Good evening. It's been a wonderful place to be so far. Hope I don't ruin it for you. We're going to be looking at two passages tonight that are very popular passages. I pray that if you've been in church a while, you bear with me. We'll get through this together. I'm blessed with a job, a secular job, that almost every day I get to have some type of Christian conversation. And the other day I had a gentleman in my office, he's a minister and he's ventured out into a new ministry and I was in my office there and I told him, I said, it looks like things are going well for you. I said, you know, I've been praying and it looks like God's doing great things. And his response to me kind of took me back and it gave me a message. And I've been praying about the message and when Garrett asked me to come out and preach tonight, I prayed about it and I felt like maybe God was stirring that in my heart for this service. But his response to me was, everything is going great and I'm just waiting on the devil to come in and try to destroy it. I've heard a lot of that my whole entire life. I've heard people say, well, this and that's going good, but I'm waiting on Satan to come in and try something. And it hit me while he was sitting there and I said, why are we waiting for him to try something? We as Christians should not be waiting for Satan to come in and destroy what we're doing. We should be prepared. for what he's doing. And he looked at me, and I looked at him, and I said, you know, I don't know where that came from, but it hit me when he said that, I thought, and I've heard that my whole life, I'm just waiting on the devil to come in and destroy things. Or, you come into church, and somebody will testify, and they'll give Satan all the credit for the week they've had, and say, oh boy, this has happened, and that's happened, and this is wrong, and that's wrong, and then at the very end, but I love the Lord, And it's like, are you testifying to the work of Satan, or are you testifying to the goodness of God? But this passage came to me, and it's a very popular passage, and if you've been in church any time at all, it's a very popular passage, but it's 1 Peter chapter 5. I wonder sometimes as Christians if we don't give God credit where credit's due. I think a lot of times, you know, I had a situation about a month ago, and here again, I'm not saying this because I'm perfect, but I was driving down Route 60 going to work, and every green light, it was just, I go through about eight green lights to get to work. Every time I get to the intersection, I kind of hit my brakes a little bit, and it was green. I just kept driving, it was green. It's green and I got to work and I thought, that has never happened in my entire life. I have never been able to drive to work and I thought, what is going to happen today? It wasn't, God thank you for the fast drive to work. I got here in less than seven minutes and it usually takes me ten to fifteen. It wasn't anything like that. My thought was, what in the world is going to happen today? Listen to what 1 Peter chapter 5 says. Starting in verse 5 it says, Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Now, I want to stop there for just a second. Our family was having a real hard time about two years ago, and we had a lot of discussions. There were things financially happening. There was health issues happening. It just seemed like everything we were doing was just falling apart. And I was talking to my mom one night, and I said, I just don't understand, what is it that is in our life that we need to change? Because I feel like God is trying to get our attention. We had this lady in our church, and she has already gone on to be with the Lord, but she had lived over 90 years, and my mom the next day called her and she said, We were talking last night, and we're really struggling with things, and Nicole and I and the kids, they were having some health issues, and mom and dad was having some financial issues, and there were just things going on. She said, what are we doing? What advice can you give us about our life and about God that maybe you can share something with us? She said, I've got what you need. Get over it. She said, Ruby, I thought you were going to give us some spiritual knowledge. She said, it's life. It's life. It happens. Life happens. She said, what you're going through now, it's not because you're not serving God enough, it's not because you're not doing enough, it's because God is just whether you're in His will or not. He is just and He is God and it's life. Get over it. She said, I've gotten 97 years on me because I've gotten over a lot of things. Not because I had to sit and fret about it, because I just had to get over it. But it says, you younger submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. He starts out here and he's telling us, he says, to have humility and to respect those that have been on the path a while, that have gone down the roads that we've gone down. And it says, be subject one to another. If we put that in modern language, respect one another. Listen, it says, For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. We spend a lot of time in our society trying to reach levels. I want this in my career. I want that with my family. I want this house. I want this car." And we have all of these dreams. I was thinking the other night, Friday night, it was beautiful outside. I waxed and clay-barred my car. It was shining, and my kids were playing, and I thought, I've got the perfect wife. The perfect kids in my mind, my perfect car, a lot of you all would disagree with that, and I looked over and my mom and dad's over on the gazebo and I've got the perfect family. Everything in my life, I mean, based on what I see is perfect. God has blessed me beyond anything I could ever imagine. But if you look on the outside, well, my goodness, Justin, you don't have this, you don't have that. You should be this, you should be that. Listen, I've got everything I need. But God in His work and in His time will exalt you. Understand that everything that we go through, every struggle that we face, every trial and temptation that we come against is all for His glory. And it shows His might. And He will exalt us in due time. Listen, He tells us in due time. And then what does it go on to say? It says, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober. Be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." Hey, there are problems in my life. There are problems in your life, and whenever you sit and you say, woe is me, you know, God, what am I doing wrong, God? Where am I at, God? I'm just waiting for Satan to just come and destroy my life. Listen. It says, Whom resists steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. It's not just you. When we struggle sometimes, I think, and the church is the worst, I think we try to internalize our struggles. We internalize all those issues. We don't want to let people know the temptations that we have. We don't want to let people know the struggles that we have. Because if we tell them that, then they're going to think that I'm something I'm not. And I'm not. But listen to what it says. Those afflictions are being accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. It's not just you. It's the world. But it says to be vigilant, to be sober, to be clear-minded and prepared Because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour. God doesn't want Satan to devour you. He prepares us. He gives us strength. He gives us His Word. And by His Word, we know that Satan is out to get us. We don't have to wait. We don't have to think and contemplate on what his next move is going to be. Do you know how much power you give Satan when you sit and think, what is Satan going to do next? What am I going to do? What is Satan going to do to me next? Do you know how much power and authority that you give him whenever you sit and you think, oh God, what is going to happen next? Instead of saying, oh God, what are you going to do for me now? Listen, but the God of all grace who hath called us into His eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. The God of all grace, who hath called us into His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, Listen to what it says, after that you've suffered a while. Well, I thought when I got saved, everything was going to be different. I thought when I got saved, all these issues would just go away. I thought when I got saved, all those addictions that I struggled with my whole life would go away. No. But God, His Son, gives us a way to escape those things that we were alone and struggling and fighting for at one time in our life. It says, after you've suffered a little while, what does that mean? We're going to suffer. It's going to come. Affliction is going to come, but He'll make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you according to what? To Him be glory. It's His glory. And dominion. It's His dominion. It's His control forever and ever. Amen. Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 2. Paul here talking to Timothy. 2 Timothy 2 verse 10, it says, Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. Do you know that you can deny God without physically... with your lips denying God. You know when you go to work and you say, well, my goodness, my week has been this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and you're working with people that aren't Christians, and you're totally destroying the church and God in your life, and you say, well, this person at church did this, and this person at church did that. You know, you're actually denying God. You know you're actually denying His work and you're working against what God is trying to do in this place and in this body of believers. Whenever we do those things, we don't think sometimes that we're actually denying God and His power in our lives. But listen, Paul says that he endures all things for the elect's sake. Not for himself, but for us, for believers. that they may also obtain salvation. If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him. And if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful. He cannot deny Himself. Even when you don't believe, even when you don't think God is in control, even when you think that God is not working in your life, He cannot deny Himself. He is faithful to us. He abides faithful. If we don't believe, He is still God. He is still the Savior and the Lord of the universe, and He cannot deny Himself. He cannot pull Himself back and say, well, since you don't believe that I'm going to work in your life, I'm just going to step back. God doesn't work that way. He's going to continue to work until something clicks inside your mind and you believe in Him as the Lord of your life. Of these things, put them in remembrance. That's important for Timothy because Paul knew what he had already gone through. Remember what we started with? Submit yourselves unto the elder. Paul knew what he had gone through. Paul knew the sacrifices that he had to make. And he says to Timothy, put these things in your remembrance. Know that you're going to suffer. Know that if we're dead with him, we live with him. Know that if you don't believe, he still is faithful. And when you don't see Him working in your life, He is still faithful and He cannot deny Himself. Put these things in your remembrance. Because He knew that Timothy was getting ready for one of the biggest struggles in his entire life, and that's leading a church. I should get more amens than that from the preachers at least. It says, "...charging them before the Lord, that they strive not about words to no profit." but the subverting of the hearers. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Well, if I'm struggling in my life, what can I do? Well, you get out the Word of God and you read it. There's been times in my life that I've just spun and spun and spun, and it's like something clicks inside of me. God says, what is wrong with you? Get My Word out and read it for yourself and figure this out. I've given you everything that you need. Listen, we are to study to show ourselves approved unto God. We should not come to church and be preached to and walk out of here and never open our Bible for the rest of the week. Listen, God did not design the church that way. The church, we come together as a body of believers when we meet and we proclaim the name of Jesus together. And we do it together and we lift up His name and we study His Word together. And it reinforces, hear me, it reinforces what God is doing in our personal lives And in our personal study, it is not your sole purpose of coming to church and just praising Jesus, hearing the preacher, and leaving and being the same that you were before you walked in. It is to reinforce what God is doing in your life. It's to reinforce your personal study. It's to reinforce your personal praise. It's to be able to come in together and come in as one body and say, hey, I prayed Jesus all week in my car, but I'm going to come together with other believers and let the Spirit go breast to breast and let the movement and the Holy Spirit of God to come out of us and to let us proclaim His name. But we are to study to show our self-approved, not your church. Right? It doesn't say study to show your church approved, or your family approved, or your kids approved. It says you. Approved unto who? God. We spend so much time trying to convince everybody else, don't we? We spend so much time trying to convince everybody else that that we're good, or that we're moral, or that we're trying to make a difference. And you know what? We exhaust ourselves sometimes. especially, and again, the preachers, they can understand this, but we exhaust ourselves sometimes to try to lift people up and share the love of Jesus and the gospel with people, and they walk out the same way they came in, and they just stare at you when they're sitting in church with a blank stare, and you're trying your best and your hardest to present the gospel, you're trying to share the love of Jesus, and they're just looking at you like you're just a complete failure. And Nicole, you know, sometimes we'll go after church, she'll say, honey, you did a good job, I said, no, I did not. That was a complete failure. I felt like I just completely was ramming my head against a brick wall. You know, you see some of the faces of the people. And all the while, I'm trying to produce something for me. And I should be approved unto God. It doesn't matter the expressions of the faces. It doesn't matter the condition of the heart. We present the Gospel. But it says a workman You hear that? A workman. Somebody who works. That's a Wayne County definition. A workman is somebody who works. You know what that means? The pew sitters work. Right? The ones that are sitting back and saying, you know, I would do that, but nobody's asked me. That's my favorite. You know, I would work with the kids, but nobody's ever asked me. Who has to ask you? You get in a situation You get in a situation and you're face to face with somebody and the door opens to present the gospel to them and you stand there and you look at them and you know if you could just open your mouth and say, hey, do you know Jesus? If you could just say that for one second and it just opened up windows of heaven and they fall on you and all the while you're thinking, you know, I don't want to destroy this relationship. We're workmen. We are not pewsitters. We're not idle hands. We are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ Himself. If we don't do it, if we don't do it, no one will. If we don't share the love of Jesus, and I appreciate the testimony of the man, he said, people were inviting me to church, I saw the fliers, listen, every one of us, if you look around and you ask every single one of us why we're in church, it's either because somebody invited you to church, or you were raised in a home where you didn't have a choice like I was, I would have dared to say, Dad, it's Sunday, are we going to church? It would have knocked my head off. You would have either been raised in a home that believed in Jesus. You would have either been invited to church. People just don't wander into a building like this and say, I wonder what's going on in there. It just doesn't happen, folks. We're here because someone, a workman, was not ashamed of the Gospel, and they shared Jesus with us, and showed Jesus to us to where we wanted something more out of our life than what we were having and existing. Listen, we are workmen, and we are to get to work, we're to get the hand of the plow, and we need not to be ashamed. We need to rightly divide the Word of Truth. We need to tell people, You're doing wrong! What you're doing and what you're saying is wrong! It is sin! And I know people don't want to hear that anymore. I know people don't want to hear that. I talked to somebody the other day and they said, Do you really tell kids at your church that if you see something on Facebook that it's wrong? If somebody sees something on Facebook and they put something on there? Absolutely! I don't care to tell you it's gossip. I don't care to tell you that it's wrong. I don't care to tell you it's filth. It's sin! And if we don't rightly divide the Word of Truth, and we don't understand what God and His will is for our life, listen, where are we? And what are we doing? Why do we exist? And all the while we're working, just waiting. Just waiting for Satan to come in and destroy what we're doing. Oh, any minute now, I tell you, we've had so many people say, any minute now, Any minute now, Satan's going to come in, he's just going to destroy everything that we've done. Stop that. Stop standing up in church and, well, I've had a terrible week. So and so's sick, I'm broke, I lost my job, everything's going down around me, crashing down around me, and this is the worst I've ever felt in my entire life. Pray for me. You know, people actually consider that a testimony. A testimony is actually a personal experience that you have witnessed yourself and that you're sharing about Jesus Christ. James chapter 5. I know I'm bouncing around here, but stick with me. I'm almost done. James chapter 5. You know, he said that. And we were talking in my office and I said, you know, I just, I never understood people sometimes and I've heard that my entire life. You know, Satan's going to come in and he's, boy, he's just really giving us down the road. You wait and see what's going to happen. We shouldn't wait and see what's going to happen. We should be prepared for what's coming. We know that Satan is a roaring lion. We know that he's going to try to devour us. We know those things. And we as Christians need to be prepared and ready and say, hey, Satan, I know you're coming. I'm not looking forward to it. I'm not ready to really get my gloves on and fight, but hey, I know you're coming. And I've got my gloves over here and they're ready to go if I need them because I have God's Word and I have His Holy Spirit. But listen, we talk so much sometimes about Satan and what he's going to do and how he's going to come in and destroy things, but James 5, verse 7, it says, Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain." Gosh, the storms in my life, they're raging. I tell you what, everything that I'm going through right now, the storms are coming. Listen, even the harvest needs the rain. You may think for a moment that the storm of your life that you're in, you may think that it's the worst thing you've ever gone through. But you know what God's doing? He's preparing you for something greater and making you stronger than what you were before. There's times that I've been through struggles in my life, and I think, God, why am I going through this? Why in the world am I the one to have to go through this? And then I look back and think, God, all of those times that I was going through what I was going through, You were preparing me for this moment. But it says, listen, it says, He is a husband that waited for his precious fruit of the earth, and hath longed patience for it, until he received the early and latter rain. Listen. Be ye also patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. You want to wait on something? Wait on God. You want to talk about and fret over what's going to happen next? Think about God. Think about what He's doing in your life. Think of the things that He's got prepared for you that you don't even know about yet. The plans that He has for you, and you're coming up against Him. It says, Be ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." All through Scripture, I got in my co-coordinates, and I was looking last night, and you know how many Scriptures there are out there about waiting on God? You know how many Scriptures there are about waiting on God and be ready for God and to receive Him when He comes? Listen, we need to establish our hearts and be ready for the coming of the Lord. We need to get to work and not be ashamed. We need to establish ourselves in God's Word so when somebody says, hey, I've got a question, or I've got a struggle, we can say, hey, God's Word says, instead of calling somebody and saying, hey, I've got a guy at work here and he's struggling with something, do you know where I could maybe find some more information out about this? No. Go to God's Word. Find it there. Listen, if you study, and you prepare your heart, and you establish yourself, listen, if you read God's Word, it is a love story to us, and one day He is going to come and take His bride home. And He is preparing a perfect place for us. And He is getting ready as a husbandman. He's getting ready to come and take from the earth what is precious to Him. And that's us. And the harvest and the rains have fallen. And you say, well, what's going to happen next before God comes back? Listen, nothing else has to happen. Folks, God can come back today. God can come back in the next 10 seconds. He can come back in the next 15 minutes. Well, they've been saying that for 2,000 years. They have. But you know what? Listen, it says that He has long patience for it. Listen, one day God's going to say, hey, enough is enough. The sin and the filth and the things that are happening on my earth that I've created, enough is enough. I'm over this. I'm going to get my children and I'm taking them home. I'm going to take my bride to church. I'm going to take them home. Listen. He has long patience for it. Don't lose heart. Establish your hearts. Be patient. For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Maybe you're going through something this evening I don't know who this message is for. I've been praying about it for a while. Maybe you're going through something this evening that you're struggling with. Maybe you're tearing at decisions. Maybe you have things in your life that you just really don't understand. Can I say tonight that You need to establish yourself. You need to study His Word. Show yourself approved. Stop worrying about all the things that you're struggling with and just be approved unto God. If we were approved unto God and we're not ashamed and we're working and doing what He wants us to do, listen, all those other things that you're fretting about, all the things that you're struggling with, guess what? One day, those things are all going to pass away and they're not going to mean anything to you. Growing up in Wayne County, my grandma used to say, it doesn't mean one iota. I don't even know what an iota is. But it don't mean one iota. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. You've got more to worry about tonight than yourself. Oh, I can't believe he said that. He just doesn't understand what I'm going through. Listen, you have more to worry about than yourself tonight because I guarantee you, you step foot outside those doors and you get in your car, You're going to pass probably the first two or three cars somebody that's addicted to drugs. You're going to pass somebody that's addicted to alcohol. You're going to pass somebody that has just lost someone in their life that was precious to them. You're going to pass somebody that's considered taking their life. You're going to pass somebody that needs Jesus Christ in their life. And if you're so worried about yourself that you can't see the world around you, How can we go out and be workmen and try to show the love of Jesus and try to share those things? Hey, stop worrying about what Satan's doing in your life and start worrying about what God's doing in your life and what He expects us to do. And how are we going to be approved? I thought we were saved by grace. You are saved by grace. But hey, it doesn't hurt to work a little bit. Right? I'm saved by grace. But I've got work to do. So we get a song of invitation. Listen, folks, there's a lost and dying world, and if you talk to some of those folks tonight, they don't even know they're lost. You know that? You say, well, my goodness, you're lost. And they look at you like a deer in headlights. What's lost? I mean, I ain't lost. I know exactly where I am. No, you're lost from the love of God. They're not out of the love of God because God is love. They just can't acknowledge the love of God in their life. Could you imagine? I was thinking about this the other day. The gentleman that was hit up here on 64 and flew off the bridge there, he went home to be with the Lord. But I watched a video a few weeks ago and his son was on there just giving God praise for everything he'd done. Giving God praise for saving his father and giving God praise for all the things that happened that he didn't die instantly. And listen, he went on to be with the Lord and you know what, I saw a video on there and his son's giving God praise for everything that God did for him. And it's all because some guy was addicted to heroin and knocked him off of a bridge, well, that's a terrible thing. It is a terrible thing. And our human minds and our hearts will say, that guy deserves everything that's coming to him. And we don't even stop to consider, that's your brother, or your father, or your uncle, your cousin. They need Jesus. Do they need to have justice? Absolutely. That's the law. But they need the grace of God in their life to show them that there is more to life than the drugs. There's more to life than the alcohol. There's more to life than the pornography and all the things that our society struggles with. There's more to life than that. Let's go out and reach Him. If you're here tonight, and you don't know Jesus as your personal Savior, maybe you're going through struggles in your life, listen, this would be a perfect place to surrender your life to Jesus Christ. He was put on a cross, gave His life for you, was put into Him and raised on the third day, and reigns forevermore. And if we are dead with Him, we are alive with Him. And we will reign with Him as a King of kings and Lord of lords. Can you imagine that?