We're waiting for 1.5. It's good to see you. In prayer for Brother Adams, he brings a message this afternoon. And we'll take our hymnals and turn to hymn number 369. ♪ And the strength of your youth ♪ ♪ Girl, you so gracefully wandered ♪ ♪ Into the land of the true ♪ ♪ Jesus, you set the example ♪ ♪ Of the choice the young can bring ♪ Give Him new loyal devotion. Give Him the best that you can. Glory in the heavens for true. Ever true as to the pasture, given first place in your heart, given first Given to you shall be given. God is with us someday. Gratefully seeking to serve. ♪ To join in the battle for truth ♪ ♪ They were a mess to the master ♪ ♪ None else is worthy as God ♪ ♪ He gave himself for your ransom ♪ ♪ Gave the news for me to hear ♪ Amen. Let's turn to hymn number 344. 344. I cannot bear these burdens alone. In my distress here, my King will help me. jesus Wake up my troubles with the end. I must love Jesus. I cannot bear my burdens alone. I must tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone. In a dry life, in a gray state, I love you. I must I will bear my burdens alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus can help me. ♪ There's within my heart a melody ♪ ♪ Jesus rest his soul in heaven above ♪ ♪ Here now I am with thee, peace be still ♪ ♪ In all the world's good and bad ♪ ♪ Sweetest name I know ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. ♪ Fills my every longing ♪ ♪ Keeps me singing as I go ♪ ♪ Fish in all the riches of His grace ♪ ♪ Rest beneath His sheltering wing ♪ ♪ Always looking on His smiling face ♪ Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, fills my every longing. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest King I know. He keeps me singing as I go. Judas coming back to welcome me, far beyond the starry sky. I shall reign with him on high. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, fills my every bone. I want to remember Brother Adams' mother. I forgot to mention that this morning. Continue to pray for her and the boys, Ethan and Tyler, as they're away today. Continue to pray for Brother Tony and Brother Scotty. Continue to pray for Steve. Remember the Romney and Wook family. Remember Tammy Stratton has her upcoming surgery December 3rd. I believe that's Monday a week if I'm not mistaken. Others on the prayer list, Tom McDonald, Brother John, Chris Wayne. Remember other churches? Those that need pastors, remember them as you go to the Lord in prayer. And then remember the upcoming prayer breakfast, December 14th at 9 a.m. at Grace Baptist, December 14th, 9 a.m. And I also want to remember those who aren't here, Sister Voices, Sister Iris, Brother Hugh, David, I believe David and Tina had a big function today, Thanksgiving. I do have a little bit of information to give to the church about our online ministry. I know Facebook, we have over a thousand followers. And then with our sermon audio, the last three months we've had 2,350 plays in 18 countries and 30 states. So I'm not sure what YouTube is doing. Have you looked lately? I think there's a million articles. We're reaching out there. It's the age of information. And the only information worth getting out there is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So that's what we're into. So I just thank the Lord for the work that's going on. The demographics are, like I said, 30 states, 18 different countries. And the Lord's blessing. So just continue to pray for those ministers. I remember Ray, Amy, and Thomas. Ray wasn't feeling the best this morning. Today, I'm going to come make it back this afternoon. I remember Mark's wife, Mary. I'm going for her and Mark, as he cares for. And Brother Hill, he didn't before. I remember him as well. Brother Sutrash and others, missionaries, we support. a host of people to pray for. Everybody, Katie, poor brother Jim, is coming along. It's going to take a little while. So continue to pray for her. Lift one another up and pray. Pray for one another. Not just when we gather together here, but all the way forward. Brother Jim, would you lead us in prayer? Lord, we thank you for this time together as we celebrated our salvation this morning. And Lord, the work you've done through this church, we stand amazed, Lord, that you would use such a small number to reach such a great number of people. And Lord, we know that even at those numbers, that's still a small amount. And we ask you, Lord, to continue to bless the work, especially the assembly, as we come here together, because this is where we learn a view and we grow in grace and knowledge. And, Lord, we may be able to face the wiles of the devil and turn them aside. Lord, we may be an example to those around us, our family, friends, co-workers, that they definitely see that there's something different. We ask you, Lord, to bless the services upcoming to Brother Adams, who brings the message today. And we do thank you, Lord, for your watch over us and for all the answer of prayer. And Lord, just continue to guide us, go with us. And we thank you so much, Lord, for your goodness toward us through the blood of Jesus Christ. Within his name we pray. Amen. Amen. We'll sing one more that Brother John has a special for us. Turn to hymn number 319. 319. 319. ♪ There is much to suffer ♪ ♪ I will be brave ♪ ♪ For there is much to bear ♪ ♪ I will be brave ♪ ♪ For there is much to bear ♪ ♪ I will be brave ♪ ♪ I would be weary ♪ ♪ In the way I enter ♪ ♪ I would be humbled ♪ ♪ For those lowly things ♪ ♪ I would walk up ♪ ♪ When I think of you ♪ ♪ I would walk up ♪ I will be found to be just with God. I will be taught to be beside his wisdom. I will have faith to be perfect and strong. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. so so So, the the No matter how hard I try, I can't get the piano to do that. looked at a couple of Sundays ago. Habakkuk 3, excuse me, we'll begin in verse 17. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor I will join the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places. We started off last week looking at this particular passage, and we dwelt a lot on verse 17 about how we all go through, I think, verse 17 moments in our life when we feel like we're going through some difficult times, some trials and tribulations. And if you think you have it, I know that you're being honest because we all go through hardships and trials and hard times. But yet with verse 17, Habakkuk doesn't stop there. This isn't the final verse in the chapter here in this book. We get to verse 18 where it says, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. So no matter what our circumstances are, we were talking about yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I can thank God anyhow, no matter what is going on, what's taking place in our lives. Since the last time I was up here, it was a Thursday. I got a call from my brother, not my parents. a little stubborn, especially my mother. They eventually called me, but I got a call from my brother. She just went to her sleep doctor for her CPAP machine, and her pulse was in the 30s. So they said, all right, well, we're going to send you to the emergency room, because they said she was in AFib. So then she was in the hospital for five days. She was just going for a checkup. She didn't plan on going to the hospital for five days. I went that Thursday evening. I wasn't going to go because we weren't real sure. But then when I heard it was in the 30s and it really wasn't straightening up all that well, I just took off that Thursday evening and went there. And she's fine. She's wearing a monitor right now for a couple weeks. And they're going to try to determine whether or not she needs a pacemaker. She didn't plan on that. She just went up and got up that morning just to go to that doctor. She went to that doctor many other times before and was just in and out. But God had something else in mind in this story. And whatever seeds were planted, whatever opportunities arose from it, I'm sure that she's thankful for it. I can get my dad alone in a room and he's going to talk to you. So I know he talked to a lot of people during the course of those five days. Boy, sometimes we just get hit with curveballs. We just did it. That's just life. Friday I went to work thinking I was going to do a few other things and then I spent the whole day dealing with a discipline issue in the sixth grade. Not what I had in mind. At the end of the day, I looked at a guy and said, boy, this was a weird day. This was not what I had planned to do with at all today. And I didn't get to anything that I thought I would get to on Friday. But there's always a curveball. But you know what? I was thankful because even though I didn't get to the things that I wanted to get to, hopefully, behavior is going to move in a more positive direction now with some of the kids. So you look for things to be thankful for, even when you don't get to things that you thought you would get to. So I don't know what's going to happen. I mean, we see the words, although, and yet, and all of this, and these verses, and I just, I don't understand what's happening, if I could say, but I'm just going to thank God in heaven. And we may not ever understand why something happens the way that it does. But we can still thank God anyway. The first thing we looked at last week was His sovereignty never changes. He never changes at all. He's always going to be in control. He's always going to be sitting on His throne. And He raises up kings and puts them down. Empires, He raises them up and puts them down. He does whatsoever He pleases. And that is something we can thank God about. Because even though we may get taken by surprise, We don't know what's around every corner. God does. And he's able to bring us through all of those trials, all of those difficult situations. And maybe he's trying to smooth out some rough edges. Maybe he's trying to refine us in some way. Maybe he's trying to smack us on the back of the head and say, you need to do this better or differently. We can thank Him because situations change on a dime, but God never does. But the other thing we want to look at is the second part of verse 18 here. I will joy in the God of my salvation. We may be going through verse 17. We may not be prospering in the way that we would like to be prospering. Maybe our families are struggling. In some way, maybe we're going through a very difficult situation ourselves. But we see, we can joy in the God of our salvation. Just as the pastor preached this morning, he is the author and finisher of our faith. Our salvation rests solely on him and not our circumstances. I'm so glad for that because the Bible is very clear when it says, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. We don't have to have our salvation restored. That's something we never lose. But boy, we can certainly lose the joy of it. We find ourselves murmuring or complaining or maybe in a backslidden state or just not as close to God as we once were. He's not the one who moved. Maybe we're the ones who backslid away a little bit. But we're never out of His grasp, but we're never out of His hand. but we certainly don't always have the right proper relationship and fellowship with him that we could be enjoying. And honestly, that's our own fault, because he is steadfast, sure, and we're the ones that waver. But as bad as things might get, those circumstances do not affect our salvation. Just a few months ago, This was back in, I want to say late April. And they had been early May. I had been down at the elementary school. And then I went back up to the junior high and senior high. And when I got back, someone asked me, well, what was the ambulance here for? I didn't know there was an ambulance here. It was already gone by the time I had gotten back. to the high school, and so I went to the cameras and worked my way backwards, and it was a coworker who was younger than me, and she was in her late 30s. And she was sitting in an office, having a meeting, chatting, talking about financials with the CFO, and all of a sudden she just... And she was in a coma for a really long time. She had moments where she would wake up, squeeze people's hands, She passed away. Brain aneurysm. Two kids, husband, who's a pastor. Just like that. Got up that morning, got ready, went to work, took the kids to school. Had worked a couple of hours and never really regained full 100% consciousness after that. Just had moments where she would, they would be playing music in August they had a celebration of life for her because she had passed away just shortly before that. So it was two or three months, very difficult. Her husband preached that message and he did a good job considering how difficult it was under the circumstances. So the kids are still, I pray for them, they're still struggling a great deal. But her situation, Through all of that, the difficulties, she had her salvation. It wasn't contingent upon her good health. And absent from the body is present with the Lord. That's where she is right now. So this salvation never ceases. I don't understand why that happened. I don't understand why that family has to go through that. Her father had retired from the school. He was the maintenance man at the high school for many, many years, over 20 years. I don't know why they had to go through that, but there's a purpose for it. And we pray God will just use that to bring that whole family closer to Him. It's extremely sad. But life is uncertain at best. I don't know how else to say that. But a phone call can change everything. A one-car ride can change everything. The word salvation also means deliverance and rescue. This thought reminds me that this world's not my home. We're going to be rescued from this world, and we're going to get new bodies, and this mortal will have put on immortality, and this corruptible will have put on incorruption. That's something to look forward to. I know Mike Tyson recently had a big boxing match. And spoilers, I didn't watch it, because I don't care. But I did a clip of one of his interviews. A kid interviewed him. I don't know, she's 13 or 14. I don't know how old she was. And he was talking, she asked him about what do you want your legacy to be? He goes, I don't care what the legacy is. That's just a word people made up. Well, all words are made up. But anyway, right, John? And the thing that he said that stuck out to me most, and then later on I saw Ken Ham kind of responding to it, he said that, oh, you know, you're in this life, but then all of a sudden it's over, and that's it, there's nothing else. Wasn't that sad? There's a lot of people that have that kind of idea and thought process. But this is all there is. There's saved and unsaved. There's heaven and there's hell. Two. There's no in-between. There's no waiting room. There's no purgatory. I've read the Bible a few times. I've never seen the word purgatory in there. It's not there. It's a false doctrine. It's a doctrine of devils. It gives people false hope. It's just not scriptural. There's two. And if you're saved, you don't have to worry about losing that. I've never understood the whole salvation by works. What works? How many works? If we don't perform said works, are we going to lose it? And then if we lose it, how many more works do we have to to do after that, and if you believe in salvation by works, you're gonna be more concerned about yourself and performing these good works, and you're not gonna give any thought or any concern to others, and we're told to go out and preach the gospel. But how can you effectively do that if you're constantly worried about yourself? It's just not how it works. I'm so glad this isn't it, this world's not my home. He's gonna come and deliver us from this. Philippians 3.20, where our conversation is in heaven, from which we also look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're headed to a far better place. We sing the song face to face, isn't that, that's gonna be an amazing thing. I'm looking forward to heaven, and I know there are people going to be there that I know and love, that I miss greatly. And people always talk about, I can't wait to get to heaven to see so-and-so and so-and-so. But you know what? It'll be great to see them, but you know what the best part of it is? The Lord's there. And that's who we're going to be praising and worshiping and glorifying for all of eternity. We're looking to the Savior. You go read Revelation 21 and 22, what we're looking forward to, but let's go to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter 1 verse 3. Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." What a great passage. It's hard to fully fathom what heaven is going to be like. We could go right now and read every scripture about heaven. I can describe it to you. We can talk about the streets of gold and the pearly gates. I find it so interesting that gold, a precious metal, that you hear commercials about it right now because it holds its value so well that you should go and invest in gold. But when the value of the dollar decreases, gold, the gold standard, continues to go up because there's only so much gold. We hold it in such high regard. We'll pay extravagant amounts of money to have it to wear around our necks or on our fingers or on our wrists. We love gold, buy gold. We have Fort Knox. My dad was stationed there for a little while when he was in the army. We talk about Fort Knox, more gold than Fort Knox. It's gonna be pavement under our feet in heaven. That's an amazing thought. But again, even that pales in comparison to what we're going to see when we see Christ face to face. Amen. Our retirement is out of this world. I just cannot describe it to you. I can't come up with the right words. The flesh gets in the way for us to fully understand how awesome heaven is going to be. And it can't be taken away from us. It just cannot. It says here in verse four, an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Look at the stock market. Look at inflation. Look at interest rates, and you just can't, remember when McDonald's had a dollar menu? I mean, I miss those days. Remember when gas was, I remember getting it for 85 cents when I turned 16. Some of you might remember it being cheaper. I think I sometimes remember it being 75 cents. I remember when I got my first car, my parents made me buy my first car. If you want a car, you're going to have to pay for it. They didn't have the money to buy me one. They barely had money to get themselves a couple cars. So I had to start cutting grass. When I turned 16 and got in my car, I sold my bicycle for some gas money. I sold it for 10 bucks and I got a lot more gas than I would get now, back then. Inheritances can get spent away. The stock market, how many people back in say around 08 before the recession hit, people have retired They had their money invested in certain stocks and they were living on that comfortably and then the bottom goes out. And how many people had to go back to work in 2008? The retirements took a big hit when everything started to go down. Not with God. He is super and steadfast. incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away. And it is reserved in heaven for who? For you, for us as individuals. Isn't that amazing? There's enough, more than enough for everyone. And it's not contingent upon the stock market. In John chapter 10, verse 28, John 10, verse 28, I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Why do I believe in security of the believer? Because the Bible says so. When you see that neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, you're never gonna perish, you have eternal life. If no man can pluck us out of God's hand, and that includes plucking ourselves out of God's hand, because we are people, that means we're secure in God. Now, does that give us free reign and license to sin? Well, the Bible answers that question when it was asked, You Baptists, you believe once they go, I say, yes, but we do not believe you can live any other way you want to after that. That's just not scriptural either. In Hebrews chapter 13, in verse 5, a very well-known passage of scripture, let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have, for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. How much more plain It says, and this was Brother Pyle's, one of his favorites, and he would quote this a lot, that we are saved to the uttermost. You cannot get any more saved than that. Saved to the uttermost. Now we may lose everything here. Maybe we will lose our homes or our savings. One bad health situation can financially destroy a family. I understand that. But our salvation doesn't rest in that. We can't lose our salvation. In Psalm 103, this is... I only have one verse, but I want to read more. Recently sent out a sermon. studying and mapping some things out from this particular passage, because again, if Thanksgiving's on Thursday, that is my favorite holiday. And when we would have Thanksgiving with Brother or Sister Pyle, she would set out to do with Thanksgiving, we would go around and everybody would read whatever one was sitting in front of their dinner place. And this was Sister Pyle's favorite passage. This is her favorite one. And we begin in verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within thee. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His And she will mention this one, not just this time of year, but she'll mention it all the time. But let's look at verse 3. What are these benefits? I wanted to read verse 2, because it says, forget not all his benefits. Now, the very first benefit listed here in this passage is what? Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. If you can't praise the Lord for that, why can't you praise Him? This one deserves to be at the top of the list of things to be thankful for, of blessings to praise Him for. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. What does that mean? Past, present, and future iniquities all forgiven. God took into account what we are going to do our whole life and all of those sins, past, present, and future are forgiven. That's amazing. So this idea of losing it, I've never understood it because it is just not backed up with Scripture. I have down here, boy, that sounds almost too good to be true, but it isn't, because it is true. But one brother of Pyle preached the message once, and he said, it sounds like it's in the congregation, and I knew what he meant. He said that it wasn't too good to be true, because it is true, and it is good. But she goes, I don't believe a word of it. After church, of course. And so ever since then, every time I think of that phrase, it sounds too good to be true, I always think of that story. She was a spitfire, to say the least. Sister Paul's mom. In Jude, verse 24, it says, the Lord will present you flawless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. That's just some amazing thoughts. Let's look at the third thing here. Come back here. In verse 19, the Lord God is my strength and He will make my feet the tough get going. Now I remember hearing that growing up and I've heard coaches say it when I played basketball, the coach would always use that. He'd always use, it's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight and the dog as well. He'd use that one a lot. And then he'd make us run a lot. I don't miss that so much. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I believe Habakkuk kind of gives us the same advice. But he's not talking about your own strength that you muster up inside of yourself. I think he's referring to the strength that we get from Almighty God. Because without the strength from God, we are absolutely useless. We can do nothing. We like to think we can do some things. We like to think relatively highly of ourselves. But how far are you gonna get if God turns the oxygen off? You're not gonna get very far. Anything that we have, anything we're able to do, any good work we're able to perform, it is because God giving us the strength and the ability to do so. None of ourselves whatsoever. But you know you're in trouble when your birthday cake collapses from the weight You're making a mess on that one, right? Maybe you wake up to discover that your waterbed broke, and then you realize, holy, I don't have a waterbed. It's a bad day. You're having a rough day. But we can get through these things. We can get through hard times because of the strength that God gives us. In Psalm 27, verse 1, it says, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life Of whom shall I be afraid? Isaiah 40, verse 31 says, And they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. And in Philippians 4, 13, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. If we're unable to stand, He can pick us up. When we can't go on, He can help us. When we're in a deep valley, he can lead us to higher ground. We see here in Habakkuk 3.19 where it talks about, he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon my hind places. A hind is a little deer that was able to climb even the steepest cliffs and walk through the roughest places and leap over very deep chasms up on these mountaintops. And if you're that far up on these But that's where the Lord can put us and keep us safe, right? Living up in these high mountains, overlooking the difficult circumstances that are down below. But that also means that even though these pines are given a great ability to be able to walk in these very steep and rocky mountaintops, that means it's going to be kind of hard, too, to walk. You ever try to climb a mountain? or walk up a steep hill, it can be extremely difficult. Again, we are not guaranteed an easy walk, but he can give us hinds feet to make us able to walk the difficult terrain. Amen. In Job chapter one, Job one, verses 20 and 21, then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground. That sounds pretty rough, doesn't it? I shave my head. That's just because I'm lazy and I don't want to have to get up every morning and comb my hair. There's the old Mark Lowry on him, you know him, I love that guy. And he goes, mama's hair turned gray and daddy's hair turned loose. I did that to my father, I guess it's only right. Job 1 verse 20, then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down to the ground. But there's a comma there, there's not a period there. What did he do? He's going through an extremely difficult situation here at worship. He's thanking God anyhow. He lost everything, and he's worshiping the Lord. Verse 29 said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away. Well, that's sad. But again, there's a semicolon there. There's no period there. What does he say after that? Blessed be the name of the Lord. Thank God anyhow. He was able to continue on because of the strength that he received from God. In 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9, and he said to me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And boy is that the case, because I am absolutely a weakling. If we are weak, then we can be strong in the Lord. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Yes, I'm weak. Please, let the power of Christ rest on me. I can't do this. I don't have it in me. I'm not strong enough. And when we recognize that, boy, then the Lord's going to bless us The Lord is lifting us up. He is the one enabling us. He enables His children to stand when their own strength fails. God is our refuge and strength. He's our high tower. He is our deliverer. In His trials, Habakkuk learned a valuable lesson. And it's a lesson not all God's children be doing. Thank God anyhow. Praise Him anyhow. In Isaiah chapter 12. Verses 1 and 2. Isaiah 12, 1 and 2. And in that day, Thou shalt say, I will praise You. There's no light about that. We need to determine in our hearts and in our minds that I will praise the Lord. It's so easy to say, I will complain. That's the word, wire, default. Just complain. We need to make it our mission and our purpose. I will praise Thee, though Thou wast angry with me. Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation, bread here in Habakkuk. I will trust and not be afraid. I get it. Sometimes it's easier said than done. This is exactly what we're told to do. For the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become my salvation. Now that, we're going to talk about this song here in just a moment, but He is my strength and my song. If you're saved, you possess every reason to thank God, just as Habakkuk did. Amen. His reasons are our reasons to praise the Lord. Verse 18 emphasizes that. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will thank God anyhow. I will do this. But notice here, I didn't read this part. Right after we see a walk upon my high places, right below that, We have a little notation. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments. What we just read here, and really this whole chapter, I encourage you, we just looked at the last three verses. I encourage you to read the entire book, but read the entire chapter here, at least of Habakkuk 3. I will joy the God of myself if you can't sing that boy Check your pulse This needs to be sung We see in verses three, nine, and 13, we see the musical term sila there, which means pause, it's a musical pause, and it means to think about it. So when you see the word sila, that means you need, it's musical reference, but you need to stop and think about what was just read or sung here in this particular instance. But we see to the chief singer, and this occurs in a few other psalms, like Psalm 55 kind of has that, all my stringed instruments. This served as a psalm for temple worship. This particular chapter here in Habakkuk, chapter three. So this should be a psalm constantly in our hearts. When we have time, hopefully we have time to set aside in our personal life to worship, this can be something that we can sing in our hearts. And Psalm chapter 89 will close. We can sing of the goodness of God. In Psalm 89 verse 1, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. There's no wavering here. I will do, there's a determination here. We need to determine in our hearts and in our minds, I will. sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness." And notice here, I was just talking about legacy for just a moment, just a little bit ago with Mike Tyson, but I think legacy is extremely important because we sing the song, Faith of Our Fathers. We're here today because of the people in the past that God has used to continue on his churches over the course of time, over the course of 2,000 years. I appreciate history, I appreciate legacy. There are a great deal of preachers, but not just preachers, even women, faithful preachers, wives, and just, there was a lady that, in King's edition where I wrote Thelma Thomas, her husband never made a profession of faith, She was there every church or month. We were, my family, we picked her up. She never drove a day in her life. Never drove once, never had a license, never had a desire to drive. She just lived down the street from the church, actually, but especially in the wintertime when it's cold and dark. But we would always pick her up. And I remember when I turned 16, they tasked me, and I wasn't arguing because I got to drive. I got to pick her up. And every time we're there now, and I sit in the seat that I used to sit in when I was younger, and I'll look around, and there's a lot of people that aren't there anymore. I think of Pete Horn, where he used to sit. He was directly to my left. Thelma was a few seats in front of me. Jack and Elma Witt sat just down the pew from her. I see Sister Wilma Hobbs sitting right in front of me. I like them. They're not that hurt. They're going to hurt in heaven. And they're much better off and they're much happier now. They had an impact on the Oktobersee where the Owlers used to sit. and that church is still there because of the faithfulness of those people. Boy, do we have every reason to thank Him, don't we? It's an amazing thought to think about how awesome God is. Amen. Thank you for that message. I like the way these things dovetail in one another. I mentioned this morning about Romans chapter 7. Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, because of that, he says, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation. but then what you're in Christ Jesus, who walked not after the flesh, but after the spirit. It's pretty much summed up today. And what Brother John taught on, and we are indeed in the flesh, but we're spiritual beings. Those of us who have been born again and know Christ as our Savior. And I pray that you would indeed feed the spirit. Paul was talking about the body and flesh, the spirit. One old preacher said, you know, it's a constant warfare, the body against the spirit. Who's going to win? The one you feed. The one you feed is going to win. So may God enable us to grow in grace and knowledge. Thank you. for being here today. Let's stand and sing a couple verses in closing. It's been a great day. God bless you for being here. And continue to pray for those that were mentioned on the prayer list, those that are unable to be here today, those who've been traveling also. What number, brother? 318. 318. We'll sing a couple verses. in thee every hour, most gracious Lord, thou tender voice of light and peace of mind. I need thee, oh, I need thee. to thee. I need thee every hour, stay thou near by. Temptations lose their power, I need Thee, O I need Thee, every hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. Amen. Thank you again, brothers, for that message. And I knew all those people he mentioned. And they did, all of them, have an influence on my life. I left there, what, 44 years ago now. But I don't even think you were born yet. So you don't remember where I sat. Well, imagine your mom and dad remember. It's good to be here. Good to be with you, brother. And all of you here today, God bless you. We'll be dismissed in prayer. Brother Tim, would you dismiss us? Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for this time. Thank you for the messages and the messengers of today. We ask that you continue to lead, guide, and direct our church here in Bethel Baptist. We ask the blessings of our brother John and John and Adam as they bring the messages. We thank you for your son to give his life for and shed his precious blood for. We thank you for the gift of eternal life through your mercies and your assurance. For your love you have for us, we can't fathom. Remind us daily we're not our own, to walk with your precious blood. Help us to strengthen this as we read your word, as we come to hear the word spoken. You might better serve them. Be with those on the prayer list, those that are sick, Sister Katie, and others, those that are falling. Some prayers you've already answered, and we thank you so much for it. We thank those who aren't able to be here. Those that weren't here today, we pray that you bring them back to a point in time, and know that you will. Forgive us the wrong we've done, and we'll withdraw short of wrong we've sinned. I love you Grace.