If you're not ready for that day, you need to get ready now. Amen. It's getting ready time. People's putting off the most important thing that could ever happen to them. The mercies of God will not always be, and His Spirit shall not always strive with man according to the Scripture. I've got my own personal thoughts of this, and a lot of people probably disagree. There's some that do agree. You can have it however you want it. I don't think the Lord does any do-overs. I just don't. I believe He'll convict you, and people say that He's obligated to do that, and I'm very afraid to say anything about obligating God to do anything. If He's obligated, then He obligated Himself. I didn't do that. But I will say this, the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men. And by that statement alone in Scripture, no man will stand before Him and say that he has an excuse. Because you won't have one. You won't have one. The Spirit of God will deal with a man and I don't think He does that over. Some people say He dealt with me once and He dealt with me again. Now I don't agree with that. What they don't understand is He dealt with you once and He's leaving that on you until He withdraws it. He don't do any do-overs. I don't believe. A lot of people say well it went away. I don't know if it went away or not. You may have stuffed it down somewhere and the devil helped you do that. But the Lord will deal with you, and when He deals with you through the Holy Spirit of God, that's the only time you can get saved. A lot of people may want to argue that, but there ain't no arguing that. That's the only time you can get saved. And when the Lord deals with somebody, He does it on purpose. It's not a mistake. He does that on purpose. The Bible tells us in Galatians not to frustrate the grace of God. A lot of people treat the grace of God in such a way this morning that they feel as if they're owed something or deserve something. The grace of God gives to you what you do not deserve. Mercy is holding off of you what you do deserve. Both of those have been given you today, but they will not always be. One day the wrath of God's going to take the place of grace and mercy that's on you, and then the wrath of God's going to find you, and it's going to be too late then. I want you to get right with the Lord while you've got time. If you're not saved, get saved. I thought it was later in what it is. I don't know how right that clock is back there. Maybe it's right, maybe it's not. You just pray for me. I've got something real quick I want to leave with you. In the book of John, chapter number 2, I want to read some verses. Again, if you're visiting, we're so glad to have you with us. I appreciate you coming. John chapter To keep from reading the whole chapter, I'm just going to start in verse 11 here and read a few verses. We may go back and look at some of the things He did in the beginning of this chapter. In verse 11, this beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee. Speaking of Him turning water into wine, that's what this is in reference to. And manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed on Him. After this, he went down to Capernaum, and he and his mother and his brethren and his disciples, and they continued there not many days. And the Jews, Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money, and over through the tables. And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence, Make not my father's house a house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? In other words, they wanted to know by what authority are you doing this? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Pay close attention to what's being said here. Then said the Jews, forty and six years was this temple in building. And they waited a long time for that. And they said, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. That's what I want you to listen to. They were looking at that building but he was talking about his body. They didn't see that. The Jews struggled to see this. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. So, almost four years, three and a half years later, from the time this was mentioned by Jesus, this statement He made about His body being the temple, it was three and a half years later before these men understood truly what it meant. It took a little while for this to set in on them, and they had to see it all play out, Brother Max, before they had a full understanding. All the way up to the death of Christ, Jesus was telling His disciples, Brother Wesley, He was preparing them for future events, and He said, The Son of Man, referring to Himself, He said unto them, The Son of Man will fall into the hands of sinners. Sinful men are going to take My body, and they're going to crucify Me. He said, They're going to nail Me to a tree. And then he told them, he said, in three days later, by my own power, I'm going to raise up from the dead. All the way up to the hour he died, Sister Bird, he was telling them what was going to happen. The angel, the Lord, came to the graveyard where Jesus had been laying, to the tomb where he had been laying. It was a barred tomb. And they had laid Him there, and it was custom of the Jews to go back and put spices on the body. And the main reason for that was to preserve the body as long as possible, to keep it from smelling, and to preserve it as long as possible so that they could go and visit that place without it having a horrendous smell. So they went back as the custom was to prepare the body with spices, these very special women that Jesus had saved. They were profound women. They were women that were outcast in the society, but in heaven, they were heroes. And the Lord had saved these women, but they went back to prepare His body for burial. And there was an angel of the Lord that was there and spake unto them. and said, and Peter come