# The Evening and the Morning

Category: Peace & Assurance
Key Passage: Genesis 1:5
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024

Turn to Bibles, if you would, to Genesis chapter number one. Genesis chapter number one. It’s going to be a hard place to find in your Bible, I’m sure. Genesis chapter number one.

I don’t even know if we’ll call it preaching tonight. I want to just get our minds going a certain way a little bit, and then I don’t think I’ll be long. I want to say I won’t be long, but you know how that goes. Miss Maria is already laughing at me back there. I can see her. But when we get to the invitation time, I want us to slow down and take her time there.

It’s the last service of the year. Wouldn’t it be a blessing for the Lord to really do a work in your heart tonight? And he will if we’re hungry. That’s the key, if we’re hungry. Are we good? Lapel mic won’t be good there? Okay. I might have it. I didn’t know if I put it on mute before. I put it on. I said, we’re good. We’re good. Genesis chapter 1. Just want to share a thought really with you. Almost like a two-part. We’ll start in Genesis. We’re going to Philippians a little bit here.

But Genesis chapter 1, just want to kind of get a thought in our minds first. Would you please stand as we read together? Genesis 1, we’re going to be in verse number 5. A phrase I want you to notice and trying to get our minds going a certain way. Genesis 1, verse number 5, the Bible says, “And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.”

And watch this phrase here: “In the evening and the morning were the first day.” And that’s not a mistake. It says that for a reason. You say, “Well, shouldn’t it say the morning and the evening were the first day?” No, the evening and the morning were the first day.

Look down, verse number 8, verse number 8. “And God called the firm of heaven.” And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Look down, verse number 13. Would you read it out loud with me, please? We’ll just do that. Verse number 13: “And the evening and the morning were the third day.”

Verse number 19, please: “And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”

Verse number 23, please: “And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”

Verse number 31: “And God saw everything that he had made. Behold, it was very good, and the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

I just said a little phrase, we read it six times, believe it is, “the evening and the morning.” I just want to talk about that a little bit tonight to get us going.

I believe the Lord is trying to teach us something here. It’s more—it is. It is the Jewish calendar. As we, our next day starts at midnight, and the Hebrews, or their calendar, started 6 p.m. the night before. So there’s something technical that’s correct. Always the Bible is correct. And praise the Lord for the old King James Bible. Never have found a flaw in it. Amen. Never will.

But there’s more. God’s trying to teach us something here. You see, if I’m going to have a good day tomorrow, it really starts with me having a good night tonight. There’s a little secret here God’s trying to let us in on: Having a good day tomorrow starts tonight.

Someone gave my wife and I a gift card. And so last night, Miss Tammy was feeling good, and we went out to eat. And, you know, there’s always that thing: you know what you should eat and drink, but you know what you want to eat and drink. And that waitress came and she said, “Sir, what would you like to drink?” And I looked at her and I paused for about 20 seconds, and then I lost the battle. She even said, “Boy, you took a while there.” I said, “Yeah, I know, and I should have had water, but I want that Dr. Pepper, please.” I’m on Brother Byrd’s level right there.

And the problem is, once you start drinking that Dr. Pepper, it’s just hard to stop. And, you know, they don’t refill them now; they bring another glass nowadays, you know. And she brought me, I think, three glasses, I’m not sure. Now, here’s the thing: I woke up very tired this morning. I hit the snooze button. I reset it one time, and I didn’t want to get up even after that. It was just hard to get up and get moving this morning. Ain’t no other reason why? Because last night.

Yeah. The evening and the morning were the first day. The evening and the morning were the second day. God’s trying to teach us something.

You know, in old-school America, there was a day in America where Saturday night—Saturday night—well, here’s one thing: out in the country, they got those number one or number two or number four or whatever wash tub out. You know, we joke about it nowadays. “I take my bath once a week whether I needed or not on Saturday night,” you know. Well, that’s coming from something. Because back in the day, they’d get those old washtubs out. And my old preacher, he said they used to do it in Texas. He’s in heaven now. He said, “I think it was the fourth in line. By the time he got to that bath, that washtub, he thinks he got dirtier by getting in that water,” you know. But that’s what they would do. And then they’d get their clothes out, get their clothes ready Saturday night. And everybody gets cleaned up, and you get your Sunday go-to-meeting clothes out, they’d call it. Some of y’all understand these things a little better than me now. You can tell us the stories of all those things, you know, how was old-school America? I mean, if you need gas in your vehicle, you better get it on Saturday night. If you need bread, get it on Saturday, because Sunday, everything’s closed, and you had to get ready on Saturday. And people got up; sometimes they had to travel back of the day on horse and buggy for good ways to go to church. And boy, everybody came to church, and they were ready before church service even started. They’re ready to go because it started the night before.

Nowadays, too many times young folk have been up to 3 or 4 a.m. playing video games. The preacher can do cartwheels or gargoyles in his mouth with peanut butter in there, and then they’re going to listen to him because they’ve been busy until 4 a.m. the night before. It’s a different day and time. But still, the truth is, if I’m going to have a good day tomorrow, it starts tonight.

Hey, can I just encourage you? Don’t watch filth from the TV or movie before you go to bed. Say a prayer with your spouse when you’re going to sleep. Tell each other—let the last thing before you start the snoring—you know you snore in sync, you know that—before you start all that, let the last thing be, “I love you.” But the last thing you did the night before is so very, very important. It’s critical. If I want a good day tomorrow, I need to go now if I can. I’m just being honest.

Now look, here’s my courage. Let’s finish off 2020. It’s a little different here. I’m changing gears. Let’s finish off 2020 right. If the last part of the night or day here has to affect a lot tomorrow, say, Mike, that’s finishing off this year. It’d be important for us starting off the next year, right? And I want to encourage it. And I’m not there, but I want to get there. I love to finish off 2020 right. It’s important for us. And I want to encourage you. And I’m excited about 2021. I’m so glad we finished the praises, the testimony off with. I’m excited about 2021. That’s a wonderful way to finish it off, and that will help propel us into a good year next year in our personal life.

Now, so first challenge: If we want a good year next year, let’s try to finish off this year right. Kind of like the day thing: you want a good day tomorrow, start it off right the night before.

Now let’s go to another thought. Look over to Philippians chapter number three, if you would, Philippians chapter number three real quickly here. You’ll know the verses.

Philippians chapter number three. And God here is speaking through Apostle Paul. And actually, he’s speaking about good things. He’s not speaking about bad things in his past life; he’s speaking of accomplishments God has used him to do. Philippians chapter number three. And look in verse number 13, if you would, please. Philippians 3. And look in verse number 13 of God’s word. Just briefly, and then I’m going to list off some things, and we’re going to have an invitation. Philippians 3. I’m looking at verse number 13.

God speaking through Paul says, “Brother, I count not myself to have apprehended.” I’m not talking about bad things in his life; don’t mistake that for good things in his life. He said, “I don’t think I’ve got it all together.” Brother, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He had a mark. He was reaching forward, pressing toward. He had some goals. He had some direction. He had some things he was trying to do in the future.

Now, I’m just going to go down through a list that I made out. I believe the Lord was in me making it out. Not everything on this list is for every person here. And I pray—my prayer, and I mean, I don’t want to be me trying to give you suggestions—but as I read over this and I talk to you about some things, would you pray and ask the Holy Spirit, maybe before we start, say, “The one that’s for me, would you nudge me and let me know?” Maybe something I don’t mention at all, but just maybe something kind of triggers in your mind. The Holy Spirit says, “This is what I want for you to set as a goal, as a mark, in your life for next year.”

We’ll just start off with Bible reading. We’ve already mentioned it, but maybe that’s the thing for you: just being in your Bible more this year. It may be that the Holy Spirit wants you to read through your Bible this year. Sometimes that gets criticized. Can I just say this? I’m not speaking of any person—I don’t know any person in the room here that has criticized it—but I will say this: I’ve heard it criticized more than once. But those who criticize it have never given me or anyone else that I know of a better plan than that. In fact, I’ve seen a lot of people, and I’ve heard a lot of people in our church over the years, say, “Well, I’m not going to do that.” Maybe I’ve heard somebody else comment on it. And just about every single time, that person comes back to me in a year or two and says, “You know, I didn’t do any better. I did worse. It’s better for me to go back to that Bible reading schedule plan.” It’s not a perfect plan. Not a perfect plan out there, but have some kind of a plan.

For young people, I would suggest at least reading a proverb a day. Praise the Lord. And the Lord put this in me through people, but I’ve tried to do that since I was a teenager, and I’m 35 and still do it today. Amen. But just a proverb a day, but reading through Proverbs. Maybe if you’re going through a tough time, read through Psalms. Maybe this is for you, I don’t know if it’s for you, but maybe it’s not reading through your Bible. Maybe it’s—maybe it’s reading through the Gospels if you haven’t. You say, “I don’t think that’s a little beyond me,” around to read through the Gospels this year.

Maybe it’s Bible memorization. I believe the Lord’s working in my heart. I need to get back. I used to be better about it. I’m to the point now if you don’t go back and rememorize, you forget those verses. Anybody else out there know what I’m talking about? And I need to work at that. And that’s one of the things the Lord’s speaking to my heart: “Hey, you need to get back to memorizing verses.” I’m going to try to work at the Bible. It’s our strength, and you’re not going to be spiritually strong unless you’re in the Word. You’re just not. We’re fooling ourselves, and we think, “Well, I can get all these—everything else in the world, even good things, devotionals—I’m for all those things, but if I’m not getting the Word…”

Maybe the Lord’s speaking about getting the Bible. Maybe it’s your marriage. Maybe in your marriage you need to get back to having a date night. I think we’re all freshly, newly led in the first year or two; we all have date nights, but it’s easy to get away from that. Maybe that’s what the Lord wants for you. I don’t know. Maybe just loving your wives. You know, us husbands are bad about if our wives aren’t up to par, we want to fix her. And here’s this sad thing: so often we want to fix her not for her, but for us, because I want our wives to get back to being what we need. That’s real love, right? For ourselves. Yeah. It’s quiet all of a sudden here. My goodness. Man, loving her like Christ loved the church and gave himself. By the way, I’m glad he loves me, and he’s so good to me when I don’t deserve it. Yeah, loving our wives.

Maybe it’s respecting our husbands: not interrupting, not talking down, not disrespecting. Maybe letting him lead, wanting to lead, encouraging him to lead. “Hey, I want you to be the leader in the home.”

What does the Holy Spirit want for you? Maybe it’s having a devotion together, just a time where you spend maybe reading a devotional together, because you and your spouse are praying together. Maybe it’s taking a walk. You need to take walks in the evenings together when it’s not too cold and doing things together. But is there something the Holy Spirit says, “Hey, you know, you’d really need to work at your marriage. It’s not where it ought to be”? And would you just take some time and say, “Holy Spirit, I would like to grow next year. Would you set some marks for me that I can press after?”

Maybe it’s involvement in church. By the way, praise the Lord, you’re in church on a Wednesday night, and that’s wonderful. Congratulations to you. That’s awesome. Maybe the Holy Spirit wants you to join the choir. Brother Anthony’s going to say amen right there. Or the bus ministry. Or a nursery worker. Ms. Gatora is yelling amen, and the nurses are back there. Maybe it’s an usher. Maybe it’s being in Sunday school every Sunday. Maybe it’s being in Wednesday night. You’re here tonight. You’re here tonight. Praise the Lord for that. That’s wonderful. All these things. Maybe it’s when the soul-winning outreach gets going—get back in the soul-winning and get involved in seeing souls saved. Nothing like that in all the world. But I don’t know what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, but are you asking the Holy Spirit, “Would you speak to me? Would you tell me what I need to work on in 2021?” There might be one little thing that the Holy Spirit can speak to you about tonight. If you work with that one thing, it’d be a catalyst in your Christian life and such a problem. Would you let him set some marks in your life?

Maybe it’s honoring your parents more. Maybe it’s making sure they don’t have to tell you 10 times; you obey the first time. Or maybe, if you’re a grown adult, it’s writing our parents a letter. Maybe it’s telling them we love them, saying thank you, honoring your parents.

Maybe the Holy Spirit wants you to be more involved in winning souls next year. I’ve already mentioned that briefly, but maybe the Holy Spirit wants you to get involved in passing out gospel tracts. By the way, that lady that brought those Dr. Peppers, she got a tract before us all over last night. Maybe the Holy Spirit is speaking to you and challenging you: “Hey, next year I want to pass out at least 10 tracts every week of my life.” I don’t know what it might be. Diomuni had set a mark in his life. He said every day of his life, I’m going to witness to at least one person. One night it was about 11 o’clock at night. He had to witness to someone, so he got out—they say he walked the streets until he found a young man walking the streets, and if I remember the story right, he led that young man to the Lord. But he had a mark; he set a mark in his life, and he was after something.

Maybe it’s to be more of a witness. Maybe for me—I’ll be honest with you—for me, I’ve been… I try to be good about passing out gospel tracts. And I, in fact, there’s an opportunity I want to witness to him, and I got a little lax and just asking them the bottom line question: “Are you going to heaven when you die?” And the Holy Spirit spoke to me about that not too long ago. When there’s the opportunity, I’ve been trying to get back, man, just bypassing all the other things. I’m just going to get to the heart of the matter: “Hey, you told me you go to church or you have been, but let me ask even more: If you died, do you know for sure you go to heaven?” I’ve been getting back to that at the appropriate time. The Holy Spirit is speaking to you about something.

Maybe it’s you doing something for others more often, thinking and living for others more. You’ve heard it said: J.O.I.—Jesus first, ourselves last, and others in between. If you’re living for the Lord, you’re going to be living for others. Maybe you need to write a letter to someone every month. “I’m going to write a letter to somebody,” just encourage them, loving on them a little bit. Maybe it’s, “I’m going to take a gift to someone every week.” I know someone who, on their prayer list, they have a section: “Lord, what would you want me? Who would you want me to be a blessing to today?” And every day they try to be a blessing to someone. Last time I heard them talk about it, I think that day they went out and bought someone—ten bucks, you know, I’m talking about Starbucks, one of their coffees, you know—and brought them a coffee. But whatever, maybe you just need to start living for others more and start forgetting about yourself, what all you want.

I’m an old man in our church—I don’t know if he still does it—but a couple of years ago, he told me he had every Saturday at that time (I think he’s retired, and life’s a little bit different now), but every Saturday, he’d go out to breakfast, usually at Cracker Barrel, and he’d get a good meal, try to take one of his kids with him. And he would look for someone, and he’d try to pay their bill. Just look for somebody, and he’d tell the waitress, “I want to pay their bill,” and he’d pay their bill. And he said, “Man, I got the biggest blessing out of just buying somebody a meal.” He said, “I got a blessing.” See them—the waiters just say, “Hey, your bill’s been paid.” They look around and try to figure out where or how. But doing something for somebody—living for others—what a blessing, what a blessing it is.

Maybe the Holy Spirit is speaking about your prayer life. That’s the key. You know, if we’re going to… we don’t want what we can do; that’s not much at all. We want what God can do. And the way you plug into that—God’s given you so many promises and availability. He wants you to pray. “You have not because you ask not.” Maybe you need to set a time. Maybe the Holy Spirit is speaking to you about setting a time. “All right, every evening at 6 o’clock, no matter what, I’m going to have my prayer time.” Every morning, I’m going to get up a little bit early, and I’m going to have my prayer time. Maybe it’s when you get off work, before you get home, you’re going to stop in a separate place somewhere and have your prayer time. But maybe the Holy Spirit is saying, “Look, you need to schedule it. If I don’t schedule it, I usually don’t do it.” And maybe that’s the thing the Holy Spirit is speaking about your prayer life. If you want to be close to him, he wants to be close to you, but he’s already drawn nigh to you on the cross, through the shed blood, the Spirit wooing you, and hopefully you responded to salvation. But now he says, “Draw nigh to me,” and the ball’s in your court. He’s waiting for you to do that in your prayer life.

Maybe you need to write a prayer list. I think it’s a great, great tool. Now, if you’re getting redundant, you’re just in a rut, maybe go for a week or two without your prayer list, or maybe like me, I need to rewrite my prayer list. I plan, by the first day of the year, to rewrite my prayer list and change some things. And I think that’s vital—at least every year sort of rewrite your prayer list and make some changes on there. Maybe that’s what you need. If I’m going to meet with someone very important, I have a lot of things to discuss; I almost always have a list because if I don’t, I’ll forget to talk about something. I’m saying the same thing in my prayer life. I’m talking to the most important person—I’m talking to God. And I want to talk to him about some things, some burdens, some issues, and some people I love. And so I have a list. And maybe you need to have that very important tool in your prayer life: a prayer list or rewriting it.

Maybe your children. You know, can I just say this? Sometimes we had to do it when our children were little, but we just had to say, “We’re going to stop all this talking, and we’re going to start disciplining.” I mean, that “one, two, three” only goes so long. Pretty soon it’s going to be one, two, two and a half, two and three-quarters, two and seven-eighths, two and fifteen-sixteenths. Then they’re going to continue—yeah, we got them! Those kids know they’re going to wait as long as you do something. And some of our kids—actions speak louder than words—and they’re just not going to respond to you doing something. Maybe that’s in your child; maybe you need to spend more time with your children. Maybe you need to stop always picking out the bad things, the bad things. We had to work at this, but maybe there are some times, you know, God has put some good things in them, and I need to put that out too, you know. But child, remember God’s speaking to your heart: “Hey, you need to work at these things.”

Can I just say this? Hey, who runs your house? Your kids or you? Higher than time, friends, more often than not. Well, he used to say, you know, back in the day, the men, then the ladies—it’s the kids. Maybe child-rearing is the thing the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart about. Maybe it’s—this is a tough one here, I’ve got to work on it, I’ve already confessed—but maybe it’s taking better care of the temple. Laying off those Dr. Peppers. I need to come to the altar in me. Maybe exercising a little bit. Maybe it’s cutting some things out in your life. Maybe the Holy Spirit is saying, “Hey, you need to get rid of those movies, that music.” You’re not going to grow past your music. The music’s so important, so important.

I remember several years back, one of the young men in our church—it just seemed like he grew for a couple of months. I thought, “Wow, what happened to him?” And I can’t remember what it was, but I thought something had happened, and maybe he got some new friends and whatnot. I actually talked to him; somehow it came up, and I said, “I noticed you’ve grown.” And they said this—they told me—they said, “Well, to be honest with you, I think I know what it is. I’ve gotten off the wrong kind of music.” I think it was country music. I remember I could just see them; they soared when they did. Maybe they read some wrong kind of… maybe you just cut some things out of your life. If I’m always listening to the news, I’m not going to be any good news for you, friend. Now, I keep up with the news, but if I listen to it all the time, I’m going to be up here, I’m going to be down here. Awfully quiet right now. I know that’s hard right now with so much going on, but it’s still true. Maybe it’s just simply simplifying your life. I mean, maybe the Holy Spirit’s just speaking to you about—and that’s different things for different people—let the Lord lead you. But maybe it’s simply just needing to clean out your closets, just get the clutter out of your life, simplifying a little bit. How is the Holy Spirit speaking to you?

