 Eman, Ezekiel chapter 16. So keep your place there. We'll be there for the entire sermon. So tonight, we're going to look at Ezekiel chapter 16. What is Ezekiel chapter 16 talking about? So first of all, just to give you some context here, before we even begin the sermon, Ezekiel was a prophet to the lower kingdom of Judah. He was a contemporary with Jeremiah. So he was a prophet during the time of the captivity. So right up to the run-up of the end of the lower kingdom of Judah, the northern kingdom of Israel is already gone for 150 years at this point in this chapter. And Ezekiel is talking to Jerusalem, the capital city of the lower kingdom of Judah. And this is a hard-hitting chapter right here. And he is talking to the city of Jerusalem, as you can see. And just some context before we even get into the sermon tonight. He's basically saying at the beginning, the first half of the chapter here, he's saying, you were naked and bare and I gave you, I decked you out, is what he said at the beginning. I decked you out with crowns and jewels and all these things. Look down to verse number 15. And then, I made you beautiful. You had nothing. I made you beautiful. I decked you out with all these things. Look at verse number 15. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty. It said, you had fame. The heathen looked at you and they thought, like, wow, look at how beautiful you are. Everybody had glory about you. And then what did you start saying? Yes, look at how beautiful I am. And you started trusting in your own beauty. It's interesting also in verse number 21. I'm not going to get too deep into this. But he says in verse number 21, it says that thou hast slain my children. That's going to kind of apply to our sermon this evening, or the sermon this evening, when God says, you've slain my children. God saying, those children of yours that, you know, Manasseh, you know, a few kings ago, was having passed through the fire and sacrificing children to false gods. He's like, those were my children. You know, just take that in context. When you look at the blessings in your life, when you look at even the children in your life, those belong to the Lord, and the Lord considers those children his. And he says, you slain my children. You've taken the beauty that I gave you and took credit for it. So we're going to look at Ezekiel chapter 16 and apply it to ourselves this evening. So here we are on the eve of, you know, we're a few days away from Easter. We're on the eve of taking part in the Lord's Supper. As I preached on Sunday night, the reason that we are going to partake in the Lord's Supper is so we can remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus Christ gave us this command to do what we're going to do this evening. Why? So we can remember him. What are you talking about? We talk about Jesus all the time. And that's really what I want to discuss this evening and look at, especially in Ezekiel chapter 16 and many other places in the Bible. Look, this is, I was thinking a lot about this sermon this week. This is a, you know, this is a young church. I don't feel like I'm part of the, you know, I'm young. But this is a church with a lot of young people in it. There's a lot of young families in this church which means, which means there's a lot of changes going on in people's lives in a church like this. You say, what are you talking about, Pastor? I mean, look, it's so much, it's so much changes sometimes that I find it hard to keep track of at times. And I almost feel bad at times that something, you know, has happened or changed with somebody in the church. Look, good changes, I mean, good changes, but changes. And I didn't know about it or I didn't get to say, you know, good job on that or whatever. But there's a lot of things that are changing in lives of a church like this. I mean, from jobs to families to careers are changing and growing and shifting. There's a lot of new engagements that are happening. There's a lot of new wives. There's a lot of new babies in that order, by the way. But, I mean, and one wife or one, if you're watching online, you're like, what kind of church they got going on there? One man, one woman, okay? But there's a lot of, you know, a lot of big things that are shifting around in a church like this. But what I want to talk about tonight is change can be dangerous in your Christian life. And we need to be reminded of things. And God knows this. This is the whole point of the Lord's Supper, was to be, so we can be reminded, not, I mean, we're eternally secure, we're saved, but we need to be reminded of Christ sacrifice. But tonight I want to drill down a little bit deeper and I want to talk about other things that we need to be reminded of, more detailed things in our lives that we need to be reminded of. I want to give you five things tonight that we need to not forget in our Christian lives. Because look, we forget easily. This is why God institutes an ordinance like the Lord's Supper, because we just forget things. We forget it. We'll go through our lives and we won't think. We'll get caught up and we won't think about the sacrifice that Jesus made for us if he doesn't give us ordinances and things in the Bible like Ezekiel chapter 16 to help us to remember. So on the topic, on the Christian topic of remembering things and not forgetting important things, I want to give you five things to remember tonight. I'm going to give you five points to remember, and the points are going to get a little bit more serious as we get towards the end of the sermon. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8. You're going to keep your place in Ezekiel chapter 16 for the entire sermon, but turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8. I want to give you five things to remember tonight as we're just, we're celebrating, we're practicing remembrance this evening. All right? Five things to remember. The first one is this. You're going to Deuteronomy chapter number 8, but the first thing that you need to remember is you need to remember where you came from. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse number 1. You say, Pastor, what are you talking about? Look at Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse number 1. The Bible says, all the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do that ye may live and multiply and go in and possess the land the Lord swear unto your fathers. Now look at this in verse number 2. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness to humble thee. What did he tell him to remember? He told them to remember where they came from. He said, you don't forget where ye came from. He's like, you are going to go into another place now, but don't you forget where you were? Look at the rest of the verse, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep us his commandments or know. You say, what's the value of that? What's the value of them remembering back where they were? Well, it was to humble them. It was to humble them and ultimately it was to remind them that you can end up back there. So that's why you need to remember in your Christian life. You need to remember where you came from. Growth is good. All of these things that are going to happen to you in your Christian life are going to be, you know, not all of them are going to be good. This isn't a prosperity message, but look, there's going to be some good things and there's going to be some, some good changes that happen to you. But you need to remember where you came from because you can end up back there. Okay. It's always good to be mindful of that. Go back to Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16, we see a very similar, a very similar concept that Ezekiel puts forth to Jerusalem. Look what he says in verse number 22. Look at verse number 22. This is what Jerusalem failed to do. Jerusalem failed to do, the southern kingdom of Judah failed to do what Deuteronomy chapter 8 was telling them to do. Look at verse 22, and it says, in all thine abominations and thy hordoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth. What were those the good days? If they didn't remember the days of the youth, what does he mean? When thou was naked and bare, he's saying you didn't remember when you had nothing. You didn't remember before I decked you out. You didn't remember where you came from when you had nothing. And then in verse 43, look down in verse 43, he says, because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth. What were those days? When they had nothing. You see, those people in Ezekiel chapter 16, they literally, they literally took all the things God gave them. And I mean, isn't it infuriating just reading it? They took all the things God gave them from the jewelry and the fine linen and the clothing and the earrings and even the oil and put it at the altar of a false God. They took all the things that God gave them and they used those very things to build the high places, to turn against God. They used the things that God gave them when they were naked and bare. Why? Because they didn't remember thy youth. They didn't remember where they came from. Don't forget where you came from is the first thing that we need to remember because we can always end up back there. And I don't care what we're talking about. I've said this before, I'm old enough to know that there's going to be good years and there's going to be bad years in your life. I'm old enough to know that there's a million different things that make things work out or make things not work out. Always remember where you came from and look, it will help you appreciate the blessing of where you are. I mean, I appreciate personally, I am very thankful for all of the hard times in my life. I'm very thankful for those. You say, what kind of hard times? All of the hard times, the spiritual hard times, the physical hard times, the, I mean, I'm not saying I would want to go and do those things again, but I'm thankful that those that I can remember that. This is one thing that I'm pretty good at is remembering bad times. Financial bad times, those are all very valuable memories for me, because I don't want to forget where I came from. You know what? I want to appreciate where I am. And I want God to see that, you know what? I don't need to be sent back there. I want to appreciate where I'm at. Turn to Isaiah chapter 55. So the first point, the first thing you need to remember is where you came from. The second one is this, you're turning to Isaiah chapter 55. You're turning to Isaiah chapter 55. You're keeping your place in Ezekiel chapter 16. Isaiah chapter 55, look down at verse number 10. Here's the second thing you need to remember tonight. Second thing you need to remember tonight is remember how you got here. You need to remember where you came from, but you need to remember how you got here. Look at Isaiah chapter 55 and verse number 10. The Bible says this, I mean, we talk about verse number nine all the time. We've read that many times. But look at verse number 10 tonight. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it, what is it, the rain, may give seed to the sower, and the bread, and bread to the eater. Notice here, notice here, how you have on the earth, you have somebody sowing, you have somebody that has seed, and somebody that is sowing that seed, and what are they doing? They're growing, they're putting labor in, and they're coming out, you know, they're coming out with bread. But it didn't come from the hard work. It didn't come from the diligence. You're like, what? This is what you tell me to be all the time. Now, ultimately, none of it could have been possible if it wasn't for the rain. You see, all those things in the middle are required. The hard work, the diligence, the, all that stuff in the middle. But without the rain, there will be no bread. Without the rain, there will be no seed for the sower, to sow. Don't forget the source. Without the rain, there's no chance of bread at all. I mean, think how crazy it is to just focus on the stuff in the middle, the hard work, the diligence, all these different things that the Bible talks about, but then to forget about the rain. It'd be like fixing up a car. It'd be like fixing up a car and like going and getting a classic car and fixing up the, we saw an old Cadillac out soul winning today. I'm just like, man, that would just be such a great car. Somebody would just spend a little bit of time on that thing. Just sitting there with flat tires. You go out and you fix the tires. You go out and you take it over to the Mako paint place for five bucks. They'll paint it for you. You get all original OEM parts and fix up the motor and fix up the transmission and all that and you don't put any gas in it and you're like it won't run. That's what that's like. You focus on the seed. You focus on the sowing. You focus on the diligence. You focus on all the stuff in the middle and you forget about the rain. You forget about the source. As you grow in your Christian life, you get the right things in. You get the right things out. You will see blessings. This is not a prosperity gospel tonight, but you will see blessings in the environment in the United States, in California that we're in right now. You will see blessings from that, especially today. You can make it today. It's possible, but you cannot afford to forget the rain. As a matter of fact, the mature Christian will realize the more bread that they get, the more they need to focus on the rain. That's really, I mean, we have it exactly backwards. The people in Ezekiel chapter 16, Isaiah chapter 55, it exactly backwards. More bread, more rain, more focus on the rain. Don't forget the rain. It's essential to it all. I mean, look, it's a common, I don't want to pick on the young men, but it's a common young man mistake. And I used to be a young man and I've made this mistake many times. You get one or two things figured out and you think you have it all figured out. That's who I was in my 20s. You should have a goal in your life to learn as few things the hard way as possible. And that's what the Bible is trying to do for you here. That's what the Bible is trying to do for you in Ezekiel chapter 16. That's why God put it there. Is it just a good history story? No. It's so we can learn as few things the hard way as possible in our Christian lives. That's why He gave us the Word of God. That's why He put it in front of us. Turn to Job chapter one. So don't forget how you got there. Don't forget where you came from. Don't forget how you got there. Go to Job chapter one. And this is where that Ezekiel chapter 16 where God says that thou hast slain my children. This is where that one kind of comes in. But the third point is this. Remember what you are owed. Remember what you are owed. Look at Job chapter one and verse number 21. Job hands down as far as men go in the Bible. He takes the award for understanding this point the best. Job chapter one and verse 21. Job after he's lost everything. And when I say everything he's lost all of his wealth. He's lost all of his family. If you read Job chapter one he loved his children very much. He loved his family very much and he lost them all in one day. He prayed for them. He did everything he could to raise them correctly and he just diligently was trying to raise them and then nurture and admonition of the Lord. And he lost them all in one day. But you know what he knew? He knew that they weren't his children. He knew that they belonged to the Lord. And look what he says in verse number 21. The third point is this. Remember what you are owed in this life. Job said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I wonder how many of us would react that way after a day like that. That right there shows how special Job was. And why there is a book of the Bible about Job. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Look I have been to a funeral of a parent who lost a child who was 9 years old. And it was, I mean blessed be the name of the Lord. That is why Job has a book in the Bible right there. Because he knew that in this life he was owed nothing by the Lord. You've been saved. You weren't even owed that. And then God gave you these children for a little while. And I mean we all, I hope we all, none of us ever see. I hope we all die before our children. And none of us have days like that. But the point being is we aren't owed anything. And we need to remember that. We need to not get an entitlement attitude with the Lord. We need to not get this idea that God somehow owes us extra. We don't need to get comfortable in all this clothing like they did in Ezekiel chapter 16 to the point where you know what, because if we do you know what we'll start saying? We'll start saying look at how beautiful I am. We'll start saying look at how great I am. If we start thinking that we're owed what God has blessed us with then we'll start saying look at how smart I am, how fast I am, rich I am, good I am, whatever. And we'll start relying on our own beauty. When it was, we weren't owed it in the beginning. God just gave it to us because we were naked and bare. And then we start glorying in the things that we didn't even deserve in the first place. So remember what we are owed, which is nothing. Or maybe God looks back on point number one and says you know they think they deserve all this all of a sudden. They forgot the rain. Maybe they need to go back where they came from. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter four. 2 Corinthians chapter number four. So remember that we are owed nothing. What we deserve is hell just like every other sinner in this world, every other man that has ever lived and sinned against God, we deserve the punishment of hell. We deserve nothing. And yet we've been saved through the broken body and blood of Jesus Christ which we are going to remember tonight and we weren't owed that. But God just gave it to us. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter four. Look at verse number five. Here's the fourth one. Here's the fourth one. Remember who it's about. What do I mean? You need to remember who this Christian life is about. Well who is it about? Well look down at 2 Corinthians chapter four and verse number five. Really I mean it's really, verse number five is really a deep verse right there. So I'm going to read it. I'm going to read four, five. I'm going to read five, six, and seven. I'm going to come back to five. But look what the Bible says here. It says, We preach not ourselves but Jesus Christ the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God. Well here's who it, so you say who's it about pastor? Well here's who it's not about and not of us. So it's not about you. It's interesting if you go back to verse number five you say who's it about. I'm not going to let this Christian life. What's this Christian life about? What is your Christian life about? That's what I'm talking about. What's it all about? We need to remember who it's about. What is the Christian life? Who is the Christian life all about? Look at verse number five. We know from verse number seven it's not about you. But look at verse five. It says we preach not ourselves. So again it's not you but Jesus Christ the Lord. So who do we preach Jesus Christ to? We preach Jesus Christ to the unsaved, to people that are not saved. So it's about the unsaved but look at this. Just read the rest of the verse and ourselves your servants. So he's talking about yes we need to go out and preach to the unsaved but he's saying we are your servants. Who is he talking to? His brothers and sisters in Christ. So it's about the unsaved and it's about your brothers and sisters in Christ. That's what it's about. You need to remember that. You know you individually aren't in there. I mean you're like where do I come in? Well you're saved so I mean what more is there than that you need actually? The rest of your Christian life is about the unsaved and your brothers and sisters in Christ. Your Christian life is not about you. You are nowhere on the list your children. See you are saved but what this is saying is you affect others. That's what your Christian life is about. You affecting others. The unsaved and your brothers and sisters in Christ. Turn to 2nd Kings chapter 10. See the Christian life, Christian life here's you need to understand. The Christian life is contagious. Your Christian life is contagious. You say what do you mean Christian life? Well I mean soul winning. Soul winning is a big part of the Christian life. But you know what I mean it's we talk a lot about soul winning and we should talk a lot about soul winning but you know it's not all about soul winning because if it was just if the Christian life was just soul winning we wouldn't have to come to church. What would we have to have this building for? What would we you know what we have to you know we could just do like what everybody else does. We just do online church. We just phone it in but no we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. It's not just about soul winning it is about church life. And you know I mean the funny thing about church life is that people will pray for a church and then I can't tell you how many times I've seen this but I mean people will literally pray for a church and then that church will come and then they won't want that church. It's crazy but it just happens over and over and what you need to realize about your Christian life is it's not about you. You affect others. The Christian life is contagious. This is why it is so hard to start a church. I've said to my wife many times in the last few months this thing's kind of moving under its own power now. I mean you know I'm not saying like you don't need a pastor that's not what I'm saying but it is so hard to start a church because it is completely just the only contagion is the pastor and the pastor's family. It's like it's like if you ever built a snowman. I've built like a million snowman before. I hope I never built another snowman in my entire life but how do you start building a snowman. You make a little kids it's not that much fun. You make a little snowball and then you got to roll this tiny little snowball and then you get and it's impossible it just takes forever to get this snowball to start growing but as soon as you got a ball like this you're we're making snowmen now. It just grows so quickly. The Christian life is like that it's contagious. The Christian life is contagious but look you want to be contagious in a good way because it works both ways. Look at 2 Kings chapter 10 for a great example in the Bible of how to be contagious as a Christian in a good way. In a good way. We're talking about we're talking about remembering who your Christian life is about. Point number four here. Look at 2 Kings chapter 10 in verse number 15. And when he was departed then this is Jehu. He's clean and house. He's under command by God to go and just take down the house of Ahab and he is like if you read the story you're like man this guy is thorough. He is just he is going after it. He's not leaving any stone unturned. He is wiping out all these wicked people. Look at verse number 15. It says when he was departed then he lighted on Jonadab the son of Raycab coming to meet him and he saluted him. Jehu and you know Jehu he drives like a madman in his chariot and he said unto him is thine heart right as my heart is with thy heart and Jonadab answered it is. If it be give me thine hand and he gave him his hand and he took him up into the chariot. Jehu takes him up into the chariot and look what Jehu says here. He says come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. So they made him ride in his chariot. How did he affect Jonadab? Did he say to Jonadab let me tell you a good story. Did he say to Jonadab well let's sit down and let me tell you about all the things that we should be doing. No you know what he said? He said come and see. He grabbed Jonadab by the hand and he said come and see. That is how you are contagious as a Christian. You want to inspire other people? Be someone that people can come and see. See what? Doing what God wants you to do in this Christian life. What you want to be inspired in this Christian life? Go to someone that you can come and see. But unfortunately this works both ways. This works both ways. A lot of people you know look you want to be discouraged in your Christian life. Go to someone where there isn't much to see and you'll be discouraged. The contagion unfortunately runs both ways. I was thinking about examples of this but I mean it works for anything. It works for anything. If you're thinking about taking a step forward in your Christian life you should go to someone that has taken that step forward where you have something where they can say come and see what I've done. You shouldn't go to someone who hasn't taken that step or has decided not to take that step and ask them because they're going to be like well you know I don't know I'm busy I don't really think that that's that important and I got a lot going on and all these different things and look they're going to discourage you. You must be affected by people that you can come and see what they've done in this Christian life. That's how the contagion will work in a positive way for you. I mean just think about men's preaching night coming up. Maybe there's somebody who's never preached at a men's preaching night and maybe they're thinking like should I preach at men's preaching night? You know what they should do? They should go up to someone who's going to preach at men's preaching night and say you know I was thinking about preaching at men's preaching night. They should never go to someone who has never preached at a men's preaching night and be like what do you think about that? And they're like I don't know I seem scarier and I don't really want you know it will just discourage you more. You have to go and go to someone that you can come and see their zeal for the Lord. Where there is actually something there. Like so many people I mean this works in every different things but so many people just take advice from the wrong people. Like that's just like a life law for some people. I mean look at like mothers. Look at mothers like homeschooling. I mean I'm sure moms have seen this with homeschooling. Like if you go up to somebody who doesn't homeschool and be like I don't know I'm kind of stressed out about homeschooling and they don't homeschool what are they going to do? They're going to be like yeah well you know it's horrible you shouldn't be doing that. Or you know I'm thinking about homeschooling. Think about a mom that's thinking about homeschooling that goes to another mom that would never homeschool. What's she going to say? Well I don't know that that is scary. That is scary. Yeah. Yeah. Who could have the time for that? It would just discourage instead of going to a mother that has homeschooled children that has done it successfully that has homeschooled multiple children and being like hey I'm thinking about homeschooling. You know what she's going to say? Come and see and we'll show you. Come and see my zeal for the Lord. And that is how a Christian life can positively be a contagion to someone and pull them up. Talking to somebody that has something to come and see. Think about that. Think about that when you're when you're thinking about you know talking to people taking advice from people look I only vouch for the advice I give you just for the record okay. But think about that when you're taking advice from people is there something to come and see there? If not maybe you should talk about something else with those people. Turn to Matthew chapter number 10. I think part of it is that people sometimes go to people for advice who they know will give them the answer they want to hear which is this is a horrible thing that you should never do. You know one thing like you know this is why people don't come to the pastor that much. Because like I'm going to hit you in between the eyes with the truth my friends. Look at Matthew chapter 10. Look at Matthew chapter 10. Look at verse number 7. So remember who it's about. It's not about you. It's about everybody else. It's about the unsaved. It's about your brothers and sisters in Christ. It's about your children. It's about the future generations. That's what it's about. Number 5. Number 5. Remember why we are here. Look at Matthew chapter 10 in verse number 7. And this is a quick point and then I'm going to kind of conclude. Wrap it all up for you tonight. But remember why we are here. Look at Matthew chapter 10 in verse number 7. The Bible says in as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is really about the kingdom of heaven. Who is it about? It's about the unsaved. It's about our brothers and sisters in Christ. But what is it about? It is about the kingdom of heaven. That's why we are here. You say what is the meaning of life? The meaning of life is about the kingdom of heaven. That's what it is. Free. You didn't have to give me anything for that. Why am I here? The kingdom of heaven is why you're here. Why am I saved? So you can go get other people into the kingdom of heaven. That's why you're saved. So what are you doing? That's why we are here. What's the meaning of life? It's not that complicated. We're not building a space shuttle here. It's about getting other people to come and see what you didn't deserve. And so they can have that free gift too. It's really just about the kingdom of heaven. That's what it's about. But people forget where they came from. People forget how they got there or how they got here. And they forget that you're not owed anything. They forget who and what it's all about. And that's why you see Christians doing nothing with their Christian life. Because they've forgotten all of these five things that I just showed you tonight. Go back to Ezekiel chapter 16. See, Ezekiel chapter 16, I mean, isn't the Bible brilliant? Oh yeah, the Bible was written by man. I mean, what in the world? Ezekiel chapter 16, you have a prophet preaching against Jerusalem. He's preaching a message against Jerusalem. But he's talking about the Christian life cycle. It's what he's talking about. He's talking about the Christian who gets, you know, greatly blessed by God and forgets everything as he preaches against Jerusalem. They started with nothing and they used all the things God gave them. Look at verse number 60. Look at verse number 60. They used all the things God gave them to turn against the very God that gave them those things. Look at verse 60. Now if this isn't, if this doesn't, after the sermon, if this verse doesn't pop out at you, look at this. Nevertheless, verse 60, verse 60, almost the end of the chapter. I mean, that was a brutal chapter. He's calling them whores and whoremongers and just whoredoms. I mean, he is just like every, he is just not pulling any punches at all. Talking about this city, but look at verse number 60. Nevertheless, you know what that means? Even after all that, I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. I mean, that's an eternal security verse right there. I mean, he's saying even after you do all those things, you forget where you came from, you forget how you got there, you forget what you're owed, you forget what it's about, you forget who it's about. Even after all those things, I will not, I will not forget my everlasting covenant with you. You're still sealed. I may have to send you