Pastor asked me to preach this morning, and I battle these things all the time, because I have my messages I really like to preach. Some messages that God speaks to me every time I study them, every time I preach them. And then there's some that the Lord just won't, you need to preach this. You're getting one of those this morning, and the Lord just put it on my heart. I wanted to preach something else, but he won't let me. So I'm just going to do what God told me to do, and I pray it'll be a help and a blessing to you. So with that being said, take your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 8. Genesis chapter 8. We all know the story of Noah. I'm not going to pretend to try to teach you anything you don't know about the story. We know that. But I couldn't help but think, I guess that's why the Lord laid it on my heart. The pastor and I have been talking over, well, actually on the phone a few weeks ago and then yesterday, just some different things. And as we've traveled the country, as I look around, I really, I'm not trying to, please don't misunderstand me. I'm not trying to say I'm anything like Noah, but I can imagine Noah coming off the ark and looking around and seeing the utter devastation and destruction that's around him. I can imagine brother Noah coming off the ark and thinking to himself, man, life will never be the same. I can imagine Noah looking around and saying, I cannot believe God. Why would you allow this? I don't understand. I trust you and you got me through it. I just see all those things. Well, and then I started thinking about myself here the last year and not just me selfishly, but all of us. Maybe you're standing, maybe you came off of your ark this morning and you look around and you're like, man, what's going on in our country? And we look around and see what we might call destruction. We've driven through places like Portland and places that are literally crumbling. And we've been through some big cities and we've seen, you know, I'm prior law enforcement. I've talked to lots of law enforcement around the country and the disdain for authority and just the utter destruction. And there are times I've looked around and said, Lord, and then the COVID thing, and then Lord, life will never be the same. And the Lord's like, well, this isn't the first time. This is not your, this is not the first time I've been through something like this. And if I can get Noah through it, then I can get you through it. And so this morning, that's just what the Lord put on my heart to preach to you this morning. So with this help, I'm gonna preach on this, a new start. You say, Brother Lance, yeah, but there's no, I mean, the flood's not over. I mean, we're looking around. I mean, the flood's still there. There's still water, you know, stagnant. And I'm speaking, you know, in an analogy. As we look around, maybe you see standing water all around us, and you still see destruction. But here's the reality. It can be a new, it should be a new start for us every single day. When we wake up, God gave us another day to serve him, and God's not done with us. I mentioned Elisha this morning as he, had his mountaintop experience, and he comes down, we all know this story, and he's sitting under the juniper tree, and he's like, man, I'm no better than my fathers, and I just wanna die. Take me home. And I have, in our travels in this last year or two, as we've traveled around, so many preachers and friends of mine that were, and they still are faithfully serving, but they had that attitude where they're just under the juniper tree, not saying woe is me necessarily, but Lord, I just wanna go home. Lord, I'm done. Lord, just take me home. I'm ready to go. But we're still here. That means God's not done with us. And every day is a new start. And the Lord has put us here and left us here for a reason. And there's still lost souls. I was thinking about the travesty of what's going on in Afghanistan, what has been for the last month or two. And you know, in the military, they taught us no man left behind. I remember getting all worked up. I had watched the news and my wife won't let me watch the news anymore because my blood pressure goes up and I just get. But I started getting so angry because I mean, they taught me that as a young recruit in the military, no man left behind ever. You go back, if they're dead, you pull them off the battlefield. You don't leave people behind. I saw that stuff going on and I just got all angry. And then God, He started poking me in the heart and saying, look around you. Look at all the people in this nation that will be left behind if I call you home. No man left behind, and you've given up, and get out there and reach them, because the church is still alive and well, and God is still on the throne, and we still have a job to do. We are just as guilty of those that left people and resources over there. We're just as guilty when we have a neighbor, or a friend, or a co-worker, or a church member that we have failed to reach with the gospel. Boy, the Lord just, you say, Brother Lance, why, you're not even preaching yet. You're just, you don't have any goodness to Scripture yet. But if the Lord's beating me up, I'm just gonna share the blessing, amen? Yeah, Brother Lance, you're supposed to be presenting your ministry and being a blessing and encouragement to us. Well, I'm gonna try. But first we gotta get to the place where we realize how much we need God. I think