James chapter number one, James chapter number one, will be turning to several places. I think we're kind of closing out of what we've been preaching on on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. Been preaching on the way I see it. And obviously, it shouldn't be the way I see it, it should be the way God sees it. And so hopefully, we've learned a few things along the way here. James chapter number 1, we'll read one verse and get into the message for tonight. James chapter number 1, look down if you will in verse number 22. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the Scriptures tonight. We thank you that we can open the Bible and have a time of preaching. Lord, thank you for the songs we can sing and we can rejoice in our salvation. But God, we need preaching. We need a cutting edge. We need to be rebuked, reproved, and also exhorted to think the right things. And God, I pray that you'd help our minds to be conformed like into your mind. Lord, that we may have the right heart and the right mind in sync with you. Lord, we pray that you take the message, take the scriptures tonight, and help us along these lines. We ask it for Jesus' sake. Amen. As we've said over and over and over, through this series, oftentimes we see things mainly through our personal experiences. You look at something and you judge it based on what you've went through and then you may run it by some knowledge and facts that you have about that type of situation. And then, if you're really a rare exception today, you'll begin to run it by the lens of God's Word. And you'll make judgments and assessments based on the Scriptures and based on the final authority, which is the Bible, and not just on your authority. So it's not just the personal experiences by the way you're looking at it, or where you're at looking at it. Like we said, if you're looking at something when you're 10 years old, you're way over here. And by the time you're 40, you're looking at a thing way back here. It looks a whole lot different. You're seeing it through a whole different set of eyeballs from age 10 to age 40. You're seeing things a whole lot different when you're saved one year or two years or three years versus being saved 15 or 20 years. After not knowing the Bible at all, through years and years of knowing the Bible, hopefully, and being in the Bible and maturing and growing as a Christian, you see things from a different perspective. And that's called growth, and it ought to be that way. You older folks in here, you've seen some things we haven't seen, and you've got something to teach some of us younger people. Amen and amen. And we will be fools not to try to learn from you. Because you see some things and you learn some things, so it's not just personal experience. We get this idea, well the way I see it, my opinion is, why do you have that opinion? And by the way, is your opinion right? Or is it just a preference? And so the way we see things, and this will really be the last message, should affect how we live. The way we see things, it should go in the mind and down the heart and out through the actions and the will and obedience to God if we're gonna see things like we're supposed to see those things. You know, a lot of people, they're very opinionated. Man, they can talk the ears off a donkey. Man, just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and you're just like, shut up. I know that's, you know, being rude, It's just like, man, can you just be quiet? You have two ears and one mouth. Just on and on. Well, I think, so-and-so said this, blah, blah, blah, blah. Did you see this? And this happened on the other end of your life. The Bible says a fool is known for his much speaking. The Bible says, in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin. What does that mean? That means there's a bunch of sin in it. The more you talk, the more you're going to slip up. That's why the Bible calls somebody that talks a lot a fool. And then when the Bible talks about somebody that preaches, somebody looks at somebody up there talking all the time. They say, that guy's a fool. So it's called the foolishness of preaching. It's not the Word of God that's foolishness. It's what the guy's doing that's foolishness. He's standing up there for 30 or 40, or God forbid, an hour, and he's running his mouth off. and you're sitting there listening to it. That's why it's called the foolishness of preaching. A fool is known for a multitude of words. That's why a preacher's got to be real careful to stay in the Bible. If you start getting off of here and you're preaching on issues, thank God we're not issue preachers. You ever read what an issue is in Leviticus, you'll be glad we're not issue preachers. Issue preachers and newspaper preachers, and I don't try to interpret the Bible in light of the newspapers or science or whatever's happening over in prophecy, you know, trying to figure out what's going on. We have to stay in the scriptures because the more you talk, the more you're going to mess up. And sometimes we're very opinionated. Boy, we can solve the world's problems. You can talk it and talk it and talk it and talk it, or you can get around somebody that talks it and talks it and you can listen it and listen it and listen it, and next thing you know, you done got pulled way over here to their opinion. And whoever you're around, that's who you agree with. Because you don't have your own convictions. And sometimes that's how people are. You know, you need to be for some things, but you need to be against some stuff. There ought to be some stuff you just don't agree with. Well, you know, we need to tolerate them and it's brave and it's bold that the sodomites and the different people will come out of their closets and they'll proclaim what they believe and they'll stand for what they believe. Why isn't it brave and bold when a valedictorian says, I'm going to get up there and give my speech and I'm going to mention Jesus Christ? How come that's not brave and bold? How come we've got to say, no, you can't do that? But if they want to get up and brag on the rainbows or whatever they want to do, then that's perfectly fine. What's the deal with that? You need to have some things you're for, and you say, how do you know what you're for by what you're against? Polar opposites. I'm going to heaven, but thank God I'm saved from hell. I love Jesus, and that means I'm not for Mohammed or Buddha or none of the other stuff. Now, this verse here, it deals with not just being a hearer only, not just having an opinion, if you will. but doing something about it. Now take your Bible and go to Proverbs. We'll just go through a few things. We need to let the Word of God transform our lives. Proverbs chapter 23. Because we've talked about how that If we're going to change our opinions, first of all, we have to see our opinions can be depraved. Our minds can be polluted. We can have blurred vision. You can get so full of sorrow, all you see is tears. You can get full of trouble, and all you see is tears, and you're looking through a blurred window there, and your vision can be blurred, and your mind can be polluted, and your heart can be deceived, and you can have an opinion that's wrong. If you at least can admit that, you know what, maybe I My opinion's skewed somewhere. If you can do that, then you can come to the next step and say, okay, what's the truth about the deal? Because I don't know about you. I don't want to be lied to. I want to know what the truth is. And we've got the book of truth. And we've got the mind of God. The Bible says He declares His heart to all generations. God gives us His mind in the Scripture so we can think the thoughts of God. Proverbs 23, notice if you will, verse number 7. Proverbs 23, 7. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee. Now notice the first part of that verse is what I want to just jump off of. As he thinketh in his heart, so is he. You are your thoughts. Your thoughts aren't some separate thing, you are your thoughts. That's why you have to watch what you think. There's all kind of things run through here, and those things run through there, and some of that stuff you need to reject, and you need to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalt of itself against the knowledge of God, and bring it into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. The things that go through there that are bad, you need to get rid of them, don't stay on them, don't contemplate on them, don't contemplate on them, don't think on them, get rid of them, and then think on things that are holy and just and pure and lovely and of good report. If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. That's a discipline. So we talk about contemplation. If you're going to move from opinion to action, first off we have contemplation. We go from the mind to the heart, because what you feed your mind is what's going to sink down in your heart. What you expose your mind to is going to affect the emotions of your soul. Solomon, he, for political reasons, he surrounded himself with all these women, these princesses and concubines, and he married all these women. He had a thousand wives and a thousand mother-in-laws, amen. And he filled his mind with all of these pagans around him. For political reasons, you know, he's trying to, you know, win friends and influence people. He doesn't have war for 40 years. But in doing so, the Bible says after a while that his wives turned away his heart. So after a while, that thing took a little bit of his heart. Each one took a little bit. Then he started allowing, he would compromise, say, well, you know, I know you came from a different culture, so, you know, it's okay for you to worship this other god. I understand that you believe this, and you know, maybe there are many paths to God. No, there's only one way, and Jesus is the way. There's only one true God, and even Solomon knew that. He's the most high God back in the Old Testament for Gentiles. They understood he was the most high, he's the only one. And so Solomon should have known better, but what he did, he began to give his heart away piece by piece, and after a while they turned away his heart. And what was in his mind affected his heart. Look over in Philippians, if you will, chapter number three, Philippians chapter three. If you're going to move from opinion to action, we have contemplation first of all, because it deals with the mind, and you begin to contemplate, you begin to think, you begin to read the scriptures, and you begin to compare what God's opinion is to your opinion. You even look at other people's opinion and you try to make an assessment and say, what they say and what God says is like this, does it match? If they're agreeing with God, good, but if they're not agreeing with God, that's bad, because God is always right. He said, Preacher, that is so basic. Yeah, but it has to be said nowadays. Look in Philippians chapter number 3, dealing with the mind. Philippians chapter 3. I think we read this either last week or a few weeks ago. Notice in verse number 16. Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk as you have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and I will tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame." He's describing these unsaved Gentiles. Notice what he says about them, who mind earthly things. If you put your focus and your mind on earthly things, you're going to be earthly. You're going to be carnal. I didn't say you might not come to church. There's been many a person that sat in church and they were thinking about what they were going to do when they got out. Who mind earthly things. We've got to deal with this world enough out in the workplace, right? Those of you, you go out tomorrow morning, you're going to get out, clock back in, you're back in the mess having to deal with it. You've got to deal with enough stuff there that when you do have time, don't fill your mind full of this world. Fill it full of the scriptures. Bring some balance back to your Christian life. Let your mind be filled with the word of God. Bible says, Jesus said over Luke chapter 6, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil. For of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Then he says, why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? There's the whole contradiction again, just like James 1. You can be a hearer, but not a doer. You can call him Lord, Lord, but don't do the things that he says. You can say, OK, yeah, I believe this. I have an opinion based on this. All right, where is it going to lead to action? Why have an opinion that's right if it doesn't lead to doing right? You know, there's many a drunk or a drug addict on the street would tell these young people, hey, don't ever do drugs. There's a lot of guys in jail who say, hey, don't do what I did. They're going to get out and they're going to do it again. I'm not trying to be mean, but most of the time that's exactly what happens. They're the greatest preachers, but they're the worst examples. Just because you have the opinion doesn't mean that thing leads to action. There's got to take something beyond just having it up here. It's got to get down in here where it causes the will to act. From the heart to the will. Go to Acts chapter 13. You'll see it here. Acts chapter 13. Thank God for opinions. I'm glad that we are, man, we're Americans. We're very opinionated. We're very individualistic. I like that. I'm proud to be a Christian. I'm proud to be, you know, when I use the word proud, I don't mean proud like pride, but I'm proud to be an American. I like it. You say, I don't like this country. Well, leave then. Bye. Go somewhere else. I like it. You say, oh, this country's headed for hell. Yeah, but every other country is too. I'm going to heaven. The rest of this country may be headed to hell, but I'm riding the glory train to heaven, so, you know. I like this country. I like being individual. I like the fact that I can still, in privacy of my own home, I can serve God. I can have church at home. Man, I can sit there and read the Bible, listen to some good singing, man, and I can just have a great time. I can fill my mind with the Word of God, and I don't have to be bound by all this kind of stuff. Man, you have freedom to worship God. and this stuff of the mind of being opinionated. I'm glad people have their own opinions. It's good. It's good to have a free country. Let a Jehovah's Witness get out there and pass out his garbage. I don't care. I'm not going to tell him it's against the law. We were down there at the thing yesterday, and they had the Church of Christ. They were trying to give out their Bibles, or whatever they call the Bible. Free country? Go ahead. What is the chaff to the wheat? Bible-believing Christianity never puts a sword at anybody and says, quit doing that. Bible-believing Christianity says, you got the lie, we got the truth, you need to get the truth. We're not going to try to force you into it. Jesus Christ says they don't want it, let's go to the next town. It's fine to have an opinion, but I want my opinion to be God's opinion, don't you? And if you want your opinion to be God's opinion, it needs to be in not just heart and not just in mouth, but it needs to be in action. Look in Acts chapter 13, I believe here we see a good example where it moves from the heart to the will. Acts chapter 13. Come down, if you will, to... Let's see. Yeah, verse number 22. Acts chapter 13, verse number 22. This is Paul recounting some history of the nation of Israel. Verse number 22, when he had removed him, talking about Saul, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony. He said, I found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. There were a lot of other guys in Israel, David's time, that said, yeah, we'll follow the Lord. And they said it, but they didn't do it. God says, David's my guy because I know he's going to do what he says. Not just a professor. Not just somebody that says it with the mouth, but he's going to follow through with it. Don't you want to do that? Instead of just having an opinion, don't you want your opinion to have action to it where you follow God? So it moves from contemplation, it moves from the heart to the will, and you're in the book of Acts, go to chapter 21, and now let's talk about conviction. We have contemplation, but now we have conviction. Conviction. Acts chapter 21. So how do you know the difference between just a preference or a conviction? Well, a preference will change with the time. You can have a preference about something, and that thing can change, that thing can fluctuate. And there are some things that I have a preference or have an affinity to, and some things you may like, and some things I don't like. We don't have to agree on some of that stuff. Amen. We can still be brothers and sisters in Christ. You don't have to agree with everything. I love bluegrass music, bluegrass gospel. You don't have to like it. I also like some of the great classical composers. You don't have to like that either. Man, you give me Handel's Messiah and let me just listen to that, I'll put that on, I can listen to that all day long. But you don't have to. Vivaldi and Bach and Wagner and Tchaikovsky, and if you like piano music, Chopin, or Chopin, or Chopin. I'll recall he called him Chopin because it sounds so choppy when he plays. You don't have to like that stuff. You can listen to whatever. There's some preference in there. You can be just kind of weird and not like that stuff, or we're not going to fight over that. But it comes a time there's conviction. That's where it gets down to. I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe He rose again from the dead. I believe this King James Bible is without mistakes. I mean, these are convictions, man. I'm not going to change that. Look at Acts chapter number 21. Come down, if you will, to verse number 13. Paul has been told, he gets warned five different times not to go to Jerusalem. He's so burdened about the Jewish people, even though Paul is the apostle of the Gentiles, he has a burden for his own people. And he basically gets out of the will of God doing that. He winds up two years in prison. Of course, God still uses that. And God lets him write those epistles, which we have some of the prison epistles now. But notice here in Acts 21, verse number 13, after they told him, look, you're going to get in trouble when you go to Jerusalem. You're going to wind up in jail. You're gonna be delivered to the Gentiles look what he says in verse 13 Then Paul answered what me need to weep and to break mine heart for I am not ready I am ready not to be bound only but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Now words can be opinions right you can have opinions you can express them through words do we think about the power of words Think about the first time words were utilized in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth It's pretty powerful. The words of God were used to create. To speak life into existence. So now we're talking about words that can be opinions and as Americans I think we're just so flippant with our words. The Bible talks about foolish jesting. Sometimes we just get so loose with it. We get comfortable around somebody and we joke and we tell them, you know, they got a face that'll make an undertaker cry and we just make, you know, we say things and we're talking and we're just messing around and sometimes we get a little loose with that stuff. We don't realize the power of words. Sticks and stones will break my own bones, words will never hurt me. That is a lie. Man, people can say something and it can cut you to the core. Good godly Christians. They pat you on the back, they're rubbing off a spot to stick a knife. So what do you do? You think the best and forget the rest. Right? You just go ahead and forgive them, because, you know, like Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, he goes, You've been mean to somebody just like they were mean to you. You've said something just as hard and curt and rude and crude, and you might not even have caught it, and you ain't even remembered it, and you'll remember it one day at the judgment seat. But until now, you just hadn't even remembered that you hurt somebody's feelings, and now your feelings are hurting. Oh, I just can't believe it. I'm not going to forgive them. Well, they forgave you, you big dummy. So just forgive them. Let it go. Those words are very, very powerful, but when do words move beyond just opinions and become convictions? When does it come a place like Martin Luther when he stood in front of the council and he says, hey, he says, he presented all his stuff and he says, here I stand, I can do no other. In other words, I ain't going back on what I said. All these words I wrote, they said, if you'll just recant right now and say that you deny it all and you're gonna line back up with Catholicism. He says, no, all my stuff's right here. I can't say anything else. I'm not going back on what I said. There's some things, there's some things worth dying for. Paul's at the point, he says, these are my convictions, and if I have to be bound, I'm not only willing to go to jail, but if I have to die for Jesus, I'll die for Jesus. I got this from some legal attorneys. According to the Supreme Court, religious beliefs are either preferences or convictions. And so when they try cases and they deal with these things, they have to determine whether this person's religious belief is considered a preference or a conviction. And this is what a preference is. Or rather, a belief is a preference when under certain circumstances that belief can be changed. That's when you find out if it's just a preference. You say, what do you mean? How can it be changed? Here's a few categories. If it can be changed by peer pressure. If it can be changed by family pressure. If it can be changed by litigation pressure. If it can be changed by jail pressure. Or if it can be changed by death pressure. Then that's just a preference. If somebody come in here and start grabbing your kids to kill them, you know what you do? You'll get in their way and you'll go down dying for those kids. Why? You have more than just a preference over the life of your children. You have a conviction. Now in your belief with Christ and in your walk with God and following what He believes, does it go that far with you? A conviction is a belief which will not change under any circumstances. A chameleon is somebody that'll, you know, you take those little chameleon lizards and stuff, of course, we got, I don't know if you call them, you don't call them chameleon, we don't call them chameleons down here, but those little green lizards we have all around, my cat and dog get them and play with them and bring them in the house, and I'm like, get that thing out of here, you know, and they run and take it out. The cat brings it in, she catches it, and the dog gets it. And sometimes the dog catches it. But those things, you put them on something dark and something dark brown, they'll turn dark brown. You put them on something green, man, they're green blending right in. And some Christians are that way. They don't really have any conviction. All they have is preferences. They're around somebody this way, they'll just kind of, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they'll kind of just be a chameleon and kind of act and talk like them. Then they get around somebody that's maybe a little more conservative, maybe more staunch. Yeah, yeah, that's right, that's right, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they kind of, but they never really settle on where they are. They don't really have any convictions. There'll be some stuff that you know you're for and you know you're against. There's some stuff that are gray areas out there. Let everybody else squabble over that. But folks, there's some stuff worth dying for. Look over in Acts chapter 24. Acts chapter 24. We need to move from just opinions to act. It's good to have some opinions and know what God says about things and say, you know, this is what I believe based on the Scripture. You need to know that. But it's got to move beyond that. It's got to go just beyond contemplating and thinking about it. It's got to move into conviction. Look in Acts chapter 24, Paul's brought before Felix here, and he goes through the different things, and you know, he's drugging to court, and he's not, they really don't care about the facts in this situation. Notice verse number 13, neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me. Here's how things work in modern age. If you repeat something enough people will believe it is fact. Blab it on that screen long enough, people think it's fact. You see that? Verse number 14, notice what he says, "...but this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers." Here's what they're calling heresy. "...believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets, and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there should be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust." He's speaking of the resurrection of Christ. And he says, they call this heresy, but I believe it. Notice this thing moves into confession. Paul is brought to a spot where he's put on the spot. And he makes a public confession. What does it say in Romans 10? If thou shalt believe in thine heart, and confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth on the righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. There comes a time when you get put on the spot, when you have that time to, this is what I believe. Confession. 1 Timothy chapter 6, the Bible mentions Christ and it says, he witnessed a good confession. When he stood in front of Pilate, he witnessed a good confession. What is your confession of faith? Is it just a creed? Is it just an opinion? Or is it like Paul, I'm standing in front of the group, I'm on trial, I'm on the spot, this is what I confess, this is what I believe. Folks, we don't need to be ashamed of that. They're going to make fun of me. They're not going to like me anymore. We'll still like you. Well, we'll love you and like you. You're supposed to love all the brethren. You might not always like them. As much as I live in you, live peaceably with all. I like all of you, so don't get nervous. But this idea of just wanting to please everybody gets to a place where you're never going to step up and move from opinion to action. Sometimes you've just got to say, hey, this is what I believe. And if you'll get to that place where you can get past the fear, God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And sometimes you get past that, you can move from fear to fun. It isn't all that intimidating. You just say, hey, this is what I believe. Still a free country, somewhat. I believe in Jesus Christ, not just quote unquote God. Get somebody, oh we're going to have a prayer at the little ball game, we're going to have a prayer at the city council meeting. Okay, as long as they don't pray in the name of Jesus Christ, well how can you pray and not pray in the name of Jesus Christ? It's not even praying, it's just going up and bouncing off the roof. You might as well start praying to Washington or something. It's a sad day in America when preachers can't even take a stand. Preachers are scared to preach, and preachers won't preach on hell, and preachers won't preach on the truth. Man, what in the world, what's going on? What do you want the guy if he's doing some type of public ministry to be saying? You know, just, you know, hey, make sure you pay your taxes, make sure you walk on the sidewalk, don't walk on the grass, and please make sure you use the post