SPEAKER_02: My message today is simply something that the best sermons are lived out.
SPEAKER_02: And you say, where does that come from?
SPEAKER_02: I actually heard that.
SPEAKER_02: That's not something that I'm made up, but it is true.
SPEAKER_02: You know, all the sermons that I preach here among you are, well, sermons that come from the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: It's lived out sermons of men and women throughout history, throughout the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: It all represents God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: But you and I live out those, those trials of life.
SPEAKER_02: People are watching us and looking at us, our actions.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: The things that we accomplish in life, those that we give glory to.
SPEAKER_02: You know, there's nothing in our life that we can do that God has not helped us with.
SPEAKER_02: And you say, Well, what do you mean, Brother Frank?
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says that we can do nothing without him.
SPEAKER_02: So by his help, God is helping you through life.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And so we should give God the glory and the praise and the credit for it in life.
SPEAKER_02: I am that living testimony.
SPEAKER_02: I would not be here today if it was not for the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I can still remember my uh language arts teachers telling me, Frank, that's pretty peculiar when I stood up and read my little essay before the class.
SPEAKER_02: And she was right.
SPEAKER_02: But then when I read in the Bible that we're peculiar people, zealous of good works, well, that said Lord, the Lord had his hand on me even then.
SPEAKER_02: But the Bible, through sermons, they teach us, they correct us, they encourage us in life.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: They transform lives from sinners, amen.
SPEAKER_02: Through the grace of God and his love, through the, well, the Holy Spirit that compels them to be saved and to be more like Christ and less like our old self.
SPEAKER_02: And that's where God sanctifies and sets us apart to Him as believers.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible is full of history.
SPEAKER_02: Right now we're living out biblical history even ourselves, so as the children of God.
SPEAKER_02: And it has been over the last 2,000 years and even beyond.
SPEAKER_02: Prophecies have been told, biblical teachings have been taught, teachings that I teach out of the Bible, teachings that you read of Christ, the Sermon on the Mount, and the teachings of Christ there.
SPEAKER_02: The most important of those are the plans of salvation for mankind that God planned that all would be saved and that none would perish.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing in this world, amen, can ever separate us from the love of God and God's plan for you and I to have eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: All mankind to have eternal life through his Son, Jesus Christ, through that precious blood.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible teaches us the doctrines of the church, and are also the things, well, yet to come that are happening even in this present time.
SPEAKER_02: I believe biblical prophecy is unfolding and things are happening today in our generation.
SPEAKER_02: But the stories of the Bible are of men and women lived just like you and I, who simply lived out life and honored God by the life that they lived.
SPEAKER_02: And I often think about those stories in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: I knew our young kids would be out here today.
SPEAKER_02: Lori had mentioned about this as the last Sunday of the of the year, actually, and of this month.
SPEAKER_02: And I think about Noah.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know Noah was, well, he was 500 years old when he started the Ark?
SPEAKER_02: Basically, well, he was right at 500 years old.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_02: 500 years.
SPEAKER_02: I none of us will make it 500 years in this body, but well, in that spiritual body, amen.
SPEAKER_02: We will.
SPEAKER_02: I love it when you know the song that was written there in Amazing Grace, and after 10,000 years, we've only just what?
SPEAKER_02: Begun.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_02: But Noah was, well, he was about 500 years old, and God simply said he had enough with man, the sin of man.
SPEAKER_02: See, sin simply grieves the spirit of God.
SPEAKER_02: God did not create man that he would sin, but that he would have fellowship with God.
SPEAKER_02: You and I today, we have fellowship with God through his Son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Because the Bible teaches us that, well, that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man cometh unto the Father but by him and him alone.
SPEAKER_02: But the Bible teaches us that, well, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: God looked down from heaven and he saw a man named Noah.
SPEAKER_02: He was a just man, the Bible talks about, one that was blameless in his day, that he was right before God.
SPEAKER_02: The life that he lived, he wanted to honor God.
SPEAKER_02: I simply want to say this: what say you today?
SPEAKER_02: How many of you want to be a Noah in life?
SPEAKER_02: Want to live a life that would, well, be perfect in a way that would honor God.
SPEAKER_02: We all make mistakes in life.
SPEAKER_02: I'm thankful for God's redemption for mankind.
SPEAKER_02: I'm thankful that God has cleansed me and washed me of all of my sins.
