Good evening. Please stand as we sing number 403, Isn't the Love of Jesus Something Wonderful. There will never be a sweeter story Story of the Savior's love divine Love that brought him from the realms of glory Just to save a sinful soul like mine Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful, wonderful Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Boundless as the universe around me. Reaching to the farthest soul away. Saving, keeping love it was that found me. That is what my heart can truly say. Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful, wonderful? Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful? It is to me. Love beyond our human comprehending. Love of God in Christ, how can it be? This will be my theme in ever ending. Great redeeming love of Calvary. Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful. Wonderful. Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Didn't find any? Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Father, we ask you for your goodness and your blessing tonight as we usually do. We need your power. I ask you, Lord, that you'd be with the rest of the singing, the special, and I ask for your power tonight as I preach. Bless those still getting there. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. We will be singing, It Is Well With My Soul, number 275. When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea Whatever, my lord, thou hast taught me to say, it is well. With my soul, it is well. With my soul, it is well. with my soul. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance come true. that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well with my soul It is well, it is well my soul. And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sought, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. I didn't see any visitors. Anybody here for the first time or the first time in a long time? Brother Raymond, good to see you back. Some of you know we now have another Brother Raymond. It's going to be hard to tell them apart because they look so much alike, but this Brother Raymond is a little taller than the other Brother Raymond, so hopefully that will help those of you that struggle with that. Don't forget we have several things as far as we need to pray for. Now, most of you heard this today on the prayer chain, Brother Perry. uh found out now again he told me today he wouldn't have found out if it hadn't been for the fact that he'd had covid and they did the tests and ran a bunch of stuff they found that spot on his liver a while back when they did a biopsy last week they he got the word today that it is liver cancer so pray about the upcoming treatment he talked he said right before church they're going to try to burn it off or burn the spot out so pray that as they work all that out that that will be taken care of adam gillette tomorrow is having surgery on his nose so don't forget to pray for adam Don't forget to pray for Brother Badansi, that's the young black, the elderly black fellow over here that comes with his grandkids every Sunday on the bus. He's been having troubles with his stomach and head. I've been having headache and stomach pain for a while. I lost my, that's why I had Adam go out to see if I'd left it in the car seat, but I think I remember everybody, but if I didn't, remind me after church. Don't forget to pray for Preacher and Cindy. Pray for Brother Lowry, he's in need of a chair. so so StSq3 3.30 (-0.99") means tomorrow night at 645 for soul winning, Friday night no activity, Saturday there's bus visitation in the morning at 930, soul winning at 1045, and then Saturday afternoon apparently there's a piano recital and some of, I guess, how many of our folks are playing in the piano recital? Several of our folks are. But it won't be here. It'll be at Faith Bible Church over at 423 Ashley Road. That's where Brother Castillo's pastoring at. So again, 423 Ashley Road. And again, that is at 3 p.m. on Saturday. And they said they don't think they're live streaming it, so you either have to be there or you will miss it. I know this week also is David's graduation, correct? So I know some of the folks, so pray for the folks. We'll have several families traveling on Friday to go up to the Dallas area to see David graduate. So again, it's a blessing to have him graduating from school. And I know the Suttmers had a young lady graduate this last week. So two of our kids from the church and from our family graduated from Bible College. We still have several in college, but don't forget to pray for the folks who'll be traveling. It's crazy out there when you get around people that drive. I don't know if Brother Millican mentioned California. I am so thankful I don't live in California anymore. I did not know what crazy drivers were. Now if you think it's crazy here, you should just go to California for a week and you'll come back and thank God for Texas. and Texas drivers. Now you may not thank God for Houston and Austin, but you will thank God for the rest of Texas. Because one time, I don't remember, we hadn't even done anything. We was driving and someone got mad because we didn't get out of the way quick enough. Next thing we heard, we heard something hit the car. They threw a soda can out the window and hit the car. and then rolled down the windows and told us what they felt about us and our ancestry and some of the rest of it. They are not very nice out there sometimes. Besides, the gas price is $6 and something right now, so I'm complaining about $4 and don't like that. But I am so thankful it is not $6. Right now, it costs you $50 to fill it up. It'd cost you about $75 to fill it up if you was out there, so it is not cheap. But continue to pray also for all the stuff going on with our military. And again, don't forget to continue to pray for our president and our country. A lot of stuff going on that we need God's hand involved in. We will be singing number 355, Wonderful Grace of Jesus. Stand please. Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin. How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall its praise begin? Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free. For the wonderful grace of Jesus, Wonderful in the matchless grace of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea, Higher than the mountain, Sparkling like a fountain, All sufficient grace for even me. broader than the scope of my transgression, greater far than all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise His name. Wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaching to all the lost. By it I have been pardoned, Saved to the uttermost. Chains have been torn, For the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful, the magic grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea On the mountain, sparkling like a fountain All sufficient grace for even me broader than the scope of my transgressions, greater far than all my sin and shame. Oh, magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise His name. Lord, thank you for your love to us, for your blessings. Bless this offering, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We will now be singing I Wish I'd Given Him More, number 393. By and by, when I look on his face Beautiful face, thorn-shedded face By and by, when I look on his face I wish I had given him more More, so much more More of my life than I ever gave before By and by, when I look on his face I wish I had given him more By and by, when he holds out his hands, welcoming hands, By and by, when he holds out his hands, I wish I had given him more, more, so much more, more of my love than I By and by, when he holds out his hand, I wish I had given him more. In the light of that heavenly place, light from his face, Beautiful face. The knight of that heavenly place. I wish I had given him more. More, so much more. Treasures unbounded for him I adore. By and by, when I look on his face, I wish I had given him more. You are my strength when I am weak. You are the treasure that I seek. You are my all in all. Seeking you as a precious jewel, for to give up I'd be a fool. You are my all in all. Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name. Taking my sin, my cross, my shame. Rising again, I bless your name. You are my all in all. When I fall down, you pick me up. When I am dry, you fill my cup. You are my all in all. Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name. Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name. Sean, if you'll make sure that the other Stephen knows we don't have an activity Friday. Thank you. Ephesians chapter 5 in your Bibles. We'll start in Ephesians chapter 5. Those of you that have been here for a while know we've been covering a character series. Probably tonight's one of the most important ones of all the ones that I've covered. If you can get the one tonight, it will help every Christian. It will help every husband, every wife, every child, every employer, every employee, every church member. Very, very important. It's something that very few people are good at because it's something you have to work at. It's not something that comes natural. We, by natural, are rebellious. We, by natural, want to do our own thing. So, tonight we're going to speak on this thought, character and fellowship. character, and followership. Notice the text, Ephesians chapter 5, notice verse 1. Be therefore followers of God as do your children. Now all of us realize as Christians we should follow God. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We'll see another thought when it comes to this following. When you think of children, children are taught some games when they're young. One of the games that they're taught is called follow the leader. Now they're taught to follow the leader. And sometimes if we want to make it funny, we'll walk funny and we want them to imitate us. And if you've ever seen Brother Bejot lead a group back to children's church or something, it's very entertaining because sometimes he'll walk like a duck, sometimes he'll walk on one leg, and he'll tell the kids they have to do what he does. And by the way, they try very, very hard to do exactly what he does. You know why? Because they've been taught to follow. Also, by the way, kids, one of the games that they're playing, I'm not real wild about this game because kids nowadays play it so slow that everybody can stay in, but the game called Simon Says, which means you can't do something unless Simon says you can do it. Sometimes I'll go up to the youth group, I mean, the general assembly where all the kids are at before we go to Sunday school, and they're doing Simon Says, and they're taking it so slow that you could even be a little. like me and still keep up with them because they go. But back when I did it, I mean, back when we was there, they would do it pretty fast and you had to pay attention on purpose. Otherwise you would. And by the way, you got so used to doing what they said to do that even when Simon didn't say to do it, you still do it. And then it gets you out of the game. But again, children are taught that. But it'd be nice if we as we become teenagers and adults, if we would still understand the simple truth that we are to follow the leader. And I told us in Ephesians chapter five, be you therefore followers of God's response to supposed to follow God. by the way, who all of us answer to. But we also answer, notice in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, notice verse 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, notice verse 1. He says here, Now was that Jesus speaking? Has your Bible got that in red? It is not in red because it's not Jesus speaking. Who was it that was speaking? Paul. And here's what Paul said, you guys follow me. Here's what he said, even as I also am of Christ. And he said, I'm following Christ, so you just follow me. Now, by the way, if you've ever been out on a trail, there will always be a, usually be a leader or a guide. Sometimes When we went on an activity years ago, one of the senior trips, we went to a ranch where they had horseback riding, and the fellow said, have any of you ever had much experience riding a horse? Now, I've ridden horses a lot, ain't real wild about it, but we had one when growing up. We had a Shetland, we also had a quarter horse. The Shetland was very ornery, loved to knock you off on the side of the house or take you too close to a tree. You had to be careful, otherwise you'd get your legs scraped up or your head knocked because it went out of its way to try to shake you off. But one time I asked in summer school, how many of you have ever ridden a horse? A lot of the kids rolled their hands. I said, how many of you ever rode a horse that wasn't someplace where you're paying to ride a horse? And none of them had. You know what that means? None of them know how to ride a horse. Because that horse that they're riding at that place that you're paying, that horse's job, you know all that does? It just follows the rear of the horse in front of it. That's what it does. I mean, it doesn't gallop. Now, by the way, if it does, I guarantee you they'd be in a lot of trouble and the person on top would be in a lot of trouble. But most people really don't know how to ride a horse. But on those trail rides, what it is, is they have the guy in the front, that is the leader, and they usually have one in the back that's, I mean, keeping an eye on things. But those horses just follow each other. If you've ever been to a dairy farm, you realize that dairy cows know where their spot is. I mean, they go into their certain spot, and they all have a certain place that they're supposed to go into. They have a slough that they go into. They know where their spot is. They go right to their spot. And every once in a while, one goes to a place that isn't theirs, and the guy will say, call it by name, and it goes back to the next spot. But again, we're taught to follow the leader. And that, by the way, is a good thing. But the problem is, we are rebellious. The problem is, we are sinful. The