Everyone Who Knows Me

I've done a lot of funerals and I've been around a lot of death

and I've seen a lot of people go through a lot of difficult

things. It's very different when it's

your family and, you know, I have empathy, I guess you would

call it. I was talking to doc this

morning and, you know, I, I, I work with these families.

I don't even know the person who died.

And I feel bad for the family because they're the ones that

are left that have to deal with it.

And you know, but it's, it's very different.

It's very different when it's you and when you're going

through those things and when you're the ones that dealing

with somebody in your own family.

I mean, you grew up together, you know, you don't expect that

you're going to be going up for a funeral and, you know, burying

your younger brother. You just don't expect it to

happen. I wanted to go 1st and let

everybody else be the ones that have to deal with that, you

know, but I'm in the same thing from my, my dad, you know, you

don't, you don't bury your kids either, you know, and I think

it's just a little bit of a shock.

But the Bible says this in Matthew chapter 6 and verse #19

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

God laid this message on my heart a couple days ago when I

started planning to preach it. And when I went to bed last

night, I had no idea that it was going to be exactly what I

believe God wants us to hear this morning.

I thought about changing the message, but I think this is

exactly what what God wants me to preach.

So I'm going to preach it this morning.

The Bible says this in Matthew chapter 6 and verse #19 Lay not

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth

corrupt, and where thieves breakthrough and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where

neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do

not breakthrough nor steal. For where your treasure is,

there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the

eye. If therefore thine eye be

single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of

darkness. If therefore the light that is

in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness?

No man can serve 2 masters, for either he will hate the one and

love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the

other. You cannot serve God and mammon

verse #33 but seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his

righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

I'm not much for Facebook and I don't I don't I don't post much

on Facebook. I don't get into a lot of the

Facebook trends and everything else, but I saw this trend going

around a few years ago that really got me thinking.

It said, everyone who knows me knows that I love blank.

And I think it was meant to be kind of like a, you know, a

playful thing rather than something that's life

evaluating. But I think it's a pretty life

evaluating post if you really think about it.

If you were to ask yourself that question, everybody who knows me

knows that I love fill in the blank.

What, what would the answer to that question be?

I think for a lot of people it's pretty obvious.

Oh, that person is so into fill in the blank.

Everybody knows me, knows that I love money.

Everybody knows me, knows that I love sports.

Everybody who knows me knows that I I love my job.

Everybody who knows me knows that I love politics.

Everybody who knows me knows that I love toys, whatever it

happens to be. What would somebody say about

you? What would what would you have

to honestly say if you were the 1 to fill in that blank?

What would you say? I, I know what we would like

that blank to say, but what would it say?

I've, I like to have checklist to make sure that I get things

done. And so I have AI have a

checklist every week, one that I, I, I printed off and it's the

same. And then I add to it and I fill

up pages and everything else. I, I love to mark things off the

list number one, to make sure that I got it done And I'm not

forgetting something, but #2 I like to see that I'm getting

things done. And so as you mark them off the

list, that those things get accomplished.

And when I make that list, I have to make sure that I have

the things in that list in the right priority.

Things that, that, that matter need to be done first.

You can't. You can't put the same priority

on things that are not important.

The important things have to be done.

And that list that I print off every week has a list of all the

things that these are things that have to be done.

I have to put a message together for Sunday morning.

I have to put a message together for Sunday night.

I have to have my Sunday school lesson ready to go.

I have to have a lesson or a message ready for Wednesday

night. I have to have the bullets and I

have to have all these things. Those are things that are

priorities. Those are things that have to be

done. And then I have a list of of

other things that I've got to get done that week.

And some of them are higher priority than others.

But then I've got a little checklist that's on the side of

when I get everything finished. There's a reason that checklist

has been there for a while. But when I get everything

finished, these are things that I need to make sure that I get

done as well. These are things that are not as

high a priority, but they're things that matter and things

that need to get done. Everything would get out of

whack if I didn't put the most important tasks first, if I

didn't prioritize the things that matter the most.

And I think that's exactly what we have to do in our lives.

We have to be on guard in our lives to make sure that our

priorities are in the right order.

First, John chapter 2 and verse 15 says love not the world,

John 2 · chapter mention

neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him

for all that is in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust

of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but

is of the world. And the world passeth away in

the luster of but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

So here's what happens. We get so involved in the world,

We get so involved in things of the world, things that just are

absolutely not going to matter in eternity.

And we allow that to pull us farther and further away from

our relationship with God. And things really get messed up

and everything gets all out of whack because we put the wrong

priorities in the wrong place. I want to ask you a lot of

questions this morning. Questions that only you are

going to know the answer to, but that'll give you a great

evaluation of where you are in your life.

Everyone who knows me knows that I love Blank.

What would I like for people to say about me and answer to that

question? You have to be honest with

yourself this morning. Oh, you can say everybody who

knows me knows that I love Jesus.

But do they really know that somebody looking at you from the

outside, can they say, I know that person loves God, that

person loves you would like them to say a lot of different things

about you. But based on the way that you

live your life, what would have to go in that blank?

That's what I'm gonna preach to you about this morning.

I want to give you 3 things, 3 priorities that we should have

in our lives. Three things that should be at

the very top of a description of me.

