Let's look at Hebrews chapter
10. Hebrews chapter 10. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Everything Christ
done was forever. Everything. Redemption done at
Calvary was done by Christ alone and would stand forever. When
the Lord Jesus Christ said, it is finished, it really was. Look here at Hebrews chapter
10. Let's read the first 17 verses.
For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not
the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices
which they offered year by year continually, make the comers
thereof unto perfect. Make the comers thereunto perfect,
for then would they not have cease to be offered, because
that the worshippers, once purged, should have had no more conscience
of sins. But in those sacrifices there
is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not
possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away
sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, when Christ cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice
and offerings thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me. and burn offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the
volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God.
Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offerings, and burnt offerings,
and offering for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein,
which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. That's his sacrifice. By the
which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once. And every priest standeth daily
ministering, offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sin. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sacrificed, whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us, for after that he had said before, This is the
covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts,
and in their minds will I write them, so they'll love and remember
them. And their sins and inequities
will I remember no more. Amen. Let's pray. Excuse me. Turn with me to Ephesians
chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, starting at verse 17, this I
say therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk
not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having
the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness
of their hearts. who being past feeling have given
themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with
greediness. But, but, ye have not so learned
Christ. That's not what Christ teaches
us. That's not what Christ, he come to save us from that. We've
not learned Christ if we still walk in the vanity of our minds,
darkened understanding. But ye have not so learned Christ,
if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him,
as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off the former conversation,
the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust,
be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his
neighbor. for we are members one of another. Be ye angry,
and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him bestow
still no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands
the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that
needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but
that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister
grace unto the hearers. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all
bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christ's sake has forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children and walk in love, as Christ also hath
loved us and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice
as a sweet-smelling savor. Truth taught by the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said here in verse 21, if
so be ye have heard him and been taught by him, as the truth is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord Jesus Christ, when
He talks about having heard Him, been taught by Him, that means
to have understood and to agree with. It means to understand
and agree with. Our Lord, you know, He said those
that heard Him, you know, and when you hear someone, that means
that you understand and you agree with them. That's what it means
here. And have been taught by Him. have been taught by him. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our
teacher. He said I don't know how many
times and he preached and he taught the people. He is the
master over the servants. He's the teachers. We're just
nothing but the pupils. And we do want to be taught by
the Lord Jesus Christ. And not only is he our master
and our teacher, and he teaches us the truth, always teaches
us the truth. Teaches us the truth about his
father, taught us the truth about Himself, taught us the truth
about the Holy Spirit, taught us the truth about sin, taught
us the truth about our inability, taught us the truth that the
only place that you could come to have salvation was to come
to Him. The only person who God would
accept is Him. So He taught us these blessed
truths. But He also taught us some things here in these following
verses He taught these things to us, and if we've heard Him
and been taught by Him, and that's what Paul said, if you've heard
Christ and been taught by Christ as the truth is in Jesus, look
at the first thing he says. If Christ taught you these things,
the first thing you do is put off concerning the former conversation,
the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust.
Now what does he mean here? Christ teaches us to put off
the old man. What does this mean? If you ever
heard, and I know every one of us has done this at one time
or another, somebody wants something for us, somebody keeps calling
us, asking for something or doing something, you keep saying, well,
and you keep putting them off. You keep putting them off. You
keep putting them off. Say, well, I can't put them off
any longer. That's exactly what he means here. When that old
man comes up, that old man, that old man, he said, put him off.
Put him off. Don't allow him. Put him off. And he says, put him off the
former conversation, the former manner of life. And that's what
the conversation means, that former conversation. And Christ
taught us this, put it off. He ain't nothing to him. He says,
according to your former lifestyle, your way of living. And here's
why we do, because we, he taught us that it was corrupt. Our own
nature's corrupt, that old man's corrupt. What's good about the
old man? What's good about the old nature?
