disciples to get into a ship and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain, apart to pray. When the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit. And they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus came unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came, and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth, thou art the Son of God. Thank you, and you may be seated. Good morning, Brother Jim. The Bible says, this is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. That's true of every day, but particularly as we come together on Sundays, it's a blessing to join our hearts together, our voices, and singing songs of praise and praying. But the centerpiece of this time is the preaching of the Word, which we will be able to have that as a blessing very soon. You know, as we come in this church, I think it's been one of the best practices I've seen anywhere is to stop and just ask God to prepare our hearts. And so Sunday by Sunday, we stop at this point and we give everyone here an opportunity just in your own heart as you're seated to look to the Lord in prayer and ask him to open your heart to his word, prepare you for the message today. Hopefully we've done that already. But now we want to make sure that we want our hearts to be aligned with what God wants to tell us now to instruct and to teach and to guide. Now, before we do that, I want to remind us to be in prayer for Pastor Eccles, who will be, Lord willing, back on Wednesday and be with us on Sunday and be in prayer for Sherry as well, because she's been without him now these days that he has been gone. Now, hopefully, Lord willing, Next Sunday we will be in the new location just across the street behind the Come and Go on Crimson Avenue. And so be in prayer about that, that everything will, all the doors will be open and we will be meeting there. So this will be our last Sunday here, Lord willing. And so let's remember that as well. Now let's just have a time of prayer and then after a few moments I will lead in prayer. Our loving Heavenly Father, we have joined our voices together to sing, to worship Thee in praise and in the fellowship together. But now as we come to my precious Word in just a moment or two, I pray that we indeed would open our hearts to that which the Holy Spirit has for us. We thank Thee, Heavenly Father, that it is He who will guide us into all truth, I pray, Father, that you will speak to each of our hearts, to the needs that we bring in here today, some of which we may not even be aware. And yet, Lord, you know our needs. As our faces vary, so do our needs. And some carry heavy burdens. Some are hurting today. Some are even haunted today. And Father, I pray that you would just bring comfort where comfort is needed. Bring conviction where conviction is needed. and we will give Thee the praise. And Father, for any hearing the word today, either here or online, who knows not Jesus Christ as Savior, may they come to know Him, draw them unto Thee, we pray, through our Lord Jesus Christ and in His name. Amen. You stand one more time. Turn in your gold handles to page 277. Page 277. Let's do the first, second, fourth, and fifth. His Word, for the glory He sheds on our way. What we do is good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey. Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies, but a snow quickly dries. of fear, not a sigh nor a tear, and abide while we trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. But we never can prove the delights of His love unto all on the altar we lay. All the favor He shows and the joy He bestows are for them who will trust and obey. But to trust and obey For there's no other way To be happy in Jesus But to trust and obey Then in fellowship sweet We will sit at His feet Or we'll walk by His side what he says we will do where he sends we will go never fear only trust and obey trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and Thank you, you may be seated. Is that more better? I'm from Texas, so more better, more gooder. Language is different down there, different culture. Amen. I appreciate sister playing the piano this morning. Amen. She had broken her wrist. And is that right? It was your wrist you broke? And it's healing pretty good, it sounds like. So I appreciate that. Amen. And she would easier on her husband. She wouldn't break her wrist so often. But anyway, no, I don't even know her. I shouldn't say that, I guess. But I did. But anyway. And we go to church over in Cassville, Bible Baptist Church. Our son-in-law is our pastor. And so that's interesting. Amen. And when we were down in Texas and I was pastoring down there, I ordained him and sent him away. And now I'm sitting underneath him. And so that's kind of an interesting twist. Let some other good guy marry your daughter, then he ends up being your pastor one day. That's a... Takes a lot out of a fella, but anyway, it's a good church, amen. And this is where I met your pastor and his wife. We go to church with her son and their daughter-in-law and grandkids and all that. And so we've met them when they visited over there. I don't know if it makes sense, but that's the way it is. And people come all the way from Washington just to come church here this morning. That's really amazing. And it's a long drive, too. And so I appreciate you coming in this morning. I pray that if you are visiting and live in the area, that you might come back and hear the real preacher, hear the pastor preach. Visiting preachers are like grandparents. They come in, spoil everybody, and then they disappear. But the pastor comes in as the big bad parent, you know, and everything. But I appreciate your pastor, so I pray that you come back and meet and hear by the echoes if you have not done so. He's a jolly sort. I appreciate his personality. It was interesting. We went to a fellowship meeting in Springfield, I think last month maybe. and pulled up in the parking lot, and your pastor texts me, says, can you preach for me October 1st? I'll be out of town. I said, yes, sir. I said, I'd be honored. I said, I'm at a preacher's meeting in Springfield. When I get through, I'll call you. He said, I'm already here. And so we'll talk when you come inside. And so that worked out well. But at any rate, it's good to be here this morning. I'll invite you to take your Bibles this morning. And the text was read a while ago, and I appreciate it. Matthew chapter number 14. Matthew chapter number 14. I'm going to look in an account here given in the scriptures and preach on the subject, coping with doubt. Coping with doubt. I don't know if you've ever doubted, but I have. And so many people have had to deal with doubt in their life. And Peter does that in this text. I want to read the text again this morning, Matthew chapter 14. And since you've already stood, I'll just read it to you. Verse number 22. And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship. and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, so the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night, just before dawn, in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them walking on the sea. And when disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is the Spirit. And they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou watchest of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they which were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying of a truth, thou art the son of God." Let's have a word of prayer again, if you would. Father, thank you for this morning and the folks that are purposed to be here. Again, thank you for meeting with us. Pray that your will be done in every life here this morning. We're not here by accident, but I believe by a divine appointment. And I pray that your word have a place in every heart and mind today. May it make a difference. Maybe it'd be a different people when we leave this morning than when we came in. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. Coping with doubt. Well, we go through storms in life sometimes. Moved up here from central Texas, north of San Antonio, and pastored there for 24 years, and came up here. And we have storms down there, but up here in Missouri, you have storms. There's storms, and then there's storms. A lot of electrical storms up here, just almost freaks me out sometimes, all the electricity that's in the air. And we pulled up to the house one night, and electricity all in the sky, and we had about 60, 75 feet to make it to the house, and I told her, I said, we should just camp out in the truck. I don't feel like running that distance over the house, but we did. And she challenged me, called me a sissy or something. But anyway, so we did, and made it into the house, and that sort of thing. Boy, the electric, I mean, the sky just lights up, and the winds. Oh man, we're building our own house. And I'm thinking, I hope I built it well. And so far, it's held up to a 70 mile an hour wind. And so it's not leaning too bad. And it's kind of sprung back into shape. But anyway, the storms up here are amazing. But we go through storms in life. There's different types of storms for different reasons. May or may not discuss that tonight, but I think it's wise to know why we go through storms. And here's a case where a man goes through a storm and begins to doubt the Lord. O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Now, the Lord had just got through feeding a multitude of followers, and tells us in the previous verses that they took up the fragments that remained, 12 baskets full, and they had eaten, or about 5,000 men beside women and children. Not long before that, John the Baptist was in prison. We see a number of things taking place in our Lord's earthly ministry. And he gets to this point, and he asks his disciples, these 12 men, to get into a ship and to go before him and to the other side while he sent the multitudes away. That verse alone should cause some question. How in the world are you going to get over there? And now we're going over the ship. You've asked us to go ahead. You've constrained us to get into the ship. You said you'd meet us on the other side. We own a ship, but he who owns no ship, you're going to meet us on the other side. There might have been some question marks in your mind how that was going to take place. But he still has some business to take care of, verse 23 first. And he said, he sent them, the multitudes, away. He went up into a mountain, a park to pray. When evening was come, he was there alone. There are different times in the Lord's earthly ministry when he came apart to pray, and that's another message. But I do think there's times in our life we need to purposefully come apart and spend time with him and be alone with him. It says, but the ship was now in the midst of the sea tossed with waves for the wind was contrary. I don't know if you've ever been on open water in a storm, but what's the word for it? It's interesting. It's interesting. Amen. And I've been in several, and it's just interesting. You just hope you can make it back to Port or to slip. Back in junior college, down close to our college in Austin, UT, during that time frame, my daddy and I owned a little sailboat and headed on Canyon Lake, north of San Antonio. I took three college guys out on the boat one Saturday, and we came out of the slip and came around the point to go out on the main part of the lake. They looked back behind us, and here comes this storm. And I said, we've got to get this thing back into the slip and tie it down. And they looked at the storm, and they all agreed except one guy. Oh, it'll be all right. You know, I'm not scared. It's fine. We are. We're going back. And so we turn, and you could see the wind as it came across the water. You could see just real light, rough ripples. And I said, when we hit that, the boat's really going to lean over far. And so we'd taken down the main sail, just going in on the front with the jib, a little 22-foot boat going in on the jib. And we just stuffed the main sail down into the ship and closed the hatch. And he was up on the foredeck up there being Mr. Cool, you know, there's always one. And so I said, you get back here in the cockpit with the rest of us. And he goes, I'm OK up here. I said, when that storm hits, you won't be able to hang on. We'll lose you. I'm fine. I'm fine. And you ever get frustrated with somebody? I said, fine, go ahead. And it's like a young boy at home gets tired of people telling him what to do. He says, I'm going to run away and join the Marines. Fine, stay up there. Tough it out. And that storm hit and that boat listed, I forget the degrees now, but it went all the way over and spilled air out of the sail and came back and it found a balance point there, but it was pretty rough. He slid across the foredeck. We had some railings that caught him. But once he got his balance, guess who was back there with us? I mean, you never see anybody crawl on their hands and knees across a boat that's tilted, but he did it quite well and very quickly, and he was back there with us. And when that storm hit and the rain hit, it was pretty rough. You say, did you make it? No, we didn't. Yeah, we made it in. But that storm hits. And in this case, it must have been, like any storm on open water, something that they didn't predict, something they had not anticipated. They would think that the Bible doesn't say, but because the wind was vehement or contrary, it must have been something came on them pretty suddenly. And they're in the midst of the sea. They're not close to any particular shore, bank, or outlet, or cove. They're in the midst of the sea. And then during all this while this is taking place, something miraculous happens. Jesus appears walking on the water. He says in the fourth watch of the night, verse 24, Jesus went unto them walking on the water. Now remember, it was just the day before that they saw him. It was just the day before that he fed the multitude. It wasn't too many days prior to that that John the Baptist was being dealt with. And so they'd been with him during a number of miracles that he'd been performing. And so here that night, walking on the sea, the disciples saw him, verse 26, walking on the sea. They were troubled, saying, is the spirit? And they cried out for fear. You'd think that if you'd seen Jesus once in your life, you'd recognize him for the rest of your life. But there's a divine direction that's been given to him in verse number 22, to get in a ship to go to the other side. And in verse number 24, with a ship in the midst of the sea, toss of the waves, the wind was contrary, we see a real danger that's been brought on. It's a dangerous situation. Sometimes we go through storms in life, and there's some real dangers involved. Most of the time it's a spiritual danger because it's a testing of our faith, and we need not run from the Lord, but we need to understand that the Lord is with us even in the midst of the storm. He doesn't always want us to be calm in the storm. I mean, He doesn't want to calm the storm. He wants to be calm in the storm. There's often a reason for the storm. Consequently, there's no reason to really fear or to doubt Him. It goes on down to verse number 26, and they just begin to despair. So we have a divine appointment, we have a danger, we have a despair taking place in verse number 26. When disciples saw him walking in the sea, they were troubled, saying, it's the spirit. And they cried out for fear. Well, if you didn't know the Lord and you were in the midst of a storm in the darkness of night, and the lightning's taking place around you, and you saw someone walking on the water towards you, you would probably have the same conclusion. It's the Spirit. Am I saying things? Rubbing your eyes, the rain's coming, and your vision is blurred. Here's the Spirit coming to them. But Jesus comforts them in verse 26. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled. And verse 27, but straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I. Be not afraid. Well, it's just like our Jesus, isn't it? Just when I need Him, Jesus is near. Just when I falter, just when I fear, ready to help me, ready to cheer, just when I need Him most, just when I need Him, Jesus is near. He's never left us or forsaken us. I read that somewhere once. I believe it's true. And yet, in the midst of storms sometimes, you wonder, where is the Lord? Well, He's right there where He's always been. God's still on His throne. The earth is still His footstool. He's right where He's always been, right where He'll always be. There's no need to fear that, if you will. He's not left us nor forsaken us. If there's a distance between us, He's not caused it. We've probably caused it. James is real clear about that. As we draw close to the Lord, He draws close to us. As we resist the devil, He draws away, flees from us. So you can get as close to Him as you want to get. So don't blame it on Him, even if there's a distance there. I remember when my wife and I were first married, I had a car with a bent seat, a pickup truck with a bent seat, and at first she'd sit there right beside me in the truck and had a column shifter, you know, and I got her trained where I could have my arm around her and I could steer with one hand and she'd shift that column shifter with her hand and I pushed in the clutch. She was shifting and I was steering and I had my arm around her. It was great. We were