2024-06-09PM- Be Not Slothful

The speaker is grateful to be in the church and acknowledges the pastor for allowing them to minister. They express gratitude for the church and its growth but emphasize the need to not become complacent. They believe that God has placed them in their community to be a light and reach out to those who are lost. They share stories of their church's journey and the importance of taking the message of Jesus to others. The speaker warns against complacency and laziness in their walk with the Lord, using scriptures to emphasize the importance of being active and not wasting time. They encourage the congregation to draw near to God and not fall into routines or distractions. They remind everyone that they all have a role in sharing the gospel and should not be idle. The speaker concludes by urging everyone to be active witnesses for God and not allow anything to hinder their commitment to Him. Well, I'm glad to be in the house of the Lord tonight. Thank you for the pastor allowing me to come and minister. Thank the Lord for all he's doing. Praise God. And our life, my life, and your life, and our church, praise God. I thank God for our church. I thank you for what he's doing for us and helping our church to grow, but I don't want to get complacent, do you? No, I don't want to get to a, what do you call it, put it on cruise control. You know, we just do things out of habit. I thank God has placed us here in Clarkston, Kentucky. I believe that God's put us here to be a light, as our name of our church is, a gospel light. I know there's other churches in the area and that there are neighbors to us, but I do feel that God has placed us as missionaries here on this corner to reach the lost and those that are cold and indifferent. I mean, I remember when we first got over here before we even transformed it into a church. We was in the middle of taking things out and gutting it all out and all that. I had people stop and say, I heard y'all going to be a church. What kind of church are you going to be? You know, and I'd tell them everything, but we need some churches in this area. You know, so I mean, that just tells me there's confirmation of what I feel that God has put us here to do, praise God. And I thank God for that, for the work. I feel honored to be a part of it, praise God. And I thank God for that. And I thank God that God has called you to enter this ministry, praise the Lord. I know we have a great pastor. I've known Brother Tim and Sister Carrie now for better than 30 years, I guess. I'm just thinking of our kids and her kids, their kids were all little when we all raised up and he was talking about Brother Wooten and them. They were pioneers on the homeschooling thing and we got into the homeschooling and we were kind of like the first ones, I guess, along with the other first ones when they first started in the state of Kentucky, how to go about it. And so I thank God, you know, for people that God places in certain places to help us along. And to say that, to say this, God has placed us here, that we can do a work for the Lord. And we're all still new. I was just thinking on the way coming into church. We've been here better than a year now and we've still got a lot of things to do. We've accomplished a lot. Look around. Just look at all the things that have been done and the work, the labor that we've put in. How much more now? Our pastor had mentioned that we were getting to the things where we had finalized getting the carpet put in, getting some of the trim and all that stuff in. And now we're transitioning to the fullness of the ministry. We got our sign out there in the yard, telling people who we are, what we're about. And we've had some that stopped in and everything, but I don't want to get complacent. I don't want to get to a routine. We've got churches around, you know, around us, but I feel that we are pioneering here in Clarkston for those that maybe don't know nothing about the Lord. I mean, I've ran across people in the jails and I'm no doubter that there are some out in the world that are not behind the bars, that have never darted into a church house. But how are they going to know Jesus unless you take it to them? The Lord says for us to go out into the highways and the byways and to compel. So we have an obligation, don't we? All of us do. I thank God for that obligation. If you want to turn with me tonight over to Proverbs 19 and verse 15. The Lord laid this on my heart around Thursday night. I was called in to preach at the jail in Root County. My normal is every other Thursday, but they asked me to fill in for a brother that wasn't able to get there. And I went and ministered what the Lord had laid on my heart. Actually Brother Mike, what I showed you in Ezekiel there that I ministered to the guys. And one of the guys opened up to me about some things in his personal life that really just struck out to me. And the Lord laid this thought here on my heart. And I don't want us all to get complacent. It is important from young to the old that we don't get complacent in our walk for the Lord. That we live for Him. It's like that song, I'm running for my life. If anybody asks you what's the matter with me, I tell them I'm saved, sanctified, the Holy Ghost fills, sanctified, baptized. We need to have that fire in our life, in our soul, in our mind. And this here scripture here for the reading, it's in Proverbs 19 verse 15, it says, Slawfulness casteth into a deep sleep, and the idle soul shall suffer hunger. And you can be seated. I thank God for the Word. I want another scripture here, I want to read here