SPEAKER_02: But Noah was one that was a just man.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible said something there that, and well, simply in Genesis 6, he said, and he walked with God.
SPEAKER_00: Not a special.
SPEAKER_00: Do you walk with God today?
SPEAKER_02: If you don't, would you like to walk with God?
SPEAKER_02: Because the story and the sermons that I have preached and men have preached throughout history, or many of them on the on Noah's life and the life that he lived.
SPEAKER_02: 2 Peter in 2.5 describes Noah as a preacher of righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_02: The Bible doesn't really say.
SPEAKER_02: It talks about 120 years of man there.
SPEAKER_02: Some interpret that that it took Noah 120 years to build the ark, and then it was the finish of man, other than, well, the eight persons that were in the ark, right?
SPEAKER_02: How many sons did Noah have?
SPEAKER_02: Shem, Ham, and Japheth?
SPEAKER_02: Is that it?
SPEAKER_02: That's it, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: And Noah and his wife and their wives.
SPEAKER_02: So there were eight persons in the ark.
SPEAKER_02: How many have gone to the ark encounter here at the church?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: If you have it, you ought to go up and see that.
SPEAKER_02: Because I think it'll give you a new insight on Noah's life and what it took him to build the ark.
SPEAKER_02: Some believe that it took him well over 50, some 75, and some would also go back to 120 years.
SPEAKER_02: But we knew that we know that it took Noah a while.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, his sons were born unto him, and I'm sure that they helped their dad.
SPEAKER_02: Just like a son would help his father.
SPEAKER_02: But God had a reason and a purpose behind all of that.
SPEAKER_02: God needed to reset things because of the wickedness of man.
SPEAKER_02: God had to deal with sin in that day, in that generation in life.
SPEAKER_02: And God used a man that walked with him named Noah.
SPEAKER_02: See, God can use you and I today in this time in history in life too, if you're walking with the Lord, if you know the Lord and trust in him.
SPEAKER_02: Oftentimes God will give you a path of his direction and not the direction that you often want to go.
SPEAKER_02: See, that saying about joy is simply true, that joy is Jesus first and others second, and then yourself last.
SPEAKER_02: That brings true joy in life.
SPEAKER_00: God has a purpose for you to have that joy.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible teaches us there that certainly there that Noah well he built an ark, and many of you know this the story, the young people here, the young children.
SPEAKER_02: And then God put forth in that ark, he brought animals two by two.
SPEAKER_02: It was God that did that.
SPEAKER_02: It was three-story tall, and he put well the windows within for, can you imagine?
SPEAKER_02: It was 40 days and 40 nights, but all the days that Noah was in the ark, and it had to have ventilation there.
SPEAKER_02: Noah had never built an ark.
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure in those days that people laughed at Noah and made fun of Noah because they're seeing this.
SPEAKER_02: Well, if you go to the Ark encounter, you can see it from the road and see how big it is, can't you?
SPEAKER_02: You can see it from a way off and like, oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02: And then when you get up close, it's massive.
SPEAKER_02: It's built, the one there in Kentucky is built to the size and to the cubic and to the foot that, well, that the Bible teaches us that Noah built.
SPEAKER_02: But God made it in a way that it would withstand the greatest storms of life.
SPEAKER_02: They talk about today that the ships that are built today are built off in the structure and were built off the way that the ark was built in that day because it withstood the greatest storm of life.
SPEAKER_02: And no one doubts that storm because, well, I grew up in these Ozarks and I picked up a lot of rocks, and I see a lot of seashells and stuff in those rocks.
SPEAKER_02: My wife and I have witnessed uh a starfish in caverns of caves right here in the Ozarks, and also shark's teeth.
SPEAKER_02: And they found shark's teeth when they dig up in uh in Kansas when they plant corn.
SPEAKER_02: Look how many miles you're from the ocean, and how did those shark's teeth ever get there?
SPEAKER_02: Well, God, one day, he brought forth the rain, he broke the heavens loose, the firmament, just according to the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: But I think about as the animals went in, and God prepared to reset the earth with a great flood.
SPEAKER_02: See, that's a that's a sermon of itself, how God wanted to reset mankind.
SPEAKER_02: How Noah obeyed God, and throughout his life, he built something that had never been built before.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible teaches us that we are to walk by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_02: 2 Corinthians there, isn't it, 5-7.
