The, um, I like to hear people sing about stuff they know about. And, uh, I remember you'd go to some meetings and you'd hear kids singing about trials and tribulation. They're eight years old and they're singing about trial and tribulation. It's a good song. You're like, man, I know what you've gone through at seven, but you've got a long way to go. And I think of all that, uh, Miss Sheila, brother Jimmy's gone through and they don't complain, they just serve God. And it's the way it should be. And I promise you this, if you want to take the time to figure out all the stuff in life that's wrong, there's plenty of opportunity to do that. But the thing is, again, it's what we think we deserve. Whatever your level of entitlement is in life, I promise you, you'll find someone who has more and then you'll say, well, that's not fair. They're not living for the Lord like I am or whatever it is. So why do they get what I don't get? And again, when you, when you look at the. Fact that you and I really don't deserve anything except hail. Now all of a sudden, everything's a blessing and that that's how you, That's how we become grateful people, right? Not, you know, not, well, God gave me $1,000. Well, that's great if he does, but what if he doesn't? He's still good. According to the word of God, God is good. And because he's good, he does good things. And so Luke chapter 17 is our text this morning, if you'd turn there with me. Luke chapter 17, this will be a familiar passage, and I'm constantly amazed at, as I study and as you study, I'm sure, as God brings some things out. I've read this, Brother Shane, account of the 10 lepers, I don't know how many times, I'm sure you have, but there's some things that God showed me, and again, please don't misunderstand me, I'm not talking about revelation that no one else has seen, I'm saying that my finite, dumb brain sometimes. God said, hey, look at that, and I'm like, whoa, right? But notice what we, in verse 11 is where we'll start. The Bible said it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem. Well, why was he going to Jerusalem? He's going to the cross. His whole path is leading him to the cross, and he had a mission in mind, that the reason Jesus came to earth was one thing, to die. He came to earth to die for your sins and mine. So you see there in verse 11, he went to Jerusalem, but that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. So here he is going to Jerusalem, yet he passes through here. Why? Because he has a divine appointment with some lepers. And you know the morning you got saved, if you're here today and you're a Christian, He passed by your way as a divine appointment with a holy God and you ought to thank God He passed by your way. You say, well I thought God was everywhere. He sure is. But may I say this, the Bible said the Spirit of God has to draw you. In other words, the Holy Spirit has to show you that you're a lost sinner on your way to hell. You can sit here this morning and we'll preach, and I promise you this, if you want to walk out of here lost, you can. God will not force you to get saved. God did not force these lepers to be cleansed, but he gave them the opportunity. So the Bible said as he entered into a certain village, Now I like that, the word certain village means that in all of Samaria, in all of Galilee, there were these 10 lepers in this one spot, and they could not get to where Jesus was, but Jesus got to where they were. Now in this big world, you think about this, the morning I got saved, brother Ian, God knew exactly where I was at, and if you're here today and you don't know him as your savior, he knows exactly where you're at geographically, but he also knows where you are spiritually this morning. He knows whether or not you're safe, whether or not you need to be safe. So the Bible said he entered into a certain village. There met him 10 men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And Brother Dennis did a great job this morning talking about the Syrians allowed those lepers to be a part of their family. But here, that culture is like they had to stay isolated. and had to say unclean and could not be with the rest. But the Bible said in verse 13 that they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus master, notice what they said, have mercy on us. Now these guys didn't say, look, this is not fair. We've got leprosy, which was a death sentence. It's not fair, we've got it. do something about it, they just cried unto him and said, have mercy. You know what mercy is? Getting what you don't deserve, or not getting what you deserve, right? Grace of God is God giving you his unmerited favor. The mercy of God is you not getting what you deserve. So they said, have mercy on us. Now notice verse 14, I've got this circled. This is what God helped me with this morning. And when he saw them, He