The Bible says in verse number 28, yea rather blessed, the Bible says, are they that hear the word of God and keep it. That word blessed here in the verse, it means to be well off. It also means, yeah, to be happy. It means well off and it means to be happy. And the Bible is saying in these verses that Jesus says that you are a happy person, you are a blessed person, you are a well off person if you do two things. He says the first thing is this, they that hear the word of God. And that word here in this verse expresses a continuous or repeated action. In other words, you don't just hear the word one time, that's it. No, you continue to hear the word of God. You repeatedly hear the word of God. But not just hearing the word of God, the Bible says we have a conjunction about to take place, and the Bible says, and, The word keep means to keep, amen. He says right here, you have heard the word and then you keep it. To keep it means to adhere to it, it means to apply it, it means to follow it. And once again, in the grammar that is written, it also means a continuous or repeated action. So in other words, we will repeatedly hear the Word of God, and we repeatedly keep the Word of God. Now, if you and I were to do that, the Bible says, blessed is a person that does this. Happy is a person that does this. But now, what's the opposite of happy? Well, it ain't good. The opposite of happy could be misery. The opposite of happy could be in toil, distress, anger. Now, who knows? It could be a number of things, but it surely is not the word happy, and it's not the word blessed. Let me ask us this morning, are you happy? Are you happy? And could it be that if you, if, if, if you are not happy, it's because you have heard the word, but you're not getting it. Or perhaps we are not hearing the word at all. We follow our own desires, our own heart. Well, you know, that gets you in trouble. The Bible teaches us that our hearts are deceitfully wicked. The Bible tells us we can't trust our heart, but we'll say, you know what? I'm just going to follow my heart. How many times have you followed your heart and got hurt? That's right. Come on. Because you felt the pit of pat, or you felt your heart rate begin to increase, and you followed that direction, even though someone may have told you, or you may have heard in the Word of God, that that ain't the right route to take. Oh, but my heart. Yeah, your heart can trick you, your heart can fool you, but the word of God will never mislead you. The Bible says, happy is the person. Blessed is the person that continuously, repeatedly hears the word of God and then keeps it in the well. Let me ask you, what has God told you here lately? that you've not kept. What has he expressed to you lately or perhaps a while ago that you've not done the follow-through? See, the follow-through is very important because sometimes we can know what to do and then don't do it. That follow-through is so important. And I want us to briefly Look at a well-familiar gentleman from the Word of God who heard the Word of God, but did not keep the Word of God. And because he did not keep the Word of God, he was not a happy camper. Go with me to the familiar book of Jonah. Go, yeah, when we say Jonah, folks are like that. You know, church I grew up in, that's when folks put their hand up and then they tiptoe out right here. But you know what, we ain't gonna tiptoe out, amen? What we gonna do is we gonna dive into the word and see what it says. Hold me to Jonah chapter one and look at verse number one. The first thing we see is the request to Jonah. the request to Jonah. The Bible says, and Jonah is right after Obadiah, that ain't gonna help ya, is right before Micah, that might help ya, amen, but nonetheless, go on to the front of your Bible and the index there, it'll show you in order where you go in the table of pages, okay? Amen, all right. Now go to Jonah chapter one, it's all right. Go to Jonah chapter one and verse one. The Bible says, watch it, Hallelujah. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and try against it, for their wickedness is come up before me. So it's very clear that Jonah heard the word. The Bible says, now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah. This morning, the word of God will come to us. And the question will be this, when the word comes to us, how will we respond? How will we react? How will we follow the request that's been given to us by our Lord and our Savior, by our King of Kings and our Lord of Lords? The Bible says that the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittiah, saying, hooray! I need you to get up, boy. Go to Nineveh, that great city. Now, sometimes we hear that word, great, we get pumped up. Woo, got something great for me, glory, hallelujah. He said, Nineveh. Woo. But Lord, you know them old don't like this over Nineveh. Uniforms over there, maybe they treat us a pretty roughly. They're not treating us right lit Oh, but I beat you to go to Nineveh, and I want you to cry against it I want you to proclaim against it for their wickedness has come up before me Now how would you respond? If God tells you to go talk to somebody he tells you beforehand, they're wicked Those are jacked up, messed up folks. You