With the continual pressure of society on young people to abandon every form of Christianity, we must teach our children the beauty of knowing the Lord, the hope that is in Him, and the grace that He gives to stand firm. If we are going to see the next generation walking with the Lord and in the power of His might, then that generation will need discipleship - primarily in families. With a culture of chaos all around us, it is our duty to set forth hope for the next generation.

Well, good morning. You're probably just as tired as I am. But that's OK. The Lord is able to give us much, much strength. If you have your Bible, please turn with me to Psalm 78.

Psalm 78. I'm going to read the first eight verses to us. Psalm 78, since you're sitting so comfortably I won't ask you, I won't, I will not ask you to stand. Let's hear it together. Give ear, O my people, to my law.

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel Which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children that the generation to come might know them Even the children which should be born Who should arise and declare them to their children that they might set their hope in?

God and not forget the works of God but keepers commandments and might not be as their fathers a stubborn and rebellious generation a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God Amen, let's pray Father we thank you again that you are Glorious and holiness and faithful in praises and you still do wonders help us now this morning and all of our tiredness to hear your word, hear our prayer in Jesus' name, amen. Well, with the advance of homosexuality, the spread of atheistic thinking, the promotion of the evolutionary theory, the cultural pressure on young people, we are called upon to stand strong in the Lord and to instruct the next generation. As believers in the gospel of God's son, we are called upon to instruct, to pass on what has been passed on to us. I hear from time to time, not always, but I tend to hear when I meet someone at times, usually a couple of days, so we are first generation Christians. There are no first generation Christians.

All first generation Christians are dead. Now you may be a Christian, but you're not first generation. The truth has to be passed on to the next generation. Our duty is to teach our children, the next generation, the beauty of knowing God and resting comfortably in Him if we are going to stand in this culture. If we are going to see the next generation walking with the Lord and in the power of his might, then that generation would need to be discipled, primarily in the home.

So with that being said, let's look at God's call. And I'm gonna speak a little slower than I did last night. I don't have a clock in front of me, but I know I'm on the timer somewhere. With that being said, we will see now God's call, or the call to hear God's instruction. It's right there in verse one.

But we have to look somewhat at the historical background. Israel had experienced God right hand of power in delivering them from the house of bondage out of the land of Egypt. He had provided all things they needed physically, and he had protect them geographically. Or you may say geographically. He brought water out of a rock.

We talked about that last night. Someone came to me and said, I never thought about it. God bringing water out of a rock. Yes, you don't get water out of a rock. God brought water out of a rock in the desert where there is no water.

We are no longer shocked by miracles that God does. He brought quails from the sea into the desert. There are no quails in the desert, but God uses the wind and blows the quails in the camp. So not only do they have bread from heaven and water to drink, they can fix all the chicken sandwich they want. I don't know how quails taste, but they say everything tastes like chicken, right?

We having dinner tonight. What are you having? Barbecue porcupine me. How does it taste? Just like chicken.

He destroyed nations and overthrew kingdoms in their path. Yet with all the kindness displayed by the Lord. They were a stiff neck and complaining people. It's amazing to me that we could experience the blessings of God while at the same time ignoring God. They were stiff neck and complaining of people whose heart was not right with God.

In other words, they were really good at being really bad. They had a good track record, a good track record of being faithless, and a bad track record of being faithful. We have the sad account of what took place after the passing of Joshua. We find it in Judges chapter 2. There arose another generation after them who knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

How in the world could that happen? God had done marvelous things. God had rescued them out of Egypt. How in the world could there be another generation, the next generation, who know not the Lord? How could that be?

They were instructed in Deuteronomy chapter 6 to pass on the truth. Yet, yet we find there arose a generation that knew not the Lord nor his works. They had the law of God, the tabernacle of God, The sacrifices of God, the worship of God, the presence of God, they had it all. Yet God was not enough. Oh, God was not enough.

We do not want to get in the mindset that God is not sufficient. God, young people, is enough. God really is all we need. God should be everything to us. We want to live in the reality that God is Glorious and beautiful and lovely and we want to serve him because he's worthy that we should do so When God is viewed as insufficient God would be viewed as insignificant.

