All right, let's get our Bibles and turn to John chapter 13. That may be the last time I say that, you know, for a while, but we really spend a lot of time here and I can't believe how much, how long we've been here. I've left it a lot and then come back to it for periods of time. That's one thing, but it's been a really rich chapter, but there's still One more thing, these last three verses we're gonna talk about this morning, so if you'll turn to John chapter 13 and go down to verse 36, we'll read there to the end of the chapter. Is everybody there? Ain't nobody there yet, I guess I'll just wait. All right, we got one or two that's acknowledging being there. John chapter 13 verse 36, Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. And Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus answered, wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. " And, you know, it's interesting to me, the next verse, you can see it there in your Bible. Let not your heart be troubled. If you think Jesus is proving him harshly, no, no, no. But that's not really what I want to talk about this morning, and we could get a lot more out of it there. But Peter just didn't have a real hold on the reality of what he was and who Christ was yet. I mean, I know he's the one that said, Lord, where shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. You know, he's the one that first spoke up and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. He said all that stuff, but Peter, you know, it's like a lot of the rest of us, we, our mouth's bigger than what we really got. We think more highly of ourselves. Our estimation of ourselves is much higher than reality. That's a thing that's common to all men. And so, you know, I know there's a lot of depression nowadays and people think lowly of themselves, but I think even then, I think that when you really analyze it and dig in there and uproot everything, you find out that the root cause of that is thinking too much of yourself. But anyway, let's look down in verses four and five of chapter 14 there. I want to catch that too. Now Jesus said, whether I go, let's see, how did he say it here? Let me look back here. He said, whether I go, thou canst not follow me now. And then he said here in verse four of chapter 14, and whether I go, you know, and the way you know. Now Peter said, where are you going? And the Lord just said, here, you know where I'm going. He knew, but he didn't know. Boy, ain't that the condition of most people now? You know, but you don't really know. Have you had that experience in your life where you discovered something that you've known all along, but somehow it just didn't... fit, gel, it just didn't blossom into reality to you. It was there, you knew it, you'd heard it, you'd been told it, you'd read it, and you accepted it as true, but it just never really became a reality to you. And that's kind of where Peter and the rest of the disciples are here. Now it's very clear that these disciples were totally confused about everything that was going on. This is the last night here with Jesus before his death and even though he's taught him carefully and personally for three years here They have no idea What's about to happen and what's going on? This is good. This is catching them by complete surprise And that's a very sad thing you know this scene that we just read about here and to think about the fact that Jesus himself taught him. And after three years in the presence of the creator of the universe. Now that's who Jesus is. And that's who he was when he was on earth. He was the son of man, but he was the son of God. He's the one who created, he's the one who said before Abraham was, I am. Remember that? John chapter eight, that really, that really, you know, that told who he was. But after being in the presence of God himself, and they were still so empty of understanding, that's a testimony to the hardness of men's hearts. Now, you know, the best preacher in the world could preach his whole life and preach every sermon as perfectly as he could, and it would still get the same results, or less results, because Jesus was the master. He was the word, the living word, speaking to these people then, and they didn't get it. I take courage from that sometimes. I remind myself of that quite a bit, because it's discouraging when You tell people plainly and they don't understand. And the reason they don't understand is because they don't listen. And that's what we're really getting at here this morning. When you get discouraged with other people, when you get discouraged with your children, they don't listen either, do they, half the time. Isn't that one of the biggest struggles with raising children is getting them to listen? Listen to me, listen to me. Well, I didn't hear you. I didn't know. I forgot. No, they just don't listen. They don't pay attention because they're caught away in other things. That's why discipline is so important. Teach them to sit still and listen. A child that's never taught that and trained, trained, You can train a dog, why can't you train a child? He's a lot smarter than a dog, and he can learn a lot better and easier and quicker than a dog can. And it's much more important to teach a child to sit still and listen than it is to teach a dog to sit down or fetch. Sadly, this is the way most people live their lives still today, just like these disciples here. I mean, when you get discouraged with other people like your children Just remember how much Jesus had to suffer with disappointment in others. Do you think it didn't hurt him, bother him, to see him in such a state? Well, of course it did. It grieved his heart that he had told them plainly and yet they didn't understand. Oh, but he remembereth that we're but dust. That's the only thing that we got going for us is that God is merciful and long-suffering to us-ward. He cares and loves us, and He puts up with far more than any of the rest of us put up with from anybody else, including our children, our spouse, or anybody else. We won't put up with nothing. God puts up with everything for so long, so long. But this is the way most people live their lives still today. In spite of all the help and wisdom that's available, very few avail themselves of it at all. No matter how much opportunity to learn and how much others put into them, they're just not listening and comprehending. Church, one time a week, one little block of time, about as long as a movie, and that's all you get every week. And how much do you get while you're there? Jesus lived with these people, these disciples. They spent day and night together. They ate their meals together. All their conversations were together. And I mean, they lived together. And so they had much more opportunity to absorb what he was telling them because Jesus didn't waste words. He didn't talk about foolishness and nonsense. He didn't waste no time. He didn't waste any words. And so they should have been in better shape when it came to this night. They should have known. They should have been better prepared. Man alive, do you realize that Jesus is about to come? First church, do you realize that? And look around, what kind of shape are we in? Do we even really know what's going on? Is it gonna catch us by surprise? When the Bible tells us that it shouldn't, he told us to watch, be ready and watch and have your lamps filled with oil. How are we gonna be ready if we're not listening and absorbing and understanding and knowing about Him? And see, the issue here is where are you going? That's what Peter asked the Lord. Where are you going? Whither goest thou? Well, he's looking to the future, wondering what's gonna happen here? What's gonna happen here? Well, how much do we know about what's gonna happen? Well, I think we could know a lot more. We could be a lot more prepared for what's about to happen. I don't think that we're children of light, so that day shouldn't overtake us by surprise. We're not children of darkness. That day should take us by surprise. Just like these disciples, so many cannot see what's coming, even if it's spelled out to them very plainly and repeatedly for years. That's what had happened here. He had told them over and over that this was going to happen. How much has listening to preaching of the Bible helped you to walk in wisdom and be able to look ahead in your life? I mean, think about what I just asked you there. How much has your listening to preaching helped you in your life? To give you wisdom and to cause you to be prudent and have some understanding about what you're doing right now and what it's going to bring forth in the future. Teaching your children and training them and allowing and the things you allow and what it's gonna bring. How much has preaching helped you to understand those things? Well, I don't see too many people listening to too much preaching in the first place. And then what I do see is not many people at all paying any attention whatsoever to what they hear. They just, in this ear, out this ear, back to the reels again. back to the nonsense and the foolishness and the TV and everything else, but order the wise people of this generation who will tell you a different way to raise your children, to order your marriage, to run your life. And that's what I see. And I see a bunch of people that are not ready for the Lord to come back, who think they are. Lord, I'm willing to die for you right now. What do you mean? Why can't I go with you? Now, I want to go with you now. Well, it was obvious that where Jesus went, Peter didn't want to go there. When he got there, he denied that he even knew him. And just a few hours before, he was vowing to the Lord to his face that he would die for him. He'd do anything. He'd go anywhere for him. Peter didn't know himself, but he thought he did. How much have the prayers and the concern and the help that has been given to you by those who care made you wiser or better able to understand what to expect in your future on the present road you're traveling? the way you're living right now, and the things you're doing, and the things you're allowing, and the things you're allowing to guide your life, the roads you're walking now. I mean, how much is the prayers of those who care even mattered in all of that? Do you understand? I mean, how much is it affected? Do you understand where those roads are gonna lead? Do you ever correct anything? Do you ever stop doing something? Turn away from something? That's something I don't see people doing much anymore. It's like Seth preached in Sunday school, nothing's condemned and you can't or you don't love, so everybody's just doing everything. Nothing's wrong. And I think that the outcome's gonna be just love and peace forever. No, it's not. It is not. That's not love. And it's not sustainable that way. And it is gonna crash. These disciples had three years, but most of us have had a lot more than three years to learn. Haven't we? Ain't nobody in here this morning, including the children who haven't had more time than that. And more than one person has tried to help us too. We've had more than just one person trying to help us. They just had Jesus trying to help them. Everybody else was against them. We've had lots of people try to help us. We've had our parents, we've had our grandparents, we've had people at church, we've had friends. We've listened to preachers that we don't even know that tried to help us. And we still, still continue on in a way that's gonna leave us in a spot like this. And the context here is a good example of why they didn't know what Jesus was even talking about. here at the end. I mean, I can show you here an example. Judas left, and Jesus immediately said, now is the Son of Man glorified. And we talked about that a couple of weeks ago, three weeks ago. One of the most profound and fullest sayings Jesus uttered on earth. That's what had happened between Jesus saying, where I go, thou canst not follow me. I can't, my mind scrambled. Whether I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me. Between the time he said that and the other, he said that. This here about now is the son of man glorified. He had just told them about his new commandment that they love one another as he had loved them. Now he had just told them those two things after he had, after Judas left. And Peter held his tongue until Jesus paused, and then his question was, whither goest thou? Not anything about the new commandment, not anything about, you know, now is the Son of Man glorified, what do you mean by that, Lord? Explain that to us some more. No, where are you going? Ain't that just the way people are? He missed the two very important things Jesus said because he was only thinking about the first thing Jesus said. He was more interested in having his curiosity satisfied than in having his conscience directed. Jesus, a new commandment I give you. Now is the Son of Man glorified, statements of fact. But when he said, whether I go, thou canst not follow me now. Left, you know, what do you mean? Can't follow you now. I mean, where are you going? And why can't I follow you now? Like Peter, you know, he was more interested in having his curiosity satisfied than in having his conscience directed. And like Peter, most are more interested in knowing secret things than the things that are revealed. But Deuteronomy chapter 29 and verse 29, there's a verse that just goes right along with that. The secret things belong unto the Lord, our God. But those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. So what's revealed to us is what we ought to be concerned with. But we're concerned with the things that aren't revealed to us. We're always interested in that. And we ignore the things, we fail to implement the things, apply the things to our life that are revealed to us. You can miss a whole message because of one little thing, the preacher said. That happens very much. And I try not to do that. I always described it as having a fly in it. You know, it's like you ever get a bowl of soup or something and you find a fly or a bug in it and he's like, ugh. Well, my mom always told me, don't worry about it, he won't eat much. Just throw him out and keep eating. And I kind of learned to do that for the most part. That's right. And so I've kind of learned to do that with preaching too. There's always something. I'm looking for God to speak to me, for God to help me. I'm not looking to that man. That man's just a vessel and he may be off in a lot of things, but if God, God can likely help me through him. I just really believe that it all depends on how much I want to hear. If God could use a donkey, to correct a prophet, then I think he could use just about anybody to help me if I listen. But I gotta listen. Most people have a generous amount of curiosity and a very scanty amount of desire to apply what they already know to their life. Peter could have done a lot better if he had just focused on the things that Jesus told him and not on the things that Jesus withheld from him for the time being. You know, four verses later, Jesus said, you know where I'm going. You know where I'm going. I've told you. I mean, surely you know where I'm going. Why are you asking a question like that? I've already told you. I've already explained it to you. Much, most are more interested in things they don't know than in the things they do know. Most people are more fond of speculation than practice. They like to, like to, it's something tickles their mind or something to, to dig into things that are mysterious or curious or unknown. That's what draws people to something like that. And really, you know, when you come to God seeking the truth, He'll just tell you. He'll reveal it to you. If you're coming with a good and honest heart and really seeking from God an answer, God will tell you. He ain't gonna keep secrets from you. And what he doesn't tell us is we don't need to know. You know, why make a big deal out of what we've been reading Revelation when the angel told John, don't write that down. Just get rid of that. Everything you've just seen, don't write. Oh my goodness, we can't read the rest of the book without trying to work on this, figure this out. I mean, surely we can figure it out. It's a great mystery. Paul, he was caught up into the third heaven and saw things that were unlawful to be uttered. Well, what is that about? We had a guy come to church, you've heard me say it before, but one time years ago, and he was a strange fellow. I believe he was a little bit crazy. But that's what he called me aside, and he said, man, what do you think about the seven mysteries in the New Testament? I said, seven mysteries in the New Testament? I said, well, I think they're mysteries. And I don't think God wants us to know, or he would have told us. How's it a mystery? Some mysteries He's revealed. Jesus and a lot of the things surrounded the crucifixion and the Son of Man and the Lamb of God and all that, they were a mystery in the Old Testament, not a mystery now. God has revealed it to us and manifested it to us. If we'll just wait, God will show us, tell us, explain to us what we need to know when we need to know it. We've all done that with our children, I hope all of us have, but when they're little, sometimes they have questions that they don't need answers to right now. And I've told my children this, you know, don't, I just can't answer you right now. You're not big enough, you're not old enough to understand, but I will tell you, when you get a little older, I'll tell you, and I'll tell you the truth. But right now, you just can't bear it. Who was it? Was it Corrie Ten Boom telling about her father and the baggage? And he said, you know, he wouldn't ask her to carry that big baggage. She had questions for him, you know, and those kind of questions, and he told her he couldn't answer. Well, to explain, he just set the big thing down and said, now you carry it. Well, she couldn't. He said, well, that's just what I'm trying to tell you. There's things that you can't bear yet. Your mind needs to mature. You need to grow up and you need to get some more understanding about other things before you can handle this. Don't you think God knows that about us? And that's the way this is. I mean, there's just little things. There's big things that God withholds from us because that's, in His wisdom, it's better. And we ain't got no business trying to dig them out. What our business is is to obey and apply and implement in our life the things that God shows us that we do understand plainly. Jesus, you know, only, I don't wanna miss nothing here that I had written down here. Because of this tendency, we miss the most important things. while we're focused on the things that don't matter. This happens so much in church because, you know, the preacher may have a message about a certain thing that's very important and most people miss it because of something else that's said in the message, you know, a joke or some little word that sets wrong with somebody. And then they miss the whole thing. They miss the rest of it all together. We miss the most important things while we're focused on things that don't matter. Not only did Peter miss some of the most significant things Jesus had just said, but all the disciples had missed most all of the things he'd said for the last three years. Think about it. We could go on down here in chapter 14 and start reading about Philip and Thomas and, you know, my goodness, they were blank too. They had no idea what was going on. And Jesus said, have I been so long with you and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? Well, they missed it. They missed it. They were more focused on how they could be the greatest in his kingdom. Remember? They were arguing on the way about who's going to be the greatest. Jesus said, what are y'all talking about? Remember? And they weren't ashamed of it at all. They even got James and John, James and John, the closest to Jesus. James was slain by the sword later, but they even got their mother involved, trying to get her to talk to Jesus to get them the best seat in the kingdom. They had no idea, had no idea what the future looked like, because they hadn't been listening. Maybe they listened, but they just didn't get it. They were focused on other things, like what about me? How's this gonna affect me? How am I gonna work this thing so it's best for me? You're talking about the disciples. I know I am. Or other matters that were beyond their ability or right to know, just like this here, focused on things that didn't matter. Jesus had told them plainly, more than once, and explained to them that he was gonna die and rise again. He told them plainly, I will be killed. And I'll rise again the third day. He told them plainly. Not in a mystery, not in a parable, not around the bush. He told them straight on. And somehow they didn't understand that. They put some kind of mystery to it. He was gonna die and rise again, as well as explaining the kingdom of God and trying to make them understand that he was not come to earth to make Israel the greatest nation on earth. But they missed it all. And that took some doing. Now, that took some doing. One-on-one with Jesus for three years, day and night, and they still didn't get it. Man, you gotta be pretty hard-headed. And you gotta be pretty badly distracted. And they didn't have cell phones and tablets and all of that and telephones to keep them occupied with something else. They could have paid attention. The disciples had Jesus in person as their teacher. And so how much are we gonna miss when we learn from other people? They had Jesus. We just have other people that we learn from mostly. I mean, the Spirit of God and the Word of God, sure, God teaches us, but church is important. It's the pillar and ground of the truth. And God's chosen the foolishness of preaching to save them which believe. The disciples had Jesus. Now, especially If we don't deal with this tendency in ourselves to focus on the secret and the unknown or the trivial and neglect to apply the truths that we do understand. I've been in church for a long time. And let me tell you something, what splits churches is trivial junk. It's always something that is not important. I've known a lot of church splits in my life. not been acquainted with them. And every time. It's not been about doctrine. It's not been about, you know, other things that really mattered. It was because some of them got mad at the others because of something somebody said or did, or did to their kids or whatever. And they parted ways. So you have the first Baptist, the second Baptist, and the third Baptist, And then all the other kinds of Baptists. I counted up one time. I counted 13 Baptist churches in Piedmont and in the surrounding community. 13 Baptist churches. And I know all the splits. It started with the first Baptist church. And then you add Tabernacle. Then it just goes on and on. I know where every one of them came from. Now you think God did all that? No. Since faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, and hearing comes by preaching, now that's all in Romans chapter 10. You can read about it there. How shall I hear without a preacher? How shall I preach except to be sent? then we should listen to as much preaching as we can. Now, don't that make sense? If faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and hearing comes by preaching, it's plain that the Bible teaches that, then we ought to listen to as much preaching as we can. We shouldn't avoid it. I mean, don't you agree? I mean, that's where it comes from, man. If it wasn't for preaching, I wouldn't know anything. I wouldn't be anywhere. Say, well, it ain't all good. Tell me about it. I've heard a lot more bad preaching than I have good preaching through the years, but I've heard some good preaching, and I still do. I still do. It is still available for us, good preaching. And then, you know, if we miss 90% of what's said in a message, which that's mostly the case, If I ask you right now and your life depended on it, could you tell me what I preached on last Sunday morning or Sunday night? Most people are like, it really made an impression, didn't it? There's messages that I've heard that I have never forgotten because they made such an impression on me. And then there's a lot of them that I went to church and did just like everybody else does most of the time. Just sit there and endure it, go home. Wasn't nothing to it. I'm sorry if it's that way here for you sometimes. But that's life. And that's the way it is. Everything's not perfect. Everybody's not perfect. Every church is not perfect. Every preacher's not. I mean 100% hot all the time. And it's good that it's not that way. It'd burn you out if it was. We have to learn, and then we have to be reproved and rebuked and exhorted with all longsuffering and doctrine. There has to be a balanced diet in church. miss 90% of what's said in the message, then we need to listen to many messages to get much out of it, don't we? In these last days, now I'm on a hurry. I'm gonna get out of here by noon, Lord willing. I'm just coming in for the landing here, but this is the application part of this. You know, in the day we're living in, the availability and the opportunities we have for listening to preaching are greater than any other generation that has ever lived on this earth. You can listen to preaching any time, day, or night that you want to. Preaching from generations all the way back from the 1800s. There's audio preaching from the late 1800s. There's a little bit you can find all the way up till now. So you can, there is such a, such a vast amount to draw from. You can listen to old preachers that preached in the last generation, the generation before that, and the generation before that, and so you can get a real sound concept of what has happened in the church and how things have degenerated and what People used to believe that they don't now. You can hear real wisdom from generations before us. And you've got the means, every one of you's got a phone, every one of you's got a phone or a computer or some means to listen to it anytime you want to. You can pull it up, you can search for anybody and find them and listen to them when you got time. But we don't have time, do we? We got time for everything else. We got time to waste hours a day on it, listening to stupid stuff. Vanity that don't amount to nothing, that never stays in our mind. We forget it and it's gone. It's just a continual and nothing. Why not listen to some preaching? If the church, if you can't get it at church and it's too distracting at church, why don't you do it in the privacy of your own home and listen to some preaching? It's rare, but I know, I know some people. And I've known several, I mean, a good number of people have told me that they listen to messages five or six times. The same message, five or six times. to get all of it out of it they can get. I've listened to messages like that too. Listened to them over and over for a few times because every time I'd get more out of it. I realized that I wasn't paying attention. My mind was distracted when he said that before. And so I missed a part of it. You can listen to preaching all the way from the 1800s to the present. Anytime we can work it into our schedules. We complain about having no time, but how many hours do we spend driving? How many hours do we spend every week riding in a car or a truck or something, going somewhere? That's a good opportunity to listen to some preaching. Yeah. I do. I do. Brother Jacob gave me that little jump drive, and I've got it in the car, and I listen to it. When I'm going to get Jacob, when I'm going to Bible Bluff three times a week now, I listen to that, and it's preaching. And it's helped me. You know, I've got things from that that I would have never had if I hadn't have been listening. So you're in a vehicle going somewhere. That's a prime opportunity to listen to something besides music or the junk on the radio. It comes down to how much desire we have to know about God and obtain from Him the understanding about life. Peter couldn't do that. You know, none of the disciples had the opportunity, even that we have now, to listen. The hard truth is that we listen to the world almost all the time. And that's where we get our advice on every aspect of life here and now. That's where we get our ideas about what to do, how to do it, how to raise the children, how to have a happy home, what to do to make this work and that work. We listen to the world. The counsel of the ungodly and it'll not prosper. The Bible tells us that plainly. Mark chapter four and verse 24, and he said unto them, Jesus said unto them, take heed what you hear. With what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you, and unto you that hear shall more be given. Isn't it funny how he worded all that? Take heed what you hear. And to those of you And unto you that hear shall more be given." I mean, you want to know the truth and you listen, you'll get more than you even anticipated. Then in Luke chapter 8 and verse 18, Jesus said, take heed therefore how you hear. Take heed what you hear. And then he said, here take heed therefore how ye hear. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given. And whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. Do you get that? If you won't listen, you're gonna lose what little bit of truth you got in the first place. I mean, you're gonna, it's just gonna vanish right out of your mind and out of your life and you're just gonna be totally in the dark. but you seek after truth, you seek to know, and seek from God wisdom, and you're gonna get more, and more, and more. The time's short, and so we better start listening, and listening to more than the tiny bit we might hear while we're here in church. Now, you might say, well, there just ain't no good preaching. You're wrong. There's a lot of good preaching out there. And if you want to listen to some good preaching, you just talk to me after church, I'll give you some names of men who are much better preachers than me, who will help you a lot more than I can, and they're available anytime you want to listen to them, from the years past and to now. And I'm not talking about, you know, just preachers that just burn the barn down and scream and holler and all that. Man, they'll feed your soul and give you something to think about. I mean, I've listened to messages. I appreciate people sending me messages once in a while to listen to that are just, man, the unforgettable kind. that just put something in you so profound that you just don't, you're not the same from then on because it changes how you, your concept of things. I'll help you. I mean, I'll show you some to listen to. They're out there. There's plenty of them. You don't want Jesus to come while you have no idea what's going on. Pay attention. Pay attention while you can. and do more to avail yourself of the abundance of preaching that's available to listen to now. And then the people of God should have their cup overflowing, don't you think? I mean, we ought to be full and overflowing, not starving to death. It shouldn't be that we just barely get by on what we can get at church, just that little bit. We just, man, we don't. No, our cup ought to be overflowing and not barely dragging ourselves to church once a week. How can we be of any use to God or good to other people if we have nothing to give but we barely exist ourselves? It is not supposed to be that way. If we're listening to the right kind of preaching, our cup will be overflowing. I mean, we'll just have something to give when we come to church. I remember back years ago we did, you know, we always were changing. People in the church, I got church tapes every week from somewhere and somebody else got tapes from somewhere else and we were always swapping them back and forth and passing them around to each other, write our name on them. A lot of times you didn't get them back. You had to be careful who you give them to. But we listened to preaching, not just in church, but the rest of the time, when we had a chance, when it was a lot harder, when there wasn't an internet, and there wasn't telephones, cell phones, and all of that. We had cassette tapes we passed around so we could listen to preaching. And so when we came to church, everybody had already been listening to preaching. They were glad to be there. They were much more in tune. When people, when you don't listen to nothing, when you walk out those doors and go home and that's the last of God that you even think or talk about till the next time you come in, then you're cold as an iceberg when you come in here and nothing. Man, what did it take to wake you up and get you to hearing again? Listen. to the preaching. Do it on purpose. Seek to have understanding. And when you're listening, get what's said so that you don't end up like this. That's what I see here. It's a sad thing. Last night, Jesus is with his disciples. It just seems to me like it would have been a whole lot better if they would have been thanking Him for all He'd taught them, and all the help He'd given them, and all the light they had in their souls for what they'd heard, but they didn't. Now Jesus had sown in them, and that's an encouragement to me also, because I realize that it takes a while. You sow the seed. And sometimes they just don't come up. I mean, when you plant a garden in the spring, there's certain things that you plant that take forever to come up. And you just about give up on them. You think, man, look at this over here. And we're still, I think it's dead. I think we better plant them again. But just about when you've given up, here it comes. And it's kind of that way with people. You think they're not listening. Jesus went ahead, and I've said it so many times, but he went ahead and told these disciples all these things knowing they didn't have a clue what he was talking about. But what I do now thou knowest not, but thou shall know hereafter. Jesus, man, that's the way it was. He said all these things because He knew. He was God, and so He knew what this was going to go, where this was going to go from here. Fifty days later, Peter's not the same man here at all. Never was again. Same for the rest of them also. And what Jesus told them, They did remember, and it did gel. It came together when the Spirit of God came, then they understood. Spirit of God led them to all truth, the Spirit of truth, and they got it. They got it good, too. They turned the world upside down. So listen. Take heed what you listen to and take heed how you listen to it. But listen and understand and retain what you got. And then listen more. Don't just listen here. Listen more. Don't listen to a bunch of kooks. I ain't going to tell you about no preacher that's going to lead you off into junk. I'm talking about preachers that are sound. and their doctrine and sound and what, and they'll preach the truth to you and help you. Be careful, don't go off just on the internet looking for preachers that you don't know anything about and you can't tell who, what they are or where they come from. They may sound real good and I guarantee there are a lot of them out there that sound as genuine as they can be, but when they're not, you know, When they're a lone wolf out there somewhere, you better be careful. Amen. Father, thank you for the Word of God. I pray you'd bless it to our hearts here this morning. Please, Lord, help us to take heed how we hear and to hear and understand and retain what you give us. Not only hear, but help us, Lord, to have a hunger and to make it a habit of our life to seek out the Word of God and learn at home also and not just here. Make it a part of our life and not just a ritual we go through every week. Bless the Word of God now and go with each one as we leave this place. For everybody would obey what you've spoken to them this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Alright, let's stand.