know what's coming to my mind right now? Work. Yep. You want a new job? You want that money, fine. And you're like, woo-wee. And gosh, I got a good job for you. But those people are cray-cray. But I want you to help them. Look, I have the job I'm looking for. I'm looking for that job where everybody's happy, everybody loves each other, everybody comes in, good morning, good morning, whoa, it's glorious to be on the top today. I don't want to go to that place where people walking in like this. It's Monday. So bad, but Monday, Monday is Monday. Sometimes Tuesday feels like Monday. I just wanna, man, we've had it. This COVID-19 been good to some of us. We stay home, get checks in the mail. I'm just telling you, I mean, oops, I'm sorry. But anyway! Some people have been on vacation. Some people have been having parties every night. Ask some of your fellow worshipers. They brought some neighbors. They've been living it up, amen, for three, five, six, eight months. But you know what? But then God says, I want you to go here. I want you to work for this boss. That's mean as a rattlesnake. That isn't a job for me. But if God assigns you there, then it's a job for you. And God wants to use you there. Instead of us keep trying to run, we run from this place to that place, looking over here, I'm looking for the perfect, I'm looking for the, you ain't gonna find that here. The Bible always tells us we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Bible says if you say you have no sin, you deceive yourself, and the truth may not aid you. I want the perfect mate. Are you the perfect mate? What's that basically part? Listen, listen, we all got stuff, folks, and nobody is beyond sin. Nobody is broken. Now, there's folks who think that way. They walk around with their own holy glow, you know? I mean, they all like Balboa when they're walking around, but you know what? We all sin in the head. Listen, brothers and sisters, we all have faults, but sometimes God wants to place us somewhere that's not the most desirable place. He says, I want you to do something. I'm making a request, I want you to go, and it's a wicked place. But then the second thing we see, but this will apply to none of us Christians, of other Christians. The second thing we see is Jonah's resistance. I ain't going there, I'm gonna get up though. But I ain't going over there. Liberty says in Mark 3, but Jonah, the word but kind of gives you an idea that he was going in different directions. But Jonah rose up to flee, to run away, to drive away, and to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa, and the Bible says, and he found the ship going to Tarshish, he paid the fare thereof, his own self, amen, and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. We see Jonah resisting. How many of us have been resisting? Fighting against the desires and the will of God. Fighting against what God has clearly spoken to our hearts and to our minds and we resist. It's almost like when you hear the word of God, you preach, and you just bring it off of the Bible, and then you get mad. Who he think he is? He ain't nobody. You know, and he don't talk to me. I mean, we just read the scripture, okay? We just read what the Bible says. And by the way, brothers and sisters, when we get convicted of something, listen, let's not run from the conviction, but instead let's run to the person who can take care of the situation and give us a joy that's unspeakable and full of glory. But all the times, we're on the running side. to preach to us, Dr. Talbot down in Georgia. And I'm telling you what, when he preached, and we used to sit on the front, and once in a while, the second pew, but most of the time, we used to sit on the front pew, and Dr. Moe would be preaching, and it was like he was doing the tap dance, all on my toes. And I'd be, ah, ooh, and Jerome would be, ooh, and you know what? But when we stopped doing all that, we'd leave Miss Barbie, and we would be trying our best to follow the instructions that were given to us from the word of God. Not because we were preaching, But because we want something better we want something that was real in our soul and our heart We've been living for the devil for many years out there in the streets, out there in the clubs But now we want to be in the church and worship the king of kings and the lord of lords And we're excited about the lord of gods We're excited to follow the lord Jesus Christ What are you saying preacher? What are you doing? Are you and I being resistant? God's Word. Resistant to the will of God. Because I tell you, when you resist Him, that ain't a good place to be. If God is not from your heart and called you to do something, what do you think you're going to be doing? Doing something different. No! Do what the Lord has called you to do. Whatever the assignment, He will enable you, he will empower you to do the incitement that he has given to you. But now watch, we see the resistance. But then the third thing we see is the Lord's response. Now if you and I think the Lord's not gonna respond to our resistance, we don't know about a good daddy. God is a perfect father. And the perfect father chases his children. Now the dad, the mom, that's not the perfect one, or not so much