Will glory be, amen. Amen and amen. Thank you brother for speaking the name of Jesus, amen. Thank you brother Keith for allowing me to come and stand in the gap in your pulpit and share with your people. We sure appreciate you and your bride, your church. And it is good to see familiar faces. We've been up in Lewin preaching recently and got to see some folks that are here with us tonight and also, It's just a treat to have each of you. Amen. I've got a friend here, a brother here in Christ, brother Chris Riles. His family is with us at Briggs Chapel. He lives over in Union and teaches up there at the college there. And he's a surveyor and he's a father and he's a husband. and he's a preacher of the gospel. And he has filled in for me at Briggs Chapel on quite a few occasions and he'll be a good resource for you too as well, amen. But it's hard to pass up having a hometown pastor right here, amen. That when you're out, he could step up in there anytime, amen. Amen and amen to God be the glory. Well, look, won't you take the revelation that you brought with you and turn to the book of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter number one, 1 Corinthians chapter number one. And while you're turning there, I'll give you a few minutes. to get to it, or if you look in the pew in front of you, I notice y'all got Bibles. If you didn't bring a sword with you, if you didn't bring your treasure chest with you, you could look in the pew and pull one out. In modern times, you could even use your phone and get online or whatever it is to find you an app that you can walk with us in the Scripture. It'd be important for you to do that. We will use the Word. I believe in the Word. I trust the Word. I believe it's the living Word of God, amen. and we need to be enrooted, we need to be rooted in the incarnate Word, that's Jesus. We need to be rooted in the inspired Word, the Bible, and we need to be rooted in the indestructible living letters of the Word, one another, amen. We are the body of Christ, and Paul said we are like written letters of the Lord written upon our heart, and you can't abide in Jesus and be disconnected from his body. So to stay connected to Jesus, we stay connected to his people. So I'm glad you're here tonight, amen? And I pray the Lord will help us and speak to us. It wasn't too many years ago, if somebody asked me to turn to 1 Corinthians, I would have had to go to the index of the Bible and didn't even know there was a book called 1 Corinthians. I'm thankful for Jesus, and I'm thankful for his spirit, and I'm thankful for his message, and I'm thankful for his patience to work with some old boy from Louisiana that didn't know anything about him, didn't know who he was, but he decided to interrupt my life and invade me with his grace. And then he put me around people that helped teach me and equip me. And I got in his book and began to learn things. I didn't know these hymns when I was coming up. I didn't know church songs. I wasn't raised in the church. So I didn't know what hymns were. I'm not a singer. I was cut out to sing. I was just sold up wrong is all it is. But I was just one of those that didn't know a whole lot about church music or much about church. But I'm thankful that Jesus can make a difference in your life. Amen. I'm thankful for what he did for my bride, Stephanie over here. A lot of people know her as Honey. If you follow us through the social media world, I say Stephanie, and people don't know who I'm talking about. They only know her as Honey Holden. And that is because that's what the grandkids call her. And they call her Honey, and they call her BB. And when they little bitty, they can't say Honey, so they call her BB. So she's Honey Bee Bee. But we have nine little ones running around, and one of them will be turning 17 here pretty shortly. And then we've got another one due in February time frame, and they live over in Germany right now. I was thinking about this before we get cranked up. We were singing about the goodness of God. Isn't that a wonderful revelation to know about the goodness of God? But here's something you may have never thought of before in relationship to God being good. Because God is good, that is one of the most scariest thoughts in all the world as much as it is one of the most pleasant thoughts in all the world. Because if God is good, and He is, and all God's people said, if God is good, God must deal with that which is not good. Have you ever thought about that in times past? A good God has to deal with that which is not good and sin is not good. That's missing the mark. And that's not as much as simply what you've done in the past, but who you are as a sinner. You see, salvation in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is the salvaging work of God through his grace and mercy upon us. My life was headed toward ruin because I entered this world as a sinner. My life was bent, my heart was bent toward self-centeredness. You take a little one in here, she's got her little notepad with a pen right now, she is precious. How old is she? Three, a preacher's kid, right? I've got three girls. They're all preacher's kids, they're precious to us. But if you, and she's smiling at me right now. But you take that pen and paper from her, she might not be quite as precious, right? She's gonna get stirred up. Why? Because it's in the nature of the DNA of all human beings we were bent towards self-centeredness. We were bent toward living and thinking about us. And you take one of these precious babies and hold them for a little bit and when they can't either get the rest they need or they're not getting the food they need or they've got a dirty bottom, they're gonna let you know, right? And you're gonna change them and you're gonna feed them and you're gonna rock them and eventually you're gonna put a pacifier in their mouth, true? You know, the only difference between a baby's pacifier and an adult's pacifier is they're just more expensive. Our pacifiers get more expensive. You see, when these little girls grow, they get a little doll that you pacify. Hey, she's friendly, amen. you get they get a little doll before you know it's a little tricycle and then it's a bicycle and then it's a four-wheeler or then a side-by-side and before you know it they riding around a little doodle bug and then it's this boyfriend or this girlfriend Then it's a high-powered rifle from a shotgun to, now I need a boat for I can't be happy in life unless I got a boat. Or I belong to a hunting club. Or I'm riding around in a Mercedes. Or I got me a four-wheel drive. Or I get me another wife. Or maybe another husband. And that don't work out, so I get another one. And then I get another, man, I tell you what, a bunch of wives get expensive woman. Why? Self-centered living always costs. And it'll cost you more, more than you ever imagined. And God is a good God. And God's got to deal with self-centered living because he is good. And because he is good, he gave us one answer for it. That's his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God has an exclusive answer for his salvaging, saving work. And you see, when God is, and he is a good God, and he's got to deal with things that are not good, you're unsafe with God. You don't have to worry about this whole world. You ain't got even worry about Satan. When you're lost and perishing in your sins, who you got to worry about is meeting God one day. You're unsafe with him until he salvages your life. Now when he salvages your life, Not only does he make us safe with him, the Bible calls that reconciling us, that was at enmity with him. Now he brings us in and we're at peace with him through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the life sacrifice of Jesus, the substitutionary life and death of the Lord. We become safe with him, but here's the key. Then he makes us safe to go to work for him, amen. That's what the beauty of salvation with this good and gracious God is, is that he makes me safe. Though I was ruined in the original design, I was ruined, but he is so good and he is so gracious because I couldn't live it. He came and enclosed himself in flesh. And he lived the life that we couldn't live. to die the death that we couldn't die, that the death that he died can qualify us to receive the life that he lived when we put our trust and faith in him, amen? And now we're at peace with him. And now he's at work in us to do what make us safe, to be a vessel used by him. Where life no longer is about me, life becomes about speaking the name of Jesus, amen? Living for him. Now, in 1 Corinthians, we're gonna see a few of these things unfold for us. But what I wanted to do this week, and I believe God has pressed upon my heart to do, is that to deal with an idea, some thoughts that we see the Apostle Paul working with here in this first chapter, and the reason being is that if you have been salvaged by Jesus, and you've been made safe with him, and he's given you a race to run, a course to run, you can get to a place in life, as Paul would say, that he can disqualify himself When he's not actually living worthy of the gospel, even though he's preaching the gospel That's possible You can you can spoil yourself Where you no longer safe and now God in his love toward you because he's a good God. Amen What is he going to do? He's going to chase in you and he's gonna scourge you, and he's gonna discipline you. Why? Because there's two things going on in the believer's life. Every believer, every authentic believer, every disciple of the Lord Jesus, every new creature in Christ, there's two things happening in their life, or specifically one of two things that's happening more dominantly at the time, Either God's chasing in you to get you back in the vine of abiding in him, and if you connected to him or abiding in him, now he is delivering you over the death that the life of Christ can be manifest out of your mortal flesh. And Paul deals with that in 1st and 2nd Corinthians. In first Corinthians, his letter is dealing with the chastening side. This church was not abiding. Matter of fact, he says there's some problems going on there and they're not walking in fellowship with the Lord. They're not walking in harmony with him. He referred to them as babes in Christ or carnal. And a carnal person is a believer who is now leaning to things pertaining to their flesh. Because every believer still has a fleshly nature. How many of y'all let it out every once in a while? How many of y'all let the dead man come out the grave every once in a while? Anybody ever push you in line at the store or push you in line on the road and your flesh starts manifesting and you let the old, ugly, rotten, stinking dead man come alive and you act with the flesh? Y'all ever do that? You ever do it in your home, daddy? Mama? We see when we are acting carnal, things pertaining to the flesh, Those things are gonna be evident in our life. We start having troubles in our home. We start having division with people in the church. We start having trouble among the brethren and I've got my ideas about things and they've got their ideas about things and we just can't seem to work together to get the assignment, the mission done. That's acting carnal. That's a believer who is doing things pertaining to the flesh. But when we walk maturely, or Paul would use the word spiritually, we're leaning toward the things of the Spirit. And you want to lean toward the things of the Spirit, amen. Why? So that you don't finish what your flesh initiates in your life. Your flesh is always initiating things to you. I know it is because it's doing to me too. Nobody escapes this. No matter how long you've been in the work of giving your entire life of surrendering to Jesus, you're still gonna have to deal with the flesh. This preacher right here who's been in the kingdom service of war for many, many years, I guarantee you he still has things come in his mind that he wonders where it came from. Some of you older ladies in here, more mature ladies in here. I guarantee y'all still gotta deal with things that come, you think, I thought I was further along than that. Things that enter into your mind, you're like, where in the world did that come from? I ain't thought about that in years. I can't believe I thought that away. I can't believe I looked at it that way. And if you're not careful and don't realize this, you'll get down on yourself and think how sorry you are and ain't worth nothing that you thought you were better than what you were and the whole while everybody, every believer in the world has to deal with these issues. Why? There's still part of you connected to a fallen, dying world. and that stuff still comes up. But in Galatians 5, Paul said if you will be led by the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, that is you lean in on the Spirit when the flesh shows up, because it's gonna show up even when you're leaning in on the Spirit. When it shows up, he says you don't have to finish what the flesh initiates. It's kind of like, how many of you ever been watching what you're eating, and everywhere you go, people are offering you things that are off your menu? How many of y'all like ice cream? Or pecan pie? Apple pies? Don't, you love it. Look, she's gonna be straight in here and honest, right? You've been watching your diet. How many diabetics we got in here? If you won't admit it. and they still put ice cream in front of you, you gotta make a choice, right? Do I eat it or do I say no? Do I eat it or do I say no? How many of y'all normally don't say no? Come on now, admit it, right? How many of y'all have a hard time saying no to something sweet, even though you know it's killing you? And you still have a hard time saying no, we're all guilty of it. You see the flesh is like grandma offering you a piece of pie. And you don't wanna tell grandma after she's labored, you don't wanna tell mama, mama can't eat that. And when Miss Alma's done labored in the kitchen and your bride has labored in the kitchen, but she didn't know you had a big lunch that day and you over ate at lunchtime. This pastor likes staying in shape, don't he? And she's laid out there spread and he don't wanna tell her no, so he partakes of it. And then he goes to bed with indigestion. Acid reflux. Tonight we probably will eat something after this and then I got an hour and a half ride home and gonna lay down on it. And y'all pray I don't get acid reflux, amen? Because I have a hard time saying no too. You see, but Jesus condemned sin in the flesh. What that means is he always said no. to the flesh and always said yes to his father. And for you and me to learn how to walk in the spirit, you know how we do that? How we do that most effectively? We just get our eyes on Jesus. Just look to Jesus. What did Jesus do? How did he do it? Well, he said he didn't do a thing unless his father. let him. Amen. That's how we then function. So when the flesh initiate something in your life, you know what you say? You just keep learning to say, no, I'm looking to Jesus and just look to Jesus. Amen. Just look to Jesus and you can do things pertaining to the spirit. And then the meat and the solid food of the things of God begin to flow in your life and you begin to grow in His grace. And when you're growing in His grace, God is daily gonna deliver you over to death so that the life of Christ can flow out of your life, amen. That's just how God works. Chasing us or discipling us. Delivering us over to death. You see with the church at Corinth was in the chastening phase because predominantly as babes in Christ, they were leaning to their flesh. So Paul says these words, he begins this letter and I'm gonna focus in on verse number 10 and we'll get up to this point. But this is what I wanna come across this week, and we'll try to take each one of these words that we're gonna bring out of it and look at it like starting tonight on one in particular. But he says in verse number 10, now I beseech you, brethren, in the name or by the authority of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Tonight I wanna focus in though on that last idea of the same judgment. And it's very important for a body like this church at Corinth that was situated in Greece who was the economic empire that day who had, if you could imagine a place in America that was filled with all immorality and sin, that would have been Corinth. And they had influencers come through and they obviously had distracted the brethren and they got their minds off of the things of God. And that's why Paul said, when I came to you the first time and I was with you for those 18 months, I knew nothing but Christ crucified. He says, but now three to five years later, when I'm writing back, I'm hearing reports about you. He says, I can't do anything more than preach Christ and him crucified. Why? Because you're focusing in on the flesh. How do I know you're focusing in on the flesh? Because there's divisions among you. This one says, I like this preacher. And this one says, I would rather that preacher. And this one says, I like this guy. And I like this thing. And this one says, I like this. And if you didn't stand with me, you were against me. And Paul is coming back to the place and saying, look, what I want more than anything, what Jesus wants more than anything is that you all speak one voice, you all be of one vision, and you all have one verdict. life. The same, the same, the same. That you speak the same things, that you have the same mindset, and that you have the same judgments. The same judgments. What's that idea of the judgments? Well, can you turn to the book of Revelation and go to chapter 17 and we're gonna look at it on the negative side to see how this word judgment is laid out and you'll see how it would apply to us. So Revelation 17, Revelation 17. There's plenty places that we can use, but I think this is from a perspective of what God is going to do in a future day, and we see these words laid out before us, and we see how it was used upon a future generation that wasn't walking with the Lord. So in Revelation 17, looking about verse number 13, This would be for you a future study as you look at some of these things and the circumstances around them. But he says in verse number 13 of Revelation 17, he says, these have what? One mind. The word mind there is the same word judgment in 1 Corinthians 10. They have one verdict that they're standing on, one mindset that they have. and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. So we're talking about the people of the world, those people who receive the mark of the beast in a future day, are gonna have one entire agenda. And they're gonna give all their resources, they're gonna give all their rights, and they're gonna give all their respect, they're gonna give it all over to the beast. And we know who's the beast in the future day. Who would be the beast? The who? Y'all can say it, don't be who. The Antichrist, right? We know that day's coming. That day's gonna come, but when it comes, the scripture says that the world is gonna stand on one verdict, one judgment, and they're gonna give all their resources and every one of their rights and their rulership, they're gonna submit it to the Antichrist in a future day. That would be minus the believers who never received the mark of the beast and who serve Jesus and give their allegiance to him. Now, this is the point I wanna make. Let's read a little bit further and you'll see the idea of what he means when you have one judgment, one verdict. Verse 14 says, these shall make war with the Lamb. So they are in allegiance fighting against who? The Lamb of God. Who's the Lamb? Talking about Jesus here, right? So there's gonna come a day, just like the day right now, either you're with Jesus or you're against Jesus. Didn't he say that? Now, what we wanna do as believers and what you wanna do at Bay Springs is be of one judgment of a verdict. You stand on what God has said. and you give your allegiance to him. Entirely unto him. A world's gonna give their allegiance to the beast one day, but you wanna be known today as a man, woman, boy, or girl who's given your allegiance to Jesus. You're surrendered to him with one judgment. Look, verse 14. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. And all God's people say, Hey, we know the end of the book, right? The Lamb wins. He's a victor and an overcomer and so are you when you are in Him. For He is the Lord of lords and He's the King of kings and they that are with Him are called and are chosen and are faithful. And all God's people said? Notice verse 15. And he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest where the horse sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. That's who gives their allegiance. Them and their kings give their allegiance to the beast. Verse 16. and the 10 horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and they shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Here's verse 17. For God, this is a work of God here. For God hath put it in these people's hearts to fulfill God's will and to what? Agree and give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God shall be what? Fulfilled. Notice who's behind this. God is gonna do a work in a future day where the entire world that is outside of entrusting him are gonna come together with one agreement. with one allegiance and one alliance, and they're gonna give everything. They're gonna turn their rights over to the beast. They're gonna turn every resource in their kingdom over to the beast. They're gonna give their everything to him, and the reason they do it is because God put it in their heart to give themselves to the Antichrist. Now, if God's gonna do that for them in their future day, don't you think he can work in you today to give everything you got to Jesus? Are you with me? That's this agreement or this verdict or this judgment that Paul is talking about. He's saying, look, don't be separate with one another. Give your allegiance to Jesus. Paul said, was I crucified for you? No, who was crucified for you? Jesus, the Lamb, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. As Brother Brad already pointed out, I can't draw you, and Brother Keith can't draw you, but Jesus has done everything when they put him on the cross to draw you unto himself, and you give full allegiance to him, amen? You know one of the problems with the churches today while we lean more toward the flesh, is because we haven't given our allegiance to Jesus. We just haven't given our allegiance to him. That God's got a mission for us to fulfill and accomplish, an assignment, a race to run. I gotta give him my allegiance. He's gotta have all of me, amen. He gave me everything and given me himself. And all I have to do is trust him, amen. Trust. Can you see the comparison here? That same word, these words in verse 17, the word to fulfill his will is the word judgment. the verdicts, and to agree. They're the same Greek word that Paul used. So in 13 to 17, he used the word mind, he used the word will, and he used the word agree. It's saying, giving yourself over to the purpose of a thing. That is what Paul is referring to in 1 Corinthians 10. And that's where the divisions came in. They were not given their allegiance to Jesus, they were given their allegiance to themselves. therefore when somebody crossed them you know what they did. They didn't take it and accept it and in Jesus' name, they fought against them, pitted themselves against them. And not only did they do that, they wouldn't go to the brethren to seek out reconciliation, they were going to the judges and the lawyers in Corinth and asking them to make decisions that Paul says, don't you realize that you're gonna judge the world one day as a believer? that the believers will judge the angels in the coming days. Why can't you make a decision, a solid God-centered decision among yourselves? No matter of fact, you wronging one another and you can't accept it. And Paul said, let people cheat you. If they're cheating you, let them cheat you, it's okay. You've already won with Jesus, amen. You're safe with him and you wanna be a safe vessel with him. You see, but why will we not let somebody wrong or cheat us or have a bad word against us? I heard somebody the other day, somebody wrote something and said, man, I believe you are phony. I believe you are phony, Brother Nick. I've reached more people for Jesus than you will ever reach for Jesus. And I said, man, if you really knew who I was, if you really knew me like Jesus knows me, you would think way worse of me, amen? you really knew me. Preacher, we preach a message that we can't live. If you preaching a message that you can live, naturally you preaching the wrong message. You should be preaching a message that can't be lived unless Jesus lives it in you, amen? that you can't live it, so don't worry if they call you a phony or a hypocrite. Don't worry, hey, if Jesus is on you and blessed you and you're in favor with him, it don't matter what people say about you, amen? Now, you don't wanna legitimately give them something to say. Why? Because this world can't see the grace of God upon your life. What I mean by that? The flesh can't receive the things of the Spirit. Meaning the flesh can't see the forgiveness that God grants to you and me. God makes us, when we put our trust in Jesus, he said, I declare you as righteous, not guilty, innocent. He gives you the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, amen? He takes the stain of your sin that left a mark behind it and he washes it white as snow, amen? But you know what, the world we live in still sees the stain. They can't see that you've been forgiven, that He's declared you innocent, that He's made you not guilty, and that you have boldness and confidence to come before the throne of God. All they can see is what you said or what you done and the marks you left behind and the stain you left behind. So if that's all they see and you recognize they can't see what God has done in my life. They can't see what Jesus is doing in my life right now. So I'm not gonna condemn them for seeing something wrong in me. I'm just thankful that God still loves me and he sees me a whole lot better than they can, amen? Because if they knew me the way he knows me, they wouldn't wanna be around me, amen? And he loved me in spite of me. gave His life in spite of me because He's good, amen. And He's gracious. You see, but if you go back to Corinthians, look in 1 Corinthians 1 again. Notice what He's given you in me. Look in verse number one. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and soothed these, our brother. He's writing unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, verse two, to them that are sanctified, and the idea means set apart, set apart wholly. for the Lord in Christ Jesus called to be saints, holy, unique, with all that in every place, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice what he does. He says, I thank God always on your behalf. Why do I thank him? For the grace of God, which was given to you in Christ Jesus. I tell you what, Thanksgiving, amen. You know, you never, I don't think you'll ever find this in the Scriptures. I could be wrong. And I ask people for help me with this if you know of a place. There's a certain things that God, that the people of God, led by the Spirit of God, who wrote the Word of God, they never thank men for certain things, like grace. They never thank men for faith. They never thank men for love. And it's never mentioned that they thank Him for hope. Why? These are all gifts that come from God. So anytime grace, faith, hope, love, wisdom is ever given a tributation to, it's always to God. And thanks is always pointed to Him, amen? So Paul says, I thank God for His work in you. Now, Paul does this very, by the Spirit, very cleverly, because he starts out with what God's done in him, he closes what God is faithful to do in him, but in between, he's gotta deal with the issues. And what he's telling them is, you're stunted in your growth, not because of God, but because of yourself. Have you ever noticed anybody, ever been across somebody who was stunted in their growth? like a little small child that had a stun in their growth. And not necessarily just physically, some people are stunted intellectually, some people are stunted emotionally. Because of a fallen word we live in, there's all kind of issues that we inherit in our bloodlines that come through us. And because we do inherit that, we also inherit sin from that bloodline as well. And we gotta be double-blooded people, amen? Not only blood from your family, but you gotta be covered under the blood of Jesus. Because only his blood is pure. Why? Jesus wasn't born like you and me. Jesus was conceived in the womb of his mother by God himself. Didn't have an earthly father. You see, but I was conceived in iniquity, as David would point out. Every one of us in here were conceived in iniquity. I know you have a high stock in mama and daddy and grandpa and grandma, but every one of us were conceived in iniquity. That's why the unique virgin birth of Jesus is so special and sacred because his conception and his birth is applied to your life when you trust him. Every dynamic of the life of Jesus, every dynamic of Jesus' life, from his conception, to his birth, to his baptism, to his life of righteousness, to his sacrifice on the cross, to his burial in that grave, which is a picture of what's gonna happen to every believer. We're gonna get a new body one day. He's gonna raise us up in that resurrection one day. Why? Because Jesus is our entire substitution. Every facet of his life is applied to the believer's life, from his conception to his resurrection. And all God's people saying, that's a good deal you get when you get Jesus, amen. The other good deal is, is the fact that your past don't have to hold you back no more. You don't have to be a victim, do you? We live in a generation of victims, don't we? They can't get past what mama taught them, or what daddy taught them, or what our society taught them. They just victimized people. Very similar like Esau. Remember when Esau sought his, what he thought was his rights? And he even sought it with tears, but he never sought to be right with God. He sought what he thought was his rights, but he didn't seek to be right with God. You see, that's a picture of humanity, isn't it? These folks in Bay Springs that are not walking with the Lord, they'll fight you tooth and nail for what they think is their right. But you see very little effort of seeking to be made right with a holy God. We can recognize that. I don't wanna fight for my rights and neglect being right through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll make it right, amen. in the right way. But he says, I thank God for this grace. And then he says this, verse number five, that in everything, y'all say that word everything with me. Say everything. That in everything, you are what? Enriched by Jesus, in these two areas, in all utterance, that would be communication, and in all knowledge, that would be in comprehension, that you've been enriched in Jesus. Y'all say it with me. I've been enriched by Jesus. Isn't that a wonderful thought? You've been enriched by Jesus. We had a big blowout fellowship yesterday at Briggs Chapel. We usually do a fellowship every first Sunday. Well, we didn't do it the first Sunday this past month because Stephanie and I was up in Tennessee preaching the gospel and the church elected to hold off until we got to come back. And I'm thankful for that because I love our fellowship time. I love that table time with the brethren. But I took on Saturday evening, I went and found me some old hot dog buns. They were dry, out of date, They didn't have no mold on them, I kept them sealed up. Praise God, amen. I know where you're going with this. Tell me, brother. I hope you're going with bread pudding. Oh man, I did make bread pudding. You see, but I took these dry hot dog buns that were left over from a fall festival we did. I tucked them away and put them on the shelf and I said, I got plans for them in a month or so. So I put them away. Now I checked them and I smelled them. They didn't have no mold. You know how that mold smells, right? And they didn't have any mold on them, but they were dry. You wouldn't even have used them to eat a hot dog with. But I took them. and I added some sugar to them. Both some refined white sugar and I added some brown sugar to them. I took about a stick of butter, melted it down and I added it to them. Then I took some vanilla and added several tablespoons of vanilla to it, and that little dry Hard to bear hot dog buns, you know what I did with them? I enriched them. I added something in them that they didn't have themselves. I enriched it. I enriched it with a little whipping cream, and a little half and half, and a little cinnamon, and a little nutmeg, and a few little white chocolate chips. I made a little sauce with a little butter and a little whipping cream and added all that in. I let it soak for about 25, 30 minutes and I put that thing in the oven for about 50 minutes and I pulled it out and I made a little sauce on it and I poured that sauce all over and I tell you what, it was diabetes in a pan. But it was some kind of good. I brought an empty pan home. Everybody ate it. But you see, just dry hot dog buns. But because it was enriched, everybody wanted it. You see, God takes us, this lifeless, ungodly sinner, and he gives us newness of life in the grace of God. He sends forth the Spirit and he enriches us with the ability to communicate with others what he's done and that we could also comprehend what we communicate, amen? I took some old bone-in, cheap pork chops. You know them kind that look good on the top, but when you get down to the bottom, they just big old pork chops, big thick old pork chops. I had a slew of them. Well, I took those pork chops and I opened them up and threw them in a big old, I got a big old pan, a big old bowl that I threw them in. And then I started enriching them with a marinade on Saturday night. Well, they sat in the refrigerator and I got up early about 5.30 on yesterday morning and I went out and I lit up some charcoal on the grill and I threw some hickory that had been soaking all night and I took those pork chops and set them off to the side on a low heat and I let that hickory and charcoal enrich them for about 45 minutes. Then I took the night before, I made me some white barbecue sauce. Anybody ever had white barbecue sauce? I made some white barbecue sauce. And I took those pork chops when I put them over some hot coals, because I started another batch of coals. And I threw them in that grill and took those pork chops, put them over it. And then I started basting them with that white barbecue sauce, which is a real vinegary type barbecue sauce. And man, the flames started coming up on there, and I started charring that fat on that pork. And that old hog with them bones in it, Man, you would want to gnaw on them things when you got done with it, amen? Why? I enriched it. I took a nasty old piece of pork that'll kill you if you ate it raw and enriched it with some smoke and some seasoning and some sauces and man, Stephanie was gnawing on a bone today. She was eating it like a savage, amen? Why? It was enriched. It was enriched with all the right stuff. With all the right stuff. I took some dry cornbread and enriched it with a little bit of this and a little bit of that and a little bit of this and a little bit of that and took that old dry cornbread and put it back in the oven and it came out chicken dressing. Why? I enriched it. It was enriched. I want to tell you in here tonight, if you've been saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, He's enriched us with everything we need. You don't come short of nothing, amen. Look what he said before we go tonight. He says that in verse five again, that in everything you've been enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge. Just skip over verse number six and look at verse number seven. Why did he enrich us? So that you come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Man, that's hallelujah, amen. that you lack nothing. You've been enriched with everything you need to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you fall short in nothing. You see, but if you're stunted, it's because you've been leaning toward the flesh and not toward the Spirit. And you counsel out in your daily walk what you've been enriched with. you let it sit out too long and it's spoiled. But you see, the only way to get back to it is you gotta turn back to the Lord, amen. Aren't you glad God grants us repentance, amen? How many of y'all in here got a history with sin? Raise your hand. Don't lie to yourself. All of us got a history with sin, but here it is, you gotta have a better history of repentance. And repentance is the idea, is the, When God encounters you with the truth, with the message, the thought and the way you think about your life after that message came, it's the word metanoia. Meta means with, that a message came and with that message, after it comes, you think differently about yourself and about the things of God. Why? Because God confronted you in your sin, in your flesh. and he changed how you think about it and how you think about him. And you turn to him, amen. You see, but did I have you skip a verse a minute ago? That ain't good preaching, amen. But you notice the flow, the flow went normal, why? Because what does Paul do? He qualifies it with verse number six. Look at this. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, just as, how many of you ever said that before? As soon as I buy, it's gonna go on sale. Y'all ever done that before? You probably bought a tractor or something like that before and said, sure enough, I do that, they gonna drop the price on that thing by $1,000 and I'm gonna be out of it. Ladies, how many of you ever done it with your shoes or your clothes? How many of y'all search the sale papers and always looking for a good deal? And you say those things just as sure as, well, that's what Paul is saying here, just as sure as the testimony. What testimony? The evidence. The evidence of who? The evidence of Jesus. Was it established or confirmed in you? It wasn't too many years ago, y'all had a bad tornado come through this area, didn't you? Over in the Lewin community. What's the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning? A watch is what? The conditions, the atmosphere is favorable that a tornado can come out of that. But when they go from a watch to a warning, what's the difference? Either radar or somebody has laid eyes on a confirmed tornado. Well, that's what Paul is saying here. Just as sure as the evidence of Christ has been confirmed In you. Now notice what it didn't say. It wasn't just confirmed to you, but it was confirmed what? In you. Don't settle for the gospel preached, amen. Don't settle for a message of repentance preached. A lot of people believe because they heard a message on repentance, they stop and fall short of actually what? Repenting, amen. or fall short of actually trusting and believing. We live in a society that is gospel hardened. They've heard it again and again and again, but there's no evidence of Jesus living in them. You gotta have the evidence of Jesus in you, amen. Not just to you. And when he's in you, he's in you because he's enriched you so that you come short of nothing. And if you feel short, If you sense you're short, what I'm encouraging you to do in here tonight is just look back to Jesus. Turn your minds back to him, amen. Give him your allegiance in here tonight so that you as a congregation, we as the people of God can give all our allegiance and our affections and our attention unto Jesus. Why? He's worth it all, amen. And you can't live no better of a life than living fully aligned in allegiance to Jesus. Give Him it all. Surrender it to Him tonight. I encourage you. Trust Him. If you've never trusted Him, give your life to Him tonight. If you are His, you know you're His, but you sense that you don't have what you need, you gotta get your eyes back on Him. You're letting this society govern how you live. You may be sitting by somebody on the pew that ain't sold out for Jesus. Don't let them dictate how you live. Don't let the atmosphere of what's going on in our day to day dictate how you live. You better look to the book and look unto Jesus and ask him to measure your life in light of him, amen. But don't look to your neighbor next to you and say, well, they're not sold out, I don't have to be sold. No, you are gonna give an account to the Lord, not for them, but for who? yourself, amen. You gotta give an account to him. So don't let them slow you down. Don't let them hold you back. You give all you got to the Lord. Why? If God's gonna put it in the heart of a world to give all they got to the beast, don't you think he can put it in your heart to give all you got to Jesus? I really believe that's his plan, amen. That's his plan. That's why Paul said, look, y'all speak the same thing. Y'all be of the same mindset. Y'all be of the same vision. And you need to get this verdict down, this judgment down, that Jesus is yours. And you're his, amen? So tonight, I encourage you, just do business with Jesus. You coming for it, you're not doing it to impress anybody, you're doing it because you wanna love Jesus, amen? You want him. You want all of him. And you want him to have all of you. and I know we'll do a work. I'm gonna have you stand with us. Brother Brad's gonna come. Brother Keith's gonna come. We'll help you in any way we can. I'll pray. Not sure how y'all respond in your invitations, but look. If you need any kind of counsel and advice, talk to, you just come. We'll help you in any way we can. But I encourage you, do business with Jesus tonight. Amen? Do business with Him. Do business with Him. Father, we bless you right now and thank you. We ask you to draw your net. Speak life by your spirit into your people, and those that are here tonight that have not trusted you, I pray that you draw them to you. You're a good God, and you've got to deal with them. And gratefully, you gave your Son for us, so that we can have an answer for our life. We're going to trust you now in this time, and ask you to work in Jesus' name. Amen. Have I no reason? Have I no reason? How art thou?