Spiritual Lessons from Relocating

We and I have lived in our current home. I say current for about another week. Actually, less than that. We move out Friday. The moving truck comes on Thursday. Loads up most of our stuff, and then we move out on Friday. So, we lived up there for 19 years. That is, we were beginning to think that we would, perhaps, live the rest of our lives on the hilltop 10 acres near Kellyville, Oklahoma. Now, we have a master bedroom on the bottom floor, so we actually figured it out that we would be good to go for the rest of our lives.

We could live there and die there, and bury us in the back 10. The back acreage. But, you know, we thought maybe later on, as we got older, we could move to a smaller home with less yard, less acreage to take care of. But, we weren't in any big hurry. But then, of course, I received a call from Mr.

Victor Cubic, and that was in late December. And basically, he was asking me if I would consider moving. And I thought, oh, well, I guess I would consider it if that's really what you want to do. So, he hadn't made any decisions at that point, so it was just under discussion. So, we really didn't know whether we'd have to transfer or not. But we did, however, get scared. And so, we began to clean up our house. After 19 years, we knew that even if we didn't move, we really should start cleaning up our house and painting and, you know, doing some improvements and things that really should have been done some time ago.

So, brethren, today I'd like to ask you, what spiritual lessons might a person learn from having to move to another part of the country? You know, Dallas is another part of the country. Thankfully, it's not too far away. God wants us to be aware of what's happening in our lives and what spiritual lessons we may learn as we face various physical challenges and circumstances that arise in our lives.

In other words, we should learn spiritual lessons each and every day of our lives as we go through living physically here on this earth. You know, God wants us to learn lessons from the physical things that go on in our everyday lives. Moving after 19 years in one home and in one area is a bit of a monumental task, and many spiritual lessons may be learned and re-emphasized through the course of pulling up stakes and moving on. So I'd like to share with you nine lessons today. Nine! That is nine lessons, so I'm going to have to move along pretty quickly.

It's pretty ambitious, but I've got lots of lessons to share with you. And the first one is, we should all learn to simplify and declutter our lives. From a spiritual standpoint, we should stay focused on doing everything decently and in order. And of course, physically, that really comes home when you have to get a house ready to sell. Then you look back and say, Man, I wish I hadn't neglected this house as much as I have, because money's flying out the window now.

At least it seems so. No, it really is flying out. It's easy to spend a lot of money when you're trying to get a house ready to sell. So a daunting task was set before us. Not only had we lived here 19 years, but we were actually dealing with about 35-plus years of accumulation, because we'd always had to move in short order before. And so we typically ended up moving to a little bit bigger place.

And so we were able to take whatever we had, move it in, and then add to it. And then, so that's really 35 years of accumulation. And we kind of thought that, you know, we're probably going to have to downsize a little bit. We're probably not going to find a house in our price range as big as the one we have now.

So it was a bit of a monumental task. And thankfully, we began right away, when we got that phone call, even though we knew we might not have to move, we still knew we needed to get our house in order. So we began to sort things out. We went up into the attic. We jerked things out of the attic. We have a huge attic, by the way. Two huge sides of an attic up in our game room. And both sides were pretty much filled. And we started dragging boxes out and going through boxes and throwing things away. And I really do think the garbage man was about to drop us, because we were putting so much garbage out every week for a number of months, actually, that he probably wasn't making any money at all on us.

He had so much garbage to get rid of. You know, it's interesting, but most of that junk was hidden junk. You would notice it if you came to our house. You know, my wife's a good housekeeper. She keeps a good house. And you wouldn't notice it, but it was back there in the attic. And it was getting stored up. And it really wasn't accomplishing anything worthwhile. In fact, it was weighing us down to some degree. It nagged at us all those years at times, because we knew it was up there.

But we really weren't doing anything about it. We were able to push it into the back of our minds and forget about it. Again, it was a huge attic space. And we just stuck things up there in case we might ever need them sometime. You know how that goes? You're thinking, I might actually need that. And typically, you never do. But you think you might. Now, my question for you, from a spiritual standpoint, is how much spiritual junk is cluttering up our minds and hearts? What about that attic in your mind? Have you got some stuff up there that you really need to get rid of?

Some stuff that's actually weighing you down? Maybe some hidden sins that you are pretending you don't really have? But, you know, deep down inside, you know you have some things. You have some garbage to get rid of. You know, there's some stuff there that really needs to be tossed out to be put out of your life. So what little sins are you ignoring and storing away that need to be trashed right now for a freer and more liberating life from God's perspective? In 1 Corinthians 14, verse 40, there is the principle given.

It says, Let everything be done decently and in order. And it's basically the context is the church service. And everything needs to be done decently and in order. But that's a principle that carries into all aspects of our life. Not just the church service, but every aspect of our life. We don't need to actually go there and read it. But it is a principle. Let everything be done decently and in order. Now, we had a feeling of a great weight off of us when a lot of that junk was gone, even though at times we tried to rationalize holding on to some of it.

In fact, I'm quite sure we held on to some of it that we could have gotten rid of. And we're going to move it to the next place. I really felt better having less stuff around in the closets, in my office, in my garage. You know, I'm getting sick of my garage because I'm having to spend a lot of time in there throwing stuff away, deciding what to keep, what not to keep.

You know, I am a bit of a pack rat, and if I think a screw might be needed, I'll hang on to it. So I've got jars of screws and nuts and bolts and all these tools that my grandfather gave me and my dad gave me that I bought over the years.

And hard-berth rate really does have some cheap tools. So you can buy that stuff, and it doesn't cost all that much. Now, if you've ever sold a house before, you understand a little bit about staging a house. You know, you're supposed to stage a house. In other words, you want to make it look really great. You want to make it look as big as possible. So you take about two-thirds of all your clothes out of every closet in the house, and you stash it somewhere out of sight, out of mind.

