you. Now that's over. Anyway, we've been appreciating just this church fellowship God's given us, and we're glad to be here. I look forward to this meeting for quite a while, and looking forward to what the Lord is going to do. And if we just get out of the way, as our brothers already mentioned, leave our cares outside, leave our fleshly desires outside, God could do something with us. But it's going to take us adhering to the Word of God. And we live in a day when most folks still not even convinced of the Word of God. And that's to your destruction. Stubbornness, that's iniquity. Folks say, well, you know, I just, I believe it. And there's a little caveat, but, and that doesn't fly with God. And as folks, you know, they're somewhat convinced, they're mostly convinced, but they're not fully persuaded that the Word of God And I believe a lot of folks are not fully persuaded because they don't want it to change. There's that little thing they don't want to give up, that little thing they don't want to stop. And it's amazing how, you know, even as a lost person, you know those things God does not want you to do. Isn't that amazing? You just know. When I, when I got saved, I knew I had reckoned things with God. There are things I knew I could no longer do because I've been converted to Jesus Christ. I can go to hell with them. I believe the word of God, but, and no content. I've said it here before, and I'll say it again, but I was involved in the homeless ministry in Baltimore for many years, and in Hagerstown, and both places. I worked in the mission in one place, and we did street ministry in Baltimore. And it's amazing, you find somebody in despair, homeless, addicted, life ruined. And they come up to you as a preacher of the word of God, holding a Bible in your hand, preaching the word of God. And as soon as you pause, they say, let me tell you what I think about, and then they name the subject. And let me just rest assured is I've been saved 26 years. I've been preaching 22 years. I don't go to people and go, let me tell you what I think. Just throwing that out there. Because it doesn't matter what I think. Well, let me tell you what I think. Okay. Sniff both armpits. They're just like your ideas. Amen. Some of you get that tomorrow, maybe. It's not an opinion. And I like to think if I have an opinion, I'll say, this is my opinion. This is my thought on this. but it's being persuaded of the word of God. People still hung up, you know, should you have a TV? Should you have the internet? Should a woman wear pants? Should a woman wear a dress? Should boys wear shorts? They're hung up in these things. Should we get a small tattoo, scripture tattoo, you know, high or low value? They're hung up in all of these matters. Why? Because there's little things they love so dearly that they're not willing to reckon with God, they're not willing to deal with God, not willing to let the word of God speak to them. And they'll die and go to hell holding on to those things. A lot of it comes from our past, a lot of it comes from our history. I remember when I first got saved, one of my sisters said to my mom, she said, you know, Tim's reverted back to our upbringing. That wasn't really a bad thing. What she meant is he's quit living like a hog like the rest of us, and he's living differently. And they weren't real comfortable with that. So with the Lord's help, this Sunday School That means I have to point a lot, and if I had a whiteboard, I could scribble all over it. It'd be amazing, but I don't have one. It's okay, Pastor, I don't need one. I have a little laser pointer from my hand in my pocket. I go like this a lot. But I'll just teach the way I teach. Let's go back to 1 Peter 1. I know we've talked about some of this here, but this is the Lord's giving this morning for the Sunday school hour, and not much else. First and foremost, in verse five, he says we're kept by the power of God. Now, if you're kept by the power of God, let me ask you this, how can you jump out of his hand? If you're kept by the power of God, how can you deny him? How can you refuse him? If you're kept by the power of God. One of the things that, and again, it just rears up time to time. But I think people say, well, they just forgot they were purged of their original sins. Well, you realize Peter's writing that, right? Peter's the one that's talking about that. Why? He's warming himself by the fire, and that caught cold. All of a sudden, Peter remembered Christ said, I deny him. He'd forgotten. And some of us, by the way, you can forget for a short time. You're carnal, you're fleshly. You know, you don't think about Jesus Christ. That situation comes upon you, you know, somebody angers you, and before you know it, you're cursed, and before you knew it, you do something shameful, treat somebody in a horrible manner. That lust comes upon you before you know it, you're overthrown. It doesn't mean you're not saved. It doesn't mean that you forgot who God was. It just means in that moment, you didn't think about Jesus Christ. People use that as an occasion to write people off as saved. They got saved 20 years ago and lived like pigs. They lived in a hog pen, lived wickedly and wretchedly. That's what God's saying, we're kept by the power of God through faith. That's not my faith. We're kept through faith. That is the power of God. See, the priest of the cross has done the parish of foolishness. Most of us that are saved, it is the power of God. and that lovers don't like preaching, you know, the nuances, the strong words. And you know, it's amazing. I had a lady one time, my brother Herbert, who's my former pastor back when I started out evangelism. And I was at a meeting with him and the lady comes up to me and she says, she's calling me, she says something kind of slighting against brother Herbert. And I said, well, you know, that man's my pastor. And she went, oh my. And she goes, well, he was kind of tough on us here today. I said, oh, that's nothing. You ought to come visit our church sometime. Amen. She just kind of cowered. You could tell that our church wasn't going to be for her. And he just had a way with words that were pretty pointed and pretty straight. And I thank God for that. Great things have they were sold by law and nothing shall offend them. So the man of God gets in the pulpit and rains on my parade. I'd like to think that I'm man enough. By the way, that's part of the mark of a man is he just takes it. He doesn't get all emotional over it and go cry and whine to his wife and complain about the preaching. Amen, at least get one amen. That's a great piece out there, which is love by law. And you can't change that word. Nothing shall offend them. But he was so offensive. No, you were offended. That's a big difference. You're like the modern day liberal. You get offended because somebody says something about your transgender cousin. You get all offended, get the feelings hurt. Well, truth's the truth. He's a boy. Ah! That preacher hurt my feelings. Help me out now. You got offended. It's your fault. I've got to have some thick skin to be a Christian today. You just stand with it. Can you imagine? They yelled at me about my position on abortion. Keep holding that position on it. So again, we're kept by the power of God. We're teaching, remember? He said, through faith unto salvation, readily revealed in the last time. Now, that is the ultimate deliverance of the child of God. That's when his body is gonna be reconciled to Christ. We have a new body. That is the salvation of which he speaks. That is through Jesus Christ. And then he says, wherein you would greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness through manifold temptations. That's where a lot of folks get caught up. And let me just say, it just bears record here, but temptation is not sin. And so if you're caught in this manifold of temptations, it's not sin to you to deal with temptation. As long as you resist the devil, resist the flesh, resist the world, you stand against that temptation, it is a great trial of your faith. It's not sin, and every man is tempted. And man, mankind, every woman is tempted. And the problem is, is we look, and then we look, it leads to what? It leads to lust. So if you look, don't look back. And if you accidentally look, just look away. Do not be tempted. Now, I'm not talking about just the lust of flesh and a man with this indecency today. I'm talking about covetousness, all those things that overthrow us, idolatry. And he goes on, he says this, to the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Again, that's the trial of our faith, is those temptations. They are trying us, what does that mean? They're trying to see what we are. They're trying us to, now listen, the same temptation comes to you over and over and over and over again. I realize standard biblical practice today says this, and I've always taught this, says, well, those are those besetting sins. And I just contend with that. Because here's what the word of God says. The sin that doth so easily beset us is singular. It's your flesh. It's that old man. That's that nature. That is your sin. It's not sins in plurality. So you don't have besetting sins. You know, preacher, I just, I just can't get past it. I just, I mean, I'm just such a, such a ball of lust. I can't stop lusting. Well, that's because of your sin, not your sins. You know, preacher, I just can't stop going to the casino. It's awful. You know, and you know, I don't even pray for people like that. And I've had crazier things now. Preacher, would you pray about this? And you go, no, I don't have to. Why would I pray about that? You know it's wrong, so just either send us into death, go ahead and die, or get right with God. Is that too harsh for some of you? Preacher, help me. I can't stop lusting. Well, if you're aware of it, stop. You know how to quit smoking? You don't light another one. How do you quit drinking? You don't pour another drink. How do you quit gambling? Quit buying lottery tickets. Quit going to the casino. It's real simple. Are you going to be tempted by it? Sure. But I wouldn't go sit inside the casino and have some chicken wings if I was tempted by it. It'd be kind of silly of me. And I know I'm mudding around a little bit, but people come up with these crazy things they preach you need to pray and I'm going, no. I've told people, I don't really need to pray about that. If it's wrong, it's wrong. If you know it's wrong, there's nothing I can do. I'm going to pray, well, please don't kill them before they really come to repentance. There is a sin unto death. I didn't say that you should pray for it, but there is a sin unto death. It's almost as silly to say, preacher, would you pray that we can hit the lottery this week? I mean, I don't have to worry about that personally. You might. But occasionally, I have