problem is, we are human, and sometimes we don't want to follow the leader. So tonight I want to speak on a very important thing, character and followership. Let's pray. Father, I ask you to help me to get across the thoughts. It'll be a help and a blessing. And Father, I pray that you'd help us all to be great and good followers of you and also, Lord, of our pastor. And Lord, if we are working for a boss or if we're children and we have parents, I pray, Lord, you'd help us, whoever our leader is, that we would follow them. and like we should, in Jesus' name, amen. Now, if you get nothing else, get this first point, and the first point is very, very important. If you get this tonight and put it in practice, it will make a big difference in your life or my life. Again, point number one, a follower of character is more concerned with being a good follower than whether or not his leader is a good leader. You know what children oftentimes say? Well, my parents want me to do this. My parents, they're not always right. By the way, parents, you are not always right. I was never always right when I was a parent. No parent's ever always been right. By the way, even Jesus' parents, now Jesus was perfect, but Jesus wasn't raised by perfect parents. Even Jesus' parents were not perfect. So the truth is, and by the way, to a kid, what they think is, because my parents are not perfect, then I shouldn't have to follow them. My parents are not always right, so I should not have to follow them. But as parents, do we still expect our children to follow us whether we are right or not? And the answer to that is yes. And many times we tell them, they say, how come? And we say, because. And we might even expand a little bit. We might say, because I told you to. But that's usually almost all the explanation that we give. Now, I don't know why it is when we become adults that we'd like to know all the details to everything before we decide whether we want to follow or not. That is not our job. A follower's job, or a follower's business, is to follow. Most of you know this, when I came to Liberty Baptist Church years ago, I came to be associate pastor. Now, I am unlike most associate pastors. Most associate pastors go to a church to be associate pastor so that in a few years they can become what? The pastor. That's why most people become associate pastors. I had no desire still on to this day. Now, it doesn't scare me like it used to scare me, but there's a time that honestly, I had no desire to be a pastor. Now, I love being associate pastor. I mean, and by the way, I love being Brother Nicholas associate pastor. You say Brother Nicholas perfect? No, he's not. He's like every other boss. He's not perfect. But by the way, he's still my boss. He's still my leader. Now, understand to be to be a good follower is the followers business. Now, we're not supposed to worry about whether the boss is the right kind of boss or whether the leader is doing. I mean, if he's perfect or she's perfect, that is not our job as a follower. Our job as a follower is to be a good follower. The second thing underneath, again, we should be more concerned about being a good follower than whether our boss is a good leader. The second thing underneath that is his followers should do their duty and lead their leader's behavior out of it. It does not matter. Now listen to me. Is it right for me to read my Bible? And the answer to that is yes. How about if my parents aren't reading the Bible? If I'm a student or if I'm a kid, should I still read my Bible? And the answer to that is yes. How about if I'm a wife? Now, thankfully I'm not. Now, Mrs. Bell sometimes smarts off and says I'd make a good wife because for the last 12 months I've had to clean my own house. Now, if you come to my house, you'll find there's some things I like to do. There's some things that haven't been done in 12 months. Say, what is that? Dusting. I do not like to dust. I don't mind washing, washing clothes. I'd never like washing dishes, but now I don't have a choice because I don't have a dishwasher besides me. I don't mind vacuuming, I don't mind sweeping, but I do not dust. I realize now why older people have the tendency not to have a lot of whatnots or little things. You know why? Because you just have to dust them. That's why you just pack all those things away and you have a few things out and you forget about all the rest of it. You say, were they childproof in their house? Nope, they were dustproof in their house. That's what they were doing. But again, if I'm a wife and my husband's not reading his Bible, should I still read my Bible? And the answer to that is yes. If I'm a church member and my Sunday school teacher or my bus captain or my pastor is not reading the Bible, should I still read my Bible? And the answer to that is yes. If I'm a follower, I'm supposed to do what I'm supposed to do, whether my leader is or not. Now, there are some leaders that work right along with the followers. There's harder workers or harder workers than the followers. There's other leaders. Some because they've earned the right and some because they're just lazy, but there are some leaders that do nothing except sit in their office and boss people around. I had some of the other day say, I mean, they said if my manager would come out and help it, it'd make things easier. Yes, I'm sure it would. By the way, if you become a manager someday, make sure you remember that. There are a lot of people that are very good at, when they're a worker, criticizing the manager or the boss, and when they become the boss, the amazing thing is they become the same person that they used to criticize or look down at. Now again, again, you and I as followers, our business is to follow. We should worry about our, we should leave our leader's behavior out of it. The third thing underneath, again, being a good follower, whether our leader's a good leader or not, is a follower with character does not does not examine the leader, they obey their leader. Now, when I was in Chico, California, I was a teacher in a Christian school. I used to have the opinion that if they would make me principal, I could have fixed that school in just a very short time. I have been the principal of Liberty Christian Academy for 35 or 36 years, and I can tell you, I have not fixed Liberty Christian Academy's problems in 35 or 36 years. You know why? It's not near as easy as you might think it is. It's not near as simple as you might think it is. The truth is, many times the leader knows stuff the follower doesn't know. And by the way, they can't tell the follower because it's confidential information or private information. For instance, years ago, we had a teacher that sent a child to my office. A young, I don't remember, first or second, third grader, because they were not doing anything at all that day. They just wouldn't listen. They sent them to my office. And when I sent them back to the class a little while, they wondered why I had not chewed them out. I pulled them in the hallway and I said, let me explain something to you. Last night, I made a visit to a family. Mom had called me because her two children were crying because Dad had left and said he was through with this marriage. And so Dad walked out of the house and left Mom and the two children at the house by themselves. I believe it was a kindergarten and a first grader or a first grader and a second grader. And I said, that child does has, I mean school right now is of very little importance. You know what they're thinking about? My dad's gone. Now, my teacher's face fell, and then my teacher realized, you know what? All this time I was doing all that griping and complaining and fussing with that kid. If I was that kid, I wouldn't have been doing much schoolwork either. So sometimes your boss or your leader knows things you don't know. And by the way, that's why they are the boss or the leader. But again, I said point number one, again, a character trait of a follower would be that you're more concerned with being a good follower than whether or not your leader is a good leader. The second truth underneath character and fellowship, a good follower with character works hard for the sake of their leader. Notice Proverbs 15. Now all of us should always realize whether our boss is watching or not. I've often told you when I worked at Continental Tank in Oklahoma City, that's the first time I'd ever worked a really a public job to any great extent. And a lot of the workers at that place did not work unless the boss was coming through the shop. When the boss walked in and closed the door and went into his office, they stood around, talked and visited and wasted time. accomplished very little. Now they were getting paid for working but they weren't working so they were getting paid they were they were robbing their company. Brother Vineyard even stood up one time and chaplain said if you are witnessing on your job stop it. We're all preacher boys we're thinking we're supposed to witness he said your boss is not paying you to witness your boss is paying you to work. You want to witness before work? You want to witness at break time? You want to witness at lunch time? You want to witness after work? Knock yourself out. That's your time. But your boss is paying you not to. Now, if you're paid to be a soul winner, like Brother Wynn has some people that they're paid to be soul winners, by the way, he expects them to go soul winning. There are people that their job is to go soul winning, but our job is on a job is not to be a soul winner. Now, it'd be nice if we'd be a good testimony on the job. By the way, that would be a very good witness. And then when you do get a chance to talk to the people, they'll actually listen to you. But again, I said, again, notice Proverbs chapter 15. Notice what verse three says. It says, Proverbs 15, the eyes of the Lord in every place, beholding the evil and the good. God's always watching us. So whether our boss is watching us or not, because I said a worker with character will work for the sake, hard for the sake of their leader. And you will not just work when the boss is watching. God is always present. We quote Hebrews 13 five, because it's an encouragement to us. But also again, think about what it says. 13 five says let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he has said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee now that's encouraging because you and I are never alone but keep in mind what did we just say you and I are never alone the Lord's always always with us he's always watching us there are many things that the Bible tells us to do as unto the Lord whether it's a wife or children or a servant many times they'll say as unto the Lord what it means is do it like you're doing it for God Because sometimes the person you're doing it for may not deserve it. Sometimes the person you're doing it for may not be very enjoyable. But we ought to always do it because it glorifies God and because He asks us to. Again, a worker with character will work hard for the sake of their leader. A good rule at work is work as hard for Him as you would want employees to work for you. And by the way, one of these days you may be a boss. And when you are a boss, I remember one time Brother Nick was asked in school one time, he said, if your boss paid you what you're worth, would you guys be willing to work for that? And one of the high school kids was honest and he said, nope. Because by the way, he wasn't worth much at that time. Now he's grown up a little bit and he's worth something now, but at that time, he wasn't a very hard worker. So I mean, if our bosses paid us what we deserved, some folks would, I mean, some folks would be on the welfare line. because some folks don't deserve much. Now, I've never been in the union. I've worked at some place where there were union workers. I'm not real worried about the union now. At one time, the union was necessary. Now, more times than not, it's a big mess. But my wife's brother worked in the union, and he was a welder. or some type of, I mean, that kind of machinists or something he did. And there was days if he didn't have anything to do, he would sit in the room and just read a book or sleep or whatever for eight hours a day. He got paid $25 an hour to do nothing. One day the boss walked in and he was telling my wife this. He said, his boss came in and asked him, I mean, we don't have any work for you today. Can you at least sweep up and clean up around here? You know what he told the boss? Not my job. Can't do it, and he's still sitting there. You know what? I'd love the day when the boss could have fired that guy. The problem is now, because he was in the union, the boss couldn't have fired him because he couldn't fire him for being a punk and for having a bad attitude and for being lazy, because again, he wasn't required to do that work. But again, we should work hard, and we should work as hard as we want someone to work for us. A third thing underneath a follow-with character, a follow-with character is a need filler. Need filler. I'm amazed sometimes how some people can walk by trash or See some lady carrying a terrible burden or see I mean see I mean and by the way walk by I mean whistling singing maybe even drop by and give him a track I mean why they got their hands full of stuff. So, you know, let me give you something I mean like they really have room to care. I mean some Christians are I mean, I guess we're just blind I guess we don't have a brain in our head Listen to me guys there should not be a lady that has to open her own door you say well She doesn't act like lady. I've said this often. I don't open a door for a lady because she's a lady I open the door for a lady because I'm a man And by the way, I open it for the lady if she doesn't say thank you. Now there's been times I've wanted to slam the door on her because she was a jerk as she walked through. But the truth is, that would make me less of a man. I don't hold the door because I decide if she's worth it or not. I hold the door because that's what