And so your closets look bigger, and the house looks bigger. And then you take about 90% of your shoes, and you get rid of them. Now, if you've got women, then it's, you know, maybe 95% of your shoes. Just kidding. I know you women don't collect shoes out there. But, you know, you're not supposed to have like 30 or 40 pairs of shoes in your closet. You know, you're supposed to move a few out. That's right! If you haven't learned that, then it's time to learn that. Oh, boy! You know, it really felt good to streamline things. Once we got them out, it was really kind of nice, because you really can't wear all those clothes in one day.

You don't need them all in there. You can't wear them all in one month. You know, most of the clothes that you have in your big closet, you only wear once a year. So you really don't have to have them there all the time. So we got rid of them. We didn't really...we still have them, you know, but a lot of them. We did get rid of some. But it was nice having a few worth-fangs to deal with.

How well do you prioritize your spiritual life? We need to prioritize our physical lives, and we do need to get rid of some things that are in the way, that are holding us back. Certainly, that's true from a spiritual perspective. Are you really seeking first the Kingdom of God? Are you really seeking first His righteousness? Then, if you are, then that's a wonderful thing. God tells us to do that.

In those sermons that I gave on The Biggest Loser, we talked a lot about putting that sin out of your life, that sin that so easily ensnares you. And that's a good point. You know, we need to continually put the sin out. Get rid of it. Do everything decently and in order. Now, there's a parable in Matthew 13. It's the parable of the sower.

I just want to read basically one verse out of Matthew 13. It's verse 22. It's about the parable of the sower again. And it talks about the need to get rid of all the cares of this world and not to let them become a priority in your life. Notice verse 22. Now, He who received seed among the thorns is He who hears the Word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and He becomes unfruitful.

You know, that can happen. We can become unfruitful when we allow the cares of this world to take precedence in our lives. So we need to say no to this world's entertainment to large degrees, because really this world's entertainment is not God's entertainment. It's man's entertainment, and it's carnal man's entertainment, and it really isn't healthy for us.

In verse 23, Christ says, But He who receives seed on the good ground is He who hears the Word, understands it, and indeed bears fruit, and produces some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some hundred, some sixty, and some thirty. So we need to be producing fruit in our lives, and we must not allow the cares of this world to choke out what God is trying to do in our lives. We all understand that we should have a time to pray each day.

And yet I think at times we get busy with the world, its demands and its ways, and we allow that prayer time to go by. And we don't do it like we should. The same thing is with Bible study. Sometimes we allow the cares of this world to choke out our Bible study time. And certainly when it comes to fasting on a regular basis, a lot of us just don't apply ourselves. We don't do everything decently and in order. No, we don't order times to fast. You have to put fasting down on a calendar if you expect to ever do it. Otherwise it doesn't get done, because it's so easy not to fast that unless you plan for it, it won't happen.

So that's something that needs to be done in order decently and in order. So have you ordered your prayer life? Have you faithfully set aside Bible study time so that it's second nature and that it does happen? It happens like clockwork without fail. Are you that regimented in your prayer, in your Bible study, and in your fasting? That's something to ask ourselves as we consider this first point. Have you simplified your life? Have you decluttered your life? Have you gotten rid of those hidden things that pull you down?

Are you staying focused spiritually? Are you doing everything decently and in order? Now, when I go to Texas, I'm hoping to take that streamlined approach with me. Now, for six months, we'll probably be renting, or at least for two or three months. We're not sure how that's going to go. So we don't plan on unpacking all those boxes. So we're going to go with a streamlined approach, at least for the first few months. And hopefully we'll continue to do that. We'll simplify and declutter our lives. And certainly from a spiritual standpoint, we're going to stay focused and do everything decently and in order.

That's the first lesson to be learned from moving. The second one goes right along with it, and it's about not neglecting regular maintenance. And again, it goes right along with the first point. We need to stay focused on maintaining our spiritual lives. Now, the reason we decided to live out in Kellyville is because, for one thing, we could buy ten acres out in the country, and we could afford to make the payments. That was a lot of it. The taxes were less, and it was just less money for a bigger house.

So, due to little money and little time, however, many things were not maintained along the way for the last nineteen years. So, we kind of bought at the top of the range. We didn't have a lot of extra money at the end of the mortgage after it was paid and all the other expenses were paid. So, we didn't really invest too much money in maintaining the house along the way. Now, we did invest some money in a little bit, but we could have no doubt done better.

For example, the outside of the house had not been painted in nineteen years. So, typically, it's probably better to paint a little more often than that. So, we were behind the eight ball when it came to painting the outside. We'd done some painting on the inside, but we had some cracks in the walls, and we had some things that needed to be repaired that we hadn't stayed on top of. So, we had to do a crash course in getting our house ready for sale.

Again, we had to paint inside and out. We did paint some of the rooms. We did update some of our master bathroom and also the kitchen. So, some updates we had done, but not as much as we could have done over the years. So, from a spiritual perspective, let's ask you this question. Have you become deadened to your own sins of neglect? Is there anything that you've been neglecting to do in your life spiritually?

For example, prayer or Bible study or fasting? Have you neglected to do that? Or have you been faithful in that? Has spiritual neglect become such a part of our lives that we really don't notice that we haven't fasted for months, for example? Maybe we haven't fasted since the last day of atonement. In some cases, have we been neglecting that part of our lives? The Scripture clearly says some things don't happen except by prayer and fasting.

So, if you want to be strong spiritually, then you need to be fasting. You certainly need to be praying and studying the Bible. So, have you become deadened to your own sins of neglect? Now, I'll bet you anything that you have gotten used to certain things around your house that don't bother you anymore. But if you went to someone else's house and you noticed the same thing, it would probably have more of an impact.