in love back then. 50 years ago, that's about half a century. And then she's sitting on the other side of the seat one day, she says, we don't sit as close as we used to, and I, being the wise young husband, said, well, I'm not the one that moved. Well, that didn't go over real well. But at any rate, it's not the Lord that moves away from us if there's a distance broken. We've moved, we've caused the chasm between us, if you will. And he tells us there that Peter takes over that loud, boisterous one. It's interesting that while the storm takes place, in order to develop Peter's faith, the other men have to go through the storm too. Sometimes people around us, family, go through the same storm we're going through, that the storm, the purpose, the reason is for us oftentimes. But other people are affected by it, but no harm comes to them. we see in this text. So Peter says this in verse 28. He cries out in desperation. So, Lord, if it be thou, he just identified himself, bid me come to thee on the water. Wow, that's pretty boastful. Forget these other fellows, just help me. Let me come to thee on the water. Well, Jesus is gracious in verse 29, and said to him, come. When Peter was coming down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. What a blessing this is, amen? Jesus accommodates him, he honors his request, and says, come. So he steps out of the ship and starts walking on the water to go to Jesus. Now, the scripture goes on in verse 30, it says, but when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. When you take your eyes off the Lord, fear can enter in. When you take your eyes off of him, doubt enters in. When you take your eyes off of him, you see the storm more than you see the author of the storm. When you take your eyes off of him, you begin to sink. And he says that when he saw the wind was boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried saying, Lord, save me. Well, give Peter credit where credit's due. He may not have walked very far that night, but he walked farther than you and I have ever walked on water. In fact, I wear a size 14 boot. And I've tried walking on water when I was a teenager. It didn't work. It didn't work. That first step, I went down. I saw a big one, and then I tried running. I'm going to hit the water running. You ever try something silly? Hit the water running. I just sank faster. But Peter's the only one that ever walked on water. But give him credit, he did do it. But when he began to see the wind around him and the storm, he began to sink. And he was afraid and began to sink. He cried, saying, Lord, save me. I gave him credit again. When it came time to pray, he knew how. And his prayer was simple. Lord, save me. Three words is all it took to get the Lord's attention. It met the need of the hour. It came from his heart. The Lord heard it and began to answer his prayer. Now, he didn't cry out some long liturgical prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. And if you have a minute, could you listen to my plea? Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Listen, if you have a loved one that's in the hospital, just pray, Lord, save them. You have somebody that has a need, you have a need, Lord, would you deliver us from this? Lord, would you meet this need? Just be in sincere, earnest prayer from your heart. And he cried, saying, Lord, save me. Verse 31, and immediately, Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him. Well, I would reckon, another Texas word, I would reckon that Jesus has his attention right now. Here's a man sinking. He cries out for salvation. The Lord immediately reaches forth his hand and catches him. He's got his attention. This is an eye-to-eye contact. Peter is going to listen to him intently. You can count on it. When we get in trouble, when we go through a storm, self-inflicted or not, when we go through it and we cry out, the Lord save us, and he reaches out to deliver us, Listen to what he has. Pay attention to his word. Listen to him. Look at him, if you will. He cried, Lord, save me, and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said to him, O thou of little faith, wherefore dost thou doubt? Peter, here's the problem. Here's the reason for the storm. I need to develop your faith. I can bring a storm into your life that will cause you to doubt me, and we've got to get past this. He didn't tell Peter this at this point, but not too long in the near future. Peter's going to stand on the day of Pentecost. He's going to preach one sermon, and 3,000 souls are going to get saved and baptized, added to the first church there in Jerusalem. Jesus needs Peter to listen to him. He needs Peter's faith to be strong. He needs Peter not to have any doubt in what he asked him to preach. Now, I'm the opposite. I preach 3,000 sermons and one gets saved. But Peter preaches one sermon, and 3,000 are saved and baptized into the church. Boy, what a great day that must have been at the church. I'd love to have been in that church service, amen? But Peter doesn't know this is happening. Now, the Lord has to develop him, and we can look at the life of Peter and see more of that. But here he's working on his faith. He's trying to eliminate his doubt. And he says in verse 32, and when they were coming to the ship, that Peter and Jesus both came into the ship, the wind ceased. You see, the winds and the waves obey his will, obey his word. And then that were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying of truth, thou art the son of God. Oh, their faith has increased too. These men that are going to be used of the Lord Jesus to start churches all over the known world, they need to have their faith increased. They need to minimize their doubt in the Lord. They need to see Him work in their lives personally. It's one thing to go back the day before and see Him work in the life of 5,000 men plus the women and the children. It's something else to see Him work a miracle in your own life. It's one thing to see him work on somebody else's life and see them tested and see them come through on the other side victorious and see them come through stronger and bolder for the Lord and have more faith and confidence in Him. But it's something else for us to go through a storm and increase our faith and develop us. Now, I'm going to embarrass you ladies this morning, but if you were to look at all those fine specimen men, you would say, how'd you guys get to be so strong and handsome? Well, exercise. Come on, guys, help me out. Exercise. I mean, we didn't just get this way overnight. I mean, it took time to develop these fine physiques. And so we lift a little weight one day, and then we lift a little bit more the next day, and a little bit more the next day. And then we look in the mirror, and we see a muscle, and kind of push it up a little bit, you know? And it's developed. Our faith has developed day by day. the Savior He leads me. Every day our faith ought to be greater than it was the day before. Every day we should be stronger in the Lord and the power of His might. Every day we should know more about Him and walk with Him and talk with Him and spend time with us. What He does, He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me that I'm His own. and the joy that we share there. It's just such a blessing to spend time with him, and nobody else can understand it until you've done this. But the confession of a truth our Son of God comes about because of the storm that you've gone through. Well, let me take just a few minutes and discuss how to develop this faith. Number one, always, always, Did I say that? Always take God as Word. Don't doubt His Word. Take this Word and read it and study it and memorize it. Hide it in your heart so you don't sin against your God and understand the principles thereof. One of the great ways to study it, there are many ways, but one of them is to study the life of people like this. Another one is to find questions in the Bible and to find out the answer to that question. What must I do to be saved? And so forth, to answer those questions. and things of this nature, but take God and His Word. We live upon things that have gone on before us, and by studying God's Word, we see men, women, nations, families, churches that have gone on before us, and we study those out, and it develops our faith that God is with us. Number two, rebuke Satan and doubt him. Doubt your doubts. Doubt your doubts. Don't doubt what God is doing in your life that you stepped out on faith to do. You know, what you folks are doing around here, it takes a lot of faith. We see it physically, but the truth is behind all of what we see physically is a lot of faith. It takes faith to leave one location and to rent this one temporarily, hoping that you don't lose any members and that more people will come, and then stepping out by faith, continue to walk and go to a new facility over here. I find it's kind of neat to just, they're kind of lined out, these facilities. You start over here, wherever over here is, start over here, and now you're here, and now you're over there, and then you won't be here when you're there because you were over there. Faith, step by step, day by day. And growing and expanding and working out these things. And it takes a lot of faith to do that. And it's developed. Can you imagine having what you've gone through here and not having done this and just gone from one location to the other permanently? Man, this is a great intermediate step if you look at it that way, if I can say it that way. I mean, it builds anticipation. It builds unity and develops us and increases our faith. So don't doubt any of this that God has put in your hearts by faith to do, just do it. So take God as word, rebuke Satan, and then do this. This is similar, but find a text or a promise that affects your doubt or your fears and study it out and digest it. If your doubt and your fears are coming about like Peter because of a storm, find out why. What's the reason for the storm? Is it self-inflicted? Is it something that I had nothing to do with but it's brought on and God has a purpose to develop my faith? If it's self-inflicted, maybe I should repent of it. and maybe I should come back to the Lord in that area. If it's not self-inflicted, but it's like this to develop my faith, then stay close to the Lord. Don't doubt Him in the midst of the storm. Stay close to Him. Notice, the other men in the ship did not ask to come out. They did not seem to doubt Him. They had a fear they saw a vision, but when they identified themselves, they seemed to be settled with that, except for Peter. So we need to find this. Number four, don't listen to critics. There's always somebody that feels impressed or feel called to be critical. Not to critique for the sake of development or understanding a better way to do something or testing something, but a critique in a way of being critical. to have a critical spirit, a judgmental spirit. It's one thing to say, perhaps, and I hope I'm not out of context with this, it's not my intent, but it may be one thing to say, so why did we come here to go over there? Well, because this wasn't ready yet, and we need something temporary, and this worked out well, and the man that owns the property is allowing us to stay here, and he's being gracious that way. Oh, okay. There's something else to be critical of that. I think we just should have waited. Could I say this respectfully? Oh, hush. I mean, I mean follow the leader and the leadership and say by some great things happening. It's a great thing It's not in a nice of the city or the counter who are to build a brand new road for you people come