Amen. Thank you, brother.
Is that it?
Yep. Good deal.
Good morning, everybody. May I ask, who forgot to change your clock this morning last night?
Anybody else?
Lyndon, I forgot to change ours, and my message is about the time change. So no excuse.
But I can always count on it about you. You can you're gonna have some people to run late. Oh, no
Time change Sunday
Show up about time church is over
So you can count on it
anyway
March the 1st
1964
I surrendered to the ministry, little churches up the road there from my house that started
in our house when I was just a little boy, the people started meeting under the tree
out there and started with.
And then I grew up in a sawmill country.
I surrendered to preach on March the 1st, 1964, and I preached my first message following
the Sunday on March the 8th, and they licensed, the church licensed me.
That night after church, about my first night of preaching on March the 8th, the church
called me, said, we saw on the paper where you started preaching.
I wound up accepting the church less than a month after I started preaching.
So the Lord opened up the way and he's still with me.
Thank the Lord for the congregation that we have today.
My message this morning is entitled, it's a matter of time, it's a matter of time.
And as we have already had the text read from Ecclesiastes chapter three, we're going to
2 Corinthians 6 verse 2, for he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the
day of salvation have I suckered thee, behold, and now is accepted time, behold, and now
is the day of salvation, not tomorrow, today is.
I was preparing the message this week, and I got some mail from one of our churches,
and it had a statement on there that took my mind a moment, and I couldn't have but
noticed it, and I tried to identify it.
But in Revelation chapter 21, Revelation chapter 21, give you a moment to find it there, Revelation
21 verse 21, or 22 actually.
There was a guy I had printed there, a timeless, can you read my own right, I'm sorry, I left
my new glasses, but a timeless seminar.
Now think about that a moment and don't know me, what's a timeless seminar?
Well, I don't know what time it is. So let's just read what John said in revelations
Revelation 21 verse 22
And I saw no temple there in
for the Lord God Almighty and
the limb and or the temple of it and
The city had no need of the Sun
neither of the moon
to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light of them.
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of
the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.
For there shall be no night there, no night gone, and they shall bring the glory and honor
of the nations into it.
There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatsoever work at the
But they which are written in the Lamb's book of life
It's almost like yesterday that I could
Hear my pastor up there for the Paul now's
Saying folk you got to get your name in the book in the lamb book of life and he's right on that's still the need of everybody
But let's look at the scripture where Solomon gave us the advice in Ecclesiastes that there
is a time for everything done under the sun.
There's purpose for everything done under the heavens.
Sad to say
previous to that
Man communed with God in person that face-to-face, but
Once the sin happened
That put a barrier up between God and
man
Disessinated a time for sin to be paid for
Which was promised by God himself
Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 you're familiar with the scripture where the Lord said to the serpent
That Adam was going to prove his his heel go put him out of business
And folk that time is still awaiting
But we anxiously await and we'll see that happen
somewhere
Amidst the eternity
between now and then
But it fulfilled some 1900 years ago at the place called Calvary.
The son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, was nailed to the cross as he pled to Father forgive
them for they know not what to do.
But as he gives the things that it's time for, he said there's a time to be born.
We had no say about this, did we?
I read sometime back where there was a young guy sued, literally sued his parents, his
He said, I didn't want to be born.
How did he know he didn't want to be born?
Who told him?
Can you think about that a moment?
Sune your parents for being born.
Maybe another way around where that kind of blew my mind that you think about suing your
parents.
as much trouble as we give them. They got a right to disown, don't they? But we were
born a sinner. We didn't have to be a sinner. We were born that way. The Lord said, and
I don't know. There's nobody here today that's without sin. If it was, you'd be up here talking, not me.
But thank the Lord, He died for our sin and for all of our sin, not just part.
But He said there was a time to die.
But we can't escape that appointment
Rich
per
free
Our bond made
We still got to face that
appointment
Can't get around it
We had a fellow that used to come to church here
It was buried about four or five years ago, if it's not quite that long, maybe, at an
eighth grade education and was a billionaire.
He gave Lyndon and I the keys to his ranch down to Del Rio at 10 square miles ranch.
One, I had built a new church out here off of 290 Cyprus, tried to get me to bring their
congregation that we had out there and be part of his congregation.
A good man, I loved him, but I told him things don't work that way.
If you know what I mean, he knew he would well off.
He owned it, matter of fact, behind, but he's a big air-conditioned manufacturing plant
back here.
It was the last time I was with him before he passed away.
He built five churches that I know of.
We give him credit, but he still had his own ways and with that kind of power and money
and so forth, he tended to exert it the wrong way.
And, folks, I don't know about y'all, but I don't want somebody telling me how to preach,
But anyway, I don't care how rich that you are.
Matter of fact, I don't know if I told you all this or not, but when he when he died he owned this
manufacturing plant around here and his family hired a hearse
to take his hearse and drive it to all the machinery places around the place the building there
where they could see him one last time.
Because every day he would drive in
And he had a little, Melinda and I rode with him a number of times.
He had a little cart that he drove around to each one of the machines, and he had a
massive place back here for Houston, Texas.
