K.P. Yohannan emphasizes the necessity of dependence on God, sharing personal experiences that illustrate the importance of surrendering our lives to Him. He reflects on the challenges of ministry and the need for genuine intimacy with God, encouraging believers to develop a habit of constant communication with the Lord. Yohannan highlights that true life comes from being crucified with Christ, allowing His life to flow through us rather than relying on our own strength. He urges the congregation to recognize that their lives are not their own and to embrace a lifestyle of prayer and obedience to God's will. Ultimately, he reassures that the journey of faith is a gradual process of transformation through reliance on God.

Good morning, good to come back to Philadelphia when it's not snowing. I didn't believe it could be so warm so I made sure I carry my jacket. It's always a special joy for me to be back here. One of the reasons is I love Pastor Joe and in many ways this fellowship kind of we feel very close to and another reason I like to come here is because there's a special restaurant Pastor Joe takes me to every time I come here. It's a cheap place by the way. But, you know, you are a family to us. I mean that. And I spend just over 300,000 air miles a year traveling, speaking throughout many nations. And there are a handful of people that I have come to know that I love and commit myself to them and work with them and Pastor Joe, your senior pastor, happened to be one of those people. And sometimes I wonder why on earth he wanted me to come and speak because I listen to him and, you know, in my 44 years of serving Christ, I have come to believe there are lots and lots of brilliant scholars, speakers, teachers, and Christian leaders, but unfortunately we don't have very many that know the Lord intimately and there are ministries, an overflow of who they are. And I'm grateful for, you know, your shepherd here that know the Lord. And if you allow the Lord to change you and become like him as he follow the Lord, I think the scripture is very obvious. Paul said to his followers, follow me as I follow the Lord. And so it is a very special thing to have leaders that you can imitate. You know, sometimes following Christ can be very abstract and elusive and kind of can't handle that, but in flesh and blood you see people. And I'm challenged every time I come here and know the Lord is working here. And again, I'm aware of the new work the Lord is doing here among you in terms of seeking him and knowing him. And, you know, I remember one year, this is many years ago, I traveled throughout this country speaking the whole year, almost constantly. And by the end of the year I was fairly disillusioned, kind of very discouraged. And I said to the Lord, I don't want to do it. The reason was I would be speaking to a thousand people or whatever, and the service over, the next thing I found myself often was taken to the, you know, fellowship hall, they call it, and they have cake and cookies and ice cream. That's not bad. But the shallowness, the chitchat and the carelessness, it just bothered me so much because I cried my eyes out for the lost world and here it didn't even touch them. And, by the way, at the end of the year that book came out, Wrote Reality, still remains a very significant book. By the way, all our materials you can pay for whatever donation. If you don't have the money you can steal them also. Yeah, everything. It's true. John Beers, one of our senior leaders, my colleague, is there. So, I mean, really, it would be a blessing for you. But, you know, it was during that year, you know, I said, Lord, what am I supposed to do now? I thought you told me to do all this and nothing seems to work, and I am discouraged. You know, prayer becomes so meaningful when you have a conversation and you ask him something, then he talks to you. I mean, try this out. I live on the telephone almost 24 hours, except a few hours I turn it off. And I developed this habit, which is really cool. It's a California word. Well, I'm listening to people talking to me, you know, from somewhere in the world, and all of a sudden this tape goes off in my head, you know, on the other side, and I say, Lord, this is what I'm hearing, what do you want me to say? And the most weird thing is that sometimes I'm responding to people as they're talking to me, things that I never imagined nor has anything to do with what they're asking me. And after many months or a year, they will say, you know, it's a weird thing. You said something that has nothing to do with anything I asked, but I thought you were crazy. But now I know it was the Lord doing this, and it's absolutely amazing. This morning a young man came to me. He looked like a football player, by the way. I mean, I met a few of them last night. They're big guys. Anyway, so he was saying, you know, he said, I just want to say something to you. And I listened. He said two, three years ago somewhere he heard me speak, and after the meeting he came up to me or something, and I looked at him. I don't know what I said to him, maybe a couple of sentences, he said. He was living with a huge amount of crisis in life, and that was a turning point in his life. I don't even remember what it was. And what happens is that when you are talking to your son, your daughter, or your neighbor, or in the marketplace, driving on the freeway, whatever else, if you just maintain the conversation with the Lord, you know, Lord, what do you want me to do? What am I supposed to say? Lord, do you want me to buy this or not to buy this? You know, the sale sign will be so huge, temptation will be so significant. You know, $50 thing now is only $5. But the question is not $5 or 5 cents or $100. It is, Lord, what do you want me to do? If you keep developing that habit, you know, revival, renewal, godliness is not once in a while incident or event. It is a perpetual thing. Many, many years ago, 30 years ago, when the Lord dealt with me so severely about being his, I found myself asking for permission to get a haircut. This is really true. I mean, I don't do that anymore. Please understand that. And I found myself, you know, really needing a haircut. And I said, Lord, what am I supposed to do? And one incident, it's only one. I waited and waited. My hair was growing longer, especially those days, you know, I had really short hair. Now since I'm losing a lot, I'm keeping it longer. And so Pastor Joe and I decided we are going to grow long hair, which is a model for you to follow. Anyway, so, and I kept praying. And one day the Lord said, all right, now you should get your haircut. And I went to this place. I was driving along. I've never been there before. And I sat on this chair and this guy started doing, and I said, well, this weird thing. And I've never been to this place. And the Lord seems to tell me to be here. And I start talking to him about the Lord. The amazing thing was that for amazing reason, that was appointed time for that man to give his life to Christ. It's the most amazing thing. And I wish it happened all the time with me, Don. And so the reason I'm saying that to you is that as you are pursuing the Lord is unusual compared to many, many churches here. I would encourage you to develop that habit. And this started with me many, many years ago, and I'm still learning. And I remember saying, Lord, this is a really a bummer. I don't want to travel like this. And I'm really discouraged. And then the Lord spoke to me. Something quite interesting. He said, you know what? You are speaking to 500 people or 10,000 people or 3,000 people, whatever places you go to, please understand. He said, I have my sheep among them and my sheep will hear my voice. I'm sending you for those few that know me and they will know I am the one that send you. That was so refreshing. It was so transforming that my life has never been the same again. So when I'm speaking to a very large crowd, usually I go back and remind myself what the Lord said. But coming to a place like this, it is not, Lord, I got 2,000 people here. There are five people know you. But knowing what God is doing here, I'm terribly excited, encouraged by the fact that there is a sense of renewal and God dealing with you. And it's going to spread throughout the nation. The real answer to whatever we are dealing with is not political muscles and money and power. It is people of God praying and standing in the gap, which I believe is happening here. And by the way, this is a way of reminding you, you know, television news, radio and magazines all should become for us as followers of Christ information for prayer. For example, Pakistan, I do not know if you are tracking within just in the last one month of the flooding taking place in Pakistan. And I was in Bombay Airport just a week and a half ago on the way to Germany and talking to our regional leader. He was saying and I said, what is happening now in Pakistan? Because he was just there trying to figure out what to do with the flooding situation. And then he said, well, you know, so far, eighteen hundred people lost their lives. And then, you know, he normally talks very fast, but he didn't. There's a pause. I could hear he was emotionally breaking down. And then he said the sad thing is millions of children are left helpless. And then he said the low laying land people are suffering so much. He cannot even imagine this. Seventy percent of the entire country crops completely been destroyed. And then the madness to bomb exploded just a week after that. I mean, you think about a country like that. How do we look at this nation's not from the perspective of politics and what is going on? We say, Lord, you died for these people and they are dying without you. Break my heart. Oh, God, that I may pray I may know what to do. And then as he guides us, we do whatever we can. See, living for the Lord is not a life of dichotomy. It is not a divided life like you go and work for some, you know, IBM or bank. You know, you do the work for them. Then you go away. No, you know, it's quite interesting. You know, my two children, Danny and Sarah, they both are serving the Lord. And when my daughter was to get married, her name is Sarah. Of course, you know, we basically from Indian background, we kind of help our children to find their spouse if they can. And we kind of don't worry about doing that here. It's a nice thing to do. But so a lot of proposals came and, you know, she she's a daddy. I do not want to live in the United States. She was born and raised here and had her education here. I just want to live here in India and serve God. And so and so we kept looking for someone that would do that. So finally, this young man came and I start talking to him and I'm the dad, you know, get my permission. And so I asked him, so, Danny, that's his name. So what is what is this all about? Please tell me about your life. And he said, you know, I'm a medical doctor. I said, I know for sure you are a medical doctor, but I'm trying to figure out what your life is about. He