[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
[0:14] Well, we are honored tonight to have Wayne Cofill to preach for us. Brother Wayne is the father of our, let's see, missionary to South Africa and husband.
[0:29] That's Mark and what does he call him? Son in Grace. Where are y'all? Would you hold your hand up? Mark and Amy. There there's Amy, Mark, somewhere he may have come to church. And then Stephen that was leading singing.
[0:41] And then Stephanie who is Trent's wife. So all of them are part of our church. Brother Wayne has been a friend to me for more years than I can count.
[0:53] Forty-ish. And so we have been good friends. He's been a real friend. And their church is the mother church for Vision Baptist Church. So when we started, Brother Wayne came down here with some people from the church.
[1:06] And we organized Vision. So I want you to give Brother Wayne a good strong round of applause as he comes to preach. And I hope you enjoy this message tonight. Thank you, Brother. All right, if you have your Bibles, turn to Colossians chapter 1.
[1:20] Colossians chapter 1. Am I on Brother Pearson? Amen. Okay, good. Praise God. All right, Colossians chapter 1. You know, I really appreciate that baptism service. I thought Thatcher was going to preach a little while there.
[1:33] And I was so proud of him. And I'll never forget. You know, you never know the potential in one baptism service. Amen. I remember there was three juniors that got baptized on one Sunday.
[1:47] I baptized Kevin Hall, Mark Coffey, and Amy Cofield. Cofield then. Amen. And all three of them are in South Africa. Hallelujah.
[1:58] Isn't that great? And one of them married my daughter. And I always say if I'd have knew he was going to marry Amy, I'd have held him under 25 minutes. But anyway, that's an old joke around our house, but I thought y'all hadn't heard it.
[2:11] Okay, Colossians chapter 1. Paul is spending some prison time with Ephraim, his fellow servant. And I don't believe he started Colossia, the church of Colossia.
[2:23] But I believe he had such a concern about this church that he begins to write a letter. And in this first chapter, I want to preach the whole chapter in about 25 minutes.
[2:33] He begins to commend them for some things, and then he prays. My wife prayed this prayer over our four children, who's all in the ministry, every week.
[2:50] Every week. It's a powerful prayer. And I thought about right before this open house and the dedication of this building, which is a blessing and a miracle.
[3:00] And all the churches y'all build around the world, that's even a greater miracle. I thought it'd be appropriate for us to preach on Paul's prayer to the church.
[3:12] And I know y'all want to be an answer to that prayer. And I want to be an answer to that prayer, so I'm going to preach real quick on being an answer to Paul's prayer. Let's pray before we even read the scripture.
[3:22] Father, thank you for the blessing of this baptism service, each one that's baptized, and all these fathers that are preachers that got to baptize their children.
[3:32] Lord, I thank you for Brother Austin and Sister Betty. I believe one of the greatest years of our church was when they were on furlough, and they lived in the church house. Lord, you, through them, changed our perspective on missions and heightened our vision to see the world touch with the gospel.
[3:52] What a year that was. And Lord, I pray, dear God, that you'd just bless this message, that it'd be a blessing to this church that is such a blessing. And Lord, I pray, dear God, that you would help us to be an answer to Paul's prayer.
[4:06] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. It begins on the first line. It says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timotheus, our brother.
[4:18] Aren't you glad you're in the will of God? Say amen. You know, some people look at me, and they look at me funny, and I don't blame them. But they know a lot of preachers come to me and say, I heard that you've been at the same church for 39 years.
[4:33] And they always look at me like, why? Why? You know? And I thought, well, do I have the plague or what? You know, I said, yeah, really, I just don't have enough guts to change churches.
[4:44] I've been there 39 years. No, I want to tell you something. I believe I'm in the will of God, being in this one church for my entire life. This is my first church, and I hope it's my last.
[4:55] But, you know, I love being in the will of God, don't you? I think the will of God is precious. And he begins with that. And then he says to the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ, which are a Colossia, grace unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[5:11] Grace always precedes peace. Amen. And we give thanks to God and to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. He's just about beginning his prayer, but he begins to commend them for some things.
[5:25] He says, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love, which ye have of all the saints, and for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of truth of the gospel.
[5:43] So he commends them for three things, faith and love and hope. If you'll study very closely every epistle, every epistle that Paul wrote except 1 Corinthians, he begins in the opening paragraph to commend them for three things.
[6:00] You can look at it in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Philippians, Ephesians. He's either praying for these three things or he's commending them for these three things, love and faith and hope.
[6:15] In Corinthians, there is a catastrophe. He begins and breaks all the rebuke about the tongues and the wrong priorities and et cetera. And he has in the love chapter and ends it with these three great attributes, faith, love and hope.
[6:33] And I want you to know that God does not judge a church by the amount of nickels they bring in or the amount of noses they have around here. And thank God for all these children.
[6:44] I'm going to tell you what, y'all got a future. Amen. Amen. This is a blessing. And I'll tell you what, he doesn't measure us by the beautiful buildings, which this is a great building. And thank God the Lord gave it to you. But I believe this is a sanctuary set aside for worship.
[6:58] Say amen. Brother Stenet Blue rebuked me one time when I called our main room an auditorium. He said, who's auditioning? I said, I don't know who's auditioning.
[7:09] I said, what do you call it? He said, I call it a sanctuary. I said, well, that's a little formal for me, Doc. He said, well, I want to tell you what sanctuary means. It means sanctified for a purpose. And so I said, I think I'll call it a sanctuary.
[7:20] Amen. But anyway. So, you know, he commends them for faith and love and hope. And then he begins to, we'll go down to verse 9. And he says, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you.
[7:35] Now listen.
[8:05] Can somebody say amen right there. Can somebody say amen right there? Even the forgiveness of sin.
[8:17] And it goes on to say, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created. Talking about Jesus now. That are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether it be thrones or dominion or principalities or powers.
[8:34] All things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have preeminence.
[8:53] For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Here is a church that was in some mystic, false mysticism, Judaic observance of days and aestheticism, touch not, taste not.
[9:11] And they are just really low rating and managing Jesus to being just one of their gods. And I want you to know that he says as he prays, he prays for about five things.
[9:23] But it comes down to this one thing that I am praying for our church this year is that Christ may be seen in every member. And that Jesus will get the preeminence.
[9:33] Amen. But I want to just give you this prayer real quick. I want you to see first of all in verse 9. He says, For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
[9:52] First of all, I believe that every pastor and every Sunday school teacher ought to pray for their students, for every member in this church, to be in the will of God.
[10:02] Not only to know the will of God, but be in the will of God and enjoy the will of God. Amen. I don't believe we ought to look like we've been baptized in Percentiman juice. Amen. And that our mother-in-law has come to live with us.
[10:14] Amen. No offense. I said that one time, got rebuked by a lady. But folks, the will of God is not a road map. It's not even a GPS. I want to tell you something. The will of God is a relationship.
[10:26] It's a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. And we need to be filled with his will. We need to be filled with his word, which is his will. We need to be filled with his spirit.
[10:38] The Bible says that he was praying. The first thing on the prayer list for this church is not for things and not for somebody to be healed. I believe really and honestly we pray more for people to stay out of heaven than we do hell.
[10:54] And don't take that as offensive because, folks, I believe we ought to pray for the sick. And I believe we ought to pray that they'll be healed. Amen. And I believe we ought to pray for a greater miracle that they'll have grace if it's not God's will for them to be healed.
[11:09] Amen. But I want to tell you something, friend. He prays for one thing beginning his prayer that they will know the precious will of God. That they'll be filled with it. You know, I believe that we ought to pray for the will of God in our lives.
[11:22] I'll never forget. We was at Sand Mountain Bible Camp. How many of you have ever been there? Amen. I think I introduced that place to you. I'm not sure. Sand Mountain. I introduced him to a lot of people. My pastor and him were great friends. But I want to tell you something.
[11:34] We were there and I had Gordon Carpenter as our guest preacher. Now this man is so deep that I don't understand a word he says sometimes. He's prophetic. Amen. Not pathetic.
[11:45] He's prophetic. Amen. An old gentleman. About 85 years old. He comes in there. Has his glasses down on his nose like John R. Rice used to look, you know. And he came in and I said, boy, this is going to be deep, boys.
[11:56] This is going to be great, man. Hold on. Here's the professor. Here's the scholar. And he preached a message I'll never forget. And I want to give you the outline. I don't have time to go into it. But he preached on how to know the will of God.
[12:10] And he said, in your Bible there's a phrase five times, day by day. You want to know the will of God. You take that phrase and God will show you the will of God.
[12:21] It's precious. He started out with Genesis chapter 39 about Potiphar's wife. Day by day tried to take advantage of Joseph.
[12:34] It says, and it came to pass as he spake to Joseph day by day that he hearkened not unto her and to lie by her or to be with her. And, folks, I believe it's the perfect will of God that day by day you resist temptation.
[12:49] Say amen. I believe with all my heart, folks, listen. There's a lot of people in this room the devil's going to try to overcome this week. I've been pastoring the same place for 39 years and I've seen a whole lot of casualties.
[13:01] I've seen a lot of victories. And praise God, I believe this church is part of the fruit of our church. And it thrills my soul when I hear of all these missionaries that's gone out in these last 11 years.
[13:12] And it's just a blessing. It makes me feel kind of like our church is being used in little old Dalton, Georgia, where everybody says I ought to went to a big city. Amen. And, folks, I want to tell you something.
[13:23] He said, hey, resist temptation. And then we see that day by day he resisted that temptation. And then the Bible says on a few verses down, it says he got up and fled.
[13:35] You know what that is? That's tennis shoe sanctification. Amen. It's tennis shoe sanctification. He got up and fled. Y'all get it? Amen. Amen. And, I mean, folks, listen.
[13:45] It takes more guts and more courage this year to run from the appearance of evil and to run from the temptations of sin. And, folks, day by day we can be in the will of God as we resist temptation.
[14:00] But we know the greatest defense is a good offense. We draw nigh to God. And I love it when the devil knocks on my door and the Lord answers the door. Amen. That's good. Amen. I can't handle him.
[14:10] Can you? But, folks, the Lord can handle him. And then, second of all, he went and I said, oh, lean on this man. He's going to deeper in. He went to 2 Chronicles. I don't have time to read it. Chapter 30, verse 21.
[14:22] And he said, you know, and he read the verse about praising day by day, offering sacrifice day by day. I want to tell you what the will of God is for this church. And we ought to pray for every one of our followers as pastors, as ministers, that we ought to pray like Paul for this church that was being swept away with Gnosticism and other cults.
[14:42] We need to pray that they'll worship God day by day. Amen. Now, I know this is deep, but I want to tell you something. If this guy can preach it, I can too. Say amen. And I want to tell you something.
[14:52] Day by day, we ought to worship God. Amen. I've been preaching a lot of meetings. And I want to tell you something. Some of them have been camp meetings. And I said, I don't know what in the world I'm doing at this place.
[15:03] Amen. I don't even fit in there. Praise God. I don't even know how to do all that stuff. But praise God. I just get up and preach the Bible. Amen. Verse by verse. Y'all ever heard of that? Amen. And I'm going to tell you something chapter by chapter.
[15:15] But I want to tell you something. It's the will of God for you to worship the Lord daily. Don't depend on this church to spoon feed you. Feed yourself. Say amen. Hey, don't depend on the pastor to give you all the spiritual wisdom.
[15:27] Get some of it yourself. Say amen. I mean day by day. We ought to get up and say this is the day the Lord's made. I'll rejoice and be glad in it. And worship him. And give him the preeminence of the day.
[15:39] He is Lord. Amen. Is he your Lord? And then he went on and he went to Nehemiah chapter 8. And let me give you this verse real quick.
[15:50] And he said that Nehemiah day by day. Now this is deep now. Y'all get your pen and write this down. Because you're not going to believe how deep it is. Amen. He said day by day in Nehemiah chapter 8.
[16:03] He read his Bible. Nehemiah day by day read the word. And folks I want to tell you something. It's the will of God for you to read your Bible. And not only read it.
[16:15] Believe it. And not only believe it. Heed it. And let it change your life. This is deep I know. But I want to tell you something friend. God wants us day by day to worship him.
[16:27] Day by day. He wants us to resist temptation. Day by day. He wants us to read, heed, and obey the word of God. With all our heart.
[16:37] And then he went to Luke chapter 11. Real quick. Luke chapter 11. Y'all know this disciples prayer. The Lord's prayer is in John 17. In Luke chapter 11.
[16:49] We see. Let me get there. That we ought to do something else day by day. To be in the will of God. That was Nehemiah 8.18. I don't have time to go there.
[16:59] Just jot her down. Amen. In Luke chapter 11 verse 3. It says give us day by day our daily bread. I want to tell you what the will of God is. I can say it with authority from the word of God. It's for you to depend on him day by day.
[17:12] And to ask. And believe. And pray. Pray. I want you to know this is foundational. Brother Pearson. But it is the right foundation. We need to pray with Holy Ghost dependence.
[17:26] Fervent. Faithful. Praying. And then last but not least. He went to his last point in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And I do want to go there. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 16.
[17:39] 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 16. Real quick. The Bible says. For which cause we faint not. Many people get discouraged.
[17:50] Many people quit. For which cause we faint not. Brother Pearson you're on the ball back there. But though our outward man perish. Yet our inward man is renewed. Day by day.
[18:02] You know what the will of God is? The will of God is for you to be filled with the spirit of God daily. Day by day. Die to self. Die daily. Take up your cross and follow him.
[18:13] The Bible says. And folks I want you to know. For which cause we faint not. Our outward man perish. Yet our inward man is renewed. Day by day. And it goes on to say. We ought to have eternal values.
[18:23] In verse 18. And we need to live for eternity. And not for this temporal world. Back to Colossians chapter 1. And I'll try to go through this prayer real quick.
[18:34] But then he had a petition about not only the will of God. But the walk for God. The walk for God. Look at Colossians chapter 1 please. Colossians chapter 1.
[18:46] Look at verse 9. For this cause it says. We also since the day we heard it. Do not cease to pray for you. And desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will.
[18:57] In all wisdom. And by the way. You ought to seek God's will with wisdom. You know what wisdom is? I know my car out there will go 90 miles an hour. That's knowledge. But you know what wisdom is?
[19:09] When to go that fast. And it's not on 400 about 5 o'clock. Say amen. Wisdom is applying what you know. Wisdom is seeing this world through God's eyes.
[19:22] Hey. Wisdom is seeing the end of sin. Proverbs chapter 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. It's all about the end of sin. If you'll read the last part of the chapter. The devil always shows you the front yard of sin.
[19:34] But never shows you the backyard of sin. The devil always shows you chapter 1. But never shows you the end of the story. Folks I want to tell you something. Most people if they saw the end of sin. Wouldn't get in it. I go to the YDC.
[19:46] I've been going there 36 years every third Tuesday. This past Tuesday this young man on steroids. Then hard drugs over in Picking County. He's a great linebacker.
[19:57] Rearned his life. And he began to weep at the table after I was counseling with him. He said you know I have rearned my life. I'm just useless preacher. And I said you know what you need son?
[20:09] You need some wisdom. He said what is that? I said you need to see the end of sin. He says I've already seen it. And I'm sick of it preacher. And praise God he bowed his head at that table. And he got gloriously saved.
[20:21] That's wisdom. Amen. Because he's the only wise God. And he'll live in and through you. And it's a wonderful life. I highly recommend it. It's precious. The will of God. We ought to pray for our followers.
[20:32] To stay in the will of God. Be in the will of God. And enjoy the will of God. Amen. Amen. And it's day by day. And folks it's full of faith, hope, and love.
[20:42] That's the will of God. That's what God commends. And folks I want you to know that we can walk in wisdom towards them that are without. We need to have that wisdom.
[20:54] We need to see God as who he is. And that's the rest of this chapter. But I want you to know the walk real quick. We need to walk.
[21:04] Look at this. It says that we might walk. What's the next three words? Worthy of the Lord. Amen. And to all what?
[21:16] Pleasing. Being fruitful in every good work. I'll get that in just a minute. We need to walk. That's day by day. But that's the steps of a good manner of order by the Lord. Every step we take.
[21:28] We ought to ask God to fill us with faith. With hope. And with love. Every day we ought to pray. Dear God I can't please my wife all the time.
[21:39] I'm only kidding. You know. Dear Lord I can't please the congregation all the time. And you can't. But there's one person you ought to strive to please. His name is the Lord.
[21:51] Amen. Folks I want to please him don't you? The Bible says we're created to please him. Revelation 4 11 says he created all things were and are created for his pleasure. But you know how you please God?
[22:02] Hebrews 11 6 says for it's impossible to please God except by faith. Coming to him. That's prayer. It's a great definition of prayer. Coming to him. Believing that he was.
[22:14] No. That he is. He's the I am. Say amen. That he is. And he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Folks I want to tell you something. We ought to please God.
[22:25] And that ought to be our prayer. Dear God help my students in my class. Not just to please me. Or please the pastor. Help them to please God when nobody's around. Help them to walk in the fear of God.
[22:36] What's the fear of God? Knowing God knows. Amen. And knowing who he is. He's God. He's Lord. He's Lord. I'm going to get that in just a minute in closing. Folks we need to have a walk that pleases God.
[22:51] That means we have a walk of faith. That means we need to have a walk in the spirit. We need to walk with Jesus. We have fellowship one with another. Because the blood of Jesus.
[23:01] We walk in the spirit. We walk with him. We fellowship with him. Anything outside the will of God is darkness. Let me tell you the most miserable person in this room. It's not a lost person.
[23:13] They're not convicted to be miserable yet. They have to join the church. No not really. But the person that's most miserable is the person that knows the will of God and is out of it.
[23:26] Say amen. You ever seen a happy backslider? No sirree. They're miserable. And they try to make everybody else miserable. That's why they're critical. Because they're down in the ditch of sin.
[23:38] They say come on down here and be as sorry as I am. That's an insecure spirit. Say amen. Critical people are insecure. But I want to tell you something. I'd be insecure if I was out of the will of God. Folks our prayer ought to be we ought to walk with God.
[23:53] And please him. Three. Number three. There's a petition about the work for God. And I love this. It says being fruitful in every good work.
[24:05] And increasing in the knowledge of God. Fruitful. You know I'm an independent Baptist by conviction. I'm sorry. I went by a church just a second ago called the revolution.
[24:18] I almost ran off the road wondering what in the world is a revolution. I call it rebellion. But anyway. You know these one word churches bother me.
[24:29] They bother me. I'm Baptist by conviction. I'm not apologizing for it. I'm a fundamental independent Baptist. I am. But I don't make an agenda. I don't fight everybody that's not.
[24:39] I love everybody. Amen. But I want to tell you something friend. We need to. We need to work for God. And we need to have fruit. And one of the greatest fruits in the Bible is.
[24:54] Brother Paul used to call me a fruitcake. And said the biggest fruitcake that's ever. Went out of the. Fruitcake capital world. Is Wayne Cofield. And he was just kidding of course. I hope he was kidding.
[25:07] But I want to tell you something folks. Holiness is a fruit. Amen. I mean it's not do's and don'ts. That's what this. Staticism was all about. Touch not. Taste not.
[25:18] Adding some law. Adding some Judaic. Observances. And they were all messed up. And folks he said. Hey listen. You're complete in Christ. Christ is all in all. Thank God for the book of Colossians.
[25:29] I'm enjoying it. I'll tell you why I'm in Colossians. I came up with this theme. Let Christ be seen in 2017. You would not believe how many weeks it took me to rhyme that. Praise God.
[25:41] Let Christ be seen in 2017. And I said I'm going to take Colossians 127. Where it says Christ in you the hope of glory. And I thought wait a minute. If I'm going to just take a verse out of context.
[25:53] We're going to have to go through the whole book. So Sunday morning and Sunday night. You be proud of me brother Austin. Sunday morning. Sunday night. Here we are in Colossians. Never done that before. I always have a series on Sunday morning.
[26:04] And then the series on Wednesday night. But I never touch it on Sunday night. Because I want to preach on my pet peeves. And run rabbits. And shoot other Baptists. You know that kind of stuff.
[26:16] But folks holiness is a fruit. Look it up. Romans 6.22. And I want to tell you something folks. His holiness is Christ likeness. And folks I believe in separation.
[26:28] But the greatest separation is this. You love God so much you don't love the world. Amen. You love God so much you don't want to sin. Some people say I don't believe in that eternal security.
[26:41] You can save. Once saved. Always saved. You can just live like you want to. They got a problem there. Number one you don't want to if you're saved. I cuss as much as I want to. I run around with my beautiful wife for 42.
[26:52] 42. 42 years. 42 years. I chew. I dip. I do all the things I want to do. I'll tell you what. But I want to tell you something. Since I got saved I don't want to.
[27:04] I don't want to. I got a new want to. Therefore if any man be in Christ is a new creature. Old things pass away. Behold all things become new. Come on now. Help me out on the front row over there. But I'll tell you another thing is I'm scared to.
[27:18] Because whom the Lord loveth he's scourging and chasing every son he receives. I don't want him to take my heart. I don't want him to take my children. Listen. Folks I'm saved by Jesus Christ and grace.
[27:30] Plus nothing. Minus nothing. And I'm not worried I'm going to lose it any minute. I'm just glad I can find the will of God and be in it. And walk with him. And work for him. Fruit. Praise is a fruit.
[27:43] Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15. The fruit of our lips. Works as a fruit. Colossians 1 10 in our text. A fruit of another. One Christian is another Christian.
[27:55] Come on missionaries. Say amen right there. Amen. The other day I was at a camp meeting. Preaching. And everybody went over 45 minutes. I got up and I said.
[28:05] If you was a missionary you could tell time. But anyway. Just thinking about y'all. Hey friend listen. The fruit of good works. The fruit of soul winning.
[28:16] It's all Jesus. We abide in him. And his words abide in us. And we ask what we will and it shall be done in you. We bear fruit for his glory. And folks we know God.
[28:29] And the degree we know him. We love him. And the degree that we love him. We obey him. And that's abiding. And folks it's wonderful when he flows. And when he does the work.
[28:42] You know some Christians are tired of working themselves to death. Trying to be qualified. And trying to be spiritual. I'm telling you friend. Let Christ work through you.
[28:53] It relieves the pressure of the Christian life. Because nobody can live it anyway. So you might as well let him live it through you. That's a prayer. Lord. Every good work. Let it be fruitful. And then it says.
[29:05] Fourthly. An increase in the knowledge of God. I believe this is a petition of being wiser about God. You know we just need to know God. The term in the Bible is intimate.
[29:17] Abraham knew his wife. We need to know not about God. We need to know God. We need to know Jesus. We need to know him as our Lord. That's why it's every step.
[29:29] And it's every day. It's a beautiful life. The Christian life. Say amen. Don't you recommend it? I mean folks it's not some dead religion. It's not just church entity. It's a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
[29:44] And your little old life can be used for his redounding glory. And he gets the preeminence. What a chapter. Don't you love the word?
[29:56] I know you do in this church. As you get it preached to your right. But folks there's a petition about being wiser about God. Your goal every day is to get to know him better. Your goal is to love him.
[30:08] Your goal is to obey him. And your goal ought to be I want to glorify him through my little old life. Then last but not least I see the fifth petition. And this is precious in verse 11.
[30:20] It says strengthen with all might. According to his glorious power. And all patience. And long suffering. With joyfulness. Let me just give you the next two words in the next verse.
[30:31] First giving thanks. I want to tell you something friend. We need to wait on God. When our patience runs out. That has to do with circumstances.
[30:42] Things. Problems. And then we need to wait on God. When we have people that just get on our nerves. And not just get on our nerves. But hurt us. You know the last couple weeks.
[30:55] No. I hope it wasn't the last couple weeks or I'm resigning. The last couple of years. Brother Pearson and some of our leaders had just walked off. I led their whole family to the Lord. And broke my heart.
[31:07] I'm not a pastor's heart. It hurts a pastor when you leave. And they didn't say bye. They didn't say thank you for winning my children to the Lord. Thank you for winning my wife to the Lord.
[31:18] Thank you for the hours of counseling. And sometimes I get hurt. I'm sorry. I'm human. I'm a pastor at heart. I love people. I love my flock. And I hate it when they go out of the will of God.
[31:32] And go to a church that's not scriptural. And not spiritual. Even though they think it feels spiritual. And it sounds good. But I want to tell you something friend.
[31:45] The greatest blessing I've had in my years. Is God's given me some long suffering. And I hope you don't have to test me anymore. But you might. And patience.
[31:55] Those are miracles. And then here's another one. Joyfulness. You know the joy of the Lord is our strength. We ought to pray for our followers. To be full of God's presence. And in his presence is what?
[32:06] Fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore. Psalm 1611. I want to tell you something folks. To someone. You're the best Christian they know. And I'll tell you what will revolutionize this church.
[32:18] And y'all going to have to build again. Well that will send you into a heart attack. Is that every Christian would go out. In the will of God. Walking with God.
[32:31] Working for God in the spirit. Bearing fruit. Knowing God. And wanting to know him more. Monday morning on the job. Just talking about what you've learned.
[32:41] In Sunday school. In church. Talking about Jesus. And then waiting on God. With his power. You know some people. Pray for healing. And God doesn't.
[32:52] Give them. Healing. And that's not God's will. He wants you to go to heaven. But I'll tell you a greater miracle. It's when he gives you patience. And long suffering. And joyfulness.
[33:04] And grace. It's a greater miracle. And then Thanksgiving. And I close with this. I got about four minutes. I think I can make it. I want to tell you something friend.
[33:16] You ought to praise God for Jesus. You ought to thank God for who you're serving. You ought to thank God for who you're here to worship. You ought to thank God for who you're going overseas.
[33:27] And going to the uttermost parts of the world. To take the gospel. Folks you're serving Jesus. And you know why you ought to be thankful. Number one. Verse 12. He made you meet to be takers of an inheritance.
[33:39] He qualified you in Jesus. In himself. And look at this. Who has delivered us from the power of darkness. He's delivered you. Hey friend. And has translated you.
[33:50] He brought you out to bring you in. The kingdom of God. You're his ambassadors. What a privilege. What an honor. You're representing him.
[34:02] And it goes on to say. Of his dear son. See there ought to be some endearment about you and Jesus. See folks. All this Gnosticism.
[34:13] And all this Judaic observance. And all the things that were getting off base. Paul's writing from prison. After hearing the pastor unload on him. They had many days probably to do it.
[34:24] He said. I want to commend you for your faith. And your hope. And your love. I want to pray for you. And gives this prayer. I mean. It's a good prayer. It's a spiritual prayer. I don't see one material thing in there. It's alright to ask God to meet your needs.
[34:37] But I want to tell you something folks. Your greatest need is Jesus. And then he begins just to get to Jesus. He just comes on down to. Wherever preacher ought to finally get in their message.
[34:48] Say amen. And he says. He's translated you. He's delivered you. And then look at this in verse 14. In whom. Not in what.
[34:59] Or it. In whom. We have redemption. Through his blood. He puts that right in the middle of it. Through his blood. There's redemption. He bought you off the slave market of sin.
[35:12] He's redeemed you by his blood. It's precious blood. It goes on to say. Even the forgiveness. Of sin. Where did God find you?
[35:24] Where did Jesus find you? And folks. It goes on to say. Who is the image of the invisible God. The first born among every creature. That does not mean J.W. He was born first.
[35:35] That's his status. He's over all creation. Matter of fact. The Bible says in Genesis 1.6. Let us make God. Man in our image. Male and female. Praise God. I ain't getting there now.
[35:48] Y'all think I'm Donald Trump. No. No. Listen. Listen. Listen. He made you. He created you. He saved you. Folks. Listen.
[35:59] I want to tell you what he also does. He sustains you. Look at verse 17. And he is before all things. And by him all things consist. The previous verse says he created you for him.
[36:13] Look at the last verses. Last two words of verse 16. You're created for him. You know why you're alive today? You know why your mama lets you live? For him.
[36:23] And then the Bible goes on to say. And all things consist. By him. You know what that's saying? He holds you together. Most of y'all would already have nervous breakdowns living in Atlanta.
[36:36] Say amen. I would. I'm from Atlanta. I'm glad I'm from Atlanta. This traffic would give me a nervous breakdown. I'm not too patient. But praise God.
[36:46] I'm going to tell you something. God holds me together. That's why you split his atom. You got an atomic bomb. Say amen. It's a cosmic glue that holds you together. Every part of material is held together by God.
[36:57] By Jesus. So folks. He made you. He sustains you. In these verses. He saved you. Why? Here it is.
[37:10] He is the head of the body. The church. Well I'm glad that's not my church in Dalton. That's his church. Who is. I'm the under shepherd. Who is the beginning and the first born from the dead.
[37:21] That in all things he might have the preeminence. Sum up this prayer. We're going to pray for our people. To crown him Lord.
[37:41] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. For more information. Log on to www.visionbaptist.com Where you can find our service times.
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