All hail King Jesus! All hail Emmanuel! King of kings, Lord of lords, And throughout eternity I'll sing your praises And I'll reign with you throughout eternity Welcome you today. If you would stand, we'll open in a word of prayer. Brother Benson, would you open us in a word of prayer? Brother Royce is singing hymn number 259, Jesus. ♪ When the tide is all round ♪ ♪ Jesus saves, Jesus saves ♪ ♪ And He lives every day ♪ ♪ On His feet He has prayed ♪ ♪ What a day, what a day ♪ ♪ Jesus saves, Jesus saves ♪ ♪ And you'll never feel so pleased ♪ ♪ As I feel when you're near me, Jesus, dear to me ♪ Take a seat with us, let us sing a song of praise. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. He is the Lord from whom all blessings flow. For he has washed and made me white as snow. For now and forever, praise his holy name. name. Praise his holy name. To God be the glory now and forever. Praise his holy name. God is is great, and greatly to be praised above all others. Let his name be praised. that he alone is worthy. Praise his holy name. Praise his holy name. Praise his holy name. glory now and forever. Praise his holy name. Praise his holy name. Praise his holy name. To God be the glory. Glory to God, we have glory today. Praise His holy name. Praise His holy name. Praise His holy name. of glory, now and forever. Let's stand once again, we'll sing hymn number 167. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Stand in as we sing. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall. Ring, o'er the world, the hymn of praise. ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? ♪ ♪ And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Amen. As you may stand as we go to the Lord in prayer for our offering. Man, I think you may be seated. you I thought I had it all Everything I needed Still I felt no peace inside ♪ Until one day someone told me ♪ Without Jesus I would always feel so empty ♪ I fell to my knees and he changed my life completely ♪ Where would I be without Jesus What would I do without His grace? How could I live without His power? Oh, I need Jesus every hour. Back I see how the Lord has brought my life. He's given me much more than I deserve. And I've learned that serving Jesus mattered more than what I was living for. I can't imagine where I'd be without the Lord. Where would I be without Jesus? What would I do without His grace? How could I live without His power? Oh, I need Jesus every hour. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh, where would I be without Jesus? What would I do without His grace? Where would I live without His power? Oh, I need Jesus every hour. Where would I be without Jesus? If you would stand once again, we'll sing hymn number five, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. Hymn number five. ♪ When I survey the wondrous cross ♪ ♪ On which the Prince of Peace was born ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. ♪ Come, Christ, my Lord ♪ ♪ All dying things have drawn me close ♪ ♪ I sacrifice them to you alone ♪ ♪ Sing from his head, his debt, his feet ♪ ♪ Sorrow and love, only no doubt ♪ ♪ Ain't there such love, there's such love ♪ me. O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Amen, thank you, may be seated. Sometimes it roars like thunder. Sometimes it grips my soul and won't let go. Sometimes I think I'm worthless. That voice is so relentless. Sometimes I question, Lord, where did you go? Take me back to Calvary Take me to the cross Remind me where I was Remind me what it cost You thought I was worth it Even knowing who I am Redeemed is how I plead Forgiven's where I stand When the voice of doubt and unbelief have driven me to my knees, and I wonder how you still love a wretch like me. Take me back to Calvary. Sometimes the weight has crushed me, and without even knowing, I've tried to do it all in my own strength. But you were my strong tower, my hope in this dark Take me to the cross. Remind me where I was. Remind me what it cost. You thought I was worth it, even knowing who I am. Redeemed is how I plead. Forgiven's where I stand. Have driven me to my knees And I wonder how You still love a wretch like me Take me back to Calvary Oh, what boundless everlasting love Calvary proves it will always be Take me back to Calvary. Take me to the cross. Remind me where I was. Remind me what it cost. You thought I was worth it, even knowing who I am. Redeemed is how I plead. have driven me to my knees, and I wonder how you still love a wretch like me. Take me back to Calvary. Take me back to Calvary. Take me back to Calvary. Amen, music's been superb today. Thank you for each and every one that's participated. The three ladies that sang together were three generations. What a blessing, what a blessing to be able to see three generations singing about a great and awesome God, the work that he's done in their life. This is an amazing thing. I'm so thankful. So thankful for that. And then to see our young pianist, I told Brother Aaron, you're in trouble now. And he said, you know, preacher, I think we could use a third piano. I said, I think you're right. You know how many churches wish they had one piano player? And we are blessed, we've got three up here, plus the organ. And then we've got many in training. We are a blessed church. And I pray that we would never take that for granted. You know, scripture says to whom much is given, much is required. And so we are very blessed and we need to be thankful for it. John chapter three. John chapter three. Very, very, very familiar verse. John chapter three and verse number 16. This week, we kick off our missions conference. And so thankful for that. Missions is the strong right arm of our church. I guess you'd say it's such a vital part of our church. We not only support missionaries, we send missionaries. We are very blessed in that also. A lot of churches have never sent a missionary out, and we've had the opportunity to have many. through the years and we are very blessed because of that. It brings with it great responsibility and God has been faithful to help us and to lead us as we've taken care of our missionaries and of course our latest sets here waiting on paperwork. And so pray his paperwork comes through and it will be a sad day to see him leave Leslie and the kids behind as he. It'll be a sad day to see them leave to head to New Guinea, but I know to be in the center of where God wants you is the most important place to be, and God will take care of them and lead them and guide them. But do seriously pray for their paperwork, that they can get that all together and all done, and then hopefully be able to leave here in the next couple of months and get to the field. And so, I really love our theme. It really sets up a missions desire with love God more. I really, as we set that theme for the year, couldn't help but think, boy, missions is gonna be fun. because we ought to love God more, and one way we can do that is through our missions. And so today, this message is gonna be different than what I normally preach, okay? I'm gonna preach six words, six words, for God so loved the world. Six words, but I promise it'll take a while. Let's pray, Lord, we love you. We thank you for your great love for us. Thank you for our time together today. Thank you for the music that we've been able to enjoy. Thank you for your word that we hold in our hands. Lord, help us never to take for granted the fact that we get to hold your word in our hands, that we get to read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it, apply it in our lives and in our living. God, we're truly a blessed people. I pray that as this message goes forth today, that the Holy Spirit would go with it and take it to our hearts and our minds and apply it in the areas of our life where we might better serve you. We thank you for our missionaries that we're able to support around the world. Lord, we pray that you would meet their needs and supply for them. We pray that you would continue to bless us as a church Help us to do more for the cause of missions this coming year than we have this year and the years previously. God, help us to reach out and to realize that your coming is soon. And with your coming being so quickly on the horizon, we need to do more to reach the lost, not only here, but around the world. Lord, we pray that you would continue to send forth laborers. We are in a labor shortage. And Lord, we need more laborers to go to the field to carry the good news of Jesus Christ, not only here in America, but around the world. So Lord, please give us more laborers for the harvest truly is plenteous. Lord, meet with us today. Might you be honored and glorified through all that is said and done. We love you. We ask these things in your blessed and most holy name. And all the people said. Amen, so John chapter three and verse number 16, we read, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Verse 17, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. What a portion of scripture. I always love to read verse 17 when I read verse 16 because I'm afraid sometimes in knowing the scripture that we think, well, you know, God loved the world and he sent his son, but part of that sending of his son is because there's gonna be a judgment that's gonna come upon the lost. And it's easy to forget sometimes that God knew that the judgment was going to come, but his great love caused him to send his son, not to come to necessarily condemn the world, but that through him people might be saved, that we might have the opportunity to be saved. I'm afraid sometimes we think of God and we think of him as this big mean God that lives up in the sky, and all he wants is to harm us and to hurt us, and every once in a while do something nice for us that we might be happy. But that's not our God, not as you study scripture. That's not the God that we serve. And so today we're gonna just focus in, as I mentioned, on these six words for God so loved the world. It's been said of verse number 16 that we have in the Bible a miniature Bible. John 3, 16's like a miniature Bible. All the Bible is explained in this one verse. It reveals the greatest cause, four. The greatest