Acts chapter number one, when you find your place there, if you'll stand for the reading of the word of God. Acts chapter number one. I'm gonna read one verse, then we'll look at some other verses, and then we'll just dive right into it. The Bible says in verse number eight, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and into the uttermost part of the earth. For the next few minutes and continuing our look at becoming a stronger church in this day, I want to deal with this idea of being plugged into the power. God, would you help us? Open the word to us. Give me an unction to teach and preach your word. May you be high and lifted up. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. You and I need to get plugged into the power of the Holy Spirit in order to be effective as a gospel witness. There are some things that we can find through the pages of our Holy Bible, which is the very Word of God, that can help us to clearly see areas which the power of God should be evident in our lives. My desire is that as we go through some of these things, and even other studies on other weeks, that we would be laser focused on exalting God, becoming a stronger individual so that we have stronger families and that we are a stronger church. so that there will be a time when the Lord will say to us as a church, well done now, good and faithful servants. You and I have that desire, I believe that's why you're here this morning. But we always have to be careful to continue training and making provision to be stronger. When you stop using a muscle, it becomes weaker. I learned this, I used to do a lot of weightlifting And boy, you build up and get strong, big arms. And as a young man, that's what you want to do, have big, strong muscles. But then you sit around and study and forget to lift weights. And soon, you just got big barrels of fat hanging on your arms. I don't know. We're not careful. We don't work out. We don't use that muscle. It deteriorates, becomes soft. It loses its hardness, its ability to be strong, to stand up against the test. And you and I both know that the tests are getting harder. The tests are getting more and more. Go ahead and get that air on, please. It's going to be cooking in a little bit if we don't get it happening. But we need to work hard. We need to strengthen ourselves. No matter our age, we should constantly be exercising our spiritual muscles. As a matter of fact, as a spiritual being, unlike the body, which deteriorates over time, our spiritual man ought to be getting stronger and stronger. And in our last days, it should be much more in strength, much more abounding in strength. as a spiritual being, being able to withstand the darts and the attacks. As we just sang in that song, the darts of Satan are hurled at us, but as a spiritual muscle is worked and strengthened, we ought to be able to resist it and overcome it and be able to help others. Ultimately, that's it, friend. Ultimately, at the end of the day, as we strengthen ourselves spiritually, we don't want to fall. We don't want to displease the Lord. We don't want to become weak and be ashamed to stand before the Lord and say, Lord, I know you saved me, but I didn't really work this out. At the end of the day, though, we know that we are the vessels, the conduit, which God is going to use to reach this world with the gospel. And we want to be strong in that. We want to be able to win our children and our grandchildren, our neighbors, our friends, our loved ones. We want to be able to do that. In order to do that, we must look to the scriptures and find out how can we be plugged into the power. We read there in verse number eight of Acts chapter one, but ye shall receive power. How many times have we looked at that? How many times have been preached from the pulpit? Ye shall receive power. We know that after salvation, the Spirit of God moves into us and begins to strengthen us, begins to sanctify us in His power for His glory, nothing for ourselves. I want you to see three things this morning concerning these things of being plugged in to the power that is our God who has strengthened us and given us the ability to do what he has left us to do. Number one, I want you to consider our speech. What we find in these passages of Scripture, both in the Acts and, boy, especially in the Gospels, if we go over there, we may go over to Matthew 28 in a little bit. But as we look through the passages of Scripture, as we look through this New Testament, what we find in the lives of the disciples are examples of those whose lives were not only touched, but led by Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Now, it's interesting that God has orchestrated the Bible and laid out His Word the way He has done it, where He has shown us the falls of men. And we understand that He's done that as much as we can, I suppose, that He shows us and demonstrates the falls of man so that we don't get this expectation that when we are not perfect, that we can't serve God. Matter of fact, even of Peter there in the Gospels, we have a record of him cursing, thereafter betraying Jesus. And God revealed that to us, not that he might shame him, though certainly it was shameful, but he did that to reveal to us that even though there'll be days we fall, the righteous man rises up again. Seven times he falls, but he rises again and again to keep pressing on, to keep serving God. You know what the evidence of a good, strong church is? hypocrites, not those who are putting on a pretense and pretending to be something they're not, but one who though it is filled with sinners who are saved by grace, it is filled with that, but they are demonstrating that even when their flesh has prevailed because they gave attention to it, they can still rise up and God forgives, God full of mercy, pours his grace back into their life and allows them to be a vessel of use to demonstrate his great power in their life. And that's the evidence of a strong church. If you look at a church, if you observe a church over a period of years, maybe decades, and you begin to look at it and you never see any problems in the church. Either they're really good at covering things up or that is a church that you better not join because you'll mess it up. But we ought to be careful as we consider the disciples and we look at where they were strong in their speech. We ought to take a moment really and just consider our speech. Now consider the disciples. Consider these fishermen. Surely before Jesus came and called them, they were like most labor crews. They laughed, they cried, they carried on in conversation, and it came easy to speak around each other. They certainly were comfortable speaking about what they loved. If you pause long enough, you can almost hear Peter's boisterous voice telling a fishing joke, maybe something like this. Hey John, if you gave a man a fish, he could eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he can avoid his wife for a whole weekend. John might holler above the crash of the waves, why are fish so smart? Because they swim in schools. They're laughing and cutting up. Maybe James adds to the mix. What do you call a fish who won't shut up? A big mouth bass. Maybe from the stern of the ship cracks a voice. Three fishermen were fishing when they came upon a mermaid. Mermaid offered them one wish each. The first fisherman said, double my IQ. So the mermaid did, and to his surprise, he started reciting Shakespeare. The second fisherman said, triple my IQ. Sure enough, the mermaid did it, and amazingly, he started doing math problems he didn't even know existed. The third fisherman was so impressed, he asked the mermaid to quadruple his IQ, and the mermaid said, are you sure about this? It will change your life. The fisherman excitedly said yes, so the mermaid turned him into a woman. No doubt about it, these men knew how to converse, but their conversation was going to change from a fish to a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Now I want to ask you a question this morning. Do you frequently speak about Jesus outside of the church building and the church people? How often do you speak about Jesus? Is it on a regular basis? Do you frequently return back to the gospel message in your conversation among men? I didn't ask you if you have done it. I am asking you, do you, present tense and actively, are you speaking of Jesus? When we consider our speech, we've got to consider three things. Number one, our conversation. Our conversation is what we talk about. Do you talk about Jesus? You know, it bothers me that so many people talk about sports, hunting, and other recreations, but the moment Jesus is mentioned, or even a spiritual topic, many reverse course. They don't want to continue on in conversation. I want you to consider these verses, write these down, meditate on them, I won't dwell on them, but I want you to go back and to think about them concerning our conversation, our speech. James 3, 3, excuse me, James 3, 13, who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you, let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. God says here in the book of James, he says, who's wise man and dude with knowledge. He says, let him show out of a good conversation. It starts with speaking. It starts with, and that word conversation is entailing words, literal words coming out of your mouth. And so he says, show out of a good conversation. It begins with the way that we speak. How about 1 Peter 1 15? Write that one down. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. You know what that Bible verse is telling us now? It's talking about all kinds of things there, our way of life, if you will. But our conversation ought to be holy. You know what the word holy means? Of course you do. It means to be sanctified, to be set apart for God's use. In other words, the Bible tells us there in 1 Peter 1 15 that we are to, in our conversation, be for God's use. Everything that we speak, everything that comes out of our mouth ought to be to the edifying, to pushing people towards Christ. Those who are saved, it ought to be pushing them to walk a sanctified, separated life. For those who are not saved, it ought to be for the purpose of pulling them to Christ so that they might find deliverance from their sins. How about Ephesians 4.29? The Bible says, "...let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." Minister grace, your conversation. ministers grace. What is grace? Well, we know what the grace of God is. Well, we try to understand what the grace of God is. It's a very large thing that cannot be fully comprehended, but this word grace here is talking about joy. It's talking about giving. It's talking about giving out of a good, pure heart. So when the Bible tells us that it may minister grace into the hearers, that is your words. It's edifying. That's what it says there. good to the use of edifying, but it is for the point and the purpose that it is pointing them to joy, and joy only comes through Jesus, my friend. How about Philippians 3.20? For our conversation is in heaven. As a child of God, your speech ought to be, your conversation ought to be more about Jesus than anything else in this world. I mean, there's nothing that also, now, I'm not saying you just walk around quoting verses and somebody asks you a question, you just quote verses to them, and maybe somebody need to do that too, but most people you ought not to do that