I had the lesson pretty well prepared. I had about four hours to go. The pastor didn't think anybody would sit around that long, and I didn't think anybody would listen to me for four minutes, let alone four hours. So I tried to cut it down. I had people praying for me recently, that they'd be praying for me tonight, and I really appreciate that. So I thought it was only fair to pray for you guys, because I've got the easy job. I get to talk. You have to sit there and pretend to listen. Hopefully we'll get somewhere tonight. We'll start with prayer, though, I think. Ask God's blessing. Father, we do thank you for all your blessings to us and the many things you've done for us. We thank you now for the Unite Pure Word, and we hope you'll put the words in my mouth and help us to present a good message for you. We ask it in Jesus' name and give you thanks. Amen. Okay. I want to thank everybody for the prayers for tonight, but also for all the prayers for the last year and a half or so. with all the things I went through. I wanted to go a little further. As far as testimony, I wanted to tell you where God's led me all my life. He's done it a little differently. Everybody here, I was blessed to be born in this country where I could hear the gospel. I was further blessed by parents that insisted I go to Sunday school. So every Sunday morning they made sure I made it to Sunday school. I was never sick enough and never tired enough. I had to go. I went to Emanuel Baptist where the pastor went and I got to hear of people like Helen Rademal in Georgia Parish and I finally ended up in Floyd Sr.' 's class and I responded one day to his invitation and he led me to the Lord. So that was 50 years ago and I'm still saved. Obviously I'm not going to I'm a great Christian, but I've been a Christian for 50 years. I'm sure God has worked in my life in many ways. A lot of them I don't realize yet, but my career has done all kinds of things. When I was young, I never had to apply for a job. People asked me to work. They were picking strawberries, mowing grass, baling hay. Even in the school, I was asked to work in the cafeteria. Eventually I got to the point where I decided to apply for a job. So I went over to the country club near our house and went to the groundskeeper and thought I'd apply for a mowing job or whatever. So he found out that I really wanted to run track and cross country so he hung on to my application. Eventually a member asked him for somebody to help mow his lawn. So he passed me off to that member. Next job I applied for, I went to a shoe store. It was at the plaza here in town. Just looking through the paper, found out they were hiring, so I put an application there. Well, nothing happened until the manager at the restaurant next door called me. He had talked to the shoe store manager, got an application from him, so I got passed off again. That went pretty well and eventually I found out why I had gotten hired there. Just another coincidence, all these coincidences. But eventually there was a beautiful girl hired there at the restaurant and it took me a while but I finally asked her for a date. Well, that worked out pretty well and then after a while she agreed to marry me and she still stuck with me. But there's no way I was going to meet her unless I had been at that restaurant where she was hired. So we got together on that. As the time progressed, just before I went to college, I decided I needed a job that paid a little better than the restaurant. So I told the manager I was going to quit. He said, well, you want to be my assistant manager. I'm going to take over a gas station. You can be my assistant manager. So I did that for the summer. And then, let's see what else I did here. After I started college, another coincidence happened. I was in pharmacy school and the guy that had hired me to mow his lawn for a while, he had a friend at the Smith Clinic and he arranged for me to get a job there. So, I got a job at the Smith Clinic at the pharmacy. At any rate, God deserves a little crap for all these coincidences, but He takes care of us. I worked at the clinic for 22 years, and eventually the people that I hired, trained, protected, and rewarded decided to go to my boss and get me fired. So it wasn't long before, most of you know Max, Rite Aid. He got me a job with Rite Aid in Gallium. That worked out for a while, and then eventually the guy at Revco here at the mall at the time, asked me to come work for him because he had just lost his partner. So that was closer, I decided I'd go there. That went good for a while, and then the Repco decided to build a new store up the street, and that didn't go well at all. So eventually, my partner and I both went and got an offer from Max to go work for Rite Aid at the mall. So we did that. and worked there for a while, and eventually that didn't work out. So things kept going. In the meantime, CVS had bought up Revco, and the store that I had worked in was not doing too well. So the people at CVS asked me to come and work back at that store. That didn't sound like a good idea, but they made a lot of promises. So I decided I'd go back to the CVS store. And it went pretty well downhill. And finally, after a few years of that, they decided I'd sell the morning after pill, and I decided I wouldn't. So I tried to keep it out of store. And I went to God and said, I really want out of this store. This is not good. I'm not happy here. Things are not going well. So it wasn't long, I was fired. God answered my prayer. So for a while, I looked around for work. I tried to find some kind of fill-in work or just doing staffing or something and nothing was working out. I even tried to open my own store and that didn't work out. So finally I got an offer from two different staffing agencies. I really wanted to take the job in Alaska but then I decided that wasn't going to be very feasible because I couldn't see my family and they couldn't see me so I decided to take the job in Arizona. I agreed to work there for two months so I thought God would move me back by then And I ended up there a little longer. Before I left Arizona, I got a list of churches for the pastor where I could check out and find a church to go to. But I waited until I got there to call him. Well, my cell phone wouldn't work anywhere, so I had to drive an hour closer to Gallup to get into range where I could use my phone. I couldn't get any of the churches. Nobody would answer. I finally left a message. And while I was waiting, I found a church that says Baptist Church. So I tried it out and I wasn't very happy. I don't know what kind of Baptists they were, but the healing service again encouraged me to get out of there. So anyway, by the time I got out of there, Mrs. Farris finally called me back. And she encouraged me to come into Gallup and meet with Brother Ted. Now, Gallup is two hours from where I was working. But I went to talk to Brother Ted and enjoyed talking to him. We hit it off pretty good. I liked what he had to say. And after my church experiment, I decided I'd drive the two hours and 120 miles and go back to Brother Ted's church next Sunday. And I did that for the whole time I was out there. Well, Brother Ted's a good preacher. And he decided that was too much driving, so he tried to steer me to a closer church. And there were a couple along the way, but I didn't want to try them. But I ended up trying out Brother Mark Haynes. He's got a church in Donato, which is just halfway. And I pass it every Sunday, coming and going anyway. So on my way home, I stopped and talked to him. I liked talking to him. He grew up in Brother Howard Sears' church in Middletown. So his doctrine was good. He had a good church. The two congregations were very similar. They were mostly Navajo people, but there were a few other white people in there. And I got along pretty good with him. Things went pretty good. I felt that God had put me in Brother Ted's church, so I continued going there on Sunday morning anyway. And I would stop at Brother Mark's church on Sunday night. Since I didn't want to be out on the open range, where in addition to elk and deer that you might find, Horses, cows, and sheep were always getting hit. There were a few times I tried to have my own little carcasses there. But I managed to escape all that. Well, I kept thinking that God was going to get me out of there, so I didn't plan on doing much for the church. I didn't want to get involved. But after I realized that I was going to be there, I talked to Brother Mark and Brother Ted to see if I could do something to help them out. Brother Ted asked me to do some Sunday school lessons for him, to give him a break. And Brother Mark, he would come for conferences and he'd be out of his church for a while, so he'd ask me to cover for him on Sunday evening. So I did that for a while. Well, before I got sick, I'd been there quite a while anyway, but a couple of weeks before I got sick I had agreed to I teach Sunday school for Brother Ted, and he had been sick, so he asked me also to do the morning message. And then Brother Mark was out of town, so I was planning on doing his service Sunday night. Well, when I woke up the morning that I was supposed to fulfill my commitment, I had a horrible headache. I could barely see, and I really didn't want to drive across the street. I had to go to Gallup. If I had been smart, I wouldn't have gone. I had commitments and I didn't know how to get out of them. I didn't know what to do for them because they had no backup plan. So I went. God was merciful. I made it to Gallup without incident. I got through the morning, the Sunday school, the morning message. Everything went alright. And then it was time to go to Ganado. So I drove the 60 miles and went to Ganado. Now by then my headache was even worse and my vision was even worse so I could barely read my notes, and fortunately I could remember some of them, but I couldn't read my Bible, so I had to have the congregation read the Bible passages. Fortunately, I had already practiced them at Gallup, so it worked out pretty well. Then, at the end of the message, I had to drive into the sunset to get home. Literally, I had to drive west, getting home, still avoiding the cows and horses, and It's hard enough just avoiding the cars because I couldn't see them very well. I couldn't tell if I was in their lane or they were in my lane. So it was a challenge. But I did make it home. The next morning I went to work. I could only read about a fourth of what I had to read. So they sent me to the doctor. In fact, several times that week. Right away they didn't determine anything. But one day my co-worker, a good man, he said, touch your chin to your chest. And I couldn't do it. He says, you've got meningitis. And he sent me to the doctor and had some more work done, checking things out. Well, a little later I got to call Deb and said, they're going to send me to Chinle. That's our parent hospital. It's about an hour away. So she called Brother Ted and he met me over at the Chinle Hospital. And I don't even remember it to tell you the truth. Chin Lee did a CAT scan and they decided I was beyond their range of care so they flew me to Phoenix. Deb was already planning on coming into Chin Lee so she had to change her plans and get flight changed and she went to Phoenix. Now the Ferris took care of things but they had places to be and they didn't think they'd be able to be in Phoenix to pick Deb up and get her around so they arranged for people to pick up Deb and all the girls. Well, by the time she landed, Brother Ted had decided sleep wasn't important and he came and got her anyway. I took care of her there. Everything that the kids needed and Deb needed, the parishes either took care of it themselves or arranged for people to take care of it, give them places to stay, give them transportation. Deb needed transportation herself so the company I worked for, Dakota Med Tent, they were good enough to rent a car for her to get around. Took care of it all. The guy of the day is also the guy of the night. So after I went to work on Monday morning, I don't remember anything, so Deb started getting ready to go home from the nursing home in February. I was just not getting there. Girls and Deb didn't think I was in a coma, but everything was like the night. I don't have any recollection of it. I wasn't scared. I wasn't worried. That was their problem. They had to be scared and worried. I continued in that darkness throughout my stay in Phoenix and even on my way home back to Ohio. I don't remember any of it. I got on these nice medical flights in a helicopter or airplane or whatever. I have no idea. I never know. Several people ask if I'm going back to work. because I'm doing better. Physically, I'm alright. But the answer to that is a little vague. I'm not really ready yet. If I decide the best way to explain it is I'm like an old car with a bad transmission. The only reliable gear I've got is park. But if you push and prod enough, you get me somewhere in neutral. But if you push hard enough and long enough, I'll end up in reverse. So I'm not much good. And then, as far as learning the new job, I'm having trouble because my memory is like Alzheimer's patients. I can remember things from years ago, but I can't remember things from a minute ago. So, not much good to anybody hiring me. I have to be retrained every 15 minutes. The main reason I asked the pastor to let me speak tonight is I wanted to thank everybody for your prayers. I appreciate it very much. I appreciate your help. People loaned me hospital equipment when I got home. That was a blessing. Some have contributed to my financial needs. My car has been fixed many times. That's been a big help. I'd rather shoot it and put it out of my misery, but I can't do that, so getting it fixed is a big help. I wanted to let you know that your prayers are appreciated more than all your generous acts and your thoughtfulness, because your prayers have kept me on this side of eternity. Without them, I wouldn't be here. Kenny's message about God's goodness, that was a real blessing to me. And we know the prayers of God's people cause Him to shower us with His blessings and with His goodness. One aspect of prayer that I realized through all this, We tend to think of prayer as an event with a definite time to be answered. Unfortunately, many times God's answer is a destination. We have to get there. There's a journey involved. There's many events that take place. Many decisions have to be made. And there's a lot of factors that determine how long it's going to take to make that journey. And finally, we have to progress throughout the journey to reach the destination. So God's answer is not what we always believe. And one thing I do believe is that the church has been united in seeking God's grace to bring me through this trial. And that may be the greatest gift of my trial, this problem. Every church needs to be united in all aspects. And this one needs to be united in more than many churches. And I don't want to scare anybody with this. Prayerfully, it's not going to surprise anybody, but I pray it awakens everybody. The devil has been camped outside this church a long time. He's painted a bullseye right on it. There have been attempts to cause divisions within the church several times in several ways. The division in the church is one of the most damaging ploys of the devil. It just may be that God has allowed Tribulation is to come on some of us, including Kenny, me and Kenny, and others, just to bring us together, to make us united. It's a severe way to go, but sometimes that's what it takes. He is supposed to put in the middle that bullseye. Where do you put in the center? That is the pastor and his family. Always, the pastor is in the middle. He's not parked outside to bother me or somebody in the congregation. He's out there to get to the pastor and the whole church. Our trials and tribulations, they weigh heavily on the pastor. He sincerely needs our prayers for strength, comfort, and God's protection. Watch over him. Now more than anything else, this church needs to be united in support for the pastor and in prayer for each other. Kenny told us in his message a while ago that God worked miracles in this church. He certainly has. Some of those miracles have been to put a hedge around some of us to keep the devil away. Psalms 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down and grieve pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. If I rob my straft, they strengthen me. I will prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. I will anoint my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." That passage has been a comfort to millions at funerals, and truthfully, it's been a comfort to me. I've been through that valley, and I'm walking along the edge of it, looking down into it, because God worked a miracle in my life. And one thing I've come to realize, another thing I've come to realize, I don't think God ever has one single reason for the things he does. He always has many, many reasons for things that go on in our lives. One of the major reasons he walked me through that valley is to make me aware that it's a lonely place, but we don't walk it alone. Of course, he's with us, but in my case, Deb and the girls went with me. I didn't see a lot of things that were going on, Because I was in darkness, but they all saw it in the light of day. So it was frightening for them. And they were aware of all the things. I said the devil's camped outside the church. I wasn't the first person in the church to travel that valley. I won't be the last. Evan Hunsker went through the valley. Brian, Kim, and Allison had to go through it with him. Michael traveled through it. His shadow was not just his health, His safety, his freedom, and his future were also in jeopardy. He didn't travel alone either. Pastor and Vivian felt every pain and bump that they knew of or imagined during his journey. And the rest of his time we felt them too. Nancy who knew him felt many bumps in his journey, really worried and prayed for him. Now Kenny has to face that valley. Prayerfully, everyone ought to have first-hand experience to know the importance of broadening the scope of their prayers. You don't want to diminish the importance of praying for Kenny. It's very important. But what we do need to do beyond that is to broaden the scope of our prayers. Because when the devil attacked Job, Job remained strong in his faith and true to God. But what did his wife have to say? Job 2, verse 9, Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die. She failed. She didn't do well. But don't let Kenny's wife fail. She's just as much affected by the journey through the valley as Kenny is. And I know it because Deb made that journey with me. She passed the test, and we certainly want Shelly to pass it. The scope of your prayers for Kenny need to be much broader yet. His children understand enough to be frightened even though their faith is in God. Michael and Jim won't let their sister make that journey without their support. Lynette and Becky will do the same for their brother. Dick and Cindy will feel every pain and bump along Kenny's journey through the valley. Everybody who prays for Kenny is going to see the fiery darts The devil throws at him, will cringe in his pain. We'll see it all. And Pastor and Viv, they're going to be right there with Kenny and Shelly every step of the way. Every time something happens, they're going to be there. Now we won't know every moment that one of us is in danger or frightened, so we need to pray often for each other, and especially for Kenny and Shelly, their kids and their parents. And remember, someone else we know may be next on the devil's hit list. He's not going to go away. The devil's trick can be used like a rifle at long distance. He can pick us off one at a time. What he'd rather do is use it like a shotgun. Do as much damage in as wide a range as he can. So everybody close to his victim is in danger too. Always pray for others. Not just us. Not just the one in trouble. It's the ones with them. Well, it's not easy to fight the devil. So why don't we just calm down, sit back and relax. Is that about how the Nazis felt about the Jews? The Jews about the Nazis? They didn't resist, but the Nazis didn't leave them alone. And not resisting the enemy only allows the enemy to have an easy victory. We need to be active for the Lord and be united behind our leaders. That's Jesus Christ and our pastor. We need to be behind them, helping them out. and listening to him. Like Michael, he's cleared up his legal troubles, said we needn't pray for him anymore. After all, he's not in the church, he's thousands of miles away. They won't bother a wounded soldier. You don't want to get comfortable with those ideas because Michael's right where he was when he started. Thousands of miles away. The devil isn't deterred by distance. I was across the country, he still came looking for me. So wherever you are, you might not be in church, but you're still close enough he can find you. So how do we fight the devil? James 4.7 says, Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. I've heard several preachers saying, Get behind me, Satan! Well, you don't want to command Satan because he doesn't listen. In Jude 1, verse 9, it says, Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, did not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord will give you faith. So resist the devil and tell the Lord to get him out of your way, or ask the Lord to get him out of your way. But don't try to fight him yourself. Just don't listen to him. Well, it's not easy to fight the devil. You want to calm down, sit back and relax. Well, it didn't work for the Jews and the Nazis, so it's not going to work for us. Just give the devil an easy victory. Ephesians chapter 6 is the armor of God. It says put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Therefore, wrestle not against flesh and blood, against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Therefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand in the eve of the day, having that all to stand." And the last verse there, verse 18 says, "...praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." So putting on this armor of God is great. You need to do that. but you also need to pray. Our experience, it was on our way to Phoenix on the plane and my brother and sister called the hospital to see how I was doing and they found out that the hospital needed to get a hold of her on an urgent matter. So my brother and sister got mad and they called Chelsea because she was still home and said, why isn't Deb available? Why can't they talk to her? So Chelsea tried to get the airline to Get them together. Get communication going. Well, they couldn't do that. The plane was in flight. Keith, Casey's husband, found out about it. He called the airline. He pushed the right buttons because they got a hold of Deb. The stewardess came up and said, the pilot wants to speak to you. Well, that's why you pray for other people because if it was me in a situation like that, I'd just go to the exit try my skydiving skills. She finally got to talk to the pilot and the urgency had passed and things were calmed down. But it would be frightening to have that situation going on. He said the devil's camp outside was bad enough but he comes inside. We have movies that show that demons and vampires and all that are afraid to come into the church and they're afraid of crosses. Well, that's not true. The devil is not bothered by any of that. He can come right in with us. So I want to make sure we don't invite him in ourselves. We don't even have to invite him because we just make it available to him. For me, all I have to do is decide that my feelings are more important than what God says about my attitude. So I just get some people together, say a few things about what somebody did to me or said to me, and decide we need to do something about them, and just start a ruckus. And the devil comes right in with us. So it's not hard for the devil to fall in and attack someone else. There's lots of other ways you can get in just as easily. We don't have to be outright digging for him. He listens to the pastor when he prepares us for communion. He says, fix our relationships and put away our sins. Because we need to do that, purify ourselves and get the devil away. We're not to gossip. You don't want to give place to the devil. He can take up a seat right next to you. What if you don't feel like fighting him? Well, if you don't fight him, he just gets an easy victory. The devil's very dangerous. He's an opportunist. I always thought he was a guerrilla fighter, hit and run. Well, he is that. But he doesn't quit hitting. He keeps coming. He's got lots of helpers that want to please him, and they just keep on coming. Some time ago, Brother Dick Church was kind enough to fix our van for us. We took it to Columbus where we need where we needed something and we ended up with flat tire. Well, we pulled off the road, the spare tire was flat, had AAA come out and they put air in it, put it back on the car, and when they did, they stripped the lug nuts. So when we went to get a new tire, the guy couldn't put it on because the lug nuts were ruined. Well, we had to go across town to get the new lug nuts for a hundred bucks, and then we got our tire fixed. A few days after that, we got home and we had all this flooding. Everybody got flooded. Our basement took on water because our sump pump decided to take a vacation that day. Well, I thought I'd go get a new sump pump. Well, the car decided it wasn't going to start until I put a light bulb on, heated it up for a day or so, and finally it would start. In the meantime, Quasimodo brought us out a new pump. I got that in. Well, after a while we got the basement drained out. In the meantime, the furnace decided it wasn't going to work underwater. So after the basement dried out, it decided it would work, and we had our furnace back. In the meantime, I was in the process of fixing my water line for the washer for the fifth and sixth time. It had a leak and it just kept leaking. If you don't want to join everyone else to build up the church, the devil is not going to be too interested in you, maybe. But if you're not saying your Bible, not witnessing, not praying for others, you're not close to God. And the safest place to be when the devil is roaring and attacking is next to God. If we do not use the arm that God has provided, how will we defend ourselves? Think about it. Is it easier for the devil to attack an army or one lone, weary soldier? What's he going to do? So we need to be united against the devil and united for God in each other. Now one thing, through all this, I had in mind to make myself a little sign to remind me. It gets very frustrating that the devil has my number on speed dial, but at least I have an open line to the help desk. Over there. Matthew 12.25, it says, And Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, And every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. So division of church weakens us, and it strengthens the devil. Unity strengthens and protects all of us, and it weakens the devil. So we need to be united. I could go on for a couple more hours, but I think Patrick probably forgot I didn't. I appreciate you listening. and hopefully I've been able to encourage you a little bit or help you out to understand a few things. But thanks for putting up with me and let's have a good night. Appreciate it brother Bob and you know I think about it, some years ago, some time ago, that's been probably a couple years or better, I did that series on Job and the book of Job, and I taught that totally different than any of the commentaries. You can look in the commentaries and all the commentaries praise Elihu as the one who had it down on Job. Of course, you remember when we went through that study, we brought out that Elihu was a minister of Satan. I don't know whether that was what set it all off, the devil didn't like that or what, We're sure going through a lot as a church since that time, but we're in the process of printing a book on the Book of Job, and hopefully that will be out soon. But anyhow, a lot of us are going through some rough things. I just look around and see Pat, Randy, Marge going through a lot, and of course Bob mentioned The Hunts occurs and there's the Malones back there going through a tremendous, some tremendous trials and also still going through some with the raised mom. And just so many of you, I look around and I see and think of Ory back there and what he went through and just over and over. And Gerald went through a rough time there and just so many of you have gone through some deep trials and think about Phil and Jane, they went through some things, and you just look around, all of us. We've been hit pretty hard as a church, but I think we read the book of Job, we know how it ends out. I think God's going to bless Calvary. We just stay faithful and stay with it and keep doing what we need to do and don't move into the modern trends. Let's stay with the Word of God and do what God wants and we're going to see God do some great things here at Calvary. So, just keep on keeping on. Keep staying faithful and resist the devil and he'll flee from you, just as the Bible says. Resist him steadfast in the faith. We're going to sing an invitation song.