SPEAKER_02: Noah walked by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_02: He listened to God, he walked with God and he obeyed God, even to the point that God himself shut the door on that ark.
SPEAKER_02: I can only imagine, and you've heard me share this before.
SPEAKER_02: But when that first crack from heaven came, from when that firmament broke open, and maybe I don't know, I wasn't there in that day, but we've all heard the rains come down and and the and the thunder and the lightning, and whether that was, it took place in that day, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: But we know that the water came.
SPEAKER_02: Lori and I have been in in Glenrose, Texas, and we went down where there's actually footprints of humans and dinosaurs together.
SPEAKER_02: If you ever get a chance to go down there, Dr.
SPEAKER_02: Carl Ball, the Creation Evidence Museum is down there.
SPEAKER_02: And you can see footprints going up.
SPEAKER_02: And they believe at that time it was this was before the flood, and maybe during the flood that man and animal were trying to get to a higher ground, and then it just all covered up.
SPEAKER_02: And as the rivers have, well, the Barrasso River is that I think that's the call, the river there, it has uncovered it over the years.
SPEAKER_02: And you can actually get down there on the river and see the dinosaur and the human footprints together.
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_02: That is a piece of history that got that took place during the flood.
SPEAKER_02: They've also found in a mallet that was pre-flood, meaning that somehow they study it and they come to realize that it's not, it wasn't made here, better yet, after the flood, something chemically.
SPEAKER_02: And so they know it's all pre-flood.
SPEAKER_02: All of the evidence is there that took place.
SPEAKER_02: That is the history that took place that we can even witness today in our own life.
SPEAKER_02: But I can imagine that moment when that crack came from heaven, if it happened that way.
SPEAKER_02: And the first raindrop that it ever fall fell to earth.
SPEAKER_02: Because before that, it only the mist of the ground.
SPEAKER_02: And I can only imagine if there was not a tear in Noah's eye.
SPEAKER_02: Because the Bible said he was a preacher of righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: He had probably told and witnessed and had a testimony of his life and what God was going to do, but no one listened to him in that day.
SPEAKER_00: No one else.
SPEAKER_02: Yet Noah believed God.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says he moved with fear for the saving of his house.
SPEAKER_02: How often do you move with fear for your household?
SPEAKER_02: How important it is that all of your household be saved, amen.
SPEAKER_02: All of your children and your grandchildren, and hopefully those that well you work with, and what kind of friend would we be that we get to heaven and they're not there?
SPEAKER_02: But the Bible teaches us one thing that is true.
SPEAKER_02: That is a true sermon.
SPEAKER_02: And all those that were in the ark, that ark was a type of Christ, symbolic.
SPEAKER_02: And all those that were in that ark in that day, well, they were saved from the very wrath of God that came in that day.
SPEAKER_02: They were able to withstand all the flood that took place for over 40 days and nights.
SPEAKER_02: God put everything that they needed and the habitation of man within that ark in that time frame to sustain that life and to keep them there until he rested it up on Mount Ariot in that day.
SPEAKER_02: And see, that's a sermon there that our children have heard.
SPEAKER_02: It's not something that it's just a story, uh fairy tale.
SPEAKER_02: It is a it is historical fact.
SPEAKER_02: And many sermons have been written about it, and we have the evidence even of it here today.
SPEAKER_02: See, our lives, Noah lived out a sermon in his life, and so did his sons.
SPEAKER_02: And so did all the men and the women throughout the biblical history.
SPEAKER_02: And you and I are living out a sermon today in our lives, and people are witnessing our testimony of Christ in our life.
SPEAKER_02: And I it's amazing to me to see how many people are getting saved today and their lives are being changed.
SPEAKER_02: I seen a video in a jail in Minnesota that uh at Christmas Day, men that were incarcerated gather around in a circle and they prayed.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Things are happening.
SPEAKER_02: I see things happening in our own county jail.
SPEAKER_02: We used to serve well over 100 meals in the county jail.
SPEAKER_02: I think there was just what, 81, 82, and that that's all the workers and the in the inmates.
SPEAKER_02: I know that the last week I went there, that they only let us in three pods out of the four because they don't have enough inmates for all the pods.
SPEAKER_02: God's working.
SPEAKER_02: Our lives are be a sermon that is being written.
SPEAKER_02: One day that, well, we don't know when the Lord will come.
SPEAKER_02: No one knows other than the Father.
SPEAKER_02: But they may be a message or a story written about you in life.
SPEAKER_02: I remember in jail one time, uh a young man, he wasn't very old at all, and and as I walked in the door, he said, I know you.
SPEAKER_02: You look kind of familiar to me.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, No, I know you.
SPEAKER_02: And he started in on this story.
SPEAKER_02: He said, You live down on old setting, don't you?
SPEAKER_02: And I said, I do.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, You remember when it was raining that night really hard?
SPEAKER_02: And you stopped and picked me up on my bike and gave me a ride to tell?
SPEAKER_02: I said, I, and all the guys were listening there in the jail.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this is not a pat on my back.
SPEAKER_02: Don't get it.
SPEAKER_02: I can vaguely remember it.
SPEAKER_02: But what it was is a story, as a testimony of God's love and God's grace and God's kindness.
SPEAKER_02: It's being written in about your life right now.
SPEAKER_02: It is.
SPEAKER_02: It's being written down in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says that everyone will stand and give an account in our life, good or bad that we've done in our life.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And all those that are done for Christ will last.
SPEAKER_02: But all those done for self will pass one day.
SPEAKER_02: They'll be burned up.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible teaches us, well, there's a man named Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: He had us, sermons have been written about him, and his life was about a sermon too.
SPEAKER_02: God chose Abraham out of all, all of the men there.
SPEAKER_02: And he was one that he said, and out of thee that you could count the stars and and the and the nations would come out of thee.
SPEAKER_00: But he had to grow in God's grace.
SPEAKER_02: He had to grow through faith in his life.
SPEAKER_02: He wasn't perfect.
SPEAKER_02: But we know that Abraham brought forth uh, well, two sons.
SPEAKER_02: And it's proven history today, too.
SPEAKER_02: Well, the Bible teaches us that, well, there was Ishmael.
SPEAKER_02: Look it up, it's Ishmael is the Islamic people today, the Muslim people.
SPEAKER_02: And Isaac is a Jewish people.
SPEAKER_02: God chose Isaac and not Ishmael because he came out of the womb of Sarah, and that was the one that God chose.
SPEAKER_02: And they've been fighting ever since.
SPEAKER_02: And you look at the Middle East and you see what's happening there today and what's continuing.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the only reason, you've heard me share this before, and it's so true.
SPEAKER_02: The only reason that we see these countries over there coming in line with the Abraham Accord is because it's all built off.
SPEAKER_02: They can trace every one of them back to the roots, Father Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: And that's how a peace and that's how things are happening now, and bringing that nation and those regions together is that they can all come back to Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: But God chose Isaac.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, there's a sermon about Abraham's life.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham, well, God called him at his old age.
SPEAKER_02: And I know I'm not sure how old Isaac was.
SPEAKER_02: Some believe that he was just a young man, about the age of about 17.
SPEAKER_02: And God called him one day and he said, and he said, Abraham, Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: Realize he was an old man.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how many times last night I had to ask Scotty to repeat himself.
SPEAKER_02: I've been getting that away too.
SPEAKER_02: But he said, I want you to take your son, your only son.
SPEAKER_02: This is the promised son that God promised.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham and Sarah.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to take him up to this mountain that I tell there thee of, and I want you to sacrifice them there for sacrifice, a worship and a place of sacrifice unto me.
SPEAKER_02: Now, Abraham didn't question God at all.
SPEAKER_02: His faith at that time, he believed in God because God made a promise and God keeps his promises and he knew that.
SPEAKER_02: And if Abraham did take the life of his son, God would restore him.
SPEAKER_02: Because all the nations would come from that seed, his nations there.
SPEAKER_02: And God promising, God doesn't lie.
SPEAKER_02: The next morning, the Bible says that God or that Abraham saddled up his asses, his mules there, and he two of his young concubines, his young men with him, and said, Let's go, we're going on another journey.
SPEAKER_02: And they came to that place, and Abraham said, You two young men stay here, and me and the lad were gonna go yonder and worship, and we'll come again and receive you.
SPEAKER_02: And he would come back to them.
SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham had faith in God.
SPEAKER_02: Even when the circumstance looked dim, even when he didn't understand how God was gonna work things out, he still had his.
SPEAKER_02: Faith in God.
