Happy New Year to everybody.
I'm so very thankful that we decided to have one service today
because I went ice skating while I was in North Carolina. And
10 years ago, when I first moved here, I went ice skating for
the first time. And I moved around the ice pretty
well, first time I ever did it. But it's amazing what 10 years
will do. to a man's balance, and it's
amazing what a freshly boned, what's it called, a zamboni,
zamboni drink, freshly zambonied, and it zambonied me. And I haven't been to the doctor
yet, but I went, but I waited seven hours, I mean an hour,
and I was still seventh in line. So I'm going to try to go as
soon as I can and get an x-ray. Let's turn in our Bibles to Deuteronomy
chapter 11. Deuteronomy 11. As Moses delivered God's covenant
of works to the children of Israel, he was urging them to keep all
God's commandments And as he did so, Moses describes the land
of Canaan. And he says in verse 10, The
land whither thou goest in to possess it is not as the land
of Egypt from which you came out, where thou sowed thy seed
and watered it with thy foot as a garden of herbs, but the
land whether you go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys,
and drinketh water of the rain of heaven, a land which the Lord
thy God careth for. The eyes of the Lord thy God
are always upon it from the beginning of the year even unto the end
of the year." Knowing this would be the first day of the new year,
The last line in verse 12 caught my attention. He describes Canaan
as a land which the Lord thy God careth for. The eyes of the
Lord thy God are always upon it from the beginning of the
year even unto the end of the year. Canaan is a type of heavenly
glory that God has promised to all His people that He gives
by promise freely by promise. But this description we have
here is also a description of Christ's church. All those believers
who are separated by God and brought to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. This describes you, who God has
sanctified and redeemed and made to rest in Christ. This is a
description of you. It says there in verse 12, it's
a land which the Lord thy God careth for. Do you remember what
Apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 5-7? He said, cast all your care
on the Lord because He careth for you. And then look at verse
12, he says, the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon
this land. Peter said in 1 Peter 3, verse
12, the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and His ears
are open unto their prayers. So those who are sanctified and
redeemed and given faith to believe on Christ have already entered
into God's promised land, into God's promised rest when we entered
Christ, our Lord, the Son of God. He is heaven. He's our rest. He's the promise of God. He's
everything to the believer. And we've already entered into
that rest when we entered into Christ by faith. And so, as we
gather here now on this first day of the New Year, I pray that
God will be pleased to comfort us with this assurance that each
of you that He has brought to rest entirely in Christ, You
are a land which thy God careth for. The eyes of the Lord thy
God are always upon you from the beginning of the year even
until the end of the year. Now first of all, our current
state in Christ is nothing like the land we were in. It's nothing
like the state we were in when God called us. He says there
in verse 10, The land whither thou goest in to possess it is
not as the land of Egypt, from which you came out, where thou
sowest thy seed, and waterest with thy foot as a garden of
herbs. Egypt was this dry, flat plain. It's just like it is today. It's
a dry, flat plain. And once a year, the Nile River
overflows its banks. And so, the people, in order
to have crops, have to use some wisdom. Let be wise about where
they plant their seed. He says there, where thou sowest
thy seed. And truly, because men use that
wisdom to plant the seed where they will, then they regard it
as their seed. They don't regard it as seed
given by God and grown by God, but their seed that they sow. And then when that river overflows
its banks, the other thing they have to do is they have to work
and build some ponds so that when the water overflows, when
it starts going down, it will have a reservoir to keep that
water in place. And then they work to dig ditches
to the crops where they had the crops planted. And then they
had these pumps that were operated by treadmills. And they would
get on these treadmills and run with their foot. And it would
cause water to pump up out of the ponds, into the ditches and
into their crops. And so God says there, they did
this with their foot. And so whenever God gave them
a fertile crop, you know what they did? You know what they
did when they got a fertile crop after this wisdom they used to
sow their seed and all this work they did to get water by their
foot? Who do you think they gloried
in? They gloried in themselves. We did this. We brought forth
these crops. This is our produce that we brought
forth. Now brethren, that was you and
me while we were dead in our sins. That is a good description
of you and I when we were dead in our sins. We were a dry ground
dwelling in a dry land. That's all we were. We looked
to our wisdom and to our works for everything, in religion and
out of religion. In worldly occupations, we all
considered ourselves self-made men. That's whatever a lost man
considers himself to be, a self-made man. When you'd come to a new
year like this one, you'd look back over the year past and think
about everything you accomplished and encourage yourself with it,
pat yourself on the back with it about what a good job you
did. And then you'd look towards the year coming and you would
make your boast about everything you were going to accomplish
in that year to come and it was all about self, what I've made
and what I've created and what I've accomplished. That was us
in a nutshell when we were dead in our sins. And in our religious
occupations, the seed we planted was our seed. It was man-made
doctrine. We worshipped the God of our
imagination. It was all It was all of man's hand. It was man-made
creeds. It was denominations. It was
church traditions. We did whatever mom and daddy
did, and grandpa and grandma did, and that was it. It was
all about tradition. And if we did look into the Word
of God, we looked into the Word of God doing exactly what the
Pharisees do. Because we were the Pharisee.
