God's Building Block - The Family

And good morning, everybody! You know, it's kind of bad when you come up here and start drinking all of a sudden at the beginning. This had not been uncapped, so it can't be anything but water. So I'd like to share with you here at the beginning the demographic breakdown in terms of the age groups here, just to give you an idea of who we have here in terms of the age groups. A quarter of us, roughly 25% of us, are 60% and above. One half of us, one half of us are ages 20 through 59. And one quarter of us, approximately 25% of us, are 19 and younger. So that is a pretty good representation. I know sometimes we might look around, and because the kids are little, and some of the younger ones are smaller, of course, and they don't show up in the crowd as much, we might think, well, we're just an older congregation. But it's surprising when you start counting up the young people. We're not as much an older congregation as we might think in the way that it breaks down. But moving around and seeing all the kids makes me realize how fast time goes by. And it also brings back feast memories. For instance, St. Petersburg, 1985. Now, a couple of my children are here, and one of them, Lauren, he's 30. But back in 1985, you had to take the zero off. He was three years old. And we've gotten down to the feast early, checked in on the beach. Next morning, before the feast started, we went to a little restaurant there at the beach, the Cajun North. Some of you may have frequented that. And so we were escorted to a table, and we were seated. And here came the waitress, and she was all bubbly and smiley and warm and making comments. And she had no more gotten to the table. And Lauren piped up and said, we've come to the beach of tabernacles. And I can't help but think of that as I'm on the ninth floor in Beachside Tower 2, and I look out at the beach. So in more ways than one, memories come flooding back at this time. You know, from the mouth of babes, out of the mouth of babes, or through the eyes of a child, we might say, I want to go to someone in their childhood, and I want to come forward from their childhood. He was one of two children. He was born in Forest Hills, New York, and he grew up in Collingswood, New Jersey. His father was Jewish, and his mother was Irish Catholic. He was born October 31, 1936, which made him a Halloween baby. And it did seem appropriate because his life was a life of trick-or-treat, with initially more trick than it was treat. His childhood was filled with pain and trauma. His father was a Jew who didn't care for Catholics, and his mother was a Catholic who was anti-Semitic. So he grew up watching his parents bicker endlessly. The priest told his mother she couldn't have Holy Communion if she slept with his father, so she didn't. And his father didn't seem to be particularly disappointed. His mother was evidently mentally ill, or at the least, she was unstable. She kept making these dramatic efforts to kill herself. As a little boy, he would walk into the kitchen and find her with her head stuck in the oven, and the gas turned on. And he'd pull her out, and shoot gas, and vomit. And then later on in life, he looked back and he remembered that she always made sure she had a pad to kneel on, and she had the window open.

Once she tried to drown herself, she waded into the surf. I'm going, my son! I'm going! He couldn't swim. He was terrified of the water. But he waited in after her. No, Mom, please, please, Mom, no! The wave helped knock her off her feet and helped him to get her back on shore. And at that point in his life, he was only 10 years old. An hour later, she was playing with his little sister, and he was still sick and throwing up. The family and the social pressures made him a chronic bedwetter, and the humiliation was increased by his mother's practice of taking the soaked sheets and hanging them on the outside of the bedroom window, which was outside street sight. In fact, quite a few years ago now, there was a TV movie made built around that, and it was titled, The Loneliest Runner. Because he always got out of school and took off. He wouldn't ride the bus, but ran, ran, ran, ran home, trying to beat the bus there to pull the sheet in before the bus could go by and the kids see it hanging out there. In high school, he was called you bastard, and fathers wouldn't let him date their daughters. He might be standing with some guys and gals at the corner drugstore around 8 in the evening when a cab would pull up. And his mother in her nightgown would jump out and start calling the girls bad names while whacking him with a clothes hanger. And he'd say, uh, gotta go now, trying to play it cool. I think my mom wants me. His was a wretched childhood. He was the classic unhappy child. And perhaps, in part, because of that, he determined to make the largest possible imprint upon a hostile world that he could. He determined to make the world a little bit better place because he had been here. And he admitted, he was quite candid about things, he admitted, he says, I've always had to work very, very hard in order to be happy. He was a man driven. A friend of his stated this about him. He said his whole thing has always been about control, security and control. Maybe because his childhood was one that was so out of control. He learned that actors may command the stage, but producers own the house. He was actor, writer, director and producer. And he died around 1.20 p.m. on Monday, July 1, 1991. He was born Eugene Oravitch. On October 31, 1936, you don't know him by that name, necessarily. In the 1950s, he changed his name to Michael Lane. And then finally, Michael Landon. We best know him as Lil Joe Cartwright of the Nanso. Or, Torrell's Ingalls, of Little House on the Prairie. And at age 54, after a wretched childhood and a highly successful career, he was dead. He was a strong man. He was 5'11", weighed 170, and on any given day, could bench press between 3 and 350 pounds. In one episode of Nanso, I remember seeing him take Hoss, Dan Blocker, Hoss Cartwright. Hoss was 6'4", and would weigh approximately 300 pounds. And in one episode, Lil Joe put Hoss over his shoulder and kind of jogged walked with him so far. But by his own admittance, he was a man driven. He said, I drank too much. He said, I inhaled too deeply. It was push, push, push. He had lived in overdrive too long. When you look at his childhood foundation, it was not sound. It was not healthy. He was successful in certain regards, yes, but he was a man driven, and at age 54, he was dead of pancreatic cancer.