SPEAKER_02: I want to bring this to you because you are writing a sermon in your life too, biblically in history.
SPEAKER_02: When things in your life don't seem right, that's when it's most important in your life to keep your eyes focused on the Lord and what God's word says.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what Abraham did.
SPEAKER_02: Because even at times like that, God's working in your life and he's working the lives of others.
SPEAKER_02: And what seems possible, unpopular, not possible to men, but it's not impossible for God.
SPEAKER_02: And I love it when Isaac was going up the mountain with his father Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Father, we have the wood and we have the fire.
SPEAKER_02: And but Dad, where's the lamb?
SPEAKER_02: See, he had seen Abraham butcher a lamb before as a burnt offering to God.
SPEAKER_02: And this is amazing.
SPEAKER_02: Once again, Abraham's faith.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham said, son, God himself will provide a lamb.
SPEAKER_02: Now you and I can look back into that history.
SPEAKER_02: We can look back at that, and we know that it's Christ that He would provide for you and I, a perfect lamb, one that was without spot.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Behold the Lamb of God with what?
SPEAKER_02: Taketh away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_02: Look how many sermons have been preached on that.
SPEAKER_02: It was just simply a life of a man that God was able to use and one that became obedient to God.
SPEAKER_02: Look how many lives have been changed that have read that story.
SPEAKER_02: Look how many lives have become more obedient because they said, I want to be more like Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: I've said that.
SPEAKER_02: And I do because when God speaks to me, I want to say, Lord, hear my, hear my, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: You want to be that close to God.
SPEAKER_02: You want God to be able to use you in a way that would benefit his kingdom and bring glory to his son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says that they got to that place, and even Isaac himself must have been, because, well, Abraham was an old man at that day.
SPEAKER_02: He was a hundred years old when Isaac was born.
SPEAKER_02: So he was probably close to 120 or somewhere 117 years old.
SPEAKER_02: And so Abraham, Isaac had to be obedient to his father, and he allowed him to put him on that altar.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says that Abraham pulled out his knife and would have taken the life of his son, but an angel called out and cried out, said, Abraham, Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, What?
SPEAKER_02: Do no harm to thy son.
SPEAKER_02: And he looked behind him, and there was what?
SPEAKER_02: A ram that was caught in a thicket.
SPEAKER_02: God did provide a lamb in that day, and he provided a lamb for you and I, the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It teaches us that even in times that seem impossible, God's still working.
SPEAKER_02: And that we'll keep our eyes focused upon the Lord and not to be distracted by the things of the world.
SPEAKER_02: It would have been easy for Abraham to say, Lord, I just can't do this.
SPEAKER_02: But see, God was testing Abraham on his faith.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes God allows testing, not evil, not sin, but God tests us to see that our faith might grow in him in this life.
SPEAKER_02: No matter how young or how old you might be.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes God allows testing in our life that we may trust in him more and more.
SPEAKER_02: And that our eyes could be focused upon him and not the things of the world.
SPEAKER_02: That we know that God is able to work out all things for his glory and his honor.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And that we can simply find that God's grace is sufficient in life.
SPEAKER_02: Today the biblical history is still being written in time, and it will be until the day the Lord Jesus Christ comes back.
SPEAKER_02: I think about another story that is written, and it's a parable in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: I want to ask you here today that, and it's on the prodigal son, which son are you?
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever been approached that?
SPEAKER_02: What son are you?
SPEAKER_02: They were two sons, right?
SPEAKER_02: That was the good son, better yet, the old, the oldest son that, well, he he he was his father's right hand.
SPEAKER_02: He always done what his father wanted him to do, and he went out and he worked the fields and he done all of those things.
SPEAKER_02: But then there was the younger son.
SPEAKER_02: Well, he was the one that said, Father, I've had enough and I want to I want my inheritance now and I want to live my own life.
SPEAKER_02: I want to do my own thing.
SPEAKER_02: I want to make my own decisions in life.
SPEAKER_00: That was me.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: But you know what?
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says that he not many days went by and he went and well, he he probably sold the cattle or the sheep or the or the camels that he had or whatever it was, and he turned it into hard cash, right?
SPEAKER_02: He needed something there, a bag of money to go to take his journey.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says he went ahead into a far country.
SPEAKER_02: He wanted to get away from his mom and his dad, his brother.
SPEAKER_02: He wanted to live his own life, kick up his heels, and have a good time.
SPEAKER_02: His older brother said he spent it on harlots.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says then he wasted his money in riotous living.
SPEAKER_02: Probably a way that his parents, his father wouldn't have wanted him.
SPEAKER_00: But his father wanted him to make his own choices, make his own decisions, even to fail.
SPEAKER_02: How many of us have ever failed in life?
SPEAKER_02: How many have ever come to that point and said, Man, I'm not ever going to do that again?
SPEAKER_02: That hurt.
SPEAKER_00: There's got to be a better way than the path that I'm on.
SPEAKER_02: See, the young man, the Bible says that he wasted his substance in righteous living, his money, and then the Bible says, and it only got worse.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't get better.
SPEAKER_02: You know, when we draw away from God or we find out the world, the world has nothing really for us.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible teaches that the devil is a roaring line seeking out whom he devours, may devour, he destroys lives.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: God only causes a life to prosper in life.
SPEAKER_02: The world has a way of separating us from God, distancing ourselves from God.
SPEAKER_02: The pleasures of the world are just temporal just for a moment.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, Moses understood that.
SPEAKER_02: He was willing to suffer in that day, knowing that there was a greater life to come, eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible teaches us that this present time and the suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared to what awaits us in glory one day.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says that a famine came in that land.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says that he made himself or he became a citizen of that land so he could take a job.
SPEAKER_02: And for a young Jewish boy, they sent him into the field to feed what?
SPEAKER_02: Pigs, swine.
SPEAKER_02: Elisha and Samuel and Halley, are they all raised?
SPEAKER_02: And Jack and has raised hogs back there too.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody else raise hogs for a while?
SPEAKER_02: I've been down there when they fed them, I've helped feed them, I've helped water them.
SPEAKER_02: I've been down there when they cleaned out their pen.
SPEAKER_02: There's no way I would want to eat what the hogs did eat.
SPEAKER_02: But the Bible says that he desired to eat what the swine did eat, but yet no man gave to him.
SPEAKER_02: That's pretty low, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: And see, this is amazing to me, but well, he hit rock bottom in life.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody ever hit rock bottom?
SPEAKER_02: And then the Bible says, well, he he came to his senses.
SPEAKER_02: He started thinking about where he was at, the choices that he made and the decisions that he made in life.
SPEAKER_02: We've all been there.
SPEAKER_02: My wife said she's going to put this on my tombstone, but we are where we are because of choices that we made.
SPEAKER_02: I say that quite often.
SPEAKER_02: Because I've experienced things in my life and I come to realize I don't want to do that again.
SPEAKER_02: But he came to the point, he said, I'm I was far better off in my father's house where there was bread enough despair, and I perish here with hunger.
SPEAKER_02: He came to that realization in life.
SPEAKER_02: There's got to be a better way, there's got to be better choices in life.
SPEAKER_02: But what took place in his life is something that's happened in every one of our lives.
SPEAKER_02: It's called repentance.
SPEAKER_02: The prodigal son decided that he needed to repent.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says that he would arise and go to his father and he'd say, Father, I've sinned against thee and before heaven, and no more worthy to be called thy son, just make me a servant.
SPEAKER_02: He humbled himself before God.
SPEAKER_02: He became humble and realized that he had made a mistake and done wrong in his life.
SPEAKER_02: Any of us ever done wrong in our life?
SPEAKER_02: Made choices and decisions that we wish we could take back, but we can't.
SPEAKER_02: That is a true picture of our Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_02: God's always looking upon us.
SPEAKER_02: God knows our strengths and our weaknesses.
SPEAKER_02: God knows where we're at today.
SPEAKER_02: He has the hairs that's numbered upon our head.
SPEAKER_00: Some more and some less.
SPEAKER_00: But he knew that his son was coming home, and this is God's compassion, God's love, God's heart for humanity.
SPEAKER_02: Yet when he was a great ways off, his father saw him and ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says if we draw nigh to God, God will draw nigh to us.
SPEAKER_02: We have to have our hearts right with God, and God will draw nigh to us.
SPEAKER_02: God knows our heart.
SPEAKER_02: All we have to do is humble ourselves before him.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us have been the prodigal son?
SPEAKER_00: See, he was expecting the worst.
SPEAKER_02: The father said, Bring forth the ring and put it upon his finger and bring a robe, and I believe that's the robe of righteousness that we're clothed with through Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Bring shoes and put it upon his feet, for he's traveled afar away and wore those out.