What he did and all he did is past tense and rest on eternity
But I'm not talking about this brother because we all are like him we were all the sinners
But a point I want to bring out. I don't care much material stuff. You got you can't stay here
You got to go it's appointed under man wants to die
But after this
judgment. We must prepare for that time. We just read it, where Paul wrote the church
The Scripture says, and a time to pluck up, and I don't know if you know it or not, but
you may be sitting idle, but that don't keep you from planning something, may be planning
to see the violence, and folk is wrong to waste the Lord time.
and he expects us to use it for him.
One of these days we're going to answer to the Lord
for the deeds done in the flesh.
That's not the way we're saved, is it?
We're saved through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we're all going to be judged according to our works.
That's what the scripture says.
But he said there's a time to the plan and a time to pluck up
We all are planning something
Well, what we pluck is what we reap in it
Whatever a man saw it that's how he also reaped he that sort of the flesh out of the flesh reaped corruption
He that saw it under the spirit tell reaped live everlasting
Folks, that's the kind of seat we need to sow.
Verse 4 says, it's a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.
Fuck we all mourn don't we when we lose our loved ones. I
Just looking over
The place here today I see
Four of us at least that have lost children and
For a parent to lose a child there's no greater pains. There's no greater mourning
Because we love our loved ones don't we
It was a time to weep, and a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
Years ago, things were different in the people's ideals of morality and what have you, but
Baylor had a rule of fair no-dancing.
Now, this is before he was faster than Ricky's time, but it says no-dancing.
Think about that a minute.
How's that fit with today's morality level?
And verse six says it's a time to get and a time to lose and a time to keep and time
to cast away before the Lord said confess your faults one to another, didn't he?
But we confess our faults one another and I'm about to confess one
It says there's a time to cast away in verse 6 a time to get a time to lose time to keep and a time to cast away
Both of you know I've been in the same house Linda and I have there for 48 years
We came here as your pastor in 1977.
And I've hoarded stuff.
You go in my garage and you'll find stuff that's about 50 years old.
But think about being in one place for 50 years.
And I must have, you know, you come along and say, well, I may need that one these days.
a spare tire or what, and so what they do, they're stacked on the rest of the stuff.
And that's all it is, is the stuff, folks.
You can't use all that stuff that you're putting back for some reason or another.
But it said that was a time to keep and a time to cast away, and that's my problem is
Verse seven says, there's a time to rent and a time to sew and a time to keep
silence and a time to speak. Sometimes silence doesn't need any help. Some
Then said
You ever say anything that you wish you could take back
Just don't say it to start with
That's all I can tell you
But once those words have gone out
They're eternal words
Now you may change your mind, but you're not gonna change what you said
So when you speak you speak for eternity
Verse 8 says a time to love and a time to hate.
There's a time to love and there's certain things in life that we learn to hate.
Things that are enemies to God and God's people.
But we're supposed to love first, love God.
Of course, we love him with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind, and poke
if we could, just grasp what he did for us for a moment.
Now, I'll mention a moment ago that there was at least four of us today that's lost
And that's here and there may be more, but I know a four of we were talking about over here a little bit earlier
There is a time to mourn any
But both got on real you realize when I'm talking about losing a child
Our Lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross and God the Father had to turn his back on him.
We're talking about Father and Son.
Even though he was eternal, he took on himself the body of a man and God the Father gave
How much, you folk, we love our children.
God the Father gave up his son to die in our place.
There's no greater love than the only perfect person that ever walked on this earth was
crucified.
Put to death.
There is a time to love and a time to hate.
Well, let me say first of all, in closing, last of all, I should have said, thank the
Lord for the privilege that y'all granted that I could be here today, and thank you
for all you do for the Lord, it doesn't go unnoticed.
Well, let's stand together and
Actually, I want to thank pastor and Ricky for
Fitting right in and he works hard folk. He works hard. You don't know how much he got going on
He realizes now
There's work in the ministry
He has to
give up things for his family, for his church and all, but he manned it up to it. Thank
the Lord for him. All right. Any announcement, anything you'd like to say? He mentioned
brother James Bostic a moment ago with James, with our neighbor for a long time, lived across
I'm from Naganoches, and Brother James owned a doughnut shop in Naganoches for a long time.
So Brother James and I go back a long way.
He had polio when he was just a boy.
Some of you may have seen him in the years gone by.
He was a butcher down here at Fiesta, Mark, I'd say a butcher.
He got the butcher and the baker back was in the scripture
But
He
Was a fine neighbor and a good man
So but he's refused treatment. I understand yesterday when he went to the hospital
He said normal at nature take its course if it's my time it's my time, but it was cancer, wasn't it brother?
They said he had
Y'all keep brother James and Mary and family and your prayers.
If he was able, he'd be here, I'll tell you that much.
And also be prayerful, Pastor Enriquez, he goes tomorrow to hold that funeral up at
Magnolia, is that right?
Y'all wouldn't know the man that is holding the funeral, but he lived with brother Bobby
He died with a heart attack this week, Dennis Davis by the name.
Okay.
If there's no other announcement, brother Enrique, thank you.