So, COVID has messed up a lot of stuff. And my heart goes out, because we hear about it every week, to those who've lost loved ones, many who have not been able to be with their loved one at the time that they went into eternity. With our work with the Independent Baptist Church Placement List, which is a list that we have put together over the last 15 years that helps churches to find pastors and pastors to find churches. It's a place to connect. Hundreds and hundreds of churches have found pastors through it. I was telling Pastor Starr yesterday that it looks like to me, just from what I see, probably anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of the churches are not coming back. And that, to me, is so sad. I had an elderly man. We put people on the list, churches on the list, and they're on there for four months. And if they don't get back to me in four months, then I remove them so people aren't complaining at me that we got people on there that already have a pastor and so on and so forth, because people don't always communicate properly. And the gentleman told me, he said, he was on for four months. I took it off, put it back on for four months and took it off again. And he called me and he was just weeping. And he said, we're in a town of 7,000 people. We have a paid for church. We have a parsonage that's paid for. We got three and a half acres of land. But we can't get a pastor. And he said, I fear we're going to have to close. And he just wept and said, please put us back on there. Man. You know, of course I did. But the same story, you know, we're getting contact all the time from churches that are small in number. many years have done great things, but now they're in a struggle position. And this is kind of in the tipping point for them. And so, I am praying about, writing about the fact that I know we spend a lot of money on starting churches, but we may have to take a harder look at that about replanting churches. Because, you know, that building is going to go to some cult or some false doctrine church or, you know, get plowed under. And, you know, and they're not bad buildings. They're not buildings that, you know, that they've been there for years, but they're, and at one point were a thriving church within their community. That's something to think about, but my heart goes out to the people that have lost loved ones during COVID, and many people have lost a lot of things during COVID. And I think that one of the things that we need right now is, in our country and in our churches, is some encouragement. And today I want to speak to you about the desire for encouragement. The desire for encouragement. I just came back from Fargo. It's a large church. Auditorium seats about 1,250 and about 500 people present. And they haven't had a choir in a year. and they haven't had their orchestra up in a year. And so they were just coming up off the ground in the week that we were there. God gave us a great meeting, people got saved, lives were changed, and they were just coming back up off the ground. And it was almost like Wow, it's been so long since we've been able to do these things. And I know here you've got some things that you haven't been able to do, right? And you want to do them, but we've also got some issues with those things. And so we have to understand common sense, but we also have to understand that some of the things that we want to do, we haven't been able to do. And some of the people have lost many things that have been dear to them. And so this morning, I'd like for you to take your Bibles and turn to Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4. Now, for those of you that have been in the conference, you've heard me say in the past that if you're going to make biblical long-term change in your life, you have to learn the fours. James 4, Philippians 4, and Ephesians 4. Because these chapters are the change chapters of the Bible. So I'd like for you to stand with me, if you would, out of respect to God and His Word. The subject this morning is the desire for encouragement. How are we going to encourage the desire for encouragement? In Philippians chapter 4, the Bible says, Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation or your self-control or spirit control be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful or anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, notice folks, think on these things. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you this morning for the opportunity that is ours again to come into your house, to fellowship one with another, to open your word, and to be able to share the truth. And I pray, God, if there's a person here today who's unsaved, that they might see their need of salvation and get saved today. I pray, God, if there's a person here today who is out of fellowship with you. And Lord, I pray that their fellowship would be restored. I pray that I submit myself to you now. And I pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit will be our teacher today. Pray that my mind and my heart will be yours. I pray you'll work in hearts here today in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Now, in the last hour, I said that it's extremely important to realize that you have to be in fellowship with God. Just playing church is not going to do it. And within many independent Baptist churches, it's a lot of scenarios where we're going through the motions of getting things done, but a lot of the problems that come up and a lot of counseling scenarios that come up is because the people do not have fellowship with God and they're not even seriously thinking about that. And it is very important that we seriously think about that, amen? Now, if we're not in fellowship with God, we're gonna grieve the Holy Spirit, and it's impossible then for the Holy Spirit to work in our life because we're out of fellowship with God. So we said this morning, the three questions that we have our counselees ask themselves every day. Now, all of you, none of you would think about walking in here without taking a bath for the last week, right? then we'd have some social distancing, amen? Okay, but the whole point of it is is that you wouldn't think about that. You probably wouldn't even think about going maybe a day or two without taking a bath. Now, I recognize with the way people have been staying at home, that might be a problem, but at the end of the day, you wouldn't think about that. That wouldn't be something you would allow in your life. But what about spiritual washing? What about spiritual washing? God wants you to be in fellowship with Him every day. We have an old sin nature and that old sin nature, we have the capability of sinning multiple times a day. We call it the point of spiritual impact. Somebody says something to you, somebody does something to you, something flashes into your mind that, you know, that happened at church or happened at work or happened somewhere, and then you dwell upon that, and at that moment, you're thinking, you're going up the flesh cycle of Psalm 37, fret, envy, anger, wrath, evil cycle. And quite frankly, when you start fretting, that means you start thinking about it. How am I going to encourage anybody if I'm always thinking bad things? How am I going to encourage people if I am thinking about bad things all the time? You know, I would like for you to take your Bible and turn back to 2 Corinthians 10, 2 Corinthians 10 and look in verse 3. The Bible here says, now keep in mind we're talking about encouraging people. I'm saying if you want to be an encourager, you've got to be spiritually right with God. Amen? Okay, now watch what the Bible here says about your thoughts. The Bible says in verse 3, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. So consequently, if we're not in fellowship with God, we think that we're going to handle our problems in the flesh. We're not going to handle our problems in the flesh. We have to handle them in the power of the Spirit, which we already saw this morning. But I can't do that if I'm not in fellowship with God. So we can't war after the flesh. Now, verse 4 says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Many Christians are going through their life, carnality is where they're at, and so the weapons of their life are the flesh, and God is saying specifically here, that can't be, should not be, and better not be. So weapons of our warfare are not carnal, not gonna work, but mighty. So in essence, if you're saved today, you're in fellowship with God and you're a spirit controlled person, you have mighty weapons. You have mighty weapons and yet we don't use them. because we're too consumed with dealing with our problems in the flesh. Now watch what it says. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Strongholds where? In your mind. Everything starts here. What you think is what you are. And so at the point of impact, you know, husband doesn't come home on time. He didn't call. And I can get upset. Little things happen during the day that are spiritual impact moments. And if I'm not extremely careful with that, how I handle it, I'm going to be out of fellowship with God, not controlled by the Holy Spirit, and I'm not thinking about encouraging anybody. Because I'm only thinking about me. What I want. Now, notice here it says strongholds. Now, you know, Strongholds here in 2 Corinthians 10.4 means figuratively a heavily fortified containment and is used of a false argument on which a person seeks shelter or a safe place to escape reality. Now on our intake form for the counseling center, because this is a big deal, The question is asked, do you find yourself thinking about living in a different place, a different time, with a different person? And people think that's a safe place. It's not a safe place. It's a wrong place. And you may think that nobody knows what I'm thinking over here. But I got news for you. God knows. And if I'm thinking incorrectly, then my fellowship with God is gone. And so if I'm fantasizing, and watch what it says here. Verse 5, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity, how many thoughts? Every thought to the obedience of Christ. You say, is that possible? Well, it said it is. So if God says it's possible, then it's possible. Amen. Keep your finger here for a second and turn back to Psalm 18. Turn back to Psalm 18. Look at verse 11 with me. You know, verse 11 here says, He made darkness His secret place. His pavilion round about Him were dark waters and thick clouds of the sky. Now you know what? We have to take control of our dark side. Amen? Rather than let it control us here, we have to take control of it so that we can learn how to be an encourager of people. Okay, so we have to learn to take control of our dark side, our old nature per se. So now let's turn back to Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four, and look at verse four with me. And it says, rejoice in the Lord, when folks? Always, and again, I say rejoice. Now I've had people tell me that's not possible. Well, now the Bible says it is possible. And if the Bible says it is possible, then it's capable to be done. Let's look at verse 13. I can do all things through Christ, which what? Strengthens me. How many things? All. Now, let me ask you a question. I'm a question asker. Do you see verse four? Rejoice in the Lord, what? Oh, and again, I say rejoice. Now, I want to ask you a serious question right now. Is that your life? Is that your life? If it's not your life, why not? You say, well, you don't know what I've got to handle, Dr. Coomer. Believe me, I understand. But I also understand what the Bible says here. Now, if I am not going to be in a place where I can rejoice in the Lord always, am I gonna be able to encourage other people?" Now a lot of Christians, they fellowship in negative. Or they're always spinning their spiritual situation to make it sound really good for them. Only they're still doing it in the power of the flesh. And boy, they can spin some whoppers. Because they want you to think that they're spiritual people. But they're not. Rejoice in the Lord when? Always. So how's that going to happen? Well, I want you to listen to me very carefully because I'm going to tell you how it's going to happen. This is Christianity 101, which we flunked a lot of the time. You know, I've been spending some time with some people that are very angry, very bitter, very unhappy with their home life and their children and their blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah. And we've seen a breakthrough recently. I never realized that was me. and how ugly and negative I've been and how it's affected my children and my marriage. Now, I'm going to take a little trip off here for a second. and we're gonna come right back, okay? So I want you to look with me at 1 Peter chapter two and look at verse one. You know, if anybody changed his life and is a good example for us, it's the apostle Peter. You know, I see him back in the gospels and he was a guy who opened his mouth first, and got himself in trouble. But here in 1 and 2 Peter, he's now the encourager. He's now the guy that these Jewish people were being killed on a daily basis by bloody Nero. They were being torn away from their families. They were being torn away from their homes. They didn't know where they were going to get their next meal. They had to go and try to find out where they were to get something to eat today. But he was called Bloody Nero for a reason. A vile and wicked man, killing Christians, Jewish Christians, daily. And Peter comes out and he gives them great encouragement here to walk with God during this hard and difficult time that they were in. But notice what he said to them in 1 Peter 2 and verse 1. He says, Wherefore laying aside malice and all guile... Guile means cunning deceit. and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings. That means a critical spirit. Lay it aside. Well, that might be a real challenge if you were in a position that you didn't know where you was going to sleep tonight. Or that if you're going to get up the next morning and Nero's men were going to be there to kill you. But Peter said, lay it aside. In essence, he said, don't be caught griping. Don't be caught being negative. And you know what? Let's go back now and see what the Apostle Paul said about it. Turn back to Philippians 2 and look at verse 4. Philippians chapter 2 and verse 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings. How many things? All. What part of all we got a problem with? It said all. Now for us as a Christian today in America, Because of much of the aspect of living a non-spirit controlled life, we spend a lot of our time being negative, critical, unfocused, and living our lives in the power of the flesh. When God wants us to be spirit controlled people. And so in Philippians 4, he says, I want you to rejoice. Paul said, rejoice in the Lord always. Always. And again, I say rejoice. How am I going to do that? Well, he didn't stop with that verse. Now I want you to notice verse 5. It says, what's the first word in verse 5, folks? Let. Come on, you gotta help me out now, say with me. Let, and when you see let at the start of the verse, anybody in the conference, can you tell me what that means? Pastor says yield, what else? Somebody's gotta make a decision. When you see let at the start of a verse, it means somebody's got to make a decision. So, it's a decision you're going to make here, one way or another, let your moderation, or your self-control, or being a spirit-controlled person, be known unto all men, the Lord is at hand. Now, verse 6 says, be what, ladies and gentlemen, careful, or the word means anxious, for what? Nothing. But in everything, now watch carefully because here is the two big tools coming up. Be careful for nothing or anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. You see the word thanksgiving? Thanksgiving. Monster word in Scripture. 147 times. So whenever God wants to make a point in the Bible, what does He do? He repeats it. Now go over to verse 8. Last phrase. And if there be any praise, So the second tool is what? Praise, thanksgiving and praise. Think on these things. Instead of Mr. and Mrs. Negative. Mr. and Mrs. Carnality. Mr. and Mrs. I don't like them. Mr. and Mrs., I don't care what they say. Look, you can't encourage anybody if you're handling yourself that way. Amen? Not at all. So here, now notice verse 8 with me. Finally, brethren, Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are good report, if there be any virtue in there, be any praise, do what? Think on these things. So listen to me. Point of impact, take control. I know pastors talked about this. I've talked about it here at the conference. I want you to understand this is one of the most important tools you're ever going to have to use in your life at the point of impact so that you can be the person God wants you to be. So at the point of impact, when there's a thought, at the point of impact, when there's an evil thought, by the way, you can't stop an evil thought from coming into your mind, you can stop it from staying there. So immediately at the point of impact, submit yourself to God. James 4.7 says, submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. So immediately at the point of impact, Lord, I want to submit myself to you. What do you want me to thank you for? What do you want me to praise you for? I want to turn this over to you. By the way, you know what that's called? Living by faith. And the Bible says we live faith to faith. So, in essence, in this situation, I'm going to live by faith. Next situation, I'm going to live by faith. Next situation, I'm going to live by faith. Next situation, I'm going to live by faith. Because I'm going to turn things. I'm going to submit myself. I'm going to turn things over to God. And I'm going to ask Him what He wants me to thank Him for and praise Him for. And it's like rebooting your computer. You're rebooting your mind at that point. Rather than thinking about this, I don't like this, I don't like that, I don't like what she said, I don't like what he did, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Stop. Think. Turn it over to God. Submit yourself. What do you want me to praise you for? What do you want me to thank you for? And immediately, something's going to pop into your mind. That is verse 8 stuff. There's nothing negative there. So finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. You have to control that. God's given you the tools to control it. By the power of the Spirit of God. The moment you submit yourself and turn that over to God, you know, just like you trusted God for your salvation. Now think about it with me. You trusted God for the salvation of your soul, to take you to heaven. So why can't you trust Him with your daily life? Amen? So at that point of impact, whatever it may be, when Mrs. Negative walks up and says, Oh, you know, honey, you got something right there in your arm. Don't you ever take care of yourself? Nobody would ever do that, right? Nobody would ever do that. So, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna turn her over to God. Lord, I want to submit myself to you here. I want to turn this situation over to you. What do you want me to praise you for? What do you want me to thank you for? And so I'm not going to engage in that silliness. I'm going to be a spirit controlled person at the point of impact. One of my mentors, who's now in heaven, pastored one of the largest churches in this country, followed one of the great Bible teachers in that church of the previous generation. And when he came to take over the church, there was a deacon there that just didn't like him. And no matter what he said, this guy didn't like it or he was against it. And he would say horrible things to him. And he said, you know, I tried multiple different ways to get this guy to come on board with me. Just wouldn't happen. And finally the guy got so mad he left the church. And my friend said, you know, I turned him over to God. And he said, you know, he says, I, he said, I asked God, first of all, did I do anything here that caused this? And God said, no, he said, just turn him over to me. And he did. Now, the first week, that was hard, because the things that he said came up multiple times a day, and my friend had to say, Lord, I want to submit myself to you. I want to turn this over to you. What do you want me to praise you for? What do you want me to thank you for? And he said, I continued to do that, continued to do that, continued to do that, and continued to do that. And he said, you know, it got easier. And he said, after a couple, three or four weeks, it wasn't as hard. He said, after six months, I never thought about him at all. I just left him with God. Ten years went by. Fast forward ten years. He was out in the auditorium on a Monday morning. He was praying and putting up hymn books. Saw a guy walk in the back door that was all disheveled and hair down his shoulders, dirty, greasy, beard down to his belly. torn clothes, just filthy looking person. And he saw him when he came in. He was a little concerned because he's in the building by himself. And then he looked at him and he thought, you know, I've seen this guy somewhere before. I just can't place him. And you know what happened? The guy walked up to him and he said, I just want to let you know I said, you don't know me, do you? And he said, honestly, he says, my friend said, honestly, I, you know, I look, you look familiar, but he said, I just can't place you. And he told him his name and he said, really? And he said, I want you to know, he says, I've come here today to apologize to you. He said, I lost my home. I lost my business. I lost my wife. I lost my children all because I hated you. And he said, would you accept my apology? And my friend said, well, sure. See, because he hadn't thought about it in what? Years, but he'd left it with God. Now it took God all that time to bring him to the place of repentance. And guess what? My friend asked him, he said, can I get you a place to stay? Maybe can I get you a meal, get you cleaned up here, get you some clothes? And this guy said, no. He said, I just wanted to come by today to get right with God and get right with you. Now, are you going to live by faith or are you going to live by holding grudges? being mean and vindictive, holding grudges against people, when in reality, all you need to do is turn them over to God. Amen? Now? And it might be tough what they did. And I can hear somebody say now, well, Dr. Kuhlman, you don't know what they did to me. Yeah, I do. I hear about it every week. But my point to you is this, you can let them control you or you can let the Holy Spirit control you, amen? How many of you ever got up and been thinking about something that somebody did or that kind of thing and you thought about it all night and you got up the next morning and you're thinking about it again? You ever done that? Who's controlling you? that situation or that person, rather than you turning it over to God and asking Him what you can praise Him for, what you can thank Him for. Now, let's see how serious this is biblically, okay? I'm gonna take this next couple minutes to do this. I want you to now turn back to Hebrews chapter 13 with me. I want you to look at verse 15 with me. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 15. Notice what it says, ladies and gentlemen. By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of what? Praise to God. When, ladies and gentlemen? Continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving what, ladies and gentlemen? Thanks to his name. So when is this supposed to be done? Continually. So when does the point of impact come up? Continually. So I have to take control of it continually rather than let it control me and be out of fellowship with God for half a day because I'm thinking about how mean she's been to me or how mean that guy was to me and I'm not going to take it and I don't have to take it. You got it? I wanna submit myself to you. So therefore now, if I learn to submit myself to God, and I learn thanksgiving and praise, guess what, ladies and gentlemen? Now I'm capable of encouraging somebody else. Every day, Once I finished my devotional time with God and His Word, having a daily time with God, after I've asked those questions I told you about, went through and I've prayed and I asked God, who do you want me to encourage today? Now, don't you think He's got a better idea about it than I do? Do you think He'll answer you if you ask Him? Asking, it shall be given you. Seeking, you shall find. Knocking, it shall be opened unto you. Who do you want me to encourage today? Now, when you ask that question, what does it do? It gets you off of thinking about who? Yourself and thinking about who? Others that you can encourage. And, you know, immediately God will lay somebody on my heart. And back before, you know, cell phones and technology and yeah, and I was pastoring before that. So that means I'm an old guy. Okay. I remember when the internet came out. How many of you remember that? Yeah? Now how many of you spend hours and hours and hours a day on that? Yeah? You know what? So at that time, I used to just have some cards on my desk, and I would write to people and say, you know, I want to encourage you today. God laid you on my heart. Now I can call, you know, by cell phone, and they have a cell phone, and I can get them when they're doing whatever they're doing, generally. for all these time-saving things that's made us a lot more busy, right? Well, you know, so amazing as a pastor, I will call somebody and say, you know, Tom, the Lord laid you on my heart today. I just want to encourage you and how we get... You don't know, Dr. Coomer, how much that helped me today. I really needed it. I'm so glad that you thought about me today. And I said, well, God thought about you. I just asked him. So that I'm not thinking about me, but I'm thinking about encouraging others. But I got to be in a spiritual condition to do that. Just got through counseling. Well, if I say this, You know, we have people who contact us who are doubting their salvation. I had, in this past year, I had someone get in touch with me, the pastor, his pastor did. And he said, I'm at Whitson Corner here, I don't know what to do. This was a person who made a profession of faith at the age of 16. Went to the mission field, came back from the mission field because he was doubting his salvation. Went back to the mission field, came back again because he was doubting his salvation. Been hospitalized multiple times because he's beside himself on this issue. Do you know what the problem was? He had no relationship with God. He didn't spend any time in God's Word. He didn't know how to. But if he did know how to, he didn't do it. And so he was living under the power of what? Come on. Flesh. And that had been going on. And when his pastor contacted me, he was 60 years old. So that had been going on since he was 16. Can you imagine being in that kind of misery over that period of time? Praise God today, he doesn't have that anymore. Amen. God has changed his life. But look at all those years, and maybe you're here this morning. And for many years, you've been in a position that you've been living under the power of the flesh instead of the power of the Spirit. You might be a Bible college student here today. By the way, we counsel a lot of Bible college students who are living under the power of the flesh. You might be a person here who's been a member of this church for many years and you've been living under the power of the flesh. And, you know, you have negative thoughts. You might even have negative thoughts about me right now, you know, but I'm going to turn you over to God. Amen. Now, I have one final question for you this morning, and I want you to think about this seriously. Let's just say for the, and I know very few of you, okay, And I do know some of you, but I know very few of you. And you know what? Let me just put it to you this way. Think about this. What if you're a person who is living under the power of the flesh, and you're saying mean things, you're doing mean things, or you're thinking negative thoughts, or you're thinking highly impure thoughts, And you say something not fantastic to somebody else. What do you think is going to happen if they turn you over to God? You never think about that, do you? What is going to happen with you if somebody turns you over to God? Serious thought, huh? So I want to encourage you this morning, folks. Be in the position spiritually that you can be an encourager because there's plenty of people out there that you can be an encouragement to. But you've got to be prepared for it. And you've got to be in the spiritual position to be able to do it. Now, In August, my dog died. And I loved that dog. He was a good dog. Part Beagle, part Basset. And when he barked, his front paws came up off the ground. And I'd be sitting in my recliner, and he'd come in from the outside. He'd run in, he'd jump up in my lap, and he'd put his head right here. Give me a hug. Just lay there. And so he died. And so, you know, we were gone on some meetings out in Colorado. And we came back, we decided we just weren't going to take any meetings for a month or two because of COVID and also because we wanted to get a new dog. So we ended up getting a beagle puppy. Mercy. My wife told me, she says, I just have one thing to tell you. Don't ever tell me we're going to get a puppy again. Because I am spending a lot of time and I said, well, now if you keep thinking that way, I'm going to have to turn you over to the Lord. Okay. By the way, the puppy's named Rocky. Pastor Starr says, I figured it, you know. So, but, you know, he's full-blooded. He's, you know, he's got papers and he's microchipped and the whole nine yards, you know. But he is a mess. But he reminds me a lot of the messes that I deal with every day, you know. The messes that we deal with every day because people are living in the power of the flesh instead of in the power of the Spirit. And God wants you to live in the power of the Spirit today. Now, maybe you're here this morning and maybe you've never been saved. Well, you know that's the most important decision you're ever going to make because if you die today, you want to know you're going to heaven. Amen? But maybe you're here this morning and you know that God's been speaking to you today. That what we're talking about, you know is the truth and you know it's hitting right in your home in your life. And now God wants you to do something about it. Your light bulb just came on and he wants you to answer the call to understand that you cannot continue to live this way. Otherwise, the Bible says in Proverbs 13, 13, He that despiseth the word, and that word despiseth means does not give proper attention to, shall be destroyed. Didn't say might be, didn't say possibly could be, said shall be destroyed. You know who I get to deal with every single day? People that are being destroyed because they don't have a real intimate, personal, passionate relationship with God. You have an opportunity today Now we have books back there that can help you. Pastors got some of the books. They can help you. Brother Todd, others here, listen. Now's the time. Don't live in defeat. Don't live in discouragement. Don't live that way. You don't have to. God wants you to have hope. He wants you to get up off the ground. He wants you to move forward. And it may mean you just need to come forward today and talk to him about it and let him know you're ready to make some biblical long-term change in your life instead of continuing to live the way you live now. And you may be here this morning and your attitude is indifferent. Your attitude is indifferent because you don't think that you need to do anything and you still want to continue to live in the power of the flesh. Don't presume that God's not going to do anything about that. You're now being held responsible. Thank you for joining us by way of the internet today. We're so glad that you were able to be with us and we pray that the service was a blessing to your heart. Even though the sermon is over, our service is not over. At the end of our service, we give an opportunity for people to respond and come to an altar and pray over what God dealt with them about. Sometimes people come to call upon Christ and to be saved. Others come to make a decision for Christ regarding their Christian lives. Others come to call out to the Lord about special needs and situations in their lives. Maybe God has dealt with you today about some specific area of your life. I invite you to make an altar right there in your home, a quiet time before the Lord where you pray to Him and respond to Him about what He has spoken to you about. If you made a decision for the Lord today, we would be glad to hear about that decision and or answer any questions you have today about the message that was preached. You can contact us by way of email at info at mountziononline.org or by way of phone at 717-927-9227. Again, we thank you for joining us today and we look forward to you joining us again for our live stream weekly on Sundays at 10.45 a.m. and on Sunday evenings at 6.45 p.m. If we can meet a need in your life, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you, and God bless you.