we get to heaven, I'm singing like that. That's how I'm gonna be singing. Boy, I enjoyed that. Man, are you ready for that midnight cry? In the hour when you think not, boy, there's gonna be the sounding of a trump, the Bible says. I always try to warn people, nobody's ready to live till you know where you're gonna spend forever. Do you understand forever's not a long time? It's not a very long time. It's forever. And every person here, every one of us, is gonna spend forever in heaven or hell. Forever. Heaven, a place I hadn't seen, you hadn't heard, neither has then entered into the heart of man what God's prepared. You know, I've seen some pretty fancy places. You got some pretty fancy places right here in Las Vegas. And you know what God says? You have not seen anything. You haven't even imagined what I have ready for you. Hell, a place so bad, you will scream your lungs out for eternity and not even God can help you. Wow. Boy, if you're here without Christ, don't leave without him. It's a free gift. You can't buy it. You can't do one thing to deserve it or earn it. The only thing you can do, the Bible says, is ask for it. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How many of you have asked the Lord to save you? I'll never forget when my wife got saved. We went to a youth activity and she was new and she's sitting next to me and I'll never forget. By the way, she's been sitting next to me now for 46 years and I'm loving every bit of it. I love sitting by her. But I'll never forget, she turned to me and she said, you mean it's a gift? I've been trying to work my way to heaven. And now you tell me it's a gift." And she said, I want that gift. Boy, don't you forget it's the gift of God. That's what the Bible says. Turn in your Bibles to the book of 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter three. We're about to read a passage of scripture with an incredible warning in it. And I wanna paraphrase and tell you what the warning is and then we'll read the passage. God says that in the last days there are going to be some deviously terrible sins, hyper, hyper destructive, that are going to work their way in everywhere. They're going to go into the culture, they're going to go into the nations, they're going to go into the court systems, they're going to go into families, they're going to do everything they can to get into the church, and they're going to try to get into believers' lives. And God says, there's 18 sins I wanna specifically warn you of. And my command is, make sure as a child of God, that you put distance between you and these sins, or they will destroy you. Now, these sins have nothing to do with you going to heaven. If you've asked the Lord to save you, you're heaven bound. But these sins will destroy you, your family, your testimony, your life. And it doesn't matter where I go, these sins, like an insidious spiritual cancer, are invading everywhere. Let's take a look at what the sins are. 2 Timothy chapter three, this know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come. Now, if you have a marker, underline the word perilous in your Bible. This is a word for something hyper, insidiously dangerous. This word in the Greek is only used one other time in the Bible. And I want you to go back to where it's used. It's found in Matthew chapter 8. Now hold your finger there in 2 Timothy, but go back to Matthew 8. I want you to see it. Matthew chapter 8, verse 28. Matthew 8, verse 28. Speaking of Jesus Christ, it says, and when he was come to the other side, into the country of the Gergesons, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, and then it uses this word, exceeding fierce. That's the identical word that's translated perilous. in 2 Timothy 3, exceeding fear so that no man might pass that way. You understand, these men were dangerous off the chart. You tried to get by them, they didn't do you harm, they destroyed you. They killed you. And no one was able to get by them. Well, the Lord lifted that same word. and said, this know also that in the last days, perilous, exceeding fierce. No one in their right mind should read this list casually. When God tells you this isn't dangerous, this is hyper dangerous, we need to look carefully. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. Now he's gonna list 18 different sins. Let's read them. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents. Boy, has that one invaded. If you travel anywhere, and I tell people, I'm in airports a lot, kids just defy their parents. I mean, a mom will say, stop that, they don't pay a lick of attention. And the mom says, one more time, one more time, you're going to get it, you're going to get it. And when the mom has said that for the 35th time, I feel like offering my services. I want to say, let me help that kid's hearing, he's not listening. But you know what, you see the same thing at church. Boy, you talk to people in Christian schools, you talk to people in Sunday school, kids who just defy their parents. Disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection. Truce breakers, they break their word. I don't know how to say this. We don't think it's anything when a Christian breaks their word. Oh, I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll do that. And then they just don't, and it's like nothing. We're comfortable breaking our word. Boys, I was growing up as a young man, my dad and my granddad always said, a man's only as good as his word. How many of you have ever heard that before? Well, the Bible commands us to keep our word. And yet people are gonna get comfortable with giving their word, oh, I'll give, and then just letting it go. Truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent. Boy, underline that one, that's huge, incontinent. That means they don't have self-control. They've lost control of themselves. Now, I talk with a lot of young people and I say, you know, what in the world's up? And they'll say, well, man, we go to church, but when we go home, mom's out of control. Dad's out of control. That's incontinent. It's an egregious sin. God's people are not supposed to be out of control. Incontinent, fierce. despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. Now let's say in unison the command, the next four words, from such turn away. I ask you this morning, how good are you at getting away from these sins? What care are you taking to not let these sins destroy you, your family? Now, the culture we live in has no problem with any of these sins. They think they're just normal. Our schools, it dumbfounds me. We send kids off to non-Christian schools. And they learn, this is just life. These are not sins. This is just the way life is. That's why I always tell everybody, a Christian school is critical, critical, critical in the life of everyone. I always want to warn you. Somebody wants to say, well, ours aren't that bad. It is a sin to teach a child something is okay that the Bible says isn't okay. That's a sin. And you know, I've never met a parent who didn't agree with that. But you send a child to where they're not getting godly, godly Bible-based instruction. Oh, I promise you, they're being taught that these are okay. This is just life. This isn't just life. We're commanded by our God to get away from it. And my question is for you, for me, How good are you doing at that? Now, there's 18 sins that are listed there, and this morning I've picked three. And the three I've picked are no more important or less important than the other 15. But I wanna tell you why I picked the three, because I struggle with them. They're a challenge in my life. Maybe as we read the list, just say, well, boy, go quickly, because I don't have trouble with any of that. I'm so perfect, I'm just kind of wondering why I'm even here this morning. But I want to tell you, I struggle with them because our culture is invaded. And now you can find churches that don't think there's anything wrong with this list. I've picked three. Let me tell you, the first one I've picked, it's the first sin mentioned. Men will be lovers of their own selves. Well, Brother Gibbs, I love the Lord. I believe you do. It's a testimony you're here this morning, but not like you love you. After all, we're so lovable. How could you not love, how could I not love me? And I love this. Well, I don't exactly love me. I just think highly of myself. That's because you love you. And the Bible says you're not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. Wow. It invades everywhere. You see, the command in the Bible, get this carefully, is you're to love the Lord, not you, the Lord, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. And when you love you, it always comes at the expense of that. Then the command is loving the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, all. Then you're to love and prefer others over you. But I don't know, I'm just kind of fond of me. And it invades every sphere of your life when you love you. I'm in Boston. I've just completed a long, long week of work. It's Friday night, I'm going to get on an airplane, I'm exhausted, we're going from Boston to LA. And I call the airline, any chance of an upgrade, any chance of an upgrade. If you fly enough, you can occasionally get complimentary upgrades with a status. And they said, no, no, no, plane's over full. In fact, they said, we got more people, we got revenue paying passengers that aren't going to get on. No, no, no. I said, well, how about an aisle seat? They said, that we can give you. So I get an aisle seat. Now, the reason I like an aisle seat is because with an aisle seat, you have your seat and you can sort of spill into the middle. How many of you understand spill in, okay? Because when you're my size, there's a fair amount to spill, all right? We're just gonna spill a little bit. And the seats, if you fly, are very small. Very small. I mean, they are making them tinier to make them lighter. And I always caution folks. Once I wedge into a seat, I really do not need a seat belt. I don't. Turn this baby upside down. I'm not going anywhere. And there's a few of you that wouldn't leave too quickly either. I mean, they're tiny. And then bad that way is this way. They got the rows close together. And when the guy in front of you leans back, you could clean his teeth or shave him. I mean, his head is in your lap. So I get to board, I get my seat, I put all my stuff away, I'm all set. Going to be a long seven hour flight. It's winter time, a lot of wind. They said it'll take seven hours tonight. Big airplane, 747, big airplane. Now on this 747, there's three seats on this side. I got the aisle, then there's a middle and a window. Then there's five seats in the middle. Then an aisle and three seats over there. So I'm all in my seat and I'm praying, Lord, send somebody thin to sit next to me. I want you to listen. I never prayed, send who you want me to sit by. Because I love me. And when you love you, it will change your prayer life. I want somebody thin. And how many of you can understand why I want somebody thin, right? So here comes a thin guy, and I thought, oh man, he'd be good, Lord, he'd be good. No, he went right on by. Here come a real heavy set woman. I said, oh, no, no, no, no, lighten up, Lord, lighten up. When you love you, Your prayer life will all be about what you want because you love you and that's what's running your life. Here comes a lady down the aisle and she's got a baby, a sick baby. Comes right to my row and she says, that middle seat window, that's ours. I said, oh, how about that? Now, I love babies, if they're my babies. But sitting next to somebody's sick baby for seven hours, I love me way too much for that. Now the lady is very, I'm so sorry my baby's sick. She said, I got some cough syrup here. I hope it'll help him sleep. And I'm like, man, give me that bottle. Let's give him the, let's stick this baby in la-la land. I mean, let's. Now I'm supposed to love that lady. I'm supposed to love that sick baby. by command of my God. I'm supposed to do good to them and their presence aggravates me because I love me. So I'm talking to myself, how many of y'all ever talk to yourself? And I'm saying, now be good, be nice. How many of y'all have ever said stuff like that? Be good, be nice. I didn't say be Christian. I said, be good, be nice, because this is aggravating me. Now a guy comes walking down the aisle, walks up to her and says, here, you might need this, and hands her something. And then he goes truckin' on back. And I thought, hmm, wonder if that's her husband. Hmm. Because that quick, the Lord said, you're supposed to do unto them as you'd want them to do unto you. Now, if that was your grandbaby, and your daughter-in-law, and that was your son-in-law, you'd want somebody to trade seats. And so I look back. He is back about 15, maybe 20 rows further back. He is in the middle, in the middle of the middle seats. Now you are better off to go as a piece of luggage than that. Don't you look at me like this. I'm having a war with me. And so I'm like, well, Lord, we don't know that's her husband. When you love you, you will look for every bit of wiggle room you can find. Because you don't want what God wants, you want what you want. Probably five minutes go by, finally I turned to her and I said, that guy that handed you that, I said, he wasn't your husband, was he? And she looked at me kind of strange and she said, no, no, that's my husband. I said, oh, how about that? Now, I'm just sitting there, and you know what I start, I said, God, I worked really hard this week, and I hope I, but God, I do not wanna give up this seat. I don't wanna, God, because I love me. I'm still miserable, and I turned to her, and it came out all wrong, all wrong. I said, That's your husband, but that isn't his baby, is it? And it came out wrong. It just did. And her eyes went like this. And she said, well, of course that's his baby. I said, oh, oh, how about that? I'm looking. You know what was at war? It wasn't about a seat. The war was me loving me. That was the war. And God says it's gonna come in like cancer and it is gonna change you and run your life. Finally, I turned to her and I said, I said, I need to tell you this, and she's a very polite lady. I said, I'm a born-again Christian, and my faith commands me. I'm supposed to do for you what I'd want you to do for me. And if this was my grandbaby, and you were my daughter-in-law, and that was my son. Who's ever in this seat? I'd want them to swap seats." And I said, I don't know if this makes sense, but I want to swap seat with your husband there. And she said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. She said, if you look back there, Now at that point I turned around and it got worse. He's in the middle of the five and on each side of him are two very large ladies, very large. And she said, he's a little thin guy. I don't think you'd fit. And she said, you don't want to do that. And I said, well, that's that, Lord. No, I offered. Hey, I offered. Can I remind you, God didn't, He never said, I command you to offer to do good. He said, do good. Do it is the command. Another five minutes. Finally, I said, ma'am, I got a gospel tract here. I said, I don't know if this makes sense to you, but it does to me. If you'd kindly, I'm a Christian. I'm supposed to do this by command of God. And she said, really? I said, yeah. And I said, I apologize for taking so long to decide to do right. I said, Brother Gibbs, why don't you just, because I was battling loving me. I get all my stuff out of the seat back, out of the overhead bin. I load all up. I go back by him. Now I come back by him and I go like this. He's got to step out and the woman on his left that he's got is mad. She didn't want him out. And I said, look, I'm sitting up there by your wife, your baby, and my faith commands me as a Christian. I want you to swap seats with me. Before he could say a word, this lady pipes up. No, no, no. And she's doing it so loud, a flight attendant comes running and people, five, six rows around us. No, no, no, you can't change with him. He's a little thin stick of a guy, you're a big fat guy, this a... And I'm like, Lord, here I'm trying to do right, and I gotta run into the mouth of the South, and... Oh. He said, mister, he said, let's just stay where we're at. I said, no, son, you don't understand something. my faith commands me to do unto you what I'd want you to do for me." And I said, I've been failing miserably. He said, well, can I buy you some alcohol? Next word. I said, no, no, no, I don't drink. That lady, I'll take it, I'll take it. I said, no, if you just read this tract, and I handed him a tract. I said, it's my pleasure. Is it your pleasure to do what God commands? Or does obeying Him not mean that much? He started to walk away and he turned around and he said, you wouldn't like to go to the Olympics, would you? I said, what now? Here's what he didn't know. I had just completed over two months of work in Salt Lake City. It's when the Olympics were in Salt Lake. And wherever the Olympics are, we go do all the legal work to make it possible for the sole winners to hand out gospel tracts. And when we first went to Salt Lake City, they said, no, no, no, no, no, you're not going to get to do that. We said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we are. Because we got a right. And, I mean, we had just spent with all the federal authorities, the Olympic authorities, the government authorities. And they said, okay, you can hand them out. You got every right. But you can't go in the village, the Olympic village where the athletes are. That's a $1,500 a day ticket. And you can't go in the events without a ticket. And many of those tickets, three, four, 500 bucks a piece. We said, okay, that's okay. He said, you wouldn't like to go to the Olympics, would you? I said, what do you mean? He said, the granddad of that baby owns the largest printing company in California. And he said, we just bought millions of dollars in Olympic tickets. And I'm in charge of handing them out. He said, I got them all. I said, have you got tickets to the village? He said, yeah, I got a thousand of them. How many would you like? I said, that ticket's $1,500 a day. He said, no, it's $1,550 a day. He said, I don't care what number you need, they're yours. I said, can you get me in the hockey finals, the ice skating finals? Can you? He said, mister, I got tickets to everything. Tell me what you want. They're yours. Now, I had no idea he had those tickets. But you want to see God break out? Stop loving yourself. I spent most of that flight standing in the restroom. Even when they'd say, you know, put your seatbelt on, they'd knock, they'd say, are you okay? I'd say, yeah, I'm fine, I'll be a little longer, and I'm just sitting there riding it out. And all I could think thinking of, what's the matter with me? What kind of Christian am I? How could I love me so much that I wouldn't want a dad to sit by his sick baby? And yet I had to fight it. You ever get in rush hour? And we're supposed to prefer others and do to them. And I promise you, if you were trying to get in, you'd want somebody to let you in. And I don't know how to explain this. I don't care if you get in behind me. I just don't want you in front of me. How many of you understand what I just said? I'm on the way to the airport with a couple, he's driving, I'm in the front, his wife's in the back, and we're letting everybody in. And this thought went through my head, come on, we've been Christian long enough, let's... And his wife tapped me on the shoulder and she said, he was never like this till he heard you preach on loving others and doing good to them. I said, oh, what a blessing, that's wonderful. Can I tell you what? This list is Christianity 101. Your life is never going to be right with God as a child of God as long as you love yourself because it'll bend everything. When's the last time you bowed and said, God, forgive me? I want to love you with all my heart. and I want to love others and prefer them over me." Look at the second sin I've picked there. Number one is they'd be lovers of their own selves. Number two, they'd be proud, proud. Now we're almost done. I just want to caution you. You can't commit a sin more dangerous than pride. You want to wreck your life, wreck your kids, destroy your family. Ruin your friendships, pride's the key. You say, why would you say that? God says, I promise you, and it's written to the Christians, I will resist the proud. If you're proud, you got God against you. Read James 4. No one in their right mind wants to walk out of here with God against them. And yet, if you got pride in your life, you got God against you. Well, I'm not that proud. God didn't say if you're proud a lot. He said, if you are proud. You know what pride is? It's thinking you're something. Well, I don't think what's happening to me is fair. That's pride talk. Well, I don't know how they could talk to me like that. That's pride talk. This isn't fair, because I'm proud. Now, the only way to defeat pride, read James 4, is to humble yourself, and it's a command. And as you humble yourself, pride will die. As you don't humble yourself, pride will soar. And can I remind you when God wrote the list of the seven sins he despises more than any other, pride made the list. Isn't it funny? People do sins we don't like and we say, well, God hates that. And he does. But God said, pride is on my particular despised list. and yet we've gotten comfortable. Well, Brother Gibbs, I'm not that proud. Can I warn you, loving yourself and pride are cousins. They'll hook together. What would it take for you to say, God, help me to humble me. Now, to humble yourself is a command repeated many times. Here's the problem. The only person who can humble me is me. The only person who can humble you is you. And when's the last time you bowed at an altar and said, help me to humble me? Well, yeah, but Brother Gibbs, if I went to that altar, what would people, there's your pride. Do you know why I almost didn't get saved? Because everybody thought I was. And I thought, if I go forward, what in the world will they think? My pride and the fear of the people froze me. Pride is insidious and God says, get away from it. Number one, love themselves. Number two, pride. Write the third sin down, unthankful. Now we live in a culture that just doesn't say thank you. I was raised in a home where you got licked if you didn't say thank you. Because I was taught not to be thankful is bad manners. How many of you were raised that way? It's not just bad manners, it's a sin. It's a sin. And you know what the command is? And how many of you here, you're a child of God, you're a child of God. You've asked the Lord to say, all right, here's the command. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. When's the last time you gave thanks for what you don't like? And meant it. I'm not going to do that. That's goofy." No, that's that sin. The command of Scripture is we're to give thanks in everything. Oh, well, I got a race. Oh, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Oh, my 401K is a 101K. I'm not thanking God for that. My house is upside down. God, if you think I'm giving thanks for what's happened with my mortgage, you're a nuts guy. And you know what God says? You didn't hear me. You are unthankful. Because we are to give thanks in, say out loud, everything. My wife, she's helped me with my prayer life so much in getting lists. And had to be maybe a year ago, she said, let's make a list of what we don't like so we can thank God for it. I said, what? She said, let's make a list of what we don't like and it's bugging us so we can be sure to give thanks for it. Well, it ended up being four and a half, almost five pages. And she said, now let's give thanks. Wow. I was at a church and it's Thursday night, they're having visitation. I was at their visitation, never thinking something was gonna happen that would change my life. A lady came in in a wheelchair and she had no arms, no legs. I don't mean not much, shit, none. She was a thalidomide baby. How many of you remember the drug thalidomide? It was gonna be a miracle drug. It caused horrible birth defects. This lady was born with no arms, no legs. Saved, wonderful lady, strapped in a wheelchair. You understand, she's got nothing to hold her in the wheelchair. So she's strapped in a wheelchair. Here she is. Beautiful smile on her face. And I'm sitting by the associate and I said, boy, associate comes to everything. Church doors are open, she's there. I said, great. The preacher gave a challenge and handed out where we'd go visiting and different things. And then he said, anybody with some praise and he's looking. And this young lady, her name's Diane, goes like this. Now she has no arm to raise. And she said, I'd like to give thanks for something. And her preacher said, what, Diane, what? She said, I want to give thanks to the Lord for giving me such a good nose. God knows I'd need a good nose. And I just want to thank him for giving me such a good nose. Now, never in my life have I heard anybody give thanks for their nose. The associate leaned over and he said, Brother Gibbs, let