Amen. If you'll take your Bible, turn to Philippians chapter one, Philippians chapter one. The title of the message tonight, and I'm going to be using it quite often in the message, the one truth that I want to get across as we as we preach God's word tonight is let's have a conversation. Let's have a conversation. And I'm gonna repeat that over and over and over again because it's time that we have a conversation. Look at Philippians chapter one in verse 27, where it says, only let your conversation be as it become at the gospel of Christ. That whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. And in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Having the same conflict which you saw in me and now here to be in me, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels of mercies, Fulfill you my joy that you be like minded, having the same love being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in loneliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Father, we come before you again tonight and I ask you, Father, that you fill me with the spirit of God. Lord, I'm dealing with an excruciating headache right now. I ask that you would take the headache away that you give me a clarity of thought. As the message goes out, Father, will we just be sensitive to your Holy Spirit as he leads and talks to us and just edifies us. Father, that we'd have ears to hear. Would you please use the message to get us closer to you, that we'd have a conversation that's pleasing to you, and we pray and ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. To have a conversation, you're gonna have to have communication. Communication is vitally important in the life that we live. Communication is our homes, what the responsibilities that we have to communicate with those loved ones that we have in our jobs. Communication is key. In the military, when I was in the military, communication was key. If communication broke down, then it broke down the process of things that needed to happen. In sports, it's the same way. If you don't have the right communications, getting in the play, getting the coaches, telling the players what to do, you break down all kinds of aspects if the communications aren't there. In our school, in our ministries, the communication is vital, that we have this communication in order to have a conversation that we need to have. And again, I'm gonna play on this word conversation the whole night. Let us have a conversation. That word is used 20 times in our Bible. And most of the time, if not all, it's talking about a manner of life, a behavior, the way that we are. So let's have a conversation. Let's have a conversation, but that's going to start with communication. We have, I'm going to go over six types of communications that we have. We have verbal, non-verbal. We have written communication. We have, the next one is written. Listening is the next one. We forget about listening being a communication sometimes. Then you have visual communication and last you have giving that's how we communicate I'm going to go over a few of these that we nail these down that we start communicating correctly All right. So the first one is a verbal communication. This is going to be face-to-face This is going to be on the phone FaceTime on some of your Skype and all this but it's a face-to-face communication that you have and every one of us is Every one of us can I say this every one of us have this communication that we have face-to-face verbal communication And there's some communications that are informal. This is going to be your kitchen talk your chit-chat Just a brother a sister in Christ that you just talked to and it's very informal with the conversation And then I wrote down some conversation starters the top ten conversation starters for some of this chit-chat was number one Tell me about yourself Number two, what's been the best part of your day so far? What do you do to relax? What book are you reading right now? What's your favorite thing about your hometown? What's the last thing you bought online and really loved? What would be the perfect weekend? What's something besides your phone that you take everywhere with you? If you started a business, what kind would it be? What's your favorite season and why? What's your hidden talent? These are informal conversation starters. But then you have the more serious and formal conversation. These are ones where you go before the boss or a business meeting or you have some kind of a business dealing or you're talking to a pastor on the phone about coming to the, a formal conversation. And I think of one of the formal conversations, one of the most important to me was the conversation about my eternal soul. When someone asked me if I died, did I know for sure I'd go to heaven? Now the interesting thing about that is 9-11 had just taken place not too long before that. And what happened is that tragedy got me into a place where I was more sensitive and more in search mode because at the time 9-11 had taken place. And when uncertainty and tragedy like that happens, It happens where people are searching, and that's why these tragedies are happening in our world right now with the mass shootings, with the police being shot. It's a great time to really look at this scripture, only let your conversation be as it become with the gospel of Christ. You know, if that brother in Christ had not had a communication or had a conversation, a walk with God, he would have not started the conversation to ask me about my soul. If he wasn't walking with God and he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing, I would not be preaching to you tonight. I would not be in this church. I would not be... I'm not going to go down that path. But it was a very serious conversation about my eternal soul. And so that formal conversation, and these tragedies that happened, we were, my wife and I were out visiting a couple months ago, and we, on Sanderson, there's an old farmhouse, we knocked on the door of a lady, and she was just about the nicest southern country lady you can ever imagine. She said, give me a moment, she went back in the house, she said, can we go around to my picnic table, there's a big barn back there, picnic table, and we begin to talk to this dear lady about her soul. And come to find out, in 2011, the tornadoes came through. And she was scared to death. Her husband, I mean, right down the path where her house was. And they got into the bathroom. In that bathroom, what she did is she asked Jesus to save her. And so she was holding on to that fact that she got saved in those tornadoes. And with the help of the Holy Spirit, we convinced her that that's not biblical salvation. When biblical salvation is not from situations, it's from the penalty of your sin, the sin debt that you have as you get under conviction of sin and righteousness and of judgment to come. And we were able to take the word of God and this lady in her early 70s. at that picnic table on that farm, bowed her head and asked Jesus Christ to save her soul, to forgive her sins and to take her to heaven when she died. But that was a very serious conversation. And so a verbal communication is something that we have to have. Then you have the nonverbal communication. This includes facial expressions. If you taste something, smell something, hear something you don't like, a disfigurement takes place. Every one of us. I mean, I don't want to do all the facial expressions, but it's a mode of communication. Then you have the posture. Posture, posture, posture. That's a weird word, posture. This is a, you can have a proud look, you know, a posture of, you put that chin out, that chest out, you know, you communicate with that. You communicate maybe with a defeat where you hang those shoulders down. Maybe it's communication that we have in our house sometimes with poutiness. And, you know, just kind of throwing those arm downs. But it's a communication, a nonverbal communication with the postures that you have. Be careful with your postures, those angry, rebellious postures. Us parents know about that. Us people know about that. And our adults are not innocent from that either. by the way, the postures that we have. And then eye contact. We have the death stare, where you just look at someone, you could stare a hole through them. We have something here recently, when someone cuts you off, we dubbed it the stink eye. Somebody gives you the stink eye. And then you have also the communication of no eye contact at all, avoiding eye contact. Looking away and not looking into somebody's eyes is a way of communicating. Then you have hand movements and touch. It's amazing how we express ourselves with our hands, talk with our hands, do different demonstrations with our hands. These are nonverbal communications. Then we have the next one, which is written communications. This is email, text, letters, social media posts, contracts that you sign. All forms of written communication have the same goal to distribute information in a clear and concise manner. Though the objective is often not achieved, in fact, poor writing skills often lead to confusion and embarrassment. One important thing to remember about written communication, especially in the digital age, is the message lives on and on and on. Be careful what you post. Be careful what you write. And by the way, that leads to the warning. Number one is poorly constructed sentences and careless errors make you look bad. Number two is ensure that the content of the message is something you want to promote or be associated with for the long haul if you're going to post it. So you have the written communication, and then you have the one that's listening. This is often not mentioned in the communications, but it's vital. Not only that you listen, but you hear. If you don't listen and you don't hear, you cannot communicate properly. It will hinder the communications that you have. it will hinder the conversations you have if you don't listen, if you don't hear. So in our marriage, I teach in my Sunday school class about the husband being a good listener, about the wife being a good listener. You have to turn your brain off sometimes and just on purpose listen because there are some important things that are talked about in the home that we need to hear from each other. With my spouse, with my wife, she told me the other day, she says, you know, I don't listen because my brain works too fast. And I said, I'm not buying that one for a bit. Because, I thought of this earlier, I talk really fast, right? Slow down, talk slower. So anyway, what about in our families? I listen to my children. I do listen to my children. My children don't run my house, but I listen to them when they have needs. By the way, can I say this, my children are not perfect. I have a 14-year-old, a 13-year-old, a nine-year-old, and they're not nowhere near where they need to be yet. So I thank you, church, for helping me with my children. When they don't do right and I don't see it, and someone comes to me and says, hey, your son's not doing right, or your daughter's not doing right, or your wife's not doing, no, my wife, excuse me, excuse me. But then that helps me to be able to talk to them, to teach them. That fortifies our family and helps us. So I thank you for contacting the parent and let us know. Have that spirit in your heart because we are a family here and we help each other with that. But listening to my children, I remember when Michael was a child. He had that retracting stomach. And I'm one of those guys, turn the shower on with the steam, put that boy in the shower and just let him breathe that stuff until he's fixed or put a paper bag over his head or something. We don't go to the emergency room. I've changed a little bit and softened a little bit on that one. But mom's intuition kicked in and she took him to the emergency room and lo and behold, he was having a asthma attack and he probably would have died had we not taken him to the emergency room. So I've softened a little bit on that one. Just a little bit though, but listening to the kids when they have heartaches, when they need to talk to you. I didn't have that growing up where my parents listened to me and they could talk to me about certain things, but having a heart to hear them. Now, I'm not going to hear the complaining, the whining, and the why, why can't we do this? I'm not talking about that kind of stuff. I'm talking about listening. What about in the church? Listening for messages from God, listening Not only listening, but hearing them and applying them. James tells us, be you doers of the Word, not hearers only deceiving your own selves. But listening in the church, listening when the man of God or the Word of God is being preached, that we hear what the Spirit of God is saying, we hear what the Word of God is saying, so we have the right kind of conversation. All right, and then ministering to people. You have to listen to people's needs in order to minister properly. We have to perfect this listening. It's