First Timothy chapter number one, and I want to read just a verse to you there and to kind of get us started this morning. Last week sometime I spoke with Pastor Lucan about, you know, some of the things about the BDO and everything, and well then he called me back and said I was supposed to preach. And I was like, well, OK, I can do that, I suppose. But I was trying to figure out who in the world would want that to happen. And I get beat up all the time about being from the South. I thought, man, most of these guys in this meeting is not from the South. but we all sound somewhere in there. So all of a sudden, especially the Lord looking over here, he doesn't want to admit that he's from the South. He can be honest with that, he's from South Minnesota. All right, well, I want to, from the very beginning, I was praying about what to preach on and listen to the messages yesterday. I appreciate the message, it's really encouraging to me and I enjoy that and I enjoy leading the same and that's a lot of fun for me, man. And I really enjoy that. But I want to preach to you this morning, I want to encourage you to keep on preaching. I want to read to you a quote by Charles Spurgeon. And I don't know, he mentioned his name, maybe people get excited or they're like, I can't believe he don't quote him. But anyhow, regardless of whether he liked it or not, I like what he had to say here. He said, if sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with their arms wrapped around their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertion. And let not one go unworn and unprayed for. Amen. Fellas, we're to preach the word of God. Amen. Now this morning I'm going to break a couple of rules of homiletics. So I hope that you'll suffer me a little bit to do that. And I'm going to take the long way around the barn before I get to the message this morning. I want us to take just a moment and just walk down memory lane. Do you remember when God saved you? Do you remember when the light came on? When you realized that you were deserving of hell because of your sin. And that a holy God loves you. And left in spite of you. And to think that he would want to take an interest in somebody like you. Fellas, do you remember? when God began to stir your heart to preach. Do you remember the excitement that you had in your soul when you realized that God had the same one that created this world, the same one that would speak this world into existence. He wanted you to be His mouthpiece. And grace is an infallible Word. Do you remember when you won your first soul to Christ? Do you remember his or her name? Do you remember what it was like, the excitement in your soul whenever you had a heart and it led someone to the Word of Jesus? Do you remember when you had your first opportunity to preach behind the pulpit of the church? If you're like me, you got a chance to preach anytime you wanted to, whether it's on the street corner or whether you wanted to preach or be a part of a youth ministry. There's always opportunities in the church that I grew up to help out in that sort of thing. Of course, rest home ministries and things like that. But do you remember when you had your first opportunity to preach behind the pulpit? Do you remember when you saw your first soul walk down the aisle and accept Christ as their Lord and Savior? Do you remember that first opportunity that you had to pastor a church? Always first in our life. You know it's exciting when you think about and walk down memory lane and begin to think about all these things as you relive them in your mind. But you know, as you try to serve God, you can't stay on memory lane very long. It's good to have memory lane. Thank God for the ability to remember. And to remember in a vivid and imaginative way. Do you remember that first battle that you had in the mansion? I sure do. I got broke in real good. Some people in the church had put me in a corner. I got a letter one Wednesday night. Never check the mail before church hours. Don't do that. I got a letter, and this is back in the day when computers was just first really coming out good. And somebody had wrote a letter. And I know enough about word processors and that sort of thing to know that when something's italicized, it's there for emphasis. And when 98% of the letter is italicized, it's not necessary. And by reading that letter before service that night, I could tell that it wasn't just one person that had put that together. That was a collaborative effort. It was a collage of all the feelings of those that had been controlling this church for quite some time. And my heart sank. I wanted to cry. I wanted to go get a gun. I wanted to do it. Every kind of emotion that you could feel, that's how I felt right there in that one moment in time. And I knew something was in the brewing. I could just sense it coming. I remember that first battle, but I remember how God helped me with that battle, too. It was getting close to Valentine's Day, and you know how in school they got them valentines going back and forth, those little cards and things. And we had this new convert come to church. She was a single gal, divorce rate. She had just gotten saved, just baptized. She