Got all choked up. It's not you, it's me. Anybody ever heard that before? We've heard that plenty of times. Most of the time we hear that we hear that about some relationship.

Right? It's not you, it's me. But that's not how we're gonna talk about it today. We're gonna talk about it very differently from that. Today, we're gonna be in the book of first Samuel, if you wanna go ahead and start turning there, chapter eight.

But I just wanted to say, today in this world, it seems people are so self centered and so self consumed. In other words, if you're talking to someone and conversations go in this direction or that direction, almost every time, the conversation turns to me. Things about me, things I've done, things I want, places I wanna go, how the economy affects me, how, my, status is in in the community. Whatever it is, almost always, it seems like conversations end up turning towards self. People are consumed about that.

What about self? Well, of course they are. The world says it should be all about you. Everyone seems to really be lost and wandering around trying to figure out what is real. What is this world really supposed to be about?

Because here's what they find out. When they follow what the world says and everything is about them and they try to make everything about them, they find out they're disappointed. They lack direction. They don't have anything to buy into. If they fail, then everything fails.

And so they begin to turn in directions that they don't even know what to do because everything was about them. It's not about somebody else, but we're not designed like that. Our father in heaven created us to have a desire to worship, and not a desire to worship self, but a desire to worship him. That desire is in us whether we admit it or not. And if people are left on their own, they will find something to worship.

For many, they find, substances. Some find money. Some find even other people, but they find something to worship if they're left to their own devices with no guidance. Look with me to first Samuel chapter eight verses one through three this morning. We're gonna start there.

Verses one through three. And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second was Abijah. They were judging in Beersheba. His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice.

Just what you want for your sons. Right? Just what you want to happen. Obviously, listen, Samuel, if you remember the story of Samuel, he was dedicated to the Lord as a baby. Samuel then was raised in the temple.

He was raised to be a prophet. He was raised to be a priest. He was raised to be a judge. And so he had been judging the nation of Israel. He had been doing that for a very long time.

And as he raised up and did everything in the admonition of the Lord, Israel was going well. But now we've come to a place where here they are in Beersheba, and he's gotten old. And so he's appointed his sons to take over after him as many men will do. They raise up a son to replace them when the time comes. And he had put his sons in place to rule and be over him, to judge, not to rule.

God was the ruler. They were the judge. But they were dishonest. They perverted the justice. They did all types of things.

When they took their portion, they took a larger portion than they were supposed to. When they did the justice, they took bribes in order to pervert the justice. They did all sorts of things for their own personal gain. They were supposed to be representing the kingdom of God, but instead, they were looking out for self. Everything they did, they were looking out for self.

Obviously, Samuel didn't raise his sons to be that way. He raised his sons to follow God, but they turned away to selfish gain. Why would they do that? They'd been raised in the admonition of the Lord. They had been shown all of the things that they were supposed to do.

They'd seen how God had blessed and everything that their father did, and yet somehow they turned away and started doing everything for self. One of the biggest lies that Satan tells is it's all about you. Satan is alive and well, has been since the Garden of Eden. All of this that we see in the scripture, Satan is in. Satan had come into the life of those men, maybe through whatever reasons, and put in them that they needed to be all about themselves.

Make no mistake, selfishness does not come from God, it comes from Satan. Selfishness is something that is in the flesh. It's in sinful. It's something that we all battle. We should be battling.

But instead, oftentimes, we don't battle. We just go with it. Whatever it is. Well, hey. It's all about me.

So Satan obviously had put into these men, it's about you. And so everything you can get, you better get because that's all you're gonna get. So it needs to be all about you. So they had turned against what god had shown them and began to live for self. They had turned away from what they knew.

Sadly, today, we look at our nation especially, and we see that a nation that's supposed to be a godly nation has turned away to selfish gain. We have turned away to selfish gain. Even the sons of a prophet and judge were easily turned from serving God to serving self. These are men that were brought up walking with God, walking in a way that was pleasing to him, studying scriptures, knowing what the Bible said, knowing what the scripture said, the way they were supposed to live, yet they turned away from God. Today, we have people that were raised in church from before they were born.

Right? Nine months before they were born, they were in church. From time they were born all the way through, they were in church. And yet somehow, they get out on their own and they turn away from God, and they turn to selfish gain. Why?

Because the world says that's what you should do. Why does the world say that? Because Satan is a prince of this world. And so as Satan does that and he tries to convince you, that's what it is. That's one of the biggest lies that Satan ever tells.

Look with me, to verse four and five. Look with me to verse four and five. It says, then all of the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. And they said to him, behold, you have grown old. Just what he wanted to hear.

Right? And your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations. Who came to them? The elders, the leaders, the ones that were supposed to be counsel for Samuel, the ones that were supposed to be carrying out God's will for the people, the ones that when they heard from the prophet and the judge, they were to go to the people and be the leaders.

They were the ones that were supposed to make sure that everything was going as it should, yet they already saw that the leaders that were there now, the sons of Samuel, were not doing what they were supposed to. They knew that they were not doing. You're old and your sons don't walk in your ways. That was an observation they needed to see. It was an observation that they knew well that there's his sons were not walking in the way of the lord.

That wasn't happening. But then they had a solution. Then they had a solution. Appoint a king over us just like all the other nations. So the solution is not help turn us back to godly ways as we should be, but instead, just make us like everybody else.

Appoint us a king, and let us serve him. They had a king. His name is God. God was the king of the people. Yet they said, we want an earthly king.

We want you to appoint an earthly king over us. We're willing to submit ourselves to an earthly king, and that's what we want because that's what everybody else has. That's just what everybody else has, so that's how we wanna do it. We don't wanna do it the way we're supposed to anymore. We wanna do it the way everybody else does.

The leaders, those who are supposed to know better, came to Samuel and said, appoint a king over us. These are the leaders. Now I want you to understand something here. This nation had been serving God as king of the nation for over four hundred years. And now they say, no, we want to be like everybody else.

We just want to be like everybody else. God's people are asking to be like everyone else. We wanna be like everybody else. We don't wanna be like God wants us to be anymore. We don't wanna walk in the ways of God.

We don't wanna have those, restrictions on us. We wanna be able to be self centered. We wanna be able to be like others. We won't when they look at us, we don't want them to see anything different than they see in themselves. We just wanna be like everybody else.

If God's people are just like everybody else, then how will others see Jesus in us? How would people see God if God's people were no different than the pagans? If God's people were no different than any other nation, how would people see God in any of that? How would they know? The sons of Samuel have become spiritually blind.

They have become spiritually blind. You see, instead of following God, they were following their own ways. They had become spiritually blind, and they weren't doing what they were supposed to do. They knew everything, but their eyes had been blinded because they weren't walking in the way that they were supposed to. If they had become spiritually blind and they weren't walking the way they were supposed to, the elders needed to step up.

They needed to talk to Samuel. They needed to come before, the group, and they needed to pick some new representation. They needed to do something to make sure that the people were being led in the right way. So the elders decided, I'm gonna step up. And the elders came, but the problem was the elders too were spiritually blind.

They were spiritually blind. They came and they said, we can't have this with your sons doing all of these things and perverting justice and and doing things selfishly. So what we need is we need a king like the rest of the nations, like the pagan nations, and so they too were spiritually blind. They didn't see what God's plan was. You know why?

They weren't looking for it. They weren't looking for it. Instead of worrying or thinking or praying or spending time with God, They were spending time wishing they could be like everybody else. Ask the children, if somebody had something, would you want to be like that? Well, yeah.

Everybody would want to be like that. If the person in school is popular, everybody wants to be with the popular people. They don't wanna be with the ones that nobody cares about. Everybody wants other people to like them, and they want to be like everybody else. They don't wanna be different.

Why? Because the different person is different. They stand out. They walk in a different way. But what if the person that's different is the person that's right?

What if the person that's different is the one that God has anointed to walk in that way? Understand that when God's people walk how he anointed us to walk, we're gonna be different. We will not be like the world. We have to take the blinders off. We have to ask God to remove these blinders so that we might walk in a way that's pleasing to him and not be spiritually blind.

The sons of Samuel have become spiritually blind. The elders have become spiritually blind. And today, that's more of a common thing than we realize. Understand, churches that call themselves Christian churches. In other words, they say we are the children of God.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Churches that call themselves that have allowed worldly things to come into the church. They have allowed worldly things to dictate and direct what's going on in the church. They have allowed things to happen that never should happen. And because of that, we're not following in God's will.

We're not doing what God called us to do. So the churches across the nation, believers across the nation are not walking in the ways that we're supposed to. We have become spiritually blind. And you know what? We seem to be okay with that.

There's a air freshener commercial. Talks about being nose blind. I'm sure you've probably seen it on television. And they go into a teenage boy's room, and there's dirty socks and underwear and everything all over the place, and, of course, it smells bad. The boy sitting in there playing video games, he's oblivious to the whole thing, says he's nose blind.

He doesn't smell that anymore. Why? Because he smelled it so long that he's just ignores it. It doesn't doesn't bother him anymore. God's people have ignored sin for so long that sin is not repulsive to us.

Sin is not repulsive to us. We become spiritually blind, and sin doesn't upset us anymore. We see it all around us on a daily basis, but it doesn't cause us to have any hard feelings. It doesn't cause us to be brokenhearted. It doesn't cause us to try to share God with people that we see these things happening.

We're spiritually blind because we just ignore it. Samuel's sons were spiritually blind because they just decided, you know what? We're gonna do things this way, and they didn't worry about all the rest of it. The elder said, oh, we see that, but they too were spiritually blind because we wanna be like everybody else. In the nation today, people in their head know that these things are not right, but in their heart, they don't do anything about it.

They don't do anything about it. People who were raised to follow god just wanna be like everybody else, and they've become spiritually blind. Look at verse six. When the elders came to Samuel and said, appoint us a king, it was displeasing. He said, but the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us, and Samuel prayed to the Lord.

So when they came to Samuel and said, hey, this is what's going on. You need to appoint a king just like everybody else has. Samuel didn't say, well, sure. Yeah. We can do that.

Samuel said, uh-uh. That's not right. I'm going to pray about this. I'm going to talk to the Lord about this because this isn't right. In fact, he became angry that the people wanted to become like a pagan nation.

He got upset. He's like, this is not how it's supposed to be. You know better. You know better. You know what the law of god is.

You know what god's word says. You know how we're supposed to live, yet you wanna be like everybody else. No way. You know better. Why are you asking for this?

Truthfully, today, we should be feeling the same way when we see god's people completely ignoring things that we know are wrong, completely ignoring what God's word says, living like everybody else. It should upset us. We should be upset that people are okay with that, that God's people are okay. Our heart should be broken when we see God's people that are okay with sin. We should be brokenhearted when things around us are sinful and we're just okay with that.

Well, you know, it's just kind of the way of the world today. The way of the world, not the way of God. Not the way of God. And when someone looks at God's people and they look identical to people who are not God's people, how do they see Jesus? How is it?

How can we see that? We've got to stop being like everybody else, and we've got to start standing apart as God's people. God's people said, we want a king. We want a king. Samuel got angry, and he began to talk to the only one he could talk to.

Everybody else was all about the king, but he went to God. He went to God. Now listen. I want you to understand this too. Lost people are also spiritually blind.

Lost people are also spiritually blind. So even if someone is trying, oftentimes, they're spiritually blind. Samuel went to God. He said, god, I don't know what to do. Your people are asking for a king, and I know that's not right.

We're gonna find out how God answered that in a little bit. But he went to God because he knew that things were happening. He didn't know how to handle it. Oftentimes, lost people we know lost people are also spiritually blind. So here's part of the problem.

When we talk to people and we try to share with people the gospel of Jesus Christ, sometimes they're spiritually blind and they don't hear it. They don't see it. Sometimes I think we have friends that seem to be spiritually blind and we react with anger when when they can't see what they're doing. Sometimes when we try to share the gospel with somebody and they reject it, we get angry. How can you not see?

I I showed you exactly what the gospel is, the good news of Jesus Christ. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That includes every one of us. Every one of us. The wages of sin is death.

That's a separation from God and eternal hell. But the free gift of God is eternal life. And if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. It's that easy. Are you ready to pray with me?

No. Why not? Yeah. I'm just not ready yet. And we get angry.

We don't understand. But don't you see? No. They don't. They don't see.

Their eyes are blinded. And so once for yours until God opened them. What do you do about it? The same thing Samuel did when the people of the day could not see that what was going on was wrong. He went to god and he prayed.

And he prayed, god, your people are asking to be like everybody else, and I know that's not right. What do I do? They're rejecting me. They're turning me away. They don't wanna listen to what I have to say.

What am I supposed to do? The answer's kinda shocking, actually. We need to talk to God just like he talked to God. We need to pray and we need to ask God to open our eyes, to open their eyes, to open everyone up that they might see. Sometimes what happens is we feel when we talk to someone and they reject God, we feel like it's a personal attack against us.

Well, I tried. They rejected me. They rejected me. Really? Were you asking them to receive you as their lord and savior?

No. That's not what you asked them. Were you asking them to be like you? I hope not because most of us are too much of a failure. We don't want them to be just like us.

What were we asking them? We were trying to get them to accept Jesus. Why do we take it so personally if they reject it? As if it's us they're rejecting. Samuel said, they're not listening, god.

They're not I'm telling them telling them everything, and they're not listening to me. Verse seven and eight says this, then the lord said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people. In regard to all that they say to you, in regard to all that they say to you. For they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Like all the deeds which they have done since the day I brought them up from Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken me and served other gods, so they are doing to you also.

They haven't rejected you. They rejected me. It's not you, Samuel. It's me. I was their king, and they're saying we don't want him as our king anymore.

We want a earthly king. It's me that they're rejecting. Yes. You've been telling them the right things, but they're rejecting me. There comes a point when they continue over and over to reject that god says, okay, then you can have that way.

He gives them over to depraved minds. He gives them over to the things that they want. I still believe that even though that happens, there are times when that happens and God still wants them to come to him. And he's still putting someone there trying to show them what they need to do. We know in this story, they were given over, but guess what?

God eventually brought them back, didn't he? He eventually brought them back. Over and over, that happened. They would reject God, but he would eventually bring them back. He still wants to bring them back.

So as we share with someone, we share the gospel, we tell them about Jesus, all of that, we need to hear and understand. It's not about us when they reject Jesus. It's about him. And if they reject him, that doesn't mean that's the end. Well, wait a minute, preacher.

You know, the Bible says sometimes a person can harden their heart to such a degree that they can't be saved. How do you know? How do you know if their heart is at a point where they can't be saved? You don't know. You don't know.

We can't see that. So you know what we should do? Keep praying. Keep sharing. Keep talking to them.

Keep trying to lead them to the right way. Keep trying to show them who Jesus is. Well, they're not gonna like me if I do that. Who cares? If they don't like you, but they receive Jesus and spend an eternity in heaven, what a celebration it'll be.

But if they like you, but they never accept Jesus and they spend an eternity in devil's hell, what a tragedy that would be. Because we were so concerned about them liking us, and we took it so personal when they rejected God that we stopped telling them about Jesus, and they never heard. The children of God said we don't want you anymore. We want a king, a earthly king. We wanna be like everybody else.

Samuel said, God, no. That can't be. I know this is wrong. God said, they've been saying that ever since I brought them out of Egypt. Everything that I have done to this point, they have rejected me.

We know that right after they came out of Egypt, they put up a golden calf and started worshiping that. They turned away from every time something got hard, they turned away from God. That was their MO over and over and over. And guess what? It's today's person's MO as well.

Things get hard and people reject. They'd walk away. They look for other things. Well, God's not answering my prayer, is he? Maybe he's not answering how you want it, but he's answering your prayer.

His word says that he will. Well, god is how could I have a god that treats people like that? I I prayed so hard, but my loved one still died. Why would God do that? Maybe he was answering a different prayer.

Maybe the time for your loved one to spend an eternity and no longer be in this evil world had come. Maybe the best thing that could ever happen was your loved one could go home and be with god. But I prayed and god didn't answer my prayer. I prayed that god would heal them, and he didn't heal them. Yes.

He did. They're healed now. I prayed for this, and it didn't happen. I prayed for that, and it didn't happen. I've often thought, what if at some point in our life, we could look back?

See what we wanted and see what God did, and how wrecked we would be knowing that God was doing all these good things, and instead, I was begging for him to do something else. We don't get a chance to do that until we get to heaven. Right? We won't see that. But we know that God said he'll answer those prayers.

God said, they've been asking for this for the whole time. I want you to give them what they want. Sometimes we take that rejection personally and we say, I'm just not gonna witness to him anymore. Is that the right thing to do? No.

We need to keep doing it. Will there come a time can there come a time where their heart is so hard that God says, you know what? They've rejected me. They're never gonna change, and it's over for them. Yes.

But we don't know when that is. We don't know, and so we need to keep talking to them. Just like these people, god said, we're gonna give them that king. I'm gonna give them what they want. I'm gonna give them the king.

Sometimes I'm so thankful that god did not give me what I prayed for. Because if god gave me what I prayed for, I'd really messed it up. Maybe we have to talk to people about god multiple times. Maybe it's the thirty seventh time that we shared the gospel that they accepted Christ. Maybe they have to go through something hard like these children of Israel had to go through.

Maybe they have to go through something hard before they finally turn to god. I don't know. We need to pray for everyone who's suffering from spiritual blindness. We don't give up. Instead, we pray because prayer changes things.

Prayer changes things. But also, he told Samuel to warn them. I'm gonna give them what they're asking for, but I want you to warn them and tell them what it's gonna be like. Look at verse nine. Now then, listen to their voice.

However, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them. Ultimately, the king who's going to reign over them is Satan. No. Not by name in that passage. It was a human, but it was a human.

It was under the influence of Satan. Ultimately, when we say, god, we want someone else to rule over us. We want to follow everybody else. We want to be like all those other people. Understand that the king they're following is Satan.

Hold up. You try and tell me that if they're not following God, they're following Satan? That's exactly what I'm trying to tell you. If they're not following god, they're following Satan. Well, I've never heard anybody say they follow Satan because they've been confused.

They're blinded spiritually. But make no mistake, if they're not following god, they're following Satan. Those are the only two choices in this world. Either you're with me or you're not. Either you're following God or you're following Satan, there is no in between.

There's no middle ground. Warn them. The king who will reign over them is Satan. Warn them that when they accept to be like everybody else, that they have rejected God. Later in the passage, it says, I'll give them the king.

And after this king comes over him, and the king destroys them and takes from them and has them in such oppression that they're slaves, and they call out to God and say, God, rescue us. I will not listen to their voice. That's what it says in that passage. We know that over and over, god did rescue them, but only because someone came up in the group who was faithful. And because of them, God rescued the rest.

Maybe you're the one that's faithful. And because of you, God wants to rescue other people. But if we stop talking to people because we think we're the ones being rejected, if we stop talking to people because our feelings are hurt, then how's God going to reach them? How will they know? You see, spiritual blindness is something that happens not just to the lost, but also to the saved.

We would get we get blinded. We lose our way and we stumble away from God. But the good news is if you know Jesus as Lord and savior, you can find your way back. And when you do, you gotta work extra hard to try to bring those others with you. We live in a world today where everybody wants to be like everybody else.

Oh, my goodness. If if you look at TV commercials, man, you gotta have this brand of jeans because this is it. If you don't have this, then then you can't be anything. You gotta have this thing. And people buy into that.

Problem is they buy into that, and two weeks later, there's a new kind of jeans that's better than the old kind of jeans, and now you gotta have them or you won't be able to do it. Why? Because the genes weren't that good in the first place. You gotta follow what you want. You gotta be all about self, except that you find out that when you're all about self, it's an empty thing.

And no matter everything you try to do, all the things you try to put together for self is gonna fail. Why? Because God designed you to worship him. God designed you to be in a relationship with him, and everything you do apart from that is unfulfilling. Billionaires.

Man, they have the money. They've done all this stuff, and they've been given all the money. They've worked for all the money. Somehow, they have all the money. And almost every single billionaire that you talk to and ask them, do they have enough money?

No. Why? Well, I I haven't earned as much as I want to yet. How much do you wanna earn? You have a hundred billion dollars.

How are you gonna you know, what why do you need more money? Well, I'm just still not happy. Guess what? Another hundred billion ain't gonna make you happy either. Because those are things that are not what god designed you for, but that's your idol.

That's the thing that you're worshiping. And really, it becomes back to your worshiping self. You want it all to be about you. God says, it's not about you. It's about me.

He told Samuel, they're not rejecting you. They're rejecting me. But the reality is that this life is not about you. It's about god. This life is not about you having everything you want.

It's about serving god while you're here. Well, how long am I here for? Nobody knows. Nobody knows. We don't understand.

There are people that come on this were on this earth, and they live to be a hundred plus years old. And everybody always wants to know how they do that. Was it their diet? Did they exercise like they should? They eat like they should?

That, you know, what is it about them that caused them to be able to live that long? And they'll talk to one person and they'll say, oh, yes. I had a good diet. I did whatever all my life. And the next person they talk to is a hundred and two said, I ate bacon for breakfast every morning.

That's my secret. Or somebody says I had a drink of whiskey every night. That's my secret. I did this every time. It that's not a secret.

The reality is it had nothing to do with their longevity. Why did they live to be that long? For some, unfortunately, it's because God kept giving them more and more chances to turn to him, and some never did. There are some that die very young, and we wonder why. Why did God take this this child away?

Why was this this child gone? Well, the world doesn't understand, but God puts us in the world for something. And when that's accomplished, he's ready to bring us home. Some accomplished it much earlier than others. Some accomplished it as a baby.

Well, how could a baby accomplish anything? They don't know anything. Yes. But that life that came into someone else's life accomplished just what God wanted it to accomplish. And then he took him home.

We don't know why, but here's what we do know. God did not create us and put us in this world to do everything for self. He created us and put us in this world to worship him, to have a relationship with him, to tell others about him, to reach out and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here at the Church of Orchard, there's a community all around us that's lost, that doesn't know Jesus. They're lost.

They don't know him. They're right in our shadow of our steeple, and yet somehow they still don't know. There are people maybe that are in your life that you work with, live next to, their family members. There's somebody you see every day, and yet they don't know Jesus. Have you ever told them?

Well, I think they might be a Christian because one time they were talking really little. It didn't have anything to do with them knowing Jesus. We don't know if we don't ask. People are spiritual blinded, and we need to help them come to see Jesus. Ultimately, God is the only one that can remove the veil.

But if we continue to pray, and we continue to do, and we continue to serve, God might just use you to help remove that veil. He might just use you to be the one to lead someone to Christ. He might just use this church to be the one to start a revival in this land. We don't know. But if we don't act as if that's true, then we become spiritually blind like the rest of the world.

Today, I wanna encourage you. No matter what is happening in your life, instead of trying to be all about you, be about God. Somebody says, you don't understand. I'm struggling with so much stuff. I don't know what to do.

I'm just in torment. I'm sad. I'm crying. I'm overwhelmed in everything that I'm doing, and you're telling me that I need to worship God. Yes.

Yes. I am. Because when we begin to worship, it takes it all off of us and it puts it on God, and God's burden is a whole lot easier than ours. God begins to carry that. He begins to show us.

