← ArchiveProverbsSunday, July 24, 2016DateJuly 24, 2016Speaker—TextProverbs 6Passages in this sermonProverbs 61:47Proverbs 6:12–151:59Proverbs 6:125:43Numbers 3223:12Psalms 12826:34TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00In choir, Greg, those of you that do not know me, my name is Brad Tollison. I'm the associate pastor here and youth pastor and whatever else they asked me to do. And so, but it is a joy serving here, serving alongside the staff here. It's been awesome. Today is a very, well, let me just put it this way. It's a very difficult subject. I know Josh has been tracking along the Proverbs and we're gonna stay in the Proverbs this morning0:29and then we may go over to the Psalms. But I wanna tackle what I believe is a very massive topic. And I believe that our families, our churches, our communities, our state and our nation will continue to break down and continue to fail in areas if this topic is not addressed. whenever women go to a women's conference,0:58they're lifted up, encouraged. They may get a little gift or trinket or something to take home with them, high five. And sometimes it's kind of like, man, this is really tough being a man. And that's kind of how it is.1:30And that's not really how it's gonna be this morning, but it kind of is. I'm going to encourage as much as I can, but the topic this morning is man up. And so we're gonna be in Proverbs chapter six. If you'd go ahead and turn there to Proverbs chapter six, we're gonna be coming, jumping around a little bit, but we're gonna focus on verses 12 through 15. Proverbs chapter six, verses 12 through 15.1:59When men refuse, when men refuse to be men, the world breaks down. The world breaks down. And where men will press into what God has for them and their purpose and what they're designed to be as men to walk in, wives will have joy, children will have purpose2:29and the family will be successful and strengthened. Where that is broke down, where that fails, the family fails. Wives are unhappy, children have no purpose and the nation is in riots in the streets. And so men, we have a huge responsibility, especially Christians, those that are believers in Christ, men that hold that banner and hold Christ in their hearts.2:56We have a massive responsibility. According to stats, at least half the country's families will eventually fall apart. Culturally, over half of all marriage end in divorce and over half of the children in our nation are growing up without knowing what it's like to have a father in the home. Over half. And if you wanna look at it economically, if you wanna look at it socially,3:24if you do a secular study or you find any secular study of what happens when men refuse to be husbands and when men refuse to be godly men, the world falls apart. Communities fall apart. Families fall apart. So everything breaks when men are not stepping up and being men. When governmental and sociological and cultural studies show,3:54and this is what they're tapping into. What's so amazing to me is when they do these studies about how men affect everything and how if men aren't leaders in different areas of life, in different areas of even your job, what happens when men are not men and they start breaking down in leadership, when they do these studies, they're like, hey, this is really something we need to look into. And I'm thinking, the Bible says it. God's word is true. And so if we as believers just step up4:25and say, hey, this right here, if we just do this right here and do it well, it's gonna help out a whole lot. And so we've got something that the government and the statisticians don't have and they're scratching their heads going, that's something too, this man thing. That's something too, men growing up and being men. And so men, the responsibility of the spiritual climate in your home does not fall4:55on the pastor. It does not fall on the associate pastor. It doesn't fall on your youth pastor. Bless his heart. It doesn't fall on the music guy. It doesn't fall on the children's ministry. It doesn't fall on the church as a whole. Now we are equipped to help you. But the primary responsibility of the spiritual climate in your home falls on your shoulders. It falls on you.5:26It falls on your shoulders. And so we're going to look at two different passages this morning. And first we're going to look at the wicked man. What does that look like? What does the wicked man look like? In verse 12 it says, of Proverbs chapter 6, verse 12 it says, a worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart, devises evil continually,5:55sowing discord. Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly in the moment he will be broken beyond healing. So if you're a messed up man, you're going to contribute to a messed up family. If you're a messed up family, you're going to contribute to a messed up church. And if you're a messed up church, you're going to contribute to a messed up community. And a messed up community adds to a messed up state, which leads to a messed up country resulting in a broken, messed up world. So everything suffers.6:25Everything is affected when men refuse not to be men and they're just boys that shave. Everything breaks. And right now, we have a lot of boys that shave. And so a little background here, verses 6 through 11, talks about a lazy man. Talks about the slugger. Talks about a man that doesn't, if you don't eat, you don't work6:55and it leads to poverty. And then in verse 12, it talks about a worthless person. The first thing you see in verse 12 is a worthless person. That's the description there. This man works hard at being lazy. He works hard at it to be lazy. He is a passive man and it's a type of a wicked passivity that punts on the male responsibility and it weakens them as men. And so life gets too hard,7:25guess what happens? They give up. And the responsibility naturally falls on the woman. Now, ladies, you can put it on cruise control today. And here's what I don't want you to do. I don't want you to do this right here. Or this. Or turn around and look. You need to support your man.7:55You need to lift him up and encourage him. Because let me tell you something. It is difficult living in today in today's society and trying to be in a godly man. It is very difficult. And I'm, let me tell you something. I'm not there yet. This is more for me than it is anybody. I was telling Jessica earlier this week, I'm going to have a hard time with this. I told her, I'm not sure if I should preach this sermon. This is hard. It really is.8:25It's very difficult. But let me tell you something. It's also a joy knowing that we have the instruction book. It's a joy knowing that we have something here. It's a joy knowing that we have Christ in us. If we just do what this says. Man, everything just kind of falls in line. That's what we're going to learn today is if we just do what the word says. And so when things get too hard, this man gives up. They've given themselves8:54over to the couch. They've given themselves over to comfort. They don't enter into the fight. They're unengaged. They're just kind of wandering around aimlessly. They don't engage their wives. They don't engage their children. And let me just say this. When I say that this man works hard to be lazy, you can look like you've got it all together and you ain't got nothing. You can look like from the outside you have everything together.9:24Busyness does not equal success. Even in your home. You say, well man, I take my kids to and they're in this, they're in karate, they're in ball, they're in all this right here. Man, I'm a good dad because I've got them involved in all kind of stuff. Just because you're busy doesn't mean you're engaged. There's a difference there.9:54When you're engaged in the life of a child, you're going to know that this word, you have to have this word in order to engage them in their hearts spiritually. I'm not saying extracurricular activity is not a good thing, but I'm saying too much of it. And when that becomes your God, it's a horrible thing and it can be disastrous to the family. So they don't enter10:24into the fight. They don't engage their wives or their children. They punt on responsibility. They use women oftentimes. Single men use women for pleasure and then they leave. They buy into a type of artificial, weak movie theater type of love that's all about a sexual attraction and has no weight or strength to it at all. That's a boy that shaves. They view women as something to be consumed rather than something to be cherished.10:54The essence of being a man is taking responsibility. It's just simply taking responsibility. It doesn't matter how much time you spend in the gym. It doesn't matter how much time you spend killing deer. It doesn't matter how loud your truck is. that does not define manhood. Now listen to me. I know some guys that spend a lot of time11:24in the gym. I know guys that deer hunt and their truck's real loud and they're godly men. So I'm not saying if you like shooting guns in big trucks you can't be a godly man. Don't hear me say that. Where's he at? He's up there. I see him. I know some godly men that have hobbies. Godly men. But when you let that be your god there's a problem. There's a problem. And so11:57And so when you forsake your family for something there's a problem. Verse 12 So a wicked man goes about with crooked speech. So this man makes it his business to lie. He flatters and he slanders he gossips and he maintains himself in a lazy way. In a lazy way. And this is it talks about crooked speech. Crooked speech. He talks down12:27to people. He lies and he gossips. And the question is are you are you lazy? Maybe there's an area of your life men where you've kind of dropped the ball and you're just kind of lazy in that area. Maybe the way you talk to people you've gotten laxed there. Maybe the way you treat your kids you've gotten lazy there. Maybe the way you treat your wife12:57your wife you've gotten lazy there. Because here's what I learned as a husband and a father. I could be tracking along in a certain area of my life. Man, I'm doing awesome. That area right there is great. I'm concentrating on my kids and I'm playing with them and I'm doing things with them. I'm trying to pray with them and be an example to them and all of a sudden I drop out in this area. Have y'all been there? I kind of13:27uh oh. I've concentrated on this area and that's a good thing. It's an awesome thing but all of a sudden I kind of drop out in this area here. So it's kind of a not a balancing act but if you stay in God's word you realize that there that there's a completeness to being engaged. You've got to be engaged in the different areas of the responsibility of what it means to be the head of your household. And so you can be lazy in certain areas. In our society13:57we see this. We see this. This man is unengaged with his church. He's unengaged with his wife. He's unengaged with his children. And he may be in the room. He may be sitting in this room but he's just not engaged. He's not actively pursuing his wife. He's not actively involved with his kids in such a way that brings honor to the Lord. He's not teaching them the ways14:27of the Lord. Not by his actions. Not by his mouth. Not by what he does. Verse 12 it says he winks with his eyes signals with his feet with his feet and points with his finger. I found this to be a very interesting verse here. Winks with his eyes signals with his feet points with his finger. And you see several different things if you look at the passage of chapter 6. You see this happening a couple of times in here14:57where he's pointing, he's using his feet for different things and he's using his eyes. And verse 13 kind of sums up those things. These are all gestures being made to someone. It's not that he's just out in the air and he's just kind of making these gestures. That would be kind of weird. that these are gestures that he's making to someone. He's communicating to someone, a confidant, an associate, a partner15:27a partner in crime. And his business is to do evil to someone else. So you have two people that are communicating with each other and you have another party over here or a group of people over here that he's wanting to do harm to. You tracking with me? And so he's using these gestures to communicate to someone that's on his team to hurt someone that he's probably15:56close to. So these are gestures being made to a partner in crime. So he's working with someone else plotting to do harm. Think about this. It may be stealing. Cheating on a test.16:19You guys know that when you cheat on a test, if you ever have done that, surely not this group. Sometimes you have to work with someone else. Am I right? You kind of have to work with someone else to get that accomplished. Hey, hey, you call your buddy up. Hey, you take that test. I did, man. How much? What was it going to take? And so you see what I'm saying? So this verse is talking about those things.16:49those things. You're gesturing to someone to do evil. Embezzling money. Those kind of things don't happen alone. Embezzling money. Abusing the system. I'm lazy so I don't need to work. We see that often in our society. drain on our system. Affairs. Affairs. You have to sneak around to have an affair. Now, I wouldn't17:19know, but I've been around enough to know, even in this community, that you have to sneak around. And sometimes it takes a partner in crime. a mistress. It may take a look, or in this case, a wink. And you're communicating with someone, and guess who you're hurting? You're hurting your wife. You're hurting your children. You're hurting17:49You're hurting your family. And so this man is looking, he's plotting out to do evil. He's scheming. Men cheat, have a mistress, and they will plot a scheme so they can have an affair. Winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger. And I've seen this take place many times. It starts with a look, a wink before you know it. They're texting, and they're18:20and they're calling in secrecy. And no, they're not calling Jake from State Farm. They're plotting to do evil. You may have been in that situation. Men, love your wives. And if you're having trouble loving your wife, seek help. Seek the18:50Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Verse 14, it says, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord. So this man is a prideful man. He's a prideful man. His heart is perverted, he devises evil, and he continually is sowing discord. He thinks so much of himself that he continually is sowing discord. pride does not look to the interest of others. It always looks to the interest of self. That's what19:21That's what pride does. He has a prideful heart. Verse 15, it says, therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly, and a moment he will be broken beyond healing. That's a sad, sad place to be. I have seen this numerous times happen to men who I thought were godly men. So you may19:50be sitting here this morning going, this kind of stuff's not going to happen to me. It's not going to happen to me. Don't kid yourself. Men, listen to me. Satan, his goal is to steal, kill, destroy. Steal, kill, destroy. Steal, kill, destroy.20:20destroy. I tell my students this all the time. If you ask them, what's Satan's goal? Steal, kill, destroy. They need to know that because they need to know how to defend themselves. That is his offense. That is his way of attacking. And let me tell you something, men, he's wearing us out. He's wearing us out. So if you're sitting here today, this morning, you're thinking, man, I'm good. That kind of stuff is not going to happen to me. Watch out. Because he's cunning. He wants20:52He wants to steal your joy. He wants to cut you off. It may be a look. It may be a glance. It may be a temptation. It may be a drink. It may be a drug. It may be someone. And let me just say this. If you, men