had a little girl with her. And I'd always stand at the back door and invite people to come in and shake their hand. Try to be an encouragement to them. This little girl, she walked up and she said, hey Pastor Shack, Happy Valentine's Day. And she handed me this little valentine. Now most of the time when you open up a valentine, it'll have something in there like hugs and kisses and all that XO thing and all that. Garbage, you know. But in this one, it said, hang in there. Remember when you had your first visits to make you go south on me? But you know what, the one ingredient that, there are several that we can bring up at this point, I'm talking to you about the encouragement to keep on preaching. You know, one ingredient that we all need And a lot of all this is courage. I tell you, it's hard to stand behind a pulpit after you get a letter on Wednesday night and get nasty phone calls and have a Valentine's making on Saturday night and nobody sits with you. And at that time, I can say nobody would sit with us. Then you go to bed crying your eyes out. Wake up in the morning and realize something's got to be done today. I got to stand behind that book. And I preached the end of Ephesians 6 about who our enemies really were. They weren't flesh and blood. And I preached on the arm of God. And I remember taking that letter out after my pastor told me when I called him right after I opened on Wednesday night. He said, look at that thing, the trash can. I read it through him word for word. He said, is there a trash can over here anymore? You see what I said? Yeah. He said, throw the trash can in the wall. But I didn't quite handle it that way. And I got up on Sunday morning and preached that message. And I dismissed the visitors and I just read the letter word for word and told them it's starting to be italicized. And then I looked up and I could tell it was involved in the letter. And I remember that I needed courage that morning. You know, Adam needed courage to keep sharing what happened in the garden with eight. successive generations. You realize that? It took courage for Adam to keep doing that. Noah needed courage to keep building the ark. Abraham needed courage to live up to the name that God gave him. Abraham. And then he had to have courage to give his son back to God. Jacob needed courage to come back to Bethlehem and let her face his brother. Moses didn't encourage him to come back to Egypt and follow God's leadership in the face of great obstacles. I mean, think of that. Not only did he have issues there in Egypt, but could you imagine going out and getting there by the Red Sea and there's nowhere to go? And they wanted to kill him? What did he do? He fell on his knees and began to pray. God says, take that rod, hold it up, see what the Lord's gonna do. When you bounce against the wall, you gotta have some courage, amen? Well, we could recount all the issues there that Moses had to face in those 40 years of wandering, couldn't we? Took courage every step of the way. Then there's Joshua. Everybody needs a Joshua, don't they? Joshua is Moses' right-hand man. Joshua, he needed courage to pick up that mantle that Moses gave him and to lead Israel with that promised land. In fact, I think it's four times in the first chapter of Joshua that God is telling Joshua, be of good courage, be strong, be of courage. Samuel needed courage as a little boy to tell Eli what God was going to do. Saul, he encouraged to answer the call to be king. He was high. He didn't want to be king. He did whatever they called him. Finally, there he is. He finally steps forward. David, he encouraged to fight Goliath, as he shouts, is there not a cause? Jonathan and his armor-bearer. I get a kick every time I read that passage there where it's almost like these two guys are sitting around saying, look, I'm tired of sitting here. Let's do something. Let's go up there and climb that rock. And if they do this, then we'll know God wants us to go up there and fight. If not, we'll come on back. A man gets up there and about a half acre of land, man, they're tearing it up. I mean, boy, they're just fighting. I mean, victorious over that thing. They had courage. Jonathan was a great example. That Elijah standing before the king. It's not going to rain, but according to my word. Esther going in before the king. If I perish, I perish. I think about all the prophets. I think about the three Hebrews, the old king. You know we're not going to bow down. Our God is able to deliver us. But if not, Nehemiah is over a thousand miles away from Jerusalem. He needed courage to leave familiarity and comfort and go rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And the list goes on and on. But I want to remind you, as I sat here yesterday and listened to these men expound about the issues of our day, as we try to preach the gospel, as we try to share the gospel, as I began to think about what these men were saying, I kept coming up with some of the same things. We've got to reach this next generation, these millennials. I never heard of a millennial until about six months ago. And I heard that term on a news broadcast. I've heard it on many times here in this meeting. And by the millennium, I've