# National Day of Prayer

April 19, 2026

If you’re like me, we know ourselves. We got power all of a sudden here, right? We know ourselves, and we know our flaws. I want to say better than anyone, but our spouses know our flaws pretty good too now, you know. And just to hear how He loves us is amazing, isn’t it? And with all of your flaws and all my flaws, let’s talk about your flaws, not mine, amen, you know.

And He still loves us. And that’s awesome, an awesome, awesome song. And we’re so glad to see every single person out this morning, and honored to see it in the House of the Lord. And we got it a little different here. I asked them, I said, “Now, I’m wearing this crazy pink shirt,” you know.

We all need to come to the altar later on. I’ve got to say about that. I tell you now, you know. If a man hurts me today, talks to me too long today, I’m worried a little bit now, you know. I’ll tell you for sure now, you know. But what was I going to say? I was going to say something. I don’t know what it is now. I’ll tell you what. Where were we going before that?

You’re like, “I ain’t no telling where we’re going,” right? That’s the truth, too. Anyway, we’re glad to see you in the house of the Lord. How about that? How about that? And He loves us. We were just singing the song.

And anyway, let’s talk about the yard sale. Y’all did a wonderful job at the yard sale. And I know they announced it all last week, but I just wanted to say thank you. So many of you worked so hard, putting the tent up, and bringing stuff in, and then pricing stuff, and then getting it out there, getting organized, and staying there all day long, more than one day, and over 32, 33, right around $3,300 raised. Amen for that.

I tell you what, next year if we do this pink shirt stuff, we’re going to have to go up on the price. I’ll tell you what now, you know, for sure. No, no, no, no hands. Let’s keep going here. You know, you know, junior kids to go to camp and teens to go to camp. What a blessing that is.

And we had a visitor in church last Sunday from the yard sale. And just, praise the Lord, you worked so hard. We had people emailing us saying, “I look forward to going to that yard sale every year.” And I had to email them back, “I’m sorry, you missed it.” And someone put, they said, “Well, we’ll put $20 on your front door.” And they did. And praise the Lord, I went out to lunch on that. No, I…

But just praise the Lord. Thank you, everyone that did a lot of work for that. Ms. Brenda does a great job heading it up every year. And we appreciate it so very, very much.

Now, let me—they’ve got two very important announcements. We got little—I don’t know if it’s me or what. Does it sound different to y’all? Yep, yep, yep. We’ve got some yes. If I yell, is it going to like—someone here, I won’t mention your name, they have hearing aids this morning, so they actually can hear me today. And so we don’t want it too loud, you know. But anyway, they’re working a little bit back.

Two very important announcements. One of those is May the 7th. That’s a Thursday. It’s National Day of Prayer. Ushers, there’s some of these on that back table back there, and once you grab those.

Now, what we do is a lot of people don’t even—and when I was growing up, a lot of times, I didn’t even know it was the National Day of Prayer. But I think it’s an important thing. Been going on for years and years. Ronald Reagan made it official, if you will, but we like to honor that, and we like to sincerely pray for our nation. Our nation needs prayers, amen.

I understand the political arena and the war and all that. And all that’s, yes, very, very concerning. Some of that’s good, some of it’s bad, all that. I understand. But let me go a step beyond that. The spiritual condition of our country is key. If we get right with God, God’ll take care of all the rest. By the way, all the rest is greater than any man can fix anyway. By the way, it was God that made America great in the first place. It wasn’t the man. And if it stays great, it’ll be the Lord.

And so I would love it if we had a true spiritual awakening in America. And I’ve seen God—it just seems the last couple of years, God has worked some. You know, before, you would never see a whole group of college football players before or after a game in the end zone, kneeling on their knees, praying to God. But that’s very common nowadays. It’s pretty common you hear an interview after a ballgame, and those say, “I want to praise my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” I mean, I’ve even heard NBA players say that. Wow. Yeah, I mean, and NFL players, whoa.

And so I think God’s working a bit, but can you imagine if we could just have a true spiritual awakening in our country? Now, friend, that happens when God’s people pray. What does He say? Well, you know the verse: “If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and what? And pray.” Now, there’s more to it, but it starts with humbling and prayer.

And this day, May 7th, it’s a Thursday. We change our midweek service from Wednesday to Thursday. We go down to the square in Murphysboro, the main square, and we have service there on the square in the evening. It’ll start at 6:30. The Hart family, there, you’ll enjoy them—just good. They can sing, they can play, but they’re just humble, godly people, good people. They’ll be singing from 6:30 to 7. Won’t you just gather and enjoy that? Right around that courthouse square, we’ve got it all ready to go there, or we’re working on it.

But then at 7 o’clock, well, it won’t be a normal service. It’ll be a prayer service. And something about getting on our knees out in public before God and everybody is just a wonderful thing. And there’s something special about it. And I want you to be there on the square. We call it “Prayer on the Square.”

