What Does God Require of Us?

Happy Sabbath, everybody! Thank you, Mr. Breidenthal. Appreciate that very much. Appreciate the sermonette as well. You know, I never thought I would ever live to see the day when my children are preaching to me, so it is kind of interesting to go through this and experience it, but very happy that they can be involved, all of our young people today in this youth day.

I want to begin the sermon here this morning to ask you what kinds of jobs have you had in your life? I'm talking about, you know, those who've been around a while, who've gone through a number of jobs through their lives. You know, the kinds of jobs I think that young people do change somewhat from generation to generation. I don't think that the young people would understand what their maybe parents and grandparents did if they look back 10 or 15 or 40 years if somebody has been able to sit and talk with grandpa about what he did or a great grandpa in some cases. You know, I worked and had jobs during the pre-Cambrian period when the dinosaurs were walking the earth. And, you know, when I was 12 years old, I think all the way up to about nine years of age, I had a number of different jobs. One of the jobs I had, I think it was probably about 11 when this, so it was younger than 12, but I remember being a part of a truck that went around to different neighborhoods. And, you know, you remember the fellows that used to take these huck strain trucks out and they would sell watermelons and produce and different things? Well, I was one of the guys, by the way, that was on the truck that was saying, watermelons for sale! Watermelons for sale! I remember going through big tenement buildings in Kansas City, Missouri many years ago when we lived up that way. And so that was one of the jobs I had. I had a job of bucking hay on a truck, I think I've told you about that. My father and I did this, and putting the hay up into a barn, you know, that was a very hot job. I've had a job tromping greens, what they call tromping greens down in South. Some of you probably don't have a clue as to what that is, but basically putting spinach and different things in the back of the truck and you get back there and you do exactly that. You tromp greens, you just pack them down in the truck. And I can't remember how old I was when that happened. Picked tomatoes, cut grapes, down in fact in the Bakersfield area as well when we were out here. I did irrigation of cotton crops, you know, those quarter mile long irrigation lines I used to get out in the fields and just set those up and they'd sprinkle the water on the the cotton plants. And sometimes when we were doing that you would sink up to your about your knee joint in mud. And I remember working, doing that one summer. I think I earned about 150 or 200 dollars, you know, for the summer, which was a lot of money for me at the time and it was able to pay for the school clothes. I also did this. I worked for OK Feedbills and I de-beaked chickens. I don't know if any of you know that, you know, chickens are vicious. They really are. And they will peck each other to death.

So my job was to cut their beaks off so that they couldn't peck each other. And it's pretty interesting. You stick their beak up there and just cut that baby right off and it's seared. You know, it smells terrible as well. I remember that as a teenager doing that.

And I vaccinated also. So I actually, we would go through and vaccinate all the chickens.

I forget what we were vaccinated for, but it was, you know, against the diseases that happen in chicken houses. I also worked, I think I told you this a number of times, at Tucker Duck and Rubber Company. You know, I love saying that, by the way. But that was the culture capital of the world at that time. We made small canvas stools and aluminum lawn chairs. You know, I stood at these machines that would put the, you know, the aluminum in it and push your foot down. And the thing would just form into the kind of things you need to build a lawn chair.

So I did that quite a bit. Also, when I was in Ambassador College, I was a landscaper, you know, part of the time. And, you know, sometimes I was a helper of a landscaper, you know, mowing lawns and different things like that. Later, I got to be a buyer for food services down in Big Sandy. So I had that opportunity as well. Now, all of these jobs that I had the opportunity to have, they were not career moves, by the way. You know, it was not what I wanted to do. And I, some of them were very dirty. They were backbreaking. They were, there was a lot of frustration in it. And frankly, I wouldn't want to do them again. You know, if in fact you paid me, I wouldn't want to do them again unless we get into depression. We might all change our minds about those kinds of things. But, you know, each one of the jobs gave a colorful experience, which helped me, I think, build meaningful lessons in my life. And I really am glad that I did it. Now, why do we work at a job? Why do we work at a job? Well, number one, fulfillment by achieving something. You know, every kid wants to go and he wants to make money. You know, he wants to, it's like Jonathan was talking about the car. You know, at that time, you wanted to make the money so that you could buy the car. Today, of course, you, it's pretty hard to do that because of the cost of cars, first of all, and the insurance that you need to in order to drive one. But, but it gave you a feeling of fulfillment. And number two is to draw a wage, to earn a paycheck. And what does your employer require of you, though, on the job? You know, well, they require good hard work. You know, if they're going to pay you something, they want you to earn your keep, as they say. You know, some people have an aversion to hard work, though, and that's a bad problem, by the way, when people have an aversion to hard work. You know, it's like someone once said hard work never killed anybody, but why, but why take the chance, you know? And so they never get out and they never apply themselves with that. Number two, you know, if an employer hires you, what he requires of you that you reject, reflect the values of the company. That, in other words, if you have a job which, you know, is a substantial job, you want that employee to reflect the values of that company. Number three, to show yourself responsible, that you can take a responsibility and you can run with it. You know, you can apply it in your life. You know, there was one employer, in fact, you know, he said to one potential applicant, he says, in this job we need someone responsible. And the applicant said, that's me, and my last job, whenever anything went wrong, they said I was responsible. Not that kind of responsibility, of course, are we looking for.

