Blessings, friends. Pastor Nick here today. I just had a few things that I would like to share with you and pass on to you. Some of you know that I've been walking through this life with what is known as a blood cancer. Well, this month, just a couple weeks ago, I celebrate five years of finding out that I had a blood disorder called CLL. Now, I most likely, for you that don't know this or not aware of where I've been and what I've been going through and as far as walking through, I most likely have had this particular cancer now for nine years or so. Could be a little longer, could be a little less than that. You can go back about nine years and one of the last blood tests that I had showed that my white blood count was elevated above normal. That is, it was around 14,000 in the white blood count number. Well, I was out of town and the doctors called and wanted to go a little bit further. I actually had a cold at that time and just contributed to the infection and didn't follow up with it myself. Well, time had went by and one of our girls moved to Hawaii and Stephanie and I made our way over there. And while over there, I got sick. And when I say I got sick, I just got a cold and started running some fever. Well, I ran fever for about two weeks. So when we returned back to the States, I called the doctors at the VA and they shared with me that because I've been running fever for two weeks, they would want to do an x-ray on me. So there was nothing that they could do for me in Meridian. So, in light of that, they advised me to take a trip to Jackson, which I did. We go over there, and while in Jackson, they, of course, gonna run some blood work, and what they found through that blood test was that I had a blood cancer. Well, from that time on, we have been walking through this CLL journey, but that blood problem was in my system for four or five years before I realized that I was sick, that I had a problem. And the only indicators, the only way that it could have been found out, there was nothing necessarily going on with me physically that would have indicated that I had a cancer in my body. The only way to determine that was to determine it through a test, a test, and that blood test determined that something was off in my system, and then they run further tests to verify exactly what that was and what was happening within me and then it definitively declared that my blood was bad, my blood was polluted and the only way that would have been able to be determined was through a test that I had to find out through the means of testing my blood. Well, For years, I've known my blood is bad, and when I say bad, not from a physical standpoint, but from a spiritual standpoint. My life was in a mess in the sense that I was living life for myself. I didn't know that, though, until there was a test done on my heart as well. It was through that kind of test that the Word of God reveals to me. In my late 20s, I found out that my life was in a mess because I wasn't right with a holy God. And I wanna share with you, that's the same thing that has to happen with all of us. The Bible says, and I'm gonna read if you don't mind from Acts chapter 17, I'm gonna read in verse number 24. Acts 17, 24, the apostle Paul shares this with a group of people. who were worshiping many different things. They just didn't know who the true and living God was. And Paul says, God who has made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth and does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything, since he, God, the creator, gives to all life, breath, in all things. Well, for a good portion of my life, I didn't know who this God is. I didn't know what he had done. I didn't know who he was. I didn't know what he had done for me. I had an idea that something more than just what was here most likely had to create all that is here. But I went through the education system like many and wasn't raised in a godly home. When I say a godly home, that is Jesus wasn't the Lord over my parents' life, and they didn't instill that way of living into us, and I knew of different dynamics of what people thought about creation and what I'd been taught through the years, which were still questionable type things, but I didn't know that. I didn't know that. He goes on to say this, and He, this same Creator, the God of the universe who made everything, who gives us life, breath, and all things, it says, He has made from one blood, one blood, every nation of men dwelling on all the face of the earth, and he has determined our pre-appointed times and the boundaries of our dwellings. I didn't know that. I didn't know that God is the one who actually formed and fashioned and created me and had determined when I would be born and had determined where I would be born and where I would live. Now, he goes on to say that in that same verse, verse 26, and he made from one Blood. Now, we all, this is what I've come to find out through these teachings, that we all come from one blood. Every living being, every living soul on the face of the earth, human, on the face of the earth, comes from one blood. We can trace it all the way back to Adam, and even more specifically, in time, we can trace it back to a man by the name of Noah. that every living being, when I say living being, I'm talking about people, men, humans, men, women, boys and girls of every ethnic group around the world all come from one blood, every single one of us, one blood. We're all related, we're all connected. I didn't know that. And that's what he says here, from one blood, every nation of men dwelling on the face of the earth. Verse 27 goes on to say this, so that so that they, humanity, in the year, in the time, in their dwellings, when they live, where they live, so that they should seek, they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each of us. He says, for in him, this God who's created us, with an expectation for us to seek him, even though he's not hard to find, he says, for in him we live, move, and have our being. In him we move, live, and have our existence, our being. Now, here's the thing. My physical blood diseased. I didn't know that until a test had validated and proved that something was wrong with me on the inside. But this is a test that God gives all men with his expectation. This same way that I was tested by a a laboratory who took my blood out of my veins and put it through a system that can come up with a standard, the standard for a white blood count, how they measure infections and things like that for which your white blood cells fight infections in your body. Well, my white blood cells are faulty, not all of them. But the majority of them are faulty. They don't work right. That is, they don't fight infection for me. They don't have the ability to fight infection. And because they don't fight infections, they don't die. That means they keep building up in my system, and that's one of the indicators of this particular kind of cancer, this chronic cancer that I have that has no cure outside of a divine miracle to take place in my life and God hasn't seen it profitable. It's possible he can totally eradicate it, take it away from me, but at this point it hadn't been profitable for him, for me, and other people, so I have this cancer and walking through it and he's given me the victory in it and continues to sustain me, but this is what I want you to grab, I had to grab this, now I'm throwing it out on you, is that the only way that you could determine that I had this was through a test. Well, the only way you can determine that your spiritual blood, your life is not right in line with God is by this test, that God created you that you might seek him. as a way of life, to the point that you move through life by him, you exist in life for him, and you live in this life to his glory and by his ways, and that you seek him as a way of life. And if you or I or whoever else it is doesn't seek him, knowing that he is able to be found, that is I can hear him, trust him, know him, walk with him, that would mean that the test The standard by which God expects men to live by, if that doesn't line up, that means I have a spiritual problem. Like I have a physical problem with cancer, I have a spiritual issue in my life. And this is the reason why we all come from one blood. What's the problem with our blood? As a spiritual means, we were all born dead in trespasses and sins because we inherited bad blood from Adam and Noah. and then Noah's three sons and their families who repopulated the earth after the flood. We all come through that. Now here's the thing, the flood, though God judged the earth, the world then, and the world perished minus eight people, it did not fix the problem with men's blood. It didn't alter that. For the scripture says that before the flood, man's heart was desperately wicked in the sense that every thought and imagination of their heart was continually evil. And then he says, after the flood, and you could read about this in Genesis 6 and Genesis 8, after the flood, through Noah and his three sons and their wives, when God repopulated the earth and that all the ethnic groups come out of them, it says that the intent and thought of their hearts, even from their youth, was continually evil. Why? Because that judgment didn't fix the condition of the heart of men. That men were bent toward themselves and they lived for themselves, therefore they sought what was most beneficial to them in their life, and we inherited that from our fathers, and they inherited from their fathers, and so on. You don't have to know your father. You don't even have to know your mother to know that you haven't lived to seek the heavenly father through his son for which he gave as a gift. So why are we not seeking the Lord as a way of life? It's because our hearts are not sensitive to him. We don't have the same expectation that he has. We don't have the same hope or expectation to find him even though he's not far from each one of us is because our heart is still covered up with iniquity and sin and self-centeredness. The Bible describes our heart as being a stone. It's like a stony heart in the sense that it's hard, it's dead, it's lifeless, it's not moved by God, it's not stirred by God, it's not sensitive to God. I brought this rock in here for an example. Some of you probably have seen me use this before, but this is the example of what the Bible gives us in various places, like in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 36, chapter 11, I believe it is, and some other places, that God must remove this type of heart in us so that he would give us a heart of flesh Now, when you think about flesh, it's a comparison between a hardy, stony heart and a sensitive, fleshly skin. For an example, if I took this rock right here and I hit it with this hammer, I hit it, I can just shatter it to pieces and it doesn't hurt it. It breaks it up, but it's stone, it's dead. But if I did the same thing and I hit my thumb with this hammer, because my thumb is made of flesh, therefore it's sensitive to pain, it's sensitive to blood pressure, it's sensitive to blood circulating through it, and when it swells up and that blood throbs, every time my heart beats, My thumb's gonna throb and cause me trouble because my flesh is sensitive to the blow. The same thing, for an example, with a fire. If I took this and lit this flame, and burned my thumb, This rock, it's a kinda windy day, so my light's not gonna wanna light on this, but it's lit now. This rock will not cry out. It's not gonna make any noise, but if I did the same thing to my hand and put this flame, I was gonna come off of it. I wouldn't even do it. Why? Because my skin, my flesh is sensitive. It's moved by the fire. Same thing with a light. Our eyes, if I was the, throw this light, this Q-Beam toward my eyes, I would shy away from it. Why? Because my eyes are sensitive to the light. Well, that's the idea of being sensitive to the Lord, sensitive to this God who made us, who made us from one blood. But see, even though we're all connected and we all come from one blood, that's our problem. The blood is tainted. The only way to determine the blood is not right is by a test, just like how my cancer was found by a test. Well, God's Word tests us as well. He says, I don't live a life seeking Him as a way of life to the point that I am moved by Him. I live for Him and I exist to glorify Him. My heart is still like stone. I'm not sensitive to Him. I don't seek Him. I'm not serving Him as a way of life. I'm not steadfast through the issues and the troubles of life where I'm going to Him. I'm leaning on Him. I don't live to share him with other people as a way of life. And that's all indicators that the test that we've been given is that the heart is still corrupt and still stony and can't be moved by God until God removes the stony heart out of our life. and replaces it with a heart that is of the flesh, in the sense that it's now sensitive to his voice, sensitive to his ways, sensitive to his calling upon our life. And if I was to bring out and show you how they measure these standards with these lipid tests that they do on our blood, or if I was to have a measuring rod or a ruler that we can measure a straight line by, The scriptures go on to tell us in this, verse number 30 says, truly these times of ignorance, us with a stony heart, God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. To repent means to have a different, we consider God differently, we consider ourselves differently, we consider his ways differently, we consider life differently. You turn toward God in the light and he reveals, he gives revelation, he gives light on a thing that I couldn't know any other way than him shedding that light on it. And then he says this, why does he command every man to repent? Because he, God, has appointed a day. on which he will judge the world in righteousness. By the man whom he has ordained, he has given assurance of this by raising him from the dead. So the one he raised from the dead is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason he raised him from the dead is because Jesus laid his life down as a substitute on my behalf, as a sacrifice unto his father. His father laid the life down of his own son as a sacrifice unto himself. You see, grace is God cheerfully and delightfully gratifying himself. for himself in the face of deserved wrath through the grace gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. God gratifies himself through himself, through his son, when he gave him and he shed his blood. That's the thing. You see, we were all made from one blood, but we all must be born again. born again by one blood, and that's through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I need his life in place of mine because I haven't always lived this, and I still can't live the righteous life that he lived. See, he's the standard. God's going to judge the world by one standard. the life of his son. And God doesn't have double standards. That is, if he's going to judge us by his son, that same standard is the standard that he has upon our life in this life. So therefore, the only way to have his righteousness in this life and when I stand before him is by place in our faith. our confidence, our trust. We give Jesus our life. We give him our sin. We put our confidence in his message to the point where his message becomes our message. That is, his message of the gospel now becomes the message I live and breathe and move by to tell the world that, hey, This Jesus gave his life for me and my life now belongs to him. I use these nails. This reminds me, this past week we had some guys out doing a few things around the church and building a new fence for our cemetery. I gave him one of these nails that I put together. On the back of it, it says, he died for all, 2 Corinthians 5, 14. In that passage, the apostle Paul says, for the love of Christ compels or constraineth me. That if one died, then all died. 15 says, and he died for all, that those that live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and rose for them. What a wonder, if Jesus was willing to die for me, that my life is no longer my own. He bought me at a price, shed his clean, untainted, unpolluted blood for my corrupt blood and corrupt life. Man, I could be willing to share with at least three people a week of what he's done for me. So that's why I'm sharing this with you. A physical test revealed, and what a spiritual test reveals is that my blood was messed up physically, but it was also messed up spiritually. I was out of order. I was dying in my physical blood, but I was dead in the spiritual life that I had. I had that stony heart. until God came and removed it out of my life and I was able to trust Him and repent and give my life to Him. And He changed me. He transformed me. And I just wanna share that testimony with you. So God has a test. His word tests us. Are you seeking Him? And if you're not, it's because you're not sensitive to Him. That great picture of Noah where God started all over, that's what it says. Noah was moved by the fear of the Lord and prepared for himself. an ark for the saving of his household. You see, that's what God does when grace comes in our life. We are moved by him, we're sensitive to him, that we seek him and follow him in service. That is, he reveals to us, he guides us in life, he shepherds us on how to live life. I also gave these guys one of these. I keep these in my pocket as well as these nails. But there's a little pacifier, and this pacifier is just a simple message that we all come into this world with nothing and we're gonna leave it with nothing. In the sense that as a baby, for an example, we were born, we come in naked, we leave naked, Ecclesiastes says. But it says that if we leave this world in all points as we came, What a terrible thing that is because we came in this world making everything in it about us. Now I know a child, a baby, a small baby is at the mercy of those who are taking care of them. They can't take care of themselves. So a baby can't communicate other than letting us know with the only natural means that they can, and that's crying. So when their belly's not full, their bottom's not clean, and they're not getting enough rest, they're gonna let us know. But over time, we start putting pacifiers in their mouth to sustain them a little bit longer until we can feed them, a little bit longer until we can lay them down. But you know, as time goes on and little ones grow, our pacifiers turn into like bicycles and tricycles and three wheelers and four wheelers and side-by-sides and cars and guns and girls and boys and wives and and husbands and they just you know what it all boils down to our pacifiers just get more expensive as life progresses into childhood and teenage years and then young adult years and so on. Well, if Jesus doesn't ever interrupt my life, remove the stony heart. I will live and die the same way I was born, as a self-centered sinner, making life all about me. There must be an interruption that takes place. There must be an invasion of the grace of God into our life. That will transform and change us. Not that we will be perfect, We'll be blameless before the throne of God because of the blameless work or the perfect work of Jesus. But see, the perfect work of Jesus will be manifested in our life in how? We will hear his voice. We'll follow him as our shepherd. That means we're sensitive and moved by him. Then, it is evident because we seek him as a way of life. Psalm 119, 155 says, salvation, the things associated with it, are far from those who are not right with God, the wicked, the wrong, because they do not seek the Lord as a way of life. And if that doesn't characterize my life, the spiritual test of Acts 17 says that God made us with that expectation that we might seek him in hopes of finding him, though he's not far from each one of us. The reason we can't find him is because we can't hear him. The reason we can't hear him is because we don't know him. And the reason we can't see him is because we don't hear and know him because our hearts haven't been changed. We're still dead in our trespasses and sins. But that can be rectified and transformed through the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. God commands every man everywhere to turn to repent. to reconsider, to rethink this, of how you live in your life in the light of what He's done. So I would encourage you, I would encourage you, and I plead with you on the mercies of God, that you would surrender your life to Jesus and ask Him Ask Him to take your life and use it however He sees fit. And that His message will become your message. His ministry will become your ministry. His mission will become your mission. And you give your life to that. And that, my friend, will be the difference. Invasion of His grace will make that difference in your life where you no longer live for yourself, but you live to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, let's go back to the beginning again. I would have never known five years ago that I had a blood cancer without being tested. And you and I cannot know our spiritual condition without being tested by the message or the revelation of God. And his message is, he made you. And he made you with the expectation that you would seek him. in everything and in all things and follow Him in this life. And if that test reveals you have a problem with your life, There's only one solution, and His name is Jesus. Give Him your life. Give Him your life. I'm going to pray with you right now and pray for you and ask God to do that work in you. And you can set out on your journey in walking and trusting Him. So Father, I bless you today. I thank you for saving me. Thank you for revealing your Son to me. Thank you for taking the stony heart out of my life and giving me a heart that can be sensitive and moved and tender. That can hear you and follow you and trust you and know you and love you and treasure you. I couldn't do it apart from you. Salvation is impossible with men, but nothing is impossible with you. So I'm asking you, for those that are under the hearing of my voice right now, watching this, that's gonna share this, that's gonna pass this on to others, that, Lord, you would use it. You would use it to help them look to Jesus, that they would look to this word in Acts 17 and see the test, the expectation of yours, Do we expect the same things? Are we finding you? And if not, we asking you to rescue, and redeem, and restore, and renew, and refresh, and send your people out with the message of your good news. For you tell us in Mark's gospel that when we believe you, when we give our life to you, when we lose our life to you, we give our life to your gospel, to your words, and we won't be ashamed of them. we will want to tell the world who rescued our lives. So, Lord, thank you for tests in this world that help us see issues that we couldn't see without them. And thank you for this revelation that sheds light on my life of where I'm at and where I was prior to living for you today. And I want to help other people come to know you as well. So, thank you, Lord. We give you the glory and ask you to save in Jesus' name. Amen.