time ago, there was a preacher
of whom we know very, very little. And yet, really, we know everything
about him that we need to know about any preacher, for we are
told that he was a faithful minister of Christ. If God will give me grace to
be to you a faithful minister of Christ, I want no more in
this world than that, and it'll be fine with me if my name is
forgotten when I breathe my last breath. Oh, to be a faithful
minister of Christ. This preacher's name was Epaphras,
Brother Epaphras. He was pastor of the Church of
God at Colossae. and was apparently an itinerant
preacher who went from church to church in a number of places
around there, and was pastor in several congregations. This
man, Brother Epaphras, pastor of the church at Colossae, was
a prisoner at Rome at the same time that Paul was, apparently
for the same reasons, for preaching the gospel of God's grace. Well,
while Brother Epaphras and Brother Paul were prisoners together
at Rome, they talked so many, many things, like brethren would.
They became acquainted with one another, and Depaphras told Paul
about his dear family back at Colossae. Now, he told Paul plainly
of his fears for them. He told Paul how that there had
been those who crept in among them and had led away some with
their heresies, and there were those who sowed strife and division
among them. And yet, Epaphras prayed earnestly
for these folks that they might stand perfect, that they might
stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. And he told
Paul of these people, but as he did, he spoke like a father
speaks of his children. He spoke in the glowing terms
of love and admiration and highest esteem. So much so that Paul
wrote to the church at Colossae one of the most instructive and
tender letters of all the epistles. Epaphras had told Paul how that
these saints at Colossae were men and women to whom the word
of God had come with power. He said, Paul, as these folks
have heard the gospel and hear it, they don't just sit like
knots on a log and let the word flow over their heads or go in
one ear and out the other. They hear the word with life
and power. God speaks to them and God has
spoken to them. And the word brings forth life.
Look at it in Colossians 1 and verse 6. Paul speaks of the word
of the truth of the gospel. And he says in verse six, which
is coming to you as it is in all the world and bringeth forth
fruit as it doth also in you since the day you heard of it.
In other words, you heard it and it brought forth fruit. But
as you hear it again, it continues to bring forth fruit to you.
This is not snail bread, but living bread. And you knew the
grace of God in truth. The Word of God has come to you
in power. This is what Epaphras told Paul.
He told Paul also of their faith in Christ. Look in verse 4. Since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. Epaphras says, he said,
Paul, these folks heard the Word, and the Word came to them in
power, and the demonstration of that is they believe God.
They believe Jesus Christ. They trust Christ as their only
Lord, their only Savior. But they trust Him in the daily
affairs of life. They walk by faith. The Word
of God continually causes these many women to believe God. And
He told them also of that which is always equally synonymous
with believing God and hearing the word of God and that is their
love for Christ and for one another. Paul says, since you heard the
word, you believed, you have faith and of the love which you
have to all the saints. Epaphras told Paul, he said,
now Paul, our brethren at Colossae, they've got their troubles. And
there's some heretics who've come among them. And there are
folks there who are seeking to turn them away from Christ. And
there are folks there who are seeking to divide them with heresy
and divide them with various issues of one kind and another.
But let me tell you, Paul, God's people at Colossae, they are
a people who love one another and they love God's saints everywhere. Everywhere. You see, We had a
tremendous lesson this morning in our Bible study. If you didn't
hear it, this one in last week's, I urge you to get a copy of the
tape and listen to them. But love, love. I'm talking about real love now,
Bill. If you love that woman, you commit yourself to her. If
you love that boy, you're committed to him. Love is the self-sacrificing,
consecration of myself to another. That's what it is. Now, natural
love. Natural love loves me and mine.
Natural love loves my wife and my children, my grandchildren,
and my family. But the love of Christ causes
God's people to love each other. And not just here. Not just here,
but to love all of God's saints so that their hearts are committed
to the glory of God and the people of God. And that's the result
of hearing the word of God in life-giving power. That's the
result of it. Always. The scriptures always
speak plainly that faith worketh by love. And where there is the
absence of love, there is the absence of faith, and there is
the absence of the power of God. Faith worketh by love. Love for Christ. Love for His
people. Love for all His people. It is
equal to laying down your life. That's what we had this morning,
wasn't it, Lindsay? Christ laid down His life for
us. You ought to lay down your life for one another. You've
been preaching we ought to die for each other? Exactly. That's
exactly what I mean. That's exactly what God means.
So that you cease to be concerned primarily about yourself, but
you're concerned primarily about the needs and the cares and the
feelings of another. Let me see if I can give you
an illustration. I'm not talking about dramatic
things. I am talking about things that
affect you dramatically. I'm not talking about something
that's phenomenal. It's phenomenal only to folks
who've never experienced it. But it doesn't take much to demonstrate
love. It doesn't do it. It doesn't
take great effort to demonstrate care. When I got back from Cherokee
this week and had some things on my mind that kind of give me great concern. and some things that really bothered
me. And I was, to say the least,
a little bit down, a little down. Not because of the conference
there. Please don't misunderstand. We had a tremendous conference,
but some news and some difficulties. I went back here and walked into
the office. Debbie and Jenny had been over
here, over here cleaning, and left a little note. I don't know
whether Debbie wrote it or Jenny wrote it, they both signed it.
Said, Dear Don and Shelby, we're so glad to have you back. We've
missed you. Love, Debbie and Jenny. Look forward to seeing
you Sunday. I wouldn't have taken $500 for that. That's just what I needed. Just
what I needed right then. And what I'm saying is, where
men and women are born of God, they love God and they love each
other and they show it. They demonstrate it to one another.
Oh, I'm so bashful, I can't show people my true feelings. When
you're mad, you can show it, can't you? When you're upset,
you can show it, can't you? But I had trouble showing love.
There's something wrong with you. There's something wrong
with you. You don't have trouble showing anger? You don't have
trouble showing feelings of frustration? You don't have trouble showing
passions of an ill temper? But I can't show love? Come on. Come on. These folks had experienced
him who is love. And what happened? They loved
each other. They loved each other. And I'm
telling you, if I have experienced and you have experienced him
who is love, we love each other. All right, read on. Paul also
heard Epaphras speak concerning the blessed hope of eternal glory
which these folks had. Where there is faith and love,
there is hope. These three great graces. You remember 1 Corinthians 13,
13? Now abideth faith, hope, and love. Faith, hope, and love. Faith, hope, and love. Forget
about the apostolic gifts. Seek these. Forget about healing. Seek this kind of healing. Forget
about great power. Seek this kind of power to live
in faith. hope and love. Paul says, Epaphras
told us about the hope which is laid up for you in heaven,
whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel.
And then in verse six, Epaphras had spoken to Paul concerning
their faithfulness. He said, Paul, I want you to
understand these folks at Colossae are men and women who believe
to whom the word of God has come in power, and the result is they
believe God, they love each other, they have hope in Christ Jesus,
and they're faithful to Christ. Since the day they heard the
gospel, they haven't wavered. Since the day Christ came in
them, they have not wavered. You can count on them. You can
count on them in good times and bad, in thick and thin, you can
count on them. They're there, there for Christ,
and there for the cause of Christ. You can just count on them. Now,
I'm going to tell you something. I may not get to what I want
to preach this morning, but I'm going to talk plain to you. If Don Fortner has experienced
God's grace, really, really, you can count on him. You can
just count on him. You can count on him to seek
God's honor. You can count on him to serve
God's kingdom. You can count on him to worship
God his Savior. You can count on him. Just count
on it. Faithfulness is that which comes
with faith. It does, Bobby. If God's given
you faith, He's given you faithfulness. So that, not that you look at
it and say, look how faithful I am. You look at it and say,
oh, God teach me to be faithful. But folks who watch you, they
see in you faithfulness. Faithfulness. Steadfast. Target, dependability, come hell
or high water, nothing keeps me from doing what God requires
of it. That's it. That's it. The believer
simply continues in the faith. He continues worshiping God. He continues seeking ways to
honor God. He continues seeking to magnify
Christ. He continues seeking the welfare
of God's kingdom. You can just count on it. You
can count on it. Some of you are coming here Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Tuesday night. I don't have to think about it.
Man, if I don't see your faces, pretty or ugly, if I don't see
your faces, you're going to get a call because something's wrong.
Something's happened. Something's happened. Others, I don't know whether you're ever
going to see them or not. Just don't know. Something comes
up, well, maybe you will, maybe you won't. Something good on
TV, maybe you will, maybe you won't. Some family member comes
in, maybe you will, maybe you won't. Just depends on what takes
my notion. Just depends on what kind of
flighty idea I may have. You may support the cause of
Christ this week and go six months and care nothing about it, have
no interest in it. Oh, but if ever you meet the
faithful God, you'll be faithful. I'm just telling you, those folks
who have heard the word in power, believing God, are faithful. They're faithful. I just heard this week from another
preacher. One of the things I was talking about earlier. Walked
off from his family. Walked off from the ministry.
Walked off from the gospel. Walked off from Christ. After you say that, Because if
he walked off from his family and walked off from Christ and
walked off from the gospel and walked off from the church of
God, he walked off from Christ. That's all there is to it. Walked
off. Gone. What's the matter? What on earth's the matter? What's
wrong? You never heard the word in the
power of God producing faith and love and hope which brings
forth faithfulness. That's what's wrong. That's what's
wrong. Oh, but Preacher, you don't know
what he got into. Yeah, I do too. I know what he didn't get
into. You don't know what cares he has. Oh, I do know what cares
he has. I know what care he doesn't have. You don't know what snares
are out there. I know what snares are there.
I know what delivery he hasn't experienced. That's what I'm
saying. God's people are faithful. Now, when Paul heard these things
from Epaphras, he was so overwhelmed that he himself fell in love
with God's saints at Colossae. And he prayed for them and he
wrote to them this blessed epistle you have before you. Now, I want
this morning to call your attention to what I consider to be one
of the most rapturous glorious, awesome descriptions of the Lord
Jesus Christ to be found in all the Bible. We want to look at
Colossians 1 beginning at verse 9. Now let me show you Paul's
prayer for these Colossians. He says, For this calls also,
since the day we heard of it, heard of what? How the gospel
came to you. how that you have been faithful
to it, how it brings forth fruit in you with faith and hope and
love. Since the day we heard of it,
we do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might
be filled with all the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding. This is what I want for you. This is what I seek from the
throne of God's grace for you, for every one of you. My dear
friends, my dear family, this is what I want for you. That
you be filled and overflowing with the knowledge of God's will,
with all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Pastor, what on
earth are you talking about? I want you to to understand spiritually,
not just mentally, but spiritually. With the wisdom of God, I want
you to understand God's purpose of grace in redemption. That's
his will. I want you to understand, for
the comfort of your heart in all things, that everything God
brings to pass, He brings to pass because from eternity, He
purposed to redeem and save a people. And those things that come to
pass in your life that seem to be so traumatic, God brings to
pass according to His purpose of grace, not just toward you,
but toward all His people. It is God's will to redeem and
save a people, and that is the will by which he governs and
rules this world. And so as you understand that, as you get
hold of that mark in your heart, and you recognize this is what
God's doing, it'll help you through the rough times. It'll help you
through the difficulties. I don't understand why God brought
this to pass right now in my life and this experience right
now in the life of His people, but this I know God's going to
get glory for He's going to use it to bring His people into everlasting
glory. To be filled with the knowledge
of His will, I want you to be filled with the knowledge of
Holy Scripture. I really don't care I think it's
great if you can memorize, that's fine. But I really don't care
whether you memorize the whole book or not. That's not important. I don't care whether you can
recite verse after verse or whether you can't. Buddy, I want you and your family
to be filled with the knowledge of the message of this book,
the knowledge of Jesus Christ. I want you and your daughters
and that grandbaby of yours and your son-in-law, I want you to
know God as He's revealed in this book, in Jesus Christ. I
want you to be filled with the knowledge, the knowledge of Holy
Scripture, God's will right here, His revealed will. And I want
you, each one, to have the Spirit of God so
direct in you that day by day you know God's will for you today I wonder don't raise your hands
I wonder anybody ask God today or yesterday or last week or
last month Lord what would you have me to do today Lord is there somebody She'll direct
me to today to minister to. Oh, children of God, seek God's
will, not your will, not your way, not your pleasure, God's
will, God's way, God's pleasure. What else is important? Also,
this is what I pray for you, that you'll be filled with the
knowledge of God's will and that you might walk worthy of the
Lord. unto all pleasing. You see that? Walk worthy of the Lord. I've told you this a hundred
times, I've told you once, but I'll tell it again. She's still
sitting here, and I'm still telling her. I let Faith start dating when
she's 15 years old, or 16 years old. Excuse me, I'm about to
cheat on myself. I just, not saying you should
or shouldn't, I just refused to let my daughter go out until
she's 16 years old. And I said, Kirk, you, you come
home midnight. I don't mean five after, I mean
midnight. That's just what I did. And when she leaves the house,
and probably when she leaves the house this afternoon, I'll
tell her again, don't forget who you are and whose you are. Because everything you do, everything
you say, not only reflects on your character, but my character
and your mom's character. Somebody said, well, I wouldn't
put that burden on my child. You better put some kind of burden
on those children. You better put some kind of monkey on their
back. And you better see to it that they have some sense of
responsibility. And this is what I'm saying to
you. Bob Pontzer, don't ever forget who you are and whose
you are. Don't forget it. Bobby, don't
forget who you are, whose you are. Because everything you say
or do not only reflects on your profession of faith in Christ,
but Christ whom you profess. Well, what is it to walk worthy
of the Lord? Paul gives us several characteristics of a walk of
faith. He says, this is what I'm talking
about. I want you to be fruitful in every good work. See something
good to do? Do it. That's what it is. You
see something he's doing? Do it. In every good work. Not
only fruitful in every good work, but increasing in the knowledge
of God. Oh, seek to know God. To know
God. To know God. To know God. Strengthened. Strengthened with
all might. How do you get that? Knowing
God. That's how you get it. Strength comes from knowing Him
who is strength. Strengthen with all might according
to His glorious power. And I'll tell you what you'll
have if you get some strength. Strength of faith. Strength of confidence. I'll tell you what you'll have.
Patience. Patience. Faith in God gives
folks patience. It does. Believing God gives
you such strength of heart that you can be patient. with little
trivial things. God rules. Not only that, but
long-suffering. So that you suffer long with
the affronts and offenses of others, and you suffer long patiently
under the hand of God's affliction, and you suffer long with trials
and difficulties, and also joyfulness. Because faith produces joy in
Him. Who is our joy? Understand that?
In the midst of difficulty and trial and heartache, while the
tears burn your cheek, you still rejoice in God your Savior. We
rejoice. Giving thanks. Giving thanks. Oh, faith. Strength of confidence
in God. Knowing God. Knowing His will
and His purpose. Gives us reason for thanksgiving,
doesn't it? Now then, look at Paul's thanksgiving, his gratitude
and praise. In verses 12, 13, and 14, it's
hard to tell whether Paul really is instructing these folks about
giving thanks or whether his heart simply welled up and burst
forth into thanksgiving personally. As Paul writes, he doesn't write
like the intellectuals of our day. theology books, and I read
them because I need to know some things, but I declare they get
heavy sometimes. They just get heavy, real heavy.
Some of those old Puritans could take 500 pages to say what I
thought I'd be able to say in two sentences. They just get
heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy. Paul wrote like a man who wanted
to get ahold of your heart. He said, I want you to get into
this. He wrote like a man who said, I want you to see what
I'm talking about. And I want you to experience
what I'm talking about. Look at this. He says now, giving
thanks, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Now that's something to give
thanks for. That's something to give thanks for. Do you understand
what Paul's talking about there? God Almighty has made you to
believe altogether worthy of heavenly glory. Do you believe
that? I mean, really, do you believe
that? Worthy of heavenly glory. That's what the word meat there
means, isn't it? He's made us equal to everlasting inheritance
in Christ Jesus. Made us equal to Him. Let me
see if I can show you what I'm talking about. When the Lord
Jesus died upon the cross as our substitute, God made Him
to be sin. Understand that? God charged
our sin to Him. He made Him to be sin. When Christ
was made to be sin, God rewarded Him according to His just deserts. And He killed Him. He poured
out His wrath on Him. He slew His only begotten Son.
because that's what he deserved as the greatest sinner who ever
lived all the sins of God's elect were made to meet on him and
God poured out the hell of his wrath on his son because he was
made to be sinned now God has taken by the same marvelous transference
of grace God has taken his perfect, holy righteousness. And He's
made it to be ours. We are made the righteousness
of God in Him. Every believer has been made
the righteousness of God in Christ. Now understand this, not by what
you do, not by what you feel, not by what you experience, Jesus
Christ was made to be sin without ever feeling sin, thinking sin,
or doing sin. He was made to be sin by divine
imputation. And we have been made righteous
by divine imputation, by God declaring that His righteousness
is ours. And you know what He's going
to do? He's going to give us everything righteousness deserves.
Everlasting glory. And he's made us meet to be partakers
of that inheritance right now. He's given us a righteous record
by the imputing of Christ's righteousness to us. And he's given us a righteous
nature by imparting Christ's righteousness to us in his grace,
making us new creatures in Christ. And so Paul says, I give thanks
to God, for he has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. Now then, not only that, but
he's delivered us. Who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son. God forgive me. that I ever ceased
to remember with awesome wonder where and what I was when you
saved me by your grace. I was running as fast as I could
to hell, as fast as I could to destruction. A willing slave
of darkness. A willing slave to Satan. A willing participant in the
corruption of this world. A willing subject of the lust
of my own heart. But God stepped in. And God stopped
me in my mad rush to hell. And God snatched me as a bran
plucked from the burning and set my feet on the rock, Christ
Jesus. And God made me to be translated. Translated from the rule of darkness
to the rule of His love, from the kingdom of destruction to
the kingdom of life. God did that. Also give thanks
to God. Don't forget that. and give thanks
to God for his effectual redeeming blood. The Lord Jesus is described
as that one in whom we have redemption through his blood. Folks, these days don't like
to talk about blood. It doesn't sound refined. It
doesn't sound couth. It doesn't sound educated. Oh,
but if you've ever been washed in the blood, you won't mind
talking about it. the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son. But to be redeemed is to be forgiven
of all sin. Folks talk about Christ dying
for nothing. Talk about Christ dying for everybody,
and folks being in hell for whom Christ died. Well, that's nonsense.
That's nonsense. Those who are redeemed are forgiven. Look what Paul says. In whom
we have redemption through his blood. What's that? Even the
forgiveness of sins. And then Paul speaks of his gratitude
and thanksgiving in such a way that it turns into praise. He
just erupts into praise for Christ his Savior. Notice how he speaks
in verse 15. who is the image of the invisible
God. Now that means that Jesus Christ
is God. He who is the image of God is
himself God. And then he says he's the firstborn
of every creature. The Russell Michael come along
and he'll point to that text, or maybe a Mormon, he'll come
along and point to that text and he'll say, now you see, Jesus
Christ, he is He is something more than a great preacher. He's
something more than a man, something more than an angel. But really,
you see, he is a creature of God. That's not what it means
at all. You look in Revelation 3.14, you'll find out exactly
what it means. When it speaks of Christ Jesus
being the firstborn of every creature, it means he is the
beginning of the creation of God. He is the word through whom,
by whom, and for whom all things were made. And he's the chief
one over the whole thing. The Lord Jesus is described in
verse 16 as the creator of all things, the beginning of all
things, and the ruler of all things. For by him were all things
created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers, all things were created by him and for him." What's that
mean? That means that everything that
has been, everything that is, and everything that shall be
came from Christ and will be down to the glory of Christ.
All right, look at verse 17. The Lord Jesus Christ is eternal,
the eternal God, and he is before all things, and by him all things
consist. These crazy scientists, tree-hugging evolutionists, scared
to death the sun's going to burn out tomorrow, or burn us up tomorrow. They can't make up their mind.
Did you notice that last year, We were in a trend of global
warming, and the world was going to burn up soon. This year, we're
in a trend of global cooling, and the world is going to freeze
to death soon. I wish that one of them would get their minds
straight, but I'm telling you, Jesus Christ holds everything in His
hands. By Him, all things consist, everything,
your life and mine, the sun, the moon, the stars, this world,
and everything else. consist by, he holds it all together. And the Lord Jesus is the head
of all things, for he's the head of his church. He's the head
of the body of the church. The head of the church is not
the Pope and is not Don. The head of the church is not
the pastor and is not the deacons and is not the elders. The head
of the church is not the constitution, is not the covenant, the head
of the church is Jesus Christ himself. I was at a church meeting
one time, and we were all upset because a fellow was preaching
a little grace, and this fellow got up and he held out a manual. He said, now, the issue here
is not whether or not the Bible teaches these doctrines of election
and predestination. The issue is whether or not these
things agree with our church covenant. The issue is, what
does the king say? That's all. The issue is, what
does the head of the church say? He determines our doctrine. He
determines our practice. He determines it all. Otherwise,
we're not his church. He's the head of the church.
He's the head of the church, which is his body, who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead. He's the first one
of the resurrection, from whom all resurrection life comes,
that in He might have the preeminence. Well, I may get to preaching
to verse 19 another time, but this is the essence of all that
Paul's saying. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. Everything's in Christ. Everything. All the fullness of God is in
Christ. and all the fullness of grace is in Christ. That means
that everything you and I need from God Almighty is in Christ. Everything that God can give
to guilty, helpless sinners is in Christ. Everything that God
requires from sinners is in Christ. He is our righteousness. He is
our sanctification. He is our redemption. He has
satisfied justice. He has made us righteous. He
will bring us into glory. And everything is in Christ exclusively. Nowhere else. Not in my feelings,
or my experience, or my faith. Not in my doings, not in my church.
Everything is in Christ. Forever. How can I illustrate what I'm
saying? You who are without Christ, will
you hear me now? Will you give me attention? Whatever
your soul needs is in Christ. Say, Pastor, I need faith. Don't
try to work it up. Look to Christ. I need a broken
heart. My heart's not broken enough.
Come to Christ. He'll give you a broken heart.
I need repentance. I just don't feel enough remorse
for my sin. I'm not repentant enough. Come
to Christ. He'll give you repentance. I
need I need strength to persevere because I know I can't make it.
I can't hold out. I can't continue. You've been
talking about faithfulness. I'd never be faithful. I've never
been faithful in anything in my life. Oh, you come to Christ,
He'll make you faithful. He'll hold you and He'll see
to it that you hold Him. He'll give you a new heart and
a new way that you may walk in Him forever. And you who are God's children, all we need is Christ. All we need. All we need for
anything, for everything. All fullness is in Christ. All fullness. That means, Merle, that Jesus
Christ is like that widow's barrel of meal. You just go ahead and
get all you need from him for today, and you're not going to
diminish him at all. He's still got plenty for tomorrow.
He's like her cruise of oil, full of oil every day. You go
ahead and draw all the grace you need for today, and he will
not be diminished one iota, and he'll be plenty full for tomorrow
for all of you, for all of us. That means that if I'm hungry,
he's got plenty of bread. If I'm thirsty, he's got plenty
of water. If I'm naked, he's got plenty
of clothes. If I need a place to sleep, he's got a lot of houses
in this country. That means I don't lack for anything. For anything. For anything. All my life, as a believer, folks
have been telling me I was radical. All my life. I've been telling
you, you can't do things that way. You can't just trust God. You got to act like you got a
good head on your shoulders. And I wonder why you can't just trust
God. I wonder why you can't. And I said, well, you've got
to live in this world. You know what my response is?
That's the one thing I ain't got to do. That's the one thing
I don't have to thank God one of these days I'm leaving this
world. That means that I don't have to back up or bend over. with regard to the glory of God
for anything or anybody. Don't have to do it. Don't have
to do it. I recall when I was in college, you don't mind a
personal illustration, do you? When I was in college, I was
working all I could work to go to school, and it didn't make
any money. I mean, we were scratching it
out. And there was an opportunity
Right after Faith was born, she was just a few months old, and
she was hungry. As a matter of fact, we were
all hungry, and didn't have any groceries, and didn't have any
money to get any groceries. There was an opportunity to go
to work at McLean Trucking Company, loading freight on the docks.
And man, back in those days, $4.42 was good money. I mean,
it was good money. So I went over and applied for
a job. They took one look at me and said, well, that fella
can move a box. And the fella hired me on the spot. And I said
another one thing. I said, I know all your part-time help works
on Sunday. I can't work on Sunday. He just sat down and tore the
application up and said, we can't use you. I said, sir, it's not
that I object to folks working on Sunday. It's all right. I
don't have any objection. But I worship God on Sunday.
And I believe God's called me to preach the gospel, and I've
got to be free to go wherever opportunity comes. And he said,
well, we work all our part-time help on Sunday. I said, I'll
tell you what I'll do. I'll work any hours you want me to work,
any day you want me to work, as long as you want me to work,
as long as I don't have to work on Sunday. He said, now, you
mean you'll come in any time we call you? Any time you call
me. I'll work any hours you want me to work, as long as I go to
school from 7 to 11, Anytime you want me to work, I'll work
16 hours a day if you want me to, but I can't work on Sunday.
He said, we'll give it a shot. Has the only person in the history
of that company be hired part-time and not had to work on Sunday?
Never did have to work on Sunday. Never had to miss a worship service
to work. I said, well, it don't always work that way. You honor
God, God will honor you. It'll always work that way. It'll
always work that way. It will always work that way.
I promise you. God will not fail to honor anybody
who honors Him. He won't do it. He won't fail
to provide for any needs you have if you provide for worshiping
Him and His glory. He won't do it. Oh, but I got
a big house. Well, that's another story. You
might lose that. But I buy a new car every year. That's another
story. You might lose that. You might have to drive around
in your socks for a while. But I'm accustomed to having these
fine threads. Well, you might have goodwill,
but you still have threads. It don't matter, as long as your
back's covered, as long as your head's covered, and you worship
God in peace. Does it? Now, you can have whichever
you want. Whichever you want. You can have
this world and all the pleasure of it, and you can keep seeking
it and pursuing it and seeking it and pursuing it and seeking
it and pursuing it. God help you, he may just give
it to you. Or you can have Christ. What's the result of all this?
He made peace through the blood of his cross. Oh, there's peace for troubled
sinners in Jesus Christ through his precious blood. Come to God. Be reconciled to God. Quit fighting
with God. Lay down your shotgun and raise
up the white flag of surrender to Jesus Christ the Lord and
be at peace. There's no other way for you
to find peace. No other way. No other way. And
one of these days, through his blood, he's going to reconcile
everything to him. Everything. Boy, I ain't got
it figured out yet. I don't know how you come to
it. But one of these days, the Lord
Jesus Christ is going to fix it so that everybody in the world
understands in heaven, earth, and hell that everything that
has been glorifies God. Everything. And when it gets
done, Look what it says here. Verse 21, and you that were sometime
alienated, that's me. And enemies in your mind, that's
me. I hated God just like you do
by your wicked works. Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
his death. Look at it now. to present you
holy, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. Because all fullness
is in Christ, only in Christ. Come to Christ and all fullness
is yours, for you're Christ and Christ is God's. Amen.