All right, I want you to mark
that portion there and turn over to Philippians chapter one, first
of all. Philippians chapter one. Did
you spot the theme of that chapter? Do you spot the word, one word
that's mentioned many times, not in that chapter only, but
in chapter three? One word I'm looking for. Suffering. Suffering. Verse say if I had a text it
would be first Peter four verse sixteen if any man or woman or
young person suffers as a Christian don't be ashamed. Lord. Suffering as a Christian is the
title of this message all suffer all. People on the face of the earth
suffer I have suffering. Believers seem to suffer more. They suffer trials and afflictions,
contrary to what religion is saying today. True believers
suffer more. Just study the lives of Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob and all of them. Just study. But we suffer different forms
and different sufferings, different ones that suffer various things,
but all true disciples of Christ suffered in this way. All true
disciples of Christ suffer this one common suffering. Persecution for the truth. Persecution for the faith. Look at Philippians 1 verse 29. He says in Philippians 1 verse
29, unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to
believe on him, Faith is a gift. If you believe, it's because
God gave you the gift. And all those who believe, he
said, this is also given to. Read it. Not only given to believe,
but also to suffer for his sake. Having the same conflict you
saw in me, and now here to be in me. Paul was writing that
from jail, and he said, I suffered many things, but I do count the
loss of all things but for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. Persecution for the faith. All
true disciples suffer persecution for being a disciple, for believing the truth against
popular opinion. against the world religion. You
believe the truth, you're going to be in the minority. It always
has been. Noah and seven people. You reckon
Noah suffered persecution? You reckon so? How much laughing
do you reckon that Noah endured? As he built the boat on dry land
and kept telling people, it's coming, it's coming, Well, when,
Noah? Fifty years past. Noah? Rain? There's never rain, Noah. What's
rain? The preacher and the believer
says God's going to rain fire. Rain fire? Rebecca? Rain fire? And forty years passes,
and fifty years passes, and sixty, and Noah's still hammering. Still
saying the same thing. No, come on. Nobody believes
that. Get with it, Noah. This is this
is the year. What year was it? No, this is
the year. What year was it? One thousand,
Noah. Come on, this is not five hundred
BC. Get with the times, Noah. You believe the truth, it's against
popular opinion. You believe that one true God,
just declare God's God, and you've got to fight, and you'll be hated,
you'll be persecuted. Nobody believes like that. Y'all
are a cult or something, aren't you? No more so than Noah was. You
believe in the true Christ, You're going to be persecuted. You believe
in the true gospel, if you dare to say it's one gospel. One way. It's narrow. They're going to
call you narrow. They're going to call you bigoted. So be it. So be it. All suffer. All believers, true believers,
will suffer because, like Paul said to the Thessalonians, you've
turned from idols to serve the true and living God. You don't
serve, you don't believe in the God of your imagination anymore.
You don't believe the God of the 20th century, this God who
wants to and can't, this God who tries and fails, this God
that men have made up, this God who is no God. He's an idol.
He's like unto those that made him. He has no hands but theirs,
no feet but theirs. That's an idol, isn't it? This
God that only does what they let him do. He's the puppet.
People complain, you know. They talk about the sovereign
God. They say, well, that makes you a puppet. Well, what have
they done, Rebecca? They've made their God a puppet,
haven't they? He does what they want him to do. They pull the
strings. You turn from idols to serve
a truly living God, and you're going to be persecuted. You turn
from self to God. You turn from self begin
to hate yourself and hate everything. You turn from the world to Christ. You turn from popular way the
world's going. You turn from it. Just say, hey,
I remember when I was a young man and the Lord began to work
on me and began to open my eyes to what I was and what was going
on around me. I began to quit some things and
start to get interested in these things, things of God. And they
looked at me like I'm getting way ahead of myself. At any rate,
you turn from the world to Christ, and you're going to be persecuted. If you like, know Moses. When
Moses, as Christians says in Hebrews 11, was come to years. When Moses came to years, it
says that he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people
of God. Affliction. Suffer affliction
with the people of God. Laughter. Persecution. Mockery. Yeah, you've got religion. He
chose that rather than the pleasures of sin for a season, and that's
all they are, just a season. I mean just a season. Look at chapter 3 in 1 Peter,
chapter 3. Look at it. Got a Bible? Turn.
