I consider this a a privilege and I don't feel like I'm a preacher so you can exercise your Grace with me.
I thought, Craig did a great job. Can you hear me okay? I thought Craig did a great job.
And, you know what he was saying about having his family over because there's 7 of them.
It's not a problem. I invited him over and I'm just me. And we had a great time.
We, I made some Mexican food and It was it was wonderful. They're a great family to invite over by the way.
And I thoroughly enjoyed. Their company. So, a Monday night. Ray asked me if I would take Sunday night service.
And he said, yeah, I gotta leave tomorrow morning. I'm going to Malaysia. With my family.
He's not asking me. He's like, Mark, you gotta do this for me. I'm like.
I'm like, well, okay. So he gave me some ideas. He said, well, you could, you know, share your favorite verses, you know, things that You know, over the years that the Lord has taught you and you could go over those verses, that'd be great.
Or you could throw some testimony. So, you know, how did you get saved? Some people may not know.
You have a very interesting testimony. And he said, I also, you know, have great conversations with you.
You, You seem to meditate on scripture and you have a lot of interesting questions. So I'm sure you'll be fine.
So I kind of I took his advice and I started and I said no no no no this is not this is not working.
I said. I need to go before the Lord and ask him, Lord. What do people Sunday night, what do they need to hear?
What What do you want? For them to hear. So I spent more time praying probably. Than I did, preparing.
I was on vacation for 2 days and so anyway. I'm here and I have a message. And some of you came in knowing that you have no idea.
What Fred said it's it's a it's a surprise. So. I was very impressed with Juanis when he gave his message.
And, You know, he started out by saying, you know, we remember the Lord Jesus every Sunday.
At the Lord's Supper and you know the Lord said do this and remembrance me he took the bread and broke it gave it to his disciples.
You know, take eat. This is my body and then, which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance me. And likewise, the cup saying this is my cup with the New Testament.
And you know, we hear that every Sunday. And we never get tired of it. It's always good.
Like Craig said today. And I've said this myself. I have never gone to a meeting.
Where I said, I wish I would have stayed home. Oh, you know, what a waste of time.
I may say that tonight. I may say, man, I wish I wouldn't. But I'm I know you guys I love you guys and I know I know who you are and I know that you're loving people and you're you're gonna show grace.
So
So anyway, enough of that. Oh yeah. And then he spoke on Remember, Lots wife.
Do you remember that? You said so remember the Lord. You know and and then remember lots wife. Don't do a cheating.
Don't go back. Don't even think about going back. You know so the text I chose that the Lord gave me.
Says the same thing. It's talking about Not going back, but. To remember. So enough with the suspense.
Okay, it's Hebrews 13 and I know. We've gone over the Hebrew so many times.
We've gone over this first so many times. But here it is. This is what the Lord's given me.
So it's Hebrews 13 7. It's another remember. It's remember those who rule over you who have spoken the word of God to you who's faith follow.
Consider the outcome of their conduct. In other words, who are those who We speak the word to you.
Well, who ruled over you? So those are our elders, right? And I know this is out of context.
This is the Hebrews and we don't know the author of it and You know, there's There's all that and I'm making an application here.
Okay, so the application is that We should remember, remember our elders. So here we have.
The Lord's Supper and the Lord's given us these elements. We have the bread. We have the line representing his body representing his blood.
And we remember him in that way as he asked us to do and and I've always wanted to say this.
To people, but I think that we do that until he comes. We are proclaiming his death, scripture says, until he comes.
And isn't it really in all reality? Isn't it the gospel? The gospel is all there.
It's we have The death barrel and resurrection. We're waiting for our Lord to return and and You know, Maranatha, let him come soon.
And I think he is. So we are. You know, when we do that, suddenly we are proclaiming the gospel.
If someone is sitting among us, they're seeing the gospel. If someone is sitting among us, they're seeing the gospel in action.
And so. So let us remember and this is great because we're not remembering the Lord's death way in the past.
We're not remembering. Lots wife way in the past. By the way, there is an element there as well and I got to see it.
I got to go to Israel one time and there is a pillar of salt there and I believe That's Black's wife.
So. There is a testimony there that you know to. God warned them and she's a pillar of salt.
So.
So I have to. Thank you for doing the opening. Because you saved me from doing it because I was gonna go on my knee.
And ask the Lord's blessing. And there was a reason for that. Because I used to clean the chapel.
And I had a key. We had a key. We didn't have the code a code back then. I had a key.
So I would come into the chapel sometime. I browse the the library and you know just walk around and Well, this place and anyway, I accidentally.
Open the door one time. And the elders were in there. And it made a huge impression on me.
I cracked the door and I was listening in. I was watching. Cause they didn't know.
They were praying for us. And I was like, that made a huge impression on me. Here, these grown men are on their knees before God.
Training for us and I'm like you know Here we have a living testimony. We can watch these men.
It it tells us to who has spoken the word of God to you whose faith follow. I mean, he's given us these men so that we can observe their lives.
So the we can emulate them, we can follow them. You know, if they're walking with the Lord, you know, I mean there are churches that There has been some, you know, leaders who have fallen, but, but thank God we have wonderful elders.
And we can remember them and we can watch them and we can emulate their lives. Why? Whose faith follow.
It's the same faith. We have the same faith, the faith in who. In the Lord Jesus Christ.
They are following the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like we're following the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, and they're they're held to a higher accountability.
And so there they're taking their responsibilities with gravity you know they know that they're held to a high standard so we should We should also.
Look. At that for our own lives. And. And so, who their faith is in Jesus Christ and I love this because it seems so out of place.
It seems it seems like why is that there? Why is it? Why is it said that way? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday.
Today and forever. It's like like who dropped that in there? It almost doesn't make sense.
But it does make sense. If you take the whole context. It's talking about. It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ and And it's about the Lord Jesus Christ yesterday.
And it's about Jesus today. And it's about Jesus tomorrow. Because Jesus is our life.
Jesus is everything. And I remember when I used to teach Sunday school here, so now I can go into a little history of me.
That I would have a lesson. It sometimes I wouldn't be prepared and I would tell my wife.
Honey, I didn't prepare and I would spend I would spend the next 2 h instead of preparing.
For my lesson. I would pray. I would just pray pray for the pray for those kids pray pray for the lesson pray.
Good God, just have mercy on me. God, just show your grace and mercy. I didn't prepare, but it's not their fault, you know.
And Let it let everything go well. Those were the best Sundays. You know, messages, lessons I ever gave.
Because I gave it to the Lord just like this message. I don't I don't know what to say but the Lord does he knows what what you need to hear maybe there's someone here.
This is speaking to you.
Because I know we've gone over this, but for each person who may go over the very same lesson The very same scripture.
It will come out differently because Each one saying it is. It's a separate individual that God has changed.
And so. They look at scripture through. Through the lens of their own eyes that in their own soul that God has gave them.
So. Yeah, so the Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. That's a sermon in itself.
You, you could go on and on. Yeah. Who? Who are they trying to serve the largest Christ?
Who are they trying to? Who do you call him? The largest Christ who who I can look back in my whole history.
Just, from here, just all the opportunities. This is why Oh yeah, II wanna say this that, Before our one hundredth anniversary.
I think it was spread but I'm not sure. He asked. Question. I think it was, we might have had handouts.
Who was the most influential person.
In your Christian walk. Who has been the most influential?
Person in your Christian walk. And I immediately right off the top of my head. I just talked to him today.
I gave his name. I asked his permission if I could give it. He said, yeah. Is Steve Ming.
I don't know if any of you know him. He brought me to the chapel and I thought Yeah, he made the greatest influence on my life.
And, and you know, after I thought about it. I have to repent on that. I have to I have to correct that.
It's not true. And I told that to Stephen, he laughed. He said, yeah, it's not true.
And he even rebuked me. After I told him that, I don't know, years ago or last year he said no I wasn't all I did was bring you to the chapel and I and so I have to I had to rethink that question who has been the most influential.
In my life and I have to say it's the always for sure. They have given me opportunities.
I have I love. Talking with them because I could talk to someone else and we may talk about fishing or we may talk about hunting.
