You folks are too friendly to see if everything was taken. So it probably was. And so if so, I thank you because the more you take, the less I have to pack up and take home. All right. And so I appreciate you being here. I appreciate the grand opportunity to speak not once but twice today. Let me encourage you to invite folks to your local church. You folks have a great church here. And if you are still here as a visitor, let me encourage you to come back when Pastor Schmidt is speaking. And don't judge it off of my poor oratorical abilities, all right? And to come back. And we're in the book of Mark, chapter number six. It'd be good if the preacher found his way there as well. Mark chapter number six, I am very blessed with the opportunity to take the ministry of Bible Tracts Incorporated and stand on the shoulders of giants. One of, and if you've listened to the broadcast, how many of you at least semi-regularly listen to Bible Tract Echoes at 645? You are gluttons for punishment, all of you. Thank you so much for listening. I've said it like three times out there, but I probably said it on the broadcast with Mark Smith, played this week, it's lonely just talking to a microphone. And so we had a great time at the grand opening, had kind of a live studio audience that was a lot of fun. And I'll tell you, you were the first church, I guess, to announce this in. We are planning on, the last day of September, 2023, having an open house again. And so if you missed it this past year, you can come. You say, that's like 12 months away. Well, some of you didn't make it this past time, so I'm gonna give you 12 months to figure it out, all right? In all seriousness, think of it as a mini-missus trip. Now, I will say this also. I drove two hours to come up here. You guys come two hours down to me next time, okay? But in all seriousness, had a great time. The smoked chicken was phenomenal. Mark Smith was not just talking about that. We weren't speaking evangelistically. It was phenomenal. And we already have plans to have them back to do smoked chicken again. But had a great time. It's a great opportunity for you to actually put your hands on the paper and ink. We had folks that actually packed boxes going hither and yon, multiple different states. We had a package that went out, I'd say it was 10 boxes, maybe 11 boxes of tracts. I think in the email I said at least 24,000. I counted before it went out the door. 20, I didn't count them each, but the boxes. 27,000 gospel tracts that went out to Mexico this week. We have a quarter million going to New Zealand right now. They're on a cargo ship. We have a quarter million going to Ecuador. They're on the presses being printed right now. The pallet is starting to fill up. We have two million ready to print in Myanmar, Old Burma. But can I tell you, tracks in Burma and New Zealand and Ecuador and Mexico do no good to the folks of Union Grove, Wisconsin. That's where you come in. I met one person at the BP this morning, OK? I probably, besides you folks, am not gonna meet too many more folks from Union Grove, Wisconsin and surrounding areas, and three hours away from the Kriegers as well, but you're gonna see a lot of people this week that I will never meet. And if you're gonna just trust in men of the cloth and pastors and evangelists and missionaries to do all your soul-winning and gospel outreach for you, then no wonder our country is in the state that it is. You say, you're kind of putting on a hard sell. Well, I am the director of a Bible tracts ministry, so it'd be a little foolish of me not to. And, guess what? I'm gonna drive back home, and I'm gonna sleep in my bed tonight, and what you think of me isn't gonna matter. You say, that sounds mean. Friend, if it offends you when I ask you to use gospel tracts, then offended you may be. Someone said it out there, I normally don't put it this bluntly, but leaving gospel tracks is the least we can do. Who was it that said that? One of the ladies, it was Miss Pam or one of the folks just said that to me. Leaving gospel tracks is the least we can do. Realize this, there are levels, we're gonna get into the Bible in just a moment, I promise, Mark chapter six, but there are levels to this. You say, do I have to do this? confront the lady on the other side of the gas station island? Do I have to walk up and say, would you read this when you have a moment? Actually, you can start, I call that level two. Let's start at level one. You know what I also did this morning? I handed that lady a gospel track, and then I took a little credit card-sized gospel track that you may have heard about on the Bible Track Echoes radio program. I still got one left, two left in here. It looks like this. See, it looks like a credit card on purpose. And you know what I do with this? I stick it in the credit card slot of the gas station, little island there. The next person that comes by can't get their gas without pulling out that little credit card looking thing. And you know what people that are always looking for some money or something, they're thinking, somebody left their credit card. I'm going to pay for my gas with this credit card, right? But you know what they got instead? The gospel. And as I mentioned, when you're pumping gas, you've got nothing but two or three minutes. And you know what everybody does? They grab their cell phones that you're not supposed to be holding while you're pumping gas, and they stand there like this. So instead, I gave them some different reading material. I left two gospel tracks this morning. What's your excuse? Oh, but you don't know I'm shy. We just took that one away. You don't even have to talk to people. I'm forgetful. Yeah. The greatest cause of a lack of gratitude is forgetfulness. We forget what God has done for us. The more you remember how good God is, the more you want to tell other people about him. Let me encourage you to use gospel tracts. I can't tell if you folks are just agreeing with me because you're ready for chicken and hope I finish, or if you're actually on board with what I'm saying. Can't tell. Mark chapter number six, are you there? Say amen. Let's stand together for just a moment, we'll stretch our legs. Mark chapter number six. Pastor, where is Pastor? He's probably dealing with something right now. He's probably tasting the chicken, that guy. Can't believe he would do, Mrs. Schmidt says that's what he's doing. I can't believe he would do that. Tell him to save some for me. So, what's the landing time? You guys are thinking like 1115, probably, aren't you, right? 1130 usually, all right, we'll do our best. Mark chapter number six, verse number one, the Bible says this, and he went out from thence and came into his own country and his disciples follow him. But when the Sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many, hearing him, were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? And what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and of Judah, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus said unto them, The prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them. And the verse that often is preached from this passage, he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages teaching. We're gonna look at this thought and it's amazing to me how we have an every word Bible. It's amazing how God just so artfully laid out each of these things and to see one little phrase that can be so very impactful that we're gonna look at here for just a few moments. I'm gonna ask you once again to use your imaginations. Can you do that? I know we probably rant, you know that little hamster that lives upstairs? The one that only got like one cup of coffee this morning? The one that really craving chicken right now? Can you wake him up, prod him just a little bit, get him on the wheel and moving a little bit here? Did you know, you didn't think when you came to church today that you were gonna get hamster facts. But nonetheless, here I have some. You think, I learned nothing from that man. Well, you're gonna walk away with some hamster facts today. Hamsters are nocturnal animals. What does that mean? They like to roughage around in the evening time, all right? Well, I know it's not evening time, but I need you to wake them up, okay? Wake up that little hamster. Hamsters, on those little wheels, or sometimes in the wild, they can run from six to 12 miles looking for food. Can you believe that? I'm not gonna ask you to run 12 miles for the word of God today, okay? But can you run your imagination just a little bit? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for each and every one that's under the sound of my voice. What I ask in this second service that we'd have a good time around your word, but we'd walk away with something that helps us. And as we go our separate ways, safely, Lord, may you do a work in our lives whose repercussions are felt throughout eternity. In your son's name we pray, amen. You may be seated there. I can't recall if I mentioned this with the men at the men's retreat recently, but if so, you just act surprised when I tell you, okay? I was preaching at a church in Northeast Ohio, that's where I was an associate pastor for about five and a half years or thereabouts, and had the opportunity to share with John and his wife Jennifer that Akron is the heroin capital of America. And considering that the majority of other nations don't release their numbers as readily as America, it could very well be the harrowing capital of the world, actually. Very difficult place to minister, but Lord had us there. Phenomenal work, got to work with and for a great man as the senior pastor there. Made many friends while I was there, and in evangelism, I had the opportunity to go back and visit the church. I had not yet preached there in evangelism. I'd been two years, it was this summer, so I was two and a half years into evangelism. I try to use the excuse when I make mistakes. I'm new. You ever tried that? It only works for so long before that excuse wears thin, right? How long can you really be a new employee? I'm still trying, two and a half years into evangelism, okay? About the time the new car smell wears off, I'm well past that now. So I was there, I was driving there, and we normally travel by 36-foot motor home, and we have a car dolly on the back with our van behind it normally. Now this morning, of course, just drove up two hours today. I'll be taking that vehicle, that RV, one last trip this year. You pray for us. You guys picked the best weekend of the year to have me come. This was phenomenal. I'm not coming back here unless the weather's like this every time, okay? It's not, well, that and