Open your Bible to Ephesians 6, thanks, James. Put your finger there if you're using a paper bottle and go to Hebrews 13. Hebrews, it's the famous coffee book of the Bible. Because Hebrews 13 and 8, go there real quick, Hebrews 13 and 8.
We're going deeper this year. It's the word over our church, deeper relationship, deeper commitment. A deeper commitment to conversion. A deeper commitment to the things of God.
A deeper commitment to not being nasty and ugly and mean. A deeper commitment to being sensitive to the Holy Spirit. A deeper commitment to discipleship. A deeper commitment all the way around.
A deeper commitment to be the daddy that you know you should be. A deeper commitment to be the mother that you should be. A deeper commitment to be the son or daughter that you know you should be. You know, if you're a child and you have two ears and you can understand English, it's also your responsibility to be a partner of peace in your home.
You don't get the right to just hide behind. I'm a child indefinitely. Your parents, if they're doing what the Word says, aren't raising you to be a kid. They're raising you to be a man or woman of God.
So you don't have to always agree with your parent. But it is very wise to you to honor them. And if you will do that, you can walk in peace that many of your peers will not be able to walk in. Because they're constantly trying to figure out how to prove their parents how wrong they are.
Instead of just saying, you know what, God didn't make a mistake when he put me where I am. Where I'm being raised. God has not made a mistake there. There are many beautiful things that come in a family or a family environment.
But peace is one of the most valuable commodities. And if you have it, a lot of times it's taken for granted. And when you don't have it, you'll do almost anything to get it. Peace is something that's radical.
Peace makes bedtime easy. Peace makes mornings a joy. Peace makes coming home from work a joy. Peace makes coming home from school a joy.
Instead, what the world does is the world gives their worst to their family and their best to their friends. Say that again for the youth. The world gives their best to their friends and their worst to their family. It shouldn't give your worst to anybody.
But if you're going to triage it, your family should get your very best. If you're going to please and thank you the bank teller and the Starbucks attendant and the Taco Bell window person, then you should please and thank you your parents. You should please and thank you your brother and sister. You should please and thank you those who have committed to raising you.
You should learn the lifestyle of honor because honor cannot be taken from you. Honor can only be given from you. Respect is an earned thing, but honor is given. Meaning if I do not do things that are respectful, your respect for me could go down.
But your honor for me, that is 100% on you. So who you honor, why you honor, and how you honor is based on you a thousand times more than it's based on the person who's receiving that honor because honor cannot be lawfully taken from somebody. Honor can only be given. I do not honor necessarily the people that I honor because I know everything about them.
I honor the people that I honor because I am an honorable person. I'm an honorable person. I am able to give honor. I'm honorable.
Does this make sense? So in your household, you develop these statutes, and that way, and again, you work through whatever you have to work through. But these have to become the standards if you're going to line up with God's Word. And so many times, young people are given an out because everybody keeps saying stuff like this, oh, you think they're good now, wait till they're two, as if some time bomb goes off at two years old.
And then you get through that. You didn't have all the problems the world said you were going to have. And they say, well, you think that's bad. You think they're good now, wait till they go to school.
Boy, do they change there. And then you find out that living and raising them in the fear and admonition to the Lord, they don't become a monster. Then they say this, well, wait till they're a pre-teen. Whoo, and they get to be a pre-teen.
Boy, are they going to be whatever. And then that doesn't happen. And you say, well, I guess the world is a liar. And then you get to the teenage years and not every teenager, but the radical bulk of young people have heard their whole life that you're supposed to be crazy when you're a teenager.
So most of them that are crazy are just living up to the expectations that have been going on them. Almost always you get what you anticipate. So if you anticipate walking in a room and nobody hates me, everybody's against me, all to go eat worms, you're going to feel like everybody's against you if that's what you're anticipating. But if you walk in and say, well, I don't know if they do or not.
But I'm just glad everybody loves me. Praise the Lord. My father loves me. That's good enough for me.
Praise God. I'll just walk in there. There's enough love in God that I can just be in a big force field of love everywhere that I go. Well, what do you think about that?
Well, I don't think about that. Don't you hear what they said about you? No, I didn't hear it. Well, what do you think about what they said about you?
I don't think about what they said about me. I cast down vain imaginations in any thought that exalts itself above the knowledge of God. As a matter of fact, I think about what God says about me to the best of my ability all day long. And when I find myself not doing that, that's when my peace is affected, not their mouth.
Your peace is what's affected when you think on what the world is thinking or saying about you. I believe it was Joyce Meyer that says holding a grudge is like drinking poison and thinking it's going to hurt the other person. It affects your peace. So in the name of Jesus, we as believers, we're going to walk in peace.
Now young people, you guys have the opportunity to do that at a young age. You don't have to wait for it. You don't have to go and find out the world will hurt you. Your parents are not lying to you and they tell you the world will hurt you.
And there's plenty of hurt in the world without you going grabbing some more of it. You're going to have plenty of bad days without going and making bad days. So there's got to be a desire to live in peace and honor in your own home even as young people. All the young people say amen.
