 So here we are. Mark chapter 16 verses 19 and 20. I'm gonna be turning you to Luke also because you'll see that in a minute. It's necessary to do so. So let's begin reading together here in Mark 16 at verse 19. I'll read verses 19 and 20 and we'll get into our study. Mark writes, So then after the Lord had spoken to them, he was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen. And so in the last study, we looked at Jesus as he was given his man what has been called traditionally the Great Commission. In verse 15 of this chapter, he had said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And so Jesus tells us that he's told them to go out and to preach. Now Matthew included the command to make disciples, teaching them to observe all things that Jesus had commanded them. Now I wanna develop this in my introduction. We need to remember that in the Old Testament, the people would come to the temple. Males of a certain age were required to come three times a year to the temple. But in the New Testament, the temple of the spirit is to go out to the people. Now they're gonna be compelled. They're gonna be compelled to go into the world. They're gonna be compelled to go into the world preaching the gospel. So when they went and where they went and while they went, they had a task. And the task that they had was to make disciples. They were to make, in other words, lifelong followers of Jesus Christ. Now why would they go into the world to preach the gospel? Well, they did it because the gospel is a message of salvation and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Paul in Romans 1.16 said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it's the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also, he says, for the Greek. Colossians, rather 1 Corinthians 1.18 says, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. So the gospel is the power of God for transformation. It's the power of God for forgiveness. So we preach because Jesus' word gives life to those who are spiritually dead. John 5.24 and 25, Jesus said, most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life, shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. And so the way people would become disciples is not simply to hear the message. They're gonna hear it, they're gonna receive it, they're gonna believe it, but the transformation is gonna take place not only by the power of the Holy Spirit, but through the teaching of the word of God. They're gonna be taught. And their faith that they actually have, and this is a very important thing to remember, their genuine faith is gonna be revealed by the way that they live. The faith is gonna be revealed as they obey what is being taught. It is by the correct teaching and application of the word of God that a believer is actually gonna grow. And if correct teaching is occurring, the disciple will accept it and will practice it. And they know this as how they'll grow spiritually. Now it is taught in seminaries that people will not endure long sermons. I read that the average message that is heard on a Sunday morning, the average message is anywhere from 20 minutes to 28 minutes. And that's actually an insult to the believer. It actually also diminishes the power of the word of God. Somebody once said, the better a person understands the word of God, the more they will grow spiritually. How is it then that we think we can grow more with a decreased appetite for God's word? You see, the lack of appetite for the word of God reveals a person's spiritual hunger. And that's why Peter exhorted believers to hunger for the word of God. In 1 Peter 2, verse two, he said, like newborn babies thirst for the pure milk of the words of that by it, you may grow, that you may grow up, you may increase, he says, in your salvation. And so pastors have the responsibility of teaching the word of God to the sheep. Remember how recently we saw Jesus tell Simon Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep? You see, in the Old Testament, God gave a promise to the people of Israel. In Jeremiah 3, 15, he said, I will give you shepherds according to my heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. So in the New Testament, Paul spoke of God's gifts to the church. And in Ephesians 4, 11 and 12, he said, he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipment of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And so as they go out, when they go out, where they go, as they preach, they're to make disciples. Disciples occur through being transformed by receiving the word of God and growing in their understanding of the ways of God through the teaching of the word. So the calling of the pastor is to equip the church in the ways of the Lord. And we desire people to hunger for Jesus and his word in order that they may walk in his spirit. Paul in Ephesians 4, 15 said, speaking the truth in love, that they may grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christ. So that's the heart of the Great Commission. Make disciples and you do it by teaching. And that's what produces effective evangelism because healthy sheep beget sheep. So Marcus closing, he had said, after the Lord had spoken to them, he was received up. So once again, Marcus giving to us a brief but an incomplete summarization of what took place. In order for us to see it a little more clearly, please turn with me, if you will, to Luke's Gospel. I'm gonna take you there and