almost a superpower now, because we have so many people in our world that don't listen. They don't listen to anybody. They're not listening to reason. They're not listening to authority. They don't want to listen to anybody. And it's a vital key to have the right kind of communication is to listen. And then we have visual. We are such visual people TV Facebook You have YouTube YouTube videos. You have all the things that you look at visually and then you have Sometime on the commercials with the malnutrition dogs and the puppies and they want your money $5 a month or $20 a month in there tugging at your heartstrings because they know that your eye affects your heart. So they'll show children in Africa with big bellies and these huts because they want your money. They're affecting you because we're such visual people. This is part of our communication. When we see missionary presentations and we're moved in our heart, to want to pray for those fields that our brothers and sisters are going to, for the people that if they don't hear the gospel, they'll die and go to a place that God never intended. And then lastly, we have giving. That's of our time. This is a way we communicate, giving our time, and we saw that in our scripture that we read, preferring others before ourselves, giving our time, the talents that God has given us, the money, the finances, and the treasures that we've given us, that He's given us. So these are ways that we communicate, and in order to have the right kind of communication, or the right kind of conversation, we have to have the right kind of communication. Let me give you some quotes on communication, just five of them. When people talk, listen completely, most people never listen. Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something. Communicate unto the other person that which you would want him to communicate with you if the position was reversed. This other one really stood out to me, but it was when the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective. Let me say that again. When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective. And I began to think of our Heavenly Father, that trust account being so high that we can easily approach the throne of grace in time of need and talk to Him at any moment. I think of close friends that we have. And it seems that there are fewer and fewer, but you have the trust with that person that you can just start talking and it's instant and easy and effective, that conversation that you have with people that are close to you. And then the last quote I want to give you is a lot of problems in the world would be solved if we talked to each other instead of about each other. This is gonna be vitally important in every one of our lives every person in here No one's innocent of this because we have Adams nature There's not a person in here that has not talked about somebody else that they probably shouldn't have been talking about And it's something we have to be on guard on if we're gonna have the right kind of walk the right kind of conversation If you haven't understand this, no one has arrived yet No one's perfect And if you want a list of my faults see my wife and after you talk to her come to me I can give you a hundred more that you can talk negatively about me So then I wanna transition to talk about this word conversation. I wanna look at different conversations that we need to be aware of. The word conversation again is used 20 times in the word of God and most of the common use for the word defined as manner of life or behavior. Let's have a conversation. Let's have a conversation. A manner of life. our behavior. Webster's 28, excuse me, 1828 defines the conversation as a general course of manners, behavior, especially as it respects morals. So the first one I want to look at is the conversation of our enemies, the conversation of our enemies. Turn with you, if you would, and we're going to come back to Philippians. I'm going to end with Philippians because, of course, the 27 says, only let your conversation be as it become of the gospel of Christ. So it's all going to boil down to that. Every conversation that we have, every manner of life, every lifestyle that we have needs to come back to the gospel. That's Scripture, that's the Word of God, every aspect of our life. In our homes, in our families, in our church, in our school, in our jobs, everything comes back to the Gospel. Alright, so 1 Peter 2, verses 4-8. We're going to look at a story here of Lot. Anyway, 2 Peter 2, beginning in verse 4. Look what the Word of God says here, for if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon a world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them examples unto those that after should live ungodly, and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, for that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. So we see here the story of Lot. Now, we're not going to go back to Genesis and read the story, but I want to point a couple things out about Lot vexing himself in Sodom and Gomorrah. And I want to point this out, that Lot may have been man enough to take on the world, to be able to sit at the gate and to be around these people in the world, but it absolutely destroyed his home. He had no power over his home. The world manipulated. The world enticed his home. The world took the love of his children for him and for things that were good, and it twisted it and turned it, and it just crumbled it up. You say, well, how do you know that? Well, first of all, the angels that came in, Sodom and Gomorrah, they almost refused to go into Lot's house. They said, we'll tear you in the street all night. And it says Lot had to press upon them greatly even to get them to come into the house. Because those angels would rather stand in that city and face those men than to go in Lot's house that was filled with the world. And so another point that I know that Lot messed up his family by being there in Sodom and Gomorrah, his daughters and sons-in-law, as he talked to them and told them that judgment was coming, it was as he was mocking. They had no heart for their dad. They had no care for their dad. And as far as we know, his sons-in-law and daughters perished in Sodom and Gomorrah when it was destroyed. And then we have the issue with his two daughters. We've always fought Lot for putting his two dollars out, you know, because those angels came into the house. Those men came and they wanted to take those angels and Lot basically says, I have two