Good evening. Please stand. We're going to sing He's a Wonderful Savior to Me, 381. I was lost in sin, but Jesus rescued me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. I was bound by fear, but Jesus set me free. He's a wonderful Savior to me. For He's a wonderful Savior to me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. I was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in. He's a wonderful Savior to me. He is always near to comfort and to cheer. He's a wonderful Savior to me. He forgives my sins. He dries my every tear. He's a wonderful Savior to me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. I was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in. He's a wonderful Savior to me. Dearer grows the love of Jesus day by day. He's a wonderful Savior for me. Sweeter is His grace, while pressing on my way, He's a wonderful Savior to me. For He's a wonderful Savior to me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. I was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in. He's a wonderful Savior to me. Amen. Thank you so much. Well, we're from Tennessee. How many of you know where Birdstown, Tennessee is at? I didn't think you did. I didn't either until I met my wife. But we're from right between Knoxville and Nashville, and we're in the hills of Tennessee. But I'm an evangelist, and we're out of Walls, Mississippi. It's my home church. How many of you know where Memphis, Tennessee is at? How many of you know Elvis Presley? No, I'm teasing. I'm teasing. But we travel the country and our ministry is helping struggling churches and churches that just are getting off the ground. We help start churches and so forth and God's been good to us. Been preaching for about 51 years now and pastored for 28 years of that. before we went out into this ministry, but God's been mighty good to us. Got married three years ago. I was married to my first wife for 43 years. She passed away. Miss Jackie's husband passed away about six years ago, seven years ago. And I've been going to her church for a long time, but we just, I've been preaching there. One day she come up and I was shaking her hand as she was going out and she grabbed ahold of my hand, never turned loose. That's my story and I'm sticking to it, amen. But no, we got together, God's been good to us, and we've been married now for three years. Matter of fact, our honeymoon was here in San Antonio, Texas three years ago, but God's been good to us. And we've seen some mighty, mighty works done in the ministry, and thank God for it. We asked you for your prayers. that you'd continue to pray for us as we go out and try to minister to these churches. We've had some great meetings here in San Antonio so far. We'll be here through the 30th. Then we'll head to Mesquite, Texas, and we'll hold a revival meeting there in Mesquite, Texas, and then head back home. So continue to pray for us. We're so glad to be here tonight. Let's pray. Thank you for this time together. God, I pray that you'll use it in a mighty way, that you'll bless the pastor, God, as he preaches and brings the message. Lord, I pray you'd anoint him with fresh oil. Dear God, that lives will be touched and changed here in this place. And Lord, I pray, God, that your power will be anointing in this place. Help us to worship now tonight. In your name, in Jesus' name we ask it, amen. Amen. Brother Prairie's right there in the middle aisle. Brother Kendrick, he'll take you to see the preacher. Number 374, I know that my Redeemer liveth. ♪ I know that my Redeemer liveth ♪ And on the earth again shall stand ♪ I know eternal life He gives that grace and power are in his hand. I know, I know that Jesus liveth and on the earth again shall stand. I know, I know that life he giveth, that grace and power I know my mansion He prepareth, that where He is, there I may be. O wondrous luck for me He careth, and yet the last will come for me. that Jesus liveth and on the earth again shall stand. I know, I know that life he giveth, that grace and power are in his hand. I want to tell Brother Perry's joke, because he had a good one tonight. He got in the car and he said, I'm just as strong as I ever was. I picked Caleb up in my truck or at work. So I said, Brother Perry, that's a good one because Caleb weighs 300 something pounds. So when he said he did this, he said, yeah, I'm strong. I picked Caleb up from work. So if you're visiting with us for the first time, the first time in a long time, we want to give you a visitor's card. Anyone like that? If you just lift your hand up for a second. I didn't see one, but don't want to miss anyone. Yes, ma'am, we'll let you guys fill one out. That way you can at least get an ink pen. And if you'll fill out, Ms. Kendrick, if you'll fill out that green card to put on the offering plate, we'd appreciate it. We prayed for Suzanne. She fell on Sunday morning coming down the steps going I'll make some more when I come in on Friday, so there'll be some for Sunday. The guys upstairs put the stuff on the board. When you give me stuff, I put it here, but I know that we've got several folks that need our prayers on a regular basis, so don't forget to pray for them. As far as announcements, again, Fiesta starts tomorrow. So I'll come to Seoul because if there's some folks that come to Seoul that don't plan on going to Fiesta, I'll show up and give you visits and stuff to send you out. But I encourage you to go to the booth. Now, we never know what the crowds will be like. So there's no way we can, I mean, and typically early like this, the crowds are not real big. So I always just call down and either call Roy or call David or call one of the guys and ask him or call brother sales and ask him How big is the crowd do you need me because sometimes some of you hog the tables? You set at a table and you won't share with the rest of us So you set to the whole time and never move so you get to win all the people the Lord and the rest of us stand around hoping you need to go to the bathroom or go get something to eat and then we steal your table from you, but now again The fiesta from tomorrow night through, again, a week and a half away, 10 days, to the following Sunday, Monday through Friday, is 5 o'clock till 10 o'clock. That's when the booth is open. Now, Grandma Salas, Grandma, wave at us, if you don't know who Grandma is. Now, Grandma, the Millicans already asked if they can ride with you, so let me know how much other room you have. How many can you carry in your vehicle? Three more, four more besides them? Three more besides them. So if you're wanting to get a ride tomorrow, she is going to be here at the church at four o'clock. She'll leave here at the church, see her after church, because if she fills up, it won't be any good to show up here at four o'clock. Again, I guess you could and just pair up with someone else, but she's taking the vehicle down. The Millicans have already asked to be in that vehicle, but she volunteered to drive down there tomorrow night. And again, it saves you parking. I think parking last year, I think it was $10 per car. But again, if you can ride with someone else, you can get two or three people in one car. But that is Monday through Friday, 5 to 10. Saturday is 1 o'clock, I'm sorry, noon till 10. And then Sunday is after church, 1 o'clock till 10. So again, I don't know that every night there'll be a ride leaving the church at 4. I know tomorrow night there's a ride leaving the church at 4. Also, Texas Baptist may have some folks going with us, so that would be a blessing to have some of them go down and go sowing with us as well, but I'll find out from them. They're supposed to call me and let me know who will be going. Say the date, you'll find these laying around. It is for the adult banquet that's going on on August the 16th. Mark that on your calendar. Brother Ross will be with us, and the title is I Love My Church, and so that's an adult banquet here on the 16th of August. The spring recital is this Saturday, the 26th. That is 2 p.m. here in the auditorium. If you want to go to this, you can get it done, and this will go down to the booth. If you're wondering whether you can go to the booth, you can still go to the booth. They'll be open until 10. Mrs. Lewis said that usually the thing in here lasts about an hour, so it's not like it'll be real long if you want to come to this, but it is starting at 2 p.m. Brother Cor will be with us, so again, mark your date on that. Brother Cor will be with us. October the 19th, which is Sunday all day, then he'll be with us Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, which is the 20th, the 21st, and the 22nd. Now Sunday, he'll be with us in Sunday school. He'll be with us for the Sunday morning service and Sunday night, and then he'll be with us, and again, we'll have our regular times. for Sunday and then Wednesday, Monday through Wednesday will be the 7.30 which is our normal Wednesday night service times. Next Sunday, the young lady at the piano will be selling Filipino plate, lumpia, pancit and sauce for Miriam's graduation. So if you want to help her raise some money for her graduation, she would appreciate that. And again, if you need If you want to sign up on the fly, on the stuff out there, there are the papers out on the two tables, the table used at the food is at, and the little table next to it. If you want to sign up to let us know who's going, that would be great. Now you can show up whether you sign up or not, but again, if you sign up, then we know that there's, we do know who's going, and sometimes we can even maybe pair you up and get your rides together. I mentioned that the Tuesday after Fiesta, which is May the 6th, the Tuesday night, we'll be going to the Missions baseball game. It starts at 7.05, so we meet and we leave here at 6.30. I guess in time we already have 30 seats reserved. So again, they are $2 tickets. Those same seats on any other night are $15, so it's a big discount that night. So if you'd like to go to a Missions baseball game, you can bring a glove. And again, make sure you're not on your phone. I mentioned this Sunday, last year when we were sitting there, there was a foul ball that was hit, and it didn't hit our crowd, but it hit a little girl that wasn't watching, and it hit loud enough that we could hear a smack from where we were sitting. So again, you have to pay attention, because they don't control the foul ball. But again, that is a Missions game, 6.30, May the 6th, and again, everybody's invited to that, and I'll have a sign-up sheet on Sunday. Please stand. Number 369, the comforter has come. O spread the tidings round, wherever man is found, wherever human heart and human's woes abound. Let every Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound, the Comforter has come. The Comforter has come, the Comforter has come The Holy Ghost from heaven, the Father's promised gift Oh, spread the tidings round, wherever man is found The Comforter has come Lo, the great King of Kings, with healing in His wings, to every captive soul a full deliverance brings. And through the vacant guts the song of triumphs rings, the Comforter has come. The Comforter has come, the Comforter has come The Holy Ghost from heaven, the Father's promise give O spread the tidings round, wherever man is found The Comforter has come O boundless love divine, How shall this tongue of mine To wandering mortals tell The matchless grace divine? That I, a child of hell, Should in His image shine, The Comforter has come! The Comforter has come, the Comforter has come The Holy Ghost from heaven, the Father's promised gift Oh, spread the tiding round, wherever man is found The Comforter has come Whoever has a special, we're gonna skip the last song, so whoever has a special, we'll have you up after we get through the offering. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you that we have this opportunity to come to your house, Lord. We ask you to bless this offering, the gift and the giver, help it meet the needs of this church, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. you ♪ There is a name I love to hear. ♪ ♪ I love to sing its word. ♪ ♪ It sounds like music in my ear. ♪ ♪ The sweetest name on earth. ♪ ♪ Oh, how I love Jesus. ♪ Oh, how I love Jesus Oh, how I love Jesus Because He first loved me It tells me of the Savior's love Who died to set me free It tells me of His precious blood, the sinner's perfect plea. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me. It tells me of the Savior's love, Who died to set me free. It tells me of His precious blood, Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus, because He first loved me. Jose and Jayden, if you'll head to the back. If you would like to have the scriptures for tonight, so you don't have to try to find them as I quickly read them, you hold up your hand, these two young lads will bring you a paper by. You can go to your Bibles to Colossians chapter 3. We'll finish what we started last week. Again, I taught on the character, if you've ever, how many of you actually have ever had or have Brother Jeff Owens' book on character? few of us. He had one, I got 20, 25 years ago, and then a few years ago at a youth conference that we had here in town, had Brother Owen speak, he had a second one that was called, I think it was called More Character. So the first one was Christian Character and the other one was called More Character. And luckily for you, I read the books, so you get the benefit of the books. And again, I taught a lot of the stuff from several of the things from the Book of Character A couple years ago, when I had this message, I never used, and I thought, a few weeks ago, I thought, I need to, rather than just keep carrying around, I'll use it. So last week, we covered part of it. It's character and administration. Now, again, I mentioned last week that all of us are a leader of some type, whether we're Whether it's the leader of a home, the leader of a ministry, the leader of a place of business, whether it's even an older brother or sister that's put over younger brothers or sisters, a lot of us are in an administrative position. And again, we're talking tonight about character and administration. Notice the text verse, Colossians chapter 3 verse 23. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily. as to the Lord and not unto men." So again, we're not supposed to do stuff that men see. We're supposed to do stuff to try to please God. And he mentions to do it heartily. That is to give it everything you got. I mean, and again, no matter what we do for the Lord, we should always give 110%. Notice Colossians 3.24 goes on and says, knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. So again, you may not always get a reward and noticed here. Years ago, we had someone, now again, some of you remember, used to they would have, we'd honor somebody at a Valentine's banquet. And I remember one person came and said, I wonder why they never honored me. Well, probably because of that attitude is what I wanted to say. I'm nice, so I didn't say that. But they said they honored so and so, and they honored this person, they honored that person, but they never honored me. I do a lot of stuff around here, too. Now, by the way, when you do stuff to be noticed, Brother Nichols isn't the kind to honor you, okay? So if you're doing stuff because you want your name on the name tag, you want your name on the heading, that's not the way to, if you want to impress Brother Nichols, be a faithful servant, just do your job, don't worry about the praise and recognition. And by the way, you'll probably get some, but if you're looking for recognition, by the way, the Lord don't want us to either. What he said was, you know what, knowing that the Lord, that you're going to receive your reward and inheritance from Him, for you serve the Lord Jesus. Or Lord Christ notice first Corinthians 3 8 there in your notes now He that plant earth and he that water earth are one and every man shall receive in his own reward according to his own labor now again Many of you have went out so winning now in San Antonio. You don't have this issue. I grew up in a little town Outside of a town three miles outside of a town of a thousand So our church when we started knocking doors and so winning trust me we got where we we knocked the same door several times through the years we knew that You know, the old guy that doesn't like to talk to you, or the old guy that hates us lives there, or the lady. I mean, we knew the folks. We didn't always know their name, but we knew the folks because, again, a small town. When you figure the population of 1,000, I don't know what heritage has, but probably a lot more in heritage than 1,000 people, but again, So sometimes we would plant, and then sometimes we'd go back and knock the door again. Sometimes we'd go back and knock the door again. Sometimes we'd knock those doors several times before someone would either listen to us or get saved. So sometimes you plant, sometimes you water, and then he said sometimes you get an increase. And notice what he said, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. So whether you're the one that got the person to come to church, the bus worker or the soul winner that got the person to come to church, or whether you're the pastor that Brother Nichols was that preached and gave the invitation and the person came to the altar and got saved, or whether you're the soul winner that led them to the Lord at the altar, each of you that was involved in that will, as Brother Nichols often says, clip coupons for that person getting saved. Now I can tell you probably the most important one in that whole process, because think about it, the person that led them to the Lord couldn't have done that if they weren't here. In fact, his brother Nicholas couldn't have preached to him and gave him the salvation message if they wasn't here. So if I was going to put an importance on any three of those tasks, I'd say the one who knocked the door and got them to come to church was far more important. But again, each of us will have a part in that. Years ago, someone came to me and they said, thank you. And I said, what for? They said, you led me to the Lord at the church. And I said, that wasn't it. I mean, that's what I get paid to do. That's what I'm here for. But to them, it was a big deal. Now, it's different when you're the one that leads them to the Lord out in the street. In that case, that's a little bit different story. But again, we have folks that are, I mean, Gladys has led a lot of folks to the Lord. Brother Mike Reeves has led a lot of folks to the Lord here at the altar. But this isn't the only place that they lead people to the Lord. Adam talked to that young man on Sunday. So again, he said, some people plant, some people water, and again, each will receive their reward. 1 Corinthians 3.14 said, if any man's work abide which he hath built thereon, he shall receive a reward. So again, that's what we want. We want to do a work that is lasting. Now, I appreciate when he said tonight, 51 years, my ears perked up. You know why? Because that means he's been faithful. Brother Nicholas has been here a long time as well, I mean it seems like forever, but again he's been faithful. Now there are a lot of, I don't know what the count is now, but when I was in college the average preacher stayed at a church two years. I don't know what the average is now, but that was the average preacher stated in the church for two years. What that means is, if Brother Nichols would have done that, you'd have had 20 different pastors in that time that he's been here. More than 20, because he's been here more than 40 years. So the truth is, Brother Nicholas is faithful. Anytime you know of someone who's been faithful or loyal, I remember Mrs. Elliott, when she used to teach the Sunday School class, I asked her how long she'd been teaching. She'd been teaching that same class for 35 or 40 years. I mean, a long time. Well, she wasn't here, but she'd been teaching Sunday School for many, many years. She taught a lot of years here before she went to heaven. But again, faithful and loyal. Again, he mentions that if any man's work abide, he's going to receive a reward. So we talked last week, we covered first. that works, again, a leader that has character, works harder, leading himself rather than leading others. Number two, I said last week, he does not use his people to build his work, but uses his work to build his people. Number three, will create in the hearts of his people a desire to follow. Number four, will practice preventative maintenance rather than breakdown maintenance. And I told you that is one of my weaknesses. I have the tendency to fix things when they break down, not necessarily to plan ahead and fix things before they break down. But again, that was something we talked about last week. Tonight, we're going to continue on. Let's pray real quick, and then we're going to get into the message. Lord, I need your help and your wisdom. I ask you to