share some things with you out of Luke chapter 24. If you'd like, I'll wait a moment for you. It's gonna be in verses 46 through 53 because those verses give us more information. What we're gonna look at is Jesus' final appearance and his ascension. So in Luke chapter 24, verse 46, Luke writes, he said to them, thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as Bethany and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass while he blessed them that he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. They worshiped him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. And then he closes by saying, amen. Now, earlier in this passage, it records how that Jesus had opened their understanding to comprehend the scriptures. See, the fact is, unless he does so, we remain in spiritual ignorance. Unless the Lord opens our understanding. It's kind of like when he was speaking to the Apostle Peter there in Caesarea Philippi and he had asked who to men say that I, the Son of Man, am. And then they had said, John, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. And then the Apostle Peter had said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And remember how Jesus said to him, blessed are you, Simon, Barjo, and flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but my father. And so spiritual understanding, keep this in mind, is not found in a natural way. Spiritual understanding doesn't come by simply reading a book or hearing a sermon. Spiritual understanding always comes by the spirit of God. That's how it is given to us. And so the Bible teaches us that in 1 Corinthians chapter two, verse 12, Paul said, we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. So the Holy Spirit is the one who imparts to us this understanding. And so they had been given the spirit or spiritual understanding, their hearts and minds were open to receive and to comprehend the things that were being said. And so that's what he's speaking of in verse 46 when he says, thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. So he's reminding them of what they have been taught. Now he'd already referred to the law of prophets and the Psalms, but now he had opened their understanding to comprehend what he's done. And what he has done is built on prophecies that had been fulfilled. And he's emphasizing various things which will make up the message of the gospel because he's already made that point. Notice in verse 46 when he said, it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, verse 7, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning in Jerusalem. So their minds have been opened to comprehend scripture to see how it pertains to Messiah. And he's continuing his teaching to them at a later time. And he's saying it's necessary for Messiah to suffer. It was necessary for him to be tortured and to die on the cross. He said it was necessary for him to rise, obviously speaking of his resurrection. And he said it is necessary that repentance and remission of sin is preached. Now in Mark's gospel, Mark tells us repentance is the heart of Jesus' ministry. Remember when he had been baptized? He had been tempted. And John, the Baptist had been put in prison. Now that Mark in chapter one, verse 15 had quoted Jesus as saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. And then he said this, he said repent and believe in the gospel. So when Jesus was preaching and he's giving his message, he began with the first word. It's been called the first word of the gospel, the word repent, repent. The word repent speaks of a complete change of mind. It carries with it the connotation of turning to God. There's a handbook called Erdman's Bible Dictionary. And in that dictionary, it says to us that repent means in its fullest sense that it's a term for a complete change of orientation involving a judgment upon the past and a deliberate redirection for the future. And so when Jesus said repent, he did not say regret. He didn't say have remorse. He said change your mind. The word repent is a Greek word, metatnoia. It speaks of a change of mind. And the change of mind is ultimately going to be seen by a change of direction. And so the evidence of true repentance is a permanent change of direction. Now when he spoke of remission, the word remission is a sending away or a letting go. It speaks of completely releasing. When genuine repentance occurs, complete forgiveness is received. For us to have our sins completely forgiven first requires repentance. So this is a message that is a mixture of warning and hope. The warning is there's judgment to come. The hope is salvation can be had through Jesus Christ. And so in this message, there's love and there's grace. And it's not intended simply for the people of Israel. There is love and grace that's intended for the world. And that's why the word of God is to be preached. That's why the gospel is to be preached. Again in verse 47, it says repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. It's to be preached throughout the world. It's a worldwide message. Harkening back to God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, verse three, where he had said, I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. So the gospel is intended to go not, or it's not to remain in Jerusalem but to go throughout the world through all the nations. It's a message that should go throughout the entire earth beginning at Jerusalem. And