that little fantasy dream of finding the hidden lottery ticket that lays in the parking lot. And then I find out that they sue people like that, and they lose all their money, and you have to hire a lawyer. So I'm like, that's kind of silly. It's ridiculous. I used to always hope as a young man that Ed McMahon would come knocking at my door. You know? Ted McVeigh, you're the winner. Publisher Clearing House. It would have destroyed me. But anyway, I'll leave that one right now. So these trials of our faith are not what we try to make them to be. There are things in your life God's already put his finger on it, stop. If God showed you how to dress, stop dressing the way you dress. If God showed you to not do, then don't do it. And if God has given you liberty to, then go right ahead. It goes back, and I'm not being critical, I'm just making a statement. There are people that have such strong separations about things that God never demanded them have strong separations about, and they wanna force them on everybody else, but they can't see that mote in their eye, or that beam in their eye. And I know people that eat all organic and all natural, and they do everything they can for their health, and they yell at me for drinking soda, and they yell at me for drinking, and I'm being serious now, and they do all of these things, and then they go, but you can't have all that salt. And they get upset with me, I go, you know, the Bible says salt is good. We just say amen, church, help me out on that. The Bible says salt is good. Oh, no. You can't do, the doctor said, well, help me out, the doctor said, see, we pick and choose all these things that we want to do and don't want to do. And we make them doctrine, but yet, are we taking heed to the word of God? It's good. We take heed to what this says. See, those trials of your faith, again, are not often we make them out to be. Diver's temptations, by the way, that is pretty peculiar, unusual temptations. They will come upon every man. There's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man. They are common to every man in this church. Man, kind, woman, man. They deal with the same manner of temptations. There's not one of us that deals with something that somebody else in this church has not dealt with when it comes to temptation. The problem is is some of us have succumbed to the temptation. Some of us has given in to the temptation. Some of us have been overthrown in the temptation. Some of us have been absolutely destroyed because we were overthrown in the temptation. And God said that trial of your faith is what's gonna come out shining like gold in that day of Christ. And when you're overthrown in these things, you can't shine like gold. Let me say this, there are sins you can commit as a saved person that will tarnish your gold forever. There are things you'll do as a saved person that you cannot escape the reproach of. David spoke of that. Adultery is one of them. It bears a reproach, it bears a stigma. Proverbs chapter five tells us that. And I can't help that. It's an awful thing. It's a tragedy. But yeah, there are people marred with that the rest of their lives. I was told, Brother John asked us recently, we were talking, and he said today, he said, you know, you can't find a man qualified today to be a deacon hardly. Because by the time we reach people out in this world, they come into the house of God, they've been so destroyed by sin that they can't meet the qualification. And very few men today qualify to be bishops. And I'm talking about good men. I'm talking about men of character, men of honor. Men that can take their place in the house of God and serve God and be a pillar in the community. But see, God said, you must be the husband of one wife. God said that. And therefore, what my opinion or my thought on that is, is completely out the window. I'm talking about a pastor. And so we have a day now when men say, well, there's not enough men being called to preach. So, you know, let's just overlook that. Well, there's a whole lot of more things besides that. It includes the unruliness of his children. It includes his measure of faith. He can't be a novice. I mean, there's many, many reasons why he can't, but God said that. God said that. So what do they do? They say, well, there's not enough men out there. I know we'll ordain women. They ordained women. And I don't know about you, you can get offended at this if you want to, but I don't think a Romanicus sinned over a woman as a pastor. I don't know how he could do it. And don't get offended by that. God said he must be a man, must be a husband of one wife. God didn't suffer the women to teach the men in the church. God did not suffer that. Yet, that's the day in which we live. Why? Because it's a temptation to some to be in a position they're not supposed to be in. And forever it mars, forever it corrupts. Can't change that. So what we're looking at in this passage here is the trial of your faith. It's being much more precious than of gold that perisheth. You know one of the sad things? A fornicator can get away with it. Not with God, but with man. But that adulterer can't get away with that. A fornicator can go on, live his life, be a fornicator. He'll answer to God for it. Hormonious adulterers, God will judge. That's what the word of God said. That adulterer bears that reproach. God made it so. And God made it so that you and I would have that understanding