All right, good evening. Welcome to the Wednesday night service at Liberty Baptist Church. If you can, let's stand. We're gonna sing Victory in Jesus. ♪ I heard an old, old story ♪ How a Savior came from glory ♪ How he gave his life on Calvary Of His precious blood atoning Then I repented of my sins and won the victory Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever He sought me and bought me He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is through Him. He plunged me to victory. Of His cleansing power revealing How He made the lame to walk again And caused the blind to see And then I cried to Jesus Come and heal my broken spirit And somehow Jesus came and brought to me Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him. to victory, beneath the cleansing flood. I heard about a mansion, it lived for me in glory. And I heard about the streets of gold, the grace And some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory. Sing it out! Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. He sought me and He bought me with His redeeming blood. ♪ He loved me ere I knew him ♪ And all my love is to him ♪ He plunged me to victory ♪ Beneath the cleansing flood Good seed night, let's pray. Father, we ask for your help and your blessing on the service. Meet with us tonight in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. All right, we gather together. We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing He chastens and hastens His will to make known the wicked oppressing From distressing, sing praises to His name, For who gets not His own beside us, To guide us, our God, with us joyfully. Thou, Lord, was at our side, O glory be Thine! We all do extol Thee, Thou leader in battle, And pray that Thou still our defender will be. Mrs. Cools had put Bob Smith, now again when we say Bob Smith, I always think of the preacher Bob Smith. Upcoming events, we had the Missions game yesterday, so thank you for those of you that went to the Missions game. We had some of our bus kids go as well, and that was a blessing. But we have another scheduled in June. I'll get you the dates on that. They've only since started at 7.05, and I didn't even look at the ticket. I just paid for the ticket, stuck him in the little thing, stuck it at the house, and pulled him out. passed them out, and then we got there, and the crowd was cheering, and I thought, why would the crowd be cheering? And then they had started at 6.05, and when I asked the parking lot folks, I said, when did we start this? They said, we didn't know about it either. Today's the first day they started at 6.05. So we got there at the third inning. It was already, I think, two to one, but we brought the missions some good fortune, and by the end of the evening, it was nine to two, the missions won. and had a lot of, I mean, a lot of hits and a lot of activity. No one got hit, that's because they put a new screen up. There was a screen up really high, so the only thing that could have came over would have been the one that went way up high and came down slowly. No line drives would hit you in the head. So I think one of our guys got a foul ball, one of Jose's younger brother did. And then... Again, we had a good time at the activity. As far as stuff coming up, again, the next thing on the calendar is, you've seen these around, it is, first it was Save the Date, and now it is I Love My Church, August the 16th. It's a Saturday. Brother Ross will be speaking to us. Don't know what time Saturday, I don't know if it's Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening, but plan on Saturday the 16th. And then October the 19th through the 22nd, Brother Corr will be with us. So again, on that date, it'll be all day on Sunday. Now Brother Ross will be with us all day on August the 16th, and then Brother Cora will be with us all day on the 19th, and then Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, 7.30 every night. As I've mentioned before, I don't ever try to get folks, because I don't want you to go to other churches when we have a church service here, and so I don't ever invite other folks from other churches to come here on a Sunday or Wednesday. But again, Monday and Tuesday is fair game, because they don't usually have stuff going on on those nights. I appreciate, again I tried to send a text to everybody that I could remember that went down to Fiesta, but again I appreciate all of those of you that went to Fiesta last week. We ended up with a total of 703 people saved. That was a big week, a good week. We passed out 7,500 tracks on the parade route that day on Friday and then I believe it was either Friday night or Saturday. Brother Sells took some fellows down to, well, they went to the booth, and the booth had enough sewers at that time, so they went and got rid of the other 2,500. So we passed out 10,000 of those map tracks, and some of you have seen the map tracks. They hardly ever get on the ground, but, because folks keep them, and then that means they get to read them. We passed out a lot of those, 10,000 of those. They passed out a lot of the little track at the booth, and then we passed out a lot of the, that little chick track as well. So again, pray that we'll get some results. Last Wednesday night, sitting right back where Brother Mitch was at, we had three folks that had got saved at the booth. So I know I've got several converts that said they're supposed to come, and I know some of the rest of you do as well. So make sure you follow up your converts this week. I've got some Bibles to deliver, because I ask each of my converts if they had a Bible. And it kind of surprised me. A lot of folks nowadays don't have a Bible in the house. Used to, everybody had a Bible, whether you was a Christian or not. But there were several that didn't have Bibles, so I'm going to deliver some Bibles. So again, pray that we can get some of those folks into church. And all of those of you that led people to the Lord, think of yourself as a spiritual parent-in-law or adopted parent or however you want to, because if you led someone to the Lord, you and I have the responsibility to try to get them in, to get them baptized, to teach them. And again, if they're not in our area, we'll try to get them into another church that's close by, a good Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church. But again, pray that we can get some results from Fiesta. The fact is, if none of them ever come, it would still be a blessing that 703 souls are on their way to heaven now that were not a week and a half ago. Also, we found out something. I don't know Francisco very well. Francisco, wave at us. He's been coming for a short time. He is one of those guys that stood up front with Brother Reeder and Brother David and Brother Mike and got people in. And he