What a blessing it's already been to be in God's house this morning. I pray that it's been a blessing to you as well. Before we begin, as we do here at Caruso, whenever someone is saved and baptized at the church, we always like to present them with a brand new Bible and a certificate of their special day. So, Jomlin, Daniel, got this for you and give this to you on behalf of the church. Pray it's a blessing as you grow in God's word together. You're welcome. It's hard to believe for me that I would be even in a church on a Sunday morning, let alone being called the pastor of one. It was 25 years ago on January 2nd. If you're old enough and you remember the Y2K scare, we survived that one. And my wife and I were the first folks baptized in our church. in the year 2000 of January, so it's special to me to stand here every day, but it's especially special to stand here this morning before you because were it not for the grace of God, I certainly wouldn't be in this pulpit. I doubt I'd be in church at all, and I probably wouldn't even be here on this earth, to be honest with you, because a lot of you just know me for who I am now, and I'm thankful for that. But I want to tell you that I wasn't always who I am. And the only reason that I am who I am today, as imperfect still as I am, is by the grace of God. And so, I've been sick this week a little bit, feeling a lot better now, but it's one of those things where when you're sick, you miss A few days you're already scrambling to get everything done you need to get done and then you're really behind. So I felt overwhelmed this week and always inadequate to stand before you and share God's word but even more so today and this week not having the time to really get ready and prepare. And finally after worrying about it and being anxious about it and you know all the wrong things to do I finally just said, God, you're going to have to give me a double blessing Sunday, because I simply am not going to be ready to share God's word. And he reminded me that 25 years ago, he already gave me a message. And all I have to do is tell people about that. And so today I want to stand before you, and I want to just share a message that I've titled, All My Hope Is In Jesus. From Psalm chapter 40, verses 1 through 3. Psalm 40 verses 1 through 3 are some special verses to me because in a lot of ways I feel like they're speaking right at me. A lot of times when I preach people say you follow me around or something you've said everything this week that right at me. Well that's not me that's the Holy Spirit. He knows exactly what we need when we need it and I'm thankful that he continues to speak through his inspired word to us and I'm thankful that like I said 25 years ago, he got a hold of me, and I've never been the same since. And so I want to share this verse of scripture with you this morning from Psalm 40, verses 1 through 3. You don't have to stand this morning, I'm just going to read it to you. The psalmist writes these words, I can't say the first part of this, but I can sure say the rest of it. I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined, or He leaned down and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth. Praise to our God. Many will see it and fear. and will trust in the Lord. Father, today, that's my prayer, that they would not see me, but they would see you, that they would hear your voice, and Lord, that you would speak to their hearts today. Everyone in this room needs you in some way, shape, or form, Lord. First and foremost, they need you to save them from the sin that they are in and the destruction that they're headed for. God, I pray today that you open blinded eyes and touch hard hearts so that they can see their need for the Savior that died for them and loves them, and that they would trust Him today. Lord, I pray for the Christian that's just going through the motions and thinks that there's all the time in the world and, you know, do it later. That, God, You would burden them beyond belief today to not waste another second of this precious gift called life that You give us, and nobody knows how much of it we get. So, Lord, may we be found faithful with it, using it for You every day, every moment. And Lord, I just ask today that you'll use me for your glory. And thank you for just the opportunity to be used in any way for your kingdom. I give you all the praise for everything you mean to me and in this church. In Jesus' name I ask all these things. Amen. So I, uh... I grew up in a home where church wasn't much of a priority. We were Catholic and biannual Catholics. We went on Easter and Christmas, and that was about it. Didn't really know a lot about the Lord. Certainly didn't know anything about the Bible or church. And that was pretty much my experience with religion all through my young years, my teenage years, and as I got closer to graduating high school, I guess you could probably say I was an agnostic at best. I believe that there might be someone or something out there, but didn't know him, didn't care to know him, just wanted to live my life and do the things that I wanted to do. Most of the time, as I got a little older, you would have found me up the road here just a little ways on Millville Avenue in front of a place called the Westview Market. Before we were old enough to buy our own beer, we'd stand out there and wait for somebody to come along that was willing to buy us some beer and we'd give them the change. go back to my buddy's house behind there, wait for his uncle to get off with a bag of dope, smoke weed and get drunk, and that was my weekend. Stumble home through Millican Woods on Sunday morning, certainly not thinking about church. Living