We'll turn to Psalm 34. Wednesday night, I didn't think
I had it in me. It always works that way. I was
having myself down to read. Come on in. Psalm 34. I didn't think I had it in myself
to read. and to lead singing and to preach, I wasn't feeling
good at all. But I didn't know what was coming
this week. I had a fever. Them Santa Anas, man, they wore
me out. And I thought, why? I just coughed. I woke up at
four o'clock this morning just hacking. Can't catch my breath. And I thought, why am I so sick?
And I thought, that's a good benefit for you. Most of the
time when I get this way, it gets me out the way. And then
I'll just tell you what the Lord says and he'll bless it. It's
good. Brother Thomas called, text me
this morning. He said, I don't think I'll be able to make it.
I'm sick. I said, I understand. I'm pretty bad off too, but I
hope the Lord will let me preach. And he called me. We got to talk a little bit,
didn't we? What if you had leprosy? You
just going to quit going to church? What if you're sick? What if
something's bad off? What if it's the last time you're
out of here? What was this last time I got to preach? Might be. I got some lung issues, man.
And it's going to get worse as time goes on, doctors done told
me. This might be it. Might be the last time. If you
was bad off sick, would you go to the grocery store? Well, why
would you go to the grocery store? Well, I got to. I got to eat. You got to be here, don't you?
You got to eat, don't you? That's good. Psalm 34, we can
cut it here. We can edit that out or leave
it out. Psalm 34, that you may see good,
that you may see good. Let's read this together. Let's
take our Bibles in our hands and let's see what God Almighty
wrote for us to read here in Psalm 34 verse one. David writes
this, and this is after he let spittle run down his beard and
he faked being crazy and pretty bashful, pretty shameful, isn't
it? What won't a believer do? Psalm 34, the Lord taught him
something. Psalm 34, verse one. I will bless
the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. Who? Who's David talking about? I. My. Me. What? What am I going to do?
What's my going to do? Bless the Lord. When? At all times. A double L. I've say that over and over and
over again because I want to soak in. I don't care if you
remember that I said it. I want you to remember that he said
it. All times. A double L. I, what, bless the
Lord, when, all times, how? How are you gonna do that? How
am I gonna do that? How's Dave gonna do it? With
my mouth. We're gonna learn something about
what comes out of our mouth here in a little bit. We better be careful. Should
I set you up and knock you down? Lord did, didn't he? I will bless
the Lord all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. That's personal. That's personal, isn't it? The
Lord teaches us how to think. One, two, three, four, five.
Y'all pay attention. The Lord teaches us how to think.
He teaches us how to act in this world. I'm gonna show you out
here in a little bit, too. His word shows us. This is instruction. This is a declaration. Well,
that's nice, isn't it? Hey, let's go on back to cussing everybody
underneath their breath we can find in this world. This is instructive,
isn't it? He's gonna show us why. Every
trial that comes, pay attention to me. Every trial that comes
is an opportunity to praise the Lord with your mouth. To thank him, to encourage those
around us to thank him. And that's going to raise some
questions, isn't it? What's wrong with you? Why are you so happy?
This is bad. Lord sent this. He loves me. I'm his. He's too
good to do wrong. Well, where'd you learn that?
Where I go to church. And the power of God enters into
somebody and they say, come here by the man. Not, this is my theological
statement. Y'all read that bulletin? Do
people read the bulletin? I have no desire for anyone in
this church to go out in this community and tell what we believe
and what we preach. I don't want you to do that.
I want you to go out and tell who, who we believe, what he's
done, a person's done for us. That's my desire. Last week was
bringing reproach. What is it to bring reproach?
If in any situation, any transaction at a grocery store, you get that?
