Happiness, or 'Asher,' is found not in circumstances but in a right relationship with God, as illustrated by the biblical figures of Asher and David. The sermon explores the concept of blessedness through various Psalms, contrasting the fruitful man of Psalm 1, the sinful man of Psalm 14, and the forsaken man of Psalm 22 with the forgiven man of Psalm 32. True happiness stems from knowing one's sins are forgiven and is characterized by spiritual fruitfulness, fellowship with believers, walking in the Spirit, superiority to circumstances, strength in trials, feeding on Christ, and proclaiming His truth. The life of Anna, a prophetess, further exemplifies these qualities through her devotion, prayer, thanksgiving, and testimony, highlighting that genuine joy is found in dependence on God and anticipation of Christ's return.
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Open your Bibles please to the thirtieth chapter of Genesis. Genesis chapter thirty. And verse thirteen. And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed, and she called his name Asher.
Now there's a word here that is translated differently, three times, but it's the same word. Happy. Bless it. Asher. I don't know whether Asher answered to his name or not. Some people do. Some people don't. I had a friend and his I still have him. His name is Mr. Long, but he's not nearly as tall as I am.
I knew a man whose name was Mr. Armstrong, and he was a puny sort of a fellow. I know a brother, his name is Mr. Brown, and the only brown thing about him is the hat that he wears. And so we could go on. I don't know whether Asher answered to his name or not. But I do know this, that his name is found often in Scripture. I had a friend, he's in heaven now.
His name was Joseph Flacks. And I heard him minister on what he called the Ashray Psalms. The first Psalm begins with Asher. Asher is the man. What he said I could understand, he said that Asher was a compound word. And I knew that because in the Dutch language the Psalms begin with a word that you wouldn't understand but I'll translate it.
Thel who looks solid is dements. Thel who looks solid, three things in that word. It indicates first that you are well off, thou. Kaluk is lucky and Saluk is blessing coming from God. That's a compound word. And this is the way he translated it. Oh, the blessednesses of the man. Now in Psalm one we have the fruitful man.
And I'm sure that you and I, as we read that psalm, will say, well, if blessedness and happiness depends on that, I haven't got it. Blessed is the man who sitteth not in the seat of the ungodly, doesn't walk in the way of sinners and so on. There's a negative side there, and there's a positive side. And I remember Joseph Flacks, who was a converted Jew, saying that young lads had to study the law, the books of Moses.
I think he called it the Torah. And he said they study it ours. but he never heard of anyone studying the Word of God night and day, meditating upon it all the time. But the man of Psalm one meditates on the Word of God constantly. He's absolutely separate from sinners. He's never walked in that way. He does not walk in the way. He never will walk in that way.
But because he was a tree planted by the waters, he brought forth fruit for God. And he did. Our Lord Jesus Christ. was the man who was constantly in touch with God his Father. He was the fruitful man, and he was the happy man. He speaks of his happiness and his joy. But as we continue in the Psalms, we come to another Psalm psalm fourteen and we have a filthy man a man who we read of there's nothing good about him he never was good and his nature is such that he can't be anything except filthy For God looked down from heaven to see if there was one of the sons of Adam who sought after him.
If there was one that was good. And he didn't find any. I remember as a boy sitting in Sunday school and someone addressed us, And he said, you know, if you want to see all the good people in this auditorium, there's a very simple way to do it. You put the index finger of your right hand on your right eye, and you put this finger on your left eye, and then you can see all the good people in the auditorium.
but he was right. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. They have altogether become filthy. So you have the fruitful man in Psalm one. You have the filthy man in Psalm fourteen. And then we go on to Psalm twenty-two. And we have the forsaken man. That Psalm was read this morning. Now who would you suppose would be the forsaken man?
I suppose naturally we would decide that he is the man of Psalm fourteen. Crying out forsaken. But it really can't be so, for in Psalm twenty-two, the man whose forsaken cries out, My God, my God. There will be many people forsaken by God. That's the second death, separation from God. But not one of them will be able to say, My God, for they never knew Him.
