I had a cousin that I was raised
up with. He was a year older than me.
His name was Bill Kitts, raised up in South Point. And he left
here out of high school and went in the military. And he was a
career man in the military and ended up up in Anchorage, Alaska
and got out of the military up there and formed his own business
and become a millionaire. Very wealthy man. And I hadn't
seen him for years. He's my hero. He's my idol. He's an All-State football player.
He was something special. And I hadn't seen him for years
and years and years. And I had an aunt died here just
about three weeks ago. And Bill Kitts came to that funeral.
And I seen him there at that funeral. And it was just a, my
goodness, I run up and hugged him. And that feeling that I
had for him is nothing, is nothing compared to the feeling that
we have for one another. This is a special time. And I
thank God. I thank God for this opportunity.
It won't go any farther. It'll get cloudy. Turn, if you will, tonight to
Ecclesiastes chapter 3. I've entitled this, Comfort in
a Time of Trouble. In Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse
1, Solomon, this wisest man that ever lived, and Solomon here
in Ecclesiastes, he's speaking under the behest of the Spirit
of God. He's speaking by the influence of God Almighty. And
he says, to everything there is a season. There's a time to
every purpose under the heaven. He says, to everything there
is a season. Everything in our lives. Everything. We have just entered into this
fall season. To me, it's my most favorite
time of the year. It's a beautiful time of the
year. The season has changed. That hot, sweltering, dry summer
has given way to this season. And what we know about this fall
season, it has its beginning. It will have its duration. It
will have its completion. Solomon said all things, all
things, has their season. Everything in our lives. In our
lives, Solomon here mentions 28 things. There's a time to
be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up
that which is planted. All those things. He mentions
28 things. That's just an overview of the
hundreds and thousands of things that happen in our lives. Our
lives is a constant, never-ending season of these things that come
into our lives. We have had times of untold joy,
amazing, abounding joy. sorrow. We've had times of grief
and pain. We've had times of sickness.
We've had times that come into our lives, their first season.
They had their beginning. They had their duration. They
had their completeness. They had their end. Solomon said
to everything, to everything, there is a season, a set season,
beginning, completion, and end. It has its fullness, whatever
it is that it has. And he goes on and he says, and
a time to every purpose under the heaven. God's purpose. God has a purpose in these things.
There is these things for a season, and every one of them are purposed
by God Almighty. You believe that? I know you
believe that. We believe that. The world don't
believe that. We believe that. Paul writing
under this same subject over there in his letter to the Romans,
828. You all can quote it. You all know it. Most of you
better than I do. And we know, we know, Paul is
including himself and he's including those believers that he's writing
to. We know. That's us. That's the church
in our day. We know. We know that all things,
there's that word again, all things work together for good
to them who love God. You love God? Well, yes I do,
because He first loved me. We know that all things work
together for good to them who love God, to them who are the
called. Have you been called? Has the
Spirit of God reached in among that common lump of mankind?
Has He reached in and separated you and pulled you over here
exclusive from that? He called by His Spirit, breathed
life into you, opened your eyes and you saw Christ and you fled
to Christ and cling to Him. and rely on Him and trust in
Him? Paul said, We know. We know. All things work together
for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. I remember one of my favorite
Henry Mahan stories way back there. Cecil probably was there.
Way back there in the late 40s or 1950s. And he was preaching. You that
don't know Ralph Barnard, he had the most intense, piercing
eyes. It was just scary when you'd
look at him. Oh my goodness, you wouldn't even look at him.
He was up there preaching. And Henry was sitting there on
the front row. Henry was about 24 years old, just a kid. And
Ralph was preaching along. He said, can you quote Romans
8.28? And Henry said, I think I can. And he said, well, stand
up and quote it. I had them eyes right on Henry.
Henry got up there. He said, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God. And he
sat down and Roth just stared at him with that piercing eye.
And he said, is that all of it? And Henry said, no, that's not. He said, do you know all of it?
