Well, so far it's been good.
We ain't got through this yet, but it has been delightful. It
has been delightful. First Thessalonians. First Thessalonians. And I appreciate all the food
that you all have made, and I'm looking forward to eating something
besides pies and cakes. Of course, pies and cakes are good. I'm not finding anything wrong
with them. I like them too, but I like a
little meat and taters every once in a while. You know what
a tater is, don't you? Everybody knows what taters are.
That's what we call them down home. I want to preach this morning,
God willing, on seven attitudes. Seven attitudes. Seven in the
scriptures always speaks of perfection, of completeness. And that's what
it tells us about, perfection and completeness. And as we look
at these seven attitudes today, excuse me, seven aspects of a
believer's relationship with God. All believers have this
kind of relationship with God, seven aspects of it. And though
the things that I'm gonna talk about are not perfect in us,
the one thing we want, we're looking forward to the day when
they will be perfect. They'll all be complete and be
as we would be. And I know that every heaven-born
son of God, every single one of them, has the characteristics
of these seven different attitudes toward God as these Thessalonians
did. And let me show you the very
first one, seven of them now. The very first one is over here
in chapter two in verse 13. I want you to look at this. This
is one thing that every heaven-born son of God does. It says here
in verse 13, chapter two, for this cause also, we thank God
without ceasing. Now listen to this, when you
received the word of God, which you heard of us, you received
it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of
God, which effectually worketh also in you. All believers receive
the word of God. I mean, they receive it. Not
as the word of a man, not as the word of a man, but as it
is in truth, the word of God itself. You see, it's God uses
the word to save his people. You know, there is people that
believe you can be one of God's elect, may not find out till
you get to heaven. But I don't believe that. I believe
that the scriptures teaches us very, very clearly that God uses
his word to save us. And let me show you what I mean.
First of all, you keep Thessalonians, look over in James with me in
chapter one. James chapter one. You know, and it says here it
works affectionately in you. God's word is, I never will forget
one time, and I've probably told you this before, but I don't
remember if I have, but I remember when I met Brother Henry Mahan,
and I was sitting across the desk from him and looking at
him, And I said to him, I said, you
know, I said, I know it's the gospel soaked in our tears. He stuck that big old long finger
across the pulpit and looked me, put it right in my eye, between
my eyes and said, it's just the gospel whether you ever shed
a tear or not. And I said, whoa. And you know, he taught me a
great valuable lesson that day. It's not how we preach the gospel,
it's the gospel itself. It's not how we preach the word,
it's the word itself. God said, my word shall not return
unto me void. It will accomplish that that
I sent it forth to do. And look what is said here in
verse 18 of James chapter one and verse 18. And here's what
we're talking about, of his own will, this shows us the salvations
of the Lord. Begat he us, that word begat
means to give life to. Take a seed and give life to.
With the word of truth. With the word of truth that we
should be a kind of first fruits of his creature. So since he
uses the gospel and uses the word, let everybody be swift
to hear. Listen closely to what's being
said. And oh, listen, slow to speak.
Be very, very careful about what you say, about what you hear.
And especially be slow to wrath if you start getting upset by
what the preacher's saying. And I'll tell you what, and then
he said in verse 21, lay apart all filthiness, sepulchrity,
naughtiness, and receive with meekness, pliability, the engrafted
word which is able to save your souls. And I'll tell you, we
receive the word of God as it is the word of men. And you know,
we receive the love of the truth. The scriptures tells us over
in 1 Peter 1, Peter 123, being born again, being born again. Now that's one thing that has
to happen, something we can't do. We cannot give ourselves
a new birth. And we had as wisdom as passive
in our new birth as we was in our first birth. But being born
again, not of corruptible seed, that's that seed that we have.
There's two seeds, corruptible seed, that's us. That's all we
can produce is corruptible seed. But being born again, not by
corruptible seed, but incorruptible. What is that incorruptible seed?
The Word of God. How long does it last? It liveth
and abideth forever. And it's by the Word that the
gospel is preached unto you. And I said, we received the word
in much affliction. What that means is that you prayed,
they said, God takes his word and he plows with that word.
He said, it's like a hammer, it'll break. He's like, it's
fire, it'll burn. And I tell you, God's word will
accomplish what he sends it to see. And you know something,
here's another thing about God's people. They receive the love
of the truth. It's not just receive the truth,
but the love of the truth. Turn over to 2 Thessalonians
with me. Over here in chapter two. You know, we receive the
love of the truth. I mean, I don't know how many
times people have told me, and I tell people, I actually love,
love the word of God. I love the gospel. I love the
truth. I mean, I love it. I got to have
it. I cannot live without it. And
that's what I'm talking about here, but there's a difference
between the religion, false religion and true religion, and it's right
here. He said in verse 10, 2 Thessalonians, and with all deceivableness and
unrighteousness in them that perish. Now listen to this, because
they received not the love of the truth. It didn't say they
didn't receive the truth, that they didn't receive the love
of the truth. And when you receive the love
of the truth, I mean, you come because that's what you got to
have. I mean, you actually love it. And you know, we love it
so much that we will not go and hear anything or anybody else
say anything else. We will not. You know Wayne said
he's not never going to another funeral where a sovereign grace
preachers not preaching him I started that years and years ago because
I happened to go to a funeral and I tell you what and I didn't
preach it and it was awful. It was awful. I felt this is
the awfulest thing. I don't want to hear this man
lie. I don't want to hear this man deceive people, and I tell
you, I said, I'll never set foot, I don't care who it is, I'm not
gonna go and hear another man say anything against God or Christ
or preach the free will of man. Not gonna do it. I'm not gonna
go and hear anybody else preached into heaven who died like a rebel,
died a rebel without God and without Christ. And he says,
they didn't receive the love of the truth. And listen to this,
that they might be saved. What saves you? God's truth,
God's word. And listen to this now. You think
God's love, he gotta give everybody a chance. Well, let's listen
to this, what he says. And because they receive not the love of
the truth, God said, I'm gonna send them a strong delusion.
They wanna believe a lie? They want to be damned. They
don't want God's sovereignty. They don't want God's electing
grace. They don't want to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. They
don't want to take Christ as he is, sitting on his throne
with all his power and all of his glory and all of his might.
They want to stand and judge God themselves and say, that's
not fair, that's not right, that's not just. Man with his puny little
brain wants to set in judgment on God and tell what he can and
cannot do. And for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion. Listen to this. Go ahead and
believe your lie. Go ahead and believe it. And
what's gonna happen to them? That they all might be damned
who believe not the truth. Now, I tell you, that's what
I'm talking about. That's one attitude we got. We love the
truth, we receive the truth, we delight in the truth. Oh,
I heard old Ralph Barnard say one time, he said, if there's
truth to be found in America, I'm gonna find the fellows that
sinned, and when I get there, I'm gonna sit down and listen
to what he's got to say. And I'll tell you, beloved, you
know, you remember when Simon fished all night long,
And the Lord Jesus got in the boat with him that morning. And
he says, now, told Peter, said, take your boat, go out there
and launch out into the deep. Let down your net. And Simon
Peter, oh, he said, Lord, he said, listen, I know preaching. Excuse me, I know fishing. I
know how to fish. That's all I've ever done is
fish. And we didn't catch a thing in the world, Nevertheless, nevertheless,
at your word. He let it down and he couldn't
get all the fish in the boat to the car. And you know what
he said? Because he questioned the Lord, told the Lord what
he could do and what he had done. He said, oh Lord, depart from
me. I'm such a sinful man. Oh my. And so we received the love of
the truth. Now look back over here at 1 Thessalonians 1. Here's
another attitude that we have. Here's the second one. In verse
nine, 1 Thessalonians 1, for they themselves show of us what
mannering in, entering in we had unto you, and listen to this,
and how you turn to God from idols. You know, when you hear
the truth, you see the love of the truth, you know what you
do? You turn to God. Now let me say something right
here. The new birth, we're absolutely passive in the new birth. I did
not choose my mother. I did not choose my father. I
didn't choose how tall I'd be. I didn't choose how much hair
I'd have. I didn't choose the color of eyes I'd have. I did
not choose anything about my, what I would be. I had nothing,
absolutely nothing to do with it. And that's the way it is
in the new birth. God comes and he creates in us,
he plants that seed in us. The word of God, the gospel,
he plants a seed in our hearts. Now when that seed germinates,
when that seed comes to fruition, and that's what converts, the
difference between the new birth and conversion is this. The new
birth, we're completely passive in it. And then when we have
that new birth and we hear the gospel, the next thing we do,
and this is conversion, we turn to God. We ain't got no place
else to go. We turned to God. Where else
we gonna go? We got hurt, we're depraved,
we're helpless, we're hopeless, we can't do anything. The new
birth didn't come by our work, and so we turned to God. We began
to, like a baby, when it comes out, his mama will cry. We start
crying out, we turn to God. Oh, and what do we turn from?
We turn from our idols. Well, I never had an idol. If
you didn't, you're the first person ever born without one.
