morning my friend says hi everybody you notice your new bullets and
i got you an at-home hobby kit i know everybody likes to have
a lot of things to read and a lot of things to study and i thought
well if i'm sent to teach i might as well give you something to
read and study At a article by Brother Scott, that's poor pastors,
and it has to be. That was to me. That was to me. I need to remember to pray. I
need to show appreciation. I don't need to be stingy. Somebody
may give more than me, but they don't need to be more generous
than I do. I don't need to be lazy. I spend an hour trying
to find a shortcut sometimes, don't we? And I pray, oh, I pray
that this doesn't come old. I hope this don't turn into something
I retire from, because I don't want to do it no more. What he says is right. If that
hurts, good, you're paying attention. A man only retires from that
which he dislikes. Now, if I can't do it anymore,
that's one thing. or he keeps me, I do. And also
in there's a P&L, profit and loss statement, and I send an
email out to everybody, and I encourage you, if you haven't read the
email yet, you treat that like it's your own budget at your
house, with what diligence you should look that over, cause
it is. You get that? You are directly
affected by that. And I'll say it as my brother,
my brother Cunningham said, either God will keep a work here or
he won't. Either he will or he won't. I
want to look this morning at Psalm 41, Psalm 41. I'll probably get a whole lot
of downloads on this. I'll warn them ahead of time. It ain't
what they think. Title of my message is A Lesson on Poverty.
I thought about what to do with homeless folks. How to deal with
soup kitchens. Lesson on poverty. A lesson on
poverty. We have bigger problems. Mankind
has a lot bigger problems than physical, carnal poverty. Though that may be getting worse,
isn't it? That may be getting worse. I
saw in the news the other day on CBS 8, they said for a family
of three living in San Diego County, making $100,000 a year,
they have a word for that. It's called broke. And I believe. In the past two years, my propane
bills doubled. Our electric bills doubled. My
food just about doubled. My insurance tripled. Because
that fire, it's more than tripled. We may find out a little bit
what carnal poverty is, hot and in a hurry. Fast, isn't it? Here at the end of Psalm, that's
not the kind of poverty David's writing about. Here at the end
of Psalm 40, this is an earthly king. This is David. This is
a wealthy king speaking. Are you ready? Psalm 40 verse
17. But I am poor and needy. So sometimes
there's a medley. You kind of go from one to another
one, don't you? Look here at Psalm 41 verse 1. This will be our text. Blessed
is he that considereth, that thinketh, that have thoughts
towards the poor. The blessed person is the one
that considers the poor. The Lord will deliver him out
of time of trouble. We know this is our Lord speaking.
Christ is speaking here, but David penned it. He's the one
that wrote it. The Lord led him through the
experiences he had to write this, and we experience it. The Lord's
people experience this, and we learn from it too. Don't just
bounce off our foreheads and say, that was a good message,
and what are y'all doing at the bowling alley today? If we're
His, He teaches us, and we learn from it, don't we? But primarily,
this is Christ speaking. Look here at verse nine. It says,
yea, my own familiar friend in whom I've trusted, which did
eat of my bread, way before our Lord came, he said, that one
I'm gonna have that meal with, the Lord's supper. Last meal
of the day, he hath lifted up his heel against
me. Prophesied of Judas, wasn't it? Son of perdition, told of
old. This is about the Lord Jesus Christ considering us that have
been made poor in spirit. That's what that's about. Our
poor nature. That's what this Psalm's about.
That's what we're gonna look at. But this also concerns us too, doesn't
it? Our eyes, we read these words. Our lives experience what this
is talking about. And maybe someone will have a
question for us about these things. It says, blessed is he that considereth
the poor. The Lord will deliver him in
time of trouble. Natural man, the flesh, the body of death. Do you get that? Is there another
way I can word that so that's clear? The part of me that's
deserving of hell apart from Christ. We read this and we say,
if I have compassion on the poor, the Lord will deliver me. If
I go down to the soup kitchen and I go hand out bags of groceries
to folks, Then God will deliver me. This is quid pro quo. No,
it's not. You don't have eyes to see. You
want to go feed the poor, that's fine, do what you want. You'd
probably be down there with a den of people, a den of thieves that
you can't communicate with. You have no part in that darkness.
You don't have the same God they do, but mankind is not going
to indebt God to us. We're not going to do something
and then get a reward. That's not grace. Paul was speaking
there in 2 Corinthians 8 about giving, and he said having a
heart to give of our money, having a heart to give of our time,
having a heart that prays and cares for one another and considers
others and gives of our position. We don't make something haughty
of ourselves because of how long we've known the gospel, or how
much we've done this, and who put their hands on us, and who's
been ordained, and these titles, and all that. Giving all that
to give of your pocketbook and of your heart and of everything
in you. That's a grace of God. To consider the poor and to give
to the poor. I mean spiritually poor. God
has to do that. You won't. And you can't, it
ain't your nature. It's a grace of God. He said,
therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, in utterance, in knowledge,
in diligence, and in your love towards us, in preaching of the
gospel, in love to your brethren, see that ye abound also in this
grace. All those things that God has
to give all those things, he has to give us too. He said, I speak
not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others
to prove. I'm telling you, do this. to
prove the sincerity of your love. To who, to Paul? No, to you. To who, to the Lord? No, he's
the one that put the grace in you and the love in you. It's
to prove to you. Corinth, you ready? Corinth,
Ephesus, you say you want a gospel work? You say you want to support those
widows that aren't supported by churches anymore? You say
you want to support missionaries and other places around this
world for poor sinners that ain't never had the gospel? You say
that? Prove it. One thing, talk about it and
yap off at the mouth. It's nothing to do it and put your shoulder
to it. Now get after it. Who are we going to send? The
Lord said. You think he didn't know who he's sending? Who am
I gonna send? Here am I, send me, I'll do it.
Nobody else will man up and do it, nobody else will woman up
and do it, we'll do it, won't we? Let's go. The Lord's gonna prove that
he did that in us, not that those that stand up for the gospel
sake and actually try to spread the gospel around the world,
look at what I did. No, it's Christ in me that did
it. God's gonna prove it to us. He'll have a person hobble us
and do everything else. He's gonna prove it, if the Lord's
pleased, he'll prove it in you. Because it's His grace, it's
His work, it's His love and His doing. We're His workmanship.
He's going to prove it by providing for His gospel, providing for
His ministry, His ministration. All right. What's the motivation,
Paul? Paul, how are we going to do
this? He goes on to say, for ye know the grace of our Lord
Jesus. If you know grace, you'll be
gracious. If you know your poverty, you'll care about those who consider
those that are poor in spirit. If he blessed you richly as he's
increased you, you're going to try your best. You have the heart.
The new man will desire to increase others. He said, if you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus, that though he was rich yet for
your sakes, you poor people, he became poor that ye You poor
folks, through his poverty, willingly became poor, might be rich. He's
gonna make us rich through him becoming poor. What a thought, isn't it? Christ
became poor willingly because he considered our poverty. He
saw what his people was and he's gonna be made just like them
and give us all his riches. How'd he become poor? He left
his home. He made himself expendable. Y'all
got that article in the bulletin by Brother Henry? Sounds good
till you're getting expended. He left his home. You think what
kind of home it was? He told that thief, he said,
today you'll be with me in paradise. Let me tell you something. He
says paradise, that ain't La Paz, Mexico. That ain't Hawaii. It's going to be better than
that. He willingly left it. He gave it up. Have I given up
my home? Is it worth it? Have you given
up your home? He walked away from everything for him. He did
for us. He left his throne. You know what I thought that
was? He left his previous job. He's right to be there. God's
son was given, wasn't he? He left his father. He left his
family. He left his servants, those that
served him. He left them to be a servant. He left the comfort
of a holy, perfect kingdom to come to this sin-cursed earth.
And though it proves his holiness, he left his office as the potentate,
the only authority to be put under his very own law. He gave up a bunch, didn't he?
How can I, I said something old brother Groover said. How can
I bellyache in my own, over something I gave up so small, carnal, nothing
was it. Before this world was made, he
considered the poverty of his people. and became us, became
our poverty, bearing for a people that was not yet born. For us,
we weren't born yet. And we're gonna come into this
world, and from birth, we's gonna cuss him and spit on him until
he reveals himself to us. That's who he came for. Enemies. We was at war with God until
he saved us. And if somebody says we wasn't
at war, you're still at it, and you're too dumb to know the difference,
because you did. Well, I never have sinned. I didn't hate God.
You still do. If I could word it plainer, I
would. God, I have to break it from there. We read in Psalm
40 verse five, many, oh Lord, my God, are thy wonderful works,
which thou hast done and thy thoughts to us. Lord, you considered
us in our poverty. We have absolutely nothing to
give, nothing. And those wonderful works and
those thoughts, they can't be reckoned up in order to thee.
We can't count. Count your blessings. You ain't going to eat or breathe
or sleep or do nothing else. You're going to die counting,
I can tell you that. with all of our physical wealth and our
benefit worldly, especially in this country, especially right.
It's 71 degrees in this room right now in a concrete building
that we've provided because I pushed a button. There's lots. You get that running water, safe
running water. You flush a toilet, it goes away.
Don't come back. It's gone. We have great worldly benefit.
We all drove here, didn't we? I don't see anybody riding a
horse or a donkey. We have great worldly benefit, especially in
this country. It's a blessing when the Lord shows us our spiritual
poverty. When we're bankrupt. And I don't
mean to agree with it. I mean, you ever just laid on
your bed and just rent your clothes and I ain't nothing. Ah, you
ever prayed that? Voice crackling. Physically,
we have big estates. Each of us do. It's huge. If
you're renting a place, it's massive. Physically, we have
big estates. Our Lord didn't have a place
to lay his head, did he? Spiritually, we have a little estate, also
known as none. Spiritually, we come in this
world not owning an estate. And it says in Psalm 136, speaking
of the Lord, who remembered us in our lowest state. because
for his mercy endureth forever. For mercy's sake, because he
wanted to. It made him happy. Why? Don't matter why. He ain't got
to explain himself to you. He's God. Who are you? You're a man. Hush it.
Bow to it, man. How are sinners in poverty? We
saw, I told you how the Lord impoverished himself, didn't
he? Willingly. What about us? We're homeless. A roof over my
head. Yeah, spiritually, you're homeless.
We are not at home when we come to this world. We're lost. You're
lost. And a blind can't lead the blind.
A blind man can't show you how to get home. Can't do it. I'm tired of hearing that they
can't. Stop that. Our Lord said this in Luke 19,
for the son of man came to seek, it means find them, and save,
plumb save them, that which was lost. You gotta be lost for God
to save you. You ever been lost? Was you ever
in false religion? I hear different. We'll learn
that next hour. If you're at home, if I'm setting up at 17,330
is what the GPS said the other day. 17,330 Lawson Valley Road.
If I'm sitting at my home, am I lost? I'm at home. I can't be lost. I can't be lost. People don't need to get saved.
They need to get lost. They need to get lost. You ever
been lost out in the woods? You get nervous. Fear comes upon
the heart. And with that adrenaline, some
action is going to take place. Maybe just some shaking. There's
going to be some action. People don't need to get saved.
They need to get lost. And it takes the power of God to make
a man or woman lost. If we've ever been lost, If we've
never been lost, there's no need to be found. If I'm at home on
my couch, somebody's to find me. I know where I am. I ain't
lost spiritually. We willingly left the Lord's
kingdom. Adam did it. We did too. We can't
pin this on Adam. You knock it off. We did it. It was imparted. It was imputed.
And I wish enacted started with an eye. We acted on it. It takes the power of God to
show us that we're lost. Second, our poverty. He considers
our clothing, our clothes. We're in spiritual poverty and
our covering. Spiritual poverty. I'll address
Genesis 35 next week. How we dress says something about
what we think about the covering God bought us. If we put more
emphasis on a way, I won't get off on that, but we ought not
wear tennis shoes and pajamas to church. He considers our spiritual
poverty, our spiritual covering. We're naked in righteousness. What clothing do we have? We
poor? We ain't got no clothing. We ain't got no covering. That's
what Jacob said. He arose, he ran his mantle,
he shaved his head, he fell on the ground, and he worshiped.
And he said, naked came I out of my mother's womb. I ain't
got no covering. And naked shall I return thither.
Lord gave, Lord take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Now, was Job talking about being naked when you die? They said,
well, no, you got to join a nudist colony. I hear some crazy stuff,
man. I'm telling you. No, what he's saying is this
flesh come into this world with no good thing. And this flesh,
not the new man, this body of death is going to leave and it's
never improved. It's never done anything good.
It ain't never been nothing but naked outside of Christ. The
new man he gives is holy, unblameable, unapprovable before him in love.
That's the difference. Man, don't think there's two
natures, don't have two natures, they still got one. So, they inexperienced. Turn
over to Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16, you got Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Lamentations, Ezekiel. And if you get to Daniel, turn
around, do a U-turn. Ezekiel 16. We'll read these eight verses
here. It's lovely. Can't read it enough. Ezekiel
16 verse one says, again, the word of the Lord came unto me
saying, son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations and
say, thus saith the Lord God to Jerusalem. How are we going
to know her abominations? Thy birth. Now you came into
this world, and what does it say next? Thy nativity is of
the land of Canaan, thy father an Amorite, thy mother a Hittite.
You're born naked. You're born in debt. Your heritage
don't mean deadly. Ain't worth nothing. You come
in this world naked, in debt. No clothing. As for thy nativity,
verse four, in the day that thou wast born, thy navel was not
cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee, thou
wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all, none I pitied thee. Natural
man was trying to get something from you, not give something
to you. They wanted to fleece the sheep. They wanted to increase
in... You guys move from church to
church to church to church. It's like an army. I keep getting
promoted. I got to move someplace new. I know a man that's preaching
eight churches. Eight churches. Why do they keep
moving? That's odd. The Lord would move somebody.
If he had eight wives, would you have concerns? I've been married eight times. You got a daughter? No, I don't.
Go away. What does that have to do with
them? Why? Moving up and out, ain't
they? Upward mobility. Man don't care
to look for themselves. None, I pity thee, verse five.
Nobody cared. They didn't know no different.
That's why, too. To do any of these unto thee,
to have compassion on thee. What's spiritual compassion?
Putting somebody underneath the sound of the gospel. If it's
important to you, you're going to make it important to everybody
else or you're going to drive them away from you. That's where we have to
be. To have compassion on the poor.
To have compassion on thee. You're poor. You're naked. Have
compassion on thee. But thou was cast out in an open
field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou was
born. You're gonna die. You take a baby and throw it
out in an open field right now. I mean a two minute old baby. Go throw
it in a field. Walk away. What's gonna happen? You ain't gotta be a rocket scientist
to figure this one out. It's gonna die. And when I passed
by thee, verse six. When I passed by thee. We're
gonna look at this next hour too. Who found who? I know a lot of people that found
the gospel. I know a lot of people that found the doctrines plural
of grace. Who found who? He said, when I passed by thee,
I came to you. And I saw thee polluted, your
poor, in thy own blood. I said unto thee when thou wast
not a bud, live. Yea, I sent unto thee when thou wast in thy
blood lived. I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the
field. Thou hast increased and waxen great, thou art come to
excellent ornaments. Thy breast are fashioned, thy
hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now, when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, behold, The time was a time of love. I loved
you. Why did the Lord do all this?
Why did he consider the poor? Because he loved his people before
time. And I spread my skirt over thee, I robed you, and covered
thy nakedness. We were poor in clothing. Whose
clothes is it? It ain't mine. It's his. He puts
it on us. We was poor. Guess what? Now we're covered.
Now we're rich, ain't we? Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. I said, my house, my rules. That
Neo phrase, right? The Lord said, my covering, my
child. My food, my belly, my person. He said, I feed you,
I clothe you, I gave you righteousness, you're mine, I own you. Cause
I own you, I ain't never gonna leave you. That's the covenant.
And you're gonna thank my son for everything. And we say, amen.
He did it. It's his code he gave us. Lord
considers our poverty of home. He considers our poverty of clothing
and he considers our poverty of wisdom. Is anybody an idiot? We may be
self-righteous and boastful and act like we are. No, I see grown
people that correct everybody else and 99% of the time it's
in the air. Just blatantly, just dumb. That's
just bad advice. Why do you, worldly, carnal people
say, I wouldn't. We all think we're wise in our
own conceits, don't we? If I thought I was wrong, why
in the world would I keep doing what I was doing or saying what
I was saying? We all think we're right. The Lord considers our
wisdom when he sees we ain't nothing spiritually. We're poverty.
We're the poor. He considers us. Our education,
poor. Why? Because we're ignorant of
God. People talk about a God. It's their God. It ain't the
God. People talk about Jesus flippantly. They don't know him. He's Lord. That's who he is.
And we don't know that until he reveals himself to us. He
considers our poverty. Paul wrote that in Romans 10.
He said, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. My brethren, after the
flesh, I want to be saved. God saved me. If he saves you,
you want the ones you love to be saved. You do. He said, for I bear them record.
They have a zeal of God. They're super religious. I have
to ask people definitions sometimes. People tell me words, I don't
know what they mean. And I told a lady one time, I said, I don't
know. I said, I didn't grow up real religious. I just ain't
real. I didn't grow up in organized religion. I don't know what those
things mean. What's that word mean? I don't
know. They have a form of godliness though. They have a zeal for
God, but not according to knowledge. They don't know what they're
talking about. Now we're going to sit down and we're going to
go through, we're going to have a preaching service. We're going to have
a prayer meeting and we're going to have a Bible study and they don't
have a clue who they're talking about. They have no knowledge
of God. They've been ignorant. That's how we come into this
world. We're ignorant. We're impoverished in wisdom. We're
ignorant of God's righteousness. He hasn't convicted us of sin
yet, if he hasn't saved us, and he ain't convicted us that Christ
is nothing but righteousness, and that judgment's settled,
hasn't he? We're ignorant of that, and the proof is we go about
to establish our own righteousness. I'm going to do good. I'm going
to make myself holy. I'm going to clean up outside
the cup. I'm going to observe the precepts and keep the Sabbath
and quit eating medium well steaks and put a railing around my roof
and dig a cat hole every time I go to the bathroom. No, you
ain't. You're trying to establish your
own righteousness because you don't know God. And they have not submitted themselves
into the righteousness of God. That's what we're ignorant of.
We're poor in wisdom. On our own, apart from Christ, we do
not know that we're poor in home. We don't know we're lost. I'm
right here with me. How could I be wrong? We don't
know we're blind. I can see you. I can read what's
on the wall. We don't know that we're deaf.
I can hear. I heard a good song coming down our hill today. Apart
from him, we don't know we're poor in home. We don't know we're
poor in righteousness. We don't know that we're naked
before God. We think we're clothed. We have fig leaves on, and as
fast as they can wilt, we snatch us up some new ones. I'm covered.
And we don't know we're poor in understanding and wisdom.
We're ignorant of Christ and his work. Well, Jesus came to
save sinners. Yeah, you the chief one. That sounds good on a blossom
plate cover or a bumper sticker, but has he taught us that? Who he is, what he did, we don't
get it. We see through this glass dimly.
I mean dimly. And when the scriptures just
explode, I mean, I don't know what to leave out. I preached
for 52 minutes the other night. I should have stopped real early,
because that's where most people, that's as far as I can get. That's
what's taking two. Us having two services on Sunday,
I don't know if that's profitable. It's like, oh man, one meal a
day. You just eat so much, you're so stuffed, you can't eat nothing,
you can't absorb stuff. Maybe we ought to divide them meals
out some, get some more insulin spikes or something, but we don't
understand that. We don't know God and we think
because we're alive, we have, because we're physically alive,
we think we have spiritual life. Turn to Philippians 2. The Lord looked
on us in that ignorance, in that helpless state, completely. He looked on our poverty and
he considered us and he has compassion on us the whole while we're spitting
in his face. We're playing church and saying
Jesus and God and a whole bunch of, and oh, they read the Bible.
We sang a bunch of good old hymns, good old spirituals. But we spitting
in God's face, going about to establish our own righteousness.
And while we're at war with him, while we're looking out for number
one, he came and was made poor all the way to the point of giving
his life, laying down his life for the sheep. Look here at Philippians
two, verse five. Let this mind be in you. Before you get all
cocky and you start your snake oil salesman business, Lord, put this mind in all of
us. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God. Why? He is God. But made himself
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant. Servants
ain't wealthy, are they? And made in the likeness of men,
and being found in fashion of man, he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. What did
he do on that cross? He paid the debt we racked up. He paid for that iniquity, that
righteousness we thought we did, the good stuff we thought we
was doing. He paid for that too. He did it. He was obedient. He
came poor all the way to, he even gave his blood. He gave
his back to the smiters and he gave his blood and water and
blood flowed from his wounded side. Now, if he did that, he
came save some folks. That's how he did it. Who gets
the glory? If I pulled you out of a burning
building, would you say that you let me save you? Look that
next hour too. You were unconscious. You were
in a burning building. You had no home. You had no covering.
Gets that fire. You might have a nice jacket
on. It ain't gonna stand up to fire, is it? And I saved you
out of burning buildings if I let Kevin save me." Of course you
wouldn't. You'd take that person to a padded room, wouldn't you?
They're crazy. Who gets the glory? Verse 9. Wherefore God also hath
highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should vow of things
in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of the Father. We will confess. A believer will
make a public confession. They will. They'll profess it
and confess it. His richness in mercy and our
poverty and need of mercy. We'll profess His riches in grace
and giving us what we didn't deserve and are not deserving
anything. And we'll profess His richness
in love. Mercy. He didn't kill me, I deserved
it. God's just to send me to hell
forever. Grace, I was at war with him while he prayed for
me and while I despitefully used him. I was eating all his food
and breathing all his air, living on his property. He prayed for
me. And love, here in his love, not
that we love God, but that he loved us. And he sent his only
begotten son to be a propitiation for our sins, to pay that payment. Horatious Boner wrote this. Upon
a life I have not lived, upon a death I did not die. Another's
life, another's death, I stake my whole eternity. Don't stop
there, my poem friends. Not on the tears which I have
shed. Oh, I had an emotional experience
and I cried. Not on my tears, not on the sorrows. I've known, I've been through
a lot of trials. on another's tears, another's griefs, on these
I rest, and these alone." What do you mean? Christ wept. Jesus
wept, the scriptures say, didn't they? He shed tears. On his tears.
Why? For our poverty. He raised Lazarus
from a grave, knowing, like, boy, you're going to have to
go back to poverty. You thought you was out of here. You're going
to have to die again. Come back to this sin-cursed
world. In his own self, he bare. Not on stuff I've known, sorrows
I've known, stuff he's known. He bare our sins and his own
body on the tree. All while we were mean and poor
and enemies, didn't it? Isaiah 53 says, surely he hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Not on my sorrows,
not on my griefs, he took that, another's sorrows, another's
griefs. Yet we did a sedeem him stricken, smitten of God and
afflicted. Solomon said, he that hath pity on the poor, lendeth
unto the Lord. and that which he hath given,
he will pay him again. You give something to the poor,
the Lord will give it back to you. That's what natural man
says, right? He's speaking of Christ. Did the Lord give Christ
back his throne? Where is he now? Did he give
him the glory he rightfully earned? Where is he now? Every day he's
gonna bow. He's gonna do it now or later. I pray it's now. For
you and me, we need to consider those that are poor just like
we were. Like I said, you want to hang out at Soup Kitchen?
We'll be with you dealing with them folks, but I can't be around
them. Gives me goosebumps. They talk
about a God I don't know. I ain't talking about that. Physically,
we ought to. We ought to take care of one
another. You know, I can waive my social security, or could, the first
two years. I can waive and not have to pay social security,
both halves of it, my 1099 on my salary. You know what? The wicked United States federal
government recognizes that a church ought to take care of its own.
Isn't that something? Even they know that. They know
that, we know that. You and me ought to consider
those that are spiritually poor just like we do, just like we
were. And we ought to give all that we have to their betterment.
I'm not talking about soup kitchens, I'm talking about the gospel.
We ought to do everything we can to go into this world and
spread the gospel. Do you have that desire? Do I? Do I have the desire to give
all of myself with this mind in us, whatever it takes? Well,
I just don't want it. I don't feel like working. Okay. Uh, well, I just don't,
I don't want to, I'm afraid I'm afraid of people come to hear
this gospel. We might have some problems, but people scared of
Lord saving folks. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, John said, because he laid down his life for us. And we
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Who's your brethren? I don't know yet. They're out
there somewhere. God ain't saved them yet. If you know who to
elect or mark them, I'll go preach to them. Until then, I'll just
preach to everybody. But we ought to give all of ourselves to this.
But whoso hath this world's goods, does that mean, well, yeah, if
you're hungry and I ain't feeding you, I don't love you. I don't
take it. Of course, if it's raining, come
to my house. We'll get the rain off your head.
It'll be all right. He ain't talking about that.
What do we have in this world? We have this gospel and earth
and vessel, don't we? If the Lord gave us the gospel while
we're on this earth, that's saving us, knowing him now. And we see
a brother have need, not a want. We get our wants and needs flip-flopped,
don't we? I want food. I don't need it. God can sustain
me without food. if he so pleases. There's one
thing needful, Christ. If I see somebody that needs
Christ, and I shutteth up my bowels of compassion, that's
what it says, with compassion on the poor, if I say, well,
I ain't gonna say nothing to them. From him, how dwelleth
the love of God in him. If we have the good news of salvation
in this earth, And we don't have an interest or a desire to preach
the gospel, to spread the gospel abroad, wherever we can at whatever
cost. He asked the question, how does
the love of Christ dwell in us? I need, as Peter said, I need
my pure mind stirred up. I haven't gave enough. I haven't
done enough. I haven't stayed up late enough.
I haven't woke up early enough. I haven't worked hard enough
and I get it. I pray someday I enter the ministry. I pray
someday I can serve the Lord and serve his people, even a
little bit. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for this. Thank you for your son who's
given everything for us. We're so ungrateful, Lord, and so lazy and so just a lack of
diligence and Make us profitable servants. We see what Christ
has done for us, Lord. What reasonable service it is
for us to do anything we can for those we love and those we
hate, to hear the glory and majesty, the person and the work of our
master, our kinsman, redeemer, our savior, our king, our Lord. Keep me. Keep me from being a
coward, Lord. Let me stand on your strength.
Forgive us for the sin of unbelief. To Christ's name we ask. Amen.