Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons.
Each week we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith, and powerful sermons from modern preachers
too.
This week we have William Blackburn with this
message, God's Plan for the Family.
One out of every two marriages end in
divorce.
In 1960 it was one out of ten
marriages ended in divorce, in 1860 it was
one out of 36.
There are 30 million children in America living
in a single parent home.
There are two and a half million people
living in marriage that would be literally hell
on earth.
Husbands and wives are cheating on each other
with adultery, wife swapping, and all kinds of
sexual sins.
10% of our population is homosexual.
Child abuse is a national problem.
Last year 50 million people fell victim to
a beating by somebody in their own family.
Parents are abusing children, children are abusing parents,
young people are abusing older people.
The world is in a mess.
A 13-year-old teenager, by the time
he's 13, has witnessed 13,000 murders on
television.
Children are running away from home at astronomical
figures.
60% of all the drugs sold in
the world are sold in the United States
of America.
In America, $220 million is spent every single
day on illegal drugs.
$65 billion, fellas, that's with a B, $65
billion is spent on drug-related law enforcement
each year.
One million teenagers get pregnant every year.
50% of all high school seniors get
drunk once a month.
500,000 teenagers run away from home each
year.
Our families are in a mess.
Our country is in a mess.
And the Bible says it doesn't have to
be that way because Jesus Christ said there
are two kinds of homes.
There's a man who is a wise man.
He goes out and he builds his home
on the rock.
That is, he builds it on the Word
of God.
He builds it on the Lord Jesus Christ.
If he will build that home on the
power of God, on the Word of God,
the Bible says when the wind blows and
the rain falls, it will stand because it
is built on the rock.
But the Bible says there's another kind of
house, another kind of home.
It is built by a foolish man.
It is built by a man and he
builds his home on temporal things, on temporal
values.
No God, no Holy Spirit, no Word of
God, and the Bible says this man is
foolish because he may have a big fancy
house, he may have a big job, he
may think he's doing well, but because his
house is built on the sand, when the
rain comes, when the wind comes, the Bible
says that home will fail and great will
be its fall.
Friend, the problem we have across America is
our families are falling apart.
Our homes are disintegrating before our very eyes.
And I want to tell you, friends, that
is not God's plan.
God loves the home.
Before the church, before government, before any other
organization, God created the home.
But there are a lot of enemies out
there against the home.
The devil is fighting against the home.
The devil is fighting against good godly homes.
And the first enemy we have of the
home is alcohol.
I want to tell you, dear friends, that
is a tool of the devil.
In the Arkansas Baptist homes, 83% of
all the children that are in the Arkansas
Baptist home are there because of alcohol, either
in their own lives or in the lives
of their family.
Alcohol is destroying the world.
It is a tool of the devil.
Sir, don't come to me and talk about
social drinking.
Don't talk to me about drinking in moderation.
I hate alcohol.
I hate the work of the devil.
And I want to tell you, friends, I
will fight against it.
Alcohol is the great destroyer.
I have seen it destroy lives.
I have been to the gospel rescue mission.
I have seen men after men after men.
I've seen men come through that place who
had master's degrees in accounting, and they had
lost their family, their friends, their home, their
career because of alcohol.
At the gospel rescue mission, I was there
one day when a former Dallas Cowboy football
player came by.
He had lost it all because of alcohol.
Sir, don't tell me about alcohol.
I hate it.
It destroys the home.
It destroys the life.
I will fight against it with every fiber
of my being.
As long as I have strength, I will
fight it.
If I have a fist, I will hit
it.
As long as I have a foot, I
will kick it.
I will take my teeth and bite it.
When I get old and lose my teeth,
I will gum it.
But I will fight against alcohol.
It is an enemy of the home.
Another enemy of the home is divorce.
We live in a day where folks think
that getting married is like going steady.
We go and we get together.
If it doesn't work out, we have a
problem, then we break up and get somebody
else.
But God's plan is one man for one
woman for one lifetime.
And I want to tell you, friends, when
you make a commitment to that woman or
you make a commitment to that man, you
are committing before a holy God.
I give my life for better, for worse,
forever, friends.
And I want to tell you, a man
needs to look hard into his heart before
he makes that commitment because divorce is an
enemy.
And also materialism.
