All right, let's go to Philippians chapter 4. There's been a lot of references made to diets tonight, food and stuff like that. So we're going to talk about diets. My wife's always talking about, she's been talking about diets. What's all those diets? This doctor's got a diet, and that doctor's got a diet, and THM, and Weight Watchers, and shoo-wee. I've got diabetes, I got a diet. Everybody's got a diet. Well, God's got a diet too. It's not for him, it's for us. Okay, so in Philippians, we'll get started, we'll pray here, and we'll get started here in Philippians chapter four, verse one. Lord God, we thank you for this day, we thank you for watching over us, and we thank you, Lord, for just being there every time we need you. Thank you for the testimony of amazing grace. And Lord God, I ask you for someone here tonight, Lord, that hasn't tasted that amazing grace. I pray, Lord, that they'll make that decision. Please bless the reading of your Word, and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Philippians chapter 4, verse 1, we'll start out with the admonition that Paul talks about here, it says, Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for my joy and crown. So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Notice how Paul talked. You know, in one spot he said, Though I be rude in speech, but yet not in knowledge. We can learn something here. Dearly beloved and longed for. Do you think about coming to church so that you can see your brothers and sisters? Do you want to see them again and visit with them? It's kind of like family, you know, you like your family to come over and you like to visit with them and talk with them. Do we feel that same way about each other? Not getting on to you, I'm just saying, you know, watch how Watch how he talks here. He says, I beseech Iodius and beseech Syntyche that they may be of the same mind than the Lord. Ah, we got a little, seems to be a little problem here. We got somebody that, it just kind of, they don't get along quite well or something. And you know, the Bible, God understands that. He understands that not everybody's going to get along just fine, but He's saying that they be of the same mind. You know, we don't all believe everything alike, but we need to be of the same mind. We believe the gospel. We believe that Jesus Christ, He died on the cross for us. He was buried. He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. We've got to be in the same mind of that. It's not baptism, it's not church membership, it's not teaching a class, it's not preaching, it's not any of that. You know John Wesley preached for a long time and made several missionary journeys before he ever got saved? Yeah, did you know that? He was doing what he thought was God's will, and obviously God had a reason for it, but he brought a great big storm in his life, and he saw the peace that passeth all understanding, which we'll read about here in a minute, the peace that passeth all understanding in the Moravian brethren. They're over there just singing hymns and praying to God, and their ship's fixing to sink, and John Wesley's going, Wow, they got something I need. And he got saved. So the brethren, we need to love each other and we need to long to meet. It'd be a good reason to come to church, wouldn't it? So it says in verse three, and I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow. What's a true yoke fellow? A true Yolk Fellow is, I've had several people that I could work with that it's just like we could read each other's mind. You ever worked with someone like that? You know, building a house? If I'm putting in a car wash, if I've got Jonathan or I've got Alan, we don't even have to talk. We know what needs to be done next and we just do it. We're a true Yolk Fellow. Well, it was just like the other day, you and Brother Jonathan, when you were talking to that lady. One may talk one time, one may talk the other, but you both sense who needs to be taking the lead, and then the other one's over there praying. That's a true yoke fellow. You work together. It says, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with my other fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Now this is a tough thing to do when things are going wrong, things are falling apart. Yeah, you can't see what God's got in store for you. Well, you really need to understand that when you go through, when you're going through something in life, I think it was Brother Aaron that said the other day, has it ever occurred to you that nothing's occurred to God? Nothing sneaks up on Him. The situation of your life right now, no matter how bad it is or how good it is, it's because God's got you there for a reason. You gotta figure out what the reason is. If something's broke, you gotta find out why it's broke, and you can fix it. I was working on an ice machine yesterday, and we turned on this breaker. It's a GFCI breaker, so you turn it on, and then about 30 seconds later, it'd kick off. Well, man, there's so much stuff in there. What's causing it to kick off? There were three wires in it, three wires. You take all the wires out, you put one wire back in, you turn it on, and see if it trips. You see what I'm saying? It didn't trip. Pull that one out, put this one in, turn it back on. it tripped. You take the other two wires, put them back in, that didn't trip it, do it, it didn't trip. Okay, let's trace that wire and let's find out where the problem is. A bunch of ants had crawled into an outlet and gotten wet and it was shorting out another GFCI outlet. Way back on the back of the machine somewhere. So take that, and you got problems in your life? Okay, start eliminating some things and find out what the problem is. It's not everything. It's usually just one thing. It could be, well, we're not gonna go into a whole bunch of things. We're gonna get down here and get on a diet real quick. But rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say, rejoice. When we, you know, the joy of the Lord is our strength. Remember when Israel's about to go into a battle, and they knew they were gonna get whooped just big time, and they started singing and rejoicing, and God fought the battle for them? What's he saying here? Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Where was Paul at when he wrote Philippians? He was in prison. He was in prison. So he says, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing. But in everything, be careful for nothing means don't be full of care. Don't be full of care. We've all been down and out at one point or another. I've told you before about some of the things that my family went through when I was young. It was pretty bad. It was real bad. God took us all through it. Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Are you making your requests known unto God? Or are you just sitting and waiting for things to happen to you? Just waiting for things to happen? That's basically the way I was raised up. You just waited for things to happen. Whatever happened, you rolled with the flow and you went on down the road. No planning, no short, long, medium range goals. We didn't even know what that was. Okay? So, it says, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. So, did you see what he said? You're making supplications, which means what? You're asking for something, okay? You're asking for something, and at the same time, you're thanking God for it. At the same time. You're asking for something, and at the same time, you're telling him, thank you. Why? Because he says, ask, and ye shall receive. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. I love that, ask, seek, and knock. Ask, those first three letters, spell ask. I love that and I'm going to say it until I die, I guess, because I just think it's cool. in verse seven, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Why? Because you know you've made your supplications, you know you've given thanksgiving to God, and you know that He's gonna guide your path. Now, when you know those things, you're gonna have peace. Now, I didn't say peace with God, it says the peace of God. which passeth all understanding." Do we understand why and how he answers prayers? Just like we said a while ago, we all prayed one Wednesday night. Dewey had a job either the next day or the day after. Well, I think it was because of prayer because he's been out beating the bushes. I think the same thing will happen for Chris. You know what I'm saying? Carol and I were married eight years before we had our first baby. Well, the first three years were because she was taking contraceptives, didn't know any better. But, after that, we didn't know what was going on. I stood up in front of the church one time just like this and said, look, y'all pray for us so that we can have kids. Well, wow, we wound up with five kids. God answered those prayers. You understand? Okay? So, he He just does. And the peace of God, which passeth all understandings, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, in verse eight, now we're gonna get down to the diet here, okay? Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, we need a diet of true, okay? We're gonna put some of this on our plate, okay? True is loving the truth, truthful, speaking the truth, wouldn't that be nice? Wouldn't it be nice if just everybody would just speak the truth? I mean, wouldn't it be nice? We wouldn't have to sit there and try to think, oh well, what are they really thinking? Or what are they really, if you just, do you have some friends that are just like that, that just, they love the truth, they're truthful, and they speak the truth? Truth hurts sometimes. So if you've got a friend that hurts your feelings every once in a while by speaking the truth, you've got a good friend there. I don't mean hateful. It doesn't say hateful. It's just saying the truth. Husbands and wives, loving the truth, truthful, speaking the truth. There shouldn't be anything that's not true in there. You see what I'm saying? So put a little truth on our plate. Eat a little bit of that. And then, honest. Honest. What do we say when we look at somebody? We say, just be honest with me. Just be honest with me. Just tell me the what? Truth. Okay? So, honest is honorable, venerable. It's, if you know someone that is honest, you look up to them. You'll go to them for advice. In the multitude of counselors, there is wisdom, there is safety. You go to someone who you know is going to be honest, and they're going to be straight up true, right? That's what we say, straight up honest. And then, just. Now, okay. What kind of trouble do you get into coming across our southern border? Well, you used to, you got in trouble. Now it's just kind of like, oh man, just let them come in. You know, whoever it is, it doesn't matter. And I'm going to be straight up with you. You're looking at a guy here that loves the Mexican people. I mean, they were so kind to me when I was just little, picking cotton. They would share their food with me. They would share their drinks with me. They would laugh. They would have fun. And I've worked with them all my life. And I love working with them. And I love talking with them. And I don't have any problem with them coming over here legally. But we've got a problem here. It's not just for anyone to come in here in an improper way. Our politicians are just kind of letting it go, letting it slide. Number two, on this just thing. Number two, now we kill babies when they come out of the womb. There's something wrong here. We let people come across our border with no repercussions. We let people kill a living human being And I know it's wrong inside the womb, you understand, you know I know that, but I mean to actually be barbaric and lay them over on a table and let them die? And then now, I just heard this today, down in Dallas, the Dallas County District Attorney has said he will no longer prosecute anyone that steals necessities, you know, food, stuff