What Happened?

This is for the lost and lonely, for the broken and afraid. This is for those who are hurting, hope and help is on the way. In these battles of addiction, when fear is chasing after me. Whatever trouble I am facing, I will lift my hands and sing. I believe in miracle power, in a wonder working God. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, there's working wonders in my heart. I belong to a loving Father, I'm a friend of Christ His Son. When it feels like I won't make it, I call on Jesus. Yeah, oh we call on Jesus. Sometimes it's so hard being human. So much struggle, so much pain. Yes there is. When I start singing hallelujah, I say goodbye to every chain. I believe in miracle power, in a wonder working God. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, there's working wonders in my heart. I belong to a loving Father, I'm a friend of Christ His Son. When it feels like I won't make it, I call on Jesus. I call on Jesus this time. I may not know what a day may bring, but I know who brings the day. On the darkest night when I cannot see, still my soul will say, oh yes. I may not know what a day may bring, but I know who brings the day. On the darkest night when I cannot see, still my soul will say, my soul will say. I believe in miracle power, in a wonder working God. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, there's working wonders in my heart. I belong to a loving Father, I'm a friend of Christ His Son. When it feels like I won't make it, I call on Jesus. I believe in miracle power, in a wonder working God. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, there's working wonders in my heart. I belong to a loving Father, I'm a friend of Christ His Son. When it feels like I won't make it, I call on Jesus.

I believe in miracle power, in a wonder working God. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, there's working wonders in my heart. I belong to a loving Father I'm a friend, a wife, and son When it feels like I'm home, baby I call on Jesus Jesus I will give my life for Jesus For Jesus Jesus Hallelujah Thank you Jesus Thank you, Father, for Jesus Thank you, Jesus, for the Holy Spirit Thank you, Holy Spirit, for power and guidance and truth And thank you, Almighty God, for the church Thank you for the gift of faith Thank you for the indwelling Holy Spirit And now open our understanding Lord, your servant David cried, Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law I cry that today, Lord, for me and for us We want to see you We want to see the depths of your beautiful Word And I ask you to grant that in Jesus' name Everybody said Amen Thank you for being seated I'm going to draw your attention this morning to three Old Testament characters And then make a point

The first character in the Old Testament is in Judges Seven and eight His name is Gideon We know that Israel had been overwhelmed by and controlled by, attacked by the Midianites And they are hiding from the Midianites They even have to hide to thresh their wheat When we come upon Gideon, he is threshing wheat while hiding so the enemy won't find it and take it The Lord shows up to Gideon and says Hello, mighty man of valor And Gideon said, you don't mean me I'm hiding and I I'm the least of all in my father's house and we're the smallest tribe and he said I have something for you to do And he put his hand on Gideon's life The first thing Gideon did was to tear down altars that had been built to the pagan god Baal or some of you say Baal By night he took some men and went into town and ripped the gods down and destroyed them That's the first thing he did Then the Lord said I have another

mission for you to accomplish I want to defeat your enemy I want to use you to do it And so Gideon made the announcement and 32,000 volunteer soldiers showed up to fight And the Lord said Gideon, that's too many If you were to win with that many you would say you did it So I want you to tell them all anybody that's afraid, go home 22,000 went home 10,000 remained God said, still too many And then he gave Gideon the test the water drinking test whoever laps I want you to keep them to fight this battle against 120,000 soldiers of the enemy 300 showed up and stayed 300 out of 32,000 now an army of 120,000 is before them And you know what God did because of Gideon and his faith God's hand upon him the 300 wiped out the 120,000 Now this brought fame to Gideon

to the point that the people said will you be our king Gideon said, there is no way I'll be your king. God is your king. He said, but I do have a request. And what would that be? I want you to bring me all that jewelry, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, that you have confiscated from the enemy. Bring it to me and lay it on a pallet here. I want to do something. OK. And so they brought it. And Gideon took all of that jewelry and he melted it down and made an ephod. That's a vesture, a golden vesture. And he put it in the middle of the city. Why? Because the Bible says Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house. The man that built an altar and called on the name of the Lord and got victory over his enemies is now building an altar to a false god. What happened? He caused the very people he saved to fall back into paganism. I don't get it. And the Bible says they did not show kindness to Gideon. They did not remember all the good that he had done. So my question to you is, how do you go from a man who is a pagan to a man who My question to you is, how do you go from being a chosen, picked out, anointed, blessed man who brings victory to God's people and destroys myriads of the enemy, and then all of a sudden

you decide to build a god, the very god he tore down, and put it in the middle of the city and caused the people to worship that god? What happened? He started well, but he didn't finish so great. So then there's this other passage in 2 Chronicles. Let me see if I can find it. 2 Chronicles 26. His name is Uzziah. This is a pretty interesting fellow here. He is a great man, King Uzziah. The Bible says, he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. Well, I keep reading. And I find out that God had such an anointing on this man that he caused him to be known throughout that part of the world as a great military strategist. Not only was he a great military strategist, he hired people to invent new military things. He had the utmost army of the Middle East at that time with strange new weapons. Let me just read it. Uzziah prepared for them, for the entire army, shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and slings to cast stones. And he made devices in Jerusalem invented by skillful men to be on the towers and the corners to shoot arrows and large stones. So his fame spread far and wide,

for he was marvelously helped till he became strong. God marvelously helped him until he became strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. What happened? Here is another man God places his hand upon doing extraordinary things, doing things that people can't even describe, using weapons nobody had ever built. His fame has spread like wildfire. And the Bible says the Lord marvelously helped him do this. But when he thought he did it, when he started giving himself credit, when he did not lay before God and depend on God, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. And the Bible says he did an unthinkable thing. In his haughtiness now, he walks into the temple and starts to offer incense to God. Now, that's a religious felony because only certain priests were ordained to offer that sacrifice to God. But you see, when you get haughty in your own mind and think that you have done it all, that you built it, that you made all that money, that you've created all of this, you begin to think that God will give you a pass. Because you give to missions and to the poor and help so many people or employ so many people, you think that God is particular to you and will let you slide,

that his standard of holiness and his requirements are lessened for you because of the great things you have done for him. God doesn't have a dual standard. God has no favorites. Everything God requires, he requires of all of us. And so Uzziah goes into the temple to offer this, and the priests come out and say, what are you doing, king? You can't do this. He defied them. He bowed up at them. He thought he could do anything he wanted to do because he was the king. But the Bible says when he confronted and when he retaliated against the priests, a leprous spot came on his head and he was suddenly covered with leprosy. Here's how the Bible says it. King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house because he was a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. You see, the question is begged, what happened? How do you go from being a broken, humble man who depends on God to the place where you say, his rules don't matter, his people don't matter, I'll do what I want to do. And the man that started out in glory ended up alone as a leper, and that's how he died. Well, there's even another story to be told here.

It's about a man named Hezekiah. Now, you've got to understand, we're talking about some great men of God, some great kings. 2 Kings chapter 18 says that Hezekiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He did according to all that his father David had done. He held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following Him, but kept the Lord's commandments which the Lord had commanded Moses. The Lord was with him. He prospered wherever he went. He even rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. That means he knew God's hand was on him and he knew so much divine favor was upon him that he stood up to the king of Assyria and said, We won't serve you. I don't care how big you are. We're not afraid of you. That's pretty good. But then the king, Sennacherib, sent a letter and said, We're going to come and wipe you out like we've done all the other nations. Now watch this. Hezekiah is the one that we preach about a lot and read about even more. It says, He took that threatening letter that Sennacherib sent to him

and he took it into the temple and laid it on the floor. And he got on his face and prayed to God. And he said, God, I can't do this. Lord, they far outnumber us. Lord, this is an impossible thing. Our lives are hanging in the balance. Oh God, please do not let this happen. And God heard his prayer. And God is the one that destroyed the army that came against Hezekiah and Israel. God did it because a man laid on his face and called on the name of God. Well, right after that, something else happened. It says, in those days, Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet went to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord, Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. Now that's from God. God touched Isaiah the prophet and said, You go straight to the king and say, You better get things in order. Line up, because you're going to die. Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart and have done what was good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. O church, do you hear this? Not only did a man cry in the presence of God on his face about a battle,

he also cried about a personal need. He said, Lord, I don't want to die. O my God, remember I've tried to serve you. And the Lord remembered. As Hezekiah was weeping bitterly, Isaiah was leaving the king's bedroom. He was not even out of the courtyard yet. And God spoke to the prophet and said, Now go back, tell him I heard what he prayed, and I'm going to heal him. Not only am I going to heal him, I'm going to add 15 years to his life. And guess what happened? After God healed him and added 15 years to his life, Hezekiah forgot the Lord. I've been asking this all day. What happened? How do you go from a broken king calling on a God who wins your battle for you? How do you go from a broken king who's dying and just simply cries out in faith and God heals you? How do you go from someone who's just been gifted an additional 15 years and then do what is unthinkable? What is that unthinkable thing? Well, down in verse 12 of chapter 20 it says, At that time the king of Babylon sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. Now, I'm going to try to portray this the way I feel it. Here is a little king in a little country who has suddenly been contacted by the biggest king and the biggest country in the world.

And he is enamored. He knows me. They know me. They're coming to me. Wow! You mean the king of Babylon is going to send envoys and representatives to see me? Kind of reminds me of how the church acts sometimes. We want the world to recognize us. We don't want to be seen as old-fashioned holy rollers, old-timey, close-minded religious freaks. We want the world to know that we're as smart as they are. We can dance as well as they can. We've got entertainment as good as theirs. We can raise money just like them. We can have the finest buildings, the finest programs. We just want the world to recognize that we're not old-fashioned fogies who are leaning on a religious crutch. And here's what happened. Hezekiah was attentive to them and showed them all the house of his treasure. The silver, the gold, the spices, the precious ointment, all of his armory, all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and said, What did these men say? And from where did they come to you? Hezekiah... I said, they came from a far country, they came from Babylon.

And he said, what have they seen in your house? Isaiah said, you mean to tell me that you let our biggest enemy in the front door? The people that have sworn to wipe us off the face of the earth, and you let them in the front door? Do you think for a moment they're just being nice? Those are spies. And he said, what have they seen in your house? Hezekiah answered, they've seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord. Oh, boy. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house. And what your fathers have accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord, and they shall take away some of your sons. He said, because you were brazen and undiscerning enough to let your enemy in the front door, they've looked at everything you've got, and they've said, we're coming to get it, and his family. And as a pastor, I look at that passage and I say, Lord, how can I make this real to this congregation? Because I know that there are families and there are Christians in this room and watching me that have opened the door to the devil. The devil does not have to sneak in the back. He does not kick the door down anymore, because we just opened it up. We opened it up with television. We let filth and lies and gossip run all day long in our homes. Years ago, I was making some visits to sick people in the church. I went to one house, they invited me in, and I could hardly talk to them because Fox News was blaring in the background. I finally had prayer left, went to the other one. This is the truth.

Went in, I could hardly talk because they had CNN blaring in the background. I could barely get a prayer in. You see, when you open the front doors by listening to the opinions of lost people all the time, when you think that friendship is with the world and recognition of the world about us is a good thing, Satan doesn't have to do very much work, you see. We've got internets in our house and everybody knows there's good things on it and there's rotten, nasty, perverted, demonic things on it. If you have given your child a phone or a device with no filter on it, you have handed them a rattlesnake. And parents, you should be ashamed that you are not monitoring them any more than that. Well, I trust my child. Your child is no different from any other child because you're no different from any other parent. We let things in our house, but we have attitudes in our house. We want our children to know how to pitch and catch and throw. We take them in the backyard. Dad says, this is how you do it. You hold the ball this way. You hold the bat. This is how you kick. This is how you do it all. But Dad, have you taught them how to get on their knees? Have you taught them that when life throws you a curve, you open up the Word of God? You don't break things. You don't cuss and swear. You don't hire a lawyer. You don't go fight it out.

You go somewhere, and you get with God, and you get down on your knees, and you open up the Word of life. And if you don't teach them that, you're not teaching them anything, my friend. It's not uncommon here in this church. We have the best youth camps I think any church can have. Solid, spiritual worship services, and teachers, and guides, and kids meet friends. But it is not uncommon to have a parent say, oh, the week of their youth camp is the same week of soccer camp. school. That's the same week as our tennis camp. I wish our kids could go, but no, they've got to go to tennis camp. And what you're teaching your child, by opening the front door, is that the stuff the world offers is way more valuable than all this stuff the church offers. The church is kind of second-class, you know, it's just kind of low-rated, but if they can get in the world system, if they can be recognized by a fallen world, see, I say it again, we just opened the front door. We've just told our children what the world offers is more important than what God promises. I'm really trying to be nice this morning, but your opinion of your child's ability may be way higher than everybody else's. Nevertheless, the devil wants your family destroyed. He is just marching right through the front door and convincing you that for some reason, yours is special, they're going to get this, and they're going to become that, and when none of that happens, they're going to be devastated, and on top of being devastated, they will not have been taught how to call on the name of the Lord. And then we'll wake up one day and say, what happened? I was a good parent, I provided everything, I gave them all they needed. What happened? So I'm going to ask you a question because I love you. What, how are you planning to finish this? God gave Hezekiah 15 more years, and what did he do with it? Nothing. He gave it to the enemy by opening the front doors. I don't have any doubts that I'm preaching to somebody this morning who should have been dead 10 or 15 years ago. You had cancer, but somehow you're hearing me this morning. The doctors did it, the Lord did it, somebody did it, but you got 15 more years. What have you done with it? Usually when God gives us

extra and we know we got it, instead of giving it back to Him and laying before Him, we just say, I'm going to enjoy this. Just open the front door, let the devil in, because God's church operates on prayer and godly parental teaching. And parents are to teach their children the ways of the Lord, not sports. And I could go on and on. Those things are peripheral. Those things come and go, but this is eternal. And what you teach them out of this book will never leave them. So how are we going to finish? When Paul goes to the church in Galatia, in the very first chapter, he said, what happened? The last time I was here, you were full of joy, and you were singing, and you believed only in Christ, and you were having wonderful worship services. You were full of the truth. What happened? Now I come back and I find out somebody has slithered into your congregation, and they are teaching that Jesus is Messiah, but you still need to keep the law, you've got to have both to go to heaven, and the joy is gone, and you're in bondage again. What happened? How did you let these people in among you? Why did you open the front door? Look what's happened. He said, has Christ died for nothing? Is this all in vain? Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? What happened? And Paul thought that all of this was so extremely, extremely, important. Never, listen to me church, we are never to relax. We can rest in Christ but you better never relax in Christ. Who heard that? I'm resting in Him but I'm living a busy fruitful life. I'm running, I'm fighting, we're praying and worshiping because that is the way you do it. Paul said, do you not know that those who run in a race all run but one receives the prize? And you know how that works. First place, second place, third place. Paul said, I'm not going for second place. I'm not interested in third place. I want the first place. I want the crown. Don't you know that everybody that gets in the race is racing for the crown. Nobody gets in the race after all this training to say, I just want to come in third. Everybody thinks they're going to win. Everybody says, I will win because they have trained for that very thing. Paul said, run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is self-controlled in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown but we for an imperishable crown. Here's Paul's

conclusion, therefore I run thus. Not with uncertainty. My mind is made up. It's what I preached last week. You should have been here. It was about Elisha. When Elijah put his hand on him and said, come go with me. Elisha ran back but he wasn't running back to quit. He ran back to kill his animals and burn up his plows so he wouldn't have anything to go back to. Paul said, I run not with uncertainty. I know where I'm going. I know who he is. I know who I am. My mind is made up. I will not let pride lift me up that will destroy me. I will not let other things on this world come through the front door of my life. The doors are locked. The windows are locked. My mind is locked. I am certain. I know whom I have believed and I'm going to see him one of these days. Thus I fight. Not as one that beats the air. I make every punch count but I discipline my body. I say no, you can't do that. No, you can't drink that. No, you can't look at that. And you do it every day all day long. When you get up in the morning you start saying no, no, no, no, no to your flesh. You keep it moderated. You keep it balanced. You never let the flesh take control. I discipline my body and bring it into subjection. I control me. The Spirit of God in me controls me. I don't let the flesh control me. I don't let the flesh tell me how to act in a situation or what to look at. I stay one step ahead of it. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm walking in the Word and I keep my body in subjection lest when I have preached to others I myself should become disqualified. Oh, what a statement. He said I'm no better than anybody else. God doesn't have favorites. Ooh, we just preached on that. He said I can do all this preaching, all this soul winning, all this church planting and still be disqualified. Disqualified? What does that mean pastor? Do you lose your salvation or do you just lose your rewards? My question to you is why does it matter? If Paul thought it was something so bad that he's willing to fight and run and discipline his body, it doesn't matter what disqualification means. You don't want to be disqualified. I don't want to be disqualified, he said. I don't want to get down to the end after having prayed the prayers. Seen the miracles.

Seen the souls saved. And then I be disqualified? Unthinkable. But he also writes over in 2 Timothy chapter 4, he said this is a faithful saying. I think they will put this one on the screen. This is a faithful saying. If we, if, did you get it church? If we. He did not say if they. If we died with him, we shall also live with him. I'm happy now, see? Because this book teaches me that I am crucified with Christ. I died with Christ. I was buried with Christ. I was raised with Christ. I'm going to live with Christ. Hallelujah to God. What a great thing he did on Calvary's cross. If we died with him, we shall also live with him. But don't you forget that there's a daily dying. Christ died once. I died once with him, but I die daily. I'm a soldier. I got to keep my steps ordered, my mind clean, my hands pure. If we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we endure? Yes. That's what Jesus said in Matthew 24.

He that endures to the end. To the end. There's not a scripture in the Bible that says, once you state Jesus is Lord, that's all you have to do for the rest of your life. No, once you say Jesus is Lord, and once you are converted and regenerated and born again, then you get up from that altar, you get up out of that death, you start walking in that life every day, and you endure. Endure? Oh my, you ought to see the words I marked here. These are words Paul used about his life. He said, share with me in my sufferings. He said, for this reason I suffer. He said to Timothy, you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier. There's nothing easy about this. It doesn't get easier the older you get. I personally have found it a hotter battle than it's ever been. A more vicious conflict than I've ever had. I know I'm getting near the end because the noise is louder from the world. The devil is kicking at the front door harder than he ever has. The door of my heart, the door of my home, the door of this church, I'm not letting him in. Now I'm about to get wound up.

I'm not letting him in. You can't have my heart. My door is locked. You can't get in the door of my house. It's locked. You won't get in the doors of this church. I've told you before, I'm the meanest sheepdog in town. I'll fight every wolf. I'll fight every coyote. I don't care. I'll do it by myself. God has given me the fire and the fervor to say, you won't get in this church. I know I won't start getting in Loran here for a moment. You just have to bear with me. See, if I stood up here like a pansy, you know, a soft-spoken guy, just want to teach you the word of the Lord. And we just pray, we're just praying, Lord, that they will bear some fruit. Oh, Lord, you know, I can't stand that. I think a preacher ought to be the baddest man in town. I think he ought to be brave. I think he ought to operate in authority. I'm not walking around asking for help and begging out of need. I stand up here today as a man that God laid his hand on. I'm full of him. I've got the boldness of a soldier, the compassion of a shepherd

and the meanness of a sheepdog. Here we go. Can you help me, pastor? You can't help me. That's why I don't let word of faith people get a foothold in this church or prosperity teaching in this church. It's demonic, it's devilish, it's deceiving. That's why I preach against it. I yell all the time, you ain't getting in this church. We got one thing on our mind, the whole counsel of God. God did not let his son die so I could have a fat wallet. He let him die so I could go to heaven one of these days and live with him forever. Hallelujah to God. Now, I didn't act this way at 830, but you pushed me over the edge. Let me finish. If we endure, we'll reign. Seven times to the seven churches in Revelation. Seven. He said, he that overcomes. Oh, but pastor, aren't we overcomers by the word of our testimony and the blood of the lamb? That's the people in the tribulation. Read it. But before you get to the tribulation, he says, those that overcome, they can eat from the tree of life. They'll never know the second death.

I'll give them a new name. I'll give them a new stone. I'll give them robes of righteousness. I'll let them sit on a throne with me. I'll let them judge the nations with me. But you've got to overcome. Then he said, if we deny him, he'll deny us. There it is. If we deny him, he'll deny us. Jesus said, those that are ashamed of me and my words, when we stand before the Father and all the holy angels, I will be ashamed of you. Ashamed. Yeah, when because of our jobs or job security, we won't stand up for the faith, that's called denying him, being ashamed of him. If we deny him, he'll deny us, period. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. Listen, a time of shaking has come to this country. Judgment is beginning at the house of God. More and more big shot mega pastors are falling. More and more big shot, money hungry, TV evangelists are falling. And the world, instead of looking at Christ, looks at them. See, there's going to be a judgment against those guys and those women for causing the world to laugh at the church. God said to David, you've given my enemies an opportunity to belittle me because of your sin. And I'm telling them all today, your time is coming. When you fall into sin after preaching, you bring a reproach on the church,

you have scarred people because people judge the church, sadly enough, by Christians instead of Christ. If we could just get them to look at Jesus. See, Jesus never committed adultery. Jesus never begged for money. Jesus never did all of this stuff. Jesus didn't build buildings. Jesus just lived the life of the Father and preached the truth. If we could just get people to look at Jesus instead of us, we might have a better chance of winning them to the kingdom. Here's the bottom line. Even if we're faithless, God's faithful. I don't care if every preacher in the world falls, God is still faithful. I don't care if half of y'all backslide tomorrow, God is still a faithful God. What we do does not change God. Our sins do not affect God's integrity. He's God and God alone. And I'm yelling, and I can't help it, but could somebody help me yell this morning? Hallelujah. So Paul said, I have fought a good fight. I have finished. What happened to Uzziah? What happened to Gideon? What happened to Hezekiah? Well, it didn't happen. Paul, because Paul said, I kept fighting, I kept praying, I kept serving the Lord even in suffering for the Lord. Stand with me, please. I have a burden for tomorrow night. I'm not necessarily asking you to come to prayer so we can pray for some type of visible

result. I'm asking you to come so we can humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. And I'd like to start that by asking everybody in this building and everybody in the FLC to come down front. Tim, you guys down at Wilmington, come down front. Monty, you're at Lake Park, call them down front. If you're home alone, why don't you just kneel? I want you to see this massive crowd. Everybody here, can you walk and hear me talk at the same time? Everybody here knows of somebody that used to be here. I want to wait until everybody can hear that. I know of people after all these years that used to be here. They're not in church anywhere now. They went back. They went back to the world. I know them. You know people like that. They're not in church anymore. They're not walking with Christ anymore. What happened? They got lifted up. They did not need God. They did not humble themselves in the sight of the Lord. And they forgot about finishing, finishing. Let me ask you something. How many of you, I mean this, Michael, do you want to finish? You want to finish, don't you? Who wants to finish over here? Ed, you want to finish? Ed, do you want to finish?

We will not finish by doing what we're doing now. We're going to have to amp it up a little bit, pray a little more, read, seek God. I want to finish. I've already asked the car. I'm going to ask them again. Do you want to finish? Do you want to finish? I want to finish. And when I'm done, I don't want anybody to say, what happened? I want them to say, I believe he's heard the Lord say, well done, good and faithful servant. Greg, Laura's back there. Laura, do you want to finish? Jackie, do you want to finish? Abby, do you want to finish? I want all of you to finish. I want you to finish with fire and vigor. So slam your front doors. Get on your face before God so that the Lord can lift you up. Let's sing it. I surrender all. I surrender all. Oh, to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. One more time. I surrender all. I surrender all. Oh, to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. My blessed Savior, I surrender all. And now, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. May the One who raised Christ from the dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant grant you peace

in all that you do. May the words of my mouth and the medicine be acceptable in thy sight. O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Amen. We pray that today, as you watch Pastor Livingston's message, you will be encouraged and ready to dig deeper into a life with Jesus. To help you on this journey, Central has two resources for you. First, you can sign up to receive Central's Jail and Prison Correspondence course through the mail by writing to Central Church, Jail and Prison Ministries Discipleship Center, 5143 Sardis Road, Charlotte, NC 28270. Second, by using Central's app and clicking on the button below, you can read a short daily devotional that will encourage you to read and pray daily as you draw closer to Jesus. Thank you for watching.