Beers, Bob: Psalm 23-01 ~ Golden Age Conference

Brothers out there and then followed by brothers. I'll tell you, it's really nice to be here, to see you all. I'm from Miami, Florida. We're in Massachusetts. The family's in Canada. But I've been in Florida for forty-three years now. Raised in Massachusetts, if I'm not speaking loud enough, just raise your hand because in July I had a tumor removed my throat and Everyone's a lot of people are a little harsh, so if you don't hear me, just speak out and say, hey, Bob, a little louder, please. I try to get my dear brother Wilson to go first, but he's a senior and certainly a lot more to say than I have, but we wouldn't have it, so I have to bow to my older brother. And I counted a real joy and privilege to be here with him. This is called by Uncle Sam, as he did so many of us in World War II. And the Lord was really gracious in the service. I ended up in a chaplain's court, came out of that, and then decided to go back to school, to college, and they told me in Massachusetts at Northeastern University that I'd have to go back and take a refresher course in high school. So I went to Massachusetts, and they said, you'd have to take a year. And I didn't feel like the whole year of what I'd already had. Enough of that. So I was up at Camp Maria. as a lifeguard up there, New Hampshire, and assembly camp up there. And the folks from Florida were there, several of them, and they come to Obama. In Florida, all you have to do is six months. So I came down to Florida, and at that time the schools in Florida were not that academically advanced, shall I say. So I got down there, and after three months, they told me, just go ahead and take the exam and get out of here. You're wasting our time in yours. So I took the thing and they gave me the six months credit and I went on to college. And associated with assembly down there, I ran into this real pretty girl called Betty. And she got me chasing her and stopped real quick one day and that was the end of the trail. So we've been married for thirty-eight years now and God and His marvelous grace has given us four wonderful sons. One of them was taken home for the evil of the Lord eleven years ago at eighteen years of age. But the Lord's hand was in that. We thank God for grace to us. Brian was eighteen years and three months. Just graduated. Working as a mechanic. And I was out in Texas with my dear brother's state there. We used to have a meeting. And I got a call that Brian had just gone to be with the Lord. Pardon me? It still worked. Well, I came home and Father David Adams and Ray Zander and my brother Miles had the funeral. It was awful at that time, wasn't it? And there were several people saved. I had the joy of leading the young man that took Brian's place at the garage where he was a mechanic. I had the joy of leading him to the Lord. And he's gone on for eleven years now, well for the Lord, married a Christian girl, and he's still going on. And the young man that was out here that several know, dear Henry, his wife, Lisa, was led to the Lord by my brother Miles at the casket at the same time, and he's gone unwell for the Lord. And there were four others that professed these days who I could not follow up. But the Lord was good. In death there was resurrection. And we thank God for that. And he did leave a wonderful testimony, a testimony that we didn't even realize we had. And we thank God for that. And then the Lord, I was at the telephone company. repair supervisor. And a brother came to me sixty years ago and he said, Bob, we feel that you should be out. He said, full-time work, you're going night and day. Now you ought to just be doing it full-time. Well, I'm a little bit of a faithful character, I guess, at times. And I was so afraid. My wife and I in the meantime had been praying about this and had told no one. And I felt that I was really the Lord's mind, but still I was afraid I might be doing something in the flesh and I dreaded that. I didn't want to do something that was pleasing for me. So I went along and the Lord was really working me over. I was miserable. So finally I got down one night and I made a big mistake. I made it, I gave the Lord an ultimatum. The lovers don't ever do that. You've probably learned that long before I did. I'm only fifty years old. I told the Lord, I said, Lord, I've got to have an answer for the next day. I can't take this anymore. Well, that should have told me I wasn't in the right place, because when we were in the right place, beloved, we had the peace of God that had with us in His hands. And by this time, I'd already had four heart attacks, and they'd locked me once. And the next day, I went in and saw that all the men were out, and the twelve women that worked for me were off in their days' work. When I went in at six, I felt fine. By eight, I felt terrible. I couldn't tell you how bad I felt. So I called my boss and told him I turned my activities over to one of the foremen and signed him that responsibility for the day at least. And he took care of us from there to meet eight. So I'm down to see the doctor. We're down to see the doctor. And