Thank you, brother. Thank you, ladies. This is my father's world. Couldn't help but think of that when we were in Psalm 65. I don't know if you noticed when we were going through, David kept referring to everything that he'd seen in creation. From the raindrops, to the showers, to the mountains, to the hills, to the sunrises and the sunsets, he just kept seeing the glory and the beauty of the Lord in it all. Everything. Just God's presence, God's touch, God's hand, God's work. Look at that, Psalm 65. Look in Psalm 65. Watch what he says here. I know you all just read it. Psalm 65. He says, His Father's world. He starts off with basically making reference to praise and how praise was awaiting God in Zion. He wanted God to come and inhabit it and that He would make His vow He says in verse 4, blessed is the man that God draws to the nest, to him, and causes him to approach him. That's a blessed man. That goes along with Psalm 32. Blessed is the man that God does not impute his sin. Blessed is the man that God causes to approach him. He goes on by awesome deeds, verse 5, in righteousness you answer us, O God of our salvation, who are the confidence of what? All the ends of the earth. Psalm 65 5 verse 6, who established the mountains by his strength, being clothed with power, you who still the noise of the seas and the noise of the waves and the torment of the peoples. They also who dwell in the farthest parts of or afraid of your signs, you make the outgoings of the morning and the evenings rejoice. That's the sunrise and the sunset. And God gives signs in the heavens and makes everybody afraid. Everybody jumped and was brought to attention when these storms coming through, didn't they? Gets everybody's attention. Verse nine, you visit the earth and you water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide their grain for so you have prepared it. You water its ridges. Abundantly you settle its furrows and you make it soft with showers, you bless its growth. You crown the year with your goodness and your paths drip with abundance. They drop on the pastures of the wilderness and on the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks and the valleys are covered with grain. They shout for joy, they also sing. He's basically saying my father's world. I see it in everything, everywhere I turn and look, I see God's hand in touch, amen? Now some would refer to that they are more in tune with nature. And they get more in tune with nature when they are with God when they're out in nature. And I want to tell you, we don't fit in this old world. Remember Jesus said, foxes have their hoes and birds have their nests, but the Son of Man doesn't have a place in this old world. It's not that David was in tune with creation, with nature, he was in tune with nature's maker. And there's a difference. in there a few minutes and I might have, I don't have it yet, but something, all of a sudden I caught something of the old tree, one big old tree I caught something. Yeah. Come out and I looked and it was bald eagle. Look at that. He just kind of slowly took off and I was just thinking how beautiful that was. yeah yeah amen amen amen you know there's nothing there's nothing wrong with getting away and there's nothing wrong with loving and enjoying being out in God's creation and nature but I want to tell you there's no possible way to be closer than the Lord than when you're loving on him and loving on people in his name, for his glory and for his namesake. And so no matter what anybody ever tells you, I just feel closer to God when I'm out in the woods, that's a lie. They may feel it, but you don't go by what you feel. We live by faith, and if you wanna live by faith, God says if you trust me and love me and love on people, you'll never be any closer to me when you're doing what I've asked you to do, then you would be out in nature. You know, that's just another way somebody says, I'd rather be out there than with people. Is that all that boils down to? Why? Because people are messy, right? People are problematic and people cause trouble and we cause other people trouble and so we feel like the best thing to do is just get away from people and that's when I can get close to the Lord. But that's not how God works. The only time Jesus was getting away And he isolated himself, it was the meet with the father, so the father would give him a word, so that he would have a word for the weary. And any other time he was driven out in the wilderness, it was driven out in the wilderness by the spirit to be tested by the enemy. So you think about that as him being our example. So as I was reading through that, that's what stuck out to me about David. He's in tune with the Lord and he sees his touch in his hand and everything, but I haven't, in the kingdom, I don't fit in this old world anymore. Not that not fitting in it doesn't mean I'm gonna be a harm to it. No, I'm gonna be a blessing to it now because of what God has made me fit for, amen? Look back in Psalm 37, Psalm 37. So we've been looking at this. What did we talk about this morning? We simply said of how important it is, what? Not to get caught up and put our focus. Whatever we got our focus on is what's gonna get our attention. And what gets our attention is gonna shape our attitudes. It's gonna shape our affections. If we're looking to a fallen flesh, if we're looking to an evil work, if we look into the workers of iniquity, and even though we have trouble with them, fretting over them, we upset with them, angry with them, that's only going to cause harm for us and everybody around us. The best thing we can do is what? Trust in the Lord, He says it in verse number 3, trust in the Lord. Verse number 5, delight ourselves in the Lord. Verse number 6, commit our way to the Lord. Verse number 7, He's going to bring it to pass, whatever we commit and trust to Him. That's verse 6. Verse number 7, we're going to rest in the Lord. And when we do those things, verse number 8, what do we do? We cease from It's just a great, a great pattern here. Don't get caught up in a society that you live in for that's coming to nothing. What do we do instead? We trust. We delight. We commit. We let God bring it to pass, we rest, and we cease from taking matters in our own hands. And oh, the things God does when we do that. What do we say that word delight means? It means what? Anag, that's the Hebrew word. Anag, anag, A-N-A-G, anag. To be anag, it means to be effeminate, to act like a woman. to act like a woman. We illustrated it with what Adam and Eve and the curse and the difference between what a woman longs for and what a man needs for respect and when that happens. And I think that happens in a lot of relationships. We were talking about it when we was riding, Davin and Sandy and I and Karen, of what happens in a lot of relationships that go south, that go the wrong way. wants to be respected. That's what the New Testament teaches. What does it say? Wives, submit to your husbands, honor them, submit to them. Husbands, what do you do to the wife? Love your wife like Christ what? Love the church. A man feels like he's loving his wife the best he can when he's providing and protecting them. But the wife, part of the curse of the fall, the wife wants his what? All of Him. Wants Him. Wants Him. Wants His attention. Wants His time. Wants His focus. Wants all that. Well, it's in His DNA as a result of the curse of the fall to protect and provide. So He feels like, well, I'm doing that. And when she doesn't respect Him in that, that creates tension. She's not feeling loved by Him. That creates what? Tension and now you got a struggle a battle in communication going on a wife who feels like she needs to be better treated better love more attention a husband who feels like he's not being honored and respected and and honored by his wife and And now you got a problem, they're not communicating. When they do, it's aggravation that they're communicating. And all of a sudden, over a period of time, they either got to get it right, or then they live separate lives, even though they may still live together, or they separate from one another and get a divorce. That's just the way our society works. In this passage we see that word to be like a woman, to be a nag, and that is to continue after the Lord, to be tender and soft and pursue Him, to be persistent with Him, to keep going at Him, to want His attention, to want Him. That's what it means to delight in Him, to give your focus to Him, to give all that you are to Him because you want all that He has for you. You own all of Him and you keep pursuing Him. And what does God do? He gives you the desires of your heart. That word desire is translated at other times, the petitions of your heart, the longings, the requests. Look in Psalm 20. We just read it. Psalm 20. Look in verse number 5 and 6. Let's see. This same word for desire is used here. Psalm 20. Look in verse number 4. Let's start there. David says, May He grant you according to what? This is Psalm 20 and verse number four, may he, the Lord, grant you according to your hearts, what? Desire and fulfill all your purpose. So we're talking about the will of God here. Our will being aligned with His will. Our will submitting to His will. This is what God's going to be working out in our life. May He grant you according to your heart's desire. Because God's not going to grant us our heart's desire if our heart's desire is not for Him and His will. Everybody said? That's just... That goes without saying. Verse 5, we will rejoice in your salvation and in the name of our God we will set up our banners. That is, He's gonna be our King and what we are gonna rally around. And may the Lord fulfill all your what? Your petitions. That word petitions is the same word desires in chapter 37. So when the Lord gives you all your desires, that is saying your petitions. Your petitions are going to be manifestations of your purpose. And that's what verses 4 through verse 6 and 20 is saying, that God is not one who wants to keep His will from us, but God finds it a delight to hide things. Scripture says it's the glory of a king to seek out a matter, but it's the glory of God to conceal a matter. To conceal a thing. Why is that? Because there's more advantage for us when we're pursuing a thing that is a challenge to find and to glean and to get when we find it. What do we normally do when we find