'm here.
God's given me a gift and God given
me ability.
I want to be involved.
And I have had man after man, after
man in the coffee shop this morning at
the hotel and everything else, they said, we
want to get involved.
We feel absolutely useless the way we've been
sitting around for so long.
We just simply sit and everything is done
by somebody else.
And we feel there's a task for us
to get involved in.
And I agree, don't you?
There's something to be done.
We need to get this thing straightened out.
So the men of our congregations are more
than just resources for financial aid.
We must get ourselves really involved in the
whole thing.
Well, he went to Gideon and he said,
now, therefore, he says, go to proclaiming years
of the people saying, who's, whoever's fearful and
afraid you go on home.
Well, that time, 22,000 went home, 10
,000 were left.
And the Lord said, verse four to Gideon,
the people are still yet too many, bring
them down to the water and I will
try them for the there.
Oh, he says, I'm going to try them
for you, Gideon.
I'm going to get rid of some people
that you really shouldn't have because their hearts
aren't really content.
He says, go on down.
He said, they're thirsty.
Give them something to drink.
And he says, when they come down to
the water, he said, just keep an eye
on how they drink.
And so they've been out there a long
time.
They're all thirsty and they run down, they
see the water.
And some of them just simply went down.
They got right down on their knees and
they just started to drink right down, not
looking anywhere at all.
They're just simply looking and they're drinking in
the water and the appetite was there more
than anything else.
And yet there were a few who went
down to get the water and they got
their eyes open and they scooped the water
up in their hand and they left it.
He said, now I want you to do
something.
All of those who got down and put
their face into the water, he said, send
them home.
9,700 of them went home.
We've only got 300 left out of 32
,000.
32,000 men.
And we have a little handful of 300
who aren't fearful and they're not afraid.
And they're also not given over so that
they wouldn't be looking for the enemy.
Their, their, their bodily appetites were real and
they were hungry and thirsty, but there were
more concerned that they would be in a
position to watch for what is happening in
the enemy.
300.
And God works.
I pray God that he'll give us this
kind of man.
I think we have more probably than 300
men.
I would trust that every man here somehow
would resolve before God.
I will be that man who's going to
succeed spiritually.
I will be that man who knows his
message and will tell it and will stand
and will go forward.
I will ask God to give me a
new vision of my home, my wife, my
children, my sons, my daughters.
I will ask God to give me ability
so I can teach my family.
I sometimes think probably one of the greatest
things that could happen to the church would
be the best thing is to close all
Sunday schools and let the teaching be done.
When at home by, by the dad, that's
the way it should have been.
You know, Sunday schools aren't that old.
They got them all created here.
And sometimes we've made great things of them
and I'm not necessarily here to speak against
busting, but sometimes busting has its problems.
I think if dad ever met Jesus Christ,
then he could bust his own kids.
He could bust them home too, but somehow
we bust them in.
And sometimes there's great things you can do.
Well, we've got a great Sunday school and
we bust them in and so forth.
But my greater desire is that those who
are in the church would get the Bible
studies going and get mom and dad converted
and you'll have the whole family.
And isn't that right?
And if you get dad converted, it's not
too hard to get who?
To get mom and the children and you'll
have them all coming in and they'll be
in their car paying for their own gas
and seeing that they all get home.
And you'll be more than a babysitting girl.
And you say that, that may not go
over.
All right.
Busting has its place in some churches.
It's a very real thing and that's fine,
but that will never take the place of
getting that dad in his place.
Men, we need that place.
We need you in your place and we
have to work with you.
Then when that is taught to these children
in our Sunday schools and so forth that
we do teach them here, it ought to
only be supplemental to what dad's doing in
his home.
What dad is doing every day, what dad's
doing line upon line, precept upon precept here,
a little there, a little, and when I'll
rise up and when I'll sit us down
and when I walk us in the house,
the whole thing, these things you'll be in
your heart, dad, and you'll teach them diligently
under your children and they shall know them.
They will understand these things.
It's all going to come.
Dad, just here, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad,
dad, dad.
And yet there are men probably seated here
today.
You can't remember the last time you ever
got your family together to pray with them
other than the grace at the table.
You say, is this the last message?
This is the last one.
But it's the one I think that got
laid on my heart.
Fellas, you're going to go.
This has been good.
This has been wonderful.
This has been beautiful, but it won't be
long.
You're going to be home.
Tomorrow's Monday.
And somehow or another, the whole responsibility is
going to be right back on you.
Oh, that God would help you.
Turn with me to Proverbs chapter four, would
you please?
Proverbs chapter four.
Oh, let every son be able to say
this.
Let this come through.
Look at this.
May every son and every daughter be able
to say exactly what was said here.
Just beautiful.
Chapter four of the book of Proverbs, hear
ye children, the instruction of who a Sunday
school teacher, a youth leader.
Oh, you say that's good.
Yes, that's good.
We're thankful for it, but that will never
take the place of this.
Christian school will never take the place of
this.
And, and, and those others around you who
are, thank God for all that's being done,
but basically where is it to be done?
Note verse one, chapter four, here you children,
the instruction of a father and attend to
no understanding for I give you what folks,
anyone, I give you good doctrine.
Who does the father?
I give you good doctrine.
I give you the doctrine.
I had a young lady come into the
office, the most mixed up little girl, sexually,
I think I've ever talked to.
And I can't even start to share with
you.
You absolutely would shudder.
If I told you what a 13 year
old girl has been through.
And I said, honey, is your daddy ever
talked with you?
She said, my daddy has never told me
one thing of how to live morally.
In fact, it goes on to say, and
I don't know the dad, but he even
has mutilated his own daughter.
We wonder why our world is so mixed
up.
We wonder why our kids are so mixed
up.
We wonder why they're going to drugs.
We wonder why they're going haywire.
We wonder why the suicide rate is higher
than a teenager that's ever been in history.
These kids don't know which way to turn
because we lost the foundation of the home
and the home can't be a home without
dad.
And dad can't hold his place mom until
you help him to hold it.
And I would pray that every mother and
every wife here today would resolve before God
almighty, before you go out of this place,
by God's grace, I'm going to help my
husband.
I'm going to help him as I've never
helped him to before to assume his God
-given responsibility.
And at home moms, you'll never do what
God ordained dad to do.
You can't, you won't, it will not be.
You need that role that's given to that
man.
He is to be again, as I mentioned
to that home and to that wife, what
Christ is to the church and consequently to
that, to those children.
You teach your children.
You say, I don't know anything to teach
them.
Then learn it.
I don't know how to teach them anything.
Then study it yourself.
It's going to take some of your extra
time.
The TV is going to go off and
you're extra and you're bowling and you're curling.
And some of these things that you're doing
and some of the gadgets, sometimes we get
involved in and going out with the boys.
You might find yourself taking one night alone
in your own home, digging into the word
of God so that you have something to
share with your own children.
You say, well, I just don't even think
I can get that interested in it.
I know that's where we're back to the
price of success.
Let's ask ourselves, how much do I desire
to be a God, a God, a godly
father as God ordained the task that he
gave me the position he gave me.
That's what I'm concerned about.
Somehow or another that says, oh, I went
back to my hotel.
I asked God, your God, there's so many
things we could say.
What do you want to seem to come
back to me?
The man, the man, the man, the man,
the man.
It may be that we'll never meet like
this again.
It may be as we have in Jamaica,
the churches could be closing.
And when the United States, we could soon
see the churches closed and we could have
something happen.
We may not even be able to meet
collectively who should be the spiritual leader of
that little home.
Who dad, he should be able to take
the word of God and get his wife
and little family around him and said, this
is God's word.
And he had there, he should be able
to open this up.
And he says to this one, as he
said, he said, I give you good doctor
and forsake you, not my law.
And look at this in verse three.
I was my father's son, tender and only
beloved in the sight of my mother.
He taught me also.
Dad taught me and said unto me, let
thine heart retain my words.
Oh, may every son and every daughter have
the privilege of retaining the words of dad
on how to live and how to dress
and how to act and how to behave
and how to court and how to, to,
to choose a marriage partner.
And so all of this should come.
And how many fathers never talk to their
daughters?
I even have them come in for marriage
and I sit down and I said, how
many of you have had your mom and
dad talk to you about the things of
life and how to establish a home and
so forth.
And some of them absolutely say, no, they've
never discussed the word here.
There's that daughter, that son going out and
making one of the second greatest choices of
life, Jesus Christ first in marriage and choice
of a partner.
And we wonder why in the United States,
one of the very two homes going into
divorce, I have young people come in and
say, I said, what if this doesn't work
out?
What are you going to do?
We'll divorce and try again.
Where should all this have been taught or
should they get it?
You can't get it from all the family
and hee-haw and some of these things.
You'll get everything just the contrary.
You'll get it torn down.
How long dads have been since you've taken
time with your family to sit down and
have a serious discussion on the things of
God, on morality, on the things that ought
to be, on the kind of a daughter
and the kind of a son.
How long has it been since you and
your wife have ever got on your knees
before God and said, Oh God, what kind
of children do you really want us to
have?
What kind of children should we teach them?
You say, well, I go to church.
Church is fine.
I give.
That's fine.
But what is it that we need?
That home responsibility is basically dad's responsibility.
That's why I'm back to this.
I have this come to me constantly.
Probably nine out of every 10 women who
come said, he just does not lead spiritually.
You can't nag him and you can't push
him.
You can't make him be spiritual.
Dad, this is something that you shouldn't have.
Your wife pushed you and nagged you and
try to coerce you to do this.
Why don't you read with us?
Why don't you pray with us?
Why don't you go to church?
Come on.
Why don't you go?
Oh, they're leaving me alone.
You go ahead and go, go ahead and
go.
And it goes on and on and on.
And you go, I'll go some other time
and so forth.
That's leadership.
No, your friend that home is need needing
a dad who knows what he believes, knows
where he stands, knows where he's going and
can say to wife and children with confidence,
follow me.
I will teach you good doctrine.
I will show you the way to go.
He said, he taught me also.
And he said unto me, let thy heart
retain my words, keep my commandments.
And he said to me, get wisdom, get
understanding, forget it, not neither decline from her
words, from the words of my mouth, forsake
her, not she shall preserve the love of
her.
And she shall keep the wisdom is the
principal thing.
Therefore I get wisdom and with all my
getting, get understanding.
Oh, it's fantastic.
Turn with me to job 28.
Just a moment.
Would you please job 28?
Just, just fantastic.
Uh, what this is.
And I know we're going to go just
as quickly as we can just take a
look at this.
And you wonder what this is all about.
He's looking for wisdom, verse 12 of job
28.
He says, where shall wisdom be found?
Where is the place of understanding?
They can't find how it goes.
It says, man knows not the price thereof,
neither is it found in the land of
the living.
And it goes on down.
The depth says it's not in me.
The C says, it's not in me.
It cannot be gotten for gold.
It is above the price of silver.
It cannot be valued with gold or for
precious Onyx Sapphire, gold and crystal cannot equal
it.
The exchange of it cannot be for jewels.
No mention shall be made of coral pearls.
The price of wisdom is above rubies.
Topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it.
Neither shall it be valued with the pure
gold.
When send come with wisdom, where is the
place of understanding?
Seeing it as hit from the eyes of
all living, kept from the fowls of the
air, destruction and death.
Say we have heard of the fame thereof.
We can't find it.
God understands the way thereof.
Yes, he does.
He knows the place thereof for he looks
to the ends of the earth and he
sees under the whole heaven and to make
the weight for the winds.
And he wears the waters by measure when
he made a decree for the rain and
a way of the lightning and thunder.
Then did he see it and declared it.
He prepared it.
Yay.
And searched it out and under man.
He says, let's read it together.
Behold the fear of the Lord.
That is wisdom.
And to depart from evil is understanding.
Oh, you say, I didn't know wisdom was
so valuable.
I didn't know understanding was so valuable.
You mean it's worth more than all my
jewelry.
You mean it's more worth more than all
my gold.
And ladies can get an awful lot of
rings on their hands today.
They got them on every finger and I
don't know how they do any work, but
they have them all in their fingers.
And you see this, it's just jewels and
gold and silver and all this.
We think it's real precious.
He said, look, wisdom and understanding are far
above all of them.
You can't even be equal with topaz and
Sapphire and onyx and coral and Pearl and
gold and silver.
None of these things are even equal to
it.
It's above that.
And what is wisdom?
The fear of the Lord.
Dad, how long has it been since you've
talked to your son or daughter about the
fear of the Lord?
How long have you ever sat down?
How many of your children could write out
the 10 commandments?
How long has it been since we've taken
them to Exodus 20?
How long has it been since we've talked
to morals of upon this?
I go into high schools and so forth.
And it's amazing.
The questions are asking me what's wrong with
premarital sex.
It's wonderful to take them right to the
word of God and said, that says the
Lord.
And they just look at me and start
to laugh.
You said, you don't believe that Bible, do
you?
I said, yes, I happen to believe it.
And that's what I stand.
And you'll believe it too.
Someday it'll be too late.
I said, there'll be the day that you'll
actually stand before God and give an account.
And they just laugh.
And I said, when the graves are opening
and you're coming out, I'll see you.
And I won't say I told you so,
but you're going to come.
Hmm.
Doesn't make a bit of difference if you
don't believe it's going to happen.
Like the man who says, I don't believe
in gravity.
He steps out of the fourth floor.
He wants to go to the seventh.