was good at it. I can do it. I hate to do it. It's kind of like street preaching. I can do it, but I don't like doing it. It's not my nature. But Francisco stood up front and yelled at people and hollered at people and got them to come in. And he set a lot of our salt winners up, so I appreciate it. And again, this was his first year there. I know Miriam led, how many folks, do you know how many you led to the Lord? How many? So she said 20, and so I knew one day, that day I saw her sit down with people. One, she can speak some Spanish, so along with Grandma Linda, and she spoke some Spanish, so she got to lead some of the Spanish converse to the Lord. But again, it was a good week for everybody that went. I was gonna have some testimonies tonight, probably won't tonight, I probably will next Wednesday night, if you wanna get a testimony ready, think of one of the converse that you'd led the Lord, and then we'll try to mix that in with the message next Wednesday night. Brother Suttmeyer will be with us on Sunday, the Christobrian night, to announce that Brother Suttmeyer will be here Sunday preaching for us. And that thing up there, that's the young lady at the piano. She is graduating, what you say, the 17th? 17th at what time is it? 5 p.m.? ? 5 p.m., and what day is the 17th, a Saturday? It's Saturday, so she's invited everybody to it. She gave me one, and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to announce it, so I think I did announce it, and then I figured I better ask, but if she's got it put up there, then y'all are welcome to come. That is, if you know where Gateway's at, it used to be Gateway Baptist, it's not Gateway Baptist now, but it's right down, if you just go all the way down Military to Five Palms, take a right on Five Palms, it's down there right before the stoplight on the right-hand side. Not hard to find, but that's where her and her sisters go to school, so you're invited to her graduation, and that's not too far away. All right, if you can, let's stand, we'll sing, we'll work till Jesus comes. ♪ O land of rest for thee I sigh ♪ When will the moment come ♪ When I shall lay my armor by ♪ And dwell in peace at home We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes And we'll be gathered whole I saw that once my Savior sighed, no more my steps shall roam. With Him I'll break this chilling tide and reach my heavenly home. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work. Let us pray. Dear Lord, please bless this offering and also the giver. All this I pray for in Jesus' name, amen. All right, what a friend we have in Jesus. What a friend we have in Jesus All our sins and griefs to bear What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer Oh, what peace we often forfeit Oh, what needless pain we bear All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer Are we weak and heavy laden? Comfort with a load of care Precious Savior, still our refuge, taken to the Lord in prayer. Do Thy friends despise, forsake Thee? Taken to the Lord in prayer, in His arms You'll take and shield Thee. I will find you, starless day Psalm 18.1, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. He promised us that he would be a counselor, a mighty God and a prince of peace. ♪ He promised us that he would be a father ♪ And would love us with a love that would not cease ♪ Well I tried him and I found his promises are true ♪ He's everything he said that he would be ♪ The finest words I know could not begin to tell ♪ Just how much Jesus really means to me ♪ For he's more wonderful than my mind can conceive ♪ He's more wonderful Then my heart can believe he goes beyond my highest hopes and fondest dreams. He's everything. ♪ That my soul's ever longed for ♪ ♪ Everything He's promised and so much more ♪ ♪ More than amazing, more than marvelous ♪ ♪ More than miraculous could ever be ♪ ♪ He's more than wonderful ♪ That's what Jesus is to me. I stand amazed to think that the King of glory would come to live within the heart of man. I marvel just to know He really loves me When I think of who He is and who I am wonderful than my mind can conceive he's more wonderful than my heart can believe he goes beyond my highest hopes and fondest dreams ♪ He's everything that my soul ever longed for ♪ ♪ Everything he's promised and so much more ♪ ♪ More than amazing, more than marvelous ♪ ♪ More than miraculous could ever be ♪ ♪ He's more than wonderful ♪ ♪ That's what Jesus is to me ♪ He's more than wonderful ♪ That's what Jesus is to me ♪ I'm not going to read the whole text this time, we did last week, but everything that we speak about tonight will come out of Luke chapter 15, the story of the prodigal son. If you did not get the notes and need some notes, if you want to hold your hand up for a second. Already did? All right. Crystal says she needs some, Brother Hauser. if you have a second. Anyone else need a copy? Now I'm not going to read all of Luke chapter 15. We read it last week. You know the story of the prodigal son starts in verse 11, goes down through verse 32. I'm going to just review very quickly the things that we covered last week and then take up where we left off. And the title of the message was Lessons Learned in the Far Country. And these are some lessons that I think we can learn either when we're in the far country or we can learn from watching someone that was in the far country, as in the case of this young man. Last week we looked at first who he had hurt while he was in the far country. We talked about the fact that he had hurt his father. And again, don't know how long he was in the far country, could have been months, could have been years. I guarantee you it wasn't just a few days because from what the story tells us, dad had servants and a fairly good sized property, so he probably left with a chunk of money in his pocket. And again, back then money went, even you say it doesn't last very long when you party, it does if you had a million dollars a day, you could party pretty hard and still it's not going to be gone in just a few days, unless you buy houses and cars along with it, with the drinking and all the other stuff. But the fact is, he heard his father. We also mentioned that he heard his older brother. He heard the family name and he heard his future family, which would be his wife and kids and whoever might be involved, because he was always going to be remembered as the son that had run away. or the son that had went to the far country, or the son that had left the family, or the son that had wasted all of his money. And again, we mentioned that. Then we talked what he missed while in the far country, what he missed was, and again, if you've ever lost a loved one, or you have when the kids first move out of the house, and it's just you and the wife by yourself, then