And, you know, we weren't sitting close together this morning, but it's even further sparse tonight. Well, and I understand. I like it when we got longer days, daylight savings time, whatever. Now we're getting darker, and it's getting darker much later, and I like that. And, boy, we've had a mild winter, haven't we? How many times I've stood out here and froze to death just out here, and it's cold and so on. It's a blessing to be here tonight. Thank you for that song, Abide in Me. Friends, if we're not abiding in Jesus Christ, what are you abiding for? There's no purpose in it. And one of the things I've noticed in the past few days is how all the stuff that we thought was important is just dissipating. It's becoming meaninglessness. And now the people are living for a paycheck. And I don't, granted, there's a lot of people would love to have a paycheck now, but so often we live for the meaninglessness and all of a sudden we realize all we have is each other. And friends, if you don't have your family, you don't have much at all. Yeah. And many people have lost everything today and are going to lose something if this thing doesn't turn around. I read today in France, I have a missionary who lives over there in Paris and he and email me, he says, you gotta see this, because they are now successfully using this, and a dope or whatever it is that so many have questioned about, but it's within three days relieving most of the problem. So it's coming real fast, but we don't want to go out there and take someone's life at the same time trying to do this. So I'm no medical doctor, but I was excited to see that letter from someone who lives right in the midst of it and what the Paris government is doing. Not what the English governor or whatever is saying, we ought to just have a one world government and so on. No, we're not going that direction. And so thank you for what God has given to us and what God's blessing has been tonight. I ask you to turn to your Bible tonight, the first jaw, I mean, to Ecclesiastes chapter one. Ecclesiastes chapter one. and we'll read just a few verses here for the sake of time. It says, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit the man of his labor, which he hath taken under the sun? We can go down and skip over to chapter two and verse number three. And here's all the vanities he lists what he has done here. This is Solomon's own testimony. He said, I sought in my heart to give myself unto wine, yet equating my heart with wisdom, to lay hold on folly, till I might see that which was good for the sons of men, which they should do unto the heaven all the days of their life. Verse four, I made me great works, I builded me houses, I planted me vineyards, I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees and all kinds of fruits. I made me pools of water to water their width of wood and that bringeth forth trees. I got me servants and maidens and I had servants born in my house. All I had great possessions of great and small cattle of all that were in Jerusalem before me. I gathered me silver and gold. and peculiar treasures of kings of the provinces. I got me men singers and women singers and delights of sons of men and musical instruments and that of all sorts. So I was great and increased none, increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained within me. We can stop right there and just ask God to bless the preaching of the word tonight. Our Father, we come before thee tonight and we pray that you would speak to our hearts. Thank you, Lord, for the songs that have been sung. Abide in me. Lord, we have nothing else. We take nothing else with us, Lord, but we can only sit here tonight and rejoice that we abide in Jesus Christ and not in all the things of this world. Like Solomon said, it's all vanity. It's all vexation of spirit. Lord, I pray that you would stir our hearts now to that which is really meaningful in life. We ask your blessings on it in Jesus' name, amen and amen. Some months ago, I was asked to do a funeral. And I was trying to think, what do you say? What do you say so? And I've known this person for almost 50 years. My kids and my, we call her grandma. Although she really wasn't our grandma, but she was grandma to us anyways. Our parents have all gone on and grandma's long gone when we were much younger, but we called her grandma. And I said something in the funeral that I think was well worth remembering again in these difficult times, that you don't measure your success in life by the accomplishments you have done, but measure the success in your life by the value you have added to someone else's life. That is priceless. And Solomon, here he talks about the world's trinity. The world's trinity is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And we're finding that is dissipating very quickly. I sometimes wonder if what our nation is going through and what the world is going through, doesn't it wake us up to see what is really important is not what we possess, it's what possesses us. And when we're finding