Anything that I do, if it's with the propane guy that comes to
fill up my propane, at the end of anything, with any human on
it, anybody, prostitutes or politicians, it don't make a difference. If
I have come in contact with somebody, if at the end of that conversation,
I say, won't you come to church with me? There's nothing in me
or my mouth They'll say, you know what? Man, if arresting
people's like you, I ain't going down there. Every trial is an opportunity
for us to praise God with our mouths. Everyone. Some of Caesar's house was saved
through the preaching of a felon on house arrest. What'd Paul
say? Caesar's got me in jail. Oh,
Nemo's got me down here. That's rough. No, he said, Paul,
comma, a prisoner of Christ is what I told Philemon. Why not? I'm God's prisoner. I'm in prison.
Lord, the Lord inflicted my lungs today. And I want to preach this
one first. I think they're both the message
of the day. But if I can only preach one message, I want to
preach this one first. One burns more than the other.
We praise our Lord. We bless his name with our mouths
when at all times. Why? Because we fear him. We
honor him. We respect him. We honor the
holy God of heaven and earth. We've come into this house and
we've gathered in his name to worship him. We didn't come in
here to go church. We didn't come here to have a
hymn service. We didn't come in here to have Bible studies and have deep
conversations of theological design at the end of it. That's
a bunch of garbage and it don't lead nowhere good. We came here
to worship the almighty God. That's why we're here. That's
it. Verse 11, Psalm 34, that's what
we looked at last week. Come, ye children, hearken unto
me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. You young people,
remember. You remember what we talked about
last week? What's fear? Respect, awe, reverence, adoration,
and all that's based on his personal love to us, from him to us, what
he's done for us. When we see that, we respect
him. We're in awe. I stand in awe. I stand amazed
at the presence of Jesus of Nazarene and wonder how he could save
a wretch like me. A worm. How can we teach folks
to honor and respect the Lord? Well, I can't. I can't. How can I put faith in someone?
How can I make you believe what he says? I can't. I can't do
that. I can't count on a number of
times a week I say something to somebody that's, well, I don't
know about that. It ain't Kevin Thacker's idea. I'm telling you
what God said. I can't make you believe it.
Well, I know, but I can't put faith in someone. I can't put
reverence in someone. Almighty God promised to meet
us here this morning, right now. I can't make that important to
you. Okay, I can't make that way more than other things in
this world. I can't make it way more than a soccer game. I can't
make it way more than a swim meet. I can't. There's something I can do, though.
I can tell people. That's what I'm charged to do.
Tell them. Tell them. The result's up to the Lord.
He said, Go ye into all the world. He said, Go. That's important
to me this week. That's important to me right
now. I'm going to say it. He said, go look him dead in the eye. One-on-one
in person. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature, don't matter who it is. He that
believeth and is baptized. shall be saved, and he that believeth
not shall be damned. My pastor wrote an article, it's
wonderful. I'm gonna read the whole thing
to you. I don't like reading articles
from a pulpit. I'm gonna read the whole thing to you. He said,
believe on the Lord Jesus and confess Christ in baptism, period.
That's a good article. It's like debate, it's like,
well, now I think, I believe, don't matter what you believe.
That's what he says, that's a commandment, isn't it? He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved, but he that believes not shall be
damned. That's what he said. I'd do it. Believe him. He told
him Matthew 28 said, go ye therefore and teach all nations. That means
make disciples. Preach to them, baptizing them
in the name of the father, the son, the holy ghost, teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. He said,
you go out and preach the gospel and you baptize those that believe
and then teach them. Teaching some things. I firmly
believe his word will not return unto him void. I wake up often
and I hear things and I read things and I see things and I
think, Lord, who's believed our report? What in the world am
I doing here? Why am I here? Ain't nobody believed
my report. I know it won't return to him
void. You know how I know that? He said so. I believe what he
said. I know so. He must do the teaching. There in John 6, verse 44, he
says, no man can come to me unless the Father draws him. And everyone
that he draws, he'll teach every one of them. He'll teach them.