You know, the time of our childhood, the world of the child, is the springboard of adulthood, or the springboard in two adulthood. God made the first 20 years of our life to be the most impressive, informative of all of our years, such malleable clay. That's why I cringe when I was sitting in Waffle House.

I like Waffle House. I know it's Greece, Incorporated. But you know, you gotta keep it in balance, I realize. But over the years, I have stopped here and there in Waffle House and worked on something while I'm having a cup of coffee or a cup of eggs, whatever. But anyhow, I cringed one day in Waffle House when I heard a young mother sitting at a table close by. She had a little boy. He was just being a normal little boy. He wanted to check this out and check that out. He's picking this up and picking that up, etc. And she said, if you don't quit doing that, I'm gonna cut your hands off.

And you see this kind of stuff. And I just cringed. And I look around today and I see holes in the human fabric, holes in the makeup, a personal crisis of identity and worth. And we've got a whole inheritance going on of drugs and sex and crimes and cuttings and mutilations and piercings and suicides and on down the line. There's a vacuum that people try to fill but with all the wrong things. One in every ten children are now diagnosed with ADHD. Two-thirds of those, the last figures I saw, are on medication. You know, you talk about childhood and people remember their childhood.

And they remember things sometimes from their childhood that haunt them. Even what we might consider small things. I remember a big old strapping six-foot one or two guy that weighed about 240 pounds, athletic. He related to me about how when he and his brother's sister, when they were children growing up, how their father would go to the refrigerator and take out a chunk of cheese. Come over to the table, cut himself a piece off of it, take it back and put it back in the fridge and not give them any of it.

Now, from one standpoint, that's a small thing, but what it said about the father's attitude is a big thing. And he rumored that, obviously, and it still bothered him. You know, everyone is born with the same needs, no matter what our age is, for that matter, and who we are. We're all born with the same needs. We all need to be loved. We all need to be valued. We all need to be cherished.

We need to be taught and taken time with, and when those needs are not met, there are consequences to pay. Little children are tender. You know, as maids, we all start out as malleable clay. Every child in the world tomorrow will start out as malleable clay. And every little baby that lies in a grave that's resurrected in the last great day will be the most tender, malleable clay to raise at that time. C. Everett Coop made this statement years ago. C. Everett Coop said, and I quote him, Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege than the raising of the next generation. That bears retaining. Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege than the raising of the next generation.

We are Americans. We have had the greatest country, nation, on this planet. We're fast losing those days. But America has been known for its tremendous manufacturing capacity, its skill, and its work ethic, especially on the assembly line. In World War II, before we got involved, some of Hitler's advisers informed him that America might enter the war. And his statement was, well, all they can do is make refrigerators and razor blades. And he found out different, didn't he? But when you start talking about producing a product, you know there's no greater product produced than a child that is raised sound and solid and whole. Think about it. On this planet and in the world tomorrow and in the last great day, what product can exceed a child that is raised sound and solid and whole?

And of all the wonders and of all the glories that God has granted us in this life, think about it. And there are so many wonders and glories and blessings in this life.

But of all of them, there's no greater than the opportunity for two people to come together and create a whole new, brand new life. A brand new being. In one sense, there's nothing new under the sun, as Solomon said, because there have always been babies since Adam and Eve, you know, since Cain and Abel. But every time a baby is born, that is a brand new being, and there will never, there's never been, there is not, and there will never be another exactly, exactly, exactly like that new being.

And to raise it in the nurtured, as it says in Ephesians 6, 4, to raise it in the nurtured and the admonition of the Lord. There's no greater responsibility, no greater responsibility than to assist God, because that's what we're really doing, is assisting God in producing a godly seed. We do have a hand in it. We do have a role in it to produce, to assist in producing, to help produce a godly seed.

I'm not going to turn back to Malachi 2, verse 15, but you might want to just jot it down, because there is a phrase there in the King James in Malachi 2, verse 15, that talks about, it's set within a certain context, but it stands on its own, that God seeks a godly seed. And if God had his way, would he say, well, I don't desire to seek a godly seed until somebody's exactly 20, and then I'll start. Or, I'll wait until they've had most of their life, and they're 60, and I'll sleep. Now, obviously, God started working with us in a very direct way, some of us at 20, some at 60, some of us at 80, some of us at 40, 35, etc.

But for those blessed to grow up in the truth, that process begins at birth.

It begins at birth through the parents. Every child is a potential son or daughter of the father. Every child is a potential younger brother or sister of Jesus Christ, and to have a hand in helping that along, what an honor. And in this day and age, especially these times we're living in, there's no greater challenge. You know, my wife and I raised our children, you know, we've been through with the rearing or raising of our children for years and years now. And just to be honest about it, I'm glad we did it when we did it. It's more of a challenge now to do it. To you, young parents, who are raising children, your job now is tougher than mine was when I did it, and my wife and I did it. Because this age has degenerated, and the factors and the forces against you are stronger than they were then. Well, they were strong enough then, but they're stronger now, and they'll be even stronger. That challenge grows daily. You know, when I was a kid growing up, and a woman was pregnant and going to have a baby, you know the common term that was used regarding a pregnant woman who was going to have a baby? One of the ways... I'm from the deep South. Of course, you probably thought I was from New Jersey with my accent, but...

But they would refer to the lady who was pregnant, she's in the family way. The family way. Because pregnancy and baby meant family. Child and family were automatically connected. It just was natural. That's just the way it was thought of. You know, the family is one's first attachment to life. That is the very first attachment to life. It's the first attachment to society. It's the first attachment to existence. The family. It's the first anchor, or lack thereof. God's building block, His basic building block is the family. God's millennial building block will be the family. And one of the greatest blessings for those of the last great day, when they come up, is going to be that of family reunion. Think about how entire families that have actually stretched over thousands of years. Not to mention the immediate parts of those families being together. I know many times we like a title to hang things on. What I'm talking about this morning... I would express it this way as far as a title. God's building block, colon, the family. God's building block. God's prime building block is the family. So just title it that way, if you wish. God's building block, the family.

You know, the family is an institution. It will work when it's put into practice. And look back over all the TV shows. Look back over the decades. Some of the most popular shows have been about family. Remember the Waltons? The Waltons. John and Olivia. Grandpa and Grandma. John Boy. Jim Bob. Jason. Ben. Mary Ellen. Erin. Elizabeth. And it was interesting that we literally... some of us, those of us who had children at that time, our kids literally grew up with their kids. I mean, we watched those kids grow up on TV because I forget how long the show ran, but it ran long enough that Elizabeth's just a little thing when the show started. And she was either grown or close to grown by the time it finished. Three generations under one roof. You know, you felt a rapport with them. We felt a part of them. We identified with them. We identified with something that was good and wholesome. We identified with family.

And then it was repeated with one of the most popular shows of all, Little House on the Prairie, remember? Of course, Michael Landon was Charles in that one. Charles and Carolyn and Mary and Laura and Carrie and Grace. God's building block. The family. It automatically has a power to it. It automatically has an appeal to it. I heard a saying years ago, and I certainly have come to understand it, and many of us in here have experienced this and come to understand it. I heard a saying years ago about home and family. It goes something like this. We spend the first half of our lives trying to get away from home, and then we spend the second half of our lives trying to get back. There's a lot of truth in that. You know, as a child, growing up, we may not always appreciate the worth and value of our family.

But what did God intend family to be? I mean, it's a building block. As far as atmosphere and all of that, He intended it to be a safe harbor. A safe harbor. And if we're raising, if we're given the wonderful opportunity to have the knowledge and all that we do, and to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, we can make it a safe harbor. A safe harbor. A refuge. A place of peace and joy and nurturing. A place of love and belonging. That's what the children need, and that's what Mom and Dad need, too, for that matter. You know, the family, as God designed it, again, is the building block of society to the degree that that design is followed. To that degree, society will be strong. It's a formula. It's a formula that works. And it works to a great degree among the uncalled as well as among the called. Because it's a formula that to the degree that it is applied, it works. To the degree that the family unit, the family, that that design is followed in society. To that degree, the society is strong. And to the degree that that design is broken, to that degree, society will be broken. You would have to have your head stuck in the sand. You'd have to have your eyes closed and your ears plugged. Any of us would. But you'd have to have our antenna pull completely down. And of course, I realize that with my age, and I'm in that 60 and above, that some kid might punch Mom or Dad and say, Mom, what's an antenna? Or if we say a broken record, what's a record? 45, 78. You know, we date ourselves sometimes, I know.

But we realize that today the family is under assault more than it has ever been in our time, and the biggest enemy of the family is the devil. And he's the smartest enemy of the family. Because he knows, and why is he such an enemy? Because he knows, he knows that the building block of society is the family unit. Go back through history. Look at how he has brought down many a nation and empire. The family has always played a role in terms of, to whatever degree there was a strength of family, he found a way to break that unit. And in one sense, we could say that his main business is family busting. Some of you, some of us here, are carpenters. Some of us are home builders. Some of us are masons. Some of us lay brick. Some of us lay blocks. Some of us here make our living that way. And some of us here live in a house that is maybe built of cinder blocks or concrete blocks. I mean, call them whichever. You know, eight inch or twelve inch or whatever. But it's interesting, there are quite a few buildings that we can go into where you can stand in the middle of that building and you can look at the walls. You can't hear, of course. It's not involved in these walls here. But they're buildings you can go into and you can look at the walls and the walls are made of cinder blocks or concrete blocks. Layer upon layer upon layer upon layer up to the ceiling. And that's a strong building.

But, you know, I could take a sledgehammer and I could start circling the building on the outside. And I couldn't get it all done in one day, I feel sure. Depends on the size of the building. But I could take that sledgehammer and I could draw it back and I could hit, starting at the ground level, I could hit a block and shatter it. And then I could go to the next one and shatter it. And the next one and shatter it. And I could circle the building.

And I'm not sure how long it would take me to get it done. I might have, might take two or three days or whatever. But I could start bringing that building down, blocks at a time, layer at a time, until I brought the ceiling down to the ground. I could shatter one block after another until the whole building collapses.

I'd like for you to picture our society as a society like a cinder block building. And I want you to picture the devil with a sledgehammer over his shoulder. And I want you to picture him circling the building and he takes a swing at a block and he shatters it. Because every time he shatters a family unit, he has shattered another building block of that society. And when he hits one and he shatters it, he sings one of his little theme songs, something like, Another one bites the dust.

Remember that one? Another one bites the dust. He has his theme songs. You know, in 40 to 50 million, and I personally think that it's higher than that. I haven't seen the latest, but I think it's a fair amount higher than that. 40 to 50 million babies have been aborted. And it's not just the issue of the aborted babies. What does it say about the natural love of the mother or the mother-to-be that's not there? When 50% of all marriages end in divorce, when 41, and this goes back, I believe, it's been a few years ago, and again, I'm not seeing the latest stat, but when 41 out of every 100 babies are born out of wedlock, when the prisons are full, when the streets are controlled by gangs, I would say that the devil is having an awful lot of success with his assault on the family.

And when our President of these United States of America said, just this year, earlier in the year, I am for same-sex marriage. You know what same-sex marriage is? It's an oxymoron. It's like saying, come to the picnic, we're going to have kosher pig. There's no such thing as kosher pig. And there's no such thing as same-sex marriage. I understand we live in a day and age where you've got to be careful, quote, to be politically correct, but you can politically correct yourself right out of the truth and right out of God's graces.

Sin is sin. They declare their sin openly as Sodom and Gomorrah. But when our President says, I am for same-sex marriage, and he's the first one ever to do that, it speaks to the level of the assault that's on the God-designed family. And when Newsweek or Time, and I don't remember which one it was, or, you know, but one of them, it was either Newsweek or Time, and I think it was Newsweek, but one of them featured our President on the front cover as the, quote, first gay President.

Now, I don't think he's gay. Don't get me wrong. I'm just quoting what they put there, and I don't think they were saying he's gay, but they were putting it in that kind of statement because of his sanctioning, quote, gay marriage. And look at the assault on Chick-fil-A. Boy, their business hasn't been so good since they started, probably. When the CEO, and he didn't even say, I'm against same-sex marriage, he just said, I'm for traditional marriage. And look at the hullabaloo that took off on that. And, of course, then people to support Chick-fil-A, they just lined up by the droves to show their support.

And as one person said, you know, if you want chicken, you do have to have a rooster in a hen.

I mean, there are some realities you cannot get away from. Of course, stuck with them. And, of course, one of the greatest enemies of the family in our day and age, one of the greatest tools in the hands of the great destroyer, is the pornography that permeates our society, leaving wreckage in its wake. A number of years ago, Robert Bork wrote a book titled, Slouching Toward Gamora. And this is probably ten years or more ago, and we certainly see the truth of that title alone in society today. So the family unit is up against it. The children are up against it. Mom and Dad are up against it. We know that. The challenges for the family grow greater every year. Mom and Dad have to work harder for the children. Husbands and wives have to pull together even more. Aunts, uncles, grandparents have to give more of their support. The challenges grow. And there is nothing. Nothing in society that can replace the family. There is nothing in society that can give the strong support that a strong family can. There is nothing that can match the power and the value of a strong family. A person needs family. A child needs family. We were made for attachment. And attachment starts with family. It's good for every single one of us, occasionally, to contemplate our belly button.

Navel, if you have it, if you want to use that word, why? Because you're walking around with living proof on your body that you were attached. That you weren't independent. That you were attached.

When you contemplate your belly button, you're looking at proof that you started out attached. You were attached to another human being. Attached to your mother. She was your support system in the womb. And she continued to be part of your support system as part of your family. The family is the prime support system for our security, for our growth, our development. And you know what?

The power and the value of that support cannot be overestimated. In the year 2009, a movie came out titled, The Blind Side. How many of you saw that movie? I did. I'm just curious. Okay, good. A whole bunch of you. And I would just recommend that those of you who haven't seen it, it's a worthwhile scene. Now, it's going to have a little language in it that, you know, if I were doing the movie, I'd have left out. It's got a couple of places I would have changed, of course.

But all that said, it does have some strong redeeming value. It's titled, The Blind Side, and it starred Sandra Bullock, who won Best Actress for her role in that movie. But what it did, it featured a real-life account. It was a story of family. It was a story of support. It was a story of redemption, and it was also the story of shattered family. You've got the family coin. On one side, the family is totally shattered.

On the other side, it's a story of family support. But most of all, it was the story of the power of family. To nurture and to build, the movie proved the value of family. It's the story of Michael Orr. O-H-E-R, Michael Orr. His family situation was a totally shattered experience. He had no future. Lee Ann and Sean Tooey of the Memphis, Tennessee area took him in as a teenager.

They brought him into a strong family unit of support. And to make a long story short, he wound up attending Ole Miss, the University of Mississippi, and playing on the offensive line. In 2009, he was taken in the first round. You've got to be good to be taken in the first round of the NFL Draft. I think he was the 23rd pick, if I remember correctly.

But he was taken in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens. He plays today at left tackle, wearing number 74. The quarterback is the highest-paid player, generally. Many times, left tackle is the next highest player. And they call it the blind side. For those of you who know football, you already know what I'm going to say. But for those of you who may not know why, that's called the blind side.

Most quarterbacks are right-handed. When they take the snap, the left tackle, you've got your center, your two guards, or two tackles. Left tackle is over here. When the quarterback takes the snap, most of the time he's going to throw, he's going to spin around this way, and the helmet turns, he can't see over here. And people like Lawrence Taylor back when he was playing, and he finished Joe Fiserman's career, he came from the blind side and finished.

He wasn't trying to finish Joe Fiserman's career, but when he broke his leg, he finished his career. And they asked Joe today, they said, Joe, how tall are you? He says, well, if I stand on one leg, I'm six feet. If I stand on the other one, I'm 5'11". But he didn't play another bit of football after that. But anyhow, he turns, and it's the left tackle's job more than anybody else's over here to protect the quarterback, his blind side. And so that's where the title came from. And I was watching a little bit of...

I turned across the Ravens here recently, just to see if number 74 was still out there. Sure is out there playing. If he had not been taken into a strong family situation, nobody would ever have heard of him, would they? God's Building Blonk is the family, and to the degree that anyone follows that design, there's power and benefit in it. And in the world tomorrow, God's Building Blonk will be fully, fully maximized and utilized, and what a time that will be. When I was growing up, I experienced the support of family, one of the greatest blessings in my life.

And I experienced a taste of what it could be like in the world tomorrow, family-wise. On my mother's side, on the Montgomery side, my grandfather started listening to Mr. Armstrong in the early 40s. And my mother and all of her siblings wound up in the church. And my dad did, too. I don't know if it was a prerequisite on my grandfather's part that dad had to listen to Mr. Armstrong and all that when he started dating my mom.

But he became part of the church. I do know that. God called him. He was the only one out of the Beame family, his side. It was called into the truth. But it was a strong, close family time. We did things together. We planted gardens together. We worked them together. We had ice cream get-togethers. We had all-night fishing camp outs. We had Sunday dinners and pasture softball.

And oh, boy, that pasture softball, that was something else. If you knocked the softball into a cow patty, it was an automatic home run.

Filters go running up to it and just put on the brakes all of a sudden. I'm not getting it. That's your area. Well, you were here first. You get it. Well, he's the one that put it here. Make him come get it. And when it was retrieved, it was very gingerly. And some cleaning went on. We caravan to the feast, usually around five vehicles or more, starting out in 1961 to Big Sandy, Texas. And we always put, Popeye's we called him, we put him in the middle because we didn't dare let him lead. He'd get us all lost. And we didn't dare let him bring up the rear because we'd lose him. So he put him in the middle. And he'd put his hands at ten on the wheel and two, and he had his chewing gum. He'd be chewing that gum and looking off at everything but the road. He'd never really traveled anywhere. And, oh, he was fascinated by everything. So we had a tail behind him, you know, so that when the ones of us in front had to take the left fork and he kept on the right fork or kept going straight, then we knew we'd lost him. So we'd stop and wait while those in the rear went chasing after him to catch him, bring him back. In times like over in Jackal Island, we were returning from the feast, and we stopped in Waycross, Georgia, seated at a restaurant there in Waycross, and they put a long table together. There were 20-something of us. There was 20-something of us, and they put this long table together and the waitress, you know, she was being real nice and friendly and all. And she said to my grandmother, because there had been a fair in town, you know, county fair, she said, oh, I bet you folks have been to the fair, and my grandmother just as nonchalantly said, no, we've been to the feast.

But when my brothers, my three brothers and I get together, we go down memory lane, and there's an awful lot of memories to recount. You know, one of the blessings of support was that all through school, I have a cousin that I grew up with. He's only like six weeks older than me. We grew up in the church together. We went through school together. I never had to face any of the teachers alone. He never had to face any of the teachers alone. When it came time for homework, you know, we're going off to the feast, or we're going off to this holy day, we were always together. Always together. Always together. And I know the value of having that side-by-side support, my support for him, his support for me. And that's the way it was with the number of our cousins. That's support. You know, it wasn't a world tomorrow situation, no. But it was a taste of it. There were 20-something of us involved with the church. Today, if all of us, all of us, were still involved with the truth at this time, there'd be the best part of a hundred. I counted them up the other day, it'd be the best part of a hundred. I want you to notice with me Isaiah 16, verse 22. Isaiah 60.

And verse 22.

If all of us were still, and any of us are, but if all of us were still involved with the truth of God at this point in time, it'd be the best part of a hundred. But notice what it says about the world coming. Isaiah 60, verse 22, it says, You know what that translates into? Talk about using the family as the building block of the world tomorrow? Wow. Mr. Holiday said the other day in his message about how that, you know, you just walk to the church on the corner. You're not going to have to drive a hundred miles or fifty miles or go across town. But if a little one is going to magnify into a thousand, you know, today we have names like the Church of God, and because of the way it is today, and we have to put certain defining names on it, and incorporated names, and names of descriptive distinction, etc., it's like United Church of God. And of course, the core is Church of God. Well, we have United on it. Can you imagine a time when... where are you going to service this today? Well, today I'm going to visit the Church of God, Dash Smiths. The Church of God, Dash Joneses. There's a family, many of them sitting back in the corner back there. I tell the... I guess we can say the patriarch of the family, I tell them he's always on call, because his name is Jim Call. Jim Call, Sr. And there's Jim Call, Jr. And there's seventeen of their family here. Think about how that will multiply in the world tomorrow, but in the portion of the story, there's a Portsmouth, Ohio congregation. And there may be more I didn't ask him that went elsewhere, I'm not sure. But seventeen members. And his official name is James Call, and he goes by Jim. But the two family names that are represented in that seventeen are... these are surnames, of course, Call and James. I don't know if he just wanted to make sure that, you know, the daughter that married and all had kids that got a marriage somebody with the last name James, which is his first name. It's interesting. It's one of those coincidences. You can get me later, sir. But think about it. A whole congregation that's made up of literally, but relative families. What a wonderful time to look forward to. But for now, for now, we have to live in today, don't we? And today is not family friendly. Certainly not overly family friendly. Really can't really say overall family friendly at all. And there's a lot of fallout regarding the family. There are challenges that we have to meet. And brethren, they're not easy.

But they're easier than they're going to be. They're not easy. It's the day of the absent family, the shattered family, the blended family, and as one famous songwriter, singer, I think it was Ray Stevens. I'm not totally sure on this. But that song with the lyrics, something along the line is, I got married and realized I was my own grandpa. But it's a different age we live in. But here's some good advice, not from me, but from Teddy Roosevelt, our most dynamic president. Teddy Roosevelt made this statement. And it's good advice. And you can apply it to the family situation you have to live and deal with, or all kinds of situations that you have to deal with. Quote, do the best you can where you are with what you have. Do the best you can where you are with what you have. In other words, play the best hand you can with the cards you've been dealt. We don't always get to shuffle the cards. We don't always get to deal the cards. Sometimes we're just on the receptive end. We just have the cards dealt to us. And we look at our hand and say, oh, what a hand. We don't always control the cards we're dealt, do we? But maximize the cards in your hand. Do the best you can with what's put in your hand. That's positive. And God can bless positive effort. I learned long ago, if I will make a positive effort, God will bless it. He doesn't bless thin air. But if I make effort, if I perspire, He will inspire. With God's help, make your family unit as much a building block as you possibly can, especially so for the children. It is their main support system. Well, what I want to do at this time is I want to share three points with you that can help to do this. Three points that will help to make your family a building block. That will help to make your family a support system for the kids. And, of course, it also makes it one for you. It helps you. And the very first one is a term that you hear. And I know we pretty much understand it, but I don't think we always fully understand what is meant by this phrase. Number one, unconditional love. Unconditional love. What is needed at the birth of a child is unconditional love.

Unconditional love is the context and the condition that a child needs to be born into. A child is formed in the warmth of a mother's body, and in birth it needs to be ushered into the warmth of home and family. There should be love there waiting on or waiting for the child. I want to read 1 John 4.19 because 1 John 4.19 is a statement of love regarding our supreme father and each of us as a child of his. And you could apply it to our elder brother and each of us as a younger brother or sister. But notice how this is worded in 1 John 4.19. It says, we love him. We the children. Our children, if you parallel it with the family. We love him because he first loved us. He first loved us. We were brought into a context and a condition of love with the father. And in Malachi 4 verse 6, many of us, when we think of family and think about love and...

And if God first loved us and then we learn to reciprocate that love, it's the same with the physical family as God would have it be. That the parents love. That they first love. And the children are ushered into that love and they begin and learn to reciprocate it. And in Malachi 4, in verse 6, that phrase where it says, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers. The heart of the fathers. And if you want to just substitute parents in there, that's fine. And I realize there's a spiritual meaning and a, you know, spiritual level meaning and a physical level meaning. But I'm dealing more with the physical level. He shall turn the heart and there's spiritual in it, obviously. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers or the parents to the children. And the heart of the children, you know, as a reciprocity thing to their fathers. And it's really in some ways another way of saying or talking about the same thing that we just read in 1 John 4, 19.

Angela and I and our family were at St. Petersburg years ago. And there was a young couple there that we knew and they had a child. And she and I, my wife and I, both just kind of shook our heads at each other because this couple was constantly trying to palm their child off on somebody else. They tried to palm the child off on us. They would try to palm the child off on somebody else. And it was just sad because there was always something more important to them than their child. There was always something to see or to do or someone to see or be with or whatever that meant more to them than their child. And it was a sad situation. I grew up with a father, and a mother, for that matter, who could echo the same thing. But I grew up with a father whom I heard more than once say, I'd wait mud for my sons. Because there's four of us, four children, that's dead. He's been dead since December of 97, died on my birthday. But he said, I'd wait mud for my sons. And those weren't empty words because I worked with him during the summers. And I saw him literally wait mud in order to benefit his family. You know, unconditional love has a companion that goes with it. If it's unconditional love, it's got a companion called sacrifice. Sacrifice goes with it. Because unconditional love is sacrificial. Unconditional love will cost you something. Sometimes you'll pay a high price for unconditional love. But that's what a home needs. That's what a child needs. The love that will put out. The love that will subjugate self. The love that will push carnality into the background. The love that will work for others for their welfare and their well-being. The love that will endure pain. Let me ask this. When do you give up on a child? When do you quit caring?

You know, if you're attached to someone with a strong cord of unconditional love, they cannot walk into the fire and you do not feel the burn. When the young man came to his father and says, Dad, give me what's mine. Give me what I've got coming. I'm out of here.

And that father said, OK. Knowing probably he couldn't stop his son from leaving anyway. And gave him his inheritance. And that young man started down the road. You can't tell me the father went in the house to a back room and just sat down. He watched the back of his son get smaller and smaller and smaller as he faded into the distance. Because he knew, as he watched the back of his son get smaller and smaller, he knew what his son was headed into. He didn't know what all he would go through or even survive it and come out alive at the other end of it. It tore his heart out. And you can't tell me that that father didn't automatically, whether he was working in the fields or wherever he was, maybe a number of times each day, look at the road and hope he would see the speck of a human way off and grow larger and larger and get large enough that he could recognize the features and say, that's my son coming back. And one day, that son came back. And that account that we call the prodigal son is there in the Bible for us. I have three children. My love and the love of my wife for them is unconditional. And when I say unconditional, unconditional, I mean it doesn't depend on conditions. There is nothing, and I know exactly what I'm saying, there is nothing that my children can do to make me quit caring about them. There is nothing they can do to make me quit loving them. They can tear my heart out, they could crush it, they could put me in misery, but they can't kill my love for them. But let's understand something, because people get these confused. Love can be unconditional. It only takes one. There's nothing they can do to stop me from loving them. But relationships take two. Relationships are conditional. The relationship could be killed. And I would be in great pain, but I would still care, and I would still pray, and I would still hope.

And sometimes you have to practice what's called tough love. The second point to making your family a building block, a support system, especially for the children, is number two, know your child. Now, I can say, know your children, but I say, know your child, because it is so important that you know... I don't care if you have a dozen kids, that you know each one specifically for the individual that that child is. Because it's so important to work with that kid based on their makeup. One size doesn't fit all. One size doesn't fit all. What sometimes works with one to be effective is not automatically effective with another. And if you just try to apply the same thing exactly across the board in how you deal, some kids would rather have a whipping than a talking to. Others would rather have a talking to than a whipping. You know, I'm just using a little of an act that over here. But you cannot do the same thing with every one. Well, I'm not going to let you have... what did I say? I'm not going to let you have spinach tonight for supper.

Most kids would say, yay! And you might have the other ones, say, oh no, I love spinach. But you've got to know your child, and you've got to work with them accordingly. And that takes time with them. And it takes an observation, and it takes thought, it takes involvement. Every gene in my DNA, every chromosome, came from some previous ancestor.

And these family lines and proclivities come out. I've got a cousin who's the spitting image of a great, great grandfather. When you see the old tin-tot and you see him, you know who his great, great grandfather was just by looking at the pictures. It's amazing sometimes. And so, of course, those come out, I mean, those come on down, and the particular package and the way that they've come about in you is unique. One individual said, if you want to be in your children's memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today. You know, there's a Scripture, and I'll just reference it. You know, lack of knowledge is a destroyer by default. And that principle in Hosea 4-6, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. You can take that principle, My car engine is destroyed for lack of the mechanic's knowledge because he didn't know what he was doing, and he ruined my engine. It doesn't matter what you're talking about, lack of knowledge is a destroyer by default. And if we don't understand our children individually, we can mess up. One of the things that was brought out in the blind side was the fact that since this family that took in Michael Orr did not know him, they really made it a point to focus in on and emphasize really getting to know him. And one of the things that Mrs. Tooey found out in checking was he rated 98 percentile in protective instincts, which is a tremendous skill and asset on a football line at Left Tackle. And so she used that knowledge to help him in football, and she told his coach, she said, Bert, you should get to know your players better. It works in team sports. Why doesn't it work in the family? Obviously it works in the family if it's utilized. Again, this age is full of forces and factors. We will try to interfere and destroy what is healthy and good. We need to appreciate the uniqueness of each child and work accordingly. And brethren, we need all the wisdom and closeness to God that we can muster. But again, remember, every positive effort you make gives God a chance to support you. And the third point is short and sweet and simple but powerful.

Just staying with it. Just staying with it. Perseverance. Perseverance. Number three, perseverance. And this kicks back into the first one in the sense that unconditional love doesn't quit. Sacrificial love doesn't quit. Fully 50% of the success is simply staying with it. There's a scripture in Psalm 50, verse 14, pay your vows. That's Psalm 50, verse 14. It states within that verse, pay your vows. I have made two vows in my life.

Baptism, it is a vow. Whether you think of it as a vow or not, it is a vow. Marriage is a vow. But the vow that I'm going to is the third one I made. I'll just say the third one I made and the fourth one I made and the fifth one I made. Because when you engender life, as far as I'm concerned, that's a vow. There are three human beings that are walking on the face of this earth that God blessed my wife and me to produce. I owe them. I owe them. And I will owe them as long as I live. And I mean that in a good way. I owe them. To care, to be there. Oh, they're grown. They're independent. You know, I'm not in the authority position that I once was. But I'm still a father. I still have a mother. They're still our children. We still love them and always will. And the feast is wonderful family time. There's a family activity this afternoon and that Rocket Lane is great. It's super. And then there's a wonderful time tonight with a concert. And there's a wonderful beach out there. And there's so many things down here that can be done. It's wonderful family time. And you have more money in a concentrated way for these few days than you do at any other time of the year. And in the Panama City Beach activity brochure part, the very last statement, in the Panama City Beach activity brochure part, the very last statement is taken from Deuteronomy 14, verse 26, which says, You shall eat therefore, you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. Make your family as strong a building block as you possibly can. You will have God's blessing and support in such an endeavor, because it is such a wonderful endeavor with such wonderful benefits now, later, and forever.