And why don't you open up in your Bibles to 1 Timothy, chapter 5, verse 8. I'm actually doing a topical sermon. You know, this is a time of family, right? And extended family, this Christmas season time. And so I'm actually gonna be doing a sermon this morning on extended family. So if you could turn to 1 Timothy, chapter 5, verse 8, that would be great. Why don't we stand for the reading of God's word? The scripture simply reads, but if anyone does not provide for his own, especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. May God bless the reading of his word, let's pray. Father, we thank you and praise you for this time that we do have in your word and to talk about this important topic of extended family. I pray that you would use it for good and that you would help it to equip the saints that they might do right by you in all areas of life, including this area of family, and today in this matter of extended family. Father, you know many have unbelieving relatives, and family members, and what a heartache that can be at times. May they be faithful to you, and may they proclaim your law, word, and great salvation to them, both in word and in deed, oh God, in how they live their lives. Lord, we just thank you for the families that you're building here at Mercy Seat and across this nation. And we pray that we learn some things here today regarding extended family. We ask your blessing be upon this message. In Jesus' holy name, amen. You can be seated. So I was actually asked to preach, to speak on this topic for a online conference that took place just a few weeks ago. And I thought, you know what, I'm gonna actually, I got a lot of feedback from that, positive feedback from that, I'm gonna preach this as a sermon to Mercy Seat, as that conference seemed to have had little, you know, in the grand scheme of things, little reach to human beings, to people, numbers-wise. So I thought, I'm gonna talk about this. And when I was asked to speak on the topic of extended family, topic of extended family, particularly my topic was reconstructing extended family. Reconstructing extended family. When they asked me to speak on that, I was like, okay. My first thought was ditch that talk. You don't wanna talk about that. I've never talked about it. I've never really given much time to it. In fact, I've been a Christian for over 40 years and I've never heard that as a topic ever anywhere in a sermon or a conference at all on the planet. I mean, most of us are just struggling to establish immediate family, right? And do good there because family is in a world of hurt. in America. And that, of course, has been done by design. The state, through law and policy, has purposely weakened family here in America so that they can strengthen the arm of the state over our lives. So understand, when you actually do well in your homes, you are confronting the government beast that wants to reign and rule over every inch of our lives. Understand that's how important it is for you to do well in your homes. The biggest strengthener of their evil is the weakening of family. When it comes to extended family, here's how most extended families are. I'll tell you a little story about me and my uncle Art. I was probably 22 years old at the time, freshly married to Clara for about a year. I was with a friend, and my car broke down. All my cars were like $250 or less back in those days. So breaking down was a common theme for Manchuela. And I rolled into this Shell gas station. And this was the gas station when they had barrages, not just candy bars. They had garages there. And so I talked to the mechanic, and we pushed it in. He's put it up. And we were there a good 20 minutes. And all of a sudden, I looked at the mechanic, and I said, are you my uncle? And the guy turned and looked at me, and he said, yeah, I am. And my friend who was with me when we left there about a half hour later, he was like, My mind was blown. We're standing there for 20 minutes talking to this mechanic, and all of a sudden you ask him, are you my uncle? And then he says, yes. He goes, I was just like flabbergasted. That's where extended family is in America to a great extent. Everybody's struggling to do well in the immediate family, the small remnant that are struggling to do well in the immediate family. that there hasn't been much building when it comes to extended family. So I want to give you some thoughts and some ideas about that here this morning. Amen? So my wife and I have 11 children. We're getting older now. And I have three sons-in-law. Three daughters-in-law, that's how you say it, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law. It's not son-in-laws or daughter-in-laws. I had to look that up and remind myself of that. So we have three sons-in-law, three daughters-in-law, and 25 grandchildren. So we are learning, Claire and I are learning about extended family. We're in the process. I shared with you my story about Uncle Art. So we're learning about extended family, especially now that our family is extending itself. In this sermon, I am primarily looking at this through the lens of building your extended family from your immediate family. That won't be the only thing I look at it in that angle, but that is the primary way I'm looking at this. Extended family from your immediate family. Because you should want to find a good spouse. And you should want to build something. And many