Even y'all excited to hear what
I got to tell you tonight. Me too. Some of y'all had jobs, working
for other people and stuff, you're getting sick days. You were called
in sick when he was kind of feeling a little bit bad, but you wouldn't
feel that bad. I wish I'd call in sick today. I ain't joking
with you. Wait on Lord for word for me
and we might be waiting long time. We might be waiting a long
time. Mark read that about... The Lord
said, if thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who
shall stand? Who's saying that? Christ is saying that. He's speaking
to his Father. He said, if you'd mark iniquities,
ain't one of them gonna make it. He says, but there's forgiveness
with thee. I'm with you always. He's with
his father always. They're one they're together.
He's the one that forgives that thou mayest be feared that you
may be honored. He glorified the father with
the father will glorify the son. I was saying it's so hard for
me to wait. There's things I want to do right
now. Whether it's we think it's good, right? I want to go tell
somebody I love them right now. Or I want to tell somebody what
they're doing is wrong right now. Rip the band-aid off, right? That has its season, everything
has its season. Martha and Mary, I spent a lot of time thinking
about Mary today. Mary and Martha, their brother fell sick and they
sent word to the Lord. And when he had heard, therefore,
that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place
where he was. Could he have went? Could he
have healed Lazarus? Could have. Did he? No, he didn't. Why? He's wiser than I am. He's
holy. He does what's right. And I don't
know, do you understand that? Do you understand why? Well,
we kind of see afterwards, don't we? So we spend these months
laboring on these things. We see afterwards why. We say
afterwards, why we don't see deer just like him. Apostles.
Here he comes. He told us he told us not to tell nobody. And
now he's riding on an ass going into town. And I don't know what
he's doing. Have you ever felt that way with
somebody you love with a brother or sister? They said this one
time, and they said this time, and I don't know what they're
doing. God's role in their heart. Now we look back, and this all
makes sense. Oh, it's perfect. It's perfectly clear. Perfectly
clear. Here in John 12, verse 20. We'd looked at before the context
of this. Everyone in this chapter was
there for personal benefit, right? Well, we're showing up to church,
and they had good clothes on. They're throwing out palm leaves.
Oh, hosanna. Here we go. There goes them Romans. They're
going to get out of our hair. Let us get back to doing what we
want to do for personal gain and benefit. And these Greeks
showed up, these proselytes that come. Now let's stop. This guy might be taking over.
Let's get in before he takes office. That way, in case he's
the new king, we won't have to stand in outer courts no more.
We don't have to be Gentile dogs no more. We can move on up the
big house. That's what we can do. And then Lord preached, didn't
he? But I want you to see one word
here in John 12, verse 20. And there were certain Greeks.
How many Greeks were there? Nobody knows. Them old dead fellas
can guess till the cows come home and they don't know. That's
a bunch of them. Phil can probably tell us. He
ain't here. But inside of however many that was, if it was two
or 2,000, God had some sheep in them. They didn't know they
were sheep, and that's there for personal benefit. I'm, heck,
at least not. You ever come to church for the
wrong reasons? Before the Lord saved you, you
gotta get right with God, keep mom and daddy happy. 13th Street
had the best missionaries on the face of the earth. It was
all the high school girls. They had more boys coming to that
church than any place else. to appease your neighbor, or
have you ever done that? Have you ever done that after
the Lord saved you? Oh, I gotta be faithful now, because I've
been bad. We're wretched, ain't we? But
God, there were certain Greeks. How are they gonna be saved?
Well, Christ, that's to go to the cross. Yeah, we know that.
We'll get to that here in a minute. How are you saved? How am I saved? Hearing. They're going to have
to hear the gospel preached. They're going to have to be given
new hearts to hear that gospel. So what happened while the preaching
of the gospel, the preaching of the truth takes place. I've said that a
whole lot and I'm going to keep saying it until it soaks in.
Preaching the truth. It's necessary, not just any
preaching. Certain Greeks among them that came up to worship
at the feast. The same came, therefore, to
Philip, which was a Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him.
Some people say that that was his neighbor. We don't know.
He was the redneck. He was the common fisherman.
And they said, we're going to sneak in through the idiot. We can
trick this fellow. Saying, sir, we would see Jesus.
We would see Jesus. Boy, they're about to. The only
way you can see the Lord Jesus Christ is by the grace of God.
You can whittle out images. You can paint him on a wall.
