Praise the Lord for that. My salvation is secure in Him. Amen. All right. Let's turn our Bibles here tonight in the book of 2 Kings chapter 6. 2 Kings chapter 6. We're going to read verses 1 to 7 tonight. 2 Kings chapter 6 verses 1 to 7 this evening. 2 Kings 6 1-7. I've entitled this message, The Arise of the Axehead. The Arise of the Axehead. Here in our text tonight, we're gonna read about an axehead that swam in the water. An axehead that swam in the water. Anybody ever seen an axehead swim in the water before? I've never seen one. But the arise of the axehead here tonight, how many have ever lost something in the water? Maybe been fishing. I tell you what, there's a lot of things you can find on the bottom of a river or lake somewhere. I remember one time, man, some friends of mine went fishing. I was out on a boat years ago. I had a boat. And it was on a Saturday morning, I believe. We went out. We went fishing. And we was fishing on this point. And he had caught a fish. And he was reeling it in. And of course, both of us was all excited about it. And so he was reeling it in. And he was like, Brian, get the net. And so in the midst of everything that I was doing, he was reeling it in. And I went over here. And I threw the rod down. And I picked up the net. And I went over there. And we got the fish. And man, it was nice. And we threw it back. And so that was over. And I got to looking around. How many of you know what I did with my fishing pole? I threw it in the water. I threw it in the water and I had no, has anybody else ever done that before? No? Y'all better than I am. We was so excited, you've done something. We was so excited about what was going on, having such a good time. I just reached down and I picked up the net and we caught his, you know, got his fish. But in the process, I just threw my down thought, I threw it in the boat, but I didn't, I threw it out of the boat. And so you know what I did? I said, oh man, you got to be kidding me. Because I was like, man, I must have threw my pole in the water. I was like, you got to be joking. So you know what I did? I tried to fish it out. And so I had always brought two poles with me. So I threw my other pole out there, put a weight on it, and a hook on it. And I'm sitting here doing the best I can to maybe possibly I'll just snag it. Maybe possibly. And I threw out, threw out, and threw out. You know what? My efforts were futile. I never did get my rod back. I really could have used Elisha that day. Here tonight, we're gonna look at Elisha and something that he did. And as we look at this story, I want us to really try to get some things out of it here tonight. I'm gonna bring you some truths here this evening that maybe perhaps as we go through it, that'd be a blessing to you. As we begin here, there in verse one, the Bible says, 2 Kings chapter six, there in verse one, the Bible says, and the sons of the prophet said unto Elisha, behold now the place where we dwell with thee is too straight for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take, thence, every man a beam, and let us make us a place there where we may dwell.' And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. And he went with them, and when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe said, Fell into the water. And he cried and said, Alas, master, for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, where fell it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick and cast it in thither, and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, take it up to thee. And he put out his hand and took it. Interesting story that we see here tonight, something that we have never seen before and have never seen since, when the ax head did swim. As we think about this truth here tonight and look at what's going on, there's some things I want us to see here this evening, I think it'd be a blessing to you. We see there in the first few verses, we see the school of the prophets and the prophets are there In essence, to Elisha, they said, Elisha, we need some more room, it's too small for us. There in verse one, they said, it is too straight for us. In other words, it's too small, we ain't got enough room. And he says there in verse two, he says, let us go down to the Jordan. Let us go down there to Jordan and every man, we'll take a beam there, we'll cut down a tree and we'll make the lumber that we need and we'll get everything that we need to build us a place. And Bible shows us there in verse three that they even asked Elisha, they said, one said, I pray thee go with thy servants. And Elisha said, I will go. Before we get into our first truth tonight, as we've read what we've read, I want us to just to see some interesting things here. One of the things we see here as we see these men, and one of the things they had a desire to do was, was they had a desire to build them a place. They had a desire to build them a place for the future. There was a future dwelling place that they wanted. There was a future dwelling place that they desired that they