I've noticed that. I've gotten used to things like doors that stick and locks that don't quite work very well. I mean, you might know how to do it, but someone else that comes along, they'd have a hard time making it work. We get used to things, and sometimes instead of fixing them, we just put up with them. We just get by. Now, I've noticed I'm pretty good at getting by in life. I can do that. I can get by, but how about excelling in life? How good are you at excelling in life?

We really need to do more than just get by. The principle of excellence is one that should be one that we have as a high priority, because God is certainly a God of quality and excellence, and He wants us to strive for that standard, the God-standard. So, again, as spirits will neglect to become a part of life that we don't even notice, again, when I go to someone else's house, their flaws seem to show up more easily than my own flaws in my own house.

I can put up with my own flaws better than I can in someone else's house. I think, well, why haven't they fixed that? Why haven't they done that? I mean, you know, they could have done that. Yeah, well, that's the tendency. Human nature tends to think that way. We think someone else should be getting on the ball when we're not doing it ourselves. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 5 and consider what Paul says here about the importance of redeeming our time.

Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5 verses 14 through 16. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 14. Therefore, he says, speaking of God, he says, "'Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'" Now, we know that there's a parable in Matthew 25 about ten virgins, and five of them are sleeping.

They're all part of God's church, but five of them are sleeping. Verse 15, "'See then that you walk circumspectly, or carefully, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time.'" That means, in other words, doing something worthwhile from the time, redeeming it, doing something profitable from the time, being a profitable servant. Because the days are evil. Now, isn't that true? Aren't the days evil today? I hope you realize that things are getting worse, not better. What we're putting up with today in the United States is a lot more than we used to put up with, and I'm talking about sinful nature.

Some fundamental things about marriage, for example. Where are we headed when it comes to marriage in this country? We're accepting just about anything. Anyone can marry anyone or anything, and it's a union these days. I mean, that's kind of where we're headed. So that's a very dangerous precedent that we're heading towards. So the days truly are evil and getting more evil. So do not be unwise, as it says in verse 17, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and don't be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with God's Spirit, and be producing the fruits of God's Holy Spirit.

Now, little things do make a big difference when it comes to maintenance. One really good example that really stands out for me is that for many years, we put up with woodwork that really didn't look that great. It wasn't sharp.

It wasn't...you know, our house has a lot of woodwork, but it was kind of drab and old, didn't look that great. And we put up with it, and then, you know, right before we leave, we realize there's some good stain out there on the market that will make this house look practically new. I mean, it'll make that woodwork shine and look so much better. And so we've been able to enjoy, for the last couple of months, nice woodwork that we put up with for years. And had we gone out and investigated, we didn't really know that there was something that would work that easily and that we could actually use it and it would look that good.

To me, that's an example of sometimes we put up with things in our spiritual lives. You know, we get by, but we could excel. We could do much better. And we could enjoy the fruits of our labor, too, if we'll just get out and apply ourselves. So, from a physical standpoint, you might think about your home. What is it that you could do that would really improve the aesthetics of your home? That you would enjoy it more? Maybe there's something like that. I know in our case it was the woodwork. You know, the woodwork, once we shine it all up, looks so much better.

So, that's the second point. Don't neglect maintenance. Stay focused on maintaining your spiritual lives. Again, redeem the time. Use the time effectively and wisely. It's much more important to have spiritual priorities of seeking first God's kingdom and then doing other physical things, taking care of your work, your job, and other things. Of course, you have to make a living, so you have to do a good job, and you have to be a good employee. But some of these other things, cares of this world, sometimes we let those things get in the way of making real progress in our spiritual lives.

Now, that leads us to the third lesson. Things aren't as clean as we think they are. Even around the house, even when you have a good housekeeper, and Barb's a good housekeeper, but when you have to get a house ready to sell, there's a different standard.

You have to go a little bit further up on the level there to make it look perfect almost. You know, if you really want a house to sell quickly, it's really got to look impressive, because there's lots of houses on the market, and people have choices, and they're going to pick the house that stands out, that really looks good in their mind, things that they're looking for. So we found out that things aren't as, maybe, as clean as we thought they were. Again, Barb's a good housekeeper, and she had kept the house well, but there are certain things up on a hill where we live, on a dusty road, dust moves in.

There are certain things that could be done to make the place look nicer, shine it up better. Now, we've come a long ways, though, in our house, because I don't know how many of you realize this, but when we bought our house 19 years ago, our house was, for the most part, filthy. It was a filthy house. That's probably why it hadn't sold. It had been on the market a long time, and it worked out in our favor, because we got a lot more for our money, but we had to put up with a nasty house for a while.

They had kitchen carpet, and the carpet was in the kitchen under the table, and it didn't look like they'd cleaned it in quite some time. It was nasty carpet. So that was one of the first things we did, is rip the carpet out of the kitchen. And then, we quickly realized that the carpet in the living room didn't look good. Not only that, it was tick-infested. It actually had ticks that were living in the carpet that a dog had brought in. A dog came in and out of that house, and there were ticks that were crawling on us.

Little ticks. I mean, seven or eight ticks, crawling on your body. So, we ripped that. Before we put beds up or anything, we ripped out all the carpet in the downstairs. We ripped it all out. We got rid of it. And we put new carpeting in, and we put ceramic tile in the kitchen. So, we had to make some improvements right away, because it really was filthy. And not only that, I discovered what chiggers were, because I cleaned up my fence row.

My fence row had not had any work done to it. I don't know how long it had been since it... I mean, it had trees and bushes, and you couldn't even see the house from the road, because it was so grown up. So, I spent hours and hours out there cleaning that up.

And when I first started, I ended up getting these bumps. I didn't know what they were. I'd never experienced it. I grew up in the north. I didn't know what chiggers were. And then I had all these chiggers, because when you don't mow your grass around the fence, a lot of times, chiggers, they take up home there. And so, I ended up... they took up home in me after that. So, I learned about chiggers. And you know, another thing about our house. You know, the first winter, I trapped over 200 mice in the house.