to church I mean think about that has been built a brand new road just for y'all have Have a road to come to church on it's a blessing. Amen Do this get down and pray and get up and go Peter did that, got down and prayed, but he got up and went on for the Lord. I mean, there's always a time for prayer, but it's never a wrong time. And sometimes there's times a special prayer, Lord, save me. There's other times, Lord, show me, Lord, enable me where the need might be. But once you pray, get up and go trusting the Lord with it. And then on your way, don't get distracted. Just keep your eyes on him. I don't know. The Bible doesn't say, but I can promise you, Peter kept his eyes on the Lord. He trusted him. Boy, he had his attention. He's listening to him now. And he says in verse 34, when they were gone over, they came to the land of Nezareth. And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all the country round about and brought on him all that were diseased and besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment as many as touched or made perfectly whole. The Lord's ministry went on. And the apostles' ministries went on. And the churches they started, hey, I believe that biblically you're here today as a result of that. Our church in Cassville was there as a result of that. Churches I pastor in Amarillo and Kerrville, Texas were a result of these churches started years ago, years ago. And how do we know it? Because we're trying to do things in a New Testament biblical church manner. And when you follow the Bible example of it, you're doing it the way that they did it. And we see this church perpetuity, churches starting churches. And boy, what exciting ground that is, a place to be, if you will. And we see all this taking place, all is taking place. Jesus didn't need a ship. He just walked on the water. He didn't own the ship, but they did. And it's amazing how we end up doubting the Lord instead of us. These men, especially Peter, and McClose of this, did this. They went from sight to faith to sight to faith to sight to faith. You ever been there? Well, we live by sight, and we have to live by faith. We live by sight, and we live by faith. Well, the blessing of this is to go from faith to faith to faith to faith. Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4 says that the just, those of us that are saved and born again, the just shall live by faith. That shall be our life. Romans 1.17 says the just shall live by faith. Galatians 3.11 says the just shall live by faith. And Hebrews 10.38 says the just shall live by faith. Well, if you read enough of the Bible, pretty soon you get the idea that the just are supposed to live by faith. This is to be our life, to live by faith, to trust Him, keep our eyes upon Him. No matter what the storm may be, no matter what the reason for the storm, just trust Him, keep your eyes upon Him, because there's a reason for the storm. Amen. Let's bow our heads for a moment of prayer, if you would. Our Father in Christ's name, I'm going to pause for a minute to once again acknowledge how great thou art, thanking you for the storms that you allow, knowing there's a reason, a purpose in that storm. Maybe someone here this morning is going through a storm that is not self-inflicted, but you have a design for them to minimize, to eliminate their doubt, they might grow in faith. Father, please help us to trust you. Help us to keep our eyes upon you. In Jesus' name, amen. As we play, if you can do that, listen. If you have a need this morning, I know that the physical aspect of this building is unique. But if you have a need to come and pray this morning, you want to come forward, don't feel embarrassed. You're welcome to come in one of these chairs or sit in one or where you are to bow and have a word of prayer, if you will. And one of the most important things is this. If you're lost and you don't know Christ as your personal Savior, well, what a day, a place to get saved on the Lord's day in the Lord's house. And today's day of salvation now is the accepted time. Don't put it off. I know that there's got to be folks here this morning that can take your Bible and open it up and show you how to trust Christ as your Savior, to repent of your sins, to believe on Him, to trust Him as your Savior. Well, what a blessing that is. And then maybe there's a need just to trust Him with life, with what's going on. The longer we live, the more we go through. But that's life, trusting Him day by day. How is it we can trust Him with our soul and eternal destiny, but we've got trouble with Him day to day? Somebody says, the only trouble with life is it's so daily. And it is, but trusting Him. It's just a blessing to be here and appreciate you coming this morning. I think church is tonight at six, is that correct? Church is tonight at six. And so I want everybody to come back. In fact, how many have already predetermined not to be here tonight? Okay, we'll see everybody then. She misunderstood me. All right. I look forward to seeing you again tonight. It's a blessing. And I pray for your pastor as he travels back home this week. And we'll be in prayer for your church facility just down the road here. In fact, sometime before I leave town or sometime tonight, I'm going to drive over there and just see where it is and see if I can get run off by the city police or something for trespassing. I just want to see it. Because my background before the ministry is architecture and construction. I've got to see buildings. I like them going up, see stuff come up out of the ground. Amen. And I'm happy for you. Really, that's wonderful. Amen. Well, this stand will be dismissed for prayer. And Lord willing, we'll see everybody tonight at six o'clock. And it's good to be here. Well, why don't you come and dismiss this in prayer. Amen. Thank you, sir.