1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,720 All right, well, welcome, Calvary Chapel. 2 00:00:05,240 --> 00:00:10,240 I'm going to pray and we're going to give you my testimony, 3 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:12,640 which a lot of you may have heard just from being in the 4 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:14,560 groups and stuff, but some of you haven't. 5 00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:18,000 I kind of felt like the Lord was going to allow me to do that 6 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:21,880 cautiously because, you know, we're up here to preach the 7 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:24,000 Word. But the testimony is what God 8 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:32,960 has done in my life. So let's pray, you know, as 9 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:35,120 secure. I'm security in this church and 10 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:39,400 I pray with my eyes open all the time for you guys. 11 00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:45,680 So just be mindful of that. But anyway, we had Lord, we come 12 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:50,440 before you today humbly asking for your hand to be upon us. 13 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:54,000 As always. We can't get out of our minds 14 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:57,000 our brothers and sisters that we know that are hurting. 15 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:02,320 We have Dave Reynolds daughter Grace bicycle accident had 16 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:05,880 surgery where we pray that you would continue to touch her and 17 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:10,640 heal her. Our sister Deb Rossovic lost her 18 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:14,960 mom couple days ago where we lift her and her family up to 19 00:01:14,960 --> 00:01:17,560 you Lord that you would as always. 20 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:19,760 You're always with us Lord that you would touch them. 21 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:24,160 We pray for Deb de Zembo who works in a nurse. 22 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:29,400 She had a knee replaced and Lord again, you know, you, you touch 23 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:32,680 us all, you heal us all, or we ask for your hand upon her. 24 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:37,920 And thank you for the report we got from Ruby with her cancer. 25 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:41,440 Lord, we just, we just thank you for your, your goodness in all 26 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:45,720 things, Lord, for today on our, on our body, Lord, that you 27 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:49,280 would be glorified and, and what we do here, Lord, you're 28 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:55,200 glorified in the worship, Lord, and, and in your word, Lord, and 29 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:59,200 we just thank you for your faithfulness to us always. 30 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:02,520 And we just thank you in Jesus name, Amen. 31 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:08,960 So I'll, I'll tell you a little about a little bit about who I 32 00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:13,800 am and try not to take too much time with that, but there is a 33 00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:16,440 clock there and I'll be mindful that as best I can. 34 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,240 And I wasn't sure how much to prepare because I don't know how 35 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:22,960 long it would take me to do or say what I So you could be here 36 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:25,960 for two hours, you could be here for 15 minutes. 37 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:28,080 I don't know. We'll see how it works. 38 00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:33,440 I'll get you out in time. So I've been part of this church 39 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:36,560 for 26 years. I had to ask my wife that 40 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:39,040 because again, I don't keep track of stuff really well. 41 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:43,640 She told me 26 years. I'm an elder here. 42 00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:49,280 I teach a men's Bible study in the front for at 9:15 in the 43 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:53,280 morning for guys that can come, me and Tom Brubaker and and 44 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:56,160 Steve Eichelberger, we'll teach that. 45 00:02:56,920 --> 00:02:58,520 I, I always put that out to guys. 46 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:00,320 You're, you're more than welcome to come. 47 00:03:01,640 --> 00:03:04,280 It's just guys, we're going verse by verse through the 48 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:06,680 Bible. We're in Colossians and it's, 49 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:10,080 it's good. It's, it's a time for us to have 50 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:11,880 fellowship. It's our discipleship. 51 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,480 These guys disciple me. You know, iron sharpens iron, 52 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:19,160 you know, because when you're not that sharp, you get 53 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:21,760 sharpened. And these guys are great guys. 54 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:27,360 I love your, your husbands that come and husbands, sons and 55 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:29,560 whoever can come. But you know, I always say, if 56 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:32,680 you got, if you're a man here and you got a bunch of kids and 57 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:35,880 you got a wife and you got issues, you, you need to take 58 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:37,920 care of that before you come to Bible study. 59 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:40,440 You need to be with your wife Sunday morning and help her get 60 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:42,680 the kids. So don't ever feel pressured to 61 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:44,120 have to come to something like that. 62 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:45,760 You do what the Lord tells you to do. 63 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:49,360 You need to take care of your family and but you know, most of 64 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:52,120 us sitting back are older guys. So we're past a lot of that. 65 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:57,320 But so I told you, I'm I'm the youth leader right now along 66 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:01,960 with my son Sam helping out and maybe some other guys and gals 67 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:04,480 as time goes on. I'm also, like I said on 68 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:08,320 security. We do have the armed security 69 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:11,880 here as best we can do. We're going to get more 70 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:18,000 training, but we are here to defend you, protect you no 71 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,480 matter what. And you saw what happened here 72 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:23,320 last week and I think it was Minneapolis. 73 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:29,080 It's it's horrifying to me to think that somebody would do 74 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:33,560 that to people. But you know, I don't want to 75 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:37,400 get real involved with all that. But it disturbs me greatly when 76 00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:41,400 the Chief Police says I can't understand this or we didn't 77 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:45,600 have any cause to suspect him. They're like no hints with 78 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:49,120 mental illness. And I'm like, he's a guy 79 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:53,080 identifying as a woman. He's got mental and spiritual 80 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:54,720 problems. He should not been allowed to 81 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:58,680 have a weapon. But when your culture says it's 82 00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:02,480 OK to be that way, then that's what's going to happen. 83 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:04,880 And I don't hate those people at all. 84 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:07,800 They need to come and they need to find Jesus and they need to 85 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:11,360 get their life straightened out because it's, it's just not 86 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:13,560 right. You know, it's, it's not right 87 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:17,320 and things like that happen. But you know, I feel horrible 88 00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:18,840 for those families and those kids. 89 00:05:18,840 --> 00:05:23,000 But we, we will do everything in our power to protect you here as 90 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:29,600 best we can with our lives. OK, so I was saved when I was 8 91 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:33,520 years old, you know, one of those deals where my dad put me, 92 00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:37,120 put me to bed and asked me if I wanted to ask Jesus into my 93 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:38,080 heart. And I did. 94 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:42,200 And I believe that at that time, I was his. 95 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:46,440 I don't ever remember a time in my life where I felt like God 96 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:48,760 was away from me or didn't want me. 97 00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:54,840 I had a godly mother and father. I that's just the way I lived. 98 00:05:54,840 --> 00:05:57,520 I, I can't ever remember not wanting to be in church. 99 00:05:57,520 --> 00:05:59,920 You know, I, I was always wanting to be in church. 100 00:05:59,920 --> 00:06:03,360 And Wednesday night, it's different. 101 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:05,560 Like a lot of kids didn't want that. 102 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:10,400 And I always told people that I was 50 years old when I was 12. 103 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:12,760 I always felt like I was old. Now I look in the mirror. 104 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:15,600 I feel like I'm 16 years old. And I look in the mirror and I'm 105 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:19,320 like, man, that's long gone. You know, I need to bend down to 106 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:21,760 pick something up. And a couple times in the last 107 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:24,960 two months, I hit the floor because my something happened in 108 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:29,360 my back right down on the floor. So 16 is long gone. 109 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:35,040 A biggest part of my life besides my parents is I, I went, 110 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:36,880 I worked at a camp when I was a kid. 111 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:40,520 I went there from the time I was 8 till I was 15. 112 00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:43,840 It was a Christian Boys Brigade camp, sort of. 113 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:46,880 I don't know. We had a stockade, A flagpole. 114 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:50,560 They blew revelry and taps and you had to line up in formations 115 00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:54,720 and we had captains, sergeants, corporals, and, but it was 116 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:57,440 teaching you godly things, teaching you crafts. 117 00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:01,320 And then when you got older, you, you got to go to get 118 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:04,000 training for that. So I did that and it was sort of 119 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:07,800 like a boot camp where we, we ran 3 to 5 miles every day. 120 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:11,160 We swam for 1/2 hour every day. We had Bible study. 