We looked into the Word of God looking for these commandments
like God gives just before this passage and just after this passage.
That was a covenant of words. That was a conditional covenant.
The reason God was telling them that He provides everything in
Canaan is because He wanted them to know they were dependent on
Him. And so in the next verse He says, so if you will keep
My commandments, then I will. bless your crops and give you
fruitfulness and all these things. That's a conditional covenant. That's a covenant of works. That's
the old covenant law. If you will, God said, then I
will. Believers aren't under that.
We're under an everlasting covenant of grace. It's all done. It's all done. But that's what
we looked for. We looked for works we could
do, commandments we could keep. We heard God say, do this and
I'll bless you, don't do this and I'll curse you. And so we
set out to do everything God commanded and we thought we did.
When you would ask us or some man would speak up, we would
talk about what we had done just like we talked about what we
did in our occupations in the world. Everything in religion
and out was of our hand and our wisdom, our works. Brethren,
now that is where you and I would have stayed. We would have continued
to say, God, I thank you that I am not like other men. I am
not even like this publican right here. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of everything I
possess. And that is where we would have stayed. That is where
we would have remained. The only one who makes any difference
between sinners whatsoever is not the sinner. It is God by
grace. God by grace. So then, look here
at this next thing. By God's grace, He delivered
us into a new land which is opposite of that land we were in. It's
so different from that land we were in. This is a land where
God has made every single believer to have everlasting, eternal
possessions. This is the man we possess. Look
it there. He said it twice. First, let
me show you this. In Egypt, the children of Israel
were slaves. That's what we were in our sin.
You and I were dead in sin. We were slaves to our sin nature.
You can only do what your nature dictates you to do. Nobody here
gets on all fours and eats dog food. That's not our nature.
If God changed your nature and gave you that nature, that's
what you do. Well, when our nature was sin, we were in bondage to
that nature. All we could do was imagine the
God of our imagination and worship the works of our hand. God has
to give you a new nature and a new heart. So, when we were
in those works and in that bondage, we didn't own anything. We didn't
possess anything. We were like the children of
Israel. He said there in verse 10, all they possessed was a
little garden of herbs. A little enclosed spot of ground
that didn't belong to them. that only brought forth bitter
herbs. That's what we possess. That's
all we possess. It was no possession at all.
After all our running and all our willing and all our doing
in the world and in religion, we possessed nothing. I wish I could get it across
to people. I pray God to get it across. A man could strive and run and
toil to gain in this world and when he has got it all, he has
got nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. We are put on this earth to glorify
God. And we are going to glorify God.
We are either going to bow the knee by His grace and profess
Him to be Lord of salvation, entirely the Savior of His people,
beginning to end, and of our salvation, or we are going to
bow to Him in judgment and say, Yes, Lord, it was exactly as
it was told me. You are the Lord of lords and
King of kings. But we are going to glorify Him. And everything
else we set our hearts on and we do in this world, brethren,
a man outside of Christ is just, the Scriptures describe him as
swine. fighting for slaughter. No, he
has accomplished nothing. I don't want you going through
this world and end up at the end of it and realize, I didn't
accomplish a thing. I spent all this time toiling
over nothing and all I've got is a little enclosed garden of
bitter herbs and it don't even belong to me. It belongs to God. But when He brought us out of
that place and He brought us into this land, He says, Here
now He delivers us into a land that we possess. Verse 11, the
land where you go to possess it. To possess it. Now this possession
didn't come by the work of our hands. It was all of God's free
grace. Look at Joshua 24.13. I'm not
going to turn there because I can't. Joshua 24.13. I hope I wrote it down correctly.