So we live in a day, buddy, if
you don't have fancy clothes with name tags
and fancy guys who created things to take
the money out of your pocket, fancy sneakers
that cost $100, we're so wrapped up in
materialism, it is killing us.
We have folks, friends, who their whole life
is to make sure they've got the right
kind of clothes.
Materialism is killing the home right now.
Guys go out there, they can barely buy
groceries, but their kid has to have the
next fancy pair of shoes that cost $100.
They can't go and buy a decent pair
of pants, they've got to get name brand.
It is killing us.
The pride of secularism and materialism.
I'm telling you, you can go out there,
there are a lot of homes, dear friends.
There are a lot of people in homes
that have cars, but they don't have compassion.
They have luxury, but they don't have love.
They have a lot of clothes, but they
don't have a lot of Christianity.
And many times when I look at home,
a house, I will look at that fancy
house and I'll think to myself, I wonder
if there's a home inside that house, because
it takes more than paint and mortar and
brick to make a home.
It takes God in a house to make
it a home and an enemy of the
home is the new morality.
Now buddy, there's no such thing as a
new morality.
It's the old immorality just brought up to
date.
We live in a day where folks live
in sin and they're proud of it.
We have folks that think it sometimes builds
character, the more sinful they are.
Men take pride in their sin.
They cheat on their wives, they cheat on
their husbands, they drink, they smoke, they take
alcohol and drugs, and they wonder why their
life is a mess.
Because God says this, God says, the soul
that sinneth, it shall surely die.
The Bible says, friend, the wages of sin
is death.
And we need to wake up, friend, what
we need to do is to go back
to the old ways.
Somebody said, well, you're one of those old
fashioned preachers.
You want to take us back a hundred
years.
I want to take us back about 2000
years, buddy.
I want to take us back to the
time of Jesus.
And we have enemies of the home.
And God says, listen, the home is important.
And I want to talk to you about
the home.
And I want to talk about the responsibility
of the home.
Number one, I want to talk about the
men.
I want to talk about the men.
Men look at me, you're the key.
I tell you what men, the reason we're
in trouble is because of you and I,
our families are in trouble because you and
I have dropped the ball.
You see, the Bible says the man is
to be the head of the home.
The Bible says in first Corinthians 11, three,
but I would have, you know, that the
head of every man is Christ.
The head of the woman is the man
and the head of Christ is God in
Ephesians for the husband is head of the
wife, even as Christ is head of the
church and he is the savior of the
body.
And listen to me, friend, you've got to
be the man.
You've got to be the man, the leader,
the head of the house.
You've got to lead your wife.
You've got to point her in the right
direction.
You've got to be God's man.
You've got to be the leader of your
home.
You've got to be the leader and provider
of your home friend.
I'm telling you men, the Bible says in
first Timothy five, eight, if any man provide
not for his own and especially for those
of his own whole house, he has denied
the faith and it's worse than an infidel
friends.
I want to tell you what we have
men today who have given up their responsibilities.
We have men who have gone out and
they think their main goal in life is
to work, put a big pile of money.
They take no responsibility for their home.
And I'm telling you the number one problem
we have in America today is fatherless children.
I'm telling you friends, the big problem we
have today is we don't have men standing
up for God.
We don't have men shouldering their responsibility and
say, Hey, this is my family.
I'm going to lead them in the right
direction.
Men, you must be the head of the
home.
You must be the provider.
The Bible says, sir, if you don't provide
for your family, you're worse than an infidel.
I want to tell you the greatest thing
in the world is to see a man
who loves his family, to see a man
who will give himself for his family, who
will work hard and provide for his family.
There's no greater honor men than to give
your life that your family can live for
God.
But men listen to me.
The Bible says you're also to be the
priest of your family.
Now, man, this is where most of you
have missed the boat.
Most of you here tonight, you would work
hard.
You would provide for your family.
You would, you would take care of your
family financially and physically, but I, friend, the
Bible says you're to be the priest of
your family.
Look at me, man, the priest, you can't
count on Sunday school.
You can't count on the church.
You can't count on the world to lead
your family to God.
It is your responsibility, man.
It is your responsibility to be the priest
of your home, to be the leader of
your home, buddy.
If you don't have a family altar in
your home to pray and read the Bible,
you are failing your family.
Man, I want to tell you, it's not
your wife's responsibility to pray with your children.
It is not your wife's responsibility to read
the Bible to your family.
Man, it is your responsibility.
You are the man, you are the priest,
you are God's representation.
You ought to get your family together and
you ought to read that Bible every single
night together.
You ought to pray together, teach your children
how to praise God, show your kids some
passion for God, and then buddy, it's your
responsibility to get them in God's house.
I'm telling you, friends, the Bible says that
we should never neglect coming to God's house
and man, on Sunday morning, you ought to
bounce up out of that bed and you
ought to be excited to go to God's
house.
You ought to be excited to go and
serve God.
Your children ought to see that passion in
your life, and I want to tell you
the sorriest thing I've ever seen in my
life is for some old boy to come
up to church, got his old t-shirt
on, hat and shave, he drops his wife
and children off to go to church and
he goes back home.
Sir, that's the sorriest thing a man could
do.
I'm telling you, men, we must be the
head of our families.
We must take charge of being the head
of your family.
Does not mean that you're bossy and ugly
and disrespectful.
It means we give ourselves for our family.
We lay our life down for our family.
We provide the leadership.
We provide the resources.
We provide the motivation for our family and
men.
The Bible says we've got to take care
of our wife, and the Bible says, number
one, we must love our wife.
Four times the Bible commands, listen men, four
times the Bible commands the man to love
his wife, but the Bible never commands the
wife to love her husband, did you know
that?
God commands, you know why God commands you
to love your wife?
Because God knows if a man will love
his wife, and that word love is the
word agape, which means to sacrifice for his
wife, to put her needs ahead of his
own needs.
When a man loves his wife with that
agape love, and a man loves God with
all of his heart, and a man has
a passion for God, I want to tell
you, friends, a woman wants to follow a
man like that.
She wants to honor a man like that.
You need to love your wife as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it,
and men, you need to tell your wife
you love her every single day.
You don't need to be like that old
boy.
His wife said, well, you never tell me
you love me.
He said, I told you when we got
married, if I change my mind, I'll let
you know.
You don't need to be like that.
Every day, you ought to tell your wife
you love her, and you ought to show
her by sacrificing and giving yourself, and our
Bible also says not only should you love
your wife, but you should lift your wife.
The Bible says husbands love your wives and
be not bitter against them.
It does not please God when we are
hard to get along with.
It does not please God when we have
the wrong attitude.
It does not please God when we are
negative on our wives.
The Bible says we're to encourage our wives.
We're to lift our wives up.
We're to motivate our wives.
We're to encourage them to be the very
best they can be for God.
We need to lift our wives up, friends,
and not be so negative and narrow-minded.
You know, we don't need to be like
that old boy that when his wife wrote
some checks and those checks overdrew the account
and they bounced.
He came home.
He was fuming and fussing, and he said,
I don't understand this.
I don't know how God made you so
beautiful and yet so cotton-picking dumb.
She said, well, he made me beautiful, so
you'd love me.
He made me dumb, so I'd love you.
Not only should you love your wife, not
only should you lift your wife, but friend,
you ought to lead your wife.
Now, friend, I want to tell you the
sad fact is that in most marriages, the
wife wears the spiritual pants in that family.
Men, God is sick and tired of that.
He's sick and tired of it.
Men, what God wants you to do is
he wants you to be a real man.
He wants you to put on the whole
armor of God.
He wants you to get out into the
battle.
He wants you to have a passion for
him.
He wants you to get your family safe
and secure, to love your wife, love your
children, be an example to your kids, not
just tell them how to live, but to
live like they ought to live.
So they'll have somebody to look at.
Friend, you've got to be a man for
God and God is looking for some men
today to stand up for him, to be
the head of the house.
But friends, it's more than being the boss
of the house is to be God's man,
to love your family with all of your
heart, to set an example, to be a
provider, to be a priest, to love your
wife, to lift your wife, to lead your
wife, and to be an example to your
kids of what a godly man ought to
be.
And my friend, the first thing you need
to do in order to be God's man
is you need to be born again by
the spirit of God.
There's some of you men here tonight, you've
never had an experience with Christ.
Oh, you've walked an hour and prayed a
prayer, but in your heart, there's something missing.
You've never been born again by the Holy
Spirit.
And you'd like for your family to come
together.
You'd like to have joy and peace.
You'd like to have a passion for God,
but first you've got to get God in
your heart, sir.
You've walked an hour, you've prayed a prayer,
but you've not been born again.
And tonight, God brought you here to save
your soul so that you could build that
house on the solid rock, man.
You've got to be the head of your
home.
You've got to be God's man leading your
family if you want your family and your
home to be a success.
The man is the head, but you know,
the wife is the heart of the home.
The Bible tells us in Proverbs 31, verse
10, it says, who can find a virtuous
woman?
For her price is far above rubies.
Her children rise up and call her blessed.
Her husband also, and he praises her.
Oh, the Bible says some wonderful thing about
women.
I'm telling you, women, you just don't understand
the influence you have on your husband.
You don't understand the influence you have on
your children.
I'm telling you, it really is true that
behind every successful man is a good woman.
That's the truth, friend.
And women, you don't understand what a powerful
influence you have.
And the world has lied to you and
deceived you to tell you that you've got
to go out there.
You've got to work.
You've got to make money.
You've got to be just like the world.
You've come a long way, baby.
That's a lie from the devil.
What you ought to do is invest your
life in your children.
Invest your life supporting your husband.
Let God use you.
I'm telling you, there's nothing greater than being
a woman in the home.
There's nothing greater than molding future presidents or
future preachers or state.
There's nothing more important than a woman who
has an influence on her children and her
husband.
But the Bible also says a woman can
be a curse.
The Bible says in Proverbs 12, 4, a
virtuous woman is a crown to her husband,
but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness
in his bones.
That means, dear ladies, you may be a
woman, you may have a fine family, but
if Jesus Christ is not first place in
your heart, you are not a blessing to
your family.
What we need is we need women sold
out to Jesus.
We need women who have a passion for
God.
Don't worry about that new car.
Don't worry about that new home you're dreaming
about.
Don't worry about that fancy country club membership.
What you need to understand is this.
When you're out there and you're slaving for
the world and working for the world and
living for the world, you are substituting those
material things for the very life of your
children.
There's nothing more important than loving God with
all of your heart and molding those little
children to follow after Jesus.
And I want to tell you ladies, the
Bible says there are a lot of great
women in the Bible.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, Eunice and Lois,
the mother and grandmother of preacher boys.
It was a woman who anointed the head
of Jesus.
Hey, it was a bunch of women when
all the disciples got scared and ran off.
It was a bunch of women that stood
next to the cross.
I want to tell you, friends, you give
me a bunch of women who are really
in love with Jesus, who are on fire
for God, but you can change the world.
Praise God for godly women.
The Bible says something about women.
The Bible says that the wife, the mother
should be submissive in attitude to her husband.
The Bible says, wives, submit yourselves unto your
own husband as unto the Lord.
Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ,
so let the wives be unto their own
husbands.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as
it is fit in the Lord.
Now, I know what some of you national
organization of women are thinking right now.
You're saying, well, that lowers me, my standard.
No, that elevates you, ladies.
Listen to me.
The world has lied to you and deceived
you.
It's no blessing for you to get out
there in a man's world and do men's
things.
Listen to me.
A few years ago, you never heard of
a woman getting lung cancer.
And yet today, lung cancer kills more women
than breast cancer does.
There are 60,000 women that die every
year from lung cancer because the women have
believed a lie that, hey, hey, we go
out here, we put those cigarettes in our
mouth, it makes us cool, it makes us
charming, while the devil is killing your very
body.
You see, friends, you've come a long way,
but you've come a long way in the
wrong direction.
And what we need is we need women
who love Jesus, who love God.
Listen, you're not below men.
Just because God, what God wants is he
wants a chain of command.
Just like in school, you have a principal.
Just like on a team, you have a
captain.
Just like in any organization, you have a
chain of command.
It's not that you're below men.
It's that God has set up an organization
so that your home will not be in
chaos.
You show me anything that has two heads
and I'll show you a monster, friend.
The woman must be in submission to her
husband.
But I want to tell you this, when
a woman will love her husband and be
in submission to her husband, she can make
him the kind of man that she wants
him to be.
You know why?
Because men are born with something in their
heart.
They want to be a hero.
And what men want more than anything else
is for their wives to love them and
admire them and respect them.
And when men are out there and they've
got a wife behind them, cheering them on
and loving them and encouraging them, I want
to tell you, women, you can have an
impact on that man that will turn his
life around.
In fact, the Bible says you can win
a lost husband to Christ just by your
very attitude at home.