said, well, when I was studying, the Lord called me to serve him. And my call is to serve Jesus. And that's my life, everything in it. But one day he told me to go and study medicine and become a doctor. And so I'm listening what he's going to say next. Then he said this amazing phrase. He said, my call is to be his and serve him. But my vocation is being a medical doctor. I said, you are it. And they're married and have a little boy and they're serving the Lord on the mission field. I'm I'm so excited. You see, you may be a teacher, a medical doctor or engineer or, you know, housewife, whatever profession you have. Remember, blood was the price he paid to purchase you and you are not your own. There's no such thing. Your money, your time, your relationship, your future, your plans. You can't do that anymore. You can, but you will not experience the fullness of life that Christ promised. Out of his innermost being, rivers of living water will flow. Hold on to your life. You will end up losing it. And I encourage you not as, you know, someone who came here to be an evangelist, preach a big message and get to stand up and do this and that. But just someone who is, you know, in this journey, pilgrimage with you. I encourage you to think about that. And, you know, the 9-11 situation yesterday, you know what happened. And I'm sure a lot of we've been praying and the burning Koran thing and all that was another crisis. And, you know, these are opportunities over a billion Muslims living in our generation. And we should be praying for Turkey, for Iraq and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and Indonesia. Seek out information to pray specifically and ask the Lord to lay a burden on your heart for some country. You know, for at least 30 years, I've been praying consistently for Bhutan, a small country with 600,000 people. It was a crime to become a Christian for which you lose your citizenship. And we prayed and prayed along with I'm sure millions of people all over the world prayed for Bhutan, a Buddhist nation. But you know what happened just a couple of years ago? They decided to go secular. First time in history we were able to have a Bible school started in Bhutan to train Bhutani brothers to do evangelism church planting in the country. Nevertheless, there are persecution right now. We have one of our pastors actually in prison. He'd been there for five years, accused of forceful conversion and all those things. And you can go to our website and learn about these things and be, you know, praying for that. Appreciate your your willingness to be part of what God is doing. Well, those words I told you are basically my introduction. He thought I was preaching. No, you're mistaken. I want to read this one Bible verse to you again. I mean, this is a conversation. I don't have big agendas here. Galatians chapter two, verse 20. Very significant verse. I'm sure you heard so much teaching on this. You know, Paul was someone who actually was very much human. You know, you know, as I said earlier, you know, you know, the little song I heard long ago, you know, Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart. And we all sing all kind of things like that. But how do we live it out? That is a fundamental question. And I think one of the reason I am so impacted by Paul's life, because he was a normal human being, just like any of us. You know, it was the tradition says he was hardly, you know, four feet, you know, four and a half feet tall and bald headed. And, you know, a hooked nose and far from being a movie star, unlike the fellows I met last night. And he people said they accused him of his speech being contemptible. He couldn't talk right. And yet, as he walked among men, you know, remember the story in the book of Acts, these bunch of boys trying to cast out demons and the demons said, we know Paul and we know Jesus, but who are you? And then they they got out of the man, obviously, and possess these boys and they ran away naked. That's quite interesting. Heaven recognized Paul and demons trembled at his presence. And Paul said, you know, I know that isn't me. There's no good thing. I start from zero. It's not that Paul had huge amount of money or education and good look. No, but I think the secret of Paul's life, a perpetual light, a candle that never went out to the end of his journey. I think one of the key and the secret you find in Galatians chapter two, verse 20, where he says, I am crucified with Christ. You know that very, very significant verse. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Early in my life, some individuals that impacted my life, one was watch money, his writings and Roy Harrison. The book Calvary Road be filled now. Then, you know, some of the old Puritan writers. But Stanley Jones, Dr. Stanley Jones, happened to be one of those people that really had some influence on my life. He was a philosopher, a thinker, a brilliant scholar, and one of the greatest missionary statesman that we ever heard about in 20th century. And he was a missionary in India. And he won tens of thousands of intellectuals, upper caste Brahmins to the Lord through his ability to communicate the gospel. And I heard him talk about his experience on one of the tapes is dead and gone, by the way, with the Lord now. And he talked about how engaged he was in the work of God, you know, like a man who would not stop 24 hours busy, busy, busy, busy. The need is so much opportunity, unlimited possibilities ever expanding. And he was going on and on and on in the work of God. But he had to mental breakdown. Totally devastated. And one day. As he was recovering. In Lucknow, India, he was sitting in a small church. And there was a prayer meeting going on. And he says. Look like the Lord. Came to me and address me. So. Dr. Jones. Are you ready to turn all your life to me or you want to hang on to it? And mess it up again. And Stanley Jones says. Well, I felt like it was a good bargain. I didn't want to. Miss it. And he instantly said, Lord, here I am. It's no more my life that I want to live. It's no more the work that I am after. It's no more my reputation. No more the great need and possibilities that I need to address. I'm yours. Here I am. And. Dr. Stanley Jones testifies. That was the moment. His life was completely transformed. From despair, worry, and care. And anxiety about everything. In the life of a child of God. Sometimes, somewhere. And in your life. There must come a time. A realization. That we do not have in ourselves. What it takes. Let me repeat. You have to come to the place. You may have already. That you do not have in yourself. What it takes. For what? To say not to sin. Not to reputation. And honor from other people. From the longing to be recognized and understood. And to have all the security measures all in place. That you do not worry about anything. All the suspense and unknowns are removed. That everything is normal. That your dreams about the future of well-being. And your children and family. And whatever else. There's no answer. Really. No matter what you do. There's nothing within yourself in your world. You have control over it. But if you let it go. You'll be surprised. One of the neatest thing the Lord dealt with my heart many, many years ago. As I entered into this experience. The Lord gave me an image. Of dry leaves being carried away by the wind. He said, you don't have to fight over it. Just let it be. And my brothers and sisters. Do you know that dead people don't have to die? You're saying, wow, what a profound statement. And I think this is true. The most peaceful, restful, relaxing life in the whole world. Is when you are dead. Rest in peace. What I mean by that. You know Paul's statement. I am dead. Crucified with Christ. But the paradox is this. But I'm living. I'm alive. Life is mine. And life not somehow hooked up on machines. And barely breathing and alive. No, it's exciting and absolutely fantastic. Because it's no more mine. But His life in me. And through me. But here's a problem. In the measure in which you and I. We are holding on to our life. In the same measure. We will lose or will not experience His life. And this is fundamentally the problem. We constantly try to live Christian life. Thinking that it is our life. Christian life is not your life. It is His life. Your advocacy. Your inadequacy. Your lack or your having this or that. Nothing to do with any of those things. The Lord is seeking for us to come to the place. Where we recognize all that we do in our strength. Actually is a waste of life. And it's important that we depend on Him. You know, God promised Abraham a son. You know that. And his complaint was, Lord I obeyed you and left my home. My surroundings and my wealth and the whole thing now. My agony said, you know, I don't have a son. I don't have anyone to follow me. And the Lord said, I'll give you a son. I'll give you children. But the problem was waiting and waiting and waiting. Nothing happens. And I think he and his wife had quite a few discussions like we all do. You know, every night when I go to bed. You know, because all during the day I'm talking to other people. And at night my wife and I, we talk about some things. And she didn't talk to too many people during the day. I talked to the whole world. And sometimes I snore. And she said, you are sleeping. I said, did I go to sleep? Stay awake. I want to talk to you. Some of you wives, you understand that. And I did not know how it would happen. I was only imagining. And I think Sarah said to Abraham, Abraham, can I talk to you about this situation? God, suppose I told you this. I'm getting old. And there's no chance. But Abraham, I had an idea. What? Did God say my name when he talked to you? What do you mean? Didn't he say, I will give you a son, Abraham? He didn't use my name. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, Abraham, you know what? I think we need to help God. You know, God makes promises and we have to do our part. And, you know, what do you mean? Well, you know, this servant of ours, she's healthy and young. And why don't you get a child through her? And that's it. So, you know, God is in some real crisis right now. We need to do something to, you know, fix this problem. And, of course, you know, they get Ishmael, you know, the whole story. And then you read Abraham coming back to God and saying, God, I pray that you bless my son. And paraphrasing it, God's response, Abraham, you can pray a million years. I cannot bless the fruit, the product of the flesh. He must wait. And finally, now he's 100 years old. And his wife is very old. Romans 4 says, he looked at his body and recognized it is dead. He can go to any hospital, any doctor all over the world. Even the best in America say, what's wrong with you? You're an old, dead frog. And then God says, Abraham, yes, God, I want you to be circumcised. Can you say it again? And so he goes through that ceremony. Then Sarah, this old woman, becomes pregnant. And a child is born. Only in the book of Philippians we read this mystery explained. Paul says, and we are the true circumcision, those who place no confidence in the flesh. So God waited and waited until Abraham recognizes that there's nothing left in him. Broken and emptied for God to fulfill his plan. Please listen to me, my brothers and sisters. In my brief journey with the Lord, something that constantly calls me back to him. With repentance, tears, and brokenness. It is, I go through what he calls a dress rehearsal once in a while. Before I was married, I remember it was in Germany. We had a day or two before rehearsal, you know. March down, sit down, this and all. If you want to get married in Germany, please let me know. It's not easy. But I go to dress rehearsal once in a while. Things like, all of a sudden the Lord came. The trumpet sound, and I'm taken up. And I meet him. Then I stand before him. I look around, I couldn't find my wife. I couldn't find my priest. I couldn't find my pastor. I couldn't find my brothers. There's nobody there. I'm just with him. And then this conversation with him. And he talks to me about my life on earth, the way I spend my life. Friends and music and things I did. There's no one to plead for me. I'm just with him. And I go through this reliving kind of the past. And it makes me not to become so introspective and condemning myself and feel so ugly and all those things. It helped me to think, you know, this is dumb. Why am I looking for people to understand me? Why am I looking for people to say wonderful things about me and all these things? Why am I secretly hoping people will, you know, do this or that, whatever? You know, it just frees me so much just to be alone with him, even when I am with 100,000 people. And you see, my brothers and sisters, if you are walking with the Lord, everything makes sense when you look at the present from eternal perspective. And this is where we refuse to engage, to do anything with our personal agendas. You give your money, not thinking that somehow somebody will come to know about it. You don't give this or that, thinking that, you know, this is going to be a great way to do something great for God. But you look at every opportunity, get to serve, knowing that, you know, like Mother Teresa said, you know, this English newspaper reporter came to Kolkata, you know, wanting to see Mother Teresa and her work. And he hunted her down and found her actually cleaning the wounds of a leper, all pus and blood, everything oozing out. And she was cleaning it, you know, kneeling down before him. So this reporter standing beside her said, Mother, and she looked up, I couldn't do this for... Then he mentioned some huge amount of money, 100,000 pounds or something like that. And of course, you know, Mother Teresa's face, if you know, the reporter said, she looked up and said, I won't do it for a million. And then she said, you know, this happened to be Jesus. I am cleaning the wounds of Jesus. I am loving him. I am caring for him. See, everything changes when you realize it's not for you you are doing it, not for anybody else you are doing it, you are doing it for him. And Paul's life was one that he constantly recognized that his life cannot revolve around himself. This is the reason why Jesus said so well. You know, the scripture in John's Gospel chapter 12, verse 24, unless the seed falls into the ground and dies, it remains as it is. If it dies, it brings forth much, much, much fruit. And I think the measure in which you and I can learn to die to ourselves, in the same measure, we shall experience this life. You know, there's a false thinking, that is, if you know all the Bible, you study all the theology and know all the answers, go to this seminar, that seminar, how to be a good husband, how to be a good wife, how to raise family. You know, I'm in Christian bookstores are filled with how to books, how to do these things. Nothing wrong with that, it's okay, I'm not against all that. But you know, knowing will never make you become unless you are willing to embrace the cross. Spirituality is not just information, Bible is given to us, definitely for us to learn and understand the life of Christ, but remember Christ is the one who said, I do nothing of my own, I choose nothing for myself, I do not seek anything for myself, I do not want the king and the ruler, I am not here for anything for myself, to the extent, he said, I only do what my father tells me to do. Remember when Lazarus was sick, you know what the statement was made to him? Jesus, yeah, what? Lazarus, the one you love, is sick. There is no mention, Jesus, please come, would you please come and lay your hand on him and heal him, Lord, please hurry, he's getting late. No, nothing, you know why? Because that was a family where Jesus found himself at home. He loved Lazarus, he loved Martha, he loved Mary, that was precious. No one need to tell him, he must rush and do something for Lazarus, that was understood, they believed the moment Christ hears Lazarus is sick, he will rush. But the problem, he hears and he says to the disciples, what to do, I'm paraphrasing it by the way, I can't go, my time is not yet come. See, it's one thing to care for the orphans and widows and the poor people in Dhaka, Bangladesh, or Africa, or India, but it's another thing to care for your own little daughter, your son, your wife, your husband, your dad, your mom. The intimacy, the emotion, the grabbing of your heart, the pulling, that is instant, so subjective. That was so with Christ. He, I believe, as a man living on earth, so desperately wanted to rush and go to Lazarus, because nothing, nothing else than that he would want. He loves him. But at the same time, he must have asked, Father, you just heard what I heard, what you want me to do? And the father said, son, I heard, I know, I don't want you to go. We don't have any more than that here, but let me add my imagination here, that's not scripture here, but I just am a little human being trying to figure this out. Did Jesus, as a man, because I'm like that, say, Father, just this time, I know there are many times he told me to do this and don't do this, and you had me walk, you know, 50 kilometers, just to talk to one woman and, you know, help her, and then walk back, but a few times he said, wait, and this time, son, don't. And he waits. And now he's dead, buried, and he's stinking. And then he comes marching. And, you know, in John's Gospel, chapter 11, the scene is very painful. Lord, if only you just came sooner. And I'm just heartbreaking. To the extent the man, Christ, you see him brokenhearted. Then he says, this will glorify my father. It's not me. It's not his name. That's all about it. And so Lazarus is now raised from the dead. You see, even doing the right thing, in the way we want to do it, we miss his plan. Now, when I say these kind of things to you, I'm aware, you know, these all can be kind of abstract. How do you handle all this? You know what? Other people like your pastor and brothers and sisters can advise you, the word of God tells you, and there's a lot of books available, everything, but may I now personalize this for you, like you and I just talking? Would you please develop a habit, slowly, day by day, to talk to the Lord and listen to him? And at the same time, learn to say no to yourself. You are out there, you know, shopping, some ladies call it window shopping. And the window shopping goes into buying shopping. And you come home and say, Oh, honey, dear, those are American phrases. You wouldn't believe it. That last week, this thing was costing $50. Now we mark down to $5. And the poor guy knows this is a waste of time and everything, so he just says, All right, no problem. And vice versa. Oh, honey, you just believe I was looking for this car, I just found the best price in the whole world. And the wife knows, he's like a kid wanting a toy. But you see, but deep down, you know, this is not the way life should be. Why crowd your life with more and more and more stuff that takes so much time from being with him? So many books we read that has no meaning to develop our spirit and knowing him. So much music we listen to, to keep us occupied from worrying to death. But that's not the answer. Learning to say no to things of the world, to others and whatever else, has to be part of dying to self. And I pray that the Lord will give you understanding. No one can dictate to you and make you do this and that. My own life journey, I have come to find out that the best thing in life is to love him and then do what he tells to do, and there is joy. Otherwise, it is legalism. You go back under the old covenant. It is a real, real difficult thing to live with. Well, I need to conclude. The Lord is working here and in your life. Please, please don't expect overnight miracles that changes you into an angel. No. It's a long, drawn-out journey. The light the Lord is giving you, you obey and he'll give you more grace. And the pain you embrace by saying no to flesh, no to whatever he had to say no to, will be compensated a million times more with a joy unspeakable and full of glory, and you'll be glad. And someday, the Lord gives me the time, I like to write a book on this life journey of mine when I died a thousand deaths to reputation and things through which the Lord allowed me to understand him better. And I pray this will be our joy. And people tell me often, you have to slow down, you have to take a break, and all these different things. By the way, by the grace of God, I'm in good health to the extent I was at the gym the other day and the guy who helped me with the training, and he asked me how old I was. I said, I'm 60. He said, what? You look 40. I think, you know, he make me do all these things and I tell you, I hate you. Because he just, just five more. And I think he was, you know, to make me feel good by telling me how young I looked. Really not. But what I'm saying to you, stay focused. Stay focused. And it's worth this journey. Let me conclude, just about two minutes. A dear friend of mine, he sent me this poem titled, The Faithful Servant. It touched me so deep when I first read it. I want to read this for you. He held the lamp of truth that day so low that none could miss the way and yet so high to bring in sight that pitch of air, the world's great light. That gazing up, the lamp between, the hand that held it scarce was seen. He blew the trumpet soft and clear that trembling sinners need not fear and then with the louder nods and bold to raise the walls of Satan's hold. The trumpet coming thus between, the hand that held it scarce was seen. The last answer. But when the captain says, well done, thou good and faithful servant, come. Lay down that pitcher and the lamp. Lay down the trumpet, leave the camp. The weary hands will then be seen collapsed in those pierced ones, nothing between. That is the day I look for. Meanwhile, may the Lord give us all the grace to walk with him by faith and know him better and say on a daily basis, it's not about me, I'm dead. It's about him who lives in and through this earthen vessel. May the Lord speak to us. Amen.