WEBVTT 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:47.439 Turning your Bibles to Genesis chapter 1. 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:49.600 Verse 1. 00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:54.079 How many of you love God's Word? 00:00:55.520 --> 00:01:00.640 I know when I got saved, I started reading the Bible. 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:07.280 I'd read the Bible for years, but I didn't know anything it said because I wasn't saved. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:11.920 After I got saved, I started reading, and I started reading in Genesis. 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:15.519 I got so blessed reading Genesis. 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:28.319 I don't really understand how people can read Genesis and not understand the Bible or understand what God's plan was. 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:43.280 I sometimes dream in the middle of the night, or I guess it's the middle of the night, might be towards morning, or and God speaks to me in my spirit, and I will hear scriptures over and over and over again. 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:51.040 And a few weeks ago I woke up and this scripture was embedded in my thinking. 00:01:51.680 --> 00:02:08.080 And it came out of Genesis chapter 3, where it says in verse 8, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:10.639 And that statement just stuck in me. 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:12.560 In the cool of the day. 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:14.000 I woke up. 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:18.400 In the cool of the day, in the cool of the day, in the cool of the day. 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:22.080 So I went back and found it and started reading. 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:30.240 And it in some places it talks about the cool of the evening, the cool of the day. 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:36.080 Some of you may not be old enough to appreciate this analogy. 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:43.439 But when we were kids growing up, there was no air conditioning, there was nothing like that. 00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:49.039 We had a ceiling fan or a window fan or a hand fan. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:55.280 And that's how you kept cool in the hot summertime in Arkansas. 00:02:56.879 --> 00:03:01.120 And I don't know how long it took us to get air conditioning. 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:10.080 But in the evening, when the sun went down, we go sit out on a porch in the cool of the day. 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:13.840 We had worked all day, or my parents had, and when I got older, I had. 00:03:14.159 --> 00:03:16.319 We came out and we sat on the porch. 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:20.319 And if you had a swing, you sat in the swing. 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:21.919 And there was a breeze. 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:24.879 And now the porch, you may not have a porch on your house. 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:32.479 They don't build houses with porches on them much anymore, but they did then because you had to get outside the house because it was hot in the house. 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:35.439 You sit out there in the cool of the evening. 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:39.759 And the neighborhood wasn't like it is today. 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:42.879 You know, it was peaceful and quiet. 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:56.479 And the first house that I remembered that we lived in, my dad had come home from the war, and he bought a house on Martin Street, South Martin Street. 00:03:56.879 --> 00:03:59.199 And it was$7,500. 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:01.520 That was the whole house. 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:07.199 Had one bathroom, one bedroom, one living room, and a kitchen. 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:09.120 It was$7,500. 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:10.719 I can still see that. 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:18.000 In fact, I took my granddaughters over there, my great, yeah, my granddaughters over there one day to show them where I grew up. 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:20.319 2113 South Martin. 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:23.439 And I got to the address and the house was gone. 00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:25.839 I said, what happened to it? 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:36.000 They demolished it, it tore it down, or it fell down because it had in a need of a lot of work, even when we lived there. 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:37.839 Holes in the floor. 00:04:38.399 --> 00:04:39.839 But it was home. 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:46.879 And we would go out and sit on the porch every evening and watch people walk down the sidewalk. 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:49.680 We knew all our neighbors by name. 00:04:49.920 --> 00:05:07.600 And it was a friendly neighborhood, and we just enjoyed sitting on the porch, and the breeze blew, and we sat there in the cool of the evening until the mosquitoes or bugs or something, you know, drove us, and we went back in the house and turned on the window fan and went to bed. 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:12.959 This is what was sticking in my head in the cool of the day. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:24.399 Now, for the sake of time, I'm not going to go back and read all of the Genesis account of what God was establishing here. 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:29.920 But I will say this, and I want to read from Haley's Bible commentary. 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:36.800 This is one of the first books that I ever read when I was studying as a new Christian. 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:47.839 And it talks about those beginning days, and it talks about Abraham, or Abram, as he was known before God changed his name. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:51.199 And it talked about the Garden of Eden. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:06:00.000 And it talked about how God visited with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:03.680 You're going to see the significance in just a minute. 00:06:03.920 --> 00:06:06.639 Now, this is what fascinated me. 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:15.199 The Garden of Eden was a garden that God planted east of Eden. 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:18.639 Eden was a city. 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:29.600 And in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, you can see the excavation of the city of Eden. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:33.279 It was called Eridu by the Babylonians. 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:35.920 And God built it. 00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:40.879 And he put Adam and Eve in the city of Eden. 00:06:41.360 --> 00:06:47.279 And he told them to keep that garden and to till it. 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:56.319 To keep it from ruin, to keep it from being invaded by an enemy. 00:06:56.480 --> 00:07:01.360 And of course, you know the story he told them not to eat of the tree of the fruit of the knowledge, good and evil. 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:03.360 The day that they did, they would die. 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:05.360 Dies plural, two deaths. 00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:08.560 They die spiritually, which is separation from God. 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:12.240 And they die physically, which is the physical death. 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:14.480 And they didn't do it. 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:15.920 They disobeyed God. 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:18.800 But God told them to dress it and to keep it. 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:30.560 And I heard one evangelist say one time, said all he had to do, all Adam had to do was when the serpent came slithering in, he just had to tell him, get out of this garden. 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:32.879 This doesn't belong to you. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:34.959 But he didn't do that. 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:39.519 Eve was deceived, but Adam willfully disobeyed God. 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:46.319 And they were separated from God after that because sin had entered into the human race. 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:51.680 In Corinthians, it tells us that death did not come from man. 00:07:52.079 --> 00:07:56.560 Death came, I mean, excuse me, death did not come from God. 00:07:56.800 --> 00:07:58.000 It came by man. 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:01.519 It says, by man death came. 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:04.959 And by man life came. 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:20.399 Jesus was the last Adam, it says, and he redeemed us and restored us back to the innocence and the life that Adam and Eve had with God. 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:23.279 And so here is Eden. 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:33.200 It's uh you can see in the Ashmola Museum in Oxford, England, and it was excavated in 1918 by the British. 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:39.120 We have been to the British Museum in London, where the city of the Ur of the Chaldees is. 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:43.039 It was also also excavated by the British. 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:50.799 And they had, ladies, you'd like to know this, they had the jewelry that the women would wear, Sarah. 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:53.600 It was pure gold. 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:55.200 Pure gold. 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:57.600 Pure gold, you can almost see through it. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:00.159 It's just it's so pure, there's no impurities. 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:07.759 They had underground sewer systems, they had libraries, and so these were not cave dwellers. 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:18.799 And the city of Eridu, or the city of Eden, is right at the mouth of the Tigers and Euphrates River in the Persian Gulf. 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:21.600 That's where all the fighting is going on today. 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:24.720 It's where it's happening in Aram. 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:29.039 And in that garden, now listen to this. 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:37.679 In that garden was the ox, the goat, the sheep, the horse, the pig, the dog, the apple, peach, pear. 00:09:37.919 --> 00:09:47.440 Those were trees, cherry, mulberry, gooseberry, vines, olives, figs, dates, almonds, wheat, barley. 