Here is the wonderful mystery of grace, that one who could say, My God was forsaken of God. And why was he forsaken? Because his soul was made an offering for sin. He became sin. He who knew no sin, in whom there was no sin. And it was impossible for him to sin. The holy spotless Lamb of God, he was made sin for you and for me.
And then as we journey on in the Psalms, we come to the same word again, Ashre. Blessed is the man. And it's Psalm thirty-two. And you know what it says there, don't you? It's David who is speaking, and he's speaking about himself. Now he wasn't a sinless man, far from it. And yet he was a happy man. The Psalm begins with Ashray. A happy man.
Happy is the man. Blessed is the man. all the blessednesses of the man. What man whose sins are forgiven, whose iniquity is covered? They tell me that a dear old saint of God, Robert Chapman, there's a wonderful biography, you ought to read it, a brother beloved. It's just delightful. I think it's almost on an equal with the book telling of Sinja's life. He was a man of God, a brother indeed, a brother beloved.
And in his aged condition, when he was an old man and he got to be a very old man, he still wanted to minister to the people of God. And he got up and read the thirty-second psalm. and then he looked at them and he said, Beloved, I am the happy man of Psalm thirty-two. Now what I want to do this evening is to read seven things about Asher that we find in Scripture. Five in Deuteronomy, two in Genesis.
When Moses speaks of the blessings of God's people, then he includes Asher and says five things about Asher. When Jacob blesses his sons and gives the entire future history of Israel, for he was far-sighted when he couldn't see naturally, he was far-sighted spiritually. and he gives the history of Israel in the days to come, as he himself tells us, he says two things about Asher. But before we look at that, I would just like to suggest that every one of us should belong to the tribe of Asher.
Every one of us should be Asherites if we know our sins forgiven. They asked me last night to say a little something on the gospel. Now that was short notice. But you know there's one thing about the gospel that I like. I think there are at least seven characteristics of the gospel. And one is it's the gospel of the blessed God, the ushered God. It's the gospel of the happy God.
God is happy and He wants us to be happy. The devil deceives the unsaved in thinking that God wants to take all our joys away and make us miserable. And most religious people are miserable. They have enough religion about them so they can't enjoy the world. And they haven't got Christ, and so they're not happy. And there they are. But you know, the gospel brings joy into our lives. We are happy when we know Jesus.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy. Period. But happy in Jesus. For it's only in him that we can have happiness. You know the Lord Jesus, when the Pharisees found fault with him, because he associated with sinners, he said, Are you going to take my joy away? And you find in that parable three parts to it, The parable concerning salvation that the Father's joy was in finding the prodigal back in his arms and home.
The joy of the shepherd was in the finding of the lost sheep. And the joy of the Holy Spirit is in finding the jewel, the silver that was lost. It's in redemption that God brings joy to His own heart. I was at the Chicago conference one time and I sat beside Mr. Carter. His daughter is on one of the pictures that our brother showed from Chicago. And this brother sat beside me.
He looked like Abraham, although I've never seen Abraham, but he was the very picture of a patriarch, you know. And he spoke like that. And sitting beside him, he said, Dear brother, I want to tell you something. God not only saved my soul, but he found pleasure in doing it. I thought, isn't that good? Isn't that good? God is the happy God, and he's never more happy than when he can welcome a prodigal back home.
And bring that prodigal to the feasting, to the dancing, to the joy of the Father's house. They began to be married. And that joy never ends. It's eternal. I wonder, are you all Asherites here tonight? We speak about a Happy New Year. That's what suggested my subject. I know an Asherite, he's in heaven now. It was my father.
He surely was of the tribe of Asher. As a boy, I got a book out of the library, the life of faith, and it was the life of George Mueller. And my sister followed him in connection with trusting God, absolutely, for funds to carry on a home for aged Christians. She's never asked anybody for a cent. She's never sent out any requests for money. Just looked at God to supply and He has.