chicken. Those are my two ultimatums, okay? But I was going out there, and along the way, you ever have that funny feeling that something's wrong? Well, we're gonna take that RV out to West Virginia, one last trip this year, this week, and I'm praying for good weather, and I'm praying for what happened going to Akron to not happen, because I'm driving, and I look in the right mirror, and realize the RV's like eight feet wide, I'm looking over there, and then to see back and down the side of the RV is like 30, the RV itself is 36 feet long. To get to the tow dolly, you're talking 45 feet. And there's, it's such a big vehicle, it's hard to tell when something's really wrong, unless something really goes wrong. And so, I'm driving like, something's weird. I'm looking back in the mirror, and then a guy, I think it may have been an angel, who knows, pulls up beside me, and is just gesticulating wildly. Pull over! And so I pull over very quickly, and just about that time, I realize I sit far enough up in my seat that I can see just a shower of sparks. I could have sworn that I left Dwight, Illinois with two tires on my tow dolly. Normally, they work best when you have two tires. I was down to one tire. Now, thankfully, it was sturdily built and all that. No damage happened to my actual vehicle. It was just riding along steel on asphalt, just off we go and into the wild orange yonder, I guess. But that was exhilarating. And I was thinking, Lord, you know I'm supposed to be in Akron, Ohio. You know I'm supposed to be in Kent, technically Stowe area, Cairo Falls. I'm supposed to be there. I'm supposed to be speaking tomorrow morning. This is Saturday. I even have dinner plans this evening with a friend from the area. I would really like to make my dinner plans. I'd really like to be there Sunday morning, and I really don't want to deal with this. I was far enough away, I have friends all over the place, especially in evangelism, but I was far enough at that particular place, and the time frame was such, one of those highway patrol guys, not an actual officer, but one of those guys in the orange vest, they do highway working stuff, he pulled up behind me, he was very helpful, he helped me get off the side of the road into this very wide center median, kind of a turnaround area there, and unhooked the car dolly, and I made the decision, This is the, well, to me, final resting place for this tow dolly as it pertains to the Michael McCurry ministry and Bible Tracks Incorporated. We parted ways, never to be seen again. That tow dolly, as it sat there, wasn't worth very much, but if it had two tires on it, it'd be worth about $2,000 probably thereabouts, and that's a bummer. We pull into town. My wife drives the van the rest of the way. Basically, with the time frame, I was going to four weeks of camp out in Pennsylvania. I didn't have time or desire to mess around with it. I had a very precise schedule that supposedly the Lord knew about. So I stand before people, very similar, a very full crowd, a very spirited crowd, good spirit, good attitude, much like you, and I preached. And similar to this morning, There were folks that accepted Christ, but there, instead of three, there was just one. A young man sat right here. I got to meet him right before the service for about two minutes. His name was Fred. He had my daughter, Lucy. If you've ever seen a picture, you can see a picture. It's kind of like black and white on that picture. It doesn't do justice to her bright red hair. Lucy, it looks like fiber optics in the sun. And my wife hates it when I say this, but she's not here. Emmy and Lucy have red hair with the attitude to match. And everyone's looking for the redheads. Did I offend somebody? Most people know what I'm talking about when I say that, right? Fred had red hair. I got to hear this much of Fred's story from my friend the night before when we went to dinner, when I finally made it into town. He said, there's gonna be a young man there, he's a foster child, has been for 12 of his 15 years. In the last 12 calendar months, Fred has moved five times, and three months ago, he finally, the foster system put him in the care of, I'll tell you the name, the Mike Baldwin family. Fred sat here, the Baldwins were right behind him. When Fred first came to church, he sat on the back pew, with his hoodie up, his earbuds in, on his phone. But that day, he sat there in a suit and a tie, three months in, to people loving him. And he sat there and he listened as I explained God's simple plan of salvation, and he got gloriously saved that day. Brother Mike yielded to the call to full-time ministry that same day. What a blessing. Why do I tell you that story though? Because that goes directly to this particular thought here. Jesus did not get the warmest reception, did he? He walked in, Mark chapter number six, to some people deriding Him, being offended by Him, questioning Him. I mean, think about this. This is the God of all eternity, robed in human flesh, and they're asking, who's this guy? He says a prophet is not without honor, saving his own country. But then he says, look at your Bibles, and I want you to see this with me, because we so often skip past, we get to verse number six so quickly in our lives. and he marveled because of their unbelief. But pause for just a moment. Go back to verse number four. Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor, but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house, and he could there do no mighty work. Pause for just a moment here. Friend, isn't it sad when we look back on days of past and say, remember what God used to do for us? Remember this, remember that, and we look around and say, it seems like we're losing the battle. It seems like we can't get on the top. He could there do no mighty work. And we skip from he could do no mighty work to he marveled because of their unbelief, and we skip right past what the Bible says here. He could there do no mighty work save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed him. Now here's the deal, friend. Jesus coming to town. I want you to think about this. Think about Mark chapter five. Actually, if you go Mark one, two, three, four, and five, you can see the continuation of essentially a revival. We don't have time to go through all of it. I mean, he literally deals with a maniac of Gadara. He calms the seas. He deals with Peter's mother. All this stuff, right? Heals lepers. Just from Mark one to Mark five, it's just boom, boom, boom, boom. Here's what Jesus is doing, and then he gets to Mark 6, and the people don't even care. It's a revival. We see the restriction that they placed upon him, spiritually speaking. I mean, what a sad thing to slow, to stymie. The work of Almighty God. Frank, can I encourage you, don't be the one that slows down the work of God. We see the relation that he had with the people there. We see his retinue, that's a large word for followers, following after him there. But then we see the result. It might not be the result we always pray for. It might not be the result that you woke up this morning thinking we were gonna get at Union Grove Baptist Church today. He could there do no mighty work save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them. Can I encourage you in the hustle and bustle of your life that you don't miss the few folk, the few sick folk that are looking for the healing that only God's peace can provide. I want you to think about it. Jesus showing up in Mark chapter six might not have made the evening news. Next morning's paper might have said, man who claims to be prophet, with nothing glowing, nothing positive, nothing praiseworthy. If you ask the average man on the street, was Jesus here? Oh yeah, that kook, he was here. But there were just a few folks that if you asked them, was Jesus here? Their eyes would light up and they'd say, yeah, I used to have this issue and this issue. And all I did was get close to Jesus and he laid his hands on me. Can I tell you, God is still looking for just a few folks. Tell me a time when he's worked through the majority. Name it. Let's talk about crowds for just a moment. Crowds can't comprehend carrying the cross, can they? Because on Sunday, they're talking hosanna, hosanna, hallelujah, glory to God in the highest, right? But all of a sudden, the crowds are saying what? Crucify him. Crucify him just a few days later. Friend, tell me a time Gideon had a crowd. What did God do? He whittled it down to 300, right? Did Noah have a crowd on the ark? No. Name a time. Jonathan and his young Arab bearer. No, just two of them. And they took on the army of the Philistines. Can I tell you that crowds can't confirm a Christian's commitment either? We talked about purpose this morning. Oftentimes, we wanna feel like we're surrounded by a lot of people. Man, Pastor Schmidt, if we just had, you know, two or three more good tithing families as a member of this church, we could really shake this area for God with Justin. God has here today exactly who he wants to have here. Crowds. We're looking for the crowds, Jesus is just looking for a few. Crowds can't certify Christ's commendation either. There have been people, and I appreciate this sentiment, but it's uncomfortable nonetheless. When people introduce me, What they often say is something along those lines. If they find out how old I am, they'll often say, oh, a young man's here to preach the gospel. We're thankful for God's hand on his life. Now you're thinking, how old is this guy? That's what you're thinking. And you're gonna be in suspense the rest of the time unless I tell you, and you're not gonna be able to think about anything else, that hamster's gonna be distracted. In April, I began my 30th trip around the sun. See, that laugh does not make me feel good. I am probably the oldest looking 30-year-old you've ever seen in your life. Pretty sure it's a beard. Had a nice, kind, sweet-spirited Christian lady. I was preaching in California this past year. I was 29 then. And she said this, brother, active service, it's so good to see young men preaching for the Lord. What are you, about 42? Now I'm glad she thought that was young, and it is, it absolutely is. I'll be thinking that when I'm 42 for sure. But I was thinking, goodnight, if I'm 42, when I'm 42, I'm gonna look like I'm 55. 