And I want you to know it's my joy to be with you. And all summer, I hate what you call a summer cold. I picked it up right before, it was last Saturday, Saturday a week ago. And right before I was getting ready to come this way and I told the Lord, I said, Lord, I just, you know, coming over, I thought, boy, I don't want to deal with that. But the more I've, as times went on, it's got less and less. So you're hearing the remnants of it rather than the reality of it. And so I trust you'll have enough trouble dealing with my Appalachian Southern dialect of English. But with the cold, it probably doesn't help it any, but I trust that somewhere through there that the Lord will speak to your heart and give you something from the Bible that'll make a difference in your own personal life. And I'm delighted to be with Pastor Stagner. And our paths crossed a number of years ago through mutual friends and also through help ministries God's allowed our hearts to knit together, become dear friends, and I'm excited about what God's given him to do here, and about what God's doing in South Wales. It's a blessing. I've always wanted to come to Wales, and so finally, that's become a reality in my life, and I'm grateful for that, grateful to the Lord's blessing, and allowing me to enjoy the countryside, and hopefully before it's over with, I'll get to see a castle or two, and so that'll be exciting. Well, there was a, turn your Bibles if you would to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. There was a fellow who came home from church and he told his wife, he said, that's it. He said, I'm never going back to church again. I'm not going to that church again. And she said, Oh yes, you are. And he said, Oh no, I'm not. I'm not going back to that church again. I'll give you three reasons why I'm not going back. He said, number one, nobody speaks to me. He said, number two, everybody there hates me. And number three, I have absolutely no friends at church. The wife looked at him sternly and said, now I'm going to give you three reasons why you are going back to that church. She said, first of all, you promised me when we were married that you would always attend church. Second, you need to set an example for our children. And I'm going to give you the third reason you're going back, you're the pastor. Anyway, there's times that maybe even the pastor has a difficult time. But you know, there's no place, I believe, on earth more important to God and to us than a place like Sarin Chapel. Independent Baptist Church. Churches like this local body of believers all around the world. Can I tell you this is where God has chosen to set his name. This is where God has chosen to make a difference. This is where God has chosen to send a light. And we live in a day in which people in order to try to to fill up a place or seeking to reinvent how you do church, or they're seeking to redefine what a church is, or to come up with some novel idea that's different than what God had ever intended. And can I tell you, the church doesn't need to be reinvented, it doesn't need to be redefined. I believe that that Jesus instituted just needs to be revived in our lives, and in our day in which we live. I don't believe you can improve upon it. As a matter of fact, if we move away from what the Lord instituted, He doesn't have a plan B. He has one plan and this is it. And I trust you'll look at Matthew chapter 16 and we'll begin reading this morning in verse number 13. Matthew chapter 16. And verse number 13, this was not the message I'd planned. Matter of fact, I was writing down from memory the outline this morning as God impressed upon my heart this message. And so, as you're praying about what the Lord would have you to do when you're traveling, I can't bring my whole library and everything I have with me, so I began to pull out some messages or sermons that impact my life, and I think, well, I'll take that one and that one. And inevitably, whenever I get to wherever I'm going, the Lord said, I didn't want any of those, here's what I want you to do. And so look, if you would, verse 13. When Jesus came to the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he's in the northern area of the land of Palestine or Canaan, as we would understand it. He's there, and actually this is a resort town. He's actually going there for rest. He's getting away from the crowds. It's a time of instruction. He asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I, the son of man, am? What a wonderful question. And they said, Some say thou art John the Baptist, some say Elias or Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Two of the most important questions that you and I will ever be asked and that we'll ever give an answer to. The first one, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? A question, and they began to give the prevalent answers of the day, what they were hearing among the crowds, what the reports were among the peoples. And some say you're John the Baptist who's risen from the dead. Others believe you're Elijah or Jeremiah, Elijah, because evidently our Lord was a fiery preacher. Jeremiah, because he was a weeping preacher, and they reflected one of the prophets. But he says this question, but whom do you say that I am? He said, you know, it's really not all that important what they think. What's really important is what you believe. What do you understand about me? And Peter answers the question, verse 16, And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Now we could add within that what I believe he meant. You are the hope of Israel. You're the Savior of the world. You're the King of our nation. All of that is encapsulated in the answer that Peter gives. But none of those are greater than the latter part, the Son of the living God. The fact that He's Messiah, that He's Savior, that He's King of... of the nation of Israel, and we know King of kings and Lord of lords is predicated upon the fact of who He is, His very nature, that He's the Son of the living God. He is God Himself who became man. And can I say that, you say, Preacher, what difference does it make what I give in answer to that question? The difference is in the fact of where I spend eternity. Do you realize my eternal destiny is is predicated upon the fact of who I understand Jesus Christ to be and my response to Him as a human being. To understand that He's not just a good man. He's not just a revolutionary. He's not just a great teacher that came with some great ideals that turned and changed the face of the world, but sadly He was crucified. No, it was greater than that. He's God Himself who became man. He's God and man, lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, rose again from the dead. He's the Son of the Living God, the Savior of mankind. It was a divine revelation given to Peter. He professes the person of Christ. And can I tell you, the greatest decision that you and I will ever make in our lives is what you and I do with the Lord Jesus Christ. Our decision to either accept Him, to receive Him by faith, or reject Him. And listen, I trust that you've made the decision to receive Him no greater decision you'll ever make in your life. Notice verse 17, And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah, son of Jonah. Jonah means dove. For flesh and blood is not revealed unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter. And upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I want you to underline in your heart and mind these two words, my church. Let's pray together as we talk about what's so important about the church. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your blessings this morning, and Lord, I'm delighted to be here at Sarin Chapel with your people here, and to gather as an assembly of believers in this city, this town, Lord, that have banded together to carry out your will. Thank you for sending your servant, Brother Stagner, here to become their pastor, and Lord, to do a great work, I believe, in this country, and Lord, in this city, I pray that you'll use him in a mighty way. I pray you'll knit his heart with the people here and knit their heart with him as well as knitting all of their hearts with you, Lord, because we're involved in an eternal business. And I pray that you'll help us as we open the book of God this morning and we learn from the scriptures and, Lord, that we're taught of you and we would respond as you would have us to. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. 103 times you find the word church mentioned in the New Testament. If you do a word study of the word church, you'll find that the vast majority of those times it refers to a local congregation or an assembly of believers like you and I gathered here this morning in this place. Someone could define a local church as a called-out assembly of blood-washed, blood-bought, born-again, baptized believers who have banded together to carry out God's work, God's way in this world, and that is a New Testament definition of a New Testament local church. I want to give you some thoughts this morning as we think about the importance of the church. We're seeing it minimized in our day. I'll never forget. One day, we were riding by a neighborhood on our way to church, and there were people that were hitting the golf ball. There were people pulling out of their driveway with their boats. They were making their plans for the day. And my children, as they got older, noticed a distinct difference in what we did and what they did. and the difference in our lives. And can I tell you, the devil has all kinds of attractions to keep people away from here. And Sunday has become play day rather than the Lord's day for the vast majority of people around the world. But can I tell you, it's still the Lord's day. And at the end of every Lord's day, I want to be able to ask myself and answer the question, Lord, have I honored you on your day? This is your day, the day set aside that I worship you and love you and learn of you and draw strength from you that I might share you as I live my life. And so we find that the church is important to God and it ought to be important to us this morning. It was so important that he died for it. He called it my church. That's his relationship. We recognize the church is not made of brick and stone and wood and nails and plaster. That's not it at all. If we were gathered today out under a tree somewhere, and we gather to worship as God's people, that would be the church. That would be the people that have gathered. And so a church is not a building, it's people. This is the meeting hall, the meeting place of Saren Chapel Baptist Church. And so you've gathered here today in accordance with God's Word as an assembly of believers to carry out His will and how important it is. Let's understand the nature of the church. Notice what he says again, verse 18. And he said, I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. Now, here's what I say. I say, well, Calvary Baptist Church is my church. Pastor Stagner would say, Sarin Chapel is my church. If somebody asked you, where were you today? Well, I went to my church. And that's good. It speaks of ownership. But you know what the reality of it is? It's not really my church. It's not really your church. It belongs to him. It's his church. And we're part of that. And so it belongs to Him. And the good news is today that we belong to Him if we've trusted Him as Savior. And now we're banding together as a group of believers. And so collectively, individually, I belong to Him by faith in Jesus Christ. Collectively, we belong to Him as a body of believers that have gathered to worship Him. He said, I'm going to build my church, my assembly. That's what that word means. Whenever you see the word church in the Bible, it's an assembly. Then you define what that assembly is from the context. In the book of Acts, it speaks of the church in the wilderness. Well, it wasn't that God had started a local church in the wilderness with Israel. Absolutely not. They were a nation. What it was, it was an assembly of people, the assembling of the nation of Israel. Here, a church today is an assembling of God's people in God's... to gather together in his name. And so he said, I'm going to have my assembly. But it's more than just an assembly. You can have an assembly down at a hall somewhere, a club. There's all kinds of assemblies taking place today all over South Wales that is a fishing club or a golfing club or a biking club or a running club or a racquetball club or a sewing club. There's clubs everywhere. They're assembling together, but that's not God's assembly. The word assembly, church, also has the idea of being called out. That means that we're not part of this world. We've been called out from among the world that you belong to God by faith, that He set us apart unto Himself. And now watch this. We now have set ourselves apart from the world that we might worship Him and honor Him and live for Him and serve Him and carry out His will. So we are a called out assembly. I don't belong to this world. I belong to that world. I have a dual citizenship, you have a dual citizenship. I have a dual citizenship, I'm American by my first birth, but thank God I'm a citizen of heaven by my second birth. And we have dual citizenship and this world's not our home and this is our support group, this is our help on earth as we draw strength from the Lord and from one another as he's called us out from the world to send us into the world as his ambassadors as His servants, and so we find that He says, it's my church, my assembly, my people. It belongs to Him. But not only do I want you to see in its nature, its founder, I want you to see its foundation. Look again, if you would please, in verse 18. And He said, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter. Now Peter, I wrote in my Bible, means little rock or little stone. It's like a stone that I would throw at a dog. It's the idea of a little stone. He said, when he first met Simon, I read it yesterday in my personal Bible reading, he first met Simon, he said, thou shalt be, you're Simon, but you're gonna be a Peter. You're gonna be a Peter. You're Simon, you're wishy-washy, you're unstable, that's what you are now, but the new name that I'm giving you, Peter, you're going to be a stone, you're going to be a rock for me. But notice he says, upon this rock, Now do you know that Peter and rock come from the same root word? You're going to find Peter has the idea of a small stone, but the word rock, it comes from the same root word. That means a massive stone, not a little stone, not a stone you could throw. It's a stone that you want to build on. It's a foundation stone. And He said upon this rock, I will build My church. And that rock there was not Peter as those would claim that the church is built on Peter. No, a thousand times no. It's not built on a man. It's built on a person, the person of Jesus Christ. And can I tell you, for Sharon Chapel Baptist Church to be everything God wants it to be, We cannot build our lives on a personality, or a program, or a performance, but we build our lives in this ministry upon a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. He said, upon this rock, who I am, that I'm the Son of the Living God, that I'm God Himself, the Savior of the world, that I'm the Christ. He said, that's what you build it on, massive rock. That's what it is. There's an insurance. Talking about rock and thinking about rock, there's an insurance. Years ago, where we're from, college basketball is real huge where I'm from. And if anybody was to ask me if it matters, I'm a Tar Heel fan, OK? So I just want you to know that. I'm a Tar Heel. So anyway, it may not mean a thing, but I just want to get that out there because I know there's a Roll Tide guy in here. I just want him to know that basketball really is king in college sports. But anyway, that's beside the point. You always take a jab at the pastor, but anyway, aside the point. Real big, but it used to be that these games were sponsored by an insurance company called Prudential. And you'd look out there, and here would be the ocean, and there would be some whales out there, and then there would be this big, round, massive rock coming out of the ocean. And they would say, buy a piece of the rock. That was what they would say. Here's what they're saying. They're saying, if you'll buy our insurance, we'll be here when you need us. Well, the reality of it is, prudential, there's no guarantee they'll always be there when I need them. But I'm going to tell you, there is a rock that will always be there when we need Him, and His name is Jesus Christ. The Bible said He is the rock. You know what? I can tell you there's times that I've trembled on the rock, but thank the Lord the rock's never trembled under me. I'll never forget the first time I went to Northern Ireland I've been there about two or three times preaching and I was wanting to know if really this was true that the shamrock was really as big a deal in Ireland and Northern Ireland as everybody in America makes it out to be. So I was a little on an investigative search and found out that it was sort of important to them. You know, I don't think they make quite the big deal out of it that we do in America or whatever. But they were talking about shamrocks and all of this and so there was an Irish preacher one day and they were having the shamrock festival. And so he went and he set up his little box, you know, and he began to preach to the crowds that were gathered there. And he began to talk about how the people needed to be saved and born again and have a personal relationship with Christ. And the crowds began to heckle him. And they began to say, hey preacher, why don't you be quiet? Hey, we're at a festival and now's not the time for that. He just kept on preaching undisturbed. And finally one of the hecklers said, listen, we're at the shamrock festival, don't you have anything to say about a rock? And he thought for a minute and he said, sir, yes I do. He said, upon Christ the solid rock I stand and all other rocks are just a shamrock. And can I tell you today that, listen, Buddha's a shamrock, and Mohammed's a shamrock, and the religions of this world are shamrocks, but can I tell you, Jesus Christ is the rock upon which we can build our lives, and our families, and our futures, and upon which you're to build this church. He's the rock. Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. I was interesting, I was preaching through the book of 1 Thessalonians and I was seeing this little two words called, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. Do you know that's only said of biblical Christianity? Do you know that there's no other people on the face of the planet that are said to be in their God? Nowhere does it say that the people who follow Confucius are in Confucius. Nowhere does it say that the people that follow Buddha are in Buddha. But can I tell you time and time again, the Bible tells us that those who belong to Jesus Christ are in Him. We are saved by Him. We are secure in Him. We are sustained. by Him. Can I tell you, Christianity is all about Jesus Christ. And friend, listen, if you take Christ away from Christianity, it comes down like a house of cards. So we find its founder. We see its foundation, that it's founded upon Him. But I want you to notice thirdly, as we look in our passage, I want you to see its future. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, little stone, and upon this rock, massive rock, the rock of who Jesus Christ is, I will build my church, my ecclesia, my called out assembly, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That's its future! Can I tell you, as we look around us today, I hear this all the time, preacher, that the church is going down, and I read books about how the church is being minimized, and all of this, and how sad the case is for the church in our day, and in this modern day, and if anybody goes to church, you're a dinosaur, you're out of touch, that's caveman living. That's what you hear. It's not for modern people today. It's going down, they say. It's going out of style. Can I tell you what? God says it's not going down, it's going up. He said, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Can I tell you that you and I have the victory today? May I remind us, we have the victory. You say, oh preacher, but as we look around our nations and we look around the world, it seems like there's less people serving God today than there were decades ago. Can I tell you the strength of the local church and the validity of God's Word is not It's not predicated upon how many are involved in it. It's predicated upon whose work it is. And if it's God's work, it's a great work. And we ought to be a part of it. And it's going up. He said the gates of hell shall not prevail against all of my life. Preacher, I thought in the wrong way. I did. I misinterpreted this verse. I thought about here's a church and the gates of hell battering against the gates of the church trying to get in and knock it down. And it's going to stand. Well, that's not the picture at all. Gates don't attack anything. When was the last time you saw a gate attacking something? Gates don't attack. No, they withstand. It doesn't picture the church. Circled like the proverbial wagon train in America that circled itself, but we're just going to try to hold on? And that's exactly the mentality we've gotten in our day. We're just going to circle the wagons, we're going to hold on until Jesus comes or whatever happens, and we're just going to cower down and we're just going to hold on. That's not the picture. No, no, no, no. He said the gates of hell will not prevail. We're not to be withstanding. We're to be on the move. We're to be on the march. Listen, He's saying the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That means that you and I are on the winning side. We've got to remember that. We can't lose sight of that. Can I tell you the gates of hell didn't prevail this summer when almost 20 young people or more came to Christ. Gates of hell didn't prevail there, did they? Gates of hell didn't prevail in your life as Satan tried to keep you from coming here this morning. The gates of hell. Can I tell you that now's the time not to back up, now's the time to go forward. Now is the time to reach out by faith and embrace what God has for us. And you know one of the things that we have to understand about the Bible is that you and I are not responsible for the response. We're only responsible to share and to give and to witness. That's my responsibility. I'm to be marching. I'm to be in the trenches. I'm to be down there rescuing the perishing, caring for the dying. That's what we're to be doing in our day. And you know what? We're going to see people come to Christ. You're going to see people come to Christ. You'll see lives changed and the gates of hell will not prevail in that person's life. we'll have the victory. And I'm here to tell you today, friend, that you and I have the victory. We're not fighting for it. We're fighting from it. And we need to keep that in our minds. And when we hear... I just don't let negative preachers around me. I got a friend of mine, he likes to call me. And every time he calls me, I've got the phone way out here. Because he's talking about how bad it is and how terrible it is. And I'm like, listen, I don't need that. Listen, if you keep that up, we're both going to jump off the bridge together. I'm not going to listen to that. There's people today that are naysayers even in our own midst, in my own church. Oh preacher, oh preacher, oh preacher. And I want to say, hey, what a Savior. Let's go on and do something for God. Let's be encouraged in our day. Do you know what? Not one blood-bought child of God, not one will be lost. Listen, if we're saved, can I tell you we're secure in Him. and we're going to make it. Amen? And I want to tell you today, you're going to make it. But not only do I see the nature of the church, can I quickly just say, I'm going to say a word about the necessity of it for sake of time, because I want to get to my last point. All right? What's the necessity of the church? Well, the necessity of the church is we have three main items of business. I'm going to share it, and I'm going to move on, and I'm going to give you a couple of verses, and we'll go from there. Number one, to evangelize sinners. We all understand that. What's our business? It's soul business. That's the most important business on planet Earth, is reaching others with the gospel and seeing them come to Him, and everybody's in full-time service for the Lord. My job may not be necessarily that I'm here all the time, but you know what? God gives us a livelihood and wherever you're at, you're His servant, you're His missionary, you're His light, you're His salt, and you're to be making a difference in whatever area of the world He places you in. And it's just as important as what I'm doing this morning. There's work that will be done here that many of you will say, I'll do this and preacher, I'll do that. God will add to your numbers and the desire is that they get involved and they find a place to make a difference. And we evangelize sinners, Mark 16, 15, going into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Not just South Wales, but the world. You're going to impact the world. But then we're to edify saints. That means we're to build one another up. I know your pastor, I can promise you this, he's not gonna break you down, he's gonna build you up. Now thank God, there's times the Holy Spirit breaks us down. But God never breaks unless it's to build. And then to exalt the Savior, that Jesus Christ gets glory in this part of the world. There's a group of people for two or three, or 20 or 30, whatever. Can I tell you that God's just as excited when Brother Stagner and I are riding down the road talking about Him as when we gather in this place and sing? You know what God said? He said that in the book of Malachi that there's a book of remembrance that He writes the names of those that make mention of Him. That means if you were walking through the streets of whatever town around and there was a fellow believer and you sat down beside him on a park bench and said, isn't the God good today? He said, well, I'm gonna write Jason's name down or Andrew's name down. They said something about me or Mel or whoever. They mentioned my name. Their names written because God's pleased when we talk about Him. Now, you know what, I can get around Brother Stagner and we can talk about running. I don't run. By the way, if you ever see me running, will you stop your car and help me because somebody's probably chasing me, okay? All right, so help me. But we can talk about running. We can talk about football. And I'm talking about this kind, okay? And we can talk about the different kinds of sports and stuff. But you know, we've not had Christian fellowship unless we talk about Him. And that's what we talk about Christ. And God says when you talk about me, whatever the setting, God said it means so much to me, I will remember it. Now, the omniscient God, can he ever forget? But God said just to show you how important it is to me, I got a book of remembrance that every time you mention my name to somebody, every time you talk about me in a wonderful way, I write it down. And so we exalt Him. And then let me give you the last thing. I want to talk to you about the neglect of the local church. Turn to the book of Hebrews, would you please? And I trust that I'm not treading on grounds your pastor's already been over. I don't know if he has or not, but this is what God put on my heart. I'm not preaching anything to you that I would not preach and have not preached to the people that I pastored for the last nine years. And this month, matter of fact, this week marks my 25th. I'm preaching in your church on the 25th anniversary of me being a pastor. 25 years ago today, I started pastoring. Isn't that something? I'm blessed and I get to be with you. And I count that a great blessing and a great honor. And I get to share it with your pastor, whom I respect greatly. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. And verse number 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Now, there was not only do we see the nature of the church, not only do we see the necessity of it to evangelize sinners and edify saints and to exalt the Savior. That's what we're about. That's what we exist to do. But then the danger of neglect, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. You know what? There's a whole lot of believers today that, you know what they're doing? They're living out the truth of this verse. They're forsaking the assembling together. And you know what? Somebody said, well, when should you be in church? That's the big debate right now in America. Whether or not you ought to have church on Sunday night and Wednesday night. God doesn't say you have to go to church Wednesday night at 7 o'clock. And so if God doesn't say that, and it's not spelled out in the Bible, then I don't think you ought to have to have the service. And so you know what? dropping their services and they're changing this and changing that and this and the other. And so somebody asked me, he said, well, why does Calvary Baptist Church, why do you continue to have all these services? And I said, well, so that everybody else that wants to go to church when you're not can have a place to come to. That was my sarcastic response. My real response is this. God said, it's not a matter of the time the church meets, it's when it meets. And he says, don't forsake it. That means in the Lord's day, after he went back to heaven, and the early disciples met, and the local church in that day, you know how often they met? Every day. They met every day. They did. In Paul's day, in the Gentile churches, they met at night, on Sunday night. We don't know how many nights a week they met, but we know one night, they were so long in preaching, Paul was long-winded, because the fellow fell out of the... I mean, he fell asleep, fell out of the window, and died. You know, I've never preached that long. Now, I've been accused of being long-winded, but I've never preached that long. but not forsaking the assembly over saves together. And I wanna show you why, because see, this is so old hat. We've heard this, preachers, come to church. That's not what I'm wanting to do today. What I'm wanting to do is compel you from my heart to yours about how important you are to this church in this hour. That God has brought your pastor here and you together and open this church for such a time as this. You're living in a special day in the life of this town, this community, this country, that God has raised you up in these last days to make a difference for Him, and God's chosen you to do it. And He said, now listen, I want you to give yourself to it. And by the way, I have not spoken to pastor about this message. I've talked to him about every other message I brought, but I've not talked to him about this one. He didn't even know what it was about. So he hadn't shared anything with me except good. Your pastor has said nothing but good about you. He doesn't have any sad songs to sing. He doesn't say, well, so-and-so, he hadn't done that. He just talked about, man, I love this person, and this person's great, and I'm excited about what God's doing in this person's life. Boy, that blesses me. But notice what he says, not forsaking, the assembler says together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. Do you know we hear so much today about support groups? Do they use that term over here, support groups? You know, they got a support group for everything. I mean, if you stub your toe, there's a support group for that. You know, if you do this, there's a support group. Hey, go to Facebook, there's a support group over there on that. You know what I'm saying? And there's some support groups like that we need. You know, I'm grateful for them. But I'll tell you what, do you know the church is God's support group? They didn't invent anything new. God said, listen, I know in this world that you're going to get beat up and beat down and you're going to get hit on every side and you're going to face it. Jesus said, if you're in the world, you're going to have tribulation. That's what's here. So God said, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to put you with a group of people together, my assembly, my church, because you're going to need one another. That's what he said, exhorting one another. And so much the more. Wow. As you see the day approaching. What day? That's the day the Lord's coming. Now, I believe the Lord's coming is imminent. I believe it's been imminent. That means it can happen at any moment. I believe it's been imminent for 2000 years. Did I say that word correctly, everybody? Okay, imminent, all right. 2,000 years, over 2,000 years. You say, preacher, how can it be imminent? Well, imminent has nothing to do with the date. It has to do with certainty. And the fact that we're not certain when the Lord comes, but we're certain that he's going to come. Paul believed that it was coming in his day. They were looking for him. Paul lived every day of his life not looking Undertaker, he was looking for the upper taker every day of his life. Now, I'm going to bring things to a close. Do you not think that if Paul was looking for him in his day, and we're 2,000 years this side of it, he could come at any moment that you and I are probably closer than what Paul was? Yes. And God says this, the closer you get to my coming, the more important this place is going to be in your life. Because now more than ever before, there is so much to pull you away. So much to say, hey, get in this and go there and be that. And God said, no, no, no, no. If you're gonna be a vibrant Christian for me, then you can't forsake my assembly. And you're gonna need it more and more as you get closer to my coming because the world is getting more and more hostile to what we're talking about today, the things of God. And He says, you see that day approaching, that's how much more you need to be in God's house. So that you can, verse 22, draw near. So that you can, verse 23, hold fast without wavering. So that you can, verse 24, consider one another to provoke, to love, and to good works. And I'm going to close with this. When I was a little boy, my grandfather pastored. He pastored a church in the mountains of North Carolina. It was a place called Edgemont. Now, I know that means nothing to anybody. They still pump in sunshine there, okay? That's how far. There's no cell phone reception and no GPS reception, okay? When our missionaries go to where my grandfather used to pastor, he's in heaven now, okay? When they would go there, all right, they would call me and they would, just about had to borrow a phone. Because once they come back out to civilization, they'd say, pastor, you're right, we got lost and the GPS wouldn't work. And I said, I told you, here's how you get there. He pastored there. When I was a little boy, we would go to the greenhouse. That was where all the community met. It was called the greenhouse, and I've got to bring this thing to a close, so listen carefully. They would start a fire in the wintertime in the fireplace, and we'd all gather in there on Saturday, the whole community, have community meals, whatever. As a little boy, I would watch the fire in the fireplace. We have what's called poplar wood, yellow poplar. It's a tulip tree, basically what it is. It's a poplar tree. And poplar wood does just exactly what they name it. It pops, okay? So whenever you put a log of poplar on that fire and you light it, or on the fire, and it begins to burn, after a while, as it begins to burn down, it begins to pop as it burns, and coals will pop out of the fire. How many of you know what I'm talking about? A coal will pop out of the fire onto the hearth. Well, when it pops out of that fire, I mean, it's cherry red. You walk over there and pick it up, it'll burn you. But you leave it laying to the side just a little while, and it turns from cherry red to ashen gray cold. And you can pick it up, hold it, whatever. When people are in the assembly of God's people, they get like that piece of coal, they're red cherry hot. But what happens is they start popping out. And the danger of popping out is that at some point, something happens and you stay out. And oh, for a while, you're cherry red hot still. Oh, preacher, I still read my Bible and still pray. I just don't go to church. But after a while, it turns from cherry red hot to ashen gray cold. And we're backslidden and we're cold and we're indifferent. It's a sad place for a Christian to be, but you know what happened? They popped out. What I found about that piece of coal, and I'm done. Take that same piece of coal, throw it back into the fire with the other red cherry hot coals, and it's not long till that gray ashen piece of coal is red hot again. And I can promise you that if you pop out, I got people, they pop in one Sunday, pop out the next, they pop out three weeks, come back four weeks later, and you know what, they're on the verge of, every time they pop out, they get a little colder, they get a little colder, get a little colder, till finally they pop completely out. But if we can just keep them in there amongst the calls, they stay hot, they stay vibrant. And what God's saying is, listen, I want you to stay in there amongst my people so that you stay vibrant for me, you stay on fire for me, that you love me, you serve me, you live for me. You know what he's saying? I want you to be committed to what I'm committed to, and that's my church. And friend, our commitment to Jesus Christ is predicated upon our commitment to that that he loved, died for, and that he began. because it's His church. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed all over the building. I wanna encourage you this morning, if you've never trusted Christ, that you would receive Him as your Savior, that you would make the decision today to say no to my sin and say yes to the Savior. There's no greater joy, no greater decision that I've ever made in my life than to trust Jesus Christ. Secondly, could I ask you today to make the decision that you're gonna commit yourself to Sarin Chapel Baptist Church, what God has for you here, to embrace the vision of your pastor, and before the day's out, you make that commitment to God, and then come by and tell your pastor sometime today. Or call him on the phone, or shoot him a text, and just say, Pastor, I'm committed to what Jesus is doing in our town. Father, take the message and use it in lives today. Pastor, in Jesus' name, amen. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. Let's close our service in prayer, Let's finish up with our hymn this morning. We just want to ask the Lord's blessing upon our heart. Father, we thank you, Lord, for the wonderful word that you've given us. We do pray today and trust, Lord, that your word, Father, as it is promised, would rest upon the hearts of everyone that is present. Father, we thank you for the beautiful illustration that you've given us. We thank you for the promise that you've given us, dear God, in our life. The gates of hell shall not prevail against your church, and it is yours. So, Father, I pray today that we would take the responsibility and understand the accountability that we have as children of the living God, and we would serve you, Father, faithfully within your local church and within your local areas that you have thus ordained us to be, Father. So please reach down today, touch our hearts, meld us together, I pray, and let us exhort one another, dear God, that we may lift up the name of Christ in our surrounding areas, in our sphere of influence, Lord. that we may be a witness to the lost and dying, dear father, that we may honor your name, the great sacrifice that the father in heaven paid by sending his only begotten son, by the suffering sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ offered on our behalf. So Lord, we give you all the praise, the glory and honor. Bless us now in our closing hymn. Lord, let us lift up your name again. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.