Can we just bow for a moment of
prayer, please?
Our Father, we thank Thee that we can
be together here because of Jesus.
We are here out of love for Christ
and we would be Christ's property, Christ's responsibility
as we yield our lives to Him.
There's no safer place to be God's property,
if God be for us, who can be
against us?
He that spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up to us all freely, how
shall He not with Him also give us
all things?
Oh, we bless Thee, Lord, that God is
for us.
Who can be against us?
Who should separate us from the love of
Christ, if the delay, sin, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword, as is written, we are killed all
day long, we are counted as sheep for
the slaughter, and all these things, we are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature, will separate
us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus.
We bless Thee, Lord, that nothing, no tribulation,
no persecution, no distress, will separate us from
the love of God.
How we love Thee, Lord, who were kept
by the power of God through faith unto
salvation.
Oh, we bless Thee that Thou wilt keep
us as we rest in perfect love and
perfect faith in Thee.
I know whom I believe and am persuaded
that He is able to keep that which
I have committed unto Him against that day,
how filled with faith we are now, keeping
power, God.
Thou art God, greater is He that is
in you than he that is in the
world.
Thou art great, and great is He to
be praised.
Come, Father, in Thy mercy to us tonight.
Minister to us through Thy words.
Speak to the depth of our hearts.
Wash me in the blood of Jesus.
Fill me with the Holy Spirit.
Stand beside me in the pulpit of God.
Dear God, Lord Jesus, make Thy word living
and alive as Thou hast anointed my lips,
my heart, and all of our hearts.
Visit us here tonight through Thy word, Lord.
Speak in a way we will never forget.
For Christ's sake, in Jesus Christ's name.
Amen.
Tonight, I would like for us to look
at the last two verses in the Old
Testament.
Malachi chapter 4, verse 5.
Behold, I will send you, Elijah the prophet,
before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord.
And he shall turn the hearts of the
fathers to the children, and the hearts of
the children to their fathers, lest I come
and smite the earth with a curse.
The Amplified Bible, in verse 6, says, And
he shall turn and reconcile the hearts of
the estranged fathers to the ungodly children, and
the hearts of the rebellious children back to
the piety and the feet of God of
their fathers, a reconciliation which will be produced
by the repentance of those who are ungodly,
lest I come and smite the land, their
land, with a curse, a ban of utter
destruction.
The Living Bible, you see, I will send
you another prophet, like Elijah, before the coming
of the great and dreadful judgment day of
God.
His preaching, his preaching will bring fathers and
children together again, to be of one mind
and heart, for they will know that if
they do not thus repent, I will come
and utterly destroy their land.
I will come and utterly destroy their land.
Such preaching is desperately needed in this age.
Preaching that will turn the hearts of the
children back to the fathers or parents, the
parents' hearts back to their children.
Can I read to you these words which
I have written on my knees?
A sinful age, a sinful age like ours,
rips apart the home, rips apart the home.
A wicked generation like ours turns the hearts
of the children against their parents.
This age, this age breeds children who will
defy their parents and drive them to rebel
against all authority, especially the home.
And a sinful age also breeds parents who
will neglect their children and their responsibilities.
They will refrain from discipline.
They will let go of all authority, tragically
even love for their children.
That's what a sinful age like ours will
do.
And we must be honest.
We must be honest today.
The homes of God's people are being tragically
affected by this age.
The homes of God's people are being tragically
affected by this age.
We live in a day and age when
as never before the fathers are controlled by
the children.
We live in a day and age when
as never before the fathers or parents are
controlled by the children.
We live in a day and age when
as never before the fathers are concerned about
the children.
We live in a day and age when
as never before the fathers are condemned by
the children.
We live in a day and age when
as never before the fathers are commissioned for
the children.
We live in a day and age when,
as never before, as never before, the fathers
are compared with the children.
Let us look at these five points carefully
here tonight.
We live, firstly, we live in a day
and age when, as never before, as never
before, the fathers or parents are controlled by
the children.
In my country, South Africa, the controversy of
television raids us.
In a Christian home, many will not have
the television in their homes anymore.
Those who still hold on to the television
for that which is good and educational, they're
finding everywhere less and less time they dare
to put it on.