you realize, wow, It's a lot quieter, it's a lot cheaper, but it's also a lot more lonely. I remember a parent came to me after my kids left, and they said, nice, isn't it? And I said, actually, I like, I mean, I'm one of those guys that likes a crowd, so I'm not one that likes to be all by myself. And the truth is, when I had my, I guess that's one of the reasons I like people, I like to be around people. Again, what he missed out was he missed out on his family. That had to do with all the birthdays, all the holidays, all the meals, all the church services. He missed out on true friends. Now, he thought he had some friends for a while, but some of you've been to the far country before and you realize what we're talking about when we're talking about this. Friends in the far country are not really your friends. They're your friends. We call them fair weather. And what that means is they're your friend as long as they're getting something from you, as long as they're benefiting from you. When they no longer can benefit from you, they're no longer your friend. And if you expect to benefit from them, you have another thing coming. It is a one-way street. It is you giving, them taking. It's not them giving back. Now, true friendship is give and take. True friendship is I do something for you, you do something for me, I do something for you, you do something for me. That's how true friendship works. But that's not how these type of friends work. So again, I said he lost, missed out on true friends. He missed out on the home cooking. Now again, if you remember what he was eating, it was far from home cooking. Now, there are some men that once their wife dies, they are regimented to what they can cook. Now, some men are fairly good cooks. Other men are terrible cooks. And so, they find that out when either the wife is out of town or if she goes to heaven before them. But again, in this case, It wouldn't have mattered. He didn't, there was times he didn't even have anything to cook. He was eating slop and he was eating leftovers. And again, when we say slop, we're talking about real slop. We're not talking about, you know, something that, you know, we're talking about the stuff that was moldy and old and yucky and stunk. Again, pigs like that kind of stuff. And he had to eat it too. He also missed out on a warm bed and clean clothes. Then we said number three last week, we talked about what he brought back from the far country. And the bad thing is what you will bring back sometime. I saw it today, I went to the bank to get some money for Brother Mark, and the lady there had some stuff on her arm. It wasn't tattoos, but it was little symbols. And I was just curious, so I said, what's that one say? And it had a G, and then equal, is greater than, if some of you know what the greater than sign is, it had the greater than sign, and then it had something after it. And I said, what does that mean? She said, God is greater than, and whatever the other thing meant. And then she had something else on her arm. Oh, it was seven times 70. And I thought, why would anyone have seven X 70? And I said, what is that? She said, that is, I'm supposed to forgive seven times 70. Most people, I mean, that's not the normal tattoo you find on people. But, and then the other thing she had was something about, you know, Jesus came down and then he went back up. And then one of these days we're gonna, so she had some symbols as well that meant that he was in the grave and then he came out and he was buried and she had some, was just little symbols, just little lettering on her arm. But again he came back with some stuff from the far country as well. And most of it wasn't good stuff. And that's where we left off last week. We're going to go over them quickly. But before I do I want to pray and then we'll get into that today. Father I ask for Your help and Your blessings Lord that we might learn something. And Father that it might keep one of our young folks. Lord even as we get older we can still get backslidden and go to the far country. Sometimes it's not even leaving the house it's just leaving the church or leaving the will of God, or even the people of God. And I pray, Lord, You'd help each of us to be wise that we don't fall into the devil's trap and end up there. Bless us tonight in Jesus' name, Amen. Now when we talk about the things He brought back from the Kavar country, I believe I got into just a few of them. We talked about the addictions that He possibly brought back. And some of you know what it's like. Brother Bejew, how many years now have you been sober? 28. I'm not going to ask the rest of you because I know you don't get embarrassed, but some of you have a token or something that you've had and you have been sober so many years. By the way, that's a good thing, but that is also a hard thing to do. Folks who've been addicted to alcohol, it is hard to stop alcohol, especially when you're around alcohol. I remember years ago, this was 30 years ago, I stood in the bleachers next to a church guy during a Spurs game. We used to go, we sat in the nosebleed section back then, they cost $5. Now I have no idea how much the nosebleeds cost, but probably a lot more than that. But we haven't been to a Spurs game in many, many, many years. But I remember standing next to him and he went, Oh, man, I miss that. And I said, miss what? He said, because he was smelling. I don't like the smell of alcohol. Alcohol never has smelled good to me. I think alcohol stinks. But he said, man, that beer. He said, I could just, man, I could go for a beer right now. And he said, and peanuts. I'd open up a beer and put peanuts down the side of it. And he said, oh, that was so good. So he was longing. You say, did he get one? Thankfully, no. But the truth is, what he was saying is, I used to really enjoy that. Now, some of you may have had some addictions. I mentioned probably one of my addictions is Dr. Pepper. And I've got, again, most of us have something that we're addicted to. Sometimes it's a lot worse on our bodies than others, but he brought back some addictions. He probably brought back some diseases. Notice in your Bibles, Proverbs 5.3 and 5.11. 