like that, under $750. Now think about this. How many people in Dallas County, I have no clues, a few million I'm sure, more than the population of Arkansas, now have a ticket to go steal $700 worth of groceries And they're not going to be prosecuted for it. They're not going to get prosecuted. What is going to happen? Now, do you see a trend here? That's not just. That's not just. Now, he happens to be a Democrat, and I'm going to put that out there. So these other things, too. Those three things I just stated are all approved and are pushed by the Democratic Party. Now, and I understand, you know, we got a right wing and a left wing, okay? But it's the same bird, I understand that. It's the same bird, okay? And I'm not a, I don't think that Republicans are our savior. I think God, Jesus Christ is our savior. And I'm waiting for his Quick return. Just, it means upright. It means innocent. It means faultless. It means guiltless. It means thinking, acting, feeling conformed to the will of God and passing just judgment on others. That's a hard thing to do, isn't it? Because I think Brother Brooks touched on this the other day, talking about every man's ways is right in his own eyes. I'm doing everything right. You're not. Why? Because you don't agree with me. I see what I'm saying. All right. No, it's being just is passing just judgment on others. We all have a little bit of latitude here. It says, the Bible talks about one man esteems a day above another. Another man esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. You see what I'm saying? He says, let us not judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put an occasion to fall or a stumbling block in his brother's way. You see, it says, passing just judgment on others. Does that mean giving a little benefit of the doubt? Does that mean giving a little bit of leeway? You don't have to think just like I do to be saved? You see what I'm saying? So we've got just and then we've got pure. And it means purity from carnality. It means chaste. It means modest. It means clean. Do you realize that this is not a list of rules or laws or anything like that? It's characteristics. How do you get characteristics? Remember in school there were two types we learned? was inherited characteristics and acquired characteristics, right? Does that mean that the inherited ones, some of those you can't do anything about? You knew I was going there. You just can't do anything about it. My boys used to say, Dad, you don't have any hair, you don't have any hair. I was probably in my mid-20s or 26, 27, something like that. And all of a sudden they started, oh, Jonathan started poofing his hair up a little bit, you know, to try to keep some up front there, but it didn't work. So you've got inherited characteristics. I think Jonathan and I, our voices sound a lot alike on the phone. It's hard to tell us apart. Now, Megan could probably tell, I'm sure she could, but if one of us, if both of us called you in one day, you might think we're the same person. And then Alan has inherited a bunch of characteristics from his mama's side, Smith's side, Broome's side. But these are characteristics that we can all develop by being around what? Truth and true people, just and just people. You understand? Honest. Do you understand? This is a diet that we need to be eating from. We need to be cultivating this. We need to be around each other. That's one reason that this church has lots of fellowships. That's good. It shouldn't be just about the food. But any good Baptist knows that if you're going to, you know, I mean, even in the Bible, when they had fellowships, they ate. You see what I'm saying? What did Jesus say? Come and dine. You know what I'm saying? Even Jesus liked to do that. So we just take after Him. Okay, so pure, pure from carnality, chaste, Modest and clean. Isn't it nice to be around clean people that you know you're not going to be hearing filth from? You're not going to be hearing God's name in vain. Let me tell you how to cure, I'm talking seriously cure people that you're around that use God's name in vain and stuff. You just, it's just like you want to cure a lion, this is basically the same thing. You want to cure, do you have a problem with a lion? You want to cure that? I'll tell you how to cure that. Next person you lie to, you chase them down and you go and tell them, you apologize and you tell them you're sorry for lying to them. And you know what they're going to do? I know it works because I have done it myself and it makes me not want to do it again. Okay. I lied to my boss one time. It was just as simple. It wasn't prefabricated. It wasn't premeditated. It spurred a moment. He asked me a question and I said, no, and I should have said yes. And I chased him down and I told him, I said, I just lied to you. He goes, what? I said, it just came out. Just bam. And I said, I just lied to you. And because I knew it would disappoint him if I would have said yes. I didn't want to disappoint him. But that wasn't a reason to lie. And that was what you might call a little white lie, but they're all black, it's sin. But I guarantee you, I would rather tell you the truth than to go apologize to you for lying. You know what I'm saying? So that's a cure. Now, you want to cure somebody from, You know, they wanted to tell a dirty joke or something? Let me give you some ammo. I watched my pastor in South Carolina do this, and I didn't even know him. I hadn't even known him that long. We were building the church, and we were roughing in the plumbing on a 40 by 120 foundation, and we went down to Rose Plumbing Supply. And there was this guy in there that claimed to be a Christian. And the owner there claimed to be a Christian, too. And we walked in. Of course, we're in a t-shirt and blue jeans. We weren't dressed up or anything. And here's my pastor. He's about this tall. He was in the Blue Angels. And this guy started just telling us a dirty joke right off. And I'm sitting there. I'm so embarrassed. This is my pastor, man. This is my preacher. And he's talking like this. And Brother Baker said, you know why Jesus Christ died for your sins? And the guy went, whoa. He said, so you wouldn't have to tell jokes like that. Does your boss know that you tell jokes like that to your customers? Well, I told him and he liked it. We marched right into that boss's office and I mean, he raked him over the coals. I thought you were supposed to be saved. I mean, that's the way you do it. You don't have to be mean. You don't have to be ugly. You just gotta have enough guts to stand up. And I've been waiting. I think I might have been able to use that once in the last 30 years. Because once you get the ammo, the devil won't put you in that situation. You know what I mean? But just remember that. Some uncomfortable situation like that, you just say, hold it. Oh, excuse me. Do you know why Jesus Christ died for your sins? So you wouldn't have to whatever. So you wouldn't have to talk like that, so you wouldn't have to say that. Do you understand? You've got enough guts to do that? Put that on your plate and do that. It works. It's nice to be around chaste, modest, clean people. So be one. The next one is lovely. Lovely means It doesn't mean beautiful. It doesn't mean drop-dead gorgeous or ultra handsome. It doesn't mean that. It means acceptable and pleasing. And that should bring a verse to your mind. I don't know if it does or not. You can look it up. Lovely. And then good report. This word here, report, is only used one time in the Bible. Guess where it's used at? Oh, right here. Right here. It means well spoken of or reputable. It's a good reputation. Can you think of someone that you know that you could think that is well spoken of and reputable? Be like that person. Just be like that person. Virtue, we're talking about characteristics that we need to develop in our lives. Some of you may have them all. Some may not have any. Some may be halfway. But we can all cultivate these things. We can all do that. I mean, I can do it. I need it. Virtue means virtuous thought, feeling, and action. Thought, feeling, and action. Thought, feeling, and action. And it means modesty and purity. There's that again, that modesty and that purity again. Virtue. Praise. Praise is commendation or approbation. In other words, someone, you know, I never was one, still not. I don't like praise. I want God to get any glory. I want God to get any honor. Anything that's done in my life, what little there is done, I want God to have it. You know what I'm saying? And if someone does say something, I'm going to say, praise the Lord, because I know where I came from. And left to myself, I know where I'd probably go. You know what I'm saying? Because that second law of thermodynamics doesn't just work in the natural arena, it also works in our hearts. Even Jesus said that. You see? So, the praise needs to go to God. It needs to go to God. And then it says, on these things. So what does think mean? It means to reckon, to count, to compute, to calculate, to consider. Now if you're like me, you do not think of those things all day long. I don't. I'll admit it to you. But it tells us to do that. So that's why, that's one reason. I had something else I was going to bring, but the Lord changed my mind this afternoon on this. I'm bringing this so that we all will, including myself, start thinking on these things. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm bringing it to our remembrance. So we can think on these things, so that we will think on these things, that we will be true, honest, just, pure, lovely, good, report, virtue, praise, and then think on these things, consider these things. Now, in Proverbs 23, 7, you don't have to turn there, I'm just going to read, as a man thinketh in his heart, as a man thinketh in his heart. Matthew 12, 34, out of the abundance of the heart. So, what's in our heart? Man, let's try to put some, let's try to eat some truth and honesty and just and pure and lovely and good report and virtue and praise. Let's think on these things. Let's do this. Aaron and Erica sang a song, How Deep the Father's Love, Sunday. I thought this was so good. I had a 16-hour day yesterday, four hours to the first job, and I was there for almost four and a half hours, and then I had another two hours to go to the next job right at it, and then another four hours there, and then I had three and a half, or whatever it was, get back to the house, or whatever that was, okay, from like four in the morning until 8.30 last night. Well, you know, I was scanning across the station down around Texarkana, across the radio, and they've got a pretty good Christian radio station down there, 92.5 FM. And they had some good music on there. And I was actually in my mind singing that song, How Deep the Father's Love. About a minute later, that song came on that radio station. How deep the Father's love. Now that's not a coincidence. You know what I'm saying? And that song is written, it's one of my favorite songs, and it's written by a modern songwriter. Actually, most of his songs are contemporary. He decided he's gonna, I was watching a interview with him. He says, you know what? About something like 80% of the people, Christians, love hymns. They love hymns more than they love this contemporary stuff. And that was kind of surprising to me. He says, you know, he says, I think I can write one. And he wrote that one. And he did a fantastic job with his little Ivy League cap on. You know, I have one of those too. But let's turn to Philippians chapter one real quick, verse six. It says, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He tells us to think on those things. You know what, we gotta help her. That's why you know, that's one reason why you can witness to someone without being embarrassed, without being intimidated, because you have an inside man. When you're giving forth the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is working inside that person. And He is working on that person like you never could. All you are, all I am, is just a mouthpiece, like you were speaking of, giving the Word of God to someone, and the Holy Spirit's taking that thing, and He's the one that's doing the work. If you think you're doing the work, that's why you have problems. Because you can't do it. You can take this word and you can give it to someone and let God use it. We prayed for Carol's dad for 31 years. And we witnessed to him and bought him a Bible and everything else. And you know what? He got saved. That's a long time. Some of you all have done the same thing. You know what I'm saying? So it's not us. It's not us. Okay, in Philippians chapter 2, verse 13, it says, For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. You know, those clichés, those old sayings, I really don't like them. A lot of them have truth in them. You know, let go and let God. You know what I mean? Just let God do the work and you stop trying to do it. 2 Thessalonians. Let's go over there. In verse 2, or chapter 2, I mean. Verse 17 says, comfort your hearts. Well, let's go to verse 16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Now you notice it says every good. Are you doing something good for God? Then He's going to establish you in that. He's going to establish you. What does that mean? I was building my shop out at the house. I don't know how many years ago, 20 years ago. And it's 14 foot high sidewalls, because I wanted a 14 foot ceiling, because I wanted to be able to turn something around in there without having to worry about it. And I had a truss I had to put up on that. that end wall. And that truss was a 30-foot run. And I don't remember the pitch. It's a pretty good pitch because it's about this tall. And all I had out there was kids. Margie was nine years old. Margie helped me put that first truss up there. We didn't have a tractor. We didn't have a crane. We didn't have none of that stuff. So we had to establish a point where we could put that truss up there and not let it fall off the end of the wall 14 foot down, you know what I'm saying? So we put a couple of, I don't know what you guys call them, we call them chicken boards when you run them down the, you know it's just two two-by-fours like this or two-by-sixes like that where you can actually lay them on your trusses. My trusses are eight foot apart, so something you could walk on. and I know there's chicken boards that you put to do the soffit and all that kind of stuff, but anyway, we stood up two long chicken boards up there, for lack of a better term, and then when we leaned that truss up against that, it couldn't fall off. We established a point, and it was God is going to comfort our hearts and establish us in every good word and work. In other words, we're not going to fall, we're not going to slip, we're not going to fall off the wall, okay, because He is going to do that. Now, do you trust Him to do that? You know, it's funny how we can trust God for our salvation and we don't worry about it. You know, most of us don't worry about it because it's a done deal, but we can't trust Him for tomorrow. We can't trust Him for little stuff. We worry. Wasn't it John Wesley that said, I would as soon curse or swear as to worry or fret? Man, to have a heart like that. All right, let's go to Hebrews 13. We're just about done. Hebrews 13. Verse 12, wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. He took all of our suffering. He says, let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach, for here we have no continuing city. Which one of you guys are going to take your stuff with you when you're in that casket? Anybody? Okay. Sometimes people take stuff off of you when you're in the casket. How do I know that? I used to work at a cemetery. My first Saturday we buried 19 people. We had mausoleums on the And some of those people, we had to open the casket because the people wanted the jewelry that was on their fingers. And we would take the jewelry off for them and we would give it to them. You're not taking anything with you. Sorry, not happening. Even those, we had a Greek funeral out there one time. They were throwing money in that grave, man, all kinds of stuff. Then they backed a concrete truck up and poured concrete all over it. Well, the guy still didn't take it with him. Yeah. So, for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Well, while we're seeking this one to come, which is going to come pretty soon, we need to be thinking about all these things we just went over. Just pick one a day. Pick a couple a day and think about how you can be true and just and pure and lovely and good report. And then let's go to 1 Peter. Chapter 2. And let's go down to verse 12. It says, "...having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." You know, your good works? What's that talking about? helping out down at the food pantry? It could be that. I mean, you know what I'm saying. But if we were all true and honest and just and pure and lovely and good report and virtuous and like that, if we were just good, honest people, not in order to earn our way to heaven, but just so that we could be, have a good conversation among the Gentiles, among the lost people, so that they When the lost people get in trouble and they work around you or they live around you, you're going to be the one they come and talk to. I know that. Some of you know that. When I was plant manager, I treated those people, I treated them very well. They never got cussed at. They got witnessed to, which may have been just as bad, but when they were having family problems or something like that, they wanted to come to my office and they wanted to talk to me. And they got Bible. They may not have listened to it, but we need to have, we all need to be this way just so that we can put up with one another, huh? You know? So let's, I hope that gave you something to think about. And that's all I have. You go ahead.