daughters that have not known man. I'll give them to you and do with them whatever you want to do with them. And we fault him, and I'm not letting a lot off the hook for that. No matter the testimony his daughters are not, no matter how they behaved or how they were, I fault Lot for wanting to give his daughters out like that. There's no excuse for that. But what kind of testimonies did his daughters have? They had to have some kind of behavior about them that he looked at these young lady and said, oh my goodness, what do I have right here? What is wrong with you people? What is wrong with you girls? And we see that later in the testimony when they go up to the hill and his daughters end up committing incest with him. Wicked. because he vexed his righteous soul in the world in hearing and seeing their wickedness, the conversation of the wicked. And so I want to warn you tonight, church, that we be on high alert. We know that because of the attack on Nashville, the school there that was K-6, the person shot through the doors and then began killing teachers. in students, K through sixth grade. So we're on high alert at our school today. We're having meetings about things to do. We hear loud noises, immediately we go on lockdown. We are protecting our students. We're trying to figure everything out. We're not letting anybody in the building. We're watching the driveways. We're on high alert right now. But I ask you to be on the same high alert with the world. Because it has rocked us to sleep. It has put us to sleep. We're allowing it into our lives, and it's destroying us, and we're not even realizing that it's destroying us. You will never be old enough, strong enough, mature enough to end up taking any part of the world and it not affecting you. I don't care how old you've gotten. I don't care how mature you got. I don't care how much you've been taken out of the world, and now you can feel comfortable with the world. No, it will affect you, and if it won't affect you, it will affect your family. So keep your guard up for the world. Don't be a friend of the world. I ask you two things. Because Demas had forsaken, it says here of Paul, for Demas had forsaken me having loved this present world and has departed to Thessalonica. I ask you two things. Please don't love the world or be a friend of the world. And please do not depart from the truth of the word of God. I've been saved out of the world. It has nothing to offer. It's junk. It's false hope. It's lust. It's stuff that will destroy you. It will chew you up, spit you out. The world has nothing to offer you. If you're saved at a younger age and you're in a Christian home, you don't know anything about what I'm talking about. And so there's a draw for you to pull you to these things, to entice you and to take your love away from your family, your home, your church, and the world is gonna put a draw on you. You're gonna have to cling to your parents, cling to your church, cling to your God in order to resist that enticement that the world has. If not, it's gonna destroy you. So don't be a friend of the world. Don't depart from the truth of the word of God. In James chapter four and verse four, it says, the adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. If you're gonna be a friend of this world, friend, mark it down, you're the enemy of God. Even as His child, as His believer, as someone that follows and loves Him, if you're gonna be a friend of this world, God is gonna fight against you. If we're gonna allow the world into our church through our families, God's gonna fight against our church. I don't know about you, but I want revival, I want more souls. How is this community growing in such rates of growing and growing and growing and we're not seeing any increase in Madison Baptist Church? Could it be that his children are not walking right with him? Could it be that we've let the world in? Could it be that we're sinning against God, therefore he's fighting against us and not allowing the blessings of God to fall upon us? Yeah, we're getting mercy drops here and there, but we're praying that the raindrops would fall down, that the showers would come down of God, but that's going to take us having a conversation and a walk with God. Let's have a conversation. Let's have a conversation about the world. Lot didn't pay attention and he got destroyed. The kind of people that are in the world right now that we have to be aware of. And we have a message we've heard, be like Him and not like them, the people of this world. This testimony should not be in any of our lives, young or old. This is what it says in 2 Timothy 3, beginning in verse 1. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such turn away. Those are the people that we're gonna have to deal with in the world. Those are the people that we're trying to reach, but we're not gonna be a friend of this world. If those testimonies in our lives and we have this conversation in life, we need to get it out of our life. None of those things should be in the child of God. I don't care if you're the youngest in here or the oldest in here, we should not have any of these things in our life. Jesus taught us that the world system would hate us. And by the way, let me say this that when you have the shootings of these These homosexual nightclubs these shoot shootings of all these other people the world will rally around these people You know when that stuff happened, they lifted up the pride flag When that other stuff happened and I'm not going to name all the the tragedies, but they lift up all these groups understand this that they will not rally around the Christians and You're going to see posts of people supporting this transgender person that killed these students and that killed these teachers. There's going to be backlash from that. Don't think that the world is going to support us, rally around us, because Jesus gave us the warning. In John chapter 15, beginning of verse 17, excuse me, 17 through 20, these things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you are in the world, then the world would love his own, but because you're not in the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I spoken unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will also keep yours. Understand that persecution is coming. Persecution for the believer is coming. We saw that in the scripture, that that's part of not only believing on him, but suffering for his sake, but in nothing terrified. This world attacks us, and I'll give you another verse. We're familiar with this, but we need to hear it again. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Let me say this, too. That's in your heart. Love not the world. You can take everything out of your home. You can take your TVs, your video games, you can take every DVD, every book out of your home, and it could still be in your heart that you love the world. Get it out of your heart. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world passeth away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. All right, then we looked at the conversation of our enemies. Now we want to look at the conversation of the flesh. This is another enemy we have. Ephesians chapter 4, if you would turn over. Ephesians chapter 4. Beginning in verse 22. Ephesians chapter 4, beginning in verse 22. That you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Understand this, and we know this, this is things that we know, but we still have to understand that this flesh is still going to work in connection with the world and the devil to defeat us. This flesh that we have, that's Adam's old nature still living in us. We still have that sin nature that we look at every day. That person looking at you in the mirror is the greatest enemy that you have. That person will make you lazy, will make you stop reading the Word of God, will make you depart from the things of God, will make you not pray, not love like you're supposed to, not forgive like you're supposed to. That person looking in the mirror every day is trying to destroy you. That's Adam's old nature, and more so if we feed that flesh. And unfortunately, we get deceived and say, well, I'm not feeding my flesh. But yet you have no spiritual victories. You're frustrated all the time. No doubt you're feeding your flesh if you can't get spiritual victories in your life. Understand this, the Christian life is about humility. It's not about biting and devouring. It's not about frustrations. It's about trust. And not saying that we don't get frustrated, but this is what it's mainly about, having the joy of Christ in our hearts. having the trust of God with all of our hearts, and not being bogged down with the lust of this flesh that wants to destroy us. We put off the former conversation. This flesh and the things of this flesh has nothing to offer us other than to bring us down, and if we don't keep our guard up. I remember a pastor telling us that he almost resigned Madison Baptist Church several years ago. He got so defeated because there was no moving of the Lord and the messages, the church wasn't moving and the invitations, and he went out preaching and he said something to God that if something doesn't happen, then I'm going to resign Madison Baptist Church. This is before we came here, and he went out to one of the meetings out in Arkansas, I believe it was, with Brother Fisher. And Brother Fisher made this comment before he gets up every day. He prays something similar to this. Lord, would you protect me from me? Would you protect me from the thoughts of discouragement and insecurity and defeat? The thought of all the things that this flesh brings on to me. Would you help me blockade that flesh? Don't feed it. Would you protect me from me? All right, so the Bible tells us in Galatians 5.16, this I say, then walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. Romans 13, 14 says this, and you can write these down, I know we're not turning all these, you can write these down, but Romans 13, 14, it says, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. That's a blockade, the flesh don't feed the flesh. You have to fortify the members. In Galatians 5, 24, it says, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. Crucifixion is a very agonizing death, a very slow death. But Adam's nature often will try to rear its ugly head to mar our conversation, to mar our testimony, to hurt us with believers, to hurt us with the world. We're to have a good conversation among the Gentiles. We're to have a good conversation, a good manner of life. Galatians 2.20 says, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Romans 6.6 says, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. The fact that we had accepted Christ, everyone in here that I know has accepted Christ, if you hadn't, tonight's the night to make the decision in your heart to believe on him, to accept him as your personal savior. He will forgive your sins, he'll give you the gift of heaven, the gift of eternal life. But if you have accepted Christ as your savior, then you have been forgiven, but you still have that old sin nature that dwells in you. It's the inner conflict. And he's doomed, and so he's trying to rear his ugly head, and we have to make sure that we don't give in to the lust of the flesh, that we walk in the spirit. And so then I wanna talk about the conversation of the child of God, the conversation of child of God. So we saw the conversation of our enemies, the world and the flesh. Of course, I'm not mentioning the devil tonight, but we know that he's an enemy. Resist him, submit yourself to God, humble yourself, he'll flee from you. But the conversation of the child of God. Do we have any wise people in here? Don't raise your hand. Is Ian here wise? Do you have wisdom? Is there anybody here that has God's wisdom upon you? If there is, then James 3.13 tells us this, Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. If you're wise, then that conversation is gonna be with your works, with meekness and wisdom. If you're wise also, you'll not want any attention to yourself. All the attention, all the glory goes to God. I know we have to be up here speaking. We get to be up here speaking, but all the attention goes to God. And so giving, what about the younger? Do we have any younger in here? And that's 60 and below, right? Younger in heart? No, it's not 60 and below, but you're looking at me strange. I guess that one fell flat. It says, I don't feel young, I feel 60. But to the younger in 1 Timothy 4, 11 through 12, these things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Can I say this, that we need a generation of young people that will show out of their walk and talk a good conversation of meekness and purity and faith, someone that's serious with the things of God, someone that loves God and loves people, showing out of their conversation Word, charity, spirit. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. So the conversation of the child of God. The wise to the young and then to Christian wives. Christian wives. Look what it says here beginning in verse 1. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husband, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. And that chaste conversation is a clean and innocent, modest, pure, genuine, free from barbarous words or phrases, free from loud talk and argumentative, freed from arguing with your husband and berating your husband. I sometimes don't think that Christian wives and Christian young ladies realize the power that they have. We see that with Samson and Delilah, the power that she had over that man. this power that Christian wives have. And maybe you have a lost husband. I don't think that's a lot of what's in our church. But I'll say this too to Christian wives. And by the way, I'm not trying to stand up here as an expert on Christian wives. But I believe it's in the Word of God. I have authority by God to tell you as a Christian wife to be godly. to be godly in every aspect of your conversation because this Christian wife, if your husband's not everything that he ought to be, if he's not as spiritual as he ought to be, then by your conversation, you could help him be more godly. By your meek and quiet spirit, by the way that you walk and talk and dress, you can bring conviction upon him to be more godly and to love God more just by your behavior, your children, just by your behavior. could make a difference in their lives just by your behavior, the way that you walk and the way that you talk. Look what it goes on to say here. Let me — first of all, let me give you a story that brings this principle home. And by the way, I'm not advocating to allow sinful stuff, and I'm not advocating any of that at all. This is an illustration to make the point. It's one that you've probably heard before, but this is an old story that illustrates the principle of honor within the marriage. A drunk husband spending the evening with his fun-loving companions at a tavern boasted that he could take a group of his friends home with him at midnight and ask his Christian wife to get up and cook supper for them, and she would do it without complaint. I don't want you to raise your hand, but how many ladies in here would have that kind of spirit?" And I asked Miss Allison, she goes, I would be so shocked if my husband came home and did that. But I'm saying having that spirit, That if even a husband came home, demanded that you get in that kitchen, you cook him food right now, what would be your response? How dare you talk to me like that? Have you lost your mind? Would that be your response? Or would it be a humbleness of spirit to not then contend? And I know we can joke a little bit about this, but this is serious stuff. Not every husband is what they ought to be. Not every husband talks as he ought to talk. Not every husband behaves as he ought to be. But that doesn't give the Christian wife, which has awesome responsibilities, to be godly in her own right. The crowd considered the vain boast and dared him to try it. So the drunken crowd followed him to his home, and he made the unreasonable demand to his wife. She obeyed, dressed, came down, and prepared a very nice supper and served it cheerfully as if she had been expecting them. After the supper, one of the men asked her how she could be so kind when they were so unreasonable and when she didn't approve of their conduct. Her reply was, Sir, when my husband and I were married, we were both sinners. It pleased God to call me out of that dangerous condition. My husband continues in it. I tremble for his future state. Where if he were to die as he is, he would be most miserable forever. I think my duty to render his present existence as comfortable as possible. Not longer after that, her husband ended up getting born again. Because of that conversation, the power that you have is undeniable. But ladies, and I understand the awesome task that this is, that there's no way you feeding the lust of the flesh can can have this task without the grace of God and God's help to live that godly Christian life. It's an impossible task without the help of the Holy Spirit and without the help of God. But the influence over the home, the influence with children and men is very powerful. Even if you go back to the passage where it says in verse 3, who's adorning, let it be that outward adorning. of the plating here, I'm not gonna read all that, but verse four, let it be the hidden man of the heart, and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. Having that meek and quiet spirit is gonna make a difference, not only in your life, but the life of your family, the life of the people that see you and are around you. Having that walk, I just wanna encourage you. We all fight the battle. We all have personalities. And my wife said, why aren't you talking about the men? Well, there's not a verse that the men has conversation in it. No, but men are to love their wives as their own bodies. Love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. That's a responsibility. And men, we are to love them because we're all unlovable at times, but that never gives us an excuse not to love our wife as we ought to. Love her with a sacrificial love. Anyway, I got to move on. But look at verse 5 before we do move on. That's a testimony of the ladies before. All right, then we get into the conversation of every believer. This is every believer, and I'm going to rattle off some verses here. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 5 through 6, it says this, So not having covetousness, understand what God has given us is enough. not wanting the next big thing, the next brightest thing, but being content. In 1 Peter, you're already here, so turn over to 1 Peter. Turn over to 1 Peter real quick. Look what it says beginning in verse 13. 1 Peter chapter 1, excuse me, in verse 13, 1 Peter chapter 1, it says, Wherefore, gird up your loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, I just thought and meditate on this, the obedient children that I know, my children are obedient children sometimes, most of the time, some of the time, most of the time, some of the time. Obedient children, but what preciousness when they are obedient children. When it's the lovingness, when we ask them to do something, they do it. There's no discipline that needs to take place at that time. What a wonderful picture. But this is how we're to be as obedient children, not fashioning ourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance. But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy." So let's have a conversation. 