over the years we as a church have been taking this gospel. We have people who go on missions, trips. We have people who have gone pretty much throughout the world. Over the years we've gone to places like Mexico and the Philippines and various other places on top of that to take the gospel out and to preach. And it's something that I feel very strong about going out and sharing when you have opportunity to or given the opportunity to do so. I was sharing on Wednesday night that I was asked to go to Acapulco, not to go cliff diving though. I am taking my speedos for that. No, I was asked to go to minister in Acapulco at Calvary Chapel, Acapulco. And I'll be doing that. And I'll be going out to New Mexico this summer, God willing, to minister to pastors and the congregation in New Mexico. I'll be going up into San Jose in August to speak about the Jesus Revolution. Mike McClure, who's the pastor of Calvary Chapel, San Jose has asked me as well and several other Calvary pastors who are part of the early days of Calvary Chapel to come up and share what the Lord has done and all of that in San Jose. I'll be going to Mexicali to preach there where we have a daughter church and granddaughter churches that are spread around that region. The gospel's to go out. The gospel is not to remain. The gospel is to go out and it's to go out to make disciples, not simply to go out, but to go out and produce fruit. And that's what we're supposed to do. And that's why he says in verse 48, you are witnesses of these things. You're to go out and you're to share. You're to take the message of the gospel. Of Jesus Christ, dead, buried, resurrected, ascended. You're to do that. You're to take this message. And you're to do it. Notice he says in verse 48 as witnesses. Now that word witness means eyewitness. It speaks of a first-hand reporting. Now when we were looking at 1 John recently on a Wednesday night, he began his letter this way, his epistle of 1 John. He said in 1 John chapter one, verses one and three, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. The life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declared to you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. He was saying we are eyewitnesses. We can give you first-hand expressions of what we have seen. And that's what we are. We're called to be witnesses. We're to be witnesses of his works, of his teachings, and we witness his resurrection. Now, when Judas fell, he was replaced. But for the man to replace him, though anyone who was to replace him had to meet a certain qualification. In Acts 1, it says this way, in verse 21 and 22, it's speaking of the replacement. The replacement must have accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. From one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection. Now, they're going to be taking this message throughout the world. In order to succeed, and this is so very important for me to point out, in order for you, for us, for them to succeed, you need power. If there's anything that I see, and I am asked every once in a while, what do you think the church needs to awaken to at this time? Not that I'm some kind of expert, but I've been involved in ministry for a long time so I can speak with some experience. I can say, what do I think that we're missing right now? Many who claim to be Christians, one, they're not, they're just claiming, but two, those who actually are are walking more in the flesh than in the spirit. And the way that I test my own self, and I can share this with you, is what do I pray the most for? You know, in the morning, when I wake up, on an almost everyday regular basis, but sometime during the day, this is gonna be prayed, I will ask the Lord in one form or another, Father, fill me with your spirit. I wanna walk in your spirit, fill me with your spirit. When you wake up in the morning, what is your prayer? Because if there's anything that we're lacking right now, it's the presence and power of the Spirit of God in believers' lives. Many are living their quote unquote Christian life without the power of the Spirit. And as a result of that, there's a lot of stumbling and failure, a lot of backsliding. There's just a lack of satisfaction in following the Lord. We need the power of the Spirit. I want you to see how he says in verse 49, "'Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, "'Battery in the city of Jerusalem, "'until you're endued with power from on high.'" Behold, he said, I send the promise. That word promise in simple definition is an announcement of guaranteed divine assurance for good. It's God's promise. The sending of the Spirit is for the good of those whom he loves. And this promise is found in the Old Testament. Various times, God in the Old Testament gave the promise to send His Spirit upon people. In Joel, chapter two, verses 28 and 29, it reads, It shall come to pass afterward that I'll pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams. I've been dreaming a lot lately. Your young men shall see visions. And also on my men's servants and on my maid servants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. Isaiah 44, verse three, I will pour water upon him who is thirsty, floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon your seed, my blessing upon your offspring. So Jesus is about to fulfill this promise by sending the Spirit to empower them. Jesus is the Holy Ghost baptizer. And He's about to baptize them in the power of the Spirit. In John 16, verse seven, I tell you the truth. It is for your good that I'm going away. Unless I go away, the counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. You're not to begin your ministry until you're endued with power. And he had used that word. He said, I send the promise of my Father upon you, tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you're endued with power from on high. That word endued means to be clothed with, to have something arrayed upon you. You're supposed to be wearing something. They're not to go forth without the power of God clothing them. That's because ministry will never give glory to God if it's clothed with flesh. The Holy Spirit in John 16, 14, Jesus said, shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine and shall disclose it to you. Today I think we make the mistake of glorifying the person that God is using. When in fact the Holy Spirit has been sent upon us so that we will glorify Jesus Christ. That's why behind me it says we will see Jesus. We're not, we don't go to church to hear a speaker. We go to church or we assemble as the church so that we can be equipped with for works of service so that we united can go out and make disciples. That's what it's all about. And the central one is Jesus himself. And that's why the word of God is to be proclaimed so that we see him more closely. So you're to go forth, he's saying, preaching the gospel throughout the world, but to do so requires the power of the spirit. In John 15, 26 and 27, when the comforter has come whom I will send to you from the Father, even the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me and you also shall bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning. So to be his witnesses requires his power and our lives evidence his presence. And that's why Jesus sent his Holy Spirit. I was speaking to my dad many years ago, obviously now and I was speaking to him and it was not that long after he had given his heart to Christ and gotten saved. And we were talking together, my dad and I and he said to me this, he said, David, he said, do you know why I came to faith in Christ? And I said, obviously because my brilliant preaching. No, I said, no, daddy, why? He said, the reason I came to Christ, David, is this, he said, he said, when you came and shared with me and you told me I was going to help, he said, the first thing I thought was, I'm gonna hit him. He said, but when you said to me that you didn't want to go to heaven without me, he said, I listened to you, but do you know why I listened? And I said, no, he said, because he said, when you came into the house and you said to me and your mama that you'd been saved, that you were now a Christian, he said, I watched you. He said, and as I watched you, I saw a changed life. He said, but when your sister Madeline gave her heart to Christ, he said, that's what caused me to wonder. He said, I knew I was better than you, but I wasn't as good as my daughter. You see, my sister Madeline as a teenager in high school stayed home on Fridays and Saturday nights. She never had dates. She would climb into bed between my mom and my dad as a senior in high school and just talk to them and visit with them and laugh with them. She had that access to them. She married her first boyfriend. Madeline was like mother Teresa, but me, my middle name was Lucifer, I was different than my sister. So my dad said, I knew I was better than you, but I also knew I wasn't as good as she. And he said, and so what I did is I began to combine. I began to think of how bad you are, how good she is. I discovered myself to be somewhere in the middle. And he said, at that point I realized that I was a sinner and I needed Jesus Christ. And what it was that caused my dad to be open to hear the gospel was a transformed life. What it was was a crazy son who actually was different. Now the gospel needs to be preached. It's not just the way you live because there's some very good, outwardly good people. But the gospel is enhanced in its presentation when it's given by someone who's been transformed by its power. And it's not just the outer appearance because remember again when the Jesus movement and all of that, Greg's movies come out recently and all of that, many of you have seen it, but there were a lot of hippies, people like myself and others who were into the drugs and alcohol and everything else who were absolutely transformed. And it wasn't the outer appearance. The early, the church, when I first got saved outside of Calvary Chapel and very few other churches, one of the first things they wanted you to do was to cut your hair. One of the very first things they wanted you to do is put on a suit because everybody knows that Jesus had a real short haircut and he used to wear a suit to church. And that's how they treated us. So they didn't believe that we had been changed, they didn't. They thought that we were putting it on. They thought we were freaks and that's where the term Jesus freaks came from. They thought we were just freaks just acting out, just pretending because we looked at Jesus as being the first hippie and that's what we used to say. We say Jesus is cool because he had a beard, he had long hair, he wore sandals, I mean, come on. So he was the premier hippie to us and he preached love and that was very attractive to me and to many of us who were calling ourselves hippies