I certainly hope, pray that you can sing that song with all honesty of heart. Sometimes we just sing going through the motions and we don't even pay attention to what the song's even saying. And boy, I'm glad that we can say it's well with my soul. All right, y'all gonna have to pray, because I can't get this frog out of my throat. I don't know what's going on with that, but somebody might be praying for me not to preach, I'm not real sure. But let's look in 2 Kings chapter 20. 2 Kings chapter 20. We'll look at this this morning and see what the Lord has for us. I was listening to some preaching this past week, and it was a preacher that I really enjoy listening to. I've listened to him for years, but then I hadn't heard or listened to him in a while, and then I just recently started listening to him again. But he started preaching, and if I was to mention his name, you probably wouldn't know who it is, but it's just someone that I like. But he's gone on to be with the Lord, and nothing against the preacher or anything like that. But he made a comment when he got up to preach, and his comment was how old he was, and he was getting older. But he was talking about, and made the comment, said, you know, well, I'm this old, and he said, but I like to hang around a little longer. I just want to be here for a little while longer. I don't want to pray for this or pray for that. I'm thinking, man, I want the Lord to come back. I really do. I really want God to allow the Lord Jesus Christ to blow that trumpet and let's get out of here. Amen. I know everybody can't say that. I'm not trying to be selfish. Yeah, I am. Amen. I'm ready to go. Amen. There's so much garbage going on in our world today. Amen. So much foolishness and so much crazy stuff. You don't know what's going to come out of Washington. You don't know what's going to come out of next door sometimes. You just don't know what's going to happen. But you know something, you read your Bible and you see the things in the Word of God and I can look in here and I know more about what's going to happen after we die and after we get out of here than I do what's gonna happen tomorrow. I mean, and that's, you know, God just opens that up and lets you see some things about what glory's gonna be like. And I heard another preacher say this one time. He said, the Bible doesn't say a whole lot about what heaven's gonna be like. Well, it does say a lot about what heaven's gonna be like, amen? It does tell us what's gonna be going on up there. It tells us the environment. You realize that when Jesus was walking upon this earth and whenever he came across a funeral, he'd disrupt the funeral. Do you realize that? You know what that tells me? It tells me there's not going to be any death there. Not only does it tell me there's no death there, but He don't even let death hang around Him. Amen. I mean, here's the guy at the pool of Bethesda, and he's over there, and he's trying to get down in the water when the angel comes and stirs the water, and Jesus says, hey, you want to be made whole? He's like, sure, but I can't get... Jesus said, okay, take up thy bed and walk. There won't be any sickness up there, amen? He ain't gonna let it hang around him, amen? I mean, so, I'm looking forward to that, aren't you? Amen. Amen. So I just, you know, I just thank God for letting us know the company He keeps. Amen. And He's invited us to be with Him in keeping that company. And so we need to be prepared for that. I want to look this morning again here in 2 Kings chapter 20, and I want to look at some things about Hezekiah. You may know who Hezekiah is. He's a king over there. And we find that he was a good king, he did alright, but it was about time for him to die. And so we see this thing in chapter 20, in verse number 1, And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos came to him and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set not a house in order, for thou shalt die and not live. And so we see here that he got the news that he was fixing to die. He got the news that he was fixing to leave this earth and he got upset about it so he started praying, verse 2, and started crying and asking God to spare him. And so there in verse number 5, the Bible says that the Lord God came to Amos, the prophet, and told him, he said, you go tell Hezekiah there in verse 5, he said, I've heard thy prayer, I've seen thy tears, behold, I will heal thee. So God answered his prayer and so he healed him. And so he told him that he's gonna do that, and he'd give him 15 years added to his life. And so he goes through the motions there of, you know, show me a sign. You know, the Jews require a sign. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 22, I believe it is. The Jews require a sign. So there's Hezekiah. He said, give me a sign, you know. And, you know, the dial on the sundial there, it actually moved backwards. And so he showed him that thing. So he gets healed. And so after he gets healed, look in verse 12, and I'm going to ask Randy to pronounce this guy's name here, but at that time, Baradac of Baladan. Yeah, that's it. Close enough. It says that he's the son of Baladan, king of Babylon. Now y'all know who Babylon is, right? All right, Babylon is the wicked city. Babylon is the city that did no favors to Israel at all. And so we find here that here's the son of the king that was friends with Hezekiah. He heard Hezekiah had been sick, and so he came and visited him. So here's this Babylonian guy, shows up, and they're friends. Can I tell you, you've got to be careful you make friends with. You've got to be careful who you're hanging with, amen? So he says in verse 13, And Hezekiah hearkened unto them and showed them all his house, all the house of his precious things, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house nor in his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not. So let's go to the Lord in prayer and let's just find out a few things about what we have to show. Amen. Father I just thank you for this opportunity and Lord I'm asking for your strength, I'm asking for your wisdom, Lord I'm asking Lord for you to hold us up today. give us the words, Lord, to say, Lord, I don't know these folks out here, what their need is, I don't know where their heart's at, you do, and Father, you know who needs what, and Father, I'm asking you, Lord, that you'd help each heart, Lord, you'd help each mind, and Lord, you'd encourage the saints, Father, thank you for these folks that come out here this morning, thank you for the prayers, Lord, not just for me, but for my wife and family, but Lord, also for each other, I'm thankful, Lord, for a prayerful church, I'm thankful, Lord, for a church that looks out for each other. And, Father, we're asking, Lord, that you'd bless those that are sick today, and, God, that you'd lift them up and encourage them. We sure miss them, and, Lord, we love them. We ask that you'd honor this and bless this in the reading of thy word, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. So we find here that here's Ezekiel. you know, was gonna die, and then he goes to the Lord, and the Lord says, okay, I've seen your tears, I've heard your prayer, and so now here, I'm gonna give you 15 extra years. And so he gives him the 15 extra years, and so now here's his buddy from Babylon, he comes along, and so he shows up, and as he shows up, he's there, and he takes him, and he goes through his house, and he starts to open up the doors of his house. As he opens up the doors of his house, he said, look at all this silver I got. Look at all this gold I got. And he opens it up and he said, look at all these precious spices and ointments that I've got. Look at all this stuff that I've got. You know, and I see this thing of his, a little bit of pride, you know, in showing things that you're proud of, amen? And it says it's precious things. And so those are things, you know, it's kind of like your kid's pictures, you know. You're showing everybody your kid's pictures, right? And you're just showing all these things you're proud of and what's going on here and what's going on there. I see that and I see that in Hezekiah's life. I see that in what he's doing here. God's given him 15 extra years and he's like, man, I just want to show everybody this stuff. And so, you know, Hezekiah, I see that, but you see in verse 14, as you look down there, we see that, then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What saith these men from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon. And he said, what have they seen in that house? And Hezekiah answered, all the things that are in my house have they seen. He said, and there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them. So he opened his house up and he showed them everything. I mean everything. There was nothing that he held back that he didn't show them. Amen? And you see that. And so I just want to look at a few things as I started reading this. I preached a message on this a few years ago, but it was at a different twist. But I want to look at a few things today and just ask ourselves some of these questions about what do we have to show. And I've got just maybe 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 4... No, I really don't have that many. I've got a couple, 2 or 3 here. But Brother Orville's here. You'll let me go once you're Brother Orville. Amen. There we go. Appreciate it. 22? Is that right? Amen. Well, that's okay, I just turned 25. Okay, if you're 22, I just turned 25. Amen. But we see here that there's some things that he opened up. First thing, the question I have this morning is, is first of all, if someone were to come to our place, somebody to come to our house, somebody come, one of the precious things, one of the things that would we be able to show, could we show them our faith? Amen? Could we show them our faith? Could we show them how we exercise our faith? You see what I'm saying? I mean, we want to show them these things that we're proud of, right? We want to show them these things that are precious to us, right? What about your faith? Is it not precious to you? Is it not something that should be precious to you? Amen. The Bible says in Hebrews 11 verse 1, it says, Faith is a substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Amen. And so we find that there's some things about your faith, maybe it should be precious to you and it's not. Maybe you take it lightly of your faith, of how that God is giving you some faith. Maybe exercising your faith a little bit. Have you shown other people about how you exercise your faith? We tell people we go to church, we tell people that we're Christian, we tell people that we're this and that, but can they see your faith? Can they see you exercising your faith? The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse number 7, it says, for we walk by faith, and what? Not by sight. Amen? We walk by faith and not by sight. So if someone were to come to our church or come to our house or come to our place, could we show them that we're walking by faith? I'm not talking about making dumb decisions and, you know, just throwing caution to the wind. That's not faith. I call that stupidity. Amen. I mean, I'm not talking about just being dumb about things and just, you know, hey, I'm just gonna quit my job and let God take care of me. I mean, that's not, I mean, for someone, listen, and I'm not gonna be unkind, but for somebody that doesn't have a job today that needs a job and can work and you don't work, you're lazy. You're lazy. That's all it is to it. Is everybody okay? Is that all right? I mean, help wanted all over the place. I've seen help wanted signs from Philadelphia all the way down south, amen. I mean, from east to west, I've seen them everywhere of help wanted signs. And even down there where we're at, we just, I mean, you know, it's just people, I don't, anyway, where's your faith? There's a difference between faith and then just absolutely just not doing anything. Amen? I mean, have we been able to show our faith? Have we been able to just say, hey, I'm depending on God to take care of this. Listen, I'm doing the best I can do. Amen? I'm working. I'm doing the best I can do. And if you're doing the best you can do and that's all you can do, then God can take care of the rest of it. God will take care of the rest of it. You have a better chance of at least trying Amen. At least trying and letting God do some things and allowing God to do some things and just sitting back and saying, oh well, you know, the Lord said he'd take care of me. Y'all heard the story of this. There was a guy that was out there and the flood was coming. and the flood was coming, and so they come around and they told him, they said, look, the levee's fixing to break, and you better get out of here, it's gonna flood your house, and he's like, oh, it's okay, I'm a Christian, the Lord's got this, I'm okay. Well, you know what, this thing, you know, here comes the water, and they come floating up there on a boat, and he's up on the porch, and they're like, buddy, you need to get in the boat? Said, you know, it's just gonna get worse. Oh, it's okay, I'm trusting in God. Okay, well, next thing you know, he's up on the roof. They send a helicopter out. They start hollering at him through the helicopter, the PA, and start saying, hey, take the rope, we're getting, no, the Lord's gonna take care of me. Does this sound familiar? Well, the guy drowns. He gets up to heaven, he starts talking to God, and he starts saying, Lord, how come you didn't take care of me? He said, I did, I sent you a boat and a helicopter, why didn't you get on, amen? Isn't that the way it is? I mean, you know, God sends all this stuff and we're like, oh no, no, no. Where's your faith? Where's your trust? Where's your faith? Can we show people what's precious to us? Can we show them, can we open up our doors and we can say, hey, I'm walking by faith, I'm trusting God, this is the best I can do, this is what I'm doing. And God is doing some things with that, amen? God is helping with some things like that. God is working through some things like that. The Bible teaches us that if it's not faith, then God can't bless it. That's what he says in Hebrews chapter 11. He says there, without faith it's impossible to please God. So we've got to have that faith if they were to come. If there was Hezekiah and there it is, and man, God has blessed him and he's showing the precious things and the things that he's proud of, would your faith be in that list? Would your faith be in that list? I see a second thing that I look in here. It's not just your faith, but how about our good works? Can we show them our good works? You say, well, you don't get saved by works, and absolutely not, you don't. Works does nothing for your salvation. Works does nothing to get saved. Works does nothing for you to stay saved. There's nothing you can do as far as good works for being saved. Do you all agree with that? It's only by the blood of Jesus Christ plus nothing. Amen. Trusting in what He's done. So we find that, you know, hey, what about your good works? Let me give you a few passages of scripture. You can write it down, but I'll read it to you. Titus chapter 2 verse 7 says, In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works. He says in Titus chapter 2 verse 14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. Zealous of good works. You know what that means? That means having a desire to do good works. That means wanting to do something. Wanting to be a part of something. Wanting to get involved. That's what that means when it says zealous. And so he says there in Titus chapter 3 and verse 8, this is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. He said these things are good and profitable unto men. Good and profitable. Could we show people our good works? Not to be saved and not to stay saved. But could we show people our