And I don't do hunger. I was preaching at a camp this year and a teenager smiled at me. Oh, you're hungry. Seriously? You think I could be this size and always be hungry? I don't do hunger. If I see hunger coming, I grab a Snickers bar. I don't mess with that. But my favorite verse is Proverbs 28, 25. The righteous stay the trust in the Lord. You shall be made fat. Amen. I'm for it, but I praise the Lord. And by the way, I like gluten, okay? I do. You want to eat gluten-free, that's fine, but I'm a fan of gluten. Anyway, especially in cherry pie. But I do want to be a blessing to you today. I will get you out of here, but I don't want to shortchange you. I drove all the way from Nashville to preach for you. And by the way, it was very bad weather Friday, okay? I went through tornado warnings all through Kentucky and Ohio, and anyway, I did that for you. because I care about you. Not really, I don't know you, but I did want to be a blessing to you, and the word of God will be a blessing to you if you let it this morning. I had a friend up north, north to me, up in Minnesota, and he had this older couple in his church, and by the way, let me qualify that. I'm turning 60 this year. When I was in college, when somebody referred to elderly people, I'm thinking 55, 60, you know, my grandparents' age, elderly people. But now, just so you know, when I refer to elderly people, I'm talking about 105, 106, that kind of thing. It's kind of relative. And I do, honestly, when I have to bend over to pick something up, I look around to see if there's anything I should do while I'm down there. Because it's a pain, getting old, it does wear you out. So pray that the Lord will help me keep going, amen? And I'm excited you're here. I am excited for this great crowd and good spirit. And didn't Brother Ryan do a good job leading singing this morning? That was awesome, brother. Dressed up in that fancy shirt and Hollywood outfit he's got on. Man, he looks good. And I saw him yesterday and he just had a t-shirt and jeans on. He looks a lot better today. Well, that's a blessing. And y'all did a great job singing, thank you for that. How many of you are glad you get to be in church today? Me too. This elderly couple's driving up in Minnesota, and they were elderly. They stopped at a little diner, a little two-lane road way up there. And sure enough, the lady forgot her glasses. And they were like $700, you know, glasses. You know, the lines here, gradual lines, fancy stuff. She didn't remember till they were 20 minutes down the road. And she tells her husband, and he was a grumpy old rascal. She dreaded telling him, but she knew it'd be worse if she didn't tell him, and they lost the glasses. Honey, I left my, what? Oh, you old woman, you're so forgetful, I can't believe you did that, blah, blah, blah. And then they had to drive like 15 more minutes so they could find a place to turn around. Then they had to come back and they had to pass the little diner and come back. So every mile, he's just griping and complaining and grumpy old rascal. And they get in the parking lot and the lady's so anxious to quit hearing him, you know, she's like opening the door before they stop and she's getting out of the car and she says, well, while you're in there, you might as well get my hat and the credit card too. So that's very real, and I feel that way sometimes. But this morning I'm trying to remember what the Lord wants me to say, amen? I'm gonna give you a little bit of an update tonight. How many of you can come back tonight? Raise your hand. Good, I have a special gift for you from a few mission fields that I brought back. I brought enough for everyone that's here tonight, so please come back. And it's not a piece of paper, it's not a pencil, it's something cool, so come back. You'll like it, and I hope you will be able to come back. I'll give you a little more detailed report, a couple prayer requests. I haven't been able to take a mission trip for over a year, It's the first time that's happened since 1993. I usually take at least three during the year and go to different mission fields and take Bibles and so forth. A couple years ago I went to Israel for the third time and took some Hebrew Bibles and the Lord finally gave me a little, you know, key to figure out how to, you know, pass them out. It's illegal, you know. It's illegal to talk to somebody, give the gospel, knock on somebody's door, give a track, all that. You got to be careful. But, you know, most of the sites in Israel are actually national parks. So people are working there and they have guidelines and you have to have a tour guide that's authorized and all that. So we go, so I figured out at the hotels, at the meals, everybody, I give them a Hebrew Bible and give them another booklet with the gospel in it and letting them know that we love Israel and don't watch the news and everybody in America doesn't hate Israel. Amen. Genesis 12, 3, hint, hint, and bless them to bless you, curse them to curse you. And then at the national parks, some of the folks in our group were a little scared, but I said, look, watch this. And I took the Bible, you know, and it's backwards, the Hebrew, and I'd open it up and I'd say, what's your name? And I wrote two, whatever their name was, and Benjamin, whatever, how do you spell it? So then I've got their name in it. And I say, we love Israel, we support you. Well look, when you're a little country like that and the whole world's trying to kill you, when you hand them something, here's a gift, we love your country, we love you, nobody turned down the Bible. Nobody turned down the gift. So praise the Lord, I got to give away 100 of the Hebrew Bibles there and other places, so pray about that. I'll give you a little more update tonight. We've started a radio station website, MorningstarMorocco.com. And we've now started one in Tunisia and started one in Dearborn, Michigan. You're closer to the area. Do you know there's 23 Baptist churches in the Dearborn area that are now mosques? I mean, they were a Baptist church. I have pictures of three of them with the signs, the two signs before and after. You know it's the fastest growing religion in our country. Has been for 15, 16 years. But I still don't like it. I mean, you can worship whatever you want in America. I'm glad we're free. You can worship a rock, a tree, but it's not gonna take you to heaven. And we're Christians, and we're supposed to be spreading the gospel. That was another good time. Look, I queued you up. We're supposed to be spreading the gospel. Amen? So, please pray. This is a great thing we've been doing, and we've started one also that's going into Afghanistan. They speak the same language as Iran, kind of a Pashti language. And we have a fellow that left Iran years ago, immigrated to Australia. I met him there 12 years ago. He is a solid born-again Bible teacher, came to America, married an American girl. And so he's translated everything into that language. But we have a man, a pastor at each place, not just beaming out something, you know, random. We have a man there, and they answer the questions. They meet them. They give out Bibles. Marwan is in Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Been there with him. One of my favorite places. I preached in his home church, and we had four languages going at once. Just somebody that could understand English, but that guy couldn't understand English, so he interpreted in Arabic, and he interpreted somebody in French. And there were two people visiting from Mexico. I don't know why, but they were speaking Spanish. And anyway, praise the Lord for getting the gospel out. Amen? So please pray. We have a counter. We can't see how many people look. We don't know how many times a device accesses. But we have a fellow also that's in Afghanistan. You know it's illegal in these places, right? Completely illegal for Christianity. And it started with like 10,000 devices. And we were so excited we thought we'd never hit 10,000. This was two and a half years ago. And we started in Morocco and we went around like at 3 o'clock Sunday morning and placed stickers on public things, street posts, that kind of stuff, those kind of things with a QR code. You know what that is, the little reads, just take a picture of it? And it worked. And we routed through England, somehow, I can't explain it, so the government can't shut the website down. So we have like 40 years of the Unshackled broadcast from Pacific Garden, Michigan, translated into Arabic and French and English. So we're playing that all the time. They can access it. You know, they won't talk to you. In the street, they're scared to death getting arrested. But we got to win three people to Christ in Morocco. The open group of people is 18 to 25-year-old single males. You know what group that is? That's the same group that is most likely to be a suicide bomber. So they're excited about the gospel. Man, we got some big, tall, strapping, Arabic guy, big head of black hair, and we're going down into the Medina, the old city, and just looking. He's like, I am not ashamed. Jesus Christ is my Savior. He is not just a prophet in the Quran. I am not ashamed. I do not care. I love Jesus as my Savior, and these are my friends. Where'd my friends go? We're gone. You know, we're not that brave. But anyway, I tell you, it's a blessing to see people trust Christ, amen? Especially when they haven't heard and they're not used to it like we Americans are. So please pray. We've had, as of a couple weeks ago, 500,000 devices have access to gospel. Don't know how many times, don't know how many people were sitting there watching. But we know that and it's just exploding. It's the most sincere, profitable way I've ever known about to give Muslims the power of the gospel. Can you imagine never knowing about it, always hearing that it's a lie, it's not true, and we want to kill Americans and kill Jews, and then you die and go to hell? So please pray for this as we're doing this. We started it two years ago and we started the other two and during the pandemic stuff, we were not able to go to church as much and try to raise the money for support for the men and for the hosting and all that. So we're about $1,200 a month behind. So please pray about that sincerely. I'm not shy to ask you, please pray. We need that support to run all the stations. We've got three going now. So please pray for that. Maybe I'll mention a little bit more about tonight, but I'd like you to look in your Bibles in Psalm 142. Pray that God keeps us safe and the men safe. And I was in Morocco two weeks after I left. The missionary and his two teenagers were arrested. And they could only stay about a month. They kicked them out. The wife was home. A harrowing time. So please pray. I'm working with him. He's up around Dearborn now and helping a fellow named David Gates. who has taken one of those buildings and he started a church to reach Muslims primarily with the gospel. So please pray for them. So many things I don't want to get off track. This morning in Psalm 142, would you stand with me for just a moment? I'm going to read a couple verses. You can follow along. And thank you so much for being here. This really is a great crowd. It's more people than I expected on Memorial Day weekend. I'll just be honest with you. I wasn't pouting about it, but I was like, you know, People got stuff to do. But thank you very much for being here. Thank you for honoring your pastor with your presence. And it's good things he said about remembering our loved ones and friends with Memorial Day. How many of you have a friend or loved one that you knew that passed away from this life in the last year? Would you raise your hand? Me too. You can't see like I can, but that's almost everybody. So praise the Lord for testimonies and God's grace. And praise the Lord for a place to go to, amen? It does not all end in the grave. It just starts. Praise the Lord. Will you follow along with me? Psalm 142, I read aloud. I cried unto the Lord with my voice. With my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before him. I showed before him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, Then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. I looked on my right hand and beheld, but there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul. You ever felt like that? I have. I cried unto thee. That's where we started, crying unto the Lord. I said, thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Attend unto my cry. Crying out a lot to the Lord, aren't we here? For I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name. The righteous shall compass me about, for thou shalt deal bountifully with me. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for this opportunity to be here today. Lord, there's nowhere in the world I would rather be here at Cornerstone Baptist Church this day, today, right now, this service, than anywhere else in the world. I mean that, Lord, you know my heart. I thank you for the privilege. Thank you for you raising up this church. Thank you for the shepherd and his family and the workers. Lord, we just appreciate a great country and a wonderful state to live in and freedom today, Lord. And this town, this church, so many blessings. I pray that you'll help us be mindful of them. and yield it to the word of God today. We ask it in your name, amen. Thank you, you can be seated. God used David to write this portion of the word of God that he had written before times and before our earth. David said, my spirit was overwhelmed within me. Have you ever felt like that? Especially the last year, year and a half? The second week of March, I was driving back to Nashville, Tennessee, where I live, from North Carolina, and I had to stop over, visit a pastor, and during that time, four days, every meeting that I had scheduled canceled except one for the next October in Milwaukee. Now look, when you do this full-time, when this is your life, when you go week to week and depend on Baptist love offerings, you know, sometimes it's better to get Catholics that are trying to work their way to heaven, you know, to give you a love offering. I'm just kidding. But not really. And so all of my meetings were canceled. You know, I was a little overwhelmed. Lord, what are we going to do? You know, it's not like I have a salary or a base, you know, it's old-fashioned evangelist love offerings. And you always take care of me, Lord, but how can you take care of me when I can't go to the churches? Little overwhelmed, but God took care of me. I can't even tell you how. I mean, I could tell you a few things, but kept my nose above water all this time. Sometimes it was just my nose, but I could still breathe. I'm here. Amen. And you're here. Amen. But sometimes we feel overwhelmed. David said, I'm brought very low. You felt that way sometimes. I feel very low. That's a biblical description. A fair number of good people whom I know are overwhelmed right now with hurt and sickness and needs and struggling. There seems to be an oppressive spirit attempting to discourage and defeat good godly people. And you know what? A spirit like that is real. It's not always that you can just say to somebody, oh, just get over it. Oh, just suck it up, buttercup. That's a cute phrase, but you can't always do that. Sometimes you're overwhelmed and sometimes... Look, do you know many men that you've heard of in history in the Bible that were more spiritual and godly? A man after God's own heart, the Bible says, than David? No, I doubt any of us were more spiritual, more godly than he was. When's the last time you killed a Goliath? When's the last time God called you, a person after his own heart? Did God choose you to let the lineage of Jesus Christ go through? No, I'm saying here's a guy who loved God, was close to God, and his spirit was very low. It happens to us. The discouragement and defeat is very real. So what do you do when your spirit's overwhelmed? We're just gonna see in this chapter. No cute philosophy, philosophical points that I've made up. Just the Bible, okay? So it's going to be a blessing to us. Number one, keep crying unto the Lord. In Psalm 142 as we read, verse 1 and 2 and 5 through 7, when your spirit gets overwhelmed, sometimes it's hard to pray. Sometimes it's hard to pray to the Lord with the same regularity and fervency than you do when everything in your life seems like it's going okay. And sometimes you just cry out to the Lord because you're so desperate. Either way, keep praying. Keep crying unto the Lord, asking for His help. You know, honestly, He's the only one that can help you. Can I just remind you of that this morning? Well, I called my best friend. They were no help. Duh. Surprise. They're men, women, overwhelmed just like you are. Call the men that can help you. David said, I didn't see anybody. No man cared for my soul. Have you ever felt like that? I have, and you know, it's probably been true for all of us. Nobody cares. Nobody cares, but Jesus cares. Oh yes, he cares. I know he cares. Amen? His heart's touched with our grief. When the days grow weary, long nights dreary, it doesn't matter. I know that Jesus cares about me. Well, I went to church, and I hadn't been in so long, and they just smarted off, and nobody seemed like they were glad I was there. Somebody even thought they were funny and said, well, they'll let anybody in here, won't they? Ha, ha, ha, it's not funny. Hey, I understand that, okay? I've been to preach at a church before, and the people at the back door said, what are you doing here? I've been to preach before, and then somebody said, literally, I spoke to the pastor when he said you were coming. I told him we shouldn't have you. I see you came anyway. Oh, wow, this is gonna be a great day. My humanity, my flesh just wants to say, you know, okay, is that a toupee you're wearing? I gotta go, bye-bye. I don't need that. Right? I've missed a lot of holidays. I drove all day on my birthday this year. Went to preach for people. They knew it was my birthday. Hardly paid for the gas. I drove eight hours to their place. That's up to the Lord. I can't whine about that. I'm missing my family from Memorial Day tomorrow. Whatever you're doing, I'm going to be driving all day. I'm not whining, I'm not complaining. I knew that when we scheduled it. I'm not griping about it, but I've missed a lot of things in my life with family and so forth, special days, but I did it because God wanted me to. And sometimes when that happens and then somebody doesn't care, or they're like, whatever, yawn, oh, you're here, you know, you could get discouraged about that, right? And my goal is fortunately to realize I'm doing it for the Lord, not people in a church. So it keeps me happy. And God keeps me supplied with little Debbie oatmeal cream pies. Praise the Lord. Keep crying out to the Lord. The Bible says that David prayed three times a day. And in Psalm 55, verse 4 through 8, he says that he prayed evening and morning and noon. Will I pray? Will I pray and cry aloud? And he shall hear my voice. He shall hear my voice. You know who else did that? Daniel. And you know what happened with Daniel when he prayed and they said, oh, we're making a big law on Nebuchadnezzar, you're slaves, you can't pray anymore. You know what Daniel did when he stopped? Well, he didn't. The only thing he did was move over to the window so everybody could see him praying three times a day. You know why? Because that's where the help is, amen? I'm going to help you this morning. Or as we say where I'm from in North Carolina, I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you today with the Word of God. You've got to keep crying to the Lord. Keep asking Him for His help. You know, sometimes Christians ask God to help one time and then we stop asking. When I was a little boy, I wanted my mom to buy me a hot dog from the little Sears place. I didn't just ask one time, I asked again, and again, and again. We'll see on the way out. Mom, what do you mean we'll see? Can you describe that? Can you define that phrase? What does that mean? We'll see if they have hot dogs? Or we'll see if I'm still hungry? Or we'll see if you feel like it? Let's have some more information, then we'll see! And I kept asking, kept asking. Obviously, I got the hot dogs. God wants you to ask more than once. Do you know that God wants you to need Him? God wants you to cry aloud. He likes to hear you ask. He likes to know you need Him. Don't just ask once and then go about your life. Don't just say, God bless me today. What does that mean anyway? God bless. You know, the Catholics say that all the time. Are you aware of that? No offense. Buddhists say that. God bless me. How about ask some specific things? How about God, please provide my needs? How about follow the model prayer that Jesus gave? Forgive us our sins and help us forgive others and provide our daily bread. Lord, lead me across the path to somebody that I can help, that I can share Jesus with. God, let me do something for you today. You're going to wish you did when you see him. The pastor talked about the first time you see his eyes. You're going to say one or the other. You're going to say, thank God, I really tried, Lord, and you know I did. Or you're going to say, oh boy, I wish I'd done more for you. We're all going to wish we did more. But you know what I'm saying. You try your best. At least you tried. That's what you need to do, keep crying on the Lord. Number two, pour out your complaint. Look in verse two, we think we're supposed to be stronger than to get overwhelmed. This is a very big statement I'm giving you. Sometimes we as Christians feel like we're backslidden or something's wrong with us if we get overwhelmed, and that's not true. As I already pointed out, who David was, and he was overwhelmed, my spirit's brought very low, nobody cares about me, I think I'll go eat some worms. I mean, he's having a bad time. It doesn't mean you're weak if you get overwhelmed. You're not that strong. Well, I've never been overwhelmed before, Brother Stancil. You're crazy, and I don't believe you. No offense. I love you. You look like you're enjoying church, but I don't believe you. You've been overwhelmed. Everyone gets overwhelmed at some point. We aren't that strong. Our strength, the Bible says, in our flesh dwelleth no good thing. The arm of flesh will fail you. Look, if you are thinking that your flesh is taking care of you, you're not only wrong, but you're delusional. God has to take care of us. Our strength always comes from God, Psalm 71, 16. Notice our complaint is poured out before him. Not everybody whose phone number you have. Not everybody you know or wish you knew. You don't have to pour out your complaint to everybody else. It's a biblical principle to pour out your complaint, but it is to pour out your complaint before God. He's the only one that can help you. I've seen a lot of Christians kind of through the last year and a few months. But even before that, your favorite hymn is... The Hee Haw hymn, BR 549. Gloom, despair, and agony on me. Deep dark depression, excessive misery. Look up a rerun if you don't get it. If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Gloom, despair, and agony on me. Look, you're going to go through things in this earth. Can we all just settle on that? If you're going to get overwhelmed, But when you do, you don't have to stay there. Your complaint is poured out before the Lord, not someone else. Before him, David thought no one cared for his soul. In verse 4, however, you will always find that God cares. 1 Peter 5, 7, one of the first verses I taught my son growing up, having devotions at night, casting all your care upon him. For he careth for you. It may be that nobody else does. It may be that you're a wascally wabbit, as Bugs Bunny would say. It may be you're a terrible guy, but God still cares about you. Can I get an amen? God does care about you. David had companions even at this time. 2 Samuel 17 verse 27 talks about Barzillai and others. They were friends. He had friends. Sometimes you feel like you don't have friends, but you do. Sometimes you might feel low and overwhelmed, but I'm just gonna tell you, it's a pretty good bet if you were to bet or gamble or wager, which I don't, but if you were to gamble, whether or not your pastor cares about you, chances are he does. Even if you don't feel like it, he does. You do care about them, don't you? Yeah, he does. And there are other people that care about you even if you don't feel like it. It's always easier to deal with the it when it's out of you rather than being overwhelmed. Let me show you something real quickly. You know, you gotta pour out your spirit before the Lord. I'm using a little illustration here. Please forgive me. Is anybody gonna pass out if I set this on the Lord's supper table? It's just a piece of wood, but praise the Lord. I want y'all to see it. Pour out your spirit before the Lord. This is you. This is problems. This is really heavy. I can't take much more of this. I can't handle this. Recently, this pandemic stuff is killing me. Yeah, no kidding. How many of you preached with nobody in the room but a little phone in front of you? That's terrible. Now my family's sick. Now my grandma's actually in the hospital. Now we got somebody with 10% lung capacity on a ventilator. I can't take this, Lord. Please watch this illustration. This is the definition of overwhelmed. I'm whelmed over, over the edge. Overwhelmed. I can't take anymore, I really can't. You know what you have to do? Pour it out to the Lord. Pour out my complaint to the Lord. Let me ask you a question. Are you weary? Are you heavy hearted? Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Are you grieving over joys or people departed? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus. Oh, tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Well, there's more. I can't handle this. There's more. I can't handle this. God, please help me. I don't know what else I can do. It's getting so full. I've got to have a rest. I've got to take a break. I've got to get away. I can't handle any more bad news. I don't know what to do about it. And now I'm getting overwhelmed. I'm well over and I know exactly how you feel, but you've got to pour out your complaint before the Lord. You can't handle it on your own. And I know you can't. And I understand that. But the Lord can handle it. I'm using a silly, small illustration. But do you know that the Lord is much bigger than this little trash can? You know there's no limit to what He can hold for you? When He says, I mentioned earlier, take my burden upon you, and let's know what the Bible says in Matthew 11, 28, lean on me because my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Pour out your complaints before the Lord. When you do that, remember God is still in charge. If you look at verse three with me, the Bible says, when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path in the way wherein I walked. Have they privily or privately laid a snare for me? You know what it just says? You knew that, God. I can't believe this guy tried to get me fired from my job. I can't believe this church member. We've been there for 10 years together. I can't believe they criticized me, stabbed me in the back, gossiped about me. I can't believe they did that. Well, believe it. We're all human. We all do things like that. But Jesus Christ will never do that to you. You've no other such a friend or brother. Not like him. Remember, God's still in charge. David said, thou knewest my path. God knows where the snares are in the spiritual battle you're facing. Well, God, I got to talk to you. You'll never believe what happened. He does. He knew it was going to happen before it happened. Can I get a witness? Anybody here? Amen. Yes, he knew it ahead of time. Let me give you some advice this morning. He's your refuge and your portion according to verse five. Don't worry, don't fret, don't stress, don't despair, don't run, don't waver. Just because you are overwhelmed doesn't mean that God's overwhelmed. He's not overwhelmed. I mentioned a little bit about Morocco. I've been there twice. I've been to Africa and Nigeria and Tunisia probably six times. It's scary. It's scary when you go somewhere and there's no gospel. It's scary when there's no salt. You know, the Christians are salt. We're supposed to be. We make a difference. When I go to a restaurant on Sunday afternoon after church in North Carolina, it's a lot different than trying to get some food in Tunisia. They're not worshiping God there. You are, amen? It's different. And sometimes we feel like we can't handle the problems because they're stronger than us, and you're right. But they're never stronger than God. I had the opportunity of going to Morocco for the first time. They needed Bibles so badly, and I've taken Bibles into 57 countries, and it's one of the greatest things I've ever done in my life. It's so much fun, I cannot even, you'd get bored if I started talking to you about how much I loved it and how fun it was, but it is. Bibles are completely illegal in Morocco. The king of Morocco is probably the richest person in the world, because nobody knows how much money he makes, because he owns Morocco. He's a direct descendant of Mohammed, the prophet for Islam. Direct descendant. The king, like they're on Mohammed VII right now. I saw two of his castles. It took me 40 minutes to drive around the outside, just driving fast. Huge places. owns everything. The mines, the camels on the side of the road, everything. But you know what? They need the Word of God. In the mystery of Brother Stanislaus, I can't get anybody to bring Bibles in. They're scared they're going to get arrested. They're going to get confiscated. Okay. So I brought in seven suitcases, I had Bibles spread out, like put a washcloth in the bottom of a Walmart bag, put 10 or 12 New Testaments, put some more junk on top, toys, supplies. There's no Christmas in Morocco or Tunisia. You can't find anything Christmas, so both of them begging me, bring something, we give away stuff in, have a little Sunday school class, we started a church, and there's all kinds of fun things to do. 400 plus Bibles I took into Morocco a year and a half ago. By myself. Obviously, I can't fight off any enemies. Somebody comes up and grabs one of my suitcases, what am I going to do? God be with you. Even if I could run, if I chased him, then there's three other guys standing here to get the other suitcases while I abandon him. So I do it. The Lord gave me the idea. I'm not taking credit for it, Lord. Take a rope with me, and when I get my luggage off the carousel thing in a foreign country, I tie a rope through all the handles. So at least if somebody grabs one, they're gonna get stuck. I have to cut it or whatever. Trying, doing my part. So I'm getting up to the x-ray. In case you all don't know this, you go to a foreign country, they x-ray all your bags. Everybody does. And then they decide if they're going to search them, how thoroughly they're going to search, which ones, you know, random, so you get caught off guard, whatever. So I'm grunting with two of those carts, you know. How many of you have seen those carts at the airport? Put your luggage on. I hate the ones you have to pull the handle down to make them go. So I'm by myself. I got seven bags plus my briefcase, and I'm, you know, trying to move them like this. you know, two of them, steer them, and then they got to have a hill to get up to the six lanes of the X-ray. So I'm pushing up that. All of a sudden, I'm kind of just a little glancing like this, and two guys over here in fancier uniforms and gold badges, the guy catches my eye and looks at me like this and says, well, I can't speak Arabic, but I'm not stupid. I know that means get your fat body and your suitcases over here next to me. So then I'm trying to turn him, you know, and I start pushing toward him. He doesn't look at me again. I get like two feet away from him. He looks at my eyes again and does this. I'm like, can't you talk? And, but I'm not going to say anything, you know, smart aleck or act smart or whatever. So I just start going that way. Nobody's over there. They're all over here at the x-ray, like the distance of the back wall over there. And I'm coming over here at that distance of that wall going up. And I look and what he's pointing, all I see is an exit sign. So I'm just going there, you know what I mean? I'm just pushing, I'm not looking around, you know, I'm just acting like I know what I'm doing, you know, he told me to go that way and so I'm going toward the exit, I'm expecting any second, honestly. Feel that on my shoulder, where are you going? And so I just push and push, I get to the two double doors, I bounce them open with my carts, I get through and I realize I'm in freedom. This is it. I'm through everything. I thought I was going to a dark room to get beat up or something, you know? And I get through there. I've got the seven suitcase. I got 400 plus Arabic Christian holy book. They don't call it a Bible. Bible just means book in most languages. So they call it the holy book. Christian holy book. I get through there. And I look over, all these people are looking over here to these doors. That's where everybody's coming out. They're like down this way, distance to the back wall, over here. And then I'm looking over here, my missionary's back here, and he's got a dark beard and dark hair he's fitting in. And so he's doing his phone, you know. Looks at me, does this, you know, he runs up to me, what are you doing? Why'd you come out that door? I said, the dude told me to come out there. Come on, come on, hurry, let's go. Come on before we get stopped. What do you mean? Here, give me one of the carts. And we're moving, I'm following, he's knocking people over, you know, let's go get out of here quick. He said, I've never, ever, ever in seven years of living here, seen anybody come out those doors. Now, guess what my attitude was? Well, I guess they could just tell I'm important. No. I says to myself, I says out loud, wow, thank you, Lord. That's a blessing. I appreciate that. We get out, we distribute the Bibles, some of them. He has some for after I'm gone. We have a great time in the Lord. How did that happen? Well, nobody else around there was caring for my soul. And I was a little bit discouraged, crying out unto God, Lord, why is this guy calling me over? I really didn't think I was going to be arrested and they were confiscating my stuff. It's their country. They can do what they want to do. It's not like I'm, don't you know I'm an American? It doesn't work there. I felt a little overwhelmed. It's not because I said it, it's because of God. But I'll tell you right now, I said over and over again, Lord, please help me. Please help me. Please help me. I don't know what to do. You know, God will help you if you ask Him. If ye then know how to give good gifts to them that ask, how much more your Heavenly Father? You think you're a good parent, you take care of your kids, you feed them, you protect them, you keep the dogs from biting them. Let me tell you, God Almighty takes care of you a lot better than we take care of our kids. He always has and He always will. David said, deliver me, they are stronger than I. Verse 6. Indeed your problems can be stronger than you, but they are never stronger than God. Go where God is leading you, not where you want to go. Well, Brother Stanton, I think I've got all I can get out of this church. I think I'm gonna move on. This, that's not in here anywhere. Well, Brother Stancil, I think I've given all I can give to this church. My ministry's done here. I think I should, I'm sorry, it's not in here anywhere. You need to go where God wants you to go. Well, we just don't feel loved anymore there. What are you, a teddy bear? What do you mean you don't feel loved anymore? Are you somewhere because God called you there or because somebody's cuddling you? What's wrong with us? We're ridiculous. You know how many missionaries I know? They don't feel loved or cuddled by anyone except God. And they keep staying. You go where God's leading you. Praise God among the righteous. In Psalm 142 as we read verse 7, too often when people get overwhelmed, they drop out of church and they separate from the brethren. Can I just tell you this morning, while we're all here, it's just us, let me tell you. Whenever you feel like you don't want to go to church, it's probably the time that you most need to go to church. Whenever you feel like, well, I just don't want to face everybody, then you probably really need to go. When you feel like, I'm afraid somebody's going to say something and hurt my feelings, I'm just going to burst into tears. Why don't you get over that stuff and realize you are coming to church because God commanded you to go to church and to forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. And God has things He wants you to hear and learn and do. There's a reason God gave you a church, and a shepherd, and a pastor, and God gave you that for your soul so you could serve Him better. And when you give all that garbage out, well, I just don't feel like it. Well, they don't treat me right. I went to home and nobody said hi to me. First question I always say. It wasn't like this in my 30s and 40s, but now when I hear that stuff, nobody said hi to me. First thing I say, how many people did you say hi to? How many people did you greet? I heard it within last month. I don't know, our church isn't friendly as it was anymore. I know you were here a few years ago and I had surgery, and only one person from the church came to visit me the whole time. It actually sounded a lot worse than that. It was one, just one visit. But I got sick of hearing that, so I didn't want to do too much of it. But I said, really? Only one person visited you the whole time you were in the hospital for two weeks? I said, how many people have you visited in the hospital this year? Oh, well, I didn't mean you didn't need to ask me that. You don't need to get smart about it. I'm just asking how many people did you... Well, I didn't have time. I'm too famous. I'm too old. I'm too fat. I'm too slow. I didn't feel good. I had to go to the bathroom. I had to wash my hair. Whatever! Bunch of baloney! If you would get rid of the double standards you have in your life, which you despise in others, you'd be a much happier Christian. I can tell you don't like me anymore, but that's okay. Too often when people get overwhelmed, they drop out of church. That's when you need to go. You separate from the brethren. It's the wrong thing to do. Stay among your brethren and praise the name of the Lord. I'm telling you right now, you will never talk me out of believing that there's something very important about us gathering together. And praising the Lord together, starting off, Brother Ryan, thank you. But the Bible says, Hear, O ye kings, give ear, O ye princes, I, even I, will sing unto the Lord. Judges 5, 3, I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel. Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him in the morning, praise Him in the noontime. Why? Because He deserves it. That's why. Because He wants it. He asked for it. And He's worthy of it. Amen? To God be the glory, great things He hath done. Do you know nobody sings those words about Buddha? Or the Pope? Or Allah? You shouldn't be cutting down the other religions. You should hear what I'm thinking right now. leading people to hell, robbing people, giving people false hope. I sat next to a Catholic priest on a plane a few years ago, and he had his whole gear on, the backwards collar, all that. I say, so I assume you're a Catholic priest? Yeah. You teach a lot? Do you speak? Yeah. What do you tell people when you speak? I'm giving you the short version. We're talking, super friendly. I gave him something. I had in my pocket a Mentos or something. We're just chit-chatting. So yeah, well, do you tell people how they can go to heaven when they die? Oh yeah, that's part of the deal, part of the gig. He said, that's part of the gig. Yeah, we tell people, I say, well, what do you tell them? I mentioned, how do you know that you're going, well, you have to do this and do these good works and, you know, give to this and light some candles. Okay, so if I do that, then I know for sure I'm going to heaven. Well, no, you also got to, you know, lick some beads and you got to do this. You got to kiss some statues. Then you got to do this, you got to make sure you talk to somebody right before you die and have some last rites and that kind of blah blah blah. So if I do all that, then I can know for sure I'm going to heaven. Well, you know, you're pretty sure you have to do this and that. I said, I thought you told me that you tell people how they can know for sure they're going to heaven and you can't seem to tell me that today. He said, well, I'm trying. I said, well, you're not doing a very good job. He said, are you a Baptist preacher? I said, you should have asked me that first. And I said very politely, I said, yes I am and you are a phony sir. Yes sir, can I help you? Yes, I'd like to be moved to another seat. Well that was mean. So is telling people they're going to heaven when they're not. And so is telling people that they don't have any hope when they're overwhelmed. You have hope. Pour out your spirit before the Lord. Let me give you one illustration. We have plenty of time. I'll let you know it's 12 minutes still. One of the other trips I took to Tunisia, I took 400 plus Bibles. We were there. We were handing them out. The Lord helped me get through a similar miracle. Two weeks after I left, the police arrested the missionary, and the only way he'd let him and his two kids out of jail was if they took him back to his apartment and he gave him all the Christian literature he had. What would you do then? The wife's at home. They took his phone, but he had one of those watches where he could still give her, you know, little text emails. She's home crying, telling people, called my family, texted us, please pray for Bill. It's terrible, he's in jail. What would you do if the guy's looking at you and says, well, I'm going to let you and your two teenage kids out of jail if we go back to your apartment and you give us all your Bibles and literature about Christianity? What would you say? OK. So they go back to his house. He had them hidden around. He gave them most of them. He still had a few left. And they confiscated them. I'll be honest with you. I took them there. I raised like $5,000 for the trip. $280 for each suitcase. I had seven suitcases. Just the luggage. It was expensive. The plane, trip, and all that stuff. I never take any money from missionaries. Even if they try to give me a love offer, I never take it. I pay for everything. My gas from the airport, everything. I don't want them to pay anything. I know what their life's like. I was a little discouraged. Lord, you let me raise all that money. All those people in churches gave funds. We got those Bibles. We took them there. You gave me a miracle to bring them into the country and help people. Why did you let them take them? I'm not questioning you, but I am. I don't get it. And I kept saying to myself the verse, the Lord will not let his word return void. I believe that, Lord. I just don't see it right now. month goes by, two months, five months, ten months. Then we find out from Marwan, who has a friend that has a family member that works in one of the king's palaces, that has a brother that's a policeman. This is Tangiers where we were, the northern coast of Morocco, you know, right across from the Straits of Gibraltar, the Rock of Gibraltar, Spain, all that. And he said that one of the policemen went into the, whatever their term is for evidence room, whatever, they had the Bibles confiscated and he reached under the counter, a couple of boxes he had with all the Bibles and reached in and he couldn't feel anything, reached the other box, all the boxes were empty. All the Bibles were gone. Nobody burnt them, nobody threw them away. Guess who has my 400 Bibles? 400 policemen. Guess who arrests you if you're on the street, you're a witness or you have a Bible? Policemen. What are they gonna do now? Let me ask you a question. Can you think of any way that I could have distributed Bibles to hundreds of policemen in Morocco? There is no way. Not even one. I tried one, one time. And the guy mocked me and said, I'm gonna have to arrest you if I see that again. Okay, okay. So I won't give you a Bible, whatever. And how in the world could God do that, that way? having the guy arrested. You know what? Sometimes we just have to trust Him. I don't mean to be repetitive, but sometimes we just need to pour out our spirit before the Lord and listen to what He does and wait on Him to take care of stuff. We do a lot of whining and complaining. I'm just going to be honest with you, we do. God will deal bountifully with you. He daily loadeth us up with benefits according to Psalm 68, 19. So despite the fact that you are overwhelmed and your spirit is overwhelmed, God continues to pour out His blessings on you. I'd like to give you one more illustration. I had friends that were in South America. They were missionaries for seven years. And about a year ago, they built a great church. They were running like 80, 100 people, had many people saved, people being discipled, a convert for winning other people to Christ. One day they had a work day at the church, there were seven men there, they were working on things, a little building they got together and they were remodeling, adding a little bit and the wife was there to do some, you know, water for them, it was hot, have to fix some lunch for them. Husband went to go run some errands. And you'll need to read between the lines, okay, for the children. The pastor came back and his wife had been abused, taken advantage of. All seven men were gone. They had molested and abused that lady. She was sobbing, broken. How could people that you won to Christ do that to the missionary's wife? People that seemed like good men. The police were furious. The police killed the two of those men that day. They chased him down based on the wife's testimony. They killed him. They found him, shot him dead. And they don't know what happened to the other five after that. Let me ask you a serious question. That's a very overwhelming situation. Right? You agree? Raise your hand. You agree? What do you do? What's a missionary do? Does he get a black market gun and go after himself? Does he stay? Does he leave? How can you handle the emotions? How could you handle God letting this happen to you when you are there serving Him? The man left. I know him personally. The man left. He couldn't come back to America. The wife just couldn't face it. They went to the Caribbean for a couple weeks on an island there. And then the wife just said, honey, I can't go back home. I can't go to the States. So they moved to Hawaii temporarily to be in the USA. But nowhere near all the people she knew. Can you imagine what she thought about facing the churches that had been supporting them? And I'll tell you something that's a personal pet peeve to me that I could curse some pretty good Christian curse words about. Almost all the churches that supported them dropped them because they came off the field. Three kids. The man's having to work. Wife can't work. She's too torn up. Try to get people to talk to her. I can't talk to anybody, honey. All she can do to talk to the husband. So the husband's got the three kids. One of them's a toddler. He's going out and trying to drive for Uber, stuff like that. Whatever he can do, be gone a short bit, come back, check on his wife. Struggling. Can't work a full-time job. She can't work anything. I talked to him, brother, can this lady talk to her? I got this person to recommend. She won't talk to him yet. Brother Chris, she can't. Would she talk to me? If she loves you, if she talked to anybody, she'd talk to you, but no. She just can't. It's just too hard. I've sent him some money when I can. It's not much. I don't have much. But I've sent them what I can to try to help them, support them. What am I going to do? Oh, your wife just needs to get over it. No. She doesn't need to just get over it. She needs to spend time with God. I know there's people in this room, you could have been overwhelmed that severely in your life. Maybe not the same exact thing, but you could be overwhelmed right now. I'm closing the message now. Please don't remember my last words. They're not mine. I'm reading them. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. I poured out my complaint before him. Brother Chris, nobody in this church knows what I'm going through. I can't tell anybody. It's too embarrassing. It's too hard. I can't talk about it. Nobody would believe if I told. But I'm overwhelmed this morning. I'm right here. I can only take a little bit more. I'm going over the edge. Where do you think that phrase comes from? I'm going over the edge. I'm overwhelmed. I'm whelmed over. I can't hold anymore. I'm overwhelmed. It's all I can take. My last words to you are this morning. Yes, you're overwhelmed, but you can pour out your spirit for the Lord. You can let Him know. Have you left your room this morning? Did you think to pray? Did you sue for loving favor? Look, the only place you're going to get help is from God. Would you bow your heads with me, please, for a moment? Please don't be in a rush. Please don't jump out. It's still three or four minutes before noon. And you have friends that are sitting around you, and you don't know it, but they're overwhelmed. They don't know how they're going to face another day. They really don't. Two years ago, my father found out he had lung cancer. The doctor said, you have a year and a half to two years to live. Wasn't even hurting. Just at the doctor with my mom and blew his nose or something. The doctor saw a little black on his handkerchief. Hey, wait, let me see that. Tests. Was scheduled to start radiation chemotherapy. I got, I canceled a trip and went down to see them. I saw my dad for 10 days. He got sick. We had to take him to the hospital, ambulance. He was only in the hospital 10 hours. They said no more treatment. He had several tumors, spots on his lungs and his hip, a brain tumor. Now he has three brain tumors and I cannot count the spots on his lungs. There are too many. He went to hospice and he did not even last 12 hours. Instead of a year and a half to two years, it was two weeks and God took him home. My mom's still overwhelmed. I don't blame her. She's 80, didn't know it was coming. You're not the only person that gets overwhelmed. Other people do as well, but what you do when you are overwhelmed is what will help your life or hurt your life. I wonder who'd say this morning, Preacher, please pray for me. I'm overwhelmed in my life right now and I need to cry out to God. I need to pour out my spirit before Him. Please pray for me. Would you raise your hand? You're overwhelmed this morning? Thank you. Don't be afraid. I'm not going to call you down and embarrass you. I figure it has to be a great number of you. Thank you. Give me your hand. Anybody else? Preacher, pray for me today. I'm facing some things that are overwhelming. Please pray for me. Thank you. I'm gonna tell you something about eternity. It's very real. If you're here this morning and you're not a hundred percent sure that you're going to heaven when you die, I'm just gonna make it plain for you. You're overwhelmed right now and you don't even know it. The Bible says to be absent with the body is to be present with the Lord. If your life ends, what are you gonna tell the Lord when you see Him? Are you gonna say, hey, you should let me in. I've been a pretty good guy. I'm just gonna let you know. Nothing against you, but that's not gonna work. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanseth us from all sin, and nothing else does. You hear this morning, you say, preacher, I'm a little concerned. Would you please pray for me? I am not 100% sure that when I die, I will go and enter heaven. Would you pray for me this morning? Would you lift your hand, please? Thank you. Is there anybody else? Thank you, sir. Preacher, please pray for me. Lift your hand high if I don't see it. Thank you, sir. Anybody else? Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, young man. Thank you, sir. I see you. Preacher, pray for me. I'm not 100% sure I'm saved. I'm going to tell you how simple this is. On October 7th, 1969, 51 years ago, I was sitting in church on Tuesday night. I was seven years old and the preacher talked about a little boy he would invite to come to church and invite to get saved while he was on a fishing pier in Pensacola, Florida where I lived and every time the little boy said these words, not this week preacher, maybe next week. And then one time the preacher took his walk and the little boy wasn't there, he didn't think much of it. But the little boy fell off the bridge and drowned. Couldn't swim real good. And the Lord used that to speak to me. I walked down the aisle of Calvary Baptist Church in the old Brownsville section of Pensacola, Florida. And I told the pastor, I need to get saved. And Mrs. Shepard, as it was, the pastor's name was Herbert Shepard. She said, Chris, you know you're a sinner in a little Sunday school room? Yes, ma'am. I'm terrible. I steal my mom's cookies all the time. They're delicious. She said, well, you need to ask Jesus to forgive you of your sin. I said, yes, ma'am. I'm going to tell you something. It was that simple. I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ and nothing else. And for 51 years, I've been thrilled that I did it. I've never regretted it. And if you don't know for sure you're going to heaven today, I beg you, I'd get on my knees if I thought it would work, to come down here in the front, speak to your pastor this morning, and call upon Jesus to save you.