All right. You know, Brother Landis, I don't know how many of you realize this, but they are missionaries that we support and they are their ministry. They go all around the world taking young people to the mission field and teaching those young people how to serve the Lord in foreign countries and exposed to different opportunities. And so it's our privilege to have him here with us today. Um, he's going to probably say a little bit, he's recruiting, looking for young people, uh, that would like to go and be a part of the next team or the team after. So, uh, brother Landis, no stranger to us. Glad to have you here. Thank you. Thank you, pastor. Appreciate that. Well, God is good and I am so thankful that we have the opportunity to be up this way. I really be honest with you. I don't get up to too much to the north, although my wife and I was born and raised in central Pennsylvania and down in the southeastern part of PA. And so but for the last almost 45 years, we lived down in Greenville, South Carolina. And so we are definitely in a part of the world that is a lot warmer than what it is right here this morning. now my wife and I just we just came back we were up at Maranatha recruiting in Baptist College of Ministry and we've been kind of making our fall tour as we're getting into different schools and trying to recruit some young people to travel with us this year you know travel has become very difficult the last couple of years and and I'll be speaking a little bit about that a little bit later but you know COVID has really changed our lives dramatically and I know it's changed the way we do things with MTT Ministries The Lord has seen fit for us to minister in other places because the places we were planning on going couldn't get into. And so it has changed a lot of things. It has changed churches. It has changed families and everything that goes on in the context of things around about us. But I would hope that you might be able to be here this evening. We produced a new video for our ministry this past April. and I requested that it would incorporate what COVID has done to our country and so and it's a little bit more about what our ministry is doing but I encourage you to be here tonight we'll show that video love to do a PowerPoint show you where we were this past summer and what all happened and so but hopefully it'll be an encouragement to you I see that the Lord is still using MTT Ministries and I'm thankful for that. You know, I'm glad to be able to be part of God's work and seeing God's work happen. I'm glad to see people get saved. If you're here this morning and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, you're without hope. But if you trust Him, you'll have that blessed hope that's spoken of in Titus. And I just pray that this morning, this message will encourage you I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Nahum, one of the minor prophets. And a little bit about Nahum, it's very, very interesting. I think he was considered about one of the ninth of the twelve different men that were prophets at that time, minor prophets. And you know, when you start reading the book of Nahum it's not a big book as there's only three chapters to this book but once again the whole factors of what's going on roundabout and keep in mind that Nineveh it was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire and so interesting to know that God has reached out to certain groups around the world sometimes more than one or two times And we know the story about how God orchestrated to try to get Jonah to go to Nineveh because it was a very, very sinful city. It was a city that God was ready to destroy. But you know God spared that city. And that city actually turned to God. it took some real timing to get things worked out in Jonah's life before he saw the light should we say and perhaps where he was at for a period of time he saw no light but I can assure you that the Lord knows how to get each and every one of our lives to have us do things that perhaps we don't even know we can do ourself young people if you're here this morning and you're still wondering what is God got for me to do What has God in plan for me for the rest of my life? What am I going to do for God? Remember, the Bible says that you are not your own. You are bought with the price. And if you're born again and you know the Lord Jesus Christ, because He owns you, you ought to be willing to follow Him and do His will for your life. People ask me all the time, what is God's will for my life? And I can honestly say, I don't know. all I can tell you is I know what God's will is for my life but I will tell you this much his will is for you to do something for him and that's something that's lacking in a lot of people's lives today this morning as we look into this passage of scripture there's only one verse we're going to look at this morning but there's three valuable things that we can learn in this one verse Nahum chapter 1 in verse 7 it says the Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust him Lord we thank you for your goodness and Lord we thank you for your mercy