with. But what you can do, what the Bible teaches us, what it's telling us there, is that everything in this entire world can be pointed back to Jesus Christ. And so when someone begins talking about sports, you can use that as a springboard to launch into the goodness of God and the talents and the abilities and His creation of man, for instance. But there's nothing, there's no conversation that you can have that you cannot tie back to God, His goodness and His willingness to save sinners. We ought to consider our conversation. Next I want you to consider this. Talking about our speech, I want you to consider our continuation. What I mean is how little or how much we speak about Christ. Now I confess it's difficult for me to carry a conversation without making a spiritual application. Matter of fact, I've done it so much in the past, and people have called me Holy Roller, and they've called me names about that and how I've got to make everything hyper-spiritual is what they say, that it's become self-conscious. And I find myself sometimes, and I shouldn't probably, trying not to make a spiritual application to general conversation. But the reality is, you and I ought to make spiritual applications of everything. Because there is only one thing in this world that matters, and that is that men get saved, get born again, so that they can have an eternity with a God who loves them and sent his son to die on the cross for them. It's impossible to speak too much about Christ. But if it was possible, I don't believe it is, but if it was possible, then I'm pretty sure that I would be guilty of it. Now I want you to turn with me over to Colossians 4. I want to show you something here. Colossians 4, now we're talking about the continuation of our speech. We're talking about continually talking about Jesus, making much about Jesus, as Mike Morrison said about it. We're talking about carrying on a conversation and making, pointing everything back to Jesus. Colossians 4, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible says, Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven. Here's verse number 2, Colossians 4, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving, with all praying also for us, and that God would open unto us a door of utterance, now watch, to speak the mystery of Christ. You know what, Paul is asking here to the church of Corinth, he's saying, I need you to be praying. I need you to be continually praying. I need you to constantly be praying that God would give me the ability to speak the mystery of Christ, that in these conversations when I'm giving account for myself, when I'm standing before these men, I need to be able to present to them the mystery of Christ through their conversations and what they bring before me. Here he says, and for which I am also in bonds, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. What do you mean, Paul? I mean, you're the one that's telling everybody, turning the world upside down about Christ. I mean, you got this thing figured out, and he says, as I ought to speak. We'll find in the Scriptures, in God's Holy Word, that we're to follow after the apostles' doctrine. We're to follow after, Paul says to follow after me as I follow after Christ. And he's saying I ought to speak of the mysteries of Christ. You and I in our speaking, in our conversation ought to be continually talking about Jesus Christ. And listen to me, friends. If every person in this church will grab a hold of this one thing, and we will continually be speaking about Christ everywhere we go, you can mark it down, the power of God will rest upon this church and our friends, our family, there will be people saved, this town, this community, this whole county will be turned upside down for Christ. Problem is, things come along and we get embarrassed, we get ashamed, we feel that it's not appropriate time, but God says now's the time of salvation. This day, this is the time for salvation. We are to speak continually about Christ. He says there in verse number five, walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Paul says, I ought to speak this way. I need you praying that I'll speak this way, and that we've got to walk in wisdom to without. Here's the wisdom. They're perishing and going to hell. We know we have the answer to eternity. And friend, if we don't tell them about it, redeem this moment, this time that we have with that person. It is a limited time, but if we don't tell them right now, it may be their last time to hear the gospel. Let your, watch verse six. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. You know what he says here? He says, now you've got to couple this in. Now you can't, again, you can't just go around quoting scriptures. They may run the other way, call you a nut, but if you can take where they're at, what's going on? And he says right there in verse number six, let your speech be always with what? Grace, we just looked at that. Let your speech be always with grace. Everything's with that joy and that goodness of God, that satisfaction that's only found in God's grace. Let the grace in our life, the Christ in us, the dwells in us go out to and speak to those people. Season with salt. Make sure that it is receivable, again, in the meekness of Christ, in the goodness of Christ, in the spirit of Christ. that we may know how to answer every man. Now, it's interesting to me, and I won't dwell on this because I'll run out of time to get through the message, but it's interesting to me that Paul says, I need an answer to every man. And he's not talking about just himself. He says, let your speech He says, this is your duty. This is your responsibility. You must go and tell them and speak to them and be wise about how you're speaking to them and be able to answer all men. Now friend, that's easier said than done. There are some people, I don't really have a hard time speaking to people, but there are times, there are times when I don't have the confidence or the courage and it's a hard thing. But he says, here in the end of verse number six, you ought to answer every man. If I were you, I'd underline those words right there. Start with ye, ye ought to answer every man. Not some men, not the easy ones, not the ones that you feel comfortable around, but ye ought to answer every man. A little message within the message. You ought to answer every man. All right, thirdly, I wanted to show you this concerning our speech. Our consideration is being mindful, our consideration is being mindful that life is but a vapor and that we have but limited time with each individual and it is our responsibility to present the gospel message to those God has entrusted to our pathway. I want you to be mindful that every word you say to somebody, it may be the last conversation you have with them. And if it is the last conversation you have with them, we're talking about being a stronger church now. Listen, friend, everything ought to be about pointing them to Christ, but we'll become a stronger church when we consider that every conversation we have may drive them away or it may help compel them for the next person, you may just be building a relationship and maybe in your joy of the Lord and your walk with the Lord, just in your kindness and readiness to be a hand, to love them, to speak kindly, or just even to listen, you may be the reason that they say, you know what? I'm willing to listen to the next Christian. I'm willing to listen to somebody tell me about Jesus because of how that one acted. We need to be in consideration, always, of every word we give. Even being sarcastic can lead to misunderstanding, which could direct somebody away from God, and it could be the last conversation that they ever hear concerning God. We need to be considerate of our speech. Number two, I want to move on to our strength. Now we're talking about, go back to the book of Acts. We're talking about there in verse number 8 of chapter 1 where the Bible says, but ye shall receive power. I want to show you another verse. Go to Acts chapter 4. We talk about our speech. We want to be a strong church and we want to plug into the power. If we're going to plug in the power, we've got to start with our speech. We know what the Bible tells us over in the book of James concerning the tongue and the power of the tongue and how it can bless and curse out of the same mouth. It is an easy thing to destroy relationships. But friend, can I tell you that it's just as easy to build relationships? Kind words go a long way. A soft answer, the Bible says, turneth away wrath. We could be such a help to people. Look at Acts chapter 4. We've got to plug into this power. We need our speech to be seasoned with salt. Now I want you to see in verse number 33, Acts chapter 4. Here's what the Bible says. Now, we're talking about our strength. Now, we can plug in to our speech. Now, I know that you can plug in with your speech. If you were in the military and you get saved, your conversation changes. Even if you don't cuss as a sailor, as some say, your speech is not going to be, let's just say it's not going to be a good conversation. But as you get away from the military, and certainly as you get saved, your speech begins to change and you can become one who speaks harshly to somebody who speaks kindly. So we plug into that power, but then we need to plug our strength into the power of Jesus Christ. There's a lot of people that say, I cannot do it. I can't do it. Whatever it is, I can't do it. And it's because they're looking at their insufficiencies, they're looking at their inabilities, they're looking at who they are as a man and not looking at who Jesus Christ is who has saved them and can strengthen them because the Bible says that I can do all things through Jesus Christ which strengtheneth me. He says here in verse number 33 of Acts chapter 4, And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Now I want you to know something about this. He's not just talking about speech, though your speech will change. I'm talking about they gave, the Bible says that the great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. You know how they gave witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? Through their excitement, through their zeal and their fervor and through their words, of course, and their speech and their kindness as they begin to emulate Christ in their everyday life. They were demonstrating the power, they were witnessing to the power, the resurrection of Lord Jesus. In other words, they were witnessing to the fact that they too had become a new creature. Our strength, we think about our strength, we think about our courage. Our courage comes from the witness of what we have both seen and experienced. I'm talking about your testimony. Your strength is your testimony. Now, you may not have some extravagant testimony where, you know, you were way out here and God brought you way over here. Your testimony may be the very thing that you were raised in church all your life and got saved at a young age. And there's a much more powerful testimony in the steadfastness and the faithfulness of staying in church and endeavoring to serve God all your life. But your testimony gives you the courage. and demonstrates to the world the strength of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Friend, did God change your life? If so, don't you think that that is compelling enough to make you step foot in the spiritual battle? Do you know why Marines are the first to fight? They don't fear the battle. From the day you arrive at boot camp, you are given details of all the battles that Marines have fought and won. So when it's your time to deploy, you are trusting in the training that has propelled Marines for many decades to win and win big. Marine Corps goes, we go into the, we're the first to fight, they say. We go in and the Army comes in usually behind us and they set up shop and really start changing things. But the Marines just go in, shock and awe, fighting. And what causes all those young men, many who have never seen battle, to charge in is simply that they have received the instruction of how this training will help help you fight your battle. Can I stand up here and declare from this pulpit this morning that there have been many men and women who have done wondrous things for God's glory all through the testimony of the power of the resurrection in their life, and they have gone forth and turned the world upside down and carried the gospel throughout every nation in this world all because of Jesus Christ. Their strength was gotten from Jesus, and their courage comes from Jesus. And friend, you have the ability to get that courage and that strength from the same avenue. Friend, Jesus has won the war. You are merely fighting battles in the past tense. Selah, think on that. Meditate on that. All our battles, we're fighting past tense battles. God's already won this thing. He's already told us the end of the story. We already know what happens after this life. We live victorious forever with Jesus Christ. It's already over. We're fighting battles in the past tense, which means this, friend, that we can be victorious. We can be courageous because we know that we're victorious. Secondly, I want to give you this, talking about our strength. We talk about being courageous. We find strength in that. Well, how about our commitment? Jesus was committed to go all the way through the cross. The Bible says, for the joy that was set before him. We can find strength in our commitment. The longer you're committed to Christ, the greater your strength grows. Now, it's just a simple law of physics. You go to the gym, you know, New Year's resolution comes around, you make a resolution, I'm gonna lose some weight, I'm gonna strengthen, I'm gonna start going to the gym. You go four weeks, you quit, and nothing has changed. You felt good for about six weeks. You'll probably have two weeks. That's why you quit. You felt so good. You didn't need to go to the gym no more. But as soon as you quit, you go right back to where you were and nothing has changed. But Frank, can I tell you, but if you'll keep on going on and keep on going on and keep on going on, you begin to build and you begin to strengthen. You become more confident. You are ready to take on what is before you and even more and new things. Friend, what's going to build us as a strong church is our commitment to keep on keeping on. That's not good enough. The past, the history, none of that means a thing if we quit today. It means nothing. The reward comes to the one who's faithful, who does not faint, the Bible says. And so we celebrated 45 years last week, but what about the next 45 years? Who's going to teach Sunday school? Who's going to serve? Who's going to knock doors? Who's going to pray continually without ceasing that others may go and knock doors and that they may give utterance? Who's going to be standing on the front lines fighting the battle for the next generation? I'll tell you who, friend, you and I together, because our strength comes from our commitment to serve our God. And I know that you're here on Sunday school. I know you're committed because you're here. But friend, we need to put this in our memory bank. We need to lock it down and ensure that we don't find ourselves. But by the grace of God, there go we. These pews are empty this morning. There's many people in Sunday school that used to go to Sunday school. We better be aware that if we sit soaking sour, we will become just like them every day. committed to the cause of Christ. Every day, dying daily. Every day, we're praying. Every day, we're renewed in the strength of the Word of God. Every day, trusting in our God to give us the strength we need to carry on. All right, so we see our courage, talking about our strength, our courage, our commitment, then our cares. You know, Jesus said in Matthew 6, 21, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Your strength is found in wherever your care lies. Athletes make it to the big leagues because all their focus is on training for that one cause. When everyone else is at the swimming hole, they're training. When everyone else is hanging out, they're training. It's a fact. It's a fact that you and I will have to think about it. We'll have to consider it. We'll have to put our attention on it and focus on it more than anything else in the whole wide world. What you care about is what you think about the most. So let me ask you the question then. How much do you think about lost souls? How much do you consider ways of reaching those around you? All right, thirdly and lastly. Got just a couple minutes. I'm gonna run through this at Mach 6 speed. Here we go. We looked at our sight. We looked at our strength. No, we looked at our speech. Now we're looking at our sight. There we go. Stop that, reverse that. Our sight. You know, when we consider our sight, we have to think about our health. How much vision we have determines the health of our spiritual being. When, what I'm saying is when we get to a place in our life where we're just comfortable, we say, well, I've done this, I've done that. I'm content. I'm happy. I'm happy with the things I've done in serving Christ. And we no longer have vision for the future individually as a home or as even as a church in all these areas. When we don't have a vision in front of us, friend, listen to me, we are losing our sight. And the Bible says this, where there is no vision, the people perish. A church that merely wants to hang on will soon perish. A child of God who simply is just satisfied with being saved, well, I don't really want to grow. That means I've got to give up some things. Friend, you can mark it down. You're going to perish in this world, and you're going to live a miserable, hard life. Now, your eternity is secure, but boy, it's going to be worse knowing that Jesus Christ died for your sins, knowing that he bled and was beaten and the crown of thorn planted upon his head, and you have received that gift and just go on living your life. Friend, there is something dangerous about that. Don't lose sight. of what's in your life. Habakkuk 2 says this, Now watch what the Lord says to Habakkuk. He says, He says, listen to me, I'm gonna lay out for you a vision, and that vision, whatever it is, whether it's reaching the world with the gospel and it's renewing the strength and strengthening the church, I'm gonna give you the message so that you give it to the people, and when they read it, they're gonna get excited and they're gonna run on. That was the message to Habakkuk. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry. Friend, do you know how you can know that you've got a strong walk with God? Because there's still ambition left in your trunk. I mean, you still got some plans. You still got some things of serving God, some things you want to accomplish, some things you want to mark off your list and set before you that you want your bucket list for Christ, if you will. I want to go on a missions trip. I want to give out a thousand gospel tracts this year. I want to spend 24 hours straight praying, whatever it is, setting ambitions, having a vision to be strengthened spiritually. We'll be a stronger church. When we plug into the power of God and, friend, let me tell you, when you plug your sight into God's sight and you begin to see things as God sees, you realize that there's no mountain set before you that'll stand in your way. Matter of fact, you can say into that mountain, move yonder into the sea, and the Bible says it'll be cast into the sea. There is nothing that'll stop you from serving God. There's nothing that'll stop this church from doing great things for God when we plug into the power of Almighty God that he has demonstrated that he is willing to put into our lives. Now I've got 13 seconds to get all this out. So in other words, I'm going over time. All right, I've got five minutes on that clock. My timer was short. We find, concerning our sight, we talk about our health. We can say, how about our hope? When you have a vision, you have hope. Our faith is not by sight of eye, but rather through the spiritual sight. It is evidence of things not seen. Friend, when we plug into the power of God and we get a vision that God gives us, when we get that vision a hold, there's nothing that stops us from getting there. There's nothing that's going to keep us from reaching what God wants us to do, and that is to preach the gospel to every creature. Friend, when you don't witness of Jesus, you are demonstrating that you do not believe that Jesus will save that soul. Then thirdly and lastly, our help. Our sight, it gives us hope, but it gives us our help. Our sight comes from God. See, too many Christians are looking through their own lens, and they're looking in their own heart and their own mind. They're looking through the eye of faith. The problem is their faith is very weak. They can only see. Now, there's some people that got very strong vision. There's other people that have weaker vision. There's some people that have no vision. And we understand Fannie Crosby did much for Christ with no vision, far more than many people who had perfect vision could do. Some people can only see what's right there in front of them, and that's their own life and their own walk, and they never look beyond what they're able to do for other people because they're so focused on themselves. Friend, when we plug into the power of Jesus Christ and we get the sight of God, we can see an entire world that's so small we can reach the entirety of it. Our little church, our little brown church in the veil, our little church in Greg, our little church hidden back in the boondocks of the world, our little church can do great and mighty wonders when we get the vision of God plugged into his power and serving him with a faith that believes. Romans 15, 13, Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Acts 4, 33, And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Friend, do you want to have a stronger church? If so, we're going to have to plug into the power. All these areas, not one, not some. And by the way, the more people, individuals, who are willing to plug into the power, and I mean it's going to be a sacrifice because your flesh wants to lead you. But the more people in this church who say, I'm plugging into that power. I don't care what comes my way. I'm going to plug into it. I know Satan's going to come for me, but I'm plugging in that power. I want to be able to see with God's vision that which he'd had me to see. I want to stand strong and I want to be laser focused on serving him forever. Then we'll see our church do things that the last 45 years was unimaginable as this church was planted and set out. And friend, I ask you this morning, what will you do with the Word of God today?