a man does. I carry a lady's load because that's what a man does. I appreciate it. Some of you have taught your kids, you've taught your boys to help our teachers. Sometimes, every year, our teachers give out awards and one of them will be a teacher's helper, was a good teacher. What that means is they saw the teacher get out of the car with two or three bags and they help the teacher carry those bags upstairs. By the way, it also amazes me that sometimes we can be setting up the fellowship hall, three or four of us are working, and there's 20 other guys or folks standing around watching, fellowshipping while we're working. Shame on you. Did you hear me? I said, shame on you. Especially when some of the folks working were 60 years old and some of you are 20 and 30 and 40 or even 12 or 14. Now, understand, we should be, again, we should be a need filler. You see something that needs to be done, you should, again, be a need filler. God is not a need maker. He's a need filler. A good follower looks for needs of his leader and tries to fill them. A follower's job is to make the leader's job easier. We're supposed to lighten the load. You know why the leader hired you? Let's just say Brother Prairie starts a business, and he has a business. Let's say he starts a business. He's run the business all by himself, but it gets so big he can't do it all by himself. So guess what he does? He hires someone. You know what's supposed to happen? That guy's supposed to take some... He no longer can do it all by himself. That person's supposed to take off some of the load. Now, if that person does nothing, Brother Prairie's paying someone, and he's still carrying all the load. That's not how it's supposed to work. A follower is supposed to make the job of the leader easier. Miss Bell is telling me about this. She came over to help me spend some money. Now if she has swollen, you still got swollen eyes? She's allergic to my dog. And my dog went over and sat by her and I said, Chew Sierra away, and she said no, and I said stop petting Sierra You're just gonna and so she sent me a picture today and her eyes are like like that I mean she couldn't hard to see and I said I told you to stop petting Sierra But you know she said I'm okay, and I said yeah a little bit more You wouldn't even be able to see you're not okay, but the truth is she was over there, and she mentioned something we was talking about the message that I was going to speak tonight, and she said that when she was at Fiesta and She saw Brother Sells go over and sit down and eat, go over to a curb area, and she asked A.I. to take a chair over for him. And A.I. did, got up, took the chair over. Brother Sells later came in and asked Miss Bell, did you ask him or did he do that on his own? She said, I asked him. By the way, it was a good thing that he listened, he did what he was told. And here's what Brother Sells said that I was really impressed with. He said, I've tried to teach A.I. to do that without being told by somebody. What he meant was, I wanted AI to say, Dad's without a chair. Let's get him a chair. Mom's without a chair. Mom's carrying in groceries. I mean, I don't know how many times I've had to go tell children or grandchildren, go help your parents carry that stuff in. Now again, a good follower, a follower with character will be a need filler. Noticing needs is the job description of a good follower. Go in your Bible to 2 Kings. One of the most famous men in the Bible, started off as a good follower. Now he became a great leader, but he first was a good follower. And most great leaders were at one time a good follower. Notice 2 Kings 3, verse 11. But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord by him? And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which did what? Poured water on the hands of Elijah. Now here's what he did. Back then they didn't have water hoses, okay? Although today it'd be like holding the water hose for someone else. And some of you, if you've been outside, you've had to hold the hose for each other. It's pretty hard to hold the hose by yourself without getting your shoes and everything else all wet. But if someone else is holding the hose for you, you can reach out here. But what happened was he went down and got some water, got a bucket or pitcher of water, came back and poured hands on Elijah's hands. So Elijah can wash his hands. You say, is that a big deal? Apparently God put it in the Bible. You know, there's lots of miracles that never made it in the Bible. Lots of stories that never made it in the Bible. Why did he put that one in there? Because it's important. Again, a good follower will be a need filler. You see something that needs to be done. Now, we teach the teachers in ACE, there's a phrase called monkey picker upper. It talks about each responsibility being a monkey. And it tells us do not pick up other people's monkeys. Now the reason I say that is if I'm a teacher and I have a monkey and I go, I'm going to the office but I don't know when to take my monkey into the office. I set my monkey here on the ledge and I go into the office, take care of my business. I come back out, someone else came by, I saw my monkey and they picked it up and they carried my monkey off. They took, I mean, so now I'm looking everywhere for my monkey and the next thing I walk upstairs and, anyone see my monkey? Oh yeah, I found it. Now I spent 20 minutes looking for my monkey. Okay, my papers, or whatever it was I put there. Now, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about someone else's job, you go do something else. But again, there's many things that's nobody's job. Picking up trash, that's everybody's job. Being a man to, I mean, when a lady needs a need, that's every man's job. There's lots of things that any of us can do. And by the way, it doesn't matter what our age is. I can tell you bending over now to pick up trash, a lot harder when you're 60 than it was when I was 16. That's why I tell people, if I drop a dime or a quarter or something like that, it's just staying on the ground. If it doesn't fold, and by the way, it probably has to be above the $1 denomination. Ms. Bell came by the other night. Some of my coins had fallen on the floor there when I grabbed all the stuff. She was picking it up and said, Ms. Bell, just leave it alone. I'll just wrap it up sooner or later. But I mean, they were laying on the ground because the ground's a long ways away when you get this old. And a quarter doesn't buy much, so it wasn't that big a deal. But again, if we're a good follower, follower with character, we will be a need filler. The fourth thing, if we're a follower with character, a follower with character does not have to understand why the leader wants something. He just does the job. Now, there'll be times the leader will explain to you. And I always appreciate it when my dad explains to me why he needed me to do something. But many times, he didn't explain. He just simply said, "'Cause I told you to." And that was supposed to be enough. And by the way, it