What a wonderful song. One day we're going home, and wicked as this place is, today would be a good day for an airlift. Amen. So you believe that? I'll tell you this, if I didn't believe it, I'd have quit a long time ago. Amen. If you don't really believe it, we're talking to the teen class today about trust and believing and courage and I said what is believing? What is really and of course they gave great answers and they knew exactly what believing or trusting was and I said how do you prove that you believe something? And they kind of looked, and I said, well, think about this. If you're on top of the building and the building was on fire and we told you to jump, we've got one of those airbags here. You got a choice to make. You can stand up on this roof, take a chance getting burned and die, or you can trust that someone knows what they're talking about and jump on that airbag and trust it's going to save you. That's your choices. You prove that you trust by doing something, right? And I think that sometimes we talk about how we trust the Lord, but then when we have to trust the Lord, we don't trust the Lord, right? And so if what he's saying about, right? Sometimes we're in a joyful mood and everything's going good and we want to praise the Lord. Because that's what singing is. It's a form of worship and praise. It should be. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's more about our flesh and what we like. People say, well, I like this kind of music because it ministers to me. Well, the primary purpose of music is worship to Him. Right? Now if the benefit to you is you get blessed off of it, great. But the primary thing is worship. And so if you can only sing when things are good, if you can only worship God when things are good, you'll never worship God. And I appreciate the good singing, appreciate you being here. I want you to turn to Romans 5, if you would with me. We want to look at the first five verses of Romans chapter 5. And hard to believe we are in the month of October, a couple more months left in this year. Now, people say all the time, well, you know, if 2024 was not a good year, you just got a couple months, it's 2025. Let me help you with something. Just because that thing clicks to January 1 doesn't mean anything's going to change if you don't change. Right? And so you better determine now that you want things to change in your life. And so we're looking at a couple more months in this particular year but I wouldn't wait I believe if I wasn't right with God I'd get right this morning I believe if I wasn't saved I believe before I walked out of here I'd get saved I'd know where I was going to spend eternity and if I had all against my brother I'd fix it today see we're in the last days of the last days and you can't look at this world and not think that Jesus is coming back If he comes today, there's no second chance to fix things. And so, when we get to Romans chapter 5, we actually need to go back a little bit, and I'm going to share this with you. Because here's the thing, when you study your Bible, understand that Romans is a letter, right? In other words, Paul didn't write it in chapter form, so it just keeps building. So if you go back to chapter 4, the Bible said in verse 21, being fully persuaded that he had promised, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. Well, that's a pretty basic element. If you don't believe what someone promises, they can do it, then you won't trust them. Right. I mean, half what I see on the political stuff, I don't trust any of them. Right. And I, I, I, it's been encouraging brother Ford to see, uh, folks, just regular folks getting involved and saying, we're going to take care of this problem. Cause I know this, uh, those, those birds that, uh, uh, politician ain't gonna fix nothing. So it goes on to say in verse 22, therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. So the word imputed really means that it was placed on him. So again, we go back here and we're talking about, uh, in chapter four, uh, Abraham. And so it says here that he, he was fully persuaded that what God promised he would perform. So remember the story. Not only did he leave his country, he took his son, took him on the altar and was going to sacrifice him because God promised that through his son would all the nations, there would be a multitude of people born, right? So he knew that God promised that this was the promised child. So he had to do something. And so the Bible said it was imputed. In other words, it was counted. His righteousness was counted in the fact that he believed what God said. way to go to the New Testament and the Bible said faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. So any way you look at it, it takes faith to be saved, it takes faith to please God. So it says In verse 24, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed, right? If we believe on him that raised up Jesus, our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. So here's what he's saying. He said, okay, this same God that promised Abraham is the same God that's promising us same God that raised up Jesus from the dead and because He imputed righteousness and justification on Abraham. He will also give it to us. Here's the problem. There's something we've got to do. In other words, everybody's not getting this justification. Everybody's not being saved. Everybody's not going to heaven. Right? So we come to verse 1 of chapter 5. The Bible said, therefore. When we see that word, we have to say, what's it there for? Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace. Notice the words there, being justified by what? Faith. We have access by what? Faith. Into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulation. There's a lot of people here this morning You're going through some tribulations, some trials, right? Those, those are normal, believe it or not. Those are normal. You're going through trials and things in your life. You're going to, well, according to the Bible, the Bible said not only so, but we glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation work of patience. And patience, experience, experience hope. And hope maketh not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. So I want to share with you this security of being saved. In other words, isn't it good to know that you can know that you're on your way to heaven this morning? There's some folks don't know that, right? They're trusting on their works or their baptism or their catechism or something they've done. But according to what the Bible said, and that's all I'm going on. I'm not arguing denominational stuff. I'm not arguing theological. I'm just going on what the Bible said. The Bible used the example of Abraham who trusted God to do what he said he would do. And the Bible said it was imputed on him righteousness. And so therefore, same today, Brother Barry, we have to trust what God said. That's not about how you feel or what you think. It's about what God said and whether or not you believe it. So, since salvation is based on the finished work of Jesus Christ, that's not a Baptist doctrine. See, I hate to even have to say this today, Brother Floyd, but we're at a place where you have to distinguish because there's so much division among God's people that you have to say, this is not a Baptist doctrine. It's not a Methodist, it's a Bible doctrine that the Bible says here that salvation is based on the finished work of Christ. It's not on Mary, it's on Jesus, right? So we're trusting on what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary for our salvation. Not my baptism, not shaking the hands of the preacher, not good outweighs. See, all those are lies. All those are words. My good outweighs my bad, I dress right, have the right haircut. None of that matters. What matters is, has there ever been a time in your life where you've asked Jesus Christ to be your Savior? So it's not intellectual, it's not emotional, it's not occupational It's based on what Christ did and the fact that God is satisfied with it Listen folks, you cannot do enough good to get to heaven We were talking about this in Sunday school. People say, you know, look at all the good people that are donating to this cause. No, listen to what I'm saying. The Bible said there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none good. No, what they're doing are good acts, right? Bad people can do good things, right? So it's not about the act. It's about the character inside. It's about what we're made up of. And the Bible said there is none righteous, no, not one. So I'm thankful for all, listen, we're all sinners. We're either saved sinners or we're lost sinners. not good and bad is saved and lost so there are people that listen their heartstrings are tugged and that's a good thing right and they've donated and they've helped but then then guess what Saturday night they're all carousing and committing they're committing sin and out drinking and part well you can't tell me you say well they're good because they gave to that so God's gonna look at them say well they gave to a They donated to a cause and so therefore he's going to let them in. No, no. You're forgetting this side. And that's the human nature. We're all that way, right? Your good will never outweigh your bad. If you're depending on good outweighing bad, you're sunk, friend. Because the Bible said we're already condemned. It's not one day God's going to weigh the scales. He's already weighed the scales and said that it is appointed unto man once to die. There is a judgment coming if you're not a Christian. You say, well, God is a mean God. No, no. See, you are already going there. God is a loving and gracious God because he's trying to rescue from going there. So it's based on what Christ did, not what we do or what we will do. Right? Listen, folks, that's what it's all about, Jesus. So two things he deals with in verse one and two, he deals with our standing. Now notice the difference here. He said, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith in this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So therefore, the Bible said in verse one, being justified, It's already happened. It's already been taken care of. That's past tense, hallelujah. That's what took place on the cross. When Jesus died as you and for you, he justified you in the sight of God. So today our standing does not change. Amen. If you're truly born again, you're always going to be born again. Now again, let me say this, time out. I ain't talking about some little shallow prayer you said when you were eight years old and nothing's ever changed. I'm talking about when you truly get born again, the Holy Spirit comes and resides in you and it changes who you are. I didn't say you never sinned, but may I say you're not the same as what you used to be. The Bible said, and such were some of you. It doesn't say such are some of you. So our number one is our standing and in that we see our acceptance with God. Now let me say this again, you're not accepted by God because of how good you are and you're not accepted by God because you got baptized or you got christened or you ate communion wafers or what? Listen, your acceptance with a thrice holy God is based on the justification and the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen. So because of the finished work of Christ, we can be sure of our standing with God. God isn't looking at me today saying, you know what, I think I'm going to let you in today because you're a preacher. No, He's not looking at you today and saying, I think I'm going to let you in today because you got dunked under the water. I'm going to let you in today because your good outweighs your bad. No, no. See, He's looking on the hand. He's looking on the handprints of the Lord Jesus Christ and he's looking over on that mercy seat and seeing the blood of Jesus and saying, you're accepted this morning, friend, because of what he did 2,000 years ago. You're accepted because Jesus is accepted of the Father. See, we're justified. Our sins are gone. See, we make so much, friend, and I've said this, we make so much of the forgiveness of God. That's all we talk about, Brother RJ. Well, he's forgiven us of our sins. Great. But see, you can forgive somebody and they're still guilty. Brother Bart, if I offend you and you say, you know what? I forgive you. Thank God you restored the fellowship, but I still did what you said I did. Right? If by chance I owe something for the sin I commit or the crime I commit, the fact that the judge says, well, it's forgiven does not mean I'm still not guilty of that very thing. But to be justified means that my record has been erased. Forgiven means the punishment has not been given to me, right? Justified means it's gone. Hallelujah. I want to tell you something this morning. Listen to me. You can have some peace with God if you'll realize that God has chosen not to bring your sin back up. Amen. The devil will. He's the accuser of the brethren. Your flesh will. Your mind will. But may I say, when God deals with your sin, He does all things well. He doesn't do it 90%, 95%. When He saved you and justified you, He said, I choose not to remember that anymore. It's behind me. Amen. Wouldn't God, we'd get like that towards each other once in a while. Amen. You offended me. I'm sorry. Sounds good. Let's move on. Amen. Instead of, well, I don't think they were serious enough when they apologized. See, part of the problem we have in this world, everybody thinks they know what somebody else is thinking. So we have peace with God, we're justified, our sins are gone. Listen, they're washed away. God took that blood, man, he's like, come here boy, let me deal with that sin. He didn't cover it, hallelujah, he washed it away. And so he has something the world can't give, and so therefore, if he gave it, the world can't take it away. You can have peace. Listen, I know it's kind of an oxymoron and kind of anti our mindset, but you can have peace with God amidst the storm. But you don't know what you're talking about, preacher. Yeah, I do. Yeah. So I'm accepted. Brother Jude, I've been invited into royalty. Hallelujah. Man, I feel royal today, don't you? Amen? I mean, listen, if you were really a child of a king Brother Marty, if you were born into the royal family of England or whatever They would train you up to act a certain way. They would train you up. You would have access to things that no one else would have access to. Can we agree with that? Well, may I say when you got born again, when you got saved, when you asked Jesus to be your Savior, may I say He brought you into the family of God, He brought you into the family of the King of kings and Lord of lords, and you've got access to stuff the King of England doesn't have. So stop living below your privilege. Stop living like a pauper. Stop living like a nobody. And realize you're a child of God, a child of the King. And even though you go through some trials, you've got a God in heaven that loves you. You've got a God in heaven that wants to save you, that wants to take care of you. And all the graces of God are accessible to you and you're accepted in the Beloved. So we have an acceptance of God and then we have access. So in verse one, we're justified by faith. We have peace with God notices through our Lord Jesus Christ. There's your acceptance. But verse two gives us our access. He says by whom also we have access by faith. So our justification is by faith. Listen, you've never laid your eyes on Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought about that? Do you realize if you're not operating in the faith realm, what we're doing today is absolutely ludicrous. You see what I'm saying? This doesn't make any sense. Listen, if you just came here today because you're feeling bad about yourself and you wanted to... See, that's the problem, Brother Shane. Most of what we're doing among Christianity, we're trying to put Band-Aids on people's problems so they'll come to church and feel better when they walk out. We'll give them some speech or some pep talk that's not spiritual, that's not biblical. It's some TED talk and they walk out and go, whew, I feel better. And then they walk out there and they face the devil and they face all of hell and they face everything this world throws at them and they're right back in the same boat. And it's a pop culture Christianity that has absolutely no teeth and no meat. Praise God. And it's up and down, back and forth, in and out. Every time the wind blows a certain way, we're going that way. I'm saying that when you realize that you're accepted in the beloved and that we have access, we're accepted and we have access and both of them are by faith. You can't please God without faith. You can't be saved without faith. You cannot have the blessings and promises of God without faith. So if you're not operating in faith this morning, may I say, stop looking and operate by what you see and start operating by what the Word of God says. And by the way, may I say this, that years ago, everybody thought we were a bunch of kooks and quacks because we believed this book. And now, prophetically, everything this book says would come to pass is starting to come to pass. Amen. You don't understand all the kings of the east and the bear of the north and all that. Well, let me tell you exactly what's happening right now. Israel, they all want to blow up Israel. They hate the Jew. They always have hated the Jews. Iran's launching missiles in on them. Now you see Russia and China who have not typically been on the same side. They're locking up together. They're providing all this money, all this weaponry, all three of them, North Korea the same thing and they're all going after Israel. And we got a bunch of jack legs in Washington that what they ought to do is get them a Bible and realize that if we don't stand on the side of Israel we're done. We're done. Right? And so you look at, and by the way I talked to Jay Ross this week He's our missionary. He's my friend. He lives in Israel. I said, brother, I was thinking about you today. That's when they launched those 200 ballistic missiles in on Israel. I said, brother, I was thinking about you today. I want to call and see how you're doing. He said, we're fine. I said, OK. He said, it's only 200 missiles. We ain't worried about that. I thought. It's only 200 missiles, we're not really that worried about that. I thought, how comfortable are we here? Right? I'll tell you what man, that blew my mind. I got off the phone with him and I'm thinking, this guy's crazy. But it's a way of life. See, we have access through faith. What's that mean? We have the enjoyment of His grace. His grace is His unmerited favor. Listen, it may not be that you've always got a lot of money in your bank account, but you can enjoy the grace of God. You may not always have great health, but you can enjoy the grace of God. Anything God gives you is His grace. You don't have a million dollars? Praise God you've got food in the cupboard. Like I said, all you've got to do is look at some other people in this world and you'll realize that where you are A lot of people love to have what you got. Hey, there's a lot of people in those mountains right now. They'd like to be in church this morning. They'd like to be in air condition. They'd like to be in a padded pew somewhere, praise God. You know what they're doing? Trying to find food. Trying to find loved ones that swept off by the river. I don't want to hear no complaining, praise God. What you got, you ought to thank God for. See, we have access to the grace of God by faith. Now we're His children. Where's children? My children have access, much as I'll let them have, right, to everything I got. There'll be one day, you know, me and Miss Ellen will be gone and everything we've ever had is gonna be, I don't know if I'm gonna give it to them or not. Miss Vine, now I got a grandbaby, I got a grandbaby and gonna have some more coming. I know I'm probably gonna have 15, 20 grandchildren. I might just pass it on down to them. They might need it, amen. But he invites us into his presence, right? We have access to him. I can go to him right now. He's my daddy. I can go to him right now. I can get on that altar, bow my head and say, Daddy, I need to talk to you about something. Our standing. We have standing with a thrice holy God because of the finished work of Christ. And then number two is our state. Look at verse three. Standing and state are two different things. The Bible said not only so, so he said not only do you have that, so I'm secure in my standing with God. That ain't changing. Right? I'm as saved as I'm ever going to be. Hallelujah. I'm as good as in heaven when it's my standing. It's settled. My name's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. But now he deals with where we're living at. He said not only so, but we glory in tribulation. Well, you can't glory in tribulation if you don't know your standing. Knowing that tribulation work of patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. And notice, you better pay attention there, because he says here, we glory in tribulation. Automatically, you're saying, can't do that, preacher. Knowing, well, how do you know? Because his word says it. You won't feel that, you will not feel that tribulation works patience. Right? That's why you can't operate by feeling. You won't, none of this makes sense to our emotion. So he says this, he said, we glory in tribulation knowing. Well, how do you know something? It's in your intellect, it's in your being. It's not in your emotion. You don't know things by emotion, you know things by faith, right? But John, I don't always feel saved. There's times I'll sin, brother Eddie, and I'll go, that was stupid. And the devil will say, if you had saved, you wouldn't have done that. Well I gotta go back to the Word of God. There's sometimes I gotta go back to the Word of God and say I'm saved because of this. Right? Not how I feel. So there's times I go through tribulation and I'm going there's no way this makes sense. In my emotion there's no way any of this makes sense because I don't, watch this, I don't feel. Right? Everything in this world now is about how you feel. I don't feel saved. I don't feel loved. I don't feel like you respect me. I don't feel... You better quit operating on... I'm glad we got emotions, but you can't operate off emotions. Your emotions can be wrong. Right? They can. Patience, experience, experience, hope. So, knowing that tribulation works patience, patience, experience, experience, hope. And, right? Hope maketh not ashamed. Well, look what he tells us. Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Well, how's that? By the Holy Ghost, which is given unto you. So God's saying, listen, here's my seal of love to you. I'm giving you the Holy Spirit of God. Right? So what does that mean? our state is in verse 3 it tells us how maturity is displayed you display maturity by glory and tribulation right the cross and the crown go together grief and glory go together right the glory and tribulation is a real sign of maturity you won't do that your flesh that take the Holy Spirit working through you and that's maturity right then It tells us how maturity is developed in verses 3 to 5. Well, how is it developed? Well, according to verse 3, we glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation, what? Worketh patience. It worketh patience. It didn't say you automatically had patience. It works it out, right? Because when you're in tribulation, I'll give you an example. Right? Let's say, let's say you go to the doctor and you have a PET scan done. Now you do realize if you've ever had a test with the doctor and they'll call it, they'll say, listen, you know, you might have cancer. We're going to run some tests. And you're nervous as a cat in a rocking chair factory and you go sit and they run that stuff to you and they do a PET scan. And then by the time you get home, they've already called you and told you the results, haven't they? No, they haven't. Well, we'll call you next week, right? I wish it was that way, brother. We'll call you next week. And you're going, huh? You're telling me I might have something that could take my life, but it's not an urgency to you. It's a big deal to me. Right? And you know what you got to do? Got to wait. You call up every day. You can let the nurse have it. You can give her a good Christian cousin if you want to. But you ain't getting those results. Right? Then you'll put them up on my chart. You're on a bit more than a month, you know what any of that stuff means. And then they might call you a few days later and say, you're good. You know what you had to learn to do? Wait. It may not be. And see, here's the thing. That waiting, with some people, they go through stuff and they're like, not that big a deal. Other people, it destroys their whole mind. People say, it's not a big deal. It'll be all right. Well, it might be for you, but not for me. So maturity is developed by us waiting, by us learning, by us trusting, right? I realize this. years ago. Many of you did not know me then. I was sick for six months. I mean, I'd preach Monday morning. Bro Johnny, I felt like I had the flu for six months. That was my life. Monday I was sick all the way up till Saturday. I'd try to muster up enough strength to go to preach at church on Sunday. Monday was the same thing. Then I started having pains in my chest. Not like heart, but like a sharp pain in my lung right there. I went to the doctor, they did x-rays and said, you got a spot there. I said, okay, what's that? He said, this is what I love too. Well, we don't know, it could be an infection, could be cancer. Well, that's a big spectrum, right? Maybe you can say we don't know, not, hey, could be an infection. So, through the next few months, had all these tests run, you know, they figured out. And if I have anything ever, it's something crazy nobody's ever heard of. I have, and I guess I still got it. I don't guess it's healed. It's called sarcoidosis. You say, what is that? I have no idea. I asked him, I said, how do you get it? We don't know. What is it? Some kind of infection. What do I need to do? Well, we don't know. Right? But I was having all these tests run, you know, and to know it could be some kind of infection or could it be cancer. You better learn to wait. I had to learn to wait. Some of you, you've had to learn to wait. Tribulation works patience, it works waiting. And the waiting is, you realize you can't do anything about it and you're going to have to rely on God. and God gives you the comfort of the Holy Spirit to help you with those things that's how maturity is developed you can't just wake up and say I'm going to have maturity you've got to go through some stuff to have that maturity developed in your life and every day we experience something that has the potential to mature us it could also destroy us so in those experiences we develop patience well then finally in verse 5 he tells us how maturity is determined Now, I'd say this. If I asked you, if I asked for a show of hands, I know we'd lie. If I asked you to show of hands and said, how many of you in this auditorium, if I asked you if you are mature, how many of you would say, don't raise your hand? I don't want to make liars out of people. But I'd say, how many of you are mature? Everybody go, well, I don't want anybody to think I'm immature. Right? Well, who gets to define that? Right? Well, I have to let God define for me what maturity looks like. And that's what he's doing here because in our life, this is the whole state of our being. This is how we prove that we are who we say we are. Listen, it should be pretty easy if you say you're a Christian to be a Christian in here. At least a couple hours a week we come in, best behavior, act like, love Jesus. But it's out there where you prove it. And that maturity in Christ has to be developed. And when it's displayed, he tells us how it's displayed, we glory in tribulation. But then he goes on to tell us how that comes about, how it's developed. Well, we have tribulation, then we have patience, patient experience. Well then, in verse 5, he said, hope maketh us not ashamed. Because, here's the because, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Here's how he determines our maturity. One of God's purposes is to give full assurance to each believer. He wants you to have assurance. He wants you to know you're standing with God. He wants you to know that you have access to God. He wants you to know that God loves you and that he'll take care of you. Well, how does he do that? The agent he uses is not the preacher. The agent he uses is not other Christians. The agent that he uses is the Holy Spirit. Think about this. When you get saved, God literally, I hate that word, literally puts His Spirit in you. It's not a figurative thing. If you're truly born again, you have the very Spirit of God living in you. That's the assurance He gives you. So when I don't feel like I'm mature, when I don't feel like I can have patience, when I don't feel like I can endure, there's something inside of me. If I'm controlled by the Spirit, There's the problem. You've got to surrender, submit yourself to the Spirit of God. Let Him have control. Now all of a sudden, those things that I... Listen, there's no way Paul could have done what he did without the Spirit of God. So the agent is the Holy Spirit and another of God's purposes is to make us into the image of Christ. He wants us to be like Christ and look like Christ and act like Christ and the way he does that is through tribulation. You don't grow and mature. Listen, everything that grows or gets stronger there has to be resistance. Right? I mean, you lift weights. You say, I'm going to lift weights. Good. You do curls, and you've got 10 pounds. Man, I can do 100 of these. I ain't doing you no good. Do 20. I can do 50 of these. OK, we'll do 30. Right? But it ought to be where at some point in time, that last year, you're going, right? And then if you, if you can do, let's say you got 50 pounds and you can do 50 pounds 10 times and the next time you need to do one or two things. You need to do, you know, if you can do 50 pounds 10 times, you need to try to do it 11 or 12 times or add more weight. What are you trying to say? You need more resistance. If things are too easy, you need more resistance. Why? Because muscles get stronger. When you lift, they tear. And then when they grow back, they're stronger. But if you keep doing the same thing, you know, I can do five pounds. I don't want to get too tired. All right, that's all good. You didn't do anything. Same thing spiritually. If you want to get stronger, there's got to be some resistance in your life. An easy Christian life, number one, doesn't happen. Number two, you don't become more like Christ until you have some resistance. And that's where a lot of Christians are. They're afraid to face any trials, so they're closet Christians. So God's saying, listen, I'm going to determine your maturity by how you deal with tribulation. Listen, probably a better indication, Brother Foy, of someone being controlled by the Spirit of God is not how much they shout, but how much joy they have in tribulation. I'll close with this. How mature are you? I'm very mature for my age. Right? I feel like I'm a mature Christian. But what are you basing that on? Most of the time we base it on someone who is not a mature Christian. Right? I mean, I came to church today. Good. But that's not Christianity. In other words, how closely do you resemble Christ? Well, the only way to more closely resemble Him is tribulation. If you're here today, you've never trusted Him as your Savior. You need to be accepted in the Beloved, right? If you're here today and you're a Christian, you say, I'm 100% sure. Now, listen, this is not just a fly by the seat of your pants type thing. It's not just a passing. Here's what you need to do this morning, because I see some of you going, all right, preacher, it's closing time, right? You better be sure. Yes, sir. Come on. Tell it, Pastor. You better be sure. I was telling brother Chad, I did his mom's funeral a couple weeks ago. I said, man, you have set off a flurry. You know how many funerals we've been a part of in the last couple weeks? Four, I think. Then brother Jerry passed away. That's five. That's five people. Just a couple weeks. Every day, you look up the mountains. You think, listen. You think people in the mountains thought they were going to get hit by flooding, by a hurricane? You don't live in the mountains and expect a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico to flood you out. Am I right? They don't have no flood insurance up there. You know why? Because they don't expect to be flooded. You think when they went to bed Thursday night and they said, storms coming up through here, you think they were like, Well, our whole world's not going to be the same after that. No, they went to bed and thought, all right, we're in the mountains. You better be sure. Better be sure this morning. You're not promised tomorrow. You're not promised a week. Better be sure that you're accepted in the beloved. Here's the other thing. If you are saved, Why is it when tribulation comes you're so blindsided by it? Over and over and over he tells you it's coming. I can't believe it. It's coming. We're wanting this thing of serving Christ to be smooth and easy. Doesn't happen. Every situation you go through, There's two roads. There's one that you can use that situation to honor God. And there's another road that brings reproach on the name of Christ. Everyone. See, the world tell you when you go through tribulation, Brother Dennis, they'll say, well, listen, you're just human. I mean, We had to have sympathy for that because you're just human and so therefore anybody going through that would react that way. There's the problem. We're not just human. We're supposed to be controlled by the very spirit of a holy God. We're to live above that. We're to be different. We're to react differently. Right? There's a security of salvation. here's here's here's what our our standing with God is secure our state of living is ever-changing you got term this morning if you know him as your savior you can live with the security of knowing you're going to heaven but the state of the way you live is tribulation the Holy Spirit's trying to refine your character like Jesus Christ in all those things. I want you to stand with me this morning. I want you to be honest. No one's looking around, heads are bowed, eyes are closed. I want you to be honest and ask yourself two things. Number one, no one's looking around, every head's bowed. If I died today, this moment, if I never made it out of this Sunday I drew my last breath. Do I know for sure I'd go to heaven? Do you know for sure? I'm not asking if you're a good person, if you've done good things or bad things. I'm saying, do you know for sure where you'd spend eternity? If you don't, here's what I want you to do. By an uplifted hand, I want you to say, preacher, will you pray for me this morning? It won't save you, but I'd like to pray for you. Would you do it? I don't know for sure, preacher. Would you pray for me this morning? Is there one? Put your hand up, put it right back down. Is there one? I don't know I'd go to heaven. Thank you. Is there another? Thank you. Is there another? Thank you. Is there another? Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Just be honest. We're not trying to embarrass you. Thank you. Is there another? Not embarrassing you, just want to pray for you. Let me ask you another question. You that didn't raise your hand, you know for sure you're going to heaven. Praise God for that. How's your walk with God? How's your walk with God? All good. I loved you. Let me ask you this. All these people raised their hand. Praise God for that. I would think if we were burdened for souls, we'd be on this altar praying for them. I think we would. That's how important this is. Father, I want to thank you for every single precious soul that was honest enough to slip their hand up and say, Preacher, I don't know for sure. God, that took so much courage. Now in the stillness of this time with people praying for them, will you show them in their heart that you love them and that you want to save them? Would you give them enough courage maybe to step out of their seat just so we could take the Bible and show them how they can know they're on their way to heaven. I've never embarrassed them for a million years, Father, but they want to know. They were honest. There may be some that didn't raise their hand, but in their heart, they're not sure where they'd spend eternity. In this time, give them confidence to come out. Father, thank you. Let's keep our heads bowed, eyes closed. If you slipped your hand up or you didn't, again, I won't come to you. I'll not ever embarrass you, but there are people that have their Bible that would love to take it and show you this morning how you can know you're on your way to heaven. But see, you've got to make the step. You've got to step out and say, I want to know. Step out of your seat. And they'll just take you somewhere and show you from the Bible how you can be saved. Would you come? Just right now, would you come? Too important not to come. you come you did a great courageous thing raise your hand now second thing I'm gonna ask you will you come it's hard I know will you come just step out of your seat every person here that saved has been where you're at I stood right there the pew I white knuckled it I until I realize if I don't go right now, if I don't go now, I may not ever have another chance. Today's the day of salvation. That's what your Bible says. Today's the day of salvation. Will you come? Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord.