Matthew chapter 5, verse number 13, everybody there say Amen. We've got to preach fast. You are the salt of the earth. Now, he said that as a result of the Beatitudes. If you are poor in spirit, know how to mourn, have a right attitude towards sin. If you're meek, if you have a hunger and thirst for righteousness, if you're merciful, know how to forgive people. If you're pure in heart, your motives are right, and you're a peacemaker, you know how to lead people to Christ. You know how to bring reconciliation to situations? And if you can be persecuted and rejoice in it, God says you're salt. Don't separate the salt in verse number 13 from the beatitudes in the first part. The way that you're salt and light is by living out the beatitudes in the first part of the chapter. Now, we preached on those beatitudes last week. We're going to preach on salt Sunday night. He said, You are the salt of the earth, but the salt of God's Saviour. Wherewith shall it be salted? It sends forth good for nothing but to be cast out and be trodden underfoot of men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Lord, help us to preach. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Now, I'm going to preach a message today entitled, I want you to, before I give it, go to Romans chapter 2. Go to Romans chapter 2. But what I do want to say today, I want to preach a message to encourage us today. First of all, let me say this. If you're here today and you're lost, I don't preach salvation messages every week. But I do think the Bible says do the work of an evangelist. If you're here today and you're lost, you ought to get saved. If you don't get saved, you're going to die and go to hell. It's just that simple. It's not a joke. It's not a preacher's scare story. And you need to be born again. You must be born again. It's not an option, a suggestion. It's a command of God. And if you're not, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You're not going to heaven unless you're born again. So I want you to be saved. But you know what I think? I think most of the folks in here are saved, and so I'm not going to starve them to death spiritually, waiting on you to get saved. I'm going to feed the flock of God. Boy, Clayton and Katie, it's good to see you. I wish you would repent and come home. We're going to take a vote on it. How many votes in them coming home? Raise your right hand. Say aye. All opposed say nay. The ayes have it. Oh, John said nay. John said nay. I'll tell you what, he was dancing over there one day in the middle of the road. I said, John, what are you dancing? He said, Clayton's gone. Clayton's gone. Clayton's gone. I said, Lord, answer the prayer. I've been praying for years. Romans chapter 2. Hey, don't blame me for being happy today, would you not? I've been down for about a month, and I finally got out of the ditch. Amen. I, boy, was glad I got out of the ditch. Amen there, I know this much, no other pastor in the world could pastor that man. I love you brother Don, you know that, you know I do. Verse 18, I just want to read this, I don't want to take it out of context, but look at it real quick. And knowest His will, and here's what I want to preach on, and approvest the things that are more excellent. Look at that phrase, Approveth the things which are more excellent. In Philippians, turn over to Philippians. They're just in a few books on over. Philippians chapter 2. Boy, I got so excited about this message. I've been excited about this message. Philippians chapter 2. I love the Bible. Don't you love the Bible? It amazes me. It's just a mine. It's a gold mine. I mean, I'm telling you what, it's a gold mine. Verse number 10, Philippians chapter 1 says this, that ye may approve things that are excellent. Now that's twice in the Bible. God said that we ought to approve things that are excellent. Approving things that are excellent. I want to preach a message today. I hope it encourages you. I hope it inspires you. I hope it motivates you to strive for excellency. And I want to preach on striving for excellence. I am a preacher and I am a Christian who is sick of a generation of American Christians who let the worldlings strive for excellence while we're mediocre. And I want to preach on striving for excellence in the Christian life. Psalms chapter 16 even says something about this thing of excellence. I want to read it and then I'm going to grab the horn and go. It says, But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, listen to this, in whom is all my delight. Did you catch that verse? It said, But to the saints that are in the earth, that's all of us, right? The saved people, and to the excellent. Now watch this. God said, first of all, they gave a general sweep to the saints in the earth. Then he made a little clutch in to the excellent. You know what he's saying? That among the saints, there's some that's striving for excellency, striving for excellence in their Christian life. I think it's a shame to be satisfied with anything less than excellence. Excellence does not mean, we're not talking here about comparing ourselves among ourselves, not at all. What we are talking about is doing the very best we can do for God's glory. The very best we can do as husbands, as fathers, as men, as ladies, as mothers, as wives, as children, as young people, as workers, whatever realm of life it may be, striving for excellence. I'm 58 years old, and I want to leave out here doing my best for God. For too long, the church has given away ground on vital, practical areas of life. And you say, Reggie, what do you mean by that? Well, we've had nothing to say, most of our generation, about the areas outside of salvation. It's like, you know, the church meets over here on Sunday and you talk about being saved and going to heaven and maybe not getting saved and going to hell. And everything else in life is left to the heathen. That's wrong. God has something to say about everything in our lives and He's the only one that can say what's right. We've given ground to the world. It's like the world says, the church and the Bible may influence your life on Sundays and about salvation, but leave the rest of it to us. And so this message is to inspire and to challenge and to encourage. Now, I want to say a few introductory remarks here. First, I'm not advocating or promoting Rush Limbaugh. But the name of his broadcast, I don't even hear him hardly anymore at all. But he left something in my mind. How many knows what the name of his radio network is? E-I-B. You're listening to the E-I-B radio broadcast. Excellence in broadcasting. I don't know why Rush didn't call this is the I-I-B, the inferiority in broadcasting service. I don't know why he didn't say this is S, satisfactory. I don't know why he didn't say this is the M-I-B, broadcasting, mediocre. No, no, Rush Limbaugh says, excellence in broadcasting. I'm sitting here in front of the ten microphone. I'm sitting here in front of the golden microphone. Excellence. He's going for the gold. Now, here's what I'm saying to you. I don't think the man's saved. OK? I hope he is, but I doubt it. But I want to say this to you. He has done something that we ought to get a hold of. That whatever I'm going to do in life, I'm going to do it. I'm not going to just pass. I'm not just going to kind of get there. I'm going to give it all I've got and it's going to be the best I can do. I'm going to be excellent in what I do. Excellence in broadcasting. When I was in school, they had a grading system and it was E, S, M, I and F. Wasn't A, B, C, D or whatever they have now. And you say, Reggie, why did they change it? Because they didn't want anybody to feel bad because they were lazy and bummy and wouldn't study. When I was in school, it was a shame to get an I. It was a whooping to get an F. But nobody now would think, we can't call kids, you did excellent. Oh, you're putting them above somebody. I think we ought to be rewarded for extra effort. Amen? I'm not saying comparing ourselves. I'm talking about giving it the best you've got. That was excellent. That was E. Satisfactory, that was S. And if you've got an M, that was mediocre or medium. I was inferior, and F was failure. Now, how many of you have ever had a life-changing experience? I'm talking about outside of getting saved. I had a life-changing experience when I was, I've told this, I'll be brief, but I was 13 years old. And I was in, what do you call that? Well, yeah, but you know, kind of junior, what do they call it, junior high? Junior high. And boy, I'll tell you about 13 years old, I discovered I was the smartest thing that God ever made. I mean, I just woke up one day and I was 13 years old and I was a sharp tack. I was so sharp I didn't need to study no more. I could just fiddle off the whole day, Clayton, just tinker around nice and bright. And I got to tinkering around, got to running around with the wrong crowd and got in trouble. And my grades went boom. Now, they had never really been that great, but they was, you know, I learned how to get by in first grade. I learned how to get by in second grade. I learned how to get by in fourth grade. By the time I got seventh grade, I didn't even think I needed to get by. But I had a life changing experience. My father found out what I was doing at school. And he gave me a life changing experience one night. I got a whooping, a whooping. Now, that's not a spanking. Most of you kids don't know what whoopings are. Whoopings is another world outside of spankings. Spanking is when you You've got to thank it. Whoopin's life changing. Whoopin's gives you a new attitude about life. Whoopin's makes you never want to get one again. Whoopin's makes you real alert. Dad might even possibly know what I'm doing. Whoopin's put the fear of God in you. Whoopin's change your mind. Whoopin's changed my world. And when I went back to school after the second whoopin', got a whoopin' that night and I got a whoopin' before I went to school. Never will forget this. I can still see him at the foot of the stairs after I got my first whoopin' that night. Handed me his old case pocket knife and said, go cut me a switch, I'm still mad. That's a whoopin'. That's the truth, and I took his case pocketknife, went out there east of the house, down to that old birthday gig, cut my own switch, brought it back to the house, got my second whoopin', and went and got on the bus. And sat down. Easily. Carefully sat down. And I went back to school, and I had a life-changing experience, and decided I ain't running with them boys no more. And do you know what my life-changing experience was? The next quarter, instead of M's and I's and S's, I had some E's. I found out I could make good, excellent grades if I just made up my mind to. And I'm going to tell you, it changed my whole world. If you get any good out of my Bible study and you know why, it's because somebody loved me enough to give me a whoop and changed my life to learn how to read and comprehend what I read and get interested in studying. And I learned, do you know what I found out? I like to study. I discovered it was fun to learn. It was a joy to expand my horizons in life. All of a sudden I found out that I had almost gotten robbed of some of the greatest joy of my life. And so what I'm saying is I went from just being good enough to get by to I's and S's to where I went to getting E's and S's all the time. We should demonstrate excellence. We should teach excellence. We should expect excellence. We should demand excellence out of our children. Amen? We ought to not just say to our kids, well, enough to get by. We ought to not teach our kids by example, it's just enough to get by. We ought to put excellence. Excellence is a biblical principle. Why should the worldlings be the one who excel? Why shouldn't it be God's children who excel? Why should not Christians excel? Let me say first of all and run. We serve an excellent God. Amen. Reasons to be excellent because I serve an excellent God. Psalms chapter 8 verse 1 says, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Psalms 36 verse 7, how excellent is thy loving kindness. Oh God, Psalms 148, verse 13, let them praise thy name, O Lord, for his name alone is excellent. Psalms 150, verse 2, praise him according to his excellent greatness. We have an excellent God, and I believe that because he's an excellent God, we ought to strive for excellence in our own personal lives. Number two, we have an excellent Savior. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 4, Jesus is a more excellent name, the Bible says. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 6, Jesus has a more excellent ministry. In Hebrews chapter 11 verse number 4, Jesus is a more excellent sacrifice. He gives an excellent salvation. Hey, if you'd ever get a hold of that, you might shout. He saves you freely. He saves you fully. He saves you forever. It's an excellent salvation. Amen? We've got something that no religion in the world can give you. I have eternal life through Jesus Christ my Lord. He is an excellent Savior with an excellent sacrifice, with an excellent salvation. And He's given us an excellent way. I'm telling you the Bible said in first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 31 after talked about all the gifts Talked about all that you can do in church. He said about showing to you a more excellent way charity Let me tell you something Islam does not have that's love Let me tell you what all the religions of the world doesn't have and that's the love of God Let me tell you what I hold you and everything else is dropping you and that's the love of God and God said that's more excellent That's the way of charity. Love is more excellent than hate. Light is more excellent than darkness. Truth is more excellent than lies. And because of all this, we ought to seek and pursue excellence in our lives. Now, I say this because we have an excellent God. We have an excellent Savior. We have an excellent way. We have an excellent Bible. And I believe that we ought to seek an excellent life. Now, you say, oh, I'm not talking about pride at all. I'm talking about excellence. Difference. We ought to have, number one, get this, put it in your soul, an excellent spirit. The Bible says that Daniel, twice the Bible says in the book of Daniel, that Daniel had an excellent spirit. Daniel 5, 12, Daniel, the queen, watch this, told the king that Daniel, he said, there is a man in the kingdom with an excellent spirit in him. Oh, young people, listen to me this morning. You know what you ought to pray for and ask God to give you is an excellent spirit. Let me tell you, what you are in your spirit is what you really are. And I'm telling you, you've got an excellent spirit, and you know, your home's a lot sweeter when there's an excellent spirit in you. The Bible said in Daniel 6.3 that Daniel was eventually exalted in the kingdom because he had an excellent spirit within him. Let me tell you what America's looking for, and that's young people with an excellent spirit. Looking for young people with an excellent spirit. You say, Reggie, what are you talking about? I'm talking about your attitude. I'm talking about your attitude. What's your attitude? Amen? What's your attitude? Is it an excellent attitude? Do you have a joyful attitude? Do you have a bright attitude? Do you have a hopeful attitude? Do you have an encouraging attitude? Are you a dragon, a wader, or are you a lift? Y'all getting quiet on me now. I want to encourage you today. Let's have an excellent spirit. If you want God to do something with you, have an excellent spirit. I'm talking about an excellent countenance. Not just an excellent spirit, but an excellent attitude. But how about an excellent countenance? The Bible speaks about Daniel's countenance, that he had an excellent spirit. That excellent spirit produced an excellent countenance. You know what? We need some brightness in our eyes. Amen? We need some brightness in our souls. I'm going to tell you something. You can say what you want to, but this nation is in dire need of young people who have got a smile on their face, a light in their eye, a purpose in their life, instead of walking around, I mean, your baggy breeches down, your hat turned around, your shirt unbuttoned, you know, looks like slop all over, looks like you just fell out of a vomit bucket. Good land to live in. I'll tell you, we got some brightness in here. Let me tell you something. You listen to me right now. I'll tell you, it's a shame when the Mormons are sending kids out on the street dressed right, with their hair cut right, talking right, looking right. And we've got the truth, and we don't look around like a bunch of old hippies or something. Amen. I'll tell you something. We ought to talk right, spit right, live right, look right. Amen. I ought to be happy. I ought to have a joyfulness about us. I ought to have some zeal in our soul. Amen. I'll tell you, it looks like you're going to be, it looks like you work for the king. You represent somebody, amen. Ambassadors for God. I want to tell you, if we're an ambassador for Jesus Christ, we ought to have an excellent spirit, excellent attitude, and an excellent countenance upon our soul. Now, you may take this message and throw it in the trash can and you walk out this door. But who does not do that will get a blessing, amen. Who takes this message and does something, your life will be changed. I'm talking about excellent speech. The Bible said no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying I'll tell you what we need some people who know how to talk and know how to articulate know how to talk right spin wide I'm talking about know how to speak right the Bible said a word fitly spoken is like apples will go in the pictures of silver We need some people who know how to articulate the truth who saw how to speak right have a right spirit right attitude in their lives I'm saying why should the world be ones doing it? Why should the world be the one why don't we have it I? Not only that, we ought to have excellent manners. Amen. I want to tell you something. I want to just say I appreciate my mom. Yeah, mom's back there. Mom, when are you going to graduate out of that chair? I can't ever see you when I'm preaching. I need to see you when I'm preaching. No, I'm just kidding you. I'll tell you one thing. When I was a kid, you didn't belch when you sat down at the dinner table. You just slapped it in the Lulu land. Amen. I'm talking about some manners. You know what, the kids need some excellent manners. You think you're ever going to be exalted and used of God in this world and you walk around belching, you don't do it, you're sloppy, you don't wash, you don't clean. You think the President of the United States will hire you to be a representative for him? Your teeth all scummy, you never brush your teeth. I'm talking about this. Listen, have good manners, amen. Good manners. Excellent manners. People who know how to open the door. People who know how to be courteous. I tell you, whatever happened to being a gentleman? Whatever happened to being a gentleman? If there's anything said about Jesus Christ, it is the meekness and the gentleness of Jesus Christ. I'm talking about we ought to be excellent. What strive for excellence in courtesy, in manners, in speech, in spirit, attitude, or countenance? Excellence. I want to ask you, are you content just to drift? I want to tell you something. People watch for excellence. It sticks out. It sticks out. Excellence in serving. Excellence in faithfulness. Let me say something further. We ought to be excellent in our singing. Amen? That's good singing this morning. Boy, I was going to preach 15 minutes on this and now I can't because y'all songs are good. I tell you what, we ought to be excellent singing. Amen? Well, I'll tell you what, them kids got up this morning, that thrilled my soul. And Zach, you're exactly right, I'll tell you. Let me tell you, I looked up there and I saw the face of my little 13-year-old daughter. I looked up there and saw Mikey. I'll tell you, I looked up there and I saw a bunch of kids up there that God gave to this church. I'm telling you something, what a blessing, amen. And I'm saying this, let us be singers of the glory of God, amen. I'll tell you what I did that night. Now, we went down to the nursing home. I walked in the nursing home there. And then live, I'll tell you, I heard some singers sound like heaven. And I invited them to the 4th of July. Is that good? And it's not very far from here. And they didn't have an instrument in their hands. Using it all right here. There's about 25 or 30 men and night young people standing at the nursery home. And them men were back there singing them bass parts. And them girls were singing them high, oh, glory, I mean, tell you what, it was good. I tried to get them to come Sunday night to sing. Oh, they were singing. They were singing out. They were singing with smiles on their face. Hey, hey, listen, we need an excellent spirit in us. We need some excellent singing. Amen. I'll tell you what, you ought to just get fired up about singing. You ought to go up there and say, scoot over, I'm singing with you. This place needs some improving, amen. I'm just talking about we ought to be excellent in our singing. Then we ought to be excellent in our testimony, give none occasion to our brethren to stumble. We ought to watch where we're walking. We ought to walk with excellence, being careful. Then let me say this, in our life, we ought to be excellent in communication. Whoo, mercy. I never seen like a generation of kids. I never seen like businesses in my life. Never seen nothing like it. You call up places, they don't call you back. They don't act like they care. I mean, I want to ask you something this morning. If you call me up to do a sale and say, now Reggie, I'm thinking about doing a sale in March and I want you to get back to me here in about a week. In about a week, you don't hear from me. In the next week, you don't hear from me. In the next week, you don't hear from me. In the next week, you don't hear from me. What do you think about? What do you think about, Nate? I don't care. Cocky, arrogant, flippant, nonchalant, don't matter. I'm going to say that's sorry. This nation is flooded with it. Not getting back to people, no communication. I want to tell you something. First of all, let me give you some good advice. Look at people when they talk to you. Amen. I want to tell you something. You come into church, you may not like it. Listen, if I couldn't go to church where I could look up and get interested in the preaching, I'd go find me a place where I could. Amen. If I wasn't interested, I'd go find me a place where I could get interested. If that preacher bored me to death and I didn't like him, I'd go find me one that I liked and I could listen to and preach. Because I'm going to tell you something, you're ruining your life. And I'm just talking about, listen, I'm talking about when somebody walks up to you and I'll tell you what, look at them, look at them in the eye and be interested in what they're saying. They're talking to you and you're staring off up here. I'm going to tell you, I've done it. I've done it. I know sometimes it's hard. Somebody's walking up to you and they're wasting your time. All they want to do is just talk to you. And it's hard sometimes. But listen, as best you can, you ought to look at people in the eye and be interested in what they've got to say. If you wasn't wanting their vote, you would. If you was wanting their business, you would. Can I say something to you? That if you're only interested in people's lives so you can get their vote or get their business, you're in bad shape. You're in bad shape. You've got to listen to people because they're a person. Because they're a human being. Some of the greatest ministry you'll ever have is just listening to people. But see, listening is not just standing there while they're talking. Listening is looking to them, looking at them, and listening with your heart, not just your ears. Because most people are not going to tell you what they'd really like to tell you. It's honest truth. And if you learn how to listen, what will happen is people will perceive an excellent spirit in you. Oh, how we need an excellent spirit. How we need to communicate. We need to be friendly and wave and say hello to people, amen? I'm fighting this thing. How many has ever got irritated and say, bless your little sweetheart, I won't wave at you either? I mean, don't you ever get tired of waving at people? Hey, you know what? This community is going to be what we make it. Your neighborhood is going to be what you make it. Now I'm going to make up my mind. I don't care them old dead buzzers. I'm going to wave at them. And I think I'll just start smiling and waving like I'm so happy to see them. I don't want to live in a world where there's no friendliness, where there's no excellent spirit. I mean, hey, what would it be like to walk into this church afterward? Nobody spoke. Nobody waved. Nobody said hi. Nobody was excited about nothing. I wouldn't want to come here. I'm talking about this. When somebody calls you, call back. Amen? Now, I'm not talking about that guy that calls you 14 times a day and ain't got nothing to say and you just had all you can take. There's people that do that. They ain't got nothing to do but call you. And they call, and they call, and they call, and they call. How many of you have ever seen an old Jeff Foxworthy movie where the guy had killed a deer three years before? and left it at the taxidermy office, and he's calling the old taxidermist sitting there eating potato chips, and the guy calls the answering service. Hello, this is Joe up here in New Jersey. He said, when are you going to have my deer head done? You know, you're supposed to have it done. You're going to be here in about two weeks. Are you about done with it? And seven and eight months later, hello, this is Joe. Leave a message. I'm going to call you. And it goes on, and it goes on, and he's leaving a message, leaving a message, leaving a message. And two years after he killed the deer, he's got his money, and he ain't got his deer head. He is mad! But you know why everybody likes that? Because that's the way life is. That's the way businesses operate nowadays. They get your money, you don't hear back from them. It's all over with. All that friendship. Oh, yeah, man, I can do you a good job. That'd be great. Communication. I'm talking about, listen, excellent speech. Learn how to articulate. Learn how to communicate with people. Next, excellence in education. This is going to be fun. Some of you kids got in your head just because you homeschool, you're supposed to be done. Let me tell you something. Homeschoolers are winning all the national competition right now. You know why? Because there's some parents saying, you know what, we're going to settle for being mediocre and just getting by around here. Our kids are going to learn how to spell. They're going to learn how to read. They're going to learn how to write. They're going to learn how to cipher. All right, let's go. Two times two. 82 times 16. Blows you out of the water. Hey, I want to tell you something. If a cow walks through the ring right quick and you've got 15 seconds to figure it out and she weighs 870 pounds and she's worth 62 cents a pound, how much does that cow worth? You see what I'm saying? Did you know there are people that aren't saved can do that so fast it makes your head swim? Do you know they can make a living doing that? Did you know that my dad and my wife's dad could figure faster in their head than any of you kids can get your calculator out or your phone on? They would be five miles down the road before you ever got your phones turned up where you could hit the calculator. Amen. My father-in-law could figure the roof of a house with a pitch and all that stuff and never even use a pencil. Now, listen to me, I'm talking about excellence. If I was you kids, I'd get in rest in school. I'd say, Mom and Daddy, could we get up at 4.30 and start? Huh? Mom and Daddy, could I get up early and go out and do the chores and then start? I'm going to tell you something. Listen, in this Christian school, we ought to be the excellent at Liberty Faith Christian Academy. We ought not just get by Brother Dennis. Well, I hit these kids to be the best they can possibly be. I mean, be excellent at what you do. Be an excellent reader. Learn to read. Don't look at it like, oh, this is purgatory. High school's going to be hell. No, no, no. Look at it like the opportunity of your life. Learn to learn. Learn to love to learn. Let me tell you something, if you got that, hey, it's all about excellent spirit, excellent attitude. You say, well, I ain't got anybody to teach me. Hmm. I wonder how many presidents we've had didn't have anybody teach them. How many great men have we had in America didn't have anybody to teach them? I ain't going to be smart at you this morning, but I was 28 when I surrendered to preach 30 years ago. I'm 58. And I had kids on the way, and I had a farm, and I had obligations, and so forth. You know what? And just to be honest with you, I prayed about it, and college just wasn't in the deal. So you know what I figured out I had to do? I had to go to college on my own. And I started the Reg Kelly Home Bible Institute. Read 10 chapters a day, every day. Some days, 20. Got everything I could, everywhere I could to try to study and learn, and learn how to preach, and learn how to study, and learn how to rightly divide the Word of Truth. I listened to great men preach. I tried to search out the very best preachers I could find. I mean, I was looking for the preachers that had the fire of God and knew how to rightly divide the Word of Truth and wasn't afraid of nobody. You say, why? I will tell you why. Because I never in my life wanted to be a mediocre anything. I wanted to be the best I could be. Now, you might be way better than I am, but I'm going to be the best I can be. All right. I wanted to be. I didn't want to be mediocre. Just get by. I want to be excellent in what I'm doing. I'm talking about excellence in communication, excellence in education. Learn to read. Learn to read good. Learn to comprehend what you're reading. Let me tell you how the devil will get you. You don't know how to read. If you don't know how to read, you've got to start believing what people tell you. And how are you going to check it if you don't know how to read? Learn how to spell. Learn how to do math. Reading, writing, arithmetic. The three R's. Nobody ever told him that arithmetic started with an A, but arithmetic does. Amen. Hey, reading, writing, and arithmetic is more than most of us getting that's graduating across America right now. Learn all you can. No history. I don't like history. You're living it. Hey, get involved. History is exciting. Amen. This book is a history book. It's his story. It's a history book. Learn about history. It'll open your whole world up if you'll read about history. Learn about things. Learn about economics. Study economics. I mean, who's going to lead this nation? Who's going to know? You learn from the past. God said, I wrote you the Old Testament so you know how to watch out for the mistakes they made. How many times did the Bible say, I would not have you to be ignorant, therefore, brother. In education, go for excellence. So I'm going to make the very best grades I can make. Mom and Daddy, nobody's going to have to push me no more. Nobody's going to have to beat on me and whine on me and aggravate me. I'm going to study. I'm going to give it the best I can do. Amen. Kids are amening all over the place in here today. Now, you parents quit amening because I can't hardly hear these kids amening. Now, you kids go ahead and say amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. You say, all right, let me tell you what. You kids, whether you realize that you're in a spiritual warfare right now, Satan is trying to destroy your potential by making you feel like, well, I don't like to study. I don't like school. I don't want to have an education. You're going to get cheated. There's nothing wrong with an education as long as the education doesn't go to your head. I mean, to your heart. Christian schools ought to be the best we can be. Amen? Home educators ought to be the best. And by the way, it's not all book learning and sitting in front of a desk all day. Let me tell you how you learn to be excellent, and that's put it in practice. If I handed you some ranches right now and they didn't have the fractions put on it, you know how you can learn fractions? Go out and help Danny Friend work on a tractor all day. Get me a 7-16th ranch. A what? Get me a nine-sixteenth. Never heard of such a thing. You can learn fractions by using tools. You don't learn the metric system, learn metric tools. You don't learn fractions, help your mama cook. There's all kinds of ways. And learn on-hands education. Be the best you can be. You wouldn't be sitting in life today if Thomas Edison went to a public school. They sent him home and said he's uneducatable. His mama said, well, we'll do the best we can. He just invented most of the things you enjoy in America. Because he didn't sit on his backside at a chair all day long. He got out there and worked with stuff and figured this out. And by the way, learned to be inventive. Excellence in inventive. I mean, think. Learn how to think. You know what? We're teaching a generation of kids, and we don't want them to think. We don't want them to think. We're just cookie cutting them. Learn how to think. Amen? Somebody says, Reggie, you do a lot of things in life. You don't even know half what I've tried and failed at. That's exactly right. I've asked my kids and my wife, honey, how many projects have we tried in our lives? She's going, I have no clue. I've lost count. I mean, I've done everything from own the Christian bookstore to... I mean, everything you can name. I mean, you know what? Can I tell you something? I hate to tell you this. 19 out of 20 things I've tried in my life, it did not work. You know the difference between me and you? Failure just don't tear me up as bad as it does you. I eventually get over it. Say, well, that horse is dead. Now, can I give you some great theology? Never ride a dead horse. It ain't going nowhere. Learn how to get off of a dead horse. There are some things God didn't intend you to do. You tried it, it didn't work, God ain't in it. Get off of the dead horse! Get on a horse that'll roll, amen, that'll go! Excellence in education. Can I say something to you? You just as well get it in your head. You're going to study the rest of your life, you're going to mouth a hill of beans. You're going to learn the rest of your life. I had this attitude. If I get out of high school, man, I'll tell you what, that's it. I get out of college, I got two years of college, I'm a college dropout. Boy, I tell you what, you know, let me tell you something. You know what I spent my life doing? Studying. Studying. Practical education. God didn't call me to be a welder. I've tried it. I mean, either the lead's not on right, It's not hooked right, or I splosh up great sploshes. You wouldn't want to buy anything I welded. It's not going to hold together. But oh, can I come up with things to weld? Amen? That's what I'm talking about. Hey, I done figured out there's some things I can't do. You know what my wife, Isaac, are you back there somewhere? Did my wife call you this week? She talked to you. What she talked to you about? She had some projects she needed done and she called you? What's the matter with me? You know what's the matter with me? She knows that, number one, if I do it, I've just got to come and fix what I've messed up. And then he's got to do it right, so it's going to cost twice as much if I do it the first time. I'm not a carpenter. I'm not an electrician. I'm not that stuff. So I go do things I can do to pay those who can. All right? I'm not excellent in welding. I'm a botch-up man. I mean, it's worthless. If you had me to wire your house, it would burn down the next night. You don't want me doing that. But you know what? I can auctioneer. Mm-hmm. I can roll and go with the best of them. You see, you've got a gift. You just need to figure out what it is and find it. I've seen people do stuff like, how in the world does some idiotic looking thing like Clayton play a man like that? I mean, don't he look stupid? Not really. I mean, why does God do that with some people? I'd love to do that. I mean, why does God let somebody like her play the piano like she plays it? You wondered that yourself. But you know what? Whatever you find to do, do it with excellence. That's what I'm trying to say. I'm just a mother. Be an excellent mother. Amen. Be an excellent mother. Don't set aside for mediocrity. Don't just say, well, I'm just going to kind of get by, have these kids and get them out of here. I don't know where that came from, amen? In the Civil War, you know what they called the Civil War behind the scenes? The Age of Shoddy. You know why? Because the federal government was hiring contractors to to manufacture shoes and clothing and armaments, and you know what they were doing? I mean, they would get shoes, a shipment of boots for the soldiers, and get them on them and head down the road, and at 500 yards down the road marching, the soles would come off. You know why? Because people got to where there's just money. They're just putting stuff out with no quality in what they were making. Did you know what's happening in this country is the age of shoddy? We're just putting stuff out there that'll last a little bit. Get that dollar bill and RDL and get on down and roll. The work we're doing, I want to ask you something. Let me tell you something. You build something, you build it right. You make something, you make it right. Can I tell you something? We're in the age of shoddy. I better not say this. We're fixing to eat. We need to learn how to cook. Amen? Amen. I better jump that one. Can I say something to you tonight? One of the reasons I'm preaching this message is this movie right here. Hey, listen to me. All the time I was growing up, we're having a Christian film. Go watch a Christian film. It was shoddy. It was about half corny. Wasn't no realistic to it. You know, you sit there and go, about like church. And this church out of Georgia, And these guys, oh, I know the first one facing the Giants, you know, boy, but the next one was better. And then here come fireproof. Man, it was good. And then here come this one. Excellence. Excellence. Are you listening? Boy, I like it. You know what I like about it? They're saying we're doing this for the glory of God. We're going to be the very best we can do. And you know what they're doing? They got people's attention. Not because they put out some little half-baked Christian film. Because they put meat and substance and thought and effort and energy into it and life into it. And all of a sudden somebody says, Excellent! Excellent! Y'all have seen this movie! I'm talking about doing the very best you can at whatever God gives you to do. Will to be excellent in suffering. Now you listen to me. This is not easy. But in the verses right above Matthew chapter 5 there it says, Blessed are you when men will persecute you. Did you know what shows excellence whenever we can suffer for righteousness sake and take it right? And remember the greatest our reward in heaven, we're supposed to be rejoiced for. Let me tell you what, when the world sees us rejoicing, when the world sees us not torn apart when we suffer, that's excellence. That's what you're looking for. Anybody can groan and complain and moan and go on. But when you and I can rejoice in the middle of it and be thankful in the middle of our suffering, that's excellence. Can I say, Father, this morning, I know I'm hitting rabbit trails, everybody. I can't help it. I'm having a good time. Excellence in our homes. You see, it's not just excellence out there in our work and whatever. I think about this thing so much. Excellence in our homes. I was working on this message and it's just like God said, hey, Reggie, you're talking about excellence and all this stuff. What about excellence for you as a husband? Are you just doing what it takes to get by? What about excellence as a father? Boy, I think we ought to strive and ask God, oh God, help me to be an excellent father, not just enough to get by. An excellent husband, not just comparing myself to other husbands. An excellent wife, an excellent mother. And young people, can I say something to you? What about being an excellent son? What about, is there anything wrong with being an excellent daughter? Would you just say in your heart this morning, oh God, I want to be an excellent child. I don't want to give my mom and dad a hard time. I want to be a blessing to them. I don't want them to have to tell me everything that I have to do. God put an excellent spirit in me to make it a joy and a blessing around this home. I'm just asking you this morning, I think God, we have an excellent God. He deserves excellent service. I want to just say something, and I'm looking for something that I've left out, and I may not have done this, but I'm concerned about it. And excellence in our vocations. The Bible said, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. Whatsoever you do, do it hardly as unto the Lord and not unto men. You may not like my... The only thing I can do is use my own personal life and experience and stuff and preach. You get yours and go with it, okay? But about four years ago now, or three some years ago, I started building furnaces. I mean, that's the weirdest, way off from the farthest thing ever I've done in my life. But I'm going to tell you this, what I did, I wrote down one day and put it up on the bulletin board just to the right of the phone. Can you listen to this? I told my boys, I said, you build these furnaces as if you were building them for the Lord or for your children. And if you do that, you'll build them right. That doesn't mean they can't have improvements. That doesn't mean that they don't have problems. It's just that if we do the very best we can do, if we decide that we're going to have excellent work. I want to say something to my brother Donnie. I've never forgotten this. But when Donnie started out, he borrowed my dad's 420 John Deere tractor, 3-point, and put a wire roller in the back of it. He got a subcontracting job out in Kansas. Am I correct or not? First job he ever did. But Donnie's got something in him that my mother's daddy had in him. Kelly Rose was his name. He was a stucco man, plaster man. And you can go to his houses all over this country to this day, can't you, daddy? And you can recognize his work. And wherever he built things, I'm telling you, he built it right. And I mean, he did it to the X. I mean, he would sign his. I can take you down to buildings that's got his KR, his initial. You would never know it because it's growed up with moss and stuff. But wherever he did work, he did excellent work. Donnie picked that up. I'm going to be honest with you. My boys will tell you this. Ben has picked it up, I can tell. But when Donnie would go out and do a job and these other contractors were burying it six inches higher than they were supposed to bury it, just to get it buried, because they said nobody's going to see it under the ground anyway, he wouldn't do that. And he would do the things. And one day, Donnie showed me a letter he got from the phone company. And it was commending him for the work that he had done, doing work the right way. Now, I ain't got, Donnie, don't take, I ain't doing this, I'm doing this to try to give you an example, not to glorify him. He ain't nothing. Okay? But he did something in his heart. He said, if God's given me this chance, I am going to do it, not just enough to get by, I'm going to give it my best, and when it's done, I'm going to do it right. I'm going to tell you something I know. I worked for him in Texas one year. And one thing you didn't do is half cock it. He came on the job, and you had not done it right, Larry. He was in for it. And he told me one time, he said, you listen to me. The work you're doing here is going to reflect on my company. That's what we're getting to. Now, you say, Reggie, what's the result of that? The result of that is that for 38, or 9, or 40 years, He's had all kinds of work because the phone companies know that he'll do it right. Now, listen to me. I'm talking about whatever you do. How many knows that this guy right here is the best John Deere mechanic in the country? There is no place I go across this country but what they know, Danny Friend. If they're a farmer and they've got a tractor, they know Danny Friend. You know what else they know about Danny Friend? He'll do it right. And it may cost you a little bit, but it'll be worth it in the end because he'll do it right. I'm talking about this morning, a message from my heart to you. Let's do it right. Let's give it our best. This past week, we've been doing some promotional work in our business out there in the furnaces and stuff. And Chris Roy is sitting back here. And Chris, I want to tell you, you and Sarah, where's Sarah at? Sarah, where are you at? She's still at church, but I preached her out of here. Sarah, you're still here. You know what they've done? They went in, and they've totally revamped and redone our promotional materials. And I'm telling you what, they showed me what they did this week, and I go, wow. It was excellent. It wasn't just average. I said, if you walk into a trade show with this and your product and they see this, they'll buy. People are looking for excellence. I mean, they want the place clean. You know how you start that, kids, with a clean bedroom, a clean house, a clean body. Boy, I am chasing rabbit trails, ain't I? Listen, we're talking about excellence. But let's go back to this family thing. You know what? We need excellent families. Families that stay together, families that are strong, that are stable, that are secure, that are steadfast. And then let me finish saying, let's have an excellent church. Let's have an excellent church. Let's be all that we can be for God. Let's do the best we can do for God. I tell you, I'm going to make a suggestion or two here this morning. And I was so in hopes the Wilsons would be here because I was thinking about him and I don't know just why. But maybe they'll get this. I'm going to make a suggestion. How many young men we got here from eight years old to 19, and you're just a young man and you're eight years old. Would you raise your hand real quick? I want you to raise them up high. And I want you to look around, everybody. Now, I'm going to make a suggestion to you. Are you listening to me? I don't know how this could happen, but I'm going to make a suggestion that you young men start a prayer meeting. I'm going to make a suggestion that you start a young men's prayer meeting in this church. I don't know when, if it was just for five minutes on Sunday morning or ten minutes on Sunday night. I don't know. But I'm telling you, how many young ladies we've got here in that same age group? Just raise your hands. I'm going to ask you to consider starting a young ladies prayer meeting. You say, why? For excellence? Because you'll never get there without prayer. We're talking about having an excellent church. Now, I'll try to finish up with this. Frankie Woods called last night, I guess it was, or this morning, and left a message on my phone. I got in. And Frankie, I'm telling this on you, so if you get the message, because he always listens to the messages. But he called me up, and so I called him back. And I said, Frankie, hey. And evidently, he knew what was going on. I didn't know about what's going on downstairs. They didn't know it. And he said, Reggie, I just want to call and congratulate you on 30 years in the ministry. I said, well, I appreciate that, Frankie. And he was talking about, he said, and I believe God will give you another 30 years. And I said, I am into that. I'm ready to go. And then he said, I got to tell you something last night. He said, I had a dream. It was just as real to me as it could possibly be. And this is what he said. He said, Reggie, I dreamed so vividly that I was in a train. And he said, I was in this train. We were going up a steep grade. And he said, but you were the engine. And I said, uh-oh, you were in trouble. No, he said, you were the engine. And he said, Reggie, he said, your brothers Donnie and Van was with me at the coal door of the fire. And he said, we were every once in a while just throwing some coal in the engine. The engine's me. And he said, all of a sudden, you're hollering out in the boys. I said, look up there. He said, there's a steep grade. And he said, there was a bunch of railroad ties across the railroad track stacked up there. And he said, the devil was sitting on top of them laughing at us. And you started hollering, boys, pour the coals to it, pour the coals to it. Listen to this. I mean, I could not believe this dream. He said, Reggie, he said, Donnie and Van and me grabbed them shovels. And he said, we started shoveling coal. And he said, every one of our handles broke. And he said, I could see steam coming out your ears. And he said you were saying boys, and he said all of a sudden. He said you I believe this is what he said you have checked with him He said all of a sudden He said you holler back and said get all the congregation up here throwing coal in this thing. We're going to have to have it And I was like good land to live and he said Reggie all the congregation come up there start throwing coal in and And he said, man, he said, that old engine just took off. And he said, we hit them ties and that devil and just smashed right on through and went over the top. I was like, man, where'd you come up with that dream? And he said, I don't know, but it's just as vivid as if that was there. I said, well, Frankie, that's quite a dream. And you know what we need this morning is just a lot of people in an excellent church that'll just pour the coals to it. Keep on praying. Keep on being faithful. Keep on taking care of your families. Keep on taking care of your homes. Now I want to say something to you. Kenny, when you build that building, build it the best you can, not just to get by. You do your work. I don't know. What do you work at? You're a contractor. When you do your work, make it excellent. Danny, keep doing excellent work. Brother Wright, Just be an excellent policeman. Not just enough to get by, but an excellent policeman. Larry, be an excellent truck driver. I'm telling you something, God will use us if we strive for excellence. Excellent spirit. I want to ask you, how's your countenance? How's your spirit? I think I went on long enough, don't you? I think God's about done with this message. Let's stand. Lord, we just pray this morning that you would Write this message into our hearts and our lives. Lord, I'm the one who needs it the worst. Because Lord, in a lot of areas of my life, I've just done enough to get by. I've not striven for excellence. Lord, if I thought it would just get us past, that's just what I'd do. Lord, there's areas where I've tried to be as good as I could be, and a lot of areas where I've not. Lord, I pray that you'd forgive me where I have been slothful and lazy, where I've been satisfied with less than I could have done. And Lord, I just pray this morning that you'd put a spirit within us of excellence, that we'd have a good spirit, an excellent spirit, that we'd have the joy of the Lord in our hearts, Smile of God upon our souls. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to love people and pay attention to them and listen to them and take an interest in them. And that whatever we do, we would give it our very best for the glory of God. Lord, help us not to be a slothful people, believing that excellence is for somebody else. But Lord, that we do the very best that we can. Lord, help us to have an excellent testimony. Help us to have excellent families. Help us to do excellent work. Help us to have an excellent church. And Father, I mean it, not with any pride, but just for the fact that you're an excellent God who's given us an excellent salvation, and you deserve our very best. So, Lord, quicken us by your Spirit and do what needs to be done in our hearts so that we can give you our very best in this life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.