Have you ever noticed that when you love someone, we were singing before, Jesus, I love you because you care. I couldn't imagine if you weren't there. Did you know something about love is when you love someone, you wanna help them and make them happy. You don't think of yourself when you're in the presence of a loved one. You think of how can I make that person happy? What do they like? I was remembering this morning, my mom died a couple years ago. She was 104. Around her 95th birthday, I remember we cut a cake on her. And before we set this little modest party up at this apartment she lived right in near the Brooklyn Bridge, we asked her, what would you like, Mom? What would mean the most to you? And she said, oh, if Carol would make me noodles and cheese. It's a Polish dish that my wife has learned to do really well. And she loved Danish, pecan Danish. How many know what a Danish is? New Yorkers, they know what a Danish is. And then she liked for me to read the Bible to her, so I read the Bible. And she liked when people sang around her a hymn. So we would sing, why? You love someone, you wanna make them happy, right? Selfish love is the kind where you only want the person for sexual or some other kind of gratification. You want to get money out of them. So you love them in a kind of twisted way. You love them, but it's not that pure love where I want to make you happy, right? And, um, That's the way love is universally. You want to make the other one happy. Let me mention one other thought. Did you ever think about this, that if life is a line here and you find Christ and become a Christian at 15, 25, 30, whenever. And now, before you die or Christ returns, you have this long road here of 10, 20, 40, whatever years. My mom, I think, got saved at 13 or 14, so imagine how many years she served the Lord. So what should have been her goal? What should be our goal? We are Christians, we are going to heaven, but we're not there yet. God could have us there, but he doesn't have us there yet. So now we're walking with him, and like Aaliyah said, we're supposed to be light and salt. But what's a goal in the morning? Because if you don't have a goal in the morning, the day's not gonna work out well. spiritually or intellectually or whatever. So what should be the goal that we have? Now let's put the two together. The Bible says we love him because he first loved us. So I wanna ask you an honest question. Honest now. How many of you really love Jesus? You love Jesus, hold your hand up high. We're not embarrassed to say that, we love Jesus. So let's put that together with the thought about my mom and about love, real love, and apply it to this life, and we come up with this teaching from the scripture. It's in many places. I've just picked one, 1 Thessalonians 4, 1. Would you look up at the screen at it, please? It says, As for other matters, brothers and sisters, Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonica in Northern Greece. We instructed you how to live in order to please God. As in fact, you are living. Now we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. So just something else jumped out at me here. So he's writing to the brothers and sisters and he said, well, after you got converted, we instructed you how to live so that you make God happy, not please yourself, not even please your friends. First, please the one who gave his life, sent his son to die. So after all that God has done for us, if we love him, Paul says, I wanna tell you how to please him, how to make him happy, like I learned what would make my mom happy. Notice he says, you're already doing it, but I urge you in the Lord Jesus to do it more and more. In other words, you can grow in pleasing the Lord. But notice that's implicit in that is that if you can please the Lord, that means you can live a day that displeases the Lord. And I wanna reduce this down to just one day, because remember, your life is just one day. Please let me share that one. God made that so real to me seven or eight years ago. It's really helped me in so many ways. The only day that you have in your life is today. Saturday is gone. Monday is questionable. If we wake up, we have another day. But right now, the only day you can please the Lord, the only day you can worship the Lord, the only day you can pray for someone, the only day you can witness for someone, the only day you can grow in Christ, the only thing you have that we have is today. How many see it? Say amen. So, We gotta get that always down. Jesus taught us to pray, give us this day our daily bread. So on a daily basis, which is the only life we have, on a daily basis, we can make it our goal to please the Lord, make Him happy. Obviously, as I said, we could make Him sad. I talked to a man before the service at nine o'clock. He has a 23-year-old son. Son is not happy that the man is a believer, and the son never had a nice mouth from what I knew, but now he's really talking foul and disrespectful to his own father, which is so inappropriate. His father raised him, supported