Some of you are sitting so far back I can barely see you. So this is the coolest pulpit I've ever seen. If somebody starts dozing off, I can come right to them, can't I? Take your Bibles, would you, and go with me to Proverbs 11. Proverbs chapter 11. We talked about having, in the couple's banquet last night, we talked about, oh, let's let them tell you. What did we talk about last night? You that were here. Yes, sir, Josh. Having a joy-filled marriage, yes. And the Bible talks about that your joy may be Full, not empty. That your joy might be full. And so there's a contrast between full and empty, isn't there? There's a contrast between good and evil. Up in Maine, how many of you have ever been to Maine? Up in Maine, they drink tonic. That's called, I thought that was for your hair. But they call soda tonic or pop, they call tonic. But they do something else that's kind of strange. They say, wow, that meal was wicked good. And I'm like, wicked? You mean there's some people that didn't like it? And there's some people that liked it? I wanna show you a verse in the Bible, Proverbs 11 one. where there's a contrast, where it says, a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight. I wanna speak on balance, finding balance in your life and your marriage. For you that are married, There has to be a balance in your marriage. You young people, there needs to be a balance in your young life. Many of you have given your life to the Lord at a young age, and there's gonna be a lot of temptations to take you to the bad side. You see that? The bad side's gonna pull you down. The Bible says, but the thief cometh not but to steal, to kill, and to what? Destroy. If he can't take you to hell with him, he wants you to be a miserable Christian. So you've got to maintain a balance in your Christian life. And the Bible gives much about this. There's such a thing as day and night. How about seed time and harvest? Don't you wish you could just go out and say, garden up here? Doesn't work that way. You've got to dig up the soil, you've got to plant the seed, you've got to nurture it, you've got to pull the weeds. There's a lot involved, but oh, what a blessing it is when you can take that juicy tomato with your salt and eat it right there. Just wipe it off and just eat it. You wouldn't want to do that, would you? Seed time and harvest. Here's another one, earth is just the right distance from the sun. I'm glad that, that's good, isn't it? The perfect mix is nitrogen and oxygen. Let's take our bodies, it's better to have two arms than just one. Would you agree? Two legs instead of just one, two ears, two eyes. two nostrils, two kidneys. All these things balance out the body and it takes care of you. Your body is the Lord's when you're saved. Now I want you to look closely, if you would, there in Proverbs 11. Would you go up to verse three? Watch the balance here. The integrity of the upright shall guide them. integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors shall what? So one will guide you, the other one will destroy you. Do you realize how many people never thought it through? Somebody was given drugs, they took them and before long they're staggering through town, falling down because of drugs. I've never seen that in the city here. Yeah. Drunk person laid out on the ground if he'd never taken the drink. He would never have been a drunk That's what my dad said to me Daniel if you never take a drink You'll never be a drunk and how important is that be careful because somebody is Waiting to attack you. It's either the world or your own flesh. Oh, I've got to have this and That can put you in the hospital. That can put you in the grave. And so we have to be very careful. We have to walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as what? Wise. You know what walking the straight and narrow is? It's a dog walking on a, it's a cat walking on a fence with bulldogs on either side, trying to get it. That cat, every step is gonna have to be perfect, right? The steps of a good man are ordered by who, you? No, they're ordered by the Lord. So do you see the balance and the contrast between the two? I want you to notice also, go with me if you would, to verse nine. Hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor Wow a Hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor. I knew of a deacon one of the better men of the church pastor in a church I preached in years ago and I came for a revival and this man who was a deacon in the church, his neighbors had an order of protection against him. Can you imagine? And in that revival, he got so convicted about being such a horrible neighbor that he went over to their house and he didn't even get a chance to knock on the door. That guy opened up the door, his neighbor opened up the door and said, I've got an order of protection against you. I'm calling the police right now. Get out of here. He said, I am so sorry that I have been a bad testimony to you and that you know I go to the church down here. And I want to ask your forgiveness. Would you please forgive me? The guy said, get out of here. So you know what he did? You know, a neighborhood knows a lot about each other. He went to every neighbor to confess to them that he had sinned against his neighbor and said, you know I go to the church down here. What he was saying was, I've been a hypocrite. And I've not been right with God. Did you know some of the people in that