Brother Jerry, if I could go first tonight, because I asked him about a message he preached, if he thought he could preach it here this week, and he thinks he has liberty to preach it tonight. And I never get to hear it. If I'm preaching after him, I'm always sitting there thinking about what I want to preach, and I want to hear his message. I want to hear the whole thing this time. And so that's my plan, is to do that. I got my full candy. Sweet message tonight. But at any rate, I told you last night about an old couple from Arkansas going to a restaurant with the mirrors in it. The other day they went to a Chinese restaurant for the first time and they sat in there and they didn't know what to order so they looked at the menu and just said, bring us some of that chicken and broccoli. So a little while, a waiter came out there and he put a pot on the table in the middle and brought him a plate and everything. He was getting their drinks. And while he's getting their drinks, that lid raised up on that pot about that high and went back down. They said, man, that's kind of weird. And they said, well, if it does again, I'm going to say something, man, just to get it in a second. It went right back up, boom, right back down. They said, man, that is weird. Something's wrong with that pot. And so the waiter came. They said, hey, man, this lid's raised up on this pot. And said, what's going on with that? He said, what did you order? They said, chicken and broccoli. He said, oh, so sorry. He said, I thought you ordered Peking duck. Hey, girls, I'll tell you what that means later. The duck was peeking out of there. Y'all knew, didn't you? All right, if you got some Bible night, turn to Psalms 92. We appreciate. It's all right if I eat that while I'm going. Psalms 92 in your Bible, and I'll try to, I got this message because it's short, and it's not too stout, and it's kind of one of them lollipop messages, I guess, but maybe, I think it'll give you something that'll really help you if you listen to it. Father, we thank you for your mercy and your kindness. I pray, dear God, you'd help us tonight. Father, we want to please you. Dear Lord, first thing we want to do, Father, do something that you'd be pleased with, and then it might be a help to your people. Help us to preach, Father. We know what this will amount to without your touch. Dear God, we need you. In the precious name of Jesus Christ, we want you in our service. Amen. He's already been to service, hasn't he? Man, that Aaron turned loose and sang. I like that. Psalms 92, well, let me just read it. If you'll read this with me, you'll have a chapter of your Bible read today. It says, it's a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High, to show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night. upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the psaltery upon the heart with a solemn sound for thou lord has made me glad through thy work i will triumph in the works of thy hands oh lord how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep a brutish man knoweth not neither does a fool understand this When the wicked spring is the grass and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed forever. Don't worry too much about the Michael Jacksons of this world. And the Schumers and that bunch. One day they'll be destroyed forever. But thou, Lord, art most high forevermore. For lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for lo, thine enemies perish. All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Mine eye also shall see my desire of mine enemies, and my ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing. Nothing wrong with being fat. to show that the Lord is upright, he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Now I'll do this as quick as I can and still say everything I think God wants me to say. But I appreciate, it's on. It's on, Richie. Well yeah, you unplugged it. Let me fix it, I'll bring it back over here. I told you, you just don't get it wrong. We're having technical difficulties. I think it just plugs in. He can sing, he can dance, he can do it all. That's Bible now. I want to talk about that a little bit There's he said those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God I don't preach about that for a few minutes tonight. The Bible said I see men as trees walking The Bible says we're like trees were a plant Bible says a righteous man's like a tree planted by waters by the water He said we're the children like olive plants are Round about the table. I think you get the picture. The Bible said Jesus Christ is the vine and we are the branches. And I'm going to preach about that in a few minutes tonight. This text that I just read you is the key to happiness. It's the key to success. It's the key to just about everything on this earth. What is it? The secret, brother and sister, is where you are planted. It said, those that be planted in the house of the Lord, they shall still be flourishing. That makes all the difference in this life. Many people are in the house of God, and some are planted there. Amen. Thank God there's a bunch of them that are. Some of us have our roots deep in the church. I mean, church is a world to us. We love the church. Thank God for it. This is not a sideline with us. It's not a Sunday thing. Our roots are in the church, the house of God. We love it. We love it here. Most of our joy is connected with this place right here. We want our kids to have this. We want you to have fun here. We want you to love the house of God like we do. Amen. We want that for you. We pray for it. We pray for the church. We stand up for the church. We work for the church. We support the church. We love the house of God. Now listen, many are in church, and I'm glad, but some of you are not planted here. You're not in the ground here. There's only three kind of plants, and I'm gonna preach about that tonight. There's artificial plants. They look like a plant, but they're not real. Sometimes they look better than real plants, but they're not real. There's artificial plants, there's some of them. And then there's potted plants. It's a real plant, it's just in a little pot. And it'll grow like that. And then there's plants that are planted in the ground. And so I'm gonna preach for a few minutes tonight. Which one of these are you? I'm gonna preach for a few minutes tonight on are you potted or planted? In the house of God, amen? How can you tell, Brother Jim? I'll give you a few little quick things here before Brother Jerry comes. A potted plant will never grow any larger than it's potted. You can put them side by side. You can plant one right here at the ground of the church, and put one in a pot right there at the church, and they'll look the same for a year. But you give them six months to a year, and you come back and look at them, and one of them's up, it's growing this high. The other one, it kind of starts because it can't get any bigger than its pot. You have to re-pop that thing. You have to keep getting bigger if you want it to grow. Amen. Makes all the difference in the world where they're planted at. They'll stunt. They all look alike when you first see them. But you come back a couple years later and you'll see some boy have really grown in the Lord. And some are right where they was last year and the year before last. What's the difference, Brother Jim? I see it all the time. We got folks in our church band that are planted in the church. Man, anything, they can't do enough for the church. If it's a trip, they can't work enough, they can't cook enough, they can't fix enough. They love the church, they are planted there. They're raising their kids there. Thank God for them. And we've had some come through, but they just fly through the place. Preachers get a little hot, they're gone. Somebody offend them, they're gone. Usually it's me. I'm the chief offender at our place. We have many in our church, and I know there's many of them right here who grew up right here. You're raising your kids right here. Thank God. Get them planted in the church. Potted plant won't get any larger than it's potted. You know what's about potted plants? They're not hardened. You buy them little pepper tomato plants down in them pots? You take them home, throw them in your garden. If you're not careful, they'll wilt. You got to set them outside and let them harden a little bit and let them toughen up a little bit before you put them in the garden. If you don't let them toughen up, they'll wilt down to nothing. They're gone. Potted plants are not hardened. They can't take it. Amen. Amen. They can't take the heat. They'll wilt. The least little thing will break the limbs off of them. I've never seen anything like it. They are so easily offended. Everything offends them. Why? Because you're a sissy. You're not hardened. Amen. You get offended. I can understand that from a little girl. But I can't understand that from a grown man. I can't understand that from a grown woman. Why don't you toughen up a little bit, sis? We've got a long way out. We've had lots of people left our church offended. Brother Jim, you need to go apologize to so-and-so. Why? I'm not old-stained. We're just going to make a t-shirt that says, I was offended at our Banter Baptist Church. Everybody wants one. I'll tell you something else about potted plants. Potted plants are portable. You can carry them anywhere. You might see a pilot plane anywhere. It's odd, when everybody's in church or rooted and grounded in the house of God, you might see a pilot plane on a bench down at the ballpark. You might see them all sorts. You can see them anywhere. They're portable, you can carry them anywhere. They're not planted. They're not easy to move if you plant them in the ground. They're portable. You might see them anywhere. Sunday school, they'll have their pilot home. Amen. Ball game, they'll have that big pot on the bench for three hours. Amen. Wednesday night, their pot's too tired to come. They'll have their pot on the couch when the church is having a revival. They're portable. They can go anywhere. You offend them, they'll take their pot down the road. You preach one thing they don't like, they get their pot in the night and they're gone. Not easy to uproot one that's planted. But you might see a potted plant anywhere. They can go anywhere. Church time, they might be anywhere. I'll tell you something else about potted plants. They're high maintenance. Man, you want to kill a plant, give it to my wife. It's DOA. the dead or alive. She forgets to water it, she don't get it sun, she don't get it nutrients, she don't do nothing to it. I don't know why they die, Jim. Potted plants have to have just the right dirt. They gotta have the right fertilize, the right perlite, the right nutrients in there, that thing will die if you don't. It's got to have just so good stuff. They can't take regular old dirt like us. They got to have the special stuff. They got to have the treatment. Amen. They got to have special light. The light's got to be just right. Oh, I need to grow light. Yeah, you need to grow all right. A guy told me one time, we got a spotlight over the pulpit that shines down on the preacher so he can see his Bible. And a guy told me, he left. He got offended, I guess, but he told me, he said, I can't understand, he said, the light over that pulpit hurts my eyes. I said, no, it's the light in that pulpit that's hurting your eyes. Amen. They have to have just the right amount of water, just the right everything. Oh, Brother Jim, don't forget to mention Miss So-and-so. She fixed that meal last Sunday for you. Boy, I won't forget that very soon we had today. Woo, that was a good one. Don't forget to mention so-and-so. You know, she gets so offended if you forget to give her praise. They're high maintenance, boy. High maintenance. We had a woman left our church one time. She left, I didn't even know why she left. And come to find out, she left because I didn't call and check on her every day. Say, what's wrong with her? Nothing. Nothing wrong with her. Oh, help her to stay home. Amen. Well, Ben Zim, did you check on so-and-so? Well, I check on him, what's wrong with him? Nobody, hey, I'm not psychic. Your preacher's not psychic. If you don't tell them what's wrong with you, they don't know to check on you. We ain't got a crystal ball. Did you check on so-and-so? No, well, he's mad. Well, he's mad. I'll tell you something else about potted plants, brother and sister. They don't reproduce. Plant planting in the ground, it'll drop seeds and it'll reproduce. There'll be a potted plant in the pot, those seeds fall on the table. They fall on the floor, but potted plants don't reproduce. They don't ever reproduce another plant, save your life. How many are the lost that I have lifted? How many are the chained I've helped to free? I wonder, have I done my best for Jesus when He's done so much for me? Are you reproducing? Are you potted or planted here? I'm almost done, hang on with me. Out of a potted plant, barely got enough stuff in there to keep herself alive. There ain't barely enough dirt in there to keep them alive. They can't keep nobody else alive. They're in a pot. I told you about my neighbors we borrowed from. I've told you this, I know. But I told you about my neighbors we borrowed from. But my mom said, there's one bunch of neighbors you can't go borrow no sugar from. You can't borrow no flour from. We all did that. That's what neighbors did. We wanted to make a cake or pies. We can go borrow a cup of sugar. But she said, you can borrow from any of our neighbors. They's all poor. We's all holding cotton over in West Tennessee, man, for $4 a day. $10 a day, $0.40 an hour. We's all poor as old Joe's turkey. Amen. Mom had to lay one of the hands off the clock, we was so poor. But we was all right. And she said, you can borrow from any of our neighbors except them. I said, why them, Mom? She said, they ain't got enough to keep herself alive. She said, they're in worse shape than we are, son. Don't borrow from them. They can't help nobody. Are you potted or planted in the church? If somebody needed a little spiritual boost tonight, could you help them? Hallelujah. Or have you just barely got enough to keep yourself alive? Could you help somebody out? If I needed a little jolt tonight, could you help me out? Amen. Can anyone lean on you if they need something? Do you have anything you can loan to somebody at the church that's hurting and needs it? Amen. Must I go and empty-handed meet my dear Redeemer's soul? Not one soul will wish to greet Him. Must I empty-handed go? Potted plants don't reproduce. Amen. Well, here real quick. Here's the happiest people in the world. You say, who are they? They are those who are planted in the house of God. They love to praise the Lord. Down in 1 through 3, he said, they'll show forth our love and kindness in the morning. They sing praises unto thy name, O Most High. Those are planted in the house of God. It don't take much to get them shouting. It don't take much to get them saying, amen, praise the Lord, hallelujah. They love to praise the Lord. I like being around them. I like being around these boys. I love Brother Mike, Miss Angie, I love them to death. I love Katie, I love these boys. I just like being around them. Not ashamed to praise the Lord. And Tim too. Amen. Can't forget Tim. But they never get enough. They don't get enough singing. They don't get enough shouting. I like it in here last night when everybody quit. Y'all stayed at the piano. They sang for another half hour. They don't get enough preaching. They don't get enough testimonies. Listen, we don't sing and shout to get attention. We don't say praise God just so somebody will look at us. We shout because we'll blow up if we don't do something. We have to do something. How in the world can you sing about up Calvary's mountain one drag for more? How can you do that without shouting? Can't do it. This thing here is our final four. This is our big day. We're in revival. They're having a final four. They ain't got nothing going on with what we got going on right in here. Amen. It's because, oh, it's not what you see that makes me a king, makes me a king. In Christ, I have everything. All that I need, all that I need, treasure's unseen. We're glad we're praying. Tell your pastor that. Say, Pastor, I'm praying here. This is my church. You can't preach too hard. You can't offend me. You can't run me off. I have sunk my roots right here. This is my church. Amen. I better get on. God's work is what makes them glad, there in verse four. He said, through thy work he made me glad. Through his work. If I know what you love and I know what you hate, I pretty well know you. If you tell me what you love and tell me what you hate, I know what kind of person you are. If I see what you get excited about, I'll know. If you get excited over hunting and fishing and can't shout over Calvary, I know something about you. If you get excited about guns and guarding and can't get excited about an empty tomb, I know something about you. I love every one of those things I mentioned. Gardening, hunting, fishing, golf, I like all that stuff. And I can talk about it with you for a little while. But just a little while, that's enough. That's not my thing. Well, here's my thing. I talk to you about God all day. You get in the scripture, we can talk all day. And please do not show me pictures on your phone all day. I don't care about seeing nobody's pictures on nobody's phone. I hate my phone. It irritates me to hear it ring. I hate a stupid phone. We're so tired of those things now, you can't go out and get in a panic. You have to have a VAM if you leave without your phone. But a message. That'll stir me up. Brother O'Hughes, priest of our church, let not your heart be troubled. We'd like to toil the place down right now. Amen. Somebody stood up and sang a song. Look what God has done. I'm telling you, tear your church up. I like it. Like me and Randy. Somebody get saved. Somebody get changed. Somebody come down here and join the church on Sunday morning. That stirs me up. It said there, the works of the Lord is what makes them glad. Well, here I go. They're still used, those playing the house of God, even when they're older. Don't quit. Don't give up. There'll be a day I'll have to retire pastoring. I know that. It takes a lot to pastor. There'll be a day come I'll have to retire, but I ain't gonna retire being a Christian. And I ain't gonna retire being a preacher. Amen. As long as I, I told my wife, I said, now when I start repeating myself four or five times in the service, tell me. That'll be my last Sunday. But until then, we've had them board our church and I know you got them too. You can name them. You got some right now. I've met some of your folks right now. They invite people. They bring people. They witness to people. Step up, young people. We're getting older, if you didn't notice. Step up, young people, and take some of these places around here. But you that are getting older, don't quit. We need you now. Now you know everything. We need you. I'll say this and quit. I've seen them through the years, boy. I've seen incredible blessings of God on folks who were planted in the house. Miss Maddie George was a little widow woman when I was a kid. She lived in a little shotgun house about as wide as this building right here, a little bit narrow shotgun house on the church ground. I never went to church in my life there that Miss Maddie George wasn't sitting right there in her seat. She was planted in the house of God. She had nothing. She didn't have any of the things in this world. She didn't have no money. She didn't have clothes. She didn't have nothing. But she was planted in the house of God and she was a blessing to everybody that was ever around her. All mom and dad, make sure you get your family planted in the church. Get them planted in the house of God. And I've seen some come to church and just waste away. Why? They were potted. They weren't planted. If you don't believe it, their pot's not here tonight. I've seen them come and I've seen them put down roots. I've seen them come here looking for something else. And when they didn't come here to get planted in the church, looking for something else, their ministry, blah, blah, blah, they'll be down the road. The difference is, it's where you plant it, or you pot it, or you artificial. That's the difference. Wait a minute, wait a minute.