Amen. Well, bless and good evening to everyone and we thank the Lord that we can be together here. As Pastor said, we never really thought that we would be here. and we will see each other again after just a few months. First of all, we'd like to send greetings to you from the brethren in the Philippines, specifically from our church at World in Need. The name of our church is World in Need Baptist. Some pronounce it Worldly Needs, and they say I'm the worldly pastor, but I hope I'm not, amen. But I told them that the Lord Jesus Christ or God had named us such because we are the church for those that are in need and each and every one of us is in need of the Lord Jesus Christ and so they are praying for us and they are praying for this service tonight and we thank the Lord that we can be here personally I've met your pastor and his wife and I thank the Lord for the warm heart that they have for the gospel and for the work of the Lord and they have transmitted to us that warmth and that excitement, that joy. And thank you, Pastor Barker, for this opportunity to be here and to preach the Word of God. I thank God also for the privilege that He has given to us to be a part of the ordination of Pastor Ta'ala. And we thank the Lord for that. Congratulations to Pastor Ta'ala and the family and the church family as well. Well, tonight, let's go to the Word of God. That's what we're here for. Amen. Open your Bibles, please, to the book of Hebrews, chapter number 11. Let's all stand, please, as we read the Word of God, Hebrews, chapter number 11. And we will be reading from verse number 8 to verse number 13. Hebrews chapter number 11, verse number 8 to 13. We will be reading responsibly the Word of God. I'll read from verse number 8, and then you read verse number 9. Mind the commas and the periods so that we will not be racing as we read the Word of God. Hebrews chapter 8, verse number 11, the Bible says, By faith Abraham, when he was called out to go into a place where he should after receive one inheritance, obeyed. And he went out, not knowing whether he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of Israel. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive a seed, and it was delivered to her child when she was past age, because he judged her faithfully. Verse number 12. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. I see. God bless the reading of His Word. It is a blessing to read the Word of God. It is a blessing to preach the Word of God. It's a blessing to memorize the Word of God. Let us pray. Father, we thank You, Lord, for tonight. We thank You that we can once again assemble and gather in this place that You have ordained for each and every one of us. Thank You for this day that You have set aside for the week that we may be able to start the week with you and be able to be guided in our thoughts in our ways and Lord be transformed once again by the renewing of our mind through your Holy Word and the Holy Spirit that will be teaching us tonight you have designated me as your messenger Lord I pray that I will be nothing more but just your messenger I pray that I will never take over what you have prepared as a message for your people tonight to encourage them, to guide them, to reprove, to rebuke, to exhort and whatever needs to be done tonight may your will be done. I pray that we will ready our hearts tonight and we will make sure that our hearts be open to whatever you are going to work and will mold and will create in us. Lord you own us, you have saved us. And if there's anyone here tonight that is not saved, or if there's anyone here tonight that has not been born again, I pray that they will understand that being born again is not to be a part of any religion, to be a part of any group, but being born again is a must. for each and every person in this world to be reconciled back to you Lord God through the accepting and the gift of salvation that has been given through the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work and the cross of Calvary. I pray that they will make that decision tonight that eternal destiny that they need to have to be secured with you and that relationship that they need to have with you tonight. I pray that you will just bless even for the remainder of the service for the baptism and all the rest that will be done tonight that you will be the one that will be the center and be glorified. I pray that your wisdom, your power, your guidance be upon me. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Believe. That was our theme last year. Believe. Just one word, believe. And when I delved once again into this familiar passage of scripture, this church has been here for a long time and I'm sure many of you have, if you have been a long time Christian, many of you are familiar with this passage of scripture. Many of you probably have memorized many verses or probably the whole chapter of chapter number 11 and this is dubbed as the Hall of Faith. Many names are mentioned here by the Holy Spirit of God to remind us the blessedness of living by faith. And truly, the Christian life is a life of faith. It starts with faith. You see, when we become born again, when we become saved and we have that eternal life in Jesus Christ, the Bible says, for by grace are ye saved through faith. And many people today view faith as a belief. a personal belief, and they say, this is what I believe. But really, true faith, biblical faith, is not what you believe. Biblical faith is who you believe. It is the who first, before the what. It is who you believe. And true faith is believing and accepting Jesus Christ. It is the person of faith. It is Jesus Christ. The Bible says here in a very familiar passage of scripture that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And many people use the word faith so lightly but real faith Belief, real belief, only comes from believing the right person. And this is the whole idea of this chapter, one of these great chapters of the Bible, Hebrews chapter 11, which encourages us to live by faith. For the Bible says here, in another passage of Scripture, in another verse in this passage of Scripture, in verse number 6, But without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. And that is a challenge for each and every one of us as we live the Christian life from day to day. Because each and every day we are challenged to believe God for who He is. It's easy to say, Amen, in the church. It's easy to say, Praise the Lord, Hallelujah. Yes, because the environment is geared towards that. And we can encourage one another with our amens. We can encourage one another with our Praise the Lord and our Hallelujahs. But when we go out, oh, we are so bombarded with so many problems, trials, and situations that We don't know what to do. And this is the challenge. Each and every story that is presented in this chapter represents each and every one of us. And God, the Holy Spirit, had chosen much of the life of Abraham because, to tell you honestly, my feeling about this verses of scripture about the life of Abraham, it's close to impossible, but it isn't impossible. Because the God that we serve, the God of the Bible, is the God of the impossible. I am glad that, Pastor Barker, you chose to express this, what was that, your, sort of like a votation? You had your vote before the message? I would usually do that after the message. I'm not saying that it's wrong, but, you know, God had a plan, because I was praying, Lord, I believe this is This is the message that you want me to preach tonight for your people here. And you know that's... I was looking at crunching the numbers and... Brother Al? Brother Gary? Yeah, you gave me a copy. I'm not a member of this church. But you gave me a copy. Yeah, I know. But you gave me a copy. And I just browsed through that copy and I was looking at half a million dollars. Half a million dollars. And you know last year, We have this big typhoon. When we came over to your country, we went home. This big typhoon, the super typhoon, Yolanda, Haiyan, if you remember that, that devastated our country. We're used to typhoons. We always have them every year. In fact, right now, there are three typhoons that are passing through our country right now, as we speak. And we're used to that. But this particular typhoon devastated our country, especially our area. And when we went back to the Philippines, we went back and for one quarter we were just, you know, just rebuilding and helping and rescuing and doing everything we can to help everybody. Just rebuild. And rescue those that needed to be rescued and of course comfort those that we could not rescue. And after that, you know, we were so emotionally drained, financially drained and all of a sudden God gives us a project. And I computed it in my calculator, it's about $425,000 project. I look at your project, that's about half a million, that's close. And you know what, people? I said, Lord, brothers and sisters, I said, Lord, why would you want us to have this project? You know what verse God gave me? This is the verse that God gave me. For he that cometh to God must believe. You see, that's the challenge there. That's the challenge to really believe in God. Because if we're honest with ourselves, we really don't believe God for who He is. We really don't. We believe Him only in our salvation. Why? Because we know, we know we can't really save ourselves. Many people, they deny that truth. They say, oh, I'm okay, I'm good enough. Deep down in their heart, they know they're not good enough. It's just pride. But for those of us that understood and we have viewed our life through the lens and through the mirror of the Word of God, and when the Word of God was presented to us, we knew that, hey, I really could not save myself, it is impossible for me to be saved on my own strength, and we believe God in this impossible endeavor, and why can't we push forward and continue that life of faith? Why does it just end in salvation? That is a challenge for many believers. And many believers stumble and falter and fail in any area, in every area of life. Many of us believers, I'm not saying you're doing that, but I don't know your life, I just met you, but I believe God has a message for each and every one of us starting from this pulpit here. And God is saying to us, why don't you just believe me? Why don't you just trust me? Because I am God. Now we have a connection. Whereas before, we didn't. We were enemies of God, by the way. If you are not saved today, the Bible says, our sin is right in front of God, the Holy God. And God is appalled at our sin. And were it not for Jesus Christ, who has covered our sin, and who has clothed us with His righteousness, we could never face God. That's the meaning of being born again. And that's why we, when we come to the end of our physical life, when we are born, when we have been born again, we have been saved, we have that assurance that the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ will take us into eternity with God in heaven. Why? Not because of what we have done, it's because of the finished Word of Christ on the cross that we have accepted and received by faith. And so tonight, let me challenge you to live a life of faith, because faith is the mark of the Christian. How will this community know that Bible Baptist Church is the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ? And by the way, I'm not talking about the building, I'm talking about you church. I'm talking about you Jackson Heights. I'm talking about us in Cebu City, in Cebu Island. I'm talking about us Christians because faith is the mark of the Christian. Why would anyone ever believe our God when we don't live a life of faith? Why would they come and believe our God? There are so many gods in the world today. And we find that many people today call God the same way we call our God. But what is the difference? It's living a life of faith. The failures that we see in society today is not just primarily corruption and all these things and we see the destruction of the family, the division of many churches today. These are just mere results emanating from the basic foundation of living and it is our belief system. We don't really believe. Families are being broken up today because we don't really believe the Word of God. We believe our emotion. We believe our situation. We believe our circumstances. We don't believe God. We don't obey Him at His Word. That's why the Bible says in Proverbs 4.23, Keep thy heart with all diligence. Keep it. Keep a watch over it. Guard it. Why? For out of it are the issues of life. Your future spouse is an issue and for you to have a successful marriage, it comes from your belief system. For you to have a successful financial life so that you may be able to serve God and be able to be a blessing to others, it comes from our belief system. To be able to have a successful spiritual life, to be able to help others, guide them to the Lord Jesus Christ, it comes from our belief system. The reason why in your country and I am not an American but I do have a family here in America. My brother and sister are Americans. They were here since the 1980s. They went to school here and apparently they just live here and so I'm the only one that is Filipino citizen and Filipino at birth as well. And you know, when I come here, it is a time by which I am observing what is going on in your country. A very, I wouldn't say momentous, but it is a significant time in your country. Because the very country that literally the world looks up to, whether they like it or not, the world looks up at your country. This very country was founded with the idea of the Word of God. My family and I, we have had the privilege of visiting your capital city. and we visited the monuments like the Lincoln Memorial and the other monuments there and it was very significant to note that these monuments were etched there verses from the Word of God and that is very rare. I've been to Cambodia, Vietnam, I've seen monuments there and a lot of them are dedicated to their God. Even in our country we have historical sites, but they're not really historical sites, they're religious relics that come from history. But only in this country can I find that your monuments are dedicated to God. To the true and the living God and this was the very foundations that this country and the idea that this country was established. belief system. You see how important it is? The future of Bible Baptist Church here in Elmont, Bible Baptist Church in Jackson Heights is dependent upon how we live by faith, how we believe God for who He is. Your strength, your blessing, your direction comes from what you believe. There are many that try to compete in getting our belief. We're going to talk about that because Tonight we're going to look at the principles of living by faith. You see, life is all about principles. When we came over here to your country, we rode the Airbus A380, the biggest commercial airplane in the world. For the first time, boy, that's a big plane. I mean, you know, When I was riding that plane, when we rode that plane, I was going into that plane, you know, I was looking around and I say, wow, this is big, you know, this is big. And so when the engines were revving, you know, I was thinking to myself, can this thing fly? Can this thing really fly? You know, and you're out there in the runway, ready to take off, and you're just waiting, waiting, waiting, and the engine all of a sudden just gathers the power, you know, and you see everything shake, and I say, fly, fly, fly, fly, fly. And you know, you can just feel the speed, and you're still on the ground, and it picks up speed, picks up speed. When are we gonna fly? Fly, fly, fly, fly, fly, fly, fly. Yeah, we're off the ground. This big, humongous piece of metal is flying. Why is that? How can that be? You know, you look up to the sky and this heavy, I don't know how heavy an Airbus A380, but I know it's big and it's heavy. With all the luggage that we have and all the people that we have, the food that we have, the cargo that we have, the gasoline that we have, you know, and all the troubles that we have in our heart, it's heavy. Don't worry that we have that. That thing's heavy. Alright? But how does that airplane fly? It's because they follow certain principles. Yes, there is the principle of gravity. What comes up, comes down. But there's also the principle of thermodynamics. Aerodynamics, obviously I'm not a science guy, I'm a medical guy, but I'm not a science guy. Aerodynamics, and if you just stay on that principle, you'll be okay. If you don't go beyond that principle, you'll be okay. And so living by faith is the same way. The Bible has outlined the principle of living by faith. God has never left us. He will never leave us. And the first thing we need to know tonight about living by faith, the first principle is the principle of voice. The Bible says in Hebrews 11 in our text, by faith Abraham when he was called, The voice of God had spoken, the word of God had spoken to Abraham. And even in the beginning of time, Adam and Eve, as long as they had just listened to the voice of God, they were okay. As long as they had listened to the word of God, they were okay. When Abraham heard the voice of God, when he was called to go out into a place which he should have to receive for inheritance, he what? Obeyed. It all starts with hearing the Word of God. That's why the Bible says in Hebrews 10, 17, faith comes by what? And hearing what? Sounds? No. The Word of God. That's why the premier thing, and I know it, that's what it is in this church, that's what it is in Jackson Heights, that's what it is in World in Need, the premier thing that we endeavor to do is that preaching and the Word of God be paramount. Why? Because we need to hear more and more of the Word of God. Voice. Hearing the voice of God is the root of faith. In the story of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 verse number 1, you don't have to go there. The Bible says, now the Lord had said unto Abraham, the Lord said. Now today we don't have so much of that audible voice that the Old Testament and the forefathers had heard from God. God has completed His written Word. And it is minus nothing plus nothing, it's complete. We have the Word of God in our hands. What we need to do is to study the Word of God and to know the Word of God so that when the Holy Spirit uses His Word, we may be able to know that that is what God says. I was counseling a person this afternoon and apparently she had had some trouble and we were there in the dining table and she asked a very important question. She says, Pastor, how do I know this is what God wants me to do? I said, go to the Word of God. You got to discipline yourself to learn how to hear God. Principle of voice. There are many voices that's going to compete in your life. The voice of peer pressure. The voice of materialism, the voice of worldliness, the voice of family, the voice of friends, the voice of money and fortune, and the voice of power and popularity, that's different voices that's there. And you know what? Many times you say, Lord, I'm so confused, speak to me, please shout to me and talk to me. But the Bible says, you know what God says? What does God say? He speaks to us in a what? Does he say, Pastor Ken, Ken, Ken, Ken. I want to talk to you, you. What's the number of the song you want to sing tonight, night, night? Page what, what? He doesn't speak like that. In fact, Elijah had that experience. He was looking for God in a whirlwind. He was looking for God in the earthquake. He was looking for God in the fire. But God was not there. Where is God? How does God speak to us? Through the Holy Spirit in a still, small voice. Through His Word. That's why this is such an important aspect in living a life of faith. If you are not disciplining yourself and familiarizing yourself with the Word of God and with the voice of God, you're going to be confused. That's why never forsake the assembling of yourselves together. God has a purpose why he has established his church here. God has a purpose why he has ordained his man that is here. And the leaders that is here. And those that are trained up here. So that we can be able to be disciplined with hearing the word of God. And knowing the word of God. Faith does not come from guessing at the will of God. 1 John 5.14, and this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. It's not guessing. God has a specific will for each and every one of us. He has a plan for each and every one of us. And so, we need to know that will. We need to know that plan. And God has people, and God has His written word, and God has the indwelling Holy Spirit in us. And look at what the Bible says, and go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 2, and this is such a wonderful truth, and I want you to really digest this. In 1 Corinthians chapter number 2, and verse number 16, or verse number 15, let's start with verse number 15, the Bible says, but he that is spiritual, If you're born again, you have now been given that spiritual life. If you're not born again, your spiritual life is dead. That's why you don't like spiritual things. You don't like the Word of God. You don't like to hear about Jesus. You don't like to hear about preaching. You don't... If you're spiritual, you don't... You hate God. But when you're saved, The Bible says that the Holy Spirit of God dwells in you and quickens you, so now your spiritual life is made alive. And the Bible says, He that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judge of no man. Look at verse number 16, For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? Look at this last phrase, and I want you to really think about it, because this is a very important truth. But we, who is this we? Every Christian. We have the what? Many people are trying to get pieces of the brain of Albert Einstein and trying to make up a concoction and you know somehow they can make a pill or an injectable that they can be able to inject it so they'll make you smarter. They want a piece of the brain of Albert Einstein. A piece of a brain of famous intellectuals. I don't care about that. You know what I want? I want the mind of Christ. That's perfect. The mind of Christ. We have the written word. We have the mind of Christ. We have the indwelling Holy Spirit. And God speaks to us. He speaks to us. The reason why we don't hear from God is we don't ask Him. You have not because you ask not. He can speak to you through your pastor. How many times have you experienced this that after the service you would say, you know what pastor, how did you know that that was what I needed? Pastor didn't know, the Holy Spirit did. And you knew that was what you wanted to hear. That's why our prayer is always, Lord help me to know what you want me to do. Help me. I can do a lot of things. You can do a lot of things. But to do what God wants you to do, that's a challenge. That's a challenge. And so, be disciplined in hearing the voice of God. You know, you may not immediately, just like that, you know, be able to get it, but you have just to start slow, start small, get to the Word of God. That's why we need to read the Word of God, because the Holy Spirit uses His Word to speak to us. Sometimes, you know, when you're out soul winning and there's this person that has this question and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit gets that verse that you have just read or that passage scripture that you are familiar with or that verse that you have memorized and it's, oh yeah, this is what the Bible said. And how did you know that? But God did. He knew that. That's why the element of the Word, the element of the Holy Spirit is such an important aspect in knowing what God wants us to do. The principle of voice. Voice. Secondly, the principle of venture. Living the life of faith is an adventure. It's wonderful! You know, have you heard people say, oh yeah, I'm just living by faith. As if it's something that's, you know, I'm just living by faith. I wish I wasn't. It should be, I'm living by faith. I'm enjoying the blessings of God. Because it's an adventure. You know, coming here is an adventure. We landed June 2 in Los Angeles. And you know, the driving here, probably in New York is probably the same. In different parts, in LA, probably the same. But in like the not so suburban, or what do you call it, the not so urban, not suburban, but urban, you know, the driving is different. You don't have stop lights, they have stop signs. In our country, most of the time, our signs are just decorations. You know? This is a decoration. You have a line there, but it doesn't really mean anything. It's just a line, you know, just for compliance. International body examines, oh, what are the... Oh yeah, that's just, they have a line. That's good. Check. That's nothing. But when you come here, you know, there are some places, it's really different. And you actually have speed limits. In your country, we don't have speed limits. You just go as fast as you can. You want to get to your destination as fast as you can? Just drive, man. Drive! Here, like, are we there yet? I just want to floor it, man. I just want to floor it. Here, it's open space, but you just... You have all these speed limits. But every time we go to different places, we went from LA, we went to Northern California, and then we went to Nevada, and then drove down to Arizona, and then we flew from Nevada on the way to New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans, the South, you know, people from the South. And we went there, different, it's just an adventure, just following the Lord. I said, Lord, you be the one to set my itinerary before we left the Philippines. I'm not going to go to churches and say, Lord, whatever you want me to do. And when some of my pastor friends knew that we were coming, they started saying, can you preach? I said, I'm not actually here to preach. I'm here to solemnize the marriage of my niece in Virginia. It's going to happen two weeks from now. And so we went to California for me to attend and my wife and my daughter for me to attend the leadership conference over there in Paul Chapel. We just wanted to experience, I had never experienced that before. So we went there and I heard about it and so my father had received an invitation so he could not travel anymore and he said, why don't you go there? I said, okay. So we went early and of course we wanted to visit the family of my wife and all these things, just an adventure, just following the Lord. And I said, Lord, if you want us to come to the United States, Lord, provide for us. I don't want to go out and just, you know, force myself and have a financial obligation just because I want to come. And I can loan money, I can get money, but the problem is, can I pay it? You know? Here in your country, it's easy to do credit, right? I mean, it's a little hard in our country. They have to have all these investigations and they'll make sure if you can really pay or not. But I was surprised here when a lot of people just approached me and they would give me a credit card. I said, I'm not a citizen of this country. It doesn't matter. I said, what? I said, no, I don't want problems, you know. I'm good. I'm good. And you know what? The Lord has provided. Which is a confirmation that He wants us here. I don't want to come here and be worried, you know, and I'll be preaching here, a good evening church, you know, thank you for letting me preach Pastor Barker and church allowing me to be here, but in my mind I'd be worried, you know, am I going to pay the fare going back to the Philippines, you know. I don't want that. I want peace, amen? That only comes by living by faith. So, live by faith because it's an adventure. When the Bible says, when Abraham heard the Word of God, he obeyed. Well, he was not a young guy. He was older. He wasn't old by their standards, but he was older. They lived like a... What, 500 years? 200 years? Well, pretty much just a little over 100 years, but still, you know? They were pretty high up in their lifespan. Unlike today, our lifespan average is 70 years. 70, 80, 90. My father is 83 years old, still going. Pastor Barker has met my pastor, and happens to be also my father, so that's a double whammy there, you know? So, he's my father, he's my pastor, and he's still going at 83? You know? But it's an adventure. When we went out and obeyed the call of God, we had a business, my wife was working, and we already had three children, and when I really knew that God called me, I said, Lord, I just want to make sure. I saw my father live by faith. I saw the adventure that our family went through. It was not hard to follow that example, what was harder is to know if that was what God wanted me to do. So I can say I'll be a pastor because my dad's a pastor. I'll be a pastor because everybody expects me to be one. But see, I don't want to be a pastor because of that. I want to be a pastor because God wants me to be. I want to follow God. And that was a hard thing, you know, that was my struggle and finally we surrendered to the Lord and our family was serving the Lord and we started in this garage, you know, and the 37 people, we started there and after that we filled up the whole house, the nursery was in the middle and the children were on the other side, we were in the garage side. We filled up the whole house and we had to transfer because the neighbors were a bit kind of irritated because we were noisy now. There were children, they were singing, you know, and we were in a small subdivision. And so, they didn't say anything but, you know, I heard talks from some of the people and I said, I don't want to leave a bad testimony. So, we were looking for a place and the Lord gave us a second floor in the next I would say, how do you call it here, Barangay? City, the next city. And so the next city, there was a second floor place there. The building had a second floor, so we rented that. It was about probably this wide and maybe just up to you, brother, the one with the green tie. And then that's it. So just up to there. We rented that for three and a half years. And we outgrew that. and so the year was 2005 2005 and the owner said pastor you know we need to increase your rent because I said from the start you know that we are a church you know we our income is actually posted there so you can see the income And so I'm not trying to deny you of your business. If this is your business, that's your business. But I would just like to ask if I can be able to negotiate that we just keep the rent as is. And they said, no, we want to increase it. And it was an absurd price that I really didn't want to. It was not any more reasonable. So I was a bit concerned and I said, we need to look for a place. I think this is the time when the Lord really wants us to look for a place. So my wife and I, we were visiting, you know, and we saw this small sign, it was kind of crooked and it was just written on a piece of wood using a marker. You know, if you don't really look at it that well, you wouldn't know it was there. But God just, you know, look. there and we found for rent slash for lease number so we called the number and the owner was the one who answered and he said this lot is for lease for rent yeah it's 17 pesos per square meter and we go by meters over there and but anyway he said what are you gonna do with with with your with this you know what do you want right it's it's we're we are church and we want to have a place where we can meet So I just said, I just need 500 square meters, so I computed per square meter, we would only pay about 8,500 pesos as opposed to the 30,000 peso and a half of that, 250 square meters that we're renting. So my idea was, our idea was, we would, the rest of our rent, we would put it up for a building. just to put up a structure that we can just start worshipping in that particular place. And the guy said, the owner said, hey, why don't you just buy it? I said, what? We're not here to buy, we even hardly can meet up the payments, you know, and God's been good, God's providing, but we can't make up the payments, so he said, I said, just for, just to be inquisitive, I said, how much? Oh, I'm selling 1,000 square meters. I said, OK. How much? I'll sell it for 4,500 pesos per square meter. So that would be 4.5 million pesos. From 30,000 a month, we were trying to meet this need of 30,000. Now we are offered 4.5 million. I said, pass. That's not even a discussion. OK, I'm satisfied with my inquiry. And I'm OK, but I'm not interested. But when we got home, then I called my dad and said, Master, this is what, I just updated him. I said, this is what we're at right now. And we saw a place, but he was offering it at $4.5 million. Then he said, buy it. I said, Pastor, do you even know our financial situation right now? He said, buy it. I said, are you going to give us money? He said, I don't have money, but buy it. I said, how do you do that? Buy it with what? You know what he said? Pray. I said, OK, pray. Fine, pray. You know how we are sometimes. Yeah, pray. But in the back of my mind, I was fixed at just renting, leasing. That's it. I was already fixed. But he just said, pray. And so we pray. And that week we pray. The next week, you know what happened? Pastor calls me up and he said, someone just gave me 1.3 million pesos. We don't have anything to do with this, but we're going to give it to you. So I called the owner and I said, we have a down payment. Can we do down payments? He says, I don't, you know, I don't mind down payments. Let's do this. Pay when able. Give me that down payment. Let's pay when able. It's God. It was a God project. It was God's voice. It was God's idea. It was not my idea. You know my idea. You already know that. I just told you. Right? But this was God's idea. Apparently, I wasn't listening to His voice. Apparently, I was not sensitive to His leading. Apparently, I was not looking at where He was guiding me. I was looking at what I wanted me to do. I'm the pastor. I lead the church. No. And that's pretty OK because sometimes you can overdo it. But you see how important it is to be sensitive? It can go either way. And so what happened was we did the down payment. It took me some time to give the down payment because it wasn't a check. I've never seen a 1.3 million check before. Wow. That's nice. 1.3. Wow, at least I'm a millionaire for a day. So anyway, we gave it. We gave it there. Just, you know, you can have an experience. I'm a millionaire for a day. And it's like, we gave it and we had a picture. That's good. And we signed the contract. And we paid a little extra. I told the church, church, can we, like what you did right now, can we just go a little extra? Let's pay, let's not take this that far. Let's do five years. We're going to pay $53,333.33 for five years. Is that OK? Let's just go above our target of $30,000. Just do $23,333.33 more. Because it's ours anyways. It's going to be ours. We're not going to rent. It's going to be ours. And so, to make a long story short, we paid it. We're all paid off. That was an adventure. Because there was one month that When I looked at the expenses and we looked at, oh, our offering was down, whoa, we didn't have anything. And we did post paychecks, sign, I already signed the checks, so the owner would just deposit it in his account. And when the owner deposited in his account, that thing bounced, man. Oh. Because my clerk didn't call, I told her, call, sir, don't deposit it first. because we're gonna fill it with money. I don't want, but for some particular reason, shouldn't do it. So, boom, it bounced. And you know what? This is what happened. This happened only one time. The owner called me. And when that happens in the Philippines, you get charged. When your check bounces, you get charged. You get charged a fee. You have it here too? And so, our charge would like be four thousand. Brother, four thousand, right? So, four thousand. We had to pay like $53,000, $7,333, or $57,333. So it was more. But you know what the owner said? Pastor, don't worry about it. I'll pay for the charges. He says, Pastor, what happened? Why couldn't you pay? I said, Sir, our offering was low. He says, don't worry about it. I'll be the one to pay it. Imagine that. This guy isn't even saved. You're trying to get him saved. But you see the favor of God, you see the hand of God, if you live by it, it's an adventure! And hey, I didn't tell you this. The moment that we paid that bill, or that down payment, the owner said, go ahead, use it. So, the owner from the previous building gave us three months, so that was 2006. He was going to kick us out in December 2005. I said, give us a leeway to just transfer three months. He said, I'll give you three months. OK, fine. So we paid in January. And so we started to think, how are we going to do this? Let's build. Let's just build structure. And that week, I do radio broadcasts. I have someone that records every week my radio broadcasts. And that guy, you know, he's from another church, but he's good with recording, he's good with digital stuff. And so, I go to him and do my recording. And you know, he was talking, asking me about what was going on with the church. I told him what happened and he was excited. During that week, he went to the Honda shop. He met someone in the Honda shop. He says, who are you? I know you. And the guy said, yeah, I know you too. And apparently they were old friends. And he says, what are you doing right now? Oh, you know, I own, our family, we own a construction business. Our family owns a hardware and we're having you know, a lot of stuff going on right now, but hey, what are you doing? He says, oh, my friend, he said, I have a medical business, I sell medical equipment. He says, that's good. Hey, by the way, do you know of someone in your church that needs help with buildings? I kid you not. He said, do you need someone that can help? I can help with buildings. You know, God has put in our heart just to help. And we're trying to look for people whom we can help. Our hardware, that our hardware can donate, can just help out. And so, he knew who to call. He knew. He called me. He said, Pastor, you can't believe this. I just met this guy right now here in Honda. I told him that we're going to meet him Thursday. I said, go set it. We met. We shook hands. I said, tomorrow, Pastor, let's go. That afternoon, we went to the site and he was looking. He says, tomorrow, I'm going to bring a hundred dump trucks. to dump filling material to level off your lot. Because your lot needs leveling off. You know, you don't just build just like that. You have to make sure everything's level. Apparently, God had given him a project close by. And all the filling material that he had gotten there, they had nowhere else to put. But guess where? Guess where? Guess where? God knew. Did I know? Never. You know where my brain was going to take us. If I did it my way, we were still wherever. But you know how much that costs per truck? That's a lot of money and everything was free. So we had all these... I kid you not, everything was free. God is my witness. I'm telling you this as a testimony, as a story of God's faithfulness. If you just trust God. Are you okay? Are you still with me? Let's have this journey, alright? I'm talking about adventure here. And so this is what happened, okay? And so everything was there, Pastor Barker, you know, just imagine, you saw the building already, but everything was there, all the mounds of filling material was there, and you know, he said to me, Pastor, praise God, you know, we got this all in. I said, yeah, you got it all in, you know. I had nothing to do with this, but praise God for you. I praise God for him. And he said, Pastor, how are you going to level this? Do you have equipment? No. I said, but we have men, we have people. How are you going to do that? Shovels? We have shovels. He says, no, that's not going to work. It's going to take 48 years for you to level this thing up. So he gets in his cell phone, he calls, you know, all of a sudden, the grader came in, and the backhoe came in, and, you know, the, you know what that thing is? Bulldozer. Huh? Bulldozer. Bulldozer, yeah. And it went up to about 7 o'clock in the evening, and we were there, you know, and he said, stop, you guys, you've done enough, go home. But he said, you know what? Pastor, I like to work. The owner. He said, grab that light. I grabbed the light, and we were just there till midnight. He was the one operating. The owner. This guy that I have never met in my life. He was operating. And so, we got that done. And I said, Pastor, just go to our hardware, order what you want. Order what you want. We'll take care of it. Or, he didn't say, we'll take care of it. Just pay when able. Pay when able. So by January, February, March, by April, we had our first services. We were given three months to move out. By first Sunday of April, we had our first service. All we had was posts and a roof. That's it. And we built the building step by step, one block at a time, seven years. Professor Barker and Mrs. Barker have been to our building. But everything in that building has a story. The tiles has a story. Everything, yes. I was, the windows, we were in the first floor, and it was funny because we all had posts, you know, because the plan was to have a second floor. And so we all had this post sticking out, and I was preaching like this, and imagine you'd have all those posts there, you know, so I'd be preaching like this, and trying to make sure that I, you know, I saw everybody, and I was fun! Adventure! Sometimes I'd peer through the post and there'd be, Amen! Amen! And they'd be sleeping. That was fun. So we had one portion. One time we had the second floor, all right? So we put the floors in the second floor, one portion at a time. And finally, I said, let's transfer to the second floor. So half of the second floor had a floor. The other half had none. And so I'd be always looking out, saying, make sure children in the back, that ushers watch it, because children might jump. And so we finally had the second floor all, had the floor and we just had holes in our wall because there were no windows, just holes. So that was literal air condition we had. Every time I preached, the message was like, open your bibles to the wind will be blowing. To the book of I tell you church, I'd be going just like that. I'd be going like this. The Bible says. The Bible says. You know what I mean? What an adventure. So finally we got to a point where we were going to raise the windows. There was 24 windows. I said, OK, our family is going to have one window. Anyone who would like to donate a window? So one family would say, we'll have half a window. And the other family would say, we'll take the other half. Yes, that's what we did. There was this guy from Australia. He was in the back. He's Lebanese, but he was from Australia. He was observing that particular time. I was raising windows, I was raising windows, and we finally got to 11 windows, and no one was raising anymore. I said, okay, that's fine. We'll stop here, because we're done with windows. Let's just put whatever we can put, and after that we'll race again. And this Australian guy was in the back. He said, OK, everybody, let's get ready to pray. Because he's a visitor, you know. I said, excuse me, one moment. Yes, sir. Can I help you? He says, I'll finish all the windows. Whatever you've raised, put it, and whatever is needed, I'll finish it. Finished all the windows. And you know what? I can tell you story upon story, and we can probably be so tired. Our spirits are awake, but our flesh is weak, you know. But that church is a manifestation of the adventure of faith. And you know last year, that's why, you know why believe is the theme that God has given to us? Because God said, or not literally said, you know, God impressed upon us the lot at the side. You know how much that is? That's about $425,000. And I said, Lord, if you did this to us, we were just $30,000 and you provided $4.5 million, what is $20 million? Pesos. And I said, Church, let's just believe, because God wants us to. This is not my project, this is God's project. And so when we launched it last July, last year, we're now half, or more than half, I'm sorry, 60%. We've raised about $200,000 plus equivalent for our lot. There was no, you know, Pastor Barker, Church, please help us. urging you know, I'm not saying that's wrong, but there was no American hell, no nothing, it was all the people of God in the Philippines, because I said, if this is going to be a manifestation of the power of God, let it be manifested in our life. Because the God of America is also the God of the Philippines by the way, by the way, by the way, you know, lest you forget, The God of America is still the God of Europe. There's nothing wrong if someone would come and raise money. If that's what God wants you to do, fine. But hey, we need to let people know that our God is the same God of America. And God is blessing those that have committed. One couple committed half a million pesos. Our family is going to commit half a million pesos. And so I divided it, brother, into squares. 50 squares. Each square is 300,000 pesos. So if you'd commit 300,000, if you believe that God is a God worth 300,000, if God touches your heart, go! I said, Pastor, our family, half a million. They have a school and they have a business. It's just barely new. You know what? Two weeks after that, he came with me with a check. Pastor, God provided. Half a million. And then he said, he wasn't finished yet. I said, Praise God! Shook his hand, God has blessed you. I told the church, Praise God! He said, I'm not finished pastor, we're gonna commit another half a million. These are Filipinos that they started hard up, but because they trusted in God, and they just believed in God, and they believed that's what God wanted them to do, and God blessed them financially. You know what? It's an adventure. It's not our responsibility to totally understand God. If you right now are sitting there and you say, I know everything about God. You know what? You haven't. Because if you have, then that God is not the real God. God could never be understood. That's why He only has given us His written Word, His revealed Word. The secret things, the Bible says, Deuteronomy 29, 29, belong unto God and to those who are our children, but those things that are not written here don't belong to us. Who knows if Adam has a belly button or not. You know what I mean? He was never born. Some people ask me, Pastor, does Adam have a belly button? I said, I don't know. The Bible doesn't say that. That's a foolish and unlearned question. What does that have to do with your spiritual life if Adam had a belly button? Because he was not born, you know. I don't know. Maybe he had. I mean, who cares? It's not revealed. You know? So, why make up something that's not there? What came first, Pastor? The egg or the chicken? I don't know. Chicken. Okay, fine. Nobody has to start with it. Okay, fine. Okay? You're not gonna die and go to hell. That's fine. But everything that is revealed, we can't even handle the revealed part. If I go to those that we can handle. So the responsibility of the Christian is not to totally understand, but to what? Readily obey. It's to obey. Abraham said, let's go. Sarah, let's go. This is an adventure. He was already relaxed. He was retired. He was probably not tired. He was okay. He had quite a good amount of money. He could have just said, I'll just support you guys. I thank God your pastor is still here. That's rare for pastors nowadays. To be in one church. And I'm not trying to make his head big. No, that's just praising God for what he has done in your life. Thank God for pastor. He's been here for a long time. Long time. Trusting God by faith. Believing that this is what God wants him to do. In the face of all the trials and all these things that are going on in your country today. I appreciate my father, our pastor. He's been there for like 46 years. In one church. And how times have changed, but he's still there. Not that he needs to, but that's... I said, Dad, how do you feel? Do you feel tired? Do you feel like... He says, no, I believe this is what God wants me to do. It's not here because I need to be here. I'm here because I believe this is what God wants me to do. It's an adventure. Remember the principle of voice, adventure and value. The Bible says in verse number 10, For Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations. There's a lot of cities, but he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. You know what that is? That's value. He had the right priorities. You know the Christian life is not between good and bad. You know what it is? It's between good and best. God wants you to be the best. Anything can be good. The tree of life was good, by the way. There was something good in it. Not everything that is good is God's. This is good. This is okay. You know, this is good. But not everything that's good can be God's. Maybe that's not where God wants you to be. I have a job. Is having a job good? Yes, of course. Is having a business good? Yes, of course. But is that what God wants you to do? Is that where God wants you to be? You know? I could have been here. I applied. I had a scholarship here, brother. And I was supposed to be here. But God said, the US government didn't give me a visa to be here in college. I've been here two times. When I was a teenager and I was younger. Nine years old. And I was here 14 years old. But when time came that I was going to be in college, I had all the paperwork and it was all approved. The only thing that I needed was a student visa. I applied. Denied. It doesn't say denied. Accepted. But that means that, you know, we accepted your request, but you were not given a visa. Because if you're approved, they'll stamp a visa, not the word accepted. So I was denied, and the lady said, come back next year. We'll see. So I didn't go to school. I came back the next year thinking that I would get the visa. It was the same lady. All the interviewers, it was the same lady. Oh, you're back. I said, yeah, you told me. I'm back. She said, you know what, son? I've been looking at your... I just really can't give you a visa. I said, you should have told me. I could have just gone to school. Then she said... Oh, I said, wait. Let me talk first. Don't stop anything here. Can I talk? She said, go ahead. But they, you know, they never gave me a visa. I was so mad, I was so mad, I was so mad. In fact, I was mad at God. I said, God, you know, I don't understand this, I don't understand this, but God wanted me back home because He was forming me and preparing me to where I am today. If I was here, I don't know, I probably would be dead. Knowing me, I'd be dead. I'd be probably drowned wherever. Whatever. For those who know me, I mean, it's God's grace. I do not deserve to be here. None of us do. But you know what? It's God's grace. But the thing is, when we live by faith, we must know God's value. It's not about being in a better country, in a better job, a better situation. It's being where God wants you to be. My dad's 83 years old, brother. A lot of people come to me, you know, old-time friends, they'd say to my dad and pass it, say, you're gonna be next. I said, why, are you the Holy Spirit? I told them, you're not the Holy Spirit. I'm not after that position, I'm not after that church. I'm not because it's a victory, no. You know what, I'm happy where I am. I'm so happy where I am. I know that's where God wants me to be. value, priorities. Abraham said, I am looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Remember, our citizenship is in heaven, and the Bible warns us about friendship with the world, and we must not act or think like the world, and we must not be conformed to the world, the way the world thinks, the way the world has its value system, its priorities, which is very twisted right now. This morning I was talking to the church about family. Book of Psalm 127, the Bible says, blessed is the man that has his quiver full of children. You know what a quiver is? It's where you put your arrows, and you know a full quiver is 12 arrows? So literally the Bible says, blessed is the man that has 12 children. But in our society today, children are a nuisance. That's the priority. The priority is money. The priority is power. The priority is popularity. The priority is this. It's never God. But Abraham had the right priorities. No wonder he lived by faith. He was living by faith. Followed God because he knew the principle of value. And number four, remember the principle of vision. Bible says he looked for a city. What does this mean pastor? It means that we need to keep our faith focused on God. your priorities will only be right if our focus is on God, on the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 3.1, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are below, above, above. So our, as a Christian, as a born again believer, our value system, our affections, our Viewpoint is a heavenly viewpoint. When you look at your business, it's not just about you and what you can get. It's for building God's work. What He's doing in the world. Have you ever asked yourself why we're still alive? Have you ever asked yourself? When you got saved, you became what? John 1 12. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become what? Sons of God. We're children of God, right? Who's our Heavenly Father? God, I'm a father, you know what I miss the most? My children. Of course my wife and I, we're together, we're one, so when I say my, it's us, we miss our children. Sometimes we celebrate an anniversary together, you know. Guess what? We get a hotel room, my wife and I, guess who's in the middle of our room? Our children. We just want to be together. You know, we want our children to be with us. And right now, I wish my two sons were here, but Priority, school. America won't move, but their age will. So they have to stay and go to school. Be in college, you know? But, if there's anything that a father would miss, it's his children. The moment a person gets saved, if I was God, and I thank God I'm not God, okay, but I'm just putting a situation. If I was God, the moment a person gets saved, I would just get them and get out of that world, just be with me. I don't want you to go through all that, you know, these things. Come home! Let's go home! But the reason why we're still here, you know why? Because God is doing a work in this world. He loves this world. And He wants to save each and every one. His desire is that all should not perish, but that all should come to repentance. That's His desire. That every person in this world will come to Jesus. Come to Him. That's why we as Christians should have that vision. You know, open to Matthew chapter 6. Are you still okay? Yes. Are you with me? If you're with me, say Amen. Amen. You guys still have meetings, you know? You better reset it. This is Pastor Barker. Okay, so look at this. This is a very familiar passage of Scripture. I want to share this truth to you. This is very important. Look at this. Look at chapter number six of Matthew, all right? Matthew chapter six, and look at start verse number... The last part, let's just come down to verse number 31. Therefore, okay, God is discussing here, Jesus Christ is discussing here about living by faith and having the right priority, and the Bible says, Jesus said, therefore take no thought, don't worry, saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? Where should we be clothed? What are these things? These are the basic things in life. Basic. You can't live without this. You can't go out naked. You have to have clothing. You can't go out in winter with just a shirt. You have to have a coat. Because it's cold. In the Philippines it's okay. We only have one weather pattern. It's hot and it's hotter. That's it. Okay, that's it. But over here you have winter, spring, summer and fall. And God said, don't think about that, alright? What you will eat, your drink. Open close parenthesis chapter of verse number 32. For after all these things do the Gentiles see? That means, that's what the unbeliever thinks. That's his mindset. When he wakes up to that reality, that he can be able to earn money, hey man, this is about getting stuff. This is about me. It's about what I'm going to eat. Where I'm going to eat. And the more expensive the food is, have you realized that? The smaller it becomes. Have you realized that? No wonder those expensive restaurants are so rich because they only serve a little. And it's so expensive. Whereas the cheaper ones, they have a lot of food, but it's cheaper. Well, that's the world view, or whatever. You know? And this is what the mindset of the unbeliever is. You know, I can get a job, I can have this, what I can eat, what I can drink, and what I'm going to be clothed with. That's the mindset. But, here's the thing. The thought that Jesus Christ is telling us here. Aren't you my children? He even uses the example of the bird. the cows of the air, I take care of them. Are you not much better than them? You're not only my creation, you're my children. Have you ever thought of that? That you don't even have to... I don't pray anymore, Lord please provide because I know He provides. You know what I pray for? Lord, thank you. But pastor, why are there times when I pray, I don't have this food. You know, maybe you don't have food because maybe God wants you to fast for that time. I'm not kidding. Maybe God wants you at that particular time to fast. God will never leave us. There is a reason why at a particular time God didn't give you money to buy that food. Not because He has rejected you. Not because He has not provided for you. No, He is actually giving you good health. But you just need to get it, you just need to get it, you just need to get it. But God said, I've taken care of that. You know what you need to pray for? Verse 33, Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. So when you have a job, it's not about you because God has taken care of your needs. You have a job because why? You want to build the Kingdom of God. You have a business, why? You need to build the Kingdom of God. And for those that have understood that thought, in our church, God's people, that's where the millions come from. That's where the... For those that understood that. And by the way, I'm part of it. I committed as well, pastor. And God has provided. I'm pastor and I have a fixed income. I'm not a businessman. But God has provided. I said, Lord, is it possible? Yes, it's possible. God will provide. Look to Jesus. Principle of vision. Five. Principle of vigilance. I said it a while ago, remember? Keep the heart with all diligence. Why? Because there are many things that are going to compete. The voices, competing voices. So be vigilant. That's why Sarah was not vigilant. God already promised, God already said, I'm going to give you, but she was not vigilant. She lost faith. I mean focus. And her faith faltered. So she looked at her alternative. And still to this day, after thousands of years, we still feel the result of that, the consequences of that. Abraham, Sarah failed to guard their hearts and failed to guard their faith and trust and focus in God. That's why, you know what, in the Bible, God reminds us that God is strengthening our faith because that's the most important aspect with God. In 1 Peter 1.7, the trial of our faith is much more precious Our hardship today to strengthen our faith in God is more important to God than having all the money in the world. Because He will provide for us. He will. He's going to take care of your project here. He's going to take care of our project. He's going to take care of whatever we are going through right now. When I had cancer about seven years ago, this was my verse. The trial of your faith. I said, Lord, I was, what, 30-something, late 30s. I said, Lord, why now? You know, maybe in my later years, I would probably, what do you call this, expect that, but now, I was very active. I still am, you know. Since we've landed in the States, I'm still active, active eating. I haven't exercised here because, you know, we travel from one state to the other. But back home, I do exercise. I'm very active. I said, Lord, why this? I questioned myself. What did I do? Where did I go wrong? But God says, no, I've allowed that. Have you ever heard of those things? They're very active, but all of a sudden they get sick? It's not what you do. It's God in your life. He allows things. He stops things. It's all about God. if we forgot it. So let's be vigilant, guard our focus, our faith and trust in God. Here's the last, I'll let you go. Living by faith requires understanding the principle of victory. You see, when we live by faith, God wants us not only to be blessed by living that life, but he wants others to be blessed as well. The Bible says here, Therefore, verse number 12, sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, Abraham, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. And the Bible goes on to say, and God promised that the seed of Abraham, the nation through which comes from the seed of Abraham, those nations that blessed them are going to be blessed. You see, we spread out the gospel, we shine the light of Jesus Christ here in Elmont, by living by faith. Because when God blesses you, financially, relationally, physically, and in all aspects of your life, intellectually. By the way, when God blesses you intellectually, don't be proud. Thank God for it, because God is going to use you for something. Give God the glory. Give God the glory. There's this friend of ours that was there in Jackson Heights this morning and their child is one of the state champions, state champions in swimming. And you know, they just migrated here and so he's a good swimmer. He's 9 years old but he competes with 12 year olds and 13 year olds. And he's in the top, you know, in the state. The coach is trying to groom him for Olympic, you know, swimming. They told us this morning and they said, you know what pastor, we're so glad our child gives his testimony and his friends come to him. How do you, why are you so good? And he says, because I prayed to Jesus. It's all about Jesus. This young, young nine year old. And when that young 9-year-old understands trusting God, he's not proud because obviously he understands that it's God that has given him his skill, and he gives God the glory, that radiates as a blessing to others, hey, there is a God. There's a true and a living God. When they look at our life, will people say, you know what, when I look at this person's life, there truly is a God. You know why people lose hope? is because many times probably we have failed to live by faith. Because God is using us, His people. You know what we are in the Bible? We are what? Salt. We are preservers. The reason why New York is still here in the map, why? Because there are His people here in Elmont, in Jackson Heights and in other places. God's people are the preservers. Once The rapture takes place and he gets all the believers out. You know what's going to happen. Everything's going to break down just like that. Boom. Break down. You have to realize that you are important to God. Don't be proud of it. Let's not be proud of it. Let's be thankful. And let's use that truth to live by faith. Don't be afraid. I don't know what's going on in your life right now. I don't know tomorrow you're going to make a decision. Some decision in your life. And probably this message is for you tonight. That God wants you to just do it. Just do it. That's what I want you to do. You're afraid, you know, you don't know what you... And probably God is telling you, you need to reconcile with someone. But you're just, you know, but what if, you know, what if he's gonna get a hammer or get a gun, he's gonna shoot me. What if, what if... If God wants you to do that, why don't you just do it? Just do it. Just do it. and say, you know what, I made a mistake, I don't know where our relationship went wrong, but I believe our relationship is more important than whatever that is. It may be money, it may be whatever it is. I believe our relationship is more important. Just do it. If you need to pay off someone and you know you're afraid or whatever, just do it. Pay them. Even if it is to your detriment, just make sure your testimony is intact. Do it. Live by faith. Believe! Believe! That's what it is all about. You know what? It's a great adventure. It's like riding a roller coaster, you know? You think you're gonna die, but you're not. You really will come out there alive. I may not be the right person to say that, because I really don't like roller coasters. If I had done that when I was younger, probably, but, you know, the opportunity to ride one was quite late. And so I'm not really into that, but someone told me, riding a roller coaster is really fun because you think you're going to die, but you're going to live through it. Sometimes the Christian life feels that way, but you know, it's better than a roller coaster. It's an adventure. It's wonderful. All this grass here I can't see, but all of a sudden, you know, the grass parts and you see a wonderful, beautiful scene. I'm glad I came to this place. That's God. He has something prepared for us. The Christian life is a wonderful life. Young people, listen. Don't believe what the world says. You know, the Christian life is for losers. That's a lie. That's a lie. That's what the devil said to Adam and Eve. Look where it took them. So let's just keep on. Amen. Father, thank You, Lord, for tonight, for Your Word. Thank You for just putting the life of Abraham and reminding us that It is such a blessed life to live by faith. We probably wouldn't be pushed to the point where we would sacrifice our own children and you would tell us to offer up our Isaacs. Probably it may be something else, to offer up our pride of the altar, to offer up our self-centeredness, to offer up our worldliness and offer up things that needs to be offered up that they're not even of use anyways. If we would only realize that there's so much more, and we think we have more, but we really don't have anything if we don't live by faith. Lord, I do pray and ask that you would bring revival in the families that are here tonight. And even for those that are here, they're going to see a difference in the coming days. They're going to see a victorious life in the life of the families represented here because they have, we have, committed to follow you by faith. Lord, whatever it is, maybe a financial decision, maybe a health decision, maybe a relational decision, maybe a spiritual decision, whatever it may be, Lord, it takes a step of faith. But it all has to start with recognizing that this is what you want us to do. Not what I want to do, not my mission, but your mission. Your desire, not my desire. Lord, change our hearts. If we have lived all our lives just Thinking about us, forgive us. Please, O Lord God, remove the self-centeredness and help us to live humbly and justly, to love mercy, to walk in meekness before Thy sight, because it is a blessed life that You have prepared for us. We don't know any other life because we were born sinners, but now You are presenting to us the blessed life by which You have originally planned us to live. Lord, there's just fear. Remove the fear in Jesus' name. Remove the doubts by the power of the Holy Spirit. I do pray and ask that, Lord, we will live a life in victory. Thank You, Lord God. Thank You for just being our God, our Father. And Lord, if there's anyone here tonight that is not born again, Lord, may they realize that being born again is not a bad thing. It's not something to be ashamed of. It's something to be grateful for, because being born again is your plan. You've said, except a man be born again, you will not see the Kingdom of God.