You are listening to It's Preaching Time. This broadcast spotlights Bible teaching and Bible preaching that will feed your soul and stir your heart. May God minister to you spiritually as you listen to It's Preaching Time. All right, take your Bible turn with you to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 this evening. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Thank you for being in church on Wednesday night. And I always say this, the only thing better than church on Sunday is more of it on Wednesday. And I'm glad that you're here. And I'm sorry that you have to come see me. I know you weren't expecting that. And I apologize, and don't worry, I'm not candidating. We're just here, okay? Anyway, but I'm honored to be back. And your pastor texted me on Monday night. I made the mistake. I trusted in him. I said, I'm not going to tell anybody, but preacher, I got this whole week off. I said, I had a revival meeting. It got canceled. I said, I get a whole week off. He said, that's a blessing. I won't tell anybody either. And then he texted me. He texted me Monday evening and said, hey, you want to come preach for me? I said, sorry, dog, wherever you are. Anyway, He's at home watching Dancing with the Stars or something, and he's making me preach. I can't believe that. I was going to do the same, and here I am at church. I'm not bitter about it. I just don't want to be here. But anyhow, I'm kidding. I'm honored to be here. And we came over early, and we ate down in Hendersonville, got some food there. And today's my wife's birthday. And she's, I forget how old, and she said I had to forget. But anyway, she had a birthday today, and we went to the Really did it right, went to the Blue Ridge Mall. I mean, really, he just walked around. I mean, it's very, very high-end birthday. And there's a lot of empty stores in there, kind of depressing. And I looked at Lincoln. He doesn't know what I'm talking about. I said, well, we're not in the 90s anymore. I can tell you that much, because, I mean, those things used to be packed out back in the day. So we've had a good day. Hope you've had a good day, too. I heard a, I think it was a he-haw joke. We're pretty spiritual at our house. But anyway, the old fellow had a cast on up to his shoulder. And his friend said, what happened to you? He said, I broke my arm in two places. He said, man, if I was you, I'd never go back to either one of them. And this is a good place. And I'm glad we got to come back and honored to be here. First Thessalonians chapter five. I wish I had a better outline and message for you. I'm just going to share with you what I studied myself this morning at home. And I just went through this chapter in my Bible study this morning. So I'm going to go through it with you tonight, if that's all right. And again, the thought God's in my heart. First Thessalonians chapter number five. And let's begin reading in verse number one. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation. And you might notice it sounds similar to Ephesians 6, but really it's more directly tied to Isaiah. And you study that out in the Old Testament, and there's reference there, and we'll talk about that maybe here in a minute. It says, "...for the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." Wherefore, comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly, and love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit, despise not prophesying, prove all things, hold fast that which is good, and let's just read one more verse, abstain from all appearance of evil. If you read through the book of 1 Thessalonians, really 1 and 2 Thessalonians, they deal with eschatology, and really what that is is a big throw away Bible college where it just means that dealing with stuff is going to happen down the road in the future. It deals with the second coming. It deals with the rapture and it deals with the day of the Lord or the revelation of Jesus Christ. These believers in this church were worried that their loved ones would stay in the grave if they died, had died already in the Lord. They thought maybe they would be hindered and wouldn't go up in the rapture. And then also they were troubled that maybe they would go through the tribulation period. And Paul writes to them in light of that. And he tells them, now listen, you're not ignorant. You understand that we've not been appointed, thank God, to this under wrath, right? But to obtain salvation. And he's not talking about here the salvation of our soul, but that is the salvation of our body, right? That is the redemption that we're waiting on, right? One of these days, thank God, this body be raised, like I said the other day, incorruptible, right? We'll have a glorified body, right? Be made new, made like the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he's talking about we're not going to go through a bit of the tribulation period. But the motivation here is the Lord is coming. And since we know He's coming, that will affect the way that we live our Christian life. We ought to live every day like the second coming is coming at any second. Now, the first coming of Christ is a well-documented historical fact, but can I say the second coming of Christ is the main theme of your Bible. All throughout the Scripture, it is the most covered topic of the Old Testament. And in the New Testament, it's referenced over and over again that the same Jesus that ascended to heaven is coming again, right? And one of these days, He will. And we're all going to see Jesus face to face. Now, I don't know when the Lord is coming, but I know He's coming, right? He could come at any moment. He could come before we get out of this surface. And I was thinking to come before I finish this next statement. See, he's scared to death. This next statement, we just know he's coming. And if that be true, that the Lord is coming, then I ought to live every day, rapture ready. I ought to live like he's coming. And for a little while this evening, I just want to speak to you on that thought, living like the second coming is coming at any second. And there's some principles here, some characteristics that ought to be in our Christian life, I believe. Let's pray. God, I need your help. I pray that you stir our hearts. Thank you for the truth of the scripture. And I pray God tonight that you bless these people who've come out. They've worked today, no doubt. Had a lot of different things going on. Maybe some are tired. I pray for just a few minutes you'd help us to look into your word and you'd strengthen us through it. In Jesus name. Amen. I've been studying in the book of First Thessalonians lately. I consider my personal Bible study and I love this book. If you study it out, it is different, this letter, than other letters that Paul wrote to the other churches. You study most of those letters, Paul is dealing with different sins and different problems and different issues in those churches. But really, when Paul writes to the Thessalonians, there's a lot of encouragement, a lot of edification. Paul is just sort of excited about what he's seen there, and he just admonishes them to continue and to be faithful to the Lord. And I thank God for that. You read here in the first chapter, in fact, he tells them, he said, I thank God always for you. And I thought about that. I've been to a lot of churches, but there's not a whole lot of them I've been able to say, I thank God for that place. A lot of them I preached in and thought, thank God I don't have to go back. But wouldn't it be good to go to a church and every time you think about it and the people there, you could say, you know what, just thank God for those people. They're faithful, and they're fervent, and they're steadfast. And that's what Paul saw in this church. And as Paul's writing here to the Thessalonians, you'll remember he went to Thessalonica in the book of Acts. It tells us about that. And Paul, in I think it's Acts 17, goes into the synagogue there and preaches. And many of the Greeks get saved, and the Jews get upset about that. And they begin to riot, they pull a man named Justice out of his home, and because of that Paul has to flee. And now Paul is writing back to those Christians that he cared so much for. And when we come to the chapter that we're looking at tonight, chapter number 5, it deals with living in light of the fact that Jesus is coming again. Now, you need to know, as a Bible-believing Christian, you need to know what's happening on God's prophetic calendar. You need to know eschatology, if you will. You need to know when the rapture takes place. You need to know about the tribulation period. You need to know about the second advent. You need to know about the millennial kingdom and all of those things, and you need to know when they happen. Because there's a lot of preaching that goes on today that really isn't very good preaching. I hear this a lot saying, well, we're doing something for the kingdom. We're doing kingdom work. And that is not true. We're not doing anything for a kingdom. We do everything for the local church, right? And the advancement of the gospel. There's no kingdom going to come until after the church is raptured out and in seven years of tribulation, right? And I hear politicians say, we're going to bring peace on earth. There's not going to be any peace on earth until the Prince of Peace is sitting on the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem. But one of these days, that's going to happen, right? The rapture of the church comes first. The rapture deals with saved folk. The Lord will come back in the clouds. The trumpet will sound. The dead in Christ will rise. We'll be caught up together. And we'll meet the Lord in the air. And then there'll be the judgment seat of Christ and all of that, the marriage supper of the Lamb up in heaven. After that is that seven-year period known as the Tribulation Period, when all hell breaks loose on earth, the Antichrist comes into being, and all kinds of judgments, 21 different judgments happen here on this planet, and the Lord is judging the nations, if you will, and then that comes with the Battle of Armageddon. The second coming of Christ as He comes back on a white horse and many crowns on His head. His name is faithful and true, the Word of God. And He smites them with the sword that proceeds out of His mouth. And the blood rises up to the bridle of the horses. And the devil is bound for a thousand years. And the Lord establishes His throne. And He rules and He reigns. And you and I get to rule and reign with Him in the Millennial Kingdom. And we know all about that. But that's going to happen one of these days. I think most Christians live like they believe in the first coming. They believe in the fact that Jesus came and was born in a stable in Bethlehem and even went to Calvary and died. But a lot of times we don't live like we think He's coming again. But I want you to know that the Lord is coming. The same Jesus that was born of a virgin is coming again. The same Jesus that turned water into wine is coming again. The same Jesus that opened blinded eyes and deaf ears and raised the dead, or as I like to call them, the Wednesday night crowd, He's coming again. The same Jesus that healed the leper and the palsied and all that, He's coming again. Any moment now, the Lord is coming. And if we know He's coming, how should we live? Well, it's right here in our text. Let's just look at it, and we'll be through. You begin to read down through the chapter, and Paul makes a distinction between the believer and the unbeliever. He says, we are children, not of the night, but children of the day. We're not children of darkness, we're children of light. And because of that, we should live differently than this crowd that we're in here in the world. In verse number 6, look what it says, Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation. And here's why. Verse 9, For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul is writing to these believers in chapter 4. He's already admonished them that the ones who have died in Christ are not going to be hindered and left behind at the rapture. They will go up with us. And then he looks at those still living and says, hey, listen, you are that crowd that are children of the day and children of the light. He said, you don't have to be worried about all this. You're just going to be watching for it because you've not been appointed under wrath. You're not going to go through a split second of the tribulation period. There is not judgment coming toward you. You're going to obtain salvation, if you will. The grace of God, thank God for that, will get you up and out before judgment comes. And because of that, you ought not be living like the lost crowd, or the wicked crowd, or the unrighteous crowd. They are characterized as being drunk. They are characterized as being asleep. Now what that means is this, they are detached and unaware of the reality that the Lord is returning at any moment. They go throughout their day and don't think about it. They don't think about it in their actions. They don't think about it in their activities. They don't think about it via their attitude. their aspirations, whatever else you want to say. They don't care. They're not even worried about the fact that the Lord is coming. They have no, seemingly, no sensitivity to that whatsoever. But not you. You know better. And because you know better, you should be sober. Now, it's not talking about you ought not be drinking. By the way, you ought not be drinking. I watched these ladies fill up those boxes there a little bit ago, and one of them put like five packs of cigarettes in those boxes. Real worried about this church. It's not talking about... It's funny until y'all open it. But anyway, it's not talking about necessarily that. It's talking about having a level head and a clear mind. Right? And then it says, there's like that crowd that sleeps, but not us. We should be awake. When you're asleep and when you're drunk, you're detached from reality, aren't you? You're not engaged in what's going on around you. That is basically what Paul is saying is, as a believer, you and I should be aware that the Lord is coming and live every day judgment seat ready, if you will. We should be living like He's coming at any second. Now, I don't know if that characterizes most Christians today or not. I'd say it probably doesn't. But I think it would change the way that many of us live and a lot of the decisions that we would make if we would live every day in light of His coming and think, if it happens today, I don't want to go to heaven from here. Right? Amen. I wouldn't want Jesus to come back and get raptured out from a barstool. Right? Or anything else that I'd not be doing. And if we live this way, listen, it's soberly and it's awake. Now look at verse number 10, "...who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do." Alright, so he's talking about having a heavenward focus. Verse 12, "...and we beseech you, brethren, To know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you." If we believe the Lord is coming at any moment, here it is. Number one, you've got to have your head on straight, right? Think soberly, be awake. But watch this. You should honor the servant of the Lord. If you really believe that the Lord is coming at any moment, you should watch how you treat those who labor in the Word of God on your behalf. Now listen. I might not agree with the President. But I have enough character, my parents trained me enough growing up to teach me, I respect the office. Right? You might not always agree with the individual, but you should always have respect for that office. Amen. I travel enough to know in different churches, I tell you, most of the ministry of an evangelist is really to pastors. It's almost like you're pastor and pastors, because really, most men that have me in don't have me in for the meeting. They have me in for the table after the meeting or at lunch. And we sit there together and they just want somebody they can talk to about everything that's going on in their church. Right. And it's a shame and it's a sad story around the country when you go and hear the things that preachers are put through by the people that they serve. It ought not be that way. You ought to help me a little bit. I must suspect you to be horrible people. But anyway, I mean, you ought to treat the man of God right. You ought to thank God you have a pastor, right? Anybody can pull in and preach. I'm trying to prove that tonight. But not just anybody can be your pastor, right? You ought to thank God there's somebody who prays for you and somebody who loves you and somebody who puts up with you. Say amen right there. You can call them at two in the morning and they'll be there. They're there at the funeral. They're there on your wedding day. They're there when babies are born. They're there when the financers are in trouble. They're just there for you. Thank God for a shepherd. I thank God for that. You could go around to most churches here tonight and you probably wouldn't find much of a pastor in many of these churches. It's just an endangered species. You'd find a bigfoot second cousin before you find a good pastor in most churches. Hey, you've got to treat them right. And I know you do, but you just ought to keep doing it. Amen? Treat your pastor right. You've got to not go home and just talk bad about your pastor. If you do and your kids go crazy, then blame yourself. Come on. Oh, I like it. You gotta not get on Facebook and do it either. Most people say, well, I didn't say anything. You know, your thumbs do all your talking. They say, I want to give somebody a piece of my mind. Don't do that. You have nothing left. Just keep it to yourself. And we ought to treat the man of God. I thank God for a pastor. I'm still glad I've got a pastor even now. I'm just kidding. But I've got a pastor. I'm glad that I can call my pastor if I have questions in life or if I have a prayer request. I thank God for that. God has given me a shepherd in my life. I'm not as smart as I want to think I am. And I didn't say that to segue into this. Neither do you. And isn't God good? He gave us the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit and a shepherd to help guide us through. Be good to your preacher. I go to some places and they try to keep the preacher humble. He doesn't need your help keeping him humble. Come on now. God will do a good enough job of that. And his wife will do a good enough job of that. He doesn't need your help to keep him poor and humble. Same man right there. You ought to bless the man of God. Here's what I've seen. Churches that are good to their preacher, God is good to those churches. You've got to honor the servant of the Lord. Let's go on before you think Brother Raines has me to come just preach on that verse. All right, let me see. Honor the servant of the Lord. Now watch this. It says in verse 14, Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly Comfort the feeble-minded, and that does sound like pastor in the kind of churches I preach. Comfort the feeble-minded. Support the weak. Be patient toward all men. Alright, now listen. Paul said in one, have a heavenward focus. Be sober and be awake. Number two, honor the servant of the Lord. Be good to your preacher. If you believe Jesus is coming, one of these days you'll stand face-to-face with Jesus, and listen, that pastor is going to answer for this church, not you. But you're going to answer for how you treated the pastor. Alright? And then number two, you gotta be, watch this, help the saints. Those people you go to church with. And here's how you do it. He says, warn them that are unruly. You know, you are not somebody's enemy whenever you go up alongside somebody in the right spirit and in the right way and try to help them whenever they are getting involved in something that can be detrimental to their walk with God. Now listen, if you're not very spiritual and you're not very seasoned, then don't you do that. If you've got cigarettes on your breath and snuff spit running down your chin, then you just don't need to help anybody else, alright? But I mean, if you've been down the road a little ways, and you've been walking with God, and you've got some authority there, you're a seasoned saint, then it's good. And I thank God for that. You've come up alongside of me and said, now listen, Brother Cooper, it's not necessarily sin what you're doing, but it could lead you somewhere you don't want to go. You might just want to be careful there. That is our job. If we really believe it, you know why? Because we're trying to keep the church as pure and strong as it can be, right? And so we go up alongside one another. Now, I said we have a pastor, but you know what? All of us ought to shepherd each other to an extent. Now, not in the wrong way. Don't be nosy. Oh, goodness. Don't you come try to help me with something that you've got something worse. But I mean, I'm just saying, we ought to love each other enough, when somebody's out of line, just say, hey, listen, maybe you ought not be talking to that person. Maybe you don't want to read that guy's books. I don't know. But I mean, just whatever it is, just help someone who is unruly. Watch this, comfort the feeble-minded. And that's not just like the front row of your church. Comfort the feeble-minded, though that could fit. What are we talking about here? We're talking about folks that are nervous and worried that they might miss the rapture here, aren't we? We're talking about folks that are upset that my dead loved ones might not get to go when the Lord comes back. They're not real steady, if you will. Comfort people like that. We shouldn't be adding anxiety to people. Right? I was reading in Exodus from my radio broadcast, and it's interesting, whenever Israel left Egypt, God had them go the long way around the land of the Philistines. And the reason is, he said, Moses, I don't want them to see war. Because if they see war, they'll want to run back to Egypt. And I thought about that in the life of a weak Christian. We don't want them to know all the drama going on at the church. They don't need to know every issue going on across America. They don't need to know every problem in everybody's life because they are not ready to handle that. When I first got saved, I thought everybody loved each other. I did. Seriously. I thought, I got those books like from Sword of the Lord and other things where preachers would preach and thousands got saved and I thought, man, everybody must love those preachers. Everyone must love each other in these churches. I thought everybody liked it. I thought every church loved everybody. I mean, I thought independent Baptist people just liked each other. And then it took maybe a month and I found out. I don't want to upset the people minded, but it's not that way. Man, I know stuff right now that not everybody probably needs to know about preachers. I'm not saying that they're disqualified. I'm just saying they're acting like babies. You know what I mean? They don't need to know that. Because listen, we want you to not lose respect for different people. Right? There might be something going on in somebody's family life that not everybody needs to know about. Right? I want to comfort. I want to encourage. Wouldn't it be awesome to come to church on Wednesday night and we just unload each other with our problems? Wouldn't that be a blessing? No, that's why you have to be careful to take up a half hour prayer request, because all that does is make people want to jump off a bridge. Right? But I mean, when we come to church, we want to comfort people, people. All right? Support the weak, the weak. Those are babies in Christ. Support the weak. We want to help them. Hey, listen, when I first went to church, first day I went to church, listen, I wasn't saving you. I was wearing a pair of shorts and a pink t-shirt and flip flops and a necklace. Now, if I dress like that tonight, you should let me have it. But listen, back then, I didn't know. I really did not know any better. I just went to church, man. I just was wearing like what y'all wear now. But I mean, that's just what I wore to church. And I went to church. I'm glad that nobody came up to me and just let me have it that night. Now, they were against all that. And more. But nobody came up beside of me and said, listen son, God bless him. Harry, you ought to get some long pants on. You're a big boy now. That pink shirt look like a homicidal. You know, I mean, couldn't you imagine that? I mean, I can imagine that happening in places. You know what? If that would have happened to me, I might not even been here. tonight might not have been saved. I believe that. Listen, when I got saved, I was listening to bad music, all kinds of stuff. Now, I know you all probably go to homeschool and all that stuff. Don't listen to me, all right? But anyway, stay in your bubble there. But I was listening to bad music, going to bad places, played guitar in bars when I got saved, all that kind of stuff. So I had no sense. I mean, everything out in the world, I've seen it or been a part of it, whatever. I didn't know anything about church, except we went on Sunday because we're Americans. You know what I mean? That's all. It took me a while to get as sanctified as y'all are. I mean, seriously, I thought Cool Lots was like some kind of Church of God language. I had never heard of Cool Lots. I thought I was speaking in tongues. You know what I mean? I didn't know anything about that. She went to our public school and her and her sisters would wear long dresses, and I thought it was a cult. I've never seen anything like that in my life. It's just totally foreign to me. So I did not get in like I just stepped out of a fundamental GQ magazine. You know what I mean? I looked like I was out of from the world. You know what I thank God for though? Those older saints, they never really did come directly at me and say, bless God son, you got to get rid of that bad music. Now they did, the preacher did when the pulpit would hint at it. But nobody came and just skinned me personally. You know what they did instead? They gave me good music. And they took their time with me. And you know what else they did? They invited me to things like Soul Winter and different things and said, now when we go, though, just so we represent the church well, we want to dress, you know, and they just tell me a certain way. But they didn't tell me the way you're dressing is wrong. They just said, no, we want to represent the Lord well. You know what they did? They led me softly. Hey, we believe the Lord's coming. One of these days, hey, listen, I don't want to stand before the Lord and say, boy, you sure were rough on everybody. Sure had a bad spirit. Come on now. You ran more off than you got in. I don't want to do that. I want to make sure that I'm doing this thing with a Christlike spirit. I want to support the weak. Watch this one. Be patient toward all men. I don't like that one. You see what that says? Be patient toward all men. Patience. You know what I'm not good at? Patience. You know what I'm going to do and think about what I got to do tomorrow right now? Patience. I'm in a hurry all the time. Mark Stroud told me something I wrote down in my Bible, and it makes me mad every time I see it because it's true. He said, God never gets in a hurry. Man, I hate that. I always get in a hurry. I just live that way. I'm hyper and highly caffeinated. I mean, that's just the way I am. I love it. But he said, be patient toward all men. Can you imagine that? What's that? Just be long-suffering. Just deal with it. Here, some people might really get on your nerves, but I promise you this, you really get on somebody else's nerves too. Why are y'all shaking your head? You're thinking about somebody else, aren't you? But anyway, we all know who it is. But they get on our nerves, and we get on their nerves, so let's just deal with each other. Here's what we ought to do. Let's just go ahead and apologize up front for getting on each other's nerves, because it's going to happen anyhow, right? And let's just go ahead and get that over with. That way we don't have to get mad, and we just go on. I love preaching on patience, knowing that we don't practice it very well. You just wait till we get in the church parking lot, we're all going to be like fighting each other, getting out first. You watch. We're all going to be honking, running at each other, get in traffic, flip off five old ladies, and get out of the way. I mean, you know, I'm in the church. It's time to go to bed. You've got to be patient toward all men, right? The conviction's thick in here tonight, all right? Help the saints. Be patient toward all men. Watch this one. See that none render evil for evil, verse 15, unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and all men. You know what this is talking about? Don't hinder society, those without the church. Don't live in such a way that you sour the gospel for folks who are not saved. I was preaching in a church a couple of weeks ago, and I told them, I said, if you don't get things right in your church, I said, you'll never have any hope of adding people to your church. I said, because, listen, bad news travels faster than the gospel does. And if you have a fight in your service, it makes it to Facebook before you get home. You know what? The people we're trying to reach, they deal with all kinds of mess at their house. All they do is fight and squabble and go back and forth. They don't want to do that when they come to church too. There's a lot of churches you go to and you think, I would never go back there. Why would you go back there? Nobody even likes each other. Wouldn't that be crazy to go to church with a bunch of people? I never understood that. Why would you go to church with a bunch of people you don't like? I think people like the fact that they don't like anybody. They're not happy unless they're miserable. And then they go and then it's just a big fight. Folks on this side don't like folks on that side and whatever. I was preaching in Rockingham, North Carolina, one time and there was a woman in that church, had a problem with a woman in the church that was on this side. They sat on opposite sides, wouldn't talk to each other, tried to avoid each other, and I didn't even know about it. And I mean, just couldn't tell. And I mentioned bitterness and getting over grudges one night and didn't even know there was a problem. And this woman stood up. And when she did, that woman stood up. And I thought, goodnight, we're going to have a fight. I had no idea what was going to happen. She came walking around in the front, and I thought, man, they're going to fight it out. And I was almost praying they would. The meeting was so bad, if I was to just do that. And they came walking up to the front. It's like a UFC face-off. And they looked from eyeball to eyeball, and I promise you, this woman began to weep. And that woman began to weep, and they apologized to each other. They got right with each other and apologized to the church because everybody in that town knew about those women, as far as their testimony was, their fight with each other. The next night, both of them had sons in their 20s that didn't usually come to church. Both their boys came and both their boys walked out and got saved that next night. But I'm thinking it's because they cleared the way the night before by getting over whatever it was that they had between them. We've got to make sure that we keep the testimony right in the church house, because listen, you go out there and knock doors, and you name the name of your church, you go out there to Walmart and hand out a track, you go to invite somebody to church, you say, here's the name of it, and they go, ooh. Come on. You'll hinder the gospel if we're not careful. You gotta treat people right. We went out to eat before church, and I think, did you tip them good? It's your birthday, you paid. But anyway, we went out to eat. Listen, when you go out to eat somewhere, don't leave any kind of literature from this church if you're not going to tip good. Don't leave a dollar bill and then a track. Leave your own mug shot, but don't leave a track. I mean, good night. And you have a plumber come to your house, pay him what he deserves, right? Don't try to haggle. Now, they might overprice it, but I mean, don't say, I'll give you five bucks. Come on now, be right about things. Treat people good, right? Why? Because the testimony of the church is more important. Come on. You want to be careful. See that none are evil for evil, and any man but ever follow that which is good. And then there's these little short statements and we'll be through. Watch this. Rejoice evermore. Man, Christian people ought to be happy people. I like doing what I do. I get to do what I want to do. Some people say, what would you do if you could do anything in the world? I say, I guess I'd probably preach. That's just what I want to do. I love it. We've got a lot of things to rejoice about, but if nothing else, we can rejoice in the Lord, like Paul said, all the time, right? There's no circumstances in life that ought to rob us from the joy of the Lord. He's been better than good to every single one of us. We ought to rejoice. Come walking into the church with your lip pooched out and some black cloud over your head. No, that's not it. We don't have terminal life. We've got eternal life, right? We've not been sentenced to heaven. Right? We've been born again. God's been good. He's got a mansion on the streets of gold and gates of pearl and a crystal sea. I always say, if I was a Christian, I'd be just as dead as you. Nothing to be happy about or anything. You're only going to live forever. Right? No! We ought to rejoice evermore. You say, well, work was bad. Yeah, but you're not going to live forever at work. It's Amen right there. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. Every day of your life, be in an attitude and a mindset of prayer. It doesn't mean you've got to go through life with your eyes shut. Your face on the carpet. No, just every day. Just whisper a prayer. I do that all the time. You probably do that too. Go down the aisle at Walmart and say, God, where's the peanut butter? You know what I mean? Just pray. I'll sit on the pew over there and I'll say it all the time. God help me. God help me. Because I know I need God's help to pray, to preach. Drive down the road and just say, Lord, here's some things we want to talk about today. And pray. I'm not real good at seasons of prayer. I wish I was, and it's probably my ADHD and all that. But anyway, I'm not real good at just holding still to pray. I've got to move. I like to move around. I try, and I do pray every day still. I mean, still, just get down on my knees and pray. I do that, but it's hard for me to do it for a long time, because there's 5,000 birds and a million squirrels that just run through my brain, and I'm just like, God! But I tell you what I try to do is just pray all day long as I go. If Billy Sunday would do that, he'd walk and pray. And so he'd walk down the sidewalk and pray with his eyes open and just talk to God out loud like he's talking to somebody next to him. And I guess people probably walk by and say, what's that? You know, I remember I was in the airport one time with the man I worked for before I moved back, Brother Trever. And he's a little older than I am or whatever. And he's not real up to date with these AirPod things. Is that what it's called? The ear thing? AirPods. The AirPod. And we were going through the airport and he thought everybody in there was talking. It was probably on the Internet. It would probably kill me. Anyway, he thought everybody was talking to him. It's the ear pod thing. But when you pray, just go down. You can just listen at work. You can pray at work. Right. Have you prayed today? Have you prayed today? Pray without ceasing. Look at this. In everything, give thanks. You might not be thankful for everything that you're in, but you can give things in everything. Amen. In everything, give thanks. Look at this. Verse 119. Quench not the spirit. Quench not the spirit. You obey every impulse of the Holy Spirit and you'll be glad that you did. Don't quench the spirit of God. Every time the Holy Spirit promised you to act, then you should act. Obey the Holy Spirit. Despise not prophesying. Now, we know they use prophesying in the early church, but also just preaching. Hey, don't be somebody who turns a deaf ear to the word of God. Don't get to the point where you don't want to hear preaching anymore and can't take correction and can't be taught anything. Don't despise it. Watch this. Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good. That means have discernment. Not everything is right. Not everything is good. Not everything is biblical. You and I need to have discernment. We can cast out that which is bad and then hold on to that which is good. And then one more, abstain from all appearance of evil. And here's why. One of these days we're going to stand before the Lord and it really won't matter anything else. All that's going to matter is if we pleased him. And I want to hear him say, well done. I think sometimes I get so earthly focused. Instead of heavenward focused. Paul said, set your affection on things above. Not affections, but affection. Not a divided heart, but all of it. Just set your affection on things above. All appearance of evil. There's some things I can do that aren't wrong that I won't do. Just because. It could lead somebody else to go do something that's wrong. There's some things I could do that they're not sin, but they're not good for me to do. Some preachers say, well, I'd go preach in a bar. I wouldn't go preach in a bar. Because I don't want to go in the bar. Because most Christians aren't going to give me the benefit of the doubt that I wasn't drinking when they watch me walk out. Right? So I want to abstain from all appearance of evil. Hey, listen, one of these days the Lord is coming. I promise you He is. The Bible says that He is. I don't know when, but I know He is. And if we really believe that, we ought to live differently than the world around us. We ought to treat each other right. Amen. We ought to spend time with the Lord in prayer. We ought to try to be filled with the Holy Spirit. and try to live differently, abstain from all appearance of evil. I appreciate the chance to get to come back and be with you on Wednesday night. I know you've worked and had a busy day. I want to pray, and if God spoke to your heart and you need to come pray, you come pray. Maybe you have needs. I don't know how you normally do your Wednesday night, but I'll pray and then, brother, I'll turn it back over to you. Lord, thank you for the privilege to be in church on Wednesday night. I pray that you'd help us, Lord, to live a Christian life, a life that glorifies you. And God, I pray you'd help us in these last days to be faithful. I pray for this church. I pray for Brother Raines tonight as he's not feeling well. Please touch his body. God, I pray that you raise him up. And God, I pray for these folks that you give them a safe travel home. And bless the rest of their week in Jesus' name. Amen. You have been listening to It's Preaching Time. Tune in at the same time every weekday to hear more good Bible preaching.