What's good about that person that we was? And he said, he's
corrupt. And he's corrupt according to the deceitful lust. And how
deceitful is lust? How deceitful is desires? And
this word lust means desires. He said, how deceitful is desires? Sin's deceitful. Oh, how deceitful
sin is. That's why he says, be not deceived
by sin. And all sin is deceitful, and
not only is it deceitful, but it hardens. Sin also hardens. And here's what the old corrupt
nature says. If we could just attain certain
things, if we could just accomplish certain things, that would make
us happy. That would make us satisfied.
But oh, and we go after these things. The old man went after
these things. And these lusts and these desires
and these ways to make ourselves happy deceived us. Deceived us! And these desires deceived us
and they never gave us what they promised that they would give
us. And God Himself The only place, the only place, and this
is what Christ taught us, the only place there's any contentment
and peace is in the Lord Jesus Christ himself, is in God himself. Now look over here, you keep
Ephesians four, and look in Romans chapter eight. Paul's talking about the same
thing here in a different way. Romans chapter eight and verse
five. You know, Judas and demons, they minded the flesh. They let
that old corrupt man, they never put him off. Christ never taught
them. And Abraham believed God and he went out. So there was
a difference. You know, Christ taught some,
others they didn't learn. And he said here in Romans chapter
eight and verse five, for they that are after the flesh, that
old corrupt nature, and that flesh means the fallen nature,
do mind the things that give in, they mind it. When the flesh
wants something to do something, you mind it. It says, I want
you to do this. You say, well, okay, I'll do it. But they that
are after the flesh, they do the things of the Spirit. They
mind the things of the Spirit. The Spirit says, this is the
way you do. This is what you act. This is how you react. This
is how you act to things. This is what the Scripture says.
And so you say, you mind it. You listen to the Spirit. For
to be carnally minded, that's death. Death. But to be spiritually
minded, and this is what I'm trying to say, it's life and
peace. And he goes on to say then, so
then they that are in the flesh, that old corrupt nature cannot
please God. It can't do it. And trying to
please God with that corrupt nature, that's why Paul said,
put him off. Don't ignore him, put him off. But you look what
he says, and I love this right here, verse nine. But you are
not in the flesh, but in the spirit. And you notice how that's
capitalized? If so be the Spirit of God dwell
in you. If God, the Spirit of God dwells
in you, and then he goes on to say, now if any man have not
that Spirit, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, he don't have Christ. And that's what Paul's telling
us over here. Now back over here in Ephesians
4.23, look what he says. Put off that old man. Put him
off. I tell you what, I, you know,
That old man, he wants to raise up sometimes, and he wants to
act a certain way, and he wants to say certain things, he wants
to do certain things. You gotta put him off. Gotta put him off. And look what it says, and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind. And what that means is,
in the way you think. Christ has taught us, be renewed
in the spirit of your mind, in the way you think, in the way
you look at things. And what he means is, put the
right estimate on things. And that's what I meant this
morning. Our Lord Jesus Christ, he says, you'll find rest for
your soul. That's what I want. I want that rest for my soul.
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So you put the
right estimate on things. You learn to think, and the way
you think and the way you look at things becomes altogether
different. And that's what Paul's saying. Christ taught you these
things. He taught you that you know your old man's corrupt.
So be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Take a new look at
things. Look at things in the right way. Look at things according
to the scriptures. Look at the things the way Christ
taught us. That's what he's saying here.
And that's the very same thing, you know, when Paul said, I beseech
you, brethren, be not conformed to this world. Don't be conformed
to it, but be renewed. And oh, listen, I tell you what,
and that's what Paul mean. He said, I count all things but
done. All things but done. that I may win Christ, I may
know Christ, I might be found in Christ, and this is the mark
that I'm pressing for. I'm pressing for, and that's
what he means. And he said, we don't look at the things that
are, we look at the things that are not seen. Not the things
that are temple for the things that are seen. That's all they
are is temporary. But we look at the things not
seen because they're eternal. And that's what he's saying here. This is what Christ has taught
us about. And then look what he says about
putting off the old man. He said, that you put on the
new man. Put on that new man. This is
the man you want. This is the man that Christ taught
you about. And you put on that new man and look what he says.
which after God is created. This is a creation here. This
is a creation. When God's talking about creating
something in a man, creating a new man. And that's why, you
know, He shows the difference between the old man and the new
man. And He says, you know, you put on the new man, which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And this is
a creation. God's the only one that can create
anything. He created us new creatures in
Christ. And it's a creation. And I had
an argument with a grace preacher one time. And he says, oh no.
