Good evening, let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 51. Hymn number 51. Praise the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we owe and have. Jesus is a name that charms us,
name for conflict convinces and arms us. Nothing moves and nothing
harms us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, ye Saints, forever. He is faithful, changing never. Neither force nor guile can sever
those He loves proudly. Keep us, Lord, oh, keep us believing
to Thyself and still believing till the hour of our receiving
from its joys with Thee. Then we shall be where we should
be. Then we shall be what we should
be. Things that are not now nor could
be soon shall be our own. To be stated, we'll sing hymn
number 117. 117 He was wounded for our transgressions,
paid for our sins in His body on the tree. For our guilty gave
us peace, From our bondage gave relief. And with his stripes,
And with his stripes, And with his stripes, Our souls are healed. number among transgressors, we
did esteem him forsaken by his God. As our sacrifice He died, Let
the world be satisfied. And all our sin, And all our
sin, And all our sin, Was laid on Him. They have wandered, they all
have wandered Far from the fold of the shepherd of the sea But He saw us where we were,
on the mountains we came from, and brought us home, and brought
us home, and brought us safely home to God. And of this generation, who shall
declare all the triumphs of His throne? Billions dead, now live
again. Spirits follow in His train. Victorious Lord, Victorious Lord,
Victorious Lord, and coming King. I'll open your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians. I'll preach from that in a little
bit, but I won't read yet. Just lead us in prayer. The first
thing we do is lead us in prayer. Our Father, who art great God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is a God like unto you. Moses
came to you and said, show me your glory. Lord, that's what
we want to see. We want to see your glory. We
don't want the veil to be on our hearts, to be on our mind.
We want our hearts open to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our minds
open to Him and His glory. And Father, I Thank you. Oh,
how I bless you. Praise you for your great, great,
great, great grace. Sin abounded. Oh, how sin abounded. But your grace did much more
abound. Sin reigned unto death, but,
oh, Lord, your grace reigns unto righteousness and life in our
Lord Jesus. Father, I thank you for those
who's come out and pray that we'd be able to worship you tonight. be able to enjoy the gospel,
enjoy our God, enjoy our Savior, enjoy the truth as it is in Christ. And Father, we pray for those
among us who are in need of prayer, whose bodies are weak. Lord, we especially pray for
Blaine and Shannon's baby, little Levi. Lord, we thank you what
you've done for them so far, what you've done for them. But
Lord, they desperately need our prayers. They need us to uphold
them. Lord, meet the needs of that
little baby. Oh, Lord. You're helpless, and that's the
way we are. We're helpless without you. We're just like children. All we can do is make amends.
All we can do is follow. All we can do is stumble, skin
ourselves up. But Lord, you're the father,
and you can pick us up and cleanse us off and fix us when we're
wrong, do for us when we fall, pick us up. Lord, we come to a throne of
grace to obtain mercy. Please meet with us tonight.
Enable me to speak to you in glory. and enable me to be a
blessing to your people here tonight. We ask these things
in the blessed Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Pym number 388. 388. Have thine own way, Lord, have
thine own way. Thou art the father, I am the
clay. Hold me and make me after thy
will. While I am waiting, you may dance
with me. Have thine own way, Lord Have
thine own way Search me and try me Master today Wider than snow,
Lord Wash me just now As in Thy presence, deeply I
bow. Have Thine own way, Lord, have
Thine own way. Wounded and weary, healthy I
pray. Power, all power, Touch me and feel me, Savior
divine. Have Thine own way, Lord, have
Thine own way. Oh Lord, I've been at a loose
end Filled with my spirit, till all
shall see Christ only, always living in me. All the first Thessalonians? Well, I'm going to title my subject
this evening is Seven Attitudes. Seven Attitudes. Seven in Scripture
speaks of perfection, speaks of completeness. And as we look at these seven
attitudes, they're really actually seven aspects of a believer's
relationship with God. And now, when these attitudes,
we dare not speak of perfection or completeness in our attitudes,
but though they're not perfect in us, we want them to be perfect. And I know that every heaven-born
child of God, every single one of them, has
these characteristics, these different, seven different attitudes
towards God, as the Thessalonians did. Now, the first one's found
in chapter 2, verse 13. Here's the first attitude, first
characteristics of a believer. Verse 13. For this cause also, thank we
God, without ceasing. Because when you receive the
Word of God, which ye heard of us, you received it not as the
Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which
effectually also worketh in you." This is the first attitude we
have. We receive the Word of God, not as men, not as the Word
of a man, not as a man's opinion, not as our interpretation. but
as it is indeed truth, as it is the word of God." And I'll
tell you what, it's by the word. You know, God uses His word to
give us the new birth. It's by the word of God. You
keep 1 Thessalonians, look in James, James chapter 2, excuse
me, James chapter 1, I'm sorry, James chapter 1. You know, And
it says it works effectually in you. God's Word does not fail. It does not return to Him void.
