Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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Let's stand for prayer.
Our God and our Father, we ask you
now in Jesus Christ's name that you will
sanctify these two sessions with your presence.
God, I pray that you will speak.
Lord, out of your heart, from your throne
in heaven, God, I pray that you will
speak to our hearts, Father.
You know how you feel about homes, Lord.
Share your heart with us this morning.
We pray, we plead with you for this,
Father, and we ask it in the name
of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
You may be seated.
This morning, we're going to begin with more
pictures of promise.
Too many beautiful, glorious pictures of promise in
the Bible to fit into a 45-minute
sermon.
These are Spirit-inspired pictures of God's will
for you and for your family.
When we look into them, we see.
As we see, God creates desire in the
heart.
With that desire in the heart, we begin
to move in the direction of that which
we see.
That is how God uses vision to move
His people from where they are to where
He wants them to be.
With that desire, the heart is opened up
to instruction and correction.
This is the reason why we are staying
so long on the visionary aspect of our
homes so that when we get down to
the nuts and the bolts where instruction, where
correction is given, our hearts will be willing
and open to hear and receive deeply what
we are being given.
Sometimes that can be painful.
Vision helps us to bear that pain because
we see something.
And because we see it and desire it
and we want it, we are willing to
bear the pain of facing our failures, and
thus we will get the gain of taking
steps forward in our homes.
That's the purpose for all the emphasis on
vision.
Now let's read in Psalm 127 as we
look at some more pictures of promise in
the Bible.
Psalm 127, starting in verse 3.
Lo, children are inheritance of the Lord, and
the fruit of the womb is His reward.
Hallelujah.
As arrows are in the hand of a
mighty man, so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver
full of them.
They shall not be ashamed, but they shall
speak with the enemies in the gates.
Glory.
We want to look this morning to begin
with here at carefully prepared arrows.
God begins with some lofty statements about our
children as we have read here.
Again, showing us the value, the precious value
that He has placed upon children.
And then He follows it with several analogies.
And I would just like to make the
comparisons here before we go any further.
We see in this text a physical war,
but we also, with the eyes of our
heart, being New Testament Christians, we also see
that there is a spiritual war.
That spiritual war is more important than any
physical war upon this earth.
Oh, that God's people would understand that.
We also see an enemy in that war,
and yea, we have our spiritual enemies also.
There is a man in this war as
we look at these verses.
And according to the scriptures, that man is
a spiritual father.
And lastly, there are weapons in war.
And the weapons in this spiritual war that
we're speaking about, those weapons are our children.
Don't forget that, brothers and sisters.
There is a war.
We have an enemy.
We are in this war.
And those weapons are our children.
We must understand life in Israel a bit
to understand the depths of the meaning of
these verses that we have read.
In Israel, in Bible days, every able man
was expected to go to war.
And they prepared for it.
Young men from the time they were boys
prepared for the day when they could keep
rank in the armies of Israel.
Glory!
Boys, they prepared for the day when they
could keep rank in the armies of Israel.
It was part of their responsibility.
In Israel, arrows were a very effective weapon
against the enemy.
If you could just, you know, put your
mind here for a minute.
It's one thing to pull out a sword
and stand face to face with the enemy.
It's another thing to pull out an arrow
and put it in a bow and stand
back about a hundred feet and shoot.
If you can do that, you have a
very effective weapon at your hands.
Now, in Israel's day, there were no factories
where arrows were made.
You couldn't go down to the local sporting
goods store and buy arrows.
Most of the time, the soldiers in Israel,
they made their own arrows.
Every young man was an expert in their
weapons of war.
Arrows were a big issue.
These arrows needed to be straight.
If an arrow is not straight, it will
not go where you want it to go.
So it was very important that the arrows
would be straight.
Those soldiers took great care at making straight,
sharp arrows.
Imagine how it was.
There's a father sitting by the side of
his house at a time when there was
no war, making arrows.
There he has his arrows in his hand.
He's got his little knife in his hand
and he's there working on these arrows.
Where do you think his mind is at
while he's working on these arrows?
We all know where that soldier's mind is
at while he's there working on that arrow.
Holding it up there, eyeing it a bit,
seeing it a little crooked right here, back
down he goes again.
His mind is on the enemy while he
is working on that arrow.
There's no question about it.
He saw himself standing before the enemies of
the God of Israel.
And he would shave some off and hold
it up to give it his eye.
Shave a little more off and hold it
up to give it his eye.
This is the way he did, all the
while thinking of where this arrow might go
someday, and all the while planning that when
the time comes, when he stands before the
enemy and he reaches in to his quiver
and pulls out one of those arrows and
puts it in the bow and pulls it
back, he knows this arrow must hit the
mark.
Now, with these soldiers, hitting the mark was
no problem.
They were expert at it.
The problem was not hitting the mark because
of their ability.
The problem was, I must have an arrow
that will go straight.
Because I know how to make it.
I know how to aim it straight.
But I must have an arrow that when
I put it in that bow, it will
go right to the place where I want
it to go.
This is the illustration that we see right
here.
It's powerful, isn't it?
That arrow must hit the mark.
If it doesn't, it's useless.
What good is a bunch of arrows in
the back, in your quiver, if when you
pull them out and you aim over here,
it goes over there?
No value at all.
The practical applications, if we can just remember
the four comparisons.
A godly father is a man, a spiritual
man.
He sees into the eternal.
He sees a spiritual war over righteousness and
the souls of men.
This war has high stakes.
He sees an enemy.
The enemy is a wicked king.
This enemy has a wicked kingdom.
And this enemy is fighting against God and
against righteousness and against anybody who is standing
for God or righteousness.
This is the godly father.
And lastly, he sees his children.
These, my children, they are the weapons that
are in his hand, which are sent forth
to hit a mark in the enemy's camp.
That is the illustration.
These weapons are spiritual youth prepared with care
for battles.
Note that they are not prepared with care
so you can sit them beside your house.
They are prepared with care for battle.
There is a big difference between those two
goals.
Joy fills the heart of this godly father
as he dreams of the day when he
will have his quiver full of these kind
of arrows.
His heart fills with joy as he dreams
of that.
And together with his wife, they rise up
with their whole heart to raise a quiver
full of arrows that will hit the mark.
Brothers and sisters, that's what we need to
do.
We need to rise up with our wives
and with all of our heart prepare a
quiver full of children who will hit the
mark when God decides to shoot them somewhere.
This is no little endeavor, by the way.
It takes this husband and wife 40 years
to do this.
But that's alright.
When you shoot one of these arrows, they
do all kinds of damage.
It's worth a 40-year investment, no doubt
about it.
They take special care in everything they do.
Each one of these, my children, must hit
the mark.
God has a plan for every one of
my children.
I don't know what it is.
I don't know where God's going to shoot
them.
But I know that every one of them
must be prepared so that when God picks
it up and shoots it, it will hit
the mark and do damage to Satan's kingdom
and bring glory and honor to God.
That's what God has in His heart.
Oh, happy is the man that has his
quiver full of arrows that will hit the
mark when He pulls it out and shoots
it.
I don't know about you.
I don't know where you're at in your
own heart, how deep your vision or your
dedication or your determination goes.
But as for me and my house, we
are making arrows.
We're shaving them off and holding them up
to look at the eye.
And we're shaving them off and we're holding
them up to give them a good eye
to see if they're straight.
And we're going to shave them off a
bit more and hold them up there so
that we can look at them with our
eye.
We are making arrows at our house that
will hit the mark, brothers and sisters.
With purpose!
With determination!
With a goal in mind.
It takes a lot of time and effort
to make arrows like that.
But these arrows must hit the mark.
They must hit the mark.
The mark is the enemy and his territory.
The mark is some place of service in
this old world to build God's kingdom.
That's the mark.
A statement I hear many times, it troubles
me.
I probably don't hear it as much anymore.
They wouldn't say it around me.
But I hear it.
I hear people say, well, my children will
turn out all right.
