Scott had us in 2 Corinthians, the 10th chapter, and I want you to turn back there. And actually the texts that I have are about three verses before where he had read in 2 Corinthians 10. This is Apostle Paul writing to the church at Corinth, and this is what he says, For though we walk in the flesh, We do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty, mighty in God, for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. I want you to note here that the word pulling in the Greek is the word that we would use for demolition. Casting, and the casting down in the Greek means to demolish or destroy.

Paul is talking about demolishing and destroying things that would stand in opposition and exalt itself against God. If you're a homeowner or maybe you've even built a new home. You know how there are times we come to the point where we realize that there needs to be some renovations. We lived in an old farmhouse for several years east of here, And when our family started to grow, it became obvious that that farmhouse wasn't going to suffice with the kids that were coming along, and the foundation was iffy under it, and there were other factors, and So it was time to make a change. And so we ended up moving on this side of the church, about two miles that way.

We bought a cabin and we moved up there and the family continued to grow and we decided that we would add a family room on. My wife strategically had told me I was against it. I didn't want to spend the money. I didn't want to do that and everything. But my wife, having some kind of weird degree in psychology, told me, being a hunter, she said, and I didn't have any critters in the house, you know, or anything like that, but she said, if you'll build that family room, you can hang anything in there you want.

I said, draw up the plans. We put a wood stove in there too. Isn't it interesting that when you get ready to start a renovation, you get ready to do something different, even in new construction, before the new can come, there has to be a mess. Amen? There's a mess even in new construction.

Remember God's telling Jeremiah to tell the people there to build. Scott just admonished us to not stop living, to go on, continue to dwell, to be active in the land, but for the new to come there has to be a mess. The bulldozers come in and they push out and they dig for the foundation. There's piles of dirt and then there's rain and there's mud and there's all these things. You think about on that family room that we built, that the first thing that had to happen was there was this gaping hole that was cut into our house.

And there I'm standing looking at this big hole in the east wall of our house and plastic hanging over it, mess everywhere, and you think, I don't know if this is gonna be worth it or not. The excitement of the new gets tempered right away, even squashed by all the details in the mess. When I was thinking about what I would talk to you about today, I wanted us to ask ourselves the question, are there some things within our family, are there some things within our home that need to be torn down before we can do something new? One of the things I notice in the in the Old Testament, in particular, was we constantly see people like Josiah in particular. We see people like Gideon.

We see others that had to go in and tear down what were called high places. Now high places, as I understood it, could be just elevated places in the geography, but oftentimes it was places that were built up by the people for the purpose of worshiping other gods. The high places would have to be removed. The idols would have to be torn down. There would have to be something removed before God would come in and really begin to do something new in those people.

And it was always an ordeal. It didn't seem like it was ever an easy thing. If you read about Josiah and how he demolished all those high places and altars. You'll read in 2 Kings 22, if you read that chapter, it will absolutely wear you out, everything that Josiah is involved in doing. Gideon, he did it.

He tore down the high places, the idols, but we know that he did it at night. Gideon was a little afraid. He was a little intimidated. He knew the repercussions and what might come from that, so he goes at night and does it, but yet he did it. Our Lord, even, in the New Testament, we would see him as he would go in and he would cleanse the temple.

With a whip, he would drive out the money changers and he would turn over their tables and he would tell them, You've turned my house, my house that's to be a house of prayer, a place of worship, a place that's holy. You have turned it into a den of thieves." And he would drive them out. Now I want us to ask ourselves this morning, are there some things in our homes, in our families, in our lives that need to be torn down. Some high places that need to be removed. I believe even amongst the homeschool movement, I believe even amongst the people of God there are things that we need to identify sometimes that are hindering from God being able to do a real work in our homes.

For there to be real harmony in our homes. For there to be healing. Do you know that even in homeschool families there are times that there is healing that needs to take place within those families? We're not immune. We're not exempt.

