Marriage and the home

Again I say it's good to see you tonight, thanks for coming along, and we'll pray before we open the Word of God. Let's pray. Father, we thank Thee for the Lord Jesus Christ.

We think of the day coming when we will see Him face to face. What a moment that will be. We have waited for this moment, some of us a shorter time and others longer, but we think of the Lord Jesus Himself waiting for the time when He will take His bride.

We thank Thee for the patience of the Lord Jesus Christ. We think, Father, of what it costs the Lord Jesus. We have so little understanding, though we seek to enter into the cross week by week and understand more of the suffering of the Savior and the wonder of divine grace.

We are amazed to think that God loved us so much. We seek Thy blessing upon us tonight that we may enter into that even more, even as we look at practical things from Thy Word. And we would pray if there are any in this gathering tonight who are not saved, that there might even be a word for them.

We remember that when Ruth worked in the fields, that Boaz commanded that they should drop something on purpose for her to feed on. And we would pray that this might be our experience, even if we're not conscious of it, that just a single word sometimes can stir a heart. And so we pray for Thy blessing upon everyone in the gathering tonight.

We think, Father, of the assemblies in this state. We think of gospel meetings going on in different places. And we would pray for Thy blessing upon them and meetings starting here soon and in other parts of the country.

And we just ask Thee to bless the labors of our brethren. Now we wait upon Thee in our need and pray that the Holy Spirit of God Himself would guide us in our gathering. And we pray that we may leave this gathering blessed and with a greater understanding of Thy purposes for us within our families.

We pray that we may be able by this week to strengthen families and build stronger families and perhaps even correct difficulties that have not been well understood so that families may flourish and function better than they ever have before. We do wait upon Thee in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

I want to read with you in Romans chapter 12. That was one other passage that I wanted to look at before we look at the book of Deuteronomy. Romans chapter 12.

And let's read, maybe we should read in chapter 11 at the end, verse 36, first of all, because it is based, chapter 12 is based upon that by the word therefore in chapter 12 and verse 1, I beseech you therefore, and that's because of all that has gone before in chapters 9, 10, and 11. So verse 36 of chapter 11, it says concerning God, for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Now let me just point out something there. When God created the world, He had a plan for this world. And so He brings to pass a world.

And so that's why it says of Him are all things. He guides all the different ages. And so it says through Him are all things.

And then He is the goal, the end point of everything. And so it says to Him are all things. And I have written over this that He is the generator, the guide, and the goal of everything.

And when we live within that, that is when we get our blessing. What is not understood sometimes in our lives is that rebellion harms us. It does damage to us.

You remember in the book of Job, the question is asked, if you're righteous, what does that do to God? It doesn't do a thing. God sits solitary in the heavens. And as Mr. Adams, who spent a lot of time, most of his time in Ontario, used to tell us, you do not break the laws of God.

They break you. And there's a lot of truth in that. Now you may wonder how this is related, but we'll show you that shortly.

Chapter 12 and verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Notice verse 2, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now we're going to see this further in the book of Deuteronomy, but I might as well mention it here, that God, when he saved us, he brought us into a totally different culture.

We don't think of the New Testament assembly as a culture oftentimes, but that's exactly what it is. It is a unique culture in this world. The assembly is a culture, and all that is connected with it are really cultural principles.

They are principles to live by, and when we imbibe some principles from the world and some principles from scripture, that's what worldliness is. Sometimes people think of an individual item as worldliness, and those individual items can be, but basically worldliness is not living within the divine culture. When people come from foreign countries, they often have a club to try to maintain their own previous culture.

We have Irish-Canadian clubs, we have Polish-Canadian clubs back at home, and where I live, there was a whole Lithuanian community came, and they have only recently sold the building because the younger generation are not so interested in that, but the first generation wanted to keep the cooking and the thinking and bring the culture over here, and that's fine, that's a nice thing, providing it doesn't interfere with the culture that already exists, but God has brought us into this world. He has saved us out of the world. He has given us a completely new culture, and our problems arise when we accept the principles of the world and bring them into the assembly or into our families, and so what God has given us in his word is a whole cultural book for us to live by, and in the measure that we do that, we have the best families and the best of circumstances.

Now, with that in mind, let me take you to chapter 1 of the book of Deuteronomy. I want to spend most of my time in chapter 6, but let's look at chapter 1 for a moment. It's interesting that in chapter 1, it speaks of this side Jordan.

Moses, you remember, was never allowed to go into the land, so when he gave the instructions, he is speaking on this side Jordan, meaning on the east side of Jordan. Later on, when they speak about the other side Jordan, they mean the east, and this side Jordan is on the west, but from Moses' perspective, he was never allowed to go into the land, at least not until the Mount of Transfiguration. God graciously did let him in the land a long time after.

I thought that was really gracious of God. He got into the land, and he saw the greatest part of the land, the Messiah himself, so he didn't really lose out that much in a way, but he is speaking in Moab, and he says in verse 1, These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red Sea between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dezabba. Notice down the chapter to verse 5, On this side Jordan in the land of Moab, where Moses was buried, began Moses to declare this law, saying, The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount.

Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places, and I were unto in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, in the south, and by the seaside, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. Notice verse 8, Behold, I have set the land before you, that is the land of Canaan. Go in and possess the land which the Lord swear unto your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

So he is encouraging them as God has to go in and take possession of the land. Now chapter 6, chapter 6 of Deuteronomy, in chapter 6 of Deuteronomy, I see the ideal home setting, and the practice that Moses, by the Spirit of God, encourages them to go in to practice, to enjoy, to model their homes after, is exactly the same as what we need to do today. Now verse 1, Now these are the commandments.

I would just point out that the word these is in the Hebrew, is in the singular, and the word commandment is in the singular, and so it seems that statutes and judgments are the expansion. So it could be translated, now this is the commandment, and then embodied on all that are the statutes and the judgments. Why do I say that? Because again it links with Romans chapter 12, and really with 1st Corinthians 14, according to some Greek texts.

The things in 1st Corinthians 14, the things that I write unto you are the commandment, some suggest singular. In other words it's a whole body of truth, that is not to be separated into parts, and we use this part, and we don't use that part. It's a whole body of teaching, and again comes back to my word, it's a whole culture that God has given us.

One big commandment, one way to live, then it is expanded in the statutes and the judgments, and I can't overemphasize that enough. I hope that I'm making it really clear that we do have a culture, and that culture is the word of God, and God intends us to live in the whole, within the whole circumference, inside that circle of what he has given us, and worldliness simply means that when we step outside that circle in any way, with any value of any kind, we are worldly. A person can value, for example, education to the point that that becomes their very first thing in their life, and other things are neglected.

I'm not against education, I love to learn, but all I'm saying is it can become even a god to people. With some it is advancement in their work, with some it's friendship. There's all kinds of ways of stepping outside the will of God, but in any measure in our families, or individually that we step outside what God allows, we are worldly, and so if someone asks you what is worldliness, you don't really need to name, well this is worldly, and that's worldly, individual items in a list.

Worldliness is anything that is outside the plan God has for our life, and stepping into the cultures of the world around us, and that will come up. But in verse one, going back there, now these are the commandments, the statutes, and judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither thou go to possess it. Notice verse two, we're just going to go down likely mostly verse by verse in this chapter, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee thou and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life, that thy days may be prolonged.

Now where it begins, going back in our thinking, and linking it with verse two of Deuteronomy chapter six, is it must come from a commitment to the will of God. If there's going to be a home that is a happy home, a wholesome place to live, we cannot have people with mixed motivation. It won't work, and just in passing to those who are single and are contemplating marriage, or those who are just married and younger, you make sure that both of you, whether it's a boyfriend, girlfriend, or husband and wife, have the same standard in the home.

One standard, and that standard is the word of God, because it will not work unless it is God's standard that you have. Otherwise there will be conflict, and confusion, and the children will be confused, and you won't be able to guide the home the proper way. So they were, in verse two, they were to fear the Lord and keep all his statutes and his commandments.

And so two people need to begin a home saying, are we going to live our life according to the divine plan? And when a difficulty arises, not necessarily between them, that can happen, but when any decision has to be made, it needs to be, what will the Lord have us to do? That's really the only question, and if it's hard to know, because sometimes difficulties come up, decisions to be made, and you're not really sure which way you're supposed to go, then you pray about it and wait upon the Lord. Now that may seem simple, and I may be pushing it too much, but I can't emphasize enough that there is to be one standard in the home, and that has to be the divine standard. If, if you want a good life, you can have heartache and other things come in even with that, but there's no worse heartache than going your own way and then later on paying the price.

And again, I want to say this, as I mentioned yesterday, I am not wanting older believers to look back and wish they had done differently. That's not the goal, but I'm only emphasizing that for any who are still in the situation where either they're raising children or maybe beyond that and need guidance, and we all, all our lives will need some. We have to go back that this is the book, and this is the way.

This is our culture. This is our cultural book, and the only thing to do is to say what does it teach on this situation, this difficulty, this that we're facing, and come back to that time and time and time again. Now I want you to know something else.

In verse 1, you'll notice it says, these are the commandments and statutes and the judgments which the Lord, notice this word, your God, the word your God commanded to teach you that ye might do them in the land whether ye go to possess it. Now we know in our King James Bible, when you have you and ye, it is always in the plural. So verse 1 is in the plural in the Hebrew language, but when you come to verse 2, you notice that it changes, that thou, singular, mightest fear the Lord thy God, singular, to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee, singular, thou, singular, and thy, singular, son, and thy son's sons all the days of thy life that thy days may be prolonged.

People have puzzled over that. I read a book that was considered to be the theological book on the book of Deuteronomy, and he spent half the book trying to figure out what this was, and I finally got tired and I said put that book back in the shelf. I was at a theological library and he had all kinds of words that I didn't even understand that he said it was all about.

To me it's quite simple. God never intended that the nation of Israel should raise families. Family is a personal responsibility.

I remember a sister saying to me, you know the thing I don't like about the assemblies, there's nothing for the young people. You know what my response to that was? Well thank God. Say why? Because God never intended that the assembly raise your children.

Now I know we're having young people's meetings these days. I'm not going to fight that, but I don't preach at young people's meetings because I don't see them in Scripture. I see the whole assembly together, and what I see is parents parenting children and taking on that responsibility themselves, and I believe that's why there's a switch.

God is saying to the whole nation, these are the commandments for the whole nation, and then immediately when he comes to the home he says thou, the father, the mother, and they are responsible for how the children are raised. When we moved to Bothwell, one of the preachers said, you know, he was an older preacher, he said you know London Assembly, an hour away from where you want to work in the gospel, is a big assembly. You'd be better if you went there because Newbury Assembly has no young people, and I said well that would be great.

I go visit Newbury Assembly and say keep going, it will work, don't give up, but don't ask me to live there. He said how hypocritical. I said no we're going to move there, and there was nothing for our young people, but I didn't expect it.

We took them to conferences. We taught them the Word of God. We did our own reading, and whether they turned out or not, we felt that's our responsibility.

I did not expect the assembly to babysit our children. I expected that we would do the babysitting ourselves. Now for us, by the grace of God, and I emphasize that by the grace of God, it worked, but it should work, and so I don't think people should leave an assembly, and I don't mean in a bad sense, but just even in a good sense and say well I want to go where there's young people who can be with my children because they need that.

No they don't. Mostly they need parents. That's what they need more than anything else, and I'm not discounting them spending time.

We made sure our children got with young people, and we had lots of young people in our home. Wonderful times, but we supplied that, and so God is telling them that it's a personal responsibility. Verse 3, Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Now I'm going to go on to verse 5. I'm reading a little, but I want to keep moving. Verse 5, And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

See here, God is speaking, I believe, to the parents. He says this is to be the way you live, and here's what happens. We live in a day when it's hard to make ends meet.

I understand that, and so people, parents are so busy trying to make ends meet that spiritual things get neglected. You will pay a price for that if you neglect them. Now as I mentioned, sometimes children turn out by neglectful parents, and sometimes children don't turn out with the best of parents, but you can't expect good results from doing wrong things, and the thing that to me matters the most, and I speak to younger believers with families or thinking of having families, you don't want to look back 20 years from now and say, why didn't I do differently? This is your opportunity to do the right thing, and put other things second.

I remember when I worked in the hospital, I had a wonderful lady supervisor over me, and she said, Jim, you know, you've got too many irons in the fire, and your church work takes up a lot of time. And I said, yes Miss Cunningham, you're right. I said, there's the church work, and there's the lab work, and she was saying if you want to get advancement, you're going to have to put more into the lab, and less into the church.

And I said, you know what? There's the church, and there's the lab. And I said, when one gets in the way, the lab's going to go. That's what's going to happen.

And she understood that. I said it nicely. She was a wonderful person to work for, and she was thinking of my well-being, but she wasn't thinking of it through God's eyes.

That was the problem. And the thing is that Christians generally are harder workers than anybody else. In fact, I heard about a sister, I forget where I heard this story, but she would go to Easter conference every year, and it was a busy time where she worked.

And one year the boss came to her and said, you haven't asked for time off for the conference this year. Don't you go to a church conference at this time of year? She said, yeah, but we've been so busy, I didn't think it was fair to ask. He says, I want you to go.

He said, you work better when you come back than you do before you go to the conference. So it gave her fresh oomph to be the best person, but Christians are more try harder generally, and so they're going to get the advancements, but you don't want that to be your priority. Because as we used to tell our children when they were bothered about something, will it matter a hundred years from now? They say no.

Well, I said it really doesn't matter much now. And a hundred years from now, whatever advancement you get in the world will not matter but pleasing the Lord will. And so you have to put your heart, and that's what God says, love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Verse six, and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Now what we have in verse seven is that the scriptures were to be woven into the daily life, and that is something that sometimes isn't done, and I would say again to younger believers, weave the Word of God into every part of the daily life of your family. Bring it in.

I remember my mother, I loved her, and she was a very godly woman, but she had her old-fashioned ideas, and I remember she was with us for a few days, and I opened at Proverbs where we were reading through, and I read one verse and quit, and she says in her Irish voice, is that all you're gonna read? I said yeah, and she kind of frowned, but I wasn't interested in reading a chapter. I don't know what you're like. As you get older you got concentration.

Do you know any child that when you're reading a whole chapter they're with you the whole time? They're playing outside. Well they're sitting there, but they're playing outside, or they're figuring things out. So we read one verse sometimes, and we'd say okay, what does the verse mean? And well, what do you think about it? What would you say the verse means? And we would send them off to school with a principle, one principle that they could use during the day, because God doesn't say read a chapter, he says teach them diligently, and the word teach there, there are different intensities in Hebrew verbs, and the intensity in this, the word itself means to sharpen, but in the intensive form of the Hebrew verb it means to just stab with a knife.

In other words, get it right in. It's the idea of piercing, and that's what God wants us to do with our families, take the word of God, and make sure it penetrates. That's the thought of penetration, and so day by day we do it with them, teaching them things, and notice what it says, verse seven, when thou sittest in thy house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

So it's to be an ongoing thing all day long. You look for opportunities to teach the children. When they're troubled about something, what do you do? Stop and pray about it, about their difficulty.

I remember when our daughter Ruth, which was the least athletic of the three children, when I tried to teach her how to ride a bike, and we were outside with her blue bike, and all she could manage to do was skin her ankles, and she was crying, and I said to her, Dear, have you prayed about this? She said, Can you pray about that, Daddy? I said, Well, not a sparrow falls to the ground without his Heavenly Father, and you're worth more than many sparrows. So I said, I'll hold the bike, you go in and pray. So she went in, she prayed, she came back out, got on the bike, and rode a whole block.

You see, that was a nice coincidence. No, that was an answered prayer, and we tried. I don't want to be presenting myself as the perfect father, and we had a perfect family, because we didn't, but I'm just giving you some illustrations.

We brought the Word of God into the daily life. They had problems with some children at school. Every child who goes to public school systems, they have that problem.

Well, we would pray about it, bring their problem before the Lord. See, it says when you're in the house, when you're walking the way, when you lie down, when you get up, all day long, and I want you to notice what it says here. I'll read the whole verse again.

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest restlessly in thy house, and when you're running to the mall, and when you're lying down exhausted, and when you hurry and get up. Isn't that what's happening to most of us these days? Do you know what's killing us? Rush. Rushing.

People have no time to just be still, and if you're going to have a peaceful family, you have to learn how to be still. It's walking in the way. It's sitting in the house.

It's just, can't you see the peacefulness of this? That's what God intends. Now you'll notice in the next verse, it says thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, they shall be frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. Now the Jewish people tended to take those literally, but I want you to keep something in mind.

The Old Testament figures, because they were rural people, they did not have, they didn't use what we would call vague concepts. So they talk about God, how? As a rock. As a high tower.

Talks about his peace that flows like a river, and they had all these visual cues that they understood, and God here is not necessarily saying you got to write it on the post of your door, but it's the idea of everywhere you look, the Word of God should be the important part in your experience. When you come to the New Testament, God is love, God is light. Those Greek kind of concepts, but the Old Testament are very visual concepts.

The Good Shepherd, and the Green Pastures, and all those kind of things. And so when it says frontlets between, frontlets before thine eyes, it's the idea that it should guide what we look at, and what we value, and a sign on our hand, it should affect our business, and that kind of thing. And on the gates as we go out, we should remember what the Word of God is going to do to guide us as we meet with other people.

And so all these things, God is giving them to remind them that the whole atmosphere of their home was to be marked by His Word. Now let's go down, we're going to have to jump along. Look with me at verse 12.

Beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, that thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Notice this, ye shall not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are round about you. Now let me take you from that verse over to chapter 7 for a moment.

And verse 2, when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, that is the nations that are mentioned in the previous verse, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. And there was a reason for that, by the way, which we can't go into.

Some people think that that was very cruel, but there's a reason for that. Verse 3, neither shalt thou make marriages with them, thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son, for they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly.

So again, we see that God is separating them from the gods that are around about them. And let me make that very practical. If I were to ask you, and you were to ask me, to put on a piece of paper what I value most, what you value most, and I wouldn't look at it, but you just were to write that down on a piece of paper, I value most, and then write an answer, maybe two or three answers that are all valuable to you.

If the Lord were looking down from heaven, would he agree with what you put down there? See, it's one thing to say, like if I were to ask you, what would you like to live for after the meeting? I'm not going to, so don't panic, but if I were to ask you that, of course, what are you going to say to the preacher? Well, I want to live for God. That's beautiful. But is it true? What do you really want? What do I want? That is the key to what's going to make a difference in our life.

I heard someone say one time, the tragedy with one man was he shot at a target and he hit it, but it was the wrong target. So, what do you want? And I would say, again, bring it back to young people who are not married. You make sure that you know what you want in a partner, that you know what you want for your life, and that should be God, and make sure the person you marry has the same desire.

Because I want to tell you, when you settle down to real life afterwards, there can be a lot of heartache when you find out that they really did not want that at all. And I have seen that. I've taken 45 or more weddings, and they all haven't turned out.

I try to tie tight knots, but I can't keep the knots from being untied. And I've seen, I've lived long enough, and the older Christians here, too, have lived long enough to see a lot of heartache. And so, when the blush of romance and feelings begin to settle down, and I'm not saying those don't matter.

They do. They mattered to me when I was a young person, and they still matter to me. But when it's all said and done, it is one single goal per household is what God plans.

And so, if someone has a goal that's a God to them, that's different from the God of the Bible, and two people are joined, and one has that goal to live for God, and the other doesn't, it is a tragic mistake. Now, let's go down to chapter 2. We're going to look at verse 20. I can only spend one night in this section, so I know I'm moving a little quickly, but this is just one week, and we have to cover what we can.

Verse 20. When thy son asked of thee in time to come, saying, what mean the testimonies and statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you? What are you supposed to say? Well, you're not supposed to say, well, we've always done it that way. That's the way I was taught, and I don't see any reason to change.

What we have to do is get to know God's principles well enough that we can pass them on to the next generation. I think of times when my mother used to say to me, and my father would say, my mother used to say, and that was my grandma, and sometimes I say to the children, grandma used to say, and maybe if it's good enough, our grandchildren will say, well, grandpa used to tell me that his grandma used to say, and good principles being passed on, but they have to be the Word of God. And for myself, in my teaching, I do not expect anybody to believe anything I tell them unless I can back it up with the Word of God.

If people say, I don't see it that way, the way you see it, can you show me from the Word? If I can't, then that's a problem. The same in our homes. We should be prepared to teach the children divine principles, not our ideas.

And so when the Lord is telling them that, he's saying, when your son asks you, then verse 21, then thou shalt say unto thy son, we were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And it goes on to say the things that the Lord has done. And then verse 24, and the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, but notice this, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as it is this day.

So the parents were to take them back and say, this is what we were. We were in bondage. And brothers and sisters, we look around, and this world is in bondage.

We can see that. We don't want what they want. You just, so many ways that you just shake your head, but the thing is, if we adopt their ways, and in our families we allow those ways to come in, then we will be in bondage too.

We will go back into bondage, and that's what happened to the nation of Israel. They did forget the Lord, and where did they end up? They ended up in Babylon. They were carried away, because they got away from the principles that God had given them.

And it's possible individually, and as assemblies, unless we stay with the word of God, we will end up there. I think of assemblies that I knew when I was a young Christian, which would be back in 1958, so we're talking 56 years or so ago. And they began to turn away from the principles, and you wouldn't even recognize that they ever were an assembly, with a pastor, and with all the other things that they have incorporated in.

And when they started doing that, they said, well, you know, small thing, small thing, small thing. The same in our families. It is vital that you and I see what God says about how a family should be, and be able to convey that to the next generation, and be able to help them see the value in what we do.

Our children would say, I don't know, why can't we do this? Why can't we do that? Well, again, we would bring them back to the word of God, and say, this is what God wants us to do. I remember one time, we had some limits on what our children could do on the Lord's Day. And I remember saying to them one time, if I gave you $7, which was big money for them, and ask you for one back, would that be a big deal? They said, no, that would be fine.

I said, well, God gives you six days, and he just wants one back. Is that too much for him to ask? But again, try to make it at a level that children can understand, so that we have the best in this world. And we have it, it's just a matter of practicing.

Notice what it says in verse 24. It says, it's for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is this day. And then verse 25, and this shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.

And so the Lord is saying, you do this. This is home life, walking in the way, talking about spiritual things, incorporating God into everyday life, in every aspect of life. And as you do, and as I do, it's for our good always.

It really works. And I look at lives of believers that I've respected, and saw how they guided their families when ours were little, and we learn so many things from them. In fact, I can remember times when we would sit down with them, and we would say, well, you know, you seem to have done a good job.

What did you do? And learn from them. And that's the wonderful resource we have in assembly life, when we have people of all ages. Let me suggest one more thing.

There are people, believers, who have made mistakes, and they know that, and they grieve over them. I would encourage those believers to be open to younger believers, to tell them what not to do. You have an advantage.

It may not seem like a great advantage, but you have the advantage of saying, now, if I were to do it over again, like I say, not in a morose kind of way, but if I were to do it over again, I wouldn't do this, I would have done that. I have those times when I think, I could have done that differently, and I would tell younger believers, this is what I would do, if I were doing it again. And again, we can all help one another, so that the generation to come can have the very, very best family lives.

Let's pray. Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word. We thank Thee that Thou has given us, in Thy Word, directions, so that we might have prosperous and blessed families, and we would pray that as we spend time considering these things, that first of all, we would put God first.

We pray that every heart here tonight would be able to bow to the will of God willingly, and say, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do, and as couples, to be able to say, Lord, what wilt Thou have us to do? We pray that there will be no reserve in our lives, but that we might be willing to live totally for Thy glory, and as Thou has said in My Word, this will be for our good. Now we seek Thy blessing as we part, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.