Oh, let me rewind that and play it for you one more time when God is viewed as insufficient God will be viewed as insignificant. We don't need him at all. Another way, I guess, of putting this, God is so unimportant to me that he is not even worth my time or consideration. Remember what he said to Abraham, Genesis 15. Don't worry, I haven't left my text yet.

Genesis 15, I am your shield and your Exceeding great reward. I love that passage. God said, I am your shield and your exceeding great reward. The word exceeding means much. The word great means muchness.

God says, I am your much and your muchness. I am your protection as well as your provision, I am your everything. Seeding great reward. Dear people, all it takes is for one generation of parents. Remember dads, You are the residential theologian in your home.

Mom, you are assistant residential theologian in your home. All it takes for one, one, one generation of parents, especially fathers, not to do what God has called us to do, and the next generation will suffer. So what happened to Israel? And it's happening right now. Not only do we have fast food restaurants, we have fast food families.

We just don't have time. We're really, really, really, really busy. We just don't have time anymore. It's amazing. Studies have come out to say that families are spending more time with each other, but less time interacting with each other.

Let me see if I can explain to you what I'm talking about. Families are spending time together, per se, but everyone is on their device while they're together. They're just not interacting with one another. Oh, yes, I'm talking about that smartphone. Yes, that device we have, the smartphone, you know the smartphone that's making a lot of us really dumb, that phone.

Spending a lot of time on it. Doing what? You guessed it, absolutely nothing. Spending time, wasting time. Ah.

Instilling God's truth into the next generation will cost us something valuable. Time. It will cost us time. We want everything quick, fast, in a hurry, without putting in the time. Oh, dear people, we have to put in the time.

As one man said, listen, you may not have the time. You need to take the time. Make the time. We have to both make the time and to take the time. Listen, if my family, if any family is depending on just the leadership of the church.

We're not throwing out the church to disciple their family, to bring up their children. Sometimes that's what families are depending on. They are pending on the pastors to bring up their children. We ought to assist in that, but that's your job. God gave that job to you.

We want to encourage you to do it. If we are just depending on Sunday morning, an hour and a half or two hours of preaching or whatever and instruction, We are setting ourselves up for failure. Sunday morning is not enough. You have to have more than Sunday morning. If you are just depending on Sunday morning and Wednesday evening, I'm telling you right now, you are suffering from malnutrition.

Primary place and responsibility, as I said before, is right under your roof. Why do I say that? It's because the home is the place where families generally spend most of the time together. Home. The children need involvement from their parents, especially their dads.

That's not to throw out to mom, but especially their dads. I get at home, my wife said, okay, momma's off duty. I tell folks I gotta go home to my real job at home. It's work. I would like to just come and just grab a book and sit down, but it just doesn't work that way.

You can't even go to the bathroom without children knocking on the door. It's crazy. Daddy, can you just wait till I come out? You gotta love it though. They need involvement.

They need involvement from their parents. They need involvement, especially from their dads. Even psychologists see this. Sociologists see this. A man by the name of Dr.

Ed Crock writing in Psychology today said, children consistently report feeling abandoned when their fathers are not involved in their lives. Did you hear that? He's not even coming from a Christian perspective. Children feel abandoned when their fathers are not involved in their lives. Well, I worked all day.

I'm tired. So is mama. Oh, you got to do stuff when you're tired because you're called to do it. Glad Jesus didn't say, I'm tired. I'm not going to the cross.

We wouldn't have any salvation. Surely he was tired, but he did it anyways. Children feel abandoned when their fathers are not involved. Listen closely. A father's absence may well be the most critical social issue of our time.

What a statement. This does not mean that mom shouldn't go around the house just chewing on bubble gum all day long, Juicy Fruit. That's not what he's talking about at all, saying, yahoo, I don't have to do anything. No, no, no, no, that's not the case. But he said the most critical issue is the absent father.

Wow, the most critical issue is not the homosexuality movement. The most critical issue is not race relation. The most critical issue is not even abortion, even though these things are important. The most critical social issue is fathers not doing what God called them to do. That's the issue.

