Talking to the Lord this morning again about this, I said, Lord, how come you don't let me just stick with a subject and go through it? And again, he reminded me, he does not write his book that way. You'll read one verse, and it'll look like it'll be completely segregated from everything else around it. You'll read a portion of a scripture, and then all of a sudden, it's like a totally different thing and all in the same chapter. I got an email, and I read one thing, and it just jumped out at me. And I said, well, how in the world can I describe this Well, try to do it this way. I got saved back in 1973, so did my wife. I got saved May 20th, she got saved December the 9th, same year. She thought she was saved up till then, till the Lord finally started dealing with her seriously. And she said, Lord told me this baby go to heaven and I wouldn't. I said, what do you want to do about it? You don't want to pray now? You want to wait and talk to somebody at church? The one thing that bothered me at that moment was I don't want to get in between her and God. And we were in a church that was a big soul winning church. I mean, you know, nothing greater than to walk in a church and say, I led my wife to the Lord. And I said, no, Lord, you're gonna do this thing, you do it. And she got saved that evening on the concrete steps, praying with a woman named Rosalie Tennis. And I'll never forget those teardrops all over that concrete. Why? Because just a few months before, I wept my way down a hundred foot of aisle and I couldn't see. That's what the Lord is interested in us, by the way. He wants our heart, he wants our affection. You don't have hardly anything else he cares about, you know that? What do you got to give him back that he didn't give you to start with? He wants your affection, he does. That's what he desires. He said, why are you so interested in that, God? God is love. I told you, I'm love. He said, that's why I like that so much. Anyway, I got saved out in this church, Central Baptist Church. They were running 3,000 to 5,000. They had up to 10,000 one Sunday in the L.A. fairgrounds. They had 100 in their choir. They had 50 buses. In the Sunday school, my wife and I taught second grade. I taught boys and she taught girls. They had six second grade Sunday school classes. And I have no idea how many more of the other ones. And we weren't running five or 10, we were running 25 to 35, and once in a while, we'd hit 40 in our class. Had a kindergarten to 12th grade, American Christian Academy. They had an Awana program, they had a college program for the Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College students. They had a campus out there in the West Covina Hills. They had cantatas, they had animated cantatas. They bought a whole strip mall. They set up kindergarten to 12th in 1977. They had radio broadcasts delayed. I was running the sound room, and I'd have to start the thing and put it on tape and start recording the message. And then a few minutes after that, I would have to cut in and start running that tape on radio. And then partway through that, when that ran out, I had to have the other one finished, queued up, and be able to cut it back in. Then they had TV programs. They had cassette ministries and all the other stuff. They had special music groups. They had the Gaithers in there, the Blackwoods, Ray Hart, Weatherfords, Tennessee Temple and Heil Singers. We had a lot of special speakers. Some of these you've probably heard of, some of you might not have heard of. Had John R. Rice, Jack Hiles, Bob Gray, Lee Robertson, John W. Peterson, the guy that wrote a bunch of your songs, Hyman Appleman, Harlan Popoff, Richard Wurmbrandt, Lester Roloff, Peter Rugman, Wally Beebe, Joe Boyd, Bill Rice, Russell Anderson. You say, who's Russell Anderson? He's the money behind Hiles Anderson College. What'd he speak on? He spoke on money. The woman that wrote Gates of Splendor, she came out. J. Vernon McGee came out there and he spoke. Now, you'd think with all that stuff, you'd have a good foundation. I mean, we get saved, got right in all that great stuff going on. When I think about that church, that's the stuff I think about. I think about all the things that they had going on and what kind of a church it was and all the rest of the stuff. In addition to that, you know, I kind of think about the little bad things that happened. From there, we went over to Bible Baptist here in Pensacola. We were there for 18 years. They have lots of stuff. They got a huge ministry over there. They got 600. They got a Bible Institute over there, and they're graduating students every year. They got radio broadcast for years before we came, and I guess they're still doing it. They got TV and a printing ministry, and they got preachers who call to preach. They come there and study and go all around the world. They got missionaries all over the place. Then we left there and we went to Colonial Baptist. Colonial Baptist, we were there for about a year before we came here. And that place, they had dinner on the grounds, and Wednesday night, and Sunday night, and desserts, and they had Kite Sunday, and go camp out as a church, and stuff like that. Then we came here, Walnut Avenue Baptist Church. So what's going on at Walnut Avenue Baptist Church? Well, I think of Walnut Avenue Baptist Church, I think of a place that's really friendly, very little contention. Most of the people here have one mind and one accord, you know, we got very precious seed and we've got missionaries that we support and just a comfortable place, there's good fellowship. That's what I think about. You say, what's the whole point? Well, the point is over in Matthew 5, Matthew 5. You say, what are you trying to show us? Well, I'm not going to show you anything. I hope the Lord will. We've been rattling on for three years now about the Laodicean church and about all this other stuff. And the Lord just kind of, look at that. Verse 13, I've heard these things preached on many, many times in the years that I've been saved. But you're the salt of the earth. But if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under the foot of men. Hear the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on the candlestick. And it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. See, how does that connect back to what you were just talking about? Do you understand what I just told you is what I think about the churches that I've been a member of? Do you realize what's missing? Every one of those churches, if they'd have been preaching and teaching the right thing, my attention would not have been drawn to that church and that ministry. It would have been drawn straight back to God, and that's the truth. Now, I'm not criticizing these people. That's God's job, it's not mine. But when the Lord started opening the mind or standing to who he actually is and the things that he's done, I'm just absolutely in awe of how much I have missed of all the stuff that he's done. Because just before Joan got sick, I was literally a miserable Christian. I was doing that which was my duty to do. And I felt a little bit like Martha, I really did. I mean, I'm doing it, it's got to be done, somebody's got to do it. Well, you just keep on doing it. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. Where's the passion? Where's the joy? Where is that light burden, an easy yoke? Where are those things? Well, I think back on these churches, and my attention does not go to God. Now, they say it tongue-in-cheek. Well, at Central Baptist, we were baptizing 35 to 50 every Sunday. I mean, there was times when baptism lasted longer than preaching. Seriously, baptized 2,000, how many of them had professions? A whole lot more than that. You think about a great big church and a modern church and all this great stuff that they were doing, your attention is on the church. Now how many churches have you been in? You start thinking about those churches. Is your attention and your heart and your focus on God? Or is it on the stuff that was being done in that church, specific to that church? It's about the ministry. You think about Pensacola Christian. Does that instantly draw your attention to God? And glorify your Father which is in heaven. Your works are supposed to be like this. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. You know what's going on? The ones that are doing the good works are getting glorified. They'd give out a red jacket to anybody that had 100 on their bus. And you'd wear those red jackets. I'm somebody. That's kind of tongue-in-cheek, but that's the stuff they do to get people to get the work done that they want to get done. And they pat so-and-so on the back, and they have in all these big names like I was telling you about. Why? Because the more important the people are that we have here, the more important our church is. That's what it's all about. If we can get President George Bush to come down here and speak, we'd be really important. You understand what I'm saying? Where's the attention? The attention is not where it belongs. And God says, I know thy works. What works? The good works. Thou art neither cold nor hot. What cold or hot, God? I've got fervor for my church. Boy, I've got a passion for working for my church. He said, I don't want your passion on that church and that work and that facility and that personality of that thing. I want your passion on me. And when you're doing all these things and your attention is on Marcus Point Baptist Church, Olive Baptist Church, it ain't on God. Oh, well, that's understood. No, that's like the mascot that I've been telling you about. That's what's been going on. He said, what's that got to do with anything? Well, I'd sure like to start thinking that people are beginning to see a little bit of the glory of God through this place. As a result of what? As a result of just whatever you do that's the right thing to do with the right motive and the right passion. I mean, I would hate to think that all people think, well, it's Walnut Avenue Baptist Church. If this thing doesn't draw your attention to your Creator, it's just simply a mess. Why aren't any of the churches drawn back that way? So that you glorify your Father. They're looking in the wrong direction, the focus in the wrong place. People have the desire to feel like they have a sense of accomplishment. They want to feel like they're doing something. You want to know where that showed up the first time? It showed up in Cain. That's the first place it showed up. And it was all about him, and he wanted to feel like he was getting something done for God. It's he that worketh in us, both to will and do of his good pleasure. You cannot take credit for any single thing you've ever done that was good since you've been saved. And if you try to, if in your heart you think, well, I did this and I did this, and you get some kind of a sense of satisfaction out of it, you're trying to take His glory and He'll not give it to another. You're not going to get it. What you need to do is you need to realize who he is and that he's the one that's doing all of this stuff, and that you ought to have a sense of gratitude because he is sharing it with you and letting you in on it. Anyway, who's the most predominant Old Testament saint you can think of? You got Adam, you got Noah, you got Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, Daniel, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Solomon. You know, of all of those guys, Who do you think is the most predominant Old Testament saint? Well, I think it's David. You know, over there in 1 Samuel, it talks about him being anointed king. Was David anointed king before he killed Goliath or after? How many think it's after? Anointed king after he killed Goliath. How many before? Well, those two are right. The rest of you guys are wrong. He was anointed king in 1 Samuel 16 and 17 is where he killed Goliath. Anyway, what is it about David that was so different? What about New Testament saints? Who do you think the most predominant New Testament saint is? You got Peter, James, John, John the Baptist, Paul. No question about it. There's Paul. What is there about Paul and David? What do those two people have in common? What do you think it is? I mean, if you go over there and you read something, you can go over to Samuel. Let's read Samuel for a minute. This is in 1 Samuel 17, 32 to 37. And David said unto Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Thy servant will go and fight with the Philistine. And Saul said unto David, thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, thy servant kept his father's sheep. And there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. And that's a rough kid. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. And David said, Moreover, the Lord shall deliver me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, and he will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee. You go, David. We'll be watching from way back here. Good luck, kid. That's about what he's saying. Now that's about the inside of David. The Bible says David was a man after God's own heart. He talks about the line of the tribe of Judah of the root of David, and he talks about the throne of David. David's really predominant. There is no question about it. Even with Moses and all the rest of this stuff, David is the guy. And the other one is Paul. Look at 2 Corinthians 12. 2 Corinthians 12. I want you to try to find out what these two guys had in common from what I'm reading. It is not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell, whether out of the body I cannot tell. God knoweth such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. God knoweth. how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which were not lawful for man to utter. Of such and one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory but in my infirmities." You get any connection between those two? You say, what's the connection? What are you trying to get at? Well, there's some continuity between them. You know what it was? God was absolutely real to both of them. You know why David was as bold as a lion, so to speak? You know why, as a kid, he didn't even hesitate for a second to go down there and face Goliath? It's because when God delivered him out of that hand of that lion and out of that hand of that bear, he knew exactly who had done it. And God was real to David, not just in his mind, but in his heart. God was so real to him, didn't bother him a bit, just walk out there, Goliath, you're in trouble, boy. I'm here to tell you, you better get right, because this is it. Where'd that faith come from? Where'd it come from? Think about it a minute. Where does faith come from? Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. What about Paul? Where'd he get his faith from? He went up there and heard words that are not even lawful for man to utter. He heard some stuff that you and I have never heard. So here's two guys, and the thing that made them predominant was not the victories. It wasn't great accomplishments. Paul never walked on water. Somebody walking on water, that's pretty cool. Two of them, Jesus and Peter. He didn't get hung up where he was catching thousands of fish. He didn't get 3,000 souls saved in one meeting and 5,000 in another. He didn't get the revelation of John divine and seeing all those things which will come to pass. He didn't get to see the stuff about what's up in heaven and the crowns and all that. What makes them so predominant is not anything to do with what they do. It has to do with how real God is to somebody. How do you get real? Well, there's some things that God does. He takes Psalm 145 up here behind us. I will extol thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name forever and ever. I will extol thee. What's that? Magnify, praise, draw attention to. Every day will I bless thee. I will praise thy name forever and ever. Every day, he said, every day. And it wasn't a matter of just, oh, I forgot about it today. Well, I'll do it twice tomorrow. It's not like that with David. This guy's living it. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works. Something happened here this last week. Joan and I were looking out the kitchen window. And out there, we got that little old skinny, narrow lake that we live on. It's about a little over a quarter of a mile long, and it's not very wide across there. But anyway, these heron come in there. And we've got green heron, and we got great blue heron, and we got great white heron, you know, and we got all kinds of crazy ducks and stuff that come in here, and different kinds of birds, and beaver, and all of God's creation. We're looking out there at this big dogwood. And I say big, you know, they don't get that big. But here's this beautiful white dogwood contrasted with everything behind it. And because it's down in a valley, we're looking down on it and across that water and all that's behind it is that dark water and those bright white petals, you know. We're watching this. Here come two of these big white herons. First one comes in and he flies around. They fly real slow. He flies in like this and he turns and he whips and he moves and he circles around. Here comes another one right in behind him. And they circle around each other a couple times. Those things have got wingspans this big, six foot. I'm not even getting out there quite to six foot. They get out there six foot. And here's this big old thing flying around, slow both of them, twisting around each other. And a thought struck me. Can you imagine somebody that makes those things? And that sense of reality just kind of overwhelmed me. Not up here. down here, that thing grasped me to the point where it was like, yes, he makes them. He makes things alive. He makes those things that are alive and fly like that. And I got goosebumps all over me. Wow, that's great. Went over and helped Jeff over there in Fairhope. Went over there on Friday. We were standing there with very little to do early in the morning. I started telling him about these birds. And I'd say, just envision the one that made us, the one that loved us, the one that sent his son to die for us, the one that we pray to every day, the one that had adopted us, the one that indwells us with his spirit. Making those things, makes living things, he makes things alive. I can't make anything alive. I mean, I might make a wooden box out of something he had. You know, I may make something out of clay. He provides the clay. I may make a living with the strength he gave me, but I can't make anything alive. And he makes stuff alive. He takes stuff from nothing and makes it alive. He just speaks it into existence. I started telling Jeff about these birds. And I said, man, isn't that something? And I said, man, I got goosebumps all over me. He said, look at me. And he was just covered with goosebumps. So what's the point? Central Baptist Church don't do that to me. Walnut Avenue doesn't do that to me. There's only one that can do that. And that's that fellowship, that intertwining relationship that I have with one whose works are incomprehensible. They're beyond our understanding. He said, now, you know why I show up like that? You know why you get those goosebumps all over you? You know why you feel that difference between you just talking about something out there and you talking about those birds in relationship to me? He said, that's because that's what I want you to do. I want you to enjoy the things that I've made, and I want everything that I've made to draw your attention back to me. I don't want you to be drawn away. I don't want your desires to be drawn away to the things that I gave you. Like the teenager, you buy him a car, you know, and they go out there racing around, hot rodding. burning up the tires and doing all kinds of dumb stuff and so forth, and you gotta keep sitting on them because they keep messing up, doing the wrong thing with the cars, you know, and getting tickets and all that other stuff. Is that drawing their attention back to the parent? Is that drawing their appreciation back to that parent? No, it's drawing it away. He says you have not because you ask not. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss. We need to ask God to give us what will draw our attention to him. That's what we need to ask for. You don't need to ask for him to take care of your financial problems or your health problems or your family problems or your children problems or the politician's problems or anything else. You need to ask that he'll give you things that will draw your attention to him. And I don't care if it's the sunset. I don't care if it's the heavens declare the glory of God. Those two birds declared more glory to me than I got in the seven years that we were out there at Central Baptist Church. He said, well, didn't you ever get involved with God? Wasn't it good out there? Yeah, it was, right after I first got saved. Then it turned into a job. Instead of the affection being stirred, instead of my attention being drawn to Him, instead of letting my light so shine before men that they see my good works, getting 100 on my bus, and teaching these Sunday school classes, and singing that choir, and doing all the other stuff, instead of the attention drawn to me, Oh, we'd like to thank so-and-so for doing such and such. And oh, so-and-so had this many on his bus. And oh, he brought 25 visitors. And so-and-so won this many souls last week. This whole thing's turned around backwards. It just is. You know what we ask for? God, give me souls. Give me souls, Lord. Give us fruit for our labor, God, when we go out. Why? So you can turn around and tell somebody how many you've had. You see how messed up this thing is? Lord, what's that mean in that Bible? I'm just really curious. I want to know what that means. Is it going to draw your attention to me? Is it going to make you appreciate me more? Are you going to have more affection toward me if I show you? Oh, no, you don't get it. I ain't giving it to you. Oh, look what I found. Hear and tell some new thing. When are we going to really get the message that this thing's really about him? start praying the right way, get our attention in the right place, get our focus in the right place. And I don't mean just in church Sunday and Wednesday. I'm talking about every single day. The difference in Paul and David from all the rest was that God was absolutely real to them. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 and a quarter days a year. That's what the difference was. And if you're going to be different than what you are and better, it'll be because God becomes more and more real to you each day that you live. And the only way that can happen is for your attention to be on Him. So some of this stuff we talk about, you know, the bugs and the birds and the bees and the grass. You know what? The one that loves me, the one that's gone to prepare a place in his father's house for me, without him was nothing made that was made. You know what he can make? He can make a tree. You hear that? He can make a tree. Nobody else can. He can make the moon hang up there and do exactly what he wants it to do. Nobody else can. He can make you and I. And he did, nobody else can. Well, when are we going to start treating that like it's real instead of just up here? Oh, I know all that stuff. Yeah, but you don't feel it, do you? He's got your brain. He just don't have your heart. Why doesn't he have your heart? Because your attention has been drawn away. Cares of this world, deceitfulness of riches, lusts of other things, your attention's drawn away from the reality that we live in. And that simple reality is God is doing something here for His glory. Nobody else's. I mean, there's times when I get thinking, oh man, Lord, that was really good. I don't listen to lessons, I do. So what do you listen to them for? I want to hear what God had to say to you guys. You say, well, that sounds kind of weird. Well, if you weren't standing here, then you'd know what I mean. You actually hear stuff that God's doing. And this stuff doesn't all come out of my mind or out of my heart. It comes sometimes just directly from him, and I go back and I listen to it. I say, man, Lord, that's really good stuff. He said, yeah, I know, that's why I gave it to you. Give to him. Why? Draw attention to him. So how many things are you gonna say or do this week that will draw somebody else's attention to him, not to you? That's what he said to do. He said, be doers of the word and not hearers only. We're gonna take him serious. We're gonna try to set our affections on him. We're gonna start to try to change a little bit in our heart and our minds so that we see him instead of us and he becomes more important every day that we live. And pretty soon, all of a sudden we look around and we say, my goodness, I actually see you creating this stuff that's alive and these little birds and putting a color on them and making trees and all this other stuff. My oh my, what a God we've got. and that stuff ain't near as important as you are. He's gonna burn this thing up with fire when he's done with it. You're what's in his heart. So the most important thing to him, the thing that his affection is set on, he wants its affection back on him. Let's close in prayer.