Well, I believe God's gonna do what God said he'd do. He said he'd hear us, and I believe he's done that. Amen. Yes. Some months ago, I was at the church on Sunday morning, And just my son and I, nobody else had shown up yet. Seth was at the piano playing. And I walked out on the porch, left him in there where the piano was at and he was playing. I stepped out on the porch and I said, I looked up toward heaven and I said, Lord, are you coming today? And in a split second, Brother Darren, I got my answer. Seth began to play Jesus is coming soon. He was on the far side of the church. He didn't a bit more know what I'd done than anything. But God said, son, that's all you get. Amen. I'm coming soon. You know why that we've got such a burden today for these troubles and things that's going on? Don't worry about the bag, it'll be all right. Because Jesus is coming soon. He is coming soon. Fellas, I need all your men's help for just a minute if you'll come here, three of you. I want you to do something for me. I've wrestled with this over the last week. I want you to take these and give them out. Open them up and give them out. Everybody get one. While they're doing that, Turn with me, if you would, to the book of John. Boys, I give them to you, because I know you're just young. You can move faster than us old fellas. Amen. John, chapter number 13. I told Brother Darren, when he came in out there a while ago, I said, my stomach is in knots. I did not eat today because I knew I was coming over here to preach. I can't even eat when I'm gonna preach at my place, because I get nervous. You say, preacher, what do you get so nervous about? Because this is not my business, this is God's. And I'm not here preaching because that's what I wanna do, I'm here preaching because that's what I gotta do. Lord called me to do it and I ain't got no other choice, just to be honest with you. I've been looking forward to coming. I've been here now for the last three Sundays, including this one on Sunday night. We're not having services right now on Sunday evening. I pretty much made Bethel my second home. I think everybody pretty well knows that. But I didn't come to preach. I come to hear from God. The church, I want you to understand something tonight. Every church you go to is not Bethel. There's a whole lot of churches that's dry. Ichabod's been written over the door. The spirit of God has departed. And you need to do what you need to do to hang on to what God's doing here. You need to stay on your knees before God, begging God that he'd keep helping you. Thank you, brother. Keep blessing here. John chapter number 13. If you found your place, if you would please stand in reverence to the reading of the word of God. We'll pick up the reading in verse number 36. The Bible says, Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, whether I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus answered him, wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, till the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. Let not your heart be troubled. He believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again. I like that. I'll come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. Father, we thank you, Lord, for the reading of the Word of God. I pray, Lord, that you'll help us now for the next few moments. As God, we do and try to say, Lord, that that you have placed upon our heart. God, I thank you for this church. I thank you for this people. I pray, Lord, in Jesus' name, that your blessing would be added to the word of God. And Father, that you would help us tonight, God, to give them what you've given us. God, I pray we'd not say one word more. and not one word less. God, everything that's done this evening, God, may it be done in your order. God, may it be done your way. God, may we say and do that it will glorify you. Help us now, Lord, and we'll thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. Some years ago, there was a young lady. She had cancer. She was told that she only had a few months left. She called for her pastor and asked him or began to talk to him and she said, preacher, she said, I want you to come visit me, we've got some things to discuss. So the pastor went to see her and they began to talk and she began to tell him what she wanted in her service. She said, pastor, there's a certain scripture I want you to read. There's some songs that I really would like to have sung. And then you do whatever you feel like you need to do. And so they talked for a while and he prayed with her and he got up and got ready to leave. And as he started toward the door, she said, preacher, there's one more thing that I forgot to mention. He said, Okay, what is that? She said, when I die and I'm laying there in that casket, she said, I want you to put a fork in my right hand. He scratched his head. She said, preacher, you look puzzled. He said, I am. What's the fork for? She said, preacher, when I was a little girl, I would go to my grandmother's house. And she said at my grandmother's house, we'd go to the table as a family and everybody sat down together and had a meal. And she said, when the meal was over, my grandmother would look at us if she had a cake or a pie or something sweet. And she'd say, young'uns, keep your fork. The best is yet to come. Church, you hear me tonight, I want you to hang on to your fork. Because the best is still yet to come. You say, preacher, how did you get that out of that scripture? I knew you was gonna ask that. If you go back into chapter 13, you'll find there that that's when they had come together in the upper room, they'd had the last supper together, their supper together, they had a meal together. And they went out. And before they went, Peter said, now Lord, where are you going? The Lord said, whether I go, you can't go right now, you're gonna have to wait. Church, listen, we don't get to go right now, we gotta wait. But we are gonna get to go, amen? I mean, we ain't stuck here, we don't have to stay here forever, thank God, there's coming a day when we're leaving here and we're going there. I thought about the stuff. the bad stuff that sometimes we have