I was once a sinner, but I came Pardoned to receive from my Lord This was freely given, and I found That I always kept His word There's a new name written down in glory And it's mine, oh yes, it's mine And the white-robed angels sing the story A sinner has come home For there's a new name written down in glory And it's mine, oh yes it's mine With my sins forgiven I am bound for heaven Never more to roam in the kneeling at the cross fearing not but God's angry frown when the heavens opened and I saw that my name was written down There's a new name written down in glory And it's mine, oh yes it's mine And the white-robed angels sing the story A sinner has come home For there's a new name written down in glory And it's mine, oh yes it's mine With my sins forgiven I am bound for heaven Never more to roam In the book was written, saved by grace, O the joy that came to my soul. Now I am forgiven, and I know, by the blood I am made whole. There's a new name written down in glory And it's mine, oh yes it's mine And the white-robed angels sing the story A sinner has come home For there's a new name written down in glory And it's mine, oh yes it's mine With my sins forgiven I am bound for heaven ♪ Never more to roam ♪ Amen. Good to see you tonight. Let's go to the Lord and order prayer. Father, we ask for your help again tonight as we do every service. We need your power on the service. Bless the singing, the preaching. Lord, if there's anyone that's not saved tonight, I pray, Lord, you touch their heart, help them to realize their great need of salvation. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Amen. Number 43, nothing but the blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone, nothing but for blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. The new prayer list is on the back table back there. It is a green one. If you have anything other than this light green one, you probably have an older one. And then the one that I did not add to the prayer list was. We have main event next Monday. Now, there's a sign-up sheet on the back table. You don't have to stop signing when the number stopped. I wrote some numbers on it, had too much more to do, so I threw it on the thing. So if you see that the first five or six is already filled in, that's not all that can go. Someone asked me one time, if there's no more numbers, does that mean we cannot go? And it means, no, I just didn't write more numbers. So we can take as many as we want to take, so that's not an issue. It's $10 per person. We'll be there from 530 to 930 on Monday night. And that again covers four hours of laser quest, bowling, shooting pool, or the gravity ropes. And then it also gives you a $10 game card, two pieces of pizza, and some soda. So that is on Monday, 530 to 930. Meet at Main Event is right over here. Now if you bring up Main Event and it says it's 45 minutes away, either you live a long ways from the church, or you're going to the wrong Main Event. There is another one, but it's on the other side of town. That's not the one we're going to. We're going to the one right over here on 151 Access Road. So again, it's about five minutes from here. But that is on Monday, April the 7th. Also on the 26th of April, 2 p.m., there's a spring music recital. And then Miriam is selling some tickets. You still got tickets? So Miriam still has tickets. And they are $13 a piece. That's half a chicken, rice, beans, potato salad, and the fixings. And that is not here. If you come here, you won't find the plates here. It is at Five Palms. It's 6623 Five Palms Drive. And that is Gateway Christian School. But you can get the tickets from her this evening if you haven't. It says save the date. We'll be having an adult banquet on Saturday, August the 16th, 2025. If you come and ask me what's going on, I will tell you exactly what I know. Nothing. Okay, that's why they said save the date, and it says we'll be giving you more information later. So I'm giving you all the information I got. All the information I got is right there on that little red thing, and there's some of those out in the hallway. but they just wanted to let you know enough in advance because I know some of you do vacations and trips and Cruises and all that kind of stuff during the summer and we're just hoping you can schedule that around The adult banquet. I do know that brother Ross will be speaking is what I was told He'll be speaking for us on that weekend. So say the date August the 12th or 16th and again, don't forget to pray for the coral be coming up in It's hard to think that the summer is right around the corner unless you stepped outside this morning and then you realize it was hot this morning. It started out hot and just got hotter during the day. But Brother Cor will be here at the end of summer like usual. That is our next big event other than this one in August. So don't forget to start praying for these events, the one on August the 16th. Now we'll have sign up sheets and have more information when we get a little closer to Fiesta. I don't know from what I saw the other day, it looks like we had every other night. That was not how it was last year. Last year we had every night. Does anyone know for sure? I know it has every other night. So used to in the past Freedom would do half of the nights and we would do half of the nights. So I don't know if Freedom is involved or they just messed up putting the dates on there. But in the past we would have one night, they'd have the next, we'd have the next night. So as of right now, those are the dates and then pass out tracks at the parade of flowers. That's on a Friday And again, we'll leave the church at 8 a.m. In the morning. Anyone can go help us pass out tracks We walk the whole parade route or all the parade route that we can get to before they kick us off the street And we run out of tracks, but we usually pass out several thousands usually close to 10,000 tracks during that week and again those are those map tracks that the guys in the print room and always have ready for us. So again, don't forget to start praying for Fiesta. We want folks to be saved and for God to move. And again, pray for the folks that are sick, especially this young lady with this big cyst. I can't even imagine a cyst that big. My dad used to call me a knothead, but if I had a knot, it wouldn't have been near that big. So now I've had some knots on my head, but nothing the size of a cantaloupe. So keep