This morning we're going to take a scripture reading from the sixth chapter of the book of Genesis. If you'd like to get a Bible out and read with me, we'll read the entirety of the sixth chapter of Genesis and also one verse from Hebrews chapter 11. As returning there this morning, we were speaking in our Sunday school class about the nature of God. We read about Moses and how he approached God in the burning bush. And he saw the bush that was burning, but yet was not consumed. God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, and when he did, Moses hid his face upon the ground. We talked this morning about the importance of humbling ourselves before the presence of God. And that sometimes we're too familiar because we don't see God for who He really is. Our God is a holy God. And our God is a consuming fire. And when He speaks from His Word, it's powerful. And the proper response for approaching the presence of God is to humble ourselves. To stop, to listen, It's a privilege if God would yet speak to us. Genesis chapter 6, And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, For that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. And there were giants in the earth on those days. And also after that, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men, that they bare children to them, the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth. And it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I've created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah, found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Runes shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. This is the fashion which thou shalt make it of, The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits, the breadth of it 50 cubits, and the height of it 30 cubits. A window shalt thou make in the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above, and the door of the ark thou shalt set in the side thereof, with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under the heaven. and everything that is in the earth shall die. But with thee I will establish my covenant. Thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark to keep them alive with thee. They shall be male and female, of fowls after their kind and of cattle after their kind of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee, and it shall be food for thee and for them. Thus did Noah according to all that God commanded him, so did he. That's where we'll stop reading. Hebrews 11 and verse 7. says this, By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of righteousness, which is by faith. And this morning, I pray that God would bless his word and that I could preach for just a few moments about Noah's ark. about Noah's Ark. Today, we're reading about another of the cloud of witnesses that are mentioned in the book of Hebrews. If you'll recall, the Hebrew writer in the 12th chapter of Hebrews said this, he said, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight. and the sin which does so easily beset us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. The Bible tells us that all of the stories, and I use that word stories, these are real events that took place in history, but all of these events are recorded for us for our edification. that we are given insight to what took place for our example, and that Noah is one of those among the many of God's people that served him over time, that right now is encouraging us to keep pressing on, to keep serving the Lord. Noah knew what it was to have a calling upon his life that was greater than himself, to be discouraged, to try, to have doubts and fears and anxieties, but also to have faith, to endure, to keep pressing on when you don't understand, and to see God's mighty hand at work. And as we read about Noah, we should be encouraged and also warned that God is still the same yesterday and today and forever, and that He calls us to have faith like Noah, to press after God, to do what God wants us to do even when we don't understand. even when we live in a world that doesn't understand. That there is a need for a people in the midst of a corrupt generation to stand up and be lights to a darkened world. When I read about Noah's day, I wonder if anyone took note that it sounds a lot like our day today. That people just kind of married whom they chose. There wasn't a discernment anymore between who was God's people and who were the people of the world. People debate all the time about what that means about the sons of God, the daughters of men. What it meant was is that God's people were intermarrying with the world and there was no distinguishing about who were God's people anymore. God looked down upon the world and they were all corrupt. They'd all gone away. There was no more light. But then God found grace and bestowed it upon Noah. And thankfully he did, otherwise the world would have all been destroyed. But God chose through Noah to save the world and to bring about another generation and an opportunity for hope. And in this we see God's goodness and God's mercy and God's grace. Today we're living in a generation that is corrupt. And we're at the precipice of the end of time. We don't know how long we have. We