In this sermon, the speaker begins by expressing gratitude for the support of the church in their mission work in Haiti. He mentions that some members of the church have already gone to Haiti and another group is planning to go in May. The speaker then reflects on the presence of many capable and dedicated men in the church who serve the Lord effectively. He draws a parallel to the biblical figure of Joshua, who was chosen by God to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. The speaker emphasizes that God magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, providing him with the necessary resources and guidance for his leadership role. The sermon also touches on the story of Noah's Ark and the worldwide flood, highlighting the evidence for its global scale rather than being a local event. The speaker concludes by suggesting that our physical health and circumstances may be connected to our spiritual life and vitality, and that the flood serves as a warning from God.

The question we want to look at today is, was the flood, the Genesis flood, worldwide? Many scientists have rejected the idea of a worldwide cataclysmic flood, and now many theologians and even pastors are rejecting or casting doubt on the idea of a worldwide Genesis flood. But what is the truth? And you might also be thinking, what does it mean to me, one way or the other? What does it mean to me today, where I live, in my struggles, in my problems of life? Turn with me to 2 Peter 3, verse 3, to introduce this subject of, was the flood, the Genesis flood, worldwide or not? 2 Peter 3, verse 3, because I believe that the skepticism about the flood and the worldwide nature of it is something that was predicted through the apostle Peter 2,000 years before it even took place, the scoffing of the worldwide nature of the flood, and it is a sign of a deeper problem. 2 Peter 3, verse 3, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers. These are the last days and we've got scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. So what they're saying is things just go on the way they always have. Oh, back in the old days, there may have been some special things, but really just as a uniformity to history and things just go on the way they were and the way things are happening now is the way they happened previously. He says they're walking after their own lusts. The real problem is that they want to live for themselves. They want to deny God's power in the world. And then verse five, he says, for this they willingly are ignorant of. There is a willing ignorance here, not just ignorance. Some people say ignorance is bliss, maybe in certain areas. But willful ignorance calls for judgment. And God says they are willingly ignorant of this, that by the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. It says that originally created world. Perished, it was destroyed. The same concept here is John 3, 16. Shall not perish, but have everlasting life if they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, there was a world that perished. He says they're willingly ignorant of that. But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, the word of God are kept in store, reserved under fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. He says judgment is coming again and in the last days, just before the times when that judgment begins to come, they're going to be scoffers are going to say, well, it never happened back then and it won't happen now. And so they say, don't sweat it, these prophets of doom, they keep on saying there was a flood and there's going to be a great fire, a destruction of the world to come and the rapture and the tribulation, all that kind of thing. Don't believe them. Things just go on the way they ever had. Hasn't happened yet. Why, these preachers have been preaching this for 2000 years. You remember, they'll say, well, remember, 20 years ago, prominent preachers were saying we're in the last days. It's going to happen. And look, it's been 20 years and hasn't happened. So it's not coming. They say, where is the promise of his coming? Everything continues on the way it has. Don't worry about it. And if the flood of Genesis was not a real worldwide cataclysmic flood, as the Bible says it is, then what concern should I show about a prediction in the same Bible about a worldwide conflagration of fire, worldwide fire, or why should I even be worried about the fires of hell? The same Bible that tells about hell and that tells about the world being destroyed by fire is the same Bible that tells about a worldwide flood. And if one is to be doubted, then you have pulled the rug from out underneath the whole concept of future judgment as well. We have today the idea going around that God is strictly and only a God of love and of forgiveness and of grace and of mercy. And it's some doubt how he has outgrown or outlived the judgmental, negative kind of punishment and retribution concepts of the Old Testament. And God is going to let us off the hook somehow at the last minute and that perhaps people have never been saved, maybe they'll have a second chance and maybe, maybe, maybe. They fail to see that God is the same yesterday and today and forever, that, yes, he is a God of love and forgiveness of mercy, but he's also a God of justice and holiness and retribution and judgment and condemnation of sin. And it's only against that background of condemnation that comes upon us because of sin, that dark background, that stormy background, that the bright light of his grace and redemption can be properly seen. And so we need to understand the past in order to properly understand the future. And very much in the Bible, as we study the flood, we see that if we want to know what's going to happen in the future, let's look at what God did in the past. I'd like us to look today at the evidence, the Bible evidence for the worldwide flood. I believe there is considerable scientific evidence for the worldwide flood. But if you knew what marks I got in science in school and the difficulties I had in the science area, you would not be too impressed with my teachings in the area of science. So I'm going to stick to the area that I like to concentrate on, and that is the Bible itself. There's some excellent books that would help you in the scientific areas if you were so inclined. The Genesis Flood by Whitcombe and Morris, a fine Genesis commentary called the Genesis Record by Morris and many other good books on that subject. And that will be a help to you. But I'd like us to look at seven proofs for the worldwide flood, that if the Bible is taken seriously and taken at face value, literally, that there is no other conclusion that can be come to other than the fact that this was a worldwide flood. If you'd like to study the scientific things, I was going to say, talk to Jim Hovis. He studied this quite a bit, knows the books and is involved in some of the creation research society kinds of things, and I'm sure he'd be glad to talk with you about it, right? Yeah, OK. He'd be glad to talk to you about it any time. He's done a lot of study in this area. I start reading some of these scientific books and they lose me as soon as they stop talking about the Bible and get into all those other things. OK, let's take a look at the evidences. You're the jury. I'm the lawyer and I am, in a sense, showing you the evidence in the Bible, in these documents for the point that I want to make is that the flood was worldwide in scope. It covered the whole earth and destroyed the whole earth in Noah's time. First of all, let's look at the first one. Only Noah and his family were saved. Look at verse one. If you have an outline, you can follow along and see where we're going. But look at verse one. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. The first evidence is that only Noah and his family were saved of all the people on the earth at that time. Only they were saved. Now, if it was a local flood with the wide distribution of population on the landmass before the flood, then some people very easily could have escaped or in seeing the rain start to come, could have escaped even then or could have just not been where it happened. If it was just in Mesopotamia, as many Bible scholars believe, it's amazing. If you go to the Bible study books on this chapter and study them, you will find so many of them, even from respected denominational leaders and others who will say, well, it was a local flood. It took up just that area of Mesopotamia or just that area where the Bible accounts took place. But he says to Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark. It's interesting, this is the first place in the Bible where God says, come, come. He didn't say go. He said, come. Why did he say come? Because he was going to be with them in the ark. He was not just sending them into that ark, that dark boat that was going to somehow carry them through the storm. But he was with them in the ark. He said, come. There's so many wonderful come verses in the Bible. And Isaiah, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. He says, come to salvation, come to cleansing. One of the most wonderful things about the Christian life is the cleansing from sin, the relief from the guilt of sin, knowing that you can look God in the eye and know that your sins are forgiven and cleansed. Jesus said, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's a wonderful come, isn't it? When you're tired, when you're worn out, when you're fatigued, when you're grouchy, you know, when you really have had it, you have a wonderful savior says, come unto me and I'll give you rest. What wonderful rest he has for us. The last come in the Bible is Revelation 22, verse 17. Turn there with me, please. Right at the end of the Bible, Revelation 22, 17, and the spirit and the bride say come, come and let him that hear it say come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely. God's wonderful invitation, God's invitation today before the destruction of this earth by fire is come into the ark of safety, come to salvation, come to Jesus Christ, the ark of safety who will lift you above the storm that is to come upon this earth any day. Even as Noah preached this in his own day. So we preach it now, come, come to him. He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out, you say me with my sins, I've got to clean up my act, I've got to straighten some things out, I've got to take care of a few details, then I'll come to Christ. Now he says, come just as you are, just as I am without one plea. That's how you come to Christ. You come as you are. And then he does the cleaning up and the straightening out and the fixing up and he does it so much better than we could do on our own. Come to Jesus. And they came into the ark. Just them, though, only Noah and his family were saved. Look at verse seven. And Noah went in and his sons and his wife and his son's wives with him into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Verse twenty three. And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle and creeping things in the foul of the heaven. And they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah only remained alive. And they that were with him in the ark. I think the Bible says very clearly was only him in first Peter three twenty. It says there were eight souls saved by water, eight people, no more. That's all. How could it have been a local flood? He said, well, there's only a few people on the earth at that time was just getting started. Oh, no. Some people have estimated that if the people who lived that we know about in the Bible lived, you know, they live hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of years. And if you just sort of trace the situations there, if they only produced offspring every 80 years, that's a long time between pregnancies, ladies. Right. Every 80 years. But you forget how to do it. And then there could have easily been a billion people on the earth at that time. Probably we're talking about an extensive civilization, a very high civilization, multitudes of people, and because of the climatic conditions and the long life involved, a lack of sickness and and a long time before people died, a lot of things happening. Very positive in terms of large population. And yet out of all of those thousands, perhaps millions, perhaps even a billion people, only eight are saved. That certainly does point to a worldwide flood, doesn't it? Secondly, the animals had to be saved. Look at verse two of every clean beast that shall take to thee by sevens, male and female and beasts that are not clean by to the male and female and so on down. Verse three, verse eight, verse nine, speak about all these animals. Thousands and thousands of animals, seven of the clean, two of the unclean, why they need seven, apparently three pairs, just like the three pairs of human beings that were being saved, and then one odd one for the sacrifice. That Noah offered after he landed the ark, as we see in chapter eight. You say, well, how can he get all those animals in the ark? That must have been some job catching all those animals. He must have been better than the circus, you know, go out there and catch all those animals and bring them in somehow. No, it says that God brought them in. God brought them to the ark. They migrated there according to God's direction, he made them, he knows how to guide them and direct them. He does that every day and all the wonderful migration abilities that animals have. And so they migrated there to the ark and they went in. But couldn't the animals have survived if it was only a local flood? Why such a large boat, if only local animals needed saving, that boat was big enough, as we looked at last time, to save all the animals around Earth at that time. That is two in seven of each kind. And so the animals that had to be saved again and the largeness of that are point to not just a local little flood, but a very serious and worldwide flood. Now we see even a stronger evidence in verse four for yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights and every living substance that I have made while I destroy from off the face of the earth. Now, that would be enough right there, wouldn't it? Every living substance that I have made while I destroy from off the face of the earth, that word destroy is very interesting in the Hebrew, it's Mako. It literally means to blot out or erase. In Isaiah 44, verse 22, it speaks out of the blotting out of the transgressions of those who believe in Christ, those who believe in the Lord. In Second Kings 21, verse 13, God says in his judgment on the city of Jerusalem, he will wipe them out as a person wipes out a bowl. Just like washing a dish, he's going to have it sparkling clean like it had been through the dishwasher, as we might say today, absolutely blotted out and erased. He says, I'm going to erase all the living substances off of the earth, off of the whole planet. You know, God has to get rid of sin somehow. He has to deal with sin somehow. He must blot out and erase sin some way. And either it is washed away by the blood as it was with Noah and his sacrifice is looking forward to Christ giving his blood on the cross. Either it was the blood or it was the flood that washed away those sins one way or another. And those people who clung to their sins and refused the gospel that Noah preached God into in washing their sins away from the earth had to wash them away with it down into hell forever. And cleansing will come to this earth. God is not going to have a dirty earth covered with sin. He either cleanses it by cleansing our hearts of the sin, removing it from us so that we can go to heaven to be with him and dwell on this earth later on after he cleanses the earth, or in order to cleanse the earth, he has to carry off those who cling to their sins because he cannot abide sin. He must cleanse it some way or other, and either he blots out the sin in our hearts by the blood of Christ or he has to blot us out. And the Bible uses that same word, Mokko, in the Hebrew of the blotting out from the book of life. Is your name in that book? Is your name in the book of life, it can only be there when written in the blood of Christ. And the question today is, am I going to accept Jesus Christ's substitute for my sin, shedding his blood for me, or am I going to cling to my sins and then force God to