Oh, the Bible says you're also to be
scripture in nature.
You know what the Bible tells you to
do, ladies?
The Bible tells for the older ladies to
teach the younger ladies.
That's why we have so many divorces.
Young ladies don't know how to live.
Young ladies don't know how to love their
husband.
They don't know how to be chaste and
pure and moral.
They don't know how to live God alive
because we're not teaching the young ladies.
But ladies, that's your responsibility.
If you've got daughters, you need to teach
them how to love Jesus with all their
heart.
And then the Bible says you're to be
good, just good.
First Peter 3 says, likewise, you wives be
in subjection to your own husbands that if
any obey not the word, they also may
be without the word won by the conversation
of the words of the wives.
You know how you win your husband to
Jesus, ladies?
Well, first of all, you don't go home
and slap him over the head with your
Bible.
And you don't go home and whine and
cry because he's not going to church.
You want to win your husband to Jesus?
What you need to do is number one,
you go home and be the best wife
you can be.
You go home and you put yourself under
his authority and you honor him with your
life.
And when he gives you bitterness, you give
him sweetness.
I'll tell you what, it'll bring the greatest
conviction you can ever think in a man's
heart.
When a man acts like he's sorry so
and so and is ugly to his wife
and his wife doesn't give back the same
as she gives back sweetly, I want to
tell you, man, that breaks his heart.
That brings conviction.
He can't stand that.
I'm telling you, I've seen it happen many
times.
I preached a revival in Greenwood, Arkansas a
few years ago, gave an invitation.
Man, a guy came off the back row.
He was crying, man.
It was a mess.
He was crying so hard.
He was bouncing off both sides of the
pew.
He came down.
I was thinking to myself, man, that must
be good preaching.
And he came down here, got saved.
I found out it didn't have anything to
do with preaching at all.
What had happened is his wife had claimed
him for the Lord.
She had got six other Christian ladies.
They came every day to the church and
they cried out and called his name to
God.
I want to tell you that old boy
didn't stand a chance.
They prayed him in the kingdom of God.
I have a good friend, Mike Corley.
Mike Corley was an infidel.
Good old boy.
You know the kind.
Buy him a case of beer every weekend,
go home and drink it.
Just a good old boy.
But he didn't know Jesus.
His wife was a Christian.
She wanted her husband to be saved.
My wife used to go over there.
He used to make Mike so mad.
He said every time she'd come over, I'd
get on such great conviction.
I couldn't stand it.
He'd take a six pack and go hide
in the garage.
So he wouldn't have to be around her.
But my wife and his wife began to
pray for all my and his wife.
You know what she did?
She started writing scriptures on little pieces of
paper.
Out of the Bible scriptures for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of
God.
For the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God's eternal life.
Oh, if we confess with our mouth, the
Lord Jesus, believe in our heart that God
has raised him from dead.
We shall be safe or whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved.
The soul that says it shall surely die.
Everywhere he went, he'd open up his old
liquor cabinet.
There'd be a verse of scripture stuck on
that liquor bottle.
He'd go, he'd open up that refrigerator.
There'd be a subscription on that old beer.
He'd go to the bathroom to shave.
There'd be some scripture stuck on them everywhere
he turned.
And I'm telling you, I knew him for
five years.
He never said, he never said more than
two or three words to me in those
four or five years.
But one night I was at church.
Somebody tapped me on the shoulder.
I turned around.
He grabbed me in a big bear hug,
started hugging me.
He said, man, I love you.
I love you.
I said, what happened?
He said, I got saved.
I got saved.
And I'm saying, ladies, you can change the
world.
Don't let the world change you.
You see, the men need to be the
head because that's how God made them.
That's why you have arguments in your family
because you're trying to take over your husband's
position.
And in his heart, God, he knows he
ought to be the head of that family.
But men, you got to be the head
of that family.
You've got to take responsibility.
Not just the boss and give orders, but
you've got to be the provider.
You've got to be the priest.
You've got to love your wife, lift your
wife, lead your wife.
And I believe with all my heart, men,
if you'll do that, I think your wife
will find it much easier to come under
your authority.
She'll find it much easier to have the
word of God in her heart.
She'll find it much easier to mold and
shape those kids.
Men, it's up to me and you.
We are the key to the whole thing.
