of Mark chapter 3. We take in our text from that chapter in the Word of God. I'll be preaching a familiar subject to you tonight that I have dealt with numerous times and the Spirit of God dealt with my heart about dealing with this subject again with you tonight. I mentioned it in a message a few weeks ago and we'll kind of look at it in the scripture. Mark chapter 3, look at verse 31. Mark 3, 31. The Bible says, there came then his brethren and his mother, and standing without, sent unto him, calling him. And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answered them, saying, who is my mother or my brethren? Could you imagine the question that the Lord presented? He's looking at all these people, they just told him. that his mother's out there, and his brothers, his earthly brothers. By the way, in case you don't know it, Jesus Christ had brothers and sisters. Mary had more than one child. The Catholics teach that Jesus is the only child that Mary had, but he had brothers and he had sisters. He had a brother named James, a brother named Jude, and he had sisters, the Bible tells us. And so his mother's out there, wanting to speak to him. His brothers and sisters are out there wanting to talk to him. And Jesus looks at the crowd and he asks them the question, who's my mother? Who's my mother? Who's my brother? I mean, they would think, we just told you who your mother is. We just told you, you don't know who your mom is? Jesus is fixing to drive home a spiritual doctrinal point to them that we need to understand the significance of it tonight. And he wanted them to understand the significance of this truth. Who is my mother or my brethren? And he looked round about on them that sat about him and he said, behold, my mother and my brethren. So he looked at the entire multitude of the people and he just said, look, all you ladies, you're my mother and all you men out here, you're my brethren. And he said it with an exclamation mark. He said, for whosoever shall do the will of God, The same is my brother and my sister and mother. I wanna preach to you tonight on the importance of living your life in the will of God. Living your life in the will of God. If you're saved, that should be your desire. If you're saved tonight, and you're born again, and you're called by God's name, and you say that you've passed from death into life, it should be your heart's deepest desire to live for the will of God. The Bible teaches us this, that when you get saved, you're no longer yours anymore, you're bought with a price. Your body's not yours, your soul's not yours, your spirit's not yours, your body's the temple of the Holy Ghost. God's purchased you, God's bought you, you're not your own, therefore glorify God in your body and glorify him in your spirit, which are the Lord's, is what the Bible teaches. And so when you're saved, you become very aware that how you're supposed to live is not how you used to live. When we were saved, we lived according to our will, what we wanted to do. You know, what our heart's desire was or what we figured out, you know, well, this is what I want to do in life. And that's what I want to do in life. And I want to do this and I want to do that. And we didn't make our decisions thinking about what does God want me to do? What does God tell me in his word that he wants me to do? When you get saved, you begin to live your life by this rule. This is what's supposed to dictate your life. The Bible tells us the more you learn the Bible, the more you'll know how God wants you to live. And so the Christian who stays out of their Bible and the Christian who stays out of church will suffer greatly living their life pleasing in the eyes of God, because they're suffering the knowledge, the lack of knowledge. Did not Jesus say that as people, they're perishing for lack of knowledge? And what's amazing is, I was talking to somebody yesterday, And they're not really in church. They told me they're gonna be coming to church. And you know, they haven't been in the house of God like they're supposed to, not reading like they're supposed to. And when I began to talk to them about what they're doing, they told me, listen to me, they told me the right thing to do. And I told them, you know the right thing. You know enough Bible, you know it. Why aren't you doing it? And they just look at me. I'm like, I'm not telling you, I'm not gonna be able to tell you anything that you don't really already know. It's amazing how people don't live how they know they're supposed to live. They don't do what they know they're supposed to do. I'm convinced, I've told you many times, church, I'm convinced we're not in need tonight of some message of some new truth. So many times people come to church hoping the preacher preaches something they've never heard before. And that'll happen if you're a babe in Christ and you haven't been around church long and you don't know much of your Bible, but the longer you're saved and the more you're in church, it's not the fact that we need new truth, we need to be reminded of the truth we already know. We need to be living, excuse me, by the truth that we already know that we're supposed to be doing. So Jesus said that, you know, if we do the will of his will, the will of God, that we're his brother, his sister, and mothers, what the scripture teaches. Look at Romans chapter 12. I'm gonna just remind your heart tonight of some very familiar verses in your Bible. And many times we need to be stirred up by way of remembrance, don't we? That's what Peter said. He said, I hope to stir up your mind. He said, though I know you're already established in the present truth. He said, I want to stir up your pure mind by way of remembrance. Now let me also remind you, there's a