Again, we are thankful to see each one here this evening. If you have your Bibles and would like to turn with us, I'm going to turn to at least two different places. Beginning in the book of 3 John, and then we'll turn back to Proverbs chapter 4. Book of 3 John. Before we read, we do want to look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we come to you this day, Father, we're so thankful for the many wonderful things that you've done for us. Father, you've been good to us, so much better than we deserve. And Father, we pray that you would lead God and direct in the message. Father, you know the need better than we do. Help us to preach your message, being led by your Holy Spirit, that Father, it could accomplish your will that we as your people could be drawn close to you, And Father, even those that are lost could be drawn to Jesus for an everlasting salvation. Remember the prayer request, Father, that we've heard. Father, You know each need and each burden, and we're thankful that we could cast all of our cares upon You, because we know that You care for us. Father, we ask all these things in the name of Jesus, for He is worthy. Amen. In the book of 3 John, I'm going to begin reading in verse 3. It says, "...for I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." And notice that statement. There's a great joy that's there. And the joy is that he hears that they're walking in the truth. And that's a great blessing. Even words that my children walk in truth. I love the way that he words that there. It's a great blessing. I want to turn over, as we said, to Proverbs chapter 4. And there's a lot in Proverbs. I was trying to go back and forth and say, man, there's several scriptures you could read from. Got settled on this one beginning in verse 1 of Proverbs 4. It says, Here ye children, the instruction of a father. and attend to no understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also and said unto me, let thine heart retain my words, keep my commandments and live." I'm going to stop reading there. But you see that there's a desire for the child to learn. And, you know, I think about how Paul told Timothy, he said, commit thou these things unto faithful men who may be able to teach others also. And there are things that we're supposed to pass down. There are things that we are supposed to hand to the next generation, and we want to see it. I want to see people trusting Christ. I want to see people growing in the Lord. I want to see people walking in the truth, because there's no greater blessing. Some people say that if, you know, you can keep the younger or the older ones, that they just keep up with what they were originally given, that's a good thing. But eventually the older ones are going to go on to be with the Lord. What are you leaving behind? You know, I think with my children, and as time goes on, you never know what might happen, but some people have grandchildren, great-grandchildren on down the line. You know, don't you want them to be walking in the truth? You know, I've seen some people just have a heavy burden on their heart before they go on to be with the Lord. That I just want to see my children trust the Lord. I want to see my grandchildren trust the Lord. And not only that, then you want them to walk in the truth, because the evidence that they've really trusted the Lord is that they're truly a new creature in Christ Jesus, that you can tell the difference in them. And that's what we desire as God's people. We want them to be walking in the truth. You want to come back 10, 20 years from now and maybe see the same people and yet see that they've matured in the Lord, they've grown. You hear about, you know, their loved ones being saved. You know, it's a disheartening thing when you go somewhere and you hear, well, this one's no longer in church. This one's quit. This one never trusts Christ. Well, that's disheartening. But you go somewhere and you hear that this one's trusted the Lord, this one's following the Lord, maybe even, well, this one surrendered to preach, this one's now a Sunday school teacher, and you know, whatever, that you can tell that they're growing in the Lord. Well, that's an encouragement, a blessing. And that's what we desire as God's people. We want to see growth. We want to see things going in the right direction. And if that's not the case, then there's discouragement. There's disheartened. And we need to be careful. What are we leaving behind? I know there's a song that talks about that. What will we leave behind? You know, Paul, I believe it was to the church at Corinth, he made a statement. He said, ye are our epistles. And what he is saying is, people read more about what they see in your lives than they get out of what we preach. Because realistically, what he was saying, I can tell you this, you can have the greatest preachers in the world that can present a very good message, but if nobody's listening to it and abiding in it, what good is it doing? You say, well, preacher, the Word's never going to return into the Lord void. I know that. But I'll say this, if you don't see people walking in the truth, and I can say this from a preacher's point of view, if you don't see people walking in the truth, You wonder what's being accomplished, what good is being done. Because your goal is not just to preach a good message. Your goal is that the Word of God take root in people's hearts and change them. That's the goal. The goal is that sinners turn to Christ. The goal is that the saved people walk in the Lord. That's the goal. That's the desire. I don't want to come to church and just preach to everybody. I want to see them growing. I want to see them maturing. I want to see them walking in the truth. And you want to see the evidence of that years on down the road? Look, I get great joy even, like yesterday