Nineteen years ago, the Son of God, with the long arm of His mercy,
reached down and touched me and made me whole. And I will Praise
Him for doing that. I trust both in part and in deed. I want you to look again this
evening in 1 Corinthians 6. In verse 19, the last phrase
in the verse, Paul said, you're not your own. you're not your
own. For ye are bought with a price. I believe, I have a good reason
to believe, reasonable assurance, I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe him. I know whom I
have believed And I am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I have committed unto him against that day. I know who
he is and I know his ability as my savior and I've committed
myself to him. And when I talk about being a
believer, when I talk about being one who trusts Christ, this is
what I mean. I know him. I know him not merely
in a doctrinal sense, though I have a doctrinal knowledge
of him. I know him not merely in a historical sense, Though
I have a historical knowledge of him, I know he's the son of
God. I know he came into this world
some 2,000 years ago, born of a virgin without earthly father,
that his body was prepared of God the Holy Spirit in the womb
of the virgin, and that he came into this world a perfect sinless
child and lived throughout the age of a man in perfect sinlessness,
and that that man is both God and man in one person. I know
that this obedient son of God suffered and died at Calvary
as the substitute for sinners. I know that his righteousness
is a righteousness provided as a representative for his people,
and that his blood is a satisfactory atonement the sins of his people. I know that through him God can
both be just and the justifier of ungodly men who believe on
him. I know him, but I know more than just those facts. For Christ
has been revealed in my heart. God the Holy Spirit has caused
my dead, depraved heart to come to life. And he has revealed
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to me. And I
know it. I believe I do. I know it. I
know you. I know your names and your faces. I know you're sitting here in
front of me this evening. There's not a person in this
building that I know more really and truly than I know him. I
know him. I know it. I know that as I describe
him to you, I'm telling you that which is the truth. For it is
written in the word and it's written in my heart. I know him.
When I say that I believe on Christ, I'm not merely talking
about a head knowledge, however. I'm talking about a heart trust,
a heart knowledge of him and the heart trust. I do not trust him as I ought. My heart grieves, I suppose,
more over this one thing than over anything else. My lack of
just, implicit, unwavering trust of Christ. I wish that I so trusted
him that I never had an anxious thought. He's worthy of that
kind of trust. I wish that I so trusted him
that I never had any feeling of uneasiness. He's worthy of
that kind of trust. While my trust is a sinful trust,
the frail trust of a man, I trust him. I trust him. I do. That's what it is to believe
Christ. I trust is righteous. God requires that I be righteous. Now he doesn't ask me to give
him a good shot at righteousness. He doesn't ask me to do the best
I can. God requires of me perfect, complete,
perfect righteousness. righteousness of deeds, and I
trust the righteousness of Jesus Christ for my entire acceptance
of that. I have no righteousness of my
own. Even the best thing I have to
offer God, which is faith that he's given me, I've already told
you, is mixed with sin. I've got no righteousness of
my own. I've got nothing to offer God. I've got nothing that I
can present to God and expect God Almighty in His perfectness,
in His righteousness to accept. God will not do it. But I come
to God and offer Him the righteousness of His love. And I know He'll
accept it. He's already said, this is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. I trust His righteousness. How do you expect to stand before
God in the Day of Judgment? I expect to stand before God
in a substitute. I expect to stand before God
robed in the righteousness of His Son, and bold shall I stand
in that great day, for who all to my charge shall lay. Jesus'
blood and righteousness, this is my duty and my glorious debt. I fully trust His righteousness,
and I trust His blood. I trust the sacrifice of the
life of Christ for the atonement of sin. My sin, oh Lord, it is the foulness of my
sin. My sin is ever before me, and
my sin Not just the things I did when I was a boy. The things
going on right now, Linda, in my heart. The things going on
right now. My sin is ever before me. What I am. What I am. And I'm going to be honest with
you. If I saw in you, I'm sorry this is so, but if I saw in you
the things that I see in myself, I'd stay away from you. I wouldn't
have a thing on this earth to do with you. If I saw in you
the things that I know to be in me, I would encourage my daughter
and my wife to not keep company with you. Now that's just the
way it is. That's just the way it is. Much less than I expect
God Almighty to keep company with me. in myself because I
am sin. I'm sin. Now until you come to
know that, you haven't yet come to know Christ. For the knowledge
of him will make you to see your sin. But with the awareness of
my sin, with a constant recognition of my wretchedness,
of the fact that I deserve eternal damnation. I stand before God
Almighty, my Father, without fear, without dread, without any terror, without any
sense of disapproval. I stand before God with peace
in my heart. Because the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, Meryl, sends His grace upon me. Now I just trust that. I trust that. I trust my soul
upon the merits of Christ. Can you do that? Huh? Can you? Do you trust your soul on the
merit of Christ? That's what it is to be a believer.
But there's something else. There's something else. This belief in Christ is to know
him. This is life eternal that they
might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou
send. Faith in Christ is to trust him. It's to trust him. And this heart knowledge and
trust of Christ involves commitment. It involves commitment, a heart
commitment. I know that he is able to keep
that which I have committed unto him against that day. I believe on Christ. I have a
reasonable assurance My faith is that faith of God's elect,
that I am saved by the grace of God, because I know Him, I
trust Him, and I'm committed to Him. I've committed my soul
to Him. Day by day, I commit myself to
Him. Now, this is what I was talking
to you about this morning. We belong to God. We belong to
God. Turn over to Psalm 100. Let me
show you this. I was sitting there looking at
it while men were receiving the offering a minute ago. David said, make a joyful noise
unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence with singing. Now here's something
that ought to make your heart rejoice. If you belong to God. You ought to rejoice before him.
You ought to come before his presence with singing. David
said, know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath
made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless
his name for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting. and
his truth endureth to all generations. And let me tell you what I mean
by this matter of commitment. I've told you the story before.
It illustrates so well what I want to say. And I found out a long
time ago, most of us forget most of what we hear one time or 20
times. There was a man who collected
pearls. visiting coastal city on vacation. And as he was walking around
looking into shop windows and things such as we do, he saw
a pearl like he had never seen before. He'd never seen anything
like it. He was spellbound. He just stood
there staring at it for a while. Finally, he went inside and he
said to the shopkeeper, he said, he said, sir, that is without
question the most exquisite pearl I've ever seen in my life. He
said, I sure would like to get a closer look at it. Shopkeeper
said, yes, that's the finest pearl in the world. I'll be glad
to show it to you. He spread it out on a blanket
before him. Man just stood there and looked
at it. He said, you know, I collect pearls. I've got a rare collection
of pearls, but this is the finest I've ever seen. The shopkeeper
said, yes, that's true. He said, I've got to have that
pearl. The shopkeeper said to him, you can't afford that pearl.
He said, oh, I've got to have that pearl. He said, I'm sorry,
there's just no way you can afford that pearl. And the man said,
you name your price and I'll pay you. He said, well, he said,
you can buy the pearl, but it'll cost you everything you've got. Everything. The man said, everything? Everything you've got. So he
reached in his pocket and pulled out his wallet, started counting
off bills. He said, that's a big price and
I'm going to pay it. Started counting them off. And
he said, now I'll have to keep $5 to get some gas to put in
my car. He said, you've got a car? He
said, what does it cost you a car? My car? He said, I said everything. Give me the keys. He said, well,
how am I going to get back and forth to work? You've got a job? Give me the job. It's going to
cost you everything. Well, I've got a house to mortgage
to pay and bills to pay. You've got a house? I want the
deed. You have a family? The family's
mine. This pearl's gonna cost you everything.
