I do appreciate the opportunity to come and preach. I met your pastor years ago and just maybe just a word or two of testimony. I spent my youth, I'm originally from Southwest Virginia. If you can't tell, I'm not from southeast Indiana, I'll guarantee that. I don't talk like, y'all talk different than me, but I'm outnumbered, so I'm the oddball, amen. But I was originally from southwest Virginia and grew up in a United Methodist home. My dad was a United Methodist preacher. We moved around a lot, but my dad believed in being saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and he believed in being baptized in water and he was an old-time old-fashioned Methodist but I got saved when I was about 14 years old and about that same time I began to get interested in music. I'd never really given two thoughts to music before and I heard banjo and that was the end of me. I heard banjo and I wanted to, I said well I want one of those and So I spent several years working on it and learning and began to get to where I could play and then ended up playing with several groups and moving and ended up moving down to Middle Tennessee and living down there and working with some people. And your pastor mentioned Larry. I worked with Larry in 94, 95, 96, 97, through there. I counted on or worked with him. He's a good man. He loves the Lord. I remember Larry had a good testimony around me. I remember time after time him sitting there reading his Bible, reading his King James Bible, sitting there in the van or the bus or whatever we were in. But what happened for me was basically I got a hold of some material and I'd never known there was any kind of an issue with the Bible or anything like that and basically I got a hold of some material and found out there was a huge issue with the Bible. And I found out that the King James Bible, it didn't take long for me to go at all because I just kind of approached it honestly. I didn't have an agenda, but it didn't take long for me to figure out and learn that the King James Bible was the word of God. And then I started, obviously started hearing Bible-believing preachers. And I had friends giving me cassettes and things and got on some mailing lists and had cassettes mailed to my house. Long story short, through the late 90s, the Lord really began to deal with my heart about serving Him. I'm not trying to be self-righteous, but I wasn't really living a wicked lifestyle at all. I just wasn't really sold out either. Kind of like a lot of Christians. For me, the Lord put it on my heart and spoke to me about the judgment seat of Christ. And I realized at the time that what I was doing and pursuing, I pretty much pursued and got to do everything that I wanted to do, and it was kind of like everything else was just... it was kind of like the Lord said, well, are you done? Have you had enough? And I was like, yeah, Lord, I have. And I was very acutely aware suddenly of the judgment seat of Christ and standing before God. And I wanted to have my Christian life count for something, for the Lord. And we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And we're going to stand before Him. So the Lord put it on my heart. And in 1999, in August of 1999, I was working with another group. And I turned in my notice. quit playing music and working at the Grand Ole Opry. I was with, some of y'all might have heard of Jim and Jessie. I was with Jim and Jessie working at the Grand Ole Opry and went to becoming a janitor in a Christian school and was happy as I could be. And you say, I don't know about all that. Well, you just do what the Lord tells you to do and you'll be alright. But that's what the Lord told me to do. And lo and behold, in that Christian school and church there, I saw this girl in the choir. I remember seeing her, I thought, hmm, who's that? You know, how guys are, you know. Hmm, single guys, amen. And I was single and I needed a wife. And I said, hmm, who's that? Well, she was over here from Highland County, other side of Cincinnati, over here in Hillsborough. That's where she was from. She'd gone to Bible college. She was educated. And she was a school teacher down there. Well, the Lord put us together and we got married. I've got four beautiful daughters. I've got a daughter 12, 1, 11, oh, I'm sorry, 12, 10, 9, and 5. I know the worst is yet to come. I know. But I'm telling you, I'm blessed. I spent some years in transition there with a few things with my wife and deciding where to live and where to serve. We ended up over at Cornerstone Baptist Church there in Carthage, Tennessee. It's about an hour east of Nashville. We ended up over there and kind of just picked up and moved everything that way. In January of 2005, the Lord opened the door for me to be an assistant pastor there with Brother Ron. And I've been there at Cornerstone Baptist Church since January 2005. And I was there today until about 11.30 a.m. Central Time. been there ever since and left and came here. So the Lord's been good to me and I have no complaints. I still get to pick. I still get to play and enjoy. I'm nowhere near as good a shape as I used to be playing music, but I still enjoy it, love it, love playing music for the Lord and trying to do something for Him. So that's kind of a little bit of background and where I'm coming from tonight. That way you don't have to wonder anything. Hopefully no secrets around here. Amen. If you would, let's all stand. We want to take the Bible to Ephesians chapter number 3 tonight. Ephesians chapter number 3. I want to read a familiar passage to you. And a very familiar passage. And hopefully draw out a thought here from the Scriptures. And we'll try to be mindful of the time. And I'll try not to drag my feet. Amen. Ephesians chapter number 3, the Bible says in verse number 20, Ephesians chapter 3, number 20, Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, I thank you, Lord, for the opportunity. Lord, I count it an honor. I thank you, Lord, for this pastor giving me the time in the pulpit. Lord, help us, Lord, to... Lord, as the saying goes, make hay while the sun shines. God, help us, Lord, to be what we need to be for you. Lord, would you help us to lift up Jesus Christ tonight? God, would you help us to be a blessing? God, would you draw attention to your Son? Lord, help the folks here at Hope Baptist to get, Lord, what they need tonight. for your sake and Lord for your glory and Lord that these people will get some strength tonight and some help just to go a little further down the road. Lord, we love you tonight and we thank you for being good to us, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen. I think you can be seated. Now this scripture says, unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, comma, according to the power that worketh in us, comma. All right, now we're Bible believers. Listen, I'm such a Bible believer, I believe the punctuation marks. I'm just going to tell you where I'm at, okay? I'm not sure about y'all. I get a little nervous, you know, you don't know where you're at and you're afraid to say the wrong preacher's name or something, somebody, you know, get nervous with you. But I believe the chapters, The numbers of the verses. I believe in crazy things like numerology. I believe everything in that Bible is just exactly the way God wanted it. And there's a few commas here. And the power that worketh in us, comma, unto Him be glory. And I want to talk a little bit tonight about giving God the glory. Giving God the glory. You know what man does? He wants glory. And you know what he does? He steals glory from God. Mankind will do it every chance he gets. Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, he will. And even as a Christian, you still battle the flesh, and that flesh wants to steal glory from the Lord. The flesh wants the glory in something. And you know, the Lord said, My glory, I'm not going to give it to somebody else. The Lord doesn't want to... You know what? You say, well, who does He think He is? Who do you think He is? He's the Creator of everything. And mankind will glory in anything He can. I've had some nice vehicles in my day. I've had some pretty sorry vehicles in my day. I've had vehicles that were almost... I've never had a brand new vehicle. I've driven some. Boy, they smell good. But I've never had a brand new vehicle. I've had pretty new vehicles and I've had some real rust buckets. I mean, just about afraid to hit a pothole and break the frame in half. But you know what a man will do? He'll wash that thing, clean it up real good. I had an old Nissan truck one time and it looked like death warmed over. Even after you washed it and detailed it, it still looked bad. But you know what you do? You clean that thing up real good and then you kind of walk around and look at it. You know, kind of checking it out. And then you kind of get to thinking and then you get in it and start driving around. See? And looking around thinking people's looking at you because of your truck. Now don't look at me funny. You know what I'm talking about. Some people do that. I know nobody in here has ever done that, but what I'm saying is you think that's so far-fetched. Well, listen, mankind will do all kinds of strange things to get glory to himself. He'll do it. Surely, the Bible says that man over in Ecclesiastes, he walketh in a vain show. I'm really starting off on a positive note, ain't I? We're just that way. We're just that way. And I'll tell you what's really dangerous with giving God glory is when you have some ability to do something. When you have some talent to do something. And you say, well, I don't have any talent or ability. You'd be surprised what you have. See, a lot of people will equate talent or ability with sometimes, sometimes, a lot of times, they'll equate it with something in the musical field, like an ability to get up and play an instrument. But listen, there's plenty of gifts, talents, and abilities that people have that may not be necessarily in a public forum. But you know what? What you've got to remember is those things that you have, those abilities that you have, God gave them to you. God gave them to you. And don't try to use those things and steal glory from the Lord. It's real easy to do. And sometimes we do it innocently, but it's real easy to do. We'll take the glory from the Lord. But young men, I get, there's a few young men in here. Y'all ever heard of this stuff that's big now? I don't know if it's big up here. They call it CrossFit. CrossFit exercising? It's real, it's real just random. crazy exercises. I mean, they run in there at five o'clock in the morning and they flip tires over and they throw anvils and curl cinder blocks, you know, real manly stuff. And they flip stuff around, turn things over and jump around. You know, some of you know exactly what I'm talking about, but it's a big deal. And what it is, they're doing all kind of these real odd things. And I'm telling you, especially young men, surely, surely not any older men would really get too much into that. But young men will do that kind of stuff and then strut around like they are something else. Because they could throw two cinder blocks, you know, 20 feet or something. And what they do, then they'll start strutting around and the toothpicks are sticking out of their shirt. and they'll just strut around and think they're something, and then put on the back glass of their truck, it'll say, no fear. And try to act like they're really something. You know what, that's just glory in yourself. We just do that stuff. And God doesn't want us to take glory from Him. And the smarter we get as Americans, we were talking about technology a little bit. The smarter we get with technology, actually, I believe the dumber we're getting as Americans. I was watching the GPS mighty close coming up through here. Now I've traveled a lot, but every now and then I kind of depend on that thing. But I'm telling you what, the technology, the more we get, we're not quite as smart as we thought we were. And man will glory in technology, but can't tie his shoes. And man will do that. He'll glory in technology, he'll glory in his smarts, his ability. Man will, especially like an atheist, Atheists, their brain sometimes, their God is their brain because their intellect is what they're depending on and trying to excuse themselves of not having a God while they'll glory in their own mental ability. We shouldn't do that. But as we look at this verse now, I want to show you a few things here with this Scripture and hopefully pull something out. We're going to kind of go through the verse and preach a little bit as we go. But one of the first things I want you to see in this Scripture, I want you to see the Lord's position, alright? Because in verse number 20, it says, Now unto him that is able to do. Amen? You know what? God is able. God is able. I hear the prayer requests. I hear people talking about things that need to happen. It's going to take supernatural power. It's going to take something that's out of your league. And we're talking about giving glory to the Lord tonight. We need to give glory to the Lord because of His position. I tell you what, physically, I believe He's out here, and you go out here in the parking lot, and you look around, and if it's clear, you can find the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, and you'll find that North Star. And I believe you go up through there in the North Star, and you just kind of look out through there in the universe, that's where Heaven is. Read your Bible. He's in the sides of the North. You look up in there and at the top of the universe, God's up there. And that's where His position is. He is above everything. That's where the Lord is. And we forget sometimes. You ever been in an airplane and look down and just begin to think how small you are? I went one time to this Creation Museum. Well, I don't even know where I'm at. That Creation Museum, amen? And they have that thing called the Planetarium. And they lay you back in there and what they do is start you out on earth and they start bringing you back through the universe and you start going out through outer space. And the thing that just consumed my mind when that thing was over is just how small we are. We're just a speck of a speck of a speck. But yet God would love us and do something for us and allow us to give Him glory. So the Lord's position He's at the top. You ever want to talk to somebody to get something done and get on the phone and get frustrated? Especially nowadays, if you call for computer help, you're going to go crazy. Because number one, you're going to get somebody that's talking to you from the Philippines. And it's like 2 a.m. there, but they're up all night long helping you fix your Windows computer, you know. But sometimes you'll call a place and you just want to talk to the manager. You want to talk to somebody other than who you've got on the phone because you want to go to the top. You want to talk to the person that's in charge. And we've got to remember the Lord's position. He's at the top. He's in charge. He gets the glory. He gets the glory. Now sometimes that's hard to imagine, but now the Lord, His position is at the top. He is the main man. Amen? I don't use that irreverently. I don't necessarily say the man upstairs or something like that. The Lord God, the creator of the universe is at the top, and that's His position. And when it says He is able to do, then He's able to do it. I believe that. I don't doubt that a bit. You say, what is He able to do? You tell me. Anything He wants to do. He's in the heavens. He's done whatsoever He plays, whatever He pleases. His ways are not our ways. We don't always understand why He does what He does, but I know His ways are right. His ways are perfect. And His position is right. Now the second thing I want you to see in this verse is, I'm sorry, now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. I call this His provision. Now let me ask you something. Some of you have been around a while. Some of you have been a Christian for a while. Has the Lord provided for you? Has the Lord provided for you? Time and time again, hadn't He? In spite of us. In spite of being sometimes a sorry Christian. In spite of us sometimes just not really Probably not even giving Him 50%. The Lord takes care of us. I've never seen the righteous forsaken. Now, He'll provide. And now, don't get nervous now. I'm not one of these blab it and grab it or prosperity guys. I believe the Lord will give you what you can handle. You know what I believe? I like for there to be... I have no problem with there being rich people in the church. If they can handle it, Let it roll. Let them be rich. I'm serious. If they can handle it and they can use that money to give to the work of God and give to the things of God, be it missionaries or buildings or preachers or whatever, I say let them have it. Let them have it. Now, he hasn't done that for me yet, but you know what? If you can handle it, the Lord can lay it on you because He can provide for you. You tell me when the Lord has not provided for you. We're spoiled rotten in America. We are. Some of y'all, listen, you need to think about how much God has provided for you. Just in the fact that we were born in America and being able to be raised in the land of the free and home of the brave, enjoy the liberties that we have. I'm just saying God's been good to us in America. I'm just saying God's been good to us. He's been real good to us. His provision. He's able. In the past, God's provided for me. God's provided for me right now. And I have no doubt that God's going to provide, Lord willing, by the grace of God, God's going to provide for me next week. And if He tarries, and I don't pass away, He's going to take care of me the month after that, the year after that, the year after that, until I go home to heaven. I don't even think about that. And some of you know what I'm talking about. God's going to provide for you, and you know that. Now that's His provision. And you know what He ought to give for that? His glory. We ought to give glory to the Lord's name and to His Son Jesus Christ for providing for us. In His position and His provision, He ought to get glory from us. He ought to get a lot of glory. A lot more than most Baptists. You know what I like about Pentecostals? Now you're getting nervous, ain't you? You know what I like about Pentecostals? They like to give the Lord glory. You say, well, they do a lot of crazy things. Well, I know we do too. Amen? But they'll give the Lord glory. You say, well, I don't know about some of the stuff they do. Well, I don't either, but I tell you what, I like some of what the Pentecostals do. I like some of what the Church of Christ does. I like some of what the Catholics do. You know, they get real reverent sometimes and take things real serious. I'm just talking about sometimes in religious settings. But sometimes we forget, us Baptists, boy, we'll sit around, we're saved, satisfied, and sunk in our pew, buddy. We're not gonna get excited about anything. Yeah. Boy, I tell you what, I ended up somewhere about a year ago where it got on. It wasn't doctrinally straight, but it got on. I said, well, you know, this ain't half bad. I kind of enjoyed it a little bit, but there were some tongues going on, there was some other stuff happening, and I thought, well, amen. Well, okay. At least they got excited, amen. They got excited about the Lord. You know what? They gave Him glory. They give Him glory. Now His position and His provision, now look here now, in chapter 3 verse number 20, according to the power that worketh in us. Now, according to the power that worketh in us. You realize the power that works in you that's going to get glory to the Lord Jesus Christ is because of Him. It's from Him. He puts it in you to get glory to Him. You realize we can't, in and of ourselves, in our flesh, we can't give Him glory. It would just be in the strength of the flesh. But in the Spirit, we can give Him glory. We can give the Lord the glory He deserves. It's His power. You know, in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, we know that that verse says, If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. That's why I believe if a man gets saved, things change. You say, well, I don't know if that much changed when I got saved. Well, you better be checking out whether you got saved or not. Because if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And I'll tell you what, when He puts the new man on the inside, puts that Holy Ghost, that down payment, that earnest of expectation. He puts that thing down inside of you. There's something every now and then that just wants to give God glory. And you know what that is? That's His power. According to the power that worketh in us. If we're going to get glory to the Lord, if we're going to do some things that's on this earth as a Christian and as a body of believers, if we're going to do something that's going to give Him glory, it's going to take the power of God. You've got to have that power. You say, well, how do I get it? You know how to get it. Walk with the Lord. Give Him glory. Submit to Him. I'll tell you what, I know years ago they called it the power company and the light bill. If you didn't pay the bill, the light went out. And I'm telling you, I don't want to ever treat the Lord in a way that finally, in almost like a reprobate sense, like the Lord just finally says, you know what? You're not going to do anything for me. I'm just going to go somewhere else and try to work. You're saved. You're born again. We'll go on to heaven. I'll see you there. But I've tried to get you to do something. I'm going to go do something else. The Lord will do that with people. He will. So I want to be careful to give Him glory, because that power that works in us, you ever had a thought come to your mind, and I know the real super spiritual people will say, well, the Lord led me to this, and the Lord told me to this, and the Lord told me to that, and I'm not sure what to do with all of that, but I do know this, if I'm standing somewhere at a gas station, and I look at a fellow standing there pumping gas, And I'm thinking, well, I don't know if that guy's saved or lost. And something, okay, something in me says, you need to give that guy a gospel tract and give him a little witness. Now, what is that? Is that the new man or the Holy Ghost or just you or what? The answer is yes. I guess it's all of them. But you know, if you're not saved, you say, that never comes up in me. Don't get me wrong. I'm not one of these retreader guys. I'm not going to come in here and have everybody doubting their salvation in here in about 15 minutes. I'm not one of those. But I'm just telling you, the power that works in you wants to do something for the Lord and wants to glorify the Lord and wants to get attention to Him. You know why most people don't want to do that? Because they don't want the attention off of them. My dad used to say, you know, that fella, he never can go to the... I've never seen him at one funeral. And I said, what? He said, I've never seen him at one funeral. And I said, what are you talking about, dad? He said, he can't be the corpse. Some people just got to be the center of attention. Whatever it takes. Can't just let go and let God, you know. But that thing's got to work. And I'm telling you what it's going to work in, it's going to be in a clean vessel. It's going to be in a clean vessel. I don't know much, but I do know that if the Lord's going to do something, He's going to use a clean vessel. Now, I'm not a germaphobe, okay? My wife says I am. Some of y'all know what that is. That's somebody that almost would just drink hand sanitizer rather than even put it on their hands. I'm not a germaphobe, but I tell you what, I like things clean. But you know, what good's the outside of the cup if the inside of it's just nasty? And if that power is going to work on the inside of you and do something and get glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll have to be clean. You'll have to be clean. You say, I don't know about that. Well, everybody's got a standard of cleanliness. You ever notice that? Kind of like going in somebody's house, got a bunch of animals. They don't smell it. But everybody else that walks in that house, they smell it. And hey, while I'm there, it's not necessarily your job to fix that. Everybody okay? But you get used to a certain level of whatever. Doesn't bother you. Man, where I'm from, and I know it's, where I'm from is, I mean, it's redneck where I'm from in Virginia. And I know it's kind of, I can look around here, there's a little redneck here, too. But I'm from the heart of Appalachia, amen? I'm from the heart of Appalachia, and I'm telling you, and it's not Appalachia, it's Appalachia, amen? My mom told me, she said, don't you ever let anybody tell you that it was Appalachia. I said, why is that, mom? She said, because it's not. It's Appalachia. It's a Cherokee Indian word. You walk up one of them Cherokees in West North Carolina, and you tell them Appalachia. Watch them look at you. OK, I've messed up. I hit a snag here. But back home, I've been around some people that, hygiene, not their forte. I'm just being honest. But were they clean on the inside? My, my, were they clean. Clean on the inside. And it's going to take a clean vessel. You're going to have to be clean on the inside if you're going to get glory to the Lord. God doesn't use dirty things. He'll clean up a dirty thing. He'll clean it up. But I'm telling you what, if the Lord's going to get glory, He's got to have a clean vessel to use. And the last thing I want to look at in verse 21, we've talked about His position, His provision, His power, and now I want to look at our purpose. Now you realize, according to Revelation 4, 11, God created everything for His pleasure. The oak tree down here by the creek is for His pleasure. He enjoys that. You say, yeah, when He said all things are created and He created everything, it's for His pleasure. God enjoys the moon. I got up the other morning. I had to change my oil early. It was way before daylight. Some of y'all know what earthshine is on the moon. It's when you can see the moon. And just at the very bottom, there was just a little sliver of a crescent moon coming up. And it was way over there in the east. And then, of course, then you could see the whole moon lit up very well. And I stood there on my way up to the shop, and I thought, boy, that is just beautiful. That's amazing. And that's God's creation. And God gets glory out of that stuff. He loves it. It's for His pleasure. But man was created and that was pretty much His crowning achievement. I mean, I don't know of anything else that He breathed in the nostrils in the breath of life. I don't know what else He created in His own image in a triune being. I don't know of anything else. I mean, I may overlook something. God wants to get glory out of our lives. Okay? God wants to get glory out of our lives. So what I want you to do is just on this last point, just kind of evaluate yourself a little bit and say, Lord, what am I doing that actually, that I am actually working on to give you glory daily, every day, and really totally 24-7? And you say, well, you're getting in there too far. No. I believe you can give God glory with your life all the time. I believe you can. You say, and you know what badness will do? You know what badness will do? They'll look over in like Romans, yeah, get over in around 6, 7, 8 or 5, you know, or whatever. And they'll say, well, you know, I sin every day. I sin every day. Like it's okay or that's acceptable. We don't have to sin. Hello. We don't have to sin. You realize when you sin, it's because you chose to. Should we live any longer therein? God forbid. I'm glad we've got an advocate with the Father. If we do sin, Christ Jesus... I mean, I know I've got... My sin is taken care of and I'm not worried about doing something to lose my salvation because I know where my salvation lies. It lies in Jesus Christ. But I still know this, that I should be able to give God glory in my life every day. And you say, how can I give God glory? There's thousands of ways that you can get God to glory. One of the best things you can do is realize His position, His provision, and His power, and get your eyes off of you and get your eyes on Him. And then all of a sudden, the things of this world, as that song says, the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. And you'll begin to see that, you know what, Lord? You're really all that matters. You're really all that matters. Lord, You give us so many things richly to enjoy. There's so many things that we can have and so many things that we can do in this Christian life and things that are just a blessing to be a part of. And we can still do those things and bring glory and honor to Him. We can. And Christians, boy, they just won't do it sometimes. I don't know why they won't do it, but they won't. But unto him, the verse says here, unto him be glory in the church. In the church. I'm a firm believer on the local church. I believe God formed the church. I believe God uses the church. I believe God set up the New Testament church for a whole host of reasons, and I'm not going to teach a lesson on the church by any means, but listen, you can give God glory through the church, and you should. You give God the glory through the church by your giving. You know, if the missionary comes through and you hand the missionary, I don't want to sound, I don't want to, because sometimes the Lord puts it on your heart to give somebody a little something and you hand it to them or whatever, but you give that missionary, maybe the Lord puts it on your heart, that missionary needs $100. I'm just going to give that missionary $100. Well now, just hypothetically now, You can either hand that guy $100 or you can go to your pastor and say, and kind of privately through your pastor, say, you know what, the Lord put it on my heart to give him $100. Can you make sure that he gives $100? And you know what, that way, who gets the glory? Not the pastor, the church. gets the glory. Because the church, he says, church, we just want to give you a little extra tonight, here's an extra, and that guy gets that, see? But if the other guy gives it to him, got to be real careful because that guy could have got the glory. See? Got to be careful with that stuff. But God set up the church for a whole host of reasons. Man, you know what the church is? It's a place to get your battery charged. Man, I tell you, I love coming to church. I really do. I love coming to church on Wednesday. I like going to church on whenever there's a meeting. I believe y'all be in church every time doors are open. I believe that. I love going to church. I really do. And sometimes, like tonight, I'm not at my home church, but I'm here. Amen. I like going to church. And you know what it is? It's a place to get your batteries charged. So then you can get fed and watered and groomed dipped, everything else clipped, everything you need, and then you can go out there and do something for the Lord Jesus Christ and get glory to Him, see. You want to go out there and win the lost? You want to go out there and do some ministry? You want to go out there and go to the jail? You want to go to the prison? You want to go to the nursing home? You want to go to the assisted living? You want to get in the schools? You want to go do those things? You do it through here, see. You come in here and get fed, and you get watered, and you get the help you need, and you get built up in the faith, and then you can go out and do something, and you can go through the church. But unto Him be glory in the church, and that's the public ministry. Amen? But look, unto Him be glory in the church. Glorify unto Him. See, the glory unto Him, that's Him personally. You ever just glorify God privately to Him personally? Boy, isn't it something how many times we pray and it's just, I need, I need, I need, and God, can you do, can you do, can you do, and oh, by the way, God, can you, and oh, I forgot this, can you do, and now, Lord, listen, He is exceedingly, abundantly able. He's able to take care of those things. But you ever just go to Him and just give Him glory? You ever just praise Him, kind of worship Him in that way, all by yourself, and just give Him glory? personally, and then you can give it to him publicly in the church. And then on the last of this verse here it says, by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. You realize that the glory is going to go to Jesus Christ throughout all ages? Now here's something we can't get a hold of in our minds. All right, we can get a hold of, some of us can get a hold of 20 years from now, right? Some of us can get a hold of 50 years from now. I say, that already is leaving a bunch of people out. How about a thousand years from now? A million years from now. There are songs that sing about a million years from now. But you realize, a million years from now, Jesus Christ will be getting glory. You know what we ought to want to do? We ought to want to get in on it. We ought to want to give Jesus Christ the glory. Why? He deserves it. He save you? Did He save you? Did He get you out of sin? Yeah. Did He bail you out of a problem or two there along the way? Has He given you some victories? Sure He has. Has He seen you through the valley a few times? Maybe physical. problems, spiritual warfare, different things. Has He brought you through? And let me tell you something. You say, I'm in the valley right now. Let me tell you something. You hold on to Him, He'll bring you right on through. In His time, He will bring you through because He's able. And you know what we should do? Give the glory to Him. And listen, I don't want to be one of these glory stealers. I don't wanna be. And I'm just, I'm, listen, step away from the pulpit and the preaching. I'm just a man just like any other man in here. I fight the flesh. Paul said, I die daily. I've got the same, listen, we've all got the same battles, amen? We gotta die to self and we're gonna have to do something for the Lord because you know what the world needs to see? They need to see Christians that are serious about what they believe. Old brother Jack Wood died years ago. He said, say what you mean, me what you say, and act like you believe it. And this world has seen enough fake and phony Baptists to run them for a millennium. And it's about time the people of God stepped up and said, you know what? I'm going to give God the glory. And it'll help you. Amen? Brother Holt, I'm done. Thank you.