We're going to be turning back again to Matthew chapter number 6. And I must say, once again, what started out as a brief little thing has turned into a trek across the globe. How did, what was it, the show Gilligan's Isle started out as, Island started out as a three-hour tour, but they ended up being shipwrecked. Well, we're not shipwrecked, we're in a good place. But we started out as a 45 minute tour and it's turned into weeks. And quite frankly, it's inexhaustible as well. But we'll continue on. Matthew chapter number six. And as I've been doing, I want to read verses one through 15. I have to get there first. How do you like that? Well, I'll tell you, if we all had the same Bibles, you could say, turn into page 1,400 in your Schofield reference Bible. I know people that do that, but I don't have a Schofield reference Bible here. Anyways, I have one here. But Matthew chapter 6, starting in verse number 1. It says, take heed that you do not your arms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise, you have no reward of your father, which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine arms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and the Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to the Father which is in secret, and the Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. After this manner, therefore, pray ye, our Father, which art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." And Lord, we just pray that you would just help us to understand the meaning of the text that we're looking at today, Lord. We just pray for your wisdom and your guidance through it all, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, we turn our attention now. We've looked at the last several weeks at the literal kingdom of God which is coming and and his will, though it's not being done on this earth now. We have a rebellious world that is against God, but one day the world will be in subjection and submission unto God himself, and that will happen when the literal physical kingdom is here, when Jesus Christ rules and reigns from the throne of David in Jerusalem. So now we see this future kingdom, we see the reality of it, but there's a problem. Yes, we have a problem, Houston. The problem is that we are not in the kingdom yet, though many people say we are. If we're in the kingdom now, I feel sorry, because this kingdom of this world is not very good, is it? As a matter of fact, this kingdom, if this is God's kingdom, I would have to call God a failure. But this kingdom of this world is run by Satan, the prince of the power of the air. He is the one that's ruling this world, but one day God himself will rule again. Adam blew it, Jesus regained it, and we'll see that in the future when Jesus comes again. So what do we do? We're here, we're in the world, we're living in the world, we're living under all the precepts of the laws of the world, and at the same time, we are under God's jurisdiction. Well, I'm glad you asked, what do we do? These words says, give us this day our daily bread. There are many that would say this speaks only spiritually, but I believe this particular passage is speaking of physical bread. After all, look around the world. We are so blessed here in America that we don't have to really scrounge around or pray where our food comes from. God does provide it. God provides us food, and he does it throughout the jobs that we have. He provides it in all these different ways. But around the world, there are famines. There is poverty around the world. And by the way, we can't give the solution for poverty. Jesus said, the poor you will have with you forever. I'm talking physically poor. We cannot solve the world's problems. But what can we do? We can hold up the gospel of Jesus Christ in that those problems will now be made I was gonna say the problems will be made complete, but those problems will only be of earthly problems and not heavenly problems, because we have that future hope we've been talking about. It says, give us this day our daily bread. Let's look into some Old Testament passages. Again, we've looked at them before about how in the kingdom there will be agricultural, there'll be food aplenty for everyone. There'll be no need to pray, give us this day our daily bread. And just a couple passages, and I think this is in review. Amos chapter nine. Amos chapter number nine. We'll skip right down to verse 11. It says, his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old." See, literally, the physical tabernacle, the physical throne of David will be raised up again. Again, this is not a spiritual thing. This is going to be a physical place. "...that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the heathen which are called by thy name, saith the Lord that doeth this." where it says, heathen, put nations, put us in there. We will partake in the Lord's kingdom. The whole world is, the heathen, the Gentile nations will partake. Verse number 13 says, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper. and the treader of grapes, him that soweth seeds, and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. There'll be a day we'll have food in abundance. We'll go to the land flowing with milk and honey. That whole region will be prosperous and be able to provide food and drink for everyone. I like that the plowman overtakes the reaper. As soon as the fields are reaped, right away the plowman will be coming and planting more. It'll be a continual blessing. Think of the nations in Africa and the Middle East that are now under conditions of squalor, utmost poverty and persecution. One day they'll take part in the blessings of the kingdom for all. After all, think of this, we've been fighting the war on poverty here in America for 50 some odd years, and it's gotten even worse. But there will be a day when Jesus Christ will establish his kingdom and he'll provide for the entire world. Let's finish out this chapter here. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof. They shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land. upon the promised land that was promised to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, that incredibly huge promised land. And I will plant them upon their land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God. I like that ending here. They will no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them. that they will have a permanent dwelling place, emanate, starting with the kingdom of God established on earth, and then culminate in the new Jerusalem, which cometh down from heaven. Oh, what a blessing that will be. Let's turn over to Isaiah chapter 65. I'll try to just go quickly through a couple of these. Just as a remembrance, the book of Isaiah, starting with chapter 40, deals with the kingdom of God, the millennial kingdom, and the glories of it. Isaiah 65, let's go down to verse number 17. We'll start with For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. Just think of that day when God just takes and redoes this whole world. I'm full of joy seeing a paint job done on a wall. Think of the whole earth being renewed in the kingdom. But be ye glad, and rejoice forever in that which I create for, behold, I create Jerusalem, a rejoicing and a people of joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days. For the child shall die a hundred years old, but the sinner, being a hundred years old, shall be accursed. and they shall build houses and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit, they shall not plant and another eat. For as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands, they shall not labor in vain nor bring forth for trouble, for they are in the seed of the blessed of the Lord and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and thus shall be the serpent's meat. "'They shall not hurt nor destroy "'in all my holy mountain,' said the Lord." A kingdom of peace, a kingdom of beauty, a kingdom where all creation, which is now groaning together, will be in harmony with its maker. What a joy that will be. By the way, I was just thinking here, in Deuteronomy chapter 30, the prophet Moses God said to him that Jerusalem and Israel would be the head and not the tail. It would be the leader of the world and not the despised nation that it still is today. And by the way, here's a prediction I have for you. I'm not a prophet, but I kind of know things that are coming. In a couple weeks, we have somebody that's going to be at the arena here in Worcester that is going to pack that place to the full with mostly women who are deceived by her traps. I'm talking about Joyce Meyer. And I'm going to make this guarantee that she's going to quote Deuteronomy chapter 30. She's going to say, you ladies, you're the head and not the tail. That's not about us. It's about Israel. It's about the promised land. It's about the kingdom of God. So listen, so if you know anybody that happens to be going to that, just tell them you have a guarantee someday she's gonna apply that scripture and it doesn't pertain to us at all. It pertains to the kingdom of God on earth. Let's move on here to Zechariah chapter eight. Zechariah chapter eight. And while we go there, I did this last week. I sat down and I read all of the minor prophets in one sitting. And I took, it's neat, electronically there's highlighters that are on your device. I've highlighted in green everything that pertains to the kingdom. And you know, half of the minor prophets pertain to the kingdom of God that is coming. Zechariah chapter eight. I hate cherry picking these verses because the whole thing pertains to the same thing. Verse number 12. For the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heaven shall give their due, and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. and it shall come to pass that as you were a curse among the heathen, they were the tale among the heathen. O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong." I'm going to end there. Read the rest of it. Read up to right through chapter 14 about the coming of the Lord and it all come together. But the idea is prosperity is coming. All you have to do is sow a seed. Oh, never mind. All you have to do is trust that God is bringing prosperity to this world when he established his kingdom on this earth. We don't have to look for it now. We are prosperous because of what the Lord has done. I'm grateful that the poorest of people is richer than the richest of people. I'd rather take my umpteen hundred dollars I possess over Bill Gates and his billions, over any of those guys. But we have the promises of the kingdom to come. But now, what about now? What about what do we do now? Many people would say, don't just pray these little things. Well, praying for your daily bread is not a little thing. We pray out of thanksgiving to God that he has provided for us. Are you thankful that he's provided food? He provides shelter? He provides, even in this day, even transportation for us. Other than that, those are things that are extra blessing to us. I'm thankful for Wi-Fi, but is that a necessity that we have? It's not. We have the necessities in life, which God says to be content with food and raiment. Then we have all that we need for life and godliness. I share this, I don't get too many phone calls from people asking for money. I sound like I'm a hard kind of person, but I used to get all kinds of phone calls, pastor, I'm moving back to the area and my family's leaving me and I don't have any money. I said, well, we'd be glad to give you some money, but first of all, me and a couple of guys, we're gonna go to your house and visit with you. And if you're smoking cigarettes, drinking liquor, if you have an iPhone, if you have cable and all these things, we're not gonna waste God's money. Nothing against those things, we all have them, but those are not needs. So I guess the word must get around, because I think there's a whole circle of people that call around looking for money and they get together or something. I haven't gotten a call like that in a couple of years, but they're out there. It's God's necessities that we have, that we need, that God provides. There are some that would even say that here he's talking merely of physical, I mean merely of spiritual food. Yes, we do need spiritual food. God, Jesus, calls himself the bread of life. Matthew chapter 6 verse 11 isn't talking about that spiritual food though. As a problem, we need to take the Bible, especially prophecy, in its literal form or else we're caused to twist everything else into our own ideas. Let's turn over to, we're gonna go on another little excursion. Let's go over to just Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26. In Matthew chapter 26, In verse 26, we're just gonna stay with that one verse here to get the idea here. It says, and as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body. Question, is that literally Jesus' body or was Jesus speaking spiritually? Problem is an allegorical passage or a metaphor which is used and some people take that literally. They take that as being this bread that he's talking about literally becomes him. Poof. Here's Jesus, eat this cookie or loaf and you're gonna have everything your heart desires. But yet here he's speaking, speaking in a metaphor that he is the bread, that same bread that was provided in the wilderness, which we'll be getting to in a second. Matthew 4.4 and Luke 4.4, you don't have to go there, but Jesus, responding to the devil, said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. This is our spiritual food, but notice he didn't rebuke them for saying living by bread, because we do need physical bread as well, is what Matthew 6 is talking about. Let's turn over to Exodus chapter 16. Exodus chapter 16. I am gonna try to condense this. What you really need in Exodus 16 is you need the whole chapter. the whole chapter lays down God's provision of manna. He provided them meat, doves, during the daytime, and overnight he would provide manna for them, which they were to pick up. Let's turn to, let's just go down to verse 14. We'll kind of get the second half of it here and get the idea. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is manna." What is it? See, they define what manna is. It means, what is it? They didn't have any description for it. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, gather of every man according to his eating and Omer for every man according to the number of your persons, take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so and gathered some more, some less. Well, I know I think of that there, I know Butch is a big eater. He would have a plate this big that he needs for his everyday sustenance. He eats like a bird. See, birds eat like twice their weight of food. I, on the other hand, I'd have a little plate like this. That would be sufficient for me. So it says some more, some less, whatever your need is. People had different dietary, I almost said restrictions, but I don't know if we had gluten-free diets in that day, but they had different amounts of food that they needed to sustain themselves. So some more, some less. And when they did meet it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over. That's how Americans love to waste food. They had nothing, and he that gathered little had no lack. They had their basic needs were met in what God provided for them. They gathered every man according to his eating, and Moses said, let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses, But some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank, and Moses was wroth with them. See, they were disbehaving. They weren't just getting their daily bread. They weren't taking what they needed. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating, and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses, And he said unto them, this is that which the Lord hath said. Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which you will bake today, and seethe that you will seethe. And that which remaineth over, lay up for you to be kept until the morning. The one time the provision for the Sabbath would be provided for food for the Sabbath day. And they laid it up till the morning as Moses bade, and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, eat that today, for today is a Sabbath unto the Lord. Today ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. Didn't they hear what God had said? Don't go out on the Sabbath day, that's the day of rest. They were disobedient to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. And Moses said, this is the thing which the Lord commandeth. Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations that they may see the bread wherewith I have led you to the wilderness when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, take a pot and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept. And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years until they came to a land inhabited. They did eat manna until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. Now in Omer is the tenth part of an Eva. See the picture we have here? God provided each one of them physical bread for their wanderings. And as soon as they went over into Canaan, or the promised land, they ate no more of the manna. God had withdrawn it, because if we go over to Joshua chapter 5, we'll see why. Joshua chapter 5, just a couple verses here, Joshua chapter 5. just verses 10 through 12, that's three verses I know. And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at Even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the self same day. Look at verse 12. And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten the old corn of the land. Neither had the children of Israel manna anymore, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. See, I'm pressing on to the promised land. They got over into the promised land. God did not provide their manna. They ate of the fruit. This was, after all, the land flowing with milk and honey. They ate of the goods of that land. And that land of Canaan prefigures the kingdom of God. Those Israelites crossed over, they were provided for food in the wilderness, in their wanderings, and now they're in the promised land where they ate of the fruit of that land. Now let's tie this together with Jesus here in John chapter six. John chapter six, some of this will be very familiar. John chapter number six, I'm not gonna go through the whole chapter. And we are gonna skip down to verse number 28. Actually, let's go back to verse 26. It says, Jesus answered them and said, verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him God the Father sealed. Then they said unto him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." We talk about a clear presentation of the gospel in one verse right there. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. This is the work. Don't keep on trying to do things, but just trust in what Christ has done. They said therefore unto him, What sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, and it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. So we see the comparison of the manna being physical, providing for the Israelites in their journeyings, and now here is the true bread, which is Jesus Christ, that if you'll partake in, you'll have eternal life. That's a summary of the rest of the chapter. Then they said unto him, Lord evermore, give this bread. And Jesus said unto them, We'll stop after the first two words here. I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father gives me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will. which hath sent me, that all of which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." It's a good place to say amen. Whoever believes in him. So we have this bread, a spiritual bread that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe me, we do need that spiritual bread. We can partake in the life of Christ by fellowshipping in his word, by partaking in that. We have the symbolism, the remembrance of communion. Well, let's go back now to, let's go back down to, back to Matthew 6. where he's talking about our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Just as the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, they got a day's portion for each of them. All they had to do was go and pick it up. We too, we are given this charge to pray for that, that God would provide us And I know we've all, many of us have been to the point at times where we don't know where the next meal is gonna come from. We pray, Lord, give us this day. Give us our daily bread or our bread that is sufficient for the day. Provide for us, protect us. These are indeed great prayers to have. Yet today, what's happening, is many people are saying, you can't pray that way. You have a big God. You need to give him big prayers. You need to have big God-sized prayers that you can be a mighty conqueror in all this, that you can dream God-sized dreams. That's what you need. God's word never says that. We need to be content with what God has provided for us. I am so thankful. I'm just so glad my favorite sandwich is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Now I'd love to have filet mignon, but God has provided peanut butter and jelly, and I am content with that. I am content with God's provision that he has given us in this world. This is what the context of Matthew 6 in the Lord's or disciples' prayer is. The kingdom is coming, but now in the meantime we need to live in the here and now. Pray for your daily bread. Pray that God would provide your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Pray for the provision of protection. Pray for those things that are now being called mundane. Let's go over to, to close up here, let's go to 2 Peter chapter one. 2 Peter chapter number one. Actually, keep your finger in 2 Peter and go to 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6. I wanted to go to verse number 6, but let's go to verse 1. So let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doubting about questions and strifes of words, whereof coming envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, Supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself." So God desires you to prosper. God desires you to have riches untold. That's a false gospel. And it's very common. God wants to fulfill your wildest dreams. I looked up wildest dreams. My computer aided Bible and nothing came up. These things just aren't in the scriptures. Verse number six, the eraser. But godliness with contentment is great gain. What do we need to be content with? We need to be content that Jesus Christ is enough. Enough. Settled. Finished. He's the one that died on the cross. He's the one that was buried. He's the one that rose again. You cannot add anything to that, but believe it. And trust in it. After all, if you trust in your own destiny, your own dreams, and your own being, you are going to be totally lost. Even as a Christian, you could be a Christian and not adhering to sound doctrine. You're going to find yourself waffling and wavering and going all over the place, going everywhere to go nowhere. But the reality, Christ is the one to be content with. For we brought nothing into this world and is certain we can carry nothing out. I did bring something into this world. I brought my sin into this world. God took care of that, and when I leave this world, nothing's gonna go with me. My million dollar check that I write out can go nowhere, plus who's gonna cash it anyways? I don't have any backing for that anyways. It's certain we can carry nothing out. Verse number eight says, in having food and raiment, let us be there with content. Content in Christ, content in the things that He has promised. Food and shelter, be content. Anything above that is a blessing from God. But they that will be rich fall into temptation. Now this isn't talking about having a lot of money, because money is good. Money is good if it's used godly, but those who idolize those riches. I always mention Bill Gates. I'd rather be a pauper than Bill Gates. It's a guy, he uses his money for a lot of supposed good things, but there's nothing Christian about him. It's a waste of money that he has, For they will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. I see this in the prosperity gospel. You never see a teacher of the prosperity gospel landing on their feet. Well, I can't say never, but nine times out of 10, there's some kind of scandal. that is against them, because what happens? They have a taste. They're like all the sharks off of Cape Cod. You get a taste of blood, you want more. Wow, if I say this, I can make money. I can bring in the riches and they'll go at nothing else. They'll be overcome by riches. For the love of money, I was just talking last night with somebody, it's not the, It's not money that's the root of all sorts of evil, it's the love of money. Greed is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. It's a story that keeps on playing as a loop over and over again, getting into the trap of the love of money. goes over and over again, and it gets worse and worse as they go. Now, verse 11 starts out with the eraser. You see, when you see but, put your eraser in there. Thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Remember, this goes right along with the fruit of the Spirit, not fruits of the Spirit. It goes right along with the character and nature of Jesus Christ. So I want to shorten that verse. It says, but thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after Jesus Christ in his ways. Don't go chasing after him. A lot of people, that's another catchphrase. I'm chasing after God. Well, you're not going to catch him, but follow. God is a lot faster than you and I are, but follow him. It says, fight the good fight of faith. How do you do that? I think of a wrestler here. I think if anybody wrestled getting a bear hug, you're at a point where nobody's winning. That's what it is here. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. Literally, think of eternal life and just grasp that. Don't let go of it. As a believer, you have eternal life. Lay hold of it. Don't let anyone tell you differently. Otherwise, guess what, that different telling is gonna lead you into sin. They always add a but where there shouldn't be a but. But, I know what you did 30 years ago. I know what you did. Now you say, but the Lord Jesus Christ delivered me from those sins. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called. Aren't you glad you were called unto eternal life? Aren't you glad you were chosen by you, choosing Jesus Christ into that eternal life? Whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. You know that good profession? I am a worthless sinner, but Christ died for me. Unfortunately, the profession that's made in so many times, look at me, no, look at Christ. That is the profession that we have. Do I wanna stop there? I don't know. No, let's finish it up here. I give thee charge in the sight of God. who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only patente, the King of kings and Lord of lords. See, we keep going right until the kingdom comes. How long should we fight the fight of faith? Keep on going until it's time to end. Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting, Amen, I think I'll end with that amen right there. And there's only God that has that power that we look unto. And while we had our fingers in 2 Peter 1, I took my finger out, so. 2 Peter 1, I just wanna look at the first three verses. Oh boy, four's a good one to go to too, so, because there's a wherefore, so. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. So Peter's addressing Christians, those who have been bought by the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord according to his Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. His divine power he's made known unto us all things. It's another verse that's twisted so often that you can take part in God's divine nature right now. You can be a little god. but that's not it. We're inheritors of all that glory, but he's given everything that we need to know through the word of God and through knowing him. One last place, I told you I was in it there. This is literally only a couple verses, Proverbs 30. Proverbs 30, the closing of the closing this morning. Proverbs chapter 30. Proverbs 30 is one of the only, areas in scripture where actually it's designed to take out of context. It's designed for just Proverbs and Maxims in order for the believer, somebody that has faith already to live in. Try somebody that doesn't know Christ and tell them to follow Proverbs and he's gonna be totally lost. Proverbs chapter 30, verse seven. We'll go right full circle here. Two things have I required of thee. Deny me them not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. See how it came full circle? Solomon saying, let me be content with that which you have provided. Give me my daily bread, right here at the end. Feed me with food convenient or sufficient for me. With these things we are content with, knowing the mercy of the Lord. Remove far from me vanity and lies. how much vanity and lies surround us. But yet when we look to Him and His Word, as well as His finished work on the cross of Calvary, we have everything we need. There's nothing else. He is enough. It is finished. the work of salvation, and that's what we grow in is what he did. Amen. Again, the greatest thing that you can do is to believe the gospel. I say that to people who haven't necessarily believed Christ or trusted Christ, but I say that to all of us. Are we trusting in our own works or are we trusting in what Christ did? We need the gospel. He is sufficient. Be content with that. Amen. Let's pray.