The Will of God

Thank you, Mr. Hall, and good morning, everybody. Good morning.

You know, I made some comments sometime back about popular bluff. I guess it's only fair to give credit to Paducah to the degree that I should. This is a congregation that very much reminds me of our future, God's plans, what our jobs will be. We have a shepherd here. We have a couple of kings. We've got one walking with God, a walker. And you're all having to learn also how to deal with a beam in your eye. So, we're not behind popular bluff. One bit now, are we? Learning how to live with two beams in their eyes, right? My wife is back there holding up two fingers, so I'm not real good at sign language, but I thought I could make out what she meant on that. Anyway.

As was mentioned, tomorrow, of course, Pentecost, obviously. Wow! How fast it has come around. Frankly, how fast this past year has gone. But, regular place, as on the schedule, Glenton Building at 1130. And refreshments, finger foods, stuff that doesn't really require pots and crock pots and all that kind of stuff. Not making it a typical meal, but at the same time, probably be enough refreshments to make it definitely be a light meal. And that, again, allows us to be able to stay around afterwards and fellowship and get the blood sugar up, because everybody will be hungry, and have good fellowship and then have an alert drive home. And as was mentioned, Monday is Memorial Day, so for us, kind of a triple header. A weekly Sabbath, annual Sabbath, and then a national holiday based on a very honorable principle. Looking on the calendar, Thursday, Bob and Louise Thompson celebrated 67 years of marriage, and on the 5th of May, Bob was 88, so he told me last Sabbath, he said, well, he said, so far he said, I've got eight years of bonus, you know, talking about that biblical 70 to 80. And, of course, Tuesday will be Jimmy and Irene Gibson's 59th. Come back to that in just a moment or so. Keep Mary Smith in your prayers. Mary cannot be doing good, and you can ask her how she's doing. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. You almost have to see her to know what the true state is, but here, you know, a little while ago, she got her foot infected, and I think that that's probably pretty well maybe healed by now. I'm certainly hoping so. But obviously, anytime Mary misses, she's got to be feeling pretty bad, even if she says I'm fine. So please remember her in your prayers. And very good to see Leigh Ann here today. Didn't really expect to see her after the little bout in the hospital that she had. And keep her in your mind in prayers, too, regarding Monday is when the baby will be delivered. So it's going to be a Memorial Day baby. So congratulations.

Janice Groves was in the hospital this week.

Evidently, what the problem has been, she's had some pretty strong health issue the last week and a half, or so, last two weeks, actually. And evidently, it was her potassium real low. Potassium is so crucial. If it gets too high, it causes a problem. If it gets too low, it causes a problem. And hers is way low. But talking with Bob last night, they've run all kinds of tests.

They've isolated that that's the problem. Nothing else is checked out as wrong, but they were going to do... And of course, they've checked her heart out. And of course, potassium affects the heart. I mean, you've got to have a proper amount. So anyhow, they were going to be running this morning basically a dye test on her heart to check circulation and all. And if everything checked out okay, she would probably... probably will go home this afternoon. Of course, she's hoping to be able to be at Pentecost tomorrow.

But keep her in your prayers, please. Most of you probably would not know Charlie and Gladys Bassett up in the Henderson area. They've not been able to attend services for years. In fact, he died a few years ago. And Gladys just died recently. She'd been in a nursing home with Alzheimer's very bad. So just in case if you did know the Bassett's well, the surviving member of that couple died on the 15th. Ralph's Insudemsky's surgery on his prostate, they had to open it up more.

But that went well. He's doing fine from that and passes on his thanks for your prayers. They're running different bone scans on him, and he's not totally sure why they want to do all the bone scans. But anyway, jury is still out on that, so to speak. But Irene Gibson, Jimmy knows about the surgery. He knows... Of course, one of his sons had to tell him the other night about their little dog of ten years being run over.