neighborhood came to the meeting before the week was over? It was a four-day meeting turned into a 10-day meeting. It was wonderful. But his life had become imbalanced. And he became a hypocrite. What does it say? A hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge shall the just be what? The just shall be delivered. Also look with me there at verse 14, where no counsel is. The people what? The fall. Now I'm gonna say something that's gonna really upset you young people. How many young people do we have? Would you raise your hand? I'm gonna really upset you. Would you raise your hand? You're gonna really get mad at me. If you don't take counsel, you will mess up your life. And I want to tell you, there's nobody on earth that loves you more than your family. Mom and dad love you. You're not perfect, but neither are they. Sometimes they're a little imbalanced. Just like children can get imbalanced, adults can get imbalanced. An evangelist can get imbalanced. So what do I need? What's the word that we have here? Counsel. I need counsel. My wife counsels me. Amen. I didn't hear any ladies going, amen. A good wife will counsel her husband. You know, Paul told the church at Galatia, here he's talking that he's giving the church at Galatia counsel. And here's what he said, it'd be like me coming to Bible Baptist church and I say, I wanna give you some counsel. And Paul says to the church at Galatia, am I your enemy because I tell you the truth? Are you mad at me? Because I'm going to tell you the good and the right way. I don't think there's a parent here that would say, go out and do whatever you want. I don't care. That's an imbalance. Right? The truth is your parents have walked that road already. They know where the pitfalls are. They know where the mines are. And they want to keep you from becoming imbalanced and messing up your life. So where there is no counsel, The people fall. But with the multitude of counselors, there is what? You're going to be safe. They know the ropes. The counselors know the ropes. They know which way to go, what to avoid, what to stay away from. And when, how many of you saw that tightrope walker in the news recently? He went, I can't remember where it was. I can't remember where it was, but it was, he walked from one building to another skyscraper. And I'm going, huh, huh, huh, oh, oh. And then he's out there doing tricks. And I thought, wow, he had a balanced life right then. I don't know if it was all in his intellect. They say, well, I prayed before I went, you know, so God's gonna protect me. Oh, really? Okay, let's see how you do. There's a guy named Walden, and he's a tightrope walker, and he knows the Lord as his savior, and he said, I pray before I go on every walk. I was like, wow, I'm sure he has the Lord's attention, right? Okay. Now, I want you to take your Bibles and go to the book of Ecclesiastes. We're talking about balance, balance in the Christian life, balance in your marriage. We're gonna get a little more specific as we move along here. I want you to notice in chapter three, verse one, to everything there is a what? A season and a time to every purpose under heaven. So how many of you were born? Oh good, some were born a while ago, amen, and some of you are younger, right. A time to what? What? Time to be born and a time to die. To plant and time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up. Take that one time to kill. We had a dog named Muffin and she got to the place where she couldn't walk and it was just awful. And so we had to put her down. We did her a favor. And she was no longer in pain anymore. I think that's just and that's right. So there are times that we have to do that. Now if you have a mouse in the house, Come here so I can take you outside. I never heard anybody say that to them, but they put out some eating material that they can enjoy. Balance. There's a time, notice there's a time to break down and a time to build up. The old shed in the backyard has to go, amen? A time to break down, a time to build up, a time to weep, yes? The Bible says weep with them that weep and rejoice with them that rejoice, right? Time to laugh. Amen. It takes less muscles to laugh than it does to frown. Let's do a test. You ready? Doesn't that feel good? Now go the other way. It takes more muscle, so less muscle to smile. Isn't that something? There's a time to laugh. There's a time to mourn. You rejoice with them that rejoice. You weep with them that weep. When people are mourning and going through the loss of a loved one or whatever it may be, you're there to mourn with them. And I don't think that all of us understand what other people are going through, but I'll tell you what, a nice touch, a hug, or I'm sorry, what you're going through, and I don't understand what you're going through because it's never happened to me. But we're here for you. You see, we're here for you. And that's a balance. You're loving them when they're going through it. There's a time to dance. Oh, David danced before the Lord one time. A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace, a time to refrain from embracing. A time to get and a time to lose. Did you ever have any losses? I had a man tell me he lost 40,000 in the stock market. I felt bad for him. But as he was hanging on, I think he got a lot of it back. But there's a time to lose. There's a time to keep. There's a time to cast away some things we shouldn't have. Some