So Genesis chapter number two and verse number seven. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed. I want to preach on this subject tonight with the help of the Lord on what happens when deity meets dirt. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You now for the opportunity once again tonight to be in Your house. Lord, I want to thank You for the sweet presence of the Holy Ghost that's in this place tonight. Lord, it'd been alright with me not to preach at all, but God, You've been pleased to let it fall this way. And so I pray now, Lord, that you would help me tonight. I pray that your people might be encouraged and edified and strengthened for the preaching of the Word of God. Lord, so often we take you for granted, and I pray, Lord, that you would open our eyes once again tonight, Lord, to just how far you reach down for us, and we'll give you alone the glory, honor, and praise. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I was in a meeting a few months back and a fellow stood up to testify. You never know when you're going to hear something good in church. And he made this statement while he was testifying. He said, I thank God for the day that deity met dirt. And when he did, it just struck me, and so I wrote it down, and then God began to deal with my heart about it. And the premise that I'm wanting to preach about is what happens when God meets man? Let me start by saying exactly what is man. We're not much, we're dust, amen. They tell me now that man is worth about $3.89, so we've moved up in price. But when it boils right down to it, we're not much. We're an emblem of frailty, amen. The Bible said in Psalms 103, 14, he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. Amen. The older I get, the more I feel that, because I have aches and pains where I didn't have aches and pains before. Amen. I told the preacher and them today when we went to lunch, I finally figured out how you can tell when you're getting old. You and your teeth don't sleep together no more. So I'm there, amen. But we know that we are but dust. I heard about a scientist and the Lord having a conversation. And the scientist said, well, we can do anything you can do. He said, we can even make a man now. The Lord said, all right, let's have a contest. So he said, I'll go first. So he made a man and he said to the scientist, it's your turn. So the scientist reached down and got a handful of dirt and God said, wait a minute, get your own dirt. Amen. We're an emblem of frailty. Dirt is an emblem of defilement. Amen. Have you ever worked so hard that you couldn't stand your own self? When you can smell your own self, you know that you, you ever get so dirty, you just feel like, boy, I can't wait to get in the shower. Amen. Hey, this matter of defilement, I got two boys, they're different as daylight and dark. One of them never could, he got the least little bit of dirt on him. It was wash my hands, wash my face. My other one would find every mud puddle and mud hole and waddle in it, amen. But it's an emblem of defilement. And then I see that it's an emblem of nothingness. God said to Abraham, or Abraham said to God in Genesis 18, 27, Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. In other words, who are we to be telling or asking God anything? Amen. David said, when I consider the heavens, the moon, and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. I was witnessing this guy. He said, what's God ever done for me? I said, he's letting you breathe his air. Amen. If it wasn't for God, I mean, who are we that we think, you know, people say, well, if he's really God, he wouldn't let this happen, and he wouldn't let this happen. No, it's our fault we're in the mess that we're in. Amen. God's the one who made a way for us to be redeemed to him. Well, it's an emblem of humiliation. Here's what he said in Lamentations 3 in verse number 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. We're living in a day and time when our youth need to learn that. Amen. They don't know nothing about work. Amen. But it goes on to say, he sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. Now when I was growing up, if you whip somebody real good, that meant you put their face in the dirt. Amen. But when it comes to us, when we get to the point where we humble ourselves before God and we get to the place that we realize that we're nothing at all, there's a song that says, just a speck of dirt is all I am, nothing worthy of the Lamb, but in mercy and in grace, the blessed Savior took my place. Hallelujah. God sure has been good to us. Well, then it's an emblem of mourning. We know the story how Joshua and them went to Jericho and overcame it. And then the men went up to Ai, and 36 men died because of Achan's sin. And all Israel went into mourning, and Joshua came unto the Lord, and the Lord told him, said, there's sin in the camp. But your sin, let me say this, your sin doesn't just affect you. Your sin affects everyone you come in contact with. A lot of times kids think, well, when I get my, when I become of age, I'll do what I want. I'll go what I want. It's my life. No, it's not just your life. Amen. It affects your parents. It affects your siblings. Amen. You understand what I'm saying to you? No man liveth to himself, no man dieth to himself. So your sin does not just affect you. I've lived long enough now to realize that there are lots of things worse than dying. You understand? And having your kids break your heart is one of them. Amen. So your sin doesn't just affect you. I wonder how disappointed God has been at me and my sin. You understand what I'm saying to you tonight? I don't want to do anything that breaks the heart of God. Amen. Well, then I see it's an emblem of mortality. He said this in Ecclesiastes 12, 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. You're not taking it with you when you go. I have never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul. Amen. The only thing you have when you leave here is what you have sent on ahead of you. Amen. I'm upset about this thing about COVID. Everybody is scared to death. Now, take all the precautions you want, but I refuse to live in fear. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Amen. So I don't believe, I believe this Bible teaches that nothing can happen to me until God gets ready for me. We all have an appointed time. Now, I don't believe you ought to tempt God by doing something stupid like jumping out of an airplane. I had an uncle that was a paratrooper. I asked him one time, I said, Uncle R.C., I said, how many times did you jump? He said, none. I said, I thought you was in the paratroopers. He said, I was. They pushed me out 289 times. So I'm saying at our best, we're not much, amen. But what happens when we meet God? Well, the first thing that I see tonight here in verse number seven is this. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. So the first thing that happens when we meet God is life takes place. Let me say this, you can't be alive and not know it. Amen. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. At one time we didn't have life. Amen. If you have passed from death unto life, you know it. Amen. You know, I think sometimes we get the idea that we reached up as far as we could, and God reached down as far as He could, and we met somewhere in the middle. No, a dead man can't do anything to change his circumstances or help his situation. He's dead. Amen. Hey, we didn't do no reaching. God reached down to where we is at. He reached down to the miry clay, the horrible pit, and He pulled us out and put our feet upon a rock and established our goings. Amen. You understand what I'm saying to you tonight? Life, you can't be alive and not know it. My dad was pastoring in Georgia. And we had a guy in the church, he hadn't been preaching long. We had a guy in the church die that owned his own business, had a lot of money. So the funeral home director wanted my dad to go in there with him to get his personal effects. They got his watch, they got his ring, and they went to roll him over to get his wallet. My dad did not know that dead people have air trapped in their lungs. So when they rolled that guy over, he went, ugh. My daddy tore the swinging door off coming out the back. I said, dad, dead people can't hurt you. He said, no, but they can make you hurt yourself. I heard about this fella's taking a shortcut through the cemetery. And they had dug a grave and he fell in. And he was trying to get out, and he tried and tried and tried. What he didn't know was there was another guy that was doing the same thing and had fallen in before him. So he was sitting down there in that grave in the dark. And when that guy tried several times, that guy said, you might as well find a seat. He got out. You can't be alive and not know it, amen. Hey, when people, you ask them where they're gonna spend eternity, well, I hope I'm going to heaven. Hey, I got news for you, they've not met the same Jesus that I've met, amen. Hey, there are some evidences of life in a Christian. You know what, one of them is praise. Amen. The Bible said in Psalms 150, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Amen. I said this morning, you got something big as the Holy Spirit living inside of you, you're going to leap. Amen. Somewhere, somehow, it has got to come out. If it don't, you'll blow all the pieces. Amen. That's what happened to Parker tonight. It got bigger than he was, amen. And it had to come out somewhere, amen. I like it when the Lord shows up like that. I'll tell you how to get through Walmart real quick. I was at Walmart and about a dozen people in front of me and I was meditating on this verse and God started giving me a message. I said, hey man, Well, then God really got to giving me a message, alliterated sub points. I went, hey man, glory to God. I look up, ain't nobody in front of me. They have already moved. I walked up there, a little girl running a crash register said, how are you today? I said, this is a day the Lord hath made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. The managers done come over there by then. So I'm praising the Lord, I realized what was going on, I'm having a good time with it. I get my stuff, I'm going out saying, hey man, glory to God, praise the Lord. He's following me all the way to the front door. I met a little black lady come in, I went, hey man, she went, glory to God, hallelujah. He quit following me, started following her. Amen. Hey, I'm talking about, here's what the Bible said in Psalms 115, 17. The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence, but we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord. I'm glad I don't have a morgue for a church. Amen. Years ago, my wife and I went with her grandmother to her church, dead Southern Baptist Church. I mean, dead is four o'clock in the morning. And that dude wasn't saying nothing, but he mentioned the cross and I went, amen. The lady in front of me turned around and went, shh. That was a mistake. I waited for the next time that dude said something, I'd shout out, hey, there was a guy across the aisle from me asleep like this. And I jumped straight up and I went, hey, man, go away! That guy slid out in the floor. I was preaching the other day and had a guy die. They called 911. They carried out 15 before they got the right one. You say, Preacher, I'm saved and I'm happy about it. Why won't you tell your face? Amen. God's people ought to be the happiest people in the world. Do you understand what I'm saying tonight? Sooner or later, you're going to praise the Lord. Amen. Some of my fond memories growing up is I would come in from the field when I was a kid with my pavel, and before I ever got to the house, I could hear my grandmother singing. Oh, victory in Jesus. You know what she's doing? She's praising the Lord. Amen. So praise is an evidence of life. And then I see that passion is an evidence of life. I'm not gonna spend much time here because I talked about it this morning, but I believe we ought to have a passion for God's house. I believe we ought to have a passion for God's people. I believe we ought to have a passion for the work of God. Amen, do you understand? Hey, we ought to have a passion for our brethren. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you watch. Love thy brethren. Amen. This is my crowd. Amen. I like it. Amen. Well, then I'm talking about life takes place. Another evidence of life is purity. Purity. He said in Romans 6 and verse 11, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He said this in 1 Peter 2.24, who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye are healed. When we get saved, the same Holy Spirit that lives in me lives in you. People would ask me when I was pastoring, well, preacher, is this right or is this wrong? I started asking them, is it holy? Amen. Hey, when you get born again, the Holy Spirit begins to do a work in you. Amen. He'll clean your cusser up. Amen. I remember the first time I said a bad word after I got saved, Immediately I was smoked in my heart and I apologized to all that I was around and apologized to the Lord. You say, Preacher, what had taken place? A purity was taking place in my life. The Holy Spirit was dealing with me and He will deal with you about what is right and what is wrong. I believe we as Christians ought to walk right, talk right, and spit right. Amen. You can't preach it up in Kentucky. But purity will take place. We're no longer serves sin, we're servants to the Lord. Amen. Well, passion, purity takes place. Purpose takes place. Young people, I'm telling you, the best thing you can do is give your life to God when you're young. and you'll have no regrets. If you yield every area to Him right now, He can do more with your life than you ever imagined, and you will not have the marks and the scars from being out there at all. Do you understand what I'm talking about? The best thing you can do is give your life to Him. Have you ever seen a day in time when people have no purpose whatsoever? I was listening to him interview one of those sports stars after he'd won like his sixth championship. They said, well, where do you go from here? He put his head down and thought a minute and he said, I have no idea. He said, I have accomplished everything in life that I ever set out to do. He said, I don't know where I go from here. I'm glad we as Christians don't have that problem. When God saves us, he gives us a purpose. You say, Preacher, what is that purpose? Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So everybody that is saved, hallelujah, has a purpose. We're to be watching and we're to be waiting and we're to be working for the Lord. That's the greatest purpose in life that you can have is to do something for God. Well, life takes place. Then I see a second thing here. Look in chapter number one in verse number 27. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. Let me read that again. Male and female created he them. Male and female. People are stupid. I had a little boy come out one time after I got done preaching. He said, you said a bad word. I went, he said, you said the S word. I'm like, no, I didn't. He said, you said stupid! Stupid is a good word. You understand what I'm talking about. I just, I never cease to be amazed. Well, male and female. Transgender. It's a bunch of garbage, oh man. Well, anyway. In this I see that likeness takes place. When we meet Him, likeness takes place. Amen. Now, my dad and I look so much alike that people have walked up to him and said, I heard you preach at so-and-so and it wasn't him, it was me. and they've done the same thing to me. They thought it was him and it's me and me and it was him, amen. We went into this place and he introduced himself and then I introduced myself and the guy said, oh, were you his brother? I said, no, I'm not his brother. You know it's bad. I took my brother with me to a meeting. He's four years younger than me. We're standing out on the front porch shaking hands. This lady comes out and says, ''Oh, are you brother Steve's son?'' I said, ''No.'' I told dad, I said, ''You either look really young or I look really old.'' I'm afraid I know which one it is. I'm only 59. I've just been rode hard and hung up wet. Amen. But likeness, we even, Brother Tim wakes up every day and thanks God he don't look like his daddy. But when it comes, the Bible says they were called Christians first at Antioch. Now I'm going to say something to you. I was saved a long time before I ever became a Christian. You say, Preacher, what do you mean by that? I mean, if I'd have died, I'd have went to heaven. I was saved. But I was far from being what that word means. Do you understand? That word Christian means to be Christ-like. But there came a point in time when I started striving with every fiber of my being to be like Him. You understand? There is so much family resemblance between me and my dad. I mean, if you're a Goolsby, everybody knows it. You understand what I'm saying? And it ought to be that way with us and Christ. There ought to be so much family resemblance. Hey, you don't have to tell people you're a Christian. They ought to know it by the way you act. They ought to know it by the way you behave and carry yourself. Amen. The Lord reminds me of that frequently. I saw somebody tonight in the car that's got Bible verses on the back of their vehicle. I don't do that. I'm not Christian enough. The left lane belongs to me, stay out of it, amen. I usually go to a meeting a day early because it takes me a day to get right with God after I drove in traffic. But we as Christians, hey, there ought to be so much about us that resembles Him. Do you understand? And by the way, you are being conformed. Romans 8, 29, we are either being conformed to the image of Christ, we are becoming more like Him, Or Paul said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And then he said, and be not conformed to this world. So you're either being conformed to the image of Christ, or you are being conformed to the world, but you are being conformed. Amen. When people see me, I want them not to see me, but I want them to see Him who lives inside of me. Amen. They tell me, I'm not conscious of it, but they tell me that my dad and I even have the same mannerisms. My dad, when he was preaching, he'd put his hand down to his side and he'd start doing his fingers back and forth. Brother Brian mentioned it to him one time. He said, what are you doing? He said, I'm feeling for the words. Brother Brian said, I thought you was getting ready to draw on us. Amen. Now, in a lot of ways, we're the same. But in some ways, my dad is not a shouter, he was a crier. My dad is not funny. I believe you just need to be who you are. Amen. I like all kinds of preaching. I like them guys that stand right behind the pulpit and never move. I'm not one of them. They never raise their voice. I'm not one of them. It was a great day when I learned just to be who I was. But it's the same thing in the Christian life. Amen? If you will worry about pleasing Him and conforming your life to His image, it will change your life. I had a teenage girl at a church and I noticed she attracted, there was like 38 young people and eight or nine adults around her. And I was curious, I asked the preacher, I said, tell me what the story is there. He said, that's a wonderful story. He said, that girl got saved off one of our bus routes, said her mama is a crack addict and her daddy is a drunk. and said all those, she got saved, said she's been faithful to our church for years, and said that is 38 of her classmates and nine of her teachers and her high school principal that she has won to God. Amen. You say, why preacher? Because when she got saved, she conformed to the image of Christ. He transformed her life. When you meet him, Life takes place. When you meet Him, likeness takes place. I see a third thing tonight. When you meet Him, Lordship takes place. Chapter number 1 and verse number 28, don't shut me off, I'm not a Calvinist, alright? But here's what he said in verse 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Lordship takes place. Let me say this. You do not make him Lord. He is Lord already. The night I got saved, I yielded every area of my life that I knew to God. But there have been areas since then that I have had to give Him. I find a lot of Christians in our day and time, it's kind of like this, we compartmentalize our Christian life. Lord, you can have this area and this area and this area, but that room over there belongs to me. He's Lord of all. or he's not Lord at all. You understand? That's what Lordship means. Lord, and by the way, he can do more with your life. I never dreamed, I know y'all are not gonna believe this, but I was an introvert. I wouldn't get up in front of people and talk. I like the failed speech class. I've got over that, amen. But if you will yield to Him, God will take your life and do more with it than you ever even thought about. Simply because you made Him Lord of your life. I heard this brother this morning talking about election and predestination. Those are good words. They're in our Bible, but anytime you read them, it's talking to people that are saved. Here's how I believe election and predestination. When I go fishing, I'm fishing for anything that bites. Bass, crappie, catfish, brim. But once it bites my hook, brother Jason, it's predestined and foreordained what's gonna happen to it. I'm gonna leave it. So don't let that stuff get you tore up, big man. Hey, he died, he's not willing that any. should perish, but that all should come repentance. I'm some dumb, but I ain't plumb dumb. I know what any and all mean. I believe you gotta be crippled too high for crutches. You'll never get Calvinism reading your Bible. Amen. He's Lord, do you understand? He can do anything he wants to do. Amen. Well, lordship takes place. Two interesting words here in this verse. Subdue it and have dominion over it. Here's what's in the book of Romans chapter number 1 and verse number 20. professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to the birds, and the four-footed beasts, and the creeping things. Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, to the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. He said in that same passage of scripture, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. When you do not realize that we didn't just get here by happenstance, an almighty God stepped out of nowhere, stood on nothing, and spoke the world into existence. So lordship takes place when you meet him. And then labor takes place. Look at chapter number 2 and verse number 8. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had farmed. Look at verse number 15. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Hey, God didn't save us. If salvation was all there was to it, when we got saved, He'd take us on to glory. But salvation is not all there is to it. Amen? We are laborers together with Christ. He didn't save us to do nothing. He saved us to do something. Amen. Hey, he told them in the book of Luke, lift up your eyes. He said, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray ye the Lord of harvest that he will send forth laborers into his field. Hey, I am the vine. Ye are the branches. Hey, God can't, it's kind of like this. You young people probably don't know nothing about this, but they used to make cars that were stick shift. They had a clutch and a gear shift. And if your car wouldn't crank because the battery was dead, you could push it and get up enough speed and pop the clutch and it'd start. Amen. We was out one night, one of my buddies in his Volkswagen, five of us in that car. I was skinny back then. But anyway, we was in Indiana, there wasn't no hills. It was flat. So his car wouldn't start. So we get out and we're pushing. And I look up and there's one guy sitting in the back seat. I got mad. You know what he was doing? I asked him, I said, why didn't you get out and help us? He said, oh, I thought there's enough of y'all that I didn't have to help. You know what he was doing? He was just along for a free ride. I wonder how many people we got like that in church. Just along for the free ride. Hey, you're not going to shout unless somebody else gets shouting. Amen. You understand? You're not going to help unless somebody else gets to help. The preacher has to beg you to come sing in the choir. You understand what I'm saying tonight? Hey, you know what my first job in church was? Leading the music. Our song leader had quit. I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but I am loud. Amen. So I got up in front of everybody, held a book in front of my face and sang. A few weeks I got to where I could hold a book down here and sang. A few more weeks I got to where I could do John Travolta. I just wanted to be involved in the work of God. I didn't care what it was. You understand what I'm saying? Hey, you're not just being along. Me and this preacher cannot do it by ourself. We've got to have help. You ought to be wanting to do something for the Lord. Well, when you meet Him, you want to do something for Him. Hey, if it's nothing more than cleaning the toilets, you want to do something for God. We are laborers together with Him. Well, then I see a fifth thing tonight. I'm talking about what happens when deity meets dirt. Liberty takes place. He told them there in chapter number 2 and verse number 16, The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely Thou shalt surely die. Occasionally I'll be with somebody and they'll say, Oh, you're just in bondage to religion. No, when I got saved, I got set free. Amen. I was a slave to sin and a slave to the devil. But when I got saved, I got set free. If the sun shall make you free, you shall be what? Free indeed. I get tickled. I was talking to this guy, he said that to me. He's going. He said that bondage thing. I said, I'm not letting something three inches long control my life. Amen. Made him mad, but I guarantee you every time he fired one of them cancer sticks up, he remembered what I said. He sure said in Romans 8 too, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. We're to stand fast in the liberty that Christ has given and be not entangled again with a yoke of bondage. I'm not interested. Have you ever heard somebody stand up and testify and it's almost like they're sorry that they got saved? Huh? Hey, I'm telling you, the world don't have nothing that I want to go back to. Do you understand? I was under bondage. I was in sin. I was in slavery. I have no desire to go back to that. Amen? Liberty takes place. I had a young man come one night, and the pastor was talking to him. He motioned for me to get down there, and I got down there beside him, and here's what he said to me. He said, Preacher, I believe everything you said tonight. He said, I know I'm going to hell. I know I need to be saved. He said, but there's some things that I'm just not willing to give up yet. I said this to him. I said, you don't have to give nothing up. Just go ahead and get saved. And he did. He cried. He was sincere, crying out to the Lord. I asked God to save him. Two nights later, he met me at the back door. He said, you tricked me. I said, what are you talking about? He said, you knew if I got saved, I wouldn't want to do them things. That's right. God changes our walk too. Do you understand? We have liberty. He just changes what we want to do. Amen. Well, liberty takes place. Let me give you one last one. Love takes place. He said there in chapter number two in verse number 18, and the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate for him. Now you and I are made for fellowship and we're made for friendship. Do you know how you can tell when somebody true love really is taking place? It's when somebody knows everything about you and they love you anyway. I've been married to my wife 39 years. I'm glad she did not know everything about me when I got married. I thought that I loved her when I married her. Now that I've been married to her 39 years, I love her more today than I did when I married her. You know why? I know more about her today than I did when I married her. Hey, that's the way it is with us in the Lord. Hey, it was good. In fact, it was good when I got saved. If I could do it again, I would. but you can't. The closest thing you'll ever experience to it is getting to lead somebody else to the Lord. Amen. But this matter of love, I knew it was good, but I didn't really know all I was getting when I got saved. Hey, I heard a guy say it gets gooder and gooder and sweeter and sweeter. Amen. Hey, somebody knows everything about you. They know you snore and the walls go in and out. And they love you anyway. Here's what I'm saying. God knew everything about me. He knows I was wicked. He knew I would fail Him time and time again. He knew I would fall on my face time and time again. And even knowing all that, you know what He did? He loved me anyway. and saved me anyway. Ain't nobody ever loved you like Jesus loves you. Amen. Hey, I'm telling you tonight, if you know all, I've done enough since I've been saved to deserve to go to hell. He knew I'd do that. But guess what? He loved me in spite of it and saved me in spite of it. Amen. Hey, I'm telling you, love like that. Hey, we were created for fellowship. He wants to fellowship with us. I'm telling you, it's kind of like this. When I'm away from home, I call my wife every night. Not long, but we talk every day. Usually, before I get off the phone, I will say, I love you, but I got news for you. I love you, and over the phone, ain't like being there in person and getting one of them double-lip blocker spit-swappers. Here's what I'm getting at. I like it when I can tell the Lord. But I like it lots better when He says, come here. Let me love on you. I'll tell you what else we do. If we're not careful, we'll get to where we take it for granted. When I was dating my wife, I would break my neck to open the car door for her. Huh? A few years back, I got the car in reverse backing up, she says, wait, I'm not in yet. Brother Tana knows what I'm talking about. Do you understand what I'm saying? Hey, they bring you something cold to drink, you don't say thank you. You remember how it was when you first got saved? I didn't want to do but two things. I wanted to read my Bible and go to church. That's all I wanted to do. I've been saved a long time now. If I'm not careful, I'll get to the point where I take Him for granted. I forget what He has done for me. I forget how good He has been for me. Hey, if you never told your wife you loved her, you wouldn't stay married long. You understand what I'm saying? How long has it been since you told her, Lord, I love you? Remember when He asked Peter, Lovest thou me more than these? Three times he asked him the same question. Peter finally said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love thee. Let me ask you a question tonight. Does the Lord know? Does the Lord know tonight that you love him more than anything else? When he has done so much for us, I don't know about you, but I thank God for the day that he reached down and grabbed this old piece of dirt and changed my life forever.