Guard The Treasure | Jentezen Franklin

Together, we're inspiring people to live for Jesus. If you're looking for more in life, to live with purpose and peace, to make a difference for your family and those in need around the world, Jesus is the answer. And our mission is to simply point you to Him. You're watching Kingdom Connection with Judson Franklin. If you have your Bibles, you can open them up with me for a few moments this morning. And I pray today because it is Father's Day, and we do honor our fathers. And I want to preach today to men and to mothers and to fathers and to parents and to young people. I believe this message is extremely important. But some years ago, there was a movie that came out. The book was written first, and then a few years later, the movie came out, and it was called The Monuments Men, The Monuments Men. And in this movie, and in the book particularly, The Monuments Men, it's about a group of men's true story about World War II and a group of men of 13 different nations who came together, allies, America, of course, being included, to fight against Hitler and the Nazis as they were taking over the world. But this particular unit known and called and commissioned by the president himself, Eisenhower, that they would be called The Monuments Men. Why? Because they were mostly volunteers who had to go through basic training, but they probably weren't the guys you wanted in the foxhole with you. They were museum directors. They were sculptors. They were people who dealt in the arts, and they knew famous paintings, and they knew all of that, and they went through basic training. But their background was one of fine arts. They were commissioned by the president to do something. The people there in Europe were concerned, and all of the world leaders, because in World War II, they were given this commission to save as much of the culture of Europe as they

could during the time of war. During the time of combat, they had to go into the most dangerous live warfare and put their life on the line to save treasures, like Michelangelo paintings or da Vinci artwork. These men, these brave, brave men went into war zones, and they understood that it was essential to find and protect their history, to keep the culture of the past alive, to save and preserve it for future generations. They knew that if they lost certain things that were related to the history of these great nations and even the human race, that they were losing something that future generations would never receive that great culture. There were treasures there that had been there for many years, and they were to preserve them for future generations, these treasures of art, paintings, buildings, cathedrals. They were priceless. There were things in these buildings that were significant to the past that played an important role in the foundation and the culture of those people. What is so interesting about the story, and they go into it a little bit, is Hitler, when he was just a young man, dreamed of being an artist. That was one of his dreams. He wanted to be an artist, and he wanted to be a great architect. He put in an application to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. To his great disappointment, Hitler was rejected, and he was not accepted. He believed that Jews controlled that board, and it was Jews who rejected him. From that came a root of bitterness, and it's amazing how something can start so small in our lives, and if we don't bring it into check, it can end up destroying and bringing destruction and bitterness for generations to come upon millions of people. One man's bitterness. His dream was not only, after that dream was crushed, his dream later in life when he became the German Führer. When he became the leader of the Nazi soldiers, his dream became to build an empire and develop, he called it a superhuman race.

And he wanted to adopt his hometown of, or adopt as his hometown, the city of Linz in Germany and make it the art capital of the world and make it about him and about the German people. And it would be a place, a museum there that would have all of the greatest pieces of art from every culture of the kingdoms that he had conquered. I wanna preach today, when I read that story, saw that movie and saw these brave Americans, particularly that went into those war zones and there was live fire and they would sometimes defend those areas the best that they could. Many of them were killed. But I wanna tell you today that there's art and there's great treasure in the church and in the home that we have to preserve for future generations. And I want to challenge all the men. This is how the Lord had me write it down many, many years ago. He said, challenge the men to be a family man. Everybody shout family man. We need some family men again. We need some men that are committed to the family, men that are faithful to the family, men that will stand up and provide for the family and men that will fight for the family. You have to shun the seducer to be a family man. You have to resist homewrecking spirits to be a family man. You have to resist sexual advances

if you're gonna be a family man. You have to walk in integrity and in character and be who you are all the time if you're going to be a family man. You have to get to that place that you say there is nothing the devil's going to do to rob me of my spouse, of my faithfulness, of my family, of my character. It matters and in Jesus' name, I'm a family man. All the way, I'm not a player. I'm not a sex symbol. I'm a family man. I'm married and I act like it. I got children and I act like it. I've got little eyes watching me and I act like it. Hallelujah. Tell somebody it takes them a little while to get warmed up, but when he gets in that gear, he does all right, amen. It's Father's Day and I'm gonna enjoy myself. I am one and if you're a woman, you're not, so excuse me while I enjoy being a man. I tell you, there's something that we ought to be excited about. If you're a father, you have a precious treasure. I'd rather have my family and my wife than $50 million, be a billionaire, take the house, take the car, give me my family, give me my wife and give me my God and that's all I need to be happy, hallelujah. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