2 Peter 3, 10 and 11 says, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, and the witch of the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved. What men or persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?" Let's have a conversation. Let's have a conversation that's pleasing to God, that's effective with people and effective with God. Turn back over with me to Philippians, and we'll close with this passage of Scripture. Philippians chapter 1. And so we bring it back to this passage because it says this, Only let your conversation, your manner of life, your conduct of business, the way that you live, breathe, talk, walk, the things that you do, the way that you communicate, only let your conversation be as it become at the gospel of Christ. We heard the message on Sunday night about getting the gospel out. The great commission from our heavenly father to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Let your life be about the gospel. In every aspect, in the ministry, not ministry, at jobs, wise as serpent, harmless as dove. You know, in jobs you have such an awesome privilege to get to know people. I'll be honest with you, five minutes at a door is not enough time to get to know people sometimes. And so I don't see a lot of people calling on the name of the Lord unless they've been under conviction and praying all night and we knock on their door or they get under conviction as we're sharing the word of God and the Holy Spirit starts dealing with them. But as you work with people, you get to know people. They get to watch your conversation. They get to watch your manner of life. And as wise as serpent, harmless as dove, you get to ask them about their soul. If Brother Miguel working in the automotive shop when I'm in the tool room never opened his mouth, Again, it would have been a tragedy of me not coming to know Christ as my personal Savior. I'd still be on the road to hell, all because he had a conversation. You have a great responsibility in your job place, and I know that it can get a little dicey at times, but be wise about it. You can do that if you'll navigate that. If you have that in your heart, only let your conversation be as it become at the gospel of Christ. He says that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear your affairs, That you stand fast in one spirit, no division. No division at Madison Baptist Church. One spirit. Why? For the faith of the gospel. No division. I've heard recently that there's a believer that won't talk to another believer. None of that. There's underlining in our church divisions all over the place. Opinions about this group, about this group. There's divisions from this side of the auditorium to this side of the auditorium to this side of the auditorium. There's divisions and opinions about people. None of that needs to take place. Only let your conversation be as it become of the gospel of Christ, that whether I come to see you or else be absent, I may hear your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one faith, striving together for the faith of the gospel. That's our responsibility as a church. The devil, the flesh, the world all wants to divide us. That's what all COVID was about, if you didn't guess that by now. Let me say vaccine right now and see how... It navigates our emotions and our feelings right now. You just say some simple word like that, all of a sudden we're divided. And this side is divided against this side. Division is what Satan wants. We cannot have that in our church. We cannot have divisions. We must stand together in one faith, with one mind, for one purpose, for one Savior. We have to get our act together in our church. No argument, one mind, no argument. We're not to be arguing with one another. We're not each other's enemies. We're each other's family, believers, friends, to help each other, to encourage each other, doing our best to be about our Father's business. No deserters, no bench warmers. We call them skates in the military. No skates, that we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing. Everyone is on the front line, being about the gospel, communicating the gospel, getting out the gospel. And then we look at verse 28. It says, and nothing terrified by your adversaries. And no way, no shape, no form are we going to have fear. We're not going to live in fear. Even if that person had broken our school and shot our teachers and our students, we're still not going to live in fear because as those things happen in our life, they see the evident token of perdition by our faith, by we're encouraged by those things, by we serve God even more fervently by those things, and nothing terrified. We're not going to be terrified in sharing the gospel. Brother Ross and I, a few years ago, were at a door, and this man came out. He was a gentleman in his 60s, and it was kind of a military background. I believe it was Army. He had been to the VA. The VA was giving him a lot of problems, and he was a little bit unstable, but we were talking to him. A little chit-chat, getting into the conversation about his soul. And as we began to stop the chit-chat about the VA and about the military service and about the day, we said, well, we came here to talk to you about something else. And he made this comment. He says, what's that name? And I just played along. I said, that name is a name that every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess. He says, what's that name? I said, that name is the the Alpha and Omega, the beginning of the end, the one who is God eternal, that name. He says, what's that name? I said, that name is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he went into a trance. He, you know, that's not the name. And if you would have saw Brother Ross's face and his eyes, they were bugging out of his head. I'm thinking this guy, you better not make a sudden move, sir. I'm gonna run. I don't fight people at the doors. I'm not. You're not gonna see in the paper, Baptist preacher fights guy at door. You're not gonna see that. But we recognize, and so the people we don't like, we send to that address, hey, can you go try to win this guy to the Lord? No, we don't, but in nothing terrified. We're not going to be terrified by our adversaries. And Brother Petrie, if you don't mind me telling the story, him and I were out, saw one in a couple years ago, and we were at a particular door, and he was talking to the owner of the house, and a truck pulls up behind us. And I have situational