said unto them, right? That's the word of God. He said, go show yourselves unto the priest. Time out. Nothing's happened yet. Nothing's happened. He is already telling them that they will be cleansed as if it has already happened. Is that right? That's what he's saying. He's saying, why are they, why are they going to show themselves to the priest? The reason they would do that would be to show that their leprosy is gone. Right? So here, let me ask you this. When you, and we studied this a few weeks ago, and again, you got to get out of it. I don't want to do this because some of you be like, preach wool now, wool, wool, wool. We gotta understand that the constraints of time that we have are not Him. He's eternal. So when you look at this and say, well, how can that be? Cause it's God, right? And the Bible said that the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world as it has already happened, right? So we're constrained by time, He's not. And here's what He's saying. He said, you go show yourself to the priest Uh, like it's already happened. In other words, you got to have the measure of faith that it's already happened. And notice what the Bible said in verse 14. And it came to pass that as they, what went, they were what you can have all the head knowledge you want to, but. You got to do something to get saved and that something you got to do is not give money or be a better person or live a cleaner life. You've got to trust Jesus Christ. See, that's what they were saying. Jesus was saying this. He was saying, I want you to go and show yourself to the priest like this has already happened. And in order for them to do that, they had to trust that it would happen. So at the moment they said, okay, I believe I'm just going to go to the priest. You know what happened? The Bible said they were cleansed. People say, well, come to the altar and say a prayer. No, if you truly get born again, when you step out of that seat and trust Jesus as your Savior, because that's what you're doing, you're making a move toward Him, what's happened. You pray all the prayers you want to, man. Listen, it's about trusting the Lord Jesus as your Savior, not regurgitating some prayer somebody told you to pray. Amen. So we got so much to thank him for. Now let's go on, I'm getting there. I'm just, I'm dug in. So they went and they were cleansed. And notice verse 15, and one of them, how many were there? 10, one, 10%. My math right, 10%. One, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice, glorified God. Fell down on his face at his feet, giving him what? Thanks, and he was a Samaritan. You notice how they just threw that in there? Here's 10 lepers, some of them were Jews, some of them were Samaritans. The Samaritans were hated by the Jews, right? And Jesus didn't care if they were Samaritans or Jews. Wouldn't that be good if we'd get that way? See, he don't really care if you're black, white, come on the right side of the track, wrong side of the track. He's not interested in all that stuff. He's interested in your soul. He's interested in where you're gonna spend eternity when you die. He don't care how much money you got, how much you can put in the offer. He don't care about what he wants. He wants to save you so you don't have to die and go to hell. That's all he's really concerned about this morning. So, so the Bible said, uh, he fell down and gave him thanks and he was a Samaritan and Jesus answered and said, well, they're not a 10 cleanse, but where are the nine? So you got one grateful, you got nine ungrateful sound familiar. You got one that's like, I can't believe Jesus did this for me. You got nine that are saying, well, I think I deserve this. They could care less. And we're the same way. I mean, when you got up this morning, and you got out of bed, and your feet hit the floor, and man, you went in there and you ate some breakfast, or you drank your coffee, and you put on some clothes to come to church, and you didn't think a thing about it. I guarantee you most people, maybe 10%, thank God, but 90% was like, Just like any other day. I'll guarantee you, most people, when they pulled in this parking lot this morning, didn't pull in the parking lot and look up into heaven and say, God, I wanna thank you, I got a church to go to. I almost guarantee you, when you walked in here, and some of you are fanning and others of you are shivering, nobody was like, you know, God, I thank you for these padded pews and I thank you for this heat and air unit. You know why? Hey, everywhere we go, we think this is the way it's supposed to be. You say, well, preacher, you don't know how bad I got it. I thought about that, Brother John. I thought, how bad do we have it? You ready for this? Can you imagine, I thought about this, it's probably you're gonna think this is funny, maybe not. Do you know of anybody