I set traps every single night, except on the Sabbath. I took the Sabbath off. But I set traps, and I'd catch... it wasn't uncommon to have seven or eight mice every morning. And so, I had a lot of very fat cats, because every morning, they would come down underneath the game room, and I'd toss them over this... I'd toss them mice, seven or eight mice. So, those cats...

that's one reason why I had such a healthy herd of cats there for a while, because they had all those mice. And after I killed all the mice, then the cats were able to keep them at bay. But that first winter, I mean, it was not too cool. You know, it was not too cool at all. So, we had to work at the house to make it livable.

And you know, it's been an interesting thing. It wasn't very clean when we got it. So, we did make some vast improvements. And then, we even had to step it up when we were ready to sell the house and make it even cleaner, and really go out of the way. So, the point that I'm making from a spiritual perspective is, what about your spiritual house? How clean is your spiritual house? How clean have you kept your spiritual house over the years? Have you neglected to keep it clean? How pure is your heart? How pure is your mind? You know, Barb, again, she kept it clean and neat, but you never realize all the places where dirt accumulates and where you need to clean until you put the house on the market. Once again, it reminds us of how much work it is, not only to keep our spiritual house immaculate. I'm sorry, to get it there. First, you have to get your spiritual house immaculate, which that's not easy. But also, you have to keep it that way. Now, Barb and I have been in the church over 40 years, so it's a long haul. It's not just for a while. You've got to continue to do this over the years. So these points all go together, because the less spiritually cluttered our lives are, and the better we are at regular spiritual maintenance, the easier it is to keep our spirit house clean and orderly. So let's go to 1 Corinthians 3, where Paul talks about a spiritual temple.

1 Corinthians 3, verse 16. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? So Paul's asking this to the church at Corinth. He's asking it to a church just like this church in Oklahoma City. Do you not know that you are the temple of God? Do you not realize that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple, as it says in my margin here, anyone who destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.

So in other words, if you allow your body to get into all types of sin that you don't repent of, then you are destroying the body. And if you do that, then God will destroy you. You won't live forever in God's kingdom. You'll be cast into a lake of fire, and you will be destroyed, or you will be snuffed out, you might say. That will be the end of your life. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

So God wants us to take our lives seriously, that we are the temple of the Spirit of God, and that God wants us to clean up our spiritual house. In chapter 6, the same book, 1 Corinthians 6 verse 15, Paul continues with this theme, where he says, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? We know that 1 Corinthians 12 talks about how we are all a part of the body of Christ, and we all have a part to play in the body of Christ.

He says, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? He says, Certainly not. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her?

For the two, he says, shall become one flesh. Now Adam and Eve were to become one flesh. They were to be faithful to each other. And that was the relationship that they were supposed to have in marriage. In verse 17, that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. So he says, Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own, for you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God. So what was that price with which you were bought? Was it not the body and blood of our Savior Jesus Christ? It was Christ's death. It was His sacrifice for us. We are bought by His blood, by the fact that He sacrificed Himself for us. So you are a spiritual temple. And how you live your life is important, and what you do is important.

The choices that you make are important. In John 2 and in Matthew 21, and we're not going to take the time to go there, but this shows where Christ cleansed the physical temple twice, as revealed in the Scriptures. John 2 and Matthew 21, He did so once at the beginning of His ministry, and He did so again at the end of His ministry.

And both times were right around Passover, right before the Passover. So I find that very significant, that Christ cleansed the temple right before Passover. And every year, we have a reminder at Passover that we are to clean our spiritual house. Now, we should be doing this on a daily basis. It's not enough to just wait until Passover every year. Obviously, God wants us to live every day in a repentant state. He wants us to have repentant hearts and minds. But every year, we have a reminder at the memorial of Christ's death that we are being cleansed, and God is the one who cleans us.

We can't really clean ourselves. We're not capable of doing that. God is the one that cleans us up, and He does so by granting us repentance for our sins. God looks at our heart. He sees whether or not you're truly seeking Him and His commandments being obedient and faithful to Him and to His way.

So Christ cleansed the physical temple, and He wants us to cleanse our physical bodies by being faithful to Him, by keeping the laws, all of the Ten Commandments, not just in the letter, but also in the Spirit of the Law. And Christ talks about that in the Sermon on the Mount. God expects more of us. In Jeremiah 17, He speaks about a heart that is deceitful above all things. So we obviously have our work cut out for us. God is no stranger to the wickedness of man's heart.

Of course, we were created flesh, and Christ was the one who actually did the creating. Notice Jeremiah 17, verse 5. Thus does the eternal, cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parts, places, and the wilderness, and assault land which is not inhabited. Things don't grow well in the desert. There's not enough rain. There's not enough moisture. Things just don't grow well. Things don't flourish. But blessed is the man, verse 7, who trusts in the Lord. Now, if we put our trust in man, then men will fail us. And I've seen that happen way too many times. Instead of following biblical principles, and instead of doing the right thing, people will follow a man. They will say, well, he's always been a good minister, or he's always been faithful all these years, so I'm just going to do what he does, or I'm going to follow him. But we really should look beyond demand to the biblical principles. What biblical principles are in play? And if biblical principles are being violated, and that man is on that side of things, don't follow him. Don't follow him in his error. Follow him only as he follows Christ. And stand up for principle, and don't trust in a man. Follow men only as they follow Christ. And there are certain biblical principles that define who's following Christ and who isn't. Christ is not divided. Christ knows exactly how to live. He knows what choices to make. So that's the side that we should always be on, is the side where Christ is and where those biblical principles are being upheld. Blessed is a man who trusts in the Lord, and his hope is the Lord. The Eternal, for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when he comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. Now, it's interesting. This year I had a pecan tree that died this spring. A nice pecan tree, although I could tell it was in distress. Probably should have watered it.

