Book of Life

Brethren, please be seated. And now for the sermon, our local pastor, Mr. Jim Tuck, again.

You know, people since Adam have sought to erect monuments to themselves so they will not be forgotten. You know, every town, every community, every hamlet you go in, in this country, usually there's a monument to somebody who, you know, through some act of valor, of heroism, you know, something has been erected to them to honor them. Some people even do that for themselves. Most graveyards have headstones with the phrase or some variation of it gone but not forgotten. People don't want to be forgotten, you know, when they pass on, so to speak. I think it's human nature to want to be remembered. You know, the truth is most all will be forgotten. That's just a given about life. You know, over time, pretty soon, the generations go through, all of us, brethren, that are in this room, will not be remembered. You know, we remember one another, but the world will go on if indeed that's what's in God's plan, but we will be forgotten. Even some truly great people upon the earth that have done tremendous things. You know, there have been great edifices that have been constructed that people do not even know who did it, who undertook that great endeavor. Or, at the very least or most, they are barely footnotes in history that you read about in a history book. Now, think about that, about human life. Now, over in Psalm 49, let's notice over here, if you want to read here to sort of set the stage about what I'm going to talk about here today.

In verse 10 through 12, it says, for he sees wise men die. Likewise, the fool and the senseless person perish and leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever. You know, think about all the great houses that have been built, that people have put so much work into, so much effort into, they're gone. That they're dwelling places to all generations and call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless, man, though in honor, does not remain. He's like the beast that perished. It's like who thinks about, again, a sparrow or who thinks about an animal that dies, you know, and considering a creature. Man is just like that. That time goes on that nobody, again, remembers, even though people can set out thinking that they will be remembered. You know, one of the shocking thoughts that I've had, I remember particularly when I was first being called, I thought about this a lot more, what if it was though I never existed? Ever thought about that? You know, what if you had never existed?

Like over in Obadiah, it talks about how that there are heathen. It says, they shall be as though they had not been. They had not existed. It's like they're blotted out. Though we've all seen, of course, the Twilight Zone thing where somebody in the plot of the movie is they go, they come back and everybody says, who are you? You know, and they go, everybody they know, they don't know who they are. It's like they never existed. Their existence was wiped out. That was blotted out. Let's notice over here in Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10, again, this is a foible of the human flesh to want to be remembered. But over in Luke chapter 10, in verse 2, here Jesus Christ was sending out His disciples, as you know, He did so by 2 by 2. And He says in verse 2, He says that He said to them, the harvest truly is great, but the labors are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. And He says, go your way, behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. And so Jesus sent out these disciples, the 70 disciples that went out and they no doubt did some incredible things.

You know, they were able to do through the power of God. But let's drop down to verse 17 here. It says, then the 70 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons were subject to us in Your name. You know, what an amazing thing that they spoke the name of Jesus Christ, and the demons had to obey. And Jesus said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. So He was there to behold Satan being cast out of heaven to this earth. And He says, behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall be by any means hurt you. You know, what a tremendous promise that Jesus is making here to them. But notice verse 20 here, kind of an interesting Scripture. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this. Now, by the way, He's not putting down the fact that the demons were subject in His name. He's not saying that. But He's saying basically much more, I want you to think about this. But He says, nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. The most important thing in your life is not that you, there's a monument erected to you, as in the world people do, but the most important thing to you, He's saying to His disciples, is that your name is written in heaven. And He wasn't correcting them for their attitude in coming back, but He was giving them something more thrilling to think about, to give balance to their joy, that their names were written in heaven.

Brother, what does it mean your names are written in heaven? Is your name written in heaven? Is it up there somewhere, or in some book? You know, this book has been around since the foundation of the world. Is it up there? Is our name written in the third heaven? And then why? Why does God have to have a book? You know, doesn't God have a perfect memory?

He can name all the stars. He knows them by name. Every last body that's out there, you know, that we are able to see, He knows the name of every one of them. You know, in fact, not only that, you know, He knows even how many hairs we have on each of our heads. I know that sometimes that maybe is not a great accomplishment for some of us, but for some, you know, it is a tremendous accomplishment. But why does God need a book? Let's go to Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4 over here in verse 3.