That the mama kids came into the kitchen and said, mama, where's daddy at? Well, honey, hate to tell you. Dad got killed by Grizz while he's going out to that house this morning. He's gone. Anybody ever had that happen to him? Sure. I'm glad we got indoor plumbing around our place. Right? Sure am glad I ain't got to worry about a grizzly bear attacking me when I go outside, hallelujah. Hey, hun, wasn't there four kids with you when you left out this morning to go fishing? Yeah, Crock got one of them, we lost one. Anybody ever have to go through that? I don't think, what I'm saying, you know, you look back and look at David and he's living in a cave. You know what's in caves? Spiders and snakes and no heat and no light. Can I get a witness there, amen? You may not be living in a mansion, but you ain't living in no cave. You got in your car and you said, man, it wouldn't crank this morning, the battery stinks and it's got 280,000 miles on it. I'll guarantee you this, I'll guarantee you Paul the apostle wouldn't mind having that old beater you got when he's walking thousands of miles to spread the gospel. Can I get a witness, amen? God's been good to us. But see, and here, you look at this, this leprosy, it's not that big a deal today. But back then, you were gonna die. Do you realize that years ago, the common cold, do you realize it killed multitudes of people? Do you realize that the average lifespan was about 40 some years old? Do you realize that it's not until this recent generation that we have electricity and internet and telephones? By the way, maybe if we didn't have all these stinking cell phones, the anxiety wouldn't be quite as high. See, what I'm saying is we feel like we're entitled to all this stuff. Well, we're entitled to healthcare. Really, where do you find that in the Bible? We're entitled to a vacation. We deserve a vacation. You know who says that? The people that sell vacations. We're blessed, folks. That's all I'm saying is when you look at generations and even places of the world that is not America, you ought to get on your face, walk outside and find you a patch of ground and kiss it and say, God, thank you for letting, you say, preacher, we got all kinds of problems in America. We sure do. But I'll tell you what, go somewhere else and you start seeing what they got going on and then tell me how bad you got it. The housing affordability is terrible. Go somewhere else. They live in a shoebox and it costs more than what you're paying for a house. I'm just saying we've got so much to pay for, yet we focus on the things we don't have. And when you realize this, that he owes us nothing but gives us everything, we ought to be a grateful people. And I'm going to preach fast, so hang with me. Amen. I want to give you four things this morning in this scripture that I see. Number one, in verse 11, I want you to see a divine path we should be thankful for. The Bible said it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. So first of all, there was a path to the cross. If you're here today, You listen to me. If you're here today and you're not going to hell, you ought to thank God for that. And it's not because you're a Baptist. It's not because you got baptized. It's not because you're a Methodist. It's not because you can quote some scripture. It's not because your daddy's a preacher. It's not because you're a good person. It's not your good outweighs your bad. The only reason you're going to go to heaven is because Jesus had a divine path to the cross of Calvary. and died in your place so that you don't have to. Amen. So this morning, he was going to Jerusalem, he was going to die for mankind, and he came for this single purpose, and so may I say today that if you're not in hell, you ought to thank God, and if you know you're saved on your way to heaven, you ought to thank God for that, and if you don't know him, you ought to know him today, but you ought to thank God that he's merciful and long-suffering, because all of us deserve to be in hell. So first of all, there's a path to the cross, but aren't you glad there's a path of compassion? The Bible said in verse 11 that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. So he passed through there. Why? Because there was these lepers that nobody else could help. Nobody else could fix the problem. And boy, Brother Dennis talked about this morning. He said, you know, people talk about turn over a new leaf. He said, you know what that is? Just flipping the leaf over. You still got the same leaf. It's just a prettier side. See, Jesus doesn't want you to turn over a new leaf. He wants you to be redeemed. He wants you to be regenerated. He wants there to be a metamorphosis that takes place where he changes you from the inside to the outside. There's a lot of folks that clean their act up, but may I say, when Jesus truly saves you, when