You see, we need men in this hour to take their rightful place. Don't play with porn, don't play with bad text messages that are flirting with somebody of the opposite sex. Nowadays, you gotta lay it all out the same sex if you're going that way, hallelujah, amen, amen. It's not all right, it's still time for men to say I'm a family man and I'm gonna be there at the ball game and I'm gonna be there, you know, you can't be at everything, but I'm gonna do my best to prioritize my family. Amen. As family men, we are to gird up the loins of our mind, protect your mind and protect your heart. If you want a family, you've gotta invest to have it. Your children need you to take them fishing. Your children need you to take them hunting. Your children need you to take them, what do the girls wanna do? Go shopping, shopping, shopping, shopping, shopping, shopping. They need you, they need you to be there for the little concert. They need you to be there for the little ballet dance even though they're gonna just come out and put on outfits. fit and you sit for three hours to see them go across and wave at you. But that's what it's all about. Did you see my little ballerina deal there? That's not in my notes, that's just for you fathers.

How many of you know what I'm talking about? How many of you know what I'm talking about? There's power in just saying I was there. You know, daddy don't have to be great, he just needs to show up. Praise God. And your children need that. Here's something I wrote down too, have fun with them. Don't just be the disciplined guy, the hammer all the time. Old grouch. Have fun with your children, especially when they're young. They'll be gone, they'll be gone, gone, gone before you know it and then they'll hit the teenage years and they'll make you drop. They'll say drop me off a block from the school. I don't even want you to pull up. I don't want them to know you're my daddy. I don't want them, it's how it goes for everybody. And so enjoy it when they want to be around you, you ought to enjoy, you ought to say forget that. I'm going with these, I'm gonna take my boy somewhere, just me and him, I'm gonna take my girl somewhere just out on a date or something and show them how a real man's supposed to treat them. Have fun with them, spend time with them, know who their teachers are, know who their friends are, know where they are, know who they're running with. Now you can do that when they're under your guardership and as they get older and stuff, you have to just let them do what they do

because you know, and if they're doing crazy stuff, just back off and plead the blood. And if they're out on their own, that's one thing. But as long as you have them, you ought to be all up in their business, amen. You ought to know, let me smell, let me smell your breath before you go to bed. Come here, I know some of you don't believe that nothing's wrong, but I'm gonna tell you, you introduce your kids to alcohol and drugs and all kinds of things and be loose and laughy about it and it'll take from you precious treasures. Those children need clear and precise direction from their parents. They need a dad in the home that'll say, pull it down, pull that little mini, mini, mini, mini, mini skirt down and pull that little low cut T-shirt up and then let's put a scarf around your belly button too, amen, because we ain't raising no crazy girls in this house. A coochie mama, we're raising a woman of God and... Oh, come on, come on, it matters, dad, it matters. And I know you're gonna get ostracized and I know there's gonna be attitudes and I know there's gonna be slam doors. How do I know that? Cause I've done it all. My parents raised me to be involved in church. They raised me, my mother and my father who I remember today on Father's Day. He was positive, he was funny,

he was a lot of fun to be around. He loved to eat all the time and mom would fix him three homemade meals a day and he ate and ate, that was a happy man when he had some food in front of him. And I just remember him laughing, I just remember him having the best time and mom was real serious and he was real happy. And I think I've told this, but he liked old Westerns and stuff and when mom would come through the room if there was a cuss word or something, and back then they didn't say stuff like they say now, back then it was gosh darn or something like that. Now it's blankety, blankety, blankety, blank. And some of you are already offended cause I said that, I'm giving an example. Don't you understand? And mom would stop and say, Bill, turn that nasty mess off. And he'd turn it off and as soon as she walked out, she'd look over and say, go turn it back on. But you know what? I had fun with him, I had fun with him. But I wanna tell you in conclusion, they tell this story in the book and they actually show it in the movie. But if I recall right, but there's one of the men named, I believe his name was Roimer

and he is in a battle zone in the smoke clearing. years, and there's nothing left of this beautiful chapel that had all kinds of artwork in it that was been, it had been destroyed. And the commission that he had was to preserve this stuff. And they, one of the commanding generals on the ground, or commanding officer said tear that, they were clearing out an area so that they could defend when the Nazis came back. And he said, just go on, the chapel is half burned up and the walls are turned down and what's left isn't much. But this man runs out in front of a bulldozer as they're trying to tear it down and he's holding a document and he says, no, no, no. And he's screaming, no. The general comes out and says some choice words to him, the commanding officer. He says, you get out of the way. He said, I have orders from the president of the United States that you cannot tear this down. It's got art, it's got precious. He said, I'm telling you, you should have told the fly boys that because they dropped bombs over here and now we're tearing it down. And he stood there and defied those bulldozers. And he said, I'm not moving. And finally, the officer just grumbled out and grunted out, ah, nevermind, just forget it. And he pulled the bulldozers off. What I'm saying to you is exactly what Nehemiah found when he went back to Jerusalem after the battle. In Nehemiah, he said, there's nothing left but stones, burned stones and rubble. But then he makes this powerful command to fathers, to mothers, to people in families that have been through the fire and the enemies tried his best to use that battle zone to destroy your family. He said these words, Nehemiah, fight for your family. Fight for your children. Fight for your brothers and sisters. Fight for your mothers and fathers. And he said, take a sword in one hand and a hammer in the other hand or an instrument to build and build and battle and build and battle because the miracle is in what's left. And you know what? In 52 days, he rebuilt that war-torn city because he would not give up. He was a monument's man. And he said, there's treasure here and that city still stands and it will continue to stand no matter who comes against it because God is the God of our families. And you may see smoke and rubble and you may see burnt stones and you may say our family will never be the same again, but it can be whole again. And you can see miracles come out of the mess. Miracles are going to come out of the mess. I said miracles are going to come out of the mess in Jesus name. Would you stand to your feet all over this room? And I want to have the

high honor of asking every father and every man, every young man, whether you're a father or not, but I want the fathers and the grandfathers to lead the way. I want you to come down front for just a minute. I want to commission you as monument men. Hallelujah. Garters of great, great treasure. Three generations, three generations. Look at that. Grandpa, Paul, and young Buck. Amen. Three generations. Powerful, powerful. I'm going to commission you to be a monuments man. I want you to see those babies as 25 carat diamonds and treasures, rubies. I want you to see that wife. She's more precious than rubies. Proverbs 31 said, and, and when things are tough in your marriage, quote this verse right here. He who finds a wife finds a good thing. He who finds a wife finds a good thing. Sometimes you have to look in the mirror and say, he who finds a wife finds a good thing and listen to the rest of them and obtains the favor of the Lord. If I lose my wife, I lose the favor of the Lord. How many of you falling back in love again? Let me see your hand. Say, he who finds a wife finds a good thing. She's not a bad thing. She's not a mean thing. She's a blessed thing. She's a good thing. And I obtain favor. God hears my prayers when I treat my wife right, when I treasure her like a monument's man. Throw those hands up, gentlemen, and just say, in Jesus' name, I'm a family man. I'm committed more than I'll ever be to my family. Nothing will make me not be committed. I'm going to lead my family to heaven. If I can't do a lot of things, I can do that. I can lead my family to heaven in Jesus' mighty name. That's it. Now just dedicate yourself. Lord, I commission these men as monument men. They will guard under the anointing the treasures that you have put in their life, their precious wife, their precious children, their precious son, their precious daughters. Oh God, bless them, bless them, bless them in Jesus' name. Just lift those hands and say, Lord, I surrender. I need your help, especially in my family, especially in my home, especially, Lord, with the culture that we live in. Give me wisdom, give me positivity, give me a joyful spirit. Help me to take time for what's important. Lord, I pray for these men today. I pray for their families today. I pray on this Father's day, you would bless their homes like never before. That they would feel more alive than they've ever felt before. They would not be tempted by a home-wrecking spirit, a seducing spirit. Get it out of our homes and let your love flow one for another in Jesus' name. You're my one thing. Come on, tell him I don't want anything else. I want to be that man, God.

I want to be a family man. You might not have had a father who was like that, but you can be one. You can be one. You are one. You're a mighty man. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Come here. Glory to God. Son and Father. Son and Father. Mighty man from one generation to another. From one generation to another. That's it. That's success. That's success. I remember when he would come and say, pray for my son. Pray for my son. Pray for my son. Pray for my son. The devil's after him. Pray for my son. And then when it really got bad, your mama would come and say, pray for my baby. Hell didn't have a chance. Never had a chance. Never will have a chance. Come on, wake up the mighty man. Are there any mighty men out there? You say I feel weak, but that's when God is strong. Hallelujah. Now pray this, everybody. Pray this prayer. Say Jesus, I surrender everything. Wash me in that blood they sung about and cleanse out everything from my heart and mind that needs to be cleansed. You know all about it and you love me and you cleanse me and you forgive me. And now Lord, spiritually, I'm standing up again. Spiritually, I'm taking my place. I'm going to be a man for my family. I will pray for my family. I will call their names in prayer every day that you remind me to. I mean, it will be my practice. It will be my new habit to pray for every one of my children and my family. Every day, my lips and my words will come before your. say that you can do that in your car you do that in your truck you just start praying on the way to work now God I give you my babies today they're my treasures watch over them and guard them and God I give you my grandbabies and God I give you my wife and God I pray that I would be that husband that would be there I will be the house band you know the word husband is house band like a rubber band you're the one that holds it all together when things get rough you hold it together you're the house band just like that band on your finger you're the house band God anoints you to be so