him, and now all he has is bad things and nasty things. So that hurts his father. Is that his father? Is that his son? Yes. But that doesn't mean the son makes the father happy. Life's a little more complicated than that. So we can be Christians and hurt the Lord. The Bible says, don't grieve the Holy Spirit. And that word grieve means don't sadden and vex him and make him unhappy. So God is an emotional being. and he loves certain things, he hates other things, and we have it as a goal here, Paul says, to learn how do you please the Lord? Not yourself, not your friends, not Jim Cymbala, but how do you please the Lord? Now, there's two other parts to this, stay with me. Not only does the Lord say, here, I want you to learn how to live a life pleasing to me, after all I've done for you, you know, love me back, worship me back, worship me. Not only is that true, but when you walk in that path to try to please the Lord, you find out that God's blessings inundate your own life. You're trying to please him. You're not even thinking of yourself, but that's when all the blessings come. And Satan's big lie is that if you live to please the Lord, quote, live a holy life, be like Christ, whatever terminology you wanna use, the big lie from way back in Genesis, the book of Genesis is this. If you really serve the Lord, if you try to please him, your life's gonna be so boring. Your life's gonna be so depressing. You're gonna have to lose all your fun. You can't really live if you live to please Him, and that's a lie. In fact, as you learn to just try to please Him, peace and joy is running after you, like we just sang, right? Your mercy, something was running after us, I forgot the lyric. What is the lyric? Oh yeah, goodness, thanks. So, getting my theology together while I'm preaching here. So, that's the thing. The more you learn to please Him, then the more it's not like, oh, I'm pleasing you. It's no, there's peace and joy and abundance. One last thing, which no one told me when I was growing up. You can get into legalism very easily if you stop there and say, oh, the Lord saved me and now he's watching how I live to see if I please him. No, the Lord says, not only live to please me, I'll help you to live that way. I'll give you the grace to live that way. Grace in this sense is not just the grace of Jesus dying for our sins, but the daily grace of God helping us to do things that are not natural to us. We're selfish beings. I am selfish, let's all get out. God says, no, I'll break that selfishness in you and have you live as light and Christ-like and you'll be pleasing me and you'll be blessed and I'll help you do it. Don't try to make a vow and a promise. A lot of us have done that. Turn over a new leaf and all of that and tomorrow I'm gonna really be serious. God says, no, just bring me your life and I'll help you live a life pleasing to me that will bring blessing to you. How many wanna live that kind of life? One more time, just lift your hands. All right, pleasing to God. So how do you live a life pleasing to God? So obviously there's two wills of God for all of us. There's the specific will for our lives, given our calling, where we live, what we do, and all of that. So my wife and I are called to ministry. So we're in the ministry. Someone else is a doctor. Someone else is a lawyer. Someone else is IT. Another person works for the, drives a bus. Whatever that, those are specific callings in life. Now, then there's general things that makes God, that brings joy to God's heart. For example, love one another. That's for all of us. When you live a day of love, you make God happy. If you're hate and you're prejudice and you gossip and slander and all of that, that makes God very sad and you'll feel it in yourself. You'll miss out on peace and joy. A lot of people who just want prayer to get them over, it's counterproductive because the way they live, they're defeating all the things God wants to do for them. Comprende, no comprende. In other words, that's just the way they live. They're constantly grieving God's spirit, and they're weak, and they're complaining, and they have no joy, and they have no peace. They're fluctuating, why? Because the way they live, they're defeating the whole idea of pleasing God. Okay, another way. You please God, we bring joy to him when we live pure lives. The Bible says that for all of us. This is the will of God for you, that you avoid fornication so that you don't live an unclean, dirty, immoral life, you're not sleeping around, no matter what the culture says and all of that foolishness. Are you gonna answer to the culture when you die or are we gonna stand before God? We're gonna stand before God, so we better pick up quick how God feels about these things. That's why he gave us the Bible. We can read and find out those things that are pleasing him. So don't lie, don't steal, because all of these things, if we violate them, remember Satan's big lie, no, do it. Let it all hang out. You be yourself, follow your dream, and then you'll be happy. It's just the reverse. It's when you just live to please Him that you're the happy, you don't need Oxycontin, you don't need some weed, you don't need anything. You don't even need an Oreo cookie with some milk. You just, I'm gonna get what I'm talking about. Can we say amen to that? All these false, these are all false stimuli, that I need a drink, I need that, why? Because without that, I can't feel the way I wanna feel, but that temporary feeling is gonna go away, then I need more, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But when you're following Jesus and just living to please Him, you could be all alone in a room with just a little glass of water and you're so happy. How many have experienced that? Say amen. Okay, so now. I wanna bring to you here, as I wrap up the meeting, three things, three ways we can please God, which we rarely think of. We rarely in the morning pray. We might pray, Lord, fill me with love. Yes, Lord, help me to live a pure life, and so on and so forth. Lord, keep me honest today and all that. But I wanna bring up three other areas that I think we tend many times to displease Him which hurts him, which is counterproductive for us, and the whole thing, plus we set a bad example. So, how many wanna learn three new ways to please the Lord? Just say amen. Enough with the hand raising, so. Number one. Work the right way. Do your job tomorrow, how about that? Don't be lazy. Don't cut corners. Don't moan and groan. You're lucky you have a job. You're blessed to have a job. Okay? Don't be a malingerer. Don't put in a half a day's work, but take a whole day's pay. Don't hide behind the union. and do all kinds of tricks. Well, Pastor Semble, where do you get off saying that? Oh, I never said that. Listen what the Bible says. Look up at the screen. We'll use slaves here as employees. Next verse, please. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Hello. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly on your job, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. So when you... When you work, you have to realize that the whole medieval concept of sacred and secular has been broken down by the Bible, and that's a bad tradition. What do I mean by that? Pastor Cymbala and Carol and the pastors and other, Pastor Hammond, we have sacred jobs because we're in the ministry. But other jobs are just secular. So on sacred jobs, pastor, Bible teacher, whatever, you better be careful because you're working for the Lord. But I only work for the MTA. You know what I'm saying? I only work for Dwayne Reed. My job is different. No, it's not. The Lord is watching you tomorrow like he's gonna watch me. When you go into work, are you gonna work with your whole heart? You're gonna respect your boss? What about if you knew my boss? Peter says on this same subject, even if your boss is harsh, you obey him with your whole heart and you put in the best work. And if everyone's shirking their responsibility and cutting corners and stealing and lying, you have nothing to do with that because you're not working for that boss, you're working for Jesus Christ. Can we say amen to that? I know, no, that's stunning to a lot of us, isn't it? No, no, pastor, you have to do your job right. I just work in the business world. No, the Lord is saying, you do an honest day's work. That's what pleases me. You cut corners, you lie, you steal from the boss and all that other stuff. You are breaking my heart. That is not why I put you on earth. I put you on earth to be different than everybody else. Oh, I hit a nerve. I hit a nerve, didn't I? But Lord, give me courage and love to continue. So, you know, they took those undercover videos of, was it the subway? People work in the subway, they're supposed to be repairing the cars. And someone got an undercover camera in and took pictures of guys who for like a year, not even work one hour a day. but took their pay. Or other people who dummy up overtime. Because the whole city is, for a lot of people, it's based on how do I scam the system? Do you live here, by the way? Any of you live here? I'm born and raised Brooklyn. Are there not people scamming the system? Not wanting to work? Just any corner that can be cut, I'm gonna cut it. because you like owe me the paycheck. No, they don't. We're blessed if we have a job. You know how many people don't have a job? You know how many people don't have food to eat? Go around the world. You know how many people last night didn't sleep in a bed around the world? And what are we complaining about? So Paul says, no, you be an example. You work for that boss and you put in hard work. And if you're self-employed, you work hard because the Lord never blesses idleness. Lazy people who give a thousand excuses of what they're going through. If you get paid, work. If you don't wanna work, then don't eat. That's what the Bible says. If any man doesn't work, what? He shouldn't eat. Ah, you're warming up, good. I'm gonna continue here. I'm only joking. Is it correct or not? If you're a housewife, work. You're raising children, you're a school teacher, work. Give it all. No, but you see, work. You're working for the Lord. You're not working for them. The board of ed is not your boss. Jesus is your boss. That makes every day exciting because I'm working for the Lord. I can make him happy today, or I can ground you around and lull around and just go, oh, I'm so tired and all of that. Well, wait a minute, you're getting a check. Doesn't the person who'll give you a check deserve something? But more than that, the Lord. Look at what it says in Colossians, goes even further. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. I don't think there's 5% of all the Christians in the world who believe that. The whole thing is a game. You're quiet, but I know you know it. Like take public assistance, take welfare. That's a divine idea to help people who are truly can't live and need help. Am I right? God has mercy on those who can't make it, right? How many people are scamming that system? Why? Because they're lazy. They're idle. The Bible says in the early church, mark anyone who's idle and give them a warning. After three warnings have nothing to do with them. Why? Because they're idle. And when you're idle, you get in trouble. When you're idle, you gossip and you talk and you get on your cell phone and you tweet the world. But the Bible says, idleness is a bad thing to do. One of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah was idleness and fullness of bread. They had nothing to do and they just kept eating themselves to death. And then that opened up to all the other kinds of sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. So idleness is a terrible thing. Every minister who's idle and is lazy should be washed out of the ministry. How dare take money from people's tithing and you're not gonna work? Hello? You know, we don't print the money. People give their money. You're gonna take that sacred check and not work hard? Oh no, you can't do that. Can't do that. Bible forbids it, that breaks God's heart. That's why a lot of people are not growing in the Lord. It's not they don't pray enough, they live wrong. They're part of the scam. They're scamming everybody. Are you mad with me? It's the truth. But these verses tell us. That's like the whole, I love that about my son, James. He is a hard worker. I don't care what job James has to do. He's really been a great example of that. He's gonna go 100 in, 110% in. He's not gonna let it go until he finishes the job. That's just the way he is. Very good quality that God put in him. But our culture is like, yo, what are you doing tomorrow? No, no, I'm hanging out. I know, but what are you gonna do? No, it's like we're just hanging out. I know, I know, but what are you gonna do while you're hanging out? Is there anything you do, like D-O? No, yo, I just be hanging out. But when you're hanging out and someone's paying you, that's a sin. And it breaks God's heart. And that goes for all of us, everyone in this room, no exception. to grumble and complain when we have a job and food on the table is like close to blasphemy. People are starving to death and we have a job and God's blessed us and now we're not gonna work at it. I know, but I'm tired. I've been doing this a long time or I just started, but I'm limited. Listen, God doesn't ask for skill level. He asks for 100% in. Do it. Do it with all your heart. That's what the Bible says. We just read it in Colossians. Whatever you do, do it with all your heart. Whatever you do, do it with all your heart. One of the reasons my mother lived so long, talk to my wife Carol, is she always was doing something every day. She was 94 years old and she was making potholders to give to first time visitors in our church. She'd make her own Christmas cards. to send out to people. Am I right, Carol? She was like, why? I think that's why she lives so long. She just couldn't sit with doing nothing. Couldn't do it. Just do something. She had kept a list in her Bible of a prayer, her prayer list of who she prayed for. I hope I live near her in heaven. because she was like doing it for the Lord. So we can tomorrow please the Lord or we can make him sad. One of the ways you can please the Lord is work hard at what you do. Honest pay deserves honest work. All in favor of that, please lift your hand, okay? I mean, that's shameful. I know, but pastor, don't you know how it works? They're faking overtime, they're doing that. I don't care what they do, I'm working for Jesus. He's watching all of us. So, one of the ways to live a life pleasing is work the right way. Say it. Work the right way. Come on, mas fuerte. Work the right way. Work the right way. Work. Work. Number two. We rarely don't pray. And remember, if we work the right way, God will help us. If you're lazy or if you're falling into bad habits and all of that, just bring this to the Lord today and say, God, tomorrow, as you let me live another day, help me to work for you, Jesus. This was the idea that Thomas Akempis and some of those other writers had in the 900s or the year 1000 or whatever. They said, you know what? I scrubbed that floor for Jesus. I got this huge floor I gotta scrub, and I'm on my hands and knees, and other people are going, sad you. Yeah, they gave you that job. And he goes, no, not sad me. See this little tile? I'm cleaning this for Jesus. Jesus, you see? See how clean it is? Jesus, for you. That makes every day special, every tile special. Or you can grumble, oh, I gotta do this job. or you could do it to the Lord. How many wanna do it to the Lord? Let's put our hands together and just say amen to that. And not just when their boss is watching, the Bible says. I remember back when I was in sixth grade, especially junior high school. Do you remember those days when the teacher was absent and they sent in a substitute? Oh yeah, come on. Come on, wave your hand at me if you remember substitute. We would be like, oh yeah, come on now. Come on in here, little girl, and you teach. And these bright-eyed, you know, from Brooklyn College or wherever, they would come in, and they had no idea what they were getting into, right? How many remember those days? And I was not such a nice person, and my classmates, we were just like, and she would say, I'm going to the principal's office. I'll be back in about eight to nine minutes. Here's your assignment. I want you to be writing this down. And we goes, yes, Mrs. Cherub, yes, whatever. And she would leave. And the minute she walked down, we would take one guy. and make him stand at the door to make sure she was gone. And then we would like, I just go crazy, you know, throwing things, the racers are flying, everybody's going wild. You didn't do that? Teresa, you didn't do that. No, you were good. Some are sanctified, some are not. What can I say? So anyway, we just went wild. And then the guy would be the lookout. And then he'd say, she's coming, she's coming, everybody. Yeah, yeah, she would walk in, we'd all be like that. Class, I'm so proud of you, you're really at it working. The Lord says, don't do that on your job. When the boss is not there, you work just as hard. You're never let up because you're not working for the boss, you're working for Jesus. Number two, not only work the right way, but think the right way. Because our minds are part of our bodies and we belong to the Lord, he is the Lord of the body, and that includes my physical body, my mind, my emotions, everything. My mind can please God or not please God. I'm talking about the environment of my thoughts. I'm talking about the tone of my mind. Now, Satan tempts by coming to the mind, and this is what temptation is, with nasty thoughts or wrong thoughts or hateful thoughts, and he can knock on the door. That's what temptation is. If he doesn't knock on the door with the thought, you're not tempted. So he's been given permission to do that, but we don't have to open the door and ask him in for coffee. Do I get a witness? So don't mistake temptation with indulging wrong thoughts. So when the Lord sees us thinking the wrong way and having an environment in our mind, that so grieves Him what we're thinking of. We're entertaining unclean thoughts. Many times that comes from watching unclean things. Because even when you turn it off, the image stays in your mind and suggests thoughts. What are you, a Puritan? No, I'm trying to be a Christian. How many are with me? Say amen. So why would the Holy Spirit in me want to be dealing with that kind of thought life? Because he does live inside of me. I'm talking about entertaining thoughts now. sitting down with them over a meal. So Paul says, to prove this, Paul says in Philippians, look, finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. That's a command. Look, think about such things. Don't kill, don't steal. Think about such things. What things? Noble. You know what? True, not lies in your mind. Noble, that means high toned. That means the opposite of cheap. That's the opposite of what the TV has. The Real Housewives of wherever. Oh, that will really help your life. By the way, just watch that and tell me how much it makes you look like Christ. Tell me, just fill me in on that. It just makes you so much meeker and lovely and pure. Just all the nonsense in our culture. You take that in, that's not noble. I wouldn't want to think about that. I know, but it's real. I know a lot of things are real. I don't want to think about them. No, but you gotta be real. No, I don't have to think about anything. And by the way, I wanna announce to everyone, you have total control over your mind. Nobody can force any thought to come in and sit there for days or hours. Nobody can do that. Not the devil, nobody can do that. By the grace of God, that's what the Bible means when it says resist the devil and he'll flee from you. How do you resist the devil? Most times in su cabeza, in your head. No, I'm not thinking about that in the name of Jesus. I'm not dwelling on it. I know it happened to me 10 years ago. I know he walked out on me and I know he hurt me and I'm bitter, but you know what? I'm not thinking about that. That is not lovely. That is not noble. That is not pure. That is not praiseworthy. That will not help me. That will not make Jesus happy. I'm not thinking about it. Now to keep that kind of thought life, you have to not just resist thoughts, you got to fill yourself with the word of God. Anybody got a Bible here? What kind of church is this? Nobody even has a Bible. Oh, look, this is good. Our sisters for the real, look at this. Oh, wow. She got this Bible in 1811. She's been studying it ever since. Look at this thing. No, Emory, good work. What's that? She stands on the word. Yeah, she's been standing. She's standing on the word all right. Look at this thing. We're gonna have an offering at the end of the meeting for Anne Marie Lockley, get a new Bible, good grief. Well, anyway, you gotta fill yourself with this because that will fill your thought and your mind with, oh yeah, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Why don't I meditate on that for 20 minutes instead of texting people? Why don't I start the day with all things work together for good to them that love God. Let me think about that, not just read it. Don't have a one minute devotion. How's your mind gonna be affected by a one minute devotion? But everything else is gonna invade you, politics and the racialization of everything and anger and all of that and J-Lo and A-Rod, whatever people are talking about, right? What kind of life is that? That's noble? That's pure? That's gonna make me more like Christ? Uh-uh. So Paul is saying now, think about things that are good things. Think about, no one can force me to think about anything. And notice, When temptation comes and there's a real battle, one of the secrets is to learn how to transfer your thoughts, because by redirecting your thoughts, you can get away from a really strong temptation thought by just saying, Jesus, help me, and then say, oh, I'm not gonna think about that. I'm gonna remember yesterday. Pastor, we'll have that little five-year-old girl come up. That was so sweet. She gave the word of God, light of the world, not hid, and then you're the salt, and just redirect your mind. Well, of course you can. No, I'm... because you hold bad thoughts in you. Remember, as a man thinketh, that's exactly it. That's why Jesus is, why the Bible is so firm on this. Whatever holds our minds, that's what we're gonna be. You have angry thoughts, you have bitter thoughts, you're gonna be angry and bitter. You have complaining thoughts, you got the short end of the stick, no one knows the trouble you've been in, that's the way you're gonna act. This is why many people, they come to church, they get their mind redirected to the Word of God, and they leave, and they're good for about three hours. Unfortunately, their mind starts to go back to the old junk. And these thoughts can stay forever and sour your disposition. Am I right or wrong here? I would have told you that story about my wife's grandmother. We both had two grandmothers that we knew, and my father's mother was, she was, Firecracker, let's just use that word. And Carol had one on her dad's side that was firecracker. And she got sick and no one could take her in of the family, I don't remember how it happened, but she came to live with us when we were in Queens for two and a half, three years. And she was already in her 90s then, but she was a firecracker, oh yeah. And, She would brood sometimes. I loved her, she had the greatest sense of humor. She once broke her hip, fell off of the bed that we were in. She went there and, how can I say this? So she went into this place for rehab and we went to visit her one day and we said, where's, Her grandmother's name, where is she? Why isn't she eating with everyone else? No, she and this Italian guy, they eat alone somewhere. I went, what? She was hitting on this guy and she was 93 years old. And he was like 95, it was a perfect match, you know? But here's what happened one day. So she could play the keyboard well. In fact, Carol, genetically I think, has a lot of musical skills from that side of the family. And her son, Carol's dad, was an opera singer, very good singer. So I would take care of Grandma at nights, especially when Carol had choir practice. Listen, we were held hostage to that woman. She lived in our house a couple years. We were in hostage, because we set up a special bedroom for her on the ground floor, but she demanded Carol's attention all the time. Me, I would just say, Grandma, you're bad. Go to your room, and I would just put her in the wheelchair, lock it, and say, you think about the Lord. You study your word here. I guess I couldn't take her. That's the truth. My wife would tell you. Am I right, Carol? I'm right. So Carol would come home from practice and open the door and actually crawl up the steps. We had steps in front when you open the front door and grandma was off to the side. And she'd take off her shoes, this is truth, and she'd walk up the steps and she'd be halfway up the steps and grandma would yell out, I know it's you Carol. Oh my goodness. But she used to brood and go into moods sometimes that used to surprise me. So one day we were talking. I said, Grandma, you play the keyboard so nice. I'm glad Carol got her musical talent probably through your side. When did you start to play? She was born 1899. When did you start to play? Oh, when I was 12 or 13. And I said, oh, you took lessons. Well, yeah, a little bit. I said, did you play much like in town? places that you could play, like a symphony hall. But she was in a little town in Illinois. And so I said, did you ever get a chance to play? She said, no, there was a hotel that every weekend the town people would come and they had a piano there. and you could play. I said, well, did you play? Did you get to show your skill? She went, no, because Priscilla Higginbottom, she had to play. She never gave me a chance. I said, Grandma, what year was that? 1917. Listen, and still thinking about it, And that's why she would go spin out on you and get depressed and quiet and just go off. Why? Her mind was filled with bad thoughts. Not immoral thoughts, but just negative. Whatsoever is true, whatever is lovely, whatever is pure. How many wanna dedicate your mind to the Lord today? Lift your hands up, just lift them up, just lift them up. Lord, we give you our minds. We give you our thought life, Lord. We wanna please you by the way we think today and tomorrow. We don't want nasty, negative stuff in there, Lord. Purify our minds. Fill us, your minds, with your word. so that we can make you happy by the very way we think during the day. Teach us to think about your goodness and your mercy, not the bad things in life, the cheap things of the culture, Lord. We pray it in Jesus' name. One last one. Repeat after me. Work the right way. Think the right way. Last one is talk the right way. The way to please God and the way to displease Him, subhoka, your mouth, my mouth. Look at the verse up in the front. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up. Oh, stop. But only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. You're gonna open your mouth and use it? I'm gonna open my mouth? I have to realize there's life and death in the tongue. I can bring blessing to someone by the way I talk. I can hurt somebody by the way I talk. And Paul is saying now, don't talk to please yourself. No, I got to let it all out. Where does that say that in the Bible? It doesn't say that. That's Freud. That's not Bible. No, I got to let everyone know what I feel. Where is that in the Bible? I can't find that. If you have a friend or a pastor you need to talk to and we can pray, fine, but blabbing every discontented feeling you have inside of you is not conducive to anything. You're supposed to, you and I are supposed to talk and we're supposed to think, what could I say to help the person in front of me? Well, I don't know that person, pastor. I know, let's just try to ask God, what could I say to help them? Well, I could be pleasant, I could be kind. I know, but I don't know them. I know, but the Bible says, every conversation, every word, let it be edifying to not you, not what you wanna say. What will help that person? What is it, one out of 100 Christians even believe that or try to practice it? We just blab. We just talk. And if people don't agree with what we're saying, we get mad at them. But now Paul says, let your conversation be seasoned with grace in another place. And is this constructive? Will this help the person I'm talking to? No, I don't think it will. Then I ain't talking. By the grace of God, I will shut up. You know, sometimes God's perfect will is to be quiet. and not talk, why? There's nothing constructive that can be said, and we've all failed, me the most. We just talk. And words hurt more than a punch. Am I correct or not? I was in the, as he comes to play, Jamal, I was in the diner on the corner before the pandemic, and there's a waitress there, and she's, I know her, right? So, I'm drinking my decaf and I look in the corner and she's crying hysterically, sitting instead of waiting on tables. So, I go over to her. She knows who I am and the connection to the church. And I said, Rosa, what's wrong? She goes, why can't they just pay the bill? I said, what happened? Tell me. She said, this guy, I waited on him and he didn't like something or whatever, the food, whatever. So I give him the bill and he's walking out. And then he just starts using these filthy words. She repeated them, which she shouldn't have. He said, why don't you go back to Mexico? And she's broken, crying. She would have rather taken a vaccination rather than that. That's what words can do. You think that guy was thinking about, oh, what can I say to help her? Anyone you meet, let's say I don't even know the waitress or the waiter at any restaurant. I don't have to know them. Why can't I say something that might help them? You don't know what they're going through. They could be suicidal. Their kid could have run away from home. Their daughter could be pulling her hair out and cutting herself. How would you and I know that? So what does it cost to talk nice to people? Ooh, all my life I've been around fake Christianity that talks about all the things about God and all that. And then with the mouth, people just rip each other apart. I detest that. Anybody with me? I don't want that. How many want to be free from that kind of religion? Just, Oh Lord, you miserable. Can't stand it. And that hurts God. It weakens us. I've had times in my life where I've misused my mouth and I can actually feel weaker spiritually, like I grieve the Holy Spirit, big time. I don't wanna do that. I wanna work right, think right, and talk right. Now you... Psalm 19, so let the words of my and the meditations of my, we got two in one, thinking and talking. The words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart be acceptable, pleasing, one translation has. So by my meditations, I can make God happy. By my things I think about, I can make God sad. I can grieve the Holy Spirit. By my words, I can make God so happy. Yes, that was a good thing you said. I helped you say it, but that makes me happy. Or I could just run and just hurt God, hurt me, hurt everybody. So how many wanna start tomorrow? Or no, today, we don't know about tomorrow. Let's start today. How many wanna work right? Think right and talk right by the grace of God. With God's help, lift up your hand, okay? Let's pray. Put your hand on your forehead, please. The other one, put it on your chest. God, we pray. I pray God that you'll fill our minds and our hearts with pure thoughts, good thoughts, helpful thoughts, kind thoughts, noble thoughts. Keep us from cheap thoughts, dirty thoughts, angry thoughts, resentful thoughts. We give you our minds and our hearts today. Put your hand over your mouth, please. God, we give you our tongues and our mouths. By your grace, Let our conversation be helpful, not to us, but to the person who's listening. Help us to not have us as the center, but the person that we're talking to as the center. Please, Lord, and help us to work tomorrow, should we wake up. Help us to work a good day, whatever we do. Housewife, whatever our job is, help us to do with all of our heart, not trying to please people, but make you happy, Lord. Not just when the boss is looking, but all the whole day through, Lord. Save us from laziness and idleness. Start with me, Lord. You said six days we should work, one day to rest. You laid that down as a principle, God. This is the way we're to live. And then one day when we go home, we're not gonna work anymore. We're gonna be with you forever and ever. But until then, hold us and keep us. And we thank you for your goodness. Every eye still closed. If you're here today and someone really did it to you weeks ago, months ago, or years ago, I mean, they did it to you. Broke your heart, stuck a knife in your back, turned it once or twice. They just really hurt you. And for the life of you, you can't get free from those memories. Gotta give your mind now to Jesus. He heals memories. He can take what's sour and make it sweet. And I wanna just pray for you. Anyone in that situation, just stand where you are. Pastor? Your word today was medicine to me from the word of God, but I'm struggling with these hurtful, painful memories. Just stand up where you are. Yes, yes, yes. Lord, you see all those who are standing. Let there be a balm in Gilead, a sweet ointment that will come and heal hearts that have been broken. And cleanse our minds and keep us on the right track in our thinking, Lord. We can't go back, we can't think about it. Because it's not edifying, it's not pure, it's not good, it's not holy, it's nothing. It's just negative. Keep us sweet. no matter how sour everyone is around us. But we pray this in Jesus' name. And everyone said, no one moving, everyone stand. Come on, sing, all my life, everyone. All my life You have been faithful All my life You have been so, so good With every breath that I have made You I will sing Hit the band! of the goodness of God All my life you have been faithful All my life you have been so Everybody happy? Dorothy, could you just hand me, because the Bible says, count your blessings. And it says whenever God does something, the bag that was handed to me before the meeting began. This is a blessing to my wife and I. I want to thank God for it. You know what's in here? Doubles. Does anyone know what doubles are? Raise your hand if you know what a double is. One of the members of the church just walked over. I didn't, I mean, I'm so grateful. In everything, give thanks. Am I correct? Can we just thank God for this person who did this for me? I'd like to add one verse. Whatever you do, do it with all your heart. If you're going to bake a cake, bake the best cake you can make. Am I correct? And give me a piece, please. God bless you. You may turn to each other. Give someone a hug or a handshake. Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God. All my life You have been great to me. All my life. Oh I will sing of the goodness of God Where are you going?