The Sower

Campbell Chapel Free Will Baptist Church

Ironton, Ohio

Campbell Chapel FWBC of Ironton Ohio - Pastor Bob Bradley

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Free Will Baptist Church
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Ironton, Ohio 45638

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The Sower

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Bob Bradley

_________________________

Mark 4:1-9

1 And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.

2 And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,

3 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:

4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

5 And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:

6 But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.

9 And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

As you studied the scriptures, you know that the oppositions against Jesus had increased. The scribes, Pharisees, and religious leaders had intensified their persecution of Him by this time in His ministry. This is one of many times that He goes down by the sea to teach. This one of many times that He teaches His disciples in parables.

The last several weeks we have been looking at what He is talking about here. We know that He uses analogy or picture of a sower going forth to sow. If you have ever sown any seed, you can picture that in your mind. We can all do that, whether you have ever sown seed or not. It is being sowed upon ground that has been plowed up. It’s been prepared, some of it, some of it has a much rock, some of it has thorns just under the surface, and so forth. He is sowing. Some fell by the wayside. We talked about the wayside.

We know that Jesus, in teaching here, if you read the gospel of Matthew 13 and what Matthew says about this then we know that Jesus is talking about four different kinds of hearts here that are going to hear the Word of God.

The first individual that hears is an individual that is just like the seed that has fallen by the wayside. The seed that was falling upon a path that had been trodden upon, a path that had been walked upon, a path that had been packed down was falling upon hard hearts. There are folks and some comes occasionally here, that their hearts are very hard. The Word of God is preached and taught. They have been taught maybe by their families, maybe by different individuals, maybe by some co-worker. They have heard the Word of God over and over again but it is just like throwing seed out on concrete out here; it just does not go anywhere. It does not affect them whatsoever.

In most every church, not every church, you will find someone in that church—sometimes maybe more than one—that comes to that church, that have been faithful to that church sometimes for many, many years. They give their money and do a lot of different things, but yet it seems as though the Word of God has no bearing upon them. It does not do anything for them. That is sad to see. Folks that listen to the Word of God and it is preached and taught. Something that was so valuable was being thrown out here on something that was so very hard and it had no effect on their lives. We know that when they heard it, because their hearts were hard, the enemy came quickly and snatched the seed away and it was gone. There are people like that in our churches and in the world today that are very heard-hearted people.

The next one we talked about was the seed that fell in stony ground, “…where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth…But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.” We talk about folks that have heard the Word of God. These folks here are on stony ground as we said in the land of Israel and Palestine there is all kinds of limestone everywhere. There is limestone everywhere. The stony heart is very emotional people. You have seen people that came to church and they heard the Word of God and they got so excited. They came to the altar. They made a profession of faith. They are always the ones that for a short time, you see them very enthusiastic.

I have seen them here in our congregation and brag about how enthused they were and how they were just on fire and things were just going great and a month later, you don’t see them anymore. They may say Amen for awhile. They may sing in the choir for awhile. They may be happy for awhile, but people that are very emotional many times, don’t have much depth many times. Don’t misunderstand, there are emotions in serving Jesus Christ, but someone that is always hoping and hollering; we have seen it many different churches that is always just hoping and hollering and never will just sit and listen to the Word of God, they always have something to say. They always have something to add. Many times those folks do not have any spiritual depth about them. They will endure for awhile, but as soon as a persecution arises then they are up and gone.

Because they had no depth, the sun raises up, they ground dries out, and that which sprang up quickly is dried up, scorched or withered away. As you read what Jesus said about that, when persecutions arise in people’s lives, those who are very emotional, when persecutions arise, sometimes it is things that are wrong in their lives. Then when they hear someone preach or teach something that is contrary to the way that they are living then they get offended and we don’t see them anymore. I have had folks right here at this church like that. I have had people come and say preacher, is it okay for me to do this. Then I say, you know better than that. You know that is absolutely dead wrong. Then that fellow says it that you speaking, or is that God speaking? I said it is in the Bible and if I am repeating to you what is in the Bible then that is what God is saying. If it is sin then it does not matter who says it necessarily. If it is the Word of God—if a bird came along and say what we are doing is wrong and we can prove it by the Word of God then we need to listen to it.