55, I'm gonna look like a mummy by the time I get to 60. But I think about the fact that people will say, Justin, oh, the hand of the Lord's upon him. And it's a blessing to hear. It's nice. Oh, it's a little stroke for the ego. It doesn't mean much from man's mouth, though. When men say it, it doesn't mean a whole lot. I think of the book of Elijah, chapter number 18, toward the tail end. You know what God said about Elijah? God said, the hand of the Lord was upon him. Now that's a commendation I can get with. Elijah was never really big for crowds, was he? Seemed like you get too many people around him, he starts killing people. Crowds can't certify Christ's commendation. And so I asked you, friend, in your search for validity, in your search for some sort of support system, have you neglected looking for just a few like Jesus did? I think of, I love gospel track stories, and I love the fact that I can share so many of them, I hear so many of them. I think back to, towards the early time of my time at Bible Tracks. I heard, this was one of the first stories I got to hear, true story, a lady contacted us the first like two months that I was at Bible Tracks, and she said, I'm from London, England. And someone said this morning, you're a great storyteller. Well, I'm not good with accents, and so I'm not gonna try to do an English accent, okay? She said, I'm from London. She said, I was walking down the street today and it was raining in London, figure that. And I saw a piece of paper on the ground, all unfolded, really big. And it was in a puddle of water. I almost stepped over it, but it caught my eye. And I reached down, it was soggy and a little bit wet, but it held together as I pulled it out. And though the ink was just a little bit smeared, I could read that it was a gospel tract. Can I tell you gospel tracts work anytime, anywhere, for anyone? This is a new story that I don't know if I've shared even on the radio. We are now, and for those of you, how many of you enjoy technology? You can raise your hands. Do you enjoy air conditioning? You better get your hand up. Thank you. All right. All right. I'm not just talking about these little devices, OK? I enjoy all sorts of technology. We have now, I don't mention this often on the radio, though we will more in coming days because it's still in development, but I can tell you guys because we're friends, OK? If you go to the App Store, Google, Apple, all that type of stuff, and you search for real Bible answers, you'll find an app that looks kind of like that. I can show it to you afterwards if you want to see it, if you need help finding it. If you look closely, you'll see that this is a map on here with pins all over the place. We've started using technology to track where gospel tracks are responded to from. And instead of them taking the gospel tract and writing on the back of it and saying, my name is such and such, here's my address, I accept the Christ, and mailing it to us, here's the problem. My generation, remember, I'm only 30. I know you're thinking, thinking I look at least 45, okay? My generation, we don't know if we have a stamp in the house. When's the last time you visited that blue box of the USPS, right? Not so often, especially from my generation, maybe. And so filling that out and finding an envelope and licking a stamp and all that, it's a lot of friction to have someone let us know they accepted Christ. And so we decided, what if we put a little website on the back and a little QR code, all that type of stuff. Here's a cool thing. When you do that, you can track where people are coming from. You can track which gospel track made the most impact because here's the deal. This may be news to you, but gospel tracks aren't for you. They're for lost people. So get them off the track rack, because they don't do any good in the church, put them in your pocket, and then hand them out to people, okay? But here's a cool thing. What if we found out that we have five or 10 gospel tracks, we have 50 English titles, what if we found out that five or 10 of those are the best for Union Grove, Wisconsin? Well, I now have statistics to back that up. And I can tell you, I can pull this up here and show you, actually the track, funny enough, the track I used this morning called The Gift, 8% of all interactions with our gospel tracks have been The Gift. Just a shade under that, seven point something, is It's Free. 7% on the dot, freedom and forgiveness. Number six, a 6% do you know for sure, and then a litany of others. And in the past like four months, we've had 169 people accept Christ as their Savior. And I can show you all that right now. Can I tell you, there are still just a few. And sometimes when you add them all up, it seems like it's more than a few. But because of this, we had a man who lives in Serbia. Anyone here ever been to Europe? Anyone? maybe military or different things may have taken you there. My dad was in the United States Army. And so we got to live in Germany for four years and got to tribes all over Poland and France and Belgium and all that type of places. And a man contacted us from Serbia. He was an English speaking man. And he said, I got a gospel tract from your ministry and he contacted us through the website. because he scanned the back of that gospel tract with a QR code. But here's the cool thing. When we customize tracts for a church, if they ask us to put their information on it, We do that as a different run of gospel tracks, meaning they get a little different code on the back. So you can have the gift, the general one, that you can order for free on our website, and then you can have the gift, that gospel track, for Union Grove Baptist Church with your information