First Corinthians chapter three. First Corinthians chapter three. Somewhat familiar passage I hope pray this will be a blessing to you and I can get it across the way God put it on my heart and mind. Sometimes it don't always come out that way but we're going to do our best. First Corinthians chapter three. Appreciate each one of you here tonight. Appreciate those that came back. As I've said before, I want more of what God has. Amen. I'd like to experience one time. If we do, you're going to earn it. I'll promise you that. Story about D.L. Moody real quick as we get into this. First Corinthians chapter 3. As he was early in his ministry, he had two women that kept praying, telling him they were praying for him. They said, we're praying that you get it. We're praying that you get it. He said, what is it? They said, the power of God. So one day he was going along, and for those of you who don't know who D.L. Moody was, Dwight Lehman Moody, I've got to really focus on that middle name, that's what that stands for, hence the name D.L., was in Chicago and he preached all over this country and Europe as well. It's estimated that well over a million souls came to know Jesus Christ through his ministry. He actually promised God that he would never let a day go by without witnessing to somebody. He woke up in the middle of the night one night about two or three o'clock in the morning and it was pouring rain. He said, God, who in the world am I going to find out right now? This was around the turn of the century. So he takes his umbrella and he goes out. Sure enough, standing there on the street corner stood somebody waiting. I don't remember what he found him standing there for, but he led him to the Lord at three o'clock in the morning, two or three o'clock in the morning in a downpour. So if you're willing, God will use you. But he went into a hotel room and I kind of rabbit trailed there a little bit. He felt the Lord tell him to do this and he went into that hotel room one day and he told the guy he got off of, he serves me right on that so don't, 100% on me too, he said don't let nobody come in that room. He said I will come out. And he don't know how long he was in there. He was in there for a while. And he said, and finally got to the place where he told God, he said, God, if you don't let up, he said, it's not going to be a deal moody to go tell anybody about you. God's power and hand got so strong and so heavy on him. He actually said, he said, God, you got to quit. You're fixing to kill me. I don't know if I've ever felt God's presence that strong, but I'd like to know what it's like one time. And you can feel that too. You can have the same experience. God will give you as much of him as you're willing to get. But it's a clean vessel. All right, 1 Corinthians 3, verse 1. Everybody there? Amen. Verse 1, he says, And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither now are ye able. That's not the message tonight, but let me say, I hope, I'd like to think that whatever message God gives me here that I can preach, and spiritually speaking, everyone to be able to handle it. And I get mad. For ye are not carnal, but whereas there is among you, for ye are yet carnal, for there is among you envy and strife and divisions. Are ye not carnal and walk as men? So if you want to know if you're carnal, that's a pretty good test. Is there any strife and division among you? You as an individual. Verse 4, For while one saith, I am of Paul, another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom he believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. Boy that is a statement is it not? The only participation trophies handed out in heaven is the fact that you made it to heaven. That's your participation trophy right there. Let me read on. For we are labors together with God, ye are a God's husbandry, ye are a God's building. According to the grace of God which is given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, even so as by fire. Knowing not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. And that's a statement, not a question. Let's pray. Father, we thank you again for this time together, for the day that you've given us, the day that you've blessed us with. Lord, I stand here tonight, God, as submissive and humble as I know how. God, I'm a little bit nervous, Lord. The preaching that they've heard this week, God, has been so wonderful, so great, and God, I'll be honest with you, I'm a little bit intimidated, God, by preaching behind some of that. But we serve the same God, and God, they're no different than me, and I ask and pray tonight that Holy Spirit, you please use me as you see fit. Lord, I'm the man you put here, and I'm gonna do my best to pastor this church and feed this flock as I preach. Lord, we need you tonight and we love you and we praise you. Thank you for these teens, for those that came this week. Pray that you give a special blessing to each one and touch tonight as you see fit. In the Lord