But what Jimmy does not know, unless the family has informed him at this point, is that it's pancreatic cancer. That's the part that he didn't know and they did not want us mentioning. I mean, he knows about the surgery, but he did not at the time know Benny and Penny, who were with Irene. I went over and saw her, and on Tuesday, they had not told Jimmy at that point that it was cancer. Of course, he maybe has figured out what it is, and obviously they're going to have to tell him.

But the doctor got in there, and the scan did not show the full extent of it, because a lot of it was behind the pancreas in a way it did not really show. But he simply... It's so far advanced, he cannot... And where it is as well, he cannot operate to take any of it out. He did trim some off of a vein or artery, whichever, and nicked it, and she bled quite a bit, but he got that stopped. She... Considering what she's dealing with, I would say she's in good spirits.

That's a relative term. She's being positive. But there's nothing that can be done surgically. And when she comes home, he's setting an appointment, the doctor is, for her to see an oncologist in Paducah. You know, basically anything and everything they can do would have to be with chemo or radiation or a combination of the two. If you know anything about pancreatic cancer, I don't have to tell you the rest of it. But that's what got Michael Landon. That's what got Patrick Swayze.

Usually, you don't even know you have it until it's in the final stage before it gives itself away. Anyhow, obviously, certainly be as I know you are praying for the family because basically the length of time that she has left will be strictly due to how much God extends her life. That's what it boils down to. So, tough situation to deal with, but not avoidable. On the table over there, there are some old sermon CDs laying there.

If you want any of them, fine. Take them. As I said, we can't just indefinitely build a library and never cut it back. Otherwise, it just becomes too unmanageable.

Most of us don't have time to backtrack and listen to this and listen to that. Life is busy. We're busy just trying to keep up with what's coming in the front door all the time with less and less time. It seems as time goes on to reach through the back door for stuff. Also, there's a letter from Alice Bryan there. You might want to take time to read.

She should be joining us before too awfully long. Also, those copies of the May 13th letter from the chairman, there are still several copies on the table if you didn't get one. Also, there are prayer request copies available over there as well.

In that letter that's there, the May 13th, and with several copies available, it's two pages from Robin Weber. I'm not going to read it. It's there. Somebody will be accessing it on the members' website. But I do want to read one paragraph.

On the second page, during the following council meetings, of course, this is after the GCE and there's a fair amount of information that Mr. Weber put in here, during the following council meetings from Tuesday through Thursday, five ordinations were approved, Mr. Kubik also shared an exciting development to immediately begin training six couples towards the ministry. They will be immersed in a focused training program in Cincinnati and then sent out to be mentored by an area pastor. These couples in their late 20s to early 40s have already set a positive example as young adults. They've already obtained some real-life experience in gainful employment, marriage, and service among the brethren.

This is an important step forward for our church as we touch the future by selecting younger people to serve the brethren in long-term service as they become seasoned servants to be helpers of our members' joy. So that's a very encouraging note and very needful. We've got several men right now in their 70s that are retiring. Of course, Mr. Keller is retiring. I can tell you that I'm wearing out. That's just that simple. We all are wearing out, aren't we? Except the young ones. But I'm wearing out. I see a major difference in my body from when I came here at age 55 nine and a half years ago.

I see it and I feel it. But the idea is to pace myself in a way that I don't wear out before my time. To put the point of being worn out as far down there as many years ahead as possible. And when that point comes down there, that it's not wearing out but worn out, will be determined to a great degree by how I exercise myself and what I do in the meantime.

So I certainly am appreciating more and more as time goes on that we do have to have some younger ones coming on behind us. If you have not registered for the feast, please do so because the coordinators are now actually already in the process of beginning to make plans for certain activities at the feast.

Of course, that's based on the registration numbers. Politics, politics, politics. We could totally ignore them, couldn't we, if they would ignore us? But the decisions that are made in the high political circles, obviously, umbrella over all of us. And what we would all like to have, which we never can seem to get a full set of, would be very hard-working, honest leaders, men and women of integrity.

But so many on both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat, are more concerned about getting there, doing whatever it is to stay there, becoming very rich and wealthy while they are there, and making merchandise of the United States of America.

