Let me go ahead and get miked up. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank you for your many blessings. Thank you for sending your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, down from heaven's glory. Thank you for, Lord, the sacrifice that you made in sacrificing your Son on that cross and shedding His blood. We are most appreciative with making a way of salvation, the only way, and the way, the truth, and the life that Christ gives to us. We thank You for that again, in Jesus' name, Amen. We're in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, and what an ending to a chapter. If you remember in Romans chapter 8, you start off with, there's no condemnation, in verse 1 to those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. And then in verse 26 it talks about the Spirit of God. Likewise, the Spirit in verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." So when you look at the... He's an intercessor for us. And it says the Spirit itself in a lot of the modern or all the modern versions. Boy, they can't stand that. You can't say itself. But if you remember in Genesis 3.15, it talks about the seed and then it says it. And then you look at, you know, Luke 1.35, it says that holy thing. You know, and you look at it, listen, God doesn't care what you think. In fact, the footnote in my My Bible, because it's got notes in it, next to itself is a little B, and then it changed it to himself. Boy, when I was, I did some work for Oxford University Press, and it was another study Bible that Rock of Ages purchased. It was called the New Pilgrim Study Bible. What's everybody laughing about? I was opening up a box over here, and I got there, Oh. Are you OK? I haven't even gotten into the sad part yet. So. So. I wanted to, this is the Schofield of which I wanted to work on, and because they put out the new Schofield and changed the text, they got nailed. But they didn't get nailed for changing the notes. I tried to convince them, let me change 10% of the notes in Schofield, like this one here that draws doubt on the veracity of what the Bible should be. And boy, I did everything I could to try to convince them it was a good deal, and they just wouldn't do it. And it was during, let's see, it was the 1909, 2009, so it was the 100th anniversary of the Schofield Bible, Schofield study notes. But they wouldn't do it because they'd gotten burnt before, but they have no idea. They got burnt for changing the text. You can change every note in here and it wouldn't bother any of us. You know, if you changed them more, Scripture would be better. But anyway, they wouldn't do it, and you don't need to change the Bible. It is the Spirit itself maketh intercession. You say, well, He's a He. Well, look at the next verse in 27. And He that searcheth the hearts, that's God the Father, knoweth what is in the mind of the Spirit, because He make of intercession, who's the he there? That's the spirit. So just because it says itself, it is a spirit. And because of that, and I just remembered I didn't text somebody we're starting. So I'm going to have to get somebody else to do this because I'm going to be cognizant of doing it. S-T-A-R-T, boom. But when you look at it, you can't change the Bible. There's a reason that it says Spirit itself, and it says He in the next verse, so it's not like God doesn't know. Now who is the Spirit? You look at 1 Timothy 2 verse 5. It says, for there's one mediator, I'm sorry, there's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. So Christ is the mediator. The Spirit is the intercessor. The intercessor. He intercedes on our behalf. Jesus Christ mediates for us. If you've ever, you know, worked with Any type of organization, sometimes they'll bring in a mediator to try to work out two different parties that have a disagreement. With us, our mediator, Jesus Christ, well, we did have a disagreement between God the Father and us. We're on our way to hell. We need somebody to intervene on our behalf. He is the mediator, and then the Spirit of God is the intercessor. You don't always know what to pray. So you ought to always pray, not my will, but thine be done. So when you pray, you say, Lord, you know, A, B, C, whatever it is, but then at the end of your prayer, in your heart and mind, whether you say it or not, you need to say, but Lord, let thy will be done. Because that's how Jesus prayed. He said, take this cup from me, if it be possible, And he prayed three times, and on the third time, you know, during that thing he says, but thy will be done. That's the way you need to pray. So look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and let's look at why the Spirit does what He does in verse 10. And let me go to verse 9. Verse 9, because this is so butchered. I've heard preachers for years and years and years butcher this, but they're not approachable. I look at it and I go, look, if you're approachable, I'll come up and talk to you, but I'm not going to ever try to straighten anybody out that doesn't want to be helped with truth. So here's what they'll say, verse 9. But as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered in the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. And they stop right there and say, see, you can't know. But I say, yes you can. Because the next verse says, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. So the Spirit is your intercessor and the Spirit searches the deep things of God that you cannot know Verse 9, but you can know verse 10. And that is so important. And listen, I cringe. There was one person. He was a young guy, and he took over the pastorate, and he preached it, and I'm there. And