Take your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I say this every time I'm here, but it's just true. I love my home church, and I get stirred up there by our singing, but I sure love y'all singing. Whether it's choir or ensemble, special music, Family harmony. Congregational, it's just it's just good. So I appreciate that. I appreciate you, Pastor. Appreciate the invitations, the opportunities to come share his word. I remember when we met. I looked, it was about 2015, 2016, when I was preaching over Brother Hanks, met your family. I just need to publicly say tonight to my father, my heavenly father. I appreciate him letting me preach. I meant what I said last night. I know my story. I know my story. When I say things like I say last night, I promise you if I'd done anything that would disqualify from the ministry, I wouldn't be up here. But sometimes my life is just a mess. But I am so glad that my Heavenly Father can take a mess and turn it into a message. And that's just what the Lord does. Dr. Siler used to say, take a crooked stick and draw a straight line. Same truth. What we gotta do tonight, and I'm not gonna try to do all of this, my wife told me last night I preached too long, that's the first thing she said when I called. Said, do you know when you finished? I said, well, I apologize. 1 Thessalonians 3 9 is where Paul kinda changes gears in this epistle where he stops talking about what he had done in ministry with them, to kind of talking in verse 9 of his desires for them, which has to do with growing their faith. He'd led them to the Lord, he had seen men called to ministry, Only had about three or four months to get them ready to preach or pastor. I don't know how that worked, but they made it work. So he knew these people. He loved these people. He had lived with these people. He didn't just do church with these people. He did life with them. That's one thing we're missing. We're missing the life thing. I wanna start in verse nine, and here's my thought tonight connected to last night's thought. How do I know that my heart has a clear view of God, my inner man, really seeing God like he needs to? Well, it'll not just be evidenced in my mouth, from the abundance of the mouth speaketh, but my life is evidence of where my heart's at. So what I wanna do, once we get to verse one, is we're going to work our way. The thoughts are in both chapters and there's just no way we're going to get both chapters tonight. So we'll just go as far as we can and we'll just unhook. So let me just give you a quick outline, really quick, and then if you don't get it written down, you can watch later or call me, I'll give it to you. It's not profound or anything, but verse one and verse two, I'm just gonna call it, we'll just call it holy people. This kind of fits in my series of messages I do in different places when the Lord lays different Old Testament, New Testament passages that kind of fall into that category of the pursuit of a holy man. That's really my whole life, is I just want to be a holy man. I know positionally I've already been made holy because of what Jesus did on the cross, but I look myself in the mirror every day. And some days it's just not near what it needs to be. So I know there's a process too. We won't get into the weeds of the theology, but there is a position that's fixed, done, Jesus. Thank God I can't mess it up. But there's a process. I've not always been a good daddy. I've not always been a good grandfather. I've not always been a good preacher. And I'll face some stuff tomorrow just like I faced some stuff yesterday. So you embrace the fact that there's a process. So that's really, that's my ultimate goal every day is to be holy. and do everything I can. That's top shelf priority in my life. Not always been. Sometimes it was sports. Sometimes it was girls. Sometimes it was cars. Sometimes it was all kind of stuff. Sometimes it's been ministry. I've made a whole bunch of things the main thing when it ain't the main thing. Main thing is I just want to look and sound like Jesus. So This sanctification word comes up in this passage, and that's kind of the word for the process. And honestly, I'm already sanctified. Again, we won't get in the weeds of this. We won't do a theology class or anything, but I'm already sanctified. From Hebrew's perspective, it's already done. I like that. That means I can't mess it up. That's why we believe in eternal security. But that don't mean you get to live like you want to, because if you do, you have not experienced the grace of God. Because the grace of God does not lend itself to, I'm just gonna do something so I can get forgiven for it. I'm not real sure if you've tasted the same grace I have. So what I wanna do when we get to verse one of chapter four is look at some things that holy men look like. So one and two is just their walk is different. They please God, there's number one. You can look at your walk and know where your heart's at. That's why the psalmist said last night, my feet were almost gone. The choices and the decisions and the people I was hanging out with and my life was not where it should be. Great