use me tonight. And Father, I give you the glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Number five was, we'll practice self-control when others may be out of control. Now notice your verse there for number five, Proverbs 15.1. It says this, a soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. Now I can tell you this, anger typically brings more anger. Now, I know a child, I gave counsel to a kid one time and he tried and he came back and he said, it worked. And you say, what did you give him? Because he said sometimes when he was getting into it with his parents, they'd raise their voice, he'd raise his voice, they'd raise their voice, he'd raise, I mean, and they would go at it. I said, next time your parents get on to you, tell them, I am so sorry, will you please forgive me? They said they did that, and their parent was already ready to continue the argument. When they said that, their parent didn't even know what to say for a second. They were kind of taken back. And by the way, the argument stopped. You know why? Because the kid just said, I'm so sorry. I messed up. Will you please forgive me? Husbands and wives, that wouldn't hurt us to try that from time to time. Leaders and workers, again, you say, well, I wasn't wrong. You don't have to be wrong to be there. The fact is, when you hear people talk, they'll often say, it takes a bigger man to apologize when they're not even at fault, than to apologize when you're at fault. Think about what Jesus said. He said, you know what? When you get disciplined for something that you did, Don't come to me and say, you know, I got spanked and I didn't even fight about it. That'd be like me saying I got spanked because I disobeyed, but I took it with a smile. I deserved the spanking. What he said is when you get in trouble and you didn't deserve it, that's when I pay a little attention. Make sure you practice self-control when others may be out of control. By the way, we always tell parents this, when you discipline, discipline without, I mean, don't discipline when you're angry. Don't discipline when you're mad. Because when you do, you probably won't discipline correctly. Sometimes you might have to, I'm not saying send yourself to the room, but send the kid to the room so you can have some time to cool down. Some time to think about it. Some time to consider it. Again, we need to make sure that people see controlled leadership. All emergencies can't and shouldn't be handled on the spot. I mentioned this several times in the past when we were talking about something similar to this. I don't know how many times I've went to Brother Nichols with something and here's what he told me. Let me pray about it for a few days and get back with me. How many of you have ever got that counsel from Brother Nichols? Some of you have too. You know why? Because Brother Nichols, he didn't want to just give you an answer off the top of his head. He wanted to talk to his God and get some counsel from his God and look in his Bible and do some praying about it and then give you the right answer. By the way, it's better to give the right answer after a little bit of thinking than give the wrong answer without thinking at all. All emergencies can't and shouldn't be handled on the spot. Now, I mention this and I've used it several times for the years because it illustrates this point. Some of you remember when I said that we had a child that used to play with the toilet paper in the bathroom. We'd go in there and there was toilet paper. I mean, they just would roll it and roll it while they're sitting there on the toilet. They'd play with the toilet paper and there'd be a bunch of it all over the floor. So my wife and I made a rule that the next time we catch someone playing with the toilet paper and wasting toilet paper, you're going to get a spanking. And I walked into the bathroom one day, and I don't remember if it was Josh or Joe, but they had some toilet paper. They was unrolling toilet paper. Now, the lid was such that they had been doing number one, not number two. So they was pulling toilet paper off. So when I saw the toilet paper, I said, aha, I caught him. Got the guilty party. I'm going to fix this right away. I took him in. They tried to talk to me. I didn't want to hear it because, I mean, I found the guilty party, so I'm going to fix it. I spanked them. And then I sent them to the room. My wife, a few minutes later, came by and she said, did you spank so-and-so? And I said, I did. Caught that little varmint. He's the one playing with the toilet paper. She said, did he tell you what he was doing? And I said, I know what he was doing. He was unrolling the toilet paper. I mean, that's what. I mean, he was the one that's been doing that. She said, it wasn't what he was doing. She said, if you notice, he had some toilet paper in his hand. She said, I taught the boys, when you guys, after you go to the bathroom, wipe off the lid. That would be nice so those ladies, when we sit on the lid, we don't have to worry about sitting on some liquid that doesn't belong there. She said he was wiping off the lid. I felt so terrible. I thought I'd found the guilty party. Instead, guess what? I was the guilty party. I had discipline without knowing all the facts. You say, what did you do? I went back to my son, asked him to forgive me. And I don't like, trust me, I don't like to ask folks to forgive me because what that means is I had to admit that I was wrong. And I don't like to admit I'm wrong. I don't know if other guys are like that, but I just don't like to, I don't like to admit I'm wrong. But I had to go back to him and apologize to him. I took the paddle with him that I'd used on him. And I said, if you'd like to give dad a couple of swats, I deserve them. You say, did he give them to me? No, he didn't. But I would have let him. I'm the one that made the mistake, not him. So again, sometimes making a hasty decision will be an unwise decision, and it can hurt somebody to a big, I mean, that might be the person that, by the way, turns you back on Christianity, it turns you back on leadership, it turns you back on something because they realize, you know what, they're not fair. So again, have some wisdom. Especially, again, make sure that your anger's not seen. Notice in your notes, you'll see several verses about this. Proverbs 14, 17 says, he that is soon angry, happens? He dealeth foolishly. Notice Proverbs 22, 24, Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go. He said stay away from folks that lose their temper all the time, they'll get you in trouble. Proverbs 29, 22 says, An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. Now it mentioned in verse 17 of chapter 14, an angry man dealeth foolishly. It tells us in 29, 22 that a furious man aboundeth in transgression. Again, when you lose your temper, you'll have the tendency to commit some wrong acts. So make sure, again, I told you I used to have a terrible temper. And when I lost my temper, that's when I did some cussing. I don't