Let's see if I remember in my nice organized filing system here where I set that thing. That's it. All right. I hope everyone's a lot more awake and enthusiastic this morning. Amen. That's right. All right. That's what I had to have, as much help as possible. We'll take your Bibles, turn to the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 19. While you're turning there, just kind of in the way to get things started. This morning, I like sayings. I like, I'm always reading sayings. You know, sayings, Dr. Bob Jones Sr. had his sayings. We have all kinds of sayings of preachers that I've heard, different things. I'll say this, these saints here, they're wise saints, but they're not for really any creature that you've probably heard of. But here's a, it's just kind of fun, you know, just kind of get you in, stop, settle down, maybe laugh just a little bit, you know. And it says, do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me. Matter of fact, just leave me alone. That's just a good one. It says, it's always darkest just before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it. Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else. Never test the depth of the water with both feet. Well, that's a good one to learn. It may be your sole purpose in life simply to serve as a warning to others. Sometimes I feel that way. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is If you lend someone $20 and you never see that person again, it's probably worth it. Here's the last one for this morning. Sometimes you're the bug and sometimes you're the windshield. Well, some days you feel like that, don't you? All right, Proverbs chapter 19. Proverbs chapter number 19. I have been, in Sunday school, going through the book of 2 Timothy, and so I don't want to pick that up here, and I don't know what all's being taught here, so just pick something off the wall to kind of teach. I know the folks back home would be glad to get a break from 2 Timothy. You know, when you start through there, 2 Timothy chapter 4 is where we are, and it's been about four weeks in verse number one. Sometimes you get bogged down. So there's so much of that stuff there. So this morning I just kind of picked something maybe just a little bit different, something it's been years ago that the Lord gave me just noticing a few things and was a real blessing to me and more willing to be a blessing to you. Proverbs chapter 19, And verse number 12, the king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favor is as the dew upon the grass. Now turn over to 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter one, 1 Peter chapter number one, and look at one other verse, one other verse there, 1 Peter chapter number one. Well, maybe two other verses. 1 Peter chapter one, look at verse number 24. For all flesh is his grass, and all the glory of men is the flower of grass, and grass withereth. and the flower thereof fadeth forth away. For the word of the Lord is good forever. This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Before we get started, let's open up in a word of prayer this morning. Dearly father, Lord, we sure are thankful for this time, this opportunity here to open up the word. What a beautiful morning you've given us, Lord. And here we gather together with your saints, And Lord, just ask this morning that you'd help Lord to feed them. Lord, they've come here hungry to hear something from you, desirous to hear something from you. Lord, we just ask this morning, Lord, you'd take care of them. Lord, we're yours, we're your sons, your daughters. Lord, we just ask that in everything that's done, you have the glory and the preeminence. And Lord, we just come to you now this morning seeking your favor. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. One of my favorite things to do is to do absolutely nothing. I kind of like that. You don't always get that. In the mornings, if I can, in most mornings, you're getting up and heading off to work early. You don't get a chance to do that. But I love getting up. One of my favorite things to do is get up early in the morning. Walk out on the front porch, sit down with a cup of coffee and just sit there. Especially mornings like today. I was out walking around in the parking lot this morning and back to the hotel. Just to get out early in the morning and it's nice and it's fresh. I like to come home in the evening when I come home from work. Go in getting something to drink walk out sit out on the front porch and just stop for about 15 20 minutes And just stop relax a little bit watch the birds come by and watch everything else go by and one morning I was sitting out there going through a Bible reading been years ago going through the Bible reading again They're in Proverbs chapter 19. So it was the 19th of some month And notice something here, again to study a little bit, put a few things together. And what I want to kind of teach on this morning is verse number 12. It says, the king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favor is as dew upon