And May the 7th starts at 6:30. Service starts at 7. Come at 6:30, and you can bring long chairs, whatever. We’ll have chairs set up. Bring your own chairs if you like to. And it’s just a—I think God’s heard those prayers. We’ve had some good election here recently. By the way, midterms coming up. We need prayer. And and and God hears those prayers.

So I want you to be there. Now, we have some flyers about that. If you would like a flyer for yourself or for others, just raise your hand. Our ushers will get those to you. Keep them up to the—get—take a group of them. We got, we got, we got plenty of them, and pass them out in your neighborhood, put them on the bulletin board at work, and let’s get the word out about that. We’d love to have you come: Prayer on the Square, May 7th.

It’s a Thursday, 6:30, on the Murphysboro Square. Hart family, they’ll do a good job singing, and I want you to be there.

Now, you know God uses all these things, He really does. Years ago, we were having that service, and a man rode by—we never met him before. He rode by, and he seen a bunch of crazy Christians over there singing and praying, and he said, “That’s my kind of people over there.” And she pulled over. He stopped, came to the service, and this is the way God works. This is the way God works.

He worked with a fellow that guy was working at his heart. And that fellow came to him and said, “Do you know of a good church in LaVergne or Smyrna?” This fellow lived in Murfreesboro. And he said, “Yeah, I do. I just had a prayer on the square thing with these people. That seemed like a good church.” And so he recommended that man to come to this church, and that man came to our church and got saved. By the way, that man’s name is Marlon Hunter. He’s a deacon at our church now. But God uses all those things.

And so let’s get involved and bring someone. I would love it if we had just a great number where people got to pay attention: “Whoa, what are they doing out there? They’re praying.” And wouldn’t it be good if God’s people truly, on the National Day of Prayer, we just truly, if you will, be sought before, got a hold of God, and truly prayed sincerely, humbly before God? And so let’s do our part in that. Let’s be involved in that. That’ll be here before we’re—not just about two and a half weeks away.

And that’s one thing. Here’s the other thing I want to mention to you: May the 3rd. Two weeks away, two weeks away from today, Sunday morning, we’ll have service here, right here, and then right after service, we’ll go over to the new property, and it’s going to be the true start of that new building.

We’ll have heavy equipment out there. I was thinking about it coming in. What all are we going to do over there? I thought about it since it’s all about souls, you know. Maybe we’ll have one of those big old backhoe, track hoe, or something. We’ll dig a big old hole. Maybe we’ll bury somebody inside there. I don’t know. What do you say there, you know? Miss Maria is like, “No, no.” We’ll do something. It’ll be a special day. And I want you to be here.

May 3rd, that’s going to be a day you’ll always remember. “I was there when they started that thing. I was there. I was there when they buried Brother So-and-so on the property,” whatever it may be. I don’t know what we’ll do. But May the—two weeks from today—be in your spot, and it’ll be a special, special day. Be here for that. Bring someone with you.

Now, let me tell you something about it. A lot of our folks know, especially saying that way, it’s not, you know, all about these things. But we are praying that we will not have to take from a loan. We have a loan available. We’ve already processed it; it’s ready to go to borrow from to build that building. Well, we don’t want to borrow from that until we have to. Once you borrow, you’re paying interest, and you’re not being able to save as much as you were before all that.

And how many of you have noticed the steel building on the—you notice our steel on the building, steel on the building, steel on the property, steel on the property? How about that? You know, there’s metal, steel buildings out there. Now, that thing costs money. It costs a whole lot of money. You want to know how much it cost? Six semis delivered that thing.

And some of them almost—they came in that front drive, and they told them coming the back way. Some of them came in the front, almost flipped those things over. But at six semis, that thing cost—take a nitroglycerin pill or something now, you know—$675,000. Finally got your attention. What about that?

And we have a bill for that. Now, we’ve raised—we’ve raised a little over $700,000, but we’ve already spent some of that. So we have—we don’t have quite $675,000. Now, we’ve got it available in a loan or when we sell this property. But if we were to sell this property today, we probably wouldn’t close for a little bit, see?

So here’s the thing: May 3rd, everything that comes in the offering plate, everything that comes in, unless it is designated somewhere else, everything that comes in May the 3rd will go towards that building. We’ll be—we’ll be at that point about $90,000 short. Now, $90,000 to come in on one Sunday in this church would be a miracle of God. We’ve never had that before.

But praise the Lord, I serve a miracle-working God. And my God said in His word, “You have not because you ask not.” And so I want you and I, let’s pray: “Lord, would You just do something special on May the 3rd?” Wouldn’t it be wonderful to tell your grandkids one day, “Hey, I was in this church and this crazy preacher…” Amen. “He’s crazy. What a pink shirt. He’s really crazy.” I heard those.

But he said, “Let’s pray for that.” Wouldn’t it be amazing to say, “God did that”? It’s just something about something we can brag on the Lord about. Now let’s pray, pray, pray, and whatever He leads you to do. Can I say this? Can I say this? If you have been thinking of giving a large amount and you’ve been holding out, now will be the time. Now it would be the time.