Whatever He sent it to do, it will accomplish what He intends
for it to do. But look what He said here in verse 18 of James
chapter 1 and verse 18. Of His own will begat He us. That means to be birthed. That
means to have a relationship with. He begat he us with what? The word of truth. That we should
be a kind of first fruits of his creature. So he says, listen
to this now. Wherefore, my beloved, let every
man be swift to hear. Oh, be swift to hear what God
has to say. Be slow to speak. Don't make
your opinion known. Don't say, I don't know if that's
right or that's wrong. Be slow to rant. Don't get upset with what God
has to say. Be slow to get angry with what
God has to say. You know, and I'll tell you what,
back in 1 Thessalonians, you know, when you talk about receiving
the word of God, that word of God works affectionately. I mean,
it actually does the work that God intends it to do. And I tell
you, everybody, I've often said this before, everybody gets whatever
they, God intends for them to have out of particular service.
Somebody may get something that somebody else don't. Somebody
may get something that somebody else don't. Somebody may miss
something, the other can catch something. That's the way it
works in this business of salvation. And we receive the worse in much
affliction. You know what that means is that
the Holy Ghost plows up the soil. The Holy Ghost comes along and
plows up that soil, breaks up that foul ground. And He prepares
it for what? The incorruptible seed. That
seed that's incorruptible, that seed that gives us life, that
seed that comes from God Himself. And I've not only received the
Word of God, I've got, you know, there was a, Angus Fisher told
me, he said at his house the other day, And he said, you know,
he was down in India for several years. He taught in a school
down there. And he didn't even know a free will Baptist. Had
never heard of a free will Baptist. But a free will Baptist church
invited him to come over and have a service. So he went over
to have that service. And he read Romans chapter 9.
Let me show you what I'm talking about. He just read Romans chapter
9. Hardly made no comments on it
whatsoever. The preacher got up after that
and said, now our God's not like that God right there. Our God's
not one that loves one and hates the other. Our God's not one
that makes a vessel of honor and another vessel of dishonor.
He said, our God's not like that. And he told the truth. He wasn't. He didn't receive the word of
God as it was the word of truth. And if the word of God gets us,
it's got us. And that's what we want. We want
to hear what God has to say. And he says it in his word. Oh
my, look over here. Look over here in 2 Thessalonians
2. Look down in verse 10. Oh my,
we receive the love of the truth. Not only do we receive the truth
and believe the truth, but we receive the love of the truth.
Well, here we go. Look what it says in verse 10,
2 Thessalonians 2, 10. And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, now listen to this, because
they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved. We believe in truth is the word
of God. Look what else he says. And for
this cause, because they did not receive the love of the truth,
for this cause, God shall send them a strong delusion that they
should believe a lie and be damned. Oh my. That, oh my, that's not
the way we are. Oh no. We receive the love of
the truth. I mean, beloved, everybody that
knows the truth loves it. It's not one thing to say that
I believe the word of God, but to actually love it. Love it. Cherish it. Guard it. Desire it. And everybody, we
all, I think everybody that's been begotten of God, that has
the new birth, I believe they love God's Word. They love the
truth. And they want the truth. They
want the truth. And that's why I said, receiving
the Word of God, not as it is the Word of men. And I tell you
what, and it'll do the job. If there's something wrong with
you, you'll find out. If there's something you need
to learn, you'll find out. People say, I think God's trying
to teach me something. You know, we'll get to that in
a little bit. Now, I may try to teach you something
and fail miserably, but if God's going to teach you something,
you're going to learn that lesson, I guarantee you. Then here's
the second one, over in 1 Thessalonians 1, in verse 9. Here's the second
attitude. First attitude is that we receive
the Word as it is in truth, the Word of God. It works effectively
in us. And then look what he said in
verse 9. For they themselves show of us
what manner of ending end we had unto you, and how you turn
to God." This is an attitude. This is one of those things,
you know, and one of the aspects of a believer's life. He turns
to God. When do you turn to God? After
you've been begotten. After you've received the Word
of God. Then you turn to God. And it says here, you turn from
idols to serve the living God. And we know a man has to turn
from his idols. And you say, what kind of idols
do we have? Self is the biggest idol we've got. Love of self. Pride is a big idol. Self-righteousness
is a big idol. Self-confidence is a big idol.
