Again, good morning. Today is Mother's Day. I really hope that that was not news to you the first time I said that. If it was news to you the first time I said that, you are probably in trouble. But today is Mother's Day.

Yes. I understand. It's more than about mothers today. It's more than about mothers. But it is about mothers, and we're excited to talk about that today in addition to talking about our lord and our savior.

And so today is Mother's Day, and, mothers are very special. You know why mothers are very special? Well, there's a lot of reasons. I'm gonna just give you a few. Mothers are very special because they are the ones that gave you life in the first place.

They are the ones that actually gave you life in the very first place. They're the vessel that God used to give you life. So I want you to understand this. Mothers gave you life, but God created you. Amen?

God created you, and mothers are the vessel which God used to get you here. Mothers put everyone else first. Now I understand that's not the case with all mothers. You can't make a general statement. Right?

There are some mothers perhaps that are not that way. But most of the time, mothers tend to put everybody else first. Mothers wanna make sure you have your food. Mothers wanna make sure you have your clothes. Mothers wanna make sure that you do your homework.

Mothers wanna make sure that everything and usually what happens is mom is the last one to sit down to eat. She's the last one to get new clothes. She's the last one to get new shoes. She's the last one to do whatever because she's just built that way. She seems to always put others first.

One of the things that seems universal basically in mothers is that they continually show us the humility that God wants us to have. They live that way. So today, I want you to understand, to the world, all of this the way moms live, it seems upside down. It seems upside down. Mom's the one that gave you life in the first place.

How come she's always the one to get everything last? How come she's always the one that has to wait for something? How come she's all the one she's the one that gave you life in the first place? Shouldn't it be the other way around? It seems upside down.

Why? Why is it that way? Well, god designed things kinda upside down. What do I mean by that? Well, I want you to understand.

So today, we're going to talk about an upside down kingdom. Look with me to Luke chapter 14 verses seven through 11. Luke chapter 14 verses seven through 11. It's a parable. You know what a parable is.

Right? So a parable is a story used to teach a point. So Jesus taught a lot of parables. This is a parable, but it's being used to teach a point. So look at Luke chapter 14 verse seven through 11.

If you have your copy of God's word, go ahead and open that. If you don't have one, it's on the screen. And he began speaking a parable to the invited guest when he noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, when you were invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him. And he who invited you both will come and say to you, give your place to this man, and then in disgrace, you proceed to occupy the last place. But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place so that when the one who is invited you comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher.

Then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. It seems foreign to most of the world. Humble yourself. Put yourself in a position that you're not trying to be first in everything.

Christians are to be humble. Christians are to be meek. I talked to a man one time. He said, I just don't think I can buy into all of the Christianity because I'm not a weak person. I'm a strong person.

I'm not a weak person. And and I I can't I can't be that person that's that walks around all week all the time. And I said, you don't understand what that means. It doesn't mean that you have to be weak all the time. In fact, it means you have to be strong.

Meek doesn't mean weak. Meek means that you don't have to be the one that gets all the honor. You don't have to be the one to get all the glory. You don't have to be the one that everybody looks to. You don't have to be that person.

You put yourself in a place of humility, a place of meekness, and because of that, God uses you to do great things. And he gets the glory and not you. You see, the problem is in the world, everybody wants their own accolades. Right? Everybody wants their own accolades.

So it seems upside down to the world to say, go to the place that's in last. Don't go to the first place. Years and years ago when I first got in the military, you know, every once in a while, you would do something and somebody would write it up. And the next thing you know, they give you a little certificate or they give you a medal or they give you some kind of award, and they always bring you up in front of everybody and tell all the great things you've done. And and they hand you some kind of award, and everybody claps, you know, you go on.

And then sometimes it's one you wear on your uniform. Other times, it's one that you just put on the wall or whatever you do with it. Well, I'm having a long career over a period of time. I had gotten all these certificates of appreciation and and awards and ribbons and all these different things, and they all came with some kind of certificate. Well, I put them in nice little frame and I had them up on the wall.

And pretty soon, I had a wall that was, you know, pretty much covered in all these certificates. And somebody walked in one day and they said, oh, I like your I love me wall. I said, my what? They said, I I love me wall. I said, what are you talking about?

They said, well, you obviously love yourself a lot. You put all your rewards up for everybody to see because you just love yourself that much. I took them down. I took them down. I was like, oh, I don't like that.

That's not what I'm I was just putting them up because they've been given to me. I wasn't trying to be, but I was. I really was. I put them up because I was proud of what I had gotten. I want everybody to see, but I received some humility that day when he called it my I love me wall.

I took all those things down. I put them in a in a binder that I had so that if I needed them for promotion boards or whatever, I would have them. But I didn't put them up on the wall and display them to everybody anymore because I realized what that was doing. That's kinda how we are today. The world says that's how we should be.

If you get an award, you are the one you should be the one that receives all the accolades, all the glory. Your name should be called. Everybody should know who you are because of what you did. But that's not what God says. God says, don't come in here looking for the place of honor.

Go to the the last seat. Go to the lowest possible seat. And then if I need to honor you, I'll bring you up. If there's a reason I need to do that, I will bring you up. The wedding feast, it says, look.

Don't come and take that place of honor because if you do, then somebody might, come in as higher than you, and then you're gonna be embarrassed. Right? But the world says, look. See if you've ever heard these things. If you don't toot your own horn anybody ever heard that?

If you don't toot your own horn, nobody else will. Right? Speak up for yourself. Don't let people overlook you. Speak up for yourself.

Put yourself in the right position. Make sure you put yourself in the right position because it's the one in the right position is gonna get the accolades and the glory and all that stuff. In other words, you always need to be first in everything that you do. There's no points for second place, so you need to be first. Right?

Well, here's here's something you need to know. I skipped over all these. The reality is there's no points for any place. There's no points for any place. When you try to put yourself up, whatever the world gives you, God does not accept that.

That's not how God looks at you. God doesn't look at you and go, well, look at George. He had 27 different awards on the wall at one time. He's a really great guy. No.

He doesn't do that. God looks at it, and he says, you know what? George has done what I've asked him to do, and therefore, he's glorified me. For every single one of us, that's how God wants to see you. He wants to see, are you obeying him?

Are you giving him glory? Are you seeking it for yourself? Because the reality is, if we get glory on this side of heaven, that's not the place we need it. It's when we step into glory that God gives us our glory. And so here, we need to work for him.

We need to understand that it is not what the world says it shouldn't be. Put me first, me first, me first. Jesus was the greatest person to ever walk the earth, and he deserved to be lifted up to the highest office and worshiped every day. But instead, he was born in a cattle stall in a borrowed barn, and he lived a relatively poor life situation. He didn't have a lot, and people certainly did not hold him in a place of honor.

They didn't hold him in a place of honor. Look at verses eight and nine again. Verses eight and nine says this, when you're invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him. And he who invited you both will come and say to you, give your place to this man and then in disgrace, you proceed to occupy the last place. I wanna give you a little tip.

Most of us think highly more highly of ourselves than we should. Most of us think more highly of ourselves than we should. Oh, we we like to think we're really good. We're better than most. We do things better than most.

We have a better opinion than most. We we look at ourselves as much higher than we should. And if somebody doesn't think that we're that high, well, they're not got the right view. Right? We should be in a place lifted up higher than everybody else.

There's some that are reverse of that. There are some people that think of their self as always not good enough. Neither of those places are good. God says, if I made you, you're certainly good enough. But don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to.

Of course, this spot must be for me. I've got to be the most important person in the room, so I'm going to sit in the place of honor. Guess what? That other person that walked in behind you thinks the same thing. Excuse me.

You're in my seat. You're in the wrong place. I'm certainly the one to be honored. We want to put ourselves first because we think that high of our self. Jesus said, don't do that.

Don't do that. Don't put yourself first. If it's discovered that you're in the wrong spot, man, that's gonna be embarrassing. That's gonna be embarrassing. You know, think about this.

In this parable, he says, you put your place in the place of honor And then later, the the one who invited both of you comes and says, George, that's not your seat. That's his seat. So get up, get out of the way, because he's gotta sit there. And the whole party is looking at George going, oh, that's embarrassing. That's awful.

That's terrible. George poor George, he's embarrassed. He's in listen. Here's the thing though. Jesus wasn't worried about a person being embarrassed.

That wasn't the point of this parable. He was not worried about that person being embarrassed. What he's saying is stop thinking so highly of yourself. First, humble yourself. First, humble yourself.

If you want to be used in my kingdom, the first thing you need to do is humble yourself. If we humble ourselves very first, you know what happens? We tend to put Jesus in the right place. The problem when we think more highly of ourselves than we should is we put Jesus down here because self is first. If self is first, then Jesus is down here, and that's exactly wrong.

Jesus said that's how the world thinks, but that's upside down. The way it should be is God should be lifted up. We're below God. So instead of putting yourself first, put God first. Instead of being the one that thinks you're always the most important person in the room, understand that Jesus is the most important person in the room.

When you walk into a room, you humble yourself. When you walk in the world, you humble yourself. When you do anything, you humble yourself and put God first. Because here's the most important thing you need to know. When the time comes and you take your last breath and you leave this world, whether a single person left in this world remembers your name is not important.

But when you leave, if everybody remembers how you live for Jesus and they remember Jesus' name, then you've done exactly what you're supposed to do. You humble yourself. You put Jesus first because he's the one that makes the difference, not you. In all of your humanly strength and work and everything you've got, you will never be able to save a single soul. But if you humble yourself and you put Jesus first, then he's the one that saves the people that you come in contact with.

Stop trying to put yourself in a high place. Jesus wasn't worried about a person being embarrassed. He was trying to show them to put others first is always better. Look at verse 10. Verse 10 says, but when you're invited, go and recline at the last place so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher.

Then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. Now think about this. Think about this. For the glory seeking person, this is a great strategy. This is a great strategy.

I'm gonna go sit at the last place knowing I'm not supposed to be here. I know that the the guy that invited me is gonna move me up, but I'm gonna wait and let him come and tell me to move so that everybody sees me get moved up. Then I get the glory. Oh, look. George got to move up six seats.

Man, he must be special. That's not how Jesus told this parable. It wasn't so that you could use it as a great strategy to glorify yourself. That wasn't what this was all about. A person today in this upside down world looks at it and says, oh, man.

What a great strategy. Yeah. That's what I'm gonna do so I get all the glory. That's not what Jesus meant by that. When Jesus said, you go and occupy the last place, and then when someone comes and tells you to move up, it's because God is doing it in his time.

God is doing his time. Jesus wasn't giving them any kind of strategy to glorify themselves. He was saying, don't lift yourself up. God will do that when he's ready. When God wants to elevate you to a position that he can use you in, he will move you.

You don't have to do it yourself. You humble yourself and you put God first. And one day God says, okay. This is the day. This is the day.

You know what? Levi, I'm moving you up to be a preacher. And so today, I'm gonna elevate you up to this position. Man, that's pretty pretty awesome. Right?

Get elevated up to the preacher level. You know what that really means? You gotta be even more humble because it's not an elevation. You're still a servant now. You're a greater servant.

That's what he really wants to do for you. But God will put you in the place that he wants you to be. Stop seeking that spot. Seek whatever God wants from you. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Don't seek glory from the world. Seek glory from God. Humble yourself. This upside down world says me, me, me. But we need to say, you, you, you, God.

It's all about you. And you know what? When we think about God and we put God first, you know what else we do? We put others first. We put others first.

How many times by letting someone else go ahead of you does it make an impression that they wonder what's all about? Maybe they see something they never saw before. God will elevate you when he's ready. We think about people like David, King David. Right?

King David. He was groomed to be the king from his birth. Right? He was gonna be the king all along. He was the greatest of all of his brothers.

No. David was considered the least of all in his family. In fact, when they came seeking, when the prophet came seeking, they didn't even introduce David to start with because David was the youngest. He was the littlest. He was the most unworthy of the whole group.

But when he came before the prophet, God said, that's the one. That's the one. He was the least in his family, but he's gonna be the greatest in mind. I'm gonna use him. I'm gonna raise him up, and he raised him up to be king.

Did he always do the right thing? No. He had some some egregious sin just like the rest of us, but God said, David is a man after my own heart, And he was one who was never thought of in that way by the world, but God brought him up. We also think about Gideon. Gideon.

Gideon was the poorest and weakest clan. In that clan, that clan was the poorest and the weakest of all of Israel, but God chose Gideon to liberate all of Israel. And then who can forget about Joseph? The eleventh son of Jacob. His brothers thought so little of him, they sold him into slavery and then told his father he was dead.

He got killed by a wild animal. Didn't want anything to do with him. He was sold into slavery, and then even sold into slavery. He was they lied about and got thrown into prison. His life just continued to be less and less and less, it seemed like.

But when the time came, God brought him up out of the prison. He put him in charge. He let him be raised up. And because of the way he was raised up, he not only was able to save his family from starving to death, but he was able to honor God and all of Egypt. The world would have said, nah, Joseph.

No. God said, Joseph, yes. Joseph is the one. That one who you consider weak and not strong enough and not a position that should be glorified, I put him in the highest place because those that are last should be first. Those who are first who that's all they seek.

That's all they look for. That's all they want. It's glory in this world. They're gonna be last. They're gonna be knocked down.

They're not gonna be used. God uses the least to show his strength and his glory. Think about it like this. Why did God choose David to come be king instead of if you remember, when the prophet came up, first one he saw was strong, good looking man. I mean, somebody looked like he would be perfect for a king.

God said, not that one. Why is it that God would want to use someone who was considered weak or someone who would be considered lowly instead of someone who's considered high. Well, the reality is when you take that person that has all of this and you put them in that position and you elevate them up, it becomes about them. It becomes about them. They're the ones that then receive the glory.

It's my success and my merit, and I'm the one that got this position. So it's all about me. But the one that God elevates that's been humble, the one that sees that no one in this world really thinks that much of me, that I'm not that kind of person in this world, but God raised them up and he puts them there. They said the only way I can do this is through God. And they give everything to God, and his glory is what's seen.

His strength is what's seen. Everything about Jesus and God is seen and not the person that is in the position. God says, no. No. Those who desire to be first, they're gonna be last.

But those who are last, they're gonna be raised up to be first because they'll be the ones that show the glory of god in all that happens. This upside down world, it is upside down to us, but God's kingdom is upside down to the world. God's kingdom is upside down to the world. The world says it shouldn't be that way. Man, no way.

You realize that how people get treated that don't look out for themselves? Do you understand that only the people who fight and claw and step on everybody else and do they're the ones that that move up to the top. You look at all the millionaires in the world. They're they're not humble people. They tell you how great they are and they they back it up by the things that they've done.

And so you wanna be like that. Okay. If what you seek is the glory of the world, if what you seek is things on this side of heaven, then yeah, you probably wanna be like that. But God said, it's harder for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Just to be certain, he wasn't talking about a place called the eye of the needle.

He was literally talking about a camel trying to pass through the eye of a needle. He said it's harder for that to happen. Why? Because you count on you. Everything is me.

It's all about me. I've told you this story several times before. I struggled so hard in math. I studied. I cried.

I studied some more. I finally went and took the test. I prayed about it before I went and took it. I passed the test. I came home.

My dad said, see how God helped you pass that test? I said, God didn't take that test. I did. I'm the one that passed that test. It was me.

I learned very quickly that was not the right way to think. And it wasn't because of, you know, getting my rear end tore up. It was explained. Son, you remember how hard everything was and how you couldn't remember the right order of things and you were having struggles? Yeah.

Remember how we prayed about all that? Yeah. When you got ready to take the test, did you remember all of that? Yeah. That's because God helped you remember it.

Therefore, God's the one that helped you pass that test. It wasn't on you. Wow. Okay. That's a humbling moment.

Right? God has those for us all the time. All the time when we look at things and we think, look what I did. But then look behind all that and see, did you really do that? Or did it come from somewhere else?

Did God do it? The reality, if we give God the glory for all the things that happen, then everybody sees him high and lifted up. That's the world that God wants. That's his kingdom lifted up. That's upside down to this world, but it's upside right in God's world.

Put God first, his glory, his kingdom. When we show that and we live that, other people see Jesus in us. Now listen, it's not an easy thing to do. Oh, come on preacher, you know, you just gotta put God first. That's easy.

Is it really that easy? You know how many times as I stand at that back door and people are leaving, people will shake my hand? Man, great sermon, preacher. You did a great job. That was wonderful.

You did awesome. You know how easy that would be for my head to go like this. Oh, man. I'm so good. You see how good I am?

All these people think I'm great the way that I preach. All this is wonderful. Very quickly, I learned my response most of the time if you ever listen to what I say is, praise God, not me. Praise God. It was his words.

Praise God. He's the one that gave me the words to say. Praise God. I'm just the vessel that he used to get the word out. It's not me.

It's God. But it's hard to live that way when the world keeps telling you how great you are. When the standards of the world keeps saying you're wonderful. When you keep looking at everything and thinking, man, I accomplished this and I accomplished that. It's pretty hard to to humble yourself if you're not constantly thinking about it.

You have to constantly think about that. Constantly give it to god every day. It's easy to say, well, I got this. I'm strong enough to handle it. I'm good enough to take care of it.

You know, I know that I got all the awards and it's all me, but it's not all you. God's word says, if you will humble yourself and pray and turn from your wicked ways what? Turn from my wicked ways? If you will humble yourself and pray and turn from your wicked ways and seek my face, then I will hear from heaven and forgive your sin and heal your land. You see, we're such sinful people, but we keep trying to put ourselves first.

Humble yourself and pray and turn from your wicked ways. God will use you. God will use you. Well, I don't know how God could possibly use me, preacher. I mean, I'm good at this and that, but I'm not good at talking to people about God.

I'm not good at at doing all of those other things. So, how is it that that we can do this? Do you really want to be used by God? Do you really want to be used by God? Or do you only want the glory of being recognized by the world?

That's a choice you have to decide. Do you really want to be used by God, or you only wanna be recognized by the world? The world might recognize you and give you cash awards, give you titles, give you certificates, all these material things that the world might do. Is that what you really want, or do you really want to be recognized by God? Do you want God to say, well done, good and faithful servant?

Do you want God to look at you and say, that's what I want from you. I want you to serve me in that way because I'm gonna use that to reach other people. You know, the greatest thing as a pastor the greatest thing as a pastor is to pour out God's word and see someone come and give their life to God. And it'd be easy to go, man, look what I did today. But I don't do that.

Because God showed me very quickly, it's not you. I used you, but it's me. The greatest thing is to be used by God. Another story that I've told you plenty of times before, Bill's wife, Barbara, asked me to come and preach at the girls GA camp. Bunch of little girls.

How am I gonna do that? But I went and preached to a bunch of little girls. And I tried to relate to them the best that I could. And I thought the whole time that they probably thought I was corny and, you know, they didn't understand anything I said. I opened up an invitation and girls' pop I was poured out of the chairs and looking for a counselor to talk to, and they just kept coming out and coming out and coming out.

I just sat down and wept. I don't remember the number, but out of the group that came, it was a very large percentage of the girls that came that gave their life to Christ that night. I sat down and cried. I said, god, why would you use somebody like me to do that? I didn't even know what I was doing.

God said, that's why I was able to use you better. You didn't know what you were doing. You just relied on me. That's the whole point. Rely on God.

Do you really wanna be used by God, or you just want the glory from the world? God's people are to be humble. We're to be humble. One more time. God's people are going are required to be humble.

Are you ready to live that humble life? You see, humility is something that the world says that's that's weakness. It's nothing but weakness. God says humility is takes a lot of strength to humble yourself, to recognize that you are not the greatest that I am, but that I wanna use you. That I wanna use you and you and you and you.

I wanna use every one of you. I want to use you. How can God use me? I'm older than 50. My legs don't work right.

My back hurts all the time. I can't hear. How's god gonna use me? However he chooses. God can use you however he chooses.

It might be in when you would least expect it that your testimony leads someone to god. I'm I'm I'm still young. I'm still trying to figure it out. I don't even know what I'm gonna do. I'm going to college, and I don't even have a major.

How's god gonna use me? However he chooses. He's going to take you and use you however he chooses if you humble yourself and say, okay, god. It's not me, but it's you. Show me.

He will show you. I will tell you this a little warning. If you do that if you do that, if you say, god, I'm ready. I want you to use me however you choose. I want to be used by you to glorify you.

He will. The warning is you may not necessarily think that the way he's gonna use you is what you wanted. How many times has someone said, God, I want you to use me. And God said, great. I want you to go to Africa.

Hold up. I've never been out of Mobile. I want you to go to Africa. I want you to be a missionary for me there. God, I want you to use me.

Okay? I want you to start a, a group, a bible study group on on the secular college campus that you'll be going to. Wait a minute. I'm gonna be brand new there. I don't want people looking at me all funny.

God said, that's what he wants. Do you know some of the greatest revivals in history started on college campuses? God can use you for that. Maybe he says, I want you to be a mom. I want you to be a mom and a wife, and that's what I want you to do.

And I want you to teach those children that I give you how to follow God because you know what? I'm gonna use one of them and make them Billy Graham. We don't know how God's going to use us, but we have to humble ourselves and stop looking for our own glory and let him use us however he chooses. We have a congregation that's predominantly senior adults. We have a congregation that's predominantly that is greatly smaller than it once was.

All congregations in The United States Of America these days are greatly smaller than they once were because the world has such an influence that people are turning away from God. Today, you have this opportunity. Are you ready to humble yourself and live this humble life that God might grow his kingdom? That we might see a revival, that we might see people come to know the Lord, that we might see people come back that have strayed away, that we might see churches packed out because God is moving in our country. If you're ready, he will use you.

The world is upside down. The world says no. The question that I have for you today before you can even begin to answer that question is, do you know god in the first place? Have you ever met him? Have you ever given your life to him upfront?

Because listen to me. You cannot humble yourself and be serving God if you don't know the one that you're trying to serve. Sometimes the world thinks that we just have to come to church, and then automatically we're gonna be a Christian because we walk through the door. That's not the case. God says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as lord and believe that I raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

You have to confess him as lord. You have to give your life to him. Lord means master. And if he's the master, that makes you his servant. Are you the servant of God today?

Do you know him? If you know him, are you truly serving him, or are you simply walking around with a t shirt? You're walking around with a t shirt that says, I joined the club. That's as far as you got. You know, when I was in high school, I joined the club.

It was called FAA. Anybody know what that is? FFA. Sorry. FFA.

Future Farmers of America. I didn't wanna be no farmer. I joined the club because they got a cool jacket. I got to wear the jacket, and they let you carry a pocket knife if you're in Future Farmers of America. So I joined Future Farmers of America.

I didn't wanna be no farmer. I had no no ideas at all about being a farmer, but I joined that club, put on the jacket, and walked around. And that's what some people do with Christianity today. They say, oh, I joined the club. I became a Christian.

I'm gonna put on the jacket and walk around. But if you ask them, well, what does it mean to be a Christian? I don't know. I just wanted the jacket. I don't know what that means.

Yes. I I I gave my life to Jesus. I know I did that, but then after that, I haven't ever done anything with that. Some just wanna walk in the church and say, well, I checked that box. They saw me go to church today, so I'm good.

You don't know Jesus if that's all you're doing. The reality is for every single one of us, just joining the club's not enough. We gotta be active members. We gotta be members that desire to serve god every day. And not just desire to serve him, but we carry on what he calls us to do.

I know. I know. I can't do what I used to do, but you can still do something. What can you do? If you can't do anything else, you know what you need to do?

Pray. Do you understand that prayer is one of the most important things you can possibly do? Prayer is one of the things that gets all the other people moving. I I can't do much. I do you know how to use a phone?

Call people up. Tell them about the church. Tell them about what's going on. Check on them. See if they're okay.

Be in in in God's ministry in that way. You can do that. Maybe you're young and you say, I don't know enough yet. I hadn't figured it out. Well, guess what?

Sanctification goes all the way through until you step into glorification. So we're all still figuring it out. You just gotta be willing. You just gotta be willing. Are you willing?

Are you willing to live upside down in this world so that you can be upside right in the next world? Are you willing to do that? Moms show us a great example of humbling themselves and serving others and putting the things that they need first. We can be just the same way and serve others and put God first. We can do that very thing.

Every one of us is able to do that. So I challenge you today. Are you ready to humble yourself and to live for God on a daily basis? Are you ready to say, I'm here, Lord. Use me.

I hope you do. But warning, if you say that and you mean that, he's gonna do it. He's gonna do it. It's not just for show. He's gonna do it.

It might be scary, but it'll be great. God will take care of it.

How many other churches have you been to where the pastor started off with the chicken dance? I tell you what, never know what's gonna happen around here. And, you know, that's the way it should be. We should be able to come into the house of the Lord, to worship together, to laugh together, to enjoy the time together. And you know something?

The biggest thing that I like about all that is those children that were here this morning, they'll remember that one because they saw the pastor dancing at the front of the stage. So it's something that they will remember, and, you know, perhaps you will too. And so today, I am gonna be talking about imitation. One of the things that I want to think about is last week, we talked about a hope that never fades. Right?

We talked about a hope that never fades. Well, the question about that hope is, how do we use that hope in our everyday lives? How do we use that hope? That hope is Jesus. Right?

So how do we use that hope in our everyday life as we go through this world? We have a limited amount of time in this world. Anybody know exactly how much time you got? We don't. Even people who are have terminal disease and a doctor says, you only have a week to live.

How many of those didn't make it that week? How many of them lived another three years? They don't know. We do not know how much time we have. What we do know is the time that we have, we ought to use it for our lord and savior.

Amen? And so how do we use that hope as we go through our everyday life? For most of us, we go through our everyday life, and steps, and we don't really consider what that looks like to other people. Right? We don't really think about what our life looks like to other people.

When we go through our everyday life, all of our everyday steps in life, we don't really think about how does that look to other people. We don't think about that at all. We just think about for us. What does that mean for us today? What do we have to do?

How do we have to do things? What are we gonna do about it? But some people are the opposite of that. Some people absolutely worry about everything they do being analyzed. What will people think?

If I wear this tie with this shirt, is somebody gonna wonder, did that match? Is this perfect? I usually clear that with my wife, by the way. Does this match? Is it perfect?

Is everything good? Do do what about my my my hair? What about, you know, all of this? Are people gonna judge me for whatever it is? Maybe.