We begin to see how he wants to use us. We began to be lifted by giving him the burden and by turning everything over to him. We need to be those spiritual leaders that God calls us to be. Well, I've never really been a leader. That's okay.

Neither had Moses, but God said, come and do this. He gave me every reason why not. God said, no. No. You come do this.

I'll take care of the rest. God will use you if you let him. If we want to be like everybody else, then how can we have a close relationship with God? Today, I'm encouraging you stand apart. Not just to stand apart, but stand apart and stand with God.

That's what we've gotta do right now. That's what God's people have to do right now if we wanna see this nation begin to turn back to Jesus Christ. Let's pray.

And that's what it's all about, really and truly. That's what everything is really about. Eternal life. I spoke with someone just yesterday, and we're talking about what is the most important thing that you can do in life, and that is to help someone see the glory of God and the opportunity to receive eternal life.

Because everything else we do in this world is temporary. It's only temporary. But salvation is eternal. Rebuilding together is the title today, and we are going to be over in Nehemiah. You can go ahead and turn there if you would like.

But I want to talk about a few things before we get there. So have you ever seen a house that was neglected for many years? You know, when you drive by sometimes and there's a house and maybe nobody's lived there for a while or maybe someone who was not able to take care of it or whatever the case may be, it was neglected. There was no maintenance done. It wasn't taken care of when, there were leaks or there was damage, and, the roof may be damaged.

There's all kinds of things that have happened. And if you watch over a period of time, that house that may have once been a big, glorious, beautiful house begins to deteriorate. It begins to fall apart. When it's not touched for so long, it starts to completely fall apart. Everything about it that we see, things fall apart and unwanted pests show up.

There are a lot of things that, move in, animals and and bugs and all kinds of things, and sometimes, people that, just move into it and and just utilize it for all kinds of illegal activities and everything else. A lot of stuff happened, and so as the house begins to deteriorate, it looks terrible. There was a house recently in our neighborhood that's been that way for years. But sometimes, people buy a house, and they make it beautiful. In our neighborhood, they've done just that.

They've made a house that was falling apart beautiful. You drive down the street and go, wow. It looks so great. What a beautiful thing that they've done with that old house. Now listen, they didn't tear it completely apart.

They tore it down to the studs, and then they rebuilt it. The studs and the foundation and all of that that was there was good. The outside was not good. Today it seems that our nation has become like that old house. Today, our nation has become like that old house.

And I don't mean just our nation. What I mean when I say our nation is I mean the people in our nation. The people in our nation have become like that old house that had they have not received what they needed. They haven't taken care of their self. They haven't taken care of their walk.

They haven't taken care of the life that's been given to them. And so the whole nation, and especially believers, have become like that old house and are beginning to be deteriorated. It's beginning to be deteriorated. And so we look around on a daily basis and we see that this nation is just not what it used to be. God's people have not been diligent to take care of this nation, to take care of the church universal, to take care of any of those things as we need to, and therefore, it has began to crumble.

It has began to crumble. It's cracked. It's dilapidated. There are things that are holes that's falling apart. All of these things that's going on, and because of it, unwanted pests have moved in.

The main unwanted pest that has moved in and all of that, his name is Satan. Satan has moved in because God's people have not taken care of the church universal. They've not taken care of the nation like we need to. We have not risen up and done the things that we needed to do as a people. We are not doing what the great commandment tells us to do.

We're not going and making disciples. We're not baptizing. We're not doing any of those things. And because of not doing those things, we can see that the church universal is crumbling. The church has fallen down.

The the the people in the nation are turning away from God. God is not mentioned in so many places anymore. That's because God's people have allowed his house, the church, to begin to be in disarray. We've allowed it to fall apart. And I don't mean physical buildings, I mean the church universal.

I mean the church that's made up of people. We've allowed it to literally deteriorate. Satan has moved in, and he's caused many, many problems. Satan's been here all along. Okay?

It isn't that he wasn't here. In fact, we're studying Genesis on, Wednesday night, and he was in the garden. Right? He was in the garden with Adam and Eve. He's been here the whole time.

It's not that he hasn't been here. He's been here. But the thing is, when God's people were doing what we were supposed to do, and people prayed, and people shared the gospel, and people walked in the way that we're called to walk according to biblical standards, we did not see the effects of Satan in the way that we see him today. Today, we see it very clearly. We know that it's there.

It's happening all around us, and we can see that because there's holes in the wall. There's roofs falling in. There's things that are done with no type of repair. God's people have just become complacent. We've allowed Satan to just do his thing however he wants to do it.

You know the crazy thing about, a dilapidated house? Once it reaches a certain point, nobody cares. You know, up to this point, maybe somebody tries something, but once it reaches a certain point, they just let it go. It it'd be too hard to fix it. There'd be too much to do to make it right again.

You know, it's just it's not worth it, and they just leave it alone. And unfortunately, the church of God is being treated like that today. It's gone too far. There's no way we could build it back. There's no way that all that could happen.

So, you know, we're just we're it's just come quickly, Lord. Forget about all this. We're just done. Just go ahead and come and and take us all home, and we just don't worry about the rest of it. Well, there's a problem with that.

The problem with that is that if God comes today, probably most of us in this room will have family in our life that will spend an eternity in hell because they've never given their life to God. And instead of giving up, maybe the church needs to band together and begin to rebuild. God's people had neglected God. God's people had neglected God. So look with me to chapter four of Nehemiah verses one through nine.

Chapter four of Nehemiah verses one through nine. It's on the screen if you don't have your Bible. Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews. He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, what are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves?

Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble, even the burned ones? Now Tobiah the Amorite Ammonite, I'm sorry, was near him, and he said even what they are building, if a fox would jump on it, it would break down their stone wall. Hear, oh god, how we are despised.

Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before you, for they have demoralized the builders. So we built the wall, and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, and the Amorites, and their Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry. All of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it.

But we prayed to our god, and because of them, we set up a guard against them day and night. God's people had neglected God, and their city was destroyed, and they were taken into captivity. All these years later, God has allowed Nehemiah to come back and gather the people to begin rebuilding the city. Why? Because Nehemiah had been faithful, because Nehemiah had prayed, because Nehemiah desperately wanted to see the city rebuilt and god's temple repaired.

And because of all of that, God allowed it to happen, and he allowed him to come back. Now he came back and he gathered the people, and they began to build. God allowed him to do that, and he allowed the people to come together. Here's the thing. It took Nehemiah to start that process.

It took Nehemiah to get that process started. Up until that point, nothing had happened. But Nehemiah was stricken for the condition of the city. He was stricken because God's people had so neglected God that all of this had happened. He was heartbroken over the fact that God's people were not able to worship in the city in which they desired to be there.

God's people were not able to come together and worship freely as they once had. He's he was heartbroken over that. And so instead of saying, it's so sad, and then going on to Starbucks to get him a coffee or whatever it was that he decided to go do, he was so heartbroken, he began to pray. And he began to pray, and God took that and he used it. He used it to make him a leader.

And as a leader, he began to be a leader of the people, and he led the people to go back and rebuild. God's people today have neglected God. Now I want you to be clear and understand what I just said. I didn't say lost people today have neglected God. What I said was God's people, those who know him, those who say they gave their life to him, those who call themselves believers and Christians have neglected God today.

God's people have neglected God. That's what got, the Israelites in trouble to begin with, neglecting God. Today, God's people have neglected God. For too long, the people in America have neglected to serve God with all our hearts. Therefore, the nation that was once called a godly nation is no longer called a godly nation.

The nation, United States Of America, One nation under God. You know, there is a massive push to remove that phrase out of the pledge of allegiance because the nation is no longer considered a godly nation. This nation is no longer considered a godly nation because God's people, who are called by his name, have not done what we need to do. Instead, we have allowed the church to deteriorate. We have allowed the roof to start to fall in.

We have allowed the walls to start opening up with holes. We have allowed mold in the building. We have allowed all of these things to happen in the church of God. We have allowed it to be torn down and fall apart. The bad part is for most of what has happened, it's not due to what the enemy has done.

It's due to the fact that god's people didn't do anything to take care of it. You know, it's one thing when the enemy comes in and destroys something, But when God's people just simply neglect it and it falls apart, that's so much worse. That's what's happening today. That's where we are today. That's why when we look around today, we have a church congregation that even one section is not full.

We can go down the street and check another church and another church and another church, and guess what? Almost every one of them look just alike. God's people have neglected God. The churches of America have been complacent and derelict in our godly mission. What is our godly mission?

Go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. That's what we're supposed to be doing. That's what god has called us to do. That's what when we receive the salvation from god, we didn't receive the salvation, and God said, okay. Now you're saved.

Go chill out until it's time to go home. He said, now you're saved. It's time to be on mission for me. It's time to get out and see the other people. Go and tell.

Go and tell. You know, it's amazing thing. We can have some little funny thing that happens, and we want everybody to know about it. Oh, we tell them on the phone. We we text them.

We send it out on Facebook, all this stuff. It was so funny. We won't tell everybody about that. But we don't do the same thing to tell everybody about god. We don't do the same thing.

You say, well, you know, sometimes people get mad when you tell them about god. I know. Yeah. They do. Sometimes they get mad.

I would rather they be mad today, convicted tomorrow, and saved the day after that, than to be okay with me today, lost tomorrow, and spent eternity in hell. They might be mad at me. I might lose them as a friend. That doesn't mean I'm gonna stop praying for them. It doesn't mean I'm gonna stop trying to tell them.

We never know. How many times does it take to tell somebody about God before they receive him? There's no answer. There's no answer. We don't know.

Sometimes you tell somebody about God, and the very first time, God convicts them, and right then and there, they receive Jesus as Lord and savior. Hallelujah. Sometimes, it took four people to share the same story before they finally had their eyes open, and they were convicted and received Jesus Christ as lord and savior. Sometimes it takes forty years before they finally are convicted and receive Jesus as lord and savior. I've I've said before, I've talked to people who have been told over and over and over and over their whole life.

I I've talked to at least one person literally on their deathbed that had rejected and rejected and rejected their whole life. But someone said, will you come and talk to them? Nothing special about me. It's just a different person talking to them. We prayed about it.

I went and talked to him, and the person gave their life to Christ. And a week later, they were in heaven with him. What if nobody talked to him? What if they decided it's falling apart? There's no chance.

There's no way that we can, save this. Let's just leave it. Don't worry about that one. Just move on to something else. The churches of America have been complacent and derelict of godly of their godly mission.

However, if God's people rise up and begin to rebuild, they will succeed. Verses one through three says, it came about when Sanballat heard the rebuilding wall, he was furious, angry, and mocked the Jews. He spoke in the presence of the brothers and the wealthy men, and they are going to restore it themselves. How can this happen? Basically, it's what he said.

In verse three, it says, now Tobiah was near him and said even what they were building, if a fox jumped on it, it would fall down. God's people were mocked. They were mocked. They were scorned. They were told it can't happen.

No one believed they could. You know what typically happens when that occurs? The people that are trying to do the building believe it. They believe it. It can't happen.

Listen. You think Christians can change the world? There's no way Christians can change the world. They can't even get together and decide on the color of the wall. There's no way Christians are gonna change the world.

They can't even make up their own mind. There's no way Christians are gonna change the world. They can't even decide whether they stand on this side or whether they stand on that side. They don't know. How is that gonna happen?

And most Christians look out and go, they're right. They're right. We can't change the world. All we can do is take care of ourself. We just had to take care of ourself.

That's all we have to do. Listen. You have to take care of yourself in order to take care of others, in order to complete the mission. A soldier has to be in shape and do exercise and, have a a good diet and do all that he has to do to be ready that when the time comes, he can fight for the country. A Christian has to be ready and pray and spend time in god's word and take in the right nourishment and get the right exercise by serving God even in their own house so that they can be ready to go and help rebuild the church.

But instead, after being mocked and scorned, God's people believed it. They believe there's no way. But here's what I want you to know. When Satan and the rest of the world say, there's no way. It's not even a worry.

It's not even a fear for us. Saint Ballet said, even the rocks they got won't fall stay up. Nothing to it. It's not gonna happen. They didn't think there was any chance.

And so they didn't worry about it. You know what God's people did? They built the wall. The most important thing to us, the most important tool one of the important tools that we have is that when they don't believe it, then we don't have the opposition. They're not fighting against us while we're trying to rebuild, and all of a sudden, guess what?

It's rebuilt halfway, and they go, wait. I didn't expect that to happen. It won't be done if we don't put our selfishness aside and serve god completely. What do I mean by that? I mean, if we don't stop thinking only about self and start thinking about god and the mission of god, we can never complete the mission.

We live in America where it's all about me. What's best for me? What's in it for me? How can I get something out of it? What happens if I do this?

How am I gonna be promoted, lifted up, have my name written in the history books? It's about me. Well, I got news for you. To put it in my country, Alabama vernacular, it ain't about you. It's about God.

And until we understand that it's not about me, it's about God, we're gonna continue to walk in that selfishness. We're gonna continue to do that. The world says, you you need to be taking care of number one. Well, number one is god. Amen?

So if number one is god, yeah, let's take care of number one, but I'm not number one. I'm not even number two. Verse four says, here, oh god. What did they do? After they got chastised and scorned and told they couldn't do it, they prayed.

Here, oh our god, how we are despised, return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for the plunder in the land of captivity. They prayed. God, take care of them. They're they're despising us. They're scorning us.

They're trying to stop us from what we're doing. You take care of them. We can't. You take care of them. So first of all, Nehemiah prayed.

That is the number one thing that god's people today have neglected. First, pray. Pray. Survey says that the average Christian in The United States Of America prays approximately four minutes per day, and that includes praying over your meals. So if it takes me thirty seconds to pray over my meal Lord, thank you for the food.

Amen. That's how some people pray. Right? Thank you for the food. Amen.

That's it. If it takes me thirty seconds pray over my meals a day, that's three times a day. That only leaves me with three and a half minutes to talk to god on a personal level. You can't even make a post on Facebook in three and a half minutes. How are you gonna spend time talking to God in only three and a half minutes of your life?

First of all, pray. Nehemiah prayed. He prayed before they began and all during the restoration. It wasn't one time. I prayed about it, brother George.

How many times did you pray about that? What do you mean? You said pray. I prayed about it. Check.

Time to move on. Why did you only pray once for that? What do you mean? I prayed about it, didn't I? You say you did.

Prayed about it once. Is it that trivial, whatever it is, that you could only talk to god about it for thirty seconds and move on? We will rant and rave over the service we received in the drive through longer than we talked to god. Is it worth it? God wants to have a relationship with his people.

God wants us to be close to him. How can we be close if we don't pray? Everybody has seen this plastered all over the place, but it is so true. Second Chronicles seven fourteen. Second Chronicles seven fourteen.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and, get this, turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin, and I will hear their land. The key to rebuilding is, first of all, we have to ask that God forgive us for the things that we've done and the way we've been living. Second, God has forgive us for those things that we've done because he says he will. Then when we pray and ask all that, then he will hear from heaven and forgive our sin and heal our land.

If my people the first key word in that is if. Is that not break your heart? That the scripture, inspired by god to be written down said, if my people if. Not when, but if. If my people who are called by my name god says if these are the people called by his name.

Why is there a if? It should be a when. Of course, god's people are supposed to be doing this. Why is there a if there? Because God's people have been derelict in what we're supposed to do.

God's people have been complacent. We just let things happen, and we've not spent our time serving God. If, my people, the most important thing we can do today is pray. Pray. And I don't mean a thirty second prayer on your way out the door.

I don't mean just a casual reference to God in something you're doing throughout the day. I mean a heartfelt conversation with God. Take that time to pour yourself out before him and not just pour yourself out and say, God, I need, I need, I need, I need. We all tend to do that. Oh, I pray to god.

Yeah. When you need, you need, you need, you need, you need. You pray. But what about god? What do you need?

What can I do for you? How do I serve you better? What do you want me to do today? Well, I'm glad you asked. I want you to go over to that neighbor that you really dislike and tell them that god loves them.

Oh, hold on. Wait a minute now, god. You know, we don't get along in him. He's not even a Christian. Why you think I want you to go over there and talk to him?

I want you to go talk to him and tell him about me, but you don't understand how bad that guy is. He's just rude. It's because he don't know me. Go tell him about me. Well, what if he gets mad?

Well, he's mad at me, not you, so go tell him anyway. Well, he might not like me after I do that. He don't like you now anyway. He already doesn't like you. It's not gonna change.

Go tell him about God, and then he might love you because he finds his salvation. If my people, first of all, pray. Secondly, we need to come together and work to rebuild the kingdom. We need to come together and work to rebuild the kingdom. Here's the thing.

I wanna make sure you understand this. If I ask today for volunteers to raise your hand and say, who will be with me to help rebuild the kingdom? And everybody's hand goes up. I want you to understand before you raise your hand, I'm not gonna ask the question. Before you raise your hand, you will face persecution.

I need a volunteer, but, oh, yeah. It's gonna be difficult. I need you to volunteer for this, but people are not gonna like it, and they're gonna talk bad about you. I want you to volunteer for this, but people are gonna flat out hate you. They may come by and and throw eggs at your house.

They may plaster your name all over Facebook. They may say horrible things about you. All this might happen, but I need you to volunteer. Most of us go, yeah. No.

Not that. I can't do that. I can't do that. I told you, we're gonna face persecution. I don't I don't wanna do that.

Why are we surprised when persecution comes? Understand this. God told us in the beginning, we will face trials and tribulation. We will. Why?

Because he did. He walked on this earth, god in the flesh, and faced trials and persecution and tribulation in the time that he was here. Why would we think we're better than him? We're gonna face persecution. Here's what happens when Christians are persecuted in America.

Hun, they said bad things about me. I don't wanna talk about that anymore. I'm just gonna do my thing and leave them alone. What if somebody felt that way about you before you came to know god? We're going to face persecution.

In The United States Of America, we are blessed that we haven't faced the type of persecution that people around the world have faced today. There are places in the world today by simply mentioning the name of Jesus, you're condemned to death, And people die every day because they did. There are places in the world today where if you mention the name of Jesus, you're gonna be go to jail for the rest of your life. There are people in jail sharing with other prisoners about god. Some say that The United States is the worst form of persecution of all.

Because instead of seeing that there's an absolute something and defying it anyway, it's a subliminal persecution. It's one that flies under the radar, and we're persecuted and don't even realize it. And so fighting against it is difficult. You will be persecuted when you stand up for God. Just as a reminder, when he stood up for you, he was beaten beyond recognition.

His beard was literally pulled out by the roots. A crown of thorns forced down upon his head to the point that blood poured down his forehead. He was beaten with so many lashes across his back that the law said if they'd hit him one more time, it would have been illegal because that could have caused death. Then he received nails in his hands and feet and was raised up on a cross to die when he stood up for you. He hasn't asked you to be persecuted like that, but he said we will face persecution.

It could come to that. We don't know. God told us that we would face persecution. So when it happens, instead of being surprised, we need to push through. Look at verses six through eight.

So we built the wall, and the whole wall was joined together to half its height. When they say the whole wall was joined together, it means that all the holes were closed up. It was only halfway the height that it was supposed to be, but the whole wall had been rejoined together. That in itself was a phenomenal feat. They didn't think it could be done, but it was.

The people had a mind to work. They all came together for that purpose of rebuilding that wall. Why? It wasn't about the wall. It was about bringing God's people back together for him.

And it started with the wall. Now when Sambowed Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashlanites heard the repair of the walls, Jerusalem went on and that the breaches began to be closed. They were very angry. They all compire conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it. When the world sees God's people began to come together and began to build the church back up, It's gonna fight against it.

They're gonna be terrified. Satan is gonna say, wait. It can't happen. Go fight. We're gonna be persecuted.

We're gonna be some of us killed, but nothing can separate us from the love of God. Amen? We've got to rebuild. The people in Nehemiah's day had a mind to work. They had a purpose.

They were coming together to build it back, the kingdom of God, and they kept doing it even knowing they were gonna be attacked. The rest of the story comes later. You read on down in there, you'll find out what happened. But what I want you to see is this, Nehemiah and the people were not discouraged. They were told, we're going to come battle against it.

They weren't discouraged. They kept on working. They kept on working. They said, we're gonna keep doing it. I know it's hard, but we're gonna keep doing it.

If you come and fight against us, we're gonna pray, and we're gonna keep doing it. We're gonna keep on doing what god wants us to do. It's exactly how we need to work today. Verse nine says this, we pray to our God. They said, we're coming against you, but we pray to our God, and because of them, we set up a guard against them day and night.

That's exactly how we need to work today. That's exactly how we need to work today. What did they do first? When all the persecution was coming, everything that happened, they prayed. That was the first thing.

Today, those who are able need to work diligently. I understand. There are some people that aren't physically able to do certain things. Those who are able need to work diligently. Those who are not physically able, you know what they do?

They're the ones standing on the wall praying while the rest are working. I can't physically do this, but I can pray. I can stand firm on this wall, and I can pray while God's people rebuild. I can do that much. Understand that power of prayer is greater than anything we could ever imagine.

No. I'm not strong enough to do that anymore, but I can pray. I can still pray. Many people in this congregation have gone to be with the lord today and said, I don't know why god has still kept me here. And I said, god has something for you to do.

Maybe it's to pray. And they would say, you know what? I can do that. I can do that. Those who can physically do it need to be doing it.

We need to be rebuilding. We need to be working. We need to be trying to build the kingdom of god back up and not just watching it fall down and go, it's so sad. That's so sad. It is sad.

Do something. Those who aren't physically able should be praying for those who are working. And all of us should be diligently in prayer every day before, during, and after work. Continually in prayer. Before we go and try to build up the kingdom, we pray.

While we're working, we pray. And when it's over at the end of the day, we pray. And if we're spending that time praying, God's gonna give us what we need. God's gonna give us what we need. We wanna rebuild.

The rest of the story, by the way, is Nehemiah did succeed. He did succeed. The wall was rebuilt. God allowed it to be done. Oh, they faced plenty of persecution.

They had to fight battles. They had to do all of those things, but they prayed, and they worked. And as the persecution came, they fought, and they prayed, and they worked, and they continued on and on until it was all finished. And you know what? When it was finished, they didn't stop there.

They kept praying, and they kept working. The question that I have today is, are you ready to be a construction worker? Children said no. The real question is, do you want to be part of the crew that rebuilds the house of God? Do you want to do that?

We, as God's people, who are called by his name, first, humble yourself. It's not about you. And pray and turn away from your wicked ways. Well, why you say I'm wicked, brother George? If you're not praying and serving God, what you're doing is wicked.

Turn from your wicked ways and seek his face, then he will hear from heaven, forgive your sin, and heal our land. Are you ready to be part of that construction crew? If you're not, then this is my first task for you. Pray. Pray that God would prepare your heart.

Pray that he would get you ready to be part of that. You might need to be a foreman on that crew. Maybe God wants you to be a leader. I don't think I can be a leader. You can't, not without God, but if he calls you, you can.

Maybe he needs you to be a worker. Maybe he needs you to be somebody that stands on the wall and prays for those that are working. Whatever that he needs, we need to be ready to serve him. We need to have a desire to see god's church rebuilt. Rebuilt.

Not so we can say, ah, see. Christians, we did it. We did it. No. So we can say, God loves you.

God is greater than all this other stuff. And you know what? He stands with his arms open wide and says, come. I'll forgive you of everything that has happened. I will wash you white as snow.