of you are breaking the curse. You come to Christ. Your family's been crazy, living in rebellion forever. And you're the one who actually breaks the curse by finding Christ, by Christ radically transforming your life. And so you need to build from there. And that's what you do. That's what Claire and I have been doing. So extended family is a matter of scripture. Our text here points out that extended family is a matter of scripture. The text reads, but if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. So I've heard this passage used 18 million times for immediate family. and men being providers, protectors, and priests, women being helpmates to their husband, nurturer of the children, all these types of things. But you do understand extended family is spoken of right here in verse 8. You see where it says his own there? Look at there. But if anyone does not provide for his own, that's talking about your relatives, your extended family. That's what it's talking about. So here we see that this matter of extended family is a matter of scripture, that you have a duty beyond your immediate household, as he says, especially for those of his household, that's your primary task, is your household, but it goes beyond that, it's your own family, extended family, relatives, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, on down the line. You have a duty and responsibility to them also, and our laws reflect that. Laws in America, even to this day, reflect the responsibility and legal authority of extended families to one another. Think of that. The Greek word there in verse eight for provide, It includes the matter of making provision through labor. We understand that. But it denotes even more than that. It includes the denotation of, quote, think of beforehand, unquote. Quote, take thought for, unquote. So this matter of thinking about and reconstructing his extended family is scriptural. It is something we should put some thought into. It is something we should put some practice into. So let me say first off, and listen to this please, so much of what you build in immediate family naturally flows into extended family. That's very important. And that's the primary lens I'm looking at this through. So much of what you build in immediate family naturally flows into extended family. In other words, reconstructing extended family is innately tied to reconstructing immediate family. So if you want to understand your duty and importance and actually live out it when it comes to extended family from immediate family is the first thing you have to do is build an extended family by having a family. You actually have to have children. Find someone who is your spouse and have children. Build a family. The current state in America and the West is one of familial suicide. And I've talked about this before. Last year, 1.69 children born per couple in America. You need 2.1 just to replace yourself. America is committing familial suicide in most of Europe. whether East or West, or in Europe, they are committing familial suicide at even a swifter rate than we are here. 1.24, 1.22, 1.29, common for every, they are exterminating themselves. And now that media, American media, and birth control have made it to Latin America, for example. Latin America and some of the countries there aren't even replacing themselves anymore either. If you know anything about Latin America, family was once very important to them. And what is the number one thing that scholars point to? It's like going off a cliff if you look at the numbers for Latin America. Wealth and ease. They see those sitcoms, and they know, they're taught that having less children means you get more of that wealth and ease. And that's why they're radically not have people concerned about people coming over the border. Scholars are saying by the year 2030, there won't be anybody who wants to come over the border because the numbers of people being born are going down, down, down, down. Anyway, some of you look so excited about this kind of talk, and others of you are like, huh? Huh? So enough said on that. The truth is, all of American Christianity has bought into the world's narrative of having only one or two children. That's clearly what the elitists want and what they've gotten most people to accept. They're always good at getting the majority to accept just on the basis of the carrot. the carrot being here, wealth and ease, they eventually turn to coercion in various forms in order to get people to comply with what they want the world to be functioning as and governed like. All of American Christianity has bought into the world's narrative of having only one or two children, and such thinking and behavior is an affront to God's word. He has a very different view about children than we do, than the world does, than American Christianity does. Everyone is drunk on wealth and ease. Therefore, having one kid like you would a betta fish in a bowl. How many of you have ever made the mistake of putting two betta fish in one bowl? Okay, not good. Or having two kids like a couple of goldfish in a bowl. That is what most people view children as. This little nice commodity on the side. It is the desire of both pagan and Christian alike to keep their homes at one to two children. When we abhor children and want only one or two, or even if we're a crazy radical and want three, as a society, that has negative implications