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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Establishing A Godly Home, Part Four | Morgan Dufresne | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
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Hi, I'm Grant Dufresne, and welcome to Dufresne Ministries podcast channel. We believe that as you listen to this message, your faith will be stirred and you will be encouraged in whatever you are believing God for today. Stay tuned at the end of this message to find out more information about our ministry.
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Amen. Go ahead and be seated if you would, this evening. I want. I told you, I let you know last week I wasn't sure if I was going to be done talking about the family godly homes and some other scriptures that we didn't get to that I felt like we should get to. I did not feel like we were quite done yet. So last week I did kind of a full recap. I won't go through that all again, other than the fact that, well, let's go ahead and we'll just go to Genesis. I do want to go to Genesis so that we can continue Genesis 18 so we can continue to remind ourselves. And that way, everything that I say, nobody can take it out of context what we're going to talk about tonight. And I'm so glad all the kids and youth are in here because this is going to be a shouting message for all, all of you. Did y' all bring your shouting clothes and your shouting shoes? Good, because I didn't know I was going to teach on this tonight when all of the young people were going to be in here. So this is a good time. If y' all want to run around the room, you're welcome to do so. Rejoice and shout. I'll know it's the Holy Spirit once we get going because. So Genesis 18, for all the young ones that are in here, we've been talking about on Tuesday nights having raising godly children and having godly homes, really raising ourself in the Word. It's kind of been what we've been focused on, that to raise and have the salvation for our children, we must first raise ourselves in the Word. The it comes back to us. Us as parents, us as aunts, us as grandparents, us as leaders in the church, those of us who serve with children, we have a responsibility to the next generation to be good examples. So look here, Genesis 18, verse or chapter 18, verse 18. And since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through him, and shall bless themselves by him. For I have known, chosen, acknowledge him as my own, so that he may teach and command his children and the sons of his house after him, to keep the way of the Lord and to do what is just and righteous so that the Lord may bring Abraham what he has promised. We've been emphasizing that he may teach and command his children and the sons of his house after him to keep the way of the Lord, that Abraham may receive what was promised. And it matters how we train our children, how we teach them, how we command them. It matters to God. It matters to the blessing, it matters to the increase that God has for us. It matters to the plan for our own lives. God has a plan for your children's lives. But that plan, if not fulfilled, it will affect you. And young people need to understand and be taught that if you don't fulfill the plan that God has for your life, it's going to affect your parents and then the next generation. And we see that Lot didn't understand that he needed to stay with really who was his spiritual parent. And because he didn't stay with him and he didn't follow him and he didn't pursue the same path as Abraham. Even though it looked like they were on the same path, he was really separating from the path of Abraham. That's a dangerous place to be. And because of that, Lot lost his next generation. That was not God's intention. Lot was to have his children and Isaac and all of them were to be together, raised together, trained up together. Just because Lots of was not Abraham's blood son by his decision to stay close to Abraham, the blessing was on Lot. He was receiving of that blessing and he could have stayed in that blessing and his kids and his kids kids could have stayed in that blessing. But he chose to go a different path. And so we must recognize that the path we choose and the path that we point our kids on is going to to have generational effects. And it's going to be evident when we get to heaven. It's going to be evident in the next life. I'm interested in the next life and I'm interested in my kids salvation. I'm interested in the plan of God for their life. Not just my plan, not just what satisfies me today. And so we must first as parents and as grandparents and aunts and those in the church, we must first take a good look at ourselves. Because Abraham had to as well. He had to realize, either I'm taking Isaac up to the top of that mountain or I'm not. Because God said right here, if he was going to bring forth a promise, I must obey him with my children. I must obey him. Now let's go to Timothy, second Timothy, just Hitting the high point. Second Timothy so we can see where we and each week we've really. The spirit of God has brought out different things to us, emphasize some different things. Second Timothy and chapter three in verse 14. And we know this, Paul told Timothy the faith that was in your mother and your grandmother is in you. That's why you're here. That's why you're fulfilling God's will. But then he says to him, but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of. This is 3:14, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. 