Leadership is not a popularity contest.  As a parent, your goal is not to be your child’s friend or buddy.  That’s not the goal.  Parenting is the process of teaching and training your children to leave, to individuate.   That’s the goal, parents.  We’re to love them and our kids are to understand that, but we’re to delegate stuff. And as we delegate stuff, we see the simplification, the participation, and we see evaluation.  If they mess up, if they step over the line, there are consequences to be paid.  And there are consequences in your family. There should be consequences at work, consequences at school, and consequences on the team.  And if you don’t like consequences, you will never amount to anything.  It’s not going to happen for you.  Ritz Bits.  [Ed eats some Ritz Bits crackers] These, these things are tempting.  I can close these things up.

[Ed  closes the box of crackers and someone from audience] “Here I’ll take them.”

You’ll take them?  Alright, yeah.  There there’s a brave soul.  He wants a Ritz Bits.  Right, there you go. [Ed hands the box of crackers to a man in the audience] Take those.  Yes, my gift to you.  Wow!  Every time you see those, think about this message, okay?  That would have been cool.  We could have given everybody a package of Ritz Bits.  That would’ve been pretty creative, wouldn’t it?  When you leave, when I leave everyday, remember Ritz Bits, Ritz Bits, Ritz Bits.

God’s math, though, works.  It works every time:  addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  You see, when you think about division, know that division is purposeful.  I mean, there’s a meaning behind it.  God wants us to divide.  It’s powerful.  Man, there’s power in it.  Think about the growth in your life, in mine, in this church and in other areas when we divide.

Ed MacMahon will come to my doorstep and say, “You’ve won, ha, ha, ha.”  It won’t happen that way because God’s promotion will happen in His timing, in His economy.