Jesus Christ's name we do pray, amen. I want to kind of get down into more of the meat here just in a minute of what I want to get to and I want to say that I think all of us, we can all say some have different problems, different expectations in life. I think all of us have different issues, things we've got to deal with. That's no different. All of us have something in our lives that is there, sometimes self-inflicted, sometimes not. And all of us have a job, a chore, a place in life. No matter what your position is, you have a place in life. God has given you something. But you can't do my job and I can't do yours. It doesn't work that way. There's things God has given people to do with this church that I cannot do. One of them we have seen me try is to lead singing. I've done it and I pull it off but not very well. It's just not my part. We work together as one body but we work as individuals. Isn't that unique? We're individual, but yet we work together as one body. And each person, as I said, has their place. You have your part, you have your thing, you have your way, your position. After a week of revival, I would say some are full and some are not. The ones that are not for different reasons, and hopefully some are still bubbling over. And I think it's safe to say as well, I know this is probably just jambering, but it's going to make sense in a minute, don't worry. But I think it's comfortable for me to say that everybody likes to win. And I know the times I've been places in my life and I see a big crowd and I see people win things. I'm thinking, man, why can't that be me every now and then? I want to win. We went to the loving and leading conference and however many people were there. This guy had a Texas tornado, he took a big old tote, clear tote, put a leaf blower in it, pulled the trigger and all people's names spun around and he'd want to blow out and he'd grab it and read their name and they won something. Lo and behold, Bynum Hammer's name popped out, but guess what? We wasn't in a sanctuary at that moment. So we didn't win. And we all want to seem like things that people have. But we all have a chance to win in Jesus. We all have an equal ground to win with Him. Some people in life get a step up on others. They have more opportunities than other people do. It's that simple. I know that. But when it comes to Christian life, friend, we're on evil playing ground. Because God has given you something that you can do and He's given me something that I can do And I'm not any more important than you. I don't have any more easier ground than you do. You don't have any easier ground than me. You're not any more important than I am. We're all together equally. Now I'm going to ask you, and I'm going to ask some questions tonight, but I want to ask you a question this evening. What are you doing? Why do you do what you do for Jesus? Why do you do it? Why do you come to church? Why do you do what you do for Jesus? Something to think about. I'm going to give you the title of the message. What sort it is, is going to be put on display one day. Your works and my works are going to be manifest. The Bible says that means known. A light shining on them. And everything we've done for Jesus is going to be put on fire and tried. Now I'm going to explain to you real quickly that I'm going to preach for just a few minutes. There are two judgment seats in man's future. There's the judgment seat of Christ. For those of you that don't understand what that is, it's also called the Bema seat. When you hear that word Bema seat, that means rewards. That means the judgment seat of Christ. Christians, when you and I leave here one day, we're going to go for the judgment seat of Christ and we're going to be judged for the kind of Christian we were. And then the other judgment seat is called the great white throne of judgment. You don't want to be in front of that one. That's where the lost are judged for not receiving Jesus Christ as their Savior. Their sentence is already upon them. They are already doomed. The only thing that they do is they get sentenced and judged and cast into hell and I firmly believe that there are levels to hell for people. If we can receive rewards in heaven and make heaven better then why can't people receive rewards in hell and make hell worse? And I'm going to tell you I believe hell is going to be the worst for. And you can use this. You can go ahead and say it again. I believe the ones who rejected the gospel under Holy Ghost conviction is going to suffer the worst hell. I really do. More than murderers, rapists, child abusers, whatever you want to put there. I think their hell will be the worst. You say why preacher? Because they will remember for eternity that moment that they heard the gospel and chose the world over Jesus. And that would be a torment that cannot be described for eternity being in hell knowing you did not have to be. Now I may be wrong. It may be worse for some of these jokers that's out here spreading lies and hypocrisy and getting people by the masses to follow them. But nevertheless, I do believe there's rewards for it. So let's get into this and I'm going to read this again and I'm going to give you some ideas. A little bit different style than what I normally preach. I'm just following the Lord. He says again here in verse 10, he said, According to the grace of God which is given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation. Paul is speaking what Jesus did and he's saying here at this church in Corinth he said I have came in by the grace of God we started this church and that's the foundation that was laid. He said another building thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. So you need to pay attention and take heed to what you're doing with this church and how you're approaching it what you're doing because you're building upon what foundations someone laid here in 1867. I don't remember I should know by memory by now who started this church but I'll be honest with you I don't. Does anybody know? Well, I guess I'm a good company. Anyway, whoever started this church one day, God led them to start this church. We're building upon that foundation. And he said in verse 11, he said for other foundations can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. You're building upon the foundation he laid. He is the chief cornerstone. For those of you that don't know what that is, a lot of times in a building you'll see near the bottom somewhere you'll see a certain piece of concrete or stone that's different than any other one there and a lot of times it's labeled with something. A lot of times it's with an organization that I don't care a whole lot for and I'll just move on from that. It's got a little compass and a square. It's got a G right in the middle of it. That is a very satanic group. Anyway, I better move on because I'm going to make a lot of people mad. But it's okay, I'm preaching truth. I feel like I need almost to go on there again. I don't know. Anything that tells you men that you can't share with your wife, you don't need to be part of. If you're wondering, I can give you lots more, but that's just one. That is my wife. I am one with her. I'm married to her. If there's something that comes in my life that I can't share with her, I probably need to think about that. Let me get back to preaching. I didn't know I was going to chase that rabbit trail, but I did just a little. I don't chase it very often, but anyhow. But on buildings you see that cornerstone. Jesus is the cornerstone of Christianity and of our life. Everything you do must come and spring off of Him and come out of Him and from Him and with Him. He is everything to you and I. And everything we do should be in place of Him with His help. Now verse 12, He said, Now if any man build upon this foundation, Gold, silver, precious stones, hay, wood, stubble. Every man's work shall be made manifest for the day, shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. There's one thing on earth that is purifying as much or more than anything I know, and that is fire. In the Bible, fire has got a few different pictures. One of those is purification. And so I want to give you some ideas of some things that I believe that we will win rewards for or lose. Now we know the Bible gives us some details about the type of rewards we can win, but I want to tell you how you can get those and how you might lose some of those. Of what sort it is. Now number one, we all have a cross to bear. Most of us do not want to bear or carry the cross that is given to us sometimes. We want to lay it down. We want someone else's cross. We want it easy. We don't want to go to the cross daily and be sacrificed, be crucified, be submissive as we should be to the Lord or be committed to certain things of God because it requires too much. So therefore we will not pick up our cross daily and follow Him because we don't want what comes with that. Yet there is pain, there is agony, I know all that, but there's blessing, there's joy, there's reward, there's hope in bearing that cross. The Bible says in Luke's Gospel 9 and 23, and he said unto them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Let me ask you a question. You say, preacher, I don't have a cross. I suggest you go into the store of Jesus Christ and find you a cross and pick it up and start carrying it. You say, what do you mean the store? Where's that store at? On your knees and in your Bible. And He will lead you. to do something for Him, to help build this church, help build THE church, and help you have reward one day in heaven. In Luke's Gospel again, later on over, Jesus speaking, He said, If any man come to Me, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also. He cannot be my disciple. Let me stop here. This is not saying that God is telling you to hate your parents and your loved ones. He's saying your love and devotion to me should be so great that it looks, it impales in comparison