Philippians chapter 4. Here, notice Paul mentioning. He had, of course, very important guests that were going to be in Philippi. And he wrote to them in verse 3, and he says, And I urge you, also, true companion, help these women. There were certain women that were going to be there that Paul had had a job for them to do, who labored with me in the Gospel with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers. It says, whose names are in the book of life? What an incredible thing to say about that. Would you like to read your name in here? That your name is written in the book of life?

Now, this is what Christ meant, that your names are written in heaven, about the book of life.

The word for book here, by the way, Strong's says properly what this is, when it uses the word book, from Biblos, it's the inner bark of a papyrus plant that is a sheet or a scroll of writing. You know how things were done in ancient times? They had scrolls. So the book was a scroll rather than the kind of books that we have today.

But it's translated again, Biblos is book, book of life here. Again, is your name written on that scroll? God just unfrolled it out here, and he had here the C's and the B's and the T's. I hope, again, it gets to T. You know, and oh yeah, I see the name here. It's right here.

It's very important to be in that book of life, chapter 3 of Revelation. Let's notice another scripture over here about the book of life, chapter 3 and verse 5 of the book of Revelation.

Notice here he's talking again to the angel Sardis, and he told him, the strength of the things remain, but he said in verse 5, he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments. And I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.

Now, it's interesting what it says there. We have, we learned some things from this verse right here. We learned three clues about the book of life. Number one, Jesus Christ has control of the book of life. He controls the book of life, and he adds names to it. But notice it says, he that overcomes.

Those that overcome will again not have their names blotted from this book. In Revelation 13, in verse 8, I won't turn to it. You should be familiar with it, because it says there, "...and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him," speaking of Jesus Christ, whose names it says are not written in the book of life, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Here, of course, is talking about the beast's power. That is going to rise up. If your name is not written in the book of life, you're going to worship the beast and the false prophet. It shows again a lack of understanding on a part of people as to who should be worshiped. One of the things that the beast will try to do is to seek people to worship him. And the people that fall for that will not be in the book of life. But notice another thing, though, in Revelation 13.8, it's called the Lamb's Book of Life. Called the Lamb's Book of Life. We learn again from chapter 3 and verse 5 that we read earlier, our names can be blotted out of the book. If they're written there now, if we are not overcomers—and that, of course, I guess the jury is still out on all of us, right? On that, are we overcomers? Have we made the great strides? Apparently Paul felt that these women had made strides and there were fellow labors with him. He says they're in the book of life for what they did. Another number three thing that we learn from Revelation 3 verse 5 is those written in the book mentioned—they're mentioned before the Father and the holy angels. It's like a confession before the Father and the angels that these, again, are God's your people.

They have been overcomers. You know, they have endured to the end. Brother, we are in a time of great confusion in the world today. The world is filled with deception, and it's hard, really, in the world today, I think, more than ever. And I think the greatest culprit at confusing people is the Internet. It can be a tool, a good tool for helping people, but I'll tell you, it can be a mighty tool for deceiving people. You know, anybody can say anything. You don't have to have any proof of anything. You don't have to—you don't have to even be in this book. There are people, in fact, that invent new books, and they will say that God has led them to write them. And what is in their books that they write, they feel are, again, binding to the binding on people, and they use it to deceive people. I'm not going to, again, mention all the ways that that's done in our world today, but it's hard for us, rather than to keep it together. You know, you go into—it's like one of the first things you do, when you find God's truth, and then I'm sure there are people that are sitting right here in this audience. You find God's truth. There are about 5,000 people out there to tell you you have it. A lot of them will say that you found a cult. You know, so you know what I'm talking about. It's out there to dissuade people from finding the truth, to veer them off. Satan, again, has great joy when that happens. And so it's hard, again, to keep it together, but with God's help, we can, brethren. With God's help, we can. You know, you're here. Some of you have been around a long, long time. And you know how many obstacles you've had to dodge through your spiritual life to be here today. And I look at some of this gray hair out here, and the, you know, no hair in some cases. You know, a lot of you started when you were yourself, maybe in your late teens or your, maybe later than that, in the 20s or 30s. You've been around a long time. You've dodged a lot of things. And all I've got to say is you've got to keep dodging.

