The sermon is based on Psalm 78 and focuses on the responsibility of believers to teach the next generation about the sovereignty and works of God. It emphasizes the importance of family shepherds and the need to cast a vision of God's majesty to children. The speaker shares personal experiences and highlights the preeminence of Jesus Christ in all things. The sermon emphasizes the necessity of hope in God, the remembrance of His works, and the importance of obeying His commandments.

Psalm 78, I'm going to begin in verse 4 and read through verse 8. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey Word of God. Praise the Lord. Verse 4, we will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works which he has 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, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments, and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set his heart aright and whose spirit was not faithful to God. Let's pray.

Oh Lord, we thank you for words of life, to say them over and over again. We thank you for the direction. We thank you for the disclosure of your majesty that's in this passage to thrill our hearts with your absolute sovereign control. And what a joy it is to speak it to the rising generation. Amen.

So please be seated. Psalm 78 of course speaks of the responsibility that believers have to teach the next generation, and the next generation, and the next generation. And it really casts a vision for the majesty of God and how the hearts and the homes are really designed by God to be filled with a sense of the majesty of the sovereign hand of God and so in one way this really focuses on Family shepherds and you know, we have many young families here You know Many of the young families that are here that have children grew up in our churches. And you're here now. You were seven years old when you came, and now you have children.

And so I want to speak to you and I want to speak to the older parents here as well but only slightly, you already know what I'm going to say but I want to really dial in the the great responsibility that we have as a church to cast a vision of a sovereign and mighty God who saved sinners and But we are sheep you know this really this passage speaks about how how shepherds How family shepherds? Should shepherd the sheep and it's so strange but a little bit too close to home, that we're called sheep. You know, Paul Newby's wife, Macon Newby, told my wife one time, because they raised sheep, she said, sheep are always trying to die. Sheep have to be rescued. Sheep are the only animal that actually required domestication to keep them alive.

And sheep, you know, sheep in the church and the little sheep in our families are really the same way. And what this passage tells us is this great plan For the rising generation and how to how to rebuild the ruins in a culture That's in a collapse of which we are living in right now But here's how you restore the old waste places and that is that you cast a vision for the majesty of the sovereignty of God in everything and so You know I I think that You know Deborah and I when we were raising our children we really had one preeminent goal when we would read the scriptures to them. We wanted them to see the preeminence of Jesus Christ in all things. We wanted them to see how good Jesus Christ is. We wanted them to understand how beautiful his kingdom, how it way outperforms the kingdoms of this world.

We wanted them to see that Jesus Christ is a beautiful Savior. We wanted them to see the beauty of the Lord. You know, we wanted them to know that for a lot of reasons. But one reason was that we didn't want them to get jerked around by their emotions for their whole life. You know, that when they encountered trials, they weren't jerked around by the trial.

But they had a mighty God, they had a pillar and ground of the truth. You know, they had a rock to hang onto. And That's what this passage is really all about now You know I passed out an outline. Maybe you have it I want to first of all cover four things that parents can do to teach the sovereign majesty of God in everything and secondly The reason parents should do it it's stated in verse 5 and then in verses 6 through 8 there are four results There are actual results that you should be looking for you know you should be not beating the air but actually headed toward an objective in all of the raising of your children and And so that's what this psalm is really all about You know I heard Jason say something last week at a marriage conference that we were doing together in Chesapeake at Calvary Reformation Church in Chesapeake, Virginia And he said he said the most important things you give your children you will hand over to them before you die amen and You know I guess I'm here to say Pile it up. You know deliver it to them rise up pour it out give your children the gift that lasts forever a vision of God and Because it'll be too late when you hit the grave So you need to max it out You know right now so this psalm orders parents to give their children a big vision of God I'm gonna call The sovereignty of God the Swiss Army knife of the Christian life You know what what can you do the Swiss Army knife?

Well almost everything and It can be a screwdriver or a can opener a saw blade scissors And you can buy them now could even do 10 10 things more than that And it's kind of the perfect companion for everyday life. But the Swiss Army knife kind of became a figure of speech for something that can do everything that you go through. And, you know, somebody also once said that the elephant's trunk is the Swiss army knife of the animal kingdom because it does almost everything. And your view of God is like that. It determines everything.

The sovereignty of God is like that. An understanding of the sovereignty of God over everything from salvation to Everything in nature is like that. You know, the elephant's trunk is a snorkel. It's a hand. It's a vibration detector.

