Yeah, well, open your Bibles
with me this evening to Malachi chapter 3. Malachi chapter 3. I'm always afraid of preaching
too long. Always afraid of that. At home
or wherever I'm at, I'm just always afraid of preaching too
long. And I normally have a thing here to keep time for me. It's
a quarter after six. See if I can give you 30 minutes.
See if I can give you 30 minutes. Look what he said here. In verse 16. Malachi 3.16 Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard
it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. And they
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I
make up my jewels, I will spare them as a man spareth his own
son that serveth him. It starts out here talking about
fear, they that feared the Lord. You know there's a positive fear
and there's a negative fear. A positive fear, it would be
a fear that keeps you from doing things to hurt yourself. You
know, all of us have fears of wrecks, or running machinery,
or doing something, or having something that might hurt us.
And we especially fear for our children. So we teach them not
to get hurt, what to be out on the outlook for, and do it to
protect their children. And this fear, this positive
fear, will keep people out of trouble. It'll keep you from
getting hurt, keeping those that you love from getting hurt. It's
a positive thing. But then the negative side of
fear is this. A fear that's unreasonable. A
fear that's in your mind. A fear that leads to certain
kind of phobias. In fact, the scripture says,
you know, there is a fear hath torment. There is
a fear that has torment. And it torments people and it
troubles people. And it can become very crippling,
a negative fear like that can. And Job said in chapter 3 and
verse 25, that thing that I feared the most, feared the most came
upon me. That that I feared the most.
Now we don't know what it was that he feared. But all of us
have fears. And to have, you know, and that's
why he says perfect love casts out fear. When you understand,
not your perfect love, but that God's love for you is perfect. Never changes. It's immutable. He don't love you because he
was good. He don't love you because you're bad. He don't love you
because he's somebody different. He loves you because he loves
you. Nothing you can ever do. Change that. When you understand
and get a deep, blessed understanding of the love of God for you, individually
for you, then that'll cast out that torment of trying to please
Him, to try to save yourself, to try to walk in a certain way
that make you think God's gonna look on me and gonna bless me.
But I also know this, that if anybody in this world ever gets
a blessing from God Almighty, it'll be by grace and it'll be
for Christ's sake. Not one person I've ever met
ever, ever deserved a blessing. Never deserved one. But now let
me look at another fear about thing here I want you to look
at. Then they that feared the Lord, they that feared the Lord,
spake often one to another. And the fear of God, oh what
a blessed, blessed fear this is. The beginning of wisdom is
to fear the Lord. That's just the beginning of
it, the scripture says. And when a man begins to fear
the Lord, has some sense of God, some sense of how holy and powerful and omnipotent and glorious
he is, and that he holds your soul in your hands, and he can
do with you seemeth good in his sight. When a man begins to fear
the Lord, he's just starting to get just a little bit of sense,
just a little bit. But I want you to look in these
verses with me. I want to show you three things
about the Lord's people here. Three things, first of all, about
the Lord's people. First of all, they had reverence
for God. For it says, they that feared
the Lord. You know, this fear of God, in another way of looking
at it, that is a reverence for God. Holy and reverent is His
name. Now when Whit talks about fearing God here, he's not talking
about us as believers being afraid of being punished by Him or a
righteous retribution from Him for something that we've done.
But it's a fear which motivates us to honor Him, to glorify Him,
to live in His blessed presence, not afraid of Him. Not afraid
of Him. I remember when I was afraid
of Him and afraid about being in His presence. And that's what
happened to Adam. When Adam partook of that fruit
of the garden, the scripture says that he feared that he was
afraid and went and hid in a bush. He was afraid of God's presence
and went and hid. Covered his neck and God said,
Where are you Adam? Now, he knows where Adam was.
Adam needed to know where Adam was. And so God, he went to hide
from God. Now, that's one thing about the
fear that this is talking about. We don't hide from God. In fact,
we want to be in the presence of God. We enjoy the presence
of God. We delight in the presence of
God. We enjoy... Everybody, let's
pray tonight. Lord, come and be among us. Come
down and meet with us. Would you come among us? Would
you come down by the power of the Holy Spirit? Would you come
down in the power of your blessed word? And would you meet with
us? And oh, I tell you what, and
that's why David said, if I make my bed in heaven, He's there.