God you have spared us and given us another day today. Another day to live, another day to share blessings, another day to proclaim. God we know that because of your love, your great love for us, that Father we have the opportunity and oh what a pleasure it is to tell people about that. God we just ask you that you will intervene in each one of our lives this morning Lord I don't know what's going on in the lives of so many people that are here this morning but God you do and Lord we're thankful that we serve you Lord we're thankful that we know you what a joy it is to be able to call you Abba Father to come to you at any time and to know that you're always willing to hear what's on our mind and on our heart. So God, I just ask you this morning, through this passage of scripture, and Father, through the precious reading of this word this morning, that God, we can apply the things that we hear. God, we just pray that you'll make us to be more like you, and we'll give you praise for what you can do, and only you can do, in Jesus' name, amen. this morning I want to give you three reasons to trust God three reasons why you ought to trust God and they're all listed in this one verse I like this the very first part of that verse says the Lord is good let's stop there for just a moment the Lord is good I remember in the year 2000 I took our first mission team to Ghana, West Africa. I didn't know what to expect. I'd never been to Ghana before. I had a lot of things I had to do and I had to get visas and I had to get shots and there was a series of different things that I had to accomplish before I could go. But I have never been to that land and I didn't know what to expect. We were working with a national pastor that was there from the country of Liberia who had been excommunicated out of the country because of the civil unrest that was going on at the time. And as we worked with Dr. Kennedy, it was interesting because he was getting us into different areas. We were in the Ho region, the Accra region, Cape Coast area. We went up into the Takoradi area and up into Kamasi, up into the jungle areas of the northern part of Accra. and I never forgot the very first time that when we were at the area up in Kumasi they said that we have a it's going to be a good-sized meeting well friends might I say that I'm here today and I look out and I think this is a good-sized meeting don't you pastor I I'm very much impressed glad to see you here in the midst of all this white stuff that's coming down I know it doesn't stop you folks But I remember when we were up in the Kumasi region, and he said there will be a fairly large group of people that will attend. Little did I know that that building held between three and five thousand people. And I remember the very first time that I preached in that region, I don't know why I said it, but I just made the comment, God is good! And simultaneously, several thousands of people responded back by saying, ALL THE TIME! And I said, well, all the time! And then they responded, God is good! Isn't it interesting that we see in this verse that the Lord is good. The Lord is good. and even in very remote parts of the world people were still able to acknowledge God's goodness. Are you able to relate to God's goodness in your life? No, even today we how we answer people when we ask them how they're doing. Some would probably say most people are negative all the time. Have you ever been around negative people? My wife and I've had over 80 mission teams to 21 different countries around the world. Not everybody is positive! Sometimes you ask people, how you doing? And their answer is, no good! Terrible! They'll look at me and do this, bad day! Are we programmed to be like that? You know, God's good all the time, even in difficult times. You know, when we lose a loved one, when we have tragedies in our life and things that happen, when we have a vile disease that enters into our country and into our lives, how are we affected by that? Regardless of what goes on around about us, God is still good. We have a good God that loves us. He loves us personally. I remember traveling with a man that was a church planter. He planted right around 50 churches in the western part of the United States. Dr. Wally Higgins served and actually organized and founded the mission called Northwest Baptist Missions. A mission designed to bring church planters to the western part of the Intermountain West where there was nothing but a Mormon ward. And Wally probably 15-20 years older than what I was. He knew how to instill a spirit of optimism in people. I remember asking Wally many times, and Wally knew how to make you laugh. You ever been around somebody that can make you smile? You ever been around someone that can make you laugh? I think laughter is a wonderful thing. I don't think we do enough of it these days, do we? I used to say, Wally, how are you doing? He looked at me and said, Bob, I'm great! Like the bottom of a stove. It'll come to you in just a moment. I understand. It was kind of corny. But he was the most upbeat person I have ever seen in my life. But there was a soft part of Wally's heart that a lot of people never necessarily see. I traveled several thousands of miles all over the western part of the United States looking for places to plant churches. I remember we were coming from Twin Falls, Idaho one time and he and I were going to be traveling down into Nevada. And as we were going down in through Nevada, just Wally and I, We were kind of like up on a bluff, up in a high area, and looking down into a valley where there was a city. He said, Bob, pull off along the side of the road. I said, okay. So we pulled off along the road and as we were there, he said, Bob, let's pray. He said, you pray. So I began to pray. And after I finished, Wally began to pray. And I looked over as Wally was praying. Now at this time it was a man that was in his early to mid-seventies. And as Wally was looking down into this valley and as he was praying, I saw this man with tears running down his face. Praying, God, please send a church planter to this little town over here that has no Bible preaching or teaching message at all. Wally was definitely moved with compassion. He had a vision. He knew what it meant to trust God. We ought to trust God because God is good. And believe me, God has our best interest in mind. You may say, but you don't understand what's going on in my life. You don't know what I've gone through. Maybe we don't. But God does. Isn't it interesting that He loves us? He loves us. And the reason He loves us is because He is a good God. For God so loved the world. Dear friend, if you're here this morning and you've never received Jesus Christ as your Savior, God loves you! If there was no one else in this world today but you, God loves you! And He wants to claim you for His own. One reason we ought to trust God is because God is good. Let's look at the second reason we ought to. See here. Verse 7 says, a stronghold in the day of trouble. What does it mean to have a stronghold? It's a fortress, it's a place of refuge, a place of defense. Anybody knows in any kind of aspect of military work that you always need to have a place of defense there has to be a stronghold someplace and we can all expect to have days of trouble these last year and a half has been a lot of days of trouble hasn't there we've seen a lot of things come our way that perhaps we have never seen before this is true whether you're a Christian or not If you're here and you're born again, you know what trouble is. You've all experienced it, to some degree or another. And if you're here and you're lost this morning, you can honestly say, yeah, I've seen some trouble. Have you ever noticed you never had to go out looking for trouble? You ever notice that? Seems like trouble can find you almost anywhere, can't it? You see, this is true, whether you're a Christian or not. But look at some examples from the Bible. Look at Joseph. Joseph was a young man who was mistreated by his brothers. He was sold as a slave to a caravan of people going into Egypt. He was falsely accused and put into prison. He spent two years in prison and actually when he thought he was going to maybe possibly get out, he remembered the butler forgot about him. But regardless of what Joseph's situation was in that prison in Egypt, he still believed that God was good. He still believed that. And we know what Joseph's life was like. Look at Job. Job, he lost everything he ever had. He lost his possessions. He lost his family. He lost his health, he lost his friends, but yet he still believed that God was good. If you look at the Apostle Paul, even though he was beaten, and stoned, and in prison for preaching the Word of God, shipwrecked, and finally beheaded for the cause of Christ, he still knew That is God was good. No matter what you're going through there's somebody else that's going through some things that might not be so good either. Even today when all of us have to deal with COVID like nothing we've ever had to deal with before our God is still our stronghold. We have something that the rest of the unsaved world does not have. A personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. You're here this morning. Are you glad you're saved? Good! Let your face know about it. I'm looking out here this morning and I'm beginning to think I have some dry dusty doodle diggers sitting in this congregation. We need to be happy. We need to be a joyful Christian, something to be thankful for. We live in a world that is in rebellion against God. We know that. All we have to do is turn on the one-eyed monster and we'll find out real quick that everything going on round about us is in opposition of God. The result of rebellion is lawlessness, a general breakdown of society, and we've noticed this the last couple of years, especially since COVID has seemed to introduce itself into our country. You know, Proverbs tells us that the name of the Lord is a strong tower, and that the righteous run into it and are safe. stronghold we have a stronghold you see my friend God is on our side God is on your side and he says he's not going to forget us he's not going to leave us You know, I know that the virus is something that has been the main talk about everything. No matter where you go, no matter what you look at, the papers, look at the news, everything you see and hear of today. I mean all you got to do is walk into certain buildings and you know, where's your mask? Everything else. Back in March of this past year my wife had to have foot surgery. on both feet. So she was incapacitated for a few weeks. I was rolling my wife all over the house and doing different things for her and yes I was cooking. Believe it or not my mom taught me how to cook when I was a little boy back in the fifties. and I was taking care of my wife and we weren't going anyplace in March and so anyway she decided with the time she had available she said you know I grew up during a time that there was another virus. She decided to write a gospel track about her family titled the virus that changed our lives forever. A virus that changed our lives forever. Her dad had just graduated from seminary in Indiana. He had just taken a little church in a little town in Ohio called Williamsburg. Anybody ever heard of Williamsburg, Ohio? My wife's father planted that church. Brand new into the ministry. Hadn't just got started. Hadn't been there just a short period of time. and then all of a sudden there was a virus it was called polio polio broke out in that little town many towns and as a result of that it paralyzed my wife's father from the neck down keep in mind he survived going into Germany during the war and his whole battalion was was killed but yet he was spared for what reason He came home, knew God wanted to have something for him to do. He didn't spare him for no reason at all. Came home, went to Bible college, Philadelphia College of the Bible. Went out to Grace Theological Seminary. Graduated from that. Moving in the right direction. And now all of a sudden he's on the flat of his back. Cannot even move his little finger. And his wife is having to tend to him. 24-7. No food could he put in his mouth himself. Can you imagine all the things you go through in your life and all of a sudden now you're in a position that you can't do anything? But oh no, that wasn't Art Gordon, that wasn't Napoleo Pastor that gave up. Because you see with a stick in his mouth, an electric typewriter, he decided to encourage other people to keep on keeping on for God. They sent over 5,000 to 6,000 copies of that all over the world for 26 years. More people came to Christ as a result of a man with a stick in his mouth than if he would have probably stood in 100 pulpits across America. You see, God uses the weak things of this world to confound the wise. He does use people when they're willing. That little girl in there, in that picture, that's my sweet wife, 1959. My friend, I tell you this story because we know that the Lord is a stronghold in the day of trouble. When Art realized there was nothing else he could do, he had to trust God. God still used Art, even with a stick in his mouth. There's a blog that they started, her and her brothers. The whole family got polio except for mom. Isn't it interesting how God spared mom so she could take care of dad. This family knew what it meant to trust God. To lean upon God and know that God is a stronghold in the day of trouble. Do you have the Lord? Does the Lord have a stronghold in your life? As you will hear this morning. The third thing. In verse 7 it says, and he knoweth them that trust in him. I like that. He knoweth them that trust in him. What does it mean to trust in him? It means to have complete confidence in three things. Look over to Isaiah if you please, chapter 41. Isaiah chapter 41. Isaiah chapter 41 in verse 10 it says fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness you see to trust God means three things number one His presence. He says, fear not, for I, I, God, am with you. Isn't that good? No matter where you go, when you get up in the morning, whatever happens, God is with you. He knows you. He knows every little thing about you. He's always with you no matter where you are or what you're doing. That ought to be a reminder to live for the Lord righteously. The second thing is His person. We see His presence and now His person because He tells us that He is your God. That is His person. He is your God. If you're saved this morning, He is your God. That's personal. Isn't it wonderful to know that God is our God? And then thirdly, His power. Because He says in that verse that He will strengthen thee and help thee. My friend, only His power can uphold us with His right hand of righteousness. So we see his presence, we see his person, and we see his power. Those three things that we see in that one verse that show us what it means to trust in him. My wife and I, many times since we have been doing our ministry, we've had to trust God in unbelievable times. We had to trust God when we didn't even know what he was doing. You know, sometimes God does things and doesn't necessarily reach down and say, hey, is it alright with you? No. God doesn't always ask for our official sanction on whether things are going like we'd like it to go. My wife and I have been in