But an employer, number four, wants you to mature on the job through experience and show you are a worker that can learn, that you are a worker that's smart. You know, you don't want somebody to, you know, enter into a job, you know, say year one, and then exit 30 years later, knowing no more than you started with. But you want to improve and gain knowledge along with the other things that we've mentioned. And number five, what does an employer require? It requires you to be committed to the company. You know, again, if it's a substantial company, he wants you to be committed to the company. It's like down in Palo Alto. There's so many people today that, indeed, they are committed. You know, they expect, in fact, all of your life to be dominated. And some of those men down there, they have jobs, you know, maybe working 70, 80 hours a week. And it's almost like a form of slavery. But that's what they demand on the job, that you be committed to it. Now, this is a physical topic, by the way, brethren, regarding job requirements. And it's relevant to what I want to talk to you about if we raise it to a spiritual level, if we think about it in terms of the Spirit of God. What does God require of us? What does He require of us? What does He require of you and me and all of us that are in God's church? You know, God is our Creator. So, He made us. He created us. He brought us into being. And He claims that He, in fact, everything upon the earth is His. And He has said the gold is His, the silver is His. And He says that in a number of places in the Bible. And I won't turn to it, but in Psalm 50 and verse 12, God says, if I was hungry, if I were hungry, He said, I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all its fullness. Everything in the world belongs to me. I wouldn't need to ask you these things because it belongs to me. So, in fact, brethren, we work for God as certainly His creation is His. He is the owner.

He is the owner. And, you know, God wants us to recognize that one fact. And, again, it is like He is the owner, if I can put it this way, of the company. The company called the universe.

You know, Universe Inc., if you want to put it that way. And we're working in that company that belongs to God. Now, sadly, brethren, not very many people upon earth today see or understand this major key about life and what life is. People, you almost believe after you talk to them, that they think that they brought themselves into existence. You know, it's like some people, you know, have that mentality that nobody did anything for them in their lives. And, of course, they're sadly mistaken because God did everything for us. He gave everything to us so that we could live. So, think of this, brethren. When we're called, our calling is referred to in the Bible in this way. Let's go over to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4, the book of Ephesians. Apostle Paul is writing this letter to the people of Ephesus, the brethren that are up there in the church.

But here, in verse 1 of chapter 4, I'd like to look at this verse and the next one as well. But it says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one other in love. And so, he talks about this calling here and how we ought to address this calling that God has given to us. Now, it's an interesting verse to think about here, to dwell on, to meditate about. By the way, in the King James Version, the word used for calling here, if you have a King James, you probably noticed that, that is used in the New King James. The word calling is used, but in the King James, it's referred to as a vocation.

And of course, all of us know what a vocation is.

Clark's commentary, by the way, in talking about this word vocation and calling as well, it says, quote, among us, a man's calling signifies his trade. You know, in other words, the idea of the word calling is to convey the concept that it is a vocation, you know, that one has. And, you know, if you go back a number of years, that is the way people referred to someone's job. You know, what is your calling of life? You know, are you a doctor?

What is going to be your calling? What is God going to have you to do? Going on here, though, it says, or occupation of life, that at which he works, by which he gets his bread. And it says, it is termed his calling because it is opposed that God, in the course of his providence, his divine providence, calls the person to be thus employed and thus to acquire his livelihood. How you make a living? You know, how are you going to put bread on the table so that you can not only take care of yourself or if you have a family, to take care of your family? And the implication, the idea, brethren, that God is conveying here, that as God gave a man a calling or a vocation to take care of his family and so forth, if he is vigilant in that job, if he applies himself in that job, he will support himself and also he will support his family.

And the concept was, brethren, that if one, by analogy, diligently applied himself to his Christian calling or his Christian vocation, that he would not only, again, be taken care of in this life from God's blessings, but he would attain salvation. That would be the result of it. That a man put into practice his calling and the way that he would approach his vocation, his profession, or whatever he did.