perfect, but that's not doing what I say ought to do, they're not gonna chase their children. You gotta just run, run, free. No, you need restraint. You need, what I just said was on my mind, that's the problem. The Bible don't get mad at me. The Bible says a fool Yeah, and the Bible calls a person a fool that says everything that comes to his head So we might walk around. I think we're being we've been super spiritual man. I just say with my head. You know what you tell us something I go to it now, but the Bible tells us about wisdom Yes, the Bible tells us about same things that will encourage and not things that will destroy And things that will break down the person but sometimes like I gotta say my piece Now if you say God's gonna give him a piece. I say say his piece. He'll give a piece. Give him a piece of your and my spiritual That is the perfect parent. And my Bible says, in Hebrew chapter number 12, that whom the Lord loveth, he chastens. He corrects. See, that's a sign of love. Now, she was probably denied. She was saying it didn't happen, but I remember it. And Joel Ben remembers it, too. But when Christian would do something she shouldn't do when she was a little kid, and I had to spank her or whatever, and I didn't want to, it hurted me to do that. She don't think it didn't hurt me. It did hurt me. But what was amazing, be quiet Christian, but what was amazing was how much she would love on me afterwards. She don't probably remember none of that. And I'm like, that's so weird. You did? Yeah, it was so bad. But you know what? It's something in us that lets us know a person cares. If many of you have teachers in your school, in your past, that they used to get on you all the time. But it was something about them. And they weren't hateful. They were just helping you. But you didn't really like it. But there's something about them that drew you to them. Oh, man, I remember Mr. So-and-so. I remember we had our school in seventh grade, and Mrs. Cox. And Mrs. Cox, she had a paddle. that was, this is over on the west side of Chicago, and she had this paddle that was about this wide, and it was about this thick, but it was a short one, it was a short one, so it was close combat. And what she would do, and she would have, she had red marks that was all over that thing. And I'm telling you, you remember her, I'm telling you, when you was in her class, I'm talking about the gangbangers. didn't act up in her class. She pulled that joker out, but you know what? I've never seen her whip anybody. But man, she pulled that joker out, man, and she had a look about her. Boy, I said, sit down. And I look at some of them guys, I know they from the hood. I know who they are. I mean, that's T-Bone. T-Bone ain't gonna sit down with nobody. T-Bone will sit down. Because he knew that red, that pound, somebody, that's somebody's blood. And we didn't want it to be our blood, man. In that real life, it probably wasn't blood, at least I hope it wasn't. But nonetheless, oh, but you know what? We respected her. You remember Mrs. Smith? Everybody ran over Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Smith, please, sit down. Everybody, hey, man, what's going on, man? Oh, yeah, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Mrs. Smith, please, y'all, please sit down. Please sit down. Please, please. You know, some people break out a song, please, please. But you know what? Nobody, please, man, you gotta say, put some bass in your voice and say, boy, I should sit down. On my back, I go crazy. I tell you, you get their response, amen. Hallelujah. My head. But nonetheless, though. But you know what? We have a God that also will respond. The Bible said verse 17 and you can read the rest of this and of course the ship was in there They was in a big storm and all that kind of stuff They try to find out who was the culprit and they can't find out that it was Jonah and somebody and so John She's not gonna have to throw me overboard and this I'll all be dead. Okay, then they threw him overboard watch the Bible said verse 17 now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish and three days and three nights. The Bible says that the Lord's response was he had prepared, that word prepared here means to appoint, it means also to assign, it also means to enroll. He had enrolled, the Bible says, a great fish. He had, brothers and sisters, assigned a great fish, particularly to swallow up Jonah. And the Bible says Jonah was in there. for three days and three nights. Jonah, we're gonna see, Jonah's gonna do something in a second. But why was Jonah in there for three days and for three nights? Why did it take so long for Jonah to respond? I thought to myself, I said, Seth, you've been there before. There have been times that you've known that this is not the right thing to go, the right way to be, or God's chasing you, but you hadn't said nothing. And here you are, perhaps longer in a place that you didn't have to be for that moment. Maybe if Jonah had spoke earlier, he wouldn't have had to been in that building for three days. But the Bible says for three days Jonah was in the belly of this fish. Now maybe ask us the question. God has responded to our disobedience and we are in a situation and it's getting