Joy to be here with you guys this evening. I am thrilled that I can even open my mouth and talk. Because Monday I went to the, the Russians call it Skoropomich, but I went to the Med Express and I could only whisper that's all that's all the voice I had on Monday I really overdid it a little bit on the weekend and but we got to go quick here okay so we got a couple of prayer cards and this is one most of you guys have one of these and then our new one here so we're a little bit odd Yeah, and unusual in a circumstance right now. And we really love and appreciate you guys appreciate your prayers. And you guys have stuck with us and supported us and held the ropes in prayer for 20 plus years. And I mean, we got friends here from row number three all the way to the back. I mean, to the back. I mean, am I right on the back row back there? You know what I'm talking about? And just family. I know we're among God's people when we're here at this church. We just feel the love. appreciate you guys so much my wife this is all you this is close as you're going to get okay well this lady I was just too generous with this sickness and she got what I had and she's worse and I got a little bit better I said honey I got to go I'm going I'm going to go and she said I can't and so I'm just half of a missionary here this evening. You know what I'm saying? Half a man. So you bear with me, all right, this week. But I am grateful to be here and pray for Mrs. Hess. She sends on her big, big, big, big hellos to all of you guys. My testimony He's in two parts, all right? We have part A tonight because we're missionaries in two fields right now, and it is pretty complicated. How is the work in Crimea? And that is, you can see my body here, but this heart right here is always over there with our people. I spend about six to seven hours each week online with our people, with our four services. plus the services we have in Wattsburg as well. So I'm not doing a lot of twiddling the thumb time. Pretty busy, busy missionary right now. But how is the work? You know, to God be the glory, it is amazingly stable. Indeed, the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church. And God is supporting that work and it is It doesn't have anything to do with me. Okay. It's just Jesus Christ That is working through our church. I'm so grateful for our two in-house preachers And our deacon and their family are doing a phenomenal phenomenal job They are just absolutely golden and I'm so grateful for them our teams as Continued and listen, you know if I can put in one plug for any church planners out there, okay? Your teenagers are your spark plugs, and they are for our church. I tell you, every service, they're just serving the Lord, loving the Lord, and they're being an example and kind of always a motivation, in a sense, to all of our adults, not to get too apathetic and not to get too cozy, because the young people are being an example to the older ones. And so I continually pour my ministry efforts into our Timothy class. We have three new teenagers that have come up into the age, This year and so I could go on and on on there's so much going on over there two of our we have two pre in-house preachers two preachers that are doing village ministries Pray for us that we have been we have been on this edge of moving into the building That churches in the states bought in just a matter of months the money come together For that the church building but Georgie works in between ministry and family and his health He's just pray that we can move from our house into that ministry house, that church house that we have pretty much finished the construction on now. And so that's a big prayer request for us. I'm going to be transparent with you a little bit. Continue to pray that the church there will not lose their fervor for outreach and evangelism. I know the missionary, Tony Hess, was kind of like the, you know, burning fire on that, you know, loving souls and going out there. We got to go out and, you know, popular or not popular, against the law. It didn't matter. We were going to go out and reach souls and do everything we could. And so with me being stateside, That's an area that needs prayer for our church. They would continue to be soul winning minded. And so the last two professions of faith we've had in our church and baptism have been the young people in our church that have come into the Timothy class. We have three more that need to be saved this year. And so a few battles, I'm trying to pastor from 5,000 miles away. Yeah, it's hard. OK, and it's can you even do it? OK, well, we're doing it, so I guess you can do it, but it's not easy and God is giving us grace and he knows he knows that my heart. is there with those people. And I'm a missionary to them, but I tell you, almost every time I turn on that screen and it's early Sunday morning, we have sunrise service every Sunday because I'm having churches, the sun is rising through Skype. And I'm a missionary to them, but I tell you what, they do more ministry to me. and they encourage me, and