be the text and preach on this subject, an enlarged tent, an enlarged tent. Now, one of the things I think, while you're turning, that has caused so much problems and brought us to the place that we are is that people have concentrated way too much on numbers for the last 40 years or so. Everything's been about numbers, numbers, numbers. And I believe in numbers. I mean, I believe you want to have as many numbers as you can have, as many people. I mean, you've The more people you can have to preach to, amen, the better. But there's a big difference between a crowd and a church. But we still want to be, whatever the numbers are in a church, that's not all there is to growth. Some people are Huge. Just huge. And they're in the hospital. So growth isn't always a sign of health. But there is something to say for having a vision for growing. But there has to be growth above all things. There has to be growth spiritually and the building up of the body of Christ. I'm not talking about building up in numbers. But I find that that happens. I see that. that it's happened here. But just try to apply these teachings not only to this church, but also to your own life and your own family. Let's just stand together, if you would again, I'm going to pray, and read verse 2 and 3. I thought Brother Modine was teasing me when he told me he wanted me to preach twice, one sermon and one half of a sermon. So I already had the half. So let's pray, and then we'll read. Isaiah 54, verse 2 and 3. Our Heavenly Father, we come to you today. We thank you again to be able to be in this place. And we pray now that you'll bless the reading of your word. And we pray that you'd open up our minds and our hearts, help people not to be distracted by the cares of this world. Help us to focus upon what you have to say. And I pray that every ear will be open, every heart will be open to your Holy Spirit's guidance. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Isaiah 54, verse 2 and verse 3, the Lord said, "...enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitation. Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes, for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left." and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be uninhabited, or to be inhabited." Please be seated. Now I want to mention three things in particular here that's spoken of in this text. And I want you to just walk around the text with me a little bit. This morning the The Bible is talking here about three things. One, it's talking about enlargement. It's talking about something being enlarged, something being established. And then it's talking about a certain expectation. We walk by faith. We never should be people who are just satisfied. David said, I'll be satisfied, and he told us when. He said, when I awake in thy presence. That's when I'll be satisfied. And we should always in our lives cultivate a holy ambition, a consecrated desire for salvation. ambition, and always have goals, and that sort of thing, and always look to grow. I've heard people say over and over and over throughout my ministry, I just wish I could be as happy as I was when I was first saved. And I always think, how sad. I mean, I was really happy when I got saved. I was up there in that second floor flat. When I got saved, I went down those steps and it was like I floated down them. I never heard any stories like this, so I didn't, you know, all I know is what happened to me. When I got down on that sidewalk, those street lamps were all lit up. I thought every one of them was lit up to celebrate me getting saved. That's how I felt about it. I was so happy when I got saved. But I've been a lot happier since then. See, if you're wishing I could just be as happy as I was when I first got saved, well, you can be. And you should be. Amen? The more, the longer that you serve Him, the longer that you live, the more time you have to meditate on how great God is. The more you learn about Him. When I got saved, I didn't know anything about the Bible. I had no idea when I got saved what was ahead for me. I didn't know what a Christian home was. I didn't know the kind of wife I was going to have. What a blessing. And by the way, the girl that I've invited myself to her church is here today. And I had no idea how God was going to bless my life with family and friends and all of those things. It was just the beginning. But I've had a lot of times, sometimes I just would have almost my own little private fit being happy with what the reality of salvation. And so I just want to say it again right now. If you've never been saved and you're interested at all, I would like to talk to you, Brother Modine, to talk to you. I'll just tell you this. Salvation is very real. Very real. And you don't have to know much to get saved. That's the good news. All you've got to know is that you're lost. You are as lost. You can never be any more lost than you are right now, or any more on your way to eternal separation from God in hell than you are right now. But that can all change in almost a nanosecond. Amen? I've had people coming forward during an invitation in church, Brother Modine, and when they'd come forward, I'd say, why did you come forward? In order to be saved. I said, so you're not saved? And they'd say, oh, no, I am saved. But I thought you said you were coming forward in order to be saved. She said, I got saved right back there in point to the second or third pew on the way down. God lifted the burden, gave him peace. By the time they got up to where I was, they weren't there in order to be saved. They were there to give testimony of their salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. Amen. You don't have to have anybody convince you you're saved. Amen. Talk you into it. Tell you how you need to talk now, what you need to say. When you're saved, you know you're saved. His spirit bears witness with our spirit. that we are a child of God. All right, now here's what I want us to look at real fast because I, so I'm gonna preach fast, so you're gonna have to listen fast. But I want you to look at the first thing here. There's something to be enlarged. Think about this as a church. Think about it as an individual. Think about it as your home. But especially focus on the church here, on Maumee Valley Baptist Church. I hope I got that name right. But notice in verse two, he says this. He says, enlarge place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitations. Enlarge the place of thy tents." Here's that responsibility again. The first thing you think about here is in connection with this and with being a church is the servants that are involved in this enlarging work. This is the great one of the great astonishments of being saved, then being able to have the privilege to serve God. You don't serve God in order to be saved. You serve Him because you are saved, because you want to save. It's like the Apostle Paul when he got saved on the Damascus Road. First words out of his mouth was, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And when you get saved, you've got it in your heart. I mean, I would have done anything I ask. Is there anything I can do in that little storefront church after you get saved? So the servants that are involved in this enlarging work, it is a precious, precious service. Here's what makes it precious to serve in a church like this. Colossians 3 and 24 says, for we serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Not serving the pastor. not necessarily serving other people, but we are servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege, whether it's just to clean the building, or to be here to hand out the bulletin, or to do anything. What magnifies our service is that it's all for Jesus. Everything we're doing is for Jesus. If people keep that in their mind, it'll make them play the piano a little bit better. It'll make them preach better. It'll make them be more conscientious about everything they do. The preciousness of this service, it is a privilege, and here's why. 1 Corinthians 2 and 9 says, for we are laborers together with Christ. That's what makes it a high privilege, is to be laborers together with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Mark 16, I remember when I got saved, shortly after that, I was set out to read my Bible completely through as quick as I could. I thought, well, you're 21 years old, now you're just saved, you've got a lot of catching up to do. So, I read my Bible through not long after that, and a lot of verses still stand out to me. One that stood out then was in Mark 16, the last chapter of the Gospel of Mark, in verse 19 and 20. It says, When the Lord spoke to his disciples, then he ascended up into heaven, he was received up into heaven, and he sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them. The Lord is still working with His people. We are co-laborers together with God. Serving in the church, attending the church, everything involved with the service in the church, the thing to be kept in the forefront of our minds is that we serve Christ, but we also are serving with Him. We are laborers together with God. It doesn't get any better than that. There's no work that is more wonderful and exalted on this earth than this kind of work that we're doing here. And so he says here, it's talking about enlarging. He says, enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth, let them, that's the servants. We're living in dangerous times, desperate times, depressing times. It can be disappointing at times, discouraging times. But this is no time for any Christian to retreat. It's no time to retire. It's getting to be a little annoying to me. Once in a while somebody will say, Brother Kirkman, when are you going to retire? I don't even know how to describe it. I have no intention of retiring. Yeah. There's no retirement for a Christian. When I went to Flint to pastor, there was five shops up there, and people were always talking about how long they had. They were like guys in the military that called themselves short-timers. You know, I've got this much time until I get out, and so on and so forth. And they were all talking about when they were going to retire, and they were going to get that big pension from General Motors, and they were going to buy their fifth-wheeler, their motorhome, or whatever, and travel. Here's what I found out. Retirement is very dangerous. I saw person after person retire, and within two years or so they were dead. There's no such thing as retirement for a Christian. I'll never understand people that are in church for years serving and serving and serving, and then all of a sudden they say, Pastor, we're not going to be here anymore. We're going to start traveling the country, and we're going to go to camp meetings and song fests and all of that. Right at the time, after all of that experience that they've gained, now they have all of this ability, like they never had it before, to minister, and they're going to go off into retirement. Well, this is no time to retire. Here's what the Bible says. It says it to all ages. Be not weary in well-doing. Don't ever get tired of doing the right things. In Hebrews 10 and verse 38, the Bible says, the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. That's not talking about lost people. That's talking about saved people who draw back. This is a time not to retire, but it's a time to revive. It's not a time to withdraw. It's a time to work, to really go to work for the Lord. The Bible says Hebrews 12 and 12. I love this verse. It says, because people do get tired in the work of God. You get tired in the work. God knows that. There's times you just get tired. It's like the man that he was laying in bed. And his wife came in and said, when are you going to get up and get started for church? He said, I'm not going to church this morning. She said, you have to go to church. Get up and get ready for church. He said, I'm not going. He said, the people down there have been treating me badly. And I'm not going. They're not paying any attention to me. They're not recognizing me. I might as well not be there. I'm not going. She said, get up. You have to go to church. He said, I don't feel like going to church. She said, you have to go to church. She said, number one. She said, it's the right thing to do. And number two, you're the pastor. Amen. That's why the Bible says, lift up the hands that hang down. There might be somebody here and your hands are hanging down just living the Christian life. The Bible says, lift up the hands that hang down and feeble knees. strengthen the feeble knees. In Daniel 11 and verse 32, the Bible says, in the last days, but the people, now listen to this, who do know their God, who know Him, really know Him. You don't just know about Him. See, I knew about Him for 21 years. But when I got saved, I could say I know Him. And I know Him better today than I did back then. But the Bible says this, in the last days it says, the people that do know their God shall be strong and they'll do exploits. So these are really exciting times. It's not a time for escape. And I believe we are the people living in the last days. That's just my suspicion. It's not a time for escaping. It's a time for doing exploits, for doing more, for growing more. I was talking to one of the brothers during the break, and he talked about, after he got saved, that he just wanted to read the Bible again and again and again and again and again and again. When I started preaching a series on Psalm 119 not long ago, I challenged the church to read that psalm as often as they could. during the week. Some of them are reading it five, six, ten times a week. And it's just transforming people's lives. And they'll talk about it and give testimony about it. So these are exciting times. We're living in perilous times. In the last days, the Bible says, will be perilous times. But here's the way Christians have to look at these days. These are perilous times, but this is also prime time. for us to work. People will say this once in a while in our church. It's a great suburban area and congested, and just like this area here. Do you believe this is true? There are literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that would just love to know this church exists here. They would love to know about it because they're sick of what is going on in so-called churches today. So there are a lot of people looking for what you already have. And so the idea here is don't give up. It doesn't matter, you know, think about it. Whatever it is, don't give up, don't give in, and don't give out. I was preaching in a church in Kentucky a while back, and a friend of mine there, he's quite a bit older than I am, he's a wonderful preacher. He's preaching every night, all week long. And the last night of the meeting, he got up and he stood behind the pulpit and he preached for about 20 minutes, and he just leaned forward like this and he said, I'm just give out. And he closed the sermon and sat down. But he'd already preached enough for anybody to be saved. But sometimes you feel like you're just give out. But these are two great times to give up or to give in to sin. To do it because the state of lawlessness is abounding. The state of lawlessness is abounding today. I mean, any way you want to think about it. But remember this verse. The Bible says, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And don't give up because of the stage of life that you're in. I've got a lot of friends. I'd like to take this to heart. But the Bible talks a lot about that in chapter 40. of this verse. This goes back to what I said about people retiring from church when they reach a certain age. Let the young people do it. How foolish. In Isaiah 40 and in verse 28, Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" There's no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint. If there's anybody faint here, you're weak, you feel like you just can't keep on keeping on with whatever it is that's in your life right now. He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, and they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." So, the more that you know about the Bible, you know more about the Bible now. in your life. If you're getting a little older, you know more about the Bible than you've ever known. You know more about prayer. You know more about the wiles and the devices of the devil than you've ever known in your life. So this is no time, in spite of the way things may look, to quit. Here's a spirit that people have that are involved in this work, it's a spirit that spares nothing. Notice the words in our text, it says, spare, enlarge the place of thy tent, let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitation, spare not. I mean, it doesn't get any plainer than it is in this passage of Scripture. This is the spirit that spares nothing in terms of belongings. You don't hold back anything from God. You'd be willing to give everything to God. This is a spirit that spares not in terms of belongings. We have the key to how stewardship should work with material things in Acts 4 and 32. The Bible says, And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. And neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own. And that's the way these people felt. Some of them were poor materially. Some of them were rich. But none of them felt like anything that they had was strictly their own. And we just need to be open to the leadership of God. I don't think people should give just emotionally. Give big offerings. One time I was preaching in a camp meeting in Romeo, Michigan, when we were young and our kids were all at home. We got five children. They were young. And it was kind of tough. But I preached there all week. And toward the end of the week, the moderator came up to me. This was years ago. And he gave me a check. And when he handed it to me, he handed it to me wide open. I guess he wanted me to see it. It was for $500. And I got that check. And there had been a family there singing all week. And they looked a little run down to me. And I was thinking about that fam with their kids up there singing, playing their banjos and all that stuff. And when I got that check for $500, I never even told my wife this. And she heard me talking about it in a sermon one time until years later. When I got that $500 check, I handed it back to the moderator. And I said, give it to that family. Just give it to them. Don't say anything about it. Just give them that money. And he did. And about two hours later, I found out that her parents were millionaires, and they had a beautiful home down in Louisiana, and they were just rolling in it. And so I thought all the way home, I am never going to do that again, just out of emotions. But when the Lord leads us to give, Amen? There ought not to be any limitations on our giving. This is a spirit that spares nothing. Where there's an enlarging work to do, there is a spirit in people that will spare nothing in terms of their belongings. It's really not our stuff. It's not even our time. We don't have any time of our own. This spirit spares nothing in terms of belongings, and it spares nothing in terms of belief. And that's a good thing, because the Bible says, all things are possible to them who believe. And here's a spirit of great faith here. This is a spirit that believes there's nothing too hard for the Lord. There's nothing too hard for God. In Jeremiah 32, Jeremiah said, Ah, Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. One of my favorite verses in the Bible, and I hope it'll impress you like it does me. The Bible says, and I've learned this all my Christian life, God is able to do exceeding And that's not even a strong enough word for God. Exceeding abundantly, and that's not even strong enough. Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or even think. I've asked God for things before, and some of you know what I'm talking about. You've asked God for something, and when God delivered, He didn't deliver it. in a delivery van. He delivered it in an over-the-road 18-wheeler or whatever it is. God's done that to me again and again and again in my life. I don't have the ability to think as big as God does. And when I pray and ask God for something, you know, back then when we got that property, I just wanted a better place to meet. I'd have been satisfied with anything. I'd been going around and standing in the fields and everything and outlying areas, and farmers would spit a big wad of tobacco juice across the hood of their tractor and say, son, you can't afford to buy this land. And they were right. That land's like gold there. It's got subdivisions on it now. When I found that prime piece of property, I acted like I had the money. And God opened it up. He gave us exceeding, abundantly more than I was really capable of even thinking about. And God delivered. And there's nothing too hard for God, absolutely nothing that is too hard for God. And these are people who spare nothing in terms of faith and belief. God wants us to stretch our faith. You stretch your faith, one of the best ways to learn this is in giving, because it's so tangent, because it's something you can see. God gives us ways that we can see. And when you, when God says, for example, prove me, bring you all the, into the storehouse, bring you all the tithes and offerings in the storehouse, see if I'll not pour you out a blessing. When you give, like in a faith promise offering, and God lays it on your heart, it might just blow your mind, the number that's on your, you're thinking, how in the world can I give that? But if you stretch out and give, because you know it's not emotional, but you know this is the number God put on my mind, and you give that, and then God does what God says He would do, and supplies the money Your faith gets stretched, and it's like a rubber band. Once you stretch a rubber band, it never returns to its original shape. And if you practice faith like that, no matter what it is, your faith will grow, and it'll never get any smaller. in a sense than it was right then. You'll experience what faith can do. Now, there's something else here. There's something to be established. He says, lengthen thy cords. I guess I've not appreciated sermon audio as much as I have in the last few years. I think we've got, I don't know how many messages, a thousand, or better than a thousand I know by now, but we get the same thing, the report. Our people are amazed at it. What an outreach, and what does it cost, $30 a month? It's unreal. It's just, what a blessing that we have, but we need to be people who will extend our ministry. He says, look at verse two, he says, lengthen thy cords. I can't think of anything right now that's any better than something like Sermon Audio for doing. People on the mission field are gathering around listening to my sermons every week. They use it like a Sunday school class, young missionaries. And it's not just me, it's lots of other people. But Isaiah 37 and verse 31 says, and the remnant that has escaped to the house of Judah shall again This verse, take root downward and bear fruit upward. Take root downward and grow fruit upward. Now, he says not only lengthen thy cords, but in verse 2 he says strengthen thy stakes. Here's what lots of churches have done in the last 30 years. They've had good, they've had their stakes driven in, driven down good, but they neglected their stakes. They had their doctrinal stake, think about a tent, they had their doctrinal stakes down, they had their stakes where music is concerned, they had their stakes where preaching standards and other things were concerned. They had good stakes, Brother Modine, but they neglected the stakes. You put a tent in, if you've ever been camping, or you've ever been to a camp meeting where they had a tent, and I've had this experience. And they don't pay attention to those stakes. They will work themselves up. Nobody has to do anything. They will work themselves up. That'll happen in your family. It'll happen in your church. It'll happen in your own life. If you don't tend to those stakes of personal conviction and behavior, those stakes of morality and whatever, you name it, they will, in the process of time, they'll loosen up. And before long, some false wind of doctrine, some adversity in your life will come, and it'll blow your tent over. That's why the Bible says, and I want you to think about this, the importance of a church constantly going around and checking out your stakes, doctrinally, musically, every other way, and making sure those stakes are still down deep and they're still strong. And in your own personal life, make sure your principles are still deep and strong. Because they have a way of, when you're not paying attention, they'll get rooted out. So, when the Bible says, God says this, He says, take root downward. See, in a church, you can't have a cotton candy ministry and expect to be a strong church and a healthy church. You can't have a shallow ministry. Some people's lives, some churches are like the Rio Grande, you know. It's a mile wide and six inches deep. You can't have that, not in your life, not in a church. Take root downward, and here's what happens when you really take root downward. You'll bear fruit upward. You'll bear fruit. But if you don't have depth, in your church life, in your church ministry, you're not going to bear much fruit. Now, just follow with me real quick here. Here's some of the things that a church needs to be rooted in. They need to be rooted in sound doctrine. Here's what the Bible says in Titus 2 and 11, speak thou the things that become sound doctrine. Jude 3 again, contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. Need to be rooted in separated living. Now, separated living goes a lot farther. Some of you won't even be able to relate to this, but we know what it's talking about. Separated living goes a lot farther than how you cut your hair and comb your hair and the kind of frames you got on your glasses and the kind of clothes you wear and everything else. It's deeper than that. It doesn't exclude that. It's important. People say, well, God looks on the inside. Yeah, but it also says man looks on the outside. So we have to be concerned about how we look. But separation is not just outward, it's also inward. And the Bible still says, wherefore, come out from among them. That's this world, this world system, world fashions, fads, trends, aspirations, ambitions. Come out from all of that. and be ye separate, saith the Lord." So be rooted in those things. Be rooted in simple worship. And I don't think it gets much simpler, I'm saying this in a congratulatory way, than this. But we need to return to simple worship. Worship was never intended to be a three-ring circus. It was never intended to be a competitive thing. The Bible says this, talks about simple worship, not, you know, I've been in churches where they have coffee bars as long as this room. I'm just telling you this, when I was six months out of the service, I didn't need a cup of coffee when I went to church, to that church. I needed what I got, which was the gospel, just the gospel. And so my, you know, my feeling is to get it as, keep it as simple as possible. A church needs to be rooted in sanctified singing. And then I'm going to do this. I'm taking this song, all of the verses, home. I've always known there's more verses. And we're going to sing them at church. That's the kind of songs we sing at home, too. But we'll do like you all did here. Sometimes we like to sing acapella. Or like they used to say in Flint, the guys would say, let's sing acapulco. That's exactly what they said. But rooted in sanctified singing, Colossians 3 and 16, let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. So rooted in all of these things and also rooted in scriptural soul winning. Scriptural soul winning. Not one, two, three, repeat after me. Not that. But scriptural soul winning, which begins with being led of the Holy Spirit. Showing people the scripture. People are not saved when they're not conviction is not salvation. I got under conviction for weeks before I ever got saved. And if somebody had pushed me into making a profession of faith, it would have been a nightmare. But scriptural solely, and by the way, nobody needs to read books, go to a seminar, listen to a set of CDs on how to win a soul. Just tell them what God did for you and let the Holy Spirit do the work. His Word is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. and then rooted in something else, and that is sweet fellowship. I agree 100% with Brother Modine. At our church, we have lunch every Sunday after church. You know why? Because we like to be together. And we don't like to break it up and everybody go home and stay home a few hours and come back. That's okay. We did the other for years. But we like it now. We have church like y'all do. Then we have lunch every week together, a potluck. And then people come in, sit down, any guests and so on. And then we have church again at 2.30. Then we all go home. And we like it that way. That's a lot more like first century worship was. Well, people say people are too busy today. That's just the problem. They're too busy. They're too busy. Let me tell you what the Bible says. The Bible says, God says, be still and know that I'm God. In other words, take it easy, slow down, and know that I'm God. And then, beside that sweet fellowship, they were rooted in steadfast prayer. In Acts 4, the Bible says, when they had prayed, the place was shaken. God said, my house shall be called a house of preaching. No. My house shall be called a house of singing. No. My house, he said, shall be called a house of prayer. And I'm hoping and praying that more and more churches will get back and have more of their emphasis on praying. That's the only hope for our country, by the way. The pastor already said, our hope is not in these politicians. This today is enough to make you want to curl up in a fetal position and cry when you look at what we have in this country, running for president. But our hope isn't in men anyway. We need a miracle right now. 2 Chronicles 7 and 14 is still in the Bible. If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from heaven and heal their land." That's the only hope for America. Here's the problem. Here's the problem. If my people, which are called by my name, no problem so far, will humble themselves, that's a bit of a problem, and pray, here's the real, the real rub, and turn from their wicked way. If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and you've got to humble yourself before you can pray, and you've got to humble yourself and pray before you can begin to turn from your wicked ways, there's no prayer without humbling yourself, and it's a given that if you're really praying, you've turned from your wicked ways. I said one time years ago, if God had needed an eleventh commandment, which he doesn't. But I thought to myself, he needed one. And he asked me, I've got one ready. Here's what it is. Thou shalt not kid thyself. And lots of churches and Christians are kidding themselves. They're claiming 2 Chronicles 7 and 14, but they still want to live, act like the devil. And you know what the sad thing is? A lot of them Even if it meant the turnaround of our country, a miraculous turnaround of our country, they wouldn't change their lifestyle so they'd be able to pray and call down God's blessings upon us. Here's the last part. There's something here that can be expected. He says, for thou, God says, if you'll do these things, for thou shalt, verse 3, break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. It's just a picture of the church, something powerful here. You read this, it's powerful. It's a picture of a church or an individual being unshackled, getting loose. Amen. Loose from their fear, loose from their doubt, loose from unbelief, loose from a stranglehold that the world has got on them to become unshackled. Thou shalt break forth. Churches are shackled by compromises with a wicked society, and they're shackled by contentment with the spiritual status quo. Well, let me just tell you, beloved, the spiritual status quo is not too good. We've got to do better than that. But here's a picture of the church. A church like this is unstoppable. He says, you'll break forth on the right hand and on the left. The church like this is going to enjoy triumphs, and the church like this is going to earn a good testimony. People are dying to see it. They want to see this. It's a picture, he says, and thy seed shall inherit. There's a picture here of something being perpetuated, something continuing, thy seed shall inherit. I preached at our church not too long ago, I didn't preach this message, but I said this to our church. We want our young people, young adults, teenagers, etc., we want them to take hold and we want our church to be 20 years from now, what it is right now, in terms of what we believe, the basics, the music, all of those things I mentioned. Amen? Some change is good, but the Bible still says, meddle not with them that are given to change. Amen? And the older I get, the more I believe this, Brother Modine, the old is better. And we want our young people to appreciate the good old fundamentals of the good old gospel of Jesus Christ and what a real church is and how it operates.