on it, and it would have a slightly different code on the back of it, so we know it's yours. Does that make sense? Well, this gentleman, he had scanned a copy of Coupon Faith. one of our gospel tracts, talks about how with coupons, the manufacturer basically pays the difference, right? Well, Jesus Christ paid the difference on salvation. He actually paid all of it. But he got that gospel tract. Here's the cool thing. That particular run of gospel tracts, we had printed 1,000 of them, just 1,000. We printed over four million already this year. Very small in relation. We've done 608 million in 80 years for free. So 1,000 is, in general, a drop in the bucket relative to all that. We did 1,000 for one church in Delaware. Now, Delaware is closer to Serbia than we are. But it's still a really long way from Serbia. That church has no missionaries in Serbia, that one in Delaware. That church, in the last six months, they only had the tracts about two months before this happened. In the six months previous to that, 12 months, years before that, none of their people had ever visited Serbia. They didn't really know anyone across the Atlantic Ocean, because we asked them. They had no idea how one of their tracts ended up in Serbia to be read by a Serbian man. And I can't tell you how God will take the seed of the gospel that you sow and to breathe it into the life of just a few who he knows needs it. So I ask, what's your excuse? Why aren't you reaching just a few? Because If you reach just a few in your neck of the woods, and I reach just a few in my neck of the woods, and you, and you, and it's amazing how the numbers start to add up. You've all heard the old story, the old cliche about the starfish, haven't you? You can nod your heads if you've heard it, or you can shake your heads if you don't. All right, enough people shook their heads. I'll tell you anyway then. When I start to tell you, you'll hear, you'll remember. A boy and his family on vacation, little beach cottage, right? And the tide was going out, and it left behind thousands upon thousands of starfish on the beach. Now starfish are not the most mobile of creatures, especially on dry land. And as the water began to seep out of that sand, they were going to dry out in the morning sun. And so that boy was walking. He walked out of his home in the wee hours of the morning as the tide was receding. And he started to pick up starfish and throw them back in the water where they could survive. And a man was walking his dog. Comes walking down. He had a cottage way down the way. And he sees the boy in the distance, like, just throwing. Couldn't tell what it was. And he walks up on him. What are you doing, son? throwing starfish in the ocean so they can survive. And the man looks down this side of the beach, starfish as far as I can see. Looks that way, starfish as far as I can see. Says, you'll never be able to get them all. The sun's rising too quick. Sun, what's the point? You'll never get them all. He picks up one, says, I made a difference in this one. And he chucks it and picks up another. It's amazing how that man probably felt just a twinge of guilt. The worth of a soul versus a starfish is not worth doing the computation, right? But the next time you think about that overzealous soul winner, that overzealous gospel outreach person, you think, you're never gonna reach them all. But it's amazing how they might just reach a few. So my question, Christian friend, is this. What are you doing to reach just a few? You say, in the world we live, in the state we live, and friend, I crossed over from the communist state of Illinois, okay? If we can reach people in Illinois, you can reach people in Wisconsin, okay? I was talking to someone about how they transplanted from Illinois. I was like, you know what, I'm gonna stay in Illinois so that people know, if people can get saved in Illinois, my church right now, you folks are having a big day today. Praise God for three. My church had like two weeks of big days last week and this week. And my home church had five folks saved last week. Small town in Illinois. Town of 4,400 people. Five people accepted Christ. Here this morning, three people accepted Christ, praise God for it. But here's the thing, God's not done yet. And the sun may be coming up and the trumpet's gonna sound one day, the eastern sky will split, but until then, can you just pick up a couple more starfish, please? Don't listen to the naysayers, even if they're coming from the same pew as you. Because the crowds don't understand. There were multiple groups of people around Jesus. You realize that? Had the crowds, you know what they saw? They saw miracles, so they wanted miracles. Then you had the disciples. I'm not talking about the 12. There were more than just that, but then we have the disciples, then we have the 12. You have the apostles, slightly different group, but very similar. Then you have the three. Remember them? Peter, James, and John, right? And then you had the beloved disciple. You're as close to Jesus as you want to be. I don't know who John had to throw out of the seat next to Jesus so he could sit down next to him and lean over next, lean on him. I was talking to someone just a moment ago. When God's big in your life and he's done a lot of things for you, you can't help but tell other people about him. And