Good night, Revelation chapter three. And a couple that we've been missing now for some time, here in our church, Miss Donna Plunkett, as you all know, fell, broke her hip, had a replacement from that, and sure have missed them, and be glad that when she's fully recovered and back with us, and I don't, and so just wanna continue to pray for them. Revelation chapter three, Revelation chapter three, find, if you would, verse number seven, You know, you always have someone sarcastic. You ever notice that? You always have somebody sarcastic. And I was glad that somebody let the cat out of the bag just coming out of the choir and told me about that. And of course, it was just a joke. And when I was telling about my wife, I was reminding her that I was an angel. And one guy leaned over another guy and he said, you know, Satan was an angel too at one time. I tell you what, you know, I can't win around here. I can't win. I'm just trying to help my wife, encourage her, remind her, and then somebody reminding somebody else, saying, well, that's what Satan was too. I don't know what they meant by that, but anyway. Notice verse 7. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, These things saith he that is holy." Aren't you glad that God's holy? There is a beauty to holiness. Lots of times we think about this word holy and we feel like somehow that's negative. That it's confining. that if I'm holy, if I'm holy as a Christian, then I never have any fun, I never laugh, never can have any type of life, I just need to walk around and sort of talk like I've swallowed a communion rail going, Amen, you know, and all that kind of stuff. And it's not the case at all. No, God's commandments are not grievous. They're not burdensome. Any time God, through His holiness, is teaching you and I how to live wholly, God desires and demands holiness from His people, there is a beauty to that. And there is a freedom to that. And whenever God says, Thou shalt not, it's not God being restrictive. It's not God making us miserable. It's God saying, listen, don't involve yourself in that that can injure you and harm you and hurt you. I love you so much, I don't want you to feel the injury and the pain that's going to come from something that would lead to unholiness. Any time God says, Thou shalt in the Bible, He's saying, I want you to know happiness. I want you to know joy. I want you to know blessing. And so there is a freedom there. There's a beauty to it. Our God is a holy God. He desires His people be a holy people. Notice He goes on to say, He that is true, genuine, Aren't you glad that God is true? That Jesus said that He is true? He's faithful and true. He that hath the key of David, that He's the one in charge. The greatest day of your life is when you'll let Him be in charge. When you give Him the master key to your life, and say, Lord, You lead, and I'm going to follow. I'm going to preach here, and ask the pastor a question here, probably a little bit later on the summer. I was going to tackle it Wednesday night. I was. And I realized that our young adults won't be in the service. They're in their own life group on Wednesday nights during the summer months, which have been very successful. Brother Luke and Miss Megan Moore have been handling that and doing a wonderful job with it. and a blessing. But when it comes to the will of God, a lot of people are looking for some kind of formula. If I do this, this, this, and this, then I know God's will. Let me help you with something. I don't believe there's a magic formula, but I do believe that God wants us to know His will and to follow His will. And Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. If you want to do the will of God, just follow close to Jesus. He's going to naturally lead you in His will. He's going to guide you in right paths. We try to make it hard, and it's not. When we follow Him, when we throw up the white flag of surrender, when we give Him the master key to the life of our lives, and we say, God, I want what You want, then suddenly what happens is He begins to guide us. into the direction He wants us to go. That's individually, that's true as a marriage, that's true in a family, that's true in a church. We need to follow close to Him. I'm going to talk more about that in that message talking about the will of God. And notice, He that openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. He's the one who's in charge. Verse 8, I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, an opportunity of ministry." God's enlarging their coast and growing their vision and showing them of what they can be and can do for Him. And no man can shut it, for thou hast a little strength. and has kept my word, and has not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." One day. One day. One day. Friend, can I tell you? Christian, listen to me. We get all bent out of shape about life and the enigmas of life, the puzzlement of life. And sometimes it doesn't make sense. As a Christian, you have to live with the long view. You have to look beyond right now. You have to look toward eternity. You live with the long view. You live by faith. And one day, one day, can I tell you, when Jesus comes, He's going to set it all right. And the world will know that we belong to Him. And He's going to subjugate those who have rejected Him. And they'll know the truth. They'll know the truth. Victory is yours, dear child of God. Notice he goes on to say, "...because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly. Hold thou that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar..." Have you noticed in each