office. What do you want him to preach? What do they think preachers are supposed to be preaching if they're not preaching salvation? If they're not preaching about heaven and hell? Goodnight. Confession. What we do is we take that treasure we have and we just hide him away. We have a treasure in earthen vessels, the Holy Spirit of God, and we just don't let him shine out. Somebody gave a sundial, those things you can tell time with, I never know how to figure them out, but you put it the right way and when the sun's hitting on it you can see what time it is. They gave one of these things to one of these tribal groups and they took it and they made it kind of like a little idol out of it and they took it outside of the sun, they put it in some, they built some little shrine to it and stuck it in there. And there it is, sitting inside this little shrine of being of no value and of no use whatsoever. A lot of Christians, that's what they do with their faith. God has given you some biblical opinions, hopefully, and you've got them. And you've got them hidden in your heart. Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. And you've got the scriptures. You've done took that thing and you've built a little shrine to it. I've got the truth. And you make a little shrine and you put it in there. It's not made to stay in some little shrine. It's made to have a confession, to have some conviction about it. This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine, right? He says, a city set on a hill can't be hid. We're supposed to shine. Well, move some confession to completion. Go over to Philippians chapter 2. We talk to lost people oftentimes about head belief versus heart belief. You see, a lot of people can have a head knowledge of Christ. A lot of people go to hell because of 18 inches, or however long it is to their heart, because they got it up here, but they never got it down here. You know, they believe the facts of the gospel, but they never put faith in the facts. Consequently, they never have any feeling. So they got the facts. They believe there's a God. Now, if you talk to somebody and they're not saved, you can ask them, first of all, do you believe in God? And they say, yes, that's pretty good nowadays. At least you've got a little bit to build on. Then you ask them if they ever heard anything about Christ, and you move from there. But if they believe the facts of the gospel, then you've got to get them to the faith. And you say, what are you doing with those facts? Well, they believe them up here, but do you believe them down here? Has it moved down here? We talk to unsafe people about that all the time, but what about us as believers? We have a lot of stuff up here, but has that thing got down, has the opinions got down into our heart, and has it produced anything? And I believe if we say the way God sees it, I'm going to do things the way God sees it, and the way God sees it ought to live out in your life. The greatest testimony for Jesus Christ is not just you flapping your lips and flapping your mouth and your tongue, rather, but a greatest testimony is you live in your life in such a way that matches what you say with your tongue. I believe our whole lives should be that way. Look in Philippians chapter number 2. Got to move beyond the head to the heart. Look in verse number 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. He's not telling you to work to get saved, because look in verse 13. For it is God which worketh in you. God's already in you. For it is God which worketh in you both to will, there it is, and to do of his good pleasure. So God's already come inside of you. The Holy Spirit of God's inside of you, so God wants you to work out what He's worked in. He's done put that conviction there. If you believe the Bible, if you have formed some opinions, what the Bible says, what God says, and you've cast it down, and you've gotten rid of those bad opinions, those false ideas, that blurred vision, that polluted mind, and now you believe those things, now He says you need to act on it. You need to work out what God's worked in. There's a completion to this thing. It's more than just saying it, it's doing it. It's taking the step. During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government, they ran low on silver and coins and they didn't know what to do, so Lord Cromwell, he sent his investigators out and says, look, we've got to find all the silver that we can get a hold of so we can have the standard of money, so we can have an economy and all this kind of stuff. And they came back and they said, the only silver we could find are the statues around here of all these saints. And the soldier, statesman of England, he says, well, let's take all them statues down and melt them down, and we're going to put the saints in circulation. That's what we need. We need the saints in circulation. God has got all of us in different spots. God's got you there for a particular path, just like we talked about in Sunday school. God's got a plan. He's got you on that road, on that crown of righteousness we talked about, or whichever one it was. the crown of temperance there, dealing with your own race. And God's got you where He's got you, so He can put you in circulation. And you can take those opinions that God's given you, and you can express them. And the neat thing about it is this. We do have opinions. The neat thing about it is we do have our own personalities. We all have our own fingerprints. We're all different. Thank God for that. Ain't you glad everybody ain't like me? And you say, yeah, and I'm glad everybody ain't like you. I like to celebrate diversity. Yeah, man, the body of Christ is diverse. But we have one common denominator. We all love the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is the one we worship. Not ourselves. One of them. What a depraved mess, all this idea of worshiping self, you know, celebrate this, and you got some man trying to look like a woman, some woman trying to act like a man, and they're trying to celebrate that garbage, and it's all focused on self and focused on man. With us, we're all different, and what we're doing is all magnifying Jesus, and He'll take all of our personalities, all of our little quirks, all of our things, and if we'll let Him work in our lives, He'll use us in the distinct places He's put us. Just like the blind man in John chapter 9, he had no theological training, yet he was schooling those Pharisees in theology. He says, here is a marvelous thing, this guy has opened my eyes and you don't even know how it happened. And he goes, sin or not, I know not, but one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now God took that guy and used him. His testimony in His own unique way. God will take you, you don't have to be some big theologian and have all these verses, but if you've got that Word and you've put it in your heart and God has changed your opinion and you're lining up with God, God can use you in a very unique way. Because you know what God does? God will take a sermon and He'll give you a message. You don't need some sermon outline. I like to alliterate things, come on, you don't ever remember that. You don't come up to a preacher and say, maybe some of these preacher guys will. They're like, yeah, I'm writing down that alliteration, you know. Man, who cares about that stuff? You don't want just the bones. You want the meat of it. You want something that God's taken through an individual, and that's how it becomes a message. It becomes part of the man. It takes years to make a message because it takes years to make a man. And you want to get the meat coming from that individual, that personality, but the backbone of all of it is the opinion of God. That's why it has power. It doesn't have power because of my dynamic personality and my great oratory skills and use of language. I'm not like Talmadge. They say DeWitt Talmadge, the old preacher of yesterday, not Talmadge, George Whitefield. They say George Whitefield, probably the greatest pulpiteer ever, Ben Franklin said he could say Mesopotamian and make you want to cry. I don't have great oratory skills. I say Mesopotamia. I mess it up. Mesopotamia. You see, it's not about that. It's about what God has done. The backbone of it has to be the opinion of God. But he'll use all of your life. He will complete that thing inside of you, put you in circulation. So our first verse said, be doers, not hearers only. And then one more verse I'd like to turn you with. Go to Luke chapter 11. It's neat how God puts, he's got his people in all these different places and he wants to take your life just the way you say, well my personality is this way. God knows that. God will take your personality if you'll surrender to Him. You've got to step out of your comfort zone a little bit, and I know everybody's different, but God will take you and He will use you if you'll let your mind belong to Him and you'll let Him begin to control you. He said to be the master, right? The master tells the servant what to do, not the other way around. Lord, I would really like to do this kind of ministry. Lord, I'd really like to choose this. The Lord says you don't get a choice. So if we're going to be the servants, then we have to say, OK, Lord, use me. God says, well, good. I'm going to use you. I know how you are. He knows us better than we know ourselves. And he'll use you in your own particular way. I want to clarify something. A few weeks ago, I was preaching on this series about the old nasty people like Herod and Pilate and those politicians. We have a politician in our church. Correction. We do not have a politician in our church. We've got a lawman in our church. The sheriff. Some people think, well, he's a politician. He's a lawman. Amen. I want to clarify that because that's just a good case in point where God's put people in certain places, just like Daniel back in the Old Testament. And God's got you in a certain place where you can use your testimony and where God's placed you for His glory. And you say, well, God never used me. Well, you don't know where God's going to put you. And where God puts you, use it. Take advantage of it and see what God's going to do in your life. Because God wants to work out what he's worked in. Thank God that he's not just a cookie cutter. He's not a cookie cutter type of thing. Look at Luke chapter number 11. I want you to see this. Luke chapter number 11. Come down if you will to verse number 27. I've got a note in my Bible, the first Mary worshiper, I don't know if that's the case, but notice in verse 27, it came to pass as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto him, blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps which thou hast sucked. The Roman Catholic Church, they supposedly have some of the dried up milk of Mary that you can go and see on display, and they got a little piece of the wooden cross, and yeah, I'm not kidding, man. Look at this, blessed is the womb which beareth thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. Look what he tells her in verse 28. Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. The accolades in verse number 27, the profession, you know, they just going on and on and on, sticking their foot in their mouth. And he says, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. So how do you see it tonight? Do you see things like God sees them? Do you see things like the Lord Jesus? We went through some things how Jesus saw with compassion. How Jesus could see the multitudes. How He did see the people that didn't want the truth. The people who don't want the truth, they're probably not going to be convinced after you spend an hour and a half trying to debate with them. How many debates you got? Why am I having a debate? I ain't got time to have a debate. You're not going to convince them. You knock on the door and a guy opens the door and he wants to take all your time arguing some doctrine that he's already convinced on. I'm like, look man, you're going to hell if you don't get saved. I hate to see you go there, but that's where you're going. I'm going to go to the next door here. Now I understand you've got to go through some of that stuff and you've got to learn to deal with that. You face those Pilates and you face those Herods, just move on to the next God because there's some folks out there that we can have compassion on. There's some folks out there that they would take the truth if somebody would give it to them. There's some people out there that are needy and they're looking for something and you might be the person, because of your life experiences and because of what God's brought you through, God can use you to reach them. We need to see people like God sees them. The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Oh, that we could see the world like God saw the world when He gave His only begotten Son. I understand the world's at enmity with God. I understand He's going to come back in judgment. There's going to be a battle. I get all that. But oh, we could have the eyes of compassion. Oh, we could see the harvest. The harvest is there, but we just don't see it. Are you at least willing to admit you might have defected vision? Defected vision. And you might need some glasses. Brother Christen had his eyes looked at throughout this series. One good thing the series accomplished. You got some good vision now. You say, well, I don't think I need to go to the eye doctor. You don't even know how many fingers I'm holding up. You need to go have an eye exam. And then say, well, maybe I'm looking at this thing wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the stuff I'm reading or some of you YouTubers out there, people don't read anymore, they YouTube. Somebody said the other day, I think half of the population's on Facebook, the world population, 4 billion people. and about maybe almost two billion on YouTube. So what are they doing? They're taking stuff in. They're learning from somewhere. They're getting their information from somewhere, you know, not newspapers anymore and stuff like that, and certainly not the Bible anymore. Where are you taking the stuff in? If you're taking in the wrong stuff, you need to quit taking in the wrong stuff and start taking in the right stuff. And you know what will happen? Your brain will get washed. You can get washed in the blood and washed in the Word. He says, now you're clean through the Word which I've spoken unto you. It's amazing how much this Bible, I'm talking about reading it from cover to cover, and I believe in that. It's amazing, even going through Chronicles and Numbers and some of the places that are somewhat boring, it's amazing just being in this book, what it'll do. If you'll let it wash you. And then you'll begin to notice a change. You'll start looking at things a little different. You start seeing things and say, yeah, I'm looking, OK, God sees it like that. And you develop God's opinion, and then you can start taking it to another level. You say, what's that? You can actually make a statement. You can make a confession. And then you can step up and move beyond confession. You can have a conviction about that thing. And then God can begin to complete what He wants to do. But He never will if you're just always going to see it the way you see it. Well, that's just how I've always done it. That's laziness. The sin of the South, procrastination. Get used to how we've always done it. Keep saying it, one day I'm going to do it. We're going to come in here, I'm preaching, then we're going to sing our songs. Put the pulpit at the back of the church, make you turn around. One time I was preaching about that one time, I came in here on a Sunday night or Wednesday night, and all these people over here sat on that side. And all these people, and I came in here, and I was like, why, why, why, why? Y'all changed it up on me. I get used to seeing you over there, and somebody's not there. I know where they're sitting at. Your place will be missed, like David told Jonathan. Your place will be missed because your seat will be empty. I'm looking over there. Something's not right. Somebody's not sitting in the right spot. It took me forever to get used to Brother Lewis over here in the corner. I'm like, man, what are you over there for? But sometimes we need that because we get into this laziness of, this is just how I always seen it. Is what you're seeing according to how the Bible sees it and how God sees it? And then God can take that and He can put that thing into action. And then hopefully, we can glorify the Lord Jesus Christ with the way we see it. Amen. Let's all stand for prayer.