You can memorize all kinds of words. And it ain't gonna do
you a lick of good unless God Almighty's gracious to you. That's
the only way you're gonna see. That's the only way you're gonna
see. Verse 22, Philip cometh and telleth Andrew. Why was that?
It was a dangerous time, wasn't it? Everybody's out to kill him.
Chief Priest is trying to kill him. Probably got wanted posters
up, isn't it? They didn't want to kill Lazarus. Just think of just good common
sense. That's a man raised from the dead. Wouldn't you go ask
him, like, what was that like? Dude, what happened? Tell me
about that. You do the talking, I'm gonna
do the listening. Tell me all about it. Kill him. He's gonna
put us out of business. It was a dangerous time, and
they finally went from all this hiding to this public thing.
There's gonna have some good coming. Philip said, we don't
want these Gentiles messing us up, man. We're gonna be on top
of the world, ain't we? They thought Christ was there
to establish an earthly kingdom, just like in David's day, and
that wasn't it. Apostles wanted this to go on, didn't they? And
they didn't understand that it was only by his death that Christ
was gonna establish that spiritual kingdom. That's spiritual kingdom. This world don't matter. It's
vanity. Vanity. It's going to go away. It's going
to burn. Every bit of it. They had a flesh too. They held
on to it too. And again, verse 22, and again,
Andrew and Philip tell Jesus, now we're getting somewhere.
Oh, Bill Keithley said, man, it laid block for my dad for
35 years. He said, now you're getting smart. Now they're getting
somewhere. That's the best thing to do.
Go straight to the Lord. Andrew was a good brother. Phillips
said, I got a problem. And he said, Go to the Lord.
I'm gonna go with you. I was talking to a brother this
week. And I said, he's gonna pray for
me. I said, Thank you. I'm gonna
pray for you. We're gonna go together. We might be 25 miles
away. We're going together. Take your
burden to the Lord. Well, now you know what happened
to me and we're kicking rocks. Take it to the Lord. Let's go.
I'll go with you. I'll pray too. Isn't that a good
way? If there's argument or dispute or anything. Okay, let's sit
down. Let's pray to almighty God right now. Let's go to his
throne of grace. Father, forgive us. Forgive me
for what I am. You've been merciful to me. You've
loved me. glorify your name. Now you want to still fist fight?
I hope that if I don't take a steam out of you, you ain't got a new
life in you. You're dead in your sins. You'll die and go to hell
that way. If I don't stir up your pure minds, buddy. They
went to tell the Lord, no matter the difficulty we face, the best
thing we can do is go to Christ our Savior. Go to his throne.
You want to hear what he answered? This got me to, I laugh sometimes. I read the scriptures and I'm
sober. and serious, and there's times
I read the scriptures and I weep. Oh, I cry. And there's times
I read scripture, I laugh. It's just funny sometimes. The
Lord just, it's absolutely magnificent. I just, I can't do nothing but
laugh out of joy. I'm gonna preach to you the best
sermon I could ever preach to you. You ready? I mean, absolutely. Now, that was a good message.
Now, that was a good message. You ever heard that? Now, what
about all them other ones? They wasn't no good? Yeah, people's
got feelings, and they get hurt sometimes, don't they? We're
just little bitty kids is what we are. I'm gonna preach to you
the best message I could ever preach to you. I'm just gonna
have these socks blowed off of you. It says in verse 23, and
Jesus answered them. What did they ask? This is Philip
and Andrew. Them Greeks may have been there
with them. Do you have a question? Eyes on me. I want to look everybody
in the eye. I preach to human beings. I'm
in the people business. I want to look you in the eye. Do you
have a question? If you could ask God a question,
do you have a question? Okay, whatever that is, here's the
answer. This is serious. This is eternal
life and death. You ready? If you got a question, you ask
God, here's the answer. He's about to preach. You hear
his sermon? Verse 23, And Jesus answered
them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of man should be
glorified. Verily, verily, truly, truly
of a truth doubly. God's saying this, pay attention.
