The sermon '5 Minute Charges' is a collective effort by various speakers to emphasize the importance of small, foundational entities like the family and the church. It highlights the biblical principle that the smallest things ordained by God, such as the relationships within a family, are of utmost importance. The sermon focuses on restoring and strengthening the bond between fathers and sons, using Solomon's plea, 'my son, give me your heart,' and the prophetic words from the Old Testament about turning the hearts of fathers to their children. It warns against the dangers of causing children to stumble and emphasizes the importance of watchfulness and prayer to avoid temptation, as expressed in Matthew 26:41. The sermon also touches on the biblical perspective of work, explaining that work is not a consequence of sin but a task God gave humanity to bring order and increase. Additionally, it addresses the false idol of comfort, urging believers to embrace trials as a means of spiritual growth. The speakers call for a diligent life rooted in love for God and neighbor, contrasting this with the worldly pursuit of comfort and idleness.

Welcome, so glad you could come. I just want to give a few opening thoughts to our time in the next few hours. Well, first of all, I want to say that we've really dedicated this time for the building up of fathers and sons. And as it turns out, the smallest things in the world that God established are the most powerful things. The most powerful thing, first of all, is a husband and wife, and then the children that come from them.

And then you have God's churches. These are small entities, small institutions, and the smallest things are the most important things in the world and you're here as those who are small and I praise the Lord for that. We're dedicating this time to several propositions and of course one of them is the statement that Solomon made, my son give me your heart. We pray that fathers and sons hearts would be united together. The Bible makes it very clear, the very last prophet in the Old Testament said that the sign of the coming of the gospel would be so powerful that it would turn the hearts of fathers to their children and children to their parents.

This is the power of God and it's the most important thing that happens in the world when the gospel is embraced and a family is actually restored. And So we really want to just encourage you to use this time To draw near to your son and you sons to draw near to your fathers You know, I bought this place over two decades ago And I wanted to dedicate it really to the blessing of the Church of Jesus Christ and also for the reformation of the family, because it came to me, and I think most of you would agree, the doctrine of the family was destroyed in the 20th century and it had to be recovered and I don't know if you've noticed the millstones that are around this property when I bought this property I ended up finding some millstones from some 17th and 18th century mills, you know, within just a few miles of here. And you'll see those millstones, but they're not here just to be pretty little things. I think millstones are amazing. But I put those millstones here to say to every person who drives onto this property that the causing of children to stumble is a great sin.

And it's so critical, particularly fathers and mothers, work in such a way to bring the glories and the beauties of the kingdom of God to their children and not cause them to sin by their neglect, by their worldliness, by their distraction with things that don't really matter. And so when you see those millstones, I want you to know that I put them there for a purpose. I put them there to remind us of Luke 17, verse 1. The Lord Jesus says to his disciples, It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones.

And then Jesus, I can just picture him looking at his disciples after saying that and he says, therefore take heed to yourselves. Well that's what this is all about, is to take heed to ourselves and to build families for the glory of God and to establish biblical family life. And that is, it really begins in a, with a husband and wife and a father and a mother and their children. So I pray that God really blesses you in all those ways because it is true that the smallest things that God established are the most important things. And it's a blessing to know that if you're a man or a son.

So I'd like to open us in prayer. And then we're going to have five men come up and just give five just very short exhortations to all of us. And then I'm going to come up and speak. After I do come up and speak though, we're going to do something that will form a pattern for the entire time together and that is that someone will give a message and then And then fathers and sons will be given about 10 minutes to talk about it. So we want you to spend time as fathers and sons.

And then tomorrow you'll have actually an extended time to take a walk, a father-son walk, with all kinds of questions you can answer as you just share your lives together. So that's how the retreat's gonna work. And I'd like to open us in prayer, And then Jason, you've got the sequence of these guys coming up. You do fantastic. I knew you would Good deal.