the grass. Now, the king here, we know is the Lord Jesus Christ. The grass, where we read over in 1 Peter chapter one, the grass is defined as the flesh of man. And the Bible says in John chapter three, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And we know from Proverbs chapter 19, one of two things is gonna happen. Either the wrath of God's gonna abide on you, if you're lost, right? You never trusted the Lord as your Savior, or God's favor's gonna be on you. Both of those things. We know one of these days in eternity, It's going to be that way. For someone who's never trusted the Lord as their Savior, they're going to spend an eternity in hell. The wrath of God is going to abide on them throughout all eternity. And for those who put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we're never going to have to experience His wrath whatsoever. We're going to enjoy His favor forevermore. And both of them are right there in verse number 12. We know that wrath is a very real thing today. We also know that the favor is a very real thing today. But there's coming a day in the future when all you're ever going to know is one or the other. We know what the wrath of God is like. The wrath of God is like a roar. It's like one of these days when he comes back to the second advent, he's gonna roar. They're gonna see the wrath of God. Out of his mouth's gonna go a sharp two-edged sword. Out of his eyes, flames of fire. You know, you realize what's coming, and it's like a roar. I know this time of year especially, back where we are, we have, just like you do here, we have some tornadoes that come through. Some of you may have heard that it's been 10, 11 years ago now. We had a big one come through Joplin, Missouri. They said it was an F5. The thing was winds up to 225 miles an hour. Three different tornadoes, they said, kind of wrapped in one. And it just, it was like putting everything to a threshing machine. It just destroyed. It was a mile wide, went right through the middle of town, destroyed 8,000 homes and businesses. It was, surprisingly, I couldn't believe it when we drove through there. There was, I believe it was 167 lives lost. But if you drove through there, it looked like a war zone. You'd have been, you'd have expected much more than that. There were literally thousands of people hurt, injured. through that thing, church was about to start. It was 5.30 in the evening, church was about to start, and all of a sudden the sirens were going off, and you get used to, unfortunately, we'll have those sirens certain times of year go off constantly, and you kind of get used to hearing them, and you don't pay much attention to them. I'll tell you this now, everybody pays attention to those tornado sirens going off. But those sirens were going off, and we had a brother there preaching for us, And he says, well, brother, what do you do? And I said, well, brother, when a tornado around here, when there isn't any other place to go, we just all laid down right in the hallway, laid down in the aisle way, got down as low as we can. And I said, we're all just gonna lay here. Brother, why don't you start praying? And we just kind of went around the room and prayed. And you didn't realize how bad it was. I knew as I'm praying, I can see out the front door of the church, And I began to see some things falling in the parking lot. And I went, oh no, this thing is closed. And my family, as the church started at six, my family hadn't gotten there yet, and I didn't have any way to get ahold of my wife. She was home with my daughter. And boy, you just didn't know what all was gonna happen. And then, realizing everything that took place later that night, was listening to what one man was telling me. He was there and he said, when that thing came through, he said, it just roared. and just destroyed everything. Terrible, terrible thing. Most of us, we know the roar of natural disasters. I've talked to some that's heard the roar of war, things that take place. But what I want to teach about just a little bit this morning isn't that roar. It has to do with the Lord's favor. has to do with the Lord's favor. Now, if we're here this morning, we have experience with the Lord's favor. If you trusted the Lord as your Savior, you know how favorable the Lord's been to you. And while you didn't realize all that you got when you got saved, about 33 different transactions took place the very moment you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. You didn't realize that when you got saved. Most of us didn't have a clue at all. And when we got saved, it took years later, and sometimes many years later, for us to realize all that God had done. And the more you learn, the more you realize just how favorable He was to you, just how kind and merciful and gracious He was to you. And the longer you're here, you realize that as well. Some of us here, we have good health. Some health's not as good as others, but you look back and realize, boy, it could be a lot worse. Amen. Right? I remember years ago visiting a nursing home. There