Maybe you need to work on your house. Do a little work around there. Maybe you need to dress better so I can represent the Lord better. Maybe I simply need to be kind to others all the time. You know, Proverbs 31, speaking of the virtuous woman, she has a law of kindness in her tongue. It’s a law of kindness in her tongue. It’s a biblical principle. Maybe you said the Holy Spirit is speaking to me: “I need to dwell on how much God loves me.” Some people really need to work at that. Jude is only one chapter there. Verse number 21, I believe it says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” It’s not talking about keeping yourself lovely. God doesn’t love us because we’re lovely; he loves us because he is loving. He’s not talking about you keeping yourselves right so God loves you. Look, if you’re in the love of God through Christ Jesus, nothing can separate you from the love of God. He’s not talking about that. He’s talking about you thinking and dwelling on the fact that God loves you. The theme in that book, most will say, is earnestly contending for the faith which was delivered to the saints. And look, you’re out there fighting for the truth, and if you’re not careful, you’re going to get hard and bitter and mad and mean. So you need to dwell on the fact that God loves you. Maybe that’s the thing the Holy Spirit wants: you just spend some time every day. Maybe reading Psalm 119, a great psalm about that, but just somewhere in the Bible where God loves you. And he wanted someone just like you, and he likes you, and he’s got a picture of you in his wallet, and he’s thinking about you on the cross when he was dying, but you need to dwell on the love of God.

I don’t know what it is for you. I had a good chance I didn’t say the thing that the Holy Spirit really wants you to set a mark in your life for next year. But would you ask him? He’s called our guide in the Bible, John 14. He’s called God. Guide us into all truth. I’ve already been working at memorization of an old verse that I learned. I forgot it, and I probably can’t quote it now. I wasn’t planning on quoting it. It was 1 Corinthians 2:12. And it says, “God’s not given us the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” There might be some things that God—he wants to speak to you about—but you’ve got to be listening to the Spirit. Would you just ask the Holy Spirit even right now where you’re sitting there? “Holy Spirit, what am I supposed to work on next year?” Would you listen to him? Would you ask him in your heart, your mind? Would you speak to me? We’re about to have the invitation. Would you just kind of slow down? Would you ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you? What are you supposed to work on in 2020? What’s the mark? I press toward the mark. Paul had some marks in his life. There was a reward, a prize, and he was shooting for that mark so he would get that prize. The Holy Spirit knows what you need to work on. He knows how to have the snowball effect in your life. He can speak. Do we have ears to hear?

The Bible uses that phrase. Remember Elijah over there? Elijah, I believe he was depressed because he’d been on Mount Carmel—great victory—and revival still didn’t happen. Old Jezebel, after killing all those false prophets, Jezebel still had some say-so and said she was going to kill him. I don’t think he was just depressed. Where are all the people of God standing up? He said, “Lord, I’m ready to go home. I’m no better than my fathers.” The Lord had to say, “Hey, there are 7,000 who have not bowed the knee,” and he ended up out in that cave. Remember that, in the cave in the wilderness? It’s very interesting. God came along, and he sent that strong wind. Remember that wind that broke the rocks? That’s a pretty strong wind to break the rocks. God wasn’t in it. Then, if I had seen an earthquake—man, can you imagine an earthquake? He’s an earthquake, and everything’s shaking. God wasn’t in it. Then there was a fire—boy, nothing like a fire. I don’t know what the fire was. I don’t know if it was a great big, huge fire. I don’t know, but God wasn’t in it. And there was that still, small voice.

And I can’t read for you—I just want to read the very next verse after that still, small voice. “And it was so, when Elijah heard it…” I wonder how long that still, small voice had been speaking. “…that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering of the cave.” And behold, there came a voice unto him. I wonder how long the still, small voice had been there. But then he heard it, and then he moved, and then God really spoke to him.

Original File: The Evening and the Morning - Pastor Paul Chisgar Wednesday 123020