things we need to get rid of, right? Yes, a time to rend and a time to sow. You rip up a rag because you don't need it anymore just for dusting or whatever, but there's a time you sew it to keep it nice, a time to keep silent. Have you ever spoken when you shouldn't have? I know that very well. Sometimes I say I've got a big mouth. It's not really funny, it's kind of crazy, but my wife will start talking to me. Now you husbands and wives, you understand this. My wife will start talking to me. And I'll know what she's saying. And I know what she's saying. So I finish what she was saying. Then she goes, no, that's not what I was saying. How many of you men been guilty of that? Yes, now you need to work on that, okay? Let her finish talking. You don't know everything. I don't know everything, right? But that's a good balance. Let her finish what she was saying, because usually when I start, when I interrupt her, To tell her what she was saying, it wasn't what she was saying. So it's better just to wait and to listen. Have good ears. Very important balance right there. Then a time to love and a time to hate. Oh, really? There's a time to hate? How many of you hate sin that is destroying somebody? Husbands and wives go through struggles, and every wife hates it when her husband is not being victorious. She hates it, and she should. Suppose somebody came up and started flirting with your wife, man. Would you say, well, you know, those things do happen. No, you just pull the gun and it's over. No, I'm just kidding. No one's gonna be flirting with my wife, amen. She carries a brick in her purse, amen. What I'm saying is that there has to be a balance. There has to be a balance. There's gonna be war. Our nation's gone to war in the past, hasn't it? Some of you served in our military. And there comes a time when there has to be strength. If somebody comes to your house at three o'clock in the morning, knocks on the door, and they say, we just would hope you'd stay asleep, but we've come to rob you. Well, that's not happening. Right? So there's a time to defend your family. There's a time to defend your property. And sometimes you have to do that. I heard of a, what was a, she was about a 90-year-old woman. Somebody broke into her house and And she had a son, an older son, a son younger of course, but she had a son in the house that had some problems. And this person was going through trying to find money and stuff. So she just went into, she was in a wheelchair. And she wheeled herself into the bedroom and grabbed a gun. And she came out, and this guy was beating up on her too while he was doing these things. He didn't know when he was looking around for stuff that she slipped in there and got her gun. She just took him out. It would have been her or him. There's a time to defend yourself, self-defense. And so these things are very important, a time to keep silent, a time to speak. A time of war and a time of peace. Thank you, Lord, for the peace that we've experienced. Amen? I'm convinced that in order to love, there's a time to hate. Do you love your church? Then you would hate any false doctrine that would try to destroy it. Yep. Amen. And the same goes with our family and with our spouse. So this reveals that God is the God of balance. Now, have you ever seen imbalances? Let's talk about some of the things that we've seen. Imbalance. can really mess up your car if your tire is imbalanced. How many of you ever had that happen to you and you're just shaking going down the road? It's gotta be balanced. A checkbook has to be balanced, right? They say when your outgo is greater than your income, that's your downfall, right? So there's gotta be a balance with your checkbook. Running or walking, there has to be balance. Now let's talk about self-will. I think I had someone mentioning to me about, I think it was at the singles meeting, something about people are trying to build their self-esteem, their self-will. Did you know that self-will is the greatest enemy to a balanced marriage? Because if the husband or the wife becomes selfish, it's going to cause an imbalance. And it's going to hurt that marriage. And many homes have been broken because of self-will. And that's sad. Very sad when that happens. Preoccupation with work or hobbies or friends or TV or computer. Preoccupation with the wrong thing. can be an imbalance also. We were talking with a young lady. She's now in her 40s, but when she was a kid, her father was hooked on pornography. She said, I used to go with him to the video store to get videos. And he always went into a room where it was private. He always came out, bought some things. And then when he'd get home, he'd say, now, you go play. And don't you come in this room. Well, because he was watching things he shouldn't watch. And she said, that hurt me so much. And then another terrible thing happened to her. Her uncle mistreated her and abused her. And she was being destroyed. And her father, he was the sound man at the church, my church. I'm trying to tell you that sin can creep right into anybody's life. And the wife could never please him because he was only satisfied with what he was watching. She was always feeling like she couldn't be the best wife and, you know, my husband doesn't really love me. And then that caused another division between the daughter. So the daughter spent a lot of time with the grandparents. Did you get what I'm saying? This is an