I told him, when he told me that, I told him, I said, well, I like the whole slab of bologna. Amen. Revelation 21. If you have your Bible, Revelation chapter 21. Thank you again, pastor, for this opportunity. Thank you all for being here. I've always learned I'll be saved. September will be 37 years that I've been saved. And it's not so much the messenger that's standing here. but it's the message from the word of God. I'm flesh. I need the word of God to help me. We need the spirit of God to help us this morning, amen? Revelation 21 and verse one, the Bible says, 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 seed. What a day that's gonna be, amen? God doing a lot of new things. And I, John, saw the new city, I mean the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. I'm so thankful that God is my God right now in the form of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Jesus was the first comforter and he said, I must go, but I'm gonna leave you another comforter, the Holy Ghost. And the difference was if Jesus was in Lexington, only the people in Lexington or people fly into Lexington could see Jesus on his earthly ministry at the time. But with the Holy Ghost, he's with me all the time. I thank God for that. Amen. But look at verse four. That's where I wanna go this morning. Verse four, the Bible says, and God, shall wipe away all tears. The message this morning is no more tears. Let's go to Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we're so thankful to be in your house this morning. I know in my own heart, I've said it many a times, this is the safest place on earth, I feel like. Being with the people of God, being in the house of God. Lord, just what a blessing. If we were to be taken out, This morning, what a way to go, knowing that we were serving you in the house of God this morning. Oh Lord, I pray for your people this morning, that you'll bless their hearts. Help them this morning. And most of all, I pray that you'll help me. Oh Holy Spirit, I need you to help me this morning. I love you this morning, and thank you for loving me. In the wonderful name of your son, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. No more tears. Growing up as a teenager, I always heard, men don't cry. Many of y'all may have heard that. Oh, real men do not cry. That shows weakness. You know what? That does not show weakness when you can cry. Real men do cry. the son of God, the creator of everything, the one who created this dust ball we call Earth, and everything on this Earth that we have used, that God, if you think about it, God provided everything Adam needed before he created man. The fruits of the trees, all the vegetables, all the animals, even the fish, God provides for us, amen? The alpha, the omega, the beginning and the end, The door, the good shepherd. On and on and on you can go. The son of God himself, all powerful God weeps. Sheds tears. So tears are not a weakness. Tears show God's presence. Psalm 34 verse 18, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. 1 Samuel chapter 1 verse 10, talking about Hannah. She was wanting a child, and the Bible says, and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. We see babies here. Praise God for them, amen? This church, I believe, is the New Testament church. It's got children, babies, on up to 90 year olds and all in between. Amen. But Hannah was childless. She was sorrowful. She was distressed of mine. Banana picking on her. I got children. You don't have no children. You're a Christian. I'm not a Christian. I do whatever I want to do as an unsaved person. You've got this little box that you've got to put in your life. No. Man, it is joyful to serve the Lord, amen? It is a blessing to serve the Lord. I tell the guys at the jail, which is my main ministry for almost 34 years this August, I've been doing prison ministry. And I tell those guys jokingly, I said, you know what? I said, I can actually remember what I did last night. Back on the streets when you were out there, some of y'all couldn't even remember what you did. Ended up in a house and you don't know whose house it is, amen? But what are we broken hearted over this morning? Are we broken over our children? I have a wayward daughter, our oldest daughter. She was raised in church. She got saved. She made a profession of faith at a young age. She accepted Christ. She's been to camp meetings. She's been to revival. She's been in church. She knows that she needs to be in church this morning. and it breaks my heart. Amen? And I know some of y'all probably have wayward children. Breaks your heart. Some of y'all have a spouse that's maybe not here this morning and not wanting to serve God with you. It breaks your heart. As the woman asked the pastor one time, says, where was God when my son died? His answer was God was in the same place when his son died. God's always been on the throne. Amen? What about your job? You go to a job and you do the best you can, but you have a boss who wants to just beat you and beat you and beat you all the time. He's a hard task master. Are you broken hearted over your job? How about your family? Are you broken hearted over your lost brothers like I am? Over lost people? Amen? That person that you witnessed to and went to Christ, you may be an answer to somebody's prayer. Amen? So keep going, keep going because you never know when somebody, when your brother or sister or friend or neighbor to the Lord that you've been praying for, amen? How about the church body? Oh, I look out and I don't know a lot of you even by name. And that's my fault because I'm a very fellowshipping type person, amen? I'm not the pastor of the church, but I sure do like to shake hands. I sure do like to get to know you, amen? But some of you, I know a little bit more about you. I know what you're going through. I know the physical ailments that you deal with. My wife, she deals with a lot. Arthritis, fibromyalgia, take a handful of pills three or four times a day. Always seems to be in pain. Wake up in the morning, it's like she's been run over by a freight train. But some of y'all dealing with cancer. You're broken hearted. Tears will show God's presence, amen? Because God is close. Tears can also show sin or shame. Numbers 11, Israel murmured they didn't like the manna. They wanted to go back to Egypt. Peter in Luke 22 verse 62, after denying the Lord three times in the cock crew, Peter went out and wept bitterly. When I sin, when you sin, when we do something shameful, are the birds singing or is the cock crowing? Amen? But it should bring, sin should bring shame, should bring tears. We should weep bitterly over what we've done, amen? Even though I know Brother Baker, what he preached talking about, you know, Esau. But you know what, when we sin, we're disobeying God. It should be a shame on me to want to disobey God. I should weep over my sin, amen? And I can weep over yours, but you need to weep over your own sin. Tears show our burden for someone. Psalm 126, five, the Bible says, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seeds, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. I mentioned to the men when we go to the streets months ago, I mentioned, I said, you know, do we do this out of duty? When we go knocking on doors once a month, when we go to the streets every week or to USC, to the college every week, are we doing this out of duty? Or do we really care about that person we give that tract to? Is our hearts really broken for that sinner who rejects Christ? Do we weep? That's something that's missing in our churches. Oh, we saw the teenagers get up here weeks ago weeping. We saw even grownups get up here weeping. We've seen the pastor get up here and weep, amen? That's not a weakness. That should be something we all should be doing, amen? To see those out there take a gospel track and then throw it in the trash or throw it at our feet. We should weep. See them laugh at you, laughing. I say, you can laugh now, but God's gonna have the last laugh. Are we doing it out of duty or are we doing it for a love of sinners? And then, tears. It's happy when you see, it brings joy when you see something happen in somebody's life, amen? It's joyful to see the babies. I weeped when my girls were born. I cried, I especially cried. I don't know if they can zoom in on this picture, but I keep this picture in my Bible. I don't know if they're able to zoom in on this picture, but if you wanna see it after church, that's my daughter Chelsea right there when she was born. She was in the neonatal unit for probably from Wednesday to Sunday or Monday or whenever, hooked up to wires, not knowing if she was going to survive, wondering, Lord, if she even gets saved. And at 5, 4, 35 o'clock in the morning, staying up all night long because I was burdened for her, I said, Lord, if she never gets saved, go ahead and take her. Lord, if she does get saved and rebel against you, go ahead and take her. About 4, 35 o'clock in the morning, the Holy Ghost just impressed on my heart and saying, she'll be all right. She's not perfect, but she's here this morning. She's in church. She's married. Amen. I love my son-in-law. If you can love your son-in-law, that's a blessing. I heard what he told that preacher Thursday because I came over here to kind of help out. I heard him what he told that preacher about his son-in-law, Tim. I think I may have told you the same thing. You lay a hand on her, what kind of flowers you like? Vengeance is of the Lord, but God, you take too long sometimes. Now, the last few minutes that I have, let's get back to verse four. Bible says, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death. I agree with you, Pastor. I hate funerals. I've preached a few funerals. Show you how God works. My dad left when I was 15. He was a drunk. He messed around with a woman and he met at a bar. He ended up marrying her, divorcing my mom. That's when I got down on the road to just destruction in my life. But at the age of 29, when Cindy led me to the Lord, witnessing it, I got saved. Well, when my dad died, his stepdaughter wanted me to assist in preaching his funeral. I said, what a blessing. Man who's never been in my life, said he got saved at the old Joel Baptist Church over there on Old Barnwell, which is now Revival Baptist Church. Preached over there one Sunday night. Pastor Carlos Wood let me preach over there one Sunday night. My dad was the first one down. for invitation. And when he got cancer, and we went down to Peachtree City, Georgia, and I asked him, I said, Dad, I said, do you know if he died, you'd go to heaven? He said, yeah, son. I said, how do you know? He said, that night you preached over there. He said, I got saved. I asked the Lord to save me. I said, amen. Amen. A man who is not part of my life, but I'm able to preach his funeral. My mom, when she died, or even when my brother died at 54, when he died, I wasn't able to preach their funerals. Because Greek Orthodox Church wouldn't let this independent Baptist preach. Might be tempted to tell them about their unknown God. Amen? Be my Mars Hill. One of y'all told me be nice this morning. I don't know if I could be nice preaching in the Greek Orthodox Church, but I try. I preach the gospel. but there'll be no more weeping for the dead. No more John 11, 35, where Jesus wept at Lazarus' tomb. He wasn't weeping because of his inability not to be able to raise Lazarus or wondering if he said, Lazarus, come forth, if Lazarus would still stay in the grave. He wasn't weeping for that. He was weeping because the Bible says that Mary and Martha and the others, they were hurting in their hearts and that Jesus said, look how he loves them. He weeps with us because the Bible says He's touched with the feeling of our infirmities this morning. He knows exactly what you're going through this morning. I don't. I don't need to. And even if I did, I can't help you. Amen? I can pray for you. But he weeps with us, our suffering, our sadness, our hurting hearts, to know that the Holy Ghost of God can comfort you and that the Son of God is touched. It's like he's knit together with our hearts and our lives, amen? I thank God for that. This old world don't care. The old bartender, buy all that alcohol from him, go try to ask him for some money. Yeah, he'll tell you something, but it ain't gonna be nice. One man said, I don't use profanity, but if you write it on a piece of paper, I'll sign my name to it. I won't even sign my name to it. But it shows God's humility to be the son of God, all powerful, and to humble himself to become a servant, to die on the cross, his love toward us. Oh, how he loved them. Lazarus, he's dead, but I'm the resurrection and the life. He's caring. Like I already said, our hearts are knit together, amen? And that's the way the church family should be. We're a family, amen? We're a body, amen? When you hurt, I should hurt. When you're happy, I should be happy. Knit together. Shouldn't be no all about you, all about me kind of thing. Amen? But he said, there'll be no more death, neither or neither, depends on where you're from, amen. We say y'all down here. Amen. But neither sorrow. Gonna be no more sorrow. Luke 19.41. And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it. Be no more weeping over Jerusalem. When the power of the Holy Ghost comes upon you, when you receive power, you shall be a witness in Jerusalem, your Jerusalem. Be no more weeping over your Jerusalem this morning. Be no more weeping, rejecting the Savior. I had to learn this probably, 30-something years, 30 years ago maybe, late 20-something years ago when guys would walk out of my services at the jail, people would reject the gospel track. Kind of made me wonder, what was the last words I said to them? What did I say that I offended them? And God showed me, Lewis, it's nothing that you're doing. They're not rejecting you. You're not offending them. They're rejecting the Son of God who died on the cross. Amen? But God says right now, my father-in-law says this a lot, Preacher Caldwell. Right now, God says, come. Come. Turn to Revelation 22. Just write a page over. Verse 17. Revelation 22, verse 17. And the spirit and the bride, who is the bride? the church of God, amen, us. Say what? Come, for we witness. We want you to come to Jesus. And let him that heareth say come. And let him that is a thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Come. But in that day, on judgment day, when he says depart, you're gonna have to depart. Going to be no redos. Going to be no plea bargaining. Going to be no, well, Lord, you know, my reason for not receiving. Excuses are not going to do anything on judgment day. But do we witness, like I said, because of duty, are we concerned? Do we love sinners? They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Psalm 126, 5. There'll be no more garden of Gethsemane. It says, and there'll be no crying, no sorrow, no gardens of Gethsemane. Luke 22, verse 43 and 44. Jesus was in extreme physical, emotional agony to where it caused his sweat to become his drops of blood. They have a word for that. I know Brother Bill and some of y'all medical people probably know what this word means, hematidrosis, or hematidrosis. Sound like one of them Greek words, learning Bible college. says where blood is present in sweat associated with extreme physical and mental stress. That's what the medical field would say Jesus was dealing with. I personally just believe that Jesus was in a lot of agony, that's why his sweat drops became his blood. I have to tell you that I have never sweat in prayer. A fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much to where my sweat became blood. Amen? Have no blood drops. Maybe you have. You a prayer warrior if you've done that. but the pressure to bear the sins of the world. To think about in the garden, praying, Father, if you were this cup, remove this cup from me. But if your will, I will accept it. Knowing that in a little while, he's gonna be betrayed with a kiss by Judas. In a little while, he's gonna be denied three times, not one, but three