But my father followed something that I read and he said, Peter, we're going to do it. Mr. Mueller got up early in the morning to have a little time with God alone. And so four o'clock in the morning, every morning, my father rose, put a little fire in the stove. And I wouldn't get up till five when it was a little warm. Sometimes the water in the reservoir was frozen, for you couldn't keep a fire in those old stoves much longer than a few hours. But I remember wrapping the blankets around us.
sitting in the kitchen and singing to the Lord. Now it didn't matter that we didn't have melodious voices. Mine is rasping, I don't know. Two sisters in the meeting said they love to hear me sing when I have a cold. And I said, well, I never sing then. They said, that's it. We told you. But the Lord loves it just the same. And I looked back with delight to those mornings. Every morning at four o'clock, my father would praise God. He was an Asherite.
Read the Word of God. And then that prayer. Brother McEwen was at our home, and from our home he went to the conference in Detroit. And when he addressed the crowd, he said, You know, I've been over to the Pell's. And it's like heaven there. No night there. He says, Bill Pell keeps you talking till the wee hours of the morning. And the old man wakes you up at four. No night there. And when Brother Sheldrick was over with Brother Wilkie for meetings, One morning he came downstairs and he said to my father, he said, you know, you gave the Lord four hundred dollars this morning.
He said, how's that? Well, he said, you know, you woke me up because my father had a sweet, soft voice like mine. And he says, you woke me up and I couldn't go back to sleep and I thought, well, I better have my private devotions and then just dress. And he's reading Psalm sixty-nine and read that David said he would give the Lord a song and that that song would please him more than a bullet that had horns. Now I figure, said Brother Sheldrick, that a bullet that has horns, that means it's grown up, it's not just a cat.
And I figure, of course, they were much cheaper then than they are now. He says, You gave the Lord so many songs, and each one of them meant to him the price of a bullet. He says, You gave four hundred dollars to the Lord this morning. Now, that's a good investment because you know the rate of interest that God pays. My Father is a multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi- in heaven. He is. One day you had to go into the hospital and I wondered what would happen. Never been in before.
And they took him to the hospital and what do you think he said? When the nurse came to his bedside, he said, Nurse, since God has saved my soul, I give him a song in the morning. Now he said, I know that I'm not to disturb people here in the hospital, but he says, I'm not going to rob God of his song. He said, now I'll sing for you, and then you see if I can... And so he started. And is it so? That was his favorite song. I shall be like thy son. Is this the grace that he for me hath won?
Father of glory, thought beyond all thought, in glory to his own blessed likeness brought. And she said, All right, Mr. Pell, but don't sing too loud, because people might object. Oh, he said, I won't. But in the room with him an old man came, And the devil has no happy old people. And he hasn't. I haven't found one yet. And this man was all cross and crabby and finding fault with my father and finding fault with us when we came.
He didn't like it that we talked about the Lord. And those that came to see him were of his type. and they didn't like it any more than he did and I thought we'd have trouble. Gertrude Ringelberg at that time was in Grand Haven and I had meetings in Grand Haven and I knew the supervisor of nurses and she wanted to go to Grand Haven. She knew at meetings there and she asked if she could go and I said, sure. And on the way she said, Mr. Pell, you'll have to do something about your father. I said, what must I do? You have to tell him to stop singing, because they've objected to his singing, and it's to be stopped.
Oh, I said, but I have an objection. The man that's beside him curses God, and I object to that. I object to hearing anyone. cursed one I love so dearly. He uses the name of my Savior in vain. Now, if you get him to stop doing that, I might begin to ask my Father to stop praising God, so the praising went on. He continues. to praise the Savior. Praise the Savior ye who know him. Who can tell how much we owe him? Gladly let us render to him all we have and all we are.
But now briefly let us look at the characteristics of Asher that we have in Scripture. And I think we'll find the seven-fold secret of being happy. And then if I have time, I would like to read about a true daughter of Asher. Her name was Anna. We read about her in the New Testament. She was of the tribe of Asher. And we find in connection with her the sevenfold secret of happiness. Do you want to go along with me? All right, then, open your Bibles then to Deuteronomy and chapter thirty-three.
Deuteronomy chapter thirty-three. And verse twenty-four. And of Asher, he said, Let Asher be blessed with children. Let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass, and as thy days so shall thy strength be.
Now here we have five marks. of a happy man. Five marks of an Asherite. And what's the first? Let me suggest that it's spiritual fruitfulness. Let Asher be blessed with children. One of the songs we sing, and I think it's very sad, And I don't think any one of us should ever sing it without being exercised about it. Must I go an empty-handed? Must I meet my Savior's soul?