out all those things that possess us are less of the flesh, the less of the eyes, and the pride of life, the trinity of man has become worthless. And it's becoming meaninglessness. The natural man trinity is the less of the flesh, the less of the eyes, and the pride of life. The world is a flattering enemy out there. And to whom it kisses, it betrays. The treasure of this world casts men into a deep sleep of carnal security. We think we got something and we can get by without God because we have a 401K plan, but all of a sudden we saw it just gone. And if it keeps going, we might see the stock market go way down. And it all becomes vanity to us. I mean, I'm praising God for how, you know, everyone's rejoicing. Our market went up. Our 401Ks went up. Our retirement funds went way up in the past year. Yeah. Now it's, where's it going? What's going to happen to it? You know, our security is not what we possess. Our security is who possesses us. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon called it all vanity, and it does cast men into a deep sleep. Many a man has rejected heavenly joys just to become a slave to the world. The world bewitched Demas. Demas hath loved me, 2 Timothy 4, 10. It says, Demas hath loved this present world. Don't fall in love with this world. What I'm noticing is as I see all these, this value wiped away from the 401K plans and not just yours, but I mean all of it. Even US savings bonds are worth less when they go out and print $2 trillion now and get a $24 trillion deficit. We figured out on lunchtime how much that was per person. It's unbelievable. Hundreds of thousands per person. You're born today, you owe $200,000 or more. You're already in debt. The nation has gone to where we, I wish we had Ronald Reagan back, but nobody would listen to him anyways. But he said, we need to have a balanced budget amendment and a line item veto. Take all the junk out of there and put the right things in. And so we try to pass a bill to bail out the country, but then they try to sneak stuff in like let's bring back Planned Parenthood. Yeah, that's wrong. We ought to have that. But, you know, what we've got is now all this is going to turn into vanity. And maybe this is just what the world needs is a wake up call. There is an almighty God. And all those possessions don't mount the hill of beans. If you don't have enough beans on the plate to feed yourself. Yeah. Wow. Demas loved the present world. Judas sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Ask Judas if he'd rather have the 30 pieces of silver now or would he rather have the reputation that he has as a guy who traded God for the mess the world has. It's hard. It's hard to drink the wine of prosperity without becoming the drunk with meaninglessness and a stare of many foolish and hurtful lust. We've had the wine of prosperity in America. Can you believe this? You walk into Walmart and you can't go to the liquor stores anymore or you can't go out there and buy, go in a bar room, they shut those down. Thank God, that's good. But you go into Walmart and you can't find any alcohol. I'm glad it's gone. It's all sold out. People, what are they doing sitting around at home all day long? We're finding out they're I guess playing bowling balls and bowling them with the rolls of toilet paper that's about all it's good for rolling down the floors. It's ridiculous so many people that they're so confused with this mess. And then, you know, look at all the wine that's being drunk and to find out that the number one thing people will do with this stimulus check is going to go buy more alcohol and drugs. Why don't we shut down those opioids all around the country that cause suicides all over America? Week in and week out. Our good friend up here in Columbus, down here in Columbus, just south side of Columbus on Ford Street, I mean, on just, I think it's Ford Street by the auto auction. He said he does at least eight funerals a week for suicide from drug overdose. Eight funerals a week. Here's a volunteer chaplain. Why don't we do something about that? But our values are all mixed up and we're having our values are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And God has a way of taking that all away and thinking we're successful because of how much we have. Don't measure your life's success by how much you have. Measure the success of your life by how much value you added to someone else's life. we don't always strike a home run, but I try to give someone else a purpose for living by telling them about Jesus Christ. There is the real purpose of life. Not getting all you can and carrying all you get and sitting on the lid. The real purpose of life is to tell others about Jesus Christ. The world will deaden your soul to heavenly objects. earthly things tend to choke the seed of the Word of God, so much so that those who are caught up with the world can scarcely mind spiritual truth anymore. We're finding the world is getting in the church. Somebody say amen. It's getting in the church. Look at some of those Bible colleges that are supposed to be teaching the Bible, and the world's got into the Bible colleges, and some of them are even denying that the Word of God is the truth. Now we say we're one nation under God, and they want to take that out. No, we're not under God. We're under the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That's what we really are under. Let the truth be known. And we wonder why we're in a mess tonight. I think God wants to get our attention. As I said this morning, if we don't turn back to God, God just might let this thing run for several more months. And friends, the slime of this world will weaken and weaken your meditation and dedication and prayer life. The spiritual progress today is this that I'm seeing across the country. It's almost like a heavy stone is about our neck. And many of our churches are struggling financially, many of are struggling just spiritually, trying to mine spiritual truth. And there are many of our churches are gone to entertainment. Went up to an old-fashioned hymn book and a King James Bible. What happened to that? No, we want pop psychology and something good is going to happen to you. Well, I like the good part, something good is going to happen, but if I don't sow and mine spiritual truth, how can I expect something good to happen to me when I'm not even living for God? And we expect that we can live for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and think God's going to wink at that. God has never winked at that throughout history. It is a deceitful, wicked world out there. The world appears to satisfy you. And you know, I can't say I don't enjoy driving a nice car. But I like my old people's car real good. Even though it's 14, what is it, 14? Oh, it's more than that. It's a 04, so it's 16 years old. I like it, even though my kids call it old people drive that car. We're not driving one of those cars. So pick everybody in one of those old tiny compact cars that gets 33 miles a gallon. Well, mine gets 30 and it's got room for six or eight people if I want to squeeze kids in there. Yeah. You know, the world seems to satisfy you. My friend tonight, what we need to be satisfied is not what the world has to offer you. You need to be satisfied. What do you have to offer to the world? Because there's where you have a sense of purpose and meaning. When I can offer the truth of the Word of God to the world and give the world an answer today, that is far more valuable than having a billion or a trillion dollars. And if we were to turn this thing around today, I don't know if I'd want to turn it around. Not that I say I enjoy the mess the world's in, but I think maybe we are going down this direction that might draw some people to God. Certainly, we are seeing And I hope we're seeing tonight, those who are watching by way of a conference call or on the internet tonight, we're seeing all across the country every church I've talked to within the past two weeks. And I've had my hands on, I'd say, more than 400 churches who are using me and my services to help with any kinds of legal, or some, not legal issues, but tax law issues and financial issues and trying to get some aid and help and so on. And then I'm finding, you know, what I'm finding is tonight that these churches tonight, they realize that there are more people watching on the internet than ever before. And this might be just a way to help some churches who don't have the big buildings and so on, but we can have a big audience that reaches the world. And how many, we said this morning, there were some people from foreign countries watching our morning service here, but they can't sit in the auditorium but doesn't tell me that people are not listening tonight. It's a deceitful, wicked world, and the world appears to satisfy it, but it only increases us. The more you drink of it, of this world, the more you're gonna find you want more of this world. And it's like drinking salt water, it never satisfies you. It's an evil, vexing world that is full of trouble. In this world, you'll have trouble, John 16, verse 33, it tells us that. In this world, you will have trouble. Every sweet flower of our life has its thorns. Yeah, I enjoy, one of my favorite meals is lasagna. All right, I like it all that cheese, but too much could put you in a cardiac arrest because of all the grease and the cheese and so on. The world is a vexing vanity out there. If a man is despised, I mean, if a man is poor, he is despised by the rich. And then if he is rich, he is envied by the poor. So if I become the rich man, now the poor man is envying me and they want what I have. And the world has more in it to trouble you than it has to satisfy you. The world has more in it to trouble and tempt us than it has to satisfy you. The world is a sea full of sorrows out there. And you think these things are going to satisfy you and you try to get satisfaction without God. And you're going to find out there is sorrow and emptiness in your heart. God has what every one of us need, and that's a sense of purpose