have the excuse anymore. If I cuss now, it's usually not from losing my temper. The truth is, someone asked a guy one time, do you cuss? And he said, not out loud. And by the way, that's a good thing. What he meant was, and by the way, if you drive in Texas, there'll be times you cuss in your head, trust me. You have kids or you deal with people, there'll be some times you cuss in your head. You say, who heard it? God did, and you did. Thankfully, the other folks did not. But the truth is, you and I have to be careful that we do not let our temper get in the way. Brother Owen says this, no answer is better than a hasty answer. Panic, people. do not need a panic leader. Now I mentioned that my dad, we lived in a place called Tornado Alley. Now when I say Tornado Alley, it wasn't really an alley, but for some reason the tornadoes seemed to hit that area and they'd go down a certain path. And so we saw a lot of tornadoes in Missouri, especially in the springtime. This time of year, tornadoes are pretty prevalent. There'd be a storm, there'd be tornadoes. Now, two things happened when we had a tornado watch. Now, tornado watch simply means the storm and stuff, this is the type that could make a tornado. A tornado warning means, when a tornado warning went out over the TV or the radio, it meant a tornado has been seen. It didn't necessarily mean it was on the ground, but it meant it had been seen, it was in the area. Now, they almost always came from the southwest, so a couple things happened when it got stormy. Dad went to bed, mom went to the basement, and I went and stared out the sliding glass door screen, looking out to the southwest, hoping I could see the tornado coming. Now, it's dark most of the time, I mean, when a lot of this happens, so I would have to wait for the lightning, and when the lightning happened, I would look to see if I could see a tornado. You say, have you ever seen tornadoes? I have. I don't know if you've ever seen a tornado in real life, especially if you live in the South. Now, here, you won't often probably ever see a tornado. It's not often, I don't know if you've ever had a tornado warning in San Antonio, but the truth is, where I grew up, there was a lot of them. But again, I mentioned three things happened. Mom went to the basement. sitting in a chair because she was scared of the tornadoes. Dad went to bed. Now, I didn't know what to do. I was as scared as Mom, but I wanted to be brave like Dad. So I would do the in-between. I didn't go to bed, because I was scared I'd get blown away and miss it. I didn't want to go to the basement, because that meant I was scared like mom. So I would go stare out that sliding glass door window to try to watch for the tornado. So if it came, I could go wake dad up, and we'd all go join mom at the basement. But the truth is, again, people, when it comes to leadership, you need to make sure that you are calm. And again, you have the ability to hide that panic from the followers. There'll be times you panic. There'll be times you don't know what to do. I mean, you're as scared as the person that came to you. You're as nervous as that person, but you have to be calm and cool and collected. Number six, again, an administrator with character will believe that to do right is never a sacrifice. Now, I have found this to be true. Sometimes people in full-time Christian service or sometimes people serving the Lord, they act like they have to. Now, if you and I act like we have to instead of that we get to, We'll find that others won't want to do what we, because, I mean, we're acting like it's a burden to serve the Lord. We're acting like there's no fun. Now, I can tell you this. There are days that everyone in any ministry wants to quit. There are. There are days in any ministry that, I mean, you say to yourself, I don't get paid enough to do this. And most ministries, we don't pay you anyway, but you have that attitude. But I can tell you this. If you keep the right attitude and you stay faithful, you're gonna see it. You'll have some failures. You'll have some times that, by the way, sometimes it wasn't your fault. There'll be other times you might have learned something from it because you and I were at fault. But the fact is, we have to make sure that we serve God because we want to, not because we have to. Many young people, I know young people that don't wanna get married. You know why they don't wanna get married? Because they saw a miserable mom and dad in a marriage. and they thought all marriages were miserable. So they didn't want to get married because they didn't want to be miserable like mom and dad. So they'll shack up and they'll do other stuff, but they won't get married because of the fact that, again, they don't think marriage works. Number seven, an administrator with character will believe anything worth doing is worth doing right. My dad had that philosophy, and again, he didn't write a book, but again, he had that philosophy. I often say that to the kids in school. If you do it right the first time, You won't have to make corrections. I say to the young folks all the time, it doesn't do you any good to do a whole page when you have to redo half the page again. That means you did a page and a half to do one page of work. Now, my philosophy always has been I like when I work, I work hard. You know why? Because I want to play. And if I get my work done, then I can play. But I can't work. And again, I mean, that's just the way I was raised up. We always wanted to go squirrel hunting or fishing or something. You know what dad would always say if we ask? When you get your chores done. Now, you say, what was chores? Would you have to take the trash out? No. We had usually between 300 and 500 pigs on the farm. We had 70 sows, so we always had several litters of pigs. We had 20-some cows, so we always had some cows. And then in the summertime, we'd raise 200 fryers or broilers to butcher. So we always had stuff to do. In the summertime, we had two big gardens, one that was a regular garden, one we called the truck patch, because it was big. But Dad would say, you get the chores done, then you can go do the stuff you wanted to do. Now, understand, the same should be true of you and I. We should make sure that we do what we do, do it right the first time. Do it, by the way, when you're going to do something, do it first class. How many of you, and we've got some folks in here, neither 30, 40, 50 years old that have been to a teen banquet. How many of you have ever attended a Liberty Baptist Church Valentine's banquet? Now, if you ever attended Liberty Baptist Church Valentine's banquet, and again, I speak for the teens mainly because that's the one I'm in charge of, the decorations are always awesome. The food is always tremendous. Now, listen to me. The games and songs and stuff are great. Our teams remember that stuff for years. I remember the time we did a 60s theme. We did a hillbilly theme, and we even brought in a real outhouse. I mean, we had seen one of the farmers out there had an outhouse sitting in his field full of spiderwebs and all the rest of it. We collected it. We put it in the truck. We brought it to church. We put it upstairs. I mean, because Mrs. Bell, when she has some ideas, she has some crazy ideas. And so, I mean, we were doing the hillbilly theme, which is fine with me because I'm hillbilly. I mean, it was like back home, except we didn't go barefooted. But the fact is, she said, do you know where there's any outhouses? I said, you know what the funny thing is? I actually do. I talked to a total stranger. We borrowed his outhouse. The bad thing was when we took it back, apparently we didn't strap it down real good. So if you ever saw an outhouse door laying on the side of the highway, that was ours. It blew off on the way back home. And I went back and I had to apologize to that farmer for losing his outhouse door. I offered to build him another one. He went, nah, it's not like we use it anymore anyway. But I returned the outhouse, not in quite the shape we picked it up in. But we've done some crazy stuff in Valentine's banquets. Because we always wanted to make it something that you would remember. There's times they painted the whole wall upstairs. I mean, painted the whole wall. Did a big mural on a whole wall. Understand, this last, Brother Bajau is younger than me, so sometimes his brain's still working and mine doesn't always work. So this last year, I said, Brother Bajau, you got any ideas for Valentine's Banquet? And he gave me several of them. This one that we did this last year was the glow lights. We did the glow. Let your light show shine before men. And we did glow sticks. I mean, I ordered hundreds of glow sticks. I mean hundreds. We had glow stick activities. We had glow stick games. We had glow sticks. I mean, how many of you know what a glow stick is? It's the stuff you buy for your kids and grandkids and they love them at night time. We bought hundreds of them. I mean, I spent like 200 bucks from Timu. So, I mean, I bought the cheap ones. I mean, we had a lot. I've still got glow sticks upstairs. We still do the glow stick activities on Sunday morning before we have Sunday school preaching. But again, Brother Bichaud said we can either do superheroes, He didn't just have one thought this year, he said we can either do superheroes, we can do glow lights, we can do twins, we can do the royal knight, we can do a black and white knight out of darkness into the light. And I said, hang on, one more time, I wrote them all down because we did the glow sticks this year, we're going to do one of the other ones next year. So for the next five years, I don't even have to think. Brother Berger thought for me, and I wrote them all down, because you say, why did you write them down? Because he is getting a memory loss like me. Next week, he might not remember the five ideas that he had. But again, we always try to make the Valentine's Banquet, I mean, a night to remember. I mean, if they only go to one big thing. Now you say, Brother Block, do you guys, I mean, there are times, by the way, that we have as many people from other churches. Because Brother Lear's kids would usually come. Brother Patton's kids used to come. Brother Castile's kids would usually come. And sometimes we had more kids from other churches than we did our own church. And there's times we thought about not doing it, and then I'd have some parent that used to be a teenager go, oh, Brother Bob, come on, man. That was one of the, I remember that to this day. I remember the time you did the 60s. I remember the time you did the, I mean, come on, you gotta do that. My kid's been talking about it for a year. But again, if you're gonna do something, do it right. And by the way, make it a big deal. If you don't do it first class, you know what that usually means? You're lazy and unorganized. That's what it means. You cut some corners. You just cut, I mean, you didn't give it everything you had. Number eight, again, an administrator with character will be creative. Add spirit to things. He mentioned, get in a groove, not in a rut. New ideas require energy and work. Now I can tell you, older you get, energy and work, I mean, are two things that are a lot harder to do. That's why it's always nice to have young folks. Sean will sometimes say, Brother Block, can we do this? And I'll go, Sean, I don't need another job. He'll say, well, then one of these days when I come back, I'll do it. I'll say, Sean, I'm waiting on you. When you get back here, you can do that. Knock yourself out. But he has a lot more energy than I do. Okay? Now, I still think young up here, but for some reason from the neck down, the rest of my body does not think the same way. I don't know if you're the same way, but again, I can do that stuff. For instance, the other day when we did the laser quest, and then we did the shooting each other with the little paint balls. It was a lot of fun, but it also hurt the next day, okay? Because when you run around and you do all that stuff, I mean, you pay for it. But again, be creative. He mentioned don't just talk about, now when we're talking about being creative and always having something new and exciting, we're not talking about doctrines and positions. Notice what Proverbs 22, 28 says, remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. There's some things you should never change. Our convictions on the way the ladies dress should be the same thing it is today that it was 40 years ago. When it comes to the version of the Bible that we use, guess what? It's the same thing today that it was 40 years ago. When it comes to our position on salvation, when it comes to our position on grace, when it comes to our position on all those biblical standards and convictions, same as it was 40 years ago. Now times have changed, but we've made sure that we haven't changed those things. So when I'm talking about being creative, I'm not talking about, because there's a lot of churches, they said, you know what, let's get a big band up here if we do the light show. And I've been, I went with my kid to a church one time, and man, they do the light show and the smoke, and I'm thinking, wow. I mean, and they had, and they had, I mean, and they had, and they, by the way, sometimes they actually sang a decent song. Sometimes they sang songs I'd never heard before. But the fact is, they do that because they think that will draw a crowd, and sometimes it does. But again, if you think Liberty Baptist Church is ever going to do something like that to get a crowd, not going to happen here. We're still going to preach out of the old King James. We're still going to sing contemporary hymns out of the songbook. We're not going to be into that new stuff. Number nine, an administrator with character will maintain proper balance between work and family. Again, this is another area I struggled with sometimes when I was younger. Notice Song of Solomon chapter 1 verse 6. Now it is always easier for us to do stuff for other people, men, than it is for our wife. My wife would say, I've been asking you to fix my lawnmower, fix this for three years, and so and so asking you to fix this. It's always easier for us to be nice to other people and to take care of other people's needs and things than our own. But when they mention here, other venues have I kept, we often joke, now this isn't true, Brother Reeves, but again, typically, you know whose cars broke down? The mechanics. You know whose yard is big? The lawn mowing service guy. You know who's, I mean, the truth is, the electrician usually has some electrical stuff that needs to be done at their house. The plumber usually has some plumbing issues at their place. But again, what he mentioned is an administrator with character will maintain the proper balance between work and family. Your kids and your husband and your wife, they will never mind being second to the Lord. if they're the right kind of person. They'll never mind being second to the Lord, but they don't want to be second to someone other than the Lord. They shouldn't be second to hunting or fishing. They shouldn't be second to shopping. They shouldn't be second to a friend or any other group. They should only be second only to the Lord. Again, I mentioned this last week, but I'll say it again. You know how kids spell love? They don't spell love L-O-V-E. You know how they spell love? T-I-M-E. There are a lot of folks who think love is giving people stuff. And you can show your love that way, but I can tell you when it comes to your family, you know what they want from you? Not things, time. Time. And again, it's not always easy to do that, but again, you got it. That's something that you will work on doing. Number 10. Administrator with character does not care who gets credit for the job. Well done. Notice First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31, a verse we often quote. What he says is whether therefore you eat, drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Whatever you're doing tonight, whatever you're doing tomorrow, whatever you're doing the rest of the week, you ought to make sure that you do it for the glory of God, not for the glory of you, not for the glory of me, but for the glory of God. Wives, the verses are there, simply means, it tells us you ought to submit yourself unto your husbands. And he says, when you do it, do it like you're serving the Lord. Do it like you're doing it for the Lord. He says the same thing to servants. He tells the servants, you know what? When you obey your master, do it like you're serving me. Now I can tell you, it's a lot easier to do something for, I mean, to do a job, especially a job you don't like, or a job you don't enjoy, if you realize, I'm actually doing this for the Lord. I'm actually doing this because I want to please God. Years ago, when Brother Howes was here, Brother Howes asked one of my teenagers to do something, and man, they fell over themselves to go do it. And then they came back, I mean, they talked to me later, Brother Howes asked me to do this, I don't remember what it was, he asked me to go get something, do something for him, they did it, they were so, I said, you know what, if you treat your parents with that same attitude, you'd have a lot less problems at home. You see, they didn't treat their parents with near as much respect as Brother Howes. They didn't. Now again, I'm not saying we shouldn't treat Brother Howes with respect. If Brother Howes asked me to do something, I'd run and fall over myself to do it and count it a privilege to do it. Truth is, I tried to do the same thing for Brother Nicholas. If Brother Nicholas asked me to do something, I'd try to fall over myself trying to do it. I want to please him and I also want to please the Lord. But if it's a job you especially don't even want to do, don't enjoy doing it, Just as you're doing it, say, you know what, I'm not doing this for that person because, you know what, I don't even really like them. But I'm doing it because I'm doing it for him and I really do like him. By the way, we also really owe him. No matter what we do, we can never pay him back for all he's done for us. Again, do it as unto the Lord. Number 11 and I must hurry on again administrator with character Will be cautious about being too spontaneous in his leadership. Now. I'm a spontaneous person, especially when I was younger I can do stuff on the spur of the moment How many of you are like that you can do stuff on the spur of the moment? Now not everybody likes stuff done on the spur of the moment I'm the kind of guy that we come to school. I mean, you know kids are doing good. I can say let's go to the park now when I said let's go to park the kids all said I Some of the teachers said, what? We still got a lot of work to do today. And I said, they've been working hard, let's go reward them. Now, listen to me. Being spontaneous, especially when you're small, it's a little easier to be spontaneous when you're little. Big organizations don't run very well when you're spontaneous. So you know what I had to learn to do? I had to learn to be a little more orderly. little more on a schedule. I had to let them know, you know what, tomorrow we're going to be spontaneous and go to the park. I had to warn them ahead of time so they could get everything done, so then they didn't have a problem with it. Now, understand, I said when it's small, it's not a problem. Now, the Bible teaches us to be prepared. Look at Ephesians in your notes, Ephesians 2, verse 5, Even when we were dead in sins, have quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are saved. First Thessalonians 4, verse 16 says, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. What does this imply? They are already saved. You know why they got saved? Because they were preparing for death that they knew was going to come someday. That's why I got saved. I got saved at nine years old. I'm still alive, but I got saved because I knew someday I was gonna die, and I did not want to die without Christ. So again, when it comes to being spontaneous, you don't want to be spontaneous when it comes to your soul. You don't want to be spontaneous when it comes to some things. Husbands and wives, especially when it comes to like special days, The good news is today with the cell phone, your wife calls and says, where are we going to go tonight? And you think to yourself, oh, my goodness. Well, babe, we're going to go someplace special. I mean, and you're going to be so excited. What is it going to be? No, no, no, baby, I'm going to surprise you. You know why? Because you're both going to be surprised because at that moment you had forgot all about it. Luckily, there are stores that stay open 24 hours a day, okay? Now, that's not true where I grew up. I mean, where I grew up, most things close at five o'clock. If you didn't get it before five o'clock, you're not getting it till the next day. And if you wait till the weekend, you're probably not getting it till Monday. Nowadays, you can even order stuff and have it delivered the next day. So if she warns you a day ahead of time, you can even get something off Amazon, especially if your wife is like most wives on Amazon, it's even shipped to you for free. You just have to borrow her code or whatever it is. I don't have one of those, but most women do. I always tell people, I just picked the packages up, took them to my wife. When they didn't fit, I took them back to the post office. I had to come by the church, print the return label, put it on the thing and go back. I was the guy that picked it up and delivered it. When it didn't fit, it wasn't the color she liked, I'm the one that took it back and got it returned. I had no idea how to order stuff. I had to learn some of that stuff because when Mrs. Block went to heaven, I needed some stuff off Amazon and I didn't know how to get it off Amazon. And I didn't even know her code, I mean, because women keep secrets. I didn't even know that, I mean, how it was to order it. I paid a monthly fee to Amazon or whoever it was for quite a while before I finally canceled it, and I never got to benefit from it because I didn't know how. But again, understand, be careful about that spontaneous. It could get you in trouble. By the way, you ought not be spontaneous. You ought not wake up Sunday morning and say, where do you want to go to church today? You know where you should go to church? Your church. I had someone one time tell my kids, I'll go to your church this Sunday if you go to my church next Sunday. They came to me and thought that was a great idea. I said, nope. You know why? Because they go to a Catholic church and I don't want you to ever go to a Catholic church. But they said they would come to our church and they might get saved. I said, yeah, and they might, but you're not going to a Catholic church. Now, if you're on vacation, you better find a church out of town because you need to be in church. The good news is you can always watch Liberty on the Internet. That's one thing that COVID, I think we probably had a little bit before COVID, but it really got a lot more practice, a lot better during COVID. How many of you ever watch Liberty Baptist Church when you're out of town? Or if you're even sick, I mean, you can pull it up and watch it. So the fact is, it's nice that it's online, you can watch it. But the truth is, you ought not be spontaneous when it comes to church. It ought not be that on a Sunday morning, your kids have, I mean, and then you decide whether you're gonna go to church or not. I've told you, when I was a kid, I always had three choices on Sunday morning. You know what it was? You can go to church, you can go to church, or you can go to church. You know what, I always made the right decision. Again, some things to be spontaneous about, not that. Number 13, and I'm going to hurry on. An administrator with character will build morale, not just expect it. He said this, excitement is caught, not taught. I don't know if you've ever seen something going on. The day that we had a, the school kids came running upstairs and said, Brooke, there was a fight in the parking lot. You know how they could tell that? There was a big circle of people. You couldn't even see the folks that were fighting, because they was inside the circle. And I went out there to break it up, Everybody had their phones up. You know, today, they all had their phones up, taking pictures and stuff. And I could tell the girls didn't really want to fight. You know why? Because they weren't very serious about it. Because when I went in and said, break it up, I did this, and they quit. I can tell you, when girls are really mad, that doesn't stop the fight. So how do you know? Because I've seen some girls that are mad. When you do that, all happens is now you're getting your hair pulled, and you get knocked down, and now there's three people, and you're not even fighting. You're just trying to get out of the middle of the fight. So when I pulled them apart and they stopped, they weren't very serious. It was like, if they could have said anything, it would have been, thank you, sir. Now all the kids said, hey, let them fight. I said, you want them to fight? Take them to your yard. Don't leave them fighting here in the parking lot. Then one of the kids said, hey, Brother Block, you made it on YouTube. And I went, hey, got my own YouTube channel now. I made it because when I went in to break up the fight, I was on YouTube for a short time. Y'all didn't know that. You have a movie star in your midst tonight, all right? It was only a brief moment, but it was there. But again, excitement. I mean, people like excitement. So again, it can be caught. You build morale, not just expect it. Number 14, should not be distressed. But if he is, he works on in his distress. Brother Howells says this, and he had a sign in his office that said this, never despair, but if you do, work on in despair. Now, if you have great disappointment, work on. You have a broken heart, work on. You have storms in life, work on. You have adversity, work on. Do you notice Proverbs 24.10 says, if thou faint in the day of adversity, you know why you did that? Thy strength is small. You did it because you weren't very strong. Now, I can tell you that some of those things I just mentioned, whether it's the great disappointment or the broken heart or the storms of life or the adversity, sometimes it's a punch in the gut. Sometimes you want to stop. And by the way, rather than stop, if you keep going, I can tell you not only will it help you get past the disappointment, or past the broken heart, or past the storms of life, or past the adversity, it will also keep you right during that time. Because at that time, when you have those things happen to you, the devil comes and sets on your shoulder and tells you if you wasn't serving the Lord, and you wasn't putting the Lord first, and you wasn't making so many sacrifices, maybe this wouldn't have happened. So you need to make sure that you work on. He said the best way to deal with despair, work through it. Now if you're not, you're not saved. We try to do this every service. We always give an invitation. We always want to make it clear. I mentioned that there's some things you should plan on the future. Don't be spontaneous about when it comes to your salvation. If you're not sure you're saved tonight, you shouldn't wait to the last minute to do that. That's one of the biggest and dumbest decisions you could make. That's the reason I got saved at nine. I'm 63. I'll be 64 in a couple days. I mean, so I didn't need it when I was nine. I'm sure glad I got taken care of when I was nine, because it's a lot easier to get saved as a child than it is as an adult. But again, you don't want to wait till the last minute to get saved. If you're here tonight without Christ, during the invitation, we encourage you to come down front. One of our soul winners will take the Word of God and show you how to get saved tonight. You might have came without Jesus,