I have wrestled with God all morning on where I'm supposed to preach from. I have, as often is the case, a message that I have spent all week preparing. And I woke up this morning with a whole different set of verses on my mind. And that causes me a lot of anxiety. I'm just going to be honest about it because, you know, as many times as I know in the past that I can always trust God and know that He is faithful and He will always give me what I need, when you spend all week preparing for one thing and then within an hour of the time, a couple hours of the time you're supposed to stand up in front of people and preach, It goes a whole other direction, I'll be honest with you. That's complete dependence on God at that point. And so, I have this message in front of me from Philippians that I was going to preach, but I just cannot shake the fact that I'm supposed to preach from the book of Hebrews this morning. So, just pray for me that I'm in God's will and not in my own thoughts, because I'm going to put this away, and I'm going to trust God this morning as we go to Hebrews chapter 11. So you pray for me. I know you always do, but pray extra hard this morning. All right? Hebrews chapter 11. So y'all in the sound room, just take a break today. We won't need you till the invitation, because everything on the screen is now officially null and void for where we're going this morning, because I have no idea I'm trusting God just like you. So this is going to, you're going to get it as I get it this morning. All right? Hebrews chapter 11. I want to look at verses. 5 and 6, specifically 6, but I want to read verse 5 to you too. So when you find your place, say amen, stand up with me if you can, and let's read this together. Hebrews chapter 11, verses 5 and 6. By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found, because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him father this morning account is completely reliant upon you know what i have nothing to say but if you give it to me it's everything they need and so lord i pray today that as always say that you would increase and i would decrease the father you would speak for me as your vessel in that your word would go forth with power and authority to change hearts and lives or that they would hear from you and that they would leave here a different person got most of all they leave here is a follower of jesus christ never done that thank you for what we've already felt and heard today. Lord, we love you and we thank you for your goodness and grace to us and to this church. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. I did a funeral yesterday, and there was a lot of folks that I tried to get around and talk to. And one of the fellows that I was talking to came up and struck up a conversation with me about Enoch. He started to talk to me about the life of Enoch. He started to ask me questions about the book of Enoch and different things. I listened more than I talked believe it or not and he said quite a bit about it and I just I kinda was you know just listening to him and I thought about Enoch a little bit as he was talking but but not really anything as far as a message certainly didn't have anything planned for that morning and I woke up this morning with Hebrews 11 6 on my heart I've been thinking a lot this week about where we're headed this year as a church and where God has brought us from and where he's bringing us to. Not just as a church together, but as individual believers that make up the church and what that looks like in our lives. individually and when we come together. And so one of the things that I had thought about and prayed about earlier in the year was to take a month and try to get us intentionally away from distractions. And I would say probably for most of us, the biggest distraction we have is that device in our pockets. It's a blessing in a lot of ways. It keeps us connected. It keeps us organized It gives us a lot of access and information at our fingertips But it's real easy to waste a whole afternoon evening month and year on that thing if we're not careful And so I had told the church been telling you guys and again, I can't make you do this I'm not going to go around police you and check your screen time to see if you're doing it, but I'm challenging you to to go on a digital detox for the month of February. Now, that may be an extreme fast for you. A fast just means that you're giving up something to draw nearer to God. That could be an extreme case for you, where you completely get off every form of social media altogether and don't look at any of it. For some of you, the withdrawals from that may be too severe, and so I'm asking you to give up something that you spend time on as far as social media. If you can't give it all up, give up one of the apps that you spend a lot of time on. Don't make it something easy. Don't give up MySpace that you haven't been on in 25 years and say, I did something. Make it something that's going to really free up some time for you. Because my prayer is that we can emphasize this month a removal of distraction and a drawing nearer to Christ. And so next Sunday, we are going to begin at the church a 21 days of prayer that will take us through the rest of the month. And I'm going to have some specific things for you in the way of what that looks like praying together, not just individually in your own quiet time, but as we join together corporately, even though we aren't going to be in the same building each day through the week, obviously, there will be specific times and specific things that we can focus on to pray over, okay? And so that was part of the focus of this month. And so I have been trying to fill in my spare time as I've detoxed with catching up on some reading. It's something where I've got books to last me ten lifetimes and don't get into them enough or start one and don't finish it. So I have begun to be more intentional about reading, setting aside time that I would have wasted mindlessly scrolling to read and to use that time to draw nearer to God. And one of the books that I'm reading right now, I'm reading two at the same time, which might not be a good idea, but it works for me because I flip back and forth between them. And the one book I'm reading is called A Praying Church. And I'm only about 100 pages into it, but it has gripped my heart, and it has caused me to reevaluate not just how I pray, but how I lead you as a church together to pray, and what that really looks like, and how I think we've missed it in a lot of ways. How the prayer meetings that used to be central and so critical to the life of a church have not been what they used to be. And so that has been something that's been on my heart. And so I woke up this morning with Hebrews 11.6 on my mind, and I went in my study, and I got the sermon out that I had prepared all week, and I looked it over, and I was ready to give it, and I could not stop thinking about Hebrews 11.6. And so rather than panicking immediately, which I do from time to time, I said, I've been focused on prayer. I've been reading about prayer. I've been studying about prayer. Probably should pray. And so I got down on my knees and I said, God, is this for me? Is this Hebrews 11, 6 for me? Am I supposed to preach it? And I had no clarity about it. And so I got here this morning. We had our 930 prayer time. We got up, got in our circle as we always do to hold hands. Brother Art said, does anybody want to pray? As usual, it was quiet for a moment. And then when we got done, Brother Dave, quiet as he is, decided to say something. And Dave said, if someone asks you to pray, and I'm paraphrasing, don't ever pass up the opportunity to pray to your Lord and Savior, in a nutshell. and so when he said that in the moment I knew what I have on my mind and what I've had on my heart from this text this morning. The chapter in Hebrews that we read from in 11 is a chapter that some have labeled the Hall of Faith, the Heroes of Faith. The entire chapter lists out individuals, groups of people that walked with God and lived for God and had a testimony that their faith drew them nearer to Christ, drew them nearer to God. And one of those characters is Enoch. Enoch is not mentioned much in the Bible. He's found in the book of Genesis and it said that he walked with God and then God, King James uses the word, translated him or took him up so that he did not taste death. Enoch and Elijah are the only two people in the Bible that we know of that didn't experience death, that God took them up to heaven. But I thought about what it says in verse 5 here. I shared my testimony with you last week. I shared with you about what God's done in my life. I think it's good for folks to hear what God has done in your life. I think if you have a testimony, you ought to tell people about it. I think if you walk with God, people ought to hear about it, and I think they ought to know about it. And so when we come to verse 5, I want you to see four words. We don't know a lot about Enoch, but we've got four words right here. And I would venture to say that if one day, if the Lord tarries and doesn't come back for us, if we all find our place in the ground with a tombstone above where we're buried, I would venture to say that if these four words could be written on that grave marker, we lived a full life for the Lord. What's it say there in verse 5 about the testimony of Enoch? That he pleased God. That he pleased God. Of all the things that we spend our life racing around trying to figure out, all the things that we want to accomplish, all the places we want to go, all the money we want to make, can we honestly sit here today, this morning, and say that our life would be defined by the people who know us best, that He lived, that She lived to please God? Ask yourself that honest question. Better yet, ask people that know you really good. And see if their estimation of your life is that you live to please God. That's not just something that was set aside for Enoch. That's not just something that's set aside for special followers of Jesus. That is the duty and the call of everyone that claims the name of Jesus Christ. And what worries me is that so often we come to church and we worship together, but we leave Jesus out of the equation. We get down on our hands and knees and we pray, but we leave Jesus out of the equation. We study the Bible for knowledge, but we leave Jesus out of the equation. You come here each week, and you hear me preach, and you take in information, and you go back out the door, and everything that you've heard has done nothing to add to the testimony that you live to please God. If you don't put into practice the things that you learn, they do no good for you in your walk with the Lord. And ultimately, this is not about becoming more versed in the Bible. It's not about coming to church to simply understand the Scriptures more. Our lives are centered around a person. They're centered around the resurrected, glorified Jesus. And our goal in life is not just to learn about Him, it's to walk with Him, church. And I'm asking you today, in your worship time, in your prayer time, in your Scripture-reading time, are you drawing closer and growing nearer to Christ? Because the closer you get to Him, the more you will become like Him. But if all you're doing is just absorbing information, that will swell your head, but possibly not affect your life in the least. We have got to, church, apply the thing. live the things that God gives us from His Word. And that is to walk as Enoch walked with God, and his life pleased God. Look at verse 6, as he springboards off of the life of Enoch, he walked with God, he pleased God, he lived a life of faith. For the believer, there is no other way that we can live our life than a life of faith. If we want to truly please God, we've got to trust Him. We sing the songs about Jesus, about what He's done for us, what happened on Calvary, about He lives and is seated at the right hand of the Father. We sing all that stuff. We testify about that stuff. But then when it comes to practically living like we believe that, we don't. We live as though we're agnostics. We live sometimes as though we're atheists, because our lives don't translate into a life of faith. When problems come, we fall apart. When suffering comes, we doubt God. When all these things happen, all of a sudden, the God that we sang about and praised about is no longer really a part of our life in those moments. It's easy to do it in here. It's easy to worship God when we're gathered together on a Sunday morning with like-minded people. But what does our life look like when we walk out these doors? Do we live to please God? Do we rearrange our lives and priorities so that that's evident? Or does God just get a little bit of leftover? Does He just get a little bit of spare time? Do we give our families what we give them here? And that is discipleship. Do we sit down at a table and read God's Word together? Do we pray together? Do we walk and serve together? Or is this the only time that as a family you gather around and think about God together? It's got to take place consistently in our lives, Church. And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning. Look what it says in verse 6. Enoch had walked with God, and he pleased Him. But, and here's the thing, if you want to live a life that is pleasing to God, the writer here is going to tell you how you can live a life that will not please God. So, if you want to please God, you need to do some certain things, but if you want to be certain that you're not pleasing God, do this. He says, without faith, trust, surrender to Him in all areas of your life, it is impossible to please Him. And here's where I want to push this back home to you. On any given week, we preach, we teach, we give you an opportunity to respond. And I have no doubt, some of you have told me personally, that God is dealing with you about things. And yet week after week, after month, after year, you sit in the same seat, you listen to the same sermons, and you stay in the same place. And God is not just simply interested with our gathering together on Sunday morning. That's a part of this thing, but that's not the end-all, be-all. If the greatest thing you do all week for God is show up to church on Sunday, you're living far below your calling. You're living far below what God wants for you. Because there is so much more to the Christian life than corporate gathering on Sunday. It's important, no doubt. But it's not the single event that we should have in our life. Our life should be characterized by, we live to please God. Every day, every place we go, we live to please God. We walked with Him, and people saw that, and it made a difference. But without faith, it's impossible to please Him. And many of you are sitting in the same seats doing the same things because you're scared to death, or perhaps your unbelief is so strong that you won't let go and trust God in this moment. You won't trust Him with what you know He wants you to do. You say, well, what if I think this is what He wants me to do, but I'm not sure? By faith, take a step out. Take a step out. Sometimes you've got to just trust God even when it might be the wrong thing to trust that He can work all things together for good. Perhaps if you step out in faith into the wrong thing, at least you stepped out and now He can guide you to the right thing. But you hold on to your unbelief, to your doubts, to your procrastination, and you're not doing anything except going through the motions. You're showing up to church, and that's it. Don't you want to live a life that pleases God? It takes faith. It takes faith. It takes faith to have a testimony like Enoch. Listen, I fail him in that area, too. I'm not standing up here criticizing you and saying, I've got it all figured out. But every great thing that God has done in my life took a step of faith. Everything that God has done for me required me to say, I'm going to trust you with this. Am I scared? Yes. Am I unworthy? Yes. Do I have shortcomings in that area? Yes. But God is all-sufficient. Do you really believe in the God that we worship or don't you? If He is able, then trust Him, because our prayers get so focused on these small little compartmentalized things, and we come to God with this big long list that we've already got it all spelled out. Well, God, as long as it falls within this budget, as long as it falls within these days of the week at this time period, as long as it involves this and not that, as long as it puts me here and not there, I'm good to go. And in that moment, you've become your own God. You're just asking Him to kind of just add a blessing to what you've already figured out. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. I'm asking you, have you ever stepped out and trusted Jesus Christ completely? Not for His salvation, but with everything. With your life, with your finances, with your time, your talents, your treasures, have you trusted Him? You say, well, I don't know. I'm asking you the same question again. Would your life be testified about, just like Enoch's? He lived To please God is every decision you make bathed in prayer, not to just get an answer, but to draw you nearer to Jesus. That's the point of prayer, guys. It's not just to get an answer. It's to bring us face-to-face with Christ, so that we realize that... Because look what it says. Let me read it to you. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is. That's not just simply that He exists, that He's out there, that there's somebody, that there's a Creator or there's a God. You believe that He is the I Am, the God of this book, the One that raised the dead, the One that parted the sea, the One that did the miracles, the One that makes dead men live. Do you believe that? Does anybody believe that today? Just because you're Baptist doesn't mean you can't acknowledge that He is good. And He is alive. And do you believe that? And has it changed the way that you live your life? Listen, we are so afraid to do anything. I told our new Sunday school class today. We had, I think, 15 or 16 young adults in Sunday school today. Praise God for that. But I told them, the word for our class is uncomfortable. I'm going to make them, if they'll keep coming, I'm going to make them uncomfortable. And I'm going to tell you that there's going to be times in your Christian life where you've got to get uncomfortable. That old brother, George Martin, used to say it all the time. I'll never forget. I can picture him. I can hear him saying it as clear as day. He'd say, Chris, nothing ever grows in the comfort zone. Nothing grows in the comfort zone. Oh yeah, it's easy. It's what you know. It's comfortable. But nothing grows there. If you want to grow, you've got to trust God. You've got to step outside of what you know and step out into the unseen where only God knows. I didn't know what it meant to pastor a church. I didn't know what it meant to walk with God. I didn't know what it meant to leave one church and start another one. I didn't know any of that stuff. And eventually, I just had to trust Him with it. Everything that you see here around you today is because of God. It's not because you had a church planner that knew how to do this stuff. I don't know anything about starting a church. It's one thing to walk into an established church where they've been doing things the same way for 50 years and just float into the comfort zone and not rock the status quo and do it like you've always been doing it. But to start from ground zero with nothing and not know where it's going to come from or how to get there, we don't even know where we're going to meet, let alone how it's going to look. And it's a step of faith, and God has honored that every step of the way. All praise to Him. When you pull in this parking lot every day, may it be a reminder to you of what God can do if you'll walk in faith. Every day, every time, this is simply because God has honored the faith that a few folks had to step out and do something in His name. And I'm telling you that God will do something with your life, but not until you trust Him. It is impossible. You can't bypass the faith and say, well, God, if you'll just kind of show me, if you'll just kind of do it, I'll just jump into it at the end once it's all established. He wants you to trust Him. He wants you to walk with Him, so that when people look back on your life, they can say, that was somebody that didn't just talk the talk, they walked the walk. They knew God, and God knew them, and their life proved it. They wanted to live for Him. They desired to live for Him, and they did live for Him. I'm asking you again like I do every week. If you believe that Jesus is alive, if you believe He's coming back, if you believe there's a heaven and a hell, if you believe there's a day of judgment, why do we keep playing games? Why are we so lukewarm? Why are we putting all the things of the world before God? Why? Why? I said it last week and I'll say it again. You say, man, that's pretty radical. Man, you're pretty over-the-top about Jesus. Like, tone it down a few notches, Pastor. I'm just telling you this. If God is real, He sent His Son, He died on a cross for your sins, and He rose again three days later, am I the nutcase for taking that too serious, or are you the nutcase for not taking it serious enough? See, we live like we don't believe it. We say amen when we talk about the cross and the resurrection, but we don't live like we believe in the cross and the resurrection. We don't let it change our life. We don't let it transform us the way that Jesus does. And it's not just about thinking about those things. It's about trusting Christ, who lives within us as the Holy Spirit, to surrender to Him. If you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, which you do as a true believer, you don't think you can trust Him? Listen, I know it's hard when you don't know the direction. I know it's hard when you're not sure. But trust Him. Just trust Him over and over when you read the scriptures. Have you ever read about Abraham? There's a guy in the Bible in the Old Testament, the father of faith, his name is Abraham. All three major religions believe in Abraham, one of the key figures. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all have Abraham at the forefront of that religion. He's a pretty important person. And when God found him in a pagan nation, worshipping pagan gods, the Bible just says, God went to him in Ur of the Chaldees and said, follow me. When he went and called the disciples by the Sea of Galilee, what did he say to them? He didn't give them a big 300-page document outlining the next three years. He said, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men, period. And they had to decide, were they going to give up their jobs, their nets, their careers, their families, and follow him, or were they going to say, come back when you've got a little more details and I'll think about it? Because that's what we do every Sunday. We sit in here and God draws us, speaks to us, convicts us, and we say, oh, man, that's a lot. I think I'll just keep on floating along and going through the motions and wait till somebody else does that. Or maybe I figure it all out. You're not going to get all the details because without faith it's impossible to please Him. You're going to have to trust Him. You're going to have to believe that He is. That's what it says, isn't it? Let me read it to you. For he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of who? Of those who seek Him. He doesn't give you the reward first, and then say, OK, here it is, come on, let me draw you to it. He is the reward. If you've got Him, seek Him more, and you will find out that He has already gone before you. Before I ever knew what Keruso Baptist Church was, before we ever knew where we were going to meet, before we ever knew that this building would become available, before we knew anything, God already knew, and He was working things out. Listen, in 2019, I had no idea. In 2025, on February 2nd, God already knew where we would be today. He is not bound by time or our difficulty to comprehend what He's doing. Faith steps out and trusts Him. Because this is not a blind walk, guys. It would be scary if we were stepping out and we said, I don't know who's driving this ship. but we're just gonna take a shot at it, that'd be scary, wouldn't it? But we know who's driving. All you gotta do is get in and go along for the ride. Right? It's one thing if somebody's driving along, we have no idea who they are, where they're going, if they know anything, but if God's the one that's leading this thing, then why do we need to fear? Why do we need to doubt? What is holding you back from having a testimony that says he lived, she lived to please God? It's your unbelief. That's what it is. This whole chapter is about faith, and the thing that will keep you from having your name written in the hall of faith is unbelief. It's doubt. That's what's holding you back today. That's what's holding you back from serving God, living for God, surrendering to be a deacon, Sunday school teacher, missionary, pastor, whatever it is. It is your unbelief to say, I'm scared, I'm not sure, what if, I'm busy. All your excuses are bundled up in this little package and you're waiting for God to do something or change something instead of just saying, I'm yours. And I'm going to trust you. Yeah, I'm busy. Yeah, I'm scared. Yeah, I don't have the skill. Yeah, I'm unworthy. Yeah, all that stuff. Amen. God will stamp an amen on it. But you still got to trust Him. You still got to walk with Him. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. And I want to encourage you today. I'm not here to beat you up. I'm here to encourage you. and try to motivate you to see that your worship has been incomplete. If it's just been a raising of the hand and a shouting of an amen, but it hasn't caused you to live as though you trust Jesus. It's just outward. It's superficial. It tickles the ears and excites the flesh, but it does nothing to draw you and your sanctification closer to Christ. That takes walking with Him. That takes living for Him. That takes becoming more like Him. Church, we don't have the luxury of time. I'm telling you, I believe it with all my heart, that the days are drawing to a close. And yet we live like we got all the time in the world. We all do that. When you're young, you think you got all the time in the world. When you get older, you look back and say, I wish I would have more time. We're always looking at time, either future or past. Meanwhile, our lives are slipping by and we're not using the time we have. I'm asking you. I'm pleading with you. Are you living a life that pleases God? I'm not asking you to come to church every week. I'm not asking you if you volunteer. I'm not asking you if you read your Bible and pray. I'm asking you, is your life so different because you walk in faith with your God that people see it by the way that you move and talk and live and breathe? Are you surrendered completely to anything He asks of you, or do you just go when it's convenient? Yeah, just do it when it fits your schedule. Because we've been fed a constant diet for decades from pulpits and Bible studies and teachers that say, says, Christianity doesn't cost you anything. Christianity doesn't cost you anything. And I understand the sentiment. I understand that they're trying to say that you don't have to work for your salvation, that Jesus paid it all, and that grace is free, and it costs Christ his life, but it just takes you trusting him. I get the onus of that. But Christianity isn't easy. It's not cheap. It's going to cost you something. Jesus said, don't think that I came to bring peace on earth with a sword. He said that there's going to be fathers against son, mothers against daughters, households at odds. Your faith is going to cost you something if you live it out. You're going to lose some people along the way. You're going to break some friendships and relationships and acquaintances. Sometimes you're going to have to stand alone. Sometimes you're going to have to do things that the world is going to mock you for and ridicule you over. Sometimes it might cost you your job. Sometimes it might cost you your life. But I'm telling you, and I said it last week, I'm envious in a lot of ways of people in foreign countries. Because when they give their life to Christ, they go all in. There's no pretending, there's no playing, because they realize the stakes are that high. They realize that what we're doing today could cost them their life if they got found out. They realize that when they say in a Muslim country, Jesus Christ is my God, not Allah, that they could easily be beheaded for just saying that statement. But we can fake it so easy. We can pretend so easy. We learn the language. There's a language in church. It's called Christianese. We learn how to speak it. We know what to say. We know how to go through the motions. And it's real easy to come in church and act like you've got it all figured out and you love Jesus. But I'm asking you outside these walls, in your homes, in your schools, in your jobs, in your quiet time, is Jesus still Lord? Is He first? Are you following Him? Are you trusting Him with everything? That's where we need to be. And I'm telling you as an individual and as a church, if we will trust Him like that, This is going to be a year, I have no doubt. I think we are standing on the precipice of something great. I do, and that's not a prosperity message in any way, shape, or form. I'm talking about bringing God more glory, seeing more souls saved, seeing disciples made, seeing people called into missions, ministry, things of that nature. That's successful. If we have 8,000 people, that's fine. If we have 8 people, that's fine. If they're serving Jesus, that's what matters. At the end of the day, I'm asking us, as we stand in this place. God started this five years ago, and we're heading into year six. And I think we're at that point now where we're going to have to trust God again. And the only way that we're going to trust Him is each of us individually saying, I am ready to do what God wants me to do. I'm not going to worry about anybody else and what they're doing or not doing. I'm going to be the one so that my testimony is they live to please God. I'm asking you today, Will you surrender your life to Jesus Christ? And first and foremost, I mean, will you surrender your life to Him as your Lord and Savior? If you're here today, as plainly as I can say it, without Jesus, you are lost. That means that if you die in that condition, you will spend eternity separated from God. That's the bottom line, guys. That's not a comfortable message. That's not a cultural, politically correct message. But that's the truth of what God says. Without Jesus to wash away your sins, you are a breath away from an eternity without God. It's that quick. Those people that got on that plane had no idea that it was going to be the last time that they ever took a breath. It happens all the time. People wake up, they go to work, and they never come home. You've got to be ready. As my old coach used to say, be ready so you don't have to get ready. You've got to be ready, and you can be ready today. Say, how do I do that? You've got to turn from your sins. You've got to stop playing games and thinking that you've got all the time in the world, that you can do this later, that God, He understands my situation, He understands my circumstances. It's not that big a deal. It's just a little bit of this or a little bit of that. In the big picture, I'm a good person. You're not a good person. You're lost. You're separated from God and you're on your way to hell. And the only thing that can save you is Jesus. And you've got to get serious today enough to believe that He is. That's what it says. I'm going to read it to you again. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is. Do you believe in the Jesus that we're preaching from this book, the Son of God, the sinless Son of God, virgin-born, that came 2,000 years ago and walked this earth and lived a perfect life and went to the cross willingly for you. He laid down his life. He said, No man taketh it from me. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. And he did just that three days later through the power of the Holy Spirit. God raised him to life. He rose back to glory as the disciples watched. He's seated at the right hand of the Father today. to make intercession for His people, and He's coming back. And He's not coming back as Savior. He's coming back as Judge. He'll come back with His people. But if you're not one of them, you will stand in judgment. And if you die before that day, you'll stand in judgment and be found guilty already, because you've not believed in His name. And I'm asking you to place your faith in Him today when we give this invitation in a moment. I'm asking you, as scary as it is, to make your first step of faith be one where you will step out of that seat and walk down this aisle and come up here and acknowledge before God, the angels in heaven, and this congregation that you need Jesus. That's a small step for the one-mile journey that He took to Calvary's cross for you. I know it's scary, but at some point, we gotta realize it's scarier to stand before Jesus lost than it is to walk up an aisle in front of a whole church full of people that love you and will celebrate with you if you'll trust them. You're gonna have to give your life to Christ at some point or die without Him. And then I'm asking you if you're saved today, are you walking with Him? No more games. No more half in, half out. I'm asking you, is your number one desire above anything else to walk with Jesus every day and to be who He wants you to be? Surrendered, submitted, obedient in all things. before you trust Him today. Phyllis, you come. Nina, you come. They're going to lead us in a moment. But before we get busy and grab our keys and pick up our water bottles, I just want you to sit still for a minute. I just want you to be still. The Bible says that a lot, be still and know that I am God. I want you to just be still for a minute. Because long before we sing a verse and invite you to come, God's already dealing with people in this room. He's dealt with you for weeks, months, years. And today I'm telling you that there will come a point where He may stop dealing with you and say, that's good, that's what I want. That's not what you want. When your heart is still tender and your ears can still hear that still small voice, that's the time when God is showing you grace and He's given you a chance to respond. But you can harden your heart and turn Him away until you don't hear Him anymore. Don't do that. Don't be that person. You'll never see the testimony be that He pleased God if you harden your heart in unbelief towards the things He's calling you to do. So in a moment, we're going to give this invitation. you know right now in this quiet moment got to know what you're part of what you need to do invitation has been the public time father we thank you this morning lord a difficult word i pray i gave what you like a mark to give today in order now your holy spirit will do what he can only do and that is change hearts change lives drawn convicted courage edify And God, I'm praying for everybody in this room, everybody that's part of this church, everybody that's watching online, that wants to see this church become the body of Christ that you want it to be. But it's going to take every member to be in the part that they're called to be. The hands got to be the hand, the feet's got to be the feet, the fingers, the toes. They've all got to work. And that takes faith. Lord, help us to be faithful. Help us to trust you. Help our testimony to be both inside these walls and outside that they walk with God and we're pleasing to Him. will help me to live that life. Help me to model it for these people here. Help me to be faithful as a pastor and a friend. And Lord, I just pray for you to continue to bless this church as we trust you in faith. Lord, have your way in this invitation. We give you all the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. As we stand and as Nina sings, you know what you need to do at this point. The only question is, will you? Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand. I am tired, I am weak, and I am low. Through the storm, Lead me on to the light. Take my hand, precious Lord. Lead me home. Precious Lord, linger near when my life grows dear. When my life grows dear. Say, Lord, I need you. I want to walk with you. Guide me where you want me to go. Do with me what you want me to do. But I'm not going to stay silent anymore. I'm not going to stay idle anymore. I'm not going to doubt anymore. I'm going to walk with you. I'm going to live for you. I'm going to die for you. Take my hand, precious Lord, and lead me home. He's calling you today. He's dealing with you today. What are you going to do with Jesus? He's created you. He knows the very hairs on your head. He knows everything about you, your shortcomings, your doubts, your fears. He didn't make a mistake. When He calls you, He factored all that stuff in and He's still calling you. So you trust Him today. No more excuses. No more doubts. Just trust Him. Step out of the boat and walk on the water with Jesus. Most of all, if you've never given your life to Christ, trust Him today. He can save you. He can forgive you. He can wash your sins away and make you new. That's not just for certain people. That's for whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord. That's you today. Don't die in your sins. Trust Jesus today and let him make you new. Let him write your name in the landscape of life and wash you clean. He can do it today if you'll trust him. When my way grows drear, precious Lord, linger near. when my life is almost gone. Hear my cry, hear my call. Hold my hand lest I fall. Take my hand, precious Lord. Lead me home. When the darkness appears And the night draws near And the day is past and gone At the river I stand Guide my feet and hold my hand. Take my hand, precious Lord. You need to come today. God's still calling you. We have many that have come, but there's still room for one. God's dealing with your heart about something. Please, don't put it off another day. Salvation, surrendering to something, baptism, joining the church, whatever it is. You're not here by accident. I didn't prepare this message beforehand. But God knew you, somebody needed it today. If that somebody's you, I hope you'll respond. Donna, if you would, sing another verse. You need to tell them something. Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, and let me stand. I am tired, I am weak, and I am worn through the storm. lead me on to the light. Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. When my way grows drear, precious Lord, linger near. When my life is almost gone Hear my cry, hear my call Hold my hand, lest I fall Take my hand Precious Lord, lead me home When the darkness appears And the night draws near And the day is past and gone I stand. Guide my feet and hold my hand. Take my hand. Precious Lord, lead me home. Precious Lord, take my hand. Lead me on. Let me stand. I am tired, I am weak, and I am woe. Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light. Take my hand, precious Lord, Lead me on. When the darkness appears And the night draws near And the day is past and gone I stand, guide my feet, and hold my hand. Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand. I am tired, I am weak, and I am woe Through the storm, through the night Lead me on to the light Take my hand, precious love When my way grows drear Precious Lord, linger near When my life is almost gone Hear my cry, hear my call Hold my hand lest I fall Take my hand Precious Lord, lead me home Precious Lord, take my hand Lead me on, let me stand. I am tired, I am weak, and I am worn. Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light. Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. Let me stand. I am tired. I am weak. And I am warm. Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light. Take my hand. Precious Lord, lead me home When the darkness appears And the night draws near And the day is past and gone Stand, guide my feet, and hold my hand. Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me home. Let me stand. Hey church, is he done yet? That's up to you. If you'll step out in faith, he'll do it for you. I believe those that have come today have admitted that they don't have the answers. They don't know where to go, what are the terms. But today they've said, I'm willing to trust this God that I sing about and worship every week, this living God, this all-powerful God, this conquering God. I'm going to trust Him with whatever area of my life I'm battling with. I told someone just a moment ago, sometimes it feels like you're fighting the whole world. that everybody's against you and everything is against you. And I would just like to say that sometimes you're not fighting the world, you're fighting God. And you're blaming it on the world. You're blaming it on everything else. But your battle is against God and you'll never win that fight until you let go and trust Him. And then you'll find out you were fighting for no reason. And as the song says, you're fighting a battle He's already won. Trust Him with it today. Trust Him today, church. If you need to sit, you can sit. If you need to come, you come. But please, don't let your unbelief keep you from doing what God's calling you to do. Take my hand, precious Lord, and lead me. Let me walk with You. Let me hear You live to please God. She lived to please God. As we close, Church, nobody's gone, so we'll end the invitation. Arts and minds are right, I hope. This is your time. You can be seated, Church. You just pray where you're at. I am thankful today for what God has done here. I have no doubt that He used His Word to speak to hearts and, I believe, change lives, hopefully. I'm believing in faith that He did. We had a few folks that have come today to become members here at the church, so I'm going to invite Jimmy, you come, and EJ and Holly, you guys come. And you wait just a minute, and we'll do even more conversation with you. Jimmy has come this morning. He's been with us now for a few months. We've talked several times about the Lord leading him here and making this his home church. Obviously his wife with her physical ailments is not able to always be here with us, but we believe in time she will. But he said this morning, it's time to quit putting things off and just take that step of faith. And so he's come today desiring to be a member here at Caruso Baptist Church to serve the Lord together in whatever capacity that looks like. And so I look forward to having more conversations about in the future what that looks like. But for now, Church, what's your pleasure to receive Brother Jimmy here into the fellowship, Caruso Baptist? We welcome you, brother. In a moment, we'll have everybody come around and give you a hug and a handshake and introduce them. I'll let you grab a seat again here. Melissa, I'm going to give you this again so I don't walk off with it. And I'm going to come over here. Praise God. When you both came to the church a while back, you guys can stand on up, I'm not trying to embarrass you, but when you guys came to the church, it's been a while ago now, and I remember meeting with you back in the children's church room, and I was surprised, honestly, when we had the conversation, because here's how God works. They grew up in, or at least you did, in the church, both of you grew up in the church. The guy that was the pastor that I worked next to for years when I got saved, that's where they went to church. And so they had heard the gospel many times. But like I said, you can hear it and never surrender to it. And I'm so thankful today that you both have come, given your lives to Christ, turned from your sins and trusted Him. Is that correct? Church, we rejoice in that. That's right, rejoicing in heaven and rejoicing here. I'll get with you guys about a baptism time, but until then, the water doesn't save you, the blood does. So if we never make it to that water, you've made it to heaven based on your professional faith. Anything you guys want to share about that? I know it's emotional time and I wouldn't put you on the spot, but we praise God. I'll let you guys sit here for a moment and everybody get around and say hello and shake your hands if you haven't met Holly and TJ yet. We thank God for them. Jimmy as well. Wonderful. Greatest decision that you ever make, right? Giving your life to Christ. So I'll let you guys grab a seat. We're not done. We got more. Praise God, Noah. This keeps getting better and better here. I had no idea. You guys have been coming to the church now for a few months off and on. They live, and forgive me, I'm still learning names. Courtney? Courtney and Michael. And Noah. Where's the little guy? He's in the nursery? Okay. There's another one. Didn't want to exclude him. Two. See? I'm still learning. I'm still learning. I apologize. Noah, we've had a chance to talk a few times off and on, always a smile on his face, and now he's got Jesus in his heart, and I thank God for that. So you've come today, trusting Him to pay for your sins, come into your life and save you. So Noah and parents, the next step is, we'd like to talk about a time for him to be baptized publicly to testify of his faith, but again, If you never made it to the water, you made it to Jesus, and that's what matters. We rejoice with you, Noah. It's the best decision you'll ever make. Praise God. God knew. God knew. I thank God for His goodness and grace. Like I said, it's not what I planned on preaching, but it's what you and others needed, and that's all that matters. So I'll get with you guys soon. We'll sit down and discuss what's next. But for now, like I said, your name is penned in the Lamb's Book of Life, and that's the most important thing that matters. So I'll let you guys sit up here. Get around and introduce yourselves to them. I'm not going to say that's it, because there might be more. I want more of this. Jeff, you got any more back there? Amen. Amen. And as Jeff said, if that's you, before you walk out that door, come talk to us. You don't have to walk forward publicly to get saved. You can get saved anytime, anyplace. I think you need to make it public at some point. But if you're lost this morning and you need Jesus, come see one of us. We want to talk to you about it. Austin, you come for a minute. I'm going to grab you a microphone so I can hear you. I'm going to get this orange one. I think it should be on. Austin wanted to share this morning. All right, well, I don't usually get up here. But one thing that God wanted me to say right now, it seems kind of weird, I was fighting it, but this morning I had a dream that there was no pastor I'd never seen before. I was the only one in the church building. And three things that he said that just made me think. He said, do you talk different, do you walk different, and do you look different? And that really hit home because with the new class we're starting for young adults, it really just promotes transparency and just you don't look one way here and one way out in the world. I want to see me be the same way here as the rest of the week. Amen. And one thing I'd like to add is if there was somebody that you talked to or with throughout the week and are not going to church or not saved, they came through the door right now, would you be embarrassed for them to see you here? And, you know, so that's something we've got to ask, and would they be surprised to see you here? So, I hope that helps somebody, and I'm glad God wanted me to say that. Amen. Thank you, Austin. Thank you for challenging us with that. Sometimes when God lays something on your heart, you need to just take that step of faith and say what He needs to say. I don't want to move on from them if there's something that we need to pray about, Church. But I do want to share a few things with you guys. Everything good? Okay. I'm gonna share with you a few things coming up here at the church before we close out today. Man, God's been good. What a good service. I know it gets a little stuffy and you're just like, man, I'm hungry, but sometimes you just don't want to leave. It's one of them mornings. It's been good to be in God's house. I hope you can say that today. We got a few things. Are those working? No, they're not working? All right, let me try to remember. We have the small group sign-ups. out in the foyer. I want to try to get those started. Please, if you didn't attend last time and you'd like to give it a go this time, sign up. If you did attend last time, still sign up so I know who's going to be involved. I could really use one or two more hosts. I promise if you tell me if you can only host four people or if you can host 20, I will make sure it fits in your home. But we really could use some places to meet. I got people that want to get in the groups, but we need places to go. So if you're willing to open up your home, I know it's a commitment for a few weeks, but I think God will bless it, and that's another step of faith if you're willing to do it. So make sure you check on there. I can host along with attendant on February 9th next Sunday. Not only will we begin our 21 days of prayer, but we also will have the youth fundraiser at the conclusion of the service. It's a big, big deal. You still have time to sign up out there if you want to make something or bring something in for that church. If you can stay after and buy some goodies for Valentine's Day, I promise they will be much better than anything you can buy in a store. They are amazing. People put in a lot of effort into these goodies. and all the money goes for the kids. Youth, if you make something, I believe George said everything of your dessert that you make will go straight for you. So that's an added incentive if you guys want to make something. What else am I forgetting? Choir. Sunday, February 23rd at 4 o'clock is the first practice. How many did you have come to the meeting? 24 so far. Praise God for that. But there's always room for more. So again, if you want to be a part of that, come see Miss Nina. She would love to get you plugged into the choir. Thank you. Somebody got something? Loretta? OK, very good. So I know Sandra had two ladies events. There's the one at First Baptist Trenton coming up in March, and then I believe the other's in May. So either one of those, see Sandra. If you need tickets to the Rooted, which is in Trenton, Loretta was able to get some of those so you don't have to try to go back and forth to Trenton. So you can get some of those tickets to that one if you're interested. See the ladies. But always a good time in the Lord, a great fellowship. So excited to see what God's doing. We had 15 or 16 in our young adult Sunday school class. But there's room for more. If you wanna come out, please. We got room for you. 18 to 30. We'll take you. We're not gonna throw you away if you're a few years over that. So come on out. We'd love to have you be a part of it, okay? The digital detox, it's not too late. Give it a try and use that time for God, okay? Robin? So youth camp, if your kids are going or you're on the fence, the first payment, is it $75? Not sure, see George, but make sure you get that money so you can get your spot locked in, okay? I think that's everything I remember. If it's not, we're going to say it is because I don't have slides to read off, all right? Church, it's been a good day. Go out there and show somebody Jesus through the way you live, okay? Let's stand on our feet and be dismissed. Brother Ben Smith, do you mind to close us out and pray this morning, brother? Thank you.