we mentioned, we got to go to a wedding. Look, that brings me joy. You know, here's a young Christian couple, and they're not walking out in sin, they're not trying to live in the pleasures of the flesh, but they're looking to be husband and wife, and they're looking to raise their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Well, that's exciting things to see. And if they truly follow through with that, and you see them bringing their children to church, and you hear about one day their children trusting Christ, and then their children growing in the Lord, well, that brings joy. And that's the goal. I think about this as a parent. You know, I can say all the right things to my children growing up, but if they don't walk in it. You know, there's a feeling of, did I fail them? Did I not set the example for them? What did I do? Not that that's always the case. I know people make their own decisions. I well know that. But I'll tell you, it'll bring a father great joy. And it's talked about in the book of Proverbs, about things that'll bring joy to a mother, joy to a father, and things that are also a discouragement to them. You know, if you see your child walking in ways that are ungodly, that's discouraging, that's disheartening. But you see them walking in the truth, it's encouraging. Even this father is trying to tell his son, look, I'm just like you were. I had to receive instruction. I had to be taught. I had to retain these words. I had to keep the commandments and live. He said, I had to hear that. I had to receive this instruction and now I'm passing it on to you. That's what we want to do. And you know, there's some people, I don't know where, well I know where it comes from, I know it's Satan, but there's some people that says, well, I'm not going to join the church because of this person, this person, this person. That's a horrible, that's a horrible blindness by Satan is all I can say. You're being deceived by Satan. Do you know that our walk with the Lord has nothing to do with anybody else, but our conscience toward God? I've known bad people in church. I have. I've known people that haven't lived for the Lord. I've known them. But they're not getting in the way of my walk with the Lord. That's between me and God. They're not going to stop me from being a part of the church. They're not going to stop me, first of all, from trusting Christ, then being a part of the church, and then working and laboring for the Lord. And it's not for anybody else that I do those things. It's because of what God has done for me. I want to show my thankfulness to Him. Well, other people might say this, preacher, other people might say that. We can't be worried about what everybody else says. We've got to be worried about what God wants out of our life. I heard somebody, and I'll be honest with you, it was from a child that came from a broken home. Parents had been divorced and they made the statement, I don't know if I'll ever get married after seeing what mom and dad went through. That was them, that's not you. I didn't get married because, you know, mom and dad had a perfect marriage. I didn't get married because granny and papa had a perfect marriage on either side. Now, I think they had a good marriage. You get all three of those, I can say on all three of them, they were married for over 50 years. My parents and grandparents. But I'll tell you this, they're not the main reason I wanted to get married. I look in the scripture, man that findeth a wife findeth a good thing. It was about a thing with God. I wanted a family. I wanted things that represented Christ in my life. I wanted those things. Not because somebody else had it or somebody else just gave me the prime example. I've seen many people and I've seen people very close to me. And I'll be honest with you, y'all know one of the ways that I remember names is husband and wife. You know how difficult it is when somebody gets divorced and you've remembered their name by husband and wife for years. All of a sudden you've got to change the way that you're dealing with their name. How you dealing with that memory? I've had some people very close to me before that's gotten separated and it's been heartbreaking. But their divorce did not determine me getting married or not. And them getting divorced didn't determine my success and my marriage or the lack thereof. I get to make those choices. A lot of times, even in church, there's people who say, well, there's a lot of faults out there. Well, there's bad preachers. There's bad churches. There's all this false teaching, falsehood. There is. The answer to that, to quit? The answer to that, to give up? Or is it to walk more faithfully? I'll never forget years ago, I knew a lady. She quit coming to church. Somebody offended her at church. But I thought that was such a shame to quit going to church because somebody offended you. I could understand feelings can get so hurt at a church that you might have to look for another church to go to, but I'm not quitting church. And mainly, I'm not quitting God. I don't think hurt feelings are the best reason to quit a church or go somewhere else. I think it needs to be doctrinal reasons. But if somebody said, I was hurt so bad, I just can't go back there. Well, find somewhere to go. I mean a biblical church, somewhere to go. Keep walking in the truth, because they're not bigger than God. They're not greater than God. And I'll say this, there's people that might have their name on a membership roll somewhere. That don't mean that they've ever trusted Christ. That doesn't mean that they're saved. And I'll say this, the Bible tells us, talking about Satan, the Lord said, I know where Satan's seat is, and he was talking about having membership in a church. I'll tell you this, Satan will put people in church to be a discouragement to you if you're not careful. Now you're either going to go because you love the Lord or not. You're going to be faithful because you love the Lord or not. You're going to follow the Lord because you love Him or not. If we let other people get in the way of our walk with the Lord, that's a horrible thing. We need to listen to instruction. We need to attend, as it said, to no understanding. We need to grow. We need to mature. We need to be what God would have us to be. And when we find people walking in the truth, it's a joy. If I go to a church and see them walking in truth, Man, that's a joy. It's a joy to hear about churches growing. And I don't mean in an ungodly way, but in a godly way, that's a rejoicing thing. And to see God changing people's lives, that they're conforming to the image of Christ, that's a joyful thing. Outside of a person getting saved, there's no greater joy than to see people walking with the Lord. Because them walking with the Lord is evidence that they actually did trust in the Lord. There's no greater joy, is what he said, than that I find my children walking in truth. No greater joy. Today we need to ask ourselves, what are we leaving behind? And I'll say this, I like to give people responsibilities as they get older. You know, I'll never forget after I trusted Christ, you know, I was so thankful. My pastor came up to me at the time and he said, he said, I want to know if you'll lead in prayer. Look, to be used, that's a blessing. And I like using people. I like when we have our young people that have trusted Christ, lead Psalms, lead in prayer, you know, set an example. I hope that people want to study their Bibles so that they can be ready, that if they could be called upon to teach a Sunday school class, Or even, Lord willing, later on in life, it could be that God calls somebody out of this church to preach the gospel. God calls a man and his wife has qualifications upon her that she can be a blessing and an asset to him. Be an encouragement to the work. Look, those are good things. Those are things that you look for. Those are things that you desire to see. I think sometimes people say, well, we can't use this person, we can't use that person. If it's a biblical reason, that's one thing, but I will say this, there's some that say that we can't use a young person because they're just too young. They trusted Christ, they're a member of the body just like anybody else. I'm not saying just throw them to the wolves, so to speak, overnight, but you want to slowly get them to grow. I'll say this, over time with my children, I intend to give them more responsibilities as they get older. And you know, my goal as a father is to see them leave home. Not stay with me, but to leave. Say, preacher, you want your children out of your house? Nope. That's not what I said. But let me say this, as a father, what good have I done if they never leave home? Even nature. You know, Paul told the church at Corinth, and I know he was dealing with the covering issue, and he said, that's not even nature teaching. You know what he was doing? He was saying, just look naturally. Naturally, we know some things that's even within our conscience. And there's things that even nature itself can teach us. I mean, I could turn in the book of Proverbs and there's times it says, consider, you know, deliver thyself as a roe from the hunter. What is he saying? Look to nature. Nature teaches you some things. Look at that, consider the ant. You know, God uses nature a lot of times to say, look, I gave some things to you that can teach you if you're willing to listen. I'll say this, I've learned a lot about parenting from watching dogs and watching other animals. I'll say this, even a dog will protect its children, won't it? We got a lot of people in society today who won't take care of their own children. You can say this, they're below dogs with that, aren't they? Because they don't do what should come to them naturally. But I'll say this, with my children, I want to give them some responsibility. I want them to grow. I want them to be prepared that there is a time that they leave the nest, so to speak. But when they leave the nest, there's some things that they cleave unto. If we'd train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, He said if we'd teach them, when they're old, they would not depart from it. And that's more than just taking them to church, isn't it? That's that training that is teaching them when you wake up in the morning, when you goeth by the way, when you layeth down at night. It's that continual teaching that you said in example that has an impact upon them, that they don't depart from it. I tell you that's the desire. You know, as long as my children are at home, I can control them somewhat. But the real blessing is when they leave home and they still hold true to what you've told them. That's the blessing, isn't it? And even as a minister of the gospel, you know, I've seen churches before that when they had a certain preacher, oh, they did this, they did that. But a new preacher comes along teaching something different, they fall away. And there's a fear that exists within there. Oh preacher, you shouldn't fear. Turn over sometime and read 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Did Paul not fear the people that he preached to? He said, I fear. And he talked about how the devil had deceived Eve and he said, I'm afraid that somebody will come along and teach you something different and you might well bear with them. He said, I'm afraid of that. He said, I'm even jealous over you with a godly jealousy. See, I don't know what I've done sometimes until you're gone, so to speak. I don't know what kind of father I've been until my children are out there making decisions for themselves. I really don't know. This Father was not that they just stay here. It wasn't the desire over in the book of John that, you know, that He just had somewhat of control over them. It was the desire that when He sent others unto Him, He said, even without Me being there, y'all are walking in the truth. Even without Me being there, y'all are still holding to the Word of God. And even this father knew, as you read in the book of Proverbs, there's some things he wanted to pass on to them, but the only way it would be a blessing is if they took it, received it, and applied it in their lives. And even as the Apostle Paul, as we mentioned earlier, told the church at Corinth, ye are our epistles. What did he know was the greatest witness? of that what He had taught them, preached to them, shared with them, relayed unto them, set the example for them as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, what was the greatest witness that they really took it to heart? When they were living it outside the church house, when they were abiding in it, when others could see it, when others could watch it, Oh, there's people that will straighten up when the preacher comes around, or straighten up when they come to the church house. But the real evidence was when they left, and they were out in the world, and they were living for the Lord. That's the real evidence. You know, today we celebrate Mother's Day, and next month we'll celebrate Father's Day. But the real testimony of a father and a mother is how their children carry on the name after they've left the house and even sometimes when mom and dad's gone on to be with the Lord. That's the evidence. That's whether things have taken root, whether they're holding to those doctrines, whether they're holding on to the faith, And I read in the scriptures sometimes and it's amazing how quickly people fall away. The book of Judges is an amazing book for that. I mean, it realistically begins that, you know, those that lived after the time of Joshua, after those people lived, you know, and they died off, it wasn't too long that those generations began to fall away, was it? And then, maybe a time of repentance? Fall away. Time of repentance? Fall away. Do you know that's not the way that God wants it to be for us? He wants us to be continually walking in the truth. I know it's not possible. But do you know there's some churches in America that's a hundred years old, two hundred years old, three hundred years old. Can you imagine if those preachers could come back and see those churches today? A lot of them would be heartbroken. A lot of them would be saying, didn't I teach this? Didn't I explain it to them? Why are they not abiding in it? And yet there may be some that would come back and say, well, thank the Lord, they're still walking in the truth. They're still abiding in the things of the Word of God. Well, thank the Lord. You know, I'll say this, there is no preacher that knows how long he's going to be at a church or how long he's going to live. But his desire is not that the church abides with the Lord just in his lifetime, but that there's something left behind for the generations that follow, that they abide in the truth. And there's no greater joy that can be had for God's people to know that the children of God are abiding in the truth. Nothing better, a parent, a grandparent on down the line, when they find out that their children and their children's children are walking in the ways of the Lord. That's the blessing. That's the blessing. And that's what we should desire as God's people. Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father. Attend to no understanding. There's good doctrine being passed down. Don't forsake it. Don't forsake the law of God. And notice what he said, I was my father's son. You know, some of you young people might sit back and say, oh, you're just preaching those old things, but I'm preaching to you what I heard when I was your age. I'm preaching those doctrines, statutes, and judgments that I heard preached, that have been a blessing to my life, were a blessing to my parents and grandparents before me. And I know they're just as good for you today. Some people say, oh, some of the things we hear, it's old-fashioned. No, it's not. It's just as new as the day it was first preached. It's just as good. It's just as profitable. It's just as beneficial. It's about whether you take it to heart or not. And if you will, if you'll take heed to the teaching and abide in it, it'll be a blessing to you. And then, Lord willing, you'll be saying, Hear me, my son. Hear me, my daughter. And you'll say, I once heard these things, and now I'm passing them on to you. And if you'll take heed to them, It'll be a blessing to you, and to your children, and to your children's children, if you will listen to it. It's still just as true today as it's ever been, if we take heed to it and abide in it. If you're here and lost, I don't have something new to tell you. I have the same thing that Paul preached, that Peter preached, that Jesus preached, the same doctrine that was preached unto Abraham. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Believe the promise of God, and God will save you for Christ's sake. If you're here and saved, I don't have anything new for you. I've got the same doctrines, statutes, judgments, and commandments. And if you'll listen to them, and abide in them, it'll be a blessing to your lives. It'll be a blessing in your marriage. It'll be a blessing to the church. It'll be a blessing to everybody you come in contact with. if you abide in it. And it will not only bring a preacher, our church members, our family members joy, most importantly, it brings the Lord joy. When we walk in the truth of His Word, and I pray that we will, this is the burden that God has given us. If you would have anything upon your heart, we'd invite you to come. I have a verse of a song.