good to us, got a chance Friday to preach at a church that I've never, never had preached in before and thank God for that opportunity and we had a great service. Wish you guys could have went, man alive, you missed it. I've never seen a service where everybody, I mean, we say, a lot of folks, Third Friday night, everybody in that church was up shouting. Everybody. I seen three dogs out in the parking lot speaking in tongues. I mean, it was on. That was one of them services. Wasn't a big crowd, but man alive, if God just didn't show up and bless, and I want y'all to be praying much for Brother Tinnis and the folks over at Faith Baptist Temple there. You know, they're trying to rebuild. And we well know what that's like here. They'd have to rebuild. So they're in that process. So just pray for them. They've got great spirit over there. So be much in prayer for them as they do what God had them to do there. And we're thankful. We've got a lot of folks. And our families, friends, families that are dealing with flooding and things down in North Carolina and Tennessee, we don't want to forget them in our prayers this morning. Somebody called me yesterday and said, have you talked to Brother Danny? And I said, no, I haven't talked to him. He said, but if I know Brother Danny, there will be church at Shining Light Baptist Church tomorrow. He wouldn't cancel church. I don't care if the building was floating down the river. He'd have church and sure enough, one of the guys from the church called me in there and said I'd messed him, I'd called him and said if you talk to Brother Danny, let him know we're praying for y'all and all that kind of good stuff. He called back and said, Brother Danny says to tell you he's okay and we're having church tomorrow. I said, I figured you would. Just pray for them. Folks in Tennessee, man, that thing, horrible, horrible, the flooding. Of course, Florida, people down there need our prayers. Dealing with so much devastation, we don't want to forget them in prayers. But we're glad to be saved this morning. And we'll preach to you from the book of Philippians, as Brother David told you, chapter three. We'll start with verse seven. If you have your Bibles open, we'd like for you to follow with us as we read. And we're going to preach to you on three different things. We're going to read verses seven through 11, but we're going to preach to you on an encounter, an epiphany, and excellency. Three things you need to have in your Christian life. You need to have an encounter. Amen. You need to have that initial encounter when you got saved. Then as Christians, it wouldn't hurt you any of this at all to have another encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you need to have an epiphany. Y'all know what that means. If you don't, I'll tell you in a minute. But you need to come to a realization of some things. I'm going to do what God had me to do, whatever. And then excellency, once you determine, man, I've got to do something, you have to do your best. All right. I mean, you don't halfway do nothing for the Lord. You do it all. Or, I mean, uh, to be half, somebody told me, but to be half saved, to be totally lost. And I believe that. So in Philippians chapter three, we'll start with verse seven. Uh, if you'd like to stay in, we encourage you to do so, but what things Paul says, but what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yeah, doubtless. And I count all things, but lost. but loss rather for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them, but done that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith. that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. You can be seated. Thank you for staying as we read earlier in this chapter. We have a warning to the church about those that preached to you last time, about those that were mutilating the gospel. Paul locked them to dogs. He said, beware of dogs. You ever watch, I told y'all, I like to watch Animal Planet stuff. I'm a weirdo. I know it. I mean, there's something about watching a lion sneak up on something and you're sitting there and you know, you're like, oh, come on, turn around, turn around, turn around. And it don't, or some kind of wild dog or something. But those things just, when they grab hold of it, they just rip it to shreds. Rip it to shreds. I get tickled, y'all. I think weird stuff. I get tickled at these vegetarians, and if you're a vegetarian here this morning, I'm sorry. For you, I mean, and anybody that don't eat bacon, man, bless your heart, you don't know what you're missing. Bacon will be served in heaven, I promise you. But I get tickled, these vegetarian people, they say, well, you know, I just, I don't believe in it. I just think, well, just leave nature alone. Let nature be nature. And then you go watch the animal plant. You know what nature does to nature? It eats it. Amen? I mean, I've watched that stuff. And there's some, you know, wild pack of dogs. I mean, those things eat, I mean, hippopotamus, I mean, for crying out loud. Who wants to eat a hippopotamus? I thought, that's crazy. Stuff like that. And they don't cook it either. I mean, it's just raw. It's like how David eats his steaks. I don't get it. But anyhow, that's what Paul compares them to. They're like wild animals. They're dogs. Beware of this crowd that just mutilates the gospel, tears it all to shreds, and leaves it just laying out there. I mean, they could care less if they leave a mess or not. That's how they are. And he said, they feast on those, we talked about this, that are the weakest and the most vulnerable in the church. The reason why a lot of folks go through troubles as Christian people is because they've distanced themselves from the pack. Amen. I've watched that stuff. I'll tell you, the only wildebeest that arrogance jumped onto is the one furthest from the rest of them. I watched one of them buffaloes things the other day. You know when buffaloes got them weird big handlebar mushass horns? I watched one of them, and that thing got off by itself. There was a whole pack of them. A whole pack of them, there's like three lions, and a whole pack of them buffaloes over there in Africa, and them lions look around and say, nope, there's 30 of them over there, there's one over here by himself. Guess which one they went after? That one. That one. You start distancing yourself from the church, you start distancing yourself from the pack, you might as well expect it, the devil's gonna come and rip you to shreds. That's just how it is. You might say, well, I don't like that kind of preaching. Well, tough. I don't want to tell you. Lock it, lump it, bump it, get over it. I don't know. But that's the truth. I see it all the time. People say, well, you know, I can miss church this Sunday. I can do this. I can do that. Next thing you know, the devil's feasting on their lives. But not only that, not only the churches, but families are being feasted on. Why? Because we're bringing our families further and further from God. We are. I forgot to turn my timer on, so I better hurry and get that done. Those first few minutes were free. But our families are in a mess. I read a thing the other day, somebody said, grandfather goes to church. Dad goes to church every now and then. Son goes, eh, church ain't that important. Grandson Says what church? And that's where we are. It's a progression. So they gotta be aware of this stuff. They feast on families. What about decency? We are living in one of the most indecent ages in history. And I understand back in the 70s, they had mini skirts and all that stuff. But listen, and that's one thing, that now the men are dressing weird. I mean, you fellas wearing skinny jeans. That's a mess. I'll pick on Easton and Dalton here for a minute. I watched them Friday. They took their football jerseys off after the ball game got canceled, and they had on a shirt. I'll tell you what's the truth. They couldn't got anything else in them shirts. Amen? I mean, listen. I mean, I seen parts of them boys only Jesus knew about. But, man, and then you got these guys, you got preachers coming up to the pulpit wearing skinny jeans and tight tees. Man, they got on their baby's t-shirt. I mean, they think, well, my arms look big because I got, my arms would look big too if I wore Kaylee shirts. And my belly would look real big. But we got these folks, you know, all that stuff, that's crazy. Listen, there comes a point, you got to realize, that's just not decent. It's just not decent. I mean, I don't want to stick on there, but I mean, God help us. That's the targets of these dogs. But they can get us to give up our decency. Now, if they'll get you, you young folks, they'll get you to dress indecent. The next thing will be you won't be decent. You'll lose your purity. And the devil wants that. He wants to steal that from you. And folks say, well, you know what? I just don't know about it. I'm telling you, it's a progression. Even you watch it in the... I'm going to say this and I'm going to move on. Listen, even in the entertainment industry, you can chart the downward progression of decency. I went old enough to remember, but I've watched videos and things of even rock and roll singers in the 50s and 60s. They'd wear suit coats. They dressed better than most preachers do today. Have you ever watched an early Elvis Presley concert or Buddy Holly or any of that crap? They'd have on a tie. Some of you old enough to remember that, right Luther? That's right. But then it gets worse. Then the 70s come. And then they had on, what did you call that mess they had on the 70s, bell bottoms and sequins and the KC and the Sunshine Band. And he had his shirt unbuttoned down to there, both chest hairs teased and sticking out. Jared got more hair on his head. But then the 70s, then the 80s, and it's even worse, even worse. And now, we're lucky if they wear clothes when they sing. And now, you don't have to have any talent at all to be a singer in today's society. The computers will take care of that. Amen? But as long as you have the look, now it's the look they're after. It's not about talent anymore. It's about a look. It's about a look. It's about a look. And then you got trailer trash Swift up there wearing her little leotard and her swimsuit and up there singing. Listen, my wife wears more clothes to bed, amen, than a lot of these folks wear in front of millions of people. And that's our kids' role model. Decency is under attack. Amen. And sometimes it's not the dogs you've got to watch out for. Sometimes it's you. There are many times you are your biggest enemy. You build yourself up. You think you're better than everybody else. You're above reproach. You're above correction. Let he that think he standeth take heed lest he fall." That's what the Bible says. People depend on their heritage. Well, my granddaddy went to church. Well, good for your granddaddy. What about you? Well, you ever see people... I heard a story this time. This boy got pulled over speeding. He was guilty. He was speeding. He knew he was speeding. The police knew he was speeding. All three of them chased him down. So they get to his car. And he rose his window down, and the cop walked up and said, can I see your driver's license and all that? You know how they do. And he handed him his stuff. And the boy looked at him and said, do you know who my daddy is? He said, huh? He said, my daddy. Do you know who my daddy is? He said, who's your daddy? And he turned and he said, oh. Go ahead. He said, man, I hope that boy killed somebody. We depend on stuff like that. When you think people get to the mind, they think, that'll get me out of trouble now. When I stand before God, I'll just tell them, you know, I'll just stand before God and say, well, God, you know what, my dad's a preacher, my granddaddy was a preacher. And you know what God's going to say? Whoop-de-doo. What are you? Who are you? That's what matters. You know, we think we're depending on our heritage. A lot of people have themselves fooled. They think they're saved because they got baptized or because they went to church or something like that. And they're going to find out there's more to it than just going to church and being about, should you go to church? If you're a Christian, I think you'll want to go to church. I think you'll want to be here. I don't have to call and beg you to come to church if you're truly saved. I mean, you'll come in here smiling. It's like you don't have to beg Christians to put money in the offering plate either. Amen? I mean, you'll give your tithes and you'll give your offering. But anyhow, I mean, move on. And Paul tells us about this crowd. And Paul even compared himself in verses 3 through 6. Earlier, he talked about his heritage as a Jew, his zeal and his religion, and about the Pharisee of the Pharisee. Paul tells us that all of this, Paul says, in verse 7, that was gained to me, my heritage, my zeal, my religion, my family, my standing, everything that I thought was getting me somewhere. Paul said, I counted lost. That's where we have to get to this morning, where everything we think we are, we realize we're nothing. without Jesus. So again, now I'm going to try to give you quickly an epiphany, an encounter, an epiphany and some excellency this morning. So again, Paul says, But what things were gained to me, these I counted lost for Christ. In verse 7, Paul's telling you and I this morning that religion was not sufficient. Paul was a very religious man before Acts chapter 9. He was religious. He was a Pharisee. He was in the temple. He rubbed elbows with the chief priest. He knew all the preachers in town. He knew everybody, anybody in Judaism. Paul knew them. He said, my religion was insufficient to save me. He said his heritage. He said, listen, I was of the tribe of Benjamin, a stock of the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Jew of the Jews. I was somebody. I mean, I'm from the tribe of the very first king of Israel, Saul. He was from the same tribe as me. I thought I was something. But it comes to find out I had to count that as loss for Christ. My heritage was not going to save me. Ladies and gentlemen, you young folks this morning, listen. It's not who your family is that's going to get you into heaven. Moms and daddies, it's not your mom and dad. It's not anybody. It's you and your relationship with Jesus Christ that will determine whether or not you get to go to heaven or not. Your salvation depends on your actions. Paul talks about his zeal. Now you know what zeal is, that's sincerity. That's doing so with all your heart. Paul said, you talk about zeal, he said, I had it. Do you realize you can be the most sincere person in the world and still be lost? You can believe everything you believe and go to hell. You can be sincere in it. That's what he's telling us. He said, those things that were gained to me, The things I thought mattered in my life that was going to get me somewhere. I had to count that loss. I had to get beyond that. What Paul is telling us is there had to come a place in my life where I have my encounter. Now we know it's in Acts chapter 9. If you're a Bible reader, you know Acts chapter 9. You know Paul's on the road to Damascus. You know a bright light shines from heaven around the Apostle Paul, at that time Saul, and he falls off his horse. That's where we get our saying, get knocked off your high horse. That's what happened to Paul. He got knocked off his high horse. And God looks at him in chapter 3, or chapter 9 rather, beginning around verse 3 in Acts. He says, And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus. And suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven, and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" There you have Paul's encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Who art thou, Lord? Paul's been knocked off his horse, he's laying flat on his back, and he knows that somebody bigger than him is in the area. He says, Who art thou, Lord? In verse 5 and verse 6 he says, and Paul says, And he, trembling and astonished, said again, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? I can tell you if you've had a true encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, because one thing that comes out of everybody's mouth that I've ever saw get saved is, Lord, what do you want me to do? God, I'll do whatever you want me to do. I remember when I was nine years old and I got saved in Mingo County outside Del Barton, West Virginia. I said, Lord, I'll do whatever it is you want me to do. And again, about 19 years old, and God started calling me to preach. I didn't want to preach. I didn't want nothing to do with preaching. My daddy preached. My granddaddy preached. I saw how preachers got treated. It wasn't the last thing I wanted to do. I said, all right, Lord, listen. God hit me with a church. He hit me with a pulpit. That's the truth. And he whacked me right in the head with it. And I said, all right, Lord, all right, all right. I'll preach, but I'll not pastor. And the Lord just looked at me and said, we'll see. And here we are. But everybody that has an encounter is willing to do what God wants them to do. Amen? If you're not willing to do everything God wants you to do, you're probably not saved. You're going to say, well, I thought it wasn't of worth. It ain't of worth, but your worth will be manifested. Amen? Something will happen in your life. If you have an encounter, Paul didn't get saved by his worth. He worked because of his encounter. It's different. A lot of folks ignorant don't understand that. But anyhow, He said, Lord, what will you have me to do? That encounter leads to Paul's epiphany. An epiphany is this big fancy word that means it's just a moment when you suddenly feel that you understand. The light bulb goes off, so to speak. Lord, I'm not the type of Benjamin. I'm a Pharisee. I've got zeal. I love the law. And all that was Paul. I stand for the commandment. That's Paul. He's religious. God, I make sacrifices. God, I honor the holy day. That's Paul. But then comes a moment of understanding. None of that's good enough. He says, Lord, what do You want me to do? There it is. And He gives us this. If you go through there, verses 7-11 and Acts 9, it deals with Paul's conversion. And we see the things that were gained by the Apostle Paul are now lost. The next time you find the Apostle Paul in a temple, he's sharing the gospel, not the law. As a matter of fact, I don't know that Saul ever goes back to the temple. that Paul wrote, because it's been changed. So let's go back to Philippians 3, verse 8. He says, Yea, that was, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus, the Christ Jesus, my Lord. You have to understand some things about Paul. Paul's a very smart man. He's very educated. He speaks multiple languages. He studied the greatest teacher in Judea. He studied under him. Paul is highly educated. Paul is connected. I told you, he knows all the chief priests. He is a government official. He has letters in his pocket going to Damascus to arrest people. You don't get more connected than Paul. Paul knows the people you need to know. Paul has friends in high places. He's more connected than anybody you've ever known. He can get things done in town. He's one of them people, if you need your road paved, you go ask Paul. And Paul knows who to talk to. That's Paul. He's connected. He's religious. I told you, he was a Pharisee. He recognized and done all the things of the law that he's supposed to do. And he tells us that none of that compares to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. See, too often we put people, possessions, even positions on an equal footing with Jesus Christ. We think, well, if I can get here, I'll be somebody. No, that's not how it works. We think, well, you know, but if I can just have this, I'll be happy. I tell this story all the time. I had a lady many years ago at our church, and she said, we didn't have a bus. We was trying to go get kids from church and all that. And I said, well, if somebody go here to get some kids up that holler, and somebody go over here, and we got kids over there at that trailer park, and we got kids over there. And this one lady says, I can't drive my car up that holler. I said, why not? It'll get dirty. And she washed it. It'll get scratched if I go up through there. There's trees on the side of it. I says, what you're telling me is you can't go pick up kids from church because your car's too nice. She means she lets you talk. You know when people give you that deer-in-a-headlock look? That's what I got. I said, well, I can help you with that. She's probably thinking, oh, he's going to let me go over here to the housing complex or something. I said, well, what we'll do is we'll pray and ask God to take that Cadillac away from you and give you a Pinto. She said, no, preacher, don't do that. If your car is too nice for you to go pick up people and spread the gospel, share the gospel, then your car is too nice. See, we put possessions. We think, well, I've got to have this. I've got to have that. Now listen, I get it. I don't want my car to get scratched, but you know what? I'd rather my car get scratched than soul burn in hell forever. Amen. And listen, I tell you all the same thing. If your clothes, your car, whatever you've got is too nice for you to go witness, I'm going to ask God to take it all away from you and give you something you're not that worried about so you'll go witness. That's just how it is. But Paul has all that relationship possessions. Listen, if Jesus Christ is not Lord over every area of your life, He's probably not the Lord of you. And that's where Paul's getting us to. He says, I count them but done. How many of y'all know what done is? Raise your hand. Done. We have a great four-letter word translation for that in English language. I ain't using it. We got one. They call it many things, a little poo. Amen. Paul says, I count it all done. Just a load of manure. Nothing matters. It's worthless to me. How many of y'all love to roll around in manure? Raise your hand. Always. You step in it with your shoes, you'll take your shoes off. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to have that. I mean, listen y'all. I mean, when Dee and Marie go to the bathroom together, You knew it was going to happen. Listen, we've made people rich on products to get that stuff to get us clean. Because we don't want that on our lives physically. Why are we rolling in it spiritually? Paul says, it's just done. Get away from that. Get it off of you. Don't step in it. I've made a brilliant observation. Dog poo dung does not stink unless you step in it. I don't know how that works. You can walk through a yard and you can't smell it at all, but just as soon as your foot splatters it, well, you can smell it. There's two things. I don't know how that happens, and I don't know how come dogs never step in it. I ain't figured that out either. Dogs are smart or something. They know what they're smelling for, I guess. I mean, after all, y'all know how to say hello. But, he says, this stuff's just dung to me. Now listen, I want to help you. Watch these Bibles, these weird Bibles. It's like, Paul says, he counted it but garbage. Dung and garbage are two different things. I will go out, if the dogs, it happens all the time, if it's on my ever-loving nerve, somebody's dog come in and knock my trash cans over. and turn my trash up. I will go out there with my hand and pick up the trash. Amen? But I have yet, all my life, unless when I was a little baby and I didn't know no better, but since I've been smart enough to know what to do with myself, I have yet to take my hand and pick up dung. I ain't gonna do it. I got more sense than that. I'll handle trash. I mean, I'll clean up stuff or whatever. But listen, if I'm holding one of these babies, Everly's probably the littlest one able. They're about the littlest ones we got here this morning. I remember when Everly was little. And I'd be holding her. If she'd done a doo-doo. Brother Gary loves her. But I was looking for mom and daddy. If I could find him, I'd say, here baby, come on, Miss Alicia, the baby wants you. Get rid of it. I didn't even like, you know, Mr. Hart, I mean, praise the Lord, this is something. And we want to roll around in it as Christians. Paul says, you ought to count that stuff done. It's not garbage, like the NIV says. It's not rubbish, like the New King James says. It's not refuse, like the American Standard Version says. It is done. Manure. Poop. Other things. I'm not going to say. And if you say them, shame on you. It's nasty. It stinks. Yes, trust me, even yours stinks. It's a mess. It's gross. I don't want it around me. I don't want it on me. I don't, I mean, I work at the state and you have people come in and you're like, whoo. I don't like body odor. Amen? Lord, help us. Oh, mercy. Praise the Lord. And we take care of ourselves physically. I mean, you've got a separate place in your house, a room designed just for that. Amen? But we'll wallow around spiritually in things that we should have considered done. Paul said, I've counted this stuff, but done. Go down to verse 8, I'm trying to hurry. He says, Yea, that was, I count all things but lost. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ. He goes on, verse 9, "...and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death." We've had the encounter We've had the epiphany, oh wow, I'm going to do something for the Lord. I don't want to have this stuff on my life anymore. I've got to get rid of this stuff in my life. And then now, we're really getting into that excellency that was talked about earlier. You go back with us quickly to verse 7. He says, But what things were lost, those things I counted. But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost. What was the gain is now lost. What I thought was important doesn't matter. Verse 8, he says that I may win Christ. And verse 9, he says, and be found in Him. Verse 10, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. Verse 11, he says that if by any means I might attain Again, the emphasis here is still on our religious practices, and the fact is that they are not sufficient to get you, you can't get to heaven no higher than you can jump. If all you are is religious, if all you are is a churchgoer, and there's a big difference between church people and sage people, say Amen. Big difference, big difference. Church people will stab you in the back. Say Amen right there. Church people will cuss you behind your back and talk about you and gossip about you. That's what church people do. I don't believe that. You've never passed in the church. I can tell you for a fact that's the truth. Church people will hide from you. Church people will avoid you. I'm not picking on you two. I know y'all was lost when y'all did that. But I've had church people in there. I had a lady one time, I went to visit her, and she said, well, Brother Gary, I'm too sick to come to church. And I thought, you're lying through your teeth too. I mean, I knew she was lying. She knew she was lying. God knew she was lying. Everybody knew she was lying. And I said, well, I just can't get out in the dark. I just can't get out in the dark. You can get out any other time. We've got church in the morning time. I said, honey, we got a morning service. She said, well, brother, I just don't feel like it. I just can't get out. Everything I give her, she had a reason why she couldn't. And it brought down to just, I'm just too sick. I don't go out, go nowhere. I go to the grocery store the next day. Guess who's on the other end of all this? She's too sick to go anywhere. But she made it to the grocery store. And y'all know me, I'm a smart aleck. I stand on the other end of that aisle and I start shouting. I said, Whoa! Praise the Lord! And she looked at me, she knowed it was on. And her face turned three different colors. And her eyes got big as saucer. And she looked at me and I said, Oh, praise the Lord! He's touched you! He's healed you! You can get out of the house! We'll see you in church tomorrow! I told somebody I embarrassed her. I didn't embarrass you, you lied. You didn't count everything lost. Amen? She hadn't had her epiphany yet. I only ended up sure she'd had an encounter. But that's church people. That's what church people do. Amen? You know what a saved person would say? Preacher, I missed. I'll be there next time." And he can tell a church, you know, just like a Christian does. I can tell a church, too. I say, you come to church Sunday? Yep. Then he's there. So listen, man, I miss you. Oh, I had, you know, this happened, that happened. Oh, that happened, this happened. You know, this and that. But listen, just be honest. Tell the truth. You done sinned enough. Don't add line to it. See, religion's not sufficient. All through these verses, these five verses, Paul is trying to get it through to us. Being religious is not enough. You have to have an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got to be saved. You have to have an epiphany before you say, I'm going to do whatever God wants me to do. I'm not going to complain, I'm just going to do it. I'm going to work. If God wants me to clean the toilet with a toothbrush, that's what I'm going to do. And I'm going to be happy to. I'm going to sing the Old Ship of Zion while I'm in there scrubbing the toilet bowl. If God wants me to take out the trash, I'm going to take out the trash. If God wants me to drive a church bus, I'm going to drive a church bus. If God wants me to preach, I'm going to preach. If God wants me to sing, I'm going to sing. I'm just whatever God wants is what I want. You're a pessimist. Then you get into the excellency. Excellency. Everything is impossible except knowing Jesus. Paul says that I may know Him. How do I want to know Him? He says, I want to know the power of His resurrection. We all want that, right? Everybody wants that. You see jokers all the time. Power! Power! Power! Power! And you heard about that one boy, he'd come to that little faith healer that time. And he walked up to him and he said, can I pray for you? He said, yes sir, yes sir. He said, what's wrong? He said, it's my hearing. I need you to pray for my hearing. The preacher grabbed him like he was a little loser. He slapped both hands on him in the ear. He said, God, through the power, I pray you touch this brother's hearing and restore it unto him in Jesus. He said, what do you think? He said, I don't know. My hearing's not so good. Amen. Everybody wants that power. You want to be plugged in, right? I mean, I want to be so full of Jesus Christ that the mosquito bites me. It runs away singing a carol of blood. Amen. I want to be full of the Lord. But in order to have the power of the resurrection, there has to be some fellowship. You just don't spend time with God in a good time. He does the fellowship of His suffering. That's the problem with a lot of Christians. They're going to walk away anytime they get there. But God didn't do it this way. I thought He should. We'll bless your heart. How is it you're not going to get anywhere? If you quit every time something gets hard, you're never going to get anywhere in life. I mean, spiritually or even naturally. Quitters don't get anywhere. Jack Kyle said every dictionary I ever bought said I could cut the word quit out of it. Cut it out. Said it's not in my vocabulary. I'll never quit. Never quit. Never quit. St. Paul says that I might win. Christ. See, but winning is not gaining. You only win when you are willing to lose everything. And Christ is all that you need. And we'll say stuff like that. As long as Jesus is all I have, I'll be satisfied. When you help God. or your job goes, or your wife goes, or something, the kids don't do what they're supposed to do, and you find out real quickly that it really is what you ought to do. You have everything on equal footing with God. You're not, you're all about the power of the resurrection. I've been bearing that cross in the fellowship of those suffering. And I'm going to do that. It's too hard, but it is. I looked at a church this morning. Some of you have been through hard things. Lost a loved one. Children. You've been through horrible things. Divorce. Things that you really had no control over. You've been through it. And I hope you learn, as long as I have you, The psalmist said, you can have all this world, but give me nothing. I would rather have nothing than have you. What's that song say? Then to be the king of a great domain, I'd rather have it. With silver or gold, I'd rather have it. Fortune or fame, I'd rather have it. Everything else is lost. Everything else is just done. manure. I don't care about it. Nor do I not want to earn around it. It's all lost from me. Just let me do what God wants me to do. Where God wants me to live. With the people that God's given me to do it with. With everything else. Amen. I don't need it. Most of it's just headaches in here. You think you need that new car, but the worst thing about new cars is that payment book will come with it. Unless you got enough money you can pay cash for it, then your bank book looks bad. Either way it goes, your book's messed up. You gotta get that new car, you got the insurance. Gotta keep it clean. Can't let the kids eat the car. Excuse me. I'm going to take care of what I've got because I think I'm going to be a good steward of things like this. Amen. I believe that. I try my best to keep my truck clean. I try my best. Bless her heart. I've got a little girl that I'm trying to teach. It's important taking care of what you have. Why? Because God blessed me with it. If it's God's in your day, maybe it's God's. Amen. Amen. I thank you. Everything else is God's. Everything else is just laziness. I don't need it. I'm so happy. That's what Paul's giving to us in chapter two. Are you at the point, you've had your encounter, you've had that epiphany, and hopefully you've come to that realization this morning, you haven't before, all I need is to be convinced to strive for perfection. I don't like preachers that don't preach. I don't. I can tell you within three, five minutes of the sermon whether they studied it or not. I don't like it. I don't like to watch people just winging it. I don't like singers who don't practice. You can tell if they don't practice. Amen? I know our singers, our ladies and gentlemen, they practice. I'm telling you all, Mrs. Alicia, bless her heart, she sings all the time. I tell you, it's like living in an Elvis movie. There's a song for everything. I said, no thanks. I said, I'm trying to help out. I want to pack some clothes down the basement, put them in the washing machine. He goes, just a pack of my clothes. He gets a hunk, a hunk of washing clothes in. God, if God asks you to do something, You should do your best. You start preaching, do your best. You got me? You got me? You got me? Do your best. Deacon, please do your best. Amen. You're going to be a good one. Deacon with all your might. You want to take the Sunday school class? Study. Your class deserves to be to have somebody that studies for them. Amen. Do your best. Marie, if you wouldn't have turned your head, I wouldn't have called you out. She's like my little dog over there. She went... You're gonna do it. If you're gonna be the clerk, be the best. If you're gonna be a treasurer, do your best. If you're going to be a church member, be here! Do your best! Right? Hello! Apostles, in one place, know man that when he's talking about doing it, he's describing it unlawfully. But we strive for mastery, I think we say. You should want to do something. And then do it right. If you take your car to a mechanic and he says, I can change that flat for you, and he fixes your tire and changes your flat and puts it back on the car and only puts one lug nut on it, are you going to take your car back to him? Why? Who said it? What'd you say? He'll do it again. He can get by with it once, what's he going to do? If he's done it to you, guess what else he's done it to somebody else. If you wouldn't take that from a mechanic on something as insignificant as your car, you shouldn't accept it anyway. And you shouldn't accept it as yourself. What do you think, Mr. O, is that good stuff? Go ahead and what do you think? Drop it. Ethan's not paying attention. He's picking bugs out of your hair, isn't he? Watch where he's looking now. An encounter. It's all down to this one.