Stand with me this morning as we read and while you're standing, don't forget tonight. Four churches getting together. We're going to come together. We're going to have singing. We're going to have some preaching. So come out tonight and be with us. I'm going to read. I don't know. I'll probably read. I'm going to go on over here before I get back into the message. And it said, Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowed or entered of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and longsuffering. If you go back over to chapter 3 and verse 1, I think I titled that message this morning, Seek Those Things. Seek Those Things. Now you might be wondering what I'm talking about. But the Galatians people, where Paul had been through ministering the churches started, and so he was writing to them about the new life in Christ. You know, we're all born sinners. We're all born into sin. I heard a preacher say one day, he said, well, he said, you know, These kids that's born to these babies, if they die before they get to the age of accountability, said they'll not go to heaven. But I'll let him know real quick that he was way off on that. A baby born and it don't know nothing about sin. And I'll tell you what, the Bible says unless we come as humble as a little child, we'll not enter into heaven either. Amen? So Paul was writing to them, and he said, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things, and now I'm going to go on with the rest of that verse. Seek those things above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Why is he sitting at the right hand of God? He's intercessing there for us, and the right means power. It means holy power. And so he was telling the Galatians, he said, after the new life, after I've given you a new life, he said, if you then be risen, that means if you've been saved, you've been born again, then you have been risen from death unto life, spiritually speaking. And he said, if you then be risen with Christ, seek, what does that word seek mean? It means to look, it means to search. And that's why He said over in Matthew, He said, Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. It's not what you think, it's not what I think, but it's what the Word of God says. A lot of people say, Well, my preacher said this, and my preacher said that. I said, I don't care what your preacher said, if it's not the Word of God, then he's wrong in it. A lot of people live by what the preacher says, and it's good if you can, but a lot of these preachers, you better not live by what they tell you to live and the way they tell you not to live. Amen? The Bible says we all know how to possess our own bodies with holiness. So he said, seek those things which are above. Why? Because Jesus, when He came down, thank God for the Word of God. And it's just plain as a nose on your face if you read it and look at it and search it. You don't have to ask the preacher how to live. You already know how to live because God's telling you, I can't tell you how to live because I'm not your God this morning. But I'm just telling you how God said to live. I've had them get mad at me because God said, well a preacher said so and so. And I said, well, was it the Word of God? Well, yeah, but you oughtn't have said that. I said, if it's the Word of God and God said for me to say it, amen, I'm going to say it. If it gets on your toes, it gets on your toes. I'm not going to water it down, sis, and I'm not going to make excuses for the Word of God. The Bible says, Do not add to or do not take from the Word of God. If it's the Word of God and it's the true Word of God, and so we better follow along with it. If we don't follow along with it, we're going to miss heaven. A lot of people think just because they go to church on Sunday that they're going to go to heaven in a rapture. That ain't the case. Churches are sitting full of people today that go to church pretty much every Sunday or go to church a lot, and if they die, they still die and go to hell. You say, how do you know, preacher, because the Bible tells me that. The Bible tells me you've got to be born again. You say, what do you mean be born again? I mean you've got to have a spiritual birth. Amen. Ronnie sang this song about two births. He said, the first birth I can't remember, but the second birth, he said, I can't forget. I can't remember, Mark. I can't remember the first birth I was born. I know nothing about it and didn't for years. And somebody had to tell me when I got up old enough, tell me what my name was and what age I was. Tell me when I was born and so on and so forth. And so I grew, but people calling me Ralph. I don't like that name, by the way, but people called me Ralph. all time, among a lot of other names, by the way. But then when I got to the age of accountability, then I had to have a second birth in order to go to heaven. Amen? In order to go to heaven, I had to have a second birth. Now let me tell you, I didn't remember the first birth, but I'll never forget the second birth I had. Amen. In 1983, at that old sawmill on my knees, I fell down and wept like a newborn calf had lost its mother because God humbled me down. He opened my eyes and I seen that I was a sinner. I was lost and I was undone. And if I went to sleep and didn't wake up, I knowed I'd be in hell. 1983, June, down on June the 27th or 28th, 1105, I got down and I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. I didn't just surrender my life to Jesus Christ. I made Him a vow. A lot of people make God a vow, but they break their vows and go back on their vow. I made him a vow I would follow him the rest of the days of my life if he could just save me and would save me from all of my sins. He said, son, you're forgiven. And I've been following Jesus and in the ministry. The first day I got saved on a Thursday, we had a prayer meeting across the road in the old