It just doesn't work.
I don't care whether he believes it or
not.
It doesn't work.
He's out of the fourth and he sees
three, two, one.
And that's all there is to it.
God's word is still true.
The robber comes in.
He walks into the man's bedroom and he's
got a 38 on the man.
And so the man in the bed gets
out and get the 38.
He points it at the robber and the
robber says, I don't believe in 38.
So he puts it away and says, go
ahead and rob me.
No, he pulled the trigger and makes a
believer out of him.
It's just, it's just the way it works.
Dad, you need to talk to your son
and your daughter.
He said, well, everybody's doing it.
Not everybody.
You're not.
That's what my dad used to say.
I used to go, well, dad, everybody's going.
Well, no, they aren't.
You aren't.
Dad, you need to take that.
Your son and your daughter will be delighted
if you'll take a stand and not be
a tyrant, not be a Lord in love.
You just simply do that.
Some of the greatest memories I've got over
my dad.
My dad didn't always walk the way he
should have, but I thank God for him.
He got us together in his family.
He talked with us.
We brought him to feel before we plant
a crop.
He'd get the five boys together.
We'd get on our knees and pray, dedicated
to God said, Lord, we're going to give
you a tithe of this.
Sometimes we had crops.
Well, no one had crops in there.
My dad taught us this just in everyday
life.
He taught us what we should do and
how God does work.
It's all there.
Turn to Psalm 78 and you see it
all better than I can tell you.
It's absolutely beautiful.
And I would just hope every dad would
just find time to study Psalm 78.
If you'll study it, it'll help you to
be the dad that you ought to be.
And then your wife will be delighted and
your children will look to you and they'll
be absolutely elated.
My dad, he's a great man.
He loves the Lord.
He knows what he's doing, where he's going.
Listen to this.
Psalm 78 says, give ear all my people
to my law, incline your ears to the
word of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable.
I will utter a dark thing of old.
We have heard and known.
And our fathers have told us, our fathers
have told us, get this.
And we'll just take a moment here.
We will not hide them from their children.
Every dad ought to be the one to
sit down and he ought to share with
his son and his daughter.
This is what God, this is what we
needed.
This is how God answered the prayer.
Here's the way we pray.
This is what God did.
What does that do?
That builds up.
We have generations today actually being raised.
You don't even know what God does in
Christian homes because we have the finance company.
We have everything else.
We don't go to God.
We go to everyone else.
Psalm 78 says, give ear all my people
to my law, incline your ears to the
word of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable.
I will utter a dark thing of old.
We have heard and known.
And our fathers have told us, our fathers
have told us, get this.
And we'll just take a moment here.
We will not hide them from their children.
Every dad ought to be the one to
sit down and he ought to share with
his son and his daughter.
This is what God, this is what we
needed.
This is how God answered the prayer.
Here's the way we pray.
This is what God did.
What does that do?
That builds up.
We have generations today actually being raised.
You don't even know what God does in
Christian homes because we have the finance company.
We have everything else.
We don't go to God.
We go to everyone else.
It happens.
How long has it been since you've gotten
your family together and got your children together
and said, we have a need kids.
What are you doing with your mom and
myself?
And let's get down and ask God.
And then when God answers the praise of
the Lord, look what the God, look what
the Lord did.
Beautiful.
And those children, Oh, God answers prayer.
Then when they get married and they go
through that problem, they'll say, Hey, I remember
when mom and dad, we trusted God and
we got down on our knees and God
answered there.
The average young person today getting married.
They don't know what God will do because
they haven't seen it at all.
The only thing I know, the mom and
dad maybe didn't have the happiest life together.
And I won't tell you all you hear
about that.
What happens here?
Note this carefully.
It says, we will not hide them from
their children.
Why?
Look at this.
Verse four is beautiful.
Underline study it out, dad.
I think it'll help you.
It's beautiful.
We will not hide them from their children,
showing to the generation to come the praises
of the Lord, the strength of the Lord
and the wonderful works of the Lord.
That's what it means.
I will show to my children so they
can show to their children that God is
mighty.
He's strong.
He's wonderful.
He hears in the answers.
Who should share that with your children?
Dad, you should, so that your grandkids come
back and say, you know what daddy and
mommy told me when they were little children,
this is what God did.
Dad, that's through you.
That ought to be the joy of your
heart.
Go a little bit further.
He says, for he established the testimony in
Jacob.
He appointed a law in Israel when he
commanded our fathers that they should make them
known.
No, he commanded the fathers.
He commanded them.
He commanded the fathers that they should make
them known to their children.
