Well, next year will be 07. I started ministry in 67. That will make 40 years of ministry. 25 years of being your pastor here. And I remember my first Father's Day message nearly 40 years ago. And I looked down on the folks at Honolulu Bible Church, and they were much older, and many of them had been parents for a long time. And I thought, what in the world can I say to these folks who have been parents or been dads much longer than I've even been alive. And I thought, oh my. This morning I walked in and said to Pierre, he's going to bring a message tonight. I said, what are you going to speak on tonight? He says, I was going to share some personal things. And he says, I don't have enough time in yet. I prepared a message from 2 Timothy about being a dad. And then as I thought about it, I remember going to Honolulu and saying, man, I can hardly preach on Dad's day because of lack of experience. Well, folks, I've got some experience underneath the belt now. And some good, some bad. But I'm very thankful for my family. Lisa and her husband. Lisa's 38, 36, 34, 32, 30 and 28 years of age. Family planning in its finest. Every two years. Lisa and her husband, John, he has one more deployment. He's going to be retired. And he is a comptroller in the Marine Corps. And they look forward to serving the Lord in the area of either a church administrator or in the area of an accountant in a Christian organization. Lonnie is chaplain with NASCAR. He gets paid to play. He goes to all the NASCAR races, has Bible studies in the garages there in Charlotte. And then on Sunday mornings, preachers in chapel, they have three wonderful children. Lisa has Lauren, Lindsey, Gracie and Catherine. And I want to say those little girls went around in dresses and and call everyone yes or no, sir, and have the sweetest spirit. It's amazing. Luana and Christopher work in music and youth in Charleston, South Carolina. Laina and Brian are on their way to serve the Lord in the development of a fundamental camp in Golden, Colorado. My heart aches for them. Going right on the continental divide there and live. Leanne and Brad have just finished Bible college. They're coming home. They'll be home in two weeks to live here. And they're bringing their little Jordan. Landon? and Sarah are between churches now as they still live in Florida and looking to the Lord's leading in their life in the future. Len and Sarah have two little ones. That's 19 grandchildren that God has given us. And so, I am tremendously, tremendously blessed. So, I thought this morning I would take my message with its PowerPoint and say, we'll save it for another time. And I'm going to just chat with you for a few minutes And the last time I said that, someone said, I hope he doesn't do that again. Steve Atkins and I were together this week for a few minutes and he said, I really like your Mother's Day messages, but I don't like those Father's Day messages. I want to share with you. I called my kids and I said, kids, help me. They all love the Lord. They're all married to godly mates. They're raising their children. very conservatively, and they all know Christ. And I am so thankful for my godly family. They said, what were some of the things? And they said, Dad, number one. Now, inside your notes, inside your bulletin, some place for notes, I'd encourage you to write down a couple of thoughts. Number one was the fact that we know, without a question, we know that wherever we went or whatever we did, that you and mom were praying for us. Praying for your kids. They said, every one of them, that which made the greatest impact in their life was to know that we prayed for them. Beloved, before they were born, Lisa, Lonnie, Luana, Lena, Leanne, and Landon, Elizabeth and I began to pray, God, May they, number one, trust Jesus as their Savior at an early age. Number two, live godly. Number three, give them godly mates. And number four, may they serve you with their whole hearts. I have prayed for nearly 40 years for my kids for those four things. All four of those things were met. And now, at night, when Josephine and I go to bed, I reach over and I grab her and pull her close. And we have our prayer time together. There's not a night that goes by that we don't pray for our grandkids. And you know what we pray for? That number one, They'll come to know Jesus as their Savior. Number two, they'll live godly. Number three, my kids, we pray for them, their grandkids, that they'll have godly mates. And number four, that they'll serve the Lord with all their hearts. Now, beloved, number one impact on our family. When I ask the kids one of the things they remember, they'll remember their mother sitting in a rocker with an open Bible, with a prayer list, with tears running out her eyes, praying for the kids. And I think that if you make prayer a priority for your children now, you'll spend less time lying awake at night wondering where they are, who they're with, and what they're doing. Pray. James says, the effectual fervent prayer, and I'll make application of a righteous dad, availeth much. And so, the importance of praying. And I'll just make a context in