and meaning in life, a real value where you add, add value to someone else's life. And what greater value can you add to someone else's life other than telling someone else about Jesus Christ? When you tell someone else about Jesus Christ, what does that do to your life? I know for me, the best thing ever happened was in that day that someone knocked on my door on a Sunday afternoon. He said, I want to talk to you. Someone sort of said, you've been going to church? Yeah. And I said, I've been going to this church over here, and it's just kind of empty over there. We just do all the genuflexing and we don't know, we're just, we don't even know what we're saying, we're just vain repetition. No meaning to the words, we're just saying them. But we feel good because we're saying them. And he showed me Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith. Not of yourself, it is the gift of God. You can't do anything to get to heaven. It's already done. He already paid the price. So why am I trying to do all this stuff? If I can get to heaven by being a good person, you know what? Then Jesus Christ didn't need to die because I could have been a good person and Christ didn't need to come. Christ needs to come because none of us are good enough to go to heaven. All is vanity and vexation of spirit tonight. All of it is vanity. And the world has so much in it to tempt us and make us shipwrecked. The world is a sea full of fiery serpents. Fiery serpents that would love to eat us up and bring all these things into your life. The less of the flesh, the less of the eyes and the pride of life. Those are the fiery serpents. And the world is full of them now. We've got to watch out, watch, and be careful that we don't get caught up with this. Well, what's happening in America is the land has become the land of the free and the brave, yeah, but it's more often the land of the rich and indulgent. And our vanity of all our riches has now become before us that it could all fall apart if this thing went on. It went on for another six months, where are we going to be? There's talk of, I mean, some of those people out there, I don't say they're crazy, but one guy calls me, he says, I'm getting my guns ready. I'm hunkering down and I'm getting all my food. Look, what do you think this is? How about saying, instead of saying, I'm gonna get all my guns ready, how about saying, I'm gonna get down on my knees and pray and call out to God till he answers this prayer? We're not going to change it in our own strength. We got to change it through the power of God, vanity and emptiness tonight. I do not live my life. I don't want to live my life in vain. And all is vanity and vexation of spirit. If you. If what you do is not for the glory of God, you're living your life in vanity. I remember one guy asked me, I asked this one guy and he knew he was, got a short time to live. He'd gotten the ancient orange and got the lump sum. They denied him all this money and they gave him a great big lump sum. I said, what are you gonna do with this big lump sum? Six figures plus. He said, six figures, more than one. All the way back to 1966, they went and said, you should have had disability since then. And he said, I'm going to buy the meanest, baddest pickup truck I can find. All is vanishing. I remember going to that funeral, and they put the casket in the back of the pickup truck. Then they put the Marine Corps flag, good, they put the Marine Corps flag on one side, the American flag on the other side, and they drove up and down those streets in all that neighborhood. Nobody cared about the truck. They cared about the flag. One nation under God. Indivisible. Yeah. That's what's really important tonight. It's all vanity without God. The secret of it all tonight is your relationship with God. The success of your life is how well you see into eternity. Think about that. If you can look beyond your life into the next generation, the next life. I look at there and I thought, I am so blessed. Because I can look at my wife's side in 1860, there was great-great-grandpa Nelson gets saved. And he becomes a circuit riding preacher in 1860, Wisconsin. Then he has a son in 1880, and he also becomes a circuit riding preacher. Then in 1916, he has a son, and he becomes a pastor in Fort Lauderdale. And then that pastor has a daughter, and then we get married. Now, there's four generations of preachers. Now, my daughter and her husband are now being missionaries to Malta. Five generations of preachers. Friends, that's not vanity. That's something that's going to make a difference for all eternity. And didn't get there because we said, oh, I just want to stay home from church. We made a vow when we got married. We said when the church doors open, we're coming. If our health is able to, we're going to come to the church. I know a lot of churches don't have anyone, any services. They're giving up the whole thing. But I'm glad we got a few people here tonight in this auditorium. We're spread out more than 10 feet apart, unless your immediate