It's a storage tank. It's a suction pump. It's a plant harvester. It's a breathing apparatus. It's used for social greetings.

It's used for expressing affection to offspring. It's a skin care tool. It's a cooling hose. It's a shower for bathing. It's a trumpet.

It's a weapon of war. It's a fruit picker. It's a sniffer that is twice as sensitive as a bloodhound and It's used for pushing over trees, and you can even teach them how to paint pictures with their trunk And it weighs 300 pounds and it has 40,000 muscles and it's nine feet. The trunk is the Swiss Army knife of the elephant. And the sovereignty of God, I think, is the Swiss Army knife for you and your children and your children's children.

Because the knowledge of it, if it's in their hearts, it can get through everything it will get through through everything What a blessing it is to have the invisible hand Upon your life, and you know it and so you're you're walking through this world with a sense of the grace of God walking through everything even the hardest things that happen and there are going to be hard things that are going to happen by the way you know you who are not married you who are younger people Life is just so sweet now. I'm just gonna tell you you're gonna encounter trials Unspeakable trials in your lifetime and God will time them perfectly because He's teaching you to trust Him. He's teaching you the way that the world really is. But there are trials ahead, even though you can't imagine them. They are definitely ahead.

So a sense of the sovereignty of God is the greatest Inheritance you will ever give your children and you've got to give it to them before you're dead Okay, so four things parents can do to teach the sovereignty of God to the coming generation. First of all, to maintain a multi-generational vision. Every person should have a multi-generational vision of life. This is just a matter of multi-generational faithfulness Generically verse 4 we will not hide them from their children Telling to the generation to come Now this is the standard function of every generation and It makes it clear that God first of all has appointed Parents to teach the providence of God they are ambassadors of hope in their families and this idea It's Communicated all over the Bible. It's in the lots in the prophets It's in it's in the poetry and it's in the New Testament Psalm 79 13 We're told that God's sheep Show God's praise to all generations We will show forth your praise to all generations.

Psalm 145 verse 4. One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. Psalm 22 30. A posterity shall serve him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation they will come and declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that the Lord Has done this every generation needs to understand that is their duty not just your parents But you are the generation below your parents And you have a duty to communicate this to the children in the generation below you They're probably you know for at least four generations in my family that are in this room right now.

But each one of us have a duty, each generation has a duty to communicate it to the younger generation. This is not just for parents. This is for the 22-year-old who has siblings. This is for the 17-year-old that has a baby, a baby sibling. One generation shall declare the greatness of God to another and I pray that when we're done today you will say Resolved whether you're 10 or 12 or 22 or 32 or 52 that you will say Resolve I will tell the next generation of the praises of the Lord And if and if you're single if you're living on your own And you don't have a family or and you don't even have parents to teach you Then I trust that you'll say I will fill my soul with the sense of the majesty of God, and I will tell everybody about it.

I will tell every generation that I bump into about it. This is just a generic duty of the people of God. So, the second thing that parents must do in addition to having a multi-generational vision, and that is to communicate the praises of the Lord. Do you see this in verse 4? Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord now this this really focuses on the disposition of The Christian and that the disposition of the Christian is that He has embedded deep within his soul in the reality of his heart praises of the Lord.

He's praising God. He's praising God for God, and he's telling the generation to come. This is a picture of a happy father. This is a picture of a happy disciple. Every friend needs a friend who's filled with the praises of God.

Every father needs to have a wife who's a happy wife. Every wife needs a happy husband. Every child needs a happy father. Every church member needs to have a happy church member We know we go through trials and and we you know we lose our heart from time to time But it's So helpful to have people around us who have the praises of God To help us through the trial and through the dark day Because that here's the truth about dark days the Sun will come out again And we need our brothers and sisters to do that. You know, a couple of weeks ago I preached Hebrews 1-9 in our church, which God says to His Son, You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

Therefore, God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. In other words, Jesus Christ was the happiest of the disciples. He was anointed by his Father, and then Jesus Christ turns around and he anoints his children with the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace the praises of the Lord the goodness of God I hope that your heart is full of the goodness of God There's only one way to get it and that is to sing them over again to me the wonderful words of life You know I was reading in Ecclesiastes a week or so ago, and I was in chapter 6 and in verse 3 in chapter 6 Solomon says if a man begets a hundred children And he lives many years and if he also lives a thousand years twice it'd be better for him to be stillborn if he didn't see the goodness of God I I pray that you see the goodness of God I pray that you are filled up with songs of deliverance whenever you're afraid, like David said in the Psalms. It's so important that you communicate in the midst of the trials a biblical understanding of trials.

