Well, you chose to start off the year the right way, being God's house on the first Sunday of 2013. I'm glad you're here today. We're studying on Sunday mornings a series I've called The Signs of the Times, and we're taking a look at the prophetic truths of the Bible, things that have not yet happened, But we believe they will happen because God said. God's Word says they will happen. And so this morning we're going to continue our study on the Antichrist. We talked about him a little bit last Sunday morning from Daniel chapter number 7 and 8. We looked at the Antichrist. And today we're going to go to Revelation chapter 13. Go to the back of the book this morning and look at some more details. About the Antichrist and today we're going to refer to him as the beast because he is the beast in Revelation chapter 13 He's known as the beast that wicked the the man of sin the man of the son of perdition The Antichrist and also as the beast and so Revelation 13 I'm going to read the first eight verses to you and then we're going to skip down to verse number 15 or no verse number 16 and read the end of the chapter to the end of the chapter in Revelation chapter number 13. And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his head the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority." When you see the dragon in Revelation, we're looking at Satan as symbolized as a dragon. Verse number 3, and I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast. And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, so blaspheming his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven, And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now skip down to verse number 16. And he caused it all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell save that he had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred, three score and six. And all God's people said, Our Heavenly Father, we thank you again for this time to assemble and to worship in your name this Lord's Day. And Father, we do pray with all of our hearts, Lord, that you'd be magnified and glorified in what is done here in this place on this day. And Father, I do pray that your word would go forth with power and with liberty, that, Father, that hearts and minds might be affected, that very lives might be changed this morning. Father, maybe there's some believers here who need to have Their knowledge of these things strengthened. Father, I pray that Your Spirit would allow that to happen in their lives. God, maybe there's one here this morning or more who never trusted Christ as their own personal Lord and Savior. Father, what a way to start a new year with a new life in Jesus. I pray Your Spirit will have His will and His way during this entire service together. And Father, Your will will be done. In Jesus' name, amen. When you start to study Bible prophecy, there's so much that you can compile and put together. As a matter of fact, when I got my notes finished up yesterday afternoon, I had 20 pages of notes and I knew I could not bring 20 pages of notes to a Sunday morning message because we'd be here at about 3.30. And it's just overwhelming and all the things that are going on and you take what the Bible says and what's happening in the present day and you try to to look at the relevance of all this, and it really becomes time to blow your mind of all the things that are going on. And I know how I feel. I'm the one who's studying it, and you're the ones who are receiving what I've studied. I've got a feeling you would feel like my friend Chippy, the parakeet. Chippy's a true story now. I'm not making this stuff up, but Chippy was a parakeet in the L.A. area, and one day his owner was vacuuming out his cage, getting it all cleaned up. And the phone rang while she was vacuuming, and she went to reach for the phone, and she heard this... And she looked, and her parakeet had been sucked into the vacuum. So she turned it off real quick, and she tore open the vacuum, and she tore open the vacuum cleaner bag, and there was the parakeet, still alive, but covered in dust and soot, very shaken from the experience. So she did what any good bird owner would do and she ran him over the sink and she ran cold water over this bird and got him all cleaned up and she noticed now that he was clean but he was wet and he was shivering. So then she went and got the hairdryer and she blew that bird dry so he was good as new again and put him back in the cage and a reporter from the paper called the woman to follow up on the story and he said, how's Chippy now? She said, he's just not the same anymore. He just sits in his cage and stares. And I feel like when we look at Bible prophecy, it's like we just kind of sit out there and stare, kind of goes over our head. We feel kind of like we've been, you know, sucked up and washed up and then blown away sometimes by all the things that are going on in our world. That has nothing to do with a message, but a way to set the tone this morning. The Antichrist is a literal figure who one day is going to have tremendous world power and authority. And we're just going to consider now what Revelation 13 says about him and try to make some sense out of this, again, this Bible character, this leader who is yet to come in Bible prophecy. And, you know, our world is primed for new leadership. And although maybe the ones here in this room this morning would deny that you're ready for a new world leader, there is definitely a