Finishing well, amen. Yes, we have no continual city in this world we live in. We are sojourners and pilgrims passing through, amen. What a sweet, sweet blessing. I was thinking when Brother Gary was leading this, normally with each song, I'm thinking, what can I preach from that song? Where can we go from that song there? And then it goes to the next song, then it goes to the next song, then I gotta remember, I gotta preach what I came to preach, amen. But that song about the rock. My God is a rock. And we have what in him? Rest and a refuge in him. I was thinking of this passage. Open your Bibles up to Isaiah 32. Isaiah 32. I want you to see this because our God is a great rock and he is a shadow in a weary land. You can find hiding in him. in a weary land. Now what in essence, if you really, really wanna ball it down to why we need revival and what revival is in essence, revival that I understand it as the scripture would lay it out for me is a revival of identity. Now what I mean by that is that the markers that identify us to Jesus, When those markers that identify us to Jesus are no longer being recognizable or noticeable, that's the essence of a pleading that God would do a work of reviving in my heart personally, but also in those that are around me that what will be seen and recognized is Jesus. A great picture of this is in the book of Judges. If you've ever studied from a scriptural standpoint, a biblical standpoint, and looked at the life of the judges, one of the things you see is that you're dealing with a generational gap in there that most people didn't know who the Lord was in those days. The atmosphere of the society in Israel was that every man was doing what was right in his own eyes. That sounds a lot like America. that when a nation is doing what is right in their own eyes, they lose sight of the standard of God. Now, we're gonna talk a little bit about that idea of what God requires, the standards, and I mentioned to you last night, God has only one standard, and that's the Lord Jesus. God doesn't have a double standard. He's not gonna judge us by Jesus when we stand before him one day and not require us to look like Jesus on this earth. His standard will always be His Son. Now, none of us can match up to His Son. That's why we need His Son's grace. That's why we need the gift of His righteousness that I entrust myself to Jesus. And when I do, His righteousness becomes my righteousness so that now I look and I'm looking more like Him as I walk with Him in this world. But when I stand before the Father, He sees me as the Son. because the Son dealt with my sin. The Son dealt with every aspect of my life. But in Judges, what you find in there, there's one particular character in there that sums up this idea of revival and why we need reviving when we lose these markers. One of the characters in there that stands out different than every other judge and deliverer was a man by the name of Samson. Samson was a man that God put markers on, that he from the womb, even his mother, while he was in the womb, was to live and operate and think differently. and that he was to be a Nazarite. And a Nazarite, he was to do certain elements in his life that other people didn't have to participate in if there wasn't a Nazarite. And Samson had no say in this. This was all God's decree upon his walk. And as long as every one of those identifiable markers of a Nazarite was on him, Samson operated within power. He walked in power, even though he had sinned and he was doing some foolish stuff, as long, because he couldn't touch nothing dead, he couldn't drink of the fruit of the vine, and he couldn't what? Now he lost all those things minus the final thing and they couldn't figure out why did the man still have his strength? Why did he still have his power? Why could we not overcome him or overthrow him or outwit him? What is it? And when they removed the last identifiable marker that marked him as a Nazarite, Samson's power whittled away. And the scripture says that he didn't even recognize it. What is that a picture of? That's the picture of us, New Testament believers, as the people of God. Anytime you see God chastising his Older Testament Israel and Judah as they were walking through the wilderness or as they occupied the promised land, when the identifiable markers that connected them to the Lord was lost, God always brought in judgment or chastisement and discipline for one reason, that was to reconcile and restore them that they would identify with Him in the world and His name would be magnified. Now that's why we need to know what the newer Testament teaches us and know about the book of Acts when we see God pouring out his spirit on his people and how did his people live? Well, they lived, they carried on the life of Jesus in this world they were living in. How did they do it? They didn't do it in their own strength. We didn't do it in our own power and might. Who came and empowered them and do them with power? Who came to live in them, with them, and through them? The Holy Spirit. Therefore, as Jesus would say, my Father and I will come and make our home in you. And I'll live my life out of you, amen? Well, when he does that, he does that, Isaiah 32 gives us a glimpse of what his people identify with. They identify with their king. They look like their king. They walk like their king. Notice what this says in verse one of chapter 32. I just got to thinking on that song and I wanted you to see that, hey, our God is a great rock. He is everything he says he is, amen? But you know what? When his people are connected to him, when they abide in the vine, what he does, what he is, you know what? We reflect that. Now listen to it, behold. And anytime you see in the scripture the word behold, some translation will say see or look. It's a faith word, like all the Bible is to be interpreted or received in faith, believe in God. But this is something you have to see that you can't see. You don't have the ability and the natural capacity to see this for what it really is. So you got to behold it. You got to see it in faith. What do you need to see? Behold a king will reign and when he reigns, he's going to reign in what? You've just put in there Jesus, that's him, amen? Because he reigns in righteousness. And princes, that would be those who have his DNA in them, those who are representative of him, as the James would say, every good gift comes from the Father above, amen? And we are the first fruits of his creatures that we may what? Identify with him, we see God's faithful. There is no variation or shadow of turning with him, amen? And his children look like him, they think like him, they walk with him, they talk like him, and then they do what he does. Well, what will this king and what will these princes do? They will rule or reign with justice for a man will be as a what? a hiding place from the wind and a cover from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place, and watch this, as the shadow of a what? Great rock where? In a weary land. You know what all that is saying? Everything Jesus is and everything Jesus does, we as the body of Christ or the practical application of it on this earth, That when he encourages people, you know who he encourages them through? Through his people. When he provides for his people, you know how he does it? He does it what? Through his people. How many of y'all ever come across a money tree? Y'all ever come across it? I guarantee if you come across a money tree, you wouldn't tell nobody about it, huh? You'd keep it and go plant you a twig yourself if you could. How many of you ever had money fall out of the sky? It doesn't fall out of the sky and it don't grow on trees. You know how money gets transferred in this world? Whether it's by God or anybody else, it always goes through the hands and the heart of his people. We are the tools, the instruments, his hands, his feet, that he accomplishes his work in this world today. And this is what this is saying. And those who are with him, the eyes, verse three, the eyes of those who see will not be dim. Praise God for his light, amen. It takes light to see. And the ears of those who hear are gonna listen. Also, the heart of the rash or the quick will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers, like myself, will be ready to speak what? Plainly and clearly. Isn't it something how God can take a sorry man like me and do something with him that I could be a little help to somebody in Jesus' name? See, revival is saying, make me like Jesus. Made me like Jesus, amen. Well, for that to be, we've gotta understand a couple things that God has required or said of what we can and cannot do and the reason why this is and how important it is. And remember, God is the same today as he is yesterday and tomorrow. Forever for tomorrow. He's always the same. He's it doesn't change and we can't change it We may change our people view him, but we can't change who he is nor his character what he does So look into Leviticus. I want you go to Leviticus 18 Leviticus 18 And he told his people when he delivered them out of the land of Egypt, and he was bringing them into a land that he had given them, he gave them a couple words about their past. about the future and how they were to live in the present. And I think this same principle applies for you and me today. It's something that we have to learn of the value of recognizing these things. So Leviticus 18 one, I'll start there. We will only read a few passages in it. And I think it will almost be self-explanatory when we read this. But he says, then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. And if he is your God, you can say what? Amen. And Leviticus, if you find Genesis in the very front of your Bible and just go a few books back toward the Newer Testament, you're gonna come across Exodus and then Leviticus. So Leviticus 18, I'm gonna read verse number two again. Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. According to the doings of the land of Egypt where you just dwelt, Notice this word, you shall not what? Say it with me, y'all shall not what? Some said do, some said what? Follow, what's another translation say? What's that? Walk, so walk, follow, do. That is saying how they live their life, you can't do what you used to do, what you learned when you was there. Let's read a little bit further. I'm gonna read verse three again. According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do. And according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do, nor shall you walk in their ordinances. So notice what he just said there. How long were the children of Israel in Egypt? Give me a rough estimate, 430 years, around 430 years. How long have we existed as, quote unquote, how long we have been the United States of America? 1776, who's good at math? 249, somebody says. Half of 430. They were in captivity in the land of Egypt. Remember God promised Abraham that he was gonna do something. His children, Abraham's descendants would go into a foreign land and they would be there for four generations or 400 years. Well, the New Testament would teach us they were there for 430 years. So while they were there, God said he was going to do something supernatural. He told Abraham 605 years before this, that the people of that land are going to mistreat my people and they are going to send them out with possessions and great resources. Now we watched all that happen. If you know anything about the Exodus journey, We know that happened exactly the way God said it would because God always fulfills his promises He always does what he says and you can count on his word. Amen. So for you think about that for 400 plus years they begin to have an established idea of how to live and the way to live they didn't have the revelation of God that didn't come along to after they came out of Egypt. All they had was word of mouth and thing that had been passed down from Abraham and to his descendants. They didn't have the law and we know why the law was given. Law was given because men were sinners. Law was given to make sure we would recognize that sin would abound. Law was not given to do anything to the heart of men other than condemn the heart of a man that he would need mercy from God. But for those 430 years, they learned how to live how everybody else lived. And then God says, I'm taking you out of that and I'm gonna bring you into the land of Canaan and they're gonna live differently than how they lived in Egypt. Now, the problem is how you lived in Egypt and how you lived in Canaan, how they live in Canaan, they're both sin and they're both missing the mark with me in every kind of way. And you can't do what you used to do and you can't do what the world's doing. I've got another way for you to live. As the New Testament would teach us, if any man be in Christ Jesus, what is he? He's a new creature. He's a new creation. Old things have what? Passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And who has reconciled us? Who is all that's done all this? God has done this and God has another way for us to live. Amen. He has another way for us to live. So I can't live the way I used to live. I can't live in a way that my mom and my dad, my dad and my mom taught me how to live. Because my dad and my mom, they loved me. They poured into me the best way that they knew how to pour into me and my brothers. I've got two younger brothers, there was three of us. And they gave us everything they had. They taught us how to live. They taught us how to hunt. They taught us how to fish. My dad coached me in playing ball. My mama taught me how to serve people. My daddy taught me how to beat up people. You know, that's how I was raised. He taught me all those things. And he invested his entire life into me and my two brothers. But my dad didn't teach me about Jesus. My dad didn't know Jesus. My dad didn't love Jesus. So I was raised up without Jesus. I preached a few years back, and I met a young couple. When I say young, they used to be young. They're older now. They're older than me, obviously. When I share the story with you, you'll get the picture here. But Steph and I ran across them at a funeral just recently again, and we got to talking once again. But they came to my house when I was knee high to a grasshopper. They were a new married couple, and they was out visiting houses, knocking on doors. I used to knock on all these doors out here. Go from house to house, week after week, visiting and knocking on doors. Well, they came and knocked on the door. When my daddy opened the door, she said, I was standing between his legs. And they come to tell my mama and daddy about Jesus. Now they knew my daddy. Small town, small people, they know everybody. And when they come to tell my daddy about Jesus, my daddy told them to get down the road and never come back. She said, I could still see you standing. You was under, you could stand under him. in between his legs. That was the life I was raised up in. That's how I was reared as a child. So I didn't learn these things that many of you were privileged of learning how to walk with the Lord and seeing a mom and dad who love like Jesus and live like Jesus and thought like Jesus and taught me and my brothers. So when God interrupted my life, Saved me, salvaged me. I mentioned that to you last night. When he saved me, he salvaged my life. My life, on the trajectory it was headed, was headed for ruin. I was on a path of ruin. But the Lord Jesus sent messengers, gospel messengers, and brought the gospel to us. God began to work in Stephanie first, and she said, Nick, we need to find us a church. And man, I like hunting too much. I like doing Nick's thing too much. And Stephanie eventually said, well, I'm gonna start going. So Stephanie got in the car and took those pretty little girls with us. But before we started looking, she started looking, you know what we did? We let a church bus come pick them up. We was on the Navy base out there and the Navy base bus would come by and pick them up and bring them. And Stephanie and I would sit in the window with a video camera thinking how good of parents we was. Watching them little girls and their Sunday dresses get on the church bus and me and her can have a little private time While they went off the church Then the neighbors around this started knocking on our doors and said, look, your girls go to school with our girls and we love them and we would love for them to be able to come to us. We got a VBS going on this week. And they would pick them up and take them to VBS or they would take them into a concert in Meridian. And man, we'd let them go and let them go and let them go and let them go. And one day standing says, Nick, we probably ought to start taking them. See, God was at work. He was working on us. He was using people around us. He was using families. He was working. They were being like that shadow in a weary land. They was being like a river of water in a dry place. They were bringing the waters of life into our family. We wasn't able to recognize it though. Our eyes were still dim and dark. There was still a veil over our heart. We was blind to these things and we thought we were doing the right thing and letting them go. Now God was at work in it all. We see what he was doing. In hindsight, we can see it. And over time, though, Stephanie starts going, and she invited me to go with, and I said, you know, I worked last weekend. I wanna hunt this weekend. I hunted last weekend. I always had a good excuse. Well, she went for weeks and weeks, and one day, on a Sunday afternoon, I was standing at the front gate of the Navy base, welcoming traffic coming in, checking tags as they come in. And Stephanie, I seen that little car coming. She comes, and I knew eventually she's gonna ask me again, and she said, look, can you come, will you go with me tonight? I think we found a place that I think you will enjoy going to. And in God's providence, I told her I would. Well, that evening we got together. When I got off, I was working 12-hour shifts. Soon as I got off, I changed, and we took off, and we landed at North Crest Baptist Church, and Brother Malcolm Lewis was preaching that night. It was a God thing. It was a God thing. May of that same year in 1997, Brother Lanny Lanier did the harvest weeks when he would come back and they were having revival and he was preaching revival. Stephanie who grew up in the church, Stephanie who participated in everything with the church. Stephanie who had a stepdad who was a pastor and Stephanie who had a mama who went to seminary, but got under such conviction of her life and sin that God done a work in her and interrupted her and saved her. And within two months, he done saved me. He interrupted us and put us on another course of living. And I began to learn that, hey, my mom and dad loved me, but what they were teaching me, they were teaching me the ways of man and the ways of man will destroy people. But the ways of a deliverer would set me free. Free to be able to follow Him. And then he began to teach me that, look, this world that I had so much investment in, now I've been crucified to the world and the world was crucified to me. And Jesus said that I was to deny myself and take up the cross and follow him. And this world system that never factored him in, he says, you can't learn to walk the way you used to walk. Matter of fact, now you can't learn, you can't keep learning how they are living and walking. I've got another way for you, amen. And boy, he began to teach me. And I wanna tell you those principles that you just read, that we just read together, where he says, you can't live like you used to live, and you can't live how the world's gonna live where I'm gonna plant you. I've got a whole nother path. Matter of fact, he calls it what? A narrow way. A narrow way. Through a narrow gate. Why is it narrow? Have you ever considered that? Why is it narrow? Why does he refer to it as being a narrow way and a narrow gate? You know why I believe that is? I believe it is because the way and the gate into that way is exclusive. It's an exclusive way and it's exclusive only in, through, and by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why it's so narrow. That's why Jesus would make reference to that in the end when people stand before God at the great white throne of judgment, and they say, Lord, Lord, did we not, did we not, did we not do this, and did we not do that, and did we not do this? And what is he gonna say to them? Depart from me, you worker of, Never what? You know why they'll say Lord Lord Why they'll say it then Because they've run out of options by the time They realize they out of options right now as they live through this world. They have options You know, the parable of the soil and the seed and the hearts that are some are what? By the wayside where the seed will fall. Some will fall on shadow ground, some will fall on stony ground, but some will fall on good ground. Some of that ground there are those that just add the message and the ways of God to their repertoire of life. They just use it as part of everything else they're using, but it's not exclusive. Jesus, God's way is an exclusive way, amen. It's the only way. It's the only way. And His way means everything, amen. It means everything. Everything. But you know, you can't find that way on your own. The scripture says there's none that live in this world without the Lord, without God's help. There's none that is righteous. No, not one. None understandeth, none seeketh after the Lord. God's got to do something in the heart of men. God's got to work in us, amen. He's got to woo us and win us and wound our heart to realize we are a sinner and in sin and the only answer to sin is his son and we can't help but turn to him and give him everything we got. Why? Because God's got to do something within us. Have you ever heard that story of what God's going to do with the children of Israel in a future day? The Bible talks about it in Ezekiel 36 when he refers to people having a stony heart and a heart of flesh. You ever heard that story before? that I'm gonna do something in a later day for my name's sake. You defiled my name, but one day I'm gonna bring you back to the land. You know, 36 and 37 go together about the valley of dry bones, how God's gonna bring them back, but there's no life in them like Israel right now. God's bringing them back to the promised land, but they still have no life in them. Why? Because Jesus is not in them. Why is Jesus not in them? Because God's not removed the stony heart out. He's not put his spirit in him yet. I brought an illustration in here to show you how this works in our life and why it's important for us as the believers to be praying for our neighbors and for our family members. There's not a single soul alive can come to Jesus by themselves. You can't get away from the past and you won't have overcoming power for the future if you're not living in the presence for Jesus, but you can't come to Jesus on your own. You can't come to Jesus without the gospel and you can't come to Jesus without God drawing you and doing a work of the Spirit in you. And that means all your neighbors and all your friends and all your family members need God to do something they can't do for themselves. That's why we flood these altars and pray for one another and pray for our family and pray that God would do something for a man that he can't do while we yield it over to him. But think about this rock right here. This is a stony, hard rock. Now, oftentimes we have a way when you hear words like the word flesh, what do you think about when you think about flesh? How does the New Testament teach us about the flesh? Well, it's soft, yes. And that we're not to live according to the flesh. The natural is the idea. But in this illustration in Ezekiel 36, considering how they've been living and what God's plans are for the future with them, God's gotta do something with them. And what he's gonna do, he said, I'm gonna take the heart of stone out of you, and I'm gonna replace it with a heart of flesh. Well, let's illustrate it, what he's talking about. You take, for an example, this rock right here. I'm gonna hit this rock with this hammer. It's gonna make a noise, but I want you to see if this rock is gonna cry, if it's gonna make any sound outside of the sound it has when I hit it. I want you to hear if it's gonna whine or pout or cry. Y'all ready? Y'all listening? Now, Brother Gary, You've been telling everybody how long I'm gonna preach. I'm gonna see how long you can stay in here tonight. Hold on now. Y'all was tensing up for him, right? Now, if I hit him with this hammer in his flesh, If he ain't sanctified, he's gonna do something he regretted in here tonight, right? He's either gonna hit me or he's gonna cuss or he's gonna run after us all. Why? Because as you said, your flesh is tender. It's sensitive. This rock, I can drop it 100 times, hit it 100 times, this rock is not sensitive. You can beat it all day long and it's unmoved by this hammer. But his flesh, he would let us know. How many of you have ever hit your thumb before? Does it get your attention? Do you forget you got another thumb that's working pretty good? You do, don't you? It gets all your focus. Look, I brought this cube bean in here. Now I want y'all to see if this rock flinches when I put this bright light on it. Now if I turn and hit Brother Jim, look at Miss Marsha, what's she doing? She's getting away. Why? His eyes, our eyes are what? I'm not gonna shine it in your eyes, but you know if I hit you in the eyes, you're gonna give to it. Why? It's gonna move you. Because your eyes are sensitive. You'll protect your eyes. How many of y'all wear contacts? How do y'all put contacts in your eyes? I don't know. I could barely put eye drops in my eyes. I ain't put no contact in my eye. I'm shady every time I just try to put a drop in it. My eyes are sensitive. I try to protect them. I brought a flame in here. Let's see if we can get that thing. Now y'all wait for it. We can hold this fire on this stony, hard rock until this thing turns cherry red and it will never make a noise, nor will it flinch. Why? There's no life in this rock. It's dead. But if I took... Miss Carol, put your hand right there for me for a second. See? Why? Her body, her flesh is sensitive to that flame. Matter of fact, if I just touched you with the tip of it right now, you know it's hot. I don't even have to put, it cannot bear that heat. But this rock is not moved by it. This rock and what Ezekiel 36 represents is those who are dead and without Christ. They're unmoved. insensitive to the things of God. So God has to do the supernatural. God's gotta do what a dead man cannot do, and that is he takes this out and puts a heart of flesh that can be what? Moved by him. Moved by Him. Moved by Him. God's gotta do this. We need Him to do it. There's another term that the New Testament refers to, and even God refers to it in the Old Testament. While we're so close to it, look in Deuteronomy. Look in Deuteronomy 30. Can't learn it? Can't trust it and can't do it. That is the ways of this world or our past life, amen. Can't return to it. Can't learn the new world and boy, we don't wanna burn out the sweet blessings of being able to walk with the Lord. So Deuteronomy 30. Notice what God makes a promise to a future generation. Deuteronomy was a message that Moses delivered at the end of those 40 years preached three messages to a group of people that he wouldn't bring in, Joshua would lead them in, but it's a whole nother generation after that 40-year journey, and in chapter 30, he says something to them, what God makes a promise that he would do in a future day. Deuteronomy 30, and I'll just read verse number six for time's sake tonight. The scripture says, and the Lord God will do what to your heart? He will not, we're not talking about the flesh here, meaning the body of circumcision. What men do, what Israel did, remember the New Testament teaches us that the circumcision of the flesh profits man nothing. It has to be the what? Cutting away of the flesh of the heart. But notice what God says he will do. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, this is talking about believers now, not just any person that connected with Israel, but the Lord will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants for what reason? To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may what? Live. Oh, does God gotta do it? Yes, God has to do it. See, God not only has to, what, remove, this is another picture of the same work of God that he's gotta do, Ms. Boots, is that the idea of removing the heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh, that pictures the fact that we had a heart that had to be cut. It had to be cut by God, and that circumcision of the heart is what changes the person so they go from being dead to God, unmoved by Him, not alive to Him, but now by faith they can be moved. Now they can love Him. Because you're not gonna love the Lord without God circumcising your heart. He's gotta change the man's heart, amen? He's gotta change us. So in the work that we are as missionaries, who are to be these rocks in weary lands, and we're to be these rivers in dry lands, that we're to be a shelter in the tempest, in the storms of life. As we go in as missionaries to be a covering for people in a harsh environment of this world we live in, we're to be those edifiers, those evangelizers, those encouragers, that brings a living word that God uses to what? Cut away at the heart of men, taking the heart of stone out of them, placing a heart that is in them that can be moved by God, touched by Him, sensitive to Him. Now they can hear Him, they can see Him, they can feel Him, and by faith they could walk with Him, amen. We are the people, we get to do that with a great expectation that he who promised cannot lie. Amen. So we go in great hope We go with a great expectation, not depending on a man to respond properly to God, but depending on God to do what he has to do so the man can see him, hear him, and put his confidence in him, amen. So this is what we get to do. This is how we identify with Jesus. This is how we identify with the bride of doing the work that he's called us to do. We get to go in great hope and anticipation that, hey, I am a messenger. a missionary who's been separated, given over to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the means of the power of God unto salvation. And if the message we carry is where the righteousness of God is revealed and God gets in and does something in a man's life that you can't do, that I can't do, but boy, the spirit of the living God can transform a heart, amen, and take a dead man and make him alive. And what you and I've got to recognize, God is not put you in the business of fixing fools, amen. You can't fix a fool. God don't fix fools. God takes dead men and makes them alive, amen. Matter of fact, he tells us we would be foolish to even try to fix fools. It's a folly to try to fix fools. You can't fix a fool. Their heart is bent. He's got to change their heart. And when he changes their heart, he changes them. So in this world we live in, is this world full of fools? Matter of fact, let me ask you, have you ever acted like a fool? Do you still have the potential to act like a fool? You do. So who are we dependent upon so we don't act like fools? We got to be dependent on the Lord. Amen. Because I can't live like my daddy taught me. My daddy taught me to act like a fool every once in a while. When somebody acted like a fool, I acted like more of a fool. Are you with me? That's how he taught me. But see, my heavenly father's taught me something different. And if I let this old world we live in manipulate and conform and squeeze and shape me, I'm gonna act like them and I'm just gonna fight with them in a battle that nobody wins. But if I go in the victory that's already been won by the way of the Lord Jesus, Now he's getting into families. He's getting into life. He's getting into people's life. He's getting into people like Stephanie and Nick who live like a fool. But somebody kept being patient with us and being kind to us. And you know, here's the thing. Many of you know this. We did not land in a church that kept reaching out to us and the churches around us who kept serving our girls and taking them. God planted us in a whole nother church that had no outreach toward us whatsoever. It was just his plan where he had us go. But you know what? I don't think those people that was real, I don't think they cried about it. You know what I think they did? They celebrated and delighted the fact that, hey, them holdings are now loving on Jesus, and Jesus is loving on them. He's committed to them because they committed to him, and we seeing something. And I guarantee you, they had no idea nearly 30 years later I'd be standing here tonight preaching the gospel, amen? They just wanted old boy to get saved. Stephanie wanted a husband that would lead them as a family. And when I started growing and God started working on me and God called me into, she started noticing that I said, I believe God's calling me into ministry. Wait a minute, God, all I want him to do is lead the family. I don't want him going to ministry. See, God will do exceedingly abundantly more than you ever ask or imagine, amen. You see, but it's gotta start where? It's gotta start with a transformed life, transformed heart. Some of you in here today may still have an old stony hard heart. You can't get rid of it, but I know who can, amen? Your heart is still uncircumcised, still doing life yourself. If you took that great picture in Hebrews 11 in reference to the men and women who lived and walked by faith, you get to a place in the front part of it with a guy by the name of Noah, And it says, Noah, by faith, being divinely warned by God, was what? Moved. Moved with godly fear. And he prepared an ark for the saving of his household. You see, by faith, warned, he was moved. Why? Because God showed him what? Grace, amen. Remember the society he was living in, how bad it was? But the scripture says, Noah found what? Grace, you know what that means? God did what he does. What does he do? Grace takes the old stony heart out, cuts the old heart of flesh, and makes you into a servant of the living God. And when God gives you a word, you move on that word, amen? When God gives you a mission, You walk in that mission. When God gives you an assignment, you welcome that assignment. When God says build something that's unbelievable, you start building his kingdom for his glory, amen. So tonight I encourage you by faith that whatever you sense the Spirit of God leading you in this place tonight, you surrender to it. You yield to it. If it's to give your life to Jesus, You call out on him, confess him, agree with him. Faith is hearing from the Lord, heeding what God says, honoring it with your life, and holding it forth as a way of life. And when a man gives their lives to Jesus, they give their life to him. They believe him. They believe him. And when you believe him, you believe his life. You believe his mission. You believe his message. You're saying, I wanna be part of what you believe. I wanna do what you do. I wanna go where you go. You give your life to Jesus. You give your life to his mission. Surrender to him Tonight you may be in a place where you know you belong to Jesus But you got to come home. We talked about that prodigal yesterday, right? Living in that riot this living but he came to him And he had a whole nother dimension of thinking about his father and his family and his home. And he realized that everything he had was what he needed at home. And he went and wasted it all in doing life his way. But when he came to himself, he came home. Because he realized his father was better. And I wanna tell you, the way of Jesus, that narrow way, it's better than any other way, amen. Why? Because it's the only way. It's the only way. It's the only way. So tonight, I encourage you, cry out to him, amen. Trust him with your life. For you that's got a mission from the Lord, because every believer's got a mission. Remember, he delivers us from something to what? To something. From something to something. You gotta have a mission. You gotta have an assignment. He's delivered you to something. Now you need him to fulfill that something in you. So if it's people that he's assigned you to go to, you need to go. You don't be like a Jonah running away from it, right? You know why Jonah ran? Because Jonah got caught up in Jonah. Jonah got caught up in doing life his way. He liked the easy way of his own life. So it made it easy when God put it on his heart to go to somebody, you know what he did? He forsook them and ran his own way. And he tells us that, that when you put your heart on vanity and empty and lifeless things, you will forsake being kind to people, being good to people. And that's exactly what he did. Why? Because he made life all about him. So in here, you may have been on assignment, but you've got, you waned in it. You're weary in it. I want to tell you to look back to Jesus. Amen. and ask God to give you the strength to do what he's called you to do. You've got neighbors around you that need you interceding for them, to love on them, to show them Jesus, to be Jesus before them, to be a shadow in spite of their actions. Aren't you glad that God didn't get caught up in your actions? Micah chapter seven says that he didn't get caught up in our trespasses, he went beyond our trespasses and he dealt with the wickedness of our heart, amen. We get too easily tripped up with what people are doing. And we don't get to the heart of why they're doing what they're doing. But I'm thankful for Jesus, he gets to the heart of it. And he'll subdue our iniquity, where they need to be subdued, where they can't do it themselves. So tonight, I believe we all got somebody and something to be praying for, amen. Something and someone to be proud. Some of us in here, we got to do business with Jesus tonight. Do business with Jesus tonight. So the altar's gonna be open, the gym will be here, we got plenty of people in here tonight that can help you, work with you, but I wanna tell you, nobody works with you better than Jesus. Nobody, God, you're sweeter than the Spirit. And we know God loves us. But if it was simply his love that saved us, everybody would be saved. because his love covers, he loves you. No matter where you've been, what you've done, but it's not his love that saves you, it's his grace that saves you. It's his grace, it's his son who paid the price for your sin who saves you, amen? You gotta give your life to him, because he gave his life for you. Trust him with it. Would you stand with us tonight? Father, we bless you, we thank you. I ask you to help in this moment of decision We're in it, we're in the fight right now over souls and over lives and over families and over the next step with you. And I pray that you would encourage and empower and lay it upon the heart of your people who they need to lay before you. whether it be their own life, their own situation, their own family, but more than anything, we're not gonna focus in on us in this invitation. We're looking under you. So we're asking you to lead in it. Save and sanctify in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you stand? Yes. Altars open.