1 Peter 3. Look at verses 10. And I preached
from this chapter not very long ago. 1 Peter 3, verse 10. You got it? Everybody, young
people especially. Verse 10. He that will love life
and see good days. You love life? Well, if you're
16, you do. If you're 16 or 15, 14, 18, man,
it's out there. I mean, you got your whole life
ahead of you. Maybe, maybe not. Nevertheless, you love life and
you're anxious to grab all the gusto you get. You want to love
life, you want to really live, or you don't? Either you love
life, see good day, you want to see good days. Let him refrain his tongue from
evil, his lips that speak no guile. Be a real person. Don't be a hypocrite. Don't be
one way in front of your parents and another way in private, in
front of your friends. Two-faced. Everybody sees right
through you. You're a laughingstock. A double-minded
man is unstable in all his ways. Read on. Read on. Verse 10. Speak
no guile. Let him eschew evil. Eschew it.
Avoid evil. and do good. Let him seek peace
and ensue it. Read on. The eyes of the Lord
are over the righteous. His ears are open unto their
prayers. Lord, help. I'm young. Help. Face the lords
against them that do evil. Who's going to harm you if you
be followers of that which is good? If you suffer for righteousness'
sake, happy are you. Be not afraid of their terror,
neither be troubled. I tell you who to fear. Fear
God. Fear God. He said, if you suffer for righteousness
sake, if you suffer for believing there's
only one righteousness, you will. If you dare to claim, if you
dare to go out in the world and say to all the religious people,
all our righteousnesses are filthy rags. Say to the most moral and
upright man, I don't care how long his beard is or black his
clothing, say that that righteousness won't get you to glory. That
bonnet on your head won't get you to glory. Only imputed righteousness
of Jesus Christ will do it. All that's filthy rags. That
garb is filthy rags before God. You'll be persecuted for that.
You'll be thought of as uncaring, unfeeling, overly strict. especially by the self-righteous.
You know, self-righteous don't like this talk of another right,
of Christ's righteousness. Or righteousness. You'll be persecuted
for what's right, doing what's right. You'll be persecuted for
doing what's right. I'm just trying to do what's
right. Oh, come on. I just want to do
right. What's wrong with that? We want
to live right. I've lived wrong long enough,
I'm going to live right. Ain't nobody doing what you've
done. You're going to be persecuted. Verse 17, he said, it's better,
read it, everyone, it is better if the will of God be so that
you suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing. It's better to suffer shame from
the world now and glory with God later. Then glory and party with the
world now and be eternally shamed later. Who can warn? The scripture says,
Who hath warned to flee from the wrath to come? Who hath warned? Praise of men. Christ suffered verse eighteen
look at it Christ also who who is this Jesus Christ. This man Jesus Christ. Has never been a man. Like this. I mean a man's man. Jesus. Nobody can find fault in him.
After a while, that's what they found fault about him. They couldn't
find fault. He suffered, verse 18, "...once
suffered for sins that just for the unjust, that he might bring
us to God." And I feel, I mean this from my heart right now.
I look at people, young fellows like Andrew there. I've known
the boy now a good while. Long enough to fall in love with
him. To love him like a father. And I believe I can say this
from the heart. I could wish myself cursed for
your sake. I wish I could trade places with
you right now and impart to you What I know and believe now,
and the Christ I know and love now, in part to you now, let
me take what you might have to go through. God spare you. God keep you.
God save you. You know what I'm saying? Some
of you? That's what Paul said. That's exactly what Jesus Christ
did when he came here. for the likes of me. I mean,
a no good prodigal son, ashamed to his mother, that's what the
proverb said, a rebellious son is ashamed to his mother and
an embarrassment to his father, that's me. And that's the like,
that's who Jesus Christ came to save. Would you say, would
you have anything to do with some Gutter, snipe, low life,
no good boy that's no good to anybody, including himself. Would
you die for him? That's exactly what Jesus Christ
did for this fellow. The just for the unjust. The
holy for the filthy. Filthy. Or I look down at verse 1 of
chapter 4. For as much then as Christ has
suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with
the same mind." Arm yourself. Believe it. Prepare yourself.
What does it mean, arm? Get armed? Get your arms. What if I said to Rick and some
of these fellows, arm yourself? What would they do? They'd run
and grab their weapons. What weapons do we have? Ephesians
6. Read it for yourself. Be strong
in the Lord and empower His might. Put on the whole armor of God.
Arm yourselves. You need arming right now to
hear this message. Arm yourselves. Be prepared. We're not wrestling with flesh
right now to stay awake. But principalities and powers
are determined for you not to hear them. I know this is Why? Because I see it. Why is
it we can sit down and just be engrossed in foolishness? Huh? I mean engrossed to the
point of just can't put it down and don't even hear somebody
when they're talking to you. Just absolutely taken up with it.