That's the issue. And those other issues are connected right to that. Apologist Margaret Mead, anthropologist Margaret Mead said, listen to this, again, not coming from a Christian perspective, every known human society rests firmly on the nurturing behavior of men. The backbone of society is resting on the backs of men. Mom has a part in that.

She gets to shape the minds of those children as well. We are supposed to be the backbone of society, but we have come to the place where we have no bones in society. Another man writing in a book says this right here, of Christless children, and the crisis of fatherless children. He says this right here, the most destructive trend of our generation, listen, the most destructive trend of our generation, fatherless children. Let me tell you what he means by that.

He says a generation ago an American child could reasonably expect to grow up with his father or her father. Not so today. He goes on to say, never before in this country have so many children been, listen, voluntarily abandoned by their fathers, voluntarily abandoned by their fathers. Never before in American history have so many men abandoned their families or failed to form them. For our society is not only losing fathers, It is losing the very ideal of fatherhood.

What a statement. Again, not coming from a Christian perspective. He said, we have lost the very notion of fatherhood. We are just too busy. It's not only in America.

It's also in Great Britain. It reports the need for a father. It's on that, listen, it's on an epidemic scale and that the father deficient, there's a father deficiency that should be treated, listen, as a public health issue. It's so bad, They say this is a public health issue. We need government funding to do something about it.

That's a bad idea, by the way, but that's what it is. But you get the sense. They're saying something has to be done. Something has to be done. Residential theologians in the home, when we abandon the word of God, we will at the same time abandon our duties to God.

We can expect disaster and an insane society, which is where we are right now. Young people, it's a little scary to me on one hand because you get to inherit this junk, this mess. That's why you have to be rooted in Jesus Christ. This is a dangerous world. This society is after your mind.

And if it gets your mind, it has you. Because your mind is separate, not separated, married to your life. What you think will actually work out in your life. You can't separate your mind from your life. What you read, what you watch, what you listen to affects how you think, and how you think is how you will live.

You can't do anything about it. They married together for life. And this society is out for your mind so that it can shape the way you live. We have people who do not know anything about God if we don't pass on the truth. You know that the new millennials make up a quarter of society?

Did you know that some 80 something million, 70%, no church, no Bible. It is the most progressive secular generation in American history. Pastor Tony Evans said this right here, what we are getting is a generation of children being raised on the world's values. It stirs me up because my children have to live in this. We are losing the next generation.

Fathers, mothers, if we don't train them, who will? If we don't teach them, who will? Young people, if you don't lay a hole of Jesus Christ, you are not going to stand. This society is like a category five hurricane. You won't be able to stand in its way if you're not standing upon a rock called Jesus Christ.

Well, it was a long introduction. I think I'll get to the message now, I think. The psalmist, the psalmist, he calls them to hear. The psalmist knowing this dilemma gives himself to instructing the next generation in the word of truth. He said, give air, oh my people, to my law.

Sit up, pay attention, tune in. He said, I have something to say to you. I have God's truth to tell you. He begins, first of all, with the strong command, as I said, calling his audience to attention. Give air, pay attention, listen up.

What I have to say is worthwhile. It's kind of like a military call to action. Attention. You were not only to hear what he had to say, but they were supposed to respond by acting on what he said. Oh, oh, oh, listen, the word of God is never intended for us just simply to hear it.

It's intended for us to respond. And may I say, we respond every single time we hear it. Young people, you respond every single time. You hear the word of God. You either say, yes, I'm going to do it, or no, I won't.

But you respond every single time. All scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for us it is designed for you and me to live in a particular way in a particular way Also, the psalmist is calling them to weigh what he says with great care, not only give attention, but weigh it with great care. We ought to turn up our receiver. We ought to hear what has to be said from the word of God. We are not to turn it away.

We ought to tune in when God has something to say to us. We ought to give full attention. It's of the utmost importance. Psalms go on to exert himself. He said, I want you to incline.

I want you to incline. The word literary means to bend yourself. I want you to bend everything in you to hear what God has to say. Stretch yourself, extend yourself. It's like Samson laying hold of those pillars.

He stretched himself and he extended himself with everything he had. That's what the Psalmist is saying when it comes to the word of God. Everything, Lord, help me to hear everything you have to say and by your grace, help me to do it. Cry to God for strength because we need this strength. He said, I'm gonna open my mouth, I'm gonna let loose.

I'm gonna give you dark sayings, I'm gonna pour out my heart, And I don't have any new ideas to tell you I have old truths for a new generation Whole truth these sayings we have it right here. I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter dark sins of old which we have heard listen which we have heard and known do you hear it? Transgenerational, it was passed on. We've heard it, we know it. We've heard it, we've known it.

Watch this beautiful part. And Our fathers have told us, oh, we come back to the residential theologians. Our fathers have told us, told us what? What God has done. Listen, if God has rescued you, you should tell your children over and over how it has happened.

Oh, yes, we've heard that before, Mama. Yes, I know, but I never get tired of telling it. I got to tell you again what God has done for me. They ought to know it. They ought to know it.

It was the fathers passing on these truths. They learned it from their father's ancestors. If you even want to say it that way, he goes on in verse 4, we will not hide them from their children. Now, that's a strange portion of scripture. You may have read that and just read over it.

He said, not only did our fathers tell us these things, but we won't hide it from their children. What? Their children? We're telling it to our children, but we won't hide it from their children. See, they had a different mindset than what we have.

We say, oh, this is my children. But see, in the ancient world, they looked at grandchildren as their children. So he said, Our fathers have told us, and we will not hide it from their children, which are our children, which are their grandchildren. It's a different mindset than how we think. We will pass these things on.

This is not America's best kept secret. We are not trying to keep secrets pertaining to the things of God. Shh, don't tell anybody about Jesus Christ. Shh, you gotta have a quiet Christianity. All you do is put a bumper stick on back of your car and drive through the neighborhood and everyone will know you're a Christian.

It doesn't work that way. Folks are not running to the church and say, tell me about Jesus! You have to go and tell them about Jesus. And then you have to live like Jesus. It's not going to happen even in our homes.

Fathers, mothers, we can't live one way or say, You know that old saying I had when I came up? They used to say, hey, listen, you do what I say, not as I do. It's a bad saying. We ought to say, do as I say, and watch what I do. We ought to pass these things on.

We are not to keep these things secret. Sometimes we say, you know, I don't want to force my religion on anybody. Do you know that the world is forcing its religion on you every day? And not asking you when you go to a restaurant and you know they're playing that nice music. No, it's terrible.

They're playing that terrible music for you. Did they ask you if you wanted to listen to that? No. When they put the billboards all up and down the interstate, then they call you up and say, excuse me, we're going to put a billboard out. What do you think about it?

They're not doing that at all. They are out to indoctrinate you. We are to indoctrinate lies. That's not even a word, but I still like the way it sounds. We ought to indoctrinate lies the world.

They say they're trying to indoctrinate us every single day. Young people hold Jesus as important. I don't like going to church. There's a bunch of hypocrites there. Folks go to work every day around hypocrites.

They never complain about that. And then they come to the church. I don't want to go to church. There are hypocrites. Hypocrites are everywhere.

You may be one. This mindset they had was different from ours. We want to redirect that mindset so that we can think clearly. Listen, let me give you an example. After Jacob had worked hard for 20-plus years to obtain Rachel, there you go, young man.

That's what you do when you want to get a wife. You work for 20 years. Then dad could say, yeah, sure, sure, sure, yeah, sure. That's a long time. He worked 20 years to obtain Rachel.

He snuck away from Laban with his entire household after noticing the relation between him and his father-in-law had changed. When Laban found out what happened, Laban jumped on his horse, his Harley-Davidson, and then he took off just to find Jacob. And when he found Jacob, he said, wait a minute. You stole away. You left.

What is this? He said, not only did you leave, these are my daughters and my children. What? He said, these are my children. That's the mindset.

My daughters and these grandchildren are my children Jacob did the same thing in Genesis chapter 49 when he calls for Joseph and he blesses his sons He said these children Ephraim and Manasseh. They are mine That's the same the same mindset We have to keep the same thing before us. We are preparing the next generation so that they would prepare the next generation. I'm getting ahead of myself, but it's in the text. It's to be passed on.

Young people, guess what? You're going to have a family one day if the Lord wills. How are you going to bring up that family? What are you going to do with that family? Things are not getting better.

They're getting worse. What are you going to stand on? What are you going to teach them? Oh, if you don't teach them this word, you are going to train them to be idolaters and God haters. Let me get busy.

I got to skip. Well, what is to be taught? What is to be taught? First, first, first tell us we are not to hide them from their children. Showing to the generation to come, here it is, the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done we ought to teach them about God Truly we can teach family tradition There's nothing wrong with that depend on what the family tradition is but we are to instruct the next generation pertaining to the praises and the glory and the might of God.

That's a beautiful thing to do. The praiseweaviness of God. We ought to tell the children, the next generation, who God is. You ask the average person, they don't even know. God, who?

If we were to ask the question, if I was to ask the question, well, let me just say this. If Zephaniah was to come into this room and say, hey, hey, hey, Hey, tell me about my book. It was only three chapters, maybe 57 verses. Can you tell me about it? Oh, I didn't even know that was in the Bible.

Is that in the Bible? We need to give back to the book. We've deviated from the book. And that's why we're in the mess we're in. We've moved from the book.

We just don't have time for the word of God or the God of the word. It shouldn't be. You did know they have the Bible in just about every format. If we don't have time to read it, someone has already read it. They have it on CD, DVD, MP3.

They even still have it on cassette. I don't know why, but they do. What we do will affect the next generation, dear people. We need to teach them who God is. He's the creator of heaven and earth and all that therein.

He made everything in six days with no assistance, no tools. That's amazing. How do you make something out of nothing? How do you speak to nothing, look at nothing, talk to nothing, and stuff just starts showing up from everywhere? How do you do that?

That's beyond the human mind. But that's exactly what God did. He spoke to nothing. And then things started showing up from everywhere. We had to teach them about God.

He made everything. He didn't have a post hole digger, a back hole, a bulldozer, or anything. That just get me, I guess, because I'm just a little child at heart. They just go, wow. Say it backwards again, wow.

He is the true God and the living God, and there is none like him. Thou, even thou, art God alone. Thou has made the heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts to earth, and all things that there in the seas, and all that is there in, and you preserveth them all." Hallelujah. That's why we're still here. God preserves.

All the stuff that's being taught to young people regarding their existence, it came from a fallen star and all kind of crazy stuff like that, we need to teach them who God is. They need to know that God was the one who fashioned them in the womb. They need to know God knows everything, as I said last night, because he's omniscient, because he's God. Yes, he knows every single thing about you. And if we're honest, that's pretty scary.

He knows everything you think, and that's pretty scary. He knows it all. He sees it all. He hears it all. We need to teach them that God has always existed and will continue to exist regardless of what the atheist says.

We need to teach them that God spoke the world into existence, made man out of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostril the breath of life, and man became a living soul, regardless of what the evolutionist says. We need to teach them that he made mankind male and female and brought man and woman together in marriage, and there are no other forms of marriage, regardless of what the homosexual movement says. We need to teach our children that God is righteous, holy, and that we owe full obedience to him and are obligated to worship him and no other. We need to teach them who God is. You have to do it.

You must do it. So do it. We need to teach them what God has done. It's the praises of the Lord. It's still right there in our text.

Our children are not taught. If our children are not taught of God's provision in the natural realm, they will see no need of God's provision in the spiritual realm. Are you with me? Tell them how God provides both physically and spiritually. The psalmist says, the eyes of all wait upon you, and you give them their meat and due season.

You open your hand. You satisfy the desire of every living thing, Psalm 145. They need to know that everything depends on God. Wow, my time. I need to quit doing this.

Everything depends on God. I got to move fast. I'm going to talk fast, OK? Everything depends on God. If he stops sending sunshine and rain and air, the vegetation will die.

Guess what? If the vegetation dies, the animals will die. And if the animals die, you're not far behind. We die. We are dependent upon God for everything.