And he said, I think I do. He said, get up and quote all
of it. Henry jumped up, you know, and he said, and we know that
all things work together for good to them who love God, to
them who are the call according to His purpose. And Henry sat
down. Roth, man, he slammed that table. Purpose! You get a hold
of that Word and it will open this whole book. It will open
the Word of God. God's a God of purpose. Everything
He does. There's no accidents. There's
no surprises. Everything God does, He does on purpose. And
we believe that. And we know that. And Solomon,
right in back there, he said to everything, everything that
happens, everything that happens in your life, in my life, in
the life of all of His children, everything, It has its season.
It has its beginning. It has its fullness. It has its
end. And it's according to God's purpose.
Aren't we thankful? Aren't we thankful in this last
year that we have Scriptures like this that we can cling to
and rely on and trust in? Everything that happens in your
life is according to the purpose of God Almighty. He doesn't say
we'll understand it. He doesn't say we'll understand
and unlock all the mysteries and treasures of it. He just
said it's purpose. I've caused it to happen. It'll
have its completeness. And then you'll move on to another
season. I have purpose to be said. And I thought when I was
looking at this, I thought, Frank came down and preached down at
Grace Fellowship here about three weeks ago. And Frank said, I
preach out of the Old Testament all the time. He said, I just
have to force myself to get over in the New Testament. Boy, I
just about jumped up and grabbed him. I love that Old Testament.
I love these. God don't ever change. His purpose
don't ever change. The way He deals with His people
don't ever change. He's immutable. It's what He will, when He will,
with whom He will, all throughout His creation. And I thought when
I was looking at this, I thought, where could we go back to and
develop this theme, this all things work together, and to
everything there is a season and a purpose under God to all
these things. Where would we go back and look
at that? And I thought, well, let's go back and look at when
God delivered the nation of Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians.
Turn back to Exodus chapter 14. Very familiar scripture. You
all know this story that's in here. We're going to just talk
about it a little bit here tonight. I hope the Lord will bless these
things I have to say. Now, let's bring us up to this
Exodus chapter 14. Let's go back a little bit and
talk about this nation of Israel. Way back there, 500 years prior
to this, there was a man named Abraham. He lived down there
in a place called Ur of the Chaldees, an idolatrous country, a heathen
country. Abraham was just like everybody
else down there. He worshiped idols just like everybody else.
And God set His love on that man. He said over there in Deuteronomy,
He said, I didn't choose you because you were greater in number
than anybody else. I didn't choose you because of
that. You were fewer in number. And he goes on in verse 7, and
he said, I chose you just because I would. I set my love on you. I chose you because the Lord
loved you. And he called that man Abraham.
He spoke to him. He said, Abraham, get thee out
of thy father's house. Leave this country and go to
a land I'll show you. And Abraham believed God. And
he left and took his wife with him. And God led him up there.
He said, come up here. And he said, I'm going to bless
you. And I'm going to make your seed as the stars of the sky
and the sand of the seashore. And he said, all the nations
of the earth are going to be blessed through you. And Abraham and his wife,
they went up there. And he said, let me tell you
about this land I'm going to bring you to. It's a land flowing
with milk and honey. You've never seen anything like
it. And Abraham followed him up there. And he got up there. And when they got up there, you
know what they found? This place that God had promised, He said,
follow Me. I'm going to lead you to the promised land. And
they got up there, and you know what happened? They was in a
famine up there. That land God led, this is who
He separated from that common lump of mankind. He called this
man. Today's religion would say, all
you've got to do is just make a decision for God. All you've
got to do is tithe. All you've got to do is pray. All you've
got to do is all these things, and He's going to bless you with
everything. You're going to have the finest home and the finest
house. All your kids are going to be healthy. All the boys are
going to be 6'3", and all the girls are going to be beautiful.
That's today's religion. What's the Bible say? This special
man, the beginning of the nation that God would come through Himself
in the form of Jesus Christ. He called Him up there out of
this heathen country. He was 70 years old. He probably
had already lived a life of prosperity, probably already made his first
million, you know. Living down there, happy as could be. God
said, leave these people. Come up here where I'm going
to show you the promised land. And they went up there. And they
walked right into that promised land. And there was a famine.