something that we've been looking for for a while or we've been trying to get and we've been looking and looking and looking. When you eventually find it, what is it to you? It's what? You're excited about it. It's a treasure to you. It's precious to you. You knew you was gonna get to it. You knew you was gonna find it. So you sought it and you sought it and you sought it. You pursued it with everything. And when you find it, you cling to it. You hold on to it. And that is a way that God works. Matter of fact, go to Proverbs chapter two. Let me show you. Proverbs chapter two. Proverbs chapter 2. How many of you want to know the will of God for your life? Well, just fall more in love with Jesus every day. Keep seeking Him and I want to tell you what He puts in your heart for you to love and do, you'll be able to say, I know I'm doing exactly what God's given me to do. Because this is what He does. Now, it don't work for us if we're not pursuing Him though. Don't work that away. You've got to seek Him. You've got to pursue Him. You've got to nag Him. You've got to keep going after Him. Verse 1 of Proverbs 2 says, My son, if you receive My words and treasure My commands within you, To the point that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding, yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding. Notice verse number four, if you seek her as what? What is silver? Something precious, a treasure. If you seek her as silver and search for her as hidden treasures, then and only then will you understand the fear of the Lord and find what? The knowledge of God. We are not gonna find the knowledge of God and understand of the fear of God if we just passively seek Him. We have to actively, diligently, persistently, passionately pursue Him. God does not give His wisdom and understanding and the knowledge of His will away for free. He ain't gonna do it. If East Mississippi Community College gave away diplomas for free without people having to do what they're supposed to be doing, what would be the use of their certificate or their diploma? UWA, if they just handed them out because you signed up on a sheet and you paid your money, what does that say for a college that if you pay your money, we'll give you a doctorate degree? What is that? That's a what? That's a fraud, that's a facade, that's a fake. Simply a business that it has no legitimately whatsoever. You have to, one, abide by their rules. Two, you have to show up for class. Three, you have to give yourself over to what they're teaching you to understand that. They test you. You gotta go through the whole process before they hand you a diploma and say you've received your bachelor's or your associate's or your master's or your doctorate degree. And we wouldn't expect anything less, right? Anything less need they need to go to jail for are you with me? You know, there are people out there that get degrees They got their name on it that people paid for but ain't got no education They got people who are sitting in law offices and sitting in doctor's offices and dentists who paid for their degree But don't have a lick of sense about what they do and nor practical experience. Somebody just gave them that That's a fraud. They ought to be put in jail for that, right? Because you're telling me that you've done everything you needed to do to receive this, but you didn't do that. All you had was a certificate that doesn't hold no weight whatsoever. A piece of paper. Are you with me? They shouldn't give out diplomas for free. God doesn't give away His knowledge. He doesn't give away His wisdom. He doesn't give away the will of God for free. One, Jesus paid for it. And He paid a high price for it. and He deserves all that we have, amen. And that's where we go back to that same principle. And you go through that and it tells you there's a process that God does when we pursue Him. Not only does He reveal the fear of the Lord to us, not only does He give us wisdom and understanding, but then He said, I'll give you discernment, I'll give you discretion, I'll keep you and preserve you, but you're not gonna get it just because you asked for it. You're not gonna get it just because you cried for it. You're gonna get it When you're asking, and you're crying out, and you're turning your ear toward, you're inclining your heart toward, and you are seeking it as a treasure. It's only then will I begin to deposit little by little to you. Little by little. God doesn't pour it all out at one time. He didn't pour it all out at one time. Little by little, He grows us, amen? Little by little, little by little. It's a lifelong pursuit to get a hold of what God has concealed and what a world around us cannot fathom nor participate in without seeking Him passionately. And David is saying, look, if you wanna live in this life under the joy and the providence and the gifts of God. You start with believing Him. You start with advancing His mission. And how are you going to continue to fulfill that? You're going to be a nag. You've got to nag at Him. You've got to keep coming at Him. You've got to want all that He's got for you. And when that begins to happen, what God does, He begins to do something inside of us. And what He does inside of us is start asking Him to do what He wants us to do. We start praying for what He wants us to do. We start delighting in what He delights in. We start enjoying what He enjoys. And then God begins to work in our heart and manifest to us the will of God. How many of y'all would like to do what I do on an everyday basis or a week? When I say like, stand before people and go from place to place and stand before a crowd and preach. Anybody? Brother Shannon said he would. How about Boo? Bob Ross said, if she had what I had, she'd do it. Karen, standing in front of a group of people is one of the last things in the world you'd want to do, huh? You've done it and would do it, but it's not something you want to do. That there you go. See I I enjoyed us what I've been set apart to do. I hadn't always been that away It wasn't till God started doing something with me and he put that in me when I was seeking him But there's some things y'all do that. I wouldn't want to touch Wouldn't want no part of are you with me? You follow with me. Why? Because the will of God for my life is to be doing what I get to do and I love to do what I love to do. You love some things you do because that's what God's put in your heart to do. It'd be like somebody who likes to tinker around with stuff like Brandon. Brandon, you like tearing stuff up and putting stuff back together? Not tearing it up, I mean taking it apart. Are you with me? For somebody that didn't know how to put it back together, we'd call it tearing it up, right? But tearing it apart just to put it back together, to see how it worked on the inside and how it all comes together. You like doing that? I don't like doing that. If it's working, I don't want to touch it. Let it work, right? I don't necessarily need to know how it works on the inside. Now, I want to know how you work I don't mind getting messy with you and figuring out what's going on with you and how I could be a help to you and help put some things together that may not be right. You know, changing all that kind of stuff and greasing and that kind of stuff. I don't mind getting that kind of dirty because this is what God's called me to do. But I don't like fooling with all that other stuff. I've had to do it before and I've done it. I had to make a living at it one time but I didn't like it. But I could do it. I learned how to do it. But it was drudgery to do it. It was like, man, do I have to go back again? Do I have to do this again? Do I have to do it again? It wasn't in my heart to do it. It was in my heart to provide for Stephanie and to provide for those girls. So I did what I had to do to provide for them, even though I was doing stuff that I didn't enjoy to get to do. But then God began to do a work in me and change me, and then He began to change my perspective on that when He's got a calling on me, sometimes I may have to do some things that I don't necessarily like or enjoy doing, but what that thing gave me an opportunity to do with what He called me to do, supersedes what I don't like to do, are you with me? Because God's put something in me, the petitions and the desires of my heart, is to do what He's called me, the will of God for my life. And I like doing what I do. I like teaching the Word of God. I like communicating what He's been communicating to me and sharing that with you and whoever else God puts in my path to share it with. I love doing that. I like doing that. I don't mind watching things happen around me and try to piece that together and then put that out so that it can help somebody else see something that they didn't see before. I like doing that. Where somebody else would look at that and think, oh Lord, that'd be tedious. That'd be like pulling teeth. I don't want anything to do with it. Why? Because look, if you have a gift and enjoy breaking down a transmission and working through the gears and putting all that back together, hey, do it. That's what you like to do. That's what you love to do. God's gonna use that in your life to manifest His glory through your life. Amen? Now, the key is what? Nagging at Him. Seeking Him. Soft and tender before Him. Wanting all that He has. And when that's happening, whatever's in my heart to do, I can go do it. And I can go do it with confidence. Why? Because you know who put that in my heart? Oh, the King put it in my heart to do, and that's what He's doing with me. Amen? That's how we can see God, because nothing is just spelled out in the Word. This is God's will specifically individually for you in your life to do with your life. You're not going to find that. But God tells you how to get to that place, and then He'll bring it out before you and put it in your heart where the things that you love to do and are able to do. So sometimes God has us doing things that we may not necessarily enjoy or like doing, but that thing provides me an opportunity to do something that I really love to do. And that's what I wanna, I wanna be able to recognize that and walk in. Why? Because I'm seeking God. And God doesn't mess around when I'm seeking him, amen? And when I'm seeking Him, I don't mess around with Him, nor with His people, or with what He's given me to do. My