And we sit down before the Word of God, it has eternal consequences,
and we can't stay away five minutes. What's at work? Arm yourselves. Christ suffered. Was He weary
in the flesh? Ain't nobody worked like He did.
Ain't nobody spend as many hours in a day as He did. They told
Him at times, Stop! He said, This twelve hours in
a day I've got to work. He didn't sleep for four days
before He went to Calvary's tree. Four days He didn't go to bed. Arm yourselves. Likewise, he
that has suffered in the flesh is ceased from sin. Arm yourself,
prepare yourself. He said, prepare to be hated.
Christ said, you shall be hated by all men, for my name's sake.
Prepare. Count the cost. Are you willing? Are you willing to lose some
friends? Are you willing to take the ire
and the And the persecution of your husband or your former friends,
or you will, count the cost. If not, then don't do it. Don't get into this thing. That's what he said. Arm yourself.
Prepare yourself. Prepare to be hated, despised,
rejected, but owe the consolation. Scripture says, after this thing's
over, the former shall not be remembered or come to mind for
the joy. Christ suffered excruciatingly.
Christ suffered from day one, thirty-three and a third years.
Suffered. And He said for the joy set before
Him, what He looked forward to. The former wouldn't even remember. Like a woman giving birth. Every
one of you women, if I asked you, would you go through that
again? For that one you love, you wouldn't even hesitate. You wouldn't hesitate. Neither
did Christ. Thirty-three and a third years.
And really, how much suffering do we suffer on that account,
or in respect to Him? Christ said, though, you would.
He said, don't marvel now when this happens to you. It's such
a strange thing. He said, Remember when I told
you it's going to happen, didn't he, John? Remember when this
thing comes on? And he said, Blessed are you.
Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you
and say all manner of evil falsely against you, falsely against
you for my name's sake. I remember when I was a young
man, they began to poke fun at me. And I didn't like it. I didn't want to be made fun
of any more than anybody else. Nobody likes to be made fun of.
I want to be like one of the guys I still want to be one of
the guys. I'm a leper. If you've got reverend
or preacher, if you've got that title, you're a leper. I'm telling
you, you're a leper. You watch people's countenances
change. As if you said unclean, unclean. I'm serious. I don't like that.
I don't want to be. The reason I don't tell people
right off what I am. them find out later, much to
their horror. I remember being made fun of.
Christ said you would be. Why? Why? Read on here in 1 Peter
4. Why? Why? Look at 1 Peter 4. Why do they
hate you? Why do you suffer? Because you no longer like them, and they feel guilty to some
degree around you, and they know better. And look at verse 2. He, that
he no longer, said he that suffered no longer, lived the rest of
his time, the rest of his time. in the flesh to the lust of men,
but the will of God, the rest of his time." How much time do
we have, by the way? How much time do we have? There
you're fifty years old. How much pleasure you've got
left? The young years, the oats have
been sowed. the rest of your time. How much time do we have left,
by the way? It's said here, verse 3, the
time passed of our life. Time passed, and boy, it has
passed. I feel like I ought to be sixteen right now, but I'm
not. Man. Still ought to be in high school.
The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the
will of the Gentile and we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess
of wine, reveling, banqueting, what's that? Party! Party! You may have thought that satisfied.
It may have sufficed for a while. The life of the party I've known
a lot of lives of the party who are dead right now after the
party. And you're looking at a miracle
of God's grace that I'm not either. I can just give you instant after
instant, account after account of miraculous preservations of
this young man's life. The excess of wine and lust and
revelings and banqueting is a miracle of God. You're looking at a miracle
of God's grace standing in front of you. It's a miracle of God's
grace I'm not standing before a thrice holy God now condemned
to everlasting punishment. You know, the Scripture says
when you become a man, you put away childish things. What's
that? Toys. Toys. is a man listening to a man the
other day talk. He's about 50, oh, he's about 55 or so, and
he's a partier, and he lets everybody know it. He's the life of the
party, too. He's always bragging about his party and his drinking,
his drinking escapade. Fifty-five years old, still bragging. Sounds like an 18-year-old. Sounds
just like some boys I used to tell. And you know, everybody just
looks at him like, what a pitiful fellow. Never has grown up. Just a big, overgrown baby. Scripture says, either he's unjust,
let him be unjust still, when Christ comes. Either he's filthy,
let him be filthy still. Either he's righteous, let him
be righteous still. Or either he wants to be. He's
going to be righteous still. Behold, I come quickly. You go
on with the world, young or old, young men, children,
young men, older, go on with the world, you're going to go
down with it. But not me. Not me. Who go with me? You go with me?