I think my children will turn out all
right.
They'll make it somehow.
It'll be okay.
Well, this statement lacks much purpose and vision,
if you ask me.
I don't want children that just turn out
all right.
I don't want just children that will fit
into a church somewhere and sit on a
bench somewhere and that's where they'll be for
the next 20 or 30 years.
That's not what I'm aiming at.
Bless God, I'd rather see them there than
out into the heathen world.
But I want more than that for my
children.
I don't want them to just turn out
all right.
I want them to be one of those
arrows that God can look down at someday
and say, there's one breach out of that.
Pull it out of that quiver.
Put it in His bow and shoot it
somewhere.
My sights are set higher than all right.
The fields are white and the labors are
few, brothers and sisters, and the Lord will
use every arrow that He can find.
You can be sure of it.
He'll use every one that He can find.
Every one that has been prepared to hit
the mark, God will pick it up and
God will use it.
The next portrait, a many generation foundation.
Just to give a little short background here,
Isaiah chapter 58 is one of the most
powerful chapters in the Bible, by the way.
It's a chapter about fasting, biblical fasting.
It is an Old Testament example of a
New Testament spirit-filled life.
It has hidden within it all the secrets
and all the requirements for revival in your
life, whether it's personally, whether it's corporately, whether
it's in your family.
It has all those things hidden in it,
this one chapter in Isaiah chapter 58.
It is a beautiful example of what New
Testament reality is all about.
In here, we see that God is a
covenant-keeping God.
God says, if you will do this, then
I will do this.
And because God is a covenant-keeping God,
you'll find these words often in the Bible
in the middle of this covenant-keeping God's
words.
You'll find the big little word, if, and
you'll also find the word, then.
God says, if you will do this, then
I will do this.
And God never lies.
Amen?
He is a covenant-keeping God.
His integrity will cause Him to do what
He said He will do every time.
Hallelujah.
I'm glad for that.
Let's read in Isaiah chapter 58.
In verse 9, God says, Then, that's after
a few ifs that we haven't read here,
Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall
answer.
Now that's worth something, isn't it?
When you call, and the Lord answers.
Thou shalt cry, and He shall say, He,
the Lord, He shall say, Here I am.
If thou take away from the midst of
thee the yoke, the putting forth of the
finger, and speaking vanity, and if thou draw
out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy
the afflicted soul, then, then shall thy light
rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as
the noonday.
And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and
satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat
thy bones, and thou shalt be like a
watered garden, and like a spring of water,
whose waters fail not.
And they that shall be of thee shall
build the old waste places.
Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many
generations.
And thou shalt be called the repairer of
the breach, and the restorer of paths to
dwell in.
Now in this text, there are three major
truths that I would like for us to
look at here for just a few moments.
The first one is simply this.
In this whole chapter, God says to us,
we must be rightly related to Him.
That's the first thing.
That's the truth that comes out of Isaiah
58.
They were wanting to fast.
They were trying to twist God's arm, make
God do what they wanted Him to do,
because they were going without eating.
And God was trying to help them to
see, you don't twist My arm and make
Me do something by just going without eating.
You must be rightly related to Me.
We see that so clearly here.
We must be rightly related to God through
brokenness and repentance, turning away from sins of
commission, and also sins of omission.
And you'll see them both in there, by
the way.
The purpose of the fast is to draw
nigh to God.
Then, when the upward look is right, principle
number two, God's flow of grace begins to
happen in your life.
This experience is described in clear words in
our text.
We see the outshining of God upon this
individual who has gotten right with Him.
We see so clearly God's voice leading them.
That's the Spirit-filled life, by the way.
This is the way.
Walking in it.
Walk after the dictates of the Spirit, not
after the dictates of the flesh, it says
in the New Testament, Romans 8.
God's clear voice leading us.
We see water.
Amen.
Overflowing water in these verses.
And it's not talking about the kind that
I have in my cup up here this
morning.
Bless God, it's talking about the fountain of
living water, which is God.
And also it speaks about a healthy body
there.