What's some of your idols that you have? Oh, I'm really worth
something. It's like one mother told her
son, said, well, son, I know you're a good boy. Said, you've
been a Boy Scout. So what, what's that got to do
with the price of tea in China? But I tell you, see, idols of
their own making. I'm worth something, I'm somebody. And that's all they want now,
you know. Listen, you're somebody, that's what preachers gotta tell
everybody, you're something special. You know that, you really are
special. What makes you special? Huh? That's what people want to do.
Well, preachers, you're such good. Listen, I'm just telling
you what preachers are telling folks. And then, you know, there's
this old morality. Everybody thinks it's called
immoral. And doing the best I can. One man said one time, got up
and said, I've believed the Bible all my life. And I immediately
said, well, he's believed it way, way, way too long. I never even owned a Bible till
I was 21 years old. I had a New Testament gift to
me when I was about six or seven in a Southern Baptist church.
I never even owned a Bible till I was 21 years old. And I went
and bought it, and the more I read it, the more trouble I got into.
And I couldn't do a thing in the world about it. And I was,
you know, and not listen. And then there are those who
trust in themselves that they're more righteous than others. But
I tell you what, the living God, they turn from their idols to
the living God. Oh, we turn from our idols of
free will, turn from our idols of traditions. You know, we had
so many traditions down home. Oh my goodness, when I first
got down there, of course, I was just as much, I was guilty and
I promoted that stuff as much as anybody, anybody. But I tell you, the living God
takes the place of self. The living God takes the place
of idols. The living God takes the place
of our traditions and our false beliefs. And I tell you, our
Lord said, a man cannot serve two masters. You know, most folks
have, listen, you know what? Most people have just enough
religion to make them miserable. They got too much world in them
that they can't enjoy the gospel. And they got just enough religion
in them that they can't enjoy the world. And so they're caught
between these two worlds. And that's why they show up every
once in a while and act like, boy, this is the greatest thing
since I ever heard. Then you won't see them again for three
or four months. How do you explain that? They
got just enough religion. When they come in, they say,
oh, boy, But I tell you what, when you
turn to God, the living God, and I tell you that's what we
do. We turn from our idols. I never will forget when I first
learned the gospel. I further learned the gospel.
We had so many idols to tear down, so many false things to
get rid of, and I never will forget it. For two years, for
two years, where I started with preaching where I am, been there
42 years now, all I preached on is how in the world, how in
the world can God, who is a just God, have anything to do with
a bunch of ungodly sinners like us? who lived by our own righteousness,
lived by our own works, lived by our own deeds, lived by our
profession, lived by our praying, lived by our giving, lived by
everything we did but Christ. And I tell you, if you know people
get on the altars, they'd get up just to squall and everybody
say, oh boy, they got saved, they got a good dose of it. That's
all they got, it's like getting a dose of medicine. Oh, my, it's pitiful, ain't it?
But when God comes with that gospel, comes with that power
and that word of truth, there's nothing a man can do but turn
to God. Oh, God, I need you. Oh, God,
I got to have you. Oh, God, forgive me. Oh, we turn
to him. And then look here in verse one
of 1 Thessalonians 1. Here's the third thing. We dwell
in God. When you turn to God, you start
dwelling in, we dwell in God. He said here in verse one, Paul
and Silvanus, that word Silvanus is the third word is Silas over
in the book of Acts, and Timotheus under the church of the Thessalonians,
which is in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know where we live now, where our dwelling place is? Ah, what
a wonderful place to live. You know, the safest place to
hide from God, you know where it's at? In God. Oh, this is our refuge. This
is our resting place. Oh my, we come, we dwell, and
then, you know what I said last night, that Christ in you is
the hope of glory. And here we are, we dwell in
the Father, and we dwell in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said,
you know, you abide in me, and I'll abide in you. And so we
dwell, we live in God the Father. I mean, that's where we live
at. And when you receive the word
of truth, Turn from idols to the living God. Oh my, so we're
in God and we're in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we got
a two-fisted salvation. Now what do I mean by that? Our
Lord Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life and no man
shall pluck me out of them hands. And then he said, and nobody
is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands. Now, how can
you be more safer than in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ
and in the hands of God the Father? And that's what he's telling
us right now. Who's gonna open them hands of God? Huh? Who's gonna do that? And that's
what he's talking about. We're in God and we're in Christ.
Our Lord said this, he said, without me, you can do a few
things. Without me, you might be able
to You know, make a profession. But he said, without me, you
can't do nothing. Can't do nothing. He said, I'm
the vine. You know what you are? You know,
I'm the vine. I'm the one that's got all the
life. I'm the vine. You know what you are? You're
just branches. You're just branches, so if you're gonna have any life,
if you have anything, you got to dwell in me and I've got to
give you the life for myself. And that's what he's talking
about. We dwell in God, we dwell in Christ and our life comes
from him. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower and the righteous run into it and are saved. Colossians
3.3 says, when Christ who is our life shall appear. People say, you need to make
Christ the first in your life. You need to make Christ the priority
in your life. Christ is our life. He don't come first. He is our
life. He is. I'm not, you know, we
don't put Him first. No, no, no, no, no, no. He is
our life. We have no life apart from Him. He is our strength. Our Lord
Jesus says, my strength is made perfect in your weakness. The
weaker we are, the more perfect his strength is. Oh my, bless
his name. I have no strength but what Christ
gives me. I have no ability but what Christ
gives me. I don't know nothing but what Christ taught me. I
can't do nothing without him. I don't wanna do nothing without
him. Oh, we're satisfied in our dwelling place. And I tell you
this, I don't want one hair of my head to be outside of God
and Christ. Not one hair of my head. I like old Scott Richardson, you
say, I quote him all the time. He says, if there's a square
foot on this earth that God does not control, I don't want to
stand there. Huh? If there's one, if there's
a foot on this earth, a square foot on this earth that God does
not control and God does not own, I don't want to stand there.
Do you? And I, you know, oh, I'll tell
you, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. Are you satisfied
with God, satisfied with Christ, satisfied with the word? Oh,
I say, there's nothing like it. When this year's stupid pandemic
that had everybody in an absolute uproar, scared to death, you
know, to venture out of their houses and everything else, you
know, when everybody got upset about that, and the government
tried to control us with it, and I hope I'm not overstepping
my bounds, but it never bothered me. But I tell you what, I preached
one service from home, and then I went to church and I preached
a service from the pulpit, and then the third Sunday, I got
up, people started coming in. He said, I can't stand this.
I got to come and worship. I can't live like this. I got to come and be in a service.
That'd be like your wife fixing you a supper and say, well, listen,
I'll put it on the internet and I'll look at it. I can't eat it, but I can look
at it. You know, that's what it is, you know. Listen, you
can't eat until you sit to the table. Ain't that right? You know, people just, you know. I'm not the smartest fella to
ever live, but I got six of them know that. But that's the truth. You know that just as well as
I do. And, oh, listen. Oh boy. But we, I am satisfied
with God in Christ. And if God don't save me and
God don't keep me, there ain't nothing in the world that's going
to keep, you know, there is, God's the first cause of everything.
Now I don't know what second cause he's going to use to take
me out of this world. And I really don't care. But
he's going to use a second cause. It may be cancer. It may be a
heart attack. It may be old age. It may be
dementia. I don't know what it'll be and
I truly, truly don't care. Cause he's God and he's gonna
do right by me all, every day of my life he has and he will
right to the very end. And that's what I mean I'm satisfied
with him. And he's the first cause of everything
so why in the world do people get upset that things happen
in this world when God controls it all? He controls every germ. And there ain't no germ gonna
get you until God wills it to get you. Ain't nothing gonna
bother you, not a hair on your head. He said, I number the hairs
of your head. I know the numbers of the hair
on your head. And if he counts the hairs on our head, you think
he gonna let something bother you and hurt you that he doesn't
think necessary for you? Listen, we just, we're gonna
sit and wait on God and whatever he does is gonna be just exactly
right. If he sends a germ along, if he sends some bug along and
I take that bug in my body, the next thing my body is just decimated,
that's just the way he's gonna take me out. Huh? Oh boy. Well, I think I, I hope,
you know, hope I didn't upset anybody. I didn't mean to, but
I, you know, just, it just is what, I'm like old Popeye. I
am what I am, it can't be no yammer. Oh, let me give you another one
here, back there in verse nine. Here's the fourth one. And you turn to God from idols,
and listen to this, to serve the living and true God. Serve
the living and true God. Now, what do I mean by serving?
You know, a son, his father tells him, son, I want you to go do
this. I want you to go do that. Yes, I'll go. I'll do it. A husband provides a home for
his wife. Provides her clothes and provides
her all the things that's necessary for her in this life. Provides
her with love. And a wife provides for her husband.
Cooks meals for him, takes care of his clothes, keeps his house
clean, keeps all the things necessary that's be done. But you know
the best master in this world and in this universe is the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. What a blessed master we have.
What a blessed master. You know, when a man had a servant, and
after that servant served him, he says, now you can go free.
And if that man didn't wanna go free, if he loved his master,
they'd take him to a doorpost like that right over there, and
they'd take an awl and stick it in his ear and drill a hole
in his ear. And by doing that, he said, I love my master. And
I don't want to go out free. And we love our master and then
our master set us free. And I'll tell you what, you know
what he set us free to do? To pray. You know, coming here to hear the
gospel. We come here to be with the presence of our master. That's
what we're talking about. We're free to serve. And I'll
tell you what, We're gladly, joyfully, thankfully, we're free
to pray. We're free to witness. We're
free to give. We're free to labor in the gospel.
We're free to serve one another, love one another. And I tell
you what, God set us free from selfishness and self-centeredness. I think that's one of the most
awful things in the world is somebody to be self-centered
and everything revolves around them. I do think that's one of
the most awful things in the world. And that's why Paul said,
I beseech you by the mercies of God. Present yourself to who? To God. Huh? Oh my. You know, and when we
talk about serving, when you go to a restaurant or something
like that and the waitress comes, she's there to serve you. And
you're grateful to her, you thank her, and they bring you what
you asked for. And that's what we're talking
about. You know how the best in the world we serve the Lord
Jesus Christ? Serving one another, waiting
on one another, taking care of one another, watching out for
one another, praying for one another, loving one another. That's how we do it. And let
me show you something. The Thessalonians are a pattern
for us in the character of their service. Let me show you what
their service was. Look here in verse three. This is how they
served the Lord. It's what we're talking about,
serving the Lord. Remembered without cease. Here's the first
thing. Their work was a work of faith. They believed God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Faith worketh by love. Here's
the second thing. It was a labor of love. You do what you do because you
love. You know why you put a meal on
the table? Because you love. And you know if your wife says,
what do you like the best? What's your favorite food? You
know what they're going to do? They're going to put the favorite
food on the table. Why? Because they love you. They
want to take care of you. You know why people open their
homes? Because they love you. And I'll tell you what, it was
a labor of love. It's not wealth. Oh my, I got
to go to church this morning. Oh, we got to go to church again.
Oh, I hope it don't last long. You know, it's just, but that's
no, we're here because we love. We want to be here. We love to
be here. I love to preach. I'm laboring
right now. I'm laboring to preach, but it's not a labor to me. It's
not a hard thing for me. It's a labor of love. I love
you. I love the gospel. I love my master. And this is
one of the most blessed things in the world, no matter where
you go to preach. And I've preached in a lot of
places and in a lot of congregations, but here's the thing about it.
Every place I go, I feel like I'm at home. You know why I feel
like I'm at home? Because I'm with brothers and
sisters, the same people that I am when I'm at home. And you
know what I know? You're here because you love
Christ and you love the gospel, and I'm here because I love Christ
and I love the gospel. That's why it's called a labor
of love. If you love something, it ain't hard work, is it? And then look at here. And then
the third thing is this. It was impatience of hope. Patience of hope. Oh my. You know what hope is? Hope looks
always to the future. And I believe if you was to go
through the scriptures and look at this word hope, It always
has to do with the future and the resurrection of the Lord's
people. I believe that's right. Because
where is our expectation of hope at? First of all, it's in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, patience of hope in
our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, listen. And look what he
goes on to say. And here's the third thing was,
it was in the sight of God. Everything we do is in the sight
of God. We're justified in the sight
of God. We're accepted in the sight of
God. And I tell you what, our labor
of love, our work of faith, our patience of hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ, all of us in the sight of God. And when we talk
about our service, you know what our service is? Let me tell you
what our service is. Down home, you know, if anybody
was working on a job or something like that, when the boss left,
take their old white buckets, you know. Have you ever seen
these old white five-gallon buckets, you know? They'd take their five-gallon
bucket, turn it upside down, sit down until the boss got back.
That's called eye service. Then the boss come back, they
turn their bucket back up, they go right back to work, you know.
They hear his truck coming. That's eye service. And that's
what a lot of folks like to do. They'll see me there, they'll
pay attention to me. Oh no, we ain't gonna do our
service. No, no, we're in the sight of
God. We're not gonna do our service. And oh my, one is our master. One is our master. And it's him
that we live to honor and glorify and please in this world. And
then look in verse 10. Here's the fifth attitude. And to wait for his son from
heaven, we're waiting for the son of God, whom he raised from
the dead, even Jesus Christ, which delivered us from the wrath
to come. We're waiting for his son from
heaven. You know, there's a lot of people,
you know, been in the military the last few years and they get
to come home. Every once in a while, they'll
get to come home. And they'll be, they'll tell
them, said, I'll be home at such and such a day, at such and such
a time. And so they, they're, this, you
know, they say, daddy's, this mother says to the children,
said, daddy's coming home. And they believe what their mama
said. They believe what their daddy said. He's going to be
there at such and such a time. You know what the kids do? They run up and get
on the back of the couch and look out the window. You know,
that's what faith does, they believe, but hope looks out the
window, waiting. And that's what we're doing,
we're waiting. He said, I'm coming again. So we're looking, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. What are we looking
for? We're looking for the appearing of our great God and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Every once in a while, he'll
say, well, I'm gonna get that one and bring it home. I'm gonna
get that one and bring him home. You know, our Lord Jesus said
it like this. He said he'd come again, that
he's gonna come to get us. He said, in my father's house.
