My name is Pastor Nick Thompson. I'm from New Hope Baptist Church in Lexington, Indiana. This is Liam and Elise. He's my oldest. She's my second oldest, and I've got a third child. That's Ashlyn. She's four, and then I've got my fourth, and she's going to be nine months coming up here soon. And so, I appreciate you allowing me to come, I appreciate your pastor, I appreciate his vision, and I appreciate this church. You know, you think about it, not too long ago there was no church even here, now there's a plant. And you're a part of that, how exciting that is. How exciting it is that your pastor had a desire to come and start a church when he probably could have had the opportunity to go take a church. And so you should be appreciative of a good man of God. You should be appreciative of a good man that's young and stands by the stuff. Amen. Because there's a lot of people that want to water it down and make you feel good, and I guarantee you, he don't do that. Amen? And so, praise the Lord. Yeah, we're from a small town. I was thinking about it tonight as I was here. We're very, very remote, and so where we're at is a very high water table, so our whole property around our building It's got crawdaddy holes. So people think I'm joking when you walk up, there's these mounds of dirt all around our church, and it's crawdads. And I don't know, do y'all have that around here too, or do you really? Man, I don't know if we could sell them, get a fundraiser going, boil them, I don't know, but praise the Lord. Wow, man, I'm telling you what, did you know that was down here, brother? Man, that's crazy. I didn't know all that. But anyways, catfish bait, I guess. But I appreciate you allowing me to come. I appreciate you letting me preach. As I was driving here, the Lord just put a thought on my heart. Take your Bibles, go with me to Genesis chapter number three. But I want to read Psalm 40. The Lord put it on my heart. I really want to share my heart with you tonight. I didn't have the privilege to grow up in church. I didn't have that privilege. I was four or five years old. Can't remember. My parents divorced when I was younger. I was from a split home. My mom took me, and she raised us boys. She worked at a cement mill, and she was gone most of the time. And so I would have been that bus kid probably playing out in the street, and you asked to come to church. But my mom did the best she could, and I love my dad. I love both of them. I got saved in a boy's home and My heart goes out hearing about your was that your daughter your son Yeah Yeah, I got sent to a boys home when I was 16 years old. My mom drove down an old gravel lane, and that's where I was. And never knew, I never heard the gospel in my entire life. Didn't know what it meant to be saved, but I had to be there. And the people that ran that home, if it was not for them, I would not be where I'm at today. So you just tell them there are boys that make it. There's a lot that don't, but there are some that do. But I remember when the first time I heard the gospel preached, and I got saved, and after I got saved, your preacher would say, get you a life verse. How many of you has ever heard that before? Get you a life verse, a verse that speaks to you, a couple of scriptures that speak to you. Well, Psalm 40 is my life verse. It said, I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me, and He heard my cry. Verse number two it says, and he brought me up also out of an horrible pit. And for some reason as I was driving here tonight, that horrible pit was in my head, it was in my mind. That was my life without Christ. It was a horrible pit, it was a terrible place. I think of what I've got now. I mean, you look at my son, you look at my daughter, you look at my family, all the things that I have, God gave those to me. And then you focus and you pinpoint it down on family. Man, how important that is. I mean, I was a child that was from a divorce situation, not even saved, listen now, not even saved, saying, God, I don't ever want to get a divorce as an unsaved person. because I know what it did to me as a child, being ripped apart. Man, it's terrible. If you got a divorce tonight, you can't go back, but I'm telling you what, you can warn those that, hey, don't ever do that. We're teaching through Genesis right now in our Sunday school, and I'm going through how God instituted marriage and how God set that up. And the world's mode today and the biblical, the way God set that up is totally different today. It's crazy, man tries to mess up what God set up. God set it up, we just need to keep it that way. Amen? But anyways, I say this, I say, I've got what I've got tonight because God's good. Listen, when I come home, and I'm no expert, okay? There's some of you in here a lot older than me. You could probably teach me, amen? But I'm telling you what, when I get home, my kids run to me and they give me a hug and they say, I love you, Dad. My daughter says they love me and they want to be with me. And when I get home, I'm glad to be home. Yeah, I tell you what, I work with people that hate going home. They don't like to go home. I want to go home. I'd be the guy that says, all