Stewardship Of Life by Calvin Perrigo

Stewardship means to manage something that belongs to another. At the very onset that does not sound true by today's philosophy. "It's my life, I'll do with it what I want to." We've learned that from Satan. He told Eve to begin with that "you'll not surely die, but you'll have an improved position if you take of that tree, you'll be as Gods, knowing good and evil." But people today will tell you, they will show you by their actions, that it is their life and they will do exactly what they want to do with it.

If stewardship means to manage something that belongs to another, and we are going to talk about the distributorship of life, we're going to have to drop that mans philosophy and conclude life, our life as an individual does not belong to us. If people could ever get away from the influence of Satan and face that reality, that our life is not our own, we could manage it a lot better than we are.

We want to call your attention to three verses recorded in the first letter that the Apostle Peter wrote, the fourth Chapter, beginning with the 9th verse, reading the 10th and 11th verses of I Peter 4:9 "Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." These three verses ought to be sufficient foundation for our look into our Stewardship of Life.

First of all, where does life come from? All of us here this morning could say that it came from our mother. If we don't know much about God, that's about all we will say. That our mother gave us life at our natural birth. But then in order to fully perceive that thought, we're going to have to find out where our mother got her life, and on down the line. But if we want to look at it from God's truth, we can make a few determinations from his Word as to the origin of life, and if we can get the beginning of life established in our minds and in our thinking, we will have a lot easier time managing life if we know where it came from.

A very simple truth is found in the creation of man in the second Chapter of Genesis verse 7. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul". We're talking about the Stewardship of Life, we're talking about human life, we're talking about your life and my life. As far as we are concerned, this verse of scripture tells us where man got his life originally. He was formed, made from dust, and God, the Lord God that formed him, breathed life into him and man became a living soul.

So, from God comes our life. From God comes all life. Before He created man He had created the beast of the field. He had created the fowl of the air. He had created the fish to the sea. He had called light to come forth and there was light. He had formed the earth and the trees and the vegetation and all those things, so God IS life and He is the origin of life, and we have from the scriptures proved that he gave man his life.

In giving man that life he also gave the ability to reproduce the life that he had breathed into Adam's nostrils. So God is the giver of Life. We hear the Lord Jesus Christ teaching in his day concerning some more detailed things of life and He tells us that He not only is the way and the truth but He is the life. That is having reference to his addressing His Church and not the world in general. But we want to look at life in general and also within the saved segment of that life and also that which is involved in church work today. We look at three categories really. Society in general, the Saved Soul, and the Baptist person today. But we will be looking at life.

John, in I John 1:2 tells us something that he believes concerning life, and he wrote this epistle and it reads like this: I John 1:1-2 "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life. (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifest unto us;)" So we see here from the pen of the Apostle he talks about that eternal life in Christ Jesus. It was manifest to them, they bear witness of it and they show it unto other people and that life was with the Father and was manifest unto the human family. So we have an advancement here of life. We talk about life that God breathed into the dust to form Adam, and now John is talking about an eternal life that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. If he lives in our heart, then we have something to add to the life that Adam experienced. We have an improvement on that life that is eternal.

We too, that have been saved are responsible for managing that aspect of life also. So, life does come from God. Paul wrote to the saints at Colossae and he said that "Christ is our life." Now, can we honestly make that statement today. And if we made that statement and said, yes He is our life, and then we were questioned, How is your life? What is your formula for life? What will your life lead you to do and not to do? We might find ourselves embarrassed if we have said Christ is our Life and we don't know what He has commanded and what He has said to do and not to do, where he has said to go and not to go. We might find ourselves embarrassed, but he is the life of those that have been born again by His Spirit.

Paul told the educated heathens in Athens, and I call them that from the view of eternal life, because they didn't know anything about our God, they worshipped all types and they set up monuments to them. In order to cover their feelings of emptiness they set a monument there that read "To the Unknown God". Paul addressed himself to that people and said "In him we live and move and have our being." Now when we think about these things and how God has given us life, Let me ask you this question: Do you appreciate being a human being? How would you liked to have been a bird in the last month? How many of those (birds) do you think died in this city in the last month because of the weather and lack of food? How would you like to be a Bull Frog? How would you like to be a Cow? How would you like to be a Dog? DO YOU APPRECIATE BEING A HUMAN BEING?

After reading about life and where it came from and how God created man and all His involvement with us, do you appreciate being a human being or would you rather be like a lot of people and say "I wish I was an animal then I wouldn't have to go to church, wouldn't have this responsibility, wouldn't have to look at you, hear you, and listen to you." I appreciate the fact that God so ordained that that part of me that is called me is human. I'm appreciating that and I hope you do. Humans are allowed to stand up and walk on their own feet. Humans have been given, from God, the ability to know right from wrong. Humans have been given the ability to reason things out and to remember things. I appreciate the fact that I am not a brute beast today, but am classified as a human being. Let's look at it then a little further, the Stewardship of Life.

If we have established the fact that life comes from God, then should we have any selfish motive about our purpose in life. What is our purpose in life? If life came from God, if God gave his only begotten Son that we might have eternal life, spiritually speaking, what is our purpose in life? Should it be for a selfish motive? Should it be for our ownself all the way through, and not think of anyone else? If we have trouble with this part of our management we need to go to the scriptures to get the scriptural statement from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; if we have problems being selfish as far as our purpose in life is concerned. I know there are a lot of people in this world, a lot of them in this nation today and they're growing weekly and monthly and they're becoming dependent on somebody else and they think life owes them a living. They also think that life has no right to bring a hardship their way. That's being spoiled. It is not from God. It is from influences of Satan that these things affect people, so let's think about our purpose in life as people that are gathered here this morning.

In the 20th Chapter of Matthew we'll find a statement from the Lord that will help us if we have a selfish motive in mind about our purpose upon this earth. Jesus said this concerning himself, in the 28th verse of Matthew 20, "Even as the Son of Man not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." I'll follow you where ever you go Lord, you have saved my soul, and I am willing to serve you all the way through life. Do not we feel that close to the Lord at salvation? Do not we make those types of promises when we really get convicted and really want to get saved and have the relief from the burden of sin? We have the voice of the Apostle Peter and we have repeated that over and over in our time, we are ready to follow you wherever you go and all those things. But here Jesus said that he did not come to be pampered, waited upon, the word here in King James is "Ministered unto", served in other words. He did not come to be served. How many times can we read in the scriptures where he had an opportunity to be worshipped and served by mankind? Several times we read where they could have came and made Him a King, but he didn't come to be served, he didn't come to be ministered unto, but he came to minister. He came to give His life a ransom for many.

So if we follow the Lord, and if we are having trouble managing our life and feel selfish about our purpose in life, let's remember the pattern of Jesus. He came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give His life. The seed that is never planted in the soil or the liquids that are able to cause it to germinate today will never give any other life. It will lay dormant and just be a seed. But if it dies, it will bring forth other life. Jesus teaches that. We know today that we should be willing, in the managing of our life, to give our life for someone else. To give our life for a cause or whatever it may be. If we follow our Lord we'll look at it from that direction and we won't be selfish about it.

Let's see how this appears from the saved soul angle. In the I Corinthian letter Chapter six the Apostle Paul tells us some things concerning the christian life and the view we should have toward it and it does not teach selfishness what so ever. In the 6th chapter of I Corinthians 19th and 20th verses, he is addressing himself to the church at Corinth. "What? know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" Remember the song a while ago "He Lives". Where does he live, where was the exact truth and proof of where Christ lives in that song? In our heart. Here Paul says to the church at Corinth: You are the temple of the Holy Ghost. It's in you in other words. You have that of God and you are not your own. So we are beginning to see something here as far as a physical body is concerned. We do have a responsibility toward it, to manage it a little better than we do. It should get the proper amount of rest, it should get a proper diet. If you don't know a proper diet, you can learn how to eat and live better in this world. You owe that to God and to the sinners of this world to be healthy enough to testify to them that God is life and that he gives life. If you want to waste your physical life, you have to contend with this verse of scripture here. He asked the church at Corinth, don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost. We have things today plaguing us in a physical sense in this world that have been compounded by people not taking care of themselves, and not knowing how, not having enough fortitude to take care of their physical bodies. Our physical body is not our own either. It was created in the image and after the likeness of God. If it houses the soul, that has been redeemed by the Lord, and His Spirit dwells therein and that spirit influences that physical part of us, surely it needs to be in some kind of condition to do what God has for it to do.