worse. Now, how long are you and I gonna stay in that predicament? How long are we gonna stay under that particular type of pressure before you and I begin to pray and cry out to a holy God? Help us. I don't know about you. I don't like that stuff. Maybe we need to respond a lot quicker. Now, we're gonna see how he responds in verse number one, chapter two. Look at Jonah's response. After three days and three nights, then, the Bible says, Jonah prayed. Then, Jonah prayed, the Bible says, and to the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and look what he said. I cried, by reason of mine affliction. The reason I cried unto the Lord was because of my personal affliction, my distress that I was in. As something happened, what happened, Jonah? And he heard me. When I cried, he heard me. When I cried, he did not turn away from me. When I cried, he responded, dear children of God, when will you and I cry out to a holy God and say, oh God, I've messed up, oh God, I've blown it, oh God, I've gone the wrong direction, oh God, I've resisted you, oh God, I've run from you, and oh God, I'm running to you, and I'm crying out to you for some help. The Bible says Jonah cried, got hurt, Out of the belly, look what it says here. Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods can pass me about. All my billows and my waves passed over me. Then said I, I am cast out of my sight, yet I will look, come on, come on Jonah, yet I will look again toward the holy temple. Y'all do know that God wasn't trying to kill Jonah. If God wanted to kill Jonah, he would have prepared a fish. Because once he jumped overboard, that storm, would have killed him. But God protected him by using that fish to not destroy him, but yet afflict him to where he cried out to God. Now watch what the Bible says. The Bible says next, the Bible says that he said this, verse four again. Then he said, I am cast out by sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy face. Let me ask us the question, when are we gonna look again? To him and him all. I didn't talk about your Facebook friend. I'm not talking about your Instagram buddy. I'm not talking about like your Snapchat associates. I'm not talking about whatever the latest thing might be. But I'm saying, when will you and I look toward his sanctuary, toward him again? Not along with somebody else. Find out what does God say. What does God want? And sometimes, brothers and sisters, when you and I are following God and God alone, you sometimes will stand alone. Not without God's assistance. No, no. But you'll stand alone. And everybody else will understand. But we're not talking about whether somebody else understands. What we're talking about is what God has said and how you and I will respond and will we follow God's direction and then experience that blessedness and that happiness that only God is able to provide. Listen, it's hard when family looks at you in a certain way. It's our understanding. This is what he told me this is how he told me to respond this is what he told me to do I If I don't do what the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords tells me to do, I will be a miserable soul. I'll be a defeated person. I won't live on the blessed side, but I'll live on the burdensome side. I'll live on the blistering side. And that's not where I want to live. Joseph, I'm turning again to the verse five. He says, the waters come past me about even to the soul. The depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped about my head. Can you imagine the tightness that that brings? And then he says, I went down to the bottom of the mountain. The earth was a barge about me forever. Yet, yet has thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord, my God. We see Jonah's response. And then we see something else, y'all. Jonah's remembrance. Oh, it's good to remember. Jonah says in verse number seven, when my soul fainted, when my, hallelujah, when my soul was overwhelmed within me, I remembered the Lord. I remembered the Lord. And my prayer came in unto thee, into my holy temple. He says, my soul is fainted. My soul was overwhelmed, but then I remembered. See, sometimes when you're discouraged, defeated, depressed, it's hard to remember. But in the midst of that, some kind of way, I believe it was two years ago, I believe it was, around January or so. Man, man, I was taking a beating, a beating inwardly. And I mean, I didn't feel like getting up. I didn't feel like going over. I didn't feel like, I don't know if I just had the January blues or the cold blues, the winter blues. I had some kind of blues. I'm going to tell you what, man, I didn't, it just wasn't good. Wasn't good at all. I'm going to tell you why I'm glad I got me a wife. And man, encouraging me. You need to get up, you know, go to the gym, you know. I'm like, where are you going to the gym? Listen, when I go to the gym, it helps my head. I mean, it's amazing how my mind... One time, Jolene took me to the gym, and she says, you're going today. She took me to the gym, our brother Dennis, she dropped me off, and she didn't come back till four hours later. Four hours later. But I tell you what, when I came out of that place, I was, hey baby, I was pretty good. Yeah, yeah. You