I ain't going down with you. I'm not. I'm going to jump ship. Still eager, still young, aren't
you? Sam, come on. Let's jump. Let's swim. Let's
be like Peter. Get off this sinking ship. Swim
to Christ. Sink or swim, I go to Him. I
ain't going down with it, buddy. I'm just not going to go down
with this world. You can? You want to go down with it?
Go! I'm not. Scripture says, why
will you die? Now, I may read it. It says that
the time past of our life may have sufficed, in verse 4, and
they think it's strange that you don't run with the same excess
of riot. Are you reading it? Everybody.
Young people, got your eye on the Bible, Peter 4.4. They think
it strange you run not with them the same excess of rights, speaking
evil of you. She got religion. She's gone
over the deep end. She got religion. Rebecca, were
you looking for religion? No more than I was. I used to poke fun, you did too.
Probably poked fun of me. Came to hear me preach probably.
And poked fun, went back later on. And talked about all these
brainwashed cult followers. Now she is one of them. Cult
follower. That's just, what are you following?
You're a man follower. Brainwashed. Brainwashed. She doesn't have to answer to
men. Read it. Verse 5. Have given account to him as
ready to judge. Quicken the day. She is going
to have to give an account before God Almighty does. Verse seven says, The end of
all things is at hand. Be ye therefore serious and sober. Serious. Watch unto prayer. Serious. Be serious. Watch unto prayer. The end is at hand. Watch. Wait for Christ. Watch for the
wood. Listen to your watchman. Don't look at your watch. Listen
to your watchman. That's me. Watch unto prayer, the scriptures
say. Watch unto prayer. A young person, you got all these, just all these hormones and genes
and juices flowing in the world, pulling in every voices, voices,
voices, TV, radio, preachers. Call on the name of the Lord.
Call Him. I dare you. As Barnard used to
say, I double-dog dare you. Call on the name of the Lord.
Lord, speak to me. Save me. Help me. Help me. Watch on the prayer. Lord, keep me. Keep me from this
world. Keep me from myself. Keep me
from sin. I wish somebody had grabbed me
when I was 15, 16, 17, maybe they're dead. Maybe they're too
dead to feel it. Just slap me upside the head
and say, son, you're going down, going down fast. Why will you
die? Why are you going to follow these
ignoramuses? You've got a lick of sense in
that. Why are you going to follow this world? Why are you going
to go that direction? You know this is what's right. And I did.
Steve, I did. We're going to do that for. Verse eight, read on. Verse eight,
above all things, have fervent charity. And you know, all these,
I'm not just picking on young people, I'm not picking on young
people, I'm picking on anybody. I've got an urgent message. I'm picking on anybody, I'm not
trying to pick. I'm warning, I'm pleading per
se, I'm exhorting, admonishing, approving,
rebuking, encouraging, pointing. Wolf, wolf, I'm crying wolf.
And all this applies to everybody. You old people have the same
pull. My wife, thirty-six years old, soon to be thirty-seven,
might as well be forty. It's the same pulls you do when
you're 18, practically, don't you? Don't you hear the same
voices? I have the same temptations that
Brandon Shively has over here. I bet you they're worse. I bet you they're worse. What am I going to do? I'm going
to keep doing the same thing I did from the beginning, calling
on the name of the Lord, seeking the Lord, seeking his help, help,
help, help. And here's a help. This is a
real help to you, brethren, who suffer these things. Everybody
in here, every believer, you believe, you a believer, you
a believer, you suffer these, John, you have the same temptations
and lust and troubles of the flesh now that you did when you
were a young man, do you? Is it getting any better? What
about the persecution? What about people? Same thing. He said, You will, the rest of
your lives. You must through much tribulation,
as long as you're in the flesh. Paul was fifty-some years old
when he said, The things I don't want to do, that's what I do.
What I want to do, I don't do. There's a law of warring in my
members, a world of pulling. When I'm all alone, I think,
I quit. Peter quit. Rebecca Peter was
40 years old. One of the guys will give me a regular
job. Go back to fishing. Cousin! Will you also go away? No, Lord. You know better. I don't want to go. So where
are we going to go? I'd like a dog lying in my vomit
and going back and going back and going back. I've had enough.
I've tasted enough vomit to know what it tastes like. Thank you.