lover, God. The greatest degree, so. The greatest emotion, loved. The greatest object, the world. The greatest demonstration, that. The greatest expression, he gave. The greatest gift, his only begotten son. The greatest response, believeth in him. The greatest deliverance, should not perish. The greatest alternative, but. The greatest result, everlasting life. So, let's look at the word for. Here, as we look at for, I asked myself, I asked my wife, who is so much smarter than myself, I asked my wife the other day as we were tooling down the road, hey, what do you think about the word for? And she looked at me like, what? And I said, well, like in this phrase, I didn't wanna reveal it all because I didn't wanna preach her message today, I wanted to preach mine, right? I said, you know, like in the phrase, for God so loved the world. And we visited about the word for, and we came up with the idea of this, that it really refers back to previous verses. So let's, if you got your Bible there, just look back up to verse number 13. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. So four is tied to those previous verses. If we're not careful, we tend to forget that, and we just like to say four God. But when we think about the fact that we have an explanation going on kind of before four, that here is Jesus, he's come down from heaven, he's come to this earth, and he had to be lifted up, of course, on the cross of Calvary. He was lifted up so that he might draw all men unto himself, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. I asked myself this question, why would God ever sacrifice his son? It seems so hard and so distant, but it's because he was willing. Jesus was willing, God needed the ultimate sacrifice. You know, back in the times of Noah when things were so bad, God just wiped out the whole earth. He just brought a flood, wiped it all out, started over with Noah's family. But that's not what he chooses to do right here. Here he chooses to send his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins that all mankind might be saved. And so we all have an option, we all have an opportunity. Back in the days of Noah, it was just his family there on the ark. They were the only ones, and they preached the gospel, and they tried to reach out, hey, the flood's coming, you need to get on the ark, you need to get on the ark, and people rejected it, and now Jesus Christ has come, and we have the responsibility to share with others, Jesus has come, and whosoever shall call upon his name shall be saved. You don't have to die and go to hell. You don't have to die and not know eternal life in the presence of God the Father. You can get saved today. Man, I'm so glad that it says whosoever. Yeah, whosoever. Some of us ought to be excited about that. I'm glad I'm a whosoever. I'm glad it's not limited to just rich people. I could not go. I'm glad it's not just limited to poor people. I'm glad it's not limited to a certain race, a certain color, a certain gender. God said, whosoever shall call upon me shall be saved. We need to recognize that his willingness was motivated not by what he saw in us. Okay? God didn't look down and say, oh, those people right there. He didn't look down and see this front row of these handsome guys and go, they deserve to be saved. No, it wasn't because of us. It was because of what's inside of him. It's because of who he is. We think about this theme, love God more. Notice we didn't say God needs to love us more. God's already loved us as much as He can. I mean, to the nth degree, now it's our turn as children of God to love Him. I don't know about you, but you know, I've been married for how many years? Just checking to see if she knew. We've been married all these years, and I can say this, our love has grown through all these years. It's just gotten better and better. I was talking to someone just the other day, kinda doing a little bit of marriage counseling, and I said, you know, we fight a whole lot less now. Part of it is we forget by the time, you know, it's kinda like going to the kitchen, why did I go here type thing. I'm so thankful for forgetfulness, amen, it's such a blessing. But we don't fight near as much as we used to fight. Why? Because we love each other more. And so it ought to be with God. We ought to love him more. We ought to desire him more. We ought to want him more. And so what he did wasn't because of what he saw in us, okay? You stand in the mirror, or you stand in the mirror, you stand and look into the mirror and you see yourself. I think if you're honest, you'll realize God didn't get much when he got me. I know Kevin Metzinger better than anyone else knows Kevin Metzinger, and I'll tell you this, God didn't get much when he got me, but he loved me. And he said, whosoever. And I said, I want that. I want that, I wanna know that I'm saved. I wanna know that my sins are forgiven. I wanna know that heaven's my eternal home. I'm so thankful that it was what was inside of him and not what was inside of me. He is willing because he is the source of love. He is willing because he is full of amazing grace. He's willing because he's good, gentle, patient, and kind. Even when we were unwilling, full of ourselves, and wanting our own way, He still was willing. He delights in transforming us by his grace. He delights in rescuing us by his powerful love. I'm telling you, that four is a pretty powerful word. What about the next word, God? Well, I think I'm in a group that recognizes that we realize there's one God. Mark chapter 12 and verse number 32 says, and the scribe said unto him, well, master, thou hast said the truth, for there is one God and there is none other but he. In 1 Corinthians 8, 6 we read, But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. In 1 Timothy 2.5, it says, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. In James 2, in verse number 19, we read, thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble In 2 Corinthians 5, 19 through 21, we read, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses, pardon me, their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's dead, Be ye reconciled to God, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So we should all understand that we're talking about one God, one God. There's only one God in the Bible. He's the God of the Bible. He is not some idol made by hand. He's not some natural thing that we step outside and we go, oh. I think I'll worship the sky. Oh, I think I'll worship the sun. That one kind of baffles me, worshiping the sun, because what do you do when the sun goes down? I guess you're free, you don't have to worship your God at that time, you're idle, right? Or, you know, all of nature, we could worship a rock. We could worship a hillside. We could worship a mountain. I'm so glad that our God is a personal God, that he hears. See, the idols that are made by man's hands, they don't hear. They don't react. Man makes idols, calls them gods, if you would. He makes his little g gods that he might control them. that they'll be his God, they'll do his beckoning, his will, and so he has this God that he worships. But we, Bible believers, we have God of the Bible, who's a living God. He hears us, we make our requests known unto him, the Bible says, come boldly unto the throne of grace. We can come into his throne making our requests known, he hears and he answers our prayers. I'm so thankful that we have a true God to worship, a true God to follow, and I'm not trying to make up my own God and my own way to get to heaven. Leads us to the third word, so. Of all the words, this word, I don't know why, it's exciting for me. Because it's a small word, but yet it means so much, okay? That word so, if you remember our acrostic, it tells us that this so is the greatest degree. For God so. So what? Well, so is an adverb. I love to go to dictionaries and make sure I got the right definition. So is an adverb and it means the amount or degree expressed or understood to such an extent. Well, thank you for explaining absolutely nothing to me. But then the third definition says, to a great extent. Okay, so we're talking about to a great extent. So I might say that God loved me, but then I put in so, it means that he loved me more than I thought he loved me, okay? But check this out, the last part of this definition says, to such an evident degree, God loves me. And so, God loves me and it's evident. There's an evident degree of God's love. What is that evident degree? The cross, three nails, the blood-riven side of our Savior. He loves me. Good news, he loves you. He loves you. All the preaching I've done all these years, I still don't think that I fully grasp the idea of God loving me. It's because I think it's ungraspable. I mean, I can kind of understand why Cindy might love me. I mean, hey, you know. Yeah. but why would God love me? He had nothing to gain. He wants more of a relationship than I have with my wife, because he is always with me. Have you ever thought that, and I'm not saying any of the guys in here, okay, but have you ever thought, I can't wait for Saturday, I think I might slip off and just go fishing by myself. Or I might go out golfing by myself. I might just go walk in the woods by myself. Spoiler alert, you're never by yourself. He's with you wherever you go. He's with you wherever you go. And you know the great comfort of that is he's with you wherever you go. No matter what it is, he is with you wherever you go. I'm thankful for my wife. I'm glad I get to spend a lot of time with her. I'm thankful for every moment that we get together. But there are some times that I go, oh, it's ladies' meeting night. I get to control the scepter. I can watch whatever I want to, like KU basketball. Okay, so we have three TVs in our home, the four. One of them's downstairs, no one watches it. One of them's in the front room. I guess visitors might watch it. And we've got one in our bedroom and one in kind of the main area of the house. And so of a night, we retire to the bedroom to watch TV. I do not control that scepter. That is not, unless she is gone. And then she comes in, she goes, Who's watching Thursday night football on my TV? I am, sorry. Here's the scepter, feel free to change it. I pull out my phone, if it's the Chiefs, I'm in the front room, because that's my TV, that's KU basketball, Chiefs, that's where I go, okay, that's where I hang. God loves me so much, he always wants to be with me. He doesn't mind that I watch peace football or KU basketball. He doesn't mind that, he's there all the time. He's there, it's to an evident degree, to a great extent, his love is so amazing. And it is so amazing in the fact that his son, Jesus Christ, would go to the cross of Calvary and die for me. And here's part of what is sometimes very hard for me to grasp is why would he die for me before before I was ever born, before I was ever thought of and yet in the timeline he could see throughout history and he said one day there's going to be a guy Kevin Metzinger and I want him to have the opportunity to be saved and I want it to be presented to him and I'm gonna send people his way, and they're gonna plant the seed, and they're gonna nurture the seed, and I'm gonna give him that opportunity, but it all comes down to all the offering, and all that's been done, and all the people might come and give me the good news of Jesus Christ, it all comes down to me making the choice. I could have said no, I don't want it, and I did. Repeatedly, I rejected the offer of salvation. But I'm telling you, I'm so thankful that back in 1976, that I got on my knees and I said, yes, yes, yes, I wanna be saved. Yes, I wanna know that I'm on my way to heaven. Yes, I want the forgiveness of sins. Yes, I need Jesus in my heart. And man, what a change he has made. What a change he has made. Spurgeon writes of this word so, and he says this, God loved the world, says the text, so loved it, that even the writer of the book of John could not tell us how much, but so greatly, so divinely did he love it, that he gave his son, his only son, to redeem the world from perishing and to gather out of it a people to his praise. Wow, he loved me so much. Jesus died on the cross for me. that I hope that Kevin Metzinger will accept that gift of salvation, I'm gonna make it available to him. I want him to get saved. Have you ever stopped to think, if you're here today and you know that you're saved, have you ever stopped to think, I wonder why God loved me so much that someone would tell me about Jesus? I'm witnessing to a nephew of mine on suicide watch. at the Shawnee Mission Medical Center, and I'm witnessing to him about what the Lord can do in his life, and praise God, he accepted Christ that day and he got saved. But I asked him this question, I said, what did you think Christmas and Easter were all about? What'd you think Christmas and Easter, well, he goes, I just grew up, I just grew up thinking that Christmas was about gifts and stuff, and I just thought Easter was just a time to get candy. Like me. I'm a preacher. He's my nephew. And that's what he thought Christmas and Easter was about. Failed. Failed. As a preacher, shouldn't he know? I mean, shouldn't he know a difference? You just think for just a minute about your life. People in your family, do they know what Christmas and Easter are all about? I mean, really know what it's about? You know, it's not, okay, I'm sorry, teenagers. It's not about a fat red guy, okay? I think he might coach the Chiefs, but. Sorry, Andy. It's not about a bunny and eggs, that just logically, okay guys, logically, that doesn't make sense, does it? Chocolate, eggs, it just doesn't make sense. Easter's about Jesus Christ being raised from the dead, amen? Christmas is about the fact that he left the glories of heaven to come to this earth, that he might in turn then sacrifice himself on the cross that we might have eternal life. Yet I'm afraid if we're not careful, we miss sharing this so, so often. How about loved? Loved. For God so loved. This doesn't mean that God approved of the conduct of men. but that they were benevolent feelings towards them. He earnestly desired that all mankind might come to know him. God hates wickedness. He knows that there's coming a day of great judgment when all those will bow in his presence. The Bible records that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Everyone will bow. from the richest to the poorest, to the most charismatic, to the most shy individual. Every knee will bow. The most important question we'll ever answer is not what am I gonna be when I grow up, not how much money I have in the bank, not what do I hope to accomplish by the time I die, but the most important question we'll ever answer is what will we do with Jesus? He loved us so much. When we approve the conduct of another, this is called a love of complacency. God didn't come that he might just gush on people and that they could continue on in their sin and in their habits. He came because he desired for us to have happiness. His love is a benevolent love. His desire is to come and to take us out of the sin of this world and to cleanse us from it and to give us a home in heaven where we're not carrying the baggage of this world and we're not having to deal with the issues of life, but we know him as our Lord and Savior. We know heaven is our eternal home. God loved us so much that he gave. It would have been easy for him to sit back and say, And I don't know, but that's not God. God loved us so much that he gave his son on the cross of Calvary. It's so easy for us to say that we love and yet set on our hands. Or it's easy for us to say that we love and set on our money. You see, love is an action word. Love is an action word. God loves so much, he jumped into action. He sent his son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins. Well, preacher, just what action can I as a Christian do? Well, you can give out tracts. You can carry some tracts in your pocket, be looking to give them out for Jesus. You could stop and witness to people You could care enough to sit down and say, hey, let me tell you about the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Let me tell you about the greatest gift I ever got. Let me tell you about Jesus Christ. We can invite people to church. We can be involved in reaching others, action and giving that others might know. We ought to be involved in action so that others might know. Love requires that we would give our time. We're going to have visitation here on Saturday. Church members, I encourage you to come. We're going to go out and invite people to come. Some of that's non-confrontational. You just carry a door hanger, put it on the door, and move on. Some of it's through writing letters, notes of encouragement. Some of it's scheduled visits. But it requires time, it requires that we would give our time, that we care enough about seeing others reach for the cause of Christ. Why, because God first loved me and gave himself for me, so I ought to love others also, because the one who loved me gave himself for me. I ought to love others also, I should want to tell them about the greatest thing that's ever happened to me, that I got saved. Second, When you think about love giving, it's that we ought to give in our tithes. Well, I knew he'd get the money sometime. We ought to give our money. Some are just satisfied with tipping God, you know? Oh, here's 10 bucks, here's 20 bucks, here's 100 bucks, never intending to tithe of that that God gave them. Listen, do you realize that one day you'll stand in the presence of God and face to face you'll give an account of those things? Well, God, you don't understand. See, I got this problem and I have that problem and I had this financial crisis and this financial crisis. God goes, I know, I brought those in your life that I might show myself mighty. And you chose to use MasterCard. Now you paid, you're so far in debt with MasterCard that you feel like there's no way you can tithe. First counseling thing that I do when it's money and a young couple or whatever, first thing, young couple, don't ever get a credit card. Thank you for that. I knew that I'd get that from the Marceau household. Don't get a credit card. Yeah, don't get a credit card. And then second of all, give to God. Don't expect to get out of a financial issue if you don't have God on your side. If you're not giving to Him as you ought, why would He be so apt about helping you? It's all about the blessings of God in your life. I know, I'm preaching, but that's what I get paid to do. But we need to realize that this is a great opportunity. Listen, so when we were in liberal Kansas, I was on school staff out there, I met a guy named Monty Elmore. Monty Elmore was a great guy, I'm glad I got to know him. And Monty Elmore, when he told me his story, his story was this, that one day, his kids used to ride the bus. He was an oil field worker, just a hard neck out in the oil fields. His kids rode the bus. He and his wife weren't getting along, and they talked about getting a divorce, so Friday night, he moved out of the house. Bus workers come by to invite the kids, and they're like, oh, daddy moved out of the house. And so they went in and talked to Mrs. Elmore about coming to church on Sunday. And then someone found Monty, and they invited him to be in church on Sunday. So on Sunday, the kids rode the bus. On Sunday, Mrs. Elmore came to church. And on Sunday, Brother Monty came to church. They didn't realize they were all at church together. Preaching of the word happens, invitations given. Brother Elmore walks down over here, Mrs. Elmore walks down over here, both of them received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and they realize it when they're sitting on the front row having the cards filled out. You just got saved, I just got saved. That's the main glue to help for a good solid marriage and to turn things around, have Jesus Christ in the center of them. Monty Elmore worked in the oil field. He was a good hard worker from then on. He didn't cut hours. He was faithful. He showed up. He worked hard. The owner of the company said, you know, I want to sell this company, but I want it to continue, and I like your work ethic money. He said, I'm gonna sell you my company, I'm gonna make you a well of a deal. And he held the contract on the company, sold it to Monty, and Monty bought this company. Monty, just getting saved, getting in church, he starts tithing, God starts the blessing, and he goes, if God's blessing me for tithing, just think what it'll do if I'll tithe on my company. And so every month, so the monthly offerings out in liberal would go something like this. Second week, it'd be like 3,000. Third week, like 5,000. Fourth week, like, I don't know, 3,000 or 4,000. First week of the month, $10,000. And you knew, Monty Tython on his company today. Boom, he puttin' it in there. He had worked that out. God blessed him in an amazing way. He ended up with 22 rigs. He was an amazing guy. He was very gracious, he was very sharing, very giving. God just took a life that was a wreck. and he turned it around, he saved them souls, he gave them direction, and they took it and they ran with it, and God blessed them in an amazing way. And you know what, this next week, we're talking about Faith Promise Conference, and Faith Promise Conference, there's no way to have a Faith Promise Conference that you don't talk about money. It's part of it. It takes money to send missionaries. I'm so glad to be a part of Faith Promise Conference and Faith Promise Giving. And we'll say this first, when it comes to faith promise giving, that money is separate from our tithes and offerings. We don't mix them together, two separate accounts all together. All the money that comes for faith promise goes in just for missions. It's only spent for missions. That's what it's set aside for. This last year, looking back over the records, we're to date like at $93,000. We still have one more week to go. We support 61 missionaries and projects. One of these projects is Heartland Baptist Bible College down in Springfield, Missouri, down in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This Bible college trains our young people in the truth of the word of God. It helps prepare them to be servants here and around the world for the cause of Christ and the cause of missions. And we help support them because it helps keep their cost of tuition down that they might be able to serve God in a greater way. Wow, it's awesome to be involved in missions. It's awesome to be pastor and to be able to travel. Been to Philippines I don't know how many times, and Papua New Guinea I don't know how many times, but I've been there a lot. And I wanna tell you this one thing. It's so great when someone walks up to you and says, pastor, thank you for sending a missionary. Miss Pam and her husband served all those years in the Philippines, been in their church, preached for them year and year and year and have people come up and thank you for sending John and Pam. Thank you for caring to give the missions. I said I'll go home and tell the people that. Go to Papua New Guinea. New Guinea where people are just fortunate enough to eat. We sat down and we got to go through our budgets and we're worried about making car payments and insurance payments and insurance on the house and dental for the kids and all these other things. They just want to eat. They live on so little. houses with dirt floors, huts, let me back it up. Not a lot of them live in houses, a lot of them live in huts. You get up in the village area, just huts, just huts. And yet you'll never meet a happier people because Jesus is all they have. We got our stuff. We go out and get in our cars, I'm a little warm, I'm gonna turn the air conditioner up. I'm a little hot, I'm gonna turn the heat up. Oh, my heater's not working, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're just getting by. They know heaven's gonna be better than where they're living. For God so loved the world, the world. I was sitting up here trying to blow this up before church, you know what I realized? I'm not a young guy anymore, Jim. That's what I realized. As I was blowing this up, I got thinking about this fact. This is how God looks at our world. You get that? God. Us. We're like right in there. God is like, I wish I had like the whole, all the stars and stuff, you know? God stands on top of it all. He sees it all. And yet, he cares about us right there. Why couldn't God? an awesome God. He created this world, stepped out into existence, awesome God. The world, as we described in our acrostic, is the greatest object. The world, all mankind. It's interesting to me that world is the sixth word in this phrase because six represents mankind in the Bible. All mankind. Doesn't mean a particular part of the world, but all the world. Not a particular man or a particular race. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Jesus came to this world that all the world might be saved. Now we are blessed because we live in America, right? We have TVs, we have churches. Man, I remember we went to Canada to a little church years and years and years and years and years ago down in Texas, Paris, Texas. And we pulled in Paris, Texas, and I kid you not, you'd pull up to a stoplight, there were four churches. One on every corner. All Baptist churches. And I was talking to someone later, I said, how is it you guys got so many Baptist churches down here? He goes, because they get mad at one another and they go across the street and they plan another church. Sometimes we are absolute morons. You know, I want to say, do you all realize that you're going to spend eternity in heaven, so you might as well learn to get along together now? We live in America. We're blessed. Whether we want it or not, we get all kinds of propaganda headed our way and all that kind of stuff. And, I mean, everybody, you know, we know. But what about the world that's never heard? What about those who have never heard? Don't they deserve an opportunity to hear? Sure they do. In the islands of Papua New Guinea where white man hasn't been, the gospel's never been taken, don't they deserve to have someone give of their time and go? Wasn't it refreshing to go to Nauru and have a church kind of close? I mean, not Nauru, help me, Marshall, yeah. It was refreshing to have a church kind of close. I mean, it was still inconvenient, but it was refreshing. But you know there's portions of this world that still don't have a gospel testimony or witness? And my prayer is God, send us a missionary that needs to go someplace that there's not a witness. Let's support him, let's help him go, right? Let's help them go, carry the good news. I can't go. You know what I'm finding out? I'm getting too old. But boy, if I could find a young couple that wanted to go, yeah, let's jump in with them. Let's go, let's help them go. Let's help them take the good news of Jesus Christ. Why? Because this whole world needs to know the greatest news ever is that Jesus saves. is that Jesus is the hope of the world. Jesus and Jesus alone. God loved this world so much. He said, listen, I love this world. I don't wanna see him die and be separated and go to eternity and not have any hope at all. I don't want him to be in torment. I don't want him to be tortured. I wanna give him an opportunity to be saved, to know me as their Lord and Savior, to spend an eternity in heaven. But the only way it's ever gonna happen is if Christians will tell So do you tell? And then do you help others tell? That we might reach the world for Christ. But it's all about reaching the world for Christ. God loves us. We need to learn to love him more. We can do more for the cause of Christ in these latter days. Lord Jesus, I love you and I thank you for your great love to us. Thank you to know the heavens, my eternal home. Thank you to know you forgave me of my sins. God, I just rejoice at that fact. I still don't fully understand it, but I know you did and I thank you for it. I pray as there be one here today that doesn't know you as their savior, that they might come, let's take the Bible and share with them from the good news, how they can know that they're saved on their way to heaven. Then, Lord, for Christians today, I pray it should help us just develop that desire to do more, to tell others about Christ, to help to be able to send others to tell the good news of Jesus. Have your will done in our lives and our hearts, and we'll give you the honor and glory and praise for all that you do. We ask these things in your blessed, most holy name. Amen. Would you stand with me? Have a moment of invitation. I surrender all. God's spoken to your heart today and encouraged you to come. Whatever your need is, the altar's open. We'd love to encourage you to come. All to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him in His presence daily live. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. All to Jesus I surrender. Jesus, take me now. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I you save your holy land. Let me feel thy holy spirit. Truly know that thou art mine. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender. A few things from the bulletins we dismissed. Missions Conference starts Wednesday night, goes through next Sunday. We'll meet Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night, seven o'clock each evening. Following the services, we'll have desserts those nights, so that's a good treat you'll wanna come for. Saturday at 5.30, we have an international banquet. We have rooms that'll be decorated according to certain countries. It's just always a great time, encourage you to plan to come be with us. on Saturday at 5.30, and then we have outreach on Saturday at 9 o'clock, team cleaning the following Saturday. We have Glory Band, men's quartet group out of Heartland will be with us on Saturday night the 16th at 7 o'clock. They're gonna do a little concert, bring your favorite dessert, we'll have a time fellowship, and then they'll sing for us on that Sunday also. And so just a few things to mark down, put in your calendar, and plan to be with us. Good to be in the Lord's house today. God bless you for being here. Let's pray. Brother Richard, would you lead us in word prayer? but of Christ. Help us. Not only did you love us, but you followed me. Help us to love you as you. Faithful. Here around us. Conference. Have in mind. Ready to move. Amen, Lord bless you. so