Mmhmm. Good morning, everyone. Today is the 20th of July, 2025. Sorry I missed y'all yesterday. I had some major hurdles to deal with. I won't bore you with all the details, but sometimes in life we're faced with things that we're not expecting. And that was yesterday for me. starting about 3 o'clock in the morning. You know, we should live each day as if it were our last day, as if it was our last day. We should live every day as if it were our final day. Luke 12, 27. says consider the lilies how they grow they toil not they spin not and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these there's another scripture that says it's appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment one of these days We're all going to die if Christ doesn't come back first. Some people live their lives as if they're going to live forever. And they're only thinking about today. They're not thinking about life after death. You're only thinking about how they can please themselves today. Hebrews 9, 7, As it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this to judgment. Job 14, 4 asks the question, If a man dies, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time while I wait till my change come. Well, you know, the toils of this life can sometimes cause us to get down because we don't know what we're going to do, we don't know what the next step is, we don't Sometimes things take us by surprise, don't they? I own real estate rental property and I had this house that I completed with rehab and I'd rented it out for about five years. One morning, about one o'clock in the morning, I get a call from my manager, the guy that was doing my maintenance up in Northwest Missouri, where the properties are located, and he was real upset. He would never call me at one o'clock in the morning. He was real upset. And he says, 123 is burnt to the ground. caught on fire and it burnt to the ground. I'm glad nobody was living in the property at the time. And he was just so upset. It struck me kind of funny and I started laughing. He said, I can't believe you're laughing. And I said, Rob, you can't bring the property back. It's gone. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? I said, we're not going to do anything. I said, look at it like this. You'll never have to do any maintenance on that property again. That's one less property you have to worry about. We can't change what God has ordained. We can't change things in our life. I had a tough week last week, I'll be honest with you. I had eight major things happen in my life that I wasn't really expecting. And it took me back. It was kind of a job week, okay? But you know what? If we can't deal with struggles in our life now, how are we going to deal when we're confronted with either to deny Christ or die? How are we going to deal with that? Only God can give us the strength to live each day as if it were our last day on the face of the earth. Many say they would die for Christ. Peter said the same thing too, and he denied Christ. When we come to a time when we might have to face persecution, will our response be the same as Peter? I pray not. It's my belief from the study of Scripture and looking at the reality of times that we're living in, that we may suffer persecution in our own lifetime. I was terminated from my job with the state of Missouri as a social worker for refusing to place children with homosexuals. That was 25 years ago. Just think how worse it's gotten now. We need to remember that God alone is the only one we can look to that will be faithful to work in us to demonstrate the faith he's placed in us of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In and of ourselves, we can do absolutely nothing to sustain our lives and to live a life that's honoring the Christ and our testimony. We must know this, and if we're honest, we must attest to the fact we've failed in our testimony before others many, many times. How should we prepare for the upcoming persecutions that Christians are going to face? Well, we're told to study to show ourselves accrued unto God, rightly dividing the word accrued. We should study our Bible daily, and pray that the Holy Spirit would open our eyes to the truth of God's Word. We should pray and ask God to protect us from the power of Satan, and that God would cause us to live a repentant life. And when we succumb to sin, that He would cause us to repent and turn back to Him, which He will do with every one of His elect. It's all repentance and faith. Everything about our lives and sustaining our lives comes from Christ. We should fellowship with those who are committed to the same thing. We should pray that God would cause us to live our lives in the light of eternity and not be preoccupied with the trivial things of this world. We should constantly be reminded that God is the author and finisher of our faith. For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross. He despised the shame. And he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We should always remember that the shed blood of Jesus is a solid contract. The contract was between the Father and Son. The work of atonement is already done. He's already won the victory for all of his people. Now things might happen in our lives that take us by surprise. We might have to make adjustments in our living. I'm going to have to make some changes in some things in our lives. It was that mark in our lives. Sometimes we ask, why? Why did God ordain this to happen? Well, you know, we may never know the reason why some things happen. Sometimes things come at us from all sides, you know. And we think, what is going on? I have now observed that in 16 years of dealing with tenants, that the ethics is worse than it's ever been in our society to try to deal with tenants. Leases mean nothing to people. Agreements mean nothing. You know. What they say means nothing. They don't stick by their word. It's because the ethics of our whole society have gone to the toilet. And now... people have... they don't keep their word. You can't believe what they speak out of their mouth. We should be looking at ourselves, our own life, and what we speak out of our mouth. Are we living up to our word? Are we living up to what we say? There's a lot of people that do as I say but not as I do. Are our lives a reflection of being a child of grace? Are we living a life recognizing that our only hope is in Christ and not in ourselves? Well, that's sort of what's on my mind this morning. Let us live each day as if it were our final day. May the good Lord be today with you in a special way, is my prayer. God bless.