("Best-of" Edition from 8/16/24) Our Brother Israel Wayne, Director of Family Renewal, returns to “The Corner.”

Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (base.en). Timestamps are approximate. Lightly cleaned for readability; quotations from on-air callers may include filler words. Use the audio player above for the authoritative recording.

1. 0:00Darkness is not an affirmative force.
2. 0:03It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
3. 0:06This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
4. 0:10It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
5. 0:15Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media.
6. 0:18And the philosophies of this world.
7. 0:20God has called you and me to be his ambassador.
8. 0:24Even in this dark moment.
9. 0:26Let's not miss our moment.
10. 0:28And now, the Hamilton Corner.
11. 0:31Good evening, everybody.
12. 0:33Welcome to the Hamilton Corner here on American Family Radio.
13. 0:37I'm your host Abraham Hamilton III.
14. 0:40Yes, I am keenly aware that you two have some haters.
15. 0:47We're trying to see if we can work something out.
16. 0:50We will, but if we can't, then we just can't.
17. 0:53But I'll try to keep you guys updated on that.
18. 0:57Thank you for tuning in to the program.
19. 1:00And so much is going on all over the country, well, in our country and all over the world is what I'm
20. 1:07meant to say. Nevertheless, the Lord has given us His word to anchor us and to stabilize us and to
21. 1:16give us clarity, insight, guidance and direction in the midst of these uncertain times. My name is Abraham
22. 1:26Hamilton the third I am joined by the real J. Mac often imitate it never duplicated
23. 1:31he's wearing a shirt of a team that seems to lose a lot of football games but I don't know you know
24. 1:38people get get weird you know but you know maybe maybe maybe they come up you know maybe they come
25. 1:44up I mean they ranked the highest this year I think they haven't been ranked you aware of that
26. 1:48am I in my breaking news for you oh you aware yeah yeah I won't I won't say names but I'll just
27. 1:56share this little tidbit. I mean, most of you guys know I'm from Louisiana, right?
28. 2:00And I was in a meeting when I first visited
29. 2:04AFA's headquarters and there was a conversation in the meeting and it was a passionate conversation
30. 2:14going on about two collegiate universities that play football and they were remain nameless
31. 2:20for the sake of this conversation. And it was such fervent and passionate discussion. I didn't
32. 2:25I really couldn't understand it.
33. 2:27I really couldn't understand it.
34. 2:29Because I didn't spoke up and said,
35. 2:31I don't know why you guys are so
36. 2:32heated about this because both of these teams lose about four or five games every season.
37. 2:37And man, you could have heard a pin drop in that.
38. 2:40I mean, the meeting was quite raucous up until that moment.
39. 2:43And then when I said what I just described to you that I said,
40. 2:46it got very quiet.
41. 2:47It got very quiet.
42. 2:49Because I said to them, because where I'm from,
43. 2:51seasons are evaluated as successes of failures based upon national championships.
44. 2:55That's what I was used to.
45. 2:58But I mean, if you guys wanted to debate who was better amongst the numerous repeated losers than have done way.
46. 3:08That's foreign to me anyway.
47. 3:10You ain't asking me for that Jeff, but your shirt prompted that.
48. 3:15So I just, I still don't understand.
49. 3:20But maybe, you know, I mean, I'm not trying to front, you know, one of those schools might have beaten my team one to twice in like 40 years, maybe.
50. 3:29But generally speaking, we don't, we don't, we don't, if it's a season that is not a national title and at least the SEC Championship, that's an unsuccessful season from where I'm from.
51. 3:41Okay.
52. 3:42Just, I mean, just just letting that be known.
53. 3:44I didn't understand.
54. 3:45I don't really under, I don't really get loser speak.
55. 3:48I'm just, that's what I'm trying to say.
56. 3:50And I was being gentle before, but I mean, that's, that's, you know, that's what it is.
57. 3:55An automated whole bunch of people, man.
58. 4:00It's been down, it's been down lately, but we do have some rings that precedes the current downtime.
59. 4:08All right. All right. All right.
60. 4:11To the serious matters of the day, man, I was preparing for today's program, and I couldn't help,
61. 4:21But be struck by the Lord's word and I really I really believe this diagnosis where we are currently in our country
62. 4:29I mean, it's not lost on me that we're really at the scope where a decision is being made by the American people whether or not
63. 4:38We will be full-on
64. 4:40formerly transitioning into having socialist affirmatively and
65. 4:45And outright socialist leadership or not, you know that that is where we are I
66. 4:50I don't know if people understand this, but I hope you realize that a Democrat party presidential
67. 4:59candidate will no longer be elected by any people is going to be selected from here on
68. 5:05out.
69. 5:06I don't know if people realize that, but it's pretty clear and what should also be clear
70. 5:15is that the objective is not to have a leader,
71. 5:20but to have a figure hit,
72. 5:22because the leadership is actually
73. 5:23gonna transpire behind the scenes.
74. 5:26And then we have on the Republican side of the ledger,
75. 5:31a part of that has consistently said it is conservative,
76. 5:35but that the practical application
77. 5:37of the concept of conservatism has been redefined in practice
78. 5:41and is being redefined in practice.
79. 5:43For the longest, the Republican Party has not been conservative as that word is
80. 5:49traditionally understood. I don't think William F. Buckley would agree with it.
81. 5:53I don't think Thomas Sowell would agree with it. I don't think Walter Williams would
82. 5:57agree with it. I don't think Ronald Reagan would agree with it frankly. Maybe, maybe
83. 6:01some aspects of it. But what I'm getting at, the Republican Party has been
84. 6:05spending money pretty much similar to the Democrat Party. You know, the whole
85. 6:16whole Tea Party movement, which was an acronym for
86. 6:18taxed enough already, was actually snuffed out by Republicans.
87. 6:24Karl Rove and his ilk.
88. 6:27And so there are many who are listful.
89. 6:31And the scripture reveals that the Lord deposited his church
90. 6:35in the earth broadly and generally, and more particularly
91. 6:38in the individual nations where he's deposited his bride
92. 6:41to be salt and light, to be the pillar and ground of truth.
93. 6:46But in too many instances, what the Lord established
94. 6:48result in light has become lightly salted.
95. 6:52And this text in Revelation chapter three
96. 6:54is where we're gonna go today.
97. 6:55Revelation chapter three, verses 14 through 20.
98. 6:58The Greek word for revelation is apocalypsis,
99. 7:00which means to reveal, to make apparent, to make evident.
100. 7:06People talk about apocalyptic events.
101. 7:08This is a part of apocalyptic literature.
102. 7:10But in apocalypse, biblically, the word apocalypsis
103. 7:13means to reveal, okay?
104. 7:18This is the apostle John writing to the church.
105. 7:23Well, he was confronting the seven churches,
106. 7:26but what we're gonna turn to is his address
107. 7:28to the church at Laodicea,
108. 7:30and some things that should be known
109. 7:32about the Laodicean church.
110. 7:34It was about nine miles northwest from Colossae,
111. 7:37so the Apostle Paul wrote his epistle
112. 7:39to the church at Colossae.
113. 7:41Laodicea was about nine miles northwest of Colossae.
114. 7:45It was a church, not a church, it was a city.
115. 7:48The city of Laodicea was known to be
116. 7:51an economic superpower in about the 60s AD, an economic powerhouse, I should say, not
117. 7:56super power, but an economic powerhouse. It was a self-sufficient commercial center,
118. 8:01and it was the site of a thriving medical and textile industry in 68. I mentioned 68 because
119. 8:10you can look this up. There was a massive earthquake that hit the city at the time, but
120. 8:14they were so well off materially that they declined the invitation by the Roman government
121. 8:21to aid in rebuilding the city, the Laodicean,
122. 8:23say, now we have enough money.
123. 8:25We got it.
124. 8:27That's the kind of wealth that was abundant
125. 8:31in the city of Laodicea.
126. 8:33And so to the church in the city of Laodicea,
127. 8:35this portion of the book of Revelation is addressed.
128. 8:37Revelation chapter three, and it's Revelation,
129. 8:40there's no S at the end of that.
130. 8:41It's Revelation chapter three, verses 14 through 20.
131. 8:44And this is what the word of God says.
132. 8:46To the angel of the church in Laodicea, right.
133. 8:50The amen, the faithful and true witness,
134. 8:54the beginning of the creation of God says this,
135. 8:57I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.
136. 9:02I wish that you were cold or hot.
137. 9:05So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold,
138. 9:08I will spit you out of my mouth.
139. 9:11Because you say, I am rich and have become wealthy
140. 9:17and have need of nothing, and you do not know
141. 9:21that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
142. 9:29I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich
143. 9:38and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and that the shame of your
144. 9:43nakedness will not be revealed and I salve to anoint your eyes so that you
145. 9:49You may see those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.
146. 9:57Therefore be zealous and repent.
147. 10:02Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
148. 10:05If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
149. 10:07I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me.
150. 10:14Now a couple of things I wanna point out.
151. 10:17Often people refer to the Laodicean Church
152. 10:19as the lukewarm church,
153. 10:20which is appropriate according to what the text says.
154. 10:23But I want you to specifically note, the Lord gives us in His Word the reason, the reason
155. 10:32why He viewed them as lukewarm.
156. 10:38Well He assesses their condition and He's the hot nor cold.
157. 10:41Just, but verse 17, He points out, why are they lukewarm?
158. 10:48Because you say, I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing.
159. 10:58The Lord diagnosis their condition, the Leodicean church's condition.
160. 11:02It is because they have misconstrued their material wealth, their material resources as
161. 11:14being sufficient.
162. 11:17They have misconstrued their material abundance with being approved by God.
163. 11:28And the fact that they were materially prosperous, they declared within themselves, I have need
164. 11:35of nothing. In many ways, I feel like the
165. 11:43Laodicean Church is emblematic and
166. 11:50indicative of what has befallen the church
167. 11:53in our country. I never want to paint with a broad brush.
168. 11:56I know that the Lord maintains a remnant in our nation,
169. 11:59but what I am saying is what is generally
170. 12:02the reality. We have huge buildings.
171. 12:08We have all kinds of programs. Our facilities,
172. 12:12We have a children's ministry.
173. 12:13It looks like you're going to an amusement park,
174. 12:15because you got so many slides.
175. 12:17We have so many resources.
176. 12:19We have so many things going on, so many programs.
177. 12:22Surely we are a thriving and strong and robust
178. 12:26and vigorous church, right?
179. 12:29Wrong.
180. 12:33That's not how the Lord determines thriving in Him.
181. 12:42Verse 17 goes on and says,
182. 12:43goes on and say, because you say I'm rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing
183. 12:47and look at this and you don't even know. You don't know that you are wretched, miserable,
184. 12:55poor, blind and naked. Guys, that should cause some sober reflection that you could have a
185. 13:04people in particular here, a church in a city that sees itself as materially prosperous
186. 13:12and that material wealth has caused them to be so ignorant
187. 13:16that they don't even realize that God sees them as wretched.
188. 13:24The term wretched communicates God's not that it's just bad,
189. 13:27but it is rotten and rotting,
190. 13:30and it emits a stench, a palpable stench
191. 13:35that is evident to everyone
192. 13:39whose all-factory systems are functioning.
193. 13:42You say you are rich.
194. 13:44You say you are wealthy.