If we'll get our lives with God, right
with God, everything else will fall into place.
And the kids, you know what your responsibility
is?
The dad is the head.
The mom is the heart.
You're the hub.
Everything revolves around the kids.
Amen.
Man, you know what the Bible says?
The Bible says kids are a blessing from
the Lord.
You know that they're a blessing from the
Lord.
Hey, but they don't even belong to you,
sir.
They belong to God.
God's just loaned them to you.
You know what God's expecting out of you?
God's expecting you to mold them and shape
them, not like the world, but shape them
like Jesus Christ.
But young people, God has given you some
directions about the home.
God has told young people what they must
do if they want their home to be
a success.
Number one, the Bible says, honor your father
and mother.
Ephesians 6, 2, 3 says, honor thy father
and mother, which is the first commandment with
promise that it may be well with thee
and thou mayest live long on the earth.
God says, listen, you want to have a
good life?
You want to have a productive life?
You want to live a long life?
Honor your father and your mother.
You say, my father doesn't deserve honor.
The Bible doesn't say that, friend.
The Bible doesn't say, honor your father and
mother if they deserve it.
It says, honor them because they are your
father and your mother.
I will tell you, friends, that's what kids
need to know today.
You cannot serve God, young man.
You cannot be God's man, teenage friend.
You cannot have the blessings of God if
you are in disobedience to your parents.
You must honor your parents.
How, if your parents are lost, how can
you win your parents to Jesus if you
are disobeying God?
You see, how you win your parents to
Jesus is you need to live like Jesus
tells you to live.
You need to honor your mother and your
father.
That means you need to help them around
the house.
That means you need to thank them for
all they provide for you.
You need to do good for them and
love them.
You need to honor your parents and then
you need to obey your parents.
The Bible says in Colossians 3, 20, children,
obey your parents in all things, for this
is well-pleasing unto the Lord.
Listen to me, friend.
You won't hear this kind of stuff in
the music today or on television.
The Bible says, hey, everybody do your own
thing.
I was watching one of these crazy shows
one day.
I can't remember what the name of it
was, Sally Jessie Raphael or something like that.
Had all these teenagers on there, boy.
And the subject matter was these teenagers thought
they had been so mistreated by their parents.
Here's an old boy, he's about 14 years
old.
And he said, you know, I just don't
like people telling me what to do.
I just don't like telling me what to
do.
I think I'm going to join the Marine
Corps so I can be my own boss.
We have these guys, they say, I don't
listen.
That's because the world has lied to young
people.
Listen, your responsibility as a young person is
to honor your parents.
It's to honor your parents, do good for
your parents, be respectful to your parents.
Don't you dare let one of your friends
talk bad about your mom and dad.
You fight that boy.
Don't you let anybody talk bad about your
parents.
You love your parents and honor your parents
and stand up for your dad.
Your mom almost gave her life giving you
birth.
You ought to praise her name and you
ought to do what she tells you to
do.
You see friends, that is what we're here
for, to obey God.
But I want to tell you parents in
order for our kids to do right, what
you've got to do is you've got to
be an example for them.
And I don't mean talk it, buddy.
I mean walk it.
You see, we've got too many guys giving
orders, not enough guys being an example.
You want your boy to grow up to
be a godly man, you better be a
godly man.
You want your young girl to grow up
with good morals, you better have good morals.
If you want your child to know, listen,
you know why so many girls marry the
wrong kind of guy?
Because their dad has not given them a
good example of the right kind of guy.
You see, your daughter's going to marry somebody
just like you.
That's pretty scary, isn't it fellas?
Your daughter's going to marry somebody just like
you.
You better make sure that the you that
you're showing her is a good one.
She's going to marry an old boy just
like you and so you better get a
passion for God.
You better love God.
You better be fearless for God.
You need to memorize that scripture.
You need to go out and win people
to Christ.
You need to point her toward God and
God's house.
So when she marries an old boy, he'll
be just like that.
You need to be an example and you
need to learn to discipline your kids.
My friend, I'll tell you something.
The big mistake we have today is there
are a lot of dads that think they
want to be their child's best friend.
That's nonsense.
Your child can get his own best friend.
What he needs is a daddy.
He needs a father.
He needs a man to stand up and
point an example.
Don't try to be your child's best friend.
Your child needs parents.
He needs somebody to show him how to
live, to be an example.
Somebody to set guidelines and restrictions and somebody
to point the right way.
He's got plenty of people he can have
for friends.
He'll be a friend after he grows up
and becomes a man and looks back on
your life to say that you showed him
the right way.
You discipline that child and you point out
the right direction.
And then you need to love your children.
You need to love your children.
Daddy, you need to hug that boy.
You need to show that boy it's all
right for a man to hug his son.
You need to love that girl.
You know what?
If you don't love that daughter and if
you don't hug that daughter and if you
don't give that daughter some affection at home,
she'll find somebody who will, buddy.
You need to love that daughter and show
her that her dad is a man she
can look to for strength.
Her dad is a man she can count
on.
I tell you what, when my daughter was
dating, those old boys would show up at
my front doorstep.
Man, I'd walk to the door.
I'd say, what do you want?
They'd say, we want to, I'm here for
Brittany.
Brittany who, son?
I'd thank him.
I'd say, if you pencil neck thing, what
are you doing coming in my daughter?
I'd set him down and I'd say, listen
to me, son.
I want to tell you something.
I love my daughter more than life itself.
I'm entrusting something to you that's more valuable
than my car or my home.
And I want to tell you if you
ever harm her or hurt her or damage
her, I'll come after you.
I'm telling you, friends, you need to put
the fear of God in those old boys
when they come and date your daughter.
Now think about it.
You're letting, you're letting somebody come over and
date the most valuable thing in your life.
You need to lay down the law of
how it's going to be.
You know why young men don't know how
to treat young women?
It's because of what they learn as they
learn on television and television teaches you the
quickest thing you do is try to get
her in bed as quick as you can.
You teach that boy, you set him down.
You know, don't come to my house, son.
Be honking that horn outside.
My daughter's not going to run out there.
You come inside.
You sit down.
You know what you do?
You sit down.
You talk to my wife and I, we
want to find out where you are with
Jesus.
Amen.
You talk to me.
My daughter used to say, oh, daddy, please.
You just embarrassed me so bad.
I said, honey, that's my job.
That's my job.
I'm just saying that God has a plan
for the family.
Young friend, many of you over here, your
mom and dad aren't even saved.
It's time we want them to the Lord.
And the way we went into the Lord
is we got to be godly young people.
It's great to come to church and lift
our hands and praise God.
That's wonderful.
I praise God for you, but we've got
to take it outside the church.
We've got to take it home.
Amen.
We've got to go home and we've got
to be God's young people in front of
our parents.
That means we've got to have a godly
heart.
That means to honor our mom and dad,
even though they do us wrong.
You think, even though they may not be
Christians, even though you may think they don't
deserve honor, you honor them because Jesus said
to honor them.
He said, it'll give you a good life
and a long life.
If you honor your parents and obey your
parents, you know why?
Because they are looking out for your best.
If you'll never have anybody in your life
that loves you like your parents loved you.
And ladies, I want to encourage you to
live for God.
If there's any way possible to get your
finances straightened out, so you can live on
your husband's salary alone, you need to do
it.
And you need to get home with those
children and raise them in the admonition of
the Lord.
And man, it all comes back to you.
We can preach and we can run around
and we can say all these things about
women and children, but I want to tell
you what, the ball is in our court,
man.
It's our responsibility.
The home's in a mess because we have
not done our job.
We have not done our job.
And it is time for men to get
serious about serving God.
Number one, men, you need to get saved
and you need to get saved tonight.
And then you need to get a passion
for God.
You need to read your Bible and love
Jesus with all of your heart because you
can't love your family until you love Jesus.
Then you need to lead your family and
guide your family, provide for your family, love
your wife, lift your wife, lead your wife.
And ladies, if you get a man like
that, I promise you, you'll have a heart
to follow him and follow his leadership and
be the kind of wife that he wants
you to be.
You say you need that because your family
is on the verge of collapse right now.
You don't know how shaky the ground is
under your home right now.
You don't know how close you are to
losing your children or losing your home right
now.
You don't know how wicked the world is
and how many arrows the devil is shooting
at your home.
If you could see right now the danger
your home was in, you'd run to Jesus,
you'd run and beg him to save you.
You'd beg him to provide for your family.
Friend, I want to tell you, the devil
is alive and well and he's after you
and your home.
Dr. Truett of First Baptist Church in Dallas,
several years ago, told the story.