the area of grandkids, because I have 19 of them. Six more to go to get my goal. I can't imagine having them in our house I can't imagine going to visit their house without going to their bedside at night and praying with my kids, my grandchildren. I was a pastor. I was a church planter. And I was a missionary. And you know, sometimes that life can be very hectic. But we made it a priority to be at home as much as possible at night. Mom could put the kids away. Mom could tuck them in. But it was Dad who knelt beside the bed and prayed with the kids at night. And beloved, men, take that to heart. Go beside the kids' bed. Hold their hands or fold your hands and pray with them. Don't let that small little part of your day slip away, praying for your kids. I'll just say, praying around the kitchen table, one of the things we did, and I'll mention this later, we had the evening meal at 5.30. In the evening, they knew that we would have the meal at 5.30, and they had to be home by 5.30, wherever they were going, and then they could go back out. We had an evening meal together. We'd sit down, but we always prayed together. When we would go on a trip, we would make sure that we prayed. This morning, Hosie and I, as we got to the car, I had a lot of things going. A whole bundle of tithes to give to Daily Vacation Bible School. Just a lot of things. Started the car and she said, wait, we've got to pray first. You know, we would make sure with those kids, before we took off, Our most precious possessions in life. Children in the back of that van or in the back of that big station wagon that we always prayed. Now I go to their house to visit. And even if they're going to the store, the kids will say, before we go, let's bow in prayer and ask Jesus to protect us. Pray with your kids. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous dad is effective. Veileth much. Number two, I want you to notice a note I sent out and asked my kids for what they thought. And then I put it together with my thoughts. Number two, they said the most important thing in their life was family devotion. I want to say three things about devotions. Dad, it's imperative that you have a personal quiet time with Christ alone. Number two, it's so important to have it with your mate. Hosie and I, when the evening comes and you start getting tired, it's so easy. I take an evening shower and then I'm so relaxed. It's so easy then to just lie on the bed and devotions are... So, you can see my eyes winking. So, we said, you know what we're going to do? We're going to have our devotions before, so I don't sleep during devotions. Devotions with your mate. Devotions with your bride. Devotions with your sweetheart. One personal devotions, two with your mate. You say, life is so busy. Your life isn't any busier than mine, raising six kids in the house. But we made time with devotions. We decided to do it in the morning. And so, our boys loved to eat. Breakfast was a big deal at our house. We had breakfast together and dinner together. And Elizabeth loved to cook pancakes and eggs. with sour cream and covered with fruit. And the boys would eat that. That was their favorite meal. And you know, we would not allow them to eat until after we had our devotions together. And sometimes the girls took longer to get ready for school than the boys. But you know what? The boys liked to eat so much that they made sure the girls were there for devotions. Because if no devotions, there was no breakfast. I know we used the boys a little bit with that, but it worked. And then we'd be off on our way to school. You know, Psalm 1 says, "...Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sinneth in the seed of scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord day and night." Being in God's Word. I thought it was interesting last night, and this morning the kids called to wish me a happy Father's Day. And one of the things, One of them mentioned this, that, Dad, we don't remember a lot about the time or the things we learned in family devotions. I thought, well, that's really encouraging. And then one of them said this, but it impressed upon our heart the importance of God's Word in our life. I asked, Everyone, Lisa, Lonnie, Luana, Lena, Leanna, Landon, do you have family devotions? I know they did, but I wanted... Every day, they have devotions with their kids. And one of them said this, and Dad, there's no reason in the future that our children will not have family devotions. Because it's passed on from one generation to the second and now to the third. Family devotions. Imperative. Imperative. Number three, the third impact that they said, and I had all my lists, but they prioritized it. They said their third one was, my love for Elizabeth and Elizabeth's love for me. I tell people who have never met me, I say, my first wife left me for someone better. Then I tell them that's Jesus. I tell other people I am a bigamist, a biblical bigamist. I have two wives. I have one here and one in heaven. I love Josefina and I love with all my heart Elizabeth. And Elizabeth loved me. Now, folks, listen carefully. The strength of the family is