they just keep my heart broken, and I love those folks over there so much. Pray, they need a national pastor, okay? Someone who, as you've heard me say a hundred times, who doesn't speak Russian with a West Virginia accent, okay? But it is the last gospel witness, to my knowledge, in Crimea, okay? Independent, fundamental, Bible-believing, sin-hating, devil-stomping, pre-millennial, somewhat temperamental, okay? Baptist Church, okay? And so, so necessary that light not go out, okay? Please continue to pray for Baptist Church, which is LifeWay Baptist Church. And that is just part one. Stay tuned. We're coming back tomorrow, part two. Amen. Take your handbooks out. We'll sing one more song tonight. Just before you do, a little thought for the week. We're talking about so little time. That's the theme. In 2 Peter 3, verse 9, it says, The truth is for every believer here tonight, the rapture could have taken place before you got saved. That is a real, real thought. And the reason the rapture has not taken place as of tonight is because God is long-suffering. And He is waiting out for more souls to come to Him all over this world and all over this area. The time is little. We don't know when that long-suffering is over. and God says, Jesus, go. Go take your bride. Alright, we don't know that, but we ought not to waste his long-suffering. That is the burden of our hearts being stirred, and when we're stirred, you know this, this is the way it works, when we're stirred there's greater urgency, there's greater awareness, there's greater push in our lives for witnessing and that's one of the things that I've been praying for a stirring that raises our awareness our urgency in our push the other thing I've been praying for this week and going into this week is that there would be a spirit of surrender in our church that Lord whatever you wanna do with me wherever you wanna send me I will go I will be I'll follow, that there's a spirit of surrender. Take your song books, let's sing tonight. God bless you. Go ahead and stand with me if you would. 656 in your songbooks. On the first verse, we'd like to dismiss the workers for the junior church. Kids, sit tight. We'll dismiss you on the second. Sing out together on the first. Send the light, the blessed gospel light, let it shine from shore to shore. Send the light, the blessed gospel light, let it shine from shore to shore. As we sing the last, children you are dismissed. You can head down to room number one as we sing the last verse together. Let us not grow weary in the work of love. Send the light, send the light. Let us gather jewels for a crown above. Send the light, send the light. Send the light. Send the light. The blessed gospel light. Let it shine from shore to shore. Send the light. The blessed gospel light. Let it shine forevermore. Amen. You may be seated. Of times when life is giving and bounty I receive, I put my trust in earthly things, to sinful ways I cleave. But when in faith I fix my eyes on thy celestial throne, I then bow ashamed at my vain pride and worship thee alone. Woe is me, woe is me, for I am a man undone. My voice can only praise thy name. and worship thy dear son. Woe is me! Woe is me! My lips, though unclean, shall sing. Lord, purge my sin, refine my heart, for mine eyes have seen the king. Lord, I give myself a vessel, in thy service I will be. I hear you ask, who'll go for us? Lord, here am I, send me. I will proclaim thy cleansing blood till all the world has heard. And salvation's lamp will burn so bright in the power of thy word. Woe is me. Woe is me. For I am a man undone. My voice can only praise thy name and worship thy dear son. ♪ Woe is me ♪ ♪ Woe is me ♪ ♪ My lips though unclean shall sing ♪ ♪ Lord purge my sin ♪ ♪ Refine my heart ♪ ♪ For mine eyes have seen ♪ the King. It's good to have Missionary Gene Sharp with us. Brother Sharp has been in the Ministry of Independent Baptist Media for a number of years and really, really travels all over the world helping to get radio stations up and then helping ministries and with all kinds of technical help has helped us. Some of you have benefited from our live stream here. Brother Sharp installed all of that many, many years ago. and is just a servant to the local church and we didn't know when we were 10 and 11 years old growing up together that 40 years later we would be with each other in a missions conference and being able to be friends in the ministry and many, many memories together. Good friend of mine, dear friend, and it's a privilege to have him with us this week. Of course, he's here because he's one of our missionaries that we support, but he's also here because we are working on a radio And he has agreed to help us construct our tower and put in our studio and all of those things for which we're very, very excited about. He'll probably say some things about that. His wife, Tara, is with us tonight. And I don't think the church has met Tara before. And so we welcome Tara and Lacey. And then Wilson is downstairs. Get to know names, right? Names are important. And