It's good to have Eric and Rebecca back and to enjoy his many talents and to have him and Craig back together again as well. Take your Bible. Turn with me to the book of Ezra. Ezra chapter 9. Kind of a strange reading probably for a Father's Day. And yet it's one that as I was writing my daily commentary, which I send out to many of you as you follow the reading through the Bible in a year. And I hope many of you are doing that. I made a comment about Ezra chapter nine that it's so moved my heart to review what God was doing through a man like Ezra. And I was so challenged by it that I wanted to challenge you with it as well today. And we're going to have a word of prayer before we begin and a couple of other things I wanted to ask you to pray for. One is Holly Stratton. You know Dick and Holly. And her father had a stroke earlier this week. And she and I, as we were driving back Friday night, stopped in Ocala to visit her dad. And so I was going to pray for him. He was doing better, but nevertheless, the after effects of a stroke. And then one of rejoicing, and many of you have already heard this, Travis and Tanya Henry and the birth of their son, Baxter. And so they are not with us today as well. But home and joy in the little one that just came home. Let's look to the Lord and let's pray. Father, we bow before You in rejoicing in the goodness that we have enjoyed in our life. Lord, be reminded that we live in a day that More than ever, we need godly men. Men that will be spiritual leaders of their homes. Men that will stand when perhaps no one else is standing for that which is right, good, and holy. Lord, we desire to be those men. As I think many here today would share that sentiment. Faithful men. Godly men. Men that would pass on a godly legacy. to our children. To live and see our children's children walk after Your ways. Lord, we want to pray this morning for Holly's dad. We would pray for Your direction in this time. For Your grace and Your strength. For peace that You give those who love You and trust You. Lord, I pray that as we open Your Word, may You speak to us today. Stir our hearts. Revive within us and rebuke us if necessary, that we might leave this hour with a commitment to be men of God. Lord, thank You for our homes, our wives, our children, grandchildren, so many that are here today visiting with someone they love and respect and admire. We would pray that this hour would be an encouragement to them. In Christ's name we pray, Amen. The title of the message this morning when gate keepers fail. I'll give you a little bit of background. I have a little history with keeping a gate closed. Unfortunately, forgetting to close the gate, too. Growing up in rural South Carolina, we had horses and we had cows. And the last thing that you do as you leave the pasture is to do what? Close the gate. I can remember having a few discussions about who forgot to close the gate. Had a horse. Her name was Princess. She was a pinto, a lot like Little Joe's horse back in the Bonanza days. Some of you that remember that or watch reruns on television. And Princess had an uncanny ability to find the open gate and use her muzzle, just lift the lock that had not been secured, and then go walking out the gate. We had a garden about a hundred yards away. It wouldn't have been so bad if she enjoyed that garden, but she enjoyed the neighbor's garden about 800 yards away. And my neighbor, his name was Stafford Sapp, he grew corn. And Princess had a love for corn. You've ever heard of silver queen corn? You know, the kind you put up and it's sweet tasting. Well, that was Princess's desire. And I would get a phone call as a kid. Actually, it was coming to my house, but the marching orders belonged to me. Mr. Stafford would call the house and he would say, your horse is in my cornfield. Well, Dad didn't have to tell me what happened next. I took off running. In fact, in those days, you didn't even put on shoes, you know, barefooted, running down the highway about 800 yards away, running into the cornfield. And one of the things with a horse, you don't want to spook a horse that's in a cornfield. She's already done enough damage and it's only going to get worse. So I can remember trying to somehow get Princess in a corner that I could end up getting a rope on her and bring her back into our pasture. When I brought the horse back home, there was a discussion. And the discussion was what? Who forgot to close the gate? One of the things I wanted to remind you of that I learned was that Mr. Sapp wasn't interested in our discussion. He wasn't interested in blame shifting. He didn't want to know that my brother was the one that forgot to lock the gate. You see, it was my horse. He didn't want to deal with excuses that, you know, your cornfield is such a temptation for my horse that it's all we can do to keep her in the pasture. None of those things mattered to Mr. Stafford. He had one interest. Get the horse. out of my cornfield. And I share that with you about the gate, because we are gatekeepers. Our wives are gatekeepers, but like I learned with my horse, Dad, you and I are the gatekeepers. We're the ones that are to close the gate. We are the sentinels, if you would, of our homes. The responsibility does not belong to anyone else. It belongs to us. I learned with a horse that I can remember my dad's words because it was my horse. I had a legal responsibility and an ethical responsibility. Fortunately, we grew enough corn that whatever she tore down in his field, he could take out of our field. Never did. We always grew more than we needed, each of us. But nevertheless, there was the responsibility that went with ownership. Can I say this to you today? There is a responsibility that goes with being a father. It is a privilege. I thought this week that anything good that could be said about my household, I'd have to attribute the majority of it to my wife. She's been wonderful and she's on the front row. But she has been a great mom. Then a challenge. Men, when we have godly women in our lives, we are rich, aren't we? Well, we can look back and realize that we were blessed with a godly mother that loved us and prayed for us. But this past week, Sheila and I, in the last couple of weeks actually, had the opportunity of being with our dads. Dad is 77 years old this year. And I told someone this morning, I remember when my dad was my age at 53, thinking he was old. I'm not sure what that makes me now, and I'm not sure what my daughter is thinking. But I remember my dad retired at 53, 54 years old. I'm not even close to getting ready for that. But dad spent the next 20 years helping my brother and my brother-in-law start three different companies. He really enriched our lives. Sheila's dad turns 84 this year. Do you remember the old timers, those of you up around my age? They used to tell you how fast time flies. Do you remember that? And to realize, my children are grown. They are adults. And the years have passed. When we have traveled overseas, we have had the opportunity of seeing castles. We, traveling in Scotland and up in England and over in Spain and France, we've seen castles. One thing that is true of the great medieval castles is that many of them had great walls and moats that were around the walls. There were towers located on different portions of the wall and the forest was cut back far enough away from the castle that you could see the enemy approaching. There was usually only one gate in those medieval castles, one entrance into the castle. A drawbridge would be lowered down for people to pass in and out during the course of the day. And nevertheless, there were still gates that were there and there were guards posted at the gates as well as posted on the towers. At nighttime, the drawbridge would be raised up and the place would be secure. Nevertheless, there would still be guards on the walls. One of the things that is true about those old castles, however, is that many of them would require weeks, if not months, and even some historically required even years of sieges to finally break down the will of the people. They were sustained by the water that they had within the castle. They were able to raise gardens within the castle. And there were great storehouses of food that was there. But the things that brought a castle to an end It was not the enemy without necessarily, but it was often the enemy that was within. Perhaps it was the failure of a guard to keep an eye and notice who was passing in and passing out. You know, all it required was one enemy within the walls of the castle. And the castle could be eventually overthrown at night. I wanted to share with you this morning that there are enemies in this world who are enemies of our homes. They are not enemies laying siege to the walls of our castles, but they are often enemies that we have invited within our homes. The enemy represented by a television that is left unguarded. The enemy represented by the computer and the Internet that continues to flow into our homes, the poison of sin and wickedness. And too many of us are parents who do not assume or rise to the responsibility of being a sentinel, of watching who is coming and going in our household. Some of you are like I am. You have your alarms on your house for the intruder in the night. You might have your guns that are set aside as the final stand of protecting your family. And yet, it is not necessarily the enemy that is going to break in, and you know that there is an enemy in the home. It is the enemy that is unannounced. It is the enemy that just quietly erodes your home. Quietly dead, erodes even your will or desire to hold the fort. I did not want to this morning unnecessarily put upon you, as men, a guilt trip. That's not my desire today. But it is my desire today to challenge you. We are facing great enemies in this day. I believe the enemies are politicians who have a course and a direction of selling out the Christian heritage of our nation. They are educators who care nothing at all for the things that are godly and right and holy and good. There is a social war that is being waged And it is a warfare that if possible, they will strip us of even our voice to stand. And stand where God stands. To stand where men of God have stood for generations. And it is my challenge this morning to challenge every man and every woman that is here to not be weary. To stand where God stands. To stand by His Word. To stand without an apology. To stand in love, but nevertheless to stand with conviction. Ezra is that kind of man. He is the man that I shared with you in my commentary that I wrote on Ezra chapter 9. He is a man that really is a hero of mine. studied him and Nehemiah over the years, both living at very much the same time. Ezra was a man that was a priest, a politician, a scribe, a great leader. He was a man that had not only a great conviction, but he also had a great compassion. A love for God and a love for God's people. What a great man of God. Ezra chapter 7 in verse 6, we read this about Ezra. He was a ready scribe in the law of Moses. That is, he knew the Word of God. He was a student of the Word. He was an expert of the Word. And every man that is here today should desire the same thing in their lives. But also, we read in chapter 7 in verse 10, that he was a man who prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord. And then I love this and to do it and teach it in Israel statutes and judgments. He is my hero because he really is my model. He is an example of the kind of man that every man here should desire to be. A man who knows the word in his children, see him read it. A man who is preparing his heart, realizing that we face great battles. A man who seeks the Lord. And a man whose desire is to do it. The old Nike commercial, let me tell you, Nike had nothing over Ezra. His desire was not to do it on the court. It was to do it on the basis of God's Word. Take your Bible. Read with me. Ezra chapter 9. And we're going to read a lot of verses this morning. But if you'll think upon it, consider what we're going to read right now. I think it will stir your heart. Ezra chapter 9. Great, man. I hope you can find it up there, Keith, if you would. Ezra chapter 9. And we're going to begin reading at verse 1. Verse 1, Ezra is arriving in Jerusalem. He's been there about four or five months, and he's coming at a time that the walls of the city are still in ruin. You know, Nehemiah chapter 1 and verse 3 says of Nehemiah that when he heard of the walls of Jerusalem, how the walls were broken down and the gates were burned with fire, that he wept. Ezra arrives in Jerusalem and very much the walls are like Nehemiah has described to him. Ezra chapter nine in verse one. Now, when these things were done, the princes came to me, Ezra saying of himself, saying the people of Israel and the priest and the Levites. Now watch this. have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their wickedness or their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. In other words, what they name are all the nations that are heathen, idol-worshipping nations, nations whose immorality was great And we continue to read in verse 2. For they, speaking of those Jews in their midst, have taken of their daughters, the daughters of the heathens, for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed, speaking of the Jews, have mingled themselves with the people of those lands. Yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass. And Ezra says, and when I heard this, I rent my garment and my mantle. I plugged off the hair of my head and of my beard. And I sat astounded. And then were assembled unto me everyone that trembled at the words of the God of Israel. The cause of the transgression of those that had been carried away. And I sat astounded or devastated until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening sacrifice, I arose up from my heaviness. Having rinsed my garment and my mantle, and I fell upon my knees, and I spread out my hands unto the Lord my God, and said, O my God, I am ashamed and blushed to lift up my face to Thee, my God. For our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. And since the day of our fathers have been, we have been in great trespassing to this day. For our iniquities have we, our kings and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity and to a spoil and to confusion or humiliation of face as it is this day. And now for a little time or a little space, grace. has been showed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, to give us a nail or a security in His holy place, and that our God may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen or slaves, yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Thy commandments, which Thou hast commanded by Thy servants the prophets, saying, The land into which ye go to possess it is an unclean land. with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. Now, therefore, give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth forever, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever. And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds, And for our great trespass, seeing that Thou, our God, has punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and has given us such deliverance as this, should we again break Thy commandments and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? Wouldst not Thou be angry with us, so Thou hast consumed us, that there should be no remnant nor escaping? O Lord God of Israel, Thou art righteous, for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day. Behold, we are before Thee in our trespasses, for we cannot stand before Thee because of this." Now chapter 10, now when Ezra prayed and when he had confessed, weeping, and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children. For the people wept very sore or very bitterly. And Shekiniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and he said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God. and have taken strange wives, that is, foreign or heathen wives of the people of the land. Yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives such as are born of them according to the counsel of my Lord and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law." Verse 4, "'Arise, for this matter belongeth unto thee. We also will be with thee, be of good courage, and do it." Then arose Ezra and made the chief priests, the Levites and all Israel, to swear that they should do according to this word. And they swear. Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and he went into the chamber of Jehoman, the son of Elisha. And when he come hither, he did eat no bread nor drink the transgression of them that had been carried away. And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem and to all the children of the captivity that they should gather themselves together into Jerusalem and that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princesses and the elders of his substance should be all of his substance should be forfeited and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away. That is, those that were exiles. And then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month on the twentieth day of the month. And all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter. And for the great rain in Ezra, the priest stood up and he said unto them, You have transgressed and have taken strange or foreign or heathen wives to increase the trespass of Israel. Therefore, make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do His pleasure, and separate yourselves from the people of the land and from the strange wives." Notice verse 12. Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, as thou hast said, so must we do. Now, that was a long reading. But I think it is good to grasp in the Scriptures what has taken place here. Ezra has arrived in Jerusalem. He has led the exiles, another group, 80 years after the first group of exiles came back into Jerusalem and the nation of Judah. He is amazed as he arrives there and news reaches him that the people of Jerusalem, particularly some of the leaders of Jerusalem, that they had sinned after the way and the wickedness of the world. He uses the words that they have done abominations or great wickedness of the land. They had divorced their Jewish wives, some of them, and they had taken unto themselves the wives who were heathen. Women of the world. Women without any moral scruples or any desire for godliness. Not only had the fathers divorced the wives and taken the heathen women for themselves, but they had also encouraged their sons to do after the same sin. Ezra, as he hears the news of the wickedness that has rose up in Judah and Jerusalem, the Bible says that he falls on his face and he weeps for the nation. But it goes on to say, and this is one that grabbed me this week, that then he prayed. And he prayed in such a way that he confessed the sins of the nation. But he identified himself with those sins. They listened to Him. And they saw His heart and His passion in the people. And some came to Him. And they offered to covenant with Ezra and with God, that they would make right that which they had done. They would, first of all, put away from themselves the heathen women, the foreign wives, the ones who still worshipped idols. And that they would once again return and worship the God of Israel. the God of Heaven. But sadly, not only were the consequences of that divorce put in the way of the heathen wives, it also affected the children that had been born of those marriages. You see, here are men of God. Men who, eighty years earlier, their fathers had arrived in the land, And they had done that which was good and right and holy. The Bible tells us that the men of that first generation had absolutely refused to compromise with the heathen. Even some of the heathen offered to help them building the temple. And they said that, no, you'll have no part of us. For the work which they were doing was a holy work. It was a work that was dedicated to God. And they dedicated themselves not only to the work, but to the Lord. Eighty years later, times had changed. And the children and the grandchildren of that first generation had turned from God. They had pursued friendship and fellowship with the heathen. And the result of that was that they had lost a generation. of God's people. We are today, as dads, facing those same challenges. It is not popular to be a godly man. It is not popular to stand. And to stand where men of God have stood down through the centuries. We're living in a day that our convictions are mocked in Washington. And they're mocked in Florida. We're living in a day that to stand where our ancestors stood who loved the Lord is now scorned. And yet, the responsibility of maintaining the walls and standing guard at the gates is as great as it has ever been. Three things I want to share with you. Three gates that you should maintain in your life. Three gates that as a dad this morning, I'm challenging you. That you are the sentinel. You bear the responsibility like I bore the responsibility of locking the gate. You bear the responsibility of standing guard at the gate to your home. into the heart of your children. It is a task that cannot be done apart from God. But it is a task that God has given you. Would you consider the first gate? The first gate I'm going to share with you is the heart gate. The gate of the heart. The Bible says this, and I would ask you to turn. In fact, I may actually have the verse up there. Do I have that verse written there? I think I do, don't I? There you go. Proverbs chapter 4. Notice verse 23. Solomon writing to his son. His son is going to be the king of Israel one day. And he's stressing on the heart of his son a responsibility that he will have as a king. It has been said that a man's house is his what? Is his castle. It is his palace. So Solomon challenges his son with these words. Thy heart. Keep. It is the idea of to guard and to protect thy heart. The heart is the mind, the thoughts, and the emotions. To so guard my heart that I do not give any liberty to my heart to pursue after the ways of sin, not only in my actions, but also in my thoughts. Keep thy heart. To guard it diligently. To be as one who is a sentinel. One who bears up the responsibility of realizing the task of being a godly man, a godly woman or a godly father is a responsibility that requires daily discipline. Maintaining the gate of my heart to watch what is entering into my heart, my thoughts, my emotions, but also to guard what's entering into the home in which I dwell. To guard the heart of My children, as you have children at home. To be the Sentinel who is very conscious of the influences that are touching your child's life. Keep thy heart with all diligence. Why? For life itself, the quality of that life, the expression of that life as it's lived out is going to spring forth like a spring out of the ground. Out of it are the issues or the source of life. Let me ask you this morning. It's a simple message. Are you guarding the gate of your heart? Are you guarding the gate of those things that are touching the hearts of your son and your daughter? There's the heart gate. Let me give you the second gate. The second gate is the It's pretty obvious from reading in Ezra chapter 9 that the failure of the fathers was not just giving permission to their sons to pursue sin, but it was a personal failure. They had failed in their own life to maintain a godly relationship with their wives. They had begun to fellowship with the heathen And in the course of that compromise, it gave a floodgate of opportunity for their sons and daughters to follow after the same sins. No wonder Ezra fell on his face. And he wept before the Lord. The picture of a man jerking out his beard and pulling his hair and renting his garment, to us today, that is a foreign concept, and yet it was a very real evidence, an exterior, if you would, of the great heartache and sorrow of Ezra. Ezra identified with the people's sin. And you know, Dad, I think sometimes for us, our failure is to not identify with the temptation that this world is presenting. Our children. I'm reminded of a story I read this past week. And it was the story of a dad who had a very high profile position in his community. He had raised his son and given his son the very best education. And his son had ended up being trusted by many of the businessmen of the community. But sadly, the son was guilty of embezzlement. The story goes that the son was in the courtroom, and as the judge was preparing to give the sentence of guilty and sentence the son to prison, the story goes that the look on the boy's face was one that was cocky, proud, unrepentant, one that was unmoved by the guilt that he bore, the lives that he had ruined. The story goes that the father stood in that courtroom as well. The boy, seeing a movement to his right, glanced over and realized that as he was standing, waiting for the sentence of the judge, his father was standing also. And his head was bowed and he was weeping. The story goes that the boy looked at his father and the whole demeanor of the son changed as he realized that his father identified with his sin. And the son's head dropped. and the brokenness of all that he had done settled in his heart. Me and I would say to you today, we need to identify with the temptations of this day. There is the heart gate. Notice with the eye gate, if you would, go to that verse in Psalm 101, verse 3. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate. I despise, I grieve the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me." In other words, I studied that and I thought of this eye gate. Dad being the guard. He can't guard everything that's entering his children's lives. But the responsibilities still rest with him. As long as those children are in the home, they're ought to be the guard who is posted. Watching. Protecting. to realize that children will see things in their youth and they'll remember what they've seen the rest of their life. I have memories like that to some of you. Things that you saw and you didn't even set out to see it, but you saw it nevertheless. And the memory of that thing that you looked upon has stayed with you your life. Dads and moms, we are to stand at the heart gate We are to be sentinels regarding the eye gate. Let me give you another gate. And that other gate is the ear gate. Communication, if you would. We read in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 33, these words. Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners. What does that mean? It means evil companions, evil friends. In other words, the responsibility, I think, of a father is not just to deal with the heart issues or the eye issues, but the communication issues, the ear issues, the ear gate. Who are my children's friends? Who are they with? What are they doing? What are the influences in their life? And yes, even in church, there can at times be influences that are not good influences. That a father and a mother bear up the guardianship of the heart of their child by watching who their friends are. Consider another verse, Proverbs 13 and verse 20. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. I used to hear the old timers say, if you run with scots, you'll smell like them. Or if you run with the dogs, you'll have what? You'll have fleas. In other words, there is an association. There is a responsibility or a burden. There are consequences, if you would, for friendships. As a parent today, there is a challenge before you that I think has probably not been seen in years. A thousand years? Two thousand years? I don't even know how to put a concept on it anymore. To watch this world and the pressure that this world is bringing on our families. To realize that there is a decay and there is an erosion of moral standards in our society. To realize that we are, as a nation right now, morally rotting. And yet, as a Father, There is a greater cause than ever to be a guard, to be a sentinel, to be a man that stands guard over my heart and the heart of my children. To be a man that realizes the influences of the things that my children might see, that your children might see in the home. To realize that it carries a consequence that they'll carry with them for years to come. To realize the ear gate and the things that we hear, and the communications and the friendships that we have, and the impact that it brings on our life. Dad, I'm challenging you with this today. It's time to be responsible. It's time to stand and take responsibility for our homes and our families. It's time to be the guardian of the Internet and the guardian of the television. It's time to be the guardian of who the friends are and the influences that they're bringing on our children's lives. Our children are growing up in a day in which there are temptations that I would have never dreamed of when I was a teenager. They are assailed like a castle under siege by a philosophy of life that they hear at school. that they hear out in the world, that they hear at work. And it is a philosophy of life that is quickly eroding everything that we've believed as a nation and everything that we've ever believed as God's people. It's time to be like an Ezra. It's time to mourn. It really is. Ezra mourned not for the sins that he had committed, but he identified for the sins of his nation. And I wonder if that's not the problem with America right now. is that we're always thinking it's their sin, and not identifying with it corporately. It's our sin. I close with a story. I've shared this with you 25 years anyway. You share a lot over the time. I've shared with you about my friend named Danny Plyler. Danny and I palled around. We had another friend named Tony Thomas. And we were the bosom buddies. Danny was probably about a year older than I was. We were spending the night over at Danny's house one night. Danny had a chemistry set, which I love. You know, you pour all this chemistry. Remember those old chemistry sets, you know, back before you worried about, you know, poisons and all this? And we're pouring things together in the night, and we're heating it up under the little glass tube, you know, and we're really having a fun time with our test tubes. Well, we kind of ran out of chemicals that night, but we did still have matches. So we started playing with matches. You've heard this story. And so we played with matches through the night. Fortunately, we didn't burn the house down. But then we played with matches during the day. We were out in the woods and we were playing with matches and then we finally ended up behind the old man's barn. It was his grandfather. The barn probably was well over 100 years old. I look back and I'm shocked at it. We were playing with matches with the hay. Insanity, right? And I played with a few, but Danny was playing with a bunch of them. Well, Danny set his match, and he was waiting to see how long it could burn before he had to put it out. Well, Danny let it burn a little too long. And we grabbed, I remember grabbing the bale of hay and trying to throw it out of the barn. And as we did so, you know what the fire did? It began to spread. And we stepped back, and this old barn, 100 years old, literally, was going up like tender. I remember running to the house. I'm the one that made the phone call and calling the volunteer fire department. But by then, the whole community knew what was going on. You know, when you live in the country, there's a big fire going. Everybody shows up. And I can remember as a kid watching all of these cars, you know, the fire truck finally shows up and all of these cars lining up and down the driveway. And I've kind of lost memory of all that happened after that because it was such A shameful event in my life. I remember going to church on that Sunday. I think we burnt the barn down on a Saturday. Going to church on that Sunday. And I was so ashamed. Everybody knew what we had done. And I remember even hovering out in the car and kind of hiding, you know. And my dad making me go inside. It was humiliating. Went inside. And everybody knew, but nobody was saying anything. You know how that is, right? Everyone knows when no one's talking, right? But that's not the end of the story. It was around Thanksgiving. We were out of school the next week. I remember my dad going with me during the course of the holiday vacation. Dad went into town and he purchased rakes and shovels. And we began working on that barn. and cleaning up all that we had done. I share that with you for this. My dad identified with what his son had done. I remember to this day him over Raiken and me Raiken. I'm not sure if he paid for what we had done. I'm not sure. All I remembered was my dad work beside me. How do you replace a hundred year old barn? How do you replace a man's wedding suit, literally? You know, he was already well into his 80s. The suit he was married in would burn up in the barn. Family treasures were lost in the barn. You can't replace those things. And Dad and I working with a rake, And my dad taught me a lesson that day. Now listen to me. It was that he bore responsibility for his son's actions. Mom and Dad, let me say this to you today. The world is telling parents that the government will take care of your kids. But that's never been the way it's been. I remember my dad telling me, whatever you get at school, you're going to get double when you get home. Right? He knew it was going to happen. Why? Because fathers bear responsibility. I say that not to break you, but for you to be humbled with me. Ezra fell on his face. And the people covenanted with God, we will do what is right. We'll put away the heathen wives that we've taken to ourselves. And sadly, the children born of those unions. And we will do right. Dad, is that your conviction? To bear the responsibility of the heart the ears and the eyes. As long as those children are in your home, they're your responsibility. It's a great responsibility. It's a God-given responsibility. It is a privilege. And it is a challenge. Heads bowed and eyes closed. What do you do about sin? And the answer for Ezra was to confess it. And forsake it. Dad, Mom. I don't have to ask you, are you wrestling with sin in the home? I know you are. My home's not perfect and your home's not perfect. But the question for right now is, Will I bear the responsibility? Will I not overlook it, ignore it, deny it? But will I man up under it and then follow my face and do what God would have me to do? Confess my failures. Dad, are you guarding the heart? Your heart and the heart of your children? Are you guarding the things that your children see? Are you in control of what's on that internet and making sure you're guarding the heart of your children? Are you taking responsibility for who their friends are, knowing that their friends influence who they'll be? I set a barn on fire and my dad stood beside me and he bore my shame. Your children have life ahead of them and they need a dad who will stand beside them Guard them and guide them. And I want to ask you this morning, men, how many of you will right now say, God, I know I failed, but I want to be that kind of man. I want to be the man that my children will one day look and say, he was a man who walked with God. How many of you would say, preacher, I share that desire with you? How many would say, I want to be that kind of man, Pastor. God's man. A man that stands where God stands. A man who's committed to guard the heart, the eyes, and the ears. Is that where you'll stand? Amen. Is that where you're standing? You know, it begins at the cross, doesn't it? It begins there. I remember when my dad trusted Christ as Savior. And I, soon after, did the same. Do you know Christ is your Savior today? He is the answer for sin. He paid the penalty, shed His blood for your sin on the cross. And He desires to be your Savior. Will you trust Him? Will you confess your sin and say, Forgive me. I want to be your child and Christ to be my Savior. Let's stand. Father, we bow before You today. And we confess with Ezra that we live in a wicked day. And Lord, some of us have made decisions that have carried consequences on our children. But today we know we can confess them and ask forgiveness. Lord, that we can go back and make right those things that we can make right and seek forgiveness for the opportunities there. Lord, some of us today need to become guards and sentinels. We need to be convicted of where we found you. and be committed to be what you have us to be. Lord, I pray for that one that is here today and carrying the burden of sin, that they'll know that they can turn to Christ and their sins are forgiven. Now, Lord, bless us as we give this brief invitation. Some of us, perhaps today, need to just quietly bow the knee, confess what we have felt, and take up the challenge of being what we should be. Or, have your way right now. Oh, may we have godly homes. May we be committed to stand where you stand. In Christ's name.