Thank you. Please be seated. Thank you, music team, and thank you to the children who were singing. Didn't they do a great job? It was such a blessing. Yeah, you can applaud again if you like. That's great. It's good to see everyone here today. It's always special when we gathered together on the Lord's Day and it's Resurrection Sunday, and we're celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And it's good, even if you're visiting today, we just want to welcome you. We're glad that you're here. I happen to have family here today, and so we tried to pack a pew with the Gilmore family here. about the third row down, a couple of our sons, two daughters-in-law, and two grandchildren. And I know they're going to sit quietly and listen to Papa. as we get started here in a few minutes. And then I have a sixth son that is sort of an adopted son of mine seated in the back as well, Chris and April Fresh. They're not blood relatives, but we count them as family. So it's good to see them as well, and everybody else who's visiting today. And then Shelly is here today. Did you see her? And so where are you, Shelley? Yeah, good to see you as well today. And then I just wanted to mention, you know, that Chris was struggling a little bit to get through the scripture reading, and that's because his mother passed away on Friday, Friday morning, I believe. Where are you, Chris? Where did you go? Was it Friday morning? She passed away, and we're praying for him. I think He told me that the memorial service is going to be next Saturday over in Ohio. And so we want to be praying for him and his family in this time. I take it that my PowerPoint is not coming up on the screen. I have it set up here, let me just try this again, see if we can make it work to where it will actually show just this slide itself. We are using a little different system, I actually have the slides, there we go, have the slides here in front of me and we're communicating wirelessly with the the back there, so sometimes we have these little glitches. I wanted to mention that if you are visiting with us and you have not yet picked up one of these, this is called a gospel story arc cube, and if you take it out of the box, you'll find a cube that's inside that unfolds and folds again against itself with pictures on it that represent the story of who Jesus is, what Jesus did, who we are, and God's call for us to believe in Jesus. There's no charge for these. I would encourage you to take one, especially if you have children, or if you have someone else that you're wanting to share the good news of Jesus Christ with, this is an easy way to do it. The cubes inside has those pictures, but there's also messaging in the instructions that will show you how to use that cube, and even the words that you can use as you are sharing that with others. Now, would you take your Bible this morning and turn back to the passage that Chris read a few minutes ago, 1 Corinthians 15. And by the way, I don't know if my name popped up on the screen, but I'm Randall Gilmore and I'm an interim pastor here at Trinity during the season that the church is looking for a new permanent pastor to come. And I would love to meet you personally if I have not already done that. So you have your Bible open to 1 Corinthians 15. And I chose this passage of scripture for Chris to read for several reasons. And we're going to take a look at it at another passage of scripture in just a moment. But if you look up on the screen, you'll see that one of the ways that we are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ is by noting that he is present here among us. So the Bible says, Jesus said, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And there are far more than just two or three here this morning. So we know that Jesus is present among us. And we have this little saying that's on the screen, Jesus Christ, obviously present. and actively in charge. That's sort of a theme that I've adopted in my life and we're adopting for these next few months where the Lord is allowing me to serve as the interim here. Jesus Christ, obviously present, and actively in charge. What that tells us is that this is more than just an academic exercise that we're going through on Sunday mornings. This is not just something that's cerebral. It's gonna get a lot quieter in here since my grandson just left. This is not just coming together and singing or coming together and seeing people that we know. This is really coming together to meet with Jesus. And today we welcome him as our special guest. He is indeed alive. And he is obviously present, we trust, and actively in charge. Now, I chose the passage 1 Corinthians 15 because it calls attention to the resurrection of Jesus. We celebrated on Friday night the death, the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus. And that's always a somber celebration. So the word celebration doesn't even quite go with it, to think about all that Jesus went through when he suffered and died for us. And he didn't go through it in a stoic sort of way. It was real suffering, real pain for him when he was hung on the cross and he died. And we did celebrate that on Friday night. But today, now we have come to Sunday when we're celebrating his resurrection from the dead. In 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4 especially, say exactly what is the sentiment of this day when Paul wrote, for I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. And then I love how, from there, the Apostle Paul