so, Brother Sharp, you come preach to us the word of God. I sure appreciate your pastor, and so many people across the auditorium from different cross-sections of my life. I see people from, I see people from Hefts of a House, I see people from Fairhaven, I see, and I'm so sorry that I, you know, you have to endure me, the first one tonight, I apologize. Because I'm sure you guys are not thinking what I'm saying, you're just remembering all the stupid things I did and said when I was young and immature. But I assure you, it's much worse now. But I'm 50, you're close to 50, aren't you? I quit, it's close. But I've been doing this a long time, we do thank the Lord, and we do thank the Lord for memories. And did you catch, everybody that's been up here tonight that's had the microphone that's not really from here, did you catch the endearment they have towards you because of when they come back, that you're still here? Okay? And that only comes through longevity. You bless people in a unique way through your faithfulness. And so many people, I can't tell you how many times I've been to your house and gained weight and had a great time of fellowship. A dear lady tonight said that she had me in her home when Chris moved here. as a teenager and she's still here tonight. You only get that type of fruitfulness and you only get to be that kind of a blessing to others if you stay at it. One or two years in isn't gonna be long enough, gang, to really do that for people. And you have a reputation that precedes you amongst missionaries, amongst people that know you, amongst your church plants in the area, a reputation of hospitality, a reputation of doing things right, and faithfulness. And we wanna say thank you for that. And thank you for faithfully supporting our family in finances, in prayers. I think you've supported us since we were like 11, something like that, give or take. But we are appreciative of that. And I just wanted to draw, before I get in the message, your attention to what you saw tonight. In Brother Girmey's presentation, we could have watched that all night and just took, had an altar call. Do you know how rare it is to see people who grew up in Islam saved and baptized, to see them publicly professing Christ as Savior? Do you know how rare that is in 2024? I know a lot of people who are trying to crack the algorithm to get into Islam and trying to do it and have not seen that much fruit in decades. And so we are really, really privileged to be able to have people like the Ghirmis here. Another thing I would like to point out to you that's a common thread amongst from our testimony from Brother Haynes and also the other testimonies tonight, do you notice these guys aren't sitting around just kind of watching YouTube videos? They're not just sitting around hanging out, they're busy. They're too busy. There's more work at hand than they have time to accomplish. And I want that to sink in. That shouldn't be that way. And as I travel around and I'm exposed to a lot of different ministries and pastors and churches, probably for the first time in history, it's done a switch, in my opinion. There's now more missions money than people to spend the missions money on. You probably talk to your pastor. He probably has a hard time populating his conference with people he wants to invest in, because the laborers are few. And if you could this week have a tenderization in your heart towards that idea, that would probably be, I think, a big thing that God would get glory out of this week. If we would just think of praying the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers. It's not a money issue. It really never has been. But when you're starting out early on 20 years ago or so, it seems like that's all you need, just give me some money, I gotta go do something. Now the money is there more than the people to do it. And that's, that's not where we need to be. We need to have laborers to accomplish. We could use 500 more Michael Gurmeys, and we still wouldn't dent Islam. If you go into these areas and you see, you can go all day in a place like Delhi, India, and you could drive all day long and not see one sign of Christianity. Now, I'm not, I'm not even a steeple on a church. You could drive all day long and look into face after face, into face after face, and be astounded by how many people you don't know, and look into their eyes and know that they don't know Christ in any way, shape, or form, and you are almost without ability to even tell them about Christ. Every place I go from Egypt to India to the Philippines to Central and South America to Africa, the need is astoundingly great. Astoundingly great. God has blessed us with the ability to travel a lot of these places. It was just in Ghana. I got back, so you can't hold me responsible for anything I say, because I'm still jet lagged, but I got back Sunday afternoon from Ghana, West Africa, and in Accra, Ghana, you look across that city from the airplane, and I know there's some good missionaries there, but it's an absolute drop in the bucket from what