good works so they could see our love for God? If we show them our good works, could they see our good works and say, hey, that person really loves God. That person really loves the church. That person right there, they really enjoy what they're doing for God. Y'all sure are awful quiet this morning. Amen. Can we show them that? I mean, if we opened our doors, would they be able to see that? Would they be able to see that in our life? Would they be able to see that? Titus chapter 3 verse 14, the Bible says, he says, also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses. And then he says this at the end of the verse, that they may not be unfruitful. So to have good works means that you can be fruitful. It means that you can gain some things. Amen. You can be profitable. You can show other people by your good works, your love for the church, your love for God, your love for the people of God. That's why you do good works. It's not to be saved or to stay safe. You know, you talk to people and you witness to them and you ask them, you know, about their salvation and they're like, well, you know, yeah, I'm a good person. Well, what does that mean? It depends on who you ask, right? If you ask the robber, he's never killed anybody. But if you ask the murderer, he's never robbed anybody. So it depends on who you ask. It's relevant. So good works, where are you going to find them? You're going to find them in here. This is where you're going to find the good works. This is where you're going to find what God means when He says good works. But these good works are a sign and they are a character They're a character of some of our zealousness for God. And people should be able to see that. Listen, you ought to be happy to do something for God. Listen, we ought to be joyful to be able to do something for the one that died for us. We all, I mean, you know, we talk about sacrifices and we think about those things and I'm reminded of David whenever he went over there into Ordon's threshing floor over there And there was the angel of the Lord going around killing all of them. And so as he goes around to kill all of them, you know, David's over here, he's going to make a sacrifice. And so he goes over to the threshing floor, and says, Hey, look, you can just take it. You can have it. David said, No. He said, I'm not going to do that. He said, I'm going to buy it. He said, You tell me what it's worth. He said, I'll pay for it. David said, I'm not going to take something. And basically what he said was this right here. He said, It's not a sacrifice unless it costs me something. You see, it probably didn't cost you anything to come to church this morning. But in your mind, you think it's a sacrifice that you had to get up and get dressed and come to church. Amen. I know a bunch of people, it's like, you know, I gotta go to church today. It's Sunday morning. If I don't go, the preacher's gonna preach about me. Amen. I will. Amen. You know, sometimes we get to the place and it's like, you know, I'm just suffering for God. Really? What are you doing? You know, I had to go to church Wednesday night. Man, it's tough. I had to go to church Wednesday night. I don't know. Brother Tommy, you get up, what, 3 o'clock in the morning to go to work, 4, something like that? He's here Wednesday night. Amen. They don't complain. Much. I mean, but I'll tell you what, that's a sacrifice. I mean, it's just, you know what, we need to figure out what are those good works. You know, we think they're sacrifices. We think they're, no, can I tell you what a sacrifice is? Sacrifice is that right there. That's a sacrifice. Man, He didn't just give us eternal life. He gave His life. Amen. He said there in Luke chapter 2, He said, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior. I mean, you know why He's called the Savior, right? I mean, He does the saving. I mean, unto you, it's a personal Savior. He said, Unto us a Son is given. Amen? A Son is given. What is that? John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that He gave. Amen. He gave us His only begotten Son. That's the gift that He gives us. Amen. That's a sacrifice and I cannot stand before my Savior and say that I've sacrificed much of anything. Amen. So we need to be zealous of these good works. Could we show them our good works? Could people see our good works if we had the doors open? Would that be one of the precious things? Would that be one of the silver and golds in our life to where we can say, you know, hey, not to brag, not to say, hey, here's what I'm doing, but if somebody were to see, would you be able to hold that up and say, hey, I'm serving the Lord? Amen. There's just a few more. We okay? Amen. Not only those two things, but I see this right here. How about we can show our kindness and our compassion? Right? Our kindness and our compassion. I'm not real good at that. I promise you, I'm not real good at that. My wife is good at that. I'm not good at that. But, the Bible says this, here's the best example, Matthew 14, 14, Jesus went forth and noticed and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them. He saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them. You know, the thing of it is, is sometimes before that you're going to have compassion is you've got to see the cause. Sometimes you've got to have that kindness and be able to exercise that kindness. We need to see that cause. The Bible says that when Jesus saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion. He saw the multitude, He saw what was going on, and He was moved with compassion. You see, it kind of goes together that if we don't have the zealousness for the good works, we're not going to get out. And if we don't get out, we're not going to see a need. And so if we don't see a need, we're not going to show the compassion and the kindness. Amen. You know, those are things that we need to look at. Those are things that we need to see. Could they see our compassion for a lost and dying world? Could they see that Calvary Baptist Church has a desire to reach lost people? Can they see that Calvary Baptist Church is desiring to put tracts out, to put the Bibles out, to put the gifts out, to lean on each other and to do those things? You know what that's called? It's called compassion. It's called kindness. Why? Because I don't want my friends to go to hell. Amen? I don't want my neighbors and my loved ones to go to hell. You have compassion on them. Amen. The Bible says in 2 Samuel 9 in verse 3, and this is David once he became a king. And you know that him and Jonathan, which is Saul's son, you know that him and Jonathan were buddies, so to speak. Jonathan and David's heart was knit together, the Bible says. And as their heart was knit together, you know, Saul was a problem. Jonathan knew that his daddy was a problem. David knew that his daddy was a problem. And so Saul was trying to kill David, right? And so there's David, and so he loved Jonathan. And so Jonathan had a son, and after Saul and Jonathan, and after they got killed in the battle, David decided, he said, man, is there somebody of the house of Saul? Is there somebody left? And you know what they told him? They said, yeah, Jonathan had a boy, his name is Mephibosheth. And he's down there in a loaded bar. And as he's down there in a loaded bar, he's crippled. Amen? And you know what he says in 2 Samuel 9, verse 3, And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba, which became his servant, basically, and Ziba said this, he said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son which is lame on his feet. So David went and got Mephibosheth, and he went and got him, and he brought him to the king's house, and he fed him from the king's table. What did he do? He showed him compassion, showed him kindness. Listen, here's what the verse says. It says that I may show the kindness of God unto him. You know, when we show that compassion and we show that kindness, we're letting them know that it's not us, but it's Him. See? And see, it's not about us, right? It's not about... You say, well, you know, I've had this and this... Have you ever done things when you just don't feel like it? I mean, you know, you come to church when you just don't feel like it? You try to help people when you just don't feel like it? I mean, you know why you want to do those things? It's because you want to show them the kindness of God. If you were to show them the kindness of you, you wouldn't do it. You see the difference? See, whenever we do these things and we open these things up, these ought to be precious things in our home. These ought to be precious things in our life. So whether we can open these things up and show people, hey, look, this is my faith. This is my faith that I believe that God's going to... Listen, it's not just a faith to live by every day. We should have that faith. The Bible teaches us that we walk by faith and not by sight every day. Amen? But listen, my faith is even... larger and stronger than that in the sense of that I have the faith that one of these days that I'm gonna be out of here, amen. I have the faith that after I pass away from this life, if the Lord doesn't come and get us through the rapture, listen, I have the faith that I'm gonna live in heaven forever one day. I have the faith that if I do pass away, there is gonna be a resurrection, amen. I have the faith that through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that, man, I'm gonna live forever. Amen. and that's what we tell people, that's what we preach to people, that's what we show to people. You exercise that faith, you show them that faith, and through that faith you show them the zealousness of your good works, amen, so that they would want what you have. Would anybody want what you have? Would they? I mean, you know, here's Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Here they are, they're captives over here in Babylon, and boy, there's the music, and they didn't bow. You know what they could have very easily said? They could have very easily said, man, we're a thousand miles away from home. Ain't nobody going to care. Ain't nobody going to see. Man, if we bow down, if we don't bow down, he's going to throw us in that fire. You know what they said? They said, we ain't worried about it, old king. They said, if God decides he's going to take us out, we're still not bowing. Amen. Amen. So, their good works, their zealousness for good works showed even when they were away from home. It showed in their life. Their faith, it showed in their life. And their kindness and compassion. I wonder if we could say that's one of our precious things that we want other people to see. I got a couple more. We're almost done. Everybody okay? I noticed last week Brother Joe, he stayed down there more than he stayed up here. Maybe next week I can stay down there more than I can stay up here. But I'm scared to try to walk down there right now. Somebody will be picking me up from down there. But showing our kindness and our compassion. Can I give you another thing? Here's another thing. If someone were to come around, can we show our testimony? Our testimony. of who we are, what God's done for us. Are we ashamed of it? Are we ashamed to say we're Christian? Are we ashamed to say that we're saved? Are we ashamed to say that we're, you know, a part of the church? Or, you know, we believe in Jesus Christ? Or, you know, listen, there's a lot going around in our world today, amen? There's a lot of temptations and a lot of distractions and a lot of things to be pulled in so many different ways. But I'm telling you, it's a perfect time to let people know where you stand with Jesus Christ. A perfect time. Because they're passing these laws of confusion in our country right now. Amen? They're passing these laws of accepting the marriages that are not godly. Amen? They're passing the laws of the things and accepting the the credibility of the offender over the one that's been offended. I mean, it's like everybody's a victim now. Everybody's a victim. And it's just strange. But you see, that's the way it is. That's the way the Word of God is. Did you know that in the Bible that everybody's guilty until proven innocent? Did you know that? We are. Everybody. We're guilty until proven innocent. But you know, with the world, you're always innocent. until proven guilty. No, I'm guilty. I can just tell you, I'm guilty. Amen. I'm guilty of a lot of things, but thank God for the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, He washes our sin away. Amen. He says if we're faithful and just and all those things, He said if we'll come and we'll confess our sins that God is faithful and just and He'll forgive us of those sins. Amen. And I'm just telling you that there ain't a perfect person in here today. Amen from up here to back yonder. There's not a perfect person in here today. We all messed up We've all are an unclean thing the Bible says But what about your testimony? Here's what the Bible says about your testimony first Peter chapter 3 in verse number 15 the Bible says but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts now listen and be ready always, be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you. See, that's about like a command. Somebody ask you if you're saved? Well, I'm a Baptist. Well, that's good, you're a Baptist. Are you saved? Well, I've been in church my whole life. Well, that's a good thing to do. Well, are you saved? Well, my daddy was a preacher. You see how people walk around that thing? Are you saved? It's a real simple question. Are you going to heaven when you die? Are you sure you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior? If somebody asks you those questions, the Bible says you need to be ready to give them an answer. And you know something? If you're not sure you're saved, you can't give them that answer. If you're not sure that when you die that you're going to go to heaven after you leave this earth, you can't give them an answer. And the Bible says we should be able to. You say, well, preacher, you know, well, nobody knows until they die. Show it to me. I can show you just the opposite. I can prove to you from the Word of God, the Bible says you can know. Not only that, Paul knew where he was going when he died. Peter knew where he was going when he died. John knew where he was going when he died. Amen? Jesus knew where he was going, right? Oh yeah, but he's the son of God. Well, here's an odd thing. God just puts things in the Bible that just clears things up so well. Amen? He's just so good about that. You know what he said over there in John chapter 14? He said, let not your hearts be troubled. He said, you believe in God, believe also in me. He said, in my Father's house are many mansions. And he said, I go and prepare a place for you. He said, if I go and prepare a place for you, he said, I will come again and receive you unto myself where that I am, there you may be also. So if he knew where he was going, by cracky, I'm going with him and I know where I'm going. Amen. You see how simple that is? How come you don't know where you're going when you die? How about your testimony? Can you tell people about your testimony? Does people know where you stand? Amen. They come to your house, you open the door. Is that not a precious thing in your life? I mean, really? Leaving this world and being able to get to heaven? Not by my good works. That's not what it's about. Not because I'm a preacher's son. Not because I'm a pastor. Not because I'm a Baptist. Not because of any of those things. It's because I have a good Savior. Amen. I have a Savior that paid the price that was required. Amen. I have a Savior that shed innocent blood that was untainted with sin. Amen. That God required. Amen. I have a Savior that paid that price for me. He's my propitiation. He's in my place. He's my lawyer. He's standing in my place for me. And right now, according to Ephesians chapter 2 over there, my Bible tells me that I'm sitting in heavenly places with Him. Amen. I'm there with Him right now. You say, no, you're not. You're standing right there. No, I'm up there. I'm just as good as being there already. Amen. What's your testimony? If I were to ask, and I won't, so you don't have to be nervous, but if I was to ask, starting with Drew, and just go all the way around the church right here, what your testimony is, could you stand up and have a clear testimony and say, hey, when I was so and so years old, you may not even know the day, you may not even know the hour, but you'll know where you were at when you got saved. You might say, well, I was young. If you don't know, you need to make sure today. If you don't know, you need to make sure today. Listen, can we show them our faith? What do we have to show? I mean, what do we have to give other people? What do we have to give them? Can we show them our faith? Can we show them our good works? Can we show them our kindness and compassion? Can we show them our testimony? And then lastly, can we show them our love for the Lord? Can we show them that? If the Lord writes down things, y'all know that, right? You know the Lord keeps records. Do you all know that? 1 John chapter 5, verses 11, 12, and 13, the Bible says there is a record. The Bible says in Revelation chapter 20 that there is a book. There are several books that are going to be opened. They are at the Great White Throne, but there is a book that is going to be opened. We find that there are books, there are records, there are all these things. We find these things that God keeps records. Amen? And so if God was to open up the record book, would there be some places under your name where people could see, or where even God could see, your love for Him? And that others could see that? I mean, it's just some simple questions, right? It's really not a deep message, it's really just simple questions. If they were to come and you were to show them your precious things in your life, if you were to show them the things that mean so much to you, would these things be in that list? Would we be able to just bring it out and say, hey, here's my love for God right here. Here's my love for God. And you might say this, you might say, preacher, man, preacher, I've had a rough time. I've had some things happen in my life. I made some mistakes. Who hadn't done that? I've made some bad decisions, who hadn't done that? I've done some things and it's cost me and preacher, my testimony and all these things that you've talked about, I don't have a good record. But I'd like to change it. Aren't you glad that God's not just a God of one time? Aren't you glad of that? God lets you come and get it fixed. God lets you turn the thing around. God lets you... I mean, man, He allows you that. I remember reading in Genesis chapter 3 over there whenever Adam and Eve messed up. And I remember we just went through this thing about the curses. We went through four of those things. And the thing of it is, man, He put the curse on the serpent and He put the curse on the ground, the sweat and all that, the thorns and the thistles. He put the curse on man and the curse of childbearing. That's a curse, amen. But the curse of the sorrow and childbearing is what that is. It's not kids. Well, some of them, yeah, but not all of them. But that sorrow. And so God comes along and He asked Adam. He said, Adam, He said, what did you do? He said, that woman you gave me, right? And then he looks at the woman and he says, what did you do? She said, well that serpent begot me. You know, here's the thing. He came to Adam and he came to Eve and he asked both of them. He said, what went on? What happened? You know what he did? He gave both of them the opportunity to confess. Both of them. And you know what? He'll give you an opportunity to fix it too. He'll give you an opportunity to turn those things around to where whenever you open those doors, whenever people see those things in your life, that whenever you open that up, you can say, hey, don't look at this back here, but right here, this is where the Lord turned these things around for me. Amen? This is where he got in my heart and fixed some things. Amen? This is where that he turned my life around. And I'm telling you, I love the Lord. Amen? I don't mind telling you, I love the Lord. I don't mind telling you that I love my church and I love doing things for God, amen I don't mind telling you that now that I know by the faith that God's put in my heart that I know that I'm gonna live forever because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing that I've done and I just want you to know the good works that I've got, it ain't me, it's the good works He's allowed me to do, amen It ain't nothing about me, and it won't be nothing about you. It's all about Him. Those are the things we need to be showing people. Those are the things our church needs to be showing people. We need to have that testimony. We need to be showing our faith. We need to be showing our good works. We need to be showing all the things that God has spoke to us about. We need to have that open for people to see. Amen. And I'm telling you, the world right now is in such a mess to where everybody wants to close their doors and shut their blinds