And we always are in need of y'all's prayer. We're going to read 1 Thessalonians, the fifth chapter. It's a very familiar passage of scripture as y'all pray. I'm thankful for all that the Lord has done for us. How he's touched our body this week. We don't know, we might be having an inner ear infection of some sort. There was a day at the job that we just had to quit work and sit out in the truck. Thankfully, we got feeling better, but we always are in the need of y'all's prayers. The Bible says in the fifth chapter of 1 Thessalonians, it says in the 15th verse, it says, 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 and Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit, despise not prophesying, Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray, God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. So we find here that when we When we read this, it says in everything, give thanks. The Bible says in the verse before that, pray without ceasing. And the verse before that, it says rejoice evermore. We can be happy for many things, right? The Bible says that we're to not render evil for evil, but that we are to do good both among ourselves and to all men, that when we come in contact with people, that no matter what the exchange takes place, that when we go our separate ways, right, obviously if we're brothers and sisters in Christ, well then it ought to be a good experience, but that even out there in the world, that when we leave, that the understanding that we leave with people ought to be that we're a good person. Now, I know that this world defines good a lot different than they used to. I know an order that if you call sin, sin, a lot of times people will call you evil because we live in a culture today that calls evil good and good evil. And so therefore, I ain't what I'm talking about when people uh leave and call you good or say uh that the experience that they had with you is good and that uh it's not in their redefining of the word but that uh that they might have as it were an understanding or an impression that we know somebody uh that's good that that we come in contact with somebody that was better and greater and holier than this present world and the people that dwell therein. So we need to understand how is it that we can give thanks in all things and everything give thanks for this is the will of God. What would we do and how would our life look like? What would our prayer life be like if we was to spend a large portion of it to give thanks? Well, we'd have to start praying more and that's why the Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. How can we do that? Well, it's the only way that we can give thanks in all things is to continually pray. We don't know the workings of the Lord. I don't know why bad things happen, as it were, to good people, but I do know this, that the Lord is good. I do know this, that I'm not to render evil for evil, And the easiest way to do that is to give thanks. If I'm begrudging or if I'm bitter towards you because of something you've done to me, or something I ought to have to thank God, or that you shortened me somehow, oh, well, then worse words. Bitterness grows, but glory be to God. If we would pray to the Lord and say, thank you God. When somebody pulls out in front of us and we rear end them, if we say, thank you Lord. When our barn burns down, if we say, thank you Lord. When we are diagnosed with some terminal illness, the only way we can do that is if we pray without ceasing. Because there's many things, good or bad, as the world would count them to be. But we have no idea whether they're good or not. But I do know this, we serve a God that is good. and he's in control of everything, and he brings these things into our life, as it says. In the first chapter of Haggai, when the prophet, the Lord says, consider your ways, I ask my children, I don't know how long ago it was that we preached that message, unless I dreamt it, but we said over and over, consider your ways, and none of them remember it. There have been a few messages that the recorder messed up on, because we got on the internet, and it ain't on there. But I thank the Lord. I would have each and every one of us to consider our ways, and how and what is the most effective way of doing that. Is it not in prayer? Is it not prayer? without ceasing. We so many times think that the world and all the events that take place in it ought to benefit us. That when something bad happens, and what I mean by bad, when we experience some loss or some hope is dashed or something we hope to receive is not received, if we are continually praying, oh, well, then we won't be continually praying that we might get this, gimme, gimme, gimme, or provide for me the very thing that I think that I need. But if we are willing to give thanks in all things, could it not be that sometimes things happen to us in order that we might consider our ways because we've not? considered our ways. And the best way to do that is pray without ceasing. It's to say, Lord, we preached a message on it not too long ago. When something happens, whether it's a flat tire or we're broke down along the side of the road, if we have a heart to pray, we'll be praying. And it won't always be, Lord, why did this