was, or I faced the punishment. Now us old folks joke about what our parents used to do to us. You kids think. Yes, you wonder if they really did that? Yes, they really did. They really did backhand us, knock us backwards from the table because we mouthed off to mom or said something we shouldn't have. They really did grab us by the ear and drag us someplace. I mean, mom used to say, don't do that, you're going to make him deaf. And my dad would say, yes, he already is because he didn't do what I told him to do. So I mean, apparently my dad thought I already was deaf, so why does it matter if you pull on my ear? But again, yes, our parents could do a lot of stuff parents can't do today. You'd go to jail for some of the stuff our parents did. But you listen to me, he didn't hurt us. The fact is, we grew up learning to listen and do what we was told. Well, nowadays, most kids don't do anything they're told. But again, he does not have to understand why the leader wants something done. He just does the job. Don't ask why. Finish the job. The leader may explain, I said, but he didn't have to. You know what they did when they drew that line in the Alamo? They explained, we're all going to die. You step over that line, we're all going to die. But General Houston needs some time to get his army together. And the politicians are doing what all politicians do. They're squabbling. We got to give them time to get over their squabbling and decide we need to come out here and fight. Now, by the way, if he hadn't done that and those men had not died at the Alamo, we'd all be speaking Spanish today. Or you wouldn't be living here because Texas would still be Mexico. But because those fellows, now they saw a reason to die. They knew they was going to die. Again, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out 200 against, I mean, 10 or 15 or 20,000. Not very good odds. They have all kinds of cannons and all kinds of stuff, and we have limited supplies. It's not hard to figure out who is going to win that one. But again, they explained to him, we need to do this. Houston's trying to get an army, and he's arguing with him and the politicians. They're trying to get all this worked out. We have to hold Santa Ana here. By the way, they fought day after day after day against impossible odds. You ought to read. If your kids haven't read about the Alamo, you ought to make them read about the Alamo. I mean, it was an amazing thing that happened at the Alamo. And again, those men should not have been able to do what they did. But I can tell you this, when people make up their mind and they get determined, it's amazing what folks can do. You'd be surprised what you could do if you just determined you're going to do something and put your mind to it. Again, does not have to understand why the leader wants something done. He just does the job. Number five, a follower with character will be flexible. Flexible. Now, I don't mean you can do all kinds of contortions. I mean, you can roll with the punches. Now, flexibility is a necessity of a follower. A necessity. There was times at Moore Plumbing when I was pulling orders, I had a cart and I was pulling orders, and I was supposed to get this order ready to be shipped out, that the boss sometimes would come and say, Chris, can you do this for me? Now listen to me, I could have said, I'm really busy pulling this order right now. And by the way, he knew that. He saw the cart. He knew what I was doing. He knew what he paid me to do. He knew what I was doing. I didn't have to explain it to him. But when he said, can you go pull this, what he meant was there's someone waiting in my office or there's someone out at the counter that needs it right now. You can pull it, you can pull it, finish the rest of the order and in the next few minutes, I need this right now. But there are people that get all bent out of shape. When boss told me to do this, now he tells me to do this. And you gripe and complain and get all bent out of shape because you're not flexible. You want to be flexible. Some followers won't adjust to the leader's needs, requirements. By the way, notice I didn't say can't. I said won't. You can adjust if you want to. A lot of folks just won't. By the way, sometimes the leader asks you to do something, and then when he gets doing stuff or she gets doing something, they realize there's something more important than that, so they have to come and pull you off of that job to give you something else because something, oh, by the way, they got a phone call that changed things. Some of you are like that. You know that you started out with certain things to do, and then you were presented another problem. You have to be flexible. If you're going to be a good follower, you will learn to be flexible. What that means is whatever the boss wants you to do, and by the way, if that changes, you do that. Any follower can adjust if they're willing to learn flexibility. The sixth thing, and again, or maybe it's a seventh thing, yeah, I don't know. The sixth thing, a follower with character does not require recognition for what he does. He mentioned, if people really didn't care who got the recognition, a lot more would get done. I remember years ago, we had someone that got the Fegeland Church, Liberty Baptist Church, because for the Valentine's banquet, many of you remember, they would sometimes honor somebody. They'd honor Brother Nichols, or honor Brother Block, or honor somebody, and they got bent out of shape because they had never been honored. Now listen to me, there were a lot of people that never got honored. There were a lot of people that deserved honor that never got honored. I can tell you, we don't have time or sometimes the ability to honor everybody that deserves to be honored. Rewards are given in heaven by the way notice in your Bible is Matthew chapter 6 Matthew chapter 6 one of the reasons I tell people all the time They'll say thank you, and I say don't worry about it It's what I get paid for and by the way that is what Liberty Baptist Church pays me for but that's also what the Lord I mean, I I'm looking forward to the Lord's reward more than because because God has more money than Liberty Baptist Church God gives better presence than Liberty Baptist Church and So I don't mind, again, it is nice to get rewards, it's nice to get recognition on this earth, but if you don't and you're doing it as unto the Lord, what that means is one of these days you'll get recognized. Notice Matthew chapter 6 verse 19 and 20. And where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." 