# Deacons Preach from Psalms and Luke

Category: Integrity & Godly Character
Key Passage: Psalms 103, Luke 17
Date: February 6, 2024

Just the opportunity the Lord’s given me through the church over the last few years. And then thanks, I’m just saying, like you said, family trees change in. Amen. Amen. Our daughter is getting saved. Amen. And moving in the right way. Just God uses the church in any way. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord.

The Lord’s so good to us. It is awesome to see the Lord change life. It’s awesome. It’s awesome. Yes, sir, I heard that. Come call there. I am thankful that our value comes from God and not the unstable world that we live in. Amen. Amen. He can put it like in textbook form, can he? That’s good. Amen. Amen. Amen.

All right, Brother Anthony is going to come, lead us in another song, and then we’ll get our deacons preaching for us, excited. I appreciate our men. Praise the Lord for ladies. Ladies can just bring a sweet spirit. They bring a sweet spirit. Nobody, nothing else can. Thank God for our ladies. But it is a blessing to have men. It really is that serve the Lord and lead the way, and we praise God for them. So we’re looking forward to the deacons here just a minute. Brother Ants are going to come lead us in the song, then we’ll get the deacons up.

All right, going to sing Amazing Grace. If you have your hymnals, 202, so you can remain seated on this. Let’s sing Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound. We’ll sing the first, second, and last verse is there. Amazing Grace. Grace. Go for His grace.

Every church needs people, and praise the Lord mentioned all right for ladies, but just specifically men to help carry the weight. And praise the Lord for good godly deacons that are going the same direction and just want to kind of assist and help them. Praise the Lord for those men. They’re a blessing. Amen. And their families, their wives. Praise the Lord forward.

I do. I love it. I don’t know where the idea came from, but just we started, I think, last year, in such a blessing to hear from our deacons. But we’re going to hear from now. Brother John Casey is going to come first. And then I won’t say a word after that. Well, just, Brother Kevin, if you come up to that with Kevin Cooper and Brother Marlon Hunter, that’ll kind of—I won’t keep it flowing. But I appreciate them being willing to come and speak to us tonight. Tell you what, let him know we appreciate it. What did you do it, Brother John?

All right, thank you. If you’re following along in your Bible tonight, could you turn to Psalms 103 and then mark that, if you would? And then we’re going to go to Luke 17. So Psalms 103, Luke 17. And if not, you don’t have it, I’ll tell you what I tell the junior church kids. I, you know, first of all, thank you, Pastor, just for allowing me to stand up here. I appreciate that, and I don’t take it lightly. It’s very important, and I recognize that.

You know, time flies. Maybe a couple months at the most, but this past year has gone by fast. Last year at this time, we were not only ushered in fall—fall was ushered in—my daughter’s senior year of high school, and Maria and I thought we were less than a year away from being empty nesters and doing cool things like Pastor talked about this morning, riding motorcycles and all this. But the Lord had a different plan, and praise the Lord for it. We are truly appreciative and grateful of that.

But a couple weeks ago, our old—our oldest, Emily—we took her off to college. And we went up a week early, a week before the classes. So any new student didn’t have to be freshmen; it could be sophomores, juniors, seniors, but any new student came a week early. They got familiarized with the campus and things like that. So it was emotional. We went up the day before. For me, I struggled with that, but it was wonderful. It was a great experience.

You know, that day we were checking in, and everything was going great. And so there’s this big dormitory and this parking lot right next to us. So at your time, you come to this parking lot and you check in and you go upstairs. But you have to leave that parking lot soon because there’s only a few spots. It’s only for dropping off. And the parking lot to park in permanently is kind of far away. So we pulled in, we went up there, was dropping her stuff off.

And Emily, being how she is, she didn’t want to leave. I got boxes, I got stuff everywhere. I want to be the fore-general—I want to put stuff away. And she asked her roommate, “Hey, take my car keys and go move my car from this temporary little parking lot to this big parking lot over here.” And I had to do the same with my truck and then go pick up the boys. So while I was gone, the chaos ensued. People came over to help. People that came over to just get in the way, people who came over, and there’s boxes and bags and stuff flying around.

And I get there, then I finished. And long story short, we were getting ready to leave, and Emily couldn’t find her keys. And we’re like, “Okay, it’s here somewhere.” So we were looking. We still couldn’t find it. And then really, visually, I could tell she started to become a little frustrated. I was okay on the outside, but the inside, not really, because that’s the only set of keys I had to that car. For all those years, I never got a second set.

And as the day went on and we thought, “Oh no, could have got thrown into a trash box or a trash bag or who knows where these keys are,” with all this chaos going on, everyone moving in at the same time, we ended up not finding them. Of all the emotions and the happiness the night before, the little bit of sadness and the happiness, and then that kind of threw a wrench in everything a little bit. But I calmed her and I said, “It’s okay. Nothing changes. You’re here. Everything’s going to be great. That doesn’t change anything.”

And as we left that night, I should have told myself that. I started letting that get to me a little bit. But later that night, Emily called me. It was real late. She was back home, and I was already planning the next day, and I got a call. Nissan, and get a VIN number and this and that. And she’s like, “I found my—I got my keys!” And I was like, “Well, how’d it happen?”

You know, in the midst of all this chaos, people everywhere, she was talking to a friend, and her friend said, “Hey, have you seen—have you found your keys?” And then it just so happened that somebody within earshot that they never met overheard that. I said, “Hey, you know, I heard a friend of mine talking about keys today.” She found it in the grass. So thousands and thousands of people here, just so happened that the one girl overheard them passing by and heard the key conversation and was able to redirect Emily and found the keys.

I was so thankful. First words out of my mouth was, “Praise the Lord!” I went to the kitchen as quick as I could. I told Maria. She said the same thing. She almost teared up. I got chill bumps, and she’s like, “There’s no other explanation than God. Praise the Lord for that.”

But I need to be honest, I don’t always have that gratitude as I should. I’m not always as thankful to God as I should be. We’re going to talk a little bit about that this evening. We’re in Luke 17. I’m going to start at verse 11.

It’s a very familiar passage of Jesus’ life on earth. It was a great Sunday school lesson we’ve had in our church before, Bible study, preaching. You can pull all types of things from it. I’m going to pull one thing out of there. So I’m going to start reading in Luke 17, verse 11.

“And it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

“And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests.”

“And it came to pass as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God. And he fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks, and he was a Samaritan.”

“And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Where are the nine?” I’m going to stop right there.

When you know God, you should be thankful to God. Often, we don’t even thank God for just basic things. Water. We just expect water to come out of the faucet or expect toilets to flush. But when you don’t have that, you all of a sudden get real thankful when you do. Electricity. We just expect—I think nowadays we just expect air conditioning. If some place or a vehicle or facility doesn’t have air conditioning, it’s pandemonium. You don’t know what to do. They used to not be.

Those basic things, just food, a refrigerator, a washing machine. Those basic things we often fail to thank God for. First Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

And then also, often we tend to pull the negative out of things instead of the positive. Weather’s a great example. If it’s 70 degrees, it’s too cold, but if it’s 78, it’s too hot. If it rains two days in a row, that’s annoying, but if it don’t rain, we’re in a drought. There’s always something wrong. Winter’s too cold, summer’s too hot.

Or our jobs. We always want to—“I didn’t get a raise,” or, “You know, they make me do too much. They keep putting more on my plate, and I got to do this, that, and the other,” instead of thanking God, “Hey, I applied to that job, and I prayed I would get it. Lord, you gave it to me. Thank you for that job.” Amen. Amen.

A house. It’s always some—“It’s too old. It doesn’t do this. It doesn’t do that.” I said, “It’s just thank you, Lord.” Lord, when I wanted that house, I prayed for it. You gave it to me. Thank you 10 years later for that house. Amen. Amen.

The news is always negative, and often we absorb that in. Rare nowadays you hear positive, uplifting stories on the news. We absorb that in. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

And also, often we fail to thank God for big things that we should be all the time. Family is the first thing that comes to my mind. How often do we take family for granted? Extended family, close family, our spouses. How often do we thank God for our wife? Our husband? “Lord, you gave me this great spouse. Thank you. Thank you for such a great mother.” Take it for granted so often.

Or if we do thank, often people like to thank ourselves. You know, “I did everything to get my wife.” You know, “I was this, I was at…” I said, “No, Lord, that was you.” Amen. I need to thank God for that.

Our health. Yeah. Often we just expect to wake up feeling good. And in the moment, something—we wake up and we finally feel a lump on us or something’s wrong, then we pray. But often we fail to thank God if we just wake up and the only thing is wrong is we’re a little tired. We fail to thank God for that.

Those of you know, I love this country. We often fail to thank God for this great country where we can be free in a place like this, having church. And not only often people fail to thank God for that, often all people do is complain and villainize and disrespect and protest and have problems with, destroy, bad-mouth the great country that’s done so much for them when we’re blessed beyond measure.

I’ve been to places where I wish some of them could see for just a minute. There are people out there that would do absolutely anything to get in—and not just at the southern border, all over the world—that want to come in, that would do things that would leave us—we can’t understand it—and leave home with no possessions, only the clothes on their back, no money, no food, drag their kids through that just to get a chance to get their kids in this country. They would literally fight to their last breath to get their kids in this country. And often we can’t even thank God for this country. We’re already here. Amen. We are blessed beyond measure for that.

Second Timothy 3, the Bible talks about in the last days, amongst other things that it mentions, men will be unthankful. And often we don’t even thank God for who he is, for what he does.

That song, 103, we was initially turned to. If we go back, in case we don’t have something to thank him for. Right here, there’s so much in this. I’m going to read the first about 12 verses real fast.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide; neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions.” Amen. And praise the Lord for that.

How often do we thank him for forgiveness? He heals, he redeems, he satisfies, he renews, he’s merciful, he’s gracious, he’s everlasting. Praise the Lord. Will we turn back with a loud voice and glorify God? Or will we be like tonight, just keep about it away?

Thank you. Amen. Thank you, brother. Amen. Thank you. Amen.

It’s big shoes to fill right there, right? I don’t have twins, so I don’t have an excuse if this doesn’t go so good. But turn to Psalm 77, please. John, that was awesome. Praise the Lord. Touched my heart. I needed that. Amen. Psalm 77.

Psalm 77, verse 1: “I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.” I’m going to stop right there.

We’re going to read more in that chapter, so don’t turn there—don’t turn—but don’t raise your hand at this, okay? Don’t raise your hand, but I’m going to just ask everybody: Who has had a trial? Who’s gone through a really big trial? Who has had sin that they’re battling? Don’t raise your hand. Who has had some really dark, tough times before in their lives? We all have, right? We’ve all had a little bit of one of those sooner or later. If you haven’t, you will. You will.

This Psalm 77 is a song by Asaph. I’ve never really studied the individual, but he gives us a pretty good example in this chapter on how to handle trials, or maybe not how to handle trials. So I’m going to read through this, and we’re going to pick some things out, kind of like a Bible study. It’s a night, Pastor, if you don’t mind. But nothing better than to study the Bible, right? Amen.

So what do we do when we have a trial? What do we—how is our spirit, how is our spiritual life when we’re right in the middle of a trial? What do we do? We sometimes get into spiritual lows. I know I do. You kind of go through hills and valleys, and I think everybody may experience that from time to time. And if we’re going through a trial, a lot of times we just want to get in that valley and we just want to stay there, right? I know I do. I’m speaking to myself.

So what do we do? So this gives an example. In verse two, he says this. He says, “In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my soul ran in the night.” He can’t sleep. He’s staying up at night. Whatever he’s going through, he’s losing sleep. I’ve been there. You know how you just toss and turn and you look at the ceiling and you just can’t sleep, and you get up and have a bowl of corn flakes and come back and you still can’t sleep? And I’ve been there. You lose sleep over things. You worry. We worry. We’re not supposed to worry, but we worry, and we lose sleep doing that.

Verse—verse three: “I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained.” Boy, we complain, don’t we? Brother John said, we, you know, we can come to somebody, and it’s so much easier to complain about something than it is to praise something. That’s our nature. We complain. And that’s what he’s doing. So I complain. I’m not sleeping. I’m overwhelmed. That’s what we do. That’s me.

Verse three: “I remembered God, and he was troubled. I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.” I’m just overwhelmed. This is what I’m going through, the sin that I’m battling. It’s overwhelming me. You know what he’s doing here, and you know what we do, what I do? I can speak for you. We concentrate on ourselves. He’s concentrating on him. “I can’t sleep. I’m complaining. I’m overwhelmed.” And that’s what I fall into more often than not when we’re in a trial, when we’re going through some tough times. We concentrate on ourselves, and we don’t think about God a lot of times.

Let’s keep reading here. Verse four: “Thou holdest my eyes waking. I’m so troubled, I cannot speak.” I’m just overwhelmed. I, I, man, I’m just, this trial’s killing me.

Verse five: “I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.” He’s complaining. He seems helpless. We’ve all been there, I have. We’ve just been through these times, the dark times where we just feel helpless. And that’s what this individual was going through, and I can relate to that sometimes.

In verse—in verse five, let’s keep reading. “I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remember it’s my song in the night. I commune with my own heart and my spirit made diligent search.” So he’s starting to kind of turn the tide here a little bit. He’s starting to say, “Well, you know what? I need to remember something. I need to remember the days of old when I was really blessed. I need to remember that God’s not forgot about me because man, he has sure blessed me in this time frame.” And he’s remembering that. He’s remembering what he’s done in the past that was great versus where he’s at now. So he’s trying to turn a little bit. He’s realizing that he needs to do that.

Verse—verse six: “I call to remember it’s my song in the night. I commune with my own heart and my spirit made diligent search.” Catch that right there. “My spirit made diligent search.” You know, when you—like Brother John lost his keys, what did they do? They searched for them. It’s an action, right? Yeah. So my spirit made diligent search. I’ve got to search for God. I’ve got to realize that I’m in a situation where I need to be searching God. And all too often, we’re not there. And again, I’m speaking for myself, but all too often, we just want to concentrate on the “I” and myself. “Oh, I can’t sleep.” But guess what? I need to search for God because he isn’t gone anywhere. It’s me that’s gone somewhere, right?

Verse seven: “Will the Lord cast off for ever? And will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore?” What he’s doing here, he’s preaching to himself. And Pastor steps on our toes all the time. He’s stepping on his own toes. He’s like, “I need a little preaching in my life. I need to remember this. I need to remember who God is. I need to remember that God hasn’t changed. God’s not going to change. I’m going to change, and I need to search and get out of this thing and remember how good he is to me and his love for me.” He recalls that. He recalls his promises.

Verse nine: “Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercy? Selah.” And I said, “This is my infirmity: but I remember the years of the right hand of the most High.” He remembers. He’s remembering that, “Hey, you don’t change, God. You don’t change. You’ve been there. You’re the same God before. You’re the same God that’s blessed me in the past. And I need to remember to search for you and get out of this thing, and I need to change my focus from me to you.” And he’s remembering that. He shifts his focus.

He—um—sometimes we get caught up on how we feel, right? How we feel. Well, it’s not—it’s not how we—how I mean, we have feelings, of course, but we need to remember how God has blessed us and how he makes us feel, not how we make our own self feel. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. And we’ll keep reading here.

Verse 11: “And I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.” He’s saying, “Lord, you blessed me in the past. I know that you’re there. I remember you. I want to get out of this. I want to search for you. I’m turning the tide from me to you,” is what he’s doing. And this is a great example for us.

Verse 13—or verse 12: “I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.” He needs to tell people, you know, how in the past he’s blessed him, witnessing. And he needs to remember that. He needs to remember how people have told him about God and how good God is. He’s remembering that.

Verse 13: “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?” He’s remembering, “God, you’re great. You’re good. You’ve blessed me in the past. You’re going to bless me in the future. I’m turning my focus from me to you.” And praise the Lord for that.

You know, what God is is more than enough than what we face. Have you ever thought about that? The situation that we’re in—I’ll use John again, losing his keys, and that’s a great testimony. The situation that we’re in, the sin that we’re battling, the dark time that we’re facing, the trial that we’re facing—it is nothing compared to what God is. Amen. And sometimes we lose that focus. Sometimes we lose that focus. I do.

But keep reading. Verse 14: “Thou art the God that doeth wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed the people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.” Now he’s shifted his focus from himself to God. And now look what he’s doing. He’s starting to praise God. Just like what John said. Sometimes we take for granted what God has done, and sometimes we’re in that trial, and sometimes we forget. We totally forget the praising, especially when we’re down here, and he starts us to bring us back up here. We don’t give him enough praise, do we?

But he’s shifting his focus here. He’s gone from myself to God. Now I’m going to praise God. And that’s—and that’s a great example for us. He’s shifting his focus from how I feel to praising God. A lot of times, I know Pastor said this before, you just ride down the road, and if you’re in a bad mood or whatever, you just start praising God for everything. “Lord, thank you for the grass. Thank you for that mailbox. Thank you for that water. Thank you for that bird over there.” And when you start doing that, man, it just gets you right out of that, doesn’t it? And we forget about doing that. We focus on ourselves, we focus on the situation we’re in, we forget how God has blessed us in the past, and we forget about praising him. So this is a great example for us to remember.

So he shifted his focus. Verse 15: “Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.”

“The waters saw thee, O God; the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad.” He’s focusing here, or he’s referring to the Red Sea. He’s—I believe he’s saying, “Why should I be worried when you’re a God that parted the ocean?” Amen. “When you’re a God that leads his children by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.” And he forgets that, but he’s remembering that now.

And he’s praising God and is remembering how powerful God is. The situation that he’s in is nothing compared to what God has done for his people in the past. And we forget about that. He was in bad shape initially. Asaph was just wallowing in his trials. He was just concentrated on himself. But now he’s starting to remember who God is. He’s starting to remember how God’s blessed him in the past. He’s starting to praise God. He’s starting to tell God, “God, you’re nothing compared to what I’ve been through. I’m nothing compared to what you are, what you’ve done for your people.” And he’s remembering that. He’s turning to God.

This is a quote from C.S. Lewis: “In our pleasure, God whispers, but in our pain, he shouts.” What about that? That’s a blessing there. This is also something I wrote down: “It is not the fruit of our experience that brings joy and peace, but it’s the fruit of the Spirit.” And we forget about that, don’t we? When we’re in a trial, when we’re in a situation where we don’t feel close to God, we’re battling sin, we’re battling whatever the world’s throwing to us, and it’s getting us down, and it’s winning, and it’s just got us in a situation where we’re just—I can’t sleep. I’m complaining. I complain to my coworkers. I’m losing my testimony. Whatever.

When you read Psalm 77, it’s a wonderful example of how, “Hey, I need to change my focus. My focus has been on me. My focus has been on the world, the situation that I’m in. I need to focus on God. I need to remember who God is. I need to remember what he’s done for us in the past. I need to remember how he’s blessed me, blessed my family, my wonderful wife. I need to praise him. I need to give him thanks, even when I don’t feel like giving him thanks.” He may not take my pain away. He may leave that thorn in my side. I don’t know. But I need to remember that he’s bigger than that, and I need to have faith that he’s bigger than that, and I need to turn to him and change my focus. But all too often, my focus is in the wrong area. And you read Psalm 77, and I just got a blessing out of that.

We’ll read to the last of it. Verse 18: “Thy way, O God, is in the sea; and thy path in the great waters: and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” What a blessing. He’s going to lead us if we’ll let him. We just need to get out of the way. And often, often, we forget about that. So praise the Lord for that. Praise the Lord for y’all. I love you. I hope that was a blessing to you. Amen.

Thank you, brother.

Matthew, Matthew 7:24 is where we’ll be. Very common verse. But I just want to take a few minutes to talk about our home. As I was studying this, I realized real quick that this study was for me because I have no expert on the home at all. I pray that it would be a help to somebody here today.

So do you know that everyone here, every person you pass, every person you meet, the people you will never meet on the other side of the world—they have a mansion built for them, and it was built for them over 2,000 years ago? I didn’t decide to move into my mansion until around six, six and a half years ago. I moved in on a Wednesday night and set up permanent residence. Amen. Messed up a thousand times, and, you know, I’ve never been evicted. Amen. John 10:28 tells us that. What a great promise out of God’s word.

So, are you ready to move into your mansion that has been built for you? Matthew 7:24 says, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.” Amen.

I’ve been doing some studying in the housing market—unreal—to purchase a house, to build a house. You need some good credit these days to get that. And I didn’t know this, but a perfect credit score is—does anybody know? 850. Okay? Stacey, I don’t think we’ve ever seen 850, right? I can’t say that I’ve ever seen 850. But I can say this: good credit, bad credit, no credit—through the blood of Jesus Christ, you have an unlimited supply of credit. It’s called grace. Amen. No matter your credit score, Jesus has already filled out your credit application and has approved your credit. Amen. Your credit and credit application has been filled out by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. He’s not only a home built for you; he has your mansion prepared. Amen.

First Corinthians 2:9 tells us that “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” You know, I try to try to bring heaven down to the world’s standards, world’s way of thinking. Shame on me for doing that. But you know, Jesus, he has a perfect credit score for us. He has all the credit we need.

John, chapter 14, verse 2, tells that there are many mansions that Jesus went to prepare for us. So I’ll say, if you do not know that you have a mansion prepared for you, please come and see one of us so we can take God’s word and show you so you will know 100% that you know that you’ll have a place in heaven. You know, in the false doctrine world that we’re surrounded by, you know, they tell you that you need a bunch of materials to build your mansion. You do not. One material, and that’s the rock, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

You know, most of you know, we just got back from vacation, and it was a great, great trip. We had a great time. Beautiful island. Before I left, we had to reserve our room. We had to have a place to stay when we got there. God’s word says in 1 Peter, chapter 1, 4 and 5, tells us that he has for me and you a place reserved if you’re his child. And don’t let the world tell you that we’re all his children. We are not all his children. You need to be born again and adopted into the royal family by the royal blood.

1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 4 says, “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” There is a place reserved for you in heaven, and the payment has been paid. Amen.

Okay, do you have your mansion built? There is a prepared place. We need to abide for our houses. The word abide in 1828 is—and I’m glad you said the 1828 is good because this is where I get all my stuff from—the word abide in 1828 is “to rest or dwell, to bear or endure, to remain, to continue permanently or in the same state, to be firm and immovable.” Can I just say, make a stand? Just stay put for your house. Make a stand for it.

James 1:8 says that “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Today’s world, we need to make sure that we have sure footing and that good stability, and that stability comes from Jesus. We need to make our mind up how and what we’re going to stand for in our house. 1 Corinthians 15:58 tells us that we need to be unmovable and always abound to the Lord’s work.

Now we’re in Matthew, so if you look down at 26 and 27, you’ll see it just as Jesus talking, and it goes on to say that “Every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”

The water, the wind, the wind—that’s the world attacking us. It’s relentless. It’s constantly attacking you. It’s constantly attacking our house and the church. The book of Ephesians tells us in chapter 6, verses 13 to 15, that we need the whole armor of God to withstand the evil days, to stand with our loins girt with the truth and our feet shod with the gospel.

So men and women, abide for your house. Abide for the houses of God across this country, especially for Rutherford County Baptist Church. Abide for the men and women the Lord has placed in our lives, especially our Pastor and Ms. Tammy, Brother Anthony and Ms. Cotora. Amen. If our Pastor’s preaching the word of God, not wavering one bit, you know he’s being attacked from every angle. Amen.

So we need to stand with it. Jeremiah 3:15 says, “And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” The Lord has given our Pastor a heart to love his people. That’s right. He’s been placed in our lives for a reason. We need to keep him lifted up. We need to abide. We need to stand with him. We need to stand with him at all times and not against him, y’all. Amen.

Men, abide for our house. Men, we need to stand for our houses. We also need to provide for our families. We need to set the example for our houses. 1 Timothy 5:8: “But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” Men, we need to provide. Amen.

Proverbs 23:21 tells us, “For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.” Men, we need to set the example for our house. Amen.

It’s a great verse, I think, to abide for our house, to stand for our house, and that is Psalms 1, verses 1 through 3. It says, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” Amen.

Your kids, your grandkids, your family, your neighbors—they’ll see you abiding. They’ll see you making a stand for God’s promise. And God’s promise says that fruit will come forth in his season. We need to stay in God’s word. We need to make a stand and not sit on the sidelines. Amen.

Sorry, God. Did I? Okay. Yes, I did. Sorry, y’all. Pastor’s sticking together. Hopefully, I didn’t skip two. Okay. No, I didn’t.

So, you have your mansion built because there is a prepared place for you. We need to abide for our houses. We need to besiege our houses. And the word besiege in 1828 means “to beset or surround with armed forces; to throng.” The word throng means “to crowd together.” The word besiege means “to protect.” We need to protect our houses.

For example, the gallows that were prepared for Haman—Haman was hung by them. Esther was intercession by God’s people. They were saved. Jesus is intercession to us, to the Father. Amen. What about Ananias and Sapphira holding back part of the price of the land that was told to start to the early church? What was Peter doing? He was protecting the early church. And we know what happened to them—both of them died.

Numbers, chapter 16, when Korah rebelled against Moses and the ground opened up, in verse 33, it says, “They went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them.” You know, Korah was denying that Moses was the authority as God’s chosen man. You see, these men and women were besieging for the Lord’s work in the Lord’s house. You know, the Lord is—always has the last word.

By no means, Pastor, by saying we need to go out and build a set of gallows here, but we as Christians, we do need to besiege our homes. We need to besiege the Lord’s house. And we need to besiege the men and women of God that’s been placed in our lives. Amen.

Revelation 3, verses 20 through 22, and this is Jesus speaking. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Verse 21: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame.” He’s in our home; he wants to be in our church. The best way to besiege those, to protect your house and the church house, is to let him reside there. Let him in.

Our Pastor preaching—he does have, he’s got a tough job, tough job. But never once have I ever heard Pastor say a negative word about being a pastor. Never. I’ve never heard our Pastor say anything negative about another pastor preaching God’s word. Ever. And that’s awesome, Pastor. We as a congregation need to besiege him and Brother Anthony, their families, and other men of God preaching the Word in our church and other churches that make a stand.

1 Timothy 5:17 tells us, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.” Someone lately—it was, I believe it was at our church—they were preaching on how the armies would connect their shields together. Does anybody remember that? Who was that? Is anybody remember who that was? Aviation guy?

Okay, okay, right, right. Okay. That’s where I heard that from, and that has stuck with me for since I heard that, and that was just absolutely amazing. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” John 10:10 tells us the devil’s agenda, and that is to steal, kill, and destroy. So we as Christians need to connect our shields. Ecclesiastes 4:12 tells us that if someone prevails against us, two withstand him, and a threefold cord is not easily broken.

Together, let’s stand around our homes, our church, and besiege them. We need to protect them at all costs. I’m getting ready to wrap this up. A couple points here. For those who have never put their faith solely on Jesus as their Savior and want to reside in a mansion that’s been built for them, seriously, please let us know. Do not leave this park without knowing 100% guarantee it would be the best day of your life. Amen.

Men and women, let’s abide for our house. Let’s make a stand for our house. And third, let’s besiege our house. Let’s besiege the men and women the Lord’s placed in our lives. Let’s besiege our Pastor and other pastors that are preaching God’s word. And let’s besiege our churches. Listen this: We need to be found in our houses. We need to be set in our houses. We need to be established in our houses. We need to be positioned in our houses. We need to be situated in our houses. And men, we need to be present in our houses.

And Pastor, I will close with this. It seemed like everybody was in the book of Psalms tonight. And I’ll close with a verse out of Psalms, and it’s Psalms 144:1. And it says, “Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.” Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Original File: Sunday Night Under the Tent 09042022