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:49.519 We're not talking about a bean patch here. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:52.799 This was a magnificent place. 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:57.120 Spinach, radishes, onions, uh, fruits, vegetables. 00:09:57.279 --> 00:10:00.799 It was the cradle of the human race. 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:10.960 And the Babylonians described what happened in what is called the Weld W E L D Weld Prism, P-R-L-S-M. 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:17.519 It was a stone that all this was carved on by the Babylonians. 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:26.080 It was the traditional Garden of Eden, excavated, verified according to the scriptures. 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:41.519 And I'm going to skip over to the scriptures right now, but this is just a historical record of what has been found, excavated, and what's verified. 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:48.480 Now let's go back to Genesis and let's go down to Genesis chapter 3. 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:52.879 Remember, they've already eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:56.399 They've already been separated from God. 00:10:56.879 --> 00:10:58.799 That's what spiritual death does. 00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:00.320 It separates you from God. 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:03.120 It doesn't mean you won't exist anymore. 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:05.519 But they were separated from God. 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:08.320 They had never experienced that before. 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:12.000 And so let's go to verse 7. 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:23.759 And the eyes of them both were open, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons, or the marginal reference says girdles. 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:28.240 They made clothes out of fig leaves. 00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:31.759 Have you ever taken a good look at a fig leaf? 00:11:32.159 --> 00:11:36.639 Have you ever held on to it if you've ever picked figs off a tree? 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:40.480 How would you like to have a girdle made out of a fig leaf? 00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:54.159 It's itchy, it's coarse, it's not comfortable, it don't stretch, it's and they had a they had to make clothes out of that to cover themselves. 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:55.840 Now let's go on. 00:11:56.799 --> 00:12:04.480 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:07.200 And I want you to get out of this tonight. 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:08.879 I want you to get out of this. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:18.720 The cool of the day represents a time of peaceful communication between God and man. 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:21.519 That's what I want to imprint you with. 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:28.879 The cool of the day is peaceful communication between God and man. 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:41.600 I'm amazed at the legislation that states are having to deal with now to keep children off of the cell phones and make them put them in a locker. 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:43.360 They can't carry them in the classroom. 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:51.120 And I saw something the other day that there are restaurants now that will not allow you to take your cell phone into the restaurant anymore. 00:12:51.440 --> 00:13:01.200 Because they get so many complaints of people that are trying to eat and talk, and they can't for cell phones dinging and ringing and going off. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:09.519 That we have actually overintelegized ourselves to the point where we have no more fellowship with people. 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:18.720 I've seen people in restaurants, husbands and wives, maybe sweethearts or whatever, and they're sitting there and and they don't sit there and look at each other and talk anymore. 00:13:19.519 --> 00:13:20.879 He's on his phone. 00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:22.559 She's on her phone. 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:25.039 They're constantly being distracted. 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:30.240 Kids are being distracted in school, so they can't take their phones into the schoolroom. 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:33.679 You didn't have that in the Garden of Eden. 00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:38.879 You you didn't have AI, you didn't have all the distractions, you didn't have TV. 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:44.879 I I think, and I was ten years old before I ever saw a television set. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:48.080 And I found out who invented the TV set. 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:50.720 His name was Philo T. 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:52.159 Farnsworth. 00:13:53.039 --> 00:14:01.600 And he was a young teenager, he was in his late teens, and he built the first television camera and receiver. 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:11.840 And uh in the 50s is when television started, well, maybe the late 40s, early 50s, television uh started. 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:21.759 It's a sad story, but he, you know, built it and people, you know, were looking at it, and RCA found out about it. 