I'll do my best to stay here. Thank you for being here tonight. We've had a wonderful day. I hope you have. And the Lord's been good to us and just blessed us. And He's good all the time, isn't He? Amen. And we're praying for your pastor and that things will work out at the meeting alright and get the sign put back up. He was telling me about it. And the Lord is able to do something about that. We're going to leave Joseph. There are certainly a lot of things with more things we could say about him, but I want to go a little bit further in another direction here from First Kings Chapter 17. And when we read in First Kings Chapter 17, we'll be reading a little bit about Elijah and Elijah is going to go down. The Lord's going to give him a command in First Kings 17 to go down by the brook Cherith. And I think you're familiar with that. He went down there and hid himself and God sent the ravens and fed him until the brook dried up. And then God said, I want you to go down to Zarephath. He said, there's a widow there that I've commanded to sustain thee. And I've always been interested in that fact that God said I've commanded her to and she didn't seem to know anything about it. But I'm still chewing on that a little bit. But anyway, he went down there and he found this woman. I want to read what happened when he got there. Verse 10 of 1 Kings 17, So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks. And he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel. and a little oil and a cruz. And behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.' And Elijah said unto her, Fear not. Go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruz of oil fail. until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail according to the word of the Lord which He spake by Elijah. And it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick. And his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou coming to me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up into a loft where he abode and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother. And Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth." I want you to notice verse 21 because we're going to take the title from the message in verse 21. And he stretched himself upon the child three times. I want to preach to you for a little while tonight on stretched upon the child. I have been noticing as I've been around here yesterday and today, the children, the little ones. I gave a little private concert right before the church service up here just close to the platform. And I had four young folks. I believe I had Trenton, and I had Katie, and I had Brett, and I had Preston up here, the four of them. and played them a little song on the violin called Little Red Riding Hood. And then we played a few Bible songs. There's nothing very spiritual about the Little Red Riding Hood song, but it does usually bring a smile, especially when I make the mule braying sound on it. And if you don't remember the mule braying sound in the story of Little Red Riding Hood, you'll have to get the revised standard version off the CD in the back. But I'm thinking about children tonight, and I've had on my heart today children. And I'm thinking about the statement made here that Elijah stretched himself upon the child. And I'm thinking tonight about the importance of you and I that are grown and are saved, you and I that know the Lord, how important it is that we stretch ourselves in our ministry to children. And I have it in my heart tonight to encourage you, to encourage you to be a worker in junior church, to encourage you to help out with the school, to encourage you to work on a bus route, to encourage you, if nothing else, to spend some time and put some effort into having a godly influence on a child. I was in a meeting a while back. It's been probably over a year ago. I was preaching up in Indiana. The preacher called me into his office before the service. We were going to pray a little bit. And he said, oh, by the way, read this. He laid a letter in front of me. So I opened up the letter and it was a letter that a young man who was a member of the church, a young man called to preach, a young man who had graduated from Bible college, and he was working on the bus route. And he had handed in that evening his resignation from the bus route. And he explained in the letter That he did not like children. That he was uncomfortable around children. That he no longer wanted to work in the children's ministry. He wanted to do something else. I'm afraid there are a lot of folks today who believe it's a waste of time to run a bus. Who believe it's a waste of time to visit a home. Who believe it's a waste of time to work with children. But I want to say to you, you and I more than ever need to stretch ourselves and go beyond ourselves and pour ourselves into the lives of children for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want us to think of three things in this passage tonight. I don't think this will take me very long. You never know when I preach. It may take hours, but we'll see. The first thing I want us