Well, my assignment this morning is fatherhood and the gospel. So if you have a Bible or iPhone or iPad, would you open something to Psalm 78? Psalm 78. And if you would, everything on the table is free. By the way, I didn't say that.
It's not welfare, but it's free. Psalm 78, I will be reading verses 1 through 8. And if you would, if you are able, out of respect for the word of God, would you please stand? Psalm 78. The word of God I will be reading from the King James Version.
Give air, 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 keep his 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. Please be seated. Thank you for standing. Let's pray together.
Our Father and our gracious God, Hallowed be thy name. And how we thank you again for gathering us together, and we come boldly to the throne of grace, Lord, because you are gracious and we need grace. And how we cry unto heaven now that you would indeed speak to us, you would indeed show us mercy. Lord, we rest on the fact that your loving kindness truly is better than life. So here we are this morning before you, with nothing in our hands we bring, simply to your son we cling.
Come, come then, and shower upon us. Mercies from on high we desperately need it. Here are our prayers for the sake and for the cause of Jesus Christ, our lovely Lord. We pray these things in his name. Amen.
The Irish play writer, by the name of Oscar Wilde said these words, fathers are neither to be seen nor heard. He goes on to say, this is the only proper basis for family life. The exclusion of fathers, They are neither to be seen nor heard. They are not to be in place at all. For the most part, that's where we are as a nation.
By the way, that was in the 1800s. Some things just don't change. And I hope you realize that's a demonic statement. With the advance of the homosexual movement, with the spread of atheistic thinking, with the promotion of evolutionary theory, and the cultural pressure on young people. And there are cultural pressures on young people.
We are called upon as never before to a high standard, a high standard of biblical fatherhood. We are to stand strong in the Lord and instruct the next generation in the way of truth. If we don't do it, who will? As believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are called upon to instruct and to pass on what has been passed on to us. Our duty is to teach our children, the next generation, the beauty of knowing God and resting one's confidence in him alone.
If we are going to see fatherhood restored, then we must be, let me put it this way, stranded and shipwrecked on God and on his word. Even though Mr. Wilde said, fathers are not to be on the scene and fathers are not to be heard. The Psalmist did not think that way. And here we have in this particular psalm, it's a song, but in this particular psalm, I want to set the background, the historical background, for Israel had experienced God's right hand of power in delivering them from the bondage of Egypt.
He had provided all things they needed physically and given them all the protection they needed geographically. He brought water from the rock, manna from heaven. He destroyed nations and overthrew kingdoms in their path. Yet with all the kindness of the Lord, there were a stiff neck and complaining people. You know, God could do great deliverance.
God could show us great mercies. And that is followed by complaining and murmuring. They had a good track record. They had a good track record of being faithless and a bad track record of being faithful. And we have the sad account of Joshua passing away, Judges chapter 2, and all the generation with him.
And what is said after Joshua passed away, and all of the generation with him. What was said? The sad account, there arose a generation. I wish it wasn't in my Bible, but it's there. There arose a generation that knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel." How in the world did that happen?
I'll tell you how. Deuteronomy 6, when heated, Passing on this truth, when you rise up, when you go in the way, when you lie down, every aspect of life is to be wrapped up in the word of God. Is that so of you? All it takes is one generation to stop doing, or to shock, or to lay aside their duties on which God has called them to, and we've lost the next generation. One generation.
It's so bad that, may I tell you psychologists even see this? The secular world even see this? Listen to one psychologist, Dr. Crook, writing, he said, children consistently report feeling abandoned when their fathers are not involved in their lives. I wish that was all he said.
But he goes on further. Father absence may well be the most critical social issue of our time, close quote. Well, one well-known apologist went on to say, every known human society rests firmly on the nurturing behavior of men. Did you hear that? She went on to say, can we provide some program, some training, to get men to do what it's supposed to do.
One man has said, a crisis of fatherless children is the most destructive trend of our generation. He goes on to say, a generation ago, an American child could reasonably expect to grow up with his or her father. Not so today. Never before in this country have so many children, listen, been voluntarily abandoned by their fathers, you know you could be there and not be there. Voluntarily abandoned by their fathers, never before in American history have so many men abandoned their families or failed to form them shape their thinking.