But I figure it's in God's hands. He's the one that waters this stuff. I mean, look, I've got ten acres. I can't water every tree. On ten acres, I don't have a hose that's that long. No, God can reach out. If he wants to keep it alive, he can do it. Well, that pecan tree died. The other pecan trees lived. Now, they were strong enough for the drought. They could hack it. They could take it, but there was one weak one that couldn't stand up to the drought. It died. It's going to be cut up and put in the fire. Burn up. The other pecan trees live on, and they'll continue to give shade. We're not going to miss that pecan tree a whole lot. I'm not. I'm leaving.

But even the person who's buying the house, it wasn't that great of a tree anyway, frankly. It really wasn't. It was dying. It wasn't strong. Now, brethren, we need to be strong, and we need to hang in there during times of drought. And we need to be the tree that survives.

The heart is deceitful above all things. That's what your Bible says. Notice verse 9. The heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind. God looks on the heart. He looks on the mind. I test the mind, the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. We do reap what we sow, brethren, and we need to be sowing good seed. God will give us rain in due season, spiritually, if we sow good seed, and if we do our part, and if we maintain things, and we cleanse things, and we stay up with things, and we put him first. But the heart is deceitful above all things, and anyone who doesn't understand that will suffer. Because if you think that you're above sin, that you are not a sinner, the Bible says you're a liar. The truth is not in you.

So we need to admit that we are sinners, that we have a deceitful heart. And Paul talks a lot about that. He says, I thank God through Christ Jesus. It is Christ our Savior who will deliver us from this body of death. This heart is deceitful and wicked, and we need to repent of our sins. And God will ban his repentance if we seek him and strive to do his will. God does look at our heart, and he grants repentance accordingly. Again, how pure is your heart? The Bible says, blessed are the pure in heart. This is in Matthew 5, verse 8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

No one has seen God the Father at any time, but all who develop pure hearts shall spend eternity with God the Father, and of course with Jesus Christ as well. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So the third principle again is, keep your spiritual house cleansed. Repent of your sins. See God and ask him for forgiveness.

Now we're going to switch gears a little bit. This fourth lesson will seem a little out of place in some ways, because it has to do with gossip. Now, what in the world could gossip have to do with moving? Well, gossip can hurt in any kind of circumstance, so we all need to be focused on using our tongues profitably. There was an incident that occurred where we just about had our house sold. Someone came back for a second look at the house. They were impressed with the house. Our real estate agent said they were ready to make an offer until they talked to the neighbor. Now, we had a neighbor, and actually my neighbor and I get along very well. In fact, he and his wife cried when they heard we were moving. They liked us, they loved us to a degree, and we cared for them as well. So we had a good relationship. But the people that were wanting to buy our house had several dogs. They had maybe seven dogs and good-sized dogs. The story I heard was that they were supposedly these rescue dogs. Maybe they were retired dogs, I'm not sure, but probably nice dogs. The guy liked our house. We have ten acres. This is a nice place for dogs, a good area to run. But he went over and talked to the neighbor. The neighbor commenced to tell him a story of another neighbor that supposedly poisoned a dog. Not exactly the kind of story you want someone to tell a potential buyer that has dogs, right? It's not exactly the kind of story, especially when there wasn't necessarily any proof that he really did poison the dog. It's hard to say whether it really happened. One story I heard was they were trying to kill some coyotes, and they put out some poison, which seems pretty stupid. Of course, you could trap a dog pretty easy, too. In fact, I rescued a dog from a coyote trap once on the property that adjoins our property. It had gotten caught in the trap. But anyway, regardless, he was basically telling this story because he didn't really want that neighbor. I can't really figure out why else he would have told that story. God knows his heart and his motives. But it could have been that he just really didn't want that particular neighbor. It actually turned out fine because two days later we had two other offers, or maybe the next day. I think it was two days later we got two offers on the house. But before that, we hadn't had any offers. It was three weeks, which isn't a long time, really. But nevertheless, this was the first solid chance of selling the house. And the real estate says, yeah, you had it sold, but the neighbor nixed the deal. So we in the neighbor had some words. I told him, you know, I really don't appreciate you telling that story, you know, because I really need to sell this house. And I don't really need stories like that necessarily going out. You don't have to tell everything, you know. It's not critical. Especially when some of it is not grounded. It's not even sure that it's truth. Anyway, we made up. We're still friends. We're getting along fine. And maybe it worked out best for everyone. I think the neighbor that's coming in will be a good neighbor. Doesn't have that many dogs. In Proverbs 18, verse 8, it talks about the words of a tale bearer. What does it say about someone who gossips or tells tales, tells stories?

It says, the words of a tale bearer are like tasty trifles. People like to taste those trifles. You know, they're tasty. They like to hear it. They go down into the inmost body. In other words, they have a great impact. These words, these tales that we tell one another. Proverbs 26, 22 says the same thing. It's basically the same proverb. It's for double emphasis. Realize that your tales can make a big difference. It can even make a difference between a house that sells or doesn't sell. And in James chapter 3, it talks about the tongue being a fire. James chapter 3. Let's go to James chapter 3. Let's take a look at what James says about the tongue here.

James chapter 3 verse 5. Even so, the tongue is a little member in both great things. See how great a forest, a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire. It is a world of iniquity or sin. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire in the course of nature. And it is set on fire by hell, for every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed.

Even sharks and whales have been tamed to some degree by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil. It is full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, in which it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. So out of the same mouth proceed blessings and cursings. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.

