The Power of Fathers

Well, happy Sabbath, everyone! Well, my wife and I have made the move, and there's only one place on my whole body that does not hurt. It's right here. And this one over here, too, it's okay. I don't know if you've moved in quite a while, but I'll tell you, you've got to use every muscle in your body when you do. But everything has moved, and we're living in beautiful downtown Brittenwood. So, still in the same city, just now we're downtown. It's like they say, you're going downtown? Well, we're there. Of course, Brittenwood's a small little place to live in. But it's a little bit of a change for us, more trees, so it should be more shaded down there. Think probably a little quieter, so that'll be nice. So there are a lot of good things about it. We're very happy about that. But hope that you are doing well, and all the things that you have to do in your own personal life. Well, you know, even though Father's Day is not tomorrow, we are going to be having a special day in honor of fathers. And I think it behooves us to really think about this, as we, of course, have a Mother's Day as well. We're to honor mothers, but we are to honor fathers. And I want to talk to you a little bit about that topic and why it's important, why it's very important. There was an article I cut out of the Contra Costa Times a number of years ago. In fact, it was 2009. And it was an article by a Tom Purcell of the Pittsburgh Tribune. Apparently, he writes to them. I don't know if he still does or not, but the title of it might give you kind of an idea of what he's going to talk about. It says, Father's must rediscover the backbones and end the Bafurish era. I think it really says it all, doesn't it? But this article goes this way. He said, Our Father's Day is upon us. I can't think of a better time for dads and men to remember how to be dads and men. Of course, that is something, frankly, we have forgotten how to do. It seems men and dads in this world. He said, Flip on the tube any time during the day and you'll see fathers portrayed as hapless Bafuris. They seem like they almost trip over themselves and they, you know, they're like the blondie in the Dagwood, the cartoon series. It says, Save from themselves by their wives and their all-known children. The real life of the modern dad isn't much prettier. To be sure, the state of the American male is in shambles, though I am not fully sure how we got there. And he said, I remember the sixties, the women's blueprint was beginning to gain traction. But in our neighborhood, the moms tended to crook and watch the children, whereas the men earned the money and they tended the yard. Then they shot the bull over a few pets, blue-ribboned bears. You know, after work was over. He said, I remember the seventies, the evening news featured equal whites protest at which women burned their bras. But he said, still, in our neighborhood, most of the moms stayed home and the dads worked and drank paps, blue-ribboned bears. During the eighties, the economy exploded. Everyone was so busy working and getting ahead that few men were taking the time to celebrate the tremendous strides women were making. And then he said, I got my first job out of college in 1984, and again working with many female professionals. They excelled in a range of jobs they wouldn't have been offered 20 years prior. The nineties came and went, and women kept blossoming and growing and doing well. In 2009, women, he says, are doing very well. This is, again, when the article was written. They're doing better than them at all levels of education.

And, of course, it's the same today. They're getting rapidly unknown as small business interpreters, and the large metro areas are out earning us by thousands of dollars. Now, you don't get that picture today, do you? You don't get that picture in the media today, but this is 2009, he's saying this. He says, as females excel, males are faltering. We're dropping out of school at a far greater rate than women. We're seeing our incomes stall or decline. Even men with college degrees are falling behind. Somewhere along the way, women won't content with mere equality. They decided they wanted to remake us in their own image. Boy, have we responded, he says. Sensitive new age men now spend hours fretting over their looks and style. We spend thousands getting our hair print, our skin moisturized, our eyebrows waxed. Now, I have never done any of that. You probably can tell. But, you know, modern dads are unsure of themselves, too. And fathers can be found misting up at baby showers and clapping enthusiastically the first time junior uses the commode.

And with every concession men have made, we have lost status. We have lost respect. Well, he says, nuts to that. Look, men, we need to rip ourselves back into shape. We need to remember how men and fathers should be. When our wives dress our sons up in knickers and saddle shoes, we must respond the way all their fathers would have responded. No son of mine is going to wear any knickers. He uses a worse word than that, but before knickers. And it starts with D. But he says, we must take control over the naming process of our children. We must give our boys names like Tom and Mike and Jim and Joe. Not let our wives name them Glad and Jeremy and Michelle. The boy named Michelle is going to have a hard time in life. We need to stop seeking the approval of our sons and daughters. We are the adults and they are the children. Our role is to focus on the unpleasant job of fathering, to do the often unpopular work that will prepare them for a competitive world. We must regain our backbone. We must earn respect, being good husbands and fathers. And we must demand that we be respected. There's nothing wrong with being more attentive to our children than the fathers of our world. There's nothing wrong with changing the diapers and having long conversations and showing emotion. But somewhere along the way, we've tossed the baby out with a bath wash. We've let ourselves become wimps and bathrooms, and that isn't good for our wives or our kids or ourselves. It's up to us now. We must restore some needed balance and equilibrium to the American family. If we do, fathers, after a long, productive day of fathering, we'll be able to enjoy an occasional paps-blue ribbon on the back porch. If we don't, it's just a matter of time before modern dads are forced to wear knickers and saddle shoes as well.

So, here's again a man who is very passionate about what he's saying here, but there's a lot of truth in this, a lot of truth in what he's saying. You know, fathers, of course, do not have the respect and the honor in the family, and that's greatly diminished over the years, and it seems like he's getting worse and worse. It seems like men don't know how to act anymore. They really don't know how to act. Young men don't know how to be men. It's getting, in fact, more difficult to find a role model who is the father-type figure. You're an Abraham-type figure, who frankly commanded the respect of his children.

So, a nation has a special day, a father's day, which honors fathers, and even as this writer here, Tom Purcell, pointed out, a man is often immediate, pictured, in less than audible ways. And it has, of course, been that way for quite some time, probably even before Blondie and Dagwood-type cartoons began to appear. We'll be stretching the point, brethren, too much to say that the fate of the world hinges on how you and I treat fathers on our father's day. Is it stretching the point too much? I don't think so. I think honoring our fathers, brethren, has a very grave importance in the world. Now, you may not have thought of it the way we're going to express it today, but I think it's the truth. It's a truth that has not been understood. Now, what you and I think, brethren, and do on fathers' day means a lot. It means a great deal to God the Father and Jesus Christ. And not only what we do on that day, but what we do on all days with regard to our dads and with regards to our fathers. It's a concept that's important to this generation, in fact. You young people need to get this important message today. It's an important message, in fact, for all peoples upon the earth. And I think the fate of the earth believes it. Believe it or not, hinges on this very important concept of how important fathers are. You know, my father died now. He spent 23 years ago. And I think about him nearly every day. My mother died in the 89, I think, about her every day. And I miss both of them. I miss my father. I miss my mother. You know, sometimes you think about it and you realize you're not going to see them for a thousand years. And you realize, you know, the time is, of course, locked in. They're going to have a chance to be in the resurrection in the future, the second resurrection, as we know and we understand. But, you know, we still miss them. And, you know, my father had a lot of foibles and faults, as all human beings do. He was never in the church. But I still loved him and respected him a great deal.

You know, I love and I appreciate our three sons as well. And I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of their lives, to be able to be there with them and to be with them in times of crises, as well as good times. You know, I'm thankful for the opportunity to be a grandfather to five grandsons, because they've been, you know, a great gift of joy to my wife and I. And we cherish them a great deal. But, you know, meditating on how I feel about being a father to three sons, and I'm sure you have the same thoughts, but meditating on this helps me to understand better my father in heaven. I understand him a lot more in how he feels. I can understand my father's love in heaven for me, and not only me, but all the world. And Father's Day is important, brethren, to God, and it's important to Jesus Christ. It really is. It began, I think Father's Day began in this country, it seemed like it was back in about 1910, somewhere in there. You know, don't quote me on that, but I know it was early on, you know, in this last century that it began to be observed in this country. But it is a very important day, like even this Mother's Day is, and we need to meditate on it. I'd like you to turn to Malachi 4 with me, and I want to show you again how the faith of the world depends on fathers, and honoring fathers, and showing them respect, and learning fathers. I'm talking to you individually, fathers being good fathers, and being there. But in Malachi chapter 4 and verse 5 down here, it says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet. And of course, you know, we have believed for a long time in the church that the church has a role, you know, being a type of Elijah, Elijah's work. Because our goal is to do exactly what it says here. And that the work of God is a type of the work that Elijah did. Mr. Armstrong, in fact, talked about that many years himself. You know, some claim that in fact Mr. Armstrong was again a type of Elijah. I don't believe he claimed it himself, by the way. But he, I remember specifically saying that in fact that the work of God was a type of a work, you know, a work of Elijah. Now, whether there is an individual that is to come or not, absolutely I don't know. But I know the church has a commission. But go on, it says, Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the eternal. So that this is going to happen before the day of the Lord, the day when Jesus Christ was going to come back. And notice that he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. But notice here, again, I said the fate of the world. Rest on this. Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. You could go look at that word in the Hebrew, the word curse, and the word curse means utter destruction. Now, there's a very real reason why God says this. And I want to talk to you about that in the course of the message today. But before Jesus Christ returns, and before the kingdom of God is set up upon this earth, this prophecy must happen. It has to happen. But as we watch society, as we see in our world today, the opposite is happening. And unfortunately, even in God's church, we have the opposite happening with some people in the church, even. So it is a puzzle, isn't it? How this is going to come to pass? How's it going to be fulfilled? But, brethren, in order for the future to continue, it must be fulfilled. Absolutely must be fulfilled.

Now, again, while mothers are very important, they do not want to diminish this, but it apparently hinges on the fathers. And so, here, this writer, you know, for a Pittsburgh Tribune, I know he didn't understand about Mariah 4, but, brethren, we need to understand the importance of this. This is not something that is unimportant. It is very important. Very important for the church and very important for the world. So, brethren, we'll look at why this is to happen, and maybe we'll talk about more also how it's going to happen, and why it's important to God's plan of salvation, not only your salvation, but the salvation of all mankind, of all humanity, of every man, woman, and child on earth. It's important. It is very important.

Now, as we've talked about, modern-day life has greatly diminished fatherhood. It's like a song, where are all the flowers gone? Where have all the fathers gone? Where are they? On average, fathers spend less than 20 minutes a week with their children.

It's a silent life, I guess.

Of children, by the way, that have a father, but of children that do not have a father present at all times, of course, there are single parent families, usually the mother, but sometimes not even the mother is there. Sometimes a child is a foster child. Of course, you can have a foster mother and father. It can be better than a mother or father if they're negligent. In this world today, unfortunately, we in this Darwinian, secular, humanist world that we live in, I think we all are aware of the fact that the message in education today, the message in education today, is that we all evolved, and they're looking for that missing link. Actually, I've seen some missing links walking around, but they're looking for the missing link, because we all spontaneously came from that primordial soup, that lightning strike that struck aeons ago, and man crawled out of that soup, as the scientists talk about. This is what the world believes, that this is where man came from. And the approach is that life is more secular. It's more worldly. People are more sophisticated. Humanists, in other words, humans are the center of everything, and it's not God-centered, but human-centered. And this world is going in that direction. Everything is, in fact, if you see it in the news, brethren, everything is geared to that. If you look at any decision it's made, God is not in the picture. Frankly, God is not in the picture. And that's the direction the world is going in right now. That's the direction the United States is going in right now, in Britain, in all the major countries of the West, and countries, of course, more and more. In fact, sometimes the Gentile nations of the world, or what would be classified as Gentile nations of the world, sometimes they have better models than we do when it comes to family. So, because a man is going in this humanist, secular, Darwinian direction, there's all kinds of definitions for families anymore. You know, in some families it's been determined that the father is unnecessary. And he's then sort of made superfluous by the contention that a woman can raise a child on her own. You can raise a child with two moms, because you don't need a man. You know, a lot of women have that concept these days. In fact, more and more are having that concept. Don't need a man to raise a child.

Another family model is the concept of the old father. In fact, Purcell was writing about the old father. It's rejected because he epitomizes the ruling patriarch. In other words, it's not a patriarchal world. It's really, frankly, more geared to be a matriarchal world than a patriarchal world, because the fathers are disappearing. Another model is the new father. And basically, the new father is trying to be a genderless parent, not really a father.

The roles are all different in the family. You may have, in fact, the woman is the breadwinner. She brings home the bacon. She comes home and she drinks the past blue-ribbon beer. She does all of that. And of course, I'm being facetious about that, but probably not too far off. So the new father concept, the genderless parent, man basically fulfilling the role of what had been traditionally a mother's role.

Then another model is the visiting father. The visiting father is divorced from the mother and present only on weekends and birthdays. So this is a model of a family. And of course, sometimes the wife will remarry, and so there's another element that is introduced as well. Then there's the stepfather or the nearby guy. In other words, we don't have a father here, so we'll have a stepfather.

Somebody that's a friend, an uncle, so to speak. Or the next-door neighbor, who will be the father figure. And that person pretends or tries to be a father, but generally offers a weak view of fatherhood. And of course, then there's the deadbeat father or dad. He rejects the social, moral, and financial responsibility for his children.

And, you know, we have some people that have kids. It's unbelievable. Some have 20 and 30 children by probably as many women. Just again showing the immorality, the deadbeat dad syndrome. And then there's the sperm donor dad. The sperm donor dad. An unfather who leaves no footprints, no influence, or any help in the role of a dad. And so this is what is and what's coming. And I guess you're going to get to the point where all of our children are born from test tubes.

And I think in Britain they're working on another concept, which is out far out. Men having babies. You know, what idiot comes up with those kind of things? Forgive me for my eloquialism. But, brethren, there is no question about the importance of parenting. Nobody's debating the importance of father or mother. But both parents are needed to give a balanced and a godly foundation in a family. And there's been at times a resurgence of certain groups to try to motivate a dependable, responsible father.

But it seems like it's ephemeral and short-lived. You may remember a number of years ago, I don't hear anything about it anymore, called promise keepers. Remember they had promise keepers, and they were getting all these men together, and they were talking about fatherhood and being more responsible, more dependable, and being there for their children.

But it sort of faded from the scene. You don't hear anything about that anymore. Now, maybe it's still out there, but I haven't heard about it in many years. But movies and television and the media continues unabated, eating away at the role of men and fathers, and sending the message, life is better without a father. Life is better without a dad. Isn't the message that you're hearing? The dad's sort of in the way.

You know, from a book called Fatherless America, David Blankenhort writes this. He says, the fatherhood has been separated from masculinity. You ever heard of that word anymore, masculinity? You still hear it very much, do you? They don't talk about masculinity very much anymore. So that being a man has nothing to do with being a father.

He goes on to say, instead, being a man is identified with violence, materialism, and predatory sexual behavior. It was like, look at the society, brother, right now. What's going on in society? Just to interject a thought, is there how things are going? Right now, it'd be hard to be a policeman, wouldn't it? I mean, I wouldn't touch that with a hundred-foot pole. And because, basically, I've heard it a set a number of times on the radio talk shows that talk about it, that it's open season on policemen to criticize policemen. Now, of course there are things that are done wrong by authorities such as the police.

But is it just a matter of those that are doing something wrong, or are we talking about authority here? Are we talking about power on the part of the police to enforce the laws of the land? And what is happening in this country right now, brother, I think actually speaks to a much greater thing that is happening overall for the future.

So keep your eye on that. There's a reason for this. Some of these things, I think, have been trumped up. I think they've shipped in people to stir up more and more protests against policemen. My personal opinion is, I think, what we're going to find is that the police eventually will be under the TSA. And you know what that will mean? Basically, a secular American force directed from basically Washington. Now, we know the government really always does things better than anybody else can do them. Of course, TSA, whether they were doing some things with TSA recently, trying to evaluate how effective they were, and they didn't find they were very effective in, in fact, detecting weapons that were going through checkpoints.

Sorry, Adam knows that America would be any safer under that auspices. So anyway, the idea, again, that's being fostered, basically, is that being a man, being masculine, means that you're going to have predatory sexual behavior. And father is often pictured as a brute who inhibits the freedom of the family, the freedom of the children, and the rights of the wife.

Blakenhorn goes on to say that, quote, the USA is becoming an increasingly fatherless society, and hence is titled Fatherless America. A generation ago, an American child could reasonably expect to grow up with his or her father. Today, an American child can reasonably expect not to. See, our world has changed a great deal. He says, Fatherlessness is the engine driving our most urgent social problems, from crime to adolescent pregnancy to domestic violence. Fatherlessness, he says, is the greatest predictor of criminal activity. Teen pregnancy, school dropout, joblessness, drug addiction, and suicide. You know, when we come down Broadway into Oakland, there's a sign up, by the way, that has a picture, it looks like, of a teen. On the one side, it has, I think it has the word prison. Have some of you seen this sign I'm talking about? And above it, I think it had $61,000. Then it had, I think, high school, and I believe it said $9,100.

And below, the organization is dealing with it, is, I forget, I think it's called, dothemath.org or .com. So they're wanting us to compare how much it takes to send a child to prison, as opposed to, you know, them being educated.

And you see, if it was just a matter of money, then the problem would, I'm sure, have been actually solved a long time ago. We missed the most important thing, and that is, it's the family breakdown. It's the breakdown of the family. It's not a matter of money. If Father was in the home, he was there, and he was doing his job the way he's supposed to as a father, you know, you wouldn't have to do the math, because he would, you know, be there and hopefully be a force for good, you know, if indeed he was, and there would be an education that the child was given. And, you know, it just is really, really important. I know my wife and I, we have three sons, and when you have little kids, it's a little different than when they become teenagers. If you ever notice that, you know, a small child, it's just a lot easier to work with. But, you know, when you have teenagers, that's when dad is days, oftentimes. I know my wife dealing with, you know, teenage boys. As they begin, you know, their voice changes, and they go from, you know, speaking, hi-yuck, like this, and they become men, you know, that comes in. It's a different story. It really is. You need the father to be there. And while the mother, of course, can be pretty tough, and Joan can be pretty tough, and put the fear of God in it, you know, but sometimes she needed my help. Of course, I'd come home and say, you need my help, huh?

Kind of like Bill Cosby, you know, came home and his wife, you know, was complaining about their teenage boy, and she said, I want you to go up there, and I want you to talk to that boy. And it's like Bill Cosby on the, you know, he said, you want me to talk to him? He said, then I can kill the boy. You want me to kill the boy? Of course, he was joking about it. But, you know, it was just kind of a comical side of that. But, you know, a father relationship, I believe, in this world today, fathers face the most demanding family role in society.

It's almost like the whole world is against fathers. The whole world is against, you know, their role, being men, and so forth, and so on. Well, God, brethren, built into fatherhood a power. There's a power there, like there's a power with women and mothers as well. But God built into fatherhood a power that we need to consciously, intentionally, and purposely utilize for the building of a godly heritage and better families. The fathers need to take up the gauntlet, take the responsibility to take the challenge and use the power in the right way.

You know, one principle of danger, brethren, to fathers is that they don't have the sense of duty. They don't have the sense of how important their role is. They don't have the sense of power that they have and the responsibility. And, of course, as I mentioned, in society, the lack of support that they have, you, they could count on in the past. You know, Dr. James Dobson, who has actually a program called Focus on the Family, wrote, Our very survival as a people. Now, again, this is a secular minister as well. Our very survival as a people will depend on the presence or absence of masculine leadership in millions of homes, he says.

Our survival depends on that. You know, what have we always said in the church, by the way, about the nation? You know, as goes the family, so goes the nation. What happens if the family impacts the nation? And boy, have families really been changed, haven't. And so, brethren, in view of this, and I speak not just to fathers, but mothers as well, because you're part of all of this as well, about the importance of your role in supporting the fathers and their role that they do have, in view of this, isn't the surprise that in preparing for a people, the return of Jesus Christ before the kingdom of God is set up upon the earth, God says that He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the heart of the children to their fathers.

It has to be. It has to be for the, in fact, human life to survive, to go on. Now, what possible reason would God have to continue with human means at all? You think God's going to accept a Darwinian, humanist, human-setter, secular society, void of God for the future, where He's completely out of the picture? Why did God create human means to begin with? Because He wanted a family. That is why. And so, if that can't happen, you can understand why it says, before the coming of Jesus Christ is set up His kingdom, that He's going to restore the hearts of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children of their fathers.

See, it begins with fathers loving their children, caring for their children, spending time with their children, and being able to give direction to their children. And God wants us, again, to have that approach. Now, there are things we need to remember about Father power, the power that the Father has. Because, brethren, it has generational consequences. You think about all of these children that some men are having, you know, because of their wayward lifestyle, you know, that they have, where they feel no responsibility at all.

Think about all of those children that are going to come from that union between two people, where there is no love, it's just a matter of sex. And this world, again, is very sex-oriented. So, things to remember about Father power is it has generational consequences.

It's like any power that one is given has to be used wisely. And what we do as fathers, brethren, does not end with us. Oh, that it was so, but it doesn't work that way. Life is not that way, but it extends from us and sets things in motion for the future. You know, you want to know, brethren, where the future is?

The future is sitting right there in that chair where you are right now. That's where the future is. It's always been there. And it's been there for every generation, because other generations actually emanate from one generation or another. Consider, brethren, as parents, we're like transmitters. We're transmitting. If you have a radio, and there's a radio signal coming out that's being transmitted, you tune in, don't you? The nice thing about radio is you can always turn it off.

But think about this. We're transmitters, and our children are open receivers. You can't close them up. You can't turn the knob off. But the children are receiving everything we're saying. And to them, brethren, you are a prophet. You are a prophet. To them, you're an apostle. You're a truth-bearer to them. What you say is truth to them. What you do, in fact, and what you say, brethren, is what is right or wrong. You see, what you say, what you do, is right or it's wrong. And they're picking up on it.

They're hearing it. They're receiving it. And unless there are those with intact families, brethren, obeying God, let me say, they will not be a future. There's no reason, again, to perpetuate generations that have no means of perpetuating the right principles. The right goals from one generation to another. There's no reason to have a millennium, for that matter. However, God, rather than his call, those who do, frankly, wish to obey him, albeit sometimes, even when we have that desire, we make mistakes.

Our children understand that. They realize that fathers and mothers are not perfect, that they make mistakes, that they make errors in their lives. But there is, brethren, a chosen generation, the Bible talks about, that is teaching. Of people that are teaching God's truth, not always picked up on by our children. But you look through, in fact, at the examples of the Bible. Adam started out with Cain and Abel, and Abel did okay. Cain did not. You go up to the time of, you know, Abraham.

Abraham had Ishmael, and he had Isaac. You know, Isaac did okay. Ishmael did not. You know, Abraham said, oh, there was a hard end, and basically I wish that Ishmael would obey God. But apparently it did not happen. You come to the time of Isaac. You know, Jacob was okay, and Esau was not. You know, Jacob chose God's way. So, brethren, God knows we make mistakes, and nobody is perfect. Nobody is perfect. And, of course, even Jesus Christ may remember, you know, that certainly Jesus had, you know, twelve apostles, and Judas, of course, it was prophesied.

That it would occur, it was a part, again, of a prophecy, but nonetheless, you know. In other words, it's not everybody. Because a lot of what people do with what you tell them depends a great deal on that individual. But it doesn't depend entirely upon them. So, brethren, again, realize here, consider that as a father, as a mother, you're a transmitter, you're a children, you're an open receiver, and you can impact them in very, very positive ways. I remember, in fact, Mr. Armstrong one time talking about how that when Satan deceived a third of the angels, it was God's influence that caused two-thirds of the angels to remain loyal.

You see, God influenced the angels, and every father and mother should influence their children, of course, in a very positive way. And God has called those in this time who do want to obey, and we have that responsibility to convey that to our own children. Let's go to Deuteronomy 6. Deuteronomy 6, Deuteronomy 6, and in verses 1-10, we'll focus on this. And it says, Now, let me explain. God was giving here a nation of Israel a clean start, wasn't he? He had brought them out of the world, he had brought them into the wilderness, and he gave them a fresh start with a way of life.

And he said, you should obey my commands. And God was a father to them. In verse 2, that you may fear the eternal God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you.

But notice here, it wasn't just for the adults of that day and that time. He says, which I command you, you and your son and your grandson. You see, that was the intent of the laws that were given to them at that time.

To your son and your grandson all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore, here, O Israel, be careful to observe that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord your God of your fathers promised you a land flowing with milk and honey. So, you see, God wanted to give them the great blessings of life, but the relationship is a family, in fact, hinged on that being brought to pass. We know this nation has enjoyed the great wealth and affluence it has, not for our obedience, because God did promise to Abraham, after all, that He was going to bless them richly and raise the peoples of modern-day Israel up to great preeminence of the world, and He's done that.

But very shortly, we're going to find out that the blessings of the United States proceed from God when they begin to disappear, one by one. And I don't know, maybe the drought of California is a precursor to worse things that are coming. You know, we, of course, see this happening. In the Bible, it does say in some areas it would be drought, in other areas there would be floods. That's what we're seeing. There are many other things that were told that were going to happen as well.

He said, therefore, here, O Israel, be careful to observe that it may be well with you, and that you multiply greatly, as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you. Notice how He focuses on the fathers here. A land flowing with milk and honey. Here, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. So they weren't to worship other gods, the false gods of Egypt. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, not divided to the false gods of the world. And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk to them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You talk to your children about these things all the time. You receive a blessing. You tell your children it's the blessing of God. This is where God gives His blessing. Teach them that obeying God gives blessings to us. And it says, you shall bind them as a sign in your hand, and they shall be frontless between your eyes. And you shall write them on the door-paste posts of your house and on your gates. And so shall it be when the Lord your God brings you in the land which he swore to your fathers, for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities, which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, you not wells, which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you did. When you have eaten and are full, then beware, lest you forget, the kernel that brought you out of the land of Egypt. So you see, God's intent, again, that His laws be passed on to the future generations, and that every generation, basically, would get better and better, that they would never forget. It was God who gave all of those things to them. Now let's go to Psalm 78. Psalm 78 over here.

So men, mothers, all of us, it's up to us to use the Father power in a godly, positive way, not to ward it over our families and beat them into submission, but to lead them in a way that a shepherd leads sheep, in a gentle way, in a loving way, in a kind manner, but to use that power that God has given for the sake of the future generations. That's always what it's been about. Look at the world we're living in now as we race quickly through our own destruction. But Psalm 78... Psalm 78...

It says, Give ear, O my people, to my law, and cline your ears to the words of my mouth, and I will open my mouth at a parable, and I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known, and their fathers have told us.

And we will not hide them from their children. See, we have a responsibility in not hiding these precious truths from children. Now, I know that a lot of parents that take the philosophy, well, this is my religion. You know, I'm talking about in the world, this is often the case where people have this attitude, well, I have my own spiritual belief, but I want my children to choose for themselves. Now, how many of us hear that? I mean, I've heard it many times in this society. Well, frankly, I don't want our children in our household. I did not want it. Joan and I did not want it. We didn't want them to make up their mind go foul, Buddhism and Hinduism. But we wanted to give them all the equipment necessary from a spiritual perception ability and all that so they could tell the difference between right and wrong, you know, in terms of what is right according to God's word. And to prove it for themselves, but we very much wanted to influence them to be a part of the Church of God. But it says, we will not hide them from their children, telling the generation to come the praises of the Eternal and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. Verse 5, For He has established a testimony in Jacob, in the point of the law of Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that we should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may rise and declare to their own children. You see, that was the intent, brethren, to their children, one generation after the other, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God. And yet, look at the society, brethren, that is out here.

I'm reminded of what God said regarding Abraham, you know, when the angels were going to go into Sodom Gomorrah and destroy it. And God said, well, you know, we can't hold this back from Abraham, because in Genesis 18, verse 19, God says, because I know Abraham, he will command his children. He will command his children. And it goes on to say that I might be able to fulfill all the things I've said about Abraham. But you see, his doing that, commanding his children, and God blessing Abraham to the full extent he intended to do, hens on his role as a father.

So, brethren, how about us? How about our children? I think about our children, about what their future will be, and whether or not they'll be able to be a part of that great kingdom that's coming ahead of us. And I have to live in the miserable existence sometimes that we live in in this world.

I've traveled to Zambia, and you all know that. I've seen young kids with gleam in their eye. You know, when you talk about some of the things of the future, of what the future is going to bring. And show them what's possible for this life as well. But the question is, brethren, do we follow faithful Abraham? Because Abraham taught Isaac, and Isaac passed it on to Jacob, and Jacob passed it on to Joseph, and others of his sons, you know, that was passed on. And so it was a generational thing. And fatherhood is a generational thing. And remember, unless the fathers' hearts are turned to the children, God says, and the children of the fathers, I'm going to smite the earth with utter destruction. And unless there's a people, a people of God upon the earth that are doing that, brethren, that is what God says He's going to do. And one thing we need to realize is God means what He says. He really means it. This is a booklet, a book, a small book, written by Theodore Austin Sparks.

And the title of it is a Spiritual Clinic. A Spiritual Clinic. It's an old book. You can look it up on Amazon or on Wikipedia, or on Google it, as they say. But in his book, The Spiritual Clinic, he gives two examples of the 1800s in New York City. He talked about two individuals. One of them was Max Jukes, and the other one was Jonathan Edwards.

But Sparks says Max Jukes was a drifter and a moonshiner, but he said among his known descendants were 310 vagrants, people without homes, 440 had their lives wrecked by godless living, 130 were sent to prison, seven were murderers, 100 were alcoholics, 60 were habitual thieves, 190 were prostitutes. Collectively, they cost the state of New York $1.2 million.

That's a lot of money, isn't it? Then there's another of this. This man was named Jonathan Edwards. Now, that's kind of an interesting picture of what happens when you have children, and what can happen, and why the United States is in a lot of trouble in the rest of the world. Jonathan Edwards, by the way, in the 1800s, was a well-known minister, and his heritage included 300 preachers, 30 judges, 60 authors and 14 university presidents, and one vice president of the United States of America. Think about that. See the difference between the two? Now, if you go online, you'll find that there's debate about how bad Max Jukes was, but I think the message is still very clear here. What happens in families where there's no direction? There's no right or wrong. It's deciding for themselves. Apparently, Max Jukes didn't think it was wrong. You know, the person should basically live as they choose, sexually speaking, and it sure shows up generationally, doesn't it? It shows up that way. Now, how do you like your daughters, husbands, fathers, mothers, to grow up to be a prostitute? Or how do you like your sons to grow up to be murderers? And, of course, it's something, God forbid, we pray it would not happen in any way, shape, or form to any of our families in that way. But the point is, brethren, what we do and say makes all the difference to many people from now on in years to come. What conclusions can we draw then, brethren? What do we see as we look at our own family background? Look at your own family background. How were you brought up, brethren? How were you brought up and how was your life? What traits have you inherited, have we inherited, that we should build on perfect? I mean, I've talked about good traits. Which weaknesses should we get rid of so that our children don't pass them along to their children? Are we working earnestly to do that, to be overcomers? You know, the Bible says only the overcomer is going to be in the kingdom.

But we see the results in our society is that, you know, we don't have to be able to lie that long to see the generational results. Look what happened to the free love movement of the sixties. And those same people, by the way, now are running this country.

And it's growing worse and worse day by day.

Well, brethren, we need to also look at the spiritual traits that we inherited from our parents and decide what to build on and what to get rid of. And every one of us, brethren, must acknowledge the powerful impact our families had upon us. We have to acknowledge that.

Whether we like it or not, our fathers, our mothers impacted us. Good, bad, or indifferent. But as fathers, brethren, we must also do this. Fathers, all of us should do this as well. Have a clear, open, truthful communication with our Father in Heaven.

Christ came to present the Father to us, you know, John 17. You know, we see He prayed to the Father.

And He came to reveal the Father. So we should have a clear, open, truthful communication with our Father in Heaven, God Almighty and Jesus Christ.

We must know them and learn to know them better with each passing day. To be godly men, we must be men of God, like Abraham was a man of God.

Another thing, our Fathering must be an extension of our own personal relationship with God. So our Fathering, how we fathers should be an extension of our relationship with God.

Next, we must come to terms with how we were brought up.

If our fathers were good or bad, we must face it and accept it and forgive it and move on. Don't hang on to it and beat yourself up for something that happened as a result of something somebody else did. But face it and move on. Go on in your life to do better. In some cases, breaking the cycle and in others, rather, strengthening the cycle that has been established. So if a father has done his job, his best, their best to really point us in the right direction, we need to strengthen that which God has given to us. And we've been blessed with Sardis in the book of Revelation. God said that they should strengthen the things that remain. And of course, the idea being is that they would continue to build up on that as well. But it does no good, brethren, for it's the curse of fathers. In fact, Proverbs says, whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in deep darkness. God doesn't like us hearing that approach of putting down our fathers and mothers.

We must have communication with fathers with future fathers, and we need to set a good example for them of how to be a good father, of steadfastness in living God's way of life, of showing the pathway, of desiring to obey, not letting anything get in the way of your obeying God, and again, to convey that to your sons and your daughters. So, brethren, we must understand the importance of the far-reaching effects that God places on our jobs and responsibilities as parents, that He is actually going to use our examples as a pattern for future generations to learn from them, and of course, even the bad things. People in the future are going to learn from our bad examples as well. And, brethren, what a privilege it is to have a part in such a wonderful calling that God has given us that opportunity. Remember, fathers have a power. They have a power. And, fathering is important. Just as being a mother is important. And, fathering is important. If we believe that, then, brethren, ask yourself, what am I going to do about it? And, how am I going to use the power of fatherhood that I have to best help the future generations and my own children for the future?

God has called upon us to do this, brethren. Let's make sure that we see the importance of this message that came from the ancient prophecy in Malachi.