5.3 makes this statement, For the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil. 5.11 says, And thou mourn at the last, when my flesh and my body are consumed. Now I mentioned that back then they didn't have all the treatment we have for venereal diseases. And when a person got venereal disease, they typically had it for a long time. And many times never got healed from it back then, because they didn't have all the shots and all the things. I remember one of our fellows that was in the military years ago told me, because the military guys, when they was in Vietnam and other places, because they were so used to, I mean, a lot of them running around and messing around, every week or every month, how often it was, they just had them all go through and they gave everyone of them a penicillin shot. They didn't ask them whether they needed one or not. They didn't care if they thought they needed one or not. They gave every one of them a shot that was supposed to help with some of the diseases that go around. But the truth is, it mentions that the body will be consumed. Now again, there are many diseases that once you get them, they do not go away. And again, I didn't know this until years later after, I don't remember if we was into Jacob or Joseph, which baby, but I, because someone mentioned they always put drops in the baby's eyes. And I had no idea why they put drops in the baby's eyes. Some of you may know this, some of you may not, but they put drops in the baby's eyes so if mama has any venereal diseases as they come out the birthing canal, they put those drops in there to try to combat what they might have got picked up on their eyes and the mucus as they came out. So they do that to protect the baby from mom who may not have behaved herself and acted like she was supposed to. But again, I understand there's all kinds of things that he probably brought back, some diseases. He probably brought back some scars. And I mentioned some of us can show scars and we can tell you how we got that scar. He probably had some, again, we don't know how long he was there because the Bible doesn't say, but he had some lost years. And I mentioned Brother Vineyard did mention how when he got saved, since he had lived for the devil for so many years, he felt like he had to make up and work hard to make up for the years he had lost serving the devil. Now, for those who got saved as kids, you ought to thank God for that, especially if you've never got out of church and you've stayed in church all your life and you've never been in the foreign country. You ought to thank God for that. By the way, be careful that you don't ever get too proud of yourself thinking that you're not capable of going to the foreign country, because everybody in this room is capable of that. Then we talk about coming back with empty pockets. Now, he spent not only what he had, but he spent his future. He spent what he had, I mean, again, what was supposed to be something that he used to build a house and have some land and have some property for his wife and kids someday, and something to pass on to his children. Again, he came back with empty pockets. He came back with a bad reputation, and he came back with some guilt. Number four, and we'll start there. I know I didn't cover that last week. I covered most of number three. Notice number four. And this again is a lesson from the far country. And this is, I have this written as lessons we can learn from his mistakes. Lessons we can learn from his mistakes. Now the first thing I have written is this, don't leave home in the first place. Now, when I say don't leave home, there is a time that everyone should leave home. I mean, I'm talking about kids. But kids should always leave home for a reason. Not because they're fighting with mom and dad, not because they can't stand mom and dad, not because they want to move out so they can get away from the rules. Usually college or marriage or some other reasons. Or by the way, maybe even they just invest in a house one of these days, but they left on good terms and can come back when they want to. Again, there are so many parents and kids that have a struggle between them, and I know what that's like, because I've had some of that in the last few years as well. But I can tell you that it's nice, young people, if your parents are in your corner all the time, so that if you ever need something, you can still go back to mom and dad, and you don't have to swallow your pride to do so. You're on good terms. By the way, we should apply that same principle with our Heavenly Father. We ought to stay on good terms and not just use Him as a parachute when we get in a lot of trouble. I said, don't leave home in the first place. Number two, and notice Ruth chapter, the second thing underneath this lesson we can learn, notice Ruth chapter one, verse one, Ruth 1.1, and it makes this statement. Now, it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land, now this is where they was at, and a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. Now, we all know this story, and the reason they left was because there was, notice what it said, a famine in the land. Now, I can tell you through the years, and I remember several times, Brother Nichols, I have talked or prayed about someone that left Liberty, and many times when they left Liberty for a better job or more money, And they did not check ahead of time to make sure there was a church there or a Christian school or something else. They might have made more money, but many of them lost their families. They had a pay increase, but they did that at the expense of a church. And by the way, if there's not a good church, wherever you're going to go, whatever job you have, you shouldn't have. You say, well, I can watch it online. Not the same. Okay, notice what it said, not forsaken the assembling. You say, well, I'm assembling online. There's not any fellowship. It's hard to fellowship online. It's hard to be able to get the same. I know when we first came back after COVID, some of you said to me, this is, I miss this. I miss this. I miss the fellowship. I miss being around everybody. I miss seeing the folks. I miss the handshakes and stuff. Again, I said lessons we can learn from his mistakes. Things here are not as bad as they seem. Now they was in famine, so they thought, now again, typically in famine, you're going to get hungry. Now, not always in famine do you starve to death. It just means you may not have plenty, may not have as much as you're used to having. I'll come back to this in a second because one of the other points points back to this, but again keep in mind that's why they left. There's a famine in the land. Then the third lesson that we can learn from his mistakes is things are not as great there as they seem. Notice through chapter 1 verse 21, again what it says, again talking about the same group, and I went out full. Now keep in mind there was a famine in the land. You'd think she'd have said, I went out empty. But she said, I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Now she went, she left the famine and went to the place where there was plenty. But notice what she is saying, I left full and I came back empty. Why then call you me, Naomi, saying that the Lord hath testified against me and the Almighty hath afflicted me? Now, those of you that know the story know what she is referring to. She was referring