God's Word for a few moments this morning. Our loving Father, with grateful hearts, we thank thee indeed that for many of us, we can say that we are going to a palace that is built of gold. Glory to God, hallelujah. And we thank you that we are going to see the one, and the builder, none other than God himself, and we thank you that you alone will be on your throne. We bless you that we are going to have a privilege one day as the children of the Lord, to shout and sing, and Lord, we're able to sing that song of the Lamb, worthy as the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world to receive glory and honor and praise. And Lord, till that day, we ask you, Father, to get our focus and help us to keep our focus in you. And this morning, as we just take these few moments just to look at your word, we pray, Lord, you might use your word to inspire us and instruct us and encourage us, and if necessary, Lord, rebuke us. But Lord, just fulfill your purposes for our lives today, as we gather here in your house. In Jesus' name, amen. If you've got your Bible, we're reading this morning from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews in chapter 12. And we're gonna read a few, just a couple of verses. And the first couple of verses, please. And I've got a wee title this morning, just gonna say this is, give a wee title, and it's simply entitled, What Way Are You Looking? What way are you looking? And, uh, because if you're a, if we are as the children of the Lord, there really is only one way we ought to be looking and you'll see it in verse two of Hebrews chapter 12, but let's read from first one and let's try it. Trust that God will use his inspired word today to touch and bless our hearts. Verse one, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Now, I'm going to just say we felt here on the way by. The writer here, I'm not 100% sure who the writer is. Some believe it was Apostle Paul, but we're not going to get into that dispute this morning. What I'm going to say to you is that whoever the writer was, he had his battles and he had his struggles. And so if you've been honest with yourself, and you've been honest in the house of God this morning, you might say, that sounds a bit like me as well, because I have my battles, and I have my struggles. Because just because you're a Christian, or just because you become a Christian, doesn't mean that all your struggles and your battles with sin is all gone. Because the Apostle Paul will then go on to say later on, or earlier on, as in the book of Corinthians, he says, the good that I would do that I don't do, and the things I don't want to do, those things I end up doing. He says, who can deliver me from this body of the flesh? So we know that, undoubtedly, there was a time whenever there was a belief that was sort of being taught that whereby we could get to a place of what's called sinless perfection, this state of eternity. Now I don't believe there's such a thing as sinless perfection, this state of eternity. I believe when we see Jesus, the Bible says, clearly we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. So then we shall be sinlessly perfect. But in this state of eternity now, we'll always battle with sin. And sadly there'll be days when we will yield to sin. There'll be days whenever it will get the better of us, rather than us getting the better of it. And so here we see, there's a, whoever this writer was, says, let us lay aside every weight, and the sun which does so easily beset us. So easily beset us. It's not as if it's a big complicated thing. He says, we're easily beset by these things. And then he said these words, verse two, looking on to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We'll end our reading there, and we know that God will bless his word to our hearts, and we know that it is his word, and he's promised to inspire it. Now for this little theme, I just wanna leave with you, I'm gonna try and cut to the chase this morning, just get straight into our, What is it, maybe this morning, what way are you looking? Or maybe another way you could look at this little thought is, what hinders you from looking today? What hinders you from looking to Christ today? Let me give you four little Bible characters, very simply, that you find in the scriptures. Different characters, and sadly they got their attention on different things. Let me begin with a man who's called, if you go to, in Matthew, you don't need to look it up in your Bible, but in Matthew 14, you read the story, but in Matthew 14, a man called Peter and a number of other fishermen are out in the lake of Galilee. And the scripture says, and when the disciples saw him, that was Jesus walking on the sea, they were troubled or they were so afraid. And they said, is it a spirit? And they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer as I, be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thee, bid me to come unto thee in the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked in the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the one who was boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried and he said, Lord, save me. Here's a man, and he was looking the wrong direction. Because I'm going to say, it was what I'm going to call, he was a man who got distracted, even though he was following the Word of God. He'd get distracted by things around him. And I was thinking about folks, because sometimes, you know, as you make your journey through life, God can give you a very clear guidance as to what he wants you to do with your life, and sadly, you become distracted by things. Let me say this is very important, especially for young people, but not just for the young people, but even for older folk who seek guidance in their lives. And who doesn't want to seek guidance? You're making decisions in your life, and you want to make the right decision. I'm going to say something to you, good folks. Let me say, there are some people, they look to the stars. Well, you better not be one of them, because let me tell you, you're going to be in trouble at the end of the day. Some people, they listen to whims and different noises from different people, what they say. But as the people of God, there's only one means that we have for guidance in our lives, and it's called the scriptures. It's called the word of God. And we need to look, we need to seek the word of God, we need to study the word of God. In fact in the book of Psalms it says, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go and I will guide thee with my eye. And you want guidance in your life concerning your future, you sit down with an open book. and you begin to let that book minister into your heart, don't go with a preconceived idea thinking, oh well I'm going to go today and I know I'm going to get a message from the Lord. Just simply wait on him and let his still, small voice minister into your heart. Don't manipulate the word for something that you want it to work out for you. But listen to him. You say, how do I know that? Because here is this beautiful picture. Here's this very simple lesson you learn here, whereby Peter's on this boat along with the other fishermen. And these are big strapping fishermen. I don't know about you, but the only time I watch these old programs on television about these boys that go out catching fish out in the ocean. Well, I'll be honest with you, it's far handier for me just to go to Marks and Spencers and buy a bit of fish. But these boys tramp away across the ocean to get theirs. But I'm happy just to go and buy mine. But that's irrelevant. What I'm going to say to you is, good folk, here I find this man. These men are out in the Lake of Galilee. And lo and behold, they see this figure in the distance and they think it's a ghost. Now, whenever we were growing up, we called them bogeymen. Wee village you go down through, wee outside Mullingmore heading to Dismartin, you go down through these big tall trees, and you used to be in the push, if you were riding the pushbike, you used to ride the pushbike as hard as you could because you were afraid in case the bogeyman jumped out to get you. Don't you remember them? Some of yous aren't too bad, some of yous haven't seen bogeymen. Anyway, I didn't see any, frankly, I didn't see any. Well, these boys, that's what they thought it was. They thought it was a bogeyman. They didn't realise it was Jesus. You know why they didn't realise it was him? Because they had never seen anybody walking on water before. This is the first lesson now. God does the impossible. You should never be amazed whenever impossible things happen in your life as a child of God. You should never be amazed that God can work in impossible situations. That's the first simple wee lesson. Second lesson is there, lo and behold, Peter says, Lord, they hear the Savior speak to them. And then Peter says, Lord, if it's you, bid me to come to you. That's the second lesson I want to say to you. He was waiting for the word from God. And when he had the word from God, he stepped out of the boat and he was in the will of God. Them two Ws can never be separated, good people. Never be separated. Because the minute you begin to separate them, you're in danger. You say, how do I know that? Well, I'm telling you, you go into the book of Jonah, and you'd read about a man called Jonah, and he had a word from God. He says, go to Nineveh. What does Jonah do? Jonah goes toward Tarsus. He goes the opposite direction. He gets into a boat. He begins to sail away. Then lo and behold, this boat he's on, you call it like FedEx of today, that's what you call it, because these boys were delivering goods from one land to another land. So he gets on this boat and he heads as far away along the opposite direction. And while they get into the water, these men, these big fishermen, they get afraid because they think their vessel is going to go down. So they begin to throw their cargo overboard. Jonah says, well, listen, the reason why this, the ocean is like it is, is because of me, because I have been rebellious against the call of God, throw me overboard. And so what does he do? They throw him overboard and God prepares the belly of a wheel or belly of a fish to catch him. Now, years ago, good people, you'll forgive me, but years ago, whenever I was a wee child, the young people here, I went to Sunday school and like, you're all young. I went to a couple of Sunday schools. Remember at the end of the year, you get your real prize given and got a wee book. Book was the life of Jonah. And by the boy that was doing the art on the wee book, the boys, you get really excited because he put a fire inside the wheel of the belly, or the belly of the wheel, should I say. Wheel of the belly. Belly of the wheel. And he put a, and I'm thinking, boys, that old wheel must have thought he'd built bad indigestion if Arjuna was in there. Man, he says, I've a little heartburn. He says, I've got a little, hey, so has Maitreya. But listen, it was a dark place for Arjuna because that's what disobedience does, folks. It brings us into a dark place. That is until God himself breaks him down in this dark place and helps him to see that he has disobeyed God and it's time for him to return to God. It was the exact same happened for the prodigal son. God takes him to a low, dark place in his life. Might be today as you're here in the house of God, you're like the prodigal and you're like Jonah, you have disobeyed. It's not the fact that you've, well, yes, primarily you've got distracted from what God's word has said in your life, but most of all, you've become disobedient in your life. And you know that you're not walking with God the way you should be. You know that God very clearly showed you in his word. He gave you his promise what you should be doing, but you're doing the complete opposite. Let me tell you something, good folk. There are dark days ahead for you. And it's in those dark days you're going to learn some very, very hard lessons. And that is that disobedience doesn't pay for it. Disobedience doesn't pay. We'll hear this man, he got distracted. We find him stepping out of the boat. He's begin to walk and he's looking to Christ. And then lo and behold, he sees the wind and waves all boisterous around him. And the scripture says he begins to sink. And he cries out, Lord, save me. Folks, can I tell you something? As you make your way through life, even as a child of God, there are many things that will distract you from following after God. Some of you young people have headed off to university. There are many things that will distract you in university from following after God. Some of you people in the workplace, you want to try and honor God in your workplace, there are many things that will distract you from honoring God in the workplace. But let me say, as you know as well as I do, the beautiful old text of Scripture in the book of Samuel, it says, him that honors me, I will honor. And so Peter had lessons to learn, and that was that Peter, Don't get distracted by the waves and the wind, just keep your eyes on me. And this morning God's word is, now I ain't no prophet nor no son of a prophet, but I'm gonna say to you today, this is God's word for you today, you good people, get your eyes on Jesus and keep them there. If Peter got distracted, let me very quickly share with you good folks, but a man called Elijah, These are really only brief snippets. What you're getting is you're getting little windows. You know what I mean? Sometimes boys build houses and build big grand windows and big ways you can look in. Well, as if God just gives us little, like little porthole windows, wee circle, wee windows that we pop in and we just, we're literally just taking a wee glance into these characters and then we're popping back out at you. We just take a wee quick look at their lives and see what lesson we can learn just briefly overviewing their life. Well, this man at age, you know, in 1 Kings 18, he is what I'm going to say to you, on the mountaintop, spiritually, this man is just like he's at the very pinnacle of his spiritual journey. I have had the privilege in my lifetime of meeting some very godly people, and it's been a great honour just to meet those people. I'm going to say to you now, good folk, some of the most godliest people I've met have never stood behind pulpits, have never preached sermons. But I'll tell you what I have done, whenever I've met those godly people, I've always found them in the place of prayer. I remember a wee woman, her name was Mrs. Miller. Come from Cookstown, originally from Moneymoor. That's partly why she took on to me. I don't know, she was a real circle salt of the earth. She was just, she grew up just across the fields from where my father grew up. And I remember her telling me stories. I used to go to her house for a drop of tea, and she'd never get tea, she's just that busy talking. But sure, she was a woman, she just enjoyed a bit of a blather and a bit of a chatting. I let her chat away, and she was, but aye, we'd have tea. You seen her when you got her to the prayer meeting, aye? I'd say she was some woman of prayer. I can still remember a wee prayer in a congregation church. Lord, we pray for the unsaved because they're standing in the very trap door of hell and it could open at any time. And she meant every word of it. Man, there was a bit of fire in her belly. and a bit of fire in her prayers. It wasn't just a matter of just saying prayers. She meant it. She wasn't worrying. Let me say, good folk, stop worrying about what other people are thinking about you. Don't worry if you pray, if you stumble over your words. Don't worry if you pray, if you come and you only can get three or four words out and you think, boys, I've made a quarrel full of myself here. Listen, you don't go to a prayer meeting to talk to other people. You go to a prayer meeting to talk to your Heavenly Father. He knows your heart. He knows your heart, good people. And at the same time, there's no point in standing like the old Pharisees and making big long prayers because you want to try and impress somebody. You're not impressing anybody. Pray from what's in here and let it come out here and let God just be honoured and glorified through what you're saying. But here's this man called Elijah, man, he is this man, he has, the reason why I say he's a godly man, he's more godlier than any man I have met, the reason why I say that, and don't be disrespectful, I'm not being disrespectful, because in all the godly people I have met, and all the people I've heard praying, never once did any one of them ever pray down the fire of God from heaven. Not one of them. Now, if you've met such a person, I would love you to introduce me to them. Here's a man, and he stands on the mountaintop, and he tells the prophet of Baal, you worship, you call down upon your God, you ask him to call upon fire, and I'll ask my God to call down the fire, and whosoever God calls down the fire, that's the God of whom we'll worship. And we're told, when it comes to it now, this man Elijah, when he prays, the fire of God falls. What an impression it must have made, not only upon the false prophets who they were going to be slaying, but upon Israel. This man truly knows God. You would say, what a man, he's right at the pinnacle. Can I tell you folks, you can't live in the pinnacle. It'd be lovely to be in this sort of a spiritual plane whereby, man, dear, you're just, there's such a real sense of, and there are those times in our lives now that we're very God aware, but they don't always stay there because the reality is, folks, the lessons do not be learned so much on the hilltop, but in the valleys. And if you move on to 1 Kings 19, you'll see this man goes from the top to the bottom, and all because of a letter from the Queen Jezebel, and the scripture tells he begins to run, and he finds himself running and running, and he lies down. And let me tell you, if Peter got distracted, Elijah got discouraged. Can I tell you something, folks? I'm not here as an advocate for your pastor, but you know I think very highly of him. I class him as a very dear friend. But I'm telling you folks, sometimes the most discouraging work, now you're gonna think me a right heathen for saying such a thing, is church work. And I'm gonna be even more pointed now, and some of it is church people. Because they're neither showed by their commitment, nor faithfulness, nor loyalty, and they'll run here, and run there, and run ever, rather than sticking and supporting their own work. Now I am a strong advocate, folks, if you want to hang your hat up somewhere, hang it up and get stuck in there till the work. Here's a man and he feels himself, he's all alone. He says, Lord, there's nobody else but me. He's got himself so down, down the mouth. Not just as he get himself discouraged, but we're also told he gets himself depressed. So you say, is it possible for a Christian to be depressed? I'm going to say it is very possible for a Christian to be depressed. And notice what this man does. The Bible says when this man was depressed, we're told that the Bible says the Lord came alongside of him. And he didn't sort of kick him up the back end and say, catch yourself on the way up. But the Bible says he ministered unto him, he fed him, he let him rest a while. And when he was recovered his strength. Now I believe that's not just physically, but also in his mind as well. And sometimes folks, some of us let our minds run away with us. Some of us are thinking about things that are never gonna happen. Some of us are building bridges that never need to be built. And we need a wee bit of a reality check and say, now, hang on a minute, I'm gonna have to correct myself here. I'm gonna have to stop letting my mind run away with me here because it's only gonna drive me into the gutter. But Elijah just need a wee bit of reality check, because Elijah says, Lord, there's only me. In many ways, he felt sorry for himself. Maybe you feel sorry for yourself today as a Christian. because you think nobody's had it as hard as you have. But God had to remind Elijah, Elijah, you're not on your own. There are still many that have not yet bowed the knee. And sometimes in our lives we feel so sorry for ourselves, nobody's had it as hard as me. Let me just give you a wee reality check this morning, folks. There might be people sitting beside you today and behind you and in front of you, and they've had it 10 times harder than you've ever had it. But you don't know because they've never told a thing to anybody. I learned very simply in my short period of a pastorate that you can hide an awful lot behind a smiling face. An awful lot. So if you are in that place of depression, you need help. But at the same time I want to say to you now, don't let your mind run away with you. Let your mind control you. That's why the scripture says in Romans 12 that by the renewing of your mind you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Elijah got himself discouraged. I read a wee poem one time and I think I still have it here. Let me read it to you now. It was advertised that the devil was going to put all his tools up for sale. On the date of the sale, the tools were placed for public inspection, each being marked with its own seal of price. There was a treacherous lot of implements, hatred, envy, jealousy, doubt, lying, pride, and so on. Led apart from the rest of the pile was a harmless-looking tool, very well worn, but extremely high-priced. The name of the tool, asked one of the purchasers. Oh, said the adversary, that's discouragement. And why have you priced it so high? Because it's more useful to me than all the others. He says, if I can pry open and get inside a person's heart and mind with that one tool, when I cannot get near them with any other tools, once I'm inside, I can make him do what I choose. It's a badly worn tool because I use it on almost everyone since few people know it belongs to me. Devil's price for discouragement was so high he never sold it. It's still his major tool and he uses it on God's people on a day-to-day basis. Don't be surprised, child of God, if you face discouragement. That's why it's very important in the days of discouragement, you get your eyes back on Christ. That's why the writer of Hebrews says, looking on to Jesus, keep looking on to him. Even when you're down in the gutter and even when you're mountaintop, keep looking to him. Let me say to you thirdly, very quickly, I'm going to leave with you a man called Demas. He was a man who's been serving God. He's been a man who's been in the front line of the battle. He's been a man who's been serving the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, along with no longer than maybe one of the greatest preachers that ever lived. His name was the Apostle Paul. And so we find that Paul identifies with him and identifies himself with him on numerous places in Luke 18. He identifies with them, sorry, in Colossians 1 and also in 2 Timothy. And in many ways he talks about him being his fellow servant or his fellow laborer in the gospel. And so you honestly just expect now that this man who's a fellow laborer in the gospel that undoubtedly this man is going to be somebody who's going to stick hard by the Apostle Paul. But yet you know and I know exactly what happens because in 2 Timothy Paul says, Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world. You know what that word forsaken means? It means to leave one in the lurch, to let one down, to desert or to abandon. And maybe the day you come to Wrath Ryland Baptist Church and you have abandoned God, you have abandoned your faith, and you've abandoned your godly upbringing, Can I say something to you, dear soul? If you continue the route that you're going, not just is there darkness ahead for you, but there's terrible danger ahead for you, because I want to say to you, whenever you, undoubtedly, folks, end up in this place whereby you abandon the things that you grew up on, I'm telling you, the consequences will be detrimental to you. And what was Demas' problem? Well, if Peter's problem was he was the fact he got distracted, and if Elijah's problem was he got discouraged, Demas' problem was he got discontented because he wasn't happy with his lot in life. I have tried to imagine over in my mind, because I have come to realise, folks, that the Bible says, if any man thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. I've come to realize, dear people in Rather Island, that it's very easy, you know, if you think yourself to be spiritual, that you sort of begin to try and think yourself to be pious and think, oh, well, I'm better than him and I would never go down the same route that he went down. Let me tell you something good, folks. The Scriptures is clear. You need to be careful now, because the Bible says that prey comes before a fall. What was going through Demas's mind? That he would abandon Paul, that he would leave the apostle Paul in the lurch. Like he has seen a godly, he's seen a godly life. Maybe you've seen a godly life. Maybe you've watched a godly life from a distance and you've seen what godliness does. Let me say, now you know as well as I do, godliness does not always mean that everything flourishes in the garden. Godliness does not always mean that everything is always great and you've no problems, either physical, socially, financially, or mentally. It doesn't necessarily mean that because a man is godly that all these boxes are ticked and everything is always great. I can take you to some godly people and they're hard working people. People say to me, well, if you work hard, you'll make money. Can I say something to you good people? I know many a man and many a woman who's worked extremely hard all their lives and struggled just to make ends meet. But on the other hand, I also know people whom God has blessed with riches. Yet the Bible says to be very careful that we don't become lovers of money more than lovers of God. But I don't know about this man, but I thought to myself, maybe for Demas, maybe on those periods of time whenever he was in, could I say it, respite or period of time whenever they took a wee break from ministry. And may I say something to you now, dear people? There ain't nothing wrong with taking a wee break from ministry. The Bible, in fact the scripture endorses it. Scripture endorses it creationally because the Bible says labor six days and the seventh day you're gonna rest. We're not built to work seven days a week. But also the Bible says that Jesus said to the disciples, come apart and rest away, because he knew what they needed. Sometimes in all of our lives we need times just to come apart and rest away. For what reasons are we making our bodies renewed? Well, I thought to myself, this man Demas, I thought maybe as he went back home, he saw his friends that he grew up with. He said, how did they seem to prosper financially? And for maybe for this man Demas, maybe it was just a day to day struggle. We know that Paul was a tent maker. We know that when he made enough money, away he went on a missionary journey, he used his money up. He never asked money from, I think in my memory certainly, I think there was one church that would endeavor to support him in the labor of the gospel, but Paul was very much a self-supporter. He wasn't gonna mean that anybody could try and say, oh, well, I paid him through here, or I paid for him to do this, and I paid for him to do that. Paul didn't want anybody to glory in any of these things. He wanted them to glory in God, and that was all. And so here I'm thinking maybe for the demons, maybe they didn't have a whole pile financially. Maybe it was some days it was a struggle. Maybe there was hardship. We know there was hardships for the Apostle Paul. He was whipped. He was beaten. He was stoned. He was shipwrecked. He was left at water for numerous days. I mean, there was all these things that went on in the Apostle Paul's life. And maybe demons just looked back and he thought to himself, well, listen, that life just ain't for me. That life just ain't for me. And maybe you're here this morning and you're saying, ah well, that's right for my man, ah, that's right for my brother, that's right for my sister, that's right for my cousins, that's right for the pastor, but that just ain't the life for me. You know what the Bible says, good folk, note this very clearly, the wages of sin is death. I get that now. Now there are, you might say to me, oh but Nigel, don't you tell me, because I look at people in the world and they're having great pleasure. Indeed they are. But it's only temporal. The Bible says that the pleasures of sin are only for a season. The same way as you have summer, you have spring, and you have autumn, and the winter, they all come to an end. And a new season begins. The prodigal son realized that his season would soon come to an end. And he finds himself one day feeding at a palace, and the next day feeding with pigs. What was his downfall? I'll tell you what his downfall was. He was discontented with his lot in life. And dare I say it folks, for some of us as Christians, And I mean myself as well now. We can become discontented. Can we get to that place whereby we're always looking more. Now I'm not saying, do not think I'm preaching this Pope and saying you shouldn't have anything. No, I'm not saying that. I look at people down through the generation. I think, funny, I was down in a meeting in Fermanagh last night speaking to young people and sharing about it. Oh, boys, look at that time, dearie me. You'll not be out by half past, that's all I'll say, but I'll try and get you out as close as we can, that'll do, folks. So only one more to look at, but let me tell you, I've seen godly men now with great riches and great possessions, and there's one thing that sets them apart from all our men. is the fact that for this one man I think about, he kept his eyes on God. So God can bless you with great riches. And his name was a man by the name of T.B.F. Thompson. And you read a wee book about his life, doesn't mean he always got it right. But he had been blessed with great wealth and yet, I remember standing with the man, he wasn't that big, well I suppose he was older, he was bent over a bit, but he wasn't a big man. Not physically. But spiritually, you read his wee book, you realize the lessons that he learned through life and some of the hardships of his life. But he realized that money was not the end of it all. It wasn't about that. He wasn't the sense rabbi. He was constantly being greedy. But God had just blessed him with a good mind and good hands. And he was using what he had for the glory of God. Don't be discontented now. Because there's only trouble ahead. Learn to be content with such things as you have. Let me very quickly leave with you a man, his name was Paul. Again, just a wee snippet into his life, and Paul the Apostle, Paul, he was a man who was determined because he said, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Folks, I am convinced for the Apostle Paul that one thing that mattered to him was the will of God. That's what mattered to him, the will of God. And the will of God, very quickly now, I'm conscious of the time, and I'm conscious you good folk want to get away to go to that funeral, but just bear with me for another five or so minutes and we'll see how we get on. The will of God deals with two things. It deals with our physical position, and it deals with our spiritual condition. That's what the will of God always deals with. It always deals with where God wants me to be. That's very important now. Because God has a plan for every one of our lives. Now, don't think I'm disrespectful. Whenever the farmer's milking cows and scraping out dung, he can be in the will of God now. Or whenever the joiner's up the roof thraving the nails, or whenever the schoolteacher's teaching the children, or whenever the man's sitting behind a computer, you know, looking at a screen all day, and even though he may end up with square A's, he's footing away all day. He could be in the will of God. But you need to be sure you're in the will of God now, good folk. You need to be sure that you're in the place where God wants you to be, not just in a place where, well, you think, oh, well, this is, I think, well, this is good for me to be here. Well, it might seem good for you financially, but it might not necessarily be good for you spiritually. That's why you need to seek out his will positionally. Where does God want me to serve him? And for you young folk now, I'm telling you, dear young people, I'm gonna say to you, and some of you are maybe not so young, I'm gonna say, there are opportunities to serve the Lord, but it's not just, there's opportunities of short, small windows of opportunity to serve the Lord in other places. I'm gonna say to you, first of all, there's a wee spot just there in that back desk, there's an opportunity to serve the Lord. And I'm gonna say to you, good folks, where we begin to serve, we begin to serve at home. You know, I can tell you Chile's a nice country, and I can tell you if you go into San Diego and there's a city of 7 million people, we'll take you up a tower, the second tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, the tallest one in South America. Oh, it's a great crown. But if that's not the place where God wants you to be, you better not go near it. That's why you need to seek his word to know what his will is for your life. And as you young people seek the future for your lives, Lord, where do you want me to serve me? Don't just think that because it's a job with a great big price tag on, oh, that's gonna be great for me. That's where I need to be. If that's not where God wants you to be, it'll be dangerous for you. And I'm not going to say anything, it's to do with positioning. Let me say to you, not just to do with positioning, we think of Stephen, the Bible says in the next chapter, sorry Philip, remember Philip in the next chapter in the 8th it says Stephen had been martyred and Saul was making havoc on the church and there was this great revival broke out and God was using Philip greatly and then just out of the blue the angel of the Lord appears onto Philip and says, listen Philip, and you need to arise and go down toward the south because there's a man there in the desert and he's seeking after me. Now, Philip could have said, but Lord, how long am I here? You've got it all wrong. There's great blessing here. Lord, there's people that come to you in their hundreds. What's the point of me going away from all this big, all these great things, going down for one person? I'll tell you why. Because one person's important to God. I'm going to say to you this morning, as you come to Rathaelan Baptist Church, forgive me for preaching a few different things, and Rathaelan Baptist Church, I'm going to say to you, you're important to God today. You're hating, you don't know Christ. You're important to him. I'll tell you how important you are to him. John 3 and 16 tells me how important you are to him. For God so loved the world, and he gave his one and only son for you. So how important you are to him. Don't you think you have no value? Don't you dare leave this church thinking, well, my life is of no worth. I'm telling you, it's of all worth to him. Because he gave his life for you. And it was the same for this eunuch. This eunuch was important to God. God would take Philip out of a place of what seems great blessing into a place of what seems great barrenness. Where's the will of God in this? I'll tell you. Because Philip has got a word to move. Let me say to you secondly, listen, our time is gone. to do with our spiritual condition. And we're not going to go into a whole pile of details, but first of all, the spiritual aspect of us, whenever we are, I'm convinced whenever a man is truly walking with God, the first mark you'll see about his life is a thing and it's called humility. It's called humility. He must increase and I must decrease. Dear people, I'll say to you this now today. It's a rare commodity, humility. It's a terribly rare commodity. Could you see outside these four walls now? Outside these four walls, the world will tell you that you've got to put number one first. There's nobody more important than you. And you've got to look after yourself. You know what the scripture says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God. Seek ye first. Tell me, as a remark of humility about your life, The best way I can describe this, good people, to you, the best way I can describe this to you, and I don't know, I likely have told you this wee story before, so you must apologize, because I do get a wee bit forgetful, and I don't know why that is, but I get a wee bit forgetful. But I went to Donegal, and I preached in a wee church there, and this man would take me out to his garden. And he would show me all these trees that he planted in his garden when he first built the house. I bear in mind he'd been in the house maybe 20 or 30 years. I haven't a clue. He told me anyway. But you always, let's be honest, sometimes people talk to you and you don't always be listening. Does that ever happen to you, people? Maybe you're better than me. I don't know. But sometimes my wife talks to me and I'm not always listening. And she'll say, I told you. I don't remember you telling me. I told you. You weren't listening. Well, that's possible. That is possible, but anyway, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. But he took me out to the garden and he says, all these trees, all these big tall trees, Stalin, tall trees. It's powerful. And not only, I wasn't really that overly fascinated by it, but there was one tree caught my attention. There was a wee tree over in this corner and the wee branches were all propped up with wee sticks. The branches all propped up. And this caught my attention. Why's them branches all propped up? And then as I got closer, it was like an old crab tree. Remember, whenever you're a cub and you used to maybe go and eat an old crab apple, and you think, oh, that's great, I'll give you that. And then you taste it, and now the thing's as bitter, and you throw it over the hedge. You eat it right outside and muck that out and stuff. And anyway, and this tree, full of apples. And this was a lesson. The tree that always bears the most fruit. always lies closest to the ground. Don't you ever forget it. Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance against such that is no law. The fruit that will produce from my life will produce, first of all, humility, because it's not about me. It has never been about me, and it's not about you, and it has never been about you. It's about Him in you, working through you. not only humility, but I'm going to say it ultimately is also to produce a spiritual condition, a holy life. I had the privilege of being in Liverpool to do some meetings over there. Whenever I was there in Liverpool, I wanted to look up the grave of the great Bishop J.C.Rowley. They say he was the greatest bishop that ever lived in Liverpool. You read many of his books, a terribly godly man. He read a book and he said this word. Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God. A holy man will endeavor to shun every known sin and keep every known commandment. A holy man will strive to be Christ-like. A holy man will follow after meekness and long-suffering and gentleness and patience and kindness and temperance and government of his tongue. A holy man will follow after temperance and self-denial. A holy man will follow after charity and brotherly kindness. And a holy man will follow after purity of heart. I asked the question this morning, where is my eyes? And what are they focused toward? Have I got distracted? Am I discouraged? Have I become discontented? Or am I determined, Lord, determined? and I'm gonna follow hard after you. I trust this morning, dear people, God might encourage your heart. And if you are like the prodigal, that's the time for you to return, and that time is today. And if you have never come, may I assure you, dear soul, you are precious to God, more precious than you'll ever know. and that he was willing to give his son today in your place. Let's turn our hymn books as we close.