SPEAKER_02: How often do you go to a store and buy a new pair of shoes and you try them on?
SPEAKER_02: You walk around the store and you're like, boy, these things feel really good.
SPEAKER_02: I believe that's showing that God puts a new outlook in our lives, a new direction.
SPEAKER_02: And cried out, the father said to the servants, go kill the fatted calf.
SPEAKER_02: And for my son was lost, but now he's found.
SPEAKER_02: See, I believe in some way that we've all, we all can relate to the prodigal son, a story, a sermon that has been shared in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: How we came from a sinner to a saint.
SPEAKER_02: How we were blinded, but our eyes are opened up today.
SPEAKER_02: How we can understand and become to that understanding that God is the way, the truth, and the life, how we can come to see that God's love is unconditional.
SPEAKER_02: Paul said that he was the chief among sinners until we came around, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_02: But the older brother heard all the music and the party that was going on.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, What's all about this?
SPEAKER_02: And he wouldn't go in and celebrate.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, his heart was kind of hardened.
SPEAKER_02: And the father came out to the son and said, You know, you need to be joyful.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Father, I've I've I've done all of this.
SPEAKER_02: I've never turned against thee.
SPEAKER_02: I've never done anything against your will all of my life.
SPEAKER_02: And you've never given me a fatted calf.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes I I come to the point that we become like the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: Because what the Bible teaches us here that in the older brother there was really no repentance at all.
SPEAKER_02: It was only repentance in the younger brother.
SPEAKER_02: His heart was hardened.
SPEAKER_02: He probably knew the things, but he he didn't he never lived them.
SPEAKER_02: He just wanted to be obedient to his father.
SPEAKER_02: But he never came to the understanding of God's grace in his life.
SPEAKER_00: He never came to the point that he would repent in his life.
SPEAKER_00: And there are people like that out there.
SPEAKER_02: Well, they see someone, they say, Well, I'm glad I'm not like them.
SPEAKER_02: But God loves them as much as he loves you and I.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I'd never do what they do.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible teaches us that there was a publican, which is a tax collector, and a Pharisee that went up to the temple to pray, another sermon.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says that the Pharisees said, I'm glad I'm not like him.
SPEAKER_02: I fast and I tithe and I give, and all of these things that I do.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, He wouldn't lift his head up.
SPEAKER_02: Except the Bible says that the publican smote upon his chest and said, Be merciful, me a sinner.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says, and the Lord said, He went home justified rather than the other.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible teaches us that it's very simple, that our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and the scribes who will no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: It's not about man's religion, it's about God and the great salvation that He planned for all you and I.
SPEAKER_02: But you and I are all writing a story in history.
SPEAKER_02: We all have lessons in lives, good or bad, in our life.
SPEAKER_02: And oftentimes they become a testimony in our life.
SPEAKER_02: Don't be ashamed to share your testimonies with others.
SPEAKER_02: I often think, before I close here today in prayer, that God's in heaven and he's looking down upon you.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, That's my daughter.
SPEAKER_01: That's my son.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so encouraged by them.
SPEAKER_02: See, if you ever need a pickup in life, you just get on your knees and pray.
SPEAKER_02: God lifts you up.
SPEAKER_02: You ever got a worry?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said, Bring me every burden and every care.
SPEAKER_02: When I get on my knees, those burdens are lifted up.
SPEAKER_02: When I think it's impossible, God says, No, it's possible.
SPEAKER_02: See, even when we go to the Lord in prayer, if we don't have faith that God's going to answer your prayers, how do you expect God to do it?
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says it's impossible to please Him without faith.
SPEAKER_02: That's believing.
SPEAKER_02: Did Noah believe God?
SPEAKER_02: He did.
SPEAKER_02: He moved with fear.
SPEAKER_00: Did Abraham believe God?
SPEAKER_00: He did.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe in God today that he can do that?
SPEAKER_00: My hope is that you do.
SPEAKER_02: It's impossible to believe God without faith, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is God.
SPEAKER_02: That he is the Alpha, the Omega, the first and the last that was, that is, and that is to come.
SPEAKER_02: He's the Almighty.
SPEAKER_02: He's the creator of all things.
SPEAKER_02: And God is able to work all things out for the good of them that love him and who are called according to his purpose, and that is you and I.
