Brother Baskin, you come on up here real quick, brother, and share a little bit of the Word of God with us, brother. Amen. Thank you so much. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you so much for the invitation to come and be with you wonderful people. You have just gone far beyond anything we could ever ask or think. We appreciate so much all of your expressions of love. We appreciate these kids coming and waking us up and bringing bouquets of flowers and what have you. They have really been a blessing and it's great to see these fantastic young people, all of them going to be missionaries. And then the way that you all have accepted us, I really appreciate that. You know, my wife and the preacher have had a running battle going, I don't know, over football games or something like that. I don't know what it is, but there was a guy up here in Louisiana, and he was an old bachelor. And he went to his pastor one day and said, Pastor, honestly, honestly, Pastor, I've never gotten married. I've put my work and everything first, and I don't want to die and never having been married. And I'm afraid I'm going to die, and I don't want to. And his pastor said, well, I'll tell you what you do. You move to Alabama, and you marry a widow with 12 kids and a hog farm. And the guy said, well, will that keep me from dying? He said, no, it'll make you want to die. Now that's... Come on, honey, final goodbyes. I want to thank you all. This has been a joy this week. It has been some interesting things happen, but it has been an enjoyable week. A lot of times, and especially since 2009, a lot of people have asked me, why in the world would you want to be a missionary? They look at it in a very negative way. There are a lot that think that the missionaries, they go on the field, and they get to see wonderful sights, and you get to go shopping everywhere. And they think you don't do a lot of work. Well, you do. They do. They do a lot of work. They do things, and they have to go through situations that nobody here would ever even imagine going through, being out of electricity, not just because of the weather, because there's not any electricity. But I thought, you know, I started losing hope, but God is the God of hope. And what we do when we go to someplace is we bring them hope. We bring women who they have These are ones that I've met. A woman who has a little boy is two years old that we want her to the Lord. She accepted Christ. Her little boy can't walk and they don't know why. A woman who accepted Christ, she can't have children. They don't know why. And all she wants is a child because that's looked down upon where she is. Women who go to church, their husbands are unfaithful. When they get home, their husbands beat them because they went to church. They think the wife's being unfaithful. Women who work in the fields, that their feet are infected because they've stepped on things, and their children are telling them to go to the witch doctor. We bring these people hope, because they don't have hope in anything else. But there's a story that is not mine, but it came to me about what missions does and the way it carries on. Several years ago, there was a very large meeting that took place in Korea. And there was a young man that went up to the, um, a good friend of mine. He told him, he says, I wanted to thank you for sending missionaries. He said, cause I'm from Vietnam and I have soon rendered to be a missionary. And the man, his name is John, he said, thanks for letting me know that, and praise the Lord. He goes, my story doesn't end there. He said, because, see, there was a missionary that came from Cambodia over to Vietnam, and I accepted Christ because of his ministry. And John looked at him, he said, well, praise the Lord. He said, that's great. He goes, that's not the end of the story. He said, see, there was a Filipino that came to Cambodia and won that man to the Lord. And then that man came to, that Cambodian came to Vietnam. And he was like, wow. And he said, praise the Lord. He said, that's, that's fabulous. He's my story then in there. You see, there was the, uh, did I just say the Filipino went to Cambodia? Okay. There was an American that came to the Philippines. that he won that Filipino, and that Filipino went to Cambodia, and the Cambodian then went to the Vietnam, and now that Vietnamese is about to be a missionary. He looked at him, he goes, wow. And he said, every penny that you sent has affected somebody all over the world, and you've brought them hope. Now I'm taking it somewhere else. See, you may not have thought about it when you put an amount on that card, But that money is salvation. Some people, it's freedom. But for all of them, it's hope. It's something some of them don't have until we bring it to them. Amen. Amen. Thank you, sweetheart. You know, final words are very, very important. I think about the words of my dad. My dad was a wonderful man. He was a teacher. And then, of course, he taught in church. And his final words to me were, son, I'm really proud of you. And his final words were, son, I'm going home. And that night, he went to be with the Lord. My mother, one of the most wonderful people, she would still go soul winning at 89 years of age with my little sister. And my mother's last words to me were, son, I love you. I had to hear it on the phone. I couldn't be beside her. And my little sister was standing or sitting in the room where mom was leaving this life. And my little sister thought mom was already gone. And so she said, well, I'll quote Psalm 23. She started quoting Psalm 23 and all of a sudden she saw mom's eyes flicker and she stopped and mom started from there and quote the rest of Psalm 23. And so then long toward morning, uh, Marilyn thought that, uh, mom was gone. And, uh, so she bowed her head and she said, thank you so much Lord for giving me such a wonderful mama and daddy. And, uh, a family like we had, and Lord, it won't be long until Mom will be with Dad, and what a glorious thought. And she stopped praying, and Mom said, oh, thank you, child, for those words, and she left this life. That was the final words. Now, this little sister of mine was probably one of the luckiest children that ever grew up in Arkansas. She came along later, way down the line, and she, at a very early age, she wanted to always run around with us, and we'd tell her, no, you can't. And we'd say, you're not ours, we found you in a possum den. So she grew up thinking she was found in a possum den. But anyhow, she wanted to learn to swim. And we said, no, we're not going to take you swimming with us. because it's too dangerous. And so we'd tell her, stay there at the house. Well, we'd start over the hill to go to the swimming hole, and Marilyn would come along behind us, and we'd throw rocks toward her, but she kept on coming. She'd get down there, we'd be swimming, I want y'all to teach me." So we'd just take her and get out on the bank and we'd just throw her in like a cat, you know. She'd be going, saying, I don't think I can make it. Yeah, Marilyn, you can make it. Well, my younger brother, he was a preacher also, but my younger brother and I, we would pull a persimmon tree over, you know, a persimmon bush. We would pull it over. all the way down, and we'd say, now Marilyn, you've got to hold this. She'd get a hold of that bush, and then we'd turn loose. Well, here she's going. And she says, I can't hold it. I can't hold it. Well, that girl grew up to be one of the greatest Christians I've met in my life, in spite of us trying to dispatch her early. But she, when I was involved in Vietnam, we couldn't get Bibles and what have you and they'd actually even quit printing the Bibles in Vietnamese and in the dual version and the King James version and the Vietnamese language. But Marilyn was working with the Gideons and she found a source and so she would supply the Bibles that I could take into Vietnam. She was so faithful in praying for me and so faithful in the work of the Lord to witness and win souls. and so forth, traveled all over the state of Arkansas, and led lots of people to Christ, gave them the Bible, and so on and so forth. Well, a couple of years ago, she found out that she had pancreatic cancer. And so she called me and said, now I want you I want you to be ready to preach my funeral." And I said, well, if I'm in the States, I'll sure do it, Mary, but I don't know where I'll be at that time. And, of course, I told her she'd need to give me a date. But that's my sister's thing. So Marilyn, that cancer was taking its toll on her. And so Sherry and I were headed for Cambodia. So we went down a couple of weeks, I don't remember how many days early, and we stayed there with Marilyn. And she got to where she couldn't walk. My wife had had some nurses training and she would take care of Marilyn. Finally got her rigged up with oxygen and everything. And so Marilyn her her doctor and the doctor's wife are also involved in distribution of Bibles through Gideon's and so this surgeon he came out there and so we were sitting there and the preacher came over and Marilyn said, okay I got three men of God here and I'm wanting my brother to preach by a funeral, but he's getting ready to go to Cambodia and said And and said I I want you three men now to pray that I'll die tonight So it'll fit into my brother's schedule And there's the doctors sitting there so well Marilyn. I don't normally pray that my patients die Well, she said I want y'all to pray well We and he said will it be all right if we just pray for God's will okay? Well, we prayed And, of course, we didn't pray she'd die that night. But anyhow, the next morning Marilyn woke up and she was mad. She wasn't in heaven and her brother was not going to get to preach her funeral. And so before we left, we took her to a home, to a place where she could be well cared for. And so the people of the church, they would sit with her. And that last night, the man told us about it, that he was just sitting there. She didn't want him talking or anything. And he was just sitting there, and so all of a sudden Marilyn looked at him and said, get me a nurse, get me a nurse. And he said, Marilyn, are you hurting? She said, no, no. Said, get me a nurse. Said, I need to lead somebody else to the Lord before I go to heaven. And those were the last words. Last words are very, very important. What will be your last words? And what will be the legacy that you leave? You know, the Bible tells some interesting stories. It tells about Joshua. It says that Joshua served the Lord and all the elders that over lived Joshua and then the other elders. Can you imagine that kind of influence that a man has? Now folks, I say all of this because we're going to get out on time tonight. But I want you to understand, last words are very, very important. They're important to God. And when God blesses you, when God provides something for you, you need to treat it as a gift from God. I don't know if you're aware or not, but a pastor, according to Ephesians, is a gift from God. Your pastor is a gift from God. And so when God gives a gift, you should never abuse that gift. And your pastor and his wife, you heard her testimony, and you've seen her as she's walked among you. And a godly example, a godly example as a wife, a godly example as a mother to the children. And God has brought them here because you are a great church. You're a great church. You have made us feel like a family, actually. You've made us feel like family, so you're a great