at that time. So they thought it was just kind of a phase of fad that was going across the United States when in fact, no, it was actually a transformation that was taking place where we realized, like one of our songs said, that we would look past the hair and straight into the eyes. We started seeing transformed lives and that comes to the power of the Holy Spirit. See, in the early Jesus movement, which we're still in a movement of Christ, of course, but we were taught, I was taught from the beginning, rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. You cannot transform yourself. It requires the word of God. It requires a yielding to him and a willing obedience and it requires the power of his spirit because within me there is no good thing so I need to be transformed, you see? And so they go for it to preach this gospel but it's not just a message by itself, it's a message that is actually not so much, well, it's adorned. It's beautified by the reality of transformation because when you go out and preach a gospel, it says that God can transform. If any man be in Christ, it's a new creation. If you go out and preach that but you're not a new creation yourself, then it gives a person every reason to doubt that that gospel message you're speaking has any power but when your life is transformed, when people say that you used to be a liar and you no longer are, you used to be a thief but you no longer are. You used to be sexually immoral but you no longer are. You used to be a dragon but you no longer are. You were an alcoholic but you no longer are. When people see that they say, how did this transformation take place? And you say by the power of God's Holy Spirit and the word of God and that's what transforms lives and that's what the gospel is supposed to do and that's what the people who are bringing that message are supposed to preach and that's how it works. It works then, it works now. That's why I as a pastor need to keep my eyes focused on what actually permanently changes people's lives which is the gospel of Jesus Christ and it comes to the power of God. It says, I have a quote here where someone said, empowered by him, we have the ability to endure hardship, to rejoice in the face of suffering and resist living for the gratification of our flesh. So it is the work and the power of the Holy Spirit that produces everlasting results. Without his power, we're laboring in the flesh. Now how are these believers to take the gospel throughout a world? How will they be enabled to accomplish such a task? These people, many of them had never even been outside of the borders of Israel, let alone throughout the world. How are they gonna do that? They didn't have buildings, they didn't have stadiums, they didn't have a radio or television program, they didn't have social media. How are they gonna be able to reach a world without these tools, without these advantages? Now the effect is gonna come by way of the power and leading of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had taught them that the spirit would be with them and be in them and by his presence, we have the internal desire and the drive and the power to please him. His presence in our lives motivates us to live in obedience to his will. In 1 John 3, 24, those who obey his commands live in him and he in them and this is how we know that he lives in us. We know it by the spirit whom he gave us. In Romans 8, 16, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, we are children of God. How are they gonna be able to be his witnesses in a world that rejected and crucified him? They'll be able to do so by the power of the spirit. Remember in Acts chapter one, verse eight, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth, to the ends of the earth. Now he didn't say that they would go out and simply witness. This of course is what they would do when they accomplish the task of preaching the gospel. But I want you to see this. He said, you shall be witnesses. Not only will you be preaching this message, but your lives will demonstrate its truth. Your message and your lives are gonna be Christ centered. And so Jesus promised that spirit would come upon them and he did so and said it would be with power. And he filled them by his spirit with love and goodness. And the result would be evident to all who would see them. They were his witnesses speaking the truth and living out the truth of salvation. And this is what has made the church a powerful witness throughout the history. The most powerful witness has always been changed lives preaching a life-changing message. Again, it's not a location. It's not great music. It's not great programs. It's not winning personalities. It's a witness of the spirit in somebody's life, changing them completely. And that's how God has always moved throughout the history of the church. In Acts 4.13, it speaks concerning to the apostles and Peter and John had been arrested for preaching and they're standing before council religious leaders and as they're speaking, it says, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus. That's what made the difference. Again, in the early days of the Calvin Chapel ministry and the movement called the Jesus Movement, that was the one thing that people finally got to realize something actually did happen to these people. Many of us never were formally trained in seminary. Many of us were never formally trained in any other way