If you ever notice that they talk about the marriage supper of the Lamb, there's no mention of any other meals up there. So I guess some of you are going to be fasting whether you want to or not. It looks like you don't need food. It looks like you get up there and you get to eat just because you enjoy it. Food is connected in the Bible with individuals that have fellowship together. It's not just a mainstay or something you do to eat because you have to have it to survive. Oftentimes food is connected with fellowship. The Lord has fellowship with the two boys on the road to Emmaus, and he's talking to them and all that stuff and listening to them. He calls them fools and slow of heart. And then they say, well, how about, they compelled him, they begged him to stay there with them. And he said, okay, well, I guess I can do that. I got a few minutes to stay with you. And they got ready to have dinner time there. And the Bible said he blessed it and break it. And as soon as he blessed it, they said, oh man, we know who this is. and then he disappeared. That fellowship was connected with food. And one of the greatest things in the world is to have good fellowship around the table with a good meal. And so your Thanksgiving meal just passed and I hope you had good fellowship. Of course, oftentimes with family it doesn't always work out that way. Well, I'm just being honest. That's not too honest for you, is it? Bible teaches you with the increase of knowledge comes much sorrow. You live in a country now that pretty much leads in suicides, especially with teenagers, and it becomes because of a knowledge that has been propagated by a world that is out to make a living off of them. People talk about mind control and that stuff's real and it's utilized and people are triggered by doing certain things and that's true. You live in a day and time where people decide what they think is best for you without asking your opinion about anything. You live in a day and time where knowledge is seen or perceived as something that shouldn't exist. You should just dumbly and blindly follow whatever the main course of thinking is, which comes from Hollywood. It comes from videos. It comes from all the stuff. As I mentioned to you this morning, you've taken what used to be supernatural and natural and the proper combination of those things to being all natural about what the here and now is and prosperity and what I can get now to now everything has been reduced to a fantasy world to about a four and a half inch screen. You live your life based upon what you can pick up on a telephone. I'm sure I made some people upset when I said what I did about that again this morning, but I intend it to stay that way. You say, why? Because you now have become enslaved. You talk about slavery and people that were enslaved in the Civil War and all that. You're enslaved to your devices. You have no concept of time or anything. You send text at 10, 11, 12, 1 o'clock in the morning. You expect a response. What are you doing up that late? You wouldn't call somebody that late, but now you can get that off there and then you get upset because they don't respond right back to you. Well, aren't they looking at their text? Well, they didn't look at their text. They ignored me. They're ignoring me. Maybe they didn't get it. Maybe they don't care. Maybe they ain't running around with it burning a hole in their back pocket like you are. If it was that important, why didn't you call them? It becomes a matter of superfluous trafficking. We just talk about stuff, we don't even need to... Just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, You have an audience. You have people that will listen to you. You get a group thing going there and you get 10 or 12 or 15 people in there and you think because people are going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth that it makes your opinion matter. Your opinion doesn't matter. It's a way to enslave you. So, well, I have time to do it. Well, good. You must be retired or you must be laying in a hospital. I don't know where you have time to do that. Maybe you do have time to do that, but if you ever looked at it, if you ever looked at the amount of time, what they're doing is trying to give you more things to do so that it ties up more of your time. You say, why? It enslaves you. I just have to get back. I just have to check. I gotta make sure. Did I get a thumbs up? Did I get a thumbs down? I realized some of those things this morning appeared to be pretty harsh, but none of them were nonetheless true. They were absolutely true. And everything I told you that Absalom said, Absalom said in a truthful manner. But if you don't understand the context, he was trying to use truth to his advantage. Now all that stuff goes on, and when it comes to knowledge, you've got to get the right kind of knowledge, and the right kind of knowledge comes from the Bible. And that way, when you get the right kind of knowledge, you have the way to compare. You have a tool in your arsenal to be able to compare. When you hear news, fake or otherwise, you know how to compare it. You've got absolute truth. When you hear theology, fake or otherwise, you know where to compare it. When you hear existentialism, that's just where your existence is, that's Adam and Eve or creationism. You got a Bible that tells you what happens. When you hear prophecy, you got a Bible that tells you what's the right kind of prophecy. In other words, you have the ability, knowledge is to increase you, but with that means a choice. You can put your head in the sand and decide, I don't want to know these things. I don't want to know anything about it because then I'm accountable. You're accountable for it whether you know it or don't know it. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. You get out here and decide to blister it up and down the highway or whatever, the policeman stops you. He doesn't ask you, well, did you know whatever? He stops you because you did it and you're found guilty because you did it, not whether you knew it or didn't know it. You don't get to claim the sin of ignorance when it comes to the Bible. Well, I just didn't know. Well, it isn't because it's not available for you to know. Now, I'm not trying to be harsh with you. I'm simply saying you're living in a day and time where you're going to study something. There's a battle for your mind, and that battle now has been completely assuaged by or taken over by modern media and the popular way to think. they're trying to control, mind control, not just in one or two little lab rat experience with some military people, which is true whether you want to believe it or not, but now they control masses of people by utilizing the media to make you think in what's called a herd mentality. and they control you that way by controlling the devices they know you're on. They've made it real public now because now they come out of the closet and so therefore there must not be anything wrong with it. They've made it real public. They can tell by what you order, by what you watch, by what news sites you go to and they do track it whether you think they do or not or you have some secretive way of hiding it or you're incognito or whatever. They can tell by what you're doing, what you are, and who you believe as a person. And the politicians know it so well that they utilize that to be able to congregate the groups of individuals to start what used to be called a grassroots movement to move their political agenda because they already know who to target. And they target you based on the media footprint that you leave behind. Is this getting too spooky for you? You say, surely they don't do that. You got your head in the sand. They do that. That's why nowadays, I don't care if you go to Firefox, I don't care if you go to Google, I don't care if you go to DuckDuckGo, I don't care where you go. They compile that information and then they send you ads based upon stuff you've looked at, stuff you've chosen. That stuff doesn't randomly pop up. Even if you click and say, turn it off, then they know, well, they don't like that, so that narrows it down. Well, let's keep on until we find what he does like. Everything you order from all the places you order from, whether it's the Amazon and all that other kind of stuff or not, they can tell by what you order where your proclivities are. Now, they learn that by getting knowledge about you. What do you know about Him? That's the only knowledge that matters. I'm trying to give you survival skills. You say, what? You have to be able to sort through all the garbage that's out there, all the trash that's out there, all the modern way of thinking that's out there that makes you feel like you're the bad guy if you agree with what the Bible says about certain things that go on in the world today. And if you don't do that, ladies and gentlemen, you're going to wind up being the one that's insane. You're going to be questioning everything that goes on. Well, I know the Bible says it's wrong, but the world says it's right. I've told you for years around here that they start from the homosexuality and eventually it goes to pedophilia. And now, lo and behold, guess what? It's not a put-on, it's not a fake, it's not a show. They found out it's going on. The people that were molested are coming forward. Well, I just don't really would rather not take a look at that kind of stuff. It never starts. Once it starts rolling downhill, the law of gravity takes over, and before long the whole thing is in the ditch. Now, let's continue this thing about knowledge. How do I obtain knowledge? What do I do with knowledge? Look, if you will, please, in 1st Peter, if you will, or 2nd Peter, excuse me, chapter number 1. 