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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.
The Will Of God#2
Series The Will Of God
| Sermon ID | 1026241817313427 |
| Duration | 41:40 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Hebrews 13:20-21 |
| Language | English |
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