Galatians chapter 5. We are going through the fruits of the Spirit. I apologize if my voice is not very loud. It sounds like I'm in a box. But I believe I'm better. I just got some head congestion. So bear with me if you would. We are going to start reading in verse 22 of Galatians chapter 5. We'll be down through the end of the chapter. We're going to be dealing with peace this morning, that fruit of the Spirit. It says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Lord and Heavenly Father, we thank you for yet another year that we have. Father, we pray that we would not take it in vain what you have given to us. You have given us a year to serve you, Father, strive for the Kingdom of God. Lord, help us as your people to not take this lightly in our lives. Father, help us to seek your face, to seek your guidance in our life. Father, that you would lead us and direct us, that you would move us, Father, that we would not move in our own power, but that you would move us by your greatness and your mercy. May goodness and mercy follow us, and that you would, I mean, your kindness, that you would lead us and that you would push us forward in our lives in the way that we should go as your people. Father, make us a witness this year of your goodness and your grace, your mercy in our lives. Make us a light in this world. Father, we look all around us, we see so much darkness. Father, we look into our own lives and we see much darkness, Lord. The flesh is ever present with us. And Father, I just pray that you might, by your grace and your mercy, that you might, this year you would mortify the flesh more and more in our lives, that we would strive to and fight against the flesh, that the inward man, that new creation that you have created by your power and your might, by the working and the unction of the Holy Spirit, by the creation of your power, Father, that it would grow and strengthen within us. and that it would be seen in this world, that your light, that you would be seen, Father. Not ourselves, not the glory of man, but the glory of God would be revealed in our lives. Lord, make that true. in our lives, Father, just use us for your glory and for your honor. We pray for these children that are here this morning. We pray that you would bless them, that you would come and reveal yourself to them, that you would do a great work of grace in their hearts, those that do not know you. Father, that you would do this. We lay them at your feet. And we pray, dear Lord, that you would do this great work in their lives. Make them useful, Lord. Make them useful in your kingdom. Father, we love you. May we love you more. May it be seen more and more in our lives. Lord, may Christ be exalted, Father, this day. May your dear son be raised up. May he be lifted up. Father, we know that he is all things, that he is the beginning and the end, that he is the lily of the valley, the rose of Sharon. And Father, we just pray that he would be exalted this day and forevermore in our lives. It is in your dear and your precious Son's name that we do ask these things. Amen. Well, we're looking at peace, and last week we looked at Some aspects of peace. We looked at three different aspects. Number one, our peace with God. How that comes about. The way peace with God comes about is how? It's only through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only by faith. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2 verse 8 says, By grace, the faith, and that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So we understand and we know that peace with God the Father comes through reconciliation through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We only can stand before God justified. We can only stand before God with any merit at all if we stand in the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is a perfect merit. It is a perfect merit. So we understand that we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ as his people. If you are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are at enmity with God. The flesh is at enmity with God, and there is no spirit within you if you are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, only in Him do we stand in peace. And then we looked at peace with ourselves, and that's what we really dealt with last week. we dealt with the fact that how we receive peace in our lives. And really, we were dealing with contentment, is what we were dealing with. We were looking at how is it that Paul could say, I have learned that in whatsoever state I am in, therefore to be content. And I always, when I remember my dad quoting that all the time, he would say, I have learned that whatsoever state I am in, that's not just Montana. to be content. And I thought that was really funny growing up. But yet, that is the way we need to be. We need to be content in every state that we find ourselves in. And that is every position, every circumstance in our lives. There's going to be trials, there's going to be troubles, there's going to be tribulation. This world is not our friend. It isn't. And therefore, we need to learn that in our lives. And the Lord is teaching us that. And as we move forward in the message, we learn that God has a purpose. But what the Spirit of the Lord, and in Galatians chapter 4, if you want to just flip over there real quick, we looked at a verse here of scripture. It says in verse 5, Well, let's just start with verse four. But when the fullness of time has come, God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you're sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son. Now that is the third person of the Godhead. That is the spirit of God. Okay, and we talked about that last week, that that is a person. So many times we neglect that. We neglect that truth in our lives that the third person of the Godhead dwells in us. He resides in us. We are the temple of the living God. And so we need to understand