prayer and prayer. And then again, don't forget to always pray for Preacher and Cindy. Amen. Please stand. Sing, 421, my sins are gone. You ask me why I'm happy, so I'll just tell you why. Because my sins are gone. And when I meet the scoffers who ask me where they are, I say my sins are gone. There underneath the blood on the cross of Calvary As far removed as darkness is from dawn In the sea of God's forgetfulness that's good enough for me Praise God, my sins are gone When Satan comes to tempt me and tries to make me doubt, I say, my sins are gone. You got me into trouble, but Jesus got me out. I'm glad my sins are gone. There underneath the blood on the cross of Calvary As far removed as darkness is from dawn In the sea of God's forgetfulness that's good enough for me Praise God, my sins are gone I'm living now for Jesus, I'm happy night and day, because my sins are gone. My soul is filled with music, with all my heart I say, I know my sins are gone. There underneath the blood on the cross of Calvary, as far removed as darkness is from dawn, in the sea of God's forgetfulness, that's good enough for me. Praise God, my sins are gone. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your blessings. Bless this offering, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. so so Number 354, tell me the story of Jesus. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell how the angels in chorus sang as they welcomed his birth. Glory to God in the highest. Peace and good tidings to earth. Tell me the story. Tell of the cross where they nailed Him Writhing in anguish and pain Tell of the grave where they laid Him Love in the story so tender, clearer than ever I see. Stay, let me weep while you whisper, love be the ransom for me. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was. ♪ As the darkness closes in ♪ On this world filled with sin ♪ Look around you, not many are left standing ♪ The word of God's been compromised ♪ Holy living criticized Excuse me. Holy living, criticized, while iniquity on every hand's abounding. So if you have a place to go where the old story's told, and a man of God to preach the word with power, don't forsake it my friend as we're nearing the end for it's the strength that we need for this hour so much the more as you see the day approaching ♪ Beneath the church and the saints ♪ And the worship of the Lord ♪ To stand faithful to the end so much the more ♪ There's a famine in the land ♪ Not for food or for water ♪ But for the healing of the precious word of God And this world can't understand Why I built my life upon it But as for me and my house We'll serve the Lord Serve the Lord So much the more As you see the day approaching So much the more ♪ Beneath the church and the saints ♪ And the worship of the Lord ♪ To stand faithful to the end so much the more ♪ To stand faithful to the end so much the more If you still need the notes, if you'll raise up your hand. Jose said he'd be glad to come and bring them to you. Brother Howes is going to help him if you need verses. Don't know if we'll get to both pages tonight, but I'm going to try to give you both pages. Only depends on the time and how long I talk, or how fast I talk, or how slow you listen. I'm not sure whether it's your slow listening or my slow talking. Anyone else? Brother Howes, we've got a bunch of folks over this side here. Oh, you're empty? Jose, did you take all of them with you? Well, then hurry, child. We're all waiting on you now, just because you want to be a hot shot. All the way over the other side. All of them. Go in your Bibles to Psalms, we'll start there, or in your notes, it will be the first verse on the top list where it says helping and then the first verse on the second list which says not. We're going to read one verse out of each group to start. Those of you that preach understand, I know you do the same thing I do. You listen to, although I don't listen to, I used to listen to a lot more sermons than I do now, but I used to listen to a lot of sermons. I had all of, I was in John R. Rice's tape club when I was a teenager, back when we had the cassette tapes, and I got a tape every week. And then I had some, I had a bunch of Brother Howell's tapes and things like that. But as preachers, we always are looking for stuff, writing down ideas. When I listen to my Bible reading at night, I always write down stuff. And then, add more stuff to it. So a while back I saw this and it said, I asked God, and then it gave us some things that they asked God for. And let me just give you a couple of them that we're going to cover for sure tonight. First it was, I asked God to take my bad habits away. God said, no, it's not for me to take them away, but it's for you to give them up. Second one was, I prayed and asked God to grant me patience. God said, no. Patience is a byproduct of tribulations. It isn't granted. It is earned. I asked God to give me happiness. God said, no. I give you blessing. Happiness is up to you. We're going to look at some things, but needless to say, this was the notes that I started with, and this is the notes that we have tonight. If you're wondering whether I got all the sermon from that thought, I did not. I just got the thoughts. But we want to look at, I ask God. Notice the text verse, Psalm 3320 and Psalm 429. Psalm 3320 makes this statement, Our soul waited for the Lord. Notice the next phrase, He is our help and our shield. Notice Psalm 42, 9. So in Psalm 33, 20, David was saying, God, you're my help and shield. In Psalm 42, 9, David was saying, God, why have you forgotten me? Where are you at? Why did you leave me alone? Again, we want to look at, again, I ask God. Let's pray and we'll get into the message. Father, I ask for your help and your blessing and your power, and I pray, Lord, that you'd get the glory from something that's said tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. Notice we're going to look at the other three verses underneath David. Again, there's a lot more verses than these four, but again, I just wanted to give you several. Notice Psalm 3740 says, and the Lord shall help them and deliver them, and he shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him. Psalm 40 verse 17 says, But I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer, make no tarrying, O my God. Psalm 121 verse 2 says, My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. So David, again in his life, many times he would, again his life and his story was, God's been good to me, God's helped me, God's been there for me, God's my rock, God's my shield, God is my salvation. But then notice Psalm underneath the gruth that says not. We already read Psalm 42. Now notice Psalm 43 too. So you said, God why did you boot me out? Why am I sad? Psalm 43, 5 says, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God. So he said, Why art thou cast down? Notice Psalm 74, 1 says, O God, why hast thou cast us off forever? Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? Now, any of us that are parents, as well as any of us that are children, realize that when someone loves us, sometimes we're on good terms with them, sometimes we're not on such good terms with them. Sometimes we are happy with them and they're happy with us, sometimes they are not happy with us and we're not happy with them. If I ask you tonight, how many of you ever told one of your parents, I hate you, most of us probably would raise our hands. Some of us might have to raise our hands several times. Now, on the other hand, if I ask you how many times you told your parents you loved them, that probably also our hands would go up. If I ask how many husbands or wives tonight have ever told their husband or wife, I don't like you very much today, or I'm not very happy with you right now, or you know what, you do not want to talk to me anymore. I mean, you might want to just stop it right there before you get into any more trouble. On the other hand, there's other times the same husband or wife that says, you know what, I am so lucky to have you. You're the greatest husband, the greatest wife in the whole wide world. I don't know how God worked this out to give you to me. Now, that is the same person talking about the same person. And by the way, that's what David did here. David said, you know what? There's some times God was my rock and my shield and my salvation and my help and my strength. There's other times he said, God, where are you at? Why have you forsaken me? Why did you leave me alone? Why aren't you here? So again, I want you to see, again, the haves and the have nots in this respect, the help and the not helping. Now, we'll look at the first thought. The first thought was this. I asked God to take my habit away. Now notice in your notes, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 makes this statement, Now that's in the Bible. The problem with that is this, sometimes the things that are supposed to become new don't become new right away. Brother Nicholas told you the other night he was talking about giving up what? Cigarettes. How many of you have ever struggled giving up cigarettes? I'm not going to ask how many of you. The reason I did that, it's not near as big a deal as smoking. And some of you, we know you smoke anyway. So how do we know you smoke? Because you sneak out after church and run over behind the dumpster and you smoke over there and we see the smoke coming up. But the truth is, all of us, again, there are still things that no matter how long we've been saved, how many of you have been saved at least 40 years? Now does that mean you're a perfect Christian? The answer to that is no. Does that mean you defeated your besetting sin and you're victorious in your Christian life every day? The answer to that is no. Does that mean you're the perfect husband, the perfect wife, or the perfect soul winner, or the greatest prayer warrior? The answer to that is no. So when we see that verse, what he says is, therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away, behold, all things become new. That is true, but sometimes it's a process. Notice in the very next verse 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 17 wherefore come out from among them and be a separate So again, God says I don't want you to be like them saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and what will happen I will receive you so if he says if you want my blessings Stop hanging out with them. Stop acting like them. Stop looking like them. Stop being like them get away from them So when we go back to that thought I asked God to take my habit away God said no It's not for me to take away But notice this next thought, but it's for you to give up. Any of us that are parents, we realize it is a whole lot easier if a child surrenders themselves to us and obeys willingly than if we have to make them obey. There have been some of us that we did it kicking and screaming. I mean, we did it, we did what we were told to do, but we were not in a happy mood when we did it, we were not happy while we were doing it, we were not happy after we did it. Fact is, there was no happiness involved at all. Now, we did it, we obeyed, but we didn't obey very willingly. Now, when he said, it's not for me to take away, but for you to give up, understand this, God doesn't make us give up our sin, doesn't. He wants us to give up our sin. He wants us to become more like Him. He wants us to become more Christ-like. But the fact is, He doesn't make us. Now, He will punish us, and He will spank us, just like a good parent does. Some of you probably had some stubborn children like I did. I don't know for sure. And you might not want to own up to it anyway, because if you had stubborn children, it's probably because they had stubborn parents. And so I had stubborn children, and I can tell you where my stubborn children got that from. They got it from their mother. I'm just sorry. They got it from their father. So I know that my children were stubborn because they turned out a lot like me. Now, understand, I remember Brother Nicholas told me one time, he says, you have to break the will without breaking their spirit. Now, that's not easy to do. And by the way, it's also not easy to break the will if they're strong-willed individuals. How many of you had a strong-willed child? At least one. I had more than one. But the fact is, the one I remember in particular was Joshua. And again, I'm sure we have problems with Joseph and Jacob, but I just don't, again, that's a good thing about not remembering stuff. I don't remember bad stuff. I don't remember good stuff. I just don't remember a lot of stuff. But I remember this, the incident with Joshua, because we'd finally, my wife and I, he was always stubborn. He was always rebellious. He was always, I mean, not doing what he was told. He wasn't very old. But we decided, I told her, I said, we have to break his