not your love for your children, but your love for your wife. your love for your mate. That's what makes a strong family. A secular psychologist just recently wrote, and I read, three things are most important in every family. Number one was the love of a husband for his wife. Number two was the love of a parent for a child. And number three was how does the child fit into the family. Ephesians chapter 5 says these words, Husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church. I failed. I know I have not loved. I know I don't love my bride as much as Christ loves me. But beloved, that's our goal. Your kids need to see you holding hands with mommy. They need to hear you say, I love you, not to them primarily, but first of all, to your mate, back and forth. And beloved, I can't tell you how many times we'd sit at the table and I would reach out and take her hand and say in front of the kids, I will never leave you. I will never divorce you. And she would look at me and say, I will never divorce you, honey. And my kids knew that they were secure in our family because of that open commitment that we made before our kids constantly. Even when Josie and I, when there's others around, I'll say, Josie, I'll never divorce you. She'll look at me and say, well, I may go to Mexico, but you'll be coming with me. But your kids need that security. You go home and you say today, over the evening meal, honey, I love you, I'll never divorce you. And brother, there will be nothing that will secure and pull together your family any more than that. I want to say one of the things the kid mentioned when I asked him to respond. One of them began to cry and said, Dad, and I had never thought of this, said, Dad, you know one thing we picture in our mind? is that when Elizabeth was struggling with cancer, and you folks wanted to do things, and you wanted to do it together, you picked her up and you carried her on your back. Dad, your example of your love for Mom is an example of the love for my husband, for my wife. Beloved, that will make a difference in your family. We live in a pedocentric, a kid-centered society. And it's wrong. It's the love of a mom and dad that ought to be first. That's what they need to hear the most. Not just that you love them, but first of all, you love each other. Number four. And that was a difficult one. Number four. Being faithful to church. Dad, you instilled within us the priority of the New Testament church. The church. Now, I know this may not seem exactly fair, because they had to go to church. I was the pastor. And whether they liked it or not, they had to go. And they would go to Sunday school. And they would go Sunday night. And they would go Wednesday night. And they would go with me on visitation. Matthew chapter 16, the Lord said, I will build My church, beloved. The local church is His possession. It belongs to Him. It's a priority. And because of that, it needs to be a priority in our family's life. And when we would go on vacation, we would make sure that we did not travel in the morning. We would take time and take them to a different church. Then we'd travel in the evening. But we tried every time that we could to find a good church for the evening, but it was getting harder and harder to find a church with an evening service. But even in traveling, we made sure we spent time with God's people where we were traveling to teach them the priority of the New Testament church in their life. I want to again say, it was not easy for my kids because they were PKs. Do you know what that means? Preachers' kids. And there were certain men that took it upon themselves to keep the PKs in line. A Mr. Bradley, who was with the Lord, and a Mr. Splinter, who was with the Lord. And boy, if my kids, and they did, let me say, when my kids would get out of line, wow! But we are very careful to set the example The priority of the church. One of them said, Dad, we had no choice about going. And then they said, and my kids have no choice. They're going. You know, it made a huge difference. What a blessing to see them dressed up in their frilly, pretty dresses. And the guys, once a week with their tie. And their Bible in hand. going off to church. And if they got a 30 cent allowance, they pulled out three pennies to give to the Lord, teaching them to tithe, the importance of the New Testament church. Number five, the priority of Christian education. In our life, God made it very clear to us that the kids were the most valuable assets that God would ever give us. No matter what we did, we wanted them to have a Christian education. We started three schools. The total attendance in those three schools today is a thousand. But it seemed like everywhere that we would go in church planting, there was not a school there. I mean, if we hadn't started a school yet, we'd have to send them to a school. And so whether it was Lanakila in Hawaii or Hanalani, the church school that we started there, or Right here, it seemed like my kids were always older than the schools that were coming, catching up, and we'd start. And so that meant we paid to send them to Lanakila and Hanalani, Maile