you're truly born again, the Bible said, old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. There's a change that takes place in here, and it radiates to the outside. It's not an outside to the inside, it's an inside to the outside. And so he passed through Samaria and Galilee, and Jesus, may I say this, is never too busy for people in their needs. Amen. Boy, Miss Sheila was talking about, you know what, that song is about prayer. Do you realize that there's nothing that takes place in this whole universe without the hand of God? Every atom that moves, every earth, every planet that spins, every planet that rotates around the sun, every star that shines, amen. Every bird that flies, every heart that beats, every ounce of blood that pulsates through your body does not do any of it without the okay from God. Now, I don't know about you, I've got a to-do list and a calendar, and we talked about this, and I feel overwhelmed. I mean, I look at stuff, there's no way I'm gonna get all this done. There's some times I'll get up in the morning, look at my to-do list, go, I just wanna go back to bed. Right? He's got people to save. He's got missionaries to make sure they get to the field. You with me? In other words, being God is full time. Can we agree with that? He's not some big grandpa up in the sky in a recliner saying, man, I don't have anything to do today. Hang with me now. But when you say this, heavenly Father. Heaven, hush. That's one of my babies down there. That's one of my kids. You know what? I've tried. I ain't been, I ain't been perfect brother Shane. I've tried to be a good pastor for 23 years, but I've also tried to be a good daddy. I hadn't done it always brother Eddie. But if you've ever felt like, you know what, I was talking preacher and his kids wanted something and he just kind of did me wrong and turned away from me to get it. You're right. Cause they're my babies. I love you. Amen. I'm, I'm one, I'm a sheep just like you, but that's, they're my babies. I'm going, I'm going to try to give them what they want. Anything I can do to help. I'm going to do it. Right. Well, you think, and Jesus even said this, he said, you think you know how to give good gifts? Your heavenly father knows how to give better gifts. And one of those is time with him. When you pray, he'll just hush all the heaven and say, that's one of my babies talking to me. I got to listen to this. And you know what's great is we can all talk to him at one time and he still hears all of us. I'm just trying to help you understand that He is a God of compassion and no matter how busy you say, I don't want to bother Him with that, you're never bothering Him and He's always there for you. Thank God, though there is a divine path, part of that path includes helping us. Number two is a destitute prospect. Look at verse 12 and 13. The Bible said, and he entered into a certain village. There met him 10 men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lift up their voices and said, Jesus master, have mercy on us. Well, can I say this? First of all, there was a certain outcome. They were going to die. When you had leprosy, man, unless a miracle took place and we saw that in the Old Testament, now we're gonna see it again. Unless a miracle took place, you were gonna die. You with me? So leprosy is a perfect picture of sin because the Bible said the wages of sin is death. And so therefore, because we're all sinners, and listen to what I'm saying this morning, we're not sinners because we sin, we were born into sin, therefore we sin, right? I mean, we're sinners and therefore we sin. And so death passed upon all men, why? Because we're all sinners. So we're all gonna die. Physically, we're all gonna die. And spiritually, if you're not saved, you'll die, right? There'll be eternity in a place called hell and eventually into the lake of fire. But understand this, there was no cure for leprosy. There's only one cure for sin, that's Jesus Christ. There was no hope. Listen, it wasn't like they were gonna come up with some new vaccine or medicine. Ivermectin wasn't gonna fix leprosy. And so can you imagine living however long you live knowing that, man, one day the leprosy is going to take over and you're going to die? There's no help except the Lord. I mean, could you imagine going to the doctor, Brother Barton, and saying, listen, sorry, can't help you. Right? Just try not to get that on nobody if you can. Right? They're left to die without hope and they were left to die alone. But notice also that it was a common obstacle. There wasn't one left where there were 10. I'm not looking at one center. I'm looking at a congregation full of it. You're not looking at one center. You're looking at three. Sin is a common problem. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All, the word all means every one of us. So understand this, that some were Jews, some were Samaritans, but all were leper. Sin does not discriminate. It doesn't matter where you grew up. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter how much money you have or don't have, the color of your skin, what language you, sin doesn't matter. We're all sinners. And you know what? Because sin, you know what the ultimate end of sin is? Death. And so grace also does not discriminate. Sin crosses all boundaries, but so does Jesus. Here's the Jews over here and they're like, so you shouldn't be messing with that Samaritan guy. Let him die. You say, well, preacher, that's right. Praise God. I got, you ready for this? What about the Muslim? Amen. What about the Chinese? What about the communists? What about the socialists? You fill in the blank. You say, well, I just, it's hard for me to, it's hard for, do you not think, listen to me, you want to be a Christian? Christ-like? Brother Ray Dank, to be Christ-like means to be a Christian. We're supposed to be like Jesus. You're talking about the same one that while he was on the cross said, father, forgive them. They didn't know what they do that, that Jesus, right? The one who looked at you Gentiles and me Gentile and offered salvation. The one that gave the Samaritan the same privilege of. curing leprosy that he did the Jew, that one, is that who we're trying to be like? Because if we are, we got to change our perception the way we think. Because according to this, sin is a common obstacle. And Brother Shane, we're not white and black and we're not nationalities. What we are is either saved or lost. And so this morning, sin's a common obstacle, number three. There was a desperate plea. Now, notice this. The Bible said, and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Well, can we agree, I'm just making sure we're on the same page, can we agree that in order for them to ask for mercy, they had to recognize there was something wrong? Right, I mean, why would you ask for mercy if there's, I don't need no help. Right, that's where a lot of people are. But let's see how they look. Listen, you preach, preacher, but I know what you're saying, but I'm the exception, right? I know what you preachers are saying, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but I think there's a clause 99 that excludes, because I'm a pretty good person. I'm the exception to the rule. Problem is you can't find that in the Bible. All means all. So the Bible said here in verse 13, they said, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priest. And again, that's what amazes me that he's saying this, he's saying, you got to act like it's already happened. Just, I mean, why would you go if you're not clean yet? Cause he said to without faith, it's impossible to please God. Can I get a time out? We're family, right? I ain't just talking to lost folks. I'm talking to some of you that saved and say you love Jesus. You don't know what faith is. You're scared to death to do anything you can't figure out. Some of you right now, you look at our church, you go, preacher, you're just gonna have to settle this stuff down, man. Right? You have to calm this thing down. We can't keep taking on missionaries like this. We can't keep doing it, preacher. The money ain't gonna be there. I'm gonna upset some of you right here. How big is your God? I mean, I'll be honest with you. If God can't meet the financial need of when we're trying to get the gospel around the world, if he can't meet the financial need for this church to help them, we need to find a bigger one. But I ain't worried about it. Right? We're buying, but man, we're out now looking for more buses. You said, well, I don't need more buses for a preacher because there's more people need to get saved. I'm ready to pay this building off. We're going to start saving for another one. Well, preacher, I don't think, you know, we're in the last days. We don't need any more. Look, look. I mean, it ain't full. Brother Eddie, it ain't empty. I mean, how big is our God? You got to start operating like it's already taking place. That's what faith is. You're, you're reaching into a realm of I'm going to act like it's already happened. Right? Not all this show me. See, here's the thing you got to realize what's real. Now I know some of you, I'm not going to the mental hospital so some of you won't put me in a padded room when I say this, you got to catch me first. See what's unseen is what's real and what's seen is what's temporal. All this stuff you see now, it's going to be gone one day. I gotta have my 401k go ahead and get it one day. It'll be gone. Yeah, but Bitcoin they can't get the Bitcoin Come on, man. I'm trying to help you understand that Jesus said this, that we're to lay up our treasures in heaven, right? We're to put things ahead because that's where we're gonna spend eternity. You're