And all my will is a big idol. And we turn to God from idols. And oh my goodness, idols, man
make idols. Jim, Tim James says, you know,
image, you know, imagination. You know what that is? He said,
imagination means that you create images out of your mind. And
he said, that's a God factor right up here in our brain. And
we do, we'll make all kinds of images up here. It's an imagination,
images. And I'll tell you what, you know,
two of the greatest images is, first of all, a man's worst self.
before God. They tell people how worthy they
are, that they deserve what God gives. I see somebody say the
other day, God's lucky to have you. Talking about somebody that
died. Said, God's lucky to have you. Oh yeah, you know God just
tickled a net to get you. But oh my, man, the worst thing
he's got going for him is he married. He thinks that he is
really, really worth something. And then his morality. People
equate patriotism in America with Christianity. And that's
a bad thing to do. I'm a patriot. I am. I really
am. And I think everybody here is. We love America. We're grateful
for America. But I'll tell you something.
Being a patriot and being a Christian is two different things. And
that's what a lot of people equate that with, that, you know, they
had this years ago, they used to have what they called the
moral majority. And you know who started that? A preacher
did. He started everybody talking
about how moral we got to be, and they get everybody to be
moral and know what a wonderful thing things would be. Morality
is not Christianity. Morality is not the new birth. You know, that's not turning
to God. Morality is not turning to God.
Oh, doing the best I can. Oh, I believe the Bible. Yeah,
I know you do until you're confronted with it. But oh, my. And then
there's the fellow that says, oh, he stands up and says, oh,
the self-righteous man is one who despised others. And he stood
and prayed thus with himself. And that's what you've got to
do. You've got to turn from idols. And that's what we do. We turn
from our idols. Our idols of our tradition. The
idols of our own making. The idols of our being sufficient
in ourselves. We've got to turn from idols.
And we do. And oh my. God said, oh Lord. You know, people think that an
idol has to be made out of wood or gold or silver or something
like that. But all it takes, covishness. The Bible says that
covishness is idolatry. Covishness is idolatry. And whenever you start coveting,
and you know, to covet something means that you desire it, really,
really desire it. And when you covet something
in such a way that takes away from the glory of Christ and
your relationship with Christ, God said that that's idolatry.
You're making whatever you're coveting to be your idol. And
oh my, he said, turn, turn unto God. Turn unto God. And then look what else he says
here. Turn to God from idols, and listen to here, turn to the
living God. Idols are not alive. Idols don't
have no life. That's what they are. They're
just idols. But God's alive. God's living God. Ain't that
what he says? The living God takes the place
of all them idols. Takes the place of self. Takes
the place of idols. Takes the place of traditions.
Takes the place of false beliefs. Oh my. A man, I tell you what,
you know, self-love and self-selfishness, a man can't serve two masters.