Bible, and the school here at South Meribach. And there were times financially that was very, very, very difficult because we paid. Pastors did not get to go free in other schools. And I have never regretted one penny of investment in the life of my children in Christian school. And when you add up all the years, times six, and all the years of Bible college, it was a large investment. And it was not an expense. It was an investment that I've never, never had a difficulty with. I want to say that there were times that things got very low because we were in church planting. We moved here and had very little income when we started. I qualified for a loan for my first house in this area at only a hundred dollars a month. That'll give you an idea of my income. And when we were in Hawaii, we raised support to go to the South Pacific. Our support level was 650. And we weren't allowed to stay in the South Pacific. And our first rental was 550 a month because of the expense of Hawaii. And we put our kids in a Christian school at great sacrifice. To make one more comment, kids reminded me of something very important. And they said, Dad, we're so glad that there was no option about going to a university or a college. without going, first of all, one year to a Bible institute or going to Bible college. That was never a question all the time. They knew the priority of Christian education, that they were going to a Bible institute or Bible college. By the way, Lonnie met his mate there. Luana met her mate there. Lena met her mate there. And so, it's not a bad place to get your MRS degree. But I, beloved, we'd seen too many young people go away and have their faith weakened in a secular state university. Or number two, find a mate that was not godly. Or number three, their thoughts of serving the Lord being taken away or whittled away. The priority of Christian education. From a child, Timothy had known the Scriptures. Number six, we simply said, thank you for the discipline. We had one that we had to correct. Again, I don't want to give out any names, but her name was Luana. And after correction, she would turn around and say, that didn't hurt. Somehow that just made the adrenaline. Somehow that gave extra strength, courage. Today she's the sweetest. She's the first one to call this morning and say, this is daddy's girl and I love you daddy. Thank you for being my daddy. Courageous, consistent, disciplined. And I won't go into a whole message concerning that at all. But let me just say, there was two things that were very important. One was consistency. If you said, if you touch that, you'll be disciplined. I would tell my boys, when you have your own car, curfew's at 11. If it's 11.01, you're going to get disciplined. And boy, you know, They always were home before 11 because they weren't sure what how dad's clock was running, but it was fast or not. And so consistency was very important. The other one was this. And this is a huge thing. Discipline for disobedience, not not this discipline for attitude, not just childish foolishness. Attitude. is what needs to be corrected. Quickly, number seven. I have more frailties, and I have more fleshly struggles, and I have more failures than probably any parent. I do. And one of the things that was very important was simply being real. Being real. Don't act like you are someone that you are not, so that they see the reality. I'm reminded of the word hypocrisy in the Scriptures, which means too masked or too faced. And that which was so very important to the kids was that Dad was quick to say, I am sorry. Please forgive me. I am sorry. Please forgive me. Ephesians 6 says, Provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurturing and the admonition of the Lord. And I believe that that inconsistency in your life, the insincerity in your life, not being real, is that main tool that the devil will use to revoke your children. Number eight, and we'll try and get in two more if I quickly can. Number eight, the kids said that which was most important for their framing them today was hospitality. We looked at our register of people who had been with meals with us. It was kind of like who's who in Christianity. from presence to Bible colleges and missions. It's no wonder the kids have a great desire to serve the Lord because of all the servants of God that were in a home. Scripture over and over says, practice hospitality. There was always someone stopping by at the house. Yesterday, several people stopped by at our house and counseled and worked through some things. Hospitality. There was always enough leftovers to share. You could always add a little more to something. They were always invited or we welcomed them to come and to join us for a meal. Beloved, people see your heart. They say, come on in and join us. You know, the house was never perfect with six kids. And often Elizabeth said that she had seven kids, but you can figure that one out. And the meals were not always the best. But there was always warm hospitality. Romans 12, given to hospitality. So, I said to the kids, I said, what is that important to you? And they said, you know, Dad, that