Okay, before I share the word, I was up at Great Falls to the meeting up there and I saw the name of a cabin or a building that they're going to build or dedicate at Castle Rock and call it the Felix Runquist what? Chapel. All right. And I thought, oh, OK. So no trap door is here. All right. OK. Because first of all, I want to thank Pastor Wetus and you folks for being here. It's always an honor for me to be in our New Testament Association churches. And not very often I did it, but I was bouncing between two dates. Pastor Wittes was very gracious to help me settle in to tonight, and so I'm grateful for that. But there's a... As I've thought about it, there's a... I have a unique connection with First Baptist Church of Laurel. I am from Wisconsin. I don't care what you say about Minnesota. I don't care what you say about Iowa. I don't care what you say about Montana. But when you talk about Wisconsin, please bow. I'm just a Wisconsinite. I love my state, but you love Montana, and praise the Lord for that. So when I was in finishing high school, no, when I was finishing college and starting seminary, Dr. Felix Onecrest became the pastor of First Baptist Church of Miltow, and that's the church I grew up in. That's the church that led me to the Lord through the grace of God. I came out of a dysfunctional, a non-Christian home. My parents were not particularly on the same page when it came to being husband and wife, and most of that was the responsibility of my dad. But at the age of four, First Baptist Church of Middletown sent out a Sunday school bus. Now, that was no coach affair. That was probably a 1930-some model bus, and the air conditioning was as many windows as would go down. And the heat was, in the wintertime, you tried to set where the heater was under the seat, because that kind of kept your feet warm, at least. But God used that. And for 10 years, I wrote that Sunday school bus. I have a brother two years older. He wrote it. I have a twin brother who's in heaven. We wrote it. And through that and the faithfulness of Sunday school teachers, so I want to encourage you folks that teach Sunday school or have taught Sunday school. It was through that ministry that God led me to himself. I can't really say I had an interest in the Lord. Very few sinners have an interest in the Lord. But he used that ministry, and I'm so thankful as a teenager I was led to the Lord. So it was only Sunday school. They would bring us into Sunday school with the bus. We'd do the Sunday school thing, and then they'd take us back home again. And then there was a pastor that came, and maybe Brother Hoover might or might not be familiar with the name. It was Don Foffey. And he was a gentleman of preachers, and he influenced my mom and dad to start going to church. So then we didn't go to Sunday school anymore. We just went to the morning service. And it was just one hour a week for years and years. But through all of it, I was raised on a farm, and I had no interest in staying on the farm. It was just a lot of work. But I was interested in agriculture, so I went to our state university that was only about a little over an hour away. enrolled in agriculture education, because I kind of mired our ag teacher. And so I enrolled in ag education. But while I was there, I became involved in a ministry on the campus through a man by the name of Marvin Johnson. And this is a secular college. a student body of maybe just 3,000 students back then. But through the ministry of First Baptist Church of River Falls, those who came as believers would go into the dorms on Tuesday night and hold a Bible study. And I knew about them because they had brought a group up to First Baptist Church in Milltown to present their ministry. So I was aware of them, but I really did not make connection with them until the end of my sophomore year. And that's when God began to take a carnal Christian and began to make something better out of me. And so when I came back from my junior year to a Bible study, God used the word of God to show me that he wanted me in the ministry. And I said, Lord, this isn't me. I was timid. I was insecure. And I really seriously had, and you might detect it yet, I had a serious talking problem. I consider myself tone deaf. So trying to get letters and verb and vowels and consonants to come together in a right sound sometimes just doesn't work. But anyway, so I said, okay, Lord. So I finished up at River Falls and then went on to Central Seminary and got a divinity degree from there. Another connection is while I was in seminary, Dr. Arthur Allen, who became the executive secretary of the Minnesota Baptist Convention, I was one of my professors. Again, a very godly, gracious man and helped to influence my spiritual life. And so I'm grateful for the way the Lord has led and some of the connections. And then I believe we were out here. Well, according to my notes, I was out here, I think, in 2010, right after I became the national representative, must have come back in 2012, and I believe at that time I met Dr. Munson. Yes, and I vaguely remember meeting him, but I did. So anyway, it's a thrill for me, and we're going to talk about this in a moment, it's a thrill for me to meet those who went before me. and I'm grateful for them. So I want you to turn to a very, very familiar verse, and it's 1 Corinthians 15 58. We could probably say it together, but about the time we do that, we kind of miss a word or two. You know it well, but it reads, Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Now this is a verse that I think we all at one time or another have just kind of lifted it up and just used it. like we do John 3, 16, like we do a number of verses, because it does kind of stand alone, and I did that for many years, and then I begin to ask myself, well, what really is the context of