He can't serve his idol, he can't serve God. That's what our Lord,
a man cannot serve two masters. You can't serve your idol and
serve the living God at the same time. You can't serve one God and another
one. You can't serve two things at the same time. I can't, I
can't even, everybody talks about, you know, they can do, they can
multitask. I've never multitasked in my
life. I've never multitasked in my life. I have to be focused
on, ain't that right? I can't do one thing. You confuse me, I'll be doing
something. They say, well, don't do that. No, no, no, no. Don't
confuse me. I've got to do this. I'm not
a multitasker. I can move both hands at the
same time. But oh no, I'm telling you, you know, a man can't serve
two masters. He can't serve his idols and
serve the living God. And that's why we turn. Turn. And when you turn to God, you've
got to turn from something. When you're turning to God, you've
got to turn away from some things. You've got to turn away from
all that you thought you was right. All the things that you
thought you did. You've got to turn away from
them. And oh my. And I tell you, most folks have
just enough religion to make them miserable. They do. They got part of the world over
here, and they got part of the religion over here, and they
got enough over here to keep them from being what they want
to be, and they got not enough here to keep them from being
over here. They got just enough to make them miserable. They
can come to a service, and boy, I hope this thing gets over quick.
No, I tell you, they got just enough to make them miserable.
But, oh, if you turn to God, you've got to turn from something.
And they turned from God to the right. And, Lord, I tell you,
that's why David said, if there's any wicked way in me, if there's
any evil in me, oh, Lord, save me from it. Turn me from it.
Save me from it. If it's in me, oh, God, save
me from it. Save me from it. And then here's
the next one. Here's the next one over here
in chapter 1, verse 1. Here's the third one. Paul and Silvanus, that's Silvanus'
same one as Silas, and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians,
now watch this now, which is in God the Father and in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Where's the church at? It's in
God and in Christ. Oh, the church which is in God
the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. The church. Do you know what the church is?
Us. We. We're the church. We're all members of the same
body. We're all members of Christ. And that's what he says. We dwell
in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ dwell in Him. This
is our refuge. This is our resting place. When
a soul believes the Word of Truth and receives the Word of Truth
and turns from his idols to the living God, you know what he
is? He's in God and in Christ, and Christ is in them and God's
in them. Oh, my. You know, we are in God
and in Christ. The Scripture said, I think it's
in 1 Corinthians 1. Of Him, of God, are we in. Christ Jesus. How did we get
in Christ? God put us in Christ. And in
Christ, God made Christ unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And we dwell in God, and we dwell
in Christ, and the Scriptures tell us that they dwell in us.
Christ in you is the hope of glory. You know, look over in
John. Keep 1 Thessalonians, look in
John 15. John 15. Now look what our Lord said. The Lord said down in verse 5, I am the vine, you're the branches. I'm the true vine, my father's
the husband, what he said in verse 1. I'm the vine, you're
the branches. Listen to this. He that abideth
in me, dwells in me, lives in me, and I live in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit, and this is what he says without me, You
can do nothing. You can't have no fruit. You
can't have no life. You can't have nothing without
me. But he also said, you abide in me, and I'm going to abide
in you. Oh, my. The scriptures tells us that
when Christ, our life, Christ, our life, what a life. What a life. Christ, our life.
Christ our life shall appear. You know what's going to happen?
We're going to appear with Him. And we're going to behold His
glory. And I'll tell you, Jeremiah said, you know, that we're like
a tree planted by the rivers of water. If we bring forth our
fruit in our season, planted, God had to plant us. And you
know, He's not only Christ our life, but He's our strength.
His strength is made perfect in our weakness. Paul said, is anybody weak? He
said, I'm the weakest. Anybody here weak? Anybody here that needs the grace
of Christ? Anybody here that needs grace
to be sufficient? His stress made perfect in our
weakness. That's why I said, without me,
you can do nothing. And so, don't you all believe
that as well? I mean, we got that attitude. That's our nature,
that's our attitude. We dwell in God, and God dwells
in us. And I'll tell you what, we're
satisfied in our dwelling place. Look over with me to Psalm 91. Psalm 91. You know, we're satisfied in our dwelling
place. You know, I don't, I don't want
a, I don't want a hair's breadth of me outside of Christ. Not
a hair's breadth. Look what he said. You know,
we're satisfied in our dwelling place. In fact, we're scared
to death to even think about adventuring out. Look what he
said in Psalm 91. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
High. Secret place. Who knows that
secret place? The ones that God tells them
where it's at ain't secret to us anymore. It's not a secret
to us. No, no, He showed us where it's
at. He told us where it's at. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. And look what we'll say. I will
say of the Lord, He's my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him
will I trust. Oh, my. Huh? Well, it isn't God. All right. Let me give you the
fourth attitude now. Back over here in 1 Thessalonians,
chapter 1, verse 9 again. Verse 9 again. So we turn from
idols to the living God. And then it
says, we turn from idols to serve the living God. to serve the living God, the
true God. And ain't that what it says?