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:28.320 So they came down and looked at it, and they offered him$100,000 uh for his invention. 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:30.639 And he sold it to him for a hundred bucks. 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:32.720 I mean a hundred thousand dollars. 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:44.240 Who if Philo is still alive, uh, which I don't think he is, don't you know he's been kicking himself for all these years? 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:51.679 He sold that thing for a hundred thousand dollars, but the television can be a blessing or a curse. 00:14:52.399 --> 00:15:03.600 When we were kids and television came on the scene, because we'd sit, we'd sit in the living room, and then the radio is the one that was on the big table. 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:10.000 The the radio was almost as big as that keyboard there, and you sit there and everybody listened to the radio. 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:11.759 We had our favorite programs. 00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:16.480 Uh one of our favorite programs was Amos and Andy. 00:15:17.440 --> 00:15:20.159 But most people don't know they were two white guys. 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:27.840 It wasn't until television came out that they portrayed them uh as uh two black gentlemen. 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:30.000 Uh Fibra McGee and Molly. 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:33.440 Uh Jeannie's favorite one was uh Let's Pretend. 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:42.080 It was and believe it or not, Gunsmoke was one of the first radio programs. 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:48.399 Uh and then television came along, and you could see people. 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:51.679 There were people that you could could watch. 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:56.159 And we had Leave It to Beaver, Father Knows Best. 00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:04.720 Uh uh not Osborne, um Harriet. 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:10.320 You had all these family shows, and the father knew best, always. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:17.039 And so the culture was actually being improved until the 60s. 00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:24.879 And a guy who just recently died, and they just really honored him. 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:32.960 Um forgotten his name now, but he's the one that changed all the television shows and the television viewing. 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:37.840 He came up with the programs like Maud. 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:47.919 He came with the programs of um the angry guy that was always chewing everybody out and Archibunker and all that. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:53.039 He came up with the total change in the uh human family. 00:16:53.600 --> 00:17:01.840 And uh you know that's when everything started going downhill, and everything was affected because that's what we were feeding on. 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:07.200 You you d you no longer watched howdy duty and that kind of stuff. 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:11.759 You were watching people uh curse each other and kill each other and all that kind of stuff. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:18.799 So the human human race began to degrade because uh we didn't have any laughter anymore. 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:21.039 Well, it was perverted laughter. 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:26.960 You didn't have any clean, and of course we didn't watch television because we didn't have one. 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:28.400 And so we read. 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:31.119 I asked my mama, I wanted to do something. 00:17:31.200 --> 00:17:32.000 I'm bored. 00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:33.759 She said, go read a book. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:35.920 And that's what we would do. 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:39.039 And I came home from school and I was hungry and I wanted something to eat. 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:40.720 She said, eat a carrot. 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:46.400 You know, there were there were no toinkies, there was no, you know, eat an apple, eat a carrot. 00:17:47.359 --> 00:17:48.640 Life was different. 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:55.759 With Adam and Eve, every day it said they heard the voice of God. 00:17:56.079 --> 00:17:57.599 Say they heard the voice of God. 00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:00.400 They heard the voice of God. 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:01.759 God was speaking. 00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:07.839 They heard the voice of God walking, say walking, in the garden. 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:10.799 He wasn't just a vapor that appeared. 00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:13.680 He was walking in that garden. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:15.279 It was a real garden. 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:16.640 It was a real place. 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:20.079 The city of Eridu, the city of Eden, was a real city. 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:21.920 It was excavated in 1918. 