I'll try and be as expeditious as I can. We'll not take you to Micah chapter number six, which is where our text verse comes from for this entire series that we've been preaching on the subject of some things that you must do. Not things necessarily that God is responsible for, but things that God holds us responsible for. Can I say tonight we live in a generation that wants to put everything on God and don't want a God that requires anything out of them. But the Bible said in Micah chapter 6 that he hath showed the old man what doth the Lord require of thee. But to walk justly and to love mercy and things of that nature. Micah chapter 6 verse number 8. We've been looking at all these different things that the New Testament tells us that you must do. We looked at save yourselves. Acts chapter 2. When we said save yourself, we ain't talking about save yourself as far as from sin. But he said, save yourself from this untoward generation. Get away from that crowd that's going to pull you back into your sin. Look to save yourself. Last Sunday night we looked at encourage yourself and speaking to yourselves in Psalms and in spiritual songs and building up yourselves. And we've looked at examine yourself and all these different things the Bible tells us to do. And tonight we're going to look at another one in Romans chapter number 6. And we'll start in verse number 11. Romans chapter 6, verse number 11. Keep your Bibles open. We'll be preaching through several chapters in the book of Romans. We'll even hit some verses that we hit this morning if the Lord be our helper. Romans chapter 6, verse 11. If you found your place, say amen. The apostle Paul said, likewise reckon. I like my King James Bible. You know what you end up finding the more you read your King James Bible? You find that all that old southern redneck speak that people give you grief for, you find out that all them old southerners got it out of a King James Bible. Words like reckon, things like shut to the door, you know, pull the door to, that's in the book over there. And all kind of other euphemisms that we use down South, you find out that it was Southern people that read their Bible and Southern people taught the King James Bible. I like it. People all the time, I preach up North and I'll say, well, I reckon, I reckon, I reckon, give me a hard time, it's in your book, man. It says, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Notice at the beginning of verse 11 he said, to reckon ye also yourselves. So tonight for a few minutes I'm going to preach on this subject, things that you must do is reckon yourselves. reckon yourselves. Paul, as a good southern boy from the southern tribe of Benjamin, uses this good southern word, reckon. Matter of fact, Paul uses it more than anybody else in the New Testament. Paul uses it exclusively in the book of Romans, and he uses the word about a half a dozen times throughout the book of Romans in chapter 4 and chapter 6 and in chapter 8 and we'll look at them tonight. And the word reckon simply is an accounting term. The word reckon means this, I don't miss this, the word reckon means to esteem. It means to consider. It means to account or to compute something. Can I say this evening at the onset of the message, you and I are to esteem, we are to consider, we are to account, and we are to reckon that what God says is right regardless of how we feel and regardless of what the world says. This evening, you and I, as God's people, should account, esteem, and reckon tonight that what God says in that book is the truth, regardless of what the liberal news media says about it. We should account, reckon, or esteem that the words of this book are the absolute truth, regardless of what the educational system at the college or at the public school says about it. We are to account, reckon, or esteem the words of this book, are the truth, and we're to live by them, regardless of what some preachers in pulpits may say about it. Can I say this evening, a long time ago, Brother Kevin Stewart, I divorced myself from any opinion but the opinion of this book. And it will be a happy day in your life, child of God, when you start raising your family, when you start guiding your home, when you start living your life by the mandates and the dictates of the scripture and not by any other measuring stick in your life tonight. That's why we preach the Bible around here. That's why we teach the Bible around here. That's why we believe the Bible around here. Because when everybody else fails, and when every other opinion gets shot full of holes, the Word of God is the foundation that we can always build our life upon, and it's always right. I give this illustration on a regular basis because it is so applicable to this truth that I'm dealing with right now. But Brother Charlie, when I was doing my flight and pilot training as an 18-year-old boy and learning how to fly, one of the first exercises they teach you is to fly under what they call the hood. And when they put you under this hood, it blocks out all of your peripheral references. It takes out all of your vision outside of the cockpit of the airplane, brother Paul. And all you can do is focus on the instruments. And that pilot in command will tell you to close your eyes. And he'll get the airplane in some messed up attitude. He'll pull flaps or add power, pull power. He'll mess with the trim. He'll get it in a bank or a sin or a descent. And then he'll tell you, open your eyes. And you are to right the ship. You are to fix the plane by one measuring stick. Not by being able to see the horizon because you can't see it. You are to fix the plane. Brother Greg, by what the instruments tell you. And the reason they do this, Brother Peanut, is there are times in the career of any pilot where you wind up flying into clouds. And when you fly into clouds, you can't see nothing. I mean, and you don't know. Your own body will literally tell you that you're ascending and banking to the right when in actuality you're descending and banking to the left. Many, many pilots have wound up in clouds, stopped trusting the instruments, started trusting what their body told them, and they punched out the bottom of the clouds and ran right into the dirt and killed them and any poor unfortunate passengers that they had on board. It happens on a weekly basis. I read NTSB reports all the time. of pilots that stop trusting the instruments and they start trusting what they feel because they could not see with their own eyes. And it ends up killing them. And what they always tell you is this. The instruments are always right. It doesn't matter how you feel. It doesn't matter what your body or your inner ear tells you. You reckon that the instruments are right. Even though you can't see the horizon. Even though you can't see the ground. Even though you can't see outside. The instruments are always right. Fly the plane by the instruments. And can I tell you tonight, God's give us an instrument that is totally right. God's give us an instrument that is 100% accurate. And when you get in storms of life, and when we're in times of life where the clouds of this world rolls in and obscures your pathway, you can always go to the instrument and it is always right. As a matter of fact, it's going to take you there, but I ain't got time tonight. Psalm 119 verse 128, this is what David said. Psalm 119 verse 128, Brother Joe, David said this. David said, therefore, I esteem. That Old Testament word, esteem, is the New Testament word for reckon. He said, therefore, I esteem all thy words concerning all things to be right. And I hate every false way. In other words, David said, I have reckoned and I have esteemed that all your words concerning every subject, it's right. And I hate anybody or the things that would talk against it. Listen to me. We all ought to get to the place where we say I have reckoned that the book I hold in my lap It is my final authority in how to walk how to talk how to live how to act where to go what to do how to raise my family how to dress what I ought to watch what art to listen to reckon the book to be right this evening Because it is. Now there are several things in Romans that we as God's people need to reckon ourselves with. There are several things we need to esteem, we need to consider, and we need to reckon to be right. Gonna give you all three of them real quick, and I'll turn you loose. Real quick, we'll turn you loose. Go to chapter number four. Chapter number four, we're gonna walk through several chapters. Chapter four is where we'll start. Number one, we see there needs to be a reckoning on salvation. There needs to be a reckoning on salvation. I'm not going to cover all this material because we covered some of it this morning in our preaching hour. But Romans chapter number 4, we find like this morning that Paul is talking about Abraham and how Abraham would just begin reading in verse number 3. Romans chapter 4 verse 3, if you're with me say Amen. The Bible said, for what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Verse 4, now to him that worketh is the reward not, here's our word, reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is, same word as reckon, is counted. Remember I told you the word reckon means to esteem, to account, to consider. His faith is reckoned. His faith is counted for righteousness. Now, let me just say this before I move on in this text real quick about this reckoning of salvation. God wants you, as a child of God, to get to a place where you reckon that what He says about your salvation is absolutely true this evening. You say, well, I believe... No, there's a lot of people of God that they don't believe what God said about their own salvation. They doubt it, they question it, and they just cannot consider. They just cannot esteem. They just cannot believe. They just cannot reckon the fact that what God said about their salvation, that God would impute His righteousness to them without work, simply by faith. Sometimes that's hard to believe this evening. Watch this other word he uses later in chapter number 4. Another great Bible word that means much of the same thing as reckon is the Bible word impute or imputed. Look at chapter 4 and come all the way down to verse number 20. Chapter 4 verse number 20. Chapter 4, verse 20, the Bible said, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, speaking of Abraham, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, what God had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness. God reckoned it to him. God gave it to him. God just put it in his account. imputed it to him for righteousness. Now, verse 23, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also. This is written for you and me. To whom it shall be imputed, conditional, here's how it's imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. You say, what happens to a man that the Lord imputes? The Lord reckons his righteousness too. Back up to verse number 8. Look at chapter 4 verse 8. What happens to a man like that? Chapter 4 verse 8. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Wow! I know practically I still have to be dealt with for my sin. We'll look at that in point two, but positionally God does not impute my sin to me any longer. Positionally in Christ, my sins are on Jesus and his righteousness has been reckoned and imputed to me. Can you accept that and believe it? Because if you can, brother, we'll catch you somewhere down yonder at the stop sign around Lane Street shouting, you're a fool. The idea that all that trash you done back before you got saved, and all that trash you probably gonna do on this side of being saved, that God doesn't impute it to you anymore. That blesses my soul. I want y'all to know, I told you this is an accounting term is what this is. That's what this imputation thing is. That's what this reckoning thing is. It's an accounting term. And so here's what you got. Here you got my bank account. This is the bank account of Cody Zorn. And the bank account of Cody Zorn, it's way overdrawn. The bank account of Cody Zorn, it's got a lot of penalties against God and His law. The bank account of Cody Zorn's righteousness, it's way in debt. I mean it's so far in debt, brother. It's way in the red. I'll never get myself out of the debt and the penalties and the overdrawn status that I owe God. I owe a debt that I cannot pay, and I'm in a mess. On the other side, this is Christ's bank account. And in Christ's bank account are all the riches of God. In Christ's bank account, it is overflowing. In Christ's bank account, it's inexhaustible grace. It's inexhaustible mercy. It's inexhaustible riches of heaven. On this side, there's grace, mercy, peace, and life. On this side, there's judgment, damnation, and death. That's my account, and it's a mess. But over here on this side is the Lord Jesus' account, and it's a good one. And what happened to me the night that I came to Christ, the night that I was born again? God reckoned it like this. God took this in this bank account and plopped it over into my bank account. And God took all of my messed up account and He reckoned it to His Son, sent it back 2,000 years, dropped it on an old rugged cross. And now when God looks at me, He no longer sees my messed up account, but He sees the account. He sees the righteousness of His Son. He imputed it. He reckoned it to me tonight. Amen. Now y'all listen to me, y'all listen to me. Brother Kent, if somebody tonight was to walk up to you, some stranger walk up to you and say, hey, you are a multi-millionaire right now. I have deposited millions and millions of dollars in your bank account. I mean tonight. So yeah, amen, Brother Carl, praise God. I mean, look here, all of a sudden somebody come your way, and Brother Zach, they said, you ain't never gotta worry about nothing anymore financially. I mean, just millions of dollars are in your account. I mean, you'd probably sit there and say, well, you know what, that sounds good. But listen to me, nobody in this building would believe it. Listen to me, listen to me. Brother Trey, nobody in this building would believe it, Brother Cliff, until you saw the bank statement. And when you laid eyes on the bank statement written in black and white, whereas before you've seen all of them debit charges that got you overdrawn by $30, $50, $60. Doggone it woman, I told you not to order that on Amazon. Now I'm $15 overdrawn in my account. I'm not preaching to anybody tonight. All of a sudden, though, you pull up Bank of America, you pull up Wells Fargo, you pull up First National, you pull up Fifth Third, and all of a sudden, you look at it, and it ain't overdrawn. Brother, there are millions and millions and millions of dollars. All of a sudden, when you see it in black and white, it really means something to you. You really start believing it. Can I say tonight, that's what this book is tonight. It's my bank statement with God. It's my bank record with God. And if you want to know what good graces, if you want to know what kind of riches you got in Jesus, if you want to know what God deposited in your bank account when you got saved, pull out the bank book. Look at the bank book. It's written in black and white of what God deposited and reckoned when you got saved. That's why I thank God for the book. That's why, Brother James, I thank God for the book. Brother Devaughn, thank God for the book. Without it, all what I'm preaching tonight would almost be too good to be true. But when I start reading my bank statement, and I start seeing what I just read to you, that I've been imputed His righteousness, whoo, glory. He reckoned it to me. That's why I love my Bible tonight, Brother Parks. That's like I heard that story one time about this old gal that she was yard sailing one day and she was out digging through and rummaging through and looking at all this, you know, all the trash that everybody else wanted to get rid of but now it's become a treasure to her. And she found this book. And this book was written by this certain author. And she thought, well, this kind of looks interesting. I think I'll buy it. And I'll take it home and probably read it. And she got that book, and time passed, and she never read it. And she finally just took that book, and she just stuck it up in her closet. And it just started gathering dust. She didn't think nothing else about it. Some months later she ended up meeting this kind fella through course of life at her job and they struck up conversation. He was a customer there and they started talking to each other. He was a nice looking fella. He was a kind gentleman. Talked well. Brother Dan. And they started meeting and eating together and they fell in love. And one day they were eating supper together, brother Jimmy. And while they was eating supper together, she thought to herself, she said, you know what? It occurred to me, your name sounds so familiar. Your name sounds so familiar. He said, well, I don't know, you know, maybe where you have heard of it. She says, no, I'm telling you somewhere in my mind, I know your name. It's so familiar to me. She said, I know what it was. I bought a book at a yard sale one time, and the author's name was your name. Go figure. Ain't that crazy? He said, well, that's not too crazy. She told him the name of the book. He said, I wrote that book. I'm the author of that book. And by this time, she had already been engaged to him. I mean, brother, she's ready to get married. She loves this guy. She said, you wrote that book? He said, yeah, I'm the author of that book. I wrote that book years ago. That woman, when she got done with that date, she run back home and started looking through her closet, reaching up and grabbing stuff off, and she got that book up there, it was all dusty, and she pulled that book up off and she dusted it off. Brothers, she couldn't wait. That old book that didn't mean nothing to her at one time, now she knew the author. Now she was in love with the author. And brothers, she sat there all night long, And she couldn't put it down. I mean, she was spellbound. She read chapter after chapter. She read line after line. I mean, she stayed up all night long till she finally read the book. You know what made the difference in that woman wanting to read that book? She fell in love with the author. When she didn't love the author of the book, the book didn't mean a whole lot. I'm telling you if you ever fall in love with the one who reckoned us into the family of God, you'll fall in love with the bank statement and want to read it. Reckon yourselves, there needs to be a reckoning on salvation. Secondly, chapter 6, our text, chapter 6, there needs to be a reckoning on sin and service. There needs to be a reckoning in your life on sin and service. Chapter 6, verse 1. Chapter 6, verse 1. Paul said, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Just because we've been reckoned and imputed the righteousness of Christ, that doesn't give us license or ability to live like a bunch of carnal heathens. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, That our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more, death has no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, Just like Jesus died, buried, rose again, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. Y'all listen to me. One of the hardest things you're going to do in your Christian life is to reckon yourselves, account yourselves, esteem yourself to be dead to sin. I think it's gonna be the hardest exercise of your Christian life is getting to the place where you say, uh-uh, flesh, can't say that, I'm dead to that. Uh-uh, flesh, can't look at that, I'm dead to that. Uh-uh, flesh, can't say that, can't do that, can't go there, can't think that, I'm dead to that. And that old flesh says, but you ain't dead, look at you. Yeah, but I'm to reckon it so. I'm to esteem it so. I'm to account it so. Why? Because my book said I was. You say, but I ain't. But the book said you are. Who you gonna believe? Remember where we started? But preacher, I'm still alive. Yeah, but Paul said I'm crucified with Christ. I'm dead to sin. That's why Paul said this. Paul said, I die daily. Every day I have to die. That's why Jesus said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Y'all know what bearing the cross is about? It's about dying to self. You know these people, Brother Hunter got this idea, well, you know, I got trouble in my life, that's my cross to bear. No, that's not what bearing the cross is about. Bearing the cross is an instrument of execution. That's what the cross is, it's an instrument of execution, it's an instrument of death. You are to daily pick up your cross and die on it. A dead man can't do nothing. You're to render that old man, that man before you met Christ, that woman before you met Christ, you are to reckon them to be dead. I don't think like they think no more. I don't go where they go no more. I don't act like they act no more. I don't have the same rotten attitude they had no more. I don't talk the same words they talk no more. I don't watch the same stuff they watch no more. I don't listen to the same music they listen to anymore. I don't wear the same clothes they wore no more. I hang out with a different crowd than they hung out with. I'm dead. That guy, that girl, she died. That old man's dead. You know what your flesh is? This is why it's so tough. This is why this point's so tough about you have to reckon it dead, because your flesh is like a spoiled rotten brat. I want it! How many times you ever been at the You know the grocery store at the Walmart's and and some mama be there trying to check out and about the time she trying to check out Some little spoiled rotten brat that ain't never been told. No ain't never had a belt put on their tail Ain't never been spanked with a paddle or a switch. I mean all of a sudden that young and I want this I want that I want the other no, you can't have that Hush, hush, you gonna embarrass me. Honey, you embarrassing yourself by putting up with that trash. They grab them by the hand, start pulling them out, and they do this, you know, I'm dead limp treatment. They're dragging them out. You better quit. I'm gonna spank you when we get home. Stop lying. That's why that little devil does that. You ain't never spanked him. That's your flesh. Your flesh, your flesh craves. Your flesh needs. Your flesh demands. Your flesh wants. I want it. I'm going to have it. Give it to me. I want it. And some of you ain't never got to a place where you say, no, you're dead. No. No, flesh, you're not going to respond to your wife like that. Shut up, you're dead. No, flesh, you're not going to respond to your husband in that kind of rebellious backslid way. Shut up, flesh. No, flesh. You are not going to talk to your mom and daddy like that. Shut the slam the door in their face and run off and be like some little rebellious either. No, flesh. You're dead. Oh, look at that. No, flesh. A dead man don't look at stuff. Dead. Are you dead? Saying, oh yeah, I ain't. You're wrecking yourself to be dead. You're to constantly remind yourself, I'm a dead man, I'm a dead man, I'm a dead man. I want everybody to understand something tonight. Contrary to a lot of our Church of God Pentecostal brethren and charismatic brethren, your flesh did not get eradicated at the new birth. Do you know why, do you know why that that fifth and final verse that Brother Jack sung this morning is not in our hymn book? Dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose his power. Till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. You know why that verse is not in our hymn book? I believe, I reckon, and I esteem this hymn book to be the best hymn book that there is on the market. I like it the best out of all of them. But I'm not ignorant. I know who prints that hymn book. You say, who? The Church of God church out of Cleveland, Tennessee prints it. And so when they came to, there's a fountain filled with blood, and they read that verse, till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more, they said, uh-uh, we believe we're not sinning now. We don't believe that we got to wait to a day where we sin no more. We're living sinlessly now in perfect unbroken fellowship, and we don't sin right now. Listen to me, that's a lie hatched out of hell. And if you're sitting here and you're thinking, well, I live imperfect, I ain't never sinned, then what happens when you do sin? Because you do. John said, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. I'm assuming you're just getting born again and again and again and again and again and again. No, what you better finally figure out and realize is, as a child of God, you have two natures. You got an old nature that you got to kill every day, and it's still just as wicked as the day God saved it. But God gave you a new nature through the power of the Holy Ghost, and you're to yield yourself to this new nature and not to the old one. So I'm talking about reckoning yourself on sin. You're to reckon yourself to be dead. But it's not just a reckoning on sin. It's a reckoning on service. Look at what he said here. Watch. Keep reading. Chapter 6, verse 11 said this. Likewise, wrecking ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. But it's not just about sin, it's about service. I'm to be dead to that, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Keep reading. Let not sin therefore reign. in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of righteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under the race? God forbid! Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey? His servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. You say, what's he saying? He's saying, now that you've been saved and born again, I am not only to esteem, account, and reckon myself to be dead to sin, but I am to esteem, account, and reckon that this little piece of dirt that I have, it belongs to God, and he is the king over it. He is the ruler and the reigner over it, and he is to control everything in my life. My life that I now live, I am his loyal subject. I'm his servant. You know what that means? David, that means I can't do what I want to do. He's the king and the king, brother Randy, tells me what I can do. He tells me what I do about everything. When you read about kingship in the Bible, we don't understand kingship in America. I'm done. We don't understand kingship in America. We haven't had a king. Last king we had was in the 1770s. We got sick and tired of him. Threw his tea out into the Boston Harbor. Declared war on him. Kicked him out. Praise God. God bless you. You just sat through American history class. We don't know nothing about kingship. But when you read about kingship in the Bible and kingship in history, a king is someone that has absolute authority into your life. Total intrusion. If He wants what you got, He can take it. If He wants your stuff, He can have it. If He tells you to go there, you go. If He tells you to do this, you do it. Can I tell you, that's what God reckons for your life when it comes to Jesus Christ. Not just that you're dead to sin, but whatever He says, we do it. Wherever He says, we go. He runs the show, he calls the shots. We're to reckon ourselves, servants. We're to reckon ourselves on sin. We see the reckoning on salvation. Lastly, one more verse and we're out of here. Romans 8, Romans 8. Lastly, we find there's a reckoning on suffering. I appreciate that good song Brother David and his family sang. There is a reckoning on suffering. I said one verse. Could we read verse 17 and 18? Would you not throw rotten tomatoes at me if I read two verses? Verse 17. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ. If so be that we, I'm telling you this is a reckoning on suffering. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Verse 18. For I reckon Here's our last reckoning of Paul. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. What an amazing statement. Most of y'all sit in my adult Sunday school class. You know what kind of sufferings, Brother Heath, that Paul went through. Beaten with rods, beaten with stripes, stoned, shipwrecked. I mean, he's been through a lot of suffering. And Paul says all that suffering, it's not even worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. He said, when I reckon my sufferings up against what's coming down the road, they're not even apples to apples. They're not even the same ballpark. I can't even compare them this what's coming is so much greater Than what I've gone through You know what to help you in your Christian life if you get to the place where you esteem you account you reckon that what's coming is far greater than what you're going through down here. So many Christians get the mully grubs, they get the pooch mouth, and they get discouraged and they quit. You know why? Because they get their eyes off of what's over there, and they get their eyes on what's going on down here. But if you ever get your eyes, Brother Blake, on what's going on over there and what's coming down the road, brother, lookie here. It'll make you like Paul said, it ain't even worthy to be compared tonight. How could Paul say that? How could Paul say that? Listen to me. I'm going somewhere with this. He could say that because about 15 years prior to when he wrote this, about 15 years prior to when he wrote this, he got stoned at Lystra. And when he got stoned at Lystra, according to 2 Corinthians 12, he had an out-of-the-body experience, Brother David Fields. And he got caught up to the third heaven. And he saw the glory world, the holy city, the new Jerusalem. He saw no more death, no more crying, no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, no more heartache, no more devil. He saw all of that. And when he come back, he said, You know why I sing in the jail cell? You know why I preach when they cuss me? You know why I serve God in spite of all of it? Because I done seen what's coming, and this ain't nothing compared to that. This ain't nothing compared to the glory that's coming. You say, but preacher, but preacher, I ain't seen what Paul's seen. Nope, but you've read about it. The Apostle John gets to write down what Paul saw. God wouldn't let Paul write about it. God said, Paul, you keep quiet. You can't write about it. But old John in the Revelation, in chapter number 21 and 22, he saw that golden city. He saw that city four square. He saw that mini mansion city. He saw a place where the lamb and the wolf lay down together. He saw a place where the little child leads the lion around. He saw a place where there was no more disease, and there was no more devil, and there was no more discouragement, and there was no more depression, and there was no more death. And brother, I've read about it. I've seen it by the eyes of faith. I read it in my bank book. And if that's what's waiting on me, and it is, then this life ain't nothing. You can live for God. You can serve the Lord. You can walk with Jesus in spite of heartaches, but you've got to reckon it. to be so. Of times the day seems long, our trials hard to bear. We're tempted to complain, to murmur and despair. But Christ will soon appear and he'll catch his bride away. All tears forever over in God's eternal day. And it will be worth it all When we see Jesus Life's trials will seem so small When we see Christ One glimpse of His dear face And all our sorrows we'll erase So bravely run the race till we see Christ. It's gonna be so small, you just got to reckon yourselves. If you ain't careful, you'll get way down in the dumps, and you'll think, whoa, it's me, and I got it bad, and this is terrible. But if you start changing your perspective and reckoning that to this, It's not even worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. I'm not gonna give an invitation tonight. It's late and I'm gonna let you go. But I would like for you to, in the still moment while I pray here, I'd like for you to just say, Lord, help me to reckon myself. Help me to reckon what you said about salvation to be so. Help me to reckon tomorrow throughout my day, my life. Help me to reckon my life when it comes to sin and service to be what your book said I should be. Dead to sin, alive to God. And help me to reckon that the sufferings of this present time is nothing compared to heaven. Don't let the sufferings of this time knock you out. Don't let the sufferings of this present time bother you so bad that you quit. It's gonna be worth it all when we get there. reckon yourselves. Let's pray. Father, it's been a mighty good day to be in church with you people. I appreciate each and every one that's come by this way today. God, they didn't have to. They wanted to. They wanted to hear something from the scripture. They wanted to fellowship with God's people. They wanted to be around the singing and the preaching of the word of God. And for that, I'm supremely thankful Lord, I love you folk, and I thank you for you folk. I pray the preaching today has been a help and a blessing to them. God, in my own personal study, it has helped and strengthened my soul. I'm glad the Word of God does that for us. Now, God, I pray as we go about our day tomorrow that you would help us to reckon ourselves. When we get up in the morning, help us go ahead and crucify that old man. Lord, I find that old man, he especially rears his head first thing in the morning. I'm a little groggy. I'm a little bit irritable. I haven't had my first cup of coffee and sometimes I can be a little snappy first thing in the morning. Help me, Lord, to get up and immediately become alive to God, dead to myself, dead to my sin. Lord, how much different many of our home environments would be in the morning if mama and daddy and children would all get up in the morning and immediately awake to righteousness. Immediately die to self and live to God. Reckon our self. Help us to do that Lord. Make a conscious effort. Bless your people. Keep them in your marvelous care. Look after them. Protect them. And we'll give you the thanks and the glory for it in Jesus name. Amen.