Most Christian homes, I wonder if it's wrong
for me to say, at this stage are
scared if they've still got it in their
home to put it on.
There's such fearful, fearful things that will destroy
a child forever, his integrity, his honor, his
purity.
In one moment, for something in the home,
I was speaking to a Christian lady who
still has the television in her home.
She was telling me how she came home
a little bit earlier than expected and walked
into the lounge, and there was her son
lying on the carpet, looking at the television,
propping his head up with his hands.
And there she walked in a bit earlier
than expected, and she looked at the television,
and her heart just sank as she saw
what he was looking at.
And she looked at him and said, how
could you?
You know you shouldn't look at this.
Her son staggered her at what he did.
He didn't bat an eyelid.
He didn't move.
He carried on looking, and he said, I
know it's wrong, mommy.
I know this is wrong, but you see,
mommy, I'm looking at it critically.
I'm looking at it critically.
You allow them to get away with it
today, they'll talk you out of anything.
You just give them half a chance today,
they'll talk you out of anything.
That's the day and age we live in,
even in Christian home.
Just give them half a chance, they'll talk
you out of anything.
Eli's son.
Eli's sons were rebellious from childhood.
They were rebellious from childhood and eventually became
wicked.
But Eli was to blame.
God doesn't hide it.
He hides nothing in the Bible, even though
Eli was a man of God.
He failed.
Eli was to blame.
He never disciplined them or challenged them.
He let go of authority over his children,
and they destroyed him.
They were the destroying of their godly father
and his ministry.
You can be godly and fail and be
destroyed.
Like Eli, if you let go of authority,
and the devil wants you to in this
day and age.
Everyone's crying out, let go of authority.
In Romans 1, God's wrath is declared against
all the wicked sins of men, as no
other chapter in the entire Bible.
You can't wind away past any of these
sins without knowing the wrath of God comes
upon those who commit it.
There's no deviation, no excuse the way God
declares in the New Testament in Romans 1.
Most preachers are too scared to ever preach
in their entire ministry on this chapter.
You can't get around sin and God's wrath
upon those who commit each sin named.
Listen to the wrath of God upon the
sins of the wicked in Romans 129 being
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity,
whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, spiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, disobedient
to parents.
The wrath of God according to the Scriptures
is upon this wickedness.
Oh obey thy father and thy mother.
God commands, honor thy father and thy mother.
God commands, we live in a day and
age when as never before the fathers of
parents are controlled by the children.
We live in a day and age when
as never before, as never before the fathers
are concerned about the children, are concerned about
the children.
Look at how the godly Job became concerned
about his children.
Because you're godly doesn't mean you don't have
to be concerned about your children.
Look how the godly Job became concerned about
his children.
In Job chapter 1 verse 1, there was
a man in the land of Uz whose
name was Job and that man was perfect
and upright and one that feared God and
eschewed evil and they were born unto him
seven sons and three daughters.
His substance also was seven thousand feet and
three thousand camels and five hundred yoke of
oxen and five hundred sea asses and a
very great household so that this man was
the greatest of all the men in the
east.
And his sons went and feasted in their
houses every one his day, every one on
his birthday and sent and called for their
three sisters to eat and to drink with
them.
And it was so in the days of
their feasting were gone about that Job sent
and sanctified them and rose up early in
the morning and offered burnt offerings according to
the number of them all.
For Job said, Job said, it may be
that my sons had sinned and cursed God
in their hearts.
Oh, oh, he was the holiest man on
earth, perfect.
But look at his concern for his children.
Being holy doesn't mean you don't have concern
that everything automatically will go well.
Here this man had deep concern for his
children.
Job offered sacrifices for his sons continually in
his concern for them.
Job offered sacrifices for his children continually to
God.
It may be my sons have sinned and
cursed God.
We know that all the Old Testament sacrifices
of animals was looking to and pointing to
the blood of Jesus Christ.
The lamb slain from the foundation of the
earth.
No animal's blood could ever have cleansed away
sin.
But before the foundation of the earth, God
in his sovereignty, in his foreknowledge, it was
as good as Christ had been crucified.