thought would be better than where they are right now. And what happened was, as they were thinking about this future dwelling place, they said, well, let us work for it. And so they went down there to the Jordan and they started to work and they started to hack away and started to get all the lumber that they needed. And in the process of all of that, one of the axes broke and the axe head came off and it fell into the Jordan River. And as it fell into the Jordan River, of course the man said, well, he comes crying to Elisha and he says, Elisha, he said, the ax said fell into the water. He says, I borrowed it. In other words, it didn't belong to him. Now that it says it didn't belong to him and now that it's in the Jordan River, he now has a debt that he has to pay. And so what we see here is he came to Elisha and he said, Elisha, I need some help. So Elisha of course said, well, where is it? He says, where is it at? He said, it fell in right here. And so Elisha cut down a branch, he threw it in the Jordan and the ax had floated. Now I'm gonna give you the picture here and then we're gonna go through the text here tonight. What we see is a good picture of a man. that's thinking about his future place, but he wants to try to work for it to get there. How many of you know you can't work to get to heaven? How many of you know your good works ain't gonna make it? It don't matter what kind of good works you do, it don't matter how good you are, none of that's gonna get us to heaven. And so we see here a man, a picture of a man that's trying to do something good. He's thinking about a future dwelling place, and he goes down to the river, and he says, I'm gonna work, and I'm gonna work hard, and we're gonna build us a nice place, and this is where we're gonna dwell. And so we see a picture of a man that's thinking about his future dwelling place. But as he's working to get there, something happens along the way, and his efforts become vain. His efforts become futile because he realizes that this is something that he cannot do on his own, because his best efforts and his best work is gonna fail him. No matter how hard he works, no matter how hard he tries, his best efforts are gonna let him down. And so what we see is, is where, of course, did they go? They went down to the Jordan, did they not? And what does a Jordan represent in the scriptures? A Jordan represents what? Represents death. represents death to ourselves. And so they go down to the Jordan, the ax head falls into the Jordan. The ax head is a good picture of humanity, a good picture of man himself, a good picture of humanity. And where did humanity fall? It fell into sin, it fell into death. And as it fell into this place of death, there was only one way that it could come out. And what did Elijah do? The Bible says he cut down a branch, cut down a stick. How many of you know that the Old Testament talks about how, talks about in relation to Christ that Jesus is the righteous branch. And the righteous branch was thrown into what? Was thrown into death, cast into death. And the Lord Jesus, of course, died for us all. And when the Lord Jesus was cut down and cast into death and he died for us all, then what happened? He caused that which could not come to him. to come to him. Does that make sense? He caused that which was heavy, he caused that which was dark, he caused that which was impossible to float and come to the surface. Christ made a way for us to come out of that darkness, to come out of the depths and to come to him. So as we look here in our text tonight, let's break through it. Let's see what the word of God has for us this evening. Take a look there in verse three. The Bible says, and one said, be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered and said, I will go. And so he went with him there in verse four. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a bean, the ax said, fell into the water. And he cried and said, alas, master, for it was buried. And so there the first truth I want us to see is the place of death. So as here we see these men, they were working, they're doing what they can to cut down these trees, to build them a place, but in the process of that, we see that they come to this place of death. And there in verses four and five, we see that this man, he was felling a bean, and the ax said, a great picture of humanity itself. fell into the water. A good picture, this ax said, of being fallen humanity. Fallen humanity. This ax said was a good picture of fallen humanity, of course it fell into death. Now let's think about this now. The ax said, at one time, before it could be used for this purpose, it had to be what? It had to be shaped and formed, did it not? Another great picture of what humanity is is that God had a purpose for us and God formed us in his image. The Bible says in the book of Genesis that God shaped us and he formed us and he said, let us make man in our image and then what happened there in the garden, of course, man fell into sin and God said himself, he says, do not eat of the fruit of this tree, but in the day you shall eat thereof, you shall surely what? Die, you shall surely die. And here we see this ax head, which is a great picture of humanity, was shaped and formed for a purpose, was shaped and formed to get things done, was shaped and formed for a purpose. And what happened was, is along the way, this ax head, it had fallen into the water and it could not redeem itself. There was no way possible that that ax head, as heavy as it was, because of what it contained, because of the burden, the load that it carried, there was no way possible that that ax head could ever come back up to the surface on its own. Just like us as a failed humanity, there is no way possible for any single one of us to ever get to Christ on our own, to ever get to heaven on our own. What we needed was a Savior. What we needed was one who would be, one who was the righteous son of God, who would bridge the gap for us between heaven and hell, and could perform a miracle in our lives, and make a way for us to get to heaven, because the Bible says, the Lord Jesus said to himself, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by what? but by me. And the righteous branch was cut down, it was thrown into the place of death, cast into the taste of death, and the Lord Jesus tasted death for every man. Why? Because he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and made a way for a man that was lost to be able to get to him. And here we can see. There in verse five, we see this ax head, a good picture of fallen humanity. The ax head that was formed in fashion for a purpose to be used, but now it had fallen just like man, how he has fallen. But the ax head was also something else about it. Not only was it formed in fashion, but the ax head was also hard. The ax head was also hard, and I can tell you what sin has a way of hardening the heart of man. Sin has a way of hardening the heart of man. So not only do we see this ax head was hard, but we see this ax head was heavy, and this ax head, because it was so heavy, it was burdened, and it was laden with so much that it sank all the way to the ground, all the way to the very bottom, and it could not lift itself back up. Another great picture of us here tonight, another great picture of fallen humanity, that it is burdened and laden with a load of sin, and there is no way possible that we can ever get to heaven and ever get to God without the intervention of Christ himself. that we have fallen in essence down into the depths of depravity, that we have in essence fallen down into the depths of sin, and that there is no way possible that we can get up without Christ. And the Bible shows us there in verse five that this ax head had fell into the water. This ax head, it was formed and it was fashioned. This ax head was heavy. This ax head, it sank. But you know what I also like? I also like the idea that whenever it was, Elisha was notified that the ax head had sank down into the bottom of the river, that Elisha looked at it and said, you know what? This ax head is worth saving. Praise God here tonight. Aren't you glad that God looked down from heaven when he saw you? He said, you know what? They are worth saving. They are worth saving. Yes, I know that they are down in the depths. Yes, I know they've gone so far that a man can't reach them. I know they've gone so far that a man can't see them, but I know where they are. And so God, and so Elisha looks over there and he says, where is it? And he tells him, The Bible says this ax head has fallen into the water. And I like the idea and I like the fact that Elisha saw that it was important enough to do something about it. And I'm telling you here tonight that when God looks upon us and even though he looks upon the weight of the sin of man and even though he looks upon the hardness of a man's heart, he looks down from heaven because he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. God sent his only begotten son to die so that whosoever shall believe within him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And so Christ came into this world to save sinners, such as us, so that we didn't have to stay in the depths, so that we could be revived, so that we could be brought back, so that we could go to heaven. And we see that God, in essence, in our lives saw that despite of our sin and despite the weight that we have in our lives of sin, that God saw that we were worth saving. Praise the Lord for that. So this axe head was formed in fashion. This axe head was hard. This axe head was heavy and it sank. This axe head, it was lost, just like we. But Elisha said, in essence, this axe head is worth saving. He wanted to know where it was. And as I said, even though this axe head had fallen beyond man's reach, it was within reach of God. Because what does our Bible tell us? Our Bible tells us that his hand is not shortened, that he cannot what? And even though we may not be able to reach folks, and even though we may not be able to do certain things, we know that there's a God in heaven