Habakkuk

Well, for the remainder of the time, I'd like to talk to you about the Feast of Trumpets. The Feast of Trumpets begins the final four Holy Days that come within a three-week period that have to do with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in the second part of His ministry. The first Holy Days in the spring have to do with His First Coming. The final four are the events that come in the last, in His Second Coming. Lev 23, 23 is a very short explanation of it, but it's the chapter that lists all the Holy Days. Lev 23, verse 23, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of the blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work on it, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.

And also, in Numbers 29, verse 1, certain sacrifices and offerings are mentioned. But this is also considered the first day of the civil year, the first day of the sacred year comes at the first day of Nisan or Abib.

The first day of the seventh month is the beginning of the civil year, and the day in which the kings of Israel were crowned, it was the beginning of the legal civil year. We have a ten-day period until we come to the next Holy Day, which is the Day of Atonement. And to the Jews, this period of time, from the beginning of the civil year to the Day of Atonement, which to Jews is the most sacred day of the year, the Day of Cleansing, the Day of Reconciliation, are the most sacred time of the year.

They're called the Days of Awe and the Days of Personal Introspection. That from the time of the Day of the Peace of Trumpets to the Day of Atonement, people looked at themselves and asked God to evaluate themselves and to cleanse themselves. This was a day for a call to repentance in Isaiah 58, verse 1. The Prophet Isaiah writes, Try aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. This scripture is associated with the Feast of Trumpets, a call to repentance.

That's the way that the Jews looked upon it, and this period of repentance took place from the first day of the seventh month to the Day of Atonement, the Day of Cleansing. And in the Russian Bible, it's a day of supercleaning, like a day of scrubbing, where a person's character is made clean before God. A shofar trumpet was blown on this day. Of course, the shofar was blown every month, but a very special sound was made on this day, a day of warning.

But also, there were silver trumpets, more expensive type of trumpet, where it was a heralding trumpet signifying a King coming, the beginning of a new year, the beginning of a calendar. This is a day that was like a wake-up call spiritually to Israel. It was a day that we start again. We have new beginnings. And that's the beauty of this Feast of Trumpets. It's a day that we start again to start anew.

It's a day that represents to us as Christians the work that we do in preaching a gospel of repentance, a message of change. And actually, the element that we have in our public appearance campaign, the element of repentance is the most important part of that particular presentation. We want people to put together what's happening in this world with what they were created for, and then to be able to do the right thing as a result. Also, it was mentioned that this is a day that represents the coming of Jesus Christ and a day that represents our being born and given eternal life.

It's a very, very special day, and it's a big start for four holy days that represent massive salvation. First of all, with the first resurrection, the putting away of all those dark forces that have blinded this world, the coming of the kingdom of God, and then salvation being made to all.

I am so thankful for this knowledge. I look upon it almost with taking it for granted of things that I have believed now for going on 50 years. Yet, I'm so thankful for this knowledge because it's hidden from most people, and I want to be able to share it. I want to be able to give this to others. The Feast of Trumpets is also a celebration or a commemoration of the work of God, of going into all the world and preaching a warning message, as well as a message of witness of what God is going to be doing.

What inspired us to do the public appearance campaign, and we have spent many, many hours, our team at the home office, which includes the three presenters, the operation manager for media, Peter Eddington, and of course, Darris McNeely, Steve Myers, and Gary Petty, and myself, our writers, our proofreaders, and our content director people, and our web people in producing this event.

And we have very prayerfully asked God to please God, show us what message we ought to give, not what we want to give, but what God do you feel, what God can you show us should be the message that we give. And that's why we have come to what we have. And the inspiration for this was the book of Habakkuk. We were talking about it.

I'm not sure exactly who is the one who first came up with it. I do believe that Darris McNeely was talking about Habakkuk 1.5, Habakkuk, the first chapter, and the fifth verse, as being the inspiration for this. But the more we talked about the book of Habakkuk and what led to what God says in verse 5 of Habakkuk 1, we see an entire story about what God is going to be doing in our time.

And that got us to reading the book of Habakkuk and giving sermons on it. An entire sermon was, or at least alluded to by Darris McNeely on our website. And I'd like to talk about it here, too, because I have read the book of Habakkuk, which is only three chapters long. It takes less than 15 minutes to read out loud.

I've read it in a half a dozen different translations, and I have just been so excited about the message that it gives, because it really is the message that we want to speak about at the public appearance campaign, and truly represents what this Feast of Tabernacles is about. It's a book that we probably haven't read in some time. I'll be very honest, I don't know when the last time was that I read the book of Habakkuk, and if I did read it, I read it without real in-depth looking at how application is made to our times for the words that are in it.

Habakkuk was a message to Judah, and since it talks about the Babylonians and the Chaldeans, who are just around the corner, that God says who will punish the nation of Judah, we know that it was written slightly before the obvious attack by the Babylonians at the time of Jeremiah, the time of Zephaniah, that the book was written. Habakkuk is referred to as a prophet, but also chapter 3 is a song. In fact, chapter 3 is to be played with certain stringed instruments.

It could be that he was a Levite who served in the temple in the priesthood, the Levitical priesthood. The way the book is written is written differently than most prophetic books, because a prophet is one who is an agent for God, who proclaims a message from God to the people.

A priest, on the other hand, is one who brought the concerns, the needs, the prayers of the people from mankind or from the church or from the temple to God. So, a prophet was from God to man, a priest was from man to God. Jesus Christ is our high priest. Jesus Christ is our advocate, the one who brings our prayers to God, and that way he is our high priest. So, Habakkuk here, in the way that we will read his book, was one who functioned as a priest in this particular book. Other than that, we don't know anything about him. His name is mentioned three times. Not once does he pray for himself. We see a very tender spirit in him of very, very deep care.

The nation of Israel, the ten tribes of the north, had already been carried away more than a hundred years before by the Assyrians. And God called Assyria the rot of his anger, and he used them to take and completely clean out the northern area of Israel, and to take these people into captivity into Assyria. But, about the time of Habakkuk, there were big shifts in world powers.

Egypt was going down. Assyria was absorbed and conquered by Babylonians. Babylon was the new big kid on the block. And Babylon's tentacles, Babylon's extension of power, went throughout Africa, Europe, which was a new place for people to migrate to, and all the way to the gates of the pillars of Hercules, which was a Gibraltar Strait. Babylon had control over all of North Africa, plus all the Middle East to India. And truly, it was a world-ruling empire. It was a massive empire.

Its Judah was a little enclave, a little enclave that had not yet been conquered, but obviously was going to be inevitably absorbed by the Babylonian Empire. The work of Habakkuk is in the death throes of the nation of Judah. Habakkuk was obviously a righteous person, a prophet, obviously one speaking for God and one who's very concerned about the people. Israel or Judah had been continually warned to come to repentance by the prophets, by Jeremiah, by Ezekiel, by others of the minor prophets, but the nation stubbornly refuses to change its ways. Habakkuk comes to God in the death throes of Israel's existence and says, God, do something with these people. Heal this nation. How do I take a little bit of an unorthodox step and read from the New Living Translation, which I very rarely use? But in order to be able to get the whole effect of this book in narrative style, I would like to read most of it from the New Living Translation.

Habakkuk chapter 1. This is a message that came to the prophet Habakkuk in a vision from God. O Lord, how long must I call for help before you listen? I shout to you in vain and there is no answer. Help! Murder! And even the more modern translation says, call the police.

He was desperate. God, do something, but no one comes to save. Must I forever see this sin and sadness all around me?

Wherever I look, I see oppression and bribery and men who love to argue and to fight. The law is not enforced and there is no justice given in the courts. For the wicked far outnumber the righteous and bribes and trickery prevail.

He says, God, my nation is sick.

There is no understanding of law. There is not only disobedience to the laws of man, but a heartless callousness towards the law of God.

And how many of us and how many other people are on the country pray, God, look at our sick nation. Our Supreme Court is trumping, or so to speak, thinking that they're trumping the law of God by allowing same-sex marriage.

Look at what our nation has done with Roe versus Wade in 1973 or 1974. Fifty-five million abortions have taken place. God, can't you see that our nation is sick? Heal them, fix them, bring in the cavalry from left field, do something to change our nation.

And yet we've seen since silence and nothing is happening.

Instead, we have more events take place that are thumbing their nose and God and emboldening the godless people in this nation against the law of God. Morals have gone downhill. I just went to my 50th high school reunion here a few months ago.

It's interesting to see people that I hadn't seen in 40, 50 years. So most of them I hadn't seen in 50 years. And as we talked as fellow students who hadn't seen each other in a long time, the one thing we commented on, haven't things changed since 1965 when we were seniors, graduating seniors. Some of them I had known back to fifth grade.

