Please turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 8. If you didn't bring a Bible, there should be one in the pew right in front of you. Romans in chapter 8. I preach usually on the first of the month concerning our theme for the year. And you can see it on the blue poster behind us here and in the other room. It is pressing toward the mark. And we've been preaching that basically through January, February, March, April, May, and now June. And this message is in a conjunction with that. And this is kind of giving you the ability, the motivation, saying, I've been pressing toward the mark. I've been moving. God knows, I'm honestly trying to go right with God, be right with God, and walk His direction, but I feel like I can't. I feel like the problems of life are insurmountable. I feel like what I've been dealt with is too much for me to handle. And yes, sir, I believe that. I believe God allows that to happen in our lives so that we might look to Him. Now today's message will go along with that to give you the ability to say, I know what God's doing. In fact, as you may not know the exact things what God's doing, but I know who's in control. So let's look at Romans chapter eight. And I'd like you to look down at verse number 28, Romans eight, verse 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and to them who are the called according to his purpose. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, please give us the insight we ought to have today. Lord, we want to please you in our lives. As we said in Sunday School Hour, we want to please you and know that we are and have that security and that peace in our hearts to know that what we're doing is the right thing day by day in our lives, in our jobs, in our efforts, in our relationships. And Lord, sometimes the trials of life become bigger than we can handle. And Lord, we are looking to you to give us the sense of this word Help us, Lord, to be biblical and consistent and use it in our lives. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. Now, this verse has really been an important promise in God's Word, and I believe that it ought to be right in front of your eyes as often as possible. Many people have taken this verse and put it onto plaques and framed this concept and put it on their walls. Maybe you have on your computers a screensaver that has this. But whatever the case is, and I believe that's an important thing to do, I believe that this is one of the promises that we can hold to, but it is one of the promises that are often first forgotten. We have this promise, we love this promise, but that as soon as the great trials of life come, we have forgotten this promise. We are looking with despair. We're going into anxious times saying, I'm going to worry, I'm going to fret, I don't know if I'm going to make it. Now, if you've never been there, just hang on, you'll grow up a little bit, because that happens to everybody. I think that the youth have a specific special place in this world, that they don't understand the complexities of life and the disappointments yet. And I say, great, wouldn't it be great if you remember the time when you were a teenager, or even younger, where it seemed like life was so simple. And to a teenager, it seems very complicated. And I try to explain to them, hey, just hang on, it'll get a lot worse than this. The life is that way. But you know, the Lord intended to solve those problems. And he also tries to intend, his intention is, to solve the anxiety in your heart. He says, hey, why are you worrying? I'm in control. If we really believe the word of God. This is one of those promises, easily forgotten. There are certain things in this world that in and of themselves are not good. I don't believe it's of the job of any pastor to misrepresent our circumstances. We look at the world and we say it's full of sin. Hey, we were part of that world. Amen? And the Lord grabbed us and brought us to salvation and took us out of the world. And though we're here, we're in the world, but we're not of the world. The world is no longer in me. He even said in 1 John 2 in verse 15, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. These things are truths that we know. The world is not in me, even though I live in this world. I'm in the world, but not of the world. Alright? But we know that this world has some difficult things. The things that come and they harm our lives, sometimes they're even terrible things. And somehow, as we would call it maybe the chemistry of the cross, the Lord takes those things that were meant for our harm, that are meant to be evil, and he says in this promise, I am going to take those evil things and work them out for your good. Now that's an amazing God. Now that ought to speak today volumes concerning the sovereignty of God. that God is in control. God is guiding our lives. The Bible says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. He says, hey, look, I've picked today's plan. You say, but I didn't wake up this morning and know what I was going to find when I found that bad news. You know, whatever it is, imagine what it was like the day that you heard the words cancer. Some of you have been through that. Miss Toni, Miss Judy, and others have been through that. And some others have been through that. My wife heard that last year. God delivered us from that. About this time last year, they said it was cancer. And it turned out not to be. But we've been there. We know what it's like. Ms. Kathy, you don't understand this. You say, I didn't intend this day to run into that problem. And you know what, those kind of things kind of put in perspective a lot of our lives. They say, really, what's important in life? You know, it's not really important anymore, all the things that were bothering me yesterday. The little spats that you might have. Because now you're dealing with a great issue called cancer. And it puts in perspective those issues. But even though cancer is not meant for our good, God can take it and use it for good. That ought to tell you something about the power of God. It ought to tell you something about His love for you, that He's concerned about your very steps. He is planning out your day. He knew before you were born that that day would happen. He knew that the tragedies that you have faced, that those days would come. And He says, I'm going to work it all out. I'm going to work it all out for your good. You say, Pastor, I'm dealing with some heartache I don't think is covered in this verse. Yeah, we'll get to that in just a moment. They say, I've had my family turn on me. That doesn't seem like one of those things that are written in this verse. And I am going to prove to you that I believe that it is. They say, it's the harm that other people have done to my life. Yes. Real harm. Real things. Real problems. But yet a real God who said, I can work all things out for your good. He mixes these things with the hand of his love. I think not only should you see the sovereignty of God, but you should see his great love. You're never alone. You're never alone in times past where the Bible tells us in the last words of the first chapter of Hebrews, are not they all ministering angels, ministering unto those who shall be heirs of eternal life? That God says, I have been protecting you even before you knew me. I've been caring for you even before you cared for me. He understood us, even when we don't understand ourselves. The Bible says, who can know the heart? He says, it's desperately wicked. Who can know it? In the next verse there in Jeremiah chapter 17, he says, but it is God that searches, that knows the heart of mankind. He understands you. Therefore it is God and only God that Psalm 23 says can restore my soul. Only God can come down to the deepest part of your heart and find a solution to the difficulties of your life. I am not here to preach a power of positive thinking. I am not here to preach about name it, claim it. I'm here to take God at His word. What God has promised, He is able also to perform. We find that in Romans in chapter 4. And in this promise, and we know. And so the first point today is the certainty of this promise. The certainty of this promise. And we know. that all things work together for good. Some of us get to the place where we're riding in that boat, and the boat is in the midst of a storm like those disciples out there in the Sea of Galilee. And they're tossed and they're moved, and their boat is filling with water, and they're working hard to try to capture back the strength of that ship, to capture back its control. And it seems like all hope is going to be lost. And they cry out to God. They find Jesus asleep down in the ship. Carest thou not that we perish? The Lord always cares for you. And while you're out there in that place, like the disciples, you might come to the conclusion that maybe this promise was for other people, but not you. You say, I don't doubt the power of God, but I wonder if God's power is available for me. But the answer is, and we know, and we know. Some things you just have to know. Jesus has made a promise. The promise is to all who are called according to His purpose. We'll conclude with that thought at the end of the verse. How that it is for every saved person. The calling there is representing those who have received the call of God to be saved as an individual. So this is a certainty that applies to every one of us. We need to get our eyes off of those waves. We need to enjoy the ride, let's say. And you say, but I'm going to lose everything. Enjoy the ride. You can't lose Jesus. They can take everything from the outside of your life. They can pull out everything out of your bank account, and they might. Inflation might do that. You know, we can lose everything on the outside, but nobody can take the relationship of Jesus Christ from within your heart if you're truly saved. Friend, if you're here and you don't know Christ as your Savior, There isn't anything more important, nothing greater I can do in this world than to introduce you to salvation in Jesus Christ. There's nothing more that can solve the problems of your life and eternity than to bring you into that place where you are saved and secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you're here and you say, Pastor, if I died today, I don't know if I'm going to heaven or if I'm going to hell. Friend, I can tell you Jesus said, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that you have eternal life. God wanted you with a certainty to know when your head hits the pillow, you say, if I don't even wake up tomorrow, the next face I'll see will be Jesus Christ. And you know you're going into heaven because of Jesus and his sacrifice for your sins. That you may know. The Lord makes a big difference between what you know and what you think. or what you hope for. This verse doesn't say, and we hope that all things work together for good. We hope. It doesn't say, and we think that all things work together. He doesn't even limit it to just a certain group of people within the family of God. But he says to all those that love him and are called according to his purpose. It's one of the greatness of this promise is that I'd call it a superlative promise that God says I can deliver on my promises. I'm going to work everything out for your good. This is a certainty when all the circumstances are looking terrible in your life, when everything looks like it's going to collapse. You need to hang on a minute because God is just not finished. Because he made a promise to you. that says, and we know that all things work together for good. You ever watch a good film or you're out there reading a good story and you hear a story well told, there's always a time of contention in the story. There's a place where all of evil seems to be winning. And if a story has a moral ending, it comes to the eventual conclusion that the moral side of things will work out. Well, friend, we're living in that story. You say, I'm dealing with things like cancer treatment. Yes, I understand. I know what it's like to walk into the oncology center of our hospital. They say, I'm dealing with things that are irreparable. I'm dealing with loss of my family, my children, and things of this nature that are not fixable. And I'm saying to you, just hang on. You're living in the middle of that story. The tension is great and evil seems to be surmounted. But praise God. God keeps His promises. We have hope in Titus 1, in him, hope in God that cannot lie, promised before the world began. He keeps his promises. You and I may be having trouble keeping our promises to others. But God cannot fail. If He would fail, as F.B. Meyer, one of my favorite commentators and old preacher, wrote from the last century, he says this, he said, on an occasion, if any promise of God should fail, he said, the heaven would clothe themselves with sackcloth. The sun, the moon, and the stars would reel from their courses. The universe would rock, and a hollow wind would moan through the ruined creation the awful message that God can lie. But thank God, while many, many may lie, God cannot lie. He abides faithful. I like the words of that preacher. See, it tells us that you can trust in a lot of things in this world and be disappointed. But any time you anchor your faith in the Word of God, where God has made a promise, He said it is something that is able to stand the test of the storms of this life. To take you through the difficulties and carry you through out the other side. To say with a testimony like Joseph, God says all these things will work together for good. I know, I read a lot about R.A. Torrey. And his book, Apostle of Certainty, a biography that he wrote, tells how he would bring his children together and his family during difficult times. And he would come to this verse in this text and he'd say, kids, all things work together. for good. And friend, listen to me. This is one of the all things. You come to a place where you say there's another problem. And I want to tell you this, I don't think problems come alone. I don't think storms come just with clouds. I don't think rain comes without lightning and wind. I believe that it seems in my life that all of the problems of life have compiled. They come at me from left and right and front and back. They come from up and down. And I find that it seems overwhelming, the problems of life. But God is a God who says all things. So we look to number point two as the completeness of this promise. And we know that all things work together for good. How many things? All things. How about those things we don't like? I mean, we're glad the sweet things of God work out good. The Bible says that the goodness of God leadeth men to repentance. Those things that we are appealing to, the peaceful times, the bank account that is sufficient for the bills that are coming, right? and a car that when you get in, it turns on and it doesn't break down. And we like that those things are able to work out for good to them that love God and called according to His purpose. We know in James chapter 1 that every good thing, every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from God, from above, from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, the Bible says. Our God gives us every good thing, so are you thankful for those things? We're thankful to God for our food when we have it. We're thankful for when we don't have it. We ought to be thankful for the blessings that we enjoy, the good weather today, and the cold weather we are glad is gone. And for the hot weather that's about to come. We're just going to say, praise God, thank you God, for the good things of God work out to be good for me. But what about those things that were not good? There's some important parts of this. The Bible says in Jeremiah, Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, Like the good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place in the land of the Chaldeans for their good. That was in Jeremiah chapter 24 verse 5. Here is Israel, a group of people that have a special covenant relationship with God in heaven, but yet they have been doing exactly the opposite of God's plan. They've been bowing down to idols and worshiping the idols and neglecting His holy temple. They have, in their hearts, replaced Him with a false religion. And God says, hey, I'm sending you out into Babylon. And when they came in 586 BC, the army of Nebuchadnezzar marched into Jerusalem. They burnt down the great houses, they tore down the temple, they carried away all of the gold and they killed tens of thousands of people, slaughtered. When Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego all walked their way across that desert and Mesopotamia to Babylon. When they went, they were leaving behind the ruins and the carnage of their own family. They were leaving the smoking stacks of those ruined places that used to be called home to a land of a different language, to people who worship the false god. How can this be in God's plan? But God said, I am sending you to the Chaldeans for your good. For all of their faults, when Israel returned in the days of Ezra, and then in the days of Nehemiah, they were cured of their religious adultery. They were cured as a nation from going off into false gods and idolatry. They worshipped their first and pure and only true God, Jehovah Himself. They fell into other problems. But God says, I've sent this for your good. Look at the biggest problem in your life. Look at it square with your eyes open. Look at the disappointment, the heartache, the grief that it has brought. To some it's been great loss. Look straight at it and look at your heart and say to yourself, God said this is for my good. God isn't finished with you. He's got a plan. Consider that man, Joseph, out of the book of Genesis. A boy that was betrayed by his own brothers, cast into a pit and left to be there to die. Later, they came back and they said, hey, you see those Ishmaelites? I'll bet they'll buy our brother. They sold him into slavery. I'd like to be sold by your own brothers. sold and the Ishmaelites take him down into Egypt and he's learning these new languages, the language of Ishmael and the language of Egypt. And he goes down into Egypt and he's sold to Potiphar's house and he serves there. And yet he's betrayed by Potiphar's wife. She claims he's attempting to rape her and he's thrown there unjustly into the prison in Egypt. Not the prisons of our day where they're provided three square meals, but a prison that is real danger and trouble. Joseph, there in the prison, he is again trying to do his best. Could you imagine if, we don't read anything bad about this man in the Bible. We know he's a sinner like everybody else, but you don't have any of those records in the Bible. He's just given this idea that he said God was with him. There he was, true to God. He could have looked up from that dungeon and said, God, I tried to do what you wanted me to do, yet they sold me into slavery. God, I was over here in Potiphar's house, and she wanted me to do wrong, and I was obedient to you, but why is this happening to me? Remember, he could say right there, this is for my good. And he's about to say it, because he gets to the end of his life. Remember, he's brought because of the baker, and the butler and he's brought up out of there and he's made the second in charge of all of Egypt during a time when they would have seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine and he opens up the storehouses in Egypt and he becomes the feeder and sustainer not only of Egypt but of Israel and of all of the nations that are surrounding them and he says after the death of his father his brothers start to quake they wonder is he going to get revenge now that dad is gone And he brings them together in that last chapter of Genesis in chapter 50 verse 20. And he says these words, but as for you, you thought it evil against me, but God meant it unto good. To bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive. God isn't finished with the story of your life. I don't know how to handle these problems. How am I going to pay these bills? I don't know what to do with this situation. God is not finished with your life. All things work out together for good. How good things and bad things are still good and bad. Sin is still sin. But the Bible says even God takes the things that are called the wrath of man and he says, I'm going to take the wrath of man and cause it to praise the Lord. What a God we serve. What a reality of our faith that God didn't just rescue us from the penalty one day of our sin, giving us the promise of heaven, but he has rescued from the power and of this sin in this world to control your life. He says, I'm going to take the sin of others. And even though they want to harm you, even though they want to do evil to you, he says, I'm going to turn it into your good. What a God. And he promised to do it for you. It is a great promise that surely, surely is for us. What about those bad things? Oh man, think of the Apostle Paul. If anybody gave up for God, Paul did. He could have been one of those Pharisees in charge of the Sanhedrin. He was there at the feet of Gamaliel, the grandson of Hillel, the greatest of their teachers of that time, the rabbi of rabbis. In fact, as they name a school after his grandfather, Gamaliel's grandfather, Hillel. And he is there to be instructed. That's where he got his instruction. And he is a Pharisee that Philippians 3 tells us. He said he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. And yet God called him. What did God call him to do? He said, I am going to show you how you must suffer. many things for my name." Wow. Paul, at one point, had a revelation. The Lord doesn't even let us know what it is. But in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, he says, it is such a revelation that he was caught up to the third heaven and heard things that the Lord says, don't you write it down, it's not to be known now. And he said, unless I would be exalted above measure, read 2 Corinthians chapter 12, you'll find this. And less so that I would not be exalted. So Paul was saying, hey, just in case God gave me a revelation, and just for the simple fact that I would not be lifted up in pride, the enemy of God, pride. He said, the Lord sent, now what he called it, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. a thorn in the flesh. Some people believe he was losing his eyesight because of the word in Galatians where it says that they would have given him their own eyes if it were possible. Some believe he was hunchbacked. He may have been both. What a sight. Having been beaten as much as he's beaten, his body, by the time he gets to the chopping block of Nero in 68 AD, he looks like a terrible mess. He's only in his 60s and he's about to lose his head chopping block, and his body's been beaten, and he's probably hunched back, and he can hardly ever see. And his eyes are not good. But whatever it was, he prayed three times, he said, that the Lord would take it away. Ha! And the Lord says, this is for your good, so you will not be exalted above measure. So then what happened? That's where he says, I found that where my weakness was, His grace was sufficient. You see, that truth was known to the Apostle Paul, revealed to him because of the thorn in the flesh. Satan never wants your good. He never does. He doesn't have any good for you. He doesn't want anything but your destruction, the destruction of your testimony. He wants to keep unsaved people unsaved, and he wants to have saved people ruin their testimony. And he's successful in many places that way, but he has nothing good for you. So the enemy is sent and going to do something evil against you, and you might in the middle of it say, God, I don't know why you allow the devil to do this. I don't know why these people motivated by satanic things would be able to move against somebody who believes in you. But just wait, God's not done. Because in the life of the Apostle Paul, it was sent as a messenger of Satan to buffet him, to show that God's grace is sufficient. All things. Not just part of the things of your life. Not just the things you like or the things that are small. But God says every single thing. God, I got myself into this mess. I'm suffering from the results of my sins. Turn to God. He said I will capitalize on everything in your life. And I will take an ark and put Romans 8 29. and he'll step it upon your life and say, all things work together for good. The certainty of it. Friend, listen, we go on to the cause of this, the cause of this promise. And then we know that all things work together for good. Things in themselves do not work out together for good. You found that out. You have a little problem with somebody. Yeah, a lot of times it happens in the church, you know that? Somebody will take your parking spot or something. And you get a little sideways, and you don't get it right. You don't go fix it. You think it disappears? No, it usually grows, doesn't it? It turns into bitterness, and bitterness turns into hatred, and hatred turns into a lot of fleshly things. Ooh, what a little, big fire, a little fire kindleth, right? What mess we make by not attending? Problems in themselves do not work out themselves for good, but problems in the hands of God. You see, now, think about this and take this home with you today. Where God does not rule, God overrules. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord and eternal, withersoever he wills. God is the one who brings order out of confusion and harmony out of discord. Don't forget, this verse. Martin Luther was a courageous man. No question. I don't like a lot of his theology. There's some points I would like to refine. When I get to heaven and talk to him, I'll ask him where he learned and what I learned, and we'll all sit together and let the Lord teach us. Amen. But he's a courageous man, no doubt. He stood against the greatest powers of his day. And he was excommunicated by the Pope, and there he was, outside of the faith and being condemned permanently. But he was courageous. His biography, well known, is called Here I Stand, and from his great statement that he said he wouldn't sign, he wasn't going to sign to compromise. But a lot of people don't realize that sometimes he had fits of despondency, almost despair. He would get in a really bad, bad, dark mood. Great men often have this. I've heard of this with Charles Spurgeon, having to go away sometimes for six weeks at a time to get alone with the Lord. He would go into his study talking about Martin Luther, and he'd go in his basement and stay there day after day. He would not want to see anybody. He'd feel depressed and down and melancholy. This man had such great faith. How can he go into depths of despair? So one day, his wife wanted to cheer him up. And no matter what she did, nothing could cheer him up. So he got this idea. His wife, her name was Catherine. She went down there just to shock him. She put on a funeral dress, dressed all in black. She put on all these black gloves and got down there and black veil across her face, an expression of horror upon her eyes. She went in into the room and he said, why, Kathy, what happened? Who died? And she said, oh, Martin, haven't you heard? God is dead. And he said, Kathy, that's blasphemy. And she said, it is? And she said, it's blasphemy for you to live like God is dead, just like it would be if I said it. You know, there are a lot of truth to that. There are Christians who are going around this world overcome by the problems that you're dealing with. And you're acting like God is out of control of this. Where is God? But all the while, he made this promise to you. And we know that all things work together for good. Some of you, I know the problems that you're facing. Some of you have relatives that are having great physical illnesses. I see Raleigh here with her sister. Will she ever get a lung transplant? The terrible thing that happened a month ago where the transplant was ready, they're on their way over there and then they get there and find out something happened and it wasn't gonna work. Lydia's gonna die if she doesn't. Where's God? Where's God in all of this? Saved people, where is God? God is still writing the story and we know that all things work together for good. The cause is God has to be true. This isn't a game, this isn't a play thing. I didn't give up what I wanted to do for life in the calling of God to come out and be part of something that wasn't real and true and factual. We are here because we believe in the salvation of God. We know his work in our heart. But then Christian, it is something how we extraordinarily can put our faith for eternity in God. But then we look at the faith for living today. Where is God? What is he doing in my life? He said all things work together. Do you believe it? We'll close with the conditions and the two conditions are easily given and I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. It says, to those that love God and to those that are called according to His purpose. If you look at the next verses, to them He called, to them He justified, to them He justified, to them He also sanctified. See, the calling there is a reference to those who have been called by God to be saved and have answered God's calling to be saved. You have trusted Christ as your Savior. He says you have met the condition. If you're here and you don't know Jesus as your Savior, you say, I'm outside the faith. If I died today, I don't know if I'm going to heaven or if I'm going to hell. Friend, listen to me. Now it's time for you to step into the faith. It's time for you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work on Calvary. And stop trying to earn your salvation on your own deeds. Come to Jesus and Jesus alone, and meet the conditions that God has. He says, hey, if you come to me for salvation, you're part of a special group, and you're part of my family, and I protect my own, and I'm guiding my own. And he says, I will carry you all the way through life, and I have done these things somehow for your good. Wouldn't you like to have that assurance in your heart that that means you? If you'll trust Christ as your Savior, you can. The love, those that say that, those that love God, their love is an active issue. It's not something we passively fall into. The Lord says that you choose to love. He told us to love not the world, we said earlier. He tells you to love God with all of your heart, mind, and soul. So as a Christian, somebody who's meeting the condition of God, that all things work together, is a Christian who says, I'm saved, and I want to live in the will and love of God. Jude, at the end of it, says keep yourselves in the love of God. In Revelation chapter number two, it says that the Ephesian church there, the church at Ephesus, the problem they had is that they had left their first love. Fall in love with Christ. And stay close to Him. He is painting a picture. You get those pictures that are painted on a rough piece of canvas. And you paint first the background full of dark colors or whatever. And if you see that, you back up and you say, Man, there's nothing beautiful about this. Just wait till the artist is finished. Until he lightens the picture with those other coverings over top of the darkness. The shadows disappear into the emerging truth of the picture that's before us. Your life. You're looking at it and saying, Pastor, why doesn't God? Okay. Let God finish the story. enjoy the ride. And we know that all things work together for good. Suffering and pain, sunshine and rain, good and bad times, sweet and sorrowful things, sinful and satanic things, simple and sublime things, all things work together to those that love God. It happens that God's trying to form your life into being like him. And the next verse is, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. That's wonderful. Are you saved? Are you part of that family of God that says, I've put my faith in Jesus, and that means that this promise is for me? If you're not, I want to give you an opportunity to get saved today. If you're here and you say, Pastor, I'm in the middle of that bad style of that picture, Hey friend, why don't you just let God have control of your life? Yield to Him and enjoy what God's trying to do for you. Enjoy the love, no matter how much evil is out there, no matter how much they try to hurt us, even if it's Satan himself were to walk in and try to hurt you, okay? Can't you see that God is gonna work all of that out for good? Would you bow and pray with me now? Heavenly Father, I thank you for the message. As we press toward the mark, Lord, I pray that we keep our eyes on you We keep our eyes on your promise and on the way you back up all of your promises with your person. You cannot fail. And I pray, God, that we would live day by day, moment by moment, in the truth and the reality that we serve a God that's all-powerful, that's sovereign, that you take the wrath of man to praise you, you turn the messenger of Satan into your work, the sins of others that are meant for evil, meant for harm, But God, you meant it for good. Teach us today how to handle life and its complexities simply because we know all things work together. Bless this time. Use it. Heads bowed and eyes closed, is there anybody here would say with your heads bowed and eyes closed, Pastor, if I died today, I don't know if I'm going to heaven. I need to be saved. If that's you, would you lift your hand? Would nobody else look, and I want to pray for you. I'm not going to call you out. Nobody's here to embarrass you. I'm not going to embarrass you if you want to talk about the Lord, but you think about this. If you say, Pastor, if I died right now, I don't know if I'm going to heaven. Please pray for me. Would you just lift your hand up wherever you're sitting there? I want to pray for you. I'm not going to come to you, but I want to know, say, Pastor, God's working on my heart. I need to be saved. Anybody else like that here tonight or this morning? Christian, has the Lord spoken to your heart about the difficulties you're facing? Are you trying to handle it all yourselves? Are you trying to make it work and you're frustrated and perplexed and anxious? Why don't you trust the promise of God? The invitation will be open in a moment for you to come and kneel up front here and give the problems and difficulties and decision-making all up to God and yield to him that God might have his way. Father, I pray that you bless this invitation. Use our church to encourage believers in their faith in you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.