that knows where they are. A God in heaven that can reach them where they are, despite the sin load that they have, despite the depths of sin that they're in, despite the darkness that's down there. And even though we can't see, and even though we don't know, there's a God in heaven that can get to them. The Bible shows us here. In verse five, but as one was failing a being, the ax said, fell into the water. Lost humanity. Lost condition. And the ax said, fell into the place of death. And the Bible says there in verse six, the Bible says, and the man of God said, where fell it? And he showed him the place. In verse five, one of the things I really enjoy is that we see there in verse five, the Bible says, but as one was felling a beam, the ax said fell into the water and notice what happened. The Bible says in verse five, and he cried. when we begin to see and understand the position of our sinful state and come to the realization of our sin itself, what does sin do to us that brings sorrow? And so we see when this exit, when it had fallen into sin and fallen into this place of death, we see that this man, what does the Bible say in verse five? The Bible says that he cried. Sin has left a lot of people in sorrow. Sin has left a lot of people in tears. And the Bible shows us too in this accident when it fell in, the Bible says he came to Elisha and he cried, and he cried because of this sinful condition. What I can see here, we also see not only this place of sorrow, but we also see it reveals to us our dependence and our powerlessness. Because notice what happened there, whenever the ax had fell into the water, when it fell into the depths, when this ax had fell into a place where he could no longer reach it, where he could no longer see it, it brought tears to his eyes, the sin brought tears to his eyes, just like it brings tears to our eyes. And what is the first thing that he did? The Bible says in verse five, not only did he cry, but the Bible says, he said, in the last semester, Sin has a way sometimes of bringing us to a place where whenever we cry out, we'll cry out to the master. that will cry out to the Lord, that will cry out to a master. Sometimes sin will bring us to a place in the depths of our life. Listen, we're like this axe head and we fall down into the darkness and we descend down into the depths with no way possible of getting ourselves back to where we need to be. And so sin brings sorrow and sin brings death and then what happens is whenever we begin to realize and see the lostness and the sorrowfulness of our sinful condition, we cry out to God, alas, master. Sometimes you ever heard somebody say, sometimes you have to hit the very bottom before you begin to really see. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom, sometimes you have to go all the way down into the depths, because listen, when you're down there, the only thing there is to do is to look up. And so we can see here this ax head, it had floated all the way down to the bottom. A good picture of sinful humanity. And there in verse five, a good picture of what sin causes. You see there in verse five that the ax head, when it had fallen to the water, the man cried out. It brought sorrow to him. And he cried out to who? He cried out to the master. As we sit here tonight, I think to myself, may it be that if there's one here this evening that would recognize even today their fallen condition. If they sit here tonight and they're lost and they're not saved, that tonight would be the night that they would say, you know what? I realize the heaviness of my sin. It is bringing me nothing but sorrow in my life and I've gone down into the depths. I'm far out of reach from anybody else, but I'm lifting my hands up and crying out to the master for salvation, for help. The Bible shows us here that he cried. And he said, Alas, master, for it was borrowed. And we see there in verse four or verse five, I'm sorry, he said it was borrowed. That means now he has a debt. Listen, if he could afford it to begin with, he would have never borrowed it. But he didn't have the money to pay for it, so he borrowed it. So now we see a man who now has a debt to pay. And obviously he cannot pay it by himself. He cannot pay it by himself. And so you know what he does? He comes to, he cries out to Elisha, a good picture of the mess. He cries out to God and says, God, I have a debt now that I cannot pay. And may we would recognize tonight that if we was in such a place, that we would see tonight that we have a sin that we cannot pay. But there is a God in heaven that loves us so much that he was willing to send his only begotten son to die for us. And the Bible shows us here in the text. There in verse five, but as one was failing to beam the axe, it fell into the water and he cried and said, alas, master, for it was borrowed. Sin has a way of bringing us down to the depths of life, sin has a way of bringing us to the very bottom. And it is only whenever we come to the master and we cry out to him for mercy and grace, we see God intervene. The Bible shows us here in the text, in verse 6, the Bible says, and the men of God said, where fell it? Which brings us to our second truth. Now, not only do we see the first truth was, we see the place of death. The second truth is, we see the place of disclosure. In verse five, he said, it is borrowed. Do you know what that means? It means that he admitted, he acknowledged to Elisha that the ax head was borrowed. He admitted that he now had a debt that he could not pay. And let me tell you this. When we begin to come to the place, we recognize that we are a place of admittance, that I cannot do this on my own. I am at a place where I can't get myself out of, and I have a debt that I cannot pay, and I have these things in my life that I can't overcome on my own. When we get to this place of disclosure, when we get honest with ourselves, and we get honest with God, I'm gonna say, you know what, Lord, I'm not playing games anymore. God, I'm tired of living like this. I'm tired of doing this, God. Listen, I am serious, Lord. I am calling out to you from the depths of sin. I'm calling out to you from the depths of darkness, and God, I need some help, and this is what I've done, and this is a debt that I have, and Lord, I'm calling out to you tonight. And there in the text we see, the man of God said, where fell it? He had a sin debt that he now could no longer pay. He had a debt that he could not pay. He borrowed the ax head, the ax head was now gone. But as I said, just like you and I here tonight, we have a sin debt that we couldn't pay. If we could, we would pay it, but we can't. And because none of us here can tonight, we see that he admits that he has a problem, he admits that he has an issue, he admits that he has a debt, and he admits that he needs help. And listen, until you find yourself in that position and in that place, it's hard to get the help that you need. And the Bible shows us here. The Bible shows us here in verse six, the men of God said, where fell it? Listen, we can do what we can to mask it, we can do what we can to cover it up, We can do what we can to ignore it, but until we begin to start doing something about where we are, not much is gonna happen. The Bible shows us there in verse six, the man of God asked, where did it fall? And the Bible shows us there in verse six, he showed him the place. What I like about verse six is when we think about this place of disclosure, What I like about verse six is whenever Elisha said, where fell it, the Bible says he showed him the place. Listen, when we got things going on in our hearts and our lives, and we got things we're battling with and struggling with, and we got sins that are hindering us in our life, and we got a lot that's going on, listen, and we're trying, and listen, we gotta be serious with God, and we say, God, listen, I'm serious, this is what's going on, this is what's happening, I'm not joking around, I'm not picking, I'm done just playing life, Listen, God, I really need some help. He says, I'm gonna show you what it is. He disclosed, he admitted that he had a sin debt. And then when he lost it, he said, where is it at? What's the problem? He says, let me show you where it failed. This is what it is, God. This is what it is I battle with. This is what it is that I struggle with. This is what I have in my life that is causing me, in essence, to sink. Listen, we can have things in our life, the Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews, they're like weights in our Christian life, not just, yes, sins we understand, but also weights that are in our Christian life that hinder us And here in verse six, whenever Elisha wanted to know where it was at, he showed him the place. And what I'm trying to get us to see tonight is that, listen, we have sins in our life that keep us from living for God the way we want to live, or that's keeping us from coming to Christ. And we say, God, listen, what I want, I'm showing you right now what it is. This is the place. I'm struggling with drugs. I'm struggling with alcohol. I'm struggling with pornography. I'm struggling with gambling. I'm struggling with this. I'm struggling with unforgiveness. I'm struggling with bitterness. I'm struggling with that. I got all these things, this and God, that I am struggling with here tonight. This is the place. This is where it fell in and it is bringing me down. It is in the depths and God, I need you to help me with it. And there in the text, he says, the Bible says, he says, where fell it? And he showed him the place. And so I say here tonight, You call out to God this evening, you disclose the place, you reveal it to God what it is and where it's at, because understand, God already knows. And just like we oftentimes say in the scripture, when God asks questions about man, where he's at, or what the problem is, it's not that God don't know, it's that he needs us to come to a place of recognition and admittance. Does that make sense? Because listen, I can tell you what the problem is, but until you understand what the problem is, there's a difference. Now listen, I can tell a man, listen, this is what's going on, and this is what's happening in your life, and this is what I see, but until he sees it himself, all I am is a voice. but he has to see it, he has to see it. And so what we see here tonight is a, we wanna see a picture of a man that says, yes, God, this is where I fell in and this is what's keeping me down and God, here tonight, I'm lifting it up to you and I'm showing you here this evening, Lord, I am revealing it to you, I am disclosing it to you, I am admitting it to you, God. My master, this is the place. The man of God said, where fell it? And he showed him the place. And we look at the third truth here tonight. Not only do we see a place of death, not only do we see a place of disclosure, but we also see a place of deliverance. Notice we said in the very beginning about a picture of a man that's trying to work to build a future, a picture of a man that's trying to work in essence to get to a future dwelling place. and he can work the best that he can, he can work as hard as he can, and he can have an honest heart about it as much as a man can have. But listen, until a man recognizes that he's lost, until a man recognizes that he's in sin, until a man recognizes that he is already that he's transgressed against the laws of God, and that he is in the place of death already, and that there is no way that he can get to God on his own best efforts because his sin weight is too heavy for him, and he doesn't have the ability to pay for that which he owes, and so he has to call out to God for help, and until a man sees that and understands that, he's gonna remain in this place of death. But here we see this place of deliverance. This place of deliverance in verse six, the Bible says that he cut down a stick. This stick wasn't a, this stick or this branch. It wasn't a dead branch. It wasn't something that was weak. but it was something that was green, it had life, it had strength to it. The Bible says he cut it down. And when he cut this down, when he cut this branch down, the Bible says that he threw it in the water, there in verse six, and he cast it in thither. We understand, as I said earlier, this righteous branch. The Lord Jesus is referred to, the one who would deliver the nation of Israel, but also deliver humanity Jeremiah chapter 23 and verse five. The Bible talks about the Lord as the righteous branch. Isaiah chapter four verse two. Isaiah 11 verses one to five. Jeremiah 33 verses 15 to 16. Zechariah chapter three verse eight. Zechariah chapter six verses 12 to 13. Refer to the righteous branch. And this branch was thrown, was cast into death. And just like the Lord Jesus, whenever he died on the cross and said it is finished and gave himself up willingly because man's heart was too hard, man's heart was too heavy. There was no way possible that man can get to heaven on his own unless it come through Christ himself, the righteous branch. The Bible shows us here. in the text. And he cut down a stick, and he cast it in thither. And this righteous branch, full of strength and life, was cast into the waters of death, just as Christ gave His life on Calvary. The Bible says once this stick or this branch was cast into the waters, The Bible said the iron did swim. What an amazing picture. Imagine yourself standing on the shoreline, and Elijah cuts down a branch from a tree, a stick from a tree, and he throws it in the water at the place where the iron fell. And right there where the iron fell, right there where the ax head fell in, the ax head began to float and came up to the top. But not only did it just float up to the top, but it also came to the shoreline. How amazing is that? Not only did the ax head lift up from the depths of the river, and began to float up towards the top. But when it got up to the top, it then also began to swim over to where they were standing. Amazing. You say, how could that happen? How can a man get saved? The miracle is just the same. The miracle is just the same. How can an axe head rise up from the depths? It could not unless it was the power of God that did it. How can a man get saved? It could not unless the power of God intervened. Listen, the only righteousness that I have is the righteousness that Christ has given me. I have none of my own because the Bible says that a man has no righteousness. No, not one. It's the only power that I possess. The only strength that I possess, the only righteousness that I have is through Christ. And God performed this miracle in my life, just like he did perhaps in your life, and just like he did right here. And the branch was thrown into the river of death, a picture of Christ lying on the cross. And the Bible says, and the iron did swim. That which was lost, that which was impossible to achieve, to reach by man was then reached by Christ. The Bible says, shows us here that the axe, that the iron did swim. The axe head couldn't get to the shoreline on its own because it was impossible. The axe head was delivered from the depths. It was delivered from the darkness of the river. It was delivered in essence from destruction. What does, if the ax head would've, the iron, if it would've remained in the river, what would've happened to it? It would've remained lost. Let me ask you this, what does water do to iron? Same thing sin does to our life. It breaks us apart, little by little, over time. Sin has its way of rusting us out in our life. And what does rust do to the iron? In essence, over time, makes it what? Weak and fragile. And that's exactly what happens to us in life. And we call out to God and we say, God, I'm getting, we look at this from a saved man's perspective here for a moment. And we say, God, I know I'm saved. But Lord, I got some things that are heavy in my heart and my life. And instead of letting God deal with it, we're trying to do it on our own and it's not working. And what's happening is it's really rusting us out. The Bible shows us right here. The iron did swim. And God could deliver the Lord Jesus in essence, could deliver something that was in the depths, that was in the darkness, that was in essence there for destruction, that Christ could deliver someone like that. He could deliver me, He could deliver you, and anybody else that has a desire to be delivered from sin and destruction, that He could deliver them from the depths and cause it to do something that it never could have done on its own. That's you and me here tonight. If you're saved, you're the saved and the Holy Spirit of God lives and dwells within you, you can now do what you could not ever do on your own, which is one, get to heaven. Two, have all your sins forgiven. And three, be empowered by the Holy Spirit of God to do all things. Because what does the Bible tell us? I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. But I have to have Christ. I have to have the Holy Spirit of God because as the Lord Jesus said in John 15, without him, we can do what? Nothing, nothing. So, the Bible says the iron did swim. In verse seven, lastly, as we think about this deliverance, the Bible says, therefore said he, take it up to thee, and he put out his hand and he took it. I love the fact that as I looked at these verses, I see that that which was lost is now found. That that which was down is now up. And that which was heavy laden is now light as a feather. Because I tell you what, it ain't natural for iron to be light. And I'm so thankful here tonight that no matter what sins that I had in my life and no matter how heavy they were, that the righteous branch of Christ who tasted death for every man and was cut down and placed in this place of death could bring me to him that couldn't get to him on my own and could enable me to do that which I could have never done on my own. No matter what laden, no matter how heavy laden I am, the Lord can lift that off of me. The Bible says he put out his hand and he took it. I'm thankful here tonight that the Lord reached out to me where I was. When I got saved, when I was 10 years old, I'm thankful that God reached out to me where I was. And though I couldn't get to him on my own, but God reached out to me and he saved me where I was at. The Bible shows us here in the text. In verse seven, therefore said he, take it up to thee. And he put out his hand and he took it. Good picture of the Lord, I believe. Reaching out to us today to receive us into himself. Because what did the Lord Jesus, what does the Bible say? All that come to me, the Lord Jesus says, I will in no wise cast out. I'm thankful tonight that we're sin abounds, grace much more abounds, and no matter how heavy the laden of sin that I possess in my life, that he's able to retrieve me from the darkest of the darkest places. That he brought me out of this place of destruction that brought me out of this place of the depths to bring me back up to him. I'm thankful for that tonight. Let's pray. Father, we come to you tonight. We thank you for your goodness. I'm thankful, Lord, for this tremendous illustration we can see in your word about your presence, about your power. Lord, I'm thankful, God, for your word that speaks to our hearts, reveals to us what we are, but also shows us what we can do. And Christ, I'm thankful for you tonight for being my Savior. Lord, my prayer is this evening that if there's anyone here tonight that doesn't know if they're saved, that they would understand their position and where they are before it's too late. And God, I pray here tonight that you'd help us as we Get ready to leave this evening. I pray God that you would. Help us Lord tonight to examine ourselves. Not everyone else. But just spend time on ourselves. Who am I? Where am I going? Do I know without a shadow of a doubt I'm on my way to heaven? Have I trusted Christ? Lord, I pray that you would bless our night. I pray God to keep us safe this week. Lord, I pray that you would wrap your arms around every vehicle as we leave here this evening. May everything we do bring you honor and glory. We love him. We thank you for it all. And this we pray in Jesus name. Amen.