And he says, there's no such thing as this holiness and righteousness
and that, except only in a putrid way. But we're made partakers
of the divine nature. And when he says he makes you
a new creature, create it after God in righteousness. True holiness
and that holiness he's talking about what we have in Christ
And this is this creation is by the power of God. We cannot
create ourselves We can't create any it takes us something to
make some we have to have something to make something God don't have
to have anything to make something and he took Somebody's who are
nothing and made new creatures out of us, and it's a creation
And that's what he said he's teaching us here, and it's by
the power of God It's by the purpose of God and it's by the
promise of God. Look over there in Ephesians
2.10, look what he says. Look what he says. The image of God's restored in
a man is what he's saying. We've been born of that incorruptible
seed. We've been begotten again by
the word of truth. It's a creation. Look what he
said in verse 10. For we are his workmanship. And
look what it says again, created in Christ Jesus unto good works
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
And he's teaching these Gentiles, people just like us. He says,
now listen, this is what Christ has taught you. This is the way
you were and this is what Christ taught you. This is what Christ
taught you. And oh man, look what he says.
And that new man, that new man, that man that God made new, God
created, and only God can create. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, this one thing I know about us as believers, that we
are in agreement with God. We agree with God. And then look
what else he goes on to say. And he says a lot of things here,
and I'm just gonna go over these pretty quick. He said, we're
for putting away lying. Exaggeration, lying, speak every
truth with his neighbor. And your neighbor, because we
are members one of another. So he's talking about people
in the church. Neighbors in the church. People that you're associated
with in the church. People that's members one of
another. Don't lie to one another. Speak the truth every man. Tell
the truth to one another. Be truthful with one another.
Tell the truth to one another. Be honest with one another. And
he said, and then don't be angry if you get angry. And there's
nobody that doesn't get angry. Our Lord got angry. He drove
him out of the temple with a whip one time. He overturned the money
changers and he called them generation of vipers and snakes and how
are you going to escape the damnation of hell? He asked them. He got
angry. But there was no sin in his anger.
And he says, be angry and sin not. Don't let your anger, don't
let your anger make you say things and do things that'll make you
regret and sin and hurt or offend or trouble somebody. Don't use
your anger directed at somebody and use it as a sin in a way.
This tongue, you all know this very well, you know this better
than I do, that he said this tongue is just a little member,
just a little member. But oh, what a world of iniquity
it can set on fire. There's been more hurt done with
the tongue than there's been any other way. With the tongue. I think that's right. And look
what he goes on to say here. And don't let the sun go down
on your wrath. In other words, if you sinned
against somebody and you're angry with them and your anger has
caused you to sin, I said, oh my, don't let the sun go down
with that anger in you. Don't let the sun go down with
you being angry at that some person. Don't let the sun go
down on you and you mad at somebody. Don't let the sun go down on
you and you holding against somebody or being mean towards somebody
or somebody, you've hurt somebody and don't let that sun go down
on you with that anger on you. And then that's what he means,
so neither give place to the devil. Don't let the devil have
any power. Don't let the devil, you know,
don't give place to him, because he's the one trying to do this
thing. And let him that stole, steal no more. But rather let
him labor. Let him labor. You're talking
about people that's been pagans and things, so he's teaching
them here. This is what he's saying. But rather let him labor,
working with his hands. the thing which is good. That's
good to work and labor with your own hands. So that when you do
have something, you have something that you may give to somebody
that has a need. Give to somebody that has a need.
And look what he goes on to say, let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth. Corrupt, Paul said corrupt, corrupt
communications, communications, evil communications, corrupt
good manners. And he said, let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth. Don't use your language, don't
use your mouth, don't let your words be corrupt and filthiness
and things that's not commendable to you. But he said, this is
what ought to come out of your mouth, that which is good to
the use of edifying, establishing, building up, Now listen to this,
that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And what this means
is that if you ain't got nothing good to say, don't say anything.
And if you do say something, let it be to the edifying of
those around you, that it may give grace and be words of grace
and kindness and grace would be manifested to those that are
listening to you. And then he says, and grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, And I tell you, when we grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God, I've been out of pocket a few times
in my life. Of course, I know none of you
ever have. I just, you know. And when the Holy Spirit's grieved,
when the Holy Spirit's grieved, he withdraws his presence. And
instead of it tendering you and helping you and encouraging you,
if he's grieved, He'll leave you alone. You grieve him. You
grieve him by, and we grieve him sometimes by the things we
say, the way we act, and our reaction to things and things
like this. And he says, to grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby
you're sealed unto the day of redemption. And he says, and
this is what Christ told us. Let all bitterness, all bitterness
and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away
from you with all malice. You know, look over, I think
it's in Hebrews. I want to say Hebrews 6. Let me see if that's right. Hebrews 11, I believe. I think that's where it's at.
Let me see. Yes. Yes. Look in Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12
in verse 15, look at this. Look at this, talking about bitterness.
Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God,
lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many
be defiled. I've seen that happen many times
over the years. People left and people leave
and you try to talk to them, you try to deal with them and
you try to, and they just won't be, they just won't listen. They
have that bitterness and they won't let it go. And then he
said back over here in Ephesians 4 and 32, and he said, instead
of being all this way, instead of being this way, all the things
that he's taught us, this is not the way to be. He taught
us these things. And that old man, this is the
way he acts. This is the way that old man is corrupt. He's just corrupt. Communications
are corrupt. And then he says in verse 32,
and be ye kind, be ye kind one to another. Be ye kind. Be ye kind. How kind was our Savior to us?
How kind is the Lord Jesus Christ to us? Be ye kind. Be kind to
who? One another. One another. And then he says, be tender hearted.
Be tender hearted. Oh, for a tender heart. And then
he says, forgiving one another. Forgiving one another. even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Oh my. Look what he goes on to say here.
So therefore, instead of that old man, be ye therefore followers
of God. Follow God as dear children. Dear, dear children of God. Follow
God. Follow God as dear children.
And walk in love. Walk in love. As Christ in all
everything he says says, God for Christ's sake. And walk in
love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for
us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling Savior. Now that's, Paul said, this is
what Christ taught you. This is what you not do. This
is what he said you don't do. This is what you do. You be kind
to one another. And oh, and then he says down
in verse 4 here of chapter 5, he says, neither filthiness,
nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but
rather giving of thanks. Giving of thanks. And I'm going
to do an unusual thing right now. I'm going to do an unusual
thing. I don't want nobody to answer
them, but I'm going to ask 10 questions. and light of everything
that I've said. So I'm going to ask 10 questions.
10 questions. Am I growing in grace? That's the first question. Am
I growing in grace? Am I growing in grace? Is grace
in me? Is grace manifested in me? Does
grace reign in my life? Am I growing in grace? Have I learned to wait upon the
Lord and to rest in Him? Have I learned that? Have I learned
that? Look with me in Psalm 27. Psalm 27. Have I learned to wait on the
Lord and to rest in Him? Psalm 27, 13. Look what he said here. I had
fainted, I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness
of the Lord in the land of the living. Well, what are you going
to do? Wait on the Lord, and he shall
strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Let me show you another in Isaiah
40. You've seen this in many times
in Isaiah 40. We're talking about waiting on
the Lord. Have I learned to wait on the
Lord and rest in Him? Psalm 40 and verse 28. Hast thou not known, hast thou
not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creators of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not? Neither is weary. There's
no searching of his understanding. Listen to this. He giveth power
to the faint. Those that are very, very weak,
don't feel like they can carry on, don't feel like they can
go on. And to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the ewes shall faint and
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up
with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint." Wait on the Lord. Have I learned
to do that? And another question. How do I react to trials and
disappointments? How do I react? What Christ has
taught us. How do I react to trials and
disappointments? And people react differently.