Let's go for this, my brothers and sisters,
with all of our hearts this week.
And I do have confidence that that's exactly
what you're doing this week.
You're going for it with all of your
hearts.
Number three, once we get rightly related to
God, then God's grace begins to flow into
our life.
And all of these beautiful things happen.
But one thing that we want to focus
on here is that after the flow of
God's grace comes in, then there is an
outflow of God's grace.
And this is where ministry happens.
In fact, if there's no outflow or inflow
into your life, you will have no ministry.
You may be able to make noise.
You may be able to do things.
You may be able to have lots of
activity.
But until there is an inflow and an
outflow of the grace of God, you have
no ministry whatsoever.
Mark that down.
So, God begins to focus on that in
verse 12, where the ministry begins.
And God describes it in verse 12.
And it's the whole verse.
But I would like for us just to
notice the one.
One of the fruits of this powerful, Spirit
-filled life is a many-generation foundation.
A many-generation foundation.
Or a foundation in your home that is
so strong, that is so powerful, that is
so influential that many generations come forth out
of it.
The foundation of your life becomes an impetus
for righteousness in many generations to come.
Whoo!
Glory!
Do you see it?
Do you see that?
It's awesome.
Everyone knows that the foundation is the true
strength of any house.
Amen?
I mean, you have to dig deep if
you want a good, strong house.
With the skyscrapers, it's very clear you know
what they're doing.
When they're ready to build one of these
buildings, you know, 30, 40, 50 stories high,
they dig way down into the ground because
they know they need a strong foundation to
hold a big, high structure.
Brothers and sisters, it is the same with
the house that we build.
There must be a deep and a strong
foundation if you want a beautiful structure to
come up and grow for many generations.
It must be that way.
The question is this.
Hear the practical lessons this morning.
What kind of house do you want?
What kind of foundation are you laying?
A one-story slab house needs three or
four inches of concrete and that's all you
need and you put a little house on
the top of it.
No big deal.
What kind of house do you want?
That is the question.
How many generations do you want your foundation
to hold?
One?
One half?
Two?
Four?
What kind of house do you want?
That is the challenge this morning.
It's a practical challenge.
God says, if you will love Me with
all your heart and walk in My ways,
I will pour out My Spirit upon you
and thou shalt raise up the foundations of
many generations.
Remember we gave the illustration of William Booth
and his home and Hudson Taylor's home and
I focused in on many, many of these
homes in the Home Histories, in the Remnant
Magazine, but in every one of those situations
they are an example of this verse right
here.
There was a father and a mother who
loved God with all their heart, soul, mind
and strength and they followed God with all
their zeal and with all their love and
there were children who lived in their house.
Those children cannot help but be affected by
living with parents who are on fire for
God.
They cannot help it.
I mean, here they are, they're open, they're
innocent little children.
There they are.
They're in this atmosphere.
They're in this home.
They're wide open to be taught anything.
If they live in a house where there's
a fanatic father and a fanatic mother, and
by that I mean somebody who loves God
extravagantly, those children will be affected by that.
No question about it.
Consider with me, you are the foundation of
the next generation.
You are.
And they are the foundation of the next.
And on it goes.
The next generation of children will grow up
on you, who you really are in the
Lord.
Not who you put on to be on
Sunday morning when you're with everybody else and
you know what you're supposed to do and
say, but who you really are in the
Lord.
That is the foundation for the next generation
in your household.
Awesome words.
Sobering words.
Who you really are in convictions, in character,
who you are behind closed doors is the
foundation for the next generation of children that
come forth from you.
This can only be done in the Lord,
but in the Lord it can be done.
Let's believe it.
Now let's examine our foundations a bit.
Let's just share a little of our testimony,
Jackie and I.
Twenty some years ago, it began to dawn
on us as God was opening our eyes
to all of what we're saying here this
week.
Twenty some years ago, it began to dawn
on us that something was wrong in many
of the homes.
I noticed in the churches that I knew
that many were losing their children.
These were the best evangelical churches that I
knew of.
