One more of a week, I can tell you that. I haven't had very many weeks like this since I've been preaching, teaching the gospel. But Sister Tammy already testified Monday or Tuesday there that Sister Hester had the spell and was not doing very good. They asked me to come over and I went over and be with them. I got the phone call to come back, and I was just taken in the instance that it was Sister Hester again. And then when I went back over, her husband, Kenny, had asked me, and he just told me that he couldn't do it anymore. And I didn't understand. I was still thinking that something was wrong with Hester. And I said, you can't do what anymore? And he said, I can't run from God anymore. And I said, well, you know, you need to pray. I can't pray for you. You need to pray for yourself. And we knelt down there on the love seat, and he gave his heart to the Lord. And that whole night was just an experience for me. I'd never had anything like that happen to me before, and I've never witnessed anything like what I witnessed as far as—I'm just telling you, I've lived beside Hester and Floyd seven or eight years now, and I heard her say more in 10 or 15 minutes than I have my whole lifetime of living beside her. She quoted more scripture with her eyes closed, and it was just, I went back home and I told Jacqueline, I said, she blowed my mind. I mean, she didn't stop for minutes upon minutes upon minutes at a time, never quit quoting scripture. And then to go back and see Kenny, give his heart to the Lord and then to see Sister Hester recognize and realize what he did and they all sitting there hugging on the couch and it was just one of them experiences I just I thank God I've been fed all all week over that and then Friday night I get the call that my buddy that I worked with for years The one that used to come to church here with me, JD, I got the call Friday night that he was not doing good. I had planned to make the trip down to Lexington yesterday morning and go see him. And I left and went down there and got down there. And I wasn't prepared for what I saw when I walked in his hospital room. He was in ICU. To go from the mountaintops to get slammed right down in the valleys. When I looked, I thought, God, you're the only hope. And stayed there for hours talking with his wife. And I took his best friend from grade school with me and let him go down and be with us. But I knew when I walked in and seen, I'd never seen, I'd never seen nobody hooked up to so many shipping machines in my life. And nothing was working. I just knew that if God didn't intervene, the medicine wasn't gonna work, the machine wasn't gonna work, it was gonna have to be God. Because J.D. was, he was done fighting. And it's hard to kneel down and pray with somebody and ask God, say, God, your will has to be done. Not what I want, but what you want to be done. And made a home, got home, and she called me at six o'clock last night and said, he's gone. Just been up and down this week. Couldn't go to sleep Tuesday night, because I was so excited and never experienced anything like that. And then last night I had a hard time falling asleep, because now I got to do my best friend's funeral this week. And the man showed me what I do for a career right now. He's the one that taught me. He took me right under his wing. And man, he was a hard, hard worker. But the drive down, me and my other buddy that I worked with, the drive down was great. We just talked and reminisced. They both retired last year. JD hadn't even made it a year yet. He's been retired, but he hadn't even made it a year. But the other one that went with me, he retired at the same time. And we just reminisced all the way down the road. But now on the ride back was a different ride back. It was quiet. But we got started talking church, and JD was saved. He gave his heart to the Lord years and years ago. But this scripture come to my mind as I was coming back down the road to 2 Peter chapter 3, and let's look and see what it says in verse 1. It said, This second epistle, beloved, I write now unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lust, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition against ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Verse 10, it says, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in that which the heavens shall pass with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that, all these things shall be dissolved. What manner of person ought you to be in all holy conversations and godliness? looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved with the elements, shall melt with a fervent heat. Then it says nevertheless, now after you read all that, and then verse 13 it says nevertheless we, if you're in here and you're saved, that ceiling man, nevertheless we according to his promise looking for a new heavens and a new earth says wherein dwelleth righteousness. And as I was coming back down the road last night, I knew that if God did not intervene, that JD was gonna be absent from the body and present with the Lord. And so many of them songs that we sung today just reminded me of that. What a day that'll be. I don't fear that day. And when you're in the business of being a passionate preacher like me and Jeremy are, you deal with it a lot. And it's not something that I like dealing with, but it's life. And I love to sit and think about things. And the other day I was watching, you know you're getting old when you start watching the Weather Channel. Lord, have mercy. I turned it on and I kept watching. And I thought, they've got to be something else on, Jimmy. But it was talking about tornadoes. And it was out there in Kansas or somewhere, and it was farmland. They were dairy cows and corn and soybeans everywhere. And this tornado was going down through there, and it was an F4. I guess F5 is the biggest they are, and F4. And it was absolutely destroying everything, crops and animal, livestock and houses and silos. I mean, when it went through, there was nothing left. And it was on a straight path. And it went up to this house. And just went right over top of it. And when it landed on the other side, it was complete destruction. This way, when you look behind it in its path, there was nothing left. It was down to bare dirt. It come up to that house, didn't tear a shingle off of it, didn't tear the shutters off of it. The silo was still standing. The corn was still standing. It went on the other side of the house, hit the grass, and the grass was gone. And it just kept going out of sight. And I thought, how can that thing absolutely destroy everything in its path? Get to that house and then just skip that house and go on and absolutely destroy the next one in its path. How can it do that? How can one person be hooked up to a machine and having a machine keep him alive, but I can go into that room and leave there and know that in just a short while, he's gonna have it better off? Because the Bible gives me promises. But yeah, we may suffer here. But in just a little while, when she gave me that call and said, hey, Garrett, he's gone, I thought he's not suffering anymore. No more pain, no more sickness. And people say, oh, well, he died. If your God really loved you, he should have saved you. Listen. What JD is experiencing now, I guarantee you he wouldn't trade for anything to come back to this world. But you look at that path of that tornado, and you see when me and Jeremy get the call or Justin get the call to go preach another funeral, it's one thing to see that path of that tornado that's absolutely just wreck havoc on that community. But then when we get the call to go to a lost person and preach their funeral, And you look and you know that in just a little while they're going to meet God face to face. But there's no hope. They're destroyed. Because the same promise that God gave us, if we have faith in Him and accept His Son, that we will have everlasting life with Him in heaven, that same promise that God gave us there, there's another promise that if you do not accept His Son and you die in the state of the sin that you're living in, then hell will be your home. And that's that tornado that I'm talking about. It's complete destruction. Hell is a place where destruction never ends and torment never ends, but yet people still choose to go there. Them people, it was showing on there, them tornadoes come through, and I mean, Terry, it ripped everything. But you know what they did? Started building right back. went to the lumber store and they got lumber and they got block and they got shingles and doors and windows and before you know it they had their house built right back up friend you get one chance one at this life and what you choose to do with it It's on you. It doesn't matter what I preach. It doesn't matter what Jeremy preaches. It doesn't matter what we say. It doesn't matter what songs are said. It's what you do with Jesus Christ today. Not tomorrow. Now is the appointed time. Today is the day of salvation. If that tornado hits today and wrecks havoc on your life, and today is the last day that you get to draw a breath of life on this earth, what destruction is in your way? Is heaven gonna be your home? And man, I'm telling you, a lot of us have got it good down here this morning, but I can't wait until I get to heaven to see what God has prepared for us in heaven. But there's also a place prepared for the devil and his angels. And people are going there daily. because they choose to. So here, what Peter is talking about, it says that in the last days there's going to be mockers saying, well, where is this God that you serve? Because as in the days of the old, in the beginning of creation, time has still been going on. And then he goes on to tell them, he said, well, they're willingly ignorant of this because we know by reading God's word and through history that God absolutely destroyed all mankind on the face of the earth with Noah. The only ones that survived were Noah and his family that got on the ark. Every other human being on the face of the earth died and God started over. And then he goes on to tell them, he said, you know what? The same thing is coming again, but not with water. You see, God instilled a promise in the rainbow that he would never do it with water again, but he has reserved punishment and destruction for this earth that it so deserves by fire. And that's a promise. Now, a lot of us are not very good at keeping promises. A lot of us are not good at keeping our word. But I can tell you one thing with 100% money back guarantee, what God says, you can bet on it. It'll happen. I'm going to tell you something this morning. Death is no respecter of a person. I've learned that the hard way. You say, well, I'm healthy as a horse. That's fine. You may be. But you're not in control. God is the one that shuts off the ticker. God is the one that lets you get the very next breath. God is the one that lets you get out of bed this morning. God is in control of it all. Until you figure that out, young man or young woman, or maybe you're an old man or an old woman in here this morning, until you figure out that you are not in control of your life, you're not the one that makes the heartbeat, you're not the one that makes the lungs go in and out, that God is in control of it all, And God, it said there in verse 9, that God is a long-suffering God, not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance. You know what? God gave you a promise that He's going to give you as much time as He physically possibly can, but then there's going to come a time when that time runs out, and what you did with God in that short period of time, friend, is on you. It ain't on anybody else, but it's on you, and you're going to stand face to face before Jesus Christ one day. Man, that's a promise. I've gave all kinds of promises, Brother Floyd, and I've come short on them. But God has never joyous, He's never let me down one time. Now, I could have walked in that hospital room yesterday and just thought I was the greatest thing since a pocket on a shirt and said, hey, I'm gonna pray and God's gonna heal my best friend and He's gonna raise him up out of here and we're gonna walk out of here. Hey, God was completely capable of that, but I knew it was in God's control. It wasn't anything that I was gonna do, it wasn't anything that I was gonna say, it's what God's will was going to happen. And I went in there and I said, Lord, I know you're 100% capable to do whatever you want to do. But I'm also knowing that JD is ready to go. And if this is his time, there's nothing that I'm going to say. There's nothing in that machine. And there's nothing in that bag that's going to stop it. You see a lot of people got more faith in men than they do God. They say, oh, they're a great doctor. And they are. Maybe God has blessed them that they are a great doctor. But God is the great physician. And he's the one that's in total control. So you see, let's go over some promises and some things that God does to let you understand maybe you're just not in the right boat that you thought you are. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 30 if you would. Isaiah chapter 30. Isaiah chapter 30. We're gonna read verse 18. Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 18, this is talking about the children of Israel. It says, Will the Lord wait? You see, the children of Israel were God's chosen people, and every time that He sent somebody, a messenger or a prophet or anybody that He sent, a lot of times the children of Israel would reject and rebel. And they really didn't like to get in line with what God had in store and had in place for them. A lot like today, God sends preachers to preach the gospel and to tell people a warning, take heed. God is coming back one day. And yet it's up to men and women whether they choose to accept and take that heed and say, okay, I believe that God will come back one day. Well, Fran, if you're in here and you don't believe, you say, Garrett, I just cannot believe that God's going to come back one day. That's between you and God. But can you at least believe this much for me? You're gonna die one day. Now, I know you're smarter than that and don't think that you're gonna sit here and live forever. You can look around and look at some of these older people in here and they'll just come right out and tell you, time's drawn short. I'll just tell you right now, I'm 42 years old and I can look back and the last 20 years have just flew by. Time's drawn short, Brother Floyd. And what you do with God is up to you. And I praise God that God called me when I was 19 years old and I accepted the call. But if you're in here and you don't know Jesus Christ and the pardon remission of sin, you see a lot of people have got this attitude, I'll get saved when I want to get saved. It does not work like that, friend. You get saved when God calls you. So look what it says here in chapter 30, verse 18, it said, and therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait for him. You see, one of God's promises is, that he's going to come back and get his people. That's a promise. And I'm waiting on that one. He said, let not your heart be troubled. He said, if you believe in God, believe also in me, for in my Father's house are many mansions, and if it were not so, I would have told you so. He said, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. That is a promise from God, folks, that Christians can bank on and say, one day he's coming back for me. But if you're in here and you're lost, he's not talking about you. What do you mean? You can't be where God is and have sin in your life. Say, well, Garrett, have you sinned today or this week? Absolutely. And if you want to pick and choose and say, oh, I'm better than you, that's fine. You can say that. I'm not perfect by no means, and I'll never claim to be perfect. The only thing between me and you that's any different is I've accepted the blood of Jesus Christ, and his blood has covered and taken away my sins. And you have not accepted that gift that God give you. That's the only difference between me and you, standing right here, friend. So we know that God is keeping His promises. Why is He keeping His promises? You say, how is He keeping that promise, Garrett? He's waiting. You read over in the book of John and over in the book of Revelations, when John's given the revelation by God, and at the end of the chapter, at the last part, it says, even so, come I think John had got to a point on that island where he was exiled at, that he was just ready for God to come. And I tell you, sometimes I just get to a point in life where I'm like, even so, come quickly. God said, no, I'm waiting. Well, what's he waiting for, friend? I just read it over in 2 Peter chapter three and verse nine. It said, God is not slack concerning his promises. Some men count slackness, but as what long Why is he long-suffering? Because he don't want anybody to perish, Brother Terry. He don't want anybody to perish and die and go to hell. But you know what? People are choosing to do that, and sooner or later, I believe with all my heart, it's gonna be soon, that God's gonna look over and say, go get him. I've gave him all the time that I can give. And the ones that haven't accepted me, I hate it. I pray that it never come and I gave them opportunity after opportunity, but it's time. Go get them. And friend, when he says it's time to go get them, nothing you pray, nothing you say, nothing you do will stop Jesus Christ from coming and getting his church. And friend, if you're not ready at that moment, I would hate to be in your shoes. So we know that God is keeping his promises. Turn over to Psalms 86, please. Psalms 86, we're going to start in verse 12. Psalms 86, 12, this is the psalmist David speaking. If you don't know anything about David's life, I beg you to go back and read about David, how he was called to be the king of Israel. It's just an amazing account of a man's story, what God brung him from and what God made him into. And it shows every flaw that the man had. That's what's amazing to me, that you see all the mistakes that David made in his life. You see all the good things that David did in his life. But in the end of his life, I think David finally realized that, hey, God truly was good to me. Even though that I messed up, even though that I did things completely against God's will, God was still good to me. And in verse 12, it says, I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify thy name forever. For great is thy mercy toward me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. O God, the proud are risen up against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul, and have not set thee before me. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious longsuffering. and plenteous in mercy and truth. Go back and read about poor old David, what David did. And to sit down and to read what this man wrote here, and he said, I'll praise thee, O Lord, my God, with my whole heart. That's the thing that you have to do, friend, this morning. You can't take Jesus and put him in here halfway. It just don't work. I think there's some in here this morning that they want to accept Christ, that they want to do what's right, they believe it, they've seen the experience of it, and maybe they've even let a little bit of Him move in, and they've tried to fix things their self, and tried to straighten up just a little bit, and tried to get things right. But friend, it takes opening your heart and receiving Christ, and not just a little bit of Christ, but all of Christ has to move in and take a bold in your life. And there's a promise when you do that, and that's a hard thing to do, especially for a male. I'll just tell you right now, to open your heart and say, God, I need you in my life. When you do that, There's a promise in the Bible that also says that Jesus said, I'll never leave you. And I'll never forsake you. When the world, like David said right here, when he said, all the assemblies of violent men come against me, God, you never left me. When everybody else in the world turns against you, friend, God and Jesus will still be abode right in your heart. That's a promise. And nobody can take that promise. So we know that God's keeping his promise and we know that God will continue to have to do what he says to do. But God doesn't have to. You see, God's not obligated to do anything for us. And a lot of people have that attitude like God owes me a favor. God owes you absolutely nothing. So let's look over in Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 35. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 35 says, cast not away therefore your confidence, which have great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. There's one thing that I can tell you that God is not. That's the title of my message this morning. God's not a liar. God will not and cannot lie. So when He gives you a promise, it's 100% that it's going to go through. What is that promise that He's talking about here? He said in verse 36, He said, Look what it says in 37. for yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry." Well, I'm just going to wait right up to the bitter end and then I'll jump on the boat. Like we read over in 2 Peter chapter 3, it said that they were willingly ignorant about the time when God destroyed the earth with a flood. And Noah preached. It says over in Hebrews that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Noah preached for over a hundred years to tell people that, hey, judgment was coming upon the earth. And I say he was doing it with all of his heart and saying, listen, one day God said it's going to rain. And they said, well, we've never seen rain, Noah. What are you talking about, Noah? Just the same as these bald-headed preachers get up here and say, hey, there's one day God's going to come back. What are you talking about? I've never seen that. Well, I'm telling you, it's a promise. I'm not saying it just because I want to say it. I'm not saying it just because it lines up with what I believe. I'm saying it because, thus saith the Lord, God said, He will come back. And it says that it's a promise. So in the days of Noah, when Noah was preaching, he'd say, boys, you better get on the boat. Rains are coming, day in and day out, day in and day out. Well, maybe. Like old King Agrippa, almost. Almost you persuaded me to get on the boat, Noah. Let me tell you something, friend. Noah didn't shut the door on the boat. God did. He instructed Noah to get his family in the boat in safety, and it says that God shut the door. And can you imagine when God shut the door, I believe with all my heart that Noah knew men and women right outside. And when the raindrops started falling and those men and women looked up and said, Oh God, Noah was right. The destruction of mankind is coming. I believe with everything in my heart, Noah would have opened the door and let some of them on. But guess what? That tornado was coming, and destruction was coming, and Noah couldn't stop it, because Noah wasn't in control. Friend, I'm in here this morning, and God is my witness. Whatever I could do to convince you to get saved, I would do it right now. But that's not how it works. You see, what God does, he'll knock on a man's heart or a woman's heart. And he'll want to come in and take a bowl, Brother Floyd. He'll ask you. He'll show you, through his love, what his son did for you. And he'll knock on your heart and he'll explain to you like no man can explain to you, like that peace that Jeremy was talking about. We can sit over here and preach on peace for a hundred years, but until you accept Christ, you will never experience what peace is. And God will knock and knock and knock. Now you think of that, the creator that hung the stars and the galaxies up above will knock personally on your heart and say, I'd like to take a boat in there. I sent my son to die for your sins and all I'm asking is for you to come in or let me come in and take control. But we like to take control ourselves. And God's a gracious and long-suffering God and mercy and grace and he'll say, well, if that's the way you want to stay, then I'll allow it. Can you imagine how it hurts God when he knocks on a man's heart or a woman's heart and says, hey, I want to take a bold. I gave the very best that heaven had to take your place. And all I want to do is come in and show you what I love you with. And they say, no. I imagine it breaks his heart to say, well, if that's the way you want to live, then that's the way you want to live. But you see, another promise is There's a place called heaven and a place called hell. And God promises that we will live one or other for all eternity. And you won't be able to jump back and forth. You won't be able to hit pause and say, well, I've lived down here long enough. Now I think I'll accept what God gives me and I'll switch over. When the end of life comes, The book of Ecclesiastes said, so as a tree fall, there shall it lay. So whichever side you're on, when you meet eternity, when you meet God, that's it. It's the end of the ball game, folks. That's the score. But look what it says here. in verse 37 it says for yet a little while Hebrews chapter 10 verse 37 for yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry right now he's tarrying right now is the grace period and God is begging you please I'm telling you get on the boat time is running out Look what it says in verse 38. For the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall not have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them. Friend, I'm no better than anybody in this world. Well, you're a pastor. That does not make two hill of beans to anybody. What makes us different? And it's not about color. It's not about finances. It's not about education. It's not about who you know or who you've met. It's about are you saved or are you lost? That's the only thing in life that really matters to me. I don't care about anything else. I do. I mean, I don't think I'm cold hearted. But until you get saved, nothing else going on in your life is really important. It's not, because you know what, if you die with millions of dollars in the bank account, you still die and go to hell. If you die knowing millionaires and billionaires, you still die and go to hell. If you die having a spouse that's saved and you're lost, your spouse gets to go to heaven and you have to go to hell because you chose that. Says, but we are not of them who draw back into perdition. That word perdition is destruction. But of them that believe to the saving of the soul. So that's the difference in here this morning. God's give you a promise, he's give you multiple promises. But the promise is this morning, that if you don't accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, Hell will be your home. It's not God's will that any perish, but that all come to repentance. Well, if he loves me, Garrett, he won't let me die and go to hell. He loves you enough that he sent his son to take your place. All you have to do is accept it. And he's long-suffering. He's giving you time after time. But there's gonna come a time. For JD, it was 6.06 yesterday. And it was lights out. They had him hooked up to every machine that hospital had, and man, UK's a big hospital. But it didn't matter what they had him hooked up to yesterday. God said, it's time. And that was it. I don't want you to be there in that position. And God says, it's time. And you don't know Jesus Christ and the pardon and remission of sin. Because there's nothing nobody's going to pray or say or do to change God's mind. A promise is a promise, and God will not break His promise.