We're concluding a series. Now, this is the sixth in a series of messages on the Christian home and family. And we're going to give just a little brief summary of some of the things that we've said, points that we've made earlier, and then finish up today with a topic which I'm calling Jesus, Lord of the Home.

Let me make just a couple of observations about what we've been doing and about the nature of some of the teaching that's going on in the body of Christ today. When I first left the pastorate six years ago, almost six years ago, just lacking a few days now, and first got into regular charismatic ministry or total charismatic ministry, moved down here to Florida.

And began my travels around speaking at full gospel businessmen's places and conventions. Looking back on it, I realized that mostly what I did is what an awful lot of people are still doing whom God is using in that kind of ministry is that primarily what you're sharing is what God is doing and you're sharing testimony and you're praying for the sick and helping people receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

And looking back on that first year or two, I realized that content-wise, so far as the scripture and so far as teaching is concerned, I didn't have a whole lot to share. Now, it's the grace of God that enables us to take what little we do have and share it. But I've become convinced as time has gone on and as I've matured somewhat in ministry, or at least become more experienced in ministry, I'm not saying I'm all that mature, but I do notice that The more earnest we get with God and the more determined we are to serve him, that our experience begins to become something like that of the disciples in Jesus' day.

Although they were only with the Lord three years in his earthly ministry, if you trace the Gospels out, you'll find that in the early stages of Jesus' ministry, there were far more signs and wonders performed than in the last months of his ministry. In the early stages of his ministry, he was much more in front of big, huge, tremendous crowds of people demonstrating his ministry.

And in the latter months, he began to withdraw and to spend more time just with the small little group. And not only that, the longer he was with them, the harder his word became for them to receive. Until finally, it was like when he was talking about the necessity of sacrifice and how they were going to have to eat his... body and drink his blood, and he was foretelling the cross and so forth.

There was still a group around him beside his disciples, but even they shook their heads and they said, this is a hard saying, who can receive this? And they all left him. And in one of the few, what I would say, pathetic or pathos-filled expressions of Jesus, he turned to his disciples and said, will you also go away?

And the disciple Peter said, Lord, where else can we go? You have the words of eternal life.

So, I realize that some of the things that we've been sharing, and not just me, but other teachers in the body of Christ, as we draw nearer the end, and as the situation begins to get tougher, and as God's revelation comes in more firmly and clearly all the time, much of what he's showing us in the Word now is not as easy to receive as just the general news of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and as the miracles.

And blessings that Ken was mentioning just a while ago about how everybody loves to see the big beautiful miracles, but crucifixion is something else again. But the word that God's bringing forth today in so many areas about the necessity, essentially what we're saying, he's telling us that we've got to shape up.

You see, in this charismatic movement for a decade or two now, and Gerald, Brother Durstein's been in it, I guess, nearly 20 years. at least over 15, and some of us have been in it more or less 10 or 12, some maybe longer. In the early days, we were all so enamored of the tremendous thing God was doing in pouring out His Spirit on all flesh, and it's literally happened to millions of Christians.

But one of the byproducts of the very extent of that tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit is that the body of Christ involved in that today is almost on the verge of chaos. You may not see it, and there's still great blessings coming, but you see millions of people being funneled in through the baptism of the Holy Spirit into this great move of God, and we're just like a, we are literally hundreds of thousands and millions of us just dumped out into this great big area of the body of Christ, and in a sense, everybody running around doing his own thing.

And you can only have so much of that, of everybody doing his own thing, before you begin to get into problems. I see this all across the country in that I thank God for all the good that's taking place and the miracles, but there are myriads of little bitty kingdoms. set up all over the country where everybody's doing his own little thing.

And that's understandable because God has blessed me and my wife and my son John and his wife and us four. And we know and trust what God's doing with us and we've seen the fruit of it and it grows and so a little group gets started here and a little group there and a little group here. Big cities, 20, 30, 50, 100 little groups.

And we see God's blessing in those things. But we look a little bit over at the other fellow and we say, well, we're not really sure God's blessing over there the way he's blessing over here. So we felt this guardianship. We felt this possessiveness about what God's doing in our situation and have not been able to relate properly always to what God's doing somewhere else.

So this is a part of the reason why God, I think, is moving today to establish the whole business of divine order. in the beginning of this series, that it's order, it's authority that establishes order. And God's divine authority being revealed to us, bringing people into proper relationship one with another.

And I'll tell you frankly, that's not easy. It's a lot easier to, it's much more natural for us, even in the Lord, to want to do our own thing with no restrictions. I remember somebody telling a story years ago about an immigrant to this country who come from somewhere in Eastern Europe where life was tough and he got over and he finally lived long enough and went through and got his citizenship papers.

I mean, he was sworn in as a citizen. He rushed out of the courthouse building saying, you know, saying, whee, I'm an American citizen. And he threw his arms out like this and rejoicing as he came out the door on the sidewalk and a man was walking along right beside him and as he threw his arms out, he smacked this man in the nose.

When he said, we, I'm an American citizen. And this fellow hauled off and knocked him to the pavement. And this newly naturalized citizen sat up and said, what'd you do that for? I'm an American citizen. Don't I have a right to fling my arms in the air?

And the fellow says, yeah, but your right end's where my nose begins.

Well, we've been a bit like that in our enthusiasm in Christ. Don't we have a right to express ourselves in the Lord? Yes, we do. But we're also coming to that time where we're going to have to see that our rights are dependent upon the other fellows and that God's ultimate destiny isn't merely to bring us blessings, it's to bring us into conformity to his will and to get into proper relationship with all other Christians.

And so I know some of the things we've shared in this series on... The home and on the place of women and on the responsibility of men and on the responsibility of children to obey their parents a Lot of this this is hard to receive not because it isn't scriptural it is scriptural I think we've made that abundantly clear, but it's hard because it makes a demand on us It encroaches upon our freedom or what we think is our freedom

So I trust that increasingly as you sit under teaching here or other places you go and as men who are listening to God and being used of God to teach and minister, increasingly bring a stern word. Understand it's not because they're mad at anybody or it's not because God is mad at anybody. It's simply that we live in a time of such great spiritual danger as well as opportunity that God is insisting that we get into proper relationship.

Let me say one other thing and then we'll get on with this last session about the nature of the warfare that we're in.

When I've taught on submitting to spiritual authority and the necessity, as we mentioned on the very first lecture, about how we're even to be subject to civil authorities because they're God's delegated authorities. And even if the city regime is full of political corruption, this still doesn't free us from being responsible citizens in our town.

And even if a wife's husband is a cad or a... non-Christian or a rebel or an alcoholic, that doesn't remove her from the responsibility of being submitted to the authority that God has given her husband.

And all these things we chafe at in the natural, you see, but I believe the reason God is insisting on it is that, as we've been trying to share, is that this principle of authority and of covering and of being submitted to covering, being submitted to authority, is our protection in the time of warfare.

And people say, well, we didn't used to hear things like this. We didn't used to hear all this talk about authority and placement and knowing who's over you and the Lord. Why can't we do things the way we've always done it? Just praise God and be free and shout hallelujah and have miracles.

But you see, it's the time we live in. And as always when we get into this area, something inside me spiritually tightens up a little and gets on guard. And I think it's something, it's a kind of a warning signal from God.

And I tried to say as carefully this sister as I could. I said, all I can say is I feel uneasy. about your doing that. I'm not saying you can't do it. I know of women's groups and fellowships that are a tremendous blessing. My wife goes to one that meets in a home on Wednesday morning in our town of Pompano Beach.

It's a group of wives that are very muchly submitted to husbands. And I think it pretty well fits the scriptural admonition in Titus where Paul tells Titus about how the older women can teach the younger women how to love their husbands and to make their homes and so forth.

And I believe this group Pretty well fits that. Nevertheless, I have to confess, I feel a certain reservation about it. And I know most, if not all, the wives that are in that group because we're all in fellowship together, the husbands and wives and families.

And I have to confess that they too feel a reservation. Not because there's anything wrong with their intentions, and certainly not because God isn't blessing the thing, because he is. But in trying to analyze the uneasiness, I explained to this woman who asked the question, I said, I believe my uneasiness and I believe our concern about this stems from the intensity of the warfare.

And then I just saw this illustration in my mind. I said, you know, when two nations are in a battle or two forces are lined up on the battlefield opposite one another in a war, wars wax and wane. There are times of heavy battle and combat and there are other times of relative calm when they're squared off against one another, but there's no battle raging.

Now, I don't see visions, but I got a very strong mental impression of this kind of picture. And I found myself saying to her, in between battles, soldiers on either side feel relatively free to come up out of the foxhole and swap cigarettes or pick flowers or talk to their buddies and so forth.

And they can amble around pretty well without any great danger. But when the battle begins to rage hot and heavy, and when the enemy begins to lay down mortar fire and machine gun fire all across this battlefield, just in a deadly barrage, in a deadly fusillade, a man who before could get up out of his foxhole and walk around with comfort is a fool if he sticks his head out of his foxhole.

He'd get it blown off. Why? Because of the intensity of the warfare.

And I've come to see that God is trying to show us that we are in a time not only of unprecedented blessing, we are in a time of intense spiritual warfare. And this is why God is trying to shape us up and to discipline us into a divine order, to see to it that we stay in our proper relationship.

And so today... We'll put it this way, whereas in the past a man could be in a measure of rebellion or a woman could be in a measure of rebellion or a person could have a ministry that God did not fully approve of and get away with it and be blessed by it. But today the warfare is so intense that it is extremely essential that we have the proper protection, that we stay in our foxhole, that we keep our heads covered.

And so this is why, repeatedly, when we get into these controversial areas about submission and leadership and women's role and wives' role and so forth, and people always react a little because it demands a discipline. They say, well, why can't we do this? Or my case is an exception? Or why can't I do this?

The answer is the warfare. The warfare.

To try to take liberties today in the kingdom of God that you took 20 years ago, can get your head blown off. And friends, it's going to get worse before it gets better. Everything that's in Jesus is going to get better and better, but everything outside is going to get worse and worse.

And the warfare between the two kingdoms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, is waxing more and more heavily all the time.

Okay, let me just list the five things that we've already taught and we'll get into the discussion this morning about Jesus being Lord of the home.

We began with a lesson on the importance of authority, the basis of authority, how everything stems from God's authority and how our problems stem from rebellion against authority. The second session was God made them male and female. We traced the distinction between the sexes, the divine purpose of God in that, that men are given certain roles and that women are given certain roles and when they...

When they get out of that duly appointed role, then problems arise. And this is one of Satan's favorite tricks, is to get the man to abdicate his role of leadership and to get the woman to usurp a role of leadership that God hasn't intended, to get kids to rebel against their parents, to get us to rebel against authority.

It's always Satan's attempt to upset the apple cart by getting us out of our duly appointed role that God intended for us. God made men and God made women. He made them different and their functions are different. Their purposes in God's divine plan are different. And we find true fulfillment in fulfilling the proper purpose for which we've been made.

Third lesson was husbands love your wives. The fourth one was wives be in submission to your husbands. And then last night we talked about the responsibilities of parents of Christian children, children to obey their parents and for parents to discipline and to be the proper kind of parents over their children.

Now we want to conclude the series by sharing some teaching and some testimony about Jesus as the Lord of the Home.

Let me mention again something briefly that I just barely touched on last night about this pattern. There's no question in my mind, and I don't think there should be any question in any of our minds about it being scriptural. It's just there. But one of the difficulties that we run into always when we glean things from the scriptures or God shows us things from the scriptures, the revelation, when it's shown to us by God, has life in it.

But there's always a tendency on the part of God's people to take that which is shown and begin to apply it, but then begin to apply it in the wrong kind of way, begin to take the revelation apart from the one who revealed it. People will take the word of God and make the word of God an authority to the extent, in a legalistic way, to the extent that it's no longer a living word, but it's a word of bondage.

Now, one of the reasons why it's possible to do that is because in the Word of God or in the authority or structure that God sets up in God's order, there is inherent in the order or there is inherent in the Word power and authority.

Here is the cleaned-up version of the sermon transcription:

God's Word carries power when it's spoken. There's power in this Word no matter who proclaims it. A man living in utter sin can stand and utter the word of God, and people receptive to what God's word says will be blessed by the words that are uttered because they are God's word. There is authority and power and blessing inherent in God's revelation of himself. I don't care what or who the vehicle is through whom that revelation comes.

Now we said in an earlier meeting that more than just a man who's in rebellion can minister the word of God. The word of God will bless, but some of that rebellion will be ministered too. But the point I'm making is why it's often easy for a living Word to become a legalistic letter because in the beginning, that living Word has blessing in it. And as it's applied and continues to be applied, the blessing remains.

Even though the group or individuals standing behind it begin to fall away into legalism and even into doctrinal error, there's still a measure of blessing over the structure and on the revelation of God. So what happens is that because that blessing is there, people will hold on to the Word or hold on to the revelation and gradually the Holy Spirit may winnow out or filter out of the fellowship.

What people are left with is just a doctrine. Now, this has been the history of the rise of denominations all through the history of the church. God brings forth fresh revelation. The church has the power to revive itself. Revelation always comes from within the body of Christ, not without.

And the history of denominationalism in the church has been from the very age of the New Testament, that after the New Testament age and there was such great power and miracles, then the power waned and the church went into a period of dullness and darkness, even through the dark ages. And then revival began to come in the great reformers.

And with every bit of recovered, lost truth, revival came, power came, new insights were given, fresh life came forth in the body of Christ. And then inevitably those reformers, as they got old and the next generation came along, they crystallized the doctrine and the power leaked out. And so the church again would go into a time of decline and of legalism until a fresh revelation came and new reformers came.

This has been the way every denomination has arisen. It begins out of a genuine revelation of God. Then the second generation, after the reformers, they have the doctrine and the letter of the truth that their fathers had, but they don't have the fresh experience. And so that which began as revival simply becomes institutionalism.

And so we want to watch it that the same thing doesn't happen in the kind of revelation that God has given us today. I don't think it will, but we need to understand that we want to avoid legalism and we want to avoid it when we're talking about divine order in the home.

We've already mentioned how authority cannot be imposed from the top down. It has to be recognized and submitted to. Now I've said all that to say this, that the remedy... or the thing which will prevent the misapplication of what we've been talking about, of divine order in the home, is the very real presence of Jesus Christ himself in the home.

And this is what we want to talk about this morning. It's the literal, real presence of Jesus that makes the difference. Because when his presence comes in or when his presence is there, that which he has said or that which is revealed in the word has fresh life and power and vitality in it.

And when his presence isn't there, then there's always the danger of that which we have, which is true literally or true legally, is dry and dusty and... and legalistic. Turn with me to Luke 19, beginning with verse 1, the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus.

Jesus entered and passed through Jericho, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who he was, and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying that he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.

And Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.

Now this, without spiritualizing it even, is a very practical illustration of what happens when the reality of the person of Jesus appears on the scene in a home. Zacchaeus, being a publican, was a man who was despised, of course, by the Jews. He was like a tax collector and one that was hated by the Jewish people.

And it's not unreasonable. Jesus was always dealing with these kind of people. But he was a man who was rich and a man who was guilty of all the kind of usurpation and the kind of probably what we would call embezzlement and tactics of usury.

And of financial extraction and everything else. He was a hard man in business and he'd become wealthy in the process. And because he's a little bitty fellow and the crowd's coming by, the only way he can see, he has to shinny up a sycamore tree.

So, and as Jesus walks by, here he looks up and sees Zacchaeus. And as we've said before, Jesus was always ministering to fulfill the will of the Father, led by the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit prompted him to ask, to minister to Zacchaeus.

So he said, Zacchaeus, get out of that tree and let's have lunch together at your house. So Zacchaeus, gratified and pleased, invites the Lord into his home. Now, the Jews and others said, you know, well, this is typical of that man Jesus. He's always eating with the sinners.

But the interesting thing is this. It was not anything Jesus said from that point on. All Jesus did was invite himself in. But when Zacchaeus took him home, the presence of... The spirit of Jesus in that home revealed the heart motive of this man Zacchaeus.

Even though he was despised and he was a publican and he was a rich man and he was hated of the Jews, the presence of Jesus, when he came into the presence of Jesus or the presence of Jesus came into his home, it revealed the true nature of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a man who wanted to be righteous.

Zacchaeus was a man who wanted the Lord, and who wanted to be the kind of man he should be. And it was the living presence of Jesus that revealed to Zacchaeus, that revealed the motive of Zacchaeus. And Zacchaeus then voluntarily, under the influence of the Spirit of Christ in his home, says, Lord, I'll give back everything that I have taken.

I'll give half of all I have to the poor, and if I've wronged any man, I'll make it right. Now, to me, the beautiful thing is that Jesus didn't probe into his business affairs. Jesus didn't ask him leading questions. It wasn't necessary.

All that was necessary was for this brother to get into the presence of the Lord or for the presence of the Lord to come into this brother's house. And then immediately things began to get sorted out. And this is one of the examples.

We'll look at another one. This is one of the examples that we use to show that when it's the living presence of the Lord in a home, that will make real the will of God and will give life to the sort of thing that we may know as right or that we see in the pattern.

And it's going to take this real presence to make this sort of thing work. We've said repeatedly in this series of teachings that without the grace of God, It will be impossible to bring our homes into order.

There is no way that I as a husband can fulfill my responsibilities according to the word of God because a lot of them are contrary to my natural temperament. There is no way I can fulfill my role adequately as leader of my home without God's grace, without the real presence of the Lord there.

By the same token, there's no way that a woman can adequately fulfill her role of being submitted to her husband and the proper mother to her children and conducting herself in the way that God approves without the real presence of the Lord.

To try to do it any other way or to try to bring it to pass by grit and sheer human strength is bound to end in failure. So this is the reason in this last session we're stressing the necessity of realizing the genuine, real presence of the Lord in the home.

And we're going to give some illustrations about what that will do. But here is one good scriptural illustration already that when Jesus, I'm sure Zacchaeus knew really what was right and wrong, but it wasn't until the reality of the Lord's presence in his own home was felt, was he prompted to do that which was necessary for him to become a righteous man.

Now let's look at another similar story back in Luke 10, which in some ways is even more revealing. This has to do with Mary and Martha. Luke chapter 10, verses 38 to 42.

Now it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. Incidentally, when you trace out this business about the importance of the family, And I was saying, I think in the very first lecture, how once you become aware of how important the family is in God's scheme of things and how the family was God's idea, it's amazing how often you see... the family concept in Scripture where you never noticed it before.

This home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus that's spoken of here where Jesus comes really was a kind of home base for Jesus through much of his ministry. There are a number of times in the Scripture when it refers to the fact that he was present in this home.

And not only, as we said, was Jesus born into a home and raised as a babe and as a young man and that God revealed the Savior in the context of the home. But Jesus, out of his own ministry, even though he traveled with the 12 disciples, he had a home base that was a home.

Mary, these two sisters and a brother, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. And Jesus frequently touched base with that. He operated out of that home. These are things that you just begin to glimpse as you become aware of the concepts that God is revealing to us about the significance of the home.

So here he is again in Bethany, and he goes into the home of Mary and Martha. It came to pass as they went, he entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about with much serving and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore come and help me.

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. So once again, we see a very revealing aspect of human nature and what happens when the actual presence of Jesus comes and is made known in a house.

Well, now Mary and Martha were friends of the Lord. They were among his enemies, his earthly enemies, along with the 12 disciples. They were known to him and he was known to them.

But when he came into the house, a very interesting thing happened. Certain characteristics of the nature. certain aspects of the nature of Mary and Martha became apparent in this incident. Martha, it becomes apparent, is pleased to have the Lord there and begins immediately to make a fuss about him being there.

She's zipping back and forth between the kitchen, setting the table and putting all the goodies on and everything else and being very proper and being very official as a hostess and wanting to impress the Lord with her service. And the more she does this, and here is her lazy sister, Mary, sitting at Jesus' feet, just gazing up in his face and listening to him.

It's interesting to note that Mary, it says that Mary sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. So she says, to heck with the housework and everything else. The Lord's here. I want to hear what he has to say. And so she sits there, abandoning all of the things about the house just to sit and listen to the Lord.

And Mary Martha's running back from living room to dining room and looking over there at Jesus and Mary, lazy Mary, getting madder by the minute. And finally she gets to the stage where she can't take it anymore and she explodes. And she says, in essence, Lord, don't you care that I'm doing all the work and that Mary's just sitting there not doing anything? Why don't you tell her to get up and help me?

This is very revealing of human nature. But what it reveals here in both of these gals, what it reveals essentially is priorities and what it reveals is heart motive.

What is revealed is that Martha was glad to have the Lord there just like Mary was. But Martha was seeking to be commended for what she was doing. Martha wanted to be commended for the service she was rendering to the Lord.

I don't want to get into this in detail, but essentially we're coming very close to this business about salvation by works here. You see, Martha wanted to gain God's approval, wanted to gain the Lord's approval by what she was doing. She said, well, boy, the Lord's in our house. We'll just do everything fine. We'll lay out a great feast for him and we'll impress him.

I'll impress him with my housekeeping and with my service and everything else. And the harder she tried to do that and the more she worked, the less attention the Lord paid to her. And the Lord sharing these intimate thoughts and so forth with Mary who was sitting there not doing anything.

And finally, Martha explodes. And when he does, Jesus doesn't condemn her. He simply gently rebukes her and points out a matter of priorities. He says to her, Martha, you're cumbered about with much serving. You're troubled about many things. But Mary hath chosen the better part, which shall not be taken away from her.

So once again, we see a very revealing aspect of human nature and what happens when the actual presence of Jesus comes and is made known in a house. Well, now Mary and Martha were friends of the Lord. They were among his enemies, his earthly enemies, along with the 12 disciples.

They were known to him and he was known to them. But when he came into the house, a very interesting thing happened. Certain characteristics of the nature. certain aspects of the nature of Mary and Martha became apparent in this incident.

Martha, it becomes apparent, is pleased to have the Lord there and begins immediately to make a fuss about him being there. She's zipping back and forth between the kitchen, setting the table and putting all the goodies on and everything else and being very proper and being very official as a hostess and wanting to impress the Lord with her service.

And the more she does this, and here is her lazy sister, Mary, sitting at Jesus' feet, just gazing up in his face and listening to him. It's interesting to note that Mary, it says that Mary sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.

So she says, to heck with the housework and everything else. The Lord's here. I want to hear what he has to say. And so she sits there, abandoning all of the things about the house just to sit and listen to the Lord.

And she says, in essence, Lord, don't you care that I'm doing all the work and that Mary's just sitting there not doing anything? Why don't you tell her to get up and help me?

This is very revealing of human nature. But what it reveals here in both of these gals, what it reveals essentially is priorities and what it reveals is heart motive.

She said, well, boy, the Lord's in our house. We'll just do everything fine. We'll lay out a great feast for him and we'll impress him. I'll impress him with my housekeeping and with my service and everything else.

And the harder she tried to do that and the more she worked, the less attention the Lord paid to her. And the Lord sharing these intimate thoughts and so forth with Mary who was sitting there not doing anything.

And finally, Martha explodes. And when he does, Jesus doesn't condemn her. He simply gently rebukes her and points out a matter of priorities.

He says to her, Martha, you're cumbered about with much serving. You're troubled about many things. But Mary hath chosen the better part, which shall not be taken away from her.

So once again, we see a very revealing aspect of human nature and what happens when the actual presence of Jesus comes and is made known in a house.

Here is the cleaned-up version of the sermon transcription:

Way could be considered satisfactory or victorious. And I think one of the reasons is because we haven't learned how to experience the real redemptive presence of the Lord in the home. It's not in name, it's in actuality, it's in reality. And we're going to have to do it in order to keep from being picked off by the enemy.

Let me share with you a rather frightening personal experience, Revelation. I said that before, I've avoided talking about the deliverance ministry, but this illustration so graphically says or shows what I want to say. One time in our home about three years ago, four, maybe five years ago now. We had two or three other Christian families with us and we were in our living room and we'd been sharing and praying for some folks that had come with needs and we were into this deliverance ministry and there were several couples of us including my wife and I and two or three other families and some of their children.

And I don't know how familiar you are with this ministry. If you're not, I hope you'll read my book, Deliverance from Evil or Pat Brooks' book Out in the Name of Jesus or something that's written on it today or here are some of our tapes. But anyway, there was a couple ministering who are in this ministry with us were ministering to a young teenage girl.

Now one of the aspects about the reality of this deliverance ministry is at times when we get into it, we really confront demon power in person. And just as they did in Jesus' day, the demons will come to the surface of a personality, speak right out through the lips of the person, just as the demons spoke to Jesus.

"Leave us alone," What have you to do with me? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Why do you torment us?

The demon in speaking to the seven sons of Sceva and Acts who tried to cast him out they said, "Demon said Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are you demons are personalities they actually inhabit people and they when they're confronted at times they will speak out and I'll tell you one thing if you've never seen this happen but then you get in on it you may have been a skeptic before but after you start hearing a demon speak and you talk to one face to face it'll make a believer out of you right quick.

So anyway, this couple was ministering to this young girl, and the demon had surfaced in her personality and was speaking out, taunting them, said, "I won't tell you who I am." They were commanding me to get the identity of the demon, just like Jesus did when he said to the demon in the gathering demoniac, what is your name? Demons have names in terms of the torment.

Anyway, this spirit was saying something like this, "I live here, this is my house, I won't tell you who I am." Very sneering, taunting kind of voice. I was sitting across the room, had been counseling with another lovely young teenage girl who was having some problems. So when I noticed, she kept looking across the room where this ministry was going on.

And she had kind of a strange look in her face, and she kept glaring over that way. And all at once, this lovely young Christian girl in front of me, who also needed deliverance, as many Christians do, Suddenly, in the pressure of the power of the Holy Spirit in this room, a demon erupted in this girl in front of me and spoke out of her, not at me, but spoke across the room to the demon in the other girl.

And the demon in this girl cried out and said, "Don't tell them who you are, brother. If you tell them who you are, you'll have to come out." And this is the only time I've ever seen this sort of thing happen. It's not infrequent that I've heard demons speak, but to hear them speak to one another.

And it, again, was kind of a harsh voice. And then just at that moment, as this demon and this girl in front of me spoke, the one over in the other girl confessed its name. I don't remember what it was now, hate or lust or something. Anyway, it gave its name. And immediately again, this spirit, speaking to this girl in front of me, said, "Oh, you fool. You told them who you are. Now you'll have to come out."

And the demon in the other girl turned and raged and swore at the one in front of me. He said, "Who do you think you are telling me what I have to do? I hate you." And with a room full of us watching, these two demons and these two lovely young Christian girls began to rage and swear at one another in the most vicious, hateful, spiteful kind of thing that you could imagine.

I was just sort of awestruck. I was dumbfounded. I'd never quite seen this before. And God spoke to me as I watched that just as clearly as he'd ever spoken to me about anything. I don't hear a thundering voice, but at times God gets through.

And this is as directly as he's ever said anything to me. He spoke to me and said, "Well, first of all, I shook this girl in front of me and I said, 'Hey, you know, quiet down, cut that out.' Let's get out of her." I had to later take her out of the rooms and we ministered to both of them separately and both girls were delivered.

And both girls loved one another in the natural. They knew one another. But anyway, while this was going on, suddenly God spoke to me very clearly in my spirit and he said, "I've let you see this because I want you to know something."

He said, "I want you to know that what you see here is going on all over the world between nations and in families and in individuals. And in most cases, they think it's them, but it isn't. It's the enemy like you see here."

Now, this is what I'm talking about, about the fact that the family is under unprecedented satanic attack. The devil knows the weakness in husband and wife and kids, and he's a cunning enemy, and he will apply those weaknesses.

He will influence us at times with demon harassment, at times with families who actually need deliverance, and the demon forces that reside in people will push those people into confrontation with one another.

And this is why I say that the answer for what we're talking about is the real presence of Jesus Christ in a home. We have an enemy that's far more cunning than the average Christian family realizes.

Now I'm not saying this to frighten anybody. I'm merely saying it to reinforce what I said about the unprecedented spiritual warfare that we're in. It's like God in that instance just... Pull back the curtain that's over most things that we see and know about human tensions and squabbles and everything else and let us for a few minutes see in raw, stark fashion the nature of the spiritual warfare that the world is in and how it is demonic activity that pits government against government and husband against wife and wife against husband and parents against children and children against parents and individuals against individuals.

It isn't a natural thing. It is a supernatural thing. And this is why without the supernatural presence of Jesus in reality in our midst, we can't cope with it. This is why so much of the church is powerless to stand against the hellish forces that are sweeping across our culture. They don't have any solution to it.

Why? Because the solution has to be a divine solution. It has to be the power of the risen Jesus in our midst. And so this is why it is so essential to see Jesus, to experience Jesus. In reality and actuality enthroned in the middle of our families.

Not just in doctrine, not just in token church service attendance on Sunday, not just in grace at meal, not just in formal family devotions from time to time. I'm talking about in living day-to-day reality that Jesus actually becomes a person in our midst.

I want to suggest for us, in closing then, in the last few minutes we have, I want to just list five ways in which this can and ought to happen. Five major ways that we're to experience the lordship of Jesus in our lives.

We're to experience it in terms, I'm going to list them and then we're going to illustrate them. We're to experience it in terms of his love demonstrated through our human love.

We're to experience it in terms of actual worship and fellowship, both formal and informal. We're to experience it in trusting Jesus for our earthly provision.

And we're to experience it in terms of getting guidance or instruction or counsel from God personally, not just that we give to one another, but personally.

And also it's to be experienced in our trust and dependence on him when things are tough. Comfort and his power in times of trial and tragedy because that's a part of our experience.

Very quickly then we're going to illustrate these five. I said first of all in terms we experience his lordship enthroned in our lives in terms of the love we demonstrate one for another.

We talked about this agape kind of love the night we talked about husbands love your wives that it isn't a love that's just felt. It's a love that's commanded. It's something that we do for one another.

Now it has emotion in it. As godly love always does, but it's something more than that. It's in a demonstration of our care for one another.

It's not sex. It's not just mutual benefit. It's the divine, godly love that God, by his grace, enables us to share for one another.

Two of our oldest girls are married, and one family's already back living in our town, and son-in-law helping me out in my work, and we suspect the other one will be when he finishes college.

But altogether, there are 12 of us. We have five children, 10 of us. 10 of us, isn't it? I nearly miscounted. And when it gets that many, it's hard to count. Okay. There's seven in our family. We have two sons-in-law and a grandson.

So there's 10 in our family. Maybe that 12 is prophecy, Alex. Pretty simple. But we have a slogan. Now, it may sound corny to you, but it's true. And it's this. Hugs help. Hugs help.

And all our married life, Alan and I have been freely affectionate in front of the children. A dozen times a day. Of course, I have the benefit of having my office at home, and I'm home more than many a working man is.

But as many as a dozen times a day, our kids may come through the house or show up, and my wife and I've got our arms around one another. And the kids see that, know that, and instead of making smart cracks about it, they come right straight to get in on it.

And so, whichever one it is, there will be three of us in a hut, or there may be four. And sometimes there have been times, literally, when we've all put our arms around another, all ten.

And even our little grandson, Christopher, who's two now, and it's hard for him to even know which part of the family is really his. He's as much at our house as it is his folks' house. And they're at our place, of course, every day in connection with the work.

We're just a few blocks away from one another. But he's learned this by demonstration. And he'll not only hug his mother's neck or his daddy's neck, but if any of us are around, he reaches out one little arm and wants somebody else in on it.

So here we'll be three or four in a bunch. And there's something about that that is so solid and so satisfying that he picks it up even at two.

And he gets frustrated sometimes because his little arms aren't big enough to put them around everybody. But you see, God's arms are. And it's a demonstration of the love of Christ that brings such solidity and power when you demonstrate your love for one another.

Christ's love is to be demonstrated in terms of our love for one another, and we ought not to be ashamed of it. There's such strength and security in it. There are times, and you know this as parents, there are times when all your children want is just a hug.

They don't want anything else. But that hug demonstrates for them the love and the assurance and the confidence that they need to go on for a while.

Well, this is one of the major ways in which we demonstrate God's love. It's the real presence of Jesus.

And sometimes when we've got our arms around each other, we don't just hug and kiss one another. We start praising God and thanking God for one another and say, thank you, Lord, for a little tougher-legged.

Thank you, Lord, for Cindy and Dick. Thank you, Lord, for Glenn and Lisa and Laura, George and Sherry.

And it's just as a natural part of our family as anything. And I'm getting a little bit sentimental, but that's all right. Personal testimony has its place.

And I don't know of any family. Now, we're not perfect, and we have our off moments, and we've had our trials and all the rest. But I don't know many families that are happier than ours.

I would put my marriage and my family in the top one-half of 1% of Christian marriages in the United States. And I don't feel like I'm bragging about it. It's reality.

Some of you know that we're in association with Derek Prince and Bob Mumford and Charles Simpson, and I was teaching this series at Little Presbyterian Church in Pompano, and Derek... One of Derek's adopted daughters came up with Derek's wife, Lydia Prince, came up the first night.

They'd heard it had been announced that I was going to speak, and Derek encouraged Lydia. He was busy, but he encouraged Lydia, his wife, and his daughter to come up, and he simply made the observation.

We've been in close fellowship with Derek now for about five years, and he said, well, I know this. If there's any man that has a right to teach about the virtue of the Christian family, it's Don Basham.

Well, now understand, this is not anything I have done. It's because by God's grace we realize the presence of Christ in our family in such a way that it's about as solid as any that comes along.

And this is what I'm talking about, the necessity of demonstrating the love of the reality of Jesus in our homes.

That was number one, terms of love demonstrated. A second was about worship and fellowship.

I can brag and I can also make confessions. I would have to say, truthfully, that I probably have not been as diligently about disciplining my kids into formal times of worship and Bible study and prayer as I should have been, and I acknowledge that before God.

But I also know that that isn't the total answer to worship and fellowship. It works better for some families than it does for others, and we've done it from time to time.

And my wife and I have regular times of prayer together, but there are many spontaneous.

I've learned this, that the spontaneous times of worship and fellowship are oftentimes those things in which God reveals himself in such a wonderful way. And they are both formal and informal. They are both... Planned and unplanned.

Alice and I were talking as we were driving up here a couple of weeks ago in Christmas time. We invited some Christian families in together, friends of ours, that we've been with in worship and service at other times.

And it was a nice get-together and kind of old home week for a number of families that first became Christian in Pompano, families that knew one another before we came down.

But we were reflecting after it was all over that nothing happened spiritually, particularly. I mean, it was good fellowship. But it didn't turn into a prayer meeting or anything else. It was just one of those times when you got together for fellowship.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that. That's all right. But that's not what I'm primarily talking about. I'm also talking, what I'm talking about is that Jesus is demonstrated and revealed in times when you get together like that and he decides to reveal himself.

He didn't that night. But there'd been other one time when we just for strictly for fellowship purposes, just to get together and touch base, Derek Prince and Lydia and Bob Mumford and Judy and Charles and Carolyn Simpson all came up to our house for dinner.

The four teachers in the Fort Lauderdale area who were all there then, we just came up for a time of getting together. We'd do this periodically and it was our time to have them and Alice put on the dinner and we got together for a meal.

Now that's good Christian fellowship anytime, but after the meal... We sat down in the living room just sharing, and God began to bless.

And then the next hour and a half, I can't tell you all that went on or all that we talked about or all that we discussed, but... God revealed himself in power and in his presence in a way that I suppose is one of the highest two or three moments of my entire life that I've experienced the presence of God.

Now that was not contrived. That was not planned. We didn't say, now we're all going to get together and seek God and we're going to pray until we break through into heaven. That came out of the result of the fellowship that we had together as Christian teachers and their family.

And we still marvel at it. I mean, I've heard Alice thank God for having had the privilege of just setting up the dinner because it was like Jesus came and manifested himself in that meeting in a way that was almost beyond belief.

Now, it wasn't anything of great revelation doctrinally or great miracles of healing. It was beyond that. It was just the real presence of the living Lord and an intimacy in fellowship that's, well, if you've ever touched it for a little while, you know there's nothing else on earth like it.

Now, it's this kind of thing. You can't contrive that. You can't plan for it. You can't fast and pray and bring it to being. But when you meet together in Christian fellowship and as families, God has the opportunity to do that.

Basically, your relationships are right. And if you're open to him from time to time, those things will happen.

We have a great big kitchen in our house. See, I'm not going to have time really to finish all this. We have a great big kitchen in our house, and my desk and office is over in one corner of it, and we have a great big harvest kind of table, and a lot of activity goes on in our kitchen.

And one of the beautiful things about our home as a Christian home is that it becomes a kind of oasis for other people in the community and for our own family.

Here is the cleaned-up version of the sermon transcription:

Family, the kitchen, and time and again over the past years that we've lived there, nothing that we planned particularly. But time and again, people will gravitate to that kitchen. Christian friends driving by will see somebody else's car parked in front and they'll come. Here we're sitting around the Christian table. Cares are shared, needs are met, deliverance and healing and baptism in the Holy Spirit may take place. And it's just, it's a focal point for the blessing and the power of God, both for our family and for others.

Now, I'd have to say that in 99% of the cases, that happens spontaneously. We don't get on the telephone and call. God just arranges it. And it's a marvel to see it because now sometimes when we're not all that we should be and we're having certain tensions in our house or low times and things like this, there may go a week or two or days when nothing like that happens. But then other times when we're in the flow of the Spirit and God's presence is so real, suddenly people just gravitate in and God, the Spirit of God, spontaneously sets up some of the most powerful and blessed meetings that you could possibly imagine.

And we've come to see that this is God's provision for Christian families in this hour. God manifesting himself in the presence of his children. It isn't contrived, it's not legalistic, it's the reality of having Jesus enthroned. Another one that we just barely touched on the other day, I said to learn how to trust God for his provision.

You know, I know Christian families all over America who have no testimony to offer or to give, who've never had the thrill or the joy of knowing together that God has answered a prayer in providing for them something that they needed. The majority of Christian families in America still trust their own resources rather than God's. Now, I don't mean that everybody ought to give up his job and step out on faith like I did six years ago. Sometimes people are led to do that.

But every one of us, if we're really moving in God the way we want, God delights in meeting the needs of his children, the physical needs of his children. And if you haven't attempted or haven't moved spiritually in such ways that you, on occasion, that you've had to depend on God to come through in a miraculous way, and then had the joy of seeing his power at work simply to bring forth money or possessions or clothes or food or something in that area of natural provision to bring it forth miraculously.

And in an answer to prayer in your experience, you've missed one of the greatest joys that life has to offer. Nobody ought to be so self-sufficient in terms of his money or his jobs or his possessions that he doesn't at some time or other have put himself in a position where he's had to trust God to bail him out of a hole because God delights in meeting the needs of his children.

Usually when families have not done this, I'm convinced it's because of this. They haven't been willing to trust the lordship of Christ and their family enough to believe that he would do it. What I'm talking about now involves running a certain risk for Jesus' sake. You're going to have to commit yourself to something that Jesus is going to have to provide for you that you can't provide for yourself.

And I've had good Christian people say, oh, well, I don't know whether I ought to pray for that or not or whether I could try that. Suppose I didn't, God didn't answer. But you see, that kind of fear robs you from some of the greatest blessings that God has to give.

We went through a time of two or three years of day-by-day living by faith when I first got out of this ministry, where at times, even when I was away from home, Alice practically prayed the food in on the table. Now, those were times of testing, which in some sense ought to come to every family sooner or later, not because God wants to make things rough, but because God wants to reveal himself as the source of all that we have.

All the years that I was a pastor in the church, I don't ever once remember being grateful to the church treasurer for giving me my paycheck. Now, in a general way, I was grateful to God because I had a job. But in contrast to that, when we got out into the life of faith and began to have to look for God's miraculous provision, my whole concept and attitude and appreciation for God changed.

Now, let me say again, I don't believe that everybody ought to give up his job and just trust God. All I'm saying is, oh, there ought to be some examples in your life that have buttressed your faith, in such a way that you know God is able to provide when the need is there.

And if you haven't ever lived your life in such a manner that you haven't put yourself in a position to have to trust God, then you've not really fully enthroned God in your family. The reason why most people don't trust God more is because they don't believe he'll do the job. So we all of us ought to be living our lives in ministry and service in such a way that certain things we're involved in, we're going to have to depend on God to bring it forward.

And one answered prayer like that, one demonstration in the presence of your children where it's a clear-cut, miraculous provision of God can give them spiritual strength that can last for years. One time when we were in the first year that some of you heard me tell this before, I suppose, or read it in one of my books.

When we were about broke, we'd been down there in Florida a year or so ago, and it was coming Easter time, and we didn't have any money for clothes. God would always meet our needs, but the children were telling Alice that they needed some new dresses for Easter. Some of the girls were. All of our children were home then.

And we were sitting at the supper table, or the dining table. I guess it was at lunchtime. We'd had lunch, and one of the girls said to Alice, you know, Mother, we want some new clothes for Easter. The other kids are getting them and so forth. And Alice had to confess what was true. We didn't have the money.

And she said, but have you prayed about it? We trust God for things like this. Well, the kids at that moment sort of reacted, you know, oh, mother, don't be spiritual, and this sort of thing. And we went on talking about it, and while we were still at the table, a knock came at the door.

And it was a delivery man with a package. And one of our girls answered the door and brought it to Alice. And she took it out of the bag. And it was a gift wrapped in white tissue paper tied with gold ribbon. Kids got all excited. Somebody had given us a present. Alice opened the box. Nothing in it. Just a bunch of tissue paper.

And Lisa, the one I mentioned last night, who prayed for God to show her where her little Socko thing was, she teared up. Got all blue eyes filled with tears. And she said, Mother, somebody's playing a trick on me. And Alice kept pummeling around the box. And down in the bottom of it, there was an envelope.

And she opened it with a card on it, and tears came in her eyes. She handed it over to me, and I read it, and it was a gift certificate made out to a local women's clothing store in the amount of $100. And the kids began to jump up and down with joy. She said, You mean we can have $100 worth of clothes free?

And in those days, $100 would have been as great as $10,000 now, I suppose, because we're not in those pressing straits financially then. And we said, Yeah, that's what the card said.

And my son, Glenn, said, oh, Daddy, who's the card from? And down there on the place where there's usually a signature for that sort of gift certificate I read, and it didn't have a name. All it said was from someone who loves you.

And our littlest girl, Laura, in a very revealing way, said, that's God, all right. It was. And not only was it a remarkable demonstration of God's provision in a miraculous time, but it's interesting to note what our littlest girl said.

It's God. Because we had brought her and the other children into this adventure of living by faith, and they knew God and still know that God is our source. So one way God's love is demonstrated and enthroned, the presence of Jesus enthroned in our families, is through that kind of love.

Provision. Another has to do with just him seeking counsel and trusting him for counsel and help in times when it's really needed. I'll give you a couple of quick illustrations from our children.

Our kids are very normal kids and they have their squabbles and so forth. The difference is that God's always in on it. And they know pretty well when things are out of counter. It doesn't take much to remind them that we're Christian and that God's offended and things be set right.

The kids were up at a bowling alley one afternoon of bowling, just the children. At least, I don't know whether Alice was along. I know I wasn't. I think maybe the children were just there with the older ones.

And Laura, who's our smallest, and I understand how it is to be the youngest child. I have two older brothers, and I was a baby in my family. And the youngest one always feels a little put upon from time to time. I mean, she wants to be as big as the others and do the thing of the others, and she feels a little sorry for herself.

The last child is prone to be from time to time. Anyway, she was having a bit of a time. She wasn't doing as well in the bowling, and she got all discouraged. The kids reported this back to us when they got back from the bowling alley.

And she was getting real tearful and despondent and blue, as kids would want to do, you know. And she finally decided she wasn't going to play anymore, and she burst out into tears and she went off into the little girl's room at the bowling alley into the restroom.

And the kids telling us about it later said, in a few minutes she came back all shiny-eyed and bright and went back to bowling and did just great. And they asked her what it was. She said, well, I was all upset, and I went into the restroom, and God spoke to me, and he said, don't feel sorry for yourself. I'll help you.

She brightened right up, came back out, and went in the boat. Now, these are things that there's no way you can force or contrive. This kind of thing comes out of the kind of environment where Jesus is enthroned.

Our son, who's now 16, he's a quiet boy. All our children are saved, baptized in the Holy Spirit. He doesn't talk a whole lot about his faith. He lives it. He believes it. He stands up for his faith among his other young friends.

He's close friends with three other boys, none of whom are really Christian. One of them is a Jewish boy, and the other two are sort of nominal church members, I suppose. But we've heard him many a time standing up for his convictions on the telephone.

One time the other boys called, and they were going to go see a sleazy movie, one of these R-rated things or something that he heard about. And Glenn just... Without any pressure from us or anything else, he couldn't have cared whether we were listening to that. He said, I'm not going to go to that.

And they'd try to argue with him. They'd taunt him and so forth. He said, you fellas, go ahead. If that's what you want to do, I'm just not going to go.

And that's real gratifying to parents, you know, to see a boy, instead of trying to sneak out and do that sort of thing, or get into mischief deliberately because of his Christian convictions to prevent it.

But the point I was going to, the thing I was going to tell you was, a few years ago, one of these very friends of his, young boys, it was several years ago when the boys were much younger.

And Richard, his friend, was on the way over to his house to see him on a brand-new bicycle that he'd just gotten for his birthday, and he didn't know how to work the brakes on the front or he was carrying his tennis racket or something on it anyway, and he was zipping down the sidewalk a few blocks away coming toward our house, and he zipped off the sidewalk out into the street just as a car came by, and somehow or other he couldn't manipulate the brakes, and he collided with that car, just smashed the bike smithereens, tossed the boy over the... the hood of the car onto the street in a crumpled heap.

And it happened in front of one of our neighbor's house. And the neighbors called and told Glenn that Richard had been hit by a car. And, of course, we didn't know how bad it was or anything else.

But the amazing and thrilling thing to us was, instead of panicking or wanting to rush, you know what the first thing our son did was? He made a beeline for his room, fell on his knees, and began to pray for God to heal that boy. Instinctively.

Well, it worked out the boy was not seriously hurt. I think he sprained an ankle or something like this. And it was really a kind of a miraculous thing that he wasn't.

The bike was completely demolished. But the thrilling thing to us was our son's instinctive reliance on divine health in time of crisis.

Well, I could give many other illustrations that are similar to this, but just let me make this closing comment about the importance of the presence of Jesus enthroned in your family.

Again, I'm proud and grateful to God for our family. Again, I'll say it, I think we have one of the finest around anywhere.

But my wife and I have often marveled at the way our kids are turning out, the friends they have, the boys that our oldest girls are married. Incidentally, by God's grace and insight somehow, when our children were born, from the time our children were born, periodically through the years, we prayed for the ones they'd marry when they grew up.

My wife had this inspiration when we were first married, before about the time Cindy, our first girl, was born. Now, only two of our kids are married so far, but I'll tell you, God answered both those prayers in a beautiful way because we have two beautiful Christian sons-in-law, both baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Our second daughter started going to a boy just out of high school. He wasn't Christian or anything else, but she felt that he was God's choice for her, so she began to pray and bring him to the right meetings, and he got saved and baptized in the Holy Ghost before they got married.

So that was an answer to prayer. But Alice and I don't take any credit for the way our kids have turned out, particularly. I mean, we tried to do what we know we should do as Christian parents. But like all Christian parents, we fail a lot of the time. And we make mistakes. And at times we say and do foolish things.

And we try to analyze why it's come out so good. And I think one reason, we decided one reason why it is, is because from the beginning of our marriage, Jesus has been enthroned at the center. There has been in our home, for want of a better word, I call a spiritual climate.

A spiritual climate that enables the best that's in our kids to come out. It's a controlled climate, I'll put it that way. There are not the influences in there of tension or of unfaithfulness or of dissension or of lies or of cheating or of conniving that are so often a part of ordinary family life.

We've had the kind of climate, by God's grace, it's like, you know what happens when plants, little seeds or seedlings are planted, if the climate... It's properly controlled. If it's an ideal kind of climate, exactly the right amount of rain, exactly the right amount of sunlight, exactly the right temperature, you'll get an ideal plant.

It'll grow right. It'll grow straight. It'll be fruitful. It'll be healthy. It'll be exactly what God intended when he made the seed.

Well, I think in a measure, this is what we're seeing happening with our children. Now, I understand they're human and they have their little foibles. But Alice and I have said many a time, if we could have chosen, if we could have put down a list of things before God and said, now, we want our girls to be this way, we want our son to be this way.

I don't know particularly anything that we would change on the list by the way the kids are turning out. And I attribute that to the presence of the real Jesus Christ in our home.

That there creates, I think this is why God considers the home so important, that a properly ordered Christian home creates the climate where God's will can be expressed generation after generation.

And we live in a time when if ever a witness was needed, the witness of the Christian home and family is needed in our generation.