will. We have to, because we could spank him. And then, I mean, kind of like my mom setting the timer on the stove, I mean, and make him, and I got several spankings before I finally ate my supper. So we decided one night that this will be the night that we break his will. So I mean, we, it's like we put it on the schedule. I mean, tonight's the night. And so Joshua was told to eat his food. I don't remember what it was. Peas, green beans, something that he didn't like. And by the way, I don't blame him for not liking peas. I don't like peas either. You know how many peas I eat on my own? I mean, voluntarily? Zero. Now, if you mix them in with some stir fry, and I don't have the time, I won't pick them out. If I have the time, I'll pick them out and scoot them over to the side of my plate. You say, you ought to eat them. They're good for you. Well, if you want them so badly, I'll put them in a bag and bring them to you, and you can eat my peas. But I'm not going to eat peas unless I have to. I don't like peas. I don't remember what it was, but he had a spoonful of mom on his plate, because I was doing just like my parents did. My parents did that. They put a spoonful of everything on the plate. If we wanted more than that, we could get more than that. But we all had to, whatever mom cooked, we ate. I'm not too wild about parents nowadays. You know what they do? They cook what their child wants for every meal. I mean, there's some kids that eat nothing but chicken nuggets. They eat chicken nuggets for breakfast. They eat chicken nuggets for lunch. They eat chicken nuggets for supper. You say, how do you know? Because I've got some crying kids that that's what they eat for every meal. because that's what they want. Now, my mom sometimes would ask us what we'd like for supper, and every once in a while she'd make what we like for supper, especially if it was our birthday or something special. But typically, whatever mom made for supper, she made what we had, and again, we had a lot of vegetables from the garden, so there's always a lot of vegetables. The rule was, you took a spoonful of everything. So that night, we gave Joss, I think it was peas, so let's just say it was peas, we gave Joss a spoonful of peas. He's still sitting at the table. The other kids have went to bed. They're in their bedrooms in bed. Josh is still sitting at the table. We give him so much time to eat his peas. He hasn't eaten them. We gave him a spanking. We give him so much time to eat his peas. He hasn't eaten his peas. We give him a spanking. We give him so much time to eat his peas. He doesn't eat his peas. We give him a spanking. It had got so bad. Now, he was crying. I was crying. His brothers and sisters were crying. His brothers and sisters thought Mom and I had gone crazy. They came to us and said, if you have to spank somebody, spank me. I mean, my other kids wanted to get spanked instead of Joshua. And we weren't just spanking Joshua because we liked spanking Joshua. We wasn't spanking Joshua because it was fun spanking Joshua. Now, I can tell you, there have been some times through the years, I have to be honest, that there are some students that I did not mind spanking, that I got a little bit of joy out of spanking them. But that was not the case with Joshua that night. I mean, it was hurting me. Now, used to when parents said, this hurts me as much as it hurts you, I thought, yeah, right. Apparently, you don't understand. You're on the other side of the paddle. But it was hurting me to spank Josh for that night. But we spanked him, and we spanked him, and we spanked him. You said, how stubborn was he? Stubborn. Stubborn beyond stubborn. I mean, if you looked up stubborn in the dictionary, his picture was there. He was stubborn. And we kept spanking him and spanking him. Now, listen to me. It would have been so much easier if he just ate his peas. Now, could we make him eat his peas? Yes, we could. And he finally did. But I guarantee, I mean, he got whooped more than any time I'd ever whooped any child. Again, God typically doesn't do that to us. He asks us, the Holy Spirit convicts us, He asks us to do something. And by the way, if you do it, you'll get a blessing for doing it. If you don't, you'll miss out on a blessing for doing it. But God typically doesn't sit there like Mom and I did and keeps thanking you. He might, it depends on what it is He's asked you to give up. But the truth is, typically when it comes to the things that you and I should give up, He wants us to do it willingly. That's why you and I are not slaves. Now think about the difference between a slave and a servant. A slave is asked to do something, and if he doesn't do it, he gets beat for it. I mean, he gets punished for it, because he doesn't have a say-so. He does not have a choice. A servant, on the other hand, you and I, when we work for an employee, we are a servant. By the way, if we don't want to do what the boss says, guess what? We don't have to do it. Now, we may not keep that job, but we do not have to do it. The boss cannot make us do anything we do not want to do. So again, understand, you and I are servants, so God doesn't, I mean, we're not slaves. We are servants. Now, I said, he asked God to take away the habit. God said, no, it's not for me to take away, it's for you to give up. Now I can tell you, the Christian life is a lot more enjoyable if we give some stuff up. Now you might think that it will cause you pain and suffering. Some of you thought when you gave a certain thing up that, I mean, you would miss, it was gonna take away all your joy. It didn't. Now, I've never understood drinking. I've never taken a drink of alcohol in my life, and I don't intend to. So if ever there's a thing that someone says, well, the blocker's drinking, someone's lying to you. I can't even stand the smell of alcohol, let alone that I don't, and again, you say, does it, I asked someone one time, does it taste as bad as it smells? And the answer was, yes, but if you drink enough of it, you'll get used to it. Now, that's why I don't drink diet soda, by the way. And probably if I drank enough diet soda, if I drank it often enough, probably I'd get used to it, I might like it. But when I drink diet soda and I drink the real stuff, I mean, I drank a few diet sodas in my life because I was really, really, really thirsty and desperate. But trust me, if I'm not really, really, really, really thirsty, I'm not drinking a