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ట్రాన్స్క్రిప్ట్
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I'm not gonna preach anything you don't know already. I hope I can remind us of some things. Now, what I want you to do for a while, just turn over and see this blank page? Just use this blank page for a while. Turn it over and I want you to write some things down on there today on the blank page, and we'll get into that. I'll start off my message today. A fellow one time, there's a track of timber come up for sale. Well, not for sale, actually just come up to be cut. track of timber come up to be cut. Always a good, one of the best tracks of timber in the country. And a fella, their loggers is about as thick as preachers. and sawmills about as thick as preachers, and auctioneers as a dime a dozen. But anyway, this certain fella, he didn't get this track of timber, and boy, he got mad. And I'm telling you what, somebody told me, a relative of his told me, said, Reggie, they stayed up at night. They was so mad about that. They was so upset about that. I remember one time there's a fella had an auction years ago and I was doing lots of auctions and guy didn't hire me. And I'll tell you what, I kind of got off all fussy about it and aggravated about it. And my wife said to me, Reggie, she said, God knows the ones you need. Might be he didn't. You might be better off without that. You don't know that. And how many of here's ever gotten mad because something didn't go the way you thought it ought to go? Oh, it was this morning for breakfast, wasn't it? You heard about the man, didn't you? He was griping about everything. And I know I told this not too long, but his wife, she decided she'd fix him breakfast in bed. And she said, well, what would you like? He said, I'd like to have two eggs and bacon and toast. And so anyway, she fixed it next morning, brought it to him in bed. And he looked at it and said, if this ain't the awfulest mess I ever seen in my life, he said, I told you I wanted one of them. Anyway, he had told her, he said, one scrambled and one over easy. And she said, well, I fixed it just like you said. He said, you scrambled the wrong egg. Boy, I mean, they're just some people. You ain't going to make them happy. I don't care what you do. If you pave their driveway with gold, it ain't going to be paved just right. But you know what? It's not everybody else's upsetness that I need to worry about. It's Reggie's upsetness. And if you're not careful, you're not resting in life. I'll tell you something bothers me now. I'm concerned about it. American people living on pills. They're going to shrinks. Boy, I tell you what, I've been thinking about changing my profession. Be a shrink, you can make good money. Just sit there and talk to people like there's a dog or a puppy or something. They'll just pay you $200 an hour. Tell them how bad it was when they was little and all that kind of stuff. I mean, you just talk to them and sit there and go, oh, my. My, my, my. That's too bad. That's sure sad, isn't it? And they don't tell. But people's messed up. Everybody's edgy. How many's heard of road rage? Boy, I'll tell you what now. I mean, there'd be some wild road rage. I mean, people jumping out of their vehicles and shooting each other and all kinds of... What in the world would happen out on the street because somebody jumped out and shoot somebody? You know what it is? You know why everybody... When's the last time you got irritated, ticked off? Us hillbillies call it ticked off. Fancy folks calls it irritable. We say we're ticked off. When's the last time you got ticked off? Anybody want to tell me when's the last time you got ticked off? Been so long you don't remember, isn't it? Anybody wanna... Hey, you're at church. We can take the mask off. Let's be real now. Brother Don's in? Oh, okay. Sheila... Amen. Amen. Stuff is supposed to work. Oh, Don, you really settled the situation down. I'm sure you did. Okay, and I agree with her. You buy something, you give $500,000, $600,000 for something, you take it home, it ought to work. Amen, it ought to work, it ought to work. If it don't work, everything ain't working. When's the last time somebody else got upset about something that didn't go right? Yes? Don't even go there. Yeah, and I'm telling you, it's broke down up at St. Louis. Sorry, low-down piece of trash, ain't it? Expensive low-down, sorry, piece of trash, okay? Yeah, way back there. I tell you what, that's aggravating, ain't it? I'm telling you what right now, that's it. And that's life, ain't that the truth? I mean, I want to tell you something. I don't like coming to church. We're not going to come in here and put a little plastic religious deal around us and act like we don't have no troubles. We don't ever get irritated. We don't ever get, nothing ever goes wrong. Hey folks, it goes wrong most of the time. And Jesus knows that. Your Lord knows that. You come to church to worship Him this morning. Your Heavenly Father knows that. He talks to us in Matthew chapter 11. If you're there, Matthew chapter 11. Oh, this here has been a favorite verse of the saints of God's people down through the ages. Matthew 11, chapter 28, verse, chapter 11, verse 28 through 30. This has been the saints of God, one of their anchor verses for centuries. This is a verse that good Christian people have laid to their heart. and have taken before the Lord. And when they didn't feel like they could take anymore of it, they'd go to this passage of scripture. And you know, this morning, how many has ever had things said about you, ended up said about you? You heard so-and-so said something. Does anybody besides me get irritated at that? Thank you, Sister Diane. Lord, there's one on us. Anybody heard anything said about you and it wasn't right and it was derogatory or demeaning or demonizing and it kind of got your goat? That's another thing we use. Thank you, we always appreciate that. It bothers us, don't it? And if you know what, if we're not careful, we're just stirred up all the time. We're just stirred up all the time. My wife, I don't know what it is. I don't know whether she internalized it. I've been married to her 40 years and I ain't got it figured out yet. When the Bible said dwell with your wife according to knowledge, that's beyond me. I can't figure, you know, but what I'm saying is she just don't get all upset. I can be bouncing off the roof, you know, and she just kind of sitting there. You know, just everything's fine. And I, boy, I tell you what, and then that makes me mad, because she's not mad too. Boy, that's a pitiful situation. Then you really got something going. Then she wonders, why am I upset at her? What did I do? And we're all made a little bit different. Her family, they're just kind of different. Their stuff just don't bother them. I mean, she would tell me about her. She grew up in a family of eight kids. And one of those kids might get hurt. And her mom would just kind of like, well, you'll get over it. Other people would be in the car running to the hospital. People's different. But you know something I'm gonna tell you, the devil, he'll figure out how to get to you one way or another if you ain't careful. If you're not careful, you're not sleeping good, things is bothering you, eating on you, eating you up. And I'm glad we've got a faith, we got a Savior, we got a Bible that tells us about this stuff. Look what it said in verse 28. Jesus said this, now this is Jesus speaking to you, come. Unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. And folks, I believe right here is one of the greatest things we'll ever learn as a Christian. Are you looking at your Bible? How many looking at your Bible say amen? Right, you better get this. This is what he said, for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall, not might, ye shall find rest under your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I've said it before. Man, I'm not joking you. I'm kind of an emotional type person, and I've been preaching a long time. Shoot, I'll tell you what. I hadn't been preaching just a few months. And some folks came to me with the little old church down here in the country. And some folks came to me that I dearly appreciated and loved, good folks. They said, Reggie, we just don't feel right about something we know. We feel like you need to know it. I said, well, what is that? They said, you've got some people in church working against you bad. bad and they're going around you, they're going around your back and they're trying to stop what the church is doing and we just, we know what's going on and we don't want to cause trouble but Reggie we just feel like there's trouble. And I had to deal with that just, just got started pastoring, not very long, had to deal with that and boy I mean it didn't turn out very well and boy you know it just, we were home that night and didn't sleep very good and Down through the years, lots of battles and so forth, and you get upset if you're not careful. See, it doesn't have to be out in your workplace or your home. It can be a church. It can be a lot of places. But I'm going to tell you something that I want for me and I want for you. And I'm not going to preach a long time today, but I want you people to have rest in your souls that this world doesn't know anything about. Now, I want to tell you another thing. If I didn't believe this book meant what it said, I'd get out of this pulpit. I ain't playing preacher games with you. Everybody's going to have some contention. Everybody's going to have some problems. Everybody's going to have some things hit them. It ain't going to be easy. But I am telling you something. If I don't believe with my heart that as a Christian man, that I have a Bible and a Savior and a Heavenly Father that's got the truth about this matter, then I'm not going to play the game. What he tells us here is real. Went down through years, had a lot of problems. Man alive, you talking about, if y'all want to do something fun, go start a church and then start a Christian school and try that on for a while. Try that on for a while. And try it on for a while. Everybody getting mad at each other because their child they think has been done wrong at school, and the teacher don't like my kid, and they accuse my kid of cheating, and on and on and on it goes. And then they all walk in on church Sunday morning. They're sitting there like they're throwing knives at each other. Don't even look at me. Don't look at me. Don't look at me. And you're sitting there trying to figure out, man, life, what in the world are we going to do? People, you know, I mean, good grief, life. And I don't know where you're at or whatever, but I'll tell you this, everybody's going to have it one way or another. The devil's going to make sure you get a fit thrown at you somehow or another. Well, our Lord said, for these problems, he said, come unto me. Now, first of all, he said, come. I want to tell you something. God's not a driver. He's a shepherd. And a shepherd leads. And I mean that. I don't have a Lord that drives me. Oh, I think once in a while He puts a little something in my way to get me to go the right way. But you know, God wants to lead you. He said, come. I want to tell you, number one, it's going to be voluntarily for you. You're going to have to want to come to Him. And He said, come unto me. Now watch this carefully. He didn't say, come to Reggie. Reggie loves you. Reggie wants the very best for your home and your marriage and your family. I'm telling you right now, there ain't nobody sitting in this church house that ever has sat in this church house, but what I wanted you to keep your marriage together, wanted you and your wife to love each other, wanted your kids to serve the Lord, wanted you to be blessed in your work and your labors and so forth, I want you to be happy. But I'm going to tell you something. You can bring everything in the world you've got to Reggie, and it ain't going to get fixed. But like Brother Blair said this morning in prayer, he said, come unto me. Jesus said, come unto me. He didn't say, come to the church or the denomination or the psychiatrist or the Christian counselor. Now, I mean what I'm preaching this morning. We need to get back to the old time, coming to Jesus with the trouble. Where could I go but to the Lord? Oh, where could I go but to the Lord? Oh, Christianity's not that complicated, folks. We just need to get back to taking our burdens to the Lord. Cast your burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. Cast in all thy care upon him, for he careth for thee. Now, here's what happens this morning. Jesus walked up there. He got up there after he'd prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. He told his disciples to get up. He said, they're coming. And there's a fellow come by the name of Judas, and he'd been following Jesus around for a long time. And you know what Jesus called him? He said, friend. And I read that and I say, I don't know about that now. I don't know about that. Lord, that's a hard saying. Who can hear it? The man that's going to betray him with a kiss? And he walks up to Jesus and Jesus calls him friend? Let me tell you what Jesus understood is that God is sovereign. Judas was doing what had to be done in the sovereign counsels of God, and he knew that in a real and honest way, Judas was a friend because he was helping to accomplish the divine will of God because Jesus was the Lamb of God offered before the foundation of the world. And Judas was prophesied in the book of Psalms exactly what he would do to our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to tell you something. It's a strange friend. It may be a strange friend to you that God allows to irritate the life out of you, but that causes the will of God to be done in your life or causes you to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ in ways that you'd have never grown. Now, I'm telling you this morning, this is easy preaching and hard living. But I want to be honest with you, it's the irritations, the problems, the pain, the sorrow that's caused me to grow more in the Lord than anything else. It's that irritation, it's that upsetness, and sometimes it's that when I had a fit of anger and blew my top and all this kind of stuff and realized, God, listen, you've got to work on me. And I want to tell you something. You know, there's some people I want to pastor. There's a certain kind of person I want this church to be, and that's a broken church. I do not want to pastor a hard, calloused, religious, proud church. I want to pastor broken people. Broken people are pretty easy to pastor. They don't come with many expectations. They don't come with agendas. They just come saying, Lord, we need you. Broken people, the Holy Ghost of God, can flow through their souls. Someone has said in the past that the Spirit of God flows through the cracks of a broken soul. God has to break us, and He uses people and situations and things like that that irritate us and upset us. And like Donnie said, He uses broken trucks and broken cars and broken chains. Oh, I had a wild deal yesterday. I'll tell you, we're talking about 64 years old and stupid. I could write a book on it, 64 years and stupid. I'm not even going to tell you what it is. This is stupid. But he said, come unto me, not unto everything else. Let me tell you something this morning. I'd encourage you, take your burdens to the Lord. Take your troubles to the Lord. Take your sorrows to the Lord. He really does care. I'm going to be honest with you. I've went to him a thousand times. My Lord has never said, Reggie, I'm too busy for you. Or you've sinned too bad this time, Reggie. I'm not interested in hearing you. He's always there. Always serve a good God. You're here this morning in church. There's so much going on in your life. You can't even hardly hear what the preacher's saying. I heard a wonderful testimony. I believe it was old Billy Kelly. I put him on my Facebook. And he said something about when the preacher's preaching, he don't even know what he remembers. He don't even remember what he's preaching. He just remembers God getting a hold of his heart. Man, when he said that, I said, that's just like the night I got saved. I could no more tell you what was preached that night in the man in the moon. But oh, there was a preacher inside my heart and inside my spirit that was a preacher. And he was talking to me. And the wonderful thing about it was, it let me know that God was interested in me. And you may be here this morning and you know, you think, well, it's just all this going on and stuff. I'm telling you that your God, the God of this Bible, he's interested in you and he wants to help you. And I don't know where you're at spiritually, but then he said, come unto me all ye. Now, boy, I like that word all, because that includes everybody. That means everybody over on that section, that section, that section, that section, that section, and that section, and everybody listening, and anybody who's willing. He said, anybody can come to me. You may be a teenager here today, and it just seemed like nothing's going like you thought it ought to go, like you wanted it to go. And it seems so unsure, and you just seem like it's nothing working out like you thought it ought to be. But I'm telling you what, God wants you to come to Him. You may be a child here today. You may be four, five, six years old. I'm glad it didn't say, well, if you get to be such and such age or this situation here, but He said, all ye. And He said that labor and are heavy laden. But I want to tell you something, we can be labored in a lot of things, heavy laden about a lot of things, but here's what I like, and I'm not going to chase that rabbit trail, but this, I will give you rest. I will give you rest. Now, I'm not preaching off the side of my head, not preaching somebody's little three-point outline. I'm preaching you something from my heart. My God gives me rest. My Lord gives me rest. I'm so at rest right now. I have such peace in my heart. You say, Reggie, ain't you got things throwed at you? You wouldn't want to know them. But they're not important to you because what your problems, your trials, and your situations are important to you. But I'm going to tell you something. I know this verse works. This verse is true. I have rest in the Lord. Then he said this, take my yoke. Oh, Ralph, I can't ever keep all you kids' names straight. I can't. You can't either? Amen, that big old tall strapping one there, the one right, no you right there. And that pitiful, I can't think of his, Andrew. Andrew, would you come here just a second please? Would you care to help me preach a little bit? I'm gonna show you something, now watch this. Andrew gonna be the Lord, and I'm gonna be old Reggie, sorry Reggie. Now Andrew, I want you to throw your arm, right arm around my neck. All right, right, yeah, just, yeah, he did it, didn't he? All right, let's do it about like this right here, okay? Now, the reason I'm gonna show you something, I'm gonna show you a yoke. One of the key words in this whole passage of Scripture is the word yoke. And we don't know much about that same like these days, but even in our, I like old ox yokes. Ox yokes kinda look like this right here, and you put two yokes in them, and that's what, my arm's gonna be one yoke and his arm, but now he's Jesus, all right? Now, Jesus said, watch, he said, Reggie, I want you to take my yoke upon you, all right? You take my yoke upon you. Now, there's something happens when you do that. Now, here's what, I'm gonna tell you a little something about Jesus. He ain't following Reggie around everywhere. And if I try to make Jesus follow me around everywhere, it's gonna get really rough on me. It's gonna make a lot of sore spots on me. It's gonna make me very, very irritated all the time. If I'm constantly trying to get Jesus to go where I don't wanna go, or he's taking me somewhere and I'm pulling like this all the time, all the time, all the time, pulling on the yoke. See, if I'm doing that, I am not, in the honest sense of it, taking his yoke upon me. But if I really and honestly take his yoke upon me, when he takes off, I'm just going to go with him. You see, let me tell you a little something about horses, mules, or oxen that's in yoke. There's always a lead horse. There's always a lead ox. There's always a lead mule. And one of those mules has got to be surrendered to the other, and one of them's a leading. There's never been such a thing in this world as two ox that's going to both go where they want to go. One of them, if they're going to do anything, if they're going to get anything done in life, if they're going to live life without constant irritation, they have to yield to the yoke of the leader. Now I'm telling you, you say, Reggie, I'm wanting some rest. Let me tell you when Reggie don't get rest. The Lords are trying to go that way, and I'm pulling this way. The Lords are pulling that way, and I'm pulling this way. Can I tell you something? You're not going to pull the Lord. You're just going to make your shoulders and neck soar as a bull. You ain't going to get no rest. You're going to be upset all the time. Now watch this. Now watch this. Just forsake them. This is Christ and the church. Christ pulling, the church said, no, we're going to go this way, Lord Jesus. We're going, no. Church is going to be sore. You got a marriage. Husband, I'll play the wife, OK? Just keep your distance. I'm going to play the wife. Now, how'd God set the yoke in marriage up? Husband's the leader. So you got a husband, he's trying to leave, and you say, he don't know what he's doing, Lord. I'm pulling on him. Lord knows he's dumber than a box of rocks. You don't have to tell God how stupid men are. God's well acquainted with them. OK? But I'm telling you, but ladies, please listen to me. You say, Reggie, my husband's just making these decisions. I'm telling you. Oh, I'm telling you. And you're going to be the sorest, sorriest thing to live around there ever was. Because you're sore. You're hurting. And the reason you're hurting is because you're not got his yoke upon you, okay? That make a little bit of sense? But going back to the thing where Christ and you as a believer, the Lord said, I had a deal here a while back. I run across a machine that I thought was the slickest thing I thought I'd ever seen in my life. And I'll tell you what this machine did. It took sawdust and made wood bricks. I'm telling you what, because I've always said anybody never figure out how to take sawdust to make wood out of it, they're going to get rich. Or so I thought. And I found this machine made in Germany, and the sawdust just goes down to it, and it's got this 31,000 pound plunge to it. And it comes out, and it turns out bricks like that. I mean like that, sawdust bricks. And they're burning them all over Europe. It's taking Europe over. And I thought, oh, I'll be one of the early ones in America. And you know, I just, now you pull that way. I said, Lord, I want that machine. Lord, I want that machine. Lord, I want that machine. I want that machine. And you know what, I decided one day, but in my spirit, Brother Glidden, something just kept saying, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh. And I kept telling the Lord, eh, eh, eh, eh. But finally one day, two of my boys said something to me, and I could tell there's a caution in my boys' heart. Well, I got a sample of it, put it in the back of my truck and forgot I'd put it there. And guess what happened? It rained. And I walked to the back of my truck, because I was telling the Lord, I said, Lord, you got to show me, you got to tell me if this is the wrong thing for me to do. It just seemed so, I had the buildings for it, all the empty buildings. I mean, it's like I had the exact place where this machine was set and everything, I could just see it in my eyes, everything. But I just couldn't get peace about it. I kept pulling. It's like, Lord said, and boy, I mean, I come within that much of ordering it twice. And it ain't cheap. And, but Brother Matt, I walked up the back of my pickup the day after it rained. I forgot about putting them in there. And guess what I looked in there and saw? Those sawdust bricks, it looked like they had cauliflower ears. And then I went and seen a big one where they'd wrapped one, and I found out they had to wrap them 42 times in 40 different ways to keep the moisture out of them, so they'd be good to market. And the Lord was, and now what's what would have happened? If I'd have bought that machine, now I might someday, the Lord would show me how to figure it all out, and I'm comfortable with it, but the Lord was showing me, and if I'd have done that, then I'd have had this expense, and I'd have spent all that money, see, and doing all that, and doing all this, and out there, and boy, you talk about a rough neck on my, whoo. You see, if I just turned and said, Lord, until you say, yes, we ain't moving, I don't get near sore. But you know how sorry I am? I get sore if I ain't sore. Because I get sore about God not letting me get sore. Does that make sense? I won't do it, you know. I'm just saying, I'll tell you what, he's a pretty good old horse right there. He'd pull your lawn if he wanted to. He'd been pretty easy on me. Andrew, thank you. I don't want to apologize to you. I know you like I ought to know one of my boys. And I look at these kids in this church, and I can't call their names. And I guess it's the ways of the Lord to keep me humble. But I ask you to forgive me, and I mean it. Maybe I'll do better next time. Well, anyway, he said, take your yoke upon. If you want to get rest, you just get the Lord's yoke upon you. Now this is what he said. He said, how's this work? Watch, watch it. We said verse 29, my yoke upon you learn of me for I'm meek and lowly in heart. Now the word meek means yielded rights. It means you've yielded rights. It means I had a right. I had a human right to do this. But it didn't get to do it. And here's the whole deal. Lord, I had a right. Lord, I had a right. God says, yield those rights. You know why they're having road rage? You go out right here on this down, off this off-ramp, and it says something. There's a sign at the end of the off-ramp. What's it say? Yield. Do what? Go fast, okay? It says, yield. I'm going down through there with my Volkswagen Rabbit. Here comes a great big Peterbilt truck. And there's two of them running side by side down both sides of the lane and I get my Volkswagen Rabbit and I say, I'm telling you, dude, you better get out of the way because I'm coming on whether you like it or not. I've got a right to be on this highway. Yeah. And I'll tell you, I look at that Peterbilt and I say, you better get out of the way, big boy. You're going to wish you had him. while that little Volkswagen rabbit hit his front tire and I'll go into spin world. But that's what we're doing all the time. We're telling God and everybody else, get out of my way, get out of my way. And if I can't have it my way, I'll tell you it's my way or the highway. and we're pulling against the yoke and we're upset and irritated all the time and everything's gonna go bad. Well, he said meekness. So now this comes to where, and he said another thing, my burden is light. I never will forget, I've told this a thousand times, probably from the pulpit. Somebody said, Reggie, I've been here a long time. He said, all you're doing is preaching stuff you preached 20 years ago. That's right, you got it, amen. I don't know anything new. I'm trying to preach the Bible, but I will say this. I got so heavy one time in the ministry, I went up, walked up the stairs of my house and the other stairs up there, got my face on the floor and said, God, if you don't do something inside me, I'm done. I can't bear this anymore. I can't take it anymore. The fussing, the fighting, the discontent, the griping, the groaning, the fuss, I can't take it anymore. I'm, and I was like Moses in the wilderness leading the children of Israel, murmuring and complaining. And I got on my face and I said, God, you don't do something. And it's like a recorder started going off in my head. This is honest truth, not exaggerating a bit. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. And finally, I said, Lord, I've preached on that two or three times. What are you trying to tell me? He said, I'm trying to tell you my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And what you're packing around is yokes everybody put on you. Now, some of you figured out I'm a sorry pastor. Let me tell you, you're right. But there's one thing I don't do. I don't let you put yokes on me. And you don't need to let me put a yoke on you. It's his yoke that's easy, and it's his burden that's light. Oh, they've been having good services over at the jailhouse. But if every Sunday night I said, now, Terry, don't y'all forget to go to jailhouse Wednesday night. And I just jumped on and kept on them all the time, all the time, just kind of browbeating them. Well, you mean there wasn't no more saved than that? What are you guys doing over there anyway? I'm trying to make life miserable. I'm going to tell you something. You have got to get to where it's his yoke and it's his burden because his yoke is easy. And sometimes, can I tell you a little something? Listen to me really sharp right here. Sometimes you've got to unbuckle yokes you've let other people put on you and you've got to unbuckle burdens that you've let other people or that you put on yourself. You can load yourself up and hook yourself up to stuff that's wearing you out, tearing you up, and making your life miserable. You better make sure this morning when you leave this church house that it's his yoke that you're yoked up with, and it's his burden you're carrying, because if it's not, you're going to get in tough shape. Now, there's some people in the Bible of meekness. Meekness is yielding your rights. Now, I'm going to tell you right now, Reggie's got a choice. He can either be meek or mad. You don't get to pick it, but you're going to be one or the other. You're going to be meek or mad. But I want to tell you there's some people in the Bible, Abraham. Here we go. Abraham, man of war, brought Lot up from a child, his nephew. Lot comes up there and his herdsmen are striving. You know what Abraham does? He takes the initiative. He's the father of faith. He said this. He got Abel, Lot down there, he said, Lot, he said, we be brethren, let there be no strife between us, I pray. You take the right hand, I'll take the left. You take the left hand, I'll take the right. That is meekness, not demanding which way you gotta have it. Just be willing to let, we be brethren, let there be no strife between us, I pray thee. I have literally told people that in this church, who got mad at me, irritated at me, couldn't make them happy. I've had to say, listen, it's evident I can't be your pastor. I can't make you happy. There's nothing I can do that you like or that you're satisfied with. And the best thing probably would be if you go one way and I'll go another and we'll just, you know, do the best we can. I'm just being honest with you. There's just sometimes you, you know, listen, you just got to, but it don't always work that way. Sometimes you got to yield your right. It's like in marriage, you can't say, well, you go to the left and I'll go to the right. No, no. Somebody is going to have to do some yielding in marriage sometimes. yielding. But Abraham did that, and Abraham is the father of faith. And he said, Lot, you take. No, Lot, he took what looked good. No, Abraham, he took what was left. But I'm going to tell you, you watch what I tell you. Now, the Bible said in Matthew chapter 5, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Did you know who inherited the land after that deal? Abraham got it, the man who was meek, the man who was lowly in spirit, the man who was willing to give it up. I mean, it's fighting for everything and scrapping for everything, and life will get you in trouble. So there's these people of meekness. There's Joseph. Joseph was meek. He let God. He just gave it to God down there in Egypt. He just gave it to the Lord. He had a right to not be in prison. He had a right not to be a slave. But you know what made him have a good attitude in the midst of it? He gave up his right to freedom. Paul was in the prison and Paul was rejoicing in it. Again, I say rejoicing. Why? Because he'd given up his right Do you think Paul was put in prison for just causes? No, just for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then there's Moses. The Bible said he was the most meek man upon the face of the earth. Boy, I'd read that and I'd wonder about that, because Moses could get ticked off. But I'm going to tell you, you follow his life. Moses yielded his right. The Bible said he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He gave up the right to be the king of Egypt, the pharaoh of Egypt. He gave all that up, all that palace, and all that pomp, and all that wealth, just to serve the Lord, to be with the people of God. He said, I'd rather have the affliction of the people of God than have all that junk. And then there's Jesus. He yielded everything. He said, the birds of air have nests, and the foxes have holes, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And we think sometimes we've got to have this, and we deserve this, and Lord, why don't I have this, and Lord, why don't I have that? You know, I look at Americans today, and I'm telling you right now, I've been to countries where they live in thatched huts, and I don't want to live in one, but it seems to me like they're just as happy or happier than people who live in big houses. I mean, there has to be something there about what we think we deserve, our expectations. The Bible said about the meek people. Now, I'm going to give you a message. I'm going to try to get it done real quick, but I'm going to give it to you. Reggie Kelly wants to be more meek. Now, I don't know what you all are going to do with this message, but that's why I'm preaching it, because I want to be more meek, man. I want to be more meek. I want to be more lowly in heart. I don't want to go around saying I've got to have it all my way all the time. That's my goal. Brother Bradley, I want rest in my soul. I don't want to be agitated all the time. I don't want to be upset all the time. I don't want to be irritated all the time. I want rest. I want rest. I want some peace and quiet, tranquility, even in the midst of the storms. Jesus was sleeping in the And the rest of them are up there going, ah! He's sleeping. He's resting. You know what? We've got a turbulent nation right now, very turbulent. We're going to live in turbulent times. We need some rest in our people. We need to see that we have a peace with God that passes all understanding, that we have a rest in our soul, that we have a reason for the hope that lies within us. You know something? I don't want my kids growing up just constantly irritated about everything. I don't want them popping pills. Jesus left his home in glory. He should have been worshipped, but he was mocked and spit upon. He gave up his right to be liked, to be admired, to be worshipped, to be appreciated. Let me tell you the happiest day that ever came to me in the ministry was when I gave up my right for anybody to like my preaching, for anybody to like me. There's a freedom in that you cannot imagine. It's not that I don't care. It's just that I don't feel like I have the right for anybody to really show up. Have you noticed I get up here and browbeat you if you don't show up to church? I don't do that hardly, do I? Some of you think, well, he don't care. I didn't show up and he didn't come see me. I'm probably not going to come see you. Maybe I should. But if you ain't got enough love of God in your heart to get you to church, what am I going to do to fix it? If you're gonna have to have somebody babysit you from here to glory and burp you every two weeks, I'm sorry. I wasn't raised that way. I didn't have a pastor half the time I was growing up. Now I went to church every Sunday. That's probably a lie. I probably had more than half, but a lot of times we didn't. Just somebody filling in most of the time. Nobody come down to our house and said, now, Mr. and Mrs. Kelly, is there anything we can do for you? We'd go to hospital. No pastor showed up. We'd be sick. No pastor showed up. You know what? It was kind of good, Brother Al, because it just made us put our trust in the Lord and not in men. Now, I'm not saying that a pastor shouldn't visit, and that's not at all what I'm trying to say. But I'm going to tell you right now, I had to get to where whether people liked the message or didn't like the message, whether they liked me or didn't like me, agreed with me or didn't. I don't have a right for you all to come and listen. God has a right for you to come and worship, but I don't have a right for you to listen or to say you like it. And I couldn't get any rest until I got there. You know, you ought to want to do what your boss wants and try to do a good job at your deal, but you're going to be working unto the Lord and not unto men. Then you can rest about it, not worry about what happens. The Bible's got promises. Not only people make these promises. He said, you'll eat and be satisfied. He said, the meek will eat and be satisfied. God will give you a satisfied life. God said in Psalms 29, he said, I will guide the meek in judgment. You want to be guided by Lord? He said, I will teach the meek his way. You want to be taught of the Lord? You want to be guided by the Lord? God says, you've got to be meek. You've got to yield your rights. Psalms 37, 11, he said, the meek will inherit the earth. The meek will delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Psalms 7, 6, 9 says that he will save all the meek of the earth. Psalms 147, 6, he lifts up the meek. Psalms 149, he said he will beautify the meek. That's what inward beauty that he talks about. And by the way, you take that straight to 1 Peter 3, where it talks about the inward man with a meek and a quiet spirit. And you say, Reg, that's talking about wives. Yeah, but it applies to everybody. Everybody needs to have a meek and a quiet spirit. Then Isaiah 11, he said, he reproved with equity for the meat. God will keep things right. God will make things right. You know what God is saying in that about reproving for equity? He said, listen, you can settle down. You can take it easy because I am going to fix things in the end. He said, vengeance is mine. I will repay. You don't have to worry about it. Isn't that wonderful? That's how you can rest. Has anybody in here ever been done dirty? Low down, dog dirty. Okay. I'm going to tell you something you don't have to worry about. God's going to take care of it. He tells you his word. He's going to reprove with equity. But he's going to do it for a special people, for the meek of the earth. God says, then you don't have to fight. You don't have to go through that. I'll take care of it for you. Isn't that sweet? That's where I want to get. That's where I want to get. I want to be able to drive and whistle. I want to sing a song. I want to have joy in my heart. Satan's constant deal after you is to steal the joy of the Lord from you so you're bound down. How many raises cattle? How many knows you can have cattle? Some old cows are just nice. They're just trying to get along. You got another old cow and she's crazy. There's nothing you can do for her that makes her happy. She ain't going to stay in nowhere and do nothing you want. Well, God says in Isaiah 29, He said the meek will increase their joy in the Lord. Isaiah 61 said the meek will receive the gospel. Zephaniah said that the meek will seek the Lord. Better think about that one. He said in Matthew 5, they're going to inherit the earth. In Matthew 11, we're going to learn of Christ. We'll be yoked with Christ. We'll find rest of our souls. And God says in 1 Peter, that's an ornament to your soul, a meek and a quiet spirit. It's an ornament to your soul. Now, there's power in meekness. There's rest. I'll tell you something, it takes power to get rest. It takes power to have peace. You say, Reggie, what's the power of meekness? You'll have less stress. Hey, I believe more people are being killed in this country with stress than anything else I know about stressed out about everything. I want to pastor a church where people ain't stressed out. That sound pretty good to you? How many of you have made it so far? Raise your hand. Can I tell you something? Just walk with the Lord. I'm going to go ahead and tell you. Yesterday, I got a tractor stuck. Stupid I mean stupid stupid if my boys had done what I did. I'd get a weapon just that stupid. So I call my boys They're grown That boys I'm stuck. Could you come down and pull me out? So they hook on a pickup truck couldn't pull me out I mean, I'm trying to broke ice in the pond with the tractor is what I did. All right It's called lazy, you know, but anyway. It'd have been all right if I'd went in backwards, but I went in forwards. Well, my weight got up like this, and of course, couldn't get out. Anyway, so they hooked the pickup up. I got the chain down there. It's about a 25, 30-foot chain, and they can't pull it out. So I said, I'll just go get the other tractor. So I go up there at the barn. I get the other tractor, another four-wheel drive tractor. I pull it out. This dude will pull it out. So I get on it, and Zack, he climbs in the cab tractor. And so we went to pull out. Man, I mean, there's just like this concrete ledge in that pond bank that the big tractor tires are just sitting there spinning against. So finally, after four or five deals, I flagged him. I said, we're going to kind of rock it. OK, you're going to pull forward, and then we're going to hit and kind of maybe bounce it out. Only problem was our sequential situation wasn't real good. And I'm doing the pulling, and he had stopped, and I kept going, and that chain popped. This is honest truth. I didn't do it. I thought it broke my hand, literally crushed my hand. The chain flew. I was turned back like I had a steering wheel like this, looking back, had my hand up on the post of the deal. And that chain, this is honest truth. I felt it graze the side of my forehead, just felt it graze. And it hit that hand. And I mean, I thought I had just tore my fingers off. But I had leather gloves on what saved me. That chain popped and hit that. And I mean, now you listen to me, I'm balanced with you. If it had been over three inches, I wouldn't be standing here this morning. That'd be up there in the morgue. It's like getting shot with a piece of steel. And why am I telling this? Anyway, what I'm saying to you is this, is that it helped me and it kind of made me understand, you know, Reggie, and here's the wild part about it, is we're straight on, that chain's straight on to him, straight on to me, middle of the tractor I'm sitting, but it goes to my right, just enough to miss me. And you know, I thought about the Lord's protection. It's like, I could almost, you know, I don't go along with the movie, It's a Wonderful Life, but I like the movie, okay? I know it's got a lot of Catholic theology in it, but you know what I do like? I kind of like the part where this angel, the guardian angel says, you know, he's indicating this guy is hard to deal with. I felt like that yesterday. I felt like my guardian angel was saying, Lord, this guy is so stupid. I have to be with him all the time. I can't even leave him for a minute. He's 64 years old. He gets worse as he gets older. And you know what? And here's the funny thing about it is, literally. For two or three hours, I could still feel that it's just like a wind, just like a touch of my forehead with that chain. It hit that tractor, busted out the lights, knocked my fingers, I mean, Lulu. I can't imagine what it would have done to my stupid head if it had hit it. But you know what I thought about? Brother Matt, I said, if it would have tore my fingers off, it's a good day. Because I'm not in the hospital, and I'm not dead. I'm still able to enjoy my family. You know what was weird? My fingers was hurting so bad. I ain't never hurt so bad in my life. My boys would tell you. I mean, it was the worst pain I ever experienced in my life. And you know what I was thinking about going up to the house when they was taking me up to the house? I ain't going to be able to ride. You know, stupid how you think things like that. But you know what? There was a peace come over me. You know, I believe with all my heart I'd have been in glory land. God would have allowed me to have been killed right there. But it made me have a new appreciation. I'm like, why am I all stressed out about everything? And here's a weird part. I'd been feeding cattle that morning, and I'd got halfway through feeding it, Brother Terry realized, I ain't even prayed yet today, Brother Blair. So I was coming up through there in the tractor, and I started praying. I just said, Lord, I didn't even say hi to you this morning when I got up. I didn't even say good morning. I didn't say nothing. I just started working. Lord, I just want to tell you I love you this morning. Oh, Lord, I appreciate you. You've been so good to me and my family. I started praying for my brothers in the hospital, and I started praying for folks in church. And I was going up through there, and the next thing I know, the Lord put a song in my heart, and I was singing. And then the next thing you know, I about got my hand cut off. But anyway, you know what? There's a peace with God. There's a rest. Things ain't that important, folks. Listen, stuff. Hey, Donnie, can I tell you a little something? I love you, Donnie. 20 years from now, that old truck breaking down ain't going to seem near as serious as it did that day. And I know you're just trying to make a living. And you say, Lord, I can't think, stay together. I'm just trying to make a living. I'm just trying to get a load of wood to somebody. And at the time, it's important to us. But in the long haul, our Lord wants us to trust him. He wants us to trust him. You've got a hand out there. Can I just say further about meekness? The power of meekness is it'll give you better health. You won't be stressed out all the time. Might keep you out of the hospital, amen? By the way, it'll give you respect. People respect people that's meek, but they don't respect people that blow their tops. Is that right? There'll be some honor come with it. By the way, meek people have an influence, a power of influence you have with people. If you're meek, you got influence. You'll have Christ-likeness and you'll have some accomplishment. Now, if you got this handout, we're gonna do this and get out. I'm gonna just run down through it real quick. Number one, in yielding your personal rights, you need to write meekness out there. Identify what irritates you and angers you. Identify what irritates you. I wanna ask you wives, would some of you wives tell me what irritates you this morning? Sarah, what irritates you? Nothing? Hard to think of it right now, ain't it? Tarina, are you hiding back here somewhere? Terina, what irritates you when your kids don't mind? Well, I think you've got it right for your kids to mind. Brother Blair, what irritates you? Why can't everybody at work be as smart as you? Sister Blair, Mitchell, what irritates you? Now, you're fast on the draw. You're fast on the draw. When somebody gave me your name, that's irritating, isn't it? Andrew, does that get you too? What irritates you besides that? There you go. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Mrs. Jones, what irritates you? Huh? When your dishes break. Yeah, that's irritating, because somebody's going to clean it up, and then you don't have a full set. Sister Bradley, what irritates you? and they forget. Listen, you're just gonna have to lower your expectations about all of us people, because we the forgetting kind of people. All right. Sister Becky, what irritates you? Anything? You don't ever act like you're irritated. Oh, we might have tapped into something here. when I feel like I have failed God. Because you see, let me tell you a little secret about what's going on with your loved ones. It ain't just what you're seeing, it's what's behind the door of their soul. Because you see, if I felt like I failed God, and then something does happen a little bit, and I blow up, or it tears me up, or I lose my peace, you're never gonna know it might have been because of what was, the real root cause of it was back here. That situation just occurred with the catalyst that let the cat out of the bag. We could go on, but I wanna encourage you with this handout here, just to look at it, and so you go down through it. Identify what irritates you and angers you, okay? You write Reggie, whatever you wanna write down there. Number two, transfer assumed rights to God. Don't ever transfer your responsibility, but it's assumed rights. I'm gonna be honest with you. Brother Dennis, I just tell you what, right now, my assumed rights is, I think if I go to my drawer, there better be socks in there. there better be underwear in there. And if I go to my closet and there's not a white shirt for Sunday wearing in there, Karen, sometimes we think we just, I mean, you can just figure it out for yourself. Number three, transfer ownership to God. Say, Lord, it's yours. I'm yours. Everything I got belongs to yours. Somebody borrowed your hammer and didn't bring it back. Well, this God's hammer. Let's see, this thing will run rabbit trails for a long way. Lots of things can tick you off. Then thank God for the results. And number five, this is big. Expect God to test your sincerity and your realness about it. It's easy to say, oh, I went to church today and I dedicated this to God. And I said, Lord, I ain't gonna get angry no more about somebody. And then boom. God's gonna test you. He's gonna allow you to be tested. Now, here it goes. Number one, in the center, is your heart. Number one, God wants you to yield things about yourself. Not my will, but thy will be done. Die to yourself. You gotta yield right to me, me, me. Number two, activities. 1 Corinthians 10, 31. Whatsoever ye do, do it the glory of God. Lord, I gotta yield my right. I don't have a right. Can I tell you the truth? I don't have a right to watch anything I wanna watch. I have a responsibility to obey the Lord about that. Number three, dating, courtship, marriage. Psalm 73, 25. Whom I have I in heaven but thee, and there's none upon earth that I desire besides thee. You know, sometimes we think we've got a right to have this or this, that, the other, whatever. And we wonder, Lord, why not? Just have to give it to the Lord. Yield your right. Number four, clothes. Not the outward adorning, but the inner man. I don't have a right to wear anything I want to wear. I have a responsibility to dress as God would have me to represent the Lord. Money. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Where your treasure is, your heart will be. I don't have a right to be loaded or have all the money I think I ought to have. And then there's knowledge. This is a big one. Yielding our right to be smart, as it were. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and his law doth he meditate day and night. And then there's friends. Well, I need to have some friends. He that receiveth you, receiveth me, are those friends, friends that God would be pleased with. Then the music, bring every thought into captivity. I don't have a right to listen to any kind of music I want to listen to. I have a responsibility to listen to music that's pleasing to the Lord. And then future, well, this is a big one. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. His kingdom, my future, our health, my grace is sufficient for thee. You know, sometimes we just got to yield to it. Do I have a right to be healthy? I mean, I look at old Brother Dale, you know, you're just like the Maytag repairman, man. You just keep hanging on and hanging on and hanging on. But sometimes I think, you know, man, if I had to take all the tests and do all the stuff he does, you know, I get a little bit of something like, Lord, why me? If we're not careful, why me, Lord? We're irritated. But you know, the truth about it is I don't really have a right to anything. And then it's a reputation. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his namesake. It's not about Reggie's name, it's about Christ's name. I need to yield that. My dad used to say this, beware of the man everybody speaks well of. Beware of the man. That's in the Bible, by the way. And then time and schedule. Boy, this is a big one. Matthew 20, he that will be greatest among you, let him be servant of all. Oh, I'll tell you what I was thinking about being a veterinarian when I was about 19 years old, until I was laying in bed one night thinking it was snowing outside and there was ice on. And I thought, what if I was to get a call that a man had a cow having a calf and she was down off the side of the hill and I had to get up out of that bed at one o'clock in the morning and go pull that cow. I lost my desire to be a veterinarian that night. But you know something, listen. I maybe have my plans, Brother Bradley, and I get a call and somebody says, Reggie, so-and-so's on the way to the hospital. Did you know what? Brother Terry, I've got to yield my right to go do what I want to do that day. Now, and that may not be every situation, but you know, a lot of times, things are gonna upset your schedule. It's not gonna be just like you think it is. And people's gonna say stuff about you that you don't like. But you know what you say, Lord? I don't have a right for everybody to speak well of me. I don't have a right for everybody to like me. I don't have a right for everybody to shake my hand and invite me over to dinner. I have a responsibility to live for Jesus. Let's stand and go home. What do you say? Somebody say hallelujah. Amen. Amen.
Having Rest in Your Soul
if we aren't careful, we are stirred up all the time. This is not what God wants for us.
ప్రసంగం ID | 12618124960 |
వ్యవధి | 47:23 |
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బైబిల్ టెక్స్ట్ | మత్తయి 11:28-30 |
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2025 SermonAudio.