Now, of course, we don't earn salvation, brethren, but we certainly should be diligent about pursuing salvation. Don't you think that's true? I mean, if we take a haphazard approach to salvation, you think we're going to attain that? Is God going to give it to us? And the answer is certainly not. And if you go and you work at a profession and you sort of lollygag around at work and you don't apply yourself, do you think that the employer's going to pay? Well, he might pay you because the state requires him to pay you something, but he will get rid of you as soon as he can.

And so, in other words, we see the principle here. So, brethren, we need to understand that we have a vocation when it comes to being called of God. You know, a man asked this question of another, what is your vocation? And he replied, well, I am a Christian. And the person said, well, I don't mean that, but what is your job?

What do you do for a living? And the man said, oh, my job is that I am a plumber, but I only work as a plumber so that I can practice my vocation, which is being a Christian. You know, our vocation is being a Christian. And so, a vocation is a profession or it's a job. And the apostle Paul says, our calling as Christians is a vocation. And I like that word better, by the way, because, of course, things have changed in terms of the way that people think of them today, and you can get the wrong idea.

You know, it's like God says, you know, I hope that you'll be good at your calling, that you've been called to. You know, usually you don't use, you know, two of the same words to describe something. Usually, you know, if you're talking about two different things, you use two different words.

You know, he talked about vocation, in other words, and calling. We're called, all of us are called, but we need to get the understanding that we have a profession of being a Christian, or a vocation of being a Christian as well.

And that, in fact, if we have a vocation, that who's our boss? God. God is our boss. And what might God as our boss expect from you and me as His employees? What does He expect? Let's talk about the remainder of the sermon about this. What God expects from us. Number one, what God expects from us. Let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 10. You know, God expects us to work hard, to work hard, to really apply ourselves, brethren.

Go back here in Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 10, one of these old verses that we need to keep in mind all the way through our calling, brethren. But here in verse 10 of chapter 9 of Ecclesiastes, it says, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. With your might. For there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. Now, God could have put it more plainly. You know, in the I Am Carnal translation, you know, God says you better work hard before you kick the bucket.

You know, that's the I Am Carnal one, you know, because we only have so much time. And if we don't apply that time, then, of course, it's going to be to our, you know, not credit at the end of it, but discredit.

So God wants us to do what we do with our might. There's an old Irish proverb that says work is the yeast that raises the dough. And it really is, isn't it? If you understand what dough is, he's not talking about, you know, the dough that you make bread out of. He's talking about dough, money. You know, work is what causes the money to rise, he's saying. You know, Strong's Concordance says this about, you know, doing things with all your might. From Strong's Concordance, it says, might has to do with being firm, being vigorous, and using force. Using force. And you know, it talks about, you know, where Christ was saying that we should, the kingdom of God, or thought of those who are called in this age, in fact, that they take it by force.

In other words, they apply themselves to do that, which is seemingly impossible. And, you know, they keep pushing at it. They keep applying themselves to it. You know, a lot of people, when they get knocked down, sometimes they never get back up. But a Christian always gets back up. You knock him down seven times, he gets up eight times. And, you know, as the proverb goes. And so, brethren, God expects from us hard work applying ourselves. And these days, of course, people don't like to talk about hard work, do they? And Christ, though, gave his own example of what it means to work hard. Jesus Christ said, I worked even as my father works. I work. I'm applying myself. You know, here he is and was, of course, the very, at the pinnacle of human beings.

The Son of God. The one who was, of course, next to the Father in heaven. And, you know, do we know in this world, do princes work? Do kings apply themselves to their jobs? Well, I think most of them probably would be. But usually a prince doesn't do an awful lot, does he?

But Jesus Christ does apply himself and has applied himself. And, of course, now he's risen and is at the right hand of the Father and in heaven. And so, we have to work hard, apply ourselves. And young people learn to do that on the job and then you will know what it is to work for God and apply yourself with all your might. You know, that's one of the things I think that we need to do a whole lot more problem we do. You know, frankly, it would be nice if all of us had to, when we were younger particularly, you know, that's the time to learn about backbreaking work.

One thing I learned, by the way, when I was old enough to begin to make money, is the jobs that I had I didn't want to do for the rest of my life.

And I remember when I was putting those stools together at Tucker Duck and Rubber Company. Again, I love to say that. I said, I never want to work this way all my life. It was a motivator, a real motivator. I remember when I was digging dishes sometimes. I didn't want to do this the rest of my life. You know, you get these calluses on your hands. You come home and, you know, how those blisters will break. And you do that enough times pretty soon. You got these brown calluses all along your hand. You know, and it was a long day and hard work to do those things.