other than by going to Bible studies, listening to tapes and being taught by our pastor. And yet as a result of that, thousands and thousands upon multiple thousands of people have come to faith in Jesus Christ. And so Jesus says, this is what's gonna happen. You shall receive power. After that, the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, unto the uttermost parts of the earth. It's gonna begin in Jerusalem. It's gonna go throughout southern area called Judea. It's gonna go up into the central area called Samaria. Ultimately it's going to the ends of the earth. And your effective ministry, your effective ministry begins in your Jerusalem. That's where your ministry begins, whatever your Jerusalem may be. My Jerusalem when I first began ministry was my family. And then it became my neighbors. Then it became Bible studies. Then it became cities. Even in this fellowship we met in Ontario, then Montclair, Claremont, Ontario, Chino, Pomona. That was our Jerusalem. And walking in the spirit of God and walking in the power of God became our way of life. So we daily seek His presence. We daily ask for His help. And that's the key to living a satisfied and blessed life. The church needs to once again weed the body of Christ. We need to once again awaken to a hunger for God's word and a hunger for His powerful Holy Spirit. A devotional writer that I enjoy on occasion is A.W. Tozer. And he said this, he said, if the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. But if the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95% of what they did would stop and everybody would know the difference. And so as this is taking place, verse 50, he led them out as far as Bethany. He lifted up his hands, he blessed them. He came to pass while he blessed them that he was parted from them, carried up into heaven. They worshiped him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. And then he says, amen. Now, this obviously, this ascension takes place 40 days after he had been resurrected according to Acts chapter one. He walked to a place called Bethany on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives outside of the city of Jerusalem and ascended. And his followers, what did they do? Well, they worshiped him, they experienced great joy. They were continuously in the temple and they continuously praised him and blessed God. And so finally by closing, Mark tells us that after the Lord had spoken to them, he was received up. His ascension, in his ascension, he assumed his rightful place in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, exalted with authority. He was glorified with the glory that he had before the world had begun even as he had prayed in John 17.5. He said, now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was. And then the result, according to Mark 16.20, they went out and preached everywhere and the Lord was working with them. And that is something that we plainly see in the book of Acts. And I'll close by saying this, we're not through. I'm gonna be doing other things next week for a couple more weeks and then we're gonna complete our study and Mark, even though we read the last two verses in the book, because if there's anything that the church needs, and I've said it earlier, but it's true, and I'll say it rather quickly here. What have I seen happen in the last 50 plus years that I've walked with the Lord? It's this, is the church once again went back to using gimmicks to try and get people to come in and listen to them speak. The church crowned pastors as celebrities. The church made their worship teams into entertainment groups. The church made the platform into a stage. The church brought in lighting and smoke in order to make services entertaining. Pastors became afraid of offending sensitive hearers. So they watered down the message of the gospel. And as a result of that, people continued living in sin, thinking that it was okay to please God this way, because after all, it's all about grace now, isn't it? And because the pastors were afraid to offend the sensitive hearers because they lose people, they just stopped preaching the gospel. But not all pastors have been that way. I believe that at the end of the day, every pastor stands up before God to give an account of the things that they taught. Every one of us will. Every pastor will stand before the Lord in one form or another. When you read in 1 Corinthians about the wood hand stubble, people look at that and they see the gold and silver and all the precious stones and all of that. They need to understand that that's actually speaking in context of the pastor and the rewards he gets for his preaching. And so I made a promise to the Lord as long as I occupy this pulpit that I'll never compromise his word. I will teach you the truth because what you need is the truth because it sets you free. And if the church doesn't wanna hear it, then I'll preach to myself because the bottom line is we need to know the truth and we need the power of the Holy Spirit. So crowds, crowds are not the church. What has happened is clowns have begun to entertain the goats. The word of God has to go forth to feed the sheep. And the only way that takes place is by the unction or the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the mandate, not to create deciders but to train disciples. And if that's what you wanna be, I promise I'll do my best to help that to happen in your life. Thank you.