this text? And as I begin to look into that, I thought, wow, we need to keep the context with the text, because it enhances what it's saying to us. And so let's look at it for just the context for just a quick moment. Of course, with a pastor, there's no such thing as a quick moment, but we'll try it anyway. We're only going to go back to the beginning of chapter 15, because we have that word there in verse 58, therefore. And you've heard it so many times. When there's a therefore, why is it there? And so we go all the way back to the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, but I am going to try and drive home tonight. So you are blessed to know that I am not just going to rattle on here because I do have the desire to depart and head back to the promised land, Wisconsin. All right, but back in verse 1, and again, you're familiar with all this, but it reads, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you received, and wherein you stand. By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I deliver unto you, first of all, that which I also receive, how that Christ died for our sins according to Scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day according to Scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas, and then of the Twelve, and it goes on to list others. One of the foundations for being steadfast, unmovable is the wonder of the Gospel itself. Now, I mentioned a little bit of my testimony. I don't know where I would be today if God had not become my savior. I know who I am, and I never got into the ways of the world per se, because the truth is, now Brother Wittes is a little younger, but Brother Hoover and myself, of our generation, when you got into trouble some other place, What did your parents say? You're in bigger trouble when you get home. Brother Winnis doesn't remember that, but I'll share it anyway. So anyway, yes, that was the truth. They didn't say, well, okay, you misbehaved. Just go stand in the corner for ten minutes. That is not what it was. And so, yeah, we were good kids. And being raised on a farm, we were hardworking kids. And so there was always something to do. And so, but I'm so glad that God intervened in my life and brought the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ into my life changed my life. And so, you know, I'm sure you're aware of it, but if somebody ever asks you what is the gospel, you take them to 1 Corinthians 15, and it's right there in verses 3 and 4. Very simple, very clear, and you can just expound on that. That is the death of Christ, and he was buried, and he rose again the third day. and he was seeing the witnesses and et cetera. So it changed my life. So 2 Corinthians 5.17 is very meaningful for me. Therefore, a man being Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. To my knowledge, I was probably really the first one to be saved in my family. And I had the privilege a few years later to lead my mother to the Lord. She had a terrible, terrible, terrible life. She was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused by her father. and worked hard all her life, and then she married, and her husband emotionally, as I said, emotionally and mentally was not kind to her. You know, when you grow up with that, it's life. You don't know it. And I didn't know a few things, but my younger brother, 10 years younger than I did, 10 years younger than I, was home, and he would begin to probe Mom about some different things that happened. And then my youngest daughter, we have three daughters, and my youngest daughter had a way with my mother, and she would get her to share some things. And so I learned more after I was out of the house and while I was living at home. But she got saved. She got wonderfully, graciously, gloriously saved and became a salt work at First Baptist Church in Milltown. And she was there all the time. Whenever the doors were open, she was there. So I'm grateful for not only a change of the gospel in my life, My older brother got saved while he was in the armed services in the Navy, particularly in his early 20s. My twin brother made a profession of faith, he said, when he was younger. He made another decision when he got to college. And then I have two younger brothers. I'm not just sure. They were raised under the same gospel I was, but never really bore much fruit of that. And so I changed life. And that, you see, becomes a foundation for being steadfast, unmovable. If you don't have that changed life, you really don't have anything to stand on. You don't have anything that you can really take a hold of. But with the gospel influence, we have that. Well, then we move on. In 1 Corinthians 15, we come to the glorious part of the resurrection. And so it says there, beginning at verse 12, with the resurrection. But I want us to go down to verse 15. And it says, "...yea, we have found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, if so be the dead rise not." Or if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, yet in your sins. That's verse 17, 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are all men most miserable. If you're miserable, you're not saved. And I want to just encourage us. This has kind of impacted my life, and I'm coming to the end of my years, and I can't hide it, so I'm coming to the end of my years. But honestly, from what I have meditated on and thought on over the last couple of years, if I could kind of go back and do it again, I would make more mention of the resurrection. It is so critical. It is so important to what we believe. It's kind of, in my mind, that peg that holds it all together, because that's what it says here. If we rise and raise not, we are miserable and we perish. And so I think there's a lot of Christians today who waver and are unstable. They are not steadfast because they have not taken hold of that wonderful truth. They will rise again someday. And that is our hope. And that is our assurance. And that is our stability in this life. Let things be as they are. I know what God has promised me. And I hold to that with tenacity. And so I think, why don't we preach more about the Resurrection? Well, simply because there's so much in this book. There is so much. Say, if you took all your time talking about one subject, and learn the rest of it. And so I just want to encourage you, if you have not locked yourself into that wonderful truth of the resurrection, that you would do so. And a verse that has been precious to me is Philippians 3.10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death, but that term and the power of his resurrection. I think when Jesus said, I have power to lay my life down and I have power to take it up, that was a declaration of deity that cannot be argued. When you stop to think about it, the man in the flesh who would have the audacity to say, I can die when I want to, and I can rise when I want to, can only be God. That's all it can be. And there's an ocean full of sermons right in that little thought there to be developed, but Jesus made it, so that's worth it. So, step past unmovable, because we've got the gospel. Changes the life. brings the life of God, of the Lord Jesus Christ into our life. The resurrection. It pulls all things together, seals all things, authorizes all things, if you would. And then we have that word over there just before verse 58 and verse 57. It says, thanks be to God which gives us the victory. Gives us the victory. I'm not a loser. You're not a loser. We are winners in Christ. I think it was Worsby that said, we don't fight on the front lines for victory. We fight with the victory already given. And that is so true. We don't live that way, but it's true. And it's a reminder to me. So with things going on in this world, and this is kind of why I want to share this with you, with things going on in the world, now I feel for those folks in Florida. I really do. I don't know how you handle, I've been watching my phone, wind's 145 miles an hour. I don't know what withstands that kind of a force. And then the water comes with it. Now, this hurricane that just went up through the panhandle of Florida and Carolinas into Tennessee, I have family down there, a daughter, four grandchildren, her children. And they were right on the edge of that. And they lost power, but they really didn't have any serious destruction. But just less than 50 miles from them, those two towns, they got totally wiped out. Lake Lure and Chimney Rock were just 50 miles from them. And they're just totally gone. They're not there. And so how do you? I realize that sometimes when you go through that, even these truths sometimes loosen themselves. But when it's all said and done, we need to cling to them and realize. that this is what will enable us to get through that. And so, victory is already ours. But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you wanna just flip over a page or two, and in 2 Corinthians 2, it says in verse 14, now, thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ. And so again, we are reminded of that. So I need to stop telling God. I can't do it. I need to stop telling God, got the wrong person, the wrong address, the wrong cell number, the wrong email address. Check your computer, God. No. We like to say that. Can't say that. Already triumphed in Christ. The victory is already given. Now, my favorite verses regarding this is in Ephesians chapter 2. They don't have to be yours, but they are mine. I can remember when this truth finally gripped me. I did not go to Bible college, so I did not have the privilege of having early Greek or that, so when I got to seminary, they just dumped the whole thing on me. They didn't say, oh, Gary, you poor guy, you didn't have Greek, did you? No Greek at the state university. Nope. Well, we'll go easy on you. No way. Figure it out, Gary, but you gotta take baby Greek. Figure it out, Gary. You got to take Hebrews, the language of Hebrews 101 or whatever it is, and then you got to take the second year also. And so good man, but not always understanding. So struggle with it. And so sometimes some of these verses just didn't click with me, but when Ephesians chapter 2, Beginning at verse 5, when it says, Even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye saved. Now here it is, verse 6. And hath raised us up together. Does he say, and will? No. Does he say, maybe? No. We are, from what I understand, not only of the English, I think the English does a good job here, but also of the Greek, the moment I got saved, the moment a teenager went home and knelt by his bed in that farmhouse with the slanted roof, the moment I prayed and asked Christ to come into my life, He put me in the heavenlies. You can throw insecurity into the dump. God already has you and I in the heavenlies with him. Well then, what am I doing down here? Serving, living, testifying, being an example of the believer that other carries might see and believe. and have the opportunity to trust in the Lord. I love this verse. It means so much to me. It has raised us up together, Ephesians 2, 6, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I'm already there. And every day, sometimes, I can't say every day, but every once in a while, I'll say, ah, the day of my birth is getting Way back there. But seeing God, it's getting a whole lot closer. And that's a blessing. I'm in no great hurry to leave, as it is. But I know what the promises of God are. So we come, so you see, this structure, this context, gives support and encouragement and help to that, to verse 15. So therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Now, we heard about the passing of the baton from Brother Smith, Dwight Smith, and that we are not in a sprint passing the baton, but we are in a marathon. And I like that. I think I've heard it before, but I like that. I think it's a great illustration. I'm not sprinting. Mostly walking. Occasionally running. Once in a while standing. If I remember right, in the Olympics this past summer, I think a U.S. team got disqualified because they dropped the baton. I think that's what I read. I don't know of a more discouraging event for a relay team than to drop that silly thing. Because it's done. You can't pick it up. I was watching these kids play their little game out there. If they drop it, they can run and pick it up, you know, and keep on going. But when it comes to sprints and competition, if you drop that baton, it's done. I don't care what your records are. It doesn't care what nation you're from, what country you represent, who your flag is. You're done. So I love that illustration. And you know, I think, if you'll bear with me, that sometimes that baton does get dropped in our marathon, but I thank God somebody else can come along and pick it up and keep going with it. Now, I just want to encourage you, because it encouraged me. I got to think about that. I said, okay, who has had the baton before me? Who has been out there before me? Here's a couple names for you to think about. Dr. Richard Dionne. Great influence. A gentleman to me. Is it Tobias Jones? Jonas. Jonas. Well, I don't remember. Pardon? Richard. Richard. Okay, thank you. All right, I knew I should have checked with this guy earlier, but I... So Jonas, how many lives he has influenced. And he's still out there carrying the baton and waiting his day when he passes it on. Earl Madison out of Colorado, a Wedemeyer out of Wyoming, and Clearwaters from my area, Minnesota, Cedar Hole, Van Gilderen from the Midwest, Winnegars from California in the Midwest. And then, as I mentioned earlier, Dr. Allen influenced a number of men through his time at Central Seminary. Felix Runquist. And then I had the privilege to have Herbert Hoover in our church. What a gentleman. What an example of godliness. And then your dad. I remember visiting him. I saw his name when I was going through some of the early records. and being out here. And then there's an interesting thing here. Back in Wisconsin, we have a Bob Loggins, who pastors a church in Watertown, Wisconsin. His dad's name was John Loggins, and he was our first secretary, our first NTA secretary. I think it's rather interesting that we have a son who follows a dad involved in the NTA. And we have a second one down here in Colorado, George Abbas, Jr., Little Town, Little Tun, a suburb of Denver. His dad, George Abbas, was, I think, our first treasurer. These dads have passed the baton to their sons. Now, I don't know much about the Abbas family except Brother Abbas down there in Littleton, but I know the Loggins family, that I think there were four, at least four boys, three men now, and as far as I know, they're all in the ministry. What about you and I? As J. Vernon McGee would say, where the rubber meets the road. I have four daughters, three daughters. Only two son-in-laws, one son-in-law passed away with cancer here about six months ago. Ten grandchildren. This is for you ladies. You like to know those things. So my wife and I are the parents of three daughters and ten grandchildren, seven granddaughters, and three grandsons. And now we are blessed to have ten greats. But our daughters have flipped that. We have seven great-grandsons and three great-granddaughters, and two of them. Okay, my last granddaughter, bear with me. Bear with me, please. My last granddaughter is now 14, will be 14 in November. When she was born, she was blue-eyed, blonde hair. And I called her my little princess. And the rest of them says, all right, Favoritism, favoritism. No. Blue eye, blonde, the last one that just fit. And now I've got a curly hair, two-year-old, no, let me see, one-year-old granddaughter, and another granddaughter that's blue eye, blonde hair. Now I've got two princesses. One down in North Carolina and one in Wisconsin. Do we desire to be influential with them? Absolutely. I can say to you, not bragging, but thankful that all our grandchildren acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. However, not all of them are being steadfast, unmovable. But they are saved, and they have a testimony of salvation. One granddaughter just made terrible, terrible decisions and that we'll probably for the rest of our life have to deal with the ramification of that. And so I'm just saying we're not perfect. I can say they're saved, but I'm not saying that they're perfect. Some of that comes because of their grandpa, so they have a rightful claim to what they are. So how can we maintain this steadfastness and this unmovable-ness? Well, we need to stand, and there's just a lot of concern today about change. And as I travel, and as Brother Hoover travels, as we're in church, it's sad to see some of this change. Different versions are being used, and it's interesting, folks, And you can take it or leave it, but it's interesting. My experience is, as I've been in churches, as the versions change, so does the music. And as the music changes, so does the practice. And I can't... I can't put my thumb on why, but it's out there. And I don't see that reversing. I see that continuing to be a trend. I think what happens sometimes is a good church that may be running 40 looks at this church that's running 80, and they got their music up on the screen. Let me just bother you for a few minutes. I'm tone deaf. I don't know music. How can a guy like me sing when I can't hear it? I don't know when you're supposed to go up or go down. I don't know when it's a quarter note, a half note, an eighth note. I got no idea. I do not like words on a screen. I have all I can do to see them in my hymnal. If you do that, brother, I'm sorry. I do not mean to cause a conflict here. But church after church, the words are up on the screen, the hymnal remains closed, and I'm lost. appreciate those people who can understand that and they can go with it, but that's a change. And I think we're going to see more of it, and more of it. And I'm just saying, I love our hymns. They are as good as they're gonna get. Now, I know there's some new music out there. Ron Hamilton has put out some great music. There's some other, there's a Chris Anderson that has put out a couple of hymns. I know there's some new things, new music out there that's good, but a lot of it is not as good as the old rugged cross and amazing grace and a blessed assurance. And it is well with my soul. All right, I'm off that one. We need to be careful with change. And the way we're careful about change is that we stand, and we stand and we don't move. And as it says over there in Ephesians, just before the inspiration of the Scriptures get into the armor of God, It says there in verse 10 in Ephesians 6, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor that you might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. So we need to stand. You know, it's interesting, and I don't have time to develop this, but the Bible uses different terms that almost seem to be paradoxical and conflicting. We're supposed to walk, but then we're supposed to stand. And Hebrews says we're supposed to run, but we're supposed to walk. And then we're supposed to wait. But it all goes together. It does. It all goes together. We just need to understand what God wants with each part of that. But we need to understand that we need to stand. I like Exodus chapter 14. The children of Israel came to the Red Sea, and the Egyptian army, chariots, and all that was pursuing behind them. And, you know, they fell apart except one, Moses. And you know why Moses didn't fall apart? Have you read that carefully? Because God already said to him, I will die. Now the people hadn't heard that, but Moses had heard that. And so then he says to the people, stand still and see the salvation, the deliverance of the Lord. The Egyptians you see today, you will not see tomorrow. That was a Thompson paraphrase a little bit there. But it happened. It happened. And we need to have that confidence. If we stand, God will do. So we need to stand. We need to be steadfast. We need to be unmovable. To be steadfast and unmovable is to be faithful and resisting change that doesn't need to take place. Now, how long have you had this auditorium, brother? It was. All right. We came here for an NTA meeting, I think in the late 1990s, because Brother Smith was your pastor. We came on a Tuesday. Some of you might remember this. On a Saturday, you had a sportsman banquet. And what you had done was put all kinds of mounts on the walls. I loved it. I thought, wow, I'm not going to pay attention to preaching because I'm going to be looking around. It's the same auditorium, but they were all around. On the other hand, my wife said, I am not going back. She says, those things creep me out. You can put them up for a while, but they needed to come down. So that's change. It was a change to put them up, then it was a change to bring them down. There's an area that is open for change, but not with doctrine. Amen? Not really with the Bible we use. I don't think with the songs we sing, the hymns we sing. and not with the love that Jesus has given to us. So we need to stand and not change. Remain faithful, steadfast. Okay, just a couple of things here. In what ways, again, but biblical truth. As Acts 20, 27 says, presenting the whole counsel of God, not just picking and choosing what we want, but the whole counsel of God. And then in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8, This is becoming more and more an issue in our society. But it says here, finding my beloved brethren, Philippians 4, 8. Finding brethren, whichever things are true, whichever things are honest, whichever things are just, whichever things are pure, whichever things are lovely, whichever things are of good report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Moral values cannot change, because God gave us moral values. And when we begin to change moral values, we begin to think we can change. and that's not going to happen. So we need to stay with moral values. We need to stay with Christian standards and just do the best we can to act like we're supposed to act or dress like we're supposed to dress and just be the witnesses we're supposed to be. And so maybe next time you're reading through your Bibles and you come to For instance, 1558, you can, ah, somebody spoke on this, and it wasn't too bad. He was kind of mostly on course there, but to think about, this is our responsibility. Steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know, your labor's not in vain. I'm so grateful. I cannot thank God enough of all things I could have done in life. He said, Gary, I want you to preach my word. Probably could have made a little more money being a doctor, but what do they do? They fix you up so you can die. But when you preach the gospel, you preach everlasting. What a privilege that has been for me, and what a privilege it is for all of us to be able to share eternal life in Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, one more time, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know today, your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Thank you so much. It's been great to be with you. I have a couple of these with me if you're interested and just having something in hand as to what we are, and I'll be happy to share that with you. Thank you, brother. It's been a joy to be with you and deliver the word.