Let's pray Father your ways are pleasant ways all your paths are peace I pray that you would create great bonds of love between these fathers and sons, the love of a father toward a son and the honor and respect of a son toward a father, that it would be true with every single man and boy here that they would know what it means my son give me your heart Lord I pray you bless these men and prosper them I know they have many concerns we are grateful to declare your sovereignty over every one of them but you've given them a task to do and I pray that they would do it with all of their hearts amen. Alright brothers so glad y'all are here please turn in your bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 26 verse 41. And while you're turning there, I want to ask you a question. And this is just something that's in my mind. It's not really something that I got anywhere other than just my own thinking.

And the question is this, why do we spend 95% of our time doing that which works 5% good, eternal good, and we spend about 5% of our time doing that which works about 95% of our eternal good. This is just a question that's been in my own mind as I've thought about my own use of time. Matthew 26 verse 41 says, watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." And we understand this to be the words of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who's speaking to his disciples, and he's giving them this warning and exhortation to watch and pray. In John Owen's writings of temptations, the nature and power of it, the danger of entering into it, and the means of preventing that danger, he defines the key duty against temptation in this one word, watchfulness.

And that's the one word I want you to take with you tonight, watchfulness. He defines watchfulness this way. Watchfulness is a universal carefulness and diligence exercising itself in and by all ways and means prescribed by God over our hearts and ways, the baits and methods of Satan, the occasions and advantages of sin in the world that we be not entangled. Watchfulness, and you can come and ask me for that definition later. I'm so glad that Jesus Christ, our Lord, was not like us.

Jesus never ceases to intercede on our behalf, yet we are told to pray without ceasing. Yet when we should be watching and praying, most often and usually we are sleeping. And I don't mean this just in the physical sense of sleeping because we must sleep as human beings as a reminder that we are finite and that we're not God. In our most helpless state is when we're asleep. People could do anything in the world to you and you wouldn't be able to defend yourself in your sleep.

But the sleepiness I'm talking about is the sleepiness of that of not watching that you enter not into temptation. To actually be seeking God in prayer and to be careful because that's our memory verse in Ephesians that we'll be looking at this weekend but I want you to be watchful that you enter not into temptation. Now I want to share with you a few things from Matthew Henry I think are just priceless. These are good things that I cannot improve upon whatsoever, so I'm going to read some of what he says. He says, the fault that the disciples were guilty of, that when he was in his agony, sorrowful and heavy, sweating and wrestling and praying, they were so little concerned that they could not keep awake.

He comes and finds them asleep. The strangeness of the things should have roused their spirits to turn aside now and see this great sight, the bush burning and yet not consumed. Much more should their love to their master and their care concerning him have obliged them to a more close and vigilant attendance. Remember that word vigilant, I'll be speaking on that tomorrow. Vigilant attendance on him.

Yet they were so dull that they could not keep their eyes open. What had become of us if Christ had been now asleep as his disciples were? It is well for us that our salvation is in the hands of one who neither slumbers nor sleeps. Christ engaged them to watch with him as if he expected some help from them, and yet they slept. Surely it was the unkindest thing that could be when David wept at the Mount of Olives.

All his followers wept with him, but when the son of David was here in tears, his followers were asleep, he says. His enemies who watched for him were wakeful enough, but his disciples, who should have watched with him, were asleep. Note, your enemy does not slumber or sleep either, But we do. He goes on, he says, Lord, what is man that the best of men when God leaves them to themselves? No, carelessness and carnal security, especially when Christ is in his agony, are great faults in any, but especially in those who profess to be nearest in relation to him.

The Church of Christ, which is his body, is often in an agony, fighting without and fears within, and shall we be asleep then, like Galio, who cared for none of these things or those that lay at ease and were not grieved for the afflictions of Joseph?" So what if I asked you to do some great difficult thing with me boys? I'm sure if I said, hey guys, let's go, we're going to go climb a mountain tomorrow, you would be like, yes, let's go, we're going to do it with all diligence. Hey, hey, let's go have a race across the pond and see who can get to the other side. Man, I would have boys running down there just as quick as anything that you could imagine, ready to see who could win that race. If I told you, let's go up to the mountains and let's go caving, man, wouldn't that be great?

We would have eagerness and readiness and watchfulness. Let's have a wrestling match. Oh, the boys would come out in full strength ready to see who could conquer. But what if I told you, let's be watchful lest we enter into temptation. You see boys and men, the greatest challenge and the greatest danger that we have is not our willingness to do hard things as men, and we are called to do hard things.

The greatest temptation and the weakness that we have is that we would be watchful and prayerful against temptation because your enemy never sleeps. And I'll be speaking about that tomorrow. How small a thing it was that he expected from them that they should be watchful. And just a couple more things because I'm out of time. There was danger of their entering into temptation.

Watch and pray against this present temptation to drowsiness and security in the strength of your flesh. It will fail you. Watch and pray. Amen. I'm going to run you through, men and boys, I'm going to run you through a series of scriptures on work and the connection to diligence is obvious.

The work that we're called to do is diligent work. We're to bring diligence to our work. I'm starting in the first chapter of the Bible. Just listen. Don't chase me in these because I'll be going fast.

Just listen. This is Genesis 1, 27 and 28. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female He created them.

Then God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. So God created men and women in his image and he created them with a purpose that they would subdue and take dominion. This has to do with bringing order to the things around us and doing something with the things that God puts into our hands. Doing something with them.

Increase and gain was always God's intent. So God puts these things into our hands And we're to bring order to it and to do something with it, to bring gain and increase from it. And that's in chapter 2, that's actually exactly what we see happening. Listen to Genesis 2 verse 15, then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. So this commission in chapter one that they subdue the earth and take dominion is what We see him placing before Adam in 2.15.

He puts him in the garden to tend and keep it, to do something with his creation, to bring order to it and to bring increase from it. In chapter 3, Adam and Eve disobey the Lord and they bring the curse down on themselves. Listen to this part of the curse in Genesis 3, 17-19. Then to Adam he said, Because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil You shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field in the sweat of your face.

You shall eat bread till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return." So you have to understand the sequence. The work that God has given to mankind is not a result of the curse. Now, curse has an impact on it, but The giving of work to men and women is chapter one and chapter two before sin entered into the world. So sin is not a punishment for sin. Excuse me, work is not a punishment for sin.

You sinned, therefore now you have to work. That's not what the Bible teaches. Work was before sin came into the world and it was actually to be a blessing to mankind and this is the purpose of God. And we learn in the curse when sin comes into the world in Genesis chapter 3 that just difficulties come with it that would not have otherwise been with it. It's toil, it's sweat, it's thorns and thistles.

Now listen to Ecclesiastes 3 verses 12 and 13. In Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon is speaking to mankind and the work that God has given us to do. Ecclesiastes 3 verses 12 and 13. Solomon says, I know that nothing is better for them and for people than to rejoice and to do good in their lives and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor it is the gift of God." So Solomon's tapping right into Genesis 1 and 2. God has put work into our hands to do and there's nothing better for us than to labor hard and then to enjoy good from it.

So are we to be diligent in our labor? Yes, and it produces order and increase and gain and then God actually always wanted us to enter into that increase and enjoy the fruits of our labor. Solomon says it is the gift of God to do that, to work hard, to reap the benefits of it, and to enjoy the fruit from it. My final stop is the Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3 verses 7 through 12 when he points out his own example to the Thessalonians while he's among them. Listen to 2 Thessalonians 3 verses 7 through 12.

Paul writes, for you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you, nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us." So Paul points to his life, says, I toiled hard, I labored hard day and night as an example that you should follow. For even when we were with you, we commanded you this, if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now, those who are such, we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread." So this is really just a development on the same theme. I say all that to say this, the Bible blows up the notion that the perfect life would be 100% vacation, leisure, entertainment, inactivity.

The Bible does teach us that there is a place for vacation, leisure, entertainment, and inactivity, but it is to be refreshed, to re-engage our labor with vigor. If you think that the perfect life would be 100% vacation, leisure, entertainment, inactivity, just know that your thoughts are disconnected with what the scripture is actually teaching. God made us to accomplish things that are hard to accomplish and it feels great to do that. So boys, you think it would feel great to have leisure all the time but that's actually not true. And we need to teach our sons that that's not true.

