Well, when he said chemotherapy twice, I thought to myself, I hope he don't ask me to preach again. But it's good to be here, ain't it? Amen. And I enjoyed the singing about the choir and the special singing. It was great. Amen. But I'd like to say something to the church. that I've been wanting to say for a while, and that is, thank you for praying for me. Your prayers mean a lot to me, and I know that you have, and God's blessed me, and I've not got no sad stories to tell, amen. Because God's been good to me, and I'm talking about real good to me, better than I believe anybody else. And I love him tonight, and I thank him. I thank him for this privilege of coming and preaching and this dedication, this service that Brother Mark asked me to come. Got a beautiful church here. And you always got to remember, it was all God. He's helped you out. He's blessed you. And I want to try to help you out tonight. I don't know how far I can go, but I'm going to go as far as I can. Amen. And I want to try to help out the church tonight. And it's good to have some of our members here that I pastor. And that ought to let you know that I preach the same thing in my church that I'm going to preach here. Amen. I think a man ought to be that way, don't you, Brother Mark? Amen. And I finished up my third chemotherapy treatment this past Wednesday, and I got one more to go. And that's it. And I appreciate the Lord helping me through it all. I really do. Been some good times, but I thought when Brother Mark asked me to preach, I said, well, that's on my week. And I said, I'll probably be a little sick. But you know, I prayed and asked God to help me, and God's really put that in my heart to want to preach. and to try to help you out tonight, and I hope I'm a blessing to you. And I hope that the Lord will do great work here, just like I'm praying that he'll do great work at my church, too. Amen. We serve the same God, isn't that right? Amen. So if you would, tonight, if you turn to 2 Chronicles, chapter number 2, And I'm gonna read a couple of verses here, starting in verse number four. As you see from the top, you have the Scofield Bible now. It's on page 491, chapter number two with 2 Chronicles. And Solomon prepares to build the temple. And he says here, verse number four, I'll begin reading. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, do thank you for your love and for your mercy and Lord for what our ears have heard, our hearts have felt here tonight. Thank you for that. Thank you for all the good songs that we've heard, Lord. And thank you, Lord, for loving us. And thank you, Lord, for giving us this privilege, Lord, tonight. And I pray, Lord, you'd season it, Lord, tonight. And I pray you'd prepare each heart, Lord. And I pray you'd help me tonight and strengthen me. And Lord, I'll give you all the honor and all the glory, because we love you. We thank you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right. 2 Chronicles chapter number 2, look at what he says here, Solomon he says, behold I build a house to the name of the Lord my God to dedicate it to him and to burn for him sweet incense and for the continual showbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbath and on the new moons, and on the solemn feast of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel, and the house which I build is great, for great is our God above all gods. Amen. And he is. Ain't that right? There's none greater. There's none other god. And we meet tonight, as I've already stated, to dedicate this work. And I say again, it's beautiful. I know that one man told me some time ago that he thinks that the house of God ought to look better than your own house. Amen. I thought about that and I said, yeah, I believe that's true. Amen. It should, ain't that right? People come in here and they should be able to look around and see that God's blessed, ain't that right? So anyway, we've come tonight and I want to start off this message by just getting us familiar with a couple of words tonight. And the first one is dedication. Amen. I want you to remember that. It means the act of consecrating to a divine being. In other words, that is to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Isn't that right? That's who we're dedicating this work to. He's been good to you. Ain't that right? He's helped you. He's blessed you. And look what you've got. Look what He's done for you. Look what He's allowed you to go through. And so anyway, it's the act of devoting or giving to. Now the other word is dedicating. This means the one, every single one of us here tonight, especially the members of Unity Baptist Church, that's a member of this church, he's talking about the one who dedicates. You're all here tonight for the dedication service to dedicate this work that you have done for the Lord. Amen? You've come tonight to do that, and I hope that you have. And as we read these scriptures tonight, I want to mention just three things. If you notice in verse number four, he talks about showbread. Now this is symbolic of life and nourishment for all God's children. type of the Word of God. Jesus said in John, I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat man in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eateth the bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh which I give for the life of the world. Amen. I'm glad that we have that bread, ain't you? I'm glad that we can partake of that bread, that living bread. And then the second word I want you to understand is the word incense here, that Solomon talks about. This represents prayer, amen? No doubt there's been a lot of prayer, ain't that right? Probably Brother Mark's mentioned many times in sermons about God's about dedication in this building to God, and about praying, and let's pray about this work that God's doing here in the church. No doubt, he's mentioned that many times, and that represents the prayers that goes up to God. You know what it says in Psalms 141? He said, let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Then the second word is the burnt offering. This is symbolic, I do believe, of giving God your all. Ain't that right? God don't want part of you. Ain't that right? He didn't give you part of Him. You got all the Holy Spirit that you're gonna get. Amen? Every single bit of Him you got. Ain't that right? And so it's only feasible, I do believe, that we give Him our all too. And so this, I do believe, is your highest gift to God. It represents your entire unresolved dedication to God. That is your body, your soul, and your spirit and will unto God. Romans tells us very plainly, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Psalms tells us in 40, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I have refrained my lips, O Lord. Thou knowest I have not hid my righteousness within my heart. I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation. I have not concealed Thy love and kindness and Thy truth from the great congregation. Now, I think about what Solomon did here. He had all the ingredients, didn't he? He had the bread, ain't that right? He talked about the bread. He talked about the prayers. He talked about sacrifice, burnt offerings, ain't that right? Giving yourself to God. Now, dedication really, I'm going to be perfectly honest with you tonight. It's really a thing sometimes that people think it's of the past. It's not for our day. But I'm telling you, being dedicated to God, I'm talking about sold out to God, is just as fresh as it was in the Old Testament, just as fresh as it was in the New Testament. You just don't have too many people that want to be dedicated to the things of God. Amen preacher, thank you for that. I can't help but think tonight about a story I read about preacher Billy Graham and anyway there were some critics who didn't particularly care for him and they didn't care for his style of preaching. They didn't care for his methods of preaching. They didn't want him to come to their city. And they called a press conference and said, if we let that man come to our city and preach this message, he will set the church back 50 years. And that got back to Billy Graham who smiled and said, I don't want to set the church back 50 years, I want to set the church back 2,000 years. And when you read about the early church in the New Testament now, in the first few chapters of Acts, and then you look at the church today, you can't help but ask the question, what in the world happened? Ain't that right? I'm talking about what in the world happened. Sometimes I hear stories about what the old preachers used to preach and what they used to do and how people used to come in and get saved when the choir was singing and get saved when they had special singing, get saved when somebody stood up and testified. I'm talking about I'm talking about hardened criminals. I'm talking about old drunks on the street that changed their life, that go back and put a home back together again. And listen, them days are not over, friend. I mean, we think that it is, but it's not. I do not believe that they're over with. I believe they still can be here today if God's people would only set up, set out, and dedicate themselves to Him. I observe, when I read over here in the book of Acts, just like you do when you read your Bible, I observe ordinary people. They were shepherds, they were farmers, they were fishermen bearing witness to anybody that would listen about Jesus. And I have to say as a preacher now, those were the good old days, amen. You have to say that, if they were, ain't that right? And sometimes I believe we've let these days slip, we say we cannot have them, but I'm inclined that we can, amen, and we should, and we should strive for them. And so anyway, what is even more incredible about this church over in the Book of Acts is what they did. They did without buildings. They did without budgets. Financially, they had no money. Politically, they had no influence. And they were just a tiny fraction of the world's population. I raise the question again, what was the difference? What happened? I think to myself, what was the difference? What happened? What did they have that we don't have? I think about that. Now, even though the church is bigger, ain't that right? Mega-sized these days, they're building. I mean, they got all kind of things. They're mega-sized today. They got programs galore. But let me ask you a question. Is it better? Is it more vibrant, more alive, more on fire than it's ever been before? I'd have to say, honestly, no, it's not. I'd have to say that. Now, let me make it just as simple and plain and tell you why. I believe that this service here tonight is an honorable thing to do. I really do. I do believe. I believe God's in it. Amen. Send all this good crowd this way, Brother Mark. I think God's done that. Don't you? I mean, it wasn't me and you that did that. It was God that come by. You're not here by accident. Don't think that you're not. You're here by the providential hand of God. I do believe that. So, I believe this is an honorable thing to do, to give back to God what He's given so graciously given to you. I do believe that. If you think about it, in the book of Acts, the story about the church is a spellbounding story. of how a ragtag bag of believers who turned their world upside down for Christ and started a movement that just is alive and well over 2,000 years later. Amen? Not died down a bit. We may think it has, but the fire ain't went out I do believe there are some emeralds in here. I do believe that. I believe they can be set on fire. I believe if you come in here cold and disheartened about the things of God, I believe God can light you up. I believe God can set you on fire. I believe God can fix you up tonight. Amen. I do believe that. But how, how did it happen? How did it happen to this small band of believers that just wanted to go out and serve God? Well, they were dedicators unto the Lord. They just wasn't taken. They were willingly giving to the Lord. And I think that's where it counts right there. When you sacrificially just say, Lord, I'm giving this to You. I want you to have it, Lord. And He's got it anyway. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Ain't that right? He even said if He's hungry, He wouldn't tell you. Ain't that right? He owns it all. Amen? We're just borrowing it. He's just letting us sit on it a little while, and that's just it. And so they just weren't taken, they were willingly given to the Lord. Now what was their secret? I thought about that this week, Brother Mark. What was their secret? What did they have that we seem to be missing in our day? And you know what? The first thing I thought of, it's the same thing that we need, they had a devoted fire about them. Now what I mean about a devoted fire, I looked up that word devoted in a Webster's dictionary and you know I was amazed at one of the meanings of the word devoted. Do you know what it meant? It meant addicted. That's what it meant, addicted. Just addicted. In other words, they got something inside of them that spread like fire. Amen. They got something deep down inside of them that spread like fire. They couldn't do without it. Amen. They wanted it all. They were addicted to it. Amen. They wanted it. In other words, they got something deep down inside of them. It may seem that the fire had diminished in your life, but Jesus came to this earth not to just establish the church, but I do believe to set the church on fire. Amen? We need that fire back. Ain't that right? They had this fire within them, and when I look at the average church today, when I look at the average person, who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ, a question comes to my mind. Is your Christian faith a raging fire or a dull habit? You see, the reason why the early church was so different was because it was made up of people who were ignited by the Spirit of God. I do believe that. Someone put it this way. We're not going to move this world by criticism of it, not conformity to it, but by the combustion within it of lives ignited by the Spirit. You know what I thought about? Now just being plain and simple, not trying to be an old theological Greek scholar or Hebrew scholar today, not to tell you how much I know about the Bible, because I could read it from cover to cover until I was a million years old and still not know it all. Amen? And I've got news for you. This ain't the only thing that God knows. That's for sure. Amen? He knows more than what he wrote down here. You need to understand that. And so anyway, but what do we need? What do we need? I thought about this right here. I believe it do most of you well to come in and remember where you were when God saved you. Amen? I'm talking about turn back the curtain of time. Amen? Let God show you where He brings. Put back the broken pieces and homes. Amen? I can look at my life and I can say, I'm going to tell you how much I love the church. I love the church so much, sometimes I just want to kiss it. Amen? Sometimes I want to hold it. Sometimes I want to hug it. Amen? You know why I want to do that? Because God saved an old drunk one day, put the Holy Spirit in him, Amen. I may put a broken marriage back together again, put a home back together again, and I'll tell you what, I'll love the church until the day that I die. Amen. It's been a friend to me. It's helped me out through the years, through the dark times, and through the good times. The church has always been there for me. Amen. Never! There were times when I could come in, get away from this whole world and serve God and just get my mind clear and just get in the house of God and pray and testify, listen to the songs of Zion. I'm telling you what, there's nothing like the church, friends. I love it. So, listen. The time you came in, think about it, I'm talking about when you were down and out and you were devoted to Him. You need to be dedicated to Him. Surrender to Him. And this place, many times I've been in the church and thought I was on my last leg, but it's become a fresh start in my life every time. Gather around this altar here and let God touch you. And walk out a different person. Walk out with a different mindset. Walk out happy in the Lord. Walk out singing the songs of Zion. Walk out with peace in your heart. Amen. Thank God for the church of God. I love the church house. For some, the fire is down to an emerald. It's just a spark in your life now. I mean, there's no zeal. You come in, you're looking for something and you're not finding it. You're saying, I don't know where it's at. I don't know what's wrong. I tell you what could be wrong is that little hymnal may need to be blown on a little bit. Amen? You may need a fresh touch from God. You may need to come around this altar and say, God, I don't know where the problem is, but point it out to me. I want to get it out of my life. I want to sing in the choir once more. I want to sing specials once more. I want to teach Sunday school. I want to do something, God. I want a witness. I want my tears back, God. I want some help, God. You need your tears, ain't that right? Victory over the battles that's raging in your mind. Listen, you need to fix things in your family. Everybody in here, I'm telling you right now, everybody in here, we got this in common, that is we all got problems. Every one of us has got problems. This is my water brother Mark. You need to ask God to put the flames back into your life. Amen. You want to see this church go, you need to say, God, it ain't nobody else around here, it's me. God, I need help. I need some help. Give it all to him. You say, this is it, God. I'm on my last leg. Then not only did they have a devoted fire about them, but they had a dedicated faith about them. I'm talking about a faith that just believe God. Amen. Do you realize tonight, and I tell my churches right here, I'll tell you this right here. I'm going to tell you something, Christian. You may not believe this, old boy, but you will one of these days. There's coming a time in your life that's going to be dark. You're not going to feel God. You're not going to touch God. You're not even going to see God. You won't even know God's anywhere around. I've been in that place before. And I know what faith will do. Amen. The only thing you have left is faith. The only thing you have. And you've got to ask God to increase it and give you something to go on. You've got to say, God, if you don't do it, I don't know where I'm going to be at. God, I just need you. Because those dark times are hard in your life. You can't feel Him, and you can't touch Him, and you can't see Him, and you don't know where He's at. But He's there! And that faith, that dedicated faith, they just believe God. They just believe God. And the Christian faith is not just a Jewish thing. It's not just a Jerusalem thing. It's a God thing, friend, I'm telling you. Amen? Over in the book of Acts, you read about Peter preaching. It says that he preached, and then they were glad to receive the Word, were baptized the same day, and there were added of them about three thousand souls. But it goes on to say, and all that believed were together and had all things common. Then it goes on to say, And they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread, house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singles to heart, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to the church daily, Such as should be saved. Dedicated faith. Let me tell you what dedicated faith is. I was thinking about this today. Anybody ever seen a fish hook? Most of us have that little barb on the other side of that fish hook. When that fish grabs that hook, that barb, won't let that fish hook out of his mouth. That's the way I want my faith to be, amen? Because I know the times are coming, amen? I'm going to have to have it as long as I'm living, amen? And I want that dedicated faith that's got that barb in it. It won't let me go. I'm just going to believe God no matter what. No matter what everybody else does, I'm going to believe God. No matter what everybody else does, I'm just going with God. I'm just going to believe God. Faith has carried me through the hard times, folk. And I'm not up here to get you to feel sorry for me, because I'm telling you right now I'm a rich man. My father owns it all, amen, amen. And I got a mansion there in heaven, amen. So don't feel sorry for me. But I know what it is to go through some hard times. I've needed that faith. Faith has sat with me, has walked with me to the cemetery to bury my loved ones, my grandson. Faith is set with me in the doctor's office when he says, hey, you've got cancer, and we don't know the extent of it. Faith is set with me in the hard times and the lonely times at night. Faith has done that, that dedicated faith, and that's what we need. We need that faith that will not let us go. Just believe what God says. We need that unwavering faith. Ain't that right? faith that will not let us go. Faith that is dedicated to a cause. Listen, just think about this. What if just one or two of you came in here Sunday morning and said, I'm just going to believe God. I'm just going to let God do what He wants to do. I don't think you'd take a whole church. It would be better if it took a whole church. Just one or two of you sold out to God and say, I'm going to do what that old preacher says. I'm going to get me a dose of that faith. And I hope it's got that fishhook in it that won't let me go. And I'm going to believe God and what He says. I tell you what, you need to believe God. You need to believe God. Then, I want to say this. They had dedicators that gave back to the Lord. That's what you are tonight. You're dedicated. You came here. You came here regardless. You came here to dedicate this. You know the book of Acts, it says, neither was there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of land and houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet, and distributing was made unto every man according as he had need. I found out that when you give back to the Lord, you always help somebody else. Do you know that? You always do. You always do. I've seen that happen many times in my life. There may be someone here tonight, and you've grown cold, and God's done already pricked your heart. You can feel the coldness in your heart. You don't enjoy the service. You don't enjoy the songs at the same. You can if you like to. How do you know that, preacher? Because I've been there before. Oh, I've seen them singing. I've tried to work it up. Brother Couch, I did. I tried to work it up and couldn't do it. Tried to bring some tears and act like I was enjoying the service, but deep down inside I was a hypocrite. I'd say to myself, God, where you at? If you just move on me, God, if you just give me some tears back, God, I'd do that. But there's something that I need to do, you know? There's something that I need to do. When I get that way, I always think, well, there's something I need to do, what I need to do. Find you an old-fashioned altar somewhere. Get down there. I'm going to tell you what, if you get down there long enough, you'll feel Him. You'll feel Him. He'll begin moving in you when He knows that, hey, He means business. He means business. He means business. You may be here tonight and your faith is maybe in shambles. Maybe you're going through something. Maybe you say, Richard, you're right. I'm going through that dark time, and I don't know what I'm doing. I got a bad report, and I don't know what I'm going to do. My home's in a mess. My husband's mad at me. My wife's mad at me. My children's mad at me. What am I going to do? You want it back together. You want to have it fixed. But you're just not no dedicator. You don't want to dedicate. You don't want to say, God... You know, God specializes in broken things. You know that? He likes those broken things. You know that? Those broken things. I'm glad He likes those broken things. Here I was, broken hearted, didn't know God. God come by and save me. Ain't that right? He likes those broken things. He likes to fix up those broken things. Like an old boy told me one time that I used to drink with, and I'm not proud of it. Anyway, he come to see me, and he said this right here, he said he got on down the road, he wanted to go visit a friend, and I told him I'd go with him. I used to drink all the time with him. And I just got saved, I'll never forget it as long as I live. Didn't know anything about the Bible, you know, just got saved. And he got on halfway down the road, Martin, he looked over at me, just didn't say too much. And he finally spoke, he says, I just want to know what happened to you. I told him, I says, I don't know. I said, but I know this right here, He's real. I know this. He changed my life. Amen. He took something that was nothing and made something out of it. Amen. He done it. He done it. He done it. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your body. He said, I want it. He said, it's your reasonable service. Listen, you ask God to increase your faith, to give you dedication, you get around this altar at night and mean business with God, He'll go help somebody else out there. You might not know it, but He will. He'll do that. Somebody will look at you and they'll say, and they'll watch you. It may take them a couple of weeks, but they'll watch you. They'll say, that old boy means business. That old boy means business. You may be here tonight and you've never been a dedicator as long as you've been here concerning the things of God. You may say to yourself, I've never done it, preacher. I've never gathered around an altar. I never gave my family to God. I never gave myself to God. I never gave my gift to God. I never gave my talent to God. I never gave anything to God. And I like to be a dedicator. I like to give it all back to Him. I like to say, Lord, this is Yours. You use it. You use me for Your honor and Your glory. Thank God for what He's done for you. Look what He gave you so far. Look what He's done for you. Brother Mark, you come on up, son.