People react differently. Eli was an old, old man. Samuel
had to tell him, said, the Lord's going to kill both your sons,
Phineas and Hophni. Going to kill them. You know
what Samuel said? It is the Lord. Let him do what
seems good. But Demas was just the opposite
of that. He traveled with the apostle
Paul, he traveled with Silas, traveled with Barnabas. He traveled
with apostles, saw miracles worked, heard the gospel preached, traveled
with them. And then Paul said, told him,
said, Demas hath forsaken us, having loved this present evil
world. He got Judas. And when the Lord
took Nadab and Abihu, you know what it says about Aaron? Aaron
held his peace. Aaron held his peace. I run into
an old fellow the other day. I've known him for years and
years. And he's lost over 60 pounds. And he wasn't a big man
to start with. And he's so small now. He got
real, real sick. And we was talking about it.
And he says, boy, said, the Lord puts you in the fire sometimes,
don't he? And I said, he certainly does. And it gets awful hot.
But I said, the Lord, all he ever means is us good. I said,
he does not ever mean us any harm. He said, it's never entered
my mind that this is not from the hand of God. It's never entered
my mind that I'd blame God for anything that's happened to me.
And I mean, he looked like walking death. And I'll tell you something about
trials. Trials don't produce faith. They
reveal it. They just reveal it. And how
do I respond? Here's another question. How
do I respond to correction in teaching? How do I respond to
correction in teaching? If you're being corrected and
you're being taught something that you're wrong about or that
something's wrong, how do you react? and respond to correction
and teaching. This is very important right
here. We was talking about this morning, you know, when you're
talking to somebody and you try and tell them something, they
say, oh, I know, I know, I know. Well, just shut up. If they know,
don't, if they already know, just stop. Just don't even discuss
it. And you try to tell somebody,
say, oh, I know. Nothing else needs to be said. They know.
But how do I respond to correction and teaching? You know how God
corrects us and teaches us? Look in 2 Timothy 3. You know
how God corrects us and teaches us? In 2 Timothy. Look over here
in 2 Timothy 3.16. This is how God corrects us. This is how God teaches us. And sometimes a man has to do
it, sometimes a man has to do it. I've had a couple of preachers,
a couple of older preachers years ago, boy, they didn't have no
problem correcting me. And I'm very, very thankful for
it, very grateful for it. I might have told you one time,
the fellow got on me pretty hard in front of a bunch of other
men, and the fellow asked him, he said, boy, how in the world
do you take that? He done that in front of all these people.
And I said, well, he must really, really love me. Open rebukes
better than secret love. And I said, he must really love
me to want to correct me. And didn't correct nobody else,
just me. Because I was the only one wrong. And that's the way I feel about
it. That's the way I feel about it. If Shirley corrects me, it's
because she loves me. She doesn't want to see me act
a certain way. She doesn't want to see me say a certain thing.
And when we correct, then you know, mothers correct their children.
You know why? Not because they're so bad, but because you love
them and you don't want them to be certain ways. And that's
what God is with us. He teaches us to correct it.
Look what he said here in 2 Timothy 3.16. This is how God corrects
us and teaches us. All scriptures given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction
and instruction in righteousness. And if God's gonna correct us,
he's gonna do it with his word. He's gonna do it with the scriptures.
He's gonna do it that way. And then there's another question.
Here's another question. Do I have the capacity to change
or am I set in my ways? Now I know I'm setting some ways.
I know that I am. There ain't no ifs, ands, or
buts about that. You get a certain age, and around
home and things like that, you get set in your ways. You know,
that's just, that's just the way it is. You want things to
be a certain way at home, you're like, you know, and we're setting
our ways. We just can't help it. Can we,
we just can't help it. You know, you do something the
same way for years and years and years. But we're talking
about spiritual now. We're talking about spiritual
right now. Do I have the capacity, and you know, if there's a growth,
there's a change. Do I have the capacity to change
my way of looking at things, my way of dealing with things,
my way of reacting to things? Or am I setting my ways? I want
you to see something in Psalm 39. Psalm 39. You know, we need revival. Oh,
how we need revival. And the place we need revival,
as the person I say, Lord, when we do, we need revival here at
Lantana Grace Church. We need a stir. We really, really
need a stirring. But I pray that the place that
God starts at, the first place, He starts with me. Stir me. Revive my heart. The psalmist
says, Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. You revive
it. It's your work. Revive it. But look what he said
here in Psalm 39 verse 1. David said, I said, I will take
heed to my ways. I'll take heed to my ways. Just
because they're mine, that don't mean they're right. Just because
they're mine, that don't mean they're good. And that's what
he's saying here. That I sin not with my mouth. Let me ask you another question.
