26, to you first, God having raised up his servant, this prophet, Jesus, he sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from your what? Iniquities. But the Pharisees said, we don't want to hear it, right? So they didn't receive the blessing. What did they receive? A greater what? Condemnation as a result thereof. John would say this, Jesus didn't come in the world to condemn the world. He came in the world to do what? To save it. How would he save them? He would bless them. How would he bless them? He would turn them. What would he turn them from? Their iniquities. But who did he turn them to? Himself. Anything you want to give away Anything you want to give away up to what chapter 23? 23 he's got a lot in it 22 had a lot of good stuff in it 21 all this what Jesus getting close to the cross ain't he? Getting serious, huh? He's throwing out there the big words, isn't he? 23 24 you say Come on, blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Come on, Ms. Pack's looking at you funny. There you go, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. The news, the news, yeah. Where he was going on that, huh? They'll strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Was a camel lawfully legal for them to eat? Nah. You see, but they would consume that which was of grandness against the things of God, but they would strain out a little bitty old gnat. So you get the picture, right? How many of y'all ever had a gnat get in your coffee? Get in your teeth. Get in your mouth, huh? Them aggravating gnats, you know how you're outside on the porch and you're kind of swiping at them trying to get them off, especially over there by the river? They'll get only that and mosquitoes. But the emphasis is they will focus in on such the little minute things that aren't going to hurt you, but will do their best to try to, like a great python, swallow a camel. You know, or Komodo dragon eating him up. lamb or something like that, some lamb chops. You ever seen them when they eating them old alligators, swallowing that or whatever it is. They just taking big old bites or a big old bird catching him something and he can't get it down. You know you've seen those pictures before where a crane or something's got a hold of a frog and that frog's got a hold of the crane's neck and he's trying to swallow him and that frog's choking him, right? Well, that's the picture there. The idea of straining this out, you go the extra mile over that which is harmless, just irritating, but fooling around with. It's the picture of you won't deal with the plank in your eye, the log in your eye, but all you want to deal with is the speck in somebody else's eye. Remember what we said that is, that goes back to, you got things that you battle with, that bother you, but if you're not right with the Lord, when somebody tries to deal with that, which is bothersome to you, you get bothered by it. And that's the picture there. Remember that demoniac, when he fell down before Jesus and they cried out and said, oh son of God, what are you here for? Don't torment us now. They know torment was coming, Our judgment is sure, it's just not right now. So leave us alone. Don't bother us while we bother this man. Well, that's the same spirit of that demonic influence of darkness of the idea that he was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount when he was referring to judging one another and you're focusing in on a speck in somebody's eye that is bothering you because you see it, but you're not paying any attention to the big log that is sticking through your head, you know. And that's the picture. Something is really bothering you, you battle with it, but you would rather focus on somebody else's problems than anybody dealing with your problem. It becomes bothersome to you. And that's just a great indicator that obviously something ain't right with me, right? If that be the case, if I'm having a hard time with somebody straining, a problem they have with this or that, and I'm not really evaluating my own issue. I'm looking, you know, I ain't sweeping in my front porch is the idea, but I'm worried about somebody else's yard. And we just have to be careful of that. What is that called? How many times did he use the word hypocrite in chapter 23? Let's count them up. Look in verse number 13. If we take 22 and 13, I think there's seven times. So look in 2218. 2218 says, remember, there's all this discord coming together. He says, why do you test me? You what? Hypocrites. And what do we say a hypocrite was? A stage player? They are out front and speaking up. 2218, why do you test me? You hypocrites, and then you jump over into the next time it's brought to light, I believe would be in chapter 23 in verse 13, where he says, but woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you what? Hypocrites. Matthew 23, 13, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither yourselves go in, nor will you allow others who are entering to go in. You're just doing everything you can. What's that, Pam? You were somewhere else? I know, I could tell. That's why I reiterated a couple of times. Yeah, I could sense like they're looking at one another like, where's he at? So I said 22, 18, and then 23. Yeah, they were in the wrong book. Look. That's right. That's right. Well, I kind of picked up on it. I keep an eye on y'all when I'm doing this stuff. I could sense that y'all were looking for something. Y'all was having a hard time finding. I attempt to do that. I look at y'all. Y'all know I look at y'all right when I'm teaching. Somebody will tell you, they'll say, man, he just keeps looking at me the whole time. I said, well, I ain't just looking at you, I'm looking at everybody. And I'm not singling out one particular person. I try to look at everybody and kind of get a feel of where you are. Because I noticed at different times, somebody trying to catch up with Brother Shannon or Miss Pat from time to time said, where are we at? Because he might be writing a note down or jotting something down, and we done moved into another passage. So you'll get behind if you're not careful. And I've walked through some things this week with the church there in Jasper and I had 10 benefits of being where God wants us to be. And when you're where you are, these 10 benefits are always going to be manifested in your life. Well, I mean, I couldn't like really slow down and go through each one of them, so I had to walk through it. And boy, they're trying to take notes and trying to take notes and one or two of them afterwards. Would you share the rest of those with me? I didn't catch them all. I said, I'm gonna put it on y'all. Cause they live Facebook everything. So the following morning or at another point I would take and give them some pointer notes of what the message was last night. So whoever was listening to it or whoever wanted to write notes can go in and jot some of those things down. And because I could tell they probably couldn't keep up with what I was sharing with them. But yeah, verse 13, that's number two. We see in these, close together, Matthew 23 verse 14, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. I mean, he's laying it out there, isn't he? Notice what he says, for you devour widows' houses for a pretense, make long prayers, therefore you will receive a greater condemnation. That's important there because you'll hear People at different times make reference to judgment. All judgment is the same where the bible is clear Not all judgment is going to be the same now sin has a wage and that wage is death and Separation from the lord is separation from the lord, but there are going to be greater degrees of judgment even in hell It's just inevitable. It's going to happen those who were put in higher accountability among people like these Pharisees and all, because he's going to say down the road, I attempted to do stuff with your children, but you kept trying to block it. You kept trying to get in my way. Well, that's going to cost you. That's going to cost you more down the road. So there are greater degrees of condemnation for a person that never receives the witness and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. These people that he's referring to here will all perish in their sins, but some of them will have a greater degree of judgment than others. Just because of some people having not heard. There'll be people that never heard of these things, but never put their trust in Jesus. They will be judged just like they will, but not as severe as they will, because I mean, they walked, Jesus was with them, and they've seen what he has done. They heard what he had taught. They watched people be delivered in testimonies of those raised from the dead, and they still didn't respond and receive his message. And that's gonna create even a greater Condemnation and judgment. He's already told us remember he said that Nineveh is going to rise up and condemn this generation Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and these he says the same thing with this and that why because what you witness not everybody in the world has witnessed that and and you push back at it. And the injustice is you said that the King of Kings was a liar and he can't lie, right? And that's where we see right here. Verse 15, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you have traveled land and sea to win one proselyte. And when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourself. You just ruin the person even deeper than what it really was. And so what is he saying? That obviously these are, I mean, these are hard sayings, aren't they? And he is really laying it to him. He brings up the idea of you blind guides again, who say, whosoever swears by the temple, it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it. So if they made a commitment, when it come to the gold, they are to perform it. But if they said anything in a swear by the temple, that didn't amount to much. So he's gonna teach them and say, what makes the gold worth anything in the temple is the temple. The temple and its purpose is what sanctified the gold, right? So it's not the gold, just like the builder of the temple is the one who has the more glory than the temple itself, the maker. Remember the temple was just a shadow right of something far greater So if they missed it on the temple, they're gonna miss it on everything Is the point because it was just a shadow It wasn't even the the coup de gras as we would say in Louisiana verse 17 says fools and blind For which is greater the gold of the temple that sanctifies the gold of the temple that sanctifies the gold and whoever swears by the altar it is nothing but whoever swears by the gift that is on it he is obliged to perform it fools and blind for which is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift same way with us what sanctifies us the lord does amen so are we greater than he no he's greater than everything getting And you see, they were putting focus on the secondary things and not the primary things. And it just kept getting them further and deeper into trouble. Verse 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Here it is again, hypocrites. For you pay tithe of mint and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law. What is the weightier matters of the law? Justice and mercy and faith. Notice that. You see how justice, mercy, and faith are included in the law? The weightier matters of the law? Because even when it comes to, and we're not talking about the 10 commandments alone, we're talking about God's word as a whole and faith comes by what? Hearing and hearing by what? The word of God. So yes, all those things, God's word shows us his mercies. That's how we can know him. And then he says this, that they were blind to this. They were blind gods. You strain out of that and swallow a camel. Whoa. Well, let's go back to 23. I should have finished that up. Justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done. That was the giving part without leaving off the others. That is, but that should have been the priority, right? Justice. mercy and living by faith. And yeah, that would include a given standpoint. So he's not saying you should have neglected that, but you should have had a priority on being what just to men. And justice is always in relationship to how we work with and deal with as a representative of God with man, right? There's two pictures we have in the law. What did the law give us a picture of? We should love the Lord our God with what? All our heart, all our mind, all our strength, and we're to love our neighbor as ourself. And everything God gave men was to help them understand who he is, to put faith and confidence in him. That's the righteous aspect. of it, and then the horizontal aspect of it is the justice side. How we then convey what we are connected with God, how then do we display that before men? Well, if I'm wrong here, I'm gonna be what? Wrong toward people. And I'm not gonna be just, I won't show mercy, and I'm not gonna walk and live by faith before men. So the idea is, is that when I'm not looking up The benefit of my life is gonna be little to nothing when I look out. Very similar how we talked about Moses. Remember when Moses, when he come out that day and he saw that Egyptian taking advantage of an Israelite, he stepped in and the scripture says, Moses looked this way and then Moses looked that away and he saw nobody watching him, but he never looked, he never looked up. So he kills the man, buries the man. The next day, a situation arises, and he goes to help two brothers that are fighting with one another. And one of them says, hey, you going to do us like you did that Egyptian yesterday? Somebody's always going to tell the story, right? So the man he delivered went and told what he did. So now he steps in to help two guys that he wants to be just with and help them. But because he wasn't righteously doing it because he's not looking up now every act of justice He has is crumbling right before it because that's the picture. It's Let's get it right here, and then what we do will be right. Our being is right because our believing is right. So obviously, these scribes and Pharisees, their believing is not right, so their being is not right. Therefore, nothing they do is right. But they like Cain. Remember, we talked about Cain a few different times through the years, John's letter first John he says hey y'all don't don't love his cane. Don't love like Cain What was he saying there Cain loved what he loved but what he loved was not in line with what God loved These men loved what they loved but their love was not in line with God's love but see they played the hypocrite didn't they they wanted everybody to believe that if anybody loved God it was them But they didn't They wanted life their way and to do it their way. Then they set up laws to do it their way. And they, yes, they were a problem for everybody. And they definitely were an issue that Jesus is now even getting more serious with because he could have said all this, what? In the front part of his ministry, but he didn't. He's getting closer and closer for the purpose of his coming. He's refining What he's saying and what he's doing and it's getting more and more difficult and he's exposing things more clearly and That's why we see this and what is it going to do? It's just what driving the wedge in them so they can't wait to what put their hands on him Remember, that's what he was going to Jerusalem for right that he would suffer be betrayed be killed and be raised the third day. So this is all playing into exactly what God is doing. Verse 29, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous And you say, if we had lived in them days of our fathers, we would have never been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Is that right? Were they fixing to prove that differently, right? They fixing to kill the prophet. Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves. One, that you knew what your father's done was wrong. And you're doing the same thing, but you're covering it up by your ideas of what? Making a big deal and a big show about the prophets tombs who had died before. But he's gonna tell them, therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered. I mean, you got their DNA in you. You got their characteristics in you. You don't have your father in heaven, because he's not your father in heaven. Remember who was their father? John eight says the devil, right? They were doing his will. Verse 32, you fill up them the measure of your father's guilt. Serpents, man, he's calling them snakes, ain't he? You brood of vipers. How many of y'all wanna fall in a brood of vipers? Man. Imagine being on the side of a hill or side of a rocky cliff and you fell in a cavern and it was a cavern of pit bifurbs. Well that's what it was like falling among them. They were poisonous. The teaching was poisonous. That's why Jesus had been telling them, watch the leaven, don't learn the leaven of the Pharisees, right? and of the side you seize and of Herod. Serpents, you brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city." All the apostles that Jesus is saying he's gonna send to them. Verse 35. that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the righteous blood of who? Abel. To the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berkeiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Surely I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Old Jerusalem, Jerusalem. the one who kills the prophets and stones those who sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate, for I say to you, you shall see me no more till you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. These are hard sayings, aren't they? Goes along with this, go look in Acts chapter three. Acts chapter three. I shared this passage with the folks last night. I think it was a eye opener to them. I think it was a gripping revelation that probably had been overlooked in times past, but I think it was one that just penetrated within the sanctuary last night and the service and these principles in regards to how many family members that they all have, we all have, people that we're acquainted with that we know don't hear Jesus on all things and everything and the consequences of that. Verse 22, for Moses truly said to the fathers, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet. We know who that prophet is. That's Jesus. He's going to explain that to them. Like me, like Moses, he's going to come from your brethren. It's going to be a Jew. It's going to come from among them. For that to happen for Jesus, that means he's going to have to be born different than everybody else. Him, this prophet, Jesus, you shall hear in something. That what y'all's translation say? What does it say, Ms. Pat? This prophet you shall hear in all things. And then he's gonna reiterate what he means by that. So we don't miss it. Whatever he says to you. You notice how he does that? Reiterating to make sure that it's not missed. That when I say all things, I mean whatever he says. like nothing is left out. I know all includes that, but just to make sure we know that all includes that, he says, whatever he says in regards to all things, and it shall be, verse 23, that every soul, not necessarily groups of people, but what, every individual, because this is a personal thing, every soul who will not hear That prophet, which we know is Jesus, they shall be what? Utterly destroyed from among the people. That ought of what? That is one of those verses that should heavenly grip a hold of your heart and said, Oh Lord, put me in a place, in a position where I pay attention to everything you teach and everything you said and everything you've done. I want to know it. Why? Because anything less than that is an injustice, isn't it? And that's exactly what the Pharisees, that he was talking about these hypocrites, that's what they were doing, right? They said that we wouldn't be like our fathers and kill the prophets. No, you fixing to kill the prophet because you won't hear what the prophet had to say. You say he's not who he says he is. And we know him to be faithful and true. Verse 24. Yes, and all the prophets, he goes back not to Abel, but to Samuel and those who follow as many as have spoken have also foretold of these days. That is God hadn't hidden it. He's been telling us this was coming. And it's so clear through the Older Testament, you can't miss it. You can't miss it. God's been telling this is what's coming. But you see, they missed it, didn't they? Because they were looking for something else. And they missed it. Verse 25, for you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our father, saying to Abraham, and in your, not seeds, but what, singular, your what? Seed. Now we know who that seed is. Roman tells us that seed is who? It's Jesus. All the families of the earth, that would be Jew and Gentile, are gonna be what? Blessed in Jesus. But he started with who first? The Jew. 26, to you first, God having raised up his servant, this prophet, Jesus, he sent him to bless you. in turning away every one of you from your what? Iniquities. But the Pharisees said we don't want to hear it, right? So they didn't receive the blessing. What did they receive? A greater what? Condemnation as a result thereof. John would say this, Jesus didn't come in the world to condemn the world. He came in the world to do what? To save it. How would he save them? He would bless them. How would he bless them? He would turn them. Who would he turn them from? Their iniquities. But who did he turn them to? Himself. And that goes along with, go look in Luke. Look in Luke 2 maybe. Luke 2, I think it is. Luke 2 might be Luke 1, but I think it's Luke 2. Yeah, Luke 2, Luke 2. Look in verse 25. I like to unite that thought there and how we looking at with these Pharisees, how they missed it. They were with him, but they wasn't with him, right? I mean, they were totally off in what they were seeing and hearing. And verse 25 says, and behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man, he was just, he was devout, He waited for the consolation, the promised hope of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was what? Upon him. So we're talking about an anointed man who has anointed eyes and ears and a heart to see what other people would never see. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he seen the Lord's anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ. The word Christ is anointed, one who came with a purpose. And Jesus said his purpose was to bless Israel. How would he bless them? In turning them from their iniquities by turning them to himself. With this man, and heard from God that he was not gonna see death until he saw God's anointed. Now here's a, we're dealing with a baby now. John the Baptist, when he seen Jesus, he said, I didn't know who he was. God had told me though, that when I see the Holy Spirit coming out of heaven and resting upon him, he's the one. And he's the one who's gonna take away the sins of the world. Amen. He's the lamb of God. So John the Baptist is looking at a grown man when he shows up, this man seeing a babe that he recognized there was something different about this babe. Why? Who was in him? Who was upon him? The Holy Spirit. Verse 27. So he came by the Spirit into the temple and when the parents, notice he came in the temple by the Spirit. The Spirit led him at the right time, huh? I mean, one day off, he'd have missed it. One day early, he would have missed it. One day late, he would have missed it. But see, when God's involved, you don't miss it, amen. God was involved in this. It was intentional. So he came by the spirit, just like how the spirit drove Jesus in the wilderness, this man was driven to the temple. And what was in the temple was greater than the temple, amen. And he said, so he came by the spirit into the temple. And when the parents, and we know who they are, what's their names? Mary and Joseph. Joseph wasn't his daddy. He was assumed to be his daddy, but he wasn't his daddy. Who was Jesus' daddy? God was, so God was showing him God, right? Isn't the spirit God? Isn't Jesus' father God? So God's showing God in this child, Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law. So he took him, God, Jesus, Up in his arms and he blessed God holding God. Amen And this is what he said Lord now you are letting your servant depart in peace Not because his son won the Super Bowl Not because his wife hit the lottery Not because anything else, but God brought to him what he promised him, that he was going to see the hope of Israel. Amen. That you're going to let me depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation. For God has no other salvation, right? For my eyes have seen your salvation. which you father have prepared before the face of all peoples. You brought it and laid it out before all the face of peoples to see. A light this child is, and what is he gonna bring? Revelation. Who is he gonna bring revelation to? To the Gentiles, people like us. And he will be the glory of your people, Israel." Now, not all of Israel's glory, for these Pharisees didn't see Jesus as their glory, but the believers like Peter and James and John and Paul and Barnabas and different ones, yeah, he was their glory, amen? You see, not only will he be their glory, but when the Gentiles receive revelation from him, he's gonna be their glory too. That's the idea. A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and a light to bring glory to your people, Israel, verse 33. And Joseph and Jesus's mother, notice that, didn't say his father, right? But Joseph and Jesus's mother, they marveled at those things which were spoken of him. And you would have, we would have too, if we would have been in that situation. because yeah, they knew what God had told them, but who else knew what God was doing? They kept these things to themselves, right? But you see, God's been speaking to people and God's been revealing what he was gonna do. And notice what he then tells them, verse 34. Then Simon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this boy, this child, he is destined for two things. for the fall and the rise of many in Israel. And this thing for a sign which will be spoken against. Yes, a word will pierce through your own soul also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." Okay. Notice in my translation, I don't know about y'all's, y'all notice verse 35, it is in parentheses. Y'all see that? Okay, because the thought goes like this. 34, again, I'm just gonna say, behold, the child is destined for the fall and rise in many in Israel and for a sign which will be spoken against. And then drop down in verse 35, where it says, that the thoughts of many hearts may be what? Revealed. So you know what that is saying? How people receive and rejoice over and reflect the Lord Jesus Christ is the telltale to everything else in life. If they don't see him in the light of a revelation and the glory of God, if they don't see that, it's gonna manifest that they have missed everything. Like these Pharisees. Remember he said, he's destined for the rise and fall. of many and for a sign, for a sign which will be spoken against, for what reason? That the hearts of men will be revealed. You will be able to know a man's heart by how he deals with Jesus. And if he deals wrongly with Jesus, he's gonna deal wrongly with everything in life. Even though he might do things that are honest and noble, but everything he touches is still wrong because he's not right. That's the idea. For the scripture says that, you know, even the plowing of the wicked is what? Sin. So with these Pharisees, no matter what they've done and no matter what they still will do, it's because they didn't get Jesus right. Nothing else in their life is going to be right. Nothing. It won't be right. They just headed toward condemnation. judgment and it goes back to that what Acts 3 that how do you know that somebody is dealing rightly with Jesus? They have given their life to hear and to know what Jesus says about all things and everything. They wanna know what he said, what he did, why he did it, who he did it for, what he's doing, what his plans are. They see that's a benefit of that. God shows us like he did with Noah. When Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, what did God reveal to Noah? The plan of his redemption. That salvation in that day for those that were living in that day was gonna still be a salvation of righteousness It was still gonna be through grace, but it was gonna come through the mouth of the prophet Noah as he preached righteousness and whoever would hear the man, trust the man, obey the man, they would enter in that ark with him and their lives would be preserved and saved. But anybody that pushed back at his message were gonna perish when the rain started falling. Same way with Jesus. He's the ark, amen. And if we won't listen to that message, what happens is it manifests the hearts of men of how they deal with Jesus. So Jesus is the telltale. He's the telltale. How do they handle, how do they think about, what do they do with Jesus will tell us everything we need to know about a person, whether they are a missionary or they still need a missionary. Whether they're lost, Saved where they've been born again or they're dead and their trespasses and sins and he didn't come to make Bad men good. He came to make dead man alive. Amen He come to make dead men alive and that's what Jesus does and when you're alive to him you It's because you received a revelation from God, you see him for who he is, and when you see him for who he is, you can't help but like him and love him, amen? And then you wanna know what he teaches. Now, will you walk in everything he teaches flawlessly? No, that's why we needed a redeemer, amen? That's what he did. But you cast your imperfections upon him and you keep going back to him and saying, Lord, show me what you want for me in this life, amen? you would never be able to classify the believer as a hypocrite. Why? Because they open themselves up to people. Why do they open themselves up? Because they open their hearts up to people. Why? Because their hearts been transformed by a Redeemer. Amen. And it's not that they're trying to look perfect in everything they do in life. No, they want people to cast their imperfections upon him who is perfect. So we see him as what we see with Paul. What did he do? He opened the word of God. He opened the book. He opened his mouth and he opened his life to people. And that's what you see God's people doing when they see Jesus and who he is, they begin to open the word of God up. They begin to open their mouths up and they open the Bible up and say, this is how I know what I know. And this is what I stand on, what God has already said. Amen. Amen. So Lord, help us, help us, help us, help us, help us. Well, to him be the glory. I don't know about y'all, but I need his help. And doing what he's called us to do, amen. I mean, just taking the next step, taking the next step. We're living in old slippery times, and what are you doing like slippery? You just take short steps with him, amen. Just day by day, day by day. Lord willing, huh? Lord willing, Lord willing. Yeah, yeah, just one day at a time. Because that's really the only time we have, huh? Right now is the only time we had to bless him. That's what I was telling Mr. Jim when he was leaving out today. He said, I sure want to be here for next year when y'all come because they've invited us to come back next year. Mr. Jim, the only time we got though is right now. We'll just bless him right now and take those short steps with him. I'm hoping to see you next year too. But Lord willing, none of us are promised tomorrow. You might outlive me, amen. You might outlive me. at 91 years old. I said, we don't know that. We'll give that to the Lord. But in the meantime, he's still got us a work to do. I was in his office and he said, everything you see in here is free game. You can take it. He said, except that cabinet, a filing cabinet over there in the corner. And he said, that's, that's, they got about 900 messages in there that he wrote through the years. And he said, leave them in there. Don't take them. I said that we wouldn't take them to begin with and prayerfully you can do something with those and somebody else can do something with them down the road. He said, but every one of these books in here as you see it, you take it and use it however you see fit. He was a student of the word and just bought books and collected books and wrote sermons. He said that was one of his favorite thing to do is write messages and he wrote for paper and he wrote for different ones and all that. Just a vessel and asked God to use him and God did. Amen. And now he's using him by blessing folks like me. And through that, I believe you'll be blessed by it in the coming days as well. Amen? Amen. Just making ourselves available. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No doubt about it. Him and his wife, Miss Ruby. Miss Ruby. She made a good pan of chicken dressing today. that I got to get a hold of. They had two pans of chicken and dressing. I'm going to give me some chicken and dressing now when I get an opportunity to. And they both were pretty good. And they were making cakes that were sugar-free. They just tried to bless me all week long so I wouldn't be eating on sugar and all that kind of stuff. So praise the Lord. I told them I went to the doctor week four last and when they took my blood work, they said, you ate Miss Pat's. They had custard, didn't you? It showed up my blood work. I'm telling you it registered. They had custard on there, Mr. Billy. It did. It said you ate that good old bread from Mr. Billy, huh? And you ate that grape salad from Pam's, huh? It just kept registering on there. Numbers just kept getting higher and higher, Ms. Barber. And I said, you know what? Every profession has its casualties and its hazards. And one of them for a preacher is, They like to feed you good food, and it's just part of the journey, right? Greg, everything you do out there has a little hazard to it, right? There's a potential to it. Me too. Me too. Sometimes it's just eating Miss Pat's egg custard, huh? Well, praise the Lord. Let's pray. Thank you, Jesus. We bless you tonight and praise you. Thank you for our faith family. Thank you for our brothers and sisters and those around the world that get to connect with us and celebrate with us. We just praise you. Thank you, and we just ask you to help us We ask you to touch our bodies touch our hearts our minds renew us from day to day that we can walk steadfastly with you and that we just make ourselves available to you for you to teach us because we do want to hear and know what you said and We want to trust it and walk with you and seek you through it. So thank you in Jesus name. Amen Love y'all. Love y'all You going to school tomorrow Carolyn?