happen to me? But it'll be, Lord, Show me what you want me to know. Lord, help me consider my ways. There's none of us. The Bible tells us that the heart of man is desperately wicked. The Lord could give us all that we want and then we would want more. But sometimes he's so kind to us that he would ask us or bring us to remembrance and say, Daryl, have you considered your ways? And I'll have to say that it's in times when things aren't going necessarily right. It's in some times with farming. If you're going to have livestock, you're going to have dead stock. And when something passes, or something dies, or when a cow is in the back corner of the 40-acre field, and she's having trouble calving, and you don't catch it in time, and you say, why did this happen? That's what the nature of some people is to do, is to say, I really needed that calf. or at the loss of the calf, and then you lose the cow. It's good then to consider your ways, but I'd encourage you to not consider your ways when bad things, as we would define them, take place, happen to us, but that we would consider our ways when the Lord blesses us in church, or when we have some beneficial thing that takes place with us and begin to praise the Lord and to thank Him in all things. Do you realize there have been some of us that have been conditioned that when bad things happen that you ought to thank the Lord, but we don't even consider to thank Him when good things happen. When's the last time you thanked Him for a sunrise? When's the last time that you're thinking that you was able to tie your shoes? My back was out just a little while ago and it took a lot for me to tie my shoes. And you know what? Your back gets better the first time maybe when you're able. or to bend over, or to tie your shoe, and all you feel is the pain and the soreness in your back, and not the excruciating pain that you once felt, that you might say, thank you, Lord. But the Bible says it, girl. ought to be praying without ceasing, that Daryl ought to be rejoicing evermore. And so then if we are to rejoice evermore, that means we rejoice in the good times and we rejoice in the bad. And some people wring their hands when bad things happen. But my God is good. And my God keeps bad things from happening to me. And sometimes he does that by causing bad things to happen to me. Because you know what? You might say, why is it that I wasn't able, I felt led the Lord to go visit a church maybe miles away, because I had trouble with my vehicle. Why do things like that have to happen? Do you hear what we're talking about? First world problems, ain't we? There's a lot of people that get up and there ain't no food to eat. They lose their job and they truly live hand to mouth. But it doesn't matter whether you're sad because you felt led the Lord to go talk to a brother and you can't do it. and because you have health problems. My wife, she was sick last Sunday and wasn't able to come to church. Well, it's not only her, but it was her daughter. And now when you have a large family, sometimes it takes a while for it to work through the family. And our one daughter's not here today because of what our daughter was sick with last Sunday. My wife was getting ready to go up in the church, and there last minute, she wasn't able to. I just, it upset me. It's just like, it'll be three weeks now that she won't be able to be in church. It's not because I'm worried about how it might reflect on the preacher. That his wife ain't here, but I know that when a pew is empty, that we don't live in a vacuum. and that we are each individual just given a space of time to live. And within that space of time to live, we must work for the kingdom of God. And that means rejoice evermore. And if the devil can get you depressed about something small and insignificant, just long enough, I know you're gonna realize it's small and insignificant, But if you can be distracted one day, what can be the power of seeing a Christian rejoicing evermore? It's one thing to see a man that's a Christian to rejoice when he has his way, when things are going his way. when he's benefiting from the circumstances all around him. It's another thing entirely to see a man on his deathbed rejoicing, not because he's dying, but because he's able to, he's right there at the threshold of being able to see the God that he served all of his life. If that's not a reason then, for the family of God to rejoice, I don't know what is, but it starts with the person closest to the experience. Do you see what I'm saying? You might think, well, the Bible says, the kingdom of God is such as the woman. that had what, five coins was it? And she lost one of them. And she searched the house and she found it. It weren't her neighbor that was rejoicing, but it was the one closest to the loss. And it was in that when it was restored that she rejoiced. And when she rejoiced, there was others that rejoiced with her. And sometimes, if we refuse to rejoice at the blessings of God, or might we even be so courageous to rejoice at the losses that take place in our life, that will also help others to be able to rejoice as well. and to reflect on our experiences, and then later on in life, reflect on their own. You'll not be able to be thankful in all things unless you are one that prays without ceasing. One of these, as we read these things, one leads into another one, don't it? And if we pray without ceasing, we will be more thankful because Just as Paul said, he said here, he said he prayed that the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray, God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I know there's a lot of people because of the way they interpret the scripture. They would think that that prayer that Paul was praying here for his brothers and sisters in Christ is not necessary. Yet Paul prayed and said that he prayed that I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he was praying for them, who all have been praying for themselves. How often? Without ceasing, with rejoicing. You know, there's a lot of times you come to church and there's a lot of people that pretty much their requests are, I failed the Lord and I want you to pray for me. Well, you know what? The Bible tells us to confess our faults one to another. But what would it be like if every time we come to church, everybody said, why won't you pray for me? I failed the Lord this week. You know, there's some churches that if they were all honest, they'd probably have to make that request. If we were to ever one of us to confess our faults one to another, that there's a lot of people that could honestly say that. But you know what? Who then would pray? If every one of us failed the Lord this week, we would first have to, first and foremost, pray for ourselves and then pray for our neighbors. But what if somebody come to church and they had their praying already done? Well, in the sense that if we pray without ceasing our prayers and our praying will never be done, but that we were prayed up in the sense that we come to rejoice. not only to request prayer for ourselves and for others, but that we would rejoice evermore, that we would be coming with a thankful heart. I don't know why bad things happen. I don't know why people experience loss outside of, to know this, that back in Haggai's day, there was those that everything they put their hands to, they failed at. And the Lord said, you go to your sealed houses and my house lays waste. You come underneath the roof and the temple of the Lord is open for the birds to defecate on, the unclean animals to walk through. And here you are, and you strive, and you put your money in bags with holes in it. And the Lord said, I want you to consider your ways. And if we never consider our ways, will we ever change? There are those that we see it by all account, that everything they touch, they prosper at, and they're blessed. But if they're outside the will of God, is somebody praying for their salvation? When things are hard, when things don't turn out your way, and you don't consider your ways then, will you do it when you're being blessed? I doubt very seriously. I've told several people that I love dearly, that you need to change your way of thinking. If you think that the same level of thinking that got you into the trouble you're in is going to get yourself out of it, you ain't considered your ways. You ain't thanked the Lord for speaking to you. I'm shaking you up, I'm shaking you out of your sleep. But thanks be to the God we serve. As long as there's breath in our lungs, we ought to be able to praise the Lord. We ought to come to church with a mindset to praise God with a heart of thanksgiving instead of being burdened all the time. about this or that, or about hoping for this and receiving that, but to be thankful for everything you have. What if tomorrow the only things we had in our possession were the things we thank God for today? Would you then consider your ways? Would you thank God even for the things that remain? Hear what I'm saying. What if tomorrow we only had the things we were thankful for today? Would you have anything at all? Would you be able in that moment to thank God for any worldly possession you obtained? You naturally would have your life. Or would you? If tomorrow you actually had nothing except the things you were thankful for today, would you even be alive? If God would spare you this one thing, would tomorrow you say, God, thank you that I'm alive. Could you pray the prayer that Joe prayed? And when he said, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. I've seen people, one or two things are gonna happen. I've seen people lose almost everything. And at that moment in time, we could honestly say they had a crisis of faith, or at least a crisis in their life that increased their faith. And they did one of two things. They realized that all of these things that we have are temporal. That if I have a dollar in my pocket today, I have no promise that it'll be there tomorrow. And so they are free with it, because you know what? If I have it today to give, I might not have it tomorrow to give. Here you go, do you need it? And then there are those that no matter how much they lose, what little bit they have left, they grip on the tighter, right? Because I've lost it all. All I've got is what I've got. And they grip all the more, not realizing that that it, And us and everything else is in the palm of God's hands. Have you considered your ways? And everything, give thanks. Now listen. I don't know. Somebody posed a question to a man. How can a loving God You can't remember the tribe, or not the tribe, but the people. But God told Israel to kill the men, the women, the children, the babies, every one of them. How can a loving God do that? This man didn't have an answer for it. But you know, that God's love is all-encompassing. He loves us all, every one of us. But the only ones that are able to benefit from his love are those that obey him. But how then can a loving God tell a people to commit genocide and wipe out a whole nother race of people. Because if we love God, we'll obey him. And every one of us have a space of time to repent. The Amorites or whoever it was, they knew not God. But that is not to say that they had never at any time knew of God. But to be honest with you, I don't have to know the answer to every problem every human being will ever be faced with. But one thing I do know, that as for me, God has never told me to do anything that has ever harmed me. And when I disobey God, I suffer the consequences. Sometimes I don't know what that looks like. Sometimes, wouldn't it be nice Or would it? That when I disobeyed God, that it was like when I disobeyed my father when I was a child. Was I the only one that during church service at some point, because I was misbehaving, my father, he would look over at me and he says, Darrell, you're getting a whipping when you get home. Am I the only one that's ever experienced that? Or maybe you was, I can remember it was an awful place to go, but I can't even remember the name of it. But it was, my mama, she sewed her clothes and my sister's clothes, and even at one point, she sewed my clothes. And we'd go to the fabric store. And there is no more mind-numbing place that a little boy can go to than a fabric store that has got nothing in it but fabric. And it's in Big Bats. And sometimes if you knock them out and off the rack, well then they roll out and it's kinda neat. But I mean, me being the responsible child that I was, I would always roll them back. But you know, a child can't roll up fabric like it's meant to be rolled up. But they would have these shelves. And they were really neat. You could run and get underneath them and hide. And my mama, there was on the back wall, if I remember it correctly, there was all kinds of patterns. And then there was pattern books. You could look at these different pattern books and then you could either, they would have that number of pattern or they could order it for you. And I could remember my mother, I would think, you know, you'd go in there and it's like, oh, no, we're going in here. Every time she goes into Joanne's Fabric, I think maybe what it was or the Fabric House or something crazy like that. I don't remember. It was awful. It was a place of torture. And I'd go in there and it would be like, all right. Maybe she's just going to know what she wants and we'll be out of there. But when I see mama sit down in that chair, start flipping through the patterns, I knew I was in trouble. Why did I know I was in trouble? Because it seemed like I always got in trouble. And I'd be crawling underneath one of them racks or something. trying to jump out and grab my sister's leg or do something stupid like that. My mama would look at me and she'd say, Daryl, you're getting a whipping when you get home. And when we got home, for the most part, I got a whipping almost every time. But you know what? They could have whipped me 20 years later. Because all they said was, when you get home, you're going to get a whipping. Well, I knew what that meant. That meant when we get home, as soon as we get home, I don't know how many times I played possum coming home from church when my daddy said, that's it, you're getting a whipping. Or I'd stop at the store and he'd be listening to the ball game. My mama would run into the grocery store, Me and my sister would be cutting up in the back seat. And so you do pay for your raising. There was just three of us, but we probably made as much noise as the 10 of mine. But at that time, I can remember, it was just me and Michelle. And she'd try to get me to laugh. And I'd be laughing. My dad'd say, be quiet back there. He'd say, be quiet back there. And I wouldn't listen. When we get home, you're getting a whipping. And all of a sudden, this great sense of sleepiness would fall all over me. And just because he said that, I'd fall asleep on the ride home. And I'd be back there asleep. And I can remember even sometimes my dad carrying me into the house because I wasn't asleep. And I'm thinking, well, is he going to put me on the bed? Is he going to forget that I'm supposed to get a spanking? Surely he wouldn't wake me up after putting me on the bed with a spanking. As you know, there's a certain amount of preparation that takes place. baseball cards in your back pocket. And there I was, trying to think. See, I'm a thinker, and I always try to think through my problems. I know some of you just go headlong into it. But I was always a thinker, and I thought, do I gamble with me being asleep, getting me out of a whipping? Or do I wake up, put baseball cards in my pockets for the whipping that's surely to come? Because if I pretend to be asleep and then he wakes me up, there'll be no time to slip away and put three pair of underwear. I don't know how many times I ran into the bathroom And I put three pair of underwear, another pair of pants on, and another pair. I'm telling you, I was a problem child. But it didn't matter. My dad moved around. He wouldn't stick in one spot where he could get numb. I always thought that was cheating when he moved around. I thought, that ought to be against the Geneva Convention. But you know what? They always say, when you get home, you're getting a spanking. A lot of times God in the Old Testament worked that way too. When children of Israel complained in the wilderness, they died in the wilderness. But God today don't work that way. And when we're not thankful, we are disobedient to God. I don't know if you realize this is a commandment, folks. Rejoice evermore is a commandment. Pray without ceasing is not a suggestion, it's a commandment. And everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. If you don't give thanks, you are not doing the will of God. I'm not preaching just to you. I'm preaching to myself. We're sinning. We're not doing the will of God when we're not rejoicing evermore, when we're not praying continually. And then when we have a good service, somebody says, wow, somebody prayed this week. We should pray every week, whatever it took place in order that we had good spiritual services. If we obeyed God and quenched not the Spirit, the Bible says, that's not a suggestion. These are not the suggestions in order that we might be content in the Lord. If you're not content in the Lord, it might be because you're sinning. And it doesn't necessarily mean you have to go out. and lust after a woman or commit adultery in your heart or otherwise, it doesn't mean that you gotta go and smash your finger with a hammer and use every curse word in the book. Sometimes, what it means is, is that somebody come to you and says, they won't even request a prayer because they don't pray themselves. But sometimes, it's nothing more than somebody saying, when you see them down, you say, How's your day going? Not very good. My wife, we just found out she had breast cancer. And you say, oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. God didn't say be sorry for him. What he said was, is pray without ceasing. What he said was, is be thankful at all things. Have you ever, when some lost soul come to you and they tell you that they just were diagnosed with cancer, did you ever say, thank not to them, bless your heart, they wouldn't understand you. But have you ever stole away and said, thank you, Lord, and then prayed without ceasing on their behalf? Did you hear what? Paul said for the Thessalonians that he prayed that their whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless. He's praying for the saved. We don't even pray for the lost. I'm telling you, what are we going to do when we stand before the Lord and we think that we can stick our chest out because We kept eight out of the Ten Commandments. We kept them all. Well, not all together. On any given day, we kept most of them, and yet we find ourselves here that we might be more successful in all that we do. It's when the prince of the air, the devil himself, comes to us and tempts us. We can't even hear him because we are rejoicing evermore. You know what? What would it be like instead of... When the preacher asked, do you remember him preaching this message? And you say, well, no, I don't really remember that. If the next time Satan comes to you, and he says, it's just like I told you last time. And we don't remember what he said, because we were rejoicing evermore. And when he said, don't you remember? I say, of course I don't remember. Shut up and get behind me. You're interfering with my prayer life. You're interfering with the time I've set aside to rejoice and to praise God. And then we might find that our actions are not quenching the Spirit of God, but that we have consciously made a decision not to do that. That we have consciously made a decision to not only abstain from evil, but from all appearance of evil. What would our community look like if we had enough faith and enough fortitude to gather the manna that God provides for us every day? The children of Israel had nothing else to eat. But man, in order to eat it, they said it was as a, I can't remember the name of the seed, but I looked it up, coriander seed. I looked that up. If it's as a coriander seed that we're aware of today, that it was only about an eighth inch in diameter to three sixteenths. So for you that are all familiar or anything, some of you's come over and helped us harvest sorghum, that there are certain strains of sorghum, some seeds bigger than others, but it's just tiny seed. And that would fall as the dew, on top of the dew, through the night, and they had to get a, well guess what today? The Lord don't send. The Lord don't send physical manna on the ground, but he sends heavenly manna a lot of times, and we trotted under our feet. Why? Because we are too busy living our lives to spend the time to receive the blessing and to eat the angel food that he's provided. They could not eat it, except they gathered it, they ground it, and they baked it. And they could not say, all right, fellas, let's get busy today. We're all gonna get together. Now, I don't know if they did this or not, but I might've, during the warm weather, I might've not got in my tent, but I might've let my tent, laid my tent out on the ground, right? Or maybe it's like, you're welcome to sleep in my tent tonight. we'll let you we'll lay your tent out and so wouldn't that do and that see that's the way hillbillies think right we weren't around scraping up that listen if there was any there was any hillbillies at all out there in the wilderness if there was any jewish hillbillies they weren't scraping up that man off the ground But they were laying their coats or their blankets, their tent, and it was coming down there, and they'd just pick that up, right? Ain't that the way to do it? Bring it in the house and say, honey, make sure you check the pockets. Because when I was picking up my robe, when I was picking up my bathrobe, of course, that's all they wore was robes. It wasn't a bathrobe. But you know, when I was picking up my robe, A lot of them seeds went into the pockets. And she'd gather that up, and her and the kids, they didn't spend as much time as you might think gathering it. But it still was a chore. And you might not have to spend as much time as you think, but you ain't spending enough time. Because to pray without ceasing does not mean you gotta get in your closet. Don't mean that you gotta be like a Muslim and carry a prayer rug around. There's been a many a time. I drove through a herd of deer and not hit one of them. There's been times where I avoided a wreck and cars went this way and that way and avoided a wreck. And all along, Darryl, I was praying. I can remember we was going back to Pennsylvania. I woke up an Amish man and his wife. We was pulling a load of tobacco. We had other things on there, but it was mostly all tobacco, and we was going to Lancaster County, and I had it on my trailer, and it was raining, and we came to an overpass, and the road wasn't frozen, but when we got to that bridge, my truck with its dual tires, we looked, and it looked like the temperature was warm enough, but anyhow, We was passing a semi, and we came across that bridge, and we had our cruise control on. Oh, well, guess what? When we hit that ice, my old engine just went, rah! And my truck started going sideways. And there we was on the bridge, and I was right next to a semi. Guess what? Darryl was praying continually the rest of that trip. But in that instant, I said, oh God, help me. And then once I hit, I just tapped the brakes. We got off that bridge and it straightened out. And then I was thanking him. And I didn't care that Levi Zook was in there with his wife. He woke up and he's like, what's going on? I said, well, we almost wrecked. He said, oh, really? And I said, yeah. I said, it was just the Lord. We got further and further, and they ended up shutting down that I-80. And that was a trip and a half. But in all of that, the Lord was there. And he'd have been there if I'd have wrecked alongside the road and strewed all that tobacco. I mean, all it was, it was tobacco. I was hauling a load that weren't worth hauling, to be honest with you. But I was being paid to take a man back to Pennsylvania. That's the way they network, them Amish. They say, hey, you care to take me in a treadmill? It was a horse treadmill. You care for it? Yeah. Do you got a 24-foot trail? All right, well, OK, well. Then the night before, hey, could you take that trailer and could you drop it off over here at, not Chris King, but his brother. And they're going to load it. And before I knew it, we had so much on that trailer, there wasn't nothing left to put on it. And coming back, it's even worse. But it would have been all right if every bit of that ended up in a road ditch with me in it. and God still be good, and I'd have to be able, if I got phone from the vehicle and I sit there and watched it all burn, I'd have to say God's good. God's gave me more than I ever deserved. He took away from me less than I ever earned. Do you hear what I'm saying? If I'm diagnosed tomorrow with cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's. All in the same day, I'd have to say, God's been good to me. Because if I'd been left to myself in my sin, I'd no doubt spend at least three or four decades in a state penitentiary for killing somebody. But God's been good to me. And He's been good to you. Have you considered your ways? Sometimes when we're doing things wrong, we consider our ways. But have you considered the way that you've been walking in? Have you considered His way? Have you considered how good it is? Have you considered how He's directed your steps? How He's provided for you? I don't want to ramble on. Let's get some song to sing. I love each and every one of you. But we're missing out on blessings because we're disobeying God. Because we don't rejoice evermore. We don't pray without ceasing. We don't give thanks for all things in all things. This is the will of God. We are actually working against His will when we don't, in everything, give thanks. It's not only a, it's not only a hurt to us, but it's a hurt to our family, to our communities, to everyone that we're in contact with. Because when we disobey God, we quench his spirit. All right.