times by Peter. Peter, you didn't think after the second time. Jesus told you you're gonna deny him three times. You better guard yourself, knowing he's gonna deny him, knowing that he's gonna give his back. Those Roman soldiers were so trained that they could have killed him on that block with the whip. But how many times our Savior got whipped, I don't know. But it was more than 40 save one, 39 times, because the Romans had no law. Ripped flesh peeling off of his body, just peeling. You could probably see his lungs beating in his back. Then to have a crown of thorns put on his head, the thorn so long they went through his skull. Have his beard plucked out, mocking, spitting, slapping, nailed to a cross. And it wasn't an old two by six you could buy at Home Depot or Lowe's. It wasn't smooth planed wood. No, it probably had the bark still on it. And you're already in pain with all that. And then nail you to it in more pain. And then to have all the sins of the world piled on Jesus. And then to have God the Father turn his back on his son. He did all that for us. And we just, That'll hurt our hearts. Jesus, you did that for me. I don't deserve that, God. I don't deserve that. I deserve hell. That's your righteous judgment for me. But God, you chose different. There'll be no more gardens of Gethsemane. There'll be no more weeping over the will of God in your life. Preachers, if God's called you to preach, preach. And while it's on my mind, y'all pray for me Wednesday night. I won't be here Wednesday night. I'll be preaching at Lighthouse Baptist Church down there on Bar Road. So y'all please just say a prayer for me. Sunday school teachers, teach. Whatever you're doing for God, keep on singing, amen? Keep on doing something for God. And the pastor's burden is for that building. So keep on giving your money, amen? I'm not Sammy Allen, but I love to take up an offer and say, look, just give something, yo. Skip lunch today, whatever you're going to pay for lunch, and just put it in the offering plate. Amen? I'm ready to see that building start getting worked on again. But we needed that building Wednesday night. Amen? Amen? The late folk had to sit in the room, in the disciplinarian room. George S. King. But God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, no more funerals, no more Lazarus' tombs, neither sorrow, no more Gethsemane's, nor crying, no more looking over Jerusalem. It's old Jerusalem, old Jerusalem, how it had gathered you like a hen gathers her chicks. But they rejected him. No more pain. No more pain. No more crosses to bear. Deny yourself. That's the hardest thing to do. Deny yourself. Jesus said, you want to come after me? You've got to deny yourself. Self, Louis Stankwich, you're worthless. You're sinful. You're ungodly. This old flesh is nothing good in me. Amen? Deny yourself. And then by not denying yourself, then you take up your cross. That's a death sentence. Y'all know that, right? You know the little headache, toe ache, whatever little pains and sufferings you have? That is not your cross to bear. A cross was a death sentence. You have got to die daily, Paul said. Die to self. pick up that cross, the fellowship of his suffering, amen, and follow him. I don't know what God has in store for us down the road. I have no idea, but I hope I can be faithful, amen, to whatever God has for me. Be faithful. No more crosses to bear, no more suffering, for the former things are passed away. Real quickly, the last few minutes I have, I want to read a verse in Psalm 56. God wipes away all tears. We thank God for that, amen? We thank God for his compassion. But you know what? God also cherishes our tears. Look what Dave, read Psalm 56 sometime. David keeps complaining, be merciful to me, oh God, for a man would swallow me up. God knows our problems, our conflicts in life and stuff. But look at verse eight, Psalm 56, verse eight. Thou tellest my wanderings. God, you know where I'm going. God, you know what I'm in. You know the predicament I'm in right now. You know what I'm dealing with right now. You know my suffering right now. You know, God, what's going on in my life right now. Put thou my tears into thy bottle. Is my bottle this big? Is my bottle this small? Is my bottle huge? God said, I'm going to put your tears in a bottle. Amen? Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, probably has a huge bottle full of tears. And then God says, are they not in thy book? God cherishes our tears enough to put them in a bottle and then to put them in a book. Amen? When I get to heaven, I want to see that. I want to see that book, amen? But I don't want to see how small my bottle is. Thank you. Thank God there's going to be no more tears one day. Let's go, Lord, in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word this morning. We thank you, Lord, for your blessing. Thank you, God, you're so concerned enough about us to see something that we just overlook sometimes as tears. God, you're a compassionate, loving God. You know the hairs on our head. You know the sparrow that falls to the ground. You know our tears that you put them in a bottle. Lord, bless the service, the singing, the pastors he preaches. Thank you again for your goodness and your mercy in my life and for the word of God in my heart. In the wonderful name of your son, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.