imbalance, isn't it? A huge imbalance. Well, when it came time for her to go off to college, she went to a very liberal Christian college. And she learned some things there that were very, very bad. And she ended up getting involved with another woman. What I'm telling you, I'm saying these things, I'm not gossiping. She would want me to tell you because it wrecked her life. She ended up going to jail. She ended up getting on drugs. She had a husband for a while and had a child. I'm just simply saying to you that once it gets out of balance, it can go way off into the wrong way. But now she's saved. Now she's loving the Lord and she's gotten victory over alcohol and drugs. And she loves the Lord and her testimony is precious. But all those imbalances in her life by other people to her that affected her, like to have destroyed her. It's pretty bad when your parents don't want you around because of the way you act, and yet they're the very ones that set you up. I'm talking about marriages that have imbalance in them. It's a dangerous thing, isn't it? Be careful about planning things that exclude your spouse, not including your spouse in things that could bring joy and happiness. I've even heard of couples going on separate vacations. Can you imagine that? I think it's important for the husband and wife to go to bed together at night so it keeps them from seeing anything on TV they shouldn't see. Wouldn't that be an imbalance? You say, well, I'm a night owl and she's not. Well, work harder so you're tired. Statements that hurt, that mouth can get you in trouble. Boy, it did me when I was a kid. I had a tongue, just a flapping, and I was getting in trouble. I'll never forget, I was in second grade, I was coming home from school with my buddy. Well, his dad owned the bar in town, the only bar in town, Saloon. You never could see in there, it was so dark. So we're walking home one day and I said, boy, you know, your dad's going straight to hell. He said, what? He owns a bar, man, he serves drinks, he's going to hell. I'm in second grade, I'm going to tell it like it is, like it or lump it. Boy, he went right into the bar and he told his dad, you know that pastor's son said that you're a drunk and you're going to hell. And boy, he jumped in his Electra 225 Buick and he drove right down to the church parsonage. About that time, I'd gotten home, and he comes up, knocks on, Reverend, boy, he let my dad have it. So after he left, my dad said, I'll take care of it. And my dad sat me down. He said, now, son, you got to be careful how you say things. And he said, you be careful with your mouth. You got to be careful. There's a time to say things, and there's a time to be careful how you say things. How many know that to be true in the home? Yeah? When the husband walks in the room and says, I want supper, is it on the table? And she goes, oh, honey, yes, it is. I just didn't get to cook it yet, but I've got it put out here on the table for you. You enjoy it. No, there's got to be a balance. There has to be a balance. Don't speak words that hurt. Look at it this way. Treat everybody like you would like to be treated. Amen? And don't be always thinking about yourself. That's a selfishness that's there, and that's dangerous. You say, well, I grew up, and I was spoiled, and it's my parents' fault, so I can't help it the way I am. Oh, yes, you can. Oh yes, you can. You can learn from people's mistakes, amen? Don't criticize your spouse to others. Wow. We had a man in our church and his wife was always, she'd roll her eyes whenever he'd say something. You could see that she was just miserable. And I finally couldn't take it anymore now. I used to be a pastor, okay? And I waited a long time. But one day I just said to her, I said, you know, you must not love your husband. I said it to her privately. Because you roll your eyes, make fun of him, and you put him down all the time. That's all I said. Some people need to be encouraged to do what's right instead of doing what's wrong. Amen? And she never had to work. He brought home all the money, took care of everything. Some people aren't appreciated like they ought to be appreciated, right? And some you have to bend over backwards to help. You never give up on somebody. You pray for them, but then you try to help them. It's balance. It's getting balance. Mocking or insulting is not good. Not working at having something in common is an imbalance. I'll tell you, you want to make my wife happy? I'll tell you how to make my wife happy. Honey, let's go to a thrift shop. How many of you ladies like thrift shops? Raise your hand. You're a smart woman, and you're a smart young man. That's where I get all my shoes from. Find out things that you both enjoy. Ann loves to go to the ocean. She grew up in Amesbury, Mass, right on the ocean. So as soon as we get there, let's go get some seafood and let's go see the ocean, right? Find out what your spouse likes and do those things that she likes. I've learned this, fellas, now this is, I'm giving you a real cool tip. I always drop my wife off at the door of the store. Can I get an amen right there? That's right, because my wife's gonna spend longer than I will in the store, right? I can go have a coffee, I can come back and go into the store, look around, she's still not done. No rush, honey, take your time, right? When somebody enjoys what they're doing, encourage it, it's so important. taking your frustrations out on your, your work frustrations out on your spouse. Don't be guilty of doing that. Leave your work at home. I mean, leave your, leave your work at work. That's what I meant to say. Leave your work at home. Now, if you work at home, you got a problem right there. No, you can, can you separate the two? Say, okay, I'm shutting down my business so that I can enjoy my family. Very important. You know, I was reading this article recently, in fact, Anne told me about it, where kids today, they say, my mother loves her phone more than she loves me. Can you imagine a child having anxiety? because their parents are on their phone all the time and you go to talk to them and they're... You know? Remember, the children are first. The children are first. Drop the phone. Spend time with your child. Get out there and throw the football. Do whatever you need to do. Take your daughter to lunch. Where do you want to go eat? I want to go to McDonald's. Oh, good. I can't wait. No, McDonald's is a great place. I raised my grandkids on McDonald's ice cream. Amen. The first time I took my, Julia, she was only like three, and I got her the biggest one she could have. It was like this. I mean, I had to make it big. And it was bigger than her head. And here she is trying to eat it. What's nice about doing that is you get to eat some of it for her. as it's dripping off her wrist, right? No, but, and then I took them out just recently, and my grandson said, Baba, can I have another one? I said, Baba, you, I mean, Jake, you can have as many as you want. I can spoil them, and then I get to leave, right? Yeah. So that was the big thing. Whenever Baba comes back into town, we go to McDonald's, right? And they love that. Now, not so much. It's funny, they've gotten so old. They're 11, 12, 15, 18. They, you know, get your own ice cream, okay? They're not as, so I gotta come up with another idea, like give them money. That's what they like, right? Oh my, I could go on and on. Now, I wanna talk to you about Jesus and his balance. I need to be done at quarter of? Okay. I wanna talk to you about Jesus. Go to Luke chapter two. Jesus of course was perfect so we can find balance in his life Luke chapter 2. Would you look with me there? And we're looking at verse 52 the Bible says and Jesus increased in what? Wisdom and stature and in favor with who? God and man. He was in favor with God and man. Now, let's look at this closely. Let's look at this closely. Wisdom is mental development. It's mental development. You come to the place where you, through wisdom, you learn to make right decisions. Your intellect increases. That's why people go to college, so they can learn how to do Whatever, whatever it is, whether you're a techie or whatever in your business or management, whatever it is, you learn those things and then you become professional in them. You have a mental capacity to retain knowledge and it's called, biblically, it's called wisdom. How about stature? That's physical development. You kids are growing up and so on. Now, favor with God. That's a spiritual development. You are not, by nature, spiritually developed. You're not. Some of you came into this church, you weren't even saved. But you got saved here. And now you've been listening to the preaching and the teaching of God's word, and now you have an understanding of doctrine. You have an understanding of what is the role of the church, what is the role of the home, what is our role in government, authority, all about authority. You're not gonna get away from authority. I don't care who you are, just drive down this road at 90 miles an hour. You'll find out you're not free to drive down through here on Almont Road at 90 miles an hour. Now I've seen some people driving pretty close to that. I've had motorcycles go by me and I was doing 70 and they were like, now that guy's got a problem. It's called imbalance, especially if he falls off that motorcycle. And you know, it's sad because many people do not develop spiritually because they're only thinking about physical things. If you're gonna have a good relationship with your spouse, you've gotta think about her, not yourself, but think about her. Now, he had favor with God. Do you have favor with God? I think all of us have favor with God. Ask of me, he says. I'll give you the desires of your heart. Delight thyself in the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. So God wants us to spiritually develop. Now, favor with man. That's called social development. Some people are very quiet and reserved. Other people are very boisterous and outgoing. Don't you think you ought to have a balance? I think either way, if you don't get out of your shell a little bit, it's going to be hard for you to help others to know the Lord. And if you're too boisterous, you could turn people off See how the balance is important and everybody's different We have to ask the Lord to give us wisdom and this is what it is. You get wisdom you get favor with God now Here's the neat part when I'm in favor with God. I am in favor with men. I Was down here at Home Depot Two Muslim men standing there. And I said, what are you guys doing standing here? They said, well, we're looking for jobs. They're looking for jobs. I said, are you Muslim? They said, yes, we are. I said, you've heard of the prophet Jesus, haven't you? He said, yeah, we have. It's in the Quran. And I witnessed to them, gave them a gospel tract, told them that Jesus is the only way to heaven. I'm not gonna kid around about this. Because they need to know it. Everybody needs to know that. They could say to me, well, we think Mohammed is not, I would accept that. That's called dialogue. We can talk to each other. I went into the CVS, was it? No, yeah, CVS. And I met a man wearing a gown, it was kind of like a dress sort of, And I said, are you an imam? That's kind of the leaders of the mosque. He goes, no, I'm not, but I'm very active. So I gave him your gospel tract, your gospel tract, and he says, oh, I know where your church is. He looked at the back. You're right down the street from one of our mosques. I said, yeah. And he said, you know, and I asked him about Jesus. He goes, yes, the prophet Jesus. You know, he said, he's coming back. I'd never heard a Muslim say that. And my wife said to me later, did you ask him, are you ready? I didn't ask him, are you ready? I should have, right? I had it going, didn't I? But he took the track, put it in his pocket, loved to invite you to come sometime. My dad took us boys one time to the Jewish synagogue. You should have seen that rabbi when we walked in. A father and his five boys, and we all had to put yarmulkes on. And he did his program, he got done. He said, what brought you here? Number one, you're not Jewish. He didn't say that, but you're not Jewish. Here's what my dad said to him. You know, Isaiah 53 talks about the Messiah. And we believe it's Jesus. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. And I just was told by the Lord to come and let you know that. He said, thank you so much. And that was kind of it. Did you know Paul had converts in the synagogues? You can't read through the book of Acts without seeing where he was constantly going into the synagogues, pretty much in every city he went to, because there were people there that had part of it right. but they didn't have the salvation part right. Listen, you have been, Elmont's a little different than it was 20 years ago. Isn't it? And there's a lot of people here that need the Lord Jesus. And that's why we go out and seek to represent Christ and give people the gospel. Because they need it, don't they? Now, we also gave one to the guy in Home Depot, and he said, thank you very much, where is this church? I said, the address is right there. Some people, you know, there are some people that are looking for something. And you know who they're looking for? They're looking for something greater than themselves. And guess who that is? It's the Lord Jesus. I'm gonna just give these to you roughly. I'm just gonna read through them. Though Jesus suffered, he threatened not. He didn't try to get even. That's found in 1 Peter 2, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not. He committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Number two, though Jesus rebuked Peter, yet he used Peter. Remember when he rebuked Peter, get thee behind me, Satan? He called him Satan. But you know what? Who preached on the day of Pentecost? Peter did, not John the Beloved. But the denier of Christ, see God uses us. Don't ever think that God can't use you. Because if there's a sin in your life, confess it and then he can use you immediately. Number three, though he was busy, yet he took time to rest. Don't be too busy for God. You can get too busy for God. And you need to be balanced in your In your life mark tells us this come ye yourselves apart Into a desert place and rest a while for there are many coming and going and they have no leisure so much as to eat So they departed into a desert place by ship privately Isn't that interesting mark six? Number four, though he was mistreated and misunderstood, Jesus still loved people. You ever been misunderstood and mistreated? You still love those people. They just aren't where you're at yet. They don't understand yet, and so you stay balanced. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. You know, I could be persecuted. Anybody could be persecuted, right? But those people I talk to, if they walk by this church, they're gonna go, hey, that guy talked to me about my soul. That's gonna have some impact, for sure. The last one, though he was sinned against, Jesus was sinned against, yet he loved and forgave them. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, they know not what they, what? do they know not what they do there was a london paper that was sent out to 1 000 inquirers with the question what is home what is a home one wrote a world of strife shut out a world of love shut in isn't that good for the home here's another one a place where the small are great and the great are small. That's a beautiful one, isn't it? Here's what a home is, the father's kingdom, the mother's world, and the children's paradise. You know, the Bible says in Deuteronomy that you might have heaven on earth. You can have heaven in your home. The place we grumble the most and are treated the best. That's interesting, isn't it? The only place on earth where the faults and failures of humanity are hidden under the sweet mantle of charity. It's all about balance, isn't it? That's why the Bible says that a false balance is an abomination under the Lord. Our Heavenly Father, help us, please. Please help us, O God, to be all that you desire us to be. May we not fail you, but may we be balanced Christians. May we do our best to stay clean and pure before you. In Jesus' name, amen. Pastor?