No, I wouldn't want to go back to that again. How much do you
have to go through? Verse 8, So rub shoulders, above
all things, have fervent charity among yourselves. Charity shall
cover a multitude's sin. Use hospitality one to another
without grudging. Every man has a gift. Minister
it. You have a gift. You have a gift. All of you. Everybody here has a gift. Minister. Let him do it as a bility which
God giveth. What is this minister? What is this gift? Comfort. Fellowship, help, comfort one
another, exhort one another, so much more as you see the day
approaching. That's the gift. You say, I can't
preach, I can't teach. You can speak a word in season.
You can fellowship, you can use hospitality, you can have people
in your home. You can have them in your home.
Rub shoulders. What I'm trying to say is, those
of you who are here tonight, you're in the right place. You're
rubbing shoulders with people that are wanting to go to the
celestial city, hopefully. You're in the right place. This
is a good place to be. You're with people that are suffering
the same thing, who've come out of the same gutter, who are having
the same problems that you're having, and you can get some
strength and some comfort from it. You're rubbing shoulders
with the right place and with the right people. I was reminded
of a Christian pilgrim in the Pilgrim's Progress. It says he ran from the city
of destruction. He was warned to flee from the
wrath to come. And he ran from that city. And
he said he saw a man up ahead of him, who had gone on ahead
of him, who went on before he did, named Faith, named Faith. And he saw him, and he, oh, he
ran to get up with him. He said, ho, ho, ho there. Wait, I'm going too. Ho, my brother. Let me read this
excerpt from that. Listen. Then I saw they went
very lovingly on together and had sweet discourse. of all things
that had happened to them and their pilgrim. Christian began, My honored and
well-beloved brother Faithful, I am glad that I have overtaken
you and that God has so tempered our spirits that we can walk
as companions in this so pleasant a path. Faithful says, Well, I had thought,
my dear friend, to have your company, quite from from our
town but you did get the start of me where four hours forced
to come this much alone your Christian said. How long did
you stay in the city of destruction before you set out on this bill.
Faithful faith to like to stay no longer. Great talk. After you left that our city
would be burned down. The evidence for a while on everybody's
mind in their mouth. Christian said, Why didn't more
of them come out and escape from danger? He said, Oh, a lot of
them talked about it, but I don't think they firmly believed it.
I heard some of them speaking kind of scornfully of you after
you left, too. They called your pilgrimage foolishness.
But I believe, and I do still, that the end of our city will
be with fire and brimstone, and therefore I make my escape. And
they went on and had some profitable discourse together. So I close with this. Let me
say this to you. Let me say these things to you
from God's Word. Watch out for evil communications
that corrupt good manners. You may have good intentions,
but those you pick, those who you run around with, pick them
well. You may have good intentions, you may have some interest. If
they can do it, they're going to get your interest away. They're
going to try all they can. They're not in the least bit
interested in this God and this gospel and this Bible and these
things of God. Not in the least bit interested.
And evil communications will corrupt good manners. Choose
your friends well. I'm speaking to adults, too.
I know adults are more guilty of this than young people. Scripture says, Come out from
among them, be ye separate. Not self-righteous, but self-righteous.
Old Pilgrim, when he was running out of that city, do you remember
that? Christian was running out of that city. His friends and
his family were laughing at him, saying, ah, come back, what's
wrong with you? He said he put his fingers in his ears. While he was running out of that
city, he was crying, life, life, eternal life. Life, life, Christ, Christ. Give
me Christ or I die. Don't look back to Sodom. Remember
Lot's wife. Come thou with us. We'll do you
good. Come with me, young man. I'm not that old. I'm not that
old. Come with me. I'll do you good. We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. City
of God. Ah, fairytale. Just wait. Ain't no fairytale. Have you been given a gift? And
they said ministered one to another. Help each other. on the road
to go help each other. So what can I do just be here? If you're not here, you scatter,
Scripture said, either gathers, not scattered. Other people,
whether you think it or not, they take encouragement in the
flesh when you're not here. They say, well, so-and-so is
not here, it must not be that poor, and I can miss too. Yes,
but by being here, And I've told you the story of
some people who are suffering, dying with cancer, and what they
said. So really, these excuses are
pretty lame. Pretty dang lame. And somebody's
dying. And all they've got on their
mind is being here. And that's exactly what God looks
at. He sure didn't listen to these
excuses. We comfort one another. That's
why we're here. We comfort one another. We exhort
one another. So much more is the day approaching.
