Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn with me in the Word of God in the New Testament to the Gospel according to Matthew, the 19th chapter. And we'll begin reading with verse 27, from Matthew chapter 19 and verse 27. I want you to imagine, if you will please, the most well-groomed, well-dressed, articulate, well-to-do person you can imagine, very young, but yet an adult. And when you have that type of person fixed in your mind, I want you to see them in your mind's eye walking up to Christ and saying to the Lord Jesus, Good Master, what good thing must I do to have eternal life? And the Lord Jesus replied to him, saying, There is none good but God. Are you recognizing that I am God by calling me Good Master? If you are recognizing that I am God, then you should be willing to do whatever God wants you to do. The very moment any person recognizes God for who He is, that moment we ought to be willing to say, Lord, whatever you want in my life, it's what I want to give you. And Jesus went on to speak to this young ruler, this rich young ruler, and told him what he should do. But the Bible says when he heard Christ out, when the Lord finished speaking to him, that he rejected the Savior. And with a sad countenance, he walked away sorrowfully. The disciples were standing near enough to watch the whole thing take place. I'm not sure that they could hear the conversation, but at least they knew that here was a very wealthy young ruler who had turned away from Christ. And as they saw him walk away, they thought within themselves, he's keeping everything he owns. He's going back to the same house. He's going to be wearing the same clothes. He's going to have the same bank account. He's going to have everything, everything that he came with, he's leaving with. And they started thinking about themselves. And they thought of all they had forsaken. Some, their fishing business. Others, their responsibility as a tax collector or whatever. And they pondered and thought of all they had given up to follow Christ. and where it was all leading and finally they couldn't stand it any longer and one of them had to speak and when he did this is what he said in verse 27 of Matthew chapter 19 then answered Peter and said unto him behold we have forsaken all and followed thee what shall we have therefore Jesus said unto them verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for mine name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." The Lord answered him, Peter said, what are we going to get? What shall we have therefore? We've left everything, given it all up. What shall we have therefore? And the Lord told them what they would have in eternity and that their return on earth would be a hundredfold. I don't know if you have a savings account or some sort of investment account or not. I have no idea. Some of you no doubt do. But there's no way you're going to go to somebody and tell them that you want to make an investment And they're going to guarantee you that in this life you're going to get a 100% return on it. A hundredfold. A hundred times. I'm talking about a hundred times what you put in. Jesus said, I'm going to tell you how it is. You men are going to sit on thrones. You men are going to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. You men are going to have everlasting life. I'll tell you something else here. Everything you do for me here. I'm going to multiply a hundredfold a hundredfold Now the Lord goes on to tell them a story And in that story he drives a great lesson home to their hearts and before I read the story that Christ Told them I want to ask you this question. What do you want for your life? What do you want for your life? I'd like to line up every person who's employed here, who's a staff person here. As we may say, they draw a paycheck from the Temple Baptist Church, or from Crown College, or the Temple Baptist Academy, or they work at the camp, or they work publishing the paper, whatever they may do. I tell them often, we don't work for institutions, we work for individuals. All of us, ultimately, are serving the Lord. I love the beautiful story of how David wanted a drink of water from the well in Bethlehem and just the mention of it caused three loyal soldiers who loved him to break through the lines of the Philistines and to risk their lives to get David a drink of water from the well he had gone to often as a boy. and when they came back with the water and handed it to David at first glance it looks like he did a foolish thing but he took that water and he poured it out as an offering to the Lord and in doing so was saying to those men what you do for me and oh how deeply I appreciate what you're doing for me but I want you to know what you're doing for me in reality you're doing for the Lord this is for the Lord And it would be a great day in the lives of all of those who serve in some way in a ministry to realize what they're doing. They're doing for the Lord. They're doing it for Christ. Say, I want to make the man I'm working for happy. I'm glad you do. But what you do as a Christian servant, you should be doing for the Lord. No doubt about that. But what is it you want for your life? If I could have dreamed the most wonderful dream, if I some way had the capacity as a child or as a young man just to think and dream of the most wonderful thing I could ever imagine being able to do. I could never have had a dream so wonderful as the reality of my life. I could never have dreamed that God could allow me to do such a thing as He's allowing me to do. We have a wonderful Savior. A wonderful Savior. At some point in life, everyone faces, maybe with greater degree some than others, but at some point in life, everyone deals with what you exchange your life for. If you're a housewife, thank God for you. No matter who you are, as a lady, if you're married, your home should be your main business. You may be forced to work. My mother was forced to work to raise four children. I remember my mother asking me one day, about what she should do. She had the opportunity to work in a place that sold alcohol. And she says, I don't want to do that and I don't think you want me to do that. And I said to my mother, we didn't know a whole lot, but I said to my mother, no, I don't want you working there and I know you don't want to work there. She said, I know I can make so much more money. It was just a restaurant that was going to sell alcohol. But she said, I know you don't want to be telling anyone that your mother works where they sell alcohol. And I said, you're right, mother. And she worked for lesser pay. But you know, God made up that difference. And He'll do it. God's people ought to do things that honor the Lord. And I can think of my little mother and what she gave her life for, rearing her children. And probably somebody could have said to her, you know, Ruby, you're too devoted to this. Without a husband and whatever. But I think she finds great joy today that two of her sons are preaching, and of course she loves her daughters and her grandchildren. My wife's mother, after the death of her husband, he was a Baptist preacher, killed in an automobile accident when my wife was only five years of age. And she gave her life just to raising two children. She worked, she had to work. She worked in a school cafeteria. I don't think her children were ever embarrassed that she worked as a cook at a school cafeteria. I certainly wouldn't think they would have been embarrassed about it. I thought they were very proud to say that their mother was working as a cook at a school cafeteria, especially when she was giving them a little extra helping as they were coming through the line. But look what God has done to bless her. No matter who you are, at some point in time in life, you're going to think about what you've given your life to, the exchange you've made of your life. It may be when you get a little older. It may be as you stand on the threshold of what you might call the beginning of your earning years or whatever, and what you're going to give your life to. But at some point in time, at some point in time, you're going to think about What you've done with your life, what you've exchanged for your life, because once you live it, it's lived, it's spent. If I could say to you that your life could be represented by this bill that I hold in my hand, this five dollar bill I hold in my hand, and I could say to you, that there are 50 dimes in this five dollar bill and this is your life and you can spend each one of them and you spend one and you think I've got 49 left and two and I've got 48 left and I've spent 10 and I've got 40 left and I've spent 20 and I've got 30 left and I've spent 30 and I've got 20 left when you start getting down to when you've got just a handful of them left You're going to give some real serious consideration to what you've done with it. What do you want for your life? What is it you desire for your life? What is it you desire for your life? Somebody says, I want to make a mark in this world, someway, somehow. Let me show you something. Turn with me, please. You want to make a mark? Turn to what the Lord says in the book of 1 John. As God brings this passage to my mind, in 1 John chapter 2, The Bible says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Everything you do for this world is written in sand. And the seas of time will wash it from the shores of life. What you do for God is written in eternal granite and will endure forever. You may be a banker or a lawyer or a doctor, or you may be an insurance man, or you may be involved in retail sales. Whatever you're doing, that is not your life. That's what you do for a livelihood, to earn money to support your family, and to support God's work. That is not your life. If it is your life, I feel sorry for you. If it's your life, I feel sorry for you. Because one of these days, somebody's going to say, thank you! Here's your watch. It's engraved on the back that says you've given us your life. Now we've got somebody else to sit at your desk. If that's your life, I feel sorry for you. I really do. I feel sorry for you. If some of you women, God forbid, I wish we'd get the word career out of our vocabulary and replace it with the will of God. I was talking to someone the other day, a preacher, and the preacher was saying to me, I'm dealing with a young person about her career, her career, her career. If he said it once, he must have said it 20 times, her career, her career, her career. Now, I don't think he was trying to to do or say anything that was out of place, and it's a commonly accepted term, but Christian people ought to be saying, what is God's will for my life? What is God's will for my life? If you're married to a man that's married to his job, you're married to a man that's not going to make you much of a happy woman, if that's his life. That's not your life. That's where you work. I didn't ask you where do you want to work the rest of your life and how much money you want to make. I want to ask you what do you want for your life? For your life. What do you want to do with your life? Some folks have the privilege to not only be employed in what we call full-time Christian service, but to do that as a livelihood. And I think we ought to try to take as good of care of them as we possibly can. And don't ever be the kind of church that begrudges that. I think I have a look at things. Think if your son or your daughter or your grandson or your daughter or granddaughter had that job, how would you want them to be cared for? Think of it that way. And you ought to love them like that and hope that they're cared for as well as possible. But some folks have the privilege to work in the Lord's work that way and just to give their whole life to it. Their whole life to it. But you know, they face a great temptation too. They cannot equate God with the church and the buildings and their routine. It's a little different kind of temptation than folks who work outside of church ministry. It's like saying, well, you know, I gotta be down there all the time. I'm down there with God all the time. No, you're not down there with God all the time. You're down there with the preacher, and he's certainly not God. And you're down there with somebody who works in the college or the academy, and that's certainly not God. I'm saying, let us come to grips with this question, what do you want for your life? The Bible says, man that is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble. A few days are full of trouble. 14th chapter of Job. The 90th Psalm says, if, if our days exceed 3 score and 10, if by reason of strength they be 4 score years. Now think when that was written. Moses, 120 years old. What? Here's the Bible teachers, 1400 years before the birth of Christ, talking about people living to be 70 or 80. If by reason of strength it be four score years, yet is there strength, labor, and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." What do you want for your life? Peter said, Lord, we want to know something. What are we going to get out of this? We're following you. What are we going to get out of this? So Jesus told them the story. Let me read you the story, and I'll make a quick application of it. That is, as quickly as the Lord will allow me. And I don't want to infringe upon any more of your time than is necessary, but I do want to get the message out that God has put in my heart. The Bible says in chapter 20 verse 1, For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw the standing idle in the marketplace, and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again, he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, idling, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idling? They said unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the Lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more. And they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the good man of the house, saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong, didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way, and I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? And I'll stop reading there. And by the way, just so there's no misunderstanding, I want you to know, I could not begin to express to you how much admiration I have for a man, like a man I'm thinking of in our church, who worked as a custodian in a hospital for 25 years without missing a day of work, who was a faithful employee, a wonderful Christian witness, I admire that man just as much as I admire a preacher of the gospel because of his faithfulness in working and keeping his testimony and a man of character doing what he ought to do. I don't want you to think that I'm trying to get everybody in God's work. What I'm trying to say to you is your life is more than your job. Don't ever let it become your life. It'll be a very dissatisfying, unhappy life if you do. Jesus said, I'm going to tell you a story. And to understand this story, I think there are certain things you ought to mark so that when you go back and read through it, you'll have an easier time remembering them. Notice in chapter 20, verse 2, the Bible says, when he had agreed with the laborers. In verse 4, he says, whatsoever is right. Verse 10, the Bible says, they supposed. They supposed. Now, when the Jews divided their day, Their day did not begin in the morning. Their day really began in the evening. The evening and the morning were the first day. And they had four watches in the night. They had a first watch from six until nine. then a second watch from 9 until 12, then a third watch from 12 until 3, and then a fourth watch from 3 until 6 in the morning. So they talked about something happening in the first watch of the night, which is from 3, sometime from 3 to 9. If they said the beginning of the first watch or the end of the first watch, you would know if it was the end of the first watch, it was near 9 o'clock. Or if they said it happened in the fourth watch of the night, then you knew it was sometime between 3 and 6 a.m. are near the end of the fourth watch, near the beginning of the fourth watch, so the night was divided into four watches. Four watches. Are you with me so far? I'm not talking about Citizen or Timex, I'm talking about watches of the night, periods of time. Are you still here? Still in the same building, same frame of mind, we're still in the same story. Good. When they divided the day, they divided the day into 12 hours. That was before the Day of Unions. Please, Lord, help me not to get on that. Oh, I know. Let me split the church, you know. But they had 12 hour days. So if they started at 6 in the morning and they got to 7, they finished the first hour. 8 o'clock the second hour, 9 o'clock the third hour, 10 o'clock the fourth hour, 11 o'clock the fifth hour, 12 o'clock the sixth hour. This is about when you thank God that you've got a little clarity of mind. At 1 o'clock the seventh hour, 2 o'clock the eighth hour, 3 o'clock the ninth hour, 4 o'clock the tenth hour, So far so good. 5 o'clock, the 11th hour, and at 6 in the evening, the 12th hour of the day. So, understanding that 7 is 1, and 8 is 2, and 9 is 3, and 10 is 4, and 11 is 5, and 12 is 6, and 1 is 7, and 2 is 8, and 3 is 9, and 4 is 10, and 5 is 11, and 6 is 12, and that you've got a first watch from 6 to 9, the second watch from 9 to 12, and a third watch from 12 to 3, and a fourth watch from 3 to 6. Now we've changed the way we do business, and we're back to the Jews, and this is how they did business. So the fellow has got a job to do, Jesus says. By the way, Peter, you did say, what shall we have therefore? And I did ask you. But I'm going to tell you this story. And he says, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. So he went out early in the morning. He went out about the third hour, that's nine o'clock in the morning, and saw others standing out in the marketplace, and said, then go you all from the vineyard, whatsoever's right. Now the first group said, we're not going to go until we get a contract. Never going out there. Oh, we need a job, sure, I know there's work to do, but we've got to know what we get before we go. If we don't know all the answers, we're not taking one step. If you can't tell us what we're going to get out of it and where it's all going to wind up someday, then we're not going to work. They had to agree. Now the next group at nine in the morning didn't fuss about that kind of thing. He just said, whatever's right, whatever's right, whatever's right. And the Bible says he went out about the 6th hour, that's at noon, the 9th hour, that's 3 in the afternoon, did likewise. Finally goes out, 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing idle, said to them, why stand ye idle all the day? And they said, because no man has hired us. He said to them, go ye also into the vineyard and whatsoever is right, no contract, whatever is right, just got an hour left, get out of there, guys! There's very little time left! Very little time left! Get out there! Whatever is right! I'll take care of it, just get out there. The day closes. So when even was come, the Lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the laborers, give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. So the last was a guy that went out, people went out at five in the afternoon. They're first, they're going to get paid first. And then the folks who were at three, the folks who were at noon, the folks who were at nine, the folks who went out early in the morning. By the way, you see the line here? The front of the line, the fellow that went at 5, right behind him, the folks that went at 3, right behind them, the folks that went at noon, right behind them, the folks that went at 9, and back there at the back of the line, the folks that went out earlier in the day. And the difference between the folks that went at 5, 3, noon, 9, and earlier in the day, was the folks that went at 9, 12, 3, and 5 didn't fuss about what they were going to get. But the people that went earlier in the day said, we're not going anywhere until you tell us what we're going to get. By the way, Peter, do you remember asking the question for the whole crowd? As a matter of fact, if you look at the language here again, back over to that question, the Bible says, what shall we, plural pronoun, what shall we have, what shall we have therefore? I think it was speaking for everybody. So Jesus told them this story. And they started paying people. They paid the people that went at five, they paid the people that went at three, at noon, at nine, And then they paid the people that went out early in the day. And they exploded. Did you hear me? Did you hear me? They exploded. There's something wrong with anybody that explodes about money. They exploded. I'd hate to guess how many churches have been torn up because somebody exploded about money. Wouldn't you? You know, we can handle a lot of things better than we can handle that. There's going to be so many surprises at the judgment seat of Christ. So many surprises. So many surprises! You're going to find out folks that had nearly nothing that gave almost everything they had to God. You're going to find folks that had nearly everything and gave nearly nothing to God. You're going to find folks that had everything and gave nearly everything to God, and folks that had nearly nothing and gave nearly nothing to God. You see, that's all God's work. But that crowd that wouldn't work until they knew what they were going to get who had no faith, they blew up over the whole thing. And they murmured against the good man of the house, and they said, we can't believe this. We, we, we, we, we have borne the burden here today. We've done all the work. We've been here all day long. And we get what they get. It's not right. It's just not right. It's not fair. And he said, wait a minute. Didn't you tell me you would not go until you knew what you were going to get and you were perfectly all right with what you were going to get or you wouldn't have gone? Let me stop and ask again. What do you want for your life? Where do you see yourself here? May I make a few applications? Really, every great parable, every parable should have one great lesson. Let me make these applications. Write them down, would you? Laborers are needed. Laborers are needed. Let me apply this directly, in particular, to this church. There are other churches who are attempting to do what we're doing. There are other churches that are not attempting to do what we're doing. If you've come from a place where it took just two or three people to get it done, you've come to a place where it takes hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people to get it done. I know there are people with bigger ministries than this and lots of things going on, but I asked one day, how many ladies work in our nurseries? And somebody said, oh, somewhere over 200. Work in the nurseries. Work there. Labors are needed. They need it everywhere. We're not trying to reach just one community. We're trying to reach the world, in our generation, trying to evangelize the world. We believe the world can be evangelized in our generation. May God help me never lose that dream, that idea, that vision. Years ago, my wife was visiting her mother. We were living near the New York City area. She was visiting her mother in East Tennessee, and she had our two boys in the car with her, and she had an automobile accident. A man pulled in front of her. It wasn't her fault. She'd never done anything wrong in her life. We'll go out for a hamburger later, darling. All right? And you can have cheese on yours just because I'm being nice, and I'll have a... We'll have a good time, all right? She's never done anything wrong, God bless her! Well, not much wrong, but it wasn't her fault. Fellow pulls out, boom! She runs into him. At an intersection, a fellow diagonally across from the accident runs out to help her. I'm so glad he did. Another fellow right on the other side, right across from him, runs out to help her. I'm so glad he did. And my wife, wouldn't you know it, God bless her, she starts witnessing to him. She finds out the fellow at Hipster is saved. She finds out the fellow who was dying across the road is saved. She finds out the other fellow is saved. And she finds out one of those men is not saved who lives just across the road from the other fellow. And she says to the man who lives dying across the road, listen, shh, shh, shh, let me tell you something. Your neighbor, just diagonally right across the road, he told me, wasn't a Christian. You told me you were saved. I don't live here, or my husband, I'd come by and see him. We're going to have to go back to New Jersey. But after I'm gone, I tell you what I'd like to do. Why don't you go try to win him to Jesus? And he said, he's not on our church field. And he went on to explain that he attended a certain Baptist church in town, and the other man was on the field of another church in town, and it wasn't ethically correct for him to walk across the street, because that's where the churches had divided the line, and that was, right? That was their field, and he couldn't get on it. I don't know where you've come from, but I didn't come from there. The whole world needs Jesus! This whole county needs Jesus. We ought to knock on every door and see everybody and flood the campus downtown and go to every apartment building and do everything we can in the mail and put ads in the newspaper and give out thousands upon tens of thousands upon hundreds of thousands of gospel tracts and run buses everywhere and tell everybody that Jesus saves. And that takes laborers. Laborers are needed. And if you come to a place like this and just want to sit around, you're not going to have a good time. Laborers are needed. Laborers are needed. Laborers are needed. Laborers are needed. The Lord said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 3,200 counties in America, 50 states, 230 countries in the world. I'm telling you, 6 billion plus people, this world needs Jesus. Laborers are needed. Be a laborer. You say, I work at the bank. I have an insurance company. I do a retail route. I'm a milkman. Whatever. That's what you're doing for a living. What are you doing with your life to serve God? What's your purpose? Find a place to labor for Jesus. It may even be that something you do can be done to help enhance something in God's work. It may be that nothing you do like that fits into something they're doing in the work of the Lord. But you fit in the work of the Lord by giving your life to it. And you go earn a living to support your family, support God's work, so that you can give your life to the cause of Christ. Labor is needed. Let me tell you a second thing. And this is where probably half of you are, and where I am half the time. Looking at other people will wreck your life. It'll wreck your life. There are men in this church that are unhappy, that get unhappy all the time because you can't get your eyes off people and on the Lord. There are men in this church that are unhappy because they look at other people. There are women here. Women! And young people who are unhappy, not because Jesus isn't what he's supposed to be, but because somebody else you think is not what they're supposed to be. Well, the truth of the matter is, you've probably got a bigger problem than they've got. Something wrong with their kids, something wrong with their home. Look, if the devil can use that to wreck your life and keep it stirred up, he'll do it all the time, every day you live. I work with people. People aren't perfect, and I have a hard time with that. My high school principal said to me, he said, Clarence, if you don't do something, if you don't do something about your attitude, about people and their imperfections, you're going to be a miserable man all of your life. I remember him saying that to me. Such high expectations. You don't want to cut anybody in slack when they don't reach that high expectation. And you know, the truth of the matter is most of us are dealing with our own problems. And that's why we're acting that way. Oh, I'm not a psychologist. Lord, help me. You know, pull up a chair, get a couch, lay down, tell me what's on your mind, you know? I'm not a psychologist. I'm not a psychiatrist. I'm not a sociologist. I'm a preacher. At least I'm trying to be. And the problem in between our ears is in our heart. And here they are. Watch them. Watch them. We're not going to work until we know what we're going to get. The other crowd, they just hear him say, whatever's right, whatever's right, whatever's right, whatever's right. And then he starts paying them off at the end of the day. And that crowd, they're not standing in line. Hey, don't kid yourself. They're not standing in line. Don't kid yourself. They're peeking around every corner. They're standing on top of something. They found a rock to look on. They've got to see what he's handing everybody. They think they can't be happy if they don't know what everybody else is getting. Oh, Lord, help us. My pastor, God bless him, Brother Dillard Hagin, said years ago, most Christians are like little bainy chickens. They just dart here and there, and then they wish to God a thousand times over they hadn't seen what they saw or heard what they've heard. Isn't that the truth? So they look in and say, do you see what he got? Yeah. Do you see what he got? Mm-hmm. Do you see what he got? Sure did. Do you see what he got? Yeah. What? We have more than the virgin heath a day. And this is all we get? You know what wrecked their lives? Not the fact that they didn't get what they agreed to get, but watching what everybody else got. And there are people who will never serve God, who will never do what's right with their life, who will never get involved in the church, who will always carry a chip on their shoulder, who will have a tainted mind, They'll be somewhere sitting in a parking lot, or standing on a street corner, or in a corner of an office, or back in a corner booth in a restaurant, talking about somebody else, because they cannot, they just can't get away from it. They're watching somebody else. They're watching somebody else. Or they can watch a movie today, and bring somebody's furniture, and they'll think, hmm, how'd they get enough money to buy a new something? Yeah, must be robbing God or something, you know? How can they afford to have all them kids? You know? Think of anything. How they drive that car. Here I am driving this... It's not the car. It's your heart. It's your heart. Can you never be happy? Can you never be happy? Can you never deal with your life, what you ought to do? You never will as long as you're looking at other people. And if you think for one moment that preachers don't have this problem, think again. Think again. The fellow gave us $10,000 of the day. $10,000! I said, glory to God! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Jesus, thank you! Then he said to me, yeah, I got $30,000 of the day and I decided I'd give three different schools $10,000. I said, what? To myself. Why didn't we get the whole $30,000? You know? That's what I'm thinking. Why didn't we get the whole $30,000? And I guarantee you that there's something in the heart of those other guys when they find out I got part of theirs. They're going to be thinking the same thing. You know, that's a part of all of us. Look at me. We have to fight that every day we live. Every day we live, we have to fight that. Looking at other people will wreck your life. that people in this church that once served God with a whole heart and had joy. I mean, you had the joy of the Lord. It was your strength. You just had a spring in your step. You were excited. You had the joy of the Lord. But not now. You know why? Because you got your eyes on somebody, off of Jesus, on somebody else. And it just messed you up. That's what happened to him. Third thing. By the way, Peter, did you ask that question, what shall we have therefore? I think he's hanging his head in shame by now. And we ought to be hanging our heads in shame. Labors are needed. Looking at other people will wreck your life. Third thing, the Lord is trustworthy. He's trustworthy. He says, is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Can I trust Him? Can I trust Him? You know what I gave up for Jesus? Brother Mike, you know what I gave up for Jesus? Did you know that I could be a manager of a Roses 5 and 10 cent store today? I'm talking about having my own dime store. Now, I think they probably have collapsed, but I was going to be a manager of a Rosa's 5 and 10 cent store. And do you know, I was going to managers training in North Carolina, how they train managers in North Carolina. Excuse me, I didn't mean to say that, but I was going to North Carolina to be a manager, to be trained to be a manager of a Rosa's 5 and 10 cent store when I told the man who had enlisted me for his company that God had called me to preach and I needed to go to college and train to be a preacher. I gave up a lot for the Lord. I tell you, I sure did. I could have my own counters, you know. My own toy department, you know. By the way, nothing wrong with being a manager of a Rosen 5 and 10 cent store. I think that's a great thing to do. If you do that to earn a living, to give your life, to serve the Lord in your church. I said to my wife, We're going to leave the Southern Baptist Convention and become independent Baptists. Live in a new house. Drove a new car. People said to me, you'll never have another place to preach as long as you live. The Association of Missionaries. You haven't lived if you met one of them. The Association of Missionaries says, I'll make sure that you never come back to this area to ever preach again in East Tennessee. I think he's in heaven. He's dead. I think he's in heaven. I hope he is. His wife tried to have me arrested for giving out tracts in town. It's an amazing thing. He said, are you bitter? Lord, I hope not. I want to be able to pray. I hope not. Lord, help me. I'm just telling you. I thought, here we go out the door, honey. I'm going to take a job at Wampler's Meatpacking Company in Chattanooga. We're moving out of this new house. We're going to move into a four-room apartment. It's got fleas. The kids are going to ask every night, when can we go home? When can we go home? When can we go home? Can you trust Jesus to do that? Remember the Lord burdened us to go to New York City. Just after I started talking to my wife about going to the greater New York City area to pastor a church, we had a missionary from New York City who came to the church and gave a slide presentation, and he said, one of the things we do for enjoyment, this is the truth, God is my witness, I only really need to say yay or nay, I understand that. I'm just sort of getting silly at this point in the message. He came and he showed a slide presentation and he said, what we do for fun is we take 22 rifles down in the sewers and kill wharf rats. And he showed pictures of big rats and how they went down and hunted rats in the New York sewers. Boom! Boom! Boom! You know? And my wife said to me, if you think for one minute I'm going to hunt rats in the sewers in New York, that's the truth? He said, everybody interested in New York City, come, we're going to have slides. And we came in the room and sat and watched the slides. Come on, baby. This is God speaking to us. Come on in here. You know, he's going to show some slides on New York. We're burning about New York. He said, let me show you something interesting. Big rats, you know. Standing in the yard, telling my mother-in-law goodbye. I know there's all kinds of mother-in-law jokes. I've told a lot of mother-in-law jokes, but they're all in love. I've got a wonderful mother-in-law. God bless her. I really have. The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful mother-in-law. She's still looking for a husband, by the way. She's been married twice. Both good men who love the Lord. She's married a great wife. She's a wonderful cook. She's still healthy and strong. She can work all day long. I think she's very nice looking for her age. You know, women 90 years old have a hard time getting married. But I remember standing in the yard with my wife and watching my wife hug her mother and kiss her mother. And I hugged her mother. And I probably kissed her. And I love her. And I hate to say goodbye to her. And I was just too young and ignorant to realize what she was doing when she hugged my children and told them bye. And we drove away, 700 miles away. I was just too stupid to realize what was going on in her heart and how much she loved those kids. Can you trust Jesus and do something like that? Is he still trustworthy? Now, you know, it's easy to say in hindsight, you look back over the whole thing and say, if I had to do all over, I'd do the whole thing over again. But you know, you've got to sing the songs of victory on the front side, knowing the Lord is going to take care of you. I want to promise you something. The Lord is trustworthy. So how do you know? How do you know God will take care of everything? How are you going to live? How are you going to live? When I left the church in the North City, wonderful people, God bless them, I loved them. I've loved every church I've pastored, and they loved me. I can go back everywhere I've ever been, sit under the table of the people who are leaders in the church, and eat with them, and rejoice and have a good time. And I like it that way. God took care of me. But we left with no promise of a salary, no promise of anything. He said, can you trust the Lord to do that? Let me give you some proof. Would you open your Bible to the book of Romans? Chapter 8. Let me give you some proof. In verse 31, the Bible says, What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? That's not it. In verse 32, the Bible says, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Would you look right here? Let's imagine you came to my house. You came to my house, and for some strange reason this happened, I couldn't explain why, but you said, I'm really needy, feeble, helpless, and needy. And I said, well, what do you need? You said, well, I need more than money, I'd run out of money. I need more than furniture, it'd wear out. I need more than food, it'd run out. I said, you know what? You got two sons, don't you? Brother Saxon?" I said, yes. Let's imagine he said to me, if you just give me one of your sons, just give him to me. Let me have somebody that would work and earn a living, provide our food, our livelihood, strong, able-bodied. Let's imagine I walked over and looked at my two boys and said, here, you can have him. Do you think if I gave you my son, I wouldn't be willing to give you a can of tomatoes, or a month's rent, or a car payment? Do you think if I gave you my son, that I wouldn't be willing to give you food on your table? Do you think if I was willing to give you my son, I wouldn't be willing to come to you in an hour of need or distress? God says, will you understand this? There is nothing you'll ever need! that I will provide for you. I've proven it to you. I've already given you my Son. Don't you understand? I'll freely give you all things. The Lord is trustworthy. What do you want for your life? Let me tell you what I want for mine. I want to go through this lifetime with a faith in God. that brings a peace in my heart to know that whatever I am supposed to do that God wants me to do is the thing I'm to do, and the Lord will take care of me. I want a faith in God. A faith in God. Peter, I'm glad you asked that question, but you didn't need to ask. You didn't need to ask, what shall we have there for? Oh, I'm glad you asked it, because we got this answer, but you didn't need to ask it. Because if you could pile it up and pile it up and pile it up and pile it up and pile it up, you still couldn't pile it high enough. You couldn't think of enough. You couldn't count blessings long enough and far enough. You couldn't add the joys up that God will give you when you give yourself to Him. What a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Savior we have.