Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 through 18, and I would like to read the text. Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all be accomplished." When the sermon ends in chapter 7, having preached to his apostles and the crowds and the disciples that were there, the text will tell us that the response of the crowds was great. And they basically said, never a man spoke like this man. And he taught as one having authority and not as the scribes. Because the Jewish community was used to having the scribes teach in a certain way. They would not speak with their own authority. They would repeat what rabbis said. Rabbis that had spoken through the ages. And they would quote one rabbi, so-and-so, Hallel says this, Gamaliel says this, Rabbi Judah says this. And yet, when the Lord would speak, he would not quote any of the scribes or the rabbis. He would speak with authority. And we're going to discover that authoritative teaching of the Lord in this sermon as we move forward in the months to come. But he opened that sermon speaking of the character of kingdom citizens. I trust this afternoon that you are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. I trust that you have come to the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal salvation, humbled by your sinfulness, poor in your spirit, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. And having entered that kingdom, I trust that you are seeking to live out kingdom citizenship. That's how he opens his sermon. And then he follows it by speaking to the fact that we as Christians are to be light and salt in this world. I mean, my heart is really racing and my mind is racing as I look at the deterioration of the world around us. Isn't it happening quickly? The problem in the world is that there is no fear of God among the people. And we shouldn't be surprised because Paul, writing to Timothy, says that in the last days, things are going to get worse. And then he begins to list everything that is going to happen in the last days as we approach the coming of Christ. You ought to read that list. It reads like a headline in a newspaper. We must be salt. We must be light. But having given that instruction, he now turns to the text that we are looking at today, and it is his view of the Old Testament Scriptures. And I would dare say that he wants his people, who are kingdom citizens, who are in need of being light and salt in this age, to be people that have the same view of the Bible that he did. And so the application for us all today is to have the view of the scriptures that the Lord had. And the question is, did our God who made heaven and earth, and we see the revelation of His power all around us, we see His authority all around us, did that God who made heaven and earth give humanity a trustworthy revelation, a written revelation to communicate His gospel? Is there a book that is unlike any other book in human history? A book that stands out beyond the Vedas of Hinduism, the writings of Buddha, the writings of Confucius, or Zoroaster, or Mohammed, or Russell, and any other religion that's out there putting forth sacred writing. Are those writings from the God who made heaven and earth, or is there a unique book Open to all of us that communicates clearly His gospel, that we can trust in it, that we can rely on it, that we can believe it. I'm holding in my hands such a book, specifically in my hands, the Old Testament. 37 books in that Old Testament that were there in Jesus' day. 929 chapters, 23,145 verses. A book like none other. What's your attitude toward the Old Testament? I've had believers tell me, well, I'm a New Testament Christian. And I have to ask them the question, well, when was the first book of the New Testament written? And the first book of the New Testament was most probably 1 Thessalonians, and it was written in the 50s. And Jesus went away in the 30s. And so for 20 years after the ascension of Christ, clear up to the year roughly 90, when John pens his final book of the New Testament, for 60 years, What was the Bible and what was the scriptures that the people of God were reading and studying and preaching? What were they? The Old Testament. Some people don't think that the Old Testament has a relevance to their own life today. They just don't understand the message of the Old Testament and how to read it. One of the lectures that I give when I have mission teams come, I've shared this sermon with you, and it's the covenant structure of the Bible, and seeking to understand the most central message of the Bible, and specifically the Hebrew Scriptures. But there are Christians, I've met them here in New York City, that will refuse to come to this place because I dare to read and preach from the Old Testament. They say it's irrelevant. They say it's law, but I'm under grace. And so they toss it out. And there are people that even teach that the only part of the Bible that you should study and read are the epistles of Paul. And they go even further and say, not only all the epistles of Paul, but you just need to read his prison epistles. That's the Bible for today. And so my question to you is, what are your thoughts concerning the Old Testament? Do you view the Old Testament like Jesus did? In 2 Timothy chapter three, verses 14 through 16, Paul is writing to Timothy and he's reminding Timothy that his mother and his grandmother brought him the sacred scriptures. And what were they? The Old Testament. And that those sacred scriptures, now get this, are able to make you wise unto salvation. The Old Testament contains the message from our creator of saving grace. That Old Testament can lead us to Christ. What is its message? What is its purpose? It's to show forth Christ. And so now the Lord is on the scene, and He is preaching His sermons, and He's not quoting the scribes. He's just quoting the Old Testament. And his teaching and his preaching sounds so different from those around him. Matter of fact, it is so different that the Jewish leadership in his day thought that he was out to destroy the law and the prophets. What is your view concerning the Bible, they would basically say. And Jesus would say to them, You have tossed the scriptures aside and established your own tradition. And you have made the tradition of men the authority rather than the Word of God. The Lord was not taking away from the Bible. The Lord was elevating the Bible and telling that generation that they had missed the central message of the Old Testament. Matter of fact, down through the ages, they began to gather what was called, and even to this day, is called the oral law. Not the written word of God, but the oral teaching from the scribes and the Pharisees and the rabbis. And it was oral. And it was oral in Jesus's day. And it remained being oral until about the year 200 A.D. Christ is gone. The temple is destroyed. And a man that is credited for beginning to gather the oral law and put it down in written form was a Jewish teacher by the name of Judah HaNasi. He was born in A.D. 135, and he died in the year 220. And yet he is credited as being the first individual to start gathering the oral teaching, put it in writing, and that oral teaching and writing became known as the Mishnah. The Mishnah. And that oral writing was added to for about several hundred years and put in the Mishnah. And in addition to the Mishnah, you had commentary. People would begin to study the Mishnah. They would study the oral law and they would commentate on it. And tucked in with the Mishnah were sections called the Gemora. And when they began to establish the Mishnah, there were six basic sections in the Mishnah dealing with different things in the Mishnah. There was a section on agriculture, the type of seeds that you could plant. There is a section on the festivals of Israel. There's a section, an entire section on marriage, another section on civil law, another section on temple service, and another section on ritual purity. And I'm holding in my hands right now one of those sections. This is a section from the Babylonian Talmud. The Mishnah and the Gomorrah together are referred to as Talmud. And this right here is the section that deals with temple service. And I purchased it many, many years ago because I wanted to read what the Mishnah and the Gomorrah said about the tabernacle and what it said about the temple. There are six such books. And if you were to go into a Jewish yeshiva here in Manhattan, upper Manhattan, and you would sit down with the men that are studying to be rabbis, as I have several times, and you will discover that in the yeshivas, they are studying this. They're studying this. And they continue to quote from the oral law. And they might study the first five books of Moses. But there's a problem, my dear friends. The law of Moses focuses on the tabernacle and the temple and the sacrifices. But the temple is gone. Jesus would prophesy the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. It would fall. No more animal sacrifice. And a book in the New Testament written told Hebrews why it was written to Jewish people, that they might understand that Jesus the Christ is the priest made like kilt milk is a dick. That he is the final word to man, that he is a sacrifice for our sin. All of that in our Bible. And so as Jesus began to quote the Old Testament, and it came up against the oral traditions that were being taught, they hated Him. And Jesus would condemn that they substituted their traditions for this. And it is in that backdrop, that culture, that Jesus seeks to rescue people from the teaching of men versus the teaching of God. We're going to see that as we go through this sermon. But I want you to see something today. He wants to correct their improper thinking. about the Old Testament. He said, look at verse 17, do not think. Matter of fact, it's literally stop thinking. You're thinking something. You're thinking that I came to abolish the Law and the Prophets. And by the way, the terminology, the Law and the Prophets, is terminology for the entire Old Testament. and the prophets. I didn't come to abolish this. Literally, I didn't come to tear it down. I didn't come to destroy it. No, that's not my purpose. If you really want to understand the Old Testament, he said, you need to understand that I came to fulfill it. that there is something in this book that is about me. He said, search the scriptures, for you think that you have eternal life in them, and they testify of me. And after his resurrection, in the Gospel of Luke, you can read this, he is walking with two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus, and their eyes are closed, they don't know who he is. But then he begins to preach a sermon to them. You remember the sermon? The text says, beginning with who? Beginning with Moses, he began to preach to them in all of the law and the prophets, the things that are concerning him. You will never understand the Old Testament until you understand that it is all about Christ. And the fact that he came to fulfill the Old Testament. And that that Old Testament that he came to fulfill, not to abolish, will not pass away until all things are accomplished. Matter of fact, when you look at the Lord Jesus Christ in His ministry, He is affirming the New Testament. In Matthew 19, He affirmed the Genesis account of creation. One of the reasons I believe in the Genesis account of creation, because Jesus reaffirmed it. Jesus believed it. In Luke chapter 11, he affirms the murder of Abel. In Matthew chapter 24, he affirmed the flood of Noah. In John 8, he spoke of the faith of Abraham. In Luke 17, he looked back at Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot and the story in the Old Testament with its destruction. In John chapter 6, he spoke of the manna from heaven. In John chapter 3, he talked about the serpent being lifted up in the wilderness. In Mark chapter 12, he says this, you don't understand the resurrection because you don't understand the scripture. And when he was tempted by the devil, what did he quote? Three times from the book of what? Deuteronomy. He is constantly affirming the scripture. And when he attacked the temple, when they were changing money and selling Passover lambs at a profit, and he drove them out, you know what he did? He quoted the prophets. You see, everything in the Old Testament that is about Him, He will fulfill. Do you know, do you understand that? When I'm talking with lost people about why I'm a Christian, why I follow Christ, I always offer three things. If I think about it, I'll offer some more. Do you know one of the things I offer people is number one, the prophecy of the Bible? Let that settle in. There is no book, hear me, there is no book in human history that contains the prophecy the Bible does. Let that sink into your heart and your mind. The Vedas of Hinduism does not have that. The Book of Mormon does not have that. Islam does not have that. The writings of Buddha does not have that, or Zoroaster, or Confucius. They do not have it. But God would say in the prophet Isaiah, this is how you'll know it's my revelation. He said, I'm going to tell you the end from beginning. I'm going to give you prophecy. And my friends, the great God of glory has given us a book that's full of prophecy so that we as human beings globally can identify the one he sent to save. Do you really want to know if Christ saves? Do you really want to know if you put your faith in Him that you're going to live eternally in the Father's house? God lets us know in an Old Testament Scripture, in the law of Moses and in the prophets about Christ. You know that in the Old Testament, we were told that there would be a forerunner who would come before he showed up on the scene, and that is in the book of Malachi, and that was fulfilled by John the Baptist. That in the prophet Micah, we were given the place of his birth 500 years before he was ever born. That in the prophet Isaiah, the very words of the Messiah, and the fact that He would come to the poor, to the prisoners, to the blind, to the oppressed. Then in Isaiah chapter 61, you have the exact speech He gave in Luke 14 in the city of Nazareth. that Psalm 118 predicts His triumphal entry when He went to Jerusalem. In Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7, prophecy that He would cleanse the temple hundreds of years before He ever came. Isaiah chapter 53, giving us the crucifixion scene of Christ, the fact that He would be silent in His trial, the fact that He would be buried in a rich man's tomb, the fact that He would rise from the dead, given to us hundreds of years before He ever came. Is there any other book like that? In Psalm 22, you open the Psalm, Psalm 22, and the words that Christ would use on the cross, they are the beginning words of Psalm 22. Who could have written that? Who could have given that in Deuteronomy chapter 18? He was promised as the prophet like Moses. In Psalm 2, that He would be resurrected from the dead, as well as Psalm 16. In Isaiah 49, that He'd be a light to the nations. You see what hangs on the front of this building? A cross, and what does it say? Jesus, the light of the what? the world, the light of the nations. That was a prophecy in Isaiah 42 and 49. That is about our Christ 700 years before He ever came. In Daniel, now get this, in Daniel chapter 9, we have the exact year, the exact year of the Messiah's death, hundreds of years before He ever came. Are you starting to feel this? Christ and Moses, The law is about me. And you start studying the tabernacle that dealt with the presence of God and the presence of God with us through Christ. And you look at all of those animal sacrifices that prefigure the final sacrifice of Christ. Christ is a sin offering. Christ is the trespass offering. Christ is the peace offering. Christ is the door that brings us into the house. Christ is the light of the world. Christ is the bread of life. Christ is the sweet incense. His flesh was the veil, and He entered the most holy place as the priest representing the people. He is the one who can keep the law, the ark of the law. the Ark of the Covenant, and on the lid, the blood sprinkled on Yom Kippur, the great passion play of His first and His second comings and His current session in the presence of God. All of this in typology in the Old Testament in the Law of Moses. The land given, prefiguring Christ's renewal and dominion over the earth. And that great law, picturing the righteousness of Christ, the obedience of Christ, the book of Moses is full of Him. It's all about Him. You realize how many prophecies there are in the Old Testament? Some people count over 300. Over 300? Here's just a few more. Let them sink in. The fact that He would have a sinless, blemish-free life and ministry. You know that's why they had to offer male lambs without what? Blemish. Because they pictured that sinless, blemish-free life and ministry of Christ. The fact that He would preach righteousness to Israel. The fact, you know that the Bible prophesied that He would teach in parables? And he taught in parables. And also that those parables would fall on deaf ears, as in the Old Testament. And you read the teaching of Christ in the New Testament, he taught in parables and they fell on deaf ears. The fact that he would preach righteousness to Israel. The fact that his ministry, now get this, his ministry would begin in Galilee. Where did the Lord spend most of his time? As the light to the nations in Galilee, Galilee of the Gentiles. The fact that he would have a miraculous ministry, and he did. The fact that he would be despised and rejected, and he was. How about some of these? That like the Passover lamb, none of Christ's bones would be broken. Did you know that you couldn't break the leg of a Passover lamb? And there wasn't a single bone of Christ that was broken. And though it was traditional at a scene of crucifixion that the one who was being crucified, as they were approaching the end of their life, that the soldiers would go out and they would break the bones and the legs of the criminals so that they could no longer push themselves up and get a breath of air and collapse back down. And yet when they came to do that to Jesus, the book says that he had already died and his bones were not broken just like the book said. By the way, that's why I have a little problem when we celebrate the Lord's table When reference is not made clear to the people that when the Lord said, this is my body, which is broken for you, everybody seems to think that he was saying his body was broken. No, if you look at the context, he lifts up the bread and he says, the bread is broken for you. I don't want any confusion among the people of God concerning whether or not Christ was broken, knowing the fulfillment of prophecy was not. The fact that his blood would be in atonement, the fact that he would rise from the dead, that he would be scorned, that he would be spit upon, that his beard would be ripped out, all of that in Isaiah. I could go on and on and on, giving you prophecy after prophecy, and Jesus said, it's all about me, and I came to fulfill it. There is a mathematician, his name is Peter Stoner. mathematician who is the chairman of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena College. So I think he has a little credibility here. And he was passionate about biblical prophecies. And he said, let's just take eight prophecies of the 300 plus. And he asked the question, what are the odds of just eight of these prophecies being fulfilled by one individual, just eight of them. And he said the odds of that are the number 10 with 17 zeros after it. Now that is a pretty big number. And if you want to get a visual of that, he said take a silver dollar. and take 10 with 17 zeros after it of silver dollars and lay them side by side on the state of Texas and you would have Texas covered two feet deep in silver dollars. That's what that number represents. And then he said, take a blind man and mark one of those silver dollars and stir up the entire pot in the state of Texas and let a blind man choose one. He said, that's the odds of one individual fulfilling eight. What are the odds of one individual fulfilling 300? And the Lord said, no, you need to rethink your teaching. I didn't come to destroy the law. I came to fulfill the law. And this law and scripture is all about me. And then he makes another comment here that I want you to think about. And it's a comment about the permanence of the Bible, this book. I'm holding it in my hand 2023. God used Moses to pen the first five books 3,400 years ago. And the Gospels were penned 2,000 years ago. I'm holding it in my hand right now. He makes the comment, now look at the text. In verse 18, truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away. Do you know that heaven and earth is going to pass away? The day is coming when God is going to deal with this earth and He's going to use fire. He said that He would not destroy the world again like He did with the global flood and put a rainbow up in the sky. So every time you see a rainbow, I want you to think biblically. That rainbow is a testimony and sign from the God who made heaven and earth that this world would not be destroyed with a flood. But it is not a testimony that he will not ever judge humanity again. For the day is coming when this heaven and earth will pass away. Psalm 102, Isaiah 34, Isaiah 51, heaven and earth will pass away. Revelation 6, Revelation 21, 2 Peter chapter 3. Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. God's gonna burn this earth up someday. You realize that you and I are living on a disposable planet? And everybody is freaking out today about global climate change. Do you know that in the 1930s it was hotter than it is now? You don't ever heard of that though, do you? I don't know if they're trying to keep the world from You know, Satan is the one who's the prince in the power of the air. He's the one that is activating people in this generation to say no to God and yes to him. I hope you understand as you look at the conflict in the world that you and I are not wrestling against flesh and blood. It's not other human beings with their crazy thinking. No, we're wrestling with principalities and powers. It is the devil himself behind all of this. And that is why you are seeing such a rapid acceleration of everything biblical being challenged and 180 degrees different. Because the devil's still the same. Came to man in the garden, he said, has God really said? And he challenged the Word of God, and he's doing it in our generation. No, this world's disposable. But between now and then, everything in this book will be accomplished. He had a pretty high view of the book, didn't he? Do you? Is your life governed by a book such as this? Is your life governed by the revelation that our Creator, He made us all, we're made in His image? Those of us that have been born again, He's changing us and renewing us in the image of Christ. And He's given us a book we can study. It is truth in an age that doesn't know truth. And we're coddling people in non-truth. It's almost like saying I don't care. We're not helping people deal with their situations mentally, emotionally. They can't figure out who they are. And we're just suggesting change your gender and you'll discover who you are. And they changed their gender and they didn't discover who they are. They didn't discover that we're all created in the image of God and there was a fall years ago and there was a rescue operation that's recorded in this book and it's Christ. And you can be gloriously born again and start a new life and follow him and be guided by the wisdom of this book. It is a permanent book. Change the way you think about the Bible. Understand that it's permanent. And then there's another thing that I want you to see today. Look at what he says. Verse 18, for truly, I say to you, what an expression. Really, you can say, amen. I say to you, 30 times in Matthew's gospel, Jesus begins his teaching by saying, truly. What he is telling us is that it's firm, it's fixed, it's truth. Truly, truly, you're looking for truth right here. And this is not one book competing with the Vedas of Hinduism, the writings of Buddha, the writings of Confucius, Islam, and every other ism. It's not competing with them. It is a revelation unlike any other. And without apology, I'll let people know that. Now, we had a lot of outreaches this summer in this building. The other day we had a group out in front just distributing gospel literature, had a prayer station out there, and a lady from the community, I don't know who she is, never saw her before, probably never see her again, she walked past one of our groups and she just looked and said, you folks need to be more tolerant of other religions. Number one, I don't know how she even knew who I was. or what I even taught about other religions. This is gonna be broadcast, put out on the air. I guess they'll know now that I believe the Bible's a unique book and it is the revelation from the creator to lead us to Christ so that we can live eternally when he burns up the earth on a new heaven and a new earth. I have a compassion for people. I don't want them to be led astray by the one who said, has God said and offered to humanity a thousand different ways to come to God. But they're all about what you have to do. And yet the message of this book is what Christ has done as Savior for us. It's out of compassion that I have these outreaches. Do you know that last Thursday night, 86 different people came into this auditorium? 86. Some of them sat down at tables and heard the gospel of God and were praying over her. Moving forward, we need to do it as a local church and every single one of you need to be out there that night. That's why I do these outreaches. That's why I go over here, across from Madison Square Garden, and I preach and pass out literature. That's why I go into Union Square, and I reason with people that Jesus is the Christ, that the Messiah had to suffer, and that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and all of us, all humanity can come to God in Him. Because I believe that this is an authoritative book, and it's truth. It's permanent, and I need to change the way I think about Let me just hasten on so that I can close. This book will never be altered. It's inerrant. And how does our Lord emphasize that? He says this, look at verse 18, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law. till all be fulfilled. What is the smallest letter? Anybody know? He's talking about the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet is Yod. And it looks like a little apostrophe. Matter of fact, if you were to get out your Bible and turn to Psalm 119, don't do it now, do it later, you'll discover that this Psalm 119 is a psalm about the Hebrew alphabet. And there's eight verses in each stanza, and the beginning letter in each one of those verses is the same. The Hebrew alphabet begins with Aleph. And every eight verses begins with the letter Aleph. And then the next letter is Beth. And then the next eight verses begin with the letter Beth, and then Gimel, and Daleth, and all the way through the Hebrew alphabet. But if you were to get, I think it's verse in the 70s, Yod. You'll see that little Yod if you're reading it in the Hebrew. The smallest letter. Jesus said this. Not even the smallest letter or the stroke. What's a stroke? A stroke is the smallest differentiation that makes you recognize one letter from another. The Hebrew alphabet has the letter R that kind of goes down 90 degrees, but it's curved in the 90-degree section. That's the letter R. But the letter D or Daleth, it is a hard corner. And the difference between the round corner and the hard corner is the stroke. It would be like us. You've got the letter E. What's the difference between the letter E and the letter F? One stroke. The letter M and the letter N? One stroke. And what our Lord is confirming is the verbal inspiration of this book, not a single letter from any word until all is accomplished. And He is so emphatic about it that He offers another reason here. It's the word not. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not. the smallest letter. In the Hebrew, it's doubled. In the Greek, it's doubled, not-not. And unlike English, if we have two negatives, it becomes a what? A positive. But in the Greek language, if you put two negatives next to each other, it's a way of emphasizing. And that's what the Lord is doing. Not-not. Oh, my friends. What's your view of this book, and especially the Old Testament? Do you have the same view that Jesus had? If not, you need to change your thinking. And you need to move away from the traditions of men back to the revelation from God. You need to do that. And you need to begin to study it and pursue Christ in these pages, for He is the one that it is all about. And you need to understand the permanence of this book. It's going to be here until heaven and earth will pass away, but the Word of God will never pass away. That's how God feels about His book. He can make this world, and He said the heavens. I'm mesmerized by the James Webb telescope. Any of you watching some of these images coming from clear out in outer space? This book said He's going to make a new heaven and a new earth. Oh, the power of this being whose image we're created in, who made us, whose book can be trustworthy, truly, truly, I say unto you, it's not alterable, not, not, and it's verbal, letters and strokes. I see my Lord in the Bible wherever I chance to look. He is the theme of the Bible, the center and heart of the book. Now, he, in the book's beginning, gave the earth its form. He's the arc of safety to bear the brunt of the storm, the burning bush of the desert, the budding of Aaron's rod. Yes, wherever I look in the Bible, I see the Son of God. The ram upon Mount Moriah, the ladder from earth to sky, the scarlet cord in the window, the serpent lifted high. The smitten rock of the desert, the shepherd with staff and crook, the face of my Lord I discover wherever I open the book. He's the seat of the woman. the seed of Shem, the seed of Abraham, the seed of Isaac, the seed of Jacob, the seed of Judah, the seed of David. He is the seed of woman, the Savior, virgin born. He's the son of David, whom men rejected with scorn. His garments of grace and of beauty, the stately Aaron deck. He's the priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He's the Lord of eternal glory whom John the Apostle saw. He's the light of the celestial city, the lamb without spot or flaw. The bridegroom coming at midnight, for whom his people look. Yes, wherever I open the Bible, I see my Lord in the book. Let's have the same view of those Hebrew scriptures that Jesus did. Let's pray. Father, we can't even begin to thank you that such a book exists and is being translated all over the world so that humanity can read it. Most sold book in all the world's history. Thank you for giving it. I don't know where we'd be if you hadn't given such a clear, truthful revelation to us to lead us to your Savior. So thank you. I pray for these dear people, Lord, some of them yet to put their faith in Christ. that they would believe that he's the one you sent to save. He died for their sins, was buried and rose again according to the scripture. And then Father, I pray that you'll make us a people that are strong in our understanding of your revelation and with great compassion we'll offer it to humanity. unashamed, unmoved, but because we love people. And Lord, we long for them to be rescued out of the lap of the evil one. They've fallen asleep there, Lord. They're blinded by the evil one. Oh, Lord, help us to be salt. Help us to be light. Help me, Lord, to live like I'm a kingdom citizen with the compassion that the Lord had for people. And I pray that you'll do the same in our congregation, that these dear people would have a passion for your word, and they'd begin to read it and study it, find Christ, and that they'll live for him. Lord, we're older. Most of us are older in this room and most of our life's behind us. We're getting older. We're tired. Physically, the energy is not what it used to be. Our minds are not as sharp as they used to be. But, Lord, I pray that you'll show us that we can all pray, we can all speak to people, we can all point people to Christ. So strengthen these dear saints, Lord. Strengthen them physically. Strengthen them mentally and emotionally, but most of all spiritually, O God. And let them know that You're with them all week. Your Spirit is living within them, God dwelling in His people. So Spirit of the Lord, I pray that you'll forgive us for quenching you, for resisting you, for failing to hear what you say to the churches. Please forgive us. And I pray that even this week that you'd help me and these dear people to walk with you. Allow you to fill us, control us, and then use us to make Christ known. Pray for all the people, Lord, that got gospel tracks this summer. Pray that you'll draw them to Christ. So, Father, we adore you, we praise you, and we bless your holy name. In Jesus' name, amen. Invite Sal if he would come and Frank, Frankie.