only gonna be on this earth about 75 years if everything goes well. You're gonna be somewhere in eternity from now till forever. You better make sure it's in the right place. Well, my good outweighs my bad. You better be sure of that. Well, preacher, I think I know what I'm talking about. Let me ask you this. All right, I'm gonna break it down. I'm getting off subject. I'm getting there, but hang, we going down this rabbit trail. Have you ever told a lie? I ain't talking about a big one. I'm not talking about a scandal. I'm talking about have you ever told an untruth, even if it's 98% true and 2% not? Have you ever done that? Well, by definition, you're a liar. Don't you call me a liar, preacher. I didn't. You just called yourself one. You ever stole anything? Well, nothing big. I ain't stole a car. Well, you ever stole a piece of candy? Well, kind of. Well, you know what you are? Yeah. So none of those folks going to heaven. Except if you're born again. So there's an attentive savior and the enables physician. Why would you call on someone who cannot help you? Why would you call on someone that is not able to help you? So when you look at a desperate plea, there's an attentive Savior. The Bible said he hears their cry. I'm glad. Praise God. When I called unto him, you know what he did? He answered. And then, not only that, our prayers touch the ear of the Master. There's hope when we call on Him. You can call on me, you can call on the preacher or the deacons, and you can be baptized, and you can say, well, my daddy said when I was six, I said a prayer. But have you called on Jesus? Do you know Him as your Savior this morning? That's what I'm asking you. And then He's got to be an able physician that He can do it. He saw them, He spoke, and He gave them exactly what they needed. It's interesting when you look at the book of James, remember this? Here's what James in essence said. He said, when someone's in need of something, you can say, well, I'll pray for you. But he said that doesn't do anything. You got to meet the physical need and then help meet the spiritual need. See, if you're not able. I mean, if you came to me and said, preacher, I got, I got something bad going on. You know, I've got cancer. I can pray for you, but I can't fix it. But God can. Right. If you came to me and said, preacher, I'm a sinner. I need to be saved. I need you to save me. I can't do it because I'm a sinner myself, but I can point you to the one who can. An able physician. See, there was a desk. You got to get desperate. That's what I'm saying. We're Sean. We don't, we're not desperate enough. If you can figure it out, you're not desperate enough. If you don't see yourself as a center, you're not desperate enough, but if you're desperate enough and you call on him, here's what he said. He didn't know why I was cast you out. And then finally a delightful praiser. That's what I want to be. I want to be a delightful prayer because look what he said. He said in one, one. One out of 10, one. The rest of you, you ready for this? You can sit there, frown, look like you've been sucking on lemons your whole life as far as I'm concerned. Ain't gonna bother me. I'm gonna praise God. You say, I think your praise is a little out there. Didn't ask you. I ain't giving it to you. Right? See, you say, well, I just don't think y'all get that excited, preacher. Well, I'm going, one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a, just kind of a quiet voice, he said, Lord, I just want to thank you. Thanks. Right? Appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you, Jesus. My Bible said loud voice. It didn't say obnoxious voice. But the Bible does say, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. You say, well, that's not how I worship. Okay. That's fine with me, but don't look somebody that does and say, well, you that's right. You don't know what God did for them. And the Bible says in verse 16, fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So let me give you this and I'm done. First of all, why was he a delightful praiser? Because first of all, his gift, he just got healed. In other words, he got saved. He was dead. Now he's alive. Now if you're laying on the table and they said, man, you were dead for 15 minutes, but we brought you back. I hope you'd be a little bit grateful for the doctor that didn't give up on you. Right? I mean, I'll be honest with you. I'm, I'm not afraid of where I'm going to go, but I'd like to hang around a while. So I don't, you know, we've got our wheel and DNRs and all that stuff, but I said, now I'll make sure something went up before I sign this stuff. I want them to do everything they can to keep me alive, right? I don't want somebody just going, well, pull it. That's why I don't tell my family how much insurance money I got. I don't want there to be no calculations going on with like, well, we pull that plug, you know, I want to hang around a while. But, but if they can, if there's a chance, I would like to take the chance. If they say there's zero, I mean, if there's 5%, I like that. Odds with my God. If they say zero, right? I want that doctor long as he can, right? But if he revives me, I would think I'd be grateful. Say, bring the guy back that didn't give up on me. You with me? I want to meet that guy. I'm buying him a steak or something. Then that one said, nope, just put, I'm like, you get nothing out of me, pal. So this leper looked at him and said, you know what? Without him, I'm doomed. With him, I've got life. I think what I'll do is just go back and tell him, thank you. Right? You ever talk to these military guys and you try to buy them a meal or the police officers or firefighters, you try to buy them a meal, they're like, no, no, no. You say, thank you for your service. That's enough for them just to recognize what they did. You're not ever going to give God enough of what he deserves. And the Bible said here, this guy just with a loud voice came back and gave him thanks. What if this morning, in just a minute, we give an invitation, if you could just get around the altar and say, God, I want to thank you. As she's saying, I don't, I don't really want to ask you for anything. I just want to thank you. His, his gift, but his gratitude, his expression, he glorified God. He fell on his face. He gave him thanks. And the Bible said, Andy was a Samaritan. I'm glad that God is a whosoever God. Whatever your need is this morning, He's able. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, guess what? He's able to save you. You don't know how bad I've been, preacher. I sure don't, but He does, and He still wants you. You say, I haven't been that bad. I've grown up in church. I haven't really done a whole lot of bad stuff yet, but you still need a Savior. You're here today and you're far away from God. You say, I'm a Christian, but I'm not where I need to be, man. You ought to thank God. He's not, he's not done more to chasing you than what he's done. He's been very merciful. Maybe to this morning, you just got some needs. You don't want to tell anybody about it. You just want to get on the altar and pray. You don't do that during this invitation time, whatever your need is. There's a God in heaven that will meet that need. I can't do it. These guys can't do it. But God can. He sure can. So let's stand together all over the building. Our heads are bowed this morning. No one's looking around. Brother Dennis is coming to the piano. Let me ask you this. No one's looking around, no one's gonna come to you, but I'd like to pray for you this morning. Would you, by an uplifted hand, say, Pastor, if I died today, I'm not 100% sure I'd go to heaven, and I would like you to pray for me. Would you do that? You just slip your hand up. I see that hand. Thank you. Is there another? Thank you. Is there another? Thank you. Any more? Just be honest. Thank you. Be honest. It's okay. We've all been right here. Father, I thank you for those precious souls this morning that raised their hand and just have uncertainty. That's you. That's speaking of hearts. We thank you for that. Now, during this invitation time, speak to every heart, no matter what the need. For what you do, we'll thank and praise you. Heads bowed, eyes closed. Listen, if you raised your hand today or you did not, you say, I didn't raise my hand, preacher, but I still don't know. There's something not right in my heart. I want you to do this. I want you, if you raised your hand, please do this. If you didn't, I want you to do this. Will you step out of your seat? And if you'll come, we've got some folks that'll just take God's Word and show you how you can know you're on your way to heaven. We won't embarrass you. We won't make a big spectacle out of anything. But we want to take God's Word and say, here's how you can know you're on your way to heaven. Would you come? If you're here today and you're sure you're saved but you're not living for God, would you come? Maybe you just want to get on the altar and pray and thank God. Come, please. Whatever your need, come. Yes, Lord. Mind God this morning. Just mind the Lord. You know what? If I could, I'd get on my knees and beg you this morning, but it'd do no good. Because we don't know. Brother Jerry, we don't know what's going to happen. Please, please obey God. If you raised your hand this morning, we just want to help you. If you didn't, we want to help you. We want to help you this morning. You mind God... ... . ♪ Thy great salvation so rich and free ♪ Do it again, here we go. ♪ Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul ♪ Thank you, Lord, for making me whole ♪ Thank you, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation so rich and free.