Let me ask you another one. In light of these things that
I've dealt with tonight, the difference to the old man, the
new man, the things that Christ has taught us, is it difficult,
is it difficult to use words like, I'm sorry? Is it difficult
to say, I'm sorry? Use words like, I'm sorry. Is
it difficult to do that? Even between husbands and wives,
is it difficult to say, I'm sorry? I'm going to tell you a true
story. I saw this with my own eyes. I was right there. There was this fellow who was
working. Father-in-law was working with
him. Two or three other people was working. And the boss, the
guy that was all working, the guy that run the place and dealing
with his things, he got on his father-in-law off of him. And
his father-in-law said, well, if I can't do it to suit you,
he said, I'll just go home. He said, that's what you need
to do, just go on home. Talked to him awful bad. And when I
told him right there in front of his father-in-law, I said,
oh, now, you don't need to be doing that. I said, you need
to tell him you're sorry right now. You need to tell him you're
sorry. That's an awful way to talk to
somebody. And his father-in-law was working
hard. And he was just so mean to him. And he was walking off. And I
says, man, if you don't tell him you're sorry. He said, and
this is what he said after he finally left. He said, no, I'm
not going to tell him I'm sorry because I'm not sorry. And you
know what he said? He said, I'm too proud to say I'm sorry. Now you're too proud if you can't
say you're sorry to your wife, your children, to one another. That's awful, ain't it? God help me never be that way. In fact, I probably ought to
say sorry to every one of you right now for all the things
I've done to you over the years. I'm just sorry right now. You
know, I'm sorry for the way I act. I'm sorry for the things I say.
Sorry for the things I've done. Oh, I tell you. And listen, let
me, here's another question. I got to hurry. Do I compliment
or criticize more? Do I compliment more or criticize
more? Do I compliment more or criticize
more? And you know, here's the thing.
You know, people, I heard a fellow say one time, you know, if I
compliment the preacher too much, you'll get the big head. So I
got to help keep him humble. You know, and here's the thing. Believe me, God knows how to
keep a man humble. God knows how to keep a man humble.
He said he'll humble. He'll put you humble. He knows
how to exalt and he knows how to get humble. And then here's
another question. I got to hurry. Can I keep long
friendships? Can I keep long friendships?
Or friendships just in and out of friendships, in and out of
friendships. Can you keep long, long, long friendships? Another
question. Do I find greater satisfaction
in giving or receiving? Do I find greater satisfaction
in giving or receiving? You know what? He says, give
our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, the Lord Jesus said,
it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. And he says,
give and it shall be given unto you. And here's the last two
questions. Has my appetite for the Word
of God increased? Has my appetite for the Word
of God increased? Do I still love God's Word? Is it still food for me? And
the last question. Put off that old man, put on
that new one. Be tender hearted, forgiving
one another, even as Christ has forgiven you. Do I really, really,
Love the Lord and His people. Do it. Do I really love the Lord
and His people? That's the things that Christ
teaches us. You say, why do you ask kind
of prayers? Well, they're good for me. They're good for me. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, We ask for your presence and
I thank you for your word. I ask that you'd bless it to
our good, bless it to our edification, bless it to our spiritual prosperity,
our spiritual health. Lord, we look to you and you
only. We have no one else to turn to.
Lord, we want to honor you. We want to have revival. Lord,
start with me. God, please stir up my heart.
Stir up all of our hearts. enable us to start praying, God,
that you'd cause the church to flourish, cause it to grow, to
increase, enlarge our tents. We ask these things for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen.