And so we appreciate everyone and you know, I know what David's meant when he said my cup runneth over. Is it rubbing? OK. All right. No, that's fine. My cup runneth over. The Lord touched me just a moment ago, and he whispered this to my heart. Your dream has not shattered. It's just coming through a new vein, a different vein. And so my dream has always been that this church would be strong, mission-minded, loving one another, and going on for God. That's my dream when I started, and it's my dream when I finished. And it's yet my dream, and I'm saying it happened. So there's a good number of people here tonight. Good, wonderful number. And I appreciate everyone for coming, especially since you knew I was gonna be preaching. So I'm glad you're here. And the singing this morning and tonight has just been exceptional. It's touched my heart in so many ways and blessed me. And how thankful all of us are for the Boyer family and that wonderful meal they put on for us today. It's just wonderful. And then of course, our pastor, that was your mother, grandmother, and sister, anybody else? Yeah, right, right. But anyway, it was wonderful. I enjoyed it. Brother, I felt terrible because every dish they had had cheese in it. I felt awful. I mean, I was embarrassed. And she said, oh, I said, don't worry about it. That's why I got that salad plate. That thing was that big and it piled that high. I said, I'm half rabid, it won't bother me. I'll just go on. Then Brother Boyer bought me two helpings at least of potatoes and chicken and green beans. So I'm full all the way around. All the way around. I praise the Lord. Isn't the Lord good and merciful and gracious to us? Now, when I announced my text, I've been in this chapter sometime. I don't know when. I've got too many notes here in my margins to know that I haven't been here. I began to look back, and when the Lord began to touch my heart with this text, and there are other places I could have gone and gotten the same theme, that I'm gonna talk to you about tonight. But it seemed the Lord had me glued to this one passage of scripture. I went back in my log, and as far as I can remember, the last time I preached from this particular text was 2010. So I don't know. But anyway, you'll know, all right? It's 1 Samuel chapter 12. And I was amazed to hear Brother Rain say what he did this morning, that his favorite Old Testament character was Samuel. And when you start studying the life of this man, well, you can really see the things come out in it. He suffered a lot of hardship and a lot of danger situation, but he came through on every one of them. Now what I would like to do, because I'm going to be reading a large portion of this chapter, but I'm just going to read verses 20 through 25 for now. Now we'll be looking at these verses later on And I want you, please, to keep your Bibles open. We're going to be in this chapter. And then especially this one passage, we'll perhaps be looking at it. And I want to be mindful of the time. And I know we've never been a church that pushed the pastor to get through or anything like that. But I'm also mindful, as I've said other places I have gone, that I have sat where you sit. And I've learned. that the mind can only absorb what the seat can endure. So I'm gonna try to keep that in mind tonight as I preach, because what this text, you could preach many sermons out of it. So let's just get started. At verse 20, we'll read the passage and then we'll ask you if you please will pray with us and for us, all right? chapter 12, 1 Samuel, verse 20. And Samuel said unto the people, fear not, For ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart, and turn ye not aside. For then should you go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great namesake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things he hath done for you. "'But if ye shall still do wickedly, "'ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.'" Now, I wanna call your attention to something before we pray. And I've made mention, especially in my book here, and I probably made it to you prior to that, that the Bible is punctuated like no other book on the market. It is what we would call heavily punctuated. But there's a reason for that. Because God wants us to stop and consider, and the translators and also the punctuators reverence God and what he was trying to get across in his word, and they punctuated it in that sense. And I have no problem with the way the Bible is punctuated. And just for example, we've read six verses here. There are seven colons here. There are two semicolons. There are seven commas and four periods. In these six verses, there are 20 punctuation marks. And we all are aware that a common comma calls for a slight pause, a semicolon, a little longer pause, and a colon just short of that of a period. So God is warning us to take in here what He is saying. If you will watch those colons, I would ask if you wait a little after the service, and you'll look at those colons, you'll see what I'm talking about. God wants you to stop and consider what He is saying here in the way that it is punctuated. Now, will you please pray with me and for me? Father, how we thank you for this wonderful day. We thank you for the great service you gave us this morning. And Brother Larry Rains, Lord, thank you for him. Protect he and his wife as they travel much on the highways. And keep him strong in his voice, sounding out the gospel of Christ. I pray that you will bless him. Bless, Lord, our pastor. Thank you so much for this day which he has designed, and I pray that you will bless him and his dear family and meet every need that they have, we pray. Bless every person. who is gathered here tonight. You know the need of every heart. You know the need of every life. And Lord, I pray you'll minister unto them. And please help me, Lord, because I need your divine touch tonight. And help me not to pay so much attention to some of these notes and miss what really you wanted me to emphasize tonight. Now, Lord, I pray for this in Jesus' name and for Jesus' sake. Amen and amen. Now here's our text. Consider how great things he hath done for you. And now Samuel is reminding the nation of Israel here how God has been so good to them and all the great things that he has done. But you and I can look at that and we can know that he has done some great things. not only for the nation of Israel, but for you and me as believers and congregationally as the Herman Baptist Tabernacle. How great God has been to us. Now, many of you are not aware of what I'm about to say, but some of the men in the church are, because they were strong men who believed in our church and who believed in a God who was able to deliver us But in one period of a year's time, this church went through three situations that could have split it, but it did not because of the caliber of people that make up our church. And I know your pastor doesn't because he's mentioned it to me. I've heard him mentioned it from the pulpit, but the caliber of people that make this church up, you just don't go out here and find them on the street corner. And you don't find them by beating the bushes. You find them through people who have a heart for God. and know that His will should ride supremely over everything else concerning His service. And men who are not afraid to take a stand, and women as well who are not afraid to take a stand, who will get on their knees and call upon God and ask God to give the men in our church the wisdom and leadership ability to help our church through the situation that they're in. This is a blessed bunch of people, I'm gonna tell you that. And we owe it all unto God, our Heavenly Father. For if you will notice here, and this is something I love so greatly about the Bible, the more you look at it, the more life you find in it, and the greater the truth in it come out at you. For example, I was just looking at this title itself. Now let's look at them in their context that we find them, what Samuel's talking about here. Now notice here, the first word of our text, consider. That word means to fix your attention upon. It means to peer into. It means to remember. Don't let these things get past your memory. Instead of worrying about what so-and-so's doing and where they've been on Facebook, think about the good things of God. and how that he's blessed you and strengthened you and met the needs of your family and kept your family together and given you health and given you strength and given you friends. Amen. I'm talking about true friends. You don't have to worry when you turn your back, they'll stick a knife in it, but they are true friends and they love you. And I'm telling you, God is so good. Ponder these things in your mind. And if you remember, Moses told the children of Israel prior to their crossing Jordan River into Canaan land, something along the same line, and he warned them about forgetting God. and how easy it is when everything is going so well to forget him. Oh, let us never forget the goodness of God. He said, consider. And then look at this. The next word is the word how. And these two thoughts came to me, pastor, as I was looking at this, how could he, how could God do great things for Israel? after all that they have done against him. Look please in the verse 19, and the people said unto Samuel, pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not. for we have added unto all our sins this evil to ask us a king." Now prior in verse 17, he references the wickedness that they have done and that it is great. They own up to that. In verse 19, And they say we've added to all the sins that we've done. Well, how can God, after Israel has done what they've done, we're gonna see something about that later, all that they've done, how can God do these great works that Samuel's talking about? Well, I don't have to search too far till I look at my own life and I see what God has done in my life. And where I would have been had I followed the paths of my friends when I was growing up. But thank God I didn't. Bless His name. He visited me on a day and showed me my need of Him as a Savior and saved my soul. And then I've been tempted to draw back and tempted to draw back, especially as a young person, as a young person, all the things that are going through their minds or philosophies that are floating around. And you have to rub shoulders with people who were not taught the principles of living for God and the principles of this Bible. And you're getting it from all angles. Your body is filled with hormones and they are running rampant and you don't know what to do with all of these things. I'm telling you, only God can bring us through that situation. And some of us, some of us have failed the test. Amen. We failed the test. We came short. We let our flesh get the upper hand about it. But thank God, God is able inside. Let me say this. All the wickedness of mankind cannot thwart the purpose of God. God has a purpose in your heart, in my heart, in our life, and He's going to fulfill that purpose. He's going to do it. Amen. In spite of sin and our feebleness and our failures along the way, how could God do it? And then why? Would he do it? Consider how, he's saying here, the way that they've treated him. Why would he do it? Well, Samuel tells us down here, and we just read it in verse 22, for the Lord will not forsake his people. Boy, I'm glad. Brother Snow, I'm glad that His blessings upon my life are not dependent upon my faithfulness unto Him. But I'm glad that they are dependent upon His faithfulness unto me. And the verse of Scripture that came to my mind this evening as I was meditating and studying on this, if we believe not, yet He abides faithful, You can't stop the faithfulness of God no matter what happens in your life. Aren't you glad he made an altar that we can come to and say, Lord, clean me up. I fell again. I've come short again. And we all get his ear. We'll get his ear. And then he said, He'll not forsake His people for His great namesake. Not for us, not because we cry pitifully before Him, not because we try to do good for the wrongs that we've done, but for His namesake. And then it's also for His nature. And if you notice here what He says in this verse, because it hath pleased Him, the Lord, to make you His people. That God would be pleased to make me His people. that God will be pleased to make some of us who are man or woman enough to admit the failures in our life, the shortcomings in our life. I heard Brother Smith make a statement this morning in his Sunday school lesson. And I've thought about that two or three times today, about hearing a preacher And he said 90%, if I remember correctly, of the preacher's message was about himself. Well, I'm going to tell you something. While I don't talk about myself, I've never done enough to talk about. I haven't. I've never done enough to talk about. But boy, the Lord sure has been good to me. And God has blessed me and strengthened me. And then listen, he said, great. Consider how great. That's greater than the people could perform. They'd prove themselves because they had come short again and again. And it's better than the priest. And what a man Samuel was. And this just struck me a moment ago. Samuel calls the rain. Samuel caused the thunder to raise through the sky, did he not? Through his prayer. That reminds us somewhere of Elijah, does it not? When he's up on the mountain and he calls the fire down and then later he prays and God sends forth the rain. Samuel was somebody else. Now he really was for God. And then listen, it's great because it was greater than the weather pattern could prevent. I was studying in Thompson's Land in the Book. He was a missionary who spent 40 years in Palestine, and he wrote a three-volume book, A Dear Family. I hope they're listening tonight to Bray's. Brother Kenneth Bray and his wife, Miss Jean, heard me mention that. In my Sunday school teaching years ago, got online and found me a three-volume set that came out of the John Hopkins Library. And there's no telling what those books are worth or what they had to pay for them, but they got them. And Brother Bray, if you're listening, sir, they're still in my library. I just studied one concerning this message. And here's what William Thompson said. He said, in this time of the year when it was wheat harvest, it did not rain. God had put them in such an environment when harvest time came, it didn't rain that time of the year at all. Now, anybody that's ever done any gardening, maybe you've done farming, then you know what rain at harvest time means. It's going to ruin it. If I remember correctly, out West, they had some unexpected floods one year and millions of dollars of crops were ruined because of the flooding. Well, it just didn't rain. Now, if Samuel could pray, he said, I'm gonna show you where God is on this thing. And he prayed. And so the thunder came and the rain came. And so that was just the, I hesitate to use the word, but it's one of Dr. Carpenter's words. That was a phenomenon. That was a very abnormal. It was just something that did not happen at all. And this all takes place here. And so he's showing how great things the Lord has done. And then look at the term things, that's in the plural, okay? So he proved his power over the weather. And I believe God can still do that, don't you? I really do. And then the prize of making them his people. I can't get over that. I can't get over that, the songwriters and the wisdom that God gave them, the ability and talents to write the songs that they write that reminds us of what we have in our blessed Lord. And then listen to this, that God permitted them to serve Him. I don't want to ever take it for granted that God has let me, Brother Nelson, Serve him. Amen. I'm gonna tell you something right now. This is not a difficult nor hard thing for me Amen, this is a blessing to my life that I can serve the Lord God Almighty and you know what he'll let anybody serve him if we'll come before him put our heart in it and Amen. And of course we're talking about saved individuals that love God. And there may be some here tonight that gone cold and different on your heart. You got away from God, but I'm telling you right now, you know where God is? Well, I just read this a moment ago. Listen to what Nehemiah said. He said, a God that's ready to pardon. Amen. I mean, he's not, waiting for you and I to beg Him to forgive us. He's sitting there. All you got to do is ask me. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen. I went on over in the book of Micah and that great prophet had this to say, who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity. Amen. Whose eyes are so pure that he cannot look upon evil. And I really believe that's why he turned his back. When Christ called out from the cross, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And if you remember something else Jesus said, he said, I am a worm and no man. Oh no, Jesus, you can't be a worm. But Jesus was there in my place and in your place. And that's what we were as a low down sinner before almighty God. Amen. And so he took my place and your place on the cross and God pardons iniquity through the finished work of Christ on the cross. Not any good thing I've done nor all of us put together. Oh, what a mighty God we serve. Don't ever try to convince me God is mean. God is good. Amen. He is good. He's so much better for us. that we deserve Him to be. Oh, I'm telling you, if we steal, God, tonight, what we deserve, it's untelling what would happen to us between now and daylight. But God is merciful, and He's gracious, and He's ready to forgive. Plenteous in mercy, the Bible says. You can try him out. He'll always help you. What great things the Lord hath done that God would let us serve Him. He hath done, only He has the means, and only He has the might. The Lord performed all of this. Now, look with me just a few minutes in three things mainly. There's more than that, of course, but three things that Samuel does in this message to Israel. Number one, he consoles them. Now they've sinned, and they know they've sinned, and they know that God is able because he's proven what he means here. Samuel, is the last judge. And he's judged the people. He's been faithful to God. And of course, Samuel's sons went bad. I don't understand that. I've heard people try to explain it. I just believe the Bible. His sons went bad. And he wanted to establish them as the next judge. And the people rose up against that. Now I can't say anything against Samuel. I can't say anything against the people. I'm just telling you what happened. And so the people said, we want a king. We want a king like other nations. When I see up until then, they had a theocracy that is God ruling through a man. But when you come to the kingship, you got a monarchy. And now you've got a king ruling over the people, not directly through God, as the judge had been, as Moses was, and as Joshua was, and so forth. Now you've got God ruling through a man. Now you've got a king ruling. not God ruling through the king. You've got a king ruling, as we see here later on in the life of Saul. And so he consoles them. He says in verse 22, the Lord will not forsake his people. Then in verse 23, he assures them that he will continue to pray for them. Then in verses 20, 23, and 24, he counsels them. Here is his counsel. Turn not aside. Okay? Turn not aside. You see that in verse 20. You see it in verse 21. Turn not aside. And then he talks about the good and the right way. There is a good and there is a right way. And so he said, don't turn out of that. Then he tells them, fear the Lord in verse 24. And he says, serve the Lord. And then he says, consider the Lord. Remember that or consider how great things he has done. So I want to come back to those in just a few minutes. So he consoles them. He counsels them and he cautions them in verse 25. Now that's about as well-rounded as you can get in a message for people. He consoles them, he counsels them, and then he cautions them. Verse 25, if ye shall do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king. Now, God is a forgiving God. You turn, amen, to him. You fear him. You give him the respect that he is due and you serve him. Amen. And you consider all the great things God has done for him. Let them be your meditations day and night of all the goodness of God. You do that and God will bless you. But if you don't, then you're going to be consumed. So I was talking about the nature of God a moment ago and the name of God as well. Now in this chapter, There are some great things, great things. Number one, there's a great testimony. Look in verse three. Behold, here I am. This is Samuel, of course. Witness against me before the Lord and before his anointed, whose ox have I taken or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded, whom have I oppressed, or whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith, and I'll restore it to you. Now, according to the Bible dating system, and best I can find from historians and expositors, at this time Samuel is about 70 years of age. As far as we know, Samuel lived at least 90, maybe 95. Some think he may have lived to 98. So Samuel is one of the oldest prophets to die. and a man that he'd serve God. Now, Samuel is 70 now, when the king is called and installed, but he still continues to judge. If you remember, even in the life of Saul. And so he continues still to be a judge. He judged all the days of his life. Up until the time that he died, he stayed exactly what God had called him to be and what God would use him for. And so maybe that's one of the reasons he being the last judge that he had the length of lifetime that he had, I don't know. But anyway, his testimony is great. But then there's a witness to that testimony. In verses four and five, they respond to it. Thou hast not defrauded us nor depressed, neither hast thou taken aught of any man's hand. And he said unto them, the Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day that you have not found aught in my hand. And they answered, he is witness. So here is a witness to this testimony. Now in verses six down through verse eight, Samuel is reminding them, I don't wanna read all of these, but Samuel's reminding them of the great deliverance that God has made for Israel. And I'm telling you, every time we sing a song that talks about God's delivering power and his grace, I rejoice in my heart. I don't wanna ever get over what God has done for me. Amen. I don't ever get, I don't ever get to the place that it does not mean anything to me. Amazing grace. This brother requested we sing that tonight. I about forgot it. So maybe you can sing that for invitations up. That song still stirs my heart. Grace greater. than all my sin. Boy, you think about, we're just sinful creatures. Amen. I'm not talking about going out here and willingly committing sin and doing things we know that's wrong, but we are. We're still dominated to an extent to the flesh I know he is to be put to death, but boy, can he resurrect real quick. I'm telling you. I don't have any problem putting him to death. My problem is keeping him dead. Amen. He want to rise up again and aggravate us and bother us. And so boy, when we sing those songs, I'm reminded of God's goodness and grace to our life and deliver us. Listen to what he says in verse six, Every time I see a person around my age who is bound in sin, dominated, can't get loose, and they couldn't. Look at verse eight, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt. They couldn't. There was no way that Israel could deliver itself. Israel was under the dominion of the greatest powerful empire on the face of the earth. There's no way they could get themselves out of that, but God delivered them. And I'm telling you, I've heard men and women stand and testify of the bondage that they were in and how that God came in. broke that bondage and set that person free. I'm telling you, and if a son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. And he can set us free and help us out of this bondage. And so he's talking about the great deliverance here that God had wrought for them. And then verses nine and 10, he begins to rehearse the wickedness, even after God has done all of this for them. Do you ever get the place that you just wonder if God doesn't get tired of us? They forgot the Lord, their God. Verse 10, They cried unto the Lord, because the Lord sent the enemies against them, Sisera, captain of the host of Hezor, and into the hand of the Philistines, the king of Moab. And they fought against them, so they cried. Here and what does God do in verse number 11? He shows mercy He delivers you out of their hands the enemies on every side You dwell safe all the way down through verse number 13. He gives them a promise in verses 14 and 15 Positive and negative if you will fear the Lord and serve him obeys voice not rebel against the command of the Lord Both ye and also your king that reigns over you Continue following the Lord your God. And here's what he's saying. Even though you've done wrong and they admit that later on, what they've done in asking the king, God said, even though you've done wrong, if you'll still serve, you'll still serve me and walk with me and fear me. If you'll still do that, then you're going to live. You're going to be all right. God is not a mean God, He's a good God. He's a good God. Amen. If He was like some people presume to be, some of us would already be in hell. But He isn't. He's a merciful God. and a gracious God. Then there's a great manifestation of God's power, and I read that to you a moment ago about the time of the year when they sent forth the rain and the thunder. Now, there's a great judge in this chapter. Boy, there were more like him in our land. Notice three things about him. Number one, his compassion for the people. In verse 23, I'm telling you, church, you get a pastor that loves you, and I believe you have one. I believe we have one, okay? You got a pastor that loves you, you're blessed. Amen, you're blessed. He said, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and cease and to pray for you. That's compassion. Look at his concern for the Lord's people. I will teach you the good and right way. I want to show you what God, when our pastor stands in this pulpit and opens this book and says, thus saith the word of the Lord, what is he doing? Is he trying to build a following? Is he trying to, be dominating? Oh, no. What he is doing, he is telling us the good and the right way that God wants us to go and how thankful we ought to be. Because I'm telling you, there are times in this world and there are places in this world that that pastor does not really care for those people. I saw something today. I wish I knew if it were true. And if it were, I would say it, online or not. But I don't know if it's true or not. About a well-named preacher that has thousands and thousands and thousands of people that's following him, really showed his colors. I'm going to tell you right now, you give me a man, educated or uneducated, that believes this book, lives this book, and tells me what this book has to say. Amen. Amen. That's what matters. That's what matters. That's what's going to keep us in the groove. That's what's going to bring victory in our life. When we look at this, then listen to this, and I'm gonna quit, okay? I never get done, but I'm just gonna quit, all right? His compassion is concerned, and here's his commandment. See, he takes care of all of it. His commandment for the Lord's people, what is it? It's our text verse. Only fear the Lord. Only fear the Lord. And I don't have to tell you, there is little fear of God today. Even in a lot of churches, there's just a little fear of God, but we need to fear Him. He is as much God as He always has been. He has the same power He has always had. Only fear the Lord, then listen, and serve Him in truth with all your heart. I knew I would never be anything, but what I was, He had. I wanted to give Him everything that I had, put my whole heart in it, all of the way. Amen, amen. I'll tell you, I put this in my book, amen, that those heart matters are important unto God. Attitude and desire. weighs heavily with God, and He knows both of them. He knows what we want, and He knows what our hearts are after. I'll tell you, I'd rather be an old-time Christian yet than anything else I know. Amen, I'm glad I'm a Christian. I'm glad I know the Lord. I'm glad He knows me, and I'm glad I'm a part of a Bible-believing, missionary-minded, amen, church. Hallelujah, all right? "'Only fear the Lord, serve Him in truth, "'with all your heart, for consider "'how great things the Lord has done for you.'" Now, listen to this. Fear the Lord, that means to reverence Him. That means to put Him first. Amen, it means to put Him first. And then, serve the Lord means to render unto the Lord. The health and the strength that God gives us, He didn't, I mean, we're gonna be active, boys are gonna play ball, girls are gonna do their thing. I'm not speaking against physical activities, but listen, the health and the strength that God gives you primarily is to serve Him with. And that's what I intend on doing, Brother Nathan. As long as God will give me health and strength, I'm gonna die. And I'm gonna serve him. Amen, I'm gonna put my whole, it's the greatest life anybody can live. You can't live a better life than this life. Amen, you cannot, you cannot. And then remember the Lord. And here's what I wrote in my notes, and I do believe this, that if we will fear the Lord, We will serve Him in truth with all our heart, and we'll keep Him in mind. We'll be considering all the great things that He's done for us. I believe we'll have revival in our hearts. I really believe that. I really do. Now, our neighbors might not want revival. Even neighboring churches might not want revival, but we can want it. And we can have it. Any individual in this church can have revival. Amen. We can draw nigh unto Him. Melissa used to sing that song. Draw nigh. And He'll draw nigh unto us. Amen. Well, let me ask you something. We're gonna stand together. How about your life? Where is it with the Lord? Have you grown cold? Sometimes we take steps beyond going cold. We let ourselves get involved in sin. There's a God in heaven who loves you. If you know him, if you're saved and know that you're saved by the grace of God, there's a God in heaven that loves you and he's ready to pardon. He pardoneth iniquity. Amen. Though our sins be great, His grace is greater. If you're not a Christian, you don't know the Lord. You know in your heart there's not there that intimate fellowship that you can enjoy with the Lord. Maybe there never has been. Why don't you just get it settled? I told a young couple today over in the fellowship hall, I said, if you'll get that message that Brother Raines preached this morning, if you'll get it, It'd be unreal what God can do in your heart and in your life. I don't care what you've done. I don't think any of us in here would want our past written on the wall. It doesn't matter. God loves you. God will forgive you. See, Brother Raines could preach that message he preached this morning. because I saw a time, and Brother Rayne's pastor at the Pleasant View Baptist Church in Taylors, and I heard him make this statement. He said, I got to looking around one Sunday morning, and I said, Lord, our crowd's down. I started to get defeated. And he said, I got to thinking. I started counting up, and we had right at 50 people of our church on the mission field. He saw a young generation cross Jordan. You know what? There's a young generation here. And young generation, you can go over Jordan. You can live the Spirit-filled life. You can walk with God day by day, know His power, know His touch. There's nothing like knowing Jesus. Nothing. Nothing. He can be with you when nobody else can, and he will be with you if all forsake you. How about it tonight? How about it? Where are you? Where are you? With the Lord. Why do you wait, dear brother? I remember a night, preacher, in Titusville, Florida. My wife was saved that night. Preacher had come to visit us. We'd been to his church a few times. And I got in on my knees and I said, Lord, what a mess. What a mess I have made out of my life. You see, Satan will get us convinced that we know how to run our life. Well, let me tell you right now, we don't. We know how to rip it up on the rocks, but we don't know how to run our life. And I'm in, pastor, with all my heart, Lord, if there's anything in my life worth having, you can have it. Because all I've done is made a big mess. You can have it. And if he'd said, I don't want that mess, what could I have said? But you know what he said? Come unto me. Never forget that. It's almost like getting saved. When you see that time when you, as Brother Raines used his phrase this morning, run up the white flag of surrender. Lord, I'm yours. Whatever you want. Whatever you want. We'll sing, Brother Ray. The pastor's coming. Why do you wait?