121 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:15,680 We had to learn how to take care of horses, learn how to use 122 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:18,760 weapons, take, you know, teach kids how to shoot bows. 123 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:22,880 We worked in the kitchen. We just learned everything about 124 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:25,920 the camp because we were training to serve. 125 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:30,120 And when I became 16, I did that. 126 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:34,680 It was a several week program. And I'm not the kind of person 127 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,320 that that just likes to hike to nowhere. 128 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:42,280 And involved in that training was these 20 mile hikes on the 129 00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:45,760 Appalachian Trail, like 4 days, 80 miles, full pack. 130 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:47,800 And back then we didn't have good packs. 131 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:51,320 They had bad shoes. And you know, we hiked them 132 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:53,320 kids. And I hated that because I don't 133 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:56,560 hike to nowhere. If I hike, there's a fishing 134 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,280 pond at the end of it or an elk on a mountain somewhere. 135 00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:02,280 I'm hiking for a purpose. And that hike in the nowhere, 136 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:04,120 like my son Daniel plays the bass. 137 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:08,280 He, you know, he likes to hike and take pictures and all that. 138 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:11,600 I got to have something at the end of that hike besides the 139 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:13,760 pitcher, You know, I mean, I love the scenery and everything, 140 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:15,320 but. But anyway, we did that. 141 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:19,880 We, we canoed them for miles on the Allegheny River, mostly to 142 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:22,320 test them to see what they're made of because these were the, 143 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:26,000 these are going to be corporals in charge of your, your, you 144 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:30,520 know, your kids at the camp. So they, they put me through 145 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:32,760 that. And then I in turn with another 146 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:35,799 fellow put them through. I, I did the training after that 147 00:08:35,799 --> 00:08:39,120 for two years. I was part of the leadership 148 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:42,159 growth program to train these guys to be counselors. 149 00:08:42,159 --> 00:08:45,640 So we had to get them in shape. They had to get an advanced life 150 00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:48,360 saving card. I mean, Francis, I think, got 151 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:49,960 one of them or was working on that. 152 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:52,800 So you got to swim because you had to work the pool too. 153 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:54,880 You had to be a lifeguard. So I was a lifeguard for a 154 00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:57,560 while. But that formed a lot of good 155 00:08:57,560 --> 00:09:01,280 things in my life, a lot of good relationships, and helped to 156 00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:04,520 take some of the things out of my life that didn't need to be 157 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:05,880 there. Because even though you're saved 158 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:11,040 at 8 years old, sin is always creeping at the door, right? 159 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:14,720 Sin is always there. And the Bible says to not let 160 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:18,120 sin reign in your mortal body. So that won't be master over 161 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:20,280 you. And I was taught, you know, by 162 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:22,320 my dad at a young age to read proverbs. 163 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:25,600 You know, you hide the word of God in your heart so that you 164 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:28,040 won't sin against them. All the different scriptures 165 00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:32,400 poured in there, but sin is still there and going through 166 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:38,120 programs like that and camp and all that just, it made, made 167 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:40,680 more of a man out of me than I guess I would have been left 168 00:09:40,680 --> 00:09:43,960 onto my own because given to my own devices, I wouldn't have 169 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:47,880 been there. I, I worked in a shoe repair 170 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:49,720 shop for five years in Greengate Mall. 171 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:52,320 I don't know if you guys ever remember that I was in there 172 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:54,800 fixing shoes when I went to school college. 173 00:09:56,560 --> 00:10:00,160 I went to Pitt and got a degree in administration of justice. 174 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:04,440 I wanted to be a policeman, but went and did an internship in 175 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:07,280 Edgewood and, and was it was so boring at the time. 176 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:10,760 I just couldn't handle it. I wanted Miami Vice, you know, 177 00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:14,760 the TV stuff and it was all paperwork and I could do it now 178 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:18,720 really good. But that's that's where I was 179 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:22,920 out that I also when I was 14 years old, I started doing 180 00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:25,600 taxidermy work. I saw an ad in the back of a 181 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:28,480 magazine and I got the books on how to do it. 182 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:30,880 And I've been doing that for 51 years. 183 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:36,080 I asked God as a young man to give me the ability to be able 184 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:39,480 to do that, You know, 14 years old, I, you don't know, but I 185 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:42,160 really enjoyed it. And to this day I'm still doing 186 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:43,400 that. I still enjoy it. 187 00:10:43,680 --> 00:10:46,880 I love the work. It's provided extra money for 188 00:10:46,880 --> 00:10:50,680 the family and just I'm the kind of person like I love you guys. 189 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:54,960 I love being at church. This crowd I love, but I don't 190 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:59,200 like big crowds. And if you left me to my own, I 191 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:02,640 would sit in my basement and work like 1620 hours a day. 192 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:05,240 I'm good with that. But the Lord doesn't want that. 193 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:10,000 He wants you out amongst people. But I'm, I'm, I'm not a big 194 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:12,640 crowd person like concerts and things like that. 195 00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:16,480 The only big crowds I like is this you guys and the Pastors 196 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:19,280 conference. I love the pastors conference. 197 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:23,840 You know, 1200 guys singing and worshipping is awesome. 198 00:11:24,520 --> 00:11:27,440 I worked at Westinghouse Electric for 39 years. 199 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:34,480 I was a inspector for 25 years or more, very boring, mindless 200 00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:40,680 job, very boring. But I did it to pay my bills, 201 00:11:40,680 --> 00:11:42,200 right? We got to work. 202 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:44,840 You got to pay your bills. If you don't work, you're and if 203 00:11:44,840 --> 00:11:46,960 you don't work and you can work and you're not taking your 204 00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:49,960 family, you're worse than an infidel, The Bible says worse 205 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:51,960 than an unbeliever. So I had to work and I did the 206 00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:55,200 job and I had a lot of good relationships with a lot of 207 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:57,320 people there, made a lot of friends. 208 00:11:57,320 --> 00:12:00,720 But the last 10 years of work, I, I got a technician's job, 209 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:04,360 Best job I ever had in there. I had it for 10 years. 210 00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:09,720 It fit me as who God made me. You know, when you get tests, 211 00:12:09,720 --> 00:12:12,960 when you're in middle school, they test you to see where you 212 00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:15,200 are. I think it was middle school. 213 00:12:15,200 --> 00:12:17,120 I found the paper when my mom passed away. 214 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:20,280 My sister gave it to me. We're laughing because it has 215 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:22,680 here I'm just an average guy. Average, average. 216 00:12:22,680 --> 00:12:28,840 Average comes the spelling, 20%. You know, I can't spell cat, you 217 00:12:28,840 --> 00:12:31,720 know, terrible. But then it went in one spot. 218 00:12:31,720 --> 00:12:33,760 I was 80%. So I'm looking at it. 219 00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:35,320 And I never saw that thing before. 220 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:38,800 I think my mom was embarrassed to show me, you know, But the 221 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:43,080 80% was, I don't remember the exact words of it, and I 222 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:44,760 couldn't find a paper. But it had something to do with 223 00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:46,840 these reasoning and technical skills. 224 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:50,360 Well, my parents didn't know anything about my dad said, you 225 00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:53,320 know, go to college, but I had the technical things in me. 226 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:57,040 So when I get this job at work, it's all technical. 227 00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:02,600 I'm making standards, setting up machinery, ultrasonic test on 228 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:06,080 dimensions and stuff, testing things down to A10 thousandths 229 00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:07,480 of an inch. That's like if you took your 230 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:11,200 hair and pulled it out, it's, I think your hair is like 3000. 231 00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:13,960 So you'd have to split it 30 times to get a 10,000. 232 00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:16,920 So we're running these tubes through and, and here's this 233 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:18,960 guy, here's this dummy and they're setting them up. 234 00:13:19,560 --> 00:13:22,800 And I can't spell the words, but I can set it up, you know, and 235 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:24,920 I, I enjoyed the work for 10 years. 236 00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:30,760 It was a great blessing. It was, it was my ministry, my 237 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:35,080 mission with my Co workers and friends there. 238 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:42,880 The God puts us all in places, work, family, retirement, not 239 00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:45,640 retired. He gives us mission wherever we 240 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:48,480 are. You don't have to be in Peru or 241 00:13:48,680 --> 00:13:50,360 Haiti or the Dominican. I've been there. 