Everything. The fella looked at that pearl
and he handed him his wallet and his keys. He said, I'll go
get these in my house. Here it is. And he took the pearl. The boy
started out the door, the shopkeeper said, just a minute. He said,
now here are the keys to your car, and here's your wallet and
your money, and the house, I'll leave it to you as well, and
your wife and your children, but don't ever forget, they're
mine. Now you can use them, and you
can enjoy them, but they're mine. When I get ready to call for
them, or I want them to be used for me, don't forget they belong
to me. And my friend, that story, fictional
though it is, is more real than fact. For this is the way believers
obtain Christ. It's the way believers obtain
Christ. Folks asked me, said, what do
you reckon it'll cost a man to be saved? My friend, if ever
you're saved, if ever I'm saved, it's going to cost you everything
you have. Everything. Everything. We belong to him. We belong to him. He has a rightful
claim upon us. Now, since we belong to Christ,
since we belong to the living God, We ought to glorify him
in our bodies and in our spirits. This is what Paul says in our
text. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirits,
which are God's. Since the living God chose me,
redeemed me, and saved me, I'm not my own. I belong to him. Since I have willingly, freely
given myself up to the claims of Christ my Lord, I am no longer
my own. I flat belong to him. Now what does that mean? Well,
because I belong to Christ, I have nothing to fear and everything
to comfort. Because God, the eternal God,
is my Father, I have no reasonable grounds for any fear, and every
reason for comfort and peace and joy in this world. Beloved,
behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
such things as we are, that we should be called the sons of
God, and now we are the sons of God, and the world knoweth
us not, because it knew him not. God Almighty is my Father. Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word,
by whom everything was made that is made, and by whom the world
is upheld, by the Word of His power, He's my Redeemer. God,
the Holy Spirit, who brooded over the face of the deepened,
calls the world to bring forth and to birth forth in life according
to His will. He's my Comforter. What I'm saying
when I say that I belong to God and I have nothing to fear is
just this. I'm not my own provider. It's
not my responsibility to provide for myself. That may surprise
you. My wife and my daughter belong
to me, not in the sense of personal property that I have bought,
but in the sense of commitment on my part and on theirs. In
the sense of a loving relationship, they're my responsibility. It
is not their responsibility to provide for themselves, it's
my responsibility to provide for them. Do you understand that? No, that's your responsibility
to provide for that lady. You're her provider. God Almighty
is my provider. Now my wife may have reason to
worry about whether or not I'm going to provide well for her.
I've got no reason to be concerned about whether or not he will
provide for me. I've been young and now I'm old,
David said. I've never seen the righteous
forsaken or his seed begging bread. Have you? Have you? I've never seen it. The Lord
is my shepherd. I shall not want. What can I
want? The shepherd feeds his sheep.
The shepherd waters his sheep. The shepherd cares for his sheep.
The Lord my God provides me with everything I need day by day. He's my God. His honor is at
stake. His honor is at stake. He provides
for me. Why then should I be concerned
about my middle age? or be concerned about my old
age? Why should I be concerned and
have anxious thoughts concerning the days of my retirement or
the days of my sickness? Why should I fret? Why should
I fear? God's my provider. I belong to
him. Not only that, I'm not my own
guide. I belong to him. He leads me. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. That's what he said. by the Lord. I sometimes, in ignorance and
sin and rebellion, determined to go this way, and my mind and
my spirit is determined to go that way, but God says, no, you'll
go this way, and he puts my feet in that path. I'm glad it's that
way. He's my God. Not only is he my
provider and my guide, but he's my protector. He's my shield,
my defender. The Lord God holds me in his
hands. Now you tell me, what have I
to fear? We talk to him. And I preach
the sovereignty of God plain and clear. I wonder just how
much we believe. I wonder just how true I preach. I know I preach what's in this
book. I wonder just how much I believe that God Almighty is
my God, and that he rules his world, that he is totally sovereign
in all things, that he's my provider, my guide, and my protector. Now, James, if I believe that,
I've got no reason to fear. I've got nothing to worry about.
Nothing. Nothing. Well, preacher, you
just don't understand what all I had to go through. Yes, I do.
Yes, I do. You don't understand my disposition. You don't understand my makeup. My mother was this way. My daddy
was this way. We've always had this kind of
problem. If I believe God, I've got nothing to worry about. Nothing
to worry about. Nothing to fret. Nothing to fear. Nothing to cause me any anxious
thought. Nothing to disturb my peace.
I am here! He's my God. I belong to him. Now, because I have willingly
given myself to Christ as a voluntary bond slave, I am completely under
the claims of his dominion. That's what it means to belong
to him. You remember in the Old Testament,
The man had a slave, a servant in his household. And the man
was a good master, and he took care of his servants. The servants'
year of freedom would come, and he would say, no, I love my master,
and I want to stay here with my master. And so therefore,
he would go down to the priest, and at the gates of the temple,
he would have his ear bored through with an awl. And the symbol of
that piercing of his ear testified to everybody, my master is a
good master. And though I might have my liberty,
and though I might have my freedom, I have willingly, deliberately,
voluntarily given myself, my wife, and my children for life
to his service. Now that's what a bond slave
is. That's what I am. I'm a bond
slave. A willing bond slave of Jesus
Christ. I am not my own. to follow my
own will. I am not my own to lend myself
to another. I am not my own to serve my own
interest, my own desires, and my own fancy. I am not my own
so that I have no property of my own. I have no rights of my
own, and I should have no will of my own. I voluntarily resign
everything to the claims of Christ. Oh Lord, here I am. In all my weakness and sin and
depravity, here I am and I am yours. I would be thine only. And though my will is perverse,
and though my will is yet defrayed, O Lord, force me to do your will. Force me to do your will. By the sweet constraint of your
grace, and by the powerful hand of your providence, force me that's best for your glory to
do your will. Now, since I belong to God, I have no legitimate concern
in this world but to glorify him. Since I belong to God, I have
no legitimate concern in this world but to glorify him. I don't know whether you realize
it or not, but that's a mouthful. That's a mouthful. I have no
legitimate concern but to glorify God my Savior. My heart's attitude, not just the words of my mouth,
but my heart's attitude ought to be, oh, I pray that God will
make it be. Father, glorify thy name. Now that's what I want. That's
what I want. I have no right to serve any
cause in this world except the glory of God my Savior. Everything
I am, everything I own, everything that is providentially under
my control, every relationship of my life must be subservient
to the glory of God. I'm a man like you. I have a wife. for, wife to love,
wife to provide for, to protect, and to guide. I have a daughter
to raise, to educate, to prepare for this world, to protect, to
guide, and to provide for. But my wife and my daughter,
everything under my control, my job, my house, my car, my
possessions, whatever it is, everything must must be subservient
to the glory of God. Everything. With Joshua, I say,
as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We will. I have
no control over the hearts of my family. No more than you do.
No more than you do. But I stand before God And I
say, my family, insofar as my dominion over them is concerned,
we will serve the Lord. I'll not allow my concerns for
them to interfere with my serving God. I'll not allow it. I'll
just not allow it. God helping me, I'm not going
to. Now, my flesh rebels against this complete subjection to my
God. And I know that I shall never
give the kind of allegiance to Christ that I desire to give
him in this world. But this is what I strive after.
I keep pressing for it. Commitment. Complete consecration
of my being to the glory of God. I want that more than anything
in this world. I want God to save sinners, but
I want God to be glorified more. I want God to use me. I want
God to be glorified more. I want God to bless you through
the ministry of the word. I want God to be glorified more.