to everyone else. You should be more willing to follow me and do what I ask you to do above all of your life. That's not always easy to do. But we should be doing it. You and I should love God that way. In verse 27, the next verse he says, And whosoever doeth not bear his cross that come after me cannot be my disciple. So let me tell you something. If you are not bearing your cross, if you're not carrying your cross of Jesus, there is a good chance the only participation trophy you're going to get is merited into heaven. I don't know about you, but when I see Jesus and I see everybody coming around with their crowns and their rewards and laying them at His feet and thanking Him for what He's done for us, I don't want to stand there as a spectator. I want to be a participator. The day is going to come, friend, when you and I will give an account for what we've done. And if you have not carried your cross, there's a good chance you're not going to have any rewards. Why do you do what you do? Why do you come to church? What are you doing here? Hey, I want you to realize you want to do it for Jesus, for Him. It's all for Jesus and we need to bear our cross for Him. So, what sort is it? What sort of daily things do you do? that takes your time, that takes your attention, that takes your focus. I realize we got jobs and things to do. That's not what I'm talking about. But let me ask you a question. How much of your mind is on Jesus throughout the day? How much of the time does He ask you to do something that's a little bit out of your way, that's inconvenient, that troubles you, that bothers you, that hinders you, somehow your plans? How often are you willing to break that for Jesus? If you're not, then you're probably not bearing a cross. Number two, we all have afflictions, don't we? I don't know anybody that don't have some kind of affliction. Everyone has something. Number one, we have a cross. Number two, we have afflictions. 1 Peter 5 and 9, you should be able to almost memorize this one. Whom steadfast resist in the faith, talking about Satan. Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. So let me ask you, how are you handling your reflections? Now I'm going to give you some things to think about here real quickly. Paul said I was given a thorn in the flesh and I almost said we all have a thorn. But I looked at that and I thought, I'm not sure we do. Hear me out. Paul was given a thorn because of the revelations that was given to him. And for those of you young Christians that don't know, the Apostle Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. So when we refer to Paul, that's who we're talking about. And he's the one that wrote this. He said, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. We don't know what it was, so don't waste your time saying I figured it out. He said, because of the revelations that was given to me was overabundant and I would not be puffed up in the Spirit. Now I do believe God does things in our life to keep us humble. No doubt. And sometimes that could be a thorn in the flesh. But if you're not getting some good juice from God, you probably don't have a thorn in your side. You got no reason to have a thorn. So I'm not sure everybody's got one. I used to preach that and I looked at it the other day and I thought, huh, I'm not sure about this. But we all got afflictions. Let me ask you a question. If God was going to reward you on how well you're handling afflictions in your life, what would you have? Is there hay, wood, and stubble? You know, amazing thing, I went home this afternoon, I'll talk about that this morning, and I had to go out and huff and puff and split a little bit of wood. I'm about out of wood. Where are you at, Brandon? We're fixing to split some firewood, son. Praise God. And I got some wood in, I got a pile but I let it get wet and we're almost out so I got some in. I got that fire going, a built up fire and I love to sit there and just watch it burn, hear it pop and snap and feel that heat off of it. And the amazing thing about it is what blows my mind is I put that wood in there and it burns up. It doesn't just keep burning. I gotta keep feeding the thing. I mean, I'm like, what in the world is going on? So after a while of burning all this wood, there's left nothing but a pile of ashes. And every now and then, I gotta go get a bucket, take that shovel, shovel those ashes in that bucket, try not to stir it up the least amount as possible, and I take it outside, and guess what I do with it? Dispose of it. Because it has no value. When deflections come in your life, the way you handle them, is there anything left? Gold, silver, precious stones, or is it wood, hay, and stubble? You know, the only participation trophy we're going to get is getting into heaven. You see, we all work together as one. You cannot have the rewards I've got, but I can't get your rewards either. It's up to you to get them. I can't get yours, you can't get mine. I can't get yours for you, you