God is telling us that we should not tell hurtful stories, things that will hurt other people, that will damage other people. Now, the neighbor may not have wanted to hurt us necessarily, but he told a story that ended up nixing the sail, which is kind of huge. But again, it all worked out, and we're fine with that. But it just underscored to me the importance of being careful what we say, and how we say it, and certainly being truthful about things.

Let's go on to a fifth lesson. The fifth lesson is, when the pressure is on, don't pressure each other. When the pressure is on, don't pressure each other. In other words, stay focused on your conversion when you're being stressed out, especially with those you love, those who live with you, like your wife or your husband.

Moving is a time of great stress. The to-do list gets even longer and longer, and time pressure mounts. Money seems, again, like it's just disappearing. It's going quickly. And there are so many unknowns. You know, you don't really know how much money you should put into the house, because you don't know how much money you're going to get out of what you put in.

So it can be stressful trying to make those decisions. The tendency at times is to kind of let the stress build up, and if you're not careful, you will snap. In other words, you'll say or do things that you ought not say or do under the pressure. So when the pressure's on, don't pressure each other. Be patient with each other. Be kind-hearted to one another. Now, when Barbara and I heard that we were moving, we immediately saw the potential to not be as nice to each other as we should. So we actually discussed it right away, and it really did help us. We discussed in advance that we needed to be aware that although we needed to do our best to be kind, that we might snap at each other.

To some degree, we might say some things that we shouldn't say that might be hurtful to a degree. And so it would be necessary to be patient and not snap back, because that's when things really escalate. If one person snaps, then the other person snaps, and then the next person snaps harder, and then it gets out of control.

So we thankfully talked about that early on, and I can say that overall we've done quite well. We're still riding in the same car. We're still talking.

We're still hugging and kissing. So that's right. So things have gone okay. It is important to have a sense of humor also during times of stress. Don't sweat the small stuff. Be able to laugh at a situation. That really brings to mind another moving story. Now, some of you that were here 19 years ago might have heard this story, because I probably told it when I came into the area. But you probably don't remember it. And most of you weren't even here 19 years ago. Well, we were actually moving from Hudsonville, Michigan. It was 1989. Actually, we were going to Tulsa at the time.

So maybe you didn't hear this, because the Tulsa brethren probably heard it, but you might not have. We were heading to Tulsa, Oklahoma. I had just gotten hired. The church called me, Ministerial Services, and they asked me if I would go full-time into the ministry. So Barbara and I talked about it for a short time, and I had always thought that if they ever called, I would answer the call. So we decided to go, and we had a house to sell, because we had bought our first house 10 months before.

And it was a house we really loved. It was our first house. We were only in it for 10 months. We liked it a lot. But it was time to move. And it was trunched time, and we were basically all loaded up. In fact, I think the mover had already come. And the car was in the driveway, and I had loaded up the car top carrier. Kind of the last thing you do before you head out. And I got a little bit distracted, and I had to go do something else. And then I was out by the trash.

As I remember, I think I stepped on a rake and it whacked me in the head and knocked my glasses into the trash. And I was down there mummizing for the glasses. And then I looked down the road. Barbara had taken the car. She was going to go to Walmart or something. She had taken the car, and things were flying out. As I was looking down, a sleeping bag flew out of one side, a blanket flew out the other side, and then a car came by.

And the car wrapped that blanket around its drive train, around its axle. And I'm watching this happen, and I decide I've got to jump in the other car and try to go get Barb. She's oblivious that this is happening. So I drive by the guy. The guy is standing out by his car, but this time he got out of the car, and he says to me, Did you see a woman drive by here with stuff flying out of the car?

I said, Yeah, that's my wife, and I need to go catch her. So I took off to catch her, and I caught up with her, and a few other things had flown out of the car top carrier by then. But you know, Barb could have blamed me for not clasping that car top carrier. And I could have blamed her for not noticing quickly enough that all this stuff was flying out the back window, the back door.

So we could have really gotten a bit angry at each other, but I don't remember us doing that. You know, we handled that pretty well, too. In fact, it was somewhat hilarious. Although I was concerned about the car, because I didn't really want to pay for a big repair bill on the car, but I never heard from that guy again. So, well, of course, we left that night. Maybe he couldn't find us. No, I think he was able to get it going. I really don't think there was a problem. I think I gave him my phone number or something.

I said, Call me if there's really a problem here. But didn't get any calls. So, you know, you have to have a sense of humor when you're moving, because things can get a bit hectic. And stress can mount up in the relationship. You know, some years ago, back in 2007, researchers from the University of Utah found there's a price to pay when couples don't get along. Video tapes recorded 150 husbands and wives discussing sensitive issues. How money is managed or doing household chores, that type of thing. And they found the following. First of all, women who buried anger, rather than speaking out, were more likely to succumb to heart disease than wives who were vocal.

So, my wife really doesn't have to worry about any kind of heart disease. She's pretty vocal. She kind of keeps me informed. So, I don't think she really has to worry too much about heart disease. Plus, she has a good diet and exercises and all that, too.

The study went on to show that when women became domineering and controlling, rather than seeking consensus in a marriage, damage was also done to the husband's coronary health. So, I don't have to worry about my heart, either, because, you know, she's not domineering or controlling. Only once in a great while. She tries. But we all try that, don't we? I'm sure I try to control her at times. Researcher Timothy Smith understood that there will be disagreements in a marriage, but how you handle yourself and resolving disagreements is important. Can you do it in a way that gets your concerns addressed, but without doing damage at the same time? That's not an easy mark to hit. So, pick your battles carefully in marriage and in all relationships. If it isn't going to help, perhaps it's better to hold your tongue, because the tongue can get you into more trouble. Now, a British research project yielded remarkably similar results. After a twelve-year study of British civil servants, most of whom were married, English researchers concluded that those with hostile inmate relationships... I'm sorry, inmate... intimate relationships. Not inmate relationships. Hostile intimate relationships, they were 34% more likely to experience chest pains, to experience heart attacks and other heart trouble. So, it really is healthy for you to get along with your wife or your husband. Even after typical contributing factors such as obesity and smoking and drinking, even when those things were eliminated from the equation, those in troubled relationships were still at 23% greater risk for a heart attack.

