Probably about a month ago or so, I gave a message titled, It Takes Faith. And I'm not sure how many people will remember that. But basically, I touched on it takes faith. And, you know, I don't have a real fancy introduction for you this morning, but I was praying this past week about what God would have me to preach on here this morning. And there's been a lot of things, a lot of things happen in our lives, don't they? A lot of things happen that we can't really explain, doesn't it? Or am I the only one here this morning? It's okay to be honest this morning. I know we're Norwegian up here, we don't like to talk a whole lot, but we can, you know, we're at church here this morning, so. But a lot of things happen, don't they, that we just can't quite explain. There's a lot of things that happen, even in our country today, a lot of things are happening in our country today that we probably wish were a lot better, but it is what it is right now. And what we do, the best things that we can do, is by praying and giving it to the Lord, and praying for His will, and that He would revive this country once again. You know, America was once a hotspot, sending missionaries out overseas. And my fear is that America is becoming the place where missionaries are going to have to be sent to. Okay? I believe that this country, God blessed this nation abundantly. I believe that. I believe that the reason that we have our freedoms and our liberties that we do is because of the Lord. Right? But I will also tell you this. Nothing's free. Nothing is free. And this wasn't part of my message here this morning, but I just wanted to take a moment and just thank those that are veterans or who are currently serving. And just wanted to take a moment and thank you for your service to this country and with the sacrifices that you've made. And I know we have a few of them in here today this morning. So I just want to thank all those that have served for your service here and the sacrifices that you've made. Every day that you get up and you go about your daily walk, your daily routine, it takes faith. And I'm gonna preach on that again today, but I'm calling this part two. It's gonna be a little bit different though, okay? It takes faith for us every day to believe that God is still with us, okay? You look at the direction that our country is going. You look at how people are treating each other today. And honestly, some people may say that there'd be more of a blessing in being blind and being deaf. They wouldn't have to hear the things that are going on or see the things going on on the news at night or things like that. It can be depressing if you soak all that stuff in. But I want all of us to be encouraged this morning that the Lord wants us to keep our faith. The Lord wants us to be salt. He wants us to be light. If we lose our salt as Christians, this world has nothing else to rely on. This world is trusting in us. It may not realize it. It may not believe. Believe me when I say that. But we can look back to the cross You look back to the cross, you look back when Jesus Christ was giving himself for us. He gave himself for people that were mocking him. Okay? I'm sure at least one other person here other than me this morning has probably been mocked for their faith. Has been mocked for practicing their faith. They have the guts, they have the audacity to go outside of the walls of this building and to give a gospel tract to somebody who's lost. Or to sit there and pray with somebody who's in dying need of prayer and support and help. Right? I was just speaking with a gentleman the other day. claims to be an atheist or an agnostic, whatever he, I'm still not totally sure where he stands, but he doesn't believe in God. Or if he does believe in God, he doesn't believe God is a very intricate part of his life. It takes faith for every one of us to get up. I even believe that even the most diehard atheists, at some point in their life, cry out to God. I believe that. Why do I believe that? Because all we are, every one of us, all we are is mere flesh. That's all we are, people. We're flesh. We came from the dust of the ground and that's where we're going to return, right? We have a God this morning that loves you very much. In Hebrews chapter 11, the Hebrews Hall of Faith that's commonly known as, you see a number of people, a number of people that made Hebrews Hall of Faith that weren't expecting to make the Hebrews Hall of Faith. These people did not make sacrifices expecting to get into the Bible. These people that you see in Hebrews chapter 11, everybody in that chapter has one thing in common. They all had faith. And I'll be honest with you, this morning, it's gonna take faith to keep plugging away. It's gonna take faith to keep plugging away. Let me give you an idea of what faith is. Faith is acting on something that you can't necessarily explain. When God calls you to do something, he impresses something upon your heart to do, and it makes no sense one bit. You can't draw one bit of conclusion like, Lord, what good is this going to do going and ministering to this person over there when they don't care one bit about you or me? Sometimes what God just wants to see is you step out on faith. He just wants to see you act a little bit like a Christian sometimes, right? Step out on faith, right? It takes faith to go through challenges in your life. It takes faith to endure trials. It takes faith to step out on the water, doesn't it? That's a good one, right? It takes faith to step out on the water, especially when you see a storm on the horizon. My wife and I went up to, with our daughter, we went up to Lake Superior just about a week ago. And every time that we go up there, it is just amazing how massive that lake is. That lake is massive, right? And we were on this boat tour. And the boat, on the tour, the gentleman that was whatever you call it, commentating or whatever, what do you call that? I forget now. Narrator, I'll call him a narrator, or whatever you want to call it, all right? Director, yeah, okay. The guy that was talking on the loudspeaker. Kind of got annoying sometimes, but that's okay. He's probably a volunteer anyways, right? But one of the things that he said during his script or whatever he had with him, I found very interesting. I didn't really think about this. A couple things. One, He said, if you were to take the Eiffel Tower and stick it in the middle of Lake Superior, you wouldn't be able to see the top of the Eiffel Tower. That's how deep Lake Superior is, okay? You know how many ships have lost their lives on Lake Superior? There have been over 30 ships, huge ships, that have lost their lives on Lake Superior. You get on a ship vessel, it takes a lot of faith to get on that ship vessel, doesn't it? You think about times that God's dealt with you about stepping out on faith. I'm going to take you to the book of Hebrews here. The reason I brought up the Eiffel Tower is to kind of give you an idea of how big, how deep Lake Superior really is. Okay? I want to take you to the Hebrews chapter 11. If you would turn there this morning. Hebrews chapter 11. Some of this may be repetition from the previous message, but again, this is part two. We're just going to look at things at a different angle here. Hebrews chapter 11, as you're turning there, I'm gonna open us up with a word of prayer and ask the Lord to bless us this morning. This morning we, Lord, we're all needy people. Every one of us, Father, has something we need you to help us with. Lord, every person in here this morning has a need. My guess, Lord, would be that they have multiple needs. And Lord, they're here this morning and they're here to hear from you, not me. Lord, if you would this morning, would you bless your people? Lord, if there's somebody in here this morning that is not a child of yours, Somebody who needs to be saved. Father, my prayer and my sincere hope for them this morning is that you would open their eyes to the free gift that you are offering to them here this morning. Lord, I ask and just pray that you would meet with your people, minister to the hearts of your people here this morning. Everybody here, Lord, is going through something. Is going through a trial. Their faith is being tested or challenged. And Lord, we see people in the Bible whose faith was tried, was challenged. So we're in good company. Father, would you minister to your people this morning? And if there's somebody here, Lord, that has a specific need, Lord, would you be gracious enough to meet that need here this morning? Use your words to speak to them, to convict them, to encourage them, whatever they need. Lord, I ask that you bless this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. Hebrews chapter 11, I'm going to point out to you something here. In verse 23, it says this, by faith Moses, well, we know one thing about Moses right off the bat. Moses had faith, and it's one of the first things, one of the first things you see about this guy, Moses, is that he had faith. Okay? Moses, by faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. I'm going to read that verse again. There's an awful lot of temptation. Whether you're saved or you're lost, and you're living in the world, there's an awful lot of temptation to sin like the world does, isn't there? There's an awful lot of temptation, especially if you have a background that's pretty rough. Maybe you've repented of drugs, alcohol, fornication, all kinds of bad things, right? And as soon as you step back out into the world, there's always going to be times and moments when those things are going to come back and tempt you again. And you know, the sad thing about it, it just happens to be when you least expect it. I've said this before, and I say this to our younger children today, because there are scars when you sin. They're not free. You can't sin and get away with it. You may be saved and sin, but let me tell you something. When you sin, when you do something in rebellion to God, there are scars that go along with that. Let me give you an example of a scar that I personally have from bad decisions that I made way back then. When I look, all I have to do is look. Okay? I was with a friend of mine years ago. We were at a restaurant in Minneapolis. And I remember this like it happened yesterday. And we were at a Devani's restaurant, I think it was. And I was looking at different beverages I could choose from, like soda, water, whatever. And I remember distinctly, I mean this popped out like a sore thumb to me. I looked in there and I saw a bottle of beer in there. I no more than had to look at that bottle of beer And I could remember how it tasted just by looking at it. Do you have scars like that yourself? Where you are reminded of something that you did in the past? Are you reminded of things like that? Let me ask you something here this morning. Okay? Moses made a decision. Okay? We're going to get into a little more detail about what happened with Moses and his mother here in a little bit here. But we see one of the things in verse 25 is that Moses made a choice that he would rather go with the people of God, if you will, Christians today. He would rather walk with them and suffer the afflictions, the persecutions, the mockings, you name it. The list goes on and on and on. He would rather suffer with them than to stay back in Egypt and have a life, a great life, people. Moses had it made. Moses had it made in Egypt. Let me tell you something. He had the best education money could buy. He had the latest technologies. If iPhones existed back then, he would have had iPhone 10, all right? iPhone 7 just came out. He would have had iPhone 10, all right? He had it made. No financial concerns, one bit, right? But something tells me, I just have a hunch, that his birth parents had to have been pretty godly people. You know, it's been said before that you are sometimes a reflection of how your parents were, or are, or whatever. And I will tell you that I have many Christians in my family. Many of them have made many mistakes, but I have many Christians in my family, okay? When I say many, I should say like maybe a handful or so, something like that, I don't know. But it is a reflection of who you are. Moses chose to do something that was against the grain. Imagine all the people that would have taken Moses' spot like that. As soon as he gave up his spot in Egypt, think of all the people that would have been flocking in to his spot. They were just waiting in line for Moses to give that spot up, right? I want to ask you something here this morning. Have you ever began a relationship with the Lord? Have you ever began a relationship with the Lord? It's not a strange question, really. I'm trying to ask a very simple question here this morning. Have you ever began a relationship with the Lord? Yes. Okay. Well, let me ask you this. The first thing you have to do, the first thing you have to do to establish a relationship with the Lord is to establish your salvation. That is first and foremost. You must first establish your salvation. You've got to get that thing out of the way first. The Lord will have nothing to do with you if you're not saved. Okay? Sorry, we're not all children of God. I'm sorry to disappoint you this morning. Okay? I will tell you this, okay? The Lord is waiting to save you. He is waiting to save you. If you were here this morning, have you heard one of these before? At your doorstep? Yes or no? Okay, thank you. Man, now I know how Pastor Bob feels up here. Man alive, right? Okay. Have you heard one of these at your doorstep before? Yes, thank you. It's all right. We've got a few people waking up. Okay. So you've heard that at your doorstep. Who oftentimes comes to your door? Jehovah's Witnesses. Thank you. Mormons, right? They come to your door telling you about the good news, right? I wish. It's not. It's not the good news. There is only one way. to heaven. Let me first tell you this. You must first, to begin a relationship with the Lord, you must first establish your salvation. You need to get that thing out of the way. Have you, at one point in your life, ever called upon the name of the Lord to be saved? Have you done that? That is a simple question. And let me ask you this morning, if you have not done that, You've got way more concerns on your plate than you even realize. Okay? I hate to say it like this, but you've got the flames of hell that are flirting at your tippy toes. Okay? The first thing you have to establish is salvation. Okay? The Lord is gracious, and He's loving, and He is kind to forgive us. Okay? The Bible says if we confess our sins, okay? Sins are oftentimes things that we do that God isn't real happy with. Like, flat-out rebellion against God. And you know, the miraculous thing about when you confess your sins is this. There are sins that you might be confessing to that you didn't even realize were sin to begin with. I've done that before. There are times that I've asked God for forgiveness for something, and then I'm going through reading the Bible, and He opens my eyes to something that is sin I didn't even know was sin. I'm like, whoa! Okay, we have a whole other issue going on here. I've got more sin than I thought. But yet God is still gracious, and He is still kind, that when He does reveal those things to me, He just wants us to confess it. Okay? It's as simple as that. You've heard that door knock on your door before? Let me ask you this. Have you heard that door spiritually in your life? How many times have you heard this or felt that on your heart? How many times? Okay, every day people are starting to confess here. Altars open if you need to, okay? All right. You must first become a child of God. Salvation must be established to begin a relationship with the Lord. But let me tell you something else, okay? You can be saved. You can be saved. A born-again child of God, and you haven't began a relationship with the Lord quite yet. Okay? Think about that for a second. I got you thinking a little bit, hopefully. Okay? It means I'm doing my job. Okay? Hebrews chapter 11. I want you to look at here at verse number 26. It says here, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Moses acted as if he saw God. Moses acted and lived his life as if God was physically right next to him. As if somebody tutoring him along the way. How many of us live our lives like that? As if God is actually right there. When we make decisions in our life, choices, sometimes I think that we do things that we think that God isn't watching us. If I do this, God won't see me. Oh, stop being foolish. Yes, he sees you, okay? I'm gonna take you back to the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis, and I'm gonna show you something here that will hopefully blow your mind. We'll see what happens here, okay? It takes faith to be in a relationship with the Lord. Salvation must first be established. But I also want to show you something else. I'm sorry, not Genesis, the book of Exodus. I'm sorry, the book of Exodus. And I'm going to take you to chapter 1. And I'm going to show you something here about Moses and about his mother. I'm going to show you something here. Please pay attention. Chapter 1, it says this. Exodus chapter 1. It says this in verse number one, Now these are the names of the children of Egypt, which came into Egypt. Every man in his household came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls. For Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. In verse number 7 it says this, we're going to get into a little more description of exactly what's happening in Egypt at this time. It says in verse 7, And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them. Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that when their When they're fought out in a war, they join also unto our enemies and fight against us and so get them out of the land. Get them up out of the land. Verse number 11. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service in the field. All their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other, Puah. And he said, when ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and seat them upon the stools, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him. But if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God. and did not, as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. Therefore God dealt with the midwives, and the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, And every daughter you shall save alive. Now why on earth would Pharaoh be so mean to command that every man-child that is come to birth be thrown into the river? Why? I'll tell you this right now. You get rid of all the men, you can't multiply anymore, can you? It's like a form of population control, if you will. You get rid of the men or the women, whatever the case may be, it helps to keep the population under control of Pharaoh. So he can control what happens. Because the children of Israel had grown so much. They were getting mighty. They were getting powerful. And the more and more, the Bible even says that the more and more the Egyptians went after the children of Israel, they just kept getting stronger and mightier and more powerful. And Pharaoh saw what was happening. He saw what was happening with the children of Israel. And he started the fear and said, if there ever was a war between us and our enemies, the children of Israel would join them and would take us down. We can't let that happen. So this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna order that every man child, every baby that is born, a male be put into the river, thrown into the river. If it's a female, she can live. If it's a male, she is to be cast into the river. He is to be cast into the river if it's a male, okay? Let's look at chapter number two here. It says, And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch. and put the child therein. And she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came to wash herself at the river. And her maidens walked along by the riverside. And when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she opened it, pay attention to this here, In verse number six, and when she opened it, she saw the child. And behold, the babe wept. In my studies here, I got thinking about something in this verse here, very interesting. Think of all the babes Pharaoh's daughter may have seen dead. Think of all the babies. the thousands of babies that Pharaoh's daughter saw. I'm not trying to be too graphic here this morning. But I want us to understand what's going on here. This is a pretty serious thing. I hope we understand that. They take the child. As soon as it's delivered, Pharaoh commanded that they take that child and they throw it in the river. Because it's a male. Because he wants to control the population. But there was something about Moses' wife, or excuse me, Moses' mother. Something about Moses' mother. What was it about her? She didn't let the fear of the king stop her from doing what was right. I want you to see something here. Verse number 6 says, Here she opens up this little ark. There's a baby in there. And it's alive. And she had compassion on him and said, Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?' And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it. I'm going to show you something here. Not only must you establish your relationship with Christ first and get that thing taken care of today to begin a relationship with the Lord, but you must also sometimes sacrifice Sometimes you have to sacrifice certain things in your life when called to begin a relationship with the Lord. And I guess what I really wanted to point out here is this. You may be saved. Moses' mother She was a godly woman. Let me tell you something about her. She loved her son so much that she was willing to sacrifice her motherhood to keep her son safe. Okay? She was willing. It took her faith. It took faith. It took faith. It took faith for her to place her babe in that arm. not knowing what was going to happen to him. She places her babe in that ark, pushes it down the river. I can only imagine she started praying. I would. Okay? She sacrificed being a mother to him. Let me tell you something. She didn't know what was going to happen. She had no idea. We may read in the Bible and can foresee what's going to happen because we can read ahead. Put yourself in her shoes. Do you know what's going to happen with your son? You have no idea what's going to happen, right? Pharaoh's daughter, down at the river's brink, down there washing herself up, and her maidens, and she finds this babe. You know, and I think, personally, when reading that story, that not only was it the sacrifice she was willing to make to keep him safe, that God honored her for that. That God saw a mother trying to keep her child safe, right? That began a whole new relationship between her and the Lord. That began a whole new relationship with Moses and the Lord. The Lord was calling Moses to do something great one day, wasn't he? The Lord was calling Moses to do something great one day. Okay? I want to ask you this question here this morning, too. Sacrifices as a Christian, this may not be the best example to use, but it is something that stood out in my mind as I was studying and reading for this. The sacrifices sometimes that we make that we don't want to make. If you are born again here this morning, There comes a point when a process must take place. If you're gonna start to step out on faith and see what the Lord has in store for you, there are some sacrifices that are required to make on our behalf. Okay? There are some sacrifices we have to start making on our behalf. Alright? There's something called the purging process. Okay? That takes place. You come to faith in Jesus Christ. You come to the Lord the way that you are. But then there comes a point when the Lord wants a little bit more from you than just you. He wants you to start making some sacrifices for Him. He wants you to start stepping up to the plate. And start saying, look, Coming to the church once a month, is that the best you can do? What's the best you can do for the Lord this morning? I'm not trying to put anybody on the spot. If anything, I'll put myself on the spot. That makes you feel better, okay? What kind of sacrifices have you made for the Lord? What kind of sacrifices should you be making for Him? It's going to be very difficult for anybody who is saved. to grow in the Lord and to continue having that thirst and that desire to grow and to see what the Lord has in store for you, what ministry He may be calling you to. Getting rid of the old and bringing in of the new. On our gospel tracks for the Saturday Night Cruising, you know the tracks that I'm talking about. It has the picture of the old Camaro on it, right? Or on the inside of it, right? On the front of it, it has a picture of a new restored Camaro, right? You know what basically the theme of that is? It's this. You come to the Lord the way that you are, He will clean you up. Okay? But there comes a point in everyone's life, we gotta start doing more than just the bare minimum to get by. Okay? There comes a point when we have to start stepping up to the plate to do a little bit more. We try to hold on to the little bit of that world that we're used to holding on to and having because we're comfortable with it. We like it. It pleases our flesh, right? But there comes a point And I don't know where you're at this morning. I have no idea. I'm going to keep that between you and the Lord so I don't get into trouble, alright? Wherever you're at, okay? Wherever you're at, I'm going to say this. If the Lord is encouraging you to be in church more often, can I tell you this? Get in the church more stinking often, okay? You have no idea of the blessings you're missing out on. You have no idea of the things that God may be trying to do in your life, the blessings He's trying to bring into your life. The times in my life personally that God began working the most was when I began to step up and was in church more often. Instead of making excuses, I started looking for ways to get in the church. Because that's where I needed to be to grow. That's where we have to be to grow. Do you really think you're going to grow missing church? going maybe on just Christmas or Easter when it's, you know, traditionally okay, right? The messages that you may miss out on. I'm not, and let me tell you this right now so that nobody, like, meets me afterwards and beats me in the alley back behind the church or something like that. Let me first just put this out there. I don't have a list of people on the pulpit that I'm pointing to right now. I don't do that, okay? I am simply coming from the heart right now and want to tell you this morning, if you want a relationship with the Lord, stop making excuses The people that church hop, look at all the blessings you're missing out on. There's no perfect church out there. Berean, I hate to tell you, Berean is not a perfect church. I make it less perfect, if that makes it any better. Okay? That was supposed to be a joke? Okay. All right. Man, it's a little warm up here. Where's that fan at? I'm not trying to be harsh this morning, but I love you enough to encourage you, because I need it too. We all need it. We get weak, we get soft, and we start making excuses to not do certain things. The last thing I want to point out to you when it comes down to beginning a relationship with the Lord. Again, your salvation is first and foremost, but then you start to grow. There's some sacrifices that should start taking place, right? And we see an example of that sacrifice with Moses' mother. She stepped out on faith to sacrifice being a mother for Moses, not even knowing that Pharaoh's daughter would ask her, would you take care of this child? Would you take care of this child for me? And guess what? Right? All right. The last thing I want to point out to you is this. Submission to ministry. Ministry, Pastor Brad has said this, Pastor Bob has said this, and now I'm going to say it. The ministry is not a place for wussies. I got one. Let me get a drink of water here real quick. The ministry is not a place for wussies. But you know how you grow? You know how you get stronger so you can handle those curveballs that come up? Being here. Sorry if I'm upsetting you this morning. I'm not trying to, okay? Secondly, it takes faith to keep in a relationship with the Lord. Okay? Not only does it take faith to begin a relationship. Look, it's not easy to step out in faith. It's not easy to get away from what you're comfortable with. It's not easy to trust in things you can't see. But if you do it, there's a great blessing in it, folks. It takes faith to also keep in a relationship with the Lord. Okay? Go to the book of Romans, if you would. I'm going to show you something here. I'm not going to get real deep into this because we're kind of running out of time here this morning. I love when that happens. Okay? I'm going to show you something here. Let's see. Is it Romans? Give me one second here. I got my notes goofed up here. No, I'm sorry. You know what? I jumped ahead of myself. I'm good at doing that. I'm sorry. Go back to Genesis. Sorry. Go back to the book of Genesis. Hang in there with me. We're almost, well, kind of almost done. Genesis chapter 16. I want to show you something here. Genesis chapter 16, and it says this in verse number 1. Genesis 16, I'm not going to get into all the details of this story because we frankly don't have time. But I wanted to point this out to you folks this morning. Genesis 16 says this in verse number 1, Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go in unto my maid, it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian. after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto Abram, I want you now to go to the book of Romans, chapter 4. Again, I'm not going to be able to get into all the details of this. There's things I'm going to have to cut out. We just don't have time to get into it, alright? But Abraham and Sarah wanted so desperately to have a child, didn't they? They wanted so desperately to have a child to call their own, right? And God even gave Abraham a promise, didn't he? Okay? God gave Abraham a promise. Now let me tell you something else. It takes faith to keep in a relationship with the Lord, especially when it seems like God has broken His promises, hasn't it? Sometimes, sometimes, I know this is not the case, but there are times it may seem, it may seem to our eye that God broke His promise to us, doesn't it? This is what I'm going to give you. I promise this to you and to your kindred. But, let's look at something here. Romans chapter 4 and verse number 18 says this. It says, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be." How would you feel? Obviously, you wouldn't feel very good if you're promised something. If your family, somebody in your family promises you a huge inheritance or promises you something you're longing for, and you spend your entire life waiting for it. You spend your entire life waiting for that thing. And you're praying on your knees every day, God, where's my child? Where's my child? Where's my inheritance? Where's this? Where's that? Where's this place that you promised me, right? It says here in verse number 19, Abraham's a hundred years old. Guess what his wife tells him. Hey, sweetheart, got some good news for you. We're having a baby. Okay, so let me bring this back down to reality here, so maybe I'm getting some blank looks from people here, okay? So imagine yourself at the age of a grandmother, okay? And you're about ready to give birth to a child, okay? That's bringing it back into reality here, okay? Yeah, now I'm getting some people looking at me like, holy smokes, man. Yeah, okay. Abraham and Sarah are at the age old enough to be grandparents. Okay? Now let me tell you this. It takes faith to keep in a relationship with God when it comes down to trusting His timing, trusting His will, and you know what? Trusting His plan. When it doesn't coincide with what we want, what we think should be, what doesn't make the least bit of sense to us, we start to lose faith a little bit, don't we? Sarah lost her faith at times. Let me tell you something. She doubted her faith. What human being wouldn't doubt their faith? What human being on their right mind wouldn't doubt their faith a little? How many people in here have never doubted God at one point in their life? I'm not seeing a lot of hands in here this morning. Alright. There have been more times than I would like to admit to you that God impressed something on my heart to do, promised me something, and I thought it would never happen. Can I tell you what one of those things, and I honestly thought, and Tanya can vouch for me on this this morning, my sister-in-law, who's here this morning, she can vouch for me on this. You know what? The one thing I never thought was gonna happen, you wanna know what it is? My wife. Okay? My wife. And I'll tell you why. Because God had to get a hold of where my heart was. God had to bring me down to his level. And God had to deal with me about things. Let me tell you something. I was on my bedside many nights, praying. You know what's amazing to me? What kept me in the faith, what kept me in this fight? Waiting patiently for the right woman, right? On my bedside at night, I had a shopping list of things I prayed for. I said, Lord, I pray for this. I pray for this. I pray for this. I pray for this. And the list just kept going on. And I said, Lord, if you could bless me with a good Baptist Christian wife, that'd be a great blessing, a wife that I can serve with. a wife that will not limit God's will, or His timing, or His plan for our lives together, okay? You know what, the Lord, He heard my prayers, but guess what? Like Sarah, guess what I did? There were times in my life when I tried jumping the gun. Sarah jumped the gun, didn't she? Sarah jumped the gun. She didn't trust God's timing. She didn't trust God's will either. She didn't trust God. It comes down to it. We don't trust God sometimes, do we? Let's just be honest this morning. Who always trusts God? We've got to tell people to always trust God. All right? Praise the Lord for that. You know what? I struggle sometimes. I'm just being honest with you. You know why? Because we like to look at what's in front of us. We like to trust in what we know, what we're comfortable with. If it's outside of that, we have a hard time with it, don't we? Okay? When the Lord finally opened my eyes to my wife, and you know what? I interviewed her. I have this checklist. I brought my checklist with me. I said, okay, God, let's get down to business here, put my glasses on that I don't wear, right? I went through the checklist. Priscilla, do you meet this requirement here? Okay? Okay? Ooh, we'll work on that one there, okay? Let me tell you something. I told her, I said, I gave her I told her some things about me. Some mistakes that I had made. Because I didn't want it coming from people that she might meet one day that knew me, okay? So I just came out and told her. And I prayed about it, too. I wasn't foolish about it. I prayed about it. I says, Lord, would you help me to say the right things? Because we were at a point in our relationship where I said, Lord, it's a make or break. We're at that point right now where if this doesn't, you know, if I share this, tell her about these things, guess what? This is the point where if she leaves, we'll still be okay, for the most part, kind of, I don't know. So I told her some things. You know what she told me? You remember what you told me. You know what she told me? I told her some things about me, okay? She said to me, my parents brought me up. that you taught me to not judge somebody based on who they are, not who they were, but who they are now. She said, you are not the same guy that you once were. And let me tell you something. She had a pretty big pill to swallow. You guys know that. Some of you, I should say, know that. She had a big pill to swallow. And you know what? It took faith for me. It took faith for Sarah. It took faith for Abraham. It took faith for Moses. It took faith for all these people to keep in a relationship with the Lord. It takes faith for you to keep in that relationship with the Lord, right? My last thing here and then we'll be out of here, alright? Last but not least, 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 4. We come to a great chapter in 2 Timothy. A chapter that encourages me to keep in the fight. And I hope it encourages you this morning. Let me tell you something. 2 Timothy chapter 4. Reads this in verse number one, I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead in his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. For they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry, for I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have this underlined in my Bible. I have kept the faith. When I say the ministry is not for wussies, this is an example of what I'm talking about. The Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul is a great example of how we all should live. He endured afflictions. He ran out of towns. Guess how many missionary trips did he make? He made about five missionary trips. And you know what? It was never a cakewalk for him. The weather that he had to endure along the way, times, you know, in fact, he even talks about having... Help me out here. Talks about having a thorn in his flesh. Now, we don't know for sure what that thorn in his flesh was. There are some that believe that it was his eyesight after the Lord got a hold of him, blinded him on the road to Damascus, right? Some believe that it was his eyesight. I say, okay, that may be, but I don't know for a fact what it is, okay? But we know this, that he sought the Lord about that thing. He said, Lord, will you take this away from me? And the Lord said, Why doesn't the Lord do that sometimes? Because He wants us to trust in His grace. He wants us to see His goodness even through our infirmities, okay? Through our challenges and things like that. Let me tell you something else. Last but not least, and this one may be one of the more important ones, it takes faith. And this goes out to everybody. It takes faith to finish your relationship with the Lord on this earth. You have a ministry on this earth. What is it? It may not be up here. It may not be to be up here preaching. It may be out there. It may be going to nursing homes. I have no idea what it is. What is God dealing with you about? You know, there are empty pulpits around this country that are not being filled by good preachers because they're not answering the call. because they're finishing weak. I hate to say that because now the Lord's going to test me even more. Please, Lord, don't do that right now, okay? Not right now. Finishing