church. But there's a lot of people out here in this area, they do not, they do not have the family. They don't have that interaction with somebody that truly loves them. And so as your pastor is leading, as he's leading you, in soul winning and reaching people, know this, that they have been, people have been deceived every way they walked, they don't trust anybody, they've been deceived by the television preachers and what have you, and all of the things that have gone on, and God has brought you, a man of God in here, And by next year, this crowd ought to be doubled. And you ought to continue. It ought to be the example for the entire state of Louisiana. And I believe that you can do that if you'll keep on. following, excuse me, and walking with the Lord. Now when we, excuse me, I mentioned this thing again of final words. Now first of all, let's mention the final words of Jesus from the cross, okay? Now, of course, there were five final words, but there's just three of them that apply to us here tonight. The first words from the cross from the Lord Jesus Christ was, Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them. And in the original language, it implies that this was being repeated over and over again. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And Jesus uttered those words after his back had been plowed like furrows and his brow had been pierced with thorns. His visage was marred more than man, almost unrecognizable as a man. And yet he cried, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And then you remember on that cross, he cried, I thirst, I thirst. And a depraved man, a wicked man, reached down and he grabbed a sponge. And here was a bowl of vinegar. And he stuck that sponge, and he put that sponge on a stick, and he stuck that sponge in that bowl of vinegar and shoved those up to the broken, bleeding lips of the Son of God. You say, how could anybody be so vile to do something like that? How could anybody be so cruel? My friend, Jesus looks at you and He says, I thirst. I thirst for your life and for you to give Him just a few tattered fragments of your life. just as cruel as a man reaching down and giving that sponge filled with vinegar. He said, I thirst, I want you. And then on that cross, when all the people had inflicted every imaginable punishment, their wicked minds could dream up And sitting down, the Bible says, and sitting down in stolid indifference, they watched him there. And the earth, the sun refused to shine. The earth was plunged into darkness. And then all of a sudden, after three hours, there was a triumphant shout as Jesus lifted his body and filled those lungs and shouted, it is finished. He didn't say, I am finished. He said, it is. What? That plan of redemption that God had pictured when he clothed Adam and Eve. When the innocent one died for the guilty, That picture that was given over and again throughout the Old Testament with the rivers of blood that flowed from the sacrificial animals, those pictures were fulfilled when Jesus Christ said, it is finished. You remember the people, the people left there beating their chest and groaning and saying, oh, oh, oh no, oh no. They realized what an awful, awful mistake that they had made. And then the Lord Jesus Christ, after his resurrection, Final words. He told those disciples, let's go back. Let's meet where I called you. Let's go back to that point where you made that commitment, where you made that surrender. Let's go back. I'll meet you at the mountain. And there on the mountain, he gave them the mandate to go into all the world in Matthew chapter 28. And he told them where to go. He told them that they were to teach all people. And he said, teach everything. As your pastor, as he teaches you, he'll teach some things that maybe you've not been taught or you haven't caught. Not that you haven't been taught, but it just didn't ring a bell with you. But as he teaches you things about godly and holy living, and as he teaches you about real responsibility in carrying the gospel to every creature in this area, you may think, you know, I can't accept that. But I want you to know that He is to teach you all things, all things. You've heard me talk about tithing a lot. I've got to tell you an interesting story. We had one of our Filipino preachers, old brother Cisnero, he took a church that was struggling and so, and one reason, the people just wasn't giving. So he preached on tithing every service for a month. One of the men came up and said, Brother Siciliano, now you're preaching on Tithon, and don't you know that that's Old Testament? And Brother Siciliano said, would you rather have New Testament? And he said, yes. So Brother Siciliano, next Sunday, preached from the Book of Acts. They brought it all. And that guy, after the service, that guy said, let's go back to Old Testament. But he used to teach you all things. But after the resurrection, he told his disciples they had a greater responsibility than that mere church that he had started. You read Acts chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, and of course he emphasized the power of the resurrection, but he said, things pertaining to the kingdom, things pertaining to the kingdom. That's the overall work of God. You see, you can't just be satisfied to say us four and no more. You will reach people that'll never come here. But one day in the streets of glory, because you thought of seeking first the kingdom, instead of you thought of the overall work of God, then they will say to you, thank you for giving us the gospel. And you remember after the resurrection? He went out to that mountain and his final words, you should be witnesses unto me in both Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And Mark said, go and preach