Serve the living and true God. What in the world do you think
he's talking about? What do you think he's talking about? You
know, a son that loves his father, he don't mind serving his father,
waiting on his father. And his father don't mind doing
something for his son. A husband serves his wife, glad to serve
his wife, glad to love her, glad to take care of her, glad to
provide for her, glad to give her what she wants as long as
he can and is possible to do it. And a wife, she loves her
husband, she loves to serve him, loves to do things for him, loves
to get his clothes, loves to feed him, loves to do the things
for him. And oh my, we've got the best
master in the world, I'm not a very good, I'm not a very good,
you know, I don't serve very well, but I tell you, I want
to, I want to, but oh my, you know, we have got the best master
in the universe. And when it talks about to serve
the living God, you know, our Lord said, whom, whom sets free,
he sets free indeed. And God set us free to serve,
to serve. And you know how you serve God? By serving one another. I'm not going to go out here
in the world and tell everybody what I'm doing for God. You need
to go out here and serve God. No, no, when we talk about serving
God, we're talking about being service one to another. We're
bond slaves of Christ, but we have set us free to serve. We
gladly, joyfully, thankfully, You know, we pray. We're free
to pray. We're free to witness. We're
free to give. We're free to labor. We are free
in the gospel. And oh my, we're free to serve
one another. That's why we're sent forth to
soothe, you know. Paul said it, I beseech you brethren,
by the mercies, mercies of the living God, present your bodies
A living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. Now I'll
go show you what these Thessalonians, they was a pattern for us in
this business. Look what he says here in verse
3. I'll give you five things out of this right here to show
you. You know, remembering what, here's what it is to serve God.
They're a pattern for us. The character of their service
was. Remember without your ceasing your work of faith. That's the
first thing, a work of faith. That's why we labor in a work
of faith. And then the second one is a
labor of love. Is it hard to love? It's a labor
of love, serving the love. And then look what else he says,
and a patience of hope. We patiently hope. Look to God,
hope in God, hope in Christ. And oh my, look what it says,
of our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. That hope was in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's where our hope sat. And
oh my, and all these things was in the sight of God. Everything
we do is in the sight of God. A work of faith, a labor of love.
And that's what it means to serve. And we got one, that's our master.
And it's Him. It's Him. We seek to honor and
glorify it. It's Him. Him. You know, this one thing. You know, people
preach on serving God all the time. But I'll tell you what,
to serve the Lord, we serve one another. We love one another. We care for one another. That's
what we do. And then here's the fifth attitude. Look what it
did, verse 10, chapter 1. Here's the fifth attitude that
we have. If you don't have these attitudes,
and to wait for His Son from heaven. We're waiting for the
Son of God, waiting for His Son from heaven. You know, it's like a fella coming
home from the service, and they've been home a year or so. And the wife tells the children,
says, your father's coming home. He's coming. We say, Christ is
coming. You know what the kids do? They
run, get on the couch, and look out the window, wait to see. And that's what we do. We believe
he's coming. So we're looking, watching, waiting
in hope, waiting for the Son of God from heaven. Our Lord
said that He is going to come again. And you know what He said
He's going to do when He comes again? He said, after I went
to a better place for you, I'm coming back. And I'm coming to
get you. And I'm going to take you and
bring you to where I am, that you may be with me where I am. And that's what He says He's
going to do. Who wouldn't want to go be where he is? I promised
you I was going to do that. And every time he comes and gets
one, of course it hurts us. You know, it hurts the person
that loses them. But oh, he said, I'll come to
get you. I'm coming for you. What for? To come be with me
where I am. And that's why we want to be
where he is. will be where He is. Oh, my. Oh, we look for the glorious,
glorious appearing of our great God and Savior. And I'll tell
you something, beloved. We're waiting. We're waiting
for the Son of God. And we'll have to wait. Brother
Henry Mahan, bless his heart, he prayed for years for the Lord
to take him. He got up in his 70s. He started
praying, Lord, take me. Got up in his 80s, Lord take
me. Lord take me. He prayed to the Lord. He said,
I pray every night for me and Scott Richardson that the Lord
take us home. Well, the Lord took Scott home.
Henry's left here. And he'd tell his son, tell his
wife, I want to go. Lord, why won't the Lord let
me go home? Paul said to him, Dad, you just
have to wait. You just have to wait. He'll
come and get you. And sure enough, he comes got
him. We have to wait. We have to wait. And oh my, we live and do and
act as if our hour is always at hand. David says, my expectation
is where? From the Lord. That's where my
expectation is. And oh my, we're waiting. Oh, what a blessed future we
have. People worry about the future in this life. How much
money they got to retire on and all that kind of thing. But oh
my, I'm telling you something. What a future you and I have.
What glory we have to look forward to. And we're waiting. We're
waiting. He'll come. We're waiting. He'll call. We're waiting. for him to take us where he is.
Huh? We're just waiting. We're just
waiting. One of these days, we'll be over.
You know, this kind of waiting we're talking about is not waiting
in a doctor's office to see a doctor until you get wore out. This
waiting here, we wait here. We wait here when we hear the
doctor. We're waiting. Boy, one of these days, when
our times come, We don't have to wait anymore. We don't have
to wait anymore. And then let me show you this
in chapter 4 and verse 9. Here's the sixth attitude. Here's the sixth attitude. First Thessalonians chapter 4
and verse 9. But as touching brotherly love
you need not that I write unto you, for ye selves are taught
of God to love one another." This is the seventh attitude,
sixth attitude, being taught of God, learning of God. Learning
about God, you're taught of God. He said, you're even taught of
God to do these. You know, Isaiah 54, 13 says,
they shall all thy children shall be taught of God. You know, the
best teacher that they are is the one that's patient with you.
And you know, we have to learn lesson after lesson after lesson.
And oftentimes we have to learn the same lessons over and over
and over and over. You know, the gospel says in
John 6, 44, no man can come unto me. except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. And every one that hath heard,
heard, and been taught, heard of the
Father, he cometh unto me. For they shall all, all be taught
of God." Oh, my. To be taught of God. God, what
does God teach us? Brotherly love. We're taught
of God to love one another. It's a wise, wise man who will
sit at the Lord Jesus' feet and learn of Him. And the Holy Ghost
is our teacher. You know, every one of you can
go home, and every one of you this week can open your Bible,
and you can learn things from your Bible without a preacher.
You know that? You know why? Because he said,
you need no man to teach you. The same anointing which saved
you will also teach you. The Holy Spirit is the teacher
of the Bible. And I've said this before. I've
told you all this before. Whenever I open a Bible to read,
the first thing I do is I say, Lord, this is your word. This
is your word. And I'll get nothing out of it
if you don't bless me to read it and understand it. And that's just the way it is.
I can't read this like I can sit down and read the newspaper.
I can't sit down and read it like I'm reading a book. You
know, this is a spiritual book. And you have to have a spiritual
teacher. And the Holy Spirit's the only one that can teach us.
And that's what he's talking about, God teaching you. The
Holy Spirit teaching. And what's the chief lesson?
The chief lesson that God teaches us more than anything else. Our
Lord said, a new commandment I give unto you. What is it,
Lord? That you love one another even as I have loved you. And
that's what he said here. That's touching brotherly love.