got somebody to find who was millennial. I never knew what generation I was until yesterday. I'm a generation X, amen? And you know, we've got to reach this generation of people, right? We keep hearing, we've got to reach our young people. We've got to get the gospel to them. I want to encourage you, men, to just keep on preaching. When you get ready to think about quitting and giving up, think about that first time you had the opportunity to preach the Word of God. Think about that time when your heart skipped a beat, when you got to get calling and the pastor said, I'm going to be gone, I need you to preach for me. Think about that first soul you wanted to Christ. Think about all those wonderful things and the excitement that you had at one time When you began to preach, so when you get toward the end of your journey, as we're all on this journey of life and in the ministry, as we get to those times in life where we have those battles and have those times that are rough and hard to get through, hey, let those good times, remember what it was like when you didn't care how big the mountain was. You didn't care how low the valley was. None of that mattered. All that mattered was that you had the opportunity to preach the Word of God. Amen? None of those things matter. But we get a little older and we get the range up in our belt and we start losing our hair. Some of y'all are a little bit further down the trail than me. I'm tall. If I could take this and put it up here, that'd be all right. It's spinning really bad on top in case you hadn't noticed that. That bothers me just a little bit, as you can tell. Besides, we have a few more, we got more square footage nowadays than we used to have. Amen? And time goes on and begins to wear on us. I see you men here today and ministry tells in your face. In your complexion, your countenance, you can tell. Ministry's not for the faint of heart, we need courageous means. We need men that will stand behind the sacred desk and preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Amen? We don't need to quit. This is not a time to quit, fellas. Don't quit. Don't quit on me. I'm the youngest whipper-snapper in this room that's going to be preaching in this conference. 38 years old. I'll be 39 in January. I'm the youngest guy in this set of preachers. And I don't need you quitting on me. I don't. I got a church over there that loves the Lord. They don't need to hear about anybody else quitting. We don't need anybody compromising. There's more than one way to skin a cat than not being compromising. I told a man yesterday, I said, you know, there's a tree for every squirrel and there's a place for every creature. Some of y'all could not go to Blair and pastor that work over there. You don't have the right temperament. And that's OK. And you know what? I couldn't pastor other places because I don't have the right temperament. God didn't make me for that. He made me for Blair. And He made you for where you're at. Don't compromise. And don't sell yourself short. It's easy to look around and say, I'm too old now. I can't do it. If I had a dollar for every time I heard an old man say that, I'd be a rich man. They like Jeremiah, they want to go in the motel business. It's too hard. I can't do it. I don't have the ability. I'm too old to reach these young people. I'm too much like a grandpa to them. You know what, there's something that I fail to remember, and lately the Lord's been reminding me of this great truth, is I got some young people, the public's still about to get them and chew them up and spit them out. And their thinking about things is just crazy. And I'm having to combat that in a very unusual way where I'm at. But I'm reminded, the Spirit of God keeps reminding me, Andrew, a lot of that's just being a teenager. Don't take it personally. A lot of that's just the fact that they're just testing the waters. They're seeing what you're made of. But I don't care how rotten and hardcore these teenagers might be, these young adults might be. I don't care how far off in sin they might be. And what they say to you and their accountants, deep down in their heart, they know you're right. And they know you're telling them the truth. Don't sell yourself short. You may not be able to speak their language, and you may not be able to have all the gadgets and things necessary that you think are necessary, and all these accommodations. That's the reason why I don't like being a Neo. I'm not a Neo. I don't want to be one. These Neo evangelicals, they think you've got to start talking the hip language, and you've got to start dressing like this, and you've got to change your music and all that. No, we just need to keep on preaching. And God's going to reach these people. We can reach the millennials. I just want to remind you here for just a couple of minutes this morning of why we should keep on preaching. The Bible says here in 1 Timothy 1 verse 20, it says, And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me what? Faithful. Putting me into the ministry. We did not put ourselves in the ministry, did we? That's exactly right. Who called you to preach? That church that you passed didn't call you a priest. Your wife didn't call you a priest. I hope your mama didn't call you a priest. God called you a priest. Amen? I believe in a divine God calling. No, He didn't call me up on the telephone and say, Andrew, it's time for you to change your plans about being an automobile mechanic and I want you to do... He didn't call me in that way. Now, if He had called and spoke to me in an awful way, it would not have been any clearer than it was in how He called me. You just know. This is what I'm supposed to do. This is what I need to be doing. God put us in the ministry, and we need to keep on preaching. Let's be faithful. Don't quit, fellas. If you're like me, you find yourself doing things sometimes and forgetting why you're doing them. So this morning, I'm not going to say anything that you guys don't already know. That's the problem with preaching to preachers, because we know it all. Or at least we think we do, amen? You know, the heartbeat of God is missions, and really preaching is missions. I know we somehow relegate pastoring and missions as two separate things, but we're all on the same agenda, amen? Missions is missions. The heartbeat of God is missions. And we can't be right with God unless we love missions as well. When a church ceases to be in love with what God loves, then I think it ceases to be a New Testament church in one way. And while we as individuals may cease to have a heart for missions, when it happens, we fail to function as God's instruments of salvaging broken vessels in the sea of life. And there ain't no such thing as foreign missions and home missions. That's a misnomer. Missions is missions. Missions is across the aisle in the church to the people besides you. Missions is across the street, across the dinner table, across the county. However it is you want to describe it, missions is missions. Jesus didn't have this whole mission and foreign mission philosophy. I know why we classify it that way. I understand all that terminology, but that's a misleading definition. Missions is missions. I want to give you four reasons this morning why you and I as preachers ought to keep on preaching. Amen? And this is a rather topical message, but it's a topic, anyhow, that the encouragement to keep on, and by the way, this topic of encouragement to keep on preaching is what God gave me to preach, amen? I'm thankful that I was the one man in this group so far that I know was not, I was not given a topic, hallelujah. I don't know that I could have spoke on those topics. Though Pastor Lukin's message, I think I could have probably gave some better reasons why. I'm glad, he said, just praise the Lord with all your heart. And I really want to have this orchestrated all the way along. Amen. Number one, I think that we should be involved in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ because it obeys the command from above. Let's pray. Father, as we try to begin this message this morning, I thank you for the privilege to be able to stand up here and preach in this conference. I really don't understand why I was even asked. That puzzles me. But Lord, I know that it's an opportunity that you've ordained. And I thank you for the privilege to preach with these men. I look around this room and there's other fellas and I'd rather hear their name. Lord, there's a lot of men here that can say it much better than I can say it. But Lord, I thank you for letting me be able to come here and say it. Lord, I've been there. I've quit before. I give up. I've thrown in the towel. Many of these men can be admitted and say they've done the same thing. But Lord, help us to take courage and not quit. There's too much at stake. There's too much to lose. And Lord, we've already won anyhow. There's no reason to quit. We're on the winning side. Help us this morning to deliver the message and preach in such a way that we can be a blessing and be used in a mighty way in Jesus' name. Amen. We should be involved in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ because it obeys the command from above. Now, you can turn there if you'd like, or you can just listen. It doesn't matter. I'm going to go through some verses here rather quickly. But in Matthew 28, 18, the Bible says, And Jesus came and spake with them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things. Whatsoever I command you, in love with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. That's the command. We need to keep on preaching because this is us obeying that command. In Mark 16 and 15, He said to them, get into all the world and preach the gospel to every preacher. Not just the ones that we think that we can reach or the ones that we think could use it the most. Everybody. Amen? I mean, that's a pretty big crowd, right? I mean, when you're a salesman in the business world, you know you have a niche market that you're trying to reach out to. So the possibilities of you making a sale is kind of limited to the scope of what you're able to offer. Hey, you know what? We got the greatest thing in all the world. Everybody's a candidate, amen? Everybody. Now some groups like bringing the horses. and the cows and everybody else and bless them animals and stuff like that. We don't go that far, amen? We believe that human beings, amen, by the grace of God need to be saved. Luke 24, Jesus said to them, thus it is written, thus behoove Christ to suffer, to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things, and behold, I have said the promise of my Father upon you, But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. John 21, the Bible says that when they had died, Jesus said unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He said to him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest I love thee. He said to him, Feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He said to him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest I love thee. He said to him, Feed my sheep. He said to him a third time, Simon, son of Jonah, let us out of me. Peter was grieved because he had said to him a third time, let us out of me. And he said to him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. I understand the 12 words. There's a lot going on in that passage. You understand that. I understand that. But the fact is right here, a fourth time right here in the Gospels, we find that the Great Commission is talked about. We need to go out and share the word of God. We need to keep on preaching, amen? Jesus had a ministry of preaching, amen? and you need to give the gospel to people. Amen? We need to do that. That's what God has given us to do. Yes, as a pastor, our job is more than just evangelizing. It's more than just sharing that gospel message. I understand that. Discipleship is the forgotten mantra of the Baptist movement. We don't disciple. We don't disciple. And that's one of the reasons why these young people are leaving. You got to ground them in the Word of God. You got to be straight with people. You know what I found out? That you can tell people the truth and look them square in the eye. And I mean, you can say it in such a way that anybody else might think it's your means of dealing, but you can say it in such a way that people take it. And they accept it. They know in their heart that you're telling them the truth. The Great Commission is not the Great Suggestion or the Great Idea or the Great Endeavor or even the Great Plan B. EMD has become the Great Ovation, but it is still the Great Commission. You and I need to share the Word of God with people. Amen? Either we go or we send a substitute, as one man said. The Great Commission is meant to be the priority, not the sideline. Not something that we just dabble in. Not some good exercise once a year. We need to be sharing the Word of God with everybody as much as we can. The Trinity of most modern churches is a saved-centered ministry, not a lost one. But here's the thing. Somebody told you about Jesus. And I heard about Jesus in the ministry of the local church. Thank God for a church that preached the gospel. So I can hear that gospel message and that I can be saved. Amen? Somebody told you about Christ. Somebody told me about Christ. And listen, we are God called men. Amen? And you and I need to share the Word of God. We need to keep on preaching. Amen? Why? Because of that command from above. We're obeying that command. that he was to preach the Word of God, right? He shared that charge with Timothy. Preach the Word. Paul says, woe is me if I preach not the Gospel. That was a command. Those were his margin orders. Number two, we should be preaching the Gospel. We should be involved in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ because it silences the cry from beneath. Turn over to Luke 16. What I want you to see is Luke 16. And some churches think that Luke 16 shouldn't even be in the Bible, the way they act, you know. And then some of these guys think it's a parable. And I don't think it's a parable. I think Jesus is talking about an event. There may not be a lot of reasons for that. But if people want to classify it as a parable, well, one of these days they'll learn better, I guess. I don't know. But Luke 16, verse 19, the Bible says there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen. He fared sumptuously every day. There was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at the gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. It came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels in Abraham's bosom, and the rich man also died and was buried. Then the heavenly lifted up his eyes, being in torment, seeing Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried to his father, Abraham, have mercy on me. And sin lasses, he may get the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I'm appointed in this way." Wow. How many times have we preached the gospel without putting ourselves in that position? How many times have we shared Christ with people just because we had our mind on the plan? We forgot. You know, I'm talking to somebody that needed to be saved, but the reality of the situation This person sitting in front of you is interested in the gospel. And you've got the truth. And we need to share that with them. Realize that, you know what, this could be them. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest the good things, and likewise thou receivest the evil things. By the way, you know as well as I do that Lazarus didn't go to hell because he's poor. And the rich man didn't go to hell because he's rich. We understand that. Verse 26, and beside all this between us and you, there's a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou wouldest send them to my father's house. Wow. You know people in hell are more interested in bed and soul winning than the world of badness. Why did he say that? Because I have five brethren. It's a little late to be thinking about your brothers. Five brethren that he may testify that in this they also come to this place of torment. Abraham said to him, yeah, they have Moses and the what? and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, then they would repent. And he said to them, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Why should you and I keep on preaching? Why can't we not quit? Why do we need to just keep on keeping on? I'll tell you why. Because we need to help silence that cry from the name. The rich man His concern when in hell was that somebody would go and convince his brothers to heed God's message. Wow. Do you know there's people that are in hell today that live right near where you minister? There are people that we know in the town that we pastor in that are in hell today. And they know the truth now. They know they belong. And their desire is that you and I would share that message. And yet we sit back and have our little pity party. We don't invite nobody to our pity party. We don't send out no invitations. And then we get mad when we have our party because nobody has pity with us. And there are people all around this dining ordeal. And what are we doing about it? He was pleading with all that was within him for Lazarus to go back and talk to his family. So it is today. People are in hell are pleading for someone to go and tell their mom or dad, their son or daughter, their grandma or grandpa, their aunt or uncle, their cousin, their grandchild, to tell them about Jesus. Guys, I want to encourage you to keep preaching. Amen? Keep preaching. Why? Because there are people in hell that are begging you to preach. If we could listen to the conversations in hell this morning, it would change our viewpoint about the necessity for us to keep on the fire in mind, to keep on preaching the Word of God. Number three, we should keep on preaching the Gospel. We should be involved in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ because it answers the call from without. I know that you do. But you remember when Paul, he's like a lot of us, we've come to a crossroads in our journey and we've got to figure out which way God's going. Manly Beasley used to say, find out which way God's going and go with it. Amen? And so when you and I are preaching the Word of God, sometimes in ministry we have to make a turn. And Paul wanted to go into Asia. That was where his heart was. That's where he felt like God was leading him. Then one night, the Lord kept him up. And it wasn't because he ate moon pies and RC Cola before he went to bed. Or pizza, or whatever it is that you like to eat. Pizza. Pizza. Amen. I tell you what, he got trouble in his spirit. And God spoke to his heart. Listen to what the Bible says here in verse 9 and verse 10. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night, and there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed to him, saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. Here's somebody that needs some help. Hey, listen, not everybody you and I talk to about the gospel. Not every person that you and I minister to wants to hear what we have to say. But somebody wants to hear it. And if we quit and turn tail and run, hey, we're missing out. What if Paul said, no, I'm going to Asia anyhow? I think the Lord would have pulled his ticket. And number one, there's a guy, hey, there's a guy right here. Come and help us. And after he's seen the vision, the Bible says, immediately, immediately, guys, we endeavor to go into Macedonia and surely gather that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel unto them. If we will listen, then we'll hear the cry from others that are coming after us. I think sometimes we don't listen. We need to see sinners the way God sees them. You know, in Matthew chapter 9, Jesus said there were sheep scattered all over the place without having a shepherd. You know, sheep are dumb animals. I'm told they're about the dumbest. And so when God calls us sheep, He's not giving us a compliment. Sometimes sheep, they... They get weary. Their wool catches everything, mud, rocks, sticks, things like that. And I'm told this, now this is just hearsay, because I'm not a shepherd in that sense of the term. I'm told that the shepherd had a hard job on his hands to keep the stuff out of the wool. because it gets heavy and wears them down. And some of those sheep, after a while, they'll just sit down just from all the nastiness they've been through. What does that remind us of? Somebody else can preach a little while. I'm going to take a break. Somebody else can do it better than I can. We make all these excuses, so we sit down. Well, sheep, they'll just sit down a while. And before long, because their legs are little. They're not that