Thank you, Mr. Miller. Wonderful job. Wanted to take the opportunity to thank those that prepared and worked at the kids camp. I think there was 19 kids, I think they said. All the adults made it. And it was a wonderful time. I know they had a lot of food. They had crafts. They had, I especially enjoyed listening to their Bible study on Fruits of the Spirit. I thought it was an awesome experience to hear the kids respond and do all the things they've done. A wonderful, wonderful time. And beautiful weather. And kids were excellent. And so was the adults. And so it was a blessed weekend, I know. Hearing good reports about it. I especially counted a joy and a blessing that we as a church body and the leaders of the children's groups take the opportunity to invest in children who might or might not get the opportunity to see what a loving, godly family is supposed to operate like. That investment in three days is much worth it and I know they did a wonderful job. As you turn to Romans chapter 2, Sorry, Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 verse 2. That's where we're going to be at this morning. Romans chapter 12 verse 2. I pray you have a copy of God's Word in your lap. The Bible says, And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God. Let us pray. Father in heaven, as we open Your Word, and Lord, as we look at this today, Lord, we desire that our lives are changed and not be conformed to this world, but our minds are transformed by the renewing that You can bring to us in the relationship with us, that God, that we could prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of You. So Father, I pray that our hearts are tender and open this morning to be receptive and to be responsive to what the Holy Spirit is calling us to do. This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Recently came across a fantastic story. Being a baseball player, finding this story that it happened in 1996 at Nashville, over 4,000 baseball coaches gathered at the Opera Land Hotel for the Convention for American Baseball. They were waiting to register and several people were asking, who is going to be here? What famous coach or baseball player is going to be here to speak to us this week? And they kept hearing this one name, Coach John Scoliosis. And Coach John Most of the players and coaches did not know who he was. Several did, and they began to spread out the news. Coach John had been a coach for 75 years, a college baseball coach for 75 years. He was the keynote speaker. As he stood up to the podium to begin to give his speech to all these four thousand plus baseball coaches from across the country. He walked up to the podium and he had a home plate from baseball hanging around his neck. I wondered what is this guy lost it is he mean local what's up. And when he got to the podium and he began to speak with this heavy home plate hung around his neck. He spoke for about 15 minutes and said absolutely nothing about this home plate. And so the crowd began to murmur to themselves, what is wrong with this guy? Has he been just checked out from an insane asylum or what's going on? After a moment of silence, he said, maybe you think I've just escaped the Carmela State Hospital. They laughed and acknowledged that was a possibility. And he continued, he said, I may be old, but I'm not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you, the baseball people, what I've learned from life, what I've learned about home plate in my 78 years. He asked the question, in Little League, how wide is home plate. And all the coaches in response said it's 17 inches. All of them did. He said, well, you're right. What about Babe Ruth baseball? And they said 17 inches. And I'll hurry the story along. He asked in high school, how wide is home plate in high school baseball? 17 inches. Well, how wide is the home plate in college? 17 inches. What about when you're playing minor league baseball, how wide is home plate? And of course, you would say 17 inches and you would be right. When you become a big league baseball player, a pro baseball player, how wide is home plate? And you're right. What happens when a baseball pitcher cannot throw the baseball over that 17 inches? All of those coaches, over 4,000 of them in that arena, almost unanimously said, he goes back to the minor leagues, or he goes home. If he can't throw the baseball over 17 inches of that home plate, he goes back. That's what you do. Then he turned and he said, the home plate, 17 inches, but we in America are practicing widening the plate so that we can make it attainable for everybody else. He began to ask, what do you do when your player shows up late for practice? What do you do when he violates curfew? What do you do when he's using drugs? Do you hold him accountable? Or do you change the rules just to fit him? Do you widen the home plate? He turned the plate toward himself and he used a Sharpie. And he began to draw something on the home plate. When he turned it around to the crowd, he pointed it up. A house was revealed. completely with a freshly drawn door and two windows. And he says, this is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids, with our discipline, we don't teach accountability to our kids. And there is no consequences for failing to meet the standards. We widen the plate. Then he pointed. to the upper part as he drew