Amen, thank you so much, Brother Ben. Thank you to our musicians. We're gonna do something just a little bit differently today. If you would turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 15, Luke chapter 15. And the Bible says in verse one of Luke chapter 15, Luke 15 1, then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto them saying, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it upon his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over 90 in nine just persons which need no repentance. Either what woman having 10 pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. And he said, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. and he divided unto them his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against thee. and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry and would not go in. Therefore came his father out and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment. And yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, and is found. It is my great privilege to introduce to you this morning our speaker for our missions conference, Dr. Stephen Hankins. Dr. Hankins began his teaching ministry in 1975. He has taught various Bible and ministerial training courses, as well as serving as the Dean of the Seminary at Bob Jones University. He was one of my professors, And I profited greatly from him, not only from his teaching, but also from his example and his heart for God. And now he continues to faithfully train the next generation of pastors. His current ministry is filled with preaching, teaching, and writing books for believers. And we have one of those books available. It is called, The Glory of the Cross. That is available out in the lobby. And I would highly recommend this to you. He has been active as a local pastor. He is now serving local churches. He helped to found Frontline Missions International. He has a heart for serving pastors and missionaries around the world. and has traveled extensively to minister to them. And so it is our great privilege to have him with us today. We're gonna ask him to come and to present God's word to us this morning. Dr. Hankins. Thank you, pastor. Yes, amen. I invite you to turn to Luke 15 this morning where pastor has just read the scriptures for us of those 32 verses. It's good to come to a place where there are some familiar faces. It's good to visit again with Pastor John Mark and Pastor Merkel, Pastor Andy, I guess you call him, and appreciate their ministries so much, their former students. And I enjoy seeing former students, especially when they're going on to serve the Lord faithfully in a good place like this ministry for the glory of God. All of us have, most of us have hobbies of one kind or another. I like reading as one of my hobbies. And one time I read something that stuck with me really permanently. It was like a parable to me personally. Actually it was a condensed book in Reader's Digest. It wasn't even a whole book, but it was impressive. It was about the search for a Spanish galleon, a Spanish ship called the Atocha. You know, in the 16th, 17th, 18th centuries, and even on into the early 19th century, the Spanish were all the time getting all the riches they could possibly get out of Central and South America. And so they would load up these ships with gold and silver and they'd take it back to Spain so they could make their king even richer than he already was. Well, one of these ships called the Atocha sank really right off of Key West in a hurricane in 1622. At the time of its sinking, there were 600 pounds of gold on this ship. There was 1,038 silver bars. There was a quarter of a million silver coins, estimated at that time at $400 million, I mean at the time of the story being told. In 1969, a guy named Mel Fisher with his sons formed a company that was called Treasures Salvores Incorporated and they began to look for the Atocha off of Key West. Some four years later in 1973, the younger son of Mel Fisher, Dirk, found the anchor and about seven silver bars, and they thought they had found the mother load, but they didn't. It wasn't in fact the actual whole sunken ship. In fact, that search cost them about two years around that area, and in 1975, Dirk, this younger son, was killed in a storm. But 10 years later, on July 20th, 1985, now reckon the time here, 1969 to 1985, they're still searching for this lost ship. They found it. They found the ship. They recovered the gold, the coins, and the silver, all the hundreds of millions of dollars worth. It cost all that time, It costs the life of Mel Fisher's younger son. When I think of that, when I consider the investment, if we want to call it that, that was made to recover that material wealth, I'm burdened, frankly. It concerns me. It bothers me. It bothers me because by comparison, by contrast, when you ask yourself the question, would I go to those lengths, would I go to that extent, all those years, the life of a family member, to discover, to find what is of even greater value, and that is the souls of lost men. Whether in the community here, are over the seas on the mission field. That is a penetrating thought. That is a convicting thought. In the Bible, the New Testament, Jesus said concerning himself that he came to seek and to save that which is lost, but not gold, not silver, men. He determined that we are to be fishers of men. These three parables that were read in your hearing from Luke 15, back to back, taught by the Lord Jesus on the same occasion, is the longest section in the Bible about finding lost people for the glory of God. Both Old and New Testament, there is nothing more lengthy or more detailed than this passage of scripture. Here we are at the outset of a missions conference. Here we are at the outset of talking about finding lost people. This church exists to find lost people. It exists in this part of New Jersey. It exists in the world for that purpose, for the glory of God. And what we can find in this passage of scripture is the true heart of Christ for missions. What kind of heart do I have to have to really be compelled in this mission to reach lost people? I want you this morning while we visit together for a few minutes to think very personally about this, very individually. I want you to think as a church about this. I want you to think locally, and I want you to think worldwide. What did Jesus say was the kind of heart a person has to have to be compelled to be thrust out into the great endeavor of finding what is of greatest value, lost men and women and children for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This passage answers this question for us. Now, as we talk about it this morning, I'm going to be referencing you to different places in these three parables so you can see this heart that we must have take shape. as we consider this primary passage about this topic in the New Testament. We learn from this passage, first of all, that we must have hearts that are overflowing according to the scriptures with compassion in this search for lost people. You see, it's compassion, a sense of pity, a sense of mercy toward those that are lost. that Christ had that caused him to take the initiative to come from the glory of heaven, to leave behind the magnificence of his position of honor in heaven, to vest himself of that and take upon himself the form of a servant, and not only that, but even to experience death, the death of the cross, in order that lost people could be saved. It was compassion that caused him to take the initiative. Okay, that's how important this compassion is. The Bible says in the first of these three parables in verse four, that the shepherd, who we ought to understand or view primarily here first as Christ, went to seek the sheep that were lost. He was compelled by that condition of that sheep. It also says in verse eight in the second parable that the woman, out of compassion for her family, not for the coin that was lost in her house, but out of compassion for the needs of her family, it says, search diligently to find that coin to return it to the economy of the family. In the third of the parables, the father never left home, the son left home, often called the prodigal son. But that father had great compassion in his heart for this son. The Bible says when the son was returning, the father saw him from a great way off, a great distance, and he ran to him and he hugged him. And in fact, it says specifically, had compassion on him in verse 20, fell on his neck and kissed him. grabbed him and hugged him and welcomed him back home. Even though this son had wandered far away, had squandered an early inheritance he received from his father and was living in a terribly wicked condition in a foreign place, there was great compassion. The shepherd, the woman, the father. In these parables, they're picturing God for us, God the Son for us, and what we should be also. This compassion caused initiative to be taken in all three cases by these main characters in the parable. And you know, we have to take that initiative, folks, because the Bible says in Romans 311, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God, none. Ronald was languishing in prison in Central Ohio, and a compassionate pastor regularly visited that prison. and talk to Ronald about his life and about spiritual matters. Ronald never made a profession of faith, but he was eventually released from prison and he showed up at a morning service just like this and sat at the back of the auditorium listening as I preached the word of God. And when I asked if there was any who wanted to place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved from their sin and receive the gift of eternal life, Ronald raised his hand. and I met with him following the service. I'd invited him to remain behind and opened the word of God to him. Ronald called upon the Lord Jesus and was saved. Six months later, when I visited in that area to speak at a men's fellowship, there was Ronald being faithfully discipled by other men that were in the church there that he had been converted to Christ in. That pastor, had had compassion to go to that man. Those Christians continue to show compassion to develop the life spiritually of this man, Ronald, who was in a very difficult place in his life. We must be compelled by our own sense of pity and mercy, as the Lord Jesus Christ was, to seek those that do not know Christ. But you know something else ought to compel us. Our hearts should be overflowing with compassion. That's true. But it's not only that that compassion causes us to take initiative, but that tragic condition. of lost people should really compel us to have this compassionate heart toward people. Think about this for just a moment. The tragedy that is often the lives of people who are without God, The sheep in this case, in the first parable, verses four through seven, was in the fold, it was protected, it was cared for by the shepherd, it wandered off, and it was directionless as a result. Remember the words of Isaiah 53, verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way. What a description of human beings. Those people that are Snuggly living, uncomfortable living in their homes, going to work every day, day in and day out, earning a good living, raising their families, their sheep that have wandered and gone astray. What about that coin? Now the coin is not a living thing. But when you consider how important it was to the economy of the family, we notice in verse 8 that that coin, which was of value, was lost. And that was a valuable coin. It was worth a whole day's wages. It was not a small thing. That valuable coin became valueless to the family because it was lost. As Romans 3.12 says, they are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. You know, that's got to be men and women. One of the great tragedies of people who are apart from God, who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, is that they have been brought into the world by a magnificent act of His creation. They have been given gifts. They have been given abilities. They have been given capacities to serve and to glorify God, and their life is being utterly wasted. It's valueless. because they are lost in their sin. You consider that son in that third parable who had a good situation in his family. He was a younger son, wasn't gonna be the primary inheritor, wasn't gonna get the double portion, but he had a good place to live and he had a father that loved him and was caring for him on what was apparently a sizable estate. And he left and he wandered off into iniquity and into sin. And we could say if there was ever a young guy that could be described by Ephesians 2.1, it's him. He was dead in his trespasses and sins. In fact, in verse 24, the Bible says, As the father speaks for this, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to marry. This is right before they started the celebration. Look at what the father said to the older son in verse 32. It was meat that we should make Mary and be glad for this. My brother was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. Walking dead people. You know, they call them zombies now. It's really what lost people are. I hate to say it, not the movie depiction of zombies, but I mean they are walking dead people. They have no relationship with God. And that's the essence of death, really a death of a relationship. I don't have any relationship with a person. A death of my relationship with God is I end up in eternal condemnation and hell. I have no relationship with God. Listen, you've observed the price that sin exacts from people. Ravaged relationships, purposelessness in the present, disillusionment with life over the future, caught in grinding, crushing addictions, frustrated with their life circumstances, living in a narcotic haze. living a life enslaved to immorality. And life is a vapor. And eternity is forever. Hell is horrible. Hell is irreversible. And this is the condition of people that you see every day, the people who live next door to you, the people that you work with, the people who are lost. And this is the condition of the tens and millions and hundreds of millions of men and women who are trapped in Hinduism, who are trapped in Islam, who are caught. They are walking dead people. They need the gospel of life. They need to hear it. We need to have hearts of compassion over the tragic condition that people are really, really in. Well, our hearts need to overflow with this compassion. But our hearts, like Christ's, also in the search for the lost, need to overflow with determination. Determination to focus on the lost as a missionary priority and even as a personal, local missionary priority. to focus on this. Now there's something really interesting about these parables. In the case of this parable of the lost sheep, there were 99 sheep in that fold in the wilderness area where the shepherd was watching over them. But there was one that was lost. And what did the shepherd go after? He went after the lost sheep. We're told that in verse four. In verse eight, the woman had silver coins. She had lost one of her silver coins, we're told, out of the 10. And what did she do? She abandoned all else and concern for those silver coins that were safe and sound. And she went after that coin that was lost and searched for it until she found it. And what about the lost son? I mean, the father was rejoicing that his older son was there in the household, no doubt, but you can tell by the reaction of that father in verse 25 that he was thrilled that his son was returning home. And of course, verse 25 tells us the older brother had an opposite reaction. It's the beginning of the opposite reaction of the older brother. In contrast, ran and embraced the son. Look at verse 22. The father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. When he saw him coming, that was the reaction. His heart pursued that son to the far country. That heart of his never left his son, even though his son left. He never abandoned his son. It's interesting that John 17 says in verse 18, as thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. Speaking of who? Christ is praying for believers. He said, it's not my will to take them out of the world, but to leave them in the world. And as you father sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. Now all good churches, have right things that they focus on. We should have a focus on Sunday school ministry and it being done well for the glory of God. There should be a focus on excellent music as we enjoyed this morning and singing in worship to the Lord and other activities of a social nature and a ministry nature for sure. We should focus on those things on a personal level. All of us focus on the education of our children as Christian young boys and girls. We focus on our church. We focus on our family life generally. And any man or woman who wants to keep employment has to focus on their employment. To some extent, there are legitimate things that we must focus on and do focus on within our churches and within our families. But then we stop and consider, we stop and think about whether or not we're focusing on this. You know, men and women, when we go to heaven, we're gonna be able to sing a whole lot better than we can sing now. I'm sure that'll be true in my case. We certainly will be able to fellowship better, won't we? We will be able to worship better. Won't we all be better able to serve when we're freed from the burdens of sin and our own human limitations when we get to heaven? Yes, yes, yes, yes. The answer is yes to all these questions. But you know what, men and women, there's one thing you will not ever be able to do better when you leave this life and step into the presence of the Lord Jesus. There's one thing you will never be able to do again. You will never be able to give the gospel to a lost person again. You will never be able to open the word of God and watch a lost person bow their head in your presence. I was preaching in Singapore one time. At the conclusion of the service, a man and his wife, actually a researcher in the National Cancer Research Organization there in Singapore, sat with me and this dear brilliant man with his wife just opened his heart that he was lost and that he didn't understand how to know God and he wanted to know God and to open the Bible and show him that simply and to see a man transformed before your very eyes. That's our opportunity now. We need to be determined to focus on this. Jesus said concerning himself, Matthew 18, I came to seek and to save that which is lost. The Father has sent me to the lost sheep of Israel. Was he concerned about believers? Of course. Was he concerned about the church? Of course. But we're talking about focus. There is a place where this begins. There is a place where this all starts. There's something else about this determination I'd like us to see. And let me back up, I don't wanna go to optimism yet. I wanna talk about persistence and determination, persistence in it. What about that shepherd again in that first parable? Verse four says, he sought for the sheep until he found it. What about the woman in verse eight? She sought for the coin until she found it. In verse 20, the father, while the son was yet a great way off, his father saw him and went to him, ran to him. He never gave up. There was that ongoing, persistent concern. One time I was traveling outside of Kiev. Kiev's been much in the news these days. There's lots of very outstanding, fervent, godly Christian people in and around Kiev, living in the villages around it, in the city, all around, all over Ukraine, really. It's an amazing, amazing number of conservative believers. Well, I was visiting there teaching pastors once, and we got on a train on the Lord's Day and drove about two hours outside of Kiev to a farm village. And we pulled into this farmyard and there were kind of rough-hewn benches that were set up all over in the farmyard in a nice orderly way. And the Christians that came began playing instruments they brought with them, brass instruments, string instruments. And people started coming out of the houses in the village and streaming into that farmyard and sitting down on those benches until they were all full. At that point, the first Ukrainian preacher stood up and preached a 15-minute message, and then another Christian quoted a Christian poem, and then there was singing, and then there was more instrumental music, and then the second Ukrainian preacher stood up and preached another 15-minute message, and there was another poem, and more singing, and then it was my turn to preach, and they were expecting a miracle, a 15-minute message. That doesn't happen, okay? But it was my time to preach and my interpreter, Sasha, said it's time to preach. So I preached the gospel for 15 minutes. And while I was preaching the gospel, a whole nother group of people came into the farmyard and lined up at the back behind where the... The benches were, and I turned quietly to the interpreter. I said, what should I do? He said, preach another sermon. OK, so I preached another message for about 15 minutes. And when I got to the end of the message, right up the middle of those benches came a guy well over six feet tall. He was a young guy, but he was prematurely white-haired. It was kind of an interesting combination. But he came down, fell down on his knees on the ground about three feet in front of me, lifted his hands up in the air, looked up to heaven, and started speaking Ukrainian. Of course, I didn't know what he was saying, so I said to Sasha, what is he saying? He's calling on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. Now let me tell you what this is about. A group of Christians from a neighboring village had been ministering to this man for a whole year. He lived next door to their church. They brought him to hear this novelty, this American preacher. So they brought him to this farmyard in this other village to hear the gospel. and he trusted Christ as Savior. Those dear Christians persisted. They kept at it. And that man called on Alex, who's his name, called on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. I could tell you the story of my wife's Uncle Tully, who died at 95 years of age, who for 25 years I witnessed to and talked to, only to have him trust Christ in his 90s. My own father, unsaved, was ministered to for years by the pastors and deacons of the Good Fundamental Baptist Church that my mother was a member of and we attended. Until finally, I remember the day when I was 17 years old, my dad went forward in tears. And I'm telling you, for dad to go forward in public and in tears was a remarkable work of God, trusting Christ as a Savior. And that changed everything, folks, from that day forward in our family. Later on in life, he was a deacon in an independent fundamental church. But there was persistence by those pastors and by those deacons and by my dear mother who lived with that man. And you know what I mean. And I love and esteem my father who's been in heaven for many, many years now. But he was not an easy guy at times. But mom was faithful as an example, as a testimony, as a witness to him. and she persisted and he trusted Christ as Savior. You need to believe that can happen with your wayward child. You need to believe that can happen with your spouse. And those of you who know missionaries who are laboring faithfully year after year after year and really are having a hard go of it in a hard field where there isn't a lot of response, they can succeed. They can see people converted to Christ. Christ will open their hearts. We can pray for their persistence, for their endurance faithfully in this. Well, our hearts need to overflow with compassion and determination. But our hearts, like Christ's heart, need to overflow with optimism as well. And this is everywhere in these three parables. There are many reasons to have faith-filled optimism as we find it here in this passage of Scripture, powerful reasons. For instance, the effect on the righteous. is a powerful reason to be optimistic about reaching the lost. Look at verse seven. It says that there is joy in the presence in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. Who's in heaven? Well, God is the primary inhabitant of heaven. There's joy in heaven in the heart of God over people that repent. Look at verse 10. The Bible says at the conclusion of the second parable, there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. The angels break out in joyful chorus when lost people come to Christ. And I think we really should understand that third parable when it talks about the celebration in the family, when the son who was the prodigal son was lost and returned, that there was a great celebration over that son's return as verse 22 to 24. And verse 32 says, there's joy, people, in the household of faith when people trust Christ and when they're saved. Nothing brings joy to the people of God than seeing the power of the gospel transform people's lives in the family of God, in the household of faith. I'll tell you another reason to be optimistic from these parables is the effect on the lost. It's transforming. I mean, the sheep, which symbolizes the lost person, was directionless. What happened? It got direction. It was rescued, brought back to the fold, and given direction. What about the coin? It was valueless, and it had its value and worth restored as a result of being returned to the economy of the family. What about the son? He was lifeless. There was no relationship with the family, with the father, with his older brother, which was even a worse relationship, and that lifelessness became life. Great effect on those that are dead in trespasses and sins. About every year at the same time for many, many, many years, I would get a Christmas card and a thank you note from Bill Storm. When I was 18 years old, I went to the McDonald's parking lot to get a sandwich after working at Sears in the men's department. and Bill was parked there in his car, he was a classmate of mine, and we sat in his car and I opened the gospel to him, presented the gospel, he took me home, and we sat in front of my house and he called on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. And all those cards, all those years were from a Christian man with a Christian family who was a leader in his church because a lifeless, drug-abusing guy, which Bill was, was transformed by the power of the gospel. Some years later, Ross showed up at my door at the university, a guy that Bill had led to Christ, who was in our high school, who was going into the chaplaincy in the military. I've just had a call a couple months ago, and I'm going to preach at a church in Michigan of another fellow named Don, who was led to Christ by Bill and me. who served Christ faithfully as a leader in his church. Total transformation. We are talking about people who did not come from Christian families, who had no Christian background or influence in their lives, and the gospel transformed them. It always will. And you know another reason to be optimistic is the reasonableness of the expectations in these peace parables. There's joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, verse seven says. There's joy in the presence of the angels of God, verse 10, over one sinner that repents. There was one son that wandered off and returned, and there was a great celebration in the household. This is not talking about masses of people. God isn't saying to you, I'll be happy and there'll be joy and rejoicing if you reach 100 people for Christ this year, or 100 people in your lifetime. One sinner that repents causes the choruses in heaven to break out. in joy, that's cause for optimism. It really is. Our hearts need to be Christ's heart, overflowing with compassion, determination, and optimism as we seek people that are lost. And when we have that heart, that kind of heart, that will extend beyond our local concerns. That is what compels Christians to support missions. That's what compels Christians to go to the mission field themselves, self, briefly, to help with ministries, building projects and children's ministries and other special projects on the mission field. Christians do that, you know, they do it all the time. And it's this heart like Christ's of compassion, determination, and optimism that causes there to be this great upswell in the reaching of the lost at home and abroad on the mission field. Can I urge you as a brother in Christ and as you, my sisters and brothers, that you consider having his heart in a new way, that you resolve to reorder your priorities, to change your commitments, and to reach that one, to bring that great rejoicing in heaven, in the heart of God, the angels, and in the household of faith. and cause your own heart to be filled with a burden for mission outreach and mission support. May God help us have that come to pass. Let's bow our heads together before the Lord. Lord Jesus, as our heads are bowed now before thee, we thank you for your heart. We know what you're like. We know your attitude about the lost. Lord, help us. Help us, Lord, to not be indifferent. Help us, Lord, not to be careless and negative, not optimistic. Help us, Lord, to be filled with compassion, filled with determination to reach lost people. Now, Father, by thy Spirit, do work in the hearts of thy people, I pray. These are good people who want to honor you, who want to serve you, and even now, Lord, there's many of them sitting here who want to say to you, they want to express to you that they want this kind of heart, that they wanted a new and a fresh in their lives. They want to say that to you, and Lord, help them say it by lifting their hand right now. If this is their heart's desire, to have a heart like you in a new way to reach the lost. Wherever they're sitting, may they just extend their hand up for a moment to express that. Amen, amen, amen. Others, others around the auditorium. Yes, Lord Jesus, help me to be, have this kind of heart like you have. Lord, help me. Where is your, someone else who wishes to say that to the Lord Jesus by raising their hand wherever they may be in the auditorium here? Lord, I want a heart like this in a new way, in a fresh way. Someone else. Now let me have you all pray and let me ask this question. As I've described these parables this morning and the condition of people who are lost in sin apart from God, did that describe you? Do you need to trust Christ this morning as your Lord and Savior from sin and hell? Do you need to say to him, Jesus, save me. I turn from my sin and I turn to you to be my Savior. Is there anyone like that here this morning? If that's true for you, lift your hand and I'll pray for you. I'm not gonna call attention to you and embarrass you, but I do wanna know if that's what's going on in your mind and your heart. You are calling out to Christ to save you from your sins and give you new life in Him, a relationship with God. Someone like that here this morning, here in the auditorium? Before we have pastor come and close the service. Amen. Come right ahead, Pastor.