The Calling of the Watchman | Roger Berg |

This sermon explores the biblical calling of a watchman and the responsibility God places on His people to remain spiritually alert. 

Drawing from Ezekiel 3:17–21, the message emphasizes that a watchman is called to hear from God and faithfully communicate His warnings and promises to others. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Today we're going to talk about the calling of a watchman. And uh what I'd like to do right now, before we start, is I'd like to have all the fathers just stand. And I'd like to say a quick word of prayer with you. And there's a reason why I want to do this now. So if you're a father, if you would stand, folks, can we just celebrate all the fathers in here? Dear Heavenly Father, you are the ultimate Father, our spiritual father, our guide. And Lord, I thank you for every man that is standing here right now, fathers, grandfathers, spiritual fathers, Lord. I just pray that you would pour out your blessing upon them. The challenges in the world these days are becoming enormous, Lord. So I pray that you give them courage, that you give them strength, that you give them wisdom and discernment, Lord, to be able to understand and follow your principles, Lord, and to be the leaders that you've called them to be. So, God, just pour out your blessing upon every man in this place today. And I pray that you would bless them, bless their families, and help them, Lord, as we are going to learn today to understand their calling as a watchman. And I pray that you would bless the remainder of the service, Lord. I pray that you would bless your word. I pray that you would speak it, Lord. May it be your word that you speak through me today, Lord. And I pray it'll come with clarity and with wisdom, Lord. In thy name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. The reason I did that at the beginning and not the end is what I'd like to do with this message. And I'm letting you all know in advance about what the calling at the end is going to be. So you can decide as you're hearing this, men, if it's something you want to be challenged to. I want to challenge you today about the calling of a watchman. And at the end, if you feel that you want to be that in your family, in your community, for your church, in your own life, we're going to have a special prayer at the end for the men who want to be a watchman. And it's going to be something you commit to. So listen to what God has to say today, and we'll have that calling at the end. I have a family photo here. Today is Father's Day, and that is my whole family. Um that is my son on the, I guess that's your, whatever that is, in the red. In the red with his wife, and my son in my daughter on the other far end with my son-in-law, and there's the five grandkids. And there are four boys and one little girl. As you can see, she's not quite sure about the picture, but she's got a very proud grandma holding on to her. Now, folks, I will tell you right now that in all of that group, the two people who run the family are that little four-year-old girl and grandma. Okay? They run the show, they're in charge. But I am really proud of my family. And uh and part of the reason in 2023 when I pulled out of the church and wanted to work more with my family was to be able to be more involved with the grandkids and with my own son and son-in-law. And that is part of what being a watchman is, and and and having to look after your family. And this is a little bit of what I want to talk about today. I remember becoming a dad for the first time, and I was quite young. My wife and I just celebrated a few weeks ago our 46th anniversary. So um, and we started, yeah, we got married quite young. Um at uh she was 19, I was 20, but we actually met at a summer camp when she was 13 and I was 14. We've been together over 50 years. Now you know why Pastor Sam is like is really a father to me, and we'll talk a little more about that. I some stories and trainings that I learned. But I remember the first time I became a dad, and I was just 23 years old, I knew nothing, and I remember the day we were in the hospital when when Jan was uh going in, she was in labor, and I was just scared to death what's going on. And we're we're in the hospital room and having my son, and uh in the we're all gowned up, and they bring me in the room um to watch the delivery, and I've got all the gown on and everything, and uh all I do is put my head down, right, on the on the on the table side, and I'm not watching anything. I'm just waiting to hear a baby cry. And I'm there like this, and all of a sudden I hear dee dee, uh-da, and they're like, we gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta go, and everybody's gone, and I was left. And what was happening was my son was had was fairly large, and and he was going in a little bit of fetal distress, no big thing, but they had to do an emergency C-section, which meant my wife had to be taken to another room, and the whole place evacuated. Like they just went with a gurney, the doctors, the nurses, everybody just was gone. And I was still sitting in that room with my head down, and I was looking around, and I was like, what just happened? And I'm having my very first son, and I'm 23 years old, my very first child, and I was like, What's going on? What's going on? And I remember in the hospital room thinking, God, you gotta do something. And I'm sitting there. So then I get up and I'm looking around, so I start wandering around, and I find my way to this other room, and I'm sitting there waiting for somebody to come for me. I was now sitting in the doctor's lounge with other doctors, and I was gowned up. And they started talking to me like as if I knew what was about being a doctor, and it was so surreal. And this whole time, I don't even know where my wife or child is. And the next thing I know, it took a while, but they finally came, they got me, they brought me into another room, and they said, Here's your son, because my wife had been put under an anesthetic very quickly. They said, Someone's got a bond with this baby right away, and they put them right in my hand, like right brand new. And I am 23 years old, I have no clue. This kid's not been cleaned up yet, right? And they said, You come, we're gonna get you to help. And I remember I was cleaning him and doing all this stuff, and there was this spot on his leg, and I was trying to clean it off, and they said, No, that's a birthmark, just leave that alone. God is that way with us. Sometimes we are just so new. Some of you may feel like this whole walk with Christianity, or you've just gotten saved, and it feels so new. But he comes along and says, No, that's a birthmark, or no, I'm gonna help you clean that up, or whatever. And you know, at 23 years old, you know nothing, but within a year, your child's turning one, and the things you've learned and how you grow. And then by the time the second child comes along, you know all kinds of things. When my daughter was born, it was it was another whole event, but we knew it was a cesarean section because my wife had been through one and she was she just wanted out, and she's trying to jump out, and as she's jumping out as they're she was pushing out as they were doing the incision, and she put her head right up, and the incision caught her right across the eye and cut her. And the first thing they're doing is saying, Mr. Bird, come here. And you're holding your daughter while they put a stitch in her eye, as she's just just been born, and you're like, Oh no, what's good? And the the lessons, but these are the things you grow up learning, and a little stitch in the eye, or a little a little injury here and there, but isn't that the way our heavenly father is in our walk as we're growing, as we're as we're going through life, and we we're excited and we do something crazy, or we God's right there and the little stitch and he holds and he does it. And it and for me, the whole analogy of becoming a father in those two times really helped me to understand what God is in our lives, our heavenly father, the father who is the ultimate watchman. So, what I want to do is read this passage right now from Ezekiel chapter 3, and we're gonna go through the calling of a watchman, how God places this on our lives. Ezekiel 3, chapter uh verses 17 to 21. Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore, hear a word from my mouth and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, you shall surely die, and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked man from his wicked way to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he shall surely die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul. And again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die, because you did not give him warning. He shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless, if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and also you will have delivered your soul. This sounds like a pretty harsh uh passage. But it is so critical for all of us today. This today's message, yes, I'm speaking and I'm addressing the men about being a watchman, but really this is for all believers. This is for every person in this place. This calling is not for the unsaved, this calling is for the saved, for the Christian person who lives in a community, who lives with the unsaved around them, who has a responsibility to be the light of Jesus, to be a watchman for their families, for their communities. And this is what this message is. It's being directed to the at the time, to the prophet Ezekiel, and God is warning the prophets and warning the people at that time. You have to be a watchman for those around you. And I will hold you accountable for whether you do the job or don't do the job. It's a big responsibility, but it's important that we understand it. It's a message for everyone, it's a message for every person in here. While I do want to address the men a little bit. Now, many of the men in here, you might not be a father yet. Or maybe you won't be a father. But you are a spiritual father. The word father comes two ways. It's a noun. I'm a father, I have kids, I am the noun, a father. But the word father is also a verb to father something, to help, to oversee. And we all have a responsibility, women, to mother people, to mother others and to share, and men to father, to father. There are so many opportunities, especially in the church in this day and age, where uh you could speak to the youth pastor here, I'm sure, and I bet you there are all kinds of kids growing up without a real uh physical father in their lives. And there are many ways, men, that you can father and help and be a spiritual leader, be a mentor. This is what we're talking about today as a watchman for all of us, for all of us in our communities. Isaiah 26, verse 3 uh is going to help us to understand the meaning of a watchman. And in Isaiah 26, 3, uh God is speaking to the to I through Isaiah and speaking to the prophet, and Isaiah is responding, and Isaiah is saying to God, God, you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. What Isaiah is saying, you, God, you will keep in perfect peace. You are the perfect watchman. And here's what's interesting: the word keep in this passage, um, it's a Hebrew word, and the Hebrew word for keep is Nasar, N-A-S-A-R, Nasar. And what it means is it means to guard, to protect. So when when Isaiah is saying