there are things that we cannot change. God can forgive you. Don't you misunderstand what I'm saying? God can wash your sins away. God can cleanse you and make you whole. God can restore you. God can restore fellowship with you. God can make you pure. But there are things you'll do. Do drugs all your life, get saved. You know, you're gonna bear the effects of those drugs to the day you die. Broken bodies, and by the way, it's why people today are so broken down. just the reality that has destroyed their bodies in sin. Come to the house of God and get saved. Health problems, physical problems. Why? Because the life that they live, is God merciful? Yes, God is merciful. Is God kind? Yes, God is kind. But can I say to you, my friend, that the things that we have sown in our life, we are going to reap. And you can't change that. You can throw yourself at the mercy of God, but you cannot change the fact that you are gonna reap what you sow in your life. If you sow to the flesh, you're gonna flesh, you're gonna reap destruction. Some of you may remember, some of you probably don't, hopefully you don't, but I used to be 320, 330 pounds. And I can blame a lot of things, okay? Just when I'm preaching, I can blame a lot of things. I can blame society. I can blame the fact that McDonald's doesn't temper their meals and reduce the caloric intake like they need to. I can blame soy oil on my French fries. You know, just help me out. I can blame the lactate in my ice cream. I can blame all of these factors. Food's not like it used to be. I can say that. I hear people like, food has changed. No, that wasn't my problem, okay? When you weigh 330 pounds, your problem is not the type of food you're eating. It is 100% quantity. Help me out on that, amen. Okay, so once you identify the problem, what do you do? Well, you begin to eat less. I know some of you are under conviction right now. That's okay, bear with me, okay? But you eat less. And then when you identify another problem, you try to adapt and you say, you know, maybe if I eat differently than what I'm eating and not eat like a big gluttonous hog, you know, maybe I'll feel better. And it's amazing how effective that was for me. It just worked wonders. But I couldn't blame anybody else. So finally I had to say, you know what? I need to just eat different, eat better, do something, because I am just a big, fat pig. My wife is so kind. She said, well, honey, you're a big guy. I go, no, I'm fat. I wore a 54 extra long suit jacket, and I know breech is way bigger than that, but I mean, that's how I can justify it. Well, Frank Townsend was a 58 extra long. I can justify it. As long as there's somebody bigger than me, As long as there's somebody else doing it, I can justify it. As long as somebody else is getting away with it, I can explain it away. As long as somebody else, you know, they're doing fine and they live like a hog and they live this way, then I must be able to do it too. And that's the effect of peer pressure. You young people are so susceptible to that. You compare yourself amongst yourselves, which is not wise. It's just not wise to do. You look at people who are successful. And again, I've been around Baptists for a long, long time, and the whole fake smile, happy family, we have the greatest family in the world, you've all probably seen that. Just everything's, oh yes, our children, my children just love God. And I've just been the antithesis of that, because I mock that, because my children are heathens. And so we don't come to church and go, oh, how wonderful, and I love my children, but I don't know how many spankings they got this morning. Already. And we're ready for church now. Amen. And that's the way the Lord deals with us too, by the way. Some of you probably need to get ready for church. You can thank God to do it. And so we got ready for church this morning. You present this idea, oh, there's this wonderful family. Oh, the McVeighs. Oh, we're so happy. Everything's wonderful. Everything's roses. And I've heard that so long that I actually almost started buying into that. Then I actually started seeing how people really live, and I realized they have the church life. And then they have their life, and the two can't match. God forbid. God forbid. They have this life that they've created around other people, but yet they go out of here and temptation overthrows them, sin overwhelms them. They're caught up in the delights and the pleasures of sin. And they cannot please God, they live in the flesh, they cannot please God. You see, to come to God, you must believe that He is. First and foremost, it's a matter of faith. And He's rewarded them to diligently seek Him. But if you're in the flesh, you can't please Him, so you can't come to Him. And if you're living fleshly, living carnal, living a life that's not pleasing to God, there's no reward at minimum. That's what He speaks of here, that inheritance forever mark. I was preaching up in Maine several years ago. And I don't know if lots of people have visited. I'm going to put an applause in a minute. I preached a couple of weeks ago down in Waldorf, Maryland. And there were some ladies sitting about right where this lady is, three of them in that third pew. And they're nodding and smiling and everything. You know, I'm just making announcements, you know. It's so good to be here. Oh, you're all the beautiful people. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And finally I started preaching, and I just watched the accountants fall. And I didn't know anybody. I thought they were members of the church. And when I saw the accountants fall, I said, well, they're not liking this. And so finally I just kind of looked at them and said, it's going to be OK, ladies. Just follow along. And the one lady, I mean, she just was disgusted that I addressed them at church. But they're looking angry at me. They're angry as could be. So I just kept preaching. And I just kept preaching. And the more mad they got, finally they're whispering to each other. So I just started talking about people interrupting the preacher talking to church. And that's a warning. Amen, just throw that out there. And then people say, well, I wouldn't do that. I do. Amen. I told some young men recently, one of these singing groups came from a college. I was holding a meeting, and they were down there whispering on the front row. I said, hey, boys, you can talk later. Everybody got all offended because I talked to the college group. And I was real nice to him, compared to what I wanted to say. Just throwing that out there. Representing your school and you're up there talking over the preacher. I got a problem with that. Anyway, these ladies, they got a little out of shape. And then after the service, I guess, one of them went to the pastor and said, I need to talk to you. And he goes, well, he goes, well, that man up there said, and she said something I said, you know, and he said, well, go talk to him. And next thing you know, she slammed the door and went out. And I said, well, who are these? I don't know. They're first time visitors. I said, oh. I said, well, maybe they'll be back next week, Pastor. The evangelist is running people off. Oh no, it's awful. Over the years, I've had people come up and confront me over things, find out that they've never heard anything like it. They've never been under the Word of God. And because their life is so destroyed in sin, it's so messed up in sin, they can't see Jesus Christ. And so they find the target that they can, which is the preacher. And they gunned for him because they don't like what he said, but they've never tried to reconcile these things to God. They've never taken their life and held it up to the candle of the word of God and compared their life to the life of Christ. They've never done that. They've never examined themselves. They've never searched out God. And some of you haven't either. You've never done that. It's obvious in the way you carry yourself, conduct yourself. It's obvious in the way you live your life. You've never let this look at you. We talk about salvation. We talk about being saved. We use the words. So if you never committed themselves to Christ, someone's never come to repentance. We say, well, that's good for them, that's fine for those people, but we ourselves often refuse to let God search us out, examine us out, and we look back and we will not see the fruit of our life. We won't look at it. And again, I go back to this homeless, I'd watch a trail of destruction a mile wide behind their life. Will they listen to the preacher? No, because they have something they need to say. I used to sit, to my shame, I used to sit in the bars. and when they let me back in, I'd usually get 30 days off and back in again. That's just my way of living. I'd listen to people arguing about the Bible. And I was such a genius, I'd argue with them. And I'd debate with them about it. I remember years ago, I mean this is 26 years ago, and hearing a guy talk for the first time about King James Bible being the word of God. And I went, what? But that's all I ever used, all I ever read, all I ever owned. I've never owned any other Bible. He was a lost man. I had King James Bible beside my bed. I'd sit and read a King James Bible. I got from graduation. And every day, I'd read maybe half a chapter, quarter of a chapter. And I never feared, but I was like, what? What is he talking about? And so I went to him. And he sat down and he explained to me. And I went, oh my goodness. But just throwing this out there, never questioned it since. I've never questioned it since. It just took a man to come tell me. It took a man to show me. It took a man to stand in the pulpit and preach the word of God to me and show me this is Jesus Christ. Now I had already examined myself in light of salvation, but that began an examination of thousands of things in my life, thousands of things in my heart, probably more than that. and just begin to understand me, and understand my life, and my ways, and my walk with God, or lack of walk with God. Why don't I have a prayer life? Why don't I have a study life? Why don't I have a Christian life? And to God unravel those things. Can I say, I've been saying 26 years now, and there might, there might be some gold that hasn't been tarnished in 26 years. And that's to my shame, that's not boasting. There might be some gold that hasn't been tarnished. But you know how God proves it? He puts it in the fire. He puts it in the fire and that dross comes off. That gold comes out shining, it's pure. That's what God wants to do with you. But you can't give in to the temptations. When you give in to temptations, you digress from God. You walk away from God. When there's fires come, there's trials come, there's troubles come, that manifold temptation comes upon you, you don't say, oh, this is just my besetting sins. This is just the thing I do over and over again. No, it's you. The problem is you. The problem is your character. The problem is your spiritual walk. The problem is internal. It's never the external. Just be real clear about this. My insides control my outsides. I just want to put that out there. Everything that operates Tim McVeigh is inside. You okay on that? My brain operates my thinking. My heart operates my blood flow. My lungs operate my oxygen. My pancreas puts out just enough endocrines and insulin to keep me alive. My liver puts out the good enzymes and releases some bile now and then. My kidneys filter that blood. I'm going to go on down through there. Everything that operates me is on the inside. And that's spiritual too. Well, I'm just carnal today. I'm just fleshly today. Well, God forbid both of us in Romans chapter eight. The carly-minded is dead. They in the flesh cannot please God. So if you got an outside problem, it's because of an inward problem. So why won't we examine that? Why do people leave church bitter? I know a lot of folks here have told us they like our ministry, enjoy our ministry, enjoy our preaching. There's even people I think on a personal level, tolerate at least being around me and my family. Tolerate, at least. See if it's half to, you don't have a choice. I think when the therian comes up, just for punishment. But can I say to you, when you leave upset with a person, that's you internally every time. I just want to put that out there. I've had people withstand me in ministry. I mean vocally, verbally, physically withstand me in ministry. How I react to it is evidence of what's in me. People can do what they do. So if somebody hurts your feelings, somebody says something rude to you, what's inside of you dictates your response. What's internal to you dictates how you react. And God's trying to flush that out of you so that he can change you. He said, we got it backwards. I mean, I wore a clean shirt and tie and suit today. I mean, you know, shaved, combed my hair, brushed my teeth, did all those external things. And it fooled some of you, you know. He said, oh man, he's kind of clean cut. He wore a nice suit today. He must be a clean fella. Yes, I am. Yes, wonderful. My son comes in from the sandbox the other day, and I hear mom in the kitchen yell, how did you get sand in your ears? And I just told her, he's a boy. There's no other explanation needed. He's a boy. How did you get this much sand in your diaper? Again, he's a boy. And I just kept hearing sand identified. It was 100% sand at that point. And it's amazing. She goes up and she showers him, bathes him, and gets the sand out of his ears and cleans him up and scrubs him. Then he comes down pink and he's smiling in his little dinosaur jammies and he's happy as a clam. And you know, it didn't change him one bit inside. Next time, guess where he's headed? He's headed to the sandbox to do what? Pour sand in his ears. You say, when's he going to learn? He's a boy. Never. He just refines it. Didn't change him inside one bit, did it? You know when he's gonna quit putting sand in his ear? When he realizes inside, I'm an idiot. What kind of person, he's three, give him a little creed here, okay? What kind of person dumps sand in their ears? Any of you adults done that recently? Accidentally, on purpose, you know? No. You know why? Because it comes a point in time you realize, okay, this is hurting me. This is not a good thing. I gotta change this. I don't like sand anywhere. You get old enough, sand, doesn't matter where it is, it's just awful. Your shoes, your clothes, your drawers, I mean, it's terrible. You know, we go down to South Carolina in the winter, down there in December when all the lizards go in, and there's nobody laying on the beach. That's when we go out on the beach. And my wife's like, aren't you going to sit and play in the sand? I said, no. You know, why? Because I've got to walk two miles back to the car, and I'm going to be miserable the whole way back to the car. I don't want to do that. I learned my lesson. Is everybody getting that? You figure it out internally. It's going to change what comes out. but you gotta figure it out internally first. You gotta see what God's trying to, God's letting you go through these trials of your faith to strengthen you, to build you, to establish you in Jesus Christ. And he's trying to reveal the inward problem so that you can make the change inwardly that's gonna affect the outward. I finally got to the point in my Christian life, I didn't have to wrestle with what I believed. I didn't have to wrestle with standards. I didn't have to wrestle with convictions. I don't have to wrestle with how to dress. I don't have to wrestle about what to watch. I don't have to wrestle about what to listen to. There's no longer a wrestling in my soul. I am settled where I am. And listen, it's not that I can't change unless God changes me. There's no need to change. These things were settled inside. Internally they were settled. I'm satisfied with my wife. I settled that internally. How can I help you? I said, I'm satisfied with my wife. I don't even go window shopping. See, how do you know that? Because there's things that come up in preaching, sometimes it may just be me, but there's other things that come up in preaching once in a while. It's that little breeze when the third heaven blows through. Anywhere! God's changing you personally! Those of you that are lost without Christ, what's the problem? You don't want to be changed. You don't want that inward change. If there's something against God, you're resisting. You don't want that inward change to take place. That thing you think you can't live without, that thing you think is going to be a struggle to you. When I surrendered to preach, and I publicly surrendered to preach on February 6, 2001, I went down to an altar in front of 2,000 people at the National Bus Conference. Nobody else at the altar, but there's me in front of 2,000 people, embarrassed, hiding, weeping, shamed. You know what my wrestling was? I didn't want to be poor. Do you know why? Because all my life I heard about how preachers were poor. And I didn't want to be poor. Do you know what God did? God broke me in front of 2,000 people. I didn't surrender to preach as much as I surrendered to just be poor. God already called me to preach. I just surrendered to whatever you want with my life. Now, you say, did that come to fruition? Well, not for the first few years, but let me just say this. I had enough saved up when I quit my job. It kept me sustained for three years in evangelism. And once that money ran out, I was out at the sheet store, picking, counting out nickels on the counter to get down to church. Didn't know how I was going to get back from the church, but I prayed, said, Lord, maybe somebody would give me an offering, try to get me home. I didn't have enough money to get home. I was counting out nickels down at Sheetz, put about 30 some dollars in nickels in the gas tank, drove down to Eastern Shore, Maryland, went to church, walked in the church by the heart of Mother Tim, a couple of preachers, no song, no prayer, no nothing, just gone to pulpit and prayed. The church shouldn't have been offering for us. And I wouldn't trade that for anything, just throwing that out there. I wouldn't trade those memories for anything. I wouldn't trade those lessons of Jesus Christ for anything in this world. But that's what God had to put me through. Y'all, why? I thought I was self-made. I thought, listen, I got a career. I'm on the career ladder. Nothing's gonna shake this. You know, retirement's coming in 10 years. Man, I can live high on the hog. That wasn't God's plan for me. God had to change me internally. I'll tell you how bad it is now. I'm so far removed from that, now I sell junk in my front yard and call it a yard sale. Amen. Some of you hate it, some of you love it. That's what we do. We went yard saling yesterday. You know why? To buy junk to resell. It's true. And then there's people immediately go, oh, that's so embarrassing. Well, someone's counting out nickels to put gas in your tank as sheets. And that didn't bother me one bit. I always thanked the Lord I still had pennies back at the house. I said, if I can make it home, I got about $14 in pennies. I can go to Food Lion, at least get a couple of chicken legs and some rice to eat for supper. Listen, that didn't bother me one bit. Because God had already settled that inside. God had already settled those things in my heart. And that didn't even change. made the outward difference. Here, let me do some more verses, otherwise somebody will say, he didn't even teach. Whom have you not seen, in verse eight, this is Jesus Christ you love. And whom though now you see him not, yet in believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. When you talk about the joy of the Lord and rejoicing, and as I've talked to people who've gotten saved after sitting in a church house and being in church, and a family who've gotten saved, and that's the one thing every one of them pegs. Preachers talk about having joy, they talk about having peace, and every one of them, without fail, said, I didn't believe it. I didn't believe it. I've had more than one say, I just don't know, that was just a show. You know why? Because when you've experienced it, you know what joy unspeakable and full of glory is. Have the joy of the Lord, which is our strength. Rejoice ever. You know what it means to be able to rejoice when you have Jesus Christ. Oh, I just don't believe all that. I just don't. You can't have that kind of joy. Oh yes you can. Because God said you could. God said you could. We haven't seen Him, but because we believe and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. People say, well, I've never had that kind of joy. Well, you ought to find it. It might be too late. You ought to find it. But Sammy Allen, you said just one time in your life, he said, you ought to just get in a private place somewhere. He says, go ahead and shout and rejoice. He said, and get in the glory. Just one time in your life, you ought to get in the glory. Well, I don't think that's what the Bible means. When David danced before the Lord, yeah, that's not what that means. When Jesus Christ rejoiced greatly in his spirit, that's not what that means, no. Paul was dying and singing in that jail, self-singing, praising the most high God. Well, you don't understand, brother, you know. Listen, I can prove they were singing A and B that I should gain. I can prove that. He wants you to have joy. He invited you to the fellowship with his dear son, that you can have that joy. He wants you to have it. He says, does that mean you have to run the house, kick up your heels every time you read the scripture? No, it doesn't. But there'll be times in your