Matthew chapter 25, wow, that was a great song. That's one I've never heard before. How many have ever heard that before? That's what I thought. How many just heard him sing it? That was a blessing, brother. I like that song. That's a great mission song. And that really kind of deals with what I want to speak this evening about. I'd like to speak this evening on seven spiritual laws to stewardship. seven spiritual laws to stewardship. I think if you'll write these seven points down tonight, it will help you. You know, a lot of what we hear goes, well, how can I say it? How should I say this? Did you know that your pastor and two other men went hunting? And they got out, way out in the woods, and it was deer season. And they were getting ready, they had the trunk open, they had their guns out, all got them all loaded. All of a sudden, they looked through that hedge row, and there, lo and behold, is this big buck. And they all just, grabbed their guns, they lifted up their guns, and all three of them shot right at the same time. And boy, down came that, I mean, that buck just went down. And they were all excited that the adrenaline had kicked in, and up comes one of the, what do they call those people that hang around and find out if you're legal or not? The game wardens, right. Yeah, we're in the country here. You people are helping me. The game warden came up and said, man, what's going on? The pastor goes, man, we just shot over there and we killed a buck right there. He goes, yeah, that's amazing. He said, I'm the pastor, Trinity Baptist, and these are two of my deacons. And he said, well, he said, let me go see who shot that. And they said, yeah, OK. He said, I've got a lot of experience. And he goes over there and he looks around and makes all these measurements and does all this stuff. And then he comes back and he goes, you know, Pastor, you're the one that shot him. And the other two guys go, what do you mean? How do you know he shot him and we didn't? He said, well, his bullet went in one ear and came right out the other. How many have ever heard that one before? Okay, there's one, two, right. Did you ever heard that? I noticed you got nervous when I started talking. That was a joke for you that don't joke. Very good. Now, I wanna give you seven spiritual laws of stewardship. Did you know that God has entrusted to us his life in us? When you got saved, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become what? New. You're under new management now. Thank the Lord. I'm so glad when I got saved, my life changed. Didn't yours? And it's thrilling because now there's new ownership. Dan Knickerbocker does not own himself. I'm owned by God. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of God? You're not your own when you're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are whose? God's. So we're under new management. We need to find out what God's seven laws of stewardship are all about. You know, we talked about stewardship of missions and how the church functions to reach the world. But I want to give you a definition here. Webster says that stewardship is the careful and responsible management of something that has been entrusted to one's care. God has entrusted us. He has given us the opportunity to do His bidding, to live our lives for His glory and for His honor. And I'm telling you, the happiest people on earth ought to be you. If you're a Christian, you ought to be the happiest person on earth for what Christ has done for you, In forgiving all of your past sins, your present sins, and your future sins, He's able and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How about that? So he makes some statements to his disciples. It's called a parable. And I want us to take our Bibles and go to Matthew 25 verse 14. For the kingdom, this is Jesus speaking, for the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and he delivered unto them whose goods. his goods, delivered unto them his goods. And unto one of them he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, and to every one according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey. He left. Our Savior's gone to glory, hasn't he? Hasn't he? He's seated at the right hand of the throne of God, making intercession for us. Look at verse 16. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise, he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his lord's money. After a while, the lord of those servants cometh. And notice he reckoned with them. And so he that had received the five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliverest unto me five. Behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His Lord said unto him, listen to these words, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He also That had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents. Behold, I have gained two other talents besides them. His Lord said unto him, well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Then he which had received one talent came. Now listen to the attitude of this man. Lord, I knew that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed. And I was afraid, and I went and hid thy talent in the earth. Lo, there thou hast that is thine. And he handed him that one talent. His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, Thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, he's using irony here, and gather where I have not strawed. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him that hath the ten talents, for unto every one that hath shall be given. and he shall have abundance, but for him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath, and cast ye the unprofitable servant out of darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, I come to you tonight because I want you to withstill in each heart these seven spiritual laws of stewardship. Oh God, we're living in a day when so much is being wasted. Our time, our talent, our treasures. Oh God, we ask that you would revive us by your spirit and may our life be an investment of what you have given to us. May we reap a harvest from what you've given to us. We'll trust you for great things in Jesus' name. Amen. When it comes to the gifts that God has extended to us, you've heard this phrase before. We've been given talents. Talents are abilities that God gives to us. And then we have tithe, the tithe, the money that we give to the Lord's work, whether it be general fund, offerings, missions giving, or special offerings for different things. God has given us that opportunity. He did tell us that we're to give 10% of our income to the work of the Lord, and I believe that's better than having to give 90. Can I get an amen right there? You see how God works? He always makes you only do a little. But when everybody does a little, a whole lot gets done. I heard of a church one time that was falling apart. The pastor hadn't been paid. The windows were leaking. The roof wasn't fixed right the way it should be. It needed to be painted. And the missionaries, they hadn't sent any money to the missionaries and the pastor was ready to leave. And one of the men in the church stood up and said to the whole congregation, Would it be all right if you put me in charge of the finances for one year?" That was kind of a shocking thing, but everybody was like, you know, we got to do something. And if he wants to take that burden on, let him have it. And they voted. He said, but you can't talk to me about it for a whole year. I don't want anybody coming to me and saying anything. And so, sure enough, man, everything started getting done around the church, the building got painted outside, the roof was fixed, and just amazing, the missionaries started getting there. By the end of the year, the pastor was getting paid, everything was functioning as though God had done it. So on that last week of that year, The pastor had that man come up and explain to everybody how it happened. He said, since we're all farmers, when you brought your wheat or your harvest into my granary, I just took 10% of each of yours and I put it in a special bin. And how many of you missed it? None of them missed it. Well, that's what took care of all of the expenses. You're the ones that did it, not me. Wow, what a lesson. What a lesson, what God could do with a church where everybody's stewardship is in order. Now let's take a look at these seven laws. Number one, each servant has been entrusted with what belongs to God. You remember first of all in verse 15, unto one he gave, he delivered unto them in verse 14, his goods. What he gave them he wanted to be invested. And so We understand that what we have really belongs to God. If my body belongs to God, then my brain belongs to God. My hands belong to God. My talents, my treasures, my time, all belongs to God. I got thinking about that. You know, if every one of us took the 168 hours we have in a week and just tithed on the hours, you would give the Lord every week 16 hours of service. Now you figure that out. You go home and figure that out. How much could you, well, you'd never miss a service. You'd even have time to spend studying your Bible every day. That sounds like a novel idea. You would be able to do things around the church and help with ministries and you could go out visiting for the Lord and you would never use up those 16 hours. I'd like you to keep track on how many hours you spend serving the Lord. I think you would find that you've come up a little short. And I think that it's wise for us to work at that, amen? If he wants the tithe, 10% of our tithe, why can't we give him 10% of our time? And how many of us waste time? I'm raising both of my hands. My son bought me a new phone a few years ago, and he, on Saturday, this thing came up and said how many average hours I spent every day. I didn't say minutes, I said hours. And I was shocked. How many wanna know how many hours it was? My wife doesn't want me to tell you. It was six hours a day. That's not good. Was I wasting my time? I think I was wasting some time that I could have given to the Lord. I wanna ask the question, how many have ever spent six hours a day with the Lord? Isn't it amazing how time goes by so fast when you're on your phone? But when it comes to getting on your knees and getting alone with God, 10 minutes can be an eternity. It's crazy. It tells you one thing about us, that what we're interested in, God is not so much interested in. And we can waste our time, and God forgive us. for doing that. So what he's saying here is that what he's entrusted to you is what he gave you, and that is time and talent and treasures. Number two, the second law we find in this passage is each servant is entrusted goods according to his own ability. You'll notice the phrase there in verse 15, where it says, according to his several ability. God knows your capabilities. He knows your intellect. He knows your emotion. He knows your will. He knows what kind of a spirit you have. God knows everything about us. And here is what he's saying to us. I've entrusted something to you. You do it according to your ability. You know, there's been many people who said, I could never be a missionary, Pastor, until they become one. And because God called them to do it, He enabled them to do it. I think that a lot of times we limit God when He is so capable of helping us to do what He wants us to do. Now, I know what I want to do and boy, I'll put all my energy and effort into what I want to do because I know what to do. But when it comes to spiritual things, God's got to intervene. God's the one that has to help us and enable us to do what maybe we've never done before. But we learned by experience and experience