Okay, let's stand and read together there. Acts chapter five, I'm gonna start in verse 12. Acts 5, 12. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. And of the rest, durst no man join himself to them, but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the church, multitudes, both of men and women, insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about Jerusalem, bringing sick folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were healed every one. Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, and this is the verse that I want you to pay the most attention to, Remember, the apostles have been locked up in jail, and the angel of the Lord comes, releases them, and says these words, verse 20, go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. You can be seated this morning. I'm gonna try to do what the apostles were told to do this morning. When the angel said go and stand and speak in the temple to all the people the words of this life. Now, I don't want to take this out of context. I believe that the Bible doesn't say, but I think when the angel sent by God said to speak to the people all the words of this life, I think they were talking about eternal life, which is found in Jesus Christ. I believe that's what they were talking about. But I want to use that phrase this morning, this life, and just preach to you about this life, about this life. this life that we're in, this life that we all have a part of this morning. The angel there was sent down to the prison to turn loose these men of God. And when they were released, they weren't told to go talk about the weather or sports or politics. A lot of talk about politics right now. Kind of makes you sick, doesn't it? But there was a lot of different talk there. There could have been a lot of different talk, but the talk they were commanded to speak about there was the words of this life. So important that an angel was sent and the message was given, the words of this life. And so, I just want to say some things to you this morning about this life. And try to preach to you about this life, this earthly life, if you will. And try to tie it with a spiritual life as well this morning. This life, everybody's alive this morning, right? I don't reckon there's anybody that's dead yet that's here. We're all gonna die one of these days. But this life, first of all, let me say to you, is a gift from God. You didn't deserve to be able to live. The Bible tells us over in the book of Genesis that God took the dust of the earth and he formed man. And the Bible says that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. And do you realize, and there's a verse over in the book of Job that I'd like to read to you this morning. Job chapter 33 verse 4 says, the Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. Understand this this morning, that the breath that God gave to Adam, when God formed man of the dust of the ground and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam, at about 950 years old, died. But he had given birth to sons, who had given birth to sons, and so on and so forth, to Noah. And Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, after the flood came and destroyed everybody else, and they had sons. And you and I today are breathing that breath. that's been passed on to us through generation, generation, generation, that God gave us life. God breathed in the man's nostrils the breath of life, and by virtue of procreation, we are here today breathing the breath of God. Life is a gift from God. Just to be alive is just a gift from God. You don't deserve to be alive. We can enjoy the beauty of creation. We can look around and see the things that God has made. We can enjoy our families. We can enjoy church. We can enjoy our grandchildren if we have grandchildren. We can enjoy the blessings of nature and the beauty of God's world that he's given us because God has given us life. Praise the Lord for life. You see, somewhere, Not very far from where we are right now, there's people that are fighting to hang on to what me and you are taking for granted right now. And right now, somewhere not far from here, there's some folks that are mourning the loss of what you and I just take for granted, and that's life. Life. Life is a gift from God. You ought to thank God for it. You ought to thank God that you're not in a funeral home. You ought to thank God that you're not fighting for your life. There are people, we know people right now, that are fighting for their very life. We know people that have been diagnosed with cancer recently. We know folks, Sister Cora Mitchum, Brother Freddy Copeland, a preacher of the gospel, a man that is way on up in years and he's in the hospital, and who knows what might happen to him or happen to your eye today. I'm telling you that life is a gift from God. Thank God for life. Thank God for life, I'm pro-life. I'm pro-life, just thought I'd throw that in. I thank God for life. I believe that God has given us life. We're endowed by our creator with life. Praise the Lord. But that's not all the words of this life. Sure, life is a gift from God. Boy, there's a whole lot more to life than just knowing where it came from. Let me say also to you this morning that this life, go and stand in the temple Tell all the people the words of this life. That's what God's told me to do this morning. I'm doing what that scripture says. I'm telling you about this life. And I want to say, not only this morning is life a gift from God, but life is full of trouble. Life is full of trouble. Job said it. He said, man that is born of woman. That's me. Anybody here that wasn't born of a woman? Man that is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble. That same book of Job chapter five verse seven says man is born into trouble as the sparks fly upward. I'm telling you, life is full of trouble. I'm just preaching to you about life this morning. You will never reach a place in this life where you don't have any troubles. I believe Sister Jeanette was talking about how they had heard her this time getting shot because she's getting a little older. I believe they said that she was the oldest woman that they'd ever done that process to. They didn't say that okay. Sister Jeanette's had troubles. Her heart got out of the rhythm. Anybody had any troubles this week? I had an air tire up this morning. Flat tires, that's just part of life. It doesn't matter who you are this morning. It doesn't matter how rich you are. It doesn't matter how poor you are. It doesn't matter how young you are. It doesn't matter how old you are. It doesn't matter if you're lost or saved. Matthew chapter seven, verse 25, the house that was built on a rock, which is a picture of a man that builds his life on Jesus Christ, it still had storms come. The wind still came against that house and the storms beat against it, but it stood because it was built on a rock. I'm telling you that life is full of troubles. Life's full of troubles. I said recently at one of our married couple Bible study classes that I used to think, I was so naive to think that there would come a time in my marriage where Trisha and I would reach this plateau where there would never be anything bad happen or anything go wrong and we would just live happily ever after. And she just reaching, holding my hand and kissing me and telling me how much she loves me and how great I am and stuff, all that stuff. I used to think that we'd reach that place. Now I know it's never gonna happen. There's always gonna be trouble in life. And so I just wanna say to you this morning, the scripture says in Psalm 34 verse 19, many are the afflictions of the righteous. But the verse doesn't stop there. It goes on to say after it says, many of the afflictions of the righteous, it says, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. I'm telling you, you're gonna have troubles in life. That's why you need the Lord Jesus Christ to help you through this life. Life's full of trouble. Life is full of trouble. Listen, don't think for a minute if you get saved and I tell you you start serving God that you're not gonna have any troubles. You're still gonna have troubles. Good news is you just got somebody to help you through troubles because life's full of troubles. This life, this life is full of trouble. Adam was the first man, he had trouble. His first born son killed his little brother. Abraham was a friend of God. He had troubles. He had troubles with Lot. He had troubles with Hagar and his wife Sarah. They had troubles having children. I mean, just troubles with kings and troubles in life and droughts and famines. He was a friend of God. David was a man after God's own heart, but David had troubles. David had troubles with Saul. He had troubles on the left and right. He had troubles with his children. He had troubles with himself. I'm telling you, life's full of trouble. Get used to it. Life's full of trouble. Preach to them the words of this life. Life is not fair. I've told you that before. Life's not fair. I've told this story before. I'm going to tell part of it again. Senior in high school, Dr. Greer was there. It was called History 5, was the class. And I would have never told him this, but he was a good teacher. But there was a girl in there that had never made a B in her life. She'd always made straight A's her whole life. Don't you just hate somebody like that? She's made straight A's all of her life. And she's fixing to make a B. And in front of the class, her senior year of high school, she is weeping openly to the teacher and begging him, explaining to him she's never made a B. I'm sitting in the back, man. She's up there weeping and crying. And finally she's trying to tell him why she ought to get an A. And he's just listening to her. And she presents her best argument. I don't remember anything that she said except for this one thing. And she got to this point that she said, weeping, she said, it's not fair. It's not fair. And I'll never forget, he looked at her and he said, life's not fair. Life's not fair. Well, that was some good words. That was some good words. Jeremiah chapter two says, it's good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. I want you young people to understand this morning, life is not always fair. This life's not always fair. That's just life. The best people don't always get the best jobs. The most qualified don't always get the promotions. The best people don't always get the recognition they deserve. Life's just not fair. And you better be glad it's not. You better be glad life's not fair. Because you're living better than most of the people. About 97% of the world don't live like you live. 90% of the people in the world don't have air conditioning like you've got air conditioning. It wasn't fair for Joseph to be sold by his brothers as a slave. It wasn't fair for Joseph to be lied about by Potiphar's wife and he ended up in prison. It wasn't fair that the butler forgot about him and he spent two more years in prison. I'm telling you, life's just not fair. It wasn't fair for Stephen when they're stoning him for doing nothing but just being a good Christian and loving people. It wasn't fair for Stephen to be lied about and to be stoned and be taken out at an early age. That's just life. This life's not fair. There's gonna be things happen to you in life, you young people, listen to me, there's gonna be things happen to you in life that will not be fair. Daniel and the three Hebrew children taking his young men, taking down the Babylon, they made eunuchs out of them. It's not fair. Took them away from their parents, put them in a strange land, teach them a strange new language, strange new doctrine, strange things. I tell you, it's just not fair. That's just life. I thought about my grandma. My grandma, Ralph, married when she was 13. I don't know what year that would have been. She died when she was 49. I thought she was an old woman. I was 10 years old when she died, and I thought, she is an old woman, and she's done died. She was 49. When she was 32, she had 10 children. Married to a drunk that beat her up just about every time he came home. Beat the kids. I was thinking about this because my mother had a birthday this week. My mother was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. And I said, Mom, do you remember anything about Lincoln? How long did y'all live there? She said, I don't remember nothing about it. She said, there was about four of us that were alive at the time. They moved all over the country. My grandpa was a truck driver. Just a sorry, low-down human being. That's all anybody's ever heard anybody say anything about him good. Nothing good I've ever heard about him. I tell you what, my grandmother, she was a Jew. She was a Jew. Boy, she had a rough life. It wasn't fair. That's just life. That's just life. It wasn't fair for Jesus Christ to die on the cross for your sins, but he did it. This year we heard about up there in Flint, Michigan, all the trouble and probably, I think maybe some high-level officials got indicted, maybe going to spend some time for the water in Flint, Michigan being polluted. Listen folks, you think life's not fair? You think it's fair for people all around the world to have to drink dirty water while you always got clean water? You got a closet full of clothes, and I tell you what, over half the world has got one little clothes they got on their back and they don't have any more clothes? Don't get to wishing you want life to be fair. You're gonna lose instead of gain in this country. I'm just telling you, life's not fair. Be careful desiring fairness. Just remember that Romans 8, 28 tells us that all things work together for good to them that love God. You got it better than you deserve. Everybody in this building this morning, you've got it better than you deserve. Don't be dropping because life's not fair. Because most of the time it's unfair to you in the right way, especially in this country. It may not always be that way, but life's just not fair. I want to say to you this morning that this life is deceitful. This life is deceitful. Well, if there's any point that I want to really make this morning, I want to make this, I'm preaching to you about this life. And I want to stress this point more than any other point this morning. This life is deceitful. This life is deceitful. You'll be deceived by this life. You'll be deceived by the things of this life. That's why the Bible says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. That's why Jesus told Martha, Martha, Martha, they are careful and troubled about many things. The things of this life are deceitful. We want a home, we want a car, we want a bigger home, we want a nicer car, we want a newer car, we want things, we want toys, and still we're not happy. That's because this life is deceitful. This life makes you think if I had this, if I had that, if we could only pay this bill, if we could do this, if we could get this over the hump over here, if we could take care of this, then we'd be happy. No. That won't make you happy. Because this life is deceitful and the things of this life are deceitful. The pleasures of this life are deceitful. Right now, football season's about to start. And boy, there's a bunch of teams hoping to be number one. And boy, there's a bunch of fans all pumped up. I know we're in big orange country. A lot of people excited about Tennessee's chances this year. Listen, I've been excited before for Tennessee. It's deceitful. It's deceitful. The things of this life, the pleasures of this life are deceitful. You get your hopes all built up. Listen to me. Listen to me, young people. A hundred years from now, it's not going to matter who won the national championship or the Super Bowl. This life's deceitful. And the things that this life builds up, and you so long for, and the pleasures, and the things that you could attain and gain in this life, and enjoy in this life, it's all deceitful! It's deceitful! And you get to the point that you look for that and you think, oh, that's so great! No. No, it's not. It's just deceitful. The pleasures of this life, the vacations and even sexual lust and all those things, it's all a deceitful game. In Hollywood, they're never satisfied. And they husband hop and wife hop. And it's just a game and they're never happy because it's so deceitful. The things of this life, they just don't satisfy. It's deceitful. The pleasures, the riches. The Bible says in Proverbs 23, verse 5, that wings certainly have riches and they fly away. I'm talking about the deceit of this life. We used to do some work for a guy at a cross full. And as far as I know, he's still in his 90s. This guy, blessed with good health, just cursed every other breath almost. And he was at the shop one day, this had been many, many years ago, and he was driving a new vehicle. I remember my dad saying something about his new car and said his children, and of course, It's amazing, somebody that's as old as he is has children that have been retired for 10 and 20 years. But he was driving a new car and daddy said, well, I see you've got your new vehicle. He said, yes. And my kids told me, said, you might as well spend your money, dad. You can't take it with you. And he said, you can't? Well, I ain't going then. Oh, yeah, you are. There's been a lot of folks. There was a rich man in chapter 12 of Luke. Boy, his crops had brought forth plentifully. I'm telling you, life's deceitful. Life's deceitful. His crops brought forth plentifully. He didn't have no room to put all of his goods, and he decided he was gonna tear down his old barns, build newer barns, bigger barns, and he's gonna say to his soul, thou hast much goods laid up in store for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. God said, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. He was deceived by this life. Everything was looking good. Everything was looking so good. Well, I've seen a lot of people that, not a whole lot, but I have seen people and heard of people that longed for retirement and finally reached that place and within a week they were dead. And saved for retirement, had plans for retirement. This life is deceitful. Riches, the riches of this life are deceitful. The popularity of this life. You young people, I remember what it's like to be, believe it or not, I remember what it's like to want to be popular, to want to be in the crowd, so to speak. It's deceitful. It's just deceitful. Somebody said one time, when you're young, you worry what everybody thinks about you. When you get middle-aged, you think, I don't care what anybody thinks about you. Then when you get old, you find out they never was thinking about you to begin with. It's just a deceitful game. It's just life. There's so much deceit about life. I'm afraid there's so many in our churches today that are deceived about getting ahead in life. Getting ahead in life. Getting ahead in life. What does that mean, get ahead in life? Well, it just means to get to the place that you've got your house maybe paid for. You're just kind of leveled out and you're not working like a dog all the time. There's a lot of people long to get ahead in life. It's just deceitful. It's just deceitful. I want to say something to the men of this church for just a minute. We need men. We need men. Every church needs men. Men that'll be men. I'm afraid there's some of you that your children are gonna grow up thinking that church and revivals are mainly for the women and the kids. Well, you're trying to get ahead. You're deceived. Matthew 6, 33, Jesus Christ said, First, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things. What's those things? Food, raiment. You read it? He said, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. I'm telling you, there's a certain level of deceit about life that causes men to want to try to get ahead and try to have something better for their family, and all the while they're destroying their families by forsaking spiritual things. Now don't misunderstand me, I know that not every man can be here every time we have anything. But the last two nursing home services we've had, it's been me and a few women and some kids. I know not everybody can go every time. And listen, your calling may not be to go to the nursing home. Your calling may be to do something else. You may have another ministry that God's called you to do. I'm just telling you that it's easy for men to be deceived by this life and just work and work and work to try to get ahead and try to reach a place in their life that their family have things that they didn't have and all the while you're being deceived. That's what I'm telling you. Because this life's deceitful. Don't get mad at me, I'm trying to help you. This life's deceitful. You'll be deceived into thinking, just over that curve, we're gonna finally get this thing leveled out. No, it's a lie. It's a lie. One of these days, The things of this life and the pleasures of this life and the riches of this life and the popularity of this life and getting ahead in this life is not gonna matter at all when you're in the grave. Jesus Christ said, remember Lot's wife. What was back there? There's just a pull in this life to the things of this life. Such a pull that Lot's wife, even though she's told not to look back, she still has to turn and look back because there's such a pull. That pulls on us today. It's the deception of this life. Life's not fair. Life is a gift from God. Life's deceitful. Life's full of trouble. Life is fragile and short. Life is fragile and short. It's hard for you that are maybe teenagers to understand. I've said this a bunch of times, I've told my children this, your first 18 years, if you live to be 100, your first 18 years will be about half your life. It'll seem like it. Your first 18 years, I mean, you think you're never gonna get to be a senior in high school. Then all of a sudden you're there and they'll tell you, next thing you know, you are 36. When I was in the ninth grade, I'll call a name, some of you'll know. When I was in the ninth grade, sitting in Mr. Cartwright, Hoss Cartwright's daddy, not the Hoss Cartwright that you're thinking of, but Hoss Cartwright's daddy. Some of you know Hoss works at General Equipment. He was the teacher. Mr. Cartwright was our Algebra I teacher. And I sat next to Trent Roller in class, and I looked at Trent on Trent's 15th birthday, and I was joking with him. I said, just think, Trent. In 15 more years, you'll be 30. And we just laughed. We just laughed. And I tell you what, we've both seen 30 and 15 more than 45. Just like that. That's life. Life is fragile and short. I've got a pet spider. I really don't have a pet spider. But there's a spider in our raspberry patch that I've just left it alone. It's one of those big black and yellow ones. It's really, I want to say pretty, but it's hard to say a spider's pretty. But it's colorful, we'll put it that way. It's pleasant, if you were here Wednesday night. If you were here Wednesday night, it's real pleasant looking. And I tell you, I've watched that spider every morning that we pick berries. I'll go by where that spider's at, and I've tried not to mess its web up. It has a beautiful web every morning. Some morning, it's had wasps caught. It's had flies caught. I hope it's got a bunch of mosquitoes. I don't know if it has or not. But you know, that spider, here in another month or so, it's life's going to be over with. It's going to be it. It's just gonna be it. I mean, spiders don't live a long time. But really, isn't that the way our life is? On the grand scale of things, on the grand scale of things, folks, life is just short. We know what the scripture says. What is your life? It is but a vapor that appears for a little while, then it vanishes away. The Bible talks about, in the book of Psalms, chapter 103, about our life being like a flower that grows up, and I tell you, it looks so beautiful, then it's cut out and it's gone! I don't care who you are this morning, from the most loved person in this building to the most hated. Five years after you're dead, there won't be but a handful of people that ever think anything about you. That's just life. Oh no, we want to think that everybody will mourn for us as long as they live and then they'll tell their children and people just keep mourning from here on out for how good we were and the loss of mankind when we died. Now, I buried some good people. I buried some people that's dear to my heart. Some that I still think about every once in a while. I'm telling you, life is short and fragile. And like an insect, it lives its season. We're going to live our season. It's going to be over with. This life only happens one time. You get one shot at this. You get that? You get one shot at this. Everybody! You got one trip through this thing. Just one. You're not gonna come back and start all over. You're not gonna try to go back and fix up your mistakes. We get one shot at this thing we call this life. Got one try. You better get it right. You better get it right. You got one trip through it. You're not gonna come back as somebody else or something else. But we ought to take every year, every month, every day, we ought to take it real seriously. We ought not to be careless like Brother Phil was talking about this morning. This life only happens one time. You young people ought to take it serious. I'll wind it up this morning, this life's not the end. This life's just the beginning. This life determines where you're going to spend eternity. Everybody here is going to spend eternity. Well sometimes, and I can't explain it, and maybe I think some of you will understand, maybe all of you will understand. I remember in school when they started telling us, I remember the first time, I can't remember what grade I was in or how old I was, but for the first time, I really understood and realized that beyond the moon and beyond the stars that we could see, space just keeps going on and on and on forever. And I thought, wow! It just blew my mind. There's been a few times in my life that I've grabbed a hold of eternity. It just goes on and on and on forever. If you live to be a hundred, Brie was telling us that her great-grandmother in California is turning a hundred today. A hundred years is nothing compared to eternity. This life's not the end. That's why Paul said if in this life only we had hope in Christ, we'd be of all men most miserable. Okay, I'll wrap it up with this. There's something so much better than this life. And there's something so much worse than this life. Heaven is so much better than this life. Heaven is so much better than the best this life has to offer. And hell is so much worse than the worst this life has to offer. Jesus said in John 14, six, I read it at the nursing home yesterday. Jesus saith unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. If you're going to escape hell, then in this life, you're going to have to find Jesus Christ because He's the only way to heaven. You'll not go to heaven for being a good person. I tell you, it's sad that at funerals, Christian funerals, even people that have an understanding of being born again and being a Christian and true salvation, it's sad that at so many funerals, somebody will get up and say something like, well, we know that person's in heaven. And we'll talk about what a good person they were. No, it's not them, it's Jesus Christ! Nobody's ever been good enough to go to heaven except Jesus Christ. You'll never be good enough to go to heaven. I don't care how good a daddy you are, how good a mama you are, how good a neighbor or son or daughter, you'll never be good enough to go to heaven on your own. Jesus Christ is the way. He's the truth and the life. He alone can forgive your sins. You've messed up so many times. You've tried and messed up, and you've tried and you've messed up, and you've tried and you've messed up. He never messed up. He can get you to heaven. He can make this life a lot better. But He can take you to a place that's so much better than this life. But if you miss Him, if you miss Jesus Christ, you'll go to hell forever and forever.