Thank you, Brother Haley, for let me be here. And I I did not know his wife was from from Romania, and I have priests all over Romania several, several times. And I have a lot of good friends that that became got to know the Lord and they got saved and and so forth. And what a what a blessing it was to the gospel. to Romania after the wall came down and people got to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was a real blessing to see the impact. And I just want to say, I want to say this, that no matter where you go to in the world, the gospel of Jesus Christ is enough. You don't need to add to it. It's enough. In fact, he said on the cross very clearly, he said, it is finished. what he did on the cross is finished and I'm glad that I don't have to try to, I don't have to try to earn my way, give my way or anything. When I was a 12 year old boy, I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time and I didn't get saved the first time I heard it, but the third time I did. And I'm thankful that they showed me from the Bible how I could be saved at a little church in West Virginia. Most folks probably never overhear about that church, but that little church cared enough to have a van route, a bus route to bring us to church. And so what a blessing it was. I too, it's the first time meeting brother, your pastor for the first time, but I've heard several good things about him from other people as well too. So that's a blessing. And I like to see churches where people get saved, where lives be changed. And I'm about we go soul winning at our church and and we go out in the community and we try to tell people how important it is to be get saved and then trying to get people excited. You know, when I come to church, when I come to church, I come expecting God to do something. When I everywhere I've ever been, the first time I came to Belgium, was in 1988. I was here for about 18 months. And that's where I learned a lot about how to, you know, go to church and serve the Lord. And Brother Tilly, Brother T.J. Tilly and his wife, Tamela, spent a lot of time helping me. And then I left Belgium and I went to Bible college there at Calvary Baptist Bible College in King, North Carolina. where Pastor Baker was the pastor. And what a blessing it was that his impact on my life, and still to this day, he's impacting my life. And so, anyways, we are thankful to be here. Thank you so much for the hospitality, preacher, and thank you for the wonderful room you gave us. It was a real blessing. And so, anyways, open your Bibles tonight to the book of Matthew chapter number 16, in your Bibles, Matthew chapter number 16. So this is the Ghent Baptist Church. Now, I have a question for you, Pastor. Is it spelled G-H-E-N-T or G-E-N-T? OK, I've heard it different ways. I just wanted to know. And so but what a blessing. I pastor the Anchor Baptist Church in Washington Courthouse, Ohio. That's where I'm at. And we have a great, great group of people there that love the Lord, that want to put God first in their lives. And we've had several people saved in the last couple of weeks. I love it when people give their heart to Jesus. I love it when I can open the Bible and it never ceases to amaze me when people understand and comprehend. what Jesus did for them. How can a person really understand all that Jesus did and not get saved? You know, I have a message I have preached. It's called He Made Me an Offer I Couldn't Refuse. And that's what he did. He went all the way to Calvary. He did all those things for us. And so what a blessing on that. We're going to read a couple of verses here. out of the book of Matthew chapter number, it's the first book of the New Testament, Matthew chapter number 16 in your Bible. And look here in verses number 16, I'm sorry, yeah, 16, 17, and 18, Matthew 16 in the Bible. The Bible says, and Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God, And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, say also unto thee, that thou art Peter. And upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I'm going to preach tonight on this thought, why I love my church, why I love my church. There was I don't know how it was here in. in Belgium here, but when COVID happened, a lot of churches just shut down, closed down because of the pandemic and different things, whatever. In America, There were a lot of different localities and states that thought that church was not essential. All right. And so we really found out a lot about different churches that thank God throughout COVID we didn't have to shut down at all. We did have to do some ramifications, of course, in the building when we were in Japan. It was a little bit different over there. The government of Japan made us do certain things. And then the military over there, they made us do some certain things. We had a military church. And I remember we had to get a ruler six feet apart everywhere in the building. We had to do what they call social tracing. We had to write down people's names. And then we had to do the zap. Y'all know what the zap is? The thermometer zap. We had to write down their temperatures. There were a lot of things we had to do, but we're thankful that we were still able to have church. But I want to tell you something. As a born-again Christian, as a person that put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, I want to say, that I'm thankful that Jesus Christ puts a great emphasis on the church. And here in our text verse in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus said, I will build my church. And I'm thankful that we can have a small part in something big, the fact that we can have a part, no matter where we're at in the world, we can be involved in helping Jesus Christ build his church. And with that thought, let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray you'll bless now the service. And I pray you'll meet the needs only as you can. And I pray you'll help us. but would help me to have clarity of thought. I pray you'll speak to hearts here at the Ghent Baptist Church tonight. We ask this in Jesus name, Lord, and amen. Now, there are a lot of people say, preacher, why do you love the church? Why do you serve in the church? I had five children, all my five kids today, they're all out of my house. And by God's grace, they're still in church. I don't know about tomorrow, but right now they're in church and they're serving the Lord. And I've got a youth pastor, one of my sons, my daughter's a pastor's wife, and my other son is an associate pastor. And I thank God for everything that they're doing and for the Lord. And I thank God for their mama. Their mama, I was so busy and trying to reach people with the gospel. But we still had time every night by God's grace. We had time to pray with our children and talk to them about the Lord. And I'm glad that they saw mom and dad was the same way at church as they were at home. Amen. You know, we tried to be real and have be authentic and be transparent. Were we perfect? No, we weren't perfect parents, but we strive to bring our children up in the admonition and the nurture of the Lord. And so we're going to look at a couple of things here tonight about why I love the church and why you should love the church. All right. Open your Bible and I keep it here. We'll be back in 1916. Open your Bible to the book of Ephesians, chapter five, Ephesians, chapter five. There are several things here. in this passage of scripture that Jesus talks about the church and what he did for the church. In chapter number five of the book of Ephesians, we're gonna pick up reading. In verse number 23, the Bible says, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject under Christ, so let their wives be to their own husbands and everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Turn down there in verse number 33, verse 29, I'm sorry. For no man ever hath hated his own flesh, but nourish it and cherish it, even as the Lord, the church. And verse 32 says here, this is a great, great mystery. But I speak concerning Christ and the church. Now here in chapter number five of Ephesians, it's a lot of people go to this chapter to talk about the husband and wife and the relationship that they should have. And that's right there in there. But when I was talking about how why I love my church, there's so much information here about the church. Jesus talked about this. And so I want to show you a couple of things here out of this text here is, first of all, look at verse number 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. So why why should we as Christians love the church? Because Jesus loved the church and he died for it. OK, let me tell you something. I'm so thankful that Jesus Christ put a great emphasis on the church so much so that he actually gave his life. He died for the church. And that's why I love the church. And that's why you should love the church. And by the way, the church is not these walls. This is not the church. We're talking about the people. Jesus didn't die for a building or for walls. He died for people, OK? And there are a lot of times that comes down to this, too, is that I always since 1976, when I started going to church, I have always loved the church. All right. Now, some people ask me, preacher, do you ever get tired of the work of the church? Sure, I do. I get tired in the work. but I never get tired of the church, amen? The church itself, thank the Lord for that. And so I wanna say, first of all, you and I should love the church because Jesus loved it enough that he would die for it. One man said this, he said, you can give and not love, you cannot love without giving. What's that verse in John 3, 16 say? For God so loved the world that he what? he gave. So true, true biblical love gives. God gave his son because he loved us. All right. My wife, Tonda, if I told her I love her but never provide for her and never take care of her. If I tell my children I love them but never take care of them and never provide for them that kind of love we can do without. Biblical love, God's love is a kind of love that not only says it but they back it up with action. That's what the Bible says here in chapter 5 of Ephesians. Jesus Christ, he died for the church. He loved the church so much that he died for it. So you and I ought to have a desire to love the church because it meant a lot to Jesus Christ. Amen? That love. And so when it comes to the church, we when I first I got to my new church pastor back in October and the first time we went soul winning, we had four people. All right. And now we had this last time we had 14 people come to soul winning. and going out there knocking on doors and going into people's homes and telling them about the Lord. One lady I talked to, she told me, preacher, I am not a Christian. I'm not saved. And so she went through the Romans road and she accepted Christ as her personal savior. But then this has happened is after she got saved, she came. That was on a Saturday. She came Sunday morning. She came Sunday night. She came Wednesday. She came on back on Sunday again. By the way, when someone gets saved and they get Jesus Christ in their heart, they're going to want to be around where Jesus is at. Amen. And it's a natural thing. When a person gets saved, they ought to come to church. Not only should they come to church, but then once they get born again, they follow Christ and what we call believers baptism right after that. OK, now, baptism doesn't make you a Christian, but a Christian that puts their faith and trust in Jesus Christ ought to be baptized. Amen. When you think about the offering plate, putting money in the offering plate doesn't make you a Christian, but a Christian that's born again by Jesus Christ and Him alone, they ought to want to give to the offering. So why do I love the church? Why should we love the church? Because number one, Jesus died. for the church. And so he had a great emphasis on that. All right. And I make no apology of that, because it's important that we realize we got to get more people committed to the local church. OK. All right. They're committed to Walmart. They're committed to Cora here. They're committed to their fatigue here. They got to be committed to the local New Testament church, making sure that the house of God is important to you. OK. All right. Some people say, well, why is my life this way? Well, if you have a lackadaisical attitude about the church, if you can take it or leave it, that's a big reason why. Because the Lord Jesus Christ, he loved it so much that he gave it to the church, okay? So first of all, Jesus died for the church. Now look at verse number 26 in chapter number five of Ephesians. It says here, that he may sanctify and cleanse it with washing of the world, that he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Not only does Jesus die for the church. That's why I love the church. But number two, I believe Jesus Christ. He delights in his church here in verse 26 and 27. You see right here in the Bible how Jesus takes time. He takes care. You know what Jesus does when the person when someone comes to church, when they walk in those doors, Aren't you glad that God welcomes everybody? You can come to Jesus as you are. All right. But when he takes you as you are, he don't leave you that way. He takes you as you are. And once you become his child, he begins to mold you and work on you and work in your heart and work in your life. And there's so many times when I first came to church, I used to have a T-shirt on and blue jeans with holes in them in the knees. I mean, that's the way I came to church. And God wants people to come in. Aren't you glad that we don't have to have a a consensus, we don't have to have a committee when people come into church. Our doors are open for anybody to walk in when we want them to come in. All right. When it comes down to that. So I think it's important that as we see here, we're not seeing this so much anymore. People say, well, you just come right on in and and feel at home and everything. Notice here, verse 26, 27, what the Bible says Jesus does. Verse 26. that he may sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. That word sanctify is to being set apart. God wants to set us apart for his honor and glory. When I was lost, when I was out there in the world, I was set apart to do the things of the world. But when I got saved and I asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart, he changed me and he began to make me from the inside out better. You know, we got to be careful too. Don't always look on the outward of people, look on the inside. Because Jesus began to work in my heart and change me from the inside out. It wasn't overnight on some things, but the longer I served Him, the more I trusted Him, the more I prayed to Him, the more I wanted to be like Him. All right, so here we see in verse number 26, Jesus delights in his church and he sanctifies it. He sets it apart there, okay? And then also too, look at verse number 27. that he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. And so Jesus Christ, he is working in the church and he don't want his church to have any spot or wrinkle. And that word wrinkle gives the idea of moral blemish. I remember when I was A couple weeks ago, I took a suit to a dry cleaners to get it dry cleaned. And when I took the suit to the dry cleaners, I got it back home. There was a big wrinkle in the pant leg. And so my wife has this stuff at home. It's supposed to spray on your pant leg and get the wrinkle out. So I put my suit on and she said, turn around and I'll spray your pant leg. Well, she sprayed it and the wrinkle was still there. It didn't work. But when it comes to Jesus Christ, he's not going to the church when it's one day finished and completed up in heaven. He's not going to have any spot or wrinkle. There'll be no moral blemish with that. OK. Now, by the way, we are not. We are not sinless as a Christian, but a Christian ought to sin less. Amen. You shouldn't do what you used to do. And so many times there are a lot of people. They come into church. Oh, you can you can live how you want. You can be like you want. And there's no rules. That's contrary to the Bible. If you're a child of God, if you're a Christian, God wants you to live for him and be separated. OK, from the world. OK. All right. We're in the world, but we should not be of the world when it comes down to that. All right. So we see here, first of all, no spot. and no wrinkle and look at verse number 27 again. It says here or any such thing, but they should be holy and without blemish. OK, without blemish. All right. Now, that word blemish. It gives the idea of faultless. And the word wrinkle gives the idea of flawlessness. No flaws and no faults. One day. Let me ask this question. I've been in the church since 1976, so 76, 86, 96, 2006, 2016, and then 2024. So almost 50 years I've been in church, almost. Do you think in those 50 years someone ever hurt my feelings in church? Yeah, of course. Do you think sometimes in church, someone overlooks something I did in the church? Sure, yeah. But when you think about the church, we don't come to church to get noticed for what we do, because what we do is for Jesus. All right, what we do is for him. I don't know if you've ever heard this saying being over here in Belgium, but there are a lot of people in the world that have a golf club mentality when it comes to church. And what that means is when you have a golf club mentality, when you come to church, you expect to be served. You expect them to serve you. But when you're a child of God, of a Christian, you should not have a golf club mentality because when you come to church, you don't come to be served, but you come to serve the Lord. You some to get involved in, you know, you look at this carpet here. Someone has to clean this carpet, those windows, the bathrooms. Someone has to do that. Someone has to watch the nursery. So it takes a bunch of people doing the things of the Lord. OK, and I'm like Brother Haley. I go out sewing and we go out knocking on doors. But I like to do with a whole lot more people than a few people. I think it's important on that. OK, so the church, the reason why I love the church, number one, Jesus died for it. Number two, he delights in the church. He wants his church to be perfect and flawless one day. And that's why you all heard a song. He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. When I got saved, God began to work on me. God began to change me. OK. All right. And the older I get, I want to be a willing vessel in his hand. I want him to take me and mold me and what he wants me to be. OK. And as a Christian, we can always learn more. So, number one, the reason why I love the church is because Jesus died for the church. Number two, he delights in the church. OK, now look at number three here. I want to see here. Look at verse number twenty nine. For no man ever yet hateth his own, I'm sorry, flesh, but nourisheth and cherished it, even as the Lord the church. Now here we see here, not only Jesus died for the church, he delights in the church. But look at the description of the church. Look at the words that Jesus used to describe his working with the church. The word he used here is verse number 29, but nourish it and cherish it. That word nourish gives the idea to nurture, to rear the process of caring for and encouraging the growth or development of something. Do you know what Jesus is doing? The Bible says he is nourishing it. He is encouraging the growth. and the spiritual development of the church, okay? And that's why it's important as a Christian. You know, even the disciples in the Gospels, they asked the Lord Jesus, they said, Lord Jesus, increase our faith. I remember when we came to Germany in 1992, When we got here the September of 1992, we came to Germany and we came over here with about $600 a month support and we had no health insurance. But I knew in my heart that God wanted me to come here to Germany. So we came to Germany. And that year, that year we had our first baby and so forth. It took us about 18 to 20 months to pay his hospital bill off. We had to pay for per month to pay his bill off and everything and so forth. But I remember that first year, how many things God provided for us. I don't know if they have it here in this part of the country of Belgium, but in Germany, they call it junking. Where you go every month, they would put furniture out, different things on the street corner, and you could go by and take what you want. We got our first apartment there in Germany. We had no floor in our apartment. We had no cabinets in the apartment. We had no lights in there. We had to provide it all and I didn't have the money. So I went junking that first year. And so somebody had thrown away a roll of linoleum floor. And I remember taking out linoleum floor and I remember putting it in my in my kitchen, but I couldn't afford to glue. So I got four pieces of furniture and put one in each corner and the floor stay. You know and so but we look back on that and my wife and I saw God provided for us and we were several thousand miles away from family and friends and loved ones but we weren't very far away from the Lord. Amen. Let me tell you something God did a great thing. My wife loves playing the piano. And when we got there to Germany, someone gave her a piano. It was already old, but guess what? It had 88 keys and it worked fine. Amen? Or whatever. We had a piano. Someone gave me a car. I remember that. Someone gave me a car. It had 242,000 kilometers on it. It was a black Volvo four-door Volvo 244. But you know what it was paid for and it was mine. I'm just trying to say is is that when you do what God wants you to do and you you follow what he says and you love what he loves. God provides for you, OK? This young lady here is praying for a job. I remember coming to Belgium in 2006. We landed on July the 4th, 2006. We came into Belgium on a bang. Amen. That's what I always tell people. July the 4th. But we had a lady named Sylvia here in Belgium, and she came here and she had no job. She had 89 days to get a job. I don't know what it is now, but that was the lady she had. And she, we prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed. And she got a job working on the military base down there at Chevers. God opened the door for her and she's still here. You know, and so we tell you something, when you honor God and put God first in your life, God can open doors that you think might be closed. Okay. Um, and so here we see here in, um, Chapter number five of the Ephesians is that the description he he nourishes it. OK, the Lord Jesus wants the church to grow and he encourages that. But look here also, verse number twenty nine. He nourished it and cherished it even as the Lord, the church. And that word cherish gives the idea to cherish with tender, tender, loving care, to foster with care. How many of you, how many of you all know what a Stradivarius is? Yeah, it's a violin, correct, okay. It's a very expensive violin, okay. Some people think it's like a half a million dollars, okay. Very, very expensive, okay. Now this is not a Stradivarius. Whose is this, by the way? Whose does it belong to? Who? Okay, good, okay. This is not a Stradivarius. I don't know how much this cost. I was preaching the other day at another church, and the guy said it was about $1,000. I don't know what this cost here. But anyhow, this is a very shiny one. This looks pretty. But a Stradivarius violin is about 500,000 euros. They're very, very expensive, OK? So if I walked up to you, what's your name? Aura, if I walked up to you and I put this in your lap, how would you take care? How would you take care of this if it's 500000 euros? Yeah, you'd be you'd be you'd be like this. You'd be you'd be so concerned about how it's so expensive. You know, I guess you see. And that's what Lord Jesus does. You know what he does in the church? He has tender care towards it. He cherishes the church, OK? All right, and so I'm gonna put this back in here right now, so I don't harm it, okay? And so that's what the Lord Jesus Christ does to the church. He nourishes it, he cherishes the church, okay? All right, and I tell you, I have been through a lot of situations in the church, but you know what? I always stood by the church. Not so much the people, but the church of Jesus Christ. Amen. His church. Because what did he say in Matthew 16? I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Amen. That's what he says. And so no matter what happens, I'm going to stand with the Lord Jesus Christ and the church that he's building. And there are sometimes I know there are sometimes there are problems in the church. By the way, I want to say this. If you ever find the perfect church, don't join it. Amen. Because if you find the perfect church and you join it, it becomes what? Imperfect, you know what I mean? All right. It's not going to be whatever. It's not. So aren't you thankful? Now, where's the brother going to India? I'll be praying for you. All right. I got a preaching friend of mine that goes to India a lot. And I think it's T.J. Tilly goes there sometimes. Anyways, we're praying to God to help you find a church. More important than you finding a house or a job, you need to find a church. That's so important. Spiritually speaking, you need to find a church, okay? All right, so number one, Jesus died for the church. Number two, Jesus delights in the church. Number three, the description of the church, okay? And let me give you here, I do wanna say this. Go back to Matthew 16 real quick, please. Matthew 16. I want to show you something here that a lot of folks will understand. Matthew 16, Jesus and Peter, they're having a dialogue here. OK, and I want to say that the New Testament church is not built upon Peter. The New Testament church, it's built upon Jesus Christ. In this conversation, Peter and Jesus are talking to one another and Peter, Jesus says to Peter, thou art Peter, and that word Peter there in the Bible is like a small stone, a scale stone, not very big, like a very small rock. He said, thou art Peter and upon this rock, Him, Jesus Christ, that's a massive boulder, okay. Let me tell you something, Jesus, the church of Jesus Christ was not built on Peter. I thank God for all that Peter did. I thank God that God used him in a great way in the book of Acts. What a blessing it was. But the church was not built upon Peter, it's built upon Jesus Christ. And I tell you what, I'm thankful for that because Jesus Christ He is the sinless son of God. Amen. He has no, no, no, no problems. He he could not do sin. He didn't think about sin. He was the perfect son of God. He was the God man, fully God and fully man. Amen. When you think about that. All right. But I wanted to say that to you as well, too. And then lastly, tonight, I want you to go over to John 14 in your Bible, the Gospel of John. Chapter number 14 in your Bible, John 14. And I want to give you this thought here. Jesus' destination for his church. I want to tell you where we're going to go to one day. Verse four, chapter 14 of the Gospel of John, verse one says, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. Verse three. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also. First of all, I wanna say, thank God, the destination for the children of God is the Father's house, amen? I'm going to the Father's house. One lady said this, wherever Jesus will be, that'll be heaven for me. I know when I die, it's hello, Jesus. Wherever he's at, I'm gonna be there. And I wanna say to you, look here in verse number two, I don't know how it says in the Dutch Bible, but I know there are a lot of people that have changed these words around. But I want to say in verse number two, it says. In my father's house are many mansions. I'm thankful that I'm going to have a mansion one day. All right. And by the way, I just bought a house. It's very expensive to buy a house. I heard some of the people praying about someone buying a house here, the apartment upstairs, whatever on that. Well, I'll tell you something. It's expensive to buy a house. When I get to heaven, my house is already bought and paid for. Amen. It's all taken care of. And he's going to have me a mansion up there. Amen. And then also to not only the father's house, but the father's haven. OK. It says here in verse number two, if we're not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you. OK. And then he says in verse number three, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. Aren't you thankful as a Christian? Jesus Christ, it's not a matter of if he's coming back. It's a matter of when he's coming back. He says he's coming back again. All right. And that's that's the that's the message of the gospel. The reason why we preach the Bible and tell folks to get saved, because you don't know when Jesus is coming back. And that's why it's important for all of us to get saved and get born again. So we are ready. All right. But I want to tell you something tonight. I love the church. I love the church, number one, because Jesus died to the church. Number two, I love the church because Jesus delights in his church. And you ought to be happy. I don't know about you, but when I come to church on Wednesday nights at my church in the States, I look forward to being there, being around people and singing the songs and having prayer meeting and just fellowshipping. But also I enjoy hearing the preaching of the Word of God and the teaching of the Word of God, okay? Jesus not only died, he delights in his church, okay, but also the description, what a blessing it is how he gives descriptive detail about he is trying to encourage the spiritual growth of the people in the church. He takes a personal account. You remember the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus? He said, who art thou? He said, I am Jesus whom thou persecuting. You know what? Paul wasn't persecuting Jesus in the person of him, but he was persecuting the church. And Jesus took that for, what? Exactly. He did. He took it personal. Okay. You know, and so aren't you glad that Jesus Christ, I'm so thankful for that. And so when it comes down to that, and then also I mentioned this earlier today about Jesus, the design of his church, you know, Jesus didn't, he did not design it or build it upon Peter. He built it upon himself, Jesus Christ. And then I talked about, lastly, the destination. Let me ask you a question tonight. If you're here tonight, do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Have you put your faith and trust in Him and Him alone? All right. I tell you, where I live at now, it's really difficult because a lot of people, they put their faith in so many different things. But as I said this many years ago, I said this several times, too. The thief on the cross, he didn't put his faith in baptism. church membership, he put his faith in the one that only could help him, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. And aren't you glad that Jesus said to him, today thou shalt be with me in paradise, not tomorrow. Aren't you glad that when you get saved, we have a now God? God saves you now. God gives you peace now. God forgives you of your sin now. I'm glad that God doesn't do that. He prolongs it. Or he, what's that word? Procrastinates. I'm glad that God doesn't do that. And so with this thought tonight, let me encourage all of us to love the church. Love the church. Love your pastor. Love the family of the church. Be here. Be involved with the church, okay? Because when you make much of Jesus, He'll make much of you. You honor what He honors, and you love what He loves, amen? All right, let's all stand up here if we could, please. If we could bow our right clothes, no one looking around. If we could bow, no one looking around tonight. Maybe God has spoken to your heart in some way or some fashion. Let me encourage you to let God have his way in your life tonight. We serve an awesome God, and I just wanna let you know what a blessing it is to put God first in your heart and your life. If you're here tonight not sure you're saved, the pastor will be here to show you from the word of God how you can get saved. Let me ask you a question, Christian. Do you love the church? Do you love it? You should love the church. Why? Because I love it? Nope. Because your pastor loves it? Nope. Because Jesus loved it. Amen. And we ought to love what Jesus loves. Amen. Amen. Our heavenly fathers, I turn over the service today. I pray you'll be a pastor now as he comes. We pray this in Jesus' name. Pastor, you come. We really appreciate Brother Pinson coming so far to be with us tonight. I don't have, I'm not going to try to come in and add anything to anything he said. I just greatly appreciate the message. Hope it's been help to you and encouragement. And honestly, there's a lot of things that it goes very well with some things we've talked about lately. So I do hope that it's been help and encouragement to you. with whatever you're going through in life. And so we're not gonna have a time limitation, I'm trying to get him so he can get on the road soon. But I do appreciate, I trust you to take these things to heart, take them home with you, listen to the message again if you need to. But I just pray that everything here will be a help to you and take it to heart with you. But thank you brother for the message, it's a great message. I appreciate you taking the time to be here with us. It was good to finally get to meet you and to make sure you shake his hand everyone. We're going to dismiss in a word of prayer, but make sure you shake his hand and let him know you appreciate the message and him coming. And they won't be able to stay too long, but just quickly make your way by to talk to him a little bit and get to know them. And I'm going to ask then, Varun, if you'll dismiss us in a word of prayer, please.