Kirk talked a lot about that last night and in marriage and those things that that come and how it can get messy. And I've watched now and being a homeschool dad myself for 20 some years and pastoring a church where there's several homeschool families, I watch and I see sometimes there's some things that that follow us. Maybe something I see lots of families. I'm so encouraged by the young families in our church. So many of them come from broken backgrounds and really fragmented pasts, but they've seen that there's something better.

They've seen that there's something else, and they're moving that way in their marriages, and they're moving that way in their parenting, but I caution them often. I caution people from time to time, make sure that we don't bring some of that baggage. Maybe we bring some of those tendencies and things with us. Sometimes it's just our own flesh and pride and things that can come in and threaten and hinder with what God wants to do. When I go back to 2 Corinthians to our text, I want you to notice with me this morning that Paul says that we are to pull down strongholds and we are to cast down arguments that excel itself against the knowledge of God.

Paul's telling us to pull some things down, to demolish, if we will, some things. And I want to leave three areas that I think that we need to examine to see if there's some things in our lives that need to be torn out, removed before God can really bring healing and help. The first thing I want you to think about is the idea of patterns. Patterns. Paul says in verse 4, pulling down of strongholds.

John Gill in his commentary writes on this and says, By strongholds are meant the strongholds of Satan, such as unbelief or hardness of heart, with which the heart of man is walled against the God and Christ and the gospel of the grace of God." There are patterns we can have that can be harmful to the family. Maybe we call them habits as well or tendencies. Maybe you've heard about this story in the past, I know I've told it to my church, about a lady who nagged her husband all the time. I mean, she just nagged him non-stop. She belittled him whenever she got the opportunity.

And then on one occasion, a friend asked her to church, and she decided to go, and she went for a while. And she came home one Sunday, and she announced to her husband, I was born again. I've been born again. And then several weeks and months passed and the wife continued to nag her husband and belittle him and and undermine him any way that she could and and that man later on in a conversation told a friend, he said, I don't mind that she got born again, I just wish she hadn't come back as herself. Can I say to you in love this morning that one of the tragedies that has happened in the watering down of the gospel and this easy believe-ism that's become so prominent in our culture, the taking away of the idea of being born again and old things passing away and behold all things come become new can I remind you this morning if you've been born again if you're a new creature in Christ there ought to be some changes within your life there ought to be some changes I heard it said one time that if your religion hasn't changed the way you live and behave any, then your religion isn't Christianity?

And there's a change that happens in our life. There are patterns that need to go away within the life of Christians and believers. And Paul talks to us and I think Paul's wanting us to be aware that as we come into this new life, we come into this new fellowship with Christ that we need to identify some of these old patterns and some of these things that that we need to leave behind, that we need to tear down, we need to get rid of. I want you to turn with me in Galatians chapter 5, and I want you to turn to verse 16. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16.

And here the Apostle Paul is talking about the distinction between those characteristics of the flesh and the characteristics of the Spirit. Now, I really believe within this list of the flesh here there are some things that we can identify, some patterns, some things that that we ought to to make sure are not part of our home. They're not standing, that they don't have any place within our family, within our marriage, within our parenting. Now listen, I'll read these three and then I just want to say a word about them. Let's go to verse 19 actually in Galatians 5 and he says, Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like of which I told you beforehand just as I told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now Anthony, these are not things that we would ever battle with within our homes. Really? Look at some of these things that I think we do and we need to be aware of. When he starts right there at the beginning, those first four, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and lewdness, those all have to do with things concerning immorality. All too often, even in our circles, because we're bombarded and it's so easily accessible, this thing of adult entertainment, I hesitate so often to use some of these words because of the children and protecting of their innocence like Paul tells us in Romans.

But statistics and research and conversations point to the fact that this is still an issue, especially we know where men are concerned. Men, if this is something that's still within your life and you're still battling and there's not been victory over that, I would tell you about the times wives have been in conversation with me and it just happened again recently a wife standing and she had just discovered some things on her phone and and her husband standing there with his head hung and tears rolling down her face. Man, I'm telling you right now, tear this high place down before it destroys your family. Tear it down by the grace of God and the power of God. Tear down the high place of immorality and all of these things and these temptations that go with it.

He talks about the idea of idolatry. Well, there wouldn't be that in our homes, would they? Well, in the Greek this word here, idolatry, talks about covetousness. And we all get that. That's the idea of just never being able to have enough.

I've watched families dissolve over this idea of covetousness. Families at one time were strong, families at one time were doing well, but because of this current that flows within our world of having more, having more, having more, never being satisfied. There's compromises that are made as far as careers, as far as mama taking care of the home. I've heard Kevin say different times, it'll be later, he said, we had a generation that came home to raise their kids, and came home to raise their daughters, only to raise their daughters to leave. Compromises are made that this flow and current that we've always got to have more to be satisfied, to be happy.

It's a high place that we need to guard against and tear down. The idea of witchcraft. Now I may get in hot water here and I can't believe that I ever do, but all you have to do, even in homeschool circles, to get in trouble about this is mention people's Harry Potter books. I've gotten dressed down over Twilight movies and Harry Potter books. I listened to a fellow be interviewed one time that had been in the occult, and he said that the Harry Potter series could be used as a textbook on witchcraft.

These high places, these ways that Satan tries to get into our family and tries to bring chaos and harm. Paul talks about the idea of hatred and if I understand this rightly and rightly divided, it's talking about that spirit of unforgiveness. Sometimes within families there's things that happen and we're wounded and we're hurt and we find that we have to forgive. Christ has called us time and time again to forgive. My wife decided a few years ago that she would read through the entire Gospels and just write down the commands of Christ because Jesus said, if you love me you'll keep my commands.

So she goes through the entire Gospels, writes down all the commands of Christ, and when she got through with that, she came back and she said, you know, I was blown away by how much of that is dominated with Jesus telling us to forgive one another. There will be times in our families that we'll need to extend forgiveness, and if we don't, then unforgiveness can become one of those high places, a wedge, and can be harmful to the family. He talks about contentions, Those people that are quarrelsome. I know no married couples in here ever quarrel. That never happens, does it?

Never. Loud discussions. That's a good way to define it. Quarrelsome. Now, this doesn't suggest that we don't have times where we don't see eye to eye.

That's not what this means. It doesn't mean that we don't have those kind of times, but this means someone just constantly has to be right. Constantly wants to quarrel. Constantly wants to bicker. This is a tendency of the flesh.

He talks about jealousy, and it was interesting for me to stop several times over the years and look at the distinction because later on he's going to go ahead and talk about envy. But this idea of jealousy is kind of like what Kirk talked to us about last night about the kid that had their toys and they didn't want to give them up, they didn't want to share them, and jealousy within a family of not wanting to share, of not wanting to serve, of not wanting to give freely, of having that... I've had to guard against the tendency. I'm like, Kirk, the personality test that my wife likes, she says that my personality test is I'm a reformer. And I just see, like he said, black and white.

Everything should be black and white. And you know what I had to guard against, and my kids will tell you this, my kids will tell you that I'm not a perfect dad, but I've had to guard against these times of telling them this is my house. This is my house. And take that domineering kind of thing, and it is my house. I got to make the payment on it in that sense and maintain it and all that, but I should never make my kids feel like my house is more important than they are.

That somehow that some possession, some temporal thing, some trivial thing is more important than they are. This is mine, this is mine, and you're less than this. That jealousy, that mind, mind not wanting to share. Another area that Paul talks about in the flesh is that outburst of wrath. We get this.

I don't know, it's been seven, eight years ago, before we were in this building, I preached three or four sermon series on on anger and the temper. And I was kind of taken back by how many men came to me privately to talk about this very issue and confess that they needed prayer, confess that they needed help in this regard. Paul talks about these outbursts of wrath. Now the Bible tells us to be angry and sin not. It tells us that, but this is not like that.

These are these outbursts of wrath. I was talking to a young man recently, and he said to me, he said, you know, Anthony, I know that those same sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you, " and he said, And I said no, I stopped him. I said, wait a minute, that's just some weird saying somebody came up with. That's not in the Bible. In fact the Bible says that the power of life and death is in the tongue And that's not okay.

The verbal abuse, the unkind things that leave those marks. A pastor that I respect, he's retired now, and he said if a man came to him once and said, you know, I don't see what's so wrong with having a temper or losing my temper." He said, I go off, I let off steam, and then I move on. And the pastor responded to him and he says, so does a shotgun. So does a tornado. It's quick, but the effect can be seen for a long time, amen?

Am I right? Paul says this is of the flesh. If this is a high place, if this is an idol, if this is something we deal with, then we want God's help. He goes on, he talks about selfish ambition. We don't need to spend a lot of time on that.

We all understand what that means to be self-oriented and self-focused and self-driven. It's the complete antithesis of Christianity, of our Lord and Savior, who gave of himself even to the point of death, death on a cross. He talks about dissensions. How do we define dissensions? It's one who looks to sow discord within the family.

It's one who's actively involved in causing divisions and splits. That's what the world does. That's what our nation is doing right now. Scott and I were talking about this critical race theory yesterday and he was elaborating on more for me as I had some questions for him and at the heart of all this is to divide the nation, To bring division. This is what Satan does.

Satan divides. Jesus Christ is the great reconciler. He's the one that brings us back together, reconciles us to God, and through the Spirit helps us to be reconciled to one another. He didn't say we wouldn't have problems and things we had to work through, but he gives us a formula in the heart of humble people who can be reconciled, who can come back together. But this idea of dissensions is one who's going here.

I don't think it's any surprise that of the seven deadly sins, they're listed. It talks about one of those seven one who sows discord amongst the brethren and and we could see that this happens in families sometimes maybe it happens sometimes with parents and children and certainly within the siblings and the kids, but this is one who says things and manipulate things, trying to create division. Heresies. When I study this idea of heresies, it means bad principles. We know it is false teaching, but if you think about it in this regard too, it's bad principles.

It's traditions. It's personal preferences. It's when we become the source of truth ourselves. It's when we decide what an absolute is and we implement that as being truth, as being the right way, and It's not in God's Word at all. Matthew 15, 8 through 9, Jesus said, These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

We have to be careful, don't we? We have to be careful in this thing of Christianity that we don't teach our traditions and our preferences and our ideologies as being truth. That we want, we want to walk, you know, the Bible says he who the Son sets free is free indeed. We walk in his truth. We walk in that straight and narrow, and we find liberty.

But when all kinds of other things get thrown in, like the Pharisees did, and they bind heavy burdens on people, that can happen in families, and it does happen in families. I have to tell you over the years, I've watched and I have listened to some talks at some conferences over the years And I've sat through some teaching read some books and things and I paid no regard to it because it said to me that They were just trying to manufacture a bunch of robots and clones and can I tell you in raising your children, God didn't give you those kids with all those different personalities and types and makeups so you could raise another you? We love you but one of you is enough! Amen? And all of our kids are so different.

Addie and I were just talking. Addie's getting married at the end of the month and we were talking about how different the kids were. Even her and her siblings. I want to remind you this morning that God loves diversity. God loves distinguishing things and making them different.

Look at the body. 1 Corinthians 12. All those diversities, but one Lord, one God. And we can get so wrapped up into some of these legalistic mindsets sometimes that there's a one-size-fits-all and what we turn out as rebels. Can I remind you at the heart of this, and we're heading for this, and the fruit of the Spirit, you've heard this because of the circles we're in, but rules without relationship breeds rebels?

Rules without relationship and especially when we burden our kids to death with so many. I have to tell you growing up, I won't go into the background the particular domination I was in and an extreme of that denomination I have to say, but Christianity was so much about what you didn't do. But can I take you back to the Garden of Eden and remind you that God gave Adam and Eve dominion over all of it except how many trees? Isn't that great to know about God? God could have did just the opposite.

He said, I want you to touch anything else on the planet, you can touch this one tree, but he didn't do that. And when we have to not get caught up into traditions and things that we bring with us maybe from our past, even in the realm of religion, we need to search the scriptures and see if this is truth and how this applies in God's Word. And anything outside of what is the truth of God's Word falls under the category of heresy, and those need to be torn down. Envy. Now envy is different than jealousy, and it's a desire for what the other person has.