maybe, just maybe, you'll reach just a few. Heads bowed and eyes closed for just a moment. Let me ask you, Christian friend, what are you doing to reach a few? I'm not asking you how are you reaching millions. I'm not asking for you to rattle off statistics about how great of a soul winner you are and all the tracks. Could you commit, I'm asking practically this morning, could you commit to passing out one gospel track this week? Could you? I don't often, but I feel led. If you're here today, no one's looking around, so I'm not gonna, we're not taking notes, no one's gonna take a list. If you're here today, just between you and God, and so I can pray for you, if you're listening right now and you say, I commit to passing out, even if I just leave it somewhere for someone to pick up later, I'm not gonna necessarily, person to person, even just one person, or just one tract, if you will pass out, at least one God, I don't care if you've done it in the past, that's great, good. But if you'll commit to do it this week, would you raise your hand for just a moment? Put your hands up, keep them up for just a moment. Thank you, you can put your hands down. At least three quarters of the audience. I'll ask pastor after the service how many folks were here. But I'll know that at least three quarters, whatever that number is, three quarters of that number will pass out. My guess is well over 100. Praise God. I'm not gonna ask for a commitment. I'm gonna ask for you to make this one to God. I'm glad you're gonna do it one week and this week, but could you commit to doing it next week too? And the week after, and the week after. You say 100, in light of the state Wisconsin is in, and in light of how many people are in Union Grove, 100 is not that many. That's how many? 5,200 in a year, if everybody just keeps doing it? 5,200? If that's only, if you do one, if you're committed to do it, we might reach more than just a few. I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna ask you while I'm praying, just speak to God for just a moment. Make a commitment, not to me, not for some number's sake, not so we can put notches on our belt, but so we can reach just a few. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this opportunity. Lord, I ask you to bless each and every one that committed to pass out just one gospel tract. Lord, we are human, and it may be that one of these weeks we might even fail in that. Lord, we know you'll forgive us. Lord, may we be well-stocked. May we be prepared. May we be spirit-led. May we be ready. use these tools you've given us for your honor and your glory. We ask all these things and your sons and me pray. Amen. Pastor. All right. Well, thank you so much. Were you challenged? That's a good thing. I like to be challenged, and it helps us keep the gospel moving forward. Well, folks, well done filling the place up today, and again, visitors that are still here, thank you so much for attending, and we trust that everything that you've heard and been challenged to do, that that'll take place this week. All right, well, I am going to announce the next major event right here at Union Grove Baptist Church, which it's time to eat. And there you go. So, yes, ma'am. I can't hear back there, sweetheart. Okay, if you have an issue going up and down stairs, and only those that are, if you will, have a little bit of a challenge right now until we make sure we got enough seats in there, but if you're someone that cannot get up and down stairs easily, you go straight down to the end of the mezzanine, most of you are familiar with it. and there's seats and tables set up. The food should be up there shortly. For the rest of us that have no issues with mobility, we'll meet downstairs, grab your table right away, and the sooner we get assembled and everybody's seated, we'll pray down there and we'll have a great winter winter chicken dinner. Is that all right? That works for me. All right, let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing and commit the rest of the day to him father Thank you so much for what's taking place here this morning Thank you for sending your vessel here to preach the word and challenge us and father Thank you for those that put their faith and trust in Christ this morning. Nothing more important than that. I And Lord, we've got so much more work to do right here in our town of Union Grove, as well as the surrounding neighborhoods in Milwaukee and Racine and Kenosha County, and even further parts than that. So Lord, we ask that you continue to bless us, bless our radio ministry, our TV ministry, the tract ministry that is now getting a little boost, and we pray, Lord, that you'd use us. Father, we just wanna be used. Would you help us to be your servants? Would you please use us to continue to invite folks to church, to invite folks to receive Christ as their Savior? And Lord, we'll give you the glory for it. Now, Father, I pray you bless the meal to come. I'm excited about the fellowship time that we have. Pray that we'd have great fellowship and that you bless us in a great way as we catch up with some of our friends here today. So, Father, bless the time to come, the fellowship, and all God's people said. Amen. All right, head on down. If you don't know somebody, please make sure you introduce yourself, and we'll have a great time. God bless you.