Welcome here to our morning service at Calvary Baptist Church in Thurman. And once again, welcome to those in tune with us all over our, to our website, all over the world. It's over a hundred countries right now. Lord bless. Please open your hand notes to number 409. 409, hold the fort. Because Jesus Christ is coming. Number 409. Hold my concrete, see the signal waving in the sky. Reinforcements now appearing, victory is nigh. Hold the fort, for I am coming, Jesus signals still. With the answer, back to heaven, by thy grace we will. See the mighty horse advancing, Satan leading on. Mighty men around us falling, courage almost gone. Hold the fort, for I am coming, Jesus ignores them. Weave the answer back to heaven By thy grace we will See the glorious banner waving Hear the trumpet blow In our leader's name we triumph Over every foe hold the fort for i am coming jesus signal still with the answer back to heaven by thy grace we will here's a long down bridges, but our help is near. Onward comes our great commander, cheer my concrete cheer. Hold the fort, for I am coming, Jesus, signal still. With the answer brought to heaven By thy grace we will Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful that there is a fort that's worth holding on to. We're thankful that we can be in the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth, that we can be in that solid place where we don't have to fear the wiles of the devil. And we're thankful that we can be equipped to stand for truth. We pray that thou would help us, that we would want to be equipped and be better equipped as we live out our days for those that are saved. Pray again for anyone that's listening that's not saved, that they might see that they are just a pawn that the devil can play with. They need to repent. They need to trust in thy son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for their salvation. We pray that many would do so in these days of grace. We pray for the nation of Israel and as they continue to try to provide safety for themselves by taking over Gaza, and the world is lying and suggesting that the people in Gaza are starving. We pray, Father, that many Jews would get saved in this time, as many of them probably don't know what to believe. We pray that they would want to know Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is their Messiah and Savior. We do pray for the Muslims there that they would get saved too, that they would see the emptiness of their belief in Allah. We ask that thy will be accomplished in Ukraine as well, and pray for that situation there, the Christians there, as well as in Russia, that the Christians would be faithful and encouraged in thee, and be able to help others to know thy peace and blessing as well. We do continue to pray for the fires that are still burning across this country. We pray for those that are involved in fighting those fires for safety, pray for their salvation, for those that are not saved. And we do pray for the people losing their houses and other things. We pray that their hope would turn to Thee for those that are saved, that they would be encouraged and comforted in Thee for the many that are lost, that they would see that this is just a small picture of what eternity is like for themselves. they don't trust in me for their salvation. So we thank you that we have opportunities to speak to people. We pray that we'd be faithful and obedient to thee and willing to do that. Help people to know thy peace and blessing and that I will be accomplished here in this service. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. And over to 469. 469, I've found a friend. Number 469. I found a friend, oh, such a friend He loved me ere I knew him He drew me with the cords of love And thus he bound me to him And round my heart still closely twined Those ties which that can sever For I am His and He is mine, forever and forever. I found a friend, oh such a friend He prayed, he died to save me I'm not alone, the gift of life But his own self he gave me Not that I have my own I call, I hold it for the giver. My heart, my strength, my life, my all are His and His forever. I found a friend, O sad suffering, All power to Him is given, To guard me on my own right course, And bring me to heaven. The eternal glory's gleam afar, To serve thy fainting endeavor, So now so watch, to work, to work, And then to rest forever. I found a friend, oh such a friend So kind and true and tender So wise a counselor and guide So mighty a defender And over to 479. 479, Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me, this I know For the Bible tells me so Little ones to Him belong They are weak, but He is strong Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me, he who died Heaven's gate to open wide He will wash away my sin Let his little child come in Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me, He will stay close outside me all the way. Thou hast played and died for me, I will henceforth live. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12, we're gonna be reading there from verses four through seven. We'll stand please for the reading of God's word. Luke chapter 12. beginning there at verse four. And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning that we can know that We have value in thy sight. Thankful that we have a God who sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for humanity. That we as people are worth enough that thy son was willing to leave heaven's glory to come to this earth and die on the cross of Calvary and shed his blood there so that we could be forgiven and saved. We realize the grief that, in part at least, we realize the grief that it is to thee to see so many of thy creation, people, dying and going to hell. And we pray that thou wouldst help those of us that are saved, that our love for others would grow, that we would desire to see people know the truth in these days of grace. And we pray for anyone listening today that is not saved, that they might understand that if they were to stop breathing to die right now, they would be in hell. I pray that that fact would shake them, that they would want to know thy forgiveness and thy peace in their heart. Pray for those that are saved, that we would be encouraged to grow in thee, to be a better light to the lost around us, that they could know thy peace and truth. May thy will be accomplished here. I pray for strength to be able to preach this message and that my health situation would not be a distraction, but that we can hear from thee and glorify thee, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to sit down today My voice grows a little bit weaker. It's because it is. My apologies. The title of the message this morning is The Lost Should Fear Hell. Fear is a good motivator. We do need to have fear in our lives on certain things. There are certain things that we as people should not do and we should be afraid of those things. There was a man years ago, he's dead now, his name was Evel Knievel, and he tried to conquer fear and he would do very foolish things with his motorcycles and ended up breaking just about every bone in his body and he was really quite a foolish man. There are many people, and probably every one of us, at least as adults, have done things in our lives that really were not very smart, but we thought we could try them. And some of us learned through that not to do such things. Others have not learned. But fear is a good motivator. But it is important for us to fear the right things. There are a lot of people, a lot of professing Christians that are afraid to talk to others about the Lord. In our society, most of my lifetime, probably all of my lifetime, we have been told there needs to be a separation between church and state. Well, the fact is that the world doesn't want separation of church and state, they want separation from God, period. And those of us that are saved need to understand that no state can function properly if God is not in charge. And that should be very obvious to everyone today in Canada. Canada is failing miserably. We have leaders in this country, federally, provincially, municipally, we have leaders who don't know how to govern. And they make promises, they lie to us, they know they're lying, and too many people are gullible and willing to believe those lies. If God is not in charge, you've got a mess. So in this passage, Jesus is speaking about something very important, and that is death. Where do we go when we die? And of course, the Amate family right now, they have just faced the death of the mother, grandmother. Sadly for some in that family, they don't know the Lord. They're Catholic. They don't know the Lord, and so they're believing the lies of their Catholic priest in that their mother, grandmother, is in purgatory at this time, and that it's up to them to pay money to the priest now to get her through purgatory. That is a lie. There is no purgatory. The Bible tells us that when a person dies, they go to one of two places immediately. Luke chapter 16 makes that very clear. The saved person, the Bible talks about Lazarus being carried by the angels to Abram's bosom. God has a special care for his children when they die. And Abram's bosom is not there now. When Jesus died on the cross, he delivered the saints out of there and brought them into heaven. But it was there at that time because Jesus had not yet died. He said in John 14, I go to prepare a place for you. He prepared that place when he went to the cross. He's not in heaven now building your mansion. It's there. But you, if you're saved, could not go there until he shed his blood for you. And that's true for every Old Testament, New Testament. The blood of Jesus Christ was required before heaven could be open to anyone. And so that is important to understand that the saved person, when he dies, immediately goes to heaven. The lost person, when he dies, immediately goes to hell. It's over. There's no in-between place. There's no place for you to have a second opportunity once you die. That's it. And that's something that you need to understand. But Jesus in this passage is encouraging those who are saved in verse four. So he says to them, there's no need to fear death. That's the first point. And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. So that's something that we need to be reminded of in Canada. We have governments in place that a few years ago threatened us quite strongly with regard to certain things regarding the Wuhan virus. They came out with a hockey stick graph that said that this virus is extremely deadly and we all need to take severe precautions so that we don't die ourselves and kill one another. And that was a lie. It was proven to be a lie. When the police came to our door here and we were not yielding to them. And when she talked to me, she said, you know that you could be charged with manslaughter if someone went to your church and got sick and died from this virus. Trying to scare us. But what else could she do? She could threaten me with manslaughter, but that's it. She couldn't touch my soul. She couldn't touch the soul of any one of the people in this building that was saved. We were safe. And yet many people, the majority of Canadians, lived in panic for a few years. Some of them still. See them driving around in their car with a mask on. Walking down the sidewalk with a mask on. Not thinking. Living in fear. And so Jesus addresses the people here as my friends. He cares about people. And he wants to be the friend of man. And he tells us here, be not afraid of them that can kill the body. Yes, someone can walk up to you. In Ontario, there's a woman shopping, 70-year-old shopping in a store, grocery store. A man walks up to her and stabs her. He didn't kill her. Why did he do that? Because she had a Star of David on her. She was a Jew. In BC, two people riding on a bus. I guess the bus was full because they're standing in the doorway of the bus. And the one guy asks the other guy, are you a Muslim? The guy says no. The other guy pulls out a big knife, starts stabbing the man. I guess the driver saw it, he opened the door and the guy being stabbed was able to push the other guy out, get him out of the bus. But that's the world we're living in. And so, yes, it's not safe anymore like it used to be. There are many wackos out there. But Jesus says, be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. So rather than being afraid to talk to the Muslim about the Lord or the JW or anyone, those of us that are saved need to understand what's the most they can do to us. They can kill us. That's all they can do. Now I know normally people don't want to die. We don't walk out in front of a train. We don't want to die and that's good. But we need to understand that when it comes to doing the work that God has called us to do, we don't need to be afraid of that person that has that frown on their face or even curses at us. We don't need to be afraid of them. We're not looking for trouble. We're not out there trying to taunt people to kill us, but we need to understand that lost humanity is very limited in what they can do to us. And that was something that God gave us opportunity to understand in a much greater way in the past few years. And I hope that there are many Christians that have learned that because we need to understand, we need to help our country to understand that it's the fear of God that they need to have in their life, not the fear of man. And when we allow man to dictate to us what we're going to do and when we can do it, we've got a big problem on our hands. And we have that in Canada, a big problem on our hands. And it's not getting any better. But for those of us that are saved, we need to pray. I mentioned that in one of the devotionals I sent out this week. We need to pray for boldness. In Ephesians chapter six, the Apostle Paul asked the people to pray for boldness for himself, and that's what we need. We need boldness to be willing to stand up and speak, help people to see where hope is found. There are so many people that are hopeless, and we have an opportunity to help them to see the importance of truth in their lives. So we don't need to fear those who can only kill our bodies. It's all they can do. We're not talking here again of foolishness. We're talking about in the context of helping people to know the truth. Jesus Christ came to this world to reveal himself as the Messiah. When he was born, the angels announced his birth to the shepherds. It was no secret. The wise men saw the star and they came, they followed that star and it brought them to where Jesus was at that time in a house. He wasn't in the stable at that time. He was in a house. When Jesus was baptized, it was announced that he is the son of God. In his ministry, he proved that he was different. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter seven. Matthew chapter seven. We look at verse 28. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings that people were astonished at his doctrine for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Jesus proved that he was different because of how he spoke. He didn't hem-haw around. I don't have much patience for a man who stands up and gets in the pulpit and starts apologizing for what he's going to say. You're in the pulpit because you have a job to do. You have a task to fulfill. It's more than just a job. And you need to speak with conviction. And so you're not up there trying to figure out, I wonder what these people believe. You need to know what you believe and then preach it and ask God to open hearts to receive the truth. That's the purpose of a preacher. And so get over that fear and stand up and say what you need to say. because there are people whose souls are depending upon the truth. And God raises up preachers. There are many men who call themselves preachers. They were not raised up by God, but God raises up preachers for the purpose of helping lost people to know the truth. And so we need to have that boldness and that conviction that the message that we have is important, more important than anything else. And then we need to preach it, not because it's us, but because of the message. And that's why the word of God is so important. The second thing that we see in this text is the fear of God is needed. The fear of God is needed. The Bible, I should do a search on that once, that how many times that phrase is found in the Bible, but that is something that we need to have is the fear of God. So it says in verse five, but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear. Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Now, again, I prayed for the Amatis already, but the Amatis lost, Ronnie lost his mother. And I heard that there was some talk after her death that she had waited for a particular family member to come before she died. And I've heard that many times from people who are on their deathbed. They waited for a certain person to come before they died. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says, but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. It's a number of years ago now that There are actually several instances I could look at, but there's a number of years ago now that I was, I went to the hospital because I was having pain in my jaw and in my left arm. And I assumed that I was having a heart attack. Turns out I was right. When I went to the hospital, after they did some testing on me, they put me on a bed. And when I was on that bed, they were going to give me a clot buster. I saw the doctor, he had a needle in his hand, and I saw him going to my leg and getting ready to put it into my leg. And that's the last thing I saw. My heart stopped. Was I dead? Obviously not. I'm still here. But my heart stopped. They had to get it going again. So obviously God said he's not done with me yet. He had something for me to learn, for those around me to learn, but I wasn't dead yet. Around two weeks ago, I passed out in our house. I didn't know my wife was calling to me and telling me to help her to get me up. I didn't hear a thing for who knows how long, but then eventually I heard her voice in the background coming louder. I could have died there. So the thing that we need to understand is that our breath is in God's hands. And when God says you've taken your last breath, doesn't matter if you're waiting for a family member, doesn't matter if you wanted to apologize to some person, doesn't matter. When God says you've taken your last breath, that's when it's over. And we need to understand that God is in charge. We talked about that in Sunday school, the word sovereignty. I told you that I'd like to use the word authority. But when God says that Walt Bartel is dying and is going to die at that very moment, it's over. And the same is true for every one of us listening to me today. You need to understand your life is in God's hands. And if you don't know him, you ought to be shaking in your boots right now. That's what Jesus said. He says here, fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. We need to take life much more seriously than what we often do. And I know for myself, I was 20 years old when I got saved. During those 20 years, God could have killed me at any time. I didn't think about that at that time, but he could have. And if he would have, I would have been in hell. And anyone listening today that is not saved, you need to understand that if you were to die right now, you would be in hell. There's no waiting game. There's no in-between place. And God has the power. People say, well, if God loves people, then why does he let them die a tragic death or whatever? God does love everyone. That's clear for God so loved the world. And he proved that by sending his son. His only begotten son to die on the cross of Calvary for your sin. So don't ever question the love of God. Learn to appreciate that love. And if you're listening and not saved, today is the day to get saved. Because you have no guarantee of tomorrow. You're a young person here today and you're not saved, you have no guarantee you're gonna get old, like your parents or your grandparents or someone else. You have no guarantee of that. Young people die. And so Jesus is very clearly warning us. Yes, he was speaking to a particular audience at that time, but this is God's word. It's God's word for eternity. And so he's warning us today and warning anyone who would be listening and not saved. Understand that God has the power to kill you. There might be someone standing near you with a gun. There might be someone with a knife. You might have cancer, whatever. But God has the power to kill you. And there are many accounts of people who have gone through quite interesting events in their life and survived. And there are others gone through the same thing and did not survive. So it's not up to the doctor. It's not up to you, it's up to God. How long are you going to live? And you don't know that, but God does. And he has a time for you. And it's up to you to take the time you have now. That's why the book of Hebrews several times today, if you will hear his voice, harden not yourself. That's the danger. is that people harden themselves. Every time you say no to God, you harden yourself a little bit more against hearing his voice. And you know what you're doing when you're saying no. You know the distractions that you are putting into your mind, what you're thinking about instead of listening to the Holy Spirit. You're trying to push him away. And if you keep doing that, it'll be too late one day. You're robbing yourself of blessings now, but it'll be too late one day when you take that last breath and you don't know the Lord as your Savior. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 8, the Apostle Paul wrote, we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. That's speaking to Christians. For the Christian, we want to live, but we're also praying for the Lord's return. We want him to come. We want to be in his presence. And the Apostle Paul was directed by God to tell us that he was confident. That's why the Apostle Paul could go and preach the gospel, be dragged outside the city and be stoned, and then go back into the city and encourage the believers there. Because he knew where he was going. And so he could preach the truth, he could face death, And he could continue on because he knew there was a time when God was gonna take him out of this world. 2 Timothy chapter four, the Apostle Paul was directed there to write to young Timothy and young Timothy needed to be encouraged to stand for the truth. And so in 2 Timothy chapter four, The Apostle Paul says to Timothy in verse five, but watch thou in all things and your afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. So the Apostle Paul is encouraging a younger man who is in the ministry, called to be a pastor, but he's encouraging him to make full proof of his ministry. Again, you can't do that if he's hiding, if he's apologizing for the truth. So Timothy needed to be bold, and then Paul talks about his own life, and he knew that his life was coming to the end. He didn't know the day, but he's a prisoner, and he's been in prison a few times already. He's hated by the Jews. The Roman government is ready to get rid of him. He's a nuisance. and so they're ready to get rid of him. But he knows that his life is in God's hand, and he's ready to go, and he knows that when he dies, there's a crown of righteousness awaiting him. So for the Christian, there's a hope, but for the lost person, there's gnashing of teeth, there's torment, that's awaiting you if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior. And so you need to understand, as the Catholics try to tell their people, you give us enough money, we'll pray for you and get you through purgatory and hopefully you'll get to heaven, but they have no guarantee of heaven. But you see, for the Christian, I'm not dependent on somebody else's prayers to get me into heaven. You shouldn't be either. And you aren't, if you're saved, you're not. We appreciate the prayers of others. We need the prayers of others, but not to get us into heaven. We have our confidence in the God who provided salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you're not saved, you don't have that confidence. You don't have that hope. And hell is your destination. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So what are you earning today? If you're here, if you're listening online, and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are earning your way to hell. And the Bible says in Revelation chapter 20, that at the great white throne judgment, the books will be opened and your works will be exposed. Because you're at that great white throne judgment because you're lost. You don't know Jesus Christ as your savior. He's your judge, you're facing him there at that great white throne judgment, but you are not his child. And so the books are opened and your works are exposed. How many times you rejected the work of the Holy Spirit to bring you to salvation. How many times you cursed God, you laughed at the truth, you mocked at it. It's all gonna be there, revealed for you to see so that you'll have no argument whatsoever with God saying, but you're not fair. I was only young. I had lots of time, I thought. No, you don't have lots of time. And that's important for parents to understand that as well. When that little child is given to you, you're holding a precious gift in your hands. But that little child needs to come to know the Lord. And we don't know how long that child will have. And that's why I encourage parents that even when that child is in your womb, read the Bible out loud to that child. They can hear. So you need to be saved. Read the Bible to that child. They can hear. Get them familiar with the voice of God so they can respond to that quickly. And then when that child is born, we need to learn as parents and grandparents not to set a bunch of distractions in front of our children, but give them opportunity to know the truth. Yes, they're children. And yes, they don't think as deeply as we as adults do. But children oftentimes are much smarter than we give them credit for. And those young minds, they can learn so much. and they can retain so much. But we can also clutter that young mind with so many things that are of no value that they can push aside that which is important. So we need to be careful in how we treat those young lives that God gives us to work with. And so Jesus warned here of the danger of ignoring what is most important in life, your destiny. Where are you going? And then the third thing that we see here is the value that God places on those that are saved. He says in verse six, are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? Now a farthing from what I understand is worth three-eighths of a cent. So we don't have pennies anymore. Biblical penny was different than our penny. But even if you take our penny and you divide that thing into eight pieces, then you take eight or three of those pieces of that penny, which again, we don't have a penny in Canada anymore. You can't go to the store and pay for anything with a penny. And when you go to the till, and if you owe them $2.02, they're going to charge you $2.00. If you owe them $2.03, they're going to charge you $2.05, because we don't have a penny. And so they're going to round it off to the nearest $0.05. But you take that penny and break it into eight pieces, three of those pieces, That's what a sparrow, in fact it says here five sparrows, five sparrows sold for two farthings. So a farthing is three-eighths of a cent, so two farthings would be six-eighths of a cent. So it's still not a penny. You can go and buy five sparrows in Bible times for that amount. Now sparrows, when I was a young person, I was taught that a sparrow was a nuisance bird. As a young person, I worked for my neighbor and he had chickens, and back then they didn't have steel grain bins like we have now, they had wooden bins. The bin that he had for his oats was an open bin. It had a top on it and had boards you could slide in depending how high the oats was in it. And so he would get a load of oats in and he would fill that bin and then he had big sheets of cardboard that we would put over the top of that bin because the sparrows, they knew where that bin was. And we needed to have access to that bin every day because we would scoop our pails of oats out of there to feed the chickens. And so he couldn't have it sealed up tight. So he had those sheets of cardboard across the top because they're easy to move around. But the sparrows, they knew where that oats was. And that barn was sitting full of sparrows. And anywhere where we didn't put that cardboard properly, the sparrows were there, eating that oats and pooping in there. And he kept his tractor in there, too. And it was an International Farmall 100. Most of you would say, what is that? But the Farmall was a nice, shiny red tractor. But that tractor was not nice and shiny red. It was gray because of all the poop from those sparrows on it. So sparrows, I learned, that's a nuisance bird. They just want to eat the grain. What good are they? But I've learned to appreciate the sparrow. They have a nice song. There are many different varieties of sparrows. They're a nice looking bird. They're not a nuisance bird. They have a right to live. And we just need to work with them and understand and appreciate God's creation. But even in the Bible, the sparrow was not a very valuable bird. And so Jesus says, are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? And not one of them is forgotten before God. So even though people, we as people look at a sparrow and say, well, yeah, let's get the BB gun out. Let's get the slingshot out. Let's get rid of them. God sees every one of those sparrows as having value. And he takes note of everyone because they're part of his creation. And he takes note of every sparrow. And then he says in verse seven, but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. I used to have quite a head of hair. I don't have that much anymore. I'm losing it. But God says here, Jesus says that every hair on my head was numbered, yours too. Every time you comb your hair, if you can get a comb through it yet, if you have enough there, you find some hair in that comb or that brush. God knows about every one of those hairs. What do you do with that hair? Do you save it? Not likely. You throw it away. But it says here that God has the hair on your head numbered. And that's not just you as a person, that's over eight billion people in the world right now. He's got all that hair numbered and he's not using a computer to keep track of it. But God is telling us something here important about us as people, about the value that he puts on man. And then we look at our world and we look at the numbers of babies are murdered before they ever have a chance to take a breath. And we call that baby in medical terms, we call that baby a fetus. That makes it easier to murder it because it's not really a person, so they think. And then we don't call it murder either, we call it an abortion. In the animal world, sometimes a cow will abort its calf. So we treat that human being the same way. Well, this is just a thing that, you know, it just didn't fit in there and it just slipped out. No, it was intentionally taken out of that safe place, the womb, tortured on the way out. And we are being trained that that baby has no value. And so I've told Christian nurses, I say, you know, yes, I understand that when you went to school, you were taught that's a fetus. But you should know better than that. You should be calling that a baby. Because that's what it is. It's a human being. It has value. God says it has value. And we as people need to change our attitude towards these things that we call so insignificant. And so God says, even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. So we need to have a proper outlook on life and the value of life. And we need to take that outlook from God's word and understand again the value of a soul. Jesus asked the question, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? That's one soul. And Jesus Christ, again, he came to this earth and he died on the cross of Calvary, not just for the eight billion plus people alive now, but for the billions that have lived. He came to this earth and was willing to lay down his life for mankind, and he did that. He shed his blood for mankind. And so again, for those of us that are saved, we should be excited. We should be rejoicing. You know, there's a lot of things we can complain about, but for those of us that are saved, we should be growing in our appreciation and our love for God. When we think about the fact that Jesus Christ was willing to leave heaven's glory and die on the cross of Calvary for our sins. Are we worth it? Really? God says we are, but not because of what we have done, but because of who he is. He created man. He took that dust in Genesis chapter two. It tells us he took the dust of the earth that he had made in the first place. He formed that dust into the shape of a man. Then he breathed into that dust the breath of life. And man became a living soul. He saw value in humanity, greater value than in the sparrows. He didn't breathe into their nostrils. He didn't breathe into the cow's nostrils, but he did into yours and mine. He breathed into man the breath of life and man became a living soul. Adam squandered that. He was careless. And he died spiritually. You and I are born spiritually dead. But we can have life, spiritual life, eternal life, if we will listen to God and turn to him in repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. So for those of us that are saved, we have been given value by God. We have been given eternal life. And so that ought to also help us, those of us that are saved, as we go through our daily lives, as we read God's word, as we see what God requires of us, Too often we look at life and say, well, it's optional. What the Bible says it's not. We ought to look at what God requires of us and we ought to realize how foolish it is when we argue against him and say, I'm not going to do that. I don't want to embarrass myself in front of other people. We ought to think a little more carefully about that. and realize the blessing we've been given and being given eternal life by this God who has every hair on our head numbered. And as we as Christians learn to walk in the fear of God, we can help lost people to see the value that there is in knowing God. And they need to see that. You need to see the importance of trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation. No one will have an excuse. No lost person will stand before the Lord and say, well, that person was a bad example, so that's why I'm not saved. That's a very bad argument to try to figure out. Don't even go there. You have all you need in order to be saved. Just trust in the Lord. And then you can start to help others to see the value of that gift of eternal life. But to sit in judgment of others, that's such a foolish thing to do. You show them. Show them the right way. But you can't do that if you're not saved. And so a very practical lesson Jesus has for us here on the value of life and the importance of taking the time that you have to know the truth, know the true God, know his forgiveness, and then help others to know the true God as well. No greater thing in life than to know the true God and then to be a vessel that he can use to help others to know him as well. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning for thy word, thankful for the challenge that Jesus gave in this passage, that our life, our very breath is in thy hand. And there's a moment in time for each one of us when we will be killed by the God who loves us. Our life will stop on this earth and it won't be our doing It's in thy hands. And I pray for each one that's listening to me today or will listen in the future, that each one would take and consider this carefully. Those that are listening and not saved, that they would realize it's time today to repent towards thee and trust in thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, alone for their salvation. That they'd not put it off any longer. Hell is real. they're headed there thankful for each one that is saved that we can thank thee that we have been given eternal life we didn't earn it we don't deserve it but we've been given that gift that's a precious gift but we've been given that gift so we can help others to also see the value of that gift so help us to desire to live for thee in a clean way, in a pure way, in a holy way, so that we can help others to know the peace of God in their hearts. We're thankful for this opportunity together. May thy will be accomplished in each person's life, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.