and consequences all through society. I hope you heard that. It has negative implications and consequences on all of society. including the destruction of family itself. If you do not have a big family, I'm talking about six or more children, you cannot understand what I am saying. When you have a large family, you more readily see it. And I have written and done sermons regarding this important matter. There is a blindness to it by virtually all of society, these negative implications and bad consequences. There's a blindness to it by virtually all of society because they too have gone along with the narrative of having one or two. Found it interesting, someone sent me something that Elon Musk wrote talking about these very matters. Elon Musk. I don't have any kind of great appreciation for Elon Musk. I know some people who do. I don't, and here he's writing about these matters, how we're destroying ourselves in Western civilization by virtue of the fact people don't want to have children. You know how many children Elon Musk has, right? Six. He has six children, granted it's with three different women, okay? So he's got something right, but he's got a whole lot of stuff messed up. I just wanted to mention that, that even demographers, sociologists, and unbelievers like Elon Musk, can understand the created order of God and its importance regarding having children, and its importance to society. Because whenever you rebel against anything, as God's designed things to be, there's negative implications. There's bad consequences for going against his created order, for defying his law and word. And that is what is happening throughout our planet in our day regarding this matter of children. What would Jesus do? You know, American Christianity loves that little thing, what would Jesus do? Not that they're really interested in what Jesus would do, because Jesus didn't have a 401k, he didn't have a big house to live in, he didn't roll around in a nice beautiful car, right? But they just like cherry pick. What would Jesus do, right? Okay, well, here's what Jesus did. He came from a large family himself. Jesus came from a large family himself. Mark 6, 3, mark that down. Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, verse 3, talks about his brothers and sisters. He was the oldest in a family of at least seven children. Bare minimum, seven children. The passage declares four brothers there, and then it says sisters, plural. So at bare minimum, Jesus was from a family of seven. He could have been from a family of 10, or 12, or something like that. We don't know how many. Bare minimum, seven. And we also know extended family was part of Jesus's life. Remember when he was 12 years old and was left at Jerusalem? A whole day of travel had gone by on their way home before Mary and Joseph realized, hey, Jesus is missing. Ever do that? I've left my kids in numerous spots. We have a lot of them. Don't tell the social workers, right? Yeah. It's a crime now to lose track of a kid for a few minutes. You know, it used to be a thing. Everybody helped find where the kid was. Even the police, if they were called, would help. And when the kid was found, everybody was happy and good with it. Now it's a crime. You're going to be charged with neglect. You're going to have the government up your rear end eight inches. It's the nightmare of a hellhole that we live in and we tolerate. Men tolerate it and go along with it, and they shouldn't. Because of the indifference we've had towards public policy matters, the statists have created this hell that we live in. So anyways, I've left my children at church, even. I had to drive back and get one. Four years old, five years old. Oh, my golly, we forgot one of the kids. Hope they're OK. You're speeding back. Hope you don't get pulled over. Oh, we left our kid at church, and we're hoping that he's still there. Remember one time we were driving down the freeway, and Crispin, I don't know if he's here this morning, one of my kids, All of a sudden, we're 30 minutes, I'm not kidding you, 30 minutes down the road, and somebody realized Crispin wasn't in the vehicle. We're on a tour for the pre-born, traveling from city to city. And traveling, driving from town to town, left the hotel that morning, 30 minutes down the road, 30 minutes, somebody realized, we start calling everybody, nobody has him, I already got off at the next exit, I'm flying back, my wife's flipping out, And I go, don't worry. I said, crisp and sharp. I said, we always teach our kids, if we forget you anywhere, hide. Hide. Don't turn yourself in. Hide. And so he was, I believe, seven years old at the time. And I remember when we finally got back. And when you're trying to get back, It seems like every minute is like a lifetime, right? And you get up to the top of the thing, I look over at the hotel we were staying at, and here comes Crispin out of the bushes. He knew exactly where we were. We pull up, Crispin jumps in. I looked at him, I said, wow, that's awesome. I said, were you getting a little worried? And he looks at me, he goes, I was getting a little worried. One time, Clara, our vehicle broke down. There's another great story of the kids hiding. So Jason, I don't even think he was married to Sarah yet. He was just like checking the family out, you know. And I was off speaking somewhere. Clara takes the kids to McDonald's. And the car won't start. And there's