to her two sons that she lost. She was referring to the husband she lost. She did get some daughter-in-laws, and by the way, two pretty good ones from what we can tell. One that stayed with her, I mean, and the other would have, I mean, Orpha would have stayed with her as well, but when she was told to go back, she actually did it. And Ruth said, not going. Wherever you go, I'm going. When you stop, I'm stopping. When you're sleeping, I'm sleeping. When you're eating, I'm eating. I mean, you're stuck with me. That's why we use, lots of times in wedding vows, we use some of this in the wedding vow. And she wasn't talking to, I mean, she didn't get married to her mother-in-law. She was a simple, I mean, she stated some good rules to have when it comes to someone you love. But again, notice what, again, I said things are not always as great there as they seem. Now I mentioned how the cows always think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. By the way, sometimes Christians do too. Now I'm glad many of you in here are not church hoppers. We've had some church hoppers. Because they leave here because our church isn't perfect. And they go to some other church. But by the way, we could have already told them that other church wasn't perfect either. But they went to other church and they got there for a little while. And then you know what they found out? That church wasn't perfect. They had some problems with that preacher. They had some problems with those church members. They had some problems with their programs. So they went someplace else. And then they went someplace else. Sometimes they even came back here. There's times that we had folks that was gone for three or four or five years, then they're back. Then they're gone for three or four or five years, then they're back. Now listen to me, you ought to just be stubborn enough to say, you know what, this is my church. I may not always like everything that goes on. It may not always, I mean, make, but by the way, that is going to be true wherever you're at. How many of you have been married for at least 35 or 40 years? Okay, now you can put, don't raise your hand for this next thing. If I ask that same group of people, how many of you at times would like to knock your mate in the head and wish you couldn't, at that time you were thinking, I wish I wasn't, don't raise your hands. Some of you, some of you, your husbands or wives holding down your hand because you wanted to raise your hand. But the truth is, if you're anywhere very long around folks that you know and folks that you love, there'll be some times that you don't love them for a moment or two. There'll be some times that they get under your skin. And I mean, you think to yourself, if murder was not against the law, I would think of a good way to do it and try not to go to jail for it. Now understand, when you hear your family, we call each other brother and sister for a reason. We're family. And guess what? There'll be times that you bump heads with a family member here. By the way, that might be a good time to remember that seven times 70 she had tattooed on her arm. Because they guarantee you've never had to forgive anybody in here seven times, 70 times. That's 490 times. You don't have to be good at math. And by the way, that wasn't even the number he meant for you to stop by. He was simply saying, I mean, you just forgive and keep forgiving. Now I can tell you there is someone who's forgiven us at least 490 times, but none of us have forgiven some other person in this room. I mean, no matter how big a jerk someone in this room is, I don't think any of us have done the same thing and hurt the same person again and again and again, 490 times. I said, things are not always as great there as they seem. Now, when you're looking over there, it looks, I mean, it looks, think about buying a new car. That's one of the reasons I always talk about used car salesmen. You know why? Because a used car salesman will talk the whole time and keep you busy, and they will try to steer you away from any bad thing going on in that car, because they're trying to make a sale. That's why I always tell people, I'm not a good salesman, because if there's something wrong with, if I have any bad things in my car or stuff, I will tell you. I can't not tell you. You say, well, if they didn't ask, I wouldn't tell them. I can't not tell them, because I don't want them to leave later and find it out and think the preacher cheated me, or the preacher gypped me. So I don't do that, or try hard not to do that. But that's why, again, I wouldn't be a good used car salesman either. I remember one of our men, he's in heaven now, but one of our fellows worked at a place, and he was told by the dealership, you've got to lie to these people. I mean, that's what we do. I mean, we lie to these folks. We tell them untruths. We make a sale. I can tell you that sometimes the military recruit guys do that. Say, how do you know that? Because my sons will promise things that never came true either. I don't know if all of them are that way, but I can tell you that some of the folks, some of the recruiters don't always tell the truth. Because that's because they have a certain number they have to reach and they've got to get to that number. But again, understand, things are not always as great there as they seem. The fourth lesson that we can learn, notice Luke chapter 15, 16 and 17 in your notes, it says this, And he would fain have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare? And I perished with hunger. I said, Don't stay so long or sink so low. Now there was a time he wasn't eating with the pigs. Be nice if he'd have wised up at that point. Now many times, I don't know how many times through the years I've had people counsel me or I've counseled other folks and they always say that person's probably not gonna get right with God till they what? Till they get to the bottom. Till they get to the bottom and there's no place to go but up. Now some folks never get off the bottom. Some folks stay in the bottom for the rest of their life. because they're too proud, where sometimes they don't realize one of the next truths we're going to look at in a moment. But the truth is, sometimes you can't get a person to get right. Now he was already hurting when he went to, I mean, he could have, when all the money ran out before he went to the pig pen, he could have said, you know what, this is stupid. He didn't. He ended up in the pig pen. So again I said don't stay so long or sink so low. The next thing again lessons we can learn from his mistakes. Your real friends were not in the far country. Now we have several verses here in Proverbs. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Proverbs 1.10. Cast in thy lot among us, let us all have one purse. Proverbs 1.14. My son, walk not thou in the way of them, refrain thy foot from their path. Proverbs 1.15. For their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood. Proverbs 1.16. Now, there's a lot of wicked friends out there, and you young folks especially, and you young men and young women that are not married that run around with folks. You have to be very careful. Choose your friends wisely. Because you'll find that your friends can affect you. There are friends that will affect you. You married couples have to be careful as well, especially if you hang out with the girls or the guys. Because there are some guys that, because they have a really stinky marriage, they always talk bad about marriage. Now you might not have one, but because they do, they're always making comments like, eh, I mean, can't live, I mean. Now again, sometimes we joke. And there's a difference between joking and jesting and being serious. Sometimes they're serious. I know women that have been hurt and think that all men are worthless and all men are dogs. the ones that they had been around were. I know men who have had the wrong kind of wife, so they think all women are Jezebels, and they don't want anything to do with, so they think all women, all they're in is just to get your money, and when you leave, they're going to get half of everything you have, and then they're going to go on to the next one. That is not true of everybody, but that is true of a big group of people. So you have to be very, very wise. Again, I said your real friends are not in the far country. The next thing is, unlike what you thought, and this is relating back to the one before about staying too long and sinking so low. Unlike what you thought, you were always welcome back home. Again, there have been folks that got away from Liberty Baptist Church. We went to visit them. They got into sin that we didn't even know they got into sin. They could have showed back up at church and we wouldn't even known it. But they said, I didn't want to come back to church because I was so ashamed. Now listen to me, when you're backslidden, you know the best place to come? The church. Because you can get right here. Whether it's at the altar, in your pew, or in the car on the way back home, that's what the word of God is supposed to do. It's supposed to touch us and move us and affect us. But again, I said, unlike what you thought, you were always welcome back. Notice Galatians chapter 6, verse 1. if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such as one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." I watch Fox News all the time and the other good news networks and I often hear them refer to how the Democrats now are in a circle of what? Firing squad. How they just seem to be shooting each other. Now I really don't care that the Democrats are doing that, but the truth is Christians do that too. Christians have the tendency to, I mean, we take cheap shots. And sometimes, especially if someone's hurting, someone's backslidden, the thing they don't need is someone rubbing it in their face. Remember, notice where it said, restore such as one in the spirit of meekness. Then it went on and said, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Now, be very careful about making this statement either in your head or out loud. I would never do that. Because I can tell you many folks who have said they would never do that, that have done that. And many of them aren't here today. Some are because after they did that, they finally had enough sense to get right. But I can tell you, especially as a man, it is hard to humble yourself and get back right after you messed up because your pride gets in the way. Years ago, a young person who had messed up came back, and the first words out of their mouth was, better by talking about me over there. And I said, don't flatter yourself. You're not that important. And I wasn't trying to be mean. I knew him really well, but most everyone else didn't even really know him that well. And I said, the truth is, we'd like for you to come back and get right and do right. I mean, but he thought that we were all over here just gossiping about him and criticizing him. And by the way, sometimes Christians do that. Say, how do you know that? Because years ago, when we had a lady that talked to me, I found out that some of the ladies, she was in the bathroom stall when some of the ladies out, looking at themselves in the mirror, were making comments about her and her family. And she heard it all. I sometimes, as the principal, would come down and stand outside the boys' bathroom and just listen to the guys say some really stupid stuff. Then later I'd pull them in and I'd go, how do you know? If they would just quit talking so loud, it'd be nice. I didn't even have to open the door. But I remember one time that I was actually in a stall in there as well. And they, now I didn't raise my feet up and try to hide myself. They just weren't even smart enough to look. And they're jabbing and talking about stuff that, I mean, that they were going to get in trouble for. And they did. Now understand, you and I are supposed to restore them. Notice Luke 15, 20. If you got the new notes, this is in there. If not, you have Galatians 6, 1 written twice, but I wrote it in and made new copies. So if you got one of the new copies, Luke 15, 20 says, and he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him. And I said, again, unlike what you thought, you're welcome back. You're welcome back at Liberty Baptist Church. If you get backslidden, say, What if we did this? It doesn't matter what you've done. Liberty Baptist Church isn't, we're not a perfect place. We don't have a perfect pastor, any perfect staff, any perfect church members. The truth is, this is supposed to be a, it is a place where Christians grow. It's also a place where people who get sick get well. We're like a doctor's office for Christians. That's what church is. And just as the church should always welcome those back that get, again, in this case, he could return home at any time. Dad was looking for him. I think he'd been looking for him from the very first day he left. I don't think he'd been looking for him just recently. I think he'd been looking for him for a long time. Next, your father loved you the whole time. Now, whether you're the Christian that we're talking about, or you're a fleshly, again, you're talking about your fleshly father, your father loved you the whole time. We just read Luke 15, 20, what it meant, again. Now, did dad give him his money? Yes. Did dad want to give him his money? No. Was dad proud of him while he was gone? No. When I'm at the sorority booth, one of the things I'll always say, I'll always show them the eternal and everlasting. And then when they