2 Timothy 4, verse 8 says, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall get. Now listen to me, wouldn't it be a great honor to have someone of, I mean, someone you look up to on this earth give you something? I mean, give you a recognition and be like, wow, they did this. I wore my Trump hat, and again, I don't talk a lot about politics lately, because some of you get hair-lipped with it, and so I try not to hair-lip people anymore when I have to. But I was on a plane, if they made me wear my mask, then I wore my Trump hat. If they didn't, then I, but I mean, so they made me wear my mask, so I put my Trump hat on. It said, Trump 2024. And on one of the planes, the lady came back to me, and she had a thing that said, happy birthday. And when she walked back by me, I said, happy birthday. She said, I'm trying not to let your hat ruin my birthday. So, needless to say, needless to say, she wasn't real wild about my hat. But I got on the next plane, and the guy, when I went on, he went, like your hat. He was one of the stewardesses. And I walked back and sat down. On the way out, he said, come here, I want to show you something. He pulled out his phone. He had went to a Trump rally and got to shake Trump's hand. Now, listen to me. There are some people that I, I mean, there are some people that you look up to. Wouldn't it be great to get something, I mean, be recognized by them? But throw all that out. Those are our earthly people. Wouldn't it be great someday to be recognized, I mean, for God to call your name, among all the millions and billions of people that will be there, to call your name and recognize you? He'll do that for you and I if we serve him like we should. Again, followers with character doesn't require recognition for what he does. I said rewards are given in heaven. Praise, reward, they are satisfying. Both should be used liberally. By the way, parents, you should praise your kids. Bosses, you should praise your employees. Teachers, you should praise your students. Superiors, you should promote your followers. But followers should not require praise nor promotion. Now again, when someone's paying you to do a job, it's nice if you get more pay or if you get some recognition. But listen to me, you agreed to work for that. And if you don't wanna work for that, guess what? You can quit that job anytime you want. That's one of the reasons I don't, I'm not, I mean, I don't often encourage people going to the military or become a sports, I mean, a pro sports player. Because in those places, you're owned by, when you sign up, they own you. They can send you anywhere they wanna send you and you don't have a say so about it at all. But any other job, if I don't like it, I can quit. I can say, two weeks, I'm gone. I mean, I can go. And someone here a while back was complaining about their job. I said, you know what? Quit if you want to. Now listen to me. You'll find when you get to the next job, there are bosses there that you may not like, and there's employees there that you may not like, and there'll be rules there you do not like. You know why? Because we live in an imperfect world. And if we didn't, I mean, you and I would not be here anyway, because you and I are imperfect. Followers should not require praise nor promotion. Number seven, again, a follower with character will give the credit to the leader. The credit to the leader. Now, this is something unbeknownst to most people. But think about this. The leader is the one that gives you and I the opportunity. When people were complaining about some of the places not paying really good, I thought, you know what? Walmart may not pay you all you want to get paid. That was one of the ones they were complaining about. But at least you've got a job. There are a lot of countries, there are a lot of people in other countries that would love to work at Walmart. They'd love to work for your boss. They'd leave their country in a heartbeat, trade place with you in a second, without even another thought. See, we've got, we've got, well, we, we got it pretty nice. And so, I mean, if we don't get all the bells and whistles, we, we just like to gripe and complain. You know what griping and complaining does? It takes away your joy from that job. And it takes away others who are around you. It takes away their joy, too. No one likes to be around a griper and a complainer. You don't. It's not, it's not even fun to be around someone who's always whining and complaining. How many of you ever had a puppy dog that you, that you bought and brought to your house? You know what it did all night? It whined. Now at first you felt sorry for it, but that's wild. You no longer felt sorry for it. Now you're stinking mad. You know what you want? You say, shut up. You'd love to duct tape his mouth shut. You can't do that. You'd go to jail, but man, you'd like to duct tape his mouth shut. Now, let me tell you what we learned years ago. Typically, if we bought one puppy, guess what we did? We bought two puppies, because we bought brothers and sisters, or two brothers or two sisters, because that way they had company. Now, if both of them whined, we didn't have any idea what to do, because that was the best solution. But sometimes we'd get two, because we're on the farm, and we'd put two out there. But if we had two, they had company. But when they're all by themselves, think about it. If you was all by yourself and you was little, you'd cry all night, too. But again, no one likes a whiner. It's not like you enjoy it. It's not like you go, oh, don't they sound, isn't that so sweet? I mean, don't you just love that sound while you're laying in bed? No, you don't love to hear whining. By the way, no one wants to hear you whine and cry and complain. Work. give the credit to the leader. Without the leader, you would not have the opportunity to succeed. Now listen to me, Brother Nichols gave me a chance to be associate pastor at Liberty Baptist Church. I try to be a good follower for him. I've worked really hard to do that. I really work hard to please him and make him happy. I try to make his job easier. And listen to me, I get some praise and I get some glory and I get, I mean, some of you are so good to me. I wouldn't have that opportunity if he hadn't hired me, if I wasn't here. By the way, if I hadn't came here 35 years ago, I wouldn't know any of you guys. Some of you say, that would have been a really good day in my life for the block. But the truth is, Brother Nicholas gave me that opportunity. In the same way that Christians should follow God, and when success comes, what are we supposed to do? give glory to God. First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31 tells us, whether therefore we eat, drink, or sleep, whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. When God blesses us, when we become victorious, we're supposed to give God the glory. If you come up to me and say, Brother Block, I enjoyed that sermon tonight, what will I tell you? Who's ever said that to you? What did I tell you? Brother Mitchell? Sean? Give God the glory because what? I know the guy who preaches and he's a mess. That's what I tell you. Now I enjoy it when you say good message because it's nice to know that someone actually enjoyed it. But I always try to divert the praise from me and deflect it up to God because I know who delivered it. And by the way, He is a mess. And by the way, if you're a priest up here, you're a mess too and God would just be using you. He'd just be using another mess. But