242 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:51,680 I've, I've went on mission trips. 243 00:13:51,680 --> 00:13:54,280 I loved it, but I never felt called to live there. 244 00:13:54,280 --> 00:13:58,160 I felt called to live here, work in the factory, work in my shop, 245 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:02,480 come to church, serve you guys and to love you guys. 246 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:10,440 And, but work was good and you know, I survived that whole 247 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:14,680 aspect of it. I met my wife when I was at Pitt 248 00:14:14,680 --> 00:14:18,040 when I was getting my degree and I asked her to marry me one 249 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:21,440 month after I met her. I don't recommend that for 250 00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:25,720 people, but it worked out really good for me and we were engaged 251 00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:28,480 for three years. I also don't recommend that. 252 00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:31,440 That is that's just stupid torture. 253 00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:36,400 You know, you want to marry someone, you don't have a dime, 254 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:39,920 you know, any money. And I think my parents should 255 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:42,400 have said, you're in love with this girl, you're going to 256 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:45,240 marry, just get married, move in with us or something because 257 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:49,760 three years. And when we got married, we were 258 00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:53,760 both virgins. So three years, terrible thing 259 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:55,200 to do to a person. Terrible. 260 00:14:55,680 --> 00:15:00,080 Don't do that. So back to high school. 261 00:15:01,160 --> 00:15:02,400 So I went to Hemfield High School. 262 00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:07,880 I graduated in 1979. I think in my graduating class 263 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:10,120 there was 600 some people in there. 264 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:13,960 And I was kind of the middle average guy, except they 265 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:15,640 couldn't spell just the middle guy. 266 00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:20,320 And I wasn't super athletic and I wasn't super smart. 267 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:22,880 So I was just the regular middle of the road guy. 268 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:27,440 But I had friends that I had from, you know, grade school and 269 00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:30,280 middle school and in the high school I lost most of them 270 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:33,880 because, you know, they went a different way. 271 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:37,800 I was going to do what the Lord wanted me to do. 272 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:40,840 And I I just didn't do the, the drinking and the pot smoking. 273 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:44,520 And he's not perfect. He's still, you know, you look 274 00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:47,600 back on regrets and things, but the Lord kept me out of a lot of 275 00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:50,440 that stuff. And I mean, that's what you want 276 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:53,000 for your kids, right? You don't want me up here 277 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:55,040 telling you I did all these terrible things. 278 00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:57,280 I did a lot of bad, mischievous things. 279 00:15:57,280 --> 00:16:02,120 But you prefer your kids live and do what you want them to do, 280 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:04,200 what God says, what the word of God says. 281 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:06,640 But you know what? I love it when someone comes up 282 00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:09,520 here and says, I was into this stuff and the Lord took me out 283 00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:11,680 of that. I mean, it's awesome because God 284 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:16,640 saves us whenever he chooses to. And I fully believe that if he 285 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:18,800 wouldn't have saved me at 8 years old, I would have been a 286 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:21,160 disaster. I mean, I would have hurt a lot 287 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:22,800 of people. I just know it because you know, 288 00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:26,520 what's in your heart like that, that that bad part of us in 289 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:28,600 there. God pushes it away. 290 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:30,160 But there's that potential in there. 291 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:33,760 And God kept me away from all those things because I always 292 00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:37,680 wondered what holds people back. I know what held me back. 293 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:40,760 But for unbelieving people, to me, a lot of them are tame. 294 00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:42,200 And I'm like, what holds them back? 295 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:44,480 Well, God held me back. He had to. 296 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:49,320 And so I lose all these friends. I was never unfriendly with 297 00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:51,720 them. I just wasn't close friends with 298 00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:54,280 them anymore. So when I left high school, I 299 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:58,280 had one friend left, Christian friend, good friend, not the 300 00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:00,800 acquaintances. And he went to another school 301 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:04,319 and him and I are still friends. And I met friends after that 302 00:17:04,319 --> 00:17:07,079 through different things. My buddy Pete that I hunt with, 303 00:17:07,079 --> 00:17:11,720 I've known him for a long time. And Pastor Jeff up in Warren, I 304 00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:14,720 met through Pastor Clark at a conference and we hunt elk 305 00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:16,760 together and his son and my sons. 306 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:22,040 And you know, I have lots of friends, but and in high school, 307 00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:24,280 I wasn't mean, I wasn't mean to people. 308 00:17:25,319 --> 00:17:30,000 You find the 1979 Hempfield yearbook and you'll find me in 309 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:31,360 there. I think there might be one 310 00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:34,960 picture, but it says I was runner up for most courteous. 311 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:40,600 So that tells me that I wasn't, I wasn't mean to people. 312 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:45,160 So I was like, I guess I was nice, but you know, I just, I 313 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:49,040 didn't have the close friends because of, you know, the 314 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:53,320 lifestyle that we choose to do. It's just you have decisions to 315 00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:56,920 make. And that carried on into my 316 00:17:56,920 --> 00:17:59,280 adult life. I got to go to Japan and Korea 317 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:03,120 for work for a couple weeks. Again, they needed some stuff 318 00:18:03,120 --> 00:18:06,920 inspected and they picked me and another person because they 319 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:10,960 thought we would morally not shame the company, you know? 320 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:15,040 And so they send us over there and we're just grunts working in 321 00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:17,200 a factory. We're not engineers, you know, 322 00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:21,400 we're just, I tell you, I'm just, there's the middle and 323 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:27,240 there's the spelling and backup. But they send us over there and 324 00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:29,840 we got all these business meetings with engineers, really 325 00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:32,840 smart people and one guy from work, smart guy, nice to be 326 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:35,240 with. But you get in these meetings 327 00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:37,880 and in Japan, they do a lot of drinking and smoking and stuff 328 00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:40,120 like that. And I did have a couple of 329 00:18:40,120 --> 00:18:42,680 drinks with the guys and I don't even drink, you know, but I 330 00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:46,640 drank a couple drinks with them. And the one guy said to me, 331 00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:48,800 perhaps you'd like one of our women. 332 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:52,400 And I'm like, no, I'm, I'm married. 333 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:54,240 And he said, you're married even here in Japan. 334 00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:56,960 And I said, yes, I am married, you know. 335 00:18:56,960 --> 00:19:00,280 And again, there's a language barrier there, but they got the 336 00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:02,960 point. Not to be mean, but you know, 337 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:08,720 I'm married. I went on a hunting trip one 338 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:11,680 time with an older guy. You know, he's 30 something. 339 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:13,720 I'm like 20 years old in college. 340 00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:17,400 We drive down to Delaware. I have my dad's car and he we 341 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:19,880 get there and the first thing he wants to do is he wants to go to 342 00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:24,280 a House of ill repute and Smyrna, DE And I looked at him 343 00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:26,080 and I'm like, you're married and you got two kids. 344 00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:28,080 You got this beautiful wife, two kids. 345 00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:31,240 I said, I am not going there and you're not taking my car, you 346 00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:34,400 know, and of course, you know, find out years later he's 347 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:36,400 divorced and all that kind of stuff. 348 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:42,360 But God calls us to be a certain way and we're saved no matter 349 00:19:42,360 --> 00:19:46,360 where we are. I had someone asked me one time, 350 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:51,040 the lady at work said, you know, you say all these things. 351 00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:54,000 You say the Bible says this and that, but you're not like you're 352 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:57,600 just like everyone else. You said if if I put a a 353 00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:00,760 beautiful naked woman in a room, kids hold your ears. 354 00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,720 Put a beautiful naked woman in a room and I put you in there and 355 00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:07,880 nobody would ever know it. And you'd, you'd, you'd, you'd 356 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:09,960 do this or that. And I said, no, I wouldn't. 357 00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:13,240 I'm not accountable to you. I'm accountable to God. 358 00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:16,240 I'm not going to do it. And she said, you're a liar. 359 00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:22,040 And I said, well, you can think that, but I'm, I'm not, I mean, 360 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:25,200 I'm not perfect, but I'm not going to do that. 361 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,400 I don't want to do that. I was going to read something to 362 00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,200 you out of Peter here. And again, you have to excuse me 363 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:38,760 if some of my stuff's like a little scattered, but Peter, 364 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:41,680 chapter 4, you don't have to turn to these things because 365 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:46,880 I'll, I'll read them to you. You know what I was going to 366 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:48,560 say. There isn't that, but there is. 367 00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:55,600 I was in the wrong book here. OK, let's see, I had this verse 368 00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:58,760 right now, says there in verse 7 in chapter 4. 369 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:00,560 First Peter, the end of all things is near. 370 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:04,200 Therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose 371 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:06,320 of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your 372 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:10,160 love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins. 373 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:15,000 Be hospitable to one another without complaint, as each one 374 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,480 has received a special gift, enjoy it, employ it, and serving 375 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:21,760 one another has good stores of the manifold grace of God. 376 00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:25,360 Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the 377 00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:28,520 utterances of God. Whoever serves is to do do so as 378 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:32,320 one who is, who is serving by the strength which God supplies, 379 00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:36,160 so that all things, so that in all things God may be glorified 380 00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:39,280 through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs to glory and dominion 381 00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:44,920 forever and ever. If you go back before that, 382 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,600 though, in verse 3, it says for the time already passed is 383 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:50,440 sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the 384 00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:54,520 Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, less 385 00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:57,680 drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable 386 00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:01,440 idolatries and all this, they are surprised that you do not 387 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:05,840 run with them into the same excesses of dissipation and they 388 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:09,240 malign you, but they will give an account to Him. 389 00:22:10,360 --> 00:22:14,040 So you get maligned, you get made fun of when you don't do 390 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:15,600 the things that the world wants you to do. 391 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:18,560 But I would tell you that you got to do what God calls you to 392 00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:22,000 do, especially young people, you know, So I tell these young kids 393 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:23,560 all the time. One girl even said, you know, I 394 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:26,920 get tired of you talking about we were in Proverbs for a while 395 00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:30,200 and every other verse was about the immoral woman and man. 396 00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:34,400 And, you know, I felt bad in a sense because I got to keep 397 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:36,040 pounding this. But that's like the biggest 398 00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:40,960 problem with people. I mean, look what the apostles 399 00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:43,200 told the Gentile believers. Simple. 400 00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:44,840 Hey, this is what we're telling you. 401 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:49,040 Abstain from sexual immorality and meet sacrifice from idols. 402 00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:52,960 In other words, stay away from immorality and stay away from 403 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:56,960 the world. And that's our, our call to, to 404 00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:01,400 all of us, myself, all of us and our children to stay away from 405 00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:04,840 that kind of stuff. God has a better purpose for us, 406 00:23:05,120 --> 00:23:08,800 you know, So when we come here, when Pastor Clark or Lewis or 407 00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:11,360 myself or one of the guys on Wednesday night, we're teaching, 408 00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:14,800 it's the same stuff. It's over and over again because 409 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:17,680 we need to keep hearing it till the day we die. 410 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:22,400 Pastor Chucko, he said if it's new, it's not true. 411 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:25,560 If it's true, it's not new. You're going to hear the same. 412 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:28,000 Now, it might be new if you never heard it before, but if 413 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:29,800 you've been in a word, you're going to hear the same stuff 414 00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:32,320 over and over again because we got a message for you. 415 00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:36,880 Follow the Lord and when you mess up, he's full of grace and 416 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,040 mercy and love and he forgives you. 417 00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:41,720 I was telling the guys this morning, I was listening to 418 00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:45,840 Pastor John Corson the other day and he was talking about our sin 419 00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:49,440 and how good, you know, we know God has forgiven us for past sin 420 00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:52,000 and we know that he'll forgive us for everything in the future 421 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:54,240 because we're his, right? And he paid the price for us. 422 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:56,360 But he said, you know, he's forgiving you. 423 00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:59,880 He's forgiven you while you're in a course of sinning. 424 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:05,640 And that struck me because it's like when we look at our kids, 425 00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:09,560 we we forgive their past sin. Well, we know we'll forgive them 426 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:11,760 in the future, but while they're sinning, that's hard to deal 427 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,120 with. And God deals with it. 428 00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:17,120 His Son paid the price for that sin. 429 00:24:17,120 --> 00:24:18,760 He forgives us while we're doing it. 430 00:24:19,120 --> 00:24:23,320 That's grace upon grace. And you know, Paul said that, 431 00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:28,880 you know, with all that grace, you know what stops us from just 432 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:30,600 taking liberty with that and sinning? 433 00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:33,600 And Paul said, may it never be that we would do that. 434 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:39,880 A God that would lay his life down for me and for you and 435 00:24:40,120 --> 00:24:44,720 sacrifice himself like that for people that are against him and 436 00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:48,120 often times hate him. And he, he loves us so much that 437 00:24:48,120 --> 00:24:52,400 he forgives us no matter what. So I'm, I'm forgiven all the 438 00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:54,960 time and it doesn't give me license to sin because I don't 439 00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:57,000 want to do that. And you know that too. 440 00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:01,600 As a Christian, the minute you think something wrong, God has 441 00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:04,440 that touch in your brain. Hey, you shouldn't have done 442 00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:07,040 that. The minute you say something 443 00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:10,360 wrong, he catches you. I told the guys, you know, 444 00:25:10,360 --> 00:25:13,720 probably told the kids too, was there was protesters when we 445 00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:16,120 were coming in, might have been even coming in for Bible school. 446 00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:18,960 There was some protesters up at the courthouse holding all kind 447 00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:23,320 of ridiculous signs. And I, for whatever reason, I 448 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,920 rolled the window down and I hollered at them losers. 449 00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,080 They did lose. But I shouldn't have done that. 450 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:31,320 And I, you know, I thought about that. 451 00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:33,320 Why did I do that? I couldn't have, you know, best, 452 00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:36,920 like Pastor Lewis said, keep your mouth shut, you know, 453 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:39,400 because once you let it out, it's too late. 454 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:41,080 And I thought, what if that was one of you guys? 455 00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:44,000 I just called you a loser. I have to talk about that after 456 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:45,480 church. If you were there in the crowd, 457 00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,760 you know, I'll explain it. But, you know, you just don't 458 00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:51,800 want to do that. We got to watch what we say. 459 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:58,200 We slow to speak. So anyway, I tell you those 460 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:04,320 things about myself so that, you know, saved at 8 years old. 461 00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:08,320 But still, we're all so imperfect and when you're, when 462 00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:10,680 you get saved, when you're young, you tend to look at other 463 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:13,760 people that are smoking the pot and drinking the beer and you 464 00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:16,880 start to look down on them and you start to think you're better 465 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:18,640 than them. There's that self righteousness 466 00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:21,280 in there and I, I'm sure I had that. 467 00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:24,600 I don't remember a lot of those days, but I can see, look back 468 00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:26,920 and think maybe people thought that about me. 469 00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:30,760 And but the older you get, you start to realize, here's your 470 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:32,560 walk. You start down here at 8 years 471 00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:36,080 old or 38 years old or 78 and you're climbing up towards, 472 00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:40,000 you're pressing for that high call what God wants you to do. 473 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:42,440 But there's always some dips in there. 474 00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:46,160 So I go back to when I was 8 years old and thinking about 475 00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:49,000 those people. It's, it's such a wrong thing to 476 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:52,520 think those were friends, family. 477 00:26:54,360 --> 00:26:57,640 The things aren't right, but God loves those people and he loves 478 00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:00,480 the people that I worked with. And for all the faults, you 479 00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:04,640 know, we have a different message to him. 480 00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:07,200 It's not that I'm better than you or anyone else. 481 00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:09,400 I'm a Sinner saved by God's grace. 482 00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:11,880 And that's the message that we have to give people. 483 00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:15,800 I had a friend at work who asks me all the time I worked with 484 00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:18,320 them for. He was probably there 15 years. 485 00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:22,160 He was in a tech job with me. Really nice guy, really smart 486 00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,240 guy, way smarter than me. But he was living with his 487 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,760 girlfriend and we'd been talking on like I had my Bible on my 488 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,080 desk. I had all my different stuff 489 00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:33,040 pinned up there. People knew I was a Christian. 490 00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:37,160 Yes, they could convict me of being a Christian at work. 491 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:42,160 The evidence was there. I was going to jail, but he 492 00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:44,560 would ask me, am I going to go to hell for living with my 493 00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:47,920 girlfriend? And I always told him, no, you 494 00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:50,520 go to hell for rejecting Jesus Christ as your savior. 495 00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:53,880 But I said, are you asking me if that's right or wrong? 496 00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:56,400 And I said it's absolutely wrong. 497 00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:57,680 This is what it's called in a Bible. 498 00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:01,000 It's called fornication. You, you not to have relations 499 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:02,400 with a woman till you're married. 500 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:05,320 And you know, he's, I'm still friends with them. 501 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:06,960 But he asked me that a lot of times. 502 00:28:07,120 --> 00:28:10,520 I was never mean to him. He, he knows and knew that I 503 00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,640 loved him and you know, I would do whatever for him. 504 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:16,840 But you still have to speak the truth, right? 505 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,560 Just like with this crazy person that shot these people. 506 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:23,440 It's not loving to tell people you're OK when you're not. 507 00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:28,360 It's not loving to condone transgenderism and homosexuality 508 00:28:28,360 --> 00:28:31,680 and bring them into church and tell them, you know, we're all 509 00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:34,160 God's children, we're all part of this and you're OK. 510 00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:37,280 It's not OK. God loves you, but He wants 511 00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:40,880 something better for you. And it's very unloving to let 512 00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:46,040 people go and not hear the word, to condone things that are evil 513 00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:49,520 and not speak of it. And it's to be done in love 514 00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:51,920 again. I, I had friends at work that 515 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:55,120 were lesbians and I never hated any of them. 516 00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:57,520 But they knew that I disagreed with the way they lived. 517 00:28:57,520 --> 00:28:59,800 And when I got to talk to them, I would tell them, because it's 518 00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:03,120 not what God wants for you. It's destructive. 519 00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:06,000 And it was evidenced by, you know, their lifestyles. 520 00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:10,840 You know, there's all kind of crazy things that happen, but 521 00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:14,560 getting down to what I really wanted to talk about today is 522 00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:16,880 and I'm never going to get it all done, I'm sure. 523 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:22,200 But I come to church here to serve, to be with you guys. 524 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,720 I don't know all your names. Even if you tell me your name 10 525 00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:30,560 times, I might forget it because I'm it's just, it's just not 526 00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:33,680 there, but your faces. So I see you all. 527 00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:37,520 I love you all. I'm greatly encouraged by you 528 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:39,960 all. I feel bad for people that that 529 00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:42,360 can't come to church. There are people that cannot 530 00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:43,880 come. I get that. 531 00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,840 I feel bad for people that can come and don't come. 532 00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:53,120 You know, if you look in Hebrews chapter 10, you guys all know 533 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:55,360 this verse. And this is not to bring 534 00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:03,040 condemnation on anybody, but it is for me, because I know even 535 00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:06,920 on days where I might not feel like coming to church, the Bible 536 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:12,440 gives us a command, right? It's Hebrews chapter 1019, Dawn 537 00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:14,240 says. Therefore, brethren, since we 538 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:16,800 have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of 539 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:20,920 Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us 540 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:24,600 through the veil that is his flesh, and since we have a great 541 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:27,880 high priest over the House of God, let us draw near with a 542 00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:31,320 sincere heart in the full assurance of faith, having our 543 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:34,640 hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. 544 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,800 Thank God for that and our bodies washed with pure water 545 00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:43,200 again, thank you, Lord, let us hold fast the confession of our 546 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:47,920 hope without wavering for he who promises faithful and let us 547 00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:51,880 consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. 548 00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:56,720 I mean, that's what happens when I come in here with you guys, 549 00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:59,520 especially with the guys, like in the in the men's breakfast, 550 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:04,360 you know that one of the guys teaches and John Leeds worship 551 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:06,080 and we talk, we discuss Proverbs. 552 00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:08,000 That's what happens in Bible studies. 553 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:10,480 And I'm sure in the ladies Bible studies and all the studies, 554 00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:15,520 we're stimulating each other to love and good deeds. 555 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:20,120 We're talking about the word of God, how it applies in our lives 556 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:23,600 and what a difference it makes. And I have to have that. 557 00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:25,800 So I have to come here to be with you. 558 00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:28,920 I can study on my own. When I'm in my workshop, I'm 559 00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:34,400 listening to our radio station. If I work 8 hours, I get 8 hours 560 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:37,520 of Bible teaching and music in there. 561 00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:41,480 If I would work 16 hours a day, which I really can't anymore, 562 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:44,240 you know, too many things going on, but I would do that. 563 00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:48,800 But it's still not the same as sitting down face to face with 564 00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:51,160 you guys and having that fellowship. 565 00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:54,680 And it isn't that I got to run up and give you a hug or 566 00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:57,840 anything like that. It's your face and your 567 00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:01,640 presence. You know, I come in again, I 568 00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:04,040 come in on a Wednesday night and Gina's up here and maybe 569 00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:05,600 Daniel's over there and they're practicing. 570 00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:09,520 They start worship and I look and there's like 2 people and 571 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:11,600 then, you know, I go do other stuff and I look and then 572 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:13,600 there's 20 or whatever, how many come and that's, you know, 573 00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:15,040 whatever God brings, that's fine. 574 00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:18,720 But what I'm, what I get out of that is here's, here's these two 575 00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:22,960 or three so faithful to come in here and worship the Lord. 576 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:25,600 Whether anyone shows up or not, they're going to worship. 577 00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:30,480 But it's great pleasure when you come in and there's people and 578 00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:32,040 you get to talk to them and see them. 579 00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:33,640 It's encouraging. So I'm, I'm sure it's 580 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:36,760 encouraging for the pastor, pastors and those. 581 00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:40,480 When I teach on Wednesday night, I'm OK with like 10 people. 582 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:44,440 I'm OK because afterwards we get to discuss things. 583 00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:46,120 That's the benefit of Wednesday night. 584 00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:47,920 We're teaching through the Psalms. 585 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:51,040 When we stop, you got time to ask questions. 586 00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:53,840 Like there's no time today, but you got time to ask questions. 