I will cast your sin as far as the East is from the West. I will wash you with the blood of Christ and I will bring you into the kingdom forever all of eternity. That's what we need to be sharing to the people of the world. That's why we need to build up the kingdom of God. Are you one of God's people?

Listen. If you're one of God's people today, that question, are you ready to work, is a valid question. Are you ready? If not, pray. Ask God, how can I be used?

Maybe you today are here and you say, you know, I'm not one of God's people. I mean, I I I I've heard of God and I I read my bible sometimes, and I come to church every once in a while, I sing the songs and all of that, but I don't have a personal relationship with him. Good news. He stands with his arms over wide today waiting. If you need to come to know him today, he's he's there.

If you're are one of God's people, it's time to get back to work. We've got to rebuild. We've got to rebuild Because people need to know the Lord. Without him, there's an eternity in hell waiting for him. God said, it is not my desire that any would spend an eternity in hell, but that all would be saved, but he leaves it up to them.

But he wants you to tell them and give them that choice. What if nobody ever told them there was a choice? Nobody ever shared with them. You don't have to live this way. You can accept Jesus.

What if they never knew? Understand that this country today is one of the most unreached people groups in the world. That's why we like to give to our North American missions to try to reach people for God today. There are many people that the only time they've ever heard the word Jesus is as a swear word. We need to rebuild together.

We have a time invitation. God's placed it on your heart that today you need to come and let me tell you how you can give your life to him, then please come. If god placed it on your heart that today you need to come and throw something down at the altar so that it can be given over to him and you can take that away and you can rise up and serve him the way that you're supposed to, the altar's open. If there's someone on your heart that you know, they don't know Jesus, but I want them to know, and I need help. I need to be able to be strong enough to come come bring that to the altar.

The altar is a great place to do it. Nothing magic. It's just symbolic of the altar in heaven. I'll say this. As we have this time of invitation, if the Holy Spirit puts something on your heart, on your mind, please just move.

Do whatever it is that he tells you to do. Let's pray.

Amazing. You know, this week, for whatever reason, I don't know the Lord put it there, but almost all week long, I have been every moment that something wasn't happening in my mind, in my heart, I began to sing, I can only imagine. And in that song where it says, I can only imagine when it says, surrounded by your glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you, Jesus, or will I and all of you be still? Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall?

You know, I don't know. I don't know what's gonna happen. But the point is, God is so unfathomable. We can probably sit and try to write down every adjective that God puts in our mind about who he is and how he is, and still never come close to describing God truly. He is absolutely unfathomable.

He is greater than we could even begin to imagine. I think that so many times we can be satisfied with less. And so we don't think about the absolute fullness, greatness of God. We just kinda oh, yeah, God. Sometimes the things that are going crazy around you, it does make you wonder about God.

I I mean, it does me. I'm not sure if it does you, but it it does me. When there are so many things that are going on around us in this world, some of them very bad, some of them very good, but there are so many things that are going on around us all the time. And I think as humans, we began to think about God. We wonder about God, and sometimes the thoughts come, you know what?

Is God even real? I mean, is God even real? Look at these things that are happening in my life. Things are falling apart. There there are stuff that's happening, and I don't know how I'm ever going to recover from the things that are going on.

Things are really bad. Does God care? Does he does he care about the things that are happening in my life? And we began to question all of those things. Maybe we think, you know what?

Maybe he's just too busy. I mean, you know, I'm just one person and there's billions of people in this world, so maybe God is just too busy. Even the most faithful people sometimes struggle with those thoughts. So first of all, I want you to pause for a moment and go, I am just human, because there's been times where I just was like, all these years and and why would that question even come in my mind? Why would I even begin to think, is God even real?

Does he even care? All the things that he's done in my life over and over and over, yet somehow that still comes into my mind. I wanna tell you about another man named King David. If you go read through the Psalms, you'll find many times where David is questioning God. He's questioning God.

God, these things are happening, and it's amazing how he goes through the passage, and it's like he's having this conversation with himself. He goes through the passage, and he begins with question, but then he tries to console itself that, you know what? Why am I even thinking this? And by the end of the passage, he's saying, god is absolutely great. And he begins to realize that.

I think that's kind of the process for a lot of us. As we go through these hard times and things happen, sometimes we struggle. It's partially because we think of God with human attributes. Well, you know, people can't do everything. And sometimes when we think about these human attributes, we put limitations on God.

We think about God and we say, you know, God just he just can't. It's just too much. And, you know, sometimes it's just more than you can handle, not God. It's never more than he can handle. Sometimes we think about God and we we want to talk about God as being our friend.

We have conversations and we pray with God and and a lot of people struggle. Well, how do I pray? And they're told, well, just talk to God like you talk to anybody else. Because God understands and and when you talk to God that way, he hits that. But sometimes we'll because of that, I think we look at God as just a a grander human.

And let me tell you, God is not human. God is indescribable. He's unfathomable. There are so many things about God that the Bible says we won't ever know on this side of heaven. We won't know.

There's too many things if it was all written down, the world couldn't contain it. There are things that God says you are not meant to know. There are things that we're just not meant to know. God is just that big. He is totally unfathomable.

So today, I want us to look back in the Old Testament to look at someone who, spent a lot of time talking to God and shared a lot of it with us in Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 40. Some of you say, oh, I love this chapter. I know part of this chapter. I I hold on to some of it, and I'm glad that you do.

I have Isaiah forty thirty one, I think it is, on a plaque in my office, and it does help us as we go through it. Isaiah forty twenty five. Look at this verse. It says, to whom then will you liken me that I would be his equal, says the holy one. Woah.

Think about that for a second. This is god. To whom then will you liken me that I would be his equal? God cannot be likened to anything we know. He is too great.

He is too big. He is too holy. To whom then will you liken me? How do you look at me? What do you do?

What do you think? Who is my equal? There is no equal. God has no equal. God is the creator.

We are the created. All of us have been created in the image of God, but not equal to God. So I want you to understand that God is so great. And it's when we begin to fail to look at God in that huge person that he is, that we start to have a lot of doubts. We start to wonder, well, maybe God just doesn't have enough time.

Maybe God is just, you know, I've displeased him because I didn't do something or I maybe God's just, you know, he's run out of patience with me. Whatever it is. No. God says that he calls you by name. He knows every hair on your head.

He knows all that about you. God loves you. Are you going to fail? Yes. But you know what?

His word says that he has forgiven us. If you've called upon him as your lord and savior, he has forgiven you of the things you've already done and things you will do. So there's not something that you can do to to take yourself out of God's hand. He says, no one can take you out of my hand. That includes you.

So when we begin to look at that and we look at God and we we put God in this small box, we don't realize how big he is. But there's nothing impossible with God. Nothing. God is able in every single situation. There's nothing that God is not able to do.

And so when we look at this and we we hold on to this, God says, whom will you like in me? Who is my equal? Who is my equal? We're still discovering new things about this world every day. Do you realize that?

Previously unknown creatures in the depths of the sea that we've discovered. How have they been unknown for so long? Because man is not able to go that deep. Machines even oftentimes are not able to go to the very depths of the ocean without being crushed. So there are things that we don't even know about even in the depths of the sea.

Those are things that are created, and we don't even know about those. New galaxies and new planets are discovered daily. We've discovered new galaxies and said, how you know, the telescopes now have the ability to see farther than they've ever been. We have telescopes and satellites that are traveling distances greater than we can imagine. And what do they reveal?

They keep showing new galaxies more and more than we ever thought possible. People say, oh, we know all about the galaxy, the Milky Way, but they don't even know all about that. They don't even know all about the galaxy that we live in because they keep discovering new stars, new planets, new things that they never saw before, and suddenly they've seen it. How amazing, how great that is. It's nothing compared to the greatness of God.

That's the created stuff. God created it all. Stars that were unknown before even listen. Near to me, even weather systems that suddenly don't behave like all the past weather systems did. Part of forecasting weather is knowing what these elements, how they come together, what typically happens.

And all of a sudden, almost every time these elements come together, this is what happens, and this time that didn't happen. Or this time, all those elements weren't there, but somehow it still happened. How is that possible? Because it's God. And all of those things that are happening, we don't even completely understand all of that.

We don't even understand all of that, and yet somehow we feel in our little bitty minds that we completely understand God. Oh, we we know that's how God is. And God just evidently, he don't care. Because if he cared, this would be the way that it happened. God's ways are not our ways.

Understand that just because you think that's how it should happen doesn't mean that's how it should happen. God knows because he created you in the first place. We're still discovering all these new things about the world every day, and yet somehow we feel like we know all there is to know about God. We don't even know all there is to know about what he created. There's no way we know everything about God.

The great thing is we don't have to know it all. We don't have to know everything about God. Look at verses twenty six and twenty seven, that same passage. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, The one who leads forth their host by number. He calls them all by name.

Because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power, not one of them is missing. Why do you say, oh Jacob, and assert, oh Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God? Wow. Think about this. When things are hard, it's easy to think that God just doesn't have time for you.

It's easy to get caught up into believing that God is so big and so busy, he doesn't have time for us. He said, why do you think that I'm limited when even every single star that's out there I created, I put them in the perfect place for them to be, I call them by name. I know exactly what they are. And if I'm gonna have that type of detail with the stars, certainly with a living breathing image of me, one that was created in my image, I'm going to know what is happening with you. God has time for every single person.

How? Because of his bigness. Because he is always present. He is present everywhere. He's omnipresent, meaning he is everywhere at one time.

There's nothing else that can be omnipresent. Understand, people say, well, you know, the devil the devil is not omnipresent. The devil cannot be everywhere at once. Now he has demons, but the devil cannot be everywhere at once. Only God can be that way.

And God can be everywhere at once. He knows everything all at the same time, and all of this stuff that God knows, he cares about you. When things are hard, sometimes we say, oh, well, you know, I haven't been doing right. I guess God is he's given up on me. No.

That doesn't happen. If we pause and realize that every single star in the heavens, God created and he calls them by name, then we have to understand that if he created us in his image, we are more important than those stars. He didn't create the stars in his image. He didn't create all of that other stuff in his image. The only thing that he created in his image according to God's word is us.

And if he created us in his image, we're more important than all of that. And so if he is so incredible that he keeps up with every single star, then certainly he's gonna keep up with you. Look at verse 28. Verse 28 says, do you not know? Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. God is truly unfathomable to us because he is so much greater. Do you not know when things are hard? Have you not heard when you're so tired that God does not become weary or tired?

That's a human aspect. God doesn't have that. God never becomes weary. He never becomes tired. He is never too busy.

He never doesn't care. He always loves and he always knows exactly what's happening. Well, pastor, if that's the truth, then why does he allow these things to happen in my life? For each person, there's different reasons why God allows things to happen. I don't know why he allows, as the world says, bad things to happen to good people, except this.

God's word says, no one is good. Not one. So when you say, but I'm such a good person. Why is God letting this happen to me? No one is good.

Not one. What's happening to you, the things you're going through, the hardships you're facing, it's a possibility they have nothing to do with anything that you've done in the past. It may be something God's getting ready for you to do in the future. It may be that you're going through something in the whole reason to help someone else. We don't understand why because God is unfathomable.

He's so much greater than us. He knows exactly why. Listen. If we trust the Department of Transportation that when they put in a new road or a new turn or a new light or a new whatever that they have studied and examined and this is the reason they're doing it is greater than what we know, then why do we not trust God that when we don't understand it, he's got a plan? I can tell you right now, there's a whole lot of people in Mobile, Alabama that still don't understand a traffic circle.

But according to the Department of Transportation and all their research, it speeds up traffic and gets people where they're going quicker, causes less accidents, and makes people move right along, if they could only figure out how to do it. The point is, we trust that when they put in a traffic light, it's there for a reason. Somebody's done research and decided it needs to be there, and we have trust in it. But yet we don't trust that when something happens in our life that God knows why he's doing it, and he puts it there on purpose. Most of us, because we're human, the first thing that happens when we run into hardship is, God, please take this away.

That's the first thing we wanna do. God, take this away. It's a hardship. I was talking to Jacob Watts this week. He and I get together once a month and and talk, and he was talking about going through the book of James and where James says, count it all joy when you face trials and hardship.

Count it all joy. The point of that is, God's doing something. And instead of saying, take it away, we say, God, give me the strength to go through what I gotta go through. Give me the peace, the patience, whatever it is that I need to go through, whatever this is that I've gotta go through. Because, God, I trust you.

David did this often. I don't understand, but I trust you. I don't understand, but I trust you, and I know that you will see me through. I know that I will come out the other side one way or another. I trust you.

God is so much greater than us. We need to understand that we don't always understand. He is the everlasting god. He will not grow tired. He will not grow weary.

We were created in his image, but it doesn't mean that we're the same or equal to God. One key to understanding is that even when things are down even when things are down, we are uncertain. We need to understand that God is able. We need to understand he is greater than all things. Even when we're down, God is able.

He is greater than anything we face. So instead of feeling like you're all alone, that's when you hit your knees. That's when you spend that time talking to God. That's when you ask God to show you how to go through the next thing. What do I do?

How do I get through what's happening? It feels like it's there's no way. The weight is too much. But God said, I'm never weary. I'm never tired.

He said, I can take your burden. Give it to me. Verse 29 through 31 says, he gives strength to the weary. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might, he increases power. Though youth grow weary and tired and vigorous men, young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength.

They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. Wow. Those of you that are here today and you're tired.

And I don't mean you're tired because you didn't sleep good last night or because you lost an hour of sleep. I mean, you're tired because there's so many things that you've been going through, and it seems like the burden is really heavy. You're begin you're getting weary, and you wonder how am I gonna get through this? Those who wait for the Lord will gain the strength. God gives increases of strength to the weak.

It means that those who have been knocked down or beaten up and feel that they just can't keep going, God is there. When you put your faith in God and you trust him and you wait on God instead of trying to do it all on your own, God will strengthen you. God will give you what you need to get through the next hour, the next day, the next month, whatever it happens to be, God will give you that strength. God pours that out. His word just we just read it.

It says, those who wait upon the Lord will have their strength renewed. They will run and not get tired. They will not be weary. It means that even though people are tired, God is going to give us strength. When we trust God, he will renew our strength.

When we trust God, he will renew our strength. I want you to understand, even the young can grow weary. Even the young in Christ can grow weary. Every person can grow weary. There are so many things people can say all the time.

How do you do what you do? How do you go through all that? How do you make it through the day? You there's so much that's being placed on you. There are so many people that it seems like over and over and over, there's just stuff piled up on their shoulders.

And I I I see a picture sometimes of a, you know, a circus clown or something that they just keep piling it on, and somehow they're able to walk around with it on their shoulders. But eventually, they drop, you know, 1p on the top and the whole thing falls apart. Why? Because there's too much. They can't carry it all.

No matter how great it seems, they can't carry it all. They're gonna grow weary eventually. They can't go that far. They can't keep piling it on and lift it up. We can't do it.

Here's the problem with us, is we think we can. Why do we ever think we can? We cannot do it in our own strength. We are human. We are not God.

We are not able to just keep piling the burdens on and keep carrying it around. God never intended for that. He said to bring them to him. He said to lay them at his feet, that his way is easy and his burden is light. Bring it to him, and he'll give it back to us.

He will take it away from us, and he will lighten our burdens. He has the strength. He will strengthen us. When we trust him, he will renew that strength. I just don't think I can go another step.

Military, we had to do running and and hikes and different things and whatever, and I remember we were on a a 12 mile road march. Well, that that's a long way to go, but we were on a 12 mile road march with a 50 pound pack. So you got all the weight on your back, and you're still marching. And, oh, yeah. By the way, they like to throw the enemy at you along the way, so you gotta react.

Right? So you're looking for the enemy, and you're marching along, and you're going you know, after a while, you just feel like, I ain't gonna make it. There's no way I'm gonna make it to the end of this. And they halt everybody and tell you, stop. Drink some water.

Everybody drinks a little water out of their canteen and takes just a short break. And all of a sudden they're like, okay. Put your pack back on. Stand back up and you're like, okay. I can go another couple of miles.

And away you go. Just that little bit, just a little water, a little break, take the pack off your back for a moment and suddenly your strength is renewed and you feel like you can go a little further. If just a little water and a five minute break can do that, think what God's renewal can do. God can renew strength that you can't even begin to imagine. He made this body that's so incredible that even after all that, a little water and a five minute break, and you're ready to go a few more miles.

He made us if we trust him, that no matter how much gets thrown on top of us, he will renew us if we call upon him. If we hold on to that, he will give us that strength. Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. We have to trust him. We have to trust him.

When we trust God, he will renew our strength. The reality for all of us is this, we're human beings. We're human beings, and we oftentimes, because sometimes of how we've been taught, sometimes just because we're stubborn, we oftentimes try to do it all on our own. God never wanted us to do anything on our own. He never want us to do anything on our own.

God's word says, apart from me, you can do nothing. Apart from me, you can do nothing. But he also says, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Through Christ who strengthens you, you can do all things. He will renew your strength.

It may not be immediate. You may need to be driven to your knees for a moment because of the things that you have neglected in the life of your relationship with God. You may need to be driven to your knees to begin to trust God again because you haven't given him that trust. You've trusted everything but him. You may need to be knocked down in order that he can pick you up and make you realize apart from me, you can do nothing.

But let me show you how it is when you trust me. Let me show you how it is when you give it to me. I will renew your strength. I will give you what you need, and I will strengthen you through the things that you go through in this life. We live a life, oftentimes, where we're weary from battles.

Sometimes it's battles of life. Sometimes it's battles of of a job, or a relationship, or children, or financial battles. Whatever it is, we have all these battles that we fight in life, and we get weary. Sometimes all those things tend to knock us down. Sometimes when we don't even think that those things are happening, we may be truly fighting a battle against Satan.

Yes. The devil and his demons do bring attacks on God's people. They absolutely do. There is nowhere that we can think that that doesn't happen. We do have satanic attacks in our life.

Everything that happens to you is not a satanic attack, but we do have satanic attacks in our life. Perhaps you're going through that. Maybe you're at a place where you think this, and unfortunately, this happens a lot. I have messed up. I have done all these things.

I'm looking at the the staring down the barrels of the consequences of everything that happened, and no one can help me. No one. I've I've examined everything I know to do. I've thought of everything I can think of, and yet no one can help me, and it's my fault that I'm where I'm at. Maybe it is your fault that you're where you're at.

Maybe you did make the bad choices. Maybe you did do things that put you in the position that you're in. But the thing you're wrong about is when you say no one can help me, God can. God can. Unfortunately, in this world today, so many people get to that point and say, no one can help me, and so they end their life.

Not ever stopping to think that god can. Many of them are not. Why? Because they don't know god. They don't know god.

They've never experienced that. God knows your name no matter if you know him or not. God loves you and cares for you, no matter if you know him or not. God will lift you up and strengthen you, if you will call upon him. You see, God created every person in this world, and whether they have called him by name, whether they have asked him into their life, whether they have given their life over to him or not, God loves every creation that he made.

Every single one. That's why that every single thing that people do in life can be forgiven. There's only one unpardonable sin. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which is basically unbelief. If you don't believe, certainly, you can't receive forgiveness.

Other than that, everything can be forgiven because God loves the creation that he made so much that he gives every opportunity for you to call upon him and let him renew your strength. Let him give you that fresh life. He gives you every opportunity, but we have to call upon his name. Maybe people don't know. Maybe they don't know because no one's told them.

That means if you know him, you need to tell. So the question I have for you today is this. Do you know the god who calls you by name? Do you know? Because he knows you, but do you know him?

Have you ever given your life to him? Have you ever gotten to that point and said, you know what? I need a savior. All these things that have piled up on me, and I cannot come out from under them, god, please come and forgive me and save me, and give me that strength that I need. Have you ever done that?

Only you know. I can't look at here and see who does and who doesn't. Sometimes people say, yes. I do. Later to find out, no.

They don't. Later, they say, you know what? I was wrong. I thought I knew, but I knew up here, I didn't know in here. I never gave my life.

I I thought that because I came to church every Sunday, because I have a Bible in my house, because I give some money to the Lord, because I treat people good that, of course, I will I knew God. I was saved. But that's not what God's word says. It says, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. But those are the steps you must take.

There's no other way. There's no other way. Do you know the god that knows you by name? If today you don't know him, I wanna introduce you. I would love to talk to you about how you can know him.

Perhaps you know him, but you've been trying to carry the whole load all by yourself instead of calling upon the God that says, let me carry it for you. Maybe today you need to bring those burdens to the altar and leave them with him. Maybe there's somebody on your heart that you know you want to pray for. The altar's open. We're gonna have a time of invitation this morning.

I just ask you simply this. Would you respond as the Holy Spirit touches your heart?

Right. Preaching a sermon on going back to the beginning, and we sing this morning with no music. How about that? Just like we went back in the Garden of Eden. No musical instruments, just praising God.

Amen? Alright. I am, again, excited about today. If you have been coming on Wednesday night, you are aware that we started our study on Genesis quite a few weeks ago. I told the congregation when we started our study on the book of Genesis, I said, now look.

Understand, this will not be a quick study. The book of Genesis is going to take us more than a year to get through. We'll only meet for an hour on Wednesday night. It's gonna take us more than a year to get through. I think it only took us three weeks to get through chapter one.

So takes a while. When you dig in and you study what's there and you're reminded of things that maybe you'd it's been a while since you considered. So today, I told him Wednesday night, I said, we were in chapter two, but there's not enough time. I want to do more. So Sunday morning, we will be back in the book of Genesis, and we're talking about a tale of two trees.

A tale of two trees. Genesis reveals the beginning of creation. That's what Genesis means, the beginning. It actually means in the beginning. That's what Genesis is.

In the beginning, it reveals creation. Creation. Understand. Everything that is in this world did not show up randomly. It was created by God.

God created the very first plant. He separated the water and the land. He separated the heavens from the earth. He made the animals, the fish, the birds, the the mammals, the the land creatures, everything that's there. I wonder sometimes, god, why did you make mosquitoes?

But for some reason, he did. He made all of that, including mankind. He made all of that. He created all of that. It was his creation.

The Bible says when it comes to man, he literally scooped up the dirt from the ground, formed man with his hands, and breathed breath, life into his nostrils. The other things that God created is that he spoke and it happened. He took his time with you. He picked up the dirt. He fashioned mankind in his image, and then he breathed his own breath into mankind to become life.

Now listen. I don't know about you, but right away that makes me so humble to realize. God could have just said, okay, man, and there's man. He didn't have to take time with me. He didn't have to create me after his image.

I could have been just like any other animal operating on instincts and doing all of those things, but God took his time with me. In Genesis, it reveals the beginning of creation, and it also reveals the first relationship between man and God. It is a intimate relationship. Like I just said, he literally, with his own hands, created you. He fashioned you.

He made you. That relationship that he made was special from the very beginning because we're the only creation that he did that with. He wanted a personal relationship with us. He made us to have a mind. He made us to have a body.

He made us to have a soul. He made us to have a desire to worship. He made us to have understanding. He made us to all of these things that animals don't have all of that. God made us that way.

Why? So we could have a relationship with him. That's why he did that. He didn't give us all that so we could stand around and say, you know what my IQ is? Mine's like six.

But anyway, what's my IQ? How smart are you? Look how great I am. See how wonderful an athlete. God didn't make us to do all that.

God made us to have relationship with him. That was the very first purpose that God had for us. He made us to have a relationship with him. God created a place. Before he created mankind, he created a place.

Right? He created the Garden of Eden. In the Garden Of Eden, he planted two trees that he named. There's more than two trees. Don't get confused.

I know that we think about, oh, there's two trees in the garden. There were more than two trees in the garden. There were two trees that were specific. There were two trees that were special. And God told us in the scripture about those two trees.

They were ones that absolutely were set apart and different than the rest of them. Scripture says in the middle of the garden, he planted those two trees. Everything else was all around, but in the middle, there were those two trees. Two trees that God calls to grow up, and he named them. He gave those trees for Adam and Eve, and he said, look.

Here's these two trees that are here. And all these other trees, you can eat from anything there, but don't eat from this one tree. The two trees that he named were the tree of life. I like the tree of life. It's a wonderful tree.

It's a good tree. The tree of life. Right? And he named the tree of life. The tree of life that he placed there basically said, you eat of the tree of life, then if you ate from it, you would not die.

He said, you can eat for everything in the garden, including that tree. That tree, if you ate from that tree, you didn't have to die. But don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because on the day that you eat of that tree, you will surely die. Some people say, well, Adam and Eve ate, they didn't die.

They did die. Not right then, but they did die. They weren't designed to die initially, but they did die because they ate from the tree. And so there's a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and what is the result of that death? Right?

The result of that is death. Now Adam and Eve knew all of this before they ate from that tree. God told them all that. It wasn't a trick. He didn't say, hey.

Eat from any tree, but, you know, kinda maybe stay away from that one. No. Don't worry about it. Just stay away from that tree. No.

No. He gave them the reason why. If you eat from that tree, you're gonna die. There's a problem. Don't eat from that tree.

The one thing god said don't do, don't do it. Here's the the crazy thing. God gave him a choice. He gave him a choice. Every time I read Genesis, I read it and I go, god, why did you do that?

Why did you give us a choice? Why did you make it a choice? Why did you just not even put that tree there, and then we didn't have to worry about it? Instead, you put it there and then told us, don't eat that. You gave us a choice.

We had to choose. What are we gonna do? Adam and Eve had a choice. They had everything under their dominion, every plant, animal, everything god said is under your control. Everything.

Just don't eat from that one tree. The one thing that he said don't eat from that tree. And I and like I said, I I'm I'm like, god, why? Why don't you just leave that tree out and then everything would have been good? But then we would not have in our own mind, in our own body, we would not have made that choice to love God, to serve God, to give our life to God.

We would have had no choice, But God made us different from the very beginning. He fashioned us with his own hands. He gave breath with his own breath. He made us different, and he gave us a choice. And he said, you choose.

You make that choice what you're gonna do. The animals don't have a choice. They follow instinct. They do whatever they feel like that they're supposed to do. That if the the food source is here, they follow the food.

If this is the storm is coming, they hide under something, you know, whatever. They just do whatever happens because that's their instinct. They don't have a choice. They don't reason. They don't think like we do.

But God made us to where we have that opportunity. He made us where we have a choice. Now here's the thing. This model is still with us today. What do you mean?

We don't even know where the Garden of Eden is, preacher. How can this model still be with us today? The Garden of Eden was destroyed. We we well, it wasn't destroyed, but it was hidden when they sinned, and we don't know where it is. So how can you say that?

I'm talking about the model. The model is a choice. Follow God or follow sin. We have that choice. Every single one of you had a choice today.

Am I gonna get up and go to church or not? You can choose. There are many people that aren't here today because they're sick. They have something going on. They weren't able to be here.

Some people just absolutely said, I just don't I'm not feeling it today. I'm not going. I made a choice. Every day, we have a choice. When you're driving down Airport Boulevard and you watch that light start to change, you have a choice.

Slow down or speed up. Right? You know, there there are cameras out there now. They're getting ready to start sending tickets by mail. So you might better watch out for that.

We have a choice. Floor it and blow through the red light or stop. We have a choice. There's a sign, a white sign with black numbers on it. Should we drive that speed or however fast we wanna go?

We have a choice. We can do those things. That that's trivial, preacher. I mean, you're talking about small stuff. I am.

But you know what? If we think like that with the small stuff, how are we gonna think with the big stuff? If we think about things like that and go, you know, everybody speeds. It's not a big deal. Well, now they say everybody, you know, uses, illegal drugs.

It's not really a big deal. Everybody likes to get drunk. It's not really a big deal. Everybody, you know, has relationships outside of marriage. It's no big deal.

The world says, it's not a big deal. Sin is no big deal. Just do whatever you want. But in the very beginning, God separated sin and said, don't do that. Don't do that, but it's your choice.

You can choose to do that. Today, every day, we make a choice. Are we going to walk with God, or are we going to choose sin and eternal separation from God? What are we gonna choose? It's interesting to see that the tree of life is in the beginning, it's also in the end.

Tree of life is in the beginning in Genesis, but it's also in the end in Revelation. Turn with me to Revelation. At the end of Revelation, you will find in, 22, chapter 22 verse one and two. Chapter 22 verse one and two in Revelation. Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the lamb.

In the middle of its street, on either side of the river, was the tree of life, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. The tree of life. It was in the beginning, and it's in the end of God's word. Right away, we see that. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we don't see again after the garden.

We only see it in the Garden Of Eden. It's not mentioned later. So we don't see that moving forward. The tree of life is mentioned not only in the beginning, but is also mentioned in the end. God always intended for man to have relationship with him.

God always intended that. There was never a time when God said, you know what? I'm gonna make everything including man, and then I'm leaving. I'll spin the earth up, get it going, and I'm stepping away, and they do what they want. God didn't create the earth that way.

A lot of people think that. They think, well, even if they believe there was a creation, they believe there was some deity that created all of this, set it in motion, and said, go forth, do well, and they left to go start another world somewhere else. That's not what Genesis tells us. God wanted a relationship with man from the very beginning. That's why he created man with his hands.

That's why he gave him his breath. That's why he created him in his own image. He wanted a relationship always with man. He never intended for there to be a time when you didn't have a relationship with him, but he gave you a choice. He created you to be in relationship with him, but he still gave you a choice.

You choose. You get to decide what to do. God always intended for man to have a relationship with him. In the beginning, in the garden, God actually walked with mankind. How do you know that God walked?

Because in Genesis, it says, I heard God walking in the garden. It didn't say I felt the presence of God. I saw the spirit of God. It says, I heard God walking in the garden. God actually walked with mankind.

He had a one on one personal relationship with Adam and Eve. He was there. They could see him. They could talk to him. They had this personal relationship with him.

You know why? Because sin had not separated him from the world yet. It's sin. That's what separated mankind. Until sin came in, there was that walk with God.

It was a personal walk, a personal relationship that was physical. It was there every day until sin came into the world. So in the garden, God actually walked with mankind. He was there. Once mankind gave into the temptations, we were physically separated from God.

Is there anything God can't do? God can't allow sin in his presence. He can't allow sin in his presence. In fact, when he, when Jesus went to the cross and took the sin of the world on him, it says, God turned away because he couldn't look on the sin that covered his son. When sin happened, it was a separation.

Consider this. What if before sin happened, God and man were standing side by side and sin happened, and suddenly, something like the Grand Canyon opened up. And now God's on one side and man's on the other, and there's this great chasm between us. That's a wonderful picture to think about today when you think about sin. It's larger than the Grand Canyon between can you stand on one side of the Grand Canyon and reach out and grab the hand of the person on the other side?

No. You're physically separated. There's only one thing that can put the two of you together. That's a bridge. The bridge today is Jesus Christ.

That's the bridge that bridge man and god. God designed that from the very beginning. Some people look at the story of creation, and they look at the Garden of Eden, and they say, oh, well, you know, I I mean, I know that that, you know, God created us and all that kind of stuff, But, you know, he didn't really, expect us to make that that bad choice. He didn't expect us to to sin when he told us not to sin, and so now there's been a problem. More on that later.

Have you ever considered the two trees represent today our choice on our everyday walk? Think about it like that. Two trees represent our choice every day. Every day we stand in the middle of of the trees, and we make a choice. Do I follow the choice by taking life from God and walk in eternal life and walk in a way that's pleasing to God, or do I choose sin?

Which do I do? Perhaps I I wanna choose sin. Maybe I wanna go and do that. I can take part in eternal life that's mine forever through Christ because we can still take part in that even though there was a separation that happened so long ago. Jesus bridged that gap and gave us the opportunity to accept that eternal life.

Do we choose that? Listen. When I say do we choose that, we know people come in a Baptist church. Typically, people make a decision. They come up front and they say, yes.

I believe in Jesus, and I gave my life to him, and we all celebrate. And we confirm that with them, and we go through baptism. We do all that. That's wonderful. Daily.

Daily. Do you choose daily to continue to walk in that eternal life? Do you choose daily? The Bible says take up your cross daily and follow him. Do you do that daily?

Every day, we have to choose what we're going to do. Are we going to follow Christ today, or are we going to go off and do our own thing and and live in a way that's not pleasing him? What are we gonna do? Are we gonna choose life, Are we gonna choose sin that's a separation from God? What are we gonna choose every day?

Here's the thing. Well, real preacher, if I know Jesus as Lord and savior, even though I sinned, he forgives me. And so I'm not really separated away from God because he forgives me of that sin. Yeah. But while you're in that sin, as soon as you have sinned and you've caused that problem, there is a temporary divide until you understand you made that sin and you ask god, please let me come back.

Please forgive me. God's will he's standing there. He's already gonna forgive you. You know he's gonna forgive you, but you need to ask for that. There is a separation.

How many people just think about this. No hands. How many people are actively committing sin and feel close to God? Think about that. I chose to whatever that you know is sinful.

While you're committing that sinful act, do you feel close to god? No. You feel separated. You don't wanna hear god. You don't even wanna know about it.

You wanna completely be away from it. You know, there are many people that won't come through the back door of that church or the front door of that church, this church, any church, because when they walk in the door, they get convicted. They don't want the convicted. They don't wanna be that close. So in their sin, they're separated.

Yes. Even if they know Jesus Christ, when you're sinning, you're separated from God. When you're following that walk in sin, you're separated at that moment. Yes. He provided a way that you can come back to him, but you have to choose.

You have to make that choice. You have to decide. What am I gonna do? These two trees represent a model, a choice that we all have to do every day. Every single day, we have choices.

We get up in our life, we have a choice. Are we gonna honor god and walk in a way that's pleasing to him today, or are we gonna walk in a way that's not pleasing to him? And if it was simple enough that we can make that choice the moment we got out of bed and we didn't ever have to think about it again, wouldn't that be great? You know what happens? We make that choice, and then, you know, two hours later, there's another opportunity that comes up.

Am I gonna follow that sin? Am I gonna stay walking with God? What am I gonna do? All day long, there's stuff. All day long, there's stuff.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I'll get a random text. Middle of the day, things are going great. I'm doing all well. I get a random text. I know well enough not to open that text because I know that that text that just came in or that email that just showed up, there's something bad on the other side of that.

And I know people who have opened those texts, and you know what happened? Their phone blew up with pornography. Why did that happen? Satan is throwing it out there. Here you go.

I'm giving you that opportunity to send. You can look. I know you you decided you're gonna walk like this today, but you know how much fun it would be if you did this instead? You know, you can ask forgiveness tomorrow. I've heard people say, oh, I'm gonna have fun today.

I'll ask god to forgive me tomorrow. You just made a absolute choice to step into sin. You made that choice to separate yourself from god. Is that what we're supposed to be doing? No.

God said, look, eat all the fruit, do all of the things, but don't do that. And today, if we think about it in that way of a model, the choice is there. Here's the thing. No one can make that choice for you. You have to make that choice.

You're the only one that can make that choice. As a parent, we tell our children, don't do these things. Do this instead. But when they leave the house and they go out into the world, they're the ones that make the choice, not you. You can tell them all day long, but ultimately, the choice comes down to them.

The choice comes down to them. They make the choice. We can choose every day. No one can make that choice but us, but here's the reality. There are consequences for our choices.

Some good, some bad, but there are consequences for our choices. When we choose eternal life, we're strengthened for our daily walk. We're strengthened every day. We're strengthened when we walk in God. God lifts us up.

He takes care of us. We're strengthened as we go throughout our day as we make that choice and we walk with him. When we choose sin, we're saying, we don't need God. Oh, come on, preacher. That's kinda, you know, extreme, ain't it, to say if I choose sin, I'm saying I don't need God.

No. It's not extreme at all. That's exactly what you're saying. I don't need you, God. I know I'm gonna make my own decision.

Don't follow me. I'm going over here. I'll come back when I'm done. I don't want you to be there. You stay over here.

I don't need you right now. I'm going and doing this thing. I I don't I I'm I'm just making my own choice. I don't need god. When we sin and we make that physical choice to sin in our life, we're saying to god, I don't need you.

I don't need you today. I'm making my own choice. I'm doing my own thing. We make the choice. Question is, which choice are you making?

Are you making the choice of following God and walking in that eternal life every day, or are you choosing that other tree? Are you choosing to say, I don't need God? When we choose sin when we choose sin, we're saying we don't need God, and every single day, man struggles with that choice. Man struggles with that choice. It seems like such an easy choice, but we struggle with it.

The world says it's okay. You remember the story I was telling children and Satan is in that tree going, it's all good. Try it out. It tastes wonderful. God didn't really mean you're gonna die.

That's what we're dealing with every day. If our God was not a loving God full of grace, when we choose to sin, we would have to live in it forever. Think about that. Bible says that the wages of sin is death and eternal separation from God. He says that that sin, that choice that we have, the wages of sin is death and eternal separation for God.

But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our savior. God provided a way. If he didn't love us and he didn't provide a way, he wasn't merciful, he wasn't full of grace. When we chose sin, it would be forever. It would be forever.

The trees that we see show every day the struggle the man that mankind goes through and wrestles with. But God, from the very beginning, already knew what was gonna happen. God said, don't eat from this tree. Remember, God is omniscient. He knows everything.

He knew that Adam and Eve, at some point, were going to make the decision to eat from that tree. He already knew that was gonna happen from the very beginning. He already knew that. And I wanna be clear about something. Eve and Adam made the decision to eat from that tree.

You read the scripture. When Eve took of that tree, she didn't have to run across the other side of the garden and tell Adam what she'd done and give him the fruit. He was standing there with her. Says she ate and she gave it to him. Oh, this is good.

Try it. Sometimes it makes me think of somebody taking a drink of spoiled milk. Oh, try that. Yeah. It was horrible, but we gave it to somebody else.

And what did they do? Oh, you're right. Why? Why do we do that? Eve sinned.

So did Adam. He's standing right there with her when all that's happening. He sinned. She sinned. They chose sin.

God knew it was gonna happen. From the very beginning, he gave us a way to be redeemed. How many of you just don't have to raise your hands, but how many of you know that Jesus is mentioned in the book of Genesis? Jesus is mentioned in the book of Genesis. Jesus is the way.

God, from the very beginning, after they made that choice and they sinned and God passed out the punishment, he talked about Jesus. Really? Yeah. Look in Genesis chapter three verses fourteen and fifteen. Genesis chapter three fourteen and fifteen.

Some of you are thinking, I've read Genesis three many times. I've never seen Jesus mentioned in Genesis anywhere, because it doesn't specifically say Jesus. The lord god said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field, on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the hill.

Couple real quick things I want you to see there. Almost anywhere else that you find, you will never see where it talks about a woman's seed. Seed is from the man. Seed is from the man. But in this part, it says her seed because Jesus was gonna be born through a woman.

Her seed, that's Jesus. He capitalized. Capitalized. He, meaning Jesus, shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. He's talking about the crucifixion of Jesus.

It's just a small setback. Right? Yeah. He's dead, but God's gonna bring you back to life. It's just a small setback.

Right there we see God already had the plan from the very beginning of time that when, Satan calls, he brought in the temptation and mankind made the choice to sin. God already had the plan in place to bridge that gap. He already had Jesus lined up to take care of that problem. He already had a way for man to be forgiven of the sin that he had committed in life. God didn't see what happened and went, oh, man.

Now what? And he doesn't do that today on anything. Nothing catches him by surprise. There's nothing that happens and god is surprised. You know, United States Of America was so they were doing so good.

They were following me, and now they're turning away. Oh, what am I gonna do now? He already knew that was gonna happen. Everything that happens, god already knew and he already has a plan for it. It's already there.

It's not something that catches him off guard. From the very beginning, God had the plan for Jesus. We see it in the book of Genesis. God gave us a choice from the very beginning. A choice.

God created mankind. He put two trees in the garden that were named the the garden the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't eat this one. He already knew it was gonna happen. Don and I were talking Wednesday night, and Don said, you know what, brother George?

Even if Adam and Eve never sinned, they didn't ever choose that tree. When Cain and Abel came along, they'd have been all up in that tree. They would have been the ones if it if it if Adam and Eve didn't, But they sinned. Sin came into the world. They made a choice.

God gave them that choice, and they made the wrong choice. He knew God knew that we were incapable, unable, whatever, to, live our own sinless life. Only we can choose. He knew we weren't gonna be able to do that, to live a sinless life. He knew that.

Well, look. If God knew that we weren't gonna be able to live live a sinless life, why do you even bother giving us the 10 commandments? We're supposed to try. We're supposed to try. Every day, we're supposed to try.

God says we should be perfect. He knows we're not gonna be perfect. Why does he tell us we're supposed to be perfect? So we can try every day. We can strive every day to live better than we did the day before.

We can strive every day to live for God in a way that's pleasing to him. We can strive every day to keep everything that he has put before us. We can strive to be sinless every day. Well, there's no way. Nobody could be live a sinless life.

Jesus did as fully man. As fully man, he walked on this earth and did not sin. Jesus did it. We don't do it, but he gave us a way. He knew we would not be able to do it, so he gave us Jesus to pay the price for our sin.

Now think about that. I like to pick on Bill, so I'll do I'll use Bill. I said, okay. Look, Bill, don't sin. But you know what?

I know you're gonna sin, so Tim's gonna pay that price for you. He'll be the one that'll pay the price. So you you're gonna sin. I know that, but Tim's gonna be the one to pay for it. Right?

Well, how's that fair? I don't seem fair. It's not fair at all, but it's grace. It's mercy that God gave us. God said, I know Bill can't live a sinless life, but neither can Tim.

And so I'm sending Jesus, And Jesus will be the one that makes the way for us. He's the one that's gonna pay the price for our sin. He went on that cross, and God turned away from him because he was covered with our sin. He's the one that paid the price. So here's the thing.

He paid the price for our sin. And when he paid the price for our sin, he gave us reconciliation. We now have that reconciliation. Maybe today you realize, you know what? My whole life I have chosen badly.

If there was a bad choice to be made, that was me. I made that choice. I've not done the right thing my whole life. I've struggled. I've had a hard time.

I've never done that. I've never made the right choice. Well, there's still a way to overcome that and make a right choice. Have you ever called upon the name of Jesus, asked him to forgive you, and receive eternal life? Have you ever done that?

You see, this is the amazing thing. God knew we were gonna sin. He gave Jesus to pay the price for our sin. And then all we have to do is accept that gift that he gave us, and we can have eternal life. And you know what it costs?

For us, nothing. For Jesus, it cost him everything. For us, it cost nothing. You you can't buy it. You you you can have more money than anybody in the world and it doesn't help you.

You can try to live the best life, do all the things you can for people, be the the most giving person that anybody's ever seen, it doesn't help you. You have to call upon Jesus. You see, he gave you another choice. He gave you the choice, you're gonna sin or not. People sin.

We know the scripture says all have sinned. People sinned. So he gave us that choice, but praise God, he gave us another choice. Then he said, you know what? Even though you sinned, I'm gonna provide you with another opportunity to make the right choice.

You made the wrong choice when you when you sin, but I'm giving you another opportunity to make the right choice. Here's Jesus' bridge that crosses this chasm of sin. And all you have to do is choose him and walk across him, and you can join me in eternal life. I'm giving you that opportunity. That's all you gotta do is call upon the name of Jesus.

Scripture says, that if you confess Jesus as lord and believe that god raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Call upon the name of Jesus. Ask him to forgive you and accept the eternal life that he gives. So here's the the real reality. Only you can make the choice.

God gave us a design of choice. From the very beginning, we had a choice. Follow God or sin. Whatever we choose, we have that choice. What are we gonna do?

God knows we're gonna choose sin. All have sinned. Praise God. He gave us another choice. He said, okay.

Alright. You messed that one up. So already created away from the very beginning, here's Jesus. He he's willing to take all your sin, and he has already paid the price for it. You just call upon his name.

You ask to be forgiven of all those things that you did, and you will be saved. If you confess Jesus as lord and believe that god raised him from the dead, you shall, not maybe, not might, not could be, but you shall be saved. So that's what you need to do. That's your choice. Will you do that?

Meaning will say, I just don't think I can. Many will make the choice to reject Jesus, but those who make the choice to accept are rewarded with eternal life, Rewarded with a life together with God, not separated from him. They'll be rewarded with the payment of their sins being paid in full, knowing that God loves them that much. It's a choice. No one can make it for you.

I've said this many times. If I could make the choice, any person that I ever came in contact with that told me that they never made the confession of faith in Jesus Christ, I will make it for them. But I can't. Only you can make that choice. On one hand, you choose life eternal with Jesus Christ.

On the other hand, you choose death eternal with Satan. Which one do you choose? Only you can make the choice. Today, I want to tell you this. If you do not choose, then you already chose.

Because if you don't choose life, you've already chosen death. Perhaps you walk out that door and on that very busy street, you don't see the car that mows you down, and this is your last breath that you ever took. Have you made that choice? Have you made that choice? Perhaps you lay down tonight and your heart stops.

Have you made the choice? Are you ready? Because we don't know. We're not promised another minute. So as you consider that choice that needs to be made, have you made it?

And if you've made it, have you chosen to follow Jesus? We have a time invitation. After I pray, if god's put it on your heart that you need to make that decision to choose him, I'm a ask you to come tell me about it. Perhaps you need to come to the altar and pray about something else. You've made the decision, but you know you're still having a hard time making the right choice every day.

Maybe there's someone in your life that you desperately wanna pray for them. Whatever it is, the altar will be open. Let's pray.

Job 19:17-25 NASB

There is something about that name. Amen? That absolutely is the most incredible name that's above all names. And, you know, it's just something peaceful about even saying the name Jesus, because you could think about how powerful that name is, how powerful that name is. Jesus spoke one word, and everything, a whole raging ocean became like glass.

How incredible is that? With everything around us raging and storming and all that's going on, Jesus can take care of all of that. You know, today, we live in uncertain times. We live in uncertain times. There's a lot going on in our life today.

And so I wanna share a few things with you today. I want you to think about this, what crazy times we live in with so much uncertainty. It's a lot of uncertainty, and especially right now, there are things going on. People are losing their jobs. Things are changing all over the the country.

Things are changing all over the world. There's just stuff happening, it seems like, every which way that you turn around. People are afraid of losing their jobs, rising costs, even crazy weather. We've even had some weather that's just, you know, who if you raise your hand, I'm gonna call you a liar. Whoever saw nine inches of snow in Mobile, Alabama before?

Nobody. Because it hadn't happened before. Seven, eight, nine inches of snow in Mobile, Alabama. Nobody ever expected that. It's not something we ever had, but we did.

So all these things that are happening, it's uncertain. We just we don't understand exactly what's going on. But I want you to think about this. Scripture never tells us that our lives will be certain and structured. Scripture never says that.

There's nowhere in scripture it says, when you call upon the name of Jesus, your life is absolutely certain. There'll be no surprises, no changes, no hardships, no problems, nothing happening. It actually says that when you call upon the name of Jesus, you will have trouble in your life. That you will. There will be things that happen we have absolutely no control.

We think about this structure and all these things going on in our life, but listen, all of this control and certainty in our life is, it's really just a fantasy. There's no such thing really as control over your life because there's too many things on the outside of your life that play into it. God has shown us certain truths for uncertain times. God has shown us certain truths for uncertain times. I'm gonna go over three passages this morning.

I'm gonna go over three passages, and we're gonna talk about each one of these passages. We're gonna learn some things from these passages about uncertain times. Because this is the time we live in. We don't live in a time where everything is perfect. The reality is we never have.

But it just seems more right now, like there's so much more happening. And so we wanna talk about that just a little bit today. I wanna pray before we read these passages, and then we're gonna cover them, and we're gonna talk about them, and we're gonna ask God to reveal to us exactly what he wants to see. Let's pray. Father, we come to you today, and as we open your word, god, the place that we can find answers is in your word.

We're not gonna find the answers in the Wall Street Journal. We're not gonna find the answers in the on Facebook. We're not gonna find the answers even from our neighbor next door. God, we're gonna find the answers from your word, the ones that you gave us. And this morning, as we go through these three passages, help us to take comfort in knowing, God, that you're in control, to show us and reveal to us that, father, we can trust you.

Father, you said you would never leave us or forsake us, and, father, we believe that. And so I pray that today as we go through this time together, that you would touch each life how they need to be touched. Every person is going through different things, but, god, some need to be comforted because of the affliction that's going on in their life. Some may need to be afflicted because they've gotten too comfortable. But father, whatever it is, I pray that you would touch us today, and you would reveal to us exactly what you want us to see.

God, we ask all these things in Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen. If you will, turn with me to the book of Job. The book of Job chapter 19, and we're going to go verses 17 through 25. We're gonna read that passage, and then we're gonna discuss some of it.

So Job chapter 19 verse 17 through 25. If you don't have your Bible with you, the passage will be on the screen. It says I believe that's a start. Yeah. It says uh-oh.

I went too far. I got it. Alright. It says, my breath is offensive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own brothers. Even young children despise me.

I rise up and they speak against me. All my associates abhor me, and those I love have turned against me. My bone clings to my skin and my flesh, and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. Pity me. Pity me, oh, you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me.

Why do you persecute me as God does and are not satisfied with my flesh? Oh, that my words were written. Oh, that they were inscribed in a book that with an iron stylus and with lead, they were engraved in the rock forever. As for me, I know that my redeemer lives. And at the last, he will take his stand on the earth.

Now here's the thing. I want you to think about this. All this passage that we just went through, Job has a lot going on. Job is in a the worst spot that anybody could ever imagine. If you're familiar with Job and you're familiar with how we got to this point, Satan has talked to God and said, let me sift him.

God allowed it. And Satan took away his family. He took away his wealth. He took away his health. He took away everything.

And all that happened to one behind another, behind another, behind another. And Job is sitting literally in sackcloth and ashes begging for peace. And he has all of these friends that are coming out to him, but none of them are giving him peace. None of them are giving him peace. Job is afflicted by disease.

He's afflicted by disease. He's literally it says in scripture, he's scratching sores off of his body. He's literally afflicted with disease, a terrible, terrible situation. Many of you have dealt with disease in your life. Many of you may have dealt with cancer.

Many of you deal with respiratory illness. There's so many things that we deal with in our life that we wonder why do I have to go through all this. We see other people not going through that. Maybe you wonder how do I have to go through all of these things? But we're afflicted.

Job was afflicted by disease. He was also abused by the despot, by those that were around him. They abused him. They were like, what have you done? You have sinned, and god is punishing you.

The reality was the opposite. Job was living for god exactly as he was supposed to. But Satan said, if I afflict him, he'll turn away from you. Job had been abused by all of these, and then he was abandoned during this time. All of his friends, you know what they did?

They turned away from him. They all said, Job, you have sinned in God's hand. His punishment is on you, and so we're just turning away. You need to curse God and die. That's what his wife said.

Job cursed God and die. That's how bad it was. That's pretty bad. You just need to do that. But in all the things that Job said and everything that was happening in his life and all that was going on at the end of that passage at the end of that passage, things changed.

This was a time when he most needed a shoulder to cry on, and yet nobody was there. Instead of a reassuring hand and somebody to try to help him out, he was belittled and abandoned. All this that went on, everything that was happening, all the affliction, all the abuse, all the abandonment, and in spite of the disease and and despite the despair, he found a certain truth. And the truth that he found was, my redeemer lives. God lives.

We look at this and it says, we have a lord that lives. That's what he finds in verse 25. And all this is going on and everything that's happening, he's telling you how bad it is and everything that's going on, but he said, but I know my redeemer lives. He's not dead. He lives.

My redeemer lives. And because of that, I can trust him. Because of that, with everything that's going on, I'm appealing to him. I will not turn away. I will stay focused on serving God.

My redeemer lives. We have a Lord that lives, it says in verse 25. Now in this, this reminds us of some things. This is what he said. As for me, I know my redeemer lives, and the last he will take his stand on the earth.

So there are some things that we know. There are some things that reminds us of when we read this verse. Number one, I want you to think about this. It reminds us of the redemption. The redemption.

Well, what do you mean the redemption? We have redemption because of Christ. Because of Christ. We cannot be redeemed without Jesus Christ. What I mean redeemed?

Well, every single one of us, the scripture said, has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Every one of us. So we all are given a price to pay. That price that we're given for sin is death and eternal separation from God. However, Jesus paid that price.

He redeemed us by paying that price, and all of us can understand there is a redemption for our sins because of Jesus Christ. Job said, my redeemer lives. He's alive. He's not dead. I know I will be redeemed.

We can understand that we have redemption. We have redemption because of Christ, and no matter what happens, nothing changes with that. Well, wait a minute. So you're telling me that even though I sinned, Jesus paid that price. He paid the price to redeem me.

And I accepted that redemption, and I have salvation. Okay? Good. Now I messed up, and I sinned again, And I had this problem or I had that problem. You're telling me that that redemption that I got initially does not change?

That's exactly what I'm telling you. Because that one time that Jesus went to the cross and paid the price for all sin, past, present, and future. He died once for all. If it would didn't cover everything, he woulda had to keep going to the cross and keep dying and keep shedding his blood over and over and over again. But he didn't have to do that.

He did it once, and it covered everything for all eternity if we accept it. He paid the price. He redeemed you if you simply accept it. He's not forcing it on you. You have to accept it.

But understand that with everything else that's going on in your life and all the stuff that's happening and all of the world seemingly caving down around you, you have redemption if you know Jesus Christ. You have redemption. So the ultimate is my redeemer lives. I have been redeemed. I will spend an eternity in heaven with him.

We have redemption because of Christ. I want you to think about why do we have redemption because of the resurrection. We have redemption because of the resurrection. You see, if Jesus went to that cross and he died on that cross and he was buried in that tomb and he never was raised from the dead, we would have no hope. We would have absolutely no hope.

It's because of the resurrection that we have hope. It's because of the resurrection that all this is possible. Because there are other people who have been great people, who have done many things, who have died for people, but they were never resurrected. You see, they didn't overcome the grave. They didn't overcome all of that.

They died. They were buried, and that was the end of of their earthly life. That was the end of of what they had to give. But Jesus died, he was buried, and he was resurrected to walk fresh and new. And today, he sits at the right hand of the father.

Amen? Amen. And so because of that, we can think about with everything that's going on, we have redemption because of Christ, and it's because of the resurrection that we can have that hope. We can have the hope that no matter what else is going on in our life, that god is still in control. We can have the hope that will go through every single day.

Understand that one of the the biggest problems, especially for Americans that we deal with in this country, is depression. There are so many people that are dealing with depression, and many of them don't deal with it very well. They don't go see anybody. They don't talk to anybody because there's a stigma, right, about depression. Oh, if I go see a counselor, then that labels me.

No. It labels you as human and that you need help. You need to talk to somebody. But the number one person you need to be talking to is god. But you may need more than that.

The number one problem across our nation in mental health is depression, and depression causes so many other things when it's not dealt with. But we can take all of these things that are happening, and we can turn it over to God and understand that he redeemed us because of the resurrection. We can have hope. We can get up every single day, and we continue to move and do the things that we need to do because he paid the price, because he's alive today. We can have that hope.

We don't have to think all hope is lost. It's never lost because of Jesus. I want you to think about this. Why is it still hope with we have the redemption, we have the resurrection, but why is there still hope? There's a lot going on.

I mean, do you see what's happening in the world today? The weather patterns, everything that's crazy. Do you see the unstable governments? Do you see the all the stuff that's going on? How can you say that we can still have hope?

Because he will return. He will return. How can you be sure of that, preacher? Because he said, if I prepare a place for you, I will return for you. He said he's coming again.

The scripture says that he will return to claim his children. He will return and bring us to heaven with him, those who know him. He will return one day. Just as he was here the first time, he will come back. But this time, not as a baby, not as a helpless child, but as a king.

And when he comes back the next time, he's gonna bring us home with him. I didn't get a single amen. He's coming back. And when he does, he's gonna bring us back with him. All of this stuff that's going on is done.

We have hope every single day because he told us that he paid the price for us. He was buried, and he resurrected. He's sitting at the right hand of the father, and he is going to return. So even though the times we live in are uncertain, even though the times we live in are hard, even though we sometimes wonder how are we gonna make it through the next day, we can trust him. Because everything that he's ever told us in scripture has come true, except for the resurrection.

We're waiting on that. Not the resurrection. I mean, the return. Except for the return. He's coming back.

He's coming back. And when he does, everything is going to change. I want you to understand, he will return and take us home someday. Now if that's not quite enough for you, I'm gonna share a little bit more with you. I want you to turn with me to Romans chapter eight verses 28 through 39.

Romans chapter eight twenty eight through 39. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Amen? If God is for us, who can be against us?

How can anything stand against us if God is for us? You know, in the military, they teach you, how to survive in cases of conflict, and they give you all this equipment, and then they want you to understand that it works well. And so one of the things that they do is when you're in basic training, they give you a a protective mask. You might call it a gas mask. I wouldn't because I'd be doing push ups if I called it that.

It's protective mask. You put it on, and it keeps out all these chemicals and things that are around you. They want you to know that it works. So they take you to a chamber where they have filled it with riot gas. That's bad stuff.

And they make you go inside with your mask on and you take a deep breath. You don't smell anything. Their skin's burning. You know there's gas there because your skin's on fire. Your neck's on fire, but you can breathe and everything's okay.

And then they do something crazy. They tell you, take off your mask. And then they start asking you a bunch of questions until you go and take a deep breath. And then you're coughing and and spewing and and everything's coming out and you just wanna get out of there. And you finally get out.

But here's what they're trying to teach you. If you have on that mask, those chemicals are gonna protect you. But it's just a man made mask. The reality for us is even though there are things going on all around us, if God is for us, it's just like he's wrapped us in his hands. And if he's for us, then who can be against us?

There's nothing that can penetrate that. Will we have trouble in this world? Yes. He told us we would. He said if the world gave me trouble, it's gonna give you trouble.

We're gonna have trouble in this world. The reality is I've got you wrapped up. You might stumble and fall, but it's not gonna be permanent. I'm gonna take care of you. And you know what?

Even if something happens to you, even to the point of death, those that die live. Because to be absent from the body is present with the Lord. And so if he has you wrapped up, no matter what happens, who can be against you? No one. If God is for you, who can be against us?

Not a single one can be against us. We have a love that lasts. We have a lord that lives, and we have a love that lasts. We have a love that lasts. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died. Yes.

Rather, who was raised, who was at the right hand of God, and who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Just as it is written, for your sake, we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to the slaughter.

But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. If God is for us, who can be against us? We may be led to the slaughter. We may be persecuted, but God is in control. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our lord.

We have a love that lasts. And all of the things that happen in this world and all of the hardships and all of the persecution and all of the uncertain times and everything that's come our way, we have a love that lasts because nothing can separate us from the love of god. You know what I read in that? It says not a single created thing can separate you from the love of god. Here's what I want you to understand very clearly about that.

That means that even you cannot separate yourself from the love of god if you have given him your life. Not even you. You can't pull away because he has you. He said nothing can separate you. Can you have salvation that lasts for all eternity?

Absolutely. He's telling you right there that no matter what, you can't be taken out of his hand if you have given yourself to him in the first place. It can't happen. We have a love that lasts. How long does it last?

For all eternity. We don't know how long eternity is because we can't fathom that. We have this idea of man. What if it was a hundred and fifty years? We don't know anybody that's lived to be a hundred and fifty.

A hundred and fifty years seems forever, but a hundred and fifty years is a blink of an eye. Eternity, there's no such thing as time. God's love lasts for all eternity once we accept him as lord and savior. So we have a redeemer that's coming back. We have a lord that lives.

We have a love that lasts. There is no place that his love cannot reach. K? I want you to think about that. There is no place his love can't reach, but I have pulled far away from God.

There's been so much happened in my life, I'm mad at God. And I pulled so far away from God because of everything that's happened, there's no way that he still his love still reaches me. There is no place that his love can't reach. There is nothing in this world that can remove you from the love of God. There is no place that his love cannot reach.

That is an incredible thought. There is no person that he doesn't love. There's no person that he doesn't love. Not one. He loves every person.

Wait a minute. Preacher, Not everybody knows Jesus as lord and savior. That's right. There are some people that don't know him. They've never given their life to him, but he still loves them.

His love was so great that he died for them. While they are yet sinners, he died for them just like you. He died for you while you were still a sinner because he loves everything that he ever created, and every person is created by god. He loves every person. There's not one that he doesn't love, but it can't be because, you know, I I know this person, and they're so awful.

They're so terrible. All the things they've done in their life, They curse God all the time. They say they hate God, that they don't believe in God. All these things, God surely can't love them. There's no person that he doesn't love.

He loves every creation he ever made, but he gave us humans a choice. You choose. Here I am, all the redemption, all of the forgiveness, all of the love that you could ever ever have, it's here for you. All you have to do is accept it, but you choose. If you choose no, then that's your choice.

If you choose yes, then nothing can take you out of my hand. We have all that available. Even with everything that's going on, even with everything that's going on, we have a lord that lives. We have a love that lasts. There is no problem in which his love doesn't endure.

There's nothing too big for him. His love covers it all. But you don't realize that I I've I'm losing everything. I'm gonna lose my home. I'm gonna lose my car.

I'm I'm my my wife is leaving. My my kids hate me. Everything. His love can endure through all things. No matter what is going on at this point in your life, god's love is bigger than that.

God's love is bigger than that. I want you to look at first Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 58. First Corinthians fifteen and fifty eight. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the lord. Your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Be steadfast. Be immovable. Stand in God. Have faith in God. Put your trust in God, and have a labor that lingers.

Have a pardon me, that lingers. What do you mean have a labor that lingers? I I don't I don't understand. Well, like I said, first of all, we have a lord that lives. We have a love that lasts, and now we have a labor that lingers.

Most of us on earth and everything that we do on this earth, it does not matter in eternity. But every labor for the Lord lasts forever. Think about that. What have you done with this life that God has given you up to this point? Many of you are 40.

No laughter. Many of you are over 40, 50, 60, 70, even 80, even 90 in this room, and all the things that you've done in your life. Maybe you've built an empire that is, you know, seemingly going to last forever. Newsflash, it won't last forever. Maybe you have done things that is in the history books.

Maybe you have raised a family and and have 73 grandchildren, great grandchildren, and beyond. It's still not gonna last forever. But every labor for the Lord lasts forever because it carries into eternity with you. What have you done for god? You can sit down and think about all the things you did for you, for your family, for your job, even for your church, all the things that you did for an earthly thing.

It won't last forever. But the labor that you spend for the Lord lasts for all eternity. Every labor for the Lord that you do lasts for all eternity. That even includes giving the least of these a cup of water in his name. That's a labor for the lord.

Well, I I don't I can't do much. Can you give somebody a glass of water when they're thirsty? That's a labor for the lord. Can you invite someone to come to church? Yeah.

That's a labor for the lord too. Can you walk in a path that others can see Jesus in you? Yeah. That's a labor for the lord. And then we can go even further.

We can go out and tell people about God. In fact, you have opportunity to do that this coming Saturday. We go out and tell people that's a labor for the Lord. We can spend time helping people. That's a labor for the Lord.

As we do these things, they last forever. The labor that we do in this earth doesn't really matter in all eternity. It's our labor in the Lord that matters most. Do you have a certainty of a relationship with god? You see, here's the thing.

Today, we've talked about what we have. All the things that we've talked about. If you don't have a relationship with god, then all these things we've talked about, you don't have. Only a relationship with God gets you those things. Only giving your life to him gets you those things.

Listen. I am not one that will stand up here and try to make you feel good. What I wanna do is stand up here and tell you today that God's word says that if you die in your sin, meaning you have not been redeemed because you've never given your life to God, that you don't have that eternal love because you never gave your life to God, that you don't have that forgiveness because you've never given your life to God. If you die in your sin, the scripture says, you will spend an eternity in a devil's hell. It's a choice only you can make.

There is no in between. You can't stand with one foot on one side and one foot on the other and hope that you land on the right side at the end of time. You know what happens when you have one foot over here and one foot over here? Eventually, you're gonna fall. Eventually, you're gonna fall, hopefully not today.

Eventually, you're gonna fall. You have to understand, god gave you a choice. Do you have a certainty of eternity with your relationship with god? He gave you a choice. You choose.

People say, well, I don't believe a loving god could send somebody to hell. Amen. A loving god does not send people to hell. People send themselves there by refusing to accept him, by turning away from him. Do you have that certainty in your life?

Do you have that relationship with god and know for sure that you have been redeemed? Do you know that your redeemer lives? Do you know that he will return? Do you know that he loves you? Do you know that all of these things that we have is true?

Only you can answer that. I've often said, I wish that when somebody got saved, the lord would just put a big o s right on their head. And I could meet people and know that person knows Jesus. But then when I met somebody that didn't have the big o s, I would spend time talking to them about the Lord and how they could come to know him, but he doesn't do that. So when I look out at a congregation of people like today, I don't know who knows Jesus and who doesn't.

Only you know. You know that. You've made a decision or haven't made a decision in your own life. Only you know. So the question for you today is simple.

Do you have certainty of your relationship with God? Do you know him? Have you given your life to him? Are you absolutely certain? I always say this, if you walk out those doors and cross this busy, busy street and get hit by a car and die before you can get home today, will you wake up with God?

How can I know? I'm glad you asked. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Seek first the kingdom of God. That's how you know.

Seek him first. Seek him. If you know him and you've given your life to him, seek him. As you seek him, all these other things that you need in life, they're gonna be added to you. All these things that you need, God's gonna take care of you.

Is he gonna give you a brand new car and a brand new house and million dollars in your bank account? Probably not. Although he could. What he's gonna do is take care of you somehow. I don't know how.

Will it always be easy? No. It wasn't always easy for him, but god's gonna take care of you. God's gonna take care of you. All these things will be added to you if you seek him first.

Put him number one in your life. He's the one that you should seek every day. Wake up every morning seeking God. God, what today do you have for me? I wanna spend my time laboring for you today because I know it follows me into all eternity.

What do you have for me today? Seek him first. Everything else takes care of itself. Seek him first. Do you know him?

If you know him, are you seeking him? Are you trying to follow him? Are you trying to do the things that you need to do in life so that you can walk close with God? He's promised he'll never leave us or forsake us if we call upon him. Now all this uncertainty that's going on in our life, he's promised, I'll be here.

I will never leave you. I'll take care of you. So the question for you today is a simple question. It seems like a hard question, but it's very simple. Do you know him?

Have you given your life to him? Do you have an assurance of your salvation today? You can have that assurance. If you've given your life to him, he says, you can be sure of that. If you've given your life, you have that salvation, and nothing can take you out of his hand.

Have you never made that decision? Have you never given your life? If you can't look at yourself and say, I'm absolutely certain that if something happened to me today, I would wake up in heaven. Then have you ever truly given your life to Christ? Only you can answer that question.

People have been in church for forty years as church members, taught Sunday school, done whatever, and finally realized, you know what? I missed the step. I never gave my life to Christ. I've been trying to work my way to heaven. Doesn't work.

You have to give your life to Christ. So today, I'm asking you to do this. During all these uncertain times, I want you to be certain of one thing. I want you to be certain of your salvation. We're gonna take a moment.

We're gonna have a time of invitation. I'm gonna pray. As I pray, I want you to consider in your own life, am I certain that I know Jesus Christ? And if not, when we have the invitation in just a few moments, I want you to come talk to me. I wanna share with you exactly how you can be certain.

Perhaps you know that you know Jesus, but you haven't really been laboring for him very well. You haven't really put him as a priority. He hasn't been the first thing in your life, and you want that to change. The altar's open. You can come and spend time at the altar.

You can ask him to help you walk exactly as he wants you to walk. Whatever it may be, if there's something you need to talk to the Lord, the altar's open if you choose to go. Right now, you take that examination and you answer to God yourself. Father, we come to you.

And we love you too, Lord. Amen. So the question, why do we baptize? Share a story with you, I heard. Once there was a little preschool girl and she was in the congregation, baptism was happening.

She looks up as the baptism's happening and the pastor takes the candidate for baptism and pushes them down under the water, pulls them back up. She said, daddy, why did he just push that man under the water? They tried to explain it to her quietly, and that didn't work. So when they got home that night, they tried to give her a full explanation and help her to understand what baptism's all about. And so they tried to explain about sin and how Jesus makes you clean.

And that after baptism, people will they'll try to live a better life and and and do things more right. And so the little girl said, well, why didn't the pastor just spank him? There's a lot of confusion about baptism. It's it's one of those things that most people have heard of baptism. Maybe they know of baptism, but there's a lot of confusion about baptism and why we even baptize in the first place.

Baptism is something that we regularly do. In fact, today, we will baptize two. Today, just a few weeks ago, we baptized. And so as we baptized throughout the the year, it's something that we regularly do. But often, baptism is one of those things that is greatly misunderstood.

As a pastor, I can tell you that there are many times when I speak to someone about baptism and they absolutely do not understand what baptism is all about. One of the first things that that, I get when people want to be baptized, I'll ask them, well, why do you want to be baptized? Why is it that you want to be baptized? And the first thing they say is, well, I want my sins to be washed away. Baptism is very misunderstood, and baptism, does it wash your sins away?

That's a question. Because people will say, I want to have my sins washed away. That's why I want to be baptized. I I had someone come to me, and they wanted to be baptized. And I said, well, have you ever been baptized before?

Yeah. I've been baptized, like, five times, but it hadn't worked yet. They're baptized to wash their sins away. They think that by being dunked under the water and raised up, that their sins have now been magically washed away. Well, I wanna explain to you the water that's in this baptismal up here is no magic water.

There's nothing magic about it. It does not wash your sins away. I want you to look with me to first John chapter one and verse seven. First John chapter one and verse seven. If you don't have your Bible with you, the passage will be on the screen.

First John chapter one and verse seven. It says, but if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. It is not the waters of the baptismal pool that wash the sin away. It's the blood that Jesus gave on that cross.

It was the death that he suffered on the cross that washes our sins away. That is the only thing that can cleanse us from our sin, because Jesus is the only perfect lamb. He was the only one that was able to atone for our sins. You see, the only way that sin can be forgiven is through the blood, and the blood through Jesus is the only blood worthy of forgiveness of our sins. He died that we might have salvation, that we might have a relationship with our father.

Because up until that point, we had no way to be forgiven for our sins because the penalty for sin is death. Until Jesus died and gave that penalty, paid that penalty for us, we had no way to be forgiven, but now we do. It's not the water in this baptismal pool that washes the sins away. It's the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only one that can do that.

We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's what the Bible tells us, every single one of us. Nobody is perfect. There was only one perfect, and that was Jesus. Nobody else is perfect.

Often use the example. If you wanna find out whether or not people are born sinful, put two two year olds in a room and toss in one toy and see what happens. Pretty soon, there's gonna be a scrap. There's gonna be a fight. There's gonna be a lot going on.

Somebody might get hit upside the head. There's gonna be anger. There's gonna be all kind of things because there's only one toy. We are born with sin. It's in us.

And so the only way that we can be forgiven for that is through Jesus Christ. The next question I always get is, well, you know, preacher, you said I I I I gave myself to Jesus. I I came up. I talked to you, and I truly I understand that I did ask Jesus into my life. And I know you told me that the blood of Christ forgives me of all my sins, and so I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior, and that's who I want to follow for the rest of my life.

And I know that I have received that salvation. So the question that I have is this, is baptism really necessary? Is baptism necessary? Can I be saved without being baptized? Is that something that can happen?

Because I wanna make sure, and then others will say, well, I got saved, but I wanna be baptized, like, today because I don't wanna wait. What if something happens between now and next week, and I haven't completed the process? I don't want that to happen. So baptism, is it necessary? Is it not necessary for salvation?

That's a big question. A lot of people wanna know that. They don't understand, and so they ask that question. And and, you know, as I said, baptism is one of those things that we know, especially in a Baptist church, that we put a lot of emphasis on baptism. And as we do that, sometimes it gets confusing.

So, again, what does the Bible say? Is baptism necessary for salvation? Look with me to Luke chapter 23 and verse 43. Luke chapter 23 and verse 43. And there you will find this passage.

And he said to him, truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise. Now that passage is Jesus speaking to the thief on the cross. This is a thief on the cross who recognized Jesus as savior. And when he said to the other thief, do you not understand who this is? He recognized who Jesus was.

He accepted Jesus, and Jesus said, today, you will be of me in paradise. You don't have to come down off the cross and go be baptized in order to be with me. He said, today, you will be with me. There was no baptism required at that point. So baptism is not required for salvation.

Baptism is something that we do after salvation. It's not part of the salvation. So when people ask the question, well, is baptism necessary for salvation? The answer is, no. It's not necessary for salvation.

However, it is something that Jesus told us to do. And so, therefore, we follow in that. So the next thing that people will say after that is, well, then what is the purpose of being baptized? What is the purpose? If I if it's not necessary for salvation, it doesn't wash away my sins, then what is the whole purpose of being baptized?

Why do we even do it? If if it's not necessary and it doesn't wash away sin, it doesn't do anything, why then are we baptized? Why do we do that? Why do we even follow along in that? Well, what is the purpose of being baptized?

Here's the very first thing I wanna tell you. The purpose of baptism is it is your very first public witness of the change that has occurred in your life. It is the very first public witness to share with those that are in the congregation about the change that happened in your life. Because understand, the picture of baptism is buried with him in baptism, raised to walk in the newness of life. And what you're saying to those that are watching is that the old self, the old me, is no longer here.

I gave my life to Christ, and that old self has been put away. My sins have been cast as far as the East is from the West, and I am now a new creation because I took part in the burial of Jesus Christ and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and now I'm a new creation. The Bible tells us that we are new creations in Christ once we have accepted him. So when we have baptism, it is a picture of what's already happened in our life. The old you has passed away and buried, and the new you has risen to walk in the newness of life.

You are a brand new creation. So the purpose of being baptized, it doesn't do anything to you per se. The purpose of being baptized is to show the rest of the world what has already happened in your life. It is a witness from you to everyone else that you have changed. You are not the same person that you once were.

So after we answer the the questions, all these previous questions about baptism and all of those that have been answered, I want to do this. I want to give you three reasons for a believer to be baptized. Three reasons that a believer should be baptized. Okay? So I'm gonna look at several verses of scripture.

Today's kind of a bible drill, so follow along. Several verses of scripture, and I wanna talk to you about the reasons. Look with me in Mark chapter one verse nine. Mark chapter one and verse nine. It says, in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

Jesus came and was baptized by John in the Jordan. So we see in verse Mark verse chapter one verse nine, Jesus was baptized. So why should we be baptized? To follow Jesus' example. Because he told us to be baptized.

He showed us by being baptized. Listen. Jesus had no sin. Jesus had no sin in his life. Jesus was god in the flesh walking in the world, and yet he was still baptized.

The purpose for him being baptized was to set an example for us to show us. In fact, when he was baptized, the heavens opened and a voice from heaven said, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. And so we know that Jesus set that example for us to be baptized. He came and he did that. He set examples for us in all that he did.

He showed us how you can live and not sin. He showed us how to forgive even when people treat you badly. He showed us how to love even those who don't seem very lovable. He showed us how to follow follow the father even when it's hard. He showed us everything there is that we need to know even including he showed us that we should be baptized just like he was.

So one of the purposes, one of the reasons that we need to be baptized is to follow Jesus' example. Well, maybe that's not enough. Okay. You want me to follow Jesus' example, but is there anything else? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Matthew chapter 28 verse nineteen and twenty. Matthew 28 verses nineteen and twenty. This is what it says. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always even until the end of the age. Jesus commanded it.

He set the example, and he said we should be baptized based off his example. Then it was also commanded. He said to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Make disciples means go and share the gospel, that they would come to know Jesus and be a disciple of Jesus and baptize them just as he was in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, that they too would be baptized. So not only is it an example that Jesus gave us, but it's also a command.

He gave us an example, and then he commanded that we should also be baptized. And so when we're looking at this baptism, it's one of those things that so many people look at it, and some will say, well, you know, I need to be baptized, but I'm not sure if I want to. Others will say, well, you know, I'm I'm good. I don't have to be baptized. I know that that I can be saved without baptism.

And and then there are a lot of different questions. And then some that think that baptism is washing their sins away, and they come and wanna be baptized four and five times because, well, the first ones didn't take. Well, they didn't take because you were never saved. You never gave your life to Christ. You were trying to put baptism before salvation.

It doesn't work that way. And so when we look at this and we try to figure out why, well, Jesus set the example. He also gave us a command, and then look at Acts chapter two and verse 41. Acts chapter two and verse 41. So then those who had received his word were baptized, and that day, there were added about 3,000 souls.

They received his word and followed in believers baptism, because he set the example, because it was commanded that we go and tell. These people, once they accepted Jesus Christ on that day, they wanted to immediately follow in believer's baptism, and about 3,000 were baptized on that day. What an amazing picture to just think about that. Baptism after baptism after baptism because the all of those people had received Jesus as Lord and savior. You know, probably the the closest thing I can think of to maybe even that picture is, a crusade where thousands of people come and receive Jesus in at one, service where Jesus was taught and preached and salvation was was explained, and so many came and gave their life.

We we preach every Sunday in churches all over the land. All over this country, the gospel is being preached every Sunday. And every Sunday, as the gospel is preached and we have an a time of invitation and invite people to come and accept Jesus, come and share with us the things that they want in their life, to give their life to the Lord. We invite that, and yet nobody comes. There are so many churches that we don't see people come and accept Jesus as Lord and savior.

We don't see those salvations. Part of the reason we don't see those salvations is because that's the only time they heard it. Most of us are hard headed. Takes us more than once. Sometimes we have to hear it a lot.

Sometimes somebody needs to come to your house. We're going out in a few weeks, knock on doors, tell people about Jesus. We need to tell people that we work with. We need to share Jesus in all the ways that we live our lives. We need to be disciples for Christ and to share Jesus.

And when we do and we share Jesus and they come to know him as lord and savior, then that's not just the, oh, they got saved. Now that's that. Now we need to help them learn and to grow. And one of the ways is to help them understand baptism in the very first place. So even those who had received his word on that day and at at Pentecost, three thousand souls received baptism on that day.

There's also a question about, well, why why do we immerse people instead of any other method? Baptists are based our beliefs and faith on what Jesus did, and Jesus was baptized by immersion. Why do we do that? That's why. Because Jesus was baptized by immersion.

I also wanna tell you something else on that is this. Look at Romans chapter six verse three and four. Romans chapter six verse three and four. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? So one of the reasons that we baptize by immersion is the picture.

It's the picture of death, burial under the water, and resurrection raised in the newness of life. So when we talk about baptism and we talk about immersion, why do we do that? That is one of the very reasons that we baptize by immersion, because of the very picture itself showing that we have been baptized into his death, and through his resurrection, we walk in a new life. And so as we live in in our lives and we go through things and we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, we have to understand that through this process of baptism, it is our first public witness. It is the first thing that people see.

To me, it gives that connection as you, the candidate, are being pushed under the water and raised up in a new life that it puts you so close to recognizing it's because of the death, the burial, and the resurrection that you can have life and and have it abundantly. Look at Matthew chapter three verse 16. Matthew chapter three and verse 16, and it says this, after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water. And behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the spirit of God descending on him as a dove and lighting on him. Descending as a dove and lighting on him.

After Jesus was baptized, he came up immediately from the water. And so we see based off this example that Jesus was immersed. He was buried in baptism and raised up. He was pushed under the water and raised up. He was immersed and raised up.

He said, follow in baptism. He said, go and baptize. The example we have is immersion, so that's why we immerse. Also, the word baptize literally means to dip under the water. That's what it means.

So why do we immerse? That's why we immerse. So today, there are lots of questions that we've we've asked, and there's lots of things that we have shared. Does baptism wash away your sins? No.

Only Jesus' blood washes away your sin. Do you have to be baptized to complete the salvation? No. But we're baptized because Jesus commanded him. Why are we immersed?

Because Jesus was immersed, and because of the picture that it shows of the death and the burial and the resurrection. And so these things are important things that we share. Why today am I sharing this? You came today and you said the preacher's given a lesson on baptism. He's really not telling us all about the gospel.

Well, if you listened, I told you that the only reason that we can have salvation is because of the son of God. God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that's Jesus, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. And as Jesus came, he suffered at the hands of our sin. See, we we think, oh, Jesus was crucified by the Romans. He was, but he was crucified for our sin.

That's why he was crucified. Jesus gave his life. He was buried. He was crucified. He was buried, and then he was resurrected on the third day.

And because of that, we now can have salvation if we call upon him, and we accept him as our lord and our savior. We give our life to him. The old life is gone. The new life has come. And then because of that, we recognize that through baptism.

Buried and raised in a newness of life. See, there's really not much more important that a pastor would have to say to a congregation than number one, let me tell you how you can know Jesus as lord and savior. And I've told you that today. The second thing is, if you know Jesus as lord and savior, then don't keep that to yourself. You need to tell other people about it, and the first way you can do that is through baptism.

The very first way is through baptism. So very important things that you need to hear. Important things because the world gets confused, and we hear all kinds of things about it out in the world. We hear people that come and they say, I wanna be baptized, but they've never given their life to Christ. We see people that come and say, well, I got baptized one time, but it didn't work.

I need to be baptized again. We have people that say, well, I don't really need to be baptized. The reality is that it's something that Jesus gave us an example and he commanded us to do. So we should do that if we're at all able. I shared Jesus Christ with someone in a hospital bed.

Wasn't very long taking their last breath. They accepted Jesus as their Lord and savior. And they said, I don't know if I'm gonna be well enough to get out of this bed and be baptized. And I shared with them that they could take comfort in knowing that their salvation was secure, whether they were baptized or not. But it was very important.

They wanted to be baptized. So, well, there's no way we can get them out of this bed and baptize them. They had hoses and wires, and there was nothing that we could do. So we were able to turn them sideways on the bed and literally take a pan of water and push their head down in the water and back out. And we explain through the same process of the death, burial, and resurrection.

And the smile that came across their face was just incredible because they wanted to follow in baptism, and they were afraid they weren't able to, yet we were still able to do it. Did we completely immerse them? No. We weren't able to. But we did the very best we could at the time, and absolutely, I know that they were so excited about that.

And they passed a few days later. But you see, the important thing is they received Jesus as their Lord and savior. That's number one. I have shared the gospel with people who passed before they could be baptized. They're no less in heaven today than than anybody that was baptized.

But for us to follow in that, it is a very important thing. If for no other reason that others can see the picture of what God has done for you and what God has given his life. People come to be baptized, and sometimes when they come to be baptized, family comes and they don't regularly attend anywhere, or maybe some of them don't know Jesus. This is the first time they've heard about it. Sometimes they have friends that come that that don't know Jesus.

They've never, experienced that, but they come to the baptism because their friends are being baptized. And through that, they have an opportunity to hear the gospel. Today, we're going to observe the ordinance of baptism. We're going to observe the ordinance of baptism. Today, we have two young men that separately came to me, but close time frame together, and said, I know Jesus Christ, but I haven't been baptized, and I want to be baptized.

I spent some time speaking with them and confirmed that they professed Jesus as Lord and savior and said we would love to do that, and we set it up for today. So you're here today, many of you, to celebrate with this and to bear witness to what god has already done in their lives. As we celebrate this ordinance of baptism today, I have a question for you, those that are here. Question is this, do you know Jesus? Do you know Jesus?

Has there been a time in your life this is for everyone that's here. I don't know personally your heart. I can't know personally your heart. Only you know. Some may have been a member for years and years and years, but do you know Jesus?

Have you ever actually given your life to Jesus? Because you see church membership doesn't save you. Coming to church every week doesn't save you. Being a good person doesn't save you. Do you know Jesus?

Have you ever given your life to the one who gave his life for you? Do you know Jesus? That's a question for each person to examine their own self and answer. Do you know him? Do you know him?

Have you given your life to him today? The next question I wanna ask you today is this. Have you been baptized? Some people got saved at a, maybe some, revival event, or they got saved at, even at a school, or they got saved somewhere else and, when the opportunity to be baptized when that happened. And time went by, and they never got baptized.

I've had people come to me that have been saved for years and years and years and say, well, I never got baptized. Well, the Ethiopian eunuch who had accepted Jesus Christ, and he's traveling along in the chariot. He's asking about baptism. And he said, well, if you know Jesus, you can. He said, look.

There's water. What's stopping me from being baptized right now? Nothing. He got baptized right then. Have you been baptized?

Is it something that you put off for some reason? Is it something that you would like to do? There's water. What's stopping you? Today, we're going to celebrate that.

I want to say this today. The most important thing for every single one of us in our life is to ask the question. Have I ever given my life to Jesus? The question is, if you pass away today, if you walked out of this church today, are you a % certain that you your salvation is secure and that you would wake up in heaven with Jesus? Are you certain about that?

I didn't ask if you're a church member and I didn't ask if you ever, you know, walk down an aisle and talk to somebody. What I asked is, are you certain about your salvation? Are you sure? You see, there's so many different things that happen and people accept it but never give their life to Christ. I have spoken to so many people that as little children, they went to a vacation bible school, and their friend, little Tommy, went down the aisle and they decided to follow little Tommy.

They didn't know why. The preacher said some words and they repeated them, and that's all they know. They never really gave their life to Jesus. But because of that, they were declared saved. And so for the rest of their life, they thought everything's good, but they never made that decision on their own.

They never gave their life to Christ. I've spoken to people that are in their twilight years of life, and they've been in church their whole life but never given their life to Christ and finally did. Do you know Jesus? That is the number one thing that you need to know. Right now, today, not next week, not a year from now, but today, you need to know that.

Do I know him? And if the answer is no, then my question is, do you want to know him? Do you want to give your life to him? If the answer is yes, then my next question is, have you told anybody that? Have you shared Jesus with anybody?

Do you live your life in a way that others can see Jesus in you? Because every single day, we come in contact with people that are probably lost, and they may not have another day. See, we are not promised however many years, we're not promised another moment in life. And if we put off till tomorrow, tomorrow may never come. So today, if you need to give your life to Jesus and you wanna do that today, I'll be glad to talk to you about how to do that.

We're gonna have a time of invitation in just a moment. If you wanna come talk to me about it, come on up. If you've accepted Jesus but never been baptized, you wanna come talk to me about that, come on up. Perhaps you don't wanna talk to me about anything, but you'd like to come to the altar and talk to the lord. It's open.

You can come. Spend that time talking to him. But whatever God puts on your heart, I would ask you to do it during this time of invitation. Let's pray.

Amen. You know, God loves us. And the incredible thing is there's no reason for that. We don't give him any real reason to love us. We are sinful creatures.

We don't do the things that we should do, and we do the things we shouldn't do, but yet God still loves us. That's just incredible to me. It's one of those things that as you go through each and every day, it's just an amazing thought that God loves us. I I don't know why if it were me trying to love somebody else, I would have already given up, I'm sure, on myself. But God doesn't do that, And so I am thankful for that.

Today, I wanna talk about, being ambassadors for Christ. So you can go ahead and turn with me to second Corinthians chapter five second Corinthians chapter five, and we'll start there in just a moment. In our study in Genesis, we were reminded that God made Adam and Eve to serve him. That last part's important. A lot of people will believe God made Adam and Eve, but they don't think about why.

Understand, God made Adam and Eve. He didn't make Adam and Eve little babies. He made Adam and Eve grown people. When they were created, they were already grown. And when he created them, he gave them instructions.

He told them what they needed to do, and he told them to multiply. He told them to take care of the garden. They were there to serve him. They had a job the moment they were created. He already had something for them.

Too many times, we don't think about it that way. We we look at our lives and we think about it the other way around. We think that God made Adam and Eve to serve self, and that God was to serve Adam and Eve. Right? God's there for me.

Oh, I get in trouble, I call on God. I need something, I call on God. I I have, you know, something I can't figure out, I call on God. But otherwise, you know, it's all about me. But that's not true, and that's not how God created us in the first place.

And as we go back to Genesis in our Wednesday night study, we're learning more and more about how God created Adam and Eve to serve him, and how when he put them here, he put them here for that purpose. Not their own purpose, but for his purpose. See, we wanna keep that straight. Today, most people want to put themselves first. It's all about me.

Right? What do I want? How do I want to do things? How how or or I'm gonna get something out of this. If I do this, what will I get out of it?

Everything's about me. I wanna make sure that my life is as simple as possible. I wanna make sure that all the needs that I think I have, that that they're covered. Even my wants, I wanna make sure that's taken care of. I wanna make sure that I'm good, that I'm happy, that I'm taken care of, that I have all these things that I want, and it's all about me.

And, oh, yeah. If I have some time left after that, then I'll try to serve God too. You know, I'll I'll go to church once a week, you know, just one hour though. Don't ask me to do more than that. I'll go one hour.

I'll I'll make my token visit. I'll, you know, I'll I'll, you know, I might praise God some. And and if somebody asked me specifically, I'll probably tell them about God. But, you know, I gotta make sure all my priorities are met first. That's how people today want to live.

Me first. It's absolutely backwards. God wants to be the center of your life. He wants to be what you are revolving around, not him revolving around you. And so God wants you to put him as the center of your life.

He put you here to serve him. What if we changed our mentality and put God first? Just think about that for a minute. What if instead of worrying about me and everything I want and all the things I wanna do and the places I wanna go and all of the money I wanna spend and the food I wanna eat and everything I wanna do, instead of putting I first, what if God was put first in our lives? What if each day we woke up and said, God, what do I need to do for you today?

How do you want me to serve you today? What if we did that? We like to say as Christians, oh, yes. We put God first. But if we were put on trial for that, would there be enough evidence to convict us?

You see, most of the time we say that, but that's not how we live. What if we live that way? What if we truly put God first? Well, you know, I got I I have to go to work. Yeah.

You do. You have to go to work. You have to pay your bills. Those are things that by living in this world, we have to do. We understand that.

Those are things that have to be done. But what if we did them with God in first place? What if going to work, we did it with God first in our life so that when we got to work, we were somebody who was an ambassador for God? What if we shared Christ with other people as an ambassador for God, the one that we put first in our life? And we said, let me tell you about this.

Why why are you happy today? I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you about the time I had with the Lord this morning before I came to work. What if we absolutely put God first? Can you imagine how much different this world would be if God's people put him first?

If God's people put him first. I'm not talking about lost people, I'm talking about God's people. If God's people put him first, how much different would this world be? You see, because we don't put him first in so many ways, we allow other things to happen. And when we allow these other things to happen, and take over our lives, we're not sharing as we need to be.

When we're not sharing as we need to be, then we lose our focus of what we are supposed to do. What if we changed our mentality and put God first? Look with me to second Corinthians chapter five. We're gonna read verses 17 through 21. Second Corinthians chapter five seventeen through 21.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Verse 17 says, if we are in Christ, we are a new creation. If we are in Christ, we are a new creation.

So what does that really mean? I give my life to Christ. I've accepted him as my Lord and savior. I said, I want you to come in and forgive me of all of the sins that I've committed in my life. I want you to be my lord and savior.

I wanna put you first. I want to be this new creation. If the old person is gone and a new person exists, then what we've got to do is not to try to serve the old person. What? Let me break it down like this.

If I am a brand new person, why would I try to go back and do what the old person used to do? Why would I try to go back and bring in all those things from the past and serve them instead of the God that made me the new creation, instead of the one that changed all things for me. If we are in Christ, we are a new creation, brand new. That means we've gotta put God first. That means instead of putting self first as we did in the old days, we need to put God first as he requires us to.

We're a new creation. We're not the same as we once were. We are brand new in Christ. We don't go back and try to pull up all the old things. We don't go back and pull up all the old sins and, say, well, I can't possibly be a good person because of all these old things that happened in my life.

You're a new creation. Why are you going back and dwelling on sins that God has cast as far as the East is from the West? Why are you going back and looking at your past failures instead of looking at how God wants to use you today? Why are you going back and trying to serve that old self instead of serving the God that made you new in the first place? If we are in Christ, we are a new creation.

The old self serving person is gone. Why are you serving self? You're supposed to be serving God. That old self serving person is now gone. He's now gone.

In my little tiny brain, you know, I kinda wish that when God made you new, that you literally would step out of the old body, look back at it, and go, yeah, that's gone. And now I'm a brand new creation. That you could physically do that. Right? You could look back at that and go, yeah, that's not me anymore.

I'm this new person. That's not me. I don't even wanna see that person anymore because I'm not that that person anymore. We can't physically do that. But spiritually, we can.