these to saying to God, he's saying, God, you will keep, you will guard, you will protect, you will keep perfect peace. He's speaking to the ultimate watchman, God. And what we learn from this is that this verse is talking about guarding and protecting. And at the time it came from when someone would have to guard, the Nasar was someone who had to guard a vineyard or guard a fortress at the time. They would normally be in a high tower. They would set them up in a high place in a tower so they could see from far. And what they were really trying to prevent were thieves who would come in and try to steal from the vineyards or steal from the fortress at the riches or whatever. And they were there to guard and to protect. And they were given the title of watchman. And that's where the whole idea of a watchman starts from. But really, it's God who is the head watchman who guards and protects us, and we pray for that every day. I can't imagine not starting my day without saying, God, please, I need your protection today. I don't want to be walking out into anything that I face today, or at the office, or with family, without without the wisdom and discernment and everything of God in my life and his protection. You know how many times we've probably been protected from things we have no idea that we've been protected from, that God has gone before us and walked before us and kept us if we're keeping in our prayer life and we're doing that. God is protecting us from so many things we probably don't even realize. But this is the whole idea of the watchman. And they were set on a high tower. It was interesting. We just got back for a trip. Uh, I guess we just got back last weekend. Uh, we were able to spend uh with my adult, with my son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law. The little ones were with their other sides of the family, and the six of us were able to have a family vacation uh in Italy. And uh we were celebrating a bunch of stuff, so we decided to wait until it was all coming together. My my daughter turned 40, my wife turned. Am I allowed to say this? No, probably not, okay. And uh, and then um we had our 46th anniversary, my son had his 10th anniversary. All of these things happened within a five-day span, so we decided we're all gonna go to Italy. But for a few days we were visiting and touring around Tuscany, and we saw from back in the day the towers, and we could see them, and you could just picture them. And I was thinking about this message and saying, God, I could see. I can see how they were set to protect the vineyards and to protect the fortresses. And we even visited a castle where you could see where they were set on high. And it helps to bring to life what was happening at this time to understand that the watchman had an incredibly important job of watching out for the dangers and watching out for the thieves. And that brings us to the role of a watchman. So the role of a watchman has two important things. First, they do have to warn of an impending danger. They do have to warn if something's coming. Uh that was the biggest thing. They could see for far away if they were on this tower of an enemy approaching, they could blow a trumpet. You'll read about it all the time in the Old Testament of the wars and everything, and how the watchman would blow the trumpet or sound the alarm, so to speak, as as an enemy might be approaching. And the second thing, though, that the watchman's responsible for, and that we see in the passage of Ezekiel, is also to announce and proclaim the good news of God. And a watchman has to also not just warn of impending danger, but a watchman has to be the person who's going to talk to somebody about Jesus, an unsaved person, proclaim the gospel, because knowing what the danger is for that person, if they don't accept Jesus and the dangers that face them and the things that they might not even be aware of. And when when Christ, when Jesus was brought up into heaven, and until his return, we are his watchmen. We are the only way that the voice and the knowledge and the proclamation of the gospel is going to be brought out in our communities, to our family, to our neighbors. If we don't share it, they may never hear it. And that's a responsibility that we have. In that passage in Ezekiel, that's where God, that's where God is holding the watchman accountable to say, if you don't warn them, never mind of an enemy coming. We want to know if we're, if, if there's an enemy or a thief or somebody coming to the house, sure, we want to know so that we can prepare and we know there's impending danger. But what about when the unseen enemy? What about the thing the salvation message, the the importance of knowing that life or death is in the balance? If somebody doesn't share that with a person, and you could have shared it with a person, God's going to hold us responsible for it. We have that responsibility. We're his voice, we're his feet, we're we're everything that that is is uh hit Jesus on the face of the earth today are only amongst the believers. And that's why this is such an important call for the believers, is that we can't have an excuse. We can't just take it lightly because ultimately they're gonna hold, we can be held accountable. If the watchman doesn't call out when the enemy's approaching in the Old Testament and they attack the city and they all got attacked, it was put the blame was on the watchman for not sounding the alarms. And so it's very important that we understand that we are accountable, that we are the watchman for the world this day. And men, this takes a lot more importance in our lives, in the sense of as being called the spiritual leaders and the heads of your households, you have to watch over many different areas that we're gonna touch on in a few minutes. You know, 2 Peter 3:9 says, the Lord is long suffering, not wanting any to perish, but that all should come to repentance. The reason they're, you know, we I pray for it all the time, I'm more and more. Jesus, with everything going on in the world today, you read the news, you hear the stuff that's going on, some of the crazy stuff with laws and stuff they're passing, you wonder, especially how it's affecting children now. You think, how can you not come back? He's got to come back. Like he's gotta be like this is enough's enough, enough, you know. But it's because he's so long-suffering. He doesn't want one person to perish. He wants to see everybody have an opportunity to be saved. And he's putting that calling on each of us, every single one of us, and as men, as watchmen in our households. Sometimes the ones that are the easiest to miss are the ones that are closest to us. And we don't, we, you know, I my wife Jan reminds me all the time, I have brothers and sisters who aren't saved. Uh, we all grew up in a Christian home, but few of them have chosen to go in a different direction. And I always like to send the excuse, well, they know they grew up in the same home as me. But as I'm speaking this, I'm hearing even to myself that that no, as a watchman, when I get together with them, do I warn them? Do I speak to them? Do I talk to them? You know, and I know that those are the things that are important that we have to do. God doesn't want anyone to perish, He wants us all to come to the fullness of the of Jesus. And we're blessed. As believers, we know the truth. But but we have a responsibility to be accountable. So the calling. The calling is in five different areas. There's a call to vigilance. If you're gonna be a watchman, you have to be vigilant. So number one, vigilance is talking about being spiritually alert, attentive to God's voice, aware of what is going on, be informed, be informed. So, first of all, you you gotta be alert. A watchman's no good if he's on the tower and sleeping. He can't take a nap. He's gotta be in shape, he's gotta be spiritually alert. Well, that's the same thing with us. Are we prayed up? Are we in tune with God every day when we step out of the house? Or are we sleeping? Are we sleeping through what's going on around us? Are we informed? Do we know what's going on? I am not the best at following the news. But fortunately, I have a wife who is very good at following the news. She loves the news. I love sports. But she loves the news. But it's fantastic because it's incredible the information that she'll talk to me about that I that, you know, if if she weren't sharing with me, it's the way I learned, but otherwise, I'd have to go out and find out. It's important that we all understand these things. Do we know what's going on in our communities? Do we know what type of laws the governments are trying to pass that could have an effect on our kids in school tomorrow? Do we know about some of the things that are going on with different groups who are trying to come in? Do we understand some of the conflicts in the world these days? It might help us to really understand that and put it in a biblical perspective so that we can be informed, alert, and know how to pray and say, God, I need discernment in these areas. Especially as men, as fathers for your household, you need to be sure that you're protecting your families, your households, your wives, your communities from this. You're not doing it to be antagonistic, but you need to be informed. So there's a call to vigilance, and then there's a call to prayer and intercession. Do we stand in the gap for others? Do we do that? To stand in the gap. Intercession, intercessory prayer, not just prayer for ourselves, but now intercessory prayer. God, I'm praying for this person. I'm standing in the gap. This is part of the role of a watchman. They have to have a call to vigilance, a call to prayer, a call to intercession, and then a call to faithful warning. And this is hard. And especially with our pastors who have no choice. Faithful warning means you've got to speak the truth with courage. And sometimes those messages are not ones that are easy to deliver. Or sometimes you're talking with somebody and you just know you have to confront them, and it's not easy. My wife's in HR, and she'll tell you right away that there's a lot of difficult conversations you have to have. But by not having the conversation, you're not helping some employee who may need to change an attitude or change an approach. And instead, by ignoring it, it may end up that they lose their job when you could have done something maybe to help them change. If they don't change, that's their problem. If they don't want to take the advice, but if you never deliver it, they have no opportunity whatsoever to hear about how to improve. And that's the whole role of an HR department is to work with people. And it can be exhausting. It can be exhausting to have to work day in and day out, but we live in this world with people all around us. So a faithful warning is not always easy. It takes courage. It takes courage. And the pastors of our church are called to those messages. Every Sunday, there are some messages that God puts on their hearts to preach that I can guarantee you they're like, it would be a lot easier just to preach about, you know, how we're all friends and kumbayon, we'll sit around the fireplace and we're all going to have fun. I don't want to teach them about death. Kind of like Ezekiel's message here. Like, folks, if we don't do this, are we going to be held accountable for our neighbor who goes to, who might never get saved and spends eternity in hell because we never did it and we knew we should have. Like these are things that are important. They're not easy messages, but we have to deliver them in humility and with love. The way Jesus did it, the way he walked the earth every day, the way he, but he never shied away. He confronted. And that he was the ultimate watchman. A call to discernment. And these days, more than ever, you need to pray for discernment, to know God's voice. There are distractions everywhere. There are so many distractions. There's a movie. How many have ever seen the movie The March of the Penguins? Have you seen that movie? I love that movie. It's so cool. I think penguins are so neat. And if you watch that movie, these penguins, male and females, they mate for life. Now that is something we should learn about right away, too. A male penguin finds a female penguin, that's it, done. They mate for life, okay? And the two of them, then they gotta march. If you watch this movie, they're in the cold Arctic and they march for, I don't know, hundreds of miles, and they arrive at a point where the female gives birth to the egg. And what's interesting is the male penguin has to sit on the egg, not the female, the male. Now that tells you something right away, guys. You are ultimately the watchman. That penguin is the watchman from before the birth of that penguin. He's taking care, he's looking after right from the birth, from the conception. There you go. And that egg is laid, and that male penguin sits on it. And why? Because now the female's got to march all the way back to the ocean, stock up on as much food as possible, and come back really full because when the baby's born, they have to have all the enrichment, all the nourishment to be able to feed the baby off of themselves, and so the baby can grow. Anyhow, I watched this movie, and all I saw were 2,000 penguins, and they all looked exactly the same. There was not one difference, and they all sounded the same. Ah, ah, ah. All these say 1,000 females return, and here's 1,000 males sitting on eggs, and it's bedlam. It is just one big craziness, and they all start squawking. Ah ah uh. Because the females got to find their male with their kid. Remember, they've made it for life, they can't get it wrong. They can't go into someone else's house. They got to get it right. And you know what they say? They say they all find each other because the males and the females recognize each other's squawk. Each one is different. So, in all this bedlam, one male penguin finds its female penguin and they come back together, the ones that made it and had that child, in all that noise. And I sometimes think, God, that's the way I want to hear your voice. With all the noise, with all the craziness, with everything going on in the world, with all these things that sound right, with all these things that are telling me where I should go or what I should do. Can I hear the voice of God, that still small voice that speaks to me in my heart, that I know it's God? That's what we have to pray for as watchmen, that discernment that when we get up in the morning, we're hearing from God. We're not hearing from, you know, CNN or Fox or whatever, or even our neighbor or our other Christian brother or or a pastor or whatever. We're hearing from God for us, for our calling. That's important, a call to discernment, and then a call to stewardship and accountability. And that's what this whole passage of Ezekiel is about. You're responsible to deliver the message, and you're, but you're not, you don't, you're not responsible for how they respond. You're just responsible to deliver the message. And that's the stewardship. The accountability, once you've delivered the message, you pray that they're gonna accept it, but it's on them, and you don't know how they're going to, how they're gonna react. So, in the in the last few minutes here, I want to touch on some of the areas to be a watchman. Number one, yourself. That's gonna be your biggest challenge in the world. In leadership principles that my wife and I teach, the biggest leadership challenge for anybody in leadership, in management, anywhere, the biggest leadership challenge that you'll ever face is leading yourself. Leading yourself well. You need to be in shape, you need to be rested if you're gonna be a strong uh leader. Uh, you have to be prepared for the unseen enemy. We fight a spiritual battle. So we don't see the enemy sometimes. It's an unseen enemy. There's a book called The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. It's a really interesting book. And in one part, there's a character in there named Wormwood who's part of Satan's, the devil's army, and he's saying, Oh, let's go and fight and attack and everything. And the devil turns to him and says, No, no, no. Our policy for the moment is to conceal ourselves. They won't see us coming. They don't have to know who we are. That's the danger. If we're not taking care of ourselves, we won't recognize the unseen enemy. Be prepared for the unseen enemy. The second area is your family. You know, this all started right from the beginning, men being covering for your wives and being a strong leader for your wife. You realize that in in the book of Genesis, it says that when Eve ate of the apple, she gave to her husband Adam, who was with her. And if you read the Hebrew, it's translated to who was right there beside her, elbow to elbow. So Adam stood there and watched her eat it. He didn't step in. He wasn't a watchman at that moment. He didn't, he didn't protect her from something that the enemy was attacking. Man, we can't be complacent. We have to watch for it. We have to be a covering for our wives. We have to watch for the dangers that are coming their way and for our homes. The wives are part of a team, and we're we're a husband and wife team, and we have to accept it, but we have to be a part of it, a part of protecting. And you want to know something? When you have that kind of companionship, then you're under the same mission and everything. It's amazing how God will speak through the wives as well. Jan has so many times where she'll say to me, you know, my discussion, we were together and we're in a room with our son and grandkids or whatever and daughter, and we'll come out and she'll she'll she'll have sensed something that I'll have missed all together, but she'll share it with me, and that's part of the team, and that's where we become watchmen together. Men watch for it. As a father for your kids, there's no guarantee, you know, with your kids. When the birth proverb, when the verse in Proverbs talks about train up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from, that's not a guarantee that your child, if you train him as a Christian, he's going to be a Christian. It's talking about training him up in the way he should go. Teach him, teach him about his heart, teach him about the values of life, teach him all the things that God would want him to know so that he can make his own informed decision one day. But you're responsible to do that teaching, to raise your children up in that way. It doesn't mean it's a guarantee. At some point they have to make up their own decisions and their own minds. But if you put that in their heart, I that's what the verse is saying. And when he is older, he he will not depart from what he's learned, his values, his family, about those things. And then he'll make his decisions that way. It's very important that you work on that. And it doesn't end when your kids suddenly become adults and you have grandkids. Um, we've I've I've do a I do a study with my boys still, uh, and they're all over the place in other parts of the world, and we do a Zoom study and and try to be a mentor to the boys, and and it's different challenges, and and and and as a watchman, it just doesn't it doesn't end. It just might take on a new form or a new responsibility. Another area is the church, and this one I'll touch on quickly. The pastors of our church, as I said, have to speak a difficult message at times. They they have to they have to be strong, strong leaders. So are we interceding for them every day in prayer? Are we praying for our pastors, Pastor Selvin, Pastor Claude? They carry an added responsibility. My father-in-law, over the years of building a church and and all the ministry, there's an added responsibility on their shoulders. They are called into those roles. We are all called to be watchmen, but they've been called into a higher level where God is speaking to them like the modern-day prophets, if you want, like in the Old Testament, where the prophets went around and had to warn the people of what was going on. The pastors of our churches have a higher calling. Do we pray for them, pray for their protection, and pray that they are spending the time to hear from God because they're delivering that message to us. They are our watchmen. So we need to be praying that they are getting everything they need to be uh the watchmen for us. It's it's critical. And then our community. It's important that we pray for our community. Um, those are the people around us. I know Jan uh walks our neighborhood and she'll pray for people in the homes, even not knowing what's going on. But it's amazing how often that all of a sudden they start talking to us, some of these neighbors, and we hear about difficult things that are going on, and we get a chance to share with them or talk with them. And and we've been praying that we could do even a better job at that, to be a watchman in our our community. We might be the only ones in that of our 12 houses in our little piece of the world in Prince Edward County that are praying for these other families. I don't know. We might be the only ones. So are we being the watchman for that? So with our community, there's two verses very quickly. I wanted to touch on it fast. Um, I know we're running out of a bit of time here, but I'll go through these fast. Judges chapter 3, 31, and 5.6. And it says, After him was Shamgar, the son of Anath, who killed 600 men of the Philistines with an ox code, and he also delivered Israel. And then 5.6 says, In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were deserted, and the travelers walked along the byways. Those are the only two verses that mention the name of Shamgar in the Bible. That's it. And he was one of the uh judges, and he went on to help deliver Israel. But basically, what this is saying is that if you read 5.6, the highways were deserted. The people were afraid to walk on the main roads. They were finding little ways in the back and everything because there was so much danger. The Philistines, there was so much evil out there, and the people were finding the little byways and the little things. You know, you can just imagine at night when you're trying to walk home and you know that there's evil on the streets, and you're just trying to figure out how to get home safely. And Shamgar gets fed up with it. Shamgar goes out, and what does he do? If you read in chapter three, it says he was the one who killed 600 Philistines with an ox code, which is basically a tool for uh making sure the ox keeps moving and digging up stones as you're plowing. And he killed 600 Philistines and delivered Israel. So basically, he made the road safe again. He brought Israel to a place where the people could feel safe in their community. That's a watchman. That's what we're called to be in our communities, that we're praying and and and we're not afraid to confront when when we have to get, you know, put up and get working on trying to protect our communities. This is part of what what God is calling when he calls for a watchman. My son-in-law is in uh in the uh uh, he's a colonel in the Air Force, and and he he gets deployed from time to time, and he's had some tough deployments. And G.K. Chesterton wrote uh an expression, uh wrote a statement that I've shown him, and he's a he's confirmed to me that's what his training is. And the training and the statement says that the true soldier fights, not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him. And my son-in-law has mentioned that. Yeah, I've got to go out. He's been fighting against ISIS and terrorism, he's been in Iraq, he's been in places where there's enemies that, and it's not because he hates that, but he loves too much his family that's behind or his country, or he wants to protect all that is right. That's what we are as a watchman. We don't hate people, we don't, we want to see them all saved, but as a watchman, we can't let the enemy infiltrate what God has given us to protect. And so it's not so much that we hate what's ahead of us, but we love what God has entrusted us to protect. Pen Gillette is um is a person, you he's an atheist. He has a show in Vegas, and he gives this story. He's a magician and he's he's all over the map, one of the weirdest guys. But I tell you, it's strange. But there's a video clip, and you can watch the whole video clip. But he talks about how after a show, a man came up to him and handed him a Bible. Just handed him a Bible and said, Here, I just want to give you this. I feel you could use it. And Pen Gillette said in the video, he said, he said, you know, the man was genuine. He he knew I was an atheist, but he was genuine. And I could tell that he gave me that because he really actually 100% cared about me. Now, I chose not to do anything with it, he says, but he made a statement in that video that struck me where he said he said I have no problem with him doing that because he said, if you're a Christian and you're walking the face of the earth and you truly believe in heaven and hell, and you you know it's true, how much do you have to hate a person not to warn them, not to tell them? And he said, the fact that I was warned, it's now my it's now on me. But he says, How much do you have to hate someone not to tell them if you truly believe there is a heaven and a hell? Because if you're choosing not to talk about it or not to be a watchman, that means you're saying, well, it's fine if you folks don't get saved. We need to be God's watchman, God's voice. So I want to finish. I'm gonna wrap it up right now. I have one picture I want to show, but in my life, there's a picture of a lions, okay? And I'm gonna wrap this up, Selvin. I know I think I'm a minute too long, but I'm gonna wrap it up right now. In my life, as I mentioned, I have two fathers. My earthly father, who is now living in heaven, and my father-in-law, Pastor Sam. Um, because at the age of 14, I met Jan, and guess where I spent most of my life? At Jan's house, and until we got married, and I got I was raised in many ways by my father-in-law in my teenage years, and that I was away a lot. My dad was a quieter man and he had a German background, but he instilled a lot in my life in my early days, and he was a strong Christian and he loved the Lord and he instilled those values in me. But the one thing my father, the story I like to tell about my father, is he he was a boy during the wartime in Germany, they had to escape and everything, and his father used to always uh teach him, and he taught me this, and it was unusual, that the man should go in ahead of the women. And I was like, Dad, that's not chivalry at all. That and my dad would say, No, he says it's my responsibility to go in somewhere. And before I let my wife or kids in, I want to make sure the place is acceptable, it's ready, it's presentable. I don't want to bring them in. And they were living in war times where he could go into some place and who know, who knows who was shooting at who or whatever. But it was it was something he taught me about being the watchman and and and going ahead of your family and making sure the place is prepared. Isn't that what Jesus is doing? Hasn't he gone ahead to prepare a place for us and to be to be our watchman? And I like to think my dad is in heaven right now, and I've been challenging my brothers and sisters, saying, we've all got to get there because he's up there making sure our homes and everything are just gonna be just right and everything. So my dad taught me that. My father-in-law, he's a watchman, he's a man of courage, a man who would never back down. And and I learned so many lessons from him over the years. You know, when I was dating Jan and we were getting closer to, he could tell we were getting more serious. He took me one day, he said, I want to take you for a drive in my new car. And I said, Sure, let's go. And I think he had a little he had his silica there or something, and he put me in the and I was sitting in the car with him, and we're going for a drive. Now, before he was a minister, he was uh a detective for Hydro Quebec and police and tough guy. And I've seen some, I've seen him. I've been with him on the golf course and people and hell's angels trying to attack, and I've seen him take care, and he's a man's man, and I learned a lot from him. But he did it all because he was a watchman. He loved Jesus and he was not gonna let any enemy get in the way. Anyways, he we're going for this drive, and he and he says to me, He says, I know you really like my daughter, so there's a few rules. And he reached in the back of his pants and he pulled out his gun and he laid it on the seat. And he said, That's rule number one to ten, and you just follow the rules and we're good. But that gun was, and I could tell he wasn't afraid to use it. So, but you know what? I look at that now and I say, that's a father making sure that his daughter was going to be protected. That was in my head every minute, everywhere we went, everything we did, every place we went. If she had to be home at 10:30, she was home at 1025. It was being the watchman. And he still is that. God has kept him on this earth for a long time, and there's a reason because he's praying and he's watching out for all of us, and he's teaching us each and every day. And on Father's Day, it's such a privilege to be able to honor him. And this picture that you see behind you is from a few years ago. My wife and I had the opportunity to do some safaris. That's a picture from a video. And the the animal, the lion that's there had not too much before that, been playing with his cubs, and they were all jumping around and everything. And then the the lion and his mate go for a walk, and they go to sleep on the side of the road, and we'd been tracking them. And we get up to them, and I'm like, I'm gonna take a video. And I'm taking the video and I'm starting to lean in a little closer. And he was sound asleep, but as I leaned in a little closer, the two eyes opened up. And I could tell right then and there was that's close enough. Any closer, and your lunch. And it was it was just that. And then he went right back to sleep and made me realize that's what I want to be. I want, I want the enemy that all I have to do is open an eye, and he's gonna run. He's gonna be like, Are you kidding? This is the house of God, or this house is is protected by God. I don't want anything to do with this. I want to be the man who's covering my house and a watchman. And you know that a lion, we would hear it at night. We were living in the in uh in the Mara and the Serengeti, and we were in Uber tents. It was quite nice, anyways. But we were right in there, and you could hear the lions at night, they'd roar, just roar, right in the middle of the night, just big roar. And if you study it, it's because they let out a roar that can be heard anywhere up to five miles radius, they say. And it's for one reason he's letting out the roar to tell any enemy that's around that thinks they can come in, the hyenas, all the other ones who think they can snatch one of the little cubs, he's letting out a roar. This is my territory. You're not stepping in here. I got this. And so, men, that's my challenge to you today. Do you want to be a watchman? Do you want to be somebody that the enemy fears and runs and won't step into that little category? And that's what I want to call men to right now. And it's if that's a calling that you feel that God wants you to be, I want every man in this place who feels that calling to come forward. And Pastor Selman's going to pray. And you know what? I'm not calling just men, I'm calling boys. You know that I was reading in my in the Old Testament today about uh uh Joash, I think it was, and he became king at seven years old. So guess what? God's got a purpose for men, boys, all ages. You don't have to be an adult. You start at the age of four, five, six years old praying for God's wisdom, and it's amazing what God can do. And if this is something you'd like to do, if this is something you would if that you feel that you're ready to take a commitment and be a watchman, a watchman for your home, a watchman for yourself, a watchman for your family, and a watchman for your community, and a watchman for your pastors and your church. I'm gonna ask if you would just come forward. Pastor Selvin's gonna lead us in prayer, a prayer of where we will commit ourselves as men to be watchmen over our homes and communities and that. And maybe you haven't accepted the Lord as your savior yet. Well, afterwards, I know there are gonna be prayer warriors here and people up front, that or if you have a need, Pastor Selman's gonna have a team up here. But if you can commit to this, and what I'd like you to do, if you're coming up here, what I'd like you to do, and we did this in Toronto with our men's team, right up in this. I think they're still doing it. We did it on a Tuesday morning because where we were located, men could come to the church easily. But we started watchmen prayer, and every Tuesday morning the men would come into the church on their way to work or whatever, and they would stop and we would have an hour. I it was open for two hours, they could suffer for, but they came in and we prayed for our church, we prayed for our communities. We did it as a team, right? And we became a men of watchmen prayer. Well, I know we're a little in all different places, but what I'd like you to commit to is to say we're gonna you're gonna commit to starting every week, every Monday morning after church, every Monday morning, whether it's from five o'clock in the morning to six or whatever, you're gonna get up a little bit early or whatever. And what you're committing to is I'm gonna be a watchman for my family, for my kids, for myself, for my church, my pastors. I'm gonna do this every single Monday to start my week and have prayer. You should be doing it every day, but I'm saying let's commit. And if we are all committing to that, imagine this whole band of brothers right here every Monday morning are praying for Pastor Selvin, are praying for our families, are praying for our communities. Watch what God will do, watch what God will do in your life and what He's gonna do in our church, Pastor Salvin. Can we thank God for Pastor Roger?