this thing to the end. You finish your course. And what does Paul say? Paul, by the way, is facing a death penalty. Okay? I'm not sure how many people are aware of that. He's writing his final letter to Timothy, who's a preacher, okay? And Paul, He knows what's on the horizon. You know what He doesn't let happen? He doesn't let bitterness set in. He doesn't let sitting in a prison cell make Him bitter. How could God do this to me? Look at everything I've given up. Look at everything I've sacrificed. I've trusted God through this. I've trusted God through that. And now He's got me sitting here rotting away in a prison cell? No. God sometimes tests you. Okay? It's a test of your compassion for the brethren. It's a test of your compassion and your love for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Who are you going to share that thing with? And it's a test of our compassion, and this is the toughest one. It is a test of our compassion and love for the world. Will you speak boldly the gospel of Jesus Christ? Will you do that? I'm going to show you something here. In verse number 2 it says, 2 Timothy chapter 4, it says in verse number 2, And Paul knows what's on the horizon. And he's writing a farewell letter to Timothy. Paul doesn't get bitter about how his life turned out. Paul doesn't get bitter about that thing. In fact, you know what he says? He glories in Christ Jesus. Okay? He glories. His infirmities, you know, Paul basically, I'm paraphrasing, so forgive me for that, but he basically says that all the things that I have outside of Christ, I count but don't. That's, he's basically saying this, anything that I have outside of Jesus Christ is nothing. Because that is what I'm fighting for. Okay? That's everything. Let me tell you something. This Christian life is not an easy one. It can be very challenging. It can be very tough. But it is. We have to finish this thing to the end. Finish this thing to the end. Will you stand before God one day and hear the words, Will you hear those words? Let me tell you something here before we close. Paul says this, verse number 5, He's not sugarcoating it for Timothy. He's telling him, people are not going to like what you have to say. When you start spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, people are offended at that thing. It doesn't mean that you go around offending people, but if they get offended by you preaching the gospel, then let them get offended. I was offended the first time I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ presented before me at a kitchen table with the Bible opened up to me one night. The truth was there, it was my choice. What do you choose to do with it? He says this, Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered in the time my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Timothy, excuse me, Paul, he had to have had a special relationship with the Lord. You know why? Because he was so confident. He had such a joy. You know, when I read that part of 2 Timothy, you know what I think of? Man, that is a joyful man right there. That is a joyful man. He's sitting there. He knows he's about to be beheaded or whatever exactly happened to him, right? He knows he's facing the death penalty. And this is what he says, Lord, if that's your will, thank you. You saved me. You allowed me to serve you. I kept the faith, Lord. Will you finish the course? Don't let Satan or your flesh take you out. Keep in this thing. The light's on the horizon. We can see it coming. Okay? We have too many people backing out because it's tough. It is tough. But you know what? That's why we have church. So that when we do face challenges, when we do face challenges, our Christian family is right there to help us and support us. My wife and I have had a little bit of a busy week this week. Had some things come up and happen this week that have tested us and pushed us a little bit, okay? Can I tell you what one of the greatest, honestly, one of the greatest blessings this week was? When I made a phone call, we had within an hour, we had five people at our house helping us through something, okay? I thought to myself, God, you're good. You're good. Because you know what? That's what we need. We need to be there for each other. That's when you see a Christian walking around on crutches, don't kick the crutch that's holding him up. Amen. Give him the other one to walk on. Give him a shoulder to walk on. Help them out. When you see somebody get out of the race, Are you happy to see him gone? Because there are certain things about them you didn't care for. Oh, that's okay. I'll pray for them. What kind of attitude do you have? When you see somebody get out of the race because it was tough. Well, look at all the challenges they're going through. They must be doing something wrong. God must really be trying to get a hold of them. You know, you have no idea what's going on in their life. You have no idea what they're going through. That's going to conclude the message for this morning, afternoon, okay? But I want you to think just real briefly again. It takes faith to begin a relationship with the Lord. You may be saved, but maybe it's time that you step up and start doing something more, okay? It takes faith to keep in a relationship with the Lord, especially when it's on God's timing and not your timing, right? And it takes faith to finish this thing. Where are you at? What's going on in your life? If there's something that you're struggling with, you're wondering, God, what are you trying to do in my life? Give it over to Him.