I want God to protect my child. I want God to have mercy on my
child. I want God to care for my child, but I want God's glory
more. That's what I'm saying. I want,
oh God, I want commitment to the glory of God. Now this question I've been asking
myself for 19 years. How can I live in this world
for the glory of God? How can I? There are lots of
opinions and attitudes about it. Let me try to answer some
things that you're going to face. If you haven't already faced
them, you're going to. I cannot live in this world for
the glory of God by changing my attire, by dressing differently
from other people. There are many who have varying
degrees of this in our area here, quite the Shakers down here at
Shaker Town used to isolate themselves from everybody else and they
dressed a certain way and they thought that by dressing a certain
way they were glorifying God so that everybody would look
at them and say, my, those are dedicated Christians. Those folks
really love the Lord. You don't glorify God by changing
the way you dress. It doesn't make a bit of difference
how you dress, how conservatively you may dress, or how maud you
may dress. That doesn't have anything on
this earth to do with glorifying God. I can't glorify God by changing
my diet. Can't do that. There was a time
in my life as a believer And because of poor instruction and
poor understanding of things, I really thought the best way
to glorify God was to be again everything. And if it was possible
to be again it, I was again it. We didn't have this, we didn't
do that, we didn't go here, we didn't go there, we didn't participate
in this, we didn't wear the other thing, we didn't eat any pork.
No! That's bad pork. Well, listen to me. Those things
don't have a thing. The kingdom of God's not in meat
and drink. It's not in those things. The
kingdom of God's not out here in these things. The kingdom
of God does not lie in these outward things that men look
at and call evil. God's creation is not evil. I cannot glorify God by changing
my outward physical appearance or by isolating myself from other
people. That doesn't do anything to glorify God. It doesn't honor
Him in any way whatsoever. All of these notions, all of
these notions arise from what they used to call asceticism. That is the doctrine that evil
is out here, that evil is out here in God's creation. That's
the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. Because by being celibate, they
attain a higher spiritual life than those who are not celibate,
so as to imply that God's ordination that a man should not dwell alone
is an evil, corrupting vice. That's the whole doctrine of
asceticism. The fundamentalist says that you don't do this,
and you don't wear that, and you don't associate with this,
and you don't go there, and you don't eat this, and you don't
drink that, and what they're saying is evil is not in you,
evil is in God's creation. My friend, evil is in you. It's
in you. It's in you. There's not anything
God's made that's evil. What you and I do with it's what's
evil. That's what's evil. How can I glorify God? First of all, Paul says, glorify
God in your body. My body, which is the temple
of God, is to be used for the service of God's glory. You remember our Lord came into
the temple. He took out a whip and he drove the money changers
from the temple because they desecrated God's temple. They
desecrated God's temple. All they were doing was changing
money. They were making a little cash on the side on the Sabbath
day. And our Lord said, my father's house shall be called a house
of prayer. And he drove them out of the
house because that temple was for God and for God alone. Now
my friends, this is what I'm telling you. This body of flesh,
it is a temporary house for my soul. It is the temple of the
living God. That being the case, this body
of flesh is for the service of God alone. Now that's what it
is. It's for the service of God alone. I must endeavor to keep my body
under the rule of Christ, not giving in to the passions of
my sinful flesh. This is temperance. The Apostle
Paul said, since you're risen with Christ, mortify your members
that are upon the earth. Now usually when we talk about
mortifying the flesh, when we talk about pulling down the flesh
and keeping the body in rule and in subjection under the rule
of Christ, we talk about sensual lust. We talk about those lusts
that have to do with sexual There to be control. We must
recognize that, but also passions like malice, and envy, and greed,
and covetousness, and ambition. Passions like strife, and emulation,
and wrath, and variance. Passions such as those of of
ill temper and discontentment and mumbling and complaining.
We must keep under control to Christ the passions of this body. Those passions, the evil passions
of the flesh will not go away, but we are made kings and priests
unto God, so that by the Spirit of God we reign over this body. That's the reason the believer
does not walk in a manner that is contrary to the gospel. Oh
yes, he does much that's contrary to the gospel. But the believer
is a man whose heart is set for glory, and he walks in that path. Sometimes he bends, and sometimes
he turns, and sometimes he falls, but his heart, the consistent
character of his life, is set for God. Set for God. With these
bodies, we have two eyes, and we have peripheral vision. That
is, we can see in a lot of directions at one time. But the redeemed
man has one eye in his heart, and he has straightforward vision. for Christ. Set your affection. So love me that he is the only affection
you have. Set your affection things
above, not on things on the earth. I must employ my body continually
in the worship and service of my master. I must use my body
to serve and minister to my father's children. Whatever I do with
my body must be done as unto the Lord for the glory of God. I know that people have foolish
notions. They think that you You can have
no pleasure and no enjoyment in the world and that's foolish.
You folks who know me, I enjoy life. I do. I enjoy living here
in God's creation. I enjoy God's people. I enjoy
being with them. And I enjoy the harmless recreations
of life. I do. I enjoy football and boxing
as much as the next fellow. I enjoy watching those things.
But we just as much are to serve God in recreation as in labor,
just as much to serve the interest of his glory. Let me try to illustrate
it from here. My daughter honors me as her
father as much in her pleasurable recreation as she does in her
most demanding labor, just as much. Her attitude is what honors
me. Do you see that? Some fellow's gonna come along,
and daddy's no longer gonna be number one man in her life. She's
going to be another man's wife, in submission to another man's
rule, serving another man's interest, loving another man, giving herself
as a wife to another man. And I will be just as honored
as I am when she sits on my lap, kisses me on the cheek, says
your best daddy's words. Just as much so, for her attitude
reflects who I am. Her behavior in the pleasure
and in giving herself to another reflects everything about me.
What I'm saying is, everything you do, honor God. Do it for
his glory. Do it for his glory. And you
can be sure of this. We will glorify God in our bodies. within our spirits, in our inner
self, in our hearts, we glorify Him. Walk in the Spirit, Paul
said, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The best
way to keep our bodies from evil is to walk in the Spirit. Walk
in the Spirit. Walk before God. under the direction
and leadership of the Spirit. Now, this is by far the most
important. I want to honor God in my body, but I want more to honor God
in my spirit, in my heart, in my heart. I'll tell you how we
honor God in this world. A spirit of adoration, praise,
and thanksgiving. That honors God. That honors
God. I'm sure you have seen it. You
ever see a wife who's always grumbling and complaining? Never
have enough. My husband does this. My husband
doesn't do that. I wish we could live over here.
I wish we had that. Sure wish we could go here. Wish
we could go there. In her grumbling and complaining,
she's saying, I don't like the man who provides for me. She's
saying, I don't have any respect for the man that I am married
to. She's saying, I wish I had another.
I wish I had another. When we as believers grumble
and complain, murmur, we're saying, I wish somebody else That's what murmuring is all
about. That's what grumbling is all about. I wish somebody
else was ruling this world. Me, preferably. You ever see believers who sing just to adore God? Have a wonderful sentence. who are full of gratitude and
thanksgiving because of who God is and what God's done. You won't
hear that telegram from him a lot. You'll not hear him bad-mouthing
God because he adores God. Does that make sense, folks? We adore him. We don't bad-mouth
him. We adore him. He's God. We're the people of
his pasture. Let him be magnified. We walk
before him with thanksgiving, a spirit of faith. Oh, how that honors God. How
that honors God. I just believe God. You believe God? We say we do. Our Lord says, let not your heart
be troubled. You believe God, but do you believe
also in me? He said, don't be afraid. There he sits upon the throne
of total universal sovereignty. Now this is what he says, James.
He said, I've loved you ever since. He says, all things work
together for your good. That's what he says. But he says,
he'll even make your enemies to be at peace with you. He says,
a dog shall not bark against you. That's what he said. He
said, he said, when you pass through the flame, it'll not
kindle upon you. He said, when you, when you walk
through the rivers, they'll not overflow you. He said, I'll be
with you. I'll strengthen thee. I will
help thee. I will uphold thee by the right
hand of my righteousness. Amen. Here comes the fire and
the storm. Here comes trial and difficulty. How am I going to behave? Well, I'll tell you. I'll either
believe him or not. I'll either believe him or not. Faith. Spirit. Oh God, I want I can think of nothing that more honors our God than an easy thing. Just confident,
unruffled, unmurmuring, content, moderate, easy thing. That honors
Him. That honors Him. A spirit of
love that honors Him, for that's life. God is love. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. If you're ruled by the love of
Christ, ruled by a heart love for Christ and a heart love for
Christ's people, you'll honor God. I'll guarantee you. Love
and devotion to Christ and his people, that honors him. The
spirit of obedience. You remember Samuel came to Saul?