I mean, for instance, I don't know how many of us really, really follow the news that closely. It's one reason I do cover some things here from the pulpit.

I also see it as part of my responsibility. But the latest, of course, is all the scandals surrounding the Clintons. And, you know, for instance, in 2010, 20% of America's uranium, 20% of America's uranium in 2010, became the property of Russia because of a deal that was made. And the Secretary of State, who was at the center of that, was Hillary Clinton at the time.

And immediately, on the heels of 20% of our uranium becoming property of Russia, Bill Clinton received a speaking engagement in Moscow that paid him $500,000 to speak. Maybe you don't desire to be a leader. I do. Not now. I'm not interested in being involved in government right now. But you think about it, with all the shenanigans and all that we see going on, to think of a day when 100% pure righteousness sits on a throne in Jerusalem and has the assistance of the firstfruits who sit righteously with him. And what a difference it will make in the world in terms of the condition of the world.

Because it starts – you know, the world's conditions are set first and foremost and primarily by the leadership of the world. History shows that. The common people don't generally set the overall conditions. They don't drive them. They can factor in, yes. But I do look forward to being a king and a priest and a shepherd, an administrator and an educator at that day.

We see things going on. For instance, in California, the California legislature recently voted in a law mandating child vaccinations to attend public schools with no exemption for religious beliefs. Now, I'm not talking about I'm for vaccinations or I'm not for them. I'm not even talking about the issue of whether you should vaccinate or not vaccinate. That's all. I'm not even putting that on the table. What I'm talking about is when they mandate child vaccinations in order for you to be able to attend public schools and they allow no religious exemption.

I've always thought if there are 30 kids in a class and 29 are vaccinated and the vaccinations are what they're supposed to be in terms of guaranteeing you don't get such and such and one kid is not vaccinated, what do the 29 have to fear from the one?

Aren't they safe? Now, if anybody wants to discuss it with me, I realize there are some other factors involved. I understand that. I'm not ignorant to what some of the issues of concerns are. But as a general thing, if the others are vaccinated, the ones that are vaccinated theoretically don't have to fear the one that's not.

But this issue, and of course other states are watching to see, and I've heard some talk about on the news, it's not gained much headway, but some talk about a federal law mandating vaccinations of all adults for certain things.

Of course, there's nothing fully in the works on that yet. But it says, the bill passed despite protests from many professing Christians. This will force many California families to home-school their children.

What else might be mandated by the state? What would happen to those who refuse to go against their conscience? Now, let me refresh our minds on something.

Okay, they passed a law, California. If your kid's not vaccinated, they can't be in the public school.

No exemption for religious beliefs.

Oh, by the way, since they can't be in the public school, you'll have to home-school them. Oh, by the way, if you're not qualified to be a teacher, if you don't have a teaching certificate or a degree, one of you, one of you parents, you can't home-school your kids.

What are you going to do if you've got strong religious convictions? You don't have your child immunized, so they can't be in the public school, and neither of you as parents are educationally qualified the way the state looks at it, because you don't have a teaching certificate or a degree to teach. What do you do? Does the state take over? Because you're truant. If you're not, you know, education is mandatory one way or the other. You can get boxed out. You can literally get boxed out. And again, I'm not speaking for or against vaccinations per se. That's personal decision. But I do believe that one reason that autism is running away like wildfire these days and other things is they're pumping too much junk, too fast, into little babies. And it's overloading. That's just my personal thought on it. Too much, too soon, too fast when they're too little. There doesn't seem to be a sufficient priority on it.

Oh, by the way, California, again, Oakland, across the Bay from San Francisco. I don't know if it's an Oakland school district. This happened just a week ago, Wednesday. Now, I don't know if it's a... I don't know how their school system is set up. I don't know if they have one overall board and then lesser boards under it, districts. But I do know this was an Oakland school district. I just don't know the size of it. But if you're in class and you're a student and you decide you want to cuss the teacher out, what do you think is going to happen if you start cussing the teacher out? You get kicked out of the class. Or the teacher... you decide you just want to get up and walk out of the class and leave it and come back when you want. Or you want to sit at the back of the room, turn your chair around, face the wall, and play games on your smartphone or whatever.

You see any reason why the teacher should step in and intervene? Correct? Expell them from the class? They have to be? Well, the board removed expulsion for what is called willful defiance. Cannot... this was of Wednesday the 13th... cannot expel a student from class because they are willfully defiant. Just cut the ground right after the teacher and the principal.

See, we are living attitudinal changes in our society that are driving events. And, of course, California, in many regards, sets the pace. One in every eight Americans or so lives in California. And, of course, music, movies, culture... so much is driven by what happens in California.

Did you see the other day how that Pope Francis has recognized the Palestinian state, or that is, has officially given diplomatic recognition to the state of Palestine?

And, of course, that has a lot of people upset. It certainly doesn't help the cause of peace in the Middle East or help Israel. But something that probably would seem more important to Americans...

A little article here says, and I'll start off with a quote somebody gives, a lack of will among politicians in Washington is the reason why there is no plan to secure America's national grid system from electromagnetic pulse that would threaten countless lives according to testimony delivered to Congress Wednesday. That was, I believe, Wednesday the 13th. An EMP catastrophe could come through nature, such as a massive solar flare directed at Earth, but also through a nuclear explosion at high altitude. At a joint hearing Wednesday before the subcommittees on national security and the interior, under the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, expert Peter Pry pointed a finger at Washington. Quote, Pry, executive director of the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security at Congressional Advisory Board, said there is so little effort to address the danger. Most state governments aren't even aware they have options to strengthen their portion of the grid and protect their citizens from the catastrophic consequences of a national blackout. Well, whenever something of that magnitude happens, it's finished for us as a nation. And I will say this in confidence. God will not let that happen until it's the right timing.

By the way, did any of you...my insurance on my house is with Kentucky Farm Bureau. Did any of you get a letter from Kentucky Farm Bureau if you're with them or whoever you're with? And it's a form that if I don't want earthquake insurance, that I can sign this form and send it back.

And when my policy is renewed in November, there won't be any earthquake insurance. Of course, the earthquake insurance currently requires on my policy a 20 percent deductible, which is steep.

But in the letter, it plainly says, basically, we're in the hot zone of the New Madrid Fault Line. And we're going to have to go up on the cost of the earthquake insurance. If you don't want it, please sign this form and send it back. Well, I don't dare sign the form and send it back, because I cannot afford to. I cannot afford to take the measure of loss. In spite of the deductible that's there, it would be if we have the shock waves. The soil around here is, a lot of it's, I think, referred to as fragile, fragile pan or something like that. And if there's a major earthquake, it'd be like waves going through Jell-O, so it'd be shock waves that go through. And we are in the red zone. I've seen the scale.

And, but, see, why are they upping it? Because they are anticipating that sometime, in the not-too-distant future, we're going to be having a pretty good earthquake over there, and it's going to affect Paducah. That's why. And Kentucky Farm Bureau is Kentucky Farm Bureau.

And I don't know how they've got their insurances broken down, but it's Kentucky. I don't know if they're tied in with Farm Bureau in a way that they're part of a national system, like Missouri Farm Bureau, Illinois Farm Bureau. But if they're independent, and they're strictly Kentucky, one earthquake with the damages involved could wipe them out as an insurance company. Not like maybe Allstate, that's nationwide or progressive nationwide.

So anyhow, these are some of the realities that here in this area, in terms of particulars that we live with. And again, I don't go to bed and have trouble going to sleep thinking, well, an earthquake might hit tonight while I'm asleep. Wow, that's so stressful. That's going to take me a while to be able to go to sleep. When I'm tired and ready to go to bed, I go to bed and I go to sleep. I just don't worry about it.

I take proper measures like I'm going to carry earthquake insurance as long as I can possibly afford it. But there are any number of things that could happen that could finish us off. And God is not going to allow certain things in particular to happen until He simply says, like He did with Sodom and Gomorrah, Enough is enough.

Anyhow, let's have another song in the sermon.