can't get mine for me. You can't blame anybody else for not getting the rewards that is rightfully yours when God gave you the opportunity to do things for him that you could gain rewards. What sort is it? So one, are you carrying your cross? Two, how are you doing with afflictions? You know, we all are afflicted. You can say, well, they got it harder than I do. Don't always think that, folks. I'm going to tell you something. If you're serving God, rest assured they're suffering just like you. There's a devil that hates them just as bad as he hates you. And he's fighting everybody that loves the Lord. Hey, we all have our afflictions. We all have our things that we deal with. But hey, how's it going tonight? Are you suffering for the Lord or are you suffering because of what you're doing wrong? Where's your afflictions coming from? So number three, we all have an adversary. We all have crossed the barrier. We have afflictions. We have an adversary. You know, I think it's safe to say he's out to get us all, don't you? He wants you and I dead. He doesn't want us to live. He doesn't want us to enjoy life. He doesn't want us to get anything from God. He doesn't want us to love the Lord. He wants you dead, period. I'm going to give a verse a little different on this subject, and I'm going to explain why. There was a lady in a city that went to a judge, a widow, and she went to him, and Jesus is speaking of this particular parable, and I'm going to just give you a verse out of it. We're going to move on. He said, There was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. In other words, she felt like somebody had done her wrong, and she wondered what was rightfully hers. You know what's rightfully ours in the eyes of God? But we have an adversary. And Satan is definitely our adversary. He is definitely the, let me tie my shoes so I don't trip and fall and I don't care if you laugh at my expense but Lord I don't need any more pains and knocks and aches and injuries. But let me tell you about another adversary. There's two other ones. you and those in your life that just get at you. That's the adversary I want to talk about for just a couple minutes. What kind of reward you going to get for the way you're handling adversaries in your life. What if God sent somebody your way just to test you and see how well you're going to do and your reward was based upon that? Somebody that just somehow needled you, the very sight of them just went up and down you and all around you and in and out. Sometimes there's people like that. Let's be honest, you're not that holy and neither am I. And we all have those people in our lives that just we'd soon never see again. Be honest, you ain't no holier than I am. But I wonder sometimes how we deal with those people. What if some of our reward was based upon how we handle them? One day, the way you and I conducted ourselves as Christians, as God-like, as Jesus-like in front of these people, it will be put on fire. Do you want me to think left? How about people that's done you wrong, that you think that you deserve better? What if we got what we deserve from God? God says, I've given you eternal life. He said, I've laid it out for you. I've given you a path. I've given you a journey. He said, along that journey and trial, you've got some things to take care of. You've got to cross the bear. He said, you've got to carry that thing daily. You're going to have adversary. You're going to have affliction. He said, you're going to have all these things. He said, how are you doing keeping your focus and faith on me? Because over and over and over in the Bible, he says, look unto Now, I don't know about you all, but I enjoyed this week. I'll be honest with you. Physically, I'm wore out. It has been a very, very long week. I've had two funerals to preach this week. I had to work. I had a revival. I know y'all had to work. All of us are tired, no doubt. I don't know about you, but I've kind of enjoyed this. I want to see a little bit more of it, don't you? I tried to print a calendar a while ago and I couldn't get it done. I don't know, crazy phone or crazy coffee machine. It's modern technology. It's good when it works. But through this past week, I've also had an adversary. I don't know about you, I'd say he did, but boy, he sure come down on me a couple of times. He tested out my faith. You know what's weird about some things in life? We talk about our adversary the devil as a roaring lion walked about seeking whom he may devour. Oftentimes we give the illustration of watching the shows on TV, Natural Geographic or whatever it is when they show the lions or the cheetahs or whatever prey they are. I mean predators and they'll see those gazelle or the wildebeest or whatever out in the field and they're picking out the one that they see that's vulnerable most of the time. And they'll find a little one or something, some kind of, one of them that is straight out from the rest of the pack, somehow it becomes prey and they target that one and oftentimes, more times than not, they win that battle. Satan is looking at you and I and that is what he's looking for. A weakness somewhere in your life or a weak Christian who he can prey upon and he wants to destroy and he's looking at things in your life right now saying, where can I attack that I can defeat them? I can discourage. I can get them back out of the fire that they've gotten in for God. He wants to put it out. And He's looking for the way right now, your adversary. Hey, it's not just rewards, it's just going along doing what God says and staying true and staying on the path no matter how hard it gets, no matter what comes against you, who comes against you, saying I'm focused on Jesus and I'm going on for Him. No matter how hard it gets, I'm not going to quit. He's with you. He's with you. You're going to have some problems in life. You know one of the greatest testimonies you can have is when afflictions come and the adversary is kicking you and you're down? Keep faith in Jesus. He told Peter, and I'm going to make my last point and I'll be done in a few minutes. When he told Peter, he said, he came to Peter and said, Peter, Satan has a desire to have you that he may shift you as wheat. In other words, he wants to just rip you to shreds. He said, but I prayed for thee What's the next few words? That thy faith fail not. He's when thou art converted. Thy faith fail not. You want to know the secret to a lot of this? Is your faith fail not. Don't lose faith in God. Don't lose faith in Jesus. Keep your eyes on Him. Keep trusting Him no matter how bad it looks. No matter how wrong things are. No matter what kind of rock and hard place you're in. No matter how deep the water gets. Keep trusting Him. Keep your focus on Him. Fixate on Him. And just keep walking towards Him. Keep praying. Keep reading your Bible. Keep going. Yes, it gets hard. Yes, it gets tough. But keep with Him. He will get you there. He will see you through. Sooner or later, if you'll keep doing that, I promise you, Satan will leave you alone at a time. He will say, I'm tired of fighting. We're not doing any good. Let's pull back and let's regroup and see what we can do. Leave him alone for a while. He will do that. It may not last long, but I sure enjoy it when it does. So you've got a cross. We've got afflictions. We've got an adversary. Let me ask you. When that's put on fire, how do you handle that? What is it? What is it? What's it going to bring? Lastly, and this one's a little bit different. We also have an advocate and he is there to protect and encourage, protect and encourage us. Do you realize once you're born again, once you're saved, you see God is, we got God, the father of God, the son of God, the holy ghost. They're no separate in power, they're equally, but there are three persons in one to explain that preacher. I just did. He's God. Okay. God can do things you and I can't do. So when you're saved, you're born again, Holy Spirit moves inside of you. You know, a good way to know that you're saved is when you've done something wrong and nobody knows about it, but you feel bad. You regret it almost immediately. That's a pretty good indicator that you've done something wrong. that Holy Spirit is living within you, he's the one that's telling you that. Maybe something you've done before that didn't bother you that you do now that does. That's God telling you that I don't like that, that's not pleasing to me. You see, John's Gospel 14 and 16, it says, Jesus speaking, he says, and I'll pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. And the word comforter there is capitalized. In other words, the Holy Spirit is also called comforter. He comes on the side of you is what that means and walks with you, talks with you, helps you along the way. There's nothing more comforting at times than laying down in a nice comfortable bed at night and taking a comforter of some kind or your blanket of choice and wrapping up in that and getting all comfortable and warm and cozy and at peace to where you can lay down and sleep at night and everything's okay. That's how I like to think of the Holy Spirit right there. Your advocate is Jesus Christ. Anything you do wrong, He's there to help you. He's there to encourage you. He's there to pray for you. He's there to help you along the way. He says, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So let me ask you a question. How much faith do you got in your advocate versus how much faith do you got in you? If we receive reward for our faith in Jesus, what would we have? Is God going to come up and take his dustpan out and his broom and sweep it up and dump it out? Or is he going to reach down and pick that up or maybe have you reach down dust, a little bit of the debris off of it, a little bit of the ashes off of it and there pick up some gold. Hey, maybe there's a ruby, there's a pearl, and there's some other fine jewels, and there's some silver, and there's some gold, and there's a crown. in the mix of all that. Because at times in your life when you had to bear your cross and people were telling you that you're crazy, that you were doubting yourself and Satan was saying that God doesn't love you, God is mad at you, God hates you, yet you just kept carrying that cross. You kept going and you had afflictions come upon you and things happen, go wrong. Things break down at the wrong time. Things happen with the worst possible times. Satan doesn't attack you when it's easy, he kicks you when you're down. And you go along and you got all this happening to you, yet you still carry that cross. You're coming to church faithful. You're still praying. You're still trusting Jesus. You're still doing what you said you would do in this church. You don't want to let not just us down, but you don't want to let God down. And you keep carrying that cross. And here the adversary comes. And all your fictions, and he keeps kicking you all along. Then all of a sudden, an advocate appears one day and says, I'm going to reward you. You know, I like some of the rewards now. You know what? Let me give you one of that I think was a good reward. One of the things that I think some of you have been to that I've been praying for in this church is for us to have a real worship service without visitors involved. That it comes from these people. I know Jason was testifying the other night, but I'm telling you, it wasn't God just sprung it at that time. But Mike has told me many times, he's a preacher, sometimes I just want to jump up and take off running. I've told him, I said, then run. He said, I'm afraid what somebody thinks. I said, shut them down. Who cares what they think? If they don't like it, go somewhere where nobody shouts and it's dead and dried up. It's the best advice I can give you. That's what I told him. And Mike just, oh, it's done so much for me. Grabbed Cody, one of the quietest people in here, in his purple shirt. He can pull off purple better than almost anybody I know. Brought him up with him. He shouted with him a little bit. He come on up here and he just kept shouting. I said, son, keep it going. I have prayed for that for seven years. Now I'm not meaning it negative. What I'm saying is God knew when it had to happen, when it needed to. And my goodness church, I can't understand why people does not want this. for the life of me. I got to wonder, why don't they want him? Why don't people want more Jesus? I've not found anything or anybody that does for me what Jesus does. I've tried. I've tried amongst all of it. I mean, I bought new vehicles and I knew it wasn't going to stay new forever and I knew it wasn't going to make me content. And sure enough, after a while, a few vehicle payments and something goes wrong, you think it's a piece of junk? Hey, Jesus ain't no piece of junk. And through all of our failures and through all of our faults, He's still there. You know, I'm done right here. There have been times in my life that I went in and I said, Lord, I've carried this cross all I can carry it. Throw it down. The afflictions just seem like they're just coming from everywhere. Satan comes along, people come along. It's like there's adversary everywhere. Look, instead of trying to get help, I'm getting hurt. And I just feel beat up. It's like, man, it's just going to end. I mean, what in the world? I know, Lord, I've done some things wrong, but good grief. And all of a sudden, somewhere along the line, here comes my advocate. Here comes Holy Spirit. And he'll start loving me just a little bit. And he'll start shining that light just a little bit brighter. He'll say, just please read your Bible. Just go to your Bible. Just open it up and turn here. And I'll turn there and it may be a verse I've read a hundred times, but that one time seemed like God quickens it. And it does something in my heart that words can't describe. That nobody can give, no drug, no alcohol, no experience, no purchase, no nothing can bring or do for you. what God's Word illuminated in your heart can and will do when it's quickened by Holy Spirit. And all of a sudden, I get a little more breath about me, and I say, well, Satan, I know I'm down, but Lord, just please help me. And I'll keep asking Him to help me, and I'll start praying a little bit more. And I'll look at that old cross, and finally I'll say, well, let me look at it, let me think about it. Well, that thing ain't too bad. It fits just right. And God, with His help, I can get back under the load of that cross and start carrying it again and keep moving forward with Him. And all the afflictions turn into the adversarial fold. I say, I'm going home for a while. Thank God we got victory in Jesus. The problem is keep your eyes on Him. I'm going to tell you this. You don't go through a wicked revival like we just had without some conflict. Satan's going, if he hasn't come to your home yet, don't worry, he knows your address. I'm not trying to be negative, I'm trying to warn you. He's going to kick up dust. He's going to try to get you mad at me. He's going to try to get you mad at somebody else in this church. He's going to try to get you upset at your spouse, your kids, anybody he can. You don't care who it is. All he wants to do is make sure he knocked your eyes off Jesus and he's got you. He's got you. There's people that used to come to this church that I have went and visited in their home for different reasons. They're not coming here now. They're not going anywhere. I don't know what it is either, but it's OK. It's a computer. It beeps every now and then. It'll be all right. And the day is going to come that we're going to stand before God, that we're going to stand before Jesus Christ at the Bema seat, and our life is going to be put on fire. And they're not going to be able to look at Jesus and say, well, I got hurt. How are you going to look at Him and tell Him that? I mean, how are you going to tell Him, well, they hurt me? They killed Him! I mean they beat him, unmercifully, spit in his face. You gonna look at him and say they hurt my feelings? I bet that'll go over good. I'm sure he'll be compassionate for you. Church, that is for eternity. It's temporary. Here lately, Dale Vance called me two or three weeks ago. He said, if you ever rode bikes or just ride a four-wheeler, I said, no, I rode dirt bikes. He said, why ain't you got a Harley? I said, there's different reasons, I guess. I've shopped for Harleys more the last two weeks and learned more about Harleys than I've ever had in my life. I'm wanting a Harley. Praise God. If I find one that is perfect for me, it'll still have flaws somewhere. And more than that, I'm not riding it to heaven. Probably the most precious thing I've got right now, physically speaking, is a gun my dad gave me. You can buy about anything I've got, a couple guns, a few knives, and maybe some other little things, and that's about it. Anything else, if you price her just right, you can buy her. Try me. I'll kill you over some of that stuff. I'm not a fighter like Robert Gibson, but I'm not going to let somebody come in and take what I've got. You know, Satan can't take what you've got. No matter how bad he wants it. God give it to you. And he's better than anybody. He's bigger than anybody. He's meaner than anybody. He's more loving than anybody. He's more powerful than anybody. And what he says goes. And nobody can stop it. If he tells you to get up and run home, you can run home because he gave you the power to do it. God is able to do anything through you He wants. And when He tells you to do something, you've lived long enough to know you can do it, don't you? There's something waiting at the end. There's a reward that nobody can take. Father, we thank you again for this time together. Lord, you've been so good to us, and I pray I didn't belabor this. I'm sorry if I preach too long, Lord. Sometimes I get to talking about you, and I can't quit. God, you're so wonderful. I wish I could describe you. I thank you so much. Preacher Lockridge, God, when he went on about that, Lord, what it is to try to describe you. I wish we could describe you sometimes. Holy Spirit, the only way that I know is for you to illuminate yourself in someone's heart. And for someone here tonight that needs just a little bit more illumination, I pray that you give it to them. I don't know if this message even went across halfway like I wanted it to or what I had in my heart and mind. Only you know, God, I hope it did. Lord, we sure love you and I'm excited for the day that I get to stand before you. It's fearful, but it's exciting. God, I look forward to one day seeing you face-to-face, Jesus, and knowing what you look like, and thank you for dying for me. I pray for those who are here tonight. I don't, as far as I know, everybody here saved, but God, I don't know that. For somebody that's lost that doesn't know you, they need to be saved. They need to realize they've sinned against you, God. We all have. We all, those of us that are saved, we had to come to the realization one time in our life that we were lost and going to die and go to hell if we didn't ask you to save us and forgive us. And thank God you did. And I pray for somebody here tonight that needs to do that, you give them the courage to do so. Lord, we love you, we praise you, and we thank you for this time together. No touch hearts is needed. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. As we stand, we get a song. If you have a need tonight, if God has spoken to you, I invite you to come. If He's told you to do something, you've been fighting it and fighting it and fighting it and giving God reasons why you can't, I'd say tonight would be a good night to get that settled and tell the Lord that you're tired of giving excuses and reasons why you can't and get it right. Let's just thank Him this evening, let's praise Him. And if there's something at all you need to come pray about, I invite you, come and pray. As we stand, as we sing.