But the real reality is they're not your final judge. But some people get so crazy about how people are gonna see what they do and others don't care at all. The reality is we should be somewhere in the middle of all that. The truth is we should consider how our walk is seen by others, not how our dress, not how our hair, not how our speech, how that's concerned with other people, but how does our walk speak to other people? How does it speak to other people?

It's not to be an extreme because we don't want to be like everybody else, but we should be doing it in a way that people see in us Jesus Christ. In the time we live in, imitation is everywhere. Imitation is everywhere. It it it's everywhere. Look.

Let somebody come out with a a new product and there's knockoffs as fast as they come out with it. Why? Because people like that product, so they wanna imitate it. They wanna give you something else. They want you to be able to purchase that.

It won't be as expensive perhaps. That's why they do that. If someone posts something cool online, everybody has to do the same thing. Right? Everybody has to do the same thing.

You ever seen something online called the ice bucket challenge? Anybody ever seen that? Yeah. We've said, you get to do it today. No.

I'm teasing. The ice bucket challenge, somebody did it, and they passed it on. And then everybody was doing it. Now it was supposed to be to raise money and awareness for something good. Okay?

But then how about the snow angel challenge this past January? Anybody see that online? Where you go out in a bathing suit and lay down in the snow and make a snow angel, and people were going and doing that, and they would nominate somebody else to do that. They were imitating. One person did it, so everybody had to do it.

All these things that were going on, we gotta do it because it's everybody's doing it. It's cool. We wanna imitate everybody else. We wanna do what they're doing. This whole thing of somebody posting something online and everybody else has to do it, it's how we get stuff like people eating Tide Pods.

Yeah. Somebody did that. They posted it, and then people started dying from it. They go online and they wanna imitate what somebody else is doing, but the imitation that they're wanting to do is not something positive. So many times, they wanna imitate everything to get likes.

They wanna imitate to get people to recognize them. They wanna imitate for all the wrong reasons. As believers, we too are interested in imitation. We are interested in imitation. Oh, I don't I don't wanna imitate anybody.

Well, you should. We need to imitate somebody. We need to be interested in imitation, but not like that. Look at second Thessalonians chapter three, and we're gonna concentrate on verses six and seven right now. Second Thessalonians chapter three verses six and seven.

Now, of course, this is Paul. He's written a letter to the Thessalonians, and he's addressing some things that's going on. Okay? So second Thessalonians chapter three verses six and seven, and it says this, now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life, and not according to the tradition which you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you.

Alright? So we showed you how to walk, so imitate us. That's what Paul said. Listen, we showed you how to walk. Don't follow the rest of the world.

Don't act like they do. Don't try to do the things that they do. Instead, imitate us. The ones who showed you what we're supposed to do. Paul is writing to them to say, we showed you this.

Imitate us. You know how to walk. Jesus came to this world as a baby. He grew up. As an adult, he spent somewhere around three years in ministry teaching others, showing them how to walk, telling them all about the savior, everything that needed to be done.

And he has brought in all the apostles to be with him and other disciples that followed him. And Jesus said, you see what I'm doing? Do it like that. The apostles then went out afterwards and said, you see what we're doing? Do it like that.

Do what we're doing. Because what we're doing is leading you in the right way. What we're doing is following God as God called us to be. What we're doing is making people see God. Don't follow the people who aren't believers.

Don't follow the people who aren't believers. That's not who you wanna follow because the world is full of people who want you to follow them. One of the big things today is you can post on social media and how many followers can you get. How many people will click to follow you because you did something crazy, you did something dumb, you did something interesting. Whatever it was, you did something online, and you want people to follow you.

It is so important that once it reaches a certain level, companies start calling, and they wanna buy onto your channel. They wanna pay you to keep doing whatever it is you're doing because they wanna advertise on your channel because you have so many people that are following you. They know that there are so many people out there that are following you. They want their product on your channel in order that they might sell it. There's a lot of people following something just because it was online, just because something happened online.

What if believers had so many followers that the church was packed out every Sunday morning? What if believers had so many people that followed them that we couldn't keep the baptismal pool filled enough? What if believers had so many followers that there were no lost people left in the world. Wouldn't that be incredible? The reality is don't follow those who are lost.

Don't follow those. Instead, follow the example of godly people. Follow the example of godly people. In our church, this church, Orchard, I can't tell you how many people I talk to that say, I wish I could be more useful. I'm just at an age that I can't do these things that I used to do anymore, that I can't do the physical stuff that I used to do anymore.

I wish I could be more useful for God. Listen. You're useful to God. You continue to walk in a way that those less mature believers can see how they're supposed to walk, that they can follow you and you can point them to God, that we can see how we're supposed to do things. We need to look up to those believers who are more mature in their walk and figure out how do we do that.

How do we become more mature? How do we get stronger in our faith? How do we get stronger in our walk? How do we lead people to Christ? Are you willing to tell someone to imitate you to get closer to God?

Oh, hold up. Hang on, preacher. Wait a minute now. You know, I'm I'm not probably the best one to tell people to to imitate me because, you know, I I don't I don't always do the right thing. I'm I'm I'm not walking necessarily the way that I should.

I wouldn't wanna tell somebody to imitate me. I wouldn't wanna do that. Really? Well, let me ask you this. If your answer to I'm not are you willing to have someone imitate you to get closer to God?

If the answer is no, what does that say about your personal walk? Think about this. I'm a believer. I'll tell anybody I'm a believer. I'm a Christian.

I love Jesus, and I try to do the right things. But don't don't follow what I do, because I'm I'm not I'm not doing all the things that I should do. What does that say about your personal walk? You just said, I'm not doing everything I should do. I don't want people to follow me.

How do you fix that? How do you fix that If you're not doing everything you're supposed to do in your own personal walk, why not? Are we striving to make it right? No one here is perfect. Not me, not you, not anybody here.

No one is perfect. Paul was not perfect. Paul said, follow me. I showed you the way. Do what I do.

Paul told the church at Thessalonica, follow me. Do what I showed you. He wasn't perfect. Paul made mistakes. I got a secret to tell you.

Paul sinned. Paul sinned just like you have. He made mistakes, but here's the difference. Paul was striving to walk in that walk that was pleasing to God every day. Yes.

He made mistakes. Yes. He failed in many ways. But when he did, the example was this is what happens when you fail. You give it to God.

You get back up, realize he's forgiven you, dust it off and keep trying to do it again. If our answer pardon me. If our answer of would you be willing to have someone follow you to see Jesus is no, because we don't feel our walk is strong enough, then what do we do about that? What do we do about that? Young believers today should easily be able to imitate mature believers to gain a closer walk.

Young believer comes up front and says, I realize I'm a sinner. I need a savior. And today, I've given my life to Jesus Christ, and I'm a new believer. And we shout, amen. We should hug their neck and shake their hands and tell them how proud we are of them.

And then what? We try to do I always try to have a new believers class. We try to get them plugged into Sunday school. We try to get them in other things. But do we, as a as a church, put our arms around them and go listen.

The walk is not easy, but let me show you. Follow me. I'll show you this is how you do it. I'm not perfect. I fail.

I make mistakes, but I'm gonna keep trying to do it right. So you follow me, and I'll help show you the right way. Can we do that? Can we put our arms around them and tell them that? Too many of us say, I would not want anybody following me.

You know those reality shows where they follow you around with a camera all day? You know, they don't really it's not real. They stage all of it. It. But what if someone came and said, I wanna follow you around all day for the next week.

I want you to just do what you would normally do as if there's no camera anywhere around. Just go ahead and do what you normally do. I dare say none of us would do what we normally do. We would all make it prettier. We'd make it better.

We wouldn't do the things that we didn't want other people to know about. God sees everything we do. There's no camera following us around, but God sees it all. Are we walking in a way that leads people to Jesus? Paul said to the Thessalonians, he said, listen.

Some of y'all are following people and hanging out with people that are leading you astray. They're not doing the right things. Stay away from those kind of people. Instead, follow those who are leading you in the right way. We showed you how to do it.

We told you how to follow us and it by the same step following Jesus. We showed you how to do that. So stay away from those other things and follow God. Young believers should be able to imitate mature believers to gain a closer walk, but believers are not growing mature these days. Why are they not growing mature?

Because they don't seem to have mature believers to follow. Why? If we're not walking in the way we should, we should change that. People should be able to follow us all the way to salvation. Amen?

People should be able to follow us all the way to salvation. A lost person should be able to follow our walk in our life and see the way that we are plugged into God, the way that we follow Jesus, the things that we do in our life. They should find their way all the way to salvation by following us. Because like it or not, you very well may be the only Bible many people ever read. We should be able to lead people straight to salvation if they follow us If they follow us.

Here's the problem today. Are we leading them to salvation? Are we leading them away from salvation? Put with me to verses eight through 10. Says this, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship, we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you.

Not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you so that you would follow our example. For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order. If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat either. They did this to be role models for the Pope the people they were teaching. Everything they did, they could have done it differently, but the way they did it, they did it to be a role model to others so that they could see what they were doing.

And they said, it's interesting, if someone's not willing to work, don't let him eat. Right? They did all this as role models, but then they said that if someone's not willing to work, don't let him eat. So many people are looking for something for nothing. I don't want to have to work for it.

Can't you just give it to me? I drove down the road the other day. Bunch of people standing out on the side of the road. We're holding up a sign. Help us send our kids to some ball camp or some championship or some other thing, and they're standing out there holding out buckets.

I noticed they weren't providing bottles of water or selling donuts or trying to do anything to get you to to purchase something to help them. They just hold out a bucket. Just give it to me. Just give it to me. No reason.

Just stop and give this to me because I need it. Just give it to me. We in this world are walking away. We're not willing to work. Just just give it to me.

I know, God, that I'm supposed to do good works. I'm called by you to do these good works, but listen, you've you've already promised me salvation, so, you know, I'm not too in on the work thing. So I just want you to give me the salvation, but I don't wanna really do anything after you've given me that salvation. If he isn't willing to work, don't let him eat. If he isn't willing to work, don't let him eat.

Now we can apply that in in life as in someone who doesn't wanna get up and go to work to provide food for themselves, then don't give them food if they're not willing to do that. It doesn't apply to people who can't work. It's people that don't wanna work. But we also can apply that in our Christian walk. If he's not willing to work, then why should he get to take part in all of the blessings that God gives?

Why should he get to take part in all of the the things that happen that we celebrate? If someone's not willing to work, then why are they also lifted up? Listen. Newsflash. God designed us to work.

He didn't design us to not work. In fact, when he gave us salvation, the first thing he said is, go and make disciples. Go out and work. Tell people about Jesus. Go out and serve me by working for me.

Go out and show people how to find their way to salvation. Go out and be a role model that others might be able to follow that. Go out in the workplace. Go in the highways and the byways and tell people about Jesus. Don't just tell them.

Show them. Show them how they can live. Imitation. Why we do imitation? We want them to follow that imitation.

We wanna be that way. How many people that play golf get the instructional videos? If you do just exactly like this, then you'll hit 20 under par. Right? Oh, man.

If I could just do that, that would be great. I'll spend hours swinging a golf club trying to hit just like that instructor. If you reflect Jesus and you share the gospel with people, some will come to know him as their Lord and savior. Man, I just don't have time for all that stuff. I don't have time to go out and knock on doors or talk to people.

I don't have you know, I mean, I'm in the workplace. You know, they don't like us to talk about Jesus in the workplace. I I don't wanna I don't wanna, you know, do that. They might think I'm different if I act that way. I hope so.

We should be different. Maybe have you ever been around a bunch of people and they're talking and they're using that colorful language? You know what I'm talking about? All those four letter words and things that we don't like to hear anyway, and they're just using them like they're normal. And all of a sudden you walk up and they say, oh, sorry.

And they'd suddenly change their speech. Why did they do that? Oh, because they know I'm a believer, and they know I don't like that kind of talk, so they change it. Just simply because I walked in the room. If that much can happen just simply because they know that I'm a believer and they change their speech, maybe they would actually follow and come to know Jesus.

Maybe they would actually follow. Maybe they would actually want to know why I'm the way I am and not just that I am. So many people are looking for something for nothing. Verse 10 says, Christians, we are to avoid being selfish and self serving. We're to avoid being selfish and self serving.

This that he if he can't, work, don't let him eat. That's not for those who are not able to work. But listen, we need to avoid acting like those who are selfish and self serving. Because if all we're doing is about self and self serving, are we really living for God? The answer to that is simple.

No. We're living for self. Look at verses eleven and twelve. For we hear that some among you are leading in an undisciplined life, doing no work at all but acting like busy bodies. Now such persons we command and exhorted the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread.

Everyone keeps on walking along flawed so that others can't imitate us. The thing that's happening is some are acting this way and some are acting that way, and so we just decide that instead of actually doing the things we should, we're gonna just walk in our walk. We're flawed, but we're gonna keep walking that way, and we're not gonna get anybody to follow us because we don't want them to imitate us because we know we have flaws. We know what we're doing is not right. We know how we're walking is wrong.

Ain't it incredible that if you know what you're doing is not right, why do you keep on doing it? If you know what you're doing is not right, why do you keep on doing it? You know, you get in your car, you crank it up. Oh, that don't sound good. Never mind.

I'll just keep driving it. Most of the time oh, that don't sound good. I need to get it checked out. It needs to be fixed because if it doesn't get fixed, it's gonna break. It's gonna tear up, and it's gonna be awful.

It's gonna be worse. Christians, if you don't fix the way that you're walking, what's gonna happen is you're gonna end up leading somebody away from God instead of to him. Well, how is that possible? Because they wanna see you who call yourself a believer and say, I don't want any part of what they do. If that's what a believer is, I don't want any part of that.

I see what they do, and they call their self a believer. I don't want any part of that. Why? Because our walk is flawed, and we're not trying to fix it. We're not trying to get there.

The scripture tells us we're supposed to strive to be perfect. We will never attain that, but we're still supposed to strive to be there. You know the amazing thing about the guy swinging that golf club? He's never gonna be perfect. But if he keeps swinging that golf club, he's probably gonna get better.

Every time he plays, he's probably gonna get a little better and a little better and a little better. Even though he's never gonna be perfect, he's gonna keep getting better. As believers, if we keep trying to walk in a better way, we're going to get better. We're going to walk closer and closer and closer to God if we keep striving. But if we just say, oh, I know that I'm flawed, and that's okay.

I'll just keep doing me. It's alright. That's what Paul said. Stop doing that. Paul says stay away from people that are acting like that.

The thing we need to see is Paul, an apostle of Jesus, is talking to church members. He's talking to church members. He's talking about Christians who are acting like the world. Hold on now, preacher. Slow down.

You're getting a little too close. Listen. When the world looks at a believer and they can't tell the difference in a believer in the world, it's a problem. The problem is we're imitating the world instead of Jesus. Church members, Christians, believers, if we keep acting like the world, people are gonna see the world.

Paul's not holding anything back because he's talking to them in the authority of god. Paul said, listen. You need to stop acting like the world. And he's talking to them in that authority of God. Do you know you have the authority of God too?

We have the power of God. If you know him as Lord and savior, you have that same authority. You have the same authority. But we keep walking around like the world. We keep walking around flawed.

Today, we are afraid to lovingly tell other believers that their actions are not reflecting God. Oh, hold up. I can't tell somebody that. But you do. Usually, what happens is when you see somebody that's not acting the way they should, that are not reflecting God, you don't go talk to them about it.

You say, hey. Did you see so and so? You see how they were acting? And then guess what? Now you're gossiping.

You're not doing the right thing either. We as a body of believers, the church universal, ought to be able to go to one another in love and say, hey, the things you're doing don't seem to be right. I know you say you are a believer, but the way you're dressing or the places that you're going on Friday night, the other things that are happening, people don't see Jesus in you. You know what's gonna happen? They're probably gonna get mad because you just insulted me.

So I'm gonna get mad at you. But after it sinks in a little bit, perhaps it becomes a conviction. Either way, we're supposed to be the person who talks to others about their walk, and they may come talk to you. It may be you that needs somebody to come talk to you and tell you about your walk because you're not walking the way that you should. We're too afraid to do that.

We're too afraid to do that. And so because of that, we just keep walking around flawed so others can't imitate us. We become the very ones Paul says to avoid. We're walking around flawed. Paul says stay away from those.

Stay away from those people that are walking around all flawed. Stay away from those who are walking the way of the world. Stay away from those who aren't living the way that we showed you how to do it. Stay away from those. If we don't take seriously our job to walk as a believer every day to share Jesus Christ through our walk, through our talk, through everything that we do, if we don't do that and we keep walking around flawed, then we become the very people that Paul says to avoid.

When you talk to people, why don't you go to church? Why are you not why don't you believe in Jesus? Listen, I know so and so and so and so. They've they've been Christians for a long time, and they go the same nightclubs I do, and they drink just as much beer and wine and everything else as I do. They get drunk all the time.

You know, they do everything like I do. Why do I need to go to church on Sunday morning to act the same way they do? They're not acting any different than I am. If we're not acting different than the world, how can the world see the difference in us? It can't.

It's time to stop excusing all our behavior, and it's time to start working to be the example. We gotta work to be the example. Be the example. Instead of saying, I don't want anybody to imitate me because I'm not that strong of a person, then let's work to get stronger. Let's work to get closer.

Let's work to be the example. Think about it like this. For most people, maybe you not the best person. Along comes baby you. Alright.

Here's baby George. Guess what? All these things that I was doing before, I don't want that to be the example to this little baby. And so as this little baby is growing, I'm doing my best to be the best version of me that I can possibly be in order that that child growing up will not fall into the pitfalls that I did, but instead will walk in a better way than me. It's the same thing as a baby believer.

If you are a believer and these baby believers come along, then we're to strive to try to help them to see the right way to walk and not the wrong way to walk. We work to be an example for our children. When the children come along, we should be working to be an example for the baby Christians that come along so that we can help them to grow up and be examples to others. It's time to us to work to be the example and not to be the deterrent. If we can't say follow me, and I will show you how to live a godly life, then we need to examine why not, and we need to correct that.

We need to examine why not and correct that. If we're saying that, we already know why not. We already know what it is that's not right in our life. If we're saying don't follow me because I won't lead you the right way, we know what's wrong. Are you willing to do the work?

Are you willing to get corrected? Are you willing to listen? Our men's group, we call the watchmen. The passage in Habakkuk that we're basing that on. One of the things is Habakkuk said, I don't understand.

I'm waiting for your answer, and I'm waiting for your correction. Why does he say I'm waiting for your correction? I'm waiting for your correction because I already know I'm wrong. I already know that that the way I'm thinking, there's something wrong here, so I'm waiting for you to correct me, and I will take that correction to walk in the right way. That's what we all need, the correction, to walk in the right way.

We need to be able to do that. Paul was not afraid to say, follow my example, and we shouldn't be either. Paul was not afraid to say that. Again, Paul was not perfect. We get this idea sometimes of biblical characters that they were perfect.

They walked around perfect. We see Paul walking around in his nice robe with his little belt on and his sandals, and he's perfect. And everything that Paul says, now listen to me because I'm perfect. He didn't say that. He wasn't perfect.

Paul was flawed just like we are, but he wasn't afraid to say, follow me because I'm trying every day to live the right way, and you should too. Believers, we need to start saying, hey. I'm not perfect, but I'm really trying to live for God every day. And I'm willing to pray for you and try to show you exactly what I'm doing. I'm willing for you to follow me because I want you to know the Jesus that I serve.

I'm willing for you to follow me because I don't want to think that I said, don't follow me because I'm not doing the right thing. And instead, you went off and followed the world and spent an eternity in hell because I was unwilling to show you the path to Jesus. We should lovingly help each other see where we need work. Some of you are prayer warriors. Other people have a hard time praying.

Some of you are willing to do whatever it takes. Others are, well, I don't have time. Some are willing to to go out and and to knock on doors. Some are willing to, lead Bible studies. Some are willing to do whatever it takes, and others not so much.

Listen, we all need to help each other see how we can be better. When we come together as a body of believers, we become better. We're We're stronger together. Verse 13. But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.

Do not grow weary of doing good. Sometimes you get weary of doing good. Why? There sometimes there's weeks I'm telling you, we're at the church four days a week. Sometimes we're up here even more.

We're up here doing all the things that we think that that's what everything it takes to be doing good. And sometimes that is the things that we need to be doing, but sometimes we get do so much stuff trying to do good. We look around and we're just worn out. Paul says, don't grow weary of doing good. Don't grow weary of doing good.

It's hard to always strive to do godly things, but we need to make sure we don't let ourselves grow weary. How do we do that? Anybody ever heard of the Sabbath day? You know why there's no work on the Sabbath day? It said, on the Sabbath day, god, what, rested?

God didn't need to rest. He was setting an example for us to rest. We need to rest. We need to rest. Sometimes, we just need to rest, but don't use that as an excuse.

I need to rest, then rest, then get back at it. Don't rest and then get stuck in the rest. We gotta get back at it. Take the rest. Get back at it.

We need to recharge. You know, every job that you do, you have vacation. Why do you have vacation? You need to rest. You need to take a break from what you're doing, but they want you back.

Right? Come back to work. Ready to go. Go get a rest. We all need a rest.

That rest, the Sabbath, the rest is resting in our worldly work, but resting in God. That means that while we're resting, we're spending time with the father getting rejuvenated. We're spending time with the father asking him to replenish our strength. We're spending time with the father, thank him for all that he's done. We're spending that time with him.

That's the true rest, is resting from the world and resting in God. That's the true rest so that we don't grow weary of doing good. We need to stay strong in that. Why? Because if we grow weary of doing good, who's gonna tell the rest of the world?

How's the rest of the world going to know if we're the ones that are supposed to be telling them that we're so tired that we can't do it? That we've grown weary. If you find that the reason you can't say imitate me is that you don't know Jesus, then today that can change. Maybe the reason you can't say imitate me is you don't truly know Jesus. You've just been imitating Christians.

You've just been saying, oh, well, I go to church on Sunday morning. I'm a member of the Sunday school class. I even have a a brand new Bible. So, of course, I must be a Christian. If you've never given your life to Jesus Christ as lord and savior, you missed the step.

Maybe you're doing all the stuff, but you don't know Jesus. That's why you can't say, hey. Follow me and let me show you Jesus because you don't know yourself. Maybe what you need to do is spend that time trying to find out, do you know Jesus? Listen.

Today, if the Holy Spirit has shown you you don't know him, then that can change today. You can call upon the name of Jesus. The scripture says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as lord and believe that god raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Today, it can change. The question is this, do you know him today?

You can't let others follow you to Jesus if you've never met him yourself. Perhaps as a believer, you know Jesus, but you still would say today, I I don't know about telling somebody to follow me because I'm not sure that I'm strong enough in my walk. Then let's get stronger together. We have this thing, maybe you've heard of it before. It happens at 09:30 on Sunday morning.

It's all called Sunday school. It's not a social hour. Sunday school is so we can learn more about the savior that we want to serve, and we can draw closer to them. There's a Wednesday night thing also called bible study. Again, it's not a social hour.

We study God's word to draw closer to him. That's not enough. There's five other days of the week that you need to have time with god. Do you know him? Are you close to him?

Are you trying to walk every day so that others will see Jesus in you? You're going to make mistakes. I make them every day. You're going to fail. Ask God to forgive you.

Get up and keep going. You know, one of the most encouraging videos that I've ever seen on a on a computer screen was a person that was running a marathon. And they were getting to the end of the marathon, and they were just so weak, they fell down. They fell down, but you know what? They they weren't too far from the finish line.

They got up. Somebody hand them a bottle of water. They tried to choke some water right quick, and and they stood up and they took off trying to run again and down they fell. And they got up and they dusted themselves off again, and they took off and down they fell. They fell, like, five or six times before they could ever get to the finish line.

Right before they got to the finish line, several of the people that had already finished came back across the line and helped them cross over the line. You see, they were running the race to finish. They were failing. They were falling down. They were hurt.

They were exhausted, but they kept getting up and they kept trying and they kept trying and they kept trying. And as long as they kept trying, other people came along to help them along the way. Believers, you don't have to do it alone. You know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and you're part of a congregation of a body of believers. Those believers will come along beside you if they know you need it.

But we try to hide everything. We don't want them to know. We need to call on our brothers and sisters to help us, but we need to keep striving for that finish line. Hebrews says, run the race to finish that is set before us. We're supposed to keep running that race, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

If we do that every day, people will see Jesus in us. If we fail, keep going. We gotta keep going. We don't know exactly where the finish line is because we don't know when our last breath will be. We don't know when Jesus will return.

But we know he said, run the race to finish. Keep running. Keep running. Keep sharing. Keep imitating him that others would come to know him as lord and savior.

Most important thing we could ever do is lead someone to Jesus Christ. That they too might have salvation because you took the time to imitate Jesus. Let's pray.

Amen. To God be the glory. That's the only place that you go. Amen? Shouldn't be for us.

We don't deserve it. Only God. You know, last week, we got to celebrate resurrection day. Amen? What a wonderful time.

We got to celebrate that. We got to celebrate together. We were there when the sun came up. We were here again during the middle of the day. What a wonderful time.

And that's a time that we all should be very excited about being a believer. Because we know that because he rose from the dead that we can have that salvation. It's a wonderful time. In fact, it's such a wonderful time that most churches experience a surge in attendance on that day. Most churches experience a surge because there are a lot of people who, no matter what, they're going to go to church on Easter.

Right? They're gonna be there. That's just the thing. A lot of those same people show back up again on Christmas. You know, those are the times they come to church.

They may not come any other time, but they're gonna come then. Why? Because it is such a powerful thing to think about. And so as believers, it's it's kind of a a being up on a high mountain. Right?

We go up on that mountain to be close to God, and it's such a wonderful time, And we've led up to that with wonderful music throughout the month, and we come in on that day, and we're very thankful, and we're worshipful, and we have this amazing time. And then Easter's over. And then all of a sudden, there's like this it's like a letdown. It's kinda like the youth going to camp. Man, they go to camp.

Y'all should y'all should just go to the last day of camp. One time, just go to youth camp on the last day just to see it. Man, they are so fired up. They're excited. They've been getting fed every day, and they're worshiping.

They're singing. They're shouting. They all got their Bibles out. They're having this wonderful time, and they come back so excited from camp and then down to the valley. All this wonderful mountain top experience, but then it goes down.

It's like we experienced the greatest, but now it's down. It's a letdown that happens after a big experience. Sometimes that big celebration creates a dip in our spirit after because it's like, I I still wanna be on that same level, but it's hard because it's just not the same. Things are a little different. Well, why is it different?

Part of the way it's different is because we let it be. Right? We let it be different. God's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Just because it's not that big calendar date, it's still Jesus is alive.

He's still here. He's still looking at us. He's still interceding on our behalf. He we still serve a risen god. And so rather than allowing ourselves to take that dip down after that big celebration, let's keep celebrating.

There's no reason why we shouldn't. I'll let you in on a secret. That date on the calendar, nobody knows for sure if that's the day Jesus actually resurrected from the dead or not. It might be this day. Nobody?

Nothing? Okay. It could be tomorrow. It could be any day. The point is it's every day for a believer.

Amen? Amen. It's every day. So how do we live that way? How do we understand that as we go through our walk, we go through our life, we've celebrated, we know that Jesus is alive, if we've given our life to him and we call him lord and savior, how do we go through every day understanding that that's how we need to live?

Jesus came. He was crucified, and he was resurrected. And so now we have hope. We have hope. It's not wishful thinking.

It's not something that ever fades, but instead, it's a hope that never fails. It never fades. It never fails. It's a hope that never goes away. It's always there.

That hope that never fades. And so look with me to first Peter chapter one and verse three. First Peter chapter one and verse three, and we're gonna listen. This Bible drill day. Okay?

I just want you to know. I got about 27 verse no. It's not quite that many. I got a lot of verses for us to go through today, and all of them are gonna talk about hope. First Peter one three says this, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

That's awesome. Our god and father, our lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope. You see, this hope is living. It's a living hope. It's never goes away.

It is living. We in in this country, especially, we don't process that word hope properly. We interchange that word hope with wish. Right? We interchange that word hope with wish.

You know? And and we're moving towards summer and then towards the fall and football season and all the things. And, you know, you'll hear people say, I hope the Saints win a championship this year. I hope that my baseball team wins. I hope that summer is is great.

I hope that what well, they could change that word and say, I wish, and it would mean exactly the same thing. That hope that they're talking about, that living hope, that is a hope that is a promise. It is something that you don't have to wish it's been given. We know that from the resurrection that we talked about last Sunday. We know that from understanding that Jesus is alive today.

He is our living hope. He's the one that we have hope in. It's a promise that when we know him and we call him lord and savior, we don't have to wish that we can have an eternity in Jesus Christ. We have already been given that hope in him, and so, therefore, we know it to be true. When we have this letdown from the wonderful resurrection service, understand that it wasn't a letdown.

That was just the beginning. That was just the beginning. When Jesus resurrected from the dead, that was the beginning of life, not the end. It was the beginning of life. And as a believer, we can grab on to that and understand that is the beginning.

That hope is Jesus Christ. Because of what he did, we have a hope. Without what he did, we would not have a hope. Without what he did, there would be absolutely no hope. In fact, it would just be a disaster.

There would be no hope whatsoever in this life. It would be a horrible life if if it hadn't been for what Jesus did. Because with what he did, we know that we can have an eternal life. It's a hope that never fades because it gives us eternal life. Eternal life.

Y'all know how I say all means all. You can't change that. There's no exceptions. Well, eternal means it doesn't end. Eternal is eternal.

There's no end. Absolutely no end. In this old body that I'm living in today on this earth, I don't want there to be an eternal life like this. Because most of you are a little more mature than I am, and I see the things that you go through, and I'm not looking forward to a lot of that. I wouldn't want to keep going forever and ever with these old bodies, but in that eternal life that eternal life that he had gave us, he says we'll get a new body.

It'll be brand new. We won't have any artificial knees or hips or any of that stuff going on. It'll all be brand new, and it lasts forever. That hope is in Jesus because of what he did. We have a hope.

That hope is eternal life because he gave it to us. We have to understand that Christianity is the only so called religion. Now I say so called religion. Let me explain that. There are a lot of things in this world that masquerade as religion, but they're not really all about Christ.

They call themselves a religion, but it has nothing to do with Jesus. Christianity is the only religion that worships a living God. Every other religion that is known to man in this world today worships a dead person. They worship a dead person. Now let me ask you this.

After someone is dead and gone, what can they do for you? They're no longer here. There's nothing they can do. But while they're alive, there's something that can be done. Jesus is alive.

Not only is he alive, but he's sitting at the right hand of the father today. And when you've called upon him as lord and savior, he points to you and says, father, that one's mine. That one's mine. They gave their life, and now they're mine. My blood paid for them.

They've accepted that gift, and they're mine. He's alive today. And because of that, we have hope. Our hope is living, and it always will be. It's living, and it always will be.

Pardon me. That's the incredible thing. Not only are we worshiping a living God, but we're worshiping a God that will never die. He will never die. Jesus died once, and it was a true death.

It was an absolute fact that he was dead. He wasn't unconscious. He wasn't asleep. He was dead. He was checked to make sure he was dead.

But on the third day, he came back to life. Why did he die? He's our living god. Why did he die? He died to overcome that grave.

He overcame the grave, and now we can too because he's living, and he always will be. He will never die again. He died once for all, but he will never die again. Look in Romans chapter 15. Romans chapter 15 and verse 13.

Now may the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. The God of hope will fill you with joy and peace. You will abound in hope. All of that is happening by the power of the Holy Spirit. All of that is happening by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our God is the God of hope through the Holy Spirit who came to stay after the resurrection. Understand this. Jesus said, I'm going away, but I'm sending a helper. I'm sending a helper, and that helper will come and will be with you. And the amazing thing about the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit is omnipresent.

The Holy Spirit can fill you everywhere, all at the same time. Jesus went away. He went to heaven, and he's at the right hand of the father, but the Holy Spirit is here present in us today. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the trinity. It's all still God.

He's just in the person of the Holy Spirit. He's with us today. He's with us in all that we do. And because of him being in us today and we are filled with the spirit, then we can have that hope. We don't have to be hopeless because he's filled us with hope.

That hope that never fades. It never fades away ever. It's always there. When Jesus left, he said, I'm coming back. While I'm gone, the Holy Spirit is gonna be here with you.

But I'm coming back, and that's a hope that we can count on because he is our hope, and he says, I'm coming back. It never fades. Our hope should literally leap within us as we're filled with the holy spirit. You know, I think about that, and I remember, in the in the, talking about Jesus' cousin, John. Right?

When Elizabeth was pregnant with John and Mary was pregnant with Jesus and they came together, the baby inside her womb literally leaped because he was in the presence of god. The baby that hadn't even been born yet recognized how exciting that was, and the baby leaped. Yet in our world today, we walk around sometimes with our head down and a frown on our face, and we walk around as if we don't have any hope. We should literally be leaping because of the Holy Spirit that's inside us. We should literally have a smile that won't fade away.

We should have a a smile that doesn't go away because we have that hope. And no matter what happens in life listen. Life throws us some really hard times. We have gone there some of you that are here today have gone through some times in your life that are so hard and so incredible. I can't even imagine, yet God has never let you down.

He's been with you the whole way. That hope did not fade. It's still there, and it will still be there no matter what we go through. He's going to be with us. That hope is there.

Our hope should literally leap within us as we're filled with the Holy Spirit. So the question, are you filled with the hope of the Holy Ghost today? Are you filled with that hope? And if you are, show it. Show it.

Ashley, sitting right here. Why do we smile? Because we're happy. We're happy. We're happy.

It makes us smile. And that's true. But what makes Christians smile continually is joy. The joy of knowing that Jesus is alive. That joy that's inside us.

That Holy Ghost that we're filled with should keep us constantly smiling. We should have that smile on our face the whole time because of that. That should be what we do. The reality is why is it that we walk around as if we do not have the Holy Spirit? Why is it that we walk around with a frown on our face?

That smile should be on our face. That joy should be in our heart in all that happens and everything that goes on in our life. Well, preacher, you understand. Sometimes days are just bad. I do understand that.

I have bad days myself. You know, a preacher is not, shielded from bad days. I I have bad days. I have bad months. I had a bad year last year.

Amen? We had a bad time, but those are temporary. Hope is eternal. Hope is eternal. That joy is going to be there eternally if we know Jesus, our lord and savior.

Are we filled with the Holy Ghost today? Are we walking around as if we are? Do we have that smile on our face? Do we show people? This is the thing.

I know y'all heard this song when you were little. Right? I'm not gonna make you stand up and sing it, although it would be fun. If you're happy and you know it Whatever. Right?

So if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you're happy and you know it, but the rest of that goes. If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it. If you're happy and you know it. Your face will show it.

It has to. That joy inside you causes that to happen. And so when we think about that, are we filled with the Holy Ghost? Do we have that in our life? If we do, show it.

Let others see it. Look at Hebrews chapter 11 verse one. Hebrews chapter 11 verse one. Says this, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Right?

So when we see this, we can understand that that hope is assured through faith. That hope is assured through faith. It is assured. I don't know about you, but I like assurance. I like to know yeah.

You know? We order something on Amazon, we wanna be assured it's gonna show up and what day. Right? We want to know it's going to happen. We don't want to do something and wonder, is it going to happen?

That faith that we have is the assurance of the things hoped for, the conviction of the things not seen. We don't see the Holy Spirit. We don't see Jesus with our own eyes, but we can have that faith in our life, the assurance the assurance of the hope that he has given us. We can have that, and we can live it every single day. Faith has so many things, and hope has so many things.

And when we see all of this, our hope is living. Our hope is is the holy spirit. Our hope is faith. It's the hope that is, assured through the faith. Faith is the certainty of things hoped for.

It's the certainty. Absolutely certain. There's no doubt. No doubt whatsoever. In other words, we don't have to wonder or wish for these assurances they are certain.

They've been given to us. Now we have hope because of faith. We have hope with the Holy Spirit. We have hope in all these things, but we also have a hope for our future. We have a hope for our future.

Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. Many of you already know that by heart, I'm sure. That passage is a passage of light in the middle of a very dark chapter, in the middle of a very dark book. There's a lot that's going on and the and the children of Israel are going through a lot of judgment and a lot of bad things. And then this passage says in twenty nine eleven, for I, being God, know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord.

Plans for your welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Ain't that incredible? God knows the plans he has for you. First thing that jumps out to me when I read that passage is, God has plans for me. He didn't put me here and walk away.

He has plans. He created me for a purpose. He has something in my life that he wants me to do, and he has those plans for me. Those plans are not for calamity, but for welfare. God there are many people that think that god is sitting there waiting.

Oh, you messed up. Let me shoot a lightning bolt at you. Oh, god's just waiting on you to mess up so he can knock you down. No. That's not god at all.

God has plans for you, for your welfare. He wants you to prosper. He wants you to be able to do the things. Now I'm not saying that because you are a believer that God's just gonna make everything easy for you. The word says he will not.

We will have trouble, but he's still gonna prosper you even in that trouble. You know, every time I visit somebody in the hospital, one of the things I say to them, one of the things I pray is this. While you're here, may God send someone for you to share the gospel with. It's amazing how that happens. You're there going through all these things that you're going through, and while you're going through all of those things, and the staff comes in to empty your trash or check your vitals or your doctor comes in, whoever it is, and there's a smile on your face.

And you could tell them about why there's a smile on your face because the Holy Spirit, because of what Jesus did for me. You can share that, and it's amazing how much that will change them. Even if they already know Jesus, maybe they're having a bad day. And you have that opportunity to make their day brighter by sharing Jesus with them. God knows the plans he has for us.

He knows those plans. They are not for calamity, but they're for our welfare. He wants to make sure that we have opportunities to share the gospel story. He already knows. Because of the saving power of Jesus Christ, we have a hope for our future.

We have a hope. It doesn't fade. We still have a hope for that. I know people look at what's going on in our world, and they look at politics, and they look at all of the things that are happening in all over the all over the world and they say, man, there's just really no hope for the future. It's just terrible.

It is terrible, but there's definitely a hope. His name is Jesus. And he's the only hope that we have. God knows the plans he has for us even if we do not. I want you to understand that.

God knows the plans he has for us even if we do not. What do you mean we don't know? At 20 years old, if you told me I was gonna be a pastor one day, I would laughed at you. I'd have said, no. That won't be me.

I I won't be a pastor. That's not something that that I'm going to do. But by 40 years old, I was already a minister. God knew the plan he had for me. As I look back on that, you know what?

He was trying to tell me before then, but I wasn't listening. God knows the plans even if we don't know. Why don't we know? Well, here's why we don't ask. We don't seek.

We don't try to find out. God, what is it that you have for me today? God, you woke me up today. Why? There's a reason.

You know the plans you have for me. That's why you woke me up today. The plans were for my welfare, not for my calamity. There's something today that you have for me to do for you. What is it today, god, that you have for me?

Because you know what you have in store for me even if I don't. But, god, if you'll show me, I wanna be obedient in following that. God says, today, I want you to talk to that guy in the cubicle next to you. You know, the one that uses swear words every other every other word. The one that always is is, hard to deal with.

The one that rubs you the wrong way every day. Today, I want you to talk to him about Jesus. I'm going back to bed. That can't be true, God. That can't be what you have for me today.

God, you said you had plans for my welfare. That's that's not gonna be good for me today. God knows the plans he has for you. They are for your welfare. Maybe that is the day that he has prepared that person to hear for the very first time that God loves him.

Maybe nobody's ever told him that because they use swear words every other word. They're abrasive. They're hard to deal with, and nobody's ever took the time to share Jesus with them. But today, if he's called you to do that and you do, it might be the very day that he comes to know Jesus as lord and savior. God knows the plans he has for you.

This hope is for your future. Now your future can be five minutes from now or five years from now or fifty years from now. It's your future. He assures us these plans are to prosper and not disaster. Does it mean that we won't have trouble?

No. It doesn't mean that we won't have trouble. We will have trouble in this world. I wish it meant we didn't have trouble. That would be great.

Right? I mean, if we took a poll and said, how many of you here today would like to never have any trouble in your life again? Everybody would raise both hands. Right? Me.

I never want trouble in my life again. Right? There's a problem with that. Sometimes God uses the trouble in our life in order to teach us the things that we need. Sometimes it's that trouble that gives us the growth in order to meet the next challenge, whatever it is.

Sometimes God uses the trouble in our life to reach someone else who needs to know him as Lord and savior. God does all of these things. I always think about the the little sea turtle and how they always tell you, don't pick them up and take them to the water. Because if you pick them up and take them to the water, they'll drown because they don't know how to swim. It's the motion of getting to the water that teaches them how to swim.

It's very difficult. Some of them don't make it. But the ones that do, many of them don't make it. But the ones that make it usually grow to be hundreds of years old. There's a lot of things that go through as they make it to the water.

Sometimes as Christians, when we're struggling so hard, God may take us at that moment and say, you've done what I asked you to do. It's time to come home. But he knows what the plans he has for us. We don't know. We need to understand sometimes the trouble we go through is the thing that grows us the most.

The biggest hope that we as believers have today is in the hope and the return of Christ. The hope and the return of Christ. Move with me to first Peter one thirteen, and it says this. Therefore, prepare your minds for action. Keep sober in spirit.

Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. At the revelation of Jesus Christ. Understand, I believe this passage is speaking to believers. It's speaking of the revealing of Christ at his return. Prepare yourselves and focus on your hope as the revelation of Jesus Christ is coming.

Prepare yourselves. Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope on the grace to be brought. And since you're doing that, share that with those who don't know. Prepare yourself for what's coming at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

You know, one of the ways we prepare ourselves for that? Look around you. Well, the person to my right, I know they're not a believer. I know how they live their life. They don't have any thoughts of Jesus at all.

Person on the left, I hang out with them a lot because, you know, we go to church together and I know all about them and, you know, we don't want anything to do with the person over here. Okay. We like to hang out with people who are like us. Right? That's that's just what we do.

But if today is the revelation of Jesus Christ and he shows up in the clouds, that person over here that you're certain does not know Jesus is doomed to a devil's hell. They're doomed to a devil's hell. Prepare your minds for action. For action. What action?

Whatever god calls you to do. If god says talk to that person, go talk to them. Well, preacher, I've tried, but, you know, they turn me down. Every time I try to talk to them, they just turn me off. It's a new day.

New hope. God knows the plans he asked for you. If he's calling you to go talk to him, today might be the day. It might not be. It might be 27 times from now.

But he never said stop. That means we need to keep doing it. We need to prepare our minds for action, not just so that we can say, oh, we know God and we're ready. Take me now, Lord. Well, that's awesome.

I'm so glad you know him, and I'm glad that I will see you again one day in heaven when I arrive there. But the problem is if I just stop with that right now, what about all those other people? What about all those that are around that don't know him? Prepare yourselves, he says. Prepare yourselves and focus on your hope as the revelation of Jesus Christ is coming.

Here's the thing. He's going to return just as he left. You know how I know that? The scripture says that. The angel told the disciples as they stood gazing into heaven, said, what y'all doing standing around here?

What are you looking for? That Jesus that you saw go, he's gonna come back the same way you just saw him leave one day. He's coming back to earth just like he went up. He's coming again. Jesus told his disciples, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself.

He's going to do that. We know he's coming back again. We don't know when. We don't know when. What if we did?

What if today I could tell you that on December twenty fourth of this year, Jesus is coming back? How would that change how you live your life between here and now? How would that change that? You got till December 24 before Jesus comes back. What are you gonna do with that?

You know what many people would do? Well, I'm a quit my job. I'm going on vacation. I'm a I'm not worried about all the future anymore. At retirement fund, I'm spending that thing because I'm not worried about it because on December 24, I'm going home, baby.

I'm not worried about anything. Okay. But again, what about your family that doesn't know him? And he's coming back on the twenty fourth. And the scripture says, upon his return, it's too late for those to accept him.

Maybe instead of taking your retirement fund and partying for the next however long, you should take that same money and start trying to share the gospel with the people that don't know. The people that are around you, those that god has already put in your circle of influence, are you sharing that? Are you telling them? He's coming back. We don't know the date.

But if we did, how would it change you? Think about this. Since you don't know the date, shouldn't you be even trying harder to reach those people? Because it could be tomorrow. You may not have till December 24.

You may not have till midnight tonight. We don't know. He's going to return just as he left. We have that hope that hope because he tells us he is. Look at Philippians one six.

Philippians one six says this. It says, for I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. He who began a good work in you will perfect it. That means we're not perfect yet, but he's going to perfect it so we can have the hope that he will make us that way. Hope never fades.

It's not gonna stop. The hope is going to be there. He's going to keep working on us. I love that song. He's still working on me.

He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It didn't take him long to make the moon and the stars, but he's still working on me. Taking a long time. Says from the very beginning that you received justification, he began to work on you and sanctify you throughout all of your life until one day you receive glorification when you step in heaven with him. I'm confident that he who started this work in me is gonna continue this work in me.

I'm confident that the work he wants me to do is to reach people for Christ. After the resurrection is hope. Hope. Not wishful thinking, but true hope in our savior, Jesus Christ. No reason to be let down after resurrection day.

Instead, just let that be another bump in your encouragement. Let that be another bump in your encouragement. It's a hope that never fades. Never fades. It doesn't go away.

It doesn't get less shiny. Right? It doesn't go away. It's still there. Every time you look at it, it's exactly the same beautiful hope that God gave us on that day he rose Jesus from the grave.

It's still exactly the same. That hope never fades in our life. We can hold on to that every single day. Now here's the big question. Do you know that hope?

Do you know that hope? You see, I can't tell. I don't know. Maybe everybody on the left does and everybody on the right doesn't. I don't know.

There's no dividing line. I can't see. Maybe, you know, if God marked us somehow, y'all were wearing halos, you know, and, oh, those are the ones. No. I can't see that.

Here's the sad thing. Oftentimes, because people know that you can't see that, they fake it. They fake it. Well, I'm gonna go to church and I'm gonna smile. I'm gonna say all the church words and I'm gonna do all the stuff.

People will think I'm a Christian, but I'm not really gonna do all the stuff. I'm just gonna be there, you know, so people think more about me. They like me better. Whatever it might be. For some, you may be here and you're attending every week and you're saying, I just keep going, then I'm gonna get better.

God's gonna make me better every time I go and eventually, you know, I'll just receive it through osmosis. No. That doesn't happen either. You You see, Jesus died. He was buried, and he was resurrected on the third day.

And because of that, you can have salvation. He says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as lord and believe that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. That's what you have to do. Coming to church every Sunday is not gonna get it. Put a little extra in offering plate every week is not gonna get it.

Doing good deeds in the community is not gonna get it. Have you confessed Jesus as lord of your life? Have you given your life to him? Have you accepted that hope and now filled with that hope? Has that ever happened?

Do you know that hope? Do you know the savior, Jesus? Do you know them personally? Do you know I say them. Why did I say them?

It's a trinity. It's God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit. Do you know them? Have you accepted Jesus into your life? Have you given your life to him?

Have you received the salvation that only he can give? Only you know the answer to that. You see, I don't know the answer to that for you. I know the answer for me, and I'll stand before you today and tell you that there was a day and time in my life when I was 10 years old, and God touched me and said, you need a savior. I've been praying about it.

I'd already been talking to people about it. My grandfather witnessed to me for weeks before that. My parents weren't even in town. I was at church with my grandfather. Man, when the service came to an end, I couldn't wait for the preacher to open the the invitation.

In fact, when he was praying, standing at the front of the church, when he opened his eyes, I was standing straight in front of him. I already came down the aisle. He said, what are you here for? I said, I came to get saved. We went and prayed.

And he asked me, why did you say that? I said, because God told me I needed a savior, but I'm a sinner in need of salvation. But on my heart, I've been talking to the Lord this week, and he told me today, this is the day. He said, amen. I can tell you, I know Jesus is my Lord and savior.

But do you? Do you have that testimony? Can you share with someone else how he came into your heart? Do you know for a fact that you're holding on to him as he's holding on to you? If you don't know that, you're you're still trying to work your way in.

You're not gonna get there. You need to know that. If you confess Jesus as lord and believe that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Now the great news is Jesus has not returned yet. That's great news if you don't know him because you still have time.

So in a moment, we're gonna have a time invitation. That's the invitation for you to do business with the lord. If you know that you need to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, he's already put that in your heart, then come talk to me about that. I wanna tell you exactly how you can do it. Maybe there's someone that he put in your mind while we were talking, and you said, you know, he was talking about that guy that's abrasive and and I have a hard time with and all of that.

And and I know a guy just like that or a girl just like that that that I have avoided for most of my life because they bother me. But because of what he said today, God put that on my heart. That's who I want you to talk to. You wanna come pray for them. The altar will be open.

Maybe it's a family member. Maybe it's just you wanna be closer to the Lord and you say, you know what, I know you, but I'm not serving you like I should, and I wanna come and lay that at the altar today, whatever it might be. You come as God puts it on your heart. Let's pray.

Everything's cool. The electronics work perfectly. Everything is great, and you know we've kind of come accustomed to all of that sort of stuff. Yet we walked in here today and the first thing to happen the air conditioning is not working properly, and then the sound doesn't want to operate exactly like it should, and then we had the static and stuff going on in it. And all of the things that happened, all of these things that happened, and here's what I believe 100% today.

Satan does not want you to worship today. Today, he's doing everything he can to stop you from worshiping because it's the fact that Jesus rose from the grave that today we can worship. Amen? Amen. Amen.

And so because of that, Satan doesn't wanna hear that. He's lost. It's a reminder of the fact that he's already lost the battle. He's already lost the war. And so today, as we show up, you know what we're gonna say?

Satan, get behind me. Get behind me. We wanna hear about Jesus today, and we wanna worship him today. Amen? Alright.

So last week, we talked about the bill came due. Right? The bill was due. You know, you you put stuff on the credit card and eventually it comes due. Right?

You have all these bills and eventually you gotta start paying them. You know, you you go to these things, then you you buy some furniture or whatever, and they tell you, oh, yes. You can buy it with no money down and and however many months, no payments. But then the bill comes due, and suddenly, it's a lot more than you thought it was gonna be. Right?

There's a lot happening. Well, last week, we talked about the bill that was due was the bill for your sin. The bill for your sin and my sin, the bill came due. And when the bill came due, we couldn't pay. Well, in the modern world, if something happens and we can't pay, then what happens?

Well, then we get, all kinds of trouble. We could actually go to jail because we couldn't pay our debt. But if the debt for sin could not be paid, then hell wins. If the debt for sin could not be paid, hell wins. God created a plan from the very beginning.

All the way back in the Garden of Eden, he said that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. He created the plan. He said, there will be salvation. He made that plan. And when the bill came due, he sent Jesus to the cross.

He put him on the cross to pay for our sins. Jesus willingly went. He had an opportunity to back out, but he didn't do that. He went to the cross. He went to the cross, and he paid the full price for our sin because he was the only one that could.

He was the only one that could. Jesus paid that price. And so when we think about the resurrection day, we think about all of the things that's happened. I I want you to understand, only Jesus could pay that debt. There's a one of the songs that we sang, it says he took his final breath as heaven looked away.

That breaks my heart every time I hear that. Because what that means is while Jesus was covered in our sin, he was so disgusting that God couldn't even look at him because he was covered in our sin. And in that moment, it pleased God to crush him because it was our sin, and he died for our sin. The bill came due. I said that when Jesus said it is finished, the price was paid, but the grave had not yet been overcome.

And that's true. Jesus said, it is finished. The price was paid. Our debt was completely paid in full, and no longer would we have a debt of sin if we accepted Jesus as Lord and savior. But then he was placed in the grave.

Today, I wanna look at what that price that he paid actually covered. Look with me at Isaiah chapter 25 verses seven through nine. Isaiah 25. I know somebody said, Isaiah, preacher, this is this is about the resurrection. This is the New Testament.

It started in the Old Testament. Amen? Alright. Isaiah chapter 25 verse seven through nine, And it says this, and on this mountain, he will swallow up the covering which is over all people, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, and the lord god will wipe tears away from all faces.

And he will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth, for the lord has spoken. And it will be said on that day, behold, this is our god for whom we have waited that he might save us. This is the lord for whom we have waited. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. The prophecy said he will destroy the covering which is over all people.

I want us to understand this. We've been talking about the prophecy of the Messiah. Why are we focusing on the prophecy? Because the prophecy told us from the very beginning what was going to happen. This morning at at the Sunrise service, I talked about faith, and I talked about walking in faith and how do we have faith.

We have faith because of what we have already seen. We have faith because of the things that have already been done. We have faith that all the prophecy that was foretold, Jesus already fulfilled. And so, therefore, prophecy is extremely important because the prophecy said this is what's going to happen. And then when it's fulfilled, it shows that it was true, that everything that Jesus said would be done.

The prophecy said he will destroy the covering, which is over all people. Do you understand what the covering which is over all people is? Well, just in case, look with me to Hebrews chapter nine verse 27. Hebrews chapter nine and verse 27. And in as much as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment.

Understand that the covering which is over all people is death. The covering which is over all men is death. We've heard about this prophecy. We've read this in the scripture. The prophecy said he will destroy the covering which is over all peoples.

That means Jesus has overcome death. He's overcome death. Hallelujah. We don't have to worry about that. Well, wait a minute, preacher.

People still die. That's true. But they don't have to remain dead. If you know Jesus as lord and savior, he's already conquered death. He's already destroyed that covering that's over all men, and all we have to do is when we accept him, then he will resurrect us just like he resurrected.

The covering over all men is death. Look at verse eight of our text from this morning, and it says, he will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and he will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. For the Lord has spoken. He will swallow up death for all time. It wasn't just for a little bit of time.

He didn't just conquer death for himself. He didn't just conquer death for a short period of time, and after that, we would go back to it. You know, sometimes, these restaurants have, special promotions, and they have some products like, the McRib. Right? It comes out, but it's only available for a limited time.

You either get it during that time or you don't get it. That death that he swallowed up, it's not a limited time offer. He did that for all time. For all time. For all people ever came before him, while he was alive, or after him, if you call upon his name as Jesus, Lord and savior, then death has been swallowed up, and you do not have to experience that.

You say, well, people still die. Yes. But if they don't stay dead, is it really death? Is it just a transference from this world into the next? So he swallowed that up.

He defeated Satan. Satan wanted you to stay dead, but he defeated Satan. He swallowed up death. Now listen. I know some of you got a early start this morning, and I know that some of you are thinking about later today.

But when we hear that Jesus swallowed up death, it should make every single one of us shout. We should be so excited. We can hardly contain ourself. Amen. Because whoever believes in him shall not perish.

Whoever believes in him shall not perish. You can't get a guarantee like that anywhere. The only place you can get that guarantee is through Jesus Christ. Whosoever believes in him shall not perish, in case you didn't realize. That's part of John three sixteen.

For god so loved the world that whosoever believes in him shall not perish because he gave his only begotten son. We need to understand that. We need to wrap our heads around that. We need to embrace it, and we need to believe it. I said this morning, too many Christians say, I believe.

I got faith. And as soon as something happens, oh, what's gonna happen now? I don't know. I don't I don't know what to do. I don't I don't understand.

I don't trust whatever that's going on. Who can I call? You call on the same one that gave you the salvation in the first place, Jesus. We gotta have that faith. Whoever believes in him shall not perish.

Have that faith. Understand that. It wasn't only the forgiveness of sin, but the forgiveness of death has also been defeated. Death has also been defeated. You see, if you die in your sin, the scripture says that you will spend an eternity in a devil's hell.

But when you receive the forgiveness of sin, the scripture says that you will spend an eternity with the father in heaven, that death cannot hold you. You will be resurrected from the grave. Jesus said, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will return for you. He's already told us he's coming back. He's coming back for us.

We need to understand that. We need to live our lives that way. We have too many Christians that walk around like this all day, defeated. Defeated. Every time I see you, you got a frown on your face.

You look like the weight of the world is on you. You look just like the rest of the world. Everything that's going on is defeated. I tell people all the time, smile. Makes people wonder what you're thinking about.

Right? Sometimes it'll make them ask you what you're thinking about, and that's when you can say, you know, I was thinking about that song I heard Sunday that it told us that we are resurrected. The grave can't hold us. We have been lifted up. The power of God is greater than all other power.

We can hold on to that. We can live our life that way that others will see that in us. Sometimes as a as a pastor, and you're preparing for a major weekend, Easter, Christmas, maybe you won't talk about Thanksgiving, whatever it is that you won't talk about. And you wonder, how can I tell the same story again different than I've already told it for the last however many years? How can I do that?

How can I tell the same story? And oftentimes, I agonize over, you know, how can I change things up? How can I tell the story but make it in such a way that that it's different than the way people have heard it before? And most of the time, the Lord comes back to me and puts in my mind, the story is so great. You can tell it exactly the same way every single time, and it's still the most powerful message anybody will hear this year.

That is the most incredible thing. We have to understand the power of God that he gave his only son, that when he died for you and was buried and resurrected for you, that he's offering you eternal life, and all we have to do is accept it. Whoever believes in him will not perish. Not only that, but it says he will wipe the tears from their faces. He will wipe the tears away from their faces.

Not only will we not perish, but he also will wipe the tears away. The scripture tells us that in heaven, there will be no sorrow. There'll be no tears. There will be none of that, only joy being in the presence of the father. He's going to wipe all that away.

So many of us go through a lot of things in our life. We go through depression. We go through fear. We go through heartache. We go through all of the things that we go through.

And that sorrow and depression and heartache and the tears that we go through are very difficult for us all to go through. And I'm so excited to know that one day, I don't have to worry about any of that anymore. All I will do is celebrate and worship and be full of joy. He said he will wipe away the tears from the faces of the ones who accept this salvation. Look at verse nine.

And it will be said in that day, behold, this is our god for whom we have waited, that he might save us, that the lord for whom we have waited, let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. Let us rejoice. Christians, you know Jesus as lord and savior. We should be rejoicing every day.

Every day, let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation, the salvation that he gave. We couldn't earn it. There's nothing we could do to get it. He gave it to us. If we just accept him, we need to rejoice.

If you've ever felt bad, been in a bad mood, depressed about something, and someone comes in and they just their faces lit up, they're full of joy, they're celebrating, they're talking to you about whatever it is, it's hard to stay in that state. It pulls you up. It begins to pull you up, and there's something about that that just makes you feel better about what's going on in your life. There's something that makes you feel better. If a Christian is celebrating their salvation every day, we're full of faith and we live in that joy and we walk into the presence of those who are desperately seeking something.

They're gonna see there's a difference. They're gonna see there's something in our life. I know. You said, but look, preacher. We just can't be upbeat and happy and smile all the time.

We just can't do that. Why not? Why not? Well, life happens and and things are hard, and sometimes I'm sad. Sometimes I'm angry.

Sometimes I'm I'm depressed. Sometimes I'm going through all these things. Yeah. We are. But you know what the common denominator is and all those things?

Every one of those things need to be laid at Jesus' feet. And we lay those at Jesus' feet, he takes up that burden and his burden is light. He takes it and lifts it up for us. He helps us get through. He doesn't say he's gonna take it away, but he will definitely help us get through everything that's going on.

Can we really be joyful every day? The real answer is yes. We choose to not be joyful every day because we choose to allow these other things to bring us down. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. Move with me to Titus chapter three.

Titus chapter three. Somebody said, Titus, I don't think I don't even know where that book is. I've never been to it. Titus chapter three. There's only three chapters, but it has a lot to say.

Titus chapter three verses four through eight, it says, but when the kindness of God, our savior, and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not on the basis of deeds, which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing and regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior. So that being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy statement. And concerning these things, I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed in God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

This was not just prophecy. The passage that I just read to you is in the New Testament, and that passage is saying, it happened. The kindness of the Lord appeared. It happened. The prophecy said it would.

The New Testament said it did. It would, and it did. And because of that fact, we can live rejoicing today. God did not have to save us, but he did. God did not have to send his son, but he did.

God did not have to, raise him from the dead, but he did. God did not have to do any of these things, but out of love and mercy and kindness, he did. He did for us. He gave it to us. He gave his son for all who would accept him.

And just as a check, all means All. Okay. You're listening. All means all. There are no exceptions.

There's no exclusions. There's no small print. All means all. He gave his life for all, all who would accept him. We have to accept him.

He doesn't force himself on us. We have to accept him. He said, I sent Jesus to die on the cross and pay the price for your sin. And, yes, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But he sent Jesus to die on the cross and pay that price for your sin.

Then he resurrected him from the dead to go to heaven and prepare a place for you. But the rest is up to you. Will you accept it? You have to choose. He said, I've done it all for you.

Here's the gift. All you have to do is take it. Accept it. Bring this into your life. Change your life forever.

Will you accept it? Sadly, some say no. Sadly, some say no. I've talked to people that said, maybe one day. But right now, I just I wanna live life my way.

I wanna tell you about living life your way. When you live life your way, unfortunately, you die the wrong way. And if you live life your way and you die in your sins, the end result is the devil's hell. There's no way to sugarcoat that. That's what the scripture tells us.

This life that we have is short compared to eternity. Very short. The scripture tells us once we die, there are two possibilities. Those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will spend all eternity in heaven celebrating with him. Those who have died in their sins will spend all eternity in the torment of a devil's hell.

Those are our two choices. We get to choose. We decide. God said, here it is. Take it.

You can say no, but understand the alternative if you say no. He gave his son for all who would accept him. We all owe a debt we can never pay, but today that debt is already paid if we'll simply accept it. Look at verse five. It says he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.

He saved us. It's not our works. It's not what we have done. It's not on the basis of what good people we are. He saved us because of his grace and mercy.

He saved us. Verse seven says this. It says, so that being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We would be made heirs. You know what a heir is?

We don't talk about heirs much today. A heir means we inherit. We inherit his kingdom. We become heirs to his kingdom. And so because of that, we know that when the time comes, we will also take part in the kingdom.

We will follow him. We will have that opportunity. We will be made heirs to follow in him, to be in that salvation in heaven with him, to rejoice and celebrate and sing to him all day long. Yes. Sing.

Even those of you who say, I can't sing in the choir. You're gonna be in a choir one day. Amen? Alright. Verse eight says, this is a trustworthy statement.

Concerning these things, I want you to speak confidently so those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for our men. Do you know the years ago on Sunday school roll, when you showed up, there was a checkbox. Right? I don't know if y'all remember this.

Did you bring your Bible? Did you read your Sunday school lessons? Did you give your tithe? Did you do any good deeds this week? We don't do that anymore.

Does that mean it's no longer accountable? No. It's still accountable. It's just that man's not keeping up with it, but god still is. Did you do any good deeds?

How many times have we seen an opportunity to good do a good deed, but I don't have time right now. I gotta get somewhere. I gotta be somewhere. Good deeds. Well, you know, sometimes that's a hard thing to do.

It is. Sometimes it's really easy. Y'all know that my wife is vertically challenged. I'm not supposed to say short. My wife is not very tall.

Because of that, I understand some of her challenges. And there'll be so many times I'm walking through the grocery store, and I see someone about her height staring at the top shelf as if they're trying to will that sugar to come down from up there. Looking around trying to figure out how can I reach that? And I'll simply pause and go, can I help you reach something? Oh, thank you so much.

Please can you reach that for me? You know how much effort that took? Almost none. That was a good deed. Was it a good deed that I shared salvation with them?

No. Was it a good deed that they felt like somebody cared enough to just stop and say, can I help you? Yes. And that alone might start a conversation in which I could share the gospel. Doing a good deed is not that difficult if we're looking for them if we're looking for them.

The scripture says we should. We should take this and speak confidently and understand that we should be careful to engage in good deeds. Things that are good and profitable for men. We should do these things to show that God cares. Not just because somebody said we should, but because god would want us to.

If you know Jesus as lord and savior, you are called, among other things, to do good deeds. More people come to know Christ when they witness God and not just hear about it. You understand what I'm saying? People can come into a church service like this and they can hear the most compelling message about Jesus Christ that they've ever heard and still turn around and walk away. But when they see in action God's love, suddenly, it makes them sit up and take notice, and they wanna know more about that God that you serve.

When they sit up and notice. You know, we can do good deeds, and we can serve god in a lot of different ways. It doesn't have to be even outside the church. We can do it inside the church. This past weekend, the men of the congregation got an opportunity to do good good deed for one of our members that needed help.

We spent a lot of time working, but you know what? She'll never forget that. She'll never forget that. And she'll praise God, already has been, every time she sees what was done for her. We are so thankful that we can serve God in that way.

We should look for the opportunities. Instead of trying to figure out a way to go around them, we should look for those opportunities to be to do good deeds, to be like God in somebody's eyes, to share love of God through what we do, which might lead to being able to share God through what we say. Understand, if a man's hungry and you just tell him about how good God is or you don't feed him, he's not really listening. But if you feed him first and then tell him about God, he's more apt to listen. If we do good deeds and we show God's love to people first, then they're more open to hearing about God because they've just witnessed his very love.

God loved you so much that he gave Jesus to pay your debt. I want you to think about that. God loved you so much that he gave Jesus to pay your debt. Not Jesus to pay his own debt, but to pay your debt. He didn't swipe a credit card.

He didn't come out of his pocket with some cash. He didn't even go and spend a day in community service to take care of your your sin. He gave his only son to be covered in the sins of men and to be brutally beaten and punished and crucified to death so that you don't have to pay that price for your sin. He loves you that much that he gave you that. He gave you that to pay your debt, which allows you to enter into eternal life.

He paid your debt. Now you get to go into eternal life if you accept it. That is incredible to fathom, to think about, that god loves you that much, but he did just exactly that. But there's a catch. It's no fine print.

It's in big, bold, and probably in red, but only if you accept him. He gave his son, Jesus, to pay your debt, which allowed you to go into eternal life, but only if you accept him. You see, again, like I said, he will not force upon you salvation. He's offered it for you. He gave Jesus to earn it for you, to pay the debt that you couldn't pay.

He gave that to you, and then he said, here it is. Will you accept it? Will you accept it? So the question I have for you today is this. Number one, do you know Jesus as Lord and savior?

Do you know him? Only you can answer that question. I can't answer it. There's I can't look out at you and see that you know Jesus as lord and savior. I've often said I wish that when someone got saved, God would stamp a big red s right on their forehead, and then I would know.

Those people are saved, and the ones without the s, they're not. So I wanna concentrate on talking to the ones that don't know. But I can't tell that. I can't see that. Only you know.

It's between you and God. Do you know him? Have you given your life to him? The second question I have is, if you have not, what is preventing that for you? What is preventing that?

Think about it like this. You owe on your home and you can't pay. The bank is there to foreclose and take your home and throw you out in the street. And a man drives up and says, how much do they owe? The bank says, this is how much, and they pull out the money and they go, I'm gonna pay that for them.

How many of us at that point would go, no thanks. No thanks. I don't want that. We would say, really? You're gonna pay that for me?

Yes. Please. I get to keep my house. I don't get thrown out in the street. Please pay that for me.

But the same people have the hardest time saying, yes, god. I will accept the salvation that you have given me. I will accept that. Many people say, I I I don't know if I can accept it or not because, you know, there's so many strings attached. What strings?

There's so many strings attached. You know, there's all those rules. You must do this, and you can't do that, and you must do whatever. I got news for you. Life is full of rules.

If you don't believe it, get in your car, drive down the street up here, and when that light turns red, just keep going. Don't worry about it. That don't mean anything. Just go right on through that light. If you don't get in an accident, there'll probably be another light behind you.

Life is full of rules. Yes. There's rules in scripture, but you know what those rules are? Those rules say that if you love me, you won't do that. You'll follow me.

Yes. If you love me, you will tell people about me. If you love me, you will do good deeds. These are the kind of things that you want to do, not things that you dread. The people that say that, I don't know.

It's so many rules attached. They're looking for any reason to not stop doing whatever it is that they're doing. If that's you, I wanna share with you this. If you choose to continue following that road of sin and never accepting the salvation that god has given you, then the end is clear. The end is clear.

You will not see the kingdom of heaven. Today, you have an opportunity. Have you ever given your life to him? If the answer is no, what's stopping you today? You can only answer that.

I can't. What's stopping you? Maybe there's something in your life and you say, well, I'm I'm so I have this big problem, and I gotta get that resolved before I can I can come to him? No. He says, come just as you are.

Come just as you are, and I will cleanse you. Only he can cleanse you. You can't do it. You can't get yourself ready to be saved. He's already done all the work.

You accept it. He'll take care of the cleaning. He'll take care of the washing. He'll take care of making sure that you are what you need to be. Today, you can make that choice.

We're gonna have a time of invitation. As we do, if you want to accept Jesus as lord and savior today, I wanna encourage you, please come. Please come. Come to the altar. Come talk to me.

Whatever you need to do. Maybe there's someone in your life and you know them, and you know that they do not know Jesus, and you want them to accept him. Come pray for him, and then ask god, use me to reach him. If they're that dear to you in your heart, then ask god to use you to reach them. Be willing to do what you need to do.

I'm on I'm gonna pray, and afterwards, we'll have a time of invitation. I just want you to simply respond as the Holy Spirit moves you. Father, we come to

Got all choked up. It's not you, it's me. Anybody ever heard that before? We've heard that plenty of times. Most of the time we hear that we hear that about some relationship.

Right? It's not you, it's me. But that's not how we're gonna talk about it today. We're gonna talk about it very differently from that. Today, we're gonna be in the book of first Samuel, if you wanna go ahead and start turning there, chapter eight.

But I just wanted to say, today in this world, it seems people are so self centered and so self consumed. In other words, if you're talking to someone and conversations go in this direction or that direction, almost every time, the conversation turns to me. Things about me, things I've done, things I want, places I wanna go, how the economy affects me, how, my, status is in in the community. Whatever it is, almost always, it seems like conversations end up turning towards self. People are consumed about that.

What about self? Well, of course they are. The world says it should be all about you. Everyone seems to really be lost and wandering around trying to figure out what is real. What is this world really supposed to be about?

Because here's what they find out. When they follow what the world says and everything is about them and they try to make everything about them, they find out they're disappointed. They lack direction. They don't have anything to buy into. If they fail, then everything fails.

And so they begin to turn in directions that they don't even know what to do because everything was about them. It's not about somebody else, but we're not designed like that. Our father in heaven created us to have a desire to worship, and not a desire to worship self, but a desire to worship him. That desire is in us whether we admit it or not. And if people are left on their own, they will find something to worship.

For many, they find, substances. Some find money. Some find even other people, but they find something to worship if they're left to their own devices with no guidance. Look with me to first Samuel chapter eight verses one through three this morning. We're gonna start there.

Verses one through three. And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second was Abijah. They were judging in Beersheba. His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice.

Just what you want for your sons. Right? Just what you want to happen. Obviously, listen, Samuel, if you remember the story of Samuel, he was dedicated to the Lord as a baby. Samuel then was raised in the temple.

He was raised to be a prophet. He was raised to be a priest. He was raised to be a judge. And so he had been judging the nation of Israel. He had been doing that for a very long time.

And as he raised up and did everything in the admonition of the Lord, Israel was going well. But now we've come to a place where here they are in Beersheba, and he's gotten old. And so he's appointed his sons to take over after him as many men will do. They raise up a son to replace them when the time comes. And he had put his sons in place to rule and be over him, to judge, not to rule.

God was the ruler. They were the judge. But they were dishonest. They perverted the justice. They did all types of things.

When they took their portion, they took a larger portion than they were supposed to. When they did the justice, they took bribes in order to pervert the justice. They did all sorts of things for their own personal gain. They were supposed to be representing the kingdom of God, but instead, they were looking out for self. Everything they did, they were looking out for self.

Obviously, Samuel didn't raise his sons to be that way. He raised his sons to follow God, but they turned away to selfish gain. Why would they do that? They'd been raised in the admonition of the Lord. They had been shown all of the things that they were supposed to do.

They'd seen how God had blessed and everything that their father did, and yet somehow they turned away and started doing everything for self. One of the biggest lies that Satan tells is it's all about you. Satan is alive and well, has been since the Garden of Eden. All of this that we see in the scripture, Satan is in. Satan had come into the life of those men, maybe through whatever reasons, and put in them that they needed to be all about themselves.

Make no mistake, selfishness does not come from God, it comes from Satan. Selfishness is something that is in the flesh. It's in sinful. It's something that we all battle. We should be battling.

But instead, oftentimes, we don't battle. We just go with it. Whatever it is. Well, hey. It's all about me.

So Satan obviously had put into these men, it's about you. And so everything you can get, you better get because that's all you're gonna get. So it needs to be all about you. So they had turned against what god had shown them and began to live for self. They had turned away from what they knew.

Sadly, today, we look at our nation especially, and we see that a nation that's supposed to be a godly nation has turned away to selfish gain. We have turned away to selfish gain. Even the sons of a prophet and judge were easily turned from serving God to serving self. These are men that were brought up walking with God, walking in a way that was pleasing to him, studying scriptures, knowing what the Bible said, knowing what the scripture said, the way they were supposed to live, yet they turned away from God. Today, we have people that were raised in church from before they were born.

Right? Nine months before they were born, they were in church. From time they were born all the way through, they were in church. And yet somehow, they get out on their own and they turn away from God, and they turn to selfish gain. Why?

Because the world says that's what you should do. Why does the world say that? Because Satan is a prince of this world. And so as Satan does that and he tries to convince you, that's what it is. That's one of the biggest lies that Satan ever tells.

Look with me, to verse four and five. Look with me to verse four and five. It says, then all of the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. And they said to him, behold, you have grown old. Just what he wanted to hear.

Right? And your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations. Who came to them? The elders, the leaders, the ones that were supposed to be counsel for Samuel, the ones that were supposed to be carrying out God's will for the people, the ones that when they heard from the prophet and the judge, they were to go to the people and be the leaders.

They were the ones that were supposed to make sure that everything was going as it should, yet they already saw that the leaders that were there now, the sons of Samuel, were not doing what they were supposed to. They knew that they were not doing. You're old and your sons don't walk in your ways. That was an observation they needed to see. It was an observation that they knew well that there's his sons were not walking in the way of the lord.

That wasn't happening. But then they had a solution. Then they had a solution. Appoint a king over us just like all the other nations. So the solution is not help turn us back to godly ways as we should be, but instead, just make us like everybody else.

Appoint us a king, and let us serve him. They had a king. His name is God. God was the king of the people. Yet they said, we want an earthly king.

We want you to appoint an earthly king over us. We're willing to submit ourselves to an earthly king, and that's what we want because that's what everybody else has. That's just what everybody else has, so that's how we wanna do it. We don't wanna do it the way we're supposed to anymore. We wanna do it the way everybody else does.

The leaders, those who are supposed to know better, came to Samuel and said, appoint a king over us. These are the leaders. Now I want you to understand something here. This nation had been serving God as king of the nation for over four hundred years. And now they say, no, we want to be like everybody else.

We just want to be like everybody else. God's people are asking to be like everyone else. We wanna be like everybody else. We don't wanna be like God wants us to be anymore. We don't wanna walk in the ways of God.

We don't wanna have those, restrictions on us. We wanna be able to be self centered. We wanna be able to be like others. We won't when they look at us, we don't want them to see anything different than they see in themselves. We just wanna be like everybody else.

If God's people are just like everybody else, then how will others see Jesus in us? How would people see God if God's people were no different than the pagans? If God's people were no different than any other nation, how would people see God in any of that? How would they know? The sons of Samuel have become spiritually blind.

They have become spiritually blind. You see, instead of following God, they were following their own ways. They had become spiritually blind, and they weren't doing what they were supposed to do. They knew everything, but their eyes had been blinded because they weren't walking in the way that they were supposed to. If they had become spiritually blind and they weren't walking the way they were supposed to, the elders needed to step up.

They needed to talk to Samuel. They needed to come before, the group, and they needed to pick some new representation. They needed to do something to make sure that the people were being led in the right way. So the elders decided, I'm gonna step up. And the elders came, but the problem was the elders too were spiritually blind.

They were spiritually blind. They came and they said, we can't have this with your sons doing all of these things and perverting justice and and doing things selfishly. So what we need is we need a king like the rest of the nations, like the pagan nations, and so they too were spiritually blind. They didn't see what God's plan was. You know why?

They weren't looking for it. They weren't looking for it. Instead of worrying or thinking or praying or spending time with God, They were spending time wishing they could be like everybody else. Ask the children, if somebody had something, would you want to be like that? Well, yeah.

Everybody would want to be like that. If the person in school is popular, everybody wants to be with the popular people. They don't wanna be with the ones that nobody cares about. Everybody wants other people to like them, and they want to be like everybody else. They don't wanna be different.

Why? Because the different person is different. They stand out. They walk in a different way. But what if the person that's different is the person that's right?

What if the person that's different is the one that God has anointed to walk in that way? Understand that when God's people walk how he anointed us to walk, we're gonna be different. We will not be like the world. We have to take the blinders off. We have to ask God to remove these blinders so that we might walk in a way that's pleasing to him and not be spiritually blind.

The sons of Samuel have become spiritually blind. The elders have become spiritually blind. And today, that's more of a common thing than we realize. Understand, churches that call themselves Christian churches. In other words, they say we are the children of God.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Churches that call themselves that have allowed worldly things to come into the church. They have allowed worldly things to dictate and direct what's going on in the church. They have allowed things to happen that never should happen. And because of that, we're not following in God's will.

We're not doing what God called us to do. So the churches across the nation, believers across the nation are not walking in the ways that we're supposed to. We have become spiritually blind. And you know what? We seem to be okay with that.

There's a air freshener commercial. Talks about being nose blind. I'm sure you've probably seen it on television. And they go into a teenage boy's room, and there's dirty socks and underwear and everything all over the place, and, of course, it smells bad. The boy sitting in there playing video games, he's oblivious to the whole thing, says he's nose blind.

He doesn't smell that anymore. Why? Because he smelled it so long that he's just ignores it. It doesn't doesn't bother him anymore. God's people have ignored sin for so long that sin is not repulsive to us.

Sin is not repulsive to us. We become spiritually blind, and sin doesn't upset us anymore. We see it all around us on a daily basis, but it doesn't cause us to have any hard feelings. It doesn't cause us to be brokenhearted. It doesn't cause us to try to share God with people that we see these things happening.

We're spiritually blind because we just ignore it. Samuel's sons were spiritually blind because they just decided, you know what? We're gonna do things this way, and they didn't worry about all the rest of it. The elder said, oh, we see that, but they too were spiritually blind because we wanna be like everybody else. In the nation today, people in their head know that these things are not right, but in their heart, they don't do anything about it.

They don't do anything about it. People who were raised to follow god just wanna be like everybody else, and they've become spiritually blind. Look at verse six. When the elders came to Samuel and said, appoint us a king, it was displeasing. He said, but the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us, and Samuel prayed to the Lord.

So when they came to Samuel and said, hey, this is what's going on. You need to appoint a king just like everybody else has. Samuel didn't say, well, sure. Yeah. We can do that.

Samuel said, uh-uh. That's not right. I'm going to pray about this. I'm going to talk to the Lord about this because this isn't right. In fact, he became angry that the people wanted to become like a pagan nation.

He got upset. He's like, this is not how it's supposed to be. You know better. You know better. You know what the law of god is.

You know what god's word says. You know how we're supposed to live, yet you wanna be like everybody else. No way. You know better. Why are you asking for this?

Truthfully, today, we should be feeling the same way when we see god's people completely ignoring things that we know are wrong, completely ignoring what God's word says, living like everybody else. It should upset us. We should be upset that people are okay with that, that God's people are okay. Our heart should be broken when we see God's people that are okay with sin. We should be brokenhearted when things around us are sinful and we're just okay with that.

Well, you know, it's just kind of the way of the world today. The way of the world, not the way of God. Not the way of God. And when someone looks at God's people and they look identical to people who are not God's people, how do they see Jesus? How is it?

How can we see that? We've got to stop being like everybody else, and we've got to start standing apart as God's people. God's people said, we want a king. We want a king. Samuel got angry, and he began to talk to the only one he could talk to.

Everybody else was all about the king, but he went to God. He went to God. Now listen. I want you to understand this too. Lost people are also spiritually blind.

Lost people are also spiritually blind. So even if someone is trying, oftentimes, they're spiritually blind. Samuel went to God. He said, god, I don't know what to do. Your people are asking for a king, and I know that's not right.

We're gonna find out how God answered that in a little bit. But he went to God because he knew that things were happening. He didn't know how to handle it. Oftentimes, lost people we know lost people are also spiritually blind. So here's part of the problem.

When we talk to people and we try to share with people the gospel of Jesus Christ, sometimes they're spiritually blind and they don't hear it. They don't see it. Sometimes I think we have friends that seem to be spiritually blind and we react with anger when when they can't see what they're doing. Sometimes when we try to share the gospel with somebody and they reject it, we get angry. How can you not see?

I I showed you exactly what the gospel is, the good news of Jesus Christ. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That includes every one of us. Every one of us. The wages of sin is death.

That's a separation from God and eternal hell. But the free gift of God is eternal life. And if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. It's that easy. Are you ready to pray with me?

No. Why not? Yeah. I'm just not ready yet. And we get angry.

We don't understand. But don't you see? No. They don't. They don't see.

Their eyes are blinded. And so once for yours until God opened them. What do you do about it? The same thing Samuel did when the people of the day could not see that what was going on was wrong. He went to god and he prayed.

And he prayed, god, your people are asking to be like everybody else, and I know that's not right. What do I do? They're rejecting me. They're turning me away. They don't wanna listen to what I have to say.

What am I supposed to do? The answer's kinda shocking, actually. We need to talk to God just like he talked to God. We need to pray and we need to ask God to open our eyes, to open their eyes, to open everyone up that they might see. Sometimes what happens is we feel when we talk to someone and they reject God, we feel like it's a personal attack against us.

Well, I tried. They rejected me. They rejected me. Really? Were you asking them to receive you as their lord and savior?

No. That's not what you asked them. Were you asking them to be like you? I hope not because most of us are too much of a failure. We don't want them to be just like us.

What were we asking them? We were trying to get them to accept Jesus. Why do we take it so personally if they reject it? As if it's us they're rejecting. Samuel said, they're not listening, god.

They're not I'm telling them telling them everything, and they're not listening to me. Verse seven and eight says this, then the lord said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people. In regard to all that they say to you, in regard to all that they say to you. For they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Like all the deeds which they have done since the day I brought them up from Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken me and served other gods, so they are doing to you also.

They haven't rejected you. They rejected me. It's not you, Samuel. It's me. I was their king, and they're saying we don't want him as our king anymore.

We want a earthly king. It's me that they're rejecting. Yes. You've been telling them the right things, but they're rejecting me. There comes a point when they continue over and over to reject that god says, okay, then you can have that way.

He gives them over to depraved minds. He gives them over to the things that they want. I still believe that even though that happens, there are times when that happens and God still wants them to come to him. And he's still putting someone there trying to show them what they need to do. We know in this story, they were given over, but guess what?

God eventually brought them back, didn't he? He eventually brought them back. Over and over, that happened. They would reject God, but he would eventually bring them back. He still wants to bring them back.

So as we share with someone, we share the gospel, we tell them about Jesus, all of that, we need to hear and understand. It's not about us when they reject Jesus. It's about him. And if they reject him, that doesn't mean that's the end. Well, wait a minute, preacher.

You know, the Bible says sometimes a person can harden their heart to such a degree that they can't be saved. How do you know? How do you know if their heart is at a point where they can't be saved? You don't know. You don't know.

We can't see that. So you know what we should do? Keep praying. Keep sharing. Keep talking to them.

Keep trying to lead them to the right way. Keep trying to show them who Jesus is. Well, they're not gonna like me if I do that. Who cares? If they don't like you, but they receive Jesus and spend an eternity in heaven, what a celebration it'll be.

But if they like you, but they never accept Jesus and they spend an eternity in devil's hell, what a tragedy that would be. Because we were so concerned about them liking us, and we took it so personal when they rejected God that we stopped telling them about Jesus, and they never heard. The children of God said we don't want you anymore. We want a king, a earthly king. We wanna be like everybody else.

Samuel said, God, no. That can't be. I know this is wrong. God said, they've been saying that ever since I brought them out of Egypt. Everything that I have done to this point, they have rejected me.

We know that right after they came out of Egypt, they put up a golden calf and started worshiping that. They turned away from every time something got hard, they turned away from God. That was their MO over and over and over. And guess what? It's today's person's MO as well.

Things get hard and people reject. They'd walk away. They look for other things. Well, God's not answering my prayer, is he? Maybe he's not answering how you want it, but he's answering your prayer.

His word says that he will. Well, god is how could I have a god that treats people like that? I I prayed so hard, but my loved one still died. Why would God do that? Maybe he was answering a different prayer.

Maybe the time for your loved one to spend an eternity and no longer be in this evil world had come. Maybe the best thing that could ever happen was your loved one could go home and be with god. But I prayed and god didn't answer my prayer. I prayed that god would heal them, and he didn't heal them. Yes.

He did. They're healed now. I prayed for this, and it didn't happen. I prayed for that, and it didn't happen. I've often thought, what if at some point in our life, we could look back?

See what we wanted and see what God did, and how wrecked we would be knowing that God was doing all these good things, and instead, I was begging for him to do something else. We don't get a chance to do that until we get to heaven. Right? We won't see that. But we know that God said he'll answer those prayers.

God said, they've been asking for this for the whole time. I want you to give them what they want. Sometimes we take that rejection personally and we say, I'm just not gonna witness to him anymore. Is that the right thing to do? No.

We need to keep doing it. Will there come a time can there come a time where their heart is so hard that God says, you know what? They've rejected me. They're never gonna change, and it's over for them. Yes.

But we don't know when that is. We don't know, and so we need to keep talking to them. Just like these people, god said, we're gonna give them that king. I'm gonna give them what they want. I'm gonna give them the king.

Sometimes I'm so thankful that god did not give me what I prayed for. Because if god gave me what I prayed for, I'd really messed it up. Maybe we have to talk to people about god multiple times. Maybe it's the thirty seventh time that we shared the gospel that they accepted Christ. Maybe they have to go through something hard like these children of Israel had to go through.

Maybe they have to go through something hard before they finally turn to god. I don't know. We need to pray for everyone who's suffering from spiritual blindness. We don't give up. Instead, we pray because prayer changes things.

Prayer changes things. But also, he told Samuel to warn them. I'm gonna give them what they're asking for, but I want you to warn them and tell them what it's gonna be like. Look at verse nine. Now then, listen to their voice.

However, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them. Ultimately, the king who's going to reign over them is Satan. No. Not by name in that passage. It was a human, but it was a human.

It was under the influence of Satan. Ultimately, when we say, god, we want someone else to rule over us. We want to follow everybody else. We want to be like all those other people. Understand that the king they're following is Satan.

Hold up. You try and tell me that if they're not following God, they're following Satan? That's exactly what I'm trying to tell you. If they're not following god, they're following Satan. Well, I've never heard anybody say they follow Satan because they've been confused.

They're blinded spiritually. But make no mistake, if they're not following god, they're following Satan. Those are the only two choices in this world. Either you're with me or you're not. Either you're following God or you're following Satan, there is no in between.

There's no middle ground. Warn them. The king who will reign over them is Satan. Warn them that when they accept to be like everybody else, that they have rejected God. Later in the passage, it says, I'll give them the king.

And after this king comes over him, and the king destroys them and takes from them and has them in such oppression that they're slaves, and they call out to God and say, God, rescue us. I will not listen to their voice. That's what it says in that passage. We know that over and over, god did rescue them, but only because someone came up in the group who was faithful. And because of them, God rescued the rest.

Maybe you're the one that's faithful. And because of you, God wants to rescue other people. But if we stop talking to people because we think we're the ones being rejected, if we stop talking to people because our feelings are hurt, then how's God going to reach them? How will they know? You see, spiritual blindness is something that happens not just to the lost, but also to the saved.

We would get we get blinded. We lose our way and we stumble away from God. But the good news is if you know Jesus as Lord and savior, you can find your way back. And when you do, you gotta work extra hard to try to bring those others with you. We live in a world today where everybody wants to be like everybody else.

Oh, my goodness. If if you look at TV commercials, man, you gotta have this brand of jeans because this is it. If you don't have this, then then you can't be anything. You gotta have this thing. And people buy into that.

Problem is they buy into that, and two weeks later, there's a new kind of jeans that's better than the old kind of jeans, and now you gotta have them or you won't be able to do it. Why? Because the genes weren't that good in the first place. You gotta follow what you want. You gotta be all about self, except that you find out that when you're all about self, it's an empty thing.

And no matter everything you try to do, all the things you try to put together for self is gonna fail. Why? Because God designed you to worship him. God designed you to be in a relationship with him, and everything you do apart from that is unfulfilling. Billionaires.

Man, they have the money. They've done all this stuff, and they've been given all the money. They've worked for all the money. Somehow, they have all the money. And almost every single billionaire that you talk to and ask them, do they have enough money?

No. Why? Well, I I haven't earned as much as I want to yet. How much do you wanna earn? You have a hundred billion dollars.

How are you gonna you know, what why do you need more money? Well, I'm just still not happy. Guess what? Another hundred billion ain't gonna make you happy either. Because those are things that are not what god designed you for, but that's your idol.

That's the thing that you're worshiping. And really, it becomes back to your worshiping self. You want it all to be about you. God says, it's not about you. It's about me.

He told Samuel, they're not rejecting you. They're rejecting me. But the reality is that this life is not about you. It's about god. This life is not about you having everything you want.

It's about serving god while you're here. Well, how long am I here for? Nobody knows. Nobody knows. We don't understand.

There are people that come on this were on this earth, and they live to be a hundred plus years old. And everybody always wants to know how they do that. Was it their diet? Did they exercise like they should? They eat like they should?

That, you know, what is it about them that caused them to be able to live that long? And they'll talk to one person and they'll say, oh, yes. I had a good diet. I did whatever all my life. And the next person they talk to is a hundred and two said, I ate bacon for breakfast every morning.

That's my secret. Or somebody says I had a drink of whiskey every night. That's my secret. I did this every time. It that's not a secret.

The reality is it had nothing to do with their longevity. Why did they live to be that long? For some, unfortunately, it's because God kept giving them more and more chances to turn to him, and some never did. There are some that die very young, and we wonder why. Why did God take this this child away?

Why was this this child gone? Well, the world doesn't understand, but God puts us in the world for something. And when that's accomplished, he's ready to bring us home. Some accomplished it much earlier than others. Some accomplished it as a baby.

Well, how could a baby accomplish anything? They don't know anything. Yes. But that life that came into someone else's life accomplished just what God wanted it to accomplish. And then he took him home.

We don't know why, but here's what we do know. God did not create us and put us in this world to do everything for self. He created us and put us in this world to worship him, to have a relationship with him, to tell others about him, to reach out and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here at the Church of Orchard, there's a community all around us that's lost, that doesn't know Jesus. They're lost.

They don't know him. They're right in our shadow of our steeple, and yet somehow they still don't know. There are people maybe that are in your life that you work with, live next to, their family members. There's somebody you see every day, and yet they don't know Jesus. Have you ever told them?

Well, I think they might be a Christian because one time they were talking really little. It didn't have anything to do with them knowing Jesus. We don't know if we don't ask. People are spiritual blinded, and we need to help them come to see Jesus. Ultimately, God is the only one that can remove the veil.

But if we continue to pray, and we continue to do, and we continue to serve, God might just use you to help remove that veil. He might just use you to be the one to lead someone to Christ. He might just use this church to be the one to start a revival in this land. We don't know. But if we don't act as if that's true, then we become spiritually blind like the rest of the world.

Today, I wanna encourage you. No matter what is happening in your life, instead of trying to be all about you, be about God. Somebody says, you don't understand. I'm struggling with so much stuff. I don't know what to do.

I'm just in torment. I'm sad. I'm crying. I'm overwhelmed in everything that I'm doing, and you're telling me that I need to worship God. Yes.

Yes. I am. Because when we begin to worship, it takes it all off of us and it puts it on God, and God's burden is a whole lot easier than ours. God begins to carry that. He begins to show us.

We begin to see how he wants to use us. We began to be lifted by giving him the burden and by turning everything over to him. We need to be those spiritual leaders that God calls us to be. Well, I've never really been a leader. That's okay.

Neither had Moses, but God said, come and do this. He gave me every reason why not. God said, no. No. You come do this.

I'll take care of the rest. God will use you if you let him. If we want to be like everybody else, then how can we have a close relationship with God? Today, I'm encouraging you stand apart. Not just to stand apart, but stand apart and stand with God.

That's what we've gotta do right now. That's what God's people have to do right now if we wanna see this nation begin to turn back to Jesus Christ. Let's pray.

And that's what it's all about, really and truly. That's what everything is really about. Eternal life. I spoke with someone just yesterday, and we're talking about what is the most important thing that you can do in life, and that is to help someone see the glory of God and the opportunity to receive eternal life.

Because everything else we do in this world is temporary. It's only temporary. But salvation is eternal. Rebuilding together is the title today, and we are going to be over in Nehemiah. You can go ahead and turn there if you would like.

But I want to talk about a few things before we get there. So have you ever seen a house that was neglected for many years? You know, when you drive by sometimes and there's a house and maybe nobody's lived there for a while or maybe someone who was not able to take care of it or whatever the case may be, it was neglected. There was no maintenance done. It wasn't taken care of when, there were leaks or there was damage, and, the roof may be damaged.

There's all kinds of things that have happened. And if you watch over a period of time, that house that may have once been a big, glorious, beautiful house begins to deteriorate. It begins to fall apart. When it's not touched for so long, it starts to completely fall apart. Everything about it that we see, things fall apart and unwanted pests show up.

There are a lot of things that, move in, animals and and bugs and all kinds of things, and sometimes, people that, just move into it and and just utilize it for all kinds of illegal activities and everything else. A lot of stuff happened, and so as the house begins to deteriorate, it looks terrible. There was a house recently in our neighborhood that's been that way for years. But sometimes, people buy a house, and they make it beautiful. In our neighborhood, they've done just that.

They've made a house that was falling apart beautiful. You drive down the street and go, wow. It looks so great. What a beautiful thing that they've done with that old house. Now listen, they didn't tear it completely apart.

They tore it down to the studs, and then they rebuilt it. The studs and the foundation and all of that that was there was good. The outside was not good. Today it seems that our nation has become like that old house. Today, our nation has become like that old house.

And I don't mean just our nation. What I mean when I say our nation is I mean the people in our nation. The people in our nation have become like that old house that had they have not received what they needed. They haven't taken care of their self. They haven't taken care of their walk.

They haven't taken care of the life that's been given to them. And so the whole nation, and especially believers, have become like that old house and are beginning to be deteriorated. It's beginning to be deteriorated. And so we look around on a daily basis and we see that this nation is just not what it used to be. God's people have not been diligent to take care of this nation, to take care of the church universal, to take care of any of those things as we need to, and therefore, it has began to crumble.

It has began to crumble. It's cracked. It's dilapidated. There are things that are holes that's falling apart. All of these things that's going on, and because of it, unwanted pests have moved in.

The main unwanted pest that has moved in and all of that, his name is Satan. Satan has moved in because God's people have not taken care of the church universal. They've not taken care of the nation like we need to. We have not risen up and done the things that we needed to do as a people. We are not doing what the great commandment tells us to do.

We're not going and making disciples. We're not baptizing. We're not doing any of those things. And because of not doing those things, we can see that the church universal is crumbling. The church has fallen down.

The the the people in the nation are turning away from God. God is not mentioned in so many places anymore. That's because God's people have allowed his house, the church, to begin to be in disarray. We've allowed it to fall apart. And I don't mean physical buildings, I mean the church universal.

I mean the church that's made up of people. We've allowed it to literally deteriorate. Satan has moved in, and he's caused many, many problems. Satan's been here all along. Okay?

It isn't that he wasn't here. In fact, we're studying Genesis on, Wednesday night, and he was in the garden. Right? He was in the garden with Adam and Eve. He's been here the whole time.

It's not that he hasn't been here. He's been here. But the thing is, when God's people were doing what we were supposed to do, and people prayed, and people shared the gospel, and people walked in the way that we're called to walk according to biblical standards, we did not see the effects of Satan in the way that we see him today. Today, we see it very clearly. We know that it's there.

It's happening all around us, and we can see that because there's holes in the wall. There's roofs falling in. There's things that are done with no type of repair. God's people have just become complacent. We've allowed Satan to just do his thing however he wants to do it.

You know the crazy thing about, a dilapidated house? Once it reaches a certain point, nobody cares. You know, up to this point, maybe somebody tries something, but once it reaches a certain point, they just let it go. It it'd be too hard to fix it. There'd be too much to do to make it right again.

You know, it's just it's not worth it, and they just leave it alone. And unfortunately, the church of God is being treated like that today. It's gone too far. There's no way we could build it back. There's no way that all that could happen.

So, you know, we're just we're it's just come quickly, Lord. Forget about all this. We're just done. Just go ahead and come and and take us all home, and we just don't worry about the rest of it. Well, there's a problem with that.

The problem with that is that if God comes today, probably most of us in this room will have family in our life that will spend an eternity in hell because they've never given their life to God. And instead of giving up, maybe the church needs to band together and begin to rebuild. God's people had neglected God. God's people had neglected God. So look with me to chapter four of Nehemiah verses one through nine.

Chapter four of Nehemiah verses one through nine. It's on the screen if you don't have your Bible. Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews. He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, what are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves?

Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble, even the burned ones? Now Tobiah the Amorite Ammonite, I'm sorry, was near him, and he said even what they are building, if a fox would jump on it, it would break down their stone wall. Hear, oh god, how we are despised.

Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before you, for they have demoralized the builders. So we built the wall, and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, and the Amorites, and their Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry. All of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it.

But we prayed to our god, and because of them, we set up a guard against them day and night. God's people had neglected God, and their city was destroyed, and they were taken into captivity. All these years later, God has allowed Nehemiah to come back and gather the people to begin rebuilding the city. Why? Because Nehemiah had been faithful, because Nehemiah had prayed, because Nehemiah desperately wanted to see the city rebuilt and god's temple repaired.

And because of all of that, God allowed it to happen, and he allowed him to come back. Now he came back and he gathered the people, and they began to build. God allowed him to do that, and he allowed the people to come together. Here's the thing. It took Nehemiah to start that process.

It took Nehemiah to get that process started. Up until that point, nothing had happened. But Nehemiah was stricken for the condition of the city. He was stricken because God's people had so neglected God that all of this had happened. He was heartbroken over the fact that God's people were not able to worship in the city in which they desired to be there.

God's people were not able to come together and worship freely as they once had. He's he was heartbroken over that. And so instead of saying, it's so sad, and then going on to Starbucks to get him a coffee or whatever it was that he decided to go do, he was so heartbroken, he began to pray. And he began to pray, and God took that and he used it. He used it to make him a leader.

And as a leader, he began to be a leader of the people, and he led the people to go back and rebuild. God's people today have neglected God. Now I want you to be clear and understand what I just said. I didn't say lost people today have neglected God. What I said was God's people, those who know him, those who say they gave their life to him, those who call themselves believers and Christians have neglected God today.

God's people have neglected God. That's what got, the Israelites in trouble to begin with, neglecting God. Today, God's people have neglected God. For too long, the people in America have neglected to serve God with all our hearts. Therefore, the nation that was once called a godly nation is no longer called a godly nation.

The nation, United States Of America, One nation under God. You know, there is a massive push to remove that phrase out of the pledge of allegiance because the nation is no longer considered a godly nation. This nation is no longer considered a godly nation because God's people, who are called by his name, have not done what we need to do. Instead, we have allowed the church to deteriorate. We have allowed the roof to start to fall in.

We have allowed the walls to start opening up with holes. We have allowed mold in the building. We have allowed all of these things to happen in the church of God. We have allowed it to be torn down and fall apart. The bad part is for most of what has happened, it's not due to what the enemy has done.

It's due to the fact that god's people didn't do anything to take care of it. You know, it's one thing when the enemy comes in and destroys something, But when God's people just simply neglect it and it falls apart, that's so much worse. That's what's happening today. That's where we are today. That's why when we look around today, we have a church congregation that even one section is not full.

We can go down the street and check another church and another church and another church, and guess what? Almost every one of them look just alike. God's people have neglected God. The churches of America have been complacent and derelict in our godly mission. What is our godly mission?

Go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. That's what we're supposed to be doing. That's what god has called us to do. That's what when we receive the salvation from god, we didn't receive the salvation, and God said, okay. Now you're saved.

Go chill out until it's time to go home. He said, now you're saved. It's time to be on mission for me. It's time to get out and see the other people. Go and tell.

Go and tell. You know, it's amazing thing. We can have some little funny thing that happens, and we want everybody to know about it. Oh, we tell them on the phone. We we text them.

We send it out on Facebook, all this stuff. It was so funny. We won't tell everybody about that. But we don't do the same thing to tell everybody about god. We don't do the same thing.

You say, well, you know, sometimes people get mad when you tell them about god. I know. Yeah. They do. Sometimes they get mad.

I would rather they be mad today, convicted tomorrow, and saved the day after that, than to be okay with me today, lost tomorrow, and spent eternity in hell. They might be mad at me. I might lose them as a friend. That doesn't mean I'm gonna stop praying for them. It doesn't mean I'm gonna stop trying to tell them.

We never know. How many times does it take to tell somebody about God before they receive him? There's no answer. There's no answer. We don't know.

Sometimes you tell somebody about God, and the very first time, God convicts them, and right then and there, they receive Jesus as Lord and savior. Hallelujah. Sometimes, it took four people to share the same story before they finally had their eyes open, and they were convicted and received Jesus Christ as lord and savior. Sometimes it takes forty years before they finally are convicted and receive Jesus as lord and savior. I've I've said before, I've talked to people who have been told over and over and over and over their whole life.

I I've talked to at least one person literally on their deathbed that had rejected and rejected and rejected their whole life. But someone said, will you come and talk to them? Nothing special about me. It's just a different person talking to them. We prayed about it.

I went and talked to him, and the person gave their life to Christ. And a week later, they were in heaven with him. What if nobody talked to him? What if they decided it's falling apart? There's no chance.

There's no way that we can, save this. Let's just leave it. Don't worry about that one. Just move on to something else. The churches of America have been complacent and derelict of godly of their godly mission.

However, if God's people rise up and begin to rebuild, they will succeed. Verses one through three says, it came about when Sanballat heard the rebuilding wall, he was furious, angry, and mocked the Jews. He spoke in the presence of the brothers and the wealthy men, and they are going to restore it themselves. How can this happen? Basically, it's what he said.

In verse three, it says, now Tobiah was near him and said even what they were building, if a fox jumped on it, it would fall down. God's people were mocked. They were mocked. They were scorned. They were told it can't happen.

No one believed they could. You know what typically happens when that occurs? The people that are trying to do the building believe it. They believe it. It can't happen.

Listen. You think Christians can change the world? There's no way Christians can change the world. They can't even get together and decide on the color of the wall. There's no way Christians are gonna change the world.

They can't even make up their own mind. There's no way Christians are gonna change the world. They can't even decide whether they stand on this side or whether they stand on that side. They don't know. How is that gonna happen?

And most Christians look out and go, they're right. They're right. We can't change the world. All we can do is take care of ourself. We just had to take care of ourself.

That's all we have to do. Listen. You have to take care of yourself in order to take care of others, in order to complete the mission. A soldier has to be in shape and do exercise and, have a a good diet and do all that he has to do to be ready that when the time comes, he can fight for the country. A Christian has to be ready and pray and spend time in god's word and take in the right nourishment and get the right exercise by serving God even in their own house so that they can be ready to go and help rebuild the church.

But instead, after being mocked and scorned, God's people believed it. They believe there's no way. But here's what I want you to know. When Satan and the rest of the world say, there's no way. It's not even a worry.

It's not even a fear for us. Saint Ballet said, even the rocks they got won't fall stay up. Nothing to it. It's not gonna happen. They didn't think there was any chance.

And so they didn't worry about it. You know what God's people did? They built the wall. The most important thing to us, the most important tool one of the important tools that we have is that when they don't believe it, then we don't have the opposition. They're not fighting against us while we're trying to rebuild, and all of a sudden, guess what?

It's rebuilt halfway, and they go, wait. I didn't expect that to happen. It won't be done if we don't put our selfishness aside and serve god completely. What do I mean by that? I mean, if we don't stop thinking only about self and start thinking about god and the mission of god, we can never complete the mission.