That it's fun for a while to have leisure and entertainment and inactivity, but we weren't made for that. We were made to accomplish things and then eat the fruit of that and enjoy the fruit from the increase of our labors. This is particularly important in our day and age. This has been lost and this is something that tremendously separates the people of God from others when the people of God are thinking according to the scriptures. So dad, the challenge is simple.

Teach your sons that your notion that the perfect life would be all vacation is wrong. And really the satisfactions in life come from doing what God made us to do, which is to work diligently and then enjoy the fruit of our labors. Part of what I'm going to say is helping set up Trent Lord willing for tomorrow and Jason I definitely didn't coordinate But will enhance what he just had to say. If you want, you can turn to James 1. I've titled these remarks, an enemy, unlike tomorrow Trent will talk about the enemy, an enemy of diligence, The comfort idol.

The comfort idol. The world lies to us. It lies to us all the time that we deserve and should pursue a life of comfort. It's lying to you all the time. It's lying to me all the time in a company of 70, 000 people that that's all they pursue.

Lies to me all the time. They're telling you there there should be no trials. You should be able to de-risk your life. Lots of playing, relaxation, have a ton of bucket list experiences, and that's the height, so you can compare that with everybody else that's out there. And parents, parents have bought into this by doing that to their children, trying to, what they call, protect them.

No hardship, no trial, give them these bucket list experiences to feed their own comfort idol as well and build up their comfort idol. In James 1, this is not what we have God telling us all over. As Jason is just saying, I enjoy my vacations. I can sit in a quarter and read all day if given a chance. I love playing with my children.

I love that I now have grandchildren to play with. I love trips with my wife. I've got a very comfortable home office that I'm in most of the time. But when it comes to being matured in Christ, When it comes to being conformed to the image of my Christ, that's not where it happens the most. Here's how it happens the most.

James 1, 2 through 5. My brethren counted all joy, He's about to tell you how to have joy, where you should be, not just how you have joy, you have joy in salvation, but where you can have joy when you fall into various trials, in other words, you will have trials. Hard, easy, and all of us at some point are in some sort of a trial all the time. I'm dealing with my own sin. That's a form of a trial.

Knowing that the testing of your faith, the testing of what I believe about God, God, are you the creator of all there is? Are you sovereign over all there is? God, are you good? Are you loving? Christ, is your work complete, was it complete?

Is there anything left for me to do? God, by me loving my wife and being gracious to my wife again and again, is that really right? Am I to love her as you love the church? God, how am I to do that? But the testing of my faith, God, how is this really good for me?

How is this really maturing me? Produces patience. Yes, God, you are long-suffering, I am not. Not even close to what I thought was long-suffering. God, I can be gracious to my wife again, because how gracious has she been to me over and over and over again.

Patience with my job, patience with my friends. But let patience have its perfect work. There's only one way you can have a perfect work, and that's Christ working on me. Lacking, or sorry, that is perfect work that you may be perfect and complete. Christ, these trials are helping me to completely understand that you will complete the good work you started in me.

Lacking nothing. If anyone, any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach. And God, through all these experiences, especially trial, increases the wisdom, the godly wisdom through the power of the Holy Spirit to then be, to repent, right? A big part of it is repenting and being more than conformed to Christ as part of him finishing the work in me that he will do. As a young man, as a young man, I grew up in California.

I'd watch movies. I'd read a lot of Westerns growing up in California, loved it. I'd read about and listen and go and see astronauts, history, sports, love sports, wars. And especially as a young man, what would I do with that? I'd go out and I'd role play a lot of that with my friends or my brothers.

I'd role play a lot of that, and I'd do 100 things a day that could make me get hurt as well. A lot of risk taking there at the blessing of my parents. Today, today, most men, especially, I'll talk more about this tomorrow, most men don't even read. Don't even read. They'll watch a movie, they may applaud a war movie, they may applaud a good sports movie, then they'll learn all there is to know about that movie.

You know what you do after that? What do you do after that? You go home, sit on your couch, sit back. Wasn't that good for them to do that? Maybe it's a historic film, but wasn't that good for them?

They'll play video games, even men. They'll doom scroll. They're happy to watch other men be diligent. They're happy to watch other men do these hard things. That's what's happening against.

That's what you're going into the world, young men. They're happy to do that and live their comfortable life and let others do the hard work. They have no intention of maturing or being diligent. Boys of comfort, men if you're teaching your boys to be to have lives of comfort, you're teaching to be men with comfort idols. That's what you're doing.

Tomorrow's message I have is from 1st Corinthians 16 13. I'm going to use the King James version. I like to quit you like men. Act like men. Godly diligent men in bravery and watching, as we heard a little bit, and in courage.

Preparing sons to act like men means they need and will have trial they will fail it's gonna cost you time it's gonna cost you money and that's an investment in them very well spent And teach them how to be diligent. And when you do that, it's going to be failings. It's going to cost you money. It takes diligence to overcome, to overcome an enemy of diligence, the comfort idol. Turning your Bibles with me to Matthew 22.

We'll start there. Matthew chapter 22. Before we read the passage, I want to say there's been something of a resurgence or revival in our day with regard to the distinction between the law and the gospel, which I think is good and very important. And so I've structured my thoughts in those two categories, the law and the gospel. So we'll start with law, but I want to begin by saying this.

Everybody's diligent. Everybody's diligent. The Bible is clear that the wicked are diligent. You say, what about lazy people? Well, lazy people are diligent in sitting around and figuring out how they're going to survive without doing anything.

We've all worked with those guys that spend most of their day trying to figure out how to keep the boss men from seeing that they haven't done anything. They're diligent. Everybody's diligent. You will be diligent as you grow up. You will be.

The question is not, will I be diligent? The question is, will I be diligent in a way that honors the Lord? Or will I be diligent in a way that honors myself and ultimately Satan? Christian diligence falls under the category of the law of God. So this is law which is not bad.

Law is good. The psalmist says, oh how I love thy law. It's good to be diligent. It's good to love God's law. But it falls into that category of obedience to God and God's law.

So let's read Matthew chapter 22, verses 35 through 40. And one of them, a lawyer asked him a question to test him, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend all of the law and the prophets. We could add to this Romans 13, 10, love is the fulfilling of the law. So I've got to be diligent, which falls into the category of God's law. Christ Himself summarizes the law as loving the Lord and loving your neighbor. So if you're being diligent, men and boys, if you think to yourself, today I was diligent, or today I will be diligent, or in this act that I'm doing, here's manly diligence.

Ask the question, Who am I loving as I do this? Because Christian diligence will fall under the category of the law which is summarized by Loving God and loving your neighbor. So if you're being diligent, it will be out of love for either God or your neighbor. A lot of young men grow up to be old men who are very, very diligent and they just they're diligent just because they love their self. I want this lifestyle, I want this truck, I want this house, I want this outfit, I want this, this, and this.

I love me. I'm diligent because I love me. Their diligence is not because they love the Lord or because they love their neighbor The law says Do and you must do and your your love is only as good as it is poured out for the most difficult. So husbands, Your love for your wife is only as good as what it looks like when she is the most difficult to love. Your love for your boss or your employees is only as good as what it looks like when they are the most difficult to love.

Your young men, your love for your siblings or your parents is only as good as what it looks like when it's the most difficult to love them or you're not getting your way or they're coming against you. If you're being diligent in a Christian way you're going to be able to do it in love, either to God or your neighbor. Diligence in the gospel. The gospel does not say do, the gospel says done. That's the good news is God doesn't say, now be diligent and we'll see at the end of your life if you were diligent enough to get to heaven because you will never be diligent enough to get to heaven.