of all these things when I look at Genesis and I think of Brother Noah. We all know the sayings that are out there. I've got a whole bunch of stuff written down. I probably won't even get to all of this, but we know, you know, before the storm and we know in the middle of this storm and usually we are pretty good about going to the Lord in prayer before the storm. You see something coming, Oh Lord Jesus, please help us. Come on now. Maybe the first time you watched the news about COVID, Oh Lord, please. In the middle of the storm, you know, come on, when your boat's getting rocked and you are in trouble, you're like, Lord, please, God, please help me. It reminds me of the disciples in the boat, you know, as it's filling with water and the Lord's sleeping, Master, care it so not that we perish. You know, we're pretty good about that. But what about after the storm? Now the sun's coming out. Things are starting to quiet down. Suddenly we don't need God quite like we did in the middle of COVID. We just kind of go on our way. I would argue we need God more with that new beginning, that new start, that start over, that new day, whatever you want to call it, than we do in the middle of it. We need the Lord. And it's going to continue to cycle. We know that. You've heard that before. If you're not getting ready to go into the storm, you're in the storm. If you're not in the storm, you're coming out of a storm. But it's always one of those three. If you're coming out of one, you're going to hit another one. I mean, that's just the way life is. And we know that is true. Look at the text with me in Genesis chapter eight. I don't know how much of this I'll read, maybe, I don't know, we might get through most of the chapter, I don't know. Genesis chapter eight, verse number one, I could, I love verse number one. And God remembered Noah. the Lord knows where you are, and he has not forgotten you. In fact, you're sitting there thinking, man, the Lord's forgotten me, and man, I feel like God has just kinda, maybe we feel like we're praying and asking God to do things, and we wonder if he even hears us. Listen, God's not a respecter of persons. If God remembered Noah, that means God's gonna remember you, and he knows. By the way, remember doesn't mean as in he forgot you. Remember means that you're on the forefront of his mind. I just praise the Lord for that. God remembered Noah and every living thing, and the cattle that was with him in the ark, and God made a wind to pass over the earth. And the waters assuaged. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. Verse 3, And the waters returned from off the earth continually, and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. The ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat. The waters decreased continually until the tenth month, and in the tenth month on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen. And it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, and he sent forth a raven. went forth to and fro, which went forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth. And also he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from the face of the ground, but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot and she returned unto him into the ark. For the waters were on the face of the whole earth and he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her into him into the ark. And he stayed yet, verse 10, and he stayed yet seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came in to him in the evening, and low in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So no one knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet another seven days, and sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him. anymore. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for today. Lord, I thank you for this church. Lord, I thank you for Pastor Rogers. While I've not known him very long, Lord, just this last year, Lord, I already have got a glimpse of his heart. Lord, I've been to the church a couple times. Lord, I pray you would bless him, bless his ministry, bless his family. Lord, bless this church. Lord, each and every one that's here, both in person and those that are watching via live stream. God, I pray that you would meet with us. Lord, I pray that it's not just another sermon to listen to or to watch or just another church service to attend. But Lord, I pray that you'd speak to us, encourage us. Lord, I desperately need you. And I know that your people do as well. Lord, it would do us little good to come together in church without you. We need you. Lord, we love you. We ask all these things in Jesus name. Amen. You know, God did not fail. God did not forget. God did not forsake. He was there. He remembered Noah and he remembers every one of us, no matter what you're going through, no matter what the events of this last year and a half had had for you. And sometimes it's worse than that. You know, I know I mentioned it in January and I was talking to the pastor about it yesterday, but I lost my dad a little over three years ago. He was a pastor in North Idaho for 28 years. He was only 70 and God took him home. And there are things like that loss. And I know many of you have loss. Where we go through a time and we had something and now it's gone. Or we thought we had something and we no longer see it. Or we find ourselves in a position and no longer that position is there. Well, Noah, like