If you've got your Bibles, turn over to 1 Peter. Did you come hungry this evening? Are you ready for God's Word? Amen? I know Peggy was wondering what I was going to preach on when I posted that on there. Somebody posted something. 1 Peter 2, please. Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile, and hypocrisy and envy and all evil speaking. We've got to lay that all aside. We've got to get it out of the way. As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. You've got to get this stuff out of here if you want to grow in God. Amen. If you want to understand His word. Babies don't start out on cheeseburgers and steak, do they? Hey, Christians, when they're first saved, they don't start out that way on the sincere word or milk of God. That's what we start out on. Some stay longer on milk than others, but you gotta start out with milk to grow. Amen? I had, last Sunday evening, before you even told me y'all was gonna be up Sunday night, I was sitting there looking through the back of my book, or through the back of my Bible, and it didn't make a bit of sense to me then. I don't know why I wrote it down, but I did. It said, eating your way through life. Think about it, you're eating your way through life, good or bad. Some of us eat more than we should, amen? And it's not all good for us. Then Brother Sam told Dad about the melon. Busting that melon back there for whatever it was, peacocks or whatever he had back there. And how they just one come and picked at it. They sat there and was like scared of it. Whole lot of the world is like that today. I don't know about this Jesus thing, but one in a group will come over and try it. And a whole lot of times it's in a family. We've seen that here. One family member will go over and say, I want some of this. Come over and pick it up. He said, man, it's good, and start telling the rest of them, the rest of them, see, hey, this is something good. They all joined in, and we've seen whole families became whole because of that. Hey, because one's gotta step up and take a bite. Amen? Take a bite. Are you willing to step up and take that bite this evening? For your whole family, it's something good. What God's got for us is good. as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby. If so, be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. He is good. He is gracious. He's going to give you what you need at the right time that you need it. Amen. He's going to give you what you need to sustain you through that trial or that tribulation or whatever you're going through at the time. He's right there to give you what you need. He'll give you that milk. He'll give you whatever substance you need to get you through there. Amen? When you go through a heart attack, if you go through cancer, whatever it is, that, He'll give it to you. I didn't want to say nothing. Maddie, was the last Sunday she stood up and sang by herself? I'm going to tell you what, she took from, I'm just making an analogy going from milk, hey, she stepped up to hamburger last weekend. Hey, you know what? She stood up on god the faith of god to get her through it amen and I'm not trying to embarrass her wouldn't do that for nothing but before she's had other people stand up with her and sing if you got someone to lean on a little bit, that's a whole lot. But she stood up on her own because God told her, give her that desire to stand up and say, man, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the thought that, hey, she's stepping out, she's growing. And that's how we grow is when we step out on the faith of what God's telling us to do, that he's gonna get us through it and give us what we need, give us the food that we can grow from it. There's too many, and Brother Jeremy brought it up, there's too many false preachers out there right now that just want to give you candy. Amen? I had one say, man, I love, oh, he didn't tell me, but he told somebody else, I love to listen to them TV preachers. Makes me feel good. Hey, I love to eat candy. I love to eat sweet things. It don't do me a bit of good, does it? A little bit of it ain't bad, all right? But there's a whole lot of times It ain't gonna do you a bit of good, it's bad for you. And if it's bad for you, you shouldn't eat a whole lot of it. That's why when we get up and preach to God, don't give us candy to give out to you every time. Sometimes it steps on our toes, sometimes it hurts a little bit, sometimes it's hard to swallow. But if it comes out of God's book and it's sincere milk of his, hey, choke it down. it'll be good for member that day vegetables all man i was a kid i didn't want vegetables carrots now i love carrots who else heard it care to make your eyes by the old one everybody else heard that all character make you say better i don't know if there's any truth to it or not but i guess sort of a way to get me to eat them but it was good for me even though i didn't like it all the time You take a bite of it, mom and dad say, I guess you take a bite, you're going to try it. It didn't hurt me a bit. But it was stepping out on faith. Well, mom and dad said it was all right, I'll go ahead and try it. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't in the eating department. But when God gives you, tells you to step out, I promise you He's going to be right there with you. And what He has us to do, we don't enjoy it all the time. we don't always enjoy stepping outside uh... you know the devils on the site uh... you're going to talk for you get up there in front of people you're going to start a restaurant it doesn't matter what they'll say so god still gives you something to stand up and say or to stand up in air are set back there in horror and hope they lay it on it i enjoyed that i got a blessing because the sister got a blessing out of it amen that that's what we need to do with step out on faith Take his word and what he says. Don't try to twist it. Don't try to make it fit what we want it to say. Take what it says and go with it. Just that simple. Candy's not good for you. And a lie is not good for you. It may sound real good till you find out it's a false, false religion. And you end up at the gates of hell and say, man, wait a minute, that guy didn't tell me the truth. Why didn't you dig into his milk, into his word, into the gospel and find out what the truth was yourself a little bit, amen? Turn over to John. John six. Are you getting where I'm going with this? We started out on milk, all right? You don't start a baby's out on steak and eggs. You start out on milk, something that you can understand that they can digest. God does the same way. Hey, just grow a little bit. Get your strength up. But you've gotta, hey, when a baby is born, it's been a while for me, but I don't believe a baby wants to be fed every eight hours. Somebody help me out. Isn't it about every two or three hours? They're wanting a bottle, and they'll let you know about it. How come us Christians ain't like that? Hey, we ought to desire, them children desire, they want that milk. They want sustenance, they want something to grow on, brother Tim. Us as Christians ought to want the same thing. Every time the doors open, every time we can get around somebody, and witness to them or talk about church. I don't care if the guys got chain laid after you walk in a store and say, yeah, I want two links of 40 foot or 20 foot chain for dogs. And you get the opportunity to go talking to church to somebody, like I was down at Brother Sam's the other day. That's what you ought to do. Brother Sam didn't care a bit, and he still sold it to me. But I was talking to a young man that had come in here a ways back. I tried to figure out, and I think it was Garrett that was preaching. Didn't know the guy, ended up, I know his dad and his uncles. But he said, he said, I had a New Vision shirt on. He said, you go down there? I said, yeah. He said, you know what, me and my girlfriend at the time were living together. He said, I walked in there, we was looking for a church, and I knew better that we shouldn't be living together. but he said, I walked in there, and guess what? He said some guy with a beard, bald-headed and beard, scruffy beard about like he is, about like you've got, he said, man, he poured it on me. He said he was talking about, shouldn't be living in sin, shouldn't be living with somebody until you're married. He said, I got convicted. Guess what? He has not come back here. But now he's in a Bible-believing church. They're married, they've got a child. We may not know what our seed goes to, but God, He's the one who increased. All we've got to do is sow the seed. You know what? I was thankful that that guy, God went down there and told me about it. Brother Sam was over there having to do it all by himself, but that was all right. I got a blessing out of it. We don't know what Our testimony will do to somebody else. Hey, if I hadn't had that New Vision shirt on, he wouldn't have known that we was just talking fish and tackle. But when you put yourself out there a little bit and say, hey, I'm a Christian, people's gonna ask things, amen? And you can give them that little bit of milk, say, hey, come on down there, what God has got for you is good, amen? John 6, 26. 6 and 26. Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. God's gonna feed you if you'll show up. Amen. You can't have a good steak to stand outside the steakhouse. You gotta go in, amen? You can't get, Jacqueline made me soup, beans, and cornbread, and she even brought it to me. But I had to pick the fork up and eat it. She wasn't gonna feed it to me. God's not gonna force feed you to take what he's got for you. You've got to put a little effort for it, and hey, take a bite. You know, it was all good. I enjoyed it. She brought me more than I could eat. I held on to the cornbread I got the next morning for breakfast. Well, God, it's not good. It didn't spoil. God's Word is not going to go bad on you. Amen? It's good until the end. Amen? But we've got to take the initiation to dig into it and get it out of it. Amen? Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labor not, Not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for he hath God the Father sealed. Amen. Think about that. Hey, don't worry about what's down here so much. Where is your, where's your heart at? Is it in, hey, there ain't nobody probably in here that likes to eat more than me. But that's not the important thing, amen? The important thing is, are we eating God's word? Are we putting up our treasures in heaven or down here? Where are you, where are you stacking your meat up at? What's important to you? What it comes right down to, brother Danny, what is the most important thing? The important thing is, for me, I'm short and my parents had six kids. There were six of us, and it was a drudge to get all of us to church, I'm sure. But we all learned something from it, because it takes a little bit of work. Hey, it takes a whole lot of work to cook a steak, to get dinner ready for a mother who's ever making it. How many times have you seen mothers stand back and say, man, I'm glad you guys enjoyed that. Think about what our Heavenly Father has done when we come and accept His plan of salvation. Amen. Man, I'm glad you showed up. I'm glad you answered the call when I knocked on your heart's door. Hey, come on in. What I've got for you is good. Hey, what He's got for me is good. Once you get used to the milk, boy, I'm gonna give you steak. I'm gonna give you whatever it is that you need I'm going to give it to you, and I'm going to feed you, and you ain't going to be hungry. There's nothing. Every time I was out in the world, hey, if beer or alcohol would satisfy you, you don't need one can. Amen. Why would you ever have to have a six-pack if one beer would satisfy your thirst? It doesn't. Sin will not satisfy you, but God will. You come to him one time and say, Lord, it's yours. Hand your life over to him. Hey, it's in your hands. I want to stay right on yours. I want your meat. I don't want anybody else's. I want yours. Lord, lead me, guide me. Because, why do you say that? Because I want everlasting life. Everlasting, think about that. Man, that's a blessing right there, it is to me. It's only a short time right here. We hear this and a lot of times we don't think about it. We only live here a short time. Then we're gone. A brother-in-law of mine, think about it, he's only been here, I'm not even sure of his age, but he's getting close, 65 to 70. We think that's a short time, but he's gonna live in heaven forever because he was wanting, he desired the sincere milk. of God. He didn't put everything else. He wanted that everlasting life. What do you all want this evening? Do you want that everlasting life or do you just want what's coming here today? Do you just want to fill your belly for today or are you looking forward to tomorrow? Amen? That's what's important. What are you interested in? When you go out into the world and you try to witness to your lost family members, to your friends, what are you telling them? Are you just worried about the next ride or the next party you're going to? Hey, there's nothing wrong with going and enjoying yourself when you're down here, but the most important thing is when you leave here, where are you going to? Amen? Because the world is not going to satisfy you, but God will satisfy you. Just like Bob would even say, man, Jesus, just take me home. We were just texting back and forth, but I could tell that it broke her heart that they're going. But man, the blessing that you know where you're going to see him again. Amen. What else do you want? We're all going to leave this earth one way or the other. Amen. We're not going to get out of it. Are you gonna spend that everlasting life? Which the Son of Man shall give unto you. He's given to you, it's a gift. God's gift is his Son. But we've got to accept it. Hey, I can bring meat over, you can bring meat over me. If I don't eat it, it don't do me a bit of good, does it? A lot of times that's what we do. We dish it out, but it's up to them to accept it. Amen? And don't leave it all up to the preachers. I'll just put it out that way. You get out there and see a whole lot more people than I do. But it's each and every one of us go out and minister to the world, to a lost and dying world, amen? What we do reflects on the church, it reflects not just new vision, but God's church, amen? God's church. They ought to say, man, I want something that that guy's got. I've heard that once, brother Danny, a guy who used to work with, Went to church, he come out, they were standing in the parking lot talking. And he didn't get saved at the time, right then. Somebody said, what's on your back? He said, hey, I want what that guy's got right there. He said, if I can get what he's got, that's what I want. And he got saved. Amen. But that there is saying, hey, he's putting it out there. He was testifying. He was doing what God asked him to do. That's what we all want. That's my desire is to be a witness for God. Hey, and to show them, you can start out on the miff, but you don't got to stay there. Amen. You can grow in to what God's got for us. for the Son of God shall give unto you for him that God the Father sealed." It's sealed, it's set in stone, you can bank on it. How many things in this world you can't believe a thing they're saying on the news right now. Amen, because they'll change it from one day to the next. but what God has stamped, His Word is forever. It ain't changing. You may try to change it. There may be plenty of people out there who try to change what He is saying. Get in there and dig taters out like Brother Danny says. Hey, it's the same ones. Amen? What He has got is never going to change. Think about what, you think, man, that hurts. I get embarrassed when I go to testify. or to witness to somebody. Brother Jeremy hit on this this morning, hey, what if we give up for Christ's sake? That stepped on my toes too. What if we give up for Christ's sake? Somebody make fun of, well, he's a Christian, he ain't gonna do this. Well, that's tough. I'm gonna still follow God's word. Think about what Jonah, Jonah fought him. Hey, I'm gonna run. He want me to go here, I'm gonna go in there. God's got a hold of him, amen? He ended up being fish bait. He didn't pass through. He got vomited out on the beach. But think about that. Hey, God'll get a hold of you and shake you and say, hey, you're headed the wrong way. Think about Paul and Silas. They were preaching the gospel. Got thrown in prison, got whipped and everything else. went to praising God for what He, because He had saved them, what He had done for them, and it, hey, God sent an earthquake. It shook the whole, down to the depths of the prison. Set them free. What come out of that? God got a blessing out of it, and the guard ended up, him and his family all got saved. How many times we would have sat around, man, I'm doing all this, ain't getting nothing back. We go to feeling sorry for ourself. Amen? Each and every one of us has been in that position one time or the other. Man, they're making fun of me. So what? I serve a risen Savior. Amen? But because Paul and Silas decided, hey, I'm gonna praise God no matter what, no matter where I'm at, a whole family got saved because of that. Think about it. Don't, because you're in a bad situation, don't mean you can't praise God. Amen? Hey, he's giving you his word. He's giving you everything you need. Now, hey, let's go ahead and testify. Let's put ourself out there a little bit for him, not for our sake. Maddie didn't get up and sing to raise herself up. She done it because God asked her to. Amen? We all got a blessing for it. Amen? And I enjoy that. We feed off of each other. Turn over to one more spot. I'm gonna skip one. Let's go to Luke. I'm sorry. Go on back, go back over to John 6. Just a minute. Go to 6, 54. John 6, 54. This is a big thing right here. John 6, verse 54. Whosoever eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. Hey, that's eternal life. That's in red letters. And I will raise him up in the last days, for my flesh is meat indeed. It's something that will give you substance. Something to hold on to. This world is looking around for something to hold on to. Hey, right here it is. Amen? Eternal life I will raise him up in the last days, for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. You've got to eat it! Just like I said, Jack could have brought all that food over to me. If I didn't eat it, it wouldn't have done me a bit of good, Brother Tim. We've got to move, we've got to partake in what He's got for us. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth within me, and I in him. Hey, man, think about that. It ain't like he's going to leave us alone. He's going to leave us at all. He's in us. If you are born again, Christian, it's inside of you. We've just got to let him out. Let the world see what he is doing for us. Amen. Now go over to Luke, please. Luke six. This comes to the best part of it, I think. Six starting in 20. How many people like dessert? Amen. Hey, we all like dessert. We like the good stuff. It ain't good for us. When Sister Connie will let me, I'll sneak through the line down at homecoming. I'll go through the dessert line first. Let you all go this way. I like to do that. Then I eat at the back of the line all the time. That's a whole lot like us. Amen? There's a whole lot of churches that'll do like that too. Hey, I just want the dessert. Don't give me the meat, something I have to swallow and chew on a little bit and digest. Just give me the sweet stuff. Just give me what I want, not what I need. How would a child ever grow up if you just give him liquor sticks and candy bars? They can grow up pretty good. They gotta have a little bit of meat. And that's why God will give us right there. Luke six, starting in 20. blessed and he lifted up his eyes for his disciples and said blessed be ye poor for yours is the kingdom of God blessed are ye that hunger you've got to hunger for what God's got for us amen he ain't going to force me, you've got to want what he's got for us blessed are you that are poor for yours is the kingdom of God blessed are you that hunger now For you shall be filled, blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Hey, it ain't all roses on here. Sometimes you're gonna weep, but for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall despise you, separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the son of man's sake. The world's going to talk bad about us. We might as well just get over it. Amen? But as long as we're in God's Word and understand what He's telling us to do, don't worry about what the world's saying. Amen? It says right here in red letters again, they're going to talk bad about us. They're going to talk evil of us. So what? If you're in God's will, what else does it matter? That's the only one I've got to please. When I'm down here on earth, I've got to try to make my wife happy for a little bit. She makes me happy a little bit when she makes me a big dinner. We're all in the same boat here, amen? Boy, that's quiet. You all know what I'm saying. But when it comes right down to it, I've got to do what God has to do. He's the one I'm wanting to please, amen. He's the one feeding me spiritually, giving me what I need. Verse 23, hey, right here is your dessert. Here's what we're all after. Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your what? reward that's what we're after is great in where in heaven hey that's what we're after that's what we're trying to get our families to go to there's the reward i'm going to miss my brother-in-law when he goes but he's getting across the finish line before me. Amen. He's getting his reward. That's what each and every one of us ought to be striving for. Amen. We can miss them. We'll be sad when they go, but as long as we know where they're going to and they've reached their reward that God has got for them, hey, stand up and praise God. He's made it so we can. Be blessed, we can reach our reward, not because of what we do, because of Him and what Jesus come and done for us. Reward is great in heaven. For in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. So we went from the sincere milk to God feeding us meat. Now we're getting our dessert. And I was thinking, man, that's a whole lot like life. You know, you start out on baby food or milk as a baby. And if you live long enough, you're probably gonna be down on baby food, applesauce, something soft by the time you're in. I'm not trying to be down, but that's just the way it usually goes. But if you fed on God's word up until that last time and you're ready for your reward, God says in red letters right there, he's got a reward waiting. But it all depends on where you put the emphasis on what's important in life. There's not a thing wrong with being happy here. But I would rather go through pain and suffering for 70 or 80 years, however long God allows me to live here on earth, and to spend eternity in heaven. Hey man, having the good stuff, Brother Mike. Hey, I'll suffer for a little bit. Hey, I hated football practice. Man, I hated running sprints. I hated going through the drills. But man, on Friday night, when I could make a slobber knocker out of somebody, and I mean watching them just sit there and shake, I loved that. Hey, to me, that was my reward for doing all the work back then. Some of you guys are getting it now. See what I'm talking about. It takes some work. I had to put myself out. Sometimes we have to choke down the meat that we don't like or sometimes the vegetables that God throws in our way. Amen. Sometimes, man, I don't like that. I don't like to get up and testify. I don't like to speak out. I don't like maybe to pray in public. Go ahead and do it. If God's giving you that opportunity to do that, hey, go ahead and do it because the reward is great. Hey, you off my friday night you know all the stuff i had to go through on this bridge and do all that friday night was my reward for doing all that a man what god's got for these much greater than friday night that i ever run up and down the ballpark you'll have me in by itself to me at the time it was the big bang well guess what it did last this life is not going to last either i'm telling you that right now is coming to an end and you don't know when it is Are you ready for your reward for what God has got for us? Each and every one of us. He ain't doing it just for one person or the other. He's a respecter of no person. Hey, He loves each and every one of us. But when He brings the plate around, are you willing to put your spoon in? Are you ready to dig in and start eating what He's got for you as we stand?