God bless you, Doc. Love you, buddy. Love you. I realize the Bible says that a friend loveth at all times. My brother Brad's time's running out. Anybody that put me between these two guys don't love me, that's for sure. And then, after all is said and done, there's Ed Moore. In 1970s, was it brother, we received our, that's when I met you, we received our doctorate degree. And I got a doctor of divinity, that's a candy doctor, that's what I am. Brother Ed, when they got down there to the place where they doctor of, they just left it blank. Didn't have anything in there. But I put something in there. He is a doctor of encouragement. And he just encouraged me a while ago. He said, you know what you get, preacher, when you put two pieces of bread together? You put bologna in the middle. Said, thanks for that encouragement, brother. I needed that. Well, what a blessing. Something came to my mind as Brother Ronnie was preaching today, and this is really a blessing to my heart. We may not all win the race, but we all can finish the race. I don't have to look at these other preachers and say, I've got to be up here for what. No, no, no. If you're a five talent or a 30 talent, if you're giving it your best, you're going to get the same reward. So praise God. That's what gives me encouragement to sit and hear Bob Sanders preach. Some of these five talents can preach. He's one of them. He'll get that about midnight tonight, and he'll call me. He's my friend. I love you, Bob, and his dear wife. I want to preach today on a subject. Don't lose heart. Don't lose heart. Now, there's not a person in this building that has never come to the place where they've lost heart. And here's what I want to encourage you to do today. Don't lose heart to the point of quitting. We're all going to lose heart at times, but we don't have to quit. Because home is inside. And over the next hill, we'll be at the house. Amen. And I'm looking forward to that precious time. I want you to turn to three different places in your Bible. A little unusual how I preach, but I want to use three different places in the Bible to make my point. And I really hope at 85 years of age and preaching 55 years, I'll be able to be an encouragement to you. And you won't think I'm trying to lord over anyone, but I think when you live that long and get a pacemaker, you've got authority to talk to people, amen? Listen up now, and I'm going to give you the structure because I am serious right here. I really want to hear Brother Dennis preach. He is a, he's my dear friend and a dear preacher. Because when he preaches, I can go home and get six-month preaching out of it, what he gives. He gives so much, much material. Second Corinthians chapter four. verse 1. We find here that we're not to lose heart in the midst of persecution. In Luke chapter 18 and verse 1, we're not to lose heart in the ministry of prayer. Get that? Ministry of prayer. And then in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 9, We are not to lose heart in the meagerness of progress. Let me substantiate what I just said. If you'll notice, and we'll get to it later in detail if time permits, you'll find that it's talking about the fallen brother or sister in the Lord. Not all about you, but sometimes when you talk and you pray and you talk, you instruct and you give them all that you've got in trying to help people, they'll just go on and do their own thing, won't even listen. Well, what are you to do about that, preacher? Don't lose heart, just stay with it. It is our responsibility and joy to restore our brothers and sisters in the Lord. That's our joy. Yeah, but preacher, they act like an idiot. The Bible doesn't say anything about how they react. We are just to not lose heart in the meagerness of progress. We're just to do our thing. So look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 1. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we Faint not, now in all these passages that I gave you, you'll find that word faint not, which means lose heart. Don't lose heart. Now let's turn that verse upside down there in 2 Corinthians. As we have received mercy, salvation, seeing we have this ministry, servanthood, therefore we cannot afford to lose heart in this day that we live. And Paul is saying here as he reaches out to us today that every one of us has a ministry. And I wish we could learn and teach rather our lay folk that everyone that is born again is a missionary. They are to serve others, amen? And share with them the blessings, the knowledge, that God has entrusted to them. And as they carry out these ministries in their life, Paul said, we are written epistles of all men. Men and women are to look upon us and say, you know, I really wish I had the joy that that person has in my life. And you can. But how many people go to church Sunday after Sunday, Wednesday after Wednesday, and never pick that ideal up. And I don't understand this and I'm not being judgmental. But how under God's heaven can people sit under a Bible-based ministry and never grow in their Christian life? I've never understood that. The one that you seemingly place your hand upon and know that God's in their life and you've seen evidence of that over and over, Seemingly they're the one that falls first. And we've found that all of their joy is facade, it's outwardly, but you see everything that we do as born again believers should be generated from within. We should preach from the overflow. We should witness from the overflow. And whatsoever our hands find to do, we're to do it with all of our heart, but we're to do it with an overflow situation. I'm not up here today to try to influence anyone. I couldn't if I wanted to. But I'm not here for that. I mean, I'm too close to the finishing well mark. So what I want to do is pour my life into the last days that I have. And say, you know, he may not have had it all right, but he was God's man. I'd rather have that said about me than anything else. He's God's man. Every person in this building comes to a time in their life that you want to throw in the towel. I remember when I was in evangelism, I was in Elizabeth in Tennessee in a meeting. And I'd gone as far, listen closely, I'd gone as far as I could make it go. Nothing wasn't happening to me, nothing. Preaching the word of God, listen, with no anointing equals zero. I was at the restaurant eating breakfast with the pastor. A dear lady came to help us out. And I don't know, I could see a faraway look in this lady's eyes. And I started to witness to her, but I didn't. And I found out when I got back to the motel room, and I listened, and I made this statement to the Lord, and I meant it. And it's where we have to come to before God will do business with us. And that's dying to self. I remember it. I've never done this before, never done it afterwards. And I don't know why I did it. Before I realized what I was doing, I was doing it. And I took the precious word of God and laid it on the floor and laid down and put my head on that Bible. And I said, Lord, I'd rather be dead than to try to cut these trees down with no axe head. Call me a Pentecostal, call me anything you want to do, because I don't care. But something in the old warmness started here and went through my body, but that cave experience that Elijah had. Still was. Seemed to say arise. And I'm going to tell you, I preached like a novice that night. And the next morning when we went in to eat breakfast, there was a new renewing in my life. I couldn't wait to get there. Listen closely. The lady came to church that night and brought three guests with her. And all three got saved. Don't lose heart. Don't lose heart in the midst of persecution. And you say, but wait, preacher, persecution? I looked that word up. Let me give you the noun version, and then I'll give you the verb. The noun means to torture, to torment to the extreme. Are we seeing that in the world? The verb says to harass, victimize, insult, mistreat, oppress. Are we seeing that today? You raise your banner as a God's child, as one of his children, you'll be ridiculed. you'll be made fun of. They're not of our kind. They didn't put on deodorant this morning. I'll sit over here. Listen to me, folks. I'm not a prophet, nor son of one. My opinion. There's a difference in preaching the word, and I can give my opinion if I state it, and I'm going to give it. If things continue in our country, the way they're going today, we could see the day, Brother Ronnie, that your head will be required. Folks, I don't think we realize. I realize Second Timothy, Paul, he's preaching to those folks back then, perilous times shall come. He thought they were in there. I mean, it was happening then. But he's saying, learn something. Folks, we're in perilous times. And I'm not a downhearted preacher. It's precious time in that we have the Holy Ghost that's really showing out in our lives today. Great, great things that God is using me in and you in as we preach the Word of God. It's amazing. Could I give you an illustration? Repeat, I preach for one of my dear, get my verbiage here, dear friends. About three years ago. I hadn't preached for him in about three years. He called me and said, I trust you in my pulpit. I'm going out of town. Could you come and preach? And yes, I went to preach. But you know, right before he got off of that conversation, Ed, you know what he said? He said, Brother Jerry, you know I love you. And I know how you preach. And I appreciate your message. But we don't give altar calls anymore. He called the wrong man to fill in. That's part of my message. Why not? I called him by name because he's that close a friend to me. And I said, what are you talking about? He said, well, I've just found that the Holy Ghost, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. I said, would you mind if I give one? I mean, I really, when I come to this man's pulpit, I'm not going to talk down on him. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to talk down on those folks, but I said, could I give one? He said, yeah, out of friendship. Should have been out of conviction. So I preached that morning, and when I finished, the Holy Spirit. You know, there's a preaching spirit, and then there's all kind of things like the anointing, I got two stories going here, but a man rebuked me not long ago about saying the anointing. He said, when you got the Holy Ghost, you got the anointing, you don't have to mention it. Well, listen, you can stay half vaccinated if you want to, but I believe the Holy Ghost moves in on special occasions to anoint people. You better hope he does. So I preached that morning. God didn't honor me, but he honored his word. And I had liberty. I gave the invitation, and no, I don't count noses and niggles when I preach. But then the whole front was full, crying out. Have you had a series of meetings to be invited to come back? But I've had a lot of folks ask me, do you know of a church in the area that's got some fire about it? I said, no, but if you'll pay me $150,000 a year, I'll start one. Amen. In the midst of persecution, I want to remain focused on the Lord in all that I do. in verse 15 of 2 Corinthians 4. It says that all of this will go to the glory of God. If we will suffer for the cause of Christ without murmuring and complaining, God gets all the glory, doesn't he? And isn't that what the primary reason we're left on earth to do, 1 Corinthians 10 31, is to bring glory, whatsoever you do, do it to bring the glory to the Lord. Notice secondly, don't lose heart in the ministry of prayer. Men ought always to pray and not things, not to lose heart. The wife and I have been praying over 20 years, and it hadn't been answered yet. But you know, I was in a meeting somewhere, I forget where it was now, Boylan Springs, North Carolina, and I was going through a terrible time in my life. Satan had won the victory in my life in the case of I wasn't seeing prayers answered and I got so discouraged. God let me see something that may help you. How do we know he doesn't hear us? I may pray for Brother Brad and he comes down, he the Holy Ghost comes down and convicts him He can refuse the Holy Spirit's work. See, it doesn't mean that I've lost. God heard my prayer. You didn't respond to it. That's not my responsibility. He gave me a piece, but I need it again to go another extra mile. So don't give up. I remember hearing a message by Dr. Adrian Rogers one of my favorite preachers. And he said, always remember now, God always answers prayer. He always answers in this way. He says, yes, no, later, are you kidding? Now he went on to explain that. And he said, do you think that you can live like the devil? Talk about your brother. Run down other Christians. You think you can just sashay into the presence of God and get your prayer answered? Not a chance. And he's right. You know, and I'm not shooting at anyone. I know we're going out all over, but I'm getting old. I hope I don't get you in trouble. But the only difference between the Catholic's mess and the Baptist's mess is their name. Because I'm going to tell you, you take all this fleshly stuff that you want to enjoy for the Lord and want Him to put His hand on your mess, God don't bless a mess. So if you're here today and your prayers are not getting much higher than this ceiling, I've got a feeling it's on us. I believe the Holy Spirit lusts for fellowship with His people. There's no better way to commune with God than to sit on His lap and pray and talk to Two ways, God, many ways, but I want to mention two ways God answers prayer. First, He answers swiftly. 2 Kings 21 through 6, read it later, Hezekiah. Set your house in order, you're going to die. Before Isaiah got back in the halfway out of the court, you're going to die, means you're at the point of death. No, here's a guy Prayed read that prayer in that read that prayer, but it'll break you down God said go tell him I heard You ever had an oxygen bottle that run a little bit right there amen I'm telling you folks. There's nothing sweeter Nothing's for you. I love to My preacher brother to call me and we talk and converse. I love that. Distant fellowship, I love that. There's not any better thing if you put it in the spiritual realm. To start praying our Father. And you know if you don't settle that first part of that prayer and worship God in the first part of that prayer, forget the rest of it. Amen. Just crawl up in his lap. How many times have you just figuratively crawled up in his lap? And you couldn't even, you couldn't even come up with the word that you need, the Holy Spirit. Romans 8, 26, 27. The Holy Spirit begins to formulate it. He formulates it. gives it to Jesus, the intercessor. I'm about to shout, take time out of it. And he takes it into the Father. The Trinity is involved in biblical praying. And all of a sudden, you get a rebuff, or you get a blessing. God says, well, what you thought was this, it's not that. You need to rid that of your life. Again, Brother Adrian Rogers, please, I'm not roaming around here. I'll help you out if you'll listen to me. He said, every morning when I get out of bed, and I do this, not because he said it, but because the Holy Spirit said you can do that too and it'll work. He said, every morning when I get out of bed, I put my hands up. And I allow the Holy Spirit to walk through my life and point out the problems. And when that is done, I will automatically know it within. And then, Brother Peter, he said, I changed this to this. And the blessings come. And the answers come. He answers swiftly. I was out visiting one day, and my wife called me. I was visiting, pasturing in Ellisville, Mississippi. My wife called me and said, we're at the emergency room. Her son is in trouble. Something happened that wasn't gradual. Immediately, it happened. Something about blood not flowing properly to the kidney. And they said, we've got one other thing that we can do, and if it doesn't work, we've got to take it out. Kidding you. I remember that day in the dark hallway of a hospital in Ellisville, Mississippi. I really thought in my mind, I was okay. Everything was okay between me and the Lord. I really, really felt that. God revealed something I'd forgotten. Trust me, I took care of business. He's still got both of his kidneys. He still thinks he can not do dad, but he can. I'm telling you, sometimes God swiftly, but then secondly, slowly. Most of the time, in my opinion, he's wanting to teach us something. And sometimes it takes, listen, Hebrews says, if I'm God's child, I'm gonna be chastened. That means trained. So sometimes when something comes through your life and my life that we can't explain, that doesn't mean God hates us. He may be using a growth tool. So we're not to jump up and down and say, but God, I did this yesterday and I gave more in my tithe. God doesn't need all of that. He wants this until he gets that. Nothing else is going to line up, guys. Trust me, I've tried it. It's not me and God got our own thing going. No, it's God. And he blesses me that he let me tag along. Matthew 6, 10, the disciples' prayer, thy kingdom come, hadn't happened yet. Now I understand how the king can be here in the throne. But literally, it hadn't happened yet. Over 2,000 years of prayer been going on slowly. So don't get frantic. Don't get frantic. An old song says it well. Press on. It won't be very long until we reach that land of song. In heaven some sweet day I'm going there to stay. Press on. It won't be very long. until he comes. And the last thing, don't lose heart to the point of quitting. In the meagerness of progress, I look over here and this church is just blooming and blossoming. I'm still sitting around over here. Nothing seems to be happening. Don't lose heart. The king is at work. He's on schedule. Wait, preacher, I've served him. We're not talking about what we have done. We're talking about yielding to what he's doing. And I've found that that's bittersweet. Some days it doesn't happen the way you think it should, and some it does. But tress on. I remember teaching our children to walk. This little guy that's still going, and the little girl that we have, well, she's 58, but she's still my little girl. I was teaching them to walk. Mommy will get over there, and I'm over here, and here they come, wobbling around. Falls down. What do I do? Get up from there, bless God. What are you doing wobbling around? You know, watch your daddy. This is how you walk. Get up. That's OK, sweetheart. We'll do it again. Do we do it again with those that are hurting, been overtaken in the fall? Do we have that attitude? Well, bless God, I didn't think you was too grounded. How do you know? Who made you general foreman of God's army? Judge no thing until it's done. So after a while, they learned to walk. But preacher, I've tried to help this deacon in my church. I've tried to help this, I've tried to help them and they won't listen. What do I do now? Don't lose heart. You don't know what kind of progress is being made. Because all you're doing is putting the thing out there before God and he does the rest. Galatians 6, 1, be not weary, because you're going to receive if you don't lose heart. It's almost over, guys. Listen to this, and then I want you to hear a portion of a song. Weeping may endure, for the night. Joy comes in the morning. Go ahead and kick it off. Listen to this. Amen. Hallelujah. You're not the first to be acquainted with sorrow, grief, or pain. But the Master promised sunshine after rain. Hold on, my child. Hold on, my child. Joy comes in the morning. Hold on, my child. Hold on, my child. Joy comes in the morning. The darkness now is gone. It's just inside. To invest your seed of trust in God In mountains you can't move You have risked your life on things you cannot prove But to give the things you cannot keep Oh, what you cannot miss. Now that's the way to find the joy God has for you. So hold on, my child. Hold on, my child. We bring loneliness for the doubtless. The darkest night is on It's just inside It's just inside