You've got to keep jumping over the obstacles, and you can't let anything dissuade you. Let's go to Revelation 17. Revelation 17. You know why? You want to be in the book of life. You don't want your name blotted out of the book of life. I don't know when God writes it in there. Maybe He does it when we're born. Maybe He does it when we're baptized.

You know, I don't know. I honestly cannot tell you. I don't think there's a Scripture that really says that one way or another. But the one thing I know is I don't want to be blotted out of the book. Revelation 17, verse 8. Notice here, and it says, the beast that you saw was and is not, and will ascend down to the bottomless pit and go to the perdition. And those that dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the book of life. From the foundation of the world, when they see the beast, that was and is not and yet is. You see, the world's going to be completely surprised. But those written in the book of life have been watching for the emergence of the beast power. They've been watching for these things.

And those deceived by the beast, or in question about all these things, they're not going to be in the book of life. You know, God, brethren, has had a blueprint from the foundation of this world. And when we talk about the foundation world, we don't know exactly what that means. Was it when God created the first man and woman? Or was it when God created the angels? How far back does this blueprint go? We cannot really know. We know that the earth was created, what, four and a half billion years ago. The universe may be 14 or 15 billion years ago. But God has had a plan, brethren, in place. And oftentimes, the Bible is referred to as predestination of what God was going to do at particular junctures of time. You know, when Jesus Christ was, you know, to be crucified, he was going to have to come and die. That was determined when Adam sinned. Revelation 13 verse 8. He was slain from the foundation of the world from the very beginning. God is predestined to call people in our time who would be written in the book of life. And that's you and me, brethren. Us being called now. Not that he specifically said, I'm going to call Jim Tuck or you in your specific name, but he was going to call somebody at this time and God, out of his mercy, looked down and he saw you. And he saw me. He saw all of us. And he decided he was going to call us in the church. And the Bible tells us that judgment is on the house of God now. Each of us are being judged right now. It's our time. Our responsibility to do those things that God has called us to do, brethren, and to not back off, to not roll back, but to go forward. In God's plan, the majority are going to be saved at the end of a thousand years. The majority, they're going to come up in the great white throne judgment.

And then they're going to have their first chance to know the truth. Like you and I have been given our first chance to know the truth now. They'll be given the first chance to know the truth in the great white throne judgment or the second resurrection. And they're going to be given the truth, given the knowledge, and then they're going to be judged by that knowledge, just like we're being judged right now. God reveals it to us right now, and he wants us to live it.

And again, it's incumbent upon us that we be overcomers, that we use that knowledge, that understanding that God has given us lest our names again be blotted out. We don't want to be, again, accused of not making an effort. And believe me, brethren, the only way you can fail is if you don't make an effort. Everything's stacked in your favor to be in the kingdom.

You know, just make the effort. Apply yourself. Over in Hebrews 9, though, in verse 27, you know, it was decreed when Adam sinned, it was decreed that it was appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment. In other words, that God would wait for mankind, and that, in fact, seven thousand years would go by before he would judge mankind as a whole.

And during what is the second resurrection, or as I mentioned, the Great White Throne judgment, period, God's going to bring the majority of human beings and probably 40 or 50 billion, you know, give or take a few billion. We don't know how much it's going to be, but they're going to be shown God's way of life. Over in Isaiah 65 in verse 20, it talks about there that there would no longer be an infinite of days nor a man or old man who is not filled out as years, but somebody who is a sinner, you know, after a hundred years of age is going to be a cursed.

In other words, it would be determined that they would not be saved. They would not have the opportunity for salvation if they, after a hundred years, they have not decided to live by God's way. And again, that hundred years is not necessarily an exact period of time, but, you know, symbolic of the fact that God is going to give people a hundred years to make up their mind one way or another.

And if they're not willing to live by God's way, you know, after, you know, a considerable period of time, then they're going to be accursed. So that's what God has planned for the future. You know, some have wondered if the book of life is the Bible. I don't know if you've ever heard that before, that some people think that this book is the book of life. Well, it is symbolic of the tree of life.

The word of God is symbolic of the tree of life. There's a lot of things symbolic of the tree of life, the Holy Spirit's symbolic of the tree of life. But actually, the Bible could not be the book of life because when we read over in Revelation 20, verse 12, I won't take the time to go over there, but I will read it to you. But it mentions that in fact, the Bible and the book of life are two, two books. But here it says, and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were open, and another book was open, which is the book of life.