SPEAKER_02: And times in our life that we can simply say that, you know, that greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.
SPEAKER_02: And you can overcome the temptations of life.
SPEAKER_02: I can do all things through Christ with what strengthens me.
SPEAKER_02: You apply the word of God to your life.
SPEAKER_02: It's that simple.
SPEAKER_02: You are a sermon.
SPEAKER_02: You're living out a sermon.
SPEAKER_02: It's being written down in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: You've heard stories about me, and I've incorporated them in my sermons.
SPEAKER_02: And I've heard some stories about you, and at times I've incorporated them in some sermons too.
SPEAKER_02: But it all comes about to this simply what God has done and showed favor in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Well, God has pulled us out of the miry pit and put our feet upon a solid foundation.
SPEAKER_02: That we would give God the glory and the praise and the honor in life.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I look forward to this new year.
SPEAKER_02: The people and the places and the experiences that God has given me, not just this past year, but the future.
SPEAKER_02: But how God can transform our lives continually throughout the years that will come.
SPEAKER_02: And that what things that may transpire in our lives, that we say, God did this in my life.
SPEAKER_02: And that we'll have a testimony about it.
SPEAKER_02: And you never know that, well, God may wait a hundred more years before he comes.
SPEAKER_02: And in this very pulpit right here, that may be the youngest person here who might still be here in that day and say, that was the sermon of Brother Frank's life.
SPEAKER_02: That was a sermon of Brother Philip's life.
SPEAKER_02: That was a sermon of Noah's life.
SPEAKER_02: That was a sermon of Stephen's life.
SPEAKER_02: That was a sermon of Annette's life.
SPEAKER_02: Annette, who?
SPEAKER_02: But the person that was here could remember that life and the life that they lived.
SPEAKER_02: Make your life a sermon for God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Let us pray today.
SPEAKER_02: Father, as we humble ourselves before you today, and we are blessed and thankful for all that you have provided us.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Lord, for the goodness.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Lord, even for the tough times.
SPEAKER_02: The times, Father, that we had to make choices.
SPEAKER_02: And yet, Lord, it was you through your spirit that spoke to our heart to make the right choice and the right decision.
SPEAKER_02: And knowing that the path that you have us on is well lit and never darkened.
SPEAKER_02: Knowing, Lord, that your ways are always best, and you'll never lead us into the darkness.
SPEAKER_02: And as long as we follow the light, for you said we walk in the light, as you're in the light, and have fellowship one with another.
SPEAKER_02: And the blood of Jesus Christ has cleans us from all sin.
SPEAKER_00: It will never go astray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, make us an Noah to move with fear.
SPEAKER_00: Make us an Abraham to walk by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_02: To know that, Lord, it is you that provideth at all times in our life.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, that the sermon that is being written in our lives throughout the biblical histories of all you have blessed us with so far may bless others in ages and time to come.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Making us that living testimony and a sacrifice unto you.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Lord, for teaching us of your ways.
SPEAKER_02: We can look to you for all things in life.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Lord, for this past and the future that will come.
SPEAKER_02: Bless our children here, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, as they be reared up in this church and be made biblically strong.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, that they would trust in you, the living God.
SPEAKER_02: Help us, Lord, as the adults and the seniors of this church, of this body of believers, to be strengthened and used.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, that we'd say, Lord, here am I, here am I.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, that we would beckon your call and trust in you in all the days of our life.
SPEAKER_02: For Lord, we love you and thank you, though we know not what the year might come, nor tomorrow might behold.
SPEAKER_02: But Lord, we know that you hold tomorrow and the eternal future that is set before us.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, we can have a smile on our face.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, we can have truth in our heart and have courage there deep down inside, because Lord, it is you that goes before us.
SPEAKER_02: We love you and praise you and thank you now.
SPEAKER_02: I pray right now, Lord, if there's a soul, whether it's young or old, that is lost here today, Lord, would they call upon your name and say, Lord, come into my heart and forgive me of sin?
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, knowing that if they've asked that prayer and that prayer, that simple prayer of whosoever shall call or cry out upon your name shall be saved.
SPEAKER_02: I pray, Lord, if you're rejoicing in heaven, let it be known here today that they be rejoicing here among us today, too.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we thank you.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you for being our Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_02: And we ask these things in the beloved name of Jesus, we pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.