Deuteronomy chapter 33 and we'll be looking in verse 13 and we're gonna look about precious things. You know how your kids treat the church the way they do? It's not precious to them. And I just want you to examine this morning what's precious to you. Amen. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Father, we come before you, Lord, and we do thank you, Lord, for the singing, Lord, testimony. Lord, we even thank you for those people who came late. God, they helped us get a little tickle in our heart, Father. And Father, you know everything, Lord. And God, we'd ask you, Lord, now to do thy will. Use me, Lord, I pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. chapter 33 in verse 13 it says this and of Joseph he said blessed of the Lord be his land for the precious things of heaven for the dew and for the deep that crouches beneath and for the precious fruit fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth and the fullness thereof, and for the goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush. Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his breath. Now, a lot of these things aren't really precious to us. We don't even think about it. But when you're in a pit and you're facing death, things are precious. He's talking about Joseph here. Amen. When you're in a prison and it doesn't look like you're ever going to get out, things that are not precious become. You go, I preach in the prison every year. And boy, you go in there and there's things that they just don't have. And if they do have a little bit of it, it's precious. Amen. You know what? The word of God is precious inside the prison. But it's not precious in the church anymore. Amen. Oh, we got all we need. We got it on the phone. We got it on our computer. We can listen to on our iPod. We got all the word of God we need. We got a surplus of it. It's just not precious anymore. But you go into the prison and I mean there is some saved people inside that prison. And when you hear that old fashioned Holy Ghost preaching, it's precious to them, amen. I got men in prison to pray for me every day and I thank God for it, amen. Precious things, amen. You know what the definition of precious is? In Webster's 1828 dictionary it says this, of great price, costly. of great value or worth, very valuable. Highly valued, much esteemed. And we're gonna look here at some things in the Bible that it says is precious. In Psalms 139, verse 17, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, They are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. Let me just say this. God is continuously thinking about you. His thoughts are about you this morning. Some of you come in here this morning and you're not thinking anything about God. You come here and the one thing you're thinking about what you're doing when you get out. Why don't you turn your thoughts towards God and you might find out that He's thinking about you. That's precious. The idea that God is thinking about me, who I consider to be a nobody. Amen? I didn't know for sure what to preach this morning. I had this in my mind. And then you talked about the precious blood. I said, that's it. It is precious. The thoughts of God are precious. And if the thoughts of God towards us are precious, I would think that the thoughts of us toward God are precious to Him. What's precious to you? You ever just stop and think about it? Ponder about it? Consider his greatness? Consider his grace? Consider his long-suffering? Consider his kindness? Consider the fact that you ought to be in hell? And you know, even if you're a lost man, I think he's thinking about you. Amen. There's something else here that's precious in 1 Samuel 3 and verse 1. And the child Samuel ministered on the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open vision. You know it's getting like that way anymore. It used to. You'd go about any church and you'd hear the gospel. But anymore, it's rare. Well, how precious is the Word of God? What would you give up? Would you give up your phone for the Word of God? Would you give up your phone? If it come down to the fact, okay, you can either have this book or you can have your phone. Here's what some of you say. Well, you realize I've got the Bible on my phone. You realize that everything on your phone has no substance. It's electronic pixels stored in cyberspace. You can't get your hands on it. Amen. Brother Charlie, I heard him say from the public, I guess it's all right to repeat it. He said, I sleep with my Bible. He don't sleep with his phone. Amen. Well, you understand the Bible's on my phone. It's just not like having a Bible. This is substance here. I can feel it. I can see it. And it cannot be changed. If somebody rips a page out of this, I can figure out it's gone. Amen. But in cyber place they can change everything and you never know the difference. Amen. In surveying, they got this GPS circuit. I'm a licensed landscaper, so I go back to my roots. In surveying, they said, well, we'll just give it a GPS location. No. Give me an old oak tree, amen. Give me a rock in the ground. Give me a great big old iron pipe, something that I can see, something that I know where it is, not something that's mathematically there, but it doesn't exist, amen. Give me something I can hold. Something I can hold. Amen, something that's precious, that's real. Well, you know, I use my phone for communication. Well, guess what? I use my Bible for communication. It's your receiver. Well, you don't understand. I received text messages on my phone that is important information. I received a text message. Amen. You see the text? You know why I sent us a text? So because if he'd have just told you, you'd have forgot about it. But no, I got substance. I got something real. I got something precious and I can pick it up and read it anytime. Amen. What's wrong with America? There's nothing real in our lives anymore. And something that you can't touch, that you can't handle, cannot be precious to you. Why, Janet, you know, 40 year anniversary. I'm just gonna get her that ring, and whatever I get her, I'm just gonna give her a picture and put it on a phone. So you can take out and look at it any time you want. Won't cost me nothing. Amen. Amen. That's the problem with the phone. Amen. Don't cost you nothing. Amen. Oh, you say, well, that cost me a lot. Yeah. Amen. No, she wants something she can put on her finger. She wants somebody she can show up to everybody. She wants everybody to see that she loves me. I carry my Bible because he loves me. I want everybody to see it because he's mine, amen. Hey, I've got something precious. He's thinking about me and he wrote me a love letter, amen. I mean, what's precious to you? You know, Peter said, 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 4, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. Why are you not worried about going to heaven? I've got a promise. It's precious to me and it's exceeding great. Amen. So you're worried about getting there? No. I got a precious promise. Amen. He said he'd never leave me, nor forsake me. The promises of God are precious. Well, I don't know any of them. That's because they're in the scripture. They're in the book. And if the book's not precious to you, you'll never have precious promises. Amen and amen. They're given unto us. It's not like we gotta work for them. Amen? They're the gifts of God. He promised peace. He promised that he'd provide. Amen? I mean, promise after promise after promise. They're precious in the word of God. You know what I found out with an unstable Christian? The word is God is not precious to them. So therefore, they have no stability because they don't know what's in it. Amen. If you just know enough to get saved, you don't know much. Amen and amen. Let me tell you this also, number two, His work, his redemption is precious. What he did at Calvary, that's precious to me. That's precious to me, amen. Psalm 49, six says, they that trust in wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give a God a ransom for him. and then there's a parenthesis. Amen. Now that's additional information if you're studying your Bible. Now I can read, I can go past 49.8 and go right to 49.9 and it'll make sense. I'll read that again so you can see it. I'm gonna leave out Psalms 49.8 and I'm gonna come back and read it. None of them can by any means redeem his brother nor give God a ransom for him. that he should live forever and not see corruption. But now here's the precious part. Here's the extra part that he gives in Psalms 49a. For the redemption of their soul is precious. And it ceases forever. It means it's never gonna cease. It's never gonna quit. I'm telling you, my redemption's precious because he gave his life for me. But it's precious because it's eternal and everlasting and never ceasing. Amen. In Psalms 35, 9 it says, And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in his salvation. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name, show forth his salvation from day to day. Amen. Let me just ask you, what's precious to you? My redemption is precious. The fact that I'm a son of God is precious. Amen. My name is precious. I have a name written in glory that I don't know yet. That's precious. Amen. A good name is precious. You know what? God's son is precious. It says in Isaiah chapter 28, verse 16, therefore, thus saith the Lord God behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tribestone, a precious cornerstone. A sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste. Amen. I'm not going anywhere. When I'm with him, I'm in the right place. I'm on the solid rock. Amen. I'm not only, I'm in the stone for he's in me and I'm in him. And as much as he's a cornerstone, the church is the cornerstone also because the church is in him. Amen. And this church should be a cornerstone of this community. Amen. And every church ought to be a cornerstone of their community. And at one time, everything centered around the church in every community. Because Christ was the cornerstone of the church. And because Christ was the cornerstone of the church, and the church was the cornerstone of the community, therefore Christ became that cornerstone for all, including our whole country that I preached about last night. Amen. Amen. It says, it goes on to say, but to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but precious, but chosen of God and precious. Jesus is precious to God. So what? We should be Hey, Jesus said be precious to us. It goes on to say in 1 Peter 2, 6, wherefore also is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Why would I want the wealth of the world when I got the most precious thing in the universe? We were talking before the service, these ones sitting in the second row there, talking about when God called us out. We didn't know how we was gonna make it. We left our jobs. They did like me, they resigned their jobs and they went off wondering if they'd make it. And I did the same thing and I was telling them how God worked in my life. You know what came, somewhere along the line in my Christian life, he became more important. The Bible became more important. Serving God became more important than what I'd prepared my whole life to do. I was trained, went to college, and still am a professional land surveyor, got three different licenses, amen. I could go to work anywhere I wanted, had my own business, but God came along. And all that looks dim now. I love surveying. I love what I used to do, amen. I enjoyed it. I probably would still like it. But I can't even imagine not preaching anymore, amen. Why? Something more precious than gold and silver. Something more precious than a home and land. Something even more precious than to spend time with my grandchildren. Now that's the hard one. I go back, gone seven weeks and I got one granddaughter, I believe she grew two inches. Amen. Something is precious in life. Something drives you forward. And if it's not Christ, it's not right. Amen. You know, here's another thing that's precious in the Bible. 1 Peter 1, 9, But with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. Amen. We find in Acts chapter 20, verse 28, God which he purchased with his own blood. These are familiar verses. Ephesians 2, 13, But now in Christ Jesus ye who some months were far off were made nigh by the blood of Christ. It's precious. Well, He unwashed us from our sins in His own blood. His blood is precious. It's the rarest of all things in the universe. The blood of Jesus Christ. But there's enough for everyone. Amen. God's seed is precious. Psalms 126. He that goeth forth weepeth and bearing precious seed. shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." You know, I got upset. I read all these prayer letters and everybody's seen all these people saved. I go, I'm preaching to little churches, encouraging them. You know, I'm not preaching to big crowds and not a whole lot of youth camps. And a lot of times I show up at those little churches. I'm just trying to encourage them to keep going on. Keep going on. Most of the churches I go to are 50 people. Not very many over 100. Amen? That's what I do, and I like doing it. Boy, I got, boy, everybody I get these prayer letters and I read them, boy, there's 100 saved, there's 50 saved. God, what are you doing with me? And I was out in Utah, and a guy preached on me. He taught out, well, he actually taught on the sea in Nassau. in the soil. And he said, you realize that God's the only one that can save a soul. He said, you know what our job is? Throw out the seed. See, God saves the souls, but could it be that he's counting the seed? You know what, that helped me. I'm just going to keep throwing out the seed. Oh, I like it when somebody gets saved. Oh, I like it. But I'm just going to keep throwing out the seed. And that old sower didn't care where he threw it. It's precious. But I'm going to throw it on the wayside. I'm going to throw it everywhere I go. I don't know about you, but I got the seed on the wayside and I brought it to good ground. Amen? I didn't get saved. God didn't put that seed in me in the church house. Somebody witnessed to me out there on the wayside. Amen? And there's a seed God in me, and I took it to the church house. Amen? And there it grew. Amen? But I need to continue on. God's seed is precious. Well, what's precious about you, your life? He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in His sight. Now you're precious to the Lord. Your life is precious. Your faith is precious. Peter talks about, he said, to them that have obtained like precious faith. Your faith is precious to God. Your unity is precious to God. Now if somebody gets mad about correcting a kid, that's gonna destroy unity. One kid should not be able to destroy a church. But I have seen it happen. I have an old preacher friend of mine, he's still out there, he's still going. And I remember being at his church one time and people got mad. You know, and, hey, listen, don't get mad. Get glad. My dad would have whipped me to the edge of my life. I remember one time we were at a person's house and our children had grown up and they were with us. And the person there that we were visiting, they said, my, my, my, your kids have always been so good and so polite. And my son spoke up. He's a man now. He said, well, we had to be. Your mom would have killed us. Amen. You think I'm mean, you haven't seen her in action, amen. Amen. Hey, unity. How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that read down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard. your name is precious. Ecclesiastics 7.1 it says a good name is better than precious ointment. Amen? It says in Proverbs 22.1 a good name is rather to be chosen of than riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold. You can tease me all you want but don't talk about my testimony. And don't make a joke about me believing something that's not in this Bible. That's one thing that'll make me madder than a wet hornet. Don't call me something I'm not when it comes to this Bible. You can make fun of me being fat, ugly all day long. It won't bother me. But when you attack my name and my testimony, that makes me mad. That makes me fighting mad. So don't mess with that. You can go a long way with me, but don't mess with that. don't even kid about it. Why, I've seen too many great men fall. It seems like every little thing, bad thing that somebody says will get on the airways, amen. I say, why aren't you on Facebook? I don't want anybody to know any more about me than they need to know, amen. They don't need to know when I go to the bathroom, amen. They don't need to know when I'm not home, amen. A lot of people say, well, you need to talk on the phone more. I don't like to talk on the phone. I call people because I have to call people. Amen. Every once in a while, God will put on my heart, and I'll say I'm praying for you. Amen. Amen. I'm not one to get on there and gossip. I don't want to hear about all that. Amen. I got better things to do. I can read my Bible. Amen. I can get something from God. Amen. I want to keep a good name. I've seen too many good men fall. And I don't want to be one of them. People that I thought were better than I am. Amen? The trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes. Joseph's trial of faith was more precious to God than anything he'd done. Samuel's faith was precious to God. Noah's faith was precious to God. Amen. When they went through that suffering, when they went through that hard times, when everybody turned against them, when it didn't look, they never left God. they just kept on doing what they're supposed to. And that's precious to God. You want to get God's attention? Try faith. Try suffering. Amen? Why do we have to suffer sometimes? Because He wants us to be like Him. And may I remind you, Willie suffered in Calvary for me. He suffers you every day. If a man saves without sin, he's a liar. Isn't that not right? You probably seen it already today. And he suffered it. Amen. He's still suffering it. One of these days we'll be like him. He won't have to suffer it anymore. Amen. I know he paid for it at Calvary, but he still puts up with it or he'd kill us. Thank God for his grace. Amen. Your knowledge is precious to him. Proverbs 20, 15. There is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of the knowledge are a precious jewel. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding. Last of all, I'd just like to say, your death, precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of the saints. Why is that precious? Oh, that jewel that he's been working on. that thing that he's been putting pressure on he's been forming, he's been shaping it just get about ready to leave that pile of flesh and he's going to hold it in his hand for the first time and according to the book of Malachi he'll just reach up put it in his crown. Amen. We're precious enough for the Lord of God's glory, the Almighty God, the Ancient of Days. We're precious enough, Jewel, that he'll take us and put us in his crown. What is precious to you? You know what I'd start off with? What I started off with? Thoughts. But I'd start off with the Word of God. Make that the most precious thing in your life. And everything else will fall in place.