responsibility levels peaks. My accountability steps up. Why? Because I want all of Him, and then I start seeing Him in everything that I'm doing. And He's making His life and His ways and His will clear to me that this is what He set me apart to do. And I can do that with joy. And remember, the joy of the Lord is what? It's our strength. And the joy of the Lord is the will of God. That's the cross that we're to bear. The race that we're to run, and we're to run that race with endurance. We're to run it. If I'm in something that I don't need to be doing, involved in, and I'm frustrated with it, but I'm giving all that I've got to the Lord, there's a disconnect somewhere. And that's where I just got to get back with him and ask him, where's this frustration coming from? Why have I don't have peace in this? And it's going to go back to there's something pulling my focus and my attention off of the Lord. Go back to Psalm 37 and let's walk through it a little bit more. I have found that some of the richest people that I've known over the years are those who give and serve others with expecting nothing in return. They're the kind of people who are rich with the traits that money and material things just came by. Can't touch, like kindness, encouragement, contentment, compassion, and hope. Look what verse number nine says. For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth. Psalm 37 and verse number nine. They that wait upon the Lord shall inherit the earth. What does Isaiah 40 and verse 31 say about those that wait upon the Lord? They shall what? They shall renew their strength. They shall what? Run and walk and soar on eagles' wings. They'll run and not be weary. They'll walk and not faint. And they shall what? Soar on eagles' wings, those that wait upon the Lord. The word wait means that. It's like the binding of these ropes. This rope right here, if you notice, they've all been bound together. There's a bunch of individual strands woven and twisted together to give this rope its strength. And the word wait, we got that word used twice in those first nine verses. And one verse means to be in tune with, led by, waiting patiently on the Lord, letting Him lead. I'm dancing with Him and He's in the lead. But this word means to be twisted with Him, like Isaiah 40 and verse 31 says, that I'm bound together with Him. I'm twisted into one with Him. And those that wait upon the Lord shall inherit the earth. The meek shall inherit the earth. And these passages give us a couple different looks of it. Look, if you would, in verse number nine again. Watch this. But they that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Now look over in verse number 11. But the meek shall what? So we know that those that wait upon the Lord are the same group of people that are meek. That are meek. Look in verse number 22. For those blessed by Him shall what? Okay, so the meek and those that wait on God are those who are what? Blessed by Him. Look in verse number 29. The righteous shall what? inherit the land. So we're talking about those that are blessed by God are those that are righteous. Those that are righteous are those that are meek. And those that are meek are those that are twisted and bound unto the Lord. And the evildoers and the workers of iniquity are all going to be cut off, but those that are righteous, those that are bound to the Lord, those that are meek and wait upon the Lord, those that are blessed by the Lord are going to inherit all His promises, going to inherit the earth, going to inherit the land. They're going to reign with the King. What does it mean to be meek? Let's think about that for a moment, to be meek. Some people have referred to being strength under control. They would relate it to like a racehorse. A racehorse is strong, but that racehorse with that jockey on it uses that strength under control and regulates it as it needs it, when it needs it, and that horse is under the control of, say, a master who is stronger than its master, who is faster than its master, but it cements to its master, and when the master asks for more, the horse gives it. When the master says back down, the horse backs down. That's that idea of strength under control. and from that thing of meekness. A meek person is a flexible, bendable, teachable type person. I had jotted this down in my word. I put it down on paper. A humble and meek people do not think less of themselves or their role in the kingdom. They just think less about themselves and how the kingdom can bless them and their wants and needs. That's the big difference between being humble and meek. Not thinking less of yourself, but less about yourself. And when you think less about yourself, you're gonna think more about how I can use what God's given me, that strength in me, to be what? A servant. That's where we go back up here, if you would, in verse number 7 where it says, Rest in the Lord, that is to be quiet, to be still. God's working it out. Wait patiently for Him. That idea of being in step with Him, being in tune with Him, being bound with Him, it's not waiting, not waiting in the sense past for the Lord, it's waiting on the Lord. How many of you ever had a waitress that didn't serve you very well? That ever happen? When they don't wait on you well, they're not in tune with you. They're not picking up on the things that you want and what you're asking for. They're kind of in another world doing their own thing, taking their time. They're more concerned about their next break, or they're more concerned about their boyfriend or girlfriend who's texting them, or they're more concerned about another group of people over there that seem to be going to be a lot better, bigger tippers than you. They got more going on at that table than they got going on at your table, and you pick up on that, and they don't wait on you well. That ever happened to you? Well, you recognize that, right? You see, that's the idea of this waiting patiently on the Lord that I'm in tune with. If I'm waiting on Brother Shannon in a restaurant, And Brother Shannon, it's taken a little while to figure out what he wants. Some of us do that, right? Take a little while to figure out what we want. You do that, Miss Pat? You go through the whole menu, and the bigger the menu, the worse it is? You know, when they have all kind of stuff on there, you finally, after an hour and a half, give up and just tell Brother Shannon to order for you, right? That can happen with us, I understand. Well, a good waitress, that is going to wait on you is somebody that will not rush you, not push you, somebody that's going to serve you and give you some, ask you some questions, what kind of things you like, what they can recommend. They're going to know their menu. They're going to pick up on what they can do to help serve you. And boy, you just, when somebody's waiting on you like that, you want to bless them, don't you? Because they're not just waiting, sitting there waiting folded arms for you to make a decision. They're waiting on you. And they're working with you. Well that idea of working and waiting patiently with the Lord is saying that I'm serving God. I'm waiting on Him. Whatever He has for me, I'm in tune with Him. I'm in step with Him. He's leading me and I'm going to take His cues and His leads and I'm going to follow that. And that's what a good waiter or a good waitress do. They take your cues. What you are throwing out there And a good one's paying attention to those things. They know what they have to serve you. Now you go to a place that don't have much to serve you, they don't have much to offer you, you can tell in that waitress or waiter. There's no confidence in them either. They're just there to get a paycheck and they can really care less about you. But somebody that really knows they got a product, that can really be a blessing to you and they got a service to bless you with. Oh man, they into you. They listening to you. They want to help you. Well, we know God's got, we got, He's got everything that we need and then some more. Amen. He's got all and we are waiting on Him, not necessarily for Him. And a waiting on Him means that I am humble and meek to take whatever the cues that He's given me. I'm teachable. He can help me. These waitresses or waiters too that step it up to a place where they know everything. They know more about what you like than you like. They can just be on the other spectrum where they kind of rub you the wrong way, right? And I want to tell you, we don't know what we like more than God knows what we like. And we can rest in Him and know that, hey, I'm teachable. I'm teachable. You can help me out on some things on this and I'm gonna serve you whatever you want me to do in life. And when I'm doing that, that's that spirit of meekness that I'm making it less about me and making it more about you. Being a meek, teachable spirit. And God begins to do something in us. He begins to show us things. What is happening in all that? Look in verse number 21. Verse number 21, the wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous shows mercy, shows kindness, and gives. Now, that doesn't mean that he has a lot to give. Why? Look up in verse number 16. Verse 16 says, a little, a little, that a righteous man has is better than what? Than the riches of many wicked. You see, but a righteous man is not a taker, he's a giver. He may not have much to give, but what he's got, he's willing to use it for the glory of God. He's a giver. Remember a couple weeks back, I told you about that pastor that sent me a word that he preached on? That you got takers and you got givers. Takers are strayers. They're not meek. Why? They make life all about But a meek person is a righteous person, and a righteous person is a giver, and a righteous person is making less about themselves so that they can give and pour into other people. And they stick, they stay, because they give or they commit it. They don't have to have a lot, but it is better to have a little and be righteous than have a whole lot and be wicked. of the righteous man is better than the riches of many wicked. Verse number 22, For those blessed by him shall inherit the earth, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. Notice what verse 23 says. The steps of a good man, and we know men and of themselves are not good, so we're talking about somebody who is righteous. We're talking about somebody who is blessed. We're talking about somebody who is meek. We're talking about somebody who waits on the Lord. The steps of a good man, they are what? They are ordered by the Lord, and the Lord delights in his way. Though he fall, that is the good man, the righteous man, the meek man, the blessed man, though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. And all God's people said? Oh, aren't you glad you got a keeper? This reminds me of Jude. Go to Jude real quick. I just want to pull this out. Jude. Watch how Jude does this. Jude, just before Revelation, look in verse number 20, I believe it is. I love how he pulls this out for us. This is a lot what David is saying in Psalm 37. Remember what David said? Trust in the Lord, do good, advance His ways. Be a nag, keep at Him. He'll give you the desires of your heart, the petitions of your heart. Commit to the Lord. Roll it on Him. Trust in what He gives you. Let Him bring it to pass. Rest in the Lord. Be quiet. Do what He's asked you to do. Wait patiently on Him. Serve Him. And God will help you cease from being anxious and worry and fret. Jude is saying something very similar. Verse 20 says, But you, beloved brethren, what do you do? Number one, what do we do? Build ourselves up on our most holy faith, that is, we're growing in grace, growing in the Word of His grace, praying in the Holy Spirit, that is, our prayers, our petitions are led by God, generated by Him, the Holy Spirit is at work in our life. Verse 21, keep yourselves in the flow of God's love, that's what Jude was talking about, trust in the Lord, delight in Him, commit to Him, wait upon Him, rest in Him, keep yourself in the love of God, looking for the mercy, the kindness, the loving kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, that God's gonna bring life to you and you keep doing this for the rest of your life until He comes and gets you. This is how you live. So he's saying, build yourself up, pray in the Spirit, keep yourself in the love of God, and keep looking for the mercy of the Lord. Let grace be at work in your life. He says in verse number 22, then we know as we do that, what is the mission of the church? Reach people for Jesus. Teach people about Jesus. Equip people to serve Jesus and mobilize people to go. Now, while we're doing that work, building ourselves up, praying, keeping ourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of the Lord, on some have compassion, making the distinctions, but on others, save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Okay, the kingdom work sometimes gets ugly. And all God's people said, sometimes it gets nasty. and doing that work of reaching, teaching, equipping, and mobilizing people. So we do our work, Mama Rob, of building ourselves up, that is getting under the flow of the Word of God, keeping ourselves in the love of God, praying led by the Spirit so that we can war and be in that spiritual battle, doing all that we can stand, and grace is teaching us all the while to keep looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of Jesus, that mercy that is coming. It's teaching us how to live, how to love, and how to look in doing the work that He called us to do. That's what our responsibility is in the kingdom. Here it is. Now notice what Jude says in verse number 24. He says, at least let me remind y'all why you're doing this good work that God has ordered. Remember the steps of a good man are what? Ordered by who? And if he falls and stumbles, he is not what? Utterly cast down. What does God do? Reach down with a strong hand and he does what? Oh, Judah's helping us with this. He says, look, brother, this is what God's called you to do. You do it with all your heart. And if you mess up doing it, oh, don't worry about it. Just reach your hand up like Peter did when he was sinking in that water. That strong hand of Jesus can pick you up out of there. Even though you might fall and stumble. You might fall and stumble seven times. Don't worry about it. Why? Jude says, now to him who is what? Able to keep you. And all God's people said? He is able to keep you from? That would be in the idea of stumbling where you can't get back up. He's able to keep you from stumbling and he is able to present you faultless. before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. I jotted these notes down as I was reading. in Psalm 37 about the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. God ordains the steps of the righteous. Sometimes on those steps He's ordained, we fall. We don't get it right. And all God's people said, how many of y'all always get it right? You can't be afraid of not always getting it right. You just gotta go with Jesus. Gotta run with Him. You're not always gonna say the right thing, act the right way, do the right thing every single time. Every single time. I jotted this down. I love the message of Jude. He says, build yourself up, pray in the Holy Spirit, keep yourself in the love of God, looking for the mercy until Jesus comes to get us. and keep reaching people, keep teaching people, equipping people, and mobilizing them to go with Jesus. But above all else, rest assured, all the above won't keep you from stumbling, won't keep