that. And this says that the spirit of the Son has been put into our hearts. The third person of the Godhead dwells within us. And what is he doing? He is crying, Abba Father. And we talked about what that was. that that word Abba truthfully means Papa. It is an intimate relationship now that we are now the sons of God. If you look at 1 John chapter 3 it says what manner of love is this bestowed upon man that we can now be called sons of God. And the sons of God are we. We are the sons of God as his people. So This is something that we need to understand, that this is what the Spirit of the Lord is teaching us in our lives, is something about the Father. He's crying unto the Father, Abba Father, and we are learning more and more and more in our lives about the Father. So what we did last week is we looked at some aspects of what the Father is, who the Father is, God the Father. And we looked at some great things about God the Father. This is ultimately what our peace lies upon, is that we are reconciled with this great God through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That this God is all powerful, almighty, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, is now Abba Father. He is our Father. So we get peace from that. But the first thing we looked at was the fact that God is absolute. He is absolute in His sovereignty. He is absolute in His predestination. And we went through that. We looked at that. And we studied that. And what predestination means. What absolute predestination means. And on top of that though, we laid upon top of that the purpose of God. That the purpose of God is laid upon the fact that God is absolute. You see, if the purpose of God wasn't laid upon the fact that God was absolute, if it was laid upon that we are somehow controlling God. In Christianity today, you'll go into Christian circles and you'll find out that this is actually what they truly believe. And that is that somehow man is manipulating God. and that the end picture is going to look more like what man would have it to look like than what God has painted before the foundation of the world that it will look like. So what we lay our, the purpose of God, what He has laid upon is the absoluteness of God. His absolute sovereignty and His absolute predestination. Therefore we know that the purpose of God is what? It's gonna happen. It's gonna be fulfilled. Therefore our peace lies upon that rock. And then on top of that, what did we lay? We laid how we are connected to that. How are we connected to that? Through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you look into the book of Acts chapter 2, where Peter was standing before those people at Pentecost, the day of Pentecost, what did he say? He said Jesus Christ was delivered up how? He didn't say the first cause of Jesus being delivered up was the Romans. He didn't say the first cause of Jesus Christ being delivered up was the Pharisees of the day. No, he didn't. What did he say? He said the chief, the first cause of the Lord Jesus Christ being delivered up was what? The determinant counsel of God, okay? So we see, there it is. It's laid right upon that. That it was determined before the foundation of the world that Jesus Christ would be delivered up for his people, that's sure. Do we not rest in that? Can we not lay our peace upon that? That God, His purpose is sure. When we look at Romans 8, 28, for we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them are the called according to His purpose. We know that purpose is sure because it's laying on that foundation. And then we looked at what was His purpose. What is his purpose? For we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, and to them that call according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. So we know that that purpose of God, being conforming his people to his image, is a sure thing. It's gonna happen. It is gonna happen. So what we went on to look at is what is God in our lives? Okay, what is he? He is our provider, right? He is our protector, and he is our preserver, okay? And we looked at scripture for that. Okay, but now we're not gonna go back through all that again. We're not going to try to hash back over that. We already went through that. So now we're gonna go over to the practical side of this. But before we begin with that, I want to deal with a few misconceptions people might have with practical application. First of all, the guy standing in front of you bringing this practical application doesn't have us all down. I'm going to talk to you this morning about being a provider. About husbands providing for their families. I'm going to talk about how boys don't become men just because they can shave. That's not how you become a man. Boys become men when they start taking on these attributes. Provision. Protection. Preserving. That's when they become men. They don't become men just because they can start shaving. There's all kinds of boys in this world that are claiming to be men just because they look like males. They look like grown males. But that's not what makes them a man. It isn't. We're gonna look at that, but yet I'm gonna tell you this morning that when I talk to you about provision, I cower under that. I cower under it. I know what this Bible says about what I am supposed to be doing as a father. I know what this Bible says about what I am supposed to be doing as a man. And I tell you what, if my manhood, if my fatherhood is not covered in the blood of Christ, I am an absolute failure. Absolute. Okay? But yet I am called to bring it. I am called to teach this. Okay? I'm gonna talk to you about work. What was man made to do? Man was made to work. That's what we're put here to do is work. What is idleness going to get a man? It's going to get him in trouble. That's what it's going to do. Nothing but trouble will come with idleness and man put together. I'm going to talk to you about work. I've hauled drywall for 30 years. I can stand here before you and tell you I know something about work. We've moved mountains of drywall and I'm not being I'm being literal, okay, mountains of it. I know something about work, but yet I will tell you there's stuff in this Bible about work I have done nothing yet, nothing. And if I do everything that's in this Bible that tells me about work, I am still an utter failure if it is not covered in the blood of Christ. That's right, I am. I'm gonna talk to you this morning about protection. that we need to be protectors in our home. We need to be protectors in our families. We need to grow up as young men, we need to grow up and take on that role as protector. If you have a sister and you're a brother, you need a protector. Okay? But yet, I'm gonna tell you right now, I may be doing the best I can at protecting, but I am no protector. God is my protector. Unless a man, unless God protects the house, what is, what are we doing? It's in vain, right? It's in vain. But yet I'm called to preach that. I'm called to teach that. What we are to be as men. Preservers. Preservers. Okay? We are to be preservers in the home. And we're gonna look at that. Alright? But I'm gonna tell you right now. Discipline, discipleship, These things right here. Sitting down at family work. I tell you, if I come home at night, I am tired. I am tired. I want nothing more than to come and sit on that chair right there and do nothing. Just sit. Because I'm tired. I'm just being honest. Okay? I'm a failure in that area. But I'm going to preach it. And when I do this, when I sit in that chair and at 9 o'clock I'm ready to go to bed and I'm looking around at my little children, what is it that's going to cause me to say, kids, come on, sit down. We're going to have family worship right now. No, I don't feel like doing this, but yet we're going to do it. Not because I have to, but because I love the Lord my God. That's what's going to have to do this. But my family worship, no matter whether I do that seven days a week, two times a day, it's still going to have to be covered in the blood of Christ or it's worthless. So there's some misconceptions that might be had about what practical preaching is all about. The guy standing before you is no Superman. All right? I'm a failure in so many areas, but yet I'm covered by the blood of Christ. And love, it constrains me. Love constrains me. All right, let's look at a few things. Number one, God is our absolute provider. He is our absolute provider. We looked over at Matthew chapter six. Turn over there real quick. Matthew chapter six. There again, all these passages of scripture that we're gonna go to, there's so many scriptures to cover in this, but I'm just gonna take a few out of it. I hate to do that, but I'm gonna have to for time's sake. Matthew chapter six, we're gonna start with verse, we are going to start with verse 32, or 31. It says, therefore take no thought saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? Now, is the Lord telling us that we are not to think about that at all? Obviously not. We need to think about eating. We need to think about what we are to drink. We need to think about clothing. We must think about these things. We have to, obviously. But these are not supposed to be the bend of our lives. If you look at modern day, what kids are all about today, what is it? Clothing. It's fashion. It's all these different things. That is not what we are supposed to be all about. What we are supposed to be about is something different. Listen to what he says. For after all these things do the Gentiles seek? Okay? For your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of all these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Now, I want us to just think about that for a moment. If we as God's people, if we in the family of God, if we were to sit down and read our Bibles, and we as men were to read our Bibles and read what we are supposed to be about, provision, protection, preserving in the home? If we were to sit down and read that, will our families go hungry? Absolutely not. I think we'll work ourselves sick until we provide for our families. What does the scripture say? If you were to turn over to 1 Timothy 5, verse 8. 1 Timothy 5, verse 8. So what the scripture says, it says, but if any provide not for his own, especially for those of his own house, he had denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. So we as God's people, if we sit down and we read that, we as men in our homes, we as fathers in our homes, if we are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, if we are sitting down reading the Bible to our family and teaching it, what are we going to come to the knowledge of? We are to be providers in our home. We are going to provide for our home. Okay? So this is going to take place, right? It should. And I believe it will if we are seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. What are mothers going to look and read? They're going to read how to be keepers at home. They're going to read how to be what they need to be as mothers in the home. Children are not going to want in their homes. Now, I gotta say this, that if there's any single mothers, if they're listening or anything else, that where the ideal is lacking, grace abounds. Grace abounds. Okay? Where the fact that God loves the widows, right? It talks about in the scripture that we are to be taking care of the widows and the orphans. And that God will give grace. You say, well, what if there's not a man in the home to provide? God will provide. God will provide. Where the ideal is lacking, grace will provide. So when we're looking at these things, let's keep that in mind. As fathers, when we're looking at these things, if there's not a father in the home, that the Lord will take care of his people. But it says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. There's three things here, let's look at them very quickly. It says in verse 31, therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat. Okay? Now, as a father and as a young man growing up, we need to understand that provision in the home is not just about financial provision. It's not just about providing financially for your family. It's about much more than that. It's about spiritual provision in the home. So when you look at this, therefore take no thought saying, what shall we eat? The Lord provides us our food and he also provides us what? He provides us bread, this bread. It says, man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We have the word of God right here. And as fathers, we are not only supposed to provide physical food for our families, but we are supposed to break this bread. We need to sit down with our families, and we need to break open this bread each day, because he's provided that for us. It talks about what shall we eat, what shall we drink. We're not so concerned about our physical drink. We are more concerned, I believe as fathers, we need to be more concerned about the Spirit of the Lord dwelling in our homes. We need to be those that pray, right? We need to be men that pray in our homes. We need to be men that gather the family around and pray with our families. We need to bring the Spirit of the Lord, beg the Spirit of the Lord to dwell with us in our homes. This is a gift of God. It truly is. And as men, this is part of provision in our homes. And then it says, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? What is our ultimate clothing? Remember when Adam and Eve fell in the garden and they were cast out of the garden? What did God do for them? He clothed them, didn't He? He clothed them. And therefore, as God's people, as husbands, What are we to be about in our homes? We're to be about bringing the gospel in our homes. Teaching the fact that Jesus Christ has died on Calvary's cross to cover his people. To clothe his people with righteousness. Okay? So there's three things when we're looking at provision. Alright? That we as godly fathers that we need to do. Now you say, how do you get this idea that we are supposed to be, take and look at the attributes of God and bring them over to ourselves and work these things out in our own lives. I asked you if when Adam was in the garden, what was his idea of a father? What was his idea of an ideal father? was truthfully the only father he had, right? It was God. God was his father, and he understood that, and God was his ideal, okay? I'm telling you right now that God the Father, as fathers, we need to look at God the Father as our idol. When I was growing up, I remember, I loved basketball. I loved playing basketball. And when I was growing up, though, Michael Jordan, was my, I'll just say it, he was my idol. I mean, I just, I love Michael Jordan. Everybody on the basketball team when I was growing up, everybody loved Michael Jordan. I mean, when that saying, I'm gonna be like Mike, I mean, you just look around our little basketball team, you can see everybody wanted to be like Mike. We all chewed gum the same way he did. We all, you know, had our shorts just the same way he did. Maybe some of you don't know who Michael Jordan is, but if you don't, I don't know where you're from. That's all we wanted to be. Yet we were a bunch of 5'11 white kids, you know, trying to dunk a basket. We couldn't even get up there close to the rim. But yet, that's what we wanted to be. What were we doing to Michael Jordan? Making an idol out of him. He was our idol. Okay? And the ultimate compliment we could give to Michael Jordan was that we all wanted to be him. Why don't we say that about God? Why don't we want to say that about God the Father? Why don't we want to say that about God the Son? Why not? That should be our idol, right? He is our idol. He is the only one worthy to be an idol. And we should worship Him. We should fall down at His feet. And we should try every way possible to be just like Him. even though we know we fall and falter and we fail every moment of the day. That should be our goal, is to be just like our life, right? So when we look at these attributes of God, this is what I'm talking about. We have so many misconceptions about fatherhood because we're entering in so many different ideas about what fathers should be. We got all these different ideas because we've all had earthly fathers. We've all had that, and we've seen them, and I'm gonna be the first to admit I have my faults. And if my children look at me and I'm their perfect example for a father, they're gonna go into life with a real skewed up idea of what a father really needs to be. I want them to look at this father. I would hope that in my life I can in some way instill within them what God the Father is through the way I am. But yet, my whole message in my life is I want you to look to Him. I want you to look to Him. You want to know what a man is? Look to Him. You want to know what a father needs to be? You look to Him. You look to Him. Because if you find out what He is, then you're going to know what a father is. I mean, we got so many ideas, so many ideas. That's why, I mean, when we look at this aspect of peace, and we talked about that last week, we looked at why is it that we don't have peace in our lives? And we got this God, and theologically, we got this God that's absolute, that's perfect, and we should trust wholeheartedly in Him. We should have no reason whatsoever to ever doubt anything about God. But yeah, we do. Our literal version of God is completely different than our theological version of God. And I believe a lot of that has to do with our idea of father. What is a father? We need to realize that he is our father. He is our father. And he's taking care of us. And everything he does is to conform us to the image of his son. Everything he does in our lives, no matter what it is, is for our good and his glory. Can we get that? Can we get that? That's why we talked about last week, Paul could say, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. It is, that's what it is. Oh, that we could say that in our lives. That we could say that. We need to move on. Protect. God is our absolute protector also. Next, number two. He is our absolute protector. Turn over to Psalm 91. Psalm 91. Let's just start with verse two. There again, this whole psalm's outstanding. We should read it often, have it memorized. Psalm 92, verse two, he says, I will say to the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him will I trust. Verse three, surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. God is our ultimate protector. He is going to protect us, preserve us. We said last week that we are what? We are immoral until God's done with us. Nothing can harm us until God's done with us. I was standing around with Warren after church last week and we were talking about General Stonewall Jackson. That's the way he lived. He could stand out there in the middle of the battlefield, sit on his horse in the middle of the battlefield, bullets whizzing past him, saying the words, go here, go there. And people look at him and he just stands like a stone wall. Why? If a bullet hits me, it's because God directed it and he's done with me. Now, we do not tempt the Lord our God, we know that, but yet that is the trust in which we should have in the God of this Bible. Knowing that if He has a purpose in our lives, if He has something for us to do, we're immortal until it's done. We're immortal until it's done. All right, He is that. That's our theological version of God. That's our theological idea of God. What's our literal view? Man, I mean, everything bothers us. Everything makes us up. Everything takes our peace away. I mean, we can die from anything, and we just shake it all the time. No, no. We need to live our lives in the idea that God is our ultimate protector. Okay, now how do we take that over to a practical application in our lives? One thing I hope my children have learned in this home, And I don't want to bring any fear. OK? I'm Maggie. I don't know where she's at. But if this house was to burn down, I want them to know something. I want them to know that the first ones coming out of this house are the kids, the little babies. The second are the women and the girls. The boys are coming after that. And the last person out of this house is going to be me. If the kids don't get out of this house, I'm not coming out of this house. I hope that's what they know. I hope that's what I've instilled in them and what I've taught them. I want my boys to understand nobody comes out of this house, they don't come out of this house unless all the girls are out of this house. They don't come out. And I'm not coming out unless you come out. That's what our Heavenly Father teaches us. What happened on the cross of Calvary? God became flesh, did he not? And dwelt among us. That word became flesh and dwelt among us, right? He went to Calvary's cross. He perished on Calvary's cross for his people, that they might live, okay? He is our ultimate protector, and we need to live that way. As God's men, that's the way we need to live. But they need to also understand that I have my limitations. That room's up there. I'm human. I may not get up those stairs. I may not. I got my limitations, but God doesn't. But God doesn't. is our ultimate protector. But yet, as men, and as boys becoming men, one of the things that needs to be instilled in you is the fact that you are now becoming that, just that, a protector. A protector. I heard some guy was talking about when he was growing up, his dad taught him something about his sisters. And he said, if you are If you're going wherever you're at and somebody's messing with your sister, I want you to get on that guy. I want you to start beating him until somebody drags you off. And then you fight him off, and you go after the guy again until somebody drags you off again. I thought that was pretty good. I thought that was pretty good. As young men, that's the way we need to be. That's the way we need to be. All right? Let's take on that attribute. There's too much weakness in this world. There's too much weakness. There's too many boys out here in this world. Too many boys. They're out. What, what? Let's just, if we were to go back to provision, and some people, and a young lady might ask, well, does that mean I can't work? No, that's not what it means. You can help provide for your family. But yet, if a woman provides for her family, that does not give the man the right to sit at home and master video games. Right? So we need to understand these principles. Okay? About what a man is and what he is to be. All right, let's look at absolute preserver, because in this we have quite a bit to cover. Absolute preserver. I want you to turn over to Psalm 121. Psalm 121. We'll just read the whole thing. It says, I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and forevermore. The Lord, we believe in the perseverance and the preservation of the saints, right? We believe that wholeheartedly. We believe that if God does not preserve us, if God doesn't do this great work, then we will fall. Right? We're gonna fall. If God doesn't keep his hand upon us, we will fall away. We'd fall away in a second. God does this great work, but how does he do it? How does he do this work? Well, the first thing I believe he does in our lives is he disciplines us, right? Those the Lord loves, he does what? He chastens. He disciplines us. The word of God does what? It rebukes, it chastens, It teaches us. That's what He does in our lives. Therefore, as fathers, we need to understand that discipline is something that must be carried out in the home. It must be. It has to be carried out in the home because we see the example of this in the scripture. We know that this is how God the Father works in our lives. We know exactly what we would be if God did not chasten us. Therefore, are we to expect anything else from our children? Are we? Should we not be useful in his kingdom by carrying out this in our family's lives? We need to be those that carry out discipline in our homes. And we also need to be disciplined in our homes. There's lots of things, and for me to stand up here and talk about discipline, As far as being a disciplined person, I am very bad about that. I just fly by the seat of my pants a lot of times. Especially on paperwork. Grace will tell you, I was like one of the most undisciplined person paperwork wise. Now work wise, I'm right on top of that. Paperwork's horrible for me. But yet, the Christian life should be a disciplined life. It really should. And we as God's people, we need to read that scripture. We do read in the scripture where the Christian life is a disciplined life. It is. It is learning these Christian disciplines. We should not be those that would just wake up in the morning and read our Bibles because that's what we have to do. We should get up in the morning and read our Bibles because we love to do it. Okay, but yet we need to have discipline in our lives as God's people. Alright, the second one is how God does these things in our lives as disciples, right? Does he not teach us? Does not the Holy Spirit, what does it do in our lives? He teaches us. The Word of God means something to us. Why? Because it is the Spirit teaching us these things in our lives. He is taking this Word and revealing things to us and discipling us through the Spirit of God. He uses men. He uses men to teach and to preach to us. And he uses fathers in their children's lives. I think of Matthew Henry. Has anybody ever saw his commentary? Do you have his commentary? Matthew Henry's commentary? You know how that came about? He just wrote down the family devotions at night. He just took notes. That's what his dad was teaching them all the time he was growing up, are those commentaries right there. It's just notes from growing up. It's amazing. Amazing. That's discipline. That's discipleship. All right? And that's what we need to be about as fathers. All right? And young men growing up, that needs to be beginning to be instilled in you is discipline and this discipleship. Teaching. You know, what was Paul talking about in Hebrews when he was looking at those people? We shouldn't be just consumers in church. should be those that just come to church and just sit and consume. What we need to be is about teaching. What did he say to those Hebrews? He said, you need to be about, you've heard all this time, you need to be about teaching now. You should be going out teaching people. We need to be about discipleship in our homes. We need to be about teaching our children and our families. And also, there should be a desiring. This is what, when you're looking at a preserving influence in the home, when you think about a preserver, it'd be salt, right? But that's the first thing that would come to our mind is salt. And when you think about salt, you know, you put it in a wound, what's it do? It stinks, so we see the aspect of discipline there, but yet it heals, right? But salt also flavors. It does. And so as fathers in our homes, we should have a desire for God. That needs to be the flavor of the home, doesn't it? There needs to be a desire there for God. So I would hope that in my life and in our lives, we would have that. There would be this idea that when we come through the door, There is a joy in our lives. There is a peace in our lives. Long suffering is seen in our homes. Why? Because there is a desire for God in our lives. There is a desire to be in the Word of God. There is a desire to study the Word of God. There is a desire to pray. There's a desire to magnify the Lord in everything that we do in the home. I know these are tall orders. They're tall orders, they are. And I'll tell you this right now, I'm gonna go right back to the beginning and I'm gonna say I fail in this every day. But yet I want you to know that this is what, this is who our Heavenly Father is. He doesn't fail. He doesn't fail in discipline. He doesn't fail in discipleship. And what did Jesus Christ say? He was always about His Father's business. Know what He said? And although we might see that in our lives, when we start talking about desire, that it would be a desire for our Father's business, right? That's what our desires should be in our lives. Well, there's so much more that we are running out of time. So I think we'll end there. As we go into this new year, let's think about these things. Let's really, let's think about these things. Let's really, and what the pastor said before the service, you know, you can make all the resolutions you want. You can do that. But let's pray for one another. Let's do that. I would ask your prayer for us in our homes. I would ask for your prayer that I wouldn't just sit there like a bump on a log, but that I would actually call my family down here and we would have devotions. That's the best thing that could happen in our home. The best thing. And I'm gonna pray the same for you. And I know the pastor's praying the same. Is that we would do this in our homes. That our homes would become little churches. Matthew Henry taught that too, you know. He said that church doesn't just end right here. This isn't only church. Church leaves with us, right? We're not gonna leave, but we're gonna stay here. But all you guys are gonna leave, but church isn't gonna end right here. Church carries on into your homes, and then we as little churches come together and meet, right? That's what we do. So if that's the case, what does that make fathers? Make some pastors in their homes, right? Make some pastors in their homes. And that is a responsibility of fathers. And as young men growing up, you need to be studying for that. Studying for that, learning about that. Lord bless you. I hope something was said that will be beneficial.