You won't be diligent enough you can't be diligent enough to make it to tomorrow let alone save your soul. The gospel teaches us that Christ was diligent for you. There's never been a man who walked this earth who was more diligent than the man Jesus. You read the Gospels you're seeing a man who's diligent and his diligent was so infinitely perfect so glorious and beautiful and satisfying that his father in heaven said that is absolute perfection the upholding of the law the beautifying of the law I will take that and that will pacify my requirements for all of my people for all of eternity. When we get to heaven, God's not going to say, okay, now you're released from, now you're self-justified or anything like that.

No, you will stand in eternity because of what Christ has done. Luke 19 10 says the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. He loved us and this is love not that we have loved God but God loved us and gave his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. He was diligent out of love. That's the gospel.

The gospel is that he's done this. Now go and be diligent, not because you're trying to put a smile on God's face. If you're a believer, God's face is smiling. He's beholding, his face is turned toward you in light. So from that, be diligent.

A couple of us were talking earlier about the difference in the tone of the week end when you move from the father-daughter to the father-son. One of the differences that I noticed is that at the father-daughter, it takes a lot of convincing to get very many of those girls near the water, much less in a kayak in the middle of the water. When you get to the Father-son, the boys are running over the hill tumbling down finding a boat as quick as possible and then they're fighting one another in the water. Completely different setup And I think that it reveals something about the nature within us. God has put within our nature, as men and as boys, a desire for dominion.

And a dominion which brings order and usefulness and beauty to the world, but dominion requires direction. And in that direction we find diligence and that's where it's developed. I was thinking as we were heading down for the fishing tournament this morning that one of the sweetest sights is I looked over the hill and I saw a father and son carrying a pole and they were heading down as the day was breaking but as I look out here tonight I think the sweetest sight is to see a father and son not with a fishing pole but with Bibles in their laps hearing instruction from God's Word and I want to invite you to turn to Proverbs chapter 6 as we receive another exhortation from God's Word. Proverbs chapter 6, starting in verse 6, go to the ant, O sluggard, Consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food and harvests.

How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and won't like an armed man. As we were preparing to come for the father-daughter just a couple of weeks ago everybody around me said you better be careful a storm is coming and sure enough a storm was coming and we sped up our trip and ended up leaving a day early because we realized that had we continued with our trip we would have been traveling probably with the eye of that storm. And so we delayed our trip and I begin to think, you know, a storm has already unfolded on this world in Genesis chapter 3 when sin entered the world and all of hell broke loose before us.

And as a result, we have storms and my exhortation to us tonight is that storms are still coming. There is a what's been called a gathering storm that is upon us And the way that we prepare for storms is through the daily diligence of our life. And the little things that we do every single day, I believe, eternally matter. What we need today is men and young boys who are learning to be men who are filled with courage and who are filled with wisdom. And where are these virtues developed?

Not in ivory towers, not in faraway places. They're developed through the daily disciplines of our lives. Where did King David learn to rule an entire kingdom? He said that when he faced the giant and he faced many other larger giants than he did Goliath, that he learned it by being faithful out in the obscurity of a field when no one else was looking. God was teaching him to protect, to fight off the bear and the lion and everything else and to be faithful when nobody else was looking.

David was learning diligence. Our mission in life is dominion to work, to rule as Jason mentioned, and the way that we do that is Through giving attention to the daily things in our life and right now for you as boys That's learning to honor and obey your parents Because one day God is going to probably put you in a place of authority. And the way that we learn to exercise authority is first by learning to be under authority. Because we will always be under authority. So we learn that by honoring and obeying our parents, learning to honor our siblings, learning from our pastors.

We prepare for the storms of life by learning skills and trades, learning how to be industrious, learning how to pray and read the Bible, learning how to navigate relational challenges through the little community that you have in your home. All of these things are going to widen and expand in your life. And God is using the daily life that you have as a training ground of preparation for the coming storms that are upon us. We all realize after a storm comes just how important preparation really is. And so my exhortation is that we be diligent in preparation for the storms of life that are gathering, and we do that right now by being faithful in the little things of life as a training ground for what God may do in our lives later.

Let's pray. Father, would you help us to be faithful? Would you work diligence in our lives, not for our own sake, not for our glory, but that we would be useful vessels by faith in your hands for the storms that you bring. In Jesus' name, amen.