Family Life Now and in the Millennium

I hope everybody is enjoying this wonderful feast. You can see the backdrop here. This is an image representing the coming Kingdom of God, where everything will be peaceful and beautiful.

But we know how things are going to take a turn for the worse before Christ returns.

We look forward to the time when Jesus Christ returns, but it will be to a shocked and frightened, modern world. In Matthew 24, verse 30, it says the nations will lament, which other translations have, they will cry in anguish. In God's word version, it says from the term, Greek term kapto, which means to beat their breasts with anguish. There'll be fear, shock, regret, anger, because the rulers of this world will lose their rulership. People will not have self-determination and determine their own ways. The religions of this world will all collapse and end, except for the true religion of God and his Christ. And all those aberrant lifestyles will also come to an end.

Yes, before Christ returns, the time will come when God will intervene in world affairs and it will not be a pleasant moment. Far from it, it will wake up and shock the world. If you turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 4, 2 Timothy chapter 3, 1 through 4, it tells us about the end time conditions. And brethren, we are drawing to a close as far as society is concerned, from everything we see, the budding of the fig tree. And it says here in verse 1, But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves. And that's a good description of modern society, focusing on oneself, selfishness, lovers of money. That certainly is the case today more than ever before. 50, 60 years ago, people worked and they tried to make a buck to sustain their families, maybe a little extra. But now it's like a giant roulette wheel, where all of this money is being gambled in all different ways. And the greed has just risen up, the smell all the way up to heaven. He says, they will be boasters and we see that. No real humility, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents. And we see even the way people dress is a way of showing whether you respect your parents or not. As the saying goes, as a man dresses, so is he. It shows a lot. Outer manifestation shows the inner spirit and heart. It says, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanders, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God. That's a good definition of what we see today and how society has changed, as Dr. Ward mentioned in the first sermon, the first day of the feast, of how society has just changed in the last five, six years. Just dramatically. It's like the dike broke and all these perversions have now just flooded the world. You see it wherever you go. People are so disoriented and they just don't know how to live properly anymore.

And then in Luke chapter 17 verses 26 through 30, it says, as it was, in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. We know God destroyed that world of Noah. In Noah's day, people just, the sins rose up to high heaven. God had to intervene. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. And so there is a mighty judge, and he's the owner of everything. And the way this earth is being trashed, how would you like people to trash your own home? How long would you put up with that? The same way. It says that when the sinners reach their threshold, the sins reach their threshold, God is going to intervene. Continuing on, it says likewise, in other words, in a like manner, as it was also in the days of Lot. They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built, but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so, it will be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed and so we have two great characteristics. During the time of Noah, the great characteristic was that violence filled the earth. There was a chaotic society. It was the law of the jungle. And so people just did what they wanted to and the violence was just rampant. It said the earth was filled with violence there in Genesis. But the main characteristic of Sodom and Gomorrah was not so much the violence. It was the lifestyles, the perverted lifestyles, to the point where nobody could go in there without the threat of either being raped or sodomized as the term Sodom. That's where it comes from. That's what we're seeing today, the flaunting people thumbing their noses at God, daring him to intervene. Just this week, I just got an archaeological report from Nature Scientific Reports.

This is headed by Dr. Phil Silva over there in the area where it's believed where the remnants of Sodom and Gomorrah take place. It's called Tal el Hamam. It's on the eastern side of the Jordan. This is what 22 scientists working from 15 years in this tell. It says, they provided detailed evidence that a cosmic air burst, 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima, obliterated Tal el Hamam, the largest city in the Dead Sea area, during the time of Abraham. Of course, all points to this being ancient Sodom, and then it has other destroyed little towns around it, like Gomorrah and others. These people, the report says, were killed by the heat and pressure of an atomic-like explosion, but without the radiation. They dug in this destruction layer and they found bones with the glass-like fibers from the explosion, even the clay and the dirt and dust in that area. It turned into kind of a quartz, or even the carbon turned into diamond-like micro parts to it. The only other places they have seen this on earth is where they have dropped atomic bombs and how it just turned a lot of that clay into glass. The iron melted, and this is over 20 scientists came up with this conclusion. So, brethren, God is serious about the situation. Everything is going to be fulfilled just as He said. And, of course, today on Family Day, the question is, what can we do? How can we prepare?

And the message is to spiritually prepare and to prepare our families. We know the world is going to go through a time tunnel of about three and a half years. Once it starts, it's like the pains of a woman giving birth. It's not going to end. It's going to intensify. We'll have to see what happens if COVID is just the beginning of those birth pangs. It could very well be, because of the violence and the perversion as it increases God like a loving parent is going to punish more intensely the earth. It wants them to wake up, to realize He is not playing around with mankind. We'll go into a three and a half year time tunnel. The church is going to have to flee to its place, as it tells us in Revelation 12, 14 through 17. There will be a dome of protection over that area. Just like in the Feast of Tabernacles, God puts a dome of protection. There's going to be a dome of protection. Also, once you get in, you can't get out. Once you want to get in, if it's closed, it's closed. So we need to prepare our families for what is coming.

Some calculations have it that that 6,000 year period is just around the corner to finish, before we begin that 1,000 year period of the millennium. So we'll have to see. Nobody knows the hour or the day, but it does tell us as a fig tree. You have to look, and when it starts budding, you know the time is short.

So we're looking to a future kingdom, but the benefits are based on what we do now. Turn with me to Malachi chapter 4. This is a promise from God, and it's also a warning from God. Malachi chapter 4 verse 5 and 6. It says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And this is a symbolic term. We know Elijah is still dead. He's going to be part of that first resurrection, but there's going to be a work of Elijah, and we believe we are part of that work of Elijah. And there's going to be more that God is going to bring out as the times get nearer. And he says, Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. Those little children that are here, that gave here these beautiful songs, they're the future of the church. And we have to learn how to turn the hearts of the children toward the parents, and the parents' hearts to the children. You need both. You need the cooperation of the children and the cooperation of the parents. One side can't do it all. And so here we have five biblical rules to rule your house well, as it tells us in 1 Timothy, chapter 3, verses 4 through 5. And I'm cutting here in the paragraph, but this is the job description of a pastor, but the principles apply to church members as well, and they are lofty goals. It says, one who rules his own family well, having his children in submission with all reverence. For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? Of course, he's talking about the parents here. They're working together hand in hand. But this is a mini kingdom that God has given to everybody to take care of, to see how we apply God's laws in a balanced and proper way so it produces good fruit.

One of the reasons we're commanded to live in temporary dwellings during the feast is to have an undistracted view of that world to come and to realize that we are like a mini kingdom that we are managing now. Responsibilities and roles are included in every person of the family. It's not just the parents, it is also the children.

Yes, everybody has a role to play. Whether husband, wife, or child, God is watching to see who pleases him. It's a vital aspect of family life. Whether you're single, widowed, an orphan, it doesn't matter. Do you rule your house well? Colossians chapter 3, verse 18-21, tells us here, Wives, submit to your own husbands as it is fitting in the Lord. So a wife has to learn. She is the co-pilot in the home. She has to know how to run the home. And yet you can't have two captains in the cockpit. But I always thought I wanted to marry a wife who wasn't a stewardess serving drinks on the plane. I wanted a wife who was there in my cockpit and if something happened to me, she could take over and run that ship and take care of the children. God granted me a wife like that. But you have to know there's a pilot and there's a co-pilot that both have roles to carry out here. It goes on to say, husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them. So here's the role of the husband. It is to love your wives. And it mentions many times as Jesus loves the church. It is a self-sacrificing love. It's the husband who puts his wife and children first. Then he takes over and does everything else that follows. It has been said, a wife has no problem submitting to a husband that loves her and puts her first. But a husband cannot expect the wife to do her part and him not doing his part. It's harder to have that self-sacrificing love of the leader that puts the others first than the co-pilot that is there to help out. But he's not calling all the big shots. And it takes a lot to have that self-control and discipline and also that serving attitude that Christ had. He says, and do not be bitter toward them. So he has to rise up above the problems. He can't let anger be there that creates bitterness. And a root of bitterness destroys a home faster than just about anything else. And of course, it's the husband who has to take care of that. So you don't have that bitter type of atmosphere. Like it says, don't let your wrath be projected farther than sunset. The next day, you have to start anew. Loving, serving, goes on to say, children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. So children are supposed to learn to obey, to submit to the parents, because it says it is well pleasing. God will bless you if you are that type of a child that you're cooperating in the family, instead of resisting and rebelling and making things more difficult for your parents. Remember, you're going to give account to God as well. Fathers, do not provoke your children. Here's an attitude that, okay, it says don't, you know, pull your weight around in the family, because you are the father. That's not what authority means. Authority, it means to use it profitably, wisely, lest they become discouraged. Do we have children that are discouraged into home? They just can't wait to get out, because it's a type of an oppression. Well, we're not following God's instructions here, if we are. Then in Proverbs 20 verse 11, it says in the Good News Bible, even children show what they are, but what they do. You can tell if they are honest and good. In other words, children produce fruits as well by their actions. Actions speak louder than words, and so it says that a child also can show what he has inside by how he manifests on the outside. Rule number two.

Ephesians 6, 4, it says, parents do not provoke to anger your children.

Do not let the anger of the child build up against you, especially in those teen years where kids are finding their own self-identity, and it's easy for the anger of the child to build up against you.

And we need to learn to avoid severity.

If they are punished with severity or cruelty, they will only be hardened and desperate in their sins. This is from Clark's Bible commentary. Cruel and overly strict parents usually have bad children. They don't turn out well. Children react more emotionally. They don't know yet how to control their emotions with their minds. So we need to go from the discipline by parents to self-discipline. We are building the basis for children to develop self-discipline.

Society helps create anger. When you're upset about something, you start with a blame game. Everyone else is to blame. The brainwashing that takes place, especially in colleges, in schools, evolution, free sex, drugs. Many kids lose faith. We didn't protect them and shield them from the wrong beliefs while they were in the home. We need to do that. Matthew 1322. Matthew 1322, it tells us in the Revised Standard Version about the cares of the world and the delight of money that choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. So we have to be very careful with that rule number two. Don't provoke that children to anger. Rule number three. And here it in the Passion Translation says, Father, don't exasperate your children, but raise them up with loving discipline and counsel based on God's ways.

This is talking about training them as the Lord approves, something that God would say, yes, you're doing the right way. Now, rule number three.

Governing well includes loving them, educating them, protecting them, teaching them balance. As the saying goes, as the twig is bent, so it grows. In Proverbs 22.6, Proverbs 22.6, it says, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. I'd like to read it from another translation, the easy to read version. It says, teach the children in a way that fits their needs, and even when they are old, they will not leave the right path. Train up in the Hebrew is an agricultural term that refers to shaping a tree or vineyard so that it grows into a certain shape or direction. For example, have you noticed, if you visit a Disney World, all of those beautiful shrubs and hedges with the shape of animals? How do they do that? Well, they have to start with a very small plant. From the beginning, they use a wire mesh, and it's easier to bend a sapling than a trunk of a bush. The time to train a child is in the correct way and teach them the way of God is when they are quite young. In those early years, the child's will is like soft clay. It is then when you can establish their way of life according to their abilities, their character. Each child has a unique personality and character, and then they can slowly learn self-discipline. In his way, it says train him in his way. The word way is also instructive. It refers to the shaping of a bow. Bows are gradually bent with steam, presses, molds, and vices. That is, guide him according to his personality and interests, and when he is mature, he will not stray. So you have to look and analyze what your children's interests are. And I know, growing up, four daughters and teaching them and seeing, and of course, we had one that wanted to be a doctor at five because I had a little chemistry kid, and she just loved it, and we were there with a microscope, and she just loved it, and that's what she wanted to do. She's a doctor now over there in Boston. Another daughter, she wanted to be an architect, so okay, we started working, and then later she said, no, that's not really what I want to do. I want to get into dentistry. Okay, well, we shifted. We didn't say, oh, you decided you can't change your mind. That's the worst thing you can do because you're shaping the child according to their interests. And then she finally went into dentistry, and she didn't like that too much. She finally got into chiropractics, and that's what she wanted to do. She's a chiropractor, and we're all well-adjusted in our family. She adjusted me two months ago, and I haven't had any back problem. I'm going to tell her what her name is, or everybody else will go over there. We'll have a back. Rick Shabir will have a little bed there for everybody to get well-adjusted. I wish you could, but anyways, each one had a different personality. The other one was more business-like, and she was good at communications and everything else. She's running a magazine now, and the other one, she was good with people skills, and she has her own business and in photographics and everything. See, it wasn't the parent telling them what to do. It was a child. You had to figure out what was their way, and we built the mesh according to their interests. Going on in Deuteronomy 6-7, the way is explained. It says, teach your children when they are tender. It says you will talk with them when you're walking with them in the home, teaching them God's way, but shaping God's way around them and their personalities.

Let's go to point number four.

Wait, one, two, there. Okay, this is point number four. This is called the two ships. We had a church member over there in the Garden Grove congregation, Dr. Van Lismond, who was part of the board of the Ambassador College, and just a lot of wisdom. He was in the Navy in World War II, and he told us this in a family Christian club where he gave a speech, and he says he was on two different battleships during World War II. The first one, they welcomed him and said, you're in a happy ship. This is a happy ship, and he was wondering what does that mean?

And soon enough, he found out the crew was happy because the leadership was happy, and that was what they transmitted to the crew, and everybody got along because the leaders got along and set the example. Unfortunately, three months later, he was transferred to another battleship, and there they told him, you're on an unhappy ship.

Why? Because the leadership of that ship was unhappy, and so that transmitted downward to all the crew. And although the ships were identical, the leadership made the difference, and the leadership does in great part make the difference in a home. And so, I want to show you this graph about the child development. You start out at this point, okay, age zero. As mothers and fathers know, the level of independence of a recently born child is zero.

As a matter of fact, the Romans had this cruel practice that if the father, Paterfamilias, who was in charge of everything, if he didn't want the child, they would leave him out, and they called it exposure. Just leave it out on the street, or leave it out in the camp. The child died because nobody took care of him. And so, here, the child depends, and the dependence here is complete. It depends on the parent. And now, as they grow older, by the time they reach 11, it should be about 50-50.

The child depends 50 percent on the parents, and they can do 50 percent. And eventually, the goal is for them to get to about 20 or 21, where now they can be independent. They can run their own lives. It's always with the support, but that takes you to the highest level, which is interdependence. But they're all cooperating, not because the father is still ruling over all of them, but now it's like a ship. Everybody's participating, and everyone has their strengths, and they can all work together. That's the loving concern that we should have. And that takes us to rule number five, to be an encourager instead of a discourager.

There'll always be naysayers. There are always young people that are going to say, oh, that's not going to work. Oh, you can't do it and everything else. But a parent should be a cheerleader for their children, to encourage them to become a positive rather than a negative influence. And it depends on how you look at things. You can do it with faith or without faith, like the spies when they went into Israel. Well, Ten just looked at the problems. They were overwhelmed with the problems. They came back, and they said, oh, we can't do it.

But two of them had faith. They knew the God that was behind them, and they said, we can do it. He's the one that parted the Red Sea just a few months ago. We can do it. Same way, parents have to have that faith. Put it into practice. Teach them mainly through positive reinforcement. Bees are more attracted to honey than to vinegar. Proverbs 16 verse 24. Proverbs 16 verse 24. From God's word translation, it says, pleasant words are like honey from a honeycomb, sweet to the spirit and healthy to the body.

It's the way Jesus Christ encouraged his disciples, encouraged the churches in revelation, the sandwich approach. Start out positively. It says, I know your works. I know what you're doing, how hard you are. You're persevering, but there are some things you can't improve upon. And so he lets them know. And then after he says that, then he says, but this is what you're doing right. And I want to end in a positive note. That's the sandwich approach. Two layers of bread and then little correction in the middle.

It tells us in Colossians 3, 21, fathers do not provoke your children unless they become discouraged. Notice the term do not provoke is going to produce discouragement. If you provoke them, it's going to discourage them. Do not provoke means to stimulate and encourage them so children will be happy in the home. So I'd like to now end just a couple more scriptures.

Let's see if I can get this going. This next slide. There we go.

The five great principles from the Bible of family life in the millennium. Number one, learn to rule your home well. A happy, well-ordered, and God-fearing home. All have a role and responsibility. Number two, don't provoke your children to wrath. Don't let your own anger overpower you. Maybe that's the big problem in the home. A person can't control their own temper. Don't blame the children. Children can provoke. It doesn't mean you have to let them provoke you to anger. You're supposed to be bigger. That's why God gave a father and mother for the children. He knew it was a hard job. So he gave two to help out. It goes on to say, train up a child in his way according to their temperament and interests. Remember the shaping of a bow. You can't do that overnight. Takes time. Patience. Number four, true happiness depends largely on long-term relationships. Remember the graph, the end result. It never ends, really. That interdependence. I've got now 40 years, and we're still interdependent. We're still bonded. That's going to go, God willing, to the end of our lives. Number five, become an encourager instead of a discourager. Remember, there will always be plenty of naysayers that will say, you can't do it. It's not worth it. Don't listen to them. Malachi chapter three, let me end, and then we'll have the last slide. Malachi chapter three, in verse 13 through 18, one of my favorite scriptures, because I see a lot of brethren. They get discouraged at times. They don't see things moving along as quickly as they would like to. Malachi chapter three, verse 13. God is speaking. He says, your words have been harsh against me, says the Lord. Yet you say, what have we spoken against you? And God answers. You have said, it is useless to serve God. Here I am. How many feasts? And I see the people of the world. They're better off than I am. They're doing better. He says, what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance or commandments and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts and humility, mourning what's happening around us? Sometimes it looks like God isn't going to intervene. It says, so now we call the proud blessed because they get away with a lot. For those who do wickedness are raised up. They get positions of power, doing a lot of false and illegitimate things. They even tempt God and go free. They thumb their noses on God and it doesn't look like they get punished. And then God says, hold on. Verse 16, then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, encouraging each other, and the Lord listened and heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. They shall be minds as the Lord of hosts on the day that I make them my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves Him. Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve. So God has His time frame. God is long suffering, but He is just. He's going to carry out His will at His time, at the right and perfect moment.

And so the scripture in Zechariah chapter 8, we read a little bit about Zechariah today in the sermonette. Zechariah chapter 8, verse 3 and 5.

It says, thus says the Lord, I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth, just like in that first message we heard in the feast. The mountains of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the Lord of hosts, old men and all women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with the staff in His hand. Because of great age, the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Yeah, God loves to see people having fun in a healthy and proper way. So brethren, remember in this family day that we're celebrating and during this feast, these are five principles that we can apply in our lives, and let's put it into practice.