positions where there are a lot of people that would just shake their hands and say, I'm done, I'm over with, I'm out of here. I'm going to play something for you this morning, if it'll work. And this goes back to June the 4th, 2010. Eleven years ago. I never erased this off my phone and the reason for it is because when I had a board of directors I figured, hey, if I don't keep this they're going to wonder what all happened here. Okay? My wife and I were getting ready to take our second team to Africa. And of course we had to send our passports up to New York City to go ahead and get our visas so we could enter into Africa. And so my wife and I had one team that was heading over to Singapore and Malaysia, but yet we had another team right after that that we were going to Africa. So we had sent everything off in plenty of time. So I had the team in, we had boot camp training, everything was going on, and it all seemed to be very, very well, but my wife and I, they promised us, and it was out in plenty of time, okay. Well, you know what it's like when you have to go through the red tape. But anyway, we knew we were supposed to be over in Singapore at such and such a date, and we had a time to leave. We had airline tickets. Airline tickets! There were 15 of us scheduled to go! I had to call the pastor there and tell him that I had a problem and it was trying to get our passports back from the Ghanaian Embassy in New York City. So he in turn had to contact people up in Malaysia and tell the people in Malaysia that we are going to have to switch things around a little bit because Brother Lambeth is going to be a little bit delayed. I don't very often have things like this happen. So anyway, I decided that worst case scenario, if I had to go to New York, I'd go to New York. A little bit of a trip from Greenville, South Carolina. But we needed to change some plans. So I called the airlines. And I told the airlines about what was going on. that we needed to try to rebook our airline tickets for a few days later and so Delta Airlines got back in touch with me and this is what they said to me let me get that volume up a little bit see I told my wife anything that can go wrong will go wrong And I have to play this for you because this would be a terrible way to end this message. I can hear you all right now saying, what happened? Okay, got to get the volume. See this is what happens if you're good and you turn your volume down when you come into church, it's down. Okay, so this is what happened, Lord willing. Pastor Landers, it's Marilyn from Delta Airlines calling. We've received an answer from our pricing department. We can try to accommodate you on Wednesday, January 9th. The charge will be the $250 change fee per ticket plus a $315.50 difference in fare. So the total price per ticket would be $565.50. times 15 is 8,482.50. I'll try to call you back in about 30 minutes. Now you say, why did you play that? Because God knows those that trust in him. How would you like to be in the shoes of having all these people, airline tickets, supposed to be in Singapore, Malaysia, doing all this travel, everything put together. A lot of people would say, oh, it's time to stay at the house. No, that's more and more reason to go. Because I know that Satan did not want us to go. It cost me $1,000 just to fly up from Greenville, South Carolina to New York City just to get our passports. I spent all day in a passport office. It cost us almost $10,000 and I hadn't even left the country yet. Do you trust God? We don't know what lays ahead of us. I tell people all the time, God knows your heart and He knows if you're serious about what you say you're going to do. Today we ought to be testifying of what God has done for us. You may say, well there's been some bad stuff that's happened in our family recently. We can still testify of God's goodness. You remember when Jesus performed a miracle? He performed a lot of miracles, didn't he pastor? Yes he did. But you ever notice one thing that Jesus always did? Every time he performed a miracle he always told him to go and do the next thing. If you remember in Mark chapter 1 verses 40 through 44, there was a leper. He needed to be cleansed. And he cleansed him. And when he cleansed him, he said, tell no man anything but go show yourself to the priest. See, just go do the next thing. Jesus wanted the priest to see what had happened. When Jesus spoke of the paralytic, the man that was sick of the palsy, Those men did everything they could to get him into Jesus. And when Jesus healed him, he told him, pick up thy bed and go home. Just do the next thing. And Mark, when Jesus healed Jairus' daughter, remember, she had died. He went into her and he spoke into her. And she stood and brought life to that girl. But remember what Jesus said to her mother? Go get her something to eat. Just do the next thing. When Jesus crossed the sea and went to the other side, he met a man of Gadara. Man, not of his right mind. And here's a man that had quite a reputation. Jesus casted out, not just one, but many devils out of that man's life. That man knew what it meant to be