Children, God has made us fearfully and wonderfully. I just think about the fact that just my arms, they bend at the joint, at the elbow. There's a reason for that. If you had your arms stretched out like this right here and they didn't bend at the joint, it'd be almost impossible to eat. How are you gonna do it?

You can't do it. You can't. You can feed someone else and they can feed you, but you just can't do it. So God said, I'll tell you what I'm doing. I'm gonna bend it for you so you can put it to your mouth.

God's glorious. He's glorious. We need to teach our children to sing to the Lord. Teach them to sing praise to God from whom all blessings flow. Teach them that God is a mighty fortress, a bulwark never failing.

Teach them to trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Teach them as we sung last night, God is holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty. Teach them that Jesus is a wonderful Savior who takes our burdens away. Teach them to build their hope on nothing less but Jesus' blood and righteousness. Teach them.

OK, that's one point, and they tell me. I think I got three or four more to go. I don't know how I'm going to do it. The duty to pass on God's truth, verses 6 and 7. We are responsible to our children to pass on God's legacy, God's legacy, God's legacy.

We owe them that. We owe them that to pass on God's legacy, even though there is a push to get parents out of the way. Hello. There's a push to get parents out of the way You hardly see any parents in Disney. Do you?

There's a reason for that Does me Disney has a design? Disney has a purpose their purpose is to shape the child's belief system in order to shape the child's behavior. That's their purpose. You can read it. That's their purpose.

That's why they have their magic kingdom. I hope you know that's a cult practice. It's after your mind. You better know what's going on in this world. You pass on God's legacy.

Even though dads, you need to be there along with mom. Your children need you. They need you. Listen to what this Irish play writer said. Oscar Wilde, at all people.

Listen to what he said. Father should, fathers should neither be seen nor heard. Did you hear that? Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.

What a demonic statement. Oh, they're after you. I hope you know it. Don't give in. Parents pass on the truth.

Children receive the truth, so you can pass on the truth. It's right there in our passage that the generation to come, listen in verse six, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should not be born. I'm looking down to the future, to grandchildren, great grandchildren, great, great grandchildren. I'm looking for the truth to be passed on if we don't do it who will Satan has a Bible for your children won't look like this one. Satan has a hymn book for your children.

It just won't be the songs to the most high. He has it. Oh, he loves. He loves for us to gather in buildings and hear the word as long as we don't do it. He loves for us to sing songs as long as we do it halfheartedly.

He loves for us to read the word as long as we don't practice it. He loves it. Oscar Wilde said, get rid of the fathers. That's the best place for them, out of the family. Primary instruction for children will come from you.

Well, since I had a sign go up, I have to do some editing. A warning, just let me go to the warning of rejecting God's instruction. There's a warning, We are to tell them not to follow a multitude to do evil. It's Exodus chapter 23. He said that they might set their hope in God.

That's why we tell them the truth, first of all. That's why we pass on instruction so that they would declare them to their children that they might set their hope in God. Listen to the key word and not forget the works of God by keepers commandments. We're doing it so that they would know something about the provision of God, the glory of God, but that they would not forget the works of God because it's easy to be forgotten. There arose a generation that knew not the Lord.

Someone forgot. Someone got slack along the way. We can't afford to get slack. We can't afford to put down our guards in any way. We have a real enemy who's out to do real damage.

We can't put down our guards. Well, I remember one time it was a man, you probably heard the name, Floyd Mayweather, probably going down in history as one of the greatest boxers that ever lived. He was fighting a man called Victor Ortiz. Victor Ortiz was really working him over. And Victor Ortiz took his hand and just rammed it into his mouth, busted him up.

The referee came in and stopped it and gave Ortiz some real strong warnings. But something interesting happened afterward. Mr. Ortez wanted to show some sportsman-like conduct. He came out and wanted to apologize to Mayweather.

So he came out with his arms just like this to give Mayweather a hug. And Mayweather kind of nodded his head like this and knocked him out. You know why? He had his guards down! And he did not realize that Mayweather never put his down.