a massive rainstorm outside. So Clara calls Jason. Jason comes over. They're trying to get the vehicle going. Well, they don't want all the kids sitting out there. So they tell them to stay and play with the balls and the tubes. You know, the McDonald's play area? Just have fun in there. Enjoy yourself, right? And lo and behold, Jason said, as we're sitting out there in the pouring rain trying to get this car going, he starts noticing police cars pulling up. And he started getting a little uneasy. So he goes, maybe we better go inside. So they come inside. And the only one they got is Tralick. And Tralick, who's 20 now, was two years old at the time. And he had pulled his britches down and peed in all the balls. Which I later learned from the McDonald's workers talking to Clara, isn't all that uncommon of an occurrence. And they have to take all the balls out, put them in garbage bags, take them in the back room, clean all the balls, bring them back in. Notice they don't use those balls anymore at the McDonald's places anymore. They learned a little something along the way. So anyways, they found Tralick peeing on the balls. They walk in and the cop's there, the manager's there, and she's like, the cop's like, is this your son? And she goes, yeah. And he goes, you just leave a two-year-old all by himself? And Claire goes, he's not by himself. There's like six of his brothers and sisters in here, all the way up to Page 11. And the cop goes, there's no kids in this room. He's the only one in the room, and you just leave him here? And Claire goes, no, they're all here. And then she goes, hey, kids. And out from all the tubes come six different kids. They were hiding. So Clara ended up having an interesting conversation with the officer, which I won't give here now. But if you know Clara, yeah. I didn't marry a wallflower. And one of the attracting things to me for her was that she wasn't a wallflower. She's got some hootspit to her. So they had a little bit of a tangle there. But boy, were they flipped out when those kids came out of those tubes. What is this sermon about again? This is the sad thing about getting old also. You get off on these things. Yes, thank you, extended family. Where was I? Jesus. Jesus was missing. This isn't a big deal, okay? He's missing. And some people would be like, my golly, call CPS, throw him in jail. Okay. They start looking for him. Wow, what a fresh thought. Luke chapter 2, verse 44. says, quote, but supposing him to have been in the company, they went a day's journey and sought him among their relatives. Amen? Large family, extended family was part of Jesus' life. Jesus was from a large family, and extended family was part of his life. So first you have to marry, and then you have to actually have children if you want to build a family and develop extended family from a Christian foundation. Second, once you have a large family, there are two very important things you should institute in your building of a family. Number one is family worship, mark that down, men. And number two, second is building businesses. And both of these naturally flow into extended family. So let me talk about both of them briefly. The first being family worship. That's where you bring your family together as the head of your home, men, and sit down and go through a book of the Bible. You might cover one verse. You might cover a whole chapter in a morning. Whatever. It's 10 to 15 minutes. You don't need to drag it out into some long thing, although it gets long at times. You may sing. You may not. Chuellas aren't good singers. We don't sing much. Other people sing very well, and they sing. and it's part of their family worship. Prayer is always a part of our family worship, prayer requests. We take turns, each person prays. On a different morning, a new person prays. We do it, while our kids were growing up, three to four times a week. Three to four times a week. You don't want that to own you. It's something you should do, but you don't wanna be mean about it. or get all stressed out about it, because life is crazy in America. So you might not hit all seven mornings. We average three to four times a week. Very important. And it's less now that our kids have all grown up. I did a sermon on Family worship, which you can listen to at sermonaudio.com. Just go to sermonaudio.com. I go into scripture, I go into history, and I go into the practice of how to do family worship, men. It's less than a 30-minute sermon, which is highly unusual for me. It's an excellent sermon to give you a primer as to what your duties are regarding family worship. And this naturally flows, this matter of establishing family worship in your home, flows into extended family, because then your children do it with your grandchildren, your grandchildren do it with your great-grandchildren. Whenever any extended family is spending the night at our home, they should, at your home, they should join in your family worship. I don't care if it's your cousin, your uncle, your nephew, your niece, whoever it is, family worship continues, and they join in your family worship. They should see you model that in your home. Extremely important. In a large family, if you ignore family worship, you notice the difference. You notice the tone in the home change in a matter of just a few days. That's how important family worship is to the home, especially those of you with large numbers of