If I make my bed in hell, He's there. If I'm in darkness, He's
there. It's a day and night's darkness,
the same to Him. Wherever He's at, there's where
He's at. And that's what I love about God. You cannot get away
from Him. I love being in His presence.
And here's the thing about it, we're always in the presence
of God. Is that not right? Ain't we always
in God's presence? Oh, listen, the fear of God influences
our attitude and our disposition and our circumstances. I mean,
when we get in certain circumstances, the fear of God, it influences
our attitude and our disposition, how we're going to act, how we're
going to react. Are we going to honor Him? Are we going to
bless Him? Are we going to praise Him? Like Job did when Job said,
his wife said, go ahead and curse God. And he said, shall I? Woman,
you speak as a foolish. You're foolish because shall
I not receive good at the hand of the Lord and also receive
bad? And so I tell you what, just fear the Lord. It's a blessed,
blessed thing. I remember, and I know you do,
that you didn't fear Him. I mean, in the sense that we're
talking about now. And then I tell you, this fear
of the Lord, not only we love His presence, but it affects
our worship. This reverence of the Lord, it affects our worship.
We worship God in reverence and godly fear. Look over at Hebrews
12 with me for a moment. Hebrews 12. Look what he says over here. You know, it affects our worship. Our fear of God affects our worship. And our worship services are
so reverential. Now, you know, in a lot of places
you go, the only way anybody knows anybody's spiritual is
because they make a lot of noise. If they ain't making noise, the
Spirit of the Lord ain't there. If people ain't whooping and
hollering and, you know, and the most spiritual person's the
person who makes all the noise. You know, and that's a lot of
places like that. The more noise you make, the
more spiritual. But just look at our worship services. We do
not give the flesh any opportunity. Somebody gets up, they read a
verse of scripture, sing a couple of God-honoring hymns, Somebody
gets up, reads some scriptures, leads us in prayer, and then
they call the preacher. And everybody's very happy for
that. They want to sit, and they want to be quiet, they want to
listen, they want to see what God's got to say. And it's a
very reverential fear of the Lord. And it affects our worship. And it affects how we worship
God. It affects how our hearts are towards God. It affects how
we listen. It affects how we regard the
preacher. It affects how we read the Word.
But look what he said here in Hebrews 12, 28. Wherefore we, receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Why? God's a consuming fire. And we
understand that about Him. And that's why we don't fear
Him in the sense that He's going to punish us. We've already been
punished in our Lord Jesus Christ. So first of all, they feared
the Lord. Look back over here again in Malachi 3. Not only
did they fear the Lord, but look what it says down in the last
part of the verse. And that thought upon His name. Them that feared
the Lord and that thought upon His name. We think about the
Lord, not only we fear Him, but we think about Him. They thought
upon His name. And His name means His character. His name tells who He is. When
Moses said, Lord, show me Your glory. He says, Moses, you can't
see my glory, you can only see the hen depart, so he hit him
in the rock. And he said, I will pass by thee, and I will, and
here's what he said, I'll cause all my goodness to pass before
you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord. And what is
the name of the Lord? I am that I am. That's what he
said, that's what he said, I am that I am. And Proverbs 18.10
says this, that the name of the Lord The name of the Lord is
a strong tower, great high tower, and the righteous run into it,
and they're safe. And how many times have you run
to the name of the Lord for your safety? How many times have you
run to the name of the Lord when you're in need? How many times
have you used the name of the Lord when your job, when you're
working, or in your car, or washing your dishes, or whatever you're
doing, sitting in a service like this? How many times have you
took the name of the Lord, and run to it, and hid in it, and
found refuge in it, and found comfort in the name of the Lord?
Huh? And, ah, His name is precious.
Oh, precious, precious name. We sing that song, Precious is
the name of Jesus. Oh, that name that's above every
name. And His name not only is wonderful, but His name is powerful.
His name is powerful. And I tell you, we plead His
name and His character in calling upon Him. His name is so powerful
that when we call upon Him, He rises on our behalf. If we have
a fear and an anxiety, we can call on Him and call on His name
and He'll quell that fear, He'll quell that anxiety. If we have
people in trouble, people call you and say, Oh, listen, I just
heard this awful news and I want you to know about it and please
pray for us. And you go and you pray and that Lord's name is
so powerful that it gives you such assurance that He hears
you and He's going to do exactly what's right for ever who you're
praying for, yourself or anybody else. In fact, it's such a powerful
name that our Lord Jesus says wherever two or three are gathered
together in what? My name. If you're gathered in
my name, He said, I'm going to meet with you. That's how powerful
His name is. You just gather in His name.