reflection of your heart is what you're walking, pleasing God. Number two. And it's just in the simple phrase of verse number three. Holy people know what God's will is. And I'm not talking about who you're supposed to marry or if you should buy a Ford or a Chevrolet. Okay? That's the main question that we get asked sometimes. You reckon she's the one I'm supposed to marry? How do I know? Then beginning in verse number three, latter part of verse number three, down to verse number eight, holy people, people that's got a clear view of God, run from immorality. They run from it. They don't Snapchat it. They don't take a brief look at it. You might do that, but I'm just telling you, you better shut that baby down. So I know that I'm running. from immorality. The next thing begins in verse number 9 and just down to verse number 10. People that have a clear view of God love everybody in God's family, good ones and the bad ones. The ones that are smooth as honey and the ones that are rough as sandpaper. You think that's easy? Yeah, you're right. It ain't easy. You ought to pastor them. All right, look number five, verse 11 and 12. People's got a clear view of God are quiet. Not quiet in that your lips are closed, but your life is at rest. You're just happy and satisfied and joyful. And it don't make a bit of difference what you're living in. It might be measurements 14 by 76, and I've lived in one. Or it might be palatial and behind a locked gate that opens and you've got a car. It makes no difference what you're driving, what's in your wallet, or what's in your garage. You're just satisfied. You're at rest. Kind of what the word means there. All right, that's 11 to 12. Then from 13 down to 17, people that have a clear view of God's looking for him. You're looking for him. Now if you're a teenager in the room and somebody preached on the second coming, I always want to close my ears. Because I don't want to hear it. I just want to drive a stinking car on my own. So let him come some other time. Right? I get that. So if you're a teenager in the room, I totally understand that. Lord's coming back, amazing. Could he wait about 20 years? You know, I'd like to do this, I'd like to do that. I get that. But that don't mean you're not looking for him. You don't know it's a reality. You haven't learned that it's imminent. I don't need no war in the Ukraine or the Middle East to remind me Jesus is coming today. Not a hundred years. Might be five minutes from now. Imminent. So we're looking for Jesus. Alright, chapter 5, verses 1 through 11, we are moved by the second coming. You remember that phrase over in Hebrews when Noah got the word there was going to be a flood and ain't never been rain? What does it say? He was moved. He believed it was going to happen, so he started building a stinking boat. When you really got a clear view of God, you ain't going to mess with the second coming. If somebody on your street needs Jesus, you're going to talk to them. If they sin in your life, you're going to get her confessed. If it's something broken, you can see what you can do to fix it. You're moved by the second coming. Verses 12 through 15 of chapter 5. People who've got a clear view of God are involved in relationships in the body of Christ. They do not just go to church. Going to church is easy. I wish we could get there. Them verses really mess with you. See, I can go to church with people. It's just like going to work with people. You know, even a 40-hour work week, somebody can get on your nerves, you know. But you don't have to do stinking Thanksgiving with them. Right? You ain't got to go on vacation. You ain't got to see them every week. You can just go to work, clock in, clock out. A lot of people don't do church that way. This is a body. I mean, I don't know what I think too much about my toes or whatever. If you lose your big toe, you might have learned to walk. So we're all important, and we need to know each other. Sometimes we just don't want to know each other, because we're going to find out we've got problems, and we're a mess sometimes, and we're going to hurt each other's feelings. And we're supposed to just kind of deal with that and forgive each other and move on, just like we do at the house. I never kick none of my kids to the curb. I think they've always walked the chalk line and just pleased me every day I got up. Just sunshine in my soul. My kids are just amazing. No, sometimes they were just ruined. And sometimes I was ruined. We had a lot of forgiveness going on in our house. A lot of confession. That's what the family of God does. They don't go get in the parking lot and go to some other church. And I'm not saying people don't leave people going to other churches. Don't write me off. I know people lead people to other churches. I get that. But in Thessalonica, you just had to work it out because there was not another one on Elm Street. You just had to work it out or stay home. I guess you could decide to stay home. Some people try to do that too. I don't know how that works out with God. Your heart's in the wrong place when you're not investing in the lives of other people. And then the