00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:26.079 He said all of these places really existed. 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:27.839 They weren't just some story. 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:39.200 Now, I was reading this afternoon about some of the commentary that people have drawn from, and you'll hear and see this stuff on even Christian television. 00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:50.079 They've written books, and there's just been a real, how would I say, discussion about Nephilim, the giants and the angels. 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:52.799 And there are three basic theories. 00:18:53.359 --> 00:19:06.319 These angels, sons of God, as they're called, they're those that believe they were fallen angels, demon spirits, and they cohabited with women and produced giants. 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:12.319 And of course, the people that argue against that say, well, that goes against the scriptures. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:14.480 It doesn't say they were demon spirits. 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:16.480 It doesn't say they were fallen angels. 00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:18.640 It says they were the sons of God. 00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:24.079 And, you know, others believe, well, they'll be talking about the sons of Seth. 00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:27.279 They could be talking about natural people. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:30.400 Angels don't uh marry. 00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:35.519 They don't aren't given in marriage, they don't reproduce themselves. 00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:38.559 You don't hear about baby angels. 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:42.240 So there's all kinds of theories out there. 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:51.599 And when I read further into some of the commentary, these people would start quoting passages from the book of Enoch. 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:57.440 My brother and sister, there is no book of Enoch in the Bible. 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:03.200 It was not canonized, it was not thought worthy of being anointed and canonized. 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:04.559 It wasn't put in the Bible. 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:14.960 And they draw a lot of their information from the book of Jasher, uh, the book of Josephus, the book of Enoch and different ones. 00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:18.480 And some of them, one of the books that was sent to me, I read. 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:21.839 I always look at the source that they have listed. 00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:25.839 One of it was Greek mythology from the Odyssey. 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:28.799 I mean, you had to study all that in school. 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:34.880 I don't know about y'all, but when we got to the Odyssey and had to read Homer, and it was weird. 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:37.039 Homer and Jethro? 00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:39.119 Yes, I understood Homer and Jethro. 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:43.519 They were on um Hee-Hall every Saturday night. 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:45.519 But they wasn't talking about that, Homer. 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:47.519 He wasn't talking about Homer's restaurant. 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:50.720 He wasn't talking about, he was talking about Greek mythology. 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:56.079 So you've got to be careful what you read and where they get their information from. 00:20:57.039 --> 00:21:00.240 The key is to always see what the Bible says. 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:06.880 They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. 00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:09.839 Say it again, in the cool of the day. 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:11.920 Now, what does this represent? 00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:13.839 I repeat myself. 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:19.519 A time of peaceful communion between God and man. 00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:28.000 You should have peaceful communion between God and yourself on a daily basis. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:46.559 Now you can pick the time, but you can hardly have peaceful communication today if you've got a device on, if you've got a plug in your ear, if you're watching TV, if you're you you have to be still and know. 00:21:47.599 --> 00:21:49.920 You have to be still and know. 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:56.240 I use the first thirty minutes uh driving to work every day. 00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:59.839 I I use those times, those thirty minutes on the road, so how long it takes me. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:01.839 Praying in the spirit. 00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:04.559 It's just me and God in the car. 00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:05.920 I don't listen to the radio. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:11.279 I don't listen to tapes or well, that day they did it right there, tapes, CDs, USBs. 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:13.680 I just talk to God, just fellowship with Him. 00:22:13.759 --> 00:22:17.359 And you will see in just a minute how valuable that is. 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:20.559 In the cool of the evening when nobody is around. 00:22:20.720 --> 00:22:39.200 And I still flash back to my family sitting out on the front porch, and my dad sitting over here in this rocking chair, and my mother sitting over here on the swing, and my sister and I are sitting there on the steps, and people are walking, our neighbors are walking up and down the street and saying hello, how are y'all doing? 00:22:39.839 --> 00:22:42.960 The evening time was when everybody was on the front porch. 00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:45.680 Because it was too hot in the house. 00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:48.720 Well, Adam and Eve set that course. 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:53.599 They were talking to God as he walked in the cool of the day. 00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:55.359 And he visited them. 00:22:57.200 --> 00:22:58.720 Enoch walked with God. 00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:00.960 I like the way Brother Summerall says it one time. 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:08.319 He said, Enoch walked with God so far that God said, Enoch, we're closer to my house than we are yours. 00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:09.119 Come up here. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:11.359 And he took it. 00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:19.279 So you spend time, quality time, in the peaceful communion between God and man. 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:21.680 Now go over to Ecclesiastes. 00:23:23.039 --> 00:23:26.160 Ecclesiastes in chapter 5. 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:31.599 Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 18. 00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:35.839 Now, you have to understand and know the history of the Bible. 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:42.480 A lot of people call the book of Job, they call it poetic, poetic justice. 00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:48.960 It doesn't rhyme like you would think a poem would. 00:23:49.599 --> 00:23:57.839 But they sometimes discount the book of Job as not being factual, and that it's more like poetry in motion. 00:23:58.000 --> 00:23:59.119 Not true. 00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:01.519 Listen to Ecclesiastes. 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:04.880 Behold that which I have seen. 00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:22.559 It is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor, that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him, for it is his portion. 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:26.640 God enjoys sitting and talking with you. 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:29.839 He enjoys being with you. 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:35.680 He enjoys you fellowshipping, communicating, communing with him. 00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:37.839 T.L. 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:46.000 Osborne told us one time, the first time he visited our church, and we worked real hard to make it beautiful and pretty and so forth. 00:24:46.799 --> 00:24:53.119 And he said this to us: he said, beauty produces creativity. 00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:58.720 Surround yourself with beauty, and you'll be more creative. 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:02.160 And I like to just look at the beauty. 00:25:02.319 --> 00:25:03.119 I like to look. 00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:16.960 When we used to go to Hawaii with our friends for years on vacation, and everything in the uh in the islands, to me, was just gorgeous, just beautiful. 00:25:17.359 --> 00:25:23.039 I mean, every day they had gardeners out there sweeping up the leaves that fell off during the night. 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:33.519 And in Florida, you may not know this, but they they import sand to put on those beaches to make them look white and like powder. 00:25:33.759 --> 00:25:37.200 In Hawaii, the sand is not white, it's brown. 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:42.079 And I would just love to I don't care about swimming pools and anything like that. 00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:44.480 I don't want a room that looks over the pool. 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:46.000 I don't want to hear all that noise. 00:25:46.079 --> 00:25:47.680 I want to look out at the ocean. 00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:50.400 I just sit there for hours and let it go. 00:25:51.599 --> 00:25:55.839 This surf breaking, it's it's just so peaceful. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:00.799 I love to sleep with the door open so I can hear all of that. 00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:08.160 Until one day, all of us decided to go down to the city park and have a picnic. 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:14.559 So we went by, I don't think Popeyes existed then, Colonel Sanders maybe. 00:26:14.720 --> 00:26:19.920 And we got several buckets of chicken, and I was me and Jeannie, Jerry and Carol Savel, Buddy and Pat Harrison. 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:25.039 And we sat under the palm trees and ate our chicken dinner. 00:26:25.680 --> 00:26:30.480 And all of a sudden I began to notice, well, these palm trees look pretty bad. 00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:40.079 You know, and then there's trash all along the sidewalk, and um uh the surf is, you know, brought up all kinds of stuff from the ocean. 00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:42.720 I'm thinking, what's wrong with this picture? 00:26:43.279 --> 00:26:52.000 What's wrong with it is that the public beaches are not manicured like the private hotel beaches. 00:26:52.720 --> 00:27:06.559 And they're filthy, dirty just because nobody's taking care of palm palm branches break and they fall off, and there's nobody to pick them up and clean them up, and there's trash all over everywhere, just like it is here in our state. 00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:08.799 And I never seen so much trash. 00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:14.240 I'm thinking I might ought to run for a trash commissioner or something trying to clean this place up. 00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:15.759 It's really bad. 00:27:16.559 --> 00:27:27.119 And um and I realized then that what I was being blessed by was man's ability to keep everything pristine and clean. 00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:33.279 And of course, the hotels pay them a lot of money and they charge you a lot of money, but it's peaceful and it's quiet. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:35.359 That's what God wanted. 00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:42.640 He was saying here, it's alright for you to sit on the porch and enjoy the fruit of your labor. 00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:52.400 If you have planted flowers in your backyard, if you keep your grass cut, it's all right for you to sit there and look at it and say, Ain't that pretty? 00:27:52.640 --> 00:27:53.839 I just love that. 00:27:54.240 --> 00:28:00.319 Those flowers, we have flowers all over our house until the deer ate them. 00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:05.200 And so we have to find out what you can buy and plant that deers don't like. 00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:07.759 I ain't found anything that they don't like. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:09.519 I'll tell you one thing, they don't eat. 00:28:09.599 --> 00:28:11.200 They don't eat marigolds. 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:14.319 But when we moved out there in the country, we started feeding them. 00:28:14.400 --> 00:28:15.680 We thought this is a novelty. 00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:18.880 We quit feeding them because they eat everything. 00:28:19.119 --> 00:28:21.119 I called the Game and Fish Commission. 00:28:21.279 --> 00:28:25.519 I said, how do you keep deer from eating your plants and flowers? 00:28:25.839 --> 00:28:27.920 He said, a 12-gauge. 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:30.160 I said, no, I don't want to kill them. 00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:33.200 I just don't want them eating my shrubs. 00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:40.319 Okay, it's okay to sit there and to eat and drink and think about all that you've done. 00:28:40.480 --> 00:28:43.599 Now listen, it goes on down to verse 19. 00:28:43.920 --> 00:28:57.599 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat, thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor. 00:28:57.839 --> 00:28:59.599 This is the gift of God. 00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:02.640 Have you ever gotten pleasure? 00:29:02.799 --> 00:29:07.920 Now you don't have to raise your hand out of cutting the grass around your house? 00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:08.400 Yes, sir. 00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:09.519 Some people don't. 00:29:10.079 --> 00:29:14.640 You know, they maybe they can't do it, or they don't want to do it, or they don't like doing it. 00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:20.640 But it gives me pleasure when you see a manicued uh yard. 00:29:20.960 --> 00:29:22.559 Or washing your car. 00:29:26.240 --> 00:29:34.799 Every Saturday at our house, it was customary that you cut the grass and do whatever it needed around the house. 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:43.039 You would wash the car, vacuum it out, and lay out your Sunday clothes on Saturday night. 00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:49.440 Now I'm talking language probably a lot of people don't know about or think about. 00:29:49.680 --> 00:30:01.599 It was because we were trained to realize on Sunday we glorify God in everything, in our dress, our appearance, our home, and and it stuck with me all of my life. 00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:10.079 I almost got condemned sometimes because maybe I was out of town or I wasn't able to do this or I wasn't able to do that. 00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:17.200 And yet that's what God says is pleasing to him, and he wants us to be pleased. 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:20.240 He wants us to look at the next verse. 00:30:21.359 --> 00:30:30.799 For he shall not much remember the days of his life, because God answers him in the joy of his heart. 00:30:31.359 --> 00:30:32.960 You may have had some tough days. 00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:36.400 You may have had, maybe you didn't have a lawnmower, maybe it wouldn't start. 00:30:36.640 --> 00:30:42.880 Uh maybe you don't own the property, you just rent it, and the, you know, the landlord don't keep it up. 00:30:43.039 --> 00:30:45.599 But he says you shouldn't let that bother you. 00:30:45.759 --> 00:30:49.440 You should rejoice in the joy of your heart. 00:30:49.759 --> 00:31:11.920 We have picture albums of 40 years of vacations with our friends in different parts of the world, and Jeannie will sometimes go in there and she'll disappear, and I won't know where she is, and she's in her office, and she's got all those photo albums open, and she's just looking at them, and she's saying remember this? 00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:13.759 Yes, I remember that. 00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:25.200 Pictures of us when we started in the ministry, pictures of congregations, pictures of us uh recording albums in Nashville, pictures inside the studio. 00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:31.279 We were recording one album, and we used to do it like two or three o'clock in the morning because you get better rates. 00:31:31.440 --> 00:31:35.759 The road musicians would come off the road and you didn't have to pay scale. 00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:45.920 And so we were in there singing an album, and uh my the song that I was gonna sing was Why Me Lord by um Chris Christofferson. 00:31:46.640 --> 00:31:54.480 And so I was in this in the uh sound booth and I was trying to get it, I couldn't couldn't hit the particular note. 00:31:54.720 --> 00:32:02.640 And Jimmy Snow, who was who owned the studio, he's the pastor that I got saved under, he was helping us with our first record album. 00:32:02.880 --> 00:32:04.559 And he kept pushing the button. 00:32:04.640 --> 00:32:06.480 He said, You're flat, you're flat. 00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:09.119 Think higher, think higher. 00:32:09.359 --> 00:32:17.200 And about that time the door in the studio opened, and in walked Dolly Pardon. 00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:19.039 And I went, Why me, Lord? 00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:24.079 And we got to visit with her. 00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:28.079 She came to see the guitar player because he was her guitar player. 00:32:28.400 --> 00:32:31.440 But you look back at those things. 00:32:31.519 --> 00:32:42.480 We got pictures of you and your sister singing, um, and we have a picture of us on the Opry, the Sunday night Opry, when we first started singing, and we're singing, Praise the Lord, I saw the light. 00:32:42.640 --> 00:33:07.839 I mean, we look like we looked like country hillbillies, Beverly Hillbillies, because we were still wearing bell bottoms and flowery shirts, and and you know, that was my hair was it was the early 70s, and uh but we were reminiscing in all the good times, the places that we went, the people we saw healed and delivered and set free. 00:33:08.079 --> 00:33:10.640 And God says these are gifts that he gives you. 00:33:10.880 --> 00:33:11.920 Remember them. 00:33:12.559 --> 00:33:17.519 Don't think, you know, that those things don't matter to him or to you. 00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:23.119 Now, let's go over to uh another couple of scriptures. 00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:27.680 Let's go over to John chapter 14. 00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:39.599 Now I want to bring in, I want to I want to follow this time of peaceful communication between God and man. 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:48.640 And I think it's interesting now that Pastor Steele had us all just pray in the Holy Ghost. 00:33:49.119 --> 00:34:02.880 When I got saved, the night I was saved, February 11, 1972, we went to a church that some people had invited us to before we went down to the Opry for the Grendel Gospel time. 00:34:03.279 --> 00:34:06.480 We went to this church, Jimmy Snow's church. 00:34:06.720 --> 00:34:09.519 I'd never been in a church like that before. 00:34:10.079 --> 00:34:16.159 We walked in and there was a picture of Jesus painted, about that size. 00:34:16.239 --> 00:34:20.000 I have a copy of it in my office now by Johnny Cash. 00:34:20.159 --> 00:34:25.519 He had a Native American Indian paint the picture of Jesus. 00:34:26.239 --> 00:34:30.960 It's painted in such a way that wherever you go, his eyes follow you. 00:34:31.199 --> 00:34:35.440 And when I saw that picture and I looked, I knew who it was, I just didn't know him. 00:34:36.239 --> 00:34:40.480 And because and I went over here, and he's looking at me. 00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:44.159 So I moved over here and he's looking at me. 00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:54.239 Now the people in the church are all laying on the floor, on the altar, they're all praying in the spirit, praying in tongues, just like we did earlier. 00:34:54.559 --> 00:34:56.559 I did not know what that was. 00:34:56.960 --> 00:34:59.920 I didn't have a clue as to what that was. 00:35:00.159 --> 00:35:06.320 But I looked up at that picture and I said, Lord, it's kind of like Paul, you know, on the road to Damascus. 00:35:06.639 --> 00:35:09.679 Paul had the sense enough to know who it was that he was persecuting. 00:35:09.840 --> 00:35:10.639 He said, Lord. 00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:17.360 And I looked up at that picture and I said, Lord, please help me understand what's going on here. 00:35:18.239 --> 00:35:21.280 And then we left the church and went down to the Opry. 00:35:21.760 --> 00:35:24.559 Jimmy Snow preached five minutes, the choir sang. 00:35:24.719 --> 00:35:33.920 Johnny and June gave their testimony, and Jimmy gave an altar call and said, If you need a new life, Jesus is the only way. 00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:37.039 And I was up in the balcony, Jeannie and I. 00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:40.639 The Rhyman Auditorium holds 3,000 people. 00:35:41.119 --> 00:35:43.599 And he gave an altar, so he said, Come down. 00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:44.800 I grabbed her by the hand. 00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:46.960 Now she's saved already, but I wasn't. 00:35:47.039 --> 00:35:48.320 But I took her with me. 00:35:48.559 --> 00:35:51.519