Three things that should be at the very top of a description of

you. If somebody said everybody who

knows me knows that I love blank.

Everybody who knows me. That's the title of the message

this morning. I want to give you 3 things, but

let's pray and we'll look at those in just a few minutes.

Father, again, we thank you for your goodness to us.

So thank you for the opportunity that you've given us to be here

around your word. I pray that you give me the

strength. I preached the message this

morning. I pray that you'd help us as we

listen. God, may you, may you stir our

hearts now. You help us to be exactly what

you want us to be so that when our time comes that we're going

to stand before you, we'll have no regrets.

We'll have nothing to be ashamed of.

We won't have to hang our heads and say, I wish I had done so

much more, but we can present the crowns that we earn from

living for you. Say, it's all that I have, but

they're yours. And I'm so glad I gave my life

for Christ. May you help us this morning.

Thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.

Everybody who knows me knows that I love what number one, we

should love the Lord first and foremost.

You should expect that that would be the point that I was

going to give you first. If God is not first in our life,

then nothing else can be in the right place but turn over to

Matthew chapter 22. Easy to say that and a lot of

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

people would say, oh, everybody that looks at me would say that

I love God because I go to church.

Everybody who looks at me would say that I love, love Jesus

because. What?

Because what if all you do is go to church?

That's not proof that you love God.

Now you should go to church, right?

You should read your Bible. But is there things in your life

that make it very obvious that you love Jesus Christ more than

anything else in your life? Go back and look at your

Facebook posts and I know maybe you post a verse here and there

or something like that, but go back and look at your Facebook

posts. What is predominant on your

Facebook page? To let everybody know what you

think is the most important in your life because what you post

on Facebook is what you want everybody to know about you.

What do they see? When they look at that, do they

see a a gospel witness? Do they see a representation of

Jesus Christ? Do they see things that that let

everybody know that you're a Christian?

Or do they see things that that in the light of eternity don't

matter or maybe even on farther out than that, things that are

that are that go against God's word.

And you might say that you love God and you might say that you

love church and you might say that you're a Christian, but

your Facebook page shows nothing about that.

You cannot say that if somebody saw you and asked you that

question. Everybody that knows me knows

that I love. Fill in the blank.

Now, Facebook page is not everything.

That's not the evaluation of your life, but it's a good place

to start. Because it tells everybody what

you love. It tells everybody what you put

as your number one priority. Matthew chapter 22 and verse #34

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

says this. But when the Pharisees had heard

that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered

together. Then one of them, which was a

lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him and saying, Master,

which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all

thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.

And in another parallel passage, he said with all thy strength.

This is the first and great commandment.

That's the foundation of everything in Belize right

around the corner from actually right right across the canal

from where the Airbnb was that a lot of the the group that's

going to be there. And by the way, this is the 14th

anniversary service today for the church down there.

They'll be starting their service.

Actually, they're starting their service right now.

And they're, you know, they're expecting 3 or 400 people to be

there. And, and obviously the gospel is

going to go out and we're praying that souls will get

saved. But there's a couple different

churches that are there that are, that, that have taken part

in the, in, in getting out the invitations and sharing, sharing

the gospel. And they're going to be part of

the service and everything else today.

But right next to that, right right across from the the canal

from where they were staying, there's a house that's a

beautiful, beautiful White House.

It was built by a Canadian guy who came down to Belize, bought

a, bought a piece of property and had some builders come in

and build the house. I think he spent something like

$500,000 to build this house, a nice, nice house right there in

not not a great neighborhood necessarily, but right there in,

in Belize City. When you look at the house,

something really is off about it because the house is actually

sitting on the ground like this. In Belize City, everything is

sand. And if you're going to build it

the right way, which you should because it's it's of the code

and everything else, you have to drive piles down into the sand.

Big concrete pillars that go all the way down to bedrock.

And in some places I got to drive 40 feet or more per

pillar. And when they built that house,

they didn't do that. And so now this beautiful

$500,000 house made out of all concrete and brick is sitting

there unlivable because it sits at such an angle that if you lay

down on the bed, you'd probably end up on the floor because

somebody didn't build on a solid foundation.

And that's the most important thing.

You've got to build on the right foundation.

The foundation of loving God is to know Jesus Christ as your

Savior. Turn over to Mark chapter 8.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

You know the, the, the, the way of salvation is, is, is very

simple. It's so simple that even a child

can understand it. But so many people are

interested in in in being dunked in a tank for baptism and

calling it salvation. Or so many people are interested

in in in repeating a prayer after somebody.

Else to say that I, I just I, I, I don't know if this is going to

work or not, but I'm going to. I might as well try it.

What does it hurt to repeat a prayer and hope I can get to

heaven someday? I forget who it was, but one of

these. Actors always the guy who, who,

who is The Who wrote the Dilbert comic comic.

And he said as he was getting ready to die, he said, well, I

don't know if this is going to do me any good or not, but I'll

become a Christian. I mean, if I if, if there's

nothing out there, I have nothing to lose, I'll go ahead

and become a Christian. That's not salvation.

That's not Christianity, that's not putting all your faith and

trust and your hope and your life in the hands of Jesus

Christ. That's counting on him.