too, it's in Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse 18, By much slawfulness the building decayeth, and their idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. And I got to looking these words up about slawfulness. And then I looked up the word idle, you know, being idle. And idle means, and I looked in the Webster Dictionary and it meant waste of time. Doing nothing. And then it says, slawfulness is sluggish or lazy. And I don't think we've got anyone in this church that is slawful or idle, at least I don't think we do. I feel like God gave this to me tonight to help warn our church not to get into complacency. Not to get into that place that the devil wants to work at our mind and think to tell you that you're not capable of doing anything. Praise the Lord, I fight that battle myself. Come on. I mean, we all, how many have, like our little sister said a while ago, that the devil would come to our mind and to battle things in her mind. What about you? I mean, we all battle these things, praise the Lord, that we have to overcome. That we have to say no to. Things that we have to endure as a good soldier for the Lord, praise God. But the word slawfulness means to be sluggish or lazy. For me, I want to draw near to the Lord for my own personal life. And our pastor preached here a while back on drawing nigh to God. And that has radiated with me in such a manner that not only do I say I want to draw closer to God and God draws closer to me, I am going to draw closer to the Lord. I'm making it an absolute purpose in my life to draw closer to the Lord. It's easy to fall back into a rhythm or into a routine and do this and do that. But you've got to push yourself out of them routines because it's easy to fall into them. It's easy to let everyday life take place of some things that we do that God has purposed in our hearts. God has purposed our church. Every individual in here, from the least of the little ones all the way up to the elder, God has placed us in this church that we could be workers for God. Yes, some of you may not stand behind this pulpit. That's right. Some of you may not get up and sing all the time, but you have a testimony that you could tell somebody about Jesus, praise the Lord. And with that, you have anointing with it. Praise God that the Lord will just stir up the gift within you. That's what Paul told Timothy in the Bible. He said, stir up the gift that is within you. Oh, I tell you, I want to stir it up. Brother Camden, I want to stir that gift up. I want to remember, praise the Lord, sometimes in my mind, I have to zero down when everything is coming to my mind, when I'm trying to listen to the preaching or listen to the singing. Sometimes when I'm listening to other people's testimonies, I'm trying to zero in what they're saying and get a picture in my mind of what they're saying about what God has done for them. And then I have to really shut everything else out of my mind. Can you do it? Yes, you can do it. You can. You've got to choose to do it. That's right. You've got to choose to serve the Lord and say, Lord, I am not going to allow anything to stand in my way. I'm not going to allow anything to be a weight to me. I'm not going to allow anything to be a hindrance to me. But I'm going to take Your Word and I'm going to apply it to my life. I don't want to be slothful. I don't want to be lazy. Praise the Lord. I mean, we're going to stand before God one day and give Him the account of our life. We're going to give Him the account and He'll walk back and say, what about that time right there when you had opportunity? You know, redeem the time. We've got to redeem it. I'm not saying that we're robots. I don't think we're that way. We're all individual people here in this here church. Some are, you know, are called into the ministries of different sorts. Some have got better talents than I could ever have in certain areas. But I thank God tonight that God has called you to do something for God. Sister Christi, you've made mention many times about testifying to people that you work with. I've never thought, I've never forgotten that, how that you've taken your ability and you've taken that and you've talked to people about the Lord to them. And some of you, I think, Brother Joseph, you said just the other day that that guy that you talked to, the biggest part of that shift that you was on, I never forgot that, how that you focused on that man's soul. You know, things like that, that we need to be not idle. No, we don't need to be flawful. But God crosses people before our pathways that we could be a witness to them. Or sometimes, I don't want them just to see how I dress. I don't want them just to see that, Brother Tim. I want them to see the living God working and breathing and living and abiding in me. And I tell you, I want him to be active, praise the Lord. I don't want him just to be hanging around and not do nothing. And this is not to try to be funny or nothing like this, but I looked it up. And have any of you ever heard of that animal that hangs in the tree called a sloth? I think it's what it is. Have you ever seen one of them? When they're crossing a road, it's just like they're in slow motion. Ain't that what they are sometimes? I don't want to get that away. I'm running for my life, praise the Lord. If anybody asks you, what's the matter with me? You tell them, I'm saved, sanctified, Holy Ghost filled, fire baptized. Let's act a way of this that we feel it, praise the Lord. I want to live for God, praise the Lord. And the Bible says, Proverbs 18, verse 9, it says, He also that is slothful in his works is brother to him that is a great waster. And what is an idle person? A waster, a waste of time. I don't want to waste time. Redeem that time. Praise the Lord, get going, get with it. Get at it, praise the Lord. Sometimes you've got to get down into the trenches. Sometimes you've got to get down where the nitty-gritty of things is. And sometimes you say, well, I don't have this, but I can't do this. I can't do that. Some people say, well, I can't sing. People will say that. Well, I can't sing. Well, you've got a testimony. Tell them about what Jesus did for you. Tell them how He lifted you up out of the ashes of sin. And He put your feet on a solid rock. Washed you clean with His precious blood that we abide in Him, praise the Lord. Young people, remember what Jesus did for you, praise the Lord. Remember what He did for you, buddy? Praise God, I love it when I zeroed in on that. When He would get up and He's testifying, praise God. That's refreshing, praise God, to hear a young person like that get up and testify for the Lord. We need to cultivate it, praise the Lord. We need to let Him see what we are doing in our life too. But if He sees complacency in us, if He sees idleness in us, if all He sees is us being slothful in our own personal walk, praise the Lord, then what are we telling Him? We're telling Him that it's OK to do this. We influence. Brother, I think you said something about it. Yeah, I think you said something about how we can influence other people in our life. And we do influence people. If I'm going to influence somebody, either to the negative or to the good, I want to influence and say, Brother Ron, he's a crazy person. He is weird. Man, I'll tell you, he's the old guy, but man, he's way out there on the limb sometimes. That's OK. I want to be that way if that's what God wants me to be. I want to tell... When I go into the jail service, you know, is it OK if I just tell you how I do jail? When I go into the jail service, Brother Tim, I started out just kind of like this. You get to know everybody. All of y'all know me in here. Everybody, Sister Anna, I think you're beginning to know me, I think. You know, you've not known me long enough. I've seen you over the years, but really didn't know you. But I'm just an old guy that loves the Lord. I was young, but now I'm old, but yet I love the Lord still, praise the Lord. I don't have time to slow down, praise God. I don't know what tomorrow may hold for me, Brother Mike. I'm so glad that God has called our church, Brother Mike, into the ministry, and Brother Camden into the ministry, praise the Lord, Brother Joel into the ministry, Brother Jameson into the ministry, and Brother Camden and all of y'all into the ministry. And what about some of you other ones here? What kind of ministry has God laid on your heart, praise God? I'm talking about being idle or being slothful tonight. I don't think God wants us to be slothful. Brother, little brother, God's got a call for you, isn't He? That's right. He's got a call for you little ones here, praise the Lord. When I would go to the jail, the first time I ever went to jail, I was underage. I went to Shelbyville Jail, jail service, with Brother Don Pollard. I was 17 years old, and I went to the jail service. He got me into it, and when I went in, they didn't have a room where they'd take you to now to go in to do the jail service. We went out to where the bars were. We sat out in the hallway, and we had church looking through the bars to them guys. I mean, I was young, and it caught hold of me, praise God, that I wanted to be a witness for the Lord. I'm not a deep, intellectual person, and not knowledgeable in a lot of things, but I can tell you one thing I do know. I know that my Savior saves. I know my Redeemer lives. I know He washes away sins, praise the Lord. He cleanses us. He changes a person's life from dark to light. Praise the Lord, He knows how to transform. I do know that, and I can tell people about that, praise God, how that Jesus can make a difference, praise the Lord. But I tell people in the jail the same thing. I tell them. I talk to people, Brother Tim, that don't even go to church, don't know anything about it. Sometimes them guys just to get out of the pod or out of their jail cell, come to the church service. You know, that's a great opportunity. I've had them handcuffed in shackles, laying against the wall and everything just to get out of their cell, just to listen to the Gospel. Even if they didn't want to hear it or not, they got to hear it, praise the Lord. I'm thankful that God will do that, praise the Lord. Hallelujah, I thank God for that. And going to the nursing homes, praise the Lord, doing them services out there with them people. Some people think because them people are elderly that they don't have a mind or don't have a heart sometimes because they've come to a place where they tend to forget things, you know, Brother Tim, and they have health issues going on. And you know what? I know they do. We've done nursing home service for now for, I don't know, 40 years better. I've lost track of it. But you know what? Them people are human beings that need the Lord. It's like I heard somebody say, they're on the end of their stretch. And they don't know how much more years they've got, Brother Austin, that we needed to reach them. Praise the Lord, I've seen God reach them from up to 90 some years of age. Brother Tim, you've been there with us when we saw them. Praise the Lord that God reached down and saved them richly and just a few months later they passed away. Oh, my friend, let's don't be slothful. Let's don't be idle in our work. Let's be due diligence in our studying and in our prayers, talking to the God said, Lord, what would you have me to do? What would you have me to do? Sister Annie, you ever thought about that? Lord, what would you have me to do? Lord, who can I testify to? Who can I call up and say, hey, Jesus loves you? It seems like it's out of term to say something like that, ain't it? In this day and time we're living in. I heard something this morning, something about truth. You said something about truth, I think, in the Sunday school. There's a sign over at E-Town, one of the realtor signs up there, it says, walk in your own truth. No, that's wrong. That is wrong. I want to stop there and tell them, take that down, because there's only one truth. There's only one. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No reason we have so much immorality in our land, in our days. Because of complacency, what we allow, what things are allowed in our homes, what things we allow in our minds, we've got to be careful, brothers and sisters, that you are on the forefront. When we went to other churches and we sat there in the pew, we watched others do the services. We watched others do the singing. We watched others do the preaching and testifying. And now God has called Gospel Life here on the corner in Clarkston. And you know what? He's telling me that we, you and me, are having to step up now. And we've got to be responsible. We've got to be responsible. We should not be complacent in our life. Oh, let me tell you something tonight. Brother, our pastor said this here a while back. He said, we're going to be getting certain things done, but he always reminded us not to get complacent in our routines. Look, I have an older people that I'm learning at now. As I get older, my father-in-law, he's a man of routine. I mean, at night times, on the side of his little nightstand there, he'd have his little handkerchief set out there, Brother Tim. And he would line all his chains off one little row on top of that handkerchief. And then I think he would take his pocket knife and lay it right beside of it. And then he had something else he'd lay there. I can't remember. He'd lay there every night. It was laid in the same. And routine was good for him. I remember that. I remember when we would go visit their house, when he had a routine. He'd go to the door. And he would go over there, and he'd lock that door. He'd open it up, shut it, open it up, shut it, open it up, and shut it. He did it I don't know how many times. I'm going to say, why is he doing that? I mean, I'll just say it to myself. But it was something for him that he set in his mind. Praise the Lord. Routine is good to a degree. But I'll tell you one thing he had. He had a prayer life. My father-in-law, I call him like a pastor of a family because he had a prayer life. He led by an example. He led by his way of living. Praise God. He had a dedication. He had a routine when he went into prayer. Let me tell you something. He didn't have a, oh, you know, wake me up. He said, I'll be out here in about 30 minutes. He never did do that. Sometimes he'd be in there for an hour, hour and a half, maybe two. And he'd pray for I don't know how many times throughout the day. And then at nighttime, he went in there, and he was there for a long time. Let me tell you something, but he was dedicated. He didn't want nothing to hinder him from getting his walk with the Lord. We need to do that. We need to learn how to let nothing stand in the way of our salvation. Not situations, not problems, not things of this life should never hinder us from getting closer to the Lord. He said, well, Brother Ron, I'm saved. Yeah, I am too. I'm saved too. But we can also be swayed if we're not careful in our daily walk with God. That's why it's so prevalent and so important that we read our Bibles and we pray and spend time talking to the Savior, praise the Lord, and talking to Him. How are you ever going to know what God wants you to do unless you talk to Him? Let me tell you something. God wants you to know that if you'll talk to Him, He'll talk back to you. I've had people say, I've never heard the voice of the Lord. I said, well, how did you know to come to this church service tonight? I had a guy 57 years old in a jail service in Louisville County a year or so ago. He told me, he said, I've never gone to church. He said, I didn't. I didn't want to go. Didn't know anything about it and everything. And he said, I decided just to come out. I said, I don't think that. I think God put it on your heart to come out to be in that service. And that night, that man gave his heart to the Lord. Let me tell you something. God knows what people, what they need. But look, our pastor and brother, forgive me for using you for an example. There are some things that you've preached over the years that I've never forgotten. One of them was the standing in the gap. I don't know if you remember that preaching over the highway. You preached on it about standing in the gap. And I remember him talking about something about a fence or something was broken down at his father-in-law's place. And there were cows or something. And he wanted you to stand there. You stand in place where they would go into. And sometimes we've got to stand in the gap for somebody. You never know that you might be that very person that is standing in the gap. Brother Joe, you was there that night, that last week, talking to that young man. You was there for a purpose. God let y'all crossroads meet and everything. That's important. Praise the Lord. Sister Lindsay, you might be a crossroads or an important to your mama and daddy, you know, that helped them. Praise the Lord. They see something in you, say, she's got something that we ain't got. Maybe we need to draw closer to the Lord. And sister, your family, your family, you made mention of your family. And I'm not trying to take on nobody. I hope you don't think that. Because look, your family, you said he came in last weekend to see you. And you're the only one that, by understanding, is saved in your home. And you want to be a light to them and talk to them about the Lord. And brother on your job, I don't know how them other guys you work with, when you go out there on them telephone poles and all that stuff. And then in climate weather, you're out there and everything. And they look at you and everything. You're setting an example for them. Maybe you'll have an opportunity. Always look for that opportunity. Brother Mike, you're in different jobs now. I mean, you're doing all kinds of things. Praise the Lord. He's a multitasker. I've never heard of a man being a multitasker. I'm lucky if I can do one thing and do it right. Praise the Lord. But he's into different jobs, doing this and that and everything. But God's put him in a position to do things and be a witness and a light. Some of you, I'm not trying to pick on anybody. I'm just trying to warn us tonight not to get complacent. Not to get slothful. Don't get lazy. Don't get into that push the cruise button on the thing and just let it run and we just run along for the ride. Because what the Bible tells us to redeem the time that we're in. Praise God. Let me tell you, there's some more Scriptures here I want to read and get to it. I was praying about it today and I went on since Thursday. Oh, and it says in Proverbs 24, verse 30, it says, I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding. And lo, it was all grown over with thorns and thistles and had covered the face thereof. And the stone wall thereof was broken down. My, let me tell you something, broken down. He said, I went by the field of the slothful. And he said, I went by there and I saw that he observed there was a person, the writer who said, I observed that. Oh, I tell you, if you want to invite the devil into your life, get slothful. You want to invite things into your life, get idle. Don't do nothing. Come on. The guy Thursday night that testified to me in the service told me about some personal things in his life that happened that got him into jail. And they were some things that out in this world you would never thought, you never dreamed of 30 years ago would happen. He got on his computer and got going to sites that he didn't need to go to. And brother, he got idle. He had a lot of time on his hands. And he went places that he shouldn't have gone to. And lo and behold, what happened was the law was out there looking on the internet and caught him in places that he shouldn't have gone. And you know, brother, he's behind bars now for up to six years because of that. Because he went to places. He said, I just had a lot of time on my hands. And that touched my heart. Brothers and sisters, we need to shore up our souls. The Bible says to gird up the loins of our mind. Girding means to strengthen the things that are in our hearts and in our minds and in our walk with God. I mean, to study and to read is one thing, but then ask God, Lord, this cold and indifference I have, is it something that I'm doing? Or is it something that the devil's trying to put on me? Sometimes we just got to shake ourselves and say, Lord, I am going to go on for You. Remember what I said earlier? I am going to get closer to the Lord. We have to determine that in our hearts that we're going to get closer to Jesus. Brother Ken, that's what it's going to take. The Bible says to present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. And be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by what? The renewing of your mind. What's renewing mean? That means we've got to shore up things, don't we? We've got to shore our life up that we may serve God in the beauty of His love and His holiness and His Spirit and His joy, praise God, that we do the things that are pleasing to Him. Not everybody in this world is going to be pleasing to you. You're not going to please everybody in this world, but one thing you better do, you better be pleasing to the Lord. You better be pleasing to Him. Over in Matthew 25, it says in verse 14, it says, For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents to another two and to another one, to every man according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same and made them other five talents. Likewise, he that had received the two, he also gained other two. But he that had received the one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money. And after a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoned with them. You listen to that word, reckon, it means accountability. Praise the Lord. And so he had received five talents, came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, Thou deliverest unto me five talents. Behold, I have gained besides them five talents more. His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, Thou deliverest unto me two talents. And he said, Behold, I have gained two other talents. Besides them. And his Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed. And I was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth. And, Lord, there thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strawed. Thou oughtest, therefore, to have put my money to the exchangers, then that my coming I shall have received my own with usury. Oh, let me tell you something. Accountability. God has committed into our hands the gospel. All of us. Not just the preachers. Not just the singers. Not just the Sunday school teachers, but all of us. We are accountable. I've said something to you about the Lord put us here on this corner. We are accountable now. We've been accountable ever since we got saved in the Lord of our personal life. But now that God has placed us here, each one of us, and you are in the work of the Lord here, you too are accountable to the Lord. Praise God. And not to be slothful. Not to be lazy. Not to be idle. Listen, God doesn't want us to be idle. Praise God. Over in Matthew 12, it says, in Matthew 12, you want to turn with me? I'm trying to read as fast as I can on things. In verse 36. But I say unto you that every idle word that a man shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words that shall be justified, and by thy words that shall be condemned. God is telling us that we're going to be held accountable of our life. Brother Mike, I am so thrilled how God is using you, brother. Yes. And all you brethren in here. I sit back there and I listen. And brother Camden, I'm in awe with how God is using you. But don't get idle. Don't get slothful. Brother Camden, you get closer to the Lord. Get where the fire is. Praise the Lord. Don't get idle. You sisters in here that are workers in the church. These little ones here. You know, I know you're not able to get up and teach in school or whatever, but you can be a light to your peers next to you. That's right. Or if you're out, you can be a testimony. I've had when our children were small, people would come up to us and say, boy, your children are good mannered. You know, they'll tell you this and all that and everything. But I wanted them to let them know that I've got Jesus down in my soul. I remember when y'all got saved. Praise the Lord. God put that seed of that faith and that salvation in you, and he put that inside of you that you could be a light, that you could shine in this world that people could see Jesus. Ain't that what you want to be? Don't you want to be a light, a candle up on a hill that cannot be hid? Praise the Lord that you can be a scene of men. Praise the Lord. I've had in my lifetime, I've had people come up to me and say, you're different of people. And I was kind of afraid to ask them what he meant by different. You know, but then he would tell me about it. He said, you ain't like other preachers. You ain't like other people that, you know, this, this or that way. And I said, no. I said, I get to tell them about Jesus. Tell them, ain't that all of what it's about? Tell them about our Savior, how wonderful He is, how He reached way down below the bottom for you one night and raised you up, praise God, and put your feet on a solid rock. Praise the Lord. Been born again, transformed brand new, praise God, in heart, soul, mind, and body. Praise the Lord that we'll never be that old man again, praise the God, and that we're living and walking and breathing a brand new life, praise God. We don't go to the places we want to go, praise the Lord. We don't say the things we once said, praise the Lord, but we're living and we're abiding in the Lord. When I was a child, I spake as a child. But when I become a man, I put away childish things. That's right. Praise God, there's a time of maturity. And God is placing us in a mature role here at our church of accountability that we live for Him, praise God. It says in Luke 12, verse 48, But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes. But unto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more. But I would say, he that knoweth to do good and doeth it not is sin. And brothers and sisters here today, we know. It's not that we ain't had preaching here. I remember Brother Quentin said one time in a service, he said, our preaching got me back into church. You remember saying that, Brother Quentin? Brother, I mean, I tell you the black and white of things. I mean, salvation, it's heaven or hell, you've got to tell them. I've told them out there at the jails and at the nursing homes, the gospel is the same. It is the same that we have here at Gospel Light Holiness Church. It is the same gospel that we minister at the women's prison where they're going tonight at. And it's the same gospel that we preach at the jails. It's the same ones that we do at the nursing homes and whatever other venue that God will open up the door for. Maybe sometimes it might be one-on-one with somebody. That's why the Bible says to study, to show yourself approved unto God, a work that needeth not to be ashamed, but rightly divided in the Word of truth. I remember when I first got saved, I didn't know a whole lot about holiness. Honestly, I didn't. I came from a Baptist background. When I was a young boy, my grandma was an old-time Baptist. They shot their hair down, smoke in tongues, didn't know what it was, up in the hills of Kentucky, but they was Baptist. And I didn't know much about it. I'd never been in a Pentecostal church until one night. And scared about it, didn't know what it was, but I went back again. Have you ever been there? I have, I've been there. But when I got saved, I wanted more and more of that. I didn't want the fake stuff. I wanted the authentic, the real stuff that would sustain me in my life. And the last 50-some years of my life as a Christian, God has sustained me by the very Gospel that I got saved by. That's right. It ain't the church that I went to. It ain't the name over the church that saved me. But Sister Carrie, it's that same voice that you heard in that kitchen that told you to get down to pray, isn't it? That's right. It's the same voice that we hear that tells you to come under an altar and pray and talk to Him. Praise the Lord. I don't know about you, but I don't want to get so far, so complacent, so flawful or idle that I can't hear the voice of the Lord speak to me about my life. Sometimes we don't want to hear the bad things, and sometimes we don't want to be corrected, do we? But I'm going to tell you some corrections sometimes and some of the best antidotes sometimes if we'll take it to heart and say, yes, Lord, I've faltered. But help me, Lord, that I may do better in my life. Don't you want to do better for God? Praise the Lord. I want to be found pleasing. They sung that song tonight about when you get to heaven. Praise the Lord. I want to be found pleasing to the Lord. We are going to be held accountable of our life to the Lord. Not to Brother Tim. Not to Brother Ronnie. Not to Gospel Light Holiness Church. But you'll be held accountable of yourself to God. Praise the Lord. It says, for you are bought with a price. For glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And it says, this is a sacred treasure. Oh, Tim, to keep that which is committed to thy trust. Over in 1 Timothy 6.20. And then 1 Peter 4.10, and I'll be closing from this. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Don't get complacent tonight. But allow God, and I don't know of anyone in this church that's out of the way. I don't, Brother Tim, I don't. But God laid this on my heart to preach it. Maybe as a, I want to say a warning, maybe it is a warning, to allow us to know that we don't need to go let ourselves get complacent in this life. And get idle or slothful in our appointed things that God has got us to call us to do. Each one of us know what we need to do in the Lord. Somebody said one time, I think it was Brother Cheeks one time, says, how do you know when I'm in the will of God? How can I tell? He said, do you read your Bible? Does your Lord tell you to read the Bible? He said, yes, when you're in the will of God. I never forgot that. You're in the will of God. You read your Bible. You're in the will of God. You pray. You're in the will of God if you go to church. Forsake not the sin of yourselves together as you see that day approach. You're in the will of God when you steal away and have time to talk to the Lord one on one. Praise God. You're in the will of God when you listen to good homegrown gospel singing that really touches the soul to encourage the soul. You're in the will of God. Now, every song out there is in the will of God. I can tell you right now it's not. Some of them are out there just for the dollar. And that's right. I mean, men and wife will be listening to a song on the radio on my phone when it's hooked up to the car. And some songs, you can just tell that they're singing it. And then there's other ones you can tell that there's anointing behind it. And you'll know. You can detect. And brothers and sisters, we're held accountable of our life, where we're at. I'm going to ask everybody, if you would, if you'd stand. Brother Austin, can you come and get us a song? Praise the Lord. I want to open this altar up to you. Maybe you've not got that place where there's idleness in your life, but it's coming. There was a man named David, King David, in the Bible, a man of war, a man after God's own heart, Brother Tim. And one day, and him should have been out on the battlefield fighting, he stayed back, idle time. He went out on his balcony and saw over in the distance a woman bathing herself, and his temptation came. And him being an authority, a king, at that time, he could have his will. Thought he could, after he had committed the sin, thought he had it all covered up, no one know about it. But God noticed. He'd seen it and was disapproved with it. This is a man after God's own heart. That speaks volumes to me and us of how we need to be very alert in our life, over us. Praise God. Those temptations of trials, as they said in this service tonight, the devil comes to battle in our minds. Some of our greatest battles, Brother Mike, are in our minds. And it's what we allow to entertain us. That's just what we are down for if we're not careful. And it was David's downfall. David had a downfall. God forgave him of what he did wrong. But it costed him a lot. Sin will cost you a lot if you allow it. Please, take this as advice tonight in the Lord, to not to get slothful or idle in our daily walk with the Lord. And allow God to nurture you and let Him water and feed you. Praise God that you can grow up and you can bear fruit that others may see it. Praise God. And partake of it. And say, I don't know about you, but such and such lived such a life, had such a testimony, that they lived such a way that I wanted to be just like them. And brought them into a church house. Don't you want to live that way tonight? Oh, I want to live as close as I can to the Lord. That I can hear our Savior's breath breathing. Praise God, that's how close I want to get. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord, I want to live so close that I can put my arms around His neck if I could. Praise the Lord, that's how close I want to live. There is no wiggle room there for nothing else, praise the Lord. What about you tonight? As our brother sings, I want to invite you to come into the altar tonight. I want to invite all people to come into the altar tonight. Praise the Lord. Yes, Jesus. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.