We have a lot of problems in this world today because people have not taken care of their physical bodies, and their habits have brought problems. Do you believe that cigarette smoking is hazardous to your health? Is there a person present today that does not believe that the poison of nicotine has no effect on the physical body? They have a campaign going now, hoping to get the beer and wine commercials off the television. Do you think they've got a chance to do that? They don't think they have. They are defeated before they start, some of them are because of the lobbying power of the distillery industry. But at least they are trying and are holding public hearings on trying to eliminate that from the mind and eyes of our children as far as drinking and advertising "Oh how good it is. I just want to have some gusto." "It's Miller time." "I've worked all day and it's time for me to stop by and enjoy myself." Now these influences are upon us as people and we are Stewards of Our Life. If we don't know how to take care of our physical bodies, we are going to pay, or suffer for that and God is going to be dishonored in those things that we do to ourself that are damaging. Over eating is just as bad as drinking. Gluten and wine bibbing go hand in hand according to the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that there are a lot of things we can do concerning the management of our physical bodies, but our whole purpose today is not to emphasize the flesh, but we do need to know that it is involved.

"What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God and you are not your own. For you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's." Ownership comes forth again, the spirit and the body both belong to God according to this verse. If you don't think the body belongs to God, check the doctrine of the resurrection, and see who's going to be resurrected when the trumpet sounds. The wicked and the just are going to be. So, God still has some claim on it even after death. It is His. Paul tells the Corinthian brethren here that our body and our spirit are God's. We have been purchased with a price, so that emphasizes further the importance of us managing something that belongs to God, which is our life. We are left solely in control of that after we have passed through childhood and reached a responsible position. We are responsible for ourselves. We take care of children until they reach an age of maturity, but it all belongs to God. So, we need to think about that as we consider the Stewardship of Life.

In the 14th chapter of Romans, the 7th verse, we'll find something concerning the management of our life that's of importance to you and I today. Paul writes this to the saints of Rome, "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." You mean it's not my life to live as I want to? I can't go off in the desert and die? I've already made the statement that that's what I wanted to do. Just didn't want to bother society, I didn't want to bother the church, I didn't want to be a burden on my family, I just wanted to be able to let God listen to me and let him tell me when it's time to go and depart and never be seen again. But that's a selfish attitude. No man lives to himself, no man dies to himself. Listen to the 8th verse of Romans 14. "For whether we live." What do we do? We live unto the Lord. Brother Lambert used to take issue with the song that says something, I don't know the words of it, but that whatever I do is for my Lord. It was based on that verse of scripture, and he said he did not go Rabbit hunting for the Lord. But, this verse of scripture says this, "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; and whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lords."

Now, we have the responsibility then in life to recognize that we are the Lord's and it's His and not ours.

Life does not belong to you and me. Can you hold on to it? No. Can you create it? No. Can you keep it from dying? No. Then why try to claim such an ownership through those periods of time that those things do not exist. I cannot make life, I cannot maintain life, I cannot keep life from dying. But God can. It is because it belongs to him and he has left me to manage my part of it. He has left you to manage your part of it. And the best we can do will honor our God, and we should be a little better managers of life than we are.

Alright, let's consider a little service in our life. Do you ever have a problem with this kind on thinking? Well, I want to do something, but I want everything to be just right, I want to do the big things, and let the little things take care of themselves, so forth and so on. In your life have you ever got off in a snare, waiting for the big event, or waiting for it to be the proper time and everything to be just right before we do anything. We are able to look toward the big events quite easily. If we have that problem, I want you to consider a passage or two from the 11th chapter of Ecclesiastes, along this line. If you are a person in the management of you life that you are just interested in the big events or the big things in life, and don't pay much attention to the little everyday things that walk right under you nose day by day, listen to what Ecclesiastes 11 teaches. The first verse says, "Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shall find it after many days." Then we go over into the 6th verse and it teaches us this: "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand: for thou knoweth not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good." Do you know the end result of some small insignificant event in your life. Do you know what might be the end result of some event that you just passed over and classified as non-important. This verse of scripture says to "Sow your seed in the morning, in the evening don't withhold your hand for thy knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that or whether they both shall be alike good." God can take those little insignificant things in life that we everyday pass over, without putting any importance on them, and make some great big event out of them. And if we have trouble looking over to the big events, lets think about what might be possible.

So, if we have a problem looking over those things, let's not wait all our life to begin to live. There are people that do that. They are going to wait until this is removed, they're going to wait until that is gone out of the way. They're going to wait until this thing is eliminated, and then they're really going to do something. If we don't do the little things, its very unlikely that we'll ever do anything big. There are people that plan to do great works for the Lord when they get on the mission field, or when the time is right, and we're "going to burn the woods" up when we get there. I'm telling you from experience. I was going to Oregon in '62 and I was going to be the greatest thing that ever hit that state. And that didn't happen while I was out there, as far as I know. But those are thoughts that we have. If you do not do it at home, don't expect to do it there. If they are not doing it here, don't expect it to be done there. Because if we will not take advantage of the little events in our life, do you think that a God in heaven that is the giver of life, and the controller of all things, that knoweth all things, is going to entrust with you and I some big spectacular thing?

So people a lot of times waste their entire life waiting for a big event. Don't wait for it. You don't know what's going to prosper as this verse of scripture says, "For thou knowth not whether shall prosper either this or that or whether both shall be alike good." So it's best to sow your seed and it's best not to withhold your hand when reaping time comes. In the 25th Chapter of Matthew, 21st verse we have some more scriptural information on this thought. The 25th Chapter and the 21st verse tells us of a reward for the person that considers all his life to be important, that he didn't dwell on the big event and didn't overlook the little event, and here's what the reward was. "His Lord said unto him, well done thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter now into the joy of thy Lord." Now here was a reward for a faithful servant that had been faithful over a few things. He did not skip over the little events in life waiting for the big events, but he went by daily doing what he was supposed to do and he got his reward and he was faithful over a few things and he was made ruler over many. So remember Ecclesiastes 11:6 and Matthew 25:21 if you are a person that has trouble just dealing with the big events in life.

No part of your life is unimportant. Why not? Because God is the giver of Life, it belongs to him, he has a purpose for it in this world. So no part of any life is of non-importance. It's all important and we need to think about those things. The person that will not give a dime or a dollar will not give a million when he becomes a millionaire. "If I was just able to help someone, if I was just able to give, I would." Teach your children, the first dime they earn to give a penny of it to God and when they earn their million, they can give that tenth to God and it will be the same economics. But, if you teach them to make their million and then give their dollar, they are not going to see it that way. We'll get into that another Sunday, maybe the Lord willing. But, we're talking about the big events and the little events here and we need not to look for those things and we need not to place our emphasis on big things. Have you ever known somebody, if they couldn't make some big fair show in the flesh, wouldn't do anything. You look at a bunch of these empty seats around here and if you look real close you'll see an image of that type. Not all of them, but you'll see some of those types in your mind. "If I can't do something big I don't want any part of it." That's poor stewardship of life. If we be guilty of that or anyone else be guilty of that, its not good management of that which God has entrusted us with.

Alright, we live in a time that everything goes real good and pleasant for us comparatively speaking, to most of us in the past. We have a lot of conveniences today and a lot of easy things in life, from appliances to transportation, to communication, all those things, and they are here for our using. We are just like the children of Israel that went into a land full of milk and honey. People have worked and have served and have brought forth a lot of things through the help of God, through his providence, and we've just more or less just reached out there on a platter and took those things. Should we be grateful for that or should we just say, "that's owed to me". We should be grateful for what we have. The benefits that we enjoy today, that our forefather Baptists wouldn't have dreamed of 150 years ago and if we don't show some gratitude for those things that we enjoy today because of their labors and the labors of others, we are classified as ingrates. What is an ingrate? It's a self-centered person, it's a ungrateful person. I'm grateful for those that trod the path before me, and just being grateful will not pay the debt. I have to turn something back into society in order for someone else to reap a benefit tomorrow. Do you? You need to leave some footprints in the sand of time, as Brother Oliver preached from this pulpit one time. You need to leave something along the road in appreciation for what you claim, and it costs us nothing. Our benefits need to be passed on. If we're proper managers of life we will pass on some things, and we will be so grateful that we have today the comfort of this building, the transportation that brought us to this building, and I hope after this service is over and all those benefits that we claim today, that our fathers and our grandfathers did not possess, and we ought to be so grateful and pass those things on.