of these churches there's a promise to overcomers? "...will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and He shall go no more out. And I will write upon Him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God. And I will write upon Him my new name." He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." We've been studying what Jesus thinks of His churches. As we've looked at the seven churches, we have one left, we're at number six tonight, this morning and tonight, Church at Philadelphia. Of all the churches, this is the church that we want to be like the most. We want to follow and emulate this church. There's no word of rebuke. There's no word of condemnation. There's no word of correction. Only challenge and hope and victory is given to this church. Now that's not to say that this church was a perfect church, because it wasn't. We already learned that even good churches can have problems, right? And we need to grow in the Lord and be what God would have us to be, but here's a church that the Lord didn't have anything negative to say. It was a church that He could use. And you know what, Calvary Baptist Church, I believe if I were to ask tonight a show of hands, I believe everyone in this room that's a part of this ministry would say, you know what, I want my church, My church. Can I let you in on something? Calvary Baptist Church doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the Lord. But we're a part of it, right? And so there's ownership. Listen, if you're a part of this church, it is your church. It is. And I think that if we were honest tonight and we had the opportunity, we would say, I want my church, I want Calvary Baptist Church to be a church that God can use. We're going to learn tonight, again, as we finish up the message we began this morning on Philadelphia, the church God uses. Let's pray together. Lord, we love You. Lord, what a privilege it is to be a part of the Calvary Baptist Church. Lord, I know we're not the only church. I know that there are other good churches, and Lord, that they're doing Your will for them and what You have for them, and I celebrate that and I rejoice in it. Lord, it's not a one-man show. Lord, we recognize that. But yet, I'm glad that I get to be a part of this church. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. But right here among Your people, right here on Main Street in King, doing the will of God. And Father, I believe that our hearts cry tonight is that You would use us as a church for Your glory. that, Lord, all of King and surrounding communities, that the world might know that there's a God. Lord, that we would make much of You. Lord, that we'd be all in in this day, this hour for Your glory. Teach us tonight, Lord, and help us to respond. Help us to have ears to hear, wills to obey You, and I'll thank You for it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. We've already learned, first of all, if we're going to be a church that God can use, we need to be a faithful church. We need to be a faithful church. This church, of all the churches, had remained faithful to the Lord. It was like a rose between two thorns. We talked about that, a dead church, and then you're going to finally see a disengaged church. But when you come to Philadelphia, They were a faithful church. They were dependent upon the Lord. They had a little strength. You know what the Lord was saying to them is, you need me. Church, can I tell you, we'll be what God wants us to be. We'll accomplish what God wants to accomplish when we recognize that we need Him for everything that we do. That we'll never accomplish it on our own. We need the Lord. It's not by our mind, our power, but by His Spirit. God working in us and through us. By the way, King, the surrounding communities, the world doesn't need what we can do. They need what God can do through us. Amen? And we have a little strength, but I'm glad God can give us a lot of strength. We can do all things through Christ which strengthens us. And then we learned that they were a dedicated church. They were honoring the Lord. They kept His Word. You know, I want to be a pastor that lets God speak. One of the things that we specialize in here in our college is training preachers to be expository preachers. That means they're expositional. They are Bible preachers. There's a lot of guys, and I appreciate it, I'm not trying to knock, there's a lot of people, they'll get up, the preachers will get up, and they'll preach about the Bible, but expositional preaching, you preach the Bible. You let God speak. I tell my class, in my preaching classes, let God speak. That's what you want to do. And whenever you preach the Bible, and you're expounding the Bible, we're letting God speak. Because you know what? It's not my word, but His Word that's powerful. I tell them, I say, fellas, listen, never, never just rush over the reading of the Bible. Do you know that the reading of Scripture is commanded by God? It is. It is. God said give attendance to reading. It is. And that's public reading of the Scriptures. And I tell guys, listen, practice reading your text, and never just rush through that. And a lot of times, preachers are preaching, the text is sort of like the national anthem before a ball game. You hear it, and then they depart therefrom. They never go back to it. And it's just sort of like a little add-on. And I tell them, God will say more in the reading of His Word than I can say about His Word. It's His Word where the power is at. I quit praying, God empower me. God never promised to empower me, but He did promise to empower His Word. I say, Lord, empower Your Word. Let it accomplish that that You send it out to do. And then they were devoted. They didn't deny His name. Listen, church, can I tell you, in this day, this hour, I don't be ashamed to claim the name of Jesus. What about you? Listen, I am glad to be a Christian. I am, to bear His name and to reflect His name to the world around us. And then, number two, we learn they were moved by opportunity. He said that He had set before them, verse number eight, an open door that no man can shut. God said, I've thrown the door of opportunity wide open to you, and nobody, nobody is going, they might try to close it, but they won't close it. That's what He's saying. This church at Philadelphia had an opportunity that was unprecedented. We've already learned by their location there at the upper end of that long valley that this major trade route flowed from the Mediterranean Sea through the city of Philadelphia into all of Asia. And they were strategically located to share the gospel and to send the gospel around the world and to reach the known world of that day with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And church, can I tell you, I can't say it enough, God has given us an open door. I stand amazed at what God has done and is doing. I tell people when I do our starting point class, we're the miracle on Main Street. The miracle on Main Street. Only God could do this. Only God. To Him all the glory, all the credit belongs to the Lord. God's given us an opportunity, church, and we want to walk through it. We want to be all in for Christ. Make a difference for Him. I believe this year, honest, I don't know all the numbers, but as of right now, we're on pace to do more financially this year for the cause of world evangelism than we've ever done, than our church has ever given in its history. I stand amazed. Every week I'm sent a report of the attendances and the life group attendances, and I've stood amazed at all of that, thankful for that, the faithfulness of our church, the number of people that are serving week in and week out, main ministry opportunities and outreaches that we do. And then as you've been faithful in honoring the Lord and giving to Him, worshiping God, through this manner of giving. God said it's a sweet savor, a sweet-smelling savor that every time that I give to the Lord, when I do that, it's a sweet smell. God's saying that I'm pleased with that. You know, God can take my little and your little and do a whole lot with it, can't He? And we're on pace this year probably to do more than we've ever done financially in giving to this matter of world evangelism. I just want to say praise God, church. Thank you for being faithful. Thank you for having a heart for the people of the world. I talk pretty regularly to Pastor Kirby Campbell down in Hutto, Texas. I try to talk to all of our missionaries, and I'm going to spend more time with them. I was talking to him recently because that's our infant church there that we planted this year. We're on pace probably to organize that church this year. They're right now averaging on Sundays in the mid-60s. That's amazing for a church that's only months old. They'll have 70, 80, 100 people. But right now in the summertime, I know it's hot. How many would say it's hot? Yeah, listen, it ain't nothing like down in Hutto, Texas. I can tell you that. I'd much rather be here than there. I mean, it stifles the life out of you, you know. And anyway, they only have air conditioning in the main room there in the school that they're able to use. Where the children's minister at, the school won't let them call in the air conditioner. And it's over 100 degrees, triple digits, about every day there. And so in the midst of all of that, this church is growing. And let me tell you something. Listen, that's because of your faith and your faithfulness and your giving. Listen, you're letting God use you to put a church like this in a place where there's nowhere for those people. You want to go to church in Hutto, Texas in a church like this? You'll travel 40 miles to get there. Isn't that something? And yet the faithfulness of Calvary Baptist Church birthing a church in that town. Thank you for your faith. God has given us. But you know what? I don't believe God's done. I believe God has even more. Amen? as we reach out for Him. And I look forward to sharing. I met with Brother Badgett this week and talking about what God's doing. I'm so excited about the ministry there and what God's getting ready to do. Met with Brother Ron Cole with Help Ministries this week and exponentially God-blessing through Help Ministries. And then what Brother David Smith is doing in Whangarei, New Zealand. Unheard of what God's doing in that town. Unheard of! Church, thank You for giving and praying and working and going and sending. You're making a difference. You're letting God use you. God uses faithful churches and faithful people. And when we see opportunity, we need to walk through the door. And listen, when you get up tomorrow, you need to ask God, God, help me to see opportunity. Lord, You're going to bring people across my path that I can share You with, I can be a blessing to, I can pray with them, I can encourage them. Hey listen, can I tell you it's wonderful to hand out a tract and share the Gospel. It's just as wonderful to see a hurting Christian and put your arm around them and pray with them. It's all the work of God. Let God use you. Walk through the open doors. God will use you. Redeem the time because the days are evil. But many times we don't walk through the doors because we're not alert to them. We don't see them. We have blinders on. Let's ask God to open our eyes. Number three. tonight, they're faced with opposition. Look at verse number 9. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan. Now what's that? That was a Jewish synagogue in this town that was stirring up trouble for the church at Philadelphia. They were stirring up the pagans in that town against the church. They say they are Jews. They have a name that they're Jews, but they're not. You see, you can be a physical child of Abraham and not be a spiritual son of Abraham. That means they had rejected Christ. They had not received their Messiah. And they were claiming to be the people of God, but they were lying. They weren't. in that sense. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. I'm going to give you the victory. Now here's what I want you to learn from that church. We're going to be used of God. Here's what you understand. God's smile always brings Satan's snarl. When God smiles on a church, Satan's going to snarl at it. Anytime God blesses us, it's always going to be followed by a battle. Opportunity, with it will always come opposition. Ezra knew that when he went back to restore the worship of Jehovah during the return from the Babylonian captivity, and he went there to teach and to share the Word of God and restore the Word, and the inhabitants of the land rose up against him. and stood against the people as they sought to build the temple and rebuild the city, and they stopped the work. Nehemiah is going to come along during the days of Nehemiah to rebuild the walls, and there's going to be a man by the name of Tobai and Sambala. And by the way, church, we haven't forgot about Nehemiah. We will come back to him, alright? And any time you decide to do something, listen to me young adult, listen to me Christian, listen to me church, any time you surrender an area, you say, God, I'm going to do this, you step out by faith, we launch out as a church, Satan is going to oppose it. Paul learned that. He talked about Alexander the coppersmith, a man who was a maker of idols, did me much evil. That's what he said. 1 Corinthians 16.9, he said that in Ephesus is a great door, an effectual is opening to me. And there are many adversaries. Always going to be people that are against you. Folks, listen, don't get upset when you read the King Facebook page and somebody says something negative about our church. Don't get a bit out of shape about that. And by the way, listen, you don't have to get on there and try to put them in their place. Let me just tell you what, listen, listen, just take the high road. I don't have to answer every email. I don't have to answer every Facebook and Instagram post that's negative and critical. By the way, that lets me know we're doing something right. Jesus said, if everybody thought well of you, so did their fathers, the false prophets. Just expect it. I want to say thank you for making the calls. I want to say thank you for sending the emails. They're still going to put the ABC store right up the road from us. I get that. But you know what we are? We're a rescue mission within a yard of hell. People will go there to destroy their lives. Well, you know what? There's a recovery ministry on Friday night. There's a church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. There's a place here where people's lives can be touched and changed. There's a place where broken lives can be restored. Hey, don't you say, well, we lost that battle. No, we're going to win some battles. Gates of hell is not going to prevail against the church. Just look at opposition as opportunity to do something great for God. You know what he was saying to them? You've got the victory. Church, I just want to remind you something. We're on the winning side. It's Curtis Hudson's favorite song. I'm adopting it. I'm on the winning side. Number four. Here's the last one. Are you ready for it? A church that God uses not only is faithful to the Lord, not only is it moved by opportunity, that's true of a Christian, true of a church, but not only are we going to be faced with opposition from time to time, and sometimes it's people that you know and love that's going to be against you, but you know what? You have to stand with God. Amen? And then we're going to be rewarded in eternity. I like that, don't you? Look at verse 10. "...because thou hast kept the word of my patience..." That means we've been true to the Word. "...I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." And so you say, Preacher, what's he talking about right here? That He's going to return for us. You remember Jesus told His disciples, I'm going away, but I will come again and receive you unto Myself. This is another promise from the Lord that He's coming for His saints and that He's coming to rapture us and deliver us from the tribulation period. The hour of temptation is an hour of trial. And we know that it's not just a normal time of trial because it's coming, notice he says, which will come upon all the world. It's not a localized trial. It's not a regional trial. It's not a national trial. It is a worldwide judgment or testing to try or test them that dwell upon the earth. You know what's interesting in the book of Revelation? You study the judgment after judgment after judgment and it's almost as if John is a guest. Yet they repented not. with the judgment of God falling in such an unprecedented way that people would turn to God. But let me just tell you something, while there will be multitudes that do turn to Christ during that day, there will be an even greater multitude that will reject Him and receive the Antichrist. They'll not repent. You say, Preacher, why is that? Because the same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. And some people, the Word of God melts them. Others, with an obstinate heart, it hardens them to the truth of God. And He's promising that He's going to rapture us out of the tribulation period. Notice what He said, I will keep thee from the hour. It didn't say through it. 1 Thessalonians 5, 9, For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation and deliverance through our Lord Jesus Christ. That lets us know that the Lord's saints will be raptured out and taken to heaven prior to this time of judgment upon the earth dwellers, those who dwell upon the earth. It tries them, it shows the hardness of their heart, it does. And He's going to take us out. We're not going to go through one second of it, isn't that a blessing? It is. Look at verse number 11. Behold, I come quickly. We've already learned that doesn't necessarily mean soon, but suddenly, unexpectedly, without announcement, it's imminent. It could happen at any moment. At any moment, the trumpet will sound, and multiplied millions of believers will vanish from the earth. It may be tonight. It may be tomorrow. It may be ten years. It may be fifty years. I don't know when. But friend, can I tell you, it could happen in a moment and therefore we ought to be ready. I love the title of David Jeremiah's new book on the rapture. It's called The Great Disappearance. Isn't that good? And then God is going to return for us. He's going to reward us. Look at verse number 11. Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast. He's saying remain faithful. Remain faithful. Stay true. Stay true that no man take thy crown. That crown there is a victor's crown. It's like winning a race. And when we win the race, we receive the crown. Do you know that God in grace saves us and that God in grace as we serve Him will reward us? Isn't that amazing? God said that we can have victor's crowns for faithful ministry and faithfulness to Him. And the Bible mentions five of those crowns. All right? And you say, Preacher, what are we going to do with them when we get those crowns? Well, I tell you what we're not going to do. We're not going to round puffed up and go around heaven and say, look how many crowns I've got. We're not going to do that. Look over at Revelation 4. He's going to tell us. Notice when you come to verse 4, it's a picture of the throne room of God. You have alternating scenes of heaven and earth. You're going to come from an earthly scene. Intimation of the Rapture, chapter 4. You begin the third section of the book, the things which shall be hereafter. You come to verse number 4. You're going to meet 24 elders. All right, now if you read if you read John Phillips' book on Revelation, which is a fairly good book on the subject, he says these are angels. Well, they're not angels and there's reasons why they're not. These are representative of the church, the saints of God, those during this age of grace from Pentecost until the rapture. He said, and round about the throne were four and twenty seats. Angels never sat on thrones. They're never called elders and they never wear crowns. He said, four and twenty elders sitting clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns, that's a victor's crowns, like what we mentioned, of gold. Alright, so here they are and they have crowns. Well, what do they do with them? Well, when you come to verse 9, because heaven's a place of worship, the worship begins. Now, we're not in the new earth yet, okay? This is the current heaven. Look at verse 9. And when those beasts, these are living creatures around the throne, give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever. They're so moved by the worship. Look at verse number 10. The four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne and worship Him that liveth forever and ever. That means this morning was just a dress rehearsal for when we get to heaven. Hallelujah! And watch what they do, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." Here's the good news. We get the joy of casting our crowns before the throne of God. You know what the sad thing is? There's going to be Christians that have no crowns because they weren't faithful. I don't want to be that Christian, do you? I believe there's going to be tears in heaven. You say, preacher, tears in heaven? Absolutely. God doesn't wipe away tears until Revelation chapter 21. And I believe there's going to be regret for lives of unfaithfulness, wishing that we had lived life in a different way. And then notice verse 12, He's going to receive us. Look what He says. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God." You saw this morning, I didn't bring that graphic back up of a picture of the pillars. There was a great earthquake and the pillars of Philadelphia are standing. Much of the city fell and has eroded over time, but these two giant pillars have remained. Okay? And remember, earthquakes was a common occurrence there, and they remained. And here's what those pillars, they're actually big columns, colonnades, oftentimes, that decorated the temples and the buildings and the architecture. And what they would do is they would honor famous citizens or maybe warriors or whatever, and they would write their name on those pillars or those columns, so that it would be like a like a remembrance for time immemorial. It would be an ongoing remembrance of them. It's a big deal to get your name on one of those pillars. You know what that pillar reminds me of in Philadelphia? That everything in this world fades away. Nobody knows who those people are. As a matter of fact, most of them has crumbled and fallen. Aren't you glad that there's a new Jerusalem coming? the temple of my God, new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from my God." You see, really, when you think about heaven, it's not us going to heaven, but heaven coming to us. That's what he's saying, comes down out of heaven from God, and I will write upon Him my new name. And so here's what God says, I've got pillars in my temple, and they're not made of stone, they're not pillars, they're people. That's what He said. You know what? This is true of every overcomer. And that's true of every Christian because every saved person is an overcomer. And one day you're going to be a pillar in the temple of God and we're not going to go any more out. What a blessing that we can be in His presence all the time. And I will write upon Him. He's going to write upon us. Instead of our name being written on a pillar, God's going to write on us because we are the pillars. Do you see that? And there's three things God's going to write. Three names. We're going to get the name of God. It's a name of ownership. We're going to have the name of the city of our God, New Jerusalem, because we're citizens of New Jerusalem. And Jesus said, look at the last of it, I will write upon him my new name. That's that name that nobody's ever cursed. Nobody's ever blasphemed. Nobody's ever mocked. Nobody's ever used in profanity. And God said, Christian, I'm going to write my new name on you. Isn't that precious? I don't know about you, but that sort of stirs my heart a little bit. Remember he said, "...hold fast that no man take thy crown." He's sort of cautioning us to make sure that we finish the race well. To finish well. Finish well, Christian. Finish well. Remain faithful. Calvary Baptist Church, we want to be a church that God can use, don't we? God set before us an open door. Can I remind you of what Jesus said to His disciples right before He went to the cross, right before the Passion Week? He said, I must work the works of Him that sent me. While it is day, while there is opportunity, the night cometh when no man can work. Christian, listen to me. Working day is one day going to be over. Opportunity to live our lives for Jesus is one day going to be over. The night cometh. The night cometh. The night cometh. But we ought to inscribe that into our hearts. The night cometh! And what we're going to do for Him, we need to get it done. If you're going to live for it, you need to do it right now. If you're going to get your family the way God wants it to be, you need to be setting it in order now. You want your marriage to be what God... Listen, don't wait. Do it now. Young person, listen to me. Don't wait. Don't wait to live for God. Do it now. Don't give God the leftovers of your life. The night cometh. The night cometh. The night cometh. Brother Cole and I were talking the other day. He's out preaching in churches all the time. He would tell you, don't take for granted what you have right here. He'd tell you that. We were talking and he said, Pastor, you know there's great men that are getting ready, you know, they're good men, they're getting ready to retire from churches. They've reached the end of their ministry. You know what the sad fact that we were talking is? We don't have enough young men to take the churches. We've got great missionaries coming off the field, and we don't have enough missionaries to replace them. We struggle at times, and thank God He's filled out our faculty. That always was a tough time, Brother Mayne, wasn't it? When you were principal, filling out the faculty, that was one of the most difficult things to do, was having the right faculty. Brother Nagel's experiencing that now. Thank God, God's answered every prayer, and we have a wonderful faculty for next year. But you know what we're finding? We're finding right now that the Bible colleges and Christian universities aren't turning out enough teachers to replace the teachers in our Christian schools that are retiring. There is a vanishing ministry today, church. And it's because we're training our children to make money, not serve God. We want them to have bigger houses, nicer cars, better bank accounts, Shinier things, because we think that's success. What's wrong with asking God to use them, to call them, to set before them the honor of ministry? Young person, young adult, if I could say something to you today, let God use you. Let God use you. I close. An old Southern preacher. I like Southern preachers, don't you? I like Northern preachers too. I'm a little biased to Southern preachers because I is one, okay? I am one. Here's what he said. He said, it's time for our church to wake up and sing up Preach up and pray up and never give up or back up or shut up or let up until the church is filled up or we go up. Amen. I must work the works of Him that sent me. Young people? Teenager? Give God the master key of your life. You know, you say, preacher, you're preaching to young people tonight. Listen, you know what? We never get to a point in our lives as long as we're on planet earth that God's done with us. I'm starting to get a little more gray hair than I do the other color. Anybody know what I'm talking about? I'm glad God uses people at my stage of life. You never get too old to serve the Lord. You never get too old to make a difference. You never do. Whatever stage of life you find yourself in, let God use you. Amen? Amen? Let's do that, church. Let's be a church God can use. Let's pray.