strong. But after a while, they'll sit there and they can't get back up. So they fall prey to the wolves, and the lions, and the bears, and everything else, because they can't get back up. Shepherds got to come along and give us some strength. Got to undergird and pick them up, and sometimes carry them along the way, and get that filth off of them. But we need to do that all the time. Let the Lord, a good shepherd, a great man, a great shepherd, come along and help clean that mess out of our wool that we attract so much in time. We've got to get past the sight, and the sound, and the smell of the unregenerated. Paul and his companions heard the call, and we should too. I wonder if God's calling somebody here this morning to something particular. I wonder if God's calling somebody here today that maybe they don't realize that that's what the Lord's doing just yet, but God's stirring them heart strings about some things. He's got a plan, and you're trying to figure out what that plan is, and God's just beginning to touch and nudge you hard about some things. Fellas, I want to encourage you to keep on preaching. Amen? Last of all, we should be involved in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ because it fulfills I'm going to read just a couple of verses to you and I'll be done. And I'll turn it over to Pastor Luke in here. 2 Corinthians 5, a very familiar passage to all of us. I'm sure you guys have got better outlines if you preach it a whole lot better than I can. But in verse 14 the Bible says, For the love of Christ constraineth us. You know what that's saying. Because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Do you ever get to a place where as a pastor you've been giving yourself It's like you're just a water spout that just keeps running and never gets turned off. When you do take time for yourself, you feel kind of selfish about it. You think, man, I should be enjoying this, but so-and-so is over here. So-and-so is facing cancer here. I'm getting a chance to enjoy this with my family, and they're hurting. So and so needs to be saved. You know, the burden, the care of the church is Paul had. The burden of ministry. But you know, that love of Christ just gets the hold of us today. That love of Christ just constrains us and urges us to move forward and live for Him. You know, Now, I don't want y'all to take this the wrong way, but just as natural as it is for a young man and a young woman to come together in marriage and have a child and raise a family together, so it is with every child of God who loves Jesus. We should be desiring to see people get saved. We should want to see people born again. If you go on down to verse 19, the Bible says that we have to go to Christ, reconcile the world with himself, not impeding their trespasses unto them, and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God be beseeching by us, we pray you in Christ's name, be you reconciled to God. For you've made Him to be sin, whom you know sin, and you've not made the righteousness of God in Him. God has left us here, fellas, to tell others about Him. He would have been wonderful the moment we got saved, If Jesus had said, come on, let's go to the house. Now, I would have enjoyed that. Amen. And I'm sure you would have, too. But he didn't do that. He's not done that yet. He hasn't run from the interval just yet. Amen. That's a little bit. It could happen this afternoon. That'd be a blessing. Amen. Oh, well, I can have this place. I didn't say that on camera. We don't videotape. We're going to get stereotypes. Here's the word. I'll tell you something, folks. He's left us here to keep on keeping on. We are to plead and beseech others to come and be saved as an ambassador for Christ. Nothing's going to satisfy you nor satisfy me if we quit preaching the Word of God. I'm picking on Brother Boyd over here just a minute. I haven't known that brother for just about two years, and I feel like I've known him for 30. I enjoy his singing, his playing. He came to our church and was real blessed, and our folks still talk about him. And we was talking here yesterday, and he told me that, you know, Brother Shank, I haven't played or sang since I was with you guys. That's been a while. And for a musician like that, that's hard. Fingers aren't as limber as they used to be. His voice isn't as strong as it once was. He can't do what he wants to do. He's not satisfied because he wants to do. Fellas, you're never going to be satisfied. That's right. Don't do anything against me. Oh, you might enjoy some of the pleasures for a while. Fellas, you can't quit. You can't quit, fellas. I want to encourage you to just keep on preaching the gospel. Keep on preaching. There's a lot I could have said. There's a lot more I could have talked about to you guys, but it doesn't much better me. And usually, it's the older pastors telling the younger pastors not to quit. I tell you what, the tides have turned. Yes, sir. A lot of fellas out there that's got a lot of age on them, they're looking for an excuse to get out of the ministry. I don't understand that. That was don't quit. Hey, brother boy, don't quit. Amen? Amen. Don't quit. Keep on preaching, fellas. Keep on preaching.