He will. What's he gonna teach them? To
draw close to Christ. That's what he's gonna teach
them. We're gonna be taught to come, taught to fear. That's
good. Solomon said that the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise
wisdom. and instruction. I know a lot
of people love wisdom, but you ain't gonna tell me nothing.
Why don't you tell me something, do something? A fool don't take instruction,
does he? What's the fear of the Lord? I hope the children remember
from last week. First, it's that Christ controls
it all. He made it all, and he controls
it all. Now, if I talk to the big folks, we can swim a little
bit deeper water, can't we? What is it to fear the Lord?
First, it's to be fully persuaded that the Lord's sovereign, and
he's majestic in all things, and we're completely weak in
all things. He has all power, and we have none. That's the
first thing. Turn over to Daniel chapter four.
Daniel four. We're gonna hit the same points
as last week. I'm kinda cheating. But we're gonna look at different
scriptures. Daniel chapter four. Old brother Nebuchadnezzar's
about to learn something. Now it took him a few years of
eating grass and walking around on all fours to be taught this.
There was some trouble that came. There was trials that came. That's
the instrument of God's instruction to his children, his hardship
and trial and suffering. To be fully convinced in soul
and mind and heart of the Lord's power, of his majesty, of his
wisdom, of his sovereignty, and to be totally convinced of our
weakness and our inability. That's, if he does that, if he
teaches that, we're gonna have some fear. We're gonna respect
him. All right, man. Be thankful for him. Daniel 4,
34. And at the end of the days, I,
Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes into the heaven, and my
understanding returned to me. He had knowledge, didn't he?
The prophet come talk to him about these things. He gets it
now. He has understanding. Boy, don't
you think? My understanding returned to
me and I bless the most high and I praise and honor him that
liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. And
his kingdom is from generation to generation and all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. Well, now my grandpa always used
to say, if it's against this word, it don't matter what grandpa
used to say. He's nothing. My dad was nothing. I'm nothing.
We're all nothing. All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will an
army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, that's
every one of us. And none can stay his hand or say to him,
what doest thou? What are you doing? Boy, if we saw that, we've been
taught something. That's better than speaking five
languages. That's better than being able to do trigonometry.
Do you understand that? God has to teach that. We can read it
and nod up and down and memorize it and write it on a piece of
paper and hang it up over the top of our walls. He's got to speak that to the
heart. He's got to speak it to the heart. Second, see the holiness
of the Lord of Hosts and our filthiness. We've got to see
His holiness and our filthiness. We've seen it. He's got to show
us His power and our weakness. And now we've got to see this
one that does all this is holy and we're dirty. Turn over to
Isaiah 6. Isaiah chapter 6. We learned
last week, children did, that the cross controls it all and
Christ paid it all. If a bad person bought you and
was in total control, that would be bad. Wouldn't it? If there
was a sovereign entity that controlled everything and that sovereign
entity that controlled everything bought you and it's purchased
possession, and that was evil, you're in a world of hurt, and
we're all in a world of hurt. Do you understand? That's bad.
That's bad. This one of Israel, Christ, that
paid it all, he's the holy one of Israel. He's holy, and outside
of him, we ain't. You get that? He's holy. Outside of his holiness, we ain't
got nothing to do with holiness. We don't know what that is. Isaiah
six, verse one, here's what the Lord taught Isaiah. Isaiah six,
one, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting
upon the throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and
with twain he did fly. And one cried unto the other,
and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of his glory. What about them bad parts? What
about them mean people? What about them politicians?
That's what they're worried about. What about Ukraine? God's glory's
there, isn't it? Isn't it for his glory? Them angels know something we
ought to pay attention. Verse four, and the post of the door
moved, shook at the voice of him that cried, and the house
was filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me, or I'm undone, because
I'm a man of unclean lips. What's that mouth speak? Whatever's
in the heart. What comes out the mouth is what's
evidence of what's in the heart. Ain't that right? Isaiah said, woe is me, I'm undone.
I'm unclean, I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of
a people of unclean lips. That's honor. That's reverence.