don't know if it's another day or another year or another generation. We have no clue. But we do know that things are continuing to go more and more away from God. Where there's less of a distinguishing feature about these are God's people and this is the way of the world. And we would even say that it seems like that God has maybe not got as much influence on the world today as He had before. But we know that God is still just as powerful as He ever was, that God is still as holy as He ever was, and that God can do anything He chooses just like He could in any other generation. So what's the difference? The difference is that mankind generally has forgotten God. But I believe just like he looked down and found grace for Noah, that he's looked down upon a few, a remnant here in this world, and he's found grace for them. I think a few of us are in this room where God has shown grace to us and we are recipients of that and God has a plan and a purpose. But this morning, if I could, I just want to talk a little bit about this account that I read about this morning. And some of the things that we learn about God in our generation today, and some things that we should consider from Noah as he is one of those cloud of witnesses that are cheering us on, I believe this can be an encouragement to us as God's people. The first thing I want us to look at is God's judgment. God was looking down upon the world, and it's hard for us to understand how that it grieved God's heart when He saw the world the way that it was, that it repented Him, that He had made man, and that He had set His face to destroy the entire world. When I say that, for some people, they just can't even fathom that God would look upon the world like that. That He would be so grieved at His heart that His desire would be that it would just be snuffed out. But God got there in Genesis chapter 6. He looked down upon the world and basically the world had gone after its own way, had forgotten Him, and it repented Him, the Bible says. And that doesn't mean that God repents in the way that man repents, but it grieved Him and He just wanted to go back to the way that it was before man was here and had done so much evil and so much violence. It bothers God to see the way that man seeks to destroy other men. It bothers God when He sees that men are trying to dominate other men. When people treat people with hatred and with contempt and when we do evil deeds against our neighbor, it grieves the heart of God. You may think that God does not see and that God does not care, but the Bible teaches very clearly that God sees all things, even the thoughts and the intents of every man's heart. And when he sees the thoughts of men's heart as evil, continually it grieves God. When he sees the way that you feel about your neighbor, when he sees the way that people try to to hold other people down or take advantage of people, when he sees injustice, when he sees that we don't value life, when he sees that we are more concerned about prosperity than righteousness, it grieves the heart of God. And you may not agree with me, but the Bible is very clear about the fact that God is intimately involved with the affairs of men, and He knows their thoughts, He knows their heart, and when they're not His thoughts, when they're not His heart, it grieves Him. On a personal level, it does. If you're outside the grace of God and are trying to live your life according to your flesh, it grieves the heart of God that you've rebelled against Him and that you've chosen to go your way instead of the way of God. It bothers the heart of God. Now why do we even speak of this? Because one day God is going to call an end to all evil and all unrighteousness and all sin, and one day God is going to judge the world, much like He did in the days of Noah. Jesus one time was speaking, and here's the language that it used in Genesis. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth. And it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I've created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air. For it repented me that I have made them. That's not Mike speaking, that's the word of God. And sometimes people hear that and they will say things like, well, I believe in a loving God. So do I. I believe in a God that knows our mistakes and loves us anyway. Yeah, I believe in a God like that too. And I'm thankful that I found Him merciful and kind and gracious. But when it ends, when it gets to the end of His kindness, when it gets to the end of the time that He's willing to be long-suffering with mankind, there will be a day in which He will say, it's enough. And that day may not be very far away. Listen to what Jesus said. This is the Son of God. Very meek man. A man that was loving and kind and compassionate towards sinners. And still is today. But listen to what He says about when God's patience runs out. He said, But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, not the Son, but the Father alone. For as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Did you hear that? I think sometimes God's people even have forgotten about the fact that we are soon going to be under the judgment of God. And that just the way that the surprise came in Noah's day, there's going to be a great surprise in which Jesus is going to return. And when he returns, he's not going to return meek and mild and born in a stable, but he's going to come back the King of kings and Lord of lords and sit upon his judgment throne. And that day is coming quickly. That day is coming soon. You see, Jesus is going to return, and He's going to return as judge. And the good part about that is, is all this that we see in the world, the injustice, the way that the people that are poor are trampled down by the rich, the way the weak are pressed down by the strong. You see, Jesus is going to turn all that on its head, and righteous and vindication for every evil deed will occur, and God will make all things right. It's wonderful. It's wonderful to think that even though, you know, right now it seems like in the court of law that everybody is just concerned with winning, but not justice. You see, what we desire should be that things are made right, that things are on the even, that those that have no voice get a voice and things like that. That used to be a part of the American ideal, that those that are wealthy don't have so much power to trample on the poor. But you see, all that is upside down in our world today because the world is a sinful world that we live in. But God is going to make all things right, and righteousness will prevail, and every sin will be judged, and every sinner will be judged, and all that offends God will be brought under the all-seeing eye of God, and judgment is coming. I know it's not popular, I know that probably some of you would wish for me to stop speaking about judgment, but I think that we need to have a healthy fear of the judgment of God. Just like Noah did, he was moved with fear at the warning that God gave. Now, what kind of warning did God give? Well, God gave a word to Noah. He didn't give him evidence. He didn't say, look how things are progressing. He just told him, go and make an ark. I'm going to destroy the world. And Noah got a warning from God. We've been given a warning from God. The Word of God tells us, if we believe it, that Jesus is going to return in the clouds of glory. I don't know if you believe it, but the Word of God teaches it. It shares that with us, and that's the warning that we have been given. Noah wasn't given any kind of circumstances leading up to it that would make him think that it was getting close. He was just told by God that, I'm going to judge the world. I'm going to send a flood. I'm going to destroy everything upon the earth and so move and build an ark. Get ready because judgment is coming. And Noah heard the word of God and obeyed it and believed it and made preparation for the day of judgment for 120 years. Now I've seen in my short life, I'm 38 years old and I've seen the difference of the last 15 to 20 years and how much the world has changed. Have you seen that? Have you seen how the thoughts of people have changed in 15 to 20 years? I'm a relatively young person. Yes, I am. And there are things that I can't believe that people are concerned about and things that I can't believe they're not concerned about. I mean, it's just like you're almost afraid to say anything today for someone might get offended. And yet blatant sin doesn't make anybody blush. I'm not trying to be an alarmist. I'm just saying things are rapidly changing. And not for the better. I don't think God looks down upon the changes that are going on and say, well, we're really making progress. I've read about the advancements that we're making. It reminds me of places like Sodom and Gomorrah. And Sodom and Gomorrah, whenever God looked down upon those places, his heart was grieved. And he was long suffering for a while. And then he sent forth word, he said, God can't tolerate it anymore. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? The angels came, the angel of the Lord came to Abraham and said, we're on our way. We're on our way to destroy that place. The evil cries out to God. He can't ignore it anymore. I think that's around the corner for this world, not just the United States of America, but the world. In fact, I think in some ways we're kind of behind the curve when it comes to total debasing of mankind. A lot of the world's a lot further advanced in that than we have been, and I think it's because of the influence of Christianity upon our nation. I mean, we look at things here and say, look how bad it's gotten. You know, the world's ahead of us in that. But it seems like we're in a foot race to try to catch up with them about how far away from God we can get. Judgment's coming. And Noah's life tells me that judgment's coming. Noah's life tells me that God won't put up with it forever, and so that we as people, every one of us, have a responsibility to make preparation for the judgment that's coming. You can make preparations for the judgment of God. You can just get lost out in this world and just turn your head to it and be swept away in the flood of sin. Or you can say, I'm going to wake up. I'm not going to live like the world wants me to live. I'm not going to get deceived by the evil one. I'm going to rise up and be different than them. And you see, Noah, when the call of God came, he was willing to say, I'm going to make preparation. He being warned of God, moved with fear to the preparing of Lennart, to the saving of his house. I think it's an encouragement to us. He sits up in the crowd and he's cheering us on saying, don't get swept away in the crowd. Stand up for God. Do what God tells you to do. Judgment's coming. Be ready for it. And God sends people like he sends me to come and say, don't get deluded by the things of this world. Don't get swept away. And so the judgment of God is around the corner, but praise be to God, I also see in Noah's life the grace of God. And if you missed this, you missed the whole point of the story of Noah. It says, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Some people say, they think this about Noah, that Noah was a righteous man, he was blameless, and so God looked down upon the world, and he was looking to, he said, I'm just so tired of it. Oh, look at this guy, he's a really good guy. Well, I guess he's righteous and blameless, I'll just use him. Well, I don't think that that's the way it was. You see, I don't think that Noah was righteous any other way than what we're righteous. I think what came first was grace. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. When God looked down upon the world and saw Noah, He just saw another man, but He saw a man that was desiring His grace, a man that was roomable for Him, and God bestowed upon him His grace. Now what is grace? Grace is the unmerited favor of God. That means that God put His favor upon Noah, and Noah didn't deserve it. Noah was a man just like you and me, made of this kind of flesh. And if you'll read about Noah's life, he wasn't perfect. There were things that he did in his life that we would want to turn our head from and say, I know God didn't approve of that. But whenever God looked down upon Noah, It says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. While God's wrath was pointed toward the world, and all the world that was sinning against God, every day He looked down upon the world and bestowed His favor upon a man named Noah. And I read that and I say, praise God that He did. Because he could have looked at Noah and said, Noah doesn't make the cut either. I'm going to destroy the whole thing. But he made a decision, that being God. God made a decision that he was going to bestow his favor upon this man. Why this man among all the other men? Don't you know that Noah asked that question? Why me? Anybody that receives the grace of God asks that question. Why me? Why among all the world did God look down upon me and bestow His favor? He knows that I'm a wretch. He knows that I've sinned. He knows that I've failed. He knows that I'm not perfect. Why would God look down upon me and bestow His favor? You see, a person that's truly a child of God asks that question. A person that presumes to be a child of God has the answer to it and says, well, I can see, you know, I did this and I did that. But a person that truly receives the grace of God says, why me? Why me? Have you ever asked that question? I ask that question almost every day. I'm not trying to brag about it. I'm just saying that oftentimes I think about how good that God has been to me and how much favor He's bestowed upon my life and I wonder why. Why did He look down upon me whenever I was just a boy and all I could do was bring in my sin? Why did He deal with my heart? Why did He break it down? Why did He answer my prayer when I called? Why me? I don't even have a great name. Not like my mom and dad were such people that God said, well, I kind of owe them a favor. But he looked down upon me and he showed grace. You remember the day that God bestowed grace upon you? If you've been saved, you do. You called upon Him and you got grace and you said, why so much? Why me? Oh, why do I get to bask in this goodness of God? You see, I believe Noah felt that before he began serving Him. He felt the grace of God. And God looked down upon him among all the men and He called him out and Noah responded and Noah got saved. And it was just Noah and a whole world that didn't know God. But there was Noah. And he knew God. And he called upon Him. And Noah knew that voice because he had received His favor. And he answered. And he said, Noah, I want you to go and build an ark. I'm going to destroy this world. Build an ark for the world's salvation. And it says that he moved. You see, all salvation has always been by grace. In Ephesians 2, we love this verse, and I want to make sure I quote it today when I'm talking about grace. For by grace are you saved through faith. It's still that way. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are as workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. I want to make sure I communicate this, that God's grace is still available for every one of us. God's grace was available to the whole world, but they didn't all receive it. God's grace extends from Calvary's cross. This morning, God desires, He knows that you're a sinner. He knows that you fail. He knows that you don't deserve it. He knows that on all things being even, if He was going to judge the world based on works of righteousness, that you wouldn't make the cut. He knows that. And He loves you anyway. And God has a desire. It says this in the Bible, that God's desire is that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Here's the message from the Bible. Open up your ears. If you're lost today, here's the message from the Bible. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. If you'll turn from your wicked ways and you'll surrender yourself unto God and humble yourself, you'll see that God will bestow upon you the grace of God, the unmerited favor, and you'll ask the question, why me? Why did I hear the gospel? Why was I put in that place? Why did He put that inside my heart? Why did He save me? And I don't know that you'll ever get an answer for that, but you'll always be thankful that He did. I still don't know the reason for why. Why was He concerned about me? I mean, yeah, it was love. I guess I'll just never know the answer to that mystery. I don't have to know the answer, I'm just glad that I was included. God wants to include you too. That's why you're here this morning. That's why you hear the gospel. That's why the good news goes out to you because God desires to extend His amazing grace to every man, woman, boy and girl in this world. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The third thing is about Noah is we see his faith. We see his faith. And Noah, it says that he moved by faith. In Hebrews 11, it said that he, by faith, Noah moved with fear. By faith, Noah prepared an ark. By faith, Noah condemned the world. By faith, Noah became an heir of the righteousness which is by faith. One thing I want to say about his faith is that it's always tied to action words. By faith, Noah moved, he prepared, he condemned, and he became. Faith always includes action. Even in this chapter, when we learned about Abel's excellent sacrifice and Enoch's walk with God, you see, you can't see faith. You can't see faith. You can't quantify it. But what you can do is see what faith does. And faith, if we have it, moves us. I was convicted about this early in the week and thought, is there any evidence of faith in my life? I want you to listen just for a few minutes because I know I'm pressing on taking your time away from you and you've given God this much time. Huh? So we do. You know, God, yeah, I'll try to be at church on Sundays and give you 45 minutes. But you know, I've got a lot going on six and a half days of the week. That's what I was convicted by this week. How much do I look at God's imposition upon my life as being an intrusion when He asked me to do something? Think about Noah. I want you to go build an ark for 120 years. It's going to take you up every day, basically. And the people aren't going to understand, and they're going to mock you and ridicule you. But if you're concerned about what I said about judgment, you'll go. And what did he do? He moved with fear to the preparing of an ark. It makes a nice story. And we say, well, he went and built an ark. He didn't do it in a day. It took a lifetime. God put His calling upon your life, too, and He put His calling upon my life, too. And He said, it's not yours anymore, it's mine. And we say, well, I can give you an hour on Sunday. Midweek is tough for me. I mean, I've got things going on. Revival? Well, at least I'll be there on Sunday, Revival Day. Now I'm not talking all about church attendance, but I want you to see what motivated Noah. What motivated Noah was the glory of God. That's what motivated him. And so whether it took every day or a few days or a few hours or a lifetime, what he wanted was the glory of God. And if we are doing the things we're doing because of the glory of God, then it doesn't really matter if you attend this church or that church or on Sundays and Sunday nights or when day, as long as when you make the decision, you say, I'm doing it for the glory of God. But I fear what happens sometimes in the church is we kind of quantify what we'll allow God to have. and will say, you know, I'm willing to give up this for God and everything else above that is mine. That is not faith. Faith is saying it's all God's and I'll do the things I do because it brings glory to God. And if it's not bringing glory to God, I'll get rid of it. And, you know, you think about it. Sometimes I just beg people to attend church on Sunday. And if you're not attending church on Sunday because what you're doing brings more glory to God than being here, then go do it. You probably hate me right now, but what I'm saying is, is that when we make our decisions, we need to make our decisions not based on how it makes us feel, not based on how it affects our schedule, but does it bring glory to God? It was inconvenient for Noah to go and build this ark. Incredibly inconvenient. There was nothing about this that was a good thing for Noah's life except that it brought glory to God. And he wanted more than anything to please the One that saved him. And that's what should motivate the child of God, is if God has got a hold of my heart, if He has saved my soul, then those things that I do on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and throughout the week and on Sunday need to be those things that bring the glory to God. And when I ask the question, do I do something or do I not do something? The answer needs to be, is it the thing that brings the glory to God? By faith Noah moved with fear, prepared an ark, condemned the world. What does that mean? That means whenever people saw his deeds, that they were righteous, it was apparent that their deeds weren't. He didn't even have to tell them. They saw that he was living for God and it condemned them. The actions and the deeds of the saints will condemn the world because they'll see the righteousness wrought by the people of God, and they'll say, I don't have that. Jesus said that we're to be a light, that city that's set on the hill. That means that we're supposed to let that light shine out of us. And when the light shines in darkness, it condemns the darkness. And when it condemns the darkness, it's a good thing because it makes them move. And they say, I don't want to hide in the shadows anymore. I want to know the same God that they know. But sometimes we're tempted and we listen to that little lie inside of our ear that says what we need to do is relate. We need to just be more like the world. Come down to the world's level. Kind of make them see that we understand. Listen, we understand what it is to be a sinner. And we didn't want anymore. And that's why we got up on our knees and cried out to God and said, God, save me from that. Why would we want to go back to Egypt's bondage when we've got Canaan land's fruit? But sometimes we think about the bread that was in Egypt and say, maybe I could just eat by the flesh pots for a little longer, at least. And even though I was a slave, I wasn't hungry. And it looks so ugly when we read about it in the Old Testament, but sometimes God's people, we do that. Let me just live like a sinner for a little bit. At least I had some pleasure in this world. But you didn't. You didn't. And that's why you left. You left all of that and forsook it all and found salvation because it didn't bring you joy. It brought you heartache and pain and a burden. That's why you left. Don't go back. Don't go back. Last thing and I'm done. We see his obedience and his faith and it moved him to action. The glory of God. And the last thing we see in the life of Noah is the salvation. by Christ alone. It's wonderful. He made an ark to save his house. And in Peter, sometimes we get confused because it says that the like figure we're into, baptism doth now save us about how that these eight people were baptized or that were saved by water. And I always read that and I go, wait a second, they weren't saved by water. They were saved by the ark. The water though, was the point of separation. The ark was the means of salvation. You see, the ark is how men were saved. And that ark, the door on the side, was wide open. Did you see that? I love that in the story of the ark. It's wide open. You know what that means? Anybody can come in that chooses. It's open to you. The ark is open. What that tells us today is Jesus' arms are open wide. When the day of the flood came, who closed it? Not a man. Not Noah. It was God. You see, we don't have the power to open the door. We don't have the power to close the door. Noah was told to make a door. And he did an illustration to show that God's arms of grace are open wide. His arms of salvation are open wide. Today, Jesus says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and are burdened, and I will give you rest. And that door is open until the day that God shuts it. But one day he shall. The only way to get saved from judgment is through Jesus Christ. And all those that enter into the ark were saved. How many? 100%. Isn't that wonderful? People say, well, I don't know if you can lose your salvation or not. I can tell you, you can't. Because once you're in the ark, you're saved. There were eight that entered in. How many of them made it through the flood? Eight. 100%. But you know what else? There was a whole world that was outside the ark. How many of them were saved? None. All this confusion today is so simple in the Bible. All those people that are outside of Christ, how many of them will be saved? None. But if you flee, if you flee your sins, and flee the wrath that is to come, and by faith enter into Christ, you surely will be saved. Such a simple Sunday school story, but so much relevance for us today. And Noah is cheering us on. And Noah says, I know what it's like, child, to have to go through a hard time. I know what it's like to forsake pleasures for the kingdom of God. I know what it's like to be ridiculed. Just keep on pressing on. Press toward the mark of the high calling. Keep our eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And Noah would say, it's worth it. It's worth it. Anything that you would forsake for God, it's worth it. Amen. Let's have a song as we all stand together and sing and worship the Lord. I appreciate your attendance and attention this morning. But more importantly, I appreciate that you listen to the still small voice of God. And if God in some way is speaking to your heart today and you have felt that draw in some way, God has revealed something to your heart by His Holy Spirit, I just pray that you'd follow after that today as we all stand and sing.