Plus a lot of other things. Romans chapter 3 and verse 23

Romans 3 · chapter mention

says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

We're all sinners. And because we're sinners we

cannot get into heaven. Sin cannot enter heaven because

God is just and God is holy and God is absolutely righteous, but

He didn't leave us without any hope.

Romans 6 verse 23 says for the wages of sin is death, but the

Romans 6:23

gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

He came and died on the cross to pay for your sins, to pay for my

sins. He took the debt that we owed

that we could never pay, and He paid the debt that He did not

owe. He gave his life in my place and

he was whipped and he was beaten and He was sacrificed there on

the cross. Romans chapter 5 and verse 8

Romans 5 · chapter mention

says, But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we

were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

While He was on the cross, I was on His mind.

He knew that I was going to come along someday.

He knew that I was going to be a Sinner and that I was going to

be in need of a Savior and the blood.

Of Jesus Christ is so powerful that it covers all of my sins,

past, present, and future. Covers the sins of the entire

world, past, present and future. And everybody must come to

Christ the same way. Come to him in faith, believing

that I'm a Sinner and that I cannot get to heaven on my own,

and come in repentance and say God, I've been running towards

sin. I'm running the opposite

direction. And you don't stop sinning in

order to be saved, but you stop sinning because you are saved

and you put Jesus Christ as the priority in your life.

Romans chapter 10 and verse 9 for says that if thou shalt

Romans 10 · chapter mention

confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thy

heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be

saved. For with the heart man believeth

unto righteousness. With the mouth confession is

made into salvation. So many people want to make it

about the mouth. I prayed a prayer somewhere

along the lines though it's it's a belief in the heart.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be

saved. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

makes it very clear that that that they're not getting to

heaven through the Catholic Church.

You're not getting to heaven through most churches, you're

not getting to heaven through any church, You're getting to

heaven through Jesus Christ. But a lot of these churches try

to tell you that you got to do all these things and.

You got to be a good person, and you got to do all these

sacraments and you got to do all these ordinances, and you got to

follow everything that our church tells you that you have

to do if you have any hope of finally getting to heaven

someday. That's not in the Bible.

In fact, the opposite is found in the Bible.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of

yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of

works, lest any man should boast.

I'm not going to get to heaven because of all the good things

that I've done. I'm going to get to heaven

because of what Jesus Christ did for me.

And only when I put all of my faith and all of my trust in Him

will He mark across the page of my sins justified.

And when God looks at me, he doesn't see me with all of my

sins. He sees only the blood of Jesus

Christ covering my sins. And that's how I'm going to get

into heaven. I'm thankful that my brother

knew Jesus Christ as his Savior. My mom's already there.

I'm a little jealous because he's the first one that got to

see her. I'll be there soon, I hope.

But Mark chapter 8 and verse #36 the Bible says, for what shall

Mark 8 · chapter mention

it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own

soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

There's a lot, a lot of people who want to talk about God, a

lot of people who say that they believe in Jesus and even that

he died on the cross, but they don't know Jesus Christ as their

personal Savior. They've never been to the foot

of the cross. They've never dropped their

burden down at the at the foot of the cross and.

Giving it all. Over to him.

It's all lip service. Oh, oh, people know that I love

Jesus. How?

How do they know that? Is that the priority in your

life? Is that what is that what

predominates or what dominates everything that you have in your

life? Is everything about living for

Christ or do you have a lot of other things that you put as

other priorities in your life, other things that you've allowed

to slip in there? You have to work.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't have a job.

You should have a job, but that job is not your life.

That job is not your priority. If you died today, they would

replace you tomorrow. And there'll be a couple of

people who might be sad that you're gone, and there might be

a few people who miss you, but give it 10/15/20 years and

they're not even going to remember your name.

And yet you gave your entire life to that job.

You gave your entire life to making money.

You gave your entire life to a political system that's going to

be gone someday. It's not going to count for

anything. You gave your life to having all

the toys that you can have in this life.

They're going to be gone and. They're not going to count for

anything. Only thing that's going to count

is what you've done for Christ. And I want to stay.

I want to be able to stand before Christ and say I did what

I had to do to stay alive. I did what I had to do.

I made the money that I had to make and the money that you gave

me, I used it for you. But here's everything that I'm

giving back because you can't take it with you, but you can

pass it on ahead. And what most people are living

their life for things that are going to die right here with

them. Oh, somebody else is going to

spend that money. Somebody else is going to live

in your house or they're going to sell it.

The second you die. Somebody else is going to drive

your car. Somebody else is going to have

your job. Somebody else will replace you

when that political system is not in power anymore.

When that political system is gone, it's all going to be gone.

Everything's going to be gone. Where's your priorities?

Does everyone who know you know that you love Jesus Christ first

and foremost? For those who have accepted

Christ as their Savior, I want to ask you a few questions to

see if He really is first place in your life.

Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 6.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

I want to ask you this question. Do you love Him?

Do you love him? I know that you would say yes.

I know you would say yes because you know that that's the right

answer. Yes, I love him.

Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse #5 And this is what I just read

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

the verse back in Matthew chapter 22.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

But Jesus was referencing Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

#5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart,

with all thy soul, and with all But I might.

I know everybody would say, Oh yes, I love Jesus.

But do you really love him? Turn over to John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

How do you know? How do you know if you really

love him or not? How do you know if you really

love Christ? Well, we have a pretty good

answer right there in John chapter 14 and verse #15 Jesus

John 14 · chapter mention

made it very plain. If you love me, keep my

commandments. OK, prove that you love me.

Do what I say, follow me, obey me.

I gave you everything that you need to know in in my word.

Are you obeying it or are you living your life the way that

you want to live your life? That's what a lot of people do.

Oh, I love Jesus. But I can do all these other

things. I can drink, I can smoke, I can

go to parties, I can, I can hang out in places that I shouldn't

be. I can watch whatever I want to

watch. I can listen to whatever I want

to listen to. Oh, but I love Jesus.

OK, Jelly roll, Right. That's not Christianity.

And I know. Oh, well, I'm a, I'm a baby

Christian. I'm just learning these things.

You know what's right? That's why you're making that

excuse. And so do most Christians.

They know what's right. Most of these things are basic

things about Christianity. And I know that we'll spend a

lifetime digging through God's Word and finding things out as

we study out his Word and as we as we find things that God wants

us to do. We'll never be perfect.

And we're never going to get to that point where we've finally

arrived at everything we should constantly be studying to try to

get closer to God. But most of these things are

basic Christianity. And most Christians don't even

follow basic Christianity. And they make all the excuses in

the world for why they can't and why they don't and why they

won't. If you love me, keep my

commandments. Start with the 10 commandments.

How about that? Thou shalt have no other gods

before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee

any graven image. Thou shalt not bear false

witness against thy neighbor. That's only three of them.

Thou shalt not commit adultery. If any man look at a woman in it

to lust after her in his heart, he hath committed adultery with

her already in his heart. Let's just start with the 10

commandments that everybody thinks they know and see if we

can start there with obeying him.

There's 1000 and I think there's something like 1300

commandments. In God's word.

Let's just start with the 1st 10 and see if we can prove that we

love him. Bye.

Keeping his commandments turn over to Luke Chapter 12.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

One of the marks of love is giving.

How do you prove you love somebody?

Give. Give them money, give them your

time, give them yourself. That's how you prove that you

love. Somebody and it's the same thing

that that God is expecting from us, right?

How do you prove that you love God?

You give. You give to his work, you give

to missions, you give to the things that he's.

That that that he's trying to accomplish through His church.

You give him your time. That's how you prove what you

love. You give your time to the things

that you love, right? If it's sports, then guess what

you're going to do and be glued to that television.

You're going to be spending all your time figuring out the stats

of all these players, and you're going to figure out who got

traded here and there, and you're going to know who's

playing for this team and that team.

You know everything about it. You're giving your time because

you love it. There's a lot of other things

that we do the same thing with. But what about Christ?

If you love him, you're going to give him your time.

You'll be here when we have an opportunity to share the gospel.

You'll be here when we have church.

You'll be here when we're doing things that that that, that are

centered around the gospel. Luke chapter 12 and verse #34

Luke 12 · chapter mention

makes it very clear. For where your treasure is,

there will your heart be also. The things that you give your

money to, the things that you give your time to, the things

that you give your life to are the things that are really

important to you. So everybody who knows me knows

that I love blank because this is what I give my money and my

time and my life to. What is it?

What do you, what do you have to put in that blank?

What do you have to put there? If you're being honest with

yourself, what do you have to put there?

Can you honestly put? Everybody who knows me knows

that I love God. Everybody who knows me knows

that I love Christ because I give my time and my money and

myself to him. You know, I would argue that

your time is, is far more valuable than your money.

Now, giving is a principle in God's word.

You ought to, you ought to be given your money, all right. 10%

of it automatically belongs to God.

And then there's giving on top of tithing.

But you know, the billionaire whose health is failing would

give up every penny that he has for another five years.

You can be in good health and not have a lot of money and

still have a good life. Time is more valuable than

money. Your health is more valuable

than money. So what you give your time and

your life to and your money are the things that you have as

priorities in your life. Do you love him?

Let me ask you this because this goes right along with that.

Do you serve him? Does God know that you're a

servant or do you have to remind him from time to time?

Hey, by the way, I'm, I'm, I'm your servant because he never

sees you showing up to serve that.

You're part of a body. What are you doing in that body

to serve Christ? That's why it's important that

you join a church. Get plugged in, become a member,

serve Him. That's what He expects out of

us. You should never get so busy in

the work of the Lord that you forget your relationship with

Him. Never get so busy serving the

King that you forget who the king is.

That's a word of caution because there's a lot of people who jump

in and do everything and they neglect their relationship with

Christ. But that's, that's, that's not

usually what happens. Most people have all of their

other things that they've got going on and they neglect their

relationship with Christ. They neglect their opportunity

to serve. Turn over to Philippians chapter

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

1. Do you love Him?

Do you serve Him, but also do you witness for Him?

That's how you prove that you love him.

That's how you prove that that He is everything to you.

Philippians chapter 1 and verse #20 Paul said this according to

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be

ashamed, but that with all boldness as always.

So now also Christ. Christ should be magnified in my

body, whether it be by life or by death.

If I have to die in order for Christ to be lifted up, I will

gladly do it. If I have to live for him in

order for Christ to be lifted up and Christ to be magnified in my

life, I will gladly do it. Very few people can fit into

that category. Very few people say I want

Christ to be magnified in my life, no matter how it has to

happen if I have to die. For it to happen, then great.

If I have to live in a different way for that to happen, then

great. I just want Christ to be

magnified by my life. Is is everybody.

Around you know that when they see you, you're going to try to

give them the gospel. I think a great mark of whether

or not you are a true witness is sometimes people go the opposite

direction because they know that you're going to give them the

gospel. I would rather have that happen.

I would rather have it that somebody walks the other way and

tries to avoid me because they know what I'm going to say than

for them to be my best friend and not even know that I'm a

Christian. But that's how most Christians

live their lives. Your priority is not Jesus

Christ. If you're not sharing the

gospel. Boldly sharing the gospel.

Oh, you'll throw a plug in here and there.

Oh, yeah, I go to church, I'm a Christian.

That's not that's not boldly sharing the gospel, especially

in America. How hard is it to tell people

that you're a Christian in America?

Everybody is. It's not hard.

Sharing the gospel is hard because that's where you get

down to the, to the to the, to the meat of it.

And that's difficult because most people don't want to hear

it. They don't have any problem

hearing about God. They don't want to hear about

Jesus. They don't want to hear about

their sin. They don't want to hear what

they have to do in order to be saved because they've heard

religion and they know everything that they have to

know because they've been baptized or because they've been

going to church here and there on and off for the last 10

years. And that's their salvation

experience. And they don't want anything

else because somebody along the line told them that that's what

they have to do to get to heaven.

And they're OK with that. And then we come along.

We say that's. Not what the Bible says and they

don't want to hear it. Are you a witness for Christ?

That's how you prove if if that's your number one priority,

The Bohemian reformer. And you probably heard of the

name John Huss, but he was a man who believed that the Scripture

was infallible. There was a lot of people during

that time that didn't believe that, but that that he believed

that the Bible was the the supreme authority in in every

matter. He died at the stake for that

belief in Constance Germany on his 42nd birthday.

And I gave him an opportunity before he died to renounce his

faith one more time. And he wouldn't do it as he was

being burned at the stake. These were his last words.

But I taught with my lips, I seal with my blood.

That's Christianity lived out. We have a testimony to uphold to

a lost and dying world. A commentator by the name of

Robert P Lightner said this. Paul's concern was not what

would happen to him, but what testimony would be left for his

Lord. Released from prison would allow

him to continue preaching Christ, but martyrdom would also

advance the cause of Christ. So know also Christ shall be

magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.

The story maybe you've heard of it before, about 40 martyrs in

Russia. And these forty soldiers, all

Christians were members of, I'm sorry, not Russia, the Rome, it

was in Rome. But they were all members of

what was, what was a famed 12th legion, Rome's 12th legion.

And the emperor made a decree. Emperor Lucienius had sent out

an edict that all soldiers were supposed to make a, an offering

or make it to make a sacrifice to the Pagan gods to prove that

they were soldiers of Rome. But these Christians, 40 of them

said, you can have our armor and you can have our bodies, but we

are not going to deny our allegiance to Jesus Christ.

Our hearts belong to Him. And so this was in the midwinter

of AD 320, and the captain had marched these forty soldiers out

onto a frozen lake. They stripped them of their

clothes and said that they would either die or denounce Christ.

You're going to be out here on this frozen lake either until

you're dead or until you come walking back and tell me that

you're denouncing Christ. And those forty soldiers, they,

they sat out there and they, they, they sang together, same

way that Paul and Silas sang in the prison.

But slowly the chorus grew quieter as one by one those

soldiers passed away from the exposure to the cold.

Finally, when there was 1 soldier left, he lost his

courage and he stumbled over to the shore.

He renounced Christ. The officer of the guards had

been watching all of that, and he had been given a witness of

the gospel already. So he was aware of the gospel of

Christ. And as he watched these forty

soldiers one by one lose their life, lives, he became, he came

closer and closer to realizing that he needed to accept Christ

as his Savior because there was something to this Christianity.

There was something real about it.

So as this lone soldier made his way back to the shore to

denounce Christ, that soldier dropped his armor, shed his

clothes, and walked out there onto that ice.

By the time they came to collect the bodies, there were forty

soldiers who had given their lives for Christ.

We can prove our love for God by standing for him, by being a

bold witness for him. That's that's how you prove that

you love him. No, it's not hard in this

Facebook age, in this Instagram age, you can put a post on it

anytime you want telling people who you are, but most people are

afraid of what their followers are going to think about them.

Most people are afraid of who might be offended if I put this

post out there on Facebook. You can give without loving, but

you can never love without giving.

And that's what Christ demands of us.

Someone would ask about your life.

When they say, now there's a man, there's a woman who loves

the Lord. Everyone who knows me knows that

I love. Fill in the blank.

We should love the Lord first and foremost, but #2 we should

love our family. Turn over to Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

You might be asking how we can put our family second.

Isn't the family that God gave me the most important thing in

my life? It is.

But in order to love our family the way that we should, that a

love for God has to be first. The more we love God and the

more our relationship with God is right, the more we're going

to love our family and the more our relationship with our family

is going to be right. You want to know why?

Why marriages struggle? Because one or both don't really

love the Lord their God the way that they should.

You want to know why families are dysfunctional?

Because one or both or all of the people in the family don't

love the Lord their God the way that they should.

If you love the Lord supremely and you love him most and you

love him best, then you're going to love your wife the way that

you should love your wife. You're going to love your

husband the way that you should love your husband.

You're going to love your kids the way that you should love

your kids. You're going to love your

parents the way that you should love your.

Parents, because when you love God, everything works the way

that it's supposed to. Luke chapter 14 and verse #26

Luke 14 · chapter mention

The Bible says, if any man come to me and hate not his father

and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yeah,

and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Oh, so that means I got to hate everybody?

No, it just means that your love for God should be so.

Great that the love that you have for everything else looks

like hate in compared in comparison to your love for God,

including your own life. God would have to be first in

everything I do so that out of an overflow of my relationship

with God, it passes down to my relationship with my wife, it

passes down to my relationship with my children and so on.

I've given you this illustration before, but if you picture a

triangle and, and God is at the top of the triangle and the

husband and wife are at the bottom of of that triangle.

The closer you get to God, the closer you're going to be drawn

to each other. But you think about when you

have a husband who is, who is trying to become closer to

Christ and the wife has no interest in it.

You're not going to get closer together.

That relationship is not going to be is not going to be built

the way that needs to be built. It's not going to be built on

the right foundation. Both of you have to be.

Moving in the direction together, Both of you have to

make Christ a priority. Both of you have to make your

relationship with God the priority in your life.

And what you're going to find is that your relationship together

is going to become so strong when you put Christ in the

position that he belongs in in your family.

It's not hard for a wife to submit to her husband if she's

submitted to Christ. It's not hard for a husband to

love his wife if he's submitted to Christ.

It's not hard for a dad to bring up his children in the nurture

and the admonition of the Lord if he's submitted to Christ.

It's not hard for children to obey their parents in the Lord

if they're submitted to Christ. Everything works when you put

God first. But you ought to love your

family. Husbands ought to love their

wives. And I'm not going to take the

time to read through Ephesians chapter 5, but it says that very

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

plainly. Husbands, love your wives even

as Christ also. Loved the church and gave

himself for it. That's a strong love, Jesus

Christ, love for the church. The way that we prove our love

for God is the same way that we prove our love for the family,

for our family, and vice versa. The way that we prove that we

love our family is the same way that we prove our love for God,

by giving, by serving, by loving.

By the way, they ought to know that too.

Your wife ought to know that you love her because you tell her.

Your husband ought to know that you love him because you tell

him. Your kids ought to know that you

love them because you tell them. A wife asked her husband one

day. She said, honey, we've been

married 10 years and you never tell me that you love me.

You do things for me and I know that you love me, but you never

tell me that you love me. They said.

I told you on the day that I married you that I loved you.

And if I ever changed my mind, I'll let you know.

That's not the way that love is supposed to.

Work. That's a that's a humorous

story, but that's not enough. Your wife needs to hear that you

love her. Your husband needs to hear that

you love him. Your kids need to hear that you

love them. Don't just assume that they know

because you take care of them or because you do things for them

every once in a while above the things that you're expected to

do. Tell your parents that you love

them if you still have the opportunity, because one day

that opportunity is going to be gone.

I can't tell my mom that I love her.

She's not here to tell her. I can't tell my brother that I

love him because he's not here to tell him anymore.

I know you've lost people that you can't tell you love them

anymore because they're gone. They're not here to tell them.

Use the opportunities that you have while you still have that

opportunity because one day you're just going to, you're

going to wish that that's all you could do.

Just talk to him one more time. Just tell him one more time and

the opportunity is going to be gone.

Don't miss the opportunity. Well, you still have it.

If someone were to ask you about your life, what they say now

there's a man, there's a woman that loves his family.

Turn over to Acts chapter 20 and I'm going to give you the last

Acts 20 · chapter mention

point and then we'll be done. Everyone who knows me knows that

I love God. That should be your first

priority. Everybody who knows me knows

that I love my family. Your second priority #3 we

should love our church. The church is so very close to

the heart of Jesus Christ. He gave his life, the Bible

says, for the church. Husbands, love your wives, even

as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.

Acts chapter 20 and verse #28 Take heed, therefore unto

Acts 20 · chapter mention

yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy

Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which

He hath purchased with His own blood.

That's so much Jesus Christ loved the Church.

It was so important to him that Jesus gave His life for it.

Don't you think it's important enough for us to be a part of

it? And if it was so important to

Christ that he died for it, if it was so important to Christ

that he purchased it with his own blood, don't you think

that's something that we ought to make a priority in our lives?

Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 25. Not forsaking the assembling of

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting

one another. And so much the more as you see

the day approaching, most churches are going less.

And their church services. Oh, it used to be that, that

almost every church had a Sunday school and a Sunday morning and

a Sunday night and Wednesday night and special services

during the week, and everybody would drop everything to be

there. But isn't it amazing that as our

lives have gotten busy and as we put other things in the place

that that the church belongs in, that we've replaced the church

to the point where now most churches have a Sunday morning

service? And that's it.

You can't even find a church that has a Sunday night service.

Can't even find a church that has a Wednesday night service.

Can't find a church with a Sunday school because 10:30 to

12:00 is enough, isn't it? No, he says so much the more as

you see the day approaching. The day is approaching.

Would you agree with me on that? Jesus Christ is coming back and

it could be today. Everything is in place for

Christ to come back today and I hope He does.

But if he doesn't, I hope he finds me in church.

I hope, hope that's where I'm at when he comes and we're here

enough that there's a good possibility that he that he will

come when we're in church. But ain't going to happen if

you're laying out because you're doing this or doing that or

putting all the things that are that are that you have made

priorities in your life in the place of church and.

When you really stop to think about it, what's more important,

Your relationship with Christ or your relationship with your

money or your job or politics or sports?

Or. Anything else that you want to

put in the blank? What's more important?

Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together for sports

games, but so much the more as you see the day approaching.

Is that what he said? No, not forsaking the assembling

of yourselves together for political events.

Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together for for your

job. Does he say that?

No, he doesn't say that, because those things don't matter in

eternity. He didn't give his life for your

job, He gave his life for the church.

He didn't give his life for sports.

He gave his life to the church. That's what he places the

priority on and that's what we should be placing the priority

on as well. Not forsaking means to be at

church when you have the opportunity.

And I'm not trying to make you feel guilty, but I am trying to

stress to you. The important is that you must

place on being in church if you want to grow in your

relationship with God, especially if you're a weak

Christian. It's funny to me how that works.

The weak Christians are always the ones that lay out of church

the most. And yet they're the ones who

need it the most. We all need it.

We all need it, But especially if you're a younger Christian or

a weak Christian and you know it, you ought to put church at

the top of your list. Tell me when the doors are going

to be open so I can be there. I want to know how I should grow

in my relationship with Christ. I want to know what He wants me

to know. I'll be honest with you.

People that come into my office all the time that want, want my

advice. Tell me what I need to do.

Tell me how I should do this. Tell me to well, if you'd have

just been here at church on Sunday night last week, you

would have heard exactly what I think you should do because I

preached a message on it. Or a month ago I just preached

on that, and now you're sitting in the office asking me what you

should do. Sit in church and listen.

Almost everything that you need to know about how to live your

life is in church, in messages from God's.

Word. We don't.

Have to waste either one of our time because we already went

over it. You dismissed it.

Church ought to be a priority for you.

If you want to grow in your relationship with Christ.

It ought to be number. One, when it comes to those

things, you might say that you love your church.

There may not be people who could disagree with you, but we

could say that that someone loves sports when we can't pull

them away from the television, when you can't pull them off the

field. A kid who loves basketball is

always going to be in the gym. A guy who loves football is

always going to, you know, he's going to follow it religiously

and he's going to know everybody's stats and he's going

to know all the, the different teams and everything else.

And he's going to have a television and on every time his

team is playing. And then if his team is playing

on a Sunday night during church, he's going to miss church to be

there watching the television. Because sports is his God,

right? The same thing could be said

only could be said about you and about your love for the church

if you follow it in the same way.

I can't get enough of it. You don't want to miss a minute

of the singing. I don't want to miss a minute of

the preaching. I don't want to miss a minute of

the fellowship. I've got to be there.

Something's happening at church and I got to be there.

I don't want to miss the singing.

I don't want to miss the fellowship.

I don't want to miss what God has for me.

And I'm telling you, I never, I never preach a message with one

person in mind because the minute I preach a message with

one person in mind, that person is not going to be there.

But I tell you what, God knows your heart, and God knows what

you're dealing with in your life.

And God knows exactly what you're going through, and God

knows exactly what you need. And God puts things on my heart

to preach because he knows that you need it.

And when you miss the opportunity to be in church, you

might be missing the very thing that God wants you to get.

That message might be just for you.

I don't know. Many times when I preach and I I

know the things that a lot of people are going through their

in in their lives. And I know a lot of things that

people are dealing with. And I know what people are

struggling with. It's my job as a pastor to know

those things. And if all I ever did was preach

on the love of God, great subject, but it's not helping

you grow in your relationship with Christ.

I preach on the things that I know that we all need to work

on. But I don't preach a message for

one person. And if you feel singled out in

the message, the Holy Spirit did that, not me.

But what if you're not here? What if you're not here to hear

it? And the Holy Spirit wanted to

single you out, but you weren't there for him to single out.

And now what you needed to take that next step in your Christian

life is missing. And now you hear something else

later on, but you missed that step, and now things don't

really make sense. And now I'm struggling with this

because I don't. Because you missed.

You missed what God had for you because you decided to skip

church for whatever reason. I give my parents a lot of

credit for this, but I could literally count on one hand the

number of times that I've missed church from the time that I was

born until today. And I could probably count on

one hand if I was missing 3 fingers, how many times I've

missed church. We didn't miss growing up, and I

can't say that I've ever missed church after I grew up because

it's a priority. There's no question of whether

I'm going to be at church tonight or not.

Now I have to be here because I got to preach.

But I could easily say, you know what?

Not feeling great today. Hey, brother Matt, you want to

preach for me tonight? All right, You preach.

I'm skipping today. And everybody would give me a

pass because, well, things are difficult.

He's probably sick. I could make excuses in this

church just the same way that you can make excuses in this

church. And sometimes the excuses for

missing church are so lame, you might as well just say, well,

you know, I decided that the the cat needed more milk.

It's the same thing. It doesn't.

The excuses are the same, right? I mean, we can come up with

anything we want to come up with if we just don't want to be in

church, right? But if you don't give yourself a

way out, if you don't give yourself an excuse, church is

going on tonight. I can't miss.

I'm going to be there. I don't want to miss what God

has for me. I don't want to.

I don't want to miss the singing.

I don't. I don't want to.

I don't want them to not have me there as part of the fellowship.

I don't want them to not have me there as part of the choir.

I don't want them to not have me there as part of the choir.

I don't want them to not have me there as part of the

Congregational. Singing I want to be part of

all. Of it because.

Everybody who knows me knows that I love my church.

I'm not going to miss it for anything.

We should love the people in our church, and we ought to be loyal

to our church and to the pastor if he's following the Word of

God. I'm sure there are other things

that we could be appropriately putting on that list of

priorities, but those are the things that ought to be first in

our lives. Everybody who knows me knows

that I love the Lord first and foremost.

Everybody who knows me knows that I love my family.

Everybody who knows me knows that I love my church.

Can people say that about you? An umpire by the name of Babe

Pinelli once called out Babe Ruth on strikes.

It's a lot of people named Babe back then.

I haven't heard anybody called Babe in a long time.

But he called Babe Ruth out on strikes.

And when the crowd started booing, Babe Ruth turned around

to the umpire and he said, you see that 40,000 people disagree

with your call. An empire turned to Babe Ruth.

And he said, yeah, 40,000 people may disagree with my call, but

mine is the only opinion that matters.

And isn't that exactly the way that it is when it comes to a

relationship with Christ? We need to realize that God's

opinion is the only one that counts.

Doesn't matter if you've moved your way all the way up to the

top of the ladder and everybody loves you and we can't do this

job without you and everybody thinks you're the greatest thing

that ever walked on the earth. If that's not the same opinion

that God has, then theirs doesn't count.

I've had to come to that realization.

There's there's in, in, in what I do with the police,

especially, there's opportunities to be the one

that's out there in the front to be the one that everybody is

looking to. And you know what it's it's,

it's flattering, but it's not worth it.

Is what good is it going to do me an eternity If I was the one

that was the face of my organization, Henrico Police

Chaplain Steve Boots, face of the organization for what?

If I don't lead anybody to Christ, who cares?

If I'm, if I'm spending all my time doing all of that and not

spending any time with my family, who cares?

If it's if it's pulling me out of church all the time, who

cares? There's none of those things

that are going to count in eternity.

The only thing that's going to count is what I've done for

Christ. And I want my priorities to be

in the right place. I want people to be able to look

at me and say, there's a man who loves the Lord, There's a man

who loves his family, there's a man that loves his church.

And when I stand before God someday, and I don't mean this

in a cliche way, I want to hear him say, well done, thou good

and faithful servant I was been faithful over a few things.

I'll make you rule there over many things.

Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

Most people are going to have to hang their head and say, yeah,

stuff that I gave my life to was awesome down here.

But now I can see that it doesn't really count for much up

here. It's like playing with Monopoly

money. You're the king of the board,

got all the money in the world. You can buy anything you want to

long as you have the board. You go out and try to spend it.

And they say this doesn't count for anything here.

One of these days we're going to stand before God.

You might be the king of the board down here.

You might have all the money to do anything you want.

You control the whole board. You take all that up to heaven

and God says don't count for anything here.

And you wasted all of your time gathering all of that money and

all of those houses and all the properties and everything else

for something that counts for nothing in eternity.

What's your honest answer? What's your honest answer this

morning? Everybody knows me, knows that I

love. What do you have to honestly put

in the blank? Because if it's not one of those

three things that we talked about this morning, I think you

need to make some changes. Your love for the Lord needs to

be first and foremost. People need to know that you

love your family and they need to know that you love your

church because this, this institution right here, this

little building up above Broad Street is a place that Jesus

Christ gave his life for. He bought this congregation with

his blood. He puts a priority on it.

And I hope you will too, need to make a conscious effort to set

those things as priorities. Everybody that knows you knows

that you love what Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. We thank you for the opportunity

that we have to be here this morning.

God, we pray that you'd help us all to have our priorities in

the right place, that you help us to love you first and

foremost. May you help us to love our

families and may you help us to love the church that you gave

your life for. And may you help us to love

souls enough to share the gospel with them where we need to make

changes this morning. God, I pray that you'd help us

to do that. Thank you again for all that you

do for us in Jesus name, Amen. You would stand at your seats

with your heads about and your eyes closed.

I hope you've done some serious life evaluation this morning.

Nobody knows the answer to that question but you.

Nobody knows. I mean, we can look at it from

the outside and we can, we could all feeling like we can go

around and we could have a a time trying to fill in the blank

for everybody else. And that might be very eye

opening for a lot of us. But I'm asking you this morning,

what do you know about yourself that people would have to put it

in that blank? Everybody who knows me knows

that I love what God spoken to your heart this morning, and I

hope you'll make the changes that He wants you to make as the

piano plays. Invitations open, you come.