Verse number 20 to verse number 21. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. You may be seated tonight. Paul's writing here is, we of course believe he wrote the book and we've just dealt, as we said last Wednesday night, we've just got through dealing with Hebrews, but I wanted to use these two verses to look at the will of God series and see the will of God in our life. Now Paul, as he winds down the book, he says here, now the God of peace that make you perfect, verse number 20 and 21, if you put those together, perfect. And that word perfect of course means to, to complete throughly, thoroughly and throughly, both either way could be used. It means to put one in his appropriate position. In other words, may he make you and place you where you need to be for God's glory. And that's verse 20 said, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. We talked about that last week. But folks, it's not just the blood, even though the blood's enough, what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood. But it's also the Word of God is involved. We know that's by the Word. The Bible said in I Timothy 3, 16 and 17, he said, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, righteousness, that the man of God may be through, through, thoroughly, throughly, throughly, through and through, through and through, made perfect, in other words. Well, let me read that. He said that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, thoroughly furnished. So, therefore, he said, the Word of God. Now, when we think about finding your appropriate position, the God of peace placing you in the appropriate position, we know it's through the blood and by His Word, okay? And that word perfect is a kindred word in II Timothy 3. 317 is kindred word to the word perfect in Hebrews 1321. They're different Greek words but they're kindred words and it means in 2 Timothy 317 to be completely qualified, all parts complete and whole. In other words, being what they're supposed to be so that they might serve their destined purpose. You see, God's got a destined purpose or a predetermined purpose for your life. In other words, he said, may you be through, thoroughly, throughly furnished, through and through furnished, in other words. It's a kindred word to thoroughly, that means through and through as well, but it means to equip fully, so it takes the blood, we know that, and the word of God to equip man for his destined purpose. Now, what is man's destined purpose? We said last week, Isaiah chapter 43 verse number 7, He said, So God created you to glorify God. I created him for my glory. Every person in this room tonight, God allowed you to be created physically, if you please, to one purpose, and that is to glorify him. Now, as we think about that, what glorifies God? Well, what glorifies him is for every creature to do his will. May the word of God and the blood make you perfect in every good work to do his will, verse 21 speaks about there, to do his will. And that word to do means to pursue a course of action, in other words, in God's perfect divine center of his will. Now the word will means a determination, it means a choice. In other words, God's got a purpose for you, he's got a choice for you, and it designates what occurs or what should be done to others In other words, by others as objects of God's good pleasure in carrying out the divine purpose or accomplishment of what we would have. What He would have us to do is what I'm saying, destined purpose, His will. In other words, His choice, where He wants us. what he wants. Everybody's not made the same way. Everybody's not, we're not cloned, okay? I mean, colleges today or universities and seminaries, I guess you could say, they're trying to clone preachers is what they're trying to do. They're putting them out where they're just clones. Well, God's not in the cloning business. God made you an individual. You're not an uh-oh, as I've said before. God wants to use you. God's got a purpose in your life. He's got a divine will for your life. Now, some of it we know is similar. Everybody's will in some areas are similar, but yet there's some areas that's not similar. I mean, God doesn't want everybody to be a preacher. God doesn't want everybody to be a mama. I mean, God doesn't want, He sure don't want us men to be mamas, amen? But you understand, God made you the way you are. and prepared you and working all things together because he's got a destined purpose for your life. Have you ever figured, tried to figure out what's God's, my purpose and God's purpose for me in life? Well, you see, Paul's desire for the Hebrews was verse 20 and 21. Let me read that again. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. That's Paul's desire for the Hebrew Christians that he's writing this letter to at this time. In other words, that's God's desire also for all mankind, not just the Hebrews, you see. God breathed that word through Paul and he's writing specifically to the Hebrew professors at that time, but it's God's will for all mankind to do what? To do His will, to pursue a course of action and doing His will, so the will of God. As we're thinking about this series, what about the will of God? Sometimes it's hard to determine the will of God there's some places as far as the Word of God is said that doesn't really declare it. In other words, we're all to glorify God and that, and we know that glorifying God's by being saved and that is His will. We'll talk more about that in a minute. We talked about last Wednesday night, but yet God wants to use you. God's got a purpose for you. and somewhere, someway, somehow, and therefore, you need to find that. You need to find that purpose that God has in your life. Now, when you come to the Word of God, it doesn't tell you. Basically, it tells us that everybody's to serve God in one sense or the other. By the way, serving Him is a way to worship Him. You've got some people who say, well, worship's just when you all get in and shout and jump the pews. But did you know service is involved in worshiping him too, giving him, adoring him, in other words, and placing him in the right position before yourself by serving him, by yielding to the lordship of the Lord Jesus. So therefore, the will of God's sometimes hard to really determine. Where do you start? Well, the best way to start's in the word of God. That's the written will. Now folks, God's got a written will for your life. And then God's got an unwritten will for your life. And when I say that, that doesn't mean that you can go off on your own tangent and do what you want to do as far as the flesh is concerned. It's going to have to agree with the written will. Or at least, let me put it this way, any will of God in your life will not disagree with God's written word. So God's got a written will in here for every person. First of all, we said last week, His will is that you be saved. The Bible said in 2 Peter 3, verse number 9, He said this, The Lord's not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And now I know somebody says that, well, that just means the elect. Well, why would he even have to say not willing for them to perish if God already has their name in the book? He knows what they're going to do. He knows how they're going to respond. He's not talking about them only. Yes, he's writing to the saints of God, which are the elect, but he also is writing for every man. He's not willing that any man, woman, boy or girl perish. He's not willing. I want to go on record to that again and again and again. His blood on the cross of Calvary was capable of saving every person and will save every person who'll come God's way. Amen? But you got to come God's way. So His will is that you might be saved. Now, there's many more scriptures we dealt with last week. I'm not going to go over that and recap those, but that's first of all and utmost and foremost in your life. What is God's will for my life? That you be saved. that you be saved. That's the most important thing. What difference does it make if you amass thousands and millions and billions of dollars or property or possessions if you lose your own soul? Because your own soul is worth more than all the world. That's what the Bible says, all right? So I'll not go into more about the, first of all, the will of God for you is that you be saved. Get the tape, get the CD or something if you need that and go from there. But now then secondly, tonight I want to go a little further and find out what the written will is for our lives tonight. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse number 18, he said, in everything give thanks. for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Now, I know he's talking to the saints in context there in Thessalonians, but folks, I believe that every person, you need to get thankful. You need to give thanks, not just be thankful. See, it didn't say be thankful. Somebody said, well, I'm thankful, I'm thankful. Well, he says give thanks. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise. Be thankful, in other words. There's a difference in being thankful and giving thanks, okay? I mean, somebody, well, they know, everybody knows I'm thankful. Well, it'd be like the woman, you know, she said, talk about ready to divorce her husband. She said, well, you just don't love me anymore. You just never tell me you love me. He said, listen, I told you 50 years ago that I loved you, and I told you if it ever changed, I'd tell you different, and it hadn't changed. Well, it's still good to tell them you love them, amen? And it's good to give thanks. I know God knows your heart, I understand that, but folks, it helps others to see that you're really thankful. It helps others to encourage. Don't you get encouraged when you see somebody being blessed and they give thanks? They give thanks? I didn't say be thankful, but give thanks. In everything, give thanks. Now, in the Greek, that's just a, that's one word in the Greek, and it means to express gratitude towards, means to be grateful, and implies a kindness done. It's an undeserved favor, it's grace, in other words. Listen, we've got a lot to be thankful for, but how much do we give thanks? Do you ever stop and give thanks to God, first of all, out yonder, and out in the, a countryside and you ever stop and just, I lift my hands to the heavenly Jerusalem and say, thank you, Lord, for your goodness to me. And we sing the song, I've been so blessed and count your blessings, name them one by one, if we would stop, and if we could count them, we'd be here a while, even if one person counted them. The sun came up today in a free nation. How much are we thankful for that? Not just being thankful, but do you ever thank God for it? I'm talking about thank him. And yet, the Bible talks in Old Testament time about giving thanks in the congregation. In other words, thankful, thankful. Not just being thankful, but giving of those thanks, in other words. And he said, in everything. Give thanks. Didn't say necessarily you're thankful for everything that come your way. I mean, you're getting some kind of a wreck or something, and how you gonna give thanks for your arm getting cut off? You don't give thanks for your arm getting cut off. You give thanks for God bringing you through it alive. You give thanks for it, amen? In other words, but in those things, you're thankful. Folks, we're facing some things. We're in a drought. But in that drought, and I know it's rained a little, the grass has greened up, and it looks like the yard's growing more than the pastures are, if you don't know the truth about it, amen. But the thing about it is, it's still gonna be a long winter for the farmers. We've got cattle, it's gonna be a long winter. I don't care, I mean, if we get rain every day, what little grass is out there, it's about time for the grass to become dormant anyway, I mean. And there's gonna be hay, they're gonna run out of hay. But listen, we ought to end those things give thanks for the God of heaven who's done for you, whatever he's done for you. I mean, even though we've had sickness amongst us, and hey, there's still something in that, you can still give thanks that God is in control. God's in control, amen? Thanks for the truth. Thanks for light. Thanks for the, in other words, give thanks, in other words, in everything. All the happenings of your lives, whether it be good or bad, is God-directed and God-controlled. Did he not say in Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work together for good? To them who love God, who are called according to His purpose, that's not just to save. That's those that's going to be saved. In fact, the goodness of God is good to every man, to bring them and give them a space of repentance. And how many times have you given thanks for that? Sometimes people make professions and they brag about what they've done and what the preacher's done. I'm gonna tell you what, we've not done anything, but he's done it all, and we ought to give thanks. Yes, be thankful, but we ought to give thanks. We ought to give thanks for those things, you see. Why? Because it's just grace for God to do anything for me. Just grace. It's undeserved favor. It's his grace to do anything to me or for me because I'm a nobody. I'm a nobody. Did you know you are too? The Bible said in Romans 5 verse number six, he said in 5.6, he said, for when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. He said we were without strength. That means we're under the anesthesia of sin and had no consciousness toward God. That's why he said, none seek after God and you'll never be saved without seeking after God. And it means God's got to move. You've got to make the first move in your life to cause you to seek after Him. There's none good, no not one. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. All of us are that way. We're weak for good and we're strong for evil because He said we was ungodly. That means that we're strong for evil. And then in verse number 8 of Romans 5, he said this, That's not just the sin nature that was passed from Adam, even though we have that. We can't do anything about that, but we chose by our own choice, choosing wrong. We chose to sin against the Holy God and go against the Holy God, and yet God loved us enough. He went to the cross of Calvary to die in our place. Listen, He did that while we were yet sinners. He loved us that much, and yet have we got somebody said, what have I got to be thankful for? What have I got to give thanks about? Have you ever heard somebody say that? I've heard that just because they have a, you know, a pimple on their face sometimes. I mean, you understand, I know I've got my tongue in the cheek when I say that, but some people will say, what have I got to be thankful for? God hadn't done anything for me. I want to tell you what, God's done everything for us. Are you thankful for it? Have you given thanks for it? Not just the physical blessings, but everything that's come your way. You see, he loved me and he worked in my life. In fact, Romans 5, 10 said, we were enemies of God. That means we're actively engaged by choice and sin against the Holy God and fought God and kicked against him. And yet God in his long suffering and forbearance held back that wrath and, oh, give us a space of repentance. Even if you're not saved, he's still holding back that wrath. You're not in hell. You're not in hell. Your name wasn't in the obituary today. None of us was in there, amen, if it wasn't somebody else with the same name. We've got much to be thankful for, but have we given thanks for it? Have we given thanks? Sometimes we don't really appreciate what we've got till we lose it. Did you know that's what happens a lot of times in husbands and why they don't appreciate one another what they really like the art to till they've lost one of them? and then they don't realize how much they really had. We don't, we're not thankful. We ought to say thank you. God, you give us another day together, amen? Now, these are temporal things in one sense. These are physical things. But listen, what about the spiritual, the spiritual things? You see, in everything, I should give thanks in everything. Whether it's good or whether it's bad, it's gonna work together for good out yonder, because God said it was. He's overseeing it all, you know. Now, it's easier for me to preach than it is for me to practice, all right? I'm not just fussing at you. I'm just trying to get us to wake up and, hey, be thankful, but give thanks. That's the will of God, and that glorifies God by being, by giving thanks. He said that's the will of God. That's God's destined purpose, God's destined purpose. Have you ever had to, some of your family just to come up to you and little kids and grandkids or whatnot and say, I love you, grand-grand. That blesses me, amen. It's unsolicited. When it's unsolicited, if they can't say it, wait till they can, amen. I mean, when they can say it, that they unsolicited, it's a blessing, amen. It's something to give thanks for. and being thankful for it, and it blesses me for that to happen. It blesses me when someone says that, and you know what I'm saying, and they really mean it, and I don't know why sometimes people say, I appreciate where you stand and what you stand for, but that blesses you. But listen, how much more should we do that to God? That's what he wants. He wants us to be audible, giving him thanks in the congregation and out there by ourselves, wherever. Thank you, Lord, for whatever, whatever, giving thanks, not just, well, I've got it in my heart. He knows my heart. Yeah, but sometimes it helps. Just like your wife, it'd be better to tell her you love her, your husband, tell him you love him if you don't do it. You need to do it more often, amen? And mean it, I mean, just say those words. And I know sometimes people are brought up not to do that, and they didn't do it, but listen, it helped. And God wants us to say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for positioning me. Thank you for helping me to get to, not helping me, but getting me, making me perfect, making me complete, getting me to the place I need to be. In other words, and did you know really the Bible said in Romans chapter one that for us not to do that, not to be thankful, and first of all, if not be thankful, leads to wreck and ruin, idolatry and unrighteousness. Romans chapter one, verse number 21 through 23, after it talks about how that we've got light, we've got conscience, God's been blessed us, and yet it says, but because that when they knew God, verse 21, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. Not just being thankful, but they didn't give thanks. Folks, you ought to be thankful for the light God gives you. You ought to be thankful. You could have been born in the hottentot of Africa, back where they eat, eat, or offered their babies to the alligators in the river somewhere. All kind of false religion. And you, well, you say that other way, I'd have died and went to heaven that way if they'd offered me to a crocodile, but... We're looking at it from the physical side. We ought to give thanks for what we have. But he said, When they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. In other words, if man is not thankful, and I think giving thanks, not only just being thankful, but giving thanks for what light God's giving, even what light he has becomes darkness, and God pulls the hedge back, and man will have an idol to worship. It may be somebody. It may not be a Buddha, but it be somebody or something or some idol that we will actually worship, and then he pulls the hedge back even further if we fail to continue being thankful, and turns us over to vile affection, uncleanness, and reprobate mind. A bad, dangerous place to be in in this old world today. Why? Simply because we're not thankful. Wasn't being thankful, and we didn't give thanks. If we didn't give thanks, it leads to wreck and ruin. You know, I got to thinking even today and yesterday and the last few days. You know, I grew up in a liberal Baptist church, and some of you may not even know what that is, It's pretty bad, amen? It's pretty bad, but it's motivated by lust. Do what you want to do when you want to. But whenever God worked in my life, and part of that working in my life was bad things at that time. I thought it was the end of the world. I mean, my horse got, rode the horse out from under me, and that's just one of the things. Here I am out tractor pulling and had a wreck and thought I was gonna kill my kids and all what not, you know? But you know what? God took all of that and caused me to move toward Him. And I can't explain that. I mean, I can't explain that, but he said the word of God and the blood make you perfect, make you complete to do the purpose that God had. In other words, that you get thankful. And so I began to be a little more thankful and I began to give some thanks about that. And God positioned me. God worked in my life. He positioned me to where I got under the power of God and the gift to preach got stirred. Even though I wasn't saved, the gift to preach got stirred and I began to pray God called me to preach. But listen, in that liberal church, I grew up that And so as I began to move toward God, since I didn't have reality of anything, I began to do what I thought the others were doing, and that's what most of them were. I began to move in the other ditch of legalism and do's and don'ts. Now folks, most of what's in the ditch of legalism is correct, but the attitude wasn't right. It's not a means to an end within itself, amen? And so therefore, you see, but I'm thankful. Why didn't I kick against the truth? Why didn't I run? Why didn't I get mad? My nature's to do that. All of our nature's to do that, amen? All of our nature's to rebel against God. I mean, we chip off the old block, off Adam. And the Bible says the God of this world, in other words, have blinded their minds and the spirit of this age, which is rebellion, is controlling us. And we want to do what I want to do. If you don't believe it, watch your children. They got on tie-on shoes and you try to help them tie their shoe, what do they say? Leave me alone, I'll do it myself. Huh? I mean, you know, when they're able to say that, I'll do it myself. And then when they bring it to you to tie your shoe, they're in such a mess, it takes you a whole lot longer to untie them and get the knots out than it would have if you could have done it in the beginning. That's the way we are about salvation. We're trying to do it ourselves. We're trying, and then mankind wants to do it himself, and we are not thankful. We're not giving thanks. I want to give thanks that I didn't run against that, that I didn't kick against that. I mean, Brother Charles came and he preached the truth in the church, and I didn't really hear all of it, but because of love, I love Brother Charles, and he said he'd talk to me one day about my legalistic things, and I don't even remember that. But the thing about it is, I didn't kick against it. Why didn't I rebel against that life? Why didn't I run? Why didn't I go the other way? I don't know. Just grace. Thank you, Lord. In the congregation. I want to thank him tonight for the fact that I didn't, I didn't mean I didn't kick against some things at times, but the thing about it is God was so good to me. And I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for them. I know there's a lot of physical things I'm thanking for tonight, and I'll do that, but what's really been on my heart the last few days is the fact is, why didn't I kick out of the traces? Why didn't I run? Why didn't I go? Why didn't I? Boy, I won't tell you what. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. You're here tonight. You ought to say thank you. You ought to say thank you. You ought to say thank you. I didn't do that either. I did enough, all of us did, but we ought to say thank you, thank you, thank you. It'd help to stop and say thank you if you need to say thank you. Thank you, Lord. Just thank you, it's all right. I don't know, but I've been thinking about this, Miss Wanda, I've been thinking about this the last few days. And I coulda, I mean, you know what, my heart goes out when that happens. I don't relish that, I don't want that. But oh, you see, we ought to stop and thank the Lord today. Stop and thank. That's the will of God. He said the word of God and the blood of the cross of Calvary will make you complete and thoroughly make you for that you'll pursue a course of action to do His will, seeking Him that you might be saved, but to thank Him. Give thanks unto his name. In everything, give thanks. Boy, we need to be a thankful people. Amen. Thank you. I appreciate you, folks. I do. I thank you for putting up with me. I'll thank the Lord for him enabling you to put up with me. Amen. But the thing about it is, we need to give thanks. That's the will of God in Christ Jesus. You know something else is the will of God? Talking about the written will, Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 and 13, he said this, he said, Philippians chapter 2, 12, Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now that has nothing to do with being saved by works, for the Bible very clearly says we're not saved by works lest any man should bow. But he's talking to the saints of God, work out what God's put in you. And he goes on to say in verse 13 of Philippians 2, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now did you know it's God's will for you to labor? It's God's will for you to labor. It's God's will for you to labor spiritually and physically. In other words, we're talking about what's God's written will. You see, I know he's writing to the saints, not the lost, but yet, but in other words, he's just not, we're not to just reach out and work out what God's put in us to just the saints, but the others, the lost as well. Let them see others see Jesus in me. Let the Lord's lights be burning is the phrase that we tell. But he said, work out, carry something to a conclusion. Pursue a course of action and carry it to a conclusion. And the only reason you can do that is because it's God worketh in you. God energizes you and God urges you to action. He urges us to action to do those things. And you see, he's the one who got to give you a will or a desire or cause you to work out toward others. He'll cause you to be thrust forth into action. Why, Legion, there he was after, and we called him Legion because of the fact he called the devil, said there's a legion of demons in him, and we identify his name sometime as Legion. I know that wasn't his real name, but he, when he was saved, he was clothed and in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus, and he said, Lord, I want to go with you. These people don't appreciate me here. I want to go with you. And what did the Lord tell him? In Mark chapter 5 verse 19, Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, or allowed him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. In other words, you go home to those that you know, you see. You realize something, and I've shared this with you before, some of you know it, some of you don't, but whenever I went through what I went through, listen, a lot of the preacher brethren in our West Tennessee and West Kentucky area, they would trot me down, they shot me down in a sense, friendly fire, so-called, I guess you could say. Wasn't very friendly, but I mean, you understand. But the thing about it is, you know what I really wanted to do? I really went somewhere like up in Minnesota, somewhere where nobody knew me. And start over again, in a sense. I mean, you understand what I'm saying? Because I thought people, you know what I'm talking about. I see you grinning. In other words, go where nobody, you'll find out there'll be somebody to find out about you there. But just didn't wanna have to deal with some of those things. Listen, I had to come into here where I'd preached lost three meetings back in 79 and 80. And God put me back here and there's a lot of times there was just so much shame of all that back there and how I treated some people and didn't mean to be in those ways, you realize. But yet, God put me right. Go home to your friends where everybody knows you and tell them what great things the Lord's done for you. Legion had to go back to his own hometown. He had to go back to where they'd seen him run naked through the graveyard, where he'd run naked up in the mountains, the Bible even talked about. He had to go back to those places, and yet he had to tell them, but they saw a difference in his life. Go home to your friend. In other words, we're talking about laboring spiritually. The Lord's the one who does that. He said, but the Lord, for it's God which worketh in you both the will and the do of His good pleasure. In other words, and when you do so, that brings Him good pleasure. When you obey Him, go where He wants you to. That brings Him satisfaction. That brings Him delight. You see, that glorifies Him. When you spiritually labor like God wants you to, it's His will for you to labor. Labor spiritually, but you know it's His will for you to labor physically as well? In other words, the Bible says much scripture about this in 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse number 8, but if any provide not for his own, especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. You see, God never wanted you to be on welfare, and that doesn't mean it's not needed at times, I understand that. God wanted you to labor. He wanted you to move toward Him. It's God which worketh in you. He said that is if you will not provide for your family, at least make an attempt to do it. Now I know sometimes things happen and you're not able to do that. I understand that. But if you're not trying to make an attempt to it, you're sorry. You're sorry. And in other words, he said, you're worse than an infidel. You've denied the faith because it's God's will for you to labor, he said. Proverbs chapter 6, verse number 6 through 11, Proverbs here, the preacher's talking this. He said, go to the aunt, thou sluggard, consider her ways. and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come to one that travaileth, and thou won't as an armed man. In other words, he said, in other words, a sluggard, a sluggard. Proverbs 10, four says this, he said, he becometh poor, that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. Proverbs 13, four, he said the soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. Proverbs chapter 20, verse number four, he said the sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold, and therefore shall he beg and harvest and have nothing. The sluggard is a person who's habitually lazy or idle, one who dislikes or avoids work. You see, God's will for you to labor spiritually and labor physically. Now, we've had those in the past that said we were a bunch of workaholics around here. Well, I want to tell you what. If somebody didn't work, some of them wouldn't eat, amen. But we need to get to the place to where we need to labor and be what God wants you to be. You know something, when I'm talking about God's will to give thanks, it's God's will to labor. My dad and mama didn't do everything they should have done when we grew up. We didn't attend church like we should have gone. They didn't pray and have family altar like they should have done. That's not belittling them. That's not putting them down. That's just telling it like it is in that sense. But I want to tell you what my mom and dad did. They taught me to labor. And I want to tell you, if you are not taught that, you can be super spiritual. And if you don't labor, it don't amount to a hill of beans. Amen? You can talk about the things of God all you want to, but if you're too lazy, if you're the sluggard and not wanting to do something, provide for your own household, for your own children, always wanting to run down somebody who does, then I'll tell you what, I'm not gonna listen to anything they got to say, amen? But mom and dad, I wanna give thanks tonight for my mom and dad teaching me a little bit about work, you see. In fact, the business of my dad, I never done nothing to please him. Hey, it's always, you know what I'm saying? I guess I come out natural, okay. My wife, she's got the look on her face, but I've tried to be better than that. I try to brag on them, I do. I didn't in the beginning, like I should, but honey, I love y'all. I appreciate all you've ever done, amen. I better get that out of the way before I go. But the thing about it, dad, if you did an excellent job and the neighbors could brag on plowing beans one day. I remember the neighbors bragging on plowing beans. Daddy just told me what the neighbor said. But he never said, did a good job, son. He never did hardly ever say that. I knew I pleased him at times. but seemed like the most time I didn't do it good enough. You know what he was trying to do? He wanted me to do it better. He wasn't satisfied with just enough. We had one neighbor, he left to go through the field 95 miles an hour with a tractor when they got four-row cultivators. And daddy said, looky there, son, he's plowing the middles, not the bean rows. He'd be that far away from the beans. That's before they had spray stuff. And he was plowing the middles. He was doing a good job in the middle. But the grass come up around the beans. He didn't care. He had insurance. And he'd run through the field and combine them out the same way. And he's still operating. But there's a payday coming, amen? But the thing about it is, Daddy, he wanted those beans wrapped up. He wanted them wrapped up just to where all the grass was out of that corn. He didn't want nothing but corn blades sticking out. And if it covered one up, it didn't work. It started out with a rastus, you know. Some of you don't know what a rastus is, but I, you know, you just didn't let that thing slip over. And of course, we had that old tobacco. We raised that stuff, you know. I ought to know that stuff. It seemed as hard to work as it was, amen. But we'd go down through there and plow that rastus, and I thought, you know, if you let that plow slip over a little bit and get one of them plants, and maybe he'd let me quit. Yeah, he let me quit alright. He quit long enough for me to wear me out and then don't you do that no more. Come up, Sam, let's go. Day in and day out. Never did worry about what we're going to do tomorrow. Are we going to town? We didn't go to town. The old truck wasn't cranked all week long. Except sometime on Sunday. Didn't even go to the grocery store. You know, we can't get by a day without going to Shop-O-Rama three times. Y'all know what I'm talking about? We're trained that way. But then we didn't do that. We didn't have that. And we had to make do. I remember one time plowing some sweet potatoes. And about 9 o'clock in the morning, a clevis broke on the, well, it wasn't really a clevis, it was one of those hooks up on the hame. I done forgot all what they were, you know, those, it was a type of clevis, wasn't it? Hooked in there, you know, and hooked that trace chain to it. And it broke. Ha ha. I get to go to the house. I wrapped up the reins and the plow lines and And all the trace chains and hung them up on the harness and headed to the house. Daddy said, what you doing boy? I said, well I broke it, can't go. He said, we'll find something. And we engineered something. I don't remember, he might have had another or something. I don't remember what it was, but I was back in the field for a long plowing again. I just had to walk out and walk back, you see. but he taught me to labor, and I'm saying today, I thank the Lord for my dad teaching me to labor to work, amen? It's an art that's mission today, and our young people don't know anything about it today. I know we don't have the farm like we used to. Even farmers don't have that. They go off to Florida a lot of times in the wintertime and whatnot. Now a lot of them do, and it's not a, used to as a 13-month-out-of-the-year job, you know, farming was, and they called it a strong back and a weak mind. Thank the Lord for that. We'd go to bed at night, I'd go to bed about 9 o'clock, wake up, and my hands would actually be sore. I'm talking about a 16-year-old boy. I mean, come in, didn't know what, said, what are we going to do tomorrow? Didn't ask, because it's a job. Well, if it rained, didn't matter, there's something else to do. I mean, there was a job day in and day out, every day seeming of our life, except Sunday. is a day in that Saturday as well. Now I'm not giving you a hard luck story. I'm just trying to look at some things and say it's God's will for us to labor and to do something right and to do a job right. In other words, labor physically because if you won't labor physically, you're not going to labor spiritually when God doesn't work in your heart. So you see it's God's will. He worketh in you both to will and to do, to pursue a course of action, and all the time giving thanks because He's worthy. Giving to Him thanks, and giving those that's helped you along the way thanks, because that glorifies God. God said you give unto Matthew 25. You do it unto them, you've done it unto me. The same thing. So God's will is that you be saved. I'm talking about his written will to be saved, to give thanks, and to labor. That's just three things that we've talked about from the word of God that God says is his will for us to do. And I ask you tonight, do you want to do his will? Are you willing for him to help you, enable you, to put you in his destined purpose to glorify him? First of all, to be saved, seek him with all your heart. Come to the end of yourself and let God do the work. Are you willing to give thanks? Not just be thankful, but give thanks. Doesn't mean you gotta do it. I'm not asking to pump you up to do something. I'm just saying you need to give thanks. physically and spiritually because God said that's my will, my will. May the Lord help us. So I want to give thanks today for what he's done. I want to give thanks for the light he gave me and I didn't deserve it, amen. To him be the glory. I want to give thanks that he didn't, that I didn't rebel no more than I did. I didn't rebel enough to run and take out on God, oh my. we need to be thankful today and give thanks and continue to reach out and work out what God's put in us. I don't care if you're not even saved, God's put something in you, you can work it out to others. You can let others see what the Lord's doing in you for God's glory. So tonight, the will of God, be saved to give thanks and to labor. I pray you'd help us tonight speak to our hearts, to help us to be sensitive to you, help us to give thanks, not just be thankful, because Lord, if we're not thankful, even being, if we're not thankful in the area of being thankful, it leads, even what light we've got becomes darkness, and that leads to wreck and ruin. Oh Lord, we need help. We're a needy people. So help us to be thankful and then give thanks and labor spiritually and labor physically for God's glory and then all that they might come. They labor even strive to enter in the straight gate to overcome the obstacles that's in their way. That's part of laboring and they might be saved and that satisfies you. That gives you glory. That's your will to be saved, to give thanks, and the labor is what you wrote down. And may you make us perfect and complete, thoroughly furnished to do, pursue a course of action, to do your will. And we'll thank you for what you do, for we ask it in Jesus' name, for his sake we pray. Heads bowed, eyes closed, altars opened, we remind the Lord tonight as she plays.