Not one soul with which to greet him. Must I empty-handed go? The girl came to me one Sunday, and she says, Peter, I'm so happy. I said, What makes you happy, Nellie? I led a soul to Christ before I came to meeting this morning. I said, You did. Yes, he said, and I'm happy. I said, Of course you're happy. You're happy. God has given you one child. You're just a girly. But see to it that you get another. Andrew brought Peter to Jesus.
But you know it says he first brought Peter to Jesus. Andrew is always bringing to Jesus. And Andrew's method of evangelization is the most effective one. Personal contact. Bringing individuals to the Lord. There was a barber got saved in Grand Rapids. And he came to me and said, Peter, you know, I can't talk. I wish that you would go with me. Thursday afternoons I'm free, and I'll take my automobile, and I'll choose out the ones to visit.
And then if they are saved, we'll go fifty-fifty. I said, All right, it'll be only the Lord never goes fifty-fifty. He gives a hundred to each. But I'll go with you. And the first place we went was right opposite his barber shop. And there was a girly who was sick. And after talking to her and showing to her that she couldn't get to heaven because she was good, although her mother had told her that, that she didn't need to fear, and the doctor had just left her bedside, and she heard that the doctor said to her mother that she couldn't get better. And so when I spoke about sins and said that one sin caused Adam and Eve to leave Eden, and you couldn't get to heaven even with one sin.
She began to cry. And she said, Oh, but then how can I get rid of my sins? And the young fellow who couldn't talk, he could talk then. And he told her how that Jesus died on the cross to bear our sins and put them away. And the moment we trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, That moment all our sins were put away. Past, present, future, not a charge was against us. We were justified. And he said it in a very simple way, simpler than I could. And the little girl he trusted Christ.
And she died on New Year's. And it was a new year for her. But Obie's name was Asher. He changed his name that day. His name was Asher. He's had many children since. But the Lord gave him that little girly that day. Now don't be discouraged and think that you have to be the final one in the work of winning souls. There's no mushroom growth in souls being saved. There's the work of the Holy Spirit of God, and many one who's saved in a meeting is saved because the parents prayed for her.
And the Sunday school teacher dealt with that soul. And then when the fruit was ripe, someone comes along and picks it. But that isn't the hardest thing. The easiest part in winning souls is to stand behind a pulpit and preach and ask for souls that want to be saved. That's the easiest. You can have part in this work. You can be a link in it. But be sure you're a link in bringing souls to Christ. If you're selfish and keep your salvation to yourself, And when you get to heaven, you can't point at anyone and they can't point at you and say, I'm here because God saved you and he used you in my salvation.
Do you want to be an Asherite? Well, this is the first step. Share the joy you have. Second, let him be acceptable to his brethren. You cannot be an Asherite unless you're in fellowship with your brethren. And I mean that. The happiest thing this side of heaven is happy-hearted Christian fellowship. A young man came to me all infused. I'm not going to go into the details of it. Ah, he says, when I broke away from those elders in the meeting, that's when I had success.
He was a smart aleck, but his name was not Asher. I assure you that. For there's joy, there's happiness in fellowship. You think I would go out preaching the gospel and ministering to God's dear people if I didn't know that there are my brethren back there in Grand Rapids who are behind me? and commended me, and I trust in some measure I am acceptable to them. You're not an Asherite if you're not in happy fellowship with your brethren.
That doesn't mean we all think alike. My brother Bill and I have different thoughts about lots of things, but we're in happy fellowship together. There are some things really that my wife doesn't like about me. It's marvelous, but it's true. But I'm acceptable to her, and I wouldn't want anything to come in between. And the Word of God says if there's anything between you and your brother, you stop your religious service. This is the most important thing that that thing's taken away. Leave there thy gifts and first be reconciled to your brother.
Why? Because you cannot be an Asherite unless you're in fellowship with your brother. Third, let him dip his foot in oil. I read a commentary on this. I don't know whether it's true or not. But they said that the portion of land that belongs to Asher has oil in it. And he went out one day and he looked at his foot and it had oil on it. Now, I'm not interested in that, whether it's true or not.
