Let's take our Bibles now and turn to the Gospel of Mark, please. Ladies, that was beautiful. That made me want to just surrender my life again. Your church, you ministered to us. You said, well, you've been a blessing to us, but you ministered to Mary and to me and to the other missionaries. Not only you fed us to death and showered us with gifts and all so many wonderful things and kept us and all of that, but you minister, your spirit ministers to us and you blessed us and we thank God for you. And you know each other just like a big happy family here. That's great. I was talking to Brother Basinger, and I said, you know, you've gotten in here, and you've really just fallen right in place. And I said, you know, you know the pastor real well. I said, by the way, what color is the pastor's eyes? He said, well, Brother Ray, I don't know, because when the pastor prays, he closes his eyes, and when he preaches, I close mine, he said. Now, if you believe the moon is made out of cheese, you probably believe that too, you know. Be praying and asking God what he had you to do. It ain't good that nobody's going to beat you up if you don't give a cent. Nobody's going to beat you up. Nobody but God's going to know whether you give or not. And that's what's good about it, and that's what makes people want to give. Because this is between me and God. And if God puts this in your heart, then He's going to help you to do it. Sometimes people say, well, I've figured out everything I can do. The gas is this much, the electric is this much. But I believe, and the tithe is this much, and tithe is not the faith promise. I've never given God my tithe. You know why? Because it's already His. The tithe is the Lord's. If I keep the tithe, I'm just keeping God's money. But what I do beyond that in the offering category is what I choose to do. I don't have to do that, but you're never, ever out to give God. And you say, well, the tithe is this much, and the gas is this much, and the groceries are this much. I believe I could do this much. And that is exactly what you ought to do. Figure out what you can do, and then you plan on doing that. And then go beyond that. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 8, they gave beyond their power. They gave what they couldn't give. They gave beyond their ability to give. And you don't just put any amount down. I don't have a faith for 500 a week. I know somebody who does. But my faith grows. Mary and I give a faith promise in our church every year, and we try to increase. But, you know, God gives you faith, and that faith grows every year. And so you let God put that in your heart, and go beyond what you think you can do, and then say, Lord, now this is what you've led me to do, and then watch God supply. Keep a diary. See how God brings the money in. And it's wonderful that God knows and God will lead you. And I believe the goals will be met and the missionaries will stay out on the field serving our Lord. Mark chapter 5, and we read several verses tonight. Follow along closely with me, if you will. Mark chapter 5, beginning with verse 1. And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately they met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been hawked and bound with feathers and chains. And the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the feathers broken in pieces. Neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying, cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God. that thou torment me not. And he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked, What is thy name? And he answered, Saying, My name is Legion, for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was nigh unto the mountain a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirit went out and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. They were about two thousand, and they were choked in the sea. And they that fed the swine fled and told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion sitting and clothed in his right mind. And they were afraid. And they that saw it told how befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerned of the swine, and they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. A missionary, according to Webster, is a person sent on a mission, an emissary, one sent out in advance to further a cause, an emissary, one who many times will leave his family in his home and go to people of another culture and another country perhaps and dwell among them. Jesus was an emissary, an emissary from heaven. His cause was to give hope to the hopeless and life to the dead and comfort to the suffering and joy to the sad and healing to the brokenhearted and eternal life to those who are destined for eternal death. He healed the brokenhearted He set the captive free. He made the lame to walk again, and He caused the blind to see. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In the beginning was the Word, verse 14, and the Word was made flesh. The Word put on a human body. The Word put on skin so He could see Him. And Jesus, an emissary that had come all the way from heaven. Jesus was a child evangelist and missionary when he gathered the children around him and he blessed them. He was a missionary to the sick when he visited Peter's wife's mother. He was a missionary to the deaf when he healed the deaf and the dumb man. He was a missionary to the bereaved and the grieving at the tomb of Lazarus. He was a missionary to the poor when he saved the beggar and a missionary to the rich when he witnessed to the rich young ruler. And from our Lord Jesus Christ, our supreme example in missionary work, we learn to evangelize, to evangelize the young when they're tender. Eighty percent of all the people in the world who are saved were saved before they were fourteen years old. And that ought to tell us something about children, and vacation Bible school, and camps, and the young, and our children, and our work with children. We learn to evangelize children when they're young. We learn that no class is to be neglected, the rich or the poor. And from Jesus Christ We learn to have special ministries to the afflicted, to the blind and the deaf and the lame. We learn from Jesus that nothing is impossible with God, that no heart is ever to be too hard or considered too hard to reach. And that brings us to our text, that one of the greatest conversions in the Bible from this missionary from heaven, by this missionary from heaven, Jesus Christ. Here was a man who was completely dominated by Satan and evil. He was made the way he was by the demon powers he allowed to possess him. He was demon possessed. Most people in their heart of hearts don't really want to believe that. They want to believe in angels, and the world loves angels. And they like to believe about all the beautiful pictures and stories of angels and all of that. But just as real, and they fall or rise together, is the demon power, the spiritual beings that were angels at one time who rebelled against God. And in their heart of hearts, they really don't want to believe in demons, but they love to believe in angels. There are thousands of demon-possessed people in our lifetime today. You meet them probably every day. Last week, You read the story of a man in Alabama who killed his mother and probably about eight other people. We read stories like that, that man was demon-possessed, or the two young men who killed all the students at Columbine in Kentucky. Some students were gathered at a flagpole and they were praying, and a man came in with a gun and shot right into the midst of them. Those people, people who do such things like that, are demon-possessed people who are allowing Satan and evil to possess them. under the domination of Satan to do these things. People don't recognize that, but that's what it is. Now, let us consider this demon-possessed man. Consider the country. Look at verse 1. They came over. It was a country of the Gadarenes. What kind of a country was the country of the Gadarenes? It was a secular-minded country. The pig business was illegal to the Jews. They weren't supposed to have anything to do with pigs and pork, and these Jews loved their money more than they loved their religion, like a lot of people in our country today. They loved money more than men. Look at verse 16, if you will. And they besought, told how befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. And the swine and the pigs was their greatest concern. I Timothy 6 and verse 10, for the love of money is the root of all evil. Do you remember a day when America was not so secularized? You know, God may be dealing with us, and we may have to suffer along with everybody, Russia fell economically from within. And money has been a god in America. Materialism has been a god. And God might just put his hand on it, on our God in this country. I'm praying, of course, that things will level out, because I think about our missionaries. I know God is going to take care of them. But you remember when America was not like it is. When values were up there. when stores were closed on Sunday because people considered that a holy day and a church day. You remember when we had statesmen who were running our country rather than politicians. In our national election, people would vote their pocketbook and their money above their values and above even morals and morality. You remember a day when young people used to ask, what can I do with my life? that will make a difference in the lives of others, rather than what can I do in my life that will help me to make the most money. Not only was the country of the Gadarenes a secular-minded country, it was a favored country. God's Son had passed this way. This emissary from heaven had selected this place to come and to be a testimony. It was a favored country, but they didn't care. America is a favored country. You put your money out and you read on there, God we trust. Every way you go to Washington and on the buildings you see verses of scripture or sayings about God and trusting in God. Sometime ago in England, I retraced the steps of the pilgrims, and I went to the little village of Osterfield, where William Bradford, his mother and father had died, 12 years old. He walked down to another little village, and there's a fiery preacher down there. He didn't follow the Church of England ritual, and that was illegal at the time. People put to death for not doing that. But William Bradford, 12 years old, walked down there. His two uncles, with whom he lived, scolded him, and they said, you ruin our testimony. I mean, the Bradford family had always gone to the Church of England, the old Church of England, still in Austinville, that little tiny village there. William Bradford's father is buried right there in front of the church. And they scolded him. They said, you will lose everything. You're a disgrace to this family. You'll ruin this family's name. And then the reputation of the Bedford family, if you keep going and connecting with those independents and those radicals, but it kept going. And those people in that church eventually became the pilgrims that got on the Mayflower and came to America. They were imprisoned in Boston, England. I've been there in the cells in the courtroom where they were tried because of their faith. But they wanted to be free. They wanted a place where they could worship God without the authorities coming down on them and not having to follow some ritualistic religion. So they could take their Bible and get on the Mayflower. It's a long, long story. And they came to America. In 1620 December, cold, icy, horrible winter in New England, and there was nothing here but Indians and wild terrain and rugged frozen land. They anchored off the coast of New England. They went ashore. They found a place to meet. William Bradford was in that group, that scouting group, came back to the ship, and all the people, all the families were looking over the edge for their men to come back. William Bradford looked at the edge of the ship. He was looking for one face, and that was the face of his wife, Dorothy, but she wasn't there. She had fallen off the ship and had drowned during that time he'd been on shore, during those few days. The Mayflower Pilgrims came to get freedom to worship God. They came in December, and we love this little picture of the pilgrims in their cute little black and white outfits, and having dinner with Indians, and it's such a beautiful picture. It wasn't exactly like that. They had to be rugged pioneers. They came in December, By February, half of the men and women pilgrims had died. They were dead. They dreamed of a place of freedom. They dreamed of a land where they could build churches and worship God. In just a few weeks, half of them were in muddy graves off the coast of New England. Their dreams ended in a muddy grave. But, of course, we know they were the seeds of a great harvest. And what happened to William Bradford? He became governor of Massachusetts. I drove back into Austinville, pastor, 400 years after William Bradford, when he was an old 12-year-old boy, and his uncle said, you've got to stop meeting with these radicals down here. You'll ruin our family. You'll disgrace our name. You'll lose everything we've got, because what he was doing was illegal, worshipping God like that. And I drove back into Austinville 400 years later. And I saw how he had disgraced his family. Big sign said, Welcome to Austerville, home of William Bradford. Went a little further, William Bradford Street, Mayflower Inn on my left, and William Bradford Cul-De-Sac, Pilgrim's Rise. And besides all of that, he had America to his credit. And I tell you what, I go across this country, Mary and I drive up and down these roads and other missionaries, and we have to testify that this has been a favored country. God has been this way. And God's footprints are on our shore. Everywhere we go, we see the footprints of God. You cannot to go anywhere in America without knowing that God has been here. Now our secular educational leaders and politicians are trying to erase every trace of God from our history. But it's there. And I guess someday they'll carve it off the buildings and take it off the money. But we see the footprints of God. And Gadara was a favored country. God's footprints were on that shore. And then, but Gadara was a fearful country, a wild man was Roman Druid. Matthew describes them as exceeding fierce. Read Matthew 8, 28. No man passed by that way. He lived in the graveyard. Those tombstones are two of those caves in the cliffs. The tombs are still there. People detoured the graveyard. Look at verse 3 in chapter 5, if you will. And who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him. No doubt would chains be caused, even often bound with feathers and chains, and the chains would be plucked asunder by him, and the feathers broken in pieces. Neither could any man tame him. He lived in those tombs, and the whole country was terrified. The torment of little children's minds, I think, were the wild men roaming through the cemetery who lived in the graveyard. I think women were terrified lest they be out doing their errands. And this wild man would come upon them. I think the worst fear of men would be they would be out in the fields attending to their work, when suddenly this wild man would come upon them in his rage and his fury. The people of Gadara were afraid. It was a fearful country. When neighbors visited their friends, I think they might have talked about a lot of things, but I think the conversation always got back around to this wild man. Have you seen him lately? Somebody said they saw him the other day. The road to the sea was probably beautiful, but not many people went sightseeing in those days. There was a wild man loose. The farmers plowed their fields with dread. A wild man was roaming. There were not many picnics for little children in those days. A wild man was in the country. The blacksmiths made chains and the rope makers made ropes, but it was all useless. In verse 5, always night and day, he was in the mountains and the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones. I think that many times in Gadara, people would close their eyes at the tiring day's work, but they couldn't sleep because out in the distant darkness, they heard the devil-dominated cries of a wild man possessed by Satan. The unhappy, suffering, wild man was under complete control, body, soul, of Satan. In verse 5, he was cutting himself, hurting himself. unreasonable to hurt yourself like that. People are unreasonable today toward themselves. They cut themselves today. They cut themselves with drugs and tobacco and liquor. And they stab themselves with the atheistic pen and atheistic literature, with pornography. And they cut themselves and they hurt themselves and those they love, no doubt, at a distance. People that put clothes on a bush and they hoped somehow this man would see those clothes and he'd go and he would put them on and maybe return to sanity. What a sight he must have been. The Bible describes him as bleeding and naked and howling, but let me mention the contact in verse 2 that met him a man. You know, there's some people it's not good to meet. You ever met anybody that wasn't good? You kind of wish, wish I'd never met that person. Probably all of us could think of somebody like that. It was not, it's not good to meet some people. In our associations, our contacts. That's why we as parents, we try to guard our children sometimes with going with certain people or groups because we know it's not good for them to meet certain people It was not good for Lott to meet the people of Sodom. It was not good for Samson to meet Delilah with the men in my church in Illinois. And he was in the oil business, and a man came and offered him a deal. They're going to drill for oil over in Ohio. And it was a 50-50 arrangement. You drill for oil, and we'll split the money. And it was a great arrangement. And just the first week or two, this man in my church brought in great big time checks of $1,300, $1,400 back in 1963 and 4, which was a lot of money. And I mean, $200,000 or $300,000 coming in a week. But then after about a month, The time check stopped, and he came and said, Brother Ray, he had bought a big house on the edge of town. He had to sell the house, move back to his little house again. He said it was a 50-50 arrangement with that man. But he said, I didn't read the small print. The small print was, I'll do the drilling, I'll pay all the expenses, pay for all the equipment, and he would not pay any of that. So, of course, he made no money doing that, and he lost it all. It just wasn't good for him to meet that man. Maybe we've all had experiences like that. But it was glorious for this man to meet this man. It was glorious for him to meet Christ, because here was darkness meeting light. Here was pollution meeting purity. Here was devilment meeting divinity. Here was Satan's suck meeting God's snow. Here was the foulness of earth meeting the fragrance of heaven. Here were the tombs of earth meeting the thrones of glory. Note the wrong conception they had about Jesus. Look at verse 7 of chapter 5 of Mark. And he said, and he cried with a loud voice and said, What have I done to thee, thou Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I do thee by God that thou torment me not. He was afraid of Jesus. Torment me not. He considered Christ as a tormentor. That's the attitude of unsaved people. Why, if I get saved, if I trust Christ, then it's going to be torture. I'll never have any fun at all again. That's always the attitude. All the natural men toward Jesus Christ, they just don't understand. They think about Christianity as a killjoy. Got to wear strange clothes, and got to wear big shoes, and purple ties, and I don't purple, Jan. You've got a purple tie. But, you know, we might dress funny, we might dress weird. If we want to do that, that's fine. But it's not because of our faith. And they consider Christ is going to make them weird and torture them. Paul said, Rejoice. And again, I say, Rejoice. You know what I'm talking about. Some people have the idea that to take Jesus Christ as Savior is like signing your death warrant. And all of you could rise up and testify with me, and that's not true. And we know that's not true, how wonderful He is. That's spiritual ignorance. Some people are spiritually ignorant. Like for two farmers when the trains first started coming in to Kentucky. And they wanted to ride the train. I mean, this was a phenomena. And they packed themselves a lunch, and they bought tickets, and two farmers got on the train, and they were going down the track, enjoying the ride. First train ride ever. And one took his lunch out, and, oh, he took a banana and filled it, and he took a bite of that banana. And about the time he took a bite of it, it sped into a pitch-dark tunnel. And he said, John, have you eaten your banana yet? He said, no, why? Don't eat it. I took a bite of mine and it made me blind as a bat. That's ignorance. And some people are just as ignorant toward Jesus Christ. Let me ask you, what is a man profited if he knows all about rocks, but he doesn't know about the rock of ages? Or if he knows about astronomy, but doesn't know Jesus, the bright and morning star? If he knows the ages of rocks, but doesn't know Jesus Christ, the rock of ages? Think about the command. In verse 8, follow in your Bible with me, please. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit, Christ who is addressing these demons in this man. And he answered, What is thy name? And he answered, My name is Legion, for we are many. A legion, a Roman legion, was 6,826 soldiers in a legion. Is it possible that this many demons possess this man? Well, obviously it must be. And verse 13, and you know the story, Christ could have sent them right to hell. You ever have demons come and tempt you? You ever have demons come and whisper evil things to your ear? I'll tell you what to do, that will be a good thing. Just pray a little prayer. Lord Jesus, go ahead and send that demon to hell now. Don't let him wait till a thousand years. And they don't like that. And they know what their fate is going to be. And the demons, they said, let us, let's go into, Jesus, let us go into the pigs rather than being cast into hell. And Jesus Christ, and you know the story, He gave these demons the leave to do that. And all the demons went into the pigs, and the pigs, 2,000 of them, ran down into the sea, and they all drowned. All these devils inhabiting these pigs. Must have been a sight. I mean, a stampede of pigs, 2,000 of them, going over the cliff. Think of the dust they were kicking up. And, you know, I've done research. I've checked on the Internet. I've checked every way I could. I think, as far as I can find out, this is the first time, first occurrence in history of devil ham. I think it is. Look at verse 14, if you will, and note the chatter in verse 14. And they that fed the swine fled and told it in the city. They told it. And in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. They told it. The chatter. Mark said they told it in the city and in the country. Matthew says they told everything. Nothing goes so fast as a rumor. You've heard it. The rooming house blew up and the rumors were flying. It goes fast. Tongues were wagging. Lips were moving. Folks had lost their hugs. And Jesus was the cause of it all. No fault of the poor man, now sitting and clothed and in his right mind. But that's the way criticism is. It never considers the good but the bad. When Caesar was on his way to the Senate chamber, somebody slipped him a note. And on that note was written the words, There is but one mind in all these men, and is bent against you, if thou be'st not immortal. Look about you and later his body was found dead in the senate chamber with 23 dagger wounds in it. There was but one mind in Galilee and it was bent against Jesus Christ. James said in James chapter 3 verse 8, By the tongue can no man tame an unruly evil full of deadly poison that would bless we God even the Father and that would curse we men which are made after the cemetery of God are the same mouth proceeded forth blessing and cursing my brethren these things or not to be. The tongue. Most of our trouble is because of our tongue. You ever said something and you wish you could get the words and put them right back in, but you can't do that? So many of our problems come from right here. A man died, and the preacher said to his little son, what were your father's last words? And he said, the little boy said, Pa didn't have no last words. Ma was with him right to the end. Now, men are some of the biggest gossips of all. Okay, ladies, you can say amen if you want to. You ever been to Hardee's on a typical Sunday? This group, almost every Hardee's in America, they're discussing all this stuff. No wonder James said, if any man among you seem to be religious, but browneth not his tongue, he deceiveth his own heart. That man's religion is vain. But notice a change in verse 15. Look at these words. Sitting, clothed, Right mind. What a change it was. Body, soul, and spirit. Sitting. Not running wildly, but cured. Clothed. No longer naked, but dressed. Calm. Not crazy. What a change. And it was a change that people could see. And that's the way it ought to be. And thank God for a pastor who says, let Christ come in your heart and then let Christ rule your life. and affect your whole life, how you look, and what you say, and what you do, and where you go. It was a change they could see. People said, well, it doesn't matter about the outside, it just matters on what's on the inside. But if it's on the inside, it's going to come out on the outside. The clenched fist was now an open palm, and the eyes of fury were now eyes of faith, and the fettered man was now a free man. And it was a change that everybody could see. Somebody wrote, and you might remember the great old song about that scripture, from home and friends, the evil spirit drove him. Among the tombs he dwelled in misery. He cut himself, his demon power possessed him. Then Jesus came and set the captive free. So men today have found the Savior able. They could not conquer passion, lust, and sin. That broken heart shall let them sad and lonely. Then Jesus came and dwelt himself within. What a change. There's a change that chemistry can make. There's a change that water in the desert can bring. There are changes in nature, in education, in communication, in travel, in technology. But there is not any change like the change in a human heart that Jesus Christ can make. All these other things can't change a person like that. Look at verse 15, if you will, again. And they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil, and he'll have the legion sitting and clothed in his right mind, and they were afraid. I heard Dr. Harold Seidler say that Some years back, he said, there's a woman who came forward in Tabernacle Baptist Church in Greenville and was wonderfully saved. And next Sunday she was singing in the choir. And one of the members of the church said, Dr. Sikler, he was telling this, don't you know that that woman who came forward last Sunday and is singing in the choir is the worst harlot in Greenville, South Carolina, and she's singing in the choir. Dr. Sightler said, after he told the story, he said, that was 25 years ago, and the worst harlot in Greenville, South Carolina is still singing in the choir. The change that Jesus can make! But look at verse 17, the complaint. Look at it. Verse 17, "...they besought him that he would depart." You know, I think So sad to see this man howling and naked and running and everybody's afraid and all of that. I think the saddest verse in this chapter is verse 17. They besought him, Jesus, that he would leave, that he would depart. Saddest verse. So what did he do? Verse 18 says, if you look at it, verse 18, and when he was come to the ship, they said, Go on, Christ, we don't want you here. They asked him, to leave, and he left. You better be careful how you ask Jesus Christ to leave. You better be careful how you sit in a pew and the Holy Spirit of God says, I want you to move, I want you to do something, I want you to give something, I'll give you life. And you say, go on Christ, not now. I don't want you here in my life now. He left, and as far as I can tell, he never came back. Job 21, verse 14, we read, Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of our ways. Better be careful how you turn him away, or how you silence his voice. He may leave, and he may never come back in that way again. They asked him to leave, and he did. And men today are asking Jesus Christ to leave. And they say, Go on, Christ. We don't want you. We don't want you meddling with us. You'll torment us. You'll wreck everything. We don't want you around. They prefer their sins to the salvation of Christ, to the Savior, and the grunt of swine to the goodness of God. Of course, the man that was wonderfully saved, he got it all, and they missed it all. Christ has landed on your coast. Right here tonight, on this Friday night, go forth to meet him like this man did, the wild man did. The Bible says he ran to Jesus. And what did he get? He got peace. Over in Armenia, came forward in his service. Never been in the church. I don't know if any church or not, but certainly not that church. He came in, I was preaching, wonderfully saved. And she went out, and she said, I have such peace. He got peace, and he got closeness with God, and he got a saved family, and a saved life. And if you read verse 19, you see, he got a special call from God, from Christ. Jesus can lift your troubled life. He can cure your fears and your doubts. He can give you assurance. I told you this week about Mr. Shoemake and how wonderful it was that this man directed me to Christ. I had a man in Australia who was an atheist, his mother-in-law. I preached for nine months in Australia, gave an invitation to every single service. Nobody came for nine months. We organized a church. I knew I had a couple of people who would come, and I knew they would come, and we'd have three or four to start our church with, but a lot of people had been coming. And when I opened the door for membership, there were 28 people who came forward. 28 of those people have been there all that time, and I went to their... to join this new church. I went to their house on Monday, and I said, really wonderful that you want to join our new church. I said, now the only thing about it is you have to be saved. And every one of them, without any exception, said that's what we want to do. I led them all to Christ, baptized 28th March, the old dry and dusty baptismal of the Baptist church there in town, not been wet for months and years, filled up with water, and they were astounded. Where'd you get all these people? They just couldn't understand it. But I had led them to Jesus Christ, and one of them was George Meikle, his mother-in-law, who had been saved, one of those saved, said, you'll never get him saved. He's an atheist. But I went over that night, that Monday night, led him to Christ. He became one of our trustees. He said later on, I used to fight him, now I fight for him. That's a change that Jesus can make. That's a change He's made in your life and mine and so many other people He wants to make that change. Tonight Christ has landed on our coast. Run to meet Him with your sins or your suffering or your life, your heartache, your weakness. Do it now. Only one life, as they were singing. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that You would have Your way with us. Help us to run to meet You. Maybe somebody here tonight needs to run to meet You and say, Lord, I don't know what's going to happen, but here's my life. I want you to take and use it, and I want your plan, not mine, but yours for me. Maybe somebody's burdened down with great burdens, and they need to come and lay these burdens on these steps before your altar and say, Lord, here they are. I've carried these things long enough. Maybe you need to come and say, well, I just need to dedicate myself to you, Lord, again. Lord Jesus Christ, we pray that if this is the desire of the heart of any need tonight, And anybody here unsaved, I pray they won't consider you a tormentor. I pray they'll know how wonderful you are. Lord, have your way, I pray, in all of our lives, for Jesus' sake.