There was a famine. People dying from starvation.
People dying from starvation. This is God's chosen person right
here. This is who he set his love on
from the foundation of the world. And he brought him up there.
Set him right there in that country. Everything was dying, starving
to death. And cattle, you could see all the ribs. There was no
fat cattle there. The field was full of dead cattle.
The people was dying, starving to death. There was a famine
in the land. And God brought this man up there. How do you
explain that? To everything there is a season
and a time to every purpose under heaven. God planned it. God purposed it, and He brought
him up there at that very time. Don't ever forget that when things
get tough. Don't ever forget it. How am
I going to get through this? How am I ever going to get through
this? How did Abraham get through it? The same way we will. God
let him through it. God let him through it. Now,
He promised him a seed that would be like the stars of the sky
and the sand of the seashore. Abraham believed God. And he
went up there. Now we're going to jump ahead
200 years. 200 years. 200 years and they had been in
that promised land. After they come back, they went through
that promised land during that famine, went down into Egypt.
And God plagued those people and they gave Abraham all those
things. And Abraham came up a wealthy
man. And he came up and God said, walk through the length and breadth
of this country. He said, everything you see, I'm going to give it
to you. And He made that promise again to them. He said, your
seed is going to be as the stars in the sky and the sands of the
seashore. He's an old man now, and you don't even have a son
yet. And we jump ahead 200 years. And 200 years, we find this man
Jacob, and God changed his name to end, Israel, Prince of God.
And we find this man Jacob, after 200 years of living there in
the Promised Land, and God defending him and fighting for him and
providing for him and blessing him, And the grand total of the
nation of Israel is going to be as the stars of the sky and
the sands of the seashore, 70 people. 200 years later, 70 people. To everything, there is a season
and a time to have a purpose under heaven. The world is going
to see this and say, boy, this is an absolute failure. You better
find you some other God. No, no. And Jacob begins to take
that whole nation of Israel down into Egypt, this idolatry. laden country, this heathen country. And they start down there. And Abraham is an old man. And
he stops at a place called Beersheba. And there he worships God. And
God appears to him in a vision. And he said, Jacob, Jacob, don't
be afraid to go down there in Egypt. Don't be afraid to go
down there. He said, I'm going to make of
you a great nation down there. But he said, now Jacob, Jacob,
your son Joseph, He's going to put His hands on your eyes. You're
going to die down there. You're not coming back. Think
about this. Think about this in our day.
This is God's people. This is God's special people
that He loves. He loved them and separated them
and defended them and provided for them. And they're in a time
of trouble. They're in a time of trouble.
This is an old man, Jacob. Think about it. I thought about
this. This is a believer that believed
God and walked with God. God dealt directly with him.
And this old man, now he's leaving his country, and he's going down
there to... How would you like to be? I'm
61. How would you like to see Andy
Johnson, an old believer there, an old warrior? And God pluck
him up and take him over there in the middle of them heathen
Islam over there. Take him over and drop him right
in the middle of Iran. That's what's happening here.
This is Jacob. He's an old man. He ain't coming
back. How do you explain that? To everything there's a season.
and a time to ever purpose under heaven. That's how we explain
it. That's how we explain it. Now we jump forward another 200
years. We leave Jacob. Jacob dies there. 200 years has
passed now. And God hears the cry of His
people. Moses is now 80 years old. Moses was born during this
time down there in Egypt. Moses was raised in Pharaoh's
own home by Pharaoh's daughter. He got 40 years of age. He went
out and seen one of these Egyptian servants abusing one of the Israelites. He slew that servant and fled
for his life. And he went back to the backside
of the desert. He's back there 40 years. He's 80 years old.
He's Henry Mahan's age. 80 years old. There he was back
there on the backside of the desert. He said, I'm going to
turn aside and see this amazing sight. There's that bush that
burned up there, and it's not consumed. And he went up there to it. And
God appeared to him in that burning bush. And he told him, he said,
Moses, I've heard the cry of my people. I've heard their cry. And he said, I want you to go
down there. He said, I want you to go down there and tell Pharaoh,
let my people go. And Moses did. Moses left. He went down there. Eighty years
old. Old man. He went down there and went right
into the very throne room of the most powerful monarch on
the face of the earth. And he walked right up to the
throne. And he said, I'm here on a mission.
