I'm reading just a moment, but I'm not quite yet. I was reading a sermon that was printed in a newspaper, a Bible newspaper, called The Story of the Lord. Anybody familiar with The Story of the Lord? This particular sermon was preached years ago by, if I don't believe it, Dr. John R. Rice. He actually was the founder of The Story of the Lord publication and the principles and so forth. I had the privilege years ago of hearing him preach live back in North Carolina. He's quite an interesting man. Of course, he's passed away. He's gone. But in his sermon, he made a statement. He made a question about preaching about the church. He said, is the church to be keepers of the aquarium or fishers of men? That's my title. Where's my due date? I have it right here with me. Go ahead and pick me one quickly, Bob. It's on your left. No. On the podium. Where is it? Oh, on this side. I'm a grandfather, forgive me. I have it. Still not there, Bob. Sorry. We have this problem every time we start this, it seems like. I'm not sure what the glitch is. Go ahead and click that first slide. I did. Oh, you did? You understand what he means by Keeper of the Quarry versus... Is the church just concerned about Those within the confines of the church building or whatever, is that what it's all about? Or are we supposed to be out there fishing for men? I think we're supposed to do both. I think there's a double responsibility there. It got me thinking. There you go. It got me thinking about the church and its beginning and so forth, and I got to Acts chapter two, Because Acts chapter 2 is really the beginning of the church, understand? Just a little bit of background so we're on the same page here. Sometimes we preachers assume you know what we're talking about, and you don't. Acts chapter 2, the Lord Jesus has been resurrected from the grave after he died on the cross at Calvary. He's already ascended into heaven. The disciples are waiting in Jerusalem for the promise of the Spirit of God. The church itself has not been formed. It's still a Jewish situation here. And so the Spirit of God comes upon the men there, and Peter stands and he preaches. He preaches the message that is basically this, Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. This Jewish man from this little village just above the Sea of Galilee, it's up here on the side of the mountain here, that man out of a little old place called little village of Nazareth, he is the Messiah. The one who died on the cross is the Messiah. He's the Messiah. And the only way to be born again or saved or be right with God is to trust him as the Messiah. A hard message for Jews. Because that meant that Jews would have to give up their Jewish traditions and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah. Well, the Bible says God used Peter to become that 3,000 people, souls were saved that day. That should be a glory hallelujah, folks. I've never been in a situation, I've seen that many people saved in one time. Have you? I don't think I'll ever be. And so because of that, now we have all these 3,000 newcomers, 3,000 saved, all pretty much at the same time. And so they're described here in Acts chapter 2, beginning in verse, I'm gonna begin reading in verse 41. Acts chapter 2 verse 41. Then they that gladly receive his word, let me say, I've got more to say than I probably have time to say, receive the word. Do you understand? It doesn't mean, well, I heard it. It doesn't mean mental agreement. There's something happened in the heart. heart, they heard this message that Jesus and God convicted, the Spirit of God convicted their heart and they realized it and they professed Christ as Savior. It says, they that gladly received this word were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. Wow! So what are they going to do next? And they continued, verse 42, they continued steadfastly in the and the apostles' doctrines and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many women, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all the believers were together, and had all things common. And they sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, to every man that had need. Isn't that amazing? And they continued daily in one accord in the temple. Why didn't they go to church? Why didn't they just go to the church? There was no church. There was no building. There was no organization. There were no elders. There were no pastors. There were no deacons. All that was just to be... So then they'd gather together in the temple. They'd always go, there's the Jews. Now they're going there as believers. Pretty amazing, isn't it? And breaking bread from house to house to eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. And what were they doing? Praising God and having faith with all people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. You know what I see here? I see a number of things. I see here in this church a desire for doctrine, a desire for truth. They continue steadfastly, they continue searching the word, listening to the apostles and saying, what is this all about? They didn't understand what was going on in their mind. I see close fellowship. They're relating to one another. They wanted to be together. I see praise. I see the power of God. I see God working in their life. I see praise and worship. I see all kinds of things. Don't you see it? Yeah, yeah. Amazing, amazing. Father, bless. I can't go on without your blessing. You blessed our church this morning. We didn't have testimonies, but with the music and the singing and the special and Lord, Just bless your word. This is the critical part of our morning, Lord. I can't do this, Lord. I need your help. I need your strength. I need your power. So you bless, Lord. Bless the folks that are here. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. I'm sorry. Have you heard the phrase, you've come a long way? Yes. Actually, it goes, you've come a long way, babe. I'm not going to say that. You just did. Oh, I just did. I won't tell you where it came from, anyway. It's the idea of, boy, look how far you've come, man. Wow, you were over here, man. You're way over here. Look how far you've come, usually in a very positive way. And I thought to myself when I thought about the church, has the church come a long way? Has the church come a long way the right way? You know, I don't see a lot of believers wanting doctrine. We want to hear sermons that will encourage us and console us and solve all our problems, but I'm not here to solve all your problems. Lord takes care of that. I don't see the kind of fellowship in churches that they're on me. Oh, we fellowship for what? An hour or two? Then we go what? Goodbye. See you the next time I see you. Well, I'm not sure about that. I don't see the prayer warriors that they have. These guys are praying. Where's our prayer warriors? Where's the interest in praying? Why is Wednesday night prayer meeting the least attended church activity? Where's the power of God in our churches? It says wonder and signs. The things were happening that were just marvelous. It was beyond our imagination. Where's the power of God in our churches, in our lives of our believers? Where's our purpose? Where's the praise? Where's the praise? Where's the spontaneous praise of people just praising God and singing to their, as loud as they can, to the glory of God? Where are the people coming down the aisle and getting saved? Where's the people that we're out here witnessing to, and we talk to somebody, and they get saved, and we bring them to church, and say, hey, so-and-so got saved. Where is that? Has the church come a long way? Yeah, it has. I'm not sure it's the right way. Let me say a word. When I use the word church, the word church is really what? We're in a building. The church is the believers. The believers. To blame the church is to blame the believers. To criticize the church for not doing what it ought to be doing is really criticizing the believers in the church, right? I'm not condemning the church by any means. You know that. Church is the greatest divine organization that has ever taken place on the face of the earth. It is more important than any other organization. It is more important than the lives of believers that believers even understand. It's a place for edification. It's a place where we go forth and we evangelize. It's more than just a gathering. It's more than just coming to church on a Sunday morning or a Sunday night or whenever, and for an hour or so, we sing and do some praises and shake some hands and say hello, and then we go our way and just forget about God and other things. There's something wrong, folks. Jesus says, I will build my church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. There are some good, solid Bible-preaching churches in our area. Amen? We're not the only one. Well, we're the only one here. No, we're not. I know a lot of the men in good Baptist churches, and they're serving God, and they're doing what they can. They're trying to maintain the kind of Christianity that God wants them to have. It's not easy. They, too, long to see the power of God upon their lives. I think we as a church, and I say church, when I use the word church, I'm talking about you guys. I'm talking about the believers. If you're a believer, I think we've lost our focus. We've lost our vision. We've lost our sense of what are we and what are we to be doing? Have we? Did you realize that every business, every commercial business, every organization, every nonprofit group has some kind of vision or mission statement? something that they're aiming for, something they have a goal, and they're going in that direction. So I looked up one this week. We have some folks that are tied with Cigna Insurance Group. Cigna Insurance Group has their own vision and their own mission. Let me read part of it to you. It says, from their website, the Cigna Group is a global health company committed to improving health and vitality. We relentlessly Hear me relentlessly? We relentlessly challenge ourselves to partner and innovate solutions for better health. Powered by our people and our brand. This is like a commercial, isn't it? We advance our mission to improve the health and vitality of those we serve. Our values guide how we work together, deliver our mission, and serve our customers, clients, and community. They have a goal, they have a vision, and they do things in order to achieve that goal. I think sometimes we have forgotten who we are. Let me read some scriptures. I think this is in your outline, but I'll read many. I'm not sure it's in your outline at all. Romans 8, 16 says, the spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the, come on, say it out loud. Children of God. Amen? Amen. 1 Corinthians 3. Paul says, For we are laborers together with God. Let this sink in, folks, okay? Ephesians says, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Turn it over now. I want you to turn to 1 Peter, well, it's on your outline too, isn't it? You can turn to 1 Peter 2 if you want to, or you can read it. Let's go ahead and turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. This is not an introduction. This is part of the challenge here this morning. I want you to grab this. If you don't understand where I'm heading with this, you won't understand the principles that I'm going to give you shortly. Can I see? I think I have a... Yeah, okay. All right. Paul, let me turn to you. I'm sorry. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9. Paul says, but ye are a chosen generation. When you were saved, you were chosen by God to be his child, amen? A chosen people, not better than anybody, but chosen by God and saved in the Lord's hand. A royal priesthood. We become priests in the sense that we as believers can go directly to the presence of God and speak to God. I don't need anybody going to God's presence for me, amen? I can take my burdens to the Lord, I can pray, I can share my heart with the Lord, and I don't have to have anybody do that. I'm a royal, and he lets me come in, you know that? He doesn't slam the door on me. He lets me come into his presence and speak to him as a son does his father. I like that idea, don't you? We're a holy nation. The word holy means separated. We've been separated from God. We belong to God. And the next statement says that a peculiar people Are you peculiar? The word peculiar doesn't mean odd. It means prized. You're a prized possession. Did you know, believer, that you are important to God? Your life is important to God. How you respond is important to God. Your problems are important to God. You are a prized possession. Why? Here's the key. You're all at that, ye should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. God has a plan, has a purpose, has a vision for believers. Once they are born again and saved by the grace of God, they're to show forth, which means to publish, to broadcast through their lives, through their testimony, through their words, through everything, through their behavior. The praises of him who's called you out of spiritual darkness and spiritual death on the road to hell, and giving you light, your spiritual light. God says, I want you to show for your vision is to have an impact in this world for Christ. You understand that? God's vision. Amen. God's vision is not for us just to come and sit in our chairs and our pews in a church and sing and perhaps go through the motions of praise and then just forget all about Christianity. That's not the Christian life. Who are we to show it forth to? The world. Each other? The world. No, no, no, no, no. Ye are. A lot of the words. Tim has a way of kind of dabbling in some of my sermon thoughts during Sunday school. He talked about light. In the book of Isaiah, there's the word light. And the word light here is referring prophetically to a light that's going to come and shine in the hearts of the Jewish people. And that'd be Jesus, I think. I'm thinking, boy, that surely ties you with everything, because Jesus says what? I am the life of the world. So he came to have life. But as believers, the Bible says ye are the life of the world. You're the life of the world. Do you know that? As a believer, you have the spiritual life of Christ in your life. You have life. You understand truth. Do you understand all of it? No, of course not. But we know that salvation, we know that we're saved, we know we're going to heaven, we know that, we know that, we don't have to spend all the dollars, but we know that. Now, as lights in the world, what are we to do with it? I put Tim up to this, this is a lot of mine. He didn't do that, I did that. Let your light shine, so shine before man, that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. The Lord wants us to shine our light before others so that others can see that light and be drawn to the light. We don't shine our light. We really don't shine our light here in the church. Shining our light in the church is like, oh, you know, folks, we need some more light. Let me turn on some more lights. Do I need more lights? See, I've got light. We've got, we are light. And we can, we can glory, joy in the light and praise God for the light that God's given to us. But the light is to be shined out there in the world. Right? The light that you have experienced in Christ is to shine forth in the world. To your neighbors, to the co-workers, to the family, to anybody. Anybody come and come. You should shine forth. The little song says what? Hide it under a... Bushel. Bushel. Basket. Hide it? Are we to hide it? No! No! Our believer's hiding it! Yes! You ever been to Colonial Williamsburg? You ever been to the village? They reconstructed what it was supposed to be back in Colonial days. have furniture in there. One of the things I noticed that some of the furniture was mirrors built in some of the furniture. Then there was other, most of them had a lot of mirrors around the walls. Why? So when you turn on, turn on that candle. You felt that, didn't you? That was purpose. When you light the candle, you don't hide the candle, you put it up high. So those, I asked a lady, well, she said, you light the candle, what happens? Then it just radiates and bounces off and so you have more light. I think believers are hiding the light. We hide the light when we're silent, about our salvation, and we don't tell others who our Savior is that we belong to God. We should like for them to come to Christ, and we're hiding our light. We hide our light by refusing to stand up for truth and to stand up for the issues of the day. There's some issues that believers ought to stand on and say, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. And I won't go into detail. I could, but that'll take more time. We have the life by compromising or waffling. Do you understand the word waffling? Well, I'm not sure what I believe. Oh, God help us, right? We're hiding our life by living by the standards of the world rather than by standards of the Bible. Am I right? Are we hiding our lives? Some of it's out of fear. What will my neighbors say or what will my boss say or what will my friends say? Are we going to be attacked and erased or so forth and put down and belittled? Yeah, maybe. Probably. Yeah, so what? Let me ask some pointed questions. What have we done? personally this week to show forth the light of the Lord, light of the glorious gospel of Christ. What have we done? What have we done this week to let people know who the true light is? What have we done this week to shine forth this bright light? I mean, we live in a spiritually dark world, don't you? I read the paper, I listen to the news, I watch the news, I see darkness. I see darkness all around us. Are we doing anything to shine our lights for it? Somebody said, well, preacher, listen, I'm in church this morning. Whoa. I read five chapters of the Bible this week, Tim. I'll do more next week. I gave a testimony. I prayed for a believer. I didn't cheat him. Oh, that's good. There's nothing wrong with that. But we've been here, our mission before God is to go into the world and have an influence in this world for Christ as a church, as believers. And folks, the world's not getting any better, is it? If we say, well, it's not supposed to get any better, what can I do about it? Well, if you don't do anything, nothing's gonna happen, right? God has called the church to have an impact on our world, and we're the ones to do it. We're the ambassadors. We're God's chosen people. We know truth. We know what it means to be saved. We know how to go to heaven. We have the peace of God. We have the assurance of God. And there's a world dying and going to hell. Sorry, I got carried away there. If we're going to fulfill God's purpose, let me give you four things here quickly, please. I don't do things quickly, but I'll put it up here so you can help those in the blanks. We need to live a godly life according to the word of God. And I say this specifically. I mean, the church, these believers in Acts chapter 2, they didn't understand what was going on. They didn't have a Bible. They had the apostles teach you good. They had the Old Testament Torah and the scrolls. They had those things, but they had to be taught. I think they wanted to do the right thing. Hey, I'm trusting Christ as my savior. They weren't called Christians yet. They were called Christians later in Antioch, but the things had changed. What do I do next? And so I think they wanted to be godly people. The Bible over and over again exhorts believers to live a godly life, amen? The verses are there, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, and on and on and on we go. There's verses there, be ye holy! Even as I am holy. Are we living the holy life? I think I'm getting ahead of myself, but. Living a godly life is not living a moral life. You understand what I'm saying? A moral life is living by the standards of society. That's moral life. Depends on the current society, the standards of society. So we're living by the current standards of society, which is a moral life, or at least somewhat moral. I think there's some morality there. That's not living a godly life, because we're not living by godly standards. You and I, as a believer, do not have the right to determine the standards by which we live. Well, I'm going to do this, not this. No, no. God has given his standard in the Word. God says what is right. God says what is wrong. And we're to live by his standard, live a godly life. Watch, watch, watch. Not for our glory. Look at me. Anybody perfect here today? Anybody made it through this week without sinning? Anybody made it through the weekend so far without sinning? Wow, we've got a bunch of simple people here. Anybody made it through this day so far without sinning? It's only 12 o'clock. shine, show forth. Living a godly life is not for us, it's to bring glory to God. It's to show people that God expects holiness, and we are unholy, and the only way for God to accept us is to be saved. Amen? We don't try to live a whole life to be saved, we live a whole life because we're saved. I don't want to displease the Lord, do you? I don't want to do things that God's not pleased with. My father's not pleased with things that I do wrong. Secondly, oh, let me, if we're not living a godly life, listen to me, believer, shame on us. Just plain shame on us. You know better. Well, I don't know. If you don't know, get in the truth. Secondly, I'm gonna keep going. We need to live a life of faith, trusting in the Lord. These new believers were, had received the word of God. The word means to embrace completely the truth. They were saved and others were being saved and they were learning to trust God And for us as believers, we have the scriptures, and I don't think I put all those scriptures on here. Well, I did too, but no. We're living by faith, right? Live by faith. The just shall live by faith. You have any problem with faith? I do. I have a lot of problem with it. By faith, no one. being warned that God of things not seen has yet moved with fear to prepare an ark for the saving of his house. Noah, I'm going to flood the world. I'm going to kill everything that draws breath. You need to build an ark to save you and your family. And by faith, Noah did it. By faith, Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans and his family to go to a place that God ain't even told him where he was going, but just go, and I'll tell you when he gets there. Whoa. Wouldn't that be something, men? You walk in on Monday morning, Monday afternoon, you come, hey, honey, God told us to move. Where? I don't know. But we're going to go west. by faith, by faith Moses did things for God. Faith, living by faith. Living by faith means we're gonna trust God no matter what is going on in our lives. Even when it looks dark and we don't know what the answer is and our prayers are not being answered the way we'd like them to be answered or there's tragedies or difficulties or heartaches or pain or whatever, we need to trust God. Are you trusting him? I've seen strong believers. I've seen believers just respond in faith to situations that were very, very difficult. They lost a loved one, some kind of cancer treatment, broken, clenched. I've seen it. I've seen it. Do you know what concerns me about that? What concerns me about faith is me and others. In today's world, many believers are so easily shaken by the circumstances, the negative circumstances of life. You let something happen, and boom, boy, we've lost our faith. And we're worried, and we're anxious, and we're fearful, and we're almost shaking, and we're trying to figure out what I can do. It's like, where's the faith? Not able to get us through or not. Is he able or not, folks? Now, if he's not able, forget it. But if he's able, why am I wearing it ages? Take no prompt, the Bible says. Would you clothe yourself? Have no worries, trust God. I don't know what's gonna happen, but the, I had verses I'm not gonna turn to, I don't have time, but the Bible over and over and over and over again says, trust me. Grandparents, when your children were small, what was, you know, You may not realize, but one of the things you wanted your children to do was to trust you then. Especially when you said what? When the problem, you said yes. Hey, Mom, Dad, can I do some such? Sure. Mom, Dad, can I do something? No. No! Matthew, did you do that? No, she didn't. Sometimes. And you're trying to explain why. It didn't always work, did it? Yeah, we do. Did you realize that grandparents years ago were teenagers? I can barely remember that. But God says, no, oh God, and we get upset, we get nervous, or we have a problem, and it doesn't have to be a big problem. Oh, my toe is hurting, I'm going to die. That's a little facetious, right? Failure to trust God is a challenge. As a church of believers, prohibits God from working in our lives. You understand that? God says, if you don't want my help, I'll let you do your own thing. I'll let you try your... We become our own ho. I don't need that. I need the Lord. Thirdly, we need to live a surrender life of obedience. I believe these new Jewish believers were eager to follow the Lord and believe the Lord. If we are trusting the Lord, we're seeking to live by Godly standards. If we're trusting Him, then surrendering our lives to the Lord is not a problem. And if we're surrendering to the Lord and trusting Him, then obedience is not a problem. The Bible says God's commands are not grievous. They're not grievous at all. Back in the book of Luke, I believe it is, Jesus was speaking to the disciples and the multitudes and so forth, and they were following him to get healed and just to hear, this is a different thing, blah, blah, blah. They weren't following him for the right reason. And he turned and said this. What? I'm gonna paraphrase it. Why do you call me Lord and Master and don't do the things that I tell you? Why do you say, I'm your Lord, which he really wasn't on most of them. Why do you call me master and do not obey what I tell you to do? Are we guilty folks? Unless you're a complete novice, unless you've just been saved in the last few weeks. Most of you here know what God's word says about a lot of things, don't you? Then why is it that we choose not to obey what God says? Is it an accident to disobey? It's a choice. Why do we do that? When we know it's wrong, we purposefully knowingly choose to disobey. Why? Why is it that sometimes we choose to only obey certain commands that do not infringe and, yeah, obey the commands that do not infringe in the way we want to live? I think sometimes, and I've said this before, sometimes I think believers think that obeying God is like a buffet. You like buffets? There's so many choices. So you can't eat. Well, some of you might try. You can't eat everything. I don't want to go with you if you're one of those that just want to eat everything. I'm going to be embarrassed. And we come to God's Word and, well, I'll obey this one, but I'm not going to obey this one. And somehow we justify, because I'm doing this, this is OK not to do. I'm going to church, but I'm not witnessing it. It doesn't matter. Even though God told me to go witness, it'd be a testimony going all over the world. That's okay. I don't have to do that. Because I go to church. I read my Bible. Well, la-di-da. There's nothing wrong with that, is there? Why do we do that? Are we to make some of God's commandments or all of them? All of them. Sure. Even when we disobey, we don't even think anything about it. Sometimes you try to justify it. Well, you know, I like this one. God understands. You know what he does? He knows you're disobedient. He knows you're sinning. That's what he does. Do you understand that God's commands are not suggestions? God doesn't say, well, here's what. Let me give you a suggestion as to what you should be doing. No, no, no. God says, this is what you should do. Thou shalt do this, and thou shalt not do this. They're positive commands, they're in David's name. God expects obedience. It'll never happen unless we've surrendered our heart to the Lord. He said, God, you are my master, no matter what. 1 John 5, verse 3 says, for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not three hearts. If we love the Lord, folks, obey. If we love the Lord and surrender to Him, obedience is not a problem. You show me a believer that has a problem with obeying God's Word and living by God's standards, I'm showing you a believer that's not right with God. 1 John 2, verses 3 and 5 says, And hereby we know that we know Him. We know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He has said, I know him and keepeth not, excuse me, he that saith, I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word in him, verily the love of God is perfected, and hereby know that we are in heaven. Is Jesus your Lord? Then are you obeying him? Don't call him Lord. Don't call him your master. Don't call him the one you love and care for. If we do, I'm guilty too, folks. We choose to say, no, I'm not gonna do that. Let me give you the fourth one. Wrong button. living a, okay, supposed to say living a giving life, living a giving life. Do you notice how these new converts said they had nothing, they had all things in common? It goes on to talk about how they would sell their possessions, and they had more than they needed, and here was a believer over here that needs it, and they would take that money, then give it over here, then give it to the church, That's amazing. That's called unselfishness. Can you imagine church believers doing that today? Okay, let's put everything together. I'm not talking about communal living. Don't go there, okay? But what an unselfish spirit. Believers should have a giving spirit because God gave his son. Yes. Jesus gave his life. He's our savior. Amen. We need to be giving. I don't preach about it at all, hardly. A giving life involves giving and sharing our resources. Resources meaning? Money. Money! Why? For the cause of Christ. Amen. A believer who's living a dedicated life according to God's word and obedience doesn't have to be scolded, forced, or shamed into giving. They gladly give out of their resources. You know that? Yes. The believer who chooses not to give to the Lord's work has forgotten that God has blessed you. Has God blessed you? Yes. Has God met your need? Yes. Did you go without food? Anybody go without food yesterday? Anybody gonna go without food today? God provides, hasn't he? Praise God. Praise God. I won't go any further there. Those who choose not to give really are not trusting the Lord to meet their needs. Anyway, enough said. A giving life also involves giving of our time and energy. making sacrifices. You ever make sacrifices for something you want to do? You know what my philosophy is? That we will sacrifice whatever we need to sacrifice to do whatever we want to do. If I really want to do something, we're going to make whatever sacrifices is necessary, even if it means, well, I'm going to go to church, whatever, we're going to make the sacrifice. Are we willing to make sacrifices for the cause of Christ? Oh, By the way, coming to church is not a sacrifice. Well, if you're enjoying coming to church and having to listen to you all the time. Sorry. It really kind of comes down to this. A giving life involves giving and sharing the truth of the gospel with the world, being the light of the world. Are we giving? Are we sharing the truth? Are we letting people know that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ? What have you done? Have you given a tract to someone? Invited somebody to the church? Give your personal testimony to your friend or neighbor or co-worker and say, listen, let me tell you what God did for me. These folks in that church went from house to house praising God. That is awesome. Hey, let me tell you what happened to me. Well, I got saved and the spirit got to my heart. I don't know what's going on with, whoa, this is great. I have the peace of God that I didn't have before. Giving, having a giving sacrificial spirit is really following in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus, isn't it? Yes. How about folks? You understand? Are we keepers of the aquarium? Are we fishers of man? Whoa, is it great to be in church? I love coming to church. I love being with believers. I love preaching gospel because of God's covenant. I love that. It's my life. But my Christian life is to be lived out there for my neighbors and people I come in contact with and strangers that may not know me. I can tell them about the Lord. God's mission for the church and its believers is to influence the world for Christ. We come to be edified, we come to be challenged, we come to be encouraged, we come to praise God. Although I'm not sure we have the kind of spontaneous praise and worship we ought to have. Oh, praise God, it encourages us and we go forth and say, Amen! Let's go, let's go out there. The battle's out there, folks. The world's out there. You have lost, how many have lost loved ones? Lost neighbors? Lost co-workers? Lost friends? Have you told them? Have you shared with them? You come across lost people during the week? God's given us a mission, and by the way, it's to be done not down the road of life. Well, when I get things all in order, when I get my life all in order, I get a certain age of, listen, life goes, boom, it's over. It's time to be proactive. You understand the terminology? Proactive now. Now is the only time that we have to serve God. Our responsibility as a church of believers is to impact His word for Christ. We're here to be encouraged and strengthened, and then we're to go forth in the name of Christ. Marching on, the psalm says, marching on. All the word, Christian soldiers. All the word, Christian soldiers. All right, bow with me in prayer.