family are sitting close together. I mean, man, there's like 40 feet from me to you, some of you, that far. So we're really spread out, and I don't think we're breaking the law tonight. But we're here tonight because we want to hear the truth about the Word of God. And the truth is the world is full of vanity trying to get us to chase after it. And because we've chased after the world, God oftentimes will give us up to what we sought after. And now we're finding out it's it's choking us. It doesn't really solve the problem. Friend, your whole purpose in life is to magnify and glorify Jesus Christ, your labor, in law in the Lord is not in vain when you serve God. So many people that so many people are blowing their brains out. When I hear this pastor down here in Columbus says as much as eight funerals a week, just him and there's others doing eight funerals a week just for suicide. Because people have lived their lives for the vanity of this world. Why can't we reach someone tonight for Jesus Christ? Too many people are living for themselves and not living for God. Solomon started, Solomon in chapter 2 and verse 3, he said, I gave myself unto wine. How did Solomon, who wrote the book of Proverbs, become a wino? His own wisdom. Threw it aside and his pride took over. And then, and all the possessions he possessed, sooner or later, those possessions possessed him. He didn't possess the possessions. I look at what so many people's 401k is dissipating this week or in the past three or four weeks. Now, do I think it's gonna come back? Yeah, I think there's gonna come back, a comeback. But I don't think it's gonna shoot up as fast as it did last year. You say, how much of mine go up? I went up 25% in one year. Yeah, and you can lose 25% in one day. My hope is not in what I possess. My hope is in who possesses me. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon started drinking wine and then asked, what shall I do with my life? We need Christ. We need Christ in our life. We need to start glorifying God in our life if we're going to have a revival. Solomon left God out of his life. Notice how many times he said, I, I, I. In verse chapter two, I sought in my heart that I might see what was good. And I made me great works. I made me pools. I got me servants. I gathered also silver and delights of men. I was great and increased more than all that were before me. And he goes on and on and tells all the things he has done. Friends, your life is not valuable because of what you have done. It's all vanity. It's gonna become meaningless someday because you can't take one thing with you when you go into the graveyard. When you turn into a box of dirt down there, it's meaningless. And Solomon thought he was successful and people glorified and wished they had what he had. Yeah, many nations out there wish what they had, what America has. But friends, you don't want what America has in the judgment God's going to put on America, because to whom much is given, much shall be required. And great will be the fall thereof. Life is not about getting what you want, but life is all about God getting out of you what he wants. And there's where some your life becomes meaningful. When you leave God out of your life, it's going to be empty. If I live, if if life is all about us, then it's emptiness and meaninglessness tonight. If your life is all about you, it's empty. Live your life not for what you can accomplishments. Don't measure your success in life by the accomplishments you have done. Measure your life by the influence and value you have added out to someone else's life. And what can give greater life to someone else than tell someone else about Jesus Christ? I see all across America, churches are drying up. This millennial generation, I'm not saying all of them, but there are many of them out there, they have no sense of truth, no sense of value, no sense of purpose. Just want to know how fast my internet works. So I got my phone, you know, and they're walking around looking at these phones all day long. It bothers me when I see some mother in a place like Walmart where the kid's sitting in the grocery cart and he's wiping stuff off the shelf and he's pushing stuff down, he's reaching all they can and knocking it on the floor and looking down. And the mother, she gets upset with him. So what does she do? She gives the kid the cell phone. Instead of reprimanding for what he just did, she gives him the cell phone and he has 24 hours, seven days a week pornography right on the cell phone. And what do you think the kid's gonna grow up like? Vanity, vexation of spirit, meaningless. If life is all about what you have done, then you have emptiness and meaninglessness tonight. It doesn't matter how much money you might make. It doesn't matter how much money you make tonight, because friends, you're not going to take one cent with you to the grave. I remember them. I remember about two years ago, a friend of mine and I were in Philadelphia, and Pastor Martin, he said, I looked over and I was looking, he says, you're looking at that statue over there? I said, yeah, what's that statue? This is a big monument, it goes way up there in this little small area of Philadelphia called Elkins Park. He said, that's the monument to Mr. Elkins, who owned all this land at one time. And they had this monument. It's stuck up way up, and you could see it higher than the buildings. It's not like the Washington Monument, but it was a pretty high monument. And he said, people today look at that monument and have no idea what that is. It's meaningless. You can't measure your success in life by how big the monument is over your dust and ashes down and below it. Many people start to think they're somebody because they have possessions. Look, your possessions can easily have you and you're seeing across America how our possessions got a hold of us as this economic thing just slowed down like someone put the speed brakes on us. And now you see what's really important. Not what you possess, it's what possesses you. What's gonna get you through this difficult time is not more money tonight. No, what will get you through the real difficult times is your faith in God Almighty tonight. From now on, start looking at what you can do to add value to someone else's life. The Bible says, a fool has said in his heart, there is no God. No one will care, a hundred years from now, no one will care if you were the richest man in the cemetery. That's far becoming the truth in America today, that's fast becoming the truth in America, because people are measuring themselves by how much they possess, and how much is in their 401k plan. I'm starting to realize that what I thought was a lot of money, Now it becomes meaninglessness. The younger you, I mean, I go back, I thought a quarter was a lot. Why? Because it's almost the same size of a nickel, and I only had a nickel. But I thought a quarter was like, remember that? Yeah, and then you, I remember I got a job, and we got a job paying 35 cents an hour for picking tobacco. under that hot shade tree tobacco stuff. We thought we were rich. Then, you know, for pretty soon, you don't think $0.35 an hour is enough. You thought $1.25 was the minimum wage. So remember those $1.25? You thought you had something. Then it started to go up to $2 an hour and so on. Now, we're able to say $10 or $12 an hour. You know what? It still buys the same thing. $12 an hour gets you about the same thing as back then as a 15 cents an hour. I remember, I remember when McDonald's was 15 cents hamburgers. Look at this. I am not the only old fogey here today. See, it's all vanity. It's not how much you have, it's how much God has of you tonight. Those of you listening by the Internet tonight, I pray that God has your heart. If God doesn't have your heart, all the money in this world won't make you happy anyways. Friends tonight, the next generation needs a spiritual foundation. How about adding value to someone else's life by taking the leadership in your own family and adding a spiritual foundation for the next generation? Many of parents think they've done very well because they left money in their will for their kids. Friends, your kids will blow through anything you ever left them without God in their life. I've seen it over and over again in my office. People come in and say, my parents died. And yes, and they left you as a beneficiary of their 401k plan. And I can tell you, many of them have spent it within 90 days, even a six figure some of them. Yeah. Sad, sad when I hear that on Fox News, that the number one thing people use their refunds for is alcohol consumption and eating out. Or something like a vacation. Yeah. So what's the vacation? Go out and do nothing and do what pleases you. Forget about what pleases God. How about using some of this money that God, the government is going to give us to go add value to someone else's life? Let's go and find some missionaries really struggling and say, let me help you stay on the field. I talked to someone the other day in Italy, Aviano, Italy at the Air Force Base down there and Vincenzo's Italy, the army base. I talked to someone from there also, and they said they're under lockdown. They can't even, how are they going to pay the rent on the buildings they're renting? if they're under lockdown. Someone here in America, hopefully, will someone will take it on and say, I want to help some of those ministries. Yeah, we don't have a whole lot here, but friends, we got to start looking beyond ourselves and help some of these others out there, because many of these missionaries may find themselves having to come home if they could come home. That's what we need tonight. We need to get beyond the vanity of this world and look at how we can add value to someone else's life. Some here today think that if you had some people think if I only had the gold that Solomon have, I'd had it made. No, if you had, you had the gold that he had in the thousand wives that he had, you'd have more headaches than you ever thought you could have. Yeah. But the world today thinks they're happy because how much they got. Without God, you haven't got anything. Because it's all vanity and vexation of spirit. You'd have a headache with all your possessions without God. The world is telling you, man, this is living tonight. Friends, it's not living, it's vanity. God has made you to be totally complete and happy in Jesus Christ, amen. Your complete happiness is not in the abundance of your possessions. Your complete happiness is in your life intertwined with Jesus Christ on a daily walk. Loving life for its purpose. Bring glory to God. God makes you God makes your labor not in vain when God is in control of your life. If I just went to work every day and just did the tax law and practice tax law every day, it'd be vanity in vain. But when I get out there and say, look, I can help this missionary and help this missionary, help this pastor over here, help these workers over here, help this organization over here. Then when God is at the center of what I'm doing, then there's a sense of purpose every day rather than just crunching numbers to give somebody a piece of paper that says they can get a refund from the IRS. That's become meaningless if you didn't have God in it. A faulty view of life tonight will cause you to have a faulty view of God. Live your life tonight to add value to someone else's life and bring glory to God. Several years ago when I read this story, it just really touched my heart. Mark Sullenberg, was a methodological man of nearly 50, with bushy white hair and guiltless brown eyes, and a bouncing enthusiasm of his native Hungary. He always took the 909 train, Long Island train, from his home in suburban Long Island to Woodside, New York, where he caught the subway every day. to go into the city to go to work. One morning, Sullenberg booked the 9-0 train, boarded the 9-0 train as usual. En route, he suddenly decided on the midst of the train, he decided, hey, I'm going to go visit my friend Victor, a Hungarian friend who lived in Brooklyn. He changed his direction right there on the train. Just happened to change his direction. And accordingly, at Ozone Park, Selenberg changed the subway for Brooklyn and set it towards work. And he went to his friend's house. That was his intent. And he stayed there until mid-afternoon. Then he boarded a Manhattan-bound train for his Fifth Avenue office. What made him change? In the middle of the day, instead of going to work, he's going to go visit his friend. and spend some time there. Then later on he would go to work. The car was crowded with people and there was no chance he'd even find a seat. You ever been on some of those trains? I know what it means to be an oppressed because I've been on many a New York subway. I don't know if it's worse to go into a Washington, D.C. subway on a Friday afternoon or what's worse. But anyways, the crowded subway, there's no place. They didn't think there'd be a seat. But then just as he entered, a man sitting by the door suddenly jumped up and said, oh, this is my spot. I got to get off. Sullenberg jumped down and sat down in that seat, which is, you understand how crowded it is. He thought, boy, if I got lucky, I got a seat. And he says, I have a peculiar habit to analyze faces, so I struck by the features of the passengers left by and as they were in it. And you know, nothing looks more cold than a bunch of people riding in the subway who don't even look at each other. Like you don't exist, they look right at you and have that blank stare of meaninglessness. And he said he looked around and glanced, and his eyes seemed to have the hurt expression in them. He saw a man's eyes and had a hurt expression in the eyes, and he was reading a Hungarian newspaper. Sullenberger, a Hungarian. Saw this man reading a Hungarian newspaper. And something prompted him to say something to this man who, reading the Hungarian newspaper, he said something in Hungarian. You know, like some of us, we know just enough French or French or Spanish or something just to say a few words. So he started to say a few words. I would say, come on, sir. And, you know, and so he says something to this man sitting there reading this Hungarian paper. I hope you don't mind if I glance at your paper, he said in Hungarian. The man seemed to be surprised at his native language of this man who just happened to sit down next to him. But he answered politely, you may now read it. I'll have time later to read it if you want. Just hand in the paper. During the half hour ride into town, they had quite a conversation. He said his name was Bela Paskin, a law student. When he was at World War II started, he had been put in a German labor battalion and later sent to the Ukraine. He was later captured by the Russians and put to work by burying German dead. That was his job. After the war, he covered hundreds of miles on foot to reach his home in Debrecen, a large city in eastern Hungary. I knew myself Debrecen quite well. This is the guy who's riding the train. And he said, I know where that town is. I know that town. And they said, we must talk for a while. And he told me the rest of his story. He said when he went to the apartment, once occupied by his father and his mother and brothers and sisters, he found strangers living in his apartment where he used to live before the war. Then he went upstairs to see the apartment and see if his wife was still there because he hadn't seen his wife in a couple of years. No communications. He wanted to know if his wife was still in there. and it was occupied by strangers. None of them ever heard of his family before. As he was leaving, full of sadness, a boy ran after him and says, Paskin, Paskin. That means Uncle Paskin. The child was the son of one of the old neighbors of his. He went to the boy's home and talked to his parents. He said, his parents, this little boy's parents said, your whole family is dead. None of them survived, they told him. The Nazi took them and your wife and brought her to Auschwitz. Wow. That's the worst thing you could say to someone if you're going to Auschwitz, because it was a death sentence when you went there. Paschen gave up all hope that he'd ever find his wife. A few days later, too heartsick to remain any longer and hungry, this man set out again on foot, stealing across border after border until he reached Paris. He managed to migrate to the United States, came here and end up in New York City. And here this guy just by chance sat down next to this man. You think it's by chance? No, God's got a plan for your life. If you just let God take over. He sat down next to this man on the train and started talking to him. At the time he had been talking, I kept thinking that somehow his story seemed familiar. A young woman I had met recently at the home of a friend of mine had been to Debreken. See, this guy, Mark Sullenberg, had met this woman just a few days earlier, and she was from Debreken. And here's this man, he asked him, what are you looking for? And you're reading in the newspaper, reading the classified ads in this Hungarian newspaper. And he said, what are you looking for? I'm looking for my wife. You're trying to find a wife in a newspaper? He said, I've been looking for many, many years to try to find where my wife is. I'm looking in the classified ads in this Hungarian paper to find her. Broken, Sullenberger couldn't hold himself anymore. He said, I want you to come with me and get off at the next stop. He got off at the next stop and he made a phone call to this woman he had met a few days earlier. Is this Mrs. So-and-so? Yeah. He said, hold on, and he said to the man, Just start talking to this woman. Didn't take him a few minutes to realize that was his wife that he'd been looking for decades. Friends, the world out there wants you to lead someone to Christ. Just someone for decade is looking for answers tonight. And we could add value to someone else's life. Not by giving them more money, by giving the words of life. and all the rejoicing. I can't imagine what it was like for them to finally meet together again after a long, long, long period of time thinking his wife had been dead. But every day faithfully looked in the newspapers and the classified ads and the New York paper, Hungarian paper to find a wife. Friends, the world is out there looking for something and they're not looking for Jesus Christ, but that's what they need tonight. And when we get our relationship with Jesus Christ, all that's happening in this world today is all vanity and vexation of spirit. It's all going to pass away someday. And you can't take it with you. But what you can take with you is that joy that you've led someone else to Christ tonight. Would you do this tonight? Go find someone that you can witness to. Find someone you can share the love of God. Someone out there is hurting. Somebody out there just finds their paycheck is gone. I just read this afternoon, a guy wrote me an email and he said, I told you to e-file my taxes, but I hope you didn't because I just lost my job on Friday and my wife lost hers. Friends tonight, go find someone that you can add value to their life. Not more money, but give them something that's priceless. Jesus Christ. Let's bow our heads and pray. Father, thank you for what you've given to us tonight. Thank you for the truth of thy word. Lord, thank you for what you're doing in our lives. Lord, we look at the trials and they're nothing compared to some of the trials of the rest of the world. Lord, we thank you that we still have our health and we still have the freedom to meet and we still had three meals a day. But Lord, there's many people who are going to a Christless eternity tonight because we've looked at what we possess and forget that their world out there doesn't have Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray you'd make us a witness, help our light to shine for the cause of Jesus Christ, that men might be shamed of what they have done and might turn to Jesus Christ. Bless us now tonight as we go our way. Make us a blessing to someone. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.