For our society is not only losing fathers, it is losing the very ideal of fatherhood." Close quote. If the secular world can see such things, how about us? This is not only in America, by the way. Britain reports that the need for a father is on an epidemic scale. And that father deficit, the shortness of fathers, father deficit should be treated, listen to this, as a public health issue.
They say it's so bad it's destroying society. Society is sick because of the lack of fathers. Let me say this. When we abandon this book, at the same time, we will abandon our duties. Did you hear me?
When we abandon this book, at the same time we will abandon our duties. And The only thing we can expect is a disastrous, sick, insane society. Our nation now is in a state of lunacy. There is no thing. Common sense is not even common anymore.
Lunacy, insane. It's the air we breathe. We have people who do not know anything about God. Did you know that was by design? Did you know that?
Let me give you something real quick. It's not in my notes, but I'm going to give it to you anyways. You know, back in 1989, Stanford, one of the top Ivy League schools in the country. You know, that's where your lawyers come from, your judges come from. Stanford, Yale, and Harvard, sometime University of Chicago.
But those are really the three top schools. Stanford said, what are we going to do? We're going to take Western civilization. Back in 89, we're going to take that particular course out. We don't want them to know anything about Western civilization.
Because to teach Western civilization, you have to teach something about God. And we don't want God. What will you have now? A bunch of young people who don't know anything. The new millennial, the new millennial, this generation, the largest generation in American history makes up about 25% of the country, somewhere around 83 million.
Did you know that? Only 27% said they believe the Bible is the word of God. We're in trouble. Young people, that's your generation. That's your generation.
I hope you are in the 27%. No Bible, no church. We don't want it. It's the most secular generation ever in American history. That's where we are right now.
Are we going to be? I just told our congregation the other day. With that in mind, what are we going to do? What are we going to do as parents? Jesus said to the church, you are the salt of the earth.
He didn't say a salt or a portion or some other salt. You are the salt, emphatic, the salt. There is none other. You're it. You are the light of the world, not another light or one light.
You are the light, emphatic. There is no other light. You're it. Just to use the southern twang, we's it. We're the only ones who can shine and we're the only ones who can season.
There's no other group that can do that. Where have we gone? What has happened? We've departed from the word of God. Pastor Tony Evans said something troubling.
He said, we are, he's a pastor in Texas, he said, we are getting, listen, a generation of children being raised on the world's values. Did you hear that? We have over 300, 000 evangelical churches in our country. What are we doing? Oh, we're comfortable getting our message, getting our three-point sermon, singing our three hymns, and go back home to stay-at-home Baptist church until next Sunday.
What are we doing? Nothing. Nothing. Well, The psalmist understands what happens when a generation falls away. Listen to what he says.
He's knowing the dilemma and he himself is going to instruct the next generation in God's truth. He begins first of all by saying, give ear. Oh, two crucial words. It's not a suggestion. It is not an option.
It's a command. Give ear. He said, I want you to hear. I want you to pay attention. It's like that military call, attention.
That's a strong command. They were not only to hear what he had to say, they were to act the pun. Act the pun and respond to what he said. They were to weigh in on it with great care. Turn up the receiver.
Your ears, I have something of the utmost importance to talk to you about. God's truth for the next generation. I love it. He goes on to say something else that absolutely is marvelous. He didn't only say, and give ear, but he said incline.
Incline your ears, Just like if you didn't hear him the first time. Give ear, now incline that thing. And that word incline is beautiful. It means to stretch out, to expand yourself, to bend. Oh, I love it.
It's the same word used. If you get over there in Judges chapter 16 with Samson, remember when Samson came out and they wanted Samson to entertain them to Philistines after they had gouged out his eyeballs. Entertain us. Samson got between the two middle columns, and it said he bowed himself with all of his might. That's our word for incline.
Bow, incline with everything in you. And here what I have to say. That's what a psalmist is saying. He said, I want you to stretch yourself. I want you to bend.
And I want you to submit to what I am saying, because it is the word of God, and it is authoritative. I'm going to loose, if I could say it that way, verse 2, I'm going to open my mouth. I'm going to let loose. Going to open my mouth in parables. I'm going to pull out my heart.