So here, talking again about two books. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. You see, the book of life is there, and if somebody is not an overcomer, as the Bible says that we have to be, they would be blotted out of the book of life. So there's a great responsibility that befalls all of us, brethren, now, and for the generations to come. It's going to be much easier for them than it has been for us.

But I don't know about you, but I don't want to wait. I want to obey God now. I want to be an overcomer. I want to be a conqueror. I want to be in God's kingdom. And I want to be in the book of life. Revelation 21. Let's go to Revelation chapter 21 over here. You know, here is an astounding description over here. You know, sometimes, you know, you hear these television programs. Forget the name. Robin Leech. I think he died.

I remember, oftentimes, we'd get home on Saturday night, you know, and we'd turn on the television, and Robin Leech would come on. He would talk about all of the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. And, you know, these cars would drive up these huge driveways, and he would talk about all of these very wealthy people. You know, this man is so wealthy, he has a golden toilet, you know, or he'd have some other, you know, proof of how much wealth this person had.

You know, this man is so wealthy, he's got someone who can put on his slippers for him and wear them. And as a consequence, he doesn't have to get, you know, calluses on his feet because they're already broken in. That's how wealthy this man is. I'm trying to do my Robin Leech, but I'm probably not doing a very good job. I don't know. I'm not doing a very good job at it. But let's notice over here, I mean, you're talking wealth.

Robin Leech, move over here. Let's go over to Revelation 21, verse 16, talking about the city of God, New Jerusalem. And the city is laid out as a square, its length as great as its breath. So presumably this thing is huge, very huge. And he measured the city with a reed 12,000 furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. Now, some of us remind this would be a pyramid style with God at the top, you know, as the scriptures even say. And then he measured the wall 144 cubits according to the measure of a man that is of an angel. Now, again, we don't know exactly what a cubit is. It's like Noah when God says, I want you to build this arc. And Noah says, what's a cubit? You know, but we wonder what a cubit is. Some say it's about 21 inches or around there, but I've heard different measurements, 18.6 and other things. But anyway, when you do the math, some have done the math that the city is going to be 1400 miles high.

You can imagine this kind of hard to hide a city that big, isn't it? No, they say that when, in fact, Jerusalem was in its heyday during the time of Solomon, well, actually during the time of Herod, you know, when it was the temple was rebuilt, that you could see Jerusalem for miles away because of the stones that were used to construct the temple and the wall around Jerusalem. There's just an awesome view from what history says. But imagine this city, how spectacular it's going to be. The construction of its wall was of jasper. The city was of pure gold.

Now again, Robin Leech, gold toilets. Well, think about this. In this city, we won't even need toilets. It's just like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first was jasper, the second, sapphire, the third, calsadoni, and the fourth, emerald. Can you imagine again these foundations being so spectacularly beautiful, so arne. And it says in verse 21, the 12 gates were 12 pearls, and each individual gate was one pearl. Now you talk about a big clam.

You know, God could do anything. And the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass. Can you imagine that in this city we'll be walking on gold? It's like the guy who felt he wanted to have all the gold in the world, and so before he died, he saved all this gold.

And when he got to heaven, he had all this gold with him. And anyway, he told St. Peter he'd come, and he decided he was going to bring his wealth with him, his gold, and Peter looked at it and he says, you mean you brought payment?

Gold. You know, payment on the streets. You get it, you heard it before. But anyway, I'm going to have to be sharper with you guys. Either that, or I'm going to have to start numbering these jokes. But anyway, we see here again that this is going to be a spectacular place beyond all of our imagination. Verse 22, and I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are in his temple. And the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, the Lamb is the light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light. And the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor into it.

Now we are being trained, are we not, brethren, to be kings and priests?

We will be bringing a certain amount of honor, those who are the saints, going to be honored into the city. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day, there shall be no night thereof, and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter into it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. So this city, rather not occupied by the rich and the wealthy and the well endowed, but the weak of this world who have overcome are going to walk in this city, are going to be in this fabulous place that we see described here.

Hard to believe, brethren, those that are sitting in this room right now, you'll be the ones that will be there in the future. Again, make sure your name is in the book of life. In the world today, like I said, people erect great monuments to themselves, and we have memorials, in fact, to the dead, to remember those who have died in wars and conflicts or other situations. We have the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. It lists all of the men who died, all the people who died in Vietnam War, their names. You know, people go there and they, you know, look at the names they've written. Sometimes they'll put a piece of paper over it and, you know, use a pencil to outline that their names are written there in the memorial. 55,000 Americans who died for that. There's the Hawaiian Memorial, the Arizona. Again, they have the names of the people that rest there that are yet in those watery graves that are there. People, again, from all over the world, go and see these things. You have, of course, in New York, the Twin Tower, 9-11 memorials that, again, is a very big thing right now with people going, they look at.

Would it be extraordinary, brethren, for the saints to be listed someplace in the new Jerusalem?

That maybe you would go to a particular part within the city and you would find a place where the names of the saints of God, the apostles, the prophets, the prophetesses of old, and the saints of today, the ministry, the brethren that have served in the church. I don't think it would be a very extraordinary thing to think about, that it would be like that. You know, it's not wrong, brethren, to speculate about what might be. Maybe there's going to be such a fabulous memorial to those who will it be for? It will be for all else, you know, that come and see within the city.

We know that God's people, in fact, Paul says the world is not worthy of them.

And maybe God is going to make sure that everybody realizes what was done. You know, in the church, in the wilderness, and what was done in the church of God prior to the return of Christ in this world that we live in, that is so upside down and topsy-turvy. Let's go to Malachi chapter 3. Malachi chapter 3.

Malachi 3 verse 16.

We talk about this quite often in the church, about the importance of fellowship, the importance of not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, importance of participation and not, you know, just being standing off on the sidelines, but be involved in the family of God. But here in Malachi 3 verse 16, notice this is and those who feared the Lord spoke. It says to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. So God is listening to what we're doing. He's got a bead on what's going on here in this temple today. He wants to know what we're doing, all of us, when we went to the feast, what we did at the feast, what our attitudes were, and the like. And the Lord listened and heard them, so a book of remembrance was written before him, for those who fear the eternal and who meditate on his name, who think about.

And they, it says, shall be mine, says the eternal host. On that day I will make them my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. So again, we want to be among those, brethren, that God puts in a book of remembrance.

The word, by the way, remembrance here in the Hebrew is a memento, a memorable thing, a day or writing, you know, a memorial, a record. You know, we've always talked about the book of Acts, that there's a book of Acts, and it talks about the Acts of the Apostles, and the brethren in the first century of the church. And I know that many years we've talked about in the church, will there be a book about this time, about what this church did, what that church did, what people within the church did?

Apparently there is a book of remembrance where God is keeping track of these things. And again, so we will all know that the apostles will read about what happened in 2018.

As we've been able to read what happened in the first century of the church, they'll be able to know those things. I don't think God's going to magically put it in everybody's head. We're all going to have to, again, read about it and find out about it. Apparently there is a separate book. We don't know, but maybe there is a separate book called the Book of Remembrance. You know, God, of course, doesn't need a book to remember, again, who is it for? It's got to be for those who have a need to know. And all of us will want to know what happened 100 years ago or 200 years ago or 300 years ago. And not just us, but the future narrations that come are going to want to know these things. Let's notice down here in Psalm 56 and verse 8, you know, Scott Ashleigh up in Alaska mentioned about this, about how archaeologists have uncovered at some of the areas where, you know, burial areas in the Middle East, and, you know, a practice where people had these small bottles. And archaeologists apparently have uncovered these small, tiny bottles. And apparently, when people would be mourning for a loved one who, you know, had died, that they would collect these, their tears, you know, in these tiny bottles.

And they were kept so that the people that had died would be remembered. The tears were shed for them because of the kind of people that they were. A kind of mother or kind of father or whatever the relationship might be. Notice over here in Psalm 56, you know, a saint sheds many tears, of course. How many people have you known, brethren, through the life of your conversion of people that you've loved so deeply that have died, that were very righteous people? And you shed tears that they were gone. It was like a blow to you. Well, notice here in Psalm 56 and verse 8, what David says, he says, you number my wanderies. Apparently with David, God was keeping track of what he was doing.

You number my wanderies. Put my tears in your bottle. You know, human beings have these physical, little bitty bottles they put the tears in, but David says, put my tears in your bottle.

