Thank you, yeah. The ministry started out with people with disabilities. Kath and I, we had no background at all in working with people with disabilities whatsoever, but we were open to what God wanted in our lives. And so we did that as individuals, and after we got married, we did it as a couple as well. Well, through a series of events, we found ourselves, Kathy was teaching school down in South Jersey, sixth grade school. I was working for DuPont, that small organization, you probably heard about them in Delaware, and I was working the business area. And so we, by talking with the director of that ministry called Children's Bible Fellowship of New York, found our way up. Kathy had not signed her contract for the next year and I had given my notice and we found ourselves going up to this place called Hope Town. Hope Town is a resident Christian school for children with disabilities. A lot of them were left by, from their parents in New York City. But they also have a camping program up there for people with disabilities, first for mental disabilities as well as for physical, and they also have a program for inner city children off the streets of New York, about 250 of them all together. So Kath and I left our, we left our place in South Jersey where we were living and in a small U-Haul, I mean really one of those small jobs because we didn't have too much at the time, and we just felt that this was God's leading for us, but we didn't know a thing about disability ministry. No, not a thing about it, except for some reading that we did and of course seeing some people with disabilities that we shied away from. Well, we got up to this place, and they were having the camping program. We missed orientation. And so when we got up there, we took all of our suitcases. We were going to be house parents to six children with disabilities, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into at all. This is the way that God works. a good part of the time, I think, as you look through scripture. And so we left our suitcases off at the residence that we were going to be house parenting and went down to the camping program where we were expected to be a part of this. Well, like I said, we missed orientation. And so Kathy was given three girls with disabilities and I was given three boys with disabilities to start our ministry to people with disabilities. Well, you can imagine what that was like, not so much for us, but for the ones we were taking care of. Did we make a mistake, they would say. But the honest goodness truth is that we were way over our heads. One of the girls that Kathy had to care for was a girl who had been burned so severely in a fire in New York City that she had had both of her legs amputated. And so the first night Kathy was going to give her a bath, And Kath turned her back to get something, and all of a sudden, she realized that this gal was holding her prosthetic legs in front of her. From that time on, for the first five nights, my wife, precious wife, cried herself to sleep for the first five nights, and I thought, for the first time in history, God had made a mistake. We were ready to give it all up. But the honest to goodness truth is, God wasn't ready to give us up. And so that fifth night, we got down on our knees and we asked God to forgive us for looking at this ministry, these people, from our perspective and not his. The next day we got up and we were able to look past the disability and a soul in need of a savior. And that changed it all around. We were there for six and a half years. And God, in his way, led us out of that area to join BCM International. It used to be called Bible Club Movement. It's now Bible Center Ministries. And we met the director down in Collingswood, New Jersey, where I was raised, by the way. He said in the course of the conversation, he said, Tim, he said our board has been praying for two and a half years asking God to bring the ones of his choosing in to develop a ministry amongst people with disabilities. And here we were. And so we joined the organization and God blessed in 30 years. He expanded the work in an amazing way. The whole thing that we want to get involved in in ministry is to see the need from a church perspective of reaching out to people who are going through difficult times in their lives, not just physical disabilities. We have a ministry called Basis for parents who have gone through the loss of a child, the worst kind of a loss that parents could ever go through in life. We have a ministry called Rest for women who have been abused or going through terrible times in their lives. a ministry called Minds Renewed for people with mental illness. We have support groups, Kath and I in our home and in several of the states as well, for parents who have children with disabilities, as well as parents who have gone through that loss of a child. And I'll tell you, we have learned so much. Not just from them, but we've learned an awful lot of God's grace. in some of the hardest, most difficult things that could take place in a parent's life. So we praise Him for what He's done, because obviously it has not been us, it's been the Lord that has done this. He's taken two novices, and by His grace and by His patience, has brought about this ministry. So we ask you to pray because God is using it, not just here, but in Ghana, West Africa. You spoke about this individual that you're supporting over there that has part of your congregation. In Ghana, West Africa, it's the same thing. Over this past, over this coming Easter, I should say, we're gonna have the opportunity of ministering to 250 blind people. In Christmas, it's about 250 deaf individuals. And many of them come to know Jesus as Savior. There's a ministry that is taking place in a place you wouldn't want to walk, let alone live. It's a place where refugees come from other parts of Africa, and Ghana happens to be a safe haven for them. But the place they live in is indescribable as far as filth is concerned. And yet on a Sunday afternoon in Ghana, In a room three quarters of the size of this room, 250 children come to hear the gospel. They sit on dirt, they sit on some benches, doesn't have the back, and they listen, and they listen attentively, and many have come to Christ as a result of that. We praise God for the ministry. It's not ours. This ministry has never been ours from day one. It's been the Lord's doing completely in bringing people like Kyle, who, by the way, is being mentored to take my position in a very short period of time. We praise God for bringing people into the ministry like Chris. Yes, even, no, it's like Chris. We're thankful for this, man. We're thankful for the way in which you have encouraged this family, this dear family. But let's get into the Word of God now, okay? Father, we are so thankful, so blessed, so thankful that we have your Word. In a world where there is so much falsehood, We come to a word that has truth to speak to our hearts and give us direction and strength and peace and calmness, no matter what's taking place. And so God, we lift ourselves up to you this morning that you would be glorified, that you would be heard through your word. And so we just ask that you would take our minds, center them on the one who loves us with an everlasting love. and help us to realize that you are Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. In 1787, I was about six and a half by that time, there's a fellow by the name of Edward Gibbon who wrote a book that maybe some of you have read or even heard about. It's called The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. That name familiar to you? It took this gentleman 20 years because he didn't have computers, he didn't have smartphones and all the other electronic means that we have today. He had to dig, he had to read, and he came to five conclusions because he was interested in the question, how could a nation be so great and then collapse? Those five reasons are the following. Number one, a rapid increase in divorce and undermining of the sanctity of the home, which is the basis of society. See if some of this rings true to today. Number two, higher taxes. People spend more money for food and celebration. Three, the mad craze for pleasure and sports becoming more exciting but brutal each year. Four, the building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy lies within. People become more decadent. Sounds like Romans 1, doesn't it? Number five, the decay of religion. Faith fades into mere form or formality and loses touch with life, becoming impotent to guide it. Judah, at that time, faced dangerous outside forces, but its worst enemy was itself. And Judah paid the price when Babylon took them captive in 586 BC. Isn't that incredible? It's almost like we're reading the front and second, first and second pages of the newspaper nowadays. Well, what is the way back from all of this? How do you and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ respond to what's going on around us? How do we live in a world that is getting more decadent as the days go by? What is the reality of the Word of God to us and how does it fit into what our living style is today? Well, I ask you to join me in looking at the scripture on three things. Three facts from the word of God that you and I can count on. Because we wanna find out, does God really know what's going on? Does he really care about what's going on? Is he really actively involved in what is going on, especially in my life? And especially at times when I don't, and honestly, before God, I don't feel his presence. Did you ever feel that way? If you didn't, I want to talk to you later. But anyway, we want to look through this scripture as we see God actively involved in the lives of His people, because we believe that God sees, He knows, that God reacts, and that God has promised to be with us as we go through it. So we wanna go through scripture and see the reality of this being played out because it is a reality. Turn with me, will you please, to Exodus chapter three. Exodus chapter three. The dilemma was found in Exodus chapter two, 23 and 25. It came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died and the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage and they cried out in their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And God saw the sons of Israel and God took notice of them. So what did God do? In chapter three, verse seven, he says, and the Lord says, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I'm aware of their sufferings. And that's repeated, almost repeated again in verse nine. I have seen the oppression which the Egyptians are oppressing them. You see, God sees what's going on. God sees what's going on in this country. God sees what's going on in your life. Why? Because he created you. He knows you intimately better than you know yourself. He knows the joys. He knows the heartaches. He knows the fears. He knows all of this individually because he's God. You can't explain him totally, it's impossible. Your minds can't comprehend it, neither can mine. Yours more than mine. But he loves us, and he knows us so well. He sees what's going on in your life. He sees the heartache, he sees the desires, he sees the need that's there. He's not different from you, difficult in his understanding, rather, I should say. But verse 10 of that same chapter says this, therefore come now and I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt. Not only does God see what's going on in your life, but he has a plan for what's going on in your life. And it might not fit in with what your plan is, but that's all right because he's omnipotent, he's omniscient, he's omnipresent. and you and I are not. And he's patient, but he has a plan that he's working out in his time, in his way. So we see that in verse 10. But the great part of it is in verse 12, and he said, certainly I will be with you. If you're up to it, if you're used to doing it, I would encourage you to mark those words. Because that's important to know that as you're going through the struggles in life, as you're going through the difficulties that maybe others don't know about, but it's deep inside of yourself, take the promise of God that he's there with you as you're walking through it. There's an unknown in your future. God's there. He was there yesterday. He was there before the world began. He knows, but he loves you enough to care about you and provide for you as you go through it. Well, that person, you remember who was the one who was elected to do it? An unlikely person by the name of what? Moses, Moses, of all people, a murderer, a guy who ran away, a guy who spent 40 years in a wilderness taking care of sheep. Maybe the Lord took him because he had a sheepish expression on his face. Oh, I won't go to forget that. But anyway, you see that in God using people, people who are just ordinary people like you, like me. Then we go to the gospels. John 3.16, let's recite it together. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. You see, God wanted to do something extraordinary to show you all of these three things that he sees, that he cares about what's going on, that he has a plan, and that he's there with us. So he sent Jesus called Emmanuel with us, called Emmanuel. Jesus saw the hurting people and the rejection of people. He saw the Samaritan woman who was left alone by herself because all the other women had taken off and gone back to the city, so she was left in the heat there. He saw the woman taken in adultery, just thrown down at his feet and cared about her as a person, not as a thing. He cared about that widow in Nain who had lost her only son. He stopped. Part of his ministry was reaching out to people. Do you realize that out of the 35 miracles in the gospels, 26 of them involves people with disabilities, people that have gone through hurt? 26 out of 35. Now here's the thing to remember about that. The disciples were with him when he showed compassion on the disabled. The disabled in those days were people that were cast aside. They were people who were being punished for something that they had done wrong in a former life. That was the mentality of the people at that time. Jesus turned that right around because he went to them, he helped them, he encouraged them, and he showed his disciples this, that he knew that when he would be ascended into heaven, that the disciples would be the church growers. And being church growers, it would include people with disabilities. He was teaching them, he was discipling them, he was mentoring them for the time that they would be the ones to go into all parts of the world and bring the disabled and the hurting into the church to minister to them, number one. But number two, and don't overlook this, when you bring a person with a disability into the church who is really hurting, is really suffering, and gone through all kinds of difficulties in their lives. Where do I get the next food I'm gonna have? Where am I gonna get help? All these questions are there and plaguing people. You go to a couple who have a child with a disability, a small child with a disability, and they have to learn all kinds of new words that they never even thought existed. Their dreams for the future are shattered. How am I gonna care for this child? And even more plaguing is when that child grows and becomes older in their 40s and 50s, and I'm up in my 70s, how am I gonna care for that child? Is there a place out there that will really take care of them that I can trust? Oh, gotta watch out for that. All of these things are part of it, you see. So Jesus was saying, yeah, take care of them. An example as to how a church can do that is this. There was a young fellow by the name of Michael who came to our camping program some years ago. And Michael has cerebral palsy, but he also has a mental disability as well. If Michael was here in his wheelchair, you wouldn't understand a word that he says, but he and his mom are so close that she can take grunts and put them into full thoughts. Well, Michael came to our camping program and through the camping program, as well as a church that accepted him into their program, Michael came to trust Jesus as Savior. So if you would ask Michael, for instance, where's Jesus? He'd go, ugh. That's good enough for me. How about you, huh? Yeah. Well, Michael, let me tell you this. Michael, one time in our camping ministry, The format that we would follow would be that after swim time comes or came, the camp counselor would get the camper ready and bring him down, wheelchair or otherwise, to the shower room where I was waiting with my bathing suit on. And then I would lift them into the shower chair and we would get the shower going and so forth. I loved it because I had a captive audience for my jokes. Where were they gonna go? They couldn't leave. Anyway, that was fun. But anyway, what happened was that we had a rule that you don't turn the hot water on when somebody's in the shower or flush a toilet. This one time, Michael was in there all soaked up, ready to go. Of all people, the head nurse came in and turned the hot water on, which turned the water in the shower to what? No, no, no, it passed cold. It was ice. We had partial rapture. Not really, but you know. Anyway, so Michael, we had a good laugh over that, and Michael went back, and remember I told you he had a good relationship with his mom, it was real close? Michael told his mom. So I went for a follow-up visit, knocked on the door, and the first words out of her mouth were, Tell me more about that shower incident. I thought, oh, I'm dead. But she laughed over it as well. Michael shared the gospel with his mom, who came to trust Jesus as Savior. Michael's father trusted Jesus as Savior. Michael's twin brother, who graduated from Lynchburg College, accepted Jesus as Savior. You see, God is not limited. We've got to open the door for him to work in the lives of people. And the results are incredible. The results are incredible. And what did Jesus do? He sent his disciples. He saw the need. He sent his disciples. Mark 16, 15 says what? Go ye into all the world and proclaim the gospel. He was with us, as I said earlier, called Emmanuel. Matthew 28, 20 says, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. There was a pastor of a church one time that was taking a flight, and one of the flight attendants happened to be a member of his congregation. And so when he got on, he held on to the sides of his chair like white-knuckled. And she felt to herself, this is strange. And as the plane took off, the same thing, held on to the sides of his chair. And she thought to herself, well, sometimes people are scared about take off and landing, that's all right. 30,000 feet up in the air, he still is holding on to the sides of his chair. So she said, I could not resist going to him. And I said, pastor, you're my shepherd, my spiritual leader, how come you're doing this? And he said to her, young lady, he said, the Bible says, low I'm with you always, not high. Anyway, it's okay, that's all right. Lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the age. What a promise Jesus gives to us. He sees, he knows intimately, sometimes read Psalm 139 and see the truth of that. He reacted, he sent his son, the Lord Jesus, and he promised in Matthew 28, 20, that he is present with us. But also, this whole idea of these three things is carried out further. Turn in your Bibles, will you please, now to Matthew chapter 25. Here's a portion of scripture here that I think for a long time, including myself, we've taken this in a different light than it should have been. We see Jesus saying down here in verses 34, on the king will say to those on his right, come you are blessed of my father and her at the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for i was hungry and you gave me something to eat i was thirsty and you gave me drink i was a stranger and you invited me in naked and you clothed me i was sick and you visited me i was in prison and you came to me then the righteous will answer him saying lord when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink And when did we see you stranger and invite you in or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer and say to them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, or brethren, even the least of them, you did it to me. The context of this passage of scripture is concerning what takes place during the tribulation period. During the tribulation period, the Jews will be hunted down. And what the Gentile, what the Gentiles, these Gentile people are being judged in this part of the scriptures, you see? And the Gentile peoples are the ones who are believers, who trust God, are ones who are taking the risk to help the Jewish people who are being hurt. These brothers of mine, the Lord says. And so, the reward is going to go to them because they have taken a risk of their own lives to be able to help the Jewish people during this time. But you see, the same thing's carried out here, not just in the past in the Old Testament and Exodus 3, and not just in the Gospels, but in the future as well. The gentile believers saw God's heart and they responded. And God sent himself through the willing, committed people, even though they knew that their lives were at stake. He was present and he was present through them. So after all of seeing this today, how do we respond today? How do you and I respond after this took place? Well, first of all, there's a high rate of divorce. people living together without being married. There's a lot of stress in our world today. Ministry to people with PTSD and in their homes is terrible. That's soldiers that have come back and are not the same. And our youth, do you realize that in the state in which we're living there are 30,000 abortions a year in just this state? One out of every three children is born in a home without a father. Ten percent of American children have one parent dealing with alcohol problems. When a child begins, and this is truth, when a child begins in kindergarten in the public school system around age five, there's a good chance that the curriculum contains such topics as transgenderism and gay behavior. 62 million have some form of mental illness. That's one in five Americans. Depression, substance abuse, thoughts of suicide, family discord. God sees through his church. He reacts through his church. He is present. He is present. Several months ago, I was involved in a funeral service for a fellow by the name of Dennis. Dennis, when he was young, growing up, his father had left the home because a child with a disability. So it was just mom, Dennis, and his brother. Dennis has cerebral palsy. The way he would communicate is through a computer. He would bring the computer with him and he had a way of, he learned this thing. It was just amazing to see how he could communicate with people. But when he was young with his cerebral palsy, he worked at a restaurant as a dishwasher. And he was paid by cash. When he came home, His brother got to know the day that Dennis was paid. His brother was on drugs. And so his brother would come to Dennis and demand that he give him his money. And if Dennis didn't want to because that money went to help feed himself, his mother, and his brother. The brother would take him and beat him until he got the money. That was how he was raised. That's the life that he had. Dennis came to camp where he was accepted. He was loved. He was looked at as being a person. He got involved in a church where he was accepted. and cared for as part of the body because Dennis had accepted Jesus Christ as Savior at camp. In the process of time, Dennis, with his computer, was on the missions committee of the church. Matter of fact, he was one that went to the committee that got a pastor for that church. He was so accepted in the congregation. Well, several months ago, Dennis, age what, 40, 50, passed away. And so we went to the funeral service. Church was pretty full. But one after another got up and said how much Dennis had meant to them. because they saw somebody who had a difficulty as far as speech is concerned, but they saw the love of Jesus Christ through Dennis, reaching out to others in the congregation. And so, they rose and gave testimony to the fact of what that testimony meant to them. Where are we today? Where are you and I today as we face what's going on, as I start off in this message by talking about those five things that were found on the decline of the Roman Empire and are happening today? Well, first of all, it's not the instrument so much that's being used. We have so much going on with the gun lobby and all of this that's taking place. The Bible has a different answer, and it goes deeper than that. Jeremiah 17.9 says it like this, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it. You see, that's the heart of the problem, is the heart itself. You can take all of these other things away, but it's the heart that really is not at ease. The book of Judges says it so clear. If you read through that book, you'll find that it is just one time after another that the people of God shied away from him. The last verse in the book of Judges reads this, every man did what was right in his own eyes. And that's where we are today, isn't it? Isn't it? Well, what's the answer to all of this? God in his word has made it very, very clear to us in 2 Chronicles 7.14. It says this, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, You know, that's where we are today. And he says, I will heal their land by the way. But that's where we are. It starts with the heart. My people who are called by my name will humble themselves instead of getting on the bandwagon of getting something better and better and better all the time. Revelation 3.20 is an eye-opener. We look at it as being a way to salvation, and it can be used that way. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me. That's taken from the Laodicean church. The picture of the Laodicean church in Revelation chapter three. The church that says you are neither hot nor cold, therefore I will spew you out of my mouth. What an incredible picture when you think about it. Here is Jesus knocking at his own church, waiting to come in. waiting to come in. Instead of having all the frivolity that takes place in many churches nowadays, we need times of getting down in prayerful consideration of who God is and who we are in our dependency upon Him and humbly coming before Him and opening that door so that we can see how He's working in the lives of His people. There is a verse There is a verse that I've come across. I've known it ever since a kid, but it's meant so much lately to me. Psalm 46.10. You know what it says. You know what it says. If you don't, you'll know it when I start it. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. Two things. One is be still. There's so much out there that calls for our attention. There's the smartphone. I have an unsmartphone, it's called a flip. But there's the smartphone, there's the computers, there's the television, there's everything you can think of is out there as a distraction. And what God is saying to you and to me and His church is saying, be still, come away, take time to get into my word, listen to my Holy Spirit as He speaks to you. Be still. And in being still, know me, know me, know me for who I am, the omniscient, omnipresent, all powerful one, all knowing, all present. The one who knows you intimately, the one who loves you. And as we've read this morning, send his own son to die on a cross for you and for me. That's the one that wants to be known by you and by me today. And he makes himself available to us. Isn't that amazing? The songwriter has said it so well, amazing grace, how sweet the sound. But I say amazing patience of our God for us, because he still waits. He still knocks. With an everlasting love, Jeremiah says, Jeremiah, the prophet, the weeping prophet says this, As you walk away from this this morning, please know three things. He knows you. He knows you intimately, intimately. Please know that he loves you. He cares about you and what's going on in your life. And please know this. that He is with you. If you're a child of His this morning, you can claim that promise. Take it with you, with all the noise that's out there. Come to the place of being still before your Creator, the one who knows, loves, cares, and promises to be with you. And yes, the difficulties that you're going through right now, you may not have an answer for it today, But if you're His, if you are, like Paul says, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, that means that your timing is His. That means that your need is known by Him. And in His way and in His timing, He will take you and do something in your life and through your life as you're willing to be used by him that will knock your socks off. But be still and know that he is God. And Father, we thank you and we praise you. We do not begin to understand you or your ways with us. They're far too, far too, far to a way out of our mind's eye, but help us, God, to come to that place of surrender, of recognizing that you see the need that is there within our hearts and our minds, that you have a plan that you're actively involved in it. Help us to trust. Then, O God, then, by your grace and strength, begin to use us to glorify you. And we humbly then bow before you, our creator, our God, our Lord. And thank you for the privilege, the privilege of coming into your presence. We pray it in Jesus' precious name, amen.