It's ill will and resentment at another's success or blessing. Don't you wish that when the story of the prodigal son, when we get that picture in our mind's eye of that son who had came to himself and he said, I'm no longer worthy to be a son, you know, well before they comes to himself he says, I'm going back to my father's house, I'll just be a servant, and the dad sees him and and and he runs out to meet him and in my mind's eye I see that embrace I see that reunion and that reconciliation and that dad says kill the fatted calf we're gonna have a cell but my son who was dead it's alive he's back we're going to celebrate Don't you wish that would have been the end of the story? I do. But there was that other brother. Remember him?

Oh, Cherry Charlie. And he's standing off somewhere watching all this with his arms folded. And he's, I've been here the whole time. Ain't nobody threw me a party. This idea that in our heart and in our families, let there not be jealousy between the spouses.

Husbands, be happy for your wife and her successes and her joys. Wives, support and be happy for your husbands. I've seen this. I've seen it in a family that is no longer married because there was no celebration of each other's successes and it became a competition and that jealousy, jealousy. Help us, Lord, to teach our kids to celebrate the good things that happen to their siblings, to celebrate the good things that and the successes that they have and the victories.

He talks about murders. And I hesitated here in my study, but you think about, sometimes we can all try to make it all look so good on the outside, and we don't know what's going on behind the scenes, what high places, what idols, and I don't know all the details. I don't presume to, but I remember a few years ago at the NOAA conference, a family there that did the music. Several children, a dad, incredibly gifted, incredible, had the pledge. It's wonderful.

Do you remember this family, Scott, the Stockdale family? And then later on, we hear that one of the children had taken a gun and killed one of his siblings and his mother. Now I don't stand here in judgment, I don't stand here to be critical, but what high place was there? What was happening behind the scenes? What way had Satan entered into that and gotten a toehold or a foothold some way?

We can't imagine such a thing. He talks about drunkenness and this means intoxication. Means intoxication. I know I'm probably getting out onto thin ice here right now, but I just taught a class to some of our young men in our church on ecclesiology, and we went through 1st and 2nd Timothy as a part of that and the qualifications for elders and deacons and when it came to not giving to wine I just gave him a sharp rebuke and I just said guys just don't even crack this door just leave that stuff alone leave alcohol leave drugs leave all this thing don't I asked the boys this question I'll ask you and you have to wrestle with God. Don't be mad at me or the bad man will get you, okay?

I asked him, I said, if there was a ravenous pit bull standing outside of this door and you knew that if you opened that door even a crack that pit bull was going to come in and really ravage you good, Would you crack the door? No, they all they they they weren't a very active lively crowd but they did respond to that. And I said if you could imagine what I've seen through the years and the devastation that alcohol and other things have done to families. I don't think you'd crack that door. Ask somebody who was raised by an alcoholic what their opinion is.

Ask somebody who's lived in that kind of atmosphere what life was like. He talks about revelings or revelries and this is that fleshly indulgence. It just means that you live your whole life just basically letting your flesh dictate how you go. Your flesh really is what manipulates, motivates, dictates how you live your life. These high places must be torn down.

And then Paul doesn't leave us there though. He gives us a remedy. In verse 22, Galatians 5 22 through 26, but he says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law, and those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, Let us also walk in the Spirit.

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another and envying one another. What's the answer for all this? The answer is like Scott talked about last night. It's the power of the Holy Spirit. How do we get the Holy Spirit?

First of all, we make sure that we've been converted, that we've been born again. You do not have the Holy Spirit today if you have not been born again. There's nothing that's been changed. There's nothing that's been new. There's maybe been a religious ceremony, but there's no power that has been filled and indwelling.

But beyond that, we continue to pray for more of the Holy Spirit. Jesus talked about us being evil, knowing how to give good gifts to our children. He said, how much more would the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? We constantly, as Paul says, we're walking in the Spirit. We're in the Word of God.