I'm going to utter sings. Parable is none other than, we could put it simply, a story, children. Story with intent to it, a story with truth embedded in it. The parable Jesus told a lot of parables. And parables are designed, there, people.
It's designed so you could see yourself in it and respond. So he says, I'm going to open my mouth in parable. And I will utter dark sayings of old. Listen to verse three, which we have heard and known. That cancels out Mr.
Oscar Wilde. This father said, we've heard it. And we know it. And guess where we got it from? Our fathers.
You see that in your Bible? We got it from our fathers is where we got it from. We're passing on what has been passed on to us. Our fathers have turned us, tell us, we've learned it from them firsthand. We know this by experience.
And then the first part of verse 4 tells us something really interesting. We will not hide them from their children. See, they had a different mindset than how we have as American. They had a mindset that our children were connected to the past. This is the end of the grandchildren.
They looked at this thing as generational. This truth was supposed to be passed on from generation to generation to generation to generation. You know why? Because God is faithful in generation and generation and generations. He said, I'm going to do everything I can.
And we should do the same thing. Everything I can, by the grace and help of God, to pass this truth on to the next generation. We are not going to cover it up. We are not going to cut it off. We are not going to destroy it.
We're not going to keep it back. We are going to give it to the next generation. This is not America's best kept secret. This is not something to be tucked away in the corner. This is not some type of private Christianity we have.
Yeah, you know, I'm a Christian, but you know, I really don't talk about it, you know? I'm kind of like a, you quiet Christian. I don't know what that is! Quiet Christianity! We dare not keep back God's truth from the next generation.
I want to give an example of this, how they viewed children. It's found in Genesis chapter 48. Joseph has heard that Jacob is about to die. Joseph comes along. He brings his two sons with him, Manasseh and Ephraim.
And Jacob gives this account. I want you to hear it. Listen what Jacob said. Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at last in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, and said unto me, behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people, and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. And now, thy two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee in Egypt are mine." Did you hear that?
These are my children. And that's how they looked at it. What you had and your child rearing was supposed to be connected back to the fathers who trusted God. And that's how they understood it. Young people, we're gonna be gone.
Can I tell you something, mommy and daddy won't be around always did you know that? Oh? Listen if the Lord Jesus Terry we are all going the way of the earth and there's nothing you can do about it You can't slow down that death. There's a process working on you right now, and there's a process working on me right now. It's called death.
And there's nothing you can do about it. Every ache that comes to the body is a reminder that you're going to die. You can't slow it down. You can't back it up. It's going to happen.
And I hear young people say, well, I got my whole life ahead of me. I hope you do, but who told you then? You have to visit a cemetery sometime. You see two dates on that tombstone. When you were born and when you die, you know what your life amounts to?
That little dash in between. That's it. That's your life. That's how short it is. Truth is not to be kept with us, stocked up with us.
It's made to be passed on. Passed on. And so the Jews understood this. If there is going to be some connection, We have to give the next generation the word of God. If we don't, who will?
The Philistines won't. The Canaanites won't. The Amorites won't. Listen, the secular world won't. You hear me?
They won't. They will give your children something, but it won't be this book. If you don't give the children, your children, the word of God, what are you going to give them? I can tell you, the world is going to give them their word. Richard and Richard Baxter said, God is not the ruler in your house.
The devil is. This ought to be transgenerational. We ought to be affecting the next generation. And guess what? We only have one shot to do that.
Did you know that? Did you know that? I told my wife. I said, this is the only life I get to be your husband. I need to be the best husband I can, because I won't get this chance again.
I need to be the best father I can, because I can't do it again. This is it. That's it. What are we doing? Are we spending time wasting time?
Young people, what are you doing? When we're gone, the truth will be resting on your shoulders. What are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with it? You going to pass it on, or are you going to cut off the next generation?
No, we don't. We spend a lot of time on social media. That's what we're doing, talking about absolutely nothing, spending all our time on Facebook. Oh, I got a book right here you need to get your face in. Right here.
Right here. We need a generation, y'all, that will rise up and say, enough is enough, that will stand up in a sea of lies. We've got truth in the sea of lies, and we can speak that truth. But listen, we need more. Listen, we need more than just profession of faith.