free. Free at last! That man wanted to follow Jesus, willing to get right in the boat and go with Him. You know what Jesus said? He said, Tell your friends, tell them how the great things the Lord has done for thee. You see, God just told them, do the next thing. My friend, this morning what we need to do is we just need to trust God. The three reasons we ought to trust God is because God is good, we ought to trust God because he's a stronghold in the day of trouble, And we ought to trust Him because we know that He knows those that do trust in Him. Do you know Him? How well do you know Him? I make no apologies for telling people that without Christ you will go to hell. I'm a soul winner. Things that were instilled upon me in Bible college back in the late eighties or late seventies and early eighties have made a profound effect in my life. Because even though I had been saved since 1965, I had never had a passion to see people come to Christ more than I did. Whenever I went to Bible college, and I began to realize, if there was no one else in this world, God still wants me. He still wants me to tell other people. I've had no one, no one has turned down this gospel track since my wife wrote this. We're going to actually, we're getting ready to leave for Mexico here in about less than two months. I'm having it translated in Spanish. Hopefully we'll have it by the time we get home. The virus that changed our lives forever. This is relevant. It's very relevant pastor. The virus The first time I seen a gospel track that I had was I was passing out was up here at Blue Lake. Going out knocking on some doors. Passing out the coronavirus track. Why do you do it? Because people need to know Christ. We're living in a day and age that if we don't reach people with the gospel of Christ, what's it going to be like standing before an almighty God knowing And how sad it would be if there would be people that said, He never told me. She never told me anything about Jesus. I remember, I used to wait on that girl all the time and that man all the time. I can't tell you how many times I filled his coffee cup. He never one time ever told me that Jesus died for me. My friend, why do I do this? Because I'm a soul winner. Jesus told his disciples before he ascended into heaven he gave them a specific command go into all the world and preach the gospel and that same gospel message has been passed on to us but it doesn't mean that we're eliminated from sharing the gospel news if you're here and you never once have ever prayed in your life Lord Jesus forgive me I'm a sinner If you've never confessed your sin before an almighty God, might I say that the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Oh, that's right. Christians will be judged according to what they've done. But there's another judgment. It's called the great white throne judgment. Everyone, everyone will have to stand before a righteous God and they will have to give an account for what they've done. And if you're lost, and you've heard this gospel message this morning, and you have never asked the Lord Jesus to come into your heart, and you know that God has talked on your heart several times about believing and trusting on Him, the worst thing you could ever hear God say is, Depart from me, you cursed! I never knew you! Because everyone's chance has been given to people to trust Christ. Let's pray. Father we thank thee for what you have done in our hearts and in our lives this morning. Lord I'm thankful for Blue Lick Bible Church. As pastor comes this morning he'll close. My question to you here this morning would be this. If you're here and you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior. would you be willing because God sees you he knows what's going through your head right now would you be willing to say you know I've never asked Christ to come into my heart there is not a time in my life that I know that I have asked Jesus to forgive me of my sin if you're hearing you're like that this morning we'd love to pray for you we don't push anybody to the cross we leave them but might I say that many times people only have one opportunity How about you? Have you ever trusted Christ as your Savior? If you're here and you're like that this morning, and you say, I'd like to know more about this, I'd like to be saved. I know that if I died right now, I would not go to heaven. If you're here and you're like that, by the upraised hand, I'd be glad, I won't point you out, but I'd be glad to pray for you this morning. Is there anyone here that would say, I'm not saved? I know I'm not saved. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know whether or not you've confessed your sins before God. but maybe you're here this morning and as a Christian you could honestly say you know I've been saved a long time but maybe I need to renew some things in my own heart maybe I need to be more of a soul winner maybe I need to just take a little bit more initiative every week to tell somebody about the Lord I try to share the gospel every week to as many people as I can because I want to see people enter into the kingdom of God