Roberto de Vogli says, if you have good people around, it's good for your health. If you have bad people around you, it is much worse for your health. So, your mate is kind of important, right? So, when you pick a mate, make sure you pick one that's going to be good for you and that you're going to be good for. Someone that you can get along with well, that you'll have a good strong relationship with. Otherwise, back away and don't make a foolish choice. Surround yourself with someone that's going to be good for your health.

That's why it's very important that young people take their time before they rush into a marriage, or even older people that rush into a marriage. They really need to be careful and know who they're marrying and give it some time so that you're under a number of different circumstances so you can evaluate how you get along and how you handle stress. In Ephesians 4, verse 31, Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, and clamor is loud, quarreling.

Have you ever quarreled loudly before? Anyone here guilty of quarreling loudly? Well, I know I am. So we are to let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. We are to be tender-hearted, forgiving one another, we should be kind to one another. So when the pressure is on, don't pressure each other.

Instead, practice the fruit of God's Spirit. Love each other, be joyful with each other, be peaceful toward each other, be patient toward each other, be good to each other, be kind to each other, and control yourself and be faithful to each other. That leads us to the sixth lesson. Some jobs can't be done alone. So there's a time to humble yourself and accept help when offered. There are certainly times to be humble. We should always be humble. Sometimes we really need some help.

And thankfully, there were people that realized that Barbara and I were going to need some help. We had a monumental task ahead of us, and we were supposed to try to get moved as soon as possible. That was the word I was hearing. As soon as you can. So we had a number of work parties, because some of you, in fact, volunteered and came to help out, and some from Tulsa who are a lot closer than you people. Some of you live a long ways off. So we really didn't expect most of you to be able to come and help out. And some of you are older and aren't physically able to help as much.

But we had a number of work parties, and if it weren't for those work parties, we would be in a world of hurt. I don't think our house would even possibly be on the market right now. There was quite a lot of work to do, and we got a lot of work done in short time. Each Sunday for about a month, we had some kind of work party.

Different people would come at different times. We were able to accomplish a lot, and many, many hands make light work. At least for me, it would have been. I probably would have died just trying to get that place ready.

It was a lot to do. So I appreciate everyone who was able to help out, and everyone who prayed for us. I know a lot of you were able to pray for us. You weren't able to come and actually physically help out, but you were praying for us. That's probably even more important than the physical part of it. In Galatians 6, verses 1 and 2, it talks about burying one another's burdens. We had a certain burden.

We were asked to move. That's what the home office wanted. We hadn't had a work party in 19 years. But now we needed some work parties. A lot of people came to our rescue. Notice verses 1 and 2 of chapter 6. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted, and bear one another's burdens.

There's lots of burdens. We have spiritual burdens that we can help each other with. There are also physical burdens. Back in Michigan, I used to really enjoy the work parties that we had there. Even in Pittsburgh, we did this a time or two where we would go out and cut wood for elderly people who couldn't cut the wood themselves. We'd send 15 or 20 guys out into the woods. In a day, we would cut enough wood to last the whole winter for a number of different people.

It was really a great opportunity to get together and fellowship. Plus, I like being outdoors anyway. I like work parties. We did a work party here for a certain person who no longer attends with us, but we painted her house. Some of you remember that. But that was fun. It was good to get out and do some work parties. We've done a few work parties over the years for different ones where we would get together and try to help out.

I'm all for that. I think it's really great to look out for each other's needs. I know for one, I certainly appreciated the help that was given to us. It helped tremendously. We were able to tear down decks and swimming pools and decks of swimming pools and old sheds and burn them up. It just would have been a lot of extra work if I had to do it all myself.

People came and they cut down trees and they weed-eated. Some of you drove a long ways from here just for a few hours. I really appreciate all of the effort that took place and the labor of love that took place in helping us out. We had a few carloads from this church area that came a few times, and it was a great help. Some of you came to help my wife. I know she really appreciated all that help as well. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about how we're all a part of God's church.

Christ is the head of the church, and everyone has a role to play in the church. That's so true that we all have a role to play, and we all need to do our part. I'd like to just thank everyone in this room who served in any possible way over the past 19 years I've been here. First of all, when I come here on the Sabbath, I can even get here late, like I did today.

Things are happening. Things are going on. You don't need me all that much. Things are still getting done, and I appreciate that. There's a lot of service that happens before service ever begins. A lot of you are doing things day to day that I never hear about, but you're helping the widows, you're helping the fatherless.

God takes note of these acts of kindness and love and service that you provide. That's a wonderful thing, and so I'd like to thank all of you for that. Before that, you are to be commended for that service-minded attitude. I would like to ask you, are you a Good Samaritan?

Do you understand the whole purpose of the parable about the Good Samaritan? Who is your neighbor? Frankly, anyone who's in need is your neighbor. If you are in need, then hopefully someone will come to your rescue, and they will be a neighbor to you. By the same token, if you see someone who's in need, won't you be their neighbor? That is a poor... kind of a poor... yeah, you know who I'm talking about. Old Mr. Rogers.

So, we really do need to be each other's neighbors. We need to be in the neighborhood. Come on! We're all part of the neighborhood. So, let's help each other out. Be a Good Samaritan. Do what you can do as you have power to do it. That's Principle number six. Lesson number six. Some jobs can't be done alone. We need to humble ourselves and work together. And in a church, we need to do our part, each one doing his part, so that everything is done decently and in order, and so that God's people are served.

Now, lesson number seven. When you've done all you can do, you need to trust God to do the rest. Yes, we need to do our part. God says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. We need to be diligent and faithful and vigilant. But we know that God is the one that saves us.

We can't save ourselves. It's only through Christ's sacrifice and his willingness to forgive us that our sins are forgiven. Now, from a physical standpoint, some things are outside our control. For example, some of you have been up to our home and you know our road. It's not the best road. It's pretty much a country road. It's gravel, it's dirt, and it's gravel, and it's rocks. It's big rocks. And it's chuck holes and potholes, and you name it. Not a great road. So, short of putting several thousand dollars into that road, it wasn't going to look all that much better for whoever came up it.

So, we knew that some people weren't going to buy that house just because they didn't want to put up with the road. Even if they loved the house, they hated the road. So, we knew that we were going to lose some people by virtue of that road. But we understood that we only needed one buyer. And we also understood that we bought the house, so if we could put up with it, maybe others could too. And, frankly, the people that live on that road don't leave. We've got neighbors that have been up there a long time.

We've got a couple of neighbors that have been there longer than we have. We've got three neighbors that have been here longer than we have. We've been up there 19 years, and they've been there plus 20. And then everyone who's moved in since has stayed. So, it's quiet. It really is nice up there. It's very peaceful. So, you have to put up with the road, but it's a dead-end road, and people are, I guess, willing to put up with it.

The point is, we knew we only needed a buyer, and it was in God's hands. So, God sent the buyer. We prayed about that. I know some of you did as well. And within a month, God provided a buyer for us. So, we've been very grateful for that. Now, we plan on renting in Dallas-Fort Worth for the time being. We believe that God will supply our needs. We know that He will supply our needs. Certainly, we need to pray for wisdom and guidance. We need to make sound decisions.

He's going to no doubt provide for us, though. We would ask your continued prayers that we will either find a place that we would like to live in. I don't think we want to live in the place we're renting. I think we want to...

It has a very small yard, like one tree. It's in a subdivision, and really not the kind of property that we would like to stay in. I mean, if we had to, we could. I mean, it's a nice enough house. But, we would prefer finding something with a little more peace and quiet and solitude. So, we would ask for prayers for God's guidance and wisdom, that He would open doors that He sees fit, that we can walk through to help serve God's people in the area.

And, it will also serve our needs and the things that we are looking for. You know, Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6 tells us to trust in the Lord with all of our heart. It says, in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your steps. He will direct your paths. So, that's principle number 7, or lesson number 7. Do what you can do, but then trust God to take care of the rest. And put your faith in Him. Lesson number 8 is to learn to really appreciate the blessings that God has already given you.

You know, that's one thing that we came to see more clearly, even though Barbara and I have really appreciated the home that we've lived in for all these years. I mean, we weren't seeking to move anytime soon. We liked it there. We appreciated it. We were grateful for it. But, we've come to appreciate that place even more in the last couple of months, because we knew we had to leave.

And, those beautiful views from my office. You know, I had an upstairs office. I could look out over the woods. I could see where the pond was, off to the right. And, it was nice. You know, 10 acres and a nice view.

And, every time we drove down that road, even though it was a lousy road, it's a pretty view. And, we enjoyed that. And, we realized that our master bedroom was actually the largest bedroom that we've seen for quite a while. It's a big bedroom, and it's bigger than the ones we were looking at in the Dallas area for the prices that we could afford. So, that house had a lot of nice features that we probably appreciate more right now than we did for the 19 years that we lived in it. It says something about human nature. We need to learn to appreciate all the blessing God gives us.

Even if we live in a small house, you're better off than the vast majority of people on this earth. You know, the vast majority of people on this earth don't have it nearly as nice as you do, no matter where you live.

No matter who you are or where you live in this country, in most cases, you're living better than the vast majority of people on earth. Now, there's a song that some of you may remember. It goes something like this. You don't know what you've got till it's gone. They paved paradise, and they put up a parking lot. Some of you remember that? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Well, I'm not saying that our place was paradise, and where we're going is a parking lot.

That's not the point I'm making, because I think the Dallas-Fort Worth area, north of Dallas, out in the country a little bit, you know, it's pretty nice, and there's a lot of nice areas around there, and a lot of nice subdivisions, even in Plano and Allen, and parts of Dallas, certainly.

But the point I'm making is, sometimes we don't appreciate what we've got. So, appreciate where you are, and where you're at, and what you have. It could be worse. It could be in worse shape. So, be grateful for what it is that you do have. And being grateful makes a huge difference in a person's satisfaction level. So, again, we are very grateful for God and the real haven that we've had for the past 19 years, living up there on the hill.

God provided for us, and we have confidence that He will continue to provide for us. Principle number eight, lesson number eight, learn to really appreciate the blessings that God has given you. And then the last point is that home is where God and His people are. You know, that's where your real home is. It's where God is and where His people are. So, that's right here, for one thing. And it's really quite a blessing to be a part of God's church and to be associated with God's people, to have God favoring this group of people, to have the blessings that God pours out upon us.

So, home is where God is and where His people are. And that's by far the most important thing, is that, you know, I'm going to continue being at home. I mean, I'm not really leaving my home. My home is still there. It's just four hours away with different people. But they're God's people, and God's going to be there.

And we're going to miss all of you. That's the bad part, is we don't get to see you as often. But we're not all that far away, and you can come down to Dallas and visit us, and we can come back here once in a while. So we can still stay in touch.

We can still be friends. We've got internet, right? We've got Facebook, for those of you who are on Facebook. My wife's on Facebook. I haven't yet succumbed to that temptation. Perhaps I will one day. So, brethren, I can take the time to go through all these nine principles, but I think you've heard them. I don't need to take the extra time to do that.

If you missed one, I'll be glad to tell you what they are. I talked about nine lessons from moving, nine spiritual lessons that we learn. So, again, I want you to know how much you've meant to all of us.