parable. I read it this afternoon. There's a parable in your Bible about two sons, not the prodigal and the other son who didn't leave, but there's another parable. The father goes to one of his sons. You know what he says to him? He says, go into the field and go out there and labor in my vineyard. You know what the son told him? I will not go. He rebelled, I will not go. And he walked away rebellious. The Bible says later he repented. He said, boy, I was sure not right with God. I should have done exactly what my father asked me to do. And the Bible said he went into the vineyard and labored all day like he was supposed to. The father went to the other son and said, go in my vineyard and labored. He said, okay, father, I go. Well, praise the Lord. Sounds like he's got it right. You know what the Bible says? He didn't go. He said, I'll go. acted like he was in compliance with it and didn't go. Jesus looked at those scribes and Pharisees, he said, I wanna ask you a question. Which one of them did the will of the Father? They said the one that said he wouldn't go and ended up repenting. You know what Jesus told them? Jesus said, the harlots and the publicans gonna go to heaven before you will. He said, they've heard the preaching and they said, I'm not believing that, but they've repented. They've entered into the kingdom of God. But you say you know all these truths and act like you're gonna do the will of God, but you don't even do what you know is right. You know what's sad? There's so many people sitting in pews, they hear it and they shake their head. Oh yeah, I know what God said. And then they walk out and don't do it. I'd rather have somebody get mad at me, say I ain't doing that, and walk out of church and repent and get right and go live right. Then somebody say amen, glory to God, tell it preacher, and walk out of here and don't do the first thing you hear. So the Lord rebuked that religious crowd over that. And so Romans 12, verse one, he said, I beseech you therefore brethren. Paul's saying that word beseech means I'm begging you, pleading with you. I'm pleading, I'm begging. By the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. How should our body be? Holy, acceptable unto God. Please read this with me, church, which is your reasonable service. Man, I remember as a young Christian how God got a hold of my heart with that statement. The fact that God asked me to surrender all and to give him everything and to give my body to him daily to live for his glory, I read that, it's my reasonable service, and it convicted me, pierced me in the heart. that God's not asking me to do something that's unreasonable. And some people, they may sit here tonight, you say you're saved and you're like, well, you know, there's so much I want to do and to just live how God wants me to do every area of my life. You think that that will be an unhappy life. That'd be the happiest life you can have. That'd be the most fulfilled you'll ever be in your life is doing what God wants you to do. Because then God can put his blessing in your life. God will be able to bless you. God never blesses rebellion. You won't find it in the scripture. It's a sin of witchcraft. I meant rebellion, rebellion. And God can't bless rebellion. God blesses obedience. In your life, just being obedient, we're gonna see tonight, doing the will of God, we're gonna read a verse in Peter before we get to the end of the message. Sometimes doing the will of God, you're gonna suffer for it. Doing right, you're gonna suffer. But we don't stop doing right. The Lord said, look, you're better off. Hey, at least if you suffer, suffer for righteousness sake. Don't suffer as an evildoer. If you suffer, at least don't be doing wrong while you're suffering. And if you suffer according to the will of God and you live right and you obey the word of God and suffering comes in your life, boy, he said, God's gonna help you. Spirit of glory and of God will rest upon you. and God's well pleased with it. So sometime, listen, living for God, people aren't always gonna pat you on the back. Peter did ask a question. You know, he asked a question. He said, you know, who's gonna, we'll read it, I don't know if I got it exactly right, but he's gonna say, you know, who's gonna be against if you do what's right? He said, but and if you suffer for righteousness sake. He said, you think if you do right, most of the time, you know, people are gonna, you'll have favor with people for doing right. But I'm gonna tell you, there's some world out there, there are haters of those that are good. They hate the fact you wanna do what's right. And you're gonna suffer for righteousness sake. If you suffer, hey, at least don't suffer as an evildoer. Suffer for doing right. So he said that it's your reasonable service. It's your reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world. Conformed deals with acting in accordance and harmony with the world. Act in accordance with worldly standards worldly attitudes and worldly practices. He said, don't be conformed to this world. Don't be like them, but be transformed. That's being changed. It means to be renewed, change in one's form, to be even changed in one's external appearance. That's what the definition says. But be transformed. How are we going to do that? By the renewing of your mind. that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I heard a preacher preach one time and said that's three separate wills of God for your life. The good will of God, there's an acceptable will of God, and there's a perfect will of God. No, the good will of God is a perfect will of God and the acceptable will of God. It's not three separate wills of God for your life. As long as you end up in that category. No, God has a