I don’t want to take from that loan. Now, praise the Lord, it’s available, but I don’t want to do that until we have to. And let’s pray that God would bless May 3rd, two weeks from today, and God would just bless, and you pray that the Lord would enable you to do something. My wife found in a parking lot, I think it was, $27. Typically, like, praise the Lord, you can at least buy a meal at McDonald’s for that nowadays, you know.

But I said, building fund, man. Let’s just—however God leads you, it’s not the amount, it’s the obedience. And let’s just be obedient to the Lord. If He says, “Hey, give a buck,” give a buck. Okay, whatever He tells you to do. And we’re obedient to the Lord. We do what we can do when God leads us. He’ll do what He can do. And He can handle all this.

And so I want you to pray in faith, pray humbly. Would you bless? Would you give us $90,000? To God, it is nothing. And nothing too hard for Him, Jeremiah 32 says. And let’s just ask the Lord to do something amazing on May the 3rd. And that would keep us from drawing from that loan a month or two more, and maybe longer.

And so let’s pray: God, bless the great grave—May the 3rd. Would You do that, please? And that would be a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Ushers, if you would come for offering, I appreciate that. We’ve got some changes, good changes. All these are great, great changes. We’ve listed some of these, but I want to just kind of Sunday morning list them again so you’ll know some changes around here.

By the way, we’ve got a brand new deacon. He’s never been a deacon in our church before. Been a deacon elsewhere. He’s uh—he’s over in junior church, you’re doing security this morning, but David McCord is our new deacon, if you did not know that. So it would be Brother Marlin, Brother Bill Johannon, Jr., and Brother David McCord is our three deacons now. We always have one coming on, one going off. Brother Chip just came off. They served for three years now.

Speaking about Chip, Brother Chip just took over the incident reports. If there’s a—someone in Sunday school or whatever class it may be, and they just—they just—they got a written report, but Chip sees that, he oversees that. Take that directly to him, and he’ll handle that. So take all those reports to Brother Chip.

Ms. Teresa Cooper just took our primary church. Her and Ms. Kim McCord are the main ones heading it up, and Ms. Teresa is the one that’s overseeing primary church now, just so you know these things. Want you to know all the changes.

Brother Patrick just took over our media department. He’s out sick today, and he caught the food poisoning disease. No, it wasn’t. Something different, but he’s out sick today. But he’s over the media department now. Brother Patrick is. All right, Brother Martin was over, but Patrick is now.

And then we’ve made a change here in our benevolence process. If someone just needs something, we want to be a blessing of help when appropriate, when it’s right. And the chairman of the deacon board is going to be the go-to guy on that. He’ll be the point man on that. And you don’t have to come see Pastor or whatnot. Just go right now. The chairman of the deacon board is Brother Marlin.

And so someone needs something. You say, either truly need it, they’ll fill out a form, whatnot. And Brother Marlin will be the go-to man on that. So I want you to know these changes. You know who to go to for whatnot. And I want you to know who to go to. And we want to process us, help us get things accomplished. So just some changes. I want you to know about all those changes there. So you know about that, that will be great.

Brother Almas Raymer, our war vet, 101 years old, he went home to be with the Lord Friday morning. And he went peacefully. And 101 years old. Can you imagine that? And I was talking with some of the family on Friday. He just worked, worked from sun up to sundown. He worked two to three jobs sometimes.

His oldest son was down from West Virginia, and one of the siblings said, “You got Dad fired from a job because he was working like two or three jobs, and he wouldn’t get any sleep.” And so he said, “Hey, you know, Dad’s working over there,” and they found out about it, and you’re working too many jobs. They said, “Whenever he got home, wherever he sat down, he went to sleep and boom, he was gone. He was out.” That’s where he slept. He sat down in the easy chair. That’s where he slept all night.

And I say that to say he worked all his life, all his life. And praise the Lord, he’s at home, he’s resting now. Got a brand new body, can get up, get around, doesn’t have PTSD from over there anymore. He can just rest. And so pray for the family, of course. His daughter, Sandra Beard, took care of him for over 30 years. She had her dad move in with her. So can you imagine 30 years, and he’s gone? So you pray for her, if you would, please. And just—just precious people. And pray, Lord, he was saved. He’s at home. But you pray for that family. 101 years old. Amazing. And a good, godly man. I’m honored we got to know him and just be with him. He’s a great man. Praise the Lord for him.

And praise the Lord for these young folks in our church. What a blessing are—Brother Garrett. And Brother Garrett’s been coming with a young lady a little bit here lately. She drove from Michigan to be in church. It had nothing to do with Garrett. Nothing at all. But Tressa, and we’re excited for him. By the way, Oscar turning 16 today. Been in our church for years and years. And he’s 16 and single, so he’s looking now, you know. You know I had to say something.

Brother Garrett, would you lead in prayer for the offering, please, brother?

Thank you, Brother Adam. Turn your Bible to the book of Isaiah, the book of Isaiah in your Bible. How lost we would be if we didn’t have God’s word. Very interesting how God sometimes puts together a special and a message together. And I believe He’s done that today, not our planning. The Lord does that. Once you find the book of Isaiah, chapter number 55, would you say, “Glory to God?”

Good, good. I like to hear you say that. That’s a good sound right there. Isaiah 55.

You’re getting there. You’re getting there. Good, good, good to see Ms. Shirley Gates out there. That’s a good thing. And let me briefly tell you about this chapter because we’re going to take two verses, really a truth, and we’re going to elevate it, and we’re going to look at it from different angles. We won’t manipulate the Word of God. I’m telling you what we’re doing. It’ll fit back in with the Bible when we put it back in there, but we’re going to lift two verses out.

So before we do that, I want to give you the context a little bit of the passage. Isaiah 55 is God speaking through a man named Isaiah, of course, a prophet. He’s a prophet to the nation of Israel, specifically to the southern part of Judah. And chapter 55 is really a chapter of hope. He starts off, He said, “You can come buy basically blessings from me.”

Well, you don’t have any money. How many like to go shopping? You can actually buy when you don’t have any money? That’s a pretty good deal. Not credit card either. He just gives us things, you know, lets us buy when we don’t have anything. And He’s telling them that. And they really will get to the verses we’re going to start at. And He’s telling this backslidden nation, “You come and get right with me, and I’ll give you pardon.” It’s amazing how God’s good at that.

To the point that Israel, and even so true in our day and time, that Israel and the Jewish people as a whole have gone against the Lord so many times. Some people are just kind of angry and mad at the Jewish people. And God says, “You know, I’m abundantly ready to pardon them.”

And that’s when we’ll get to our text verse here in just a minute. And He says, “You know what? I get it. You don’t get me. I forgive them over and over again.” And that’s when God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” God says, “I work on such a different plane than you. You’re down there on earth, and I work up here in heaven. And my ways and my thoughts are about as different as heaven is from the earth.”

And He’s speaking—the context is about Israel. And I’m ready to forgive Israel, and I’m going to abundantly pardon them. And it’s just amazing how the Bible is still relevant in our day and time. But we’re going to take those truths about how His thoughts are not our thoughts, and we’re going to focus on that this morning, all right? But I want you to know the context of it.

And then we’ll get to those verses here just a minute. Would you please stand if you are able to as we read God’s word together? Isaiah 55. And we’re going to start in verse number six. Isaiah 55 and verse number six. You there this morning? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Ooh, y’all are with it this morning. That’s a good deal. That’s a good deal. Here we go. Verse number six: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God: for he will abundantly pardon.” Pretty amazed and told to the Jewish nation there when they had just gone against Him a thousand plus times.

Kind of reminds me of us.

But then notice the next thing. It’s kind of like, “You don’t get me.” You know, God said, look at the next two verses. Here’s our text verse: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Now we’re going to take just those two verses, that truth, and we’re going to focus on those two verses this morning. Would you read verse number eight and verse number nine out loud with me together? Here we go: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth…”

Would you pray with me that the Lord would speak to our hearts about this truth right here? Would you do that? Father, would You take the truth that You shared with us, and Lord, You apply it. Lord, it seems like probably a million different ways it needs to be applied. So, Lord, would You send Your Spirit and apply it to every individual the way they needed to apply it in their life? Father, would You use me as an instrument in that? But, Lord, I know ultimately it will be You that gets Your job done. And I ask, would You do so, Father, please? And we’re asking in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

Several years ago, it was about this time of the year because it was the time we were electing a new deacon. And our church, we have you—you nominate deacons. And then we go through that from those that are nominated who would like to run for election, and you vote on our next deacon. Now, a man can’t be a good man—he’s a good man. He had good thoughts. I liked him pretty good. And he said this. He said, “Pastor, why do you do it like this?” He said, “It just makes sense to me. If these men are going to help you in doing what God called you to do here…”

You know, an employee gets to select his employer. Yeah, an employer. I’m good at mixing things up, if you haven’t noticed that yet. By the way, I hope you didn’t get used to being out so early last week. That’s not going to last this week, all right now.

But he said that, you know, an employer gets to select his employees. It just makes sense to me. He said that you would select who the deacons are going to be. And I said, “Well, I kind of like that way of thinking.” I mean, you know, every job I go to, they get, you know, they choose who they hire. I like that. You know, it makes sense to me. And he says, “Well, why do you do it the way you do it?” And that’s because of the Bible.

Because the Bible says in the book of Acts, He says, “Look ye out among you seven men of honest report…” and so forth. And the Bible method—now, my method sounded pretty good. I wouldn’t mind making that method. But we don’t do my method; we do God’s method.

I’m saying it’s high time we get back to instead of what you think or so-and-so thinks or professor thinks or someone you know on the internet thinks—we get back to what God thinks.

Now, can I just kind of go through a couple of things along that line? You know, there’s this thing, it doesn’t matter what you say, you know, going to go that way anyway, you know. But there’s this thing in our day and time called gentle parenting. Anybody ever heard of that? I wish they would have told my dad about that years ago.

And, you know, it’s kind of, you know, some professors or whatnot and psychologists and all those, you know, “Well, you don’t want to mess up or kind of dwarf their personality.” And basically, you let them run the roost, and you don’t spank them. Now, that’s the thoughts of man. But God’s the thoughts. God says, “The rod and reproof give wisdom.” That’s what God says. It’s in Proverbs chapter 29 what the Bible says.

Now, here’s what I’m getting now: Are we going to do our thoughts or are we going to do God’s thoughts? God says they’re going to be different. They’re going to be different. And by the way, when the Bible talks about that, He’s not talking about beating a child. You’re not doing it out of anger. You’re not doing it out of love, by the way. And it’s not the only thing about raising a child. There’s a whole lot more than just that one thing for him. There’s building a relationship. The rules without relationship usually lead or are prone to lead to rebellion. But that is part of it.

And here’s what I’m saying: It’s high time we get off everybody else’s thoughts and ways, and we get back to God’s thoughts and God’s ways.

Can I be honest with you since we’re going down this road? I kind of like the thought—I mean, the way of just, you know, a lot of people going this way: you just have one church service a week. I mean, a lot less work for me.

Okay, you got three services. Well, I can preach the same message three times. That would save me a whole lot. We’re going to have to prepare three or four of them, you know. I mean, you know, Sunday night, Wednesday night, you know, we’ll have a little group here, meet here, there, yonder, youth people, you know, but just one main service. Preacher got to preach one time a week. And usually people like that so they come. The preacher gets paid more. I like this thing.

That’s this man’s ways. I mean, you know, that’s the thought, you know, patterned. I mean, you know, you got to—all right, well, the preacher is preacher three times. He’s preaching the same thing three times a week. That’s pretty easy for it. That’s not the hard part. Prepared is the hard part. He said, “Man, the preacher is getting everything off his chest this morning. I got to make up for last week.” Thank you.

But that’s man’s ways, but God’s ways. He says this verse over in Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is.” Then He says, “But so much the more as you see the day approaching.”

That’s what God’s way says. Back in the book of Acts, they met every day. So am I going to go my way or am I going to go God’s way? God says the closer you get to Jesus coming back, you’re going to need church more, friend. So am I going to follow everybody else’s ways or my ways, my thoughts, or God’s thoughts? They will be different. God says they’ll be different as far as heaven is above the earth. They’ll be different.

The thoughts of God, the ways of God. You know, my thought is if someone trying to live for the Lord, they’re a born-again Christian, they’re trying to do right. My thought is they’re praying for something that seems like a good thing. I mean, you’re just praying for—not something that they can consume upon their own lives, but they’re praying for a good thing. My thought would be to give it to them. Boom. I mean, they’re asking, give it to them.

I mean, you stand in line too long nowadays at Burger King, someone going to get mad, you know. Be careful which one you go to; some of you may be waiting for a while, you know.

But that’s my thoughts. That’s our ways. But God’s ways are not like that. In the prayer closing, Hebrews 6:15 told about Abraham. Says, “So after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.” God values patience. Some prayers, it may take you or I years just praying over that, praying over that. God hears prayers.

But it’s not going to be on your timetable or my timetable because then it would not require faith. And my ways are not His ways. They’re totally different. And God says typically you’re going to have to pray for a while on that thing. Amen.

I’m just saying we’re so prone to say, “God, this way. God does it.” Our ways are so different. Our thoughts are so different. You know, this is the honest truth, and I don’t want to be in any way disrespectful to the Word of God. He has magnified His Word above all His name. It’s amazing. Pray, Lord, Brother Adam, sing about it just a minute to go here. But can I be honest for a minute?

This is what they’re saying every day in time. Can I be transparent with you for a second here? I have a little—and I’m just being honest—I have a little tough time with the eternality of hell. I had someone come to me maybe years ago and said, “Pastor, it just seems harsh that hell is forever.”

I mean, it just—and we can kind of—I can try to give some things to help us comprehend it, you know. Well, they wouldn’t let Jesus—Jesus is the only thing that can pay for their sins. They wouldn’t let Jesus pay for it. So they never fully pay for it. That’s why hell is forever. Jesus, He’s the only thing that satisfied the justice of God. He proved that by His resurrection.

I can say these things, and I can talk about, “Well, how would you feel if you gave your only child, your only Son, and you watch your Son be beaten and spit upon his beard? You are watching this as they whipped Him with a cat o’ nine tails, and you’re wanting this to happen so He could give His blood for their salvation, and they stepped on His blood, and they just shunned it. They said, ‘No, I don’t want that,’ and they went about getting saved on the wrong way.” How would you feel about that?

I can try to explain it like that. But ultimately, friend, you know the honest truth about the eternality of hell? It comes back to that book right there. Where the Bible says in Revelation, “The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.” Mark chapter number nine says where three times it says, “Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.” It says twice in the Bible, “Into the fire that never shall be quenched.” And ultimately, friend, it’s not going to be about your thoughts and your ways. It’s totally different than God’s. It’s God’s thoughts and God’s ways. And I’m not going to make it all up. I’m just going to go with what He thinks and what His way is. Amen. It’s going to be different.

I mean, so far different as far as heaven is from the earth. That’s what He says.

I love the Lord, and I don’t want to in any way be disrespectful. But can I be honest for a minute? I have a tough time understanding the Trinity.

I’ve heard, I think, pretty much all the ways of explaining it, whether it be the egg or whether it be the water, the H2O, or the finger, all the rest of the, you know, the offices with the doors in between, all that. You know, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, yet it’s one. It’s a little tougher for, you know, just a country boy like me for me to comprehend.

But friend, I don’t have to comprehend it all. If I understood it all, God wouldn’t be really a mighty God. I’m just a finite human being, and it wouldn’t make much sense if I could understand about anything about an infinite God. I believe it because God said it over in 1 John 5:7 where He said, “These three are one.”

I believe it over there in Isaiah 9:6. We talked about the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, where He said He’s the everlasting Father, He’s a mighty God. I believe that because God’s ways and God’s thoughts right there said Jesus is God Almighty. You’re not going to understand it all for it, because His ways and His thoughts are so much higher. It’s kind of like as far as heaven is above the earth. Amen. God told us that.

It’s really amazing how different they are. I just finished reading, not too long ago in my devotion, the book of Judges. How many ever read the book of Judges? I mean, it’s like this: 13 different judges. And Israel would backslide and they would go into bondage. God raised a judge up, delivered them, and he would be there 40 years, whatever, and then he would die, and this cycle, you know. And it’s kind of a downward cycle, gets worse and worse and worse. By the time you finish the book of Judges, some of the stories in the book of Judges—I mean, I don’t want to, you know—it’s like a husband taking his wife’s…

dead body and cutting it up in 12 pieces. I mean, you’re just like, “Whoa.” Crazy.

And here’s the thing of that book of Judges: The theme of it is, “There was no king, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” It doesn’t say every man did that which was awful or wrong. Every man did that which is right in his own eyes. And yet it led to slowly going downhill.

Kind of reminds you of Romans chapter 1, the degeneration of a society. And that’s what happens when we get away from God’s thoughts and God’s ways, and we get to man’s ways and man’s thoughts. Friend, that’s how we get crazy thinking that sinful things are right, because we’re going by our ways and our thoughts. And God says there are two different things.

There’s this verse over in Proverbs, by the way, we’re starting to study on Wednesday in the book of Proverbs, where it says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

And let me—let me—let me—we’re going to change gears just a bit here on this thought where our thought, our truth is: God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts; your ways are not my ways.” As far as heaven is above the earth, so far my ways above your ways. All right, y’all got that? That’s our truth.

Now, let me talk to you about this. It’s amazing. For—oh, maybe years ago, I started looking at how many promises in the Bible come to those that trust in God. The Old Testament uses the word “trust” a lot. Romans uses “faith,” John uses “believe,” but I think it’s 152 times where—I remember, I didn’t look it up—but the Old Testament uses the word “trust.”

And I started thinking, “Am I really trusting in God?” Because there are all kinds of promises. I use this at funerals a lot of time. Proverbs 16:20: “Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” You want to be happy out there? I like to be happy. I mean, it’s just a good thing. All right, if I’m trusting in God, I’ll be happy.

There’s a verse in 2 Samuel 22:31. It says, “He is a buckler.” A buckler is a shield. There’s a little bit of debate about what shield it is. Most will think the buckler is the smaller shield, where it’s very mobile. They use it in hand, and you can kind of move it all over to protect anything coming at you. Boy, you can move it, you know. Guy gets close to you, you can hit him over the head with that shield right there. You know, it’s a buckler. But it says the Lord, “He is a buckler to all them that trust in him.” I’m like, “Okay, I want that one right there.”

Psalm 2, verse number 12: “Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” You’re just blessed if you trust in Him. And I was reading these promises about a year ago, and I thought, “Lord, am I truly trusting in You?”

Now, here’s the thing: What measure or when you truly measure the truth of “Am I trusting God or not?” is not when He’s doing what you think He should do. That doesn’t reveal if you’re trusting Him. When God is not answering that prayer you think He ought to answer. When God is allowing things in your life that are not pleasant, you don’t like them. You’re like, “God, why are you doing these things?” And you see these situations, that situation over there, and God, “How can you allow that?” And things that go against you—that’s when you really see if you’re trusting God or not. That’s the time you gauge whether you’re trusting Him or not.

I used to work in a machine shop and a metal fabrication shop, and every once in a while, you would have a piece of metal that came in, and it needed to be a specialized piece of metal. And, you know, we do several different tests. The first one was just a magnet. A magnet works on it. Okay, it’s mild steel, you know. But then you get even more direct, and eventually, you’d have to run an acid test on that piece of metal.

And the acid test—whether I’m trusting God or not—is when He’s allowing things in your life. Think about Job. Remember that conversation God had with the devil? And the devil said, “Well, sure, he’s serving You. You’re doing everything he wants. You’ve got a hedge of protection. I can’t do anything to that guy.” And so the Lord says, “All right, we’ll test him.”

God didn’t do it, but God lifted the hedge of protection, and the devil got in there. Took out all his children. Took out his finances. You remember that? Health was shot eventually. His friends are calling him, “You hypocrite! You liar! You sinner!” And even his wife said, “Hey, curse God and die.”

At that moment, Job was amazing to me. I mean, you talk about—that was a man that truly trusted in the Lord. Because when God was allowing things in life that didn’t make sense, he was a good, godly Christian, why it’s all going on. And Job says, “Hey, I look over there, I can’t find God. I look to the east and the south. I can’t find God.” In the very next verse, you know what Job says? “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” You call that trust?

Friend, when God’s ways are so much higher and His thoughts are so much higher and they don’t make sense to you, that’s when it really determines, “Am I truly trusting in God or not?” When God can look down and say, “Boy, they trust Me.” God’s so pleased with that. At the end of the day, God ends up, “Boy, I can use Job twice as much.”

Last thought, and I’m done. Somebody say, “Amen.” I got extra time. Brother, you earned me time last week, so I, you know… Come on now. Nobody said amen on that right there. We don’t know about all that, you know.

But here’s the last thought on this truth: God said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts; your ways are not my ways.” When me and God disagree—and we do from time to time, of course—but when we disagree, how many of you ever disagree with God sometimes? If you’re not raising your hand, I don’t know. When I disagree with God, every single time, He’s right, I’m wrong. There’s been times I’ve been praying for something that doesn’t make sense why God didn’t give it to me, and I’m a little upset about it. Everyone’s smiling. And sometimes it takes 10 years down the road, and I’m so glad God didn’t give me that. I might not see it all until I get to heaven. But I promise you, every time you and God disagrees, and I and God disagrees, He’s right, I’m wrong.

Joseph, I’m sure there were times Joseph said, “God, how can you let my brothers hate me? They sold me. I end up over there in Potiphar’s house, and his wife’s lying about me. I’m in prison.” I’m sure there were times that—by the way, we think about Genesis 50:20, where Joseph gives that great amazing truth: “You meant it for evil,” talking to his brothers, “you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to save much people alive.”

Joseph didn’t say those things until after he started seeing what God was doing. I guarantee in the middle of it, Joseph was like, “God wasn’t right.” But God was right. At the end of the day, Joseph said, “All right, Lord, I know what You’re doing.”

Friend, some of you are praying. You’re praying for a wayward child. You’re praying for a financial miracle. You’re praying for a health situation to get better. And there are so many burdens you have. Can I just say during those times, don’t get mad at God; accept it. His ways are way above yours. You’re not going to understand them all. I don’t think it’s a sin to ask God why. Jesus said, “My God, my God, why?” You don’t think that’s a sin. But friend, in the middle of all that, don’t fight against it. Just say, “Hey, He has thoughts and ways that are so much higher than mine. I’m going to accept it. He’s right. I’m wrong.” I’m just going to trust Him in the middle of it.

But he won’t—can I get one more last thing in there? Notice that one more last thing in there? We’re not landing yet, but we’re circling the airport. The wheels have come out, all right?

You know what? If I were to be the one that designed salvation, how to go to heaven, it would look totally different. I mean, does it ever bother you when people don’t pay their bills, especially sometimes when our government ends up paying it and we pay for it because we pay our taxes? Anybody out there bothered by it? So I would be like, “All right, if the guy has paid his bills, you know, maybe we’ll let him into heaven.” Does that make sense? Yeah.

Do mean, rude people ever get on your last nerve and turn you into a mean, rude person? Has ever did that to you? I mean, so my thought would be, “All right, they’re being rude, they’re smart alecks, they’re making everybody mad, everybody.” My thought would be, “Boom, you’re not going to heaven.” Just being honest with me here. I mean, my ways would just be like, “Hey, good people go to heaven, bad people…” You know, that’s kind of a little bit. You’re like, “They deserve it.”

But, friend, that’s not God’s ways. God’s ways are an old sinner that hadn’t paid his bills. He’s a sorry wretch just like I have been. His tongue hasn’t been right. His treatment of others hadn’t been right. And yet that individual comes and says, “I’m a sinner. I want to accept Jesus as my only way to heaven. I want to accept His shed blood as payment for my sin.” And God Almighty says, “You’re redeemed, you’re forgiven, you’re my child, you’re going to have it.” That’s God’s ways.

My ways would be, “All right, you’re saved as long as you do right. We’ll put you on trial for a while. 30 days test, watching you 24/7. We’re watching you. You lost it, man. I’ve seen what you said right there. I’ve seen how you treated your spouse. I’ve seen what you said over there. I’ve seen how many times you cut people off in traffic. Oh, man, you lost it.” That’s my ways.

But God’s ways is, He says when I give you eternal life, it’s eternal. God’s ways is, “They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” That’s God’s ways.