We're reading about the Word of God, what God pleases him, and what he wants us to do, and then we're praying that God would help us not to just be hearers of the Word, but to be doers. Do you know that these high places can be torn down? And you remember what Paul said in 2nd Corinthians? He said, our weapons are not the kind of flesh. Ours is a spiritual war that we're fighting here, and there's some of these things that we can't overcome despite the modern mentality that man is good and getting better.

Can I remind you sound theology teaches that man is evil and getting worse? And there's certain things in our physical strength we cannot overcome. We've got to have the help of God to tear down these places and and get the strength and the help that we need to find the help and the healing that we need sometimes. Because like Kirk says, it does get messy. I'm out of time, but I just want to throw a couple things at you before I close.

Another stronghold that you really need to be aware of, because I'm watching family. I just told a young mother in our church a couple Sundays ago how proud I am of her and her husband and what they're doing with their children, the backgrounds they come from and knowing the pressure they face from different sources. And I told her, I said, hang in there. I said, I'm watching families and some of them are not going to make it. And they're not going to make it because of this next thing I'm talking to you about and it's called pleasure.

Pleasure. In particular, can I say to you that it's a scary thing, the the the adulterous influence and pull that this thing of sports has on families and people today? I watch families sometimes, individuals compromise biblical truths and principles over this thing called sports. This idea of pleasure constantly, but can I remind you if these strongholds of even pleasure are not torn down and not done up? Now, I want to back up here and I want to say to you, I want to remind us as a crowd that we are, it's not inherently evil for children to have fun and just be kids.

I'm gonna say it again because that was so good that you missed it. It's not inherently evil for children to just be kids and have fun and laugh. Baptist preacher that I love and he's in paradise now and I remember him teaching on kids one time and he'd preached a beautiful sermon, biblical principles, everything. He got to the end of the message, he closes his Bible, and he said, and I want to tell you something, his kids were raised walking with God, doing good, like Scott talked about those kids in his church, and he said, I want to tell you that my home, our home was filled with laughter. Our home was filled with joy.

And I want to tell you, in the midst of all this, we need to make sure there's laughter and joy, and our kids are enjoying some of the pleasures of life, but pleasure cannot become their idol. Pleasure cannot become their God. I knew a man that went to church here for a while and he told me a horrific story that His mother and father wanted so bad for his siblings to be involved in sports that it led to a series of decisions in their life. And he had three siblings, and all three turned out homosexual. The father and mother ended up bankrupt and divorced.

I just know in recently the brother, one of the siblings died and I believe it was a consequence even of his lifestyle choices. These high places, these pressures from our culture and our tendencies, we need to tear those down. And last thought, again, And Paul talked about that idea of all these things that exalt their self against the knowledge of God. Just pride. Patterns, pleasure, and just our pride.

Casting down imaginations. The word in the Greek is reasoning, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge, again the word reason in the Greek, of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Simply put, is your worldview a truly biblical worldview? Have you sifted your reasoning through the Word of God? I only grow more convinced of, I guess just the term would be the family integrated model, but not just in church and in every facet of life.

I told my father-in-law the other day, I believe Satan has been wildly successful bringing us to where we are as a nation by segregating the family in all the ways that he has. Consider this. Consider this. Satan has segregated and taken the family away from the home so much that the only thing left there most days is the dog and the goldfish. Consider the subject of divorce.

I never speak on this with the intent of bringing condemnation on someone that that's a part of their past. The church shouldn't treat divorce as the unpardonable sin because it's not. Go to the story of the woman on the well who had been divorced five times and living with a man that wasn't her husband and Jesus ministered to her. But think about how widely accepted it has become now and the catastrophe. We talk about abortion in this country and rightfully so and the attack on the sacred nature of human life.

But we hardly hear a word anymore about the sacred institution of marriage. We do, but not as much. And you think about the tragedy and the catastrophe that has been brought on and the effect of that. According to one source I read there are 876, 000 divorces per year. That's 16, 000 1, 800 divorces a week, 2, 400 divorces a day, and one divorce every 36 seconds in America.

They do say the divorce rates have leveled off and even dropped a little since 2019, but that's because lots of people, Millennials in particular, just aren't getting married. So many things, the public school system, but I close with this little story. The church followed suit several years ago. How many of you know the world should never be the pattern for the church? It's okay I say that?

And I remember I came in on the threshold of this thing called youth ministry. You have to understand when I'm in my 20s and I decide that I'm going to be a youth pastor, I would tell people what I did and it was so new in this particular region that people would say, you're a what? They hadn't heard of it some. There was an older minister, an evangelist, a district superintendent that I loved and adored. He's in Paradise Now as well, and I told him about the fact that there was only like there was a hundred churches in the district I was a part of there was only one other youth pastor at that time and I was number two and I remember having a conversation with that man and I told him what I was going to do and he said very solemnly he said it'll never work.

Well I won't work. He said taking children away from their mommies and daddies as the primary teachers of the Word of God. And I got mad at him. I was indignant. How dare he say that to me?

And me and my foolishness and ignorance then would go on for a long time and actually boast at times about being able to be a professional teenager for a living. How bright was that? But God in his faithfulness began to deal with my heart, and I began to study the scriptures more and more and for myself, and I began to think this isn't adding up. We'd have big youth groups and they'd graduate and they'd leave the church and we'd never see him again and on and on and on. And God in his faithfulness began to deal with me and he began to change my worldview and helped me to see and teaching like on Deuteronomy 6 and and Ephesians 5 and all these things and and and and my wife mentions to me about homeschooling at that time the only homeschoolers I knew weren't really all that godly people.

They were more like militia people who were anti-government, really, really strange people. They just were. And I said, uh-uh, I ain't doing that to my kids. But then I also began to realize I wasn't going to let my kids go to my youth group either. Then what are you going to do?

Well, God in his faithfulness changed my worldview. And then I started going to these crazy family-integrated conferences. But what happened to me there was what happened to Josiah when Hilkiah found the book of the law. Remember Josiah? He was already trying to set some things in order.

He could just sense something wasn't right. This isn't right. Something's not right. And then Hilkiah finds the book of the law, and when they begin to read the book of the law, do you remember Josiah tore his garments? That's always a sign of humility and a broken and a contrite heart and he cried out to the people and he said we're not doing this like God wants us to do.

We're not obeying his word and then something new begins to happen and he begins to really set things in order. I just say this to you as a warning. Yes, we're to build new houses. We're to build. We're to keep occupying and all that, but I think it's wise for us sometimes to step back And see, Lord, has there been any high places that have come up in our home?

Dad's just say, has there been any high places come up in my heart? Mom say, is there any high places that I need to tear down? Lord children, children that are here today, would you take a moment to thank God that you have parents that have brought you to something like this? Are there high places even in a young person's heart that needs to be torn down? Would you pray with me?

Father, I just pray this morning in particular for families that are here. We get excited about a new renovation or a new home. And like we mentioned, it often gets squashed pretty quick because we run into the construction, the demolition, the tearing down, and all that goes with that before we can bring the new. But Father, I'm thinking about my family room and we tore that big hole in the back of my house. There was all that mess for so long, but what joy that family room has brought to our family and how many times we've cuddled around the wood stove now and we've spent time in there together and it's been a place where we've brought young families to study the Word of God and it's just been such a, but it was worth it.

It was worth the tearing down, Lord, so that the new could come. And Father, I pray right now for hearts, just like the Holy Spirit does. Would you speak to individual hearts and would you help us to see? It took you, Father. It took your Word and it took your Holy Spirit for me to change my worldview and how I saw the family.

But God, what a new work you did in my marriage. What a new work you did in the way I've raised my kids. And now as you've graced me and blessed me with the privilege to wear the title of granddad and papaw, Lord, how blessed I am when I sit with them on my knees. And I praise you this morning, Father, that you've helped me throughout my life. I give testimony to you, God, tonight or this morning that you've helped me to tear down some things that weren't pleasing to you.

So just examine our hearts like you do, Father, and then help us to be obedient to whatever you might show us. And we praise you this morning for your faithfulness, for your truth, for your love. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And everybody said, Amen.