I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and
die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. He that loveth his life shall
lose it. And he that hateth his life in
this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve
me, let him follow me. And where I am, There shall also
my servant be. If any man serve me, him will
my father honor. I told Kimberly, she got home
from work today, I said, I think I'm just gonna get up and read
that and sit down. Isn't that magnificent? People say, did
you preach the whole counsel of God? Just did. He did. That's everything. We could spend
eons and not grasp what he just said. Don't that warm your heart? Do you understand what you just
read? Do you need a man to tell you what that means? I called my pastor today, and
I said, I know the scriptures are perfect. I know that. Boy,
it's just more perfect today. It's just sweeter, Bob. I mean,
it's amazing. I'm amazed at the scripture,
at the word of God. I'm amazed at our Lord. Boy, I'm just really
amazed today. It's fabulous. Verse 27, now
as my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father save me from
this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour. He's talking
about that hour again. That's what he started off saying.
Father glorify thy name. That's his prayer. Then came their voice out of
heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.
People therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundered.
Another said an angel spoke to him. Jesus answered and said,
This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. This
is for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And if I,
and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto me. You're gonna watch it play out.
Ain't no ifs. He's speaking in our language so we can understand,
isn't it? When this happens, you'll know. When this does happen,
you'll know. I'm gonna draw them into me.
This he said, signifying what death he should die. The Lord's that seed, and by
him is gonna be the only fruit that there ever gonna be. Everything
else is thorns and thistles. That's all it is. It's death.
It's meant to be cut down and burnt. Everything. Everything. But what comes from Him is fruit.
It's life, isn't it? Let's look at these statements
He made. Here's what our Lord preached. His death. His glory. Jesus answered them. What'd they
ask? Well, we wanna see. We wanna know Him. Maybe they
really did. What must I do to be saved? Save,
Lord! Save! Maybe just one word, right?
A verb. Save! Is that their question? He said, the hour has come, verse
23, the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.
God Almighty declares to him, he preaches to him right there,
it was by his death that he's glorified. Well, whenever you
make him king of your heart, or you put him on your bumper
sticker, you get you in more fish, or he is the alligators
greater than eaten on. Oh, man, it gives me goosebumps.
And I hurt for those people. That always taught me, how's
it gonna be glorified? By his death. Throughout the
scriptures, that hour was professed, wasn't it? That's what, there's
a day coming, that's what we just read. Psalm 130, isn't it?
Wait for that day, he's waiting for this day. Whole time's waiting
for this hour. John said, hour's not yet come,
hour's not yet come. Mary came to his mom, said, hey,
they're out of wine. He said, what's wrong with you,
woman? My hour's not yet come. And then she, what, boy that's
wise too, what Mary, Lord's mother say, whatever he tells you to
do, do it. She's wise. That hour, all the
Old Testament pointed to, what he kept speaking of, he said
it's coming. The hour's come that the Son
of Man should be glorified. God the Father glorified our
substitute. Cause the son willingly, he willingly
laid down his life for the sheep. This wasn't a legal transaction.
I don't like when people say that they might be saying it
in air, but it's not a legal transaction. He willingly, not
in a stoic manner out of love. He wanted to, he willingly laid
down his life. He willingly became a, that last
Adam. That second Adam, he took on
flesh. He willingly, in that flesh,
he bore the sin. He bore the guilt. He bore the
shame and the wrath of God because of that. We quote that, don't
we? Now let's put that in shoe leather.
Thank you, your worst enemy. Hitler, Pol Pot, pick one. The
president before this one. You think of whoever you don't
like the most in this world. Now, if God saves him, he's casting
stones at him. That's what he bore. And that's
us gnashing our teeth on him. Does that make you want to be
kind to your neighbor? Does that make you want to be kind to the
people that God's put over you in control, and what he sent,
and the police officers, and whoever? And little kids? Does
that make you want to be kind to little kids? If they're his,
and he ain't saved him yet, and then he turns them on through
the preaching of the gospel one day, what you're mad at is what
he bore, and you're gnashing your teeth on him. Oh, I come
over here today, and I didn't want to raise my head up. What
a wretch I am. Oh, buddy. He had to willingly
settle all that judgment that I've earned, and that all his
children's earned. And the Father honored him. He
glorified him, didn't he? Because he glorified, and think
of that, the whole time, would you just have to set that weight
down for a second and shake it off and whine and moan and complain
just a little bit, would you? Could you make it all the way?
He went all the way to death. Living for his people, carrying
their sin, carrying that burden, dealing with it, putting it away,
satisfying everything, willingly the whole way. He went the whole
way, didn't he? On that cross, that's where the
holiness of the Father, the holiness of the Godhead was just manifest. Why? He cannot have sin in His
sight, because He was made me. God the Father saw that on His
Son and He killed Him. He turned on all the wrath He had for Him.