No, he said, if you believe God, believe me also. For in my father's
house, lots of mansions, many mansions. One house, many mansions
in that house. Just one house, but a lot of
mansions in it. And our Lord said, and I go to prepare a place
for you. And he went to that cross to
prepare us that place. And he said, if I go and prepare
a place for you, you know what he said? I'll come again. What
are you coming for Lord? To get you. To get you and take you to be
with me where I am. That's what he told that thief
on the cross. He says today, Today, thou shalt be with me
in paradise. Oh my, we're looking, I'm looking. I'm looking all the time. Every
once in a while, I think, boy, Lord, it'd be wonderful if you'd
come get us all at one time. Wouldn't that be the most wonderful
thing in the world? God said it like this. He says, you know,
when the Lord Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with a shout. And the last trump shall sound.
The dead in Christ shall rise first. Graves are gonna open. People's gonna come up out of
the ocean. All those people burned at the stakes gonna be put back
together. All the people's turned to dust
from ages gonna be put back together. And then when the dead in Christ
shall rise, graves gonna open everywhere. and then we, which
are alive and remain, shall be changed in a moment in the twinkling
of an eye, and we'll rise up to meet him in the clouds, and
so shall we ever be with the Lord. And you know what he said
at the end of that? Comfort one another with these
words. That's comforting words, ain't
it? Oh my, when they, you know, Brother
Henry Mahan, bless his heart, he prayed every night for years,
Lord, let me go home tonight, let me go home tonight. And before
he, Scott, when he said, he told me, he said, I prayed every night
for me and Scott, Lord, take us home, take us home, take us
home. And when I heard that the Lord took him home, you know
what I did? I said, oh, thank you, Lord. Blessed be your name. That man is rested from his labors. His works has gone before him,
after him. His works has gone after him.
And now he's in the, he's now where he's been praying to be
for decades. Oh my. He waited and waited and
waited and waited and waited. He couldn't hear nothing. If
you talk to him, you had the right to him. But I tell you
one thing he's got right now, he's got perfect hearing. Huh? Oh, that's the most blessed
thing in the world God can do for you, is to take you from
this world to the next. Huh? You know, I don't know how
some of you all raised, I was raised pretty poor. You know,
I went to school, when I was a freshman in high school, I
had to wear used clothes and I had shoes that didn't, the
bottom was wore out on the bottom of them that they give to me
and I'd have to put, they had old milk cartons, you know, used
to be, milk cartons used to come in half gallons and I'd cut,
you know, we'd cut big pieces out of them milk cartons and
stick them down in those holes so, you know, that I wouldn't,
my feet wouldn't be on the ground. And, you know, at Christmas time,
you didn't get nothing else but just a suit of clothes is what
you got. And I tell you what, And you live in these old shacks,
you know, where my wife was raised. You know, you'd wake up in the
morning, and snow would be on your blanket. Them old cracks
in them old log houses and stuff, put tar around it, tar paper
around it. Be cold. Oh, my goodness, it'd be so cold.
And I was eating one time. I went to these people's houses
to eat with them one time, and they had fried rabbit, fried
potatoes, and eggs. And she put them on the plate,
and the lard turned white, cold, before she handed it to me right
off the skillet, off a wood stove. Now, who in the world wants to
live like that? Who wants to live in an old,
sorry shack? And that's why we're living in
an old, sorry shack. The wind blows through it, it
gets cold, it gets hot, it gets cold. The summer gets hot and
the winter gets cold. Who wants to live in an old sorry
shack with tar paper around it? Lord, tear it down, give me that
new one. Oh my. You see, we live and we do and
we act as if our hour is always at hand. David said, my expectation
is from the Lord. And you're talking about a future.
People say, oh boy, I've got the wonderful future. I've got
the most glorious future. We've got the most glorious future.