then I'm there again, and somebody comes up and says, hey, why don't you go talk to him? I said, he's just not approachable. I said, as far as I'm concerned, if you're not approachable, I don't beat my head against the wall. It is not my responsibility. By the way, it is not your responsibility to straighten everybody out. Today, you know, I'm with people that have a different set of beliefs. And you know, when I hear them, I go, praise God, I'm not high church, praise God. He brought me to this church. I was in a Methodist church when I got saved in town, that's now the mega church. Not the Methodist, they led me to the Lord in an apartment, because I don't remember hearing Christ died on the cross, buried, rose again, trust the Lord, you can be saved from the pulpit. Because sometimes in those big churches, when you preach that, there are people that get upset. And when they get upset, guess what they do? They leave. And guess what? When they leave, You have empty pews. And then when you have empty pews, and money, but you have empty pews, then it's like, oh, I'm not the success that I've told everybody that I am, or anything. I'm being a little bit facetious, but the point is, look, I'm gonna preach the truth. And there are people that would say, well, you can't do that. When some people heard they were here this Sunday, we had a couple of visitors from out of town, they said, man, I appreciate you just preaching the truth. And I looked at him and I thought, I wanted to say, what, are you saying that you don't hear about so-called politics? And they would answer, likely no. Why? Because there might be somebody you offend. And then there'll be people that say, well, wait a minute, if you preach that way, you're going to offend, you're going to eliminate a lot of people from your source to build your church. Guess what? I don't want a bunch of people that are in here that do not believe the truth. Now look, you don't have to believe everything I believe to be a member here. And none of us believe that. You don't have to kowtow to the pastor to stay here. You don't have to align with what I believe. However, you do have to align with the Bible sooner or later. And then if I draw close to the Bible and I start teaching the Bible and then you don't like what I say, hopefully it's because you don't like what the Bible says from my perspective. Hopefully, it's not me that's wrong, you're not liking the Bible. And listen, You know, I'm sorry. I can't compromise. I must teach and preach the truth. And I have to stand on that. And listen, to not talk about so-called politics, which I believe a lot of things that are deemed politics are not. Abortion is not politics. Okay? Abortion is moral, or immoral, and it is not political. Somebody said, well, it's divisive. It is! And guess what? If I had people come in here, and listen, I have said it and I'll say it again. There are people that have abortions that we ought to love. They got lied to, most of them. And we need to love them. We need to care. We need to show the love of Christ. However, an abortionist? An abortion mill? No! I'm not going to apologize to them. And listen, you've got somebody that comes in here and they're confused about their identity, they're trans or whatever. I'm going to love them. At some point I may say something that offends them, which is quite likely, You know, biologically, let's just do the biology. Let's follow the science. And that's enough right there if they have one lick of sense when it comes out of the mouth of a pastor up here who they know instinctively what you're saying. Listen, but you don't do it on purpose. I do not offend people on purpose. It just comes natural. I don't offend anybody on purpose. I really try to hold it back and to the point that when you try to hold it back and then it happens, you know what I can do? I can sleep at night. Do you know what I do though? I do look at it and go, I can't just say, well, we're all human. You can't do that. That's a justification for sin. What you say is, I did my best to preach the truth, I did the best to preach through the love of Christ, speaking the truth in love, and then when I said it, it was offensive, and you just got to live with it. If you think you can get up here for five years now, I've been here back five years. And you're not going to offend somebody sometime? You're crazy. There is just no way. It can happen on a daily basis. Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday morning. It's just what's your intent? Is your intent to hurt, destroy, maim? No. My intent is to help people to grow in grace and the truth. And I will not always accomplish that. I will have people that will get upset. And they will leave, they will shoot back at me like some have. Guess what? It is what it is. Look at Jeremiah chapter 17. Jeremiah 17. And this is important to see, I believe. Jeremiah chapter 17. Look what the Bible says in verse 9. Jeremiah 17, 9. The Bible says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? I, the Lord, speaking to us, search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. You reap what you sow. But when you look at what it says there, the heart's deceitful. So if you say, well, I just follow my heart, your heart's deceitful. Your heart is desperately wicked. Well, mine's not. I'm a pretty good person. You're full of pride. Your heart's desperately wicked. But, I the Lord, so this is a personal thing, search the heart. So when you're looking at the Spirit of God, and listen, there's a lot of people, a lot of Baptist preachers that are afraid to talk about the Spirit. Why? Well, because people go to an extreme. There are people that are afraid to talk about Mary. Why? Because people go to an extreme. But all generations shall call her blessed, so what ought we to do? We call her blessed, but we look at her from the lens of Scripture. She's not above women. She's blessed. Every generation should call her blessed. So you've got to make sure you do that. And you've got to make sure you're balanced. You don't just look at it and go, well, they messed up with Mary, therefore we're going to say bad things. You better not. You know, just because people pervert the truth doesn't mean that you go against Scripture. You should say, Mary is blessed. She birthed the Son of God into this world. But she's not omnipotent. She's not omnipresent. She can't hear a billion prayers at one time. Well, I'm leaving. That's really the way it is. Well, I'm upset at that. Not this group right here, but we can have a visitor come in and I say that. You say, and I would tell you this, if I knew they believed that, I would do everything in my power not to say it the way I just said it. Oh, you're compromising. He's been doing this a long time. What I say, I speak the truth, but I don't look at somebody and go, oh, I think they're this, and therefore I'm going to... Just let God do it. Get me out of the way. If I get out of the way and I let God speak to people, and God speaks to you, and then you go, hey, is that the preacher speaking to me? God forbid. Or is that God? Now listen, I've been spoken to by pulpits. And I learned to discern between the two. I haven't set one up. I had this guy, he was just a bad guy. Loved to control. So he sent some spies. So I'm in Bible college, and I'm living with a guy, and so what I would do is I would take out a book, and I would set it there. Well, next thing I know, that author is being mentioned from the pulpit. I go, That's coinkydinky, coincidental. I had to bring it back up from the south to the north. Just offended half the people in here. And then you know what I did? I did it again. And then you know what I did? Man, I mean it was the greatest thing, one of the greatest lessons of my life. You know what I learned? I learned how to discern between when that preacher was preaching and manipulating and when God was speaking to me. Because God could still speak to me through somebody like that. And so I learned to discern between the two and it helped me a lot, I believe. But look, I'll just tell you, look at Isaiah 55 and look at this intercessory thing. Isaiah 55, and we're going to look at, I think we're just going to look at one verse, maybe verse 12. Isaiah 55, look at verse 12. The Bible says, For ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing. This is not what I want. Isaiah. 53. I'm sorry, I'm getting old. Yeah, and it should be 53. You know, if I look at 53, there's so much in here, but gosh, let's just look at verse 12. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul into death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. You know what we have? We have a God that makes intercession for the transgressors. Thank the Lord. I mean, when you look at what happened on the cross, what happened at your salvation, what happens in your life, we ought to, of all people, be so thankful. I mean, think about it. Do you know more truth today than you knew 20 years ago? If the answer's yes, do you realize you might even be an anomaly in the world today? You know society's going like this, right? We're getting dumber and dumber and dumber. And I don't even mean that in a bad way. I mean, it's bad in and of itself. I don't mean it in a hateful way. But when we had prayer in school, when we had the Bible in school, when we had teachers that had to listen to a prayer, that were teaching the students, and the students were listening to a prayer and listening to the Bible. I remember they would get on the intercom, and they would have the prayer every morning. And that was after 1960, whenever they made the ruling, because they couldn't enforce it everywhere. And I was in Suitland, Maryland. which is not a great hub today for Bible-believing Christianity, but I heard those prayers and I remember hearing that. And then what happened? Well, all of it changed and now what's society done? Society's come down like this. So you ought to every day that you get up, if you know more truth today than you did 10 years ago, you ought to praise God. If you know more truth today than you did yesterday, this month, last month, whatever. In other words, you ought to be always growing. I know I am. I am always growing. I am in the Scripture. I want to know what saith the Lord. I want to know the direction I'm supposed to go, how I'm supposed to live, how I'm supposed to treat other people. And listen, you know what's natural for us? To treat people wrong. To be hateful, ugly. It's natural to do that. So you know what you have to do? You have to go against your natural propensity and ask God to help you to be what you are not. And then as you do that, day after day after day, all of a sudden it becomes a little more natural for you to treat people right. I remember, well, no story. Verse 28, go on back. Romans 8, because it was going to be a confession, I really didn't want to make it. Romans 8, 28. You know this verse. And this verse is not something you want to quote to somebody who just lost a spouse or somebody that... just had a car wreck and is all maimed. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Well, you don't want to, as a pastor, I don't go into a hospital and go, hey, you know, everything works together for good, right? So what you're going through right now, it's going to turn out for good. And they're looking at you, you know, in the cast and stuff and said, get out of my hospital room. Because that's not the time for it. What is the time for it? right here, right now, for you to believe that verse. But there are stipulations, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. To them that love God, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. So it's not for everybody. If you live right and you do right, the Bible says if you do, All things work together for good. But you can't claim that and go, well, it's all gonna work together for good. Not if you're not loving God and living according to His purpose, called according to His purpose. Called according to His purpose is people that are saved. Those that love God are the ones that do what He says to do, that draw nigh unto Him, He draws nigh unto you. Then when you look at, listen, I can go back and I can think of things that happened that were so bad And yet I come out on the other side and I look back and go, wow, I never would have wanted to go through it. If God told me I was going to go through what I was going to go through, year after year, I'd have said, Lord, I don't want that. I want an easier life. And instead God says, no, I'm going to give you what you need to help you grow the way you need to grow. And then when you come out of the fire on the other side, you can look back and go, boy, the Lord didn't leave me. He was with me the whole time. If it wasn't for the Lord, I couldn't have gotten through. And now, let's say today, right now I'm in a situation, I can go back and look and go, wow, look at what you've done. Look at what you did back there. I trust you now because you... I never thought I was gonna... There are times in my life I didn't think I was gonna live. I was going through stuff and I thought, man, it is the end. I was having, there was 30 days there, I was having panic attacks. Heather had her first seizure, maybe? Yeah, the first seizure. And I relived it every night. And by the way, that, you know, it's, And I called a doctor friend. I said, hey man, this is what's going on. He says, well, you got to quit thinking about it. When you wake up, this is a doctor giving me advice who's a Christian and a very good friend of mine. They were down here, Doc. He said, when you wake up, don't relive the event. Simple advice, right? So the next time I woke up, I started to relive the event, and you want that endorphin release, your brain does. And instead of reliving the event, I quit. And I did it again, and I did it again. Here's why people never come out of that. Because they don't have a godly doctor. that doesn't flip me a pill, doesn't tell me to medicate it. And listen, some people need medication. I do not discount it. I don't say you can't medicate. I'm telling you that I never did. I never did, and I got through it because I had godly advice. I do not say if you've got hormonal problems or psychological problems, I am not one to tell you what you're supposed to do. I can just tell you my personal experience. My personal experience is when I woke up, well then I finally realized I mean, there was one point I was in the restaurant with Judy. It had to be a Sunday, because it was the only time we really went out. My phone rang. And I thought it said Heather. And I think it was like Harrison. And I look with my bad eyesight at the time. It says Heather. And I go like this, and it's a male voice. My automatic response was, she just had another seizure. I start freaking out a little bit. yelling in the phone, what happened? And then it's Harrison and I'm looking and I go, oh my gosh, and that's what I was going through. So then I was preaching in other churches and I went out and I told that story. And the number of people that came up to me and told me they'd gone through that. So why did God let me go through it? Number one, so I would not judge everybody else for going through psychological things they could not control themselves. Number two, that I would never say you can't take medicine, but I will tell you my testimony is I did not. And don't think it wasn't, I don't even know if I was tempted. I think I just, I just told her I was gonna die, literally. And then I'll tell you that the other thing I did was I got rid of my phone. I gave up my phone for like four days. And that helped me more than anything else. I totally disconnected. Then we took the trailer and went to the Penn State Alabama game. Not the place you want to be if you're a Penn State fan. So that didn't help at all. It did, because I disconnected. And I just got away from it all. And listen, I'm just telling you, I don't know. Some people came up to me afterwards when I was on the road, and they said that really helped me because they were struggling with some of those things. And they questioned their, I remember questioning my spirituality. I knew better. I was a Bible teacher. I was president of the Bible college before that. That's right, I resigned because I was on the road. But I mean, I was just like dumbfounded that this could happen to me. How could I lose control to where I had no control over my emotions, my reactions, So then I've come through and it's, I don't know how many years it's been, let's just say 15 or more, and I look back and I go, thank you Lord for the lesson I needed to learn. Because I'm not judgmental now. It's like when I got away from God for three years, 1981 to 1984, and I watched my life go... I quit praying, I quit going to church, I started partying six days a week. By the time I was done, I was partying seven days a week. And I was at a crossroads in 1984 in Atlanta, Georgia and got right with God. Then I went to church and all of a sudden I was looking around going, man, these are all spiritual giants and look at what I am. It was humbling. And then I look around and I go, well, what am I going to do? Am I going to judge everybody for every sin that they do and say, well, you're no good? No. Three years it took for me to learn the lesson. And you know how many times I want to learn it? Yeah. The big thing in life is how many times does it take you to learn the lesson of God? God will put you through things to teach you stuff, and you can either pass the course or repeat the course. Do you know what I... And listen, I've prayed this many a time. Lord, don't ever let me repeat that course. I don't ever want to get away from God to the point that it's just, you're like, there's no way. I remember telling the preacher here, remember I told you, I said, I can't imagine anybody backsliding. I got saved. I'm up on the mountaintop. I'm like, I went from a lost man to a saved man, and I'm in a church teaching the Bible, and I'm like in front of a fire hydrant with a Bible just going, And I told him that. He said, you know, take heed lest ye fall. And then I fell. And guess what? I do not look at people the same way I did before I fell. And I suggest you do the same thing. You've got to be careful. Listen, it isn't an excuse for sin. I'm just telling you that God will teach you lessons if you are a good student. And if you are not, You'll repeat the class over and over and over. You know the most judgmental, condemning people are those the most fearful in their life of being exposed to something because of their frailties. That's part of it. And the other thing is Pharisees. I mean, when I look back at all the people I know, that had all the, you know, dot your I's and cross your T's, and I watched 1 fall, 2 fall, 3 fall, 4 fall, 5, 10, 20, and I look back and go, you know what? I am not going to get up here and tell you, you need to live like a saint and expect you to live like that saint. What I'm going to say is, you need to draw nigh unto God and He'll draw nigh unto you. You need to get alone with God and find out what God wants you to do. You don't need a pastor to get up here and tell you, oh, this is the will of God. This is what you need to do. That is what is destroyed. We need to make people independent of the control of a man. And that is not what you get from the pulpit anymore. They're afraid. They're like, oh, job security. I've never feared for a job. I've yelled at my boss before. I mean, it was Doc was one of them. I'm like, listen, I'm telling you, you are wrong. I'm telling you, you hired me to tell you the truth and I'm telling you the truth and if you do that, you can find somebody else. And then we work it out, you know, till finally I needed to get back on the road anyway. And he sort of fired me and I said, really? He said, yeah, yeah. And I walked for the door. And he goes, well, we need to leave right. And I go, OK. I said, what do you want, two weeks? I gave him a two-week notice. And that was 2010. And I got the road again. And then I'd go back many years later and sell his businesses for him for $3.1 million. They offered him $500,000. I sold them for $3.1 million. And he gave me the motor home. He gave me that motorhome that I had out there that we lived in while we built that house as a reward. And then he said, look, you got me an extra $2.5 million. I'll give you $250,000. I was like, hey, we're friends. I don't mean it that way. I never asked him for anything. I did it because this was my doctor that came to my house. And he would take care of my kids. And he took care of us. And I call him up and say, hey, I need something. He takes care of it. I mean, listen, I owed him. But He took care of me. So He gave me $150,000 and a motor home that we lived in, and that's why we were able to pay for the house the way we paid for it. Praise the Lord. But I'm telling you, it isn't an easy lesson. You have to stand true and stand firm and stand tall and say, you know what? I'm going to do right because it's right. But I can't tell you how to do that. All I can tell you is what I already said. Draw nigh unto God, He'll draw nigh unto you. That is the key. in living for the Lord. So he says, all things work together for good. So don't claim that unless you claim the rest of the verse. To them that love God, if you love God, you will keep my commandments. That's another verse in the Bible. Do you keep his commandments? And I don't mean the Ten Commandments, and I don't mean the 613 Old Testament commandments. I'm talking about when he says, Thou shalt love thy neighbors thyself. Do you do that? Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Do you live for Him? If you do, claim the verse. If you don't, don't cop out on that verse. That verse will bite you. Well, it's going to work together for good. And listen, by the way, if I look back on my life, I look at all the times when I was living right and doing right, and it did work together for good. What I went through in my life made me stronger, and it could have destroyed me. And the same way with you. Things that come in your life will either destroy you or they'll make you closer to God. So let's finish out this verse. He goes on and he says... So we're looking at God, we're looking at all things work together for good. Let's look at Genesis 50 and Joseph. You guys know the story and you probably know the verse, but just because you do doesn't mean we shouldn't go ahead and look at it. Genesis 50, if you remember Joseph, his brother sold him into slavery. And what he says in verse 20 of the last chapter of Genesis is very important. But as for you, his brothers, ye thought evil against me. but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive." So Joseph is an example of Romans 8.28. What did he go through? I mean, he's separated from his family. He's betrayed by his family. He's betrayed by others over and over again. And then, you know, all of a sudden, he's the leader. All of a sudden, he's the picture of Christ as the one that knew what God wanted him to do and saved a whole nation. And then he's reunited with his family. All things work together for good. Why? Because he got thrown in the pit. You ever get thrown in the pit? I've been thrown in the pit. Guess what? You get thrown in the pit, when you're in the pit, you look up and it doesn't look real... it looks hopeless. How do you say the opposite? It doesn't look real... not hopeless. It looks hopeless when you're in the pit. Joseph got pulled out of the pit, sold into slavery. Potiphar's wife lied about him. said he was an adulteress, he was trying to, you know, have relations with her, and then he got the baker and the butler, and, you know, he helps them out and says, don't forget me, and they forget him. And he's gotta be looking at, now look, Joseph's human. The baker and the butler. Lord, I did everything you told me to do. Lord, I love you. I'm serving you. Look, they made me the head of the jail here because I'm doing right. Oh, you got the baker and the butler. Well, you're going to get your head taken off you, but you're going to go back and be reunified with your position. And don't forget me. And he forgets him. And he goes from one thing to another thing to another thing to another thing and says, man, it's all hopeless. It's not hopeless. You just have to let God be God. God will take care of it whenever it is in His time and in your best interest. What we don't understand is what is our best interest. We look at it, we get impatient with God. Pray for patience. I told you that last week. You go, oh, you pray for patience, you get tribulation. Well, guess what? Joseph got tribulation. You know what he needed? Patience. Are you... I wasn't going to say dumb enough. I was going to call you all dumb. You understand that the best thing Joseph could have is patience. You say, well, no, he prayed for it and the tribulation came. Come on. The tribulation came because God works all things together for good to them that love God. Joseph loved God. And in God's time, He was going to bring him out. And God had a bigger plan. God had a greater plan. Joseph comes out five years early, ten years early, and Joseph doesn't get to do what Joseph's meant to do. And you go, well, I'd rather come out five years earlier because I'd have five years less. But then you don't get God's ultimate plan in your life. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are of the call. And again, do not ever quote that verse to somebody that is going through the fire. Don't do it. You quote it to them now. Let them learn the lesson, so whenever the fire comes, they have the Word hidden in thine heart, they might not sin against thee, they understand the truth, and then they're able better to go through the things. I will tell you, when I've gone through the fire, last thing I wanted to hear was somebody quote Romans 8.28 to me. And if you did, I would have probably just looked at it and thought, yeah, I know. It's like when I had the panic attacks. I'm like, how in the world? I know better. I had no control. I was out of control. I was physiologically shot. And I did not know if I was going to make it through. And you know what it was? Here, take a pill, take a pill. You know what the world does? It says, take a pill, take a pill. Listen, you take the pill, take the pill. You don't take the pill and you make it through, you're gonna be 10 times stronger. Because you trusted God, you went through it, you made it through, and then you look back and you go, Wow, Lord, it was You that went through that fire with me. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't go in that fire. They went in the fire alone, but they weren't in there alone. You won't be in there alone either so long as you trust God. And I'm not going anywhere near what I thought I was going to do tonight, but I'm telling you, I don't know what people go through, but I will tell you that God is real, God cares, God loves you, God wants you to draw nigh unto Him. He'll draw nigh unto you. That's our, is that our verse this year? I can't remember what year we're in. That is our verse this year. Draw nigh unto God. I think it's on, no, it was on the thing. I'll have to change that. I will change that after we catch our thieves, the signs out there. Till then, I want them to read it and just know. Oh no, we gotta plan. No, no, we gotta plan. We gotta plan. But if it doesn't work, we'll electrify it. Let's all stand together. You did hear they stole it for the fourth time on election night when I just said it. Yeah, I can't remember what I said when I said it. I just remember what happened. I was shocked. I'm like, God. Man, crazy. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank You for many blessings. We thank You for sending Your Son to die on that cross. We thank You for being such a gracious, merciful, wonderful God. Lord, we pray that we will draw nigh unto Thee, and You will draw nigh unto us. Help us to, when we go through the fire, help us to be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and look around for the Lord, because He's there. And help us to be faithful. In Jesus' name, amen. We're going to go ahead and play the music.