You especially need to know this when you're growing up, but a lot of times it takes a while to learn it, even after you're grown up. You know, many years ago, about 25 years ago, I owned an electronics manufacturing company, and Jason was there, he saw every part of this. And we were having massive, Massive cash flow problems, and I was losing so much money. It wasn't even funny every day and one One day I came home and I went into our bedroom and Deborah was ironing and I said hey Deborah Has anything really unmade it really major? Unraveled in your life And she keeps ironing she says nope and Then I I laid down on the floor.

I'm recounting what she tells me about this story. No, I did lay down on the floor and I said well You're married to somebody where something really major is unraveling in his life and She turned to me And she said unraveling Unraveling She said Scott nothing is unraveling Nothing unravels under the sovereign hand of God. She said Scott God is weaving he's weaving a tapestry She said you know you all you can see her that cut strings on the back of the tapestry. But God is doing something great. And so I said, yes, dear.

You know, I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful that God is sovereign in everything. So the second thing, you know, parents must do that every generation must do is to Communicate the praises of the Lord and not to get lost in our losses and in our trials because God is doing something he is absolutely in control the third thing parents must do and All generations must do is To exalt the strength of the Lord you see that in verse 4 to communicate his strength in other words What we ought to be doing is to communicate The details of the works of God the things that that God has done to explain the unquenchable power of God in history Here's the reality the people that have a big God have little problems The people with a little God have big problems and this is a picture of a one generation that understands the works of God and I take this to mean the works of God in History And this is a disciple of Jesus who says God is in control My times are in your hands says Psalm 31 in Matthew 10 29 God controls the numbers of the hair in your head In John 15 5 God controls your abilities.

In Isaiah 40 verse 7 God creates peace and calamity. In Deuteronomy 32 39 God commands life and death. I mean God commands the wrath of man. He manages the nations. He does everything.

You know everybody's so concerned about conspiracies today You know in Isaiah chapter 8 Isaiah tells the people stop saying Conspiracy conspiracy stop saying that and then God says hey, it's me I'm doing the conspiracies So you never need to fear a conspiracy because you know who's in control of it. God cannot be stopped in job 42 to God does what he pleases in Psalm 115 verse 3 I could go on and on Do you believe that God is sovereign in your salvation? Do you believe that it was God that changed your heart? Do you believe that it was God that changed your heart? Do you believe that it was God who?

Took you out of waters that were too strong for you God a sovereign in absolutely Everything we were rescued when We were helpless You know spinning out in our own fleshliness and God came and he interrupted our life We heard the Word of God God sent somebody who had the praises of God in their heart. That's how we got saved What a blessing it is So the third thing parents must do is to exalt the strength of the Lord. The fourth thing parents must do is to proclaim the wonderful works of God. This is to speak up about the works of God, His wonderful works. What parents ought to be doing is to be exposing their children to all of the wonderful works of God from Genesis to Revelation.

His works are demonstrated there in every book of the Bible. His works also are displayed in your life. You know we had men who are opening up the service in prayer They were thanking God For his mercy why? Because they've seen the wonderful works of God in their own life that was that these prayers were like personal testimonies of gratitude toward the works of God in their life And Then finally the reason the second point in your outline the reason parents should teach it. That's in verse 5 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.

So here's here's what this is saying. There's a law in Israel There's a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers What was that What was that law? What's that law? He's referring to something else. The psalmist in around, you know, 1000 BC is referring to something that happened before.

There's a law in Israel. Open your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 6. This is the law he's talking about He's pointing back hundreds of years There was a law in Israel That was communicated in Deuteronomy 6 Deuteronomy 6 begins with now This is the commandment and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you in The land which you're crossing over To possess so it's a commandment, but look at verse 6 Here's the commandment and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart You shall teach them diligently to your children You shall talk of them when you sit in your house When you walk by the way when you write lie lie down and when you rise up You shall bind them as a sign on their hand on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes you shall write them on the doorposts Of your house and on your gates. That's the law in Israel It's the law in Israel that tells fathers to teach their children when they sit in the house When they walk by the way when they lie down and when they rise up This is This is what home life is supposed to look like, where a family is saturated with God, with the Word of God, edging out so many of the unprofitable and silly things, but centralizing on the work of God.

Now many of you know and Some of you've had a front row seat That you know over the last two decades over two decades You know I've been praying for really a recovery of biblical family life and biblical fatherhood. And I've crisscrossed this country, this world actually, just encouraging fathers to be family shepherds, to take up the mantle of a family shepherd and to recognize they have sheep in their house and You know I I Would take this passage and I would say to men Brother if your life doesn't look like this You need to figure out how to make it look like this because in 20 years You don't want to be the father Who said I didn't do it and now my children don't even know God? Like that generation in Joshua to didn't know God because their parents didn't teach them You don't want to be that man. I said and I would say things like I'm Sorry, you majored in that major that gave you a work life that has abrogated your ability to teach your family. But you should, you gotta start taking steps.

At least take some baby steps toward doing this. And I know some of you heard those messages and you know Deborah and I just went to a funeral of one of those men. He's in his mid 50s. He died He had a two-year battle with cancer. And he had a big job in the Toyota Corporation in Texas.

And he thought, you know, I'm gonna have to change the way I live To do this and so he quit his job And he he started a landscaping company started making almost no money at all, but he was working with his sons and his daughters he took the hit And God God sustained him and He this guy was actually one of these happy fathers. I was talking about before I Was so thankful for this man but so Deborah and I are at this funeral and his six children are all getting up one by one and all they can talk about is the Word of God and How their father taught them? The Word of God and They would quote these long passages of Scripture that their dad taught them by the way if you're gonna teach your children To memorize Scripture it's gonna take a lot of time and there are a lot of things you won't be able to do if you do That that's what this guy did It was the most thrilling funeral in memory, because these children had treasure from heaven. They had strength from God. They knew that God was sovereign.

They knew that God was good. They knew that God was the majestic ruler of the world because every day their dad opened up their his Bible and he taught them and They memorized it. This is the law of Israel that Moses is talking about and You know everybody has to ask is it worth it is it worth it that I set aside a lot of lawful things in order To saturate my family or my own heart with the word of God is it is it really worth it you know our family Our family read through the Bible for many years from Genesis to Revelation even when our kids were really little and we would get up at seven o'clock in the morning and everybody had to be dressed ready for war and We would just read and if they were really little we would have them recite like two words that was the beginning of their reading and We would read five verses and just go around. I wasn't in there preaching all these sermons to our My family, but I was I had one question What wonderful things? Did you observe?

From God's law What wonderful things you know you know what's behind that question? What did you learn about the majesty the goodness the beauty of Jesus Christ? That's what that question was all about. And then I realized a few years ago that I had, like I would ask them questions, you know. I had my computer out and I would sort of map out, you know, I would outline the text and and I would create questions that I want to ask them about it and I realized few years ago.

I had about a 400 page document of that and So I turned it into a book called Journey Through the Bible because I really think families should read the Bible over and over again. What happens is you get a sense of the spectrum of history and you get to know who you are and where you are in history And you know where it all began and you know where you're sitting in history and you know what God has done and you see the majesty of a savings God and You see his mercy poured out on his people and how he protects his People and walks with them even in the hardest times Now also if you notice says you your son and your grandson all the days of your life That means that if your children have left your home. You're not done it's Your children and their children and the children who would be born Okay, I'm thinking about the children in my family who would be born two of them are supposed to get born here in the next 30 days. I'm praying about them. I'm not done yet.

I'm not done teaching them the majesty of God. And I shouldn't be done until I'm dead. And Neither should you. This whole corrupt, it's actually, well, it's a terrible idea that you're done at age 18. That's not true.

The Bible doesn't tell you that. The Bible tells you you have a role to play until you're dead. You, your son, your grandson, all the days of your life, your children, the children who would be born, and that they would tell their children. You know what that means? You're not just training a child if you have children, you're training somebody who's going to train somebody else like you're not just training a depository of information you're training a dispenser of information you gotta get your mind squared up on that you know in modern corporations we call that train the trainer or you know train your replacement You're not just training your children by the way.

You're training them to train their children. That actually jacks up the ante of the responsibility and also the difficulty of it. How are you going to do that? You've got to teach them to communicate. And then you have the results.

What are the results? There are four results that are listed here. Why are you doing this? Are you looking are you looking for results? Are you just thinking well, whatever?

Whatever happens happens. That's not a Christian attitude There are actually four results that are listed here in verse 7 and verse 8. So what are the results that God is aiming for and you should too? And God is actually looking to you for results. I know God is sovereign over results.

This is the mystery of the sovereignty of God and the duty of man. You know Charles Spurgeon, he said, You know, I don't try to harmonize the sovereignty of God and the duty of man. He says they're friends. They work together. And I think that's what Moses, or Asaph is saying here.

But make no mistake about it. There is a certain kind of child that God wants you to raise. Okay? There's a certain kind of child that God wants you to raise. And you as parents should have your eyeballs on that target.

And don't get lost with all the other targets in your life So ASAP presents four results first that the first result is that they would teach Them to their own children verse six That the generation to come might know them the children who would be born that they may arise and declare them to their children Again, you have children that aren't even born Implied here who are telling the next Generation to come this is that multi-generational vision of life that the Bible gives us And so teaching your children is not an endpoint So the first result is that they teach them that as children, this is the second time he said this in this text, the second result is that they hope in God. They set their hope in God. So parents have been given to their children to be multipliers of hope, to be emissaries of hope, to be full of hope. This is so important as a parent. You know, Hopeless parents do no good for children.

And so these children, they're confident in God, they hope in God. And this is one of the objectives that you should have, a very clear Determinative objective that you would help your children to hope in God You know How fragile will your children be if they put their hope in a friend? How fragile? Will your children be if they put their hope in a government? How fragile will your children be if they put their hope in a government?

How fragile will your children be if they put their hope in the economy? You don't want your children's hope to be put in anything. You don't want their hope to be put in the next funny video that they are going to look at because they're actually seeking hope there. They're actually addicted to a false hope. You know, do you have a hopeful, hand-wringing family?

Are you a hopeful friend? Do you cast visions of hope to your friends? You have actually a responsibility before God to first of all fill your heart with hope. And then to disseminate it into the world, But it's hope in Jesus Christ and in his sovereign wisdom That he's the king of kings and Lord of lords that he's the ruler of the kings of the earth That nothing can hold back his hand like Daniel said And Then the third result is that they do not forget the works of God They do not forget the works of God. That's in verse 7.

Don't let them forget we forget You know we learn things and we forget them This is terrible isn't it now there are some people who don't forget anything. That's not most of us But we forget and so we need to be reminded. That's why there's so many reminders in the Bible But parents should not let their children forget friends should not let their friends forget One generation should not let another generation Forget to first of all fill your own mind so that You don't forget You know these these are these are the works of God, you know so that when when they're next when they don't know where their next meal is coming from They'll remember God feeds his people in the wilderness. He'll send a Raven he'll keep his David says I've never seen the godly go hungry But the words activate activate the memory How do You know this is why it's so important to memorize scripture and This is why you should spend a lot of time doing it, and I know how hard it is There's nothing in this world that wants you to memorize the Bible nothing You know your social media feed doesn't want you to do it The news doesn't want you to do it.

It's Satan. Okay, but here's You know it's so important You know several years ago Our family was on a very very remote island in Scotland. It was the island of Iona It was a place in the sixth century Where the gospel was actually preserved in the face of Roman Catholic persecution and Colombo was there on the island of Iona. It's a tiny island It's like one mile wide and like three miles long or something like that It's a very tiny and to get to this island You had to take ferries you dad you had to hop islands on ferries so we were out there in this remote island in the middle of nowhere in Scotland and My daughter Kelly starts bleeding to death from a pregnancy that she had And she was bleeding to death and there was no there were no doctor. There was nothing Where there was a man in the tour that had some idea of what was happening to her and she could feel the life going out of her and in God's kindness a rescue helicopter came from, I believe, Paisley.

Was it Paisley? And landed on that island to take her to the hospital. It would, it took Deborah and I like nine hours or even more, she's 11 hours to get there, to get to the hospital. It was that far away. But anyway, so this life flight helicopter shows up in there they put my daughter in the gurney and They lifted her up in the gurney, and I was holding her hand and And there she was She was reciting Psalm 46 God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble Therefore we will not fear even though the earth be removed and the mountains slip into the heart of the sea.

And so we just started saying this together. Though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling, Sila, there is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall help her just at the break of dawn You know she learned that when she was like eight years old and now in a moment of need It comes to help her through really one of the one of the great trials of her life And God she got a transfusion and God saved her life But You should identify passages of scripture that you want your children and your grandchildren to know.

And I'm just here to encourage you to memorize them with them, even if you're grandchildren. So don't let them forget the works of God. And the fourth result that you're working for is that they keep His commandments. And they learn how to be obedient from a baby, So you have to teach your children to obey, to honor their father and mother, that it might go well with them. You have to teach them to obey and to help them to rein in their spirits.

Remember, they are sheep. They will try to kill themselves if you don't intervene and You know When they're little you need to secure their obedience obedience is something that parents today don't think is important. It's very important Their future hinges on It will not go well with them if they don't learn how to obey and honor their father and mother. Okay, I'm going to give you some applications. These are going to be like shotgun applications.

First of all, examine yourself. Do you believe that God is sovereign? Do you really believe it? One of my kids told me, Papa, we knew you believed it because the circumstances proved it. I do believe God is sovereign.

Number two, read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation With your kids every year. I know I know oh, that's too hard. You know they're too little I know I know I'm gonna say is I've been there done that it can be done Somebody said that it couldn't be done and it can number three read a book Called the sovereignty of God by aw pink You know when when young people come to me and ask me what book should I read to prepare for marriage. The first thing I always say is read The Sovereignty of God by A.W. Pink.

That's the best thing you can do to prepare for anything in life. Number four, you're not married yet? Find a spouse who really believes that God is sovereign. This is really, really important. My wife never worried about anything.

And in our day-to-day experience, it came out. You know, it's funny, Deborah really taught this to our children. And I'll tell you a little more about that in the next application. Don't allow self-pity. Do not allow self-pity to exist in your home.

You know, Deborah, she actually welcomed experiences of our children when they would come home and they would say, oh, I didn't get invited to this party. And Deborah, instead of, you know, pampering them and saying oh, I'm so sorry Deborah was saying ha ha ha oh, this is my opportunity I'm gonna teach this kid to rejoice With those who rejoice I'm gonna teach this kid to be happy I'm gonna teach this kid that God is sovereign and the reason they didn't get invited is that God didn't want them there It was God You you don't want to allow self-pity in your family I made my children memorize a verse. First Scott one nine. Do you know first Scott one nine? Raise your hand if you know first Scott one nine.

First Scott one nine. If your feelings stay hurt, it's your own fault. If your feelings stay hurt it's your own fault. Don't allow self-pity. Number six teach them the truth about enemies.

Enemies are sent from God. You need all the enemies that God sends to you. They're sent to you to teach you. You know, the goodness of enemies is that Even the worst enemies, they get some of it right. So you ought to latch onto what's right about what they say.

Number seven, squeeze every ounce of good out of the preaching and the singing of your local church, the fellowship, all the things that local churches do. So there you go. Give them an inheritance that can't be taken away, it can't be driven away, it can't be rusted away, can't be confiscated, can't be moth-eaten. It's the most important treasure that you will pass on to your children, is a vision of God. I heard about this tyrant one time who was threatening a saint.

He said, I will destroy your home. He said, you cannot destroy my peace. He said, I'll confiscate your goods. He said, you cannot rob me of my peace. He said, I will banish you from your country.

He said, I will take my peace with me. This is the treasure that we have in earthen vessels that Jesus Christ saves sinners, and He implants within them the Word of God, which is a word of the sovereign majesty of God I'll close with this many of you knew my father He was You know He was a happy man. He died when he was 97. He's buried right over there. And we were getting ready to go to prayer one night.

He went to prayer every Wednesday night, but he missed this one. But his body functions were completely failing. He was dying. And Deborah and my mom were standing at his bedside in their bedroom. And there he is lying there.

And He's clearly dying. And just before we went to prayer, to our prayer meeting, he turned to me and he said, Scott, no, he said, Son, Son, this is how he always talked to me, Son, the Lord knows what he's doing. I pray God gives you a true and real conviction of that in your own heart, and that you pass it down to your children, and they would pass it down to their children, and they would pass it down to the children yet to be born. This is the Word of God. Would you pray with me?

Lord, thank you for your Word. Thank you for how steadying it is. Thank you for how it focuses on everything that's good. And Lord we thank you that you are the ruler of all that there is, that all of your ways are good, all of your ways are pleasant ways, all of your paths are peace, And we're just so thankful to live under the care of such a good God. Amen.