to eat. Now, I believe with all my heart that when Peter told the Lord that he'd go with him and he'd never deny him, that he had some bad stuff. That left a bad taste in his mouth. When the Lord said, you're gonna deny me, that left a bad taste in the mouth of Peter. Have you ever had some stuff that you just didn't like to eat? Now, I'll eat about anything that's put in front of me. I mean, if you make it, I'll eat it, unless it's Brussels sprouts. Amen. I hate Brussels sprouts with a passion. I think they ought to everyone be thrown in the garbage. If you like them, that's between you and the Lord. God bless you, pray for me, amen. But there are some things that you probably don't like either. But you have to eat it every now and then on occasion. Amen. Peter didn't like what he was having to eat that night. But it was there. Every now and then we get a bad taste in our mouth from the world. We don't like what we gotta eat. My soul is there. He said, verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. What a bad taste. I mean, listen, there stood Peter, him other fellas standing around. He said, Lord, I'm with you. Wherever you're going, I'm going, I'm going with you all the way. The Lord said, no you're not. No you're not. A lot of people stop at verse 38 when they ought to go on in to chapter 14. We got a bad habit sometimes winding up taking scripture out of context because of that word chapter. We think it's cut off right there. But do you realize tonight that in chapter 14 on the first verse, he's talking to Peter? Amen. You're looking at me, Colin, funny. I know Brother Darren done preached this here at some point or another. I mean, listen, when you step out of chapter 13 and step into chapter 14, he's still talking to Peter. And he's saying, Peter, even though you don't like what you're getting, even though you don't like the taste that's in your mouth right now, just keep your fork, Peter. The best is yet to come. Keep your fork, Peter. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. He said, Peter, put your trust in me. Hey, I've got it myself, I'll get you there. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me and my father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you. Somebody asked me if I was gonna get a mansion. I said, don't know, don't really matter. Can't tell that I need one. How's that look again? I can't tell that I need one. I ain't planning on going to bed. Amen. It's one long eternal day. There is no moon, there ain't no night, there ain't no sleep gonna take place. I mean, listen, he's preparing me a place. I hope my place is right there around the throne of God. I don't want no place out yonder to go to. I want my place where he is. the stuff that we don't like to eat. How many times in your life have you had things come in and you just didn't like it? You just didn't like it. These things we have to suffer through. Things we gotta go through. Things that come our way that we had no idea. No idea they was coming. But they did. And it just left a bad taste. I hesitate to use this, Brother Darren, but I think I will. Five years ago yesterday, I got a phone call from my son on Sunday morning. He pastored in Irwin. Nine o'clock he called me. He said, Daddy, pray for me, I'm not feeling real well. He said, I'm not going to church this morning. We're having homecomings, so I'm just gonna let the quartet sing. I'm not gonna go. One of the deacons is gonna moderate the service. I said, son, you want me to come get you and take you to the doctor? He said, no. He said, I want you to go on to church. And here's the last words my son said to me. He said, daddy, just give him Jesus. Hung up the phone. 11 o'clock, my wife texted him after Sunday school. He said, Mama, I'm feeling better. Don't think I need to go to the doctor. We had church, man, what a service we had. One saved, one announced his call to preach, people shouting. Service was over, my wife and I went to eat. While we were sitting at the table, her phone rung. It was my other son. He went by to check on his brother. He didn't come to the door. Seth had a key. He opened up and walked in. Cody was dead. I didn't like the taste of that. I'm gonna be honest, it left a bitter taste. I didn't want that. I didn't want that on my plate. I had big plans, Brother Darren. I'll tell you what, it wasn't God's plans. You hear me, this stuff will come in your life that you don't want. but just keep your fork. Just hang on to your fork. What you're tasting today may not be real good, but what you got coming, what God's got waiting for us, it's a whole lot better than what we gonna get down here. There's the stuff that we don't like to eat. But there's that special stuff, that special things that you get that you like pretty good. My aunt lived right down below us. I'd get up of a morning, get ready for school, walk down the road, catch the bus at her house, go to school, come home, get off the bus, go in and stay at her house doing my, my mama was home. But I stayed at my aunt's house doing my homework, ate supper with them. When it started getting dark, I started up the road going home. Every day, every day. When I'd get home from church on Sunday, I'd walk down the road and go eat Sunday dinner with them. I mean, that was her and her husband, my second mom and dad. I spent all my time down there. And there was times, Brother Darren, I'd come in from school and she'd say, Dave, I got something special for you. and it was always good. What do you say, preacher? God's got special something for you. It'll just, that special stuff that he's got for you will just help tide you over till you get to the main course. I'm glad that down here He's got that special stuff that every now and then he just opens up the door and says, son, go ahead and reach in there and get you some of that. See if you don't like the taste of that. Tell me what you think of that. All the special stuff. Go to the house of God. tired and worn out, saying, Lord, I don't even know why I'm here. I'm gonna kill it for everybody else. Lord, why have I even showed up? God will send one of those saints by to put their arm around you and say, I sure do love you. I'm glad you're here today. I'm glad you're here tonight. I'm glad you was able to show up. That's some of that special stuff. I don't know how you feel, but I like special stuff. Somebody tells me they've got me a gift, I take that that that's gonna be something good and not something bad, amen? If you got something bad to give me, you just hang on to it. I got enough bad. I don't need no more bad, amen? But if you don't give me something good, praise God, I'm open to taking it. Special stuff. It don't happen every day. That special stuff don't come every day. Now listen, my aunt always had it, but she didn't always offer it. Let that sink in a minute. It was always there, but it wasn't always available. There was just times, there was just those times when she felt like I needed it. Oh, listen. Don't let this word scare you, but I serve a sovereign God that knows exactly what I need and knows exactly what I need to reach in that closet and give that special thing that he has for me for that day. It's special. It's kind of special when we come to the house of God and the power of God falls, presence of God's felt, amen? And the people of God obey him. There's the key to everything that God wants to do, is obedience. But what he has for us on those special occasions, It's to tide us over because the best is yet to come. Amen. Oh, Lord, don't let me forget this. It's always sweet. It didn't fail on Sunday. My aunt had some kind of cake, some kind of pie. And I never had a Sarah one. It was always sweet. Every time, every time that she looked at me, and said, David, hang on to your fork. I've got something for you. She'd bring it in there on the table, already sliced, on a little saucer, and set it down in front of me. And it was always sweet. Everything that God's got for you, you may not think it's sweet when you get it, but it'll be sweet before it's over. Keep your fork. The best is yet to come. You say, did all that take place? I can't say that all of it took place, but it sure is good preaching. Amen. It's taking place now. Amen. It's helping me now. Listen. There's some sweet things gonna happen when we leave here. The sights we'll see. The sounds we'll hear. Listen, don't you bust my bubble if you don't believe this. But I feel like one day when I step through them gates, and I'm gonna hear my son say, Dad, hang on. Daddy, come here. I got somewhere I wanna take you. Mm. Don't you reckon that'll be sweet when our loved ones take us by the arm and says, come on, I want you to see him. I want you to see him finally face to face. Oh, the sights we'll see, the sounds we'll hear. Rejoicing. the singing of the song that the angels cannot sing. But yet we get to join in. Oh, I'm redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And because of that, I get what's special, I get what's sweet. They won't be no more than Brussels sprouts, amen. Number four and I'm done. Keep your fork. The best is yet to come and it's coming soon. Not gonna be long down the road. I've driven down the road on several occasions, and you'll drive by where they're building a building, and everybody wonders what they're building. A lot of times they'll put a sign out in front that tells you what's coming, and they always say, coming soon. Coming soon. Let me say this about keeping your fork because the best is yet to come. When we had lunch, supper, it was even at breakfast time, praise God, she'd bring a big jar of apple butter out. Cat head biscuits. Homemade butter. And that ain't sour, praise God. But we'd always, she'd say, leave a little room. Hang on to your fork, because the best is yet to come. And it didn't matter which meal it was, she'd always bring something. And she didn't make me wait. You need to get a hold of that. I didn't have to continually wait and wait and wait. She didn't come out there and say, David, hold on to your fork. The best is yet to come. And then wait and send me to school without it. She brought it. Jesus told them in the book of Acts. He said, I'm going away. but I'm coming back. Them fellows standing there, they said, this same Jesus that you see taken away shall so come in like manner. I'm glad he's coming, ain't you? And I'm glad he's coming soon. Revelation chapter 22, verse number 12. I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. I wanna encourage you tonight, folks. Hang on to that fork, because the best is yet to come. It's coming shortly. That's what, listen, that's what that word quickly means. It means shortly, soon, and suddenly. I don't know if that helps you or not, but it does me. Just to know he's coming soon. Again, I want to reiterate that story about my boy. That Sunday morning, Lord help we had church that day. I stood there on that porch. I looked up and I said, Jesus, are you coming today? And off in the background, Seth began to play. Jesus is coming soon. Needless to say, Brother Darren, I got a little bit beside myself. Church folk come in. There I stood on the porch weeping like a little baby. Preacher, are you okay? Oh, I'm better than I've been in a while, amen. I got up and told them. what had happened, and they got a little bit excited with me. You say, why, preacher? Because the best is yet to come. Stand to your feet, if you would, please. Father, we thank you, Lord, for the liberty, God, that you've given us to preach this evening And God, it sure is a joy to know that the best is yet to come. Lord, this is not it. What we got here, Lord, I thank you for, but this is not the best. You've got more. I don't know these people's heart. God, I know they've prayed tonight. Lord, there may be somebody here. Lord, they may wanna come because they lost. God, they may wanna fork too. God, they may wanna know that the best is yet to come for them. God, would you help them to come? Father, they may be those here tonight God, they've been having to eat, Lord, the stuff that they don't like. God, I pray, Lord, they may find a place on the altar tonight. God, you could give them some of that sweet stuff. The Lord only comes from you. God, you have your way. We'll give you the glory. In Jesus' name, Brother Darren, I turn it back over to you.