How's everybody this morning? Some of you are gonna let me know later, I guess, huh? A few are good and the rest of you say, you don't really care. How are you doing? You don't care. What's it matter to you whether I'm suffering? I got a kick out of Brother Jim the other day. He was over there, Jim Williams. He was over there at prayer meeting and I said, how you doing? And he looked at me kind of funny and he hesitated and he said, I'm doing fine. I said, me too and we're both liars. Wouldn't you rather have somebody just be cheerful about it? You know why complain about stuff you can't fix? Does it make you feel better? No, he says, if there be any praise, if there be any virtue, think on these things. The reason some people are so depressed is because they can't get their mind off their problems. That's all they're thinking about. Oh man, I just don't know what I'm gonna do. Go on, that's what you do. Keep going. Why do people want to live just miserable? I don't know. There's a weird characteristic, a little quirk inside of people that's really weird. You know, you get where you're down and depressed, and somebody makes you mad, and you get angry about something, and somebody else tries to cheer you up. It's like, leave me alone. I don't want to smile. I don't like this feeling of hatred and meanness. Just leave me alone. Let me enjoy myself. It's crazy, man, there's something twisted inside of us. You might as well just go ahead, smile, and keep going. But no, there's something broken inside of us. The Lord's gonna fix it. In His presence, fullness of joy, in His right hand, pleasures forevermore. Just keep on going. You're not gonna feel any of that stuff later on. Anyway, let's get back to what we've been looking at here about our timeless creator. And we started back over in Psalms 90, we got involved in this thing. I was really looking at some of this stuff about his timelessness. Verse four, it says, for a thousand years in eyesight, or but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch in the night. I mean, you get that, don't you? I mean, don't you understand what he's saying when he says, but as yesterday? I mean, you guys can tell me mostly what you did yesterday, but you know, it's gone. It's like back in high school, junior high. It's like things that you've done in the past that you have a memory of, but they're just gone. And the further back they are, the less of the memory there is. It kind of fades as you go. Of course, some people, they kind of embellish it, you know? It gets better and better if they keep telling it to their friends. Anyway, it's like yesterday. And then we got over into Peter. You get over into 2 Peter over there. These are some unique things about God's personality and about what he's really like. It says, and saying, where's the promise of thy coming? For the fathers fell asleep, that's the context. And then verse eight, but beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. And you start looking at that stuff and you look at the context of these things and it begins to really get your attention. For example, verse eight, it says, but beloved, be not ignorant. Does that sound familiar? Where do you find that? Right back over in Thessalonians where we were at, right. And over there it says, So what's he saying? He says, Ignorant. A thousand years is a day. A day is a thousand years. He ties all of this stuff together. He pulls it together in such a way that if you're actually looking for something, you'll start to find some things. And you're not going to need a commentary to do it. All you have to do is just look at what he said, you know. Our problem is we want to try to figure this thing out our own way. We're like little kids, you know. This thing won't work. You help me, Daddy? Yeah, just a minute, I'll come help you. Just about the time you just get started to help him. Okay, I wanna do it myself. Don't touch it, get your hands off now. I got it. It's really sad, isn't it? That's the way we are with the Lord. It goes beyond that. It goes to a mental attitude toward God that when we need him, we need him when we got problem. The rest of the time, we ignore him. Coming to church this morning, do you have any thoughts about him? Do you have any thoughts about all them flowers that are blooming out there? He is something. I kid you not, he is something. And one day when we finally see him and we realize he's the one that made all that stuff and made us too, it's gonna change our attitude permanently. It really will. Well, he's given us enough to understand that right here. If we just think more about what he's shown us, we'd start to get some of that stuff. And it wouldn't be just a matter of, oh God, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I need some help. He says, how come you only come to see me when you want something? Wouldn't that bug you if that was you and your kids only came to you when they wanted something from you? The rest of the time, you were just kind of in the way. You say, how many times do I have to tell you to take out the trash? God said, how many times I have to tell you? Good thing he doesn't treat us like we treat him. Or he doesn't treat us like we treat our kids. How many times have you ever disciplined your children out of anger? Never. That's really one of the worst things you can possibly do. It really, really is. You ought to do everything in the world to keep from doing that. He disciplined his children out of anger. You saw what happened. I mean, you know, one place he's ready to kill them all. Moses says, no, no, no. Another place Moses says, man, let's kill them all. It's a good thing they didn't get together on that day. Mighty good thing. Anyway, so moving along here, this book we have right here is woven together. It's like a piece of fabric. I mean, you know, there's this warp and woof and there's tapestries and things that are woven into things. I mean, that's just to me is just fascinating as it can be, how they weave something and get it to have letters in it and all other stuff. You say, well, a lot of that stuff is monogrammed, you know, and it's added on and it's applique and I don't know what all the terms are, but some of that stuff's sewn right in. Boy, that is amazing, man. That's some kind of talent. Where do they get that from? You get it from our creator. This thing goes way, way, way beyond our grasp and our understanding. It really does. This book is woven together in such a way that when you start looking at it, you start to see all kinds of things that you hadn't noticed before. Look at this chapter three. Now this one chapter is only a few verses. In fact, we're not even gonna go beyond verse 13. But you look at verse number three. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lust. That's a period of time that God mentions about his creation, okay? And you'd think, well, that kind of fixes the context of the chapter, but it doesn't. It changes drastically. You got verse two, that you be mindful of the words which were spoken before the day of the holy prophets. Who's that? That's Old Testament. He jumps from verse two to verse three, and he goes from Old Testament to last days in one verse. right across. You know what that's like? That's like looking at a piece of fabric, and you're going along on this piece of fabric, and here's this other piece of thread going through it, and you say, oh, I recognize that one from way back up there. Oh, it's going this way. Yeah, well, you cross that one, and oh, here's another one. That's totally different, too. And you start looking in this book, and it's like looking at that piece of fabric. It's like, I recognize this, and I've seen it before. Well, yeah, it's because one way, you're going this way through it, and the other way, you're going that way through it. and the things have a totally different meaning when you're looking at them that direction. God has woven this thing together in such a way that it's almost like a puzzle, you know? It's something that you're trying to figure out from last Sunday night. It's almost like he's hiding something from us, isn't it? You know what he does? He hides it in plain sight. Isn't that weird? Anyway, look down at verse four and saying, where is the promise of his coming? Now all of a sudden he's jumped back So you got Old Testament, last days, and now another period of time which deals with His second coming. And verse five and six goes back to pre-Genesis 1, verse two. For this they're willing, the ignorant of that the word of God of the heavens which were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water where by the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. All of a sudden now you go clear on back to pre-Genesis 1, verse two. He moves along real fast in several of those verses. He's telling you something, and it has context to it, it has meaning to it, but at the same time, all of that influence is coming just spread out all the way through. It doesn't stop there. Look at verse nine. You got the Church Age. The Lord is not slack concerning His promises. Some men count slackness, but as longsuffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. What's he talking about there? He's talking about that right there, that church age. You think in a millennium they're gonna be worried about repentance? You know what they were worried about in the Old Testament? They were worried about faith and works, man. They had to sacrifice the sacrifices. You don't do the law, you're in trouble. Well, none of them kept the law in the Old Testament either. They kept pieces of it. So what he did was he set it up with sacrifices. because you can't keep from sinning. Job knew that about his kids. That's why he kept offering continually. Who knows, maybe they've sinned against God in their heart. Maybe nothing. Maybe nothing, they all did. They just kept on doing it. God just overlooked it, but he set up a system whereby you could put it on a credit card. But he said, the only way you're gonna swipe that credit card is you do what I tell you to do. If you don't do it just like that, it don't count. Look at verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in the holy conversation of godliness? You say, what did he just say? What he's saying there, if you understood the reality of what you just read, you'd be acting a lot different than you do. What manner of persons ought you to be? Better than you are, right? What's wrong with us? What's wrong with us is God has been neglected from our education. That's why you don't think about God any more than you do. I mean, if you can't see God in those flowers out there and those dogwood trees and the rest of that stuff blooming and can't appreciate the stuff that He makes and begin to appreciate Him for making it and be able to give Him glory for it and to realize, man, He can do some stuff and He's not boring ever, ever. I said, man, God, You are something else. You know what He'd say? You ain't seen nothing yet, son. You ain't seen nothing yet. Why? When you finally get up here and then we start really enjoying ourselves and in perfect fellowship and perfect communication, I'm gonna show you some stuff and we're just gonna have a great time doing it. And why don't we live in that reality? Attention's on the wrong place. We're focused on the thing in that mirror. Even when you leave the mirror, you're still focused on that thing in the mirror. Anyway. It just keeps on moving. Look at verse 13. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Within 13 verses, he has gone from Genesis 1, verse 2, all the way through the end of the millennium, all the way through Satan being loosed, all the way through the white throne judgment, and he ends up out there, new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Now, if you wanna know why you have a hard time understanding some of the stuff in the Word of God, that's why. And what you do is when you begin to read stuff like that and you see something, almost every one of us, and I'm not excluded and I'm less involved than I was, but we're all looking for proof text. We're looking for some way to bail us out of the problem we are in, or we're looking for something to prove what we believe already. You're not looking for what God said. You're just wanting to be right. It's like two little kids arguing, you know, about something, and they go up to mommy and daddy, you know, and they say, you said so-and-so, didn't you, daddy? What is that? That's just a kid wanting to prove he's right. Had nothing to do with mom and dad said. They weren't trying to do what mom and dad said. One of them just wanted to be right, and the other one wanted to be right, and they both disagreed on what mom and dad said. That's just the way we are. We're exactly like that. Why can't we see it? Because we spent too much time focusing on ourself. What do you see when you begin to focus on God? You begin to see yourself from His eyes. Don't you want to see God the way He sees you? Really? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to respond to that still, small voice when He says, hey, what do you think of this over here? I said, man, God, that's great. He said, I'm glad you enjoy it. I've given you all things richly to enjoy. What do you think those azaleas are out there for? They're out there for your pleasure and his too. He made it for his pleasure, but he also made it for your pleasure. The trouble is, we just kind of consume it upon our lust. Man, look at those flowers, aren't those pretty? Yeah. No thought whatsoever about the artist, just the artwork. Anyway, moving along here. He covers 7,000 years in 13 verses. Oh, by the way, you know, he talks about that new heaven and new earth. There's some interesting things over there in Revelation 2. Look over here in Revelation chapter 21, verse 1 and 2. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And then verses four and five. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things have passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new, and he said unto me, write, for these words are true and faithful. Go to chapter 22. and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads, and there shall be no night there, and they shall need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. And where's the light come from? The lamb is the light thereof, right? Well, you go back into Genesis, Genesis one, that ties back into some interesting things. Well, you say, what are you running this rabbit trail for? You know what? You can't know enough about him. When he tells you a day with the Lord is as 1,000 years, he's telling you something about himself. When he tells you things about how he did this and when he did this and the way things work, there's a lot of this stuff in there that tells you about himself. And the reason we miss it is because all we're doing is looking for stuff that's interesting to us. When you're a kid, would you go spend much time looking at your parents doing their taxes? You say, why would I do that? They hate doing it. Why would I even want to be near them? They get mean. Say, yeah, I can appreciate that. Oh, by the way, Satan's a raiser of taxes. Anyway, you get back over here and you start seeing things that God did and the way he did them and some other things that start to tie into this gives you an insight of what he does and how he does it and who he is. You got, for example, Genesis 1. three to five, and it says, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and the evening and morning were the first day. What happened to night? Evening and morning were the first day with no night. But yet he divided the darkness from the light, and the darkness he called night. Now, you think there was a night in between there? You say, I don't know. I always envisioned that thing as going from evening, morning. You say, how does that work, God? I mean, how did you do evening to morning? Was it no nighttime? I mean, you didn't work just eight or 12 hours and quit? When do you rest? Don't you rest at night? He didn't rest. He waited until the seventh day to rest. You know the Jewish day, when it starts? Six o'clock in the evening. Runs all the way through, and it goes evening and morning. And it's got watches in the night. Anyway, look at the rest of this stuff. You got verse eight. And God called the firmament heaven, and the evening and the morning were the second day. And then verse 13, and the evening and the morning were the third day. And verse 19, and the evening and morning were the fourth day. Now, you know, he'd already created the sun by then, you know that? Well, there wasn't any sun up till then, so how are you going to have nighttime? But now he's got the sun and he still doesn't change that. He says, evening and the morning. And then you got clear over to verse 23, and it says, in the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And then finally, verse 31, and God saw everything that he made, and behold, it was very good, and the evening and the morning were the sixth day. And then on the seventh day, God rests. Now, one of the ways you know there was no night for God is first of all, you get back over into that New Jerusalem and there is no night there, right? Is there night on the new earth? Must be, why? He says, there's a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And then he's describing New Jerusalem and he says, there is no night there. Now at that point, I'm guessing that time no longer exists. Now, whether or not they're counting it off, I don't know, but as far as everybody's concerned, it just keeps going. How do you know there wasn't any night? Well, you know that because in 1 John 1, 5, it says, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. And he says, and God said, let there be light, and there was light, and God divided the darkness from the light, and the darkness he called night. You know why there wasn't any night? Because in God there is no darkness at all and there is no night. So he was saying evening and morning. Well, he kind of messed up there, didn't he? What about nighttime? Didn't exist. He said, well, that doesn't make any sense. I always figured it was days like we got right now. You know what he'd have to call it? Instead of calling it night, he'd have to call it light and shadow. I mean, is it black at night? No, it's not. You're just in the shadow of the earth. Besides that, you got the moon and the stars to light it up, stuff like that. I mean, you ever been in true darkness? It's like that stuff over there when he's delivering the children of Israel, you know, and darkness, it can be felt. You ever been in that kind of black? You ever been there very long? And you get there very long, and all of a sudden, it starts to oppress you. I mean, it starts changing, and you start to feel it, man, the lack of light. I mean, if you're the wrong kind of guy, you'd probably enjoy that. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. But you guys won't like it. It'd get to the point pretty soon you'd want out of there. Anyway, let's move along. Now, what's all of this stuff about? This stuff is about the one that made us. You say, why do you go through all that stuff? Because we don't know enough about him. We don't think enough about him. We don't consider him enough. You know, the more we know about him, the more we realize what he does and what he can do. You know what that stuff out there is supposed to do to you? It's supposed to impress you with what he does and what he can do. That's what it's supposed to do. It's not supposed to entertain you. It's supposed to impress you with who he is. Now that's the connection that the Laodicean church has lost years and years ago. They lost the connection between all those things and him. The focus and the attention is not reflected by his creation. They use stuff constantly to disprove evolution. Why? Proof text. It doesn't have to do with the glory of God. It has to do with, I'm right. I know I'm right. You're wrong. Look at this verse in the Bible, what it says. That doesn't have anything to do with God. God doesn't have to go around proving anything to anybody. And if you're in tune with him, you don't either. Do you know that? If you're really in tune with your Creator, nothing shall offend you. Nothing. They can say anything they want. It's like, you guys got your life, I got mine. I'll take mine over yours every time. I don't care to go live in your shoes. Why? You made your bed, you lie in it. It's those kind of things. But anyway, the more we appreciate Him, the more we'll love Him for it. What are you talking about? I've been trying to get this point across for quite a while now, and I don't think I've made the point well enough yet. I'm sure I haven't. You know how I know? Because I don't appreciate Him enough yet. But the more you appreciate Him, the more you love Him. Now listen, we love Him because He first loved us, right? Okay. Did you love Him until you got saved? Nope. Why did you start loving Him? because he did something for you, right? Don't you find that your affections are drawn toward him when he does something special for you? You know why a man's supposed to love his wife? He's supposed to love her because she gave herself to him, and he gave himself to her, and they became one flesh, and they interact like that. That's why you're supposed to love each other. This love thing has to do with appreciating the other one. Then it's easy. As long as it's about me versus you, it's hard, man. You're gonna have a hard life. You're gonna have a hard marriage. You're never gonna understand what it's supposed to be like for that man and woman to become one. And you'll never understand God because that's exactly how God is. God is not all about me. You guys work for me and serve me and you do what I tell you or else. Has he ever done that? No. If you love me, keep my commandments. Right? You know why you have a hard time keeping His commandments? Because you don't love Him enough. Why don't you love Him enough? You don't appreciate Him enough. You began to love Him when you began to appreciate Him. You appreciate Him for what He does and what He can do. Not just what He does for you. You get outside and you look at that stuff that he makes. You get out there in the evening and watch a sunset and watch the colors in that sky change. I mean, Brother Jack's got one of the most perfect places in the world, in Pensacola anyway, for seeing sunsets. That spot out there is really unique in Pensacola, and there are some sunsets out there that just knock you out. You can't see them around here. You're living in these trees, you know. Everything's all around you. You're kind of living in this kind of a tunnel all the time. You get up above it and look across it, and you'll see how many trees are in Pensacola. And by the way, this is the fifth wettest city in the United States. Doesn't seem so lately, but that's the way it is. There's a couple of them out in Washington, then Houston, then Mobile, and then Pensacola, number five. So we're gonna need some more rain here pretty soon. But that's how we get all of this stuff that God grows. Do you know there's beauty out there in the desert that He makes that you'll never see? I used to race them motorcycles out there in the desert. Man, I saw sights, it's just unbelievable. You imagine getting up in the morning, first thing in the morning, you get out there and you go racing across the desert and there's snow all over the cactus and snow all over stuff out there. You just look at that stuff and marvel at it, man. Looking at those critters that live out there and those flowers and the way he builds all that stuff. You know, one of the greatest things about God, he is not boring ever. Man, he has got a sense of variety that just absolutely is astounding. You'd think oak tree, got an oak tree. No, there's like 250 kinds of oaks and about 240 of them right here in Pensacola. Pine tree, how many different kinds of pine trees? You can't even imagine it. Azalea, rose, you can name any one of those things, you know, specifically. And he doesn't stop there. He just keeps on going and going and going. He makes dogs. What kind of dogs? Every bunch is brand new. That's the way He is. My voice is different than your voice. My fingerprint's different than your fingerprints. My DNA is totally unique, you know? That's how God works. It's not just what He does for you that's supposed to draw your attention to Him and your appreciation for what He can do. It's not just what He can do for you that makes Him great, because if you hadn't have existed, He would have not been any less the great It's not, oh, isn't God good? What a foolish statement. God's always been good. You say that when He's been treating you right, right? You don't have any real problems at the time and you got a little bit of the joy right there. Isn't God good? Yep, always has been, always will be. What we think about it doesn't change anything. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. We're the ones with the emotional ups and downs and the roller coasters and all this other stuff. We're the ones that are so easily distracted. If he's counting the hairs on your head, you've got his attention, people. Don't you? Don't you appreciate that about him? Let's pray.