Saul had been commanded of God to slay the Amalekites and he
came back and kept some oxen and some cattle and he said,
we brought these sacrifices to the Lord. And Samuel said, it's
better to obey the sacrifice. He said, it's better to do what
God says than to pretend to do something for the honor of God.
It's better to obey God than to rebel against Him in a pretense
that you're going to do something for Him. If you want to honor
God, obey Him! But it doesn't seem reasonable
to me that we should kill all these oxen. It doesn't seem reasonable
to me that we should just waste all of these things. After all,
wouldn't it be better to bring these things to God? What does
God say? That's the issue. God says slay
the oxen. That's what He wants. It's better to obey Him than
to do anything else. Just implicit, believing obedience. A spirit of submission. Oh I pray father that you'll give
me grace day by day to willingly submit to the will of God and
the rule of providence to glorify our time are in thy hands father Humble yourselves, therefore,
unto the mighty hands of God. Submit yourselves unto the Lord. Submit. Just submit. Just submit. The easy way, the easy way to
live in this world is just to bow down and submit to God. Just submit. I don't know what
God's will is. Whatever He's doing is His will.
Whatever's coming to pass, that's His will. But my child's sick. Submit. But God's taken my, my
dad. Submit. But the Lord, looks like
the Lord's gonna take my wife. Submit. Submit. Just submit to
his will. Say something else that honors
him. The spirit of devotion. A wife who is devoted to her. I mean black devoted to her.
He need never worry about what she does or say. She's devoted
to her. She's devoted to her. Her heart,
her life, her energy, her strength, her mind, her attention, everything's
devoted to him. Devote yourself. Oh God, devoted to the glory of God. Devoted hearts honor the one
to whom they're devoted. Now, devotion involves self-sacrifice,
self-denial, commitment, faithfulness. That's what devotion is. It's
not talk. It's devotion. Let me tell you what God wants
from you. Where's Rosebud? He says, my
son, give me thine heart. Give me thine heart. Give me
thine heart. Now that's what God wants from
his children. Our hearts. Our hearts. And if God has our hearts, if
God has our hearts, We'll honor God with our bodies and not with
the chokers. Jonathan Edwards, if my memory serves me correctly,
his daughter married David Brainerd, the famous missionary. At any rate, Brainerd spent a
lot of time in Mr. Edwards' home. And after he got
to know him, this is what Jonathan Edwards said, He said, any gospel
that can produce a man like David Brangham is worthy of any man's
obedience. Any gospel that can produce a
man like David Brangham is worthy of any man's obedience. I want
to honor God in just that. So that by my life and by my
body and by my spirit, I say to men everywhere, look what
the gospel of God's grace does for sinners like me. Don't ever forget who you are. I keep telling my daughter, She's
getting to the age she's going to be spending a lot of time
away from me. And I keep telling her, don't
ever forget who you are. Don't ever forget. Your name
is important. Whatever you do, whatever you
do, doesn't just reflect on you. It reflects on me and your mother. It reflects on the family. Don't
forget who you are. Children of God, don't ever forget
who you are. Everything you do reflects on
your father. Take it. Don't ever forget to
whom you belong. You're not your own. You're both
of a kind. Don't ever forget why you're
here. God did not leave you on this
earth to accumulate gold, He did not leave you on this earth
to make for yourself a reputation. He did not leave you on this
earth to gather an estate. God did not leave you on this
earth to preserve something for your next generation. God left
you on this earth to glorify him. To glorify him. You're not your own. You're bought
with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body. and in your spirit which are
God's. Amen.