life that unknowns to you, unsought by you, all of a sudden you're just overwhelmed with great peace, with great joy, with victory. And you can rejoice with joy unspeakable. It can happen. The salvation God gave me was pretty filled with that. When one of the young ladies that got saved a couple years ago, she said, I hear you preachers talk about peace all the time. She said, I just didn't believe there could be peace. And she goes, and then when I found it, she goes, I didn't realize what it was. And old Sam Askew stood up and testified, he said, well, he says the peace of God that passeth all understanding, he said, if you can't explain it, it's not his peace. That's right, that's good. Amen. Glory to God. If you can explain it, it's not God's peace. Put your head on your pillow at night and have rest in Christ. Put your head on your pillow and have the peace of knowing Jesus Christ. In the greatest trials of your faith, you can have peace of knowing God. Can I tell you a personal story? My wife and I had not been married a year and we got a niece. It was this week last year, was married right now at this very time. It appears she's miscarried for the second time. My wife and I were so excited. We found out that we're going to have a baby. We were just excited. Firstborn, you all know. Some of you know that firstborn, all the excitement. And my wife comes down on Saturday and says, honey, we're having trouble. Our lives were, I mean, just in turmoil. Just absolutely in turmoil. She lost the baby. Had to have a procedure done that day. Three months later, she had to have cysts removed, had to gut her open side to side. had her anniversary somewhere in the midst of all of that. And we look back on that now and we think how much God did with us and through us in those days. I stood in the pulpit of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that Sunday night after we lost the baby. Sunday morning, she had a procedure. We were over there on Sunday night, I stood in the pulpit, just began to weep. Mr. Gearheart was living then, went with me, drove me over to Philadelphia, just began to weep standing in the pulpit. Began to rejoice in the goodness of God, the mercy of God. It was a great trial of our faith. One of the great trials of our faith. But you know one thing I learned in it? You can still have joy unspeakable. And full of glory. We watched my stepdad die two months ago. Long, slow. When I was here last time I asked you to pray and we got home he was still Long, slow death. 10 days without food or water. Just gasping, not conscious. Just down to nothing as far as skin and bones. My stepdad would tell the story of sitting on the couch reading that King James Bible. I didn't even know this, and this was a joy to me. I didn't know I'd give him that Bible, but after he died, I went over and got his Bible and flipped through it, and I saw it said, to Bill McEwan, on his, whatever birthday it was, 2002, from your stepson, Tim McVeigh. And he sent me to read that King James Bible, sitting there on the couch. Many times he'd tell me the story of that morning, early in the morning, sitting there on the couch, and realizing that the words he'd prayed as a young man didn't mean anything. and God saved him that morning. And he's, because of his strokes and things like that, his emotions were very childlike. His mind was sound, but his emotions were very childlike. He began to weep, he began to squeal as he's telling me. And I remember just weeping with him, rejoicing with him, and then several years later, he told me the same story about how God had saved him sitting there on the couch. I had the privilege to preach his funeral memorial service, His sister stood up and talked about the time as a six-year-old boy, he professed Christ, daycare. My mom wasn't due to be rude or ignorant or mean. My mom stood up then and just talked about the day. The bill signaled the couch where the King James Bible came to repentance. That's what my mom said. My mom said, I knew a different man after that. He really changed. He's been, for the last year and a half, hadn't been able to get out of the house hardly. Hasn't been able to walk without a cane, hasn't been able to use his left arm for 20 years. Horrible pain, sores from just sitting there. He'd walk in and ask me different times, Bill, how are you doing? He'd say, oh, I'm doing good, I have the Lord. I'm doing great, I have the Lord. The Lord's helping me. See, most people see a man like that as weak. They see the frailty and think he's a weak man. But I can see him strong. He had the joy of the Lord. He had the peace of God. Very real, very serious thing. Let's stop there. Father, I want to thank you for the Sunday school hour. I pray we take the things that you've given us today to take us into the next hour, but then also through the day and the week. I pray you just pierce hearts where they need pierced. I pray you'd settle some in this matter of salvation, this matter of joy, this matter of peace. And Lord, for those scarred, those wounded, I pray, dear God, today that you'd give comfort, you'd give balm. You are that balm of Gilead for the glory of God that asks you to touch them, touch lives. As we head into our worship hour, I pray, Lord God, you'd be in the midst. I pray you'd send folks here. I pray you'd speak to hearts and have your will in your way. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we do pray.