2nd Timothy 3:14. But continue in the thing. See, God couldn't have brought me to this ministry and me continue with God's plan if my parents hadn't already. Knowing of who knowing of whom thou has learned them. I knew exactly who I learned from. I knew exactly how I was taught and I knew it was very clear. No muddy waters. There was no muddy waters about the rules, the disciplines. What the word of God said is the truth and it's no lie. This is what we live by. What the pastor says is what we live by. Because the pastor is leading us not according to his plan, but according to God's plan and according to the Word. I'm grateful that I was raised in a church where I could trust my pastors and I could look to them, my parents could look to them and they could be safe in that church family. And I'm here because I had safe pastors, you know, safe for my life, safe for my parents life. But my parents were not going to compromise when other parents were compromising. My parents did not compromise. That was not in the vocabulary. It wasn't an option. And they were going to make every effort. You understand? No, compromising means effort on your part. It's going to mean you're going to have to. Because compromising is much easier on the flesh, on the resources, you know, on. There were times my, you know, my parents wanted me to know how to work. And if that meant at 15 I was able to get a job, which I was, and they had to drive me, then they were going to drive me because they were going to teach me that. The importance of putting your hand to something and then trusting God, believing God, bringing your tithes, they wanted us to learn. There was so many different things tied to. It wasn't just about working for my own money. It wasn't about that. There were so many things tied to that. And so for my parents, compromise meant a lot more effort. Compromise, no, compromise meant you Know the computer stayed in a public place. No compromise meant if I wanted to talk on the phone with somebody, I had to sit in the family room. Guess what? Everybody's got to hear the conversation. They want to watch the tv. They're trying to talk, but I'm going to talk. You know what? We're not compromising if it means us having, you know, to set aside something we want to do so that we make sure the disciplines and the order are in place. Place if it means my mom, every month back in the day when they did this, pulled out the cell phone bill and checked every single number, which she did that. They don't have that no more. From what I understand, she checked every single number and she checked what time I called that number because that was an inconvenience to her. But sometimes not compromising will create inconveniences. Are you willing to go through the inconveniences of rescuing your child's soul? We're talking about your child's soul, Their, their well being, the peace for their mind. Are you okay with letting them go through torment because you didn't want to get up? You didn't want to. When the Holy Ghost woke you up, you were too tired to get your rear end out of bed and, and go make sure they were where they're supposed to be. You didn't want to leave your house and get out of your pajamas to go make sure that they're where they told you they were going to be. And my parents inconvenienced themselves. And I'm standing here today in the will of God and in the plan of God because I had two parents who were willing to inconvenience themselves on my behalf. They loved me enough that they weren't going to quit. When I got to be 15, 16 years old, the hammer came down even heavier. Once I got a car that did not mean freedom. That meant you're checking in twice as much because I got no control. You know, you've got this car and you're going to have to prove, you know, my mom always said, with free freedom comes responsibility. That's being an adult. Young people, young people want all the freedom, but they don't realize, hey, parents, we got all the freedom. But how many of you know how much responsibility is on our plate? And that's part of the problem. Today. People are giving their children all the freedoms in the world because we have so much at our fingertips, and they have absolutely no responsibility. They don't understand what it really means to be an adult. Because when you're adult, you're accountable to the irs. You're accountable to your spouse, you're accountable to your boss. You're accountable to the people who live next door to you with what you want to do every night, how late you want to stay up, you're accountable to your family. Accountability doesn't end at 18. It's only just beginning. That's when it just gets you just getting going. Because before that, before you had a job, you're accountable to your mom and dad and your handful of teachers. That's it. And they can't throw you in jail if you don't pay your taxes, but the IRS can. You know, your neighbors can call the cops on you. You want to stay out late, you want to put in the habit of just partying whenever you want, all right, you'll. You'll end up terrorizing everybody around you in the name of your freedom. You don't realize you got a responsibility. True responsibility will also, when we teach our kids true responsibility, it'll instill in them a responsibility not just to man, but to God. I got a responsibility to God to get this thing right. And if I don't get it right and I decide that I want to go a different way because it's easier on my flesh. That's all it is. It's easier on the flesh. And you want the mind. The mind wants to do its own thing because it's agreeing with the flesh, because you've not renewed it to the word. And when you decide, I'm going to go that route instead of staying with the plan that God has through thick and thin, all the bombardment, all the opposition, everyone telling you, you know, family disagreeing with you. If you can't stay with it through the tough times, then you'll never see the rewards. As we talked about at the offerings, the treasures, he's going to fill my treasuries. Why? Because I've been obedient. I've been faithful. I've taken the response responsibility of his plan for my life. Serious. But see, my parents taught me the responsibility of a job. The response, you be 15 minutes early, you dress appropriately. They taught me responsibility to man. They taught me responsibility towards them. When I say I want something done around this house, by the time she got home, it better be done. That's right. That's right. It better be done. And I was too afraid that if it wasn't done, you know what I mean? I was concerned. I had my own concerns. And it was whatever was on her list. I know the list. My mom, she's a list maker. She had a list. She always had a list. And you just get. You just look down that list and just. But you know what? I honored her enough. So now when God gives me correction right here, what he says. Look, everybody, look at verse 16. Every scripture is God breathed, given by his inspiration. See, because I was used to hearing and reading the list, my mother breathed that when God brings instruction, reproof, conviction, shows me my error, brings discipline and obedience and training in righteousness. It's not a difficulty. It's not a difficulty. So when God. God shows me some things in the word that I need to deal with and disciplines that I need to put on my flesh and how I'm. If I keep going this way, it's going to derail my life. It's not a difficulty for me anymore because I learned to be accountable to somebody I can see. And she was firm and uncompromising and unmovable and inconvenienced herself. See, my mom, my mom, my dad, they couldn't see everything all the time. But God can. He can see everything. He does know what you're doing. He does know the intents of the heart. He knows what you're thinking. You know? So the way my mom dealt with, the way I think is when I got discipline or when I got instruction, we weren't allowed to go to our room and so sit on the bed and get on. We didn't have phones to get on, but you know what I mean. Do something else and sulk and pout. No, you're going to come and you're going to sit right by me. You're going to be with the family. You're not leaving out of this room for the devil to go and talk to you. So she not only dealt with the flesh, but she dealt with the intent of the heart. I'm going to spank you. And then you're going to hug me and tell me you love me when we're done. Every time. Every time. If you don't agree with it, that's fine. I'm here. And you can decide with your children what you want to do. But I'm just telling you, I'm here and my husband's here, okay? And we're implementing these same things in our children's lives. And I expect God, when I. When. When Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That's a promise. That's a promise that I can have. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. If it's in here, it's a promise. It's not a flippant statement. It's not a casual statement. He wasn't trying to make waves. He wasn't trying to, you know, rattle anybody's cage and get in their face. This means it's a promise for my life. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And I know how we got to serve the Lord. So we're going to do the same. Same thing. Amen. And then like we've talked about in the previous weeks, we're going to follow the Holy Ghost and he's going to help us. He's our helper. He's our guide. He brings instruction to us of how to handle these things. The specifics. Look at verse 17 so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted. Fitted and thoroughly equipped for every Good work. Now, tonight I want us to look. We talked about last week in Proverbs or Psalms 127 that children. It says children are arrows in the quiver, you know, for the warrior. And we talked about how there's aim. We have specific aim. I would recommend if you. I don't. Was it last week or the week before, if you weren't here at the previous service. You need to get that. So sermon. If you weren't here and listen to that, especially parents. Get that. Because I really talked about the importance of the next generation and our responsibility to that generation. Not just focus on us, but the next generation. But an arrow can't arrive at its target if the one with a control doesn't know or can't see where to aim it. You need to know what. Where. What we're aiming for. We're aiming not just for our children's salvation, but we're aiming for their. The perfect plan that God has for their life. We're aiming for that and we're pointing them in that direction, which means always pointing back to the word of God for our children. Faith for our children means we have focused attention on where am I pointing them? Is what I'm allowing them to do. Pointing them in the direction of the plan that God has for them. You know what I'm saying? Because they're my arrow, they're not somebody else's. You know, the local church is to help aid in the pointing and the directing of the children that are part of this local church. But we're not the ones. I'm not the one that can pull back on that. That string and help your Children to hit the target. I'm just here assisting. I'm an assist. The Sunday school teachers, the kids, when they go to the classroom, these are assists to us to help reinforce and back up what mom and dad are already saying. My parents never told me, let me say this. My pastor never told me or preached on anything that I didn't hear first from my mama's mouth. And my daddy, my mother and my father preached the loudest sermons to me first. And then I would just go to church. I didn't mean we had chapel night at my house. You know what I mean? We didn't have Bible study. We didn't do none of that. My mom didn't really. Just for us, it didn't work. She didn't believe in that. She didn't want it to become legalistic. She wanted it to be alive. And so what she would do, though, is moments, teaching moments. She would take these teaching moments. So these are the sermons that preached the loudest to me because they were always in front of me. So then when I got to church and Pastor Anderson or Pastor Angela or Pastor Greg got up or Pastor Amy, and then you go, oh, my mom's been saying that. Praise the Lord. She must be doing something right. You know, I didn't struggle with what the pastor said because I was watching it being demonstrated in my house. That's the proper order. That's the proper order. It's not. Pastor says it, Pastor says it. The teachers teach it. And kids never see it at home. And they wonder, well, which way am I, you know, supposed to go? You go with the word. Go with the word faith. And tonight I want to talk about faith for your children's future and what that really entails. Faith for their future leads to action for today. Faith for their future means that I'm going to take action today because they don't know how to take action today. I have so much faith for what God has for my children. I'm acting on it right now at every moment. If it's a teaching moment, if it's an encouraging moment, if it's a rewarding moment, if it's. I'm proud of you. This is what you did. You know, sometimes I may sound harsh, but I love finding moments where my children I won't forget, never forget this. I was so proud of them. We. There's a woman we've been, you know, witnessing to in the community, and we happened to be just reaching out to, just. Just loving on her. Just. We've been praying for her and we happened to see her in the grocery store and I was so proud of my boys because I didn't have to say anything, I didn't have to do anything. And I've been the one more or less reaching out to her. They don't know that, you know, she doesn't believe in God. There's things that she, her and her family, you know, have made decisions that they don't believe. I don't think they believe in God at all. But I've prayed for her, laid hands on her, and she's, she's been open to it. But I was so proud of my boys. We were in Barron's one day, we just left the gym and she had come in and they said, oh, there's Ms. So and so. And they run up to her and ask her if they need, she needed any help. And they went through with her through the store and just helped her. Her, she, you know, she's older. And I was so blessed because it's the love of God in manifestation. They didn't realize that. So I took that as we got in the car. I took the time and I said, boys, I want you to know what you did. And it was God's love that came out of you. You didn't even think, you didn't ask, you didn't turn around and look at me. Y' all just acted in love. And you, what that did for her, you'll never know what that did for her because, boy, she knows where we go to church, she knows I'm a pastor, she knows what we believe in. And I'm just, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of y'. All Just responding to what's in your heart. So whatever the moment, because I've got faith for their future, I'm paying attention to every moment. Faith is now. So if you have faith for your children's future right now, what do they need right now? What are you saying right now? What are you teaching right now? What are you demonstrating? Are you complaining? Are you griping? Are you talking doubt and unbelief? See, that kind of lack of faith, that moment is going to affect their future. Faith is now. That means you're focused on every moment. What is my now doing for their tomorrow? What is my right now? And I'm not saying they should consume all your attention. You know, we, we grew up in a home. My mom and my dad, you know, when they came home, they work full time jobs and we weren't allowed to come home and just demand all Their attention, you know, and look at me and, you know, talk their ears up. No. Go play. That's. You got a sister. Go outside, Go outside. Go outside, Go outside, Go outside. Go outside, go outside. Did you finish your homework? Then go outside. Did you do the list? Wonderful. Go outside. You know, we weren't. That we knew we were not the center of their universe. But I also knew that my parents loved me and they believed in my future because everything they did pointed to God has a plan. God has a plan. I'm doing this because God has a plan. This is. Is this going to help with God's plan? You're a little off track. And I don't know. Again, not preaching at me, but just those. Those nudges back to the back. Back to where we're aiming for. Where are we aiming for? We're aiming for the full plan of God for your life, you know, but faith is now. So we're taking. What. What right now do you need? What about those you see around you? What right now? We could do that with anything. As a congregation, as a church family, we should be asking ourselves every time we come together. Okay, right now, Holy Ghost, what does somebody need right now? Is there somebody that I need to just talk to? Somebody I need to love on right now? Because I've got faith that. That your plan is coming to pass in this place. Miracle signs and wonders are in this place. And. And the way they're going to manifest is through the love of God, through the faith of those that are here. And I've got faith enough to know that I could have something. I've got my own needs, but I could have something that somebody else might need. So, Holy Ghost, I'm going to take my eyes off myself for a moment and I'm going to look around, you know, so if faith is now and we've got faith for the future, then we're going to do something about it. So let's get into it, because I'm just going to read these. How about that? Let's start in Proverbs, chapter 13. Proverbs, chapter 13. All right, kids, get ready. Proverbs 13 and verse 24. He who spares his rod of discipline hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines diligently and punishes him early. You know what that means? You don't compromise. You're diligent. A diligent man is an uncompromised man. Punishes him early, early on in their life. You're watchful. And if something needs reproof, Correction instruction. You're going to get on that early. You're not waiting till. I told you five times. There's no such. My mom didn't count 1, 2, 3. But she also didn't have to either. And I'm not saying that's bad because I do the 1, 2, 3. And by 2, my kids are high stepping it. You know what I mean? They're moving. It works as long as you follow through. By 3, there was no such thing as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. My mom had the eye, Pastor Angela had the eyebrow. And my mother had. I was terrified of my mother's look. I still, I mean, I'm serious. My mother had a look that I only wished I could have. You know what I mean? I only hoped to have. When I got like. I really was like, lord, please. Because it worked so well, it was so effective, you know, when she gave this look and she didn't. There was. You know what I mean? When it says punish early, it means she disciplined. Right when the problem started. There was not this waiting. We didn't have waiting periods. You know, hopeful, cross your fingers. I get by with it once and she lets me slide. I can maybe think of twice that. My mom's like, now I'm gonna show you the mercy of God and I'm not gonna spank you. I mean, like that's what you hoped for, but you knew it wasn't gonna happen twice. She showed me God's mercy. Cause she believed my dad was God's mercy. She believed that. And so I appreciate because now things are not a difficult. Changes for me are not difficult to make quickly. And it's made me a better wife, it's made me a better employee, it's made me a better pastor, it's made me a better friend because I don't have an issue changing myself. Because my mother and my father helped me to see it's a positive early. Change quickly, change early. Don't wait, don't wait for more repercussions to happen. Change early. And I'm gonna help you change early until you can help yourself change early. You know what I mean? She knew a child and we'll get into that. Okay, let's keep going. Proverbs 20:3. Because none of them have run yet. So we're gonna. Proverbs 23:13. Withhold not discipline from the child. For if you strike and punish him with the reed like Rod, he will not die. You ain't gonna die. Now, we've talked about this. Discipline is far different than Responding in anger. God never responds in anger to us. He teaches us over and over again from his word, helping to keep us from missteps, damage, you know, in our life that we could bring on ourselves or that open doors to the devil. God does not respond in anger. I don't respond to my children in anger. Now, their foolishness may raise my tone and may cause for, you know what. What would you do if a child, you saw a child running out into the street in front of a car? I mean, you're not going to go now, honey. 1. You know, when I see very extreme poor behavior from my children, I don't need to get angry, but I need to respond early. I need to act swiftly because that behavior could lead to other things. They're not going to die. And don't you discipline them inappropriately either. When my mother disciplined us, we went in, we waited in the room. She came in, she not only told us, you violated this house, you violated my rules, you disobeyed, you lied, whatever. She let us know exactly what we were getting disciplined for. And then after that, she disciplined us. And we sat and she gave me a hug. She told me she loved me. She made me tell her I love her. And then she would always go back if the situation called for it and point out in the Word, she'd pull out the scripture and show me in the Word. Honey, this is why I had to handle that. Because you know what? The flesh was getting out of control in this area. What you did is going to cause damage. And this is what the word of God says. Oh, I mean, it would, it would convict my heart every time. I mean, it would, you know, my heart would be so tender because then I realized when I saw it in the Word, I didn't just violate my mom, I. I hurt God. I can see that. God's word. But see, my parents live the Word. So because they didn't violate God's word, it put a reverence in me not to violate God's Word, you know, and so she always made sure that I understood. Now I never, you know, did anything so severe that warranted, you know, when I was older. Well, some things you might not about. I never did anything really that, that would have warranted, you know, just all out, you know, thrashing. But I'm just saying. I'm just saying she helped me to be tender towards God because when she disciplined with the rod, when she spanked me, it shut my flesh down to where my spirit could hear. Some of us, we might need to take A rod to ourselves, because we're not hearing. Myself included. You, sometimes you gotta get hard on yourself. Don't keep patting yourself on the back saying, I'm okay, I'm okay. I'm okay. Because nothing around you looks, you know, like it's going awry. But we always gotta be asking ourselves, do I need to take the rod to myself? I'm talking about adults. But it's not. Again, it's not a difficulty for me when, you know, if Pastor Nancy corrects me or somebody, you know, I get corrected from the preaching and teaching. I can receive easily that. That correction because I received the hard correction as a young person. Let's go to Proverbs 29. They just get better. That one's my favorite. So my favorite. You're not gonna die. You know that saying, but did you die? No, you didn't die. And we have to be equal with all of our children. And if we're not equal with our kids and the instruction and the discipline we give, what's going to happen is when, you know, if one is easier on than the other, as they get older and. And they get married, they'll think that their spouse is always the one that needs to be dealt with, or people that they work with are always the one. That's the problem. We have to be equal. Okay? Proverbs 29, verse 15. The rod and reproof give wisdom. But a child left undisciplined brings his mother to shame. The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left undisciplined brings his mother to shame. I don't want my kids to bring shame on our family, the ministry. And so that means the rod and correction, reproof are what's called for. It's what's called for. I don't want them to bring shame on themselves. See, if they're bringing shame on their mother, then they've brought shame on themselves. Young people that are in here, if you're bringing shame on your parent, you're bringing shame on yourself first. You better think about that. You think your parents being too hard on you, you better look real hard in the mirror at who's acting out, who's dishonoring, who's disrespecting. Because where you're taking yourself is going to be without your mama one day. And you're going to take yourself somewhere that mom and Daddy cannot bail you out. When you realize they were the only ones who had the power to love me into the plan of God. And listen, if you ain't listening to your parents. You definitely listening to me. No, that's truth. I'm no fool. If you can't listen to the person that birthed you, wiped your hiney, raised you, has spent more money on you than they have on themselves, why do I think you're gonna sit here and listen to me? I'm nothing to you. If you can't bring honor to your mom and dad, I am nothing. Pastor Nancy is nothing. It's very difficult to reach a young person who dishonors their parent for a pastor to reach. It starts at home. There's honor. There's levels of honor that cannot be violated and cannot be overridden. So don't think if you allow dishonor with your children and violations at home with your children that they're going to come here and, and get their reproof and their instruction, their correction. They're not. The spirit of God will try. He'll try. Maybe through a word of knowledge, word of wisdom, through the preaching and teaching of the word. But that's a risk I'm not willing to take. I'll put wisdom in my own kids. You know what I mean? This is a guarantee. This is a guarantee. Train up a child in the way they should go. I can't train your child. You can train your child. Amen. Let's keep going. Proverbs 29:17. Correct your son and he will give you rest. Yes, he will delight. He will give delight to your heart. It should matter, young people, that you give delight to your parents heart. I didn't say that. The word of God said that. It's not me. Look at Proverbs 22. Go back to Proverbs 22. The reason you're mad at your parent is because your flesh is out of control and your spirit is unhappy with your flesh. Your own spirit, man is convicting you and you're overriding it. And you think your parents the problem when really you're overriding your own spirit. So you're really unhappy with yourself. You're not unhappy with your mom and dad. You're unhappy with you. And you'll never be happy with yourself. If you keep going that direction. You will never be happy with yourself. And you know what unhappy people with themselves do? They get into addiction, pornography. Wrong relationships. Abusive relationships. Until you learn to be, to love yourself and the fact that you're a child of God and my parent is trying to raise me as a child of God, then your path is one of very little light. Very little light. It's Very dark there. See, there's light in here. Don't get deceived that you come in here and you get light every week. If you walk out of there, you're spending the majority of the time on the path you chose. So don't come in here because you've got a little bit of light that you're shining the way. I'm not shining the way. You have to learn to shine your own way with the word of God. Proverbs 23 and verse 14. Oh, hallelujah. You shall whip him with the rod and deliver his life from Sheol, which is Hades, the place of the dead, my son, if your heart is wise, my heart will be glad. Even my. Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak right things. You shall whip him with the rod and deliver his life from hell. That discipline, you understand? And it's talking about physical discipline. Oh, but there's so many wonderful other things, creative things we can do to discipline, you know, My sister timeout didn't work for me. I literally sat in the corner and talked to myself. I was all right with that. Timeout for my sister. We called her busy. Lizzy was so painful. She was terrified to go in timeout because she couldn't get up, she couldn't move. She. She was always. She was like my husband, but the female, little female version of my husband. And she was so wired, you know, and. And so busy and so into everything. That timeout when her flesh would get out of control, my mom never had necessarily an attitude issue with her. Hers was all flesh, mine was attitude. My sister was flesh. And her flesh would just be out of control, and she'd just have to put her in a corner. And my sister was terrified of time out. She was terrified of a spanking, too. I could sometimes take it, but I still didn't like it. But she just didn't want to be. So there was other ways my mom found to be able to discipline her, you know, and, you know, there's one I'm thinking of. My husband is a very creative disciplinarian. He can think of stuff in, like, half a second that it would have taken me all day to try to figure out. Example. The kids were playing in our bathroom. I think we were cleaning up after dinner, and Steve and I, we were doing stuff in the kitchen. And I hear the baby start crying. This was recent. Hear her start crying. So I go in there and Bear had a sword, you know, a lightsaber. You know, the play lightsabers extend out the One that he wants, a real one, but he's not gonna get. And this is why we're talking. This is recent. This is after the sermon was preached, okay? He's got this lightsaber. And nanny cake, I guess, was in our bathtub. Liam's in our shower. Nanny cake's in the bathtub playing. Not in the bath, but just ducking down, hiding. And he's just starting to get out of control with this lightsaber. And she comes up, and he gets her in the eye. So she's crying. Don't worry. It's a thick point. It ain't sharp. It was probably character building for her. But she's crying. I'm sure it hurt, you know, So I come in. You know, you're gonna be all right. Shake it off. No big deal. Stop crying. Cause y' all are gonna be playing in, like, five minutes anyway, so stop the drama. You know, I made sure. Look, she wasn't bleeding, so we're gonna be fine. Her eye was a little red. So I take Bear and. Cause he was getting out of control. I take him in, put him on the bed in his room. He's still in the kitchen. And I said, bear, I said, you think you, you know, can just take that and do anything you want with it? And I said, you could have poked her eye out. Put your hand over your eye. Put it over. And all of a sudden, I hear out of the kitchen. As soon as I said that, bring him in here. I'm going, okay, Well, I wasn't going to spank him, you know, I mean, he just needs to be