195. 13:45You say you have need of nothing,
196. 13:47but God says you're wretched and miserable.
197. 13:51Some translations there say pitiable and poor.
198. 13:57Now they're saying they're wealthy, they're rich,
199. 13:59but God is saying they're poor and blind and naked.
200. 14:07The natural material conditions have so encroached
201. 14:10upon their discerning capacities
202. 14:11that they don't even realize how desperately
203. 14:14disgusting to God they've become.
204. 14:18But that's not the end of the story.
205. 14:20Because of version 19, God says what He says,
206. 14:24to those who my love, I reprove.
207. 14:27I'm telling you this, I'm dyes those in your condition
208. 14:29so that you would change.
209. 14:30To those who my love, I reprove and discipline,
210. 14:33therefore be zealous and repent.
211. 14:38Guys, the order of the day in our nation,
212. 14:41our most desperate and enduring need is repentance.
213. 14:46And that repentance must begin in the house of God.
214. 14:51because verse 20 concludes that the Christ was on the outside,
215. 14:54knocking at the door, trying to get in.
216. 15:00I'd like to take a minute and have a heart to heart with you.
217. 15:03If you're able, place your hand over your heart.
218. 15:05Can you feel it?
219. 15:07My strong heartbeat reminds me that I'm alive.
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222. 15:16and at just three weeks is already beating.
223. 15:19At five weeks, a baby's heart can be heard on an ultrasound.
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234. 16:09Shiting light into the darkness.
235. 16:17This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
236. 16:20Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton.
237. 16:23Third here, I am honored to have on the program with me a man of God, a brother in the faith who has
238. 16:30inspired me, frankly. His ministry has been a blessing to my family. I am speaking of none other than our
239. 16:36brother, Israel Wayne, who is an author and a conference speaker. He's also the director of Family Renewal,
240. 16:42he and his wife Brooke live in southwest Michigan. They are homeschooling parents of 11 children.
241. 16:48Israel has written, I believe, eight books.
242. 16:52Several of them, my family has used, we just finished this past summer,
243. 16:57his foundations in the faith book, which is a ground you in Christian doctrine,
244. 17:03communicable with children, it's been a blessing to us.
245. 17:05We're just starting now, his foundational truths book, which is a modern catechism.
246. 17:11My family is using that.
247. 17:13We've used several other of his books as resources for our family.
248. 17:16And so I highly recommend that you go to his website, familyrenewal.org, familyrenewal.org,
249. 17:23to resource your own family with these wonderful, wonderful tools that God has equipped us with
250. 17:28through our brother here.
251. 17:29Israel, thank you for joining me here on the program.
252. 17:34Thank you, brother.
253. 17:35It's always a blessing to be on your show.
254. 17:36Oh, man.
255. 17:37I am the one who's blessed and I believe that our audience will be blessed as well.
256. 17:41what it is you have to have to say, you're teaching,
257. 17:45you're writing truly, and I'm not trying to just blow you up.
258. 17:49It's just the truth.
259. 17:50You're a blessing to the body of Christ,
260. 17:51and I'm grateful for you and your wife
261. 17:53and your family and your ministry.
262. 17:56That feeling is mutual.
263. 17:57Appreciate you too, brother.
264. 17:58Praise God.
265. 17:59Now, I wanted to start the conversation.
266. 18:01You and I both ministered at the Culture Proof Conference
267. 18:04this past summer in Bartlett, Tennessee,
268. 18:06and as I expected, I was so moved by what you presented.
269. 18:10and one of the presentations you made included
270. 18:14the notion of the necessity of revival in the home.
271. 18:18Would you just share a little bit
272. 18:20of what you were communicating there
273. 18:23and what you see as necessary for us to experience revival
274. 18:27that truly starts in the home?
275. 18:30Well, in the book of Malachi,
276. 18:32which is the last book of the Old Testament,
277. 18:34the Lord gave a revelation to his prophet
278. 18:38and he was talking about how the nation of Israel
279. 18:41at that time was really in a bad place.
280. 18:45They were in a bad spot financially,
281. 18:47they were in a bad spot politically, socially.
282. 18:50They were basically at risk of economic collapse
283. 18:56as well as being taken over by enemies.
284. 18:59And they were crying out to God
285. 19:00and they were asking God why he wasn't intervening
286. 19:03and why he wasn't helping them.
287. 19:06And I'm gonna paraphrase just a little bit,
288. 19:08but basically what he said was,
289. 19:10He said, you flood my altars with your tears.
290. 19:13And I hear you crying and I hear you praying for revival.
291. 19:18He doesn't use that term, but basically that's what they're
292. 19:19praying, for spiritual awakening in their land.
293. 19:22But he says, I'm not listening to your prayers.
294. 19:25I'm not hearing you.
295. 19:26I am not going to answer your prayers.
296. 19:30And that's a pretty sober thing.
297. 19:31I need to have God tell a nation that.
298. 19:33And then he outlines some reasons why.
299. 19:36He says, and here's why.
300. 19:37I have things against you.
301. 19:39And one of the first things that he spoke to was the priests.
302. 19:42And he talked about how they were not good shepherds
303. 19:45and how they were not really looking after the interests
304. 19:48of the flock and how their worship was tainted.
305. 19:51And they were not bringing pure sacrifices before the Lord.
306. 19:56And God was not accepting their sacrifices
307. 19:59and their offerings because it was not pure worship
308. 20:02and the leadership was compromised.
309. 20:05And so, I know that the church today
310. 20:08is not the nation of Israel and we want to be careful
311. 20:10that we don't conflate that or give the impression
312. 20:13that we misunderstand that truth.
313. 20:16Those are two different entities.
314. 20:18But I think the spiritual parallels transfer quite well.
