God the way that he deserves to be praised. And I'm afraid today most people, they're not into that. That's the last thing that's on their mind here in this life. But do you realize that was the full reason for man being created, was to bring praise and honor and glory unto God. And we're robbing him of it. And it's time for us to go back. You know, scripture Thoughts started coming to my mind yesterday, and I done a whole bunch of reading in the Bible, thinking that, you know, it might be going a different direction, but it's not. So, I want each and every one of you to pay attention to the scripture we read today. You know, so many times we think about the things that God has done for us and all of the blessings that God has bestowed upon us that we're really unworthy of. And we lose sight of the many times that God not only delivers us, but all others that we've seen where God delivered them from troubles or trials that they were going through. So if you'd like to read with us, In the fourth chapter of 2 Corinthians, we're just going to be reading two verses there. The eighth verse of that fourth chapter, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. You think of that so many times, that's the way that we feel, just like that we're cast down, nobody cares, we're just in distress because of things that's going on in our life, and we wonder, you know, are we gonna be able to overcome it and get deliverance, but then if you'll go back into the 37th Psalm, We want to start reading at the 23rd verse. nor his seed begging bread. And I want each and every one of you to pay close attention to that 25th verse there. Never seen the righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging bread. And you know, a lot of times here in this life, we just striving to try and get ahead, get money, get this, get that. trust in the things of God and strive to get what God has for us, we'll find that God's gonna take care of all I've seen it so many times in my life. Those that treasure the things of God. If that was what they put their faith and trust in. God took care. They never seemed to go hungry. They always had food. Oh, I can remember so many times. All that hope that we went into and that was hope for revival. And the pastor, he's taken that there. He told me, he said, when we grow up, don't look at the house. Don't think much about it, because that's not... You will find a better meal set before you than what you have here. When you marry an old man and a woman that are so crooked, it wasn't very good. It wasn't fancy food, but it was cooked so good. Why, because that man and woman, their whole aim was having God in their life. And because of that, God bless some of the folks on the table. You and I today, we strive for so many things. But the thing we need to be striving for is the things of God that's going to endure. And here, at first, never seen the righteous forsaken. Never seen them begging bread, you know. My dad, I can remember hearing him testify. just as a 15-year-old boy, having to make it on his own, him and his younger brother, Dad, having to help provide for him, because his dad was in prison for killing a man. And his mom had left and went into another state. And they was on their own. And Dad said, there's many of them out. They crawled into a father's shop, trying to stay warm, keep from freezing to death. You and I today. People don't know what that's like, but that's it, there you are. But at 15 years old, drunk, he heard a preacher preaching, and decided to come back to them side, and hear what it was all about, and made it right with God. And since from that time on, I always had a man to speak with, always had food to eat while he began to put God first in his life. Called to preach at 16. And know that his word is true. And, you know, growing up, Dad take off two weeks and longer going in revivals. Some of us kids sick or whatever. Dad said that. God called him to preach. He was going to do what God called him to do, because he couldn't make us any better. He was home. But he knew if he was being obedient unto God, God would take care of that. We always made it. And that was one of the things growing up. If I went to bed hungry, it was because I didn't want food that was there for me to eat, or for some other reason, because there was always food on the table. And I can never remember it all being ate and still hungry. There was always leftover. You and I today, God will provide if we'll put our faith and trust in him. And you know, I've been so many times in my life, I've seen cases where People was really up against it for different reasons, and God always supplied. I can remember Delwin Parsons, a man that didn't go, but I loved. I can remember him helping my dad take down a house that had been given to dad if he'd just tear it down. and he was wanting the lumber to rebuild a barn that was on their place. And this was a big two-story house, or three-story, I forget which it was. But anyhow, they was tearing it down. And some men in there didn't know Delmar was in the other room, and they pushed this wall down and hit him in the side of the leg, broke his leg, and the bone stuck out. Old Dad felt so bad over that. Down where they took him to the hospital. And here come up a man in with a broken leg where he wrecked a motorcycle and hit a board fence and it had broke his leg almost the same way with the bone sticking out. Here both of them was in the same room and trashing for that to pull that bone back into place. Denver began to witness to this guy about God I can remember hearing Delbert testify so many times about that. And when he got out of the hospital, they were both released. And Delbert couldn't drive yet. He told his wife, take me over. I want to see Jerry. She'd go over, talking to Jerry again. And God dealt with him, and he got right with the Lord and called him to preach. I heard Delbert say so many times, oh, I literally got broke the other day. If I could get him one more like that, you and I today, what did God want from us? Us to be willing to be used, no matter what he called us. We need to put ourselves out there, and we want God to provide for us. and take care of us here, you know, truly. Each and every one of us, we're gonna have to go through trials and temptations here in this life. But through it all, we'll find that God is there with us. You know, what we was reading right there in Corinthians. We are troubled on every side. yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. You and I today. You know, the devil, that's his job, is to try and destroy us. Our job is to keep faith in Christ Jesus. You know, I've had friends, loved ones, family, a little bit of everybody, that I knew forsake me in life and turn her back and walk away. Had some that I loved dearly that turned and walked away and said some awful, hurtful things. But, you know, through it all, I found out when I got home I needed to pray. God hadn't left me. He's still there. Never leave you, never forsake you. You know, you and I, That's a promise from God. And a lot of people, we misunderstand that. We think God will never leave me, so wherever I go, God's there. God is aware that you're there. But if you walk away from God, God's not walking with you as his child. He's walking there looking at you as your judge. We can leave the Lord anytime we want to. God does not have us bound in chains to serve him. It's our choice whether we want to live for him or not. And when trouble comes every direction at you, you better put your faith and trust in God, because that's the only one that's gonna bring you out. You and I, you know, he said, yet not distressed. You know, there's all kinds of people, they talk about how that they are, I forget the word that they use a lot of time, but we're so troubled and we just feel so down. And you know, that's something that, yeah, I hear people talk about that. They're in despair. You know, they're just, feeling like there's no sense in going on. Well, you and I, that's the devil trying to get us to throw up our hands and quit. But we need to remember that. On ninth verse, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed. You and I. You know, Christ, he don't forsake us because trouble's come. He's there with us if we'll put our faith and trust in him. And that 25th, Verse there in the 37th Psalm, I have been young and now I'm old, yet I've not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. You know, I started out as a young person with the Lord in my teens. I'm 80 years old now. That verse means so much to me because It's very proved. I've not seen the righteous forsaken through their seed begging bread. And I've seen a lot of people turn their back and walk away and get in despair. They get in a lot of trouble because they didn't put their faith and trust in God and they started leaning upon their own arm to try to deliver them. And you and I, that ain't gonna work. You know, I've been to the place where I thought that this was it. I was trying to figure that out this morning. I think it was something like 30 years ago that I went in the hospital for a three-way bypass. And I didn't think I'd come out of it, but God spared me, and I did. I've been in there several times more, and I've got 14 stints to show for it. Many times, and I didn't know if I'd come out, but God's brought me out every time for some purpose. But I'm like Paul. When I finish my course, I don't want to keep on going. I want to go. When I preach the last message, I want to go. Why? What purpose is there for living here if you Life is not accomplishing something in the works of the Lord. What is it accomplishing? It's not going to melt to anything. You and I, we need to put our faith and trust in God. Don't put your faith in a job or in a friend, because they'll all fail you. They'll all make you kneel. But God's warned that you can lean upon, that you know He's there. You can depend on Him. You're the one I could take you back many a time in my life. And show you where I play on God. But I've got the first time to take you to a place where I say God played on me. He stood by me when I should have had a friend and all. We had God for a servant to lift me up, give me strength to stand and to know that everything was all right between me and him. You and I, that's what we need to strive for. Put their faith and trust in God, because your life is soon gonna be over. You realize, I've got a long way of going, and I'm not gonna make it because I'm too old. I'm living half of my life in Missouri, But I've got children that's already lived more than half of their life in Missouri. I would have to be, I think I figured it up, 98, something like that, before I would be half of my life in Missouri. And I don't figure I'm gonna make that. You and I today, our life is so swiftly I thought I was an old man when we moved here, and I realized I was only 48 when we moved to Missouri. Well, you know, there's all kinds of people that I met when we moved here that's dead and gone, been gone for a long time. And I'm the last one of my family living. I don't know when my the last day it's gonna be. But you and I, make sure that each and every day you live, you live it for the Lord because anything else, when your life is over, you're gonna realize it was all in vain. Because anything else that you're doing with your life, but living it for God, it's gonna amount to nothing. You know, you go to a graveyard, you'll find most of the tombstones It's got the person's name that's there, when they was born, and when they died. And if it's a man or wife, sometimes they'll have on there the year of when they was married. But it don't tell much about you except when you was born and when you died. The years in between is what makes the difference. So the decisions you make, we was studying that in Sunday school there. Matthew, from the second chapter to the third chapter, there's something like 28, 29 years there that there's not a thing recorded about you and I. There might not be anything recorded about your life here that's gonna make a bit of difference when you're dead and gone. And that's one of the things, you know, we're gonna give an account of everything we've done, everything we said, everything we thought. And, you know, I woke up in the middle of the night last night, and there's a thought come to my mind as soon as I woke up that I didn't want in my mind, and I want prayer. You and I today, you know, The devil will try and catch you at a time when you're at your weakest or the most vulnerable, or at a time where you might think, oh, that ain't gonna matter. Just let it go. It don't hurt to pray about it. Each and every one of us. Never seen the righteous forsaken. Never seen you begging for anything. That's something that we can treasure and know that Christ come, bled, and died for me and you, not to be alone, but for have a comforter there with us. You know, he said when he went away, I'll go and pray that the comforter come. And he came around one day in Pentecost. And you and I, if we'd been born again, we know what that comforter is. When trouble arises, we can pray and call upon him, and we can find that comfort that we can't find anywhere else. No friend can give you the words that can comfort you like that. You know, when the death angel calls somebody that you love, care about, you know. Sometimes we try and start crying and feeling sorry that they're gone. My dad, when he passed away, my mom, both. I cried, but not for them. I was crying for myself because I wouldn't see them anymore in this life. Wouldn't have that one that I could go and talk to. Wouldn't have that one that I could call at a time when I felt like I needed her or somebody that I felt like needed prayer that I could call upon. That was why I was crying. I wouldn't have brought them back if I could. Why? Because they had worked and strived their whole life to gain exactly what they did, peace. Both of them passed away as peaceful as you could. My dad went to sleep. My mom laid her down for an afternoon nap. And she laid down with her head on my pillow, and I was picking her feet up, put them up in the bed, and looked back and realized Mom was already gone. I don't even think Mom realized that she passed from this life. You and I, the color of time, though. You know, I read that several times there at Paul. He talked about what was waiting for him. Christ again, you and I today. When it comes down time for us to die, we got our eyes and our heart and our minds anchored above this life. What we're gonna see, it's gonna be beyond compare. I don't know how soon you'll see it. I don't know if as soon as the eyes go closed here. We begin to see the other side. But if we're gonna sleep, then we're gonna be there. But the God calls and wakes us up one of these days. You know if a person you go to sleep at night if you sleep for seven, eight hours, and you wake up, you don't realize it's been that long. Sometimes you wake up and you're amazed that that many, long a time passed. Well, a person that goes to sleep in the Lord, here in that body, lays in the grave, whether it's there a moment or a hundred years, to that person that laid down, it's gonna seem like just a moment when the Lord calls. as they come forth. You and I today, I beg you, keep your mind and heart anchored in the things of God, because no matter what happens to you here in this life, when your life is over, the only regret you're gonna have is that you didn't live more of your life for God. I don't care how young you give your heart and life to the Lord, you're gonna realize that you should have done it sooner. I don't care how good a Christian you live, a Christian life, you're gonna see so many places that you fail that you wish you could have done it better. But each and every one of us, when we fail, if we'll just call upon God, we'll find forgiveness is there, mercy is there, strength and Everything we need to continue on living a Christian life is there if we want it. While we sing a verse of some song, is there one that will come? Each and every one of us, please, just remember, our life here is but a vapor. You know, I was heating some water yesterday on the stove, and I didn't want it to boil long, I just wanted it to come to a boil. But when I began to see that steam coming out, it didn't go just about that far above. Good Lord, it began to disappear. You and I today, that's the way our life is. It's just like that vapor. We just appear, and then it's over with. So please, I beg you, make sure of what you do. You did for God. What do we sing? If all his life that he lived and all that he suffered, no doubt the devil was telling him as he was falling beneath the rocks, them thinking he was dead, No doubt the devil was telling him, where's God at now? He failed me. But he stood up and still went and carried the gospel. No doubt the devil might have been trying to tell him that as he was going to the chalk block to have his head cut off. But he had already testified of what was going to happen as soon as he was gone. You and I today, God is still standing there waiting to welcome each and every one of us if we'll live our life for him. Let's come around and pray with Jason.