know what? But let's remember what it's like to just read that word and let it feed your soul. Sometimes we forget. Because now, we might read it, and it's just a bunch of words on a piece of paper. And it's like, man, nothing happened. I ain't getting no juice. I ain't getting nothing. It's just, you know. But maybe to stop for a minute and maybe just begin to talk to him. Maybe converse with him. And just say something like, God, I'm struggling as I read your word. I'm reading it, but nothing's happening. And I don't know why nothing's happening. But oh God, help me. I don't know how you want to help me, or how you want to help me, but Lord, help me. I don't like being miserable. I don't like reading the Bible, but not getting anything. I don't like praying, and it seemed like I just got up off my knees, and I went through all that, and nothing happened. Lord, I need you to help me. What do you think God's going to do? Not say nothing. He's going to reveal something to us. Now it might not be what we want to hear, but he gonna reveal some stuff to us. But it's nothing like it. Sometimes I'll be riding, going out of town, and I'll drive, like the last trip was like nine hours or so, and then I'll be going somewhere else again, I'll be this 12-hour drive or whatever. He'll say, man, don't you want somebody to ride with you? I do have somebody to ride with me. Holy Ghost kids in that building with me, we have our time. I mean, by being there, I can pray, I can talk to God. I'll listen to some preaching or some good singing. A lot of times, I have my tears be coming out of my face. I'll be worshiping God and me and him be having a good time. Then some guy come by and he starts to victim me and says, you know, I got you by yourself. I'm here to give you a little spanky spank. I'm like, oh, Lord, I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to have to give you one of those, amen. And then he gives a spank and all that. I get to crying. I'm like, oh, God, I'm so sorry. Oh, God, just help me. Lord, show me what to do. And then God give me the strength to do it. Give me the confidence to do it. Woo! God, I want that joy. I want that healing, the blessing that comes from heaven above. I'm coming to you the best I know how. Heal me out of my heart. Heal me out of my soul. Heal me out of myself. Woo! God, help me. I'm going to tell you something. Something's going to happen, brothers and sisters. Woo! We've got to get real with God. Get real with God. Be transparent. We don't have to live in misery. He's His. Hear the word, but also keep the word. We're about done. Watch this. We see Jonah's remembrance. He goes on to say this. When my soul fell within me, I remembered the Lord. And my prayer, hallelujah, came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Your own mercy. will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving, I, watch it y'all, will pay that that I have vowed, what I promised. Oh my soul. What did you promise? What vow did we make to Him that we've not kept? He says, I'm going to go back and that which I had promised, that vow that I made, He says in this purse, He says I will pay it. I will pay here millions to perform it. I'm going to do it. Yeah. Please don't say it. Okay, I got to say it. have walked down an aisle, made a vow before God, made a vow before the witnesses that was in the church, made a vow to our spouse that we would love him for better, for worse, in sickness or in health, didn't matter what, but I'm making a vow before God to you. I'm not making this vow and saying, you know what? If things don't work out, if the food don't get no better, no! But more than that vow, what about that vow to God? Some people made vows while they were sick. God can just heal me, get me better. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. God got you better and you did it for a little bit, then you stopped. But what about when God came by and He nudged you? Time for what? I want you to preach the word of God. And you knew it was real. It was genuine. It was not fake or phony. It was real in your soul. Let me ask this. Are we keeping that vow? Are we keeping that promise? What about that promise that you made when you was there? Your bills were jacked up. You was in a messed up situation. And you said, Oh God, if you get me out of this, I'll serve you. I'll do whatever it is that you want me to do. I'll make this vow before you. What are you doing now? Yeah, and I didn't beat him. Karen Cross, he went all the way, fell down to the ground, beating beyond recognition. He could have just said, I'm tired. We'll find another way. I'm just tired. It's amazing. Don't see a preacher. I got to. It's amazing on Monday morning, you'd be tired. The alarm go off, he was so tired. But the man called. The man said, you ain't gonna be here, then you ain't got a job. I gotta go. I need that J-O-B. I need that job. I need that. I know God gave it to me, but I need that job. I'm tired, but I'm gonna go do my nine, my 12. If he tell me I gotta do 24, I'll do 24. Y'all about to be back next Sunday. But wait a minute. We come here for an hour and a half, maybe, on Sunday. An hour and a half. Think about that for a moment. You go to your job from 8 to 10. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. And maybe on Saturday, too. They make ticket on overtime mandatory on Sunday. We get here from an hour and a half, but we tired. And by the way, we ain't got to get here until 11. You got to be there 5.30 AM. You got to get up at 12 AM and start cooking and get some breakfast. I mean, but it's amazing. But then, man, come Sunday, it's like, what time is it? It's 10.30. Oh, church started at 11. Oh, it's going to take us 12 and a half minutes to get there. Well, you know what? See, they're gonna do a little prayer congregational service. Oh, man, they'll have to announce this. And so, if I get there, if I get there about 11, 12 hours, it'll be all right. We better be thanking the Lord for grace and mercy. Because a lot of guys think it's that same way. I mean, they're out there with the truck, trying to cut the power off. And God says, you know what? I'm going to cut it off for a few days. And then I come back. And I'll be like, Lord, wait a minute, Lord. I got money in the bank. I got money in the bank. But it's frozen. I can't get a hold of it. Something happened. A computer glitch. I mean, what in the world? Well, I'm going to get to it later. I'm going to go ahead and help somebody else for a second. Whoa. Come on. Do we treat God like we should? The one who saved our soul from hell itself. Someone said, please move on. Okay. The Bible says in verse number nine, but I will sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving. When he says this, I will pay that I have vowed. He says, salvation is of the Lord. is Jonah's release. And the Lord spake unto the fish. Hey, fish. And the Bible says, and it vomited. This is the Bible. And it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. That land wasn't dry no more. The Bible says. He vomited him out. There you go. Can you imagine? He probably going, ooh. Then verse one says, chapter three, and the little guy says, and the word of the Lord came unto Jordan the second time, saying, arise. He said, yeah, where am I going now? Go to Nineveh. I'll be here, y'all take care of him, Lord. No, I still need you to go to Nineveh. Go to Nineveh, he says. That great Jesus, same thing he said. the preaching, not that you want to preach, oh, that I be a demon. You know what John would preach. You punch or harass those, please don't get saved. Please don't trust God. Y'all been wicked and vile. Read about Nineveh. They were bad people. Vile, wicked, disgusting. And you know what? When they turned and repented, You know what happened, Joni got upset. He said, I didn't think he was going to do that. Doesn't that sound like somebody you want God to just wear out? Man, I want God to wear them out how they hurt me. God, wear them out. And then they come to church on Sunday to get by with God. No! No! I don't want to get by with God yet. No! Lord, please, please, rescind that. Rescind that, OK? For at least three weeks, and then wear them out. It's amazing. how God says, listen, I gave an assignment. I haven't changed my mind. I still want you to fulfill the assignment that I gave you. And it might not be something that you want to do, but it's what will make you happy. Remember when the verse, our starting place is in Luke, chapter 11, verse 28, where he said those words. He says, blessed is the man. No, let's go look at it. Let's look at it. Look back at it. Luke chapter 11 verse 28 The Bible says this Luke 11 verse 28 The Word of God straight from the pages. We use Jonah as an example. The Bible says in Luke chapter 11 verse 28 Yea rather blessed are they Then hear the Word of God giving you? What word or direction has God given you? Number two, are we following his word or resisting? Are we following his word or resisting? And the last is a simpler question. What is he saying now? What is he saying right now? Father, thank you for all your many wonderful blessings. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to share your word with the precious souls that are gathered here in those in tomb day. And Father, somebody here today, let me just talk to you for a few moments about whatever it is on the heart of their mind. I pray, God, they come talk to you this morning. Father, they can kneel at the altar, they can stand around the altar, they can sit around the altar, whichever way they need to come. But I pray God they come because you're beckoning them, you're nudging them to come. I pray God they not run from you, but run towards you. Help somebody. And I pray God you start with me. For it's in your son's name we do pray. Also, if there's somebody here that's not saved and they won't trust Christ as their Savior, I pray God they let me know or someone else here, they have confidence in, and we will show them from the Word of God how to trust Jesus. That's it, Father. For it's in your son's name we now pray. Let's all stand and come talk to the Lord. Folks are praying in this room at the altar. Stand, sit, kneel, or whichever way that you need to come. But let's get near the cross. Page 410, in the red hymn of page 410, let's get near the cross. Jesus, keep me near the cross. ♪ To walk a healing stream ♪ ♪ Cold from Calvary's mountain ♪ ♪ In the cross, in the cross ♪ ♪ In my glory, in my glory ♪