Lord, in prayer, Lord, we do thank you for your many blessings. We thank you for sending your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, down from heaven's glory to die on that cross to become sin for us who knew no sin, that we can be made the righteous of God in Him. We thank you for that. We thank you for this country. We thank you for veterans. We thank you for the opportunity to have served and the blessings of Lord just being able to know that you protected so many of us from harm's way. And Lord, those that gave the ultimate sacrifice, we do pray for their families, pray for those that lost loved ones during wartime or just while they were in the military. We just pray for each and every one of them in Jesus' name. Amen. Romans 8, we're going to start in verse 5. Romans 8, verse 5. The Bible says, For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit do things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. But because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh. I was going to stop there, but I realized I needed to make this point. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. And we'll stop there at part of verse 9. So we're talking about being in the flesh, in the Spirit. And that's something that's so crucial. Before you're saved, you're in the flesh. Your flesh is actually attached to your soul, so to speak. When your flesh sins as a lost person, it affects your soul. When you're circumcised at the moment of salvation, your body is cut away from your soul, your soul is cut away from your body by the circumcision made without hands, the circumcision of God. And then, after that point in time, your sin does not touch your soul. Your soul is eternally forgiven. Your soul is made anew as far as that goes. Christ lives in you, the hope of glory. But he's talking about two different people. Those that are in the flesh cannot please God. So all these people that think that they're doing these works or these things for God, none of that bears any real fruit because you can't please God without being a child of God. You can start out and say, well, you know, I'm giving to the poor, and I'm feeding the poor, and I'm visiting the nursing home. Hey, great. Great things to do. But your soul is eternal, and your soul must be taken care of. And if your soul is lost, you can't please God in the flesh. So as we look at this thing, I want to run several references. The first one is in 1 Corinthians 2, talking about the natural man. Look at what it says in 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14, and we can go through quite a few verses, but just look at verse 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. There's a natural man and there's a spiritual man. The natural man is lost. and can't please God, the natural man's never been born again, the natural man's never been changed, never made anew, and you can't please God in your flesh. Look at Galatians chapter 5. And we're going to run several references in this context because I think it's important to establish what the Bible says about these things. Look at verse 24. So this is not your standing. Your standing is you're crucified with Christ. Your walk is, in verse 24, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. So again, you will be told, you're crucified with Christ, then it says, crucify your flesh. And by the way, we need to pray for Cherie too. We didn't mention her, but we need to go ahead and do that. Make sure you're praying for her. I just looked over there and saw you guys and thought about it. Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Verse 15, By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. So, the sacrifice of praise is the fruit of the lips and giving praise to God. That's the sacrifice of praise. Verse 16, but to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. What is God pleased with? To do good, to communicate, forget not. Those sacrifices really please God. You want to please God, Revelation 4.11, one of my favorite verses, we are created for His pleasure. We're not created just to live on this earth, do our own thing, be our own man, be our own woman, be our own child. That's not what life is about. Life is, what is your relationship with Jesus Christ? What relationship do you have? He put you here for a purpose. And His purpose doesn't stop because you age out. There is no age limit to the purpose of God. You can always pray. You can always talk to others. You can always be a testimony of love and decency and all those things. And really, that's what we need more of. Look at Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 verse 6. Talking about pleasing God, Hebrews 11 verse 6, that's another one of those where I got so much writing in my Bible I can't see where the chapter designation is. Verse 6, but without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. Faith cometh by what? Hearing. And hearing by the what? Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. So what is the whole point in coming here today is to build your faith so that you can please God. That's what it's all about. It's not about, let's all get together and have a cup of coffee and, you know, talk about football. Now, I'm willing to talk about that today. No, I'm just kidding. We did have a good game yesterday. Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And I already gave you Revelation 4.11, that we're created for His pleasure. 1 Thessalonians 4.1. The Bible says, furthermore, so he's talked about the first three chapters, furthermore then we beseech you, he's begging them, brethren, and exhort you, the brethren, by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God so you would abound more and more. Paul writes, how to walk, please God, So he can abound more and more. Abound more and more. So he goes on, and that's all about pleasing God. And again, I wish everybody in here would memorize Revelation 4.11. I want to go ahead and turn there, even though I've quoted it. You all know it's one of my favorite verses. It changed my life. Because once you see what it says, and you really grasp it, it's life-changing. So Revelation 4.11, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. God's created all things. For what purpose? to please Him. So your whole purpose in life, I mean, here you go, here's the depth of my understanding of theology, scripturology. I just made that up. Your job, your purpose in life is to find out how to please God. You can't please Him without faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. So we just looked at all those verses. The sacrifice of praise. God is well pleased. So when you praise Him, it pleased Him. Now why? Why would praise please God? I mean, He's God. Why would He care? Because He wants an intimate relationship with all of us. He wants a relationship like no other relationship that you or I could ever experience on this earth. He wants you to be intimate with Him in your dialogue, in your love, in your interaction, and then by the way, once that's right, This tends to be right. This can never be right if your relationship vertically is not right. Your horizontal relationship with others will always suffer if you don't know how to cultivate the right type of relationship with God Almighty. You are created to please Him. Find out what pleases Him. How do you find that out? I've got a good clue for you. It's all in here. You read your Bible. You study your Bible. You live your Bible. You understand your Bible and you understand what He did for you and you appreciate what He did. He died on the cross. He shed His blood. He gives you eternal life. He lives in you. He guides you and leads you every day, every way that you will submit to Him. He does it. Do you love Him? Do you love Him? And if you love Him, then you ought to reciprocate for what He's already done for you. You reciprocate that back. You love Him because He loved you first. We love Him because He first loved us. And then the Bible says in Revelation, what did that church do? They left their first love. Your first love. First, as in, not necessarily, well, oh, I loved this girl when I was in elementary school. We're not talking about that. We're talking about a relationship with God. Your first love needs to be Him. And then, by the way, if that is your first love, and you understand it, and you cultivate it, and you live it, all of this down here will work out. It doesn't mean you won't have disputes. It doesn't mean that you won't have times where you disagree or you're bothered by things. There's always going to be turmoil. You want to know why? Because you're human. I'm human. We're human. We're going to butt heads with one another, with others, with whatever, with your spouse, but the biggest thing is forgiveness. Move on, just like God forgave you, forgive others. What did He say? Well, if you'll just do right, live right, and just be perfect, I'll forgive you. He forgave you as a sinner. He forgave you as His enemy. He forgave you as the ungodly. How ought you to forgive others the same way? Not always easy to do. I'm not up here saying, hey, it's all just simple to do. It's not. We live in a wicked world. I wrote a thing on the, I sent it out, I think I mentioned it here, but I wrote a thing and I said, I played sports. The day of or the day after or the evening of the win, you moved on because you can't just dwell on all that stuff. Now, Robert wrote me and I'm like, look, okay, great. Whatever the government's gonna do and whoever they... I'm not on that level. My level is this. I have people that are looking at me saying, you're a pastor and you support, you know, Donald Trump. I look at it and go, really? And by the way, just on some of his first things, I'm like, wow, no wonder. I mean, I feel vindicated at this point. but you're a pastor and this man is wicked? And there was another one, they said, and this is something a little bit different, but just get it to the end. How can you support somebody that's wicked and maybe an adulterer and did things he shouldn't do to be the leader of your country? And I just look at it and go, well, David was a great king. Solomon had a thousand wives, turned his heart away from God. The wisest man that ever lived. Listen, we're all sinners. I don't justify anything that anybody's done on that level, including Him. I don't justify it. I don't even defend it. I look at it like this and I say, I have a responsibility and a civic duty to vote. And I'm going to not pick the lesser of the two evils, I'm going to pick the best choice that aligns with what I believe, whether that's abortion, whether that's trans, or whether that's this, or whether that's that. I'm going to pick whom I feel God wants me to pick. And you say, well, you've got to defend that pick. OK, God wants me to do it. That's what I'm doing. I'm done. I don't need to talk about it. So I said this online, and it's been really tough, because there's some great memes out there. So you see one, you go, oh, yeah, that'd be good. And I have not done it. So I posted it, and I said, look, after a sporting event that we won, we look toward the future. We didn't rub it in. Listen, you don't talk about the losing team, you dirty right. What do they do with a losing team? Same thing you see on the losers, I mean the losing team that lost in Washington. I did call them losers, didn't I? You know, what do you do when a football team wins? Man, they're a great team. They played hard. They did their best. We beat a great opponent. And you know what I saw? I saw the same thing out of Washington, or out of the president-elect. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. You may not even believe it all. I'm going to tell you, my team yesterday, they were 28-0 at halftime. We were the better team. But at the end of the game, You don't rub it in because there's always next year. It's always going to come back and haunt you. You don't want to be on their bulletin board as having said something. You don't want to be on their video that pumps up the team. Listen, same way here. All we need to do is be gracious to others. Be gracious. Be gracious because it's the right thing to do. I have people that I have lost as friends because of politics. And some of it I don't believe. I don't believe abortion is politics, by the way. So I'm not losing all these friends because of politics. I'm losing them because of what is right and moral and standing your ground. It's not all politics. But anyway, as you look at that, so let's go on to, so pleasing God, that's one thing. Go back to verse 9, the reason I split it in Romans 8, 9. He says, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of you. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Just look at the contrast. Number one, Christ is in you. You don't have somebody lay their hands on you for you to get Christ to come in you. You say, well, that was in the book of Acts. Acts was a transition book. There were things that were different. The Word of God was not complete yet. God was giving the Jews a sign. The Jews required a sign. And He gave them all these signs because how do you go from the Jews being God's chosen people to where now they're broken off? The Gentiles are the ones that God's going to use to evangelize the world. How do you do that? You don't have Scripture for it. God had to use signs and wonders to do those things, to prove to them that these people were of God. And so He did that. So the people came down from Jerusalem in one case, they laid their hands on them, they got the Holy Ghost, and you just look at it and go, well, that's the way it is today. That's not what that says. That says you get saved when you trust Christ. and you're not saved if Christ isn't in you. Therefore, when you get saved, Christ moves in. The old man is dead, the new man is in there. Listen, that's just if you study the whole Bible, that's what you get. And why you rightly divide the Word of Truth? You rightly divide the Word of Truth because you cannot take the book of Acts and say, well, I'm going to get all my doctrine out of Acts. You'll be a loony. I mean, there's so many things that are transitional. It starts in Jerusalem with the Jews and Peter preaching. And then it ends with Paul preaching in Rome and the Gentiles, and he's the apostle of the Gentiles. Everything's different. And then the next 13 books have Paul's name as the first word in order to distinguish them from all the other epistles. Because when you want to know doctrine, we're in the book of Romans. First name. First book with his name is the first word. Why? Because they go as a group together to teach the church how to live today. And then Hebrews is there too. Hebrews isn't as different as you think. I believe Paul wrote Hebrews. I believe Paul wrote it because he wanted desperately to reach his brethren according to the flesh, and God said, I've got a plan. Paul says, no, I'm going to go back to Jerusalem. He gets arrested, he gets out of the will of God, ends up in jail, goes to Rome, and yeah, God wanted that to happen in some way, but he was probably going to do it in a whole different way. And God's got it all under control, and Paul says, no, I've got to go to Jerusalem and try to reach my brethren. They'll listen to me. Well, they didn't listen to him. And God says, I'm going to have you write a whole book of 13 chapters to your people according to the flesh. And Paul doesn't know, just like you don't know what God wants you to do. And we get ahead of God. We leave God in a trail of dust behind us, and we wonder, well, why is my life so haphazard? Why aren't things going the way I think they should? What's going on, God? And God's saying, slow down, look up, stand still, and see the salvation of God. And that's what he says. We get ahead of him. Listen, I see it in churches all the time. People are saying, well, you've got to do this, you've got to do that. Look, calm down. Let God be God. We want to have control. We want to have the reins. And we do not understand the way that God works in lives sometimes, and we get ahead of God and we leave Him in the dust and then we wonder, well, how did we get in this mess? You get in the mess because you get ahead of God. Now, by the way, you know what's the opposite of that spectrum? You don't do anything. You just sit on your rear end and you don't get ahead of God. You don't even know where God is. Nobody in here does that apply to because I love each one of you and I want you to love me. Just kidding. Just kidding. So I was getting to where he said, Well, let's move on. Let's go ahead and move on. I want to get a little bit further. Look at verse 10. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him, that's the Spirit of the Father, that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." You know what quicken is? Quicken means to make alive. He's going to make alive. When? Well, that's still in the future. Your body is sinful, it's dead, it's the old man. New man needs to take over. But one day, the Spirit that dwells in you will quicken your mortal body and give you a glorified body. Won't that be great? I'm looking forward to that glorified body. I wake up in the morning, I got a little pain here, pain there. You know, I sit down and I eat too much. You won't have to worry about all that once you have your glorified body. Won't it be beautiful? Even mine will be beautiful. My glorified body. I'll look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Just kidding. Look at verse 12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if we live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Mortify the deeds of the body, and ye shall live. Alright, let's all stand together. We'll be dismissed in prayer. Lord, we thank You for many blessings. We thank You for sending Your Son to die on that cross. Thank You for being a gracious, merciful, wonderful God. Thank You for learning truth that will set us free, make us free. We pray for this country. We pray for all those in authority. In Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, you're dismissed.