315. 20:22And so he's saying that we need to have faithfulness
316. 20:26within the spiritual leadership in our country.
317. 20:30And I think that would translate well to the shepherds
318. 20:33in our churches today.
319. 20:35There are a lot of statistics like George Barna's latest study
320. 20:39that says only 37% of pastors have a nominal biblical worldview.
321. 20:44Well, I think that puts us in the position
322. 20:46of being spiritually compromised
323. 20:47when it comes to the shepherds.
324. 20:50And then another thing he says to them in chapter two
325. 20:53is he talks about their marriages
326. 20:55and he says, I hate divorce and yet he speaks to the men
327. 20:59and he says, you know, you have been unfaithful
328. 21:02to the wife of your covenant.
329. 21:04And so, Barna again in his latest 2024 study,
330. 21:09he says that 35% of American marriages end in divorce
331. 21:14and the same is true of those who profess to be born again.
332. 21:19And so, a professing believers versus non-professing believers,
333. 21:24there's not a statistical difference in the divorce rate there.
334. 21:27And so, he said, why did I make two people one?
335. 21:31And he says, because I'm looking for a godly offspring.
336. 21:34So God is looking for people who will raise up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord as Ephesians 6-4 talks about.
337. 21:42Then he talks about their finances and he says, you have robbed me basically by putting your money into your kingdom and not into my kingdom.
338. 21:52That you have been focused on spending your money the way you want to spend it rather than recognizing that what you have belongs to me.
339. 22:02And so he rebukes them for their mismanagement of their finances.
340. 22:08And then in chapter four, he talks about how he wants to turn the hearts of fathers to children and the hearts of children to the fathers.
341. 22:16And he says, lest I strike the earth with a curse, or I think one translation says, unless I strike the earth with a decree of utter desolation.
342. 22:25And so he gives this really heavy admonition that if this doesn't happen, if fathers don't
343. 22:31turn their hearts to their children and children are the fathers, there's not hope for your country.
344. 22:37And so I think what we're seeing is basically kind of a biblical outline in the book of Malachi
345. 22:43that transfers very well to our day.
346. 22:45Why are we not seeing spiritual awakening in our country?
347. 22:49we have compromised shepherds, we have Christian marriages that are not what they should be and
348. 22:56that are falling apart with covenant breaking. We have just as much economic debt within the
349. 23:05evangelical Christian community as we have within the secular community. I think it's about $6,000
350. 23:11per adult in the United States and consumer credit card debt right now. And Christians
351. 23:20really are no different than non-Christians in these statistics. And then with our children,
352. 23:26US Department of Labor Statistics in 2022 said that the average mom spends only one hour a
353. 23:33day with her children and the average father is only 29 minutes. And yet these young people
354. 23:39are spending seven and a half hours a day in school,
355. 23:41seven and a half hours a day in social media
356. 23:45and screen time after school, video games,
357. 23:48television, all of that.
358. 23:50And so 15 hours a day, they're getting indoctrinated
359. 23:53into anti-Christian ideology,
360. 23:56and then mom gets an hour, dad gets an hour.
361. 23:58And we're thinking that somehow this is all gonna pan out.
362. 24:01It's all gonna work, and we're gonna have
363. 24:02a successful transfer of the Christian faith.
364. 24:05And that's not working.
365. 24:06And so I think if we were to listen to the words
366. 24:08Malachi today, I think he would say, you need to fix your, your
367. 24:13churches. And that happens in many ways from a leadership level.
368. 24:17But churches are made up of individuals and families, right?
369. 24:20And so we're not worshiping well at church. It's because we're not
370. 24:23worshiping well at home. And if we don't have revival in our church,
371. 24:27because we don't have revival in our home and in our heart. And so
372. 24:30it starts with us as parents, it starts with us as married couples,
373. 24:34it starts with us as families, because we make up churches,
374. 24:36churches impact our community.
375. 24:38So we'll never see spiritual awakening
376. 24:42until we have revival in the church,
377. 24:44and we won't see revival in the church
378. 24:45until we see revival in the home.
379. 24:47Mm, man.
380. 24:50This is why I love you, brother.
381. 24:51I mean, cause you lay it out succinctly, coherently,
382. 24:58but profoundly.
383. 25:00And it's not lost on me that we are in the middle
384. 25:03of a quite contentious election season,
385. 25:08and there are lots of people that want to look to the government for solutions and others
386. 25:13who want to really externalize the cause of all of the things that maybe view these problems
387. 25:20in our society.
388. 25:22But based on what you're saying, that we're looking in the wrong direction before we try
389. 25:26to address things externally.
390. 25:28And I know you're not saying to ignore things that are external, but the real core, the real
391. 25:34root of the things that are problematic in our society, they started our homes. Am I misrepresenting
392. 25:40your position? Yeah, you're absolutely right. And to talk about your messages from the Culture
393. 25:46Proof Conference, you talked about Babylon and about the nation of Israel. And I think it was easy
394. 25:54for the nation of Israel to just blame their bad kings and to blame the Assyrians and to blame
395. 26:00the Babylonians and these groups that would come in and oppress them and I think they felt like
396. 26:05this is not the government that we deserve. Yeah, but it kind of was.
397. 26:11And in our country, we don't live under a monarchy or even a
398. 26:18totalitarian despotism where no nation is invaded, taken over our country and we're under some kind
399. 26:23of a foreign rule. That's not our scenario. We really do in many ways get the government that
400. 26:30that we deserve as a people in our country.
401. 26:33And so I think the thing is rather than us railing
402. 26:36at the governmental leadership and saying,
403. 26:40oh, we don't deserve this, we don't deserve this.
404. 26:42I think we should look at our hearts and say,
405. 26:44yeah, maybe we do.
406. 26:46Maybe this is exactly the leadership
407. 26:49that we deserve in our country,
408. 26:51because why?
409. 26:51Because we forsaken God.
410. 26:55It's not that God has forsaken us.
411. 26:57It's not that God has walked away from us.
412. 26:59we have been faithless. And so God allows consequences to play out. And as people have rejected God,
413. 27:09suppressed the knowledge of God, ignored God, they have no right to then turn around and say,
414. 27:16oh, but we want all the blessings. That's not kind of how covenant relationship with God works.
415. 27:21No, you're absolutely right.
416. 27:25Before you came on, I started the program today in Revelation 3, verses 14 through 20,
417. 27:32discussing the Laodicean Church.
418. 27:35And it's amazing the contrast that Laodiceans viewed themselves as materially wealthy.
419. 27:40And even as it says in verse 17, it says, because I am rich, because I am wealthy, and have need
420. 27:46of nothing.
421. 27:47Yet the Lord in response says, but you don't know that you are wretched and miserable and
422. 27:51and poor and blind and naked.
423. 27:53And then when you get down to verse 19,
424. 27:55the Lord has said to them,
425. 27:56those whom I love are reproven discipline,
426. 27:58therefore be zealous and repent.
427. 28:00The Lord confronts us in his love in these ways
428. 28:04so that we would repent.
429. 28:07But what would you say to someone who would say,
430. 28:09all right, here's what you're saying,
431. 28:10but what you're presenting is overly simplistic.
432. 28:13That is a reductionist view of the multifaceted,
433. 28:17multi-layered problems we have in our nation.
434. 28:19How would you respond to them?
435. 28:22I think you nailed it with the word repent.
436. 28:25There is a path out of this.
437. 28:27There really is.
438. 28:28God is merciful, he is kind, he is compassionate,
439. 28:32he is long-suffering.
440. 28:34God's heart is that he wants to relent.
441. 28:37His heart is that he wants to bless, not curse.
442. 28:40That's his heart, he says it over and over in the scripture.
443. 28:43And the path that he gives to us
444. 28:45is one of humility, contrition and repentance.
445. 28:49But there's a practical aspect to that.
446. 28:51And I think that's where we sometimes, as Christians, aren't willing to actually walk
447. 28:56out repentance.
448. 28:57You know, it's hard for us because we choke on the words of repentance, like, you know,
449. 29:02get stuck in the throat and it doesn't want to come out like, okay, I was wrong.
450. 29:06We don't want to invest that.
451. 29:09But if we do confess it, the next question is, are we willing to actually walk out the
452. 29:14steps of repentance?
453. 29:16In other words, do something different than what you've done previously.
454. 29:20because that's a huge part of repentance.
455. 29:22There's not another way out of this.
456. 29:24That's the path that is the path out of this,
457. 29:28is to turn from the things that we've been doing
458. 29:31that don't work and that are offensive to God
459. 29:33and do the things that align with obedience.
460. 29:39Man.
461. 29:41In the scripture that I read in from Revelation,
462. 29:45the Lord was confronting them and said,
463. 29:47now you don't know that you need this.
464. 29:49Do you think there's a significant portion of the body of Christ in our country that doesn't
465. 29:55know that it's unaware, just how far, generally speaking, of course there's a remnant.
466. 30:00I don't want to overly paint with a broad brush, but do you think that there's a significant
467. 30:06portion of the body of Christ in our country that is unaware how we have frankly rebelled
468. 30:12against God?
469. 30:14I think that it's completely true of the evangelical church in America.
470. 30:19The reason for that is there are very few shepherds who are willing to call the church
471. 30:25to repentance.
472. 30:27I know you're one who does, and I'm grateful for that.
473. 30:30That's one of the reasons why I love you so much.
474. 30:32But there has been a willingness on the part of shepherds to simply soothe the people and
475. 30:39to speak complacent words to them and to lull them into a false sense of security.
476. 30:48though God is okay with all of this. And the fact is we have repeatedly as a nation offended
477. 30:59a holy God repeatedly over and over. And when you watch history, biblical history predominantly,
478. 31:05God lets that go for a long, long time, far longer than what I would if I was God. But he's
479. 31:14He's got a compassionate and merciful, you know, defining nature.
480. 31:20And so he allows that to play out, but he does not allow that to go on forever.
481. 31:26And there ultimately is a judgment.
482. 31:28And so, you know, we don't want to be fear mongering here.
483. 31:31We don't want to people to be in a state of panic.
484. 31:35You know, God is always going to have a remnant.
485. 31:37He's always going to have people who are faithful to him.
486. 31:42And he loves those people.
487. 31:43dearly. They are his children. And just as we as parents love our children and those children
488. 31:50are, you know, are dear to us. That's true of the heart of the father. But he has to judge
489. 31:56these nations, right, who have mocked him repeatedly. And I think that we're looking at a couple
490. 32:04of generations now in particular, really probably from the middle 1960s, where our nation has just
491. 32:12been doing everything that we can collectively to thumb our nose at God. And God is a holy
492. 32:19God, he will not be mocked. And so if we want to see that change in the nation, the way to
493. 32:26do that is not to curse the political leaders. Although I think we should vote the bad ones
494. 32:31out. I want to be clear about that. But what we have to do is we have to look in our own hearts
495. 32:37and say in what way are we different from the world?
496. 32:41And what way has the gospel changed our hearts,
497. 32:44our homes, our marriages, our finances, our relationships,
498. 32:47our businesses, the way that we relate to,
499. 32:49the way that we interact with those in our community?
500. 32:53And what way has the gospel changed us?
501. 32:55And if it is not notable,
502. 32:58if it is not tangible, observable,
503. 33:03we need to do some heart-seeking.
504. 33:05Do you, Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 through 8 direct us to display scripture in our homes and other
505. 33:15places?
506. 33:16It says you should decorate with the Word of God and that you are to fill your hearts and
507. 33:21minds with these words.
508. 33:22There's no greater cause than for those of us who know Christ to share Him and God's
509. 33:27Word.
510. 33:28Get the full article, God's Word on Display by Joseph Parker on thestand.net and join the
511. 33:34movement to put God's word on display at 10laws.us.
512. 33:39The Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Minute Common Terrets are available at EFR.net back
513. 33:50to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio.
514. 33:54Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner.
515. 33:56My guest is Israel Wayne, Director of Family Renewal.
516. 33:59You see why I love having this brother on the program.
517. 34:02Before we get too far afield, I want to remind you who are listening to me that Israel is
518. 34:07available to minister at your local churches, at your events.
519. 34:11He is routinely speaking at various homeschool conferences all around the country, but he
520. 34:16speaks to events beyond the homeschool scope.
521. 34:19He really can address anything I love.
522. 34:21He often describes that God's word applies to all areas of life.
523. 34:27There is not one facet of our existence which does not fall under the direct claim of lordship
524. 34:32by Jesus Christ.
525. 34:34This includes how we spend our money, when entertainment we consume, how we educate our
526. 34:37children, how we use our time, all of life must be understood from within a Biblical worldview.
527. 34:44And I love that Israel.
528. 34:45How can people connect with you not only for your resources and your books, but how can they
529. 34:50connect with you to invite you to speak at their events?
530. 34:54This place to contact me for speaking is my name Israel Wayne dot com Israel Wayne dot com.
531. 35:01And then our ministry site is familyrenewal.org.
532. 35:05Familyrenewal.org.
533. 35:07We have a lot of great resources
534. 35:08for Christian families there.
535. 35:10So get over there.
536. 35:12And then if you wanna know when we're speaking in your area,
537. 35:14there's an email sign up right on our website.
538. 35:16We'd love to keep in touch with you
539. 35:17and let you know when we're gonna be in your area
540. 35:19doing a seminar or conference.
541. 35:21Man, thank you for sharing that.
542. 35:23Now, before we went to the break,
543. 35:24you were explaining just what I was reading from your website.
544. 35:28God's Word Applause to all areas of life.
545. 35:30And you mentioned that John, the Apostle John has a lot to say
546. 35:34about this in 1 John, would you just pick up there
547. 35:36and share with our audience what you were indicating
548. 35:39when you said John has a lot to say about it?
549. 35:42Yeah, so in 1 John chapter two, beginning in verse 15,
550. 35:45John says, do not love the world or anything
551. 35:48that is in the world.
552. 35:50If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you.
553. 35:54And so we are sometimes very deceived, right?
554. 35:57Because we believe that we can love the world
555. 36:00and things that are in the world,
556. 36:01and that it doesn't really reflect our heart.
557. 36:05And I love the late Larry Burkett,
558. 36:07he's not around anymore,
559. 36:08but he taught a lot on biblical financial stewardship.
560. 36:11And he used to say that I can tell what you love,
561. 36:14I can tell what you value,
562. 36:15I can tell what you worship by looking at two things,
563. 36:18by looking at your bank account and your calendar,
564. 36:23because that's how you spend your life.
565. 36:25You spend your life through your time and your resources.
566. 36:28And so we often say that our first priority
567. 36:30is the kingdom of God and our second priority is our family,
568. 36:35but quite often that's not how we're spending our time
569. 36:38and it's not how we're spending our resources.
570. 36:42The average Christian is only giving like 2.6%
571. 36:45of their income to the work of the kingdom, 2.6%.
572. 36:50That's average.
573. 36:51And then the average parent, as I said,
574. 36:53is spending an hour a day or 29 minutes a day
575. 36:56with their children.
576. 36:57And so we say our families are most important priority
577. 37:00and the work of the kingdom is,
578. 37:02but our money doesn't reflect that
579. 37:03and our time doesn't reflect that.
580. 37:05So we have to be honest with ourselves
581. 37:07and stop lying to ourselves and saying
582. 37:09that we really love God and we love our family
583. 37:11above all things.
584. 37:13For the most part, we really love ourselves.
585. 37:16The average Christian parent spends four hours
586. 37:19every night watching TV or Netflix.
587. 37:22Four hours every night.
588. 37:24So it's not that they don't have time.
589. 37:26If you ask the average Christian parent, why don't you spend more time with your child?
590. 37:29They'll say, well, I don't have time.
591. 37:30It's not that they don't have time.
592. 37:32It's that they love their own personal effluents and comfort and entertainment more
593. 37:39than they are committed to effectively discipling their children.
594. 37:43And it shows up on the stat sheet.
595. 37:45And so we just don't put in the effort.
596. 37:49And so we don't see the results that we need to.
597. 37:54Boy, sobering sobering sobering.
598. 37:56I'm often asked Abe, how have we gotten into where we are as a nation currently?
599. 38:03And my response is very simply, we've decided what I weigh into it.
600. 38:08And because discipleship is a constant, you know, it is going to take place to question
601. 38:14is will people be discipled in the way of Christ?
602. 38:19And I mentioned that because it's connected to the next question I want to ask you, how
603. 38:25has and we've already been discussing it but I wanted to invite you to put a fine point on it.
604. 38:29How has what you just described? I really are self-absorbed, self-focused lives contributed to
605. 38:36where we are as a society about us refusing to do what God really has commanded Christian parents
606. 38:42to do in our homes. I have a strange hobby where I like to google search and look up video interviews
607. 38:50of sports coaches who lost a game. It's kind of a weird hobby like most people don't have a hobby.
608. 38:55But they're all the same.
609. 38:57Like there's only one kind of losing coach exit interview.
610. 39:01And that's when they asked the coach,
611. 39:02hey, you guys got killed out there tonight.
612. 39:04What happened?
613. 39:06Every coach says the same thing.
614. 39:08We just didn't execute the fundamentals.
615. 39:10We did not put into play the things we talked about in practice.
616. 39:15I think that's where we're at within the church.
617. 39:18I think that we have not executed the fundamentals.
618. 39:20It's not some lofty point of theology
619. 39:24out there in academia that we don't know about
620. 39:27that's kept us from being ineffective as believers,
621. 39:30we don't do the basics.
622. 39:31We're not in the word, we're not in prayer,
623. 39:33we don't disciple our children,
624. 39:35we don't nurture our marriages,
625. 39:36we don't give money to God's kingdom as we should,
626. 39:40we are self-absorbed and self-obsessed.
627. 39:43And it shows up on the stat sheet.
628. 39:45And so we need to execute the fundamentals.
629. 39:49We just need to do the things
630. 39:52that we've been told to do in the book.
631. 39:54Mm.
632. 39:56Man, there are lots of people who would say,
633. 40:00but that's not me.
634. 40:01I'm not doing it.
635. 40:03That's not me.
636. 40:05I've heard the conversations, and I know
637. 40:06you've heard the conversations because I've read it
638. 40:08in your book, Education Does God Have an Opinion.
639. 40:11Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was real, but it doesn't take all of that.
640. 40:13I can send my children to be discipled by the world
641. 40:18and have their minds shaped by the world.
642. 40:20And they'll still be good Christians,
643. 40:23and they actually will be the ones
644. 40:25that'll turn their schools around.
645. 40:26Well statistically what we see is we see
646. 40:30that of young people who go through K-12 public school
647. 40:33and then four years of secular college,
648. 40:35you end up with 6% that have a biblical worldview
649. 40:38at the end of that.
650. 40:39So we have a 94% failure rate following that path.
651. 40:43So do some students get through?
652. 40:45Yeah, a few, 6%.
653. 40:47but the rest do not possess even a nominal biblical worldview
654. 40:51after all of that.
655. 40:52So I think we just need to become realistic
656. 40:55and stop assuming that we can just ignore
657. 40:58biblical principles and hand our children over
658. 41:01to our ideological enemies and expect that to work out well.
659. 41:07So true, it's so true.
660. 41:09And we have this propensity to treat the exception
661. 41:14as if it is the rule.
662. 41:15That's one of the things that I've encountered.
663. 41:17It is a logical fallacy, but it is we highlight an exception
664. 41:22as if it is the rule, because when we point to the exception,
665. 41:27as you mentioned, one of the 6%, they're 94%
666. 41:31that have not come out unscathed, 94%.
667. 41:35And yet we continue to kind of delude ourselves
668. 41:39with this notion.
669. 41:40I mean, I know that the Apostle Paul warned us
670. 41:42against plausible argument that would result in the delusion.
671. 41:46And if that delusion goes unchecked,
672. 41:47this is some collosion to that the losing goes unchecked.
673. 41:50It can metastasize into full-blown captivity.
674. 41:52And what I hear you explaining seems to me pretty plainly,
675. 41:56it's evidence of the type of captivity
676. 41:58that is prevalent, although there are no physical bars
677. 42:01that are incarcerating anybody.
678. 42:04Yeah, it's absolutely true.
679. 42:05And we're seeing a statistic of 70% of all church youth
680. 42:09who walk away from the Christian faith
681. 42:11before high school graduation and say,
682. 42:13I'm never coming back.
683. 42:15That's just of those who are in high school,
684. 42:1770% fallout of those raised in church, raised in Christian homes.
685. 42:21And those who have followed me at all, who know anything about me,
686. 42:24know that this is a drum that I beat relentlessly.
687. 42:27But that idea that I'm going to send my child to church for an hour a week,
688. 42:30and they're going to fix my kid, not a biblical concept.
689. 42:34And it's not working.
690. 42:36We as Christian parents have a biblical mandate responsibility
691. 42:39to disciple our own children.
692. 42:42It's great when the church comes along and helps.
693. 42:43That's fine.
694. 42:44That's all good.
695. 42:45That's great.
696. 42:46It's not their job to raise our kids.
697. 42:48It's not their job to disciple our children.
698. 42:50It's our job.
699. 42:52We have to stop assuming that somebody else
700. 42:54is gonna do it for us.
701. 42:55I love how you said it's not their job to raise our kids.
702. 42:58And then you said it's not their job to disciple our kids.
703. 43:00One of the fundamental thing disconnects
704. 43:02is that, biblically speaking,
705. 43:04disciple our kids is intrinsic to raising them.
706. 43:08I think in many parents' minds,
707. 43:11they view the notion of discipling their children
708. 43:14as being external and separate and apart from raising them.
709. 43:18Is that, do you think I'm a far off
710. 43:20on that assessment, is that something you've encountered?
711. 43:22Yeah, I think especially for men, right?
712. 43:24Because men believe that their responsibility
713. 43:26to their family is to go to work and bring home a paycheck.
714. 43:29And they believe if they do that,
715. 43:30they've fulfilled their biblical responsibility.
716. 43:33And yet Ephesians 6, 4, and so many other passages
717. 43:35talk about fathers, it's your responsibility to trade them
718. 43:39in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord.
719. 43:42And it's specifically says fathers in that verse.
720. 43:45And so I think the church has really reinforced
721. 43:48that false narrative, that as long as fathers
722. 43:52are financial providers, that's the only provision
723. 43:56that is necessary when the spiritual
724. 43:59and emotional nourishment of our families
725. 44:03and provision for our families is equally important.
726. 44:07And so the instruction, the teaching, the discipline,
727. 44:10all of that is predominantly biblically speaking,
728. 44:14the responsibility of the Father.
729. 44:15And our wives of course come alongside
730. 44:17and there are helpers, right?
731. 44:18And they come along and assist and help in that.
732. 44:21But I think all of that nurturing and caring
733. 44:24comes intrinsic to mothers.
734. 44:26You don't have to tell them to nurture their children.
735. 44:29They get that.
736. 44:30They just do it instinctively.
737. 44:31It's God given.
738. 44:32I think men have to be told.
739. 44:34And I think that's why we see twice as often
740. 44:36in the Bible God telling men to teach their children.
741. 44:39and we see him telling mothers too.
742. 44:42He tells mothers to teach your children
743. 44:43and instruct your children,
744. 44:44but more than twice as often he tells men to do it.
745. 44:47And I think it's because men he told.
746. 44:50And so we as the church,
747. 44:52we have a responsibility to tell fathers what the book says.
748. 44:57And unfortunately, I don't hear that in many churches.
749. 45:00And I get around a lot, I speak in a lot of churches
750. 45:02and I don't hear a lot of churches
751. 45:03that are upholding that to men and saying,
752. 45:05men, it's really your responsibility to disciple your children
753. 45:09with the health and assistance of your wife.
754. 45:11Hmm.
755. 45:12I can vouch for the fact that he does get around a lot.
756. 45:14Israel gets around a lot.
757. 45:18So when he says that, he's the truth.
758. 45:21And I mean, this comes back to what we began the conversation
759. 45:25because the thing that is so puzzling to me,
760. 45:28puzzling to me is how we've gotten so far away
761. 45:34so far away from what God has said all the while,
762. 45:41professing to be the people of God.
763. 45:43I mean, we have frequent church attendance
764. 45:45and we have all of these things that are happening,
765. 45:48but we've gotten so far away from what the word of God says.
766. 45:53And we're suffering those consequences.
767. 45:57Help us, Andrew.
768. 45:58Well, part of it is we don't know what it says, right?
769. 46:01You can't obey something if you don't know
770. 46:04what the command is.
771. 46:06And so what's ironic is that I saw a study,
772. 46:09and I think it was American Bible Society,
773. 46:11I could be wrong.
774. 46:12It was one of those groups that does a lot
775. 46:14on biblical literacy.
776. 46:16And they stated that Gen Z,
777. 46:18which is this young generation,
778. 46:19400 around 2000, you know, give or take a few years.
779. 46:23But this young generation coming up
780. 46:25is simultaneously the most opinionated
781. 46:30of any previous American generation
782. 46:33about the Bible.
783. 46:35They have more strong opinions about the Bible,
784. 46:40stronger beliefs about the Bible
785. 46:43than any other generation before them.
786. 46:45And yet at the same time,
787. 46:47they know less of what the Bible says
788. 46:50than any generation before them.
789. 46:52So in other words, they think they know.
790. 46:56They think they know what the Bible says
791. 46:58and they're dogmatic about what they think the Bible says,
792. 47:01but they don't actually know.
793. 47:03And so that's a significant issue, I think,
794. 47:07that especially people who have a bit of church,
795. 47:10they assume that they know the Bible pretty well.
796. 47:13And yet I would suggest that unless you're reading the Bible,
797. 47:17as significant, I mean, we should read the Bible daily.
798. 47:20I believe all of us as Christians should read the Bible daily.
799. 47:22But at least regularly, we should be reading the Bible
800. 47:26for ourselves.
801. 47:27And if we're not doing that,
802. 47:29we actually probably don't really know the Bible.
803. 47:32and you go, well, I go to church once or twice a week.
804. 47:34Yeah, you probably don't actually really know the Bible
805. 47:38if you're not reading it for yourself on it,
806. 47:40if not a daily basis, a very regular basis.
807. 47:43And so I think that's a huge issue
808. 47:46that we can't obey the teaching of scripture
809. 47:49when we don't know what it says,
810. 47:51and we don't know what it says,
811. 47:52because we don't read it.
812. 47:54And you've already mentioned this
813. 47:56that as bleak as things are, frankly,
814. 47:58and there's no use lying about the reality.
815. 48:02There's no way to correct anything
816. 48:04if we don't diagnose a problem properly.
817. 48:06But you mentioned the way,
818. 48:07it doesn't have to be this way continually.
819. 48:09There's a way out,
820. 48:11but the way out is gonna take a full throttle investment
821. 48:17and that is an investment in repentance.
822. 48:19Just if you would, just 30 seconds,
823. 48:21would you just underscore the necessity of repentance
824. 48:23in the hour that we're in?
825. 48:25I think we can actually see revival in our own lives,
826. 48:29in our own homes.
827. 48:30I'm experiencing the kind of family I didn't grow up in.
828. 48:33I have the kind of marriage that I didn't get to see my parents have.
829. 48:36My parents divorced.
830. 48:37I had an abusive stepfather.
831. 48:40My children are not being raised that way.
832. 48:42They're being raised in a wonderful, loving home.
833. 48:44And I think we really can see the effects of revival in one generation, in our family and
834. 48:50our lives.
835. 48:52If we humble ourselves and cry out to God and say, help.
836. 48:55I can't do this on my own.
837. 48:56I'm messing things up.
838. 48:58Help.
839. 48:59God answers those kinds of prayers.
840. 49:01Amen.
841. 49:02Amen.
842. 49:03Thank you brother. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Israel Wayne calm bring him to your church
843. 49:08Bring him to your your events family renewal org get the resources that you need so we can walk out this repentance
844. 49:16The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio