Good evening, please stand as we sing number 451 the old account was settled There was a time on earth when in the book of heaven an old account was signing for sins yet unforgiven. My name was at the top and many things below. I went unto the keepers and settled long ago, long ago, long ago. Yes, the old account was settled long ago and the record's clear today for he washed my sins away. When the old account was settled long ago. When at the judgment bar I stand before my king, And he the book will open, he cannot find a thing. Then will my heart be glad, while tears of joy will flow, Because I had it settled, and settled long ago, long ago, long ago. Yes, the old account was settled long ago. And the record's clear today, for he washed my sins away, when the old account was settled long ago. O sinner, seek the Lord, repent of all your sin, for thus he had commanded. If you would enter in, and then if you should live A hundred years below, up there you'll not regret it You settled long ago, long ago, long ago Yes, the old account was settled long ago And the record's clear today, for he washed my sins away When the old account was settled long ago Good to see you tonight. Let's go to the Lord and word of prayer. Father, we ask as we do every service for your power on the preaching, be at the rest of the singing, the special and Lord bless those who are still getting here safely. I pray Lord that you'd be at those of our church members that are homesick and can't make it as they watch online. And I pray Lord, you just give us your power tonight in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you. May be seated. We will be singing yield not to temptation number 387. Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin. Each victory will help you, some other to win. Fight manfully onward, dark passions subdue. Look ever to Jesus, He will carry you through. Ask the Savior to help you. Come forth, strengthen, and keep you. He is waiting to aid you. He will carry you through. Shun evil companions, bad language disdain. God's name hold in reverence, nor take it in vain. Be thoughtful and earnest, kind are dead and true. Look ever to Jesus, he will carry you through. Ask the Savior to help you, comfort, strengthen, and keep you. He is willing to aid you. He will carry you through. To him that o'ercometh, God giveth a crown. Through faith we shall conquer, though often cast down. Thank you, Sean. I think he's passed all the ones that he knows by memory. Now he's having to sing the rest of them in the songbook. When I do the song reading, I always pick the four songs that are easiest for me. And I hope you all know them as well. But Sean's been leading the singing now for several weeks and doing a good job. He's learned what I told him at the very beginning, and I said, you'll have to be able to learn to laugh at yourself, because when you're up here and you have the microphone, there are no do-overs. If you mess up, everybody hears you. Now, out there, only the person in front of you turns around like, I mean, when you sing off key or something. But up here, there is no disguising it. It just happens. But I appreciate the fact that he doesn't take himself so seriously that he gives up and quits. Because if you give up when you have problems, you will never make it in life in anything, trust me. Whether it's parenting or Sunday school class or song leading or whatever, anyone who just quits the first time they have opposition will not get very far in life. Opposition is part of it. Don't forget to pray for these folks. Now Brother Howser was, I talked to him yesterday and he's doing better. He thought he'd make it tonight but he didn't. Week starts Fiesta, but tonight needless to say we had church at 730 tomorrow night. We will have so winning at 645 Friday night There is no youth activity because several of our people are going downtown to Fiesta and brother Castillo said you can do one of two things if you need a ride He asked that we try this all probably have you meet tonight afterwards for a few moments to find out if anyone needs rides He said he needs you down at the booth I mean, it'll start at five, so he'll be at the booth at five o'clock. I don't know exactly where the booth is at, because again, we are waiting to pay for the booth to find out the location of the booth. Usually it's not, I mean, it will be in the carnival area, we just don't know exactly where in the carnival area at this time, but we'll find out that. Now again, we will have Friday night, we have every other day, so we'll have Friday night, and then Sunday after church if folks wanna go down and be at the booth, and then it'll be Tuesday, Thursday and then Saturday so we have every other night at the booth and again he mentioned that he can get rides but he'd rather if we can get you folks to carpool together and head down there he said that would be a lot easier because he tries to get there and sometimes he has to leave from work just to go right from work to get there so That starts Friday night for us, and then don't forget to be back in your place Saturday morning. There's several things going on. The workday starts at 8 a.m. We're going to try to clean up a bunch of the stuff and cut the grass and clean up a bunch of debris and things. We're getting a dumpster brought in, so that starts at 8 o'clock, goes till 3 p.m., and it mentions other stuff you can bring if you have lawnmowers. weed eaters, weed wheelbarrows, or weed whackers. Now, when he mentioned that through the day, some of you didn't know what he was talking about. They have a little weed hook, which is a little half-moon thing. That's a little one. They also have the one that's on a, it's like a four-foot handle. And it's, and so again, if you, if you, you'd have to be a farmer or an older person probably to have one of those. I have a couple of them. I picked two of them up in the yard sale about three weeks, three or four weeks ago. Didn't realize he was going to want those. We'll have those but again, we'll be cleaning up on Saturday and then also bus visitation is at 930 So when is at 1045 and so again be faithful and in your place church at 945 church at 1050 after that Please stand as we sing number 439 stepping in the light Trying to walk in the steps of the Savior Trying to follow our Savior and King Shaping our lives by His blessed example Happy, how happy the songs that we bring How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior Stepping in the light Stepping in the light, how beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, led in paths of light. Pressing more closely to Him who is leading, when we are tempted to turn from the way. Trusting the arm that is strong to defend us, happy, how happy our praises each day. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, stepping in the light, stepping in the light. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, led in paths of love. Trying to walk in the steps of the Savior, upward, still upward, we'll follow our God. When we shall see Him, the King in His beauty, happy, how happy, our place at His side. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, stepping in the light, stepping in the light. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, laying paths of light. We mentioned Sunday that the offering, now normally the offering on Wednesday night goes to, we call it the other's offering, it's usually for the upcoming events and things like that, but tonight's offering, I know some of you are already planning on giving, but tonight's offering goes to pay for the booth, help pay for the booth that we have downtown. They charge us for that area, but again, as I said, it makes it really convenient for us because they can't fuss us. They can't run us off because we're a paid customer. We can pass out all the tracks we want, do everything we want right there in the booth area, and we've used it to get a lot of people safe through the year. So that's what the offering goes for. Tonight is for the booth downtown. Lord, we thank you for the booth that we have. During the past ten nights, Lord, you've blessed it and blessed the people that go and blessed those that go down there and receive Christ. Bless this offering in Jesus' name, amen. you you And then we have a young lady visiting with us tonight. Brother Mitchell, can you grab one of those business packages off the back pew there? Did you get to fill one out the other night, young man? The green card? Did you fill it out the other night when you see her? This young lady right down in front, she's visiting with us tonight. Tell us who you are, ma'am. Long ways from home. Glad to have you. Usually, before COVID, we'd have came by, shook your hands, and bothered you a little bit, but we don't do that now. If you want to fill out that green card and put that, we usually have you do it in the offering. I think you filled one out the other night. If you didn't get one, give him one tonight. But if you'll just fill that out and pass it out and give it to me or one of us later, we'd appreciate it. We just don't want to have a record of you coming. But thank you for being here. We will be singing Moment by Moment, number 415. Dying with Jesus by death reckoned mine, living with Jesus a new life divine. Looking to Jesus, still glory does shine, moment by moment, O Lord. I am the moment by moment I'm kept in his love moment by moment of life from above looking to Jesus till glory does shine moment by moment oh Lord I am the Never a trial that he is not there, never a burden that he doth not bear, never a sorrow that he does not share. Moment by moment I'm under his care. Moment by moment I'm kept in his love. Moment by moment I fly from above, looking to Jesus to glory to shine. Moment by moment, oh Lord, I am thine. Never a weakness that he does not feel. Never a sickness that he cannot heal. Moment by moment in war and will, Jesus my Savior abides with me still. Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love. Moment by moment, I've life from above. Looking to Jesus, still glory does shine. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine. Tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Tell of the angels in chorus, sang as they welcomed his birth. Glory to God in the highest, peace and good tidings to earth. Tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Fasting alone in the desert, tell of the days that he passed. How for our sins he was tempted, yet was triumphant at last. Tell of the years of his labor, tell of the sorrow he bore. He was despised and rejected, Hopeless, rejected, and poor. Tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Tell of the cross where they nailed him, dying in anguish and pain. Tell of the grave where they laid him, tell how he liveth again. Loving that story so tender, clearer than ever I see. Say let me weep while you whisper, love paid the ransom for me. Tell me the story of Jesus Write on my heart every word Tell me the story most precious Sweetest that ever was heard There are a lot of traveling groups, and we've used to have some of the tapes of the Thren family and some of the others, but I can tell you we've had several of our church families through the years. Now, like the Taylor kids, they're all grown and gone now, and some of the others we've had that the whole family sang. I'd rather hear them and families like this than those traveling groups anyway, because I know these folks. I appreciate it. Go in your Bibles to Psalm 127. Psalm 127, we've been speaking on Wednesday night in a series about character. And as Brother Nichols has said about the prophecy stuff that he's been teaching on, sometimes there will be a little bit of overlapping as far as stuff. It might be something that there was a part of it in the lesson before. Last week, if you remember, I believe it was Sunday night, we looked at a character lesson, and then tonight we're going to look at a character lesson as well. Now, again, I taught on it several years ago when I read the first book. And then when we went to youth conference last year, I had never met Jeff Owens, but he was at a youth conference last year at Texas Baptist, where we went over to a couple of Friday, Saturday youth conference. And he was there, him and his wife. And I got to meet him and he had a bunch of good books. And I always appreciate a fellow. And there's several authors that have done this through the years. They have a picture of Jesus with short hair, which is how Jesus probably really looked since he wouldn't tell us to do something he didn't do himself. But the most time you see Jesus, I mean the pictures of the kids in Sunday school, they color Jesus with the long hair. He and others like him had pictures in their Sunday school lessons and color pictures with Jesus with short hair. And I always appreciate that. So I got his stuff. I just bought one or two of the kids' books and I asked him, I said, can I run copies for the Sunday school class? And there's always a difference between someone who writes something because they want people to benefit from it and those who are writing to make money. And I don't have a problem with someone writing to make money. I can tell you writing a book probably is not easy. I've never done one. But he said sure run copies for their kids in Sunday school so they can cover those pictures So he was a big blessing to us. And again, I appreciate his books on character That's what we'll speak about tonight. The best way to teach character to children the best way to teach character to children we're gonna read Psalm chapter 127 all five verses and then we will pray and then get into the lesson tonight and Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." So again, you want to make sure and I want to make sure that whether it's our house, our family, whatever business or whatever it is we're in, we need to make sure that we keep the Lord involved because if you and I do it without the Lord, He says the labor is in vain. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman watches but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an inheritance of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." Now today, children are not near as revered, I guess, or near as wanted as it was in the past. For instance, my dad came from a family of nine brothers and sisters. My mom came from a family of six brothers and sisters. And many of you that are older, I came from a family of four boys. But today, lots of times, folks will only have one or two children because they have their plan. They lay this plan out, and they don't have any kids for the first so many years because they got their plan. They want to get all this stuff taken care of. You say, Brother Block, is it any good to plan to be a parent? It's as someone told me the other day. Kids do not come with an instruction manual. When you have a new baby, guess what you also are? You're a new father and a new mother, and that's a new job, that's a position you've never been in before. Now, the good news is the second and third and fourth, and if you do like the Taylors and the Castills and some of the rest, when you have like 10 or 12 kids, it gets easier when you've had that much practice. I used to tease the Taylors, I think, and I used to tease Suzanne, and then they adopted a couple of youngsters. They had a large family themselves and adopted two more. But again, most folks nowadays don't have There are some that have one or two, and they're usually trying, if they have their plan, I want to have a girl, and if they get a girl the first time, I want to have at least one boy, so then they try for a boy. But again, back years ago, there's lots of families had large, and they were large families. That's what he mentioned, he said, happy is a man that hath his quiver full. Again, if you go hunting, you probably don't want one or two arrows in your quiver, because if you do that, you may not come back with any game, because you might miss when you're shooting that bow and arrow. So he mentions it again. Notice what he said in verse 4. He said... He told us in verse 3 that the fruit of the womb is his reward. And he says they are a heritage of the Lord. So children are given to us by God. Now, I can tell you, when our first child was born, we waited five years to have our first child, and that wasn't, we didn't have one of those plans. We were trying to have children from the very beginning, but couldn't. We went to all kinds of specialists. As I've told you before, we had all kinds of home remedies that were given to us, and we tried a lot of stupid stuff. I mean, trying to have children that people said, well, try this. I've heard that this really works, and we tried them all. And then we went to the specialists and had the different things that they could do, and then the shots. And we was really worried because, twins runs in my wife's family, twins runs in my family. So when we were doing this, we found out with this, the stuff that we were doing that many times there's multiple births. So we thought we might have several children on the first, on the first time around. And finally, again, every month it was, it was such, it was such a tough time because you get excited, the baby, your wife might be pregnant and find out that she wasn't. And so we went through that quite a bit. And Then finally, Jacob, my wife got pregnant with Jacob when we was in California. And when we first came to San Antonio, he was the only child that we had. He was less than a year old. He was born in February. We got here, I believe, in August. But again, we wanted children. And again, at that time, my wife and I, I wanted four boys just like I grew up with. My wife wanted six or seven kids. So we decided after we had two boys and then we had our daughter, we were trying to decide whether we was going to have any more children. Our next child came along, so then it was like, all right, this is enough. No more waiting. But we have four children. And I can tell you that children are a great blessing to parents. And by the way, the grandchildren are even better than the kids, all right? And again, I always tell people, and all those grandparents joke about this, if we could have skipped the kids and just went right to the grandkids, that'd have been a lot better and a lot easier. But again, you have to go through the children stage before you get the grandchildren. And there are some of you here tonight that probably even have great-grandchildren. I'm not in that position yet, hopefully one of these days. But again, ways to teach character to our children. Now remember, they're a heritage from the Lord, so He's given them to us, and they're very special. And by the way, he wants us to, as he tells us to be wise stewards of our money, as he tells us to be wise stewards and other things, I guarantee you, he wants us to be wise stewards when it comes to our children. So again, the best way to teach character to the children. I mentioned this a while back. There was a commercial years ago that had a five-year-old son walking beside his dad and his dad was walking along. His dad kicked the can and the little boy kicked the can. And the dad walked over on the curb, and he got on the curb, and he was bouncing on the curb. As he walked on the curb, the little boy bounced on the curb. The dad picked up a stick and threw the stick, and the little boy reached down and picked up a stick and threw the stick. Dad walked over and picked up a pebble and bounced it. And some of you will have to practice to be able to bounce it. We call that skipping a rock. But if you get a good flat one and get down there correctly, you can skip that rock. Dad skipped a rock, and the little boy tried to skip a rock. And then dad pulled out his pack of cigarettes and put a cigarette in his finger, laid the pack down, and the commercial ends with the little boy reaching for the pack of cigarettes. You know why? Because he wanted to do everything just like his father. So tonight, we're going to teach on this thought. Again, parents, the best way to teach character to your children and grandparents, the same is true of us, is by personal example. Now I can tell you, when I took an auto mechanics class in high school, It was very, very difficult. Now, recently our youth director, who was a mechanic, was going to have an engine and we were going to overhaul the engine. And by the way, when you show me something, I can learn it much easier than if I just read about it. And I can tell you, reading how to overhaul an engine, I didn't grasp it, okay? I mean, that'd be like if I tried to tell you how to do something complicated and I gave you a bunch of directions. It's not near as easy to read and understand as it is to see and understand. So again, that's why we mentioned that, again, the best way to teach character to our children is by personal example. Now, notice in your Bible in Ephesians chapter 6, we'll look at the first thing. And again, by example, teach children how to have the character to love and respect their parents. Your kids will watch you and I treat our parents a certain way. And one of these days, by the way, we will be grandma and grandpa. And if we are, if the Bible is true, and it is one of these days that our grandkids will treat us the same way and our kids will treat us the same way that we treated our parents and grandparents. But notice in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 2, honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise. Now I'm a big believer that that is true to every child. I do believe that you need to honor your father and mother. I also believe that by the way that is not something that