us, is right in that kind of situation. Imagine the loss. and what he was feeling. God, how could you say you love people and love humanity and allow that to happen? I can't even imagine what Brother Noah was thinking at these times, but yet we know that he stayed faithful. We know that he was where God told him to be and did what God told him to do through it all, amen? And we ought to do the same, and we ought to be faithful, and we ought to continue to assemble. We ought to continue to serve God. We ought to continue to be faithful. But there are three things especially I want to pull out from this passage that we In order to have a new day, you say, Brother Lance, I don't even see a new day coming. Well, then make a new day. Ask God to give you a new day. And I think we need to put these things in place to make sure that we're exactly where God wants us to be, regardless of the destruction and the things that we see around. Three things. So first thing I want you to notice is this, the dove. We have a peace in knowing. You say, Brother Lance, what are you talking about? I mean, where do you see that here? Well, you say, brother Lance, knowing isn't really a thing. Well, actually knowing is a huge thing. If you don't think about it, well, maybe you haven't thought about it. How many things do you really know? We don't know much. We don't know much. We like to brag about knowing a lot. The reality is we really don't know much. But God has given us some certain things. There are a lot of claims out there to truth. I've watched a lot of things. I've studied a lot of things. Truth. In fact, there's a big program out there called The Truth Project. What is true in this world? Lots of truth claims. And the devil has lots of truth claims too. Oh, this is true. But most things aren't true. And of course, the big scandal in the media, fake news has been everywhere. Fake news, everything's fake news. What is true? Well, I'm gonna tell you something. There is a peace in knowing. And when I say that is, instead of watching the news, and instead of watching what's going on, and instead of watching, here's a big one, social media and what everybody else is saying, why don't we go to the word of God? Because we have a peace in our hearts in knowing. In knowing what? In knowing Him. And in knowing that there is truth, ultimate truth. There is something that is sure. There is something that is steadfast. There is something that is solid. And it is Christ. In this world where there's nothing that we really know, there is one that we can know, and He is true. And Noah had the exact same peace in knowing. He knew that God was true. He believed God and he had a peace in his heart in spite as he looked around and saw, I can't imagine again, sitting on that mountain and looking around from the top of that ark. Can you imagine the mud and the silt and the destruction? But yeah, I believe this with all my heart that Noah had a peace. Obviously no one else was around, but if there were other people around that I doubt they would have. And in these days, listen, that's something I believe is one of the most effective witnessing tools we have right now in the middle of all the catastrophe and in the middle of all the chaos that's in the world. When the world looks at the members of Faith Baptist, do they see someone who has a peace that the world does not have? When they look at you and they see your life and they see your faithfulness and they see you not being discouraged, Lord willing, and not being publicly, you know, losing your mind. And they're like, how do you stay so calm? You know, how do you have hope? And how do you have joy? I mean, look at the world around you. But we have a peace that they don't have. There is a peace in knowing, well, I don't need to tell you all this because we know that Scripture talks about the symbolism of the dove. The Holy Spirit gives us peace. The dove is a picture of the Holy Spirit, but it's also a symbol internationally of peace. We have peace. And it's not because of a dove, it's because of Him. And we have a peace in knowing Him that the world will never have. In this day, if you want a new start, if you want to start over again, if you're like, man, I wish I could just undo everything and start over. Well, you can. And when we wake up saying, Lord, I want to start with you, and I want to start by focusing on you, we can wake up no matter what's going on around us, no matter what chaos and loss is there, we can have a peace that no one else does. I don't know how much peace you have in your life, and I'm not here to tell you that I am always full of peace. There are days I wake up and I am full of turmoil. I'm just like you. I have days I get stressed out and I wake up with things on my mind. There are times I go to bed and I've got all these things and I can't sleep. Maybe y'all are better than that, but there's times I can't sleep because my mind won't stop. I keep thinking about all these things. Man, is the prison going to let me back in there? And where are we going to live? I don't have a house. I don't have any money. How are we going to do this? Lord, I don't understand. And Lord, I mean, what if the new commander doesn't like me? What if the new chaplain? I mean, and what, when are the inmates going to come? And Lord, I don't, what about my wife? I've got to take care of her and we're living in this trailer. And Lord, come on, is anyone else, you know, maybe I'm, I don't know, maybe y'all are more spiritual than me. I have those days, but I also have him. And if you don't have Jesus this morning, you have no clue about what I'm talking about. But if you do have the Lord, you know that when the whole world has lost its collective mind, we can be of a sound mind. We have Him, we have a peace. And Noah had, he might not have had anything else at that time. I can't imagine what that ark smelled like. But he had a peace right here. I know my God. is there. And he sends this dove off, and he knows that she brings back, and I don't know what that meant, maybe to you and me, we don't even really think much of that, but I want you to think about the immense meaning, the huge symbolism that's there. As he looks around and sees nothing, nothing but water for hundreds of days, and now, and maybe he couldn't even see an olive tree or any kind of plant, But when that dove brought back just a symbol, hey, not only is there something alive, but it is bearing fruit, and it is fruit that you like. My wife loves olives. I don't care for them too much. But I'm sure Noah was ecstatic when he saw an olive branch. Praise the Lord. You know, maybe God gives us glimpses. I think he does. I think he gives us glimpses of His promise is being fulfilled just knowing. I wrote down this on my notes and sometimes I forget about this stuff, but no is written in the New Testament 793 times, no, K-N-O-W. God says, I want you to know. There are a lot of things, God. We can know things because of God in a world where we don't know. And we just thank the Lord for those things. There is that peace and knowing. John 14 is full of things that we can know certain things because of Christ. I have a whole bunch of scriptures here. I don't have time to read through all of them, but you know, we cannot, we can't earn things. It's gift that God gives to us, this peace. The Holy Spirit, you can't earn Him. He's a gift from us. Look what it says in Matthew 3.16. You don't have to turn there unless you want to, but I've got a whole list of verses. Matthew 3.16 says, And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him. You say, well, Brother Lance, that doesn't really happen. Well, actually, it should. I'm not talking supernatural, you see something that comes down like a dove and lights upon someone. But listen, it ought to be really evident in our lives when the Holy Spirit rests upon somebody. And it ought to be really apparent to the community here in Sacramento, North Highlands, when a church member has a piece of God, they ought to be able to see God on you. I'm not saying you're perfect. I'm not saying that you have no errors. I'm not saying that you are just super spiritual. What I'm saying is they ought to see a difference. They ought to see a glimpse of Him when they look at us. That's what they ought to see. That's what makes us different. The only thing that's different about us and the world is we have Him. Without Him, we are just like anyone else. And they ought to see that. And if we have that peace, then the world ought to have a glimpse of that peace. And that's why oftentimes I've had men come to me and say, well, Brother Lance or Chaplain Lance or whatever they call me, you're not like the other guys. I want what you have. And some of them came from very religious backgrounds. And I've been to church, but I've met a lot of, yeah, they say they're Christians, but But you're not like that. Praise the Lord, and I'm not trying to say, oh, look at me, how good I am, because I guarantee you I let them down. I tell them all the time, I will let you down. But they ought to see something different in us. Well, that's a glimpse of that peace, the Holy Spirit resting upon us, and we ought to be Christian, Christ-like, in the fact that we have the Holy Spirit upon us. Luke 3, 322, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven and said, Thou art my beloved Son, and thee I am well pleased. That's a convicting thing to me because we say we're Christ-like. Do we hear God in our lives saying, Yes, I'm pleased with you? If he sees Christ in us, we know that he is our righteousness. Maybe you're saying, well, Brother Lance, don't even compare me to Jesus. And I understand that. In fact, I've said that many times, but we forget some of the scripture, like 2 Corinthians 5.21. For he hath made him, Jesus, to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God. Now maybe that doesn't mean anything to you, but when I'm talking to a man that has committed murder, when I'm talking to a man that has done some egregious crime, and they say, man, there is no way, sir, God, well, I am doomed for hell. Listen, God says, give me all your junk, and I'm gonna give you all of my righteousness. Do you know how amazing that is to a man that knows he deserves help? That's really the problem. I think some of us have gotten to the point where we've been a Christian a long time and we're kind of used to being a good person and we start thinking we deserve it. Grace is unmerited. That means you can't deserve it more than that guy. Come on, but we think we do. And maybe that's why we fail to be as diligent as we should be in the world reaching people, because, well, yeah, but those people aren't really church people. Exactly, and neither were we before Christ saved us. There ought to be a peace in knowing. There ought to be something different about us. Noah had something that maybe his family, maybe they didn't