Dad, take time with your kids.
You can send them off to the hockey
rink.
You can send them off to boys, brigades
and private girls and whirlybirds and everything.
We got all kinds of things going on.
We can send them off and off and
off, but there's no one can take the
place when you sit down, dad and say,
kids, let me show you what, and, and,
and, and just give you something that God
has made real to your dad.
This is beautiful.
That will mean more to them than a
hundred teachers.
In fact, it even says that in the
scripture spiritually of 10,000 instructors, but not
many fathers.
You need that one dad who's going to
sit down and say, this is the thing
that God has helped me with.
Let me share it with you, but notice,
no, why it should be.
And we're only a generation away from this.
And I think we can actually see it
with our youth problem today.
Verse six goes further.
He said, you should make them known to
your children.
Matter part of verse five or six.
Why that the generation to come might know
them, even the children, which should be born,
who should arise and declare them to, to
their children.
Why would you read the next point, please?
That they might set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God, but
keep his commandments.
That's exactly why dad, you can share it
with your son and your daughter, and they
can share it with their children and they
can share it with their children yet unborn.
And you can affect your great grandchildren.
And that's why it says that the iniquities
of the visits the second, third and fourth
generations, but the blessing of the fathers can
come to the second, third and fourth generations,
right?
The greatest gift I can give to my
great grandchildren will not be my stock securities,
bonds, houses, and all that kind of thing.
It will be what I gave to my
son so that they can give to your
children and they can give it to their
children's children.
And that will be that they can be
inclined to set their heart on God and
be steadfast in the Lord.
Dad, that's a responsibility of you to see
if your home has that kind of an
atmosphere.
And you say, well, I give them a
nice home.
I give them a nice bed, beautiful furniture.
We have carpets.
We have China.
We have TV in every room and telephone.
We've got new cars, two of them.
We have everything.
But I say, go back and look over
the spiritual apparatus that you have.
What do you have?
If you had to write down everything spiritual
that you have in your home, how big
of a list would it be?
It wouldn't take very much paper.
I try to get them into church and
encourage them to go to their youth activities.
I don't get to pray very often with
them, or we try to have blessing at
the table.
When it comes right down to it, I
really don't have a plan.
And I don't have any real course of
action that I take.
I guess if I happen to get a
chance, I'll do something about it.
Dad, rethink this.
Canadian Revival Fellowship, if it's going to be
anointed of God, is not going to only
affect the collective gathering.
It's going to affect every home represented.
That's right.
That is if it's of God.
And I believe it is.
And I think these homes are affected of
God.
I believe they are.
We're going to have men fall because they're
afraid, men who are fearful, men who've got
other desires far greater than God.
But oh, we come back and say, dear
God, help me to share with my children.
I want to close with this.
If you'll turn with me to Chronicles 28,
I want you to note it, look it
over, and it should be the desire.
I never will forget.
I sat in a Bible study and my
heart just kind of ached as I watched
this.
And I asked, I said, if you would
ask your children tonight, and I'll give you
all a piece of paper, and your child
is asked one question, write down the God
of Dad, what would they write?
And a man was sitting right next to
me and he said just this, oh God,
he said, my child or my children would
write medicine.
He's a medical doctor, three medical doctors in
that place.
But he looked at me, he said, oh
God, my children would write medicine.
It wasn't six to eight weeks after that,
but that man was found dead in his
own driveway.
I never will forget.
Medicine was his God.
I don't know what your God is.
It could be sports, could be any number
of things.
I wonder how many tonight whose children would
say without a question, my God's dad would
be the Lord Jesus Christ.
No questions.
Wouldn't be a car, wouldn't be your job,
wouldn't be your career, wouldn't be all your
aspirations, wouldn't be climbing up the company ladder,
he wouldn't be trying to get the bigger
house, he wouldn't be golf, he wouldn't be
sports, he wouldn't be any of these things.
You may have these things, but your children
would immediately know, my God's dad, the one
who holds the greatest devotion and place in
his life, the one that just holds his
life and runs him and controls him, the
God who is over him, is none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ.
I hope that your children would write that
in.
David said this to his son Solomon.
David heard, oh he learned it the hard
way.
Note what he says in 1 Chronicles 28,
we'll just look at it and we'll close.
1 Chronicles 28, verse 9, he wanted to
do so many things for the Lord that
he couldn't do, but he said his son
was going to do them.
And he said here in verse 9, and
thou Solomon my son, and every time I
read it something inside happens.
What a beautiful statement.
And you can turn to your son, and
now Jack, Bill, John, George, whatever your son's
name is, put this in there.
And thou, my son, know thou the God
of thy father.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to say that?
Know the God of your dad.
Son, I want you to know my God.
He looks back and he says, Dad, I've
watched you.
My heart delights to hear Tom down here,
the greatest man he respects, if you write
it down.
I know who he put down.
It's his dad, his dad.
Father came to me the other day, tears
started streaming down his face, and he said,
you know what happened to me?
I said, no, he said, my son's getting
married.
And he said, I said, you know, we
had discussed it, and he said, you got
everybody arranged, but he said, who's your best
man?
He said, Dad, you.
I said, now stop fooling me.
Who's your best man?
He said, Dad, you, you're my best man.
I want you to stand up to us.
He said, I don't know of anyone else
I'd want to have other than my best
man and my dad.
And the fellow started to weep.
He's an insurance broker.
And he said, did you ever hear a
greater compliment all your life?
My son wants his dad to be his
best man at his wedding.
I thought that was great.
Don't you?
I never heard that before.
I said, what are you going to do?
He said, I'm going to be in his
wedding.
Just think of that.
A son who wants his dad is his
best man in his wedding.
That didn't just happen, did it?
No.
And I happen to know the insurance broker
and I know what has happened.
I know the life that he's lived before
those kids.
And I know the walk that's been so
beautiful.
The man has a beautiful testimony, but in
his wedding, he said, I want my dad
to be my best man.
Know thou the God of your father.
Oh, Solomon.
He says, know the God of your father.
Look what it says.
There's three things it says here.
Know the God of your father.
And he says, I want to challenge you,
Solomon.
What should you do?
Serve him with what?
Do you think he learned that the hard
way?
Solomon, I know this God.
I know him.
You better serve him with a perfect heart
because I recall what it means to create
within me a clean heart.
Oh God, if you only knew Solomon, all
the backgrounds that I know, don't try to
serve God with a divided heart.
Serve him with a perfect heart.
He knew he's challenging his son.
Serve him with a perfect heart.
He says further, Solomon, I want you to
serve him with a willing mind.
And he says further, I want you to
know God searches the hearts.
Solomon further.
I want you to know he searches the
understanding and all the imaginations of the thoughts.
Solomon, if you'll seek him, this is your
dad speaking.
Listen to me.
If you'll seek him, he will be found
of the, if you forsake him, he will
cast you off Solomon.
Take heed now for the Lord's got something
for your son.
He's chosen your son.
He's got something for you to build.
He's got something for you to do.
He's got something he wants to have accomplished.
Oh, my son be strong and do it.
But then he doesn't stop.
Go down to verse 11.
Then David gave to Solomon, his son, the
pattern of the thing that he wanted built.
And every dad ought to be able to
sit down with his family and give his
sons and daughters the pattern of the thing
that God wishes to accomplish through them.
And to hear my son, this is exactly
what God would have us to do.
And the whole thing is beautiful.
It's fantastic.
Verse 20, time doesn't permit.
We can stay here the rest of the
evening.
Verse 20, it says, David said to Solomon,
his son, be strong and of good courage
and do it.
Fear not.
Don't be dismayed son for the Lord.
Thy God, even my God will be with
me.
Note that you see how he encourages him.
He was with me, Solomon.
He will be with you.
He will not fail you.
He will not forsake you until you finish
all the work of the service of the
house of the Lord.
And then he goes down and he challenges
the rest of them.
He said, take care of my son.
He's young and tender and beloved.
And so it's the dad who is now
pleading with his son.
Oh my God, serve him, walk with him,
do it with a perfect heart, a willing
mind and let the imaginations be.
God knows those two don't turn right or
left.
Solomon, do what dad has for you to
do.
I think that's fantastic.
God gives us these kind of dads.
And you'll have wives who'll look up and
say, thank you, dear God, for a husband.
And you'll have your children.
They'll come and they'll say, Oh dad, one
young man came up here this morning to
me.
He says, my mom and dad are just
exactly what you were talking about this morning.
And he said, I just love them.
I said, go home and tell them that
you do and you appreciate them.
What a difference it would make.
Oh dad, you're going to be driving the
car before long.
You're going to be on your highway.
You're going to be on your way home.
I wonder just before we go, if somehow
the dads could ask God to know, by
your grace, dear God, give me the strength,
take out the bitterness, take out the idols,
take out the world, take out the sin,
take out the weight.
Oh God, that does so easy beset me.
You know, the things I do, you know,
where I'm going, what I'm doing, my literature,
you know, the filter, right?
You know what's in there.
Oh God, why I can't talk to my
son.
You know, I don't have moral freedom.
You know, I don't have a clear conscience
myself, and I can't tell my son something
that I can't tell myself.
Oh God, I have to keep busy.
I've got to have three jobs.
I can't go away.
I got to stay away from the family
because I just am not in a place
personally where I can actually go and honestly
and transparently and say, son, your dad loves
you.
And I want you to know my God,
you can know, okay, where you are, it's
where you can be.
Amen.
We can have it happen.
You can cry with David.
He learned the hard way, create within me
a clean heart.
Oh God, that lustful mind that he had.
He cried, create within me a clean heart.
Oh God, renew within me a right spirit.
Oh God, don't take your spirit from me.
Oh, restore the joy to me once again,
dear Lord, that I have known.
That's the same one who says, Solomon, my
son, know the God of your dad.
He said, it's too hard, Pastor Valentine.
Then perhaps you are to be a beaten
man on a beaten path because you're not
willing to pay the price for spiritual success.
I don't know.
Paul said, I beat my body black and
blue.
I bring my body under lust after I've
preached to others, I myself become a castaway.
Oh, come back.
And now Paul says, I beseech you by
the mercy of God, give your body, give
your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
then so that you can know what is
that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God through a renewed mind, not being conformed
to the world, but transformed and conformed to
the very image of Christ.
Dad, we love you.
You say this is a little hard to
close this way.
I believe God wants it this way.
And I believe God's going to help you,
dad.
And I'm going to ask every wife to
do something in a moment.
I'm going to ask you somehow to make
a new covenant with God, such as you've
never done before, that God is going to
do something between the two of you in
your home.
I wonder if we could have all the
men of our congregation stand.
Would you stand, please?
Just the men.
Isn't this wonderful?
Perhaps you've been a dad, perhaps you're a
grandfather, perhaps you're not even married, but somehow
or another, here's the potential.
Here is, here is what God says is
a spiritual leadership right here.
Here it is.
All you fellas, too.
We want all the males to stand.
I don't care whether you qualify or not
or however, just stand.
We want all the males to stand.
Here's the male leadership.
Here's the potential that's soon going to disband
from this place and you're going to go
all over the area.
You are God's chosen instrument to be the
head of your home.
Whether you qualify is not the question.
That's what God wants for you.
I only pray that somehow God will give
you a challenge that by his grace, regardless
of the obstacles, regardless of how awkward, how
difficult, how far away from God you may
be at this moment, by God's grace, I
will set my face like a flint and
I'll head towards that place and I can
be in my home whether it's future or
even whether it's past or present.
By God's grace, I want to be the
man that God ordained me to be when
he created the male and that he's to
be to that home and to that wife
and to those children what Jesus Christ is.
God bless you men.
God help you men.
God work in you men.
Just don't take no for an answer.
Somewhere get a loan, clean it all up.
Let me encourage you that whatever's in there
that may have to come out, God says,
my little children, if you confess it, I'll
forgive it.
He says, confess your sins and I'll be
faithful and just to forgive you.
You haven't done a thing, committed a thing,
or involved in anything, you may be amazed.
You may have to go home and get
rid of some of your literature, probably amazed
at some of the pictures and magazines.
One man just died, his daughter, supposed to
be a godly man.
She said, pastor, I went into his closet
and mother wasn't even there and I found
the lewdest bunch of pornography and all kinds
of homosexual pictures.
She came to me, she's sweet.
She says, I got them out.
She says, my mother would absolutely die.
She said, any idea that those things were
in there?
And she said, my father wrote articles for
many of the major publications.
If I were to name the man, you
would know it just like that.
Is it any wonder that I'm counseling now
with her mother?
Is it any wonder that her, this girl
has been so mixed up and she's had
a struggle with God because somehow that dad
just never was quite right and she views
her heavenly father just like she views her
earthly father and we've dealt with her now
over a period of weeks and she's finally
coming through and she comes through and now
there's a joy and a victory because she
realizes that God is an immutably holy proper
right good God and she doesn't have to
equate him with her earthly father.
But how much easier it would have been
for her had the earthly father walked the
life that he should have and it would
have made it so much easier for her
to relate to heavenly father.
So whatever has to be done, fellas, do
it.
I don't care what it is.
You may have to make restitution, you may
have to change, you may have to be
more prompt, you may have to be more
punctual, you may have to get up early
in the morning, you may have to change
priorities, you may have to change anything, whatever
has to change for you to be the
spiritual man that God wants you to be,
it'll be worth it.
And someday you'll stand before God and you'll
bless God that you've made that choice of
that which has value.