call and clamor in the general population for there to be a new world leader. We talked about before, perilous times are upon us. We are living in the last days. Now, how long are the last days? We have no way of knowing. We cannot number the last days. There, of course, is great unrest in the Middle East, and if you've been alive very long at all, you know that a political a precedent is to one day achieve a peace accord in the Middle East. It seems like to me, though, it's just getting worse and worse, and the violence continues to escalate. But if there was somebody who could promise peace to the Middle East, the world would really invite such a person to be their leader. Technology is on the rise. We're going to look at that here in just a minute. That's one of the things that Daniel noted in his prophecy a long time ago, that technology would be on the rise. a troubled global economy. It's not just the U.S. who's going through hard or difficult economic times right now. It's become really a worldwide crisis. If there was a leader who could bring an idea of how to calm or to quell the crazy, troublesome waters of the economy, again, he would be welcomed with open arms. Then also we're seeing in our day, we've touched on this during Sunday school, we're seeing a rapid advance of secular humanism. We're going to talk about what that is here in just a moment in the opening up, but I want you to understand that the world is primed and ready for new leadership to come. Here's the verse in Daniel I was referring to about technology and transportation on the rise. It says in Daniel 12 and verse number 4, but thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." When you hear pastors talking about the increase of technology being a sign of the last days, this is the verse they're referring to. And we're living in a magnificent technological age. And I, one, you know, I like technology. I've got a little wireless pointer in my hand. I didn't have back in the 1970s and the 1980s and the 1990s, you know. And so I love technology and I embrace it. But also we've seen, of course, from the days of Daniel and the days of Jesus, an astronomical rise in the ease of transportation. You think about the Apostle Paul, when he was doing his missionary journeys, he would get on a ship and sail from Antioch to Rome. It would take, it seemed like forever and a day. But now you can hop on a plane and you can be there in a matter of a couple hours. Technology is on the rise. Transportation is on the rise. People are allowed to go to and fro and depending on the nation they live in, they can go to and fro as they see fit and as they please. Technology on the rise. I want you to see this graph here real quick. I've got a picture of how different technological advances have been introduced into the world and how long it took for there to be 50 million users. This is an arbitrary number, no real significance to the number of 50 million, but when radio was invented, it took 38 years for there to be 50 million radio users. Television comes along and it takes 13 years for there to be 50 million television viewers. The Internet was established. I think Al Gore invented it, someone say amen. The Internet was established. It took four years to get to 50 million users. And now today we have these things called tablet computers. Maybe you don't know what one is. That's like an iPad or a Google Nexus or something along those lines. We have seen 50 million users in just two years' time. And so we're really seeing a society that's embracing technology. Smartphone users. I had to look this up just yesterday. I wanted to know how many smartphone users were in the world. One billion. One billion smartphone users in the world today. You say, that's not a lot of people. Well, it is when you think about how they're spread out across the world. One of the greatest markets for used smartphones is you're selling them on eBay and people in Africa are buying them. And even though they don't have lights in their home, they can go downtown and charge their phones, and they can get on the internet and have an internet connection. So technology is on the rise. You know something else about smartphones is pretty neat in a way, but kind of scary in another way, is they're all equipped with a GPS chip, a Global Positioning Satellite. That's what GPS stands for. And, you know, if you had a map or something on here, it could give you directions how to go to something else or some other place. It might give you wrong directions, but still it's the idea that it's got that ability. But also they can use that GPS chip in your phone to tell where you're at. And even if your phone is off, they can still call up a GPS chip in your phone and find out where you're at. The only way to get around it is to take out the battery. So all they're doing now is making phones where you can't get the battery out. Ooh. This is starting to sound like 1984 stuff, isn't it? And so understanding technology is on the rise and it's being put in place. And the reason I put this up here is because, you know, the Antichrist is going to be seen by all and adored by all and worshipped by all. And people have a hard time understanding how the Antichrist could be seen at one time by the population of the earth. Well, it's because technology is on the rise and that's opening up the door and pulling back the curtain for him to make his appearance. There's a troubled global economy. It's not just the U.S. who's finding times of economic woe. There's been recent reports, you know about these if you watch the news, Greece and Spain, Ireland and Portugal are just some of the European nations who are really struggling economically and the European Union is reaching out to them for them to make some changes in order for them to be strengthened economically. Talk about the European Union here in just a minute. Pope Benedict Let's talk about how there could be a religious and political mingling down the road. Pope Benedict has called for the UN, for the United Nations to establish itself as a true world political authority with real teeth to manage the global economy. Do you understand what he's saying here? I'd like to see the UN, he says, to be a dominating force in the political realm, but also in the economical realm for a global economy. And so there's a troubled global economy. The world is primed for this new leader to appear. Then we have the advanced of secular humanism. Well, what is secular humanism? Number one, it denies the existence of God and any sense of moral accountability. Secular humanism denies the very existence of God and therefore it dispenses with any idea of moral accountability. I was teaching during Sunday school about what the American Civil Liberties Union has been doing for the past, oh, since 1920s in America. And what they've been doing is they've been advancing civil liberties but been eroding religious liberties. And they're trying to dispense and get away with morality in our country And understand this, when you look at the countries from the green scale and you step way back, America has very high morals compared to many of the world's nations and the world's idea of accountability. May not seem so to you, but take a look or go on a trip and you'll appreciate the morality that still exists to a point in America. Amen, Saints? Secular humanism deplores any sense of nationalism. I taught this during the first few lessons of the series, where there's not the idea of being the United States of America or the country of Ireland, but that everybody would be kind of put together in one big conglomerate just known as the world or as the globe of things of that nature. So it deplores any sense of nationalism and really pushing for a transnational federal government. a transnational, crossing the nations, federal government. And so that's what secular humanism is doing right now in the day that we're living. Here we are, January 6, 2013. We're going to talk about the Beast's origin for the first part of this lesson this morning. The Beast's origin. You have to excuse me, I'm not very good with the whole graphic design kind of thing, so I've got two different maps up here. This first map, though, is the picture of the old Roman Empire. When Rome fell, this is what the world looked like and how Roman domination was. I just kind of want you to get the shape in your mind of the red and the green and the orange different blocks here. If you're colorblind, I apologize, but it's just this outline here, the shape of what's being done here even goes into North Africa, Morocco, and Libya, those nations there. But now I want you to see in comparison to the current spread or reach of the European Union. And again, I want you to consider the shape of this union. Different size, I understand that, but again, it extends down to Spain and Portugal, up into the British Isles, Italy, and then, of course, going east into Bulgaria, and I can't say the words any longer, but into eastern Europe here, all the way up into the Norse countries, and you go back and you kind of see that they've got that similar shape and a very similar reach. So it's not really outside the realm of possibility to believe what I taught you when I taught you about a prophetic look at kingdoms, that those 10 toes on Nebuchadnezzar's image back in Daniel chapter 2, that those 10 toes really could be a picture of the revived Roman Empire. Because I think that you know this if you know your history, Rome was never defeated. It collapsed within itself. That was the fall of Rome as we know it today. And so the possibility of the Roman Empire seeing a quasi-revival still exists, especially now with the implementation and the formation of the European Union, which now has 27 members, and they're still courting others. They're even reaching now into Asia, trying to bring Russia into their union. So, the Beast's origin, possibly, and I believe this, here, I'm going to give you an opinion right now, I believe that the Antichrist will rise from the old Roman Empire region. Now, that's a big part of the world. I don't believe he's American. I don't. It's not Bill Gates. I thought it was for a long time, but it's not Bill Gates. And so I have to go ahead and understand that. If you've never sat at a Windows computer and said, the devil's in this thing. Right. OK. the beast's origin. Okay, let's go back to the Bible now. Number one, he's out of the sea. That's a picture of the mass of humanity. Especially in Revelation, when we're looking at the sea, we're looking at the mass of the human population. And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw, excuse me, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." Now some of you are thinking, that sounds like my ex-husband. That's not who it is, okay? This is a very prominent, powerful person in the world, but it's coming from out of the sea. It's out of the mass of humanity. In other words, this Antichrist is simply going to be a man who was vaulted into a position of leadership and we'll see that he'll get his power from demonic forces and influences. The seven heads are seven mountains. You might want to make a note in your Bible but the best commentary on Revelation 13 is Revelation 17. It explains what we see in 13 and it gives us some clear meaning as to the language. In Revelation 17 verse number 9, And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. We'll be getting into her story, Laura Willen, next Sunday morning. But the seven heads are seven mountains. Now, there are those who will draw an immediate conclusion to that must be a specific location. Because there is a city that's known on the face of the earth as being built on seven hills. Anybody know what it is? Rome. It's a possibility. I can't give you an opinion here or anything dogmatic, but that's something that some commentators and theologians believe. The ten horns are ten kings. Again, the commentary is Revelation 17 and verse number 12. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings which have received no kingdom as yet. but receive power as kings one hour with the beast." Interesting point there, considering that thought and what's going on in the European Union. When the European Union was first formed, it was formed back in the 1950s, I believe it was 1957, it was formed by what was called the Treaty of Rome. And when they first came up with the European Union, they were going to have the President of the Union just alternate according to countries alphabetically. So that would just be like, there would be the country, England would be the first one, and they would be the president that year. Next year, it would rotate, let's just say France, because that makes EF, okay? And so it would rotate around, and the power would be shared. But now, But now they have decided, since the Treaty of Lisbon in 2000, to call this European Union something and give much more power to the president. And instead of him being appointed by country alphabetically, he's going to be elected by the people. And you think about that, it doesn't even have to be the leader of the country. It can be any citizen at all in the country. And there's 10 kings spoken of here in Revelation who've not yet had a kingdom. And I'm just trying to, again, draw your attention to what's going on in the world around us and showing you that it's a distinct possibility of how this is all going to come to play. Again, a lot of opinion there, a bit of speculation, but still a real true possibility. The ten crowns are a picture of power and authority. The ten horns have ten crowns upon them and that's a picture of His power and authority. I explained to you last Sunday morning that the Antichrist is going to have the most power of any man on the face of the earth in the course of human history. He's going to have the most power granted to him. And again, these crowns are a picture of his coming power and authority. Individual nations are going to deny their sovereign rights in order to give power to the beast of Revelation chapter 13. And then on these crowns are the names of blasphemy. The Antichrist will actively and openly defy God. And when I say God, I mean the one true God, the great God of heaven, the creator of all that we see, the father of the only begotten son, Jesus Christ, someone say amen, who died for our sins. He is going to openly defy God because secular humanism is so strong today, because the tide is rising so quickly, it will be easy for him to take this position of great leadership and deny the very possibility that God even exists. I don't know if you were paying attention last summer, but they tried to do it at the Democratic National Convention. They really tried to deny the existence or need for God in one's life during that time. That's just an artist's rendering of what I read to you. Of course, it's going to be a man, but there's the body of a leopard, the feet of a bear, the mouth of a lion described here about the beast's origin. The leopard means that he will rise to power in a very rapid way. Very swiftly will the Antichrist rise to power. Personal belief again. Could the Antichrist be alive today? I say yes. But I'll tell you this, I don't believe he's in power today. I don't think he's making the headlines. I don't think he's being written about by the bloggers and all those different things. I think he might be alive but not in power as of yet. The bear, this is my personal opinion, the bear, he will crush the opposition. No one from a human standpoint will be able to stand against the beast's power and authority. The lion, the picture, he will devour all who stand in his way. The lion is considered the king of the jungle. There's no other beast that's going to take on the lion. So the body of a leopard the feet of a bear, the mouth of a lion, all this devised by the dragon. The dragon, again, is a picture of Satan in the book of Revelation. The beast will draw his power and authority from satanic forces and influences. He is going to accept the offer that Jesus refused in Matthew chapter 4 verses 8 and 9. Remember that during the temptation of Jesus after he had been in the wilderness fasting for 40 days? He comes into the presence of Satan and Satan tempts him three times and one of those temptations was that he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Christ would simply bow down at Satan's