And the Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female, and of the beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. for yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights. And every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Thank you, and you may be seated. OK. I'm going to have us do a little something different. I'm going to give you just a little bit of an update on Miss Barbara. She is up at Barnes still. Jack had come home yesterday to check on mail and the yard and different things like that at the house. And I think he went back up again. He told me in a text he was going back up to her clock this morning to get back up. to St. Louis this morning. They got about 1,500 cc's, not liters, but cc's off of her lungs and such. And so they think what's going on, of course, it's the kidney, I guess, no, liver. I don't have my text, I don't have my phone here. But anyway, they're thinking about putting kind of a stent in that reroutes the fluid and keeps it from going into the lungs. And so they're working on that. She has some more tests coming up. And just trying to Trying to narrow everything down and see what they are going to need to do. And so there's some procedures coming up that are kind of not life-threatening or anything, but they're very serious. And so be in prayer. We want to be in prayer for her and for Jack, because as you know, the company he was working for, Yellow Trucking, went bankrupt. And it was like a 100-year-old company. And it's a pretty old company. And Jack had been with them for 98 of those years, I think. I'm just kidding. He's only half that old. I'm just kidding. Hopefully he's going to be starting another job. here in a little bit. And all he needs is a little bit of time. But this timing, I love God's timing, how aware he is. And he's been able to have a job coming up. I think he has some unemployment because of this. And it leaves him at home now for a while during this period to help Barbara out. And so we're just thankful for that. Praise the Lord for that. But we just need to pray for them and I've been thinking about her a lot, been praying for them a lot. So I'm going to just have somebody just go to the Lord and remember the service tonight and ask, you know, I have somebody just ask the Lord to watch over them and give the doctors wisdom and just healing of her body and then just ask the Lord to kind of bless the services tonight. Brother Bob Healy, would you would you go to the Lord for us tonight, please? Remember sister Barbara and Jack and then just pray for the services tonight Yes What a great field it is. We may indeed walk the day by day and see the lights of glory brighter today than we did the other day. We have overcome. We have indeed been delivered. We have been blessed. We have been led. And Lord, we want to thank you for all of that and see the terrible fall of the ways that seem to be with this generation to go into in the place of Solomon the Lord. Lord, help them to rethink and understand, give them a power from on high to open their eyes to the Lord and to the questions of the great God. We ask the Lord to help them without any measure of disability. And as we see all this, our hearts need to be humbled. As we stand here in good presence tonight, we want to pray for the message and the messenger tonight, Lord, bless Sarah, and help each one of us to go from here, saying, it's been good to be in the house of the Lord. It's been good to fellowship with her, giving us the right faith. And we take care of them in a great way. And we want to remember them and respect their life and their reality. And that's why I can just help to add to this. Call us in today. We don't hear from you today. May you understand we do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And help us in to give Him the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And bring honor to His great name. and be an example to others. Lord, we bear witness to all things, what we do in the world, and what we do with our whole life, that is, seeing and understanding God in the flesh, and in their flesh, and in theirs, and to lead us to higher ground. Oh, Lord, again, just lead us tonight in claiming upon the great joy and the heaven of your life, in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Stand one more time before the pastor comes and turn to page 530 page 530 I will sing of my Redeemer, and His wondrous love to me. On the cruel old cross He suffered, from the curse to set me free. Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer, he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt, and made me free. I will tell the wondrous story, How my lost estate to save. In His boundless love and mercy, He the ransom freely gave. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer, With His blood He purchased me On the cross He sealed my pardon Begged the dead and made me free I will praise my dear Redeemer His triumphant power I'll tell. How the victory giveth over sin and death and hell. Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer. With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon, paid the debt, and made me free. I will sing of my Redeemer and His heavenly love to me. He from death to life hath brought me, Son of God, with Him to be. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer. With His blood He purchased me. On the cross, he sealed my pardon, paid the debt, and made me free. You may be seated, Pastor. And Alan has all authority to get on people for not singing. So have at it. And you know how violent he is. So you might want to think twice about not singing. So anyway, do what? Okay. This Wednesday night will be, have a regular church service Wednesday night. Sunday, I will not be here Sunday. Brother Claude Slade is going to be here all day. And I am so excited for you all that he's going to be here. He pastored One of the last churches he pastored was Colonial Baptist Church down in Rogers, Arkansas. Just a great man. It's going to be a real treat. I'm looking forward to that for you. I'm going to be at a wedding outside of Boston. The wedding is on Saturday, I guess it is. I will probably be at New England Baptist Church in a little town of Medford outside of Boston on Sunday, so I'll be praying for you all and I'm excited that he's going to be here. His daughter is coming with him and she plays the piano and so I'll have songs ready and all that stuff and he said she has played for us for years, so I'm happy about that, so that helps too. So anyway, we're praying about that. Pray for Brother Claude Slate. And he had retired because of a lot of just health issues. And he said now that he's been out of pastoring for some time, now for a little while, his health has really been restored and the Lord's really helped him that way. And so he enjoys getting to preach out. I'll be looking forward to listening to it later, so that'll be good. Actually, no, I'll be an hour ahead. I'll also probably be able to get most of it live streamed before I even go to church, so I'm gonna enjoy that too. And Mike is gonna move the camera around to show me everybody who's here, so. But I'm sure we got, I'm sure it'll be fine. Okay, I better stop. You know, there's times in our life when God calls us, and some people use the term, calls us. I know some people don't like that term and say, oh, God doesn't call us, you know, and blah, blah, blah. But obviously, Paul was happy that God called him, that God put him. He said, put me into the ministry. And obviously, there was a calling there. He told Ananias, you know, I've chosen him, right, to suffer many things for my namesake. And there's a calling there. I tell you what, I think you ought to have something somewhere in your past if you're going on any endeavor for God that you can put a stake in the ground. You know that this was what God wanted and I am responding to the will of God in obedience. Because there will be times when it will be really easy to walk away from that. Things get tough. And it's a blessing to look back at a day and a time when you said, no, I told the Lord yes, and I am confident, and He confirmed it by many different things. We say this, we know where we are. But there's times when God does bring us into areas of our life, it isn't always ministry, sometimes it's caring for somebody else. We were just talking about that this morning, how long that's been, and taking on things. God can call us into these things and place us into these situations where He wants us. And we can go out into these and we step out by faith and we say yes in so many ways. But then it seems like there can be a time when God kind of quits speaking. And you go, okay, well what's going on? What does this mean? What are you doing? Am I supposed to stay here? You know, I think that was the greatest, the biggest, uh, the biggest, uh, things that came up at Bible college era, uh, those years about the Bible college time is like, you'd hear it all the time. I got prayer requests in classes. I'm just trying to figure out the Lord's will if he still wants me here or not, you know? And oh boy, every, Every year you'd get those questions and stuff. And in great wisdom, Dr. Sewell said one time, well, don't forget, Abraham was called out and God didn't talk to him for, I don't know, 25 years. And so, or some, I forget the year mark, and he said, so no, if God called you here, just don't go anywhere. But we go through these things, and God does. God comes to a place when He moves us somewhere, brings us somewhere, that it can seem like He falls silent. I remember when God had really begun to deal with me in the call to preach, and I surrendered to that, I yielded to that call to preach. And I realized I needed to kind of get some different schooling. I knew that God wanted us at the church we were at, where we went, and the Bible Institute they had. I knew that God wanted me there. And it was in my mind and my thought process that, oh, hey, you know, I'm just going to brush up on some things. Boom, out I go. We'll be good, you know. Maybe a year or so and I'll be out of here. And I remember talking to my pastor and saying, well, what all do you want me to do? What do you want me to take? How much do you want me to do? Here's my transcripts. I mean, certainly I don't need much of anything, you know. And he eventually said, I want you to retake