And then we could have these dear ladies,
they may be your wife or maybe your
daughter, maybe some members of your family, but
they would be able to actually then back
you up and say, by God's grace, I'll
help you to be what I believe God
would have you to be.
And you ask me to assist you any
way you can, honey, and I'll try to
be a helper.
I want to be a help adapted to
you so that together we can see God's
will in our life and in our children
and someday in heaven we'll all be there
together and there won't be one member missing.
Ladies, would you stand beside these men wherever
you are?
All the ladies stand, would you do that?
And again, I'm going to ask if they'd
be mom and dad just kind of reach
over and get each other's hand if you
want.
Let's bow our head, we're going to pray.
We just pray that somehow or another there'll
be a new knittedness of that family and
you would recognize, dear lady, that that man
is God's vessel and he needs your help,
your prayer, your encouragement.
Don't nag him, don't push him, don't try
to coerce him to do anything, just simply
pray for him and that that man will
somehow find himself as the man who will
stand in the gap and he will be
the one chosen of God to make that
home wall of yours complete.
And he can reach out and take the
hand of a wife and his sons, his
daughters, his family, maybe his grandchildren, whatever, and
he can be the one to stand before
God and intercede and be that leader that
will help not only in time but on
into eternity.
And with our heads bowed and our eyes
closed, I would just ask as we close
this service that you would just simply put
this all before the Lord.
God sees your heart, God knows what you're
thinking now, God knows what's in there.
God knows what has to go.
And again with Samuel of old, if you'll
just simply have that prayer and attitude speak,
Lord.
This is one man who's going to hear,
I'm a young man, I'm not even married,
but God speak to me.
I'm married and I have a wife, dear
God, speak to me.
I'm a grandfather but oh God, speak to
me.
I want to be the leader that you
want me to be.
Did we leave this place?
I want our home to be just a
little revival.
I want our home to be just a
little citadel of joy and I want our
home to be that God-given little area
that God is going to use.
Oh God, now our Father, we bow before
you and we pray, Holy Spirit, as you
have been in this meeting and all these
meetings beautifully working, we pray that you'll just
settle down over every one of these men.
Oh God, we pray that you'll just somehow
give that man a new glimpse of yourself,
your power, your will, your purpose, and that
dad somehow would get a new grasp and
that son and that grandfather and or uncle,
whatever the case may be here now, they
will just somehow feel the surge of your
power and your strength that you don't will
us to be anything that you won't give
us wherewithal to become and we'll stop wishing
to be and we'll desire from this moment
on.
Oh God, as John 7, 17 says, if
any man will to do his will, he
shall know, and dear God, today in these
closing hours of this closing service, I will
to do your will in any capacity that
I know it in.
Whether I be a husband, a wife, a
son, a daughter, a grandparent, I will to
do your will and I want to be
able to say to those of my household,
know my God and serve him with a
perfect heart and with a willing mind.
No, my God, our father, let it be.
We pray that you'll wash us and you'll
cleanse us from everything that's foreign, everything that's
offensive, everything that's vain, everything that's sinful, everything
that's black, everything that's dark and alien to
the very perfect will of yourself.
Father, we pray that you will wash us
and we cry with David, create us within
his clean hearts.
Oh God, renew within us, oh God, a
right spirit.
Don't take your Holy spirit, but father God,
take out the sin and give us more
of your spirit and then give us the
joy of your salvation and help us.
Oh father, that we might walk circumspectly, not
as fools, but wise, understanding what the will
of the Lord is and help us now,
Lord, where these things have been taken out
to be filled with the spirit.
Oh God, come and anoint us with fresh
oil tonight.
As we go, give us that fresh oil
and granted that dear wife standing beside her
husband will find a new humility before God
that though we're living in a world father,
when women's live is seemingly surfacing and there's
somehow contempt for the men and for their
husbands.
Oh God, give a new love for that
husband right now.
And the wife give her a new love,
give her a new understanding that he can't
be what God wants him to be until
I am what God wants me to be
as well.
And together, we're going to seek to know
his will.
Let it be Lord and pray and grant
that together.
Oh God, these couples might leave this place
with just a new awareness of God's work.
And we might hear of revivals going on
everywhere and homes literally changed and transformed because
God is a new in our hearts and
in our leadership.
Oh Holy Spirit, let it be.
We thank you for doing it and we
pray that you'll continue to work in us.
And may if we have another time in
Winnipeg another year, we can have those who
will stand and say, Oh God transformed our
home and it's been a different year.
And we'll give you all the praise, all
the glory in Jesus' sweet name.
Amen.