Friend, God’s ways is there’s only one way. Who’s the Oprah and Obama and some of those said, “There are many ways to have it.” No, friend, there’s only one way: God’s way. God’s way is Jesus, that’s it. No other way. The Bible says Acts 4:12, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Just Jesus. That’s God’s way.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Our heads are bowed, eyes are closed. I don’t know exactly how God spoke to your heart about the truth. But maybe you hear this morning, you say, “Preacher, I just need to accept it in this certain area. I’ve been praying, I’ve been burdened, and it’s killing me. And I think I just need to accept it: His thoughts and His ways are above mine. And I’m going to stop trying to figure it all out. I’m just going to accept it.” God spoke to my heart about that right there. I need to accept some things. If that’s you this morning, you lift your hand. “Preacher, that’s me. That’s me.” God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. That’s trust. He’s pleased with that. He’s pleased with that. God bless you. Anybody else, “Preacher, God spoke to my heart. I just need to accept it. His ways, His thoughts are higher than mine. I need to accept it.” God bless you. God bless you.

Thank you so very much. You can put your hands down.

Maybe you hear a little bit along the same line, but you say, “You know, I’m battling it. I’m battling it. But I’m going to be like that songwriter, say that last line of that song: ‘Oh, for grace to trust Him more.’ And I don’t know that I’m fully there, but I’m going to ask God, ‘Would You help me to trust You? God, give me the grace so I can, because His ways are so much higher. So much. I mean, just higher than heaven is above the earth.’ I don’t know that I’m fully there, but I’m asking God for the grace and the strength to trust Him in this situation. I’ll do that right there, preacher.” If that’s you, would you slip your hand up? “Preacher, I’m going to ask God for the strength of grace to trust Him in this situation.” God bless you. Oh, that’s a wise thing. That’s a wise thing. He honors that. That’s so good. That’s so good. Thank you for letting the Lord work in your heart. Thank you for that. Good deal. Thank you for that.

One last question. Maybe you hear this morning, have you never been to salvation, God’s way? By that, I mean a time when you went to Jesus, said, “Jesus, I’m not going to trust in me. I can’t get me to heaven. I can never be good enough, Jesus. I see that. That’s man’s ways of being good enough. I’m going to trust in You, Jesus. I’m going to trust that You are good enough. And I need to accept Jesus as my Savior.” If that’s you right there where you said, whether it be here or online, you call on Him right there. Would you call on Him? Something along this line: “Oh, Jesus, I admit it. I’m a sinner. I can’t save myself. Jesus, I believe You died on the cross for me. And I’m not going to go about it in man’s ways, me trying to be good enough. I’m going to come to God’s way. I’m going to trust in You, Jesus. Would You be my personal Savior? Would You save me?”

Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. You said, “Preacher, I just trusted in Jesus to be my personal Savior. Never had before, but I just did that. I just did that in my heart. I just asked Jesus to save me.” Have that you this morning? Just lift a hand up. Just lift it up. Anybody like that? God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. It’s wonderful. Wonderful.

Would there be anybody else? That one that raised their hand—in just a moment, we’re going to have invitation time. There’ll be a man standing down front. There’ll be a man in the back. Would you do this? Would you either go to one of those men or maybe you know an adult around you or someone around you, a lady, whatnot, would you go to them and just tell them you asked Jesus, you trusted in Jesus to be your Savior? I say that because we want to be a help to you, help to you, some literature and some advice. We’d just like to help in your journey with the Lord.

But all those friends, let’s go to Him today. I want to trust You. I realize Your thoughts and Your ways are so much higher than mine. Would you please stand? Would you please stand? Let’s spend some time with the Lord. I’m going to have a word of prayer. You be obedient as He guides you.

Father, thank You that You told us right there that Your thoughts are so different than ours. Lord, honestly, mine can be so selfish and so just about my world. You see the whole world. Lord, Your ways are different. Help us. Help me, Lord, just to trust You. Bless our folks in these few minutes in a special way. I will thank You for what You do. Jesus, in that name we pray. Amen.

Would you come as an instance play? Would you come just spend some time?

He said it clear as day: “My thoughts are not your thoughts; your ways are not my ways. For as high as the heaven is above the earth, so higher are my ways above your ways, my thoughts are your thoughts.” You’re going to differ from Him sometime. That’s just to be human. It’s all right. Trusting.

Amen, amen. Be praying one to be dealt with about salvation. Praise the Lord for that. Boy, what amazing how God tells us. He said, “Look, it’s going to be different sometimes. My thoughts are a lot different than yours.” And I’m glad He doesn’t think like me, amen. I wouldn’t have any hope.

And we serve a reminding God. Let’s trust Him. And looking forward to seeing you back tonight at 6 o’clock. Looking forward to that. Good to see every single person here today. Praise the Lord for it. And just been a good weekend. God’s been very, very good to us. And praise the Lord for it.

Original File: 2026-04-19 - Pastor Paul Chisgar AM 04⧸19⧸2026