When we had parties in our homes, our parents were always welcome. Our parents were always there. They were with the children, with us as teenagers. Now you don't want parents around. Now everybody's private. Everybody's doing things that are unlawful, sinful, into drugs, sex, living together. Horrible things that are happening, into pornography, smoking. I know in my time, yes, those things were available, but they were done by the bad kids. There's a few people that we heard had sex. Alcohol was maybe a little bit more prevalent, but narcotics or marijuana, oh, that was terrible. Now it's freely available. It's freely used. It's freely destroying our kids' lives. And we all commented, I'm not sure even what their religious background was as to how things have gone downhill and how our country has been on a slide in decency.

Habakkuk is one here who was crying and sighing for the sins of the people in the way Ezekiel wrote. Put a mark on the foreheads of these people, Ezekiel 9-4, those who sigh and cry for the sins of my people. That's a good thing. And we should be sighing and crying.

55 million abortions have taken place. I remember in 1961, when I was in eighth or ninth grade, when the first, when the thalidomide babies, the news about the thalidomide babies because of that drug who were deformed, and people didn't know what to do. I remember in the news, it came out one day that some people were going to Sweden to get an abortion. That was big news. Because for most it was expected that the births would be live, even though the baby would be deformed.

But abortion was illegal. And one country that did have it was Sweden, and people were going to Sweden. Now 55 million babies have been aborted in this country alone. 55 million babies.

And then, on top of that, you have Planned Parenthood, which is neither planned nor parenthood. They're selling hearts from the discarded fetuses. Before they just told them into trash heaps, trash heaps. But now they're selling hearts, livers, and a documentary that I just saw a couple weeks ago that researchers are looking for nice, smooth livers for which they are willing to pay $13,000 for research. Of course, they don't say that it's from aborted babies because there's a whole sequence of people who protect themselves one step from another to keep it from looking like researchers are buying directly from Planned Parenthood. But these parts of human beings are being sold. How hideous, how horrible, what's sinful? How sick can you get as a nation? Our nation isn't outraged enough to stop this. Planned Parenthood will continue its work, even though it may be defunded for a while in some states, but our nation is going downhill. Our nation is in the death throes of moral existence. But when you add to that what's happening in the world, this month, August, or now it's past, was the 70th anniversary of the only nuclear weapons that have been used in war. And there were only two in existence. When America dropped the second bomb on Hiroshima, the second on Nagasaki, there was no third bomb. Now there are 17,000 devices which are all far stronger, more powerful than that one. Now every little nation will have the ability to have nuclear ability to destroy people around them. It's out of control. This world is out of control. And this is very discouraging to people as more and more people are realizing that this world really is in the last seconds of its existence, which it really is. Of course, we in the church, even though we see prosperity, we can love each other and travel here to services, and in many ways not much has really changed. But it will change, and it will change very suddenly, as this nation will come to a grinding halt.

From Prophecy News Watch, which has some very interesting comments about just how various people from secular to religious are evaluating what's happening. Here was an article from just a few days ago. The Supreme Court's decision legalizing same-sex marriage, a dangerous Iranian nuclear deal in a world drowning in debt and dangling on the edge of economic catastrophe, seemed unmistakable now. Most of the world has been largely oblivious to the gathering tempest and prophetic warnings. And in some ways, they are oblivious because they want to be oblivious, because it's so painful and so unthinkable about having this world go up in a fireball. You don't want to think about that happening to your family and to your children and to your grandchildren at this very second. But most people don't want to think about it, have steeled their minds against it, and want to stay ignorant.

Today, the world is facing moral and social chaos, spiritual deception, proliferation of the occult, a spate of historic natural disasters, worsening worldwide drought, record-breaking extreme weather, and the growing risk of nuclear conflagration. Iran is laughing at us. We're going to give them a sanction. We're going to relieve them of sanctions and give them billions of dollars so that we can buy some time before they destroy the Middle East. How sick can you ... why can't our nation get on its knees and say, God, relieve us? Oh, no, they won't.

In interviews the past nine months, several dozen highly respected Bible prophecy scholars told us that they agreed the world is now experiencing an unparalleled acceleration and convergence in end-time signs. Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, says, the defining moment for America and humanity has arrived. As a nation, we have arrogantly turned our back on God, and I believe God's judgment will come against our country, Graham says. That's just what others are saying. Tim LaHaye, others, people who we have very little doctrinally in common, but more and more people are realizing that this is all coming to an end.

