 Hey man, alright, so this morning we're going to continue, we're going to finish off our defining direction sermon series, so we just read Exodus chapter 26, so what I should do right now is I should bring up a whiteboard up here right now and I should call a volunteer and have you draw what we just read, right, because I mean, but I mean, couldn't you have done that? Couldn't you do that? You say, oh, I wasn't paying attention. I should have paid better attention, right? I mean, isn't that how we kind of get when we read these chapters in the Bible, by the way? We read these chapters in the Bible and we're kind of like, oh man, all these details, right, about the tabernacle, right? But the point that I want to make this morning about the tabernacle in Exodus chapter 26 through 30, I mean, this was just the first chapter, first of all. When God builds something, He spends 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30, those chapters in the Bible talk about the details of the tabernacle, a tent, the details of a tent here, all right? I mean, we're talking, you know, He gives us the dimensions, He gives us the materials, He gives us the patterns that go on it. He tells us the color of what the curtains are supposed to be. The curtain is going to be this color, but the loops need to be blue and there needs to be 50 loops. I mean, there's all this detail about what this tabernacle is supposed to look like, all right? He tells them what the priests are supposed to wear, specifically. He gives them specific direction on that, how to sacrifice, all the details are here. So the point that I want to make about this chapter in the Bible and these chapters in the Bible is that when God builds something, He is very specific about it, all right? And when you think about your life and you think about your kids' lives that we've been talking about throughout this sermon series, you know, think about your kids' lives. You know, they're not going to be with you for the majority of their life. Think about that, parents. The time they spend with you is actually very short if they would live a full life, you know, God willing. But you will have heavy influence on how the majority of their life goes and I want you to understand that even though that they are with you for only a short time. So we talked about in the first sermon in this series, we talked about some building blocks that they're going to need, right? We talked about the building block of common sense that your children will need. Common sense is not so common anymore because what is actual common sense? We defined that. Common sense is basically having knowledge of the Bible and then having the wisdom to be able to apply that biblical knowledge in their life in the world, especially with an unbiblical world that we're dealing with today, especially with a wicked world that we're dealing with today. We talked about, you know, character, you know, defining character in your children. We talked about the specific example of empathy and how we need to teach our kids to be empathetic and how the Bible teaches, you know, having a Christian heart for people. You don't want to raise a bunch of little jerks, basically, was the point of that sermon. And that character series, you know, is going to be a random sermon series that just pops up because empathy is only one aspect of a person's character, all right? So today we're going to talk about defining your children's actual direction in life. You know, where they will go, what they, the things that they will pursue and actually how they will live their life. The majority of which, by the way, will not be with you, all right? So people to be, you know, this is the opposite, what you're going to hear today, once again, is the opposite of what the world is telling everybody out there, all right? That, you know, kids just need to go out, they just need to be free, they just need to find themselves, you know, these kids, they just get out of high school and then they just go and they travel around for several years before they even go off to the university system that everybody's pushing them into. And, you know, they need to be free and they need to find themselves. The sad thing is, is they're not going to find themselves. Someone will define the direction that they go in. Someone will do it. So don't leave it up to someone else is the point that I'm going to make this morning. If you want specific results, you need to give specific direction. Just like God did, all right? Look, if God did not care how the tabernacle looked, he wouldn't have given the direction that he gave. If God just, look, in Exodus chapter 25, you see all the details of the ark and how the ark was to be built and what it was to be made of, how big it was to be, what it was to be, you know, what kind of wood, overlaid with gold once again, what the designs of everything was going to be, you know, the candlesticks, you see all these details. If God just said, hey, just kind of build this equipment and make some sort of tent that will all fit in, he could have done that. But he wanted it a specific way. He wanted it to be a specific size, to have specific chambers, to look a certain way. So there would have been no need for all these detailed instructions if God didn't care, okay? But he expected it to look a certain way, so he gave that direction. And then it did look that way. It succeeded. They followed that direction, right? By the way, you know, this isn't the point of the sermon, but this is also proof that God cares about the way things look, right? Turn to Exodus 28 real quickly. Look at Exodus 28. We'll just read verses number 4 through 7. Exodus 28 is talking about what the priests are to wear and how they are to look. And the Bible says in Exodus 28, verse number 4, And these are the garments which they shall make a breastplate and an ephod and a robe and a broider coat, a miter and a girdle, and they shall make holy garments for Aaron, thy brother and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. And they shall take gold and blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen, and they shall make the ephod of gold of blue of purple of scarlet of fine twined linen with cunning work. And it shall have two shoulder pieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof, so it shall be joined together. And it goes on and on and on and on and on about the details of what the priests are supposed to wear, what they're supposed to look like. So, I mean, do you think that when God says elsewhere in the Bible that he wants men to dress like men and women to dress like women, do you think that he's serious about it? I mean, God cares how things look. When God points out in the Bible specifics and says these things in the Bible, that means he cares about it. He wanted these pieces to look exactly like this. We learned last week that he had specific rules for who was to touch the holy things and who was to not touch the holy things, and then somebody who had a heart that was right, that was just trying to do the right thing, but wasn't one of those people that was supposed to touch the holy thing laid his hand on the ark and God struck him dead. It wasn't because he was a bad guy, it's because God had specific detailed instructions for how things are going to go and that's the way we need to follow it, or there will be consequences. So, you know, you think we can get nothing from these boring chapters in the Bible? I mean, we've all been there. We've all gotten to Exodus, the end of Exodus, and we're like, man, it's just nothing but a half a dozen chapters on just details of all these things, you know, but look, you could take those details and you could study those things and you could actually build that tabernacle out of those details. That's how specific they are. But once again, if you want specific results, you need to give specific direction. You see where I'm headed with this? So, with your kids, the first direction that you need to give, I'm just going to apply this to two areas in your kids' lives. You can also apply it to your own life, by the way, because if you don't have this figured out in your life, there's no chance that your kids will pick it up, okay? The first thing is spiritual direction in their life. Turn to 2 Timothy 1. You need to define the spiritual direction that your children take. Look at 2 Timothy 1. And look what Paul says about, you know, look at what he says about Timothy. In 2 Timothy 1, look at verse number 1, where the Bible says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy, peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. So Paul is writing 2 Timothy here. Paul says, I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without seizing, I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears that I may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance the unfaimed faith that is in thee, he's talking about Timothy having unfaimed faith, just unwavering faith. And he says that it just brings him to tears that he's filled with so much joy when he thinks about the faith that Timothy has, the spiritual strength and fortitude that Timothy has, which is in thee which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice and I am persuaded that in thee also. So here he's equating Timothy's faith to the faith of his mother and his grandmother. It was passed down to him. He had that direction defined for him by his grandmother and his mother. They defined his spiritual direction. So who, you know, do you have a spiritual life for your kids to adopt like Timothy adopted that of his mother and grandmother is the question. That is the question. Are your kids adopting a spiritual life? You know, let's talk about gaining their buy-in. You say, I have a spiritual life. Well, you have to gain their buy-in into that spiritual life. Things like, you know, are they enjoying church? Those are questions that I ask my kids all the time. Are they enjoying church? You know, what bad situations can still happen to kids at church? They can not be getting along with other kids. Look, we're like super protective of our kids here. But I mean, look, there can still be kids being mean to other kids. There can still be issues that need to be brought up. You need to be talking to your kids constantly about, you know, are they enjoying their spiritual life that you're going to pass to them? You know, it's important that your spiritual life is edifying to them and that they're picking it up and that they start to believe in it. Look, when they're two, when they're three, it's just kind of like, here's what you're gonna do. What do I say? It's easy, right? But look, when they get to be seven, eight, nine, 10 years old when they get saved and they start, you know, moving forward in their spiritual life, they need to start having some buy-in. They need to start believing in it. And if they're not, if there's something wrong, you're not gonna get them to adopt that. You know, are they on board or are they just following you is the question. They need to start getting on board. Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter five. You will simply end up better with better results every time and no matter what you're leading, if you get the buy-in of the people that are following you. That's true in secular things. That's true in spiritual things as well. You need to have the buy-in of the people that you're leading. So you need to be able to, you know, basically sell this idea that serving the Lord is what they should do with their life. You need to be able to sell that. But guess what? It's pretty easy to sell because it's like the best idea ever, okay? Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter five and look at verse number 11. I mean, if you can't sell that idea, you can't sell anything, all right? 1 Thessalonians chapter five and verse number 11 says, wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also ye do. Look, especially in end times, especially in difficult times, gathering together with the brethren should bring you comfort. I mean, haven't we seen that in these crazy times that we're at right now with all this, I'm not saying this is the end times, who knows, but what I'm saying is that haven't we seen how important it is that we gather together and that when we do gather together, when we have these unprecedented crazy things going on, how it brings us comfort, haven't we all seen that? That should be able, I mean, even you see it with the kids too, you know that? They should start to see that as well, that when things are all different and changing and stressful and my parents are stressed out from all this change that when I get together with my brothers and sisters in Christ, I'm comforted. See, that's part of selling this idea of having a spiritual life. Turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 28. 1 Chronicles chapter 28 and look at verse number nine. It's easy to sell, you should be able to sell it to them. Look at 1 Chronicles chapter 28 and verse number nine. This is David, he's giving advice to his son who's going to rule the kingdom, build the temple, the whole thing. David is giving some good advice here and David says in 1 Chronicles 28 and verse number nine he says, and thou Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart. Look, if you have a perfect heart serving the Lord, that means you've bought in, you've bought into that. So what David is basically saying is, hey, buy into this thing, sell out for this thing, to serve the Lord and with a willing mind for the Lord searches all hearts and understand us all the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee. If thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever. So your children should understand and believe that the goal of their life is to serve the Lord. No matter what they do physically which we'll talk about that too. It's not, look, the goal of your children's life is not to have fun. Sorry, Americans. Sorry, American, it's not about going from fun thing to fun thing to fun thing. It's not just one trip to Disneyland after another. That's not what your life is supposed to be as a Christian. You are supposed to be serving the Lord with your life. Look, there's joy in that. There's joy is different than fun. Fun is cheap. Joy is full and fulfilling. You know, it's not to buy stuff. It's not to have a bunch of money and have a nice car. That's not the purpose of their life. The purpose of their life should be and they should have bought into the idea that they're to serve the Lord with their life no matter what they do. Period. So how? Turn to Isaiah 28. How do you guide them into that? How do you do it? How do you do that? Turn to Isaiah chapter 28. Look, here's the thing. As they sit in church, they will grow spiritually. As they sit and they listen to preaching they will grow spiritually. They will start to, as they get older they'll start to form their own opinions. It's a little scary, but they'll happen. They will start to form their own opinions. You need to talk to them often to make sure that they're heading in the right direction. You need to know them. You need to talk. Use situations that happen to teach your kids. Ask my kids sometime what I think of all these bums out here. Ask them. They know. They know that, I mean I feel a little bit bad for like if there's kids or women but they know what I think about these men out here that are just making a mess of this city and just making a mess of everything and just won't work no matter what and are just on drugs. They know what I think. The Bible says that they should starve to death and that's what I think. Good. And I talk to my kids about that. There's my say no to drug speech for my kids. Like you wanna be on drugs? There you go. Right there. You talk to your kids about these things. They'll start to learn and they'll start to be able to get that common sense that comes together with their knowledge that they're learning of the Bible in church. Okay. Look at Isaiah 28 and verse number 10. And the Bible says this. It says, for precept must be upon precept. Precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little. As they are with you, talking, learning the law, constantly being raised by you, you just keep adding and adding and adding and adding knowledge to it. So, the goal is to have children that grow to be adults that serve the Lord with their lives. But that takes specific direction. If you want specific results, you must give specific direction in their lives. Let's talk about physical direction. Physical direction. If you want specific results, you have to give specific direction. I'm talking about what your kids are gonna actually do with their lives. They're gonna serve the Lord, they're gonna come to church, they're gonna do all those things. Got that one. But the boys need to make a living. The girls are gonna be married and have children one day. I mean, what does that look like? How do you define that? Look, I see a lot of shortcoming here today in this area. We're very good. Look, we've got a lot right. We're very good at telling you what to separate from. We're very good at that. We're very good at telling you what not to participate in. We're very good at telling you, you're not gonna go to this and we're not gonna do this. And here's why in gaining that buy-in and here's why the Bible teaches separation. But we're not very good at telling them which direction they should actually go. That's what I see. It's not enough to say don't go that way. You have to actually show them which way to go. In their lives. Okay? Look, having no plan and just wandering, if these kids that are just wandering through life lost, that's a direction, unfortunately. And if that's what happens with your kids, you defined that direction. Turn to Matthew chapter four. You will define their direction or somebody else will. And they end up wandering on through life. They're gonna be caught up into something that is not something you defined or wanted them to go into. Look at Matthew chapter four. Let's look at James and John. Just a practical example from the Bible here. Look at verse number 21. This is where Jesus calls James and John. And the Bible says in going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. So do you ever ask your kids, what do you wanna be when you grow up? You should, you should start talking to your kids. Look, it's common, these men were fishermen because their dad was a fisherman. I mean, they were working the family business with their dad when Jesus found them, right? It's common in the Bible and very biblical in the Bible for a child to pick up what their parents do. It's, I mean, it's the same theory as their spiritual life for their vocational life, if you think about it that way. It's very common and very, it makes a lot of sense that a child would pick up what his father does or what her mother does. It makes perfect sense. That's why you see it in the Bible. The experience, I mean, it makes sense that that experience for that child if he does what his dad does, starts at 10, 11, 12, instead of 19, 20, 21. He's got an extra jump ahead of everybody in his life in that field, whatever it is. James and John were fishing with their father who was a fisherman. Makes perfect sense. So James and John's dad, Zebedee, the sons of thunder, he defined their direction up to that point in their life. You will define the direction that your kids go in their life. You say, well, you know, do my kids have to do what I do? Well, why not? I guess is my first thing that I would say. I mean, is there something wrong with what you do? You know what I mean? I mean, why would you not want your kids to have the same vocation as, you know, as I'm talking mostly for the boys in this aspect. We'll talk about the girls in a little bit. I mean, think about what's wrong with what you do. Right? That's not what you would want for your kids. But look, I mean, I'm an electrical engineer. Most of you know that. I've been, look, I've been tinkering and working with circuits since I was like eight years old. I don't know if you, you probably have to be over 35 or so to remember this, but to remember when Radio Shack was cool. But you guys, some of you are like, what's Radio Shack? But just listen, you'll learn. There's a store called Radio Shack and they used to have, before it became lame in the very back of Radio Shack, you could go and buy transistors and LEDs. Man, I was blowing up LEDs like 30 years ago. You know, and everybody thinks LEDs are the newest, greatest thing, but you could go and you could buy all these little electrical components and then they had these little engineer notebooks you could buy where you could build all these different circuits and these little notebooks and build them on these breadboards and all kinds of cool stuff, right? And you're thinking, oh man, were you like some kind of prodigy child or something? No, guess what? My dad was an electrical engineer. I mean, that's where I got the interest. That's where it kind of got instilled in me. Go to Proverbs chapter 22. So it's perfectly biblical, it makes perfect sense, but you need to start talking to them early. You don't have to turn there, I'll just read it for you. But basically, I mean, it's the verse that we all know, train up a child in the way he should go. You're supposed to define that way he should go in his life. Start talking to them early about these things. Offer some options. When you think that they found an option that seems to make sense, maybe it's what you do, maybe it's not, but help them define a path to be successful in that option. In the way that they should go, train them in it. You should help your children define that direction. What this is the beauty of homeschooling, by the way, is you will start to see, you will get a more intimate relationship with your kids, you'll start to see what strengths each of your children have in different areas, and then you can help them define a path in that area. It's one of just the many benefits of homeschooling. I mean, look, you just have to homeschool as a Christian. There is no other way. I am more convinced of it every single day of my life. There's no other path for the Christian parent. In this world that we're living in, there is no other piece of the pie that will define success more than homeschooling your children and giving them a biblical education, first of all. And a biblical, it's literally make or break for your kids at this point. I don't see success as being even remotely possible if you don't homeschool. You know, we had some dinner with some friends the other night and we were talking about homeschooling and the laws and all these types of things. And somebody brought up at the table, like, hey, what if it becomes illegal to homeschool? And I'm just like, if it became illegal to homeschool, look, I don't see that happening anytime soon, but if it became illegal, I mean, that's a deal breaker. You just have to go somewhere else and raise your kids where it's not illegal. That's the bottom line. It's that important, it's make or break. Let's talk about the girls, defining direction for the girls. Look, by homeschooling, you are teaching your daughters to homeschool, by homeschooling. You think that a girl that goes to public school, whatever homeschool her kids, it'll never happen. It'll never happen, it must happen. And by the way, don't ever ask your daughter, what would you like to be when you grow up? Don't put this feminist burden on your daughter that the world is trying to put on her too. Don't be that person. Don't tell your daughter that you want to teach her own children and homeschool her own children and give them a biblical worldview other than this wicked worldview that they're gonna teach her in public school. Don't tell your daughter that you want to be a mother and a teacher to her own children. Don't put this that you need to be a doctor or something to be successful in life. It's anti against what the Bible says. Look, enough people are gonna do that already. Don't tell people that you're not, telling people that you're not gonna send your daughter off to university for six years will freak them out. I mean, they will literally have a heart attack in front of you when you tell people that. But look, the idea of sending my daughter off to a university for four years or six years or whatever gives me a heart attack when I even think about it. That's where you should be, all right? The thought horrifies me. Does that mean I hate education? No, turn to Proverbs 31. Turn to Proverbs 31. My daughter will follow the same path of education that my sons will. After high school, she will go into college classes and she will start learning. She won't go to college. She will be taking online courses in things that will prepare her in real educational things that are useful for the life that she's going to live, that I'm defining that direction for her. Look at Proverbs 31. This is the virtuous woman here. Proverbs 31, 14. She is like the merchant ships. She bringeth her food from afar. She rises also while it is a yet night and give meat to her household and a portion to her maidens. My daughter will take classes on nutrition and health and how to be, you know that my wife and the virtuous woman here actually defines how healthy that her family will be? Because when I get home from work and the dinner's on the table, I'm just like, and I don't know what I, I mean it tastes good, but I mean hopefully it's made from healthy things. My wife defines what is in the pantry of the house. My wife has total control pretty much of how healthy we are in our house. Don't you think that having some nutritional education would be valuable for a mother or for a daughter who wants to be a mother? Don't you think that some educational classes on how to be a good teacher and how to teach and all these types of things would be good for a wife to know who's gonna homeschool her kids? I mean these are all, I mean there's plenty to learn. There's plenty of education to be had just like there is on skills for the boys that have to go out in the world and work for a living. But it should be tuned towards biblical education, teaching, child rearing, and start building precept upon precept. It's very simple. For the boys, you know find their strengths, give them some practical means of success that are geared towards their talents like I said. You know homeschooling will reveal this to you. It'll show you, look the homeschooled parent knows way more about their kids than somebody who sends them off to be raised by somebody else. It's that simple. Like look at all the disciples, they all had trades and skills before they went off to serve Christ. So you need to have a plan, you need to help them define it and you need to help them execute it, boys and girls. All right? So look, let's talk about this in the context of where we are today in this country. And let me show you how this applies to both you and your kids. All right? Look, what we're seeing today, I know there's a million and one different opinions on what's going on, but here's what I do know. What we're seeing today in this country is unprecedented. No one who's alive today has ever seen anything like this and there will be severe consequences for what's happening today. Okay? You say, how do I know that? And I don't know, look, I don't know, I don't know, I'm not gonna stand up here and say I know exactly what's gonna happen. But here's what I know. I don't know if it's gonna be deflation, inflation, war. I don't know, I know there's a wave coming. Probably be deflation followed by massive inflation. Would be my guess if I had to guess right now. Hopefully not war. But here's the thing, here's what I do know. How do you know that something like that's coming? How do you know that there will be severe consequences to all of what's happened in the last eight weeks? Math, that's how I know. Because I'm good at math and I know that this cannot work what's happening today. I don't know when that wave's coming, but it's coming. So let me give you your Christian bubble that you're gonna be prepared for here. Okay? I don't know what's gonna happen, but it's gonna be ugly. But here's your Christian bubble that you're gonna be in. All right? The first goal is especially for the, and this applies to boys and girls, but the first one is this, have valuable skills. That will be extremely important. Your bubble is this. This is what you need to define for yourself and for the next generation. And let's start with the spiritual side. You need to have a church life. You need to have a church life. You need to be spiritually sold out. That will protect you through the coming times. A well-defined church life where you are actively serving the Lord with your life. Look, you will have friends, you will have brothers, you will have sisters, you will edify each other, you will comfort one another, you will exhort one another, so much more. As it gets worse and worse. As bad things happen, so much more. I mean, look, if you have taken anything out of this whole situation, you should have at least taken out, taken from this how important the assembly is. You feel it, I know you do. You all are like, oh, I'm so glad we're in church. I feel the same way because you need that in your life. You need that comfort, you need that exhortation. You need to have a spiritual life. So by the way, by the way, it's time to get back to church. It's time to get back to church now. But we're here to help each other, to exhort each other. So you need to have that spiritual life. That's the first thing in your bubble. But then, number two, I've already mentioned it, turn to 2 Chronicles chapter two. You need to have a skill that is needed by people. Period. And I'm not talking about what the government defined as essential and non-essential. That whole thing makes me sick and you know it. Turn to 2 Chronicles chapter two. I'm talking about just having some skills that are needed by people. Look, when Solomon was determined to build the temple, another specific design by God, by the way, the temple, not the tabernacle, he asked for help. He asked for help from this king and here is who this king sent. In 2 Chronicles chapter two, look at verse number 13. The king, Solomon asked for materials and the king says, I'm sending you materials and I'm also sending you this guy and look at this guy. In 2 Chronicles chapter two, look at verse 13. And he says, and now I have sent a cunning man and dude with understanding of Hiram, my father's. The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan and his father was a man of tire and he just goes into all the things that his father was good at. Because it's just assumed that the son would be as good or better at these things. Skillful to work in gold and silver and brass and iron in stone and in timber and purple and blue and fine linen and in crimson also to grave any manner of graving and to find out every device which shall be put to him. That's my favorite one right there. He could just figure out anything. Are you teach, I mean, do your kids even know what tools are? I mean, you have to teach your kids how tools fix machines. And then they'll be able to figure out things. Look, that's a help to your family. If you can fix something in your house and you're not to call somebody and pay them $600 to fix it for you. With YouTube, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to fix anything in your house. Period. With thy cunning man and with the cunning man of my Lord David, thy father. The cunning man here learned from his father. He learned how to do all these important skills. He actually had skills that could accomplish things that people needed. No one, look, no one cares in times of crisis that you have a, you know, a psychiatry degree or a sociology degree or whatever. We've entered this, look, you wanna talk about a bubble that's gonna pop? We've entered this weird era in this country where all these kids have all these degrees and none of them know how to do anything. Nothing. I have met electrical engineers that couldn't wire a light switch. And that is not an exaggeration. They have a degree in electrical engineering and they couldn't wire that outlet on the wall. That's a bubble that's gonna pop. You talk about these kids that have all these weird degrees in, you know, underwater basket weaving. They can't change a light bulb. Why would anyone pay them to do anything? So you have all these companies and all these organizations that have all these people that are paying all this money, they do nothing. They know how to do nothing. Look, when times get tough, those people are going, they're going home. So having important skills that can actually do something. Look, at the end of the day, when things get tough, here's what people are gonna want. They're gonna care what you can produce. They're gonna care what you can fix. They're gonna care what kind of service you can provide. What kind of product you can build and give them. And look, turn to Proverbs 22. That takes training. That takes training. And look, training can be and should be difficult. The Bible says so. Look at verse number 29 of Proverbs 22. The Bible says so. Look, the Bible says this. The Bible says it takes diligence. In Proverbs 22, verse 29, it says, See thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before mean men. Look, like the man of Tyre, like the cunning man. He stood before kings. Kings were calling him, mean like, hey, we need you. What does it mean? You know, they needed the services that he could provide. You know, we're not just, look, skill is power. Skill is control. That means you're not gonna, what does it mean? You're not gonna stand before mean men. That means when you have skills that you can provide that nobody else can, nobody's gonna tell you what to do. You're in charge. I've said this a billion times in my life, but we used to have this saying, I think maybe I invented it, because I've never really been a big manager, gereal type of guy. I've always just been the engineer. But you know, I used to always say, it didn't matter how many managers were above my head, how many big shots and vice presidents, because when we were building a power plant, I always had, I just had a saying, he that stamps the drawings makes the rules. He that designed it makes the rules, because nobody's changing that design unless I say they can. Because you wanna be that man who has that skill. You see what I'm saying? And you will not, nobody told me what to do when I was in that situation. It didn't matter what position above my head they were in, because the cunning man will never stand before mean men. The cunning man will stand before kings, and the kings will say, hey, can you do this for us? They'll be nice to the cunning man, because they need what he can offer them. The Bible, I mean, but it takes diligence to get there. You see what I'm saying? It's not easy to become that cunning man. There's a lot that must be learned. A lot that, I mean, I hate tests, I hate school, I hate it every minute of it. It's hard. It's hard to get to places to be that. So learn new skills is hard. It's difficult. All right. Look, I'm not just talking about the boys either. You need to have in your bubble, we're talking about what's coming. And the bubble for you, here's what's more important than somebody just making a living. You need to have a self-sustaining home in these times that are coming. Look, we didn't miss a beat through this whole thing when all the kids got sent home from school and all the parents went home and now they're just like, what do we do? We can't, I mean, they're trying to homeschool and they're trying to teach their own kids and they don't know what to do. Look, we didn't miss a beat. We homeschooled. You homeschooled. We continued homeschooling. You know, what we have in our home and you should train, this is the importance of training your daughter to be a biblical teacher to her children. We have a self-sustaining education system in our home. And it's not, look, we have a self-sustaining Bible worldview machine in our house. Think of it that way. I mean, think of all these preppers that talk about getting off the grid and talk about preparing and not being dependent on, they're gonna be energy. Look, the first grid you should get off is the government education grid. That's the first grid. The government mind control grid, get off that grid. Get your family off that grid. Train your daughters to be able to take their family off that grid. Become education independent. Think of it that way. You should have a self-sustaining education system turning out kids with biblical worldviews that'll serve the Lord with their life. That's, I mean, that's the power of a mother right there. That's the power of a homeschooling mother. Look, when you can just stand alone no matter what's happening with the public school system, no matter what's happening with the medical weirdo-ism going on out there with, you know, they're gonna give all these shots to kids in school and we don't know what's there and what's, look, you just have your education bubble. That's it. That's the power. Look, you won't stand before mean men. Neither will your kids. If you have that education system in your home, that's power. That's your temple. Think of it. But that's gonna take some training, right? That's gonna take some diligence. I mean, I don't see a lot of what happens throughout the day, but the last few weeks when I was home, I saw it. I mean, that takes diligence to deal with educating kids. It's not easy. It's not easy. But that should be the goal for your kids. If you want specific results, you need to give specific direction. And look, just think of it this way. If you're giving broad direction and you're not giving specific direction and there's holes, things that they're not sure of and then they go off somewhere, someone's gonna fill those holes in. Think of it that way. Look, that's why God gave the specific, specifics that he did on the temple. Because you know what? He didn't want the curtain to be yellow because he could have just said, hey, here's all the dimensions and then they would have made yellow curtains and they wouldn't have been wrong but they would have made a tent with yellow curtains, could have had polka dots, whatever. And he would have been like, ah, that's not what I wanted. So he was just sure of what he told them down to the last detail. So don't skim over those parts in the Bible. You think about that detail of that tabernacle, that tent, you think about the detail of the temple. Look, you could build a temple with those chapters in the Bible. You could build it. We could actually take the time with Exodus 26, 27, 28 and 29 and 30 and actually come up here with a whiteboard and we could draw what that thing was supposed to look like because that kind of detail is there. It needs to be the same kind of definition for your kids. You say that sounds like a lot, it is. That sounds like a lot of work. I thought this would just kind of hang out, watch TV, play video games, just chill out for 18 years and see what happens. Well, look what's happening. Look what's happening. You have to define that specific direction. You define their spiritual direction and you have to define their actual physical direction as well. And then you will get what you expected. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Bible. We thank you for the specifics that you give us in the Bible, Lord. We thank you for telling us what you expect, what you need, what we should expect. What we thank you for, just the word of God in general, your instructions that you've given to us that we can use to pass on to the next generation. Lord, I pray for all the children in this church. Lord, I pray, I thank you that we're able to have a family-integrated church where the kids can listen to the same word of God and hear the same word of God and grow spiritually right next to their parents. Lord, as it was in Nehemiah when Ezra preached to all the people. Lord, they can understand, they have the same Holy Spirit that we do. Lord, we just thank you for all these things. We thank you for this church. I ask that you bless this church, the people in it, keep them safe, keep your hand on these people, Lord, throughout these crazy times, and bless the rest of our day. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.