is a great teacher. As you begin to live for the Lord and you start giving more of those hours to the Lord, at least 16 hours a week, you'll find that you'll have help from the Lord to do spiritual exercises, things that will help other people and bring other people along. And if everybody did this, this church building would fill up We've got to give ourselves to the people of this world and help them to know the Lord. Once they get saved, then they start doing what you taught them to do. When I was a pastor, I got one of my men and I said, I'm going to train this man and we're going to visit together. And he wanted to do it. And I taught him how to do door to door and everything like that. And he got to the place where he said, why can't I do it? I said, well, I'm about ready to let you loose. And one of the men in the church said, I'll go with him. And I got another man to go with me. And before long, we had a group of men that were out there reaching people for Christ. It was wonderful. That can happen with the ladies. There's so many opportunities and ways that we can use our ability to serve the Lord. And he said, according to your ability. So he's not asking you something you can't do. Number three, the third law is Each servant was given full freedom to handle his goods. You know, the Bible tells us that the Lord, here the servant, the master went away. He was gone. This person was on his own to fulfill the freedom of handling the goods as God had given them to him. You know, it's amazing how many people have great ideas. And there is a lot of talent in a church. And where one person can't do something, another person can do it. And it's amazing how when you put all of those people together, wow, things happen. And it's because everybody has a way of doing things. And as they handle those goods, he gives them the freedom to do what he wants. He never checks up on them. He doesn't micromanage Christians. Did you know that? Have you ever noticed that? Micromanagers have to control you and do everything, and you do everything the way I want them done. God says, I'm going to entrust you that you can figure this out. And you'd be surprised how many people thought they couldn't be used of God are now being used of God. I think a lot of the young people have chosen to do other things than the things of God, and I think a lot of it has to do with because they don't really think they can do it, or somebody's talked them out of it. Did you know that parents sometimes talk their children out of the ministry? Even after they got into the ministry. See? I told you you'd starve to death. Do I look like I'm starving? I don't think so. What God does is he enables us to do things and he gives us the liberty to do it the way we feel most comfortable with doing it. I remember, this is something that happened to my wife and I. I was going to Ireland for a whole month to preach and I charged my tickets. And they were almost $400 a piece. The tickets, one for me, one for my wife, and our daughter went with us. I was preaching over there for a month. And so I charged it. And I'm it's it's 40 days since I charged it. And I'm driving to the airport and I'm thinking, oh, Lord, that that bill is going to come in and I'm going to have to pay interest on it. And I sure would like you to take care of that bill, because I didn't know what it was going to be like in Ireland, whether those people were going to be able to help me or not. Excuse me. And so. We got there, we're waiting for our flight to go out. This is how the Lord works. And we're waiting, it's probably 20, 30 minutes before the flight goes out, and this guy comes on the loudspeaker and said, you know, I need three people that could come and take a half an hour later flight, and I will give them a $400 ticket. I felt led of the Lord to go and check that out, if you know what I mean. I must have got a frog in my throat or something. Anyway. So we ran up there and boy, he wrote out four checks, three checks for $400 each. And we put them in an envelope and put the bank address on there and deposit slip and sent them away and it was all taken care of. About that time, about the time I got that done, all of the people that were going on the flight that we were gonna go on, they got on the plane and I thought off they went. About 40 minutes goes by and we're getting ready to board and the plane that we were supposed to be on came back in, they never got out. They never left. There was complications with that plane. And as they're getting off that plane, we're getting on the plane to go and everything worked out just fine. How about that? I really believe in the providence of God. When you give yourself to God. He gives himself to you. And he can do things that we would never dream possible. Oh, I could tell you story after story about God's divine intervention. And all of you, how many of you could raise your hand and say, I remember seeing God do that for me. All of us could have that, couldn't we? Maybe kept us from an accident or guided us to make a good investment. All of that, it's done because God says, OK, you take care of it. And when you take care of it, you're talking to the Lord about it all the way through. And He gives us wisdom and guides us, and He works in other people's hearts to be tenderized to the gospel, to the work of God. And all of a sudden, here it is, that which we thought couldn't be done, God did it. God did it. Number four, just checking to see if anybody dozed off on me. Each servant was called to give an account. Now watch this, verse 19. After a while, the Lord of those servants cometh, notice, and he reckoneth with them. That has the meaning of it's time now for all of us to give account of ourselves to God. Is that going to happen one day? The Bible says every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The lost are going to be sent into hell, but those that are at the judgment seat of Christ are going to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be bad. And I want to tell you, if you really take seriously these laws of stewardship, you will find that when you stand before the Lord, He's going to say, well done. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Amen. I think that God is looking for obedience, don't you think? We don't need to be rebellious. We don't need to get an attitude. We are now children of the King. We are those that have been placed in a position to make a difference for eternity. And the supreme task of the church is to reach the whole world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. So he gives us freedom to handle our goods, but also he makes us give an account, and we will stand before him. Number five, each servant was required to show a gain. Now that may sound a little strange to you at first, but when you think about working with God, it's gotta be better than working by myself, don't you think? If I'm serving the Lord, it's gonna be a greater yield than it would be if I was doing something for myself. And when we take what God has given to us, those gifts, those abilities that God's given to us, and he's given to us that money or whatever it is he's given to us to be responsible for, we must see a gain. Now, the first two doubled, didn't they? He had four. He had five. He gained five. The other one had two. He gained two. But that fellow with the one talent messed up. He thought, you know, I know he gave you that talent. I'm going to go and bury it so that I know when he comes back, at least I'll have that. Maybe he thought he was going to lose it. Maybe he thought that, you know, maybe I won't be able to invest this. And what am I supposed to do? And he did nothing. He did nothing. Doing something is better than nothing. Wouldn't you agree? If you went on a job, You say, well, I don't know whether I could do any of these things you're asking me to do. You know, I'll try, but don't count on it. Would you hire a person like that? No. You'd say, have a good day. But a person that comes and says, I'll do whatever you want me to do because I'm your servant, they'd hire you in a second. You might even make the other people look bad. because you work so hard. And I wanna tell you, when you're working for God, that's the greatest privilege you could ever have, for you to be able to say, the Lord has entrusted me a talent, I'm going to invest it, I'm gonna work wisely with it, I'm gonna see God's direction on how to use it, and be sure I'm going to double what God has given to me. There's always, a yield. There's always more that God will give to you when you invest in his work and in his kingdom. You know, it's really something. My mother, my mom and dad were supposed to go as missionaries to Pakistan. And my dad had Crohn's disease. And when the doctor's reports came back and they were submitted to the admissions board, they said, we don't really believe you should go over there. You've got a pretty chronic disease or a problem with your colon. And so they said, we will not pass you to be a missionary to Pakistan. And my mom was disappointed. My dad was disappointed. They met some Pakistanians that had come. We even had a Pakistanian preacher come and preach in our church. And Lal Din was his name. And he was on fire for God. And my dad wanted to go there so bad. And so they decided that we'll take the advice of the mission board. And my mother never told dad about it. She just said, Lord, would you make one of our children a missionary. And at 12 years old, my brother was sitting in a chapel service in our Christian school, and a lady came to talk about the country of France. And she said, only 3% of the people of all religions goes to church in France. And when my brother heard that, my brother was quite intelligent, and boy, he got it. And he surrendered his life to be a missionary in France. And I thought, ah, he'll get over it. He's only 12 years old, right? I was 10. And so anyway, he never got over that burden. At 16, he had just turned 16 and he went to France as a student missionary. Listen closely what I'm going to tell you. He didn't know the language. In six months, he had the language learned to where he could start college. Every weekend, the college sent their students out and in three years, they started seven churches in France in towns that had no Bible-believing Baptist church. He did all that while he was in college. Can you imagine saying, I started seven churches at graduation? That's amazing. And then down through the years, he started a camp, which is the biggest camp that the Baptists have in France. And it's just wonderful how God used him. He had the largest church in France. It was 120 people in attendance. That's a big church in France. And you know what? He told the church people of that church of 200. They said, we want you to be our pastor. He said, OK, but I have to do something that's probably never been done before. I'm going to give up my stateside support, and you're going to take care of me so that when I resign, you'll have the money to take on a national pastor. And that's what he did. He called all of his churches, don't send me any support. And he pastored that church for almost 20 years. Isn't that amazing? And then they got a French pastor, and then he went into full-time camp ministry. Churches took him back on again. Now he just finished his 52nd year in France and the support now is he's encouraging everybody to support his daughter. What I'm saying to you is that's good stewardship. That's working smart. France is not a third world country by any stretch. And in fact, they're a pretty wealthy country. But you know what? What good is it if you don't use it for God's glory? What a waste to