taught. He's six. This is just getting a little out of, you know, she's three, son. You're six. You can't. You can't be doing all that. It may be with your brother, but not with her till she gets bigger and can beat you up, because that might be what's gonna happen. And so he calls him in. And so I finished with. I thought, well, he's gonna deal with it. I'm gonna finish with the kitchen. Tag, you're it. Next thing I know, they're going to the garage. I'm going, oh, my gosh, this is getting serious. Next thing you know, Bear walks back in the house with a microfiber towel over one eye duct taped around his head. And he had to stay like that for an hour so that he could understand. You can hurt somebody that's gonna hurt somebody. You're not. You know, that's too rough. And that's not what that's for. Yes, it is a lightsaber, but unless she has another lightsaber to fight you with, it's not a fair fight. So he had to sit and we sat down, and we were gonna watch our. I don't know, our snake show or something with the kids that we do every night. And he had to sit there with that thing over his eye, and I've got a picture and he's crying. You know, he got the message. He was very clear, and he's never done it again. You know, I mean, you just. There are things like this, disciplines and ways to not just discipline, but bring instruction, show them, hey, you could have really hurt somebody. You know, what about when your kids get older? Taking phones away, taking. Oh, but you know, then they can't talk to their friends. And what if they become uncool because they're not on social media? Come on, now. I'd rather my kid be saved than be cool. I'd rather them think right then be cool. You know, the only people you need to be cool in the eyes is me, your dad, and your nanny. If we think you're cool, you're cool. And you're gaga. You know what? Grant has disciplined my kids. My sister has disciplined my kids. It's a group effort. It's a team effort. And because we've all arrived at a place, you know what I'm saying? We've come to a point in our lives where we know what it takes to get into the will of God. And so we're gonna make sure that the next generation is pointed in the right direction. Now, last scripture, and then we'll close Hebrews chapter 12 just so you can't go. Well, she didn't go to the New Testament. We've seen how the word of God is for reproof, correction, instruction. You know what, though? Sometimes the kids won't listen to the word of God if you don't get their flesh under control first. Because that's all that's talking to them. Soon as they wake up, soon as they go to bed, you gotta get that thing quiet and disciplined. Hebrews, chapter 12 and verse 7. You must submit to and endure correction for discipline. God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not thus train and correct and discipline? So he's asking this question, well, what father doesn't like duh? You know what I mean? This is like, duh. What father doesn't? Meaning God's going to train and correct and discipline you, because what father doesn't what good Father is not going to do that. Amen. Father, Mother, whoever. You know, I mean, obviously, you don't just let any old person discipline your child. But, I mean, just like tonight, I look back there And I see Ms. Brooke, you know, lean over because Isaiah and Bear. Bear walks in. Isaiah and Bear are talking, and she tells him. And I look back there and. And as much as they could see me, I looked at both of them. You know, just because I'm preaching, I'm not oblivious, I'm not aloof. I'm not so focused on the congregation that I forget about you. Both of you see, both of you. You know what I mean? I'm gonna make sure. And I, you know, I would expect his mama to do the same thing. Why? Because we're pointing these arrows. We gotta. There's a goal. We're aiming at something here. And my child's salvation is everything. Because if my children aren't saved and in the plan of God, what does money mean? What does a house mean? You know, what does anything mean if I don't have my children to share it with? Amen. And enjoy the blessings of God. Amen. So I hope that helped tonight. Again, I'm not going to say we're close, we're done with it. We'll just see where we go. Maybe we are, maybe we aren't. But these are scriptures that I. I didn't get to. And I wasn't planning on it, but the Holy Ghost said to get to it. And I did not know everybody was going to be in here tonight. So everybody can hear. We're all young kids. We're all on the same page, right? Everybody's on the same page. The family is all on the same page with discipline and correction and instruction. And. No, your parents didn't fill out a, you know, a form and turn these into me. Okay? There was no Dropbox in the foyer. There's been no emails, there's no phone. Nobody's phoned in, nobody's asked Joelle to have me prepared, preach on anything. This is all from the Holy Ghost, in case y' all are wondering. Your teachers didn't ask me. We were on a roll from the beginning of the year, teaching on faith every Tuesday night. And I had every intention of. Keep going. So this was the. The spirit of God was. Is helping us. Amen.
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