me explain. When we take her out visiting, we take her to a Lowe's or a Home Depot or a supermarket, and we park her outside in her wheelchair by the entrance. And then as people walk in and out, she just calls them over and they all come. And when they come over, she says to them, I'd like to chat with you a minute, but my Bible's in a sack on the back of my wheelchair, could you get it out? And they all do, they get her Bible. And she said, could you bring it around here? She said, now, would you open it towards you, but hold it up here by my face? And he said, Brother Gibbs, she turns the pages with her nose. I just wanna thank the Lord for giving me such a good nose. He knew I'd need one. I walked out feeling that tall. I thought, God, what is the matter with me? I never give you thanks. I just take it all for granted. God said that sin is going to invade. And these sins will hollow us out. We'll love ourselves. We'll be proud. We'll be unthankful. I'm in Africa and a young man that my wife taught in Christian school, now a missionary, came to see me and he said, would you go to see where my ministry is? It's quite a ways from here, several hundred miles, almost 300. And he said, we're out in the middle of nowhere with the tribes. And he said, I'd really love for you to come. And so I said, sure. And he said, there's no roads. And I said, what do you mean there's no roads? How do you go? He said, we just go. We're not accustomed to going where there's no roads, but they just go. And he said, we take all the suspension off our vehicles because suspensions just break. And I mean, we're just bumping along. And man, when you bump along for a couple hundred miles, after a while, your fillings are loose. I mean, it just bounce, bounce. And he said, David, we get into all these tribes and we've had a great ministry in the tribes, but our greatest ministry has been to the sick people. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, they think illness is a curse, especially in young people. And if the witch doctor can't cure it, then they banish them to get rid of the curse. And what they do is they take them down to the water's edge. And they stake them down so they can't get away. And that night, something comes up out of the water or something prowling the bank gets them. And we go prowl the banks and get them before the gators do. And his associate said, yeah, Bob's fought gators a lot. I said, you fought gators? Oh, he said, show him your back, Bob. Bob didn't want to, but man, his back's torn to pieces. I said, you love them so much you do that? Oh, he said, yeah, David, they're not saved. We get there and oh my, what a ministry. A young lady comes up to me and these kids and these people are so sick. And he said, David, we don't have hardly any money. We have no medicines. But he said, we get them saved and we love them and they go to heaven. And a young lady came up to me and her toes were all missing. And Bob had saved her on the river bank. Her one arm totally gone, her other arm is a stump there's to about here. She has a huge hole in her cheek, huge. You can see right into her mouth where these diseases are just eating her away. And to talk, she'd hold that stump up to cover the air hole. And she came up to me a little hard to understand and she said, would you do me a favor? And I said, sure, sweetheart, anything, why? She said, would you sing with me? I said, oh, you got the wrong guy. I said, I'm no singer. I'm the guy that messes the singers up. Bob came and he said, no, no, tell her you'll sing with her. Tell her you'll sing with her. Because then they'll let her sing. I said, well, what if you want to sing a song I don't know? What do you want to sing? She covered it up and looked at me, these beautiful eyes. She said, I want to sing Count Your Blessings. Do you know that one? I said, yeah, I know that one. That's a command. I sang with her and all I did was squall like a baby. All I could think of is, young lady, you should count your blessings. There's people who loved you enough to risk their lives to get you to Christ. And you got a new body waiting for you. But if you should count your blessings, what should I be doing? Unthankfulness is spiritual cancer. Love themselves. proud, unthankful from such turn away. Father, thank you for your word. So powerful, so clear. We want to do, we want to be what you've commanded us to do and be. Heads are bad. How many Christians say, Brother Gibbs, God spoke to my heart this morning and boy, God helping me. I want to leave here different than I've come. I wanna change something, my heart's been touched. If that's true, I want you to hold your hand up right now. God spoke to my heart. If you've raised your hand, I want you to get up out of your seat as the piano plays and come to this altar right now. We're gonna close in prayer in just a moment. I raised my hand, you get up, you come right now. Don't hesitate, don't delay. No one does what's right when they leave who doesn't do what's right when God speaks to their heart.