Spiritually, we can look back at that old person and the way that person was walking, the things that person did, and say, thank you God for saving me from that life. And now what do you want me to do? How do you want me to live? Where do you want me to go? What do you want me to say?

Who do you want me to talk to? God, there's something you have for me. That's why you made me a new creation. If you didn't have something for me, why would you make me a new creation in the first place? You have something for me.

You created me for a purpose. What is that purpose? Instead of just saying, wow. I'm so glad I got my ticket to heaven now, And then just go on about what you used to do. Makes no sense.

You're a new creation. Why would you live like the old self serving person? The new Christ serving person is present. The old self serving person is gone. The new Christ serving person is the one that's present.

Pardon me. That's the one that you need to concentrate on. That's the one that wants to serve God every day. That's the one that says, I haven't done enough for the Lord. I I I've not put God first.

That's the one that seeks him every single day. And how do you want me to move this day? If you buy a new car, right, go get a brand new car, you don't take that brand new car, pull it into the garage, take off the brand new tires, and put the old worn out tires on it, do you? That would just be crazy. Why would you do that?

Well, if you're a brand new creation, why would you go back and grab the attributes for the old creation and try to pull them in and put them on the new model? It's a new model. It's brand new. There's nothing old about it. It's not worn out.

It's exactly as God wants it to be. Why would you go back and pull those old attributes and try to hang on to them? Because you're a new creation. Stop. Stop doing that.

As a believer in Christ, someone who has been made fresh and new you know when we have baptism like we will next week, we say buried with him in baptism, risen to walk in a new life. A new life in Christ. The old is gone and passed away. The new has risen in a new life. Grasp hold of that new life.

Leave the old behind. Well, I didn't do that, and so, yeah, I'm still struggling with some of this old stuff. Well, guess what? It's never too late to kick it to the curb. It's never too late to get rid of that.

All you gotta do is bring it to the Lord and say, god, I'm still holding on to this. I wanna turn it over to you. Please take it away. And he's faithful to do just that. He's faithful to do just that.

So if we are made new and fresh in Christ and we are a new creation, then when we are a new creation, we need to live that way. Verse 18 says, we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation. So we had a pop quiz with the children earlier and said, hey, what is ambassador? They didn't quite know.

They hadn't learned that. I hope that you've learned what reconciliation is. Reconciliation is taking something that's broken and repairing it. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation. A reconciliation with our life to Christ.

God looked upon a sinful self and he said, I can't have a relationship with you because you're full of sin. But through him, he gave the ministry of reconciliation. He reconciled us to himself through Christ and his blood. And now if we've accepted him when God looks at us, what he sees is the new person, and he says, okay. Now you were broken, but now you're fixed.

Now through Christ, you have come to a place where we can be one. And I'm giving you that ministry of reconciliation. Well, what does that mean? Well, that means that there are people around you, all around you in life that are lost. There are people that need to know about Jesus Christ.

There are people that maybe you've had personal issues with. Maybe they've had issues with you. Maybe you've had a problem with them, and so, therefore, you've never had any kind of relationship. The Ministry of Reconciliation says, God forgave you. You forgive them.

You show them how they can be reconciled to Christ through him. We go out and we share that. Instead of putting up walls and tearing down, we should be reconciling together with people. We should be bringing people in. You know, the average Christian, when they get saved, here's what happens.

They get saved and they say, I am so glad. I am saved. I'm now a brand new creation in Christ. And they're up here. And then they look down at those people they used to hang out with or people that act like they used to, and they say, those poor old sad sinners.

I'm glad I'm not one of them. Now they take themselves and put them up here and everybody else that they're down here. So they stand up on the pedestal, they look down and they say, I'm glad I'm not one of them. The Ministry of Reconciliation says, help them become saved. Change their life.

You now reconcile together with them and show them how they can be reconciled to God. We're not better than them. Five minutes ago, we were in the same shape. We were doing the same things. We were sinning and walking away from God, yet we were reconciled to him through Christ.

Now our ministry is to help others be reconciled. Our ministry is to help others be reconciled. God created man, mankind to serve him. Always. Not just sometimes.

Always. And when God created mankind to serve him, that means we're to serve him every day. That means that we do tough things sometimes. You know, that person treated me really bad. Yeah.

How bad did you treat God before you got saved? God forgave you. You need to forgive them. But you just don't know what they did. It doesn't matter.

As long as you hold it against them, you know who you're hurting yourself because you're harboring something that shouldn't be there. If you're gonna serve God, you have to reconcile. And then when you reconcile with that person and show them the love of God, they can be reconciled to God because they saw what you did. They see that love that you showed them, which is the same love God showed you. Verse 18 says, we have been given the ministry of reconciliation.

We were reconciled to Christ. Our past was cast away, and we have been forgiven. We've been forgiven. Forgiveness we didn't earn, but we're still reconciled to Christ. Forgiveness we didn't earn.

Well, they gotta show me they wanna give forgiven. They gotta show me their change. They're not gonna change if they don't know Jesus. You wouldn't change until you knew Jesus. We didn't earn that reconciliation with Christ.

Christ gave it to us. God gave us reconciliation through the blood of his son, Jesus Christ. We did not earn one little bit of it. The truth be told, every single person that has ever lived or ever will live deserves to spend an eternity in a devil's hell. That's what we deserve because we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But because God so loved the world, he gave his only son that we might have life and have it abundantly. He gave his only son that we would be able to be reconciled through him because he paid the price. Because he paid the price. It's through forgiveness that we didn't earn that we are reconciled. We can have a relationship with him because of Christ.

Our mission is to show other people they too can have that same relationship, that they can have the same relationship. One of the things I've discovered in this world is when you start getting to know people, most people are dealing with a lot of heavy stuff. They're dealing with heavy stuff. Many of them are dealing with grief that they just can't seem to get past. They can't get past something that happened.

It might not be grief of a lost loved one. It could be grief of a lost job. It could be grief of a lost, the way they used to be. It could be a grief of a lot of things. But a lot of people are dealing with grief and they're having a hard time.

There are a lot of people who have been hurt, and because of being hurt, they just don't trust anybody else. They don't wanna talk to anybody else. They don't wanna con or con, confide in somebody else. They don't wanna do those things because they've been hurt. There are people that feel like they've been done wrong by family, by friends, by employers, by whomever.

And if you start talking to people, you'll find out that most people that you talk to are dealing with really heavy stuff. The thing is, if they're trying to deal with it all on their own, what hope do they have? But when they talk with you and you say, you know, I was dealing with a lot of stuff, but I realized that God gave his son Jesus to take care of all those problems if I would just give my life to him and be reconciled to God. And now I've done that, and all that heavy weight is lifted off. Now I still have problems, but I give them to God.

I still struggle with things, but I give it to God. I'm not dragging all that weight around anymore. How many people suddenly realize, wow. What a difference. I gave their self to the Lord and that weight is lifted off, but before that, it was awful.

Our mission is to show people that they can have that same reconciliation that you have, that God will lift their burdens, that he will take care of them, that he will give them the forgiveness that they so desperately need. He will share with them the love that they may have never felt, and that because of that, they too can be a child of the king. That's our mission. We hold things against people when God doesn't hold it against us. Does that make sense?

Does that make any sense? We hold things against people when God doesn't even hold it against us. We say, well, they don't deserve it. Neither did I. But I'm glad somebody shared it with me anyway.

Well, you know, they they're not good people. God Bible says there's not one good. There's no such thing as a good person. Well, they just they're they're they're they're mean or they're they're this or that. Okay.

Why? Why are they that way? Did you ever stop to try to figure out why? Or you just stopped at that point? What if God stopped there?

We try to hold things against people that God doesn't even hold against us. We have to live in reconciliation. We have to live it out. We have to show people that you can't just tell people about it. Let me tell you, you can be reconciled to God.

Okay. What does that mean? You know, sounds good. No. Live it out.

Show people that reconciliation. Not only did God bring you to himself, but you wanna bring them in too. You wanna live that way. Well, how can you possibly forgive me for that? Because God forgave me.

That's how. That's reconciliation. You have to live it. You have to show people. They have to know.

They have to see it in you. You know, you can you can talk a good game, but if you're not living it, people know. They realize that you are not living what you say. You know, you're two faced. Right?

You say one thing and you do something else. Oh, those Christians, they go to church on Sunday morning and they sing about God and they do all that. But I've seen them same people in the bar on Friday night hanging out with some woman that's not their wife. I've seen them over there, you know, so drunk they couldn't hardly get to their car. I I've seen them be so mean to somebody that you just couldn't even stand it, and then they wanna talk about how they know Jesus as Lord and savior.

We gotta live it. We can't just say it. It's gotta be lived. We've gotta live it out in everything that we do. In the way that we speak to people, the way that we treat people, the things that we do, we have to live it out.

It doesn't matter what someone has done. We still have to be able to forgive as Christ forgave us. Yeah. I know. People do some really nasty things to one another, but we have to be able to forgive just like Christ forgives us.

It's the only way that we can show them what reconciliation looks like. We can talk about it all day long, but until we show them, they're never gonna see it. I don't know about you guys, but sometimes my wife will start to explain something to me, and she'll tell me about something. And she's trying to tell me, and she's trying to draw this visual picture for me, and I don't know what she's trying to say. She sees it perfectly in her mind, but I don't see it until she pulls out whatever it is and says, see.

This is what I'm talking about. Oh, now I get it. It's kinda the same way. When we're trying to tell people about reconciliation, but they can't see it with their own eyes, they don't understand it. They don't understand how they can be forgiven if they don't see it.

They don't understand how God can forgive them until they see how God forgave you. They don't see that. We hold all these things against people, and instead, we should be forgiving people just like God forgave us. It's the only way they're gonna see that God forgives is when we mirror what God has done for us. Look at verse 19.

Verse 19 says this, namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. God forgives, so we must forgive others. God forgives, so we must forgive and show others they can be forgiven. That's what it's talking about there. We have to do that.

We can't just leave it or say it or just use words. Verse 20 says this, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. We're ambassadors. How can they see God if we don't show them?

Therefore I love when it's when a phrase starts with that word. Therefore. Everybody knows when you say therefore, you're supposed to ask the question, what's it there for? What's it there for? Why is that word there for?

What is it there for? Everything we've talked about up to this point leads to that verse. Because of verses 17 through 19, we have to understand that verse 20 is imperative. And all the things that God has talked about in 17 through 19, therefore, because of all those things, we are ambassadors for Christ. We're called to be the one that shows the world who he is.

Just as much as an ambassador for The United States goes to a foreign country and represents The United States, we as believers in Jesus Christ, those who know him as Lord and savior, represent him to others that have never met him. We represent him. Now here's the tricky part. You represent him even when you're not living right. Woah.

Woah. Woah. Wait a minute now. Wait a minute. I I I I'm I'm not trying to represent him if I'm not doing the right thing.

Yes. But your his name is on you. You're represented just as surely as if we wore a uniform. We put on a uniform like the military every morning that said soldier of God, And we went out and did things that weren't representative of God. We're still representing God.

We're wearing his uniform. And people see that. If they know that you are a believer in Christ and you are walking in a way that's not pleasing to God, you're representing God in a negative light to people that don't know. You are an ambassador for Christ if you know him as Lord and savior. Are you taking those duties responsibly?

Are you literally understanding that when you're doing things, other people are looking at you because you are an ambassador for Christ? I don't think that the bulk of God's people in this world today do take that seriously. And I say that because if they did, why would the world be in the mess that it's in right now? Why would we have church buildings all across The United States that are empty or almost empty? Why would we have people that don't ever consider spending time with God if God's people were truly being genuine ambassadors for him and everyone could see God in them.

I absolutely believe if we really truly were ambassadors and put things first, that if we did that, that people would change, that we would start seeing a a revival across the land of people giving themselves to God. We are ambassadors for Christ. We represent a loving reconciling savior to a lost world. That's the only way they're gonna see him is through us. Understand this, that someone who's lost on their own accord do not seek out God.

What do you mean? They're lost. Why aren't they seeking God? They don't believe there is one. They don't have any desire to follow that.

On their own, they would never seek God. When the Holy Spirit begins to put it on their heart, they start looking around. When they look around, what do they need to see? The ambassadors for Christ. They need to see the ones in their life and around them that can point them in the right direction.

They need to see that. We need to be living that life in that way. We need to be mentoring younger Christians to help them also be ambassadors. And then all of us need to be ambassadors to a lost world. We need to be ambassadors for Christ.

Every single one of us. It's the only way that others that don't know Jesus would see it. It's the only way they're going to see him is through us. We speak to people. Now hold on.

We speak to people with authority. The authority of God. What do you mean? If you're a child of God, when you speak to people, you have the authority that God has bestowed upon you to be his ambassador. You understand that an ambassador for United States can enter into a treaty with another country.

He has the authority to do that that The United States has given them. They have the authority to make that decision. We, as ambassadors for Christ, we speak with authority based on the knowledge we have of Christ, the relationship we have with Christ, and knowing God's word as we share that with people, we speak with that authority. We don't need to be timid. We don't need to be concerned that we might not say the right thing.

We have been given the authority of God to speak on his behalf to show other people how they too can come to know him. That's that's powerful when you think about that you have been given the authority of God to speak to other people. You've been given that. Others can see Jesus through us if we truly represent the one whom we call father. Others will see Jesus if we truly live our lives representing him.

Representing him. Verse 21 says this, he made him, being Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Wow. Think about that. The reason that we must serve is that God made Jesus the only true and perfect person that never sinned, he made him to be sin.

My sin. Your sin. Every other person's sin. God put every bit of it on Jesus Christ. That he would pay the price, the penalty for all of our sin.

This is the reason we must serve him as an ambassador because he took all of our sin and put it on Christ. He gave every bit of it to him. He turned away from his son, Jesus, as he became sin and punished him for your sin. God's perfect son that never sinned. And yet my sin and your sin was heaped upon him to such a degree that the scripture says God couldn't even look at him.

That he turned away because he can't look on that sin. His only son, he couldn't even look at him. He punished him with death because of your sin and mine. He gave his son for that very purpose. Scripture says we've all sinned, and there is no way we can actually get rid of that sin on our own.

We can't buy it. We can't earn forgiveness. We can't throw it out. The only thing we can do is accept that gift that Jesus Christ gave us. The payment that he gave for that sin.

That's the only thing that we can do. He put all of that sin on Jesus and punished him for our sin so that we might become his righteousness. Meaning, we would reflect him. We would become children of God, and we could reflect God in all that we do. That we could become his children.

This is an incredible thought that even though I don't deserve it, God gave it to me. Not only did he give it to me, but he used his son to pay the price in order that I might be saved. Read a story once of a man was out fishing with his son and a friend of his son. There was an accident, and the two boys couldn't swim. They fell in the water.

And they're both fighting drastically to to get out of the water. The man had one life preserver. That was all that was in the boat. He couldn't swim. He couldn't get in the water and pull him out, so he had to make a choice.

Who was he gonna try to save? He looked at his son with tears in his eyes and told him he loved him and he threw the life preserver to the other boy. His son drowned, the other boy was saved. They asked him, how could you possibly do that? He said, well you see, as much as I love my son, I know that my son knows Jesus.

And that when he his life ended on this earth, he was going to walk in glory with God, but his friend did not know Jesus. And if he were to drown and die right there on that day, he would spend an eternity in hell. So I sacrificed my son to save this boy that he might have a chance at reconciliation with God. As far as I know that's not a true story, but it is an example of how God sacrificed his son that we might have a chance at salvation. There's no promise that that boy was gonna ever receive Christ, but he now has a chance.

There's no promise that you would ever receive Christ. He paid the price that you might have the opportunity for salvation, but you and only you can receive it. Nobody else can receive it for you. If Jesus paid the price, he made us a new creation if we accept him. Brand new.

The old has passed away. We're brand new if we gave our life to him. We must take our position as ambassador seriously. It it's not just a title that we wear. We don't just walk around saying Christian, but doing nothing.

It's not a title that entitles us to be lifted up higher than other people. It's a label that is put on us as a reflection of the righteousness of God, and we're to live our lives in his righteousness, for his righteousness, that others might see that and be saved. We have a job to do. He created us for a purpose. He wants us to be his ambassadors, to reach other people, instead of walking around as if we are better than everybody else.

As a new appointee in the cabinet of God, we must serve him every day. Just like as a new administration comes in, they appoint new leaders in the cabinet. Those leaders are there to serve the one that appointed them by doing things that are supposed to be right for the country. God created a position for you. He appointed you as an ambassador for him.

He appointed you to be an ambassador for him if you have called him lord and savior. So the question is, have you become a new creation? Have you ever become a new creation? Have you ever given your life to Christ? And if you have, are you an ambassador for him?

Are you ready to serve him every day? Are you absolutely want people to see Jesus in you? Here's the thing. So many people say this, do what I say, not what I do. As a child, did that work for you?

When your parents said, do what I tell you, not what I do. No. If it's good enough for you, it's okay for me. It doesn't work for lost people either. When you say do what I say, not what I do, I fail, but but do this instead.

No. They're looking at you. They want you to be that ambassador. They wanna see in you, how do I do it? How do I do that?

If God saved you, he created you as a new creation. Your job is to serve him and serve him by being an ambassador for him that others would see Jesus in you. Each and every day, we have opportunities to be a good ambassador for Christ or a bad ambassador for Christ. Christ. Every day we have those opportunities.

What do you mean every day? I mean, I I've been listen. If you go out of your home and come in touch with other people, you have an opportunity. It might be a good, it might be bad. How are you gonna react?

And even if you don't, if you live in a home with someone else, you have an opportunity every day to be an ambassador for Christ. How do you handle things? What do you do? The key is the only way we can truly be a good ambassador for Christ is if we flip the script. Instead of putting self first, if we put God first.

And that has to be something we do every single day. It's not a one time deal. It's not a one time deal. Why? Because we're flesh, and we tend to serve self.

But every day, if we make a conscious effort to put God first, then every day we can be a good ambassador for Christ. Today, if you've never given your life to Christ, you don't know him, you've never become a new creation, I'd love to invite you to come today and talk to me about it. Perhaps you have given your life to him, but you're thinking about it now and you're thinking, you know, I I'm I'm not been the best person for others to see Jesus in me. Well, it's not too late to make that change today. You can make that change today and continue to make it every day.

Maybe you say, I think I do pretty good at that, and and I I would like to help others. I want to mentor other people. Listen, that's a fabulous thing. And so if that's the case, then seek out who God would put you to mentor. Today, please, if you know Jesus Christ, accept your responsibility as an ambassador and live every day for him.

Let's pray.

I'm moving my slides. Okay? Alright. So here's a question for you. Have you ever been in a situation where you just didn't know how you were going to get past this problem?

Whatever it was, sometimes those situations can be financial. Sometimes they can be health problems. Sometimes they can be relationship problems. Sometimes work issues. Sometimes, you know, just all at once.

It seems like they all come on you at once. And almost every single one of us can say, yeah, we've been in that situation. We've been in a situation where we wondered how how are we gonna move forward from here. What are we gonna do? How does this I can't find a solution.

You know, that's the way we're built as human beings is we try to find our solution. We search for it. If we aren't new to a problem, the very first thing we try to do is we try in our own strength and our own knowledge to solve the problem, to get past whatever it is that's going on. We try to do that. Probably many of us have been in situations that were dire, a place where we just didn't know what was going to happen.

I've been in situations where, you know, most of the time, through my own fault, I got in a situation where there was a whole lot more months left than there was money. How am I going to get to the end of the month when there's no money left? I still have to pay the bills. I still have to buy food. I still have to eat the you know, the still have to put gas in the car.

There's all these things that have to happen, and and there's just nothing there. How am I gonna get to the end of that? I've had people that I know that have come, and they've we've talked, and they said, you know, we had this disaster happen. All these things occurred in our life, and all of a sudden, everything we had saved is gone, and we still can't make ends meet. What what are we gonna do?

How are we gonna get to the next step? There are those that say, I've tried everything to resolve an issue with my spouse. We've been to counseling. We've done everything. We've tried all that there is, and we just don't see how we can get to the next step, how we can get past this.

All of these things are huge in our life, and all of these things most every person in this room has probably been in a place where when you looked around in the situation you were in, all you could see around you was darkness, and it felt like the room was closing in on you. It's just closing in. How do we handle this? How do we move past it? We don't know.

We don't understand. So for you, how did that get resolved? What happened? For some, maybe you had friends or family and you called them up and said, hey. Here's the situation.

Can you loan me some money to get through to the next month? And maybe they were able to help you out. Maybe, the friends and family said, I don't have any money, but you know what? I got a lot of extra food. I'm gonna bring the food over to you, and that way, make sure you have something to eat for the next couple weeks till you get the paycheck.

Maybe, you know, you need me to take the children while the 2 of you try to talk and work things out and figure out what exactly going on. I can do that. Maybe you just need somebody outside of your normal circle to talk to for a little bit, and so you talk to somebody. Maybe you talk to a counselor. Maybe you had somebody that helped you through, a doctor that helped you with a situation that was happening.

Maybe that all those things happened. Maybe you got through all of that by calling upon other humans. Other humans are good, and and other humans help, and they do a lot of things, but they can't resolve everything. Sometimes there are issues that go beyond that. The friends that I was telling you, I talked to them and they said, you know, I don't know what we're gonna do.

Literally, we're we have this bill. They told us if it's not paid by this day, the next day, they're gonna turn off our power, and we've we don't have any way to do it. We don't know what we're gonna do. Hours later after praying, I get a phone call. Hey, pastor.

We don't understand exactly what happened. Did you tell anybody specifically about what was going on with us? I didn't. Well, I went out and opened the mailbox, and there was a letter that didn't come from the post office. There was no stamp on it.

I opened it up, and I pulled it out, and there was a check for the exact amount of the bill that I owe. How would anybody know? It wasn't it was a cashier's check, so there was nothing I I couldn't tell where it came from or who gave it to us or any of that. It was just there, and it was the exact amount. How would anybody know?

I said, were you praying about it? Yeah. We were praying about it. I said, well, God answered your prayer. God answered your prayer.

He took care of it. I had issues where I couldn't figure out what I'm gonna do. All of a sudden, I go out the mailbox, open it up, and of all things, I had a, insurance, refund. I wasn't expecting enough money to cover what I needed. There all these things that go on that you can't say there was a human being that did that.

It was a miracle. How did that happen? Where did it come from? But we get to that problem and we all go, I don't know. What are we gonna do?

Some people have miraculous stories of how they got through it. Others have friends and family that got them through it, but almost every one of us have been in those situations. So I wanna share with you today the passage of scripture that I shared with the children. Today, it won't be on the screen for you, so I'm gonna ask you to get your Bible and turn to 2nd Kings, 4 1 through 7. 2nd Kings chapter 4, and we're gonna read verses 1 through 7.

Alright. It says, now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, and the creditor has come to take my 2 children to be his slaves. Elisha said to her, what shall I do for you? Tell me. What do you have in the house?

She said, your maidservant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil. Then he said, go borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors, even empty vessels. Do not get a few. In other words, get a lot. And you shall go in and shut the door behind you and your sons and pour out into all these vessels, and you shall set aside what is full.

So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They were bringing the vessels to her as she poured. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, bring me another vessel. And he said to her, there is not one vessel more. And the oil stopped.

Then she came out and told the man of god, and he said, go, sell the oil, pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest. Now the thing I want us to see here is this woman was in a dire situation. In that day, if husband passed away, the no money to pay the debts, they could come in and either you could sell yourself into slavery, or they could come and take your children into slavery, Whatever it was to pay your debts. The debts had to be paid. Now God was telling them don't be so harsh on people, but, you know, society.

Right? So this woman who had lost her husband, they they're going to take them into slavery because they want their money. What are we gonna do? Well, in that day, she went to talk to the prophet because that's how they communicated with God, and the prophet gave the woman a directive. Get a bunch of vessels, get all these vessels, anything that can hold the oil, and bring them into your house.

Don't get just a few, get a lot. Get as many as you can get. Borrow them all from your neighbors. Bring them in. Get all that you can, and bring them into your house.

Now he didn't say, hey. I understand you're in a in a bad situation. Let me get out my wallet, and I'll just take care of your debt. He didn't say, well, let me go talk to the the creditors and see if I can get them to forgive your debt. He didn't say, let's start a GoFundMe page and see if we can get enough money to pay your debt.

He didn't do any of those things. He didn't resolve her situation immediately. He gave her a directive for her to follow in order for her situation to be resolved. You see, it wasn't just an easy fix. She needed to have faith.

He needed to show her that she needed to have faith, so he gave her a directive and said, go and do this. Go and do this. The reality is when he said that, for you and I, I'm I'm like the children. I'm I'm looking at this ball. I'm going, there's only this much.

Now look, Elisha, I know this oil is expensive, but there's only this much. How is that gonna provide for our needs? How is what am I gonna do with all these vessels? There's only this much. That's my human side thinking.

But we don't see where she ever argued. He gave her a directive. He didn't give her money. He didn't go talk to her creditors. He didn't do anything to just make her problems go away, but he told her to do something very strange.

We, as human beings, we just love to have a quick resolution to anything that happens. Oh, I got a problem. Let's get it fixed. Something quick, something easy, something that's gonna make it go away. No problem.

Boom. I I have a problem. I can't pay a bill. Boom. Somebody give me some money.

It's good. Took care of it. Thank you. You know, whatever it is, we wanna make it easy. But Elisha didn't make it easy.

He said, listen. This is something you've gotta do. You've gotta work through this, and you gotta trust god in it. And so here, go and get these vessels, and then pour them and fill them up. And we'll figure out what to do at that point.

Well, she wasn't necessarily probably understanding that he was saying trust God at this point. She was just doing what he told her. Okay. That's what you're saying. I will go and do that.

I will go and do that. I'm not sure why, but you told me, so I'm gonna go and do that. God tells us things sometimes, and we wonder why would God have us do it that way. Why would that be the situate? That just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

Why would we do it that way? I just don't wanna do it because it doesn't make sense. We read about a blind man that was told to go and wash in the river, and he said, this river's dirty. Why would I wash in this river and be healed? Actually, it was a I think it was a leper.

Why would I wash in this river and be healed when I could wash in a clean river? God gave him a simple directive. Just go wash. You'll be healed. But instead of doing it, he won't argue about it.

God tells us so many times, trust me. Give everything over to me, and I will take care of it. My way is easy. Give it to me. But we wanna hold on to it and say, no.

No. I got it. Just give me what I need. Give me what I'm asking for. God said, let me do it my way.

Go get vessels, fill them up with oil. Start pouring the oil. She didn't really understand that he was telling her to trust God, but she trusted him. She trusted Elijah as a prophet of God. She trusted that he was in communication with God, and so, therefore, she decided to do exactly what he told her.

Can you imagine her astonishment as the oil just kept flowing? As the oil just kept on pouring out. Now look. I know there's only this much in here. And I pour it out.

And all of a sudden, it fills something this big. I'm going, how is that possible? And it just keeps flowing, and it keeps going, and it keeps going. And then it's almost like, well, let's just see how far it'll go. Let's fill as many as we can and just keep on going and going and and amazing.

How is that possible? How did God do that? She's just pouring. What Elijah told her to do, she just continued to do it, and, obviously, she was overwhelmed at what was happening. But she didn't stop.

She didn't go. You know, this is crazy. This can't be. I got 10 things full of oil right now. That's enough.

That's plenty. No. She just kept going. Well, if I'm I've gone this far, I might as well keep going and finish what I've been told to do. I might as well keep on going.

I don't know what I'm gonna do with all this, but I'll just keep going. We have a tendency to even when we see God do something amazing in our life, we have a tendency to cut it off and go, wow. That was awesome. Thanks. But But what if God wanted to do more?

What if there were more blessings that God wanted to pour out upon you? What if there was something else, but we stopped it because we said, oh, that's all I need. How do you know? We don't know what we need. We think we know what we need, but we don't know.

What if God wanted to pour out more blessings? Why would we stop him? If the woman stopped pouring after 10 vessels and said, this is plenty to pay my debt. Well, her debt could have been paid with that. But now what are they gonna do?

She couldn't get a job, her own property. She couldn't make a a living because she was a woman. In that day, that wasn't allowed. We're not told how old her sons were, but they must not have been grown men yet. Now what was going to happen?

They would have been in in a bad situation again, but god said just keep pouring. When she poured it all out, not only did they have enough to take care of all the debt, they had enough to live on after that. So God gave them what they needed and poured more out on top of it because they were obedient in what God said to do. They were obedient in what God said to do. She didn't stop doing what she was called to do.

She just kept doing it. So how's all that possible? People tend to act too proud. Like I said, here's the thing. We're so proud, we only need this.

That's all I need. So once I get this, stop, god. That's good. I don't need anymore. God may have more.

Why stop him? Maybe God's gonna show you that he's gonna give you more in order for you to bless somebody else. Maybe he's gonna take care of you in ways you never expected. Why are we so proud that we think we have to do it on our own, or even if God gives us a blessing, we only want this much blessing. Why are we so proud that we have to do that?

Sometimes people just want somebody to give them something. So instead of being having to work for it, just give it to me. Just give it to me. You know, I'm I I don't have any money, and I'm hungry, and, you know, I need some help. Yeah.

I'm I'm strong, and, you know, I got plenty of energy, and and I know how to use a lawnmower or a weed eater. I know how to do all that. So, look, you come and cut my grass and do what needs to be done, and then I'm gonna give you some money so you can go get some food. Don't do that. I just want you to give me the money.

I don't wanna have to go work for it. Just give me the money. I don't I don't wanna have to worry about following what you want me to do, god. I just want you to bless me. You just don't just bless me.

I know I haven't been in church in a while. I know I had opened my bible. Hadn't even prayed to you in a while, but just bless me right now because I need it. Just give it to me. Just because.

Sometimes people are in situation where you have to just give, but I'm talking about when you're in a situation where you could do something. Instead of doing that, you just want it to be given. You don't even wanna be bothered. God's people are the same way. We could do something.

We could spend time together with God. We could further our education with God. We could get our relationship closer with God. We could do all of that, but instead, we just want somebody to just give us what we need when we get in trouble and then go away. I don't want you to tell me what to do the rest of the time, God.

Just right now, give me what I need, then get out of the way because I know everything else. We're we're proud. Sometimes we're just lazy. Sometimes, we just don't wanna trust. Sometimes, we turn to everything else but God.

Sometimes we turn to everything else but God. We've done everything. We've tried getting a loan. We've tried, borrowing money from friends. We've tried, getting out and doing fixing something ourselves.

We've tried whatever it is. We've tried everything else but turning to God. Now I'm not talking about lost people here. I'm talking about believers. People who know Jesus as lord and savior.

Sometimes we will do everything else before we turn to god and say, help. God, I'm in a bad place. I need your help. We'll do everything else, and then I know you've all heard this. Well, I guess there's nothing else left to do but pray.

Well, it should have been the first thing. Pray. You're in a situation. Pray. Wow.

I don't wanna be selfish. God commands us to pray. He commands us to talk to him. He wants us to be with him. He wants us to have that relationship.

Well, I I wanna try everything out. Why? Because you know why? Because if God provides it, it comes with strings attached. You know, God pours that blessing out, then he expects me to go to church.

You know, he expects me to talk to him, pray, and do things. God, so I don't wanna take it from God. Reality is we should be doing all that before then anyway. God, help me. Are we gonna pray?

We're gonna really give it to God? Are we gonna really live for God? We call ourselves a Christian. We say we're our believers, that we've accepted Jesus Christ into our heart and made him lord, meaning master, and yet he's the last one that we wanna turn to. The last option.

I have no other option. I finally have to turn to God. He wants to be first in everything in your life. 1st, when you wake up in the morning, praise God. When you're given that meal, praise god.

When your car cranks, praise god. Everything you do, praise god. He wants to be first. And if something goes wrong, call on god first. He says, I'll never leave you or forsake you.

Never. I'll never leave you or forsake you, so call on me first. Give everything to him. The reality is people have an overall lack of faith. So what can we do about it?

How do we change this in our life? Well, it starts with humility. It starts with humility. This woman in this passage had to humble herself. She was in a bad place.

It wasn't her fault, but she had to humble herself and go talk to Elijah because she had no other option. And when she realized that she needed to be humble and go before Elijah, She humbled herself. You see, that's part of the reason why we don't turn to god first, is we don't humble ourselves. Pile it all up on me. I can do it.

I can carry it. I can do everything. No. Humble yourself. God says, be humble.

Understand that apart from me, you can do nothing. That's what the scripture says. Apart from me, you can do nothing, but you could do all things through Christ who strengthens you. So humble yourself first and realize that you are not god, that you are not Jesus, that you are not in charge, that Jesus is the lord of your life. Humble yourself before him.

The woman had to humble herself in order to ask for help in the first place. So the question today is, why is humility so hard? Why is that so hard? It seems to be one of the hardest things that we do. Humble yourself.

Man, I gotta go ask for help. Let let me try something else. Let me let me try something let me try one more thing before I ask anybody to help. We do it in everything. We do it in, say we're working on something.

Right? We decided, I can do that. Then we get halfway through it and go, man, what did I get into? Well, I don't know how to fix this. I'm gonna have to ask somebody to help me.

Wait. Let me try this. Oh, I got shocked. Why did I get shocked? I didn't ask for help.

I didn't know what happened. Instead of getting shocked, instead of getting hurt, instead of going through all those things, what if I just asked for help in the first place? Why do I have this idea that to ask for help is a bad thing? Because the world says so. The world says you need to be proud.

You don't need to ask for help. You need to know how to do it yourself. You need to be strong. Don't be humble. You gotta pour that out.

I talked to people before about being a believer in Christ. They said, you see, I just don't think I can do that because Christians are such weak people. What do you mean they're weak? Well, you know, they have to humble themselves and all of that, and I just I just don't think I can do that. Man, Christians are the strongest people in the world because they gain their strength from God.

They take away the things that of the world, and they give it to God. The reality is humility is not a bad thing. It's a good thing for you to realize you're not God. That's what it all boils down to, understanding you're not God, and God is the one you turn to. He's supposed to be first in your life.

The woman had to humble herself before anything else could be done. When you're in those dire situations, the first thing you gotta do is humble yourself. Humble yourself and speak to God. Next thing it takes is faith. It takes humility, but it also takes faith.

So if you humble yourself but you don't have faith that God can do it, then how are you gonna make that next step? You gotta have faith. Once she humbled herself, she had to have faith. Elisha said, gather up all the pots and do this. She didn't really know why she had that faith, but, okay, I'll go do that.

I will do what you said. In her situation, perhaps she had more faith than Elisha because she had not been able to have that 1 on 1 relationship like we have today because that was before Jesus came. Right? But now we have that 1 on 1 relationship. And so when we know this is what we're supposed to do, even if we don't understand why, have faith.

She had the faith that I'm gonna go do what he said, and it's gonna be taken care of. Faith that God would take care of her somehow. She didn't really know how. She didn't understand. I only have this little bit of oil.

What's that gonna do? But he said do this, so somehow it's gonna get taken care of. I don't know how, but I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna follow in that faith. That's the reality for us is we've got to have the faith.

People say, well, how can you have faith in something you've never seen? Well, I may never have seen God face to face, but I've seen what God has done in my life. You know, the argument is always this. Well, how can you believe in something you can't see? Do you see the wind?

Yeah. You do. You're the only one. How did you see the wind? What do you mean?

I see it rustling through the trees all the yeah. But you didn't see the wind. You saw the trees moving. Well, that's true. But I know it's there because the trees are moving.

I could feel it blowing across my face, so I know the wind is there. I can't see God, but I feel him moving in my life. I see the things he's changing around me. I know what's going on, so I can have faith in God because he's present in my life. But you gotta have that faith.

You gotta have the faith. Trust him. Trust him. There's something else you need. What?

Charity. Charity? Wait a minute. We were talking about I had a problem, and and and I've talked to God. And now I've had to be humble, and now I've had to have faith, but now I have to have charity.

What what do you I don't understand. How do I need charity? Well, because charity is something that every one of us need in our life. Some people think of charity as this, somebody giving them stuff. That's charity.

That's that's the only way they think of it. Well, I don't want charity. I don't want that because I don't want people to just give me something. I want it, you know, I I can do it myself. I don't want charity.

But there's another definition of charity. It's another form of charity. It's helping people to help themselves. Elijah gave charity to the widow by helping her help herself by saying, trust God. Go get the pots.

Fill the pots. This is what God said. Help her help herself. Offer to let them mow the grass and give them some money. That's charity because you didn't just give them the money, you helped them help themselves.

You see, charity is something that we don't do enough of. Give them the tools and the means to improve their situation. We need that in our lives to help other people. When people come to you and you just give them money, is that charity? Well, yeah, it's charity.

But can you do it differently? Can you give them more than just the money? Can you help them to help themselves? Can you give them the tools to do things better? Can you do that?

We need that in our lives. We need all forms of that. Sometimes you just gotta help them out with the money in the situation. Sometimes you gotta do more than that. Sometimes you need just money.

Sometimes you need more than that in your life. And in this situation, Elisha gave them what they needed, and he said, go get all these pots and do this, and then I'm going to help you once that's done. So we've gotta have that charity in our life. Now this you may think this is the same word, just different, but it's a little different. The next word is the other thing is, we have to be giving.

We have to be giving. Why? God multiplies what people give him. God multiplies what people give him. What did the widow give?

The loyal. Did God multiply it? We don't even know how many times over. So much so that she could sell the oil, pay off all her debts, and still have money to live on. She gave that, and God multiplied it.

And he multiplied, and he multiplied, and he multiplied it, and he multiplied it. But you know what else he multiplies? He multiplies tithes and offerings. He multiplies the tithes and offerings that you give. You know, some people will say when you talk to them about giving, well, you know, I just don't have it to give right now because I have all these bills, and I have everything, and I just don't have the money to give.

Well, what if you give first and see what God does with it? Because God multiplies what you give to him. What if you give first and see what god does? I can give you testimony that there was many time in my life where I looked at and I said, on paper, I have all these bills, which I incurred on my own, by the way, more than I needed. I have all these bills, and I only have this much money coming in, and that only leaves, you know, 50¢ left over at the end of the month.

I I just don't have any money to give God. Finally, I realized, god wants me to give to him first, and he'll take care of everything else. So I started giving. I started giving. I started with a tithe.

I started giving 10%. Okay, god. I'm giving you I'm a write this check first. I'm giving it to you. I give you that tithe.

There's no way, based on my math, that if I give away 10% of my monthly income, that at the end of the month, I got enough money to pay all my bills. But somehow, at the end of the month, I had all the money to pay all the bills. Didn't still didn't have a 50¢ left over, but I had all the money to pay the bills and I tithed on it. I keep doing that. I keep doing that.

I still try to give the very first thing I do is try to give my tithe. God will multiply what you give him. As a church, when we give to God, he multiplies it. Whether it be in financial giving, whether it be in giving in service, whether it be in giving in love, whatever it is that we give, God will multiply. The widow didn't know how this was gonna happen, but God multiplied it and gave her not only enough, but an abundance to take care of her son and herself and her sons for however long.

When we give, God multiplies it. He will give us more. He will give us an abundance to reach other people, to grow, but we've gotta be willing to do it upfront. We've gotta do that. God uses all the gifts to further his kingdom as well as helping people.

When he took that oil and he multiplied it, not only was that a miracle that the widow saw, it was a miracle that her sons saw. It was a miracle that Elisha saw. And you know that the neighbors knew there was no way she had that much oil, and if she borrowed all of the vessels, they saw it. God furthered his kingdom because people trusted him more after the miracle that they saw. When we give and when we do and we serve and and everything is extended, people see it, and God furthers his kingdom.

When we have the the people that can go out and knock on doors and tell someone about Jesus, you know what happens? People get saved. We have people show up and we go, we do that. Maybe we only have 3 the first time. But what if the next time we have 3 more that go, you know what?

I can't do much, but I'm gonna do what I can. And they show up, and now we double the territory that we covered. There's double the chance that more people would come to know Jesus. What if we increased our tithe? What if instead of giving 10%, what if we say, you know what?

God has blessed me. He's really poured it out upon me. I'm gonna give as it's been given to me, and I'm gonna give 15%. I don't know how I'm gonna do that, but I know that I need to. I'm gonna do that.

I'm gonna give. I I haven't been giving, but you know what? I'm gonna give. What if suddenly people that haven't been giving started giving? People that gave gave more?

Suddenly, we're not looking at red ink at the end of the month. We're looking at positives, and now we're going, hey, we can further God's kingdom. We can we can do this and do that with things we can do. How incredible is that? That God can multiply what we give to him.

He multiplied everything that the widow had. He gave her more than she could even imagine, and he will multiply all the gifts that we give to his kingdom. We have those that sing. We have those that bake. We have those that make phone calls.

We have those that are prayer warriors. We have those that are leaders and teachers. We have those that can go out and knock on doors. We have people to do things. What if we give all those talents to God and let him multiply it?

How amazing would that be? Instead of saying, hey. We'd like for everybody to sit in the middle when you come in on Sunday morning. We could be saying, hey. Make sure y'all move over so we got enough room for everybody.

But the whole thing is we have to understand in all of this, God. God has a role. God's role in every bit of it. God provides even when it seems your whole world is crashing down. God provides.

Does he give you exactly what you asked for? Not always. Your world's crashing down and and you just say, you know what, God? Let me win the lottery so I'll be okay. Probably not.

Your world's crashing down and you're asking for whatever, but instead, friends and neighbors and loved ones show up to help you, and they get you out of the situation. Maybe somebody calls you and says, you know what? I'm praying for you. And you can feel that strength that god's given you through that. Maybe there's other ways that it happens, but god provides even when it seems your whole world is crashing down.

He provided not only enough oil to pay off the debts, but enough for him to live on. Now here's what I want you to understand today. It's the gift that keeps giving. Jesus is the gift that God gave us. It's the gift that keeps giving.

He gives in every way imaginable. Number 1 is love. God wants to pour out those blessings upon us. God delights in pouring blessings out upon us. He keeps giving and giving and giving and giving.

He pours out his blessings on his people when they turn to him, and he continues to give even when they don't understand how. But are you accepting what he's giving? Are you trying to limit it? Are you trying to do it on your own? Are you actually following God and paying attention to what he can do?

So the question today is, do you need to turn to him? Do you need to turn to him? Maybe you're here today, and you know what? You've been here. Maybe you're a guest here today.

Maybe you've been coming here for years, but there's one step that you've missed. You've never actually given your life to Christ. You show up on Sunday, and you sing, oh, how I love Jesus. You wear your clothes. You go to Sunday school.

You carry your bible, but you don't know him. You've never given your life to him. You've never surrendered to him. If you don't surrender to him, then when these things come, you're on your own. You're trying to figure it out.

No wonder he's not answering. You've never given your life to him. You've never given your life to him. Do you need him today? Understand he is the gift that keeps giving.

It is not one time. You come down the aisle, and and we talk, and and you pray, and you accept Jesus into your heart. And then later, you follow a believer's baptism, and and that's not it. It doesn't end there. It just begins.

God continues to pour out blessing after blessing when you follow him. But you gotta keep on following him. It's not a one time deal and then turn away and go back to doing whatever you want. You gotta follow God. He's now the one that's in charge in your life.

Understand this, when you think there is absolutely nothing left, he pours out more blessing. Sometimes we think about it like this, and we go, you know, in all my life, God has given me so much. God has poured all this out on me. He's done all these things, and now I'm in this situation. You know, I think I've probably exceeded my limit.

I've probably gotten everything that I was supposed to get. There's probably nothing left. There's probably nothing left for me to get, so you know what? I'm just gonna stop asking. Well, what you're doing when you do that is you limit God.

You say, God, you've helped me all you can. I understand. Thank you. But, you know, I know you can't do anything more. Why do you think that?

God has infinite blessings. God is greater than anything. He can pour out everything even when you think there's nothing left. Why do we limit what god can do? Why do we limit trusting god?

Why do we limit seeking the gift that keeps giving? Why do we do that? God never said, this much, that's all you get. God said, trust me. He said, apart from me, you can do nothing.

God wants to pour out blessings upon you. He wants to give you that love. He said, if you call on me with your mouth, you confess with your mouth Jesus is lord, and believe that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. And by saved, that means receive salvation. And through that salvation, he wants to give you that salvation and that sanctification all of your whole life.

It doesn't stop. Oh, he knows you're a human being and you're gonna run into problems. He knows you're a human being and you're gonna do things wrongly. But he says, hey. Keep trying.

Keep turning to me. I'll keep lifting you up. I'll keep on lifting you up. I wonder sometimes if you had a little child and they they ran outside and they fell and scraped their knee, they came in, you cleaned it up, put a Band Aid on it. The next day, they ran outside and they fell down, they scraped their knee and they came back.

You cleaned it up and put it back. How many times are you gonna do that before you say, I'm not doing this again? You just keep doing it. Right? They need your help.

You're gonna keep putting that band aid on. You're gonna keep taking care of them, and that's how we are for God. We're his children. Whatever we get into, God just keeps on taking care of us, but he wants us to acknowledge that we need him. He is the gift that keeps giving, but we need to put him first in order to receive those gifts, in order to understand that we need them, in order to ask for them in the first place, in order to be used by him that not only will he pour out the blessings upon us to take care of our needs, he will probably pour out enough blessings that we can use it to take care of somebody else.

Maybe not financially. Maybe it's maybe it's love. Maybe it's, the ability to do something. Maybe it's food that we can give. Maybe it's a a ride somewhere.

Whatever it is, but God gives us that we can give as well. Are you willing to trust him a 100% every day? The widow turned to Elijah. She said, I don't know what to do. Elijah said, go do this, and then bring them back to me.

And then he told her how God was gonna bless it. God says, go do this. I don't need you to ask a lot of questions. I don't need you to really try to figure it out. You just do this, and I'll show you how.

I'm gonna do it in your life today. Will you trust him? Will you put him first? Do you know him? Have you ever given your life to him?

In just a moment, we'll have a time invitation. As we do, I'm gonna ask you if you've never given your life to Jesus and you want to come talk to me about it today, I'll be here. Perhaps you know Jesus, but you know what? You have not been trusting him, putting him first. You have been limiting him in every way, and you just wanna come to the altar today and ask him to forgive you for that and to pledge to put him first every day.

The altar will be open. Whatever it is, you come as the lord puts it on your heart.