are a lot smarter ladies than what we let on to be, okay? We may act just21:22act just stupid sometimes. My wife's got me figured out. So let me tell you, I ain't got a chance. And if I do mess up, she's already told me where she is going to put me. There's some spring out in I always holler. It's deep. So if I go missing, check it out.21:50There is. Men, listen to me. you know where your buttons are pushed. You know the sin that you're bent toward. You know where you could possibly potentially fall. Guard that with all your heart. Let your wife know what that is so she can help you in those areas of your life. Women have something built in22:19built in of them that just kind of goes off. They know. They're your helper, your help mate. Let them help you. Let them help you with those areas of your life. So men's failure to lay aside sin is the direct result of our refusal to give up our natural tendency toward reaching our own freedom, meaning, value, worth,22:49worth, and righteousness. And not believing that, men, listen to me, not believing that Christ is all we need. Christ is all we need. The consequences of sin sometimes cannot be irreversible. Cannot be irreversible. Matter of fact, it says this in Numbers 32, 23. you may be sure that your sin will find you out. Your23:19Your sin will find you out. I've got a text message from one of my mentors. He messaged me and he said, hey, did you see this? And it was a pastor up in the Carolinas, mega church pastor, that us young guys tend to look his way sometimes and go, man, he's doing some really cool things over there. He's reaching a lot of people. He resigned from his church23:49church two weeks ago with a multiplicity of different issues. The main thing is alcohol. He just couldn't put the bottle down. And it started affecting everything about him. And so this friend of mine texted me and said, have you heard about this? and he said a little tagline down there, watch yourself, be careful. This24:20This friend of mine, my mentor, he knows because I've shared with him my areas and my areas of the world where I'm bent toward. To this day, I can see a beer commercial and my mouth waters. I struggled with alcohol when I was a teenager. Parents didn't even, are they here? I don't see him anywhere. There he is up there. He knows. No secret. But I kept it from them. But I24:51But I struggled with that. I was bent toward that. So a buddy of mine texted me and said, hey man, look out. I'm thinking, man, thanks. Appreciate that. Thank you. We need that, men, in our lives. Someone else, a brother, that can pull alongside of us. Say, man, how is it going? Are you looking out for that area in your life? Are you protecting that area in your life? We've25:20We've even got a world view now where 40% of kids in our nation go to bed without a dad. the consequences to some men's sin is that their kids are being affected and their families have fallen apart. And it's a sad place. In certain ethnic communities, this is 70, 80,25:5080, 90% that kids are going to bed without their daddy, without a father figure in the home. So we've got to take responsibility, men. And what's the sad thing about today is not just in our own home, but in the community. Godly men need to step up and say, you know what, that young man right there, he ain't got a daddy. I need to talk with him, I need to minister to him, I need to pull26:20to pull alongside of him, I need to help him out in some certain areas. So now we're going to look at the righteous man. We looked at the portrait of a wicked man, let's look at the righteous man. Turn to Psalm 128. Psalm 128. Beautiful, beautiful language here. Psalm 128, we're going to focus on verses 1 through 6. So we looked at the portrait26:50the portrait of a wicked man, now let's look at a portrait of a righteous man. Verse 1, blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. And the first thing the psalmist says in verses 1 and 2 is that the Christian family begins with a personal commitment to God.27:18to God. It's a personal commitment to God. So this husband or father is fearing the Lord. He fears the Lord. He's a man that is in God's word. He's a man that is in his word. He loves God's word. It's a man that's engaged with God that walks with him. He's involved in his church. He's involved in his life group27:48life group and the words that come out of his mouth. He's engaged. You can just tell it. You can see it. You can see it in his life. When a man is pressed, when a man is stressed out, when a man is tired, you get to see some of his character. And this is true. Some of you know this from this morning. When you got up, you got kids trying to28:18trying to get them straightened out and dressed and on here on time. Women, you know what I'm talking about? You yelled to kids this morning. I need to repent. Some of you are repenting as soon as you get in the door. So this man, he fears the Lord. The righteous28:48The righteous man is concerned about what God says about the direction of his life. And the wicked man is concerned about himself and what others think. You see the difference there. The righteous man is concerned about what God says about the direction of his life according to God's word. The wicked man is concerned about himself and what others think. He is a man that is in the word of God, is involved and engaged. So when God says how blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, he's saying take God29:17take God seriously. Take God seriously. To fear means to be in awe or to the reverence of. So if you don't fear God, your lack of fear will show up in your family. If you don't fear the Lord, if you don't fear God, your lack of fear will show up in your family. Now let me just say this for you guys that maybe you've never heard that term fear of the Lord. It doesn't mean that you're scared29:46you're scared to death and you're trembling over in the corner afraid that God's going to hit you with a lightning bolt. That's not the fear of God. Here's what the fear of God is. Some people are afraid of getting caught and they're afraid of what others will think when they get caught. You understand? In other words, I'm doing something evil over here, all of a sudden I get caught and my first thought is, man, everybody's going to30:16going to know about it. The man that fears the Lord, he's more concerned of disappointing God than he is others. There's the difference. So if you're thinking, if you're engaged in something else, if you're not living right and there's a sin that you have and you're more concerned about what others will think, there's a big chance you don't fear the Lord. You don't fear God. But if you're concerned about what God thinks about the sin in your heart,30:46your heart, about what God thinks about the things that you're engaged in, guess what? Things start to line up because you have a fear of the Lord and that shows up in your home. You fear God. Daddy, why don't we do this? Because God's going to be displeased with that son. Daddy, why don't we do this right here? Because, buddy, God's word says you have to obey your parents. Daddy, why did you do that? Son, I'm31:16Son, I'm sorry. Would you forgive me? I provoked you to anger this morning. And so, when our families see that worked out in our life, when they see us living, when they see us failing in areas because we all have sin, and they see us quick to repent and ask forgiveness, that is what the fear of the Lord is. It doesn't mean you're perfect. There's not a perfect man in this room. It means even31:47in your failures, you're walking with the Lord. You're fearing the Lord.32:00He's also a working man. The righteous man is concerned about providing for his family. And notice that his work does not necessarily have to interfere with his family. It says in verse 2, it says, you shall eat the fruit of your labor of your hands, and so you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. So the wicked man is lazy, and only concerned with the appearance of working, but always looking for ways to take advantage of others. The righteous man is concerned about providing for32:30providing for his family. providing for his family. You shall eat the fruit of your labor, the labor of your hands. You shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Do you see the order here? You see the order? Things are just kind of put in order. You fear the Lord. You work hard for the Lord. And then we're going to see in verse 3, it starts talking about the family. It starts talking about the family. It says, verse 3, for the first33:00part of verse 3, it says, your wife will be like a fruit vine within your house. Your wife will be like a fruit vine, a fruitful vine in your house. So a family runs well with a man that recognizes that he must be in alignment with what God's word says before his wife can properly align herself with her relationship with the Lord.33:29with the Lord.33:37So men, if your wife is not happy in the home, it falls on you. Some of you may say, well, you just don't know my wife. I don't. I'm glad. I've got a wife. I've got my beautiful wife. Let me tell you something. When I know something's going on with her, when she's not34:07quite happy, I'm like, okay, something's going on. And our first thought is, what did I do? What happened? It may not be what I did. It may be what I didn't do. I'm not talking about chores. I mean, I'm talking about taking responsibility. Things are going to come up. Things are going to happen. You're going to have fights. You're going to have disagreements. But how you walk in those things? Because if34:39Because if you fear the Lord, you can treat her in such a way where she is a fruitful vine. still learning how to do that. I don't always do that well. But I watch other men that have been married a lot longer than I have. And I read God's35:09read God's word and I press in. I press in. Most of us are works in progress anyway. but I press in. So the family runs well. The man recognizes that he must be in alignment with God before his wife can properly align herself with him. It all works together. In other words, this man is not demanding his wife follow him. He's not demanding that his wife follow him. She35:39She willingly follows him because he is leading the family in godliness and righteousness. So I mean, if you're taking responsibility of being the spirituality of your home, God's word says that your marriage will flourish. This is what I've learned. You can kind of look at it like this. We're the head of the household, men. We're like a coach. we have36:10we have these little minions that are our players. We're raising them up. We're trying to do our very best to raise our kids. And single men, if you're single in here, and if you are looking to get married, this is for you too. So it's kind of like a coach. You're raising up. Your wife is not36:39is not the assistant coach. She's not the offensive coordinator. She's not the defensive coordinator. As a matter of fact, at times, she may not be on your team. This is what she is. She's a referee. And at times, she's going to throw that flag out. And she's going to say, you know what, there's37:09there's this area right here, Brad, that you're just not, we need to press on here. You're not spending time with Luke, you're spending more time with Lane. And Luke's acting up. And guess what Luke does when he acts? What happens? I've learned as a father, my oldest will go nuts if I don't spend time with him. He starts acting out and being disruptive and rebellious. Now, he needs Jesus.37:39Jesus. But what I know as a father that I've got to press in on him because if I don't spend time with him, more time with him, then guess what happens? I spend time with him and just playing with him and just on the floor with him. And it's like the next day, it's like a different kid. Lane's the same way. And so guess what she does? She's like a referee. She's like a38:05NCAA. Probably, hopefully SEC. So we need to listen to our wives. Listen to our wives. If parents are never with their children, if parents are never with their children, then you can expect the child to mature in a way that is not godly. if you're never with your children.38:35your children. Our problem today is not merely a lost generation, but it is the product of a lost generation. It's the product of a lost generation. There's generational sin that's taking place among our country, among our fathers. And so we have fathers who never saw this in their fathers. And so guess what? It just kind of passes down. It passes down. And what we need to do as men is we need to put a stake in the ground and say, you know what? I'm going39:06I'm going to leave my household. I'm going to fear the Lord. I'm going to work hard. I'm going to love my wife. I'm going to raise my kids up in such a way that's going to honor God.39:25Second part of verse three, it says, your children will be like olive shoots around your table. I thought this was really interesting. So I want to know what an olive shoot was. So your children will be like olive shoots. An olive plant takes 15 years to mature. 15 years. So if you like olives, better than bottom from the store, you're going to be a while. An olive plant takes 15 years to mature, and the plant must be nurtured before it39:54before it can become a tree and produce good oil. But once a tree matures, it can produce for a number of years. And so we need to nurture our children around the table. Notice that he says around the table. It says your children will be like olive shoots around your table. So we need to be intentional. Playing ball is not enough. We need40:24We need to be intentional with them. We need to find out where their gifts are, find out where they're bent toward, and we need to work in those areas in their lives. We need to show them, have life with them. Some of you may not know this, we're in the process of building a home. Actually, a lot of you may know, our stuff may be at your house. Our stuff is spread out within five different places. It's pretty amazing.40:54amazing. But anyway, we have less stuff now. We're going to probably have more less stuff than when we move in. I'm looking forward to throwing stuff away. Anyway, we're living in a place, my boy calls it the beach condo. It's an apartment, about a thousand square foot apartment that has a pool. Those of you that know me know I can't swim. We never grew up in an area that had41:24had a pool. We didn't have a lot of friends that had pools, so we just never was around the water a whole lot. I never learned how to swim. And so we're at the pool, and of course, I'm in the shallow end. My five-year-old knows how to swim like a fish. It's embarrassing to me. He's jumping in the deep end. Daddy, watch this. Yeah, see that. Good job, son. Awesome. Glad you can do that, buddy. I'm swimming and everything. And he starts to, you know how41:54kids do. Daddy, you jump in. And mama looks. Referee. What's going to do? I'm like, okay. This happened to be a particular afternoon where no one was there. It was just us. as a family. So I'm thinking, a really good friend of mine told me, if you try hard enough, you can probably swim. If you just try hard enough, you can probably swim. I wasn't42:25I wasn't sure if he was trying to get me to drown or what, but I thought, I'm going to try this. So I just kind of go under and kick a little bit and I did this little thing and I popped back up. And I noticed my wife, she looked and she looked the other way. I did it again. I thought to my mind, did I just swim? I popped up and I looked at Jessica and said, did I just swim? She went, yes. She said, do it again.42:55again. So I did it a couple more times. And so my kids, I did not see this take place, but Jessica realized this, my kids were watching me. They were kind of on the side, just watching. And Luke was just watching this. And so Jessica goes, if you know my wife, you understand this, deep end. She said, I want to know you can save yourself if you fell43:25you fell in. I said, I'm not uncoordinated like you are. I'm not going to fall in. I'm not just going to fall in. Okay? And so deep end, go. I want you to swim on that ladder. And so I have never done this before in my entire life. I have never looked down at a body of water that's deep and just decided I was going to jump in without floaties on. I've never done it. So, guys, it was hard because43:54hard because I'm thinking I've got to swim. It's do or die. And so I tell him, what if I don't? She said, I'll save you. That comforts me a lot. And so to make a long story short, I did jump in. It may have to take a couple tries, but I did jump in and I swam to the ladder. Got44:25Got out and I'll never forget the look on my boy's face. Daddy, you did it. You can swim like I can. Let's swim, daddy. And so I was able to engage him. Let me tell you, that story to you may not have meant a whole lot, but that was doing life. My boys will remember now, at least Luke will, Lane, probably not, he's too young, when daddy learned how to44:54swim. It's just doing life, just spending time with them and bonding together. If we are never with our children, you cannot expect them to grow maturely. You can't expect them to grow maturely and properly. Our problem today is not merely a lost generation, but it's the product of a lost generation. We have45:25We have to spend time with our kids. Men, if you have boys, you have to spend time with your boys. Our boys need you. They need you. Our girls need to see a daddy that loves them, that nurtures them. One day, one day, hopefully,45:56hopefully, my boys will confess Christ one day. I pray for that every single day. And I know those of you parents, you understand what I'm saying. If I'm not living my life the way I should as a godly daddy, my sons, how they respond to an earthly father, the way they've looked at their earthly father will46:26father will affect the way they look at their heavenly father. In their relationships with others, it will affect. your daughters, daddies, you need to date your daughters and show them what it means to be a godly example in their life. What it means to go after someone else. One day, they're going to get married and they're going to walk down the aisle and you're going to want to know that that young man loves your daughter.46:56your daughter. And they've chosen a young man that's in the likeness of you because you've been an example in their lives. you've been an example in their lives. Verse 4, it says, Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. We see that again, who fears the Lord. So the table is prepared. Verse 5 says, The Lord bless you from Zion.47:26Zion. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem in all the days of your life. Now, what is Zion for us today? It's the church. It's the church. It's not a city in Jerusalem. It's the church of the living God. So you remember the old saying, The family that prays together stays together. It's true. The family that is centered around God, that gathers with God's people in the church, can be affirmed and counseled and47:54counseled and worked with in their lives. So if you have issues, if you're trying to learn things, if you're trying to raise your kids up, the church can help you and reinforce that. What you're learning here can help you and reinforce that. I don't know about you guys, but I like being around other people that have kids our age. That way I can48:26go, man, I tell you, kids aren't messed up as much as I thought they were. You see what he did? And so we're able to bond together. My wife gets on the phone with Mary Beth and with other mamas and they share information and they say, you know what, I'm going to try that right there with my son. The old saying, it takes a village, it48:54village, it takes a church to reinforce what God's word says so we can reaffirm each other. It's the building up of the body of Christ so that we can raise young men and young women that fear the Lord so they can go out from this place and do what the Great Commission says, and that is to go and make disciples of the nations. So they go into the world and they can be godly mamas49:23godly mamas and godly fathers and husbands. So the church does not solely exist for programs, projects, preaching, and buildings, but it exists as a primary vehicle to bring the whole gospel to the whole person to the whole world. And men, let us rejoice. Let us rejoice in this today that if men will, by the grace of God, step into manhood and they will fear the Lord, work hard, take responsibility in their marriage, and raise up children to do the same, then we can49:53change this world that we live in today. And it takes us. And it takes us now. Let me tell you something. It's not going to be the man in the White House to change it. Or the woman if you want to go that way. It's going to take the men rising up in the church as godly leaders to change the community that we live in, the state,50:23the state, the nation. and hopefully influence the world. Would you pray with me? Lord Jesus,← Previous in ProverbsSunday, July 17, 2016Next in Proverbs →Sunday, July 31, 2016More sermons on Proverbs →