children. Extremely important. You more readily see your need to do it when you actually have larger numbers of children. Second is business. Business. You should try to establish businesses. You don't all have to do this. This is just something we do. We think it's good, and it's worked good for us. We try to establish businesses with our children. They are blue-collar stock. So your older kids, you have to put a lot of time into helping them establish their business. But then they help your younger kids establish businesses. and teach them good business etiquette, good business thinking. Timothy over here helped two of my boys with the window washing. Yeah, that took about two hours to learn. All you need to learn with that. And they've built a window washing empire and done amazingly well, the Chihuahua kids have, down through the years, where you average $50 to $100 an hour washing windows. We're all blue-collar stock, landscaping, painting, wood floor installation and refinishing, house cleaning, down through all that kind of, we're blue-collar stock. We're not Fortune 500 people. And we don't care that we're not. We're happy being blue-collar stock. And we get along with that socioeconomic group the best. because we know how everyone thinks in it, and we know how everyone, and when you looked at history, the blue collar stock has had a huge effect on upholding the morality of a nation down through the ages. And when they become corrupt, which they are now to a great extent, it's a huge negative to a nation. When women become as corrupt as women are now in their morals, it's a huge negative to a nation. That's where we're at now. That's why building a good home is massively important. Putting the hours and time into your sons and your daughters, time with your spouse, to put it into your sons and daughters, massively important. So what we do is we sit down with the kids and we ask them, what do you have an interest in, when they're like 13, 14 years old. They all have an interest in making money, especially the boys. They all can't wait to get out of the books and start making money and working with their hands. So we keep them in the books. because that's important, but we don't drown them in the books like the public education system and all of American Christianity education system has tried to replicate. We allow them to get out of the house to work, to contribute to the economy of the family, to the economy of the nation, and also to their own well-being economically. We teach our kids many things. We take 50% of what they make, we put it away, save it for them for a large item, or to take when they leave the home. We teach our kids to tithe. These are all important things. Businesses are important. And as time went on with the businesses that were founded, we saw how it moved naturally. Remember I said naturally? It flows into extended family, where we saw the nephews and nieces beginning to work for their aunts and uncles. And now things have moved so far along in our age spectrum that some of the aunts and nephews at times work for, some of the aunts and uncles at times work for the nephews and nieces. Because we have the thing where some of the grandkids are older than our kids. Pretty cool, right? So my point is simply this, extended family just happens naturally as you continue to build in these two areas. It is all just a natural flow to extended family, this matter of building businesses. By the way, we do the business thing in part because we believe the nexus of the economy should reside in the family, not the state. The status how we live in is sustained because the state has annexed the economy, harnessed it for their own ends, takes the strength of people's sons and daughters, for their own ends. That's what the state does. And their ends include the destruction of the family, because every good statist knows that in order to strengthen the state, you have to weaken the family. So we try to keep the economy within the family, within the home. have as little relationship with the state as possible. We actually believe the state has massive limits, as revealed by scripture and also by our Constitution here in America. Now let me say something to mom and dad, the oldest living of any generation. I'm talking to mom and dad, if you're the oldest of your lineage, oldest living of your lineage at this time. I've now entered being the oldest, the patriarch, as both my mom and dad are now dead and with Christ. As you age, you and your wife become the patriarch and the matriarch. Your position to extended family at that point, including grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even your own siblings and other relations, nieces, nephews, cousins, et cetera, becomes large. Your influence is massive at this stage in your life if you have been building. And you continue to build at this stage in your life. Your influence is huge. It changes some. I want you to understand a little bit of the change. And this is the number one thing. Your number one influence in all these other people in your extended family is how you live. You live by example. It's how you live. Huge. They're watching. They see how you talk. They see how you think. They see how you behave. They see what you do. And it speaks volumes to them. Living by example, faithful to Christ, be an example of Christian living to all of them, that is the number one thing. The influence you have, by virtue of the fact that you are now the oldest, it has that influence upon the younger. Even in this culture, which tries to demean older people, wants to kill off older people, there's something within God's created order that young people understand There should be something better about older people. When I was a kid, I always viewed older people as more moral, as more decent, as more experienced, having more to offer to culture than me. Even though I lived in a culture that wanted me to believe that anyone over the age of 30 was a pile of garbage, and that we were the great generation. And unfortunately, that's how most of the college students think now. that their generation is the awesomest thing, and you guys all were worthless dopes who are older than us. It's a sad thing to watch. If you've done well in training and instructing and loving your children, training, instructing, and loving them, you have to put hours into your duty, men, into your duties, moms. You will be sought after greatly when you reach this older age in your life for advice and counsel. Smart young people understand they can benefit from the advice and counsel of older people, especially those who have lived faithful and true to Christ. Smart young people understand they can benefit from the advice and counsel of older people. especially those who've lived faithful and true to Christ. And if you have done well with your home, you become paramount. Whether you are the patriarch or the matriarch, you understand your head is now on the chopping block. You're the next to go. If you look at your life in quarters, 20 years to 40 years to 60 years to 80 years, and you're pretty much done. You might be shorter, you might be a little longer, but that's about it. When you hit 60, your head's on the chopping block. You're in the last quarter. You better start running hard. It isn't time you run differently. Understand that. And there's something else, things I could say about that. Strength isn't your main forte anymore. This and this is. The glory of a young man is his strength. The glory of an old man is his wisdom. You're supposed to have learned something. The impact, what you can impart to people is different but you must keep running. You can't just go off in a corner somewhere and keep it to yourself. You know, join some geriatric society where you go down to that place in Missouri where all the Christian shows are on, and, you know, hang out like you're still in the eighth grade. Line up to use the toilet. Line up to get on the bus. You know, all this kind of... No. You should have built a family. Family should mean something. Your community, your church. These things matter. You impact people. You need to impart to them. And you don't have to wait until they come and talk to you. Sometimes you need to walk across the room and say something to them. Something you have insight of that you see. Something that will benefit them. Something that will be good for them. So living as an example is massively important. And I don't mean living as an example. like some sweet little fellow or gal like American Christianity in the stench of their pietism has reduced Christianity too. I mean as a man, and I mean as a woman, I mean true manhood, I mean true womanhood. And I've preached about those things and can do a whole nother sermon on that. Number two, you reach this age, teach your kids to read, read, oh and read. Your grandkids, your great-grandkids, teach them to love to read. You should have done that with your children. You'll learn that some love to read more than others. Eventually, you notice all your kids, well, most all your kids, end up loving to read at some point in their life, and definitely more than they used to. Reading is massively important, and you, as the older person, can give them things that are massively important for them to read. You've read some stuff, hopefully, throughout your life that has a huge impact, and you know the best stuff. And so you impart it to them, age appropriate. Number three, watch the grandkids. Most people in my peer group, me and Claire's peer group, two hours with the grandkids, and they can't be moaning it enough long enough. The truth of the matter is you should watch your grandkids, especially if your children are actually having numerous children. They need that time to be alone together as husband and wife. And you as a grandparent can provide it for them by watching them. If you have a large family, they actually, the single kids help watch the married kids' kids, and the married kids help each other watch each other's kids. Most American families don't have that. You won't have it if you're the one who broke the curse. If you're the one who's broke the curse and came to Christ and just want to do right by him and you're having all these kids and blah, blah, blah, all your little pagan family isn't going to want to do anything for you regardless. I've heard this from everybody and it's the truth. I'm sure there's exceptions. They don't want to watch the kids. It can be very difficult. Because most Christians don't want to watch the kids either. So most nobody at church is going to watch them. So you can have a night out together. So you're basically waiting for your first kid to get age 12, you know, because that's, or what is it now, 22 before you can be left alone at home, you know, in this culture? It used to be 12 when I was younger. 12 years old, you're the oldest, we're leaving. Watch the kids, see you in two hours. Nobody thought nothing of it. I mean, my golly. What did we used to have, right? The youngest Pony Express rider was 11, and most of them were 13 years old. Many of them were 13 years old. Look what we've made young people into, little babies. who we leave in perpetual adolescence and never let grow up, take on responsibility, mature, and make something of themselves. Some of your most productive years when it comes to risk, when it comes to inspiration, is the very years they want to keep you in a dopey building in secondary education and then college. And they like wring it all out of you. So you're just that cog that fits into the machine that they've built. Right? Wow, that sounds harsh. It's because I've lived. It's because I've seen what it is. You should bristle at it. You should not want to conform to it. You should want to think outside the box and do something different, build something Christian. I see some of you young people out there. You are radicals, man. I can see your eyes glowing at this point. The harsh stuff I said, the only reason it seems harsh to you is if you don't understand the destruction that they've put within this culture by design. Understand that. When you understand that and you see a glimpse of it for what it truly is, you will despise what they've done. And you also want to do right in every area of your life in opposition to the evil that they've concocted. And the most rudimentary place it begins is with yourself and your family. That's where it begins. So you've got to do well there. Amen? And don't let people tell you it's either family or politics. It's either, no. As good men, we're involved in public policy matters. It's not an either or. If you haven't been doing well at home, you've been overly involved in political matters, you strengthen what needs to be strengthened at home. You may have to pull back some on your political matters, but you don't abandon them. I've never believed that, and I never will believe that. I have tons of men who I've heard over the years teach that. It's garbage. No, you have to have your home perfect before you can be involved in civil. No, you don't. Because number one is, none of us will ever be perfect. Understand that. And part of being a man and what makes us good men is our involvement in civil government matters, in public policy matters, in matters outside the home. So understand how important that is, men. You do right regarding both. So anyways, watch the grandkids. Here's some things to ponder regarding extended family. Ponder this, why is the immediate family so important? Ponder this, what are the responsibilities of the immediate family members to each other? Ponder this, why are family relationships even more important than relationships with friends? Ponder this, why is the extended family also important? Make some short and long-term goals. OK, I want everybody who's 18 years old or under tell me How long? Do you have a list of goals? Raise your hand. 18 or younger. Holy cow. You guys are going to take over the world. You know, when I started making goals, I think I was like 48. I thought, why would I make goals? I'm busy living. I was just trying to keep the plane flying. Goals? Goals are good. And when it comes to the matter of extended family, short and long range goals to help you draw closer to members of your extended family are good. You just wishful thinking, it won't happen. You make a goal, you make it happen. You will probably wish to use this year's calendar to help you organize your plans. An actual paper calendar. I like paper. I don't like using my phone device. There's something weird about that. But if that's how you roll, it's the term now, right, roll? That's how you roll, then just use your device. But here's some things you can do. Visit a different family every Sunday, or every other Sunday, or regularly on another day that would be convenient for you. Send birthday and anniversary greetings. Number three, write regularly with cousins of your own age. Number four, help organize a regular extended family meeting. Kind of like a family reunion of sorts. Number five, organize a family newsletter. That's a little anal. Don't do that one. Number seven, or six, set up extended family traditions. Number seven, set up extended family photo album. Number eight, exchange family histories and family group sheets. Number 10, or nine, pardon me, plan to visit relatives who are getting married. Actually go to their weddings. How many of you go to family reunions where there's literally hundreds of people at your family reunion every year? How many here? Look at that, not one hand. You know what? When I was young, it was common. And I went to them. Over 400 people would be at a family reunion. Because people actually had kids, and they stayed in contact with each other, and family mattered. The government, the state has made it so it's all separated. We're all like little individuals. Now we're down to our little devices. I got my little device. And you got your little device. I don't talk to you. I talk to whoever thinks just like I do on my little device. They want everybody separated out. They want everybody to be stranded. Building family is massively important. They've done an unbelievable job of destroying family in America. I've watched it in my lifetime. I could tell you heartbreaking, tearful stories of what I saw when I was young versus what I see now. And it was already messed up when I was young. But it's even worse now. The welfare state has taken over everything. In closing, let me say many of us have been reconstructing family from the ground up. We came from broken homes ourselves. My dad, for example, left on Christmas Eve when I was 11 years old. I've written about my life and shared my testimony with thousands of people over my lifetime. But now I have a website where I've written about my life, howjesuchangedmylife.com. Howjesuchangedmylife.com. Family is in ruin in the West, but there are those of us reconstructing and building it from the ground up only because of our love for Jesus and the change he brought to our lives. But many of us building are now reaching or have reached that point of extended family. Our role to extended family is something we should think about, talk about, and put into practice. Because extended family is scriptural. Let me end with a quote from the church father, Tertullian, who lived back during the second century. Tertullian said this, he who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies. He lives only to benefit himself and confers on the world to benefit when he dies. Do you see the radically different thought the churchmen had back then versus American Christianity today with Joel Osteen and the best you? The pulpits back then versus the pulpits today, massively different. Building family is huge. and it breaks down the selfishness that is inherent in man. It helps men become other-centered rather than self-centered. You understand I'm using man and men in the generic sense of mankind. That was commonly understood when I was young. Now you have to distinguish that for some reason. It helps men become other-centered rather than self-centered. That right there is a huge implication and consequence for society and a nation. That right there is a huge implication and consequence for society and a nation. Breaks down the selfishness in men. And when people come from larger homes, they're tougher. They don't run for a safe space on campus because you said something that they don't agree with. And they're crushed. No, you learn to make it. Have you ever been to my house when we kill chickens? If you're a squeamish, lighthearted fellow, you're going to run into some tough boys and girls, some tough men and women. You come from a big family, it's like pew, pew, pew, pew. You can't handle it, what's your problem? That's what most of them are like. Everything's always been catered to them. They were alone, they only had one sibling. Crazy. Most men do not get that selfishness removed precisely because they have formed their lives, whether single or married, to make sure they can have their wealth and their ease so they assure their self-centeredness continues. That's a huge problem in America, the selfishness. Having children and extended family enlarges the scope of what concerns you in life and in society. And again, Tertullian said, he who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies. Christ calls us to be other-centered, not self-centered. Whether single, whether married, whether one child, two children, or 100, he calls us to be other-centered, not self-centered. Amen? May we live to the glory of his name. Let's stand up and we'll close in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you and we praise you for your goodness to us. We rejoice in you that we were able to have this time to talk about this important matter of extended family, which brings up the matter of family itself, an immediate family. And Lord, I just ask and pray that each one here who's married would do right by you, whether husband or wife. Children also, God, may they do right by you, desire us to live for you, to be a blessing and benefit to others within the home, not to just think of themselves. Lord, I ask and pray that you build your kingdom in each of our lives. Lord, Those who desire to find a spouse, and I know numerous here who do, oh Lord, I pray in your due time you bring the right one to them, oh Lord, and that they know it, and that things work out wonderfully, and that they're able to build something, this holy thing called home. They're able to build that, oh God, with someone they can spend their life with. Lord, we thank you and we praise you for your goodness to us. And Lord, we ask and pray that you continue to cause us to be hungry for you and to live in obedience to you. I thank you, O God, for your goodness to us. We thank you for the days you've given us. Lord, you see how our hearts break for those who are going through such difficult times now. Again, we pray for the Roche family, oh God. Bring healing, strength, provision. Lord, the Stefaniak family, the Denny Green family, Lord, bring healing to each of them. Meet all their needs. Draw them all closer to one another through the hardships that they're going through right now, Lord. May each of them, whatever their station is in life, may they do it right by you according to your word and your law in how they govern themselves, O Lord, how they are your witnesses in the earth. Lord, we thank you and praise you for your goodness to us. We ask that you watch over us. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. May Christ be praised. You can be seated.