feet. And Jesus said, no, I'm not going to do these kind of things. But the Antichrist said, I'll do it. I will do it. I want supreme power and authority over all the earth. And he's going to have it. For seven years, really 42 months, for the first three and a half years, he's going to have all the power and authority. that he could imagine. And so that covenant was broken in the middle of the tribulation period. At the three and a half year point, he's going to begin to see his power wane and the struggle really begin to escalate. But that's what the Antichrist is going to do. And it's hard for us, isn't it, to wrap our minds around how one man could have such a power and such a voice and such authority that people would just kind of give in to every whim and wish that he put forth. I know, and I still can't explain to you how Hitler came to power either. I can't imagine how he convinced a world population to exterminate six million Jews. Can you? Okay, so we're not alone anymore. We're on the same page, right? We don't understand these things. We just trust they're going to come true because God has predicted, prophesied that they would. Now we're going to look at the beast's accomplishments. What's the beast going to do during his time on the earth? Well, first of all, he's going to be resurrected, causing the world to be in awe of him. In verse number 3 of Revelation 13, And I saw one of his heads, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed," and watch this, "...and all the world wondered after the beast." I said this last study but I forgot to mention it today. I want you to understand when we're studying Antichrist, the beast, the false prophet, the dragon, we're looking at a satanic imitation of all that is good and all that is God. They have their own form of maybe a trinity or triune being in the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. And now we're going to see a picture here or an imitation counterfeit of a resurrection as this beast is fatally wounded but yet he will rise from the dead. And when he rises from the dead the world is going to be in awe of him. They're going to be amazed at his power. They're going to be amazed at his prowess. They're going to be amazed at his perseverance. And so, once the world population begins to be in awe of him, the next logical step is for the world to worship him. The world is going to worship a political leader. And I want you to understand we're not far from that in our day-to-day. Politicians are revered in some countries or by some portions of the population. So we're not real far from that today. And as we're going forward, as the last day is coming upon us, idolatry is going to continue to be on the increase. And it will be a very simple thing for the world population to give their worship and their devotion to this one world supreme leader. Again, he will defy God. It's mentioned here in Revelation 13 in verse number 6. Well, it's several times here, verse number 5 and verse number 6. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. He's going to make sure that God is defied in every possible way. He's going to come to the point when he actually will exalt himself into the place of God. And then he's getting that from, that's a true fruit of his makeup and fabric. It's the same thing that Lucifer thought he would do before he was cast out of heaven. And the beast is going to simply follow in the footsteps of the one who provides his power. He's also going to make war with the saints for those believers who are here on the earth during this time. In verse number 7, it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. Pastor, will there be people saved during the tribulation? Absolutely. Will it be a lot? I dare say yes. God's going to raise up 144,000 evangelists to preach the gospel of the kingdom during this time. Additionally, there's going to be two, what we call, super witnesses, again, promoting the faith in Jesus Christ. And there will be some who are saved during this time, but it looks as if all of those who are saved during the tribulation will suffer a martyr's death at the hand and power of the Antichrist. Does that make sense to you? He will dominate the nations. There will be one nation being able to stand against his power and authority. There's one out there, rebellious, who's trying to stand against him. In the last part of verse 7, and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. He will have, lastly, I put a huge following I mean, we talk about the personalities today. This is going to be an amazing following that will happen. Verse number 8, And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. You may not know this morning, but if you're saved this morning, if you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, your name is written down in the Lamb's book of life. Let me just tell you this, and once it's in there, it can't be taken out. Right? But there's going to be a whole population, a mass of humanity, whose names are not written down in the land's book of life. And they're going to simply adore, and they're going to follow this man, and everything he says, and everything he does, is going to be wonderful, and the best thing, not just for the individual, but for the population of the whole world. Hard to imagine? God said it would happen. That's all I can say. God promised it would happen. Now, we're going to close this morning with the beast's number. I won't keep you