And at the same time, that's one side of the sword, isn't
it? Well, there's two edges on it. Mercy. I'm supposed to be
up there. I deserve an attorney to do that,
don't you? He bore it for me. God turned his back on God for
somebody that's at war with him. That spitefully used him. That's
what the Greeks was doing. They was there to use him. To
use him. Prove John 17. John 17 verse
1. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
may also glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which Thou have given me to do.
And now, Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with
the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." What'd he say back in our text
there in John 12, 23? And Jesus answered them, here's your answer
to your question. That hour's come. That hour. It's come that the son of man
should be glorified. If you see his holiness, and
we ain't, and we see his mercy, that's what we need, and it's
all in him on that cross, he's glorified in you, isn't he? Would
you take any of the credit? Oh, he gets all the glory. Verse
24 says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit. Our Lord's given an illustration
here. He's preaching, and he says, now a corn of wheat's got
to go on the ground and die. If it don't go in there and die
and germinate, it's going to just be a seed. It ain't going
to do nothing. But if it goes down there and
dies, it's going to bring forth much fruit. There's going to be a
whole lot of corn coming out of the ground. I walk around looking for illustrations
sometimes, or I see something and I'm like, now that's a good
illustration. But that's the gospel. I'm gonna tell you a
story at the end, it's beautiful. That's the gospel. Did our Lord
go up to a colonel, think about this next time you get your thing
of sweet corn. Did he go up to a corn plant
and say, you know what, now that's like me. No, he made corn from eternity
pasts, purposed it, so he could have an illustration to give
us. That makes sweet corn a little sweeter, don't it? That's something. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven and on earth, visible, everything we see, and
invisible. Whether they be thrones, that's
the first thing he mentions. Dominions, principalities, or
powers, all things were created by him. He made everything, and
boring. They're gonna take you gas stoves. Y'all matter and wet hens, when
we ate Sunday or Wednesday. I would be too. It's all for
him. And he's before all things and
by him all things consist. Everything. That's the fruit
he brings by his death. That illustration so simple,
isn't it? If you plant corn, you get beans. Now, if you plant corn, you don't
get bananas. If you plant corn, you don't
get mangoes. You're gonna get corn come out. If it dies, there's gonna be
more just like it. You get that? Remember when we
went through Genesis two years ago? We started, made all the
whales, all the creatures of the sea, and they started reproducing,
and they started making each creation, each creature after
its kind. spitting image, the spirit and
the image. Looks just like it, acts just like it, don't it?
Christ is the seed. God spoke to Abraham, didn't
he? He said, in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed. He made a covenant with Abraham. Some translations
say offspring, or generations, or children, or something like
that. Don't have you one of them. Get you one that says seed. How
do we know that? Because Paul told us in Galatians 3, he said,
Now Abraham unto his seed were the promises made. He saith not
seeds as of many, but as of one. And to thy seed, which is Christ. That's him. He's going to go
on the ground and make a bunch of us. We're going to be just like
him. You see that? and cross the seed, there's much
fruit. That's what's in there. All the stuff that's gonna be
on them ears is inside of that seed. The whole DNA, the whole
everything. It's already in there. It's in
there. Levi was in Abraham. Corn's in corn, right? It's in
there. And it's just gonna come out. We just gotta wait. All we gotta
do is wait. Do you make corn grow? No, God
does. We just water it. We're real good at putting a
whole bunch of fertilizer on. I can tell you that right now. We'll fertilize
it till the whole place smells of it. He makes it to grow. He does it. We just gotta wait
on it. God put all his elect in Christ before the world began. We's in him. That's what it says
in 1 Corinthians 1, of God are ye in Christ Jesus. We's in him
before the world began. God elected a people. They put
them in Christ before time. Christ came to this earth, took
on our nature, lived a life we couldn't live, died a death we
earned, went into the ground. Here we come. Christ is the seed. He did all this in a human body,
putting away our sin, shedding that perfect blood. The value
of it is Unimaginable. We'll never be
able to count it. They ain't numbers. They ain't
nothing you could put to it. The most valuable thing on earth,
the blood of the lamb. And he said, lo, I come to do thy will,
O God, willingly. He came to do the Father's will.