587 00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:56,840 And I love that. That's why I like with our men's 588 00:32:56,840 --> 00:33:00,440 Bible study and, and the men's breakfast, we get the time to 589 00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:06,840 talk and we get to, you know, stimulate us to love and and 590 00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:08,720 good deeds. So it says to stimulate one 591 00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:12,640 another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling 592 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:16,120 together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one 593 00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:18,000 another. And all the more as you see the 594 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,760 day drawing near. So the day is drawing near and 595 00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:23,600 we don't know when Jesus is coming back. 596 00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:27,440 Could be any day, right? We believe that Jesus could come 597 00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:30,640 any day and we got to be ready for that. 598 00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:34,640 And I want to be encouraged and I want to be with you guys. 599 00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:39,480 When I go away. I, I hate to leave my family and 600 00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:42,960 I don't like not being at church when I come back. 601 00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:45,480 I'm at church like I'm leaving Friday. 602 00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:49,360 I'm going elk hunt. And oh, happy New Years by the 603 00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:52,960 way. September 1st is the new year 604 00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:56,080 for people who hunt. January 1st is meaningless. 605 00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:00,120 September 1st is the first day of dove season. 606 00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:02,560 I know if we're little doves, but it's dove season. 607 00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:06,720 So for a person that hunts January, I could, I could go to 608 00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:09,880 bed at 9:00 on New Year's Eve. I don't care when September 609 00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:13,520 starts. It's the new year for me and I'm 610 00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:16,400 going hunting. So I'm, I'm going, I'm going out 611 00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:20,080 to Colorado with my older boy Daniel that plays the drums and 612 00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:23,760 my buddy Pastor Jeff and his boy and a bunch of other guys that 613 00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:29,400 will meet up out there and just enjoy the time and getting away 614 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:31,600 and being up in the mountains and chasing elk. 615 00:34:32,639 --> 00:34:36,600 One of the simple pleasures in life. 616 00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:39,560 You know, my, my buddy Pastor Jeff, he says that we're driving 617 00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:43,520 out last year, you know, and he says almost like almost apology. 618 00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:46,560 He says, you know, so I have to tell you, I really love this. 619 00:34:47,199 --> 00:34:50,320 And I said, well, I do too, but he's a pastor and he can't say 620 00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:52,639 that he loves something else besides the Lord. 621 00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:55,480 And I said, there's a difference. 622 00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:57,680 I don't love El Cunton more than I love the Lord. 623 00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:01,440 I don't love El Cunton more than I love my wife, but it's just 624 00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:03,560 something we do. I love it, but there's a lot of 625 00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:06,240 different words for love. We only have one, you know, 626 00:35:06,240 --> 00:35:08,360 there's a lot of different meanings for it. 627 00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:12,480 And I said, it's OK, man. I, I really, I love it too, but 628 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:15,520 I love the Lord more. I love my wife more, my kids 629 00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:17,720 more, but I still go, I, I don't like to leave. 630 00:35:17,720 --> 00:35:21,520 I don't like to leave my wife and my kids, but, but we go. 631 00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:26,920 So if you got a hunting license, happy New Year, good weather's 632 00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:29,000 coming. We thank the Lord for the, the, 633 00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:33,120 the good weather. So I'm going to go over to 634 00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:35,840 Colossians and I know I'm not going to get through all this 635 00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:37,600 stuff. I, I really wanted to talk to 636 00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:43,400 you today mostly about our love for one another and how it's 637 00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:46,680 evidenced in the way we get together, the way we serve one 638 00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:50,120 another. Like Brad and you know, with the 639 00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:55,280 kids and all the workers over there helping the Bible school 640 00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:57,240 thing. I was blessed by the teens that 641 00:35:57,240 --> 00:35:59,760 came out and helped, you know, so there's a lot of maturity in 642 00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:02,200 these young people to come and serve, to give up their time. 643 00:36:02,200 --> 00:36:07,280 I was blessed by that. You know, Pastor Lewis talked 644 00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:09,600 about and James about true religion. 645 00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:12,480 I think he got to that part. But this is true religion that 646 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:15,000 you take care of widows and orphans in your in their 647 00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:18,200 distress and you remain unstained by the world. 648 00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:20,840 Stay away from the bad things of the world. 649 00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:24,040 But look out for the the least of these, right? 650 00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:28,760 You have John and Kelly go to the old folks homes and those 651 00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:31,280 are the least, you know, they've been there alone. 652 00:36:31,720 --> 00:36:35,480 Great ministry you have Dave and Dana adopted a couple little 653 00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:40,880 girls from a broken home, taking care of orphans in air distress. 654 00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:45,720 And so, you know, we, we look for that as believers and the 655 00:36:45,720 --> 00:36:48,240 word calls us what to do. Like I said, I'm not an 656 00:36:48,240 --> 00:36:51,600 administrator. When I was at camp, I, I reached 657 00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,920 the rank of captain, but I was really just a Sergeant because I 658 00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:58,920 needed the captain to tell me, John, you get those boys up at 659 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:02,280 6:00 AM, you run them for five miles, you'll be back here at a 660 00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:04,680 certain time. I needed to be told everything 661 00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:07,320 to do. He was a guy that planned out 662 00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:09,960 all the stuff for the next trip. I, I can't do that. 663 00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:13,840 I can barely plan myself, you know, But I like the word of God 664 00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:17,240 because it tells me what to do. It's not a Gray area to take 665 00:37:17,240 --> 00:37:20,680 care of people that are hurting. It's not a Gray area for us to 666 00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:23,800 come to church. It's not a Gray area for us to 667 00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:29,800 love one another in first Peter, it says love covers of multitude 668 00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:33,760 of sins. You think about that. 669 00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:35,520 You know we're to love one another. 670 00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:38,200 There's so many verses in there. Gina sent me this thing with all 671 00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:41,080 these love one another verses on here and I got some of them, but 672 00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:42,480 I'll probably never get to them all. 673 00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:46,880 There's no doubt if you read the New Testament, any Old Testament 674 00:37:46,880 --> 00:37:49,320 that we are called to love one another. 675 00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:54,440 You don't have to like be an agreement with everything. 676 00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:55,880 We're going to disagree on stuff. 677 00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:59,520 You might not like this or like that, but love covers a 678 00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:02,880 multitude of sins. And when Jesus paid the price 679 00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:04,840 for our sin, he covered everything. 680 00:38:05,720 --> 00:38:09,560 So who are we not to forgive each other and to love each 681 00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:13,400 other? I, I had a, a friend at work and 682 00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:15,680 honestly, I don't remember which one it was now, but he was 683 00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:18,200 saying some stuff about me that it wasn't true. 684 00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:21,320 And he's my friend, you know, so I was talking to this other 685 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:23,680 person and he said, how can you even be friends with him? 686 00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:26,160 How can you even talk with him anymore? 687 00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:30,640 He said this about you. And I thought about it for a 688 00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:33,800 second and I said I'm no better than him. 689 00:38:34,240 --> 00:38:36,880 I said I may have said stuff about him and I don't remember. 690 00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:40,080 And I would hope that he wouldn't disown me as a friend. 691 00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:46,800 Love covers a multitude of sins. So you know in your, your 692 00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:50,440 closest relationship, if you're married, your wife, you know my 693 00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:53,440 wife has to cover a multitude of my sins and she does the same 694 00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:56,560 for me. My advice to people is never go 695 00:38:56,560 --> 00:38:59,800 to bed angry. Don't let the sin go down on 696 00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:02,160 your anger. Make amends. 697 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:07,240 Say you're sorry, men, man up. Even if it's her fault, you tell 698 00:39:07,240 --> 00:39:10,880 her you're sorry. God holds you responsible for 699 00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:15,240 your household. Bring peace because love covers 700 00:39:15,240 --> 00:39:20,280 a multitude of sins. Sorry about that. 701 00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:24,520 Let's see Colossians chapter one, verse 3. 702 00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:27,760 I'll read these to you. Hopefully I wrote the right 703 00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:30,080 things down here because sometimes I'll write something 704 00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:33,280 down that's the wrong thing. We give thanks to God the Father 705 00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:36,080 of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praying always for you since we 706 00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:39,480 heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you 707 00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:45,080 have for all the Saints because of the hope that is laid up for 708 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:47,800 you in heaven of which you have previously heard in a word of 709 00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:52,240 truth, the gospel, my footnote in this Bible says in regards to 710 00:39:52,240 --> 00:39:56,760 that love which you have is says one of the visible fruits of 711 00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:59,960 true saving faith is love for fellow believers. 