I believe we could go home and say amen. Yeah, man. It's been so good to be in God's house tonight. Russell kept turning to me, he said, is it alright if they sing another? I said, Russell, it's fine. The church needs to be working. It needs to be working. Too many times I think they try to Hope and pray that the pastor and his help bring revival in their pocket. But we've all got to come under the load. I don't believe I'll keep you long tonight. We have just a little thought, maybe just a little bit of scripture. I stood there tonight as you sang I just kept thinking I'm the least among all that are here tonight. I'm not worthy to praise in this mighty number here tonight. A thought that has been on our hearts since this morning is what way are you going? Just a few verses here in Genesis chapter 13, and we might read over there in 1 Samuel just a verse or two. Here in Genesis 13, Abram and Lot, uncle and nephew, had been very blessed by the Lord. Both of them in the land, but all that they had began to be too much for that one little place. The Bible says that in the 6th verse, And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together. For their substance was great, so they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee. And between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. Is it not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. and Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan and that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah even as the garden of the Lord like the land of Egypt as thou comest into Zoar. And Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves the one from the other. And Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Church, we just had it on our mind and our heart all day. Listen, we can't add to what's already been done tonight. We can't add to the preaching last night and this morning, how much we enjoyed that, Brother Justin, that you brought this morning. But church, I believe that we live in a day and time, and this may be for the lost, it may be for the saved, but that people begin to go in so many different directions. and the world out there would tell you that you have so many choices and you can get overwhelmed by so many different things in this life but praise be unto God as y'all sang listen even one of those last ones Abraham and Isaac that you've got an Isaac in front of you of you, Abraham, I only had two choices, to obey God or to not obey God. And listen, I can maybe connect some with Abraham in that time when he thought about his son, that him and Sarah had prayed for a child for such a long time and had been without. Listen, I identify with that story very much. Listen, as y'all sang, and I appreciate what the man said about running and we get ahead of ourselves sometimes. Y'all sang that song, The Goodness of God. And listen, anybody that knows me, especially my wife, she knows that I drive too fast most of the time. And I drive fast because I'm usually running late. But I'll tell you have listened the first the slowest that I've ever driven To my recollection was the day we drove our little boy home from the hospital and on that ride You know what song we played of the goodness of God and we just played it over and over Listen a trip that maybe should have took 20 minutes took a whole lot longer. I drove slow I'll listen to tears run down my face when I think about how good the Lord is And He's good to us. He's good to us even when we're not good to Him. He's good to us when we're not good to Him. You know that? I failed Him a lot of times. And Brother Justin, I appreciated what you said this morning. I listened that you had a time in your life. where you felt like throwing in the towel. And I know I've had several times in my life where I felt like throwing in the towel. Not because, listen, I have stopped believing in the God Almighty, but because I feel like I'm so little and so insignificant. Listen, I would rather just go another way. But listen tonight church, while the world tries to tell you that you can go this way and that way and this way, And you can still reach happiness and joy. I assure you, there's only two choices. And only one way will lead to joy. Only one way leads to love. Only one way leads to heaven. There is only one way. Listen, I want you to understand tonight, church. Listen, the world, they've tried to make everything be more than a two system. More than a by. a partisan system, and I'm not talking politics, but that everything would have so many choices. Listen, God has made some things just very clear. Listen, you're either a sinner undone without God, or you're a sinner saved by grace. Listen, when we close our eyes in death, we either lift our eyes in heaven, or lift our eyes in hell. Listen, there's only male and female. There are some things that there's only two choices. There's only two choices. The world would tell you differently. The world would tell you differently in so many things. And you said, well preacher, we do have a lot of choices. Listen, when you pray to the Lord above, for each of the decisions you make in your life. Listen, He's going to set one choice that He set aside for you. And all the others He didn't. All the others He didn't. I think about the children of Israel. Listen, maybe where we would have read in 1 Samuel where they wanted a king. They wanted to be like every other nation. God said, fine, I'll give you a king. And He gave them Saul. But that was not who the Lord had meant to be the king of Israel. It was meant to be David. So many people in this life, atheists, ones that even may say they're Christian, ones that may take other faiths, they'll try to make themselves their own king or queen in their life. Lord, I've got authority over this. Lord, I want to make and do what's best for me. Lord, I want to accomplish this. Lord, I did this, I did that. All that we have is from the goodness of God. No man can earn salvation through work lest any man can boast. That's not how we earn it, church. Listen, but there was Saul. Saul was a king. David was anointed to be king and Saul was after him. Listen, Brother Justin may mention it last night. David began to hide in caves there in the mountains. We watched one time a little documentary about that and how dark it gets in those caves and how intricate they are and how it could have held all those thousands of men. there with David and those that were with Saul. And how, listen, there one time Saul got in a cave and didn't realize that David was there. And listen, David said, I could fix all of this and kill him right here. Kill the one that's after me. But he stopped. The Bible says that he cut off just part of his robe. And he did it privately. You go back and read that. Listen, it's in 1 Samuel, maybe in the 24th chapter. He did it privately. So many people in this life, they want to be their own king or their own queen. Well, I'll just decide all this. The atheist out in this life would proclaim that there is no God and that everyone can, listen, ultimately, listen, we may come together in a society and come up with a few things that might be good if the majority says so. A majority doesn't make something right. Majority, listen, I know we live in a day and a time where majority wins, but listen, a majority could vote for something evil. We follow the Lord our God and the law that he writes on our hearts. what he writes in his word. Listen, but so many, they think that all of this is insignificant. They think that our lives are not special. They think that all of us are just random. Listen, how they even try to justify the killing of the unborn. They might say that we're all just random blobs of cells. My Bible says that he knew me in my mother's womb. He's known me from the beginning. If we're just random and this all happened by happenstance then where did free will come in? You see this Bible here that we read is historical documentation of the Lord's interaction with His people that we might all strive to have a relationship with Him. There in the Old Testament as you go from Abraham Down through the other heroes of faith you see little interactions that they had with other folks similar to when Jesus was teaching His parables. I believe sometimes some of them, Lord as King David or Abraham himself may have been forerunners for Christ or to teach us about the nature of God. What did Abraham say to Lot? Listen, Lot was his nephew, he loved him. Brought him with him. They both had herdmen, they both had tons of cattle, but their herdmen began to fight with one another. Abram, he hadn't changed yet, he was still Abram, he said, I don't want there to be any strife between us. If you choose the left, I'll go right. If you choose the right, I'll go left. Do you know this tonight? Did you know the Lord's not going to force Himself on you? He's never forced Himself on anybody. Now you might have people that force the Lord on you, but the Lord Himself has never forced Himself on anybody. I believe that was a little bit like Abram with Lot there. Let there be no strife between us. If you go left, I'll go right. If you go right, I'll go left. young people that are here tonight. You know, I had a pastor one time, Brother Steve Jones, he told, I'll never forget this, I was a kid at the time, hadn't gotten old enough to start a dating yet, but I remember something he said. He said, you should never date somebody that you wouldn't consider marrying down the line. And I thought, that's strange. That's strange. When we grow and we're teenagers or people in their 20s, shouldn't we all just have fun? Shouldn't just date whoever you want to? Young ladies out here tonight, would you go with a man that made you date him? that bothered you day in and day out, called or text you every three or five minutes. He just bothered you, stalked you, wouldn't let up, told you how to dress, told you where to go, what you were allowed to do. I don't reckon you would be much interested in him. Young men in here, you wouldn't be very interested in a girl that, Listen, and I'm a guy, I remember growing up dating and sometimes guys be going around, they said, oh, stay away from that one. She's a level five clinger. She's too clingy. And you stray away from things like that that you see. People don't want love to be forced on them. Do you know the Lord our God that formed the foundation of this world? that gave his only begotten son that none should perish but have everlasting life. Do you know he's not going to force himself on you? He's not. I promise. You say, well, my parents make me go to church. Praise be unto God that they love you enough to take you to church. As the older I get, the more and more that I run into that have never darkened the doors of the house of God. That don't know the preached word of God. Praise be unto them that they take you. But listen, it doesn't matter if they drag you to an altar or not. In the end, it is between you and the Lord. It's between you and the Lord. He's not going to force himself. He's not going to force himself on anybody. Let there be no strife. If you go this way, he'll go another way. But his desire, his desire is to love you. Is to let you know he will forgive you of your sins. To let you know he wants you a part of his family. He wants you to have that. David, listen. And people say, well I'm going to make my own future. I'm going to be the ruler of my own destiny. Listen, if you have that attitude, one day after a while you'll lift your eyes in hell. And listen, I'm not saying to worry about the flames. I'm not saying to worry about where the worm doth not. Or where you hear screaming and weeping and gnashing of teeth. Think about this, why would you even want to go to heaven if you didn't want to know God down here? If he's not gonna force himself on you in this life, he's sure not gonna force himself on you for all eternity. He gives you a free choice. You know, that's how I know that we're not just random blobs of sales because we have free will. We have free will. You could have chose to come here tonight. You could have chose to sing along and worship the Lord our God. Praise be unto you tonight church, those of you that followed the Lord and requested this song or listened or came to an altar to pray with somebody or you were burdened down and you came to an altar. Listen, you had a choice in every one of those moments to obey God or to disobey God. That was the only choice. So which way did you go? I'm thankful for the ones that followed the Lord tonight. Makes it a lot easier on the preacher. But people will try to tell you, well, there's so many different ways. There's so many different ways to heaven. That's not what my Bible says. That's not what my Bible says. Jesus said there's a straight and narrow way that leads to the gate of glory. But there's a wide way, so many different ways that lead to destruction. Jesus tried to prepare his disciples. Where are you going to go if we're going to meet up with you again? How will we meet up with you if we don't know the way? Jesus said a statement that couldn't make it any more clear. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Jesus is the only way. Jesus is the only way. You could come to an altar and be saved, or you could turn it away. You can hang on to that pew and say, no, this ain't for me. You could go home and say, no, this ain't for me. But I'll tell you this. You know, when David was in that cave, and this is just how the Lord showed it to me earlier today. When David was in that cave, and he was the one that was supposed to be the king of Israel, he represented, I believe, God just in that very moment that he cut Saul's robe. And I'll tell you why the Lord showed it to me this way. He was showing Saul when Saul left the cave and he waited a minute and came out of the cave. He shouted out to Saul and let him know that he had cut some of his robe to let Saul know you were this close to death. You were this close. I could have taken you then. How many times have you been that close? How many times have you been that close to death? Church, whether we each and all know it or not, we're all just one breath away from death. We're just one breath away from eternity. But the Bible says that He cut it away privily. He did it privately. Do you know when the Lord starts dealing with you and talking with you in your heart? It's just between you and Him. It's just between you and Him. I can't see into the minds or the hearts of the people. Brother Russell, Brother Justin can't see into the minds or hearts of the people. Now we know, listen, those that maybe we've heard a testimony from or those we don't haven't heard a testimony from. I don't know the vast majority of you tonight. But a good tree bringeth forth good fruit and a bad tree don't bring good fruit. But which way are you going tonight? Which way are you going tonight? I told you we'd be brief. That's just a little thought that the Lord's had on us tonight. As they might come with a verse of a song, I've enjoyed this tonight. I can't believe, but what, it's only Monday night? Church, we've got so many more nights to work and worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. But as they come with a verse of a psalm tonight, has anybody's robe been cut privately tonight? Has anybody's robe been cut? Has the Lord let you know that you are this close to death? Has the Lord let you know that you could either go this way or that way? because He doesn't desire to have strife between you and Him. He's not going to force you to come to Him. And you know Lot, he chose that land over there near Sodom, the land of the plains over on the other side of Jordan because it was well watered. It was beautiful. It looked like the gardens of the Lord. It looked like what had once been luscious in Egypt, the Bible says. But it wasn't as good on the inside as what it looked like on the outside. It was filled with wicked men and women that were doing awful things that people still do today. And it was wickedness before the Lord. And you might think, well, I've chosen a good thing. It looks good on the outside. It looks good enough for everybody else to see. It looks pretty. But have you chosen the good way that the Lord has provided for you to have? Have you chose the good way? The Lord does not have desire to have strife with you tonight, and He won't force Himself upon you. As Russell and Justin come tonight, join us, that we might stand and sing a verse of a song, church. I don't need to open an altar. The altar's been open all night. You've had all opportunity. But are you this close? Are you this close? as we see.