A man came after preaching a sermon on
the home.
He said, pastor, I'm just broken.
I want you to pray with me about
my son.
I want my teenage boy to get saved.
The next day, Dr. Truett saw the teenage
boy.
He was all aglow.
He came to pastor.
He said, pastor, I got saved last night.
Dr. Truett said, well, tell me about it.
He said, well, I was out partying with
my friends.
I came home late.
I expected my dad to meet me at
the front door, to be angry and to
curse me and to be bitter against me.
He said, but when I got home, even
though I was late, my dad wasn't there.
And so I went to my bedroom and
I went past my daddy's bedroom and I
heard my dad in there on his knees
and he was praying for me to get
saved.
He said, I never heard my daddy pray
for me before.
And he said, preacher, I went in and
knelt beside my daddy and I got saved.
But we need some daddies.
You know why we need daddies?
To really sell out for God.
You know why you need to be born
again?
A few years ago, I was in Eldorado,
Arkansas preaching a revival.
I told the teenagers this story a few
weeks ago, but I was there doing a
revival and I heard the most remarkable story.
There's a man in Eldorado, Arkansas, a very
affluent man, a very successful man.
He owns an insurance agency.
He's a young man in his mid forties.
He's made a lot of money.
He's very respected in the community in all
the right clubs, all the right activities.
He's in the country club.
Everybody looks up and admires him.
There was even talk that he might run
for political office.
He had a big house, three or $400
,000.
And he had everything the world says it
takes to be happy.
He was an athlete.
He ran these marathons in shape, man.
It seemed like he had everything going for
him.
He had a 16-year-old daughter that
he loved more than anything else in the
world.
When I was down in Eldorado, she turned
16 on Thursday and her daddy, who loved
her, bought her a brand new car, a
red sports car.
The next day on Friday, she went down
and took her driver's test and got her
license.
On Saturday, she was out showing everybody her
new car, riding around with her best friend.
As kids do, she was driving at a
rate that was higher than she should have
been driving.
She left the road and crashed, and she
was killed on impact.
Her best friend, who was riding in the
passenger seat, was paralyzed.
I was there two years ago.
She's still in a wheelchair.
And that daddy was so crushed and so
defeated by the death of his daughter that
he was unable to go on working.
He took disability in early retirement.
He sold his insurance agency.
He was totally defeated.
He couldn't even go on living hardly.
It was all he could do just to
get through the day.
He'd always been an athlete.
He'd take his lunch break at the job
and he'd go to the local high school
and they'd see him every day running around
the track, staying in shape.
After his daughter was killed, though the reports
around town were, he would go out there
many times to run around the track.
And when he'd get on the far side
where the stands were, he would just disappear.
And many times friends would find him over
behind the stands.
He would be lying face down in the
grass crying about that little girl.
Oh, he still has his $300,000, $400
,000 house.
He's still got a million dollars in the
bank.
He's still respected in the community.
But I'm here to tell you, he would
give that house up and he would give
that money away.
And he would give away his reputation.
And he would take a job at the
7-Eleven at midnight if he could just
have that girl back.
And there's coming a day, there's coming a
day when you will stand before God and
your family will drop into a devil's hell
because you have not lived for God.
And you will look at God and you'll
say, God, I'll do anything if I could
just have my family back.
But it'll be too late.
You see, if you're gonna turn it around,
you need to do it now, sir.
And it starts by being born again.
Some of you here tonight, you know all
about Jesus.
But you don't know him personally.
Oh, you go to the youth activities, you
go to the programs, you've read your Bible,
you know all the stuff.
But you don't have Jesus in your heart.
You know how you entail?
You don't have a passion for God.
Have you ever won anybody to the Lord?
Do you live for God when nobody else
is watching?
Do you have a righteousness about your life?
Do you know for sure that if you
were to die tonight, that you'd go to
heaven?
Because if you don't know that, you need
to know that.
And in a few moments, you're going to
have the greatest opportunity you will ever have
to come and give your life to Christ,
to be born again, to start building that
home on that solid rock foundation.
You've been listening to the From the Pulpit
and Classic Sermon series.
This week, you heard William Blackburn.
With this message, God's plan for the family.
Tune in next week to hear Hans Waldvogel
talk about ye shall be as God's was
not Christ's ambition.
On From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons.