[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you'll be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. 2 Kings 4, if you were here this morning, you know those ladies were at the cross.
[0:15] And as I read that passage over and over, which is what I tend to do when I'm going to preach a passage, I just read it so many times, I get pretty close to getting it memorized, just not literal, but just about memorized.
[0:26] And those women were there, buddy. Those women had been with Jesus. They'd been serving Him and ministering to Him and taking care of Him. And in tonight's message, there's a certain woman, a certain woman.
[0:39] And next, on Thursday night, well, next time I preach, which will be a week from tonight, I guess, you're going to meet another lady. So these are ladies showing up in the Scriptures, and I hope it's a blessing to you.
[0:51] I want you to learn three lessons from this lady tonight. You can jot them down, and I'll walk our way back through there. Number one is where to go and what to do in times of trouble. Where to go and what to do in times of trouble.
[1:02] Number two lesson she teaches us is how to take care of your children in difficult times. How to take care of your children in difficult times. And the third lesson I think she teaches us is how to deal with success.
[1:14] How to deal with success, which is probably the hardest lesson of all for us to learn. Read with me, if you would, 2 Kings 4, verse 1. And there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant, my husband, is dead.
[1:31] And you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor has come to take unto him my two sons to be slaves, bondmen.
[1:42] And Elisha said unto her, Well, what shall I do for thee? Tell me what thou hast in the house, he said. And she said, Well, thine handmaid hath not anything in the house except save a pot of oil.
[1:55] Then he said, Well, go, borrow those vessels abroad of thy neighbors. Even empty vessels, borrow not a few. So go get all the empty vessels you can all over the community.
[2:06] And when thou art come in, and thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out unto all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
[2:17] So she went from him, and she shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel.
[2:29] And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go sell the oil, pay your debt, and live, you and your children, with all that's left over.
[2:46] Father in heaven, I pray that you would do a work tonight. I pray that you would show your power. And I pray you would encourage your people. I thank you for them. I thank you for their service.
[2:57] I thank you for the things they do that no one ever sees them do. From cleaning a parking lot and cutting grass and fixing a building, to praying over a world map, to taking care of the finances of this church, to all the hundreds of jobs that are done so that we can meet.
[3:13] I thank you for those that go out on soul winning visitation, visiting outreach, trying to get people here. I thank you for the missionaries. And I just pray tonight you'd bless your people and encourage them, and I'll give you praise for what you do in Jesus' precious name.
[3:26] Amen. In the story, Elisha has just met with three kings. I don't know how long it was. Ago, but three kings came to see him. And now the wife of a Bible college student comes to see her.
[3:40] The wife of a Bible college student comes to see her. She's a widow, and she cries out. So he's willing to meet with the big shots, and he's willing to meet with the poor people. He's not too big for little people.
[3:50] He knows he is a servant in the ministry. He's not some big shot preacher. He will not ask her anything from her. When she comes, he doesn't ask for anything. And when she comes back with all the success, and she has basically gotten rich by the end of the story, and when she comes back, he never asks for anything.
[4:09] So I want to go through three lessons with you real quickly if I could. Go to 2 Kings 4, verse 1, And that is we need to all learn from this lady where to go and what to do in times of trouble.
[4:23] Read with me that first part of verse 1. Again, the gins preached very clearly for us. There cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha.
[4:35] This lady has a lot of trouble. You read the story. They were already in the ministry. That's not the most lucrative career that you could choose.
[4:45] But my brother, who's a financial advisor, often talks to the missionaries, and he will tell them up front, he said, Now, guys, you need to learn how to manage your money. He said, Because if you're talking about wise career choices, y'all didn't make it.
[4:58] And so you didn't make the best career choice. You better learn how to take care of your money. So it's a Bible college student already, and now he's died. And once he died, there's the lady left, and she's got at least two sons that are mentioned here.
[5:14] And she's in deep debt, and they've come to the house, and they're going to do what is customary. So if you have a bill you can't pay, you can sell your children. And so the creditor comes in, and he says, Hey, you owe, you've got to pay, and so if you can't pay, I'll take your children.
[5:32] And so she's about to have her children taken from her. Now, what does she do? What does she do? Could I just, would you listen? Maybe mark this down. Number one, she doesn't let fear take over.
[5:44] You know what happens when everything's going wrong? What happens when everything's going wrong is we get afraid, and the devil loves that. But Jesus warned us that we were going to have trouble.
[5:55] Jesus warned us that we were going to have difficulty in this world. The Bible says in John 16, 33, These things I've spoken unto you, that in me, I wish you'd open your Bible there.
[6:06] I know you don't always open your Bible everywhere because we have the convenience of the screen. But you need to underline this in the second, in these two verses here. John 16, 33 says, In me, you might have peace.
[6:18] Look at that. In me, you might have peace. And then it says, In the world. Look at the contrast. In me, you can have peace. But in the world, you will have tribulation.
[6:30] In me, you can have peace. But in the world, you're going to have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. So we can have peace in Jesus.
[6:42] But you can mark it down. Getting saved didn't get you out of trouble. Getting saved didn't stop people from getting sick. Getting saved didn't stop your kids from acting like demons.
[6:52] Getting saved didn't stop the creditors from coming to your house. Getting saved didn't do anything. I wonder what she's thinking right now. What's going to happen to my children? Have their daddies died?
[7:03] What's going to happen? By the way, what are her children feeling right now? Are they bitter? Are they bitter? Why did God take my dad? Are they discouraged? What's going on?
[7:14] Here we were. Daddy was serving Jesus. And mama was serving Jesus. And we were all in the ministry here. And now my dad's dead. And I'm about to be a slave. I wonder if they were disillusioned.
[7:25] What will happen to her if her sons are gone? Because in that world, a woman was pretty well alone. She either had to have a husband, a dad, or sons.
[7:37] And so they were in trouble. And she was in trouble. But she didn't let fear take over. She didn't let fear take over. She didn't walk away from God. That's the second lesson she tells us about as she's dealing with all of her trouble.
[7:50] She didn't let fear take over. And she didn't walk away from God. Instead of walking away from God, she went to God. You do know what happens when trouble comes, don't you? Have you ever been one of those people? Things aren't going your way and you quit on God.
[8:03] Things aren't going your way so you stop going to church. Things aren't going your way so you get discouraged. You go in your room and you get in a fetal position and suck your thumb and lay on the bed. Or maybe you just go get a bowl of ice cream and watch TV.
[8:14] But you know, you're upset. And instead of searching out God, you get all upset. And you go to your room and instead of seeking God, you walk away from God. But she went to the man of God. In the story, she goes and she's crying.
[8:26] And she said, hey, you know my husband loved Jesus. You know he did. And he's dead now and they're coming to get my kids. And she said, I need help. She went to the right place.
[8:38] The Bible says in 1 John 4 and verse 18, There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear. Because fear has torment.
[8:49] He that fears is not made perfect in love. That word perfect there is mature. And so I need a mature enough relationship with God to know that no matter what's going on in my life, God's going to work in my life.
[9:00] All things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose. But that don't mean it's like that right now. It doesn't mean it's not a dark day. It doesn't mean that you're not stressed. It doesn't mean that you may go weeks and months and years in pretty bad shape, just to be honest with you.
[9:16] But you can know this. I am not alone. He loves me. I am not alone. He loves me and He cares about me. And this lady knew, hey, I don't know what to do. I could let fear take over.
[9:28] I could run to the world. But I think I'll run to God and see what happens. She could have gone to the world. She could have sold herself into prostitution. That wasn't that uncommon she could have. She could have sought out some of them false prophets and them demon gods.
[9:41] Lots of people did. Not this woman. She ran to the man of God. And I would challenge you, no matter what's going wrong in your life, and you need to know where to go and what to do, and that is seek God.
[9:51] So your husband died and your kids are in trouble and everybody's frustrated and everybody's hurting. That's not a time to run from God. That's a time to run to God. She obeyed God in every detail.
[10:03] Can you imagine the embarrassment of all your neighbors? You know, you leave the house. They know your husband's dead. And they know that the rent-a-truck is already outside your house to pick up all your furniture.
[10:15] But in this case, it's not your furniture. I was out door knocking one time on a Saturday in my first church. And I showed up at the house and I was knocking on the door. And I walked and I said, man, praise the Lord. Y'all getting new furniture.
[10:26] And the guy said, we're not getting furniture. They're here to pick it up. We haven't made the payments and they're taking the furniture away. They're not here to take away the furniture. They're here to take away the kids.
[10:37] And she goes and comes back at the house. She's probably been crying. She's probably distraught. She's probably hurting really bad. And she goes all over the neighborhood and says, can I borrow your pots?
[10:48] Can I borrow your pans? Can I borrow any vessel you have? What do you need it for? I just want the empty ones. Take anything you got to. Can I just borrow it? And she runs all over the town. She has her sons maybe running all over town.
[11:00] That would probably be embarrassing. But you don't let fear and embarrassment keep you from doing it. They know her husband's dead. Has she gone crazy? What's she want with all these pots?
[11:11] What do you do when trouble comes? It's coming for all of us. It's coming for all of us. This lady's story is just a story just like the rest of us have. That we have hard times.
[11:23] It's not because you're wicked. Look at, you know, your children might mess up. Might not be what you, honestly, might not be that you failed as a parent. Might be you just got a hard-headed kid.
[11:33] Say, man, you ever had one of them? I had some of those. Hey, you may have health issues. It may not be because of what you ate or you didn't run and exercise. It may be you're having trouble.
[11:44] What do you do when you have trouble? Listen to James chapter 1 and verse 2. Here's a great passage of Scripture for you. My brothers, all you people that are my Christian brothers, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptation.
[12:00] That means diverse temptation. That means all kinds, all sorts. You see, there's all kinds of problems facing all of us. In fact, everybody in this room could be in a problem right now, and not even any of us have the same problem as another problem.
[12:12] Of course, my problem is the biggest problem, and your problem isn't as big as my problem. And the reason is it's my problem, and my problem is always bigger than your problems. Amen? You've heard what minor surgery is and major surgery. Minor surgery is what you're having.
[12:24] Major surgery is what I'm having. And so that's exactly what's going on. Divers, y'all don't laugh at nothing. I quit. That is ridiculous. That was a good joke. I paid a lot for that sermon joke.
[12:39] The trying of your faith works patience. You know what God does? He lets us go through junk. You need to know that. He lets us go through junk.
[12:49] There's nothing in the Scripture in any way indicates you're going to have a bed of roses. If you do have a bed of roses, just remember they've got thorns. Thorns are on the rose bushes. And he said, but guess what's going to happen?
[13:01] As your faith is tried, as you go through these hard times, and you're just wondering, can I make it? I don't know what that lady must have felt like. I don't know what she must have felt like 24 hours after they buried her husband, and she's back at the house.
[13:15] And she's looking at the bills and finding out she owes money she didn't know she owed. She don't know how to handle the situation. I don't know what she's feeling like. I can only imagine the fear, the panic, the loneliness that attacks her, and her faith is being tried.
[13:28] And maybe she's wondering, what in the world am I going to do? There's no hope. But the trying of her faith worked patience. That word patience there is endurance. Made her stronger.
[13:38] Made her stronger. And in verse 4, let patience, endurance, getting strong enough to deal with stuff, have her perfect work, her complete work, that you may be perfect, mature, and entire, complete and entire, lacking nothing, wanting nothing.
[13:54] Do you run to God and His people, or to yourself and the world? Do you let fear and discouragement take over, or do you strengthen yourself in the Lord? What you did when you realized that you were a sinner with no hope of salvation, is you ran to the Lord, didn't you not?
[14:11] You know, that's what, I mean, this is probably, almost everybody in this room was probably pretty sure saved. You know what you did when you figured out you was a sinner? That's the reason we're saved on our way to heaven. Every one of us realized, one day you woke up and you realized, I am about the biggest scumbag on the planet, and God ought to save anybody but me, and I don't know why He'd ever saved me, and you got down in the dumps, and you knew you were wicked, and you knew you were lost, and your heart was broken, and you went to God, and you said, God, if you'd save me, you'd save anybody, will you save me?
[14:39] And He saved you. How many of you, is that your story? Say amen. That's what you did the last time, so when the trouble comes, run to the Lord. What do you do when things are bad? What do you do when you're in times of trouble?
[14:49] Where do you go? You go to the Lord. That's a lesson from the lady. Now go to 2 Kings 4. 4. I think a second lesson, there's a ton of stuff that could be said here, but I think a second lesson is, she learned how to take care of her children, in these difficult times.
[15:04] I love the story, because I love the thought of raising kids. I think one of the most exciting things, that's ever happened in our lives, and many in my life, is that we have been able to be parents, and being a parent, is like the hardest thing you've ever done, and the best thing you've ever done.
[15:19] It's the most fun thing you've ever done. It's the most depressing thing you've ever done. You don't know that yet, because yours are still young, and you think the biggest problem in the world, is a dirty diaper. There will come a day, when you'd say, I wish all the problems were, were dirty diapers.
[15:33] But anyway, look if you would, at 2 Kings 4. 4. And when thou art come in, when you come back in the house, shut the door, on you and the family, close the door, close yourselves in, and pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
[15:52] He knows what we're feeling. He goes to the man of God, and I just need you to know tonight, that you're hurting, and our Father knows where you are.
[16:12] When you're all alone at night, when you're hurting, when it's very dark, it's 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock in the morning, sun's not up yet, it's dead, quiet, and you're hurting, he hears your cries, in the night.
[16:27] She knows what her children are feeling. She knows her children are hurting, and she needs to do something to help them. Jesus knows what you're feeling. In Hebrews 4, verse 15, we have not a high priest, which cannot be touched, for the feelings of our infirmity, our weaknesses, our sicknesses, but was in all points, tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
[16:50] You know, it's a beautiful picture of what Jesus does for us. You would think somebody as perfect as him wouldn't even care what you went through. But he came down to live where you live, so he'd feel what you feel, so he'd know what you're going through, so he could say, come on, I know, I can help you, I hurt.
[17:04] She knew that it was her moment now to help her children learn to walk with God. She's in that other room. She's dying. What are the kids doing in their room?
[17:17] What are the kids feeling tonight when they're all alone? The two boys are in the room. I don't know, are they talking? Are they having a discussion, and one of the boys is saying, well, what's going to happen? Dad's dead.
[17:28] Now mama's going to sell us. Who's going to buy us? Where are we going to live? What's going to happen to life? This is horrible. She probably understood a little bit of that, so she taught them by her example.
[17:45] She taught them by her example, which is a great biblical truth. That is the best teaching you do. What you say is not really that valuable. What you say is not really that valuable.
[18:00] It's what you do that's that valuable. You know, one of the hardest things to deal with when you're a pastor is when you study for 20, 30 hours a week for three messages, and you get the best message you can, and you put them together, then you tell a joke and nobody laughs.
[18:16] Huh? You've seen that happen before, not with me, but other people. You've seen how to deal with that. Or you prepare the best message you can, which you really believe will help, and while you were preparing that message, you were thinking this message is for that person.
[18:30] And all the time you get through, when you get through preaching, you get in the car, you say, baby, how'd the message go? She says good. I said, well, what did you like about it? I don't remember what she said, but it's okay. Not quite that bad.
[18:41] But you know, so you go ask somebody, you go ask somebody, what did Austin preach two weeks ago? And everybody be like, I don't know. I think we was in the book of Mark. Yeah, that's close enough. Well, we was in the New Testament. I know that part.
[18:52] Because if you don't remember what people say, you just remember what they do. Mama could have given all the lectures she wanted, but I'll tell you what made an impact. They saw her go to the man of God.
[19:05] They saw her obey the man of God. In Genesis chapter 18 and verse 19, this is a passage of Scripture I really wish you'd learn, if you're a parent. Genesis 18, 19 says, I know him, God's talking about Abraham, that he will command his children.
[19:24] That's interesting. There wasn't going to be a vote. There wasn't going to be a discussion. There wasn't going to be, do you feel like we ought to go to church or not? Are y'all ready to get up or not, baby? Can you make it to church or not?
[19:35] It wasn't that, it wasn't a discussion. He said, he commands. That's biblical. I mean, we are reading the Bible. And his household after him, after him, you should underline it in the Bible, after him, it was not what he said, it was what he did.
[19:52] It wasn't like, you need to go to church and you need to read your Bible. It was, you watch me, I read my Bible. You watch me, I pray. You watch me, I give. You watch me, I trust God.
[20:03] And then those kids will keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. She cried out to God the only way she knew how to. She ran to the man of God. She was transparent about her need. You know, when you go talk to the man of God, it's pretty quick and easy to say, hey, I know somebody's got a problem like this and try to figure out a way not to be clear.
[20:21] She's like, you know my husband's dead and we're in trouble. And then she obeyed to the smallest detail. And in 2 Kings 4 and verse 5, she involved the children.
[20:32] She involved the children. In verses 5 and 6. Likely, they too were asking for pots and pans. And in the story, they helped by bringing the vessels to her.
[20:43] She's doing the pouring. And they're bringing the pots. And they bring a pot and she fills it up and they move that pot over. And she fills up the next pot. And finally, they're not anymore. And she says, son, bring me another pot.
[20:55] In verse 6. And he says, there's not another pot, mom. And those boys realized, boy, God just filled up a bunch of pots out of a little bit of oil mama had left.
[21:07] God just filled them up. She let those boys see the victory and learn to believe God. She could have gotten drunk. She could have done some drugs.
[21:18] She could have gotten psychotic. She could have run from God. She could have done wrong and the boys would have learned from that too, wouldn't they? That is what she did. They knew their condition.
[21:31] They knew that it was embarrassing. They knew that they were failing. But now they've got to be excited. I don't know what you think is going on in that house. But I mean, every countertop, all the counter space and the floors are covered up with pots full of oil.
[21:45] There's oil everywhere in the house. And they're like, mama, we didn't have but that little bit of oil when we started. Now we've got oil everywhere. And I can just only, I just imagine, I remember as a little boy, not a lot of things do I remember from my childhood.
[22:00] But I remember living in that little shack on the side of the mountain with an outhouse and a well to get the water out of. And I was just a little guy and a rainbow came across the sky and my mother explained to me, my mother explained to me about Noah's Ark.
[22:13] And then my mother told me, she said, son, we are rich. We're very rich. We might not have a lot of money but we're children of the king. I still remember that. I can only imagine mama talking to those boys.
[22:25] How are you dealing with your children? Are they learning to trust God or are they hearing bitterness come out of your mouth? Are you at the house saying, I can't believe God let me go through this. I can't believe that I have to deal with this.
[22:38] Are they listening to and watching and seeing you with a bad attitude or are they like, man, you know, we got it worse than anybody or maybe they don't even know they got it so bad because you just deal with it so well.
[22:49] Are they learning how to deal with problems when it's their turn? Last point, let me quickly finish for you. 2 Kings chapter 4 verse 7. I think probably the lesson that most impresses me is she knew how to deal with success.
[23:02] And she teaches us, the lady teaches us how to deal with success. I don't know if you, I'm not going to read the verse just for the sake of time because you've already heard it several times. But she didn't get excited about her blessing and forget where the blessing came from.
[23:17] Have you ever noticed what we do? When we're poor, we pray. When we're sick, we pray. When things are going wrong, we pray. When we've got to go to court about that ticket or about that problem, we beg God.
[23:30] Oh God, get me out of this. I'm in trouble. I need your help. And then when we get out of trouble, we're like, well, my friend, talk to the judge. I got a loan from this guy. We worked it out this way and before you know it, it's like God never was involved in it.
[23:45] Be honest. Be honest. I've done it. I think you have. I mean, when you're really down and out and you're like, well, we just got lucky. Lucky? You asked God to do something. Say amen right there.
[23:57] You know what she did when she got all that oil? She knew what to do with that oil. Do you really think she needed a preacher to tell her to go sell the stuff? Do you really think she needed to go back to Elisha and say, Elisha, hey, I got all the oil and I'm just a dumb woman and don't know what to do with the oil.
[24:10] She knew. Tell me the truth. She knew, didn't she? Yeah, she knew. But she was like, hey, it's God entered the prayer and God used his man there to do that. I'm going to go back to Elisha and in the story, she goes back and says, Elisha, we got all that oil, now what?
[24:25] And I just think to myself how she didn't take advantage of the blessings, how she obeyed in times of plenty. You know when the most dangerous time is?
[24:38] When you got stuff. There were times in Betty and my life when we literally didn't know how we would get food that week and I'm not stretching that one bit.
[24:54] There were times when we didn't know how we'd pay our bills. I lived almost two years without a salary from the church I was pastoring because I had messed up things and I just, the church was willing to pay me but I told him no.
[25:08] I says, I won't take one. I didn't get a job and Betty didn't have another job. We had no money and we prayed. Buddy, you pray when that's happening. You pray. When she comes in and says, we owe $32 to the water company or the electric company or whatever it is and you're like, I don't have $32 and I am too proud to beg and so you go in the backyard and you beg God.
[25:32] Boy, you can pray when that's happening. I remember one day when I thought the world was over, it was so humiliated, things weren't working out and I was so desirous of seeing God do something and I got down at my little green couch in my office.
[25:48] I had a couch that her mother and dad had given us. It was in my office. I got down there and I said, God, I can't take it no more. I am at the end of my rope. Forget it. I'm just not going to deal with it. I can't deal with it.
[25:59] I am at the very end. There's no way and I promise you it was just like he moved in the room with me and put his arm around me and said, look, bud, it's all all right and I got up from there and I walked downstairs and I told our secretary, it's all taken care of.
[26:11] He just told me. She's a volunteer secretary. I'm sure she thought, yeah, her husband had money. I'm sure she thought, yeah, you're a nut but you know what? Within the next few days, the answers came. That's what happened in the story right here.
[26:25] Well, when you get the money, what do you do? Her debt was paid and her future was secured. For the sake of time, I won't preach that part to you but let me just say this.
[26:36] You had a debt. You were sinful and you were made righteous. In Romans chapter 6, you were without strength. You were ungodly and in verse 8, you were a sinner.
[26:48] And yet he saved you. You came unworthy and he saved you. Maybe the biggest success of all was the lesson she taught her children about God in this thing.
[27:01] Her biggest success because by the end of the story, she's going to sell everything and her and her children are going to live out of the rest of it. But maybe the biggest one was she taught her children, you can trust God.
[27:13] She taught her children, when you get in trouble, go see the Lord. She taught her children and when things come through, don't you forget who gave you the blessing. Get back to God. How do you deal with blessings?
[27:24] Do you tear down your barns so you can build bigger barns? Do you get so busy with your blessings that you don't have time for God? You don't have time for ministry?
[27:35] Because my comfort and my success is so important that it becomes a hindrance to the things of God. In Mark chapter 4 and verse 19, the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things choke the word.
[27:56] Man, I got a lot of stuff. I like stuff and stuff makes me want more stuff. And you want stuff and it chokes the word.
[28:09] Do you come back to God and give him thanks or do you go on your merry journey like nine guys did when they got healed? So let me ask you a few questions. How are you dealing with the tragedies in your life?
[28:23] We're all going to have them. Your children may run away from home. You look like a fool because you're the missionary.
[28:34] You got the big churches. It's on national TV and you feel like a failure and a fool. You're going to deal with tragedies. I flew to Lima after my daughter had come home and my life was kind of back on track.
[28:51] And I'm sitting at a table where I flew down and I was buying lunch for everybody and the Peruvian pastor said, we almost didn't have you here because you know you're a failure. I said, you really think you need to convince me I'm a failure?
[29:06] You really think you need to tell me I didn't raise my kids right? You really think you need to tell me that? I said, listen, gentlemen, I flew down here on a plane I paid for. I'll fly back on another one I paid for. And they said, no, we're going to let you stay.
[29:19] Well, thank you very much. You all got tragedies. Everybody in this room, don't you feel like God doesn't love you just because you got problems? He does love you. He loved this lady.
[29:31] By the end of the story, you know he loved her, don't you? By the end of the story, when she's rich and living on Wall Street, yeah, you know she was loved then. How do you deal with your success? How do you deal with your success?
[29:44] If you could go back to when you didn't have anything and think about having what you have now, you could probably think, I never expected to have it so good, but I got it awful good. And if you can't do that, then you're probably really proud.
[29:58] Oh, I shouldn't have said that. How do you exercise your faith? Do you see that that test of your faith proves the depth of your faith?
[30:12] God's at work. I think a lady taught us three lessons. I think the lady taught us three lessons. Number one, she taught us where to go and what to do when things are difficult, times are troubled.
[30:24] I think she taught us how to take care of our children. One of the greatest privileges you have is being a mom and a dad. Lord, help me, what a blessing that God let you have children.
[30:36] But you know what? It's not about giving them clothes and food. It's about teaching them about Jesus. It's about teaching them how to live a life of faith. It's about...
[30:46] It's about a young girl who I watched play the piano tonight. And as good a girl as I think she is, it's the grace of God that got her there.
[30:58] But some parents probably gave some examples. Or you know that's true. Some girls standing over here singing, still young ladies. All your children are doing so good and I'm so proud and happy for you. How are you raising your children?
[31:10] How are you dealing? How are you stepping out in faith? Because when you live in the middle of opulence, you know, if you're not a giver where you sacrificially give sometimes, you probably don't even need to exercise much faith.
[31:23] But there'll come a time when a tragedy's gonna happen. I think the biggest question of all is how do you deal with success? Jesus told the story about people that tore down their barns and built better barns.
[31:34] He told the story about nine guys who after they got healed just kept on trucking and didn't even go back and say thank you. And now God's made us blessed. And we don't have time to go to church.
[31:47] We don't have time to read our Bibles. We don't have time to tell anybody about Jesus. Maybe there's a lesson from the lady. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia.
[32:01] For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.
[32:12] Thanks. Thank you.