He says in Hebrews 10, 10, by the witch will, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. Made holy, set apart. That's
mine. And it's perfect. My good and
faithful servant. That happened because we were
in Christ and he did it one time, didn't he? And it says, for by
the one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
Ephesians 1 says, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. He's
just gracious to us. And he told us about that. He
told us. Every one of us born, we're born
not of corruptible sea, but of incorruptible by the word of
God, which liveth and abideth forever for all flesh is grass
and all the glory of man is the flowers grass. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth away, falls away, but the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospels preached unto you. How does man value that? How does man value that? The
preaching of the gospel. Well, we gotta go church. Precious things. Here's what
comes out of that corn. Here's the product. Verse 25,
he that loveth his life shall lose it. And he that hateth his
life, his life in this world shall keep it until eternal life.
What's he talking about? If we love our life, we're gonna lose
it. If we love our life that we have, this vapor that we come
with, born of Adam with, we love our sin, we love our false ways,
the ways that seem right to us, and that's not the heroines and
the fentanyls and the hookers and all that nasty stuff. That's
our vain religion. Who's killing him? Who's going
after him? The chief priests, way up high, wasn't it? All those
good church going folks, those people believed in election.
That's who was getting in. If we hold on to that, we're
going to lose it. If we love our lives to the point, well,
you know, I don't want to offend those that are around us that
believe a lie and they hate the gospel. So, you know, maybe I
can soften this up a little bit. And they're my brother. They're
my sister. That's my, I read that last week,
buddy. And that's, well, that's our, uh, Episcopalian brethren,
and that's our Catholic brethren, and that's this brethren. No,
it ain't my brother. We got different daddies. You're your father the
devil. I'm his. He's holy, don't you
talk like that. What's the price of having a
brother or sister? The blood of Christ, isn't it? If we cling to those things,
you're gonna lose your life. A man I love dearly said this
one time. He said, there's three signs of conversion. First thing
is a change of mind and heart. You thought one way and you had
a heart for one way, and then you got turned 180. I was thinking
wrong, he's right. I didn't love Christ, now I do.
I didn't love him brethren, now I do. That's first thing. Second,
there's total commitment. Not halfway, not 95%, total commitment. And third, there's wanting Christ
to get all the glory for him. And if you ain't experienced
them three things, you ain't a saved person. God ain't worked
in you. It ain't happened. That's strong,
isn't it? You love your life, buddy, you're
going to lose it eternally, aren't you? Them Gentiles, they was
trying to get that private meeting because they didn't want to get
rejected from the Pharisees. Philip and Andrew, they wanted to be
high up in the New Kingdom, didn't they? Christ is the life. What's this world? Nothing. He's
life. Life's a person. It's not a place. Eternal life's not a place. It's
a person, isn't it? If we hate our life, we'll keep it until
eternal life. Hating our life's hating our sin. Hating my self-righteousness. Them Pharisees ain't got nothing
on me. They ain't got nothing on me. I didn't used to be a
Pharisee. I am one, Cass. That's what this
new man's housed in. Remember, we got to learn. Philip
and Andrew had to learn, didn't they? The other disciples, all
those standing around, had to learn. They were teaching them. They
didn't know until I told them. Right? You don't know what you
don't know. Is he a good teacher? He's the best teacher there was. You're going to learn in lessons,
ain't you? My brother Marvin said this. He said, we are grown
and matured in grace by severe trial and affliction. You want
to be a grown-up? and be some growing pains. The
Lord's going to send us severe trial and severe affliction in
this body, and He's going to mature us. To what? To look to
Him and to give Him all the glory, be totally committed to Him,
say, I'm wrong, He's right. That's what He's going to do.
Verse 26, I want to preach for a verdict. You know, I don't
want people sitting on the fence. I don't want you leaving here
thinking, well, that's what, I don't know how long I'm preaching. In the Psalms or anywhere in
the scriptures, if you see words italicized, if they're in italics,
that means the translators added them so it reads better to us.
We can kind of understand. So read it with the italicized
words and read it out without that. Like in the Psalms, it
says, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Now that's
wrong. There is, is in italics. You
know what that does? That leaves us saying, those atheists, getting
three fingers pointing at me and one finger going over there,
those atheists, they're fools. I know God, they don't know God.