was a man there that had gotten injured. This had been 20 years ago. He'd gotten injured in Vietnam. He had a bullet right in the back of the neck and been paralyzed from the neck down since he was 18 years old. It wasn't kind of gross. I wouldn't tell you all. It was rough to walk into the room. And I've been laying there in that bed at that time for almost 20 years and had to have someone come and turn him over and someone come and try to take care of him. And you walk in there and you realize, you know what, Lord, I don't have anything to complain about. I'm upright, I'm walking on my two feet. What a blessing that is. And then we begin to see the Lord's favor. You have children running around. You have clothes on that you can wear. Food in your belly, how many times you walk through a refrigerator, open it up and the thing's full and you go, I don't see anything in here I want. Walk over to the pantry, open it up and you go, I don't see anything here I want either. And you can go out and get just about anything you want. We realize just how favorable the Lord's been. Now I know this, when it comes to the Lord's favor, the favor of the Lord, it's one of the most least recognized things. You'll hear someone talk, and they'll say something like, well, I sure am a lucky man. No, luck doesn't have anything to do with it. Luck doesn't have anything to do with it. I was witnessing to a man one time when he was out in his late 80s, and to look at him, you wouldn't believe it. I mean, I remember my granddad, was about, he was probably five foot six, five foot seven, weighed about 145 pounds. Lived out on the farm all his life. I remember for his, it was either his 70th or his 75th birthday. The whole family, all the family was there, and they lined up all the grandkids. There must have been probably 40 of us. Lined up all the grandkids, and Grandpa was gonna race the grandkids. And we're all lined up, and everybody took off. Of course, some of the grandkids, he said, we're going to race to that fence over there. And whoever gets to the fence first wins. And so everybody takes off. And Grandpa's taking off running. And this is a four-foot chain-link fence. He gets up to that chain link fence and jumps over the chain link fence. None of the kids thought to do that, so Grandpa won. It wasn't just getting to the fence, you had to get over the fence. He gets up there, runs, jumps over that fence. That's pretty good help. I was witnessing to a man one time with similar health in his 80s, and he says, he's talking about how he didn't really need the Lord. He said, well, he said, I think things are going to work out all right. You know, when I get to heaven or something, me and the Lord will have a conversation. I said, obviously, the Lord's fine with me. Otherwise, I wouldn't be as healthy as I am. I said, well, that doesn't mean anything. One of the reasons you may be as healthy as you are, because you have a hard head and you won't listen, and the Lord's being gracious and merciful to you, and he's keeping you in good enough health so somebody can come by and show you the way of salvation before you die and spend an eternity in hell, is he doesn't want you to go. The Lord's merciful. The Lord's merciful and sometimes, boy, it's really overlooked. Now, I know we've all been through some bad things. You say, well, the Lord's been more merciful to this one than he has to that one, but that's not true either. Now, what I want you to take note of is the last half of verse number 12, and it says, is as the dew upon the grass. Now, I know this about dew. Dew's not really something you walk out and appreciate. All of a sudden, I'll hear a lightning and thunderstorm begin to go outside, and I go, ooh, yes! And run over, grab me a cup of coffee, walk out, sit on the front porch, and I just like to see all that roll in, right? Hear the thunder begin to roll, and the rain, and just sit there and watch it rain. Well, I enjoy that. I like that. And maybe it's just, you know, being raised and you maybe don't get excited about rain, but I grew up in Texas. And when it started to rain, everybody stopped. It was just water falling from the sky. Man, I'd go out here and watch it, but I don't know that I have ever went out on a front porch and said, well, I want to watch the dew roll in. It's really nothing you ever take note of. I mean, I used to, you know, you'd have people come by and throw the newspaper out the yard. Remember that? I don't think they do that anymore. But I'd always look. It was my job to go out there and grab the newspaper. And you'd look to see if the newspaper had that plastic sleeve on it. because it had that plastic sleeve on it, you had to go back inside and put some shoes on, because otherwise you'd fixin' to soak them wet, you'd fixin' to get your socks all wet, or your feet all wet when you walked across that grass. You didn't really notice all the dew that was, all the dew that was laying on the grass. And that dew, it's an important thing, an important thing when you get to arid regions, different things. But most of us, we don't perceive the blessings and the favor of God. We like something a bit more magnanimous. We like something a bit more grand. We say, wow, look at that. Look at those storm clouds rolling in. Look at that. Look at that rain pouring down. Well, that's something else. But not most of us, we don't walk out and we go, man, look at that dude. Right? It may get a hint of a light on it, but most of us, we don't really appreciate the dew yet. The Bible says the favor of the Lord is as the dew upon the grass. And I got saved, October the 1st, 1978. Nine o'clock, it was about nine o'clock on a Sunday night. And I know that because I didn't get to go dairy cleaning. My sister got to go dairy cleaning at the church with a bunch of people, and I didn't get to go, and I was a little bit upset, and so I got sent off to my room. And I was laying there in my room, and I remembered something that Brother Alexander had said in junior church. He said, if you die tonight, do you know we're gonna spend eternity? And I'm just laying in a room, about eight years old, and I'm laying there, and I'm fixing to close my eyes, and I went, oh no. That was the first time I ever realized I'm not saved. It just had never come to mind. And I said, I don't know when I'm going to spend eternity. Boy, I jumped up and ran to the living room. My dad's sitting there. And one source took a Bible, opened it up on a coffee table, and showed me how to be saved. Now, when I got saved, I did not hear a hell of a choir or something. Right? As a matter of fact, it was kind of quiet. The only one in there was me and my dad. And I bawled my eyes out and got all done. And he said, all right, go in the bathroom and wash your face. And when you get that all done, go back to bed. It seemed kind of a simple thing, you know, but listen, I know heaven rejoices over one sinner that comes to repentance, but I didn't get to hear it, right? It was, listen, sometimes we had some false expectations. This morning, I want to point out some things about Duke. You know, Duke's quiet. As I said, I'd be in the house, and I'd hear some rolling, some roaring of the thunder. Well, I know a storm cloud's about to come in, and I want to see that. And boy, you go outside and take a look at that. But dude, you know, you just kind of walk out in the yard, and you go, oh, that's wet. Oh, that dude fell. You didn't hear it come. Right? Dude's kind of, hey, it's kind of quiet. And as I said, my salvation is kind of quiet. I mean, there's, we know the burden of sin that's delivered, but for most of us, you were probably, you might've come up to an altar, you might've gotten taken off to a room somewhere, you might've been at home, you might've been just about anywhere when you got saved. But listen, God's favor, it's not like a cyclone. It's not like an earthquake. It's not like an F5 tornado that comes through. And for most of it, it's just not like a mighty roaring wind. You know what it is? It's just quiet. I remember sitting there and asking the Lord to save me and looking up and looking up at my dad and he says, well, what do you think? And I said, I think I'm saved. He says, well, amen, son. All right, go wash your face. I go in the bathroom, and I splash the water on my face, and I look in the mirror, and I can still remember that kid grinning back and going, you're sane. Amen. Amen. Went back, laid my head down on that pillow, grin on my face, went to sleep. It's kind of quiet, right? Nobody else. Didn't get any phone calls from anybody. Well, hey, look at that. Heaven called to save Bradley Friesen, just got saved. Didn't get any of that. Well, it is kind of quiet. It's kind of quiet. Listen, it's easy sometimes when it comes to the Lord's favor to take it for granted because it's so subtle. It's not dramatic. Most of us, we remember the dramatic things, and we have a tendency to overlook the subtle things. Bible says, the favor of the Lord's like the dew on the grass. And it's real quiet. It's real quiet. I kind of like some of those dramatic things. There's times, if you've spent any time strict preaching, dealing with folks, every once in a while, you kind of get that Elijah tendency. You know, you kind of like to see a little fire fall from heaven. Right? I mean, I like the, you know, I like the, you know, to hear all the rest of the, you know, everybody out here, you know, they're cussing, cussing your Lord and cussing your Savior. And you say, all right, fellas, just sit down a minute, let me show you how it's done. You get down, you pray, you stand up, fire falls down from heaven, you say, amen! But, you know, most times it's not that way, right? Most of the time, it's kind of quiet. I mean, the Apostle Paul, when he got saved, he got knocked down on the ground, he'd seen a light shown from heaven. That didn't happen with me. And I would imagine it didn't happen with anybody else in this room either. But it did for him. I remember reading stories, you know, you read stories of preachers and things that happened to them, and what you're getting, you're getting some highlights. I remember reading one, one of my favorite preachers to read about was George Whitefield. And you know, George Whitefield was really, I mean, you talk about what got established and one of the men that established what we have here in America as far as the preaching of the gospel. came from George Whitfield. He got upset. The Bible he preached out of was that Bible right there. And he began to teach some things that were contrary to the denomination he was in. And he was getting upset that all of his converts were becoming baptists. It kind of upset him a little bit, but the Lord used him greatly here in America. I remember reading a story about Benjamin Franklin. He said he was just astounded at Mr. Whitfield. He said he paced off almost a mile, and a mile away, he could still audibly hear George Whitfield preach. Boy, that's something else. That is something else. I read all kinds of stories about him. He was preaching outside. I looked up and Philadelphia had, I guess as many as 25,000 people just showed up to hear him preach. And he was standing there preaching. They had overcast skies. And all of a sudden, Mr. Whitfield takes his Bible and he raises his Bible up. And when he does, they said that like heavens broke open and a ray of sunlight came through and just shined right on the Bible the minute he raised it up. That has never happened to me. I mean, first, I guess there had to be a hole in the roof here somewhere. But I've never had anything remotely close. John Wesley's out preaching one time, and they decide to get rid of him. And so they turned a wild bull loose on him. And that bull ran up and ran right up as Mr. Wesley's preacher ran right up to him, stopped, turned around, and ran right back into the crowd that really Not whatsoever. Boy, you begin to look at some of those things, and you think, well, that's awfully dramatic. I stand here and preach, and you get up and you preach, and then you read a story about Jonathan Edwards, sinners in the hands of an angry God. And his eyesight was so bad, that's me. If I had these glasses on, I can't see you. And if I don't have these glasses on, I can't see that. And his eyesight was real bad. And he was down like this trying to read it, and they said when he read, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, that they grabbed, sinners grabbed hold to the back of the pew, and some of them screamed and hollered out for forgiveness for the Lord. I have never had that happen. I've had people get up and walk out. I've had people get up and say, I'm not listening to this, and walk out the door right in the middle of church. But I've never had all of a sudden people screaming out and saying, Lord, forgive me, grab hold of the back of the pew, and he's just reamed it. There's times you get up as a preacher, boy, you're one to pound the pulpit and jump up, Lord, anything to get the people to react to the preaching of the word of God. It doesn't have anything to do with it. You know what I know about the Lord's favor? It's quiet. That was in the favor of the Lord as the dew upon the grass. Now I know this about Not only is it quiet, the process of how that thing works is largely, it's undiscerning. During the wintertime, we call it frost, right? You go out and you're getting ready, you've got that cup of coffee in your hand, and you're getting ready to go to work, and you go, ha ha ha, there's frost all over the car, and you just take the coffee and pour it on the windshield, right, and get rid of that frost from the car, you know, or you gotta get a scraper out and scrape some of that stuff off, And listen, you didn't even realize it until you got out there. Sometimes, as I said, we look for more of the dramatic. I kind of like the parting of the Red Sea, right? I want to see a little more of that. The leading, Lord, which way do you want me to go? And there's the pillar of fire. You know exactly which way to go. The pillar of cloud. I like to have a little bit more of that. You know, I know when it comes to the Lord's favor, discerning the Lord's favor, the process is largely undiscerning. Matter of fact, that Bible that you're holding in your hand right there, we know Holy Man of God's faith because they were moved by the Holy Spirit and people come up and they say, tell me exactly where the Bible comes from, right? I'd like to go back to this person right here wrote it and put it together. And you go, well, no, not exactly. Right? I mean, we go back and we say, all right, they say, all right, y'all believe the King James Bible is the word of God. So King James is responsible for that book. Well, no, not really. There's some men that he helped, and they got permission from him, and men got together, and so they wrote the whole book. Well, they didn't write all of it, right? I mean, we know the books the Apostle Paul wrote. We know the books that Moses wrote, the different ones. By the time you go back, you're tracing that thing back as far as 3,000 years, right? And by the time you get to where we are right now, we have a holy and a pure book. And the process of how, you know what that, you know the very fact we're able to have that in our laps right now? That's the favor of God. And the process of how that thing got here is largely undiscerning. Right? There's things you can go back and people try to put doubt on them. Well, there should be more books here. Well, the books you have here, how do you know the books are in the right order? And boy, you can ask a thousand different questions And the process, you say, well, I know. Listen, I know that that Bible right there, that King James Bible, there's not one bit of error in it, there's not one word that's wrong in it, not one jot, not one tittle's gonna pass away, the law by law needs to be fulfilled. Listen, I know that it's perfect. It's perfect. You say, do you know exactly who did what to get it to where it is right now? No, not exactly in every detail. I mean, listen, it didn't happen overnight. It didn't happen just like that. You can't trace it back to one man. Matter of fact, you can't trace it back to less than 100. Right? Listen, it took a long process, and some of it is, you'll begin to explain something to some people, and you see their eyes just kind of glaze over, and they go, no, that's just a little too much for me. Right, well, you wanna explain the dew on the grass? They do on the grounds. What's that got to do with anything? Well, that's the favor of the Lord. The favor of the Lord, yeah. How about explaining how you got right here? And some of us, we can't even explain that. You ever wonder how you got to where you're at? I remember I used to go outside of the house. And growing up down there, we didn't, we had an air conditioner, but nobody ever liked to turn the thing on. I don't hesitate to turn them on now, but my mom and dad's thing was a little bit tight, you know, and my mom would turn the air conditioner on on Sunday, you know, or during the week when it got real hot, you know, she'd turn it down to about, you know, just below 90, I think. So I'd sneak out of the house and it's an old farmhouse and I'd climb up on top of the roof of the house and I'd lay there at night and I'd just look at those stars and And boy, just a great thing to look at. And I can remember looking up there and talking, just having a conversation with the Lord, a young man saying, Lord, I don't know how to do anything. I don't know how to preach. I don't know what you want me to do. I don't know how to get from here to there. I don't know how that works. And somehow now I can look back 40 years later and here I am standing in Crossville, Missouri. Crossville, Tennessee. Now, pastor of the church in Joplin, Missouri. I didn't even know where Joplin, Missouri was when I said that. The Lord has taken me from Texas, to Florida, to Oregon, to Tennessee, out to Missouri, and you say, how did all that work? How did the Lord work all that out? I don't even know how I got sometimes from point A to point B. But the Lord does, the Lord does. Listen, for me, the ministry isn't having a five year plan, or a 10 year plan, or my 20 year plan for this church. The ministry for me is having the favor of the Lord. and whatever you do. You know what I want? I want the Lord's favor. With all the troubles and the problems and the issues that arise and everything that gets you distracted from everything that's going on, don't forget to see the dew and realize what that dew is. That dew is refreshing. It's refreshing. In the latter days, or we call it the latter times, perilous times are gonna come, And you and I, we're gonna need some refreshing. The Bible likens you and I to two things. We read one of them in 1 Peter 1. We are as the grass in 1 Peter 1. Psalms 1, you're as a tree. It said you should be as a tree planted by the rivers of water. We know that rivers of water is the word of God. You should be as a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth its fruit and its seed. You and I know about trees and grass. They need refreshing. You know what happens if you don't water trees and grass? In Texas, usually by about the middle of April, grass is dead. You didn't have to mow it anymore. And about the middle of July, you can actually watch at times if the wind picked up, some of it would just pick up with it and take off. It needed, you had to water this stuff all the time. And, you know, then they'll do water rations and you can't water and, you know, if you get caught watering. So you see people out there at night with a garden hose. Hey listen, when you have a green grass out there, they're going to know the guy that's watering that stuff. It doesn't just happen. Now you and I know about you and I. You and I, we need some refreshing as well. And that dew is refreshing, especially in arid regions. You need that dew to come in and refresh. And you and I do. These, why? Well, they can dry up. Look at Deuteronomy chapter number 32. Deuteronomy chapter number 32, that dew, Deuteronomy chapter 32, look at verse number, Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse number two, my doctrine shall drop as rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. You need that due to fall. Elijah talked about the first Kings there in chapter 17. He said, there shall be no dew nor rain these years. Three and a half years, no dew nor rain. The Lord made a point of saying that. I'll show you an interrupt. To me, it was an interesting one. Look at Exodus chapter number 16. Exodus chapter number 16. And Exodus chapter number 16, there's a thing happens here that Israel didn't understand. It was the Lord providing for them in the wilderness. And it says in verse number 14, and when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness, there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is mine. it's manna. Now, hold your hand there, go to Numbers, chapter number 11. You know that manna. They were to go out every morning and gather that manna and gather what they needed, right? But there's something else that came with that manna. Numbers, chapter 11, it says again in verse number nine, and when the dew fell upon the camp and the site, and the manna fell upon it, So here's what the Lord did. The Lord comes by, and He takes the dew, and He lays an apron of dew, and then He puts the brim on top of it. You know what many a person does to a dinner table? They come to a dinner table. I used to, in my life, I asked her the same thing. I said, what's the point of putting a tablecloth on the table? Is the table dirty or something? And she says, no, then you take the tablecloth off and you wash it. I said, well, how come you can't just wipe the table with it? Right? And she says, you don't understand these things. Just eat the meal and hush. Say thank you for the meal and quit complaining. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. And so he sat down and began to eat. And I sat there one day and I realized when I'm studying this, the Lord comes and He lays a tablecloth for the children of Israel. That's the dew. And then He lays the man right on top of the evening. And they came up. You know what most of us are interested in? Who's interested in the man? But the dew shows the Lord's faith. The Lord comes by every morning and they walk out there and the Lord lays that dew on the ground. He says, this is me taking care of you. And they reach over and they begin to pick up that manna and take that manna and they have the bread, they have the bread. There came a point that Israel, the Bible said, loathed that light bread. Well, I keep saying this stuff. I'm sure most of us, we don't complain about God's faith. Right? Israel's stepping out there, and their feet are wet from the dew that God laid on the ground, and they're complaining about the very food that He put on their feet. Ah, we're eating this again? I eat a lot of chicken. Most of us do. You go down, you try to buy beef lately, you understand the price of stuff. And you say, man, I'm getting tired of eating chicken. I'm going to go get some beef. And then you look at that, and you say, well, maybe not. I better earn to enjoy this chicken. And there have been many a time I've sat down, and Nancy says, what do you want to eat? And I say, anything but chicken. Right? Well, what do we have? Chicken. You better learn to like it. You know what the Lord does? The Lord comes by and He lays that table out and He prepares them a table in the wilderness. And listen, it is to refresh His people. Do it with something that not only is it refreshing, it's predictable. It's predictable. Now, I know the Lord's not a candy machine. You're not going to go up and say, I want this, this, this, this, and this. And the Lord says, oh, I just love you. I'll give you anything you want. No, the Lord's a good father. And he's not going to do that. He's not going to do that to you because he doesn't want you spoiled. But I know, listen, most of us, we know if the weather's just right, the humidity's just right, the weather's just right, that largely, for the most part, you can predict there's going to be dew on the ground. Right? The time of year, the weather, right? Listen, the same thing comes when it comes to the favor of the Lord. I know, if I wait patiently, He'll renew. Right? That's scripture, according to Isaiah chapter 40. I don't think the Lord comes by and gives you a Samson type strength, but He renews you. The Bible says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. A gift to all men, liberally, not breaketh not. The Lord says, you need some wisdom? Ask me for it. Listen, he has the table spread, he has the table ready. I want the Lord's favor in my life. I want the Lord's favor on the church that I pastor. I want the Lord's favor on the missionaries that we try to support. If a farmer goes out and he looks at a field and he says, well, he says, I want to reap a harvest from this field. He has to start preparing months in advance. And he has to go out and he has to sow. You know what he knows? He can, listen, not always get the exact time, but he knows if I till the ground and