long. Have I ever? All right. Thank you. The beast's number. I thought we were trying something new in 2013. The beast's number, verse number 16, it causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. and that no man might buy or sell save he that hath the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 600, 3, 4, and 6. His number is 666. Can I just say this just to help you this morning? Don't be superstitious over 666. Superstition is not Christian. Okay? Superstition is not Christian. I'm just trying to help you this morning. And so every time you see a 666 doesn't mean that you've taken the mark of the beast. If you're pumping your gas and it stops at 666, it's okay. Okay? If you want to go on and make it feel better, then go on and keep on pumping. But, you know, I can't imagine 666 being your total anymore anyways. Yeah, 666, exactly. Yeah. But it's a mark of identification. This is the mark of the beast. It's going to be either in the right hand or in the forehead. There's been all kinds of speculation over the centuries about what this number is going to be, or this mark, and how it's going to be applied. And we've heard things from tattoos, and now they're talking about laser engravings, and putting maybe a microchip in the back of your hand, if possible. They've got these microchips down to the size of a grain of rice. You can take your dog down to the Humane Society Clinic over there off of Larry Caldwell, and you can have a microchip injected into that dog's neck so that if he's found by the dog catcher, they can identify who the owner is. Some states, get this, are starting to inject Alzheimer's patients with the microchip so they can be found if they wander off from their homes. See? Just saying. And of course, those GPS chips, they've got those, they used to be pretty good size. First time I taught this to the church, we were still being in school, I had a GPS chip on my computer, about the size of a nickel or a quarter, but pretty thick. But now they're coming down where they're just over the size of a jelly bean now. So they're getting smaller and smaller as time goes on. And as technology rises and the advances are put into place, then there's a possibility for this technology to be put into place. And once this mark is given, that means you're purchasing power. It really becomes a matter of life and death. For those who don't have the mark, won't be allowed to buy and sell anywhere. There's going to be probably a black market that rises up, no doubt about it, but there's still going to be, it's going to be very tough for anybody to make a living or to have sustenance on the earth once the mark of the beast has been employed on a global scale. Are you following me? So that's what that mark does. It gives you your purchasing power. Can you imagine, you know, if there's someone who chooses not to take that mark and they have a child to feed or a family to feed and they're just denied after store, after store, after store. That's going to lead people to desperation. You know, a lot of people believe that many believers are going to die by starvation in the last days because they refuse. take the mark, not Christians like us, ones who are saved during tribulation. So I'm just saying there's all kinds of crazy possibilities out there if this mark is not taken. I cannot tell you what the mark is. I can tell you what 666 means. It's the number of a man. And six in the Bible is a number that refers to man. Seven is the number of perfection. That's God. Seven is the number of man. He falls short of perfection. That's why we say things like this, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We fall short of the glory of God because we are sinners. That's how we need a Savior. Amen. And that's how we are given the perfection of Christ in our lives. We're never perfect until we get to heaven. Somebody help me there. Just simply forgiven. by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And so that 666 is the number of a man and not something to get superstitious about. But one thought occurred to me is the devil, he numbers his people, but God names his. He called me out by name and he still called me by name. I'm not a number to God. You know what He's numbered? The very hairs of my head. But He knows me by name. We're given a new name. It's written on a white stone. It's kept up somewhere in the vaults of heaven. But God knows my name. The devil simply knows you as a number. I don't like being called a number. First time I went to college was Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio. I didn't last long. They didn't want me. I was too smart for them. Someone say amen. But I was a number to them. Everything was a number. I was not Mr. Hoffer. I was numbered, you know, 3277, the last four more social security number. That's how I looked at my grades. That's how I logged into my files. All kinds of things. I was a number to them. That's how the devil looks at people. They're just numbers. You have no relationship with Christ this morning, then you're still a number to the devil. But Jesus is standing with arms wide open today and he'd love to have you come into the family. Amen. And when you do, he will give you a name and he will call you by name for the rest of your earthly life. And then you'll spend all of eternity worshiping and praising the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. Amen. Father, we thank you for this time together this morning.