In 1 Samuel 15-16, we are told of a time when Saul had been the king over the children of Israel, but King Saul had displeased the Lord. It stands out to me that whenever I read about the life of King Saul, that the Bible will mention from time to time that Saul stood head and shoulders above his other brethren. It seems like the most prominent thing about Saul was his head. Whenever you saw Saul in a group of people, he stood head and shoulders above other people, and there's this constant emphasis on his head, because Saul was a man of the head. But the Lord is going to raise up a man over here that the Bible constantly mentions his heart. The Bible will tell us that David loved the Lord with all of his heart. David is constantly in the Psalms asking the Lord to search his heart. And you'll read time and time again where when David is mentioned, David is linked over here with the heart. He's a man whose heart sought after the things of God. So the king that is symbolized by the head is about to be replaced by the Lord. The Lord has cut off Saul, and in 1 Samuel chapter 16, before the Lord has revealed all of his purposes to the prophet Samuel, The Lord told the prophet Samuel to go to the house of Jesse, and that the sons of Jesse were to be brought before Samuel, and the Lord is going to reveal to Samuel which one of these sons is the one that the Lord is going to anoint to be the king over the children of Israel. Jesse had eight sons. There are seven of these sons. that are paraded or reviewed before the prophet Samuel, but the very youngest one, the smallest one, King David, the eighth son, is out tending to his father's sheep. And Samuel has already reasoned within himself that the king that I'm to anoint is somewhere in this group, and it seems like that there's one particular son named Eliab that's caught Samuel's eye. In other words to Samuel, this particular son would be God's logical choice. But the Lord told the prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 16, verse 7, He said, Look not on him because of his countenance, or the height of his stature. It seems that this particular son, Eliab, had an outstanding countenance. Perhaps he was the handsomest of the bunch. It also seems that maybe Eliab was a person of outstanding stature, maybe taller, physically more impressive than the others, and had a better countenance. But God told Prophet Samuel, he said, Look not on him because of his countenance, or the height of his stature, because I have refused him. He says, The Lord seeth not as man seeth. He says the man looks on the outward appearance, but he says the Lord tries, or the Lord looks on the heart. And there's one particular clause in that verse I want to try to deal with this morning, if you'll pray for me, if it's the Lord's will. He says, The Lord seeth not as man seeth. As man saw that matter, The logical choice would be the one that had the most outstanding countenance, had the most outstanding appearance. But we're warned in the 55th chapter of Isaiah, verses 8 through 10, where God says, My ways are not your ways, neither My thoughts your thoughts. And He says, As heaven is higher than the earth, so My ways are above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts. Instead, it's revealed that God's choice is the eighth son, the baby of the family, the shepherd boy David. The Lord told Samuel, he said, The Lord seeth not as man seeth. Man looks on the outward appearance, the Lord looks on the heart. And there's many things in the Scriptures where the Bible presents to us man's view. Here's how it looks to man. But on the other hand, here's God's view of it. The Lord seeth not as man seeth. And I mention this quite often in my preaching. The reason I mention it often is I think about it often. But there was a time when I was about thirteen years of age, my mother sent me to a dentist's office. I'd never been there before. And I followed her directions, went down to this dentist's office, and when I opened the door, immediately in front of me was what I thought was a mirror. All I could see was my reflection in the mirror. And I didn't enjoy going to the dentist back then. I don't enjoy going to the dentist today. And I sat down in this little room. I thought I was all by myself. I grabbed some magazines and was ready to read magazines, and I heard a voice come out from just seemed like nowhere, and the voice said, Put those magazines down. Come on in here. I'm ready for you. And I looked around, and I couldn't imagine how anybody knew I'd picked those magazines up. And I went around sat in the dentist's chair, and when I looked back where I had been, to my surprise, what to me had been a mirror to him was a clear glass. Now, that was the first experience I ever had in my life with a one-way mirror, and I suppose one reason it's frozen in my mind today, it was my original experience. I didn't know such things as that existed in this world. But as the years have passed, I have thought back on that situation, that as I looked at that piece of glass, all I could see was my reflection coming back at me. I couldn't see beyond that. But there was one on the other side to see straight through it. And how true that is of so many trials and problems and things we face in this life, all we can see is the problem or the situation just reflecting back at us. But if we could bear in mind constantly that there's a God in glory that sees right through the problem, sees the solution to it, sees the end of it, that there's another viewpoint of it, there's a divine viewpoint of it. I want to go this morning, first of all, into the fifth chapter of Genesis. In the fifth chapter of Genesis, we have a scene that to us is one of the most beautiful scenes in the Bible, and the only reason this scene is beautiful to us is that the Lord in the Scriptures pulled back Heaven's curtain, and He's allowed us to see this event from Heaven's standpoint. But if we just looked at it from an earthly standpoint, it would be one of the saddest events in the Bible. Well, we can back up to Genesis 23 for that matter, but in Genesis chapter 5 we're told about a man named Enoch. The Bible tells us of this man Enoch that Enoch walked with God. It tells us that Enoch lived 365 years and walked with God. That teaches me that I need to walk with God 365 days out of the year. Enoch walked with God and lived 365 years, and the Bible tells us that at the end of those 365 years that Enoch was not, for the Lord took him. Well, if we'll come to the New Testament in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, verse 5, the Apostle Paul, by us comparing Scripture with Scripture, we can learn some more about that. In Hebrews 11.5, the Apostle Paul tells us that by faith Enoch was translated. that he should not see death. And here's another one of those places in the Bible where that word see means experience. There's a lot of places in the Bible where the word see is used, that it does not refer to vision with the natural eye, like you might see a tree or see an airplane, but it means experience. You read in the Bible of certain individuals that it says that they will not see life. That means they'll not experience life. I remember in the second chapter of Luke, that the Bible tells us about the time Jesus was born, there was an aged saint of God named Simeon. Simeon stayed at the temple because it had been revealed to Simeon by the Holy Ghost that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. Now, that means that the Holy Ghost had revealed to this old saint of God that he would not experience death until he had seen the Christ God. Well, after he saw the Christ child, he said, Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace, because mine eyes have seen the consolation of Israel. There's another place right there where that word seek can mean to experience something. When the Lord told Nicodemus in John chapter 3 that except a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not something you see with the natural eye, as I see these fans and see these pews, but the kingdom of God is something you experience. Well, in Hebrews 11.5 it says, by faith England was translated that he should not see or that he should not experience death. But notice something else the Apostle Paul said. The Apostle Paul says he was not found. You know what that expression, he was not found, teaches me? That teaches me that his friends on earth were searching for him. You might say, well, I read about it over there in Genesis 5, where you quoted a while ago, and it doesn't say over there that they searched for him. It doesn't have to say they searched for him, because in Hebrews 11, 5, it says, by faith in it was translated that he should not see death, and he was not found. That teaches anybody with enough sense to lick a postage stamp that when this man Enoch was taken up into heaven without dying, His friends on earth could not see that from a heavenly standpoint. We can see it from the heavenly standpoint because the Lord has revealed to us in the Bible what happened to Enoch. Now, suppose you had been one of Enoch's friends or relatives. Here's a friend or a relative of yours that all of a sudden is missing. Well, what's the natural thing the friends and relatives are going to do? They're going to start searching for him. And they searched for him, and they never found him. And you don't have to use your imagination very much to imagine the condition you would be in if one of your children, your wife, your husband, or one of your close friends just disappeared, and people start to call themselves all over Texas and all over the country. I mean, even today, the problem of missing people is prevalent. You see their pictures even on milk cartons, pictures in the papers and everything else. And we don't have to use our imaginations very hard to imagine the terror that if one of your friends just suddenly disappeared, and a search was made and they were never found, think about the grief that would go through your heart. About the worst unglued I ever saw my wife become, right quickly, was once upon a time in a shopping center when my daughter was about, I'd say, six years of age. My wife somehow got separated from my daughter for a little while. And you talk about something to make your hair stand straight up. She was in no danger or whatever, but she decided, you know, she had to do her own thing, do a little exploring on her own. And my wife probably aged about ten years, about two hours. And from the looks on some of your faces, I think some of you folks have been through this. Here's looking at this, let's look at Enoch's experience from an earthly standpoint. From an earthly standpoint, his friends searched for him. From an earthly standpoint, the Bible says that he was never found. Can you imagine the sorrow down on earth? You might say, oh, surely they were rejoicing. No, they didn't know that he had been taken up into heaven, and you wouldn't know it if God hadn't revealed it in the Bible. Here's a scene on earth where you've got folks in panic and in terror searching for this man, Enoch. The earthly scene, as man saw it. was a scene of sorrow. It was a scene of grief. But we look at it from heaven's standpoint. From the heavenly standpoint, it was a scene of rejoicing, because here the saint of God was taken right up into heaven without dying. The Lord seeth not, as man seeth. If you had been in heaven when Enoch was taken up into heaven, why, brother, that's something to rejoice over. I rejoice over it just reading about it. But if you had been down on this earth looking at it from an earthly standpoint, seeing it as man-sawed, if you'd been out there searching for him, to you that would have been a tragedy. It would have been a sorrowful thing. The Lord saith not as man saith. And incidentally, while we're on Hebrews 11.5, let's look at that word translated. It says, By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and he says he was not found, why? Because God had translated him. That word translated is the same identical word that's used to describe your spiritual experience. In Colossians, chapter 1, verses 12 and 13, the Apostle Paul says, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness. The power of darkness, that's Satan's dominion, that's the power of sin. He says, God delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. The same word that's used to describe Enoch being taken up into heaven—he was translated, but he should not see death—is the same word that's used to describe your spiritual experience. When something is translated, it's acted upon. And there was a time when we were under the power of darkness. We were dead in trespasses and sins. And God reached down and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, just like He took Enoch and translated him right up into heaven. And when language is translated, language has nothing to do with it. If a person starts translating something from German into English, the language is passive, it's acted upon, it's taken from one language into another, and it's the translator that does the work. The same word that describes Enoch being lifted up into heaven tells us how a sinner is saved by God's grace, because you're over here under the power of darkness, and God picks you up and translates you into the kingdom of His, dear son. Well, we come to 2 Kings chapter 2, and I want to look at another experience in the Bible. But from an earthly standpoint, we see a scene of crying and a scene of grief. But if you look at it from heaven's standpoint, as God saw it, it's one of the most beautiful experiences in the Bible. In 2 Kings chapter 2, we're told of an older prophet named Elijah that had a younger prophet that was his son in the ministry named Elijah. The Bible tells us there in 2 Kings chapter 2, the first verse, that this older prophet told the young prophet that he was about to be taken up into heaven, and this young prophet had such a great love for his father in the ministry that he did not want to be separated from him. And Elisha said to him three times, but I've counted, Elisha said to the old prophet, "'Truly, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth,' he said, "'I will not depart from thee.'" Can you think of a stronger vow than to take a vow on the life of God? He said, truly as God liveth. Is there any stronger vow than to take a vow on the life of God? He said, as sure as God's alive and as sure as you're alive, he said, I will not depart from you. The old prophet told him that I'm about to be taken up into heaven, and the second time that young prophet said, truly as the Lord liveth and truly as my soul liveth, I will not depart from thee. He told him again, you'll find three times I've counted, that young prophet told that old servant, "'Truly, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not depart from thee.'" This young prophet loved Elijah. He wanted to be with Elijah. He wanted to be in his company. We come to 2 Kings, chapter 2, and here's something to us is one of the most beautiful scenes in the Bible because God revealed to us what was happening on the heaven side of it. The Bible tells us, you remember, they crossed over Jordan, and when they crossed over Jordan, the Bible tells us that there appeared a chariot of fire and horsemen of fire. There was a whirlwind with the chariot of fire and the horsemen of fire, and this chariot and the horsemen of fire came down, and Elijah was taken right up into heaven without dying. And that young man, the Bible says he cried. He cried out, the horsemen of Israel and the chariots thereof. The Bible tells us that he took his own clothes and ripped them in two pieces. That young prophet down on the ground was crying. He was crying out in agony because he had been separated from somebody he loved. Somebody that he loves so much that three times he had taken the vow that, truly as the Lord liveth and truly as thy soul liveth, I will not depart from thee. But here's his father in the ministry, taken right up into heaven. He cries. His heart is broken. He tears his clothes in two, and he's going through some agony on the ground. If you had put yourself back there in Elisha's place, the person on this earth that Elisha loves the most has been separated from him. He also felt some comfort in the presence of that old prophet, because that old prophet, through the power of God, had displayed miraculous power. Elisha's left all alone. Elisha has got Baalites and false prophets, wicked kings and persecutors, and people ready to cut his head off, and he's got to go out and face them all by himself. If all you could see was that scene from Elisha's perspective, If God had not pulled back heaven's curtain and allowed you a little glimpse of that as heaven saw it, that'd be one of the most heartbreaking things you ever read about in the Bible, a lonely young prophet crying out, My father, my father, the horseman of Israel and the chariot thereof, and tearing his clothes in pieces. I think of another event in the Scriptures. I've come to the 13th chapter of John's Gospel, and the Lord had been with His disciples about three and a half years. been with them practically on a daily basis. And in John chapter 13, the Lord reveals to those disciples that He's going back to heaven, that His ministry here is over, and He begins to tell them that He's going to depart and go to the Father. And that news troubled those disciples. The Lord comforted them in John 14.1. He says, Let not your heart be troubled. They were troubled. Why were they troubled? Well, first of all, they loved the Lord, and He's told them, I'm leading you. In the second place, they felt safety with the Lord around, because the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Romans, and the enemies of the truth that day, didn't love the Lord and didn't love them. He had done told them that, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. And with one in their company that had the power to heal the sick, to raise the dead, that had the power to perform miracles, would you feel safe around somebody like that? I mean, if I had the Lord Jesus Christ with me, I'd be glad to walk at two o'clock in the morning through the south side of Chicago. I'd be glad to walk down the roughest streets of Washington, D.C., or right through the roughest part of New Orleans if I had the Lord with me. But I wouldn't want to try it by myself. Now, the one that had protected them, their friend, their companion, their associate, has told them that, their hearts were troubled. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me." He's told them that he's going away, and he said, if I go, I'll come again and receive you unto myself. From a human standpoint, they were lonely. But on the other hand, we go to Acts 111, and we read how that looked from heaven's standpoint, and that's one of my favorite texts. In Acts 111, we read over there that after the Lord arose from the dead and spent forty days and nights with his disciples, that he was taken up into heaven in a cloud. And the angel spoke with heaven to those disciples on the ground and says, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus that is taken up from you into heaven shall so come and like man as you've seen him go. And if we'll go back to the Old Testament book of Daniel, in Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 and 14, Daniel tells us how that looked from heaven's standpoint. Daniel had a vision, and he said, I saw in the night visions, and he said, I saw one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. And he said, the Ancient of Days, here's God the Father, the elderly judge, he said, the Ancient of Days did sit and says, there was one like unto the Son of Man came unto him in the clouds of heaven. And he said, he came before the Ancient of Days and there was given him a kingdom and a dominion that was an everlasting dominion that never be taken away. And I want you to notice where Christ went to get his kingdom. I don't say this to be ugly, but I do say it in defense of the truth. There are millions of good people in our world today that are taught all the time that Jesus Christ does not have a kingdom, and He will not have a kingdom until He comes back to an earthly Jerusalem and sits on the throne in Palestine, and He'll receive a kingdom. But notice where the Bible says He got that kingdom. Daniel says that He went up in the clouds of heaven, and I've tried to tell a few folks several times that Daniel 7.13 And the simple illustration I've used lots of times, if you live across the street and you called your neighbor over across the street and said, I'm sending my little boy over to get a cup of sugar, and you watch him from your side of the street and I'll watch him from over here, the neighbor over here is seeing a little boy coming to her house. You're seeing the little boy going away, but you're looking at the same thing, but one of you sees this boy going and the other sees him coming. And in Acts 111, you have the ascension of Christ as He was going away, and in Daniel 7, 13, and 14, you've got it like those in heaven saw Him coming. But either way, the Lord Jesus Christ went to heaven to receive His kingdom. He received it when He arose from the dead and went back to heaven in the clouds of heaven. To me, Acts 111 is one of the most beautiful verses of the Bible. So think about Jesus Christ being caught up into heaven in a cloud, and taken right to the right hand of God the Father, makes my hair stand up. But do you realize that if the Lord hadn't revealed that to us, the Bible, if we'd have just looked at it from those disciples' standpoint? Here's the disciples down here, they're lonely. They're not only lonely, but they're afraid. And you're going to find in the twentieth chapter of Acts, When the Apostle Paul told those elders at Ephesus that he would see their faces no more, they loved the Apostle Paul. They needed his teaching, they needed his gift, they needed his ability as an apostle. And when he told them he'd see them no more, the Bible tells us that they wept. They were brokenhearted. Why? Looking at it from a human standpoint. There are several examples right there already, that if all we had was the way that experience looked to man. It'd be sad, but the Lord's been kind to us in the Scriptures to give us a little glimpse of how it looked from heaven's standpoint. And my dear friends, if we could bear these things in mind when we have to give up our wives and our fathers and our mothers, and sometimes even our children, when we have to look at the cold, lifeless forms of our loved ones, it's a heartbreaking thing to us here on earth. Our folks used to sing a song once in a while called, Death is Only a Dream. That's nice poetry. That's cloudland thinking. It's poetry all right, but it's not the truth. Death is not a dream. Death is a horrible reality, and if the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't come back before you breathe your last, every last one of us has got to face it. The Bible doesn't describe death as a dream. The Bible describes it as an enemy. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the last enemy that'll be destroyed is death. Death is an enemy. The idea that being a dream is portrait. You try to tell somebody who's just buried their children, or lost their wife, lost their mother, you try to tell them it's a dream. The book says it's an enemy. And from man's standpoint, there's no way we could face it if we just looked at it from a human standpoint. But thank the Lord, the Lord in the Scriptures has opened the curtain a little bit and given us some information on how it looks from heaven's standpoint. The Lord has given us just a view of it from a heavenly standpoint to teach us that death is a departure, that when the eyes of our bodies close in death, the eyes of our souls and spirits depart and go home to be of the Lord. There are so many things in this life, brother, if you could not see it from the way it looks from heaven's standpoint, it'd be strictly unbearable. The Lord seeth not as man seeth. And we have got to get over here on heaven's side of it and search the Scripture and see how it looks from the Lord's perspective to try to bear a lot of things in this life. This is also true of trials and troubles that we go through, and I told you last night, really didn't have to tell you because all of us are aware of it. But the Bible teaches us that in the last days, perilous times shall come, that men will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. The Bible tells us that because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. And it tells us in 2 Timothy chapter 3 that all that will live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution. And we're living in a day and age when there's a lot to discourage God's people. The Lord's people go through all kinds of trials, but I'm going to say this to you this morning and make it just as timed as I possibly can. I'm going to be as timed as I can. I've heard folks talk so much about how much easier ministers have it today than ministers had it 40 or 50 years ago. It's true that those brethren 40 or 50 years ago rode horses and went around in buggies. It's true that they didn't have the means of transportation that we have today. I agree on that. It's true that we have some physical comforts they didn't have. But I want to show you what this transportation does for us. God never designed a man to get up in Graham, Texas in the morning and be preaching that night in Washington, D.C. or in California. God never designed somebody to be able to get around as much as a lot of us get around today. So all this modern transportation we've got is just a little way to kill ourselves a little quicker. My great-uncle Ruth Miles rode those horses and buggies you're talking about, and lived to be eighty-four years of age, and was never sick in his life until right before he died. It's true, we live in more comfortable homes. It's true, we've got a lot of communication devices, a lot of material comforts they don't have. But I want to tell you a few things my Uncle Rude never did one time in his life, and I've done it many times. My Uncle Rude never did sit down one time with a Primitive Baptist family who were torn apart because one of their granddaughters had had an abortion. And I always use that word. It's in the papers. You use it, too. My Uncle Rube didn't know any such thing existed. My Uncle Rube never heard of any such thing. My Uncle Rube never had to sit down with a primitive Baptist family and try to comfort them because they had a son that had turned out to be a, and I'm not going to name it. A lot of old Baptists like to live in a bubble, that things don't happen to us, but, see, I get around too much. I mean, don't try to kid me. If people think what I tell is bad, they ought to know what I know and don't tell. I've told folks lots of times, I hope people never make me mad, I've got a garbage can with the lid screwed down tight. I can tell you this morning that Pregnancy Baptist families have had as many problems with, I'm just going to call it, I don't know what to call it and be delicate about it. Let me just talk about women over here that are abnormal. We've had a lot of cases of that in our churches. Men that are abnormal, we've had a lot of cases of that. Don't live in dreamland. I know primitive Baptist churches where they've had parents' meetings to sit with a pastor and discuss drug problems that were prevalent among the children in the church. That's correct. Now, that's not to off on people. As my daughter says, it's time we woke up and smelled the coffee. This is 1988, folks, it's not 1938. I know plenty of Baptist ministers today that have to deal with stuff every day that my Uncle Ruth never had to deal with. He had to deal with it one time and give him heart failure. My great-uncle never had to get up and preach his heart out to people, and then watch them go home and turn on a TV set and put in a bunch of VCR movies and an HBO hell-balling over, and go home and Listen, you can talk about physical comforts all you care, but there was a time when I joined the church thirty-six years ago that you didn't find old Baptists all day long locked down and sodded, dexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. I mean, everywhere you went thirty...when I joined the church thirty-six years ago, I didn't find ministers that were wanting to turn in their credentials and discourage and all of that. I remember distinctly when I first started trying to preach. But the Lord's people felt like the number one problem of a young preacher was getting the big head. You know, they felt like, don't get the big head, don't get the big head, don't get the big head. I want to tell you this morning that I am acquainted with hundreds of our preachers all over this country, and the number one problem of ministers I know today is not getting the big head. The number one problem I know today is discouragement. Number one problem I know is that things look so futile. The number one problem is discouragement. Most folks I know need some encouragement to press on. Now listen, I'll agree with anybody that as far as material comforts, as far as conveniences, yes sir, we've got them. But there's lots of problems that material comforts and conveniences will not solve. But sometimes in life, when material comforts and conveniences don't mean a thing, you'd rather be in a log cabin in Arkansas that had a pond full of perch nearby. That seems to be the dream of most people I know, anyway, is to get so far back in the woods they'd have to pat the sunlight in. Well, now, enough notice. Many, many times God's people are beset with problems. And you're just like I was when I looked at that dentist mirror. You can't see anything but the problem. The problem just reflects back at you. When the Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples in the 21st chapter of Luke that there would come a time when there would be on earth distress of nations with perplexity, I looked up that word perplexity years ago. That word perplexity carries the meaning of surrounded on all sides and seemingly no way out of it. Here's a problem, and when you're perplexed with the problem, you turn this way, there's no solution. You turn that way, there's no solution. You turn that way, there's no solution, because you're surrounded on all sides, but seemingly no escape, seemingly no solution to the problem. Now then, he says, the Lord seeth not as man seeth. Let's go to some example in the twenty-second chapter, Luke, where the Bible tells us that the night before the Lord was crucified, But those disciples got into a controversy as to who was to be the greatest among them, and Peter was right in the middle of this controversy. We come down to the 31st through 35th verses of Luke chapter 22, and the Lord rebukes the apostle Peter. Notice what he says to Peter. He says, "'Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may shift you as wheat.' Since Peter had been in this controversy over who would be the greatest in the kingdom, The Lord knew good and well that Satan was in that matter, and whenever you find God's people in a strike like that, Satan has got them in the sifter. He said, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee." And I want to notice how the Lord prays for His people. Did the Lord tell Peter that, I have prayed for you, that your faith won't be tried? Did He do like most parents, like most of us? I'm not skinning you, I'll jump in the boat with you. Did he do like most of us do today, that any time our children have a problem, we want to jump in and solve the problem for them, or try to whip out the checkbook? And most of us do not want our children to go through any of the hardships we went through. And where we're so foolish is that we fail to remember that the hardships that we went through developed our better qualities. See, I've got a nature about me, and you've got it about you. That the more you'll do for me, the less I'm going to do for myself. Amen? We're all that way. My wife had an operation the second day of February. She was in the hospital six days. The doctor laid the law down to me, said the important thing is that she doesn't lift over five pounds for six weeks after. Well, I saw the handwriting on the wall. I had to turn into an unregistered nurse, and I had to turn into a househusband. But you know the biggest thing I get worried about? You know, when you've got six weeks of a man cooking and mopping and running the washing machine, doing everything for you, it could get to be a habit. And I'll give you a report next time I see you about that. But anyway, I'd be the same way. If I'd had that operation and the doctor had said, he's got to be tampered for six weeks, I think Sonny could just spoil it six weeks. I think it might be a lifetime habit. There's a brother in Jackson, Mississippi, how that gave me a lot of comfort. He said, my wife had an operation like that ten years ago. And so she couldn't do anything for six weeks, and said, six weeks has become ten years. I said, Brother, don't tell me that. Now, but what I want you to see in all that is this, is that I've got a nature about me, and you've got a nature about you, that the easier you make it on me, that when things are made easy on me, it develops my worst qualities. Hardships develop your better qualities. Years ago, I studied the histories of about twenty empires and civilizations that flourished on this earth and then fell. I studied the Egyptian and the Roman and the Grecian and the Carthaginian, and then some more modern ones. In every one of those empires and civilizations that flourished for a while and fell, here was the pattern. Generation number one. Here's the forefathers that started it. They had nothing. They started trying to build it from scratch. These people here had to fight and had to labor and had to do without to get that country or nation, whatever you want to call it, to get started. The second generation came along, and they had to continue the struggle. The third generation came along, and they struggled a little bit, but by now the thing is built to the point where people can begin to enjoy it. When the fourth generation came along, the struggle was over, and Generation 4 could enjoy it. When Generation 5 came along, Generation 5 did nothing to build it. Generation 5 inherited it from Generation 4. Generation 4 enjoyed it, so Generation 4 was lazy and unappreciative, and Generation 5 inherited the characteristics of Generation 4. And Generation 5 went to court. Generation 1, if you remember what I said, Generation 1 started to stretch, battled. Like the people first settled here in America, they battled. They passed on these battling characteristics to Generation 2. Generation 2 continued the battle and passed them on to Generation 3. Generation 3 began to enjoy it a little bit. Generation 4 over here just enjoyed it. They set no good example to Generation 5. The country you're living in is in about the fifth generation. That's why I said last night, the sociologist, anybody who studies this country, is well aware that there's usually a great gap between people born since 1946 and people born before World War II, and I'm not throwing rocks at everybody born since 1946. I'm telling you, with a few exceptions, people in the present-day generation inherited this thing. They have enjoyed it, and when something goes wrong, they don't know anything to do but to try to destroy it. The apostle Peter's over here in trial. He says, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But the Lord says, I have prayed for thee. Did he say, I pray for you that you won't have any trials? He didn't pray that way at all. He didn't say, Peter, you're going off to college, you're going to have to thumb rides in order to get home, so I'm going to buy you a new automobile. He didn't say that. He said, I have prayed for thee, not that your faith won't be tried, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. The Lord said, I'm praying for you. I'm not praying that you won't be tried, but I'm praying for you that when you're tried, your faith won't fail. That's very significant to me. I go to 1 Peter 1, verse 7, and later Peter wrote the saints of God, and he says, "...the trial of your faith being more precious than that of gold that perisheth, though it be tried to fire." Peter didn't say to those saints of God, I pray to God that God won't try you, that you won't ever have any trials. He said, I'm praying that the trial of your faith will be more precious than that of gold that perisheth, though it be tried to fire, that it might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the pairing of Jesus Christ. There's not a place in the Bible where you will ever find the Lord or the apostles praying that the saints of God will not be tried. But you do find them praying. You do find them praying that we won't fail under trials. Now, the way we're supposed to pray, you remember the model prayer in Matthew 6? Here's the way I'm supposed to pray. It said, Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. I'm supposed to pray, but the Lord won't try me more than I can bear. But you find that the Lord, the way He prays for us, He prays for us that under trials our faith won't fail. Now, notice what the Lord said to Peter. He said, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may stiff you as wheat. He said, My faith fail thee not. But notice how far the Lord sees. He says, and when thou art converted, and this is not an alien center being converted. This is a preacher being converted from a bad attitude. He said, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. All Peter could see, all Peter could see was this trial coming. Because, but notice, the Lord see it, not as man see it. The Lord was looking beyond that trial. The Lord was seeing that that trial would teach Peter something. that Peter would be a stronger man, and after Peter had been through that trial, Peter would be strong enough that he'd be able to strengthen other people in trials. Look at the sweep of the Lord's paper. Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail thee not. And when thou art converted," look, see, the Lord sees the end of it, "...strengthen thy brethren." Peter could just see the trial. The Lord could see why He was going to teach Peter in that trial. He could see Peter coming out over here as a stronger man. He could see Peter over here able to strengthen and teach other people going through trials. And my friends, that's true of the trials and the disappointments that you go through in this life. All you can see is the problem, all you can see is the trial. It may be a financial trial, it may be a physical trial, but the Lord is able to see that in that trial He's going to teach you something, and when that trial is over, you will be a stronger disciple of Jesus Christ and able to look back and strengthen other people going through trials. The Lord seeeth not as man seeeth. Man looks only outward appearance, but the Lord trieth the heart. And the next time you get in some kind of a great big difficulty, instead of throwing your hands up, just ask the Lord, Lord, what are you trying to teach me? What is it that I can learn from this experience? The Lord's teaching you something. What is it that I can learn from this experience that I can be better equipped to strengthen my brethren and strengthen my friends that are going through the same trial later? I don't say this to be ugly or sarcastic, but I don't know how many times in my dealings with the Lord's people that I've gone through some terrible experience, some great difficulty in life, and people say to them, oh, just forget it, just forget it. I've had people say that to me a lot of times. Just forget it. You know, just like you can walk over here and hit a switch and forget something, just forget it. And I don't say this to be ugly, but people that will say that don't have their thinking caps on. You can no more just make up your mind of your own will that you're going to forget something than an agent sinner over here of his own will can make up his mind he's going to be saved. This world today puts too much emphasis on willpower. The world sinner. I believe in positive thinking, all right. I believe in determination and all that kind of thing. The law is so tall that a fat person can just will to be thin. I mean, that a poor person can just will to be rich, you know. Well, all that willpower is just—well, I don't need me to call it what it is. You know what it is. What it is, it's just awful silly. I know it's silly. You can no more just will that you're going to forget something than an alien sinner can will that he's going to receive spiritual life. If you think that you can just make up your mind you're going to forget something, I've got a question for you. Do you remember anything you ever forgot? No, you don't remember anything you ever forgot, do you? You cannot just of your own mind make up your mind you're going to forget a tragedy, a heartbreak, somebody that persecuted you, somebody that lied on you, somebody that disappointed you, some horrible experience in your life. You cannot just sit down and say, I'm going to forget it. In fact, the Bible doesn't teach that. I remember in the twenty-fifth chapter of Deuteronomy, the Lord told the children of He said, Remember what Amalek did to thee. Remember back in Exodus 17? Back in Exodus 17, Amalek and his people attacked the children of Israel, and they had to fight them in battle. And you might say, Well, they ought to forget stuff like that and just think on the positive. But God, a glory told them, says, Remember what Amalek did to thee when you were weary. and says he attacked you from your hindmost, or from the rear, when you were weary and faint. In other words, at a time when they were down, and there's an old saying that everybody likes to jump on somebody when they're down, and that's sort of the way it seems. Whenever you get down financially, you get down physically. Whenever you're down, everybody likes to jump on the person that's down. Well, that's what God's saying here. He said, Amalek attacked you from behind when you were weary and when you were faint, and he says, remember it, don't forget it. You say, well, why would God tell him something like that? Notice, there's a trial you went through once upon a time, and God delivered you from that trial, and God taught you a lot of things in that trial. If you forgot that trial, you would also forget the deliverance of God. Can you see that? God does not want you to forget trials and disappointments and things like that. He doesn't want you to forget it, because if you forget the trial, you'll forget how God delivered you, and you won't be praising God. Now, we're not to remember things like that with bitterness. You can look back at times in your life where tragedies and things like that happened to you, and you're not to look back on it with bitterness, but you're supposed to look back at it this way. Lord, I'm not bitter at anybody. I'm not filled with malice. I'm not bitter at the Lord. I'm not bitter at life. I'm not bitter at anybody, but I want to look back at that, Lord, and what was it you were teaching me back there? What is it I can learn from that experience that I can be a stronger disciple of Christ?" That's what the Lord was telling the children of Israel, because I want you to remember what Amalek did, because if you'll go read Exodus chapter 7, he and God delivered them. If he had told the children of Israel, I want you to forget your days down in Egypt. Forget all about Egypt, because Egypt's unpleasant. Forget all about it. If they'd have forgotten Egypt, they'd have forgotten how God opened up the Red Sea, right? You don't remember those things with bitterness, but you look back at the memory and you say, Lord, what were you teaching me? What can I learn back there to make me a stronger person? I may have told you this before, but if I have, you've probably forgotten it. A preacher friend of mine one time was talking to a young man out of college, or a young man in college, and this young man was boasting to him that he was a free thinker, that nobody influenced his thinking, that he controlled his own mind, and that nobody could influence him. He made up his mind what he wanted to think about, and he had total control of his mind. And this preacher friend of mine told that young man, and said, Well, let's just see. He said, We're standing here on this corner, and said, I want you to begin right here. and walk down to the corner and make a right-hand turn, go over here, make a right-hand turn, make a right-hand turn here, and which, you see, that would bring him right back to this point. But he said, I'll stand here and wait on you. And said, as you start, I want you to walk around this block. And said, while you're walking, said, you're not to think about a turtle or anything connected with a turtle while you walk around the block. And when this young man got back there, he said, were you able to do it? He said, no. He said, I had to think about a turtle every step that I took in order to remember what it was that I wasn't supposed to be thinking about. And, my friends, you make up your mind that you're going to quit smoking cigarettes tomorrow, and you'll never think of a cigarette. You'll think of it all day long because you've got to remind yourself what it is that I'm not supposed to be thinking about. I have never been successful at forgetting things, but I have been successful at something else. The Apostle Paul used to say, well, now, wait a minute, I remember where the Apostle Paul told us Philippians 3.13, forget something. I remember that, too, but I want to show you how he told you to forget it. Philippians chapter 3, verse 13, the Apostle Paul says, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. But how did he forget those things which are behind? He was reaching forth unto those things which are before. The way the Apostle Paul was able to forget those things which are behind, he got busy thinking about something else. If you've got something on your mind you'd like to get off your mind, and you say, well, I'm going to forget it, I'm going to forget it, I'm going to forget it, you'll never forget it. The biblical way of putting things behind you is to try to get your mind on something else. How did the Apostle Paul forget those things that are behind? He got busy reaching towards something else. And I don't work at trying to forget things. I work at trying to get my mind on something better. I work at trying to get something else on my mind. And that's what the Apostle Paul said here. Go to Isaiah chapter 1. In Isaiah chapter 1, the Lord told the children of Israel, he said, cease to do evil. But how did he tell them to cease to do evil? You cease to do evil by learning to do well. Because if you say, well, I'm going to give up all my bad habits and just sit around like that and cease to do evil, next thing you know, you'll have a dozen other bad habits. But if you'll get real busy trying to learn to do well, you'll find it real easy to cease to be evil. And if there's people in life that draw out the worst in you, and I'll be honest with you, there's people draw out my worst qualities, and there's some people draw out my best qualities. There's some folks I could be around, and it's just so nice, it's just so easy. I can get around some people, and it's just so natural for me to be a minister of the gospel and a disciple of Jesus and to keep my mind on spiritual things. There's some folks, they just draw out my best. Brother Stanlin's like that. trying to think right when I'm around him, but I'm going to be honest with you. There are some folks, the minute I get around them, they draw out my worst qualities. And one reason I believe people like this are on the earth. If I was around people like Brother Stanley all the time, I'd get it in my head that I'm a thoroughbred disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord has left just enough of these other folks on earth to remind me I'm a sinner saved for grace. Now, if you've got people like that in your life, you know the best thing I know to do is try to spend your time around people that draw out the best in you. I was reading a few days ago a very confident individual who has to deal with people all the time that have problems with anger. Now, this man, who's supposed to be an expert in his field, pointed out something I found out a long time ago, just based on my own experience. But most all of us—I don't care who you are, including your sweet grandmother—most everybody has got some buttons back here somewhere that the mention of certain things or the sight of certain things trigger your anger responses. It's just like you can go here to a computer screen, you can touch certain buttons and the whole file comes up. I was watching the Three Stooges several years ago, and in this particular—I only watch educational TV, but I got a good point out of it. I've watched the Three Stooges several years ago, and in this particular Three Stooges film, one of those Stooges could be in the best frame of mind on earth till somebody said, Niagara Falls. Now, the very mention of Niagara Falls stirred up something in his mind that he wanted to smash people with cars, you know, wanted to cut their heads off. When you said Niagara Falls, it didn't matter where he was. I mean, he became violent. Did you know all they're doing now, they're just ridiculing something that's true? That's very, very true of most everybody. Now, they're just exaggerating it. But every person I'm facing in this congregation has got some little buzzwords. It may not be Niagara Falls, but it's something. There's certain words, certain phrases, certain places, certain things that trigger anger switches. I could be just as innocent as I could be, and I could walk up to you and just use some expression that maybe somebody broke your heart used. And I could walk up to you and just use some everyday, you know, expression. And next thing you know, I've triggered the switch, and that particular person is looming all over your mind, and you may even take it out on me. The best thing I've tried to find in this life is to stay off of those buttons, try to stay off of them. You might say, well, I've forgotten all about those people, I've forgotten all about that event. No, you haven't. That button's back there somewhere. And one of these days, somebody hits that button, and that old file out of 1933 or 1948 or 1957, up it comes, because you hit the button. I found the best way is to try to stay off of those buttons. The Apostle Paul didn't say that you forget things of your own will. He said you're going to forget them by reaching forth unto those things which are before. I come to a time now, one day again, we go to the old servant of God, Elijah, and I think about this experience quite a bit because I've drawn a lot of strength from it. In 1 Kings, chapter 18, God had sent fire down from heaven and consumed Elijah's sacrifice. You say, well, He had shown them who's who, and that undoubtedly gave Him the big head. No, it didn't, because Ahab and Jezebel were after Him. After that great spiritual triumph where God had blessed him, he left that place, and his persecutors Ahab and Jezebel were after him. And that servant of God got out in the wilderness around the June of Patrasia, and he got so old that he begged God to take his life. He didn't take his own life, but he begged God to take it. And he got it in his mind that he was finished, his ministry was over, and he cried out unto the Lord, and he said, They've dug down thine altars, they've killed thy prophets, thou alone am left, and they seek my life, and he just begged God, just take my life. That's all the lies he could see. As man saw it, as man saw it, he was all alone. As man saw it, a powerful king and his wicked wife were after him, and he's out here in the wilderness with nothing to eat and saw no way out. But the Lord had a different view of it. The Lord told that old servant, he says, you get up off of your feet, your ministry's not over. He let him know, I've got a lot of work for you to do, your ministry's not over. He said, you're going to anoint kings, and you're going to anoint prophets. And he said, I've got a lot of use for you. He said, stand up on your feet and get busy. Because, see, the Lord saw the whole scope of his life. Here is a point over here where Elijah, who saw it as man saw it, thought, this is the end. But, see, God saw the whole perspective. God was going to deliver him out of that wilderness, and God was going to use him to anoint kings and to anoint prophets, and God would finally take him up into heaven, because the Lord seeth not as man seeth. As I close out this morning, as a dear friend of mine called me up a few months ago, and He had a tragedy that just devastated his whole world, and he thought he was the only body on earth that had ever gone through that. I told him, I said, Take your Bible and look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13. He told me about two weeks later, he said, I've counted around that scripture. He said, I'll say that scripture if I say it five or six times a day. The verse says, There hath no temptation, no trial or test taken you but such as is common to man. Whatever trial you're going through, it wasn't specially designed for you. Somebody else has been through it. And that's one of the worst things that happens to us when everything starts going wrong. Everybody else has got us easy, and I've got us hard, and everybody's got a normal, happy home. I want to tell you something. I despise that expression, a normal home. I maintain that that so-called normal home does not exist. My wife, I don't want a normal home. If I had one, I'd be bored to death with it, and I don't want to be average either. You know why? Because when you're average, you're just as near the bottom as you are the top. I maintain that this so-called normal American home does not exist except in the storybooks and on the television. And from what I see on TV and what I read in some of these storybooks, God delivered me if that's the normal home. I don't believe a normal home exists. First of all, my wife and I have never tried to have a normal home, because no minister's home can be a normal home. We've tried to have a happy home. We've just tried to have a happy home. I've never tried to have a normal home. No minister's home can be a normal home. Because any plans you make, any vacation, anything you plan, can be shattered in an instant with a funeral and a problem or such as this. No minister's home can be a normal home. We've just tried to have a happy home, and we've had a happy home. We've been the parents of a handicapped child for over twenty-six years. A child's got to be bathed, shaved, taken care of all day long. Anybody's got a handicapped child does not have a normal home, but we've got a very happy home. So next time you get to be in charge of yourself, and all my friends have got a normal home, you don't know what goes on behind closed doors. There's an old army saying things are never exactly like the same. I remember old Elder J.S. Newman said one time that he went home with some newlyweds, and they called each other Apple Dumpling and Sweetie Pie. And he said he stayed in their home four or five days and said, before he left there, said Apple Dumpling actually threw a plate at Sweetie Pie. So things are never exactly like the same. If you knew what goes on behind closed doors, you may be better off than those folks. There hath no temptation taken you, but such is common to man, whatever your trouble is. Other people have had it, too. There hath no temptation taken you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful. Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that that you are able? God knows how much you can take. But he also will, with the temptation, provide a way of escape that you may be able to bury. I thank you for your real good attention, and may the Lord bless you.