back, he come back perplexed, and these women, the Bible said they were perplexed, these angels said, why are you so perplexed? And that word perplexed talked about, it's basically just being worried beyond control. Have you ever been so worried that you felt like you were going to lose control? I have. A lot of you have. Some of you young ones, you ain't been there yet, they'll tell me at school all the time, them little teenagers, they'll say, oh, I'm tired. So, Lord, you've not lived long enough to be tired. You've not done enough to be tired. And a lot of young people think they're aware about this little thing or that little thing, and us that have lived a while, we look at that and smile and grin and say, well, that ain't nothing compared to what I'm going through. They used to tell me and Kim when the babies were little, the boys were little, they'd say, well, right now they're on your toes, one day they'll get on your heart. I didn't fully get that then, Brother Max, but a few years down the road, I began to see that in a reality. As a reality in my life, they got off my toes and on my heart. Amen. And three years after he began to preach his own gospel, they went back to this graveyard expecting to anoint the body of a dead man. But the angel of the Lord said, why are you so perplexed? And the reason they were perplexed is because he wasn't there. And their first assumption was that someone had taken the body. Somebody has got him and took him away. And they didn't really get mad in the sense that they were angry and wanted to be defensive or offensive about it. But they said under the angel, just tell us where you have laid him. They just wanted to know where he was. Have you ever been looking for Jesus like that? Have you ever in your life been worried and you thought he was nowhere to be found? I can't find him. I've looked for him, Patrick, in my life. There's been days when I sought for him and I could not find him. I went to those places I thought He would be. Have you ever been to church and you thought surely I'll find Him there? And I've gotten here before and I felt cold and empty and dark on the inside. And I felt like my faith was in vain. And all that I had done was in vain. And no doubt these women had felt that they had done all they could do and they even followed their own custom, and they came back, and Jesus was not there. Amen. Sometimes we look for Him in all the wrong places. Amen. You know, we want to find Him, and I've sought Him, and the Bible tells us we will find Him when we seek Him with all, A-double-L, all of our hearts. Have you ever looked for Him that way? Amen. Have you ever called upon His name and you wondered if He heard your voice? Amen. I've been there. These women, these men that have been with Him over three years in His ministry, they saw Him turn water into wine, Brother Joey. They've seen these great miracles. He fed multiple people, thousands of people with a few loaves of bread and a few fishes. They seen him speak the name of Lazarus in a graveyard and saw a dead man come out of the grave with grave clothes on. Now they go and seek for Him, this man that said, I will raise this temple up in three days, and the angel of the Lord. Now, they didn't preach, but they come with a message. And all an angel can do is what God tells them to do. Amen. I wouldn't have gone if I was more like that. Amen. That I would just do what God tells me to do. You see, we've got something angels don't have. We've got a free will nature. And that is a gift of God, whether you believe it or not. God has given you that as a gift. You have the privilege, you don't have the right, but God has given you the privilege to choose Him or choose something else. Amen. You can either seek Him or deny Him. You can either believe Him or reject Him. Amen. God put a tree in the Garden of Eden, and He said, don't eat this tree, but all the other trees you can have. Just one that they couldn't eat. But He said, don't eat them this way, but you can have... He gave them choice, and that was a privilege right there, He gave them a choice. Amen. They didn't put a thousand trees in there they couldn't eat of. Just one. Amen. People want to talk about God today being unreasonable. God is a very reasonable God. Amen. Isaiah tells us this in chapter 1. He said to the prophet, God said, Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. God wants to have a sit down and talk with you. Amen. Praise the Lord. When Job began to plead his case, God took time to listen to Job. Amen. Oh my. Boy, I'm seeing things I didn't know I was going to see. The angel of the Lord told these that were perplexed, they said, why seek ye the living among the dead? They said, for He is not here, for He is risen. The most important words I'm about to say about this whole passage, they said, He's not here, He is risen as He said. Those three words are the most important words in that whole message. Because it's a reminder to them and to you and I that God is going to do what He said He would do. And we so soon forget the message. We so soon, a lot of times, forget that He parted the Red Sea. Amen. That He spoke to the dead and they walked and lived again. Amen. That He touched the river and it turned from water into iron. A man that he only did was spit in the dirt and rub it on the eyes of a blind man. And the blind man said, I don't know what happened. All I know is I was blind and now I see. And we so soon forget what kind of God He is and what He has done. And I forget that, Jim, and sometimes I think it's hopeless and there's no way out. And I'm trapped in this world and this body of sin. And I begin to worry and I get perplexed and my burdens overwhelm me. But then God reminds me I'm going to do what I said, amen. I need reminding. Just like Mary and Martha needed a reminder. They said, what He said to you, that's what He did. And it also reveals to us many times He's speaking and we're not listening. We're not listening. I put that on the sign out here for a few weeks. God is talking to us. Are we listening? He's got a message this morning, but many times I'm not listening. So many times we come to church and our heart's not ready to listen. We're so full of the world and the cares of this life. And the Bible tells us to guard ourselves against the cares of this life. Amen? Because we can become overcharged, the Bible said. And what that means is, you mommas taking care of babies, and you men having to work your job and please your boss, and paying the bills, and all these little things that's going on in life. and the worries and the struggles of the future that we can't even control. If we're not careful, we'll drop our guard, and those things will control us. And when we're controlled by the cares of life, we cannot worship, we cannot pray, and we cannot listen to the voice of God. Amen. We need to empty ourselves of those things. It's not always easy. I'd like to stand here and tell you today, all you got to do is say it and it's just going to happen. But it don't work that way. A lot of times we are fooled into thinking that if we say a few magical words, and the charismatic movement have deceived so many people, that if they'll just name it and claim it, speak it and say it, that somehow God will magically just sprinkle dust over their life and all their troubles will go away. And all their empty wallets will be filled. And there'll be groceries in the refrigerator and gas in the tank. Oh, and God's going to do all these wonderful things. But I want you to know God does not intend on removing everything from your life. He puts some of that stuff there on purpose to keep you needy. Amen! He's allowing some of those things to be in your life so you can learn to lean upon Him and trust Him and call upon Him. Who in the world here would even pray and seek the Lord if you didn't have a problem? Amen! I believe that's starting to see the older I get more and more what the writer meant when he said, Be thankful in all things. All things. When trouble comes to me, I'm no different than you. When real trouble comes to my life, my immediate human nature wants to look at God and say, God, make it go away. I want to get in an altar somewhere and throw Him up a little Mickey Mouse prayer and say, God, I need Your help real quick now. Amen. Don't you reckon Job would have really enjoyed a little quick help? But a wind come, blew down his possessions, killed all of his servants. Then he found out his children were dead. He thought, my gosh, can it get any worse? Can it really get any worse? And people think, there ain't nothing worse than dying. Yeah, well, yeah. Yeah, there is. Living without God is worse than dying. And he looks at his circumstances and you say, can it get any worse? And then he began to get sick in his body and balls were coming up and sores were coming up on him and dogs licked his sores. And people think, what in the world is going on with this man? And if anybody you would think deserves some quick help, it would have been that man. But he didn't get quick help. I want quick help all the time. Some of you mamas, I can tell the way you're looking at me, you'd like to see some quick help. Yeah, some of you daddies, I know what you're going through. Listen, I've been there. I've held them like that, and I've prayed. I know how you feel, and you probably sit at home and wonder, what am I going to do with this? I had three and I still didn't know what to do with them. Even on the third one. And I say that to you right now, that God's going to do what He said He was going to do. He may not send deliverance today. That's right. You may not get what you think you want right now from God, but I'm going to tell you, when God gets through working on you, and when God gets you through the fire, through the trial, the floods of life, and through all those dark times, and those evil times that's come upon you, when He works it all out in you, and you get on the back side of that, and if you really know God, you're going to stand in appreciation and say, God, thank You for every trial, in every mile. Amen. You've made me what I am today because of those things. Amen. You know what made Job a great man? Not because he was just magically born a great man. I tell you, he started off right. I can't help but study his life because A lot of people want to look at the Christian life as though it's some kind of heroic journey, some magical Disney fairy tale. You know, some knight in shining armor or something like that. But most of the Christian life is never in the spotlight. Amen. These young preachers are getting fooled today by thinking if they'll appeal to a certain group of people that they can have notoriety and fame and they can really be something, you know. And they'd rather have men over here bragging on them and talking about them than to have the favor of God on their lives. That's right. But I'm going to tell you, a preacher that's any preacher at all that loves God and preaches for His glory will not seek the favor of men or their approval. Amen. And he'll understand that this is not some knight in shining armor. Most of a preacher's life is spent with a broken heart and a tear in his eye. And he's in a room somewhere wondering if he's got any friends at all. I told Brother Simms, he just called me out of the blue. Friday afternoon, he said, Preacher, I've been checking on you. And I said, Brother Simms, you sound like an angel to me right now. I said, because it was just a few minutes ago, I was wondering if I had a friend at all. That's right. I come home and I wonder to myself, does any care, is there any seeking the Lord? Is there anybody back at the house praying anymore? Is anybody meditating upon His Word? Is anybody getting ready for church Sunday morning? Oh, I wonder those things. But I'm going to tell you, 32 years of preaching, I'm going to tell you this, I didn't just arrive because I announced my call to preach. Amen. All those gray-haired men and women that sat in this church that had those, we call them gray hairs, but I call them hairs of wisdom. Hairs of knowledge. They'd lived. They had seen how God would work. They experienced that unseen hand. They depended on Him when there was no fire in the cupboard. Amen! They had to depend on God. And they knew that it took something from heaven for them to have church if they weren't going to start together. And because we had a little talent down here at Antioch, didn't mean God was going to show up. I want you to know something this morning. Little is much when God is in it. Amen. You can put on a talent show and you can impress the naysayers. Amen. But if you get a little power from God, and we lose our dignity and our self-righteous pride, and let God do something in us, we're going to act a little weird and strange. And all them people that gave you their favor, if we get filled with the Holy Ghost, they ain't going to want to hang around much longer. Amen. They all loved the Lord while He turned the water into wine. Read chapter 2. It's an amazing chapter because He did this great and marvelous miracle. And I mean it was news abroad what He had done. People were amazed. The Jews seek after a sign and that's what He did. He came and did signs and wonders before them. That's what they sought. That's what God gave them. But they still rejected Him. But it was news abroad what he had done. Turned water into wine. He didn't save anybody. He just turned water into wine. Oh, and everyone rejoiced. But in the same chapter, he went from this nice, loving, caring individual that was doing these fine and wonderful miracles to turning tables over and kicking the hypocrites out of church. Amen. You see, that's the Jesus nobody wants. They like Him in a manger. If they can keep Him right there, they're alright with Him. They like Him wrapped in swaddling clothes, laying under a Christmas tree. They like that Jesus. They don't mind Him. They'll even talk about that Jesus in D.C. But you won't hear them talk about a crucified, buried, resurrected Savior. Amen. That demands that you repent of your sins. They don't want that Jesus. Not the table turning one. but he turned these tables upside down. I want to say to you this morning in closing, and I'm about done with this, he's either God or he's not. He's either in charge or he's not in charge. I went back and listened. After Chris had called me, I went back and listened to one of the messages he preached here. And if y'all remember back, some of you may remember this, but he told y'all about a time he had a meeting. He hadn't been at Old Center very long. But he had a revival, and he'd ask Brother Milby to come and do the revival. While he was there, he asked him to tune the piano. Brother Milby was tuning the piano one day before a meeting, and he said, we went over to the church. He went over there and he talked to him. And he just began to ask him questions. Preacher, have you ever doubted God? Since you've been preaching, have you ever doubted that God could do this or that? I went through a few things. And he said, Brother Milby didn't even reply. He just kept on working on that pen. And he said, I just thought because he's an old man, he was deaf. He said, I just assumed he didn't hear what I said. He said, about ten minutes went by. He said, then Brother Mill, we got up from the pen and turned around and looked at him about ten minutes later. And he looked at Brother Chris. He said, Brother Chris, no, I don't reckon I've ever doubted him. He said, because he's either God or he's not. I don't know if I could say that, because I've doubted before. But that's a very profound statement that he made. He's either in charge or he's not. He either meant what he said or he didn't. It's one of the two. This morning, we approach this saying when we come to prayer, we seek the Lord in our heart in prayer, a lot of times we do that wondering if God's going to do anything. Well, one thing we need to do is teach ourselves by studying the Word of God. And the disciples asked the Lord to teach them how to pray. And He told them how to pray. But when we pray and we seek the Lord with our heart, if we don't do it knowing that He's God and He's in charge, then what we're doing is in vain. We're just going through motions. That's what a lot of people are doing. They're going through motions. So for all you that are struggling today, I want you to ask yourself a question. Is it God or is He not? He saved you. He kept you out of hell. He didn't just save you, but He sealed you to the day of redemption. He put the Holy Ghost in you. Amen. He changed your desires and your want to. He preserved your life, not only in that moment, but He preserved your days in front of you. He's got all of that in His hand. And He's done all of those things. He controls all of nature and all things, Hebrews chapter 1. Verse number 3, all things are upheld by the Word of His power. Your heart's beating right now because God told it to beat. If He is doing those things, then He's God, right? So He's either God or He isn't. And if He is doing all those things, then why can't He part the water? Amen. Why can't He be the fourth man in the fire? Why can't He not shut the mouths of the lions in the den of lions? He's either God or He's not. Is there anything too hard for the Lord? No. He even went to the grave on purpose. They didn't take His life. He gave His life. Amen. And He said, I'm going to go down by my power and I'm going to rise again by my own power. And if He'd done that, is He not God this morning? So He's either God or He isn't. If He'd done all those things, I promise you, He can handle your things. He can handle your things. Don't be overwhelmed by your burden. As a matter of fact, you may find some relief and peace if you can get to a place in your life as hard and as harsh as it may be, if you can get to a place where you look at God and say, Lord, thank You for the trial. If you can get to that place, you may find this morning that it will be a whole lot easier for you. It's hard to get there. getting this old man out of the way so you can let that inward man do the work it needs to do. But there's been times in my life when I was so bitter because of my burden and the harshness of it that I just wanted God to take it away. But as I've gotten older, I've learned to stop long enough and listen and say, thank you, God, for working on me. Amen. He may not remove the burden right now, but when he gets done with it, he gets done with you. You're going to look back and say, thank you, Lord. So when we say, God, have your way, make sure you mean it when you say it. Because if he has his way this morning, chances are it's not going to be your way. It's not going to be how you draw it up. Because His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. He will always be God whether man believes Him or not. Don't allow that darkness to control you. Because as long as it controls you, then God ain't controlling you. that can be scary. And I'm not saying that's easy. But I'm saying this morning that we, through that process, have got to learn. Listen to what the Bible says. Every word in that Bible is so important and it's there for a reason. The Bible says, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Casting. You're going to have to throw that stuff at God. Get it off of you and on to Him. If you'll cast it off this morning, on to Him, you'll find how much He cares for you. He may not remove the burden or the harshness of the way, but He will help you carry the load. He is a burden bearing God. He wants you to cast your care upon Him. Don't be ashamed to go to Him with your problem. He has asked you to do that. He wants you to do that. He's wanting to do a work in you right now. Job said, when I come forth from this trial, he said, I'm going to come forth as gold. Right now, he's looking like copper and bronze. He said, but when God gets through burning all the impurities out of me, I'm going to come forth as gold. Hallelujah. Amen. That's what Peter said. He said, think it not strange concerning the fire trial, which is to try and use those strange things that happened unto you. There's nothing happened to you that isn't common to man or hasn't already happened somewhere to man. It's common to man. All these things are. As weird and unusual as it may be, it's common to man. Sin can do anything at any time. When we think it's gone as far as it can go, here it comes and comes up with a new evil, a new thought out of hell, always inventing some kind of evil, wicked, perverted thing. Listen this morning. The sin abounds this morning, but grace that much more abounds. Much more! Cast all your care on Him, because He cares for you. Stand to your feet this morning. Give us a song, Brother Wesley. I feel like I've done all I need to do. I appreciate all of you for being here today. Let me throw something in real quick while they're getting ready. There's another thing that I think that's affecting God's people as much or more than anything, and that's the fear of what could be in our society. We have lived to see days that some of you that are grandma, grandpa age in here today, I know you never dreamed you would see and hear what you're seeing and hearing today. And it's almost to me, it's like some kind of futuristic cartoon, something we would laugh at. But we have literally lived to see the days where men call good evil and evil good. They have perverted the way of God. You've talked about them being whales without waters, cloud carried off of the tempest. And He said, while they invite you in and feast with you, He said, all they want to do is devour you. People want to use you. And in this last election, I've seen it more than ever, God's people fretting and worrying about what could be. There's always a what could be out there. A what if. There's always that scenario. People come to me and say, what if the other side continues to stay in power? Well, what if they do? What if they do? We just went through four years of one of the worst years this country has ever experienced. Is God still God this morning? Is He still on the throne? Is He still your Savior? Does He still answer when you call on His name? Is His Word still true? He's still God this morning. I mean, He was God through Nebuchadnezzar, one of the most evil kings. Ahab and Jezebel, two of the most evil people to have authority in Israel. He remained God through all of those things and had one prophet over there named Elijah. Had all that evil political power and one preacher over by a creek. And God was about to use that one preacher to turn that man's world upside down. And man improved through that man that He was God and beside Him there was none other. Amen. God's going to be God through anything. Don't let fear control you. The fear of what if. We're not to be fearful people. God's people are not to be fearful. We're supposed to be people of faith. And if fear's controlling you, that means your faith is not in operation right now. And I know that's a hard pill to swallow, but it's just true. You're either controlled by faith or by fear. And the only way to please God, isn't it, say, by faith? That's the only way we can please God, is by faith. So this morning, I want you to trust Him with whatever it is that's got you way down here. Give it to Him. He may not deliver you from it today, but He's got a plan in your life, and I want you to trust Him with it. Amen. He'll make you better for it. Whatever you've got to sing, sing it.