All two of you, praise the Lord. Now moms and dads, just because you have the authority doesn't mean you get to go walking around like a tyrant. You're not trying to make kids be submissive to the point of passivity out landishly passive to you. You're trying to raise them in an honorable environment but also maintaining their confidence to the nth degree.
And it is a lot easier to put insecurity in somebody than it is confidence. So you got to be putting confidence, confidence, confidence, confidence, confidence, confidence, confidence, confidence, confidence. And then little doses of humility. Little doses of humility.
But most people in society are raised the opposite. So they are constantly told, don't think higher than you are. Don't do this. Stay humble.
Stay humble. Stay humble. And what they're really saying is, I want you to think you're inferior to me. That's what they're really saying.
I want you to know how smart I am, not to know how smart you are. So a lot of people are raised in an environment like that. So there's a cunning out of sorts that takes place all the time. It takes place in the teen years whenever they realize, wait a minute.
I'm not an idiot. Wait a minute. I'm not dumb. And usually the one that tells them that is a boyfriend or a girlfriend.
And then you're trying to figure out how to their soul get tied to them. It's because they said what they've never heard in their home. So now they get confident and all I want to be is, I just want to be with her. And we're going to get married when we're 11 and we're going to go by a private island.
And it's going to be so amazing. And everything's going to be great because mom and dad can't tell me what to do anymore. Instead of, they walk in knowing who they are in Christ, that they have the mind of Christ, that God is their confidence. And now all these little barbs that can hook into somebody else, they just bounce off the shield of faith because they're not moved by that, because their mom and their dad have been telling them how beautiful they are since they were born.
Their mom and their dad have been telling them how capable they are since they were born. And so now all of a sudden you have a weapon against the world instead of somebody who you have to be concerned about the world getting on. Like the devil wakes up and we are the monsters under his bed. You hear what I'm saying?
Instead of being fearful, now we are just trying to be wise about the time to set them free. When do I lose them? Blessed is a man whose quiver is full. In other words, you have spiritual arrows that are always available to you.
If you have children, those are yours. Many people have spiritual children as well. People that have influence in their life. And the reality of your situation is to try to figure out when do I lose them.
But you kids need to understand too. The loosing only comes after you've been pulled back. You have no power until you are pulled back. You have to get to the place where you don't kick constantly about being pulled back.
Well, I feel like I'm ready now. You're not ready. Well, I really feel like I'm ready now. You are not ready.
You know who can talk like that? Somebody who's been there? If you're a kid, you know where you've never been? There?
Nobody's but a grudge in you. I'm telling you that there's a place in you that you've got to realize God needs somebody. And if you'll trust that hand that pulls you back, they'll be a day when they let you go. And you'll find how safe the quiver was.
Because it's bloody if you accomplish what you were accomplished to do. An arrow was never supposed to live in a quiver indefinitely. It was designed to pierce the heart of something that usually didn't want its heart pierced. It's quite a library.
There's a place of perfect peace in a household. And if you've ever struck that cord, you'll do anything to stay there. But if all you've ever heard is, I'm getting a raise when they turn 18. Am I ready for them to get out of the house?
Boy, me and mama, we're really going to have some fun when they leave. All you feel like, all you feel like is a burden. They go to college. Oh, man.
All my money and my kid goes to such and such. Well, keep confessing that because you have what you say. I'm just ready to get out of here. The question is, are they saying that because they thought or they saying that because it's the mirror of what they've heard.
Because the mirror looks the same as just backwards. You stand in the mirror. Whatever's on your shirt is still in the mirror. It's just inverted.
So if all they've heard is I can't wait for you to leave. Boy, they're crazy. Oh, 15 years old. They don't have a brain.
If that's all they've heard. They don't have to live up too much to hit the expectations. But if instead we're pulling them in the way they should go. It says, no, we don't talk like that.
No, no, no. Even when they do something bone headed, who in here has ever done anything bone headed? Just wave at him. Don't ever correct your child or who you're raising by saying you're stupid.
Because the power of life and death is in your mouth. So you're either breeding fire and life into them or death. So what you do is you say, hey, whoa, hold the phone here. That's not what we do.
That's not what you do. Matter of fact, I know how smart you are. And that's not how you behave because that's not how we behave. Now here's the rest of the story there.
You can't say that's not how we behave if you behave that way. That's called a lie and that makes you what's called a hypocrite. And it's really hard to listen to a lying hypocrite. There'll be a lot of people that don't agree with you if you decide to hold some lines and it'll make stuff up about you.
But it's really hard to listen to and follow a lying hypocrite. So you as a parent, you've got to decide. I've got to be the example because kids don't always do what we say, but they do do what we do. That's why we're in your seat belt so important.
That's why if you can't kick the Copenhagen habit because God says that you're supposed to have dominion over the field, then you need to kick it because you don't want your babies getting lip cancer because they do what you do. Not what you say. You need to kick the Marlboro light habit for the sake of your children. Well, you know what?
I've been smoking this law on my grandpa lived to 85. No good parent wants the idea of cancer getting in their child's lungs. And that's what you're doing when you set that example in front of them and then tell them not to do it. You're a hypocrite and a liar because they don't do what we say as much as they do what we do.
Therefore, we do what we want them to do and we do it earnestly, honestly, and sincerely, not just because they're watching but because God has given us victory in all these areas and we are the example for our children and we take up that place and therefore when your children do come home and say, hey, they're teaching this at school, then before you're about to just lose your whole mind and say, I'm going to school right now. Then they say, but I told them that's not true because that's not what the Bible says. And now your child is a walking talking witness because you have taken the time not just to make them an arrow but to pull them back. But here's the other problem with an arrow.
It doesn't aim itself. An arrow goes where it's fired. An arrow goes in the direction that it is released. So most of the time, not all the time because kids do have a mind of their own, but most of the time, parents are frustrated about what they tolerated at home and they're not frustrated because they tolerated at home.
They're frustrated because it's being known publicly now. Listen to me. Get in here right now. And because it's tolerated at home, then it happens in public.
Now we're embarrassed. I mean you, but tomorrow. Now the parent is embarrassed and when embarrassment comes in, the next thing that usually follows is something flamboyant. And if it's not loud and at them, it will be to your friend you're sitting next to at the little league game saying, can you believe little Johnny does that?
Boy, all kids are dumb, aren't they? And you will join the chorus of the world when it comes to your children. This is why it's so important. Who coaches your kid?
Who teaches your kid? Who gives your child lessons? Who you have them around? If you ever get to a place where you get in and the school and the teacher is demonic, fully demonic, I'm telling you, you got a choice.
You either get them out of that school or you get them out of that class. Well, I don't have time for that. It's your hands. You got to make time.
Well, I don't know what I'll do about money. I'm telling you what you'll do about money. You're going to work. You're going to put your hand in the plow and you're going to believe God for the rest.
But we're not risking our kids for a dollar. I'm not risking my kid for my career. Come on somebody. We're not risking our kids for our career.
Well, if I take 10 years off, man, my career will be destroyed. Well, right? Your kids will be built. What are you doing?
I'm getting ready when you're going to let them go. When he says, what are you waiting on? I'm waiting on him to say, loose. I feel like we've just hit almost like, because this is kind of taking over our services last few weeks.
I feel like we've hit just a season of family, a season of beauty in family, where we all understand that we all have responsibility in it. I'm a word, I'm a word guy, okay? I can't hear a word without breaking it into four parts. Responsibility, responsibility, my ability to respond.
How are you responding to your kids? Because it is your response ability. How you respond. Kids, how are you responding to your parents?
Well, they made me so mad. Well, suck it up, Buttercup. If you're hearing me talk, you're old enough. If you're hearing me talk, you're old enough.
And a lot of this is your responsibility. Well, they said this to me. Well, maybe they weren't right. But two wrongs don't make a right.
And you can decide to be honorable. You can decide to love your parents. You can decide to be a partaker of the grace that's on your house by sowing peace into it. What would happen if you emptied the dishwasher and you weren't asked?
What would happen if you took the trash out and you weren't asked? You're not shocked after dinner. The stuff's got to be put away. Can you believe that?
It's fort just isn't. It's got to be clean. What if you did that? Well, you know, I just hate doing that.
Who likes doing dishes? If you do, I've got a job for you. Just call the church. You're hired.
What would happen if you cleaned your room? You just cleaned it. What would happen if you helped clean your parents' room? I don't know if they want you in there, I don't know.
Walk up and clean the living room. I've doubled all there to get you a paper towel and some multi-cleaner, some Windex, and wash the windows and walk in. Have your mom walk in with you wiping the windows down. Pick her up off the floor.
No mom, it's good. You're all right. It's just gonna be like, what happened? I don't know.
I had a vision. I walked in. You were cleaning and you were laughing and you were singing a song about the Lord. And here you are wiping the windows.
No mom, that was really me. There she goes again. Come on, we can do better. No matter how good you're doing, you can do better.
I'm not feeling this this morning. You just live to hand. All the moms were like, you're coming by Walgreens on the way home. I just feeling my spirit about Windex.
Praise God. And wake up tomorrow morning. They gotta roll a bounty, roll a paper towels. It's a Windex.
I don't know, baby. I just wanted to bless you. Praise God. Come on, let's be the example.
Let's make the Philistines envious. Let's never speak another ill word about our children or any other child. The best I've ever seen about her is Pastor Crystal. She's never one time, and we've been married now for some time.
Been married for a while. Praise God. Almost one of years. We've been married for a while now.
She's never ever ever said anything ill about a child. On the contrary, sometimes kids, they don't do what they want, but I know what's in them. It's good. I know what's in them.
It's good. Now, when I met her, I didn't know anything about children. I didn't know which side to put the diaper on. But you can decide today that you're going to change that.
Maybe you're already working on it. You're just going to make a little bit more. I hear this in my spirit. You parents with grown kids, you can still talk that way.
You can still call that good out of them. Oh, you're better than that, baby. I know you're better than that. The hand of God's on your life.
That's why you're still alive. You can tell them. They'll do it in Jesus name.