he took one look at me. He put me on the table and said, don't think your eyes. And he took my blood pressure. We had a doctor here. So I guess you appreciate this more than I. The blood pressure was two hundred and ten over hundred ninety. And he says, you haven't got anybody to be alive on their end. But I said, well, I drove eighteen miles, I'll drive three blocks more and forget it. So I drove over there and they were waiting for me and rushed me upstairs. And he told me, he says, well, it was about four days that you should have your blood pressure down and you'd be able to go home but no work. I said, I always come back to work in two or three months. They tell me to take off a year. I'm working hard for you. I went in the hospital and I just, I can remember as if it happened yesterday. I looked up and I said, Lord, if I got to stay here more than four days, I'll go out of my mind. Because I had enough of that intensive care stuff and that already. And I'd never been in the hospital before until I had the heart attack. So, thirty-one days later and six goals later and five heart attacks later and four heart stops later, I got out. And the Lord answered my prayer. I said, I haven't answered the next day. He gave us an When I came home, I was home about two months and the company called and they said, Bob, we're going to come out to see you or you can come down to the office. So I'm down to the office and they said, well, Bob, it's been nice having you around the last twenty-eight years, but we'll see you. Goodbye. So the Lord shut the door. He gave me a very clear, precise, specific answer. I'm so glad he did. I'm so glad. Oh, it's good to know this is what the Lord has done. This is what the Lord has for you. And there's no backing out of it, because you don't have anything to do with it. I am closing that door. I've already opened the other door, and I'll get out and get going. You know, beloved, I haven't had, I've had a couple of seizures, but I haven't had a heart attack since. Of course, I was going, I was on a twenty-four hour call, seven days a week, with a beeper, with a radio, and a telephone. I couldn't get away from the thing. And some days, work right around the clock. You don't appreciate what telephone people go through. Well, let me tell you, when the I don't know if you remember when the L-Ten-Eleven, the first one they had, went down on the Everglades out there. I was out there to set up communications, and I never got home for three days and three nights. I was left in the past. There was a mess. We had to get telecommunications, radio communications of all time. So you may think the telephone people are standing around waiting times, I believe you. There's a lot of things you don't see. You sit down in those manholes and the water is creeping up and the cable is going to go. and they're sweating because you're going to lose your phone. And they stay in it. So I do appreciate it. They learn it. They really do. They work long, hard hours. I just passed that along so you won't think there are a bunch of roads there. I know they look like it. You go by the road and there's three of them standing there, but there's a purpose for them standing there. They're waiting for something to make things better before they sign. As it is in many works. But the Lord has been gracious. I've labored primarily in the South Florida area. I go up to Canada, eat through Canada, in the Maritime. The New England area, I labor there quite a bit. I go north when the wintertime comes and the Spirit leaves the other preachers. So I pass them on the way. And we, the Lord's been gracious. He's really blessed us. And our assembly has grown. We've seen, in the last three years, the Lord has given us all about, I couldn't the exact count, but roughly twenty couples. Right out of the world. I mean, and in Miami, when you say right out of the world, I mean out of the world. Some of them are goat peddlers. Some of them were, well, all of them were under, even the women, mothers, to some degree. And to see these lives, it turned around. And to see them on fire for the Lord, said your husband, it really does. So the Lord's blessed. Our Sunday school has And I don't have this understanding Sunday. It has grown to where we have to build another building. The Friday night work, I talked to my son the other night, and they had fifty-five on it. It was the first night of the new year, so they closed it down in the summer. Last year, it was up to one hundred and fifty-five young people every Friday night, and most of them were unsafe homes. And we thank the Lord for that. A lot of them have been saved. Some of their parents have been reached. It gives us an open door to get into their homes and visit them. And the Lord has been very, very gracious to us in that. We do covet your prayers and appreciate your prayers. When I leave here, I'll be going to Rhode Island for two weeks of meetings, gospel meetings, and on up the name for four weeks of meetings up there and two different assemblies. And then I have to get back home before the wife walks in and throws a key away. My dear wife works in the school as a cafeteria as a cashier. So she keeps saying she doesn't like to travel with me. She can't keep coming. I'm married to a grandmother. You know how it is. I can't keep up with it. We have nine grandchildren. Our oldest granddaughter is now in Amaya's Bible school this year. So we thank the Lord for that. The children are old enough to know have professed faith in the Lord Jesus. And we thank God for that. The boys are all involved in the assembly. Their wives are involved in the assembly. And so we have an awful lot to thank the Lord for. And... I'm just going to, well, I'm going to speak the Lord willing on the twenty-third psalm, but after our brother gave out that hymn, I just got to read the last verses, twenty-third psalm to you, and then I'll turn it over to brother Wilson. The last verses you all know was surely, surely, or only, as the Newberry tells us it is in the original, only goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life. And the result of that is, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And beloved, I think we can pray to that in there. Amen. He's a merciful, gracious, wonderful Lord. And here we prove it tonight. And believe me, I don't know if there's anyone here, because I don't know any of you, hardly. But if you don't know the word Jesus Christ as your Savior, I plead with you. I beg you, before you leave here tonight, because tomorrow may not come, close in with the offer of mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us. You think of that. He took your place in death. He took your place to pay the debt of sin that no one could pay. He gave his lunch for Adam. That you might have life and have it more money. And beloved, I can tell you this from experience. Having had my heart stopped five times. There is absolute, total, abiding peace, even when you know yourself. The matter, the fact of the matter is, you're looking forward to it. In nineteen sixty I had an ulcer and it got so infected they couldn't get the virium down through my upper stomach. And they thought I had cancer. They didn't tell me that. And the way I found out I went down one day to x-ray and they were trying to take the x-rays. And I saw a poor old gentleman in there on the stretcher, and he looked like the other one drove us. And I said to a little girl, a technician, I said, who's the gentleman in there? And she said, well, I said, what's his name? I said, we're in Oxford. She said, oh, his name is Mr. Beard. I said, oh, that's interesting. I said, what's the matter with you? She said, oh, he's only got about four weeks to live. Thank you. Boy, you talk about being shook. I was shook. You know, I had to tell the Lord all about the Lord. Don't you understand? I got four young children at home, and I got a wife at home. What are you doing? You know, I really run around with the Lord. But anyway, I went in and talked to the other town. And then everybody left, but I was still there. And a little girl says to me, she says, the guy came down to get me to roll me upstairs in a wheelchair. And she says, I can't find your record. She says, they took the wrong record. Mr. Dewey's record with you. I said, that's okay, dear to mine. And according to the thing, I thought she was going to die. She said, oh, no. I am going for my examination today as a technician. I'll be thrown out. I'll say, you're not supposed to tell a patient anything. I said, well, I'm most happy at all. I was cool on the outside, but believe me, I wasn't cool on the inside. And I went upstairs on that fourth floor, and I got in that bed, and boy, the Lord and I really went around that. You know what the Lord did? The firmness, it says, the glory of God. And so does it. Right down on Biscayne Boulevard, looked out on Biscayne Bay. Beautiful Bay. Looked out there. And in a minute's of it, the clouds were so heavy, they looked like they were going to touch the light. Black. Bright down. And the sea, the bay got rough and boisterous and white. And I thought, boy, I almost had it up. My Lord, that is my picture of mine right now. I don't know what he is. You know what the Lord did? He was great. The Lord of heaven took. And he opened up the clouds in one little spot. And he let the light shine through. That little hole in those black, black, black clouds. Do you know what he's showing? He's like on my dad. very much. And you know what I thought of? Oh, Peter, you faithless thing. You stepped out and you walked, but you lost your faith in the middle of it. The Lord, the Lord hit me right between me. Right down in, I said, Lord, you're in control, whatever you want. And you know what happened? In less than two minutes, my father was gone. The cave was like glass. There wasn't a white cap in sight, and I could see as far as I could see. I've been ten of you. The Lord moves the heavens and speaks to us. Faithless child. Oh, he's gracious, beloved. He is wonderful. He loves us so much, he'll even look at clouds, and he'll make the sea behave as well. And Peter, when he was raised and looked, what a gracious God, he said, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in how I am blessed.