an American flag on it. And he said, the problem in our schools today is the quality of our education is going downhill fast, and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful, to educate and to discipline our young people. We're allowing others to widen the plate. There is a problem in a church when powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children. And there's an atrocity of sweeping it under the rugs across America. Church leaders have widened home plates. It was at this baseball convention a valuable lesson was learned that we need to hold the standards of God to the standards of God. We don't need to widen the plate, man. Coach John died at 91 years old. I think as we need to meet the standards of God written right here. And it stays within these confines as well. We're not to widen the plate. That's why the message is entitled Home Plate this morning. God has given us a guidebook to go by. He's given it to us as fathers. He's given it to you as mothers. He's given it to you as children. Jesus Christ came and He gave us an example of how we should admit to God the Father. God opens all bars of communication to receive and to hear from us. And we can speak to Him and listen to His instructions for us to be the best person that He purposed us to be. Let me ask you, are you men willing to be a kingdom man? Ladies, are you willing to be a kingdom woman? Men, we need to take responsibility and man up. We have a generation. We have a generation of boys who have been raised to be men just like their mamas. We need to take responsibility. 50% or over 50% of white American men are absent as fathers in their kids' lives. Being conformed to this world and Satan's goals is definitely is to remove the fathers. Home plate has been widened by the world. Far too many fathers have outsourced it. Parents have outsourced it. said it's the government's and church's responsibility to feed the kids. It's the school's responsibility to educate them and train them on how to behave. It's the church's responsibility to give your kids spiritual lessons and fun activities. Home plate according to God's standards is still the same. It's still the parent's responsibility to raise the kids. I'm sorry. We as parents are going to be accountable to God how we raise our kids. They're not gonna bring in a school board, they're not gonna bring in a government. We as parents are gonna be the ones that's held responsible for how we train our kids. 17 inches, 17 inches between a kid's head and a kid's heart. It's still the father and mother's responsibility to teach them about God. Because if it's only head knowledge, it doesn't get them to heaven. It has to be heartfelt and received. to go to heaven out of a relationship with God. I may have some feelings, but all kids make the team and all kids get a trophy is the wrong ideology. We're sending the wrong message with that. Not all people go to heaven. Broad is the way. Narrow is the way to heaven. We must all have an urgency to teach and to train up children. Not all people receive kingdom rewards. We must urgently teach and train our kids. That's why camp, that's why VBS, that's why Sunday school is vitally important, that we can gather together and study and ask questions and generate kids to want to know God and to know his standards and train them up. We need a great number of children and teens today whose father that is missing action to begin to man up and to step up and to teach and to train the standards of God. Men, we must be transformed. We must be transformed to change the direction of our culture today. We must be different than the wide, wide world. No one can do that by the renewing of our mind and the mindset. Men, this is a God-sized task for us to do. We cannot do it on our own. And I don't know where this ideology came from, but I don't know where we got the idea that we're able to teach our kids how to bait a hook for a fish, hit a baseball, set up an Xbox, or reach a new level in a game, and leave all the spiritual knowledge and the spiritual guidance to women. Hello, church. Baiting a hook is good, but telling your child how to know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior is even better. Teaching a kid how to throw a baseball is good. But teaching a child how to find the book of Romans is even better. Teaching a child how to drive a car is good. Or is it? It's a little scary, it causes you to pray more. But teaching them what dating responsibilities and God's standards for men and women and boys and girls to go out on a date and have a relationship is even better. Those of you men who have daughters, I want to challenge you. Know that boy that's taking her out. Don't allow him to come in your driveway and honk his horn just for a pickup. He ain't there for no pickup until he comes in the house and talks to you. We need to man up. We're not to be formed to this world. So how do we do that? How can the children learn? That's our responsibility. I don't know about you, but I don't want to learn from peers. I don't want them to learn from Google or Facebook or the government because that's a broken world. That's not where I want them to learn it from. We can learn and teach them from here as a church body, as a church family. We can come alongside them and teach them here. Can we look and learn from you how not to be conformed and what the perfect will of God is? Can we look at you for that? We also need to look in God's word for the standards and hold them fast. When you're throwing a baseball, I happen to know that you do have to throw it across the 17-inch plate. I happen to know this, that to throw a strike across that 17-inch plate, you have to be looking at the zone, the strike zone. You can't be turning around and throw the ball and expect it to go across the plate. You can't be looking up in a stance to see who's waving at you and throw it across the plate. You have to be looking at the zone. Also, I happen to know that you have to be stepping toward home plate, that 17 inches. And if you put your foot toward the point of that home plate, you're headed in the right direction. So I'm challenging you to look to God and step toward Him. Focus on the right direction. Men and women, we must be looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. We must be stepping toward and walking with Christ every single day. We need to keep the standard of home plate. Home plate. Men, we're to be the leaders. We're to be the nurturers. We need to be protectors. We need to be providers. We need to be on the stepping towards God and following Christ. Take the time. Take the time, families, to be at home plate. Now I'm switching gears on you. I'm talking around the home dinner plate. Be together. Listen to one another. Take time to invest and inject some truths at that time. Listen to what's going on. Observe what differences you may see. Take the time for teachable moments and be committed to hand down a legacy that God would be pleased. Discover. Discover from that time as you listen hard questions about culture and what the Bible may say. What the Bible may teach about money or work or friends or religions. May even teach them about what to do with mean people. What to do when you get angry? How to treat others? What is our purpose in life and how to know Jesus Christ to be saved? You and I can't be the person God created us to be unless we have a personal relationship with Him. That can only be through realizing our sin, recognizing our need for a changed life, and responding and believing what Jesus Christ did upon the cross and receiving Him as our Lord, as our boss, as our controller of our life. We must turn from sin and self and turn to Christ and Christ alone for the rest of our life and for Him to be our leader. Wonder, I wonder this morning, is pride going to hold you back? Is pride going to hold you back this morning from bending at a knee and humbling yourself before God, repenting or asking forgiveness of your sins, and turning back to Christ and asking Him to help you to be the person He meant you to be, to lay it out on the altar for Him. Because, folks, if you come to the altar, you can find a Father's arms. spiritually open, ready to embrace you and hug you and say, I love you. I love you. I've got more for you. I've got so much more for you. If you'll trust me and follow me. I'm going to ask you just to bow your head and close your eyes and nobody's looking around. This morning, the Spirit of God is working on your heart. You may be a child. You may be a teenager. You may be an adult here this morning. That God has pierced your heart. That you're not right with Him. That you don't have peace with Him. And this morning, during this time of invitation, that the Holy Spirit of God is calling you, drawing you to make that decision. Will you humble yourselves and bow before Him? Or is pride going to keep you back? Christians, we must recognize the call in our lives today. We must renew our minds, refresh our passion, and remember that He has called you to serve and follow Him. He sacrificed for us. Are we willing to for Him? We must pursue righteousness. Receive that transformation right now. Men, I challenge you today to step up. Take that lead. You be the one to take an end bow. Father in Heaven, as we extend this invitation for You this morning, as Your Holy Spirit is so ever-present here this morning, God, as You're working on our hearts this morning, may we not be held back about what other people might think or what pride might keep us from doing what we're called to do. May this morning, God, that we not hesitate that we do what You've called us to do right now. And Father, may the ones that's being called for salvation this morning freely come and receive You as Savior. Those Christians that God needs to refresh and repent, may this morning right now they realize and be willing to do that. God, this morning the men that are here, maybe they sense an overwhelmness that the task is too big. And God, I just need You to come and to pray at this altar that You be their guiding force, that You be their guiding light, to be the man that You've called them to be. Father, may Your Holy Spirit continue to move in this place and work on our hearts and lives to do that which You want us to do today. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Would you stand for this invitation and respond to what God's calling you to do right now? Have you failed in your plan of your storm-tossed life? Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand. Are you weary and worn from its toil and strife? Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand. Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand.