It is a great blessing of mine
to be able to count Brother Mike Walker as one of my friends. I just, I'm so thankful for Mike,
for his friendship. Mike and Sandy are just very
dear to us, and we're so glad that you're here this evening.
Mike is the pastor of Millsite Baptist Church in Cottageville,
West Virginia. And one year ago, today, I had
asked Mike to come and preach at our New Year's Eve service.
And the Lord sent us a good deal of snow, and he just couldn't
get off that hill he lives on and even get here, so we canceled. But undeterred, I planned again
this year, and the Lord sent us some rain, but Mike was still
able to come. We're very thankful. So Mike,
you come and preach the message that God's laid on your heart. What a joy to be here. Say I do appreciate your pastor.
His wife and it was. Such an encouragement this evening
we got to go out and eat just for a few minutes and you know
those are just precious time. And this is precious time. I've
heard I don't know several people say that I can't think of a better
way to close out the year. And to begin a new year. You
know, I'm excited about what our Lord is doing. Not what he's
going to do, but what he's doing right now. And I know what he's
doing. He's bringing all glory to his
name. He's going to exalt his son and
he's going to save every one of his people in his own time. Turn back in your Bible to Philippians
3, which your pastor read. I want to primarily be looking
in verses 12 through 13, but look in some other passages,
but this will mean we'll get our main thought. Paul said,
not as though I had already attained, either were they already perfect,
but I follow after it that I may apprehend that for which I also
am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended. But just one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind and reaching forth into those
things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. This time of year
and probably over the next couple of weeks, you'll hear a lot of
people saying they're going to make their New Year's resolutions.
Most of the time, all that is is someone, they really probably
are sincere, and they're going to lean upon the arm of the flesh
and think that if they will something strong enough, it can make it
happen. And it doesn't ever work. And then they get defeated and
things just end up like they started, probably maybe even
worse. But as I thought about this passage, here the Apostle
Paul, God saved this man and made an example out of him. This
man was very, very religious as we just read in the first
part of this chapter. He was very zealous for his religion. As I was sitting there listening
to your pastor, you know what I thought about? I can see Paul
making his New Year's resolutions in religion. I'm going to be
a better Pharisee. I'm going to do more. I'm going to study
the scriptures more. I'm going to do all the... because that's
what he did. But why did he do those things? He had a zeal of
God, but it was not according to knowledge. But when God showed
this man mercy, it was a drastic change. He gives him a new heart
and a new desire, and now he has a new motive, and he still,
now he has zeal, and it's according to knowledge. As we see there
in verse 14, he says, I pressed toward the mark. He said, I've
not arrived, I've not attained. And as children of God, as I
thought about this, and I want to honor our Lord, but I thought,
you know, we ought to have some goals. Something that we strive
for and that we look for, Paul said, I press toward the mark.
There's the mark we know is Christ, but I just noticed today as I
read this passage, how many things that he mentions just in these
verses. that he was pressing toward what was his goal. What
is his goals now? We know what his goals were when
he was in religion, but what about now? First one he said
in verse 8, that I may win Christ. Now, that's a goal. That I may
win Christ. He's the prize. He said it's
like a man running a race. Well, what's the prize? It's
Christ. We know we don't earn it, but
he said that I may win Christ. And then the second one, verse
9, and be found in him. Well, that's a goal. We don't
know when we're going to leave this world. And when we leave,
I want to know that I'm found in Christ. Peter said, make your
calling and election sure. Our hearts are so deceitful.
He said, this is my goal. I want to be found in Christ.
Then verse 10, that I may know him. Not just know about him,
but to know him. If I don't know him, I want to
know him. And we know only God can give that desire. And it's
a desire. It's an ambition. Then he says in verse 12, that
I follow after it that I may apprehend. What's he, something
out there, he, God laid hold of this man for a reason. And
he says, I want to find out what that is and I want to lay hold
of it. And it was like, it was always
just out of his reach. In verse 13, another thing that
he did, he said, forgetting those things which are behind. You
know, it's hard for us to forget those things. We make so many
mistakes. You know, as I thought about
that, you think about David, the horrible sin he committed.