diet soda. I'm not drinking a root beer. I'm not drinking a big red. Now, almost anything else, I'll swig down, but not that. Now, I've never drank an alcohol. But the truth is, there are folks who thought when they give up alcohol, life's not gonna be any fun anymore. And I always thought, fun? Is it fun puking? Is it fun getting, I mean, beat up and you don't even know why you got, is it fun? I mean, your wife or husband is not talking to you, your kids are terrified of you because when you drink, you're a monster? Is it fun? You can't pay your bills because you spent all your money on alcohol, every paycheck, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I mean, you're a mess, and you finally have to dry out to go to work on Monday morning. Understand, I never have understood the fun of alcohol. He said, well, block it. I mean, same thing. I've never had any kind of medication that has ever given me a buzz. And I know some of you've had some good stuff. I remember one time I was with someone in the hospital and they said, doctor, can I have some of the good stuff? And I said, what do you mean? He said, oh, this stuff makes me feel really good. I mean, I mean, I've never had that feeling. I've never had a high from a medication. Say, but block, you have not had the right medication. Apparently not. Apparently my doctors don't love me as much as your doctors love you. But I've never had a high from a medication. I mean, the highest I've ever got couple Tylenol. I mean, that's about it. But again, he said, it's not for me to take away, it's for you to give up. Now, one of the best ways to give something up when you're struggling with something in your Christian life is to learn some scripture. Now, there in your notes, you have some scripture. You say, what problem did you choose? A couple that I had problems with, so that's why, and I knew those verses, because I had to use those verses. Notice if you're struggling with the sin of anger. Notice Proverbs 14, verse 29. He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding. You know what it means? If you're not slow to wrath, you're not very smart. He that is a hasty spirit exalteth folly, does stupid stuff. Verse 119 of James, the verse I memorized, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. Again, if we shut our mouth and listen, and don't speak in anger, we'll get in a lot less trouble. Proverbs 22 24 says make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go so again memorize if you're struggling with anger memorize some verses about anger that way when you start to get angry the Holy Spirit will remind you it will be like he's talking to you you'll hear I mean it's not like you hear a real audible voice if you're waiting for a real audible voice or seeing something written across the sky God typically doesn't do that in our age but the Holy Spirit will talk to you many of you know what I'm talking about you've I mean the Holy Spirit's talked to you before It might be the second thing, again, I have, again, and most guys have an issue with this, the issue of lust. Notice the verses that have to do with lust. James 1, verse 15 says, then when lust hath conceived, what he means is when it gets to the end, it bringeth forth sin. So it starts as lust, it turns into sin. Notice what happens in sin when it's finished, bringeth forth death. Now again, he's saying that lust and any sin can be deadly. Matthew 5.28 says, but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Now one of the reasons we tell young ladies to dress modestly is for that verse right there. Because if you notice, notice again what the verse said. Notice the verse said, Now if the ladies dressed him modestly, he should not lust after her, she also should not dress him modestly. I remember years ago I went before the young ladies in our school and I said, ladies, I'd appreciate if you'd help us guys out. And they went, sure, brother, what can we help with? I said, dress modestly. When you dress modestly, it makes it a lot easier for us to look at you and think of you as ladies than when you don't sit modestly. Now, girls, when you get on a ledge, it still bogs my mind how you just can't think about this. Sometimes we'd have girls sit on the ledge out there. And the problem is, when they sit on the ledge, you know what happens to the bottom of their dress? It falls down. You can see stuff you shouldn't see. The whole reason we wear dresses to the knees is that no one but your husband sees that thigh. That stays covered. Now, also true in the swing set, or the monkey bars, or some other stuff. There's just some things that ladies shouldn't do in a dress if there's guys around. Now, understand, if you have a problem with a sin, you ought to memorize some scripture. You say, is there scripture about my sin? I'm sure there is. You'd have to, again, I've had people come to me and say, Brother Block, I'm having trouble with this. Can you find me some verses? And I found them some verses and text them back to him later. There are verses in the Bible that will help us with whatever sin it is that we're struggling with. Notice on your page two, First John 2 16 says for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of Life is not of the father but of the world so again I notice that the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes Again, there's lots of stuff out in the world that we look at that can get us into trouble I've learned this from Bruce Rice and Bible college, and it was I mean later. I thought wow that's genius We were driving down the road, and he said oh look over there We looked over there, and I'm thinking he was it was just houses and trees I went what and we get a little and he just says you know Tell you later, we went on the bus ride on Saturday, we go a little bit farther down the road, and he goes, hey, look at that. And I look across there, and I said, all right, Bruce, enough. What am I looking for? He said, not really anything, I just wanted you to look over there, because on this side of the road was a girl that was dressed immodestly, and she wasn't dressed right, and I didn't want you looking at her. So I said, look over there, and guess what you did? You looked over there, so you didn't see that. Now, understand, if you're struggling with a sin, God's not probably going to beat you over the head and take it from you. He wants you to give it up. I ask God for patience, to give me patience. Notice 1 Timothy 6, 11, in Hebrews 10, 36. 