and just stay in their little hole. You know, listen, the Bible told us it's going to be like this. The Bible told us it's going to wax worse and worse. Amen? The Bible told us that they're going to heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. Amen? I mean, the Bible told us that these things were going to happen. There was kings in the Old Testament back there that they were doing some things that were so bad, so bad that whenever the people talked about the wickedness of those kings, the Bible says that the people's ears tingled. Amen? I mean, it said that it was just so bad that they shook and they quivered because of the wickedness that was in there. And I'm telling you, folks, it's about that way in the United States of America right now. The things that you hear that are going on, that they're passing laws and they're passing these things and the things that they're doing in our country and in our universities and all these places, I'm telling you, it scares me to death for our kids. It scares me to death for our families and things like that. But I'm telling you, we still need to have that testimony. We still need to have that zeal and that love for God, that kindness and compassion. We still need to have our love for God and the good works, and we still need to have and show our faith. If our doors were open, if our doors were open and people passed by, what would they say? What would we have to present? Again, we want to show people what we're proud of, right? We want to show people and tell people about the things that we're happy about and we're proud of. And I get it. There's things in my past, there's things back under that I don't want nobody to know about. I don't want anybody to know about. Only God. God doesn't beat me up over it. He says, I forgive you for it. But what if we could open up the door of your heart? What if we could do that? What would they say? What would you say, preacher? I don't have anything. I don't have anything. What can I tell you? Today's a good day to start. Today's a good day to start. Today. Right now. I'll tell you this little story, and I'll be done. Lauren, if you want to come to the piano, you can, but I preached a funeral. I won't tell you the whole story. It's too long, but I preached a funeral for a fella, and he grew up in a bad situation, and he died in a bad situation. And he was 30 years old when he passed away. And so I was doing the funeral, and I did the best I could. Just the family was just rough. And I just did the best I could. And I got through preaching the message. And his brother was there. And his brother was really bad from drugs and different things like that. Just a lot of bad situations. And I got through preaching. I turned around to one of the seats behind the pulpit, and I knelt down and I started praying. And I just started praying, Lord, do something with that, you know, if you can. And I was just praying. And as I was praying, I felt a presence right behind me. And it was like, it was just so strong. And so I kind of, while I was kneeling, I looked kind of behind me like that, and I seen his brother was standing right behind me. And so I turned around, and he knelt down beside of me. And I was talking to him, and he apparently, just from the appearance and just from the actions, he was on drugs at that time. And as I was praying, and I started talking to him, and I started saying, you know, your brother's gone. And he says, yeah, he said, I'm going to miss my brother. I want to be able to see him again. I want us to go fishing again. I want us to, all these things. And I said, look, I said, your brother, as far as I know, and as best I can tell, which I had the opportunity to lead him to the war before he passed away, I said, he's in heaven right now. And I said, he's doing fine. I said, but if you want to see your brother again, I said, you'll have to do the same thing. I said, you'll have to get saved. And he said, yeah, I know, I know. And I said, look, I said, he's in heaven. I said, you're down here. I said, if you were to pass away right now, would you be with him? He goes, no, preacher, I don't think I would. I said, well, do you want to get saved? He says, yeah, I need to get saved. I said, OK. I said, you want to get saved right now? And he looked at me, and he goes, now? I said, yeah, right now. Oh, no, preacher, I can't do that right now. I can't do that right now. Here's his brother, you know, gone. And he's saying he can't get it fixed right now? I tell you that to tell you this. I don't know that that boy ever got saved. I don't know that he ever will, if he's still living. I don't know. But I can tell you this, that's one opportunity that the Lord's going to say, hey, you had an opportunity and you squandered it. You squandered it, it's gone. There's a time right now that if you're not sure, there's a time right now today that if you're not sure, that you can turn this thing around. And if you fix it today, you know what? You can open up that door and say, hey, I may not have a lot of good works, I may not have a lot of compassion to show. I may not have a lot of this, but I got a testimony right here that I got saved. Amen. Boy, what a start. What a start. As she plays on the piano, let me ask you to stand. Let's bow our heads. What do you got to show?