last thing, 16 to 24, you just do holy things. You just do holy things. All right, that took a while. So we'll just see how far we get. Let's look at verses nine through 13. Let's back up to chapter three. Paul's talking. For what thing can we render to God again for you? He just loves these people. Now remember, he's hung out with these people. He ain't just preached to them and had Bible studies with them. He's wept with them and cried with them and fussed with them and forgave them and all of that. So they know each other. And you can get the picture of that if you just read through some of these first couple of chapters, where he bears his soul of how he dealt with these people. He wasn't some guy in a pulpit that was inaccessible. He was with them. He got down there with them. So that's why he's writing in such a way here. For all the joy we're with we joy for your sakes before our God. Night and day pray exceedingly that we might see your face, here it comes, and might perfect or mature or grow that which is lacking in your faith. So it's important that I do a study of my life so I kind of find out where my heart's at. So I can have a clear view of God. And obviously the Word of God is going to be a component of that. The Spirit of God is going to be a component of that. But I can look at my life. The Bible tells me to do that. Examine yourselves, 1 Corinthians. A young man probably came across those verses. 1 Corinthians 13. Examine yourselves to see whether you'll be in the faith. Prove your own selves. I ain't looking at somebody else's life. I need to be investing in others. But I need to be looking at me. I need to be looking at me. Make thine calling. An election show. And in those verses, He's not asking you to go to your bedroom and look at your baptism certificate. He's talking about adding to your faith this. This visible virtue. Is it in your life? See, that's what we do. Just like if you're losing weight. If you're trying to lose weight, I know you might hate to get on the scales, Because you had them Twinkies or whatever over the weekend? Right? Man, they're good, I'm just telling you. You ever had a fried one? Amazing. It even makes them worse, right? Bound to. And you got those few extra pounds? Look, we need to be weighing ourselves. We looked at the Psalm. In 22, I think, Psalm 26. Judge me, God. Prove me. Examine me. Try me. How's that happen? By diving into the word, and by diving into your life, and see if you see virtue, and see if you see growth, if you're better off, not financially, spiritually, than you were six months ago. This is just stuff we need to be doing. So that's what he's saying. I want to help you with this. We need to be helping each other. There's no know-it-alls in this room. We're all learning. We're all growing. And we all learn from each other. All the time. Nobody's got all the answers. Now God Himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you. I just want to see you again. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another. He's going to say that a good bit. That increase, abound stuff. Which reminds us that's to be the holy man's life. Abounding in spiritual things. There's all kind of things I like. I mean, I like guns, I like knives, and I like Hot Wheels. You've heard me talk about this stuff. So I've got abundant of those things. We know what we care. You can look at it, you got it in a safe. You got it somewhere, hid, packed away. That's all He's saying. Your spiritual stuff, you need to be abounding in it. It needs to be growing. It needs to be increasing. Not just status quo. Not just satisfied. No, want more. Look at verse 13, kind of gives you where we're going. To the end, He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness. There's the end game for the believer. God's holy. He wants us holy. He said that the first time in Leviticus, in Exodus, when he's trying to remind his people, God's going to see me through you. I am a living advertisement of Jesus Christ. Every day of my life, every word, every attitude, and it doesn't matter if it's the McDonald's line or it's the hallway between Sunday school classes, I'm always a living, breathing testimony of what Jesus looks like or what He doesn't. And it's always happening. There ain't no time off. You can take a vacation from your job and your yard and your house and your location, but you can't take a vacation from who you are in Jesus. 24-7, 365. Now, let me give you a little bit of good news before we dive into this passage, because I know we're not going to, you know, whatever, get to wherever we get to. I'm just trying to follow the Lord. But look in verse 23. Here's some good news. Because it sounds like what we're about to get started on, this is like heavy. What in the world? I can't do this? I'm Guy Robinson. You've got to be kidding me. Well, here's the good news. And the very God of peace sanctify you. Man, I have a friend in me. I have a voice in me. I have a power that raised up Jesus from the dead living in me. It ain't about Guy Roberts. I was raised, I'm a good grandpa. So I got Jesus in me. I got the power of Christ in me. Now the bad side of that is that means you ain't got no excuses. But the good side of that is I got help. I got help, and my help is the very God of peace that sanctified me. And I pray God your whole spirit, soul, body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Love it. Verse 24, faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. I'm so glad the nights I put my head in a pillow, some were good, some were bad, some were terrible, some I don't remember, but every morning my God was right there, every morning, new, ready, fresh, with mercy and fresh, with grace and fresh, with faithfulness and fresh, with keeping His end of the bargain in my life. So there's hope for these verses. So these verses help me have a view of my own heart. So let's look at it, verses 1 and 2. Furthermore, then, we beseech you, beg, urge, it's important, it's a matter of priority, brethren, and exhort you. So he's pushing them. He's pushing them. By the Lord Jesus, we push people to play ball, we push people to get an A. He's pushing people to know Jesus. He's pushing people to grow their faith. that as ye have received of us, but not just us, again that little phrase, by the Lord Jesus, so this comes from him, via him. Now the him, the former, is way more important. And that's why we listen. Latter part of verse four, how you ought to walk and to please God. Here it comes. So you would abound more and more just every day. You're more pleasing and your feet are walking. Solid, good spiritual path. Now, again, we ain't never going to do anything perfect. But the pattern of your life, the pattern ought to be righteousness. The pattern of it. Look at the second verse. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. Our problem has never been, well, I can just speak for me. My problem was never knowing what to do. Good night, I heard it so many times. And I heard it the majority of the time at my house. Because I saw it, I saw it lived out in my mama's life. I saw it lived out in my daddy's life. I saw it lived out in people's lives around me that didn't just know the Bible, but they lived the Bible. Our problem sometimes is not that we don't know the stuff, we do know the stuff, we're just not engaged in it. If your heart's in a good place, you're engaged. You go to church, you read your Bible, you pray. There's things in your life, there's navigational things, spiritually speaking, that you do that others don't. And you're not driven by a culture and you're not really driven by a church, although churches need to have rules and requirements and all that kind of stuff, but you are driven by the plumb line of the Bible. So if you didn't even have a local church to go to and you had your Bible, you'd be good. You'd be good. So we have an idea of the path that I'm supposed to be on. A clear view of God, you've got a clear view of your directions. I remember that weekend, or whenever it was, I was supposed to start that revival with Brother Hanks. Isn't that Hanks, Brother Gary Hanks? I think the church was Mount Pleasant, is that right? Mount Pleasant maybe, Baptist church? Well, there's two Mount Pleasants. I didn't know if y'all knew that. And so I GPSed it. We went to the wrong one. There wasn't nobody there. Right? There was nobody there. So I called pastor. I said, look, we're going to be a little late. And I was. I had about enough time to get in, sit down, and kind of, come on up and preach for us, brother. Believers that have a heart that's in tune and open to God know the path. They might not always walk it, but they know the path. They know the desire of their life is to please God. Look at number two. Number two is in verse number three. And this is, we know the will of God. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. There's the will of God for everybody in this room, 24-7-365, that you be sanctified. You be more like Jesus. There's a lot of things, and I'm not saying that they're not, you know, like the perfect job, or this gal, or that, whatever. I'm not saying, or even the car. You pray about anything you want to. But I'm just telling you, the ultimate will of God for your life is that you be like Jesus. And if you get that thing fixed... If you keep that in your radar every day, I just want to follow Jesus, just want to walk in His path, I just want to do things that please Him, because I want my life molded, I want my life transformed, I want Him pointing out my sin, I want Him navigating my life, because at the end of the day, wherever I'm at, whoever I'm around, whatever you call me to do, if it's a trial, if it's a good day, sun out, or it's dark, I just want whatever's happening to make me more like Him. That ain't easy. That ain't easy. It's not easy. Because He's going to throw stuff at you that you need. You need it. I mean, that's why trials are to be appreciated. Listen, if your heart ain't in a clear view of God, you ain't going to appreciate that. I didn't appreciate hardly anything God was doing several times in my life. So you embrace the fact that God's up to something that's way bigger than you. He's trying to make you like Him. And it's gonna be better for your wife or your husband or where you work. Let me give you like a tangible, like you're working this job and the boss is terrible. Maybe the pay is terrible. It takes forever to get there. Let's just make it as bad as we can possibly make it. Man, you want out. You've been praying and wanting out, and God just ain't listening. Maybe Psalm 88, I'm talking, but you ain't answering. Maybe it's because he wants you to stay. I don't think Daniel would have chose what he ended up having to go through. I don't think Jeremiah maybe appreciated the fact that he never had a family. Preached judgment for 40 years and everybody hated him and beat on him and throwed him in jail and the judgment that fell on the bad people fell on the good man too. He could have been ticked off his whole life. I met a whole lot of ticked off people. The will of God is way bigger than a job. It's way bigger than who I marry. It's bigger than anything that's going on in my life. What if he don't want me to marry? What are you talking about? I'll give you a quick story. Here we go with stories. That's what my wife will be saying right now. She's saying it. There you go. Go ahead. There's a story. Her name was Mary Beth. What a sweetheart. First time I met her, I think she was maybe sixth grade, seventh grade. Skinny gal, had big old hair. And boy, she had a feisty spirit. She'd just let me have it sometimes. We'd be in my office or something at the church, and I'd be telling her what I thought the Bible was teaching or telling her or whatever. And she'd push back against it, and she'd go out huffy and shut the door. We had Bible studies at our house every Monday night, and teenagers would come. So she started coming once she got in the ninth grade. And of course, through ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th grade, every Monday night, kids were in our house. Or somebody's house, we had a Bible study. So we got to know them. We cried with them. We wept with them. We dealt with sin with them. We went through mass with them. I went and picked them up places they didn't need to be. It was real life. It was real life. Mary Beth was just such a precious lady. Well, I knew a lot about Mary Beth. Man, she wanted to have kids. She wanted to marry. Have a family. Surrendered her life after she went through years of college. Surrendered her life to missions. She spent, I don't know, six, seven years in China. And she's teaching now in Anderson at Christian School. And she's just discipling girls and loving on people and investing her life. I remember we had a Disciple Now weekend for our teenagers at the church, and so we got a room full of girls. There was about 30, 40 girls upstairs in the room, and I snuck in the back because I just wanted to hear Mary Beth talk. I love her. And I was leaned up against the back wall in this room full of teenage girls, and Mary Beth's standing there, and Mary Beth's now about 37, maybe 38, and she's older than that now, but I was about 37, 38, and not married. No children. I didn't tell her to bring it up. I didn't tell her to mention it. It was none of my business to even say anything about it. But the big old tears running down her cheeks, she said, I still would love to be married. I still have an emptiness in me to have children. But she looked at all those girls and she said, but Jesus has been enough. Now I can say mess like that all day long with a wife and kids and grandkids. He spoke volumes to those. How interested are you tonight in just whatever you want to do? What did Paul say? This is serious business, whether by life or by death. I've got it easy. We've got it easy. We've had it easy. I've had it easy my whole life. I know there's no front room and back room, but you might as well put Paul in the front room and put the rest of us in the back room. They went through stuff. I just want to be sanctified. I just want to be a holy man. I just want to be a holy woman. People with a clear view of God know exactly what God's will is. So every time anything happens, somehow this fits. Somehow this fits. Somehow this fits. God just mold me. God make me. God point it out in my life. I just want to be like you. Third thing. Third thing. in the latter part of verse 3, that you should abstain from fornication. Fornication is a big word for any kind of immorality in marriage or out of marriage. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor. Now, verse 4, we could spend a little bit of time there. It's on you. This sanctification process thing, hang on the church. Your preacher, your pastor, they're involved. Your mom and dad, they're involved and they've been given to you with guidance. But at some point, you're not going to be out on your own. A Christian with a clear view of God ain't never on their own. It's all to Jesus, all to Jesus. That's who I owe. My body's not my body. My mind's not my mind. My feet ain't my feet. My house ain't my house. My car ain't my car. The breath in my body belongs to a gracious, merciful, loving God. And I need to know how to deal with me, to possess. That means decisions and choices that you make in life. Look in verse 5. Here's what's not to push my life. Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God. I'm not ruled by my desires. They're there! Nasty and vile. I don't care how long you've been saved or I've been saved. There's a mess inside me that's still just vile. And it don't take but one little picture or one little whatever to get my mind just working. That's why I'm saying you've got to be careful in this immorality thing that he's talking about. And immorality was big then. Even their religious movements, immorality was part of it. So they probably really struggled. There's not one of these epistles that does not deal with some fragment of immorality, whether before marriage, during marriage, or after marriage. These were immoral people on that level because it was such a cultural thing. But listen, we live in a culture where it is in your face. And, I ain't got my phone, it's in your hand. Now, I don't know what you do on your phones, and your pastor can tell you what he feels like he needs y'all to do or admonish you or whatever, but I'm just telling you, here's my warning. Whatever, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, whatever you do, you better be stinking careful. Every good thing can become a God thing. Every good thing touched by man can become an evil thing. Now, my heart's the problem. Ain't the phone, ain't the TV. Back in the 60s and the 70s, they was shooting TVs like that ended. I wish it was that easy. I'd shoot a bunch of stuff. I'd just shoot it. My heart needs help. But I don't need to help my flesh. So you gotta be careful. And that ain't no rule of the church. That's this rule. Bible rule. God rule. God knows where it'll take you. It takes you to shame. Nothing that God won't forgive. But I'll promise you, I've met a lot of 40-somethings and 50-somethings still dragging around that mess. They did in their 20s. They don't have to. It's gone. God don't even know what they're talking about. Behind his back, east to west, all them things in the Bible. Devil won't tell you that. That's why Paul's telling you, you run from immorality. He says you flee it or abstain from it. That means you abhor it. You hate it. You hate it. Look in verse 6 and this kind of indicates they were probably when it says that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter because that the Lord is the avenger of all such as we have also forewarned you and testified. Probably there was infidelity between marriages. Defraud your brother means that you're coveting something he has and most likely in this case it was his wife. So they were still dealing with stuff like that, and he says, that stuff, you gotta run from. Verse seven, for God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. That's who you were, this is who you are. Holiness, not uncleanness. Now, verse eight, if you're kind of pushing back on that, Like you don't like it when the preacher says something about, I just don't like him talking about me using my Facebook, I don't use my Facebook, I don't use my Facebook. Go ahead. All I'm talking about is whatever is in the peripheral of my life, I gotta make sure that it's helping me be sanctified. Because remember, that's top thing. That's the main thing. Not my ball team, and I got a ball team. Not my guns, and I got guns and I like them. Not my Hot Wheels, I like them too. That's as trivial as it can be, but I like them. But none of that, none of that, all of that's on the table to be taken off. Because all I want to be at the end of the day, because it's so important for my wife, and my grandson, and the people around me, and the people I work with, and the people that know me, that they see Christ only in my life. And it's never going to be perfect. But I don't need to help the problem. I need to help the purity of my life. That's why he says in verse 8, He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit. All right, that's run from immorality. Let's get another one. What time is it? 8 o'clock. Let's get another one. 9 and 10. I want to at least get down to verse 12. but it's touching brotherly love you need not that I write unto you for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another and indeed you do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia but we beseech you brethren that ye increase more and more real clear view of God you love all believers now we won't even talk about unbelievers but I hate to tell you this but you gotta love them unconditionally too I know that stinks But I'm just telling you, that's in Romans 12 and other places. You've got to love them the same way we love each other. And that unconditional thing just means that it's like you don't need nothing back for them to keep loving them. That's just really hard. You know, ask any marriage partner. We're supposed to love each other unconditionally, right? You love your kids unconditionally. You know, that's the two, like, work in progress you get to have. You get married, you get to try out if you can unconditionally love somebody. Now that doesn't mean they owe you, they need to be doing their thing, but if they're not doing their thing it don't matter because you love them unconditionally. Right? But