In verse 5, now, God responds to Habakkuk's complaint. The Lord replied, Habakkuk 1.5, look and be amazed. You will be astounded what I am about to do. And he might say that this is the theme of the public appearance campaign or the words that have driven us in our planning. I am going to do something in your lifetime that you will have to see to believe. And here's what he's going to do. I am raising a new force on the world scene, the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, a crew in the violet nation who will march across the world and conquer it.

They say that this was written sometime between 610 and 620 BC.

Babylon didn't actually conquer Israel until 585. So this is written maybe 20, 25, 30 years before this happened. They are a cruel and violent nation who will march across the world and conquer it. They are notorious for their cruelty. They do as they like and no one can interfere. Their horses are swifter than leopards. They are a fierce people, more fierce than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry move profoundly, proudly, forward from a distant land. Like eagles, they come swooping down to pounce upon their prey. All opposition melts away before the terror of their presence. They collect captives like sand. And that's what they did. Because ultimately, they came and destroyed the temple of God and hauled away a lot of the people from Israel, including Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and that group to live in Babylon. They hauled away all the gold and all the precious items from the temple in Jerusalem. And Israel came to cease as a nation. Of course, they did the same to all the other nations around as well. They were a mean, mean nation. This is like telling. And here Habakkuk says, God, please heal this sick nation. God's answer is, I'm going to do something amazing, but I'm going to send a terrible nation against these people and take them captive.

Verse 12, the response by Habakkuk, Oh Lord, my God, my holy one, you who are eternal, is your plan and all this to wipe us out? He's dumbfounded. He's asking God to fix them, and God says he's going to destroy the nation, or he's going to take them captive, or have the Babylonians overrun them. Surely not. Oh God, our rock, you have decreed the rise of these Chaldeans to chasten and correct us for our awful sins. We are wicked, but they are far more wicked.

And people might say, well, our nation, America, is a God-fearing nation. Look at all the churches we have. Look at how Christian we are as a nation. Why are you going to send whatever might be sent against us? We're not sure exactly how things will play out in the Middle East.

There will be some crazy union between Russia, Syria, Iran, North Korea. I mean, there are so many rogue combinations that we can look at. We have no idea how it will all work out. But these people are a whole lot worse. They're godless. And you're going to use these people who deserve a far greater punishment for their ways to punish us. God, you can't be... Are you sure that you're... that's what you really want to do? We are wicked, but they are far more. Will you, who cannot allow sin in any form, stand idly by while they swallow us up? Should you be silent while the wicked destroy those who are better than they? Are we but fish to be caught and killed?

Are we but creeping things that have no leader to defend them from their foes?

You know what this is saying? Is that when punishment comes to this nation, it will come.

We don't know when, but our nation has come to a point of where it cannot turn back. Our people are not going to turn back. And God will come to a point and say, okay, time is up.

It's over. What's the next Supreme Court decision? We first of all have got thrown out of the schools.

We've had God forbidden to be talked about, allegiances pledged to. We've had abortion allowed. We've had same-sex marriage allowed. What's next?

There will come a moment when God will say, that's it. That's enough. It's over.

Will you let them get away with this forever? Verse 17, will they succeed forever in their heartless wars? Chapter 2. I will climb my watchtower now and wait to see what answer God will give to my complaint. The Lord said to me, now this is God's second statement here to Habakkuk, write my answer on a billboard. Or in your King James Bible it says, on a tablet, something will be passed around, something to be announced. Large and clear so that anyone can read it at a glance and rush to tell others. But these things I plan won't happen right away. And when this was written, to the time that Babylon came and cleaned out Israel, finally, or say Judah, say Jerusalem is 585 BC, it was another 20-25 years. But it won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled.

If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient. They will not be overdue a single day. In other words, God says that there is a plan, there is a timetable that Heath is following and everything will be done on time. God is not not seeing what's happening with the Supreme Court decision or what the fallout is.

God is very, very aware. God is very aware what's happening year after year after year.

It will surely come to pass. Just be patient. And then he has the next verse, which is quoted three times in the New Testament.

It's one of the two, you might say, showstopper scriptures in the book of Habakkuk. Note this, wicked man, verse four, trust in themselves, as these Chaldeans do, and fail, but the righteous man trusts in me and lives. Or in the New King James, the just shall live by his faith. That's you. And anybody who comes to repentance is going to be able to survive in these times in which we live, with nuclear extinction, with economic disaster, with cataclysmic natural disasters, and moral absolute degradation. But just in the middle of all this will live by his faith. That's what we want people to do. We want people to come to understand that you can survive these times, that you can understand these times. These things have to happen the way they're going to have to happen. And God does have a plan of salvation for them. This world can't be fixed little by little, and by some little action here, some little action there, this world needs to have a total scraping off of civilization as it is right now, and the coming of the kingdom of God to this earth. That the Feast of Trumpets pictures, the return of Jesus Christ, the beginnings of the kingdom of God coming to this earth. What's more, verse 5, these arrogant Chaldeans are betrayed by all their wine, for it is treacherous. In their greed they have collected many nations, but like death and hell they are never satisfied. The time is coming when all their captives will taunt them, seeing you robbers. At last justice is caught up with you. Now you will get your just desserts for your oppression and extortion. God will take care of the Babylonians. God will take care of the Iranians. He will take care of ISIS. He will take care of Al-Qaeda. He will take care of North Korea. He will take care of whomever is aggressor in his time. In fact, there's a lesson in that. You take a look at what happened in the history of Babylon, that Daniel and the other captives were there. And Daniel rose up in the government of Babylon. And the king at that time, Nebuchadnezzar went crazy for seven years, lost his mind. But then he came to understand the greatness of God. We don't know exactly to which point he had come to, but he had come to be broken down as this head of gold. We don't know if he was converted or not. People have different ideas about what happened in Nebuchadnezzar. But he did finally acknowledge that God rules in the nations.

And one thing about all of us. Now we see people around us who have hurt us and hurt the church, who have hurt this nation. We can think of ourselves as being very special people who deserve the most special attention. But, you know, God has a plan for everybody. He had a plan for the Babylonians. He had a plan for the Assyrians. He loves these people just as much as everyone else. He will provide opportunities for them. The just shall live by his faith. The just shall live by faith. And understanding that God loves all of mankind. He has a plan for everyone. He has a timetable in which salvation comes to different people at different times. The house, the time of judgment is now upon the house of God. Judgment is upon us right now in the church.

Verse 14. This is the second show-stopper scripture, you might say, in the book of Habakkuk. The time will come when all the earth will be filled as the waters fill the sea with an awareness of the glory of God. This is also quoted similarly in the book of Isaiah.

But this passage and the just shall live by faith of the two most quoted passages come from the book of Habakkuk. The remainder of the chapter is about the fall of Babylon and God's judgment upon them. So the book starts with Habakkuk's complaint, God heal this nation. God says, okay, but what I'm going to do is going to amaze you. You won't be amazed. That's what I'm doing. I'm going to send the nation of Babylon to destroy, to take captive the people that you say are sick.

Then response from Habakkuk is, God, how can you do this? God's response to that is, but I will take care of the Babylonians as well. Then we come to chapter 3, which is the final chapter, which is a song. If you have your New King James, it says to be played on the strings of a particular kind of instrument in the New King James or in the modern version. It says, when singing a note to the choir director, when singing this ode, the choir is to be accompanied by stringed instruments. This was a song of that time, something like a Harry Chapin or Gordon Lightfoot, you know, troubadour type song. But it was a song that was sung. This is the prayer of triumph that Habakkuk sang before the Lord. This suggests that he was a Levite working in the temple in the choir. O Lord, now I have heard your report and I worship you in awe for the fearful things that you are going to do. I think that all of us on this Feast of Trumpets should stand before God in prayer and awe about all the wonderful and awesome things that he will do. Some that we don't understand right now, some of which we've become impatient about, some of which we have wondered about when, O Lord, are you going to step in or when will these events take place that lead to the end of this age? We don't know and I can't predict it. I just note that from my position and from the position of the church, we are preparing to go long-term. But we're also prepared for meeting our Jesus Christ, our returning King of Kings and Lord of Lords at any time.

In this time of the need, of the deep need, begin again to help us, as you did in years gone by. This is part of the song, O God, help us. We see your greatness. Show us your power to save us.

In your wrath, remember mercy. Again, this is a very, very strong message on this day of the Feast of Trumpets. Verse 3, I see God moving across the deserts from Mount Sinai. His brilliant splendor fills the earth. His glory fills the heavens and the earth is full of His praise. What a wonderful God He is! From His hands flash, raise a brilliant light. He rejoices in His awesome power. We see a Habakkuk who is no longer questioning God or just asking God to have it done his way, like heal these people. Well, God is going to do it, but in his way and in his time span, time plan. But now He says, what a wonderful God He is! He rejoices in His awesome power. Pestilence marches before Him. Plague follows close behind. He stops. He stands still for a moment, gazing at the earth. Then He shakes the nation, scattering the everlasting mountains and leveling the hills. That's what God is ultimately going to do. His power is just the same as always. Don't doubt if God doesn't know or He doesn't have a plan.

Verse 8, Was it in anger, Lord, you smote the rivers and parted the sea? Were you displeased with them? No, you were sending your chariots of salvation. All saw your power. Then springs forth upon the earth. Then springs burst forth upon the earth at your command. The mountains watched and trembled. Oddwards swept the raging water, the mighty deep cried out, announcing its surrender to the Lord. The world finally coming to submission to God. When that stone that comes from space in Daniel becomes a mountain that fills the earth of God's government. But a stone that topples the statue represented by the world-wooling empire, starting with Nebuchadnezzar going down to the feet, the toes of clay, miry clay, and iron.

Verse 11, The lofty sun and moon began to fade, obscured by brilliance from your arrows and the flashing of your glittering spear. You marched across the land in awesome anger and trampled down the nations in your wrath. You went out to save your chosen people. You crushed the head of the wicked and laid bare his bones from head to toe. You destroyed with their own weapons those who came out like a whirlwind, thinking Israel would be an easy prey. Who thought that Israel would be something that's got to be destroyed like the Iranians today feel they've got to destroy. It's inevitable they must do it, but it won't happen. And that's just talking about the physical nation of Israel. Right now, Satan wants to destroy the spiritual nation of Israel far more, and it'll never happen. It'll never happen. Sometimes we think of ourselves spiritually as a small group, a non-clave. Who are we? Just a few here, a few there, smaller than we did, were some years ago. And God is with us, and God will protect us, and God will allow us to survive.

Verse 15, Your horsemen marched across the sea, the mighty waters piled high. I tremble when I hear all this, my lips quiver with fear. My legs give way beneath me, and I shake in terror. But I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon the people who invade us. That's a person who's living by his faith. Verse 17, Even though the fig trees are destroyed, there is neither blossom left nor fruit, though the olive crops all fail, and the fields lie barren, even if the flocks die in the fields and the cattle barns are empty. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be happy in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my strength. He will give me the speed of a deer and bring me safely over the mountains. And that's how the book of Habakkuk ends. Again, a book not read very much, somewhat obscure, but when you understand all the implications of the book of Habakkuk, you see a phenomenal story of God, His wisdom, His plan, and it says He won't be one day late in fulfilling His plan. That He is going to vindicate the righteous. He is going to punish the guilty, whether it be Israel, whether it be Babylon. He is a plan of salvation for all of mankind. He is awesome, He is great, and He is merciful.

I hope that we can understand and see all that wondrousness that comes from God. Well, certainly I thank you for coming here today. I look forward to visiting with you. I really would love to see a real spirit of being able to share with others that excitement that we have about the things that we believe. I hope, too, that when you talk to people about this booklet or about this trifold brochure, that you don't just hand it to them and come here, but that you can say, let me open up and show you what this is about. Tell them what it's about. Tell them that it might answer some questions that they may have had. I know that when I gave my little presentations at my rotary club about who we are as a church and what we believe, and there are about 25 rotary members, three came. But if you talk about it, I have to say that some found it irrelevant, but three did find it to be of interest. And none of them disrespected what we stand for and who we are. But it's the attitude with which we come across. It's the faith that we have in God who will deliver us. It's an understanding, mind, and spirit of what God is doing. It's a confidence and faith in Him protecting and leading this world. I have others in my club. I have two other ministries in my club that talk freely to them about the fact that society will not fail. That even though we can denounce the actions of the nations, of the actions of our people, I'm very open with them that I'm not going to change them. I'm not going to change what happens with people who sink deeper and deeper into depravity. That I have a faith that there is a God who has a plan, who will deliver us from it, who makes it very, very known in His Word of what He does. So I ask God to be with you, that His grace and peace from God the Father be upon you through Jesus Christ. We have been chosen and predestined to be part of the family of God, the redemption that comes in Jesus Christ. Let's be grateful for that. I thank God for this great gift that He's given to us. And I thank God for all of you.