We might talk about motorcycles. But I can talk to an elder and I can go right to the heart of the matter and I could say, Hey, I'm I'm reading this in scripture doesn't make any sense to me.
I have done that and you know. Makes no sense to me and I just don't get it.
My brain is It's it's not coming through And, I have learned more. I've learned everything that it takes.
To be a good Christian. I've learned how to love. I learned how to not be selfish.
I've learned how to give. I've learned how to depend on the Holy Spirit. To do things Some of the opportunities I've had.
Was always encouraged. By the elders. Kids club. Used to do kids club, I've done Sunday school.
I mean, I never did anything for a great length of time but But God gave me opportunity and I learned from each one of those things so I can encourage any young people here.
You know if you have any desire. I remember I remember the day that Jim was up here and says, you know, we don't have anyone playing the organ.
Is there anyone interested? This is about 4 months. That went by since. Marian is playing and She passed away and I said, yeah, I'd like to do that.
And there's other times that the Holy Spirit, there's been a question. And the Holy Spirit was like working in my heart and I wanna do that.
And I think it's part of my part of my upbringing maybe as well. Is I've never been a leader per se.
I've always been told what to do. So when there's volunteers, I usually don't volunteer.
I've always been told what to do. So when Ray and said that. I felt like I was being told and I'm like, yes, Lord.
Here's your service. Whatever you want, I'll do it. I'm not a preacher.
But, or if that's what you want me to do, that's what I'll do.
Now normally. This past week, I would have been doing voice camp. So I've been doing voice camp.
And thank the leaders of the church again. For camp. It's a big thing around here.
Camp is huge. Lot of people like, Craig said this morning, a lot of us are have been involved in camp and a lot of young people.
That's how they get saved. They get saved and can't. You know, they hear the gospel day in and day out. They see it.
They see it happening. They see the interaction with the leaders in the counselors and And they say, yeah, you know, I'm a center.
I need. I've even had people. I used to do the testimonies. We'd have.
The last day before the second last state. We'd have camp fires and we would do testimonies and I would start out I would have one of the campfires.
2 or 3 of them depending on how many kids. And so I would give my testimony. Well, I think most of you know my testimony.
Maybe you don't. But. I had I had, he's, he's married now.
That's kids and he said, I got saved after your testimony. It's like, you know.
You know, cause you just don't know. You don't know. I would never have known that.
You know, the things we're gonna find out in eternity. You know, or we're gonna have people come up saying.
No, you might have shared something or Done a thing of kindness for somebody. And people are watching, trust me, they're watching.
I met a, one of my old math teachers. I went to, You know where I went.
Should I say it? I don't know. You know where I went to school. I grad we graduated from the same high school.
And I met my old math teacher. And I told him like I got born again. I got saved and that Okay, he's listening.
Where are you attending church? I told them. Oh, this little chapel while it was a survival channel.
And the look on his face was like, Any place but there. That's what he said. Any place but there.
Oh my gosh, I was shocked. I was like, I thought. No, didn't understand that at all.
So we have a reputation.
Some like it, some don't. Well, our testimony is out there. And, you know, wherever we work, wherever we live, where We should be a testimony.
To God and, where I used to work. I worked with, I've always worked with metal.
Sheet metal and, some things here. You could see some of my handy work here.
The kitchen, stainless kitchen table. And maybe some of the shelves in the men's room.
I don't know. I think the ladies room's been remodeled. But I knew another brother and the Lord there.
And I said, hey, how would you feel about? Getting together in the morning and praying. We'll pray for the people we work with.
And we'll pray for the company and and then if anybody wants to join us or if anybody has any prayers they're gonna know.
Oh, why did we? Did we get some? Persecution you can't do that i'm like This is America.
We have freedom of religion. We can pray and we're doing it before hours. It's not like we can't do it in the company.
I'm like, yeah, we can. And eventually. Eventually the management found out about it and they were happy.
I see, yeah, we're praying for this company every day. We're praying that this company will be successful that the people here could earn a good living and we want this place to prosper and we're praying for people's souls if we have an opportunity to give.
But we got persecution, but the Lord. Protected us and and every one of those people So, were removed eventually.
Got it. God is so good.
I don't know where I am. So anyway, I just, I love the fact. That we have.
Elders who We don't change. You know, I remember a sermon that John gave one time.
And he says, in Christianity, there's always a bandwagon coming. There's always a train coming.
And you said, don't get on that train. Yeah, thank you, John. And, You know, there's so many things I learned from the Alders.
There's so many great sermons and and it's just affected my life, you know, in so many ways.
And just the opportunities to serve here. Are tremendous. So I love it. So,
Yes, so back to the text. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever. Oh, so anyway, my favorite verse.
Because he said I could. Is. Hebrews 13. Verse 5.
For he himself has said. I will never leave you nor forsake you. That that I kind of took as my life first.
And The reason is because
I I was happily married with my family and kids. And I thought, man, I just hope this never changes.
Well, it all did. You know, my wife, you all know her. She eventually got sick with cancer and she died.
And then my kids, you know, they got married and moved away and a son eventually moved away. And I said to the Lord, I said, oh.
My worst fear is, And you know, he delivered me from that as well. But I kept that verse.
II still like the burst because there's so much more to it, you know. We have the greatest.
We have Jesus Christ. We have the greatest gift. Of all. It says, Let your conduct be without covetousness.
Don't desire the world. Don't desire other things. don't.
Just desire to be like somebody, be content with the things you have. You are who God made you.
We can be happy with that. You don't need anything else when you have Jesus. You have it all.
That's a good slogan. Somebody should advertise that when you have Jesus. You need nothing. You don't need anything else.
He's all you need.
And I'm just so, so I was going to, I was going to. My first second sermon.
So I had 3 sermons. This is This is the third one. Was I was gonna say why I love Jesus.
That I was gonna do the whole sermon on why I love Jesus and list all the things that Jesus has done for me.
No, he's saved me from my sense. He saved me from judgment. He's given me internal life.
He's given me a family. You know, I'm like. You know, afraid of being alone.
I'm never alone. Look at you. You know, Jana said that too. So I think Juanis has, he came from a broken home.
I came from a broken home. Like John. I had an alcoholic father. I didn't have a good start in life.
But you know sometimes You come to the end of your role. My father-in-law. He didn't come to know the Lord until later in life.
And we brought him to this chapel here and frets bring him. And so we had a little Bible study going on and he came to know and trust Jesus as a Savior.
Later in life. My father was an alcoholic. He was dying of cancer and I sent him a Bible and I put a bunch of gospel, passages for him to look up.
And I saw him for the last time. And it was a cloudy day. And we. Got together and we talked about the Lord what he read and if he understood it and I believe that I'm going to see my father and I and I prayed with him and he just shook his head and agreed for he never would have come to
the if it wasn't for his cancer. So sometimes we think, oh, that's a That's a bad thing or, you know, that's a tragedy.
I had a friend who, we got with breakfast together the other day. And he was complaining that his transmission went out.
And I said, you know, it may be a good thing. I said, you and I are having breakfast together.
Maybe you're gonna say something to me. Give me an idea of what I'm gonna preach on.
And maybe somebody's gonna get a blessing out of that. And isn't it worth it?
So the few shackles you gotta pay for your get your transmission fixed. Maybe God had it for a reason.
We don't know when bad things happen. We think they're bad, but maybe they're not.
No? So.
So anyway, yeah, he died on the cross for my sins. So, on the cross for me.
Gave me the gift of eternal life. Adopted me into his royal family. Gave me a piece that passes all understanding.
I was a restless, young man. Before I got saved I and I think I still have a little bit of that in me I still like to travel But I was so disillusioned with life at 1 point.
I was at the end of my role. I literally took off. I stuck my thumb out. And I and I prayed.
I said, God, if you're real. You have to show me. Because things aren't working out too good for me.
And. Time after time, people would come. It pick me up. I have my thumb out.
This woman, this is the best one. So a young woman with children. And the Lord said, I want you to pick this man up.
She said it was almost audible. I could hear him say it. Oh, no, Lord. I would never do that.
I have kids in the car. She said it was so strong. I picked you up because the Lord told me to.
I'm like, okay. I'm listening, Lord. II had a couple other instances like that as well.
Where people would pick me up and and each one of those people were giving me the gospel And, even as a child.
You know I heard the gospel which can make you wise into salvation. So this was just a.
You know when I finally accepted the Lord and trusted Christ as my Savior knowing I was a sinner knowing I was lost knowing I needed Salvation.
Maybe, maybe that's somebody here. Maybe, maybe you didn't have a good.
Childhood or maybe you have a lot of questions or Maybe just things aren't right. And you know, you could trust.
Or you could trust. God because he said. Whoever comes to him and no wise, he'll cast you out.
And my favorite versus. I'm gonna share him because They're all in one place. My favorite.
Or my favorite one is my life first, which I shared with you. But the other ones
Are all in second Timothy.
And the reason I like them is because They're so plain. II love straightforward. Plain scripture.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Was Jesus a great? Moral teacher? No. Says right here.
He says he came into the world to save sinners. I like that. How about, chapter 2, verse 3, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savor, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Who does God want to be saved? Just a few people. You left? No.
He says he desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. What's the truth?
The truth is you're a sinner. Do them to hell. That's the truth. Unless you trust Christ that he paid.
For your sin on the cross. That's the truth. And there is only one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all.
I mean, those are my favorite verses because There is clear as a bell.
So anyway.
So I would say. That I'm gonna just wrap it up because I don't wanna relieve or this anymore.
God gave us their, their gift. We can watch him. There they're on display.
And, we're watching you. But we might have questions. And we know that you'll help us when we need it.
The elders were there. Every time I needed help and plenty of times I needed help.
And prayed over my sick wife Literally. I mean, that, that was quite.
I was very moved by that. And they were always there whenever I had a question. Whenever I wasn't feeling right whenever I had a financial need And there was plenty of that.
Always there. So I just thank God for the blessing of having our elders and they watch over us and they make sure that we have this treasure right here.
They make sure that we follow the doctrines that are written in here. And that's some strange doctrine like that said, you know, we don't jump on the bandwagon.
We hear the same thing over and over. Thank God. Tell me the old old story. That's the one I want to hear.
I want to hear of Jesus and his love that he died on the cross for me. I want to hear that over and over.
I want to hear right here in on this pulpit. I wanna hear that. And I wanna know, you know.
That people can hear it. I want I need to hear. Like Bob said this morning, you know, we If we're not here, we feel there's something missing.
Yep, and there is because we forget. We forget. Easily we forget who we were. Who we are and who we're gonna be with forever.
We tend to forget and we let life get get in our way. Instead of, remembering.
So let us remember. Let's remember. Our Lord Jesus who died. And a cross for us.
Arose again, gave us eternal life. Let us remember Lott's wife. We're not going back.
We're not going back to our old life. Where are we gonna go? There's nowhere to go.
You know and then Let's. Let's remember our elders and they're right here.
And there's one thing II gotta say about The assemblies in general is that I think we always live in the present and in the future.
And I don't think we remember. The past. We any.
We have directories if you save them. Or but we don't know our past. I loved our hundredth anniversary.
I thought that was wonderful. I wish we could do that every year. I wish we could set aside a date.
I actually went to a church. I was down south. In the country way in the country in Tennessee way back in the hills and I stopped into this church.
And they were having a memorial Sunday. And they had a big potluck, the buckets of Kentucky fried chicken.
They had all the ladies brought there. Whatever they make. Man, it was wonderful.
Listen to them and they talked about the people who are in their cemetery. They talked about the legacy that they left.
And I think.
We did it once. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. So, Heavenly Father. We just thank you for this time.
Yeah, you've allowed us to. Listen to your word and to remember. Remember our Savior remember the Lord Jesus and to remember Those who give us your word.
And just we just thank you for your word and all the instructions in it. And we thank you for the scholarship.
Thank you for protecting us, for keeping us sound. And for thank you for the elders. And thank you for all the opportunities you give us to grow.
And to learn more about you and to love you even more. And we thank you in Jesus name. Amen.