Accra needs. We need laborers, and I hope this week maybe we can join in and think about those things, but tonight I'm gonna talk from the book of Revelation. So if you could go there this evening, book of Revelation chapter five. And for those of you who are new and lots of new faces, praise the Lord. Our ministry's called Independent Baptist Media. We do radio, audio, video for churches and missionaries around the world. So we try and use theology to really, or excuse me, technology to get theology out there. We try and empower people with the tools to reach a greater number of people. And through different forms of media, we're really seeing that happen. Some great missionaries, we were just in Peru earlier this year, we might show a video on that later in the week. But that missionary is doing astounding things using social media, producing videos that's asking questions and preaching the gospel and reaching people. Every night when he wakes up or every morning when he wakes up from sleeping all night, he has a report of how many people contacted them through the night just from watching his videos. And it's working for the sake of the gospel, even while he's not able to work. So lots of great things are happening there, and they have follow-up teams that follow up and get these people in church, and what a blessing that is. But tonight, chapter five of the book of Revelation, because I'm old, I have to wear glasses when I read now. So that was a joke, you can laugh if you want. I know it's been long. But Revelation chapter five, and let's look in verse 11. Revelation chapter 5 and verse 11, and I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be to him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped. Him that liveth forever and ever. Father in heaven, thank you for the opportunity to be in your house. Thank you for the faithful folks who are busy, but yet carved out time in the middle of their week to be here for a midweek service and the start of the missions conference. And Lord, our cups are already full just hearing what you're doing and seeing your plan enacted and seeing people respond to your call. and people who are enabled by churches and deputized by churches to go and do that call. We're thankful for that. But Lord, the time has come for us to focus our attention into the word of God. And Lord, we just need you tonight. We don't want to just be here as an exercise of this is what we do. We have to have a sermon and then we go home. Lord, we come with a heart full of expectation that you would meet with us. We're gathered in your name. I'm praying that you'd make me a clean vessel tonight, that you'd fill me with your Holy Spirit's power and wisdom. and that you do far beyond what we could expect because we would ask that you would speak to us and that you would change us. We surrender to you. We love you. We need you in Jesus' name. Amen. The story here, the scene is, there's a book with seven seals, and John is having a heavenly vision, and I'm no authority on the book of Revelation, but you can kind of read it for what it is here tonight, and John is viewing this thing take place. There's a book, and it's kind of like, what's in that book? Well, it's sealed, and we don't know what's in that book. And come to find out, the book is, what God is going to do with mankind. And it kind of talks about how God is going to judge the children of Israel, and God is going to take care of things in the future. And it's seven seals, so every seal is a new judgment or is a new declaration of what God is going to do. And they're looking for somebody to open the book. And the people that are surrounding the situation there at the throne, they're like, man, who's going to open this book? And they're like, I don't know. I'm not going to open the book. I can't open that book. There's no way you're qualified to open that book. I know. I know who you are. And they begin to look for a likely candidate to open the book. It's kind of like the tensions building. If you kind of say like, now I really didn't care about what was in the book. Now I want to know. Because they want to know. The elders want to know. The beasts, they want to know what's in the book. What's in the book? And they're looking. And look in chapter 5 and verse 3. And no man in heaven nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. John says, and I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. He says, not only could they not open it, they couldn't even look at it or read it. There was none found worthy. And that's the first point I'd like to submit to you tonight. We are not worthy. We're not worthy to have access to God's plan. We're not worthy to have access to God's mind and the future. And we are not worthy, we are not able. There is none worthy. You can look high and low and you'll not find someone worthy to open the book. And so it is in heaven. And the situation continued in verse four, and I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, weep not. Behold, the line of the tribe of Judah, the root of David hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. But I would, I think there's a little bit of an application for us here, because I think this entire, world that we live in, you can see people who think they're worthy. They're going to tell us what's going to happen tomorrow. Politicians come to mind. Anytime there's a trouble, a shooting, a problem with an economic issue, they're going to tell you how they're going to solve it. This is what's going to happen if I do this. You're not worthy. You don't know the future. You don't know God's plan for this world. You don't know God's plan for my family. You don't know that God's plan for our nation. You're not worthy to know that. No man can really prognosticate and know the future because we're not worthy of that. But that's not the end of the story. That would be kind of a little bit anticlimactic. Just so you guys know, welcome to Missions Conference. You're not worthy. Let's take an offering because we're Baptist, then we can go home. We already ate. But it brings us to the point when I already read it in verse five, he said, listen, don't weep because the lamb is worthy. There's somebody who knows the future. There's somebody who's worthy to have that knowledge. There's somebody who wanted to open that sealed book so John could see it and pass it along to us, and that's the Lamb of God. And I want to point your attention to him and this dichotomy. We are not worthy. but he is worthy. The philosophy of the world is 180 degrees opposite of that. They don't want to give any worth to the Lamb of God. They want to only talk about my worth. Recently, President Trump was at the Catholic event, and I grew up Catholic, so I can talk bad about him. But he went to the Catholic event. Some archbishop of Canterbury or somebody did something great a long time ago, and they have a big fundraising. And it was a big thing. They had a comedian there, and he said some funny things, and everybody was jabbing at Kamala Harris, so that was good. But, you know, it's a religious event, raising millions of dollars to help people who are misfortunate, people who are creating the image of God, and not once did they mention Jesus Christ. But he's worthy. Those men, they're not worthy. But the unworthy ones couldn't stop talking about themselves. And that's part of our nature, but that's also part of this world system, is we try and elevate our own worth, and we try and denigrate the worth of the only worthy one in the room, the only worthy one in the world, and that is the Lamb of God. Tears will stop if we realize he's worthy. The angel said, the elder said, listen, don't weep. We found somebody who's worthy. We found somebody who can open the seals and let us have the information of what God's plan is, about what God's will is, about what God is going to do. He says, listen, tears should stop and the music should start. Because in verse nine, he says, and they sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred. tongue and people and nation and has made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. When we think about how worthy he is and his ability to open God's plan for mankind, it ought to make us start to sing a little bit. We ought to really rejoice in what he has done and his worth and his worthiness, it's kind of encapsulated in the song. He said, listen, they sent a new song saying thou are worthy. And he says, for thou was slain. He's worthy because he lived as a sacrifice. Boy, this just goes against the grain of our humanity and our society, doesn't it? The sacrificial ones never get the attention. The sacrificial ones aren't the ones who really get the accolades. But the Lord Jesus Christ is worthy because he was slain for us, the pure, the perfect. In previous chapter, chapter four, it talked about the angels going around the throne of God saying three words. What did they say? Holy, holy, holy. It's the holy one who was slain. The one who had no sin was slain. That's why he's worthy tonight. He's worthy tonight because he is not only our salvation and our sacrifice, but he is our redeemer. And he said, thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood. He is our redeemer. He's the one who bought us back. That ought to make us sing a little bit. That ought to make us shout a little bit. He bought us back. You remember when you were sold under sin? You remember what it was like, B.C., for you in your life before Christ? Do you remember what that was like? Do you remember where your desires were at? Do you remember how your life was a wreck? Do you remember the issues, like Brother Haynes talked about, the addictions that were prevalent maybe in your home and in your family and in your DNA? Do you remember how he bought you out of that? Well, you don't have to look far, really, to see what he redeemed us from. He's worthy tonight because He's our sacrifice, because He's our Redeemer, and because then He's restored us and He's actually enabled us to be something we never could have been. You and I deserve to die and split hell wide open. Let's just be honest tonight. I know you guys look pretty nice, you guys clean up pretty good, not too bad. But you and I both know we deserve to go to hell. pre-salvation, post-salvation. We've done enough to send us there. And then by nature, we are sinners. By nature, we're sinners. By choice, we deserve to go to a devil's hell. Amen? What did he do for us? He just saved us and said, you know what? You're just kind of full of spiritual creaminess now and you just sit there as a token of how good you can be. No, he's made us into something else. What does it say? He didn't just save us to sit, he made us into something else. And by the way, did you notice how the gospel and the lamb wasn't just for one group of people? No, it was for all people. What does he say there? He said, for thou hast redeemed us, verse nine, to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. So lest you think that the gospel is just for you, American, you really need to know it's for every kindred, every people. That's what this week's all about. It's not just for Brogue. As great as it is, it's not just for Pennsylvania. As awesome as it is, and you guys better vote for Trump. You guys are a problem, okay? As good as it is, it's not just for us, gang. The gospel's for everybody around the world. That's how great its scope is. But he didn't just save us, verse 10, and has made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. He's taken you from that old scallywag who deserved to split hell wide open, and he's changed you into a priest and a king to God. I don't understand all that, but I think you should probably call me like, you know, Lord Sharp now because of this. I mean, you know what Eugene means? Eugene means one of nobility. But I think that was a mistake. It's supposed to be one of knowability, but I'm not sure of it. But we all have noble blood because of Jesus Christ. He's taken us from the cesspool of sin and made us kings and priests. Okay, and he said we're gonna do something for him. He's got a work for us to do as kings and priests. But the thing I wanted to point out to you tonight, and it won't be long, when it comes to God's plan, we are not worthy. But when it comes to God's plan, the Lamb is worthy. And then the song continues a bit, and we read it in our first text, in verse 11. And I beheld and heard a voice of many angels round about. So now these facts are out. Hey, listen, we found one that was worthy. It's the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. And he gave himself for you. He sacrificed for you. And he redeemed you out of sin. And he changed your life. He made, out of all kindreds and nations and tongues and peoples, he made a group of people that are kings and priests. unto God, who will serve God in the earth." Wow, praise God. And then people begin to get excited about that. And I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders, and the number of them. He gives the number 10,000 times 10,000, and 1,000, and 1,000. And they said, with a loud voice, here's what they said. You ready? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And he says, listen, every creature's gonna give glory to God. And it reminds me, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. You know, you can do that either now willingly, or you can do it against your will later, and not get the reward for confessing Him as your Savior. And if you're here tonight, you're like, you know, well, I've raised in church But you know in your heart of hearts yours lost as a goose in a hailstorm, which I'm not sure how lost that is But it seems to apply here But you might be lost tonight Tonight's the night. Mission's accomplished. We're talking about souls getting saved. We're talking about Jesus Christ giving himself as our Redeemer. Why not make tonight the night that you come to Jesus Christ and say, listen, let's just put it aside. We know what the devil's telling you. We've all been there, white-knuckled on the pew. I can't go forward. What will they think? Let me just tell you. He's the father of lives, right? I'll tell you what we would think. Wow, praise God, they got saved. They're going to heaven now. That's what we'll think. So if that's really a threat to you, I suggest you stay there. But if you want people to be happy, and you want the angels in heaven to be rejoiced, and you want to have the peace of God in your heart, and you want to be made forgiven, redeemed, and you want to be made a king and a priest, and you want to possess eternal life, I would suggest you get born again tonight. suggest you come forward and say listen I know I'm sick of playing church I'm sick of acting like I'm saved I'm sick of faking it till I make it I'm sick of putting it off till tomorrow thinking I have tomorrow I'm gonna get it right and get it right tonight that's what I would suggest you do tonight but Christian friend he says this he says Worthy is the Lamb, this is the song, this is what the people were saying with a loud voice, 10,000 times 10,000 people. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. He is worthy. And everything, culturally, is saying he's not worthy. And now they're trying to flip the script in our culture, in our United States. They're trying to say, oh, he's one of those. narrow-minded colonialist, you know, believers, white Christian male or whatever. We're trying to turn it all upside down and say everything that we've ever stood for, especially and including the Word of God, is something we should be apologizing for. And I would say tonight, I'm not apologizing for the Lamb of God. I'm not apologizing for the fact that He loves us and that He is worthy. I'm not apologizing for that tonight, because He's worthy. And they're gonna try and back you into a corner at work, Christian. and say, well, what kind of condescending person are you? To tell me I can't, and you fill in the blank for whatever transgender or whatever thing they're trying to talk about. Tonight, we stand on the authority of God's word that he is worthy. and we can look at it from a very corporate standpoint. I'm going to draw the line in the sand, and of course, I have a Judeo-Christian ethic in my life, and I have a biblical worldview. I believe he is worthy, you do not. I know where you're going, and I know where I'm going. And we can kind of have this corporate thing, and we can kind of have a little bit of a pharisaical attitude. We know we're on the right side because we believe the book, praise God, and we should do that, and we should know that. But I wonder, as Christians, how many of us are almost living like we're on the other side of that equation? Has your life, has my life, if it was examined under a microscope, would you be able to say, I live like he's worthy? My life is lived the way I think. I think like he is worthy. The way I act, I act like he is worthy. The way I give, I give like he is worthy. The reason we're here tonight is I was listening to this passage of scripture a little earlier in the week, and this jumped, you know, we always say, yeah, you know, you could sing a lot of different songs and he's worthy, and you could praise God for, you know, we praise you, Lord, we love you, Lord, you're good, you're holy, and we can kind of go through different attributes of God, and we could worship him, and we should, we should worship him, not just corporately. We should worship him when we open our Bibles in the morning, and we should think about, He is holy. He is good. He is love. He is omnipotent. He is omniscient. He is omnipresent. He is our strong tower. He is our, the name of the Lord is a high tower, the righteous runneth into and is safe. And we can think about the attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ. And not only is he lamb of God, he's the good shepherd. He's the great shepherd. He's the chief shepherd. He's the door of the sheep. He is the way, the truth, the life. He is the soon coming King. He is the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He is the resurrection and the life. He is the light of the world. And we can think about his Holy Spirit. We can focus our worship on the Holy Spirit of God and how he is the periclete, the one who comes alongside. The Holy Spirit of God is the one that makes us a habitation of God through the Spirit. Holy Spirit is the one who leads us and guides us into all truth. And we need to think of those things and those things should change us. And unto him isn't just praise. That's one of the last things. He said, listen, verse 12, worthy is the lamb. And he says, one of the things we give unto him is honor and glory and blessing. And sometimes we skip to that and say, boy, he's worthy of honor. He's worthy of glory. But this missions conference, it will give us a higher motive to really take it to the next level and to do what God wants us to do regarding world evangelization if we'll think of what else he's worthy of. He's not just worthy of us singing a hymn and praising his name verbally, although he's worthy of that. He's worthy of blessing. But this jumped off the page of me when I heard it earlier this week. Worthy is a lamb to receive power. Well, he's got all power. What else is he worthy? And, uh-oh, you knew it was gonna blow down, and riches. Well, he owns the cattle on a thousand hills. I think this is kind of diving into us believers, what he is worthy of of us, he's worthy of our power. He's worthy of our energy, of our effort, Boy, it's tough to come serve the Lord. It's tough to assemble Bibles. It might be tough to take a mission trip. He's worthy. Boy, it's expensive. Pastor wants to do this radio station. You know how much he's talking. Brother Sharp comes around and a credit card starts whirling, man. I'm telling you what, he's worthy. He's worthy of all riches. He's either worthy or he's not, gang. And it's not just for the world. We can say, well, they're trying to replace him and they're trying to say God's not worthy. They're trying to say he's not really omnipotent, omniscient. He's not really in charge. He's not really sovereign. And we stand against that philosophy. But do we stand against that philosophy in our own life and flesh? Is he worthy to you tonight to receive your power tonight? Is he worthy tonight to receive your riches tonight? How about your wisdom and your strength and your honor and your glory and your blessing? Let's personalize it tonight. Is he worthy to you? He's your redeemer, Christian friend. He's the one that made you from a lost sinner to a king and a priest. He's worthy. And he wants his message, he wants his seven-sealed book to get out to the world. He wants people to know judgment day is coming. He wants to use us to tell it, but he wants us to give him the worth that he is due and that he is worthy of, and he's worthy of all honor and all glory and all riches and all wisdom. When was the last time you used your wisdom for him? Sometimes we just throw mud against the wall with evangelism. We ought to maybe think about it a little bit. Use the wisdom that God has given you. Say, now how can I get the gospel over here? Maybe we have to use a different tool. Maybe we have to try and get it there in a unique or creative fashion. He's worthy. It may take some time. It may take some money. It may take some effort, but he's worthy. So as we think about missions this week, It's really good. Our eye affects our heart. We see a video, and we see, literally, when I fly into a place, I see the cityscape, and I'm like, I know there's six or 10 people here trying to reach these people, but Manila, right? I mean, you go into Manila, it's ridiculous how big Manila is. And our eye can affect our heart, but I think that can have a short-lived motivation. If we're gonna continue to really not just be satisfied with where we're at with missions and world evangelization, we've got to have this higher calling. I'm not doing missions just because I saw a picture on the screen of somebody who needed the gospel. I'm doing it because he's worthy. He's worthy. He's my redeemer. He gave himself for me. He's worthy. In church tonight, if we're gonna do more in 2024, in 2025, and if he tarries his coming, We'll never really do more until we ascribe to him the glory that's due his name. We won't do more because when we're asked to be a volunteer, I'm kind of busy. When we're asked for a little bit more money, I don't know. But he's worthy tonight, and I want you to know that the devil's going to distract us from his worth, and you would never say he's not worthy, never verbalize it. But as I look in my own life, oftentimes I can say, you know what, I thought what my idea was was more important than what his idea was. And remember, we are bought with a price, and we should glorify God with our body and with our spirit because they are God's. Let's have every head bowed and every eye closed tonight. He is worthy. And the worthy one said, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go and preach the gospel to every creature. He said, all power is given unto me, all power in heaven, all power in earth, and I want you to go. And he has the right to say that. because he's the only one who's worthy. As a musician plays, if God's touched your heart, maybe there's something you need to confess to the Lord. Maybe you're here tonight and you're not born again. You need to be saved. The altar is open for you tonight. And Christian friend, if you're living, perhaps, and you haven't really, really, really paid attention and said, you know what, God? I'm giving it all to you. You're worthy. You're worthy of my riches. You're worthy of my power. You're worthy of my might. You're worthy of my honor. You're worthy of my blessing because you're my If that's you tonight, the altar's open, if there's a decision you need to make, please come tonight. Thank you for joining us by way of the internet today. We're so glad that you were able to be with us, and we pray that the service was a blessing to your heart. Even though the sermon is over, our service is not over. At the end of our service, we give an opportunity for people to respond and come to an altar and pray over what God dealt with them about. Sometimes people come to call upon Christ and to be saved. Others come to make a decision for Christ regarding their Christian lives. Others come to call out to the Lord about special needs and situations in their lives. Maybe God has dealt with you today about some specific area of your life. I invite you to make an altar right there in your home. a quiet time before the Lord where you pray to Him and respond to Him about what He has spoken to you about. If you made a decision for the Lord today, we would be glad to hear about that decision and or answer any questions you have today about the message that was preached. You can contact us by way of email at info at mountziononline.org or by way of phone at 717-927-9227. Again, we thank you for joining us today and we look forward to you joining us again for our live stream. weekly on Sundays at 10.45 a.m. and on Sunday evenings at 6.45 p.m. If we can meet a need in your life, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you and God bless you.