God Almighty sent me down here. And He said, the God of Israel
has said, the Lord God of Israel said, Pharaoh, let My people
go. Today's religion and the thoughts
of today is, you know, there's power, and the Lord's got power,
and the Lord can do anything He wants. Now, all you've got
to do is accept Him, and all you've got to do is these things
that they say to do, and you'll have this power. I see these
fellows on TV all the time. I turn that crazy day star on
just to see. When you think you've seen it
all, I think, well, I wonder what they'll do tomorrow. Well,
tune in. You'll stand up. They'll jump through barrels
backwards, you know. It's crazy. But they're always
talking about rebuking Satan, you know. I just said to Satan,
just get away from me, you know. Just rebuke him. Here's God's
man that we know. We know Moses is God's servant.
We know he's God's ambassador into this very throne of Pharaoh
himself. And he walks up there and he
says, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go.
Well, how easy would it have been? How easy would it have
been? For God Almighty to reach in
there and twist that man's heart, just squeeze that man's heart,
and that man just blurt out, get out of here. By all means,
take these people and leave. He could have done that. He didn't.
He didn't. Pharaoh looked at Moses and he
said, I don't know your God, and I will not let those people
go. And he severely taxed them, worse than the bondage that they'd
been in before. And then you know the rest of
that story. He plagued those people with those nine plagues.
And then He said, yet one more time I'll plague these people
and they will surely let you go. And the death of the firstborn,
you know that story. And they come out. God delivered
them with a high hand. How do you explain that? How
do you explain, here comes Moses. Moses comes up there and says,
let them go. I'm not going to let them go. I don't know your
God and I will not let them go. To everything there is a season.
And there is a purpose. God has a purpose in these things.
This is God's children. This is His special children.
And ultimately, He does deliver them. But they are in severe,
severe bondage until He does deliver them. It's the people
of His love, children of His pasture. And yet they go through
these things. We will too. Our Lord Himself
said, He said Himself, in this world you will have tribulation. You will. Don't be surprised
if you do. It's a promise. You will have
tribulation. But He said, Be of good comfort.
I've overcome the world. He has. And ultimately we will
when He's pleased to bring us to Himself. But until then, we're
going to have these seasons and these things. And there are going
to be troubles. And there are going to be trials.
And there are going to be painful. And it's for His purpose. It's
for His purpose. Now ultimately, ultimately, God
does lead these people out. And here in Exodus 13, look at
verse 21. He led these people out with
a high hand. And the Lord went before them. He went before His
people. Now, all the old writers calculate
that there was somewhere around 2 million people. Some of them,
John Gill says 2,400,000. I don't know how he knows that. He's put a number, you know,
2,400,000 Israelites that left Egypt, and God led them. And
it said, the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a
cloud to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire
to give them light, to go by day and by night. Evidently these
people, well, should this surprise us that these people was on a
steady march day and night? that they had the sun by day
and this cloudy pillar that led them. This is the way we go.
This miraculously display of God's power would follow that
pillar of cloud by the day, and at night it would become a pillar
of fire and lit up that whole area. Well, their shoes, they
wore the same shoes for 40 years. Their clothes didn't wear out
for 40 years, you know. He supplied them everything to
eat and everything to drink. Why should it amaze them that
they couldn't make a sustained march away from Egypt? as he
provided the pillar of cloud of the day and the pillar of
fire of the night. And he led them out there. And they kept
on going, and they kept marching, and they kept marching. And look
here in chapter 14 and verse 2. Chapter 14 and verse 2. And our Lord, our Lord, He said
to Moses, speaking to the children of Israel, that they turn and
encamp before Pi-hi-hi-roth, between Migdal and the sea, over
against Baal-zaphon. Before it shall you encamp by
the sea." Now keep remembering this. This is God's special people. Like we're God's special people.
We're the Lord's special people. We've been separated. We've been
called by the Spirit of God. He's breathed life into us. We
have the Spirit of God in us. We're His special people. And
He leads us and defends us and guides us and directs us and
provides everything for us. Like He did these people. And
He led these people out of Egypt. Get this picture. Here they go.
Here they go. And this pillar of cloud takes
them right out there to the edge of the Red Sea. And there's no
place to go. There's no trees to hide behind.
There's no caves to get into. There's no rocks to hide behind.
They've got no weapons. They've got nothing to defend
themselves. And there they stop. God's going to ultimately open
up that Red Sea. He didn't do it now. What did
He tell them to do? These Egyptians back here, now
they're making some strategies to come after Him. And God brought
them out there, and what did He tell them to do? Get across
that Red Sea? You get across that Red Sea,
you're in safety. No, He said, sit down right here. Camp right
here. You wait right here. Sit down
and be still. And wait on the Lord. Be still,
I say. Wait on the Lord. And there they
sat. There they sat. Why didn't He just open up the
Red Sea? Why didn't He open it up right then? And they could
have gone right on on dry ground and went on and be gone before
the Egyptians ever regrouped. But He took them out there. This
is His people. This is us. He takes us right out there.
He said, sit down. You sit down and wait. You wait
for Me. And He did. And there they sat.
How do you explain that? How do you explain that? To everything
there's a season, and there's a time to every purpose under
heaven. God's purpose. He's got a purpose in this. This
is His people. People He loves. Back here in
Egypt, they had a change of heart. Pharaoh came and got Moses there
at midnight. He said, Get out of here. Take
everything. Take your children, your little
ones, your livestock. Get out of here. Go. He said, Bless me
too. They'd had one encounter with the God of Israel. Boy,
did he make a mess of them. Well, now they changed their
mind. And they said, what did we let them people go for? Why
did we let them go? Why did we let them go? We didn't
let them go. God with a mighty hand brought
them out. He'll bring us out too, no matter what. No matter
what difficulty this world throws out there. And they changed their
mind. They said, let's go get them.
They had evidently heard. that they were entangled in the
wilderness, that they had gone out there and camped. They didn't
know where to go, what to do. There they sat. That's all Pharaoh
knew. He said, let's go get them. And they got their horses together,
and they got their chariots. Pharaoh got his chariot all harnessed
up, you know, and they got all their weapons of war, and they
called up the reserves and the army and all the people, and
they said, let's go get them. And they come charging after
them. Here they come. And there sits the people. And
they're camped. And they're just waiting. And
here comes that army and they look up. They look up. This is
the finest army on the face of the earth. This would be like
in our day. There's nothing to match our
army. Nothing on the face of the earth to match the might
of the United States military. Nothing. Well, here come Egypt.
That's what they were in their day. And these people didn't
have anything. They didn't have a place to hide.
They didn't have anything to defend themselves with. There they sat.
They were camped. There they sat. And here they
come. And they lifted up their eyes and they seen. They seen
Him come. And they wept. They cried. They cried to the
Lord. Exodus 14, verse 10. When Pharaoh grew near, the children
of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched
after them, and they were sore afraid, and they cried out unto
the Lord. Remember that list over there
in Ecclesiastes 3? He said there's a time to weep.
There's a time to weep. Fourteen sets of opposites in
that Ecclesiastes 3. Time to be born, time to die,
time to plant, time to pluck up. And down there in verse 4,
he said, there's a time to weep. Do we know something about that?
Do we know something about weeping? Then he goes on and he said,
there's a time to laugh. There's a time to rejoice and
dance and click your heels. There's a time for that. This
is a time to weep. The children of Israel, this
is God's special people, And He's brought them out there in
a time of trouble. And He said, sit down right there
and wait. And here comes the enemy. How
do you explain this? How do you explain God's people,
the people of His love? There they are in harm's way.
How do we explain that? To everything there's a season.
And there's a time for every purpose under heaven. God's got
a purpose in this. God's got a purpose in this.
And this, when it gets beautiful right here, this is beautiful
right here. Exodus 14, verse 19. Look at this. And the
angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel and led them
right out there at the edge of the Red Sea, and He said, camp
right here and wait until them Egyptians catch up with you.
He said, don't move. Don't leave this place. Stay
right there. I put you right out there in plain view of the
whole world, and you don't have anything to defend yourself.
You're relying solely on Me." And there they sat. And this
pillar of cloud that led them by day, this visible showing
of display of the absolute power of God, what did it do? What
did it do? Look there. The pillar of cloud went from
before their face, and where did it go? It went around behind
them. It went around behind them. Right
like this. Right like this. Here they come.
Here comes this army. Here's God's people. We go down to the beach. We've
been gone for several years now. This is crazy, but I think it's
a pretty good illustration. We go down there, and we always
rent a beach house right on the beach. And we go down there,
and we pull up in the driveway and unlock that door, and I run
right in the house and throw them suitcases on the bed, and
I go straight out the other end of the house. Go down that walkway
and go right down on the beach. I run right out to the edge of
the water and that water is just licking there at my feet. And
I look at that massive, massive expanse of water. And you know,
when God rolled this all in place, it's like He stood there. And
I think of this every year when we go down there. It's like He
stood there and He said, right here and no farther. You'll come
no farther. This is as far as you come, right
here. And it's been that way ever since he spun this world
in space. And he said right here, Moses
said, that pillar of cloud, it went from before him and went
and stood between them and the enemy. You remember when our
Lord, there in the Garden of Gethsemane, the next day he would
be hanging on the cross. And they'd come there to arrest
him. They sent them the servants of
the high priest. They sent the army. This was
a lynch mob. This was a vigilante committee,
and they'd come out there in the Garden of Gethsemane. Our
Lord was out there with His disciples, and He was out there and He was
praying. That's when He swept those great drops of blood to come
out of His... because He knew what... He'd set His face like
a flint, and tomorrow He would be hanging on the cross, and
the Father would turn His back on Him. And He was out there
with this inner circle, His spatial people, and they'd come out there.
Just get this picture. There they all are there. He's
talking to them. They're praying. He's telling them about what's
going to happen and all that. And here comes this lynch mob.
And they're all there together. The eleven are there. Judas is
already gone. And our Lord's there. There's
twelve of them. They're talking, fellowshipping. They love him. He loves his people. And here
comes that lynch mob. And he removes himself from these
eleven people. And he goes out there and he
meets this vigilante committee. And he says, whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I'm Jesus of Nazareth. If you seek me, isn't this beautiful? If you seek me, let these go
their way. Let these go their way. I'm going
to die for these people. They're my special people. I
love these people. That's what I came for, to redeem
these people. You seek me, take me. But you
let these go their way. That's what's happening here.
That's what's happening here. The Lord, in that visible presence
of His power and majesty, He separates Himself from the front,
and He goes around to the back. And He shields His people from
the danger to come. To everything. To everything. We're not going to get tired
of this, are we? To everything, there's a season.
And there's a time to every purpose under heaven. And He stands there. And it says in the Morning Watch,
and there's light over here on this side, where His people are,
there's light. His people have light. We have
light. This Scripture is just not words
to us. This is not cold, dead doctrine.
This is Christ. This is our Lord who died for
us and breathed life into us. And we're new people. And we can cry, Father, Father,
Abba, Father. This is not just cold, dead words.
His life. We had light. And on this side
of that cloud, they had light. And all that night, all that
night, that Red Sea came up in a heap. And in the morning, in
the morning watch, it said, and the Lord looked through that
cloud. Where is that? Let me see if
I can find that here. Well, I'm not going to find it,
but it's in chapter 14. But the Lord looked through that
cloud, and He saw those Egyptians over there. Where was He at?
He was with His people. He was in the presence of His
people. And He's in our presence. He's with us. Whatever He brings
us in, whatever trouble and trial and pain and sorrow and grief
and sickness, whatever it is, He's with His people. And he
looked through there and he saw those Egyptians. And he knocked
the wheels off their chariots. And the people of Israel, they
marched through on dry ground. They marched through and it was
gone. They were delivered. They were delivered. And the
Egyptians come in after them. The Egyptians come in after them.
Moses held that rod up over the Red Sea and it came in and destroyed
every one of them. It destroyed every one of them.
Well, this is an old story. It's a 4,000-year-old story of
what happened way back there. How is it pertinent in our day?
How does it have any pertinence to the day we live in? Those
people back there, God called Abraham. He called that man out
of a heathen, idolatrous country. And he said, follow me. He said,
you believe me, Abraham? I believe you, God. He said,
follow me and I'll take you to a land. I'll show you a land
like you've never seen before. And he follows God. And in our
day, the Lord has called us. He's called us spatially. He's
called us by name. He's called us out from among
this world of heathen and idolaters. He's called us. And He's given
us life. He's breathed into us the breath
of life. And we see Christ. And we run to Christ. And we
flee to Christ. We hold on to Him. And He holds on to us. He'll never let us go. We'll
never let Him go. And yet, we're going to have
trouble. We're going to have trouble. I was talking to John
Friday night, and John said he used this term, and it's a good
term. He said, this has been a hard year. It's been a hard
year. Solomon, right in Ecclesiastes
3 and verse 4, he said, there's a time to weep. Do we know something
about that? We know something about that.
But he said, oh my goodness, there's a time to laugh. There's
a time to rejoice. And we do. And we do. And we do. We rejoice in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He came down here. He took our
sin on Himself. He went to the cross and He died
for me and you. And He gave us a perfect robe
of righteousness. And He breathed into us life. When He hung on the cross, and
that veil was rent in plain down there in the temple, He gave
us access to the Father. And He told us to pray this way.
Our Father. Collectively pray this way. You
individually pray, My Heavenly Father, My Father which art in
heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. We have that. We have access
because of what He's done in us. If we go there with just
the old man, we have no access with the old man. He's not going
to hear the old man. No matter how you spruce it up,
no matter what kind of ribbons and bows you put on it, no matter
how much it gives up, He's not going to hear the old man. He's
only going to hear what He put in you. That that He planted
in you, that's what He's going to receive back. That that's
perfect, undefiled, it's beautiful, that's what He's going to receive.
And we have that. By His grace, we have that. And we have access
to the very throne room of our Heavenly Father. And we go to
Him. Thank You, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank You, Lord, for
making me whole. Thank You, Lord, for giving to
me Thy salvation. Oh, it's rich, and it's free,
and it's free. Well, don't ever forget all things. I've been studying for this,
and I've been telling O'Dell, and I'm telling him again tonight,
and you're just listening in. I've just hammered this on. Don't ever forget, Dale. Don't
ever forget. All things. I need to be retold
this and retold it. All things. Work together for
good to them who love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. All things. And we take joy in
that. And that season of weeping, It
gives way to that season of laughing, rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay. I've asked Brother Mike
if he'd sing one of my favorites, and he does it better than anybody
I've ever heard, Till the Storm Passes Over. Thank you all so
much. In good terms of 586, you all can
help me on the chorus. My lady, sit. It's the dark of
the midnight and I'm off in my ways. While the storm clouds surround
me, the grass of wonder, rest assured,
if I cry, keep me safe till the storm has subsided, till the
storm and over, till the thunder clouds
roll on, till the clouds roll forever. From the sky, holy grass, let
me stand. There's not a rose above my head. Keep me safe till the storm passes through. There is no need to cry, for
there's hope in the sorrow, there's the hope by and by. Till the storms pass us over,
till the thunder clouds are gone, till the clouds go forever across the sky. Till the storm passes by. When the long night has ended,
and the storm stops no more, and we stand in thy presence
on that bright ♪ When the well of heav'n is never
round ♪ ♪ Storms may rise, well with thee ♪ ♪ When the storm passes by
♪ ♪ Till the storm passes over ♪ ♪ Till the thunder clouds roar ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched,
were so gallantly streaming?