church. And I came to church, went in, met my wife and my mother-in-law, thought I'd come in Stackett House again and she'd come across the road and said, what in the world's going on over here? My wife told Lucille, her mother, said she'd just opened the door and she said, Ralph just told me he got saved today. Boy, we had a shoutin' good time there with honey that day. Come to church that night and my mom named verses and all of them looked at me like, what in the world is that man doing here? What's he doing here? It didn't take them too long to find out, thank God for old preacher by the name of Brother Giles was a pastor. We sung some songs and all and people just, I don't like people looking at me. Do you when I go into church? I mean, well, I really don't bother me. I don't like staring. A lot of people does, though. That's all they do. That's all they come to church for is stare. Well, that didn't cost you nothing. But Brother Giles, he got up, and he didn't know it. Nobody knows. Mom versus they didn't know it. And me and my wife walked in. I believe we sat in on the front second seat on the left there. with a kid. Brother Giles got up and said a few words. He said, I don't know, but he said, I believe there's somebody here who wants to tell us something. I knew who he was talking about. Boy, I hit my feet and I got to testifying about Jesus. Man, he would have had that talk that day. I opened my mouth and I ain't shut his sense. For 18 years, I went up and down that old basement over there, Ricky. I didn't know it then, but I know it now. God would have prepared me for where I've been at now in the last 27, 28 years. Boy, we had times over there. I've seen them teenagers cry and hug one another. I've seen them say, brother, we need to be saved. And we just had a time. Some of them are here today. You can ask them about it. They've grown up now, and they've got kids, and their kids are married. And I don't know for, I don't know people no more. But he said, Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. So if you're wondering where Jesus is at today, He told us right here. He said, I'm sitting at the right end of the Father, my Father. He said, I'm sitting here on your behalf. He just didn't die for us. He died in our place. He went back to heaven for us. Everything Jesus has done and God has done, He's done it for the good of us. Amen? We need to give God a praise every now and then. It says, set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. You know, you know, every one of us, Every one of us worships something. Did you know that? We may worship it and not realize we're worshiping. But every one of us has got something we worship, and we better be careful. These things we need to like and enjoy, but we don't need to put them in front of God. We don't need to put them in front of God. So he said, set your affections, your thoughts, and your ways above Not on the things on the earth. What's out there can save you. What's out there can save you? I used to think that the more pleasures I had, the happier I'd be. But boy, I was wrong. And I'd be lying to you this morning. Now some of you don't know this, I hear. Maybe nobody knows it. But there is pleasure in sin. If I told you they wasn't, you'd say, I'm not going back here to that preacher no more. How many of you know there's pleasure in sin? How many of you know it just lasted for a season? How many of you thought when you was living it, I did, when I was living it up, boy, nobody could tell Ralph Foster what to do or where to go, not my wife, not my parents, nobody. I'd go when I pleased and I'd come back when I pleased. Stay as long as I pleased. And I thought, man, I've got it made. I can do whatever I want to do and nobody can do nothing about it. Let me tell you, that was the wrong way of thinking. The further I thought that, the longer I thought that, the further, brother Lloyd, I went down that road to sin. I went down for about 18 years, Brother Mark, and let me tell you something. One day, I was just like a prodigal son. I woke up and I was in a hog pen, so to speak. I'd run out of real estate, and I didn't know what else to do. I mean, I'd got so far from God. But you know, I knew God before that, and I turned my back on God. And God said, all right, if that's the way you want to turn your back on me, I'll turn my back on you. And He did. But God had an eye on me all the time. I got down. He saved my life. I don't know how many times I know God saved my life. Many of them, I didn't know it, but I know He saved my life. But I got down there. Sometimes you've got to get to the bottom before you can look up. Anybody ever been on the bottom? You've got to get to the bottom before you look up. I was on the bottom. I mean, I was flat on the bottom. But when I looked up and I cried out to God, hallelujah, He looked down. He looked down. It was just like he reached down his hand and said, you're forgiven. I didn't believe a grown man. I've been barred everywhere else. I've been beat and stomped and cut and everything else. And I didn't think a grown man ought to cry. I thought that was just a man. But that day Jesus humbled me down. I cried like a newborn baby. Cried all evening that evening. cried all night, and sometimes I still cry. Nothing wrong crying, do you know it? Sometimes a good cry, if you're good, it'll wash out the hurt and everything. All right, let me go on here. He said, For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Ain't that great? Your life is here with Christ in God. Psalm 100 said you don't belong to yourselves anymore. None of us belong to ourselves anymore. Because he said over in the book of Psalms, I believe it's 50, I believe it's 50, maybe it might be 100. He said you don't own yourself. I brought you into this world. I've took care of you. And then I died for you. You've been bought. I've paid the price for you because I expect you to be worth what I paid my life for. I think you ought to follow me and listen to me and do good in your life. Amen. Now, I know I'm not perfect, and I don't want to sound like I'm perfect. I make a lot of mistakes, but I know where Jesus is sitting at this morning. He's sitting at the right hand of God, and He's interceding for me. And let me tell you something, I make a mistake, say something or do something, think something, and the Holy Spirit says that is wrong. And I don't wait till I get back to church and have some preacher to pray for me. I get down right then, and I'll say, God, I'm sorry, forgive me. And He'll say, you're forgiven. The greatest word I ever heard was I was forgiven. Like the old song used to say, we used to sing it, the old account was settled long ago. My name was at the top and many things below. But praise God, I went to the keeper one day and I settled it all. He wrote down my name in the Lamb's Book of Life. The devil and nobody else can take my name out of it. The only one who can take their name out of it is Ralph Foster and I have no intention of taking my name out of it. Somebody said the other day, I done a funeral down there Thursday for a lady, and passed away. Good friend of mine, used to come to church here all the time, then her and her husband both got ill. And my wife said something to somebody, was talking to somebody, and she said, I reckon he's gonna pastor all his life. I'm 78 in case you wanna know it. I know I don't look it, Well, I didn't hear a hey man in this crowd. Mark, I thought you'd agree with me. You agree with me on everything else. I was like, people said, Brother Ralph, when are you going to retire? I said, I ain't never. read in this book with his retirement on serving God. I want to serve him to my last breath if I may, amen. I've got some girls here about 13 years old, 12, 13 years old. And they was out at Darlene's. Said, look, your house one day, and he was talking about getting married to Darlene. And they said, I was going to marry him. Darlene said, well, Ralph's getting old or something. Said, he probably won't be around. One of them said, yes, he will if we have to push him up on a wheelchair. God is good, church. He is good. When Christ, listen to this, when Christ, now listen to this, when Christ is our life, shall appear Then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Boy, that's good stuff, ain't it? That's good stuff. How many of you believe he's going to appear one of these days? He's coming. He's coming. Back over in the book of Peter over there, the Bible says that they asked Peter, so also we've heard that since we were, since our fathers passed away. We have heard it all our life that Jesus is coming back. Jesus said He ain't come back yet. Well, I've heard it all my life, He ain't come back yet, but that don't mean He ain't coming. He's going to come when people least expect Him to come. All right, so our life, We will, so that, well, we got to do some things in verse five. It said, mortify, you know what that word means? It means to clean up yourself, inside, and I think out too. Clean up your mouth, clean up your ears, clean up your eyes. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. All of these things are sin, and I guess I've done every one of them. For which things say the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience? So he said, I'm coming back. I'm coming back. But before I come, I'm going to give you a chance to clean up yourself. Clean up yourself. Quit doing all these things. Quit listening to the devil. Quit seeking pleasure out in the world. You can find pleasure, but you won't find no peace. So he said, mortify, clean up. For which thing's sake the wrath of God, you know what the wrath of God is, don't you? Cometh on the children of disobedience. So if Jesus appears right now, he could appear right now. He's coming in the blink of an eye. If you're not saved, you're going to be left behind. If you're not saved and you're left behind, you don't have no choice of where you're going to spend eternity. You ain't going to have a choice to fall down on your knees and cry out to God. It's going to be too late. The door's going to be shut. The door's going to be shut. In the which ye also walk or live some time, when you lived in them. Now see, a while ago, I just got into that a little bit a while ago, in which you also walked sometime when you lived in them. We've all sinned. Agreed? We've all sinned. If you say you ain't, God said you was a liar. I didn't say it, God said you're a liar over in little John. But he said if we would confess our sins, He said, we've all sinned, he comes short. He said, if you confess your sins, he said, I'm true and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Paul said, Apostle Paul, one of the greatest authors ever wrote in the Bible. He said, I die daily and there ain't no greater man to me in the apostles than Apostle Paul was. No meaner man ever lived than Apostle Paul. Persecuted the church, but after God changed his mind, He said, I die every day. We've got to die out of sin every day. Some people said, Ralph, do you sin every day? I said, well, I don't know, but if I don't, I said, I'm still going to repent. I want to be sure. I want to be sure. You missed heaven, you missed everything. in which you also walked some time when you lived in them. So we've all known what sinners are. We've all known that we have sinned. He said, but, I love that word but in these scriptures, B-U-T, but now you also put up all these things, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, feminine, filthy communication out of your mouth. He said, So lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deed, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. So when we are chained, and people say, Well, it don't say nothing about woman. Yes, and it means woman too. So we said, We're not to lie to one another, since we've put off the old man. I was reading back over there, I don't remember just where it was at. I think I put a marker in it. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17, it said, listen to this, it said, Therefore if any man or woman be in Christ, HE IS A NEW CREATURE, OLD THINGS HAVE PASSED AWAY, AND BEHOLD, ALL THINGS ARE BECOME NEW, AND ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD, WHO HATH RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF BY JESUS CHRIST, AND HATH GIVEN TO US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION. SO WHAT DOES THAT, WHAT DOES THAT, WHAT'S THAT SAYING THERE? WHAT'S THAT SAYING? WE BECOME A NEW CREATURE IN JESUS CHRIST. Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new. Does anybody, of course, you probably don't, but I'll ask you this anyway. Does anybody have any problem? Does Satan ever come to anybody, trying to get you to go back to being the old man? Huh? He does me. He'd come back. God said when you get saved, let me tell you this. This is worth saying and it's worth listening to. When you come and get saved somewhere, all the sins, I don't care what sin there is that you've committed, if you come earnestly to God and mean it and ask God to forgive you, I promise you He'll forgive you. Now listen to this. And I promise you all the sin you've ever committed, I don't know how old you are, I don't care how many thousand sins you've committed, I promise you when you come and give them to God, that God will never bring them back up before you again. Amen? Whoo, that's good stuff, ain't it? I'm glad he don't. I'd be a hurtin' if he did. I wouldn't be behind this pulpit. But now, You won't have to never answer for them sins that you've committed before you got saved. But after you get saved, you will stand before God unless you repent of them and give an account for those that you've done from now to then. That's why Jesus died for us. We take Jesus so lightly, we don't give Him enough honor and praise and glory for what He's done for us, and not only back then, but what He's still doing for us. Every breath we're breathing, God's put it into us to breathe. Amen. Every time this mouth opens and hits plenty, it's because God is opening it. Let's give God a praise this morning. and the witch also was unwritten. But now you put off all these anger and all of these things. And he said, Lie not one to another, that you have put off the old man and put on the new, in verse 10. In verse 11 it said, For there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, sentient, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. That's verse 11. Let me read that again. For there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, sentient, bond or free, but Christ is all and all. In verse 12, put on therefore as the elect of God, as a child of God, holy and beloved, bowed or enter your heart, of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. There you go, Paul. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. Let me tell you something. If you're holding a grudge on anybody, who's that hurting? It's hurting yourself. Hurting yourself. You're holding a grudge. And there's a lot of people out there holding a grudge. And they're hurting themselves because the one they're holding a grudge against, they probably don't even think about it and don't care. And he said in verse 14, boy, this is a good one. And above all these things, put on charity. What is charity? Charity is love, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your heart, to the which also ye are called in one body. And he said, Be ye thankful. Are we thankful enough this morning, church? We're not thankful enough, are we? How many of us gets up in the morning and never takes just a few seconds to say, God, I thank you for waking me up this morning. God, I thank you for getting me out of bed. God, go to the table to eat. And God, I thank you for this biscuit and gravy and sausage and eggs and whatever else. Sounds pretty good. That made me hungry. He said, Gil, thanks always for all things. He said, first of all, this is the will of God. Not my will, it's God's will. We all give thanks always for all things, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And I'm fixing the clothes, Janetta, y'all, come on. And whoso and whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. Would you stand with us as they come this morning? Would you bow your heads with me before we get started here? And I just feel like praying here this morning for you and for myself. Heavenly Father, We thank you for the word. You said it was sharper and powerful and quicker than a 280 sword. God, we know sometimes it stirs our hearts and stirs our mind, and I thank you for that myself, God, that it does. I need it sometimes. Father, but I just thank you for the anointing in the world this morning. And God, I thank you for these good people that's come this way this morning to be part of this congregation. We're so thankful for each and every one of them, that they've come two, three times, that they've been coming here all their life. We're so, so thankful for them. And Father, I'm concerned this morning about about their hearts. God, we're just going to give them this invitation now as always. And Lord, I pray God, if there's one here that's lost this morning and don't know you as Lord and Savior, I pray God that they'll step out right now and come up and humble themselves down. And Lord, I know that they can leave a different way this morning. They can take you with us, and God, I promise they'll never be sorry of it. I pray, God, that you'll visit up and down each and every pew, speak to every heart this morning. And Lord, just help them not to be ashamed to step out and come up. They need prayer for anything, in Jesus' name. Amen.