You know, we've read the back of the book. We've read, you
know, we've read what the ending's going to be. Our Lord told us
what the end of this thing's going to be. Now most folks,
you know, they want to wait to get to the end to find out what
the thing's going to happen. But we know exactly what's going
to happen when it gets to the end. Oh, what a future we have. What glory we have to look forward
to. We're waiting. He said they wait
patiently. We're waiting. He'll come. We're waiting. He'll call us.
We're waiting. He'll receive us. And he'll take
us where he is that we could be with him. Oh my. Oh, what a blessed hope. Well,
let me show you the sixth one here right quick. I hope I'm
not taking too long. Look over here in chapter four
in verse nine. Here's the sixth attitude that
believers have. Learning of God. Look what he
said here in verse nine. But as touching brotherly love,
ye need not that I write unto you. Now listen to this. For
you yourselves are taught of God. God teaches you something. You know, our Lord said it like
this. He says, no man can come unto the Father, but by me. And
everyone that hath heard and learned of the Father, "'cause
it is written, they shall all be taught of God, "'and everyone
that hath heard and learned of the Father "'shall come unto
me. "'And all thy children shall be taught of God, "'and great
shall be their peace.'" And I tell you to be taught of God. You
know, John said it like this. He said, no man needs to teach
you. The same anointing that you have, it'll teach you. Just
like what I'm saying today. I'm not saying anything that
you haven't heard time and time and time again. I'm not. But
here's the thing about it. You couldn't understand what
I'm saying. You couldn't grasp what I'm saying.
You couldn't enjoy what I'm saying. You couldn't rejoice in what
I'm saying unless you'd already hadn't already been taught of
God. Ain't that right? God's already taught you. But
let me tell you something else. There ain't no graduates from
this school that God put you in. You know, there ain't no graduates. These guys get these doctor of
divinity degrees and master of divinity degrees and all that. Can you imagine somebody saying,
you know, I'm a master of divinity. I'm a master of the Bible. I'm
a doctor of divinity. Can you imagine somebody's, oh
my. Doctor of divinity. Doctor of
divine things. Master of divine things. Oh my. I'd be, I'd be embarrassed. I'd be embarrassed to get up
and say such a thing. Oh, no graduates from this school. We're always learning. Always
learning. And you know, most of the time
we have to learn the same lessons over and over and over again. I've been in this school now
for 43, 44 years, something like that. Maybe 45, I don't know. But it's been a while. And about
the time I think I learned something, I find out, buddy, I got to start
all over again. It's just like you start back
in the first grade, you go, you get about this far up and then
down you go. You gotta just learn over and
over and over again, don't you? Have to learn the same lessons.
Learn to be quiet. Then we'll hear somebody say,
study to be quiet. Say, oh Lord, I need to learn
that lesson. You'll learn it for about a month
or so and then you'll do it again. Be kind one to another. Will
you please quit saying that to me? We have to learn the same
lessons over and over and over. We have to learn the same lessons
over and over and over. And you know where we get the
best lessons taught at? Sitting at the feet of Christ,
like we are right now, sitting learning from the feet of Christ
right now. Oh, Mary, Martha said, Lord,
I'm over here working. I'm fixing supper and I'm washing
the dishes and all that. And Mary's sitting there doing
nothing. He said, Martha, Martha, Martha, you're worrying yourself
to death about a lot of things. You leave Mary alone. She's chosen
that good part. You just let her go. You go on
and do your business. I'm not going to fix and tell her to
get up. And I tell you what, that's what the way, We get cumbered
about a lot of things, but boys, you sit down at the feet of Christ
and say, oh Lord, Lord, teach me, teach me. And I've often said this. I said, Lord, take me like I'm
a glass or a cup and break me, break me into, shatter me into
pieces and put me back together and make me a vessel that you
can use. I feel like I never learned nothing. But you know what the chief lesson
he tells us here to learn? Verse nine, but as touching brotherly
love, you need not that I write unto you, yourselves also are
taught of God. What are we taught? To love one
another. To love one another and do it
more and more and more and more. The chief lesson is to love one
another. Our Lord said, take my yoke upon
me. Take my yoke and learn of me. My yoke is easy
and my burdens light. And he said, take it. You know,
we're joined to him. yoked to him. You ever seen things
yoked together? They take mules, you know, put
the collars on them, pull them together and horses and pull
them together. And then they used to put yoke on oxen out
of wood. And I had a calf one time, had to cut me a yoke out
and put it around him to make him stay in the field because
he was out all the time. I put a yoke on him, he couldn't
go nowhere. And our Lord said, and that made it hard on him,
but our Lord said, take my yoke. I'll be over here and you'll
be right there. and you'll be yoked to me, and
my yoke is so easy. My burden is so light, and it
is, ain't it? Oh, it's so light. Religion makes
you burden heavy, don't it? Legalism makes you burden heavy. Works religion makes you burden
heavy, but Christ makes it light, light. All right, here's my last
lesson. My last lesson, chapter two,
verse 12. Well, I'm in the wrong one. I'm over 2 Thessalonians 2.12.