goes on and outlines certain appearances of Jesus and certain proofs, if you will, that Jesus really did rise from the dead, and not as a spirit, but as in bodily form, in physical form. He actually did rise from the dead, and we're celebrating that today. Now, there's another verse of scripture that I want to call your attention to and spend quite a bit of time on it this morning as we consider the resurrection of Jesus. And why don't you take your Bible, just go back one book to the book of Romans, and you can see this verse in Romans chapter 10 in your own Bible. Romans chapter 10. look carefully at this verse. This is one of the most well-known verses in the Bible, and this is not the only place in scripture where it appears, but we're going to take a look at it from this passage. So Romans chapter 10 and verse 13, it says, as you see on the screen, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now you don't see it on the screen because, again, I'm having some trouble with my with communicating here with the slide presentation. Let's just try this again. And if it doesn't, there we go. Sometimes pastors say there are demons in the technology system of the church. Not that there are demons running it. There are good guys back there running it. But this is the way it goes. Romans 10, 13, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is a verse of scripture that I love. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now, you might be thinking, but I thought we were going to talk about the resurrection. And what does this verse have to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ? And the answer to that question is it has everything to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. I invite you to think this through with me for a moment. First of all, I want you to notice the words the Lord. When you see the words the Lord in this statement, that is talking about Jesus Christ. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ will be saved. And if you look back just a couple of verses in this text, you'll see Romans chapter 10 and verse 9, that says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, so that's the verse that sort of puts this in context for us. If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So go back to verse 13, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, there's no question at all, as we study this scripture, this is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is really interesting because Paul is actually writing these words around the year, we believe, around the year AD 58, AD 58. Now if you have ever studied this or looked at this, you know that a lot of scholars believe that it was the year A.D. 33, or at least around that year, A.D. 33, when Jesus was crucified and hung on the cross and he died. So this is roughly 25 years after that event, and yet Paul is still talking about calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he knows full well that Jesus has died. 25 years ago, he died. And yet he's telling us to call upon him, to call upon his name. I think there's an assumption in this passage that indeed, Jesus is alive. And that's why Paul is saying, call upon him and everyone who calls upon him will be saved. And in fact, this assumption is very well embedded in the text, as we already saw in verse nine, where Paul says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So calling on the name of the Lord assumes the resurrection is true and that Jesus is alive. Now, you're already seeing something on the screen, and I hope the words are big enough from your perspective that you can see this. Because frankly, it is a fantastic claim that anyone would ever rise from the dead. That's an amazing, fantastic claim. In fact, we could just pack up, all of us, if this were possible today, and drive to the nearest cemetery, and we would not find any grave open, and someone walking around who had been buried, who had died and had been buried, and now is alive. And most of our experience, all of our experiences with death is that it's permanent, right? Right? You're with me? And so this is a fantastic claim, that anyone would rise from the dead, but the claim is made in scripture that Jesus rose from the dead. And here's what I wanted to share with you with this slide that's up on the screen, is that when we examine the historical facts surrounding Jesus' resurrection, It is clear that it is a reasonable belief, a reasonable faith to believe that Jesus really did die on the cross and that he really did raise from the dead on the third day. What I have on the screen is a list of what are called minimal facts. This is a minimal facts model by someone by the name of Dr. Gary Habermas. Dr. Habermas was a professor for years at Liberty University. I believe that he's retired now, but he got his PhD from Michigan State University in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And by the way, Michigan State University is not a well-known Christian university. But he was able to gain his PhD, earn his PhD from that institution in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he constructed this model that he calls the minimal facts model. And these are facts that every scholar, virtually every scholar, 90% plus, that they believe historically about the Lord Jesus Christ. And the first is that Jesus really did exist. I don't know if you've ever seen on Facebook or somewhere else on the internet, someone will be just complaining about Christianity and they'll say something like, well, Jesus never really existed. Have you ever seen that before? You can just tell that that person has absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Because 90 plus percent of scholars who study this historically, they will acknowledge Jesus really did exist. And here are some of the other things that they acknowledge. We're talking about agreement, whether believers or unbelievers, skeptics or enemies of Christ, it doesn't matter, they believe these facts. Jesus really did exist. Secondly, he was known as a miracle worker. They also believe that Jesus died as a result of crucifixion. They agree that when somebody is hung on the cross and they believe that Jesus was indeed hung on the cross, when you're hung on the cross, you die. No one escapes that. He died from the rigors of crucifixion. But they also believe that his followers had experiences after his death that they believed meant that he was resurrected. In other words, his followers had these experiences that they believed were the bodily appearance of Jesus in resurrected form, come back to life. Not just in spiritual form, but in body form. That's a very significant point. Jesus' followers, the ones closest to him, had those experiences. Now, scholars won't say that they believe that, not all scholars would say that, but they will acknowledge that his followers had those experiences, and that's how they understood those experiences, that Jesus rose again from the dead bodily. And then here's something interesting. Even skeptics, they will acknowledge, had those same types of experiences. Do you know who one of the Lord's brothers was? And by the way, you do know that Mary had children after she and Joseph did come together. She had other children. Jesus was born of a virgin before Mary and Joseph came together as husband and wife. But after they came together as husband and wife, they had other children. One of them is a man named James, who there's a book of the Bible that bears his name. He was the half-brother of Jesus. He did not start out as a believer. In fact, in the Gospels, we find out that Jesus' brothers and sisters, they were skeptics about who Jesus was. But eventually, James had the same kind of experience with the resurrected Lord Jesus, and he became a believer. And as I say, there's even a book in the Bible that was written by him. But not only skeptics, enemies also had the same experience. The Apostle Paul wasn't always a believer. He was an enemy of Jesus Christ. And in fact, when Jesus confronted him in his resurrection, when Jesus confronted him, he said, Saul, Saul, that was his name before he became a believer. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? That was the nature of Paul's relationship to Christianity, to Christ. He was an enemy of Christianity, an enemy of Christ. And yet he had a similar experience with the resurrected Lord Jesus. Now, I want to say again, I cannot emphasize this enough. This is not just me as a preacher saying these things happen. These are things that scholars, whether believers or unbelievers, will say, yeah, we have to admit, these things are true. When you examine the historical documents, when you examine history in the way that a historian would examine anything and declare it to be true, they will come to these conclusions. Jesus really did exist. He was known as a miracle worker. He died as a result of crucifixion. His followers had experiences, skeptics had experiences, enemies had experiences that they believed, after his death, that they believed meant that he was resurrected. So I just want to say to you today, if you're here and you've never put your trust in Jesus, you have to take the possibility of resurrection into account as you're thinking about life and you're thinking about death. And you have to take into account the historical the historicity. Of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that's a game changer, it changes everything. And so. The Apostle Paul writes with all of this in mind, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, the Lord Jesus, will be saved. This statement has as its foundation the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. But there's more. Because there are several things about this statement, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. In fact, this statement is constructed in a way in our Bibles that is very similar to a number of other statements that we read in the Bible, and I'm planning to talk about that on Wednesday night. We have a Wednesday night prayer meeting and Bible study here at 7 p.m., and I want to invite you to come out to that. and be part of that. I am going to talk a little bit more about this statement and other statements like it in the scriptures on Wednesday night. But here are six assumptions that are part of this statement that we're studying this morning for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And the first one we've already kind of looked at, the first assumption in this is that he is alive, that Jesus is alive. So when we're saying everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, that statement assumes that Jesus has resurrected from the dead. The second assumption is that he is able to hear us when we call. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That assumes that Jesus, the resurrected Lord, is able to hear. Now this is no small feat. Because here we are, sitting in Muncie, Indiana, and we can call today upon the Lord and he will hear us, but there are people all over the world who are calling upon the Lord today. And no matter where they are in the world, The Lord is able to hear. This is a very significant point. By the way, it's one of the reasons why we don't believe in praying to anyone else other than to the Lord and to our Heavenly Father. We don't pray to Mary. And the reason we don't pray to Mary is because, first of all, she's not God. Secondly, she cannot be everywhere to hear every prayer. It's impossible. She would have to be God to be able to hear every prayer everywhere. But Jesus is able to hear, and so we call upon Him. Not only is He able to hear, but He is willing to hear. You know, there's a big difference between being able to hear and being willing to hear. Just ask a wife if she's in a conversation with her husband. Don't you hear me? Well, yeah, I heard you. But I might not be willing to listen. There's a difference. And in the case of Jesus and our calling upon him, he not only is able to hear, he's willing to hear, and this is a part, this is packed into this, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Jesus is alive, he's able to hear, he's willing to hear, and then he is able to respond. You know, it's one thing for him to be able to hear and willing to hear, but if he's not able to respond, then there's nothing that's going to happen. Does that make sense? but he's able to respond. And not only able to respond, he's willing to respond. And this too is equally as important because Jesus can hear when we call, he's able to hear, he's willing to hear and hear us when we appeal to him, he's able to respond, and it's not as though he just sits there and says, well, yeah, I could do it, but I'm not willing to. That's not Jesus. He's also willing to respond. And then this last assumption that's built into this is that when he responds, he will come to us in power. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Jesus is alive, able to hear, willing to hear, able to respond, willing to respond, and when he responds, we are saved. Now, there's a lot more in this little statement. I love the word everyone. for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. I would suppose there are people, maybe some of our children, maybe some teens, maybe some older adults, maybe you're visiting today, and you've never called on the name of the Lord to be saved. Well, I've got some good news, is that when this verse says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, it's including you. And this could be the very day that you call upon the Lord. Resurrection Sunday 2025, where you call upon the Lord for forgiveness of your sin and you're saved for eternity. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now, this also raises the question as we're looking at it, we'll be saved from what? And I do want to tell you that this kind of statement, calling upon the name of the Lord and being saved, it appears, as I said a little bit earlier, elsewhere in the scripture, it appears throughout the scripture, and it doesn't always mean what I'm going to share with you when I share it in just a moment. It can mean being saved from almost anything. The Bible talks about how people were living sometimes in danger. They may have been on a ship and the ship was about to go down and they call upon the Lord and they're saved. That means they were saved from that ship going down under the water and drowning. Or it may be there was some other situation where their life was in jeopardy and they needed the Lord to show up and needed the Lord to help them and they called upon the name of the Lord. Well, guess what? For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And I wanna say to you, aside from what I'm gonna share in just a moment, that if you are already a believer in Christ, that when you call upon the Lord, he hears, he's alive, he's able to hear that, and is willing to hear, able to respond, willing to respond. And when he comes, even after you're a believer, when he comes, he comes to save, to deliver you in that moment. But the primary meaning in this text is saved from death. Saved from death. And not just physical death, but death in all the ways that it wreaks havoc in our lives. So I have a verse of scripture here in Genesis chapter two and verse 17 up on the screen. Let me just kind of put that in context for a moment. If we were to go back to the book of Genesis, one of the things that we would find in Genesis chapter three, we would read where death entered the world when Adam deliberately disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. And as a result, death entered the world. We're gonna see what that means in just a moment. But that's exactly what God said would happen. God said in Genesis 2, verse 17, when he was given instructions to Adam about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he said, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." Now, somebody might say, well, what's the big deal? It's just a piece of fruit from the tree. We don't know exactly what kind of fruit. Some people think it was an apple. Some people think it was something else. That doesn't matter. There was a fruit attached to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God said not to eat of that. Tree and Adam deliberately disobeyed. Eve was deceived. Adam deliberately disobeyed. And God had said, in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. God had said what was going to be the consequences. And those were the consequences. They suffered. Adam and Eve died. And so did all of us. That's what the Bible says. The Bible says, by one man, sent into the world, meaning Adam. and death by sin, and so death passed upon all. So God said, you shall surely die. By the way, if you ever wondered where death, why there's so much death in the world, why there's so much pain and suffering, all those things, it goes back to this, and Adam's disobedience to that very clear command of God. Now somebody might say, but if I read back there, I don't see where Adam and Eve died. Didn't they live for a long time after that? Well, they did. But that doesn't mean that they didn't suffer the consequences that God spelled out in this verse. In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. In fact, the word death, as it occurs in the scripture, is sort of an umbrella term. And I'm gonna put up on the screen several things that that are associated with death in the Bible. And take a look at this list. First of all, there is physical death and the associated pain and suffering that comes along with that. And when God said in the beginning, he said, when you eat of that fruit, in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Physical death was part of that sentence passed upon all. And this is where pain and suffering came to the world. Sometimes people also ask, why is there so much pain in the world? Why is there so much suffering in the world? This is the answer to that question. It is because of what happened there in the garden when Adam deliberately disobeyed physical death and the associated pain and suffering. And by the way, even though Adam and Eve did not die right away, they began to die physically, and they did die physically. They don't continue to live on the planet today. Physical death. But there's also death of relationships. You know, in the beginning when God made Adam and Eve, he blessed them, we say, with four types of perfect relationships. With him, with each other, with self, and with the rest of creation. And there was the death of relationships in that moment where they ate of the fruit and disobeyed God. both of their relationships with others and with God. I often kind of joke a little bit that Adam, when he was talking with God about what happened, he blamed Eve. And the reason I joke is because it's as though, if you look at what he said, it's as though he said, God, you know that woman you gave me, the woman you made for me out of my rib? Well, you said we were going to surely die if we ate of the fruit. She kind of tricked me into this. Why don't you just kill her, make me another one, and we'll start all over again. I mean, I don't think they had a great dinner that night with that kind of conflict going on in their relationship. They had a broken relationship in that moment. But more importantly, they had a broken relationship with God. They had a perfect relationship at one time with God. But now that's broken. There was the death of relationships. And then I have down here also the death of personal wholeness. And I mentioned a moment ago about having a perfect relationship with self, that means that there was no shame, there was wholeness in their life. Now everybody in this room knows, you have some experience with what shame is. Where does that come from? Well, that also originates back here when Adam and Eve sinned against God, and as soon as they did that, shame entered the world. Shame entered their lives. And whereas they did not have shame before, now they have shame. They're very well aware they're not enough. So the death of personal wholeness, and then Don't look past this last because this is really as serious as any, maybe the most serious of all, and that's eternal death. Every form of death involves some sort of separation. When you die physically, it's separating the immaterial part of you from the material. When you have the death of relationships, you're separating from the other, whether it's another person or it's God. Personal wholeness is sort of like this divide that opens up within you. Eternal death is separation of the complete person from God for all of eternity. It is absolutely unbearable. I'm bearable, because even now, even if you said today, you know, I just am not a believer in Jesus, even now, even though the Bible says you're dead in trespasses and sins, you still have some measure of contact with the God who created you, by virtue of the fact that you're just taking in breath. I mean, everybody here, just take in a breath for a moment. The fact that you can fill your lungs with air and exhale is a testimony to God's hand on your life, and God's, quote, relationship with you in that sense. And so none of us have ever experienced what it's like to be completely separated from God for all of eternity. That's eternal death. It's unbearable, and the Bible describes that as hell. Now, I want you to look at this list, and I want you to ask yourself, which of these is the most salient to you? Which of these stands out to you? Which of these do you feel you personally struggle with the most? And you might say, well, to be honest with you, what I really struggle with is the fear of physical death. Or what I struggle with is the death of relationships. My life is just full of broken relationships, and especially a broken relationship with God. Or maybe you would say, you know, I just am full of shame. And if the truth were known, I live in shame. Or maybe there's someone here who would say, you know, to be honest, I fear the possibility of my going to hell someday. And it's true that the sentence of death has been passed upon all. I quoted this verse just a few minutes ago. And so it's not surprising, it's not surprising that any of us or all of us will be struggling with some form of death that we have to cope with in this life. So which is the most salient to you? The Bible calls all of these the wages of sin. This is just a natural consequence that God designed as the consequence of sinning against him, disobedience against him that has spread to all of us. But here's the good news. I love these verses in Ephesians chapter two and verses four and five. Because this is supposed to be a celebration today, and it would be a real downer if we just stopped right here and didn't come back to what the good news is. In Ephesians 2 and verses 4 and 5, I love these verses. But God, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he's made us alive Together with Christ by grace, you have been saved. This is one of the best bits of news you'll ever hear in your entire life. And it's not just that Jesus rose from the dead, which is really great news all in and of itself, but it's that when you become a believer in Jesus, you are raised up with him and made alive with him. And all of those forms of death that we just rehearsed, those lose their power over you and over me. One of the verses that I just love is from Colossians because sometimes people will say, well, what about physical death is still real? Even for believers, you know, Chris's mom was a believer in Jesus and she died on Friday after suffering pancreatic cancer, right? So what about that? How is that being made alive? How is that the defeat of death? One of the very interesting things that it says in the book of Colossians is that when Jesus rose from the dead, he actually stripped death of its power. It actually says that he stripped the authorities of their power because the worst thing that the authorities could do to anyone was to put them to death. And the fact is that even if they put someone to death, even if a believer dies, that believer lives again because Jesus rose again. And that strips death of its power. And these verses speak of that here in Ephesians 2 and verses 4 and 5. He's made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. And so this takes us back to this verse, this statement in Romans 10, 13. I hope this will sink in to you for the rest of today, for everyone. who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. By the way, if you look in Romans chapter 10 and earlier verses that come before this, what's really interesting is Paul says, you don't have to go up into heaven to pull Jesus down, to pull Christ down from heaven. You don't have to do that. You don't have to descend into hell and try to connect there in some fashion. You don't have to do any of that. It's because the word of faith is near you and in your heart, it says. It's right there. And you just need to confess. If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. It's a tremendous promise. And I could spend the rest of the day talking with you today, but I know we've got Easter dinners coming. I could spend the rest of the day talking to you today about the life then that we have in Jesus. and the blessedness of that life of living in him here and now and with the hope for eternity. It's all yours through faith in Jesus. So if you're here today, you've never trusted in him. You've never made that decision. Maybe you've been around Christianity. You might be familiar with everything that I've said today, but you've not yet committed your own heart to the Lord in faith, you've never called upon the name of the Lord to be saved. I just want you to know he is available to you. You call upon him, call upon his name. And by the way, calling upon his name is not just saying the name Jesus as though it's some sort of a magical code word. Calling upon the name of Jesus, the name of the Lord was a kind of a stand in for his presence. So you're asking him to come and be present and to save your soul. And I assure you that he's alive. He's able to hear you. He's willing to hear you. He's able to come and be present. He's willing to come and be present. And when he comes, he comes in the power of resurrection, the power of his resurrection, to make changes in your life and to save you for all of eternity. And God's people said, amen. Father, thank you for this opportunity that we have just to look at your word and to consider the truth about Jesus being alive and his resurrection from the dead. We rejoice that there are proofs that helps to establish the historicity of it. We know we still need faith. We are gladly bending our knee and confessing with our mouth by faith that Jesus is Lord. Thank you, Father, for just the opportunity to do that for everyone in this room. There may be someone here today who's really struggling with something. As a Christian, they're struggling in life. And Lord, I want them to know they can call upon you and that you're willing to come and be present and deliver them in this situation that they're in, the circumstance they're in. And for anyone here today that has never made the decision to become a believer, I pray, Lord, now that you would work in their hearts, you come and be obviously present and actively in charge of each one of our hearts and open that person's heart who has never trusted in you to faith in Jesus, I pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.