have so much and gives so little. And so we see here that he wants a gain. He wants you to gain in your Christian life. And I believe you can do it. Number six, every Christian was rewarded for having many or few talents. Every servant was rewarded for many or for few. God always gives his best. to those that leave the choice with Him. And when you say, and I tell all young people, you need to pray to the Lord and say, Lord, what do you want me to do with my life? Many of you are young, you've got a lot of years ahead of you before you would be on your own. You're still young, you're still in school, grade school, whatever. Why don't you start saying, Lord, what do you want me to do with my life? Because I don't wanna waste it. And I want as a servant to be rewarded for the talents God has given to me. What is more important that five talented man got five or a two talented man got two? Or if he had been doing what was right, he wouldn't have buried it. A one talented man could be two talents. God looks at it that way. As long as you have a gain and as long as those talents are active and useful to the work of God. One of the things that I'm very impressed with, and I've been in hundreds of churches, what really thrills me most is to go back to a church and see the same people still serving God and they're excited about it. That is the joy of my heart. You know, Paul, as an evangelist, as he traveled and started churches, he said there in one passage, he said, his care for the churches, he cared about the churches. He wanted to see how they were doing. And isn't it true that God wants to see us forever faithful? That we didn't lose five years of getting away from God, I remember a preacher that I worked, I even taught in his Bible college. His wife told him one day, I'm done. He had to resign the church he started from scratch. 10 years, 10 years he wasted. In a boating accident, he almost drowned. But he felt like he was going down for the last time. He said, oh God, if you get me out of here, I will serve you the rest of my life, I promise. And at that very moment, he reached up as he was struggling, and the boat was right where he could grab it. Don't you think the Lord just pushed that boat right over to him? Like he'd said, fishes, go over on the other side of the boat with the disciples. You remember that story? He came up out of there, and man, I went to a preacher's meeting, and he came up and tapped me on the shoulder. I knew he'd been away from the Lord for 10 years. And he tapped me on the shoulder and he said, Brother Knickerbocker, thanks for praying for me. He said, I will serve the Lord all the days of my life. And he still is to this day. He's still serving the Lord. I must say to you that we cannot lose any ground. We cannot let up. We cannot retire. We cannot go our separate ways. No, there's a work that's here that God wants to advance and He wants to grow. As much as your missions needs to grow, Trinity Baptist Church needs to grow. Amen? And how many of you would be upset if this church was full with people? No, you'd be so happy. You'd be shouting the victory because you would have had something to do with it. could have something to do with it. You need to ask the Lord for wisdom. How do you want me to live my life in the next five years? How about in the next month? Start small and say, Lord, help me. Help me never to miss a service unless I'm providentially hindered. Help me to make some decisions that will be lasting decisions that will help me to be what I know God wants me to be. You know, it's not that we don't know what to do. A lot of times we just don't do it. Isn't that true? I know it's true in my life. And sometimes the Lord has to wait way too long for us to get to that point where we get serious. Then number seven, the last law is each servant who refuses to invest will suffer penalties. You know, the Bible talks about not receiving a full reward. They're in the book of Hebrews. Just Google full reward and read that passage. It's really convicting because it talks about, well, I did good for a while, but then I slacked off and did some things I shouldn't have done. And all that great stuff that you did for the Lord, you suffered lost. because you got to the place where you wanted to do what you wanted to do instead of what God wanted you to do. I've never met a person that sold out to God that ever regretted it. I've never known a person that got saved that ever regretted it. And I'll tell you, the more you invest and the more you give of yourself, the more God gives to you. The greatest joy is to see someone you talk to come to Jesus. to see them get in the baptismal waters, to see them join the church and get involved and start serving the Lord and other ministries can be started and other things that can be accomplished that can't be now, but God's got it all planned out. And He's just asking us to join that plan. I heard of a missionary from Scotland He had given up to 70 years of ministry. He went over as a young man, and in his 70th year, he was done. He was wiped out, tired. He'd been a missionary faithfully there, and God had used him in a great way, but he was tired, and he retired from the field. He was asked to speak at the general conference of what was the Scottish Presbyterian Ministry of Missions. And he went to this big conference and he was the speaker. He got up to speak and he made an appeal at the end of his message. He said, how many of you would stand up and go in my place to reach the lost people. And nobody moved. And all of a sudden he fainted. He just fell, collapsed to the ground, to the platform. Wow, there was some doctors in the crowd. They picked him up and they got him off to the side. And for a few minutes he was incoherent. And then all of a sudden he, He came to, he goes, where am I? They said, well, you're at the conference. And he goes, I wasn't finished. Let me back up there. They said, well, you've had a heart attack or a stroke or something. I don't think we can get you up there. He said, get me up there. And they grabbed him, and they brought him up. And he's a little unstable there. And he grabs a hold of the pulpit like this, and he's hanging on. And the men are standing around him for fear that he might fall again. And he said, if Queen Elizabeth, it was England, not Scotland, if Queen Elizabeth asked you to go. And she had done this not too long before that, had asked people to go and help in a country that was struggling, and people surrendered to go and help. It wasn't about the work of God. It was about a nation that was under terrible problems, and they went to help over there. But he said, if Queen Elizabeth asked you to do it, you'd do it. About that time, he said, I guess that I'm going to have to go back. I'm going to have to go back and lay by the river over there and try to reach some people with the gospel until I die if you won't go. All of a sudden, the Spirit of God fell upon that place. One young man said, I'll go. Another person said, I'll go. Before long, there were over 20 people that said, I'll go. And people went in his place. Isn't that something? How many of you would have a thought about, man, I think I'd like to do that. I'd like to pick up where one man left off. I want to tell you, there's a great need. The Bible says in Matthew 9, the laborers are what? What does he say then? Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would what? I don't, I don't, I'm not one that gets any laborers. God has to touch the heart or it's not gonna get done. I can't manipulate you. I'd be foolish to think that I could. When I became a pastor, I thought I could really change people's lives and I couldn't. But I saw God do it. And I want to tell you, when God does it, guess who gets the glory? Not me. He gets the glory. Let's pray. Thank you for your patience this evening. Oh, that you would take so seriously. I'd like to ask you. I would like to ask every one of you. How many of you would be willing to give more of your time and your talent and your treasures to God. How many of you would be willing to say, Lord, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it? How many of you would say, I know God's given me talents and I need to use them. I don't want to show up empty handed when I stand before the judgment of Christ. Let's stand together as the pianist softly plays. Let's just make this a moment of prayer together. In fact, why don't we all just come down here? Amen. If you're saved, come on down. Come on down. Let's gather around right here at the altar. You don't even have to kneel. Just stand. The pastor and I will be right here. You can kneel and stand, whatever you want to do. You can sit on the front row if you want. But I want all of us to say, Lord, use me. Use me. I may not have a lot of talent, but I have a willing heart. Use me. I want to just have a moment of silence so that you can pray. You spouses, you husbands and wives, you could pray together and say, Lord, is there something that we haven't done that we need to do? You know what I mean? Let's just take this time and you may be single. You may be just a young teenager. Oh, God's got something for you. God's got something for all of us. He's already given to us something that we're entrusted with. In just a moment, the pastor will finish with a prayer. Father, we do thank you for the message that we heard tonight. Lord, we thank you for the hearts that were touched. God, I pray that this will be a message that we'll remember, or we won't just go home and forget. Let it pass on by. God, I pray you'll apply it to our lives. Help us to be good stewards of what you've given us, made us responsible over, Lord. God, you've given us so much. You've blessed us so much here at Trinity Baptist Church, and we don't take it for granted. But help us to be a good steward of what you've given us. Lord, all the blessings we have here and the opportunities we have to get the gospel out. God, help us to be good stewards of that. Lord, I pray that you'll just help us in the ministries you've called us to. Lord, I believe there's some folks here right now, Lord, that you're touching their hearts about doing more. God, I pray that you'll keep touching our hearts. Don't give up on us, Lord, and I pray that we'll have a surrendering heart Do whatever it is that you've called us to do, Lord, in whatever ministry, whether it's here or somewhere else around the world, God, I pray it will be tender towards him. And God, I pray it shall bless. Bless this time we have right now, Lord, with our candlelight service, Lord, a special time, help it to touch our hearts again, Lord, and just burden us for these missionaries, Lord, that have gone out that we support. God, I pray it shall bless it. In Jesus' name I do pray, amen. All right, you may be seated. We're going to take a love offering first. So gentlemen, come on forward. If you need a love offering envelope, raise your hand. This is for brother Knickerbocker. Yeah. Envelope. Just raise your hand there. I'll make sure you get one. While they're coming forward in just a moment, we're going to have our candlelight service. And how many of y'all have never been a part of our, one of our candlelight services before with never done that before? Okay. We'll talk about it here in just a moment. So let's take the offering here first Father dear Lord, we do thank you for today Lord. Thank you for Vangelis Knickerbocker today Lord. Thank you for his messages Lord. We pray for their safety as they head to their next appointment Lord and also for brother Dameron for he and his wife as they travel and Lord, we do ask you to bless this offering in the giver, in Jesus Christ's name, amen.