# We don’t know what tomorrow will bring

Category: Fear & Worry
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: November 17, 2023

There was a lawyer once. His name was Francis Scott Key. He penned a song that I am sure you are aware of. You have seen it. It is in most hymns throughout our churches. It is called the National Anthem. It is our song as an American. We go, however, to a ballgame. We stand in our church services, and we sing the words of that song, and they float over our minds and our lips, and we do not even realize what we are singing. Most of us have memorized it as a child, but we have never really thought about what it means. Let me tell you a story.

Francis Scott Key was a lawyer in Baltimore. The colonies were engaged in vicious conflict with the mother country, Britain. Because of this conflict and the protractedness of it, they had accumulated prisoners on both sides. The American colonies had prisoners, and the British had prisoners. And the American government initiated a move. They went to the British and they said, “Let us negotiate for the release of these prisoners.”

They said, “We want to send a man out to discuss this with you.” They were holding the American prisoners in boats, about 1,000 yards offshore. And they said, “We want to send a man by the name of Francis Scott Key. He will come out and negotiate to see if we can make a mutual exchange.”

On the appointed day, in a rowboat, he went out to this boat, and he negotiated with the British officials, and they reached a conclusion that men could be exchanged on a one-for-one basis.

Francis Scott Key was jubilant with the fact that he had been successful. He went down below in the boats, and what he found was a cargo hold full of humanity—men.

He said, “Men, I have news for you tonight. You are free.” He said, "Tonight, I have negotiated successfully your return to the colonies. He said, “You will be taken out of this boat, out of this filth, out of your chains.”

As he went back up on board to arrange for their passage to the shore, the admiral came, and he said, “We have a slight problem.” He said, “We will still honor our commitment to release these men, but it will be merely academic after tonight. It will not matter.”

And Francis Scott Key said, “What do you mean?”

He said, “Well, Mr. Key,” he said, "tonight we have laid an ultimatum upon the colonies. Your people will either capitulate and lay down the colors of that flag that you think so much of, or see that fort right over there, Fort Henry. He said, “We are going to remove it from the face of the earth.”

He said, “How are you going to do that?”

He said, “If you will scan the horizon of the sea.” He could see hundreds of little dots. And he said, "That is the entire British War fleet. He said, “All of the gunpowder, all of the armament is being called upon to demolish that fort. It will be here within striking distance in a matter of about two and a half hours. The war is over. These men would be free anyway.”

He said, “You cannot shell that fort.”

He said, “That is a large fort. It is full of women and children. He says it is predominantly not a military fort.”

They said, “Do not worry about it. They said, ‘We have left them a way out.’”

He said, “What is that?”

He said, “Do you see that flag way up on the rampart? He said, ‘We have told them that if they will lower that flag, the shelling will stop immediately, and we will know that they have surrendered, and you will now be under British rule.’”

Francis Scott Key went down below and told the men what was about to happen. And they said, “How many ships?”

He said, “Hundreds.”

The ships got closer. Francis Scott Key went back up on top and he said, “Men, I will shout down to you what is going on as we watch.”

As twilight began to fall, and as the haze hung over the ocean as it does at sunset, suddenly the British War fleet unleashed.

He says the sound was deafening. There were so many guns that there were no reliefs. He said it was absolutely impossible to talk or hear. He said, “Suddenly the sky, although dark, was suddenly lit.” And he says from down below, all he could hear the men, the prisoners, saying was, “Tell us where the flag is. What have they done with the flag? Is the flag still flying over the rampart? Tell us.”

One hour, two hours, three hours into the shelling. Every time the bomb would explode and it would be close to the flag, they could see the flag in the illuminated red glare of that bomb. And Francis Scott Key would report down to the men below, “It is still up. It is not down.”

The admiral came and he said, "Your people are insane. He said, “What is the matter with them? He said, ‘Do they not understand this is an impossible situation?’”

Francis Scott Key said he remembered what George Washington had said. He said, “The thing that sets the American Christian apart from all other people in the world is he will die on his feet before he will live on his knees.”

The admiral said, “We have now instructed all of the guns to focus on the rampart to take that flag down. He said, ‘We do not understand something. Our reconnaissance tells us that that flag has been hit directly again and again and again, and yet it is still flying. We do not understand that.’ But he said, ‘Now we are about to bring every gun for the next three hours to bear on that point.’”

Francis Scott Key said the barrage was unmerciful. All that he could hear was the men down below praying the prayer, “God, keep that flag flying where we last saw it.”

Sunrise came. He said there was a heavy mist hanging over the land, but the rampart was tall enough. There stood the flag, completely nondescript, in shreds. The flag pole itself was at a crazy angle, but the flag was still at the top.

Francis Scott Key went aboard and immediately went into Fort Henry to see what had happened. And what he had found had happened was that that flag pole and that flag had suffered repetitious direct hits. And when hit, had fallen, but men—brave men who knew what it meant for that flag to be on the ground—although knowing that all of the British guns were trained on it, walked over and held it up humanly until they died.

Their bodies were removed, and others took their place. Francis Scott Key said what held that flagpole in place at that unusual angle were patriots’ bodies. He penned the song, “Oh, say, can you see by the dawn’s early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming? By the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that the flag was still there. Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet fly and wave, o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

The debt was demanded. The price it was paid.

Thank God for America. I hope you enjoy your country and praise God for it. It is not perfect, for sure, but it is the greatest nation on the face of the earth. And praise the Lord for all those that have sacrificed.

God has used to give us a great, great country. And I am so glad you are here on Fourth of July weekend. Praise the Lord for you. And we are honored to have some guests with us today. We have several guests. I typically do not recognize names, but we have some special guests. I love to just kind of real quickly meet or introduce, if you will. We have Brother Dan Alcorn with us this morning, him and his wife. Brother Alcorn has been a blessing in us purchasing the new property over there and been a blessing to our church family. And he has some guests with us. Brother Alcorn, would you introduce your guests, please? Amen. Amen. There you go.

They have a partner to everything that happens around here. They sure do. And they have been friends of Brother Dillon for years and years, and God used them together. And praise the Lord for that. It is wonderful. And then we have one of our missionaries. We have the privilege to have a little partner minister, Brother Chil’s back there. And he has some guests with him also. And he is from East Tennessee over with us a little bit. And surprised me; just popped in on us this morning. He is keeping an eye on us, you know. That is great. Would you introduce your guests for us, please, sir? Amen. Amen.

Let us do this. In our day and time, pastors have it; they are under attack from so many different things. Let us just let them know how much we appreciate him and his family, all of them. Let us do that.

Praise the Lord for them. We need good, godly preachers and pastors standing all across our nation. Praise the Lord for them. And what a blessing they are to us. Let me encourage a couple of things real quickly here. August 6th is the next election in our area, Rutherford County general election. So let me encourage you if you have not registered to vote.

You have until the seventh, but I would not push that. We have had some to push it, right, and they did not get in. So there are some registration forms on the back table back there.

And I tell you what, if you need one, Brother Kevin has washed his hands 40 times already this morning. And I am teasing, but he will pass it out to you because after the service, I will forget. I do often. Anyone need a registration form? We will get it to you. And if not, you can stop by, get it at the table on your way out. But I encourage you to get registered so you can vote. And as long as it is six, will be our next opportunity. So many key things.

Key—I would think it was our senator we are going to elect the primary for that, so important. So I encourage you to register and vote if you have not. Then our yard sale—church yard sale—is Friday and Saturday.

And it is here; it helps to send our juniors and our teens to camp. Praise the Lord. The rooms are full over here in Building B, and then back here in the carport. There are a lot of things. If you can get it in, get as quick as you can, bring it to the carport back there behind, and that will be so helpful. Or if you have another item, whatnot, see Miss Brenda; she heads that up. Does a great job. Those ladies do amazing every year. I think they are not going to be able to raise a good amount this year, I mean just not that much.

And every year, God blesses and uses them. When we raise this, they raise a good amount. And it is what a blessing for our young people. By the way, not tomorrow, but the next Monday, junior and teen camp, both the same week this year, are starting. And maybe you would like to sponsor a young person to go to camp. That would be such a blessing. And if you would like to be a help in that, we want all the young people to go. God has blessed, but always you can use a little extra, and our young people go to camp. So you pray about that, if you would also.

And then I have another announcement. I am some in my class. I told my class this morning, maybe a couple of others, but Brother Glenn called me just a little bit before Sunday school, and Ms. Ritha just to…

Just a dear lady in our church, and most everybody in our church knows them. She went home to be with the Lord this morning, surprised to us all. Just a sweet lady. We spent Sunday school reminiscing about her. Usually, Ms. Ritha would be sitting over where Tim and Mary, maybe right behind Tim and Mary, what they said.

They joined their church maybe seven years ago; I do not know, from Kentucky. And Ms. Ritha has a great Christian heritage. She was raised in the Independent Baptist Church home and family, and just model Christians from the time they joined their church. We had just purchased Building B when they joined their church right along there, and it needed painting.

Brother Glenn, Ms. Ritha, they are up in years; most of you know. In fact, I was talking to Brother Glenn yesterday. They have been married 53 years. In fact, they dated about a year and a half, two years before—he was telling me yesterday. He said, “You know, all together, we have been together about 55 years, dating and marriage.” But remember, they came out, and I think—I am not sure if they joined yet or not—but just brand new in our church. And they came out; it is hot in the middle of the summer.

And they came out and painted all day long on that trailer. And myself and them, and I cannot remember who else was with us. And they had a little sunburned at the end of the day. But I thought, “Wow, now these are workers.” And they are willing to roll up their sleeves and get involved for the Lord and the work. And just great people. Of course, Brother Glenn used to play their guitar over here.

By the way, let me give you a little history. Some of you do not know. A couple months ago, Ms. Ritha, just always vibrant. She liked to laugh; she is jovial. She headed up her Love and Action ministry. And if anyone passed in the hospital, I would call Ms. Ritha, so would you. “Can we get some food there?” And I hate to do it sometimes because I knew if no one else would do it, Ms. Ritha would. She just cooked meals for so many people, so many people.

And, but a couple months ago, she got where she could not talk. And she went to many different doctors, them trying to find what was going on. And I joked with Brother Glenn, “Well, is it kind of nice? Your wife cannot yell at you right now,” you know. And we did not know what it was. And, of course, everybody is concerned. And finally, she went to an ear, nose, and throat doctor in Summer Long there.

Good while after they found out she had a brain tumor at the base of her brain. And they tried to shrink it a little bit. They tried to do surgery. They went in to do surgery, and we were praying that it would be effective. And when they went in and said that the tumor were just too entwined with the nerve endings, whatnot, and they did a biopsy, but they really could not take any of the tumor out. And it said this type of cancer…

She said, “Chemo is 70% effective,” the number they gave us. She had—I do not know if I told this publicly—but she debated whether to take it. You know, chemo is just awful. And, of course, Brother Glenn and her son Scott and whatnot, they would encourage her to take it, and so she decided to take it. And they had said then that she did not—they said it will give you some weeks, but that is it. And so she took it.

It did shrink it, and it gave some positive results. But the last scan, about a week and a half ago, they said, “If it has not shrank anymore, we are not going to give any more treatment.” Of course, you know, they came back and said it had not shrank anymore, so no more chemo. But we had no idea it would be this quick. And talked about Brother Glenn yesterday.

And she had C-diff. Of course, that is just in that condition; it was horrible to have. And this morning the doctors came in, and they came by twice. She was doing good. In fact, they said she was sitting up. She was watching TV. It seemed in good spirits. And then they came back by, and they think around 8:55. They came by around 9, and she had already gone home to leave the Lord.

And, of course, Brother Glenn has just been an amazing Christian through it all, just the whole way through. He has been a great testimony of faith. And he is human; he sheds tears like us all. But he has just been a great testimony of a godly man. And he has handled it. I believe the Lord is so pleased with how he has handled it, and even this morning. And you pray for him.

Of course, this morning he expressed again. He just—we were not expecting. He was trying to get her home. And he was getting the hospital bed delivered tomorrow or whatnot, and never dreamed. But just godly folk, godly folk, model Christians. And every pastor, our pastor friends with us this morning, every pastor, one of them in their church, just great people.

And best people in the world. And she is having church in heaven this morning. She will be hearing Jesus preach. She has got a whole lot better preacher. And she is hearing the angels sing this morning.

She has not been herself for months. I have talked to her on the phone. And, of course, we could get in the hospital. By the way, Brother Glenn, I have talked her on the phone. Brother Glenn, I will tell you this, but Ms. Ritha has been gone for a while, mentally. And it is kind of like she has had Alzheimer’s dementia. And the last time I talked to her, I do not think she knew who I was. She just…

It is so tough, and we have heard different reports from the doctors, whether the chemo or the tumor or the surgery, we do not know. But it has not been Ms. Ritha. And the last time I talked to her, I do not think she knew who I was, but I said, “We love you.” And at the same time, she still had her sweetness about her. At the same time, she said, “We love you all.” And she is sharp enough. She said, “Huh, look at that.” She laughed. She chuckled. And she said, “We said that at the same time.”

And so she had—you just never know. Sometimes she is with it a little bit, sometimes not. But we have not had the Ms. Ritha for a long time. But Ms. Ritha is back this morning. She is just in a different location. And she is with the Lord. And I have been praying about what all the Lord wants to do at church this morning. It is just such a core. Of course, Brother Glenn is a deacon.

And…

But makes heaven real. I am church and witnessing and soul winning. By the way, Brother Glenn, he said, “Pastor, he said, ‘Man, all those hospitals, they got tracts all over those hospitals where he has been camping out in the hospital,’ you know.” But all this is real. And this lifetime is just a drop in the bucket. This is just the getting-ready place.

And it is just temporary. That is eternal. And all they have done to serve the Lord all these years, she does not regret a bit of it now. Our mission conference, we usually have different families host a missionary and a little cottage prayer meeting in there. It is a great way for our people to get to know the missionaries and vice versa. A great way. And Brother Glenn and Ms. Ritha have been hosting one of those for years.

And we scheduled it over there, I do not know, a couple months before something, a good while before this year. It is not always like that, but we had a good while before this year. And, of course, getting close to it, she began to get sick. We did not know what it was, but she could not talk very well, whatnot. We knew she was not feeling super good. So me and Brother Glenn both tried to give her a way out, and we tried to basically talk her out of it.

And she was not hearing a thing of that. She let us know she wanted to host it, even though she was sick and not feeling good. And what are you going to do, argue with a woman when they want to host an event, you know? So, of course, she had it. And I am so glad. I am so glad she had it. I am so glad she had it.

All those meals. How many of you have had a meal taken to you or served to you through Ms. Ritha? Ms. Ritha was a part. How many have had a meal taken or served to you? All good, good number of folks, and probably a lot of others that she was kind of organizing behind the scenes nobody knew about. But she does not regret any of that, not a bit of that. And she is glad she did every bit of those things.

She was a model Christian lady. And she was so good at giving some of her ladies good direction. She is good at that. And I told in Sunday school this morning, I think sometimes she could say some of the things that pastor could not say. They would probably get offended if I told them, but Ms. Ritha had just had an older lady; she could tell them, and they would take it, and she was a blessing to me. She was always so helpful for our ladies.

And just a good, good lady. Turn over, if you will, in 2 Corinthians. Let us look over in 2 Corinthians, chapter number 5. And look over there, if you will. This is someone that is saved, someone that knew Jesus Christ as their Savior. Brother Glenn was telling me this morning they will probably take her body. Now, she is already gone. She is in heaven. But they have already got burial plots and whatnot in Kentucky. They will probably take her there.

So I do not know if our church family will be together as far as the funeral or whatnot. So let us just take a moment or two. You are trying to seek the Lord what He wants, but let us just look over here in 2 Corinthians 5.

We will just start in verse number eight right there. He says, “We are confident.” I like that. There is a confidence about this thing. We are confident, I say, in willing rather. By the way, you are just going to sleep for a couple hundred years or not. You would not be willing. And he said, “We are kind of, we are willing rather to be absent from the body.”

Why is that? Why are you willing to be absent from the body? Why are you willing to die? Why are you going to go home? And he said, “We are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” The moment, the moment about 8:55 this morning when Ms. Ritha took her last breath…

We were talking yesterday. Brother Glenn, he hurts because he has not been able to be with her all the time. And she has kind of been back and forth in the hospital to rehab. When she is in rehab, he cannot be with her. And we were talking yesterday, shedding some tears. He has not been able to be with her. And, of course, have her husband been married 53 years. He wanted to be with her.

When I was really ensuring that the Lord is with her. Of course, he knew that. I have not told him anything. He has taught me. But I said, “Brother Glenn, she is not alone.” And I quoted the verse, you know it, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” And he said, “Well, just have to hold on to that one there.” And he has been with her.

The Lord the whole time. My brother Glenn had to walk out and leave her there. The Lord never walked out. And he said, “Let’s pray yesterday.” He said, “Let’s pray the Lord just be there physically with her.” And I said, “Let’s do it.” We prayed. But the Lord has been with her. But today, this morning, she is with Him physically. I mean, she is seeing Him with her eyes now. Spiritualized.

Absent about Him to be present. You know, the Bible says in Psalm 16:11, the Bible says, “In Thy presence is fullness of joy.”

We can experience joy, but to be in the Lord’s presence, there is fullness of joy. I mean, take—imagine the time in your life, maybe when you are the closest to the Lord, and maybe just the best day of your life, and you are experiencing joy. And maybe it is the day you got married. Okay, maybe it was not for some of you. All right, I have seen those looks there, you know. But the best day you have here on earth…

And multiply that by about a thousand plus. That is what Ms. Ritha has right now. She has fullness of joy.

There is a confidence that comes with that. That is why it starts off that verse, and he says, “We are confident.” There is confidence. Hey, even with all this COVID and all this stuff, and I do not know what you believe about it all. I have my opinions, but you do not have enough time for me to give it all to you, you know. But, friend, there is a confidence. I mean, whether it is COVID or whatever. By the way, I mean, you can walk out.

A man came into their church one time; he sat back on the back row over there, and I preached his funeral. He was at it and never met him before. But he said, “Big man,” and came to church, sat in the back row, big man. One of those guys you look up to, and he was not—his belly was not large like mine, just his shoulders and arms were large. Big fella. One of those guys you say, “I do not want to meet him in the alley.” Hey, man, you want to start a fight, start without me. Go ahead, you know. And big fella.

But a little while after that, he was in wintertime. He had stepped out and slipped and fell. Hit the back of his head a little bit and did not think anything of it. He went to go to the store. Some of his family had a headache. Some of his family said, “Yeah, I will just take it easy.” No one or the store. Went to the store. Went to the store.

Got bleeding on the brain. The next time I saw him was in ICU down at St. Thomas Rutherford. Got to lead his son to the Lord. But he never came out of it. Just a big man, picture of health. You would never dream. Just a little slip and fall. Boom.

So you do not know. The Bible says, “Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” You say, “Well, how old?” It does not matter. That man was not very old, the man I am talking about there. I mean, young people die every day.

But there is a confidence for a Christian. We are confident. There is a confidence. I often say, “I know where I am going, but I do not know about the next trainload,” you know. We joke about that. But there is a confidence. If I do go, that is all right.

I mean, I think it was John Rice. Somebody went to mug him, and they put a gun—this is the story that is told, at least—but they put a gun to his stomach and said, “If you do not give me all your money, I am going to blow your brains out.” The story is told: the first thing he said, “Well, first of all, buddy, my brains is not in my stomach; it is up here. Then he said, ‘You cannot scare me with heaven. I am going home. You take my life; that is all right. Heaven looks pretty good.’”

There is confidence. And we hurt. And by the way, nothing wrong with hurting. It is not bad. It is not sinful. You shed tears; that is not a sign of weakness. Sometimes it takes strength to cry. Jesus wept. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. We do not sorrow as others that have no hope. We have hope. We know where she is.

But it is all right, sorrowing for those we love, but there is confidence. Confidence; we know where she is. Paul said, “I am in a strait between you two.” He said, “I am ready to depart.” He knew where he was going.

It says, “More needful for me and for you.” If I am here, even sometimes Christians that are in sorrow and just going through it, and sometimes they have those feelings—of course, it would be total sin for them to make the decision. The decision is up to God when you go. But if you have feelings, “I am ready to go home,” that is not bad if your motives are right. That is not sinful. But we know where we are going. There is a confidence about that.

And so from Ms. Ritha this morning, she closed her eyes here, and she opened her eyes in heaven.

By the way, we were talking in Sunday school; there is a section, the Rutherford County Baptist section up in heaven. It is getting bigger. And Brother Glenn mentioned her parents. She had godly parents, and her mother passed not too long ago, and she loved her parents, and she is with her parents again. She is with her loved ones again. She is with her loved ones again.

She is having church in heaven, Lord’s Day Sunday, by the way, you know that. And this old world, it just bothers me. Can I get on the soapbox for a little bit there, you know? It bothers me that the landfills and dumps are open on Sunday and closed on Monday. Y’all can say amen right there? Years ago, what liked that in America?

Years ago, they rolled up the sidewalks on Saturday night. You want to get gas, you get gas on Saturday because suddenly all the gas stations were closed. It was Fourth of July weekend. Back in the day, they used to have the preacher over to their house because all the restaurants were closed. Trying to hint around about having me over and having some chicken there. I am trying to get out there, you know. But suddenly everything was closed. Why? That is the Lord’s Day.

We might change midweek service from a Wednesday or a Tuesday from Nashville to a prayer meeting Thursday or whatnot; we are not going to change Sunday. Sunday we are going to have church. It is the first day of the week. By the way, the week is not a man-made thing; it is a God-made thing. And so it is the Lord’s Day in heaven. And they are having church on the Lord’s Day.

John the Revelator, he is a guy that God used to pen the Book of Revelation. He was a good, godly man, and he was put in prison for preaching and preaching the gospel, standing for the Lord. And they put him on an island, the island of Patmos—this is just a stone island—and he was left out there. That tortured him before, left him out there. And yet out there, he did not have a parochial left whining and all that; he had church.

And he said, “I was in the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit met with him. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,” that is Sunday. And so Ms. Ritha is having church with the Lord. And she is at home with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are going to sorrow; we are going to shed tears, and there is nothing wrong with that. Reminiscence is a good thing, I think, part of healing. But she is fine.

Ms. Ritha had—I was telling Brother Glenn this morning—she had a little shout about her. You know what I mean? She did not speak in tongues, all that stuff, you know. But she just had a little shout about her. You know, she was just happy and joyful. And she did not say amen in church, not that I remember her, but if she could, she would. She would probably wave her handkerchief everyone’s miles. She had a little shout about her, a good way. That is Kentucky women, you know what I am saying? They are just—and I told Brother Glenn this morning, we were talking and said,

“She has not had a shout lately.” For a month, she has not been Ms. Ritha. And she has not had her shout. But this morning she got her shout back. She has got her shout. She is singing in the choir here. She is liable to be up in heaven singing in the choir up there. And maybe in heaven, even pastors can sing. What about that? I will tell you what, as for Ms. Ritha, she is home.

And we took a long time reminiscing. I believe the Lord wants to do that. And we are going to continue on. I do not know; we will see what we will do here in just a minute, but we are going to go ahead and pray and have our offering. And we are not passing the plate quite yet. There are two plates up front here, one in the back, one in the back over there. By the way, I appreciate everyone who has been so faithful to give over the COVID and whatnot. And even now, some are still mailed and whatnot. I appreciate you. You have been so good about that.

And I feel like I ought to say a word or two. You are looking at a grandpa this morning. And can you believe that? Yeah, praise the Lord. Thank you.

Thank you so very much. We were shocked. McKenna was not due until the 16th of this month, and then we were on vacation. And we woke up one morning to Sarah. She was very calm, cool, and collective while she was running around in the house. She is having the baby. She is having the baby. And something along that line. She has got her side; I got my side of that story there, you know. And we were shocked. But praise the Lord, both doing good.

And so appreciate your prayers there. Ms. Tammy, we get the picture of that baby, and she would get it. She just wanted more pictures, you know, and she would get that picture. She would zoom in on that baby, and she would just start crying. And praise the Lord for grandbabies. Praise the Lord, we can spoil them and then send them home, amen. And we have enjoyed it already. Praise the Lord of Lord of Ryan. And appreciate your prayers on that. Well, I have word of prayer, and then offering.

And we will sit; we will do—we will just be praying. But I think it is appropriate. Great, great family, great lady for us just to reminisce a little bit. This is a family. And families hurt together. And we rejoice together. And the devil did not win there, folk. I mean, Ms. Ritha is better off than she has ever been. And she will be for all eternity.

And God is doing something. We are just going to trust Him at all and put it in His hands and trust the Lord through it all. Praise the Lord, she is home. She beat us home, didn’t she? And she has no more worries. She does not have to worry about COVID anymore. What about that right there? She does not have to wear a mask anymore. Somebody say, “Praise the Lord,” right there. And she is at home, so she is doing mighty good.

And a great, great Christian lady. Brother Fontaine, would you at least in a word of prayer for the offering, please, brother? Let us take your hymn books and stand again. Page number 583, “My Country, 'Tis of Thee.” We will sing the first and last verse there. Page number 583 in your hymn books.

Appropriate song. I do not know if she was planning to sing it or change gears. She changed gears. I appreciate you doing it. That is the blessing. Turn over Proverbs 27 real quickly here. We will not be long. And come back next Sunday; we will have a patriotic service, I believe. But we are just going to try to follow the Lord in this, saying what He wants. Proverbs 27, we will not be long at all. So you have got to pay attention to every word.

And I was holding baby Ryan last night. He was kind of—you know, he was a week—not even a week. Yeah, week old, week old yesterday. And I was holding him, and he was fighting back sleep. And those eyes were open, but they were just closed about half. And he tried to open it again. I was holding; I looked at him and said, “I have the same effect on a lot of men on Sunday afternoon,” you know. So…

Let us stand, if you would please, real briefly here. Proverbs 27 and verse number one. Proverbs 27, verse number one. The Bible says, “Boast not thyself of tomorrow,” like brag. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” Would you pray with me that the Lord would work in our hearts?

Father, I believe you would have us change gears. Lord, I am not always good at following. I sure want to be, though.

Lord, if you would use Ms. Ritha’s passing to speak to hearts, Lord, I believe she would be pleased. I would sure be happy about it. So I seek to follow you. Help me to say everything you want said, but nothing you will not say. Lord, would you work in our hearts through it all? Well, thank you for what you do. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

I think the thing that has been a little startling to many of us has been just the quickness of Ms. Ritha’s passing. For her age, she was always very vibrant, very jovial, and full of energy.

And she—I was always amazed at her going. Our couples were typically—and she would stay up late playing the games. And, you know, we would play games in the cabin, usually all of us. And the next day, we would go to the sessions. Now, the men would be sleeping through the sessions, you know. I am teasing, of course. But Ms. Ritha always had energy. She was just vibrant; she had energy.

I have talked to so many of our people. They said, “It is just amazing about Ms. Ritha. It just seemed like yesterday. Last week, I was talking to her. We had a fellowship, and she was there.” And it has just been shocking how quick, even her final passing. Brother Glenn this morning, he said, “I was trying to get her home.” And we were talking yesterday. He said, “Maybe she gets home, and she sees something she is familiar with, and she gets to see her room and church family.” And by the way, so many of you taking food over to Brother Glenn; he appreciates it.

And he thought, “Man, I can just get her home. I can just get her home. Maybe something would kind of jog her mind back into normality,” if you will. We never dreamed. Brother Glenn called her out before Sunday school, and I thought, “Well, I better take it,” but I never dreamed he would have said what he did. Friend, the Bible says, “You do not know what tomorrow holds.”

I do not know what tomorrow holds. I think of young people I went to Bible college with; they were preparing to serve the Lord, and they were studying and trying to be ready to be a preacher, a pastor, missionary one day. And friends, some of them never made it through Bible College.

I am saying the Bible says we do not know what tomorrow holds. These young men right here on this front row over here, by the way, it is—oh, Michael. Michael’s first time; he just moved up to the teens, first time in big church with us this morning. Glad to have Michael in church with us this morning, you know. But we do not know. Even these young people could be going tomorrow.

The Bible says, “Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” You just do not know. By the way, I think Ms. Ritha is just thrilled now that she spent her life serving the Lord.

We sat around in Sunday school, just reminiscing for a while in Sunday school, a little bit of a smaller setting, and now a little bit in church time. Can I ask you, just think with me? Think with me, everybody, for a second. I won’t talk to you about this. One day, it is going to be you everybody is talking about. What are they going to say? Sometimes they do not say it, but they think it: “Well, they are a good person, but well, they sure were a gossip.” What are they going to say?

Praise the Lord, Ms. Ritha has such a good testimony, and she has done so much for others. I think about the Bible; there is a lady named Tabitha, and people are sitting around just kind of mourning over it, and they said, “Boy, she made these quilts and these blankets and these goodies for us.” Well, they say, “Well, he did this for me, he did this for me, he did this before.” They say, “Well, it is kind of always about himself.”

But one day they are going to be talking about me. If the Lord tarries, one day they are going to be talking about you. And we do not know when that day is.

“Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” What kind of a legend, if you will, are you going to leave? Are we going to leave for those behind us? Praise the Lord, Ms. Ritha has got a good legacy. That is the word I am looking for. I mean, she is just—if they were not in Kentucky, by the way, they had their church in Kentucky they went to. But if they were here in Tennessee, they were in church.

And they were so good. They would often tell us, “We are going to be out of town,” you know. And sometimes I would say, “Well, you are talking to my eyes.” You know where Brother Glenn was? She said, “Yeah, they told me.” And so half the time they told me, I forgot, you know. But sometimes they just told my wife. But they let us know, let me know, typically they are going to be out of town. Often, often they bring back—whatever church they were at in Kentucky—they bring back the bulletin. I like to get those bulletins. Anna, they bring back bulletins from all over. But she has left a legacy.

She has two granddaughters, and those granddaughters are older teenagers, young ladies now, and boy, she has left a great legacy to those granddaughters. You are going to leave a legacy for somebody. Your friends or your children or your grandchildren, you are leaving a legacy for them. And I do not know when the—all right, time’s up. I do not know when that is. Nobody does.

One day somebody will have—maybe not a church meeting, maybe sitting in a living room, and they are remembering you. What are they going to remember? And let me just a couple of thoughts. Another thing I think of, you know, we go to heaven by the grace of God.

That is a good thing for sure because none of us can earn it because you would have to be perfect to earn it, and there is no one that is perfect. We are all sinners. Christ earned it when He shed His blood on the cross. He was purchasing your salvation, and He gives that to us, the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is a gift.

But once you are saved, I spoke with a man yesterday. He has gotten saved a couple months ago, and he is talking about growing, you are getting baptized. And I am sharing a little bit of this. Look, once you are saved, you are a child of God. But growing up—I have shared with him about that little baby. You know, Grandpa has to talk about the grandbaby a little bit. All right now, you know, you are all right with that.

We might not get nothing time, but I will start doing that to him, you know. But that baby is three weeks early, but it is five pounds, ten ounces. And, you know, they lose a little weight. Now it is five pounds, eight ounces. Boy, just little—I mean, just hold that little baby just right there, you know. But he is going to grow up. I was trying to tell Brother John, Ms. McKenna, enjoy that little bitty cry right now because a couple weeks it is not going to be a little bitty cry.

Brother John said, “It is not little anymore, Dad.” It has already changed, you know.

Well, they grow. Well, part of growing for a Christian is beginning to work for the Lord. Now, here is a good thing about it: you get heaven as a gift, but you get rewards by working for them. You earn them. I do not know someone’s heart, and God did not call us, by the way, to be a fruit inspector. If you are looking for a pastor or someone to teach, you inspect the fruit. But God did not call them and inspect everybody’s fruit. My job is to tell them about Jesus. Try…

Christ, try to get him to say. He knows who means it and who does not. But here is the thing, friend: when he gets saved and begins to work for the Lord, I get rewards. Somebody says they are saved; maybe they are. I do not know if they are in heart. But, friend, if they are not living for the Lord, they may make it to heaven—they will if they have Jesus—but they are not going to have many rewards. First Corinthians 3 says they suffer loss.

And a whole lot of people go to heaven; they have a lot of loss because of all the rewards that the Lord Jesus Christ wants them to have. They are not going to have them because they got saved by the grace of God, but they spent the rest of their life living for themselves.

It is all about them or their wallet or their house or their car or their luxuries or what all they want. And the Bible says, “Yes, they are saved, yet so as by fire.” They miss the fires of hell, but they are not going to have rewards when they go to heaven. And I promise you, Ms. Ritha is glad right now. She spent her life serving the Lord.

She is glad when she had answered the phone, and she said, “Yeah, Pastor, what do you need?” And I said, “Well, so-and-so in the hospital,” or “So-and-so, Pastor, can you get some meals over there?” And I do not think she ever told me no. She may have under her breath said, “That dirt-rotten pastor calling me all the time,” you know. He should put her hand over the phone so I would not hear her say that, you know. That is a good thing. But she would always say, “Well, we will get a meal. We will get it out there. We will do something.”

She did not regret that. She would come to Blankets of Love and help them sew quilts. She had tried to influence her family, her loved ones, and others about the Lord. She did not regret all that. I look over and see Brother Dillon; he worked for the Lord for so many years. He is not going to regret that in eternity.

Can I say this, young people? Young people, you will never regret it if you spend your life serving the Lord. You will not regret it. Great preacher years ago, D.L. Moody, he went out telling people about Jesus, trying to get people saved. He came back and said, “I gave anybody—” He said, “I had two and a half.” “So what do you mean by that?” “You had two adults, two, one child?” He said, “No, no. He said, ‘I had two children. What adult saved?’” He said, “Those adults have already lived half his life.”

But the child has got the rest of his life to live for the Lord. He said, “I had two and a half saved.” I am saying, man, spend your life serving the Lord. We used to tell our kids when we started the church, we did not have anybody else to go, so anyway, so we would drag our kids along, you know, there are four and two. So we had to kind of keep them on board a little bit. So we would tell them, “Hey, there is a treasure chest up in heaven, kind of like your toy box. And when you work for the Lord, if you are doing it truly for the Lord, God puts toys in your toy box up in heaven.” Pretty close, amen. You will never regret serving the Lord. I do not know when my last day of service is done here on earth. I do not know. You do not know. It may be the Lord is going to come back real soon, and it may be, boom, we are going tomorrow. Hey, friend, what you have done for the Lord—someone said, “Only one life, so soon will pass. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

No U-Hauls behind hearses. You cannot take all those things with you. But what you do for the Lord, you will take it with you. Folks here visited; they helped Brother Dillon build this building years ago and all that; they are not going to regret it. What do you do for the Lord? What are they going to say about me when I am gone? What are they going to say about you? What have we done for the Lord?

This is just the getting-ready place. And then last thing: “Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” Are you going to heaven? Friend, we are talking about heaven forever and ever with the Lord, or hell forever and ever.

Friend, it is not—you say, “Well, I do not know what everybody thinks about me if I raise my hand.” I am not saved for I came forward to get saved. All that—who cares what everybody thinks? I would be glad for everybody to talk about me for as long as they want to if I gained heaven through it. It would be well worth it. Let them talk. Want to go to heaven? Need Jesus. Amen.

Are you saved? Are you on your way to heaven? I do not know when it is. Nobody would have dreamed. I answered that phone; I was in Sunday school, and I think Brother Lord, Ms. Cindy was in there. And I began to tell him, and I slipped out of the room real quick because I never—but they never dreamed. I never dreamed it. Brother Glenn said what he said. And one day they are going to call about you.

When they do, will you be in heaven? Or will you be in hell? That is the only place you will be, one of those two. So the Bible verse that says, “And it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.” We have an appointment. Anybody here having an appointment with a dentist on your calendar? Anybody—oh, Brother Frank. Oh, we have several of all. We need to pray for these folks over here.

All this side over here is going to the dentist. Nobody over here is going to the dentist. Oh, we have a couple of them over here too. I was going to say move over here to this side, but they have it going on too. Well, they have appointments. I mean, it is on the calendar. I mean, there are appointments, and the Bible says, “And it is appointed unto man once to die.” We all have an appointment.

I do not know what it is; you do not know what it is. You say, “I am young.” Young people have an appointment too. “And it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment.” Frank and I say this: once you pass, it is too late. You say, “Once it has passed, no, it is not the getting-ready time.” Then long will end his judgment.

Hey, what I do before—if I accept Jesus Christ—is my way to heaven, my personal Savior. I do not—it is done. Too late. It always worries me when someone says, “Well, one day I will think about it.” They do not know how many days they have left. Nobody says, “Well, there is my point of death coming right here. I said, ‘I have it on the calendar. I have three days left.’” Nobody knows when. But you can be like Ms. Ritha.

She was in that crowd right there. We are confident. “And I know where I am going.” I am ready. I have that assurance. The Bible says in 1 John 5:13, “I can know it.” And they say, “Man, I know when that day comes.” I do not know when it is going to be for Pastor Paul. When that day comes, friend, you can rest assured, I will be with the Lord. Because what all I am, no, but because what all Jesus was and is.

And when you put your faith in Him, that is where the assurance is. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Our heads bowed, eyes closed. You are there and you say, “Preacher, I want to spend my life living for the Lord. I have been saved; I know I am going to heaven, but I want to spend my life for the Lord. I want to live treasures in heaven.” God spoke to my heart about that. Ms. Ritha has been such a good testimony of that. Now I want to spend my life living for the Lord Jesus Christ. God spoke to my heart about that right there. If that is you, there is more, just lift your hand. “I pray you, I want to spend my life living for the Lord.” My hands there too.

“I want to spend”—young people, you are there—“I want to spend my life living for the Lord Jesus Christ.” That is your young people. That is good. Oh, yeah. That is a wise decision. A wise decision. Thank you so very, very much. You can put your hands down.

Maybe you hear this morning you say, “You know, I need to treat others better. Need to love people more. Need to forgive more. Need to be kind more. Need to be a better testimony, better example.”

On me loving. I am going to be godly. I do not want to be all about me. God spoke to my heart. I realized one day people are going to be talking about me. Now I am going to leave a legacy. Now I want to leave a good legacy to people, those behind me to follow. God spoke to my heart about that. One day people are going to be talking about my legacy. I like to leave a good legacy for others to serve the Lord, live for the Lord, be good to others. God spoke to my heart about that, how I treat others. If that is you this morning, you slip your hand to preach that is me. God spoke to my heart about that. God bless you. God bless you. It was wonderful. Thank you. Thank you for a lot. Lord, work in your heart. I believe Ms. Ritha would be happy about it too. Thank you so much. You can put your hands down.

Maybe you hear this morning you say, “Preacher, honestly, if today was my day and that phone call was about me, I do not know that I would be in heaven right now. I do not know that I am a child of God on my way to heaven. I am not sure of that. I do not know that I am on my way to heaven.” Preacher, I need to settle that thing. Need to make sure it—need to settle. Need to get saved.

Preacher, I am not saying—need to settle this thing this morning. With heads bowed and eyes closed, if that is you, would you lift your hand up? When that phone call comes, need to settle this thing. Need to make sure it is me going to heaven. I am not sure of that. Just slip it up. Not something to play about. Oh, we do not know what tomorrow holds. You are not sure you are going to heaven. Just slip it up.

If you are there and you say, “Preacher, I want to settle that. I want to accept Jesus.” That is my only way to heaven. I am going to put my full faith in what Christ did on the cross for me to save me, take me to heaven." That is you right there what you said. Or online if you are watching. Would you go to Him right now? Tell Him, “Dear Jesus, I admit I am a sinner. I understand the penalty is hell. Jesus, I believe You died on the cross. Would You pay for every one of my sins? Would You come into my heart? Would You save me? Thank You, Jesus, for giving me that gift.”

Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. Preacher, I have never—but I just prayed to ask Jesus Christ to be my Savior. If you have just done that, would you slip your hand up? Anybody like that? “Preacher, I just asked Jesus Christ to be my Savior.” If you did that, would you slip your hand up? Anybody like that? Online, if you asked Him, would you click below on YouTube there in the description? We will send you a free Bible. So glad you got saved. Wonderful. Wonderful.

Lord, Saul’s standing, if you would please. We want to have a word of prayer. Iron sentiments will play. Let us just spend some time drawing out of God. It will be a good time to pray, to pray for the Glynn. It will be a good time to say, “Lord, I want to rededicate my life to serve You. I want to live. I want to leave a good legacy. I want to have a lot of rewards when I get there.” Let us pray. Would you come?

Father, thank You. He gave us some of the best people in the world, Brother Glenn, Ms. Ritha. They are wonderful. Thank You for them, Lord. Thank You, Lord, in Your wisdom. We can trust You. Lord, we put Ms. Ritha in Your hand. Lord, help us to follow in their shoes, living for You and serving You and loving people. Make a difference during this lifetime You have given us. Bless our people, Lord, during this time. Help us to draw an eye to You. Father, would You do something for Brother Glenn special? Well, thank You, Lord, for what You do. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Would you come as we play? Just come spend some time with the Lord. Would you do so? Hey, praise the Lord. Ms. Ritha is home. And she has got a brand new body. And she has got her shout back.

She is probably cooking a meal for after church or something, you know, up there. I do not know. Praise the Lord, there are no calories there, though. I like that in heaven. That is a good thing. And I said, bless—pray little Brother Anthony’s witness someone down front of you praying about that. And let us do this. Let us do this. Let us sing that song, “In the Sweet By and By.” We will just sing that first verse, and then we will be dismissed. We will do it a little different this morning. I get them to play. I am sure Ms. Gator can do it, but she will play it in the right note, but I cannot sing in that right note. So how about we will just do it a cappella? We will just do it without music because I cannot sing where I am supposed to sing, amen. And you all understand where I am coming from.

“There’s a land fairer than day,” that is where it starts off. Y’all help me out, all right? We will sing that and the chorus, and then we will be dismissed, all right?

Here we go: “There’s a land that is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar, for the Father waits over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there. In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.”

Original File: ＂We don’t Know what Tomorrow will Bring＂ Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday AM 7⧸5⧸20 [aPej-nAH3Ok]