you faultless. The work and rest of grace in God's goodness and glory in Jesus just keeps Keeping on your keeping ain't gonna. Keep you just remember that your keeping ain't gonna. Keep you your keeper is Keeping you your keeping ain't gonna. Keep you your keeper is I ain't saying keeper, I'm saying keeper, amen. Your keeper is gonna keep you. So don't be afraid to make a mistake in the work you've been given. Just know Jesus rescued you from despair and He will joyfully keep you covered and delightfully present you as His own prize and trophy of His grace to His Father. You know, there's an old saying that I got a keeper, or I caught a keeper. Y'all remember that, Keith? You ever caught a bass dabbing where you said, I caught a keeper? Something you didn't throw back? I bagged a keeper? Well, in the kingdom it is, I got a keeper. It ain't that I caught him, he caught, bought, and taught me. Amen? He's keeping me. A keeper called me. He's got me. Your keeping ain't what's keeping you. Your keeper is the one who's keeping you. Amen? The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way. But when that good man doesn't always step in what God's ordained, your stepping ain't keeping you. Your keeper's gonna keep you, even if you what? even if you fall, He is gonna pick you up. Remember this morning we illustrated that pool, that war that's going on? Over here, Brandon represented the bad thoughts, the flesh, the world. Just because you have bad thoughts don't mean something's wrong with you. The flesh is bad. The flesh is corrupt and the flesh is always gonna bring up bad thoughts. The evidence of the spirit living within us is the fact that I've got God on this side leading and pulling me toward Him and there's a war going on in between. There's a war going on. The evidence of being filled with the spirit or lacking of spirit is not that I have bad thoughts. It's the fact that there's a war going on in me over those thoughts. And God is the one who keeps winning that battle in my life in the war. And me keeping what he's given me to keep ain't keeping me. My keeper's gonna keep me. And I can rest assured of that. That gives us liberty, amen? To know that, hey, I'm not keeping myself. Even though he's given me something to keep, My keeping ain't keeping me. My keeper is the one who's keeping me in His grip. And when I sink and I turn and I look back to the wrong things, do the wrong things, guess what? He's going to reach down and He's going to pull me out. Amen? And know that He's going to keep us because He's bought us. He's called us and He's going to keep teaching us for His glory. So this Psalm 37, I would encourage you to think about it, keep going over it in your mind, hide it away somewhere. Remember, he wrote it in acrostic from A to Z. He said, I've been old, been young, now I'm old, and God does not forsake His own people. You can trust Him. You can be taught by Him, be teachable. You can follow His lead, and God's gonna meet you every need. You'll stumble, you'll fall, but you're not utterly cast down. He is going to what? Pick you up and He's going to keep walking with you. You don't have to worry about the world. You don't have to worry about the wicked. The more you worry about them, the less of an effect you're going to have on them. You just follow after the Lord. He'll use you to be a blessing to them. He'll rescue some of them through your life. But if you keep your eye on them, you're not going to be any help to them. But if you get your eye on Jesus and you walk with Him, He'll use you. to go in and rescue those whose flesh are defiled by the fire. He'll keep you in His work. Father, we thank you tonight. We bless you. Ask you to help us with these things that we do. Just continue to seek you and pursue you passionately. We know that you don't give away these things for free. You paid the price for them. but we have to seek them and seek them with all our heart. We wanna know you, wanna know what you have for us, but we would rather know you than what you have for us because in knowing you will ensure that you lead us to what you have for us. We're gonna praise you and thank you and give you the glory. Thank you for loving on us, being so kind with us. Thank you for keeping us. Thank you for keeping us. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, anybody have anything before we go? Do I remember? You studied that? And what did that Proverbs chapter six you studied help you with? It helps with your attitude? You gonna keep studying it? All right, all right. You know what we do a lot of times when we ask people to help hold us accountable? We ask people around us if what I've been studying and learning, has it been helping me help them? So you could ask Janet and Greg that you live with and Brandon and Boo and everybody else and ask them. Are you with me? Ah, you thought that was funny, didn't you? Well, you told me you were studying it. Well, you gotta ask them if they can see the evidence of you studying Proverbs 6. You gotta ask them. And if they say yeah, look, celebrate God. If they say no, celebrate Jesus and just keep studying it, amen? Until it takes root. You want it to take root, right? Amen, all right.