I want you to remember these things, you know, when he was running from Saul and when he had people that were against it, wanted to kill him. People that he loved, that he prayed for.

And he says, are they not in your book?

Now, are not these things in your book? So, apparently, God has a book that records these things. But he says, put my tears in your bottle and put my, if I complete the sentence, put my acts, the things that happen in your book. Write them down.

You know, again, maybe a reference here to the book of remembrance. Whether they are our deeds, righteous deeds written in the book of remembrance, are our heartfelt prayers there where we cried out to God, and that will be proof that we were really sincere from the heart, that we give to God from the very heart.

You know, prayers are like a sweet, swelling incense, according to what the Scripture says to God when they rise up before him. You know, David made this statement. He says, you saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book. You know, how it is with a new father. A new father will want to know what's going on inside the womb, what's happening there. I don't know. Some people say that if you sing to a child that is a fetus, that it will improve their intelligence. You know, all kinds of things people do. You want to make sure that they're in a good environment, that you laugh a lot. But God wanted to see David from the very beginning. And David had the concept that God was recording every little thing that was going on, that it was in his book. How about us, brethren? What will, you know, be in the book about us? What about us? Now, brethren, what will not be in the book of life? What will not be in the book of remembrance? Let's go to Hebrews chapter 8, verse 12. Very simple, actually.

In Hebrews chapter 8, Hebrews 8, and again, we talk about these things, brethren, that's incumbent upon us to really make sure we're doing our part. But in Hebrews 8, verse 12, it says, For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins, and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. So in the book of remembrance, there's not going to be things, anything about, you know, attitudes that were wrong, we repented of. Not going to be anything in there about the, you know, the stupid things we've done. And we all have done stupid things, you know, you know, we're really honest. We've all done very stupid things in our lives that we have great many regrets about. And I would imagine probably even though you know God puts your sin as far as east is from west, you've repented of it a thousand times over for what you did. But God's going to forget all of that, brethren. It's not going to be recorded.

Here's where we can use that phrase, it will be as though it never was, never happened. You go to God and you talk to God about it, he'll say, what are you talking about? Have no clues what you're even talking about. He will not remember it. Brethren, God has no desire to preserve or remember the wicked acts of anybody. He doesn't want to remember that. He doesn't desire to see anybody perish, in fact. He wants everybody to be saved. And God has that desire, brethren. And that's the drive of the church, to strive to make it possible for all those God is calling now that they would be saved, that we'd have an opportunity. I realize we're just a tool in the hands of God to do that, brethren. But we have our part to play as examples of lights and again what we preach and what we do.

So what good deeds, brethren, have you done? How about this past week? What kind of good deeds have you done this past week? What about the Feast of Tabernacles? Did you go out of your way to help somebody?

Did you do something that no one expected you to do, but you did, because you wanted to do it to please God? What will be recorded in the book?

You know, no good deed goes unnoticed. Even if you give somebody a cup of water, Jesus Christ talked about, that won't be forgotten. Whatever it might be.

How about, brethren, in all times are we demonstrating the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Love, joy, peace, long suffering. And, as we're talking about with the young people now, self-control. Are we being able to control ourselves and our attitudes and the way we react to things?

Do we do that? No complaining. One thing you read about in the Bible, God hates complaining. He hates murmuring and complaining. Now, if you want to explain something, that's a different story. But He doesn't like complaining and murmuring. He doesn't like criticizing other people. Usually, when we criticize other people, you know, we're just taking time from overcoming ourselves. We need to spend that time where we criticize somebody else to overcome ourselves.

What is going to survive about you and me, brethren, is only the positive attributes that we have. The only thing that's going to survive. The only thing that's going to be written in the book of remembrance is going to be the positive attributes that we have and how we've grown in our lives. And those, brethren, written in the book of life will have fame forevermore. Those called in this time, in this day, in this age, brethren, are going to have fame forevermore. That sounds strange, doesn't it? That God's people will be famous forever? Well, you know, when we pray about Jesus Christ, it says that He is going to be glorified forever. The Father is going to be glorified forever. And if we're willing to suffer with Christ, we're going to be glorified together with Him. And so we will have, again, glory forever. So, brethren, may all of us have our names written in the book of life so that we can inherit eternity and be in the kingdom of God.