I sow at the right time, and if the Lord is favorable down the road, I'm going to be able to reap a harvest. Listen, if you haven't put forth any effort, and you say, I don't know how come the Lord's not showing me any favor? Listen, the favor of the Lord, it's largely predictable. It's largely predictable. And just a couple of other quick things, and we're done. I know this about dew as well. Dew, it condenses on cooler surfaces. Do a little research on it. You know, sometimes you wonder how come there's dew all over the windows of the car because it condenses on cooler surfaces. Sometimes we like to get stirred up about a lot of things we shouldn't get stirred up about, right? All of a sudden, you know, if I got up here and if every message I got came from CNN, I'd make the world hurt. Listen, there's all kind of things the world gets stirred up about that shouldn't affect you and I that way. Man, do you believe what's going on? Yeah, that surprised me a bit. Here's what y'all be worried about though, right? Man, how come that's not bothering you? You wanna know about the favor of the Lord? It do, it condenses on cooler surface. You and I, we're not supposed to respond to the world the way, we're not supposed to respond to the things of the world the way the world responds. Listen, that's not where our hope is. That's not where our, listen, that's not where, that's not where we look for a resolution and we look for answers. We look for answers and that book writes everything. Right? There's some things we know that we're not to respond to the same way the world does. I also know this about dew. Things have to be real still for the dew to fall. That wind gets all stirred up, the dew's probably not gonna fall. The favor of the Lord, it's like the dew. That's why the Lord says, be still and know that I am God. There's something to being still. There's something to being calm. There's something to being stable. There's something to being consistent. There's something to being just faithfully doing what the Lord would have you to do. Dew, it's seasonable. It doesn't happen all the time. Boy, it'd be nice, it'd be nice to have the blessings of the Lord just constantly. Now listen, I know, I know that His promises, we don't have to worry about one bit. His promises never fail, but when it comes to the favor of the Lord, the favor of the Lord, sometimes it's seasonal. We talk about, for instance, the Lord blessing this church. You may not necessarily have new people come in every day. Listen, every Sunday, you might not have new people come in, but sometimes, if you look back over the years, you can see seasons. You can see at times, when the Lord blessed here, we had, my folks were at a church down in Texas, and they had a young man, 16 years old, got baptized, and he said, he said, I have a bunch of people that I like to, he was getting baptized, gotten saved, and he was getting baptized, and he said, there's a bunch of family members and people I'd like to invite to church to see me get baptized. Preacher said, well, amen. He brought 46 people to church with him. 46 people came to watch that young man get baptized. That doesn't happen all the time. Matter of fact, that's a rare thing. Listen, when it comes to the favor of the Lord, the favor of the Lord, it's seasonal. It's seasonable. Sometimes the conditions have to be just right for the dew to form. Lord, we want you to bless. And the Lord says, it's coming, just not the right time right now, right? Or maybe it is the right time. Sometimes, I'll say this lastly, that dew, it falls in inconsiderable volume. What the Lord, in Micah chapter 5, the Lord likened that Jew, when He put that Jew among the people, as the dew among the people. He likened that Jew to the dew. The dew, it's a type of the favor of God that awaits you. The Bible says, I have not seen, nor hear heard, neither hath it entered the heart of men the thing which God hath prepared for them that love. So you know what we know? The Lord comes by and He just puts a little dew about it. And he said, that there, that's just a taste of what awaits you. That's just a taste of what's coming. Boy, there's times you and I can look back on and we say, boy, I sure, we sure enjoyed the favor of the Lord here, the Lord sure blessed here. It's not, listen, it might not be an everyday thing. There's things we look back on when it comes to His promises and the things the Lord's done, and we say, boy, that was the Lord being merciful. But sometimes the Lord doesn't just dump handfuls of it all on one time. You know what the Lord does? The Lord takes and He lays out a table. And He says, this is my faith. This is my favor. That dew that you walk out, you didn't hear anything. You just walk out and you've seen it. And that dew is laying out there on the yard and the Lord says, that's just showing you my favor. The favor of the Lord is like the dew upon the grass. You know what I want? I want the Lord's favor. And so should we. Amen, amen. All right, you are dismissed and we'll meet again at 11 o'clock.