I am interested in this, that one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit of God is oil. The anointing oil. And what does this suggest? It suggests walking in the Spirit. He dips his foot, that's the walk. In oil, that's the Holy Spirit of God. And when you dip your foot in oil, you know what you do. The first car we had in the best was a Model T, a self-starter. You just had something that no other car I know of had a Magneto.
Marvelous thing. But you could get out of any puddle. You never stuck in the snow drift. It was really a good car and you could fix it yourself. All you needed to take care of it was a button hook, a monkey wrench and a screwdriver. We took it apart. And we had all the pots. And of course you've got to take the oil out and put it back in again. And my brother Claude stepped in oil and then he went through the parlor into the kitchen. What happened? He left marks behind. He did.
My sister said to me, Have you got time? Would you please go see Mrs. So-and-so? We had to get a room for her. We didn't have room in the home, so you'll find her on Crescent Avenue. So I went there, knocked at the door and asked the lady of Mrs. Stone, so was there, and she said, yes. Can I see her? And she said, yes. So I went to her, and I found her real happy. And I said, Grace told me that you weren't feeling very well.
You were down in the dump. She says, I was. Well, now what made the change? Oh, she said, John Pilon has been here. That's the brother of Nick. John Pilon has been here. And you know, he always leaves a blessing wherever he goes. That's Asher. That's Asher. You dip your foot in oil and then wherever you go, you leave a mark behind. Of course, you may need some fresh oil to keep it fresh. But it's a walk in the power of the Spirit, and wherever you go, you leave a blessing behind. You know, nobody said that about me.
I hope it's true, but that's what she said about John Pilate. Wherever he goes, he leaves a blessing behind. But there's something else here. There's the fourth mark of a happy man. What is it? In verse twenty-five, thy shoes shall be iron and brass. That is, if you want to be happy, you're superior to circumstances. I asked someone one time, I said, how are you? And they said, well, pretty good under the circumstances. Well, that wasn't the Asherite.
pretty good under the circumstances. Can you be above them? Yes, you can. I'm thinking now of Peter. When Peter walked on the water to come to Jesus, you know when he discovered that those waters were stormy? When did he discover it? When he got his eye off the Lord. Why, Galilee hadn't changed. All the way from the boat to Jesus, he walked on those waters. And listen, Peter thought because the waves were stormy, he couldn't walk on them.
How many of you can walk on a calm lake? Hmm? Well, he needed the same grace for the calm lake as he did for the stormy lake. And if only his eyes would be on Jesus, he was superior to circumstances. Israel learnt that in a little different way. Forty years they were in the wilderness. And I don't suppose that the sands of the desert are very good for shoes, are they? Hmm? Are they? And so they just had an army of shoemakers along with them from Egypt to Canaan, did they?
No, they did. They were what? Superior? I think this is what this refers to, wouldn't you think so? I don't think they were actually shoes of iron and brass, but they were alike as they just didn't wear out. But the simple lesson is this, that if you're under the circumstances, your name isn't Asher. Don't look at the circumstances. Look to the Lord and be superior to them. You can't be happy if you're looking at circumstances because you'll begin to question God and begin to question yourself and question others.
The circumstances in which you are are ordered by God or allowed by God. one case or the other, and look to God in them. And the next thing here is strength in trial. And I think this is a very good verse for today and for tomorrow. As thy days, what? So shall thy strength be. As thy days, so shall thy strength be. One of the first conferences I ever went to to minister the word was at Elkhart and there was a Mr.
Knox from London there and he was very nice to me, a young brother, a great help to me and told me many stories that I love to tell. But one thing he said I won't forget, He was in the office of a dentist. And he said there was a lady there that was carrying on. Oh, it was just so distressing and annoying for the others that were in there. And so he sat beside her and he said, Now, listen, I'll tell you what's going to happen.
The girl is going to open the door. And then you'll come in. I'm not going to describe all that he said to her. And he said, Then the dentist will open your mouth, look in, and he'll have what's called painless dentistry. Now, it may not be exactly that. But you may have some pain then. But this is all extra. This is all extra. As thy day... so shall thy strength be. The little fellow that was going to the dentist, I don't know why I'm thinking about that, but this associates with my mind.
The little fellow that was going to the dentist said, Mother, I prayed about it. Oh, she said, that's good, Jimmy. And what did you pray? I prayed that the dentist wouldn't hurt me at all. She says, now Jimmy, get back on your knees and pray and say, Lord, the dentist is going to hurt me, but give me strength to bear it. There's a proverb that I do not believe is correct, that God tempers the storm to the shore and land. That isn't what Scripture says. This is what Scripture says. As thy day, so shall thy strength be. And when you realize that, you're an Asherite. And you can face the new year with fortitude and with joy in your soul.
And whatever the days may be, Whether we continue to have Johnson or really get somebody worse or better, it doesn't make any difference. The mountains may tumble. Isn't there something like that? Psalm forty six. Oh, says the psalmist, I will rest in my God. Habakkuk. He goes out in the field, there's nothing there. He goes in the barn, there's nothing there. He goes to the storehouse, and there's nothing there. Six creature streams have all failed. But he says, I will rejoice in the Lord. He never fails. Why? He's the fountain of all blessing.
And the streams may fail, but the fountain remains. As thy day, so shall thy strength be. Why? Because our strength is in the Lord. Now in Genesis we have two characteristics. Genesis forty-nine and verse twenty. Out of Asher His bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
I used to make bread, but I never made twenty loaves, like our dear brother did. But we had a wonderful concoction. You had to turn it. And I thought that was wonderful. I could make bread that way. And I still like homemade bread. But I remember the first time I went to the store to get some bread. And you know, when I brought it home, mother looked at it and said, What's wrong with that? I said, I don't know. This is the bread they sold me. But I'd put it under my arm, and that bread wasn't fat.
It was fluffy. And it's like some ministry you get. You can't be happy feeding on the fare that's given you at times. I was in a meeting one time and they gave me ten minutes. And they had an hour and a half prior to it, and there was no bread about it whatsoever. What's bread? Christ ministered in the power of the Spirit of God. That's bread. I am the bread that came down from heaven.
What does this hungry world need? Bread. When I was in the army, we had preachers come to preach to us. And I'll say this about the South. There was only one preacher that gave us bread, and it was a man from the South, and he preached Christ. And the kid said to me, these folks think we need to be entertained. It isn't entertainment we need. It's something for our souls. And whether they express it or not, that's what they need. Bread. Out of Asher. And when you're a happy Christian, you can feed the Christians with a bread.
This is out of Asher. His bread shall be fat. And if you want to be a happy Christian, you must feed on Christ. And then, he shall yield royal dainties. May I suggest... that the bread speaks of ministry concerning the Christ who came down from heaven to be the bread of the world. Royal dainties truths concerning that blessed man who sits on the throne in heaven. You know, I counted one of the privileges of my life to have sat under the ministry of servants of God who gave royal dainties.
And you'd go and say, Oh, Lord, isn't this wonderful? What a Savior He is. What precious things concerning the man and the glory. Delight your heart. I tell you, when you have royal dainties, you're not going to feed on the husks of this world. You've no taste for it. You're feeding on Christ. in all this preciousness, in all this loveliness. And that's the mark of an Asherite. Now my message is completed unless the ladies want me to say something about Anna.
It'll take me seven minutes. You men want to leave or you want to listen to it. Would you like to read about an Asherite, a woman? She was old. And we'll notice seven things about her in Luke chapter two. Luke chapter two. When I spoke to the ladies in the home, I used this and talked a long time on it, but I'm not going to do it now. I just want you to notice something about her. Luke chapter two and verse thirty-six.
And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phenuel. Now notice, of the tribe of Asher. And she was a true Asherite, I assure you. Of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age. and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow of about four-score and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and speak of him to all them that look for redemption in Jerusalem." Now I'm not going to enter into the question of how long she was a widow, but I'm just going to suggest that this dear woman knew sorrow. It was a bit different being a widow in those days than it is now. But what marked her? She had the mind of the Lord. She was a prophetess.
And I have sat at the feet of many anana, and I have learned things from godly sisters that the seminaries of our nation could never give. Not systematic theology. but something right from the heart of God, prophetic ministry. And that's what a sister can do. I'm quite sure that that's what Priscilla did. For her name precedes that of Aquila. And she was listening to Apollos and she said, He's an eloquent man.
But, my, there are many things he doesn't know. And she didn't go to him and say, Say, you haven't got the full truth. You should know what Paul's preaching around. She did not. You know what I think she did? And I've got scripture for it. She said to Apollos, I enjoyed very much what you said today. How would you like to come to our house for dinner? And he accepted. And as he sat in her home, Priscilla said, Apollos, you were talking about this. Did you ever know this? No. Oh, but that doesn't, doesn't that delight your heart? And then she just unfolded, unfolded to him the precious things, and she instructed him more fully in the Word of God.
She was an Asherite. And then... It tells us that she was devoted. She departed not from the temple. She lived there. Now there's no temple on earth for you and me, but I tell you something, you can dwell constantly in the presence of God. Always in touch. You can. Always in touch. Be conscious of His presence. For years I worked with my brother Bill. We'd go to work in the morning. We were in the decorating business.
Many a time all we said during the day was five inches built, piece four feet long. Cut that off here. Our speaking to each other was occasionally our knowledge that each one was there was constant. We're conscious of each other's presence. We should always be conscious of his presence. Always in touch. Nothing between. And then there was self-denial. She served God with fastings.
Something we know so little of today. But there are occasions when we should fast. Someone was speaking to me about the time when I had a ruptured appendix in Jersey. I was going to start a couple of weeks' meetings, and instead I was with a ruptured appendix, and they did everything under the sun to send me to heaven, but the Lord said He didn't want me yet. And I got back to Grand Rapids. But there are two sisters there, doctors of osteopathy, And they fasted and prayed and prayed all night for my recovery. Dr.
Keaston, Dr. Riley. And there were others who did the same. And God brought a miracle. Fasting. Self-denial. What do we have today? Self-indulgence. But you're not an Asherite when you indulge self because you never had happiness that way. Never. You want to be an Asherite? Then self-denial. And what next dependence, prayers, night and day. And then another mark of an Asherite. She coming in that instance gave thanks likewise unto the Lord.
How many of you were here when I spoke on Thanksgiving being the secret of victory? It is, too. Get in the habit of thanking. When the girl puts a glass of water on your table, say thank you. When someone gives you a little thing, say thank you. Get in the habit of always saying thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You won't be happy unless you give thanks. You can always nag and you can always find fault and I don't even know the word. What is that word? Great, that's the word I want. Gryphers are never Asherites.
Are they, brother? No, they're not. If you want to be an Asherite, be thankful. You didn't get much out of that sermon, but he said a little something about the Lord. Shake hands with him and say what you said about my Savior. It's wonderful, my brother. You'll always find something to be thankful about, and that's an Asherite. And then, testimony. She spake of him. She spake of him. John did no miracle, but he had one of the finest testimonies that could be given of anyone. John did no miracle, but what John said of this man was true.
And then fellowship to all them that look for redemption in Jerusalem. She was in fellowship with that remnant. We read about it in Malachi, and here we have that remnant. The same character, of course, not the same people, looked for redemption. What's that? She longed to see his face. Christ was coming. Had had been prophesied of old. And Anna had that hope within her soul. Christ is coming again.
And if you and I are looking for redemption, looking for Christ to come, then we are what? Asherites. Our Father, we pray that we may know the joy of thy salvation and the joy of being in constant touch with thyself, the joy of service, the joy of fellowship with I beloved people, the joy of being superior to our circumstances and to the trials that come, the joy of not being vexed nor overcome by criticism or whatever might possibly cause us to be sour.
We pray that we may be happy in the Lord, and we pray that we may be constantly looking for him to come. Bless to our hearts our meditation on thy word, and grant our God that it may encourage us to enter into another year, knowing that thy faithfulness and thy goodness to us in times past forbids us to think that thou would leave us at last. Hitherto thou hast been with us. Henceforth we will look for the same faithfulness. Bless us now then, our God, in Christ's name.