destroy me in hell forever? We're all sinners. We all deserve help. We all are deserving of punishment. If you and I lived before the flood, would we have been in the ark? You know, I deserve to be washed away with that flood as much as every one of those people who were. And so do you. We shouldn't get ourselves all high and mighty and think, well, I would have been in the ark, would we? Well, we believed in Christ and that's our ark and we would have been in the ark that way, wouldn't we? But we deserve to be outside knocking on the door. And so we see that all living things were destroyed from the off the face of the earth in the flood that can only be a worldwide flood, all living things and animals and birds and insects migrate everywhere, they go everywhere in order to get every one of them, you'd have to bring water all over the earth. They still don't know how certain animals have gotten to offshore islands, thousands of miles away and to Australia and other things. But somehow they get there would have taken a worldwide flood. To deal with all those things. And then we see in verse twenty one, and all flesh died, all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of the fowl and the cattle and the beast and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man. Now, how could God say it any better? How could you say it any better than that if you're trying to tell about a worldwide flood? Every bug, every creeping thing was removed from the earth. Verse twenty two. And in whose nostrils was the breath of life of all that was in the dry land, died everything, everything that breathes air and that needs air to survive was breathing water and did not survive in the flood. Verse twenty three. And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle and creeping things in the fall of the heaven. And they were destroyed from the earth and only Noah remained alive. And they that were with him in the ark, everything that was not in the ark was destroyed. Fourthly, we see the deeps were broken up and the windows of heaven were open in verses 10 through 12. And he came to pass to after seven days that the waters of the flood were upon the earth in the six hundredth year of Noah's life. In the second month, in the same the 17th day of the month, the same day where all the fountain even gives the day. Isn't that interesting? You know that in many, many cultures around the world, November has some kind of day of the dead kind of significance and and days are set apart all around the world in various cultures. You know, if there's a worldwide flood, you'd expect it to be remembered in the cultures of many peoples around the world. And, you know, that's true. Surveys have been done that all the major cultures around the world and even when they go into new areas and jungles in South America and Irian Jaya and wherever they go around the world, they find there is some kind of a legend about long ago there was a great flood and only certain people were saved in some kind of a boat. Usually those stories are very twisted from what the Bible account originally tells us. But there's some kind of a remembrance of the past and of a great death that came upon the earth. And it centers around this month of November, which seems to be the month indicated here. God isn't just talking in generalities. He's talking about specifics and he's willing to even put down the date. Isn't that interesting? But anyway, as we look here, we see what happened. It says the same day with all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights. You say, wait a minute, in order to have a flood that covers the whole earth, you've got to have a lot of water. Takes a lot of water. I mean, it takes a lot of water just to fill up my bathtub. Look at that water bill. And you see all the water that it takes just to run a household and imagine the water it would have taken to cover the whole earth. Where would it come from? The Bible tells us exactly where it came from. It came from below and it came from above. It says the deeps were broken up to see what this Hebrew word to whom means. Look at Genesis chapter one and verse two. And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. We have a watery deep here that probably includes the oceans and the subterranean waters. There's a lot of water under the ground and most places in the world you dig down even today, dig down deep enough in most places you'll find water somewhere even in the desert. It's amazing. Apparently there was a great storehouse of water under the crust of the earth, as well as very deep oceans. And God apparently lifted up the oceans and also broke open these storehouses of water and blasted this stuff up onto the surface of the earth to flood it. But not only did the water come up from below. And by the way, that word broken up is a very violent word, the word broken, the deep broken up is a word that means to tear or to rip up, and it's usually used in the Bible of ripping somebody up with a sword. I won't even go into all the details, but it's a very violent word and it speaks of a cataclysmic tearing of the earth's crust. Again, I'm not a scientist, but I'd like to read to you from a scientist, Dr. Morris has a doctorate in this area of of water and hydraulics and that kind of thing. And he writes this, the Bible specifically attributes the flood to the bursting of the fountains of the great deep and the pouring down of torrential rains from heaven. These two phenomena are sufficient in themselves to explain the flood and all its effects without the necessity of resorting either supernatural creative miracles or to the providentially ordered extraterrestrial interferences of speculative nature. The breaking up or literally the cleaving open of the fountains of the great deep is mentioned first and so evidently was the initial action which triggered the rest. These conduits somehow all developed under uncontrollable fractures on the same day for such a remarkable worldwide phenomenon. There must have been a worldwide cause. The most likely cause would seem to have been a rapid buildup and surge of intense pressure throughout the underground system. And this, in turn, would presumably require a rapid rise in temperature throughout that system. Too little is known even today about the nature of the Earth's deep interior and its thermal activity to decide exactly what might have triggered such a temperature rise. Nuclear reactions involving heavy elements, a slow buildup of temperature against some sort of insulating layer in the deeper crust, followed by a sudden fracture of the layer when the pressures and temperatures became too great, various combinations of seismic and volcanic activity, many possibilities might be conjectured. In any case, there is surely abundant evidence in the Earth's crust, especially in its crystalline basement complex of intense igneous, metamorphic and tectonic activity in the past. Just the sort of evidence one might expect to find if such a sequence of events as outlined above had actually taken place. It is also possible that some of these phenomena could have been miraculous in the sense of providential ordering of times and circumstances. Once the postulated pressure rise caused the first fountain to crack open, the pressurized fluid would surge through at this point and further weaken nearby boundaries until such a worldwide chain reaction would develop, cleaving open all the fountains of the great deep throughout the world. The volcanic explosions and eruptions which would have accompanied these fractures, fractures would have poured great quantities of magma up from the Earth's mantle along with the waters. Furthermore, immense quantities of volcanic dust would have been blown skyward along with gigantic sprays of water and turbulent surges of the atmosphere. The combination of atmospheric turbulence, expanding and cooling gases and a vast supply of dust and other particles to serve as nuclei of condensation would suffice to penetrate the upper canopy of water vapor and trigger another chain reaction there, causing its waters to begin to condense and coalesce and soon to start moving earthward as a torrential global downpour of