This whole world ain't nothing. Let every man be a liar. God's true, isn't it? God be
true and every man a liar. I know that now. I didn't know
that before. I thought there was some wisdom in people. God
taught me something. For mine eyes. Wow, how did he
know that? How did he honor and reverence and fear out of his
mouth with these words? For mine eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts. God has to teach that. Fully
persuaded of his power and my weakness. We know in part, but
Christ controls it all, don't he? Second, we're fully persuaded
of his holiness and our sinfulness, and I'm thankful we only see
our sin in part. Ain't you? Doesn't that make
you happy that you only know a little bit of how wicked you
are on the inside? That's mercy, isn't it? He paid that. He paid it. And third is to experience. How are we gonna, what are we
gonna tell people? That way the Lord's gonna teach them. He's
gonna have to show his power and our weakness, his holiness,
our sinfulness, and you're gonna have to experience that, not
just agree with it on a piece of paper. We're gonna have to
experience love, his love. We're gonna have to experience
his mercy. We're gonna have to experience
his goodness, his grace in Christ. What was the third point last
week? Christ is all. Easy to say, saying ain't gonna
do it. You have to live it. God's about
to show us that and make us put that in our bones. Give us a
new heart that He's everything to. Turn over to Philippians
3. Philippians chapter 3. Here's the experience. Here's
what the mouth says out of the lips. that's experienced Christ
being all. Whenever his child experienced,
he's all. This is the result of not just talking about our
doctrine, the high ivory tower and negotiating and all those
things, but living it. It's putting it in shoe leather.
It's what it looks like. Philippians 3 verse 7. Paul just
listed all the great things that the world says is good. what
tribe he's from, what day he's circumcised on. He did more than
all of them. And boy, he's just moving up the religious ranks.
Wasn't he? He was big in religion. Remember
that church we used to go to? Here's what he says about that
church he used to go to and that man he used to be. Verse seven.
But what things were gained to me, what I thought was gain,
those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but dung. It's manure. You get that? that I may win Christ and be
found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law." Isn't that plain? That's as plain as it can get.
People read right over it, don't they? I don't want my own righteousness. I don't want my own holiness.
I don't want my own sanctification. I don't want my own redemption.
I don't want my own wisdom. Can you say that? Me found in him not having my
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ. The righteousness, which is of
God by faith, that I may know him. Do you want to know him? I know him, I want to know him.
I know that woman right there, known her a long time. I want
to know her more. I want to continue to know her.
I want to love her more. Don't you want to know him? I
only know him and the power of his resurrection. I know he's
all powerful. I don't like doing this often. I'm gonna read you something.
We'll look at next week. I was fighting to try to look
at it this week. David wrote this in Psalm 35.
He said, draw out also thy spear and stop the way of them that
persecute me. He said, defend me from my enemies.
He says, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. That's salvation. When God comes to your soul,
it's going through your ears, but not just in your head and
your heart. And he said, I am your salvation. You, y'all tune
in to Brother Gay's message last night. He kept saying you, you,
you, you. E-W-E. That's a female sheep. You, speak
to my soul that you're my salvation. Do you want to hear that? Or do you wanna hear about some
historical facts of whenever the children of Israel walked through?
I don't care what valley that was, speak to my soul. That'll
be nice to learn later, but I need to hear salvation of my heart
today. That I may know him and the power
of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and be made
conformable to his death if by any means, I don't care what
it is, I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. What's
that mean? I don't care what takes place, I wanna be with
him at the end. I'm gonna run the race, wherever he's put in
front of me, I'll do it with all I got. Give it all you got. That's fine. I won't be with him at the end.