Another thing that God expects of us as His employees, and He is our employer, our boss, He expects us to reflect His values, Godly values. Again, we're going to work for God. We've got to reflect what He is, what He stands for. God is love. We know God is mercy. God is everything. You know, all those things are listed in Galatians 5 and 22 about the fruits of the Spirit. That is God. That is what God is like. You know, recently, by the way, the news reported a woman working, I believe it was for Citibank, who was dismissed from her job because she dressed too provocatively. Of course, they were using a different word in the news, but the way she dressed was too distressing and too distracting to people. I guess it came to her and talked with her, but maybe those are right there in the place where she worked. There were other factors for when I understand. I did not read the whole story, but primarily what was in the news about what happened. Of course, there's going to be a lawsuit about it, and of course, the lawyers probably will make the most on that whole thing, but I'm sure she will probably settle, and she will probably win, sadly, in this world and day and time. But this is not the only company, by the way, which desires to have its employees dress in ways that represent the company. It's like if you go to McDonald's, you order something. You usually don't see someone, a lady particularly, who is exposing herself at the cash register. You just don't see that, do you? And how long do you think you'd have a job if you worked at McDonald's, and you did that? Well, it wouldn't be very long.

So I think that certainly in terms of men, sometimes you have people that go and get a job, and maybe they've got hair down to their buttocks. They've got maybe tattoos all over themselves, rings in their noses. I saw somebody the other day with a diamond that poked a hole in their lower lip. First I saw them, I looked at them, I thought they had some sort of sore on their face from it. That's what it looked like to me. And I got close and I said, this wasn't a diamond, it was something else that they had on their face. I felt like sort of flicking it off, but I got up there and I found it was a patch. But these people sometimes go in and they want to get a job! It just doesn't work, does it? Companies say, well, we're all full up. We can't hire you. And then people get offended somehow as though, well, you won't hire me. You're discriminated against me. You don't sue the company. You don't get something from it, probably. But how about us, brethren? Do we reflect godly values? That's what God's about.

You know, do we reflect godly values outwardly? Do we follow biblical guidelines about good grooming and trying to groom in the proper and right way? The Bible requires us to be clean. You know, you look back and God made the priests take a bath. I don't know when that started. Maybe it started when they were younger if their parents thought they were going to become a priest because you've got to get used to taking a bath. Maybe that's where the Saturday night bath came from. I don't know. But do we reflect, again, good grooming? Do we comb our hair in a certain way that reflects God's way of thinking? It talks about how it's a shame for a man to have long hair. Do we do that? Do we practice that which we should, the women, to practice having the kind of hair that is becoming to a woman? I'm not saying that a woman can't have a shorter haircut. But I have the opinion that hair is supposed to be a covering, so it has to cover something. You know, just from common sense doesn't mean you would have to believe that. So, you know, do we again reflect godly values in that way and the way we dress? Do we show respect toward what is holy and what is not considered, you know, something that is holy? The Sabbath is a holy time. So we should reflect it outwardly. Also, brethren, do we reflect it inwardly? Now, this is what nobody sees. No one can see what is going on on the inside of us. But, you know, do we, are we careful about our inward grooming, if I can put that that way? You know, in other words, no hypocrisy. That we're being true. Are we striving to keep a pure heart and to reflect it, being truthful, you know, being the kind of person that, as, you know, was mentioned in the sermon, as being kind to people and trying to live a life that is good or goodness, tending toward being good. You know, so again, are these things reflected in us? Let's go to Micah, chapter 6. Micah, chapter 6. Again, discussing here what does God require of us? In Micah, chapter 6, they take you a little longer to find that one. It's amongst the minor prophets there. And, if you have my Bible, it's 642. I thought I would try Mr. Roram's joke here. But, in Micah 6 and verse 8, notice, it says, and he has shown you, O man, what is good, but what does God require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? So, God requires this of us if we're going to be his employees in our vocation, which is the church. And so, God requires us to do these things. And, of course, we understand there are many things that we have to do, but I think we should understand what it means to reflect godly values.

The next thing that God requires of us as his employees within his company, Universal Inc., is grow to maturity and spiritual understanding. Grow to maturity and spiritual understanding.

Most employers, by the way, want their employees to grow through education.

Our sons, by the way, Shawn and Stephen down in Phoenix, Arizona, both of their companies allow them to have time to do education and pay them, in fact, for the tuition and that sort of thing to increase their education for the job. I think that's a tremendous benefit for someone to give that money for that. And, in some cases, some companies will, in fact, pay the whole bill, pay the whole fare. And, frankly, the more important your job is, probably the more perks that there would be for somebody that really, again, wants to apply themselves, the company, you know, would help in that way, supply these degree programs and pick up the tab.

Because a smarter employee is more valuable to the company. And it's interesting, I think it's interesting, that the company will actually pay you to raise the level of your education, and then they'll pay you more because they paid for you to get a higher education. I think that's tremendous again. That's quite a deal. Well, brethren, God wants those who are called and of His church to grow in maturity and understanding, spiritually speaking. He wants us to grow that way. And in the church, of course, everything's free. Think about that. You're looking at free education. And, you know, there's a lot of things within the church that, frankly, in my opinion, you talk to the average Tom, Dick, or Harry walking the street, have not a clue about it. You know, you can talk to some people. They have not a clue that there were these world-ruling empires, you know, they couldn't tell you about them. They wouldn't have a clue.

You know, sometimes people have no understanding whatsoever of what happened in the past. But in the church, we get that education. And education not only about things like that, but education about everything, you know, from soup to nuts in the church. And again, it is free. God says, this is for my children. I want them to be instructed in these things. A young person, by the way, must, or anyone who is beginning in their calling, they must, number one, prove God exists. You have to know and know that you know that God exists. You know, I think it's so important for us to have faith in Him because He's not going to reward us unless we have faith in Him, as it says in Hebrews 11 verse 6. We need to prove that the Bible is God's Word to all mankind. All you've got to do is read this book. You know, read the Bible, and you'll begin to see it unfolds, that God is, of course, an eternal being. He's an eternal being, Almighty God, and this is His book for all of mankind. And it's proved internally, and the external proof of it, all you've got to do is look in the sky at night, and you will see, you know, these things. Or if you get a chance to look at a microscope at this small world that is out there as well, the micro world, then you also begin to realize that there is an Almighty God, and you put those two together. And then next, the third thing that a person must do is go on from there to grow in understanding of the Bible, and rightly dividing the Word of Truth as the Bible says. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. You know, when we come into the church, and I believe it's everybody who comes into the church, even if they say they want to obey God, you know, we still, you might say, are tough nuts to crack, you know, in the church.

The reason is, you know, God needs to bring us to a point where we surrender to Him. And usually, when we come to the church, we're just not there yet. We don't even know what it is, what it means to surrender to God. But let's notice over here in Hebrews chapter 4, when we begin to imbibe of this book that sits in our lap, brethren. Let's notice here in Hebrews 4 and verse 12.

It says, for the Word of God. That is that book that is in your lap, brethren, that you are reading now. The Word of God is living. It's powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, and of joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. You know, if you keep reading this book and looking into this book, brethren, what it does, I mean, if you really look at it, I don't mean just casually reading this book, and many people do that, and have read through the book over and over again, and never come to the knowledge of the truth. But if you read the book, you know, it will change your life.

It's like when a person is circumcised physically. You know, the person has to take, of course, who does the circumcision, you know, that involves sharp instruments for that to take place. The Bible is a living book, brethren, meant to circumcise our hearts. And this is the way the flesh is cut away when somebody is circumcised. This book will cut away, you know, the foreskin of our heart so that we can become circumcised, spiritually speaking. And to me, it's unavoidable. I've seen people come to the church, brethren, over the years, and I know many of you have as well, that if they sit in the church, they may even be sometimes hostile. But when they listen to this book and they begin to take this in, it's impossible for them, if they really, you know, God is wanting to call them. In some cases, he doesn't want to call somebody. But, you know, if God is really calling, it's impossible for them to not eventually become circumcised to the heart.

I remember, you know, a case where there was a woman many years ago that was attending church services. She came to me and she said, she said, Mr. Taka, I just am so discouraged. My husband's not a part of the church. And, you know, it's discouraged. I thought he was going to come in, and, you know, it didn't come in. But anyway, after a period of time, I got to know this particular man. He's a good friend of mine now. But, by the way, he came and he played basketball with the church. You know, they'd be out on Sunday playing basketball games, and he interacted with the people. And, you know, I got to know him as well. And we were able to talk a number of times. And then he started attending. Completely shocked his wife, you know, started attending. And he sat in the church for a while. And sure enough, he came up and said, I want to be baptized. His heart was cut by the Word of God, and he transformed his life. He really did. So this book works, brethren, and we need to use it. Without God's Spirit, though, working with us, God's Spirit has to work with us. This can't happen. And in this case, this man had the Spirit of God that had began to work with him, and his book opened it up to him. And he began to see and became a part of the church. And so, brethren, we should pray God will open our minds so that we can see.

And if someone is a youth or someone who has been called later in life, they should grow from that point on, eventually leading to a time in their lives when they will fully commit, you know, surrendering their lives to Jesus Christ and becoming baptized. That's the result of it. In other words, they commit. They began to realize that they need Jesus Christ and his shed blood in order for them to have the opportunity for salvation. So, you know, we need to grow again in maturity, and once we're baptized, then we need to keep growing. Now, don't, you know, sort of rest on your laurels, but be committed. Now, what is the next thing that God requires of us, brethren? As his employees, we must be committed to God. Got to be committed to God. Like any company or employer wants an employee to be committed to that company. You know, sometimes when you go and work for a company, don't they make you sign, you know, a document that says you're committed to the company? You're not going to share all of the company's secrets with everybody else, every other company out there? No, a company wants you to be committed to their company.

And God wants, brethren, you and I to be committed to him and committed to his church. He wants us to be on his team 100 percent. You know, not with one eye on the church, one eye on God, and another eye looking elsewhere. He wants us to be 100 percent, again, committed. And, like you say, companies of this world require that, too. You know, I'm sure IBM has got everybody signing documents to say we're not going to share company's secrets. In some cases, they make them sign a document, as I will not say anything about my company and the secrets that are within that company for 10 years or however long it would be that they would have on the contract that one is to sign. And again, that is very common in some of these high-tech companies, particularly, because you know how razor-thin the knowledge may be that gives them an edge on somebody else. Well, brethren, in the church, God is interested in sharing secrets. That's the thing about, you know, His company. He doesn't really care if everybody in the world knows about, you know, what we teach, what we instruct and give within the church. You know, we know, of course, that though if we have not committed to God, if we have not committed to the church, and, you know, we've got one foot in the world and we've got one foot in the church, then who are we really committed to? If you've got one foot in the church and one foot in the world, who are you really committed to? Well, in my book, if somebody's got one foot in the world, they are committed to the devil because you can't have the one with God. You know, you can't be halfway in the church. That's sort of like being half-pregnant, you know. I don't know if any of you people say, well, I'm not all the way pregnant. I'm halfway pregnant. You know, that's like I told my wife, you know, this morning when we were driving to church, everybody was backed up on the freeway.

You know, I mean, it was just a sea of cars. And I said, she said, what in the world is going on? And I said, well, we're in Crazyville, and people act crazy here. Then we found out also Concord is there. They're in Crazyville too, down there because it was backed up down there. We didn't think we'd make it to church services. But, you know, you can't be halfway in the church and halfway in the world because if you are, you're in Crazyville. You're crazy if you think you're going to please God and that God is going to look at you in the way that you're fully committed to Him. You know, and if we're in the world, brethren, the world follows its leader. Who is the world's leader? Satan, right? We know in Ephesians 2 and Revelation 12, 9, it says that Satan sways the whole world. He's deceived the whole world to the wrong way of living.

And, you know, so I say to all of us here and to our young people in particular, you need to choose. Let's go to Romans. Romans chapter 6, a real succinct verse that sums up what, what in fact, you know, I was trying to say, but in Romans 6 and verse 16, here Paul says in a sort of a matter-of-fact way that maybe being dumbfounded, if somebody didn't know that. But here in verse 16, it says, Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey?

You are that one slave whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. And, you know, you can't serve two masters. You know, you're going to hate and despise one and love the other, or vice versa. So, brethren, if we do not commit to God, then we are, in essence, you know, if we've got one foot in the world and we want to be a part of this world, we're committed to the devil. And until, in fact, we commit to God and give our hundred percent to God. You know, God doesn't want us to think we can serve two masters. We must declare which side we are going to be on. And God desires His brethren not to be stained and spotted by the ways of this world. And if we're out in the world, we're going to be stained and spotted. We're going to become like those in the world. I won't turn to it, but in James 1, verse 27, it says, pure religion and undefiled before God, and the Father, is this, to visit orphids and widows in their afflictions. In other words, helping somebody that can't help you, and, you know, that they have to accept the love shown by others. You know, they are not able, maybe, to do the same to you, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. God wants us to be unspotted from the world. You know, what is a great thing that's happened in our day and time now, brethren, is that this thing of smoking used to be all-pervasive, you know. Remember how it used to be when you go into a restaurant, and, you know, no matter where you went, basically, you came out smelling like a cigarette. And that's really striking when you, by the way, go into a state, and you find that they do not have those laws concerning smoking. In Ohio, by the way, it's kind of interesting that some places in Ohio you can't smoke, and it brought back memories of how it used to be. I brought some show-and-tell with me today. This is an onion here, and I brought here, as well, some perfume. Perfume. And, you know, I think this will maybe demonstrate to you what I mean when I talk about being spotted by the world. Okay, this is a nice smelling perfume. Very, very beautiful. I'm going to spray it here. Oh, yeah, it does smell. I smell like my wife now. And I'll smell that way all day. But now this is an onion. Very potent onion.

And you put your nose in this thing, and you, I guess if you cut it, too, you're... Oh, it smells. Boy, it's bad. You know, what if I were to cut some onions right now in this auditorium?

Probably we stink the whole place up by doing that. But, you know, an onion does not have a very pleasant smell, does it? And if you start peeling, you start cutting it, you know, the aroma of it is going to come off, and it's going to be very, very much effective. It might cause you to have some tears, in fact. Well, think about the fact, brethren, this onion represents the world out there. Now, if one of you were to come up here, and I were to take this onion and maybe rub it under your arms, you know, rub it under this arms, and, you know, put it down here on your knees. Where do women put this, you know, on the knees? And she would come in and say, Honey, how do I smell? Well, the world has this kind of an effect on us, brethren. We get out there in the world, we get this stuff on us. And you know what? You can't get it off. You can wash and wash and scrub and scrub, and you can't get it off. You know, it's like when you cut fish, you cut up fish and everything. You can wash and wash your hands, and you can't get this smell of fish off of you. But this is the world, and young people, when they get out in the world, all those oldsters too, or you consider us to be old, you get out in the world, this rubs off on us, and it's hard to get off. You know, it's like a kid goes out and he maybe smokes cigarettes, and he comes in and he thinks he's going to kid his mother. You know, like, you know, she's going to say, Where have you been? She already knows where he's been, if he smells like cigarettes or if he smells like onion. Well, brother, this is God's way, and it smells good. It smells right.

And so we need to, again, take that object lesson to understand, again, this world does paint us.

And the opposite happens, by the way. If we live God's way, if we associate with God's people, and we spend time with God's people, we're going to begin to talk like one another, we're going to begin to conduct ourselves like one another, and hopefully that conduct is going to be like God. And we'll smell this perfume. You know, we'll walk by and people say, you know, what was that? I've never spelled that before. And, you know, I've never seen that before. And they'll realize that we're different. They may not be able to see right away what it is, but they'll know that we are different. And God wants all of his brethren to be undefiled from this world and smell of his way. He looks in the world, and what does he do? He says, oh, it's an abomination to me. And it's an extension, it's nostrils, the Bible talks about. So the onion, brethren, might be an analogy to the smell of the world and the wrong things people do, the perfume, the sweet-smelling effects of God's way of life. And, you know, you can smell like onions, brethren, or you can smell like perfume. You know, you choose.

You know, just our association with God's ways, again, have a sweet-smelling effect upon us. Involvement in the world makes us smell bad, as far as God is concerned. If we associate with those with worldly ways, we'll have that come and it'll rub off on us. And by the analogy here is this is what we'll smell like. And we can't get it off. And the one way that we can get it off, brethren, is either through baptism or through repentance. And that's the only way. And another thing that must take place is we must put some time, practice, and obedience between the time we're repent and the time when we begin to feel better about ourselves. Because if you break God's law, brethren, it makes you feel bad. And if you repent, God will forgive it. But it's going to take a while before we stop smelling like onions to ourselves, before we begin to smell of the perfume of God.

And so we have that option, brethren, and the blood of Christ can clean us up and make us begin to smell good before our God. So as we continue serving God, brethren, we mature. We grow in our understanding of what makes us smell better, what makes us feel better about ourselves as well.

And so these are the ways, brethren, which we can mature. What do you expect from your dedication to a company when you were employed? Well, you know, when you're employed by a company, I don't know when your company comes to what is payday and how you pick it up. Some people do a lot of those things electronically these days. But what we expect when we have dedicated ourselves to a company is we eventually expect a paycheck, don't we? That's going to come our way. How many of you work for your company for free? Oh, my wife does. She works for the church for free.

But, you know, we expect a paycheck. But if we look at it from a physical standpoint, think about this, what will we receive? If we obey God, He blesses us both now and in the Kingdom to the degree that we serve Him. And also, brethren, I think which is a great perk within God's company, is you can talk to the CEO of the company at any time and from any place. God gives us spiritual self-offs. And all we got to do is kneel down and you can talk right to the boss. Also, brethren, if you commit your life to living righteousness and are loyal to the CEO, you will receive eternal life as a free gift. What a bonus! What a bonus is that! You know, you can't work for it. You know, as a Christian, earn it, but God will toss it in because you have been loyal to Him and you have obeyed and lived righteously. You know, as a young man, Solomon had a right attitude about things and God rewarded him for his attitude. Let's go to 1 Kings chapter 3. 1 Kings chapter 3 as we begin to wind this sermon up. But in 1 Kings, over here, in chapter 3, it was a time when God was beginning to use Solomon and He began to work with him. But here in 1 Kings chapter 3 and down to verse 5, it says, "...at Gibeon the Eternal appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and God said, Ask what you shall and I will giveth you." And Solomon says, "...you have shown great mercy to your servant David, my father, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with you. You have continued this great kindness for him, and you have given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day." Now then in verse 7, "...now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king instead of my father David. But I am a little child." So here he was a young man. He wasn't a tiny child here, by the way, but he was probably in his teen years when these things were happening. And so he recognized the fact that he was a little kid compared to David. He says, "...I do not know how to go out or come in." So he was yet learning these things. "...and your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted." And he says, "...therefore, gift your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to judge this great people of yours?" In this speech, it says, "...please the Eternal that Solomon had asked this thing." Now, what a thing for a young man to ask for.

Usually, he would be asking for the Lamborghini. He would be asking for things physical in nature, but he asked for something that was quite spiritual, frankly. In verse 11, it says, "...then God said to him, Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice. Behold, I have done according to your words, see, and I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, and nor shall any like you arise after you." And it says, "...and I have also given you that which you have not asked." That's an interesting thing to consider, young people. If you choose the right things, God will even give you that which you don't ask for.

That's the thing to keep in mind. And he says, "...both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings of all your days. So if you walk in my ways to keep my statue, you keep my values..." You know, God is saying to Solomon here, "...and you keep my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days." And of course, Solomon, when he was younger, did obey God. He did depart from God in the sense that women led him astray, foreign women led him astray later on. But the fact of the matter is that he apparently at the end was considered to be righteous when you read the book of Nehemiah, particularly because he was still very much respected by that time after Judah had gone into captivity. But, you know, God rewarded Solomon for his right choices. And if any of us, brethren, including our young people, work hard, they serve God with all their heart and mind, with a right heart, there is no reason, brethren, that God will not do the same for us in our lives. It obviously won't just be a matter of physical blessings, but spiritual ones, too. Happiness, though, and peace of life, peace of mind, is a wonderful thing to have. You know, how many people today have peace of mind? About not only today, but the future. And besides that, brethren, he will give us everything, again, that we have need of, and the greatest thing of all, eternal life. You know, that's something that's tremendous. And so, Solomon, you know, was one who followed God, and God blessed him. And, you know, that's the promise, brethren, and young people that is to us today. If we follow God, we do his way, he will take care of us. He will watch after us. Of course, we have to, again, work hard, you know, as, of course, we would if we worked for an employer anyway.

Let's go to Proverbs chapter 8. Proverbs chapter 8, you know, sometimes the King James version sort of takes out of the good meaning that sometimes is here, and the New King James does that here. But what I want to do is quote this from the King James version. You know, in the King James version, it says, I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me.

If you seek me early, you're going to find me. Riches and honor are with me.

Yea, durable riches in righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold. And my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness in the midst of the paths of judgment, that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance, and I will fill their treasures.

You know, in the New King James version, by the way, it says, those that seek me diligently, diligently. You know, here it says early. It gives an illusion that one is, if they start early in life, that they will be blessed in the ways that he says. In the Hebrew, by the way, this word early or diligently means to be up early for any task. In other words, be jhani on the spot for any task, to be there at the beginning. And it means someone eager to get at it. And it can be, certainly, a young person starting off early in their life that is so eager to get at, you might say, seeking God, obeying God, and being diligent about following God. So, certainly the word early doesn't have to say that all he's talking about is being diligent.

You know, why is it sometimes people want to do this, you know, from youth? Why is it that they want to go out in the world and mess up their lives? Now, how many young people start out and they go out in the world and they mess their lives up and finally, you know, they come to realize the kind of situation they're in, the kind of problems that they face, and then they turn their lives over to God. You know, it's amazing how people will do that. Some people sometimes will not repent until they've lived their lives 70 or sometimes 75 years.

You know, God may say, well, why did you wait so long? I think I told you a story about the man who was called into the church and we asked him when he started studying the plain truth and some other things. And he said, 25 years ago, this is way back when. And we asked him, well, why did it take so long? And he said, I wanted to be sure. I wanted to be sure. I'll tell you what, if we had, it takes 25 years to find out truth, we're all in a heap of trouble, you know. And of course, we understand that people have to have God's Spirit working with them and all of that. And God's Spirit does work with people and they are called later, we understand. But the best time to be called is before we have made too many mistakes in our lives because cleanup can be very hard and very difficult in people's lives. So, brethren, all of us need to remember we are working for our boss, who is God Almighty. And he, brethren, has requirements which he is looking for in each one of us. And God, by the way, is the best boss in the whole universe. He is the best boss in the whole wide world, brethren. And if we apply ourselves to the vocation, the profession that we have been called to, and we endure to the end, they're going to be awesome rewards for us both now, right now. God's going to bless us now in our lives, but most of all in the future, that God is going to give us. And again, most of all, he's going to give us eternal life. And so, let's fulfill those requirements that God has for each of us as his employees and his children.