I don't have to write to you. I don't have to write to you
and tell you to do that. But God himself taught you. God taught
you that. And look what he goes on to say
in verse 10. And indeed, you do it. You do it. Who do you
do it toward? Toward all the brethren which
are in Macedonia. But now listen to this. That
we beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more in
your love. Oh, God, teach us, teach us,
teach us, teach us. Our Lord says, take my Yoko Pony
and learn of me. Mary chose that good part. And
then the last attitude is this. Chapter 2 and verse 12. The last
attitude is this. I think every one of us recognize
that yes, you know, this is our attitude. This is our aspect
of our life, our relationship with God. And he says that you
would walk worthy of God who hath called you into his kingdom
and glory. Walking worthy of God. What's God worthy of? What's
God worthy of? Is He worthy of us? Is He worthy
of our hearts, our souls, our minds? Is He worthy of our attention? Is He worthy of our glory? To
walk worthy of God. Any can walk with God. And how
you walk with God, we do it by faith. You're talking about a
blessed, blessed occupation. Oh my, walking has become the
sons of God. Look over in Philippians. Go
back with me to Philippians. Chapter 3. No, excuse me. Chapter 2 and verse 14. You know, walking has becoming
sons of God. Walk in love. walk in His fullness,
walk in His power, walk in His grace, walk in His mercy, and
oh my! But there are sayings of some
things that's not worthy, that you know when you walk this way,
it's not worthy. They said, do all, verse 10,
do all, verse 13 says this, for it's God which walketh in you,
both to will and do His good pleasure. So when God does that,
do all things then without murmur and dispute. Don't argue, don't
murmur, And this is why, that you may
be blameless and harmless, the sons of God. Without rebuke,
we live in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom
you shine as lights, lights, lights. Oh, my. I tell you, these things are
not walking worthy of God's murmur. Be discontent. complaining, indigenous, disputing,
arguing, envying, grudging. They're not walking worthy of
God. There are some fellas, they got to debate and know whether,
you know, don't never call a man by a title. These fellas got
to debate and know whether you ever call a man by a title. Pastor,
preacher, elder, bishop, Reverend? No, of course not, Reverend.
But they got to arguing over that and saying it's not right
to call anybody other than their first name. I just showed them Ephesians
4 where it says that God gave some evangelists teachers, pastors,
and teachers. And I told I said, you all fixated
on the most stupid things ever was. You all were scared to death
that you're going to... And the thing is, is that God
gave these offices to men. He gave them to the church. You
know, I don't know what people just... Anything but Christ. Anything
but Christ. But you know where our worthiness
comes from. It's just like taking the Lord's
sacrifice. Everybody says, boy, I want to be worthy. I've got
to examine myself, see if I'm worthy to take the bread, the
wine. Well, you never are, you never will be, but where you
get your worthiness from is you. It's His blood, it's His body,
it's Him. And all of our worthiness, all
of our walking worthy of God, it has to come from Him. I believe
that with all my heart. It's by His power, by His indwelling
Spirit, by the Holy Ghost that makes us walk worthy. You know,
I want to walk worthy of God. I don't want to go out here and
be mean and ill and contrary and hateful and, you know, not
treat people right. I don't have to let people know
I'm a Christian, I'm a believer. But I do have to treat people
right. I do have to be kind. I do have to be considerate of
people. I do have to do that. And nobody
don't, you know... It's easy. It's... The way of
the transgressor is hard. But the way of Christ, that He's
yoke, is easy. Easy. I believe every one of
us has those seven attitudes. First thing we do, Lord, it's
your word. And when you receive that, everything
else falls into place. Is that right? Well, I hope that's
a blessing. I really do. Our Father, oh, our great glorious
God, you're the true and living God. And Lord, we gather out
here this evening to be your servants. to wait here to hear
what you will for us to do. You will for us to seek you.
You will for us to walk worthy of you. You will for us to love
one another. You will for us to be patient. You will for us to walk by faith. Lord, we know what you will is
for us in so many ways. But Lord, we have to learn so
many lessons over and over and over and over Lord, take these
words and make them real and alive and living to our hearts
and souls. And of all you do, please help
us to honor and glorify your holy name. We thank you and bless
you. Again, we pray for that little
baby in Blaine and Shannon and that family and that baby. God,
please be merciful, be gracious. They're without strength right
now. but your grace is sufficient. Your strength is made perfect
in their weakness. God meet the needs of their heart
and lives for Christ's sake. Amen. 318 in the hymn book. I love
this song. I sing it all the time. Stand and we'll sing this
and you'll be at liberty to go. 318. I need thee, oh, I need thee,
every hour I need thee. I need Thee every hour, O gracious
Lord, O gracious Lord, so I can be subdued. I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every
hour I need Thee, O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, say Thou
dear, Nations lose their power when
Thou art nigh. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee,
every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need thee every hour, stay
thou nor faint. Completely in the prime, for
life is faint. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee,
every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, most
holy Lord. Make me Thine it be, Thou blessed
Son. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. Yep.