Thank you very much. Take your Bibles and join me this morning in turning to Luke chapter number 23. Luke chapter 23 this morning. It's good to see you on this bright sunny West Virginia morning. I was born and raised in North Carolina but can I just make an honest confession? I have a great love for West Virginia. There are several things. Now the only thing I don't like about this state is the driving down and having to pay the tolls. That's the only thing. That is the only thing that I don't like, but I do. I love West Virginia. I was raised in the foothills of North Carolina, but it was interesting. We had a higher concentration of mountain folk there. So even though I didn't live necessarily in the mountains, I could understand their language. Several years ago, I was on YouTube. I was watching a documentary on Appalachian Americans. and they were going out into the hills and they were talking to people. It was interesting, in the video it had closed captioning so you could understand what the people were saying. I didn't need that. I could understand. They were speaking my language, talking about a poke. I knew that was a bag. all kinds of different things. But anyway, I felt right at home this morning and grateful for the opportunity to minister. I hope you'll be back tonight and every night this week and let's see what the Lord has in store for us. And probably this evening I'll say a little bit more about Ambassador Baptist College. It's a place that's very dear to my heart. We just had graduation on Friday night. A lot of Christian colleges' graduation has just hit and folks have scattered hither and yon, but tonight we'll take a little bit more time to tell you about the ministry of the school. Luke chapter 23 this morning. I'd like to read one verse for our text and that's verse number 34. Luke chapter 23 and verse number 34. The Bible says, "...then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment and cast lots." Ladies and gentlemen, what I've just read to you this morning are some of the last words that Jesus said before He died on the cross. For those of you who have lived a little while, you know that there's a great significance to last words. One of the most sobering things you'll ever do is be in a room with a person who's dying and hear them talk to you in their final breaths and say things that are very important on their hearts. I remember years ago I had an uncle, an uncle that held a very dear place in my heart when my dad passed away. When I was 15 years old, it was this uncle that took my mom and myself into his home and did everything that he could to help us in my dad's passing. And I got a call from his wife and she called me and she said, Alton, you need to come. She said, your uncle is dying with cancer. He's been diagnosed with liver cancer. We don't know how long he has. And so I made the trip up. It was about a two-hour drive and I walked in through the door and the kitchen, saw my aunt and I gave her a hug and I walked into the living room and I saw my uncle and I was stunned at what I saw. I saw a man who was a shell of what I remembered him to be. His face was jaundiced and gaunt It was obvious that he had lost a lot of weight and I sat down on a couch beside of his recliner and I began to talk to my uncle and he didn't have much to say. As a matter of fact, he was just pretty much non-responsive and after a while of that awkwardness, I wasn't quite sure what to do. And then my uncle broke his gaze off of that wall and he turned to me and he said, Now Alton, I want you to preach my funeral. Now, please understand, when you say that to a preacher, it's sometimes an awkward question to respond to. When you say, would you preach my funeral? No preacher's going to say, I'd be glad to do that. You know, that just doesn't sound good, does it? But I looked at my uncle and I said, well, you know, I said, Uncle Pee Wee, I said, I hope you live to be a hundred, but when that day comes, I said, I promise you, I'll do it. And my heart took very much joy in remembering that just a few years prior, my uncle pulled me aside in his dining room and he looked at me and he said, Alton, I want you to know, he said, I've gotten things settled with the Lord. I got saved. While funerals are always difficult, can I tell you there's just something when you know that the person who's in the casket, his body is there, but he's with the Lord. Little did I know that that would be the last time I'd see my uncle alive. It was a couple weeks later my cousin called me and this was a cousin throughout the history of our childhood we fought like cats and dogs. As much as we fought I never heard this boy cry one time but that morning I heard him weep. And he called me and just with a broken voice he said he's gone. And so I told my cousin, I said, I'll be up there a little bit later today and I'll visit with you folks a bit. So I got up there and I talked to my cousin and I asked him, I said, he passed away this morning? He said, yes. He said, let me tell you what happened. He said for a couple of days or so, dad had been virtually non-responsive. He was at home. wasn't really able to talk. He said this morning he woke up and he was as clear as a bell and he called my mom, myself, my fiance and my sister all in the bedroom and he talked very pointedly to us. He said, I watched my dad look at my mom and thank her for all those years of marriage and how that his life was so much better with her and how he loved her. He said, then he looked at my sister and he told her how much he loved her. He looked at me and he told me a few things. And then he looked even at my fiance and he called her by name and said, listen, I know you're getting married in two and a half weeks and I'm sorry, I'm not going to be there. But he said, I'm sure you'll be the best daughter-in-law a person could ask for. And he said, it was a little bit after that, he said, that dad drifted off and he died. You can't tell that family that last words aren't important. And there may be some of you that'll go to your grave remembering the last words that you were told by a loved one. Can I tell you, as precious as those last words are, and they should be in your heart, listen to me, there's some last words of Jesus that you should never forget. When He said, Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do. This morning I want to speak to you about the forgiveness of the cross. Can I tell you without the cross there's no forgiveness. There's no hope. There's no future. And isn't it ironic, ladies and gentlemen, that here Jesus in His dying breaths, when man says that death is a finality, Jesus said some things to give us hope for all eternity. And it was on that cross that Jesus gave a great example to every Christian in that He had a heart of forgiveness. And this morning as I preach, I want to remind you of something. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing to receive, and the only way that you can receive God's forgiveness is by placing your faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone. But can I tell you, forgiveness is not just a wonderful thing to receive, but it's a wonderful thing to give. If I could say it this way, it's impossible to be like Jesus unless you're willing to forgive. And so as we look at the forgiveness of the cross this morning, there are three things that I want to show you. The first thing I want you to see is the background of this cry of forgiveness. I want you to see what happened to Jesus before He ever said it. At the moment we see Jesus in this passage, He has hung on the cross He has been injured and beaten by the hands of the Roman soldiers and guards. He's hearing the jeering of the Jews and all who have gathered around. But it's very important for you to understand the power of these words. You better see what Jesus experienced before He got to this point. You see, before Jesus hung on the cross, the first thing you see is that He experienced the disloyalty of His disciples. Jesus had called twelve. He called those twelve to follow Him. And He had a relationship with those twelve unlike anybody else. They often slept in the same places. They ate in the same places. They saw the same things. Jesus constantly had them by His side. Jesus invested in them over and over and over again. And after pouring His life into those disciples for three years, there came a day that Jesus was arrested. And in Mark 14 verse 50 it says, And they all forsook Him and fled. Every last one of those twelve left Jesus at the very moment He was being arrested. Now there was one disciple that we take special note of. His name was Judas. And Judas was uniquely involved in this betrayal because he would be the one that would come to Jesus and betray Him with a kiss. Do you remember that? Judas would come to Jesus, kiss Him, identifying Him as the Son of God to be arrested, and then the disciples would flee. He betrayed Him with a kiss. If there has ever been a cruel betrayal, it was that one. He wasn't betrayed with a curse word. He wasn't betrayed with a slap or a fist. But He was betrayed with an insincere kiss. And then there was another disciple who was very outspoken like some of you. His name was Peter. Peter had even vocalized before Christ's crucifixion that he would never leave Him. That he would never forsake Him. And yet in Mark chapter 14, the Bible tells us that Peter is with a crowd of people and they begin to notice. They said, ah, ah, ah, wait a second, you're with that man? And Peter said, no, I'm not. Somebody else said, Peter, you're with Jesus? He said, no, I'm not. And it was even to the point that he cursed and he denied the very Lord that had spent three years with him. But in spite of all that disloyalty, when Jesus hung on the cross and He looked at mankind that had hung Him on the cross, He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Not only did he experience the disloyalty of the disciples, but he also experienced the hatred of the religious leaders. There's a verse that you ought to pay attention to in John. It says, And he came unto his own, and his own received him not. Jesus comes to the Jews, they reject Him. I know a lot of times today you hear people talk about anti-semitism, and they say, well, when you preach the gospel, that's anti-semitic. And I'm going to tell you, no it's not. You know why? Because every last one of us nailed Him to the cross. The Jews may have been there that day, and the religious leaders may have shown their hatred, but I'm going to tell you, every one of us in this room nailed Jesus to the cross. But the religious leaders of that day, they decried Jesus when they were told, shall we crucify your king? And they all respond back and they say, we have no king but Caesar. He came into his own, his own received him not. As a matter of fact, as part of the crony trial that they put Jesus through, they recruited people to lie and bear false witness about Jesus. Listen to me. They hated the man. They viewed him as an imposter. They viewed Jesus as somebody that was threatening to them and that He was blasphemous, when in reality, Jesus, He's the Son of God. Do you understand what all Jesus experienced before He was nailed to the cross? He experienced great disloyalty. He experienced great hatred. And yet, as He hung on that cross, He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And then He also experienced the brutality of the Romans. Physical, emotional brutality. You say, why do you say emotional when you're blindfolded? and they pluck out your beard and they say prophesy unto us. Who smote thou? They were humiliating Him. Eventually, ladies and gentlemen, when Jesus was hanging on that cross, He was hanging on that cross naked and emaciated. Can I tell you the paintings of Calvary don't do it justice. because Jesus was beaten beyond recognition as even being a human being and He was a bloody mess. Now listen ladies and gentlemen, and He was hanging before His own mother as she wept until there were no more tears. And on top of the emotional humiliation that Jesus experienced, He experienced a physical brutality that nobody in this room has ever experienced. I contend to you that He experienced the highest disloyalty. He experienced the highest hatred. And He experienced the highest brutality. And yet in all of that, ladies and gentlemen, listen to what Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. But before we move on, I want to tell you, this room is filled with people. that have probably experienced disloyalty at some time or another. You've invested your life in someone only for them to spit on you and to walk away. There's some of you, you have family that maybe you're alienated from. There's some of you, listen, you've experienced things at the hands of others with such great disloyalty and it filled your heart with rage or it filled your heart with anger. I may be talking to some of you, you say, there's just some people, I'll just be honest, I just have a great hatred in my heart for them. Why? Because they hated you. And there may be some of you, you know what, you've experienced emotional and physical brutality at the hands of other people. It's a lot more common than you think. I'm not here telling you that your disloyalty that you experienced wasn't real or it's all in your head. I'm not saying that people have never hated you, that it's a figment of your imagination. I'm not saying that, listen, this thing of being maybe physically brutalized or emotionally humiliated, that it's just, you know what, you just need to get out. Listen, I'm not saying that that stuff is light, but here's what I'm saying. If you're going to follow the example of Jesus, you have to be willing to say, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And ladies and gentlemen, I really believe with all of my heart that one of the greatest hindrances that we have to revival in our churches is because we fail to follow the example of Jesus in this area. You can't have revival with unforgiveness in your heart. You can't have revival when the hatred that was to destroy you now abides in your own heart. You can't have revival as long as you make excuses as to why you're justified in being mad at the world. If anything, ladies and gentlemen, Jesus could have called legions of angels to destroy the entire world, and yet, instead of vengeance, He says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. You've experienced unfairness, dishonesty, unfaithfulness, people talking behind your back, unkind words, assumptions of your motives, the spreading of rumors. Listen to me. Would you be willing to humble yourself this morning and Christians say, listen, those people did that to Jesus. They may do that to me, but I'm going to be like Jesus. That's the background of this cry of forgiveness. But now I want you to see the timing of this cry of forgiveness. At the beginning of the verse that we read, it's a sequential word. It says, "...then said Jesus." It's after Jesus had experienced all these things that I described to you. It was right on the heels of that that Jesus said what He did. I've talked to people in churches sometimes as we've talked and discussed things in their lives and they'd say to me, Brother Beal, I've held on to this for 20 years. I've held on to this for 10 years. I've held on to this for five years. I remember one night I was talking to an elderly gentleman after the service who'd gotten right with the Lord in this area and he was physically shaking because he was talking about just how much freer he felt and he couldn't believe that he'd lived with it for all those years. You see, the best time to have a heart of forgiveness, it's when you're right on the heels of the offense. When you put that in a file cabinet, you let that boil and you let that stew. Listen, some things are good when you let them boil, but some things aren't. Listen, pinto beans, slow cook them all day. And while you're at it, just cut an onion that big around. And go ahead and throw some cornbread in the oven. And that's a meal. That's a meal that many young people, they despise, but I think it's like steak to me, if it's cooked right. You put pintos in a pot, you let them simmer and you let them cook. You come out with something good, but you let hatred and unforgiveness simmer in your soul, and I'm going to tell you, it'll sour you and everybody around you. You say, well, this happened in my past. Listen, if it happened in your past, you know what? I've got news for you. God's greater than your past. And God can help you climb out of any hole, of any injustice, any hatred you've ever experienced. But listen, you've got to follow the example of Jesus. said Jesus. I wonder if I'm speaking to some here today. You've had something lingering in your soul for a long while and you've not been able to get free of it and today God's knocking on your heart's door. Now the question is, will you answer it? There may be somebody here, you say, it's just been something that's happened to me in recent days. And you say, preacher, it was awful. It may have been awful, but I'm telling you, it'll really be awful if you don't deal with it. You might say, well you act like it's my fault. I'm not saying it's your fault. I can't control what people do to me, but I refuse to let them destroy me by reacting in a way that plays to what they want. Then said Jesus unto them, Father, forgive. I think the word forgive is one of the most beautiful words in the English language. Now you know there are some words that are ugly. Like for instance, do you remember what the nation of Israel did in the wilderness? They murmured. You say that word murmur, that just sounds nasty, doesn't it? Murmur. It just has an awful, horrible sound to it. But I'm going to tell you the word forgive, that's just like perfect pitch music. When you read about forgiveness in the Bible, Ephesians 4 and verse 32, And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, here it is, forgiving one another. But let me go beyond that. Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Hey, before we talk about you forgiving other people, let's just talk a little bit about when you were forgiven. Do you remember when you were forgiven? Do you remember when you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior? I don't remember the calendar day. I was 12 years old. I didn't look at a calendar. But the nice thing about that is I can just celebrate my spiritual birthday anytime I want. But listen, do you remember the day that you trusted Christ? I'm talking to some of you here. Listen. Before you got saved, you were a big sinner. Now we're all sinners, but there were some of you that were really a mess. It's just like you went on a tear to try to ruin your life and then you finally come to the bottom of yourself and you're like, okay, Lord, God, please save me. I need your forgiveness. And I'm gonna tell you, and God forgave you. You remember that? You know, there's some of you here and you're like, well, I wasn't the worst person in the world. Maybe you're self-righteous. You know, we don't like being around self-righteous people, do you? It turns me off. I think they're better than us. And that's exactly how we were, some of you, before you got saved. You weren't in the rescue mission, but you were so self-righteous, when people walked by you, they went like this. And God forgave you. Now you think about the day you got saved. Now I want you to think about the offense that's before you. Listen, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. It's pretty hard to go out and parade to other people and tell them how God's forgiven you when you're unwilling to forgive. And you know what? There may be some of you today, you know the reason why you struggle with forgiveness is because you've never tasted of God's forgiveness yourself. There may be some that are listening this morning, and if you're asked the question, tell me about the day you got saved, you're like, I don't want to talk about that. You said, think back to the day when you were forgiven. You're like, well, you know, I'd just rather not. Why? Because there's nothing there, or there's something that's wrong. My wife and I will be married 29 years in August. If after the service, when I'm standing beside a pastor, you came to me and said, Brother Beal, tell me about the day you got married. And I looked at you and said, I don't want to talk about it. You West Virginians gossip like the rest of us. You'd go out in the parking lot, see your spouse and say, don't you ever do that to me. I'll kill you. Every one of you go out in the parking lot and you know what you'd say? You'd say there's something bad wrong and you'd be right. And when I ask the question, do you remember when you were forgiven? I'm telling you, if that draws a blank or there's an uncertainty in your heart, I'll tell you what you need to do this morning. You need to experience God's forgiveness by trusting Jesus Christ as your Savior. I don't care how dirty you've been. I don't care how self-righteous you've been. I'm going to tell you the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. And maybe for somebody here, the reason you can't get over this unforgiveness is because, first of all, you need a taste of God's forgiveness yourself. But you know, forgiving one another, that's easier said than done. Sometimes there's some people and they say, well, I'm just going to tell you, you've never had happen to you what's happened to me and so you have no right to tell me what to forgive. You know, I've talked to people and they've been that way and they've been hurting. That's why I don't think they just had personal animosity towards me, but they were so hurt in their own heart. They've experienced horrible things. Listen, there may be some of you in this room, you've experienced horrible things at the hands of other people. And if you stood in my face and said, you've never experienced what I've experienced, I would probably have to look at some of you and say, you're right. And if that's your excuse for not offering forgiveness this morning, before you get out of the door, let me tell you something. You're right. I've never experienced what you've experienced, but can I ask you a couple questions before you leave? When's the last time somebody nailed you to the cross? When's the last time you hung before your mother naked and emaciated and watched her cry? Here's the truth, there's nobody in this room that ever experienced the pain that Jesus did. I'm not the example, this preacher's not the example. You know who the example is? Jesus Christ. And if you're here and you've used that excuse for years, I'm telling you this morning is the time to throw those chains off and leave here free. Somebody else, they might say, well, I'm going to tell you why, preacher, I'm going to tell you why I don't forgive, because they're just going to do it again. Now, I'll be honest, I listen to that and that sort of, I'm like, well, what do you tell them? I think you have to tell them what Jesus told Peter. One day when I get to heaven, I'm going to talk to Peter. I'm going to talk to him about some of the things he did and say, Peter, why did you do this? Peter walks up to Jesus and he says to Jesus in Matthew chapter 18, he said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Till seven times? I think had I been Peter, I would have been marching up to the Lord like I really had it together and said, Lord, I'd like to ask you a question. How many times did my brother sin against me that I should forgive him? Seven times? That's pretty good. That's long-suffering. You remember what Christ's answer was? It blew Peter's mind. I say not unto you until seven times, but seventy times seven. Some of you mathematicians, 490. Maybe there's a wife in here who gets home and says, honey, I'm going to tell you I'm going to love you until that 489th time and then I'm going to warn you. You got one more lick and it's done. I believe in taking the Bible literally, but I think you're being a little unreasonable. You know why? Because Jesus was using that as an illustration to teach Peter that through life as a Christian, you better have repeated forgiveness. Now brother, I'm gonna tell you, if there's something in your heart today that's not right towards somebody else, the best thing you can do is throw your excuses in the trash and just be like Jesus and say, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Number one, the background of forgiveness. Number two, the timing of it. The last thing that I want to share with you is the blessing of forgiveness. You know the blessing of forgiveness? You know what it is? It doesn't necessarily change the behavior of people that offend you. You ever heard somebody like, well, I'll forgive you if you crawl on your knees in glass. Listen, that's not forgiveness. That's just a bunch of bunk is what that is. That's just a power play. You know why I know that? Because after Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. You know what the crowd did afterwards? The same exact thing they did before. They parted His raiment. They shouted at Him. It didn't change the behavior of that crowd one bit. Some people are misguided. They think, well, if I offer forgiveness, that just... It doesn't change everybody's behavior. But I'm going to tell you what it does do. It shows them what Jesus Christ is like. You know, the blessing of forgiveness is that you can go forward and be free in your heart. I've talked to some people, they've been so bound by unforgiveness that they just didn't realize it. Jesus went to His grave with not a lick of animosity, with a heart of compassion, And you know what? When you choose to be like Jesus, you can go to the next day at peace with nothing haunting you and a clearness in your soul towards God. You know, I think probably the greatest Old Testament example of forgiveness, and the word forgiveness is not even mentioned in the story, is when David speaks at the funeral of King Saul. So let me remind you that story. Saul is the king of Israel, and God is anointing his successor, David. David is a shepherd boy, who happens to be best friends with Saul's son Jonathan. And Jonathan and David, they begin to spend time together and a great jealousy begins to boil in Saul's heart about David. And even at a young age, Saul on multiple occasions tried to kill David. David's in the same room with Saul and Saul pulls out a javelin and it's not a matter of, boy, let me show you this. He throws it at him. It'd be like somebody taking out a gun and then just pointing it at you. That's pretty traumatic. That's what happened to David. And Saul tried to kill David on repeated occasions because his heart was so filled with jealousy and envy. And then the day comes when Saul and Jonathan are both killed. And guess who speaks at the funeral? David. Now had I been in that funeral home meeting And the funeral home director said, who's preaching the funeral? And somebody said, I think David ought to do it. I looked over there and said, no. It's not good. And had some of us been David, we would have stood up at that funeral and said, you know what folks, I am so glad to speak today. Because the old man got what was coming to him. He tried to kill me, but in the end he got it. Look who's living. Folks, let it be a lesson. You live like that, you die like that. Good riddance. That's how we would have done it. But you know what David said at Saul's funeral? He said, don't tell the Philistines about this, because all they're going to do is rejoice and blaspheme God. And then later on in the funeral eulogy, he describes Saul and Jonathan and he says they were lovely. I'd say there's something wrong with that man. No. I'm going to tell you what happened. All that mess happened repeatedly, time and time and time again. But when it came to being at Saul's grave, David had no animosity and he just chose to remember the good. And he said, you know what? That's just, I'm not gonna let that control me. And he just chose the good. And that's how he ended up with no regret. And you know what I believe? There may be some of you this morning, listen to me, you're a Christian. and you've let that stuff eat you and gnaw at you and God wants to do a reviving work at the Cranberry Baptist Church and it may be that if you humble yourself this morning and you say, alright Lord, you've dealt in my heart about this unforgiveness and Lord, today I choose to be like Jesus and today I choose to have that heart, it may be that it opens the floodgates of blessing. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Let's bow our heads together in prayer. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. I want to ask you these questions and please listen carefully. This morning we talked about that time, that day when you received God's forgiveness at salvation. How many of you here today, you'd say this, you'd say, Alton, there was a time in my life when I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior. And today, I know that my sins have been forgiven. I have experienced God's forgiveness and salvation. And there's no doubt in my mind, I can tell you, I have been forgiven. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior. If you can say that, would you slip your hand up and keep it up just a moment? All right, thank you. You may put them down. I wonder if there's some hurting souls here today and you know that there's an emptiness in your heart. When you were asked that question, do you know that your sins have been forgiven, you say, preacher there's a big question mark there. Every person in this room can leave here today forgiven. And if you're here and you've never trusted Christ, you say, I have never experienced God's forgiveness and today I know that my need is to be saved. You'd say, Alton, today I've never experienced God's forgiveness, but I'd like to. I've never experienced His forgiveness and salvation, but today I need it and today I want to experience God's God's forgiveness and salvation. And God is dealing in my heart. You'd say, Alton, would you please pray for me this morning? If that's you, would you slip your hand right up right now long enough for me to see it? God bless you. Thank you. Anybody else? As I wait just a moment. You'd say, would you please pray for me? I need to be saved. I need to experience God's forgiveness. Anybody else? As I wait just a moment. Alright. In a few moments we're going to have a time of invitation. We'll stand together and after I pray I'm going to ask our instrumentalist to begin playing the song of invitation. I'd like for pastor to be here at the front. And I'm going to ask any of you today that God has dealt in your heart about salvation and forgiveness. I'm going to ask you in a moment, if you're here and you need to trust Christ, that as soon as our invitation begins, that you just quietly leave your seat and come see pastor and we'll have somebody take you aside and show you from the Bible how you can receive God's forgiveness. Listen, when God is knocking at your heart's door it's a good time to answer it today. And so in a moment I'm going to give you the opportunity to do what I've seen many do through the years. You say, Alton, today I need God's forgiveness and salvation. In a moment I'm going to ask you to leave your seat Our heads will be bowed, our eyes will be closed, pastor will be here at the front. We'll have somebody take the Bible and show you how you can be saved. There's nothing to be ashamed of when God's working in your heart. My last question is, I wonder how many Christians here today? You'd say, Brother Bill, I know I'm a Christian, there's no doubt about that, but today God has dealt in my heart about being like Jesus in this matter of forgiveness. And this morning I am making the choice to be like Jesus and to rise above what has been done to me. And this morning, God has dealt in my heart as a Christian. He knows the matter that I need to deal with. And you'd say, Brother Beal, as a Christian, God has dealt with me about this matter of unforgiveness. Would you please pray for me this morning? If that's you, would you slip your hand up? Are there folks like that? God bless you. God bless you. Thank you. You may put them down. Anybody else as I wait just a moment. If you're able, would you join me in standing? Let's stand together with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. As our pastor's here at the front, I'm going to pray. And as soon as I'm done, if you're here today and you'd say, I need God's forgiveness and salvation, I want to invite you to come on that very first note. If you're here today and you say, preacher, God's dealt in my heart as a Christian about this matter of forgiveness, I invite you to come today. and let's humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and let's let Him lift us up. Father, as we conclude this service, Lord, would you help us to obey you? Lord, I pray for this one and others here that maybe you've dealt in their hearts about this matter of salvation. Lord, I long to see them experience what I did years ago. But they have to come. Lord, they have to respond. I pray that they would do so in courage and boldness. And Lord, that you give healing to their souls. And Lord, I pray as well for my brothers and sisters here today. Father, if there's any hint of unforgiveness in our hearts, Lord, may we see the cross and rise above it. And I pray that people would leave here free. More free than perhaps they've been in years. Lord, may the forgiveness of the cross help us. May it cause people to come to Christ. And may it cause Christians to draw nigh to You. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Our heads are bowed. Our eyes are closed. Our pianist begins to play. I want to ask you this morning, If God's dealing in your heart about forgiveness, would you step out and come right now? You may need to be saved. You may be a Christian. You'd say, you know, God's dealing in my heart about a sensitive area. Listen, you can't go wrong by following Jesus. And just a few moments will be done. Lord, will you leave here free? Will you leave here without questions? It's your choice. God is working. God is drawing. Will you respond to Him? If you're here today and you're in need of forgiveness and salvation, listen, come just as you are. That's right. Come right ahead. You're here today and you'd say, there's a burden that's in my heart. I've been wrestling with this for years and I invite you to come. Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me. This morning the choir sang about the blood of Christ. You can't sing about the blood of Christ with true joy and true confidence. If you're not willing to experience that forgiveness and to extend it to others, there'd be no forgiveness without the blood. Just going to have the pianist play one more verse and then we're going to be done. I'm going to ask pastor to come and close the service as he sees fit. I hope you'll be in prayer for the service tonight. I hope you'll make it a priority to come. For some of you, maybe you don't come on a Sunday night. We'll make history. Because in every service the Bible is preached, God has something for you if you'll just open your ears and open your heart to it. We all need to hear from the Lord. Alright, you can look this way. The pastor is going to come and dismiss us here shortly. Now today is a beautiful day. But the best way to end a beautiful day is in church. Not the lake or not the park. You can do that this afternoon. You can go out there and see God's creation. But let's come back tonight and you know what? You're going to see the beautiful faces of God's people. Now I realize some are more beautiful than others. But we're all beautiful. We're all God's creation. We're all created from God's handiwork. So be back tonight and I hope that if you get a chance that you pray, Lord would you please prepare our hearts for what you have for us tonight. Let's come with a heart of anticipation and it's been a blessing to be with you.