That's at least three of us gathered in that name. More than that,
more than that. And oh, beloved, how do you describe
God? When you think upon His name,
how do you describe Him? How do you describe God? Well,
how does God describe himself? How does God describe himself?
He describes himself by names. That's how he describes himself.
He describes himself by name. He said, I'm the high and the
lofty one that inhabits eternity. I am God and beside me there
is none other. I'm a just God and a Savior.
He says, I am righteous. And the seraphims cry, holy,
holy, holy. He says that He's the Almighty.
He says He's just. He says He's righteous. He says
He's holy. He said He's good. He says He's
good. You ever met anybody He hasn't
been good to? Everybody I've ever met He's
been good to. And He's gracious. And He's merciful? This is the name whereby they
shall know me. They shall know me by my mercy. And He knows everything. He said
He knows our thoughts afar off. He knows the thoughts and intents
of our hearts. And David said this, he says,
Thou lead me in the paths of righteousness. Why? For Your
name's sake. Not because I'm anything, but
because you've got a name and you've got a namesake. And you're
going to honor your name. You're going to lead me by the
paths of righteousness, not for my sake, for your sake. And that's
why He does it. It's because it brings glory
to Him. Look with me over here in 1 Samuel
12 a moment, if you don't mind. 1 Samuel 12. Oh, listen. When you describe
God, if you're going to describe God, you're not going to describe
him as people do today. There's a fellow that brings
me every Wednesday night, he brings me, he travels, he works
for the county, he's all over the county, and he gets all these
sayings off of these church signs. And he gets some of the awfulest
things you've ever read in your life. You know, it's not even worth
mentioning, but people have such a low concept of God. They have
such an irreverence for God. When you tell them that, they'll
say, yes, God's Almighty. Oh, He is. And then they'll turn
around and say, He's Almighty if you let Him. Well, if He's
Almighty, then He's not Almighty. If you have to let Him, He's
not Almighty. So when we describe God, we've got to describe Him
the way He describes Himself. He said, Where was you when I
laid the foundation of the earth? Where was you when I stretched
out the heavens like I stretched out a big curtain? Where was
you when I flung the stars into space and I called every one
of them by name? Where are you whenever the cow,
wherever are you whenever the deer needs to be fed? Where are
you when the rabbits need to be fed? Where are you when the
sparrows need to be fed? I'll take care of everything
in this universe. The earth is mine and the fullness
is theirs. So we're talking about God. Not
a pretender after the throne. And listen, that's why we're
going to describe Him. How He describes Himself. Look
here in 1 Samuel. 1222. Oh, I love this. Listen to this. For the Lord
will not forsake his people. Why won't he? For his great namesake. You know who his namesake is? That's his blessed son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's his namesake. They said,
the old Philip said, show us the Father and that'll be sufficient.
He said, Philip, you mean to tell me that you You've been
with me and you've not seen the Father. He that's seen me has
seen the Father. And so He's the namesake. And
oh, listen, I'll tell you. And so they thought upon His
name. I don't know anything about John
Calvin, very little about John Calvin. As far as I know, I read
just a little bit of Ephesians from him, but I don't know anything
about him. But I do remember reading somewhere where he said
this, that when a person's contemplating God, thinking about God, And
when he begins to think about Him, and his thoughts start thinking
about Him, and then he goes on and on and on, and his thoughts
get there, and he says when he gets past his mind, and considering
God, and thinking about God, that's when worship is most pure,
and joy is most full. When you just get to think, if
you think about God, He inhabits eternity. And yet
he's here meeting with us, people who have to inhabit time and
space. Can't occupy two places at the same time, but he occupies
everything. He's not in the universe, the
universe is in him. They talk about galaxy after
galaxy after galaxy, that don't surprise me. He is so wondrous in his character,
so wondrous in how he is, that he counts the hairs on our heads. And he is so interested in us
that he set his affection on us before the world ever began. And when we're in our mother's
womb, he said, and we didn't know it, but he said, I set you
apart. When it pleased the Lord, he
separated us from our mother's womb and called us by his grace. And that's why I say everybody
sitting here, they're thinking about God. You know why? Because
that's what he says here. They think on his name. Look
what else it says about him. Here's the third thing about
him. And then it says, then they that
fear the Lord, verse 16, spake often one to another. They talked about it. They talked
about God. They talked about the scriptures.
They talked about grace. They talked about Christ. They
talked about the blood. They talked about redemption.
I was in a Baptist church years and years ago, back in 77, and
they had five deacons. Now what world they needed five
deacons for, I have no idea, but they had five of them. And
the Lord was beginning to teach me the gospel. And I asked them
one time, I said, I said, what do you fellas know about redemption?
I had all five deacons, we was in a church picnic, and I asked
all five of them deacons, I said, what do y'all know about redemption?
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Not one of them had anything
to say about it. And then I began telling them,
I said, you know that Christ, he redeemed his people and his
people alone? Next thing you know, they went
and told the preacher, says, you know what Donny Bell said? He
says that Christ only died for his people and redeemed them.
They didn't know what redemption was, but they didn't like that
he only died for a particular people. And needless to say,
I got excluded out of that church. They excluded me and Mary both.
Even the little bitty children stood up and said, yeah, we want
him to go. Oh, listen. I'll tell you. What's
in this mouth, what's in this heart, that's what's coming out
of the mouth. Ain't that right? If Christ is in there, Christ's
coming out. If the love of God's in there, the love of God's coming
out. Grace in there, grace is coming out. And I tell you, beloved, Those
who love the Lord and those who know Christ, they speak often
one to another. Me and Todd will get on the phone
and we'll talk and he'll tell me what he's going to preach
for the next month. And I'll say, boy, listen, give me that
outline. I'll scribble one down while I got him on the phone.
He'll do me that way. He'll scribble one down. Me and Bruce Crabtree
do that. And I'll do that. We get on the phone. We speak
often one to another. And at home, every once in a
while, you know, everybody, nobody wants to go home, and they'll
all just stay in the building, stay there and talk, talk, talk.
Somebody say, get up there and preach again. They don't want
to go home. And I say, oh, well, I'm going to. They say, well,
we'll see, brother Bill. But that's what, you know, that's
what we do. We speak about Christ. We love to talk about Christ.
We love to hear about Christ. And we look for every opportunity
that we can to be an encouragement, to be an uplift, to be a blessing. And all the word fitly spoken
is like apples of gold and silver of pitchers of gold. Alright, now I gave you three
things about the Lord's people. Let me give you three things
about the Lord Himself. Here in Malachi 3. First thing
I want you to look about the Lord is, and it says down there
in the middle of the verse, the Lord hearkened and heard it. They spake often one to another,
and the Lord listened to what they had to say. Oh, my. The Lord listens to His people.
The Lord hearkened to His people. Look at Psalm 116. You know,
He listens. The Lord hearkened and heard.
The Lord hearkened and heard. You know, the disciples was walking
along one day, and And here's 12 men, Peter, John,
James, Matthew, Nathaniel, and them, they're all walking along,
and they start having a discussion about who's the best preacher
among them. Which one's the most spiritual, you know, who's the
closest to the Lord, and who's the best preacher? And they start
having this great discussion. Who's the best among them? Which
one's the greatest among them? And could you imagine, you know,
And here's Simon, we have this idea of these apostles, these
great, powerful men. But now you walk along with them.
Peter says, you know, boys, I think that I'm just a little bit better
preacher and understand more about what's going on. John says,
oh, no, you don't. Oh, no, no, I do, I do. So they
argue among themselves, who's the greatest? And then our Lord
walked up to him and said, what in the world are you fellas talking
about? Don't you know that he's the greatest among you? He's
going to have to be the servant. He heard every word they said,
and that's what he said. He hearkened and heard. They
was walking along by themselves, and our Lord hearkens and hears
to everything we say. But look what he said here. Psalm
116. I love the Lord. I heard Scott Richardson preach
on this, mentioned the other night, Wednesday night, preaching
from this. Scott Richardson up in Babscott, West Virginia brought
an unbelievable, just absolutely unbelievable message out of these
two verses. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice. Heard
my voice. And not only did he hear my voice,
He heard my supplications. And listen, and He inclined His
ear unto me. He got down, you know, when you
got little children and stuff, or somebody's real, real sick
and weak, you got to get down, get down real close to them,
and say, what, what, what, what did you say? And you got to incline
your ear to hear them, because they're so weak, or their voice
is so soft, or something like that. And listen, God don't have
to incline His ear. But that's what he says. He gives
us this language that, oh, I hear one of my children speaking.
I hear one of my, I hear one of my children. I hear one of
my babes in Christ. I hear one of my children in
trouble. I hear one of them weeping. I hear one of them in trouble.
I hear one of them, I hear one of them sick. That's what Mary said. She said,
Lord, send word. Said, O he whom thou lovest is
sick. He inclined his ear. And oh,
listen. And as you know, because of this,
you know what David said? As long as I live on this earth,
I'm going to call on Him. God that hears me. And oh, listen. I tell you, He listens to us.
And I tell you what He hears when He listens to us. He hears
what we have to say about Him. He hears what we have to say
about Him. Oh, yeah. What do we say about Him? Oh,
we give Him a good name. We give Him all the praise, give
Him all the glory. And not only does He listen to
what we say about Him, He listens to what we say about each other.
He listens to what we say about each other. You know, what do
we say about each other? You know, I'll tell you something
I do every once in a while. And maybe you all do this, I
don't know. But I have done this over the years several times.
I go through the congregation. I know where everybody sits.
I know where everybody sits. And I sit in my office and I
go through the congregation where everybody sits. And I go over
every single person. And I think about what their
character is, how they are. You know, what a blessing they
are, and this, that, and the other. And I go down through
each and every individual, all the way down through the church.
And I tell you what, whenever one of them that I think of,
I say, boy, Lord, thank you for them. What a blessing they are. What an encouragement they are.
They're always there. They're always faithful. Always
got an encouraging word. Always say that, appreciate your
preaching. I appreciate your message. Always
something wonderful to say. And I tell you, and that's what
you do, you start thinking about people and you get to thinking
about them, and your mind just automatically starts thinking
the best thing there are about them. The best thing there are
about them. You know who the sorriest fellow
in the building is? It's not none of them. But, oh,
listen, let me show you something. He's interested in our words.
Look with me in Matthew 12. Look with me in Matthew 12. He's interested in our words.
What we say. And that's why he said he heard
and he hearkened. Matthew 12 and verse 34. Here's what we say about each
other. Oh. And look what our Lord said here.
Oh, generation of vipers, Matthew 12, 34. How can you, being evil,
speak good things? For out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart, he brings forth good things. And an evil man
out of the evil treasure, he brings forth evil things. But I say unto you that every
idle word that men shall speak." Now what do you reckon he means
by idle words? I believe that that's idle words,
that you don't use words honoring to God, honoring to Christ in
the sense that what you say about him because he's talking about
what comes out of the heart and the mouth. And to use idle words
about God, idle words about grace, idle words about Christ, is using
words that will not honor Him and will not glorify Him. It's
not talking about us talking about a ball game or something
like that. No, no. And they shall give an account
thereof in the day of judgment. Now listen to what our Lord said
here. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words
thou shalt be condemned. So our Lord, he said he hearkened
and he heard. That's the first thing about
our Lord. He hears what we say, listens to us. And then look
what else he does. He says the Lord hearkened and
a book of remembrance was written. Our Lord remembers. He remembers
everything. He remembers everything. A book
of remembrance. You know there's a lot of books
Mentioned in the Bible, a lot of books. There's the Book of
Life, the Lamb's Book of Life. And there's a book, you know,
that David says, you know, before I was ever formed, before I ever
had any substance, before I ever had any members, I was put in
your book. And I tell you, there's the Book
of Life, and then this Book of Remembrance. Now, what do you
think he means by Book of Remembrance? Well, I'm going to tell you what
he doesn't remember. You know some things he don't remember?
He don't remember our sin. That's one good thing that's
not in that Book of Remembrance. Our sin's not in the Book of
Remembrance. And I tell you, our bad deeds are not in the
Book of Remembrance. And our good deeds are not in
the Book of Remembrance. The Book of Remembrance, in my
way of thinking, is that God knows every one of His children.
Let the foundation of God stand ashore. The Lord knows them that
are His. And He has a book and He remembers every name, every
person, all of His elect. And He knew right where they
was. And it was using language. It said, I remember where you
are. I know where you are. I know what's going on. I've
got my eye watching over you and I'm taking care of you. And
I'll tell you something else not written in this Book of Remembrance.
When you go through the Old Testament, and you look at the testimony
of the Old Testament saints, and then you go to the New Testament,
and all the sins that the Old Testament saints committed, not
one of them is mentioned in the New. Abraham's lies, not mentioning
the new. We're supposed to walk in the
steps of that foot. Faith of our father, Abraham, a lot. Oh,
what a sorry man. But you don't hear nothing about
it. But lots of just man, the righteous man. And all listen,
so it's just the way the Lord does. He remembers. But all I
tell you, he remembers in time after having chosen us in eternity.
But he don't have the good things or the bad things. He knows us,
that's what He's telling us. And I tell you, bless His name.
And let me give you the last one here. He's faithful. Then
they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the
Lord hearkened and heard. Then he had a book, he remembered,
he remembered. Now that's what that thief said
on the cross, Lord, remember me. Remember me, remember me. And on, listen, it also says
this, down in verse 17. And he's faithful. They shall
be mine, saith the Lord of hosts. In that day, when I make up my
jewels, I will spare them as a man spareth his own son. Oh,
he's faithful. He says, All those ones that
spake often, feared the Lord, spake often one to another, that
thought upon his name, And the Lord listened to him. He wrote
down a book of remembrance. And then he says, when I make
up my jewels, they're going to be mine. And you know what it
says there in the margin about these jewels? Special treasure. A special treasure. They're going to be mine. Our Lord Jesus says, Father,
they were thine and you gave them to me. And of all that you've
given to me, Every one of them's come to me, and I ain't lost
a one of them. I've never lost a one of them. And I'll tell
you what, when I make up my jewels, something, you know, I call people
that all the time. I say, boy, you're one of the
Lord's jewels. We got a woman down home, her name's Ruby, and
she is a ruby. She is just a beautiful ruby.
But, oh, they'll be mine. That's what he says. They'll
be mine. They're mine to love. They're mine to choose. They're
mine to save. They're mine to keep. They're
mine to feed. They're mine to teach. They're
mine to lead. They're mine to glorify them. Father I will that where I am
they may be also and behold my glory. And you reckon we'll do
that one of these days? And our Lord said, having loved
his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And then he says, I'm not only
going to be mine, saith the Lord of hosts of that day when I make
up my jewels, but he said, I'm going to spare them, as a man
spareth his own son. What would a father spare what
his son would go through? Oh, he'd never let any heartache,
never let any trouble, He would spare him, oh, he'd spare him
everything he could. He said, I'm gonna spare him
like a man spares his own son. But listen, our Lord Jesus Christ,
God spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
And yet he turns around and spares us. Spares us. And calls us his. Calls us his. They're mine. My jewels. My special treasure. They belong
to me. Belong to me. Our blessed, blessed Father,
Abba Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and our
Savior. Lord, you are blessed hope. You
are righteousness. You're our strength. You're our
stay. You're our comfort. You're our
light. You're our life. And we look
to you. We bless you and praise you that
you gave us this day. It was your day and you gave
it to us. It seemed good in your sight. You gave us people who
love the gospel, love to hear your word. And Lord, I thank
you for them. I thank you for this dear pastor
and these saints of God. What a blessing they are to so
many. How generous, how kind, how faithful, how loving, how well taught. Obvious, oh
Lord, to the grace of God is in this place. Christ is honored
in this place. God and His holiness is magnified
in this place. And Lord, I ask for your great
blessings upon this congregation, upon this pastor. And Lord, I
pray that you and your sovereign mercy would send the gospel,
open hearts, open minds, open understandings, and bring your
people to yourself. You have sheep that's not yet
heard. You have sheep that's not yet
been brought in the fold. You have sheep, Lord, that'll
come here. And I pray that you'd bless the
gospel so your sheep, when they hear, they'll know that it's
the voice of the shepherd. And we bless you for this day.
Bless you for this privilege. Thank you, Lord. Blessed be your
name. Blessed be your name. Amen. Well, I appreciate you all very
much for putting up with me today. And I'll see you the next time,
Lord willing.