we should necessarily quit when we grow up. We still should hold in high esteem and I always if you ever heard me talk about my mom or dad you knew that for instance one time brother Taylor thanked me for something years ago and I said don't thank me Hop in your car, drive back to Sarcoxie, Missouri, and thank my dad, because that was from my dad. It wasn't something that I would have done on my own. It wasn't something that I learned by choice. It was something that dad pounded into my head. And so I told him, thank my father. And by the way, there are many, many things that parents teach to their children, be it good or be it bad. We teach to our children by our example. We want to teach them to honor fathers and mothers. They'll be critical. Now, listen to me, Grandma and Grandpa. And again, when I say that your kids, you're the parent with the child, you are still treating your parents a certain way. It ought to be that you still honor them, that you still respect them, that you still speak very highly of them, that you still pray for them. And by the way, it is always great at Christmas and Easter and Christmas and Thanksgiving. My kids always look forward to going back home. to grandma and grandpa's place because grandma and grandpa's place was I mean to see all the cousins and all the relatives and then then again even as a child growing up I enjoyed going to my grandma and grandpa's because we would sit and listen to stories about our parents each of the brothers or sisters would sit there and tell about you remember when you did this and then sometimes we would think and you spanked us the other day for for that and you did that in the past because my dad did some really ornery things when he was a kid No wonder he had children. By the way, he reaped what he sowed in his sons. But the truth is, we learn by example. So teach your children to honor mom and dad. And by the way, when they get old and they may get senile, they may not, as we said, they may lose some of their filters. They may not be as, I mean, they may not have quite as much patience as they should have had. We still want to make sure that we are treating grandma and grandpa and mom and dad correctly. The second thing we want to teach by example, and this is something that my dad did very, very well, and I appreciate this, teach your kids by example to pay their bills on time. Now, we often read in Romans where it says, oh, no man, anything. And again, my dad worked very hard to pay the bills as a farmer. Now, he wasn't a farmer full time. at the early stages of my life. He used to work at a chemical company, and he made pretty good money at the chemical company. But then he realized that he was missing because many times he'd work the graveyard shift. So he was working at night, he was sleeping all day, and then he'd get up and go back to work the next night. So he had very little time with those kids. Now, I remember years later, one of the farmers told me, he said, the story that goes around is Cecil Block stopped his public job so he could raise his kids and teach him to be men. That was what the other farmers and the other men in the area said about my father. And by the way, that's what he did. He, where he quit the public job. And I'm not telling you to quit your public job tonight, but my dad quit the public job where he's making a pretty good living. And then he just went full-time farmer. And I can tell you, farmers, typically a farmer's life is one of feast and famine. When the prices are high, they do well. But the law of supply and demand is always this, and I always tell people, when the pig prices, and my dad was a hog farmer, we had cows as well, but when the pig prices go high, lots of folks go, wow, there's a lot of money in pigs, let's buy some pigs. So a bunch of folks buy pigs, so now there's a lot of pigs. Because all these folks who had never raised pigs start raising pigs. Now there's a lot of pigs, the demand is the same as it was before, but there's a lot more pigs, so the price goes down. And when the price goes down, the guy who was a full-time farmer, he's hurting because the price is low. That other guy that just got in for a little while, he decides, wow, this isn't as good a business. So he quits. So now there's not very many pigs again. So the price goes back. And that's how it was. The price would go up and down. Sometimes it's based on the rain and the weather. But again, understand, my dad did not make a lot of money at that time. But he still taught us to pay our bills. I don't know how many times I would see him set up at night. He had a desk. He'd write the bills out. He'd put them on the desk because he would go out to work. and mom would go put them in the mailbox and put the flag up. But again, understand, dad taught us to pay our bills. He always taught us if you don't have money to buy it, then don't buy it. When I first, now, I don't know how many times as a kid I would go to my father and say, I really want this. You know what he would always ask me? You got the money to buy it? And the answer usually was, no. And he said, well, I guess you're not going to get it then, are you? Now, later on, I actually started working. And now, how many of you remember when you used to get, some of us older folks, we used to get money for picking up pop bottles along the road? Woo! I mean, I was an entrepreneur. I mean, I went out and picked up. Now, the little ones, the regular pop bottles, I think they were $0.08 a piece. If you got the bigger ones, the big three liters, or they were, maybe they was even just a liter, but the bigger glass ones, they were a few cents more than that. And I don't know how many pop bottles I've picked up through the years, but I've, now, not only was it a matter of making a few bucks, but it probably also helped keep the weight down, because we had to walk, I mean, we walked up and down those country roads to find pop bottles. Now you'd have to do aluminum cans, there's hardly any pop bottles, and aluminum cans don't pay as well as the pop bottles, but we used to pick up pop bottles. And we used to pick up walnuts. Now, when I say walnuts, I'm not talking about the English walnuts and stuff, I'm talking about the old black walnuts, and some of you know what those are. They're very, very good, but you have to want them very badly because you have to break them with a hammer on a piece of cement because they're very hard to break open. And then the meat in there is very, very hard to get out. You have to get one of those little metal things and pick it out. And by that time, you've already starved to death. And so you decide, you know, I don't want to pick one. But we used to pick those walnuts up. We could go around and pick them up. and we would take them and we would sell them. Once a year when the walnuts fell, some guy would come in at the feed store, set up a little thing, they would shell them. We didn't get paid for the price that they weighed when they still had the hole on them. They would send them through a machine, it would take the hole off and then take them down and put them in a bag and we'd get paid for the bag of walnuts. Back then we would get $6, maybe $7 for a 50-pound bag. My brother the other day said, you know how much they're giving for walnuts now? And I said, how much? He said, $22 a bag. Wow, times have changed. But we used to pick up a lot of walnuts to make some money. My dad taught us, you want something? Guess what? You can get it. You just have to earn some money. Just have to go out and work. My dad taught us to pay the bills. Now again, it is important. Most of you know that I live out in the country. I wanted to live on a farm. I was hoping the Lord would allow me to have work at the church which I felt like was God's calling in my life but still be a farmer like like my dad because that was he was one of my heroes and I wanted that I also wanted to raise my kids up out in the country where they could shoot BB guns and climb on the vines and yell and not get in trouble and things like that and have some chores to do so in order to do that my sons and I worked we worked we had the church work that we did and back then I worked a lot more hours for the church than I do today today I'm old and lazy so I don't have to the church doesn't doesn't require near as many hours back then with the with the ballgames and all the other stuff that we had. Sometimes I worked 40, 50, 60, 70 hours. Always 40, usually 50 or 60 hours a week. We had ballgames on Monday night, ballgames on Tuesday night, church on Wednesday night, so went on Thursday night. Friday night we had youth activity and Saturday was so winning. And so again, it was a busy, busy week. But My boys and I we wanted the farm so we worked a second job so that we could afford the farm and by the way That came from my dad what he what? Philosophy they used to give us was if you want something then work hard and you can get it That's one of the reasons I resent people to steal stuff Because when they steal something from you, they take something that you probably don't have the money to buy again, you worked hard to get it, they take it, they pawn it, they sell it for a third or fourth or tenth of what it's worth just because they're too late. And honestly, I've said this before, some thieves work, if they worked as hard at a job as they do at stealing, they could make a pretty good living because some of them work pretty hard to steal. But again, Dad taught us, if you want something, go out and work for it. Go out and earn it. And we did. There was many times that I'd say, can I get this? And he'd say, do you really need it? Now, I always hated when he said that, because I didn't usually need it, but I wanted it. And there's a difference. My dad taught me there's a difference between wanting it and needing it. Now, there's a lot of things that I thought I really needed. But I realize now, and also I can tell you this, parents, if your kids, whether it's earning it from an allowance, or earning it from chores around the house, or earning it some other way, if they buy it with their own money, they will treat it completely differently than they would treat it if you pay for it. When I drove my dad's car, I didn't drive it near as carefully as I did when I had my own car, because when I'm driving my car, I do not want to hit those ruts, and I don't want to mess up the front end alignment. I don't want to have to buy another tire, because that's coming out of my pocket. So again, teach the kids to work and to pay their bills on time. Number three, go to Ephesians chapter 5. We'll look at two verses there, one in verse 22 and one in verse 25. By example, teach children to have character, to be a good spouse. Now I can tell you if I was as good a husband as my dad was to my mom, I'd be a good husband. He was a very good example. We didn't have any sisters, but if we'd had any sisters and they was a good wife as my mom was a wife, they'd have made someone a great wife someday. But again, in Ephesians chapter 5, notice verse 25. Husbands, love your wives. So that's what the boys should see from you, Dad. They should see that you love your wife. As much as the Bible says even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Now listen to me, Christ loved the church so much that he gave his life. So you and I should love our wives as husbands. We should love our wives more than we love anyone else other than the Lord himself. And I often say this, no wife minds coming in second. to the Lord. Now she doesn't want to come in second to some other person. She doesn't want to come in second to a job. She does not want to come in second to hunting or fishing or something or hanging out with the boys. She doesn't mind coming in second to the Lord. And by the way, wives, a husband doesn't mind coming in second to the Lord. He doesn't want to come in second to something else, to some hobby or some friends. Again, the Lord should always be first. But husbands, love your wives. Then he tells us in verse 22, wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord. If you wonder whether the best way for kids to learn for husbands, for boys to learn to love their wives and for girls to learn to be submissive to their husbands, it is at home by example, by watching someone else do it. I've often said, when my dad came home, now sometimes I did not look forward to his return. Because if I was in trouble, I had been sent to my room till dad came home. And I always could hear the truck pulling the driveway. I could hear him open up the door. I could picture, because he did the same thing every day. He reached in and picked out his lunchbox. And then he slammed the door. He came in. I could actually hear his footsteps. But in my mind, I could hear his footsteps. It took him a certain distance to get to the door. He opened up the door. I'd hear a wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. then the next thing I know the door would open and dad would would be there to discipline me now I got my good fair share of spankings all right now we can joke about it today it was not funny back then and my dad was not one of those dads I said all right I mean I'm gonna I'm gonna hit my shoe you just yell like I'm hitting you I've had parents tell me that's what I do because my wife said that I need to spank the kids and so I had I told the kid you holler and the dad hits his shoe with the with the paddle and the kids you know I mean and he's not even getting spanked I when I yelled it was because I really was getting spanked All right And the bad thing was I could cry for a little bit and then he would say now you stop that crying or you're gonna get another spanking So he spanked me till I cried then he spanked me if I didn't stop crying I mean kind of confused as a kid. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to cry or not to cry but again But my dad taught me, again, by example, how to treat mom, because he treated mom correctly, taught me how to treat my wife. I've often said this, moms and dads, again, kids learn a lot from us, whether it's good or bad, and they will learn how to love husband or wife, treat their spouse, by your example and by mine. ask yourself husband or wife do i remember my spouse's birthday do i remember the anniversaries now i sound guys are very helpful they put stuff up on the bulletin board so if you forgot husbands or wives it's right up there okay just pay attention uh it's right there they tell you when your anniversary is uh because some of us don't have the exact we don't have the easy day like april fools like someone else does okay we don't have that privilege but again We want to make sure that we remember spouses, birthdays, anniversaries. We want to make sure that we show love, respect, and this is the tough one sometimes, and patience toward our spouse. Now again, it is always easier to be patient toward strangers. It is not always easy to be patient toward the ones we love, the ones we're close to. So it's a lot easier for us to blow up at home than it is to blow up out there. So, again, make sure that you and I treat mom, treat dad, we treat husband and wife correctly because the kids are watching. By the way, when you're even kissing a nugget and the kids go, ooh, I mean, the kids, by the way, what they're learning is husbands and wives like to kiss. It's okay for a husband and wife to show affection. Now, when I was in California, my preacher was a little bit different. One time, Karen, she was a kindergarten teacher, I think, and I was teaching math and some other stuff. So she came down to my classroom where I was at between one of my breaks, and she sat on my lap, and we was talking, and the preacher walked by, and he said, I need to see you. And he said, please don't do that at school. And I thought, what? But I wasn't allowed to show public affection like that. So I wasn't allowed to do that at school because he was old-fashioned. He just thought that was the stuff that should be done behind closed doors. But I can tell you my mom and dad didn't. Well, they did it behind closed doors, always, okay? I mean, so I always thought it was good that my dad liked to kiss mom and liked to hug mom, and mom liked to be hugged and kissed again. Make sure that your kids see that. They learn by example. The next thing that we ought to teach the kids by example, We need to teach them to be clean. Now, I'm not talking about just physical cleanness. I'll cover several things, but again, I've told you, I've quoted this many times to you. My dad used to say this, we might be poor, but we don't have to be what? We don't have to be dirty. Now, we lived on a farm. We didn't have a lot of money, but again, we had wells. Now, most people today do not have their own wells, so we had our own wells, and all it cost was the electric money to turn the motor to make the water come out. Now, I can tell you as kids, we took baths together. We had a bathtub. We didn't even have a shower at that time. we would have to sit, when we were little, one would sit in front of the other. And we didn't always like to sit in the front. You wanted to sit in the front in the sense that you got the water when it came out. But after a little while, you got all the dirty water that he was washing off in the back, all the dirt was coming to you. So we had to sit there. And I always thought, how are we actually getting clean when we're sitting in somebody's dirty water? And we couldn't run the bathtub very full because that hot water heater only held so much water, and we still had more baths to come. Later my brother put a shower down in the basement so he could take showers. But again, I've shared many a bathtub with the brother behind me or me in front of him. But again, Dad and Mom taught us to be clean. My mom made all my shirts. I didn't have store-bought shirts except once a year. Mom made them all different colors but the same pattern. Sometimes I got teased at school for that. And again, it's one of those things that I look back now and I'm glad that I never cared about name brands. If you say, Brother Block, what's the name brand on your suit? I don't know. Let me see. I don't know, nor do I care. Okay? I don't know what brand my pants are. I don't know what brand my boots or my shoes are. If they fit me, I'm excited. Okay? I mean, I don't get... too many things bother me. Now, my brother, you mess with his hat, he'd spend a lot of time messing with that hat. He'd get his hair just right, and then he'd get his hat just right, and he'd stand there looking in the mirror, and he'd bend it just right. So if you want to mess with him, you come mess up my hair. You can just mess with my hair. I don't really care. I mean, it doesn't bother me one bit. But that came from growing up where, you know what, didn't bother me. We didn't have a lot. So I'm thankful for whatever I have. I mean, I'm thankful that I had clothes to wear. And I had hand-me-downs. Most kids nowadays do not know what a hand-me-down even is. They don't even know the definition. I always tell people it was unfair. My oldest brother would wear it. My next brother would wear it. Then I'd wear it. By the time I wore it, they would also wear it. My younger brother got new clothes. And so I always resented him because he got the new clothes and I had to wear from the third brother. Only way my mom could keep up with our t-shirts and our underwear, she put a little marker. She had one of those permanent markers. On the back of our shirt, she'd put either one, two, three, or four. And that way we'd know, because all of us wore about the same size. That's the only way she could keep track. Otherwise, one kid would get all the t-shirts or all the underwear, and someone else would be without. But we didn't have a lot, but we was always clean. Mom made sure our clothes were clean. My mom always kept the house clean. Again, by the way, kept the yard clean. By the way, you got to keep your mouth clean. I don't know how many, I got my mouth washed out with soap a few times. Now I can tell you lava soap tastes awful. Now, on your body it does pretty good. In your mouth, by the way, I don't think that's, probably that'll put a warning on the side, you know, not to be used in your mouth. I mean, maybe that would have helped my mother and my father, but they, and one time my aunt told me, she said, you keep having that dirty mouth, because we lived on the farm, she said, I'm gonna go out and get some of that cow manure. If you're gonna be talking like that, I'm gonna put some of that, I'm gonna put that in your mouth. Now I can tell you, I've never eaten poop willingly, okay? don't so I don't so I mean it wasn't hard that day I cleaned up my mouth because I did not want to have to and you said did she mean it of course she meant it that's why people didn't run away back then if I don't run if I don't run away once one of my aunts and uncles they just spanked me and took me back home I didn't have any place to go I didn't have you wanted to shelter me I didn't have anyone that was going to fill soil I'm so feel so bad about that. I mean, I can't believe they abused you like that. No, they didn't abuse me. They had done the same thing my parents were done. And I got it when I got back home. I got spanked by my aunts and uncles and I got spanked at home. My neighbors might have even spanked me. I don't know. Never tried it. But again, I understand we need to teach them to again, dress clean. that keep the house clean, the car clean, the yard clean, the conversation. Notice what James chapter 3 says. James makes it very clear that our mouth should be clean. James chapter 3 verse 10 says, He said that's what happens, but here's what he then says, He said that's how it is, but that's not how it's supposed to be. you and I are not supposed to have a dirty mouth. We're supposed to keep our mouth clean. The next thing, by example, teach your children to have character to serve God. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 1 says, Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. But in 1 Corinthians he makes this statement, 1 Corinthians 11 he says this, Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. So what Paul said then is, you know what? You guys may have trouble following Christ. Just follow me and I'm going to follow Christ. So when follow me, guess what they were doing? They were following Christ. Parents, if we are following the Lord and our kids are following us, guess what they're ultimately doing? following the Lord again we want to teach our kids by example how to live a godly life be godly parents be faithful to church Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of some is but exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approaching none of us have any doubt that the rapture is coming soon so if anything we ought not be in church less now we should be in church more now because he tells us to go more often when we see the day approaching. Not only that, we should teach our kids to be soul winners. My dad was my bus driver. My dad took us visiting and my mom would drive us visiting. Again, my parents did not send me to church. My parents took me to church. Now, I appreciate if you can't make it to church to get your... get your kids a ride to church. I appreciate the bus parents at least let their children come to church even though they don't come. But I can tell you it's a lot better for your kids if you come with them and you show them the way. Again, we should make sure that we bring the kids to church. Be a giver by the way as well. Proverbs chapter 31 verse 20 and speaking about the the the correct lady the Proverbs 31 lady mentions this she stretched out her hand to the poor yea she reaches forth her hands to the needy now this is something that my parents taught me and I didn't even realize at the time they were teaching me because it wasn't something mama that's around talked about but my dad was a giver not only at church But he did stuff for other people all the time and lots of times didn't charge him. Many times it's because they couldn't afford anything. Many times it was just a thank you Cecil. I mean, now the good news is as boys reap benefits later on, my brother's kids still hunt at some places. They get to go deer hunting and have shot some big deer on some property where dad used to fix the old lady's, I mean, clean her gutter or fix her roof or do something else. And so she knew that that was Cecil Block's grandson. So his grandkids have reaped benefits from his hard work and he's not even alive today. But Aaron, my brother's son, still gets to hunt in some places where when Dad was young, Dad did some work for them. Again, teach them to be givers. Giver of food, giver of clothes, giver of time, giver of self. By the way, Dad, how you treat and Mom, how you treat the folks at church and the widows and the neighbors is very, very important. There actually used to be a thing called, I mean, your neighbors. I mean, by the way, when something happened, your neighbors, you actually knew your neighbors. It's hard today to know your neighbors because people live on such a rushing schedule that sometimes we don't get to know our neighbors very well. But back then, our neighbors knew us. And by the way, if we left for some reason, they'd keep an eye on the property. Sometimes they'd come over and do the chores or pick up. We didn't have to have relatives or friends do it. Our neighbors did, because we just called that being neighborly. They had a term for it because it had a reason. Again, we want to teach our young people, by example, to have enough character to serve God and to be kind. The next thing, Proverbs 19 in your Bibles. The reason I'm speaking quickly is I have several points and not a lot of time. His brother Nichols rule is we start at 730 and we say amen at 830 so I must hurry. By example we must teach the kids to have character to work hard. Proverbs 19.15 makes this statement, slothless casteth into a deep sleep and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. Again, one of the many lessons my dad taught me. Now, I failed in a lot of things with my children. One of the things I did not fail in was teaching my children to work. I taught my children to work. I don't know how many times my kids have said later, Dad, I don't know why people have such a hard time keeping a job. They said, this is easy. And I said, well, it's easy compared to what you used to do because you used to work your rear. I mean, you used to work. They didn't just work five days a week. They worked five days a week. And then they work Saturday as well. The only day my kids got off was usually Sunday and we didn't do stuff on Sunday. So they think they thank God for church and Sunday because they worked the other days. But again, my dad taught me to work again. Parents, you need to work hard. By the way, your kids are watching. So if you if you're not sick, don't tell your boss you're sick. Your kids see that. I don't know how many times, I remember it was funny years ago, we had a student that called in sick. They were sick and then I went now, some of you, most of you don't even remember it, we had Mercado Mall down here and there was a mall there and I walked into the mall and there was a video game in there and I didn't used to go to the mall very often for stuff but I went to get something and I saw some kid ducked down behind the video machine. I walked in and said, Hi, Oscar. Some of you remember Oscar. We called him Big O, and I said, must be feeling better now. I mean, because he called in sick, but he was at the, apparently he got, now, you know, I used to be like that. I would want to be sick. I told my mom and dad, I don't feel good. My mom and dad would say, no problem. You just stay there, and as soon as I get the rest of the kids off to school, we'll take you in to the doctor and get you a shot. Our doctor, penicillin cured everything. It didn't matter what you had, it was always a penicillin shot. That's, I got a lot. So now listen to me, if it was get a shot or go to school, get a shot or go to school, I went to school. So I got, I mean, I recovered quickly and I'd get dressed and go with the rest of the kids and we had to do it because the bus stopped at that corner for just a couple of seconds. If you didn't come out the door, they pulled away and it's not fun chasing the bus down the country road. But again, Teach your kids to work hard. Teach them by your example. Teach them to obey their masters. Colossians chapter 3 verse 22 says servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. Not with eye service as men pleases, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. By the way, we ought to work hard whether the boss is watching or whether he's not watching. Brother Vineyard used to say this all the time to us preacher boys in Bible college. Do not witness while on the job. Because he said when