Thank you, Dr. Cochran. I called a missionary this past week. We were going to Zoom with him. And I said, well, I've seen your prayer card, and I've seen you even got online. I said, but you've never seen me. When he came through last time, I was in the hospital. And he said, well, which Dr. Cochran are you? I said, well, I'm the dad. But it is a blessing to be with you today, and I certainly appreciate the church inviting me to share at this wonderful occasion with your pastor. As Pastor Jeremy said, it's been some 49 years since I've been in the ministry, but this past year has been the most unusual year of my entire ministry. And as I have talked with our missionaries, it's not only been something for us, but this has been a worldwide difficulty and still many are facing difficult days. But we're thankful for your ministry here. We do follow you online and watch the services. It's better than Monday night football. I just go through, watch Pastor Jeremy and Pastor Jason and Pastor Jared. And so I just enjoy your ministry, praying for what God is doing here. And I'm excited about this year. I hope that you're praying like me that God will help us to just get unleashed, to be able to do the work of God like he's called us to do, and pray that people will be more receptive to the word of God than ever before as we march forward. in this new year. I have a lot of things I'd love to share about your pastor and his life and family and ministry, but I'll save that for the afternoon service. I have a special challenge to give to him and to give to you as well. I think it will all be a blessing to us. So hope that you'll stay with us for the special meal and the program afterwards. If you have your Bibles, if you would turn to the book of Romans chapter one, I'd like to read verse 16. Romans chapter one and verse 16, I wanna speak to you this morning on, are you ashamed of the gospel? Are you ashamed of the gospel? Romans chapter 1 and verse 16, a very familiar verse, the scripture says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. There were two ships and two captains who responded totally differently to the same disaster. Every minute would count. Every decision made that night would affect the lives of people. It was April the 14th, 1912. Captain Stanley Lord was sailing in the North Atlantic. He spotted some icebergs in the area. In fact, he had stopped for the night. He in fact had wired some ships in the area that there were icebergs nearby. It was a cold, calm night on the seas. He sent his wireless operator to bed and he himself went to bed as well. There was a vessel in the far distance that stopped around 11.40 p.m. From 1245 to 145, two men on the Californian saw eight rockets go up in the night sky. Oh, they were told that this was a ship that was parting in the night. About 240, Mr. Stone called to the master of the ship that he had seen the rockets and the ship had disappeared. According to all records ever found, though Captain Lord denied to his death, the only ship in that area was the Titanic. If that being the case, the ships at that moment were only eight to 10 miles apart. According to survivors from the lifeboats that were from the Titanic, they had seen lights in the distance that faded away. Captain Lord woke up by his wireless operator the next morning, heard about the sinking, the floundering of the Titanic. He rushed to the area to pick up no survivors. he would defend himself for the rest of his life, that it was not the Titanic he did not see, he did not risk his ship that night in the icy waters. As I think about Captain Stanley Lord, and as I think about what God has put before us as a church and as this church, that there are people out there on the sea of life that are floundering, people that need rescuing. And what are we going to do about it? Paul tells us in Romans chapter one in verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. You see, we have the power of the gospel. The power of the gospel. You see, that word power is the word dunamis. We get our word dynamite from that word. Traveling through Tennessee as I now live in Illinois, and through the years going back and forth, it's amazing as you leave the flatlands of Illinois, oftentimes coming south, would tell the kids, well, we've been traveling about five or six hours, and we're halfway there, and we're still in Illinois. But we can tell by the terrain when things begin to change, when we hit Kentucky, and of course, when we hit the mountains of Tennessee. We love the mountains. It's amazing as you see the interstate that they literally cut the roads in the interstate right through the mountains. And you can see on every side sometimes when you travel the interstates how they would literally dynamite that interstate and make a way through. That's the word that Paul would use. is the gospel is the power. It's the dynamite to get through to people who need the gospel. And Paul would tell us in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18, For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. Then he tells us in verse 23, But we preach Christ crucified, and to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. You see, as we share with this lost and dying world on the sea of life, we have the power to rescue you. The Bible tells us that all men are sinners, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Bible tells us there's none righteous. No, not one. And as we share with people the power of the gospel to save men, I believe the Bible tells us there are three aspects in which men can be saved. He said, well, I thought there was only one salvation in Jesus Christ. Oh, yes, there is. But as we see this power, this gospel has three aspects. First of all, it gives us the power to save men at a point in time in their lives. And I hope this morning there's been a time in your life that you can look back and see that the power of the gospel came to you as a sinner, that you needed Jesus Christ. I remember my own life as a young boy, eight years of age, that I wrestled with this point of being lost, that I'm a good boy, that I'm okay, I'm not so bad. You see, we live in a society now that tells boys and girls they're good. They're not sinners. It's wrong to point out that men are sinners, children are sinners. That's not politically correct in these days in which we live. Oh, but the Bible tells us the first step to salvation, the first step to being rescued is you need help because you're a sinner. But what a wonderful truth that we can say, God loves sinners. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever, there's not a place that a missionary can go on God's green earth that we can say that Christ died for you, Christ loved you, Christ sent His Son, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for sinners. You see, the Bible tells us the wages of sin is death. And men and women need to hear that truth, that Christ loves sinners. You see, the penalty for sin is death. And I'm thankful to know that there was a time in my past that I put my faith and trust in this good news of the gospel that Jesus died for sinners. As I read not long ago, the story of John Payton, as he went to the New Hebrides Islands to share the gospel, this good news that God would save sinners. It was in 1842 that the London Missionary Society sent two young men to that area, John William and James Harris. These men landed in those islands. These people there were cannibals. And they didn't believe in the true God. And these two men gave their lives to give the gospel to these heathen that were cannibals. And again, a number of years later, John Payton showed up on those very shores with his wife, Mary. Within six months, his wife died and his son died, and he buried them there on those islands. And it wasn't very long that he began to reach out in a greater way to say, hey, I'm not gonna stop. I'm gonna share with these people the good news of the gospel. And sure enough, a number of years later, as he learned the language and began to share the word that Jesus loved sinners, even cannibals, even heathen, Jesus died for them. And as he went on to give the gospel, The testimony is that 3,500 cannibals had been led to renounce their heathenism and to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. In the Fiji Islands, 79,000 cannibals had been brought up under the influence of the gospel. In Samoa, 34,000 cannibals had professed Christianity. Colleges were formed. He said, in the New Hebrides Islands, more than 12,000 cannibals had been brought to sit at the feet of Jesus, and 133 of the natives had been trained and sent forth as teachers and preachers. The good news of the gospel, that Jesus loves sinners and died for sinners. And what a blessing to know, whether it be missionaries, as I read recently about a missionary that went up to northern Canada and Saskatchewan and further north than that to give the good news of the gospel to these people who had never heard that Jesus loved and died for sinners. But you know, sinners come in different shapes and sizes, different backgrounds. Some are uneducated, some are cannibals, some are heathen. but sometimes they're educated sinners. Like a man that you probably know, Warner Von Braun. More than any other scientist was brought up in the space age, Von Braun laid the foundation for cell phones, satellite radio, the internet, GPS, and Doppler radar. His later career read like a history of the American space program, as you probably know. It was undergirded by a firm belief in the creator God of the Bible. Maybe that part you don't know. In 1934, a 22-year-old Wernher von Braun received his PhD from the University of Berlin. Adolf Hitler had come to power the year before, and by then von Braun's accomplishments were already widely recognized. When he was not yet 30, von Braun had 80 scientists and technicians working underneath him in Germany. Under his leadership, the first true rocket was successfully launched in 1942. This rocket was also the world's first guided ballistic missile. Although von Braun initially supported the German war effort he soon became disenchanted with Hitler's policies and began to voice his opposition against the war and Hitler himself and thus he was imprisoned. Of course you know at the end of the war he along with many of the scientists were brought to America. But in America, this young scientist heard the good news of the gospel. With all of his education and all of his knowledge, he realized he needed salvation and he put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And here's what he said. He said creationism was a viable scientific theory for the origin of the universe, life, and man. Von Braun concluded that acknowledging the universe is designed ultimately raises the question of a designer. The scientific method does not allow us to exclude data which led to the conclusion that the universe, life, and man are based on design. How could a man that makes such a complicated rocket look at all that and say, what a wonderful accident? He knew there had to be a creator behind this wonderful creation, and his ultimate goal was to not kill people, but to go to space with his rockets. and he saw that vision could be fulfilled in America. He said to be forced to believe that everything in the universe happened by chance would violate the very objectivity of science itself. Certainly there are those who argued that the universe evolved out of a random process, but that random process could produce the brain of a man or the system of the human eye in questions, he said. What a blessed thought to know whether they be the educated or the uneducated. They need to know that God loves sinners and there's a potential with the power of the gospel to change lives. And here was a life that was changed. Paul said in Ephesians chapter two, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Oh, what a wonderful truth to know that I can look back to a time in my past that I was saved from the penalty of sin. I heard this illustration. I think it describes it so well. Being from the Midwest, I thought I was moving north, but everybody said, no, you're not north. This is the Midwest. I said, well, okay, it's north to me. But of course, Illinois and Iowa and Kansas and all those areas, I mean, they go up on a little hill and you can see for miles. It was during the fall of 1852, a high drama unfolded on the Santa Fe Trail. Captain Lowe was with his troops in Diamond Springs, what is now Kansas. He had noticed in the distance that as he marched with his soldiers, there were a group of Indians that were following him. And he kept an eye on them for a while. And he said, after a while, it was two hours before dusk in the evening, he noticed a fire that had started coming his direction. The Indians had started a fire. He said quickly his men gathered together and he said it was the most frantic 15 minutes of his life. And here's what he said that he did. He and his men started a fire in the opposite direction, and they took their blankets and their saddlebags and everything they could find, and they began to fan these fires quickly in the opposite direction. And he said, these men worked feverishly. He said, they burned their hands and their faces and doing all that they could. And sure enough, by the time that fire reached them, They were safe. And he said, why were they safe? He said, they were safe because when the fire got to where they were, it had already burned. He said they went down to the little creek that was nearby and washed their burned faces and hands. Oh, I say to you, why are we safe from the penalty of sin when you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ? Here's what Paul said in Romans chapter 6, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, Death had no more dominion over him. And Jesus said, as we think about next Sunday being resurrection day, He said, because I live, He said, you shall live also. And what a blessed thought to know that when death comes knocking at our door, we can say, hey, death, you have no more dominion over me because I'm alive in Jesus Christ. Oh, we're saved from the penalty of sin. The gospel has the power to do that. It's mighty. But not only does the gospel have the power to save me from the penalty of sin, but the gospel has the power to save me from the power of sin. The power of sin. You see, the Bible again talks about sin and its power over me, that I've been enslaved by sin. And what is sad, whether it be in the New Hebrides Islands, or whether it be the Eskimos in Canada, or in South America, wherever sinners are, that people are enslaved to sin. I recently was reading the story of Hudson Taylor and how he talks about how the Chinese people were enslaved to opium and they were enslaved to their heathen gods and their idol worship. And that's what sin does. But thank God that when you get saved, you have the power to be delivered from the power of sin over you. Again, listen to what he says in Romans 6 and verse 6, knowing this, that our old man, crucified with him. That the body of sin might be destroyed. That henceforth we should not serve sin. Isn't that wonderful? Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more and death hath no more dominion over him. We read that verse and listen to verse twelve. Let not therefore sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. I've been free from sin's domination in my life. What does he say in verse six? He said that the old man is crucified with him. Now that's not talking about your husband, ladies. That's talking about your old sin nature. that the body of sin might be destroyed. And Kenneth Weaves tells us about that word destroyed. He says, it doesn't mean to annihilate. It doesn't mean to get rid of. It means to render Him inoperative in your life. Oh, what a blessing. You don't get rid of the sin nature, but you can render Him inoperative to the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit that lives within us. I often describe it like this. When I was first pastoring, part of my job, I pastored a church, and I also worked in an auto parts store. And I'd never driven a stick shift before, and the truck that they had that I delivered the parts was a stick shift. So I had to have some on-the-job training. And I'll never forget, I was stuck on a hill one time. And you know, if you're on a hill in a stick shift and you don't have much experience, you're in trouble. And I realized that when you hit that clutch, that disengages the gears and you better have your foot on the brake or you better have your foot on the gas or you're going backwards. What a blessed thought to know. that we can put our foot on the clutch and disengage that old sin nature. You don't get rid of him. Not yet. Oh, Paul said in Galatians chapter 5, if Paul had trouble with the sin nature, don't you think you and I would as well? But praise God that we can render him, what does he say? That the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Praise God. Now I have the power to disengage that sin nature and I can live a victorious Christian life as a believer. And if I don't, it's not my fault. God's given me everything that I need to live a victorious Christian life. Oh, that's why he tells us in Galatians chapter 5, he said, to walk in the Spirit and you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. You see, God has designed this Christian life to be lived in the energy and the power of the Holy Spirit. What joy that is to know I don't have to go through a pandemic in the flesh. I can live it with the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. Oh, as this pandemic has devastated our world and people's lives. Oh, listen, why? Because they're enslaved to sin. Oh, what a wonderful thought to realize that we have the power of the gospel. Has there been a time in your life that you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Has there been a time in your life when you say, you know, Lord, I've engaged the flesh too much and too long. I need your power to help me live this Christian life. But not only that, the gospel has the power to save me one day from the presence of sin in the future. This power of the gospel. Listen to what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 51. He said, Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Skipping down to verse 54. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. You see, those verbs in that verse are in the future tense. Oh, listen. Death is still stinging your loved ones and mine. Oh, I've had to bury some godly people through this pandemic. It's been a difficult year. Oh, it's still around. Death is still stinging. Oh, listen, as you know, the death of this dear pastor, Nathan Dietrich's family, and there's been other godly and precious people. Listen, We don't understand why these things happen to godly people, but listen, it does. Death is still around. But praise God, one of these days, one of these days, I'm going to be delivered from the presence of sin, and I'll be in the presence of the King of kings, and we'll rule and reign with him a thousand years. Well, Paul said, one of these days, it's coming. Power of the gospel. But let me share with you quickly in this verse, the potential of the gospel. The potential of the gospel. He said, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone. Isn't that beautiful? It's to everyone. It's not just to a few, but it's to everyone. that we can witness and give the good news of the gospel to our neighbors, to our friends, to our coworkers, and those about us. Many years ago, I was working on one of our buildings. We had an educational building in Cullman while I was pastor. And I was working there with a Jewish man who had been in our church. He said he was saved, said he had been baptized. But as I began to talk to him a little bit more, I said, tell me about that time in your past when you trusted Christ, and he was very vague, and he began to say, you know, I was baptized as a baby, and you know, I don't know that I'm really saved. And there, working on that building, I shared the good news of the gospel with him, and he trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior. And what a blessing it was to see the change that came about his life. He was religious, of course, but he was religious but lost. How important it is. In your pastor's office, there's a picture at his wedding. It's a picture that, I don't know if I took the picture or someone else did. It's a picture of Evangelist Jack Reese John Economidas, and Dr. David Cummins. And after that picture was taken, I looked at it, and I said, there's a Jew, there's a Greek, and there's a Gentile. You see, Jack Reese was a Jew that was saved, and God used him in a mission board to share the good news of the gospel. Mr. Conomitis was our Greek teacher. I mean, not Greek teacher, but he was a teacher at Highland Park in the Bible school and our Sunday school class. We had 300 in our Sunday school class, but Mr. Conomitis, would teach the word of God and he would share his testimony how he was saved out of the Greek Orthodox Church. And of course, many of you know Dr. Cummins and what a blessing. And these three men had an impact upon Jeremy's life and they came to his wedding as a testimony of that. And I couldn't help but think, oh, the potential of the gospel to go out, the good news of the gospel. Hudson Taylor could go to the Chinese and give the good news of the gospel. I read a book recently about Gerald Champlin and how that he could go to the Congo and the Suriname and give the good news of the gospel. I read a story about the Eskimos I told you about, the good news of the gospel. Oh, people are out there in this area that need the good news of the gospel. as I was watching this lady interpret while they were singing, reminded me of the days at Highland Park when I was there. And I would sit on the front row on this side. And it was on that side where they had the deaf section. Jimmy Winburn was there as the deaf interpreter. And for the invitation time, everybody on the front row had to get up and stand to the side because they used the pew for the altar. And I'll never forget as I got up and my wife and I were sitting there and we saw some people come down and a deaf person began to, interpreter began to talk with them. Well, I didn't know sign language and still don't, but I was watching just very closely and that person, they were signing back and forth, signing back and forth. And every once in a while, the deaf interpreter would go, I don't know what that means, but I was kind of thinking, I think I know what that means. I think I know what that means. I think that person's getting saved. And all of a sudden, I didn't know what was going on, but their spirit had fellowship with my spirit. I said, I think they got saved. I think they got saved. And sure enough, they read the name and Dr. Robertson would read the person's name. This person stood up and he said, this person accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. And I said, woo, praise the Lord. I knew they got saved. Would it be the deaf? whether it be the hearing, or to realize the gospel of the good news. As I think about this church and the potential that you have in this area to share and to spread the good news of the gospel, I think about the military base that's nearby. When I was assistant pastor in Columbus, Georgia, we had a great outreach to Fort Benning, and I've led captains to the Lord Jesus Christ out on Sowinan, I've been soul winning with men who would go out and share the gospel on that base. And one fella came to me one Sunday and he said, pastor, he said, if you'll give me a bus, I'll fill it up. I said, if I give you a bus, you better fill it up. Sure enough, one Sunday, he showed up at church. He had a whole bus full of GIs, and as he got them off the bus, they said, hup, two, three, four, and they marched off that bus and lined up. I whispered to one of the men, I said, can you give them orders like that on Sunday? And they marched into that service, and that morning, about a half a dozen of those young fellows got saved and accepted Jesus Christ. Oh, listen, there's great potential in this area. As I drive around with your pastor and see homes going up left and right in his neighborhood, in this neighborhood, when I first moved to Chillicothe, Illinois, Caterpillar, which has had the world headquarters there in our area, they started building homes left and right. And then all of a sudden in 2008, they stopped. and they built maybe a few sins, but our area is kind of winding down and is not growing like it was. But what a blessing to see homes and families. You got people coming to you from all around the world that need the gospel, the potential. Paul said, to everyone that believeth. Oh, what a great outreach you can have in this ministry. But let me share with you a problem. Now, it's not a problem with the gospel. There's no problem with the gospel whatsoever. But Paul mentions there's a problem. And he says, for I am not ashamed. Which tells us that maybe there were some that were ashamed. Isn't it amazing how bold and outspoken the world is getting. And oftentimes they want to shame the righteous and the godly in the silence. And Paul said, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. When I think about what our Savior did for us on this Palm Sunday and this Passion Week, Oh, that Peter said, our Savior not only died, but he mentioned a number of times he suffered and died. For who? For sinners. And he says, oh, I can't be ashamed. I can't be ashamed of what my Savior, that God left heaven and came to this earth. He loved sinners and He not only died, but He suffered and died on a cruel cross. And as He died upon that cross, He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. He said, it is finished. The redemption for man has been paid. And the resurrection proved that. Listen to what he would say to Timothy. In 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 8, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. In verse 12, For the witchcalls I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. Oh, let me challenge you as a church. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Don't be ashamed of the good news. Jesus saves. Oh, Jesus died for everyone. And maybe there are people in your neighborhood that you could invite this week to come to church next Sunday. Say, hey, we'll be safe. We'll do whatever's necessary. We'd love to have you in our services. Maybe there are people that you work with at a rocket center that need to hear the truth of the gospel, not to be ashamed. You remember I mentioned there were two captains and two ships that responded to the same disaster in two separate ways. You see, Captain Stanley Lord kept out of his captain's log any mention of seeing rockets that night. It came out in the press that two of his crewmen revealed it later. In his book on the Titanic, Stephen Cox said, Attorney General Isaac surmised meeting ice for the first time in his career that Stanley Lord decided that he did not want to test his own ship against the unaccustomed risk. For this he was censored by Lord Mercy and Senator Smith and he was fired by the Leland Lines. He would forever try to explain his actions. Strangely enough, the last warning that was given by the wireless operator on the Titanic came from the Californian. But there was another captain and another ship in the area that night. Not quite as close. It was the Carpathania. It was commanded by Captain Ralston. Immediately upon hearing the distress of the Titanic, he set sail through the dangerous ice. In fact, when the wireless operator went rushing to the cabin or to the deck of the ship They went hastily down to the captain's quarters and told him. And without verifying any of this, just going on the word of his men, he immediately took action. Light Trawler, who was an officer on the Titanic, said this, Absolutely no effort shall be spared in an endeavor to save life at sea. And man must be even prepared to hazard his ship and his life." In fact, that's exactly what Captain Rostrand did. In fact, There is a list of things that he implemented, and I'll not read all of them to you, but immediately he took action. 23 things he implemented. And one person said, it acts as a planning for any ship seeking to rescue people at sea. order all off-duty crew to be summoned, chief engineer to get as much speed as possible out of the ship, prepare and swing all lifeboats out, set up electronic lights alongside the ship's hull, open all gangway doors, and on and on and on. He did these 23 things and sailed as fast as he could in the dead of night through icebergs, through dangerous territory. People are in need. and they need help. Rolstron did arrive to rescue close to 800 people that night. On his journey to New York after the sinking, a committee was created with the intention of rewarding Captain Rolstron and his crew. And they begin to take up money of the crew, the people that were on the Carpathania. They took up $15,000. And that was a sizable sum in 1912. Six weeks later, the Carpathania made her first scheduled visit to New York. since returning Titanic survivors. A ceremony was held aboard her to present each crew member with a special medal. The crew of the Carpathania was rewarded by their employers, and they gave them a month's wages as a gratitude for their heroic actions on the sea. The following year, Rostrand and his wife went to Washington, D.C., where they received the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Taft. Again, in 1926, Rostrand was recognized by the British Empire, given the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. One man refused to act. And another man said, we must act. And I would say to you and this church and to your pastor, the commander of this vessel, to throw out the lifeboats, man your stations. Let's do all that we can in Huntsville and yea around the world to rescue the souls of men wherever we find them. And I believe the judge He will reward you. Maybe in this life or maybe the next. But how sad it is when we are ashamed. We allow the world to intimidate us. We are embarrassed or we don't want to say anything about it. But oh listen, we need to act and to act now. Would you bow with me in prayer? Your greatest need is the power of the gospel. The gospel can change lives. And whether they be in the New Hebrides Islands, or whether they be working at the Huntsville Space Station, creating rockets, they need the good news of the gospel. And I pray that you would ask God to help you, first of all, know that you're saved, and second, Get busy.