right, we're a little slow. Who wants to go home? I do. Isn't that a sad statement that we live in a country where people don't want to go home to be with their families? Man, I'm telling you what, I've got it good. I got it good because I did it by this book right here. And we'll look at a few things tonight. It says here in Genesis chapter number three, verse number eight, We're going to be talking about communication, and we understand that God wants to communicate with us, but sir, your wife wants to communicate with you. Amen. Your wife wants to communicate with you. Now maybe you're an excellent communicator, but that's my weakness. I don't like to talk. My wife will say 50 words, and I'll say two. We go somewhere, we'll go out, and she'll say, how was it? Good. You with me? It was good. She'll say in about 50 sentences without saying one word. But you need to communicate. Are you with me? Man, when you got married, you gave her your heart. She gave you her heart. What is that? That's the emotional part of you. You've got to communicate those emotions as time goes on. And when you do that, you know what? You have something special. I'm telling you what I am my wife and I he said how long he's in together I think he said what was it? How long now you and your wife? Seven years, but you said you was together. How long though ten years? That's a blessing brother. That's a blessing. Hey, man My wife and I were celebrating 15 year anniversary. I think we courted now listen before I got saved I didn't understand that thing according And I'm not hitting the, I'm not getting into yet, but Lord willing we'll get somewhere. But listen, I did it my way and I did it God's way. God's way is a lot better. Listen, if I would have been told that a young age don't touch before you get married, it would have helped me out a lot. Amen. Remember when I was in my boys' home, a guy, his name was Brother Heyman, and he'd come down, he'd teach us at the boys' home, we'd all be sitting on stools, okay? It was set up like a barracks, the guy that ran the home was military, okay? And we'd have a time of devotions that night, we'd all come, he figured there'd be 18-year-old boys sitting on this little old stool, and the guy was in a duty hut behind it, teaching the Bible. And his name was Brother Heyman, he was only probably about, what, a little over 5 foot tall. And when he'd teach us, I listened, man, because I wanted to have a good marriage. And he said something and it stuck with me, and maybe it's just too simple for some of us, but I'll tell you what, to me, it stuck with me. He said, I didn't want to marry a woman that someone else slobbered all over. Amen. You know what I said? I marked it down, I said, he's right about it. Amen? I don't want that either. And I made a decision when I was younger after that, I said, I want to marry a virtuous woman. Listen, if you're young in here tonight and you ain't married yet, you better mark it down on tonight, because outside your salvation, who you marry is the most important thing. And you need to listen to your pastor. I mean, he's been married just seven years, but I'm telling you what, God gives that man wisdom. He does, and he's going to help your family. And some of you might be too stubborn to listen to him, but it's going to hurt you in the end. I got a family right now. Parents decided to two young people like each other. And I said, Sir, can I talk to you? And we talked in my office and I said, I don't think this is a good idea. I love you. I'm not going to tell you what to do. I'm just going to tell you by way of being a pastor and loving you. I don't think this is good. Guess what they did? They got married. They left the church. Their young people divorced. It's sad. I didn't want that to happen. You with me tonight? But when you don't do things the Bible way, you're not going to get a Bible product. Amen? And that's what we want tonight. Listen, I don't think anybody here on a Thursday night doesn't want to do what the Bible says. I think everybody here wants to do what the Bible says. Amen? but you've got to follow through with what the Word of God says. Amen. And that's the hard part. You know what the hard part for me as an 18-year-old young man, after I got out of my boy's home and started living for God, I had to get rid of all the things I had been taught. You with me? Before I got saved and in church. Because the world taught me the wrong way about a lot of things. Are you with me? You go home, it's mealtime. Everybody grabs their plate, sits in front of the TV and watches the television while they're eating. What's that do? We're talking about communication. You're going to read about it in just a second, all right? In Genesis 3, that's where the communication was broken between us and God. But you know what happens in the home? People don't communicate no more. People are on their phone. People are in front of a television. And you don't have that contact with one another. Man, I love sitting at the table talking to my family. Are you with me? No, I don't have it all the time. I do. I work a lot. If I told you all my jobs, you probably wouldn't believe me. Actually, on my way here, I bid a job. I got a side business now. And I bid a job on the way here. He was helping me. I was pulling out an insert for a fireplace, trying to figure that out. And it's amazing. This guy, I power washed his house. Now he thinks that I can fix a fireplace. I was like, I don't know, but maybe I can, we'll see. And anyway, it's coming here, but we sat at Culver's tonight, and the basketball game was on, so my attention was caught a little bit, but we talked. I love talking with my family. Are you with me? Spend that time communicating with each other. A lot of issues in life can get worked out if you guys would just communicate with one another. All right, let's get into the message here. Genesis chapter three, verse number eight. And the Bible says this, and they heard the voice of Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And up until this time, now, listen, up until this time, they wanted to meet with God. Are you with me? But this is a totally different scenario now. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? He said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded that thou shouldest not eat? And we find right here in Genesis chapter 3 that we have a broken, severed communication between us and God. They ran from God. Are you with me tonight? The biggest encouragement that I can give you is when God speaks to you in His service, don't run out those doors, run to the altar and get right, amen? Let's pray. God, we pray that you bless tonight. Lord, I need your power. I need your touch. I need you, God, to do something I cannot, Lord. I don't know a whole lot, Lord, but I know a little bit that you've given me. I pray, God, that you bless. I pray I'd be a help in Jesus' name. Amen. Since the very beginning, God desires to communicate with His people. Man broke that fellowship because of sin. Are you with me tonight? You know what our problem is in marriage? It's our sin. It's our sin nature. My sin nature is selfish. You know what that means? I want the food before you get the food. I don't want to talk to you about what you want to talk about. I want to talk about what I want to talk about. And that's what we're talking about, communication, this sin nature, we've got to break that. Just as God desires to communicate with us and have a good line of communication, we also need to allow that to happen because then what happens is the flow of God, the love of God flows through us to be able to communicate that with our family. Because if not, if God isn't flowing through us, you know what's going to happen? We're going to communicate the old sinful nature way. Amen? My dad, how did my dad communicate me as a boy? You know what he did? He'd yell at me. My dad taught me, but a lot of the words he taught me aren't words I can use in church. Are you with me? Was that in you? It's in every one of us that grew up that way. Are you with me tonight? And I've got to communicate this young man. I've got to teach him. God's given me a son to instruct and to communicate to him. But if I communicate to him in a way that he can't receive it because I'm being offensive to him and I'm saying words that I shouldn't, I'm not doing what I should as a dad. Are you with me? You know how many doors I knock and I talk to people and they say, I just don't like my dad. I hate my dad. The devil wants to break the lines of communication between the fathers and the sons. The devil wants to break the lines of communication between the husbands and the wives. Because you know what, sir? There's going to be somebody out there that your wife will talk to. And there's someone out there that your husband will talk to if you don't talk to one another. And that's how it usually starts. There are some things that need to be communicated in marriage. If you're taking notes, number one is this. Problems. You got to talk about problems. You got to talk about problems. You know, there's a lot of times the guy doesn't want to talk about it, right? Get home, you're tired, it's been a long day at work, you maybe had a bad day at work, and the wife says, I got to talk to you about something. And you already got a bad attitude. Has anybody ever been there before? And you're like, oh, here it goes again. She's going to talk about this again. But you know what? You've already got a bad attitude going into it. What do you think's gonna happen when you start discussing that problem? Tempers are gonna flare, aren't they? Might be a good idea that night to say, you know what? Hold up. I just got home. This isn't the best time to talk about this. Are you with me? That's a huge thing right there. Did I just tell you when I get home, my kids run to me, my son. You know why most men don't want to come home? Because when they come home, they don't run to them. It doesn't happen to them. That happens because my wife has established that in the home. Amen. You got you a good woman. A good woman will honor her husband. A good woman will say, what the husband says is what I say. And I'm going to back my husband. And by the way, the husband's going to back the wife. Kids shouldn't look to mom or look to dad to get around the rules. Amen. They look at me and say, well, mom said, I don't care. You're going to do what mom said. Because what mom says is what dad says. Say, how do you know that? I was the kid, my parents divorced. I knew I could get something if my mom didn't give it to me. I was the best at that. You talk about a manipulator, I was skilled. Tell you that kid's grown up to be a salesman, maybe. You use car salesman, maybe. Are you with me? But our kids need to know mom and dad are on the same page. Because what's going to happen is that kid's going to come between you two and he's going to try to push you apart. You can't have that happen. It's good to see couples hugged up by each other. You know, when you see husband, kid, then wife, that's a bad sign. Amen? You need to have husband, wife, then kids. Hey, God gave you that husband or that wife before those kids. Are you with me? Yeah, and they're gonna leave someday. You probably experienced that, huh? Yeah, they're gone. And a lot of times when you're looking back at one another, I've not experienced that, but one day I'll do my happy dance. No. One day they'll be gone. No, I love my kids. But one day, I tell my wife all the time, I said, I'm 30, I'm actually 37, and we got a nine-month-old, so I'm like, man, well, 20 years, I'll be 57, all right. I figure out all the, you know, but you know what? When we're all, when the kids are out of the house, it's just gonna be me and her. Listen, I want you to think about that. Sometimes when that happens, two couples, they've gotta re-get to know one another. because they spent so much time apart from one another. I've tried the best of my ability. I'm not a night person. Is anybody with me on that? You're not a night person. I get up early so I won't go to bed early. The other day I went to bed at like 8 o'clock. With this time change, I sit in the chair and I'm asleep by 7.30. She says, you're not even 38. I said, I don't care. I'm ready to go to bed. But you know what the best thing to do is? Listen, you've got to etch out a time where you and the husband and the wife talk. You do, and it's got to be a time that you both agree on where you're going to discuss things. When all the kids are in bed, or maybe you're by yourselves, it makes it a little bit easier, but you've got to set aside some time. Listen, if the best time to talk about problems isn't when your husband gets home, then you need to set aside a time to talk about problems and deal with things. Things not dealt with fester and it turns into a problem, which then guess what? It'll turn into a huge problem because all the little things add up and all of a sudden one person blows up and now you've got a huge issue on your hands. That's how we deal with it, right? Our relationship with God is no different. You just don't go through the whole week and then all of a sudden on Sunday, well, I've got to get it right with the Lord. I was a Catholic boy. I was raised Catholic. You know, I'd go the whole half of the year, then I'd go confess. I'm like, the other half of the year, and I go confess again. And it was always the same thing. I fought with my brothers, I lied to my teacher, I had to say three Hail Marys. When I was a little boy, I'd go kneel down, I'd say, Hail Mary, Lord, I forget the rest, amen. I did it every time. The priest told me every time what to say, and it was always the same thing. But sometimes if we're not careful, we're Baptists, but we'll act like Catholics because we'll go so long without confessing to God. First John 1 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, what are we supposed to confess? Specifically, the things that we did. God, I'm a liar. God, I cheated. God, I looked at something I shouldn't have looked at. God, I have lust. God, I have this. God, I'm angry. I'm bitter. I'm hateful. You know, sometimes we don't confess to God, we just say, God, forgive me of all of my sins. No, be specific with God. Confess that thing and get it right. And then what happens? You have a clean slate between you and God. What does that do? That keeps a good relationship between you and God. In this passage, why is Adam and Eve leaving? Because they rebelled. They disobeyed God. See, when we disobey God, we break the communion. Now we don't have access between us and God no longer. But I'm glad that Jesus Christ bridged that gap, amen? So glad for that. And then, you know what? Every day of my life, I wake up, I don't know about you, but I sin. I don't mean to, I just do it. And I'm a good sinner. I don't know about you, but man, I sin all the time. I sure try not to, but I told my church the other day, I said, you know, our church would be doing all right if the pastor would stay right with God. And most of the time, probably the pastor's problem, I need to be right with God, not my knees, amen? But I'm telling you what, if we keep that access between us and God, you know what, now I've got access between me and the Lord. God, before I'm gonna go talk to my wife, see if there's something bothering her, would you give me the words and the way in which I can talk to her? You know, simple things like that we just don't do, and then we fail in our communication. My wife can't approach me, some of you may not be able to handle this, She can tell me something at a certain time, and I can usually take it most of the time. I'm just like, yeah, that was dumb. But I can't do that to my wife. Are you with me? I can't look at her and go, honey, that was really dumb. My wife can do that to me, alright? Because I can handle it. But you've got to use tact when you talk to ladies. Are you with me? You can't be married very long and understand that principle. And so there's a way in which you say things to one another. And you do it through love. You know the reason why we don't do things through love a lot of times? Because we have a root of bitterness. They did something to us. We held on to it. It's springing up. It's troubling us. And all of a sudden, you go sit down, have the mashed potatoes. There's your mashed potatoes. Where's the spoons? Flips it into your head. Right? Don't know where that came from. Are you okay? I'm fine. She ain't fine. That's that root of bitterness. Something happened. But see, if you do it every day, that's what I'm saying. People don't communicate every day. Because they're too busy communicating on Facebook. And it's not young people. Come on now. It's the older folks. Facebook's like an older folks thing now. I'm just, I'm telling you. I don't even know much about Facebook, listen. I get on Facebook because I try to sell things, alright? And, I'll just tell you something funny, I got on there one time, I don't know nothing about Facebook, and I seen all these people, and some of them were my members, and it said, like, confirm or add friend, and I was like, man, I don't know how long this has been on there, but I don't want them to think I don't want to be my friend, so I put all these people on there, and then I realized, that's not what they did, it just asked them to be my friend, and I went to my wife and said, I messed up big time. I said, I think I'm going to close down my account and start over. I don't know nothing about that stuff. Are you with me? And I'm glad that I don't. I'm glad that I don't. I took a trip, I was preaching a camp in Africa for a week, and I used it because we could communicate on Facebook, but there was very little other ways that you could communicate, and I got on there, and someone put something on, you just got to know me, I was a youth pastor at the time, someone put something on Facebook, it was nakedness and pornography, and I got mad. And I went on there and said, some of you say you're a Christian, but you're living like the devil. And I just started burning it up. My wife, she texted me privately, I don't know how you do that on there, she said, I think you need to deactivate your account. I can't see that stuff. We're living in a day and age today where the stuff that you used to do behind closed doors to anybody else to know, which is still wrong, you had enough sense not to go out and blast it in front of everybody. We live in a crazy generation. I'm going to send it, I don't care what you think about it, I'm going to put it in front of you, you got to be okay with it. Man, what a mess we live in. And so what happens today is we're communicating on Facebook to this person or that person, and the person you're right next to, you don't know much about. Kids don't know how to talk no more. They just don't know how to communicate. Hi, how are you? My name is Nick. What's your name? Good to meet you. Are you with me? How was your wife's day? How was your husband's day yesterday? What are they struggling with right now? Are your kids struggling with anything? How come you don't know that? Have you talked to them? Do you have a time of prayer? Do you have a family altar? No, we do good in Baptist circles. Listen, I told you I wasn't from a Baptist background, but for my whole life I was taught about an altar, but few people have a family altar. And as I was taught family altar, you know what? There's few people actually taught how to have a family altar. And so when I was, my wife and I got married, we'd open up the Bible and we'd just read it, and then we'd talk about it. That was our family altar. God and then now we've been married. We have kids. We got a little devotional book by Brother Smith David Dave Smith and it's got each day and he writes a little devotion on there and then it's got scriptures that you read along with it. So we open it up. We'll read that devotional together as a family and then I'll ask him. Hey, is there anything that we can pray for you about? It's amazing what your kids will say. Hey, are they dealing with something? Are they struggling with something? You know, if you've got your kid's heart, they might start sharing that with you and you'll find out they are depressed, they are thinking about suicide, they are thinking about drugs, they are thinking about the wrong type of friends. Where does that come from? Your family altar! Are you with me? You don't have to call some hotline, you don't need some psychiatrist, you just need to get the Bible open and get it open and spend time coming around it as a family and talking to one another. Man, I'm telling you what, I don't do it every day, okay? I don't have family out there every day. You say, why is that? Because Friday I'm gone all day working. I work 14 hours, okay? I drive a semi that day. Sunday I'm gone most of the day because I preach. I come back a little bit. I preach to them from the pulpit, amen? And then Sunday's the same way, but the rest of the week we get together as much as we can. And we can have that family altar. It's an important time. Amen. It's a special time. I got a four-year-old girl. Her name's Ashlyn. To hear her pray is the sweetest thing. When I'm old and gray-headed someday, I'm gonna close my eyes. I no doubt, I'm gonna be in her old rocking chair, rocking away. And I'm gonna think about the days of my little four-year-old girl praying at family altar. There's nothing more special than that. I'm telling you, there's nothing wrong. You know why kids grow up and they leave the home, they don't want nothing to do with church? Because it ain't real. It ain't real. How did your son know about that prairie quest tonight, pastor? Was it because you shared it with him? See, you can find out a lot during prairie quest time. If you're praying together as a family, just not writing prairie quest down, you know what? Your kids are going to start to see that it's real. Man, dad means business when he prays to God, and when dad does pray, God does things. God is real. When's the last time God answered your prayer? Man, I was in my church just a couple weeks ago. It wasn't this week, it was the week before. I was praying, and I was on my knees on Sunday morning, and I just asked God for a specific prayer. I said, Lord, I pray that a couple would come today that we've not knocked any doors and talked to, and God, that they'd just show up. I'll be honest with you, my faith may not have been there, but God's still blessed. And I come out, and I look out there, and there's a couple that no one knocked their door, and they showed up just a couple weeks ago. How about that? And I got to get up and say, man, I prayed, and God gave me a directive. Hey, when's the last time God answered a specific prayer for you? That is when God becomes real to you, and when He becomes real to you, you can then share that to your kids. We've got a live faith. We've got a lively faith. This isn't just something we talk about. It's not just something we put a suit or dress clothes on, look nice and come to church and hopefully put some deodorant on. Amen. It's a little bit more than that. And that's what your kids are looking for. My kids know me better than anybody else. And by the way, I'll be honest with you tonight. I care what some folks say. I want to have a good name. But at the end of the day, I more care about what my kids think. Because I don't want to see them get away from God. There's a lot of times I come home and say, son, I'm sorry I messed up. I did some things that was wrong. Because I want my kids to know that it's real. Amen. All right, so problems, you got to talk about them. You may run into all sorts of things. Don't throw your clothes on the floor. Right? Come on, man. I don't do the laundry in my house. I try. To do other things, I do do the dishes, okay? I take them and throw them up and I shoot them with a shotgun. I say, son, pull, boom. The neighbors don't like that, they live close, so. Somebody look at me, are you really done? Don't do that, alright? But you know how frustrating it is if a couple sits down and they talk and the wife says, you know, you put your clothes on the floor all the time, could you put them in the basket? Yes, honey. And the next day you throw them on the floor. That says I do not respect you. I don't care about anything you have to say, and I'm going to trample all over you. You're not thinking about it, you're just throwing it on the floor, but that's what she thinks. Amen. I remember Brother Hall used to say in Bible college, he said, just put a backboard on the back of the basket, so when I throw it, I have something to aim at. My pet peeve is, turn off the Yes! Turn off the lights! I come home and every light on the house is on. I said, our house is not the Christmas tree, amen? Turn off the lights! And I'm telling you what, it's still getting me right now, I gotta let the bitterness out. But you know what, when you talk about things, and then I come home and my wife is diligent to turn off the lights that they're not using, she respects me. She's honoring me. She's doing what, we're in this together. Because the devil wants to do this, the devil wants to put you off to the side and put her off to the side and say, you ain't in this together. A long time ago, my wife, I looked at her and said, I grabbed her hand, and there's a way, by the way, to talk to him. I said, sweetheart, can I talk to you? Can we sit down? Listen, away from the kids. Don't ever talk about problems in front of your kids. How much time do I got? Listen, don't ever talk about problems in front of your kids. That's the worst thing you can do. You come away from the kids, you sit down, and you say, sweetheart, now listen. And you talk to her. And you go through things. Amen? Alright, I'm only through my first point. I'll go through three more points, and I'll be done, but they'll be quick, alright? Go with me to Proverbs chapter number 14. Proverbs chapter number 14. If you're with me, say amen. All right. I do have a joke tonight, you want to hear it? Yeah, did you hear about that turkey, the guy in the fight? He got the stuffing beat out of him. All right, some of you laughed, praise the Lord. So when you communicate with problems, there's different ways that people respond. When you look at Proverbs chapter 14 verse number 17, it says, he that is soon angry deal foolishly. There's some folks that you can't talk to and they get angry right away. That is not how you should respond. Are you with me? Should be slow to wrath. And if it hits you that hard, there's probably a reason why you're getting mad so quick. It's not how she's telling you, it's about the issue she's talking about, and you're not getting it right. I'm speaking from experience. Amen. Number two, chapter number 18 and verse number 17. Proverbs 18, verse number 17. Know what, that's the... Is that the right verse? No, I ain't got that. That's the wrong verse I must have wrote down. But it's talking about the fool's mouth. Sometimes what happens too is we cut up. Men, we cut up when a woman's trying to talk to us. She's trying to tell us something, and we just joke about it. Are you with me? When a woman wants to be serious and a man cuts up about something, that shows her, hey, what you're saying ain't important to what's going on right now. I've been guilty of that one too. Anybody in here as well? So we cut up, we blow up, but the big thing is we need to start maturing. Look at Ephesians chapter number 4. Ephesians chapter number 4 and I'll be done tonight. Ephesians chapter 4 and we'll be done. Galatians, Ephesians 4. Maturity needs to happen. Maturity needs to happen. My wife's waiting for me to mature. He's shaking his head. You too? Okay, all right, good. Ephesians 4 15, it says, But speaking the true in love may grow up in him into all things, which is the head. Grow up in him in all things. See, when you mature as a Christian, are you with me? And you start to mature in your marriage, See, my wife had been saved and in church a long time. She knew all these things. In fact, there was a lot of times she's like, this isn't the way it's supposed to do. You need to do what the Bible says, honey. And you know what? She was right about it. I needed to grow up and mature. And as I matured in my Christian walk, I've seen that the way I responded in marriage is not the way the Bible says you're supposed to. Christ will grow you up, you'll mature, you'll start to be able to talk about things, you'll have a level head when you talk about things, you start to work on the issues, and man, you know what? You'll start to have a marriage that you're really excited about. Christian people shouldn't be screaming at each other. Are you with me? You shouldn't go into a house and the kids, everybody sit on edge. You know, you go into a house and everybody's like this. They don't want to say nothing. Oh, he should be natural. There's some houses I go into, and the man is so emotional, he yells all the time. Kid does some, what are you doing? So when that kid grows up, that kid's gonna scream too. They're a family of screamers. They'll all just scream. Are you with me? I got through my first one. Second one is hurts. Need to talk about hurts. I touched on it a little bit. Hebrews 12, 15, talking about bitterness springing up. And the best way to deal with all that is Proverbs 10, verse 12. It says, Hatred stirreth up strives, but love covereth all sins. Hate comes from the works of the flesh, Galatians 5, 19 and 20, but love comes from the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, 22. And the only way we can truly communicate is to be filled with the Spirit of God. And the only way to be filled with the Spirit of God is to die to that old wicked flesh. Die to self. So I can be filled with the Spirit, and when I'm filled with the Spirit, what is the first fruit of the Spirit? Love. And then I can respond to my spouse, I can respond to my kids, in love. And love covered them all to the sins. You know what that gives me? It gives me the opportunity to come home when the lights are on, I don't get mad. Cool as a cucumber. Hey honey, lights are on, that's okay though, I know you had a tough day. I'll shut them all off. Why? Because I'm not letting my flesh. But see, when I'm letting my flesh, I got home from work, work was a bad day, and that light, it gives me a red light to let vent all the things that's happened today. And then once you let all that out, hatred stirs up strife, your kids don't like you, everybody's like, what am I gonna do? And the damage you do in that moment will last forever. That's why it's so important that we die to this old flesh. And my flesh, I've messed up a lot because I've allowed my flesh to lead me, control me. And I said, no, I don't want to. God, help me to die to this thing. But also, Paul said what? I die daily. That's the message for tonight, communication. I ask you if you would tonight bow your head and close your eyes. Brother, I can run the invitation unless you want to.