see the dove, maybe they didn't notice, but he could go to his family and say, listen, God is upon me. God is there. God has promised. Has it ever occurred to you that you might have someone around you that might not get the same glimpse of the Lord that you got? And you might have a peace that maybe they haven't seen and they're waiting to see someone else that's that's excited about God and that has got a glimpse of something they didn't get, maybe God could use you to encourage someone that's not here. Maybe his family saw the difference in his visage, his demeanor after he saw this dove with the, I just believe as soon as he saw, I just believe it, that he ran. You're not gonna believe this, look! And they're like, yeah, so what, it's a branch. No, no, no, you don't understand. Maybe, listen, maybe it takes you going to someone else that's in the church and saying, listen, don't be down. Don't be discouraged. It's almost over. We can have a new start. This is not done. This is not our end. Yes, it stinks in here right now. But we're fixing to get off this boat. You know, maybe the Lord's waiting for us to get off our boat, and maybe we're just like the apostles, thinking we're gonna go down, and we've come to the point where we go to the Lord like they did in that story where the Lord, where they wake him up, and I mentioned it already, but Master, carest thou not that we perish? And maybe you've asked the Lord, God, you don't even care that we're dying. Do you have that peace of knowing? Secondly, I want you to see this about the text. There is a, something else I want you to see, an altar. There is an altar, a place for kneeling. So there's a peace in knowing, but there's also a place for kneeling. If we want to have a new day, we cannot go on through life without this. Look what the Bible says in verse 13. And it came to pass in the 600th and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked. And behold, the face of the ground was dry, and in the second month, on the seventh and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God spoke unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou and thy wife and thy sons and thy sons' wives with thee, bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful and multiply in the earth. Verse 18, And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his son's wife with him, and every beast, and every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark. Look what the very first thing he does. Verse 20, And Noah built an altar unto the LORD. and every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered a burnt offering." Burnt offerings on the altar. You know, there's a place for kneeling. If you want to have a new start. Meanwhile, I want you to remember, as he still looked around, there might have been some new plants sprouting up. There might have been some, obviously we know that there was something somewhere because the dove brought back. It doesn't happen overnight. And maybe there are just some sprouts here and there, but it was still, I want you to imagine in your mind, if you've ever been to a flooded area, which I have been before, it is utter destruction and it is ugly and it stinks. But as maybe he saw some sprouts here and there, the very first thing that Noah did was not say, really, Lord? What am I supposed to do? Look at this place. That's not what he did. The very first thing he did was build an altar and sacrifice to the Lord and said, God, thank you. You know, I really believe that maybe our attitudes as Christians, mine would be, my attitude would be greatly impacted if every day I just said, Lord, thank you. Give me another day. Lord, the wages of sin is death. And yes, I know I have you as my savior, but I still deserve to die. I still deserve hell. Lord, you gave me another day. Lord, while I look around and there's still destruction, Lord, I've got two beautiful daughters that love You. I've got two son-in-laws that love You. I've got a beautiful grandson and Lord willing, a granddaughter next month. And Lord, You've been so good and You've let me see so many get saved. God, You've been so good. Lord, thank You for all that You are. But too often we get up in the morning instead of going to the Lord and taking a knee and praying. We complain. We turn on the TV or we get on social media and we look at what's going on in the world and immediately our attitudes are, come on now, our attitudes are changed. Oh, can you believe this? There have been times, I'll just be honest with you, I'll just be transparent. I'll get up in the morning and maybe I'll look on an email or social media or something. One of my friends posted something. Christy, can you believe this? Look at this. Come on now, is there anyone else? Instead of going to the Lord and being spiritual and saying, Lord, I need you today. Lord, help me today. And I'm going to start my day with you. Instead, we start on a note like that. You know how your days go. My days are never good that time. I wonder how many people, if they saw me that day when I didn't go to the Lord first, and maybe I went back and read my Bible later, but I didn't start off well, and my attitude's kind of stinky, and maybe it's not what it should be, and they don't see the peace of God on me because I didn't start it the way I should be. I wonder how many people that have gone by that didn't see the Lord in me that should have, and maybe I was the only hope that they have. Because I didn't have that place for kneeling. It didn't matter what the peace I had for knowing I know God here, but I didn't submit myself to the Lord. You know, we need to be a living sacrifice. My life verse, if you want to call it that, Romans 12, one and two, a living sacrifice. God wants us on the altar every day. Lord, I'm yours. I'm not here for me. I'm not here for my good. I'm here for yours. If you want to have a new day and you want to have a new start in the middle of all the chaos and all the destruction like Brother Noah had, I think we probably ought to take notes and say, you know what, I need to build an altar. I know some people, my dad was one of them, who literally did that. I remember back when I was a boy, he heard someone preach about prayer and family prayer and different things. He literally, he was a woodworker, and he literally built an altar. We had a family altar, literally, in our home. And we would meet there for prayer. Dad would pray with us, and we'd have Bible study there and that kind of thing. And I'm not saying that you need to necessarily do that, but I'm gonna tell you something. We need to have a place for kneeling, and we ought to have an altar in our life. And the very first thing that we do is ought to go to God instead of going to everything else. In other words, we'll never have a new start. It'll be the same old thing until the day we take our last breath. And it'll be utter chaos and we'll just go through life shaking our head saying, Lord, really? I can't believe this. Well, I'm glad I have you. And I know a lot of Christians that they go their entire life that way. I don't want that. I want more than that. I want to have a new day. I want to be able to do something for God. I wrote a few things down. Have you ever been closer to God than you are now? If so, maybe an altar. Have you just come through a storm? Maybe you're in a storm, maybe an altar. Have you praised or thanked God for His salvation, for His provisions, for His direction, for His help in these times? Maybe, if not, maybe you need to build an altar. And again, I'm talking about in the altar of your heart, you know, and spiritually, I pray that we come to that place. Last thing, I know we're about out of time. Listen, the last thing this morning, I want you to notice this, the rainbow, a promise that he's keeping. So we know that there's a peace of knowing, and we know that there's a place for kneeling, but look at this promise that he's keeping. The Bible says in verse number 21, and the Lord smelled a sweet savor. By the way, I just believe this. When we get our hearts focused on God, and we focus on His peace, and we focus on Him, and He finds us on the altar of sacrifice and putting everything that we have on Him, that it smells good to Him. The altar smelled a sweet savor, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I again smite every living thing as I have done. By the way, in my studies I noticed this is, from what I could find, the only place in Scripture that God directly contrasts His own heart with man's heart. There are many places in scripture that talk about God's heart and many places it talks about man's heart, but in the same verse, it's the only place I could find where in the same verse it directly contrasts his heart with ours. The reason I'm bringing that forward is this, because obviously this is a Sunday church crowd. I know that at least you strive to love God and be faithful, and we come to church because we at least say that we love God, but oftentimes the danger in a religious crowd, and remember, Jesus, those are the ones who got rebuked by the Lord the most. The religious crowd, usually we get to the point where we're full of ourselves, and we start to think, kind of what I said a little bit ago, that our heart's not so bad. But I want you to read again what it says. And the Lord spelled a sweet saber and the Lord said, in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I against my anymore let every loving thing as I have done. Did you notice that in this text, although I know he loved Noah, and although I believe he literally saved Noah, and he saved his family, and he used Noah, and Noah was faithful, he did not say that they're all evil except for Noah. Did you notice that? Did you know that we might be born again, but you're still a dirty, rotten, good-for-nothing sinner without Christ? The only righteousness we have is His. The only goodness, the only spiritual thing we have is Him. The only reason we've been made spiritual is Him. We are still wicked. Jeremiah 17, nine, we know our hearts are desperately wicked. We have no, I hate it when I hear this in the prison. Oh, well, I'm just gonna follow my heart. No, don't do that. Listen, I don't care if you are a Christian, don't follow your heart, follow Him. because our hearts are still wicked. You know what men do? Exactly what men want to do. The only way we're not gonna do what we wanna do is if we're saying, God, I don't wanna do what I wanna do, and I choose, I want to do what you want me to do. That's it. There's a promise that he's keeping, and he says, I won't do that again. Remember what I said, there's a peace of knowing. A lot of people tell you, hey, listen, I promise I'll do this. Hey, listen, I promise I'll do that. Hey, I promise I'll do this. I'm thinking of a verse, I don't even think it's in my notes, but let me see if I can find it really quick. Here it is, 2 Peter 3, verse 9. Some of y'all know this. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness. But as longsuffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Here's the reality. We're a bunch of slackers. When we promise stuff, we might mean it, and sometimes we carry it through. But the bottom line is this, when God promises something, He promises something and He does it. It's not like men, who we promise things that sometimes don't get done. When we have that promise that God's keeping, that is a huge blessing. That's where our peace comes from. That's where our strength comes from. God says you can bank, take it to the bank. God is gonna be there for us. And the reason some of us are struggling is because we don't recognize that God's promise remains. The Bible says in verse 22, while the earth remaineth seen time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease. Some of us worry about all these scientists that tell us the earth's dying, duh. The wages of sin is, yes, it's dying. That's why he's gonna make a new earth. It didn't surprise us, and we should... No, I'm not saying... We ought to be good stewards and do everything we can, I understand that. But the bottom line is, God says, until I come and get you, I promise it's going to be there. You know what the reality is? But we stress and strain because we're not trusting God. If we want to have a new start, we need to realize that God keeps His promises, a promise. that he's keeping. I don't have time to go into the rainbow and talk about all those things. I'm going to tell you this, that that is a glimpse of light and God has made us so many different promises and it allows us to see the, I could talk about the sunbreak. God, we need to get a glimpse of the sun. And in order to have a rainbow, you have to have the sun. And I'm talking about S-O-N. In order to have a rainbow in any color in your life, we've got to have him. He just chooses to let us be the ones that He uses. The water of His Word is what refracts the light and lets us see the depth and the radiance of His colors and all the things that God has for us. That's why He chooses to use us. I don't have time to go into all these things, but do you have the promise that He's keeping? I'll close with this thought. I could read John chapter 14, talks about, you know, don't worry and He's coming again for us. We understand that. What I want to close on is, though, 1 John 5 13, these things have I written unto you. God wants us to know that we can have eternal life in him. If there's someone in here that's never trusted Christ, and maybe you're looking at all this stuff around, maybe you're like Noah, and you're looking at all the destruction around, maybe you just need to trust God. Maybe you just need to get saved this morning. I think there's a lot of religious people in churches that have never truly been born again, and that's why we struggle so much. I'm not, you say, Brother Lance, you're trying to get me to doubt my salvation. Well, if I can cause you to doubt your salvation, well, good, get saved. Because I'm going to tell you something. I've heard many convicting messages that make me evaluate and look back at myself. But here's the thing. Whenever I start getting heavy preaching on salvation and your walk with the Lord, there are absolutely times I get convicted. I'm like, man, I am dirty rotten, Lord. I need you so desperately. But those times I'm like, man, there is nothing good about me but you. And he's like, that's right. You might be a dirt bag, but you're mine. Come on now. I mean, the Lord just puts His arms around me. I know that no matter my humanity, that I belong to Him. If I can make you doubt your salvation this morning, maybe you just need to look at the things that you can know in Christ. He keeps His promises. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Maybe you're a believer that's struggling with other things, and you just need to trust God for what He said He will do. He'll bring you through this. By the way, and if He doesn't, and like my dad, He chooses to take you home, so threaten me with heaven. I know I'm kind of being insensitive about that. Trust me, I've had many days crying over it. But the Lord just told me one day, I love your dad more than you do, son. I miss him every day. But you know what? If God chooses to take me home or take someone home, we can still have a peace in knowing. We can still have a place for kneeling. And whenever I pray, I ask the Lord, give my dad a hug for me, Lord. Listen, I've got things the world doesn't have. Listen, do you have things that the world doesn't have? Do you have Jesus? Let's have every head bowed and every eye closed. As the pastor and the musicians come, I don't know how the pastor wants to close today, but a new start. Maybe a new start is you getting saved. Maybe a new start is doing what Noah did and said, you know what, I need to build an altar in my life. I need to set up a place where I go to the Lord every day. Maybe you just need to come to the altar this afternoon. Heavenly Father, thank you for your goodness and grace. Thank you for your Word. Lord, forgive the delivery of a simple man, but Lord, I pray somehow the truth of your Word will help encourage and bless someone. We love you. We thank you for your goodness and grace. Work as only you can, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's all stand, those that can, as the musician begins to play. Pastor, you come.