to notice in Elijah ministering to this boy, this child, and I don't know how old he is. I don't know if he's 20 years old in the Bible. Many times 20 years and under was considered a child. You can find many times in the Bible where 18 year old, 19 year old, 20 year olds are referred to as children. I'm reminded of Ishmael in the Bible in the book of Genesis is referred to as a child when he is about 18 years old. So I don't know how old this young man is. He may be a child who is just young, five, six. He may be 10. He may be 15. But the Bible deals with him as a son and deals with him as a child. And Elijah spends time restoring this young man. Now, I want you to think, first of all, number one, of the seeming worthlessness of this ministry. Somebody might look and say, well, Elijah, really you are wasting your time with this boy. And there could be at least three reasons why they would say that. The first reason they might say that is because this is a son born in a nation that is under the judgment of God. Israel at this time is under judgment. There is a famine going on. There is such a famine that the animals are dying. People are starving. This woman herself says to Elijah, I don't have anything to give you. I've got enough meal left in the barrel that I'm going to make one little cake. I'm gathering some sticks. I'm going to make a cake for me and my son, and then we're going to die. What she's saying is the famine has brought us to the place where we have nothing. Now, if you study the Bible, You'll find out that famines in Israel were the result of the sin of Israel and the judgment of God upon their lives. And it is either always testing or judgment. And in this particular area and this particular circumstance, the famine is the judgment of God because of their idolatry. They were involved in Baal worship. I believe it is the next chapter. It may be chapter 18. Yes, it is, where Elijah will go up on the mountain. And Mount Carmel and he will have the contest with the prophets of Baal. You remember, they'll cut themselves and they'll try and call down fire from heaven. And Elijah will pray about a 36 or maybe 63. I'd have to go back and read it again, but it's about a minute long. prayer and fire will fall from heaven. And what he's trying to do is he's trying to cure them of their idolatry in worshiping Baal. That's the reason that this famine is going on. There's been no rain. Elijah's pronounced there'll be no rain because of They're idolatry. This is a nation under the judgment of God. And so someone might say, well, it's a waste of time to try and rescue one young man when he comes from a nation that's already turned their back upon God. They're already wandering from the God that saved them and called them and made them a nation. They are a lot like America. Somebody said, well, America's not a Christian nation. And you're right, it's not anymore, but it was once. Someone said America was founded on religious principles. No, Patrick Henry, the same one who said, give me liberty or give me death, said that America was founded not upon religious principles, but upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. And America was once a nation that revered God, was once a nation that believed in prayer. It was once a nation that believed the gospel. But America has become a heathen nation, an idolatrous nation, a nation that wants nothing to do with God. And some might say there's no hope for America. But that doesn't mean we ought not be trying to win people to God. So you might say this is a worthless ministry because this boy is in a nation under judgment. You might also say this ministry is worthless because this young man was born or belonged to a family of sinners. Now, I want you to notice there is no father in this account. Under the Jewish thought and Jewish economy, when a woman lost her husband, she was considered smitten of God. You might remember in the book of Isaiah, when Isaiah speaks prophetically about the Lord Jesus, remember what he said about him? He said, we did esteem him smitten and afflicted of God. There were two things that would constitute in the mind of a Jew being smitten or afflicted of God. Number one, there would be a man who left no seed. He had no son. And so the Jew would look at him and say, well, the reason for that is God has judged him and he is a wicked man and God's not going to let him produce any seed and have any children. That's what they thought about Jesus. But you know, they were wrong about him. He may not have had any physical seed in that day or children, but he's got a whole lot of children in this day. Amen. They were wrong about that. The other thing they would say is that when a woman lost her husband, they would consider that the judgment of God. Now, whether that is true or not, I would not want to debate with you. But listen to what this woman says when her son gets sick. Verse 18. And she said unto Elijah, what have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? Well, I'm going to pay for it. Now, that tells me that not only was this boy born in a nation under judgment, but he belonged to a family of sinners. He belonged to a family that somewhere, somehow, someway had gotten out of the will of God and, according to what this woman said, had committed some terrible sin. Now, I'm going to say to you, every little boy you pick up on the bus, every little girl you pick up on the bus, belongs in a nation or is from a nation under the judgment of God, like America. Somebody said, well, America's headed for judgment. No, America's already under the judgment of God. If you study your Bible, you'll find out that homosexuality is always a sign of the judgment of God upon a nation. America's under the judgment of God. And many of the young folks that you deal with, that you pick up, that you come to junior church, come from families. where they have seen sin. I would go out visiting when I pastored. I can't tell you the number of times I would knock on a door and a young fellow, maybe six, seven years old, or a little girl, eight years old, would come to the door. I'd say, could I speak to your daddy? And they'd say, well, daddy's not here. And then they say, Daddy doesn't live here. And I'd say, well, can I speak to Mama? And they'd say, well, Mama's not here right now. And I'd say, well, are you by yourself? And they'd say, no, Daddy's or Mama's boyfriend is here or so-and-so is here. And some of them never knew their daddies and some of them never. I'm telling you, they just came from a life that is unimaginable, a life of sin and ungodliness, surrounded by wickedness. And somebody would say, well, You know, that family, no goods ever come out of that family, and no goods ever come from that name, and that child will be just like his parents, and he'll get involved in the same sin that his family was involved in, and that may be true. But if somebody could get the gospel to that little fella, if somebody could get the gospel to that little girl, if God could get a hold of their heart and then repent of their sin and believe the gospel, then God would break that chain of sin and iniquity in that family. then I would think that somebody might say this ministry is worthless because this little fella couldn't do anything. He bore no burdens. Matter of fact, look again in verse 12. And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake. but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruise. And behold, I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat and die." Now, she didn't say my son and I are out gathering sticks. She didn't say my boy and I are out here working. She said, I'm doing all the work. So I take that to mean either he's too little to do anything or maybe physically he's not able to. So I look at that and I say, this is a little fella that cannot contribute. Now, somebody say, Preacher, we spend a lot of money on them buses. We spend a lot of money on gas. We get a whole crowd full of young people and they can't give. Bus kids don't pay bills. I've heard it said. Bus kids tear up a building. They're right on the walls. They're cut on the backs of the pews. Somebody might have said to Elijah, I don't think anybody did, but somebody could have said to Elijah, this is a waste of time, Elijah. This fellow is from a nation under judgment. This fellow is from a family of sinners. And this fellow can't do anything. He can't give anything. He can't give back. It's a waste of time. Can I ask you a question? When did ministry become about getting back? When did ministry become about receiving? No, no, no. Ministry is about giving. Ministry is about sacrifice. Ministry is not about what do I get. Ministry is about what can I give to be a help to someone else. Someone might say, well, this seems to be a worthless ministry, but I want you to see something else. Not only the seeming worthlessness of this ministry, but I want us to Just consider a moment the stretching work of this ministry. I was reading this passage and I just got, I don't know if this ever happens to you, I get hung in places. I'm reading along and I just get stuck. And I got hung right here when it said in verse 21, and he stretched himself. And I understand what the Bible's meaning. He took that little boy and he laid him up on the bed and he stretched himself over the boy. I understand what it means. But I'm just hung on that word stretched. When I think of the word stretched, I think about going beyond. I think about, you know, sometimes your pastor might say to you, well, you might say to him, I just don't know if I can handle a Sunday school class. I'm not good with children. You know what you'll have to do? You'll have to stretch yourself. You say, well, preacher, I just don't know if I can handle a bus route. I'm the nervous type. You know what you'll have to do? You'll have to stretch yourself. Did you know this? Did you know that God very seldom calls anyone to a service for which they are eminently qualified? Very seldom. No, what God does is He takes somebody that can't hardly put two words together and is backward as the day is long and puts them in the pulpit. That's what God does. He takes somebody. I thought about Samson. You know, when I was a little boy, I don't know if they still, I think the fella's name was Victor Mature. I think that was his name. I'm not sure. He played in a Samson movie. I don't know if you ever saw it. I saw it when I was a little fella. And he was the Samson in the movie. And I remember, boy, he was a big old husky fella and strong. And they showed him ripping that lion to pieces. I don't believe Samson was like that. I believe he was a 90 pound weakling. And he was not only, I believe, was he small and weak, but I believe he was funny looking. He had seven locks of hair on his head. I may have seen Samson walk down the road a time or two. Seven locks of hair. I'm not preaching against hair. I used to, but God kind of took care of that in my case. But I don't believe Samson's a big, strong fella. I don't believe he had the strength and the might in himself to do what he did, but the Bible said that the power of God came upon him. And can I say to you, you say, Preacher, I just don't know if I can handle working with a young person. I don't know if I can handle a Sunday school class or junior church or a bus ride. Well, you can handle it if the power of God will come upon you. If you'll do it in the power of the Spirit of God, you'd be amazed at what you could accomplish in the power of God. The truth is, you're right. You can't help any children in your own power. You can't help anybody in your own strength, but in the power of God. Boy, there's no telling what you might do for somebody's life. He stretched himself. How did he do it? I thought of three things when I read what he did here. The first thing the Bible says is that he picked this child up. He said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom. Now, I'm not advocating tonight picking children up. You know, in the day we live, you have to be very careful about things. And I'm not advocating any way, even any physical contact in any way. When I'm talking about picking up, I'm talking about in a spiritual sense. I'm talking about taking up where families are lacking. See, there's some little children, they never heard anybody pray. They don't know what a Bible is. One day a lady called me and she said, would you go visit my nephew? I'm trying to remember, mama, 14 years old. She said, he's 14 years old. He's dying of leukemia. He's in such-and-such a hospital. She said, would you go visit him? I said, I'd be glad to. So I went up to visit that boy. And I did not know if he knew that he was dying. She knew. That's what she said to me. I didn't know if he knew. And if he didn't, I didn't want to be the one to tell him. I came in the hospital room. He lay on the bed. I spoke with him, I introduced myself, spoke with him a little while, we talked for a few moments and finally he looked up at me and he said, I'm dying. I looked at him, his name was Todd. I said, Todd, do you know what happens to a person when they die? He said, no. I said, Todd, what do you know about Jesus? He said, nothing. He knew nothing. He'd never heard of Adam and Eve in the garden. He never knew anything about the sin of man or the fall of man. He never knew anything about Christ dying on the cross. I'm not talking about some foreign country. I'm talking about America. He didn't know one thing. His parents had never taught him a word. And here he was ready to die and had no idea about the gospel. So what did you do? I gave him the gospel. I started in the garden. Told him about the fall of man. Took him through the Bible. Gave him the Gospel. Told him about Jesus dying on the cross. In a little while, I said, now, Todd, do you understand what I've said to you? He said, I do. I understand. I said, Todd, would you like to be saved? He said, I would. And right there on that bed, in that hospital, he trusted Christ as his Savior. I took him up. Would you take somebody up? Would you make up where perhaps their home is lacked? Would you be the one that would teach them about Christ and about the gospel and about the importance of praying? He not only took him up, but then he prayed for him. The Bible said in verse 20, and he cried unto the Lord and he said, O Lord, my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And in verse number 21, O Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. Now, someone said, Preacher, I just don't know if I could handle being around children like this. I don't know if I could handle. Well, I tell you what you could handle. You could pray. You could pray. You could pray for the bus workers. You could pray that when they go out and knock on doors, that they'll be safe. You could pray that God would put a hedge about them. You could pray that God would lead them to the right homes. You could pray that God would soften the hearts of moms and dads and send their children. You could pray for those that are in the school, that God would give them wisdom. You could pray for Sunday school teachers. You could pray for your pastor. You could pray for wisdom amongst the people of God as they deal with young people. You could pray for the power and protection God, you could pray. That's what Elijah did. He prayed for God to do in that little boy's life what he could not do for himself. I'm going to tell you, nothing ever gets done without prayer. No great work is ever accomplished without somebody praying. And you could pray. When's the last time you prayed for what goes on downstairs during the Sunday morning service? You could pray. I like to preach out of Acts 12. I call it the power of a praying church. Do you remember in Acts chapter 12 Peter was in the prison? Do you remember that? And Herod had already killed James and he was going to kill Peter. He was going to wait until after Easter and then kill Peter. Do you remember? And the Bible said prayer was made for him without ceasing in the house of Mary. They got together in the church and they began to pray for Peter. And what interested me was there was a damsel there. The Bible said there was a damsel present named Rhoda. I didn't know what a damsel was. That's not a word we use much. So I looked it up and you know what it said? Mr. Strong said a damsel is a diminutive feminine. I understood damsel better than that. So I read a little more and I discovered that a damsel or a diminutive feminine is a little girl. Now, I understand that now we're getting on my level. A little girl was in the house. And while they were praying for God to deliver Peter, guess what happened? God delivered Peter. An angel came into the prison, turned on the light, smoked Peter and woke him up. He got up. His chains fell off. The doors opened of their own accord before Walmart ever thought of it. And Peter came walking out and went to Mary's house because he knew that that was a place where they prayed. And he got there and he knocked on the door. and Rhoda, the little girl, apparently it was her job to watch the door. So she come running down the door. She said, Who is it? He said, It's Peter. And the Bible said she opened not the door for gladness. She left him standing out there. She ran back into the crowd where they were praying. She said, Peter's at the door. And they said, You're crazy. That's what they said. They said, You're mad. And she, the Bible said, she constantly affirmed that it was so. And finally they said, it's his ghost. I'm telling you, they were a faithful crowd. They're crying out to God, deliver Peter, and he does, and they won't believe it. Aren't you glad God answers our prayers sometimes in spite of ourselves? And so she said, she said, it's Peter. She constantly affirmed that it was so. And they went down and lo and behold, it was Peter. Now I want you to think about that little girl. She'd been standing around in this prayer meeting. I don't know how y'all pray up here. Most of the places I go, sometimes I get up north, they pray one at a time. Then you go down south, they pray everybody at the same time. If you're not used to it, it takes a little getting used to. First time I was raised in Michigan, first time I went down south, everybody's praying at once. I couldn't think straight. I just listened to the guy next to me and said, Amen, Lord, what he said. I don't know how they were praying, but I can imagine a group, a lot of time they would keep the men and the women separate in these things. And I could see a group of men over here and they're praying, saying, oh God, rescue Peter. This group over here said, oh God, don't let Peter die. Here's the ladies over here saying, oh God, rescue Peter. Don't let Peter die. Oh God, we need Peter. Oh Lord, work in Peter's behalf. So this little girl, everywhere she turns, somebody says, rescue Peter, God, help Peter, let Peter go, Lord, get him out of the prison. Everywhere she turns. And then guess what? Peter shows up at the door. Now, let me ask you a question. Suppose the next day this little girl is walking down the street and she's humming some psalm. I don't know what psalm she would hum, but she's humming some psalm. And some fellow said to her, what's that you're singing? She said, I'm singing about the Lord Jesus and how good He is. And he said, oh, it's a bunch of baloney. That religion's a lie. There's no God. Prayer is a waste of time. What do you reckon she'd say to him? She'd probably say, you should have been with us yesterday. I heard him calling out Peter's name. And he is in the jail. And God heard our prayers. See, she saw the power of God in prayer. And I imagine it made an impact on her. You say, well, preacher, if I'm dealing with young people, and I'm going to have them for an hour or so on a Sunday, and then they're going to go back to whatever it is they came out of, can I make any difference? You can if you pray. You can if you'll pray. Then not only did he pick up and pray through, but I call it he pressed on. He stretched himself. When you stretch yourself, you're going to have to go beyond. You know, sometimes you get discouraged. You're probably more spiritual than I am. You never get discouraged. Sometimes I get discouraged. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'll tell you the truth. Sometimes I think, well, did I get anything done? Sometimes I think the task is too big. Sometimes I think it's just that. And so what I have to do is I have to stretch. I say, all right, Lord, I'm going to have to go beyond. That's what we need to do. We need to go beyond for the sake of some lost soul. Go further than you've ever gone before. Do more than you've ever done before. This is not a time to slack off. This is a time to do more. It's time to give more. It's time to pray more. It's a time to visit more. It's a time to be more separated. It's a time to be more holy. This is not a time to cut our convictions back. It's not a time to cut our giving back. It's not a time to back up and take things easy. This is not the time. This is the time, the Bible said, we're to exhort one another to love and to provoke one another and to love and to good works. And so much the more, as you see the day approaching, go a little further! Go on! Do a little more! You say, preacher, I don't know if I can. You can with the help of God. It's a stretching work. Would you stretch yourself? Some husband and wife look at one another tonight and say, let's stretch ourselves for the young people. Let's stretch ourselves for the bus kids. Let's look around in this auditorium and look at these little ones that wander around here and let's look at one another and say, let's stretch ourselves. for the sake of these little ones. That we'd be an influence on them and raise up a generation that knows God and knows what prayer means and knows what it means to be sold out and sacrificed unto God. Stretched. Here's the last thing. I want you to see the significant wonder of this ministry. This ministry that Elijah had with this little boy that some might have said to him was a waste of time. What was accomplished by it? Well, there's three things to think of. Number one, this is the first resurrection you find in the Bible. The first one. Now, anytime something is first in the Bible, it's important. And God thought Isn't it something that God made the first resurrection in the Bible? Not a grown man, not a prophet, a preacher, a king, but a little unknown, unnamed child was the first one recorded in the Bible that was resurrected from the dead. I don't know what that says to you, but that says something to me. It says God thinks it's important that children be resurrected from the dead. Here we're talking about physically, but I'm talking about spiritually. Jesus said, suffer the little children to come unto me for such of such is the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. I believe he said, or maybe God, I'm confused on that right now. But he talked about bringing those little ones to him and he blessed them. And I'm telling you, God's interested in children. And we find that here, that this woman was raised and Jesus even talks about it in the New Testament. He said, but I tell you the truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias. when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But under none of them was Elias sent, save under Zarephath, a city of Sidon, under a woman that was a widow. He talks about this circumstance that took place in the New Testament. It was important to God. And every little child's soul is important to God. This is the first instance of the dead being raised. There's a second significant one to this ministry, and that is what Elijah did for this child had a greater effect on his mother than the miracles he'd already performed. Now, I'm going to tell you, he came to her house. She didn't have a thing. He said, you fix me a cake first, and the barrel where you're getting your meal will never go empty, and the crews of oil will never run dry. Now, that's a pretty good miracle. She'd go in there, get what she thought was the last little dip, and come back the next day, and get again what she thinks is the last little handful, and come back the next day, and get what she thinks is the last little handful, go to that cruiser oil and pour a little out. She thinks it's the end. She'd come back. That's a pretty good miracle right there. I'd get ahold of my attention when I'd get ahold of yours. If every time I opened my wallet there's money in it, even when I thought it was empty, I would get my attention. But I want you to see what she says. Verse number 24, And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this... What? This resurrection? Elijah said to her in verse 23, See, thy son liveth. She said, Now by this, by you raising my son, now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the Word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. Do you know what? If you love my children, you will get my attention. If you say to me, I want to do something for your children, you will get into my heart. Now there's a whole world of lost people who are hard. They don't want to hear about God. They don't want to hear about the Gospel. They don't love God and they don't love the gospel. But I'll tell you what a lot of them do love. They love their children. They may not know how to do right about them. They're concerned about them. And if you'll love their children and help their children. has a good chance you'll get into their heart. And there'll be an opportunity to not only win their children to Christ, but to win them to Christ. And that's what we're after. People getting saved. There's one more significant wonder of this ministry. I'll just tell you about it. You can judge for yourself. If you'll read some of the old Jewish rabbis' writings, Here's what they taught. Not all of them, but some of them taught this. And whether it's true or not, I don't know. This is my disclaimer. I'm just telling you what I've read. Many of these old Jewish rabbis believed that this boy that was raised was Jonah. Now, I don't know that that's true. I've read some who said, no, that can't be because they said this woman is a Gentile. And that may be true. It may be that Jonah was a proselyte that became a Jew. I don't know. I know he's a prophet. I don't know. I just know that's what they teach. Now, if you think about that, just think about it a minute. If it were true, then this little boy preached one of the greatest revivals that the world has ever known. The whole city repented. I've been preaching revivals for almost 30 years. I've never seen a whole city repent. I've never seen a whole church repent. I may have seen a whole family repent a time or two. I'm talking about if this is Jonah. I'm not saying it is, but if it is. You say, well, Preacher, if you don't know what it is, why don't you bring it up? Here's why I bring it up. I'm thinking of a church I preach in every year in December. It's a wonderful church. They have wonderful ministry. They're winning people to Christ. Their choir is like your choir. Just bless your heart when they sing. They remind me, you remind me of them, the good spirit in them. It's just a wonderful church. Got a wonderful pastor. He was a bus kid. Raised in a drunkard's home. Him and his brothers, the bus captain said, were the two meanest boys he ever picked up on the bus. Mean. Now he's the pastor of the church, winning people to Christ. Running the bus ministry. Seeing people saved. I call that wonderful. Don't you? I'm thinking to myself, thank God some bus captain stretched himself. He put up with the meanness of that little boy. I like to remind him when I see him that his bus captain said he's the meanest. Get on the bus. But he put up with the meanness of that little boy and all the trouble and difficulty and just loved him and helped him. And now he's pastor in a church. I'm thinking of another preacher friend of mine. Preaches all over the country. And a man had a burden for children in the neighborhood. He didn't have a bus, but he had a station wagon. So he started around the community and back up in the hollers there in Tennessee and would pick people up. And the parents told the little fellow to go to Sunday school and he didn't want to go, so he climbed a tree. And the fellow come in the station wagon, parked the station wagon, left the other kids in it, climbed the tree and pulled him out. Took him to church. He got saved. Now he preaches all over the country. People get saved. Somebody stretched themselves. Just look around you tonight. There's lots of young folks here. I think it was, I'm trying to think if it was Robert Moffitt or who it was. It might have been Robert Moffat came to a church. God had put a sermon on his heart and it was a message to men. If I remember the passage, the text was, Quit ye like men. He got in the church that night and saw women. There were no men except for an old elderly man up in the balcony who was playing the organ and a little boy. who was pumping the organ. Moffat was discouraged, but he stretched himself. And he preached the message God had laid on his heart. And if I remember correctly, that little boy was David Livingston, who became a great missionary to Africa, who never forgot what he heard in that sermon. I'm just saying you don't know who's listening. You don't know tonight, these young folks, you don't know tonight what young man God's going to put in the ministry. What young lady's going to sacrifice her life to God and surrender and say, I'm going to be used of God. You don't know the one you pick up on that bus or on that van, or the one you helped in school, or the one that you just saw going through that church and you tried to be an encourager. You have no idea what God might do with that child. You know what it's time for us to do? Stretch ourselves. Go beyond. Do more than we think we can do for the cause of Christ. So here's what I'm asking you tonight. Would you stretch yourself upon the child? Would you say tonight, Lord, I want to do more? than I've been doing for the cause of Christ so that you'll have opportunity to work in some young life and change them for all eternity. I want to have a part in that. Whether it's giving, whether it's going, whether it's praying, whatever it is, Lord, I want to stretch myself and do more than I thought I could do. If You'll help me, I want to make a difference. Would you do that tonight? Would you tell God that, Lord? If you'll help me, I will stretch myself. I want you to bow your heads, please. Your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed. Someone's going to come to the piano.