just how I wanted to live and doing what I wanted to do. And maybe that's some of you here today. I don't want you to think that when you come to church you're among a bunch of perfect people that's got this thing all figured out. It's only by the grace of Jesus Christ that any of us can stand here today and say that we are at all accepted. And so that was my life through my early teenage years and into my 20s. Graduated school, didn't have any idea what I wanted to do and really didn't care. Bounced around from job to job just looking for something to get a few dollars in my pocket so I could have some fun and live my life. And I ended up at a machine shop that my mom worked at. She was able to get me a job down there. And I went begrudgingly down there because she threatened me, either you work or you get out of the house. So I didn't have too much choices. So that's where I ended up. And hated it. Complained every day about how awful it was. And just was going through the motions. But God had a plan. And He was gonna use that little machine shop and some folks at that place to change my life. And as I worked down there doing whatever menial tasks they wanted me to do, there was an old boy from Kentucky. Well, he was a young guy, actually. Probably a little younger than I was. I was 22 at the time. He might have been about 20. And he started to come up to me every day and try to strike up a conversation, which I really didn't want to have. But he was persistent. and just tried to make a lot of small talk with me. And so, we kind of developed a one-sided friendship. He liked me and I tolerated him. And so, that was kind of where we went for a few months. And then one day, the conversation went a whole different direction that I never saw coming. He said, I want to ask you something. And I said, I'm sure you do. And he said, if you died tonight, where would you go? And me being sarcastic and arrogant in my youth, I said, I'd probably go underground. And he said, well, what about beyond the grave? What do you think? What do you believe? Do you believe anything? Is there life after this? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Is there a God? Where do you stand at? And I said, well, I said, I'm not too sure, but there might be a God. Probably a heaven. He said, do you think you'd go there? And I said, well, if there's a place, for sure I'll go there. If there's a heaven, I'll be there. And he said, why? Why do you think that? And I said, well, I'll tell you why. In the big picture, I'm a pretty decent guy. Not the best, but I've never really done anything too awful bad in my own estimation, compared to some other people I know. And so I feel like I'll make it. And he said, fair enough. He said, but I want to challenge you something, if you're willing to take it on. He didn't know how competitive I was. I grew up playing sports and basketball. And that was right up my alley. A challenge was good with me. I said, sure. What is it? He said, I'd like you to get a Bible, and I'd like you to read the Gospel of John one chapter a day for 21 days. Just read it. Don't do anything else. Don't study it. Don't worry about trying to figure it all out. Just read it with an open heart, and let's talk about what you see. And I said, fair enough. We'll do it. And so I left work that day, could not stop thinking about those words. And I said, I'm going to go to my mom's house, I'm sure she's got a Bible somewhere, and I'm going to get that thing, and I'm going to learn more about that Bible in a couple of days than this guy ever thought he knew. And I'm going to prove him wrong, I'm going to answer every question he asks me, and I'm going to show him that I'm right. So I went to my mom's house, gave me this little Catholic Bible, You see the cover all wore off of it. Now it's all marked up. It's all I had. I didn't even know what to do with this thing. He told me, read the Gospel of John. It took me a half an hour just to find the Gospel of John. But I found it, finally. I marked the page so I could keep finding it. And I started to read like he asked me to do. At the time, I was living in a little apartment behind United Dairy Farmers on Brookwood Avenue. and was living there at that time with my girlfriend, been there for a while. And every day I'd read this when I got home, one chapter a day. And I got to about chapter six and something happened. Something changed that day. All of a sudden, I realized that I didn't know anything. All of a sudden I realized that this book knew everything about my life. The author of this book, the one that made me, formed me and created me, that I had never really acknowledged in my life, knew everything about me. And I sat there on the floor of that little apartment with this Bible open to John chapter 6. And all of a sudden, I realized and heard that question in my mind that that young man had asked me a few weeks prior. If you died tonight, would you go to heaven? And my prideful, arrogant answer was, no longer I sure will. It was, there is no way on earth that I will ever make it to heaven the way I am right now. Because I realized that God had shown me that I was lost. What do you mean when I say lost? It means that I had strayed so far from God. He knew me, but I didn't know Him. But He loved me. And He wanted me to know Him. And so I didn't know how to pray. I didn't know how to do anything. But I just, on my knees there, with this book open, said Lord if you're real and you are who you say you are and you can do what you promise you'll do I want you to come into my life I want you to forgive me and help me and I got up try not to cry this morning because I'm already all stuffed up so that won't help But I got up that day a slobbering, crying mess off that floor. We had those big old entertainment centers that we used to have before the flat screen TVs. I had one of those with a television in it. Had shelves and cabinets underneath. Every square inch of that thing was packed full of pornography. I was so addicted to that stuff. And I remember getting up And I opened up those doors and I saw that stuff. And I said, this has got to go, for sure. This has got to go. Bagged it up, cut the tape so nobody could get it and use it, and took them out to the dumpster. Some of you don't even know what a VHS tape is, but yeah, we used to have to rewind stuff and cut the tape. So I cut the tape, threw them in the dumpster. I went back in the apartment. I walked around into the bedroom. There was a big tree out in front. They've cut it down now, but there used to be a big tree out in front of that apartment. And there was two little kids playing around that tree. And I was looking out that window at those kids, still wiping tears away from my eyes. And I can't explain it. I've talked to other people. I think, Brian, you told me yours was the same. But everything was clear. The colors were brighter. The sounds were different. Everything was new. Just like the Bible says, He makes all things new. And I watched those kids play, and I saw the colors, and I heard the sounds, and I still didn't really know what was going on in my heart. And I felt like the Lord just spoke to me, not audibly, but just in my spirit, and said, You see those two kids out there? You see them playing in the innocence that children have? That's how you are before me now. You've been made new. You have that innocence, if you will. Not that I wasn't still a sinner, but he had taken care of that great debt, that great load that I had carried around for so long. My girlfriend came home. I said, hey, I gotta tell you what happened today to me. And I explained to her, and I said, I have no idea what we're supposed to do, or I'm supposed to do. I said, but I do know this. Maybe it was just because I was raised with a little bit of morals and religious background. Maybe it was God already opened my eyes, a little bit of both, who knows? But I said, we can't stay like this. I said, I love you, want to marry you, but until we're ready or until we do that, I got to go home, you got to go home, or somebody's got to go. We can't stay this way. And she said, you know what? You're right. She had made a profession of faith when she was a teenager. And as some of us do sometimes, had fallen away from the Lord. And I said, what do we do? She said, my grandma and grandpa go to church. Maybe we can talk to them. So I said, let's do that now. We got a hold of them. I think it was a day or two. We went over to their house. They brought their preacher over there. And I told him what happened. And I said, what am I supposed to do? He asked me a few questions to just make sure I understood the gospel and I really had received the Lord. I satisfied him, I guess, with a little bit I knew. And he said, you need to get baptized. You need to find a good Bible-believing church. Get involved there and serve the Lord. I said, when do we start? He said, I can baptize you next week. if you want to do that." My wife said, I want to do that too. I want to rededicate my life and do this together. And so on January 2nd of 2000 at Richmond Road Baptist Church, I walked into church for the first time ever really that I wanted to and got in those waters myself with my wife and made my testimony public. And it wasn't too long after I did that, but God has blessed me so much in my life. Not only did he put me in a factory, and if you've ever worked in factories, I don't want to sound like I'm stereotyping or judging people, but it's a certain type of crowd usually that works in factories. I was probably in the only factory in America that was 98% Christians. I worked right next to a pastor for years. I worked next to deacons. I worked next to Sunday school teachers. people that knew the Lord and knew this book and they helped me. I didn't have anybody and they helped me so much. But I realized shortly after I got saved and as I was talking to these folks that I wanted more. I wasn't satisfied to just be saved and that was it. So I was driving home from work There used to be a, still there, a plaza, shopping center on Route 4, where big lots and stuff used to be. And there was a bookstore in there called Heaven's Covered. I didn't know what Heaven's Covered was. I think Kim worked there, Kim Pruitt. I think she worked there for a while, she told me. I didn't know what that place was, but I saw the word Heaven, so it intrigued me. I pulled in there after work one day and went in, and I saw all kinds of knick-knacks and cards and books and stuff. And you gotta understand, I was not somebody that liked school. I worked harder on getting out of school than I ever did going to school. And I certainly would not call reading a hobby, not something I wanted to do, had any interest in doing. But I walked in there and in the center where they have those displays in the middle, there was a book. Of all the books, I don't know why this book caught my eye. but it was like God just fixed my gaze on this book. Systematics Theology by Charles Ryrie. Boy, that's the kind of book you want to read when you don't like to read. And I went and I picked up that book, and it had a lot of big words that I had no idea what they meant. And I looked at it for a while, and I flipped it over, and I looked at the price tag, $30, and I said, ooh, that's a lot. For a book, that's about $29.99 too much. I don't think I'm going to spend that. So I put the book down and went home, and I couldn't stop thinking about that book. We sat down for dinner, and I said, there's a book. She probably thought I was crazy. There's a book, Heaven's Cupboard, and I sure wish I could get that book. She said, well, why don't you go get it? That was all I needed. I didn't have $30, but I had a credit card. And they'll let you buy just about anything if you got a credit card. So I went in there and bought that book. We had a two-bedroom apartment. The second room was just empty. We didn't use it for anything. And that became my study. I would come home from work. I would see her for a minute. That's my wife in the sound room, by the way. My girlfriend became my wife. Miss Alyssa back there. She loves it when I talk about hers. Bring her up front here and let her share a little bit. But I'd get that book and this Bible, the only Bible I had, and I'd go in that room for hours and just study and study. I couldn't get enough of it. I didn't realize that God is always two or three steps ahead of you. I don't know if you know that. You might be here today and you're lost. You might have thought I just came here today for Daniel and Jomelin. This is the first and last time I'll probably ever come to this church or any church. I wanna let you know God had a plan for you today. You're not here by accident. We don't lock the doors, but I hope you'll stay. Until I'm finished, I don't wanna pick on just the visitors. This could be, this message could be for one of our regulars, could be for somebody online, it could be for all of us. Maybe it's just for me, I don't know. But God's word doesn't return void, and I believe that he's given me this word and brought you here today to hear it. And so, God has went before you, today, and he went before me all those years ago. He was getting me ready for something bigger, even though I didn't know at the time why I was drawn to a systematic theology book. And so I read that book nonstop. I asked questions to all the folks that I could at my job, and I just grew in the Lord a lot in those early years in my life. About 2003, I got an offer at work. I was still just kind of a utility person, which is a nice word for the grunt that does whatever menial job nobody else wants to do. And I worked next to this guy, and he was going on vacation for a few weeks. And he had showed me a little bit about running machines. And my boss came up and said, hey, he's going to be gone for a couple weeks. Do you think you could run this? And I said, well, I sure can try. I'm always up for a challenge. Let's see what happens. I'll either do it or I'll get fired. I wanted to. And so he left and I started to run it and I guess I must have done a good enough job or faked it enough to convince him I knew what I was doing. And he came back a couple weeks after the guy had come back and he said, I'd like to put you in an apprenticeship program. I'd like to help you learn how to run machines and become a machinist. And I said, OK, that sounds good. He said, are you willing to go into a three-year apprenticeship? And I said, yeah, sure. He's like, well, I want to start off by telling you it's going to be about $5 more on the hour to get you started. Man, at the time, that was huge. I mean, that was about double what I was making, I think, or close to it. And so God blessed us that way. We were able to buy a new home. get a new car back when you were actually able to afford those things. We got that. My daughter was born. God was good. But I'll tell you what, one of the things that you always have to guard your heart against is when good things start coming into your life, you can make the good things your God. You can start worshiping the things, the gifts instead of the giver. And that's what I did. Had more money than I ever had before. Had more stuff. My family had doubled. And I said, man, this is all right. And not only that, but I could work overtime now. There was actually stuff I could do at work to work longer hours. And so all the hours that I used to spend in this, I started spending at work. Because that overtime adds up. And it gets you more stuff. And that stuff is fun for a while. It brings you some enjoyment for a period of time. And so I started to get more stuff and spend more time at work. And then when I came home, there wasn't much interest or time for this. But I'll tell you what did start to creep back up in my mind again was that same stuff that I had bagged up and threw in the dumpster years before. But now there was a thing called the Internet. that was pretty popular taking off. It'd been around, but now you could access it a lot more easy. And I started to get on that internet and look at things I shouldn't be looking at. And I'll never forget, I came home one night from work, we ate dinner, I went upstairs, and I sit in front of that computer, and I started to feel sick. We've all been sick before, but if you've ever went through a major sickness, You know that's a little bit different. It's not just a cold or an ache or a pain. When I was 18 years old, I had went through all sorts of sickness and nobody could figure out what was wrong with me. They kept giving me medicine and said, you have a bad infection in your stomach and this and that and the other. And finally it got to a point where I went up there and my mom told him, he's not leaving this place until you figure out what's wrong with him. So a surgeon came in and he said, we have no idea at this point what else to do other than open you up and see what's going on in there. He said, I think it might be your appendix. Probably go in there and take your appendix out. Should be about an hour and you'll be hopefully feeling better. I woke up the next day, kind of confused, not sure what had happened. He told me that I'd been in surgery for six and a half hours. He said, when I opened you up, it looked like a gun had went off inside of your intestines. He said they were so perforated, you got Crohn's disease, and he said they were so perforated, all that stuff was leaking out in your blood and you were starting to go septic. He said, you probably wouldn't have lived a whole lot longer that way. They removed part of my intestine, put it back together, and I was good up until that night when I sat in front of that computer and started to feel that same pain that I knew was not normal. And so, men, I'm going to count on you to amen me on this. We're stubborn sometimes about doctors. Amen? But after a while, it got to a point where I had no choice. So I came downstairs, and we lived in Trenton at the time. I told my wife, I said, I think you better get the baby ready, call your grandma, and drop her off. We need to probably go to the hospital. So she got her all packed up. She was about nine months old at the time. Went from Trenton to Seven Mile where her grandma lived. Pulled in that driveway. I opened up the car door. It was March. Not this cold, but cold. I rolled out in that front yard just pouring sweat. And I said, you are going to have to call an ambulance. I can't ride in the car. I can't walk. I can't do anything. So I made it inside. They called an ambulance, come got me, took me to Fort Hamilton and found out that I had scar tissue that had developed from back when I had that surgery when I was 18. He said, we're gonna have to go in there and remove some more of your intestine to cut that. It had choked it off and it had basically died. There was no blood going to it. He said, we're gonna have to cut that out. You'll be better in a few weeks. Good to go. So they did the surgery. Laid up there in Fort Hamilton for about 10 days. And you know, you would think that that would be a wake-up call. You would think it would make me start thinking about things. Sometimes God has to get you way down before you'll look up. But I'm ashamed to say I laid in that hospital bed for 10 days, and I didn't think about God once, I don't think. I thought about getting back to work. I thought about my responsibilities. I thought about doing the things at home that I was falling behind on, but I didn't think about God. I got home from the hospital. My wife stayed home for a few days to make sure I was going to be all right. The third day, she said, I'm going back to work tomorrow, and you've got one thing. that you better do." I said, what's that? She said, you're gonna sleep. I had been sleeping anyway. We had a fold-out couch. She said, you stay right there on that couch and don't move until I get home. I said, all right. She went to work. I got up that morning and was absolutely exhausted. I had never felt so tired in my life. And I said, well, it's no doubt laying on this rock-hard, fold-out mattress. I'm not sleeping good. My bed's right upstairs. She'll never know that I made a few stairs climb to lay in that bed and get some rest before she comes home. So I headed upstairs to get in that bed. And I know, I know nobody will ever tell me different. If I would have laid in that bed and went to sleep, I wouldn't be here today. I got to the top of those stairs, saw that bed, took a step towards the door, and again, I didn't hear a voice, but I sure did in my spirit. Get downstairs, open the front door. I said, I've just come up here. I'm not going back down there. I'm getting in that bed. I tried to take another step and my legs wouldn't go. Go downstairs, open the door. Over and over and over I'm standing here in the doorway looking at the bed, wanting so bad to lay in it, and hearing this voice over and over again. And finally, thankfully, I said, all right, I'm going to open this door for whatever reason. I woke up on the living room floor, laying there with the cordless phone. The cordless phone, again, I'm showing my age here. Some of you are like, what's a cordless phone? We used to not always have cell phones, guys, you young ones. We used to have an actual home phone. Some of them were corded. If you wanted to block somebody, you took it off the receiver and they couldn't call you. That's how we blocked people. And so, I had the cordless phone. I don't know how I got back there to get it. I don't know how I got back there on how I opened the door. But I was on that phone just saying over and over again, I can't breathe. I can't breathe. And she kept saying, just hang on. Just stay with me. They're on the way. They're on the way. I saw a sheriff pull up, open the door, head up our steps, and I don't remember anything. I'll tell you what else was amazing. I didn't learn this until years later. That preacher that I worked with, at work. He took off work that day. And he said when he woke up, all he could think about was me. Can you imagine that? You're day off and I'm what you're thinking about? That's a bad day. That's a bad day off. But he said it was so bad, he said, I got in the car and drove to your house and rang the doorbell. And he said, you never answered. He said, but I just felt the overwhelming urge to pray on your front door he had no idea what was going on on the other side of that door but God burdened him to come over and pray while all that's going on inside my house After I learned what had happened when I was at Fort Hamilton and had that surgery, I had blood clots form in my legs and didn't know that was back before they gave you blood thinners and got you up and moved you around a lot like they do now. And so when I got home, those things had broken loose and went to my lungs and caused a pulmonary embolism. The sheriff that came up to the door, he said, when I walked in, you were already that grayish color. And he said, I rolled you over, no pulse, no breathing. He did CPR for 12 minutes and had nothing. The squad got there, they put me in the ambulance, they started the drugs, and my heart started again. They were on the way to Fort Hamilton Hospital. You know who worked at Fort Hamilton Hospital? My wife. She had no idea that any of this was going on. They called ahead, code blue, 24-year-old male on his way to the hospital. 26-year-old male, I'm sorry. We go through the doors. They walk in. She walks in. There I am. She loses it. Rosie was there that day. Rosie's praying with my wife. Loretta was part of that, I believe. I don't know if you were in the room, but you were certainly at Fort Hamilton that day and others. I think Jen, I don't know if you were there way back then, or maybe Nina was there. I'm not sure who all. You might have heard this story before. You're going to hear it again. But they were doing their thing, praying in the corner. My heart rate was 240, 250. My blood pressure was all over the place. I told my wife, I said, he's probably not going to make it. He went so long without oxygen. It's not looking good. We're going to call UC and see if they'll careflight him. But we can't, we can't handle this. And it doesn't look good. And even if he does make it, he's probably going to be brain dead from lack of oxygen and all that stuff. She might say I am, but... They called UC. I'm scared to... I even feel like God's in this detail. I might just be silly. I'm scared to fly. I don't fly. But they were going to care flight me. And so God sent a storm that day. So they couldn't fly me. That's my story anyway. There was a storm and they called UC and they said, we can't fly, that's too bad. So they called Miami Valley and they said the same thing. We can't fly in this weather, it's awful. So finally, I think they just thought, well, he'll probably pass here in a little while anyway, and we won't have to worry about it. But God kept me going. And so finally they said, well, we're just going to have to transport. Miami Valley said, we'll take him, but you got to transport him. So they loaded me up in an absolute, from what I understand, an absolute downpour. bagging, you know, bagging me as they go on up there, doing everything they had to do, driving up in the rain, 30 mile an hour, however fast they could go, my wife behind them, my preacher behind them, and they got me to Miami Valley. And for two weeks I was there. For the first three days I was in ICU at Miami Valley. They had me strapped down because I wanted to pull the tubes and stuff out. And again, they told my wife, you know, he's in bad shape, he's not probably going to make it through this thing. I wanted to speak so bad and I couldn't, and they gave me a paper to try to write on. I still got it at home. You know what the first thing I wrote on that paper? Did I fly? That's what I was worried about. Did I fly here? Where am I? But I just, you know, wanted to talk but I couldn't. But day after day I had every kind of ologist come in that you can imagine. Neurologist, pulmonologist, cardiologist, you name it, I saw them. And I used to have a folder full of their reports. And on day one it was doom and gloom, and then the next day it was doom and gloom, and then all of a sudden there was a little hope and a little more hope. And things just kept getting better. I got out of ICU. I went to step down. About the second day in step down, I lost my sight. I couldn't see anything except red. Everything I looked at was just red. I don't know if I had swelling on my brain or what was going on. But for three days, I couldn't see anything. I had two guys at work. This is the kind of work I worked at. The chief executive officer and the chief financial officer. Most of them people, when you work on the floor, they don't even know your name. These guys drove all the way up to Miami Valley and came in my room. And he said, Chris, he said, it's Rob, and I got Mark with me. And I said, I can't see you at all, but I hear you. And he said, well, if you can hear me, you can hear me pray. And he prayed for me. And that evening, I could see again. God's been good to me in so many ways. Finally, after two weeks in Miami Valley, I got to go home. You would think that I'd be praising God and thanking Him. I hadn't thought about Him once. I thought about work, my home, why me? I had my pity party. Will I ever be normal again? Will I ever be able to do the things I used to do? I got home and was trying to get my strength back. They had me off work for a couple more weeks. One day, I was sitting there. I had a different Bible. When I got baptized, they gave us a Bible just like we do here. And I had that Bible with dust on it sitting next to the chair because I hadn't opened it in quite a while. And that day, I just said, you know what? Nothing else to do. Might as well look at this. I don't know if God speaks to us verbally. I've heard people say that audibly, they've heard God, maybe He does, maybe He doesn't. But I do know God speaks to His Word, and I know without a shadow of a doubt, just as He had spoken to me before in different ways, He spoke to me that day. He took me to three passages in the Bible that aren't just, it's not one of those things where like, oh, well, everybody knows John 3, 16. Yeah, sure, that's just coincidence. He took me to three passages that probably nobody in this room has ever even heard or maybe not even read. But I'm telling you, it was just crystal clear. Go right to these and read them. The first one is Psalm 119, verse 67. It says, Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I have kept your word. That was clear to me. I had gotten away from God. I was not living for Him anymore. I was not doing the things that He wanted me to do. I was not serving Him at all. And the sickness that I faced got allowed in my life. Sometimes bad things happen in our life that have nothing to do with us. It's just part of living in a fallen world. But sometimes there's consequences to our actions. God can forgive any sin but he doesn't have to remove the consequences of our stupidity and if you want to get outside of the will of God and live for other things he'll let those things save you in your time of need and you'll find that they can't all the money and work and jobs and houses didn't mean anything if I didn't have my health All the time I spent chasing after silly things didn't mean much if I didn't have my family, who was the ones that were there to care for me when I needed them. And most of all, without my God, I had no hope. And so I realized, before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now, I have kept Your Word. I said, Lord, I am sorry that I have not lived for You and done what I need to do. But I am ready right now to do whatever you want me to do and stop running from you. He took me to John 11, chapter 4. It's the story of Lazarus. Lazarus had died. His sisters had sent for Jesus. Jesus waited for four days to show up, and they didn't understand why. And Jesus told them these words. He said, speaking of Lazarus, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that Christ may be glorified by it. And I knew, after hearing that verse and reading that verse, that what happened to me had a purpose. God doesn't do anything by accident. He doesn't waste a second of creation. Everything has a purpose. including you. I was to give God glory. And I had no idea how to do that, but I was ready to do whatever He wanted me to do. If He would have told me to go to China and be a missionary, I wouldn't have flown there, but I'd have found a boat or something and I'd have got there. Whatever He wanted, I was going to do it. And He took me to Mark chapter 5, verse 19, a story about the demonic Had a legion of demons in this man. He'd sit naked in a graveyard, chained, cutting himself, out of his mind, crazy. Jesus loved him enough to go find him. Told him the good news, that he was the Savior. This man was saved. The demons were cast out of him, and he became new, just like Jesus can do for you. The Bible says after he did that, he was clothed and in his right mind. And in verse 19, he just wanted to go with Jesus. Wherever Jesus was gonna go, that's where this man wanted to go. Just like me. And Jesus told him, go home. Go back to your homeland. Go back to where you live. And tell the people there about the compassion that I've had for you. And I knew at that moment, I didn't know a whole lot still, but I knew that God was calling me in the ministry. I didn't know what pastor or much of that was at the time, but that's where He was calling me. I went to my preacher. I said, this is what happened. This is what God is calling me to do. What's next? What do I need to do? He said, you need to get a sermon ready. You're going to preach in two weeks. I said, oh, okay. I had no idea. I had my theology book, I had my Bible, and I had the preacher that I worked with, and I started to talk to him. And he said, preaching is different than just reading the Bible. He said, you gotta rely on God like never before. He's like, you gotta get in that book, and seek, and study. But he's like, you're gonna have to place your faith in the Lord. He's like, he's the only one that can use you and do anything with you. So I said, okay, I'm just going to pray and ask him to help me. There was a new group at the time that had just come out called Casting Crowns. Everybody knows them now, but nobody knew who they were back then. The first song they ever published was called Voice of Truth. The radio was sitting next to me as I was running my machine and that song came on, Voice of Truth. And there's a part in that song that says, oh, what I would do to have the faith it takes to climb out of this boat I'm in onto the crashing waves, Matthew chapter 14. And I knew right then that was my message, that was my sermon. And so I got it together. Sunday came, I got in that pulpit, scared to death. I'm the most introverted, was the most introverted backwards person you'll ever meet. I've told you this before, I'd have my mom call me in sick if we had to give a presentation at school in front of the class because there was no way I could stand in front of people and talk. My wife and I dated for about two weeks before we spoke. We'd go on dates and look at each other, which was all right with me. Probably wasn't so good for her, but we didn't say anything. I was so backwards and introverted, and I still don't like to talk. She don't like to talk, and I don't like to talk, but I do more because one of us has got to do something, right? You probably wouldn't like me to stand up here and not do much of anything. Maybe you would, but I got up there scared to death. I opened up the Bible, and I don't really remember much about what I preached. But all I know is I looked at my watch, and it was 10 minutes, and I was done. You say, hallelujah, pastor. Let's get back to that. It's already afternoon here. I got down and I just felt like I failed the biggest failure, the biggest fraud that had ever lived. I was so messed up. It felt like I was so wrong. I thought I was called and I wasn't. Man, the enemy was just beating me up. We stood down there. The music started. The pastor gave the invitation. He said, I want you to step here with me. I had my head down. I couldn't even look at anybody. And all of a sudden I heard shuffling. And here comes somebody. And then here comes somebody. And before you know it, I'd say 80% of church had come forward to either pray or just encourage me or whatever they needed. And I think we had a small taste of revival that morning. And God showed me that morning, it's not about you. It will never be about you. But if you are just obedient, If you will just allow me to use you, I'll do the rest." And he always has. He always has. I didn't have a message ready this week for you guys. I didn't have time to study. I was too sick to study. Couldn't even read. My head was hurting so bad I couldn't even read. But he gave me this story a long time ago. I know a lot of you have heard it before, but I'll never get tired of telling it. because He's everything to me. All my hope is in Jesus. And I'm telling you that sometimes people think, man, you take this awful serious. If there's a God who had a Son, who came to earth and went through what He went through, and died on a cross for my sins and for your sins, Is it crazy for me to take it serious or is it crazy for you to not take it serious? Think about that. If what I'm saying today and what this book is saying is true, how can we play games? How can we take a day off? How can we not tell other people about a Jesus that can save them and change their life? That's why I'm here. That's why God didn't take me home. He will one day. But until He does, I'll never stop telling people about Jesus. Because He means so much to me. And I want you to know this, Jesus. And you can know this, Jesus. I hope you realize that I was not a Christian by birth. I didn't catch Christianity from my parents or my preacher. Jesus came looking for me when I didn't know anything about Him. And He found me, and He called me, and it took a while to get through this thick head of mine. But on the day that I knew I needed Him, I asked Him to save me, and He did. And I'm asking you today, has there been a time in your life where you realized you were lost? If you died tonight, you would go to a devil's hell for all eternity, because you're not good enough. You're not worthy enough. You're not able to make it on your own. But God loved the world enough that He would give His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. You can trust that Jesus today. It's just faith. It's just trust. It's just asking. Ask and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. That's all it takes. I'm asking you today. Jesus Christ loves you and died for you. Will you ask Him into your life to save you? The verse I read to you today said that He pulled me up out of a horrible pit and out of the miry clay. Your life may be in the deepest, darkest hole right now that you've ever been in and you can't even see the sunlight anymore, you're so far down there. You're not too far for God to reach you. His arm is not that short. He can reach down in there and get you right where you're at. And I believe He is today. I've been so burdened this week for someone that's lost, or maybe several that are lost, and I believe today you can't plead ignorance. You know you're lost. All the things that you have lived for in this life have separated you from God. And He's calling you home today. The last part of that verse says, He put a new song in my mouth. Praise to our God. Many will see it in fear and will trust in the Lord. I always liked to sing, but I wasn't ever really great at it. But I enjoyed it. And He's put a new song in my mouth ever since He found me. And I've sang many songs, but this is one of my favorites. And so I'm going to say this. I'm going to sing this song. If nothing else, I'm going to sing it for my Savior. But you don't have to wait for an invite. When God calls, you answer. If you need Jesus, call on Him now. We have some folks that usually stand at the altar. I'm just going to ask them to come on up here now. This isn't the invitation, but it can be. If you need Jesus, if you need somebody to pray with you, or you just want to come and pray by yourself, while I sing this song, while Jesus calls your name, I hope you'll come and answer Him today. You know what? You can sing along with me. If you need to come, you come. I've been held by the Savior I've felt fire from above I've been down to the river. I ain't the same. Is that you today? Thank God my yesterday's gone. Yours can be too. And all my sins are forgiven. That's what he can do. And I've been washed by the blood of Jesus. I'm no stranger to the prison. I've worn shackles and chains. But I've been freed and forgiven. I'm not going back. I'll never be the same. That's why I sing all my hope is in Jesus. We trust him today. Thank God my yesterday's gone. And all my sins are forgiven. And I've been washed by the There's a kind of thing that just breaks a man. Break him down to his knees. God, I've been broken more than a time or two. Yeah, Lord. And he picked me up Show me what it means to be a man. Come on and sing. All my hope is in Jesus. Thank God my yesterday's gone. Gone, gone, gone. All my sins are forgiven. Can you sing that with me tonight? Let's sing. All my hope is in Jesus Oh, I, I've been washed by the blood. Praise His name. Praise His name. Phyllis, will you play I Surrender, will you lead us in I Surrender All Church? If you need to come, you come. This is your chance. Whatever you need to play, Phyllis, you play whatever's on your heart. But if you need Him today, you come. You come and receive Him. Don't wait another moment. Jesus is tugging at your heart today.