And he knocked him out. Oh, you can't afford to put down your guards at any given time in this culture or you will be knocked out. Can't afford to do it. We are to pass on the truth and there's a warning. We are to remind them that if sinners entice them, do not consent, teach them that there are warnings in scripture.

God said I will laugh at your calamity when it comes. I will mock at your fear when it's coming. Why would he do all of these things for that? They hated the knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord. That's why They were none of my counsel They despised all my reproof therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices.

The last thing we want God to do is give us what we want. When those things we want are not the things of God, we don't want it. That's the last thing we want God to do, to give us what we want. When they are not in line with God. And that one said of them as it was said again of Joshua, and the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works that he had done, but that next generation did not know the Lord.

They may set their hope in God, warning, and not be as their fathers a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their hearts aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. We don't want that. We want to be walking in the ways of truth and when we do what God has called us to do heaven Backs us up. What a glorious thing that heaven would actually back us up So much of God's in hey, I Have your back Do it I have your back. Yes, it's an impossible assignment.

We need strength, and many times We are depending on our own strength. It's like the little boy whose dad said, lift that rock, and he grabbed that big boat and said, I can't lift it, dad. It's too heavy. He said, use full strength. He said, uh, Dad, it's just too heavy.

No, son, you're not using your full strength. And he grabbed it and said, it's too heavy. Son, you're not using your full strength. Dad, what do you mean I'm not using my full strength? He said, you're not using your full strength because you haven't asked me for help yet.

And it's the same thing with us. We try to lift things that are too heavy, and we haven't asked our Father for help yet. We need help to do this. It's an impossible task. It's a tiring task.

We've got to have help from on high if we are going to raise the next generation. We are the instruments of instruction for the next generation. Let us teach them the faith of the Lord and the need to heed his instruction. It is their duty to pass it on to their children. Are you hearing me?

It is their duty to pass it on to their children. But it's our duty to Pass it on to them. Let us not let them down. Let us, let us instill as much as humanly possible instill in our children the truths of God if they see you sin let them see you repent. Lord knows I had to wake my children up many times.

If you're wrong you can't be right until you get it right. Let us teach them that God is everything, that God is a wellspring of life, that God is what we need. Fathers, Don't be pretenders. Let us live before the living God. And let us instruct our families.

Parents, sometimes we can be a little brutal. Sometimes we get very, very, very impatient. That's why God gave you children. My children have a way to show me how impatient I am without even telling me I'm impatient. That's when I thought I had patient now.

They my little sanctifiers. You call them children, I call them sanctifiers. Let us be gentle with our children firm at the same time as we tell them what God says in those Corrective moments let us instill in them the truths of God. I take them out in the yard and we pull weeds. It's teaching time.

They like to pull the top. I say, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't pull the top. You got to go down and get the root. You got to get the root.

And that's how we deal with sin. You just can't cut off the top. You got to get down at the root. And you got to deal with the root. Oh, children, I love it when they say it.

I can't wait till I get 18. I don't know where that number came from. But it's in our society. I can't wait till I get 18. When I get 18!

Oh, man now! No one tells me what to do because I'm 18! Oh, I get a little envelope in the mail all the time. It's number 10 envelope, got a little corner, a tan corner over there, it's tan box, it's from the light company. And in that tan corner is the amount due.

I've never seen a question mark behind that amount. Have you? Because they're not asking me anything. They're telling me, this is what you're going to pay. Now I can go down there and say, listen, no one tells me what to do.

I'm over 18. Okay, Mr. Simmons, we're not arguing with you at all. You will just be in the dark. So we have a mindset for some reason because we hit some little plateau.

No one tells me what to do. I'm going in the military. Oh, they will tell you what to do. You better believe it. Where to go and how to get there.

Let's go, our time's up. Let us do it for the glory of God. The works of God are designed to stir up worship in us. Hope for the next generation is set no other and none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to see him in his beauty and glory and loveliness and we ought to live by faith in him and guess what we can do it by the grace of God let's pray father we thank you again for your kindness your blessing to us hear our prayer bless us Oh father as we take up this task it's hard Lord it's hard especially in our attractive society help us as men women and children to live in the glory of our great God.

Bless these dear ones, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.