everything. And I said, well, he's my pastor, you know, I, you know, obviously, um, that it's God's authority in my life. And I said, okay. I mean, in all seriousness, okay. I don't know, but okay. And I'm so glad that we were there almost six years and things that I thought I knew that I didn't know and things that I still wish maybe right now I was coming. Sometimes you think maybe I should still be there because there's still things you don't know. But, um, But I was there for almost six years. We were there, we were staying, we were going through this training process, I guess you could call it. And during that time, God never directed me anywhere else, right? He never said, oh, okay, I'm done, I want you to go here, I want you to go to here. The only time when God began to deal again was when some friend down in Galena, called me and said, hey, would you be interested in an assistant pastor position at a church? And I said, not really. And I meant it. I mean, we were praying about starting a church somewhere. I don't want to be an assistant pastor in a church. And I said, of course, I gave the obligatory Christian reply, I'll pray about it. Right? And I did. I prayed about it. And I was given the pastor's phone number. And I called and we had a great conversation. And you know how it went. Here I am. I'm here. And that's been, that first phone call was over 8 years ago. Can you believe that Brother Bob? Over 8 years ago. Yes, yes. And so, but there was no direction any time. But all of that time while I was at our church, You know, you get to the time it's like God isn't like moving anywhere, it seems like. It seems like God is quiet. It seems like things are stagnant. I'm getting there watching my years of my age click up and up and up and going, I just feel like I'm spinning my wheels. Do you really want this? I mean, I knew what you call, I know what you call me to do. And I can, all of these things. And it's at times that you can go, you wonder what on earth is going on and you can wonder at times if God is aware of the situation that you are in. And this is really in the text where we are here in Genesis tonight. I said we're going to be in Ephesians and I'm sorry, I am stuck on something in Ephesians and I am not going there until I'm comfortable. But we'll get there one of these days and I'll tell you what it is sometime. But here we are back in Genesis. This passage has just really struck me. In Genesis, obviously we know what happened. God has called Noah to build an ark. God has called Noah to do something, to build something, to do something that has never had a need before. There's never been a need for an ark. I mean, it didn't rain. A mist came up from the ground. And I mean, maybe in some parts of the known world there was boats, but nothing like that, right? I mean, this thing was huge. And God has called Noah to this. And after Noah shuts, I'm sorry, after God shuts Noah into the ark, we don't hear from God for about five months. He's just floating on the waters. for five months. He has done what God has told him to do. And now our passage never says that Noah's concerned or fretting or anything else about God's next move, but God is silent from the time that Noah entered into the ark, really almost into, I said five months, but really almost to a year later where God told Noah to leave the ark. And even though God has been silent, there are markers throughout this time that not only illustrate what God is actively doing in Noah's life, but that he is completely aware of where he is and what is going on here. And I want to look at this real briefly tonight. In verses 13 and 14 of our text with that brother Jim read for us here, as I said, you know, the ark has been built, he's completed it, the people are getting on, the animals are getting on, people, just him and his family are getting on the ark. but they're getting on the ark. In verses 13 through 15, the Bible says, In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark. They and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, 2 and 2 of all flesh wherein is the breath of life." So here God has commanded Noah to build this ark. Noah has completed the ark, the specific dimensions, the specific materials, the specific elements. God was very detailed on how this thing was supposed to be built. One window, watch, one source of light. and one door, one point of access. I like that. And we know what this is referencing to. We know the typology that is going on here. And God gave Noah a timeframe, I guess you could say, 120 years. Now, some people have taken this and said, see, man can only live 120 years. But no, the point, what God was saying here was that they had 120 years. Noah was gonna preach for 120 years. and their days are going to be over if they hadn't responded to the preaching. And so God commanded then also what was to go on the ark, and we are well familiar with that. I know you all here tonight are well familiar with that, seven pair of clean animal, a pair of unclean animal, food for Noah and his family, and the animals. I mean, you think about that food bill. Could you imagine packing that all? I wonder if the Ark was about two square feet of living area and the rest was animals and food. There would be a lot of food for almost a year living. Now, they might have been fairly sedentary and didn't have to eat so much. Maybe they hibernated. I don't know. That'd be pretty cool. But anyway, God had prepared all of that. Noah had brought it all in. Watch. He did all that God had commanded him to do. Look at verse 5. Back up a little bit. And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. So we see here, number 1, complete obedience. Complete obedience. God had called Noah, and Noah did exactly what God had called him to do. And that was complete obedience. But in verse 16, we're going to see that once Noah and his family have entered the ark, he was going to be completely separated. So we have complete obedience, but secondly, we have complete separation. I'm not talking about secondary separation. I'm talking about separation issues of holiness and things like that. We're talking about complete separation, number one, from the outside world. But watch this. Really, number one, this is a great separation. He's separated from the wrath of God. This is a wonderful thing. Not only is he separated from the wicked culture because they have rejected the preaching of Noah, but he's separated from the wrath of God. Not only was Noah never, never going to get out of the ark and caught up in God's judgment, right? Because he's secure in the ark. But notice also, those that were being judged on the outside, right, were never going to get into the ark to defile God's salvation. they were never getting in. I'm telling you, Satan tried to defile God's salvation in the wilderness temptations and maybe in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was praying and maybe Satan was there as well with temptation. But when Jesus cried, it is finished, Satan had failed at his attempt to thwart Jesus from completing redemption. And because of this, watch, we will never show up in heaven someday and see some Christ rejecter there as well. Oh man, we are separated from that. we were separated from the wrath of God but we have been separated from the filthiness and the defilement of those who have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ Luke 16 26 remember this isn't really speaking about where we will be one of these days but we see this illustrated in Luke chapter 16 where it says and beside all this between us and you Abraham was telling the rich man between us Abraham and Lazarus, between us and you is a great gulf fixed, right, that we can't pass between the two of us. There is a separation here. Thankfully, the rich man couldn't crawl his way out of hell and get into paradise, and nobody in paradise was going to volunteer to go crawl into hell. There's a separation there. And you see what the separation creates here in the scenario here of Genesis 7. The separation really, watch this, it creates a place of complete security. Complete security. Right? We have complete obedience. We have complete separation. We have complete security. Somehow it came up with a lot of completes, but it worked. We'll see. Look at verse 16. And they that went in, went in, male and female, of all flesh, as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in. If you remember in verse 1 that God had told Noah to come into the ark, God had said, come. I like that. He said, come, not go. He didn't say, go in the ark. He said, come in the ark. Why? He was there. I love that. Absolutely. It is a typology of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's in this ark and watch, but how do you shut the door? There are some that say, maybe there's a mechanism they could have built in to draw it up from the inside. Well, that sounds nice, but how do you seal it up? How do you seal it up? I guess you could seal it from the inside. I know this though, verse 16, it says the Lord shut him in. God shut the door. God shut him in. And I like that. He called him in and he shut the door and he would have had to have sealed the door somehow as well. But watch this, Noah was absolutely, his family, those that had believed, were absolutely secure in the ark and what an awesome picture of salvation. What a great picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who is our ark. And we know this and we're familiar with this that it is God the Father who does the calling, John chapter 6. No man cometh unto me, Jesus said, except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is the Father who does the calling. It is the Father who does the calling. to one object, right? Who is He calling to? He called Noah into the ark, right? But He calls us into Jesus Christ. You know, He doesn't call us into the Catholic Church. He doesn't call us into Mormonism. He doesn't call us into Jehovah's Witnesses. He doesn't call us into Islam or anything like that. He calls us into the man, Christ Jesus. And because we know in Acts, it says, I even read it this morning, quoted it this morning, for neither is there salvation in any other. There's another name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. One of my favorite songs says, my faith is found a resting place, not in device nor creed. Right? I trust the ever living one, his wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. Oh man, I love that. We are called into the Lord Jesus Christ. And when one comes to the Father, placing their trust and faith in the finished work of Christ, watch, they are completely secure in Jesus Christ. We know this tonight. I don't know, maybe somebody's listening tonight and you can just bear with me for a little bit if you know this well. I do know this. I can hear truth over and over and over and over. It makes me happy, as happy the 400th time I've heard the truth as I did the first time. I love it. And listen, we are secure in Christ. John 10, 27, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life. I was just over at a church up in Ash Grove, helping out with some paint on their building, and we got talking around the table there, having some sandwiches, and somebody mentioned something about somebody they knew that didn't believe in eternal security. And one of the brothers there, an older gentleman, just a simple guy, he was a truck driver most of his life for associated grocers and he just said, well I don't know, real slow, I don't know. It says eternal life, I don't know what's so hard about that. It's eternal. Amen, it's that simple isn't it brother? It is eternal. What is eternality? It's not time without end, it's actually outside of time. God created time, right? We have life outside of time, no beginning and no end. He said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. How hard is that? They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. And I'll tell you what, Jesus is going on to say, and I and my Father, we're one. You're not getting to, hey, nobody's getting to us if you're in Christ tonight. Jesus is that ark, and if you are in Christ tonight, like Noah, you're gonna be secure in Christ till he calls us home. And I'm so thankful for that. There was complete obedience by Noah. That obedience brought about a complete separation from the wrath of God and from the world. And finally, that separation from the wrath of God brought complete security. But fourthly here, here's what I want to get at tonight. Verse 21 through 23. Look at this if you would. Let's read this. that all flesh died, that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beasts, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man." all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, and all that was in the dry land died. And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven. And they were destroyed from the earth, and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in The ark, look at the picture. Everything on the outside of the ark is dead. Everything on the inside of the ark is alive. If you're in Christ tonight, you're alive. You're alive. Amen. But you see this here? He's also completely alone. He's completely alone. Some of the loneliest times in life, are you listening? You know this. Some of the loneliest times in life, or when we have chosen the will of God and nobody has come along to go with us. So you go alone. There might have been a decision in your family when you said, no, we're doing this. And nobody in the family went along. Might have been a decision in your ministry when you said, no, we're going to have to go this way. And so many didn't want to go along. They said, no, I don't want to go along with that. It might have been a decision where you work or wherever it might be. Listen, it happens all the time. When we have chosen God's way, so often it can be a lonely way sometimes. And as the floods covered the earth here, There was nothing left that Noah would be able to recognize. Think of this, water as far as you could see. Covering the top mountain. I don't know if you've ever been out in the ocean beyond the sight of land. Where's Brother Chuck? He's somewhere. Getting out of those big ships in the Navy, you know, they get out in the ocean day upon day upon day upon day. Brother Earl, were you Navy? Yeah, were you on the ships? Yeah. Water as far as you can see. It's kind of lonely. Well, you might have been on a boat with about 5,000 guys, but you get out on these little boats and go past there. It's kind of interesting. It's a little bit intimidating. It's a little bit frightening. Boy, you get out there and that's a big place. Big place. Everybody Noah knew, everybody Noah had preached to was gone. They're all alone. They're in the ark alone. And this is the pattern in the life of a believer, you know that? You do know that. Many times when you come to Christ, you're separated from the old life. It seems like God brings you into a place of loneliness, where it seems like all we have is Him, but you know, no, this is a good, it really is a good thing, it is. Sometimes God does this. He brings the loneliest watch to teach us that He alone can satisfy us. He teaches us that we don't need anything else. He teaches us that only He can protect us. He teaches us that only He can be our security. He's teaching us something in those lonely times. And I can tell you there is a long line of God's servants who seemed completely alone. Abraham had left the Ur of the Chaldees and he left all of his family behind. And here it was just him and Sarah going out for a city, looking for a city whose builder and maker was God. Following God, Joseph was sold into Egypt and not one bit of family, not one resemblance, not one marker of his old life was with him there. in Egypt and was completely and totally alone. Moses had had to flee from Egypt, spent 40 years on the back side of the desert away from his family with this new family. Elijah, remember we saw this morning, told God, which wasn't true, but he said, I, even I am left alone. and nobody else is serving you like I am. And he felt alone, although he really wasn't, but he had that loneliness to him. It was Elisha who had destroyed all of his tools of his trade and burned them up and ate his tools. You remember the oxen, ate them and everything. There was nothing left. And he left his family to follow Elijah. It was Paul who was taken to the Arabian desert for three years. It was Jesus Christ himself who came, and listen, he came to his own, and his own received him not. They didn't want him. And he spent days alone praying. He spent 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. He had said that he had nowhere to lay his head. And when he came to Calvary, he came alone. No, the father led him to there, but there was a point when he had to walk away. And Abraham brought Isaac. You remember that? He brought Isaac. And the Bible says they two went up together. Abraham and Isaac went up together. Abraham brought the knife down upon Isaac. They were there together. But listen, there was a time, just like throughout the Old Testament, when the family would bring that lamb to the temple. They'd bring that lamb in the wilderness to the tabernacle. They'd bring that lamb in, and they'd bring it to the sheep. They walked them there, and maybe they were there when that little guy was born, and they were there as it got older, and they're so cute, and they run around. the kids make friends out of them and they name them and things like that. My brother had a cow that was his name that was not his name that he had named and he was so excited about it and till he wailed through supper one night when he realized they were eating it but it was his little pet it was his friend he was close to I mean animals had that way of worming their way or not really worming, but you know what I mean. They're way into your life and becoming a pet and here it was day after, year after year, they'd bring that little lamb to the priest and they'd bring it to him and they'd leave him there and they would walk away and as they walked away at some point the priest would take the knife and slit the throat of that little lamb, the blood would be taken out. and sprinkled. I'll tell you the loneliness of the Lord Jesus Christ when his father walked him up the hill of Calvary and left him there and walked away and he was crucified there and the blood was spilled. And God, listen, He knows that loneliness. The life of one who has surrendered to God can seem like a lonely life. A lonely life. I'm thankful it's not. But listen, friend, you gotta be You don't have to live very long to know that you go through spots of some great loneliness when you're walking with the Lord. I love what the psalmist said, what David said in the 139th Psalm, when he said, Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I take the wings, if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art with me. If I take the wings of the morning, he said, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. You can't get away from the presence of God. Amen. I'm so glad for that. And He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me that I am His own. And the joys we share as we tarry there are like no other has ever known. I'm thankful for that. Completely alone. But I want to show you verse 1. And God remembered Noah. God remembered Noah. Now it doesn't mean that guy went, oh God, yeah. Noah, where'd he go? Forgot about him. Oh, he's still on the phone. I hope they're not out of food. That's not what that means. God is ready to do the next part of his plan. He remembered Noah and every living thing and all the cattle that was with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters assuage. You see that? God remembered Noah. Can I tell you, no matter where you are in God's plan for your life, God is active. He is active in every aspect of what's going on. He's working. He's working. See, with Noah, God was in control of the rain that started and when it stopped. Right? I mean, when you have that type of rain coming 40 days and 40 nights, when you have the waters of the deep breaking up and coming up, I mean, only God can control that. That's just not happenstance. He was in control of that. He was in control when the fountains of the deep broke up, when the heavens opened and closed. God was in control of that when the wind began to blow and to aid in the drying out of the earth. He was in control of that. God was in control of where the ark came to a stop. And watch, not only was God aware of it all, but He was in control of it all, and He was active in every part of what was going on in Noah's life. Kind of reminds me of Philippians 1.6. I love these two words. Being confident. Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Noah was alone. Noah was completely alone. But God was completely aware. And He was completely active, bringing to pass in His life everything that He intended to do. Noah was called into the ministry. Boat building ministry. I'm surprised that's not a ministry out there yet. That'd be a good one. Run across the country and raise money to build boats. Maybe there is one out there. I don't live on the ocean. Maybe there's one out there. And even in his loneliness, God was active. So maybe you are at a place of life tonight. I don't know where you're at tonight. I know we're somewhere. I mean, I know you're in front of me. I know that. But in your life, I'm trying to, there's some things that, you know, there's a lot of things that go on in people's life that you'll never know. You'll never know. And I don't know where you are. Maybe there's an area of your life when you've stepped out to obey God. Maybe a little area of obedience that nobody even knows about between you and Him. And maybe tonight you're at a place where it just seems like He hasn't been directing for a while. It's like He's quiet. You're saying, Lord, how long? How long am I here? When's the next direction coming? I'd really like some new direction because this is getting old. I really like something else. Maybe you're staring down the future and from your vantage point it looks kind of bleak. Could you imagine, day after day, month after month, the rain has ceased and you're just floating. I mean it's one thing the rain's pouring and the road, I mean this is activity, you realize this is progress, but then the skies are clear and you're just floating along. I mean, just all the noise all day in and day out. Looks kind of bleak after a while. Maybe you're going through some valleys tonight nobody knows about and you just kind of feel alone. Let me just encourage you with this tonight. It's real simple. Trust Him. Oh, there's got to be more than that? No, there doesn't. There doesn't have to be. That didn't sound grammatically correct. There doesn't have to be. No, trust Him. Trust Him. Obey Him. Somebody should have wrote a song about that, right? Trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Why? Because God is aware. He is completely aware, He cares, and He absolutely has a purpose and a plan for what's going on in your life. So just go ahead and trust Him. Let the ark float. Let it float. Let it drift. It's gonna land right where He wants it to land, if you'll stay in His will. And at the right time, boy, that door's gonna open, you're gonna get out, and it's gonna be good. Yeah. I'm so thankful we serve a God who's aware I'm so thankful we serve a God that is so big that is not worried whether we realize He's aware or not. Whether He's, you know, some parents with their children, they're so worried that they don't, that they get misunderstood. Oh, oh no, this, you know, it's like. I'm so thankful God doesn't do that. Yeah. Because He's working in the background. Wherever you are tonight, would you just trust Him? Just trust Him. Father, thank you tonight. We are thankful tonight that we serve a God that is aware. When our life seems to just be listing about out in the waters and just rolling around and we don't understand what on earth is going on, where we'd love some direction, but it hasn't been coming. Father, may you help us tonight to trust you. To live a life of obedience. Just keep doing the next thing that you've told us to do already. Just keep doing the next thing. And trust you. We thank you for the way you work in our life. We thank you, Father, that every life in here you have a purpose in it. And you're working a work through every life. We just pray we allow you to do that. And not mess it up while you're trying to do what you want to do. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to stand tonight. The instrument's going to play. However, the Lord has spoken to you tonight. Maybe you just need to get alone with the Lord tonight and thank Him for the awareness He has in your life, for what He's doing, what's going on. However, the Lord has spoken to you. However, the Holy Spirit of God has spoken to you. You reply to Him. You respond to Him. Amen. All right. Well, I hope you all have a good week and we will be enjoy the heat and Or don't Drink lots of water Or send the house take an offering by Micah air-conditioning in his car something like that. I So he said he's enjoying it, so that's good. I said, man, you should have had a car from 30 years ago with the wing windows. Those things were great air conditioning, right? Those are the best. Well, we're going to close in a word of prayer. If you are able to stay, we have some Andes left over. You make some coffee or some decaf. There's decaf if you don't want regular coffee. And just hang out, like hair on a biscuit. Enjoy yourself. How's that? I have to teach some of these people what that means. So, yeah. Anyway, let's begin. Let's do a word of prayer tonight. Brother Allen, would you close us in a word of prayer? Father Lord, we're thankful for the time and the message that you've brought forth here tonight.