1 Timothy 6, 11 says, but thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness. Now, these are things we're supposed to follow after, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness. So he says, I want you to get these things. I want you to follow after them. I want you to obtain them. Notice Hebrews 10, verse 36. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Now, patience is not fun to get. And the reason you'll understand when I ask God for patience, God said no. Patience is a byproduct of tribulation. We often say, tribulation worketh patience. We'll show you where we get that in a moment. He went on and said, again, patience is a byproduct of tribulation. It isn't granted, it is earned. Now, if you are a patient person tonight, you earned that. Sometimes kids, I mean, our younger age folks amaze me. Perry's, you had what, four youngsters? Three that we know, but you had four youngsters, so three. Let's see. Brother Milliken, you guys had three, right? You had girls. Girls are so much. I'm just joking. You had two girls, one boy. Mrs. Sanders, you had two young men. You didn't have any ladies, did you? You was like my mama. You had all boys. But most of us had two or three or four kids. Years ago, we was at Josh's house. Now they have two children. And both of them are angels compared to my children, okay? I mean, I remember my children and I was with his children. They wanted to go somewhere. And mom and I were there and they said, they said this before they left, are you sure you guys are going to be okay watching, I mean, watching our two kids? I said, hmm. We never had kids, did we, baby? I mean, this would be the first kids we've ever watched. I mean, we never took care of children this age, did we? And I said, we had four. And you were one of them. And you remember how you were. And trust me, if we could handle you, we can handle you too. But it amazed me that our children wondered if we could. Now, listen to me. When I was their age, two at times did drive me crazy. Every parent in here. That's why we call it the terrible twos and the terrible threes. At times like that, you think to yourself, Are they demon possessed? Do I need to take him to a Catholic priest and have him do the, you know, do that? Because, I mean, Baptists don't cast out demons. I mean, I remember I had a teacher at school that came to us and said, why don't you spank them? And I said, you don't understand. We do spank them. Well, but they don't always do, they don't do what they're supposed to. Now, I understand this was also a teacher that never had a child. And I've always noticed the greatest parents are those who never had kids. Now, for those of you that never had kids and you're telling everyone else how to raise their kids, do not get married, do not have children, because it's going to screw up your thinking, because you're going to realize how dumb you were all those years you threw out that stuff that you thought you knew what you was talking about. But again, I told them, they said, why don't you do something? I said, we are trying. My wife looked at me and said, what are we going to do? Should I home? I said, no. They'll get through it. And by the way, they did get through it. None of them died. Now, there's a few times we thought we might want to kill one of them. And that night that we was whooping on Joshua, all of his brothers and sisters thought we was killing him. But the fact is, we made it through. And guess what? Now we can mess with kids. And you know what? They don't ruffle my feathers. I don't know if you're like me. I go through the store. There's some kids screaming and hollering. And I'll walk up to the parent and say, Good news is, it gets better. Now, at one time, I was the one with the screaming kid. Now, I'm the one that my kids are all grown and gone. I've got grandkids. I've got school kids. They don't bother me near as much as they bother me, you know what, because they got a little patience now. I think that's why grandparents are so much better at sometimes dealing with kids than parents. Because as parents, we still haven't got that patience yet. And as grandparents, with gray hair usually comes some patience. That's where that gray hair came from. But the fact is, patience is something that's not granted, it is earned. Notice the verse there, Romans 5, verse 3. And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience. Now again, you get it. I wish it was just something we could say, God give me patience, and he waved a little wand and we're patient now. Suzanne said that to me years ago. She had been one of my teenagers. Now she's, her kids are my teenagers. Now they're all grown up too. But I mean, at that time they was coming to stuff and she said, Brooke Block, you have a lot more patience with these kids than you did with us. Now I didn't realize that. I mean, I didn't notice it. I thought I was still the same fellow I'd always been. Apparently I've mellowed out some. Apparently I'm a little nicer now than I used to be. For those of you that were teenagers 20 years ago, that would have been a good time to say amen, but hey, I mean, I don't want to help you out there. The truth is, he said, tribulation worketh patience. Notice the next verse. Romans chapter 12, verse 12 says, rejoice and in hope, patience in tribulation. That doesn't come right. I mean, again, you're going to get that patience through that tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. Then 2 Corinthians 1, 4 says, who comforted us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. Now let's think about that last thought for just a second. I had a wife that was very sick for many, many years. Spent a lot of nights in the hospital. Never spent a night in the hospital for me except when I got my tonsils out when I was 16. That's the only day out I've ever spent in the hospital. Now I don't remember if I stayed all night. I think I stayed one night. I spent a lot of nights in the hospital with Mrs. Block. Many, many nights. Dozens, maybe up into the hundreds. Because any time she went to the hospital, other than COVID, I was sleeping in the chair of the bed next to her. Which, by the way, is why I hate nurses, because every two hours they come in and wake everybody up. They flip the light on. They say, oh, Mr. Block, you don't need to get up. I'm thinking, you don't need to wake up. I'm thinking, well, then leave the light off, and then maybe I wouldn't wake up. Quit banging into stuff. Maybe I wouldn't wake up. If you'd come in a little quieter, maybe both of us could keep sleeping. They just said, we're just checking on Mr. Block. So I always tell people, I know you don't get any rest in the hospital. That's why you have to go home to catch up on your rest. But the truth is, I can now talk. I understand now when someone else has a husband or wife that's sick. I understand what they're going through. Now, for years, I had never lost anyone, I mean, close to me. Then I lost my dad, then I lost my mom, then I lost my wife. Now, there are times now that when I go to funerals, I understand a lot more what the person is going through than I did years ago. When Brother and Mrs. Yala, how long ago did your daughter die? 28, that's a long time ago. How many of you remember that? I do. I remember Brother Yala hugging me and he was crying and I was crying and he said, why Brother Block, why? And I said, I have no idea Brother Yala. I was crying and I said maybe God just felt like he needed her up in heaven instead of down here. I still don't know the reason why. And by the way, I probably won't know will you till we get to heaven. But, I now understand what it's like to lose a loved one that's really close to you. So again, when you've learned, when you've went through the tribulation, and you've arrived at that patience part, it makes it where you can talk and help others. You can be patient with them. By the way, you can also tell them there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is this mountain, I mean, this valley will now turn into a mountain. You're going to soon get out of this. So again, I asked God to give me patience. God said no. Patience is a byproduct of tribulation. It's granted, not earned. It isn't granted, I'm sorry. It is earned. Number three, and I must hurry. I asked God to give me happiness. God said no. Now get this, because I hadn't thought about this until I read it. I give you blessings. Happiness is up to you. Have you noticed that there are two people that have the same thing? Same house, same car, same wage. One is happy as can be. I mean, counts himself lucky and privileged to be here. The other one's griping, complaining and unhappy. I mean, they want a bigger house or a nicer car or more money. Now, if any of you here tonight think that things will make you happy, you have not learned very much at the age or whatever age you're at. I can understand if that was Levi or these young men down front, but there are adults who still are not happy because they think that if they just get the next thing, they're going to be happy. Again, happiness isn't from things. Happiness is when you and I, again, God gives us blessings, and based on how we look at that blessing, that will determine whether we're happy or not. Notice the verse there. First off, we have to understand how good God is. Notice the verse, Psalm chapter 73, verse one, truly God is good to Israel, even as such as are of a clean heart. Now, notice truly God is good. Now, I can tell you this, and some of you say the same thing I used to say, someone will say, how you doing? I'll say better than I deserve. Or I'll say, God's good. God's better to me than I deserve. And by the way, whatever position you're in today, whether you're on the mountain or in the valley, you're still better off than you deserve. We all deserve to be in hell. None of us are in hell. If we're saved, none of us are ever going to hell. Fact is, we will not even so much as fill any of the flames from hell. Again, notice the second thing. He gives us blessings. Notice Ephesians, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now again, if you have been saved very long and you've grown in it all, you know what you will always say? God is good. The teens sing a song all the time, God is so good. And He is. And by the way, He is good all the time to us. He gives us blessings. Now whether you and I are happy or not, Now, I see kids in the store all the time screaming and hollering and crying. You know why? Because they want something. And sometimes the parent will give it to them. And sometimes when the parent gives it to them, you know what they do with it? They're so angry, they throw it down and they keep on screaming and crying. Now, that is a time that as a grandparent, I do not want to be patient anymore, okay? That's a time I'd like to grab that child out of there and just whoop his butt. Maybe whoop mom and dad's butt as well. Maybe they both need a whooping. But the truth is, Sometimes folks get a blessing and they're still unhappy. He gives us goods, gifts. He gives us good gifts. Notice what the verse says, James 1, 17, but every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and coming down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Notice he says he gives good gifts. Sean said this the other day, we had some of the kids out during spring break and they came out and worked on the farm. Aisha and her sister and her brother, they came out and worked on the farm. Sean had told them, Brother Block has the good food. Now, I didn't realize I had good food. Say, what did you cook? We cooked up wings from Costco. Really easy to cook. Put a bunch of them in there. We also made chocolate-covered strawberries, and we made cupcakes. Taught the girls how to make cupcakes. But Sean said, I told him, you got the good food. Now, I can tell you, I never thought about my food being good. I can tell you, when my kids were working, we always wanted to go to Mrs. Bell's house, because Mrs. Bell had the good candy. We had the cheap candy, Mrs. Bell had the good candy. And Mrs. Bell had the good ice cream. Once in a while, I'll buy the good ice cream now as well. But I mean, typically when I went to buy ice cream, I would get the generic stuff. I mean, I didn't get the drumstick drumsticks. I got the knockoff drumsticks. You say, is there a big difference? Depends on the knockoff. Some of them are not too bad. You say, why do you know that? Because I still eat some of the knockoff drumsticks. And I shouldn't eat ice cream anyway. It makes me sick sometimes. But I like the ones that have caramel in them. Mm, mm, the caramel in those drumsticks. But the truth is, God gives good gifts. Notice the next verse. Not only does he give good gifts, notice Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse 13, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all of his labor. It is a gift of God. Now understand, it's a benefit of labor. When you and I labor, guess what happens? And I always enjoyed working, not the working part, but I enjoyed the pay part. When we got through hauling that hay and the guy gave my brother the money at the end of the week when he paid us, it was nice to have some money. Now I can tell you, the more money you make doesn't necessarily mean the more happiness you'll have. But again, he said there's some blessing in labor. Notice he gives us another verse, verse 19 of chapter five. Notice he gives us that and here's what it says, if I can find my placement. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth and hath given him power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor. Now, I have no patience, none, with people today that say they can't get a job. Because here's my policy. My policy is very, very simple. I learned it in Bible college. Brother Vineyard used to say, if you work at a place where you're getting $5 an hour, that beats no dollars an hour all day long. You said, I can't pay my bills with $5 an hour. You cannot. But you can pay a lot more than you can pay with no dollars an hour. Now, understand, there are some jobs you might not be able to pay your bills with. You may have to get two of them. But the fact is, if you work hard, you will find that labor has its benefits. which then can bring some blessings. And notice the next one is talking about salvation and eternal life. Notice those two verses, and that is the first verse is Romans 6, verse 23, at the bottom of the page, for the wage of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ephesians 2.8, for by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. Again, we should be thankful for the fact of salvation and eternal life. If I lived in a tent and I had to drink water out of the creek, And I didn't have very much to eat, and I had holes in my shoes, and I'm saved, I'm still a blessed man. I mean, I still have something that some people that live in the nice houses, what's the big place outside town? Dominion. There's folks in the Dominion that have a lot more than I have, but if they don't have salvation, trust me, they don't have near as much as I have. I'm a lot richer than them. Because I have eternal life. Now understand, God said, I'm not going to give you happiness, but I'll give you the blessings and how you deal with the blessings, how you determine the blessings, how you receive the blessings. Have you noticed that there's some folks that are not happy no matter what you give them, no matter what you do for them? We had folks that came to the churches ago that were hungry. They came to us when we had the food bank, they came for food. We put the food together and we bought pretty good food. We had to buy it. Some of you didn't know it. We had to buy it. We paid so much per pound. We spent two or $300 a week. We put that together. We'd take it out. And many times I'd take it out and I would have people that would pick through the food I gave them. I had one one time look through and they say, I don't want any of this crap. They said, the other church I go to gives me ice cream and cigarettes. And I said, well, first off, I'm not going to buy you cigarettes because I don't think you ought to be smoking. Second off, back then, I couldn't even afford ice cream. I don't know if you've ever been to the point that you couldn't afford ice cream. I mean, we couldn't afford ice cream. And I thought, if I can't afford ice cream, I'm sure they're not going to go buy it for you. You know what? My daddy used to tell us all the time, beggars can't be choosy. For some reason, they weren't very hungry. Now, there are some times I've went to the cupboard, opened it up, looked in the fridge, and thinking, I ain't got nothing to eat. Now, here's what I really meant. It wasn't that I don't have nothing to eat. It meant there's nothing in there that I want to eat. Trust me, in the cupboard was lots of food. In the refrigerator was some food. There just wasn't any food that looked appealing at the moment. Now, understand, you and I are saved. If we had nothing else, if we were just saved and lived on the street, we are still blessed and we still have a lot to be happy for. And the last one, and I'll quit there, notice it's on page 3, and it says 1 Corinthians 7, 7. For I would that all men were even as myself. For every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this man and another after that. 1 Peter 4, 10. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Not only does He give us other blessings, He actually gives each of us a gift. I don't mean a Christmas present, I mean He gives us a talent or an ability. So if you're wondering, if you ever say to yourself, I'm worthless, then you're calling God a liar because God says, I've given you a gift. You've got a gift. You're gifted. Now, I don't know what your gift is, but you have one. Some of you have more than one. And again, God says, I'm not gonna give you happiness, but I'll give you some blessings, and that will determine how you handle the blessings, how you receive the blessings will determine whether you'll be happy or not. You know some of the happiest people I know are little poor children that have nothing. You give them a sucker. I mean, you give them something simple, and they are so happy, they run off laughing and happy. You know why? Because they've realized that they don't have to have a lot of stuff. They don't have a closet full of clothes. They don't have 20 pairs of shoes. They don't have a refrigerator or a cupboard full of food. They were happy with a penny candy. They were happy with whatever we gave them on the bus on Sunday. Again, I asked God for happiness. God said, I'll give you blessings, and you can determine whether you're happy or not. I didn't finish tonight because I knew I wouldn't. Besides, I didn't show you the back page of that other page. That was one through five. That was also six and seven, and I didn't even have those in my notes. So we will have part two next week. So if you're a keeper, you can keep page three and four, or you can put it back on the thing. That will be where we'll start next Wednesday night. Again, I asked God, God said no, and we'll look at some more of those next week. Father, thank you for your goodness. I pray, Lord, you'd help us to realize that