awareness. The sermon, I'm looking around. I know what's going on. Hardly anything misses. I just, I see things. It's a curse sometimes. I see things in our church. I see things out of, okay, whatever. So this guy pulls up. And I'm out of the corner of my eye, and he comes up. And if Brother Petrie's talking to the guy right here, Brother Petrie's standing here talking to the guy, I'm back here in the walkway as a second man. The guy's parked out on the street walking up the grass. And I turn to the guy, and he gets up to me like this. And he goes, what are you doing here? Flashing his gun, his 9 millimeter. And I kind of did like this. I said, we're out talking. And Brother Petrie just keeps talking. His back is to don't really know what's going on. But the homeowner at this point is now like, who is this guy? Do y'all know this guy? We're like, we don't know this guy from Adam. But he pulled up and flashed a gun on us. We're just out trying to win this guy to the Lord. So we get a little bit concerned in our spirit, of course. So we get back in our vehicle. And now we have another address to visit in that community. And what am I going to do? I'm about sharing the gospel. So we're going to pull up to the next address. And we walked up to that door. Of course, that guy follows us, honking the horn or whatever. We knock on the door. No one was home at this point. And so we go to leave the neighborhood. And I asked Brother Petrie, I said, would you start praying? Because I got out of the vehicle at that time. And if his truck is where the podium is, I just said, would you roll down your window? I want to communicate with you. I want to have a conversation. Roll down your window, a little nonverbal communication there. He rolls down his window, and I said, sir, I'm a Baptist pastor out trying to tell people how they can know for sure they're going to heaven. Well, what is going on? And his whole demeanor changed. He goes, you're a Baptist? I said, yeah. He goes, well, that's that's funny. I said, I said, what's going on? He goes, I'm a member of Lindsay Lane Baptist Church. I said, what? What's wrong with you? I said, if you had enough tenacity and passion to go out and share the gospel with your neighbors as you do to come up and flash a gun on somebody, this whole neighborhood would get born again. Man, he thought we were JFWs, Jehovah's False Witnesses. Anyway, so let's have a conversation. Let it be about the gospel. Look what it says here, and nothing terrified by your adversaries. As the persecution comes, Be ready, only let your conversation be as it become of the gospel of Christ. Right now, the Lord wants us to be witnesses for Him. With the Huntsville police departments, with our officers being under attack right now, He wants us being witness for Him. Be a professional witness, best you can. Learn to share the gospel in a way that's effective, the way that people can get under conviction by the Holy Spirit of God. and then they can understand that Christ died for them, their sins was buried, rose from the dead, so he gives them eternal life. Then we continue on, we see here in verse 29, for unto you is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. That may be our lot, God will give us grace, but let's have a conversation. Look at here, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, Now this is gonna be a oneness in Christ. A oneness in Christ, the foundation of oneness is we have that mutual consolation and comfort in Christ Jesus. That's something we all have in common. If there be any comfort of love, We have a fellowship of mercy, mercy in the spirit. Look what it says here. If there be any fellowship of the spirit, any vows of mercy, the nature of the oneness, fulfill you my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord. This is one accord of one mind. And then verse three, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory. but on lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. So this is avoiding self-willed arguing, let nothing be done through strife. This is avoiding self-exalting pride, that's vain glory. This is seeking self-abasing humility, that's a lowliness of mind in our minds and our hearts, that you're better than I am, that you're above me, I submit. I want, last I check, God still resist the proud, give us grace to the humble. And that the key to our Christian life is humility and having this lowliness of mind. Then we see here, it goes on to say here in verse four, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Let's have a conversation. Let's have a conversation that we communicate the right way. That we have a conversation to stay on guard against the world, the flesh and the devil. And that we have a conversation to be more Christ like in every aspect of our life, being about our father's business, to get the gospel out to be in unity to stand in one faith with one mind, striving together for the purpose that God has for us. Let's as a church, Let's, as a church, do a better job of getting and reaching the lost, do a better job of keeping the world out of our hearts, our homes, fighting the good fight of faith and not giving in to the lust of the flesh. Let's, as a church, be all that we need to be, all that we should be for his honor and for his glory. Let's pray. Father, we do bow in your presence and we do thank you so much for the church that you paid for with your blood, We thank you for giving us a safe haven to come and worship you, to come and hear your word being preached, to be challenged, challenged by the word of God, challenged by the Holy Spirit of God. And I pray as we're challenged, Father, that we'd have the conversation that would please you, that manner of life, that testimony, that we'd be Christ-like, that we'd have the mind of Christ in us in every aspect of our life. Lord, we know that we're predestined to be like the Son of God. Would you help us to be more Christ-like? Would you just help us to be godly in every aspect of our life? I pray that you help our Christian lady, our Christian men, that you would help us to be everything that we ought to be for your glory. Father, would you just please continue to work in the lives of those in Nashville that lost loved ones, the Huntsville Police Department. Father, would you continue to be with Brother Wally and our pastor? Bring them back safely. And Lord, we'll look for your return. Until then, Lord, help us to be faithful, doing what you'll have us to do. For we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.