You will never forget it. Not in this life, because I know
how the flesh is. But we strive to try to forget
it. You know how we forget it? Christ paid for it. He doesn't
remember it. And then he said, forgetting
those things which are behind and I'm reaching forth unto the
things which are before me, I press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. You know, we will
never be content in this life. We won't be satisfied till we
awake in his likeness. Our flesh is not improving. It's
never changed. We have two distinct natures
and are always warring against each other. Let me read to you
what Brother Henry said on verse 13. He said, I count not myself
to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which
are before. He said, brethren, I don't claim to have arrived
at perfection in doctrine, in spirit, nor deed. I am not yet
all that Christ would have me to be. I'm not all that I would
like to be, nor even all that I ought to be, but thank God,
however, I'm not what I used to be. And he said, one thing
I do, one thing. You know, it's hard to do two
things at one time, isn't it? One thing I do, I forget what
lies behind me. and my struggles and my attempts
at self-righteousness and false religion, my experiences and
revelations in spiritual infancy, my works and labors since conversion,
my recent growth and revelations. Now I reach forth for present
and future blessings and revelations of His grace. Remember the scripture
he read in Peter, 2 Peter? What was the last verse that
said? Grow in grace. That's what he's saying. Grow
in grace. And we do. We do. He enables us to. He said illustration
is taken from a runner in a race. We don't stop to look behind,
look behind them to see how far that we've come or or determine
how far we are in front of somebody else. But they are concerned
for what they are doing now and what lies Paul used those illustrations
many times in the Scriptures. He says in Hebrews chapter 12,
and you know that comes right after chapter 11, that as you
read that chapter, you know, it's a blessing just to read
it and see what God did to those people. The just shall live by
faith, they walk by faith, and they all died in faith. And then
he says, wherefore, seeing we also were compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, what are we to do? Lay aside
every weight. And we have a lot of them. Every
weight in the sin which doth so easily beset us. We know according
to chapter 11 that it can be many besetting sins, but I think
the main thing is there's that sin of unbelief. God help my
unbelief, Lord. I want to believe more. I want
to trust Him more. And let us run with patience
the race that is set before us. God has called you and put you
in a race. It's set before us. And how are we to run this race?
Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. You want a dog? Consider him. As you run the
race, don't look to somebody else and say, well, I'm outrunning
him, and look how far I've come. No, you forget every bit of that.
And you consider him. Just take a second to consider
him and what he endured in his race. It was set before him. He said, I must be about my father's
business. He set his face like a flint
to go to the cross and nothing was going to stop him. And he
didn't. Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself. Why? Lest you be weary and faint
in your mind. That word faint means to just
go discouraged. Have you ever wanted to quit? Every one of
us has. He said, lest you be weary and
faint in your minds, you've not yet resisted unto blood. What's
this? Striving against sin. Striving against sin? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. What are we striving
for? What does the word strive mean?
It means to use exertion. It means to endeavor with earnestness.
It means to labor hard and it means to struggle. This is what
our Lord said in Luke 13. Strive to enter in at the straight
game. For many, I say unto you, will
seek to enter in and shall not be able." Turn with me back to verse 27
of chapter 1. I want to show you this. He said, only let your conversation,
Be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. That whether I come
and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs that
you stand fast in one spirit with one mind. The next word. Striving together. For the faith. Of the gospel. In First Corinthians
nine, Paul said, No, you not that they which run in a race
run all but one receives the prize so run that you may obtain
And every man that striveth for the masteries is tempered in
all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown. What's
the world striving after? To impress men. They do all their
works to be seen of men. He said, they do it to obtain
a corruptible crown. He said, when they do all their
works to be seen of men. He said, they have what? Their
reward. He said, but we do it to obtain
an incorruptible. ground. I therefore so run, not
as uncertainty, so fight I, not as one beaten there. I'm not
just shadow boxing. I know who the enemy is. You're
looking at him. But I bring my body under subjection,
lest after I've preached to others, I myself should prove to be a
castaway. It was that Paul was, he knew,
he said, O wretched man that I am. I heard someone say one time
what that's describing is the way they would punish a prisoner
back during Paul's day if he had committed a crime or say
he had killed someone, what they'd do, they'd take that dead body
and they would tie it to the back of that living man and he
would have to carry it around and it would just decay and eat
into his flesh. He never could get around it.
Brother Hawker made it even more impressive. He said he wasn't
on his back, he was on his face. Every day you look at it, you
smell of it, and it's just, it's corrupting. That's what I'm talking
about. You know what that is? He said,
striving to enter into the straight gate. Strive, it meant labor hard.
You know, labor is hard. Our Lord said, the night comes
when no man can work. In Nehemiah chapter 4, Remember
Nehemiah was building the walls? I may have brought a message
here one time. And remember they built the walls in 52 days? And
in verse 21 of chapter 4, here's what he said, we labored in the
work. And I thought about, you imagine
what they thought when they get up in the morning, what's on
their mind? One thing, working on that wall. What are we going
to do today? We're going to go work on the
wall. We're going to do it, we're going to work, we're going to
labor on the wall. And everybody had a hand in it. Everybody did. One would hold a trowel and one
would hold a sword. And we labored in the work and
in 52 days that wall was built. How did they build it? God enabled
them to build it. But it took labor. Labor. Listen to this, 1 Corinthians
15. Paul said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. And his grace that was bestowed
upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than
they all. Who's he talking about all those?
All the other disciples. You know what he's saying? We know what he's saying, but
he said, yet not I, but the grace of God which is in me. Who wrote
half this New Testament? He did. Fourteen books of the
twenty-seven. You say, how did he do that?
He just told us by the grace of God which was in him. It's
not that he was trying to outdo them. Most of the time they never
believed he was an apostle. Most of the other ones, all the
other eleven, they had actually saw our Lord in the flesh. Now
Peter's, but Paul saw him on the Damascus road. And I want
you to know that there was many that said, well, I don't know
if he ever really saw him or not. I'm going to show you that in
a minute. But he's not striving to prove
them wrong. He's striving because God did a work of grace in his
heart. Let me tell you this. It's grace
that works. It's grace that changes. It gives
a new desire. We're not longing for this world.
We're not having goals for the things of this world. We want
him. Want him. You know what he said constrained
him? He said, the love of God constrains me. I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in
the flesh. I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. If that doesn't motivate you,
I don't know anything else that will. Nothing. You know, over in chapter 4,
verse 3, listen to what he said. I entreat thee also, true yoke
fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel. What did those women do? They
labored. Labored. You remember our Lord talked
about those women. They came to him and gave their substance
to him. And he says, with Clement also and the others, my fellow,
my fellow laborers, whose names are in the book of life. What
is it to labor? It means to feel fatigued, toil,
to be weary. As we strive for the prize that's
set before us, at times we grow weary and are discouraged. At times our hands become heavy
and our knees become feeble. Just there in Hebrews chapter
12, we read just verses 1-4 a few minutes ago. You know what he
said in verse 12? Wherefore, lift up the hands
which hang down, and the feeble knees. Then in verse 3 where he said,
Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest he be wearied and faint in his mind. I know this is one of Sandy's
most One of the dearest scriptures to her is in Isaiah chapter 40,
verse 28. He said, has thou not known,
has thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of
the ends of the earth, he fainteth not, nor is weary. There is no searching of his
understanding. He giveth power to the faint
and to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the
youth 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 of eagles. They shall run and
not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. You remember Caleb the fateful
dog? When they first came and they were in the wilderness and
Joshua sent them out, or Moses did, to spy out the land, there
were only two of them that came back and said, yeah, we can take
that land. That's what God's given unto us. And it was Caleb
and Joshua. The other 10 said, no, we can't
take it. And you know what happened? They all, from 20 years old and
up, were died in the wilderness, except for Caleb and Joshua.
40 years later, they're going to go take it. They're going
to go take that land. And Moses told him, said, you can have
that mountain over there. And that there's a bunch of giants that live on
that mountain, but that's yours if you want it. And what Caleb
said, he said, Joshua, Moses, give me that land. He said, that's
my inheritance. And he said, I'm as strong now
as I was 40 years ago. You say, how can an 80 year old
man be as strong as a 40 year old man? We're talking about
spiritual strength. He said, I'm going to go take it. You
know what he did? He went and took it. That's what I want. I want to
take what's rightfully what my father has given unto me. I want to use someone in the
scriptures as an example. Someone that was an encourager.
There's a man named John Mark and he had an uncle named Barnabas. And I looked at, was reading
from Gil today and he said, Joseph was his name that he had before
he was converted. But then after he was converted,
he was so gracious to disciples. You know, his name's Barnabas.
He's the son of consolation. He's the son of encouragement.
And if you'll read the last part of chapter four, it says he had
land. He took it and he sold it and
he brought it and laid it down at the apostles feet and gave
it to him. But do you know when the Apostle
Paul, when God opened his eyes on the Damascus road, how many
would have believed that God did something for most people's
sake? No, not that man. And the disciples had heard.
They said, we didn't believe it. I'm going to show you this
in Acts chapter nine, verse 26. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem,
he has saved to join himself to the disciples, but they were
all afraid of him and believe not that he was a disciple. I don't believe it. But Barnabas took him. They know
Barnabas. They know Barnabas. And Barnabas
took him and brought him to the apostles in Luke. And he declared
unto him how he had seen the Lord in a way, and that he had
spoken unto him, and that he had preached boldly at Damascus
in the name of Christ. You know what he said? I've heard
this man preach. He once sought to destroy this
faith, and now he preached Jesus Christ because God opened his
eyes. Where would Paul have been if
Barnabas hadn't have took up for him? You know what that was? That was encouraging. Paul and Barnabas from then on
became great friends. I mean, I would have, I'd have
loved, I'd have loved to had a Barnabas. And you know, I've
seen some in my life. I remember one Sunday, even years,
several years ago, probably back in the mid nineties. We just
started this little church. We were actually meeting in the
garage of my house, and we're sitting there one Sunday, and
we didn't have church that night, and somebody called me. They
said, are you at home? No, they said, you having church
tonight? And I said, no. And they said, what are you doing?
He said, well, I'm just sitting here. He said, can we come by? Him
and two other men come by. And they said, can we take you
out for supper? And I've never forgot it, because that man was,
that called me. ended up being my Barnabas. You
know, who knows Mike Walker? Nobody knew me. Nobody's going
to ask me to preach. But that man would. And he encouraged
me. And he would call me on Saturday
evening. He said, well, you do... Or maybe
I'd call him and I said, what are you doing? And he said, I'm
just here out here like a chicken, just scratching to try to find
something. And I thought, I thought I was the only one that struggled. And I come to find out somebody
else did. Can you not see Paul and Barnabas walking down the
street and he said, I can see Barnabas saying, Paul, I pray
God helps you today. I pray the Lord blesses you as
you preach over at Connington. That our emphasis, I pray God
blesses you. You know why? They needed each
other. I don't want to be a Barnabas. It says in Acts chapter 12, and
Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem when they had fulfilled
their ministry, and they took with them John, whose surname
was Mark. Imagine being Mark and being
able to travel with Paul and Barnabas. They went to one place. I can't remember where they went
to first, but the second place they went to, you know what Mark did?
He said, I ain't doing this. And he left them. And he went
back home. Now you imagine how he feels.
He goes back home. Why did he go back home? He may
have got homesick. He may have been afraid. He may have thought,
well, I didn't realize it was going to be this tough. And I can see him also think,
I'm such a failure. I'm so ashamed. Then before Paul and Barnabas
go on the second missionary journey, In Acts 15, and some days after,
Paul said to Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren
in every city where we preach the word and see how they do.
He said, I want to go see them. They need to be encouraged. And
Barnabas determined to take with him John, whose surname was Mark,
now that was his nephew. But Paul thought not good to
take him with him, who he said, who departed from them from Pamphylia
and went not with them to the work. Paul said, I don't think
we need to take him. I can see Paul said, well, you
know, I don't even know if the man, I don't even know if he knows
God. He ain't going with us. Let me
show you this. And the contention was so sharp.
These are two believers. that they departed asunder one
from the other. And so Barnabas took Mark and
they sailed to Cyprus. And Paul chose Silas and the
party being recommended by the brethren to the grace of God.
You see the sovereignty of God in this now where there was just
one missionary group, now there's two. But Barnabas took Mark. I can see Mark say, you sure
you want me to go? Yeah, I want you to go with me. Someone said more often than
not, we criticize instead of encourage. I can tell you, I
know John Mark needed some encouragement. And listen, Colossians chapter
four, verse 10. Articulus, my fellow prisoner,
saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, touching whom
you receive commandment, if he come unto you, you receive him." Don't you know that was encouraging?
You know, Paul, everybody knew Paul, and he said, you remember
him, you receive him. And then when he wrote his last
letter, 2 Timothy, Here's what Paul said, for Demas hath forsaken
me. Is that not what Mark did? Demas
hath forsaken me. I read somewhere the other day
that Demas went out with Paul as Paul preached the gospel and
they're trying to win the world. And he fell in love with the
world. For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present
world, and departed unto Thessalonica, Cretan to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark. Bring him with thee, for he is
profitable to me and for the ministry. Man, there's
some lessons to be learned there. Lessons. Lord, help us to be
a Barnabas, an encourager. That's a goal. I want to be an
encourager. Let me tell you this. I know
how it is to be a pastor. And you know what encourages
me more? Usually I sit down, kind of like your pastor did,
and I watch everybody come in. And I watch to see who's coming.
And when some are not here, I miss them. It's encouraging to me
to see their face, to know that the Lord has brought them there
again and we get to meet him as well. What an encouragement.
What an encouragement. How can we encourage someone? Hebrews chapter three, verse
13, I'd say most everybody in here could quote this verse.
Exhort. one another daily while it is
today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of
sin." We could do the same thing Demas did. That word exhort means
to encourage. How often? Daily. Daily. I want you to turn back. I want
to show you this. I couldn't as your pastor read this, I'd
made reference to one of these verses. 2 Peter 3 verse 1. The second pistol, beloved, I
now write unto you in both which I, you know how he's going to
encourage these people? I'm going to stir up your pure
minds by way of remembrance. Isn't that amazing? He stood
up here and he read this passage. He didn't tell us anything new,
he just reminded us. You know what he reminded us
of? Our Lord is coming back. He's not slack concerning His
promises as some men count slackness. He's not willing that any should
perish and that all should come to repent. That stirs up my little
heart. That's nothing new, but Peter
said, I stir you up by way of remembrance. When we come to
hear the gospel, we hear the same note hit again and again
and again. Darwin said he had a man come
to his church and, you know, he was preaching the gospel and
the man stood up and he said, I get it. I get it. I get it.
Let's move on to something else. He said, no, you don't get it. But he said, I'll stir you up
by way of remembrance. grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Looking and hastening
unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being
on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Well, what are we supposed to do? Nevertheless,
we according to His promise look for new heavens and new earths,
wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you know these things, be what? What's that word? Diligent. You see what I've been trying
to say? Diligent. Diligent. So I thought about that stir.
What does that mean to stir up? It means to arouse and it means
to wake up fully. What do you mean, preacher? We
can become spiritually drowsy Listen to what Paul said in Romans
chapter 13. And knowing the time, what time
is it? Well, it's about five to eight.
That ain't what I'm talking about. What time is it? What time is
it? It is high time to awake and
sleep. Why? Because our salvation is
nearer than when. As you read in that scripture,
he's going to come like a thief in the night. We don't know when
he's coming, but we need to be diligent. We need to be awake
because you know what this world wants to do? It wants to rock
us to sleep. We read about Samson and when you read that story
and you go, did he not see what Delilah was doing? But you know
what he did? He laid his head, he laid his
head in the lap of Delilah and he went to sleep. What did Peter and the apostles
do? Our Lord's praying. They could probably hear him
praying. He's only a stone cast away and he comes back. He finds
him asleep. Pray and watch that you don't
enter into temptation. So, well, you know, I don't need
to go. I don't need to go Sunday. You
know, I don't. It's high time for us to wake up. For now is
our salvation nearer than when we believe. The night is far
spent. The day is at hand. Let us cast off the works of
darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly
as in the day, not in rioting or drunkenness, not in chambering
and wantonness, not in strife and enemy, but put you on the
Lord Jesus Christ and make not provisions for the flesh to fulfill
the lust thereof. You want the Shulamite said in
the book of the Song of Solomon, that great love story of Solomon
and the Shulamite, that picture of Christ's love for his church.
Psalm of Solomon 5 verse 2, she said, I sleep. She admitted it,
but my heart wake up. It will never say yes. It is the voice of my beloved
that knocketh. You know what he's doing? He's
waking her up. He's waking her up. And he said, here's how he does
it. Open to me, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my
undefiled, for my head is filled with you and my locks with the
drops of the night. You know what she did? She wouldn't
get up. She knew he was at the door and she wouldn't get up.
Well, how's he going to get her up? He puts his hand in by the
hole of the door and he moves her apart. And she gets up, she
gets up now and she goes to the door, she's awake. And she goes
to the door expecting to find him and he came down. He's gone. You know what she's doing now? She's out in the street looking
for him. Is she diligent now? Oh yeah, she's not going to leave
a rock unturned. She says, she said, if you saw my beloved,
I said, what makes your beloved any special than anybody else's
beloved? And she describes him. She said, his hair is black as
a raven. His mouth is most sweet. He's altogether lovely. You know
what I want you to see? He woke her up. Lord, wake us up. Just look around. It's like the disciples. I started
to preach John 14. You remember how he went to the
Samaritan woman? Then he taught them disciples.
Do you know they went into the city and you know all they did
was get bread? Never brought a single person back to our Lord.
He showed mercy to this woman and where did she go? She went
to the same city. And our Lord sent her looking
at the disciples. He said, you say it's four months
to the harvest. He said, look at yonder. The fields are white,
ready to harvest. You know what they were? They
were asleep. I can see them going in there and said, let's hurry
up and get some bread and something to eat. We want to get out of
here. That's why I'm saying so many
times we get wrapped up in everything. We don't see the importance of
it. Why didn't they bring one person back? They knew where
he was at, they knew who he was. God wake me up. So he stirs us up and then he
restores us. You know that word restore is
like a lady in our church, she's a doctor and her son wrestles
and the other day some little boy got his arm, shoulder pulled
out of joint. And they called an ambulance
because they didn't want her to do it, but she watched him till the
ambulance got there. But somebody's got to set that arm. I guarantee if I had an arm out
of joint, I wouldn't just want anybody to put it back in place,
would you? That would restore, that's what that means. It's
to put a joint that's been out of joint back in place. You know what David said in Psalms
51? after he had sinned, and he confessed
his sin, he said, my sin is ever before me. Here's what he said
in verse 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Paul said in Galatians 6, if
any man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness. You reckon David knew anything
about restoring? Why is it that you enjoy reading the Psalms
so much? Why is it? Because we have a lot of Johns
out of place. And we read those Psalms and
they encourage our heart. Restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Like
I said, any of us could have been like Demas. Any one of us. It was said in Psalms 23, 3. He restoreth my soul. He stirs it up. He encourages me. He wakes me up. O Lord, enable us to be an encourager
and not live for ourselves. but for him that loved us and
gave himself for us. Lord, give us the grace to repent
of our sin. Enable us to commit ourselves
completely to our Lord and into the spreading of his gospel. Read you this. Paul said that
I may know him. Read you part of this song. More
about Jesus would I know. more of his grace to others show,
more of his saving fullness see, more of his love who died for
me, more about Jesus let me learn, more of his holy will discern,
spirit of God my teacher be, showing the things of Christ
to me. I pray God would encourage and
Strengthen your heart and wake us up to know what time it is. I remember years ago when I still
lived at home and my kids were small, it was always my responsibility,
especially on Sunday morning, to wake everybody up. And you
know, I didn't get a cup of cold water and go in there and throw
it on their face. I mean, and I'd go in and I'd say, Erica,
Erica, it's daddy, it's time to get up. I go in there and
I say, Heather, it's time to get up. By the time it's ready,
we're getting ready to go to church. Help me to be awake and have
mercy on others who are asleep. And in mercy and in grace, let's
wake up. He's coming back. Amen. Thank you, Brother Mike. You
put into words the desire of my heart for myself that I would
seek Christ. That God would use me in His
service. I might seek Him. I might know Him. You're very
closely associated with that is that you might know Him. That
you might seek Him. That we as a body might serve
the Lord together. That folks might come to hear
of the Savior. God, my heart's desire. And you
might think, well, what can I do? I can't get, I can't, Frank's
gone. I can't get up like Eric does and preach. I can't get
up and sing like Mike did. What can I do? Did you hear what
Mike said? He said something so, I think,
critical there. He's talking about Rupert being
such an encouragement to him. But Mike didn't say, I want another
Rupert. He said, I want to be a Barnabas. You want to serve the Lord? Encourage
God's people. Encourage them and help them.
They had a bad day. Encourage them, help them, help
them wake up, help them seek the Lord. That's the way. We
serve the Lord by being a help one to another. We serve the
Lord by serving one another. That was just excellent. Thank
you, Mike. That's encouraged my heart. I can't think of a
better way before we have a time of fellowship to have our last
worship service of the year be the observance of our Lord's
table. and have our minds stirred up
by way of remembrance to remember his sacrifice. Alright, Wayne,
you men distribute the bread if you would. The Apostle Paul gave the instructions
for our Lord's table to the church of Corinth. He said, for I have
received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that
the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took
bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said,
take, eat. This is my body, which is broken
for you. This do in remembrance of me. Eric, would you give thanks for
the bread? Thank you, Mr. President. I'm
glad to be here with you. And we thank you for this opportunity
to gather right now. Thank you, Mr. President. This
represents a growth of our economy. We're being more articulate. There's no logic to this. The Lord's meeting struck me,
and they said to me, they said to me, you must have made a very
wise decision. Of course, we thank the Spirit
of the Lord. He was there for us. But our hope, our sanity, our
salvation, our pride, After the same manner also, he
took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament
of my blood. This do ye as often as you drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, You do show, you tell throughly,
you teach the Lord's death till he come. Wayne, would you give
thanks for the blood? I suspect this may be a service
I remember for a good long time. It's been a blessing. Some of
you might wonder about the men taking the unleavened bread comes
in sheets. You heard them breaking it. And
I tell you where I got that from was from mill site. We were,
Janet and I were there one Sunday and they observed the Lord's
table and Danny Belcher, One of the men there came and broke
that bread before we observed the Lord's table, before the
bread was distributed. It's a two-hour drive from Millsite
to my house, and most that way home, Jan and I talked about
that breaking of the bread, didn't we? It was such a blessing we
began to do that here. And take note, that's not a time
filler. To hear those men breaking that
bread, those men, those apostles around that last Passover, the
first Lord's table. They heard the Lord break that
bread. It was unleavened bread. And you hear these men, the men
breaking that bread. That's our Lord's body being
crushed, being broken. He had to be crucified. He had to be broken before we
could eat him. He had to be broken before his
people could be saved. And I think that adds helps us
remember our Lord's sacrifice, to hear the bread broken immediately
before we partake of it. Well, you already heard one message. I'm not going to preach another
one, but I thought that was worth noting. All right, Mike's going
to lead us in a closing song. The ladies will have some refreshments
for us, and the men will set out some tables, and by the time
you think it's time to go, it'll be time to start going through
the line. We'll have some refreshments and time of fellowship.