again, You ought to thank your boss because, again, without him, you wouldn't have the opportunity or the privilege to be doing what you're doing. Number eight, namasarayan. A follower with character desires to build his leader's work. Build his leader's work. Don't just do the job. Build the work. I don't want to just please Brother Nicholas. I want Liberty Baptist Church to prosper. I want Liberty Baptist Church to grow. Number nine is on time or early for the sake of the leader. When we took the kids to Six Flags, guess what? No kid was ever late. They were not. They were never late. I mean, the truth is they were here early. You know why? Because they were excited about going to Six Flags. Now, if we have a work day, that is not always true. Because they don't look as forward to the workday as they did to Six Flags. So if you don't show up early or get there on time, what it means is, I'm not too excited to be here. By the way, that's not a very good thing. That means, you know what? I'd rather not be here. I'm not too wild about being here. What that means is, you're telling your boss, I'm not too excited about working for you. That's not a good testimony. Again, show up on time. Promptness is very important. Being late shows the job or project isn't as important to you as it should be. Number 10, and I'll just give you these points and I've got to finish. Number 10, a father with character will lead his family to follow properly. Again, I appreciate the fact that my dad taught me the things that he taught me. Again, many times, Brother Taylor thanked me years ago for something and I said, call up my, it was either my dad or my youth director, I said, call up my dad or my youth director and thank them. It's because of them. It wasn't because of me. I hadn't thought that up. I hadn't become that by myself. Someone made me do that. Number 11, a follower with character leads his followers to follow properly. Loyalty to the top leader, not just immediate one. Now what I mean by that, the pastor points the church to Christ. The associate pastor points the church members to the pastor. The bus captain points the bus kids to the bus director. The team bus workers point the riders to the bus captain. All of us should point to the pastor as they follow their leaders. all Christians should point others to Jesus Hebrews 12 to a verse we often quote says looking unto Jesus the author the one who started it and the finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set now at the right hand of the throne of God we should make sure that we again give glory to the one that deserves it and that is to God and the last thing and I'll be done again to follow with character is becoming a leader with character brother Owens said this made the statement he said I can't tell the difference between good leader who's a good follower or a good father who's a good leader because by the way a good father will become a good leader and a good leader will have been a good follower you can't be one again you can't be a good if you are a good father one of these days you'll be a good leader so if you're wanting to be a good leader someday then work hard to be a good follower today young people guess what one of these days you're going to get to be mom and dad you are a You're going to do like I often did, you're going to walk by the moon, you're going to stop and you're going to go, because you saw dad in the picture. It was you, but you saw your dad in the picture. One of these days, you're going to get to be the parent. You're going to find being the parent was not as easy as you thought it was. Oh, it's not. Like Mrs. Sanders made the statement the other day. You know what kids don't come with? What was it, Mrs. Sanders? They don't come with an instruction guide. That's what she told her husband. They don't come with it. I'm glad there's someone else that forgets stuff like me, Mrs. Andrews. The kids don't come with an, now, by the way, there are people that will give you all kinds of instruction. Dr. Seuss and some of the rest of them don't listen to some of them, but kids, they don't come with an instruction manual. They don't. That's why you're supposed to have that godly man or woman, those, those elderly men and women that's supposed to teach the younger women because they can teach yourself that can save you. I mean, save you lots of hours and give you a lot more sleep and other stuff when it's raised in those little ones. When my kids are young and ornery like their dad, you say, what did your tell your wife? Just hang on with these days or grow up. You just, well, you know why they call it the terrible twos? Cause they're terrible in their twos. Okay. That's why they call it the terrible twos. You say, are all kids terrible? No, there's some that's, you know, I mean, they're lethargic. I mean, that wasn't Brother Block. That wasn't some of you. But there's some that's, you know, I mean, they're real mild-mannered and all that. That's not the average, especially not the average boy. By the way, I never punished a boy for being ornery. I like ornery. As long as he was obedient, he could be ornery the rest of the time. It's not a bad thing. But the truth is, we want to realize that if I want to someday be a good follower of young people, you need to learn from mom and dad because you'll realize when you get to become a parent, If you didn't pay attention and listen, you don't know very much, and raising kids is scary. Guys, you're going to get married someday. You better pay attention to dad. If your dad's a good dad and a good husband, you ought to pay attention to dad. By the way, if not, if you're missing a dad or a mom or a role model, that's why they make books. That's why they have counsel. I don't know how many books I read on raising kids. It still failed in a lot of areas. There's lots of books out there from good godly men and women. There's lots of men and women that you can get counsel from. I have a group of counselors. That's one of the reasons I miss Brother Craighead. He was one of my counselors, one of my wise counselors. I went to him many times. Brother Craighead, he was not one that put himself out there and talked a lot, but he had a lot of wisdom. And I got as much from him as I possibly could. I miss him that he's gone. But again, understand, if you want to be a good leader someday, be a good follower today. Father, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your blessing. Didn't talk about lost folks tonight, but there is someone here tonight that's not saved, and they know that. They know whether they're saved or lost. I pray, Lord, you'd help them to have enough sense tonight to come down front. We didn't talk about salvation, but we're always willing to show someone how to be saved, and we'd love to do that tonight if they're lost. Then for all the rest of us, I pray, Lord, you'd help us to realize that whether we are a leader now or someday going to be a leader, I pray, Lord, you'd help us that we might work very hard at being a good follower.