Mary, Mary. Amen. Thank you for joining us this morning. If you would stand we'll continue with our song service Psalms 100 verse 4 says enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise Be thankful unto him and bless his name for the Lord is good His mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations. It's good to be in the Lord's house today Look forward to seeing what he has for us Branson. Would you open us in order prayer, please? Amen. Please join us in singing hymn number 227, Saved by the Blood of Jesus Christ. Oh, I sing, I sing. And sing, and sing, by the blood of the crucified one. Sing, by the blood of the crucified one, how proudly we sing. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Strong imagination, omnipotent divine. Holy One of Israel, Redeemer of mankind, resplendent in Your glory, adorned with ♪ Exult for endless days ♪ ♪ From the highest courts of heaven ♪ ♪ To the lowest heaven-dome ♪ ♪ Jesus, you are lord of all ♪ ♪ And we bow before your throne ♪ ♪ Gentle rose of Sharon ♪ Emmanuel, God's Son, tender man of sorrows, a true anointed One. Hilly of the valley, gorgeous stars so bright, priceless Lamb of God, resplendent in your glory, adorned with highest praise. Broken ring, O majesty, exult for endless days. From the highest courts of heaven, for your throne. Lifted up was He to die, in His limits was His pride. with highest praise. From the highest courts of heaven to the lowest heaven, Lord. Jesus, you are Lord of all. Yes, Jesus, you are Lord of all. My Jesus, you are Lord of all. And we bow to you. we bow before thee Please stand once again as we sing hymn number 185, How marvelous, how wonderful may thy song be! and my sorrows, he made them his very own. He bore the burdens now great, when suffered I alone. How marvelous! How wonderful! And my songs shall ever be. ♪ To sing God's love for me ♪ How marvelous, how wonderful ♪ Can my song tether thee ♪ How marvelous, how wonderful ♪ Is my Savior's love for me ♪ Amen, please remain standing as we take our offering this morning. Father, would you pray for us please? And thank you, ABC. So much to thank Him for, so much to praise Him for, you see. He has been so good to me. He's done and where He has brought me from I've got so much to thank Him for When I look around and see the good things He has done for me I know I'm unworthy of them all And His blessings He freely gives I owe My life to Him I've got so much to thank Him for So much to thank Him for, so much to praise Him for, you see. He has been so good to me. of what he's done and where he has brought me from I've got so much to thank him for Sometimes while on this way I stop I kneel and say thank you for all you've done for me. And someday I'll reach heaven shore. Oh, please let me kneel once more. I've got so much to thank him for. And I've got so much to thank Him for, so much to praise Him for. You see, He has been so good to me. done and where he has brought me from I've got so much to thank him for. And when I think of what he's done and where he has brought me from I've got so much to thank him Jesus says one. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. this is my song This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Earth is a nation. All is at rest. I am my Savior and happy and blessed. Watching and waiting. This is my song. Praise God. And you may be seated. The angry crowd cried out to crucify. They nailed him to a rugged cross and left him there to die. They gambled for the royal robes he wore, not knowing they had crucified my Lord. born the sin and shame of all mankind. And as he hung there dying, I was on his mind. His sacrifice and love, some don't appreciate. And I would like to speak and set the record straight That's my God, and I love Him That's my Jesus, He died for me For all the world to hear I'll say it loud and clear That's my God That's my God Some say he's nothing more than a fairy tale. He's just a myth or legend. His presence is not real. His word is not correct politically. They curse and mock his name, defying Oh, but time has never changed the changeless one. Their lives cannot disprove the existence of God's Son, though some may be content to just sit by. I for one must stand and testify That's my God and I love Him That's my Jesus He died for me For all the world to hear I'll say it loud and clear That's my God That's my Jesus He died for me For all the world to hear I'll say it loud and clear That's my God That's my God Praise the Lord. It's good music. Praise the Lord for that. Well, it's our honor to have the Hardys with us. I've asked Brother Hardy to come and preach for us, and he's been so gracious to do that. Every year on Labor Day, we get Brother Hardy. And so, Brother Hardy, why don't you come preach for us? Thank you for coming, Miss Grace. We appreciate you. I certainly have enjoyed the music. Something wrong with you if you don't like music, so I hope I'm not making anybody unhappy about that. So I was a teenager, I was 14 when I got saved, and the king of rock and roll was hot and heavy back then. Mr. Elvis was all over the place, and he did have a great voice, I guess, no doubt about that, but it was really the godly music that saved MY LIFE! from a lot of the other stuff that was going on. I'm not doubting anybody, I'm just telling you what happened. Sometimes it's good to know what happens to other people and how they get where they are. You know, I'm always nervous when I preach. You can talk to my wife and I say, how long you been doing this? Oh, 57 years. When you gonna get over it? I don't know. But I probably got called to preach like nobody else you know. So I was saved when I was 14. When I was 17, I joined the Navy and wound up on a submarine. You have to choose to be on a submarine. Nobody has to go on those. That's the highest casualty rate in the Navy is submarines. So I'm on a submarine and I'm 17 and I've really only been saved three years. Somebody said, Hardy, the captain and executive officer want to see you in the wardroom. That didn't sound good at all, you know, for people who are military. The wardroom is where you make the decisions. And I thought, I don't know of anything I did bad, but I guess I'm going to find out whatever. And just to add to that, you know, I'm not a big person. I like to never got in the Navy because I didn't weigh enough. Yeah. So I went to Dallas, and they weighed me, and they said, you're not going to make it, boy. And he said, right down at the end of the corner is a grocery store. Now you get down there and get a quart of milk and three big bananas. I don't like them together. You eat those bananas and drink that milk and you come back here. Don't you go to the bathroom or anything. You come right back here. And so I did and I made it. So now, you know, I've gone through boot camp, submarine school, and I'm on a submarine. I've only been on it a few months, and that's when they said, Hardy, the captain and the executive officer want to see you in the ward room. I said, yes, sir. So I went in and reported. I just want you to know how skinny and I was just a kid. I really was. I was a kid. so to speak, and I didn't know what they wanted to talk to me about, and so the captain did all the speaking, and he was a lost man, and as far as I know, the executive officer was a lost man. As far as I know, they were always lost while I was there. I don't know if they ever did anything about it. But the captain asked me four questions, and he surprised me. He said, Hardy, you don't do drugs, do you? I said, no, sir, I don't do drugs. He said, you don't drink. I said, no, sir, I don't drink anything but Dr. Pepper from Texas, you know. And he said, you don't even smoke, do you? I said, no, sir, I don't. You wanna know what number four is, don't you? I tell you, no. Number four, you don't have any girl pictures on your locker. I said, no, sir, I don't have any girl pictures on my locker, which sailors are famous for. And the captain said, I want you to hold religious services on this submarine every Sunday that it is at sea. So people say, tell me how God called you to preach. I said, I'm telling this. I just say, God didn't call me to preach. A lost Navy captain called me to preach. Now you can look at that any way you want to look at it, but God is God. And he gets done what he wants to get done whenever he wants to and how he wants to. We just got to be agreeable with it. And so I think about that and I just want to appreciate, tell you much I appreciate the music here at the church. I enjoy it so much and I'm glad for you really singing out. There needs to be a few more amens probably. Now I want you to think about those of you that are not saying those amens say, well, I'm not comfortable with it. Get over it. I mean, it always, An amen says, all an amen means is, that's true. What they're saying is the truth. So if over the years you don't ever say amens, all the people that get saved and blessed and everything, and you didn't say them, you didn't have any part in it, I wouldn't want to miss it. You understand what I'm saying? If you've got a person that doesn't know the Lord and the preacher's preaching, it's like, you know, this is a team effort in here. I'm telling you, when a pastor's preaching and he says a major Bible truth or something, it's about time somebody says, Amen. And if that person gets saved and you said, Amen, you've got a part. If you're just sitting there, you're an observer. I just want to be a PART of that as much as I possibly can, because I need all the help I can get. Romans chapter 1, see you're stuck on Romans today. I didn't intend to be. Romans chapter 1, do you have your Bibles? I'm sure you do. God has done such a good job of the music, it made me cry. It's the Israel language God understands. It really is. Both those specials, really good. As a matter of fact, the last one really made me think about that, and then the one before that, I thought, they've been looking at my notes, the title of my sermon is, Unthankfulness is the Terminal Attitude of Man. And that lecture, the last one, was all about thankfulness, unless I just, my memory is short these days. I've got Romans chapter 1, and if you can stand, we'll begin reading in verse 18. And with a thought unthankfulness is the terminal attitude of man. We'll talk more about that. Verse 18 says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now I just want to say that people that are intentionally ungodly will not get by with it. And I'm not wishing anything bad on anybody. I'm just saying God has set perimeters and He's going to deal with you or me or anyone. He's fair. Because, verse 19, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath shewed it unto them. And I'm going to stop for a minute. I don't think there's any such thing as an atheist. You say, what if they say they are? I don't believe them. I don't believe you're going to live in a world like this and look around and say nobody, it just all just popped out here someplace. I just don't believe that. And because of the scripture. But if they say there is a God, they've got to change the way they act, don't they? So they have to say. pardon the grammar, they ain't no God, so whatever the case. So verse 19 again, Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. They do not know maybe the whole plan, but they know there's a God. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen. There it is, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. He calls it when they KNEW God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Now, we've got several more verses here, but I want you to see three steps in the Word of God that helps us understand how America got to where it is today, MORALLY speaking. I don't mean to ever, you know, intentionally just offend anybody, but I'm sorry, what's going on in America right now, there are two sexes, I'm sorry, there are just two. And there's a lot of things like that you could talk about, and we're not going to, but I want you to see what God has to say about some of this. So here in verse 23, and these people, they change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Man makes his move first. And we've got some evil people in our country, I'm sorry, ungodly. God responds in verse 24. So man makes his move, God's always going to respond sooner or later. Verse 24, Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. This causes all kinds of disease. And of course they don't talk about it now because that's not the right thing to do. People are just trying to live a healthy life, has to put up with it. That's step number one. Then step number two, verse 25, what man did, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature. What man? Man is it, he is not it. who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen? Verse 26, God responds, For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change of natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lusts one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meat. Number three, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God responds a third time, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. You can go so far that you can't get your mind straight again. Now this is the way it looks, beginning in verse 29. We'll just go down just about four or five verses here. So this is how it looks when he did that. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, and by the way, let me stop for a minute here too. It says to the Romans, remember Rome fell apart morally speaking. Maybe I should have said when we read this, take out Romans right for now and put in Americans. and see if what's said here isn't not happening in America, all the way across the board. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, there's a big list, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, bolsters, INVENTORS OF EVIL THINGS, DISOBEDIENT TO PARENTS, WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING, COVENANT BREAKERS, WITHOUT NATURAL AFFECTION, IMPLACABLE, UNMERCIFUL, WHO KNOWING THE JUDGMENT OF GOD THAT THEY WHICH COMMIT SUCH THINGS ARE WORTHY OF DEATH, NOT ONLY DO THIS THING, BUT HAVE PLEASURE IN THEM THAT DO THEM." Father, thank you for your word, and thank you for your people, and thank you again for those who discipline themselves to learn to play the instruments, and those who sing, and such a blessing for the congregational singing, as well as the specials. I hope that none of us would ever take that for granted. It's a great ministry to our hearts. Can't wait, all the music we'll probably have in heaven, it'll be unbelievable. I pray that you'd just illumine our hearts and minds to understand Bible truth, but then as we understand it, we need to act on it. And I pray that we would, in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Unthankfulness, a terminal attitude of man. When I use that word, what do you really think of when we consider that? flying somewhere on an airplane, we'll be flying out on Tuesday and go be with the Filipino church first in San Diego, and then to a regular, just a white church, I would call it that, whatever, American church and so forth, and so when we get to San Diego and land, we'll taxi up to the terminal, and they tell you to get off the airplane. I remember some years ago, I told my granddaughter, Emily, I said, Emily, I got something special coming up for your birthday. And she was only about 10 or 12 back then. And I told her about three months out, you say, why did you do that? Because I don't want to drive her crazy. You know that women can't stand it? They want to know. And every week, she'd ask me, I said, I'm not telling you till the day I pick you up. It'll be real dark in the morning. And I'll come pick you up. And we're going to spend the day together. And so we went on. And I mean, she was after me. Finally, I picked her up and we drove to Oklahoma City and got on the train and headed out to Fort Worth, Texas. And they have a little, not a dining car, but a snack car on the train. And I went back there once or twice with her. She's a little bit nervous, 10 years old. And then she figured out she could spend my money and then she had lost all of her nervousness and wore that train out going back and forth. And Papa, you got any more money? And we got to Fort Worth and the train pulled into the terminal and told us to get off. And the time and place you hate to hear that word the most is with the doctor. And he says, Terminal. Because that means just about the end is coming. And that's the reason that Paul was trying to make this very plain to the Romans, and of course the Romans did pay that great price and we need to be thinking about it. Now Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year. I like Thanksgiving better than I do Christmas. You say, because you got to buy gifts? No, I don't mind buying gifts for Christmas. You know, it's just a lot of work. I don't like to shop. And you men don't like to shop. You know, my wife's good at it, and I heard her do it, but I also just enjoy not having to be concerned about it. We get everybody what they'd like to have. We'll just have a good meal together and fellowship and with a family and just have a great time. Be like the marriage supper of the Lamb. And by the way, if y'all have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you ain't coming. It's His marriage supper of the Lamb. Is that what it says? It's in the book. Well, when I was growing up, it was always, you know, breakfast, dinner, and supper, you know, and I guess those things are kind of changing just a little bit. But I always liked the idea of a time to thank the Lord, and I did. I did at Christmas time, too. We have a worship time before we do our gifts because when the wise men came in, the first thing they did when they saw Jesus, they said, Get on their knees! And before they gave any gifts, they worshiped. So we worship as a family before we pass out any of those in thankfulness to the Lord. I'm going to have to read a little bit here because I have several quotes, and I probably maybe not would get those straight, but I'll do the best that I can here. Spurgeon said, We must thank God for the mercies we have, or we'll not have others. That sounds reasonable, doesn't it? I'm THANKFUL for the mercies I have. You say, What do you mean by mercy? Well, I really deserve this or that, and God took care of me, and it didn't happen. And of course, if you know when you're growing up as a young person like me with a motor scooter and things like that, a lot of times I could have turned that thing over, and I did once or twice, but I was okay. But I'm just telling you the mercies of God are good, and I'm glad for them. They're new every day. The Bible says that they are, and I'm so very thankful for that. The Greek Epictetus said, He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices in the things that he has. Some people ALWAYS WANT, and they think if they get something it'll fix everything. IT WILL NOT! Stuff just won't take care of it. Early on in my life, I wanted to try to learn how to fix things as best I could, and so I started collecting craftsman tools. And I got quite a few of them right now. As a matter of fact, they'd cover your dining room table completely up. And I know some of y'all got snap on. You got them? I ain't going to envy it a bit. Because my snap-on tools will do more than I know how to do with them, so there's no use me getting, bad grammar, no use me getting no snap-ons. But if you want to get rid of them and I outlive you, I'll take them. Okay, Cindy, all right. Grace, you keep that, write that down. But when you think about being unthankful, we need to ask ourselves where we are on that and the more I thought about it. As a matter of fact, I'm sure a pastor likes it no matter where he's preaching when either a song or anything fits what you're planning to do. That's not the only thing that fits here today. How about this verse that's written down? Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise, be thankful of him and bless his name. It would be IMPOSSIBLE to bless the Lord's name too much. There's no way in the world you could do that. Arthur W. Pink said, Have we not more cause to praise Him than to pray? Now, you say, Well, I thought prayer was important. Okay, it is, but let's make sure we understand the difference. Praying is primarily ASKING. Praise is THANKING. Okay, now let's get honest. eight-and-a-half by eleven paper, lying down the middle, all the times we've asked for something, all the times we've thanked Him for something. How's it going to look? It's going to be kind of lopsided. Be honest! I just look at it and say, man, I've got a really big asker. So many things, and the Lord is really good. But we ought to be thanking Him. See, Baptists are not too good at praising. We're halfway decent at amens, but we're not probably near as good at just... I mean, how many times someone will stand up and just say, well, praise the Lord. You don't have to run across people like McCracken or somebody else like that, but... You're never going to thank Him too much. You know, we already heard that today, but you're never going to be able to thank Him too much. G.K. Chesterton, I love to read after him, quote, he said, You say grace before meals. All right. I say grace before the concert and before the opera. I say grace before the play or the pantomime. I say grace before I open a book. I say grace before sketching, painting or swimming or fencing or boxing or walking. And I say grace for I dip the pen in the ink. He said, Why would you do all that? Because if it wasn't for the grace of God, you COULDN'T DO ANY OF THAT! Take for granted that someone could play an instrument, somebody could read music and sing, none of this stuff would be happening if it wasn't for the grace of God. God's grace is the ability, the desire, and the ability to do God's work and to do God's will. Really can't do anything without it. I was reading another story that wasn't quite as spiritual as this one about an old farmer over in Arkansas. And Texas is a lot like Arkansas, and Missouri, I think, to a degree. In a lot of your small towns, you have a courthouse right down the middle of town. And we'd call it, it was on the square. There'd be, you know, streets that go around it, and then there'd be little businesses, and some of y'all are grinning, so you know about it. And so people would come to do their business at the courthouse, and then across the street would be different businesses, like a restaurant. Get something to eat. That sound good? Well, you're not getting out of here yet. So this farmer came in, and he did his business, and there's a little restaurant across, he's by himself, and he's older, and he went over there, ordered his food, and they brought it to, you know, and he's sitting at his table, and he just put his, he put his elbows on the table, and put his face in his hands, and he just cleared off the spot, and started thanking God for his food. There was a couple of young hooligans over there kind of looking at him, you know. And they got to snickering. And they kept kind of getting over where he was. And finally, they were standing right by the table. And when he got to pray and raise his hands up, they were right there. He said, can I help y'all? And they said, yeah. Hey, old man, does everybody do that where you come from? And he said, no, the hogs don't. How many of y'all fail to pray when you get your food? Now you're not as happy as you was a moment ago. There's some truth in it though, isn't there? You know, Seneca said we can be thankful for a friend for a few acres or a little bit of money and things like that, but for the freedom, command of the whole earth, for the great benefits of our being, you know, we can't see God's goodness and care like we ought to, and that really is true. We look upon ourselves as under no obligation and God gives us so much. I think the quote from Francis Schaeffer stays with me the most and the longest. The beginning of man's rebellion against God. That's worth knowing. Francis Schaeffer was a great writer, great philosopher. The beginning of man's rebellion against God was and is the lack of a thankful heart. Mark it down. Thankful kids are not rebellious kids. Thankful adults are not rebellious adults. Thankful Christians are not rebellious Christians. Remember, unthankfulness is the terminal attitude of men. Well, you know, in Psalm 19, first of all, you might just say, God has revealed Himself in creation, hasn't He? The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament showeth its handiwork, day unto day utter speech, night unto night showeth knowledge, and listen to this last part, there is NO SPEECH OR LANGUAGE where their voice is not heard. You know, sometimes we say, well, if we could only have done what David did, you look at the SAME STARS THAT DAVID LOOKED AT! How come you're not getting the same thing? The stars haven't changed. We change. When God gives us the opportunity to have the same things that people back then, and man, I love reading about David. Of course, my name's David, but that's not the reason why. He's so real. He fouls so much stuff up, he owns up to it, pays the price. Well, that sounds like me, you know, I could do things like that, but I'm thankful. God reveals himself in creation. He's there. And God revealed himself in history. I think this is one of the greatest quotes I've heard. I've used this so many times. It's from J. A. Froude. He said, one thing and one thing only. History teaches with certainty. That is, in the long run, it goes well for the good, and in the long run, it goes ill for the wicked. Mark it down. I could go back to Germany, and don't misunderstand me, I've been to Germany several times with friends in Germany, and they're just people like everybody else. You get leaders that are not there, like we're having to put up with even ourselves, and it just causes a lot of grief. There's just no question about that. But the Lord knows about all these things, and the Lord can help us with all these things as well. And I'm thankful that. But we know that if we're trying to do the right thing long enough and everything, it's going to be rewarded. What a great truth. One thing and one thing only, history teaches us certainty. If you're doing it wrong, it's eventually going to catch up with you. If you do it right, it's going to catch up with you, too. Thank God for those truths. Abraham Lincoln said, It's the duty of nations, as well as men of their own dependence, the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow. This was our president back then. Yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon and to recognize the sublime truth and announce in the holy scriptures by Lincoln and proven by all history those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. That goes way back. Then the same thing that James Froude happened to say as well. God revealed himself in personification. I had to think about this one for a while. Can you see the holiness of God in a paved road or washing machine? I got you. I can smell electrical wire burning even now trying to get that to work. Personification. We have personification from God. We're the only creature that does. What do you mean by that? We're made in his image. We're the only ones. And you know what that means? Well, let me ask you this. Who's been in Colorado the longest, the Billy Goats or men? Do you all know the creation account? What came first and later? I hate to tell you, but the goats were there first. And you know how many roads they built? None. And then you go out to Colorado right now, love the mountains. And you see those things coming down, you know, 14, 14er, you know, and all of a sudden now they're just niche. Asphalt road, 70 miles an hour. The goats never made that. He said, what's your point? We're like God, we're creators. were like God. He was so good to us to give us part of His ability to do what we do. I don't think any of us, and I know I don't, I can't even get close to it, Pastor, to think about how good God is to us to allow me to be anything like Him. Why would He want me to be put together with Him that I could be part of His family, or whatever the case? It's kind of like a horse, you know? They don't ever build a barn. You can just tell which way is cold by the way they turn when the wind is blowing so that's about the only thing that would help you. The Romans did not value God either and that was one of their problems you know they didn't understand Matthew 5 16 that you know let men you know see your light and glorify your father which is in heaven because of your good works and these are things you know that they they did not they did not do but God has worked so hard at trying to get to know us and the Romans became it says vain and they're mad look back verse 21 Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. And here it is, neither were thankful. That's such a big deal. But the conjunction, that's always a problem. And I looked at this, you know, with the language, literally, this is a strong and complete opposite. In other words, not only were not thankful, what they did instead was total 180 reverse. with what they did with their life, became VAIN in their imaginations. Now you know what the word vain means? Vain means empty. It means what they came up with, what they thought, what they were trying to accomplish did not work. And I'm fearful that right now in America, a lot of the things that we're trying to do, and people that have good minds and everything, sometimes not working the way it ought to work, simply because of the text that we're looking at. Because all the great things we have came from God. Sarah Ben-Bretnik said, you simply will not be the same person two months from now, after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. and you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law. The more you have and are grateful for, the more that will be given to you. I believe that to be true. So I remember reading this way back and trying to make a sermon out of it and not claiming that I have one yet and thinking about it in my prayer time. So when we're home, You know, our bedroom's upstairs. Our house is an older one, but we like it. It's really cozy. It's about 61 years old or something like that. I get up pretty early. I like a cup of coffee pretty early in the morning. You men don't drink coffee? You need to get rid of him. The book says Hebrews. Amen? get up early in the morning, find my way downstairs, it's hard to do that until I get the first cup of coffee, and go into my office and read my Bible and have a cup of coffee, and then get in on my knees and bury my face in my chair and talk to the Lord. And I remember exactly how I used to do that. First person I prayed for was this, my sweetheart right here of 61 plus, almost 62 years. And I prayed for her. But I changed my prayer. I just, of course, I said before, Lord, be with grace and help her with the things that she has to do today and so forth. I'd pray for her. But then it's like the Lord was saying, are you thankful for her? I said, yeah. but I hadn't been saying it. I changed my prayer just a little faster. Thank you, Lord, for grace, for being my wife, my helpmate, my partner all these years. And there's a number, I pray geographically primarily for preachers. That's the way I can remember them, just by going around the country, because I've been there, and I take time to pray. And for every one of them, I want to say, thank you. It didn't take, what, a split second? have a pastor's name or a pastor's wife's name and to say, thank you. Thank you for the privilege to do the things that God allows us to do. I think things worked better when I started doing that. Now one last thought here. So when I was in the Navy, I was stationed in Charleston, South Carolina. Our submarine was based out of Charleston. We went to a church called Hanahan Baptist Church. Our pastor's name was Hobson Wolfe. You said, that sounds kind of hokey. Well, it probably was. And Brother Wolfe murdered the King's English. But he was true to the Word of God. He loved God. And he didn't give you any slack. And we were there three years, my wife and I. And I mean, of course, I'd be gone to see him coming back, and she got to be there all the time. Brother Wolf was just a GODLY preacher, and I don't care how much education he's got if he's true to the Word of God. Just let him preach the book! And he did. And so we finished up our time in the Navy and got out of the Navy and went back to Texas, where we were from. I don't know how long we'd been home in Texas. I don't know, maybe a year, hon, you have any idea? She's not sure, maybe that long. And I said to her one day, I said, Grace, hey, baby, I don't think we ever told Brother Woolf, thank you for preaching to us faithfully all those years. She said, you gonna ride him? I said, nah, I don't think that'd work. You gonna call him? I said, nah, nah, something like that, you know. I don't think that's gonna work either. Her mind's working. She said, do you know it's 1,200 miles to Charleston, South Carolina? I said, yeah. We better get that one on the calendar, hadn't we? We put her on the calendar. We called a few days before we were going out there to make sure he wasn't gonna be running off to preach somewhere, he's gonna be in town, found out he's gonna be in town. We drove, so excited, we, you know, got there and went up to his porch and knocked on the door, you know, was hoping he'd come to the door, and sure enough, he did. We would have been about, I don't know, younger 20s about that time. And I can't talk like people from South Carolina. He comes to the door and he says, Law, have mercy. You kids get in this here house. Well, nobody's called me a kid for a long time either, but you're welcome. And so we came in to sit down and we talked for a little while. And he said, now what brings you kids out here? I said, Brother Wolf, we came out here to thank you for faithfully preaching the word of God to a young sailor and his wife. We learned a lot. And then he took off on something else. And then he said, a little bit later, he says, now what brings you kids out here? He did. And I said, you know, my wife was right there. Why don't they believe them more than they believe us? Second time, you know, and I said, Brother Wolf, we came out here to thank you for preaching to us faithfully for those three years we were in this church. He took off on something else. And boy, God's my witness, and my wife, Third time. Now, what brings you kids out here? I said, Brother Wolf, look at me. He looked me right in the eye. I said, we came here for one thing, to tell you thank you for faithfully preaching the word of God. I saw a tear kind of in his eyes. He never did cry, but I just saw him wet. And we came back the next day, and we visited and so forth, and then we went home. And it wasn't but a few months. Someone told us Brother Wolf's going on to his reward. He said, what's some of the best trip you ever took? Well, I've been a lot of places close on to about 40 countries, as a matter of fact. You want to know about the best trip? We have 100-mile drive. Charleston, South Carolina. Tell an old Baptist preacher, thank you for preaching the Word of God faithfully to me. Can't wait till we see him in heaven, Pastor. In these days, it'll be great. Let's all stand. Now I just want to mention one more statement. Would you look at me? We're going to have an invitation in a moment, and I don't know if you need to do anything or not, but I want to mention this to you. If today God takes everything and everybody from you that you haven't thanked him for, what are you going to have left? And how important is it to you? Father, thank you for the faithfulness of your people today. What a good group to be with. Pray now for the invitations. Maybe someone needs to be saved. Maybe someone just needs to say, you know, I haven't been as thankful as I should be. God's been so good. Just want to talk to you about it. Maybe someone needs to give themselves to you for full-time work or something. I don't know. But help us to be thankful for the all opportunities that you give us and have your perfect way in our life. particular invitation time, in Jesus' name, Amen. Just as I am. That's the only way we CAN come is as we are, as He's ready to receive us. of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, Many a conflict, many a doubt, my dreams and fears, with him may howl, It's easy to get to live in life and get most important things, thankful, truly a blessed people. A few things from the bulletin. First of all, I'd ask the Hardees to make their way to the back. I know that you wanna shake your hands, thank them for being here. By the way, we have afternoon service at one. Brother Hardy will be preaching there, encourage you to be back for that. Continue to pray for Lalo and Caitlin. They'll be headed home on Tuesday. Pray for their safety as they come back. My wife and I went to the funeral yesterday, and Caitlin's mom, and they wanted us to express to the church how much they appreciate the contacts, the texts, and those that have been praying for them as they've gone through this time. And so just continue to pray for them as they travel back. And then we have a Sunday School Children's Church teachers meeting on September 10th. That'll be next Sunday afternoon following the afternoon service. And so if you help in those areas or you're interested in helping our teaching, they would love to have you attend that meeting. And then Patch Pirates is gonna start back on September 13th. You need to sign up at the back table. If you have any questions, you can talk to Brother Stephen Foster about it. And it's good to have the Hardees with us. We have John Roy coming September the 17th. Youth Rally this coming Friday at seven o'clock, costs us $5 a team. A sign-up sheet and back table for volunteers. And I'm sure that Brother Lalo will have a meeting about that on Wednesday night. And so we wanna be ready to help there. Men's recharge coming up September 22nd through 23rd. Brother Sam Davison, Brother Alfred King, Brother Chad Berry will be preaching. The cost is $60 and includes a shirt for the guys from the church here. It's always a great time. Last year we had close to 700 men there from all over. They come from Texas and Iowa and Illinois and Colorado and we have some that even come from Washington State. It's just a great time of just men hearing the preacher of the Word of God. It is a good time. I encourage that plan to go. And then we have our revival, September 24th through 27th. You might say, preacher, it sounds like we got a lot going on. We do. September is gonna be a busy, busy, busy month. and in the midst of all that we have a builder coming on Tuesday driving from Texas up to here and so hopefully sometime Wednesday maybe Thursday we're gonna get started on replacing this I know you've got to be like me every time I look at this I think man drywall but just Drywall would look so pretty wouldn't even have to be painted just to have drywall But we're gonna get this fixed up here and then hopefully by the end of the month have it all taken care of and It's just been a long process a lot of that's been dealing with insurance And so forth and it just like nothing happens quick so but we're looking forward to to getting that all repaired. I'm tired of the snow that falls out of the sky right there, because that's not real snow. If it was real snow, it'd be okay. But anyhow, we'll get that all fixed up. That'd be a blessing. Good to be in the Lord's house today. Thank you for coming to be with us. We'll look forward to this afternoon's service. And if you can be here at one, we'll look forward to taking part in that. Brother Stephen Foster, why don't you close us in a word. Father, for this day, the opportunity we have to come and worship you in your house, Lord, I pray that we would never take that for granted. I thank you for the freedoms we have to do that. I pray that you would help us to be mindful of all that you've done for us each and every day, help us to live in a state of thankfulness. And I pray that it would be contagious. And just pray that you would give us a good remainder of the day in your house, pray that you'd help us to listen with open hearts, apply what we've learned in Jesus' name, my friend.