get through praying, I'll say, all right, now, if you die, where are you going? They're going to say heaven. And I'll say, what if you go out tomorrow and murder somebody, where are you going to go? You know what many of them will say? Hell. Because they think if it isn't, I said, oh, no, no, no. Then I always will use either my family or theirs, and I'll say, do you have any brother, I mean, how many years ago, you were born 17 years ago? Have you always made your mom and dad happy? No. Have you always been your mom and dad's child? Yes. And I said the same is true of your Heavenly Father. You may have to renew the relationship, you may have to get things right with your Heavenly Father, but you don't get born again and born again and born again. The truth is, if you're born once, you've got eternal life. What are you going to get? Eternal, plus eternal, plus eternal. There is no such thing better than eternal. Eternal already covers it all. But again, your father loved you the whole time. You young folks in here realize they discipline you because they love you. Notice in your notes, Hebrews 12.8 says, But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Your parents are not even like real parents. Now again, some of you have wanted to spank someone else's child. There's been times I've stood in the grocery store and I've thought, ooh, I can fix that. But we don't spank other people's kids unless we want to go to jail. And by the way, God doesn't spank people that aren't his children either. That's one of the things my dad helped me when I was struggling with my internal security. It's one of the things my dad pointed out to me. The reason I felt guilty when I didn't even get caught was because the Holy Spirit lived inside of me. Before that, I only felt bad if I got caught. I only felt bad if I got in trouble. After I got saved, I felt bad whether I got in trouble or not. My parents didn't even have to know when I felt guilty, I felt bad. That's because there was another spirit inside of me than that old fleshly nature. Young people, if your parents spank you, it's because they love you. Notice also Proverbs 22.6, they discipline you so that you turn out right. Notice Proverbs 22.6, train up a child in the way that he should go. When he's old, he will not depart from it. So they want you to do right in the future, so they try to spank some of that nonsense out of you while you're younger. And again, younger is a lot easier to do than older. The third truth about that, they discipline you so that you won't mess up and shame your family. Notice Proverbs 29, 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom, but the child left to himself, bringeth his mother to shame. I guarantee you, if you leave young people to their own devices, they're gonna get into some mischief. As parents, we always, when our kids got quiet, that's when we got concerned. It's a little too quiet. Something's going on. And we go find out what it was. I understand. He says, you know what? If you, if you, again, he mentioned the rod and reproof give wisdom. Now, I can tell you one of the reasons that children that's raised up with discipline don't usually end up in jail, because they learn from their parents to fear authority. They learn from the Bible to fear and obey authority. And then that comes in really handy when they get older down the road, that they fear and obey authority. Not only that, they discipline you so that you'll get saved. Notice Proverbs 23, verse 14. Thou shalt beat him with a rod, and thou shalt deliver his soul from hell. So again, I think that means salvation. I also think it means he'll still have a lot of trouble. You'll keep them from getting into a lot of trouble if you use the discipline correctly. The fifth thing, and I'm going to assure you on, some truths about our inheritance. I'm going to give you three simple truths. Number one, inheritance would have been more valuable years later. How many of you have kept up with the price of gold? Nobody, a couple of us. You know what the price of gold was today? I didn't look at it, I think I looked at it yesterday. $3,300 an ounce. So for one of those $20 gold pieces I used to use in the old movies, that's worth over $3,000. That $20 gold piece is worth over $3,000. Now, 14 years ago when I first got a few of the precious metals, it was selling for $900 an ounce. Which means it has tripled in value since then. Now think about his land. Again, land, guess what land does every year? Goes up in value. That land, again, the share that he got at 18 would have been worth a lot more at 25 or 30 when he finally got married and started his own family. So again, I said his inheritance would have been more valuable years later. Second truth, his inheritance would have been better appreciated Because later, he would have understood the value. Kids don't understand the value of stuff. If you take a kid a handful of pennies and say, would you like to have all these or this $10 bill? Guess what they're going to take every time? That handful of pennies because it just seems like so much more. Years ago, we had to put a stop to this. How many of you remember when the Yu-Gi-Oh cards were a craze? I was collecting, my kids were playing with them. They were making decks and playing with them. I was just collecting the ones that were of value, putting them in the sleeves, and they're in a closet. Because I figured since I already messed up my baseball cards years ago, maybe one of these days the you-get cards will be worth something. So I collected full sets and put them in sleeves, stuck them in the closet. Say, what's that? In the closet. How long have they been there? 20-something years. Are they worth something? Yeah. Fact is, I pulled out a little starter deck that I think I paid like 14 bucks for, looked it up online, it's worth $200 now, because we never opened it. Now back then we had kids that would bring you your cards to church and some of our older bus boys and girls and church kids would make a trade to some of our younger bus boys and girls and church kids. and cheat them like the money changers in the temple. Say, how do you know? Because I got a call from a parent one day and said, your kid, the older kids at church, traded my kid like this big handful of cards. By the way, all those cards had to go to be like two bucks, okay? They gave my big stack of cards to that little kid to trade that one card for all these cards. He thought, woo-hoo! Problem was, he was getting robbed. Might as well put a gun to him and robbed him because they was getting a 25 or 30 or $40 card for $2. So I had to go back to the church kids and say, did you make this deal? Well, yeah, he wanted to. I said, did he approach you? Did you approach him? Well, yeah, I did, I wanted the card. So I gave