perfect will for your life. Now listen to me, I don't know if we'll read it tonight, but I did write it down, but you know the book of James, when they said, hey, tomorrow we're gonna go into such and such a city, we're gonna buy and sell and do all this, and we're gonna do this and that, and James said, look, all such boasting is vain. It's vain boasting. You're saying tomorrow you're gonna do this? You don't know if God'll let you live or not. He said, here's what we ought to say, if the Lord will, we'll live and do this or that. So sometimes things in our life, we may decide to do something, there's nothing sinful about you deciding to do something tonight. Maybe going out to eat after church. You say, man, we're going to eat after church. Well, I know hopefully in your heart, you're thinking, boy, if the Lord allows us to get there, by the will of God, we're gonna go eat tonight. And so there's things that the Lord will allow you to do in life. I mean, God wants us to have good days, enjoy life, amen. I got to play nine holes of golf by the will of God yesterday, it was a blessing. I didn't do too good, but it was a blessing. I enjoyed the weather. Amen. And so how do you know it was the will of God? My wife told me I can go. I'm just playing. I'm just picking with her. Anyway. There's some things that you'll want to do in life. Nothing's wrong with them. Just be careful you don't boast about thinking you're going to do it. You won't do it unless God lets you do it. And we ought to say, if the Lord will, we'll live and do this or that by the grace of God before we boast in the fact of somehow we're going to think we're going to do it. And so James, James gives us a rebuke about that. And that's a good rebuke. We need to learn from that. It needs to be in our heart that we understand that, hey, I'm not going to go to work tomorrow unless God lets me. Hopefully, by the will of God, I'll be able to. By the will of God, we'll be able to be in church on Sunday, if it's the Lord's will, be able to do this or that. And so he's reminding us, though, this great chapter that we can prove. Now listen to me, there's only one way, church, you know this. Verse two, that you can prove what is a good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. It has to line up with your Bible. This is how we can prove it. We can prove it by comparing scripture with scripture. We can prove it by it lining up with what the Bible says. You may not have a verse, but it will agree with a scripture, whether it's the will of God or not. I asked you to do the study. Don't know if you did it. I ask you to go do it. There's so many things we could say tonight. Listen, it will never be the will of God for a saved person to marry an unsaved person. You may do it, and that becomes the will of God. You're married now, but it was not the Lord's will for you to do it, because the Bible tells us, be not in equal guilt together with unbelievers. Never be the will of God to be drunk with wine, ever. Bible says be not drunk with wine. I mean, that's it. You know, it's the will of God, everything in your life. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. What is that? Give thanks in all things. It's always the will of God for you to give thanks in everything. We know that to be the will of God. This is the will of God even in your sanctification. What is that? To abstain from fornication. And that every one of us may know how to possess our vessel in sanctification and honor. That's the will of God to possess your vessel, sanctify it unto God, and with your vessel to honor the Lord. Let nothing be done through strife and vainglory. It's the will of God. Never be the will of God for anything to be done with strife. Do all things without murmurings and disputings. What's the will of God? Everything you do. If you murmured, you're out of the will of God. If you're doing it and you're disputing, you're out of the will of God. Be blameless and harmless, O sons of God, in the midst of a crook and a perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. I mean, the Bible is full of the will of God for your life. Let all your things be done with charity. If you did something and didn't have charity while you did it, you was out of the will of God while you did it. To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, it's sin. If you know to do good, do good. The Bible says this is the will of God, put to silence the ignorance of foolish men by doing well, Peter said. So men out there are gonna be ignorant, they're foolish, they're gonna be saying things, put them to silence. How do you put them to silence? Doing what's right. You put them to silence. So, here's how we can prove if something is the will of God. If it goes contrary to sound doctrine, if it goes contrary to the verses, stay away from it. Stay away from it. The Bible tells us, if any man be called brother, if he's a fornicator, if he's a railer, if he's a drunk, an extortioner, don't company with him. That's Bible. Oh, that's hard preaching, that's Bible. I don't necessarily like that. I go, oh man, but that's Bible. That's the will of God. So, verse three, the Bible says, for I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Now, look in 2 Corinthians 8, I believe it coincides with this verse, these few verses we just read, 2 Corinthians 8, look at verse, 2 Corinthians 8. I need to move over one book. I'm in 1 Corinthians 8. Look at verse 5. Paul is talking about this church there, the grace bestowed upon the churches of Macedonia. And he says in verse 5, this they did, not as we hoped. So these people did it of their own accord, not because Paul asked them to. But it says, but first gave their own selves to the Lord unto us by the will of God. First thing I want you to know that you should present your body and living sacrifice to the Lord. You'll never walk in the will of God until you make your decision, your decision to give yourself to the Lord. You'll never be able to fulfill the word of God towards your brother till you fulfill the word of God to giving yourself to the Lord first. You'll never give yourself to be a servant to others until you've surrendered yourself to be the servant of the Lord. It's just how it works, okay? So I encourage you tonight, man, surrender yourself, give yourself to the Lord. Say, Lord, here I am. Sometimes we have messages and you come and you say, I'm gonna lay things on the altar. Come lay yourself on the altar. Say, Lord, here I am. You know, give yourself as an offering to God. I heard a story years ago about a fella that didn't have anything. The offering plate went around and he was weeping and laid it down and stood in it and said, God, I don't have nothing to give but myself, that's it. And got in the offering plate. Now, our offering plate ain't big enough, okay? It's just for illustration only. All right, come lay on the altar and say, God, here I am. Maybe you're a Christian, you need a recommitment to that. Maybe you can say, preacher, I remember a day when I did that. Boy, I sure have gotten away from it. Won't be a good night just surrendering to the Lord all over again. Say, Lord, I'm yours. I give myself to you. You bought me. You purchased me. You saved me. You called me by your name. Lord, you deliver my soul from hell. Your spirit lives in me. Lord, I haven't been doing like I'm supposed to. And boy, get that fire rekindled in your heart again tonight. Say, Lord, here I am. You know, sometimes there's kind of, sometimes we need a reset button in our life. Just kind of reset. Well, I'm gonna go back to them basics. Just kind of reset and get back where, kind of go back to start, you know, and get on track again. And so may you do that tonight. Give yourself to the Lord by the will of God. That's the will of God for every one of us. Philippians chapter two. Turn there with me. Philippians chapter two. Philippians 2, verse 12. Excuse me. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, boy, what a statement, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, ye shall work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Boy, isn't that what God wants to work in all of us? You know what the Lord's doing tonight? If you'll let Him, if you're a believer, He's constantly trying to maneuver in your life to get you to the place where He's working in you, both to will and to do. Now, I've used the illustration that, you know, you can tell your child to do something. I'm gonna tell you, if they do it with a bad attitude, to me, it's almost like they're not even doing it. Gets me upset, they got a bad attitude and talking under their breath and angry and upset and they go out to do it and kind of slam the door just a little bit to let you know they're not happy. Oh no, right? That doesn't please me. I'm like, hey, buddy, get your attitude in check, right? And as a parent, you're that way. I'm sure you know the whole time you tell your kids, clean up the room, and they're picking it up and throwing it in boxes and aggravated and throwing it around, and they're saying, I'm putting it up. You're not gonna be happy with that. They may be doing it. God's not happy for us to just do. He wants you to have the will. He wants to work in you the will to do with his good pleasure. He wants you, while you're doing it, to be the desire and the will of your heart to do it out of your own will, to please Him. And that's what Paul tells us in Ephesians 6. Look there, look at Ephesians 6, verse 6. Look at this, Ephesians 6, I believe that's right. Ephesians 6, verse 6. Look at verse five. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh. With fear and trembling and singleness of heart as unto Christ. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but as a servants of Christ, doing the will of God. Will you say those last three words from? The heart. Man, boy, God wants a heart in it. Listen tonight. The Christian life is miserable if your heart's not in it. You know what you'll do if your heart's not in it? When your heart's not in it, you'll even accuse a message like tonight of somehow being judgmental against you. I'm trying to be as easy as I can tonight, I'm telling you. I'm trying to be sweet. I'm not hollering and foaming at the mouth. It's only because I got a bad cough, okay? Lord, hold me back. I promise you. But tonight, when your heart's not in it, preaching can be miserable. The same message that's resonating in one brother and sister's heart saying, oh, yes, Lord, that's what I need. You'll be sitting there going, I wasn't signing up for this tonight. Doing the will of God from the heart. I'm telling you, that's where we need to be tonight. That's where I wanna be, that's where I wanna stay. That what God told me to do, my heart's in it. I want my heart in it. Lord, yes, yes, Lord, yes. God, forgive me. We need to keep short accounts with God. We do something and we know his word said we shouldn't, that we grieve over it. You know who the Lord is not to? Those that are of a broken and contrite spirit. Broken and contrite. I know I have a definition. Just hold your place. I wrote a definition down in my Bible, and I think I know where it's at. Here's what contrite is. Contrite is being brokenhearted over one's sins, one's disobedience, to be deeply affected with grief and sorrow for having offended God. You know who the Lord is close to? Those that are broken over how they've been living. And then contrite, they're full of sorrow and grief. God, I'm sorry. Lord, I know I should not have been living like that or doing that or saying that or going there or whatever it is, that contrite, the Lord is nigh unto them. You know what that means? God draws, when we're at that place, we're drawing nigh to him and God draws nigh to us. It's what James, it's what James told us. And so look at Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews 13, look at verse 20 and verse 21. Verse 20, now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, look at verse 21. Here's what he's wanting to do, make you perfect in every good work to do his will. Working in you, that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. God's people said? Amen. He wants to make you perfect and do His will. Do His will. I'm gonna look at two verses here, two passages in the book of Colossians. I'm certain that all of us have more of the knowledge of His will than what we may realize. Listen to my statement now. You may be amazed how much you really do know is the will of God for your life. You've been sitting in church any time at all, you've been raised in church your whole life. I'm gonna tell you, there's some young people who've been raised in church their whole life that's out of church. Some of them are saved, some of them know God. Their mind is full of what the will of God is, and they're not doing it. They know it. They know it. And I've had opportunity many times to talk to many of them when life's going wrong, and they call me and want me to pray for them, or in the middle of the night, some of them have contemplated suicide, and they're crying, and preacher, and this and that, and you talk to them, they know. You know what they need? They need somebody, just somebody to love them, help them get back on track. And so we need to be doing the will of God from the heart. Look in Colossians chapter one, Colossians chapter one, and then we'll look in Colossians chapter four. Colossians chapter one, look at verse nine through 11. He said, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled. Here's his desire, that you might be filled with the knowledge of, say it, his will. Isn't that amazing? You can be filled, you can be full of the knowledge of the will of God for your life. Be full of it. And you'll find that in the pages of a Bible. Now, I'm convinced, I'm convinced after all these years of being saved and trying to walk in the will of God, not always doing it, messing up and having to confess and get right and being out of the will of God and get back in the will of God and doing some things where I was, boy, that wasn't the will of God. Amen. I'm not the only one, am I? Am I among company? Okay. That I have found that if you will do your best to walk in what you know to be the will of God, You'll find it much easier when those situations come along that you're praying about, that you don't have a verse telling you what the will of God is. Somehow the light comes on. Will of God, not the will of God. You'll find it easier. I'm convinced if you're walking in the will of God, you'll find yourself ending up in the will of God. I believe the will of God leads you to the will of God. If you're doing things that are not the will of God, you're not in the right places to end up in the will of God. Okay, so walk in the will of God. and you will find by experience that those moments and times you come to trying to, that would be hard, big moments, I believe you'll find it easier for God to be able to direct you into the will of God if you're living in the will of God. Here's what I also find, if you're living in the will of God, then it's easier to discern because those things out there kind of line up with how you're living and you'll realize, no, that's kind of contrary. To everything that's been the will of God in my life, that just don't seem to fit in. That's how it works. I'm telling you, it really is, it is that simple. I'm not saying it's always simple to find the will of God for your life in those unknown areas, but you'll find it easier, I promise you. So we can be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom, and here's what we need, spiritual understanding. People that have spiritual understanding have an easier time discerning the will of God. For you might, what? That you might walk worthy of the Lord and to all pleasing. being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power and all patience and long suffering with joyfulness. Look in Colossians chapter four, verse 12. Colossians 4.12. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you. always laboring fervently for you in prayers. And here was his prayer. I pray this for all of you every day, church. I pray that our church, I use this verse and it's part of my daily prayer. He said that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. I'm asking you to pray that for me. Pray that for my wife, pray that for my children. And I pray that for you. I want you to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God for your life. It's the best place we can live, the best place we can walk is walking in the will of God. That's why we ought to acknowledge him in all of our ways. All of our ways. Everything we do, acknowledge him that he might direct our paths. That's a promise in the scripture. But don't wait till you come to a hard moment and say, oh, I better ask God now. No, acknowledge him in all that ways. Lean not on your own understanding to get you messed up. Your own understanding will talk you out of the will of God into something else, thinking it's okay. You'll kind of justify it. So, acknowledge Him, lean not into your own understanding, but in all thy ways acknowledge Him that He might direct thy paths. We'll finish here in the book of Peter. Look in I Peter. I want you to look in, look in chapter three. I told you that we'll look at it, look in chapter three, verse 13. I want you to see this. He said, who is he, verse 13, chapter three, that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good? So he makes a statement. You know, he said, if you do right and do good, who's gonna harm you? Basically I'm saying like nobody's going to. He said, but, just in case that does happen. He says, but, and if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye. and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, you may be ashamed, excuse me, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better if the will of God be so. that you suffer for well-doing, he said, than for evil doing. You're gonna suffer sometime. People are gonna accuse you of being bad and being wrong. You know, I've had to take certain stand about certain things as a pastor, take biblical stands of certain things I'll do and won't do when it comes to people. And, you know, there's been times I've been asked to do certain things. I said, no, I can't do that as a pastor. Not gonna do that or don't allow certain things. People get mad. I know that's a shock to you, but people get mad. They get upset. And it's not personal. It's a biblical conviction. And I'm just standing on a principle. And I'm not being judgmental. I'm not pointing my finger at you. I'm not trying to be hard. It's just something I don't do. Okay, and in doing that, you're gonna suffer sometime. They're gonna go pop their mouth off about you and run you down and tell lies and say things about you and spread rumors about you. But if you're gonna suffer for doing what the Bible says sometime, but when you do, make sure you suffer for doing right. Suffering's gonna come. You don't make your decisions by whether people gonna feel bad or not. You don't make your decisions by whether they're gonna take it personal. You don't want them to. You don't mean it personal, but sometimes people are just that way, they're gonna take it that way. If you're gonna suffer, be sure you suffer for doing what the Bible tells you to do. Suffer for standing on a conviction. Suffer for standing on a principle. And so he deals with that in chapter four and we're done. Look in chapter four. Look at verse one. For as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men, but how? To the will of God. So he's telling us the rest of our life, now that you're saved, the rest of your life, live it to the will of God. Not in the flesh, not to the lust of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of right, speaking evil of you. You shall give an account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. Jump down to verse 14. For if you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. The spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part he's evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. You see that? He's gonna be evil spoken of on their part, but what's gonna matter is when God looks at you, make sure he's glorified by what you're doing. We don't live our life by what other people are doing, how they feel about us, what God thinks about it. And so he says, but let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, Well, here comes one of the worst in the list. Or as they say it, isn't it amazing he put busybody in the list of murderers, thieves, and evildoers? Let that sink in for a minute. It isn't like, well, here's something totally out of place. I mean, why did God put busybody in such a horrible list? Because it's just as bad. I'm gonna be honest with you, we had more trouble, I've had more trouble in church over busybodies than I have murderers, thieves, and evildoers. Just telling you the truth. Busybodies, always worried about somebody else. Remember the Lord said, hey Peter, when you're old, you're not gonna be able to dress yourself and gird yourself and all the stuff and they're gonna take you where you don't wanna go. You know, somebody's gonna have to lead you about when you get old. Peter looked back and John's walking by there. And Peter said, well, what about him? Jesus said, what is that to you if I want him to tarry till I come? And you know what the saying went abroad? That John's not going to die. He's going to still be living right now when Jesus shows up. And the Bible said, it did not say that John wouldn't die. The scripture did not say that this disciple wouldn't die, but what is that to you? If I will it, he'd tarry till I come. Now, the only one outside of John heard Jesus say that was Peter. So Peter had to be the one to spread the rumor. That's the way I figured. But isn't that how we are? Well, what are they gonna do, Lord? Well, what about them? What about them? Just be concerned about yourself. Just do what God's told you to do. You just be in the will of God. Make sure you're doing the will of God. Don't worry about, because sometimes we have a way of wanting to justify our lives by somebody else's life. And so he tells us, he tells us here, don't be a busybody in other men's matters. Boy, you don't even have to leave home to be a busybody now. Just watch you, just feed yourself, being a busybody. He said, and if any man suffers a Christian, let him not be ashamed. We're done. I'm going to read through verse 19 and we're finished. Give you a little bit of hope here. If any man suffers a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. The time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first began at us, what shall the end of them be that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where should the ungodly and sinner appear? But let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator, living your life in the will of God. Every head bowed, every eye closed.