made... it just drove home that people are more important than possessions. The other one said, the value of a soul. Invite people to your home. So your kids and your grandkids get to meet others in need of the Savior. Others who are serving the Savior. Quickly, number nine. This was very important for us. Number nine was to not be critical of God's people. Not be critical. I wanted my kids to have a love for the ministry, to have a love for the church, to have a love for God's people. And some of God's people are not easy to love. My message. You don't hear, that's a good message normally. What you hear is the criticism of that message. And I did everything I could to keep my kids from hearing that. Philippians 4 says, "...whatsoever things..." And there's that wonderful list of positive things. Protect your kids from the criticism of the ministry, the church. The church is not perfect. And there's some ornery critters in the church. Protect them. I remember when there was a pastor in Maine that fell into immorality. And it came over, that was WBZ News that was on. Man, I quickly got to the radio and I turned that thing off. I didn't want them to hear about that. I wanted to protect them from criticism. I wanted to protect them from the negative so that they would have a love and a desire for ministry as little children. And that was very important to us. I think we have time for one more. Kids mentioned the importance of Christian music in the home. We did not have a TV when we were raising the children out where it would be in public view all the time. We would take it out for special events or special things to watch. My kids today, my grandkids today, Josefina was watching a program the other day, and she said, what's the name of that program? I said, Little House on the Prairie. That's Michael Landon. We named our son Landon after that guy. At least that name. He wasn't a godly man, but we liked that name, Landon. And she said, I like that program. I said, here, and I buzzed in Lisa's, her little kids at that moment were out back playing Little House on the Prairie. Folks, protect your children in the home. We didn't even allow our children to have radios in their bedrooms. Never. When my oldest one got the first car, I took the radio out of the car. You're not going to listen to anything that Dad doesn't approve. And so we gave them tape recorders and Children's Bible Hour tape. Tape recorders and Patch the Pirate tapes. That was as radical as we got. Beloved, today, you go into their home. What are they listening to? Patch the Pirate. And they've all reproduced all of Aunt Bertha's Children's Bible Hour tapes and listened to them hundreds of times. I've got to close. I'm getting hungry. I guess the last thing my kids said that I had put down together, man, we did all we could to keep a togetherness as a family. And I want you to know, baseball, soccer, sports, activities, swimming, all of those things will pull your family apart. We said breakfast. We're going to eat together, no matter what. You're going somewhere. You're going after breakfast, evening meal. There were things that we wanted our kids to do. And we said, if you cannot be home at 530, we're not going to do it. Damn! Do you realize how important soccer is to me? Yes. But they could not understand how important being together as a family would be eventually. being together as a family, taking crazy vacations and doing wild and woolly stuff. I went rappelling one time and tied one of the kids onto my back to go rappelling. Another mentioned going Whitewater River rafting and tying everybody together so nobody would drown, or we'd all drown together, whatever. And they said that's made us very flexible today to be able to go and do things together as a family and be where God and to do what God wants us to do. I need to close. And so today, my Father's Day message is home. I hope my heart, I have opened a window on my soul Most of you have never known most of those things that I've shared with you from my heart this morning. But I am grateful for six kids married to six godly mates with 19 godly grandchildren that are reproducing those principles now on down to the next generation. I hope you'll grab a hold of some of these principles, dad and young men. and that you'll put them in practice in your life as the Holy Spirit makes the application to your heart. I'm astounded. I'm abhorred at the picture today of the Christian family. It's no different than an ungodly family. Now, beloved, there will be no hope for our country, community, or churches. Unless God's people turn out godly children, they'll have godly grandchildren. Let's bow in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank You for the privilege of being a dad and a granddad. And sometimes it's been very, very hard. That's been the biggest job that I've ever had. And Father, I thank you that the kids have turned out as well as they have. I thank you that the grandchildren are continuing to grow in you and love you and have a priority of serving you. And Father, we pray that that will be true in each life today. In Your name we ask, Amen.