it's doable because Spirit of God's in me, right? I can do this. So that means you can't cop out, you know. You know, when your kids are born, What is it about the unconditional part being so easy? Because then all that thing's going to do is keep you up at night. Right? And you're going to be doing just nasty things with it. Right? Tell me it ain't that. Come on now. When they have that massive blowout. I can't believe he just said that. But you just get right in there, clean that stuff up, and everything's fine. Love you, darling. Look at the face. And there's poo all over the place. Sometimes you get them all from church, and they're all dressed up. I guarantee it's happened to y'all. And y'all had a few of them. What if a couple of them? Just big blowout. We got to change your clothes again. You didn't like say, I'm done with y'all. We're going to get rid of a couple. We got too many. This is too much trouble. That don't happen. They ain't going to say thank you. They're not going to say, sorry, it's 3 in the morning. I know you've got to work tomorrow, but you need to feed me. Why is unconditional so easy with them? I mean, you don't even care what they look like. Right? Now, you'll say they're pretty and handsome because they're yours, right? But it doesn't matter. It just don't. How can we not do that with the body of Christ? I mean, there's a whole bunch of people in here I don't know. But the Bible tells me I am to love everybody in this room that way. And I have the capacity to do it because I've been loved that way by Jesus. And He knows there's been plenty in my life just to kick me to the curb. He's just too much to take in trouble. He's never done that. Never. I'm supposed to esteem, and I could pick on any of you, but this young man right here in the yellow shirt, I'm supposed to esteem him better than me. Love him as myself. It's doable. Latter part of the verse. Over in Chapter 5, when he talks about being investing in others, I mean, this is part of it. You've got to love people before you're ever going to invite them into your house, you know, or invite them into your life. We had one young man. He was not saved. His mom and dad told me that they had four boys. And I think Jody was the youngest when the two older ones were already in college and the two younger ones were in the youth group. Of course, Jody didn't come much. Jody didn't want anything to do with the Bible or church or Bible studies. And on Wednesday nights, we had some stuff down at the gym. I'd try to get them tired, and then we'd have a Bible study at the end of wearing them out. And Jody would just be messing around, doing stuff. And sometimes we'd have the Christian day school there at Oakwood. And sometimes we'd have the Bible studies up at the church. And he would be digging through some kid's desk. And he would just break their pencils. One night, I did something to break this kid's pencils. I said, Jody, what are you doing? I wanted to smack him, but I didn't think that would be great. What are you doing? And of course, I made him, I said, you're going to bring me some money Sunday. Because we're going to buy this little girl her pencils back. He just broke her pencils. So just a mess. Man, I remember when Jody got saved. Boy, I'm going to tell you, I should have told you this story. Jody got saved, been saved about maybe a year. And he was rough. He was rough. But I thought God was really working in his head. He was. He was. He just, he's still a little rough around the edges. So I thought it'd be good to do a testimony at the Christian school. I don't know. I must not have prayed about that one enough. That's all I can say. Because I'm going to be honest. Now, Jody did great, kept growing his faith. But he got right up in front of the Christian school, about 300 students sitting out there. And it was going great. He was sharing really good. The next thing you know, he dropped the cuss word. And boy, it was just like, whew. And I was going like, can I hide? Is there any way? Can I get out of the back of the building and go home? Now everybody understood. I remember when John, John was a rough one, sat in the balcony and we couldn't keep him in his seat. He would just roam over the buildings with his brother, Jared. They were a pair. If there'd been three of them, we'd have been in trouble. They'd take stuff out of Sunday school classes, steal money, just all kind of mess. I talked to his dad, and his dad was just, you know, whatever. He went on a missions trip with us. He'd come to a few Bible studies, and I didn't really want to let him go, honestly, because he hadn't done with all the other kids. He had come to Bible studies pretty regularly. He had to do certain things, go on visitation. You know, I just had little things that you had to do in order to kind of, so we can go on a missions trip. And we'd go on New York that year. And so I went to the mission team. We had some adult leaders and some kids. And I said, you guys can choose. I don't think he should go, but I'm not going to call it. You're going to call it. So I let them vote. I did that so I could blame it on him if it went south. So they voted. 32 to nothing. Every one of them people voted to let John go. And boy, I'm glad we did. John was kind of a stick in the mud, I guess, the first part of the week. It was uncomfortable. I mean, it was on the streets of New York passing out tracks and talking about Jesus. That was the last thing in the world. He just wanted to see skyscrapers or whatever, you know, look around, be a tourist for a few days. On that Thursday night in the basement of that church, we were just having some fun, and then we were kind of doing like a recap before we flew back, like, the weekend. It was a Thursday night. And I mean, this takes a lot, you know, for a high school kid, like a 17, 18 year old. I think he was a senior, junior, maybe a senior in high school. And there's like 30 kids, you know, just sitting around. We've been talking about the Lord, been laughing it up. We did something stupid that night. I forget what it was we done, but John raised his hand and he said, Preacher. He didn't ever even call me Preacher. It was always Brother Guy, which was fine. It's my name. He said, I got to get saved. He went to Bible college, pastored for a little while out in Colorado. I went out there, see him, preach for him, talk to him, watching him grow his faith. But he was hard to deal with. I'm asking you tonight. You got a clear view of God? You love his people. You'll invite them into your life. You'll cry with them. You'll rejoice with them. You'll get to know them. And there's nothing like it. There's nothing like it. He's up in Statesville now. I've preached for him since he's been up in Statesville. I just love seeing him. I love seeing him talking to his kids about the Lord. And listen. He'll send me a little thank you card or something. I didn't do nothing for John. But love him. And listen to him. Give him the word. I'm a nothing. I'm a nobody. I've got nothing. But I know somebody. I know somebody who'll change your life. People that's got a clear view of God love his people quickly. I'm going to do 11 and 12, and I promise I'm going to be done. I want to sleep in the house tonight when I get home. I don't want to sleep outside. I think it's going to be about 35. That's a little chilly. The next thing is that someone's got a clear view of God is just quiet. And the word quiet there means at rest. But look at that word study. study to be quiet. It's like something you're interested in, you Google it, because you want to learn something about it. Make it your ambition to find rest. Where do you find rest? At the foot of Christ. There's where you find rest. Not just positionally, but process. Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn how to preach. No. Learn how to minister. Learn how to be a good daddy. Learn me. Notice he tells them, and this is not necessarily just talking about enterprise or merchandise or working. It is. But he's basically saying, just do what you do. Do your own business. Work with your own hands as we commanded you. Walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing. That doesn't mean you get the gated community. It just means in your soul, you are quiet! because you have Christ, what you live in does not determine the joy level. Just don't. Now I've said this here before, I'd rather have a nice car, I'd rather have filet mignon, but if bologna is what I'm eating, throw some cheese on it and we'll do it. Paul's just telling me And a man with a clear view of God is so overwhelmed that every day of my life, I mean, just for me, I'm just talking for Guy Roberts, the man just standing up here, the last two nights, since I was 19 years old, the Lord has let me do this. God help me for ever being dissatisfied with some little tangible thing. I was sharing with somebody. I'm done. I can't go no further. I was sharing with somebody on our honeymoon when me and Wanda got married. We went to St. Petersburg, Florida for our honeymoon. Drove down there, got married. Morning before we left, We went down and got, I think we still had like our stuff laid out on the bed, you know, clothes, whatever. Went down, got us some breakfast. When we came back, somebody stole everything I had. I had the clothes on my back. There's a few other things they didn't take, but, you know, I went down. Long story, really quick, they stole my favorite shirt. The eight and a half hour drive back to Piggins, all I was thinking for four and a half hours is some jack leg stole my favorite shirt. Isn't it crazy how so many tangible things that mean maybe something to us mean really nothing? We learn it after a while. I hope I can get past. And listen, that studying to be quiet, you might have to stay off of Facebook, because people put on Facebook everything they do, every place they go, everything they do. And you think, well, I wish I could go over there. I wish I could have something like that. Look. Focus your life on pleasing Jesus. Walking with Jesus. Being sanctified so that you're made into His image no matter what you have to live in, drive or wear, and just be in His image. Run from immorality. Love others. And just be about your Father's business. And you'll find rest.