2nd Peter, chapter number 1. And we're going to be in a few places here, but we're going to predominantly camp out right here. The Bible says, verse number 2, Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord. Listen to me. The Lord hath not given you a spirit of what? fear, but of love and a sound mind. But here's where fear comes. It comes from a lack of knowledge. If I know what's going to happen, it takes away the anxiety and the anticipation of the unknown. The unknown is fearful. Now here's what he says. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through what? not just accepting Him as your Savior, but through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According to His divine power hath He given to us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the, there it is again, knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and to virtue, whereby are given unto exceeding great and precious promises, that these things ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in this world, through lust, and besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to your virtue, knowledge." Now, would you agree with me in there that He just told you some things that you should know that'll give you grace, it'll give you peace, it'll give you direction, and it does a bunch of things for you, but you've got to mine it out. Father, I pray You'll bless Your Word and help us tonight, if You would please, and we ask it in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Now you get that according to the book of Jeremiah, you can get it through your pastor. The Bible says in the last days you have pastors and teachers. Everybody wants to be a pastor and a teacher. The Bible says, not a novice, lest he be puffed up through what? Pride. Why? He doesn't know everything he needs to know. You need to know some things before you just assume a position. Just because somebody can speak, has the ability to speak, does not by any stretch of the imagination mean that they're ready to be a pastor or even a preacher. Just because somebody knows math and reading and science doesn't mean they should be teaching your kid in school. Just because somebody happens to be a corpsman out on a battlefield and he knows how to do an emergency appendectomy in the field because he's dealing with certain individuals and he's been to special SEAL training for the corpsman and SEALs and that kind of a thing doesn't mean he's ready to strap on a mask and do brain surgery. It means he can operate fine on a battlefield when you're not worried about leaving a scar. You're trying to save a life and triage somebody and get them to where they're going, but it doesn't mean that they're ready to be a full-fledged doctor. Otherwise, he would earn his stripes as a doctor without having to go to medical school. They simply teach him how to do the procedure based on certain needs that are necessary for the battlefield. But if he's going to become a doctor, there's some things he needs to know. And some of the things are not always operative on a daily basis. There's some things that you have to know that you may not use for years, but you need to know those things that further deepens or further qualifies. It causes you to have a deeper foundation and an ability to understand things so that you're able to apply that knowledge when that knowledge is necessary. Every surgery is not an appendectomy. taking the appendix out. Some surgeries are a little less complicated and some are a little more complicated. Well, you know how to do that. You wouldn't want to trust me with it. I wouldn't even do it on my own wife. You say, why? Let an expert do it. I don't know what I might run into. Well, can't you take it? Yeah, I can take a 13 blade and I can make the cut in there. I know where the appendix is. I know supposedly how you tie the thing off and snip the thing off and, you know, how you make the sutures and all that other kind of stuff. Call a doctor, man. Get Eddie around there. I don't want nothing to do with that stuff. You say, why? I can kill somebody with just doing an appendectomy. Say, well, it's not really that much complicated surgery. You have to be qualified to perform surgery. Are you with me? Listen, if you get ready to have your chest cracked because you got some problems, you might understand everything that WebMD has to say about it, but it's a lot different when you put the gloves on and somebody's heart's in your hands. Now, you want that responsibility? Then go to school. Now, if you want to have some peace in your life, you want to have some comfort in your life, you want to know some things, then you have to understand that when it comes to studying the Bible, God wants you to get the knowledge. He's not hiding Himself from you so He can't be found. He is like a treasure chest and He enjoys seeing you pursue Him so that you get to delve into that treasure chest and get the joy of finding something that happens to meet what you need at the time. Never make the mistake of thinking that God's trying to hide Himself from you. I heard a preacher years ago, he preached about the hidden God and people are searching for God as if God's some kind of a ghost or something, hiding Himself and all that kind of stuff. God wants to be found. God wants to be revealed. But God's not going to reveal Himself in a voice as long as you've got verses. You have to show your willingness to get into the book and see what the book has to say. Let me give you a few things about it. You can get it from your pastor. You can get it from the Bible. The Lord can show it to you. Look in Proverbs chapter number 15. The Bible will give you some things about knowledge and it'll do some things for you. An amazing thing to me that I find nowadays in the day and time in which we live, I find it odd or strange, I guess you might say, that we are generally selfish in everything else except spiritual things. We want to be at the top of our game when it comes to our job, when it comes to the things that we do as far as work or whatever might be concerned. But when it comes to the knowledge of God, when it comes to something that might require us to spend a little sweat or a little time, you know what we kind of almost expect? We kind of think, well, God should just give it to me. It's not salvation. You're showing God how much you want to know about what He thinks. Watch. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, you know the verse, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Now it's not just your body. Watch. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, you present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your that you may know that which is good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. You know what He just said to you? You've got to learn some things about God or you won't even know if you're in the will of God and if you are in the will of God if you're doing the things that are acceptable and perfect because you can be doing a lot of good things that aren't either acceptable or perfect. But you have to know some things to be able to determine that. And it's not a matter of what a preacher says, or a pastor says, or some guru says. It's a matter of what does God say. What does God say is acceptable for you? I can tell you this, Christian. A good name you have, by the way. I can tell you this about the will of God. If God wants you to preach, then you should preach. And if God doesn't want you to preach, it might be a good thing, but it's not acceptable and it ain't perfect. Everything is not about somebody that performs up in a pulpit or plays an instrument or whatever. Sometimes God wants you to be just exactly what you are. Imagine that. Doctors and lawyers and plumbers and people that work in everyday life. It doesn't have to always revolve around the church. I know it's hard for some people. They think, well, the only person that's really in the will of God is the preacher. You're smoking crack. You're in the perfect will of God if you're doing what God wants you to do. You say, what is that? I go to work every day and take care of my family and do what I'm supposed to by my kids. Good, you're in the perfect will of God. Perfect will of God. Not just acceptable, perfect. You get out of the will of God by trying to do something somebody else thinks you should be doing because they think that the only people that are doing anything for God is somebody that is doing something in the church. Well, it's not right. Proverbs chapter 15, let me get on to this. Verse number 1. A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words strew up anger. The tongue of a wise useth what? Knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. In other words, the right kind of knowledge will help you control your mouth. Imagine that. You have now at your fingertips the ability to say things without any repercussion. You can say things and send them out and there's no voice inflection. Somebody told me one day, I think it was Brother Brad, I sent him something and I happened to have hit the CAPS thing on my computer and the whole thing typed out in CAPS. Well, I thought it was kind of cool because you can read it really good. He called me up, he goes, why are you yelling at me? I said, what? He goes, you're yelling at me. I said, Brad, I sent you a letter. I'm not yelling at you. I'm not screaming at you. I'm certainly not in the pulpit right now. He goes, preacher, you were yelling at me in the email. And I'm like, where did you get that? He goes, don't you know when you type in caps, that's you yelling? Well, I do now. But you know what happens? You're able to now just express yourself and send stuff out without any voice inflection. I bet you there's not a single person in here that didn't read a text, didn't read an email, didn't read a post or something, and the person that sent it had no intention of you receiving it the way you did, but because you happened to be going through something at the time, when you got that thing, you thought they said something that they didn't mean. You thought their intent was something it didn't mean. It don't happen when you have a phone conversation. You have the immediate ability to be able to stop and say, hey, whoa, wait, what did you say? There's a big difference in saying, you sure are beautiful. You sure are beautiful. Just saying. Now, I said the same thing, but I used voice inflection, and one of them means you're really pretty, and the other one means your beauty is in question. It depends on the state of mind of the person that's hearing what they're hearing or what they're reading. You know what he just said? You get the right kind of knowledge, you'll know what and when to say. One of the things about Absalom is that he's always talking. He's got diarrhea of the mouth. That's nervous people, people under conviction. They're always talking, just talking, talking, talking, talking, talking. They don't ever know when to shut up. It's their way of getting a platform. That's why they're so interested in always being involved in all of these things where their opinion is out there. Because in their mind, a legend they may be, but in their mind they're thinking, what I have to say really matters and I have an opinion about everything. Well, they're like armpits. Everybody's got at least two and they both stink. It's just a way to tie you up and wrap you up in yourself. You know what knowledge does? Knowledge helps you to realize, you know what, maybe I might ought to be not too quick to speak on certain things until I get all the facts. I've learned this, there's his side, there's her side, and then there's the truth. Amen. You know, they come in there and sit down with you and they tell you this story, and you're like, man, I'm gonna stink it, I'm gonna put his behind in jail. I mean, he walks in here, I'm going to clock him. And then he comes in and sits down and is kind of like, that girl's a liar. And there's his side, there's her side, and then somewhere in there's the truth. Knowledge will help you discern it. Now if you have mouth trouble, you know what you need to do? You need to get some knowledge and speak according to what the Bible tells you. And the Bible says here, a soft answer turneth away wrath. You know what he's given you? He's given you the difference in somebody who has enough sense to realize, I got the knowledge to know I may not know everything, so I'm going to kind of take it easy. Sometimes that immediate explosive response tells you all you need to know about the person doing the talking. Guilty conscience. What are you so upset about? Alright, number two. Proverbs chapter number 17. It'll help you to spare your words. Now I don't know what this is, and I'm going to say this, and I'm going to get in trouble. I know I'm going to get in trouble for what I'm about to say. But ladies and gentlemen, you have a bunch of males with female attributes nowadays, and I don't mean in the sense of anatomy. I mean in the sense of too many words. You're not married. Now, right or wrong, a woman has a tendency to circle the airport and completely run it out of gas before she lands it. She figures, if you've got gasoline, keep flying until you run out. And a man, he'll land with three quarters of a tank. It's kind of like straight to the thing, what's the deal? So the whole time you're talking to him, he's like, get to the point. and she's like going around Atlanta. You got to get in a pattern and if you missed it, you were late getting out, then they hold you on the runway and you get in the pattern and you go around like this. But here's the tendency. Nowadays, because of a 24-hour news cycle, you have people just talking to talk. They just make stuff up. They have no authority to talk. They have no authority to speak. They're like Absalom. They've come in. They've sat down. They just assume to be an authority. You have political pundits that are speaking nowadays that have never been in politics a day in their life. And you listen to them as if they're shaping the way of the country. You're listening to them, you're listening to their opinions, and they're speaking as if they have authority. They're speaking as if they're something special. And some of them, they've got a college degree, but they have no experience about what they're saying at all. It'd be like a plumber coming in and tell you, well, now the way that I see it there, if we look at the cerebellum here, we can tell that in there, there needs to be an operation on the mandala there. And that mandala controls this particular portion of the brain. You're doing the surgery? Why are you holding a pipe wrench? Well, it's pretty effective for lobotomies. Yeah, but I'm not looking for that. But you've been taught because somebody talks a lot that they're smart. That's not true. According to what the Bible teaches you, the Bible will show you, it'll help you to spare your words. 17, let's see, put it in verse number 27. You want to know how smart somebody is? 1727, He that hath knowledge spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. I get this one used on a regular basis. Even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise, and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed as a man of understanding. You know what you know? Sometimes you keep your mouth shut and they think you're smarter than you really are. And the guy said you were doing pretty good until you opened your mouth and then you showed your ignorance. Proverbs chapter 29, along the same lines, verse number 20. Always in a hurry to speak. Always got something to say. Always got a comment on whatever the news media is saying, or whatever's happening, as if what they have to say really matters. Proverbs 29, 20, we're talking about having knowledge, helping you to control what you say, but not only that, how to spare your words. Verse 20, seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? There is more hope of a fool than of him. What does that say about the people you run with? You ever been around somebody that every time somebody says something, look at James chapter number 1. Every time, James chapter number 1, every time somebody gets ready to say something, before you can even get a word in edgewise, they got an opinion about it? You ever been around somebody like that? You have no opinion. All that matters is their opinion. Right? James chapter number 1, verse number 19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to what? Slow to speak, slow to wrath. Swift to what? The old saying is, two ears, one mouth. But oftentimes the mouth goes in gear and whenever your mouth is in gear, you stop hearing. You ever been in a conversation with somebody and they can't wait to get out what they want to say so bad they interrupt you while you're saying it and they have quit hearing what you have to say because what they have to say is more important than what you're saying. That's what they're saying by interrupting. You say, it's just a matter that I told you this morning unequivocally. The reason you have a problem with your spouse is, is you are no longer arguing over whatever the issue might be, who spent the money and who bottomed out the bank account or whatever it might be. It becomes your ego against her ego and your pride against her pride. And now all of a sudden the argument is right out the window and it's going to be about who's going to wind up being in charge. It's about ego. You're not fooling me. Why? The Bible says, only by pride cometh contention. The Bible says the one that's proud at heart is the one that stirs up the visions. That comes from pride. That's Absalom. Stirring it up. But it looks good. It looks like the right reasons. Now I'm giving you a Bible. This is knowledge. So the next time you get in a fight, watch your mouth. It shows you don't know nothing because you're just talking to cover up your ignorance. But you're showing your ignorance by continuing to talk. It's amazing to me sometimes I see these younger guys, they get in, they get around an old preacher, he's gone now, but they get around that old preacher and they get to talking to him as if their opinion matters. And I'm thinking, don't you have enough sense to know that old man could buy and sell you 40 times over with what he knows. This is a great opportunity for you to just shut up and listen. But you can't wait to put in your two cents worth to him like you think you're going to impress him or he hasn't heard it before. You come up with something unusual. I remember he took me one time, and I probably shouldn't tell the stories. People will think, you know, he's a rough old bird or whatever it might be. He was always encouraging me to get around older preachers and stuff, and he was going to go to a meeting, and there was a bunch of old guys there. I mean old-timers. I mean older than I am now, old-timers. And they're going to be sitting there at the table, and he said, I don't want you to come with me. I said, okay, he said, take me up there. I said, okay, we're driving up there. Right as we get ready to get out of the car, he reached over, he'd do that all the time, he grabbed me by the lapel like this, and I said, what's the matter, preacher? He said, I want you to listen to me. I said, okay. He said, I want you to come in here and listen. I said, okay, I'm going to do that. He said, you might consider that you probably don't have much to add to the conversation. He said, if they ask you something about law enforcement, you can probably enlighten them there, but as far as the other stuff is, you're there to have two ears and one mouth and be real slow to open it. Now, you might not appreciate that. He's trying to save me embarrassment from looking like a fool, and he also realizes them old guys, they recognize a donkey when they see him, and they know if all he's going to do is bray, he's not going to listen, so you know what he knows? They're not going to say nothing. You want to learn something? Shut up. That's what the Bible's teaching you. It has to do with knowledge. It's not an easy thing to do, but it's a smart thing to do. Alright, back to Proverbs chapter number 15. This is something you're supposed to do with knowledge. Proverbs chapter number 15. Trying to watch my time here. I appreciate you letting me get all that out this morning. There's so much in that passage that I didn't get to half of it. I should probably go back through and break all those passages down. Proverbs chapter 15, look if you will please in verse number 7, you're supposed to disperse the knowledge that you obtain. Do something with it. The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, but the heart of the foolish doeth not so. We have testimony service around here sometimes. Okay, has God done something for you? Is there something you know that God's done for you? That's not the time for you to step up and say, now we know that in the book of Proverbs it says this, and we know that in the book of Psalms it says so and so, and in the book of 2 Timothy it says this, and this is not a preaching, this is a testimony, something you know. What God do for me? Thank God for saving me. Thank God for helping me. Thank God for forgiving me. Thank God for eternal security. Thank God, that stuff you know. not an opportunity. That's dispensing knowledge. That's something you know about. It's not always in the sense of trying to teach some doctrinal dissertation or use it as an opportunity. Let me just tell you this, ladies and gentlemen. Somebody that is always in a hurry to try to teach some new thing is akin to the devil. Somebody that's always interested in trying to use whatever the platform is to come up with something. Well, I was reading my Bible the other day, and God showed me so on and so forth. Here comes the new doctrine, buddy. Here it comes. So the reason you had this get-together was so you'd have a platform because, you know, you're now the authority. You're going to teach something. Why is it always that way about the Bible and it's not always about your job or something? You don't call people from work over to your house to teach them what you've learned about your job performance. But it's interesting otherwise, isn't it? Look, if you will, please, in Jeremiah chapter number 4. Jeremiah chapter number 4. Has anybody in here ever had a problem doing right? I'm glad you laugh at that. Everybody has that problem. It's like I said to you this morning, I said, you know, to you, I heard a preacher say one time, he said, Jeremiah chapter, yeah, four. He said to everybody, he said, okay, he said, well, I want to ask you this question before I get started. And what is that, preacher? He said, well, he said, I want to ask you, has anybody in here ever had a problem with pride? And I'm sure hands across the place must have gone up and so on and so forth. And he said, good, I'm going to be preaching right directly at you and want you to know that. But I'm going to be preaching especially at those that didn't raise their hand. Because the ones that don't think they have a problem with it have a bigger problem with it than those of us who know, I got a problem with it. Now, ladies and gentlemen, sometimes knowing some things about yourself and knowing how you have a tendency to lean about certain things, where you happen to be ultra-sensitive and easily offended, that says a lot about who you are, but what does God say about your position? If you're easily offended, is it possible, is it possible that you might be wrong in your thinking? You might need to obtain some knowledge about that. We do it in everything else, but we don't do it in that. Now notice what the Bible says if you're having a problem doing what's right to do. Jeremiah chapter 4 verse number 22. For my people is foolish. They have not known me. They have not what? Known me. Created knowledge. They don't know some things about me. They are sadist children. They have none understanding. They're conceited. They're full of themselves. It's all about them. The selfie generation. You're nothing new. They just had different ways of doing it back in those days. They're sadist children. They have none understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no So you know what having knowledge does? It helps you to do good. You know one of the reasons for church? You know one of the reasons for preaching? One of the reasons for that is, is to show you what good is. Sometimes people don't know to do good. They're ignorant about what's right and what's wrong. So you teach them according to the Bible. And it's interesting when you start doing that, you know what happens? They begin to understand right and wrong, and then they get under conviction when they're not in church. Because they found out now, this isn't right. One fellow that came here for a number of months, he came here for a while and then he decided he was going to leave here and he came by my office and he said, I just want you to know this will be my last Sunday. I said, okay brother, are you getting shipped out or something like that? Is there a problem? Are you going to jail? What's the problem? He said, I learned that I enjoyed life a whole lot more before I knew that what I was doing was wrong. That's his exact words. I learned that I enjoyed life a lot more before I realized what I was doing was wrong. So I'm leaving. I don't want to know anymore about what I'm doing. Well, why don't you stop doing the wrong? Right? But, no, that isn't how it left. He did leave. He actually, I mean, I'll give him that much. He wasn't a liar. He did decide he would go ahead and go. Alright, Proverbs, let me show you this. Proverbs chapter number one. Proverbs chapter one. A lot of this in Proverbs. As a matter of fact, if you want to get a definitive chapter on pride, you can deal out there with Proverbs chapter number 6 and then Proverbs chapter 16. The six things that the Lord hates, yea, seven, are an abomination to Him. A proud look is the first thing that He starts with. Proverbs chapter 16 is chocked full of things about pride. But we're talking about knowledge. Look, if you will, please, in verse 7. Proverbs 1, verse 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of But fools despise wisdom and instruction. Now this morning I told you that somebody that is proud, you cannot rebuke him, there's always an excuse. Well I agree to an extent, but my situation is, you know what he just said? The Lord, not me, said you're a fool because you despise wisdom and instruction, unless you're the one giving it. You ever known anybody like that? Look at verse 22, same passage. Now if you don't want to increase your knowledge, you know what the Lord just called you? He just called you a fool. That's what He said. I didn't say it. He said, you're almost gloating in, you're almost relishing in your lack of knowledge about Him. Verse 29, for that they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord. I don't know, therefore I'm not accountable. Whoa, hold on, let's read on a little further. They would not of my counsel, they despised all of my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. The turning away of the simple shall slay them, the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from the fear of evil. Now the Lord tells you there's some things that you need to know when it comes to this stuff about knowledge. All right, it'll help you to do good. How about worshiping? Do you do any good with worship? Look at Isaiah 45, Isaiah chapter 45. Preacher, what is worship? Contrary to most people's belief about worship, it is not this throw your hands up in the air and I just don't care and all that other stuff about some little thing that does that. It's a little emoji thing or whatever that the kids listen to. I hear the little ones singing that stuff. I put my hands in the air because I just don't care. This is what you do when you're either getting held up or you're under arrest. This is also what you do when you show God that I'm not hiding nothing. This also says I surrender. A lot of people think worship is just Throw your hands up, sing a song, do whatever. That's not worship. Worship in the Bible is defined in Genesis chapter number 22. We won't take the time to go there, but it's also defined in Hebrews chapter number 11 with Abel. Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice. Worship is connected with two things, obedience and sacrifice. You really want to worship God? It's obedience first, and then willing to do whatever He wants to do. Not my will, but thine be done. That's worship. The other may be praise, but praise follows worship. Worship comes first. Worship is obedience. There's a lot of times I've been in churches where, and it's there through, Absalom is there, or you have oftentimes Judas being in there, and they're the biggest ones talking about a worship service, a worship service, a worship service. They'll call it worship. Worship. Let's worship the Lord. I love to worship God. I love worship music. They have a way they say it. It's almost like a a church of Christ, a baptismal guy saying, be repentant, be baptized, everybody. They have a way they say that word. Worship like it's holy, like it prevents me from you questioning my motives behind anything. I showed you this morning, that religious veneer follows every bloody killer in the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church killed hundreds of thousands of Christians in the name of religion. That doesn't impress me at all. You're getting a veneer. You're hiding behind that. Oh, don't question me. I'm here to worship God. No, you're not. You're putting on a stinking show. You ain't fooling me. You know what you're doing? You're saying, back off, back off, get away. You're getting too close to me. Get away from me. Know what worship's connected with? You really worship God? You did it here when you had the Lord's Supper, when the Lord tagged you and said, hey, you ain't right with me and you know it. Yes, sir, you're right. and down you came. That's worship. Not coming to the altar. Obedience to the Holy Ghost of God speaking to you when you're wrong or when you're right. The Lord tells you to do this and you do that. That's worship. It's called obedience. The Lord says turn here, don't turn there, go here, don't go there, go with them, don't go with them. You know what you do? You worship God in every day when you do what God tells you to do. Did He tell you to give attendance to reading? Okay, you worship Him when you read the Bible. You say, why? You're being obedient. Did He tell you men ought always to pray? He did say that, by the way. Should you pray? You're worshiping Him when you pray. You say, why? You're being obedient. Ladies and gentlemen, you have an opportunity to worship God every day, not just in church on Sunday or Wednesday night, though I appreciate very much you coming and filling the building up and all the stuff the Lord's doing. That's great. But you need to understand clearly, worship is not about attendance. It's about obedience. The one thing the devil never did was worship God, because he never did what God told him to do. And as a result, no worship service. Isaiah, if you look at that, we're going to talk about the worship of the Lord. Look in chapter 45, look in verse number 20. Isaiah 45, 20. He, the Lord, created the heavens and the earth and created it not in vain and so on and so forth. Yeah, verse 20. Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together that ye escape to the nations. They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot save. In other words, they're so stupid they're worshiping an image. Do you understand that? Do you see what's going on? What's going on, ladies and gentlemen, is God is saying, knowledge will show you how you ought to worship. Knowledge is connected with obedience. Let me give you a couple of more of these. We have a few more minutes here. Look, if you will, please, in 2 Peter chapter number 1, right where you are, and come all the way down to verse number 8. 2 Peter chapter 1, look in verse number 8. Now, anybody here want to bear fruit? Do you want to bear fruit? In the Bible, when you're bearing fruit, you know what you're bearing? You're bearing the fruit of the Spirit. That's found in Galatians 5. Alright, look in verse number 8. For if these things be in you that abound, they make you, ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful, how? In the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord says if you have these attributes that are in you right here, you know what He just said to you? You won't be barren and unfruitful. But you have to find out what those things are. I'll go through those a little bit later on, but there's eight of them that are there together. They have to do with faith, and virtue, and knowledge, and temperance, and patience, and godliness, and brotherly kindness, and charity. He said you want to increase in knowledge, then you have those attributes, and that'll help you to obtain knowledge. All right? Proverbs chapter number 11. Let's run a couple of more. You got a couple more minutes? Proverbs chapter number 11. This is what knowledge will do for you. The preacher, what am I supposed to do in this and this and this situation? Get you a Bible and see if you can't find a place in the Bible where it happened. Now, I don't mean this the wrong way, I hope you'll understand it, but the preacher's not always the answer to all your questions. Sometimes God's allowed you to go through certain things so that you'll look for God and get an answer yourself out of the Bible. Listen, listen, I don't mind taking your call. Don't go out of here. I can hear it already. Well, I don't bother preacher. He's got so much on his plate and he's so busy and all. I just, you know, I'll just get through it on my own. No, it's not what I'm saying. You get jammed up, call me up. I don't mind. I'll try to help you. I might know where the verses are. I'll help you as much as I can. But at some point, sometimes you got to get out on your own and pray and ask God to show you yourself from the Bible. That's God making Himself real to you, not just revealing Himself through me to you. Now there's a time and a place for that. If I can help you, I'll help you. I know a thing or two. I've been doing it for a little while. But sometimes, if it's not an absolute emergency, you don't have to know something right away, sometimes it's good for you to grab your Bible and pray. I know it's a little easier to make a phone call. Sometimes the answer's a lot quicker. But this isn't McDonald's. Sometimes, you know what, I've got a notebook, it's got questions in it. Some of the questions I've had for, oh, I don't know, several years, I still don't have an answer. I had an opportunity when I rode around with him for over 20 years, I had an opportunity to ask him anything in that Bible. I never hardly ever ask him a Bible question. I ask him ministry questions. I ask him questions about meetings, places he had been, things he had been involved in. I wanted to know experientially how God worked, what God did, how he saw answers to prayer and all that stuff. I wasn't interested where Cain got his wife. I wasn't interested in, you know, who's making umbrellas for the millennial rain or blood-sucking angels from Jupiter. I figured I'd get all that stuff on my own. What I wanted to know is, is the experiences that he had from sixty-something years in the ministry that I didn't have the benefit of, him going out fifty-two weeks out of every other week for fifty years on the weekend. 26 meetings per year for 50 years, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and sometimes youth camps, and they're gone from Monday till Saturday in there. I wanted to know. That guy knows. Listen, y'all may not know this. He preached to thousands at times, three and four thousand, like a crusade, and he was the main speaker, and up there drawing, and big churches up north, all through Canton, Ohio, and Dayton, Ohio, and all the big names that you would know about and so on and so forth. He's been all through Sightler's Place and all them old timers. He preached, I wanted to know what happened, how did it happen, what took place, what did you learn, what can you teach me, what can you pass on, what happens if this and what happens... I wanted to know experientially what can I learn through you by osmosis that I will never have the opportunity to be able to go 26 times a year for 50 years? You talk about being up in the air more than a seagull with sore feet. You're talking about a guy traveling, I mean, all over the entire world. That guy knew some things. And I wanted to learn that. I didn't want to just learn, you know, where did Cain get his wife? You know, I guess at the local sock hop. I don't know. Look, I know the biblical answer for it, but that was superfluous to me. I wanted to see what he saw and listen to his experience. What did he know about God that I didn't know? I found out there wasn't but a thing or two that he knew I didn't know. I remember on a regular basis for being awestruck at the things that he learned through his travels and the depth and the things that God did through him and to him by that experience and how he then passed that on to other people by that experience. All right. Well, thank you for that. Proverbs chapter number 11, verse number 9. Now, what are we going to talk about here? You need delivery from a problem? Do you have a proclivity towards certain things? Do you have an addiction? Okay, let me show you what the Bible says. Look in verse number 9. A hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor, but through knowledge shall the just be what? You've got to learn some things. Addiction is a very real thing. Whether you want to believe it or not, it's a real thing. You have an opiate that's out there now by the name of heroin. It is the epitome of the black death. It is more addictive than any family tie, more addictive than any religious feeling or religious sensation. It's more addictive than blood itself. It overrides and trumps everything. And it is literally the devil in disguise. And you are not going to overcome that thing through main strength and awkwardness. You got to have some things. You say what? If you're going to be successful with it, you're going to have to know what the Bible says about that and be able to fight that thing for what it is. It's not just a physical addiction. It's not just psychological. It's spiritual. You step into another world when that happens. You got a problem with addiction? You have a problem with things you watch? Ooh, must have hit a little nerve there. You have a problem with that? You say, what's the Bible said? Well, it's more than just removing yourself from it. It's where's the desire? Why is it there? Because there's an interaction that's involved there. You know what? You will never overcome that by just shutting everything off. You know what you better learn? You better learn what the Bible has to say about it. Proverbs chapter 24. Proverbs chapter 24. It increases your strength. I see this about the Bible. You can't tell it much now, but back in the day I used to work out a little bit here and there. And I see the Bible like going to the gym. You go to the gym on a regular basis and you work out on a regular basis, you stay in shape and you're able to increase your strength because of your repetitions, the amount of repetitions that you do. Because of your being faithful to go to the gym, you gradually over a period of time, you can increase the weight and thereby you increase your strength. Well, I see the Bible that way. I see the Bible like going to a gym. I see the Bible that I know this. A couple of times where I wasn't able to train those six days a week, it didn't take but a few days, and the next thing you know I go in and I'm off a little bit. I let it go a week or ten days, it's more. I let it go a little bit more than that, all of a sudden things begin to change. You're not nearly as strong. You're not nearly as able to do what you used to do. You say, well, I'm talking about staying in shape spiritually. You can't stay in shape spiritually unless you go to the spiritual gym. And that's the Bible. You gotta know some things. Now why do we come to church? Because I'm supposed to feed the sheep. That means I'm supposed to teach you some things more than just stop, quit, don't, you know, touch not, taste not, handle not. I'm supposed to teach you some things. I'm supposed to make it where you can eventually do the sets on your own. you can eventually train. You give you a workout card and you go through the machines until you learn how to do it enough times that you don't have to have the card, but you can tell now what a burn feels like and what a pump feels like and when the lactic acid builds up and why it builds up and what you did by your diet and different things like that. And after a period of time, you gain enough knowledge that you know what works for you and what doesn't work for you. And you might be surprised that you might do one exercise and it really does something for you. Somebody else does it and it doesn't do anything for you. Well, in the Bible, it's like that. You have to learn to go to the Bible like you go to the gym in order to increase your strength. Look, if you will, please, in Proverbs chapter number 24, look at verse number 5. A wise man is strong, yea, a man of knowledge increaseth his strength. He's saying the man that's wise didn't become strong without studying and learning some things. He had to get some knowledge. and it has to do with the right kind of knowledge, not modern-day knowledge. Modern-day knowledge is said it's in the name of truth. There's a big issue right now with fake news. Well, let me just let you in on a little secret. It's all fake. There ain't nobody that speaks the absolute truth for no reason whatsoever. You say, why? The people that support them with advertisement won't support them if they tell the absolute truth. I don't care if it's fair and balanced. I don't care if it's whatever proclivity you have toward whatever, you know, off-site alternative site. It's all put on. I wish you knew some of the people that I know that have the ability to analyze that stuff and tell you a lot of that stuff is put out by people that you think are telling you the truth and it's whole thing done as a ruse. But you don't do enough research to know a ruse when you see it. It's fake. Now, let me ask you a question. I'm telling you the Bible's completely true. Why would you worry about anything else? I don't have to worry about it trying to pull the wool over my eyes. It's true. You don't have to worry about a preacher that is going to preach to you the Bible. It's those that want to try to cast a doubt on the Bible that you need to worry about. Somebody trying to preach the Bible to you, you don't have to worry about them. They may not be the most polished, but you don't have to worry about them. At least they're honest with you. Look, if you will, please, I'll give you this one real quick. Look in Philippians chapter number 3. I've already run out of time. I'll give you the rest of these things on Wednesday. Philippians 3. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. Chapter number 3. Now I want to ask you this question, and it is not intended to be rhetorical in nature, meaning I don't have the answer before I ask it. I want you to ponder before you speak. Would you like to be honored for the sake of Christ? Any Christian, not necessarily a saved person, would immediately say, absolutely. I would like to be honored for a cause that is the right cause and that would be Jesus Christ. Fair statement? Wouldn't you like to hear well done my good and faithful servant? Would you like to be honored for that? Now let me show you very carefully how for you to understand even the troubles that you go through. Because troubles teach you things you cannot otherwise learn. As a matter of fact, trouble in your life often times reveals who you really are. It doesn't make you. It reveals in you what you are. You ever get bitter at trouble? Angry at trouble? Tribulation, trial comes. Watch the Apostle Paul, verse 7, "...but what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ? Yea, doubtless, I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." You know what knowledge does? Knowledge makes sense of your suffering. Paul said, I have suffered the loss of all things. Why? Continue on, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, and the righteousness which is of God by faith. Continuing, that I may know him, talking about knowledge, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death. Know him. Do you really want to know him? That means you have to be brought to the end of yourself. I heard an individual say one time, you know, well, I just want to hold on to everything that I have. It just makes me more comfortable. But sometimes in holding on to things, you lose your hold of Jesus. Sometimes the Lord would see fit to take away things, including your health and even your mental health, in order to find out, do you really want to trust Me? Well, if it's for God's glory, you would say, I would do it. Yeah, but it's easier said than done. The Apostle Paul said, listen, I've suffered the loss of all things. I gave up my time, I gave up my money, I gave up my reputation, I gave up my career, I gave up everything that I had, but why? that I might know Him and have the fellowship of His sufferings, make sense of, understand why it is that Jesus went through the sufferings. I'm willing to suffer those things so that I can know Jesus, because there is nothing better than knowing Him, but to really know Him. is to have to suffer like Him. Now, when I say suffer like Him, I'm not talking about an individual thing. Listen to me for just a minute. I'm not saying that I now have to go out and get a whip and beat myself. The Catholics do that. I'm not saying I have to crucify myself. The people in the Philippines do that around Easter time. I'm not saying that I have to do certain things that Jesus did. When I say suffer like Him, it means that when suffering comes to me, I suffer like He did and said, Lord, nevertheless not my will but Thine be done. that's knowing him. That comes through knowledge. Here's human reasoning. Why did that happen to me? Why didn't it happen to them? Even among Christians. Why did he choose it to do to me? They're taking a personal affront as if the Lord has picked on them, or chosen them, and now they're embarrassed in a crowd of people because it looks to them like, oh man, God's doing something horrible to me and I don't know why He did it to you. Y'all are all thinking I did something bad. No, we ain't doing that at all. We're not even thinking. Most people think, you know, well, when I walked in here, everybody's thinking about me. No, they're all thinking about themselves just like you're thinking about yourself. Suffering is the thing that separates the proverbial men from the boys. Sometimes the Lord will show your materialistic proclivities by putting the loss of those things at danger, and you're like, well, the Lord's like, well, you can't take it with you when you die. Yeah, but I just want to hold on to it. It just makes me so much more comfortable. Boy, you're dying tomorrow. That's what the rich man said. I'm going to build bigger barns. Isn't that what he said? More for me. Come on, isn't that what he said? And the Lord said what? Do you remember? Thou what? Thou fool. I'm taking your soul tonight. You ain't got time to build bigger barns, be more comfortable. Your focus is in the wrong place. You should have been thinking about me all along. And then if you had it or didn't have it, Paul, what? What was the secret of the Christian life? Oh, I've learned how to be content in whatsoever state I'm in. I know how to have it and I know how to not have it. I know how to abound and I know how to be abased. I know how to be happy in the palace and I know how to be happy in the prison. Don't make no difference to me as long as I'm walking with Jesus. None of it has any power over me. I know how to suffer for Jesus' sake, I know how to get the tar beat out of me, to have my... be put in prison, have my freedom taken away from me, and I know what it's like to be as free as a bird. Don't make no difference to me one way or the other. Long as Jesus is with me, I don't care. There are some things about knowing the Lord right there that you know experientially. But it comes on the part of willingness on your part. Comes on the behalf or comes on... it comes as a result of willingness on your part. That's the word I'm looking for. Can God do to you whatever He wants? I'm not talking about because He's God and you're not, but I'm talking about if He did, would you suffer like He suffered? Do you realize they made a laughing stock out of the Messiah who had never one time sinned about anything at all? Never. Although tempted in all points, yet without sin, He goes to the cross. He dies up there naked and stretched out in front of everybody. They're coming by laughing and mocking and making fun of Him, spitting on Him, plucking out His beard, tearing His back. His creation. The ones He could speak and have them obliterated. You realize that's what He did? You know what He said? I'll endure the cross. You say, why? It's what my Father wants me to do. Boy, He sure must have known the Father. You say, could the Lord do that? I'm not talking about can He overpower you. Sure He can overpower you. He's God. But if He did, how would you respond? Suppose He took the most precious thing in the world to you tonight. Suppose tonight He did something to you that you don't understand. Would that be alright with you? It would be hard to choke out Romans 8, 28 then, wouldn't it? You better know some things. Some things for you to consider. Knowledge is not just the ABCs of rightly divide in the Bible. Sometimes knowledge is how did God deal with you in certain circumstances and situations. What did God do for you? God real to you? You know when you find out when God's really real to you? It's not in the thundercloud and the fire and the earthquake and the high wind. You know where it is? In the still small voice when you're stuck way back up in the cave and you think everybody's forgotten you and nobody cares about you. And it's just you and Him and the whole of a ship. and all hope is lost, and the ship is going down, and you're in the lion's den, and surrounded by lions in the dark, and you're listening to the growls, and you feel the fur rubbing up against you, and then all of a sudden the light of the world steps in, in the fiery furnace, and you're all of a sudden thinking, now God, we're fixing to burn, and oh, this is going to be terrible, and I hope it's hot enough that as soon as I hit the flames, I'm consumed immediately. I hope there's not going to be a bunch of suffering. I sure hope it doesn't last very long at all. and they pitch you off into that fire and you fall about 25 or 30 feet down into that ghastly pit of that flaming hot burning fire and land like you landed in a pile of feathers down there and then you get up thinking I'm gonna be burning and you're thinking man I'm glad I got a colt it's freezing down here and you turn around and look and well there he is. And the Lord's walk. I bet you then three Hebrew children sure are glad they decided to say, well, we're not going to bow. And whether the Lord gets us or doesn't get us, we're going to serve the Lord. I bet you they sure are glad you say, why? They got an experience like nothing anybody's ever had. They knew some things about God that you and I won't never know. if you haven't read the accounts of Richard Wambern or Popov who happened to be over there in the prisons and being beaten and tortured by the communists and things and playing records saying that they had their daughters and their kids and that they were doing unspeakable things to them, playing it right outside the cell. One of them said in his account, he said, I was screaming, I heard screaming, I heard screaming, I continued to hear screaming. He said it was the most ghastly, horrible screaming I've ever heard in all of my life and then I woke to realize it was me doing the screaming under torture. He preaches sermons back and forth to the Lord while he's in there. And he comes out on the other side and he knows some things about God and he said, God was with me in those dark places. God did things for me in there that I may know Him, that I may know Him, that I may know Him. The knowledge, the profound knowledge of His suffering. There's real Christianity. I want to know Him abstractly. That's one thing, but knowing Him experientially, seeing God get you through things you can't explain and understand, or accepting the fact that He's going to go with you through the trouble and He may not get you out of the trouble. He may let you go to the cross like Peter. He may let you go to the chopping block like Paul. He may let you go to the Isle of Patmos like John. He may let you go into the prison like John the Baptist and get your head cut off. But knowing Him and knowing He'll get you through, you're on to something there. That's not just knowing Him abstractly. That's knowing Him intricately. That's what we're aiming to do. What I want to do is I want for you to know God, not just on a piece of paper. I want to show you in the Bible you can know Him as your personal Savior, but not just His salvation. Every day walking with Him. I'm telling you, that's the God who makes Himself available to you. But you've got to be desiring. Lord, I want to know you. You sure you want to know me? Yeah, you know me, don't you? Well, I know a little bit about you. Well, you know how I am. I might take Job out for no reason at all and I might just put him out there as a pawn and use him just to bake the devil with. What do you think about that? I might kill 185,000 people one night with an angel just because I want to. I might kill the firstborn in all of Egypt. I might send great plagues and great things and turn the people loose. You know what I might do? I might flood out the entire world, animals and everybody else included, with a flood and kill everybody except eight people. You know me, don't you? I might destroy four cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Abednon, and Bezoboah, because of the sin of sodomy, and burn them up and never apologize for it. You know me, don't you? Take a righteous and holy God manifest in the flesh and nail Him naked before His congregation, before His creation, excuse me, and let Him go up there and pay the price for their wickedness and their ungodliness, and send Him down there to hell to pay the price, and then three days later resurrect Him, and then not give Him restitution, not give Him revenge until a couple of thousand years later. You know me, don't you? Lord, that don't make sense to me. You don't know me very well. You know me, don't you? I'll let my preachers be laughed and mocked and made fun of. I'll let my children be the laughing stock, the off-scouring of the world. I'll let them be sawn asunder. I'll let them be shown up in sheepskins. You know me, don't you? I'll let them be drowned and mocked and belittled and made fun of. I'll let snakes bite them. I'll let bad things happen to them. You know me, don't you? I'm God, right? You understand that, don't you? I sure would like to. Well, knowing me experientially and knowing me educationally is two different things. But if you want to know me, I'll let you. But I'm probably going to do some things you're not going to understand. And by faith, you're going to have to trust me that there's some things you are just not going to ever know. But you will know my peace and security and loving arms around you through whatever trouble you're going through. Lord, why? That why should dissipate. I know you want to ask the why's, but you know what you have to say? Okay, Lord, I want to know you. Okay. Well, then just accept it. Because I may not always answer it. Nothing wrong with asking. Don't mean he's going to answer. You probably never had that experience. I've asked him a lot of things. You say, what do I get? Crickets. If that. Sometimes I just get silence. You ever pray and ask God to intervene on your behalf because of somebody else and the motive and everything seems right and he don't do it? He lets them go to jail. He lets them go to the hospital. He lets them wind up. You ever pray that way? For somebody you really love and care. I mean, wouldn't it be better if they get right and the Lord don't do it for your behalf or anybody else's? You don't know much about God. God will not superimpose His will over their free will even to make you feel better. You say, why? That's just God. I'll give you this and we'll go. God doesn't owe us an answer for anything He does. He gives you the assurance that everything He does is good, and everything He does is right. Now whether you understand it or not, it doesn't make a price of tea in China. You folks, you wouldn't understand it, literally. I don't know how many millions of people, depends on who you read after, were here during the days of Noah's flood. The Lord said, well, my spirit shall not always strive with man. I'm more out with what man are doing over there, mixed breeding with the angels and so on and so forth. I've had enough of them. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to destroy the world with the flood, build an ark, get on it, and stand by for heavy rolls. You're going to do what? I'm flooding them out and killing a whole bunch of them. Well, okay. Babies, invalids, you can't try to make sense of that. But God knew what he was doing. You ever look at all the firstborn of Egypt destroyed? You ever look at all the babies thrown into the river over there, given to the crocodiles? Here's a good one for you. Jesus is born in Bethlehem, right? Every child two years of age and under, kill them. A slaughterhouse. Why did God let that happen? You don't know much about God. There's a lot about God I don't know. I got no answer for. But I know he knows what he's doing. And I know this. He's the boss. He don't owe me an answer. And how dare me demand it. But I want to know him. Oh, preacher, you don't know what you're asking for. I might know him. Might know what that's involving. But I know what's going to happen. There's going to be some things he's going to do if I'm going to know him that I ain't going to understand. Say what? Above my pay grade. I got a list of things. We're going to stand here and be dismissed. I got a list of things. And those things, they're the conundrums in life. Here's one for you, my dad was 64 years of age, no immorality, no problems with money, no things he was doing wrong, going all over the country preaching, 38 to 48 meetings a year, every year for years after he left the big church over there in Panama City and stuff like that, he's dead at 64. My mom's been without him now for 25 years. Can you explain that? He's a preacher. You're only 64. That's just a couple years older than I am right now. Here's one for you. I wrote it down. What in the cat hair did you take Jim Lentz for? Not just because he's my friend. He's a great preacher. He's a great preacher. What did you take him for? You got the likes of Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes and all that bunch of sham and ecclesiastical pimps. What did you take him for? I don't know. Let me know when you figure it out. Here's one for you. Why couldn't they leave the old man around for just a couple more years? Who's filling his shoes now? There ain't even nobody can touch the hem of his garment. Gone. Went out with a whimper. Go out with a roaring lion. He fell and got busted up and then slides out from this life into the next life. No roaring flame. What are you doing, God? I don't know. It's my business. You trust me, don't you? Yeah, but I don't understand you. Well, it ain't your place to understand me. It's your place to trust me. I know some friends of mine right now. There's a friend of mine laying over in a hospital bed in Tallahassee right now. Good man, loves the Lord, believes the book, been doing right, only a year or two older than I am, solid in his faith, comes to church, reads the Bible, prays, takes his kids and stuff to church, takes his daughter, fixing to have twin grandkids right now, laying over there with that stinking respirator. Dope pushers are out here, and robbers are out here, and rapists are out here, and murderers are out here. I'll trade one of them any day for him. What you doing, God? None of your business. I know what I'm doing. Boy, I want to know him, but you're getting down to some brass tacks now. See, everything else I gave you along the way was things that it would do for you. But really knowing Him is to couple that knowledge with understanding and seeing how that knowledge relates to Him and how He gets glory out of whatever it is you know about Him. How does what He teaches you relate to Him and put Him on the throne? That's really knowing Him. And it's usually seen through the eyes of trouble. Wish it weren't so. You make sense of what, 50, 52, 51, about 500 wounded out there? You make sense of that? You can't make sense of that. You make sense of two or three hurricanes this past year? Florida and Texas, all that, you make any sense? You can't make sense of that stuff. You make sense of the church shooting over there with 20-something people killed? You can't make sense of all that stuff. You say, what is it? They keep running that stuff in front of you, and running that stuff in front of you, and running that stuff in front of you. You know what they're doing? They're getting you accustomed to it, so you just accept it as part of everyday life. It came on and left. Last year, or a couple of years ago, you had the killing of the people down there in Orlando, and that thing stayed on the news for about three weeks. The thing that happened out there in Las Vegas, it didn't stay on the news for three days. You know why? People weren't interested anymore. They have a guy break in out there and take an AK and blow up, shoot up a bunch of people or whatever it was he had, I'm not sure, the weapon. And then they catch him and a couple of guys run him down and pop him in that kind of a deal and he's gone. And you hear nothing about it anymore. Gone. You've had three policemen killed in the last couple of days. Somebody probably don't even know about it. You say, well, they don't say nothing about it. You're used to it now. They say, well, you know, they live, they die. That's how it is. They're getting you accustomed to it. You're like a trained animal. You're like Pavlov's dog. Oh, well, there's another slaughter. Somebody up in New York City ran over a bunch of people with a car. Well, they probably shouldn't have been riding their bicycle down the road there. Well, you know, that's how things go and, well, you know, we're fixing to have us a big festival and a big good time here and that kind of, well, what's the big deal? They're setting you up. They're setting you up. You just don't know. And behind that whole thing is God. Not any of it is slipping by him. What do you know about it?