Protect Your Home

Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. Psalm 127, a psalm for the home. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to set up late to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children, are the heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.

They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Now, God gave to the man an instinct to protect his wife and his children. When God put Adam in the Garden of Eden, he gave him two distinct responsibilities. One was to dress the garden, the other was to keep it.

That is, he is to be the provider, and he is to be the protector. When Joyce and I were in college, we got married after our first year in college. We've been sweethearts for so long, we just decided to go ahead and get married.

Just young people, very young. I just completed a year of college. We got married. Now, I was there on a football scholarship, also had a ministerial scholarship. But if I kept the football scholarship, I had to sleep in the athletic dorm and eat at the training table.

I didn't want to do that. I wanted to be married to Joyce. And so we, I forfeited the football scholarship, was called to a little church, started preaching when I was a 19-year-old boy, and pastoring that little church. We drove 130 miles one way on weekends, and we already decided we wanted a family, so we started our family early while we were still in school.

Three years of school to go, pastoring a little church. And Joyce was having some complications with pregnancy, our first child, and so the doctor said it would not be good for her to travel that distance in the automobile. Well, it was Saturday, and a news report came across. There had been a prison break in a prison very near to the trailer park where our little 25-foot house trailer was. People were told to lock your doors, lock your windows, take the keys out of your car, get the children off the streets, and be very, very careful, because of the three men who had escaped, two were killers.

So they said be very careful. And the prison was in the vicinity where we lived, and that night we could hear the hounds, the bloodhounds, because they'd tracked them to our area. And the bloodhounds were baying around our trailer park, our little trailer there. And so normally I would have gone early, and I said, rather than going down on Saturday, I'm going to stay here with you Saturday night.

Then I'd get up real early Sunday morning, and I'll drive in time to be there at church, drive that 130 miles. So we lay in bed that night, and we could hear the activity out around as they were trying to track those killers in our vicinity. Early in the morning, I got up to get ready. Now, our little house trailer did not have a bathroom in it. We had a path, not a bath.

There was a community wash house there, and I got my things together to go over there to bathe and shave and get ready to go. It was gray dawn. I was going to leave Joyce there. And I looked over here behind a trailer, and I saw a convict.

No doubt that it was a convict because it had on the convict clothes, and he was slipping behind a trailer. There was nobody else out there to help. I didn't want to get engaged with some killer convict, but I didn't want to run. I didn't want to scream, to alarm him, and I didn't know what he might do. I thought surprise is the best weapon. So I decided I would pounce him. Now, you have to understand now.

I'm on a football scholarship. I was in pretty good shape, and there was this man. He didn't see me. I saw him first. I had the drop on him. Now, normally, common sense would have told me to run or to get out of there, but there's my wife.

There's my wife. I don't want to bring him to my house. I don't want to go the other way. So I began to move closer and closer around the trailer, and then I jumped him. And I got him around the neck, and I put him on my hip, and I did a lock on him and put him down, and he began to yell and to squeal and to say, let me go. And he said, I'm not one of them. I said, yes, you are. He said, I am not. And I said, I see your uniform. I know who you are. And about that time, a sheriff's deputy came around, and he said, Mister, you can let him go.

He's a trustee. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Now, think about that. Why on earth would I jump on a man like that, a man that I thought most likely was a killer?

I'll tell you one reason. There was a girl in that trailer over there, and God gave to me a protective instinct. I'm not the man I used to be then, but I'm going to tell you something. You put your hand on my wife or one of my kids, and if I can't, I'll put you on the ground. You don't touch a man's children.

You don't touch a man's wife. God wants us to have a protective instinct. The man is to be the protector.

He is to be the provider. May I tell you that there are some killers on the loose? There is great danger. There is a great danger.

There is a killer on the loose. John 10, verse 10, listen to this. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy.

Jesus said, I've come that they might have life and have it abundantly. There is a thief, a murderer, a destroyer, and he's in your neighborhood. He may be in your living room, and your protective instincts need to say, I'm going to do something about it. Now, what does Satan want to steal? Satan wants to steal your fellowship with God. Pornography steals fellowship with God. You see, God is light.

In him is no darkness at all. Now, listen to 1 John 1, verses 3 and 4. That which ye have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. These things write we unto you that your joy may be full. If you're into pornography, I will tell you you have no joy.

Beyond the shadow of any doubt. You have no joy. If you have no fellowship with God, you have no fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ. And if you have no fellowship with God and your brothers and sisters in Christ, you have no joy. Now, the Bible says that Satan is a thief. He wants to steal your fellowship with God.

Pornography has a great appeal to your youth. But you need to teach them that the greatest treasure, as we talked about in the first of these three messages, is fellowship with God. I wouldn't take anything for fellowship with God. Why would I sacrifice my fellowship with God?

I cannot walk in darkness and have fellowship with him who is light. Pornography steals fellowship with God. That's one treasure that it steals. But not only does it steal fellowship, number two, pornography kills love. It kills love.

That's the second great treasure. Fellowship with God and then love. You see, pornography is antithetical to love. Lust and love are opposites. Love is the greatest virtue. The Bible says, And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 3. Love is the greatest virtue. To love is the greatest commandment. 1 Corinthians 23, verses 37 through 40. And Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment. Pornography is the opposite of love. It treats people as objects, things to be used. It is degrading.

It is true. It is loveless. Not only does the devil want to steal fellowship, he wants to kill love. He wants to bring death to innocence, the innocence of your children.

Death to purity, death to happiness, spiritual death, physical death, eternal death. Satan is a murderer. One of his chief weapons is pornography. Not only does he want to steal fellowship with God, not only does he want to kill love, he wants to destroy your family. Pornography destroys families. Why does Satan want to destroy the family?

Because the family is the basic unit of society. Take away our families. Our church is decimated. Our city is decimated. Our nation is decimated.

Civilization is decimated. And so Satan wants to deceive man, defile his mind, destroy the home, and dominate the world. So he is a thief. He is a murderer.

He is a destroyer, and he is loose. And you, sir, are called on to guard your heart and to protect your home. Where are the men of God today?

Where are the mothers who will stand up today? Now, Satan has three on his 18. Do you know why pornography is so dangerous? First of all, the first A is availability.

The second A is affordability. And the third A is it is so anonymous. Pornography today is so available. Things that you used to have to go out behind a barn to see. Pictures that perhaps you would purchase in a plain wrapper by some unsavory person. The pornography is everywhere. You go to the corner market for a gallon of milk. There's pornography.

You stroll through the mall. There is pornography. You go into a motel. There in the corner is a television set.

Just turn the dial. Up comes the pornography. Availability. Affordability. Not since Manhattan Island was sold for $24 has so much dirt been sold so cheaply.

It's affordable. And then you can watch it with anonymity. In a hotel room.

In a bedroom with a computer. These three things that Satan has used to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I'm telling you because Christians are not immune. The Maryland Coalition Against Pornography did a survey and they found out that 40 to 60 percent, listen, 40 to 60 percent of Christian men are involved in pornography in some way. 40 to 60 percent.

Well, you say those are just old colleges. What about the young people? Well, they did another survey of students at five Christian colleges and found that 68 percent, that's more than two-thirds, 68 percent of male students said they had intentionally looked for pornography on the internet. We know that in these surveys about things like that that generally they understate it.

But some people would deny doing it when they did it. They understate the incident of this. Now, what are we up against? Let me tell you what we're up against when I'm telling you we need to guard your home. Television itself. Television has become the devil's pipeline into the home.

Anyone knows that television is becoming more and more vile. We talk about educational television. My friend, all television is educational. Everything that kids see is giving them an education.

It may not be the education that you would choose or that you would want. David Frost was correct when he said this. Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you would not have into your home. Now, we're up against television. Secondly, we're up against the movie theater and videos. There's something called an R-rated movie.

Do you see that a flood tide of slime is hitting America? Do you know why there's so many R-rated films? Well, in Parade magazine said that the screenwriters seek for an R-rating to attract the teenagers.

The teenagers shun PG and PG-13 films because they think if they watch that, that's a sign that they're immature. And worse than the movies themselves is the video industry. Billions, billions, billions of dollars are changing hands. We're up against the Internet. Young people and adults are becoming roadkill on the information superhighway. The Internet is the fastest-growing distribution channel for illegal pornography. And it may come to your child unsolicited.

Now, friend, I'm telling you, we need to develop some software for the heart. Now, there's another source that wants to, the devil wants to use to steal, to kill, and to destroy, and that's the pornographic magazines. Surveys show that many had their first experience with pornographic magazines at a friend's house. Now, folks, you cannot ignore this attack on your children and your home. And don't let anybody tell you that pornography is a victimless crime. Those who are into it are victims, perhaps self-induced victims, but they are victims. Somebody says, well, we just need to ignore it. It'll go away.

After a while, people will get bored, and it'll go away, just legalize it, and it won't be a problem anymore. If you believe that, you've got rooms to rent upstairs unfurnished. You believe you can put out a fire with gasoline.

No. What happens when people get bored with common, ordinary pornography, they go into something more perverse, something more brutal, something more wicked. Pornography is so vile because it is so addictive. Paul Harvey told a story. I cringe when I think about it, but I'm going to use it because it so illustrates what I'm talking about. The Eskimos, hunting wolves, have found a way to do it. An Eskimo will take his razor-sharp knife blade and coat it with animal blood. He'll paint it on there and let it freeze. And then he'll put another coat of blood on it and another and another until it is heavily coated with blood.

Then he will stick the knife in the ground, in the frozen ground, with a blade pointed up. A wolf is attracted by the scent of that blood. He comes, and he begins to lick the blood off, and he licks it and licks it till it's all gone and his tongue is cut. He's so interested in the blood, he doesn't even feel the sting, and now he begins to bleed and lick his own blood.

And he licks and cuts and licks and cuts, and he is drinking his own blood until finally the Eskimos come and find the wolf dead on the frozen tundra as he has been licking and drinking his own blood. That's what pornography does. It's something that does not sessate, but the person feeds upon it to his own destruction. Now, I don't want to say any more about that. I've tried not to describe pornography as such, only to talk about it, because I don't want to discuss in public what it really is. I want to say something else.

I made it my purpose in preparing these messages not to look at any pornography, none whatsoever. But I know what's going on. I know what's in this world today. And I want to tell you that there is a way of deliverance. I've thought about it. I've prayed about it. And I want to tell you ten things to do.

And I want you to jot these down. Dads, you're to guard your heart. You're to protect your home.

There is victory. Our Psalm said in Psalm 127, verses 1 and 2, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early to set a plate to eat the bread of sorrows, for he giveth his beloved sleep. God will protect your home if you will get in concert with him. And we don't have to throw in the towel.

You don't have to say, well, good night after all those statistics. There's no other way. Romans 12, verse 21 says, Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. 1 John chapter 4, verse 4 says, You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

You don't have to throw in the towel. And I want to tell you 10 strategies. They are deeply spiritual, intensely spiritual, very practical, and to teach you how you can have a clean heart in a dirty world and you can guard your home and protect your children. Number one, lead your children to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. That's the starting place. Lead your children to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now, without that, I don't know what you can do. You can scold, you can fuss. But when you lead your children to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, not only do you deliver their soul from hell, but you're going to ensure that the three greatest values of life, that they can have fellowship with God, that they can truly love, for love is of God, and that they can have a happy home for except the Lord build the house.

They labor in vain that build it. So lead them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Are your children saved? Do your children know the Lord? Where they're young are grown children.

Pray over them, weep over them, bring them to Jesus Christ, because when you do that, you take the policeman off the street corner and you put him in the human heart. Number two, help your children to discern true values. In the first message that I preached, I talked about Moses. And Moses had some discernment. And because he had some discernment, he saw the difference between good and evil. And then Moses chose the good.

And then Moses refused the evil. Remember the story that I told you about the dog and the bone? If a dog has a nasty bone in his mouth and you try to take it away from him, you might get bit. But if you put a stake on the ground, the dog sees the stake, he'll drop the bone to get the stake. Now, what happens in that dog's mind is this. First of all, that dog discerns. He looks, here's the bone, there's the stake. There's a discernment.

He says, this is better than this. Then there's a choice. He says, I want the stake. I choose the stake. Then he refuses the bone. Now, you're going to have to spend some time sitting down with your children, helping your children understand what the values of life are. Friend, listen, let me tell you where it's at.

I would not take anything, nothing, for fellowship with God, the ability to love and to have a godly family. That's it. That's it. Don't let them. Don't let them sacrifice these things. Lead them to Christ. Number two, help them to discern true values.

Help them to see through Satan's lies. All pornography is based on a lie. Based on a lie. That this is somehow good, tantalizing, titillating, that it will somehow satisfy. It is all a lie.

Satan is a liar. Now, if you've ever been swimming, maybe somebody throw you a beach ball, maybe in the pool, and you try to keep the beach ball under the water. You can keep it under the water as long as you sit on it.

Maybe. But all of a sudden, it comes up, pops up to the surface again, especially if you've got two or three you're trying to keep under. That's impossible. You push it down. You can only hold it down for so long, and it comes back up. That's the way people fight pornography. They say, I'm not going to do this anymore. I don't like this.

I'm against it. And they put it down in their mind, but then it just comes to the surface again. And they're fighting a hopeless battle. Let me tell you one way to keep that ball sunk. Let the air out of it.

Let the air out of it. What you need to do is let the air out of Satan's lies. Satan is a liar.

He is a liar. You need to help your children to see that Satan is a liar, and so you help them to discern. Number three, teach them the principles of purity, how to control their thought life. All right, from Psalm 118, I gave you these steps, and don't tell me they won't work.

Friend, I guarantee you they will work. How do you control your thought life? Well, the average person doesn't know, but there is a plan. It is very clear.

It is very plain. Teach them how to control their thought life. Number four, cover them with prayer. Pray for your children. Pray for them every day. Joyce and I pray for our children by name every day. Pray for them at night.

We call them by name. The wonderful thing about prayer is that prayer can go where you cannot go. Ron Dunn says prayer is like an intercontinental ballistics missile. It goes where you cannot go, and the wonderful thing about it is that the devil has no anti-missile to shoot it down with, and it travels not at the speed of light.

It travels at the speed of thought. You can pray with a delayed detonation. You can start praying for your little children right now when they're little babies. Say, Lord, keep them strong and pure. Saturate your children in prayer. Pray for them every day. Cover them with prayer because you're in a spiritual battle, and one of your chief weapons is prayer.

Number four, and I'm going to slow down here. Make a family covenant. Now, what am I talking about when I say a family covenant? You know, one of the most diabolical lies of the devil is the concept of adult entertainment. We see this advertised all the time, adult entertainment. It is not adult. It is infantile, and it is wicked. You know what the concept of adult entertainment says to a child? Now, look, you can't watch this because you're not old enough. Like, it's all right for Dad. It's all right for Mom. It's just not all right for you, but one of these days, you'll be old enough to enjoy what we enjoy. You talk about phony baloney.

Friend, that is phony baloney. How do you make a family covenant? You as a father get the children together, and you say, Children, we're going to make a covenant together.

Let's suppose your little girl's name is Susan. Susan, Daddy believes that pornography is wrong. He wants you to be able to love. He wants you to be able to have fellowship with God. So I want to make a covenant with you, Susan. I want to promise you in Mother's presence and promise Mother that I will never, ever watch anything in your absence that I will not watch in your presence. I promise you before God. And Susan, I want you to make a covenant with me. I want you, darling, or John, or whomever it is, to make a covenant with me before God that you will never, ever watch anything in my absence that you would not watch in my presence. Write that covenant out and sign it before God on your knees. And then have some token of the covenant.

And then if you're a businessman, after you've made a covenant with that little girl, you take her picture along with her mother's picture with you when you travel. Put it in your briefcase. Mom, see that he has it.

Sir, when you unpack, put it up there on front of the television. Put it right up there on top and look at that little girl. And see, sir, if you can imagine her watching what you might be tempted to watch. Or worse, imagine her watching you watch it. Or worse, imagine somebody using your daughter as an object of their lust.

What you're watching, mister, is somebody's daughter. It is someone made in the image of God. Make a solemn covenant before God.

That's what Job did. He said, I made a covenant with my eyes that I would not look upon a maid. Next, number six, memorize scriptures. Memorize scriptures. Do you remember what the Bible says in Psalm 119, verse 11? Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

You see, when you put the right thing in, then there's not room for the wrong thing. When I was a boy, I memorized scripture. I had a little box of scriptures. I memorized them. I still know those scriptures. They stuck in my heart and in my mind. Often in my preaching, the scripture would just come up like that.

It's down in there, and it just comes up. You're not too old, sir, to memorize scripture. You're not too old, lady, to memorize scripture. But get your kids to memorizing scripture. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto? According to thy word, thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against God.

Why? Because you can't think two thoughts at one time, and if you memorize scripture and meditate on scripture, you're going to be thinking God's thoughts after him. By the way, what a wonderful family project to memorize scripture together as a family. And when your kids learn scripture, recognize them and pay them.

Oh, no, I wouldn't pay my children to memorize scripture. Why should I bribe them? You're not bribing them. You're rewarding them.

A bribe is an inducement to do evil. A reward is a recognition for doing good. The Bible teaches the idea of rewards. Reward your children for learning scripture.

It'll be one of the best investments that you can make. And don't tell me, sir, that you can't learn. You're a liar. You say, that wasn't polite, pastor. I'll say it again, you're a liar. If you got $1,000 for every verse you memorize, could you memorize scripture? You're a liar, see?

Now, I'm just telling you, listen to me. It is a matter of motivation. Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. Memorize scripture. Number seven, create the right atmosphere in your home.

That is, scripture mottos on the wall, the right kind of music, mottos, the Ten Commandments. Plan wholesome entertainment. Make your home the best place in the neighborhood to be. Make it the kind of place that your children's friends want to come to. Let your home ring with laughter. Let it be permeated with love. Just make your home the right place.

Keep plenty of food in the refrigerator. Let them raid the refrigerator. Let them soil your rugs. Let them break down your couch with too many kids on it. So what? So what? Let your home be a good place, a fun place, a happy place.

Spend some time choosing the right television programs, the right videotapes, the right games. Now, number eight, I'm going to slow down here again. Remove temptations. I want you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 22. I want you to look in verse eight. When thou bildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof. Do you know what a battlement is? It's a wall. Thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house if any man fall from thence. It's what we call a parapet wall. In the Middle East, and I've been there many times, you can still see these parapet walls on the rooftop.

Why? Because the rooftop in Bible times was a patio. It's also a place where they would dry their foods, a place they'd come up in the evening and sit, sometimes have their meals up there. Peter was on the rooftop praying when he had that vision.

Rahab was drying the flax and she hid the spies on the rooftop. People in the Bible, they lived on the rooftop. What did God say to do? God said, now look, when you build a new house, put a wall around the roof.

Why? To keep somebody from falling off. Because if you don't put a wall there and they fall, then their blood is on your hands. Now, ultimately, there's absolutely nothing you can do to keep your kids from watching pornography, ultimately, because God gave them a will. But I'll tell you one thing I don't want to do. I don't want to build a home that is dangerous for the children.

If they want to climb over the wall and jump off, that would break my heart. But I don't want to have the kind of a home where they fall accidentally because I have not removed the temptations from that home. Do you understand what I'm saying?

I mean, you need at least to build the wall. You see, the Bible says, except the Lord keep the house, the watchman wakes, but in vain. Now, let me give you another verse. I'm talking about removing the temptations now. Romans 13, verse 22. But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh. Don't make any provisions for the flesh. Now, how do you do this?

We're slowing down now. There are eight of these 10 things. Number one, you need to guard the use of that computer. If you can't handle it, take an ax to it.

Do not have any online service without a good filter. Number two, put the computer in a public area in your home. Do not let your teen have a computer alone in his or her bedroom. Just don't do it. Don't let them scream.

Let them scream. Put it in the den. Put it in the family room. Put it with the face out. Spend some time on the Internet with your child.

See what he's watching? Learn something about it yourself. Teach them never, never to open up an unsolicited email from someone they do not know. If your child has a password for his or her computer use, let them have a password, but make them give it to you. Oh, no. Yes.

Yes. You may never have to use it, but let them give it to you. I'm telling you, that's your child.

You say, you want that computer? You're not going to have any secrets from me. What is there that you don't want me to know about? I'm not going to be snooping, but God wants me to protect you.

Child, I'd lay down my life for you. Limit the time on that computer. If they find anything objectionable, let them feel free to come and talk to you about it. Don't put them down for finding it.

Commend them for sharing it with you. Learn to tame the television. You need to cancel some of the subscriptions that are coming into your home. Just cancel it. You save it in the movies. Cancel it. Get it out.

Find a package that you can live with, and even there you're going to have to monitor it. Now, suppose. Suppose in your house there's a hole near the bottom of the wall, about that big, and you live in a snake-infested area, and snakes are coming in through that hole all the time. Snakes are coming in. Snakes are coming in. Snakes are coming in.

About half of them poisonous and half of them benign. And so you say, now, child, look. See, we've got this thing coming into our living room. You see that hole there? You see those snakes?

Now, come over here, child. You see that snake? That's a bad snake. Don't play with that snake. See that snake? That snake's okay. Oh, there's another bad one. That's the kind we don't like. Now, there's a good one.

Now, child, mom and dad are going out to a party. While we're going, don't be playing with any of those bad snakes, you understand? Because you get bit now. And by the way, we're going to check up on you. We're going to ask you when we come back if you've been playing with any of those bad snakes. You know what I think? I think it'd be a whole lot better to nail up that hole.

To nail up the hole. I'm not saying not to have television in your home. But I am saying, dear friend, if there are poisonous snakes coming in, you think you're just going to be able to say now, hey, that's a bad one. Don't mess with that one. This is a good one. Now, learn to tame the television.

As a family, choose some programs to watch. Guard the magazines and the books. That's another danger that you need to get rid of.

Go through your house. Got any bad magazines? Get them out.

Got any bad videos? Get them out. Clean them out.

I'll tell you what to do with them. Burn them. Oh, book burning. I don't believe in burning somebody else's books. I'm not trying to control somebody else's mind. Acts 19, verse 19, many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men.

And they counted the price of them and founded 50,000 pieces of silver. That's revival. I'm not talking about trying to control what somebody else is going to think because I don't want anybody to control what I think. I don't believe in some kind of book burning where you try to control somebody else's thought life. But I do believe you need to clean your house. Let Jesus help you to do a house cleaning if you want your home to be protected. And next, investigate your children's friends. That's the reason I said make your house the fun place to be. Let your house be headquarters.

Why? Because then you get his or her friends there and you can look them over. I was talking to one of our staff members. He said you have to be so careful when you let your children overnight, even with some of the church folks. He said they will watch things on video in some of the supposedly godly homes that you don't want your children to see. And he told me about a child who was visiting one of our families. And they were putting on a video, and it was a fine video, but the little child said, I can't watch that until I first call home because my parents won't let me watch any video without first calling them. Pretty smart, huh?

I like that. You need to guard these kids. You need to guard the friends.

I'm telling you that everybody else doesn't have the standards that you and I have or that we ought to have. Next, friend, you need to screen the movies very carefully, very carefully. Now, here's where you're going to have a real battle because they're going to go to school, and everybody else is going to be talking about, did you see so-and-so, and did you see so-and-so, and did you see so-and-so? And your child's going to say, no, I didn't see that.

And you'll feel like an outsider. I had to fight this battle with my kids, but dad, everybody, dad, some of the staff members' kids, dad, some of the deacons' kids. I said, well, now, look, when they raise kids as good as mine, then maybe I'll think about it. Boy, that frustrates them. They don't know what to do when they say that. Love them, but teach them, teach them that they are not different, they are distinctive. Teach them how to stand alone. Would you let them go get a soapbox and stand, look in somebody's bedroom window while somebody's committing adultery for entertainment? That's what you do when you send them off some of these movies.

Same thing. Now, next, number nine, all of that is under removing temptation. Number nine, and again, here's something very politically incorrect. Teach your daughters to dress modestly. There are girls that are going outside and things they ought not to have come downstairs in. You say, well, I want to be attractive. Yeah, what are you trying to attract? You can be beautiful. As a matter of fact, girls, oh, I wish somebody'd tell you. When you try to look voluptuous and sexy and all that, you look silly, silly. What is more beautiful than a beautiful girl graciously and modestly dressed?

The devil has done a job on us. Let me tell you something, young lady. The Bible says that if a man looks on a woman to lust after her, he's committed adultery with her. If you dress to entice him to lust, you are an accomplice to the crime.

You're an accomplice to the crime. Dress modestly. The kind of a fellow who will be attracted to you because you dress sexually is the kind of a man that you would not want for a husband anyway. Dress modestly. And mothers, it's a battle, I know.

A girl went into a dress shop and said to the sales lady, if my mama likes this dress, can I bring it back? Last of these ten things. Learn to counter attack. Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.

Now, there are ways that you cannot keep these things from happening. You walk through the mall, there it is. You turn on the television, there it is. There's a magazine on the ground in the newsstand, there it is, there it is, there it is, there it is.

You can't go around with blindness, but you can counter attack. You see, the difference between people is not primarily what they think about, as it is how they think about what they think about. You have your son, you're walking along, and there's somebody standing there at a news rack looking through one of these obscene magazines. We've all been there and seen that. He's right there right in front of you, and your son is with you. Well, what do you do? You use that as a teaching tool. What do you do, son?

Look at that. What do you think was going through that man's mind right now? What do you think God thinks about that? What do you think God would have us do? Son, can you think of a good scripture that would help you in a situation like that? Do you know what David did? David cut Goliath's head off with Goliath's sword. You can use that against the devil. If you're wise enough, learn how to counter attack and turn it back on the enemy. Well, I'll tell you a story.

I'll be finished. The year was 1942. America was at war. We were fighting for a little island off the coast of the Philippines, Corregidor. Now, you older men remember Corregidor.

A small island. General Wainwright, Jonathan Wainwright was the general there to protect Corregidor. General Wainwright had told President Roosevelt that he would hold the island, that he would keep the American flag flying over Corregidor.

He meant that with all of his heart. He was one of the bold men on that island on April 1942. The Japanese so intensified the attack, the shells were coming in from everywhere.

Wainwright's men were in bunkers, huddling down. The shells were exploding. But, oh, glory, the American flag was waving on a 100-foot flagpole. The Japanese shells hit that flagpole, hit the rope. And when it did, oh, glory, began to slowly come down that flagpole. The men in the bunkers looked at the flag as it was sinking lower and lower, about to hit the ground, and it was so ominous.

It was like, this is doom, it's over. But then there were some men there, Captain Arthur Huff, H-U-F-F, and some other men. They came out of their bunker, went out there in the midst of all of that fire and caught, oh, glory, just before she hit the ground and tied that rope back together and roasted that flag back to the top. And there was joy in the camp.

They kept the island, and they kept the flag flying. I want to tell you, Satan has let loose with all of the artillery of hell. I've been in the ministry now for half a century.

I've seen a lot of things. I have never seen anything like we're seeing today. But I want to tell our commander-in-chief, the Lord Jesus, we're going to keep the flag flying. We're going to keep the flag flying. And as we see family values descending and enemy shells exploding, I, for one, as a father and a grandfather, I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to fight for my kids. I'm going to fight for my family.

I want our kids to know the God that I know, and I want them to have those three great values, fellowship with God, the ability to love, and a Christian home. Pornography is the enemy of all of that. Now, I've not talked to you about political action. I've not talked to you about trying to clean up television or clean up Hollywood.

I've not talked to you about anything like that. That needs to be done. But, friend, in many ways, that's so much bigger than we are. But there's one thing we can do. We can guard our hearts, and we can protect our home. That we can do. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org, or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.