the gospel to every creature. He tells us what to preach, he tells us where to go, to all the world, and he tells us to go to the uttermost part and to the last creature. So that is, those are the final words when Jesus was physically up on the earth. But he had some more final words. In the book of Revelation, he spoke to his churches. And he said to the church at Ephesus, a great church that had been founded by Paul, had been started in the home of Ananasius of Pius, and a great church, and been pastored by some of Paul's disciples, and finally was pastored by John the Beloved. And Jesus told him, how proud he was, but he said, nevertheless, nevertheless, I have somewhat against you. You've left your first love, leaving the first love. One of the most saddened things I've ever heard is to hear a husband or a wife say to me, I don't love her anymore. I don't love him anymore. That would destroy me if Sherry would ever say a word like that. I don't. And yet God said to his church, I've got some heart against you. You've left your first love. Oh, listen, don't leave that first love. The marks of a great church, number one, of course is to God. But number one, you take care of the man that God gives you as a gift. Number two, you take care of the church. Really take care of the church. Keep it as something that becomes God. And then number three, you take care of missions. And you keep those three elements. You keep those three elements and you'll be a great church. And God won't have to say, I have somewhat against you to the church at Philadelphia. There was no negative comment. Jesus said to them, I set before you an open door. Hey, church, you're a great church. And you're like the church at Philadelphia. God says, here are these two towns you've sandwiched in here. Here are two towns and the regions we are, it's all yours. I sit before you, I sit before you, this open door." But then he said to the, he said to the church at Laodicea, he said, he said, you're lukewarm. Your heart doesn't beat for souls. Your heart doesn't beat for God. He said, you're lukewarm and I don't have any choice. I'll just spew you out of my mouth. Right down the way here. I don't know what happened. I don't know what kind of a church it was There's a building sitting there a silent a silent witness of every person that passes by that some people somehow somehow lost the vision of Lost the burden. I have no idea what happened. Doesn't make any difference. It's a silent witness to failure. And you don't ever want anything like that taking place here at Grace Baptist Church. Those of you that have been faithful through the years, let me tell you something, folks. You've done a great job. You've kept this light shining. Now keep this light shining more brightly because the light that shines brightest shines farther at home. Final words final words one more final words take your Bible and turn to the last chapter of the Bible revelation chapter 22 revelation chapter 22 and Let's look at it. And these are the final words for us tonight revelation chapter 22 and verse 16, Jesus said, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify on you these things in the churches. I'm the root and the offspring of David, the bright and the morning star, And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. Let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. You need to look at the word come. Look it up sometime. God said to Noah, Come thou and thy family into the ark. And then God left the door open seven more days for others to come, but they didn't come. And then the rains came. As you go through the Bible, God says, come now. Let's reason together, saith the Lord. Come on, let's be reasonable about this. Though your sins be a scarlet, they'll be white as snow. Jump into the New Testament, and the New Testament says, come unto me. all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest." You see, that word, come. Whosoever will, let him come. You see, the Southern Baptist Convention today, in their last meeting, not today, but in their last meeting a month or so ago, the issue of Calvinism, hyper-Calvinism, Well, we old folks call it hardshellism and hardshell Baptist. The issue came up on election, predestination, and so on and so forth. You see, God says here in Revelation, he said, I want you to know my last thoughts. My last words, the Spirit and the Bride say come, let him that heareth say come, let him that is the thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely, for I testify in every man that heareth the words of the prophet of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in the book. If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things written that are written in the book. God said, my final word, whosoever will, my final word, don't you add anything to it. Don't you take anything to it. Let me illustrate. Let's say here is a father in Zachary, and his house catches on fire. He's got five children, and the house is going to burn down. And the father walks in the bedroom, and he says, now let's see, which one of those children do I want to save, and which one of those children do I want to burn? Oh, this boy right here. That's the one I want to save. And he takes him out, and he saves him, and lets the others burn. What kind of a man would do a thing like that? One of the most cruel tyrants that ever moved. Let's don't make God a tyrant. Let's keep the blanket invitation. Whosoever will, let him come. God knows who's going to come. That doesn't alter. the thing at all. But God is saying anyone can drink of this water of life freely. So the final words of God's word is he wants all men to hear the gospel and all men have a chance to be saved. That's why we're involved in missions.