712 00:40:00,720 --> 00:40:03,480 And a lot of the verses that I poured out of here were love for 713 00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:06,760 fellow believers. At the very basic minimum, it's 714 00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:09,760 you guys. Me and you, you and whoever, 715 00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:15,400 it's love for us as brothers because the Bible says if they 716 00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:19,360 see the the love in you, it makes the difference. 717 00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:20,720 I don't know. I had a quote. 718 00:40:20,720 --> 00:40:23,240 I say I didn't have it up there. I probably didn't give it to 719 00:40:23,240 --> 00:40:25,760 him, but I wrote it down. You guys heard of Tertullian? 720 00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:27,840 I think Lewis or Clark mentioned them. 721 00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:31,640 Yeah. Tertullian. 722 00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:36,360 He wrote something called the Apology written around 197 AD, 723 00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:40,040 and this is what he had it says. But it is mainly the deeds of 724 00:40:40,040 --> 00:40:43,800 the love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. 725 00:40:44,280 --> 00:40:47,640 And this is what they say, see They say how they love one 726 00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:51,080 another and how they are ready even to die for one another. 727 00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:55,560 The Bible says that they'll know we are Christians by our love. 728 00:40:56,680 --> 00:41:00,000 And it starts first in the House of the Lord, right with us. 729 00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:01,960 You don't have to really like me. 730 00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:03,480 You might think this guy's a lunatic. 731 00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:06,360 He wants to go out and shoot doves and shoot elk and things 732 00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:08,640 like that. But you still have to love me. 733 00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:12,560 You still have to love me. We can talk about the things you 734 00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:14,080 don't like and I'm willing to hear it. 735 00:41:14,800 --> 00:41:19,120 I'm willing to sit and discuss, come to the Bible study, come 736 00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:21,680 talk to me whenever we can talk about things. 737 00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:25,000 But even if we disagree, we need to love each other. 738 00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:29,440 We need to work it out. It's not just the suggestion, 739 00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:31,760 right? It's a it's a commandment. 740 00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:35,200 I'm going to read you something from John here real quick. 741 00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:43,240 John 1334 and 35, a new commandment I give you that you 742 00:41:43,240 --> 00:41:47,080 love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love 743 00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:49,560 one another. By this, all men will know that 744 00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:52,600 you are my disciples if you love one another. 745 00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:54,960 This is how people know who we are. 746 00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,080 I look back on my high school days. 747 00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:01,320 People knew I was like good. I was morally good. 748 00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:06,560 I was kind, you know, runner up for being courteous, but I don't 749 00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:08,320 remember giving anybody the gospel. 750 00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:12,280 And I had a friend that I met like long after high school who 751 00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:15,760 said to me one time he became a Christian and he said, how come 752 00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:17,920 you never told me about that man? 753 00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:22,560 I just my heart just sank. I could have, I could have maybe 754 00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:25,480 been the one that led him to the Lord, you know, and I always 755 00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:29,120 felt bad about that. So I purposed, you know, as life 756 00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:31,840 went on, when I was at work, you were going to know I was a 757 00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:33,560 Christian. You were going to know I was a 758 00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:35,680 Christian because I did the best job I could do. 759 00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:40,320 I was respectful with people as I could be, and I glorified God 760 00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:42,960 in what I did. I mean, I made mistakes at work. 761 00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:45,520 I had to apologize to my boss and tell him I shouldn't have 762 00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:47,960 said that, but I always apologized. 763 00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:49,720 And you know, that kind of thing. 764 00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:53,880 The worst example we could be of a Christian is to go to work and 765 00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:58,880 not do our job, defame the name of Christ by poor workmanship or 766 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:03,920 things that we say and do. How we act needs to be present 767 00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:08,920 in our work and you know it. Our, our testimony, our witness 768 00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:12,040 matters greatly. But in amongst the church, I 769 00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:14,760 don't work with you guys. I don't know you all that well. 770 00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:19,200 Some I know better than others, but I'm called to love you and 771 00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:21,960 we will love you. We're here to serve you. 772 00:43:22,480 --> 00:43:25,520 None of these pastors come up here week after week to bring 773 00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:28,760 you the word. We teach these, these folks work 774 00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:31,080 with the kids, they do worshippers all kind of things. 775 00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:34,960 The sound guys, the financial people, all the thing that goes 776 00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:37,360 on in this church, all the ministries is done because they 777 00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:41,880 love the Lord Jesus Christ and they love you guys and willing 778 00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:45,760 to die for you. Greater love hath no man than 779 00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:47,560 this. What man would lay down his life 780 00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:52,680 for a friend, right? Maybe some people wouldn't do 781 00:43:52,680 --> 00:43:54,200 that, and I think you guys would. 782 00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:56,560 You know, people always say you don't know what you'll do in a 783 00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:59,600 situation. I said you have to know, you 784 00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:02,320 have to know ahead of time. You need to know that you need 785 00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:06,640 to do what God calls you to do. I've tried to live my life as 786 00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:09,400 best I can according to what God wants me to do, and I don't 787 00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:12,240 always do it. I mean, my, if you ask my wife 788 00:44:12,240 --> 00:44:15,920 or my kids, they can tell you my imperfections and things like 789 00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:18,960 that. But I know that I'm a forgiving 790 00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:24,480 man by the grace of God in you know, that's all a good thing. 791 00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:27,080 But we're commanded to love one another. 792 00:44:28,320 --> 00:44:30,640 Jesus said if you love me, you'll keep my commandments, 793 00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:32,280 right? If you love him, you'll keep his 794 00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:38,000 commandments. John 14 I'm going to read 795 00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:39,800 something out of John chapter 15. 796 00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:41,560 You read John, read first. John. 797 00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:43,720 Sometimes you want to hear about a lot of love that we're 798 00:44:43,720 --> 00:44:46,120 supposed to have. I mean, it's just, it's filled 799 00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:50,080 with things and things that we should do and how we should be. 800 00:44:50,720 --> 00:44:53,920 And John 1512, this is my commandment, that you love one 801 00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:55,480 another just as I have loved you. 802 00:44:55,880 --> 00:44:58,760 Greater love hath no man than this one, that that one would 803 00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:00,400 lay down his life for his friends. 804 00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:03,560 You are my friends. The Lord said, If you want to do 805 00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:07,520 what I command you no longer do I call you slaves, for the slave 806 00:45:07,520 --> 00:45:09,560 does not know what this master is doing. 807 00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:12,560 But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard 808 00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:14,520 from my father I have made known to you. 809 00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:20,160 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that 810 00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:23,160 you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so 811 00:45:23,160 --> 00:45:25,880 that wherever you ask, whatever you ask of the Father, in my 812 00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:29,960 name he may give to you. This I command you that you love 813 00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:33,160 one another. Not a suggestion for me. 814 00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:39,120 I cannot hide in my basement 24 hours a day and work. 815 00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:42,280 I need to be out. I need to be with you. 816 00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:46,920 And likewise, we're commanded to do that. 817 00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:48,880 And it's a great, it's a great commandment. 818 00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:52,080 Why wouldn't we want to? Even even the days where I don't 819 00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:55,720 feel like occasionally might be really tired or something like 820 00:45:55,720 --> 00:46:00,240 that. I get up and I drive here and a 821 00:46:00,240 --> 00:46:02,920 couple minutes after I'm here. I'm blessed by your husband's, 822 00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:07,160 you know, I'm blessed by these guys because we're talking about 823 00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:09,200 the Lord and they're keeping me straight. 824 00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:15,640 So I had a whole bunch of commands and 1st John, I'm not 825 00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:17,560 going to read. I'm not going to have time, but 826 00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:19,440 they're there for you. It's real simple to read. 827 00:46:19,440 --> 00:46:23,240 First John's very short, but I had this note I wrote down and 828 00:46:23,240 --> 00:46:26,960 said it is love that has sparked missions and ministries of mercy 829 00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:29,800 all over the world. You look at what Christians have 830 00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:34,120 done through love Hospitals, place things like a World 831 00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:38,280 Vision, Samaritan's Purse. The Christian Church is 832 00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:41,560 responsible for building the hospitals and the missions and 833 00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:43,760 feeding the poor and doing all those things. 834 00:46:43,760 --> 00:46:47,000 You don't hear a lot about that in a secular world. 835 00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:50,600 It's our mission. It's our call to love you first 836 00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:54,200 one another and to love people in the world, not the things of 837 00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:56,280 the world, not the sin in the world. 838 00:46:56,280 --> 00:47:01,520 Again, we lovingly call out sin. There's a reason why we do it is 839 00:47:01,520 --> 00:47:07,160 to protect people to to to to be apostate in the church and not 840 00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:10,840 call out sin and to let people continue on and sin is like I 841 00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:17,400 said before, very unloving. If we do that, run, run, find a 842 00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:20,120 place that teaches the word of God because you got to, you got 843 00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:24,160 to teach the truth and lying to people just to have them sit 844 00:47:24,160 --> 00:47:28,440 here doesn't serve them and it just dishonors the Lord. 845 00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:34,040 I have a whole bunch of verses on what the love looks like. 846 00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:35,680 I'm not going to have time to read them. 847 00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:39,080 I'm just going to read 1. I don't want to. 848 00:47:49,050 --> 00:47:54,330 OK, I'll read this one. First Thessalonians chapter 1511 849 00:47:54,330 --> 00:47:57,410 to 15. Therefore, encourage one 850 00:47:57,410 --> 00:47:59,410 another. I wrote this down as like this 851 00:47:59,410 --> 00:48:00,690 is what it's supposed to look like. 852 00:48:01,210 --> 00:48:07,160 Therefore, encourage one another, build up one another, 853 00:48:07,160 --> 00:48:11,800 just as you are also doing. But we request of you, brother, 854 00:48:11,800 --> 00:48:15,680 in that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and 855 00:48:15,680 --> 00:48:18,320 have charge over you and the Lord and give you instruction 856 00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:21,440 and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their 857 00:48:21,440 --> 00:48:23,160 work. So when I look at like Brad and 858 00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:27,560 Janelle and these guys back here and our pastors and people 859 00:48:27,560 --> 00:48:30,760 serving the youth and the worship, like I'm amazed and, 860 00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:34,280 and, and I do I, I just love it. I can't do that. 861 00:48:34,480 --> 00:48:37,000 I can't do what they do, but I love it. 862 00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:40,240 I love that they do it. And I'm really appreciative of 863 00:48:40,240 --> 00:48:44,120 all that because, you know, it takes everybody in the body, all 864 00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:47,280 the parts, all the gifts that God gives us them to make things 865 00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:50,440 work. And the things that you do 866 00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:53,960 outside the church, right? The church is here to sharpen 867 00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:59,240 us, to inspire us, glorify God, you all to be edified, but to 868 00:48:59,240 --> 00:49:02,200 take that and go out into the world and do what we do. 869 00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:05,880 But again, it has to start here in our hearts with one another. 870 00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:12,600 So we esteem them very highly in love because of their work. 871 00:49:12,640 --> 00:49:18,080 Live in peace with one another. Pretty basic. 872 00:49:18,320 --> 00:49:20,640 Be peaceful. Don't do like what I did the 873 00:49:20,680 --> 00:49:22,080 other day and holler out the window. 874 00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:24,400 Not peaceful could have caused a riot. 875 00:49:25,880 --> 00:49:29,600 We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint 876 00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:31,120 hearted. So you know, just because we 877 00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:32,960 love each other doesn't mean there couldn't be church 878 00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:35,280 discipline too. You know, I, I, I'm not saying 879 00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:37,800 that everything's lovey dovey huggy, but love. 880 00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:40,520 There's respect in love and there's things that have to 881 00:49:40,520 --> 00:49:43,800 happen in love. If I, if I know you in this 882 00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:46,800 church and you claim to be Christian and we get to know 883 00:49:46,800 --> 00:49:50,160 each other and you're not acting the way you should be and vice 884 00:49:50,160 --> 00:49:53,280 versa for me, I'm not. I would expect you to say, hey, 885 00:49:54,280 --> 00:49:57,560 I see this in your life and we really need to talk about that. 886 00:49:57,680 --> 00:50:01,200 And we have to be humble enough to accept that. 887 00:50:01,280 --> 00:50:03,640 There was a couple that came here years ago. 888 00:50:03,640 --> 00:50:08,000 And again, if lost people come in here, I expect them to be 889 00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:11,320 different. I expect people not in the 890 00:50:11,320 --> 00:50:13,920 church to be living together and doing all that kind of stuff 891 00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:16,480 because that's what people do. It's not right. 892 00:50:16,480 --> 00:50:19,080 Don't answer to God for that, but I expect them to do that. 893 00:50:19,200 --> 00:50:21,800 That's just that's the world that I see all around me. 894 00:50:22,080 --> 00:50:25,520 But if you claim Jesus Christ, I expect something different out 895 00:50:25,520 --> 00:50:28,080 of you. And if we get to talking about 896 00:50:28,080 --> 00:50:30,320 it, I'm going to lovingly say this is what God wants. 897 00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:32,560 So I had a couple here. They both claim to be Christian 898 00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:35,240 and they were living together. And I said, brother, you know, 899 00:50:35,240 --> 00:50:38,840 that's that's just not right. You know, it's not good for you. 900 00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:40,560 It's not good for her especially. 901 00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:44,760 And he said, we can't afford it. So I asked Pastor Clark and 902 00:50:44,760 --> 00:50:47,040 Pastor Clark said, we'll do the wedding here for free. 903 00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:49,200 The people will make the food and bring it. 904 00:50:50,240 --> 00:50:51,640 And then he end up leaving the church. 905 00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:54,760 And he said, because I was like too mean or something like that. 906 00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:57,600 And I'm like, I didn't say you couldn't come to church. 907 00:50:57,600 --> 00:50:59,240 I'm just saying you claim to be Christian. 908 00:50:59,600 --> 00:51:01,120 This is what God calls you to do. 909 00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:03,640 And if, you know, people get saved, they don't know that they 910 00:51:03,640 --> 00:51:05,200 shouldn't do that. Well, this is what the Bible 911 00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:07,320 says, man. This is this is what you need to 912 00:51:07,320 --> 00:51:09,800 do. You need to be pure. 913 00:51:09,800 --> 00:51:11,800 You need to abstain from sexual immorality. 914 00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:14,960 And this is how to do it. We want you to be married. 915 00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:16,840 We want you to stay here and be discipled. 916 00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:21,000 But I love you too much. It's not like lovey dovey huggy. 917 00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:26,040 I love you too much to let you continue on in sin because the 918 00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:27,960 Lord does the same thing for all of us, right? 919 00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:29,320 He speaks to us. Hey. 920 00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:33,360 Hey, John, you're not doing the right thing with your money. 921 00:51:33,760 --> 00:51:36,000 I got to talk to you about that. I don't want to hear it. 922 00:51:36,640 --> 00:51:38,920 Next day I hear it again and again till finally you break 923 00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:41,440 down, say, all right, I give up. You're right. 924 00:51:41,800 --> 00:51:43,880 He has a plan for us. We've got to listen to him. 925 00:51:44,600 --> 00:51:47,640 And it takes the power of the Holy Spirit in us to live it 926 00:51:47,640 --> 00:51:49,560 out. It can't be done in our flesh. 927 00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:53,680 It's the Lord who speaks to us. It's the Lord who gives us the 928 00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:56,800 power to do that. OK, well, I'm way out of timer. 929 00:51:56,800 --> 00:52:01,040 I'm sorry I didn't. OK, so I think we need to do the 930 00:52:01,040 --> 00:52:03,040 Lord's Supper and the worship team should come up. 931 00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:07,000 I'll make this quick. So you got, I'm sorry it took a 932 00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:11,440 little bit longer. I didn't know if I'd have 10 933 00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:14,040 minutes worth of stuff for like way more. 934 00:52:14,040 --> 00:52:20,600 But so, you know, we take the Lord's Supper. 935 00:52:21,560 --> 00:52:26,360 To do in another unworthy manner is to do it lost and rejecting 936 00:52:26,360 --> 00:52:29,480 God. We're all, you know, in reality 937 00:52:29,480 --> 00:52:31,720 unworthy. But because of what Christ did, 938 00:52:31,720 --> 00:52:33,360 you are worthy to take the supper. 939 00:52:33,360 --> 00:52:37,160 If you believe in him, believe on him, know that he paid the 940 00:52:37,160 --> 00:52:42,960 price for your sins. So I'll pray and then we'll take 941 00:52:42,960 --> 00:52:53,840 the supper. Lord, we, we do love you for 942 00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:58,040 everything you've done for us and how it affects our lives, 943 00:52:59,880 --> 00:53:05,640 what you've kept us from and what you pull us out of by the 944 00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:07,480 power of your cross, what you've done. 945 00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:12,320 And we take this cup not as a ritual because it reminds us 946 00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:15,200 every week what you've done for us. 947 00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:17,520 And we said, we thank you for that. 948 00:53:17,880 --> 00:53:22,960 It's, it's amazing. So on the very night that Jesus 949 00:53:22,960 --> 00:53:26,280 was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it and he said this 950 00:53:26,280 --> 00:53:28,480 is my body which is given for you. 951 00:53:29,920 --> 00:53:37,000 Eat this in remembrance of him in the same way he took the cup 952 00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:43,880 and he said this is a cup of new covenant in my blood and drink 953 00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:50,760 this in remembrance of me. And he said as often as you do 954 00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:54,320 that you remember my death till I come again. 955 00:53:55,000 --> 00:53:59,960 And I long for that day when he comes again. 956 00:54:01,200 --> 00:54:04,080 And at home, I hope I'm here with you guys or with my family 957 00:54:04,080 --> 00:54:06,800 doing something good. Your guys ever I should probably 958 00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:10,560 shouldn't promote the movie, but you ever see the movie Joe Dirt? 959 00:54:12,880 --> 00:54:14,240 You know, he always said, is that what you? 960 00:54:14,240 --> 00:54:16,560 Is that what you want to be doing when Jesus comes back? 961 00:54:16,560 --> 00:54:19,840 Picking on old poor Joe Dirt? I don't want to be found doing 962 00:54:19,840 --> 00:54:23,440 something wrong when Jesus comes back, even though I'm forgiven, 963 00:54:23,880 --> 00:54:26,120 I want to be here with you guys or I want to be up in the 964 00:54:26,120 --> 00:54:29,360 mountains with my buddy, maybe shooting an elk or something 965 00:54:29,360 --> 00:54:33,240 like that. I want to glorify God in 966 00:54:33,240 --> 00:54:37,160 everything that I do if I can, you know, knowing it's peaceful 967 00:54:37,160 --> 00:54:38,880 grace and mercy. All right, I get out of your 968 00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:42,240 way. It's all yours.