Jerry, preach on the heart, my soul. We could've stopped right there and just had an altar call. Amen. And I can't find my sermon. That'll do. I got several in here. And if it don't work out right, I won't keep you long. How about that? We're glad to be here. We appreciate your pastor. He's a friend of ours. And what kind of friend is he? Like all my friends, I don't have any friends I wouldn't fight for. And I'd fight for him. I'd fight for Brother Jerry. And as far as I'm concerned, they're two of the best preachers in this country. They're as good as anybody you'll have in. And I know everybody likes a little change every now and then, but you won't ever do no better than the preacher you got right here. Amen, you got your Bible 2nd Timothy chapter 4 Well, Mike gave me this sermon he's out our place and so anyway, he didn't know it but he did But he was preaching on something else and he read this text and I said, whoa, I think I'll preach on that So here we go this morning. We'll see how it goes father. Thank you for your mercy and We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank you, dear God, for the good preaching we've already heard, for the good spirit, Father, we felt during the singing, Father, and doing your Word. I pray, dear God, you'd help us to preach this morning. I pray, dear God, you'd help us not stand up here alone. I pray you'll be beside us, before us, behind us, above us, dear God, through us this morning. I pray you'll give us the words to say, Father, the proper words and the power to say it. In the precious name that's above every other name, the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, we pray. Amen. Second Timothy chapter four verse five. We'll start right there. I don't need this to Push it over side. I won't hurt nothing with it. All right It says this down there in verse five I guess I ought to find it. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. That's what I'm trying to do this morning. I'm a pastor. But we're supposed to do the work of an evangelist. Sometimes I don't do either one of them very well, but here I am. For I'm now ready to be offered. Paul's about to die. He's going home to be with the Lord. And the time of my departure is at hand. He said, I've fought a good fight. Man, I wish I could say that. I fought. I wish I could say I fought a good fight. I wish I'd say I did the best I could, but I know very well I haven't. But they asked Brother Earl Hughes one time, he said, Brother Earl, have you fought a good fight? He said, no, but I've been in a good one. Amen. And thank God we are in a good one. Amen. We may not fight that well, but we're in a good one. Amen. I've fought a good fight, I've finished my course, I've kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing. Do thou diligence to come shortly unto me, for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, Cretans to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Sound like you got a kennel of dogs, don't it? Only Luke is with me take mark and bring him with thee for he is profitable me for the ministry Antiochus have I sent to Ephesus the cloak that I left at Troas with carpets when thou comest bring with thee and the books but especially the parchments I'll preach about that Paul's about to go out into eternity If you look at verse 21 right there, you see the end of it what he says do thou diligence to come before winter and and all the brethren. He said, whatever you do, try to come before winter. And Paul asked for two things. Brother and sister, he asked for the parchment, he wanted the word of God, and he wanted his cloak. That would be the equivalent of our coat. He said, and try to come before winter. I mean, that's pretty practical, ain't it? I'm going to need that coat before winter. And Paul didn't know how long he was going to live. He was just going to be there a little while. He was fixing to die. And he might have had a day. He may have had two or three weeks. He may have had two or three months. I don't know. But he didn't care, whatever time he was there, he didn't want to be cold. And he wanted his coat. And I preached for a few minutes this morning is I don't want to leave here cold, amen. Now, I don't know how long you and I got. I don't know how much longer we'll be around. But whatever time we got, if it's a day or a year or 20 years, I don't want to be cold while I'm here. I don't want to leave this place cold with the Lord. And I'll preach about that for a few minutes here. Paul's about to be killed. He said, I'm not ready to be offered. Two things he requested, the Word of God and his coat. Amen. We're not gonna leave it. We're gonna leave by death or rapture's trumpet sound. While the others, we're about to get out of here. But while we're here, we need to stay on fire for God. You remember when you first got saved? I guess it was this way with everybody. I don't know. When I first got saved, I couldn't get enough. If they were singing, I wouldn't sing. If they were preaching, I wanted more preaching. I wanted revival. I wanted camp meetings, anything. If they was having some in church, I wanted it. And then, you know, I noticed after a few months, I cooled off a little bit. And it wasn't as special to me as it used to be. But I didn't like that a bit. You remember when you first got saved? You say, well, the church just don't really feed me like it used to. Well, the menu hadn't changed. You used to like it. You used to clean your plate and ask for seconds. Amen. But we're here. Let's try to stay on fire for God. That's what you got to keep burning is that first fire, that first love. Things cool off if they're unattended. A house will get cold if you let the fire go out at night. We lived in an old house. We had a heater, a wood heater in one room. And man, daddy would fire that up chair. We had the winter time, we still almost freeze to death. We'd chink the north door with chinking so the air couldn't get in around the door. We'd go in and out the back door all winter. That's the way we've raised. We had an outhouse out behind the house and my job was to shovel a path to that because that's necessary if nothing else is. And we would do it. They say we had three bedrooms and a bath. Well, we had two bedrooms and a path, amen? And it went out back. But daddy let that fire go, and at night that fire go out, and I'm telling you that house would be cold. When you get up in the morning, you put your foot on that old vinyl floor there. You know the rugs we used to get that you roll out on the floor, and you have to walk it down for a week before you lay down? You put your foot on that old thing in the morning, it'd stick, it'd be so cold. Man, I'm telling you, it gets cold when you let the fire go out. Amen. That's what's wrong with most churches in America. They let their fire go out. That's what we have to constantly fight in our church is to keep our fire burning. You know what? That's what's wrong with half the marriages in the country. You let the fire go out. Hey, you have to tend the fire. It ain't like salvation once saved, always saved. I mean, you get married, you have to work at that thing to keep the fire burning. If you don't, you'll get cold, get cold. She'd say, dating was more fun than being married. Yeah, back when we was dating, I could eat my own hamburger. When you're dating, she said, I don't want anything. I'll just take a little bite of yours. As you get married, she'll eat her burger and yours, too. I tell her at church, I said, it took two bunches of flowers and five boxes of chocolate for me and her to get married. And I finally told her, don't bring me no more chocolate. I can't eat no more. I'm about to give out. Little boy asks his daddy, he said, daddy, what does it cost to be married? He's getting ready to get married. He said, what does it cost to be married? He said, I don't know, son. I'm still paying. Amen. A good marriage has to be tended to. You got to work at it. The old folks used to say marriage is like a horse and buggy. It's often separated by a wagon tongue. Amen. There's things that will cool you off where you may begin to get cold on God. People forsaking the Word, that'll cool a preacher off. He said, don't let demons have forsaken me. You won't cool a preacher off, just let people start laying out in church. It's important to Him that you're here Sunday mornings. It's important to Him that you're here Sunday night and Wednesday night. It's encouraging to Him. Amen. Trouble. will cool you off, boy. He said up there that he was withstood by Alexander and those guys and demons forsook him. Family trouble will cool your fire off for God. Health problems, just trouble in life, that'll cool you off. You have to work to keep that thing going. Hey, listen, we're about ready for the Lord to come back. He'll come back any day now. I believe that with all my heart. I don't want to be cold when He comes. Sickness, some of you have been through it. Some of you are probably going through it right now. We've got folks at our church going through it right now. Boy, that'll take your fire away from you if you're not careful. Standing alone. He said, at my first request, no man stood with me. Standing by yourself, that'll get your fire, that'll cool you off. Some of you ladies that have a husband go to church with you, you have no idea what it's like for a woman to come in, don't have a husband go to church with you. Or a man who's wife won't come with him. But standing alone sometimes will take you far. But God's still good. God's still on the throne. He'll help you out. Women all over the country trying to serve God by themselves. No help from Him at all. Amen. God help us. Well listen, Paul wore his coat. He didn't want to get cold before he left here. So I'll preach this morning for just a few minutes, and I'll let you go, because I don't want to leave here cold. I'm not a cold. I'm hot. Or cold, I'm on, off, I'm wide open, stopped. That's all the speech I got. There ain't no medium, there ain't no nothing. I go with everything I got, and I don't want to leave here cold on the Lord. Sitting around on the bench somewhere, waiting. Paul said in verse 13, he said, bring the parchments. Study and assure thyself approved unto God. Work, but it needs not to be a shame. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read. He said, I don't want to get cold toward the Bible. I don't want to leave here cold toward that book that's in your lap. The first sign that you're getting cold is a lack of Bible reading. If I asked for a show of hands how many's read their Bible already today, it would embarrass some of you. I won't do that. Say, how do you know? Because if I asked my people, it'd be the same way. There'd be some that hadn't read their Bible yet. That's the first sign you're cooling off. Now listen, everybody has their spells. You have spells where you don't read like you ought to, but my soul, you can't stay in that shape. You'll get called on God. And God has direction, brother and sister. That Bible right there, you can't lay it down. You know what happened? Preacher preached like he did a while ago, and he's talking about being numb. It won't move you anymore. We'll give an invitation here in a little while, and it won't move you. Say, we're going to preach the Word of God. but it don't move you like it used to, does it? You get cold toward the word of God. I remember my first one, boy. Fourth grade, the Gideons brought it by and gave all of us a school of Bible in the fourth grade. I looked at that thing, we never had one. I was lost, most of my family's lost. I picked that thing and opened it up, boy, whew, man, that was powerful. I didn't even know what all it said, but that was powerful. I said, man, this is God's book. I shut that thing up. I was scared to read it. But I kept it. I remember that. It really does have all the answers, Brother Sid. I remember when I first got saved, the preacher would preach some message and you sat back and you're like, wow. Man, that's something. You ever notice how you start getting cold, it don't move you like it used to? and just don't do it like it used to. It really does have all the answers that matter. I know I told y'all this story, but I got different sermons. I'm gonna preach different sermons all this week. I've never preached here before, but all my illustrations are the same, so you'll hear them over and over again. But I told you a story about a girl who went to college, and they had a book there that was required reading for her literature class. And man, she would try to read it, and she hated that book. It was the most dull, boring book she ever read in her life. She had to read it to get her final grade. She had to finish it, do a report on it. She'd read about four or five pages and put it down. She couldn't stand it. She said, my soul, I'll never get through this book. Then one of her girlfriends, she found this guy on the campus she really loved, boy. She really liked him a lot. He was real studious, and he was a worker there. He worked at the place. And she fell in love with him. And she said, man, I want to see him every day. I want to be around him all the time. And her girlfriend said, you know who that is, don't you? She said, no, who is that? She said, he's the one that wrote that book you're reading. She said, you're kidding. I said, yeah. She went back and read that book, read almost halfway through it the first night. Read the rest of it, finished it, read it all again. Couldn't get enough of it, couldn't put it down. The difference was she fell in love with the author of the book. And when you fall in love with the author of this book, you'll stay in it. You can't help but read it. Amen. There's instructions in here. Tell you how to live. Tell you how to prosper. Amen. Tell you how to marry. Boys, don't marry Barbie. Get you one that loves God and will serve God. Girls, get you one who loves the Lord, who will come to church even if you don't. Amen. You'll wind up with a spiritual zero. You'll wind up bringing your kids to church by yourself. Or your mama will be bringing your kids to church by herself. Be careful how you marry. It'll teach you how to raise kids. There's hope in there. When a couple comes to your altar, there's hope of a happy life in this book. When you go down to a hospital, there's hope in there that God can take care of you. When you have to go to the cemetery, there's hope in there knowing you'll see them again. It's all in this book. And you start cooling off of God, you know what you'll do? You'll quit reading this book. That's the first thing that happened. Lay it down. There's rebuke in there. That book said there's not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Bible says, all our righteousness is as filthy rags. Why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say? You say, brother Jim, that offends, some of those things you say offends me. Brother Jerry say some things that offend you. Brother Michael say some things that will offend you. They tell me all the time, they said, brother, that stepped on my toes. Hey, my preaching offends me. I don't like it either. But you gotta have rebuke too. Every now and then you need somebody to tell you you need to straighten up. That's what preaching's for. Somebody told me one time, they said, you know, you're not the best preacher in the world. I said, no, you ain't the best church member we've ever had either. Amen. Why, it's what got us saved. It's what will get us through. Amen! The Word of God. It's hope for tomorrow. Right here in this book. Don't you need a little bit? I mean, haven't you seen what Joe Biden's done to our country? What Congress and Senate has done to our country? Don't you think we need a little hope for tomorrow? And I hope for tomorrow it's not Trump. It's the Holy God and Jesus Christ. But I'm voting for him anyway. Amen. Say, Brother Jim, that sounds political. Well, at least you're paying attention. Amen. Listen, there's no Christians that I know who are faithful Christians who don't spend time in this book. I don't know any. Don't know any. You may be a church member. You may be religious. You may be saved. But you're not a dedicated Christian if you don't spend time in this book. I don't want to get cold toward the Bible. Man, when I'm away from it a little while and I get back to it, it's like you pick up an old friend again. I can't wait to hear from him. Every day, I can't wait to hear what God's gonna show me in it that day. He always shows you something new. I got a friend that read it through 180-something times, cover to cover, and he says every time he goes through, he sees something he didn't see before. He sees something he swears wasn't in there before. It's the Word of God. I don't want to get cold toward the Bible. I don't want to leave here cold toward the church house. The Bible said, upon the first day of the week, they asked the disciples, came together. The Bible says, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, so manner some is. I wouldn't want to live without a good church house. I understand the church is the body of Christ, but thank God for a church house. I'm glad we got one we can go to. I'm glad God gave you a good preacher. I'm glad he gave you good people. I see what y'all are doing building out here. Thank God for the church house. I love that. I know churches, people, but look where they meet. Some of you met and got married here. Is that a blessing? Don't hold that against the church, amen? Some of you saved here. Some of you got changed here. Some of you kids are growing up here. I see some of you grown kids are growing up here. Ain't it good to have a church? I want everyone to get to the point where, You going this morning? I don't know. You going? Sunday night, man, I'm drugged out. Are you drugged out? You want to go? I don't know. I'll go if you go. I don't want to ever get like that. I don't want to ever get cold toward this place. Man, look what God's done here. Look what he's given you. I wouldn't want to give that up. Don't cool off toward the church. Man, God gave you one of the best preachers in the country, gave you good people, gave you all this land and buildings and stuff. How could you cool off toward that? You've seen people saved here, you've seen them changed here, you've seen them made here. How could you cool off toward that? Some of your kids will be saved here soon. Some of your grandkids will be saved here soon. How could you get cold toward a place like this? How could you get indifferent? Well, I don't care if I go or not. My God, my God help you. Don't cool off toward the church. It's getting harder and harder. We preach all over the country and halfway around the world. Matter of fact, I'm fixing to quit some of it and just stay in my church, amen? I'm gonna try to be pastor for a few more years before the Lord comes back. I'm gonna try. But you know, it's getting harder and harder to find the old time religion. We'd go around and they got no shout. They got no joy. I mean, it's so cold in there you could skate down the aisles. Got a six-foot icicle up there telling Junior how to become a better boy. Nobody preaching nothing. Nobody's instructing kids. If Junior's trying to saw the legs off the table, you make sure to saw sharp so little Junior don't get frustrated. No, you pick up a stick and whoop him. Amen. Why'd you get out? Why would you get out of a place like this? Getting harder to find than the old time religion. Why are some of you thinking about getting out? Why don't you come on back before your fire goes out? Brother Jerry talked about, you're losing your vision. Where there's no vision, the people perish. And I told y'all this before, but like I said, my story's the same. I don't care what I preach. Brother Clardy told us about a church that he grew up in. And he said, man, it was on fire for God. They was doing things for the Lord. And said they had a big sign in the back of the church that said, where there's no vision, the people perish. They had those letters on the wall back there. And he said, man, it was something. It was on. And he said he got grown and gone, hadn't been back here in 30, 40 years, and he wanted to go back and see the old church place again. And you know, it was all still there. They weren't having church there anymore. A few of the windows was broke, and the grass was growing up. But he said the building was still there. He said he opened the door and went inside. And said the sign was still back there, except he said the W fell off of it. And it said, here there's no vision, the people perish. When you lose your vision for souls and you lose your love for the church, this place will perish too. It's easy to perish. Where there's no vision, the people perish. Man, I don't want to cool off toward the church. Amen. I don't want to cool off toward God's people. It's easy to dismiss people, you know, that you don't see every day. But man, don't you dismiss this bunch in here. These are people God sent you. God sent these folks over here to fellowship with you and to love each other and pray for each other. Serve the Lord together till he comes back for you. These people aren't perfect. Amen? They're not perfect. But don't you know where they came from? My soul. Some of them real bad. Some of these kids come out of our church and stuff, and we bring them into church, and they get saved there, and they don't have anything. They don't have proper clothes. They don't have proper shoes. They don't have anything. We'll take them back home at the end of the day, and ain't nobody taking their little Sunday school pictures and putting them in the refrigerator. Nobody cares if they went to Sunday school or not. Nobody's encouraging them to serve God. Man, you be careful that you love the people God sends you here. We preach up in Calgary, Alberta, and Canada up there, and boy, those people are different, amen? It's hard to rile them up. I don't know what it is, it's just kind of passive. You can't say things to make them mad. I've tried, but they just, but we preach up there. Man, we had a meeting up there one time. We had 21 people saved there in two nights, most of them grownups or teenagers. Man, it was on, we had a meeting. And those reserved Calgary people, Canada people, Canucks, they're so reserved. And I looked up and one of those daddies whose daughter got saved, he come down the aisle, screaming, shouting like a Comanche Indian. There was people getting saved in the basement. There was people shouting all over the building, climbing pews all over the building. I'm telling you, they weren't berserk. It was a meeting, man. We had a good meeting. And there was a little girl in there named Megan. We called her Megatron, because she had this wheelchair she moved around in. She couldn't walk. She couldn't do anything. She could just move around in that wheelchair. And man, she was a transformer robot. She'd go around through there. She was at every meeting. Beautiful little girl. She never got out of that wheelchair that I know of for anything. But she'd always be at church. They called me a while back. That's been a year or so back now. They called me and they said, little Megan died. said she had a heart attack and died. And said, we was all out camping. Said, she just sat down and her heart just quit. And she died without an eternity. Man, I hated that. And still hate it when I think about it. And I said, well, Scott, I said, I sure am sorry. I said, I loved her. She said, she loved you too, Brother Jim. And I said, can you tell me about her salvation? I said, does she know she's saved? She said, Brother Jim, she said she was one of the 21 that got saved that night. She said, man, she got the real deal. She was going up and down the aisle in a wheelchair, praising the Lord. How could you get called toward something like that? I mean, what God has done for you and what he's done for your family, what he's done for your kids, how he's got you through the years, how could you get called toward that? Toward the people of God. Man, God's been good to us. Well, he should quit that smoking. Well, yeah, he should, but you don't know how hard he's fighting it. Just love him, thank God he's here. You don't know how hard he fought. Well, she should wear a little bit better clothing. Maybe that's all she's got. You don't know. Hey, he said, I'll make you fish as a man. You go fishing, God said, you catch them, I'll clean them. You get them in church and let God clean them. Let him clean them through the preaching of the word of God, they'll get in. Amen. That's good. Amen. Amen. A boy came to our church. Boy, he was a 30-something-year-old man. And man, I'll probably step on your toes now, but it's not pointing at you. But he came here, and man, he had earrings in his ear and a thing through his eye, a thing over here, a thing over there. And he got saved that morning. He got gloriously saved. I didn't say a thing to him about what he had in his face. I didn't say a thing to him about how he looked. He'd come back Wednesday night and he had a little Ziploc bag and had all of his jewelry in there. He said, Brother Jim, God don't want me to wear this no more. I want to give it to you. I said, praise God. I ain't wearing it, but I'll keep it. Last time I looked, brother and sister, me and you weren't perfect either. Give God time to work on them. Let God have a little time to work on them. Amen. I preached five funerals in six weeks at our church during COVID. We had six of our people die that you couldn't do without. All of them were people you couldn't do without. I mean, some of them did everything there for us. And man, you're talking about heartbreak. You're talking about depression, brother. After you preach five or six funerals in a row and five weeks with people you love, it gets depressing after a while, I'm just telling you. We got through it by God's grace. But man, I think about them all the time. And boy, I tell you, I miss them. I miss every one of them. And I'm sure y'all have had people go home and be with the Lord around here. And I see their pews, and I know where they used to sit. And man, it breaks my heart when I look at my church just knowing they're not there anymore. I wouldn't ever want to get cold toward these kids or toward the people God sent here. Thank God for that. I'll tell you something else. I don't want to get cold before I leave here to the old story First Corinthians 15 1 through 4 gives the gospel how Christ died for our sins according to scriptures was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures I would never want to get cold toward the old story or the preaching of that old story I heard somebody say one time. She said all our preacher preachers salvation well Maybe he should do more, but that'll do. Thank God the old story never goes on. While he preaches salvation, well, what better could you have? I grant you there'll be some teaching going on, but thank God at least he's preaching now. Everybody knows it, don't they? Tell him how he came. Tell him what he did. Tell him how he died. Amen. Tell him how he rose. Tell him he did all this for you. Tell him he's coming back. Don't ever get cold toward the old story, boy. We have church appearing soon next Sunday. I guess it's next Sunday. All the little girls come to church, their Easter dresses on, everything. Big day at Church Resurrection Day, some of them call it. Say, where'd you get that? It all comes from church because he rose again. Amen. He came up from the grave. I would never want to get called to that story. I told you, the Sunday school teacher who asked her kids the true meaning of Easter, she asked all the little boys in her class, tell me the true meaning of Easter. And one little girl, she popped up and she said, well, that's when we get presents and put up a tree. She said, no, that's Christmas. The other little boy stood up and he said, that's when we put on masks and funny clothes and go out and get candy. She said, no, son, that's Halloween. And she just felt like a loser. She'd been teaching them two years. None of them knew anything. And finally, one little boy said, he said, teacher, I know. He said, that's when Jesus died on the cross, and they took him down on the cross and put him in a tomb. And she said, and he rose the third day. She said, praise God. He said, and if he sees his shadow, he goes back in for six weeks. Well, maybe not. But he had most of it. Amen. Tell him what he did. Don't get cold to him leaving the ivory palaces to come to a manger for you and I. Amen. Don't get cold to the beating he took and the blood he shed that day for your sins. And don't ever get cold to the fact that he died for you. Don't get cold to that. Don't get cold to how the stone was rolled away. My old pastor used to say the best news this world ever got came out of a graveyard. The angel said, he's not here, but he's risen. Amen. Don't ever get cold of that. I love to tell the story for those who those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. I love the old story. We sing the old story, never grow old, how Jesus died to save my soul. I still like to talk about it. I like to tell people. We had a camera guy come to our church the other day and take pictures so we could do a A directory. We have to do one every three years, I don't know why. But at any rate, I told them to just use my same picture. Use it in all of them. That way I won't age. I hate photographs, they look just like me. And he goes to churches and does these pictures for directories all over the country. And I said, well, we got our picture done. I said, well, hey, man. I said, let me ask you. I said, you've been born again? He said, what? I said, you're saved. You know Christ is your Savior. He said, I do. He said, I asked the Lord to save me when I was a young man. And the guy with him just kind of stopped, too, and he said, yeah, I did, too. And he said, but you know this, you're the first person who's ever asked us if we were saved. Man, don't get cold toward that story. You ought to tell that story to everybody you meet. You ought to tell that story every day. All those churches and nobody asked him if they were saved. They done got cold. I'll say this last. I don't want to get cold toward his promises. He said the promise of reception. He said all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. God said he would receive anyone who would call on him. He don't turn nobody away. I sure wouldn't want to get cold toward that. The promise of supply. But my God shall supply all your need according to riches and glory of Christ Jesus. Don't cool off with your gratitude. Look what you've got. Me and my wife grew up in a house like I was describing to you. She had one not far from me. When we got married, we didn't have a bathroom in the house. We got married and neither one of us had a toilet in the house. I mean, out back and didn't have one in the house. And that's the way we was raised. A lot of people was raised that way. And don't cool off to your gratitude for what God's given you now. Used to, I remember a bar of candy was a big deal. If you got a bar of candy, you had a treat. You could get a three Musketeer bar that long for a nickel back then. Man, that was a big deal. Now, you kids get candy anytime they want to. You got money to pay the bills? You got groceries in the house? I remember when four of us boys used to have split a Coca-Cola, pass it down the line. If you tarry too long on it, they hit the bottom of it and knock your front teeth out. You had to share. We learned to share. That's why all of our teeth are bad. But I can remember all that. You get a Coca-Cola. We went to town, if we had a dime in our pocket to get a Coke and a candy bar, we was high-steppin' it. Nowadays, you get a Coke and a candy bar anytime you want to. Ain't God been good? You got inside plumbing, you got a nice house. God has been good to you. Don't ever cool off in your gratitude for what He's done. He's been good. I probably shouldn't say this, but I'll say it anyway, because I like to tell stories. Two little boys had their outhouse on the back of the hill, and they said, let's push that outhouse off the hill and see how many times it'll bounce before it bumps. And suddenly they shoved her off the hill. That thing hit the bottom, busted a million pieces. And they took off running. They got home at night, and his daddy was sitting there with a belt in his hand. He said, boys, did you push that outhouse off the hill? He said, Dad, I'm going to fess up like George Washington. I cannot tell a lie. He said, I did it. He said, well, come over here, you're getting a whipping. He said, hey, George Washington's daddy didn't whip him. He said, George Washington's daddy wasn't in the cherry tree. Amen. Amen. That does make a difference. He promised a supply. Hasn't God been good to you? He promised you a land and a mansion. Don't cool off toward streets of gold, walls of jasper, gates of pearl, and a mansion with your name on the door. How could you cool off toward that? Do you still believe that? How could you get cold toward that? He said, in my father's house are many mansions for an hour. So I would have told you, don't cool off toward that. I probably told this too. I don't care. I'm fixing to let you go. Where's that big clock y'all bragging about having? There it is. I can't read it either. I used to go to that candy shop. I'd go, all candy when I was a kid was behind glass. And Miss Pilkington's Grocery, you pick out what you want and she'd reach in there and get it and put it in a penny sack for you. And that's how you got candy. You didn't reach back there, they'd pop you upside the head. But they'd get that candy out of there for you. And I'd go in there and I'd look through that glass, boy, and it was a big deal just looking at it. I couldn't buy it, but I liked it. And I said, a little rugged muffin boy went down every day to the candy store, and he would look at that candy through that glass, and it had red, yellows, and green wrappers, and orange, and all that stuff, paydays. He'd look at it, and he would say, man, I'd like to have one of them. But he could never buy one, never could get one, never had the money. And one day, that store owner just got tired of watching him hungry, looking in his eye. And one day, he went out there, he said, come on inside, son. So I scared that boy to death. He said, He said, just come on inside. He came inside. He said, you see all this candy in here? He took him over to the window. He said, you can have one of everything in there. Anything you want, you can have one of all of it. You know what he said he did? He didn't touch a piece of candy. He didn't reach and get one thing. He just put his hand up in the air and did like that, and he said, no more glass. No more glass between me and all that stuff. Well listen, we heard about a mansion in heaven. We know God's prepared a place for us. The Bible says now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face, one day there'll be no more glass. No more glass between you and home. How could you cool off toward that? How could you get cold toward that promise? I can't. Listen, this world stinks. I don't like nothing in it. I don't like anything in it. The only thing I like in it is people and old stuff. And nothing new in this world I like. They can have it. I come from a backward hick town, redneck town, Bogota, Tennessee, Bogota Elementary School. And we were dumber than a sack of rocks. But in that Bogota Elementary School, we knew what a man and woman was. That's far ahead of your college students. Amen. Don't let this world take your joy and take your shout. Don't let people take your joy and your shout. Don't lose faith in the promises of God. Don't get cold toward them. The devil would like for you to forget about heaven. He'd like for you to forget that you're going to see mom and dad again. He would like you to forget that they're preparing a place, a city whose builder and maker is God. Don't you cool off toward those promises. They'll all come through right on the money. Like everything God ever said, I don't want to get cold before I leave here. And I quit with this, and I know I told this here the first time, second time I was here, I think. But we played a game when we was kids, because like you said, we didn't have toys. I'm not poor-mouthing. Son, I'm rich. Me and my wife have a good home now, nice vehicles, good everything we want. Everything's paid for. We don't owe the world a nickel. God has been good to me. I'm not poor-mouthing. But we played games, because we didn't have no toys. And we played a game called Hide the Belt. And we'd take my daddy's belt, y'all remember that? We'd take my daddy's belt out to the barnyard, and one person would hide it, and five of us would settle on the home base, which was the front step, and hide your eyes and count to 50. If you counted to 50, we'd go find that belt. And everybody would look, and the one who found that belt, if he could pull it out of there quicker than anybody he could slap with that belt, before they got back to home base, you could give them one lick for every year they was on it. And that's fun, kids, don't they? But we didn't need no Xbox, man, we had fun. Outside the house. And I think if we came inside the house, something was wrong, they'd give us a job. We stayed outside. But you know, everybody go hunt that belt. And that guy who hit it, he'd walk around by him. And he'd say, you're cold. He ain't close. And he'd say, you're getting a little warmer. You're getting warmer. And everybody started looking. Everybody started looking. He said, you're getting warmer. You're hot. You're red hot. You're burning up. Man, we knew it was that close. And he'd pull it out of there, and we'd take off running. But if you walk past it and missed it, he'd say, you're red hot. If you walk, he'd say, oh, you're getting cooler. You're getting cooler. You're cold as ice. I asked you this morning. If the Lord looked at you, where would you be? Are you getting cooler? Cooler? Or are you getting warmer? Are you on fire for the Lord like you used to be? Don't cool off. Don't get cold before we leave here.