Joshua 24.13. Listen to how God described Canaan, and this is
a picture, this is a type of what God has done for you and
I who believe. I have given you a land, Joshua 24, verse 13,
I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities
which you built not, and you dwell in them, of the vineyards
and olive yards which you planted not did you eat. And that's so
of you and me. We didn't do anything to earn
what is now our possession. We did nothing. He gave it to
us by sending Christ to honor and magnify the law. That's what
He did. You know who led Israel into
the land of Canaan? It wasn't Moses. It wasn't Moses. Moses represents the law. And
you and I can't come into this promised land by our works. We can't do that. The one that
led him into that land was Joshua. You know what his name means?
You know how it's translated in Hebrews 4? Jesus. It's Savior. He's a picture of
Christ. But now don't make a mistake.
God didn't just sweep His law under the rug. God just didn't
ignore Moses' ministry, nor did He ignore the law's ministry.
It had a purpose. That law was given to declare
me and you guilty, but that law was also given to show us something
of the righteousness of Christ and the righteousness of God.
So before Moses' ministry came to an end, you know what God
did with Moses? He carried him up to the top of the mountain
and He honored him. He honored him. And then He buried
him out of sight. You know what Christ did? He
went up to Mount Calvary. and He honored and magnified
the law of God for His people. He took the sin of His people
and He answered the justice of God for His people and He satisfied
that justice and justified His people and made us the righteousness
of God in Him. And now He says to you and me,
that law is dead and it is out of sight. Now you are married
to Christ. And it is a lawful union because
He has honored and magnified that law. And the law bears witness
to it. Moses, he put his hands on Joshua
and told the people, this is the one that is going to take
you in. And Romans 3 tells us, we now behold the righteousness
of God without the deeds of the law. But yet it is witnessed
by the law. and the prophets. That's everything
this law is teaching us, is Christ is the only way into the Promised
Land. The faith of Christ who loved
His people and gave Himself for us, that's the only way into
this land. All this commandment that He gave here, beginning,
all you can read here, there's two or three chapters of commandments
before this passage and after this passage. When you read that,
I want you to understand something about this everlasting covenant
of grace. When God called us, He reduced
all those commandments down to one commandment. It is just one
commandment. He says, believe on the name
of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and love one another. God commands that affectionately
in the heart of His people. And when He does, you know what
you will do? You will believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and love your brethren. That is one commandment. It is
His commandment, singular. Because it is impossible to believe
on Christ without the love of God in your heart. And it is
impossible to love your brethren or God without believing on Christ. They are one and the same. It
is one commandment. One commandment. And so in Christ,
by His doing, we've established that whole law. We've established
that whole law because He was the faithful one who loved God
and loved His brethren more than Himself so that He laid down
His life for God and His people and redeemed us out of the curse
of the law. So now, God tells us this. He says, We are Christ's purchased
possession. We are told that in Ephesians
chapter 1. We are the purchased possession
of Christ. We are told in 1 Corinthians
6.20, you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit which are God's. They belong to our
Lord Jesus Christ. God, our body and our spirit
belongs to Him. He bought it. He paid the price. We were in debt to sin. We owed the law a payment we
couldn't pay. He came and made the payment
and bought us so that now we are His. We belong to Him. And
you know what the payment was that He paid? You were not redeemed
with corruptible things like silver and gold from vain tradition
of your fathers. How many times were you told
you could pay for your sins? How many times were you told
if you paid enough money you could get out of this or that?
The Scripture says, you know you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation passed
down to you by the tradition of your fathers. But you were
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot. But now here is my point. Not
only are we Christ's possession, The good news is Christ in everything
He purchased for us is right now our possession. It is all
our possession. Our text says, He is the Lord
thy God. He is your possession. You who
have been brought to rest in Christ, He is your possession.
Song of Solomon said, I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine. He is mine. You husbands and
wives, is she just your possession? No, you are hers too. And that
is the same with Christ and His bride. We are His possession
and He is our possession. Now you think of what that means.
Everything Christ is to His people, perfect rest because we have
His righteousness and His holiness and His redemption and His wisdom
and His grace and mercy and love keeping us. Everything we have
is our possession. We possess perfect rest in Christ
the Lord. It is our possession. Listen
to the Scripture. We which have believed do enter
into rest. The Lord spoke and used a man
to pin those words in Hebrews 4 and He used Canaan as the illustration. Speaking of that rest, but now
He tells you and me, you and me who have believed on Christ
have entered into the rest that that Canaan rest pictured. For
he that has entered into His rest, into Christ's rest, has
ceased from his own works as God did from His. Why would we
go back to the law and try to fulfill it? It would be as foolish
as Israel in the land of Canaan to leave Joshua and go back into
that wilderness and try to find Moses and dig up his grave and
try to say, will you teach us and lead us and guide us? Moses
was dead to them and they were dead to Moses. That would be
foolish. That's the law. Not that it hadn't
been honored. It has been honored. Christ fulfilled
it. And we are righteous. The righteousness
of God, the righteousness of the law, so that we cannot sin,
we cannot be charged again by God or anybody. Because God justified
us. Christ redeemed us. And we have
rest. That's rest. That's our possession. And so therefore, as we go through
this life, from the beginning to the end, from this year's
beginning to the end of this year, not only is all spiritual
blessings ours, everything is ours. Everything is your possession. Listen up, 1 Corinthians 3.21. Let no man glory in men. Don't
look to men and think that men are ruling over you because something
bad happened to you by men that now you're going to, I'm going
to get them back. I'm going to make this work out and that work
out. That's glorying in men. That's saying men are, you've
got to overcome men and men have more power than God. That's glorifying
men. Don't glorify men. Why? For all
things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas,
any of his ministers, they're all yours. Or the world or life,
it's all yours. Everything in it is yours. Or
death, death is yours. Death is good for a believer.
Death for a believer is like me opening that door and leaving
this room and going in that one. That's all it is for the believer.
Death is yours and things present are yours and things to come
are yours. All are yours and you are Christ
and Christ is God. So in the year to come, no matter
what comes your way, remember Christ possesses us and we possess
Christ and therefore all things are yours. Don't forget that.
Don't forget that. After the Lord gave them these
commandments, you know what He told them to do? He said, you
put them on the front of your door post, you put them between
your eyes and on the cuffs of your sleeves so that everywhere
you look you are reminded of these commandments. Well, the
everlasting covenant of grace says this, what Ravi just read.
See Christ where He sits at God's right hand. Don't let Him out
of your sight. Don't forget where He is and
don't forget that your life is hid with Christ right there at
God's right hand. And so you possess everything.
What does He possess? Everything, and that's what you
possess. Don't ever forget it. Alright? Here's the next thing. In Christ, God showers us with
His blessings in every situation. Look at verse 11. The land where
you go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh
water of the rain of heaven. A land which the Lord thy God
careth for. You see, the believer now, we're
not living on the flat plains of Egypt where a man has to use
his foot to pump water. That's not where we're living
now. We're living in God's land. And in this land we're in, we're
going to face some very steep hills and some very deep valleys. It's not just going to be smooth
plain for you and me. If that was the case, we could
probably pump it with our feet and get some water there and
be alright. What are you going to do when you come to the mountain?
What are you going to do when you come to the deep valley?
It is hard to pump water up a steep hill. It is impossible. And that
is the point. God puts us in situations everywhere
that we face so that we know, brethren, our sufficiency is
of God and not of us. Over this past year, you think
about We've lost some dear loved ones. Some dear brethren have
departed to be with the Lord. Some of us have been through
some serious trials and are still going through some serious trials.
And we will face more of the same in the years to come. It
won't be all a flat plain. There's going to be hills and
valleys. But you know, I was thinking about which is worse?
Which would imply sorrow and which would imply happiness?
Is it the mountain? On one hand, a mountain is a
rocky place. A mountain is a cool place to
be. Looks like that is bad. But then we have what they call
mountaintop experiences. But then you got a valley. That
seems like that would be a great place where you rest in green
pastures. But a valley is also called in Scripture the valley
of the shadow of death. But you know what makes the hill
and the valley a pleasant place for God's people? Because we
have Christ there with us. And He is our sufficiency. He
is our strength. He is our all. And so He makes
the trial and the loss of the loved one and anything that the
believer goes through, He makes it bearable because we see Him
And we know what we have in Him. And we know that this is just
for a little while. And while all that is going on,
He can give you peace in your heart, comfort in your heart,
even when your tears are falling down and your heart is broken
and you are weeping over the loss of a loved one. Yet in your
heart, you are content. You are content. You know Christ
has promised, I will never leave you and I will never forsake
you. He said, in this world you shall have tribulation, but be
of good cheer, I've overcome this world. And He said, My peace
I leave with you. Not as the world gives you, I
give you My peace. And that's what we have. We have
that in Christ. He said in the Scriptures that
this place is not anymore a place that we have to water, it drinks
the water of the rain of heaven. That's Christ our God. He's the
rain of the water of heaven. He said in Hosea 14.5, I will
be as the dew unto Israel. He shall grow as the lily and
cast forth his roots as Lebanon. He said in Hosea 6.3, He shall
come unto us as the rain, as the latter and the former rain
unto the earth. James used that scripture. He said, Be patient,
brethren, to the coming of the Lord. Be like the farmer, he
waits for the early rain and the latter rain. And that is
who Christ is for His people. This is what He is teaching us.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. It comes
down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. And because Christ is our rain
from heaven, He said in Isaiah 40 verse 9, their pasture shall
be in all high places. He takes you to that high rocky
place where not even a blade of grass will grow. Christ says
their pasture. shall be in all high places.
We have that pasture in Christ. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He is the green pasture. He makes
me to. They want hunger, they want thirst,
the Son won't smite them, for He that hath mercy on them shall
lead them. Even by the springs of water
shall He guide them. And I will make all my mountain
away, and my highways shall be exalted. In this past year, how
many times did God bring us to see we didn't have any sufficiency
in ourselves? How many times? How many times
were you brought to the point where you just thought, what
am I going to do? I was brought to that point a
bunch of times when I was trying to negotiate the deal for this
building. A bunch of times. I don't know what to do. I can't
do anything. What's the point of that? Why does God bring you
to that place? To teach you, you can't do anything. That's the point. That's the
point. And to teach us, He can do everything.
That's what He told Paul. He said, My grace is sufficient
for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. In
your weakness is where you're going to be made to see, I'm
all your strength. And so the hills and the valleys,
we glory in them, don't we? We say, I thank you Lord for
the hills and the valleys because through these I am made to see
that the glory of Christ rests upon me and He is all my strength. What a good thing to possess.
And then look at this last thing. God is going to always provide
for His people because He is always watching over us. Look at verse 12. The eyes of
the Lord thy God are always upon you from the beginning of the
year even until the end of the year. You notice whose eyes these
are? The eyes of the Lord our God. You know God He doesn't have
eyes except in the person of His Son. His Son has eyes. There's a glorified God and man
seated at God's right hand. But the eyes of the Lord speak
of His omniscience. It speaks of His omnipresence
and His all-knowingness. When He says, You're the Lord,
it means He's sovereign. He's all-powerful. He's all-knowing. He's ever-present with His people. The Scripture says, He does according
to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay His hand or say to Him, What
doest Thou? This is the Lord, Jehovah, Sovereign
God. And He is the Lord Thy God. Is it not the greatest comfort
that we have to know that the Lord is Thy God? He is Thy God. He said to the children of Israel,
teaching us what He is to His true spiritual Israel. He told
them, I haven't been this to any other nation in the world.
There was a lot of more nations beside Israel. And God said,
but I chose you and I've been your God. And that's what He
says to His people. I've chose you and I'm your God. He made Himself our God when
He chose us freely by His grace, not based on anything in us.
All in Christ. He made us His God whenever He
sent forth His Son who laid down His life for us. He made Himself
our God whenever He sent the Gospel to us and declared this
to us and gave us faith to lay hold of Him and life to lay hold
of Him. He made Himself your God. We are talking about the
eyes of the Lord thy God. What about your eyes? on your
children. Can your eyes always be on your
children? Can your eyes always be individually on each of your
children all the time and never be removed off of them? Each
individual one. No way. If we are looking at
one, we are not looking at the other one. And we can't be where
they are all the time and we can't put our eye on them all
the time. But that's not so with God and His children. The eyes
of the Lord thy God are always upon His land. You who are His
land. His eyes are always upon you
from the beginning of the year even until the end of the year. There is not ever an hour, not
even a second, that God's eyes are not on each individual child
of God. Not a second. Not a second. His eyes are on you. For the
worldly ungodly man, that's a terrifying thought. I don't want you to
remind me God sees me. But He does. But for the believer,
this is the most comforting thing. That's the thing about God's
grace. Everything that terrified us when we were lost, now rejoices
our hearts about God. His eyes are upon us continually. Can any believer here tell me
one second this year, this past year that God took His eye off
of you? One second. There wasn't a time. There wasn't
a moment. Who was protecting you while you were laying there
unconscious at night asleep? God's eye was on you. And when
you're in the heat of everything you're doing in this life, we
don't see the untold evils around us and the things that God saves
us from on a moment-by-moment basis. And yet His eyes are upon
us, always guiding us, always protecting us, always keeping
us. If He didn't, we wouldn't be here. If He took His eyes
off of us for a minute, we wouldn't have this place. And if He took
His eyes off of us for a minute, we couldn't make it through one
day. Not even an hour. We need Him to abide with us,
His presence to go with us, His eye to be upon us all the time.
And that's what He promises every one of His people. Isn't it so
much better than where you were when you were in religion and
when you were looking to the works of your hands and that
dry desert land that you were in trying to irrigate everything
yourself? I am so faithful God has called
me and blessed me and given me everything that I do not deserve.
But He gave it to me freely because in Christ, Christ bought it. And in Christ I deserve everything
I have gotten. And so do you. Because Christ
is our righteousness. Christ justly made it so God
is pleased to give us everything He has given us. And do for us
everything He has done. So brethren, whatever we face
now in this coming year, Christ says this of His vineyard. And
Isaiah 27.3 says, I the Lord do keep it. I will water it every
moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day. That's God's promise. That's
God's promise. We can really say with David,
the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me
to lie down in deep green pastures. He leads me beside the still
waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness
for His namesake. I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, but I won't fear any evil. For Thou art with
me, Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a
table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Doesn't God
do that for you every single day? Every single day. Well, my hands cook that food
and put that on. Wait a minute now. That's Egypt
talk. God's people look to the first
cause. Not the second call, the first call. He prepares a table
for me in the midst of my enemies. He anoints my head with oil and
my cup runs over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life and I'll dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. Now knowing this, knowing He
has done this, knowing He is doing this and knowing He shall
do this from the beginning of this first day of this year all
the way to the end, Then let us be of good courage and look
nowhere else throughout this year but to Christ. You want
a resolution? I'll give you one. Don't look
anywhere but to Christ. Don't look to you, look to Him.
Don't look to the enemy, look to Him. Don't glory in the waves
and the trials and the men and the enemies, glory in Him. Just
wait on Him. He's going to show you. Just
wait on Him. And as you do, Honor Him in everything
you do. Don't say it. Don't speak it.
Don't write it. Don't think it. Don't do it if it's not honoring
to Him. Honor Him in everything. And let us addict ourselves to
the ministry of the saints. That's what we're here for. Some
of them we know right here. Let us be like the house of Stephanas. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16,
they addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. That's
a good addiction. And we got saints we know of
right here. We got saints we know of in other places. Let's
addict ourselves to ministering to them, to serving them, to
waiting on them, to be their servant for them. Do it in any
way you can do it. Any way God gives you the ability
to do it, do it. If you think about it, don't
wait. Because you know what we do?
We think about it and we think that would help them. They would enjoy that. They would
like that. But I need to do this. And we've forgotten it. And another
year went by or another year went by. When you think about
it, do it. Do it. You couldn't do anything
else better. He was one of His saints. And
most of all, do it through the preaching of this Gospel. Wherever God opens the door and
whatever avenue He gives us to spread His Word, let's preach
His Word and let's wait on Him to bless it. Trust in what He
will do for His lost people. They are the saints. They are
just lost. He is going to do for them just
like He does for His people. And by sending forth that Gospel,
we are ministering to them just like we are ministering to those
He has already called. God knows who they are. We don't. Just
cast your bread upon the waters. God will bless it. He promised
to. Alright, brethren. We are going to remember our
Lord now at His table. Now, this is a new building and
I am going to ask Brother Kevin and I'm going to ask Art to come
forward. What I want you to do is start
out first and give me the bread and I'll break