They were losing many of their children to
the world.
Now, my observations covered several denominations, but obviously
not all of them, but Bible churches, Christian
Missionary Alliance, Baptist, Charismatic.
Those were the ones that I was familiar
with.
And I looked around with a discerning eye
and I looked and I said, something is
wrong.
All these children, whoosh, are going out into
the world.
They live like the world.
They act like the world.
They talk like the world.
They look like the world.
They're worldly.
Something's wrong.
What's wrong?
I had to begin to ask myself.
The youth did not rise up and serve
the Lord with their whole hearts and with
their whole life.
Now, many of them stayed in church, but
they were lukewarm.
They were worldly.
They were the Sunday morning type, you know,
show up there, praise the Lord.
Hallelujah.
Go live my own selfish life the rest
of the week.
By the way, there's something wrong if that's
all you got.
You got about a one quarter foundation right
there.
That's all you got if you got them
to do that.
Others of them, they just went out into
the world whole hog to the pain of
their parents and the shame of their parents
and the embarrassment of their parents.
They just went out into the world whole
hog.
I saw this.
The girls, all the girls, they were wearing
sensuous attire and they had their makeup on
and, I mean, the dating game was in
full swing in these churches and these dangerous
practices brought fornication and other moral failures into
the lives of the young people.
And I looked at that and with a
discerning eye, I said, if I hang around
here, that's what's going to happen to my
young people.
I'm not going to hang around here.
I will not have that with mine.
That was my heart.
Now, it wasn't this way in all of
them, please.
I don't want to be too hard.
But it was enough that way to alert
any discerning father and mother something has gone
awray.
The foundation wasn't very deep.
Many times it could not hold even one
generation.
Some of the parents said, well, that's just
the way it is today.
But as I began to study and study,
I realized they have already given up.
After careful study in these texts that we've
been looking at, I said, God has a
better way for mine.
God has a better way.
I said in my own heart, this is
not normal.
Normal is youth who love God and serving
in purity all the days of their youthful
life.
That's normal!
Brothers and sisters, let us free ourselves and
our children from this generational curse.
I hadn't made the connection back then that
I know now, the connection that is between
the parents and the children.
I didn't realize back then that the reason
why all these children are going out into
the world is because their parents are fakes.
I didn't realize it.
I just looked at it and said, this
doesn't look good to me and I don't
think I want to go this way.
I'm bailing out.
But now I know the reason why all
those children were doing all those things that
they were doing and going off into the
world and playing Sunday Christianity is because that's
what they got from their father and mother.
That was the reality of it all.
And oh, those are sobering words to us
when we consider how many generation foundation do
we have if we measure the measure of
who we really are in the Lord.
Every one of us that is here.
Brothers and sisters again, let us free ourselves
and our children from this generational curse.
Let us repent.
Because they will be where we are, like
it or not.
What kind of foundation are we laying this
morning?
That's the question that every one of us
need to ask.
Let's look at America 200 years ago.
Years ago, I read an article in a
homeschool magazine.
It was a challenging article on the goals
and dreams of education in our land.
It was very revealing to my modern mind.
I realized as I read it, oh, how
far we have fallen.
And it is good for us to consider
in light of laying a foundation that supports
many generations.
Note the high points of this article.
America 200 years ago.
Children began to learn Greek and Hebrew at
the age of six, so they could study
the Bible when they were older.
At the age of 10, the children had
put off silly mindedness and were preparing for
real life.
Young men entered Bible colleges to study and
prepare for the ministry at age 12.
These young men, in order to get into
these Bible colleges, they had to be able
to diagram a paragraph.
That means divided up, noun, verb, adverb, adjective,
preposition, all of that in Greek, Hebrew and
Latin.
They had to be able to parse all
those verses in Greek, Hebrew and Latin.
Age 12.
I was awestruck when I read it.
This was part of the entrance exam for
these Bible colleges, you know, like Yale and
Princeton and Harvard.
Things sure have changed, haven't they?
It was normal 200 years ago.
It was normal for a 12-year-old
boy to be able to operate his father's
business while he slipped away for a day
or two.
The land was full of young ladies who
could guide their homes in every area while
Mom was away for a day or two.
Twelve-year-old girls who could run their
whole house.
It was normal.
Everywhere you went, you saw it that way.
Everywhere you went, there were fathers who could
slip away from their business, and there was
a fine 12-year-old boy who stepped
up and took his dad's place and started
making things happen.
Hallelujah!
God, do it again!
Do it again!
Oh, how we've fallen!
200 years ago, America had three books to
read.
The Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, and Fox's Book of
Martyrs.
Amen?
Unless you lived in this area, then they
had Martyr's Mirror.
But bless God, they weren't feeding on all
this nonsense that the young people and the
children are feeding on in America today, and
I guarantee you it's not turning out the
same kind of fruit either.
Now, it's easy for us to say, oh,
how far education has fallen in, but what
about our own ideals about training children?
It could be that we have also fallen
while we look out there and say education
has fallen.
Maybe we've fallen further than we realize also.
Christian parents, have you fallen into the same
trap?
Consider.
Do we believe it's good for children to
work and do their chores at an early
age?
I know.
Shitty life has changed a lot of that.
The family farm kind of leaned that way.
You know, I mean, you had to have
help.
We were on the family farm.
One man couldn't do it all.
But the question is, what is your view
of that today?
As you sit here and hear it, do
you think, my, that's terrible to do that
to a little boy.
Why don't you let the little boy have
a little fun?
Yeah, you let that little boy have a
little fun, and he'll still be having fun
when he's 21.
What about the mental disciplines?
How about memorizing many portions of Scripture?
Do we look at our children and say,
my children can memorize Scriptures.
I'm going to guide them this way.
I'm going to give them the opportunities.
I'm going to sit them down and work
with them.
I'm going to put them in a room
where they can memorize chapters of the Bible,
so that when they grow up, they are
full of the Word of God.
Do we look at it that way?
Is it okay to train your children to
run the house or the business by the
age of 12?
Or do we look at that as a
terrible thing on poor Johnny boy?
Here in Lancaster County, we see it all
the time, bless God.
I mean, when I moved here, I started
taking notes.
You know, I looked around and I saw
these little boys out there jumping in there
doing their work.
One of the first jobs that I had
was repairing electric motors and one of the
other ones was repairing small engines.
Bless God, one of the most embarrassing things
was this nine year old boy that would
come up and stand next to me at
my workbench and say, no, you don't do
it that way.
You do it this way.
Here, give it to me.
And he would fix it right in front
of my eyes, nine years old.
Oh, man.
But I was taking notes while I was
embarrassed, you can be sure.
What's our attitude?
How do we look at it?
Have we given in to the philosophies of
this world and we don't know it?
I tremble at the silly reading materials that
go on these days instead of just a
good old King James Bible.
Amen?
All the nonsense that our children are growing
up on.
We Americans think that childhood is fun and
play and we want to extend it as
long as we can for little Johnny boy.
This did not our forefathers.
And it produced serious-minded, mature young people
who could run their households at the age
of 12.
Do it again, Lord.
I don't know about you, but I'm raising
adults, not children.
And there's a big difference between the two
of those.
I agree with Eve when she said, as
she held her first little baby in her
hands, I have gotten a man from the
Lord.
Do you ever ponder that?
That's what Eve said.
Oh!
She had this little boy in her hands
and she said, I have gotten a man
from the Lord.
Have you gotten a man from the Lord?
Or did you get a little baby?
A little fella who's going to run around
and play and goof off all his life?
Which one is it?
I'm raising adults.
There's a difference in the goal you have,
in what you see, if while you work
with them, all the time, you see one
of those mature plants standing there ready to
bear fruit at an early age.
You're surely going to guide that plant differently
than if you look at it and say,
well, someday, someday, he'll get straightened out.
Someday, he'll do something for God.
Until then, don't let the poor fella have
too hard of a life, you know.
Let him have his fun and play and
his goofing off.
And I tell you what, that whole mentality
has ruined several generations of children.
The goal is adults, brothers and sisters.
We have enough children in this land that
are 21 years old.
Still filled with play and frolic and jokes
and silly mindedness, and I'm one of them.
I was 23 years old before I finally
woke up and realized there's a real life
to live.
And that's when I got born again.
All of a sudden, my eyes were opened
up and I realized, uh-oh, I am
way behind.
And by the way, I feel it all
the time, even to this day.
I feel way behind.
But bless God, we're going to do better.
We're going to do better with ours.
There's lots of talk about revival these days
and I'm glad for all of it.
Praise God!
I believe in revival.
I pray for revival.
We need revival.
No doubt about it.
I pray for a visitation from God upon
charity Christian fellowship.
I pray God, make us like that Chinese
church.
By the way, it seemed a bit Chinese
around here in that prayer meeting this morning.
I really appreciated that.
That fervency is good.
And it's healthy.
But listen to me.
If all we think of when we think
about revival is preaching and souls getting saved,
we have only seen half the picture, remember?
Two ways.
Not one.
It's not just winning souls.
I believe in that.
But it's raising up a godly seed.
One of the clear biblical fruits of true
revival is a family that loves God with
their whole hearts.
If your revival has not touched your family,
it's spurious!
It's spurious!
Because the Spirit of God is brooding over
the hearts of the fathers, turning the hearts
of the fathers toward the children, and brooding
over the hearts of the children, turning the
hearts of the children to the fathers.
That's what the Spirit of God is doing.
We need revival this week.
We need revival.
One that will purify and sanctify and empower
us to lay a many-generation foundation in
our homes.
Will we pay the price?
That's the question.
Will we pay the price of the long
-term commitment that it takes in order to
produce a generation of children who grow up
and love God?
That's the question.
And the greatest price that you could pay
is the price that you pay along with
God as you wait before Him and allow
Him to probe your heart to such a
depth that He can find your heart to
such a yieldedness that He could honor you
by pouring His Spirit out in your heart
and your life.
That is the greatest thing you can do
for the foundation of the generations to come
is to be filled with the Holy Ghost
and walk in that filling every day of
your life.
You can't do anything more for your children
than that.
Nothing is higher than that goal.
We need a revival this week.
Amen.
But we are so busy, aren't we?
Oh, us Americans, we are so busy.
Our busyness is killing us and our families.
We need to get back to the basics.
We live in an unusual society, brothers and
sisters.
We live in a society where it's easy
to make lots of money.
We are a nation of men that will
be rich.
And this is destroying the foundation of our
homes.
It's easy to be successful today, but the
question is, what is success?
A big pile of money?
Or a bunch of arrows in a quiver
ready to go?
Which one is success?
That's the question.
The prisons are overflowing.
The divorce rates are on the increase.
The streets are dangerous for us to walk
in.
I talked to a brother here just last
evening who was down in the prison crusade
for a week here not long ago, and
he came with tears running down his face
and he said, Brother Denny, they're all in
there!
They're all in there because they didn't have
a dad!
Maybe we're putting the wrong ones in prison.
Amen?
Yes, we need a revival.
Listen to this and it will be done.
We need a revival.
But the end time move of God's Spirit
will be a mighty move of God that
will move the hearts of the parents and
turn their hearts toward their children and move
the hearts of those children and turn them
toward their parents!
It will do it.
Our children are the most precious possession that
we have.
May God open our eyes to the reality
of it.
Let's pray.
Oh, thank You, Father.
Thank You this morning, God, for Your Word.
It is precious.
Thank You, Lord, for those songs that preceded
Your Word this morning.
We believe, Lord, yes, the promises.
They give us a bright today and a
bright hope for tomorrow, Lord.
God, we do not despair this morning, though
it may be hard to sit in here
and examine where we are at.
But, oh, Father, our hearts rise up this
morning in faith and confidence and trust in
You.
You are well able to help us with
all these things.
Oh, God, please do help us with our
children, we pray in Jesus Christ's name, Amen.