We are in our study of 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy, it's been an exciting passage of scripture and going verse by verse through this text. We are in chapter number 5 and what I'm calling the lesson 15 or the 15th sermon. And the title of the sermon is called Widows Indeed. And we take that from verse number three, Widows Indeed. Honor widows that are widows indeed, okay? So we're gonna talk about what this means. Before we do, we'd like to ask the Lord's blessing. Heavenly Father, I pray that you'd help me as I deliver this message to put me aside and allow your Holy Spirit to speak and Whether it be those that are watching tonight on Zoom or those that are here in person, I pray we take home a blessing from what we came here for and that you might excite us about what we have to see here. Lord, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. So, I think you can understand that in a day in the ancient of times when this was written, you know, in 58 AD, there really wasn't a social security system. They really didn't have in Rome or any of the Roman Empire or the other kingdoms that were from that period of time. a way to take care socially of those people. So it was really up to the individual, as it should be, as it should be. Does anybody remember when our social security system came in history to the United States? Anybody remember? Approximate time? FDR. So it came in the, what we call the New Deal of right after the involved with the Great Depression and then Franklin Delano Roosevelt became really the first, maybe the second, depends how you feel about Woodrow Wilson, but the second socialist that actually got into the presidency and made our country into a socialist country, very changed country. I think he has overshadowed our country in so many ways that we wouldn't even have recognized it prior to that time. It really came down to the fact that churches were very important to the life of an individual, to a family. It was necessary. Today, the poor don't have to go to church and have a church that they call their home to really get their needs met. They can run to the government for help. And so also is true about those that are storing away for the future, or they were put into an awful plight at their later part of their life by maybe the death of their grown children, and so they find themselves without the ability to really care for themselves entirely. And the Bible put that under the jurisdiction of a church, and then FDR and others since, like LBJ and these other communists that were in the government. This is a history lesson here. If FDR and LBJ were not communists, they were so much like communists that it would be hard to imagine somebody more socialistic and communist than they were. And so don't be offended at that if you say, I like FDR. Well, there's some things you might like about him, like his execution of the war, perhaps, or whatever. But his ideals were not American. They were not of the Founding Fathers type of ideas. And the Bible was incorporated into the founding of our country so that the biblical pattern was really the functioning agent of the country. So as people, just like George Washington said, that a good democratic republic, a republic that we had, required that its people have virtue or it will not survive. So Christianity had to be part of this and not just as a name, but you had to live the Christian principles or our country was not going to survive. And so as you come down to the turn of the century of the 1900, there was a lot of false belief, a lot of turning from God. And then we get to the 1920s and we had the Stokes Trials where they removed the teaching of creation from the public school system. And so then we come to this crisis financially which is nothing new. We had a crisis and I think it was in our country right after the revolution and we had a crisis then and under the leadership I believe of who is Martin Van Buren. In 1819 we had a crisis. We had a crisis in 1873. I believe that Ulysses was still the president at that point. In 1873 it crashed so bad that it would have been equal to the Great Depression, but J.P. Morgan had in the national budget was such that he could write a check and he secured the national government. He bailed out the entire country. It's an interesting study of what we have in our country and the ideas that our capitalist system will naturally recover means that the people who live there have to believe it. But if you don't believe it, if you're living for I want what's mine, it will never function. but as he came to fdr's administration the actual care of all of those that are uh... of an older time with the social security administration and the acts of the welfare and uh... that we pedal around you know the d w p a n and uh... and all of these organizations that spent money that was made out of nothing because it was just printed and it brought socialism and inflation it did not and The Great Depression, did you know that? It prolonged it. The ending of the Great Depression was the great war economy. The war ended the Great Depression because they had not totally removed capitalism from our country. And the capitalist concepts of our founding fathers brought us out of that. But one of the effects that it did by establishing the government as the solution to all the problems is that it, one of the things it did, it warped the minds of a generation. So that by the time the 1970s came around, they were telling you that this is how you should eat. We have a food pyramid that the government is passing out. It was a mess. It's a mess. And so now we have one of the most out of shape countries and I'm one of them as a result. It is not working and it will never work if people are not going to live their Christianity. But it pulled the rug out from underneath the churches. It said, hey, we don't really need to belong to a church. You know what, there's a good thing if you need your church. It's a good thing if you have to have your church. And so if you want to ruin Christianity in America and make it almost impossible to have a third great awakening, which is necessary if we're going to turn this country around. I mean, I like what's happening with some of the decisions of President Trump, but it is not going to solve the problems. We need revival. But if you can imagine, no longer do people need their churches. It doesn't matter if you go to church or not because the government will feed you. It doesn't matter when you get old, if you're part, you meet the qualifications of a widow indeed, you don't need that anymore, you don't need your church, you don't need the help, you don't need the prayer, you certainly don't care if God is part of the solution, because you're not a believer anymore. The country has had, by its government policies, set it up for an atheistic socialism takeover, and it's been a hundred years in the making. You are living in that time. But let's find out what a widow indeed means and then find some points for us. A widow indeed is the fact that before there was any of this government interference into the work of God, when people were without any help and they were strapped, perhaps as I mentioned, because of maybe the death of their grown children and the lack of the ability to, they maybe outlived the resources that they set aside. They could come under the jurisdiction of an independent church. Now look, it's going to give us some ideas about this, but you walk through this. In verse number three, what we notice is the respect that ought to be given to the older people. Amen. Honor widows that are widows indeed. So there's some talk in our church about how I'm sometimes getting on the children because, hey, you're cutting in front of the walking space of those who are older and they're managing their ability to walk is going away. And it is disrespectful to cut in front of them and make them feel uncomfortable, especially anywhere near the stairs. And you say, but pastor, I'm young and I can zip, zip, zip, zip, zip. Yes, you can do that. But then if you did, you wouldn't be showing honor to the older people of our church. Isn't it interesting? The Bible is interested in us being totally honored. Honor before accomplishment. So you say, but I've got to get up there and I've got to get my stuff in. Oh, I left my candy bar down in the, I want a candy bar and I forgot it downstairs. I got to go get it. And you know what? You should value, before you get anything done, you should value honor before that. To be noble, to be accepted with God is more important than getting something done. You must do it in honor. Look at verse 4. Notice the resources that are available first through a family. Now we're going to find this also. We'll read verse 4. Then we're going to go down these to verse number 7 and 8. You notice this passage goes all the way to verse 16. In verse number four, but if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn to first show piety at home. And here we have this phrase to requite their parents. For that is good and acceptable before God. So the Lord said, hey, it's time in the aging time of a person's life that when necessary, they have to rely upon their own children or even their nephews. Interesting. That there should have been a family network tied into the church to carry the load of those that are older. This idea that you can turn on your parents and watch them get old without helping them when they need help, not if your parents are financially set and they don't need your help, but to requite your parents is being there when they need you. Being there when they need you. And before a church was going to take over the charge of somebody that would be called a widow indeed, they would necessarily have to come after they have passed the resources of their family network. So first, their family takes care of them. But as I mentioned earlier, sometimes there are situations where a widow is either in a position where their children are no longer available, or maybe they got saved at an older age and their children are not saved and they don't believe. So the Lord made provision. So going on to verse number, flip down to verse number seven. And these things give in charge that they may be blameless. So the Lord has a judgment about whether they are real widows indeed or not. So we're gonna get back to verse five and six. But I wanna bring to you verse number eight. But if any provide not for his own. Here we go. And especially for those of his own house. He hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. So we notice that a person has the responsibility to care. I've seen some people turn on their parents in their old age, and I just scratch my head and wonder, are those guys so foolish to believe they're not gonna get old? Like I believe that you're gonna reap what you sow, and one day I'm going to have to sit down in a rocking chair and watch the sun set a little earlier than I get through the day today. It's going to come that we're going to get old. But some people act like they don't believe they'll ever get old. They're teaching their children how they plan on their children treating them by the way they're treating their parents. I mean, it is like saying, I want to live for today. It's like the ultimate expression, I want to live for today, for me. What a selfish living. Your parents did everything to help you, from the time you needed your mouth wiped and your food put in a bottle and your diaper changed, right? And they cared for you when nobody else would have protected you. They cared for you. They taught you, you say, but they weren't perfect. Nobody's perfect. But they did their best. And at some point in time, you can't just be kind. In our society, just being there for them is what they need. But you act like you're not gonna get old. And that's for some of those who don't do what they're supposed to do. And the Lord has a judgment on that. He said, you've denied the faith. And you're worse than an infidel. Now infidel means an unbeliever. Like the word fide, you heard about the Latin word sola fide, means only faith. And infide, the root word is fide from the Latin word for faith. So infidel would have been the unbeliever, be somebody who is a non, inverting that, like the negating alpha, inverting that to mean a non-believer. So the Lord says, hey, you're worse than a non-believer when you're not taking care of your family. It's an interesting thought, isn't it? Does the Lord want you to pay your own way? Yeah. He tells you that. In Ephesians, part of being a new creature is let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor. In other words, stop stealing. Once you get saved, stop stealing and go get a job, work. labor, and pay your own bills. Does the Lord want you to be on welfare? Not ever, not ever permanently. It never was designed to create a total part segment of society that is completely dependent upon the government. A large part that is brainwashed to vote a certain way to maintain their paycheck. I mean, it is bought and paid for by them. But the fact is that God never intended, yes, help, but you should have had to come here to get that help. And then if you were only, do you realize that when they put the amendment through for the income tax, is that the 16th amendment? That's what's in my head. I could be wrong. But the income tax, they almost put the wording in there that they would limit it to 3% of your income. But when they, 3%, listen, 3%! Wouldn't that, we wish they could go back. But you know why they didn't put it in there? Because they thought it would never get ratification. Because it's an amendment, it would need to be ratified by the states. If we tell them 3%, people are gonna never go for that because they were never taxed like that. And you're somewhere between 35 and 40% of your income presently being taxed at this point. So think of what you could do if 30 or 40% of your income was just handed back to you and the government was limited to living off of 3% of our income. Now get what I'm saying, you could have so much more to help one another. Government had no business getting into the business of charity. That wasn't their work. They're not ordained for that thing, but we have to reply. We have to take care of our people. No, they need a church. They need God. Let them go yonder and pray some. Let them get hungry enough to learn to pray. That would be good for them. To require them to be dependent upon God would have been a better country. But the devil has got some pretty wise ways. and he knew how to convince this. So here, this is God's plan. To become a widow in deed meant that you had really to be a widow in need. Can I say it that way? I mean, we know, look, if you will, at verse number five. Let's get into verse five, and there are some negative things, like you're going to find some rules that I'm not going to go through every little list, but I'm going to mention them. It says, now she that is a widow in deed and desolate. So here's a widow that's in deed. They're going to define it. One thing is she's desolate. What does it mean? Well, it's just mentioned about family. She's apparently without help. Now I'm gonna tell you, if this church had one of these in our church, man, we would do what we needed to. I mean, even though there are the supplemental helps and social security, even this week we had one of our widows who had a problem with their plumbing, and I think Elijah was calling Terry, and Terry was trying to find the right tool to go over and help. We as a church will do everything that we can for those that are in need. Now, not only that, but it says trusteth in God. So here's some positive things. So we're not really supposed to consider a woman to be a widow indeed just because she's desolate. She has to also trust in God. If a church is going to manifest itself to care for the physical needs of somebody, the Lord says, hey, they have to be a believer. Isn't that interesting? It's interesting that the Lord put some regulations here to not only protect the church, but to protect the person that's receiving the aid. They need to trust in the Lord. Not only that, it says, and continueth in supplication and prayers night and day. I mean, guess what? What does that say to a person that's a widow? You ought to get busy in the house of God. You know, if you're all of a sudden finding yourself lonely and you're at home, I've seen people turn to drinking because they're lonely. They turn to watching movies all the time. And I'm gonna tell you this, that unless you're watching reruns after reruns after reruns, I'm gonna tell you something, there are only so many good things to watch. you're going to end up compromising and watching things that are not right, that ought not to ever enter to the heart of a young, to a Christian. But I think the widows and even the widowers ought to get down here to the house of God, and they ought to find something that they say, this is my ministry, more than the average person, because you now have time. I have watched those that get older, and the older that all of us get, You have to eventually stop working just to get to all the doctor's appointments that you have to follow up on. And so that's some part of that. But man, we have so many things that we would wish to do on top of what we are already doing if we would accomplish God's plan. This is exciting. So going down verse five and verse six here, but she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. So the Lord says, hey, we're talking about somebody whose dedication and whose heart is not about the flesh, but is about spiritual things. So we're looking at somebody who is willing and makes a practice of extra supplication and prayers day and night and isn't living in pleasure, verse number six, verse seven. I'll go down here to verse number 9. There's even an age requirement. We're down to verse number 9. Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man. So if a church is going to take over the charge of a woman, it couldn't have been like the life of a woman at the well. Well, you've had five husbands and the one you're with now, oh well, we should just overlook somebody's sin. Not according to the Bible. They have to be past a certain age and having been with one man. Meaning, I'm not talking about if your husband died and you remarried, that's not, it is following the law. Just like we mentioned in a couple chapters before this that a bishop must be the husband of one wife. You know, not divorced and remarried. So there's a requirement here. Isn't that interesting? Interesting, I think it's great. The Lord has declared, therefore we have to listen to the Lord, amen. And it says, verse number 10, here's a bunch of requirements, this is great. Here we have some requirements, well reported up for her good works. What else should we say? If she have brought up children. So notice her home, she's got brought up children. Notice nextly her hospitality, if she have lodged strangers. So she has to be hospitable. She also has to be humble. If she has washed the saint's feet. Wow. If she have relieved the afflicted, so not only the home and hospitality and humility, but look at her heart. If she have relieved the afflicted, she's got a passion. But look at also, she's at her helpfulness. It says, if she have diligently followed every good work. So this is a widow indeed. So the church will take charge of somebody, but what is it gonna require? Man, they have to be a good Christian. Do you see that what God has set up here is really a situation of dependence upon a church and a dependence upon living right? It is important. We're gonna mention this when we have some summary points here in a moment, but I wanna go back to verse number, 11 and following there, we have some things that the Lord says watch out for. Look at verse 11 through, I think, verse number 13. But the younger widows refuse. Wow. So we're supposed to really be dogmatic. So she has to be 60 or above. So if somebody is in their 30s and has this experience where all of a sudden they find themselves As a widow, the Lord says, she's not past her prime yet. I'm giving it that today we live longer. But you're not past your prime. What does that mean? Well, then you take charge of somebody who has probably the ability still to go earn a living, or in their economy, to seek out a godly husband, to replace them. Now, follow me. For when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry. So, for some reason, God knows that that individual will probably not love only Christ and be willing to dedicate all of their attention to the work of the Lord. You say, boy, this is pretty strict. I know. You're talking about the financial charge of a person's life. And the Lord said, hey, before we're going to do that, we're laying down the groundwork. Now, before you get all like, pastor, I'm never going to be a widow like me. I'm never going to be a widow. I'd be a widower, right? OK. And I have a rule. I have to go first in my home. Listen, I'm going to give you some points at the end to apply this to our lives, but if you'll follow me for just a few more minutes. Going to verse number 12, it says that having damnation because they have cast off their first faith. Now, there's nothing wrong with remarrying. Nothing wrong. What he's talking about is, here is a widow who is like 33 years old or something, and she commits, makes a decision, a vow to God to be continually in the service of God and that alone, and she doesn't keep the vow she makes to God. And the Lord says, hey, I was listening to that. So the Lord says, in order to avoid that, when they're that young, they can't be under the financial support of the church. I don't know if you're interested, but this just is interesting to me. that the Lord knows people better than we do. Like he is the ultimate anthropologist because he's the designer. I mean, he is the greatest sociologist because he made how we are supposed to interact, and he knows us. Let's go on, verse number 13. And with all they learned to be idle, so he says, hey, I've watched these people, they get idle, wandering about from house to house. They got too much time. And not only idle, but tail tattlers also in busy bodies speaking things of which they ought not. So here is the gossiper. And the Lord says, refuse that one. We're not going to take that one in. So then, we get down to verse 14 and following, we have really what we'd call the recommendation of the apostle, verse number 14. He says, I will, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some have already turned aside after Satan. So this says, hey, I've already seen this happen. And we're gonna stop this right now. Okay, now stay with me, we're almost to the end of this passage. But notice the instruction in verse number 16 is actually to the family of the widow. If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them. In other words, you pay their way. Again, going back to the ability of a family as a network to handle this task. They are instructed to take care of them, and let not the church be charged, that it may relieve them that are widows indeed. What is he saying? He's coming to the admission that in a real sense, we only have so much money. And he's saying, hey, families, if you're in a condition where you're not, you have a widow in your family that doesn't meet these requirements, you pay for them. And save the church's money for those that meet these requirements. So when a church takes the charge of a widow that we're calling a widow indeed, boy, they're pretty spiritually minded people. You don't have to worry about if they're gonna be stealing out of the supply closet. Remember that in Belize? We had widows that, you know, they go in to use the bathroom and we'd have to go check afterwards, okay, how many rolls of toilet paper did you put in your purse? Right, we had that happen. I mean, we're not gonna, if a person is under the charge of a church in the New Testament under these regulations, Then they know how to pray. The church is getting something for their money. Think about that. They're getting something for their money. What are they getting? They're getting a full-time prayer warrior, not some game player, not some gal that wants to flirt around in the town or cause problems with their busy body, idle talking, and they're gossiping. But we have somebody who's diligently sold out to God. We'll get into verse number 17. Notice what it says, let the elders that rule well. We're going to get into a section from there to the end of the chapter that I believe talks about the elders that rule well. So we're talking about those pastors that are doing a good job. It's going to talk about the conduct of a good pastor. We'll get to that in a few weeks. But I think in the interest of this, I was in my, wherever I was in my study or in the morning praying, asking the Lord like, you know, how much of this applies to all the church? But I want you to notice, we're talking about verses three through verse number 16. So we're talking about 14 verses out of this passage. Out of a book that's only six chapters long, So what does that mean? Well, if you go back, look back at chapter number three. In verse number one through seven describes the qualifications of your pastor. Seven verses. We spent 14 verses, twice as long on this person that's called a widow indeed than we did on the pastor of the church. All of a sudden we pastors don't seem very important, do we? I was praying about this and then the Lord gave me this thought. I want to give you three thoughts to take home with you in summary. The first thought is that the Lord cares about widows. He cares enough to supply twice as many verses about the widow that he did even about the pastor, and even more than that on the deacon. He spends much more talking about the requirements of this individual. What does that mean? Who are these widows? Well, I think they represent the helpless of our day. Often in society, without a social security, Leftovers from families that weren't there to plan their future, to pay for their families. Maybe they're from unsaved families because you're worse than an infidel, you're worse than an unbeliever if you don't take care of your own. So these are the leftovers, the unables, the unwanted because their family didn't want them if they have family. But these people were those that could not care for themselves. In Acts chapter 6, the Bible describes the choosing of the first deacons. And he puts also, just to emphasize this, that he puts in the churches from the very start that the cause for the choosing of deacons, which are helpers or ministers, to the church is because the widows were being neglected in the daily ministration. See, in two large passages of scripture, significantly about the church, We have that the Lord has made provision for the least, as we would say, the least of the least. I mean, they can't even clean and work as hard, theoretically, lifting as much and moving as much as men of their very same age. What I'm saying is you discuss their usefulness in a raw way. The Lord has just proven that his heart is providing for those that are, in many ways, you could call the least of the church. And I believe that not the wealthy, not the able, not the intelligent, not the useful, not the talented, but God considers the helpless people within the church, the widow who is alone, represents those people, but would include the infirm, the helpless of any kind in any way. They are just as important to God as the pastor. According to the number of verses, maybe twice as important. It is remarkable how the world's philosophies enter into the house of God. And I've noticed this, that whatever the culture is demanding, that is our accepted way in the church of God. And we need to be more careful to have godly principles. There's a feeling that ones who are important in a modern church setting become the givers, the useful in the service of God. Those who follow the teachings just right, well, they do what I say. Therefore, I esteem them to be very important. And God says, hey, that widow down there that can't give a lot, remember the widow's might, that can't go a lot because she's got some health issues, the one who can't serve a lot like she'd like to. But God says, I love that one just as much as anybody else. What a God we serve. I just got excited about that. I sat there in my office and I typed that out. My first point is that the Lord cares about widows. He cares enough of you that become widows that he will rearrange the entire budget of a church to care for you in your desolation. What a God. What a God. Pay the widows before you pay the pastor. Amen? Send him out to go tent making if you need to, but take care of the widows. What a God. Second point tonight. The Lord cares about character. The Lord cares about character. In reflecting on the passage, there is a clear value placed on the widow for her character. She is to be rejected, to be called a widow in deed would depend on the way that she follows the Lord. Notice that she has been commended to the care of the church because of both positive things that she followed the Lord and negative things that would have disqualified her that she has passed those qualifications because of her heart for Christ. She had lodged strangers. She served and dedicated herself to good, hard labor. She's given to hospitality. She washed the feet of the saints. God is looking about character. Character does mean something in this world. We are all unworthy of God. But in Christ, we receive that new nature and the Spirit's fruit in our lives. So when you get saved, it doesn't matter. So here is the picture of this widow indeed, right? Because if she has been saved for a long time, she probably has family to care for her, right? You understand that? Probably. I mean, she could have been childless, but it's possible she would have raised her kids to love the Lord. But we're talking about people that probably got saved later who then after their salvation begin to meet the qualifications of our text. And man, they become outstandingly dedicated to the right. Their character has been substituted. Sorry, that's not the word. Their character has been subject to the work of sanctification. That's what I meant to say. In other words, they've allowed God to take a broken sinner and to remake them into a widow indeed, whose character reflects sanctification in their lives. Otherwise, I think they would have people to care for them. In other words, God is not looking for a perfect record. He's looking for a heart that eventually got it right. He's looking for somebody who said, I'm going to let the sanctification of God enter into the deepest part of my heart, and I'm not going to hold anything back from God. In fact, the note that I made here is that there is nothing in your life that is outside of sanctification. There isn't any area of your life that ought not to come under the scrutiny of God's microscope, looking about the holiness of that area of your life. What if it was revealed before all of us today, the secrets of your heart? Pastor, don't talk about those things. Yeah, it'll all be revealed at the end. When the Romans chapter two says that the secrets of men's hearts shall be revealed. Interesting. God is interested in character. All of our works are to be sanctified. Our mind is supposed to be sanctified. Our relationships are to be sanctified. And overcoming is the key, not perfection, victory. Because we're all sinners. Every widow indeed that ever lived was a sinner. Every widow indeed was desolate. made desolate by some trials that took their loved ones, maybe their children and maybe their husband, or the fact that they were childless and their husband died without any provision, or they got saved and from that time their lives were subject to the sanctifying work of God and they became widows worthy of God's supply. God is interested in character. Last thing, I see in this passage that the Lord warns about reaping and sowing. Now look at, specifically at verse 10. Go back to verse 10. He warns about reaping and sowing, well reported of for good works. So what you have done is recompensed back to you in later years. Isn't that a Bible principle? But then he describes those works in the following, if he had brought up children, if she had lodged strangers, if she had washed saints feet, if she had relieved the afflicted, if she had diligently followed every good work. Where the other side of the aisle is like, well, they got money, they took care of themselves, and they were not giving to the Lord their works. They were doing things to make their houses bigger, nicer, fancier, and more plush. And see, the Lord says you're going to reap what you sow. You live with this earthly things in view, then you reap that in your life. You sow to the flesh, you shall of the flesh, what? Reap corruption. But if you sow to the spirit, you shall reap life everlasting. So the Lord says, hey, I'm watching the balance of your life, and I'm watching it enough that even the physical care could come down to whether you were reaping and sowing. I like this. Much of the condition of our lives needs to have a viewpoint of the big picture, the big picture. Everybody follow me? Instead of looking at like, well, what can I do to get mine? What's mine? It's all about me. Man, more comfortable. They got a gadget for everything. A gadget for everything. So, I mean, I got on Amazon the other day, and my wife suffers from some arthritic problems in her hands. And, you know, there are some things that I watch for. And several times we've been here getting ready for something, and there's a, not just the jar, you know, your wife asks you to open that jar to make you feel good. I'm not talking about that. Make it like, I need you. So, yes, I can do that. I'm so good to you. Anyways, beyond that, she's been opening cans and trying to get this like, I don't know, y'all donated these things to the kitchen down there and everybody gave the worst can openers I've ever seen in my life. Not one of them will open a can by themselves. I mean, you're like beating this thing trying to open it with a, anyway. They have this little gadget now, all you ladies are gonna run out and buy them, I can tell you I need to get some kind of reward for selling these. But it's a little can opener, electric, you put it on top of a can, you press a button, it goes all by itself, runs around the can, and pops off the lid, and it cuts it on the side of the can instead of the top, so you never have anything sharp. Now, that is either, wow, look what they invented, or whoa, we're so dumb, we didn't get that earlier. But the Envy, they have a gadget for everything. You can have a gadget for anything nowadays. And if you live to see what kind of gadgets you have, why don't you live for something bigger? Why don't you think of the fact that our lives have a beginning and an end and where God wants you to be by the end of your life and think about the preparation, not just financial things of laying aside enough money for the future, but think about what God wants you to do before you look him eye to eye with an eternity in view. So many live carelessly at a young age, and then they wonder why the blessings go to those who seem to be too serious. You know, they're back. You're going to go to Bible college, you'll find it to be true. There'll be some that are kicking their feet up, buying pizza, looking like they got nothing to do. And you're going to be working a job, probably. I'm guessing you'll have to work a job. I'm just going to guess that you'll work a job, because I'm broke. Just kidding. You're gonna be running like a chicken with your head cut off. Working every, like, how can I get more done? I'm squeezing every little minute out. I mean, my day timer's so packed with every little thing I'm writing in there, and I don't even know how I'm gonna possibly get it all done. But some people live carelessly even though they should be living diligently. And then, you're gonna be looking at them saying, why are they, they have all the time in the world. I remember looking at those people saying, Man, it'd be nice to eat supper at the college one time every semester. I was always working. Mike was there. Man, we were sometimes doing our homework. Don't do this on your own. Don't do this at home. It's a science experiment. Putting our books that we're reading on our steering wheels. Trying to finish our work. Every single minute. Don't try that at home. Promise it won't work. I'm trying to say that reaping and sowing means that you're going to look at today and what you need to get done based on what God wants you to do with your life. It's not caught up in what I want right now, but it's building for the future. It's looking at your children where they are and saying, what are the challenges that I need to bring them through and the training that they need to meet the next level of their spiritual lives? You reap what you sow. Spiritually, you will only get out of your life what you put into it. Little prayer produces very little results for God. Someone said little prayer, then there's little power. But then I found the other kind of side of things where people, some people are so often caught up in the mistakes that have gone in the past and they won't give that over to God so that one thing that happened to them in the past is still reaching up from way back yonder to stifle the life out of your accomplishment for God today. You need to let go of those things. Maybe it was our fault, maybe you did something that caused that problem, that regret that you have, and you can do nothing anymore about that except if there's some restitution that you need to make as far as making things right with certain people. But beyond that, you just ask for forgiveness and you ask God to help your future path, never to repeat the mistakes of your past and keep you clean and right and friend, but go on with your entire life and view what? What does God want me to do? And remember this then about reaping and sowing, is that God is so merciful. I have noticed something about God that wherever you are in life, if you stop right now and turn to Him, He's always there with great things for you. Nobody's ever a final mess up until you're done breathing. A person can sow some good things and God will show himself strong as First Chronicles 16 9 says. That it says the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on the behalf of him whose heart is perfect toward him. God wants you to turn to him at any time. Also at every time, every time you sin, turn back to God. Any time you're away from God, turn back to him. Every time, turn back to him and remember that that great omnipotent God says about himself that he is abundant in mercy. It never runs out and he will help you to become a reaper of good things if we're willing to let our lives become his. Now, we are quite willing to, as we'd say, carry on with life, missing the blessings that God reveals in his word. Because there are blessings here that we're not seeing in our lives, then we're just content to say, oh, that's just for the other people, whoever they are. They are for the lucky ones. Can you go through the Bible and find that word anywhere? Both are lucky, they're lucky. They're not lucky. You reap what you sow. But if there are blessings in the Bible that apply to our lives, then there's something wrong if we don't have it. You ought to challenge yourself to say, either I don't understand what the Bible, that's what I tell myself is, when I find a blessing that applies, like we hear these superlative promises of prayer, whatsoever you ask, whatsoever you ask, is that really in my life? Do I experience that? So either I don't understand the promise that's being made, or something is wrong with me, but probably nothing's wrong with God. But we're content to go on as if the blessings can be given to everybody else, but they aren't for us. I'm telling you, that is a very small way that a very big God doesn't want you to live. And you can become anything God wants you to be by the grace and mercy of God. but to learn that God cares for each of us in a unique way. Knowing our needs, providing for strength, guarding our lives to bring us, as the Bible says, to an expected end. You know what that ought to do? That ought to put a smile in the middle of your tears. It ought to put hope in the middle of your doubts. It really ought to change your sorrow into a day of mourning like sorrow is going to only last for a night but joy comes in the morning. When you realize the personal loving care of the almighty God who is merciful, who cares for what we would rightfully say are potentially the least of the church. At least some people might esteem them. God says, I care twice as much for them as I do the pastors. It's incredible, isn't it? I think it's awesome. You know why? Because that's our God, and he loves you. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord, for the blessing of your word, how that we come every service to the book, and we never come up dry. The well is always really, really, really wealthy in water for life's needs, to meet our heart's needs, to restore our souls, to challenge us where we are failing. And we thank you that in this instruction on a widowing deed, that indeed we can learn so much. So Lord, help us to bend our hearts and our minds, our thinking processes to the word of God. Bless us, Lord, in this invitation in Jesus' name, amen.