Let us manage our life as they managed theirs and we'll leave something in this world that will be beneficial to someone else. The person that managed his time in my childhood, that got to the church house on time, that got to the pulpit prepared, that preached the Gospel, that's a benefit to me. But if they'd taken the pattern today of so many, where would they have been when I got there as a lost child, and needed to hear the Gospel? They'd have been somewhere else doing their thing on Sunday. And you allow members of this church to do that often to this church and everything else and never say anything about it. If someone had of failed to have been there when you heard the Gospel and it convicted your soul, where would you be today? And we're just so weak and that's a poor management of our life too. But we need to think about the benefits that we have inherited. Radio, television, the press, all those things we just take for granted were not even dreams of people a few years ago. But we just take them today. The automatic dishwasher, the garbage disposal, you don't even have to take out your slop anymore. I can remember the old slop bucket, stayed behind the stove. I remember the odor of it. I remember it getting cleaned up ever so often. Today we don't even have to fool with our slop, we just pore it down the drain. Our children say, "why its always been that way hasn't it mama?" A garbage disposal, one little item like that. We never think about how it was before that. Refrigerator, I remember dragging a block of ice from Dixon Springs over to where I lived as a child in a burlap bag. There was two of us went over there at wheat thrashing time and we couldn't tote the 50lb block back and we drug it half the way home, time we got there it was just about half of it wore out and the rest of it melted. Who ever heard of such a thing? I don't even have an ice maker yet, but you do don't you? I don't have an ice maker, but I can take that tray, flexible tray, twitch it just a little bit and empty that whole thing out in one container, fill it back up and it'll be frozen by the time I need that next glass of tea.

Benefits, Oh my goodness, the benefits that we have inherited without lifting one finger to bring them about. Does that make us debtors? Yes, we're debtors to God. We're debtors to life. We're debtors to God. Are you a debtor? Do you feel like you are a debtor? Let me tell you this one I read. And I've made the statement, I believe I have, if I haven't I've thought it. "I don't owe one penny to anyone." This certain person made that statement in the presence of some people. I do not owe one penny was the statement made, and a friend of his standing there overheard him make that statement and he said, Brother, if you paid your debts, you wouldn't have a penny. And of course it caused the man to get upset. He was indignant because he knew about his finances and the man knew about God and he knew about life and he made the statement when he approached him, why do you say such that if I paid my debts I wouldn't have a penny? He said, you owe it all to God and if you pay what you ought to pay you would be penniless. Scripture, yes I'll give you scripture. Paul said, I brought nothing into this world, and it's evident that I shall carry nothing out. Now, that's what the man was getting at when this fellow was boasting about not owing a penny. We may think that we don't have this type of debt, when we have a big debt over here. But we are debtors to God, we're debtors to society, we're debtors to life and we need to think about that seriously and plow something back into that investment that we're so richly drawing from and let someone else have an opportunity to live as we have lived.

Proverbs 11:25 tells us something about the liberal soul. It says the liberal soul shall be a reaper of something. Listen to the wording of it. Proverbs 11:25. "The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself." Do you believe that? You are going to pitch everything in life and think that you're going to get back some great abundant something? The scripture here says the liberal soul, and to be liberal you're free with something. To be liberal means that you freely give or do this or do that, and the liberal soul shall be made fat. In other words, there's something going to be returned to the liberal soul. It says the person that watereth shall be watered also himself.

So, we need to think about that when we think about the stewardship of our life. Think about God's system and get Satan's system out of your mind. Get God's system on your mind and know that it works. It has worked all the way down and its been to the good of mankind.

Alright, what about the stewardship of opportunity in life. Do you know that one opportunity creates other opportunities? Do you know one opportunity passed by may eliminate a whole multitude of opportunities in your life. Very clearly taught in the teaching of Jesus. This owner was going away on a trip, he gave one servant five talents, that's a certain amount of money, it's not your ability to play the piano and sing high tenor, but he gave him five talents, he gave another servant two talents, he gave another one talent, so we have three men here, servants of their master, one with five dollars we shall say, one with two dollars we shall say, and one with one dollar we shall say, and we're talking about creating opportunities. We're talking about missing opportunities by not taking advantage of the first one that comes our way. In the 25th Chapter of Matthew we have this lesson taught. He passed out these amounts and he went his way. The man with five talents invested. The man with two talents invested, the man with one talent buried it. Do you know that if we had detectors today that would check the buried opportunities of Baptists, that thing would go into, it would make such a invigorating noise that we'd be shocked out of our boots. If we had such a devise today that would detect the buried opportunities of our people, how many are hidden today and covered up by the things of this world. The Lord returned and here is what he said. "Well done thy good and faithful servant," I read it awhile ago, that's the man that got the five talents, come down to the person that got the two talents, said "Lord, thou hast delivered unto me two talents, behold I have gained two other talents." So, he doubled his money, just like the first one doubled his money, he said the same thing to him. He comes down to the one talent and here's what he said. "Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strewed: And I was afraid." The stewardship of life and you say you're afraid? Life is God's. Both physical and spiritual. Why be afraid of life? But he said "I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo there thou hast that is thine."

How are you going to feel when you stand at the judgment and hold out your salvation to God and say, "Here it is, just like you gave it to me." Nothing to add to that but that eternal life that you gave me in my soul. You don't believe in rewards then? If you want to be a Baptist you need to believe the truth of the Bible, you need to believe that some are going to get there so as by fire and others are going to get there with the things that they have done that God has recognized in this world. But the man with one talent said "I hid it, here it is your one talent. And the Lord answered him, "Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strewed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own usury. Take therefore the talent from him," We're talking about opportunities, if you take advantage of an opportunity, there'll be other opportunities open up. We'll let's have an example of that one preacher. Alright, suppose the Lord impresses you through love to talk to a lost soul about their salvation, suppose you are Stephen standing yonder and feeling the stones of the crowd and God impresses you through love to say "Lay not this sin to their charge", and suppose someone hears you, and it influences them, and in turn they get saved, and in turn they get called to preach, and they preach to a million souls that get saved. You call that opportunity wasted? What would you have done in Stephen's case? Would you have kept your mouth closed and said "Let them get just exactly what they deserve"? An opportunity wasted may be doors closed to thousands of other opportunities. So let's take advantage of our opportunities in our stewardship of life.

As we grow older, we have more opportunities. Our social circle gets larger. Normally our financial circle gets bigger and the more people we know in life and the more influence we have in life, the more opportunities that we have in life. If I know ten people, I can witness to ten people. If I know a hundred people, I can witness to a hundred people. If I have ten dollars and I acquire a hundred dollars, then I have ten times more power with that money, to supply the needs of missionaries and their families, and people need to hear the truth around this world. So, our opportunities increase as we increase, and we ought to keep in step with that. As we said last night, the older people of this Church ought to be the stronger of this Church. And I won't retract that statement. If you want to argue with it, you can. But when we talk about older people, we're talking about from the point of salvation and membership until today. We're not talking about the person that gets saved at the age of 70. We're talking about people that have been members of the Lord's Church for ages and ages. And they are looked upon, and if they falter, we have not carried forth a good stewardship of life.

People that used to be the backbone and the foundation of this Church, no more do you see or hear from them, in a good tone. Why? And because that they have been here through the years, past and gone and are not here anymore, they hurt people, and their influence is in the wrong direction, and they'll have to answer for their lack of stewardship on their part, and you and I will too. We're here today, where will you be tomorrow? We say that we won't do this, and we won't do that. When a person thinks himself strong enough not to ever fall..(End of Tape)