Is that what I said here? Yeah. That you would walk worthy of
God who has called you into his kingdom and to his glory. Walk
worthy of God. Now what does it mean to walk
worthy of God? It's to walk like God is your
master. That God is your Lord. God is
your God. And you know Enoch walked with
God. Let me tell you something about Enoch. Enoch lived to be,
he walked with God 300 years. And here's the thing about it.
He no doubt had a job. I'm not gonna tell how many kids
he had. He didn't have electric lights.
He didn't have a car. He didn't have air conditioning.
He didn't have anything we had. He couldn't go to the grocery
store. But the scripture said Enoch walked with God. How did
he do it? By faith. Look into God, believe
in God. And oh, what a blessed, blessed
occupation to do. Walk as becoming sons of God. I'm a son of God. I'm gonna carry
myself like a son of God. I'm gonna carry myself like somebody
that belongs to God. And you know what it means is
to walk in love. What it means to walk in His
fullness, walk in His power. And you know, and we believe
in God's absolute sovereignty, absolutely so. Everything in
this world, as far as I'm concerned, is predestinated. I mean, the
amount of breath that I've got, the times I blink my eyes, how
many hours I'll sleep, and how many motes are in the air right
here this moment. God put them all there. And so we'll say that, and yet
people will murmur, people will be discontent, and they complain,
and they'll be stingy, and they'll dispute among themselves, And
they'll be envious of one another and hold grudges. These things
are not worthy of God. No, no. Don't ever burn any bridges. If there's something that's ever
happened between you and anybody or anybody's ever left anything,
don't burn any bridges. Don't burn any bridges. Somebody
may want to come back, cross that thing with you, be with
you again. Don't burn any bridges. And it's so unbecoming. So unbecoming
people that walk with God, talk about murmuring, complaining,
being discontent, oh, listen, arguing, disputing, holding grudges. I don't believe, I do not believe,
I do not believe with all my heart that a child of God cannot
hold a grudge. I just don't believe they can
do it. I just don't believe they can do it. They would worry them
to death. I offended a man one time and
got home and he just, oh my goodness. And I offended him publicly and
I apologized to him publicly. I heard his feelings publicly
and I apologized publicly. I've had to ask my own children
to forgive me for the way I acted towards them sometimes. or the
way I acted in front of somebody else. And whatever you do, do
not never, I'm gonna give you a little advice here. Whatever
you do, do not never talk about the preacher in a negative way
to anybody, anytime. Don't do that. Because all you
got to do is say something negative about your dear pastor here.
And next thing you know, somebody will say, well, I can't hardly
believe it. Then they won't come and listen
to him because you said something about him. Negative. Don't do
it. Don't do it. If you got anything
to say about him, say, boy, I'll tell you what, I love him. I
love him. I love what he has to say. I
love his attitude. I love his nature. You know,
that's the thing to do. There's some folks that left
our place for 36 or 37 years, and they showed back up here
about three months ago. They're old now. Old. And the first thing he told me
when he come back, he said, I'm so sorry that I left. He said,
I should have never, never left. And he said, now they tell me
every time they come, we're so thankful that you let us come.
Like it's up to me whether they come or not. 37 years they were
gone. Oh, boy. Don't, you know, that old saying,
you know, if you can't say something good, just keep your mouth shut.
That's a true saying. And I'll tell you something else,
and I'm done. I only believe half. of what you
hear and don't believe nothing you
hear and only believe half of what you see because it may not
be as it seems to you when you actually found out what's going
on. You know, you see somebody get out and go into some place
and you say, oh my goodness, he's going into a honky tonk.
He may not be, he may be going in there some place to Do something,
use the bathroom or something, you don't know until you run
out and say, I seen him going in that bar. And then you go
tell somebody that, and he just went in there to go to the bathroom.
Get him a Coke or something. And so you'll make that fella
out to be just, boy, I can't believe he is going in there.
So I mean, just don't believe anything you hear, and certainly
just believe half of what you see with your eyes, because it
may not be that way at all. Ain't that right? Am I telling
you the truth? I tell you, the Lord is good.
Oh, so gracious. I love you. I know your preacher
does. I know your preacher does. God
bless you.