You? Have you been taught to fear
the Lord? Have you been taught who he is, what he did? Not just
the idea, but you've experienced that. Christ saved sinners. I'm
a sinner and he saved me. Eric Lutter's got that article
in the book. That's a good one. That's a good one. Back in our
text, verse 12, Psalm 34, verse 12. Verse 11 says, Come, you children,
hearken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Verse 12 says, What man is he
that desireth life? And loveth many days that he
may see good? This could be referring to the
future. That's been much old fellas wrote that down in the
book somewhere. This is desiring that eternal life, many days
everlasting life. And that life's good. We desire
those things. But this is talking about this
life to this is talking about 2023. You understand that a good
life, a happy life, not just to exist, that's not live. And
a long life's not necessarily a good life, is it? Sometimes
it's a bad thing to have many days. That's miserable. Many
days doesn't mean good days. An old writer said one time,
some that live the longest live the least. And I thought physically,
my body's beat up. I got some aches and pains and
scars and I'm an inch shorter than I used to be, two inches
shorter than I used to be. My spine's compressing. I creak
when I get up and pop and crack and I earned it. I got some scars
and they come through a lot of trials and good experiences too.
The length of life doesn't matter as much as how it's lived. But
what person desireth? I mean, do you want a good life
and happy days? Right now, don't you want a good
life? Don't you want happy days? Do you want contentment? Anybody? North, South? You wanna
have a good life? I've been charged to not only
teach people how to die. I'm in that business. You're
gonna meet God. Everybody alive, everybody in San Diego County,
everybody in this world, throughout time, you're gonna die and you're
gonna meet a holy God and it's my job to tell you about it.
It's my job to prepare you to die. And it's also my job to
tell you how to live. Not that I get any business,
you know what I mean. Not that I'm, you know, you ought not
drive that brand of car. No, hogwash. I ought to be a
good example of how to walk through this life as somebody that believes
God, right? I'll tell you, I said, put all
your hope and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, bow to him. Now,
you got 63 years left on this earth, what are you gonna do?
Sit in a hole somewhere? Hide in a closet? No, we gotta
live this life, don't we? Just as I cannot do the teaching
of being in Christ, the Lord must do that. He's gotta teach
you the necessity of being in Christ, and he must teach you
how to live and how to think and how to act, and me included.
I can't tell y'all anything unless I've lived it. I can't tell you
about Judas being scared, saying, Master, is it I? Unless I'm the
one that's terrified, saying, Lord, is it I? I have to go through
that so I can tell you. How do I do it? I can't teach
you these things, so God does. You wanna learn something? Has
he done all that? If we respect him, if we fear
him, you wanna be taught by him. I want him to teach me. Do you
wanna be taught? Or are we fools and we like the wisdom, but we
don't want instruction? Verse 13 and 14, the Lord teaches us
this. You want to have a happy life, desire the life, and love
many days, and see good? Do you want to see good? Here's
how to do it. Keep thy tongue from evil. That's
how you make enemies. That's how you make enemies.
Your tongue's evil. You say bad things, isn't it?
Say mean things. That's how you hurt people is with their tongue,
saying mean things. You can't have a happy and good
life while you're tearing people to pieces. And James talks about
that too, doesn't he? He speaks about the tongue. He
says it's like a little tiny rudder on a big old boat. He
can turn that whole boat, can't he? We can do a whole lot with
what comes out of our lips. And remember what verse one was?
Do we praise God in every situation? This is an opportunity, prime
opportunity, to show somebody forgiveness and long-suffering
and love and what God's done for me. Well, if my tongue's
evil, I can't do that, can I? If I'm popping off at the mouth. Keep thy tongue from evil and
thy lips from speaking guile. Guile is deceit, lies. You want
to be happy and live a long, good life? Tell the truth. Tell
the truth, don't be deceitful. Speak kindly to people and of
people. Speak kindly to people and speak
kindly of people. We've heard that a whole lot.
If you ain't got something nice to say, don't say it. Don't say
anything at all, right? That's good instruction. Paul
put it this way. Walk in wisdom towards them that
are without. Those people God ain't saved
yet, walk in wisdom with them, redeeming the time. You only
got a little bit of time with them, Better make good of it.
Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. Season our speech, what comes
out of our mouth, with grace, if we know anything of it. Or murmuring, I just hate it,
I gotta do this, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh. Hey, God does nothing
good for you, and he on his throne, and he got all power, and he's
bought it all. Let that come out your mouth.
That's good, that you may know how you ought to answer every
man. You're gonna teach these things so you'll learn and then
you'll act on it and you'll know how to answer everybody. What
do I do in this situation? Tell them what good things God's
done for you. He's on his throne. He's holy. He loved the people,
I've lived it. Right? Get pulled over, get you
a ticket. I was wrong. Thank you, sir.
Call my officer. Be polite. Give me a license,
okay? Don't fight him. Show him your
insurance card. It says, depart from evil, verse
14. Depart from evil things, yes, and depart from evil people. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15,
he said, be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good
manners. That's walking in darkness. That's
sleeping. And he goes on and says, awake to righteousness.
and sin not. Depart from evil things. You
can't have a happy and good life walking with evil people. You
just can't do it. You can't worship. No, we have
to live in this world. That's just so. We deal with
people in this world, or we're married to people in this world,
or we have children in this world, or whatever it is. That's so.
But we don't intentionally go sit down with people that don't
worship God. Me and somebody that doesn't believe in a holy,
sovereign God, I can't have no fellowship with them. I can't.
We ain't in the same ship. I say it all the time, don't
I? You ain't my brother. We got different daddies. I'm
sorry. Your God ain't God. God of the
Bible's God. That's who we're gonna worship.
It says depart from evil. Laban, we'll see that next hour,
Lord willing, 31. Laban had them idols. Rachel
stole them. One poor old rider, he just missed
the mark. He said she was trying to help
her daddy out and get rid of them idols. No, she wouldn't.
She was getting her emergency fund laid up for later in case
things went south. She grew up in an idol-worshipping
country, too. You can't worship God and idols at the same time. It might take a lifetime to get
rid of them grave clothes and knock that old talk of religion
off. But you can't do both. Paul told that Thessalonians,
I know you're God's elect. You put away your idols, you
turn from them. You leave it alone, don't you? Depart from
evil and do good. Do righteousness. Remember five years ago when
we started in 1 John? Believe Christ and love your
brethren. Believe Christ and love your brethren. Believe Christ
and love your brethren. Believe him, that's doing righteousness.
Looking ahead for all things, that's doing righteousness. How
does that come to pass in our lives? Reach out. Nobody's called
me. Well, call somebody. That phone,
you can hit send same as you can hit receive, can't you? You
can send a text same as you can get one. Reach out. Encourage
those around you. Be of good cheer. I made somebody
mad, real mad one time for this. You want a bunch of friends?
Be friendly. Now, Kevin, that's just your
opinion. Now, Kevin's got a lot of different opinions, man, I'll
tell you. Now, he just, he thinks a lot about this, and he just,
that's his opinion, that's his view, really. A man that hath
friends must show himself friendly. Proverbs 18, 24. What do you
reckon I'll learn now? I'll just tell you what he said.
And there's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Oh, I
don't wanna be friendly. Do you want Christ to be friendly
with you? Apart from evil and do good.
Seek peace and pursue it. Seek peace and pursue it. The Lord said, blessed are the
peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Now,
do you think children of God ain't gonna be people? There's
gonna be times we don't wanna be, right? We still have an old flesh with
us, but there's a new man that seeks peace. Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Seek
peace, and it says, and pursue it. Don't talk about doing it. I said, man, I just really hope,
I'm just wishing that there'd be peace. Pursue it. Pursue it. Kevin, how could you be telling
people to do stuff like that? Your preaching works. No, I ain't
neither. God pursued you and made peace with you, didn't he?
He called that love. And it said how he's loved us,
love others. How's everybody going to know that you're my
children? Because you have love one to another. Not if you've
got your doctrine in a row, or if you listen to the right preachers, or how
much you go to church. No, if you have love one towards
another. He's got to teach us how to love. It's foreign to
us. We don't know. He's got to teach
us. How in the world can I be brought to keep my tongue? How
in the world can I not speak evil and do good? How can I truly
seek peace and pursue it against those that despitefully use me?
What motivation could I have, as NCOs in the Army had given?
Purpose, direction, and motivation. That's what you're gonna do,
that's purpose. Direction, look to Him, what's the motivation?
Verse 15, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. The Lord's
watching. That's a two-edged sword. God
looks on the heart. And that's the other side of
the sword. He knows your heart. He gave it to you. His eyes are
on the righteous. His ears are open unto their
cry. He hears you when you cry. He controls every bit of this. He sent those to curse you. Pray
for him. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from
the earth. He'll handle it. Do you know how that mighty angel
come down to take Moses' body? Satan came there. He said, I'm
taking the body. And he didn't say, you're rebuked,
or let's specify that in the parking lot. He said, the Lord
rebuked you. That's wisdom, isn't it? That's a smart angel. The
Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance
of them from the earth. And the righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and
delivereth them out of their troubles. What made you cry? Trouble. Who'd you cry to? The Lord. Who sent the trouble?
The Lord sent the trouble, so you cry. I wouldn't cry if I
did. Me and my pastor was talking last night. The reason I think,
and he said the same thing and other ones, I think the Lord
made me a pastor because I'm the least likely to read the
scriptures. I'm the least likely to pray.
I'm the least likely to pick up the phone, reach out, talk
to somebody or to write somebody a letter. I'm the least likely
out of all mankind to do that. And so he made me. He made me. The righteous cry, the Lord heareth.
He delivered them out of all their troubles. The Lord's nine
to them that are of a broken heart. You ever just been crushed and
your heart's broken? Good. The Lord's near. He's near, and
saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions
of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.
He keepeth all his bones, and not one of them's broken. I broke
my little toe on my right foot, my big toe on my right foot,
and I cracked the bone on my right leg. I've had some broke bones. You ever broke a bone? He ain't
talking about this body. His body eternal. We speak to
those dry bones and he assembles them and he puts flesh on them
and he breathes life into them. That's his church eternal. It's
his body. He ain't gonna lose a one of them. You ain't gonna
be broken. Evil shall slay the wicked. They're
gonna do that by themselves. And they that hate the righteous
shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth the soul of
his servants and none of them that trust him shall be desolate.
What's the fear? What goes with fear and that
respect and awe and reverence and adoration and all that? Uh,
trusting too, don't we? I have to be taught to trust. I have to be taught to trust.
Do you? When he teaches that, we'll never
be desolate. We'll never be desolate. He's
right. We'll remember again those simple
things that we tell little children. Well, the Lord made everything.
Christ made everything. Christ controls everything. He's
on his side. He's holy. We ain't. There's
a way that seems right to me that ain't right. Now, he said
it. You can believe it. Children,
obey your parents. That's the first commandment
of promise. It don't matter that Paul said it, that I say it,
or somebody else, Don Fortner said it. No, it matters God says
it. That's what matters, isn't it? He's got to teach us these
things. Let's pray together. Father,
thank you for your word. Lord, teach us, teach your children to honor and reverence and respect
the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, allow us to see who he
is and what he's done and make us experience it. I'll just stand
on the outside of that city of refuge, Lord. Put us in that
city. Set us by the warm fire and light. Make us worship. Give us that new heart that desires
to and praise God and give Christ, all the glory. And teach us,
Lord, allow us to have these things, our pure minds stirred
up throughout the day in the trials that you've seen. We can be happy children of the
King. Lord, you may call out our brethren we don't yet know.
Don't let us be in the way. Keep me from being a reproach
to your glorious gospel. Forgive me for what I am. It's
in Christ's name that we ask it. Amen. All right. 20 minutes.