Oh, it was so good. The messages were so good. They're so eloquent, so detailed, so analytic. You know, they analyzed it so well. They did so good. I enjoyed both those messages and the messages this morning. And I enjoyed Cedric and Crystal's testimony. That was so good. Mary's more like you, Crystal. She grew up in the church, and I was way out in left field. I didn't grow up in church. I did go to a Catholic church, but not always, just when Mom could go, because we had six kids. And, you know, Mom wore sack dress. She was overweight. You know, she didn't have nice things. Dad had to work three jobs to make ends meet. And if I was to go to a private school, Mom had to go to work. And so she worked at a retail store and made money that we could go to a private school. And that's how it was. And I grew up with a lot of excessive baggage. And if Mary had known that, I'm not sure she would have married me, because I only showed the good side. But when you get married, you also see the bad side. But it takes the grace of God to love. It takes the grace of God to grow as one. It takes the grace of God to have a ministry and to raise a family. It's all grace. It's all grace, isn't it? So I want to just have a word of prayer and then I would like Keith, can you pray just a short prayer? And then Mitch, can you pray just a short prayer? Because we are going through a real tough time as a church. It has been, when I found out about Brother Dan, it really impacted me and it made me shut the football game off and shut everything down and go into my room and get on my knees and pray. and so I'm gonna pray and then Keith just a quick prayer and then Mitch just a quick prayer for our people. We're in a battle and we can't experience the pain but yet not like the pain they're going through but yet there's pain in my heart. Do you know what I'm saying? It's painful, my heart's grieved. Lord, we need help. and that's, and Lord, I can only trust you. Your wisdom is infinite. Your understanding is finite, infinite, I mean. You are, the Lord is great. The Lord is great in his goodness. There's so many verses that were popping into my mind, and I took those verses and went before the Lord, and then I began to pray for all our people and their needs. So let me pray real quick. Father, I, Our hearts come before you and we pray for all our people. Those that are in sickness and those who are hurting, those who are struggling, those who are financially struggling, and so many things are happening and we trust you, Father. We trust you, Lord Jesus. You are our shepherd. You lead us, you protect us, and you provide. Our eyes are on you. We ask for miracles. It's not wrong to ask for that. Lord Jesus, you're the only one that can answer our prayers, and we ask that you would do a great and mighty work, that you would do things in our lives and in those who are suffering, those who are going through some tough times. We ask for grace and compassion. We ask for wisdom and understanding, and we give you the honor and glory. There are problems as much as there are too. It's been a life arc for many members, family members, and friends. It's been a great adventure that I've earned physically, the different health elements, mental sickness, bigger things. We're just going to have to hand it over to the rest of our church, our church family, our personal families. Lord, I just pray for America as well as the community here to praise you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for this time. Thank you. Father, I want to just thank you for your great compassion and your heart for me. I want to know that you have feelings of love for me, not just for the people in this church, but for all the children. Father, you know that we are all in distress, always facing challenges in our lives. Father, I just thank you that you continue to work with our lives in the church, I want to mention earlier about sufficiency. I don't know if sufficiency is not the answer to a lot of the questions you're raising for us, but I'm very proud of what I've done in the past. And I'm very proud of all the things you've continued to do. Amen. Thank you, thank you, guys. Thank you, church. Well, we had a great Thanksgiving. I enjoyed it. I loved it. I had such a good time with the grandkids. And it was just a wonderful time. You know, Mary grew up in a home that loves music. And all her brothers and sisters can play instruments and they can sing so well. And then her relatives could all play the fiddle and all kinds of instruments. And I can't name them. But they just love to sing around the piano. And Thanksgiving Day, guess what we did? We sang around the piano. And then the grandkids got up and played their music. And, of course, Rosemary just banged on it. But she, it was very important to her because she wanted to play that. And then Chris got involved and he got his guitar out. And we were singing. He was singing those old country songs. And he'd make up his own songs. And it just, they were so funny. They'd make us laugh. It was just amazing. how he could make a dead man laugh. Those songs are so funny. And then at the table, I was going to pray, and then Rosemary wanted to pray. She's four years old. And Rosemary, she bowed her head in reverence. And you could hear her prayer in reverence. And she prayed for mommy and daddy and her brothers, named them and then her cousins and grandpa and pop and grandma. And she was thanking the Lord for each of us. It was powerful. It just was overwhelming. I could see it. I could hear it. I knew something was very powerful there. And then we sat down around the table and we talked about, I asked, I asked the question about what has changed in your view toward God in this last year? What view that you had that was changed as a result of the scriptures and God speaking to your heart? And that was a very good time. They went around the table and it was a very powerful time. I did not know these things about my children. And then Katie talked about how her Sunday school teacher is a Calvinist and he made a Calvinist statement and asked Katie to explain what she thought. You don't ask Katie and I mean to tell you when she began to tell us what she had told him, I don't know, I couldn't do that. Her ability to analyze and she had two main points and she pointed them out and it was completely silence after that. And she, the guy didn't know how to respond to it. So it was just a, it was a very good time. Singing, football games. The kids were making a play outside. Catalina and the cousins were outside making plays. They show us, every Christmas they make a play and they show it on the TV. I don't know whether you, they make a play, about a 30, 20 minute play. And they all dress up. And I don't know how they do it, but there's music to it. There's all kinds of scenes, and it's entertaining. And it just blows me away. They do it every year. And they were working on that. And so we just had a wonderful time. And I thank the Lord for those precious times. I really do. I was reading on, I was thinking about Thanksgiving and I ran across some verses in Psalms. Let me just read them to you real quick. Psalms 95, if you want to put it up. And it made me think about our Savior. It made me think about a shepherd. And in Psalms 95 verse 2, let us come before the presence with thanksgiving. Lord, we come before you with thanksgiving. This is verse 2. And make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. And thank you, Nicole, for playing the piano, and Otis for leading music, and the choir, and the ensemble. Everything about it is, I thank God for that. It's beautiful music. For the Lord is a great God. and a great king above all gods. Look at verse seven, for he is our God and we are his people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Woo, I like that. He's got us by our hands. We are his people, we are his sheep, and he is our shepherd. And he's a great God and a great king. Now turn to Psalms 100, as I read on. I got excited about that, but verses were coming to my mind as I was reading that. Psalms 100, it says, serve the Lord with gladness. This is verse two. Come before his presence with singing. And then in verse three, know ye that the Lord, he is God, and it is he that has made us. not we ourselves, we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter the gates with thanksgiving. Thank God that you're his sheep, and he is your shepherd. Thank God that you're in his hands. That's what came to my mind. The Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations. The Lord is great. He's merciful. He's good. That's our shepherd. And we're his people. He's our God. And what chapter in John came to my mind? What chapter in John is that Jesus says, I am the good shepherd? Chapter 10. If you look at chapter 10, but you believe not because you're not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. A sheep is a follower of the shepherd. And I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Isn't that referring? And if you look back to Psalms 95 and 100, it says the Lord, Yahweh, and Jesus Christ is also saying, I am the shepherd, the good shepherd, and I am the one that can give you eternal life. What man can give eternal life? Do you know of anybody that can give you eternal life? Only God and man can give you eternal life. What man has said, I will prepare a place for you forever? What man has said that? Only Jesus Christ. What man has said, I will change our vile body. It says in Philippians, Jesus will change our vile body into a glorious body like his. Who can do that? It's not, it's God, man, Jesus Christ. Who can give us rest? Come unto me all who labor, and heavy burdened, or heavy laden, and burdened, and weary, and I will give you. Who can give rest unto us? Who can give peace? And I leave my peace unto you, and I give my peace. Who can do that? It is only Jesus Christ. Who is the one, says Philip, It's John 10, he says, Philip, or John 14, he's talking to Philip. He that sees me has seen the father. Wow. He also says, if he had known me, you would have known my father also. From henceforth, you shall know him. has seen him. Wait a minute. How have how have we seen the father? How can we know him? It is through Jesus Christ. What man can declare the heavenly father who's invisible? What man can do that? Except Jesus Christ. Amen. He's the only one. Amen. He says I have I have what's that And He, who is the brightness of His glory? The brightness, can any of you show the brightness of the glory of the Heavenly Father? The express image of His person upholding all things by the word of His power? This is our Shepherd! when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of majesty on high. Amen. Who has done that? What man has done that except Jesus Christ, the God man? Amen. Wow, he gives us light. He gives us the fruits of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. He is the, what man can purify? Doug quoted Titus 2.14, purifying unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good work. What man can purify this old flesh, can change my heart, change my mind, change me where I will live a godly life? What man can do that? I can't, neither can you, only Jesus Christ. See, I love to tell that to people who don't believe that Jesus Christ is God. I love to tell it that way. Can you do that? Can you change the hearts and lives of people? Can you take away sin? Can you forgive sin? Can you give me the gift of eternal life? Can you give me the gift of righteousness? We have a shepherd that does that. He is a great God and a great king. And he loves me. In John 7, he says, I have loved you. He tells that to his disciples. He says, Father, I have loved them. And in John 13, when he says, I have loved them to the end, he knew full well that those disciples would be running for their life in fear. He knew very well that Peter was going to deny him three times. And yet he says, I love them to the end. That's the shepherd we got. Oh, he is great. He is good. He is a great king. Amen. And I praise god and I I thank Him that He loves me. I tell my Bible class, you might as well admit it. You might as well tell God, Jesus Christ, your Savior, that you're a sinful person. And if you got sin in your life, let Him know it. He's the only one that can take it out. He's the only one that can purify you. And He knows everything about you, so don't try to hide it, because you can't hide it. But he does say, I love you, in spite of all that, and I can take it out. I can change it. And he's been so faithful to do that. He's been faithful to this church, to our church. He's been faithful to us. He has provided for our needs. That's the job of a shepherd, to protect, to provide, to lead us. Oh, I love those concepts. And as I was reading these verses, it says in Deuteronomy 32 verse 39, I believe, see now that I am, that I, even I am he. Whoa, you ought to put the underline that, I am he. Because you'll see it in the Old Testament, I am he. Who says that in the New Testament? I am He. You see that through all the, you see Jesus Christ said, I am He. I think it's in, there's several verses that Jesus says, I am He. Well, He says it right here. He says in 48, Isaiah 48, 12 and 13, I am He. He says the same thing. He says, I am he. There is no God with me. I kill, I make alive, I wound, I heal. Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. That's what Jesus said. I am the resurrection and the life. Wow. Jesus, all these verses point to Jesus. And I love that. I look for verses like that all the time. pointing to Jesus. Let me conclude it with this verse. Isaiah 45. I read it, I wanted to memorize it, but I said, Lord, I'm not sure what this means. But meditate on it. I like it, but I'm not sure what it means. Isaiah 45 verse two. You might want to pop that up there. I will go before thee. That's the heart of a shepherd. I will lead you and make the crooked places straight. Our shepherd is leading us. There's all kinds of crookedness, all kinds of wandering roads. I think Mary and I was watching YouTube all these People driving on these narrow roads, and off the side is the cliff, and one Jeep fell over into the, rolled down the cliff. Have you ever seen those? My heart's pumping. Good night, how can they enter on those bicycles and motorcycles on the roads this small? And they're driving down these humongous mountains. Well, this is Jesus doing this. He says, I will straighten out these crooked roads. These mountains, I will straighten it out for you. I will break the pieces of the gates of brass, things that are holding us back, doors that are closed. I will break them. That's our shepherd. And cut asunder the bars of iron. We're held in bondage, so many of us, as Brother Doug says, we have hindered, we have limited, we have grieved. I will tear those bars apart, set you free, put you on the right road. Go to the next verse. I will give thee treasures of darkness. What? That's where I said, Lord, what do you mean by darkness? It's things that you can't see. It's things that are hidden, but there's treasures there. I will give you. The treasures of darkness. God is going to reveal something to us that we don't see right away. We don't understand. I will give you treasures of darkness. The hidden riches of secret places. Things that have been hidden from people. Things that are secret that nobody gets to know except the one that Jesus reveals to. I was trying to go through this. Lord, I don't know what those are, but I want to know what it means. I want to know what it means. I wrote it down to memorize it, but I haven't memorized it yet, because I wasn't sure if God wanted me to memorize it. That thou mayest know what? I, the Lord, which called thee by name. He knows your name. Oh, if He doesn't know your name, you don't have a relationship. If He doesn't know you as Richard, or as Brother Brian, if He doesn't know that name, you don't belong to Him. love that verse. I'm gonna make your way straight. I am with you. I will lead you. I will give you treasures and riches. Our church has those same privileges because we are the apple of his eye. We are the bride of Jesus Christ and he is our shepherd and I am a We're glad you joined us for our services here at Mission Boulevard Baptist Church. We look forward to having you join us again online, but you are always welcome to personally attend any of our services at the Mission Boulevard Baptist Church here in Fayetteville, Arkansas.