I told you, remember that story about Brother Don Bell and I
going up to Peaks of Otter? We went, Don wanted to, well,
I wanted him to see the Peaks of Otter, and he wishes after
we started that I hadn't. But you remember, I took him
up there, And I had climbed it before. And it was tough the
first time. But I had forgotten. But we started
out. Climbing up that, you know. Some
of you have been there. You been there? And we walked
and walked, seemed like a long time, a long time. And Donnie
says, we about there? I said, I think so. And we came
up and there was a sign. There's a sign, Donnie, can't
be much further. And we came to the first sign
that said, you've gone one-eighth of a mile, you've got three-quarters
of a mile to go. Don looked at me and said, what
have you got me into? I said, just wait, Don, just
wait. Let's just go on a little bit further. We started, kept
walking and walking. And he was tired. He wanted to
quit. Let's go back. Can't be that great. No, no. Come on, let's keep going. Well,
after a while, I started talking that way. Got about halfway there,
I said, yeah, let's quit. He said, no, we've come this
far. I got to see it now. And we did that back and forth,
back and forth up that hill until finally we got to the top of
that hill. You've been there, haven't you?
Huh? And it was the most glorious
day that day. Wasn't a cloud in the sky, no haze, no fog,
no nothing. You could see as far as the eye
could see up on that. And we totally forgot about that
climb. We both said, Aren't we glad
we did this? So glad. Built a little fire
and sat around. We talked about scriptures. We talked about a fellow that
had been through it. And we talked. We had such a
good time. And that's what the scripture
says. They were to do for one another, exhort one another.
So much more you see the day approach. Steve, the view. Let's
keep going, buddy. It ain't far now. It's getting
close. The view. There's a song we used
to sing. It will be worth it all. And
I quoted you that from Isaiah 65, 17. It says, The former things
shall not be remembered, nor come to mind. Somebody says,
Boy, what a rough life we live. Went through a lot of suffering.
What suffering? Don't rightly remember. For the joy. For the joy. It will be worth
it all. When his glory shall be revealed, the scripture says.
You're going to be glad, verse 13 says, with exceeding joy. Exceeding joy. You ever been
happy? That's what Brother Donick calls
it. Get happy. We got happy. That's what he
called being rejoicing. That's his old Pentecostal coming
out on it. Got happy. Well, that's a good
enough word. Happy. Ever been just exceedingly
happy? Well, he says it's going to be
exceeding. It's going to be exceeding, Joe.
Barbara? And when you hear the gospel,
when you just think you can't be contained, well, one of these
days you're not. You're not going to be able to
contain yourself. He that will love life and see
good days, you seek Christ. Happiness you
never know. And he said, on down there, if
the righteous, though, if the righteous, the time has come,
judgment's here. See, this was a hard message,
preacher, verse 17. And these are hard things. Time
has come. Judgment's begun right here.
The world's not listening to this. You are. I'm not preaching
to the world. I'm preaching to you. I'm not
preaching to your buddies you go to school with. I'm preaching
to you. They're not going to hear this. You are, Jennifer. And I pray to God, you hear it.
I mean, you hear it, not hear. Hear. They're not going to hear
it. They didn't hear this, and they're
probably not going to hear it. But you do. Wherefore, let them that suffer
according to the will of God commit the keeping of their soul.
Lord, I'm just a lost soul. I'm a weak finite, fickle, failing,
struggling, fleshly creature. Help. He said he's a very present
help. Very present help. That's all
he is. That's all you need to do. Help.
Young people, I dare you. I dare you. I dare you. All right, Jerry, come up. Let's
sing a couple of verses a bit. You know why I can't? I'm so fearful for this generation,
our young people. Why can't the Lord save a 15-year-old? Sixteen. Sixteen beyond saving. Seventeen. Eighteen. We kind of got that idea. I believe
I do. Well, he's hopeless. No, he's
not. No, he's not. Anything too hard for the Lord? All right, let's sing a couple
of verses here. 5.14. Let's stand and sing. 5.14. We sing first and last verse.
All right. Come we that love the Lord, and
let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord. Join in a song with sweet accord. And thus surround the throne.
And thus surround the throne. How about a faithful? How about a Christian or Pilgrim? Come on, let's march. Then let our songs abound, and
every tear be dried. We're marching through Emmanuel's
ground. We're marching through Emmanuel's
ground. We're marching to Zion, beautiful,
beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. Heavenly Father, keep the fowls
of the air. the thorns away from the word. Let it be planted in the heart
of someone tonight. We pray. That's our prayer in
Christ's name. Amen. You're dismissed.