And all through from the time of the
creation right through to the actual crucifixion physically
of his son, it was in God's eyes
completely done.
For his son was so perfect in his
resignation to the plan of God and salvation
that every time men offered the blood and
sacrificed animals, God accepted it as the blood
of Christ as he looked to the lamb
of God slain by God before the foundations
of the earth.
For the forgiveness of men, the blood of
Christ was being pointed to every time Job
sacrificed for his son.
God looked at Christ's blood, nothing else.
There's something very precious there.
Back home, I knew a home, a family,
a farming home with one of the godliest
women I've ever known, the mother of that
home.
Every time I went through the years back
to that home, the children, from the first
time I ever saw them, they loved Christ
with all their hearts.
As the years went by, I went back
there on fire for God, right through to
manhood, to womanhood.
There was never a time in their lives
they didn't want God.
They never wanted the world.
They never felt that they were deprived or
left out.
They never wanted it.
They never desired it.
There was one thing they wanted was God,
God's people.
Oh, these children walked with God with such
zeal, such joy, no compromise, from childhood right
through, all of the children.
I was stunned, and one day I looked
at her and I said, what did you
do?
Not every Christian home has children like yours.
What did you do that you can tell
me that I can do?
She looked at me quite staggered, and she
said, oh Keith, I've made mistakes.
I have made so many mistakes, but I
tried with all my heart to bring them
up in the fear of God.
But if I have to single out one
thing that I believe I should tell you,
Keith, the day they were born, each child,
the day they were born, I put my
hands on them.
And I said, oh God, shelter this child
under the blood of Jesus.
Protect this child under the blood of Christ.
Every day, as they grew to teenagers, there
was never one day in the nights when
they fell asleep, and I finished my times
with God.
I went to each child every day of
their life, from birth right through.
And I nursed beside each bed, and I
put my hands on their head, and I
prayed while they slept.
Oh God, if there's anything the devil's sight
is so in their minds, undo it now
by the blood of Christ.
If there's any failure in anything, oh, wash
them in the blood of Christ.
If there's any influence, if there's any seed
the devil's somehow gotten there, wash it out,
undo it by the blood of Christ.
Protect this child under the blood of Christ.
I prayed on my knees at their bed
when they were grown men.
And those that have left the home, I
still pray every day on my knees, though
I can't put my hands on them.
And those that are still in the home,
though they don't know it when they're asleep,
I still go from the day they were
born till this day.
I can think of nothing else that I
can tell you that I did different from
any other parent who tries.
But I look to Jesus' blood and faith
for my children daily, daily.
Oh, Moses, when the battle was
raging between the enemy of the people of
God and God's people, Moses was in prayer
watching the battle, and he stood there lifting
up his hands in earnestness as he was
looking at the enemy advancing, making advance over
the people of God.
He's lifting his hands up, crying to God
in his old age, calling out to heaven.
And as he began to pray, everyone looking
at him calling out to God saw something
amazing.
Suddenly the enemy retreated.
The people of God began to conquer in
advance, and then in his old age he
began to grow weary.
His hands came down, and the people watching
Moses saw suddenly the enemy advancing over the
people of God, overcoming the people of God.
And they took hold of his hands and
lifted them up.
Oh, it wasn't the physical hands they were
encouraging, pray on!
Moses prayed on, and as they held up
his hands and encouraged him, pray on!
Suddenly the enemy was overcome and retreating.
The people of God were victorious, conquering.
Oh, in this war there's a battle for
your son, for your daughter, don't doubt it.
And God says to you and I, there's
one way I will, therefore that men pray
lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
Don't doubt God when you pray.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God, through the pulling down
of strongholds.
I don't care what stronghold the devil has
on your child, God will pull it down.
But we have to get into warfare, there's
a war.
If you don't know that, your head's in
the sand.
You'll be confused about everything on this earth.
There was never a war so just terrifying,
so many casualties, so many destroyed souls.
There's a war between God and the devil,
and the war's on for your son.
If you don't know it, you're in trouble.
And there's one way, one way, oh holy
hands, lifted up without wrath, whatever the world's
becoming, whatever happening that we could fight and
get angry about, without doubting.
And God will give you victory.
Oh, while you pray in faith, the devil
will retreat.
If you grow weary in prayer for your
children, you slack off and you forget to
pray, the devil will make advances.
The moment you slack, don't doubt it, with
evil influences on your son, with wrong friends,
with decadent, evil, corrupt influences will suddenly influence
your son, I guarantee you.
How do you think he'll escape this world,
it's so filthy?
Oh pray, pray, and see the devil retreat,
I guarantee you, I guarantee you.
Just pray, I entered into warfare, I entered
into warfare before my sons were born, I
entered into warfare for them.
I found myself praying a prayer that I
tried to stop, I tried to stop myself.
When I was married to my wife, before
we had any children, I found myself one
night as I looked at this world, saying
to God as I wept, Oh God, don't
let us have children.
If thou doesn't know, they're going to follow
the devil.
Don't let us have children, I beg you.
If they're not going to follow thee, and
I wept.
And what I prayed, what have I prayed?
Oh, what have I prayed?
But I opened my eyes, and the words
I read were very precious to me.
Listen to them.
The page the Bible was open, Isaiah 54,
verse 13, I read these words the moment
I said amen to that prayer.
My heart sank in what I prayed, all
thy children shall be taught of the Lord.
That was not coincidence.
God doesn't mock us that on the page
of that prayer, groaning before God, God knew
my eyes would fall and see all thy
children shall be taught of the Lord.
Great shall be the peace of thy children.
I remember my second boy, praying, calling on
God, not expecting it to happen again, believe
me.
But do you know what God did?
Isaiah 44, my eyes fell upon, verse 2,
in the amplified version, I was opened at
that particular time, fear not my servant, I
will pour my spirit upon your offspring.
I was praying, so when my wife fell
pregnant with our second child, I got on
my knees and began to groan again as
I saw the world getting worse.
People were standing and saying, is it right
to bring a child in this world?
And I prayed, oh God, oh God, concerning
my second child, oh fear not my servant,
I will pour my spirit on your offspring,
my blessing upon your descendants.
One shall say, I am the Lord, another
shall call himself by the name of Jacob,
another will write upon his hand, I am
the Lord.
You know what I do daily?
I say to God, remember, remember the word
unto thy servant upon which thou has caused
me to hope.
I have nothing else to hope in.
Remember the promises God in this wicked world
unto thy servant for my children that thou
didst give me when I wept before their
birth, upon which thou has caused me to
hope.
Oh, we live in a day and age,
we live in a day and age when
as never before, as never before, the father,
the parents are controlled by the children.
We live in a day and age when
as never before, the fathers are concerned, are
concerned about the children.
We live in a day and age when
as never before, as never before, the fathers
are condemned by the children.
Oh, oh, as never before, fathers were condemned
by the children in our Christianity.
When I was saved, one of the first
people I wanted to find was my childhood
friend who went into such sin.
His life was virtually destroyed in his sin.
When I found him, I wanted to tell
him about Jesus.
I did find him.
There he was, married with his children.
I sat looking at him and I wanted
to weep as I looked at him.
All that was left of him.
Sin is a terrible thing.
I told him what God had done for
me.
I told him of the salvation of Christ
and all the eagerness and the longing and
the yearning in my heart.
Something I could give him now that I
couldn't give him when I saw his life
being destroyed.
This young man looked at me and tears
came down his face and he said, Oh,
Keith, oh, Keith, I've heard everything you're saying,
everything you're telling me.
I've heard it all before from my father
and mother who told me to come to
Christ so when I could remember hearing it
first.
All I heard was give your life to
God, come to Christ.
They dragged me to church.
There they were in the church praising the
Lord.
But oh, Keith, as the years went by,
I looked at their lives, the hypocrisy, what
they were in the church, they weren't in
the home, they were not in the home,
Keith.
I looked at their lives and I made
up my mind once for all, forever as
a child, I don't want this religion.
I don't want this lie.
I don't want what you've come to give
me, Keith.
I had enough of it in my home.
Oh, many
people believe that David's son, Absalom, was the
result of David's sin.
I can't be sure of that, for God's
forgiveness is so great.
But while David professed to be a godly
man, and the world believed him to be
a godly man, his sins are sins that
his children stumbled over to accept from him.
Oh, oh, be careful, be careful not to
judge now other Christians if their children go
astray into sin.
You must very, very, very carefully hear, listen
to me.
You be careful never to judge other Christians
whose children go wide into sin, don't you
dare judge them.
Be careful, a woman walked up to me
in Pietermaritzburg of South Africa, weeping, oh, Keith,
whatever you do, boy, don't judge other Christians
if their children go into sin.
I did, I did, Keith.
My husband was an elder, another elder, whose
children were my children's age.
These kids eventually went off into such wickedness,
such sin, and I stood judging them that
they were wrong in the way they brought
up their children.
I didn't agree on certain issues.
And, Keith, two weeks after that, my children
started going, but, oh, Keith, I looked at
them, and I began to fear that I
had ever judged someone else whose children went
astray.
I was so sorry as I watched my
children fall into such sin that they were
unfaithful.
My daughter is somewhere in Europe, she's a
prostitute.
None of my children follow God anymore.
And it happened right when I judged.
Be careful, be careful, don't you judge anyone
whose children go astray.
You just pray for them, you weep for
them, you encourage them, you help them, guide
them with love if you dare.
But don't you judge.
A careful note must be taken now that
the children also may be wrong in condemning
their fathers through misunderstanding.
Oh, this word, misunderstanding, is a terrible word,
you know.
And careful note must be taken by everyone
sitting here.
Careful note that the children may be wrong
in condemning their fathers through this terrible thing
called misunderstanding when you really didn't understand, and
you condemn them for something they're not guilty
of.
You be careful.
I was once preaching in Stutterheim, a German
community back in South Africa, virtually the whole
town and farming community is German.
I was asked one night at the meeting
to come for lunch at one of the
farms just outside of the town of these
Christian people.
So I arrived there, and as I knocked
on the door, the door opened, and I
suddenly thought, oh, as I looked at this
woman's face, her eyes were swollen, tears, she
was smashed.
I said, oh, it's wrong for me to
be here, I can go, I don't have
to be here for lunch, I've come at
the wrong time.
She said, no, no, God knew you must
come now, today, come inside, please.
I looked at her husband, broken, sobbing.
I looked at the son, sobbing.
I sat just looking at this broken family.
See, when my boy was a young child,
he's a man now, farming with his father
here on the farm.
When he was a boy, something happened, we
could never work out.
He turned against his father.
He hates his father.
We tried to speak, to talk to him,
what is it, what's wrong?
He just closed up.
He never wanted to come near his father,
to touch his father.
He wouldn't show any affection or love to
his father, right through to the man.
He doesn't want anything to show love to
his father, just keeps his distance.
And today, we found out why.
He looked at me and said, mommy, how
could you ever have loved such a wicked
man as my father?
I said, how could you say such a
thing?
Your father's a good man.
How could you ever say that of your
father?
Mommy, when I was a boy, I remember
one day daddy whipping you, in the pantry,
whipping you.
You were screaming.
I stood at the door.
I was too small to help you.
I never forgave him.
She said, your father never did that to
me, boy.
What are you talking?
She called her husband, told her husband what
the boy said.
He just sobbed.
Then they sat there thinking, and she said,
I remember.
One day you came into the pantry, she
says to her husband.
He took the sandbox from behind the door.
I was on my knees, clearing up below
in the lower shelf.
And you were joking, you pretended you were
whipping me, and I just laughed, screaming.
That child behind the other side must have
thought you meant it.
You were doing it.
Misunderstood.
Robbed of a son.
Robbed of a father.
Do you know how possible it is you
made a mistake?
Through misunderstanding.
But if the fathers are condemned justly, now
that's another thing.
If the fathers are condemned justly, that's another
thing.
I remember standing as a boy with my
father at the gate of our home in
Durban, in South Africa.
And there was this neighbor of ours who
would walk down the street.
He always loved to speak to my father.
My father never asked him in.
But there at the gate, he was speaking
to daddy.
And I was standing beside my father, and
his son was standing beside him.
And they were speaking about this thing of
disciplining children when they needed it.
And suddenly this man took my father, when
he looked at my father with a smile
on his face and said, Oh, this boy
knows.
When he does wrong, he never does it
again.
I beat him.
I beat him, and I don't stop beating
him until he's crawling up the wall, trying
to crawl up the wall.
Then I stop.
He knows never to do it again.
And I looked at this little boy as
he looked up at me.
And the man went, and my father stood
there.
And I looked at my daddy's tears, which
was coming down my daddy's face.
My mother said, Why are you crying?
He said, Oh, that man is so wrong.
Something terrible is about to happen.
You know, a few days later, that boy
committed suicide.
He couldn't face the discipline of his father.
When that father found what he had done,
he drove himself into the grave.
And he realized how wrong he had been.
But it was too late.
Oh, I have seen many Christian parents beat
their children so that their children were not
the only ones who condemned him.
Everyone condemned him the way he beat their
child.
Listen.
Listen to these words.
I have so many scriptures.
I'm only going to give you one here.
Colossians 3, verse 21, in the Amplifiers.
Fathers, do not provoke your children.
Do not be hard on them or harass
them, lest they become discouraged and sullen and
morose and feel inferior and frustrated.
Do not break their spirits.
He's writing to Christians.
It's possible.
Don't be hard on them or harass them,
lest they become discouraged.
Oh, I could give you other scriptures.
I'd love to.
But, oh, I have seen so many Christian
parents being so hard on their discipline of
their children that their children didn't only stand
there condemning them.
In everyone's heart, we knew this is wrong.
Moody, your great D.
R.
Moody, who shook the whole world and still
shakes the whole world.
After all these years of his death, Moody,
his children wrote a book about him, you
know.
Will your children ever write a book about
you, sir?
What will they say with all your Christianity?
What will they tell the world?
Isn't what these children told the world about
Moody?
When they needed to be disciplined, Moody disciplined
them.
Sometimes it had to be publicly.
He disciplined them.
But they knew something about Moody that he
never failed to do.
Whenever it happened that they had to be
disciplined, they didn't go to sleep when they
lay in their beds, you know.
They knew something still had to happen.
Moody was a very big man, and they
waited, and there he came.
They heard him coming up the steps every
time anybody was disciplined.
They waited.
They didn't go to sleep.
There he comes.
Here comes Daddy.
And Moody fell on his knees beside the
children, and he wept.
He wept, and he said, forgive me if
I was too harsh.
You may say that's wrong to compromise and
ask forgiveness when they need it.
Let me tell you something.
If your children don't know that it hurts
you more than it hurts them, then you're
wrong.
If your children doesn't know and don't know
every time you have to discipline them, it
hurts you more than it's hurting them, then
you're wrong in how you're disciplining them.
Moody's children knew one thing.
It hurt him far more than it ever
had hurt them.
He wept when he had to hit them.
He wept.
That's what made Moody great.
That's what made him great.
We live in a day and age when,
as never before, the fathers, the parents are
controlled by the children.
We live in a day and age when,
as never before, the fathers are concerned about
the children.
We live in a day and age when,
as never before, the fathers are condemned by
the children.
We live in a day and age when,
as never before, the fathers are commissioned for
the children.
Where do I see that?
Oh, yeah, in the very book we started
with, Malachi.
Listen to how God commissions us as parents
to reach the children.
And listen what he tells us the commission
is.
This is going to shock you all.
You think reaching the children is preaching to
them, reading the Bible to them.
Listen to what God says is the only
reason you ever will reach your child in
truth.
Malachi chapter 2, where God cries out against
divorce, separation, because it breaks his heart to
know who's going to suffer the most, of
course, the children.
And then after God's rebuke, he cries in
verse 14, and I'm reading from the amplified
version.
I wish I had time to read first
from the King James, the authority to me.
But here to bring it in its expounded
way, in clarity, right to the point, verse
14, the Lord was a witness.
The Lord was a witness to the covenant
you made at your marriage, between you and
the wife of your youth, against you have
dealt faithlessly.
Faithlessly, faithlessly.
Verse 15, did not God make you and
your wife one?
Why?
Why did God make you two one?
Because he sought a godly offspring from your
union.
Why did God make you two one?
Because he sought godly children, godly offspring from
your union.
Therefore, keep a watch upon your spirit, that
it may be controlled by my spirit, that
you deal not faithlessly or treacherously with your
married mate.
Keep a watch upon your spirit, that it
may be controlled by my spirit.
We live in a day and age when
as never before, the fathers, the parents are
commissioned for the children.
How does God commission us to reach our
children?
Let me tell you, by being faithful in
your marriage, by being Christ-like in your
marriage, by being spirit-controlled in your marriage
toward your partner, your life partner, to bring
up these children to fear God, godly offspring
is one way.
Let them see you spirit-filled, spirit-controlled
in your love, in your Christ-likeness, in
your reactions to each other.
They'll listen to you then, but otherwise I
think they'll hate the God of their fathers
and mother.
Do you want to win them to Christ?
Are you the reason they'll go to hell?
The only reason they're going to hell is
that their mother and father will tell them
to come to Christ.
We have to be spirit-filled.
We're commissioned to be sure we're filled with
God's holy spirit.
Do you know what that means?
You're not filled with the spirit if this
isn't written across your life.
In every circumstance, no matter how trying, the
fruit of the spirit will spontaneously react in
your life.
Not the gift.
The gifts are counterfeit if the fruit isn't
there.
The evidence that we're filled with God's holy
spirit is not gifts.
Don't seek them.
Seek desperately for God to fill you with
the holy spirit that in every circumstance you
will spontaneously react, no matter how trying, with
the fruit of the spirit.
Love suffereth long and is kind, especially to
your marriage mates, not only to your enemy.
Oh, spirit-filled lives in the home is
what this age needs to bring the children
back to the God of their fathers.
Don't blame the devil.
Don't blame the world.
Blame yourself, because if you're not spirit-filled,
you're the one to blame on almost every
account.
And I don't say that with any judgment,
to bring judgment on myself.
I say it because God's word cries out,
that's the way you will bring godly offspring
from your union.
By being controlled by my spirit in front
of those children, so they will want the
God who made this mother and father what
they are and gave them the home they
have.
We live in a day and age when,
as never before, as never before, the fathers
are controlled by the children.
We live in a day and age when,
as never before, the fathers are concerned about
the children.
We live in a day and age when,
as never before, the fathers are condemned by
the children.
We live in a day and age when,
as never before, the fathers are commissioned for
the children, are commissioned by God for the
children.
We live in a day and age when,
as never before, the fathers are compared with
the children.
What do I mean by that?
I don't know if you see through the
scriptures how God compares the fathers.
He is to us, with me, as fathers.
If ye then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your Father, which is in heaven,
give good things to them that ask Him?
There's this amazing comparison.
If you are a father toward your children,
God says, I'm a father toward you.
And how much more in every aspect, if
you do any good, anything right, how much
more shall I be to you?
In every aspect, God continually flowing out, look
at your children, look at the love you
have, look at the care, the discipline, the
chastening.
Oh, God compares us as His children, as
we as fathers look to our children.
We live in a day and age when,
as never before, the fathers are compared to
the children.
It's a terrible thing, you know, when suddenly
you see your child disobeying you, beginning to
rebel against you, not under your authority anymore,
wanting to break loose, will not obey your
will or your commandments to him.
Oh, how your heart breaks when suddenly you
see this happening in your own child.
But then how staggered we are, how bewildered
and staggered we are when suddenly God whispers
in our hearts, as our hearts are bleeding
over our children's defiance, and God whispers to
us, now you know something, what have I,
of the grief I know through you, through
your disobedience, through your defiance, through your rebellion
against my authority and will.
Now you taste something of the grief and
the sorrow I have daily over you, as
you grieve now for your son.
How bewildered we become when God says that
to us, as we begin to grieve over
our children.
I want to ask everyone here tonight, I
want to ask every father and mother who
needs to ask God from their souls in
this day and age, desperately, God, fill me
with the Holy Spirit, that I may bring
my children up, fearing God through my life
in the home.
Those of you that know you desperately need
for God to control you by His Spirit
toward your married mates, to keep a watch
on your spirit, that it may be controlled
by my Spirit toward your life partner, for
your children to be able to fear God
and want the God you tell them of.
I want all of you who know you
need desperately to cry out to God, it's
me, fill me tonight, God, with a little
bit of time left.
I want you to stand right now as
you're the one that God's speaking to.
God, fill me for my home's sake.
I need to be Spirit-filled and controlled
by the Spirit for my children's sake, and
I'm not, though I'm saved.
Will you stand, those parents who need to,
please, before God.
Thank you for all these that are standing,
courageous of you.
I want to ask all of you to
come, come stand in the front here, make
your way, let's make this a consecration to
God here, it's a holy thing in this
day and age to seek God like this.
I want to ask all the young people,
all the children, all you children who are
not Spirit-controlled in the home, who are
not obeying your parents, but you're grieving them,
who are not honoring your mother and father.
I want those of you that need to
ask God for mercy for that tonight, to
stand right now, be courageous, yes, and ask
God tonight to make you Spirit-controlled so
that you in your home, you in your
home cannot be a grief to your parents,
but a joy.
Come, you make your way to the front,
young people.
I want to ask one last thing.
This is going to cost you sitting here
tonight, you parents that aren't saved.
In this day and age, imagine being unsaved
and bringing up children without God.
Don't do it.
There's virtually no hope without God.
You parents that know you don't know Christ,
and you need Him to come now for
your home's sake, for your life.
I want you parents, you young people who
are not saved, you are looking at the
world and all its lust and all its
evil and all that cries out to you
to rebel against your parents, with your parents
tonight, with all the unsaved here tonight in
the home.
Give God a chance in this day and
age to prove to you and to promise
you, oh, even as He promised me, great
shall be the peace of my children.
Their righteousness shall be of me.
They shall follow me.
Let God begin to give you promises in
this wicked age that will fill your heart
with hope, but you have to be God's
child for that.
I want all of you who are unsaved,
please, take courage.
All of us have to do is, will
you stand right now where you sit in
and say, God, I'm coming.
I'm coming.
Will you stand?
We're waiting.
Come to Christ.
You're not saved.
I look around.
Yes.
Now all of us bow our heads in
prayer.
I want the father, the parent to pray
this with me.
Father God, forgive me for failing thee toward
my children, toward my wife, my husband.
Forgive me for professing Christ, but not living
Him in front of my children as I
ought to.
Wash me in the blood.
Make me clean.
Let the blood go deeper, God.
Create in me a clean heart, oh God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Oh God, fill me with the Holy Spirit.
Take complete control of my life.
I yield it to thee.
Let the fruit of the Spirit spontaneously be
seen in my life, in every reaction, no
matter how hard or trying the circumstance.
That my children may believe in God through
what they see in my life.
And they may want the God of their
father and mother.
In Christ's name.
Now you young people, will you pray aloud?
All you children, no matter how old you
are, who need to pray this, but you
young people who should pray aloud.
Father, forgive me for causing any grief to
my father and mother.
I love them.
Reveal thy love to them through me as
I obey them, as I honor them.
Wash me in the blood now from every
failure.
Let the blood cleanse me through and through
and fill thou me now with thy Holy
Spirit.
That I may be Christlike and godly and
a blessing to my father and mother.
In Jesus Christ's name.
Amen.
Can we all stand in the congregation please?
If there were any who are unsaved here
tonight who are seeking God, will you please
do me the honor of walking up immediately
to someone you know is godly.
Even if it's a young person whose parents
are godly.
Don't let daddy lead you to Christ tonight.
But come to Christ tonight.
Please.
Give yourself to God as family and serve
him.
And in this world, I guarantee you, I
don't care how wicked this world becomes, God
is obliged to answer the prayers of those
holy hands.
Lifted up without wrath or doubting in the
God who's greater than the devil right to
the end.
You pray, you live the life and your
children will be godly.
And if they aren't, they're bred and will
pray with you, not condemn you.
They dare not.
It's a terrible age we're living in.
But with God, it's God.
There's never going to come a moment that
we can't walk holy in our homes and
in this world in white.
I guarantee you that if you have God
first.
Now tomorrow night, I want to go even
deeper with this thing called the home.
And I want every one of you to
come back here with others who need to
hear whose homes are hurt.
Our brother here will commit us to God.
Please.