We live in America where it's all about me. What's best for me? What's in it for me? How can I get something out of it? What happens if I do this?

How am I gonna be promoted, lifted up, have my name written in the history books? It's about me. Well, I got news for you. To put it in my country, Alabama vernacular, it ain't about you. It's about God.

And until we understand that it's not about me, it's about God, we're gonna continue to walk in that selfishness. We're gonna continue to do that. The world says, you you need to be taking care of number one. Well, number one is god. Amen?

So if number one is god, yeah, let's take care of number one, but I'm not number one. I'm not even number two. Verse four says, here, oh god. What did they do? After they got chastised and scorned and told they couldn't do it, they prayed.

Here, oh our god, how we are despised, return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for the plunder in the land of captivity. They prayed. God, take care of them. They're they're despising us. They're scorning us.

They're trying to stop us from what we're doing. You take care of them. We can't. You take care of them. So first of all, Nehemiah prayed.

That is the number one thing that god's people today have neglected. First, pray. Pray. Survey says that the average Christian in The United States Of America prays approximately four minutes per day, and that includes praying over your meals. So if it takes me thirty seconds to pray over my meal Lord, thank you for the food.

Amen. That's how some people pray. Right? Thank you for the food. Amen.

That's it. If it takes me thirty seconds pray over my meals a day, that's three times a day. That only leaves me with three and a half minutes to talk to god on a personal level. You can't even make a post on Facebook in three and a half minutes. How are you gonna spend time talking to God in only three and a half minutes of your life?

First of all, pray. Nehemiah prayed. He prayed before they began and all during the restoration. It wasn't one time. I prayed about it, brother George.

How many times did you pray about that? What do you mean? You said pray. I prayed about it. Check.

Time to move on. Why did you only pray once for that? What do you mean? I prayed about it, didn't I? You say you did.

Prayed about it once. Is it that trivial, whatever it is, that you could only talk to god about it for thirty seconds and move on? We will rant and rave over the service we received in the drive through longer than we talked to god. Is it worth it? God wants to have a relationship with his people.

God wants us to be close to him. How can we be close if we don't pray? Everybody has seen this plastered all over the place, but it is so true. Second Chronicles seven fourteen. Second Chronicles seven fourteen.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and, get this, turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin, and I will hear their land. The key to rebuilding is, first of all, we have to ask that God forgive us for the things that we've done and the way we've been living. Second, God has forgive us for those things that we've done because he says he will. Then when we pray and ask all that, then he will hear from heaven and forgive our sin and heal our land.

If my people the first key word in that is if. Is that not break your heart? That the scripture, inspired by god to be written down said, if my people if. Not when, but if. If my people who are called by my name god says if these are the people called by his name.

Why is there a if? It should be a when. Of course, god's people are supposed to be doing this. Why is there a if there? Because God's people have been derelict in what we're supposed to do.

God's people have been complacent. We just let things happen, and we've not spent our time serving God. If, my people, the most important thing we can do today is pray. Pray. And I don't mean a thirty second prayer on your way out the door.

I don't mean just a casual reference to God in something you're doing throughout the day. I mean a heartfelt conversation with God. Take that time to pour yourself out before him and not just pour yourself out and say, God, I need, I need, I need, I need. We all tend to do that. Oh, I pray to god.

Yeah. When you need, you need, you need, you need, you need. You pray. But what about god? What do you need?

What can I do for you? How do I serve you better? What do you want me to do today? Well, I'm glad you asked. I want you to go over to that neighbor that you really dislike and tell them that god loves them.

Oh, hold on. Wait a minute now, god. You know, we don't get along in him. He's not even a Christian. Why you think I want you to go over there and talk to him?

I want you to go talk to him and tell him about me, but you don't understand how bad that guy is. He's just rude. It's because he don't know me. Go tell him about me. Well, what if he gets mad?

Well, he's mad at me, not you, so go tell him anyway. Well, he might not like me after I do that. He don't like you now anyway. He already doesn't like you. It's not gonna change.

Go tell him about God, and then he might love you because he finds his salvation. If my people, first of all, pray. Secondly, we need to come together and work to rebuild the kingdom. We need to come together and work to rebuild the kingdom. Here's the thing.

I wanna make sure you understand this. If I ask today for volunteers to raise your hand and say, who will be with me to help rebuild the kingdom? And everybody's hand goes up. I want you to understand before you raise your hand, I'm not gonna ask the question. Before you raise your hand, you will face persecution.

I need a volunteer, but, oh, yeah. It's gonna be difficult. I need you to volunteer for this, but people are not gonna like it, and they're gonna talk bad about you. I want you to volunteer for this, but people are gonna flat out hate you. They may come by and and throw eggs at your house.

They may plaster your name all over Facebook. They may say horrible things about you. All this might happen, but I need you to volunteer. Most of us go, yeah. No.

Not that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I told you, we're gonna face persecution. I don't I don't wanna do that.

Why are we surprised when persecution comes? Understand this. God told us in the beginning, we will face trials and tribulation. We will. Why?

Because he did. He walked on this earth, god in the flesh, and faced trials and persecution and tribulation in the time that he was here. Why would we think we're better than him? We're gonna face persecution. Here's what happens when Christians are persecuted in America.

Hun, they said bad things about me. I don't wanna talk about that anymore. I'm just gonna do my thing and leave them alone. What if somebody felt that way about you before you came to know god? We're going to face persecution.

In The United States Of America, we are blessed that we haven't faced the type of persecution that people around the world have faced today. There are places in the world today by simply mentioning the name of Jesus, you're condemned to death, And people die every day because they did. There are places in the world today where if you mention the name of Jesus, you're gonna be go to jail for the rest of your life. There are people in jail sharing with other prisoners about god. Some say that The United States is the worst form of persecution of all.

Because instead of seeing that there's an absolute something and defying it anyway, it's a subliminal persecution. It's one that flies under the radar, and we're persecuted and don't even realize it. And so fighting against it is difficult. You will be persecuted when you stand up for God. Just as a reminder, when he stood up for you, he was beaten beyond recognition.

His beard was literally pulled out by the roots. A crown of thorns forced down upon his head to the point that blood poured down his forehead. He was beaten with so many lashes across his back that the law said if they'd hit him one more time, it would have been illegal because that could have caused death. Then he received nails in his hands and feet and was raised up on a cross to die when he stood up for you. He hasn't asked you to be persecuted like that, but he said we will face persecution.

It could come to that. We don't know. God told us that we would face persecution. So when it happens, instead of being surprised, we need to push through. Look at verses six through eight.

So we built the wall, and the whole wall was joined together to half its height. When they say the whole wall was joined together, it means that all the holes were closed up. It was only halfway the height that it was supposed to be, but the whole wall had been rejoined together. That in itself was a phenomenal feat. They didn't think it could be done, but it was.

The people had a mind to work. They all came together for that purpose of rebuilding that wall. Why? It wasn't about the wall. It was about bringing God's people back together for him.

And it started with the wall. Now when Sambowed Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashlanites heard the repair of the walls, Jerusalem went on and that the breaches began to be closed. They were very angry. They all compire conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it. When the world sees God's people began to come together and began to build the church back up, It's gonna fight against it.

They're gonna be terrified. Satan is gonna say, wait. It can't happen. Go fight. We're gonna be persecuted.

We're gonna be some of us killed, but nothing can separate us from the love of God. Amen? We've got to rebuild. The people in Nehemiah's day had a mind to work. They had a purpose.

They were coming together to build it back, the kingdom of God, and they kept doing it even knowing they were gonna be attacked. The rest of the story comes later. You read on down in there, you'll find out what happened. But what I want you to see is this, Nehemiah and the people were not discouraged. They were told, we're going to come battle against it.

They weren't discouraged. They kept on working. They kept on working. They said, we're gonna keep doing it. I know it's hard, but we're gonna keep doing it.

If you come and fight against us, we're gonna pray, and we're gonna keep doing it. We're gonna keep on doing what god wants us to do. It's exactly how we need to work today. Verse nine says this, we pray to our God. They said, we're coming against you, but we pray to our God, and because of them, we set up a guard against them day and night.

That's exactly how we need to work today. That's exactly how we need to work today. What did they do first? When all the persecution was coming, everything that happened, they prayed. That was the first thing.

Today, those who are able need to work diligently. I understand. There are some people that aren't physically able to do certain things. Those who are able need to work diligently. Those who are not physically able, you know what they do?

They're the ones standing on the wall praying while the rest are working. I can't physically do this, but I can pray. I can stand firm on this wall, and I can pray while God's people rebuild. I can do that much. Understand that power of prayer is greater than anything we could ever imagine.

No. I'm not strong enough to do that anymore, but I can pray. I can still pray. Many people in this congregation have gone to be with the lord today and said, I don't know why god has still kept me here. And I said, god has something for you to do.

Maybe it's to pray. And they would say, you know what? I can do that. I can do that. Those who can physically do it need to be doing it.

We need to be rebuilding. We need to be working. We need to be trying to build the kingdom of god back up and not just watching it fall down and go, it's so sad. That's so sad. It is sad.

Do something. Those who aren't physically able should be praying for those who are working. And all of us should be diligently in prayer every day before, during, and after work. Continually in prayer. Before we go and try to build up the kingdom, we pray.

While we're working, we pray. And when it's over at the end of the day, we pray. And if we're spending that time praying, God's gonna give us what we need. God's gonna give us what we need. We wanna rebuild.

The rest of the story, by the way, is Nehemiah did succeed. He did succeed. The wall was rebuilt. God allowed it to be done. Oh, they faced plenty of persecution.

They had to fight battles. They had to do all of those things, but they prayed, and they worked. And as the persecution came, they fought, and they prayed, and they worked, and they continued on and on until it was all finished. And you know what? When it was finished, they didn't stop there.

They kept praying, and they kept working. The question that I have today is, are you ready to be a construction worker? Children said no. The real question is, do you want to be part of the crew that rebuilds the house of God? Do you want to do that?

We, as God's people, who are called by his name, first, humble yourself. It's not about you. And pray and turn away from your wicked ways. Well, why you say I'm wicked, brother George? If you're not praying and serving God, what you're doing is wicked.

Turn from your wicked ways and seek his face, then he will hear from heaven, forgive your sin, and heal our land. Are you ready to be part of that construction crew? If you're not, then this is my first task for you. Pray. Pray that God would prepare your heart.

Pray that he would get you ready to be part of that. You might need to be a foreman on that crew. Maybe God wants you to be a leader. I don't think I can be a leader. You can't, not without God, but if he calls you, you can.

Maybe he needs you to be a worker. Maybe he needs you to be somebody that stands on the wall and prays for those that are working. Whatever that he needs, we need to be ready to serve him. We need to have a desire to see god's church rebuilt. Rebuilt.

Not so we can say, ah, see. Christians, we did it. We did it. No. So we can say, God loves you.

God is greater than all this other stuff. And you know what? He stands with his arms open wide and says, come. I'll forgive you of everything that has happened. I will wash you white as snow.

I will cast your sin as far as the East is from the West. I will wash you with the blood of Christ and I will bring you into the kingdom forever all of eternity. That's what we need to be sharing to the people of the world. That's why we need to build up the kingdom of God. Are you one of God's people?

Listen. If you're one of God's people today, that question, are you ready to work, is a valid question. Are you ready? If not, pray. Ask God, how can I be used?

Maybe you today are here and you say, you know, I'm not one of God's people. I mean, I I I I've heard of God and I I read my bible sometimes, and I come to church every once in a while, I sing the songs and all of that, but I don't have a personal relationship with him. Good news. He stands with his arms over wide today waiting. If you need to come to know him today, he's he's there.

If you're are one of God's people, it's time to get back to work. We've got to rebuild. We've got to rebuild Because people need to know the Lord. Without him, there's an eternity in hell waiting for him. God said, it is not my desire that any would spend an eternity in hell, but that all would be saved, but he leaves it up to them.

But he wants you to tell them and give them that choice. What if nobody ever told them there was a choice? Nobody ever shared with them. You don't have to live this way. You can accept Jesus.

What if they never knew? Understand that this country today is one of the most unreached people groups in the world. That's why we like to give to our North American missions to try to reach people for God today. There are many people that the only time they've ever heard the word Jesus is as a swear word. We need to rebuild together.

We have a time invitation. God's placed it on your heart that today you need to come and let me tell you how you can give your life to him, then please come. If god placed it on your heart that today you need to come and throw something down at the altar so that it can be given over to him and you can take that away and you can rise up and serve him the way that you're supposed to, the altar's open. If there's someone on your heart that you know, they don't know Jesus, but I want them to know, and I need help. I need to be able to be strong enough to come come bring that to the altar.

The altar is a great place to do it. Nothing magic. It's just symbolic of the altar in heaven. I'll say this. As we have this time of invitation, if the Holy Spirit puts something on your heart, on your mind, please just move.

Do whatever it is that he tells you to do. Let's pray.

Amazing. You know, this week, for whatever reason, I don't know the Lord put it there, but almost all week long, I have been every moment that something wasn't happening in my mind, in my heart, I began to sing, I can only imagine. And in that song where it says, I can only imagine when it says, surrounded by your glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you, Jesus, or will I and all of you be still? Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall?

You know, I don't know. I don't know what's gonna happen. But the point is, God is so unfathomable. We can probably sit and try to write down every adjective that God puts in our mind about who he is and how he is, and still never come close to describing God truly. He is absolutely unfathomable.

He is greater than we could even begin to imagine. I think that so many times we can be satisfied with less. And so we don't think about the absolute fullness, greatness of God. We just kinda oh, yeah, God. Sometimes the things that are going crazy around you, it does make you wonder about God.

I I mean, it does me. I'm not sure if it does you, but it it does me. When there are so many things that are going on around us in this world, some of them very bad, some of them very good, but there are so many things that are going on around us all the time. And I think as humans, we began to think about God. We wonder about God, and sometimes the thoughts come, you know what?

Is God even real? I mean, is God even real? Look at these things that are happening in my life. Things are falling apart. There there are stuff that's happening, and I don't know how I'm ever going to recover from the things that are going on.

Things are really bad. Does God care? Does he does he care about the things that are happening in my life? And we began to question all of those things. Maybe we think, you know what?

Maybe he's just too busy. I mean, you know, I'm just one person and there's billions of people in this world, so maybe God is just too busy. Even the most faithful people sometimes struggle with those thoughts. So first of all, I want you to pause for a moment and go, I am just human, because there's been times where I just was like, all these years and and why would that question even come in my mind? Why would I even begin to think, is God even real?

Does he even care? All the things that he's done in my life over and over and over, yet somehow that still comes into my mind. I wanna tell you about another man named King David. If you go read through the Psalms, you'll find many times where David is questioning God. He's questioning God.

God, these things are happening, and it's amazing how he goes through the passage, and it's like he's having this conversation with himself. He goes through the passage, and he begins with question, but then he tries to console itself that, you know what? Why am I even thinking this? And by the end of the passage, he's saying, god is absolutely great. And he begins to realize that.

I think that's kind of the process for a lot of us. As we go through these hard times and things happen, sometimes we struggle. It's partially because we think of God with human attributes. Well, you know, people can't do everything. And sometimes when we think about these human attributes, we put limitations on God.

We think about God and we say, you know, God just he just can't. It's just too much. And, you know, sometimes it's just more than you can handle, not God. It's never more than he can handle. Sometimes we think about God and we we want to talk about God as being our friend.

We have conversations and we pray with God and and a lot of people struggle. Well, how do I pray? And they're told, well, just talk to God like you talk to anybody else. Because God understands and and when you talk to God that way, he hits that. But sometimes we'll because of that, I think we look at God as just a a grander human.

And let me tell you, God is not human. God is indescribable. He's unfathomable. There are so many things about God that the Bible says we won't ever know on this side of heaven. We won't know.

There's too many things if it was all written down, the world couldn't contain it. There are things that God says you are not meant to know. There are things that we're just not meant to know. God is just that big. He is totally unfathomable.

So today, I want us to look back in the Old Testament to look at someone who, spent a lot of time talking to God and shared a lot of it with us in Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 40. Some of you say, oh, I love this chapter. I know part of this chapter. I I hold on to some of it, and I'm glad that you do.

I have Isaiah forty thirty one, I think it is, on a plaque in my office, and it does help us as we go through it. Isaiah forty twenty five. Look at this verse. It says, to whom then will you liken me that I would be his equal, says the holy one. Woah.

Think about that for a second. This is god. To whom then will you liken me that I would be his equal? God cannot be likened to anything we know. He is too great.

He is too big. He is too holy. To whom then will you liken me? How do you look at me? What do you do?

What do you think? Who is my equal? There is no equal. God has no equal. God is the creator.

We are the created. All of us have been created in the image of God, but not equal to God. So I want you to understand that God is so great. And it's when we begin to fail to look at God in that huge person that he is, that we start to have a lot of doubts. We start to wonder, well, maybe God just doesn't have enough time.

Maybe God is just, you know, I've displeased him because I didn't do something or I maybe God's just, you know, he's run out of patience with me. Whatever it is. No. God says that he calls you by name. He knows every hair on your head.

He knows all that about you. God loves you. Are you going to fail? Yes. But you know what?

His word says that he has forgiven us. If you've called upon him as your lord and savior, he has forgiven you of the things you've already done and things you will do. So there's not something that you can do to to take yourself out of God's hand. He says, no one can take you out of my hand. That includes you.

So when we begin to look at that and we look at God and we we put God in this small box, we don't realize how big he is. But there's nothing impossible with God. Nothing. God is able in every single situation. There's nothing that God is not able to do.

And so when we look at this and we we hold on to this, God says, whom will you like in me? Who is my equal? Who is my equal? We're still discovering new things about this world every day. Do you realize that?

Previously unknown creatures in the depths of the sea that we've discovered. How have they been unknown for so long? Because man is not able to go that deep. Machines even oftentimes are not able to go to the very depths of the ocean without being crushed. So there are things that we don't even know about even in the depths of the sea.

Those are things that are created, and we don't even know about those. New galaxies and new planets are discovered daily. We've discovered new galaxies and said, how you know, the telescopes now have the ability to see farther than they've ever been. We have telescopes and satellites that are traveling distances greater than we can imagine. And what do they reveal?

They keep showing new galaxies more and more than we ever thought possible. People say, oh, we know all about the galaxy, the Milky Way, but they don't even know all about that. They don't even know all about the galaxy that we live in because they keep discovering new stars, new planets, new things that they never saw before, and suddenly they've seen it. How amazing, how great that is. It's nothing compared to the greatness of God.

That's the created stuff. God created it all. Stars that were unknown before even listen. Near to me, even weather systems that suddenly don't behave like all the past weather systems did. Part of forecasting weather is knowing what these elements, how they come together, what typically happens.

And all of a sudden, almost every time these elements come together, this is what happens, and this time that didn't happen. Or this time, all those elements weren't there, but somehow it still happened. How is that possible? Because it's God. And all of those things that are happening, we don't even completely understand all of that.

We don't even understand all of that, and yet somehow we feel in our little bitty minds that we completely understand God. Oh, we we know that's how God is. And God just evidently, he don't care. Because if he cared, this would be the way that it happened. God's ways are not our ways.

Understand that just because you think that's how it should happen doesn't mean that's how it should happen. God knows because he created you in the first place. We're still discovering all these new things about the world every day, and yet somehow we feel like we know all there is to know about God. We don't even know all there is to know about what he created. There's no way we know everything about God.

The great thing is we don't have to know it all. We don't have to know everything about God. Look at verses twenty six and twenty seven, that same passage. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, The one who leads forth their host by number. He calls them all by name.

Because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power, not one of them is missing. Why do you say, oh Jacob, and assert, oh Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God? Wow. Think about this. When things are hard, it's easy to think that God just doesn't have time for you.

It's easy to get caught up into believing that God is so big and so busy, he doesn't have time for us. He said, why do you think that I'm limited when even every single star that's out there I created, I put them in the perfect place for them to be, I call them by name. I know exactly what they are. And if I'm gonna have that type of detail with the stars, certainly with a living breathing image of me, one that was created in my image, I'm going to know what is happening with you. God has time for every single person.

How? Because of his bigness. Because he is always present. He is present everywhere. He's omnipresent, meaning he is everywhere at one time.

There's nothing else that can be omnipresent. Understand, people say, well, you know, the devil the devil is not omnipresent. The devil cannot be everywhere at once. Now he has demons, but the devil cannot be everywhere at once. Only God can be that way.

And God can be everywhere at once. He knows everything all at the same time, and all of this stuff that God knows, he cares about you. When things are hard, sometimes we say, oh, well, you know, I haven't been doing right. I guess God is he's given up on me. No.

That doesn't happen. If we pause and realize that every single star in the heavens, God created and he calls them by name, then we have to understand that if he created us in his image, we are more important than those stars. He didn't create the stars in his image. He didn't create all of that other stuff in his image. The only thing that he created in his image according to God's word is us.

And if he created us in his image, we're more important than all of that. And so if he is so incredible that he keeps up with every single star, then certainly he's gonna keep up with you. Look at verse 28. Verse 28 says, do you not know? Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. God is truly unfathomable to us because he is so much greater. Do you not know when things are hard? Have you not heard when you're so tired that God does not become weary or tired?

That's a human aspect. God doesn't have that. God never becomes weary. He never becomes tired. He is never too busy.

He never doesn't care. He always loves and he always knows exactly what's happening. Well, pastor, if that's the truth, then why does he allow these things to happen in my life? For each person, there's different reasons why God allows things to happen. I don't know why he allows, as the world says, bad things to happen to good people, except this.

God's word says, no one is good. Not one. So when you say, but I'm such a good person. Why is God letting this happen to me? No one is good.

Not one. What's happening to you, the things you're going through, the hardships you're facing, it's a possibility they have nothing to do with anything that you've done in the past. It may be something God's getting ready for you to do in the future. It may be that you're going through something in the whole reason to help someone else. We don't understand why because God is unfathomable.

He's so much greater than us. He knows exactly why. Listen. If we trust the Department of Transportation that when they put in a new road or a new turn or a new light or a new whatever that they have studied and examined and this is the reason they're doing it is greater than what we know, then why do we not trust God that when we don't understand it, he's got a plan? I can tell you right now, there's a whole lot of people in Mobile, Alabama that still don't understand a traffic circle.

But according to the Department of Transportation and all their research, it speeds up traffic and gets people where they're going quicker, causes less accidents, and makes people move right along, if they could only figure out how to do it. The point is, we trust that when they put in a traffic light, it's there for a reason. Somebody's done research and decided it needs to be there, and we have trust in it. But yet we don't trust that when something happens in our life that God knows why he's doing it, and he puts it there on purpose. Most of us, because we're human, the first thing that happens when we run into hardship is, God, please take this away.

That's the first thing we wanna do. God, take this away. It's a hardship. I was talking to Jacob Watts this week. He and I get together once a month and and talk, and he was talking about going through the book of James and where James says, count it all joy when you face trials and hardship.

Count it all joy. The point of that is, God's doing something. And instead of saying, take it away, we say, God, give me the strength to go through what I gotta go through. Give me the peace, the patience, whatever it is that I need to go through, whatever this is that I've gotta go through. Because, God, I trust you.

David did this often. I don't understand, but I trust you. I don't understand, but I trust you, and I know that you will see me through. I know that I will come out the other side one way or another. I trust you.

God is so much greater than us. We need to understand that we don't always understand. He is the everlasting god. He will not grow tired. He will not grow weary.

We were created in his image, but it doesn't mean that we're the same or equal to God. One key to understanding is that even when things are down even when things are down, we are uncertain. We need to understand that God is able. We need to understand he is greater than all things. Even when we're down, God is able.

He is greater than anything we face. So instead of feeling like you're all alone, that's when you hit your knees. That's when you spend that time talking to God. That's when you ask God to show you how to go through the next thing. What do I do?

How do I get through what's happening? It feels like it's there's no way. The weight is too much. But God said, I'm never weary. I'm never tired.

He said, I can take your burden. Give it to me. Verse 29 through 31 says, he gives strength to the weary. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might, he increases power. Though youth grow weary and tired and vigorous men, young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength.

They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. Wow. Those of you that are here today and you're tired.

And I don't mean you're tired because you didn't sleep good last night or because you lost an hour of sleep. I mean, you're tired because there's so many things that you've been going through, and it seems like the burden is really heavy. You're begin you're getting weary, and you wonder how am I gonna get through this? Those who wait for the Lord will gain the strength. God gives increases of strength to the weak.

It means that those who have been knocked down or beaten up and feel that they just can't keep going, God is there. When you put your faith in God and you trust him and you wait on God instead of trying to do it all on your own, God will strengthen you. God will give you what you need to get through the next hour, the next day, the next month, whatever it happens to be, God will give you that strength. God pours that out. His word just we just read it.

It says, those who wait upon the Lord will have their strength renewed. They will run and not get tired. They will not be weary. It means that even though people are tired, God is going to give us strength. When we trust God, he will renew our strength.

When we trust God, he will renew our strength. I want you to understand, even the young can grow weary. Even the young in Christ can grow weary. Every person can grow weary. There are so many things people can say all the time.

How do you do what you do? How do you go through all that? How do you make it through the day? You there's so much that's being placed on you. There are so many people that it seems like over and over and over, there's just stuff piled up on their shoulders.

And I I I see a picture sometimes of a, you know, a circus clown or something that they just keep piling it on, and somehow they're able to walk around with it on their shoulders. But eventually, they drop, you know, 1p on the top and the whole thing falls apart. Why? Because there's too much. They can't carry it all.

No matter how great it seems, they can't carry it all. They're gonna grow weary eventually. They can't go that far. They can't keep piling it on and lift it up. We can't do it.

Here's the problem with us, is we think we can. Why do we ever think we can? We cannot do it in our own strength. We are human. We are not God.

We are not able to just keep piling the burdens on and keep carrying it around. God never intended for that. He said to bring them to him. He said to lay them at his feet, that his way is easy and his burden is light. Bring it to him, and he'll give it back to us.

He will take it away from us, and he will lighten our burdens. He has the strength. He will strengthen us. When we trust him, he will renew that strength. I just don't think I can go another step.

Military, we had to do running and and hikes and different things and whatever, and I remember we were on a a 12 mile road march. Well, that that's a long way to go, but we were on a 12 mile road march with a 50 pound pack. So you got all the weight on your back, and you're still marching. And, oh, yeah. By the way, they like to throw the enemy at you along the way, so you gotta react.

Right? So you're looking for the enemy, and you're marching along, and you're going you know, after a while, you just feel like, I ain't gonna make it. There's no way I'm gonna make it to the end of this. And they halt everybody and tell you, stop. Drink some water.

Everybody drinks a little water out of their canteen and takes just a short break. And all of a sudden they're like, okay. Put your pack back on. Stand back up and you're like, okay. I can go another couple of miles.

And away you go. Just that little bit, just a little water, a little break, take the pack off your back for a moment and suddenly your strength is renewed and you feel like you can go a little further. If just a little water and a five minute break can do that, think what God's renewal can do. God can renew strength that you can't even begin to imagine. He made this body that's so incredible that even after all that, a little water and a five minute break, and you're ready to go a few more miles.

He made us if we trust him, that no matter how much gets thrown on top of us, he will renew us if we call upon him. If we hold on to that, he will give us that strength. Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. We have to trust him. We have to trust him.

When we trust God, he will renew our strength. The reality for all of us is this, we're human beings. We're human beings, and we oftentimes, because sometimes of how we've been taught, sometimes just because we're stubborn, we oftentimes try to do it all on our own. God never wanted us to do anything on our own. He never want us to do anything on our own.

God's word says, apart from me, you can do nothing. Apart from me, you can do nothing. But he also says, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Through Christ who strengthens you, you can do all things. He will renew your strength.

It may not be immediate. You may need to be driven to your knees for a moment because of the things that you have neglected in the life of your relationship with God. You may need to be driven to your knees to begin to trust God again because you haven't given him that trust. You've trusted everything but him. You may need to be knocked down in order that he can pick you up and make you realize apart from me, you can do nothing.

But let me show you how it is when you trust me. Let me show you how it is when you give it to me. I will renew your strength. I will give you what you need, and I will strengthen you through the things that you go through in this life. We live a life, oftentimes, where we're weary from battles.

Sometimes it's battles of life. Sometimes it's battles of of a job, or a relationship, or children, or financial battles. Whatever it is, we have all these battles that we fight in life, and we get weary. Sometimes all those things tend to knock us down. Sometimes when we don't even think that those things are happening, we may be truly fighting a battle against Satan.

Yes. The devil and his demons do bring attacks on God's people. They absolutely do. There is nowhere that we can think that that doesn't happen. We do have satanic attacks in our life.

Everything that happens to you is not a satanic attack, but we do have satanic attacks in our life. Perhaps you're going through that. Maybe you're at a place where you think this, and unfortunately, this happens a lot. I have messed up. I have done all these things.

I'm looking at the the staring down the barrels of the consequences of everything that happened, and no one can help me. No one. I've I've examined everything I know to do. I've thought of everything I can think of, and yet no one can help me, and it's my fault that I'm where I'm at. Maybe it is your fault that you're where you're at.

Maybe you did make the bad choices. Maybe you did do things that put you in the position that you're in. But the thing you're wrong about is when you say no one can help me, God can. God can. Unfortunately, in this world today, so many people get to that point and say, no one can help me, and so they end their life.

Not ever stopping to think that god can. Many of them are not. Why? Because they don't know god. They don't know god.

They've never experienced that. God knows your name no matter if you know him or not. God loves you and cares for you, no matter if you know him or not. God will lift you up and strengthen you, if you will call upon him. You see, God created every person in this world, and whether they have called him by name, whether they have asked him into their life, whether they have given their life over to him or not, God loves every creation that he made.

Every single one. That's why that every single thing that people do in life can be forgiven. There's only one unpardonable sin. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which is basically unbelief. If you don't believe, certainly, you can't receive forgiveness.

Other than that, everything can be forgiven because God loves the creation that he made so much that he gives every opportunity for you to call upon him and let him renew your strength. Let him give you that fresh life. He gives you every opportunity, but we have to call upon his name. Maybe people don't know. Maybe they don't know because no one's told them.

That means if you know him, you need to tell. So the question I have for you today is this. Do you know the god who calls you by name? Do you know? Because he knows you, but do you know him?

Have you ever given your life to him? Have you ever gotten to that point and said, you know what? I need a savior. All these things that have piled up on me, and I cannot come out from under them, god, please come and forgive me and save me, and give me that strength that I need. Have you ever done that?

Only you know. I can't look at here and see who does and who doesn't. Sometimes people say, yes. I do. Later to find out, no.

They don't. Later, they say, you know what? I was wrong. I thought I knew, but I knew up here, I didn't know in here. I never gave my life.

I I thought that because I came to church every Sunday, because I have a Bible in my house, because I give some money to the Lord, because I treat people good that, of course, I will I knew God. I was saved. But that's not what God's word says. It says, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. But those are the steps you must take.

There's no other way. There's no other way. Do you know the god that knows you by name? If today you don't know him, I wanna introduce you. I would love to talk to you about how you can know him.

Perhaps you know him, but you've been trying to carry the whole load all by yourself instead of calling upon the God that says, let me carry it for you. Maybe today you need to bring those burdens to the altar and leave them with him. Maybe there's somebody on your heart that you know you want to pray for. The altar's open. We're gonna have a time of invitation this morning.

I just ask you simply this. Would you respond as the Holy Spirit touches your heart?

Right. Preaching a sermon on going back to the beginning, and we sing this morning with no music. How about that? Just like we went back in the Garden of Eden. No musical instruments, just praising God.

Amen? Alright. I am, again, excited about today. If you have been coming on Wednesday night, you are aware that we started our study on Genesis quite a few weeks ago. I told the congregation when we started our study on the book of Genesis, I said, now look.

Understand, this will not be a quick study. The book of Genesis is going to take us more than a year to get through. We'll only meet for an hour on Wednesday night. It's gonna take us more than a year to get through. I think it only took us three weeks to get through chapter one.

So takes a while. When you dig in and you study what's there and you're reminded of things that maybe you'd it's been a while since you considered. So today, I told him Wednesday night, I said, we were in chapter two, but there's not enough time. I want to do more. So Sunday morning, we will be back in the book of Genesis, and we're talking about a tale of two trees.

A tale of two trees. Genesis reveals the beginning of creation. That's what Genesis means, the beginning. It actually means in the beginning. That's what Genesis is.

In the beginning, it reveals creation. Creation. Understand. Everything that is in this world did not show up randomly. It was created by God.

God created the very first plant. He separated the water and the land. He separated the heavens from the earth. He made the animals, the fish, the birds, the the mammals, the the land creatures, everything that's there. I wonder sometimes, god, why did you make mosquitoes?

But for some reason, he did. He made all of that, including mankind. He made all of that. He created all of that. It was his creation.

The Bible says when it comes to man, he literally scooped up the dirt from the ground, formed man with his hands, and breathed breath, life into his nostrils. The other things that God created is that he spoke and it happened. He took his time with you. He picked up the dirt. He fashioned mankind in his image, and then he breathed his own breath into mankind to become life.

Now listen. I don't know about you, but right away that makes me so humble to realize. God could have just said, okay, man, and there's man. He didn't have to take time with me. He didn't have to create me after his image.

I could have been just like any other animal operating on instincts and doing all of those things, but God took his time with me. In Genesis, it reveals the beginning of creation, and it also reveals the first relationship between man and God. It is a intimate relationship. Like I just said, he literally, with his own hands, created you. He fashioned you.

He made you. That relationship that he made was special from the very beginning because we're the only creation that he did that with. He wanted a personal relationship with us. He made us to have a mind. He made us to have a body.

He made us to have a soul. He made us to have a desire to worship. He made us to have understanding. He made us to all of these things that animals don't have all of that. God made us that way.

Why? So we could have a relationship with him. That's why he did that. He didn't give us all that so we could stand around and say, you know what my IQ is? Mine's like six.

But anyway, what's my IQ? How smart are you? Look how great I am. See how wonderful an athlete. God didn't make us to do all that.

God made us to have relationship with him. That was the very first purpose that God had for us. He made us to have a relationship with him. God created a place. Before he created mankind, he created a place.

Right? He created the Garden of Eden. In the Garden Of Eden, he planted two trees that he named. There's more than two trees. Don't get confused.

I know that we think about, oh, there's two trees in the garden. There were more than two trees in the garden. There were two trees that were specific. There were two trees that were special. And God told us in the scripture about those two trees.

They were ones that absolutely were set apart and different than the rest of them. Scripture says in the middle of the garden, he planted those two trees. Everything else was all around, but in the middle, there were those two trees. Two trees that God calls to grow up, and he named them. He gave those trees for Adam and Eve, and he said, look.

Here's these two trees that are here. And all these other trees, you can eat from anything there, but don't eat from this one tree. The two trees that he named were the tree of life. I like the tree of life. It's a wonderful tree.

It's a good tree. The tree of life. Right? And he named the tree of life. The tree of life that he placed there basically said, you eat of the tree of life, then if you ate from it, you would not die.

He said, you can eat for everything in the garden, including that tree. That tree, if you ate from that tree, you didn't have to die. But don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because on the day that you eat of that tree, you will surely die. Some people say, well, Adam and Eve ate, they didn't die.

They did die. Not right then, but they did die. They weren't designed to die initially, but they did die because they ate from the tree. And so there's a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and what is the result of that death? Right?

The result of that is death. Now Adam and Eve knew all of this before they ate from that tree. God told them all that. It wasn't a trick. He didn't say, hey.

Eat from any tree, but, you know, kinda maybe stay away from that one. No. Don't worry about it. Just stay away from that tree. No.

No. He gave them the reason why. If you eat from that tree, you're gonna die. There's a problem. Don't eat from that tree.

The one thing god said don't do, don't do it. Here's the the crazy thing. God gave him a choice. He gave him a choice. Every time I read Genesis, I read it and I go, god, why did you do that?

Why did you give us a choice? Why did you make it a choice? Why did you just not even put that tree there, and then we didn't have to worry about it? Instead, you put it there and then told us, don't eat that. You gave us a choice.

We had to choose. What are we gonna do? Adam and Eve had a choice. They had everything under their dominion, every plant, animal, everything god said is under your control. Everything.

Just don't eat from that one tree. The one thing that he said don't eat from that tree. And I and like I said, I I'm I'm like, god, why? Why don't you just leave that tree out and then everything would have been good? But then we would not have in our own mind, in our own body, we would not have made that choice to love God, to serve God, to give our life to God.

We would have had no choice, But God made us different from the very beginning. He fashioned us with his own hands. He gave breath with his own breath. He made us different, and he gave us a choice. And he said, you choose.

You make that choice what you're gonna do. The animals don't have a choice. They follow instinct. They do whatever they feel like that they're supposed to do. That if the the food source is here, they follow the food.

If this is the storm is coming, they hide under something, you know, whatever. They just do whatever happens because that's their instinct. They don't have a choice. They don't reason. They don't think like we do.

But God made us to where we have that opportunity. He made us where we have a choice. Now here's the thing. This model is still with us today. What do you mean?

We don't even know where the Garden of Eden is, preacher. How can this model still be with us today? The Garden of Eden was destroyed. We we well, it wasn't destroyed, but it was hidden when they sinned, and we don't know where it is. So how can you say that?

I'm talking about the model. The model is a choice. Follow God or follow sin. We have that choice. Every single one of you had a choice today.

Am I gonna get up and go to church or not? You can choose. There are many people that aren't here today because they're sick. They have something going on. They weren't able to be here.

Some people just absolutely said, I just don't I'm not feeling it today. I'm not going. I made a choice. Every day, we have a choice. When you're driving down Airport Boulevard and you watch that light start to change, you have a choice.

Slow down or speed up. Right? You know, there there are cameras out there now. They're getting ready to start sending tickets by mail. So you might better watch out for that.

We have a choice. Floor it and blow through the red light or stop. We have a choice. There's a sign, a white sign with black numbers on it. Should we drive that speed or however fast we wanna go?

We have a choice. We can do those things. That that's trivial, preacher. I mean, you're talking about small stuff. I am.

But you know what? If we think like that with the small stuff, how are we gonna think with the big stuff? If we think about things like that and go, you know, everybody speeds. It's not a big deal. Well, now they say everybody, you know, uses, illegal drugs.

It's not really a big deal. Everybody likes to get drunk. It's not really a big deal. Everybody, you know, has relationships outside of marriage. It's no big deal.

The world says, it's not a big deal. Sin is no big deal. Just do whatever you want. But in the very beginning, God separated sin and said, don't do that. Don't do that, but it's your choice.

You can choose to do that. Today, every day, we make a choice. Are we going to walk with God, or are we going to choose sin and eternal separation from God? What are we gonna choose? It's interesting to see that the tree of life is in the beginning, it's also in the end.

Tree of life is in the beginning in Genesis, but it's also in the end in Revelation. Turn with me to Revelation. At the end of Revelation, you will find in, 22, chapter 22 verse one and two. Chapter 22 verse one and two in Revelation. Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the lamb.

In the middle of its street, on either side of the river, was the tree of life, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. The tree of life. It was in the beginning, and it's in the end of God's word. Right away, we see that. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we don't see again after the garden.

We only see it in the Garden Of Eden. It's not mentioned later. So we don't see that moving forward. The tree of life is mentioned not only in the beginning, but is also mentioned in the end. God always intended for man to have relationship with him.

God always intended that. There was never a time when God said, you know what? I'm gonna make everything including man, and then I'm leaving. I'll spin the earth up, get it going, and I'm stepping away, and they do what they want. God didn't create the earth that way.

A lot of people think that. They think, well, even if they believe there was a creation, they believe there was some deity that created all of this, set it in motion, and said, go forth, do well, and they left to go start another world somewhere else. That's not what Genesis tells us. God wanted a relationship with man from the very beginning. That's why he created man with his hands.

That's why he gave him his breath. That's why he created him in his own image. He wanted a relationship always with man. He never intended for there to be a time when you didn't have a relationship with him, but he gave you a choice. He created you to be in relationship with him, but he still gave you a choice.

You choose. You get to decide what to do. God always intended for man to have a relationship with him. In the beginning, in the garden, God actually walked with mankind. How do you know that God walked?

Because in Genesis, it says, I heard God walking in the garden. It didn't say I felt the presence of God. I saw the spirit of God. It says, I heard God walking in the garden. God actually walked with mankind.

He had a one on one personal relationship with Adam and Eve. He was there. They could see him. They could talk to him. They had this personal relationship with him.

You know why? Because sin had not separated him from the world yet. It's sin. That's what separated mankind. Until sin came in, there was that walk with God.

It was a personal walk, a personal relationship that was physical. It was there every day until sin came into the world. So in the garden, God actually walked with mankind. He was there. Once mankind gave into the temptations, we were physically separated from God.

Is there anything God can't do? God can't allow sin in his presence. He can't allow sin in his presence. In fact, when he, when Jesus went to the cross and took the sin of the world on him, it says, God turned away because he couldn't look on the sin that covered his son. When sin happened, it was a separation.

Consider this. What if before sin happened, God and man were standing side by side and sin happened, and suddenly, something like the Grand Canyon opened up. And now God's on one side and man's on the other, and there's this great chasm between us. That's a wonderful picture to think about today when you think about sin. It's larger than the Grand Canyon between can you stand on one side of the Grand Canyon and reach out and grab the hand of the person on the other side?

No. You're physically separated. There's only one thing that can put the two of you together. That's a bridge. The bridge today is Jesus Christ.

That's the bridge that bridge man and god. God designed that from the very beginning. Some people look at the story of creation, and they look at the Garden of Eden, and they say, oh, well, you know, I I mean, I know that that, you know, God created us and all that kind of stuff, But, you know, he didn't really, expect us to make that that bad choice. He didn't expect us to to sin when he told us not to sin, and so now there's been a problem. More on that later.

Have you ever considered the two trees represent today our choice on our everyday walk? Think about it like that. Two trees represent our choice every day. Every day we stand in the middle of of the trees, and we make a choice. Do I follow the choice by taking life from God and walk in eternal life and walk in a way that's pleasing to God, or do I choose sin?

Which do I do? Perhaps I I wanna choose sin. Maybe I wanna go and do that. I can take part in eternal life that's mine forever through Christ because we can still take part in that even though there was a separation that happened so long ago. Jesus bridged that gap and gave us the opportunity to accept that eternal life.

Do we choose that? Listen. When I say do we choose that, we know people come in a Baptist church. Typically, people make a decision. They come up front and they say, yes.

I believe in Jesus, and I gave my life to him, and we all celebrate. And we confirm that with them, and we go through baptism. We do all that. That's wonderful. Daily.

Daily. Do you choose daily to continue to walk in that eternal life? Do you choose daily? The Bible says take up your cross daily and follow him. Do you do that daily?

Every day, we have to choose what we're going to do. Are we going to follow Christ today, or are we going to go off and do our own thing and and live in a way that's not pleasing him? What are we gonna do? Are we gonna choose life, Are we gonna choose sin that's a separation from God? What are we gonna choose every day?

Here's the thing. Well, real preacher, if I know Jesus as Lord and savior, even though I sinned, he forgives me. And so I'm not really separated away from God because he forgives me of that sin. Yeah. But while you're in that sin, as soon as you have sinned and you've caused that problem, there is a temporary divide until you understand you made that sin and you ask god, please let me come back.

Please forgive me. God's will he's standing there. He's already gonna forgive you. You know he's gonna forgive you, but you need to ask for that. There is a separation.

How many people just think about this. No hands. How many people are actively committing sin and feel close to God? Think about that. I chose to whatever that you know is sinful.

While you're committing that sinful act, do you feel close to god? No. You feel separated. You don't wanna hear god. You don't even wanna know about it.

You wanna completely be away from it. You know, there are many people that won't come through the back door of that church or the front door of that church, this church, any church, because when they walk in the door, they get convicted. They don't want the convicted. They don't wanna be that close. So in their sin, they're separated.

Yes. Even if they know Jesus Christ, when you're sinning, you're separated from God. When you're following that walk in sin, you're separated at that moment. Yes. He provided a way that you can come back to him, but you have to choose.

You have to make that choice. You have to decide. What am I gonna do? These two trees represent a model, a choice that we all have to do every day. Every single day, we have choices.

We get up in our life, we have a choice. Are we gonna honor god and walk in a way that's pleasing to him today, or are we gonna walk in a way that's not pleasing to him? And if it was simple enough that we can make that choice the moment we got out of bed and we didn't ever have to think about it again, wouldn't that be great? You know what happens? We make that choice, and then, you know, two hours later, there's another opportunity that comes up.

Am I gonna follow that sin? Am I gonna stay walking with God? What am I gonna do? All day long, there's stuff. All day long, there's stuff.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I'll get a random text. Middle of the day, things are going great. I'm doing all well. I get a random text. I know well enough not to open that text because I know that that text that just came in or that email that just showed up, there's something bad on the other side of that.

And I know people who have opened those texts, and you know what happened? Their phone blew up with pornography. Why did that happen? Satan is throwing it out there. Here you go.

I'm giving you that opportunity to send. You can look. I know you you decided you're gonna walk like this today, but you know how much fun it would be if you did this instead? You know, you can ask forgiveness tomorrow. I've heard people say, oh, I'm gonna have fun today.

I'll ask god to forgive me tomorrow. You just made a absolute choice to step into sin. You made that choice to separate yourself from god. Is that what we're supposed to be doing? No.

God said, look, eat all the fruit, do all of the things, but don't do that. And today, if we think about it in that way of a model, the choice is there. Here's the thing. No one can make that choice for you. You have to make that choice.

You're the only one that can make that choice. As a parent, we tell our children, don't do these things. Do this instead. But when they leave the house and they go out into the world, they're the ones that make the choice, not you. You can tell them all day long, but ultimately, the choice comes down to them.

The choice comes down to them. They make the choice. We can choose every day. No one can make that choice but us, but here's the reality. There are consequences for our choices.

Some good, some bad, but there are consequences for our choices. When we choose eternal life, we're strengthened for our daily walk. We're strengthened every day. We're strengthened when we walk in God. God lifts us up.

He takes care of us. We're strengthened as we go throughout our day as we make that choice and we walk with him. When we choose sin, we're saying, we don't need God. Oh, come on, preacher. That's kinda, you know, extreme, ain't it, to say if I choose sin, I'm saying I don't need God.

No. It's not extreme at all. That's exactly what you're saying. I don't need you, God. I know I'm gonna make my own decision.

Don't follow me. I'm going over here. I'll come back when I'm done. I don't want you to be there. You stay over here.

I don't need you right now. I'm going and doing this thing. I I don't I I'm I'm just making my own choice. I don't need god. When we sin and we make that physical choice to sin in our life, we're saying to god, I don't need you.

I don't need you today. I'm making my own choice. I'm doing my own thing. We make the choice. Question is, which choice are you making?

Are you making the choice of following God and walking in that eternal life every day, or are you choosing that other tree? Are you choosing to say, I don't need God? When we choose sin when we choose sin, we're saying we don't need God, and every single day, man struggles with that choice. Man struggles with that choice. It seems like such an easy choice, but we struggle with it.

The world says it's okay. You remember the story I was telling children and Satan is in that tree going, it's all good. Try it out. It tastes wonderful. God didn't really mean you're gonna die.

That's what we're dealing with every day. If our God was not a loving God full of grace, when we choose to sin, we would have to live in it forever. Think about that. Bible says that the wages of sin is death and eternal separation from God. He says that that sin, that choice that we have, the wages of sin is death and eternal separation for God.

But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our savior. God provided a way. If he didn't love us and he didn't provide a way, he wasn't merciful, he wasn't full of grace. When we chose sin, it would be forever. It would be forever.

The trees that we see show every day the struggle the man that mankind goes through and wrestles with. But God, from the very beginning, already knew what was gonna happen. God said, don't eat from this tree. Remember, God is omniscient. He knows everything.

He knew that Adam and Eve, at some point, were going to make the decision to eat from that tree. He already knew that was gonna happen from the very beginning. He already knew that. And I wanna be clear about something. Eve and Adam made the decision to eat from that tree.

You read the scripture. When Eve took of that tree, she didn't have to run across the other side of the garden and tell Adam what she'd done and give him the fruit. He was standing there with her. Says she ate and she gave it to him. Oh, this is good.

Try it. Sometimes it makes me think of somebody taking a drink of spoiled milk. Oh, try that. Yeah. It was horrible, but we gave it to somebody else.

And what did they do? Oh, you're right. Why? Why do we do that? Eve sinned.

So did Adam. He's standing right there with her when all that's happening. He sinned. She sinned. They chose sin.

God knew it was gonna happen. From the very beginning, he gave us a way to be redeemed. How many of you just don't have to raise your hands, but how many of you know that Jesus is mentioned in the book of Genesis? Jesus is mentioned in the book of Genesis. Jesus is the way.

God, from the very beginning, after they made that choice and they sinned and God passed out the punishment, he talked about Jesus. Really? Yeah. Look in Genesis chapter three verses fourteen and fifteen. Genesis chapter three fourteen and fifteen.

Some of you are thinking, I've read Genesis three many times. I've never seen Jesus mentioned in Genesis anywhere, because it doesn't specifically say Jesus. The lord god said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field, on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the hill.

Couple real quick things I want you to see there. Almost anywhere else that you find, you will never see where it talks about a woman's seed. Seed is from the man. Seed is from the man. But in this part, it says her seed because Jesus was gonna be born through a woman.

Her seed, that's Jesus. He capitalized. Capitalized. He, meaning Jesus, shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. He's talking about the crucifixion of Jesus.

It's just a small setback. Right? Yeah. He's dead, but God's gonna bring you back to life. It's just a small setback.

Right there we see God already had the plan from the very beginning of time that when, Satan calls, he brought in the temptation and mankind made the choice to sin. God already had the plan in place to bridge that gap. He already had Jesus lined up to take care of that problem. He already had a way for man to be forgiven of the sin that he had committed in life. God didn't see what happened and went, oh, man.

Now what? And he doesn't do that today on anything. Nothing catches him by surprise. There's nothing that happens and god is surprised. You know, United States Of America was so they were doing so good.

They were following me, and now they're turning away. Oh, what am I gonna do now? He already knew that was gonna happen. Everything that happens, god already knew and he already has a plan for it. It's already there.

It's not something that catches him off guard. From the very beginning, God had the plan for Jesus. We see it in the book of Genesis. God gave us a choice from the very beginning. A choice.

God created mankind. He put two trees in the garden that were named the the garden the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't eat this one. He already knew it was gonna happen. Don and I were talking Wednesday night, and Don said, you know what, brother George?

Even if Adam and Eve never sinned, they didn't ever choose that tree. When Cain and Abel came along, they'd have been all up in that tree. They would have been the ones if it if it if Adam and Eve didn't, But they sinned. Sin came into the world. They made a choice.

God gave them that choice, and they made the wrong choice. He knew God knew that we were incapable, unable, whatever, to, live our own sinless life. Only we can choose. He knew we weren't gonna be able to do that, to live a sinless life. He knew that.

Well, look. If God knew that we weren't gonna be able to live live a sinless life, why do you even bother giving us the 10 commandments? We're supposed to try. We're supposed to try. Every day, we're supposed to try.

God says we should be perfect. He knows we're not gonna be perfect. Why does he tell us we're supposed to be perfect? So we can try every day. We can strive every day to live better than we did the day before.

We can strive every day to live for God in a way that's pleasing to him. We can strive every day to keep everything that he has put before us. We can strive to be sinless every day. Well, there's no way. Nobody could be live a sinless life.

Jesus did as fully man. As fully man, he walked on this earth and did not sin. Jesus did it. We don't do it, but he gave us a way. He knew we would not be able to do it, so he gave us Jesus to pay the price for our sin.

Now think about that. I like to pick on Bill, so I'll do I'll use Bill. I said, okay. Look, Bill, don't sin. But you know what?

I know you're gonna sin, so Tim's gonna pay that price for you. He'll be the one that'll pay the price. So you you're gonna sin. I know that, but Tim's gonna be the one to pay for it. Right?

Well, how's that fair? I don't seem fair. It's not fair at all, but it's grace. It's mercy that God gave us. God said, I know Bill can't live a sinless life, but neither can Tim.

And so I'm sending Jesus, And Jesus will be the one that makes the way for us. He's the one that's gonna pay the price for our sin. He went on that cross, and God turned away from him because he was covered with our sin. He's the one that paid the price. So here's the thing.

He paid the price for our sin. And when he paid the price for our sin, he gave us reconciliation. We now have that reconciliation. Maybe today you realize, you know what? My whole life I have chosen badly.

If there was a bad choice to be made, that was me. I made that choice. I've not done the right thing my whole life. I've struggled. I've had a hard time.

I've never done that. I've never made the right choice. Well, there's still a way to overcome that and make a right choice. Have you ever called upon the name of Jesus, asked him to forgive you, and receive eternal life? Have you ever done that?

You see, this is the amazing thing. God knew we were gonna sin. He gave Jesus to pay the price for our sin. And then all we have to do is accept that gift that he gave us, and we can have eternal life. And you know what it costs?

For us, nothing. For Jesus, it cost him everything. For us, it cost nothing. You you can't buy it. You you you can have more money than anybody in the world and it doesn't help you.

You can try to live the best life, do all the things you can for people, be the the most giving person that anybody's ever seen, it doesn't help you. You have to call upon Jesus. You see, he gave you another choice. He gave you the choice, you're gonna sin or not. People sin.

We know the scripture says all have sinned. People sinned. So he gave us that choice, but praise God, he gave us another choice. Then he said, you know what? Even though you sinned, I'm gonna provide you with another opportunity to make the right choice.

You made the wrong choice when you when you sin, but I'm giving you another opportunity to make the right choice. Here's Jesus' bridge that crosses this chasm of sin. And all you have to do is choose him and walk across him, and you can join me in eternal life. I'm giving you that opportunity. That's all you gotta do is call upon the name of Jesus.

Scripture says, that if you confess Jesus as lord and believe that god raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Call upon the name of Jesus. Ask him to forgive you and accept the eternal life that he gives. So here's the the real reality. Only you can make the choice.

God gave us a design of choice. From the very beginning, we had a choice. Follow God or sin. Whatever we choose, we have that choice. What are we gonna do?

God knows we're gonna choose sin. All have sinned. Praise God. He gave us another choice. He said, okay.

Alright. You messed that one up. So already created away from the very beginning, here's Jesus. He he's willing to take all your sin, and he has already paid the price for it. You just call upon his name.

You ask to be forgiven of all those things that you did, and you will be saved. If you confess Jesus as lord and believe that god raised him from the dead, you shall, not maybe, not might, not could be, but you shall be saved. So that's what you need to do. That's your choice. Will you do that?

Meaning will say, I just don't think I can. Many will make the choice to reject Jesus, but those who make the choice to accept are rewarded with eternal life, Rewarded with a life together with God, not separated from him. They'll be rewarded with the payment of their sins being paid in full, knowing that God loves them that much. It's a choice. No one can make it for you.

I've said this many times. If I could make the choice, any person that I ever came in contact with that told me that they never made the confession of faith in Jesus Christ, I will make it for them. But I can't. Only you can make that choice. On one hand, you choose life eternal with Jesus Christ.

On the other hand, you choose death eternal with Satan. Which one do you choose? Only you can make the choice. Today, I want to tell you this. If you do not choose, then you already chose.

Because if you don't choose life, you've already chosen death. Perhaps you walk out that door and on that very busy street, you don't see the car that mows you down, and this is your last breath that you ever took. Have you made that choice? Have you made that choice? Perhaps you lay down tonight and your heart stops.

Have you made the choice? Are you ready? Because we don't know. We're not promised another minute. So as you consider that choice that needs to be made, have you made it?

And if you've made it, have you chosen to follow Jesus? We have a time invitation. After I pray, if god's put it on your heart that you need to make that decision to choose him, I'm a ask you to come tell me about it. Perhaps you need to come to the altar and pray about something else. You've made the decision, but you know you're still having a hard time making the right choice every day.

Maybe there's someone in your life that you desperately wanna pray for them. Whatever it is, the altar will be open. Let's pray.

Job 19:17-25 NASB

There is something about that name. Amen? That absolutely is the most incredible name that's above all names. And, you know, it's just something peaceful about even saying the name Jesus, because you could think about how powerful that name is, how powerful that name is. Jesus spoke one word, and everything, a whole raging ocean became like glass.

How incredible is that? With everything around us raging and storming and all that's going on, Jesus can take care of all of that. You know, today, we live in uncertain times. We live in uncertain times. There's a lot going on in our life today.

And so I wanna share a few things with you today. I want you to think about this, what crazy times we live in with so much uncertainty. It's a lot of uncertainty, and especially right now, there are things going on. People are losing their jobs. Things are changing all over the the country.

Things are changing all over the world. There's just stuff happening, it seems like, every which way that you turn around. People are afraid of losing their jobs, rising costs, even crazy weather. We've even had some weather that's just, you know, who if you raise your hand, I'm gonna call you a liar. Whoever saw nine inches of snow in Mobile, Alabama before?

Nobody. Because it hadn't happened before. Seven, eight, nine inches of snow in Mobile, Alabama. Nobody ever expected that. It's not something we ever had, but we did.

So all these things that are happening, it's uncertain. We just we don't understand exactly what's going on. But I want you to think about this. Scripture never tells us that our lives will be certain and structured. Scripture never says that.

There's nowhere in scripture it says, when you call upon the name of Jesus, your life is absolutely certain. There'll be no surprises, no changes, no hardships, no problems, nothing happening. It actually says that when you call upon the name of Jesus, you will have trouble in your life. That you will. There will be things that happen we have absolutely no control.

We think about this structure and all these things going on in our life, but listen, all of this control and certainty in our life is, it's really just a fantasy. There's no such thing really as control over your life because there's too many things on the outside of your life that play into it. God has shown us certain truths for uncertain times. God has shown us certain truths for uncertain times. I'm gonna go over three passages this morning.

I'm gonna go over three passages, and we're gonna talk about each one of these passages. We're gonna learn some things from these passages about uncertain times. Because this is the time we live in. We don't live in a time where everything is perfect. The reality is we never have.

But it just seems more right now, like there's so much more happening. And so we wanna talk about that just a little bit today. I wanna pray before we read these passages, and then we're gonna cover them, and we're gonna talk about them, and we're gonna ask God to reveal to us exactly what he wants to see. Let's pray. Father, we come to you today, and as we open your word, god, the place that we can find answers is in your word.

We're not gonna find the answers in the Wall Street Journal. We're not gonna find the answers in the on Facebook. We're not gonna find the answers even from our neighbor next door. God, we're gonna find the answers from your word, the ones that you gave us. And this morning, as we go through these three passages, help us to take comfort in knowing, God, that you're in control, to show us and reveal to us that, father, we can trust you.

Father, you said you would never leave us or forsake us, and, father, we believe that. And so I pray that today as we go through this time together, that you would touch each life how they need to be touched. Every person is going through different things, but, god, some need to be comforted because of the affliction that's going on in their life. Some may need to be afflicted because they've gotten too comfortable. But father, whatever it is, I pray that you would touch us today, and you would reveal to us exactly what you want us to see.

God, we ask all these things in Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen. If you will, turn with me to the book of Job. The book of Job chapter 19, and we're going to go verses 17 through 25. We're gonna read that passage, and then we're gonna discuss some of it.

So Job chapter 19 verse 17 through 25. If you don't have your Bible with you, the passage will be on the screen. It says I believe that's a start. Yeah. It says uh-oh.

I went too far. I got it. Alright. It says, my breath is offensive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own brothers. Even young children despise me.

I rise up and they speak against me. All my associates abhor me, and those I love have turned against me. My bone clings to my skin and my flesh, and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. Pity me. Pity me, oh, you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me.

Why do you persecute me as God does and are not satisfied with my flesh? Oh, that my words were written. Oh, that they were inscribed in a book that with an iron stylus and with lead, they were engraved in the rock forever. As for me, I know that my redeemer lives. And at the last, he will take his stand on the earth.

Now here's the thing. I want you to think about this. All this passage that we just went through, Job has a lot going on. Job is in a the worst spot that anybody could ever imagine. If you're familiar with Job and you're familiar with how we got to this point, Satan has talked to God and said, let me sift him.

God allowed it. And Satan took away his family. He took away his wealth. He took away his health. He took away everything.

And all that happened to one behind another, behind another, behind another. And Job is sitting literally in sackcloth and ashes begging for peace. And he has all of these friends that are coming out to him, but none of them are giving him peace. None of them are giving him peace. Job is afflicted by disease.

He's afflicted by disease. He's literally it says in scripture, he's scratching sores off of his body. He's literally afflicted with disease, a terrible, terrible situation. Many of you have dealt with disease in your life. Many of you may have dealt with cancer.

Many of you deal with respiratory illness. There's so many things that we deal with in our life that we wonder why do I have to go through all this. We see other people not going through that. Maybe you wonder how do I have to go through all of these things? But we're afflicted.

Job was afflicted by disease. He was also abused by the despot, by those that were around him. They abused him. They were like, what have you done? You have sinned, and god is punishing you.

The reality was the opposite. Job was living for god exactly as he was supposed to. But Satan said, if I afflict him, he'll turn away from you. Job had been abused by all of these, and then he was abandoned during this time. All of his friends, you know what they did?

They turned away from him. They all said, Job, you have sinned in God's hand. His punishment is on you, and so we're just turning away. You need to curse God and die. That's what his wife said.

Job cursed God and die. That's how bad it was. That's pretty bad. You just need to do that. But in all the things that Job said and everything that was happening in his life and all that was going on at the end of that passage at the end of that passage, things changed.

This was a time when he most needed a shoulder to cry on, and yet nobody was there. Instead of a reassuring hand and somebody to try to help him out, he was belittled and abandoned. All this that went on, everything that was happening, all the affliction, all the abuse, all the abandonment, and in spite of the disease and and despite the despair, he found a certain truth. And the truth that he found was, my redeemer lives. God lives.

We look at this and it says, we have a lord that lives. That's what he finds in verse 25. And all this is going on and everything that's happening, he's telling you how bad it is and everything that's going on, but he said, but I know my redeemer lives. He's not dead. He lives.

My redeemer lives. And because of that, I can trust him. Because of that, with everything that's going on, I'm appealing to him. I will not turn away. I will stay focused on serving God.

My redeemer lives. We have a Lord that lives, it says in verse 25. Now in this, this reminds us of some things. This is what he said. As for me, I know my redeemer lives, and the last he will take his stand on the earth.

So there are some things that we know. There are some things that reminds us of when we read this verse. Number one, I want you to think about this. It reminds us of the redemption. The redemption.

Well, what do you mean the redemption? We have redemption because of Christ. Because of Christ. We cannot be redeemed without Jesus Christ. What I mean redeemed?

Well, every single one of us, the scripture said, has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Every one of us. So we all are given a price to pay. That price that we're given for sin is death and eternal separation from God. However, Jesus paid that price.

He redeemed us by paying that price, and all of us can understand there is a redemption for our sins because of Jesus Christ. Job said, my redeemer lives. He's alive. He's not dead. I know I will be redeemed.

We can understand that we have redemption. We have redemption because of Christ, and no matter what happens, nothing changes with that. Well, wait a minute. So you're telling me that even though I sinned, Jesus paid that price. He paid the price to redeem me.

And I accepted that redemption, and I have salvation. Okay? Good. Now I messed up, and I sinned again, And I had this problem or I had that problem. You're telling me that that redemption that I got initially does not change?

That's exactly what I'm telling you. Because that one time that Jesus went to the cross and paid the price for all sin, past, present, and future. He died once for all. If it would didn't cover everything, he woulda had to keep going to the cross and keep dying and keep shedding his blood over and over and over again. But he didn't have to do that.

He did it once, and it covered everything for all eternity if we accept it. He paid the price. He redeemed you if you simply accept it. He's not forcing it on you. You have to accept it.

But understand that with everything else that's going on in your life and all the stuff that's happening and all of the world seemingly caving down around you, you have redemption if you know Jesus Christ. You have redemption. So the ultimate is my redeemer lives. I have been redeemed. I will spend an eternity in heaven with him.

We have redemption because of Christ. I want you to think about why do we have redemption because of the resurrection. We have redemption because of the resurrection. You see, if Jesus went to that cross and he died on that cross and he was buried in that tomb and he never was raised from the dead, we would have no hope. We would have absolutely no hope.

It's because of the resurrection that we have hope. It's because of the resurrection that all this is possible. Because there are other people who have been great people, who have done many things, who have died for people, but they were never resurrected. You see, they didn't overcome the grave. They didn't overcome all of that.

They died. They were buried, and that was the end of of their earthly life. That was the end of of what they had to give. But Jesus died, he was buried, and he was resurrected to walk fresh and new. And today, he sits at the right hand of the father.

Amen? Amen. And so because of that, we can think about with everything that's going on, we have redemption because of Christ, and it's because of the resurrection that we can have that hope. We can have the hope that no matter what else is going on in our life, that god is still in control. We can have the hope that will go through every single day.

Understand that one of the the biggest problems, especially for Americans that we deal with in this country, is depression. There are so many people that are dealing with depression, and many of them don't deal with it very well. They don't go see anybody. They don't talk to anybody because there's a stigma, right, about depression. Oh, if I go see a counselor, then that labels me.

No. It labels you as human and that you need help. You need to talk to somebody. But the number one person you need to be talking to is god. But you may need more than that.

The number one problem across our nation in mental health is depression, and depression causes so many other things when it's not dealt with. But we can take all of these things that are happening, and we can turn it over to God and understand that he redeemed us because of the resurrection. We can have hope. We can get up every single day, and we continue to move and do the things that we need to do because he paid the price, because he's alive today. We can have that hope.

We don't have to think all hope is lost. It's never lost because of Jesus. I want you to think about this. Why is it still hope with we have the redemption, we have the resurrection, but why is there still hope? There's a lot going on.

I mean, do you see what's happening in the world today? The weather patterns, everything that's crazy. Do you see the unstable governments? Do you see the all the stuff that's going on? How can you say that we can still have hope?

Because he will return. He will return. How can you be sure of that, preacher? Because he said, if I prepare a place for you, I will return for you. He said he's coming again.

The scripture says that he will return to claim his children. He will return and bring us to heaven with him, those who know him. He will return one day. Just as he was here the first time, he will come back. But this time, not as a baby, not as a helpless child, but as a king.

And when he comes back the next time, he's gonna bring us home with him. I didn't get a single amen. He's coming back. And when he does, he's gonna bring us back with him. All of this stuff that's going on is done.

We have hope every single day because he told us that he paid the price for us. He was buried, and he resurrected. He's sitting at the right hand of the father, and he is going to return. So even though the times we live in are uncertain, even though the times we live in are hard, even though we sometimes wonder how are we gonna make it through the next day, we can trust him. Because everything that he's ever told us in scripture has come true, except for the resurrection.

We're waiting on that. Not the resurrection. I mean, the return. Except for the return. He's coming back.

He's coming back. And when he does, everything is going to change. I want you to understand, he will return and take us home someday. Now if that's not quite enough for you, I'm gonna share a little bit more with you. I want you to turn with me to Romans chapter eight verses 28 through 39.

Romans chapter eight twenty eight through 39. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Amen? If God is for us, who can be against us?

How can anything stand against us if God is for us? You know, in the military, they teach you, how to survive in cases of conflict, and they give you all this equipment, and then they want you to understand that it works well. And so one of the things that they do is when you're in basic training, they give you a a protective mask. You might call it a gas mask. I wouldn't because I'd be doing push ups if I called it that.

It's protective mask. You put it on, and it keeps out all these chemicals and things that are around you. They want you to know that it works. So they take you to a chamber where they have filled it with riot gas. That's bad stuff.

And they make you go inside with your mask on and you take a deep breath. You don't smell anything. Their skin's burning. You know there's gas there because your skin's on fire. Your neck's on fire, but you can breathe and everything's okay.

And then they do something crazy. They tell you, take off your mask. And then they start asking you a bunch of questions until you go and take a deep breath. And then you're coughing and and spewing and and everything's coming out and you just wanna get out of there. And you finally get out.

But here's what they're trying to teach you. If you have on that mask, those chemicals are gonna protect you. But it's just a man made mask. The reality for us is even though there are things going on all around us, if God is for us, it's just like he's wrapped us in his hands. And if he's for us, then who can be against us?

There's nothing that can penetrate that. Will we have trouble in this world? Yes. He told us we would. He said if the world gave me trouble, it's gonna give you trouble.

We're gonna have trouble in this world. The reality is I've got you wrapped up. You might stumble and fall, but it's not gonna be permanent. I'm gonna take care of you. And you know what?

Even if something happens to you, even to the point of death, those that die live. Because to be absent from the body is present with the Lord. And so if he has you wrapped up, no matter what happens, who can be against you? No one. If God is for you, who can be against us?

Not a single one can be against us. We have a love that lasts. We have a lord that lives, and we have a love that lasts. We have a love that lasts. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died. Yes.

Rather, who was raised, who was at the right hand of God, and who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Just as it is written, for your sake, we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to the slaughter.

But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. If God is for us, who can be against us? We may be led to the slaughter. We may be persecuted, but God is in control. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our lord.

We have a love that lasts. And all of the things that happen in this world and all of the hardships and all of the persecution and all of the uncertain times and everything that's come our way, we have a love that lasts because nothing can separate us from the love of god. You know what I read in that? It says not a single created thing can separate you from the love of god. Here's what I want you to understand very clearly about that.

That means that even you cannot separate yourself from the love of god if you have given him your life. Not even you. You can't pull away because he has you. He said nothing can separate you. Can you have salvation that lasts for all eternity?

Absolutely. He's telling you right there that no matter what, you can't be taken out of his hand if you have given yourself to him in the first place. It can't happen. We have a love that lasts. How long does it last?

For all eternity. We don't know how long eternity is because we can't fathom that. We have this idea of man. What if it was a hundred and fifty years? We don't know anybody that's lived to be a hundred and fifty.

A hundred and fifty years seems forever, but a hundred and fifty years is a blink of an eye. Eternity, there's no such thing as time. God's love lasts for all eternity once we accept him as lord and savior. So we have a redeemer that's coming back. We have a lord that lives.

We have a love that lasts. There is no place that his love cannot reach. K? I want you to think about that. There is no place his love can't reach, but I have pulled far away from God.

There's been so much happened in my life, I'm mad at God. And I pulled so far away from God because of everything that's happened, there's no way that he still his love still reaches me. There is no place that his love can't reach. There is nothing in this world that can remove you from the love of God. There is no place that his love cannot reach.

That is an incredible thought. There is no person that he doesn't love. There's no person that he doesn't love. Not one. He loves every person.

Wait a minute. Preacher, Not everybody knows Jesus as lord and savior. That's right. There are some people that don't know him. They've never given their life to him, but he still loves them.

His love was so great that he died for them. While they are yet sinners, he died for them just like you. He died for you while you were still a sinner because he loves everything that he ever created, and every person is created by god. He loves every person. There's not one that he doesn't love, but it can't be because, you know, I I know this person, and they're so awful.

They're so terrible. All the things they've done in their life, They curse God all the time. They say they hate God, that they don't believe in God. All these things, God surely can't love them. There's no person that he doesn't love.

He loves every creation he ever made, but he gave us humans a choice. You choose. Here I am, all the redemption, all of the forgiveness, all of the love that you could ever ever have, it's here for you. All you have to do is accept it, but you choose. If you choose no, then that's your choice.

If you choose yes, then nothing can take you out of my hand. We have all that available. Even with everything that's going on, even with everything that's going on, we have a lord that lives. We have a love that lasts. There is no problem in which his love doesn't endure.

There's nothing too big for him. His love covers it all. But you don't realize that I I've I'm losing everything. I'm gonna lose my home. I'm gonna lose my car.

I'm I'm my my wife is leaving. My my kids hate me. Everything. His love can endure through all things. No matter what is going on at this point in your life, god's love is bigger than that.

God's love is bigger than that. I want you to look at first Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 58. First Corinthians fifteen and fifty eight. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the lord. Your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Be steadfast. Be immovable. Stand in God. Have faith in God. Put your trust in God, and have a labor that lingers.

Have a pardon me, that lingers. What do you mean have a labor that lingers? I I don't I don't understand. Well, like I said, first of all, we have a lord that lives. We have a love that lasts, and now we have a labor that lingers.

Most of us on earth and everything that we do on this earth, it does not matter in eternity. But every labor for the Lord lasts forever. Think about that. What have you done with this life that God has given you up to this point? Many of you are 40.

No laughter. Many of you are over 40, 50, 60, 70, even 80, even 90 in this room, and all the things that you've done in your life. Maybe you've built an empire that is, you know, seemingly going to last forever. Newsflash, it won't last forever. Maybe you have done things that is in the history books.

Maybe you have raised a family and and have 73 grandchildren, great grandchildren, and beyond. It's still not gonna last forever. But every labor for the Lord lasts forever because it carries into eternity with you. What have you done for god? You can sit down and think about all the things you did for you, for your family, for your job, even for your church, all the things that you did for an earthly thing.

It won't last forever. But the labor that you spend for the Lord lasts for all eternity. Every labor for the Lord that you do lasts for all eternity. That even includes giving the least of these a cup of water in his name. That's a labor for the lord.

Well, I I don't I can't do much. Can you give somebody a glass of water when they're thirsty? That's a labor for the lord. Can you invite someone to come to church? Yeah.

That's a labor for the lord too. Can you walk in a path that others can see Jesus in you? Yeah. That's a labor for the lord. And then we can go even further.

We can go out and tell people about God. In fact, you have opportunity to do that this coming Saturday. We go out and tell people that's a labor for the Lord. We can spend time helping people. That's a labor for the Lord.

As we do these things, they last forever. The labor that we do in this earth doesn't really matter in all eternity. It's our labor in the Lord that matters most. Do you have a certainty of a relationship with god? You see, here's the thing.

Today, we've talked about what we have. All the things that we've talked about. If you don't have a relationship with god, then all these things we've talked about, you don't have. Only a relationship with God gets you those things. Only giving your life to him gets you those things.

Listen. I am not one that will stand up here and try to make you feel good. What I wanna do is stand up here and tell you today that God's word says that if you die in your sin, meaning you have not been redeemed because you've never given your life to God, that you don't have that eternal love because you never gave your life to God, that you don't have that forgiveness because you've never given your life to God. If you die in your sin, the scripture says, you will spend an eternity in a devil's hell. It's a choice only you can make.

There is no in between. You can't stand with one foot on one side and one foot on the other and hope that you land on the right side at the end of time. You know what happens when you have one foot over here and one foot over here? Eventually, you're gonna fall. Eventually, you're gonna fall, hopefully not today.

Eventually, you're gonna fall. You have to understand, god gave you a choice. Do you have a certainty of eternity with your relationship with god? He gave you a choice. You choose.

People say, well, I don't believe a loving god could send somebody to hell. Amen. A loving god does not send people to hell. People send themselves there by refusing to accept him, by turning away from him. Do you have that certainty in your life?

Do you have that relationship with god and know for sure that you have been redeemed? Do you know that your redeemer lives? Do you know that he will return? Do you know that he loves you? Do you know that all of these things that we have is true?

Only you can answer that. I've often said, I wish that when somebody got saved, the lord would just put a big o s right on their head. And I could meet people and know that person knows Jesus. But then when I met somebody that didn't have the big o s, I would spend time talking to them about the Lord and how they could come to know him, but he doesn't do that. So when I look out at a congregation of people like today, I don't know who knows Jesus and who doesn't.

Only you know. You know that. You've made a decision or haven't made a decision in your own life. Only you know. So the question for you today is simple.

Do you have certainty of your relationship with God? Do you know him? Have you given your life to him? Are you absolutely certain? I always say this, if you walk out those doors and cross this busy, busy street and get hit by a car and die before you can get home today, will you wake up with God?

How can I know? I'm glad you asked. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Seek first the kingdom of God. That's how you know.

Seek him first. Seek him. If you know him and you've given your life to him, seek him. As you seek him, all these other things that you need in life, they're gonna be added to you. All these things that you need, God's gonna take care of you.

Is he gonna give you a brand new car and a brand new house and million dollars in your bank account? Probably not. Although he could. What he's gonna do is take care of you somehow. I don't know how.

Will it always be easy? No. It wasn't always easy for him, but god's gonna take care of you. God's gonna take care of you. All these things will be added to you if you seek him first.

Put him number one in your life. He's the one that you should seek every day. Wake up every morning seeking God. God, what today do you have for me? I wanna spend my time laboring for you today because I know it follows me into all eternity.

What do you have for me today? Seek him first. Everything else takes care of itself. Seek him first. Do you know him?

If you know him, are you seeking him? Are you trying to follow him? Are you trying to do the things that you need to do in life so that you can walk close with God? He's promised he'll never leave us or forsake us if we call upon him. Now all this uncertainty that's going on in our life, he's promised, I'll be here.

I will never leave you. I'll take care of you. So the question for you today is a simple question. It seems like a hard question, but it's very simple. Do you know him?

Have you given your life to him? Do you have an assurance of your salvation today? You can have that assurance. If you've given your life to him, he says, you can be sure of that. If you've given your life, you have that salvation, and nothing can take you out of his hand.

Have you never made that decision? Have you never given your life? If you can't look at yourself and say, I'm absolutely certain that if something happened to me today, I would wake up in heaven. Then have you ever truly given your life to Christ? Only you can answer that question.

People have been in church for forty years as church members, taught Sunday school, done whatever, and finally realized, you know what? I missed the step. I never gave my life to Christ. I've been trying to work my way to heaven. Doesn't work.

You have to give your life to Christ. So today, I'm asking you to do this. During all these uncertain times, I want you to be certain of one thing. I want you to be certain of your salvation. We're gonna take a moment.

We're gonna have a time of invitation. I'm gonna pray. As I pray, I want you to consider in your own life, am I certain that I know Jesus Christ? And if not, when we have the invitation in just a few moments, I want you to come talk to me. I wanna share with you exactly how you can be certain.

Perhaps you know that you know Jesus, but you haven't really been laboring for him very well. You haven't really put him as a priority. He hasn't been the first thing in your life, and you want that to change. The altar's open. You can come and spend time at the altar.

You can ask him to help you walk exactly as he wants you to walk. Whatever it may be, if there's something you need to talk to the Lord, the altar's open if you choose to go. Right now, you take that examination and you answer to God yourself. Father, we come to you.