you're doing that, you are stealing from your employer. Now, we're in Bible college, we're going to school to be preachers, and he's telling us not to witness on the job. Here's what he said, he said, your boss is paying you to work, not to witness. Now, by the way, at Liberty Baptist Church, I get paid to witness, so yay, now I can do that. But back then, I was working at a welding company, and they wasn't paying me to witness, they were paying me to weld. Again, so he used to say, if a boss pays you for eight hours work, you make sure you give him eight hours of work. Now, you can witness at break time, you can witness before work, you can witness after work, If you can work and witness at the same time and not distract from your work, witness while you're working. But by the way, the boss is paying you to work, so we need to set the example of working. By the way, we should be thankful if we have a job. Now today, I'm amazed, I don't remember what the count was, I heard them say today there was 52 million or so many jobs or whatever it was, million jobs, and no one to fill those jobs. That's because there's a lot of people that don't want to work. I don't have very much mercy for people who can't afford stuff. I like to help people, and you know my heart. You've seen me. I've helped a lot of people through the years, but sometimes I'm wondering. I said to myself, I just gave you money. I work one full-time job, a couple part-time jobs, and then I'm giving you money, and you're not working any jobs? Now, I can tell you, even fast food joints today are paying more than minimum wage. Last fast food offer I saw was like $12 or $13 an hour to work at Taco Bell, McDonald's, and minimum wage is only eight something. It is very seldom that fast food pays above minimum wage, but they are now because they can't get enough employees. When I went to McDonald's, I tried to go inside one day, and I said, why aren't you opening here? They said, we can't get enough employees. We can't open up inside. We just have to drive through. Again, plenty of work out there. Teach the kids by example to work hard. Next, and I must hurry on, teach the kids by example to be kind. He mentions in his book, today the world is starved for kindness. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32 says, and be a kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. The world is really hungry for kindness. There's not very much kindness in the world. The world is a harsh place. The reason suicides are so high and the reason there's so many children that when they see people talk to them, they either sit on the internet or they have it at school, they don't even want to go to school because, I mean, some of them get stomach issues and they're sick and they have all kinds of complications because people are mean. And when I say mean, I don't mean just mean once, I mean mean, there are some folks, their whole life is mean, they're just mean. And by the way, they enjoy being mean. Now I can tell you, there was a time or two I was mean too. But my dad had a remedy for that. When he caught me being mean, he found that you can correct it. There's a little switch right below my belt that if you hit it hard enough, it resets mean, okay? And it makes you be kind. Now there were times that I did apologize. My dad would say, tell your brother you're sorry. And I would look at my brother and I'd say, you're sorry. And then it would get me smacked and then I would have to say it correctly. But again, it was worth it every once in a while just to say it that way. And I still got smacked, but it was worth it because I really wasn't sorry. But again, the world's full of meanness. So teach your children, teach your kids to be kind. We don't need to be people. Again, there are a lot of people out there that are hurting. A lot of people are looking for a church or looking for people that are helpful, that are kind, that care. When he wrote the book, he said that his policy was that if a church member showed up at the place that him and the family was eating after service, he would pay for their meal. He said one night, he purchased 24 meals. He said it was expensive, then he put in his book, but worth it, because he said the very next week, His teenage son, who again, working a job, making some money for himself, he said he found out that he went and put $100 on one of the boys' school bill. I mean, anonymously, he didn't tell anyone about it, but went and put $100, because he saw his dad being kind to people, and he wanted to be just like his father. You know what that's called? That's called being a good example. And the last thing, and I'm done, teach the kids by example, the character to learn. Now when I say learn, they all see you reading, they all see you studying, especially the Word of God. they ought to see you listening to again if you're sick at home and you can't come to church they ought to they ought to see you watching the church on the internet that's one of the things i'm not big on a lot of stuff on the internet but the internet has some real benefits and one of them is that you can watch a church service a few hours i mean either watch it live while it's going on you can even watch it the Bible. But reading the Bible is one of them they ought to catch those doing, his parents and his grandparents. But again, make sure that we give by example. We teach them that we are always learning. I don't care how old you are. We say old dogs can't learn new tricks, but I can tell you, you can learn. Now, it's harder for me to learn scripture today than it was when I was a teenager, but I can still learn it. I just have to work at it harder. Again, we should always be learning. He mentioned that he had two parakeets. He called them Pete and Repeat. He said, they learned to mimic the telephone ringing. because they was out by the phone and they learned it. He said, there's many a time he walked out and picked up the telephone and said, hello. And he realized it was just the stupid birds. And he said, what he realized was, because they had heard it so often, they could mimic it. By the way, whether you and I know it or not, our children are trying to be like us. And by the way, we want to make sure, I remember one time one of my sons said, well, dad, I learned a tough lesson today. I said, what? He said, I got a call from the teacher because one of my children said a bad word at school. I said, Hmm. He said, I know, Dad. He said, I'm working on it. But I said, because I asked him, where did he learn that from? And again, it wasn't TV. It was from his mouth. And by the way, parents, our children will repeat what we say. By the way, it could be cuss words. It could be criticism. It could be something else. Because our kids are like those two parakeets. They are repeat and repeat. We want to be careful. By the way, we want them to repeat stuff, but we want to make sure it's something that's worth repeating. Father, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your love. Thank you that we can come in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And I pray, Lord, tonight that you'd help each of us, whether we're parents, grandparents, or kids, that we'd realize that people are always watching us.