We go on and talk about the seed that fell among the thorns. Do you remember that we talked about the farmer who plowed up his ground and turned the ground under? It probably looked good on the surface. He did not go out here and sow his seed in a field that had all kinds of thorn bushes already growing in it. The thorns had been turned under. They were just lying under the surface. As they came along scattering the seed, some of the seed fell where the thorns were at. “…and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit…”

We know that there are many folks that are involved in a lot of things. We talked about that a couple of nights ago. When we do get saved, there are things that we do need to get rid of. There are things that we need to cut loose. There are things that I used to do that I don’t do anymore. There are things that we just need to get rid of.

These first three individuals that we talked about, they never did get saved because they yielded no fruit and the acid test for a Christian is if they are bearing fruit. If we don’t bear any fruit, then it is evident fact that we never did get saved. That is the Bible.

This individual hears the Word of God, but not does he hear the Word of God, but he has all kinds of other things growing here in his life. He wants to make Christianity just one more activity that he has got. If we want to live for Jesus Christ, then He will be first in our lives or He will not be in our lives. Now we may do different things, I know that we have to work and I know that we have to do different things but he talking about an individual here that is not willing to clean out his heart. He hears the Word of God. He knows what the Word of God says. He knows what God is expecting out of him but he likes what he is doing. He likes the sin that he is committing. Therefore, he wants to take this seed and just let it grow or put it in his heart with everything else that is in there but it does not work. The world will choke the life out of an individual if we don’t clean our selves up. There are things that I can quit. We always says, Lord, Please help me.

Sometimes in life we pray and ask God to do things for us that we actually can do for ourselves. Years ago I used to eat certain things that would absolutely kill me when I would eat them. I prayed and said God, don’t let me eat this anymore. You know that is a stupid prayer. God did not make me eat it. God did not make do those things that I knew was going to make me vomit. God did not make me do that. I did. We can use that in a lot of things in our life. There are many things in life that we could straighten up ourselves if we would just do it. We pray and ask God to help us. However, God is not going to help us do anything that we can do for our self. If we are going to live for Jesus Christ; He will help us do those things that I cannot do for myself, those things that are beyond me, and those things that are beyond my reach. God will help us with that. Don’t think that many of these things that we pray for many times in my own life have been stupid…sometimes we need to just grow up.

We used to have an old hoe at the house and it had a blade on it about that long, and we called it a grubbing hoe. We need to take the old grubbing hoe that we would go out and chop down sprouts with and we need to take that to our hearts sometimes. We need to dig down real deep, and get rid of the things that are in our hearts; those that we can get rid of our self. God does not make us do a lot of things that we say God does. We need to dig down real deep and we need to take those things and get them out of our life.

If our people prayed about a lot of different things [there is nothing wrong with praying—don’t misunderstand.] Many things that we ask God to do He is not going to do because we can do things for ourselves.

Peter in prison

Acts 12

5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

6 And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.

7 And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him , and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.

8 And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.

9 And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision.

When Peter was in Jail and he was between two prisoners. Do you remember the church that was actually in Mark’s mother’s house? They were there praying and do you remember what happens. The angel comes along and wakes up Peter. He loosens that shackles that were on him. Peter could not loosen the shackles. The angel also told him to put on his shoes and get his coat on. The angel could have done that but Peter could do that himself. The angel says get your shoes and get your coat on because we are living here. The angel could have done that but he didn’t because Peter could do that. We know that the angel just led him on out and we know that he was delivered from there. I can put my shoes on. I don’t need to pray and ask God to put my shoes on for me. I don’t need to pray and ask God to put my coat on for me.

We get shackled up sometimes and we get bound up sometimes. Sin does that. We allow sin to enter into our lives a lot of times and we participate in sin willing with our eyes wide open knowing that what we are doing is wrong and it shackles us. It puts handcuffs on us. I cannot get out of that and you can’t either. I can ask God to forgive me and He’ll cleanse me and He’ll break the chains of the handcuffs, but if you go back tomorrow and do the same thing that you are doing today, you are living on very dangerous ground. You need to watch what you are doing because you are going to get into a place that you will not want to get in sometime.

Lazarus

Do you remember when Lazarus was dead? He had been in the grave four days. Jesus comes to where they are at. There are all kinds of mourning going on. Jesus says where have you laid him. They say he is here but he has been dead four days. When He gets out there to where Lazarus is at He tells the crowd to roll the stone away. They could roll away the stone, but they could not raise Lazarus from the dead.

If we would just do the things in our own Christian life that we could do, that God expects us to do; we would see some great things happen in our lives.

Do you think this is a great thing here when Peter is brought out of prison? Do you think Peter to this day could remember that? Do you think Lazarus could remember the day that Jesus raised him from the dead? Do you think all those folks that were around the tomb that day who heard Jesus say roll away the stone. Do you think they could remember that? I’ll guarantee you they can.

Many times we don’t see God do things; it is not God’s fault. It is because He asked us to put our shoes on, put our coats on and follow Him. However, we make all kinds of excuses as to why we can’t do that. If He tells me to roll away the stone then I can roll away the stone. He is not going to tell me to do anything that I cannot do. Many times we don’t see God do anything in our life because we just don’t do the things that we know we needed to do and when we start doing the things that we know that we can do then we can see God do some great things that we cannot do.

That is very basic Bible teaching, but if you will practice it; it will make a big difference in your life. We don’t like to say Amen on that because that is going to make us change our life. We don’t like to do that. We will say Amen on a lot of things but when it comes down to having to change the way that we are living or what we are doing, we don’t Amen that.

8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.

Some of it fell upon good ground and yielded fruit. When you read that in the Greek, it will tell you that it fell upon good ground. Remember that it is the same seed that fell by the wayside. It is the same seed that feel upon the stony ground and the same seed that fell among the thorns. The seed fell upon good ground; it yielded fruit, sprung up and increased. That tells us that the fruit that had sprung up, it yielded fruit and it continued on yielding fruit. In other words, it was a continuous process that was happening; the seed that fell upon good ground, it sprung up and yielded fruit. It kept on yielding fruit.

Do you think Christian people do that?

We talked a few weeks ago about bearing fruit. It has been a week or two, but we talked about bearing fruit and what that really meant. If we are out here sowing and reaping, if we are out here telling people and working to get people saved; the Bible talks about Paul some watered plants but God gives the increase; when some of us will water and some of us will plant then we know that God will bless us. When we are out here working in that aspect of things then we are yielding fruit. When we are out here working in the harvest and trying to get people to come in then we know that the Bible says we are yielding fruit. When we take of our money and give according to what the book tells us to do then we are yielding fruit. We can go on and on with that.

8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred

Here on the good ground, the hearers were people that heard; they were good ground, and they brought forth fruit. We know that people that bear forth fruit, Christian fruit, Biblical fruit; we know that they are saved. However there are different degrees here of productivity.

Everybody wants to go to heaven. Is there anybody in here that don’t want to go to heaven? I didn’t see a hand go up anywhere. Everybody wants to go to heaven. Did you ever stop to think about what that we need to be doing, even though we are on our way to heaven? This is not to ensure that we are going to go to heaven, because my works is not going to ensure me going. I’m going because by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it’s a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. I’m not going to heaven because I have done some kind of a work like that. I’m going to heaven because of the grace of Almighty God and so are you. Do you think it really matters whether you are doing anything or not doing anything? What does it matter to you whether you are bringing forth 30, 60 or a 100? What does it matter? You are going to heaven, what does it matter?

It does matter.

We make the statement that we are on our way to heaven. Preacher I’m ready to go. I’m on my way. I’m not perfect. I have got a few skeletons in my closet. There are some things that I am working on. We make those statements a lot. In some cases, it is true. However, our fruit bearing and our faithfulness while we are here on planet earth is going to have direct bearing on us while we are here and all those around us. Also, it is going to have a direct effect one day when we get to the judgment seat of Christ. One day our faithfulness here and the rewards that are going to be passed out at the judgment seat of Christ, whether we are bearing 30, 60 or 100; is going to depend upon the faithfulness that we have exercised in bearing fruit. We don’t like to think about rewards—we like to think about them for good and I’m going to get a whole bunch of it—but if we have to pay them, we don’t like that. Rewards are something that scripture speaks a lot about. The rewards that we are going to receive have nothing to do with our eternal state. When we get to heaven, the faithfulness that we are going to be rewarded for—and there is going to be a time for that—but when we get to our eternal home, there is not going to be people reigning over five cities and people reigning over ten cities as there are during the millennium.

If you will read the Bible, you will find out in I Corinthians 3, things that we do in life as Christian people; Paul compares to wood, hay and stubble.

12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

A lot of the works that we do today in our Christian life that we think are so great; Paul compares them to wood, hay, and stubble. He also compares some of them to precious metals and things like that. He says that every man’s work is gong to be tried by fire. You can take wood, hay, or stubble and when you put it to the fire test, it burns up. Things that we do, that God never asked us to do, the ventures that we have went on that God has never sent us on; messages that we preached, songs that we sung, our participation in different ministries; of which God never led us to do; they are wood, hay, and stubble and they are going to get burnt up.

If God is the one that owns it all, if God is the one that sent His Son to die for us, if God is the one that has saved me and I belong to Him; He purchased me with His own blood and I belong to Him, then how do you think that He is going to reward me if I am not faithful to Him. It is not going to happen.

There are going to be a lot of things that when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ that when the tests come is going to burnt up. Everybody sitting here tonight has done things that they should not have done. Or done things that may not have been wrong things; it might not have been some horrible sin, but we all have done things that God has not asked us to do. We are not going to be rewarded for those things.

Luke 19

12 He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.

13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.

14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.

15 And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.

16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.

17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.

18 And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.

19 And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.

20 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:

21 For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.

22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

23 Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?

24 And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds.

When you read the book of Luke 19, we know that He gives us a parable there about a fellow that the kingdom has been received and he calls his servants and he begins to give them some pounds and he says you occupy this until I come. The word "occupy" means "to trade or to use." He comes back later on and he calls his servants in. The first guy says thy pound has gained thee five pounds. Well done, thou good and faithful servant you have been faithful over few things and the Lord says be thou over five cities. The next fellow came along and says thy pound has gained thee ten pounds. He is told that’s great you are going to be over ten cities.

If you read in Revelation 1, you will find out that the Bible tells us that we are going to priests of God and of Christ and we are going to reign with Him.

5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

If you go over to chapter five He says we are going to be kings and priests and we are going to reign on the earth.

9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

If you go over to Revelation 20, you will find out that we are going to priests and kings and we are going to reign with Him a thousand years upon planet earth.

6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

If you read what He told this disciples one time in [Luke 22] towards the end of that chapter, they were discussing who was going to be the greatest and He told about a lot of different things there. He says guys, let me tell something, you are wondering about who is going to be the greatest but you need to understand that you guys one day are going to be sitting upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.

27 For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.

28 Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.

29 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;

30 That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

If you go to I Corinthians 6, when the big racket was going on at Corinth where people were suing one another. Christian people were suing one another. Don’t you guys know that you are going to judge the world? Don’t you know that you are going to judge angels? You are going before the ungodly here, don’t you know that you are going to sit in judgment one day.

1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?

2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

What I am saying is that our faithfulness here today, is going to determine the position that we are going to hold during the millennium.

We are going to leave here one day in the rapture. I don’t know when that is going to happen. The Lord Himself is going descend from heaven with a shout with a voice of the arch angel and trump of God and we are going to leave here. All saved people are going to be gone. The tribulation period begins. We know that there are going to be a lot of people saved during the tribulation people. This is not people that are now sitting in church pews, not people that have sat and listened to the gospel preached and taught. Not those people. The Bible says that God is going to send them a strong delusion that they might believe a lie and be damned. There are going to be people all over this world that is going to hear the gospel of the kingdom and they are going to repent. There is going to be great multitude from every nation and every kindred every tongue and every people. The Bible says that in the book of Revelation 7. We know that. There is probably going to be more people saved during that seven year period of time than since Pentecost up until the rapture takes place, probably.

9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

The rapture takes place. The tribulation begins. The middle tribulation begins; the battle of Armageddon is going last 3 1/2 years. It begins at the end of the seven year period of time. We know that Jesus is coming back. Revelation 19 coming from heaven riding upon a white horse. He has an army riding with Him. He is dressed in clean and white linen. Those who are following after Him are also riding upon white horses. They have linen on clean and white. That is you and me coming back to planet earth. He is going to come back and judge nations.

11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

When you read Matthew 25, He is talking about He is going to come back and judge nations. Do you remember Him preaching about the goats and the sheep, sitting the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left? That judgment is judgment of nations not judgment of individuals. Sheep nations and goat nations are going to be judged. We are going to be assisting Jesus in the judgment of these nations.

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

I want you to understand that it does matter and it will matter to you; it may not matter to you today, you might say preacher I’m going to heaven and all this other stuff I don’t care about. However, there is coming a day that you will care, you will wished had of—instead of bearing 30, you will wished that it would have been 60, and instead of 60 you will wished it would have been a 100. In other words, there is going to come a day that we will wish we would have worked harder than we worked. There is going to be a day that we are going to wish that we would have occupied or traded with the abilities and traded with the things that God has given us to use; there is going to be a day that we will wished that we would have done that. Here is why it matters. It matters now because as we are more obedient to God as we are more faithful to God then our Christian lives are much happier. Our lives are filled with more joy. We experience more blessings of God. We get more intimate with Him. We will get closer to Him so that when He speaks we will hear His voice. You know that if you have been saved a week. The more we do those things that He asked us to do then the closer that we get to Him.

It will also have a direct bearing upon the happiness of my family. Husbands and wives would not fight near as much if they lived right. Husbands and wives would not sit around bicker, moan and cry if they would live right. If they would just straighten up and live for Jesus as they should then their husband or wife may not be such a bad person.

The biggest problem that we have in the church today—I’m talking about the church as a whole, not just Campbell Chapel—is that the attack that we are seeing is upon marriages. So many people that we are seeing are so immature that they don’t know how to deal with it. They only way they know how to deal with it is just bicker, fight, complain and moan and always at one another. Then after awhile, she will go this way and he will go that way and the kids get caught in the middle. God is not in that. I don’t care how you want to cut it. I don’t care what you want to say. There is something wrong somewhere when two individuals who say that they are Christians but they go different directions. Living and saying I’m a Christian are two different things.

Someone asked me the other day. Did you ever think about divorce? No. I thought about murder sometimes but not divorce. That is really true. We do think things sometimes and we don’t always get along. I’m glad this house is 100 feet long up here, she can get on one end of it and I can get on the other end of it. No. We don’t throw things. There are no holes in the walls. We don’t scream and holler at one another. I holler sometimes just to be hollering.

Every marriage has problems. Every marriage has issues that we have to deal with. When we live as we should live being faithful to God in exercising the abilities and the gifts that He has given us to use, if we will do all those things then when problems come in marriages she can get her head straight and I can get my head straight and we can come to a mutual agreement that we love the Lord and we are not going to allow these little petty things to disrupt our relationship with Him. We hug and kiss and go on. That has worked for 30 some years. Have there been days that we haven’t talked? Absolutely! There have probably been three or four days that we haven’t talked. There have been times that I would have been a whole lot better off if there would have been three or four days that I would have just kept my mouth shut.

The big deal today is that everybody has to have the last word.

If you love Jesus Christ then He’ll help you control your tongue and He’ll help you control your temper; He’ll you to say I’m sorry. Not only will it have a direct bearing on us, but it will also have direct bearing on our relationships with our husbands and wives, as well as, with our children. It will have direct bearing on our relationship on those that we come in contact with. It just snowballs.

Let’s be faithful to Him. It matters today. And it will continue to matter until the day that we go to our eternal home. It will continue to matter.

Let’s bring forth fruit. Let’s get rid of the junk in our lives. Let’s take the hoe and chop out some weeds. Let’s get rid of some things that are sucking the spiritual life out of us that we need to get rid of. Some of us here have some things that we could get rid of. We could pray until our hair falls out to ask God to help us. We need to quit doing it. There are some things that we absolutely need to quit doing and there are some things that we need to start doing. God is not going to help me do something that I can do for myself. But if I do those things that I can do for myself, then God will bless me and bless us in a tremendous way.

You get to choose. It is your choice.

We can be grumps. We can be people that don’t bring forth any fruit. We can be people that can do some great things for God if we want to. Or we can just go through life never being happy, never having a good word to say about anything, never doing anything that brings glory to God, and we wake up one day, sure we may go to heaven; I want to be happy going.

I know that heaven is a real place, but I want to be happy gong there. I want to be happy in the trip. God wants us to be happy in the trip.

If you need to pray now would be a good time to pray. There might be a need to have some repenting done. There might be some things that w need to clean up in our lives. There might be some things that we need to leave here at the altar. There are some things that need to be left here. Let’s leave them here.

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