I want to see more expressions of faith. What I mean by that is not simply what we say, but how we live. See, living what you say you believe. The life always tells what you believe. Did you know that?
It doesn't matter, on one hand, what you say. How you live is what you really believe. And how you think is how you will live. You can't separate mine from life. That's why 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 help it. Well, what are we to pass on? What are we to pass on? Well, the text tells us, doesn't it?
I'm still in verse 4. Showing to the generation to come, you hear what I'm saying? Showing to the generation to come. We've thrown out Mr. Weil's pot, also not only fathers being heard, but also fathers being seen.
We are going to show to the generation to come what the praises of the Lord, the praiseworthiness of the Lord. We need to be teaching this generation who God is and the generation to come. God's truth, we need to take the truth from the past and still it in those in the present because we're looking to the future. I don't know about you, but when I look at my children, I'm thinking, future, future. You remind them even at the young age, daddy won't be around always.
I will not be around always. Take that truth to the next generation. We are, we are to indoctrinate, indoctrinate our children. We are to indoctrinate this generation. Do you know they're trying to do that to us?
How many of you when you go inside the grocery store ask for the music that they're playing? They say, we don't want you to talk to us about that religious stuff, because we don't want to hear it. But we're trying to influence you all the time. Did you know that? You sit down in a restaurant, did you ask them, hey, I really want to watch that on the tube, man.
Oh, I really want to hear that song that you're playing. No, they're trying to influence the way you think. Because the way you think is how you will live. They're doing it all the time, young people, you especially. So we want the young people because they don't think half of the time.
You know what happens when you hit those teen years? The switch comes on called don't think. And so they just tend to not think. It's an amazing sin. Makes us stupid, doesn't it?
You need to think, young people in this world. Do you realize you are in a society that's trying to gobble you up? Do you realize that? It wants your mind, because if it gets your mind, it has you. Don't think.
And I'm telling you, it will have you. We need to teach our children the truth about God, the creator of heaven and earth, and all that is therein, that He made everything in six days with no assistance. Children, God didn't have any help. And he doesn't need it. That he is the true God, the living God, and that there is none else.
Thou, even thou alone, Lord, art God. Thou has made the heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth, and all things that are there in, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preserveth them all, and the hosts of heaven worship you. I teach him about God, who he is as creator of heaven and earth. With all the stuff being taught to young people, yes, I'm focusing on young people. About creation, that they come from some fallen star.
Did you know that? You do know that's being taught. Young people have come from falling stars. With all of this junk being taught, We need to teach our children who God is. They need to know that God knows everything because he is a big $10 word, omniscient.
We need to teach them that God sees everything, because he's omnipresent. God sees everything. Children, young people, adults, God sees things even when your parents don't see them. God sees things even when your spouses don't see them. There is no one on the planet hiding from Almighty God.
It's just not happening. You need to be concerned about one set of eyeballs, and those little eyeballs that are coming down from heaven upon you. If we do, it'll help us when we think about the places we go. It'll help us when we think about the things we do, and even help us when we think about the things we are about to say, heaven has its eyes on me 24-7. We need to teach them who God is, that God, the God of the Bible, can do anything, everything except sin, because he is omnipotent.
He has all power. 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 evolutionists say. We need to teach them that God has always exist, and God will always exist, regardless of what the atheists say. And we need to teach them that God made mankind male and female and brings man and woman together in a covenantal union called marriage and that there are no other forms of marriage regardless of what the homosexual movement says. We need to teach our children that God is a righteous law giver, that He commands us and He has the right to do so, 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. Well, still in the Bible, verse 4 tells us something else. Not only who God is, the praiseworthiness of our Lord, but we need to teach them something about God's wonderful works. We need to teach them what God has done. If we don't teach them how God has made provision in the natural world, they will not see any need for God in this spiritual world.
Oh, really. Tell them how God provides both physically and spiritually. The psalmist says, listen to this, the eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou giveth them their meat. In due season, thou openest thine hand, and satisfies the desire of every living thing. Psalm 145, I love it.
You know, we are dependent on rain. We cry sometime, oh, rain and again. Praise the Lord, he's sending the rain. Because if we don't get the rain, guess what? Rain, sunshine, and air are crucial for us.
If we don't get it, the vegetations die. Did you know that? And if the vegetations die, the animals die. And if the animals and the vegetations die, guess what? You're not far behind.
Did you know that? You need both of those. You need the vegetation and you need the animals. So I'm just gonna tell us, God provides, he provides everything. It feels good around.
He provides. So we need to tell him how God has set things in motion in order to bring his son into the world. Did you know that? God created this thing called earth. And then he made people on it and ever since the fall you know God has been showing mercy upon mercy after mercy upon mercy because he was bringing his son into the world why would he do that because we were so good no because we were so bad He brought his son because of the sin issue.
We caused that sin issue, didn't we? We need to tell them that sin, rebellion against God, is the greatest evil in the world, and God is the greatest good. We need to tell them that when it came to restoring man to everything, God. We talk about salvation being free, and it is, let me tell you my friend, salvation cost God everything. Come, there's only begotten son, there's a unique son, there's one of a kind son, so when it came to tracking down sinners, to rescuing sinners, God sent his son on a 911 rescue mission, seek and search and rescue and cost him everything.
Do we live like it cost God anything? We need to tell that Jesus lived in our place and wanted to honor his father and uphold God's holy law that we wrote. Tell them, tell them that he died in our place so that all the curses of God would fall upon him and all the blessings of God will come upon us. What a transfer. What a mistake.
I don't know about you. That's good news. Tell them how God has promised to all who repent, who turn from their sins and believe on Jesus, that they will be forgiven of all the sinful words, of all the sinful deeds, of all the sinful thoughts, and may I go even forever, the sinful motives, do you understand? You know you can do the right thing. Put a wrong on me.
And then I'm sick. Tell him of God has prepared a place so that sinners who trust Jesus Christ will dwell in him forever, having bodies that cannot die and souls that cannot sin. Yes sir. That's the way to see our children. We don't teach them.
We will, clearly, we will lose the next generation. Let me say it. There's a generation that grows up in that little old... Oh, you have a testimony, don't you? If you've been confronted with a testimony, You have a used to be story, don't you?
You know what a used to be story you think you used to be. Now, if you don't have a used to be story, that's because you still being what you used to be. Rescue. Tell the children about God rescued you. Don't get tired of telling them all over and over again.
Tell them of God that come and he sent the soul tracker called the Holy Spirit and put him on your path and he took those masks of love and whooped you in. Tell them about that. You have a story right there? Oh, you just probably told me the description. Give me that story.
Everyone, come on. We have to teach our children the same thing to the Lord. Now we're going to teach them what God has done. We need to teach them the same truth to the Lord. Teach them the same praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Teach them to say almighty, for it just gains our blood, our blood, and never family. Oh, teach them to say trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus. But to trust and obey. Teach them to sing that God is holy, holy, holy, merciful, and mighty. Blessed Trinity.
Teach them to say that Jesus is a friend of sin, and Jesus is a wonderful Savior who takes cowbirds away. Teach them to sing, it is so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him, he added his word, just to rest upon this promise just to know the Savior, Jesus. Jesus, sing on Christ the solid rock I stand on the ground, Amen. Jesus, sing to the Lord. Can you, Jesus, sing to the Lord?
May the Lord sing with solid peace. Glory. Statement, statement. He's going to say to the Lord, and even though he's going to say to the Lord, may it be the same in the song of the Lord. Now go on.
How do you say that in the Bible? Do you have to say something else? Fatherhood be restored. We must be rooted in his truth, or we will not see father restored At all. At all.
Teach them to pray. Let them hear you pray. Let them hear you cry as you go. Let them hear you act like a priest. Take it on.
Old family, turn around and praise. Send them prayer. Don't just pray a second. Can you just sit tight in your dead. Pray.
Do you even pray? Young people, do you pray? This is an evening, you hear about the young son? I'm not talking about all of that. Do you pray?
Do you talk to God at all? Is God familiar with your voice? Do you pray? Do you play? I asked you, do you pray?
Teach them that the word of God set us, that fury will be poured out on the families that do not call the Lord Jeremiah 10.25. That's a scary scripture. Teach them, pray. Teach them there's plenty of mercy for them who called on the Lord, Psalm 86-5. He said, I don't think I'm gonna get that one.
He said, he established a testimony in Jacob, verse 5, and appointed the law on Israel. What she commanded in New York, he commanded our fathers that they should make a norm to their children. It's a commandment. He commanded our fathers to teach it to the children. Why would we do something like that?
That the generation to come might know better. You see the generation, the transgenerational movement, God said I want you to keep your children because I don't want them to stop you. I want them to continue to go on so I will have a witness in this world. There is a vast whole truth of God. We are not saying that the church does not do anything to help you.
That's not what we're saying. It does increase. You have a word, doesn't it? But the primary instruction of children, all of your parents. Do you know what I mean?
You are worth doing more than the church. One hour in the church, two hours in the church, three hours a week in the church gathering. There's nothing else. There's nothing else. My wife used to remind me all the time, I come in there and I just don't see them right.
She said, I want you to know you control the atmosphere in the house. And you are the gauge in the house controlling the atmosphere. Mother Carlton gave us some stunning numbers last night of what the absence of a father would do. Children tend to act out when a father is not around, especially boys. Ladies, is that right?
Wait till your dad gets home. Sometimes boys will push the envelopes with a mom. Dad shows up. And everything kind of, you know, kind of looking like this. Uh-oh.
That's just the presence of fatherhood. That's how God designed it. Mom could speak, and we love moms. Mom could speak several times, and dad can give a look. Like, you know, child responds, I'm dead when I get home.
Importance of a father's presence. Well, the word of God is to be instructive and is binding in every generation. Like I said, it's transcultural. It's transgenerational. We are commanded, commanded, commanded to teach the next generation.
It says, so even in the New Testament, ye fathers provoke not. Don't arouse or anger your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6, 4. It is to nourish, train, discipline, and admonish, instruct, and even warn them. That's what we're called to do.
Why should we do that? Well, the answer's right here in our Bibles. Verse 7, that they might set their hope in God. That's the answer. Number 1, God commanded it.
That's verse 6. And verse 5. And number 2 is so that the children, the generation, would set their hope in God and not forget who he is or walk in his ways. And then there's a warning. There's a warning.
Verse 8, I'm pressing on. Someone else needs to get up here. Verse eight tells us, and not be as their fathers, we gave an example of that earlier, we are to tell them not to follow a multitude to do evil. We are to remind them that if sinners entice them, do not consent, Proverbs 1.10. We ought to teach them that there are warnings in the Scriptures of not heeding the Word of God.
Listen to one of them. In Proverbs 1, we have this, When you don't heed the word of God, here's how wisdom responds. I also will laugh at your calamity, your troubles. I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when the stress and anguish cometh upon you, then shall they call upon me.
But I will be deaf. I won't hear. I will not hear. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me, for that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They shall, with none of my counsel, they despise all my reproof.
Therefore, shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices." One of the worst things that God can ever do with a human being is to leave that person to himself. One of the worst things that could ever happen. You want your own way? I'll give it to you. Well, I think I'm done.
We don't want it to be said, as I said earlier, of our children, the generation even to come, that there is a generation that did not know the Lord nor his works. We are the instruments of instruction for the next generation. Let us teach them the fear of the Lord and heed his instruction. It is their duty then to pass it on to the next. Young people, I ask you, will God's truth continue with you?
Or will it stop? Will it continue with you or will it stop? If we are going to see fatherhood restored biblically, we must believe and pass on the truth of the gospel as it is in Jesus Christ. And we are going to lose the next generation. May the Lord help us to stand tall and to stand firm in this high calling.
It is the most difficult thing that a father will ever do. May it be so. Let's do it with joy and gladness of heart. Let's pray. Father, we give you thanks.
You are great and glorious. There's none like you in all the earth. Lord, you have called us as fathers to do a difficult task. It's hard, Lord. We can do it by your glorious grace.
Help us as men to pass on this truth to the next generation. And Father, help the next generation to flourish, Lord, that they would walk with Christ better than we have. They would love him more than anything else, and they would hate sin more than anything else. We see these precious little ones. Oh, Father, be gracious to them.
Please is our prayer. Do a great work. Only you can do it. We will do our part when it's all said and done. May we be able to say we've done all that we could, the rest is up to God.
Please be gracious is our cry. In Jesus' name, amen.