him a big, I said, I know, trust me, I've got the book, because back then you could buy the books. I said, I know what you gave him, I saw him. You gave him like two bucks for the $40 card that you got. I said, bring it back and trade him back. Well, that's not fair. I said, yeah, you're right, it wasn't fair. You robbed that poor little kid, so cut it out. But again, understand, His inheritance would have been better appreciated, and by the way, when he understood the value of it. At 18, you know what he thought about? fun, having a good time. He wasn't thinking farther ahead. The third thing I need some truth about our inheritance. The inheritance was, again, his inheritance would have not been wasted later. If you taught your kid the value of money, when they finally got some of their own money, they didn't spend it very freely. They started saving and hoarding it. I mean, they saved it for whatever they, but I mean, they didn't just spend it on stuff. Years ago, my brother died. He was in his 40s when he died, so his kids were 18, 17, 18, 19 years old. He had, I believe, a house and 80 acres, and he had a bunch of money and some other stuff, so he left. He split that between his two children. Now, the good news, his son didn't do anything with the land and the house, but he still has and is still with, but his daughter, who he gave 100 and something thousand dollars to, bought a brand new house with it, moved into it, lived with a guy for a while, had a baby, had a dog, had a bunch of puppies, never cleaned up after them. I mean, destroyed the house and then finally end up losing the house. And so that hundred and something thousand dollars ended up being worth nothing. You know why? Because she wasn't old enough to appreciate the value. Now, my brother had worked his rear off. He'd stayed at the same company all those years, had invested wisely, but she didn't understand the value of a dollar. Now she does today, but she didn't then. So again, a lesson we can learn about our inheritance. I said first off, inheritance will be of more value years later. Our inheritance will better appreciate its value later, and the inheritance probably won't be wasted later. Then the last thing, and I'll be done. He never stopped being the Son. Keep that in mind. If you're a child of God, because in a lot of churches nowadays, they teach you that you can lose your salvation. The Bible never teaches that anywhere in the Bible. Always when it talks about salvation, it uses the word either everlasting or eternal. And it uses those words for a reason, because salvation is everlasting or eternal. Now, I said He never stopped being the Son. Now, in His mind, He stopped being the Son, because He thought He left it all. But understand, in Dad's mind, he never quit being the son. Dad looked for him every day. Dad missed him every day. If you're a child of God tonight, realize this, you can't lose your salvation. Now, the devil will try to keep you. If you get back something, he'll try to keep you out of church and keep you down. Because if he ever gets you down, and again, if they teach you how to fight, the rule of fighting is, if you get the guy down, don't let him back up. You let him back up, he's back in the fight. If you step back and let him get his breath, I mean, that's why if you've ever seen a boxing match, and I don't watch a lot, but when there's some guy that they see slip or mess up, I mean, they run after him. They chase him to the corner. They wanna put him down, keep him down, till that eight count or nine count or whatever it is. I mean, they want him down to stay down. They don't want the fight to continue. So again, he never stopped being the son. To have a home, to leave, an inheritance to gain, he had to be a son. The only reason he got that money in the first place was because that man was his father. That inheritance was his because he was the father's son. By the way, he was already part of the family. And as this earthly father was looking for his son to return, I think our heavenly father longs for us to return when we get backslidden. I think, again, sometimes church members, we don't think about it, but our Heavenly Father, when you and I get away from Him, when we quit serving Him like we should, when we quit living for the Lord like we should, I think our Heavenly Father looks down the road and wants us to return. I am so appreciative of those of you that, by the way, you've been here through the thick and the thin, and there's been some thin. Thank God for the thick, but there's been some thin. There's been some tough times. There's been some times that weren't so happy in your life or whatever, but again, you stayed faithful. and I'll be done. You can't return to the Father if you never came to Him in the first place. Hebrews 11 verse 13 says this, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. And were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on this earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. You're not seeking a country. This is not supposed to be home. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have the opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, in heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath preferred for them a city." Now keep in mind we're just sojourners here. We, now, we probably, our earthly father is either here or in heaven, if he was saved. But one of these days, I mean, we're just soldiers, so one of these days we're gonna go live, as I told the kids, folks, when I led them to the Lord this week, I said, right now, as a child, you're living in your parents' house, your dad's house, and guess what? When you die someday, guess where you get to go? You get to go live in your heavenly father's house, which is in heaven. Again, to a better country. Again, once you become his son, John 1, 12, but as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Once you become a son of God, you are always a son of God. And again, when we use that word son, it means sons or daughters, it means each of us, any of us. Notice 1 Timothy 1, verse 15, this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And Paul said, of whom I am chief. Now again, why did Christ come in the first place? He came for sinners. Came to save folks. He doesn't want anyone going to hell. So if you're not you're not saved You don't have an inheritance waiting for you up in heaven Because he's not you know, and you're not gonna get to go live with your heavenly father. You will live with your spiritual father But if you're not saved, you know where your spiritual father will live someday in hell and that's where you'll go because you go the same place that you're that your spiritual father is because When you're lost you're spiritually dead and your trespasses and sins