rain. Well, you can read more about that from Mars another time if you'd like. But isn't that interesting? Waters from the deep then causing this vapor canopy around the world called the firmament to collapse the waters above. You notice here the windows of heaven were opened. There's a whole book by a fellow by the name of Dillow who has written it called The Waters Above and deals with this whole thermal vapor canopy around the world. But this thermal blanket apparently all of a sudden came down that it protected the earth. Some scientists believe that's why people live so much longer before the flood was because this vapor canopy protected from many of the rays and from outer space that tend to speed up the aging process. I don't know that means if you live in a greenhouse, you live longer or what. But certainly the world was like a greenhouse with semi-tropical temperatures all over the earth. That's why they find semi-tropical plants and animals. Fossils of them on the North Pole and the mountaintops and all kinds of other places. And so we see here the deep broken up. The waters above coming down in Job 12, 15. It speaks of he sent them out and they overturned the earth, speaking here of how the world probably even tilted on its axis by this tremendous activity taking place all over the world. In 2 Peter 3, 6, it speaks of the world overflowed with water. Water can be very heavy. I always get nervous. We were down at the aquarium in Baltimore and seeing these huge water tanks up in that building. Makes me nervous when I think about it because water can be very heavy and very violent and there's hardly anything that can stand in the way of a tidal wave or something of that sort. You can imagine the water and all of this. That's probably where the Grand Canyon came from as well as other great geologic evidences around the world of a great cataclysm. So we see the source of all this water now, if all of that's happening, does that sound like a local flood? No, it sounds very much like the water was there, wasn't it? In order to bring about this worldwide flood. As I was thinking about this, God always suits the punishment to the crime. And just as the angels had left their appointed place and it mixed with humans on the earth. So the firmament or the vapor canopy left its appointed place and mixed with the waters of the earth to produce the hydraulic cataclysm we call the flood. God says, OK, you want to mix that up in the spiritual realm, then you're going to have a mix up in the material realm as well. And he mixed all of that together and produced the flood. Imagine if our soul did prosper or rather our body did prosper as our soul did. As is written the New Testament to one man of God, he said that your hope, your health will prosper as your as your soul does. What if our physical health and our circumstances were directly parallel to our spiritual life and vitality? But this is what God did in judgment here as a warning to us. Fifthly, we see the 40 days of rain, 150 days of the flood, a total flood of 371 days before it all finished. But that much time with the waters prevailed. In verse 12, the rain was upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights. That was the rain that came, but the water was there a lot longer. Verse 24, and the waters prevailed upon the earth 150 days. In other words, it covered it all up for 150 days. And then it was even longer than that, almost a year before the waters finally went down so that they could leave the ark. Imagine spending over a year in that ark with all those animals and all of that. This was a worldwide flood. It was no ordinary local flood. I remember hearing a story about a man in Pennsylvania who had been there, and I think it was a flood of 49. Tremendous flood up in Pennsylvania. And he loved to tell about it and loved to tell about the flood of 49. And the story goes that he died and he went to heaven and they were asking if there's anything he'd like after he'd gotten in. He said, well, I'd like to get a group together and tell him about the flood of 49. They said, well, we could probably arrange that. But you realize that Noah will be there. And you know, this was not a local flood. As big as Hurricane Agnes was coming down through the state park here and tearing all that up, that was nothing compared to the tremendous destruction that took place all around the world in this worldwide flood. Then we see sixthly in verses 19 and 20 that all the mountains were covered. How high did the water go? Was it just a little skim of water over the earth? No, it covered the mountains. Verses 19 and 20. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail and the mountains were covered. The ark is about 30 cubits high and is about half this probably where it's set in the water. What he's saying is that even above the highest mountains, you could still float that ark. There was even that much water above the highest mountains because he said, you know, we float around, we never ran into anything until the water started to come down. Now, Mount Ararat, where the ark rested, is 17000 feet in height. That is a lot of water. That's got to be a worldwide flood. The waters prevailed. The word prevailed is Govara in Hebrew means the overpower. It's used in Exodus 1711 and in many other cases in the Old Testament of battle and how the Israelites prevailed against the Assyrians or whatever it was. It speaks of a of a battle that God was bringing destruction upon this earth and battling with mankind who had risen up in pride and said, we don't need you, God. We don't need you. We can live our own lives. We can live our own way. We don't want your laws. We don't want your salvation. We don't want your ways. We're going to live our own way. We're going to build our own civilization. And God said, oh, no, you won't. All it takes is to remove the air for you to breathe and you're finished. Isn't that true with any of us? All we have to do is stop breathing and all of our plans, all of our goals, all of our possessions, all of our desires are finished. And we face God as in those days, all the mountains covered, all, all, all. Now, if it's all the mountains, that does sound like all the earth, doesn't it? Overwhelmed. It says the mountains were covered. The word covered is Kasha in the Hebrew, overwhelmed, washed away, destroyed, carried about in Psalm 104, verses five to nine. Speaking of the flood, it says the water stood above the mountains, a worldwide flood. And either there was a worldwide flood or the Bible isn't true because the Bible says in every possible way that it was a worldwide flood. Now, the very fact that the ark was provided speaks that it was not a local flood because Noah had 100 years to build that ark. He could have traveled a long ways in 100 years if it was just a local flood. God could have sent him somewhere where there wouldn't be a flood. That's what God did with Lot when he was going to destroy locally Sodom and Gomorrah. He got them out and then he brought the judgment. But with Noah, he had to get him up to avoid the judgment because it was coming over the whole earth. There was no place he could go to avoid it. A worldwide flood. And what about the covenant that God made in chapter eight with the rainbow? He said he would no more destroy the earth for the flood if that was a local flood. What does that mean? There have been plenty of local floods since then. If God was saying, I'm not going to have another local flood, that's meaningless. In fact, it makes God a liar because there have been plenty of local floods. What God promised was there would never be another cataclysmic worldwide flood, as in the Genesis account. And the other thing is, if there was not a worldwide flood, then Jesus is a liar in Luke 17, 27, because he said the flood came and destroyed them all. All destroyed them all, speaking of the people who are married, given a marriage and living before the time of the flood. Now, turn back with me again to second Peter three. As we try to draw this to an application in our own lives. Second Peter, chapter three, verses one to 18, second Peter, chapter three. Now, we've already read and commented on those first seven verses. Let's look, starting with verse eight, at the message that this has for us. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing. Those people are willingly ignorant, he says. Now, don't you be ignorant at all? One thing that one day is with the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. Judgment is coming because it hasn't come in yet, come yet doesn't mean it's not coming. It will come. You can be sure you can be sure there is hell fire. You can be sure there is going to be a tribulation. You can be sure that the earth will someday be consumed with fire. You can be sure of it. You say it hasn't happened yet. It doesn't even seem like it's going to happen. I don't see any evidence of it happening. It is sure because it is God's word. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises. Some men count slackness. He doesn't promise and then forget about it. But as long suffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He does not want anyone in hell. He doesn't want you in hell. He doesn't want anybody to go to hell and burn and suffer for their own sins. That's why he provided an arc of safety in Jesus Christ, that if we believe in him, we would have eternal life. And we die or he comes, we go to heaven with him. He wants all to come to repentance and we should, too. But verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. He says next time won't be with water, I promise that in the rainbows there, but I didn't say anything about fire. And if you think God's judgment is over with and that was just Old Testament stuff, you ain't seen nothing yet. The fire that will come will melt everything. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, we don't look for that. We don't look for the melting, burning, destroying fires of judgment of God. We look for a new heaven, new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And because it righteousness dwells there, it will be the eternity of heaven and earth. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, do you you're looking for such things? You're looking for that new heaven and new earth. Adorned as a bride, prepared for a husband coming down out of heaven from God, as spoken of in Revelation. Chapter 21, new heavens and a new earth where there is no need for the sun by day and moon by night, because Jesus himself is a light of it. Where we will dwell without sin and love and perfection forever. He says, seeing you look for such things, be diligent, be diligent, work at it, that you may be found up here in peace. Without spotting blameless, he says, start getting along with each other. So I can't stand that person. I know he's a Christian, but I can't stand him. But you may have to live next door in heaven. God may just put you in the same mansion together, you know, just to get things worked out. You say, well, then he'll be different. Well, God wants him to be different now and wants you to be different towards him now and wants us to grow in our love for each other. He says, live in peace, live in peace. As much as lies within you, live at peace with each other. We're talking in our prayer time this morning in Sunday school about one of the greatest things that hinders people from hearing God's word is bitterness towards other Christians. Bitterness towards a preacher, bitterness towards a teacher, bitterness towards a husband or wife or children or parents or towards some other believer. Bitterness in our hearts, a lack of peace between believers hinders God's work in our hearts. And he says he's coming. Let him find you in peace without spot. You say it's not a big sin, it's just a little spot. But it's not a big soil. It's not anything anybody else could see. It's not out there in the open. It's just back here somewhere. I've got a little spot. And if I keep it covered up, it won't be any problem. But God says I can see that spot. If you have a spot of sin in your life, if you have something in your life that you're holding on to and not allowing his blood to cleanse, he says you get it cleaned up because I'm coming. I'm going to judge the world for that spot and blameless. Blameless means no open charges against you. You've cleared things up with other people. If you've wronged them, you've gone to them and you've asked for their forgiveness and you have a clear conscience and account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation. Even as our beloved brother, Paul, also, according to the wisdom given unto him, it's written unto you as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of those of these things in which are some things hard to be understood, which they are unlearned and stable rest as they do also the other scriptures under their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, seeing you see, he'd work things out. I think that's a good example right there. This Paul was the one who withstood him to the face in Galatians and told him he was wrong and it was to be blamed and straighten him out in public. And it later on, Peter writes and he says, my beloved brother, Paul, he worked things out. He was a good example of peace, wasn't he? He therefore, beloved, seeing, you know, these things now, you know, beware, lest you also like those people before the flood being led away from the with the error of the wicked fall from your own stead. Fastness, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him be glory both now and evermore. He says, get to know Jesus, get to know him better. So often, even in our Christianity, Jesus is the forgotten person in our Christian lives. What a wonderful thing it is to read the Gospels and to see, well, how did Jesus handle that? What did he do in that situation? How did he speak to this person? How did he deal with that kind of a person, that kind of a situation and just say, well, that's what I need to be. Because the goal of my Christian life is to be like Jesus, be like him, be like him. And as we are like him, we will draw others to him and they will come into the arc of safety and they will be saved. And there's going to be many more than eight in the arc of safety when Jesus comes again. Are you going to be there for Noah? It was the blood and safety and salvation for the other people. It was the flood and destruction and the judgment of God. What will it be for you? The blood or the fire, salvation or judgment? Let's bow in prayer. Heavenly Father, we believe you've been working in the hearts of some here today who have become hardened like those people before the flood, just sort of thinking that things could go on and on the way they were. The Lord, you've been working by your Holy Spirit and convicting some hearts today. And there's a struggle going on in a battle. Lord, I just pray that you would work in the hearts of some here today, that they would yield to you for salvation. First of all, let you save them and stop any other method of their own thinking of their own ways to be saved and come to you and allow you to save them. No, Lord, I pray for believers here today who have gone cold, who have gotten backslidden, who have allowed sin to spot their lives, who have not been living at peace with the brethren, but have been living as if things could go on and on and could be taken care of sometime later. Lord, I just pray that you would bring conviction of sin, of righteousness and of judgment upon each one according to your will, that your work would be done in each life. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen. Well, I guess I don't need any introduction. Dan said, just go ahead. I guess you all know who I am. And I want to thank the church for your support. Grace Mission and the pastor, Bill Franck and Pal Mistoven and that work. And I've given Dan a videotape of that work and so presently probably to be showing it to you. And I appreciate the men from this church that have gone down to Haiti and another group, I understand, is going down in the middle of May and that's good. Then I got to thinking about all the fine looking young men and older men that there are here in the church who are prominently serving the Lord in so many areas. And then I got to thinking, why is it that we have so many fine looking men, younger and older men that are able to serve the Lord so efficiently? And I thought, well, it's because of their wives. And I believe that's the main reason that the men can go to Haiti. You let a man go to Haiti for a week or two and leave his wife back home and she doesn't know whether, you know, he's coming back alive or what's going to happen to him. And yet she's willing for him to go. And you wives that support your husbands and teaching in school and serving here in the church and going over to the airport, out in visitation and everything else. And I appreciate my daughter-in-law for her willingness to back up her husband and our son. We praise the Lord for her family. So that was all free. We'll charge you for that. It's about a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you tonight for the way you're blessing in this church. Thank you for the open doors you've given in visitation and on the radio and other areas. May your hand of blessing continue to rest here. We thank you and praise you for the protection that you are giving to the leadership and to these people who love you. Now bless the word. May the Holy Spirit speak to us tonight. May Jesus be lifted up in Jesus name. Amen. May we open our Bibles to the book of Joshua, chapter five, verse 13. Joshua, chapter five and verse 13. For the background of this verse, of these three verses that I'm going to read, you have to go back to the third chapter of Joshua. And God had said to Joshua, you are to take Moses' place and to lead the nation of Israel into the promised land. That was a big job. And I'm sure he was nervous and frightened. But God said in chapter three, verse seven, the Lord said to Joshua, as they started over the Jordan River, this day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel. Now, he is going to magnify Joshua, but I want you to see what that means. Also, he told him over in chapter four, verse 13, that there were 40,000 prepared for war to go with him. Again, on verse 14, on that day, the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel. So Joshua knew that he had taken the place of Moses and he had a responsibility, not only for the soldiers, but maybe for two million people. No longer was man appalling. The food had to be provided, security for his people, to conquer the land, a big job. He might have said, well, who is sufficient for this? Notice in chapter five, verse 13, it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, he was looking the situation over. He lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man over against him, I believe the Lord Jesus, and with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said to him, are you for us or for our adversaries? Well, that's what they said to Abraham Lincoln, you know, during the Civil War, which side has God on? And so that's what the question is here. Are you for me or are you for our adversaries? And look at the answer. The Lord said, no, I'm neither for you nor for them. In other words, he's telling Joshua, I am not going to take your part. I am not going to exalt you. Look how Moses failed. Sure, he did some wonderful things, but Moses failed. And you will fail. And I'm not going to take your part. No way. But I will take your place. Now, that's exactly what the Lord wants to do with us in order that we might serve him. You know how we got saved. You know, the Lord did 90 percent and we did 10 percent. We did our very best and he did what we couldn't do. That right. For by grace, are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves? It is the gift of God. Why does it have to be all of the Lord? Ephesians chapter two, verse one tells us we are what? Dead in trespasses and sins. Colossians 2, 6 says, as you received the Lord Jesus Christ, so walk ye in him. He said in John 15, 5, without me, you can do what? Nothing. And so that's what he's telling Joshua. Joshua, I am not going to take your part, but I am willing to take your place. I am willing to occupy your life. I am willing to take control of your body. I am willing to take control of your attitudes. I am willing to control you that you will be in my place, doing my work, serving me. Now, that's exactly the way Paul lived. Saul, the the persecutor, was on his way to Damascus, a brilliant man, well educated, well trained. And yet unuseful to the Lord, though he thought he was serving God. And so God struck him down and then he was blind and he came to the place where he was willing to say, for to me to live is Christ. He said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. He said, I am only able to reproduce and produce for God as he controls my life. And that is what happened to Joshua. That is what happened to Paul. And the Lord Jesus Christ, as a man, lived that way, too. He said, I do always those things that please him. When he had to find 12 disciples, he might have said, I have innate knowledge, I have the keenest mind, I have the greatest ability. No, he didn't do that. He was a subjection to his father that the Holy Spirit might control him because he was controlled and led and filled by the Holy Spirit. And he spent all night in prayer, seeking the mind of the father, because according to Philippians chapter two, we're told that we must be willing to have the same mind as the Lord Jesus Christ, though he was God in the flesh. And yet he was willing to submit himself to his father and follow his will and his way and walk in his mind each day. And that's exactly what the Lord wants to do with us. In other words, our life as a missionary or our life as a Christian is only the overflow of the life of Christ in us. He wants to take control of our life. We must be willing to let him have absolute control. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Thou art the potter. I am the clay. And as we receive the Lord, so walk ye in him. A man one time had a thousand acres. That's possible because I know of a Mr. Lyon down in Port Ritchie, Florida, that has about a thousand acres of land. And he is giving that land all away. Baraka Mission is going down and establishing a home. Word of Life has been given quite a few acres of land to set up a camp in that area. This man had a thousand acres and he said, I'm going to give it all away for Christian work, except I want one acre for myself. And this Mr. Lyon I know has reserved two or three acres for himself. But this man who had the thousand acres said, I'm going to, I want the acre that I want, acre is right in the center of that thousand acres. And then I want to write a way into that one acre. Well, that would disrupt the whole plan if a man was planning to set up the development or whatever he might be wanting to build in that place. And I think sometimes as Christians, that's what we do. We say, Lord, I'm yours. Everything I have, my family, my possessions and everything, except one thing, just one thing. And I want to write a way to that. And I'm going to hold on to that. The Lord Jesus Christ and Paul, the apostle said, everything is yours. My life, my possessions, my family, everything. In fact, the Lord Jesus said, unless you hate your father and your mother, your wife and your sister and your family, you cannot be my disciple. Now, he just meant he must be first. He must have the priority in our life. He must control our life. And then the Christian life is just the overflow of the presence of the Lord Jesus within us. But our old self does give us problems. So God permits difficulties, testings and trials in order that the channel of the life of Christ might become deeper. You that have suffered, you that have gone through some hard, difficult experiences and have yielded up your experience, yielded up your difficulty, yielded up your financial difficulty to the Lord Jesus. He has taken over in that area of your life and in through that experience has reproduced himself. And others have seen the Lord Jesus living in you. That's why God says all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. What's his purpose? Verse 29, that the Lord Jesus Christ might be magnified in us, that he might be seen in us, that Christ might be exalted in our life. God is forming Christ in us. That's his purpose in working in our life. Jesus said, search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. Some folks can quote a lot of verses. I'm glad you're learning scripture, but it's not enough just to learn scripture, not enough just to put it up here in your head. The scriptures point to the Lord Jesus. The scriptures exalt the Lord Jesus. Unless Jesus Christ is magnified in your life, the scripture is not going to do you any benefit or any good or anyone else. But as the word of God is lived out in your life, then Jesus Christ is magnified. All through scripture he's spoken of as the bread of life. We're told that this word is the very person of the Lord Jesus because in the beginning was the word. The word is with God and the word was God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And I have in my hands the living word of God because this is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It pulsates with life. It pulsates with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we read the word and let it become a part of our life, Christ is magnified through us. And we find that our life is profitable, our life is fulfilled and God is working out his purpose within us. Look in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 13. A verse of scripture that has become very precious to me. All of us know Philippians 4.13. I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. Or Philippians 4.19. My God shall supply all you need according to his riches in glory. What about Philippians 2.13? Philippians 2.13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. He created you physically. And if you're born again, he has created you spiritually for himself. And it's been the joy of my heart and my wife these past four years to believe this verse of scripture. You know, we felt very much at loss after leaving the pastorate and being in the ministry for 40 years. Getting involved in a work that we really didn't know very much about. And we found out as we got involved in Christian work that it's quite different even being a missionary than it is being a pastor. Being a pastor, well, you don't have absolute control, but you can control a lot of areas of the church. And you do have quite a bit of control, but when you become a missionary, you don't have very much control. You really have to submit to the Lord and everything and have to recognize that it's God who is working out his purpose and his will. We came across a little expression here that kind of summarizes what it means to be a missionary or in service of the Lord. And maybe it works in other areas of life as well. We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We've done so much for so long with so little. We're now qualified to do anything with nothing. That sort of summarizes serving the Lord. But I would add that with Christ all things are possible. And with him, he is working out his purpose and his will. That's the joy I've found, and I think Mel and others have too, in going to Haiti. Things do not function the same as they do in the States. And those who come down to Haiti thinking that they should, they become very frustrated. But the delight in working in Haiti these many times, and Mel and others have you been down many times, it's working with us and my wife and I going down and teaching in September, is that in spite of us the work gets done. In spite of us, the Lord is magnified. The ministries in these areas are growing. And you just have to sit back, you do the best you can in planning and working and moving and deciding and so forth. But the final decisions are the Lord's decisions. The final ministry is the Lord's. The work that is accomplished, you have to sit back and say the Lord has done this. The Lord is magnified. It's just a wonderful experience to be involved in what the Lord's doing, and then let Him be the one that is exalted. Because you have to say that as you observe what's being done. Well, it certainly wasn't me. The Lord did it. Praise the Lord. If you turn with me to the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 18. I may have mentioned this before, but you weren't all here at that time. And it fits into what we're talking about tonight. How can we permit the Lord Jesus to take control of our life? How does the Holy Spirit control us so that Christ can be magnified? You know, the longer I live, and probably you've experienced this too, you feel like Paul when you try to serve the Lord in any area. He said, the good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that I do. And Paul kept saying through Romans 7, no matter how well I plan it, it's a mess when it works out my way. But the Lord, when He works it out, it's fine. But just things don't work out quite right when I seem to be having my way. And finally he cried out and he said, Oh miserable man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? How is there going to be any help in this experience? And then he turns to Romans 8. And he says there's therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Praise the Lord for that. Then he says, they who walk after the Spirit fulfill don't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. They that are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. The Holy Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God. The Holy Spirit through us does the work. The Holy Spirit exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like faith. Faith is a gift. If we're dead in trespasses and sins, how can you believe? Ephesians 2.8, God gives you the faith to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have found that knowing promises is a great benefit, and I know many promises to claim. But you have a big financial need, for example, and you say to yourself, my God shall supply all my need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. And you can still be nervous and kind of upset. That's what somebody said, money kept them from being nervous. But as you walk with the Lord, as you let the Word of God saturate your mind in life and believe it, and yield to the Holy Spirit in every area of your life that you know, the Holy Spirit just begins to move in you because the fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. And the Holy Spirit just in a normal, natural way. My wife has always found it easy, I felt anyway, to believe the Lord. And I remember one time we bought a new Oldsmobile a few years ago, and we're on our way up to Rhode Island to a class reunion, and I'm coming to the George Washington Bridge, and my car has a knock in it. And I said, honey, I think there's a a rod or something's broken in the motor. And I stopped and I pulled over the side and stopped the motor. I looked around for a garage, and I said, I hate to go to these garages near the George Washington Bridge, but I'm going to have to. She said, we're going to pray for the Lord to fix the motor. I said, honey, you expect the Lord to get down inside of you? Do you know where cylinders are? You know where rods are? How is he going to do that? She said, I don't know, but he can do anything. But I said, well, maybe he can, but I don't know how he's going to fix this motor. She says, well, I'm going to pray. So she prayed for the Lord to fix the motor, and I thought, how in the world is the Lord going to fix the motor? And then she said, now you start the car and go. It'll be all right. I started the car, and it sounded all right. And I said, well, I think I ought to go to this garage over here and have them check it out. She says, it's fixed. What do you want to do a garage for? But I haven't always, and it never did it again, and it did run. Kept that car for a few years. Now some people explain it with certain things and that. I don't know what it was. But anyway, the Lord took care of it. But with me, it hasn't been that easy. But I have found that as I have been yielding to the Lord and believing that God is working out His purpose and His will and accepting His will in every instant that I can, there's just my faith has increased supernaturally. And I find it easy to trust the Lord to go to Haiti, to supply the money that we need every time we need to go. To take care of anything. And it's not natural to me. That's what I'm talking about. How does this come? Look in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess. Now, you know what happens when you take alcohol, I hope not from experience, but from observation and from reading. The alcohol goes into your bloodstream immediately. And it saturates your mind and all of your body right through you because your blood circulating everywhere and you are saturated with alcohol. Now he says in the same way, verse 18, be filled or be saturated with the spirit. You see, you don't hold that one acre. You yield up the whole thousand acres. You say, Lord, my family, my future, my job, my wife, everything's yours, everything. And I'll do your will. Just tell me what it is. I'm yours. 100%. No, I don't, I don't hold anything back. Everything. Everything's yours. Now he says if we're willing to yield to the Holy Spirit and you have the Holy Spirit of Christ, if you don't, Romans 8, 9, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he's none of his. You have the Holy Spirit if you're a Christian. Just let him have his way. What will happen? Well, he says in verse 8, 19, you'll be singing and humming hymns and spiritual songs and making melody in your heart to the Lord. You know, that'd be kind of nice around the house to have you humming and sing instead of grumbling and groaning. And then in verse 20, you give thanks. And if you're not very thankful, come on down to Haiti. When you get back, when you turn on the faucet, you'll praise the Lord. When you have, when you can sit down to a meal without beans and rice, you'll praise the Lord. And then don't have to eat goat meat. You'll praise the Lord. You know, you'll find a lot of things to thank the Lord for. And then in verse 21, you won't be go around, you know, pounding the desk and saying your wife has to submit. You'll submit too, because it says submitting one to another. You each submit. Then the wife will not have a problem submitting to her husband, verse 22. And also the husband, according to this passage, will love his wife as Christ loves the church. The children in verse six will obey their parents. They'll honor their father and their mother. And verse four, the father will not be provoking his children. Who does all that? Is that by training? Is that by willpower? It's by the Holy Spirit as he takes over in your life. It's great to live this kind of a life. You don't need tranquilizers to go to sleep. You don't need pep pills to get you going in the morning. It's a delightful life just to let him have his way. If more Christians would just believe this. Now, how is this done? Turn with the Colossians chapter three and verse 16. Now, this is a parallel passage of scripture. You'll find that if you will do this, you get the same results. Verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell or live in you richly. If you do, what will happen? Same thing. You'll sing psalms and songs. Verse 17. You'll be thankful. Verse 18, wives will submit. Verse 19, a husband loves his wife, not bitter against her. Verse 20, the children obey their parents. Verse 21, servants fathers do not provoke their children and servants, you're obedient to your masters. Same results. So as I see this, as we study the word of God, and you'll find this true, the more often you attend Sunday morning, Sunday evening and prayer meeting and Bible studies and listen to the word of God on the radio and on TV and spend time in the word of God yourself and believe it and let it permeate down from your head down into your life and be obedient to the word of God in that proportion, the Holy Spirit takes over in your life and you are singing and rejoicing, you are thankful and you are producing love and joy and peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control, and you're not doing a blessed thing. The Lord's doing it all. And then you just find it easy to go over to the airport, to go house-to-house visitation, to read the scriptures, to be nice to your wife or husband, to be friendly, to go out and help your neighbors and friends because it's just the Holy Spirit's promptings and guidance and it's just as normal to you because the Lord knows all your personality. He knows your background all the way back to Adam and he knows what you would make you happy, what you would be delightful in doing, and as the psalmist said, delight thyself in the Lord and he gives you the desires of your heart. And you get so that when you say to yourself, my, wouldn't I like to go to Israel? Where do you think that idea came from? The Lord probably, and he wants you to go. He'll work it out for you. Or he'll put another desire in your heart. Maybe you think you ought to have a new car because the tires are getting thin. You know, you just never know how the Lord will impress you. And as he impresses these things upon you, it's because you are walking with him and he wants you to live this way. He may want you to give to missions. He may want you to give and not have so many gadgets around the house that you don't need. But your life is profitable. And who is magnified? Who is glorified? Then when people come around and you do something for them, they say to you, you know, you're a nice fella. You'll say, really? I'm not. You want to ask my wife sometimes. I'm really not. But you know, and if you go on saying to people, yes, I'm pretty good. You know, I'm kind. I'm nice. You discourage them. They'll say, I can't be that way. But if you say to them, the reason I'm kind and thoughtful and do the things I do is because of the Lord Jesus living in me. You encourage them because they'll say, well, if the Lord can help that poor wretch, maybe he can help me. Now, this is the way Paul lived. And Paul said in Philippians chapter 1, he said that Christ might be magnified in me. Another time he said that he might be magnified in me, whether it be by life or by death. Sometimes I've heard people say to me as a Christian, you know, I'm really afraid to die. I really, I'm not afraid to die as far as going where I'm going, but the process. The answer is you're not ready to die then yet. So don't worry because when you need to, when you're going to die, there'll be dying grace. Whenever you have to go anywhere or do anything, fly to Haiti, serve the Lord. If you have no grace to do it, you don't have to do it. So don't worry about it. If you ought to do it, God will give you grace to do it. And it's a delight. It's great to serve the Lord. So that's what I would encourage you to do. Just yield up to him. Let go and let the Lord take control. And he'll make you a blessing because missionary service is really just the overflow of the presence of Christ in you. Let him have his way. Praise the Lord for those to be baptized tonight. And they're showing to us exactly what it means to be a Christian. It means a willingness to die to self and let Jesus Christ relive his life over again through your personality because there's nobody just like you. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this church and ministry, for our son, the pastor, and his dear wife and children, for the elders, those who lead in this ministry, those who sacrificially serve you. And we know that there are many, many, many people here in this church that know and live as we've been speaking tonight. That's why there's such a blessing. We pray for any that may be here tonight that have not yet surrendered to you completely. And you have said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your body a living sacrifice. May they present their body to you right now at this moment. May they be unwilling to be conformed to this age, but may they be willing to be transformed by letting their minds be renewed, by studying the scriptures, listening to the Word, coming to every service where the Word is taught, that they may grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord. And then, Father, if there's anyone here tonight that has not yet received Jesus Christ as his or her Savior, may they pray right now and say, Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I thank you for dying on the cross for me. I now receive you as my Savior and my Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.