No, the fool said, no God. And I asked that brother, I said,
you ever been real late? And he's like, oh man, I gotta
get there, I gotta go. Oh, I hope ain't much traffic. And you take
off in your car, and you realize you're out of gas, you gotta
stop and get gas. And you go, no! You're saying no, God, you're
a fool. I'm a fool. You get that? I want to preach for a verdict.
I don't want somebody sitting on the fence. I want somebody going
out here thinking they're better than somebody else. And I thought, how can
I do that? Well, Christ preached for a verdict.
You ready? Verse 26. If any man serve me. Let him
follow me. He just commanded it. The gospel
is not to be demated. It's not open for question and
answer. It's not open for people's opinions, comments, concerns,
and your add-ons. They said, if you let a man speak,
he speaks as the oracles of God. And you want to talk about it
after it's your business. But while they're speaking, you keep your mouth
shut. That's so. God says so, doesn't he? And
he says, if any man serve me, let him follow me. It's commanded. Salvation's a command, isn't
it? Bow to Christ now. Come to him now. That's a command.
If you serve him, follow him. That's all I got to say. Where
was he going? The cross. Everybody says, well,
you got to take up the cross. There was a fellow growing up.
He had a cross. He drug him down to US 23 there in Kentucky on
the side of the road. And it got heavy. And so he attached
a wheel, a caster to it, so it made it easier. I was a little
kid and I laughed at that. I got an idiot. He ain't committed. I was three years old, I knew
that. He's playing. He wants people to see him, see
how woeful he is. They said, pick up your cross.
The Lord said, deny yourself and pick up your cross. Deny
yourself. That don't mean restrict yourself,
put on a hair suit and like, well, I don't. eat that kind
of food anymore, and I'll just eat potatoes. No. Deny your thoughts,
ways, and everything else. Your glory. Glory-seeking, isn't
it? He's going to the cross. You want to serve him? Follow
him. Deny yourself. Them apostles were trying to
tell Christ how he ought to do things. Boy, he suffered them,
didn't he? He denied himself in being long-suffering
and being merciful and gracious. Deny yourself, why don't you
start being long-suffering? Why don't I? It's gonna take a long
time and there's gonna be some suffering involved. You bear
a burden? Well, that means you're gonna
have a big old burden and you have to bear, legs start shaking. Did they
know everything? They didn't know nothing, did
they? Well, what he did for us. He's going to the cross willingly
to satisfy justice for his people. What do we do? Like Philip and
Andrew, go to him and we can remind one another of what Christ
did. We can remind one another of
who he is, where he is now. I can tell you from experience
how long-suffering he's been with me, at least what I've been
brought to see. He's way more long-suffering
than I'll ever know. How long suffering, how patient he's been
with me, where was it going? He's going to submit himself
to the will of the father, wouldn't he? All that I can submit to his
will. Verse 26. He says that one where
I am, there's also my servant be. If any man serve me, him
on my father honor. Where's Christ now? See the right hand of the father
and glorified forever. And his people's with him right
now. We always was in him, wasn't we, from time before? Was always in him, but we didn't
know it yet. We hadn't been born yet, was
we? And then we were. He's in glory right now. Do you
know where you are, Matt? You're in glory with him right
now. We're one with him. Now, we happen to be here. We're
stood down this dirt, ain't we? We stay popped up yet. What a
day that'll be. Be a good day, Bob. What happens
when that little sapling comes up out of the ground? What's
the first thing it sees? The sun. Be a good day. I thought of Mary. That's commitment, isn't it?
She busted that box of alabaster ointment and poured it on his
feet, dumped the whole thing. It was a year's wages. So I looked
it up. There's three people in that
house. There's Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, wasn't it? And I thought,
what would that be like in our day? How committed was she to
the Lord? In the state of California, a household of three, the average
income is $84,000 a year. So you go buy some oil that's
worth $84,000, and you take it, and you say, well, we can give
him a drop a day, and this will last long, and just dump it.
Just give it to him. It's his anyway, what? It's his. He's all. He's all. And he gets
all the glory, and you get him, you get everything. Nothing else
matters, but you'll have everything else too. It'll just be a benefit,
won't it? We have Christ in all this. That's
amazing. I thought this illustration,
my pastor used it, Brother Marvin Stoniker giving Cameron and I
two prints, paintings he did, and we went down to get them
framed. And I got halfway through, and I realized I was having a
Southern General framed in the state of California. And it got
real weird real quick. And she's all right. She's from
Arkansas. So I got to preach a little bit about what I know
of Stonewall letters I've read. But anyway, it was very expensive.
Frames are costly, very costly. And she said, did you pay a lot
of money for these prints? I said, I didn't pay nothing
for them. She said, they worth a lot? And
I said, yeah, I can probably sell them for some. She said, they'll
be worth more. You can sell them for more when you get them framed.
I said, I ain't selling these. She said, why not? You wouldn't
consider it? And I said, I know who painted
them. You couldn't give me $10 million for them two paintings.
I know who painted them, and he gave them to me. I'm gonna
honor that. I'm gonna hang one of them up
in my office. That big old expensive frame can hang right there with
it. That frame ain't worth nothing. I have one my brother painted,
my friend painted. That's special to me. And I talked
with a brother the other day, too, about this illustration.
If you ain't never heard it, I'm excited to be the first one to
tell you, but you've probably heard it a hundred times, and I can't
tell it without crying. I'm gonna do the best I can,
and I'll let you go. It was a wealthy man, very wealthy,
and he had a son, and him and his son loved art, and they'd
travel the world, buy these real expensive Rembrandts and a bunch
of things I don't even know, right? Picassos and whatever.
They'd buy this tremendously expensive art and they loved
it and they collected it. And they had wonderful things, a
massive collection. And, uh, war came. There was
enemies. And that son had to go to war.
And whenever he went to war, his friends were there. And he laid down his life for
his friends. And he died. And one of those men that he
died for came to that man, the father, found him a couple years
later, and he said, I'm not much of a painter. He said, but I'm
starting to, and I just, I love your son. And he gave his life
saving me, and I painted this picture of him. And that father
said, thank you. And he hung it up right over
top of the mantel. And so when he walked in that house, he showed a picture
of his son. Everybody come in. Come look at my son. And I said,
whoa, man, that's a rough looking picture. That ain't comely. That
ain't pretty. It ain't good. First painting
that guy ever painted. Let's go look at some of them
Rembrandts over there. I want to see that one over there. What's
that Van Gogh? Let's look at that. But he showed everybody
that son. Well, the old man died. And there's a big auction. And
people, billionaires, came from around the world. to come buy
up this art. They wanted it. It's only one.
It ain't a reprint. There's one. There's one original.
They wanted to get this one and that one. And the auctioneer
got up, and he said, I'm under specific instructions to sell
this painting first. And he said, it's the painting
of the sun. Well, what will you give me for it? And I said, nobody
said nothing. They was respectful. It was quiet.
And he said, any takers? Any buyers? Someone start the
bidding. And they said, we don't want to offend you, but nobody
wants that painting. And I said, Oh, who's gonna who's gonna buy
this son pick the picture of the sun. And they said, We're
gonna be real honest with you. Nobody wants a son. Okay, we
want this other stuff. We're getting I just get rid
of that. And let's get on to the good stuff. What's the benefits? What's the features and benefits
of that stuff? You don't forget stuff. And this Well, we can't
move on to a cellist first piece file gardeners in the back. And
he knew that he grew up that boy and loved him. Loved his
dad. He's a good employer. Took good care of his employees.
He's a good boss. And that man respected him. And
he just had a few dollars. And he said, I'll give you $10
for that painting. I always did like it. I thought it was pretty.
And it looks like him, and I liked him. I'll take that one, because
I know who's in it. And the auctioneer said, anybody
give another bid? Going once, going twice, sold
$10 to the gardener. And he laid his gavel down. And
I said, all right, let's go. Good. Let's get on that next
one. He said, auction's closed. He said, I was under strict instructions.
I couldn't tell you until after. But whoever gets the sun gets
everything. You get the whole estate. You
get all the paintings. You get everything else. Whoever
gets the sun. That gardener's a wealthy fella,
didn't he? And he had that painting that
he wanted. He had the sun. Hope that's a blessing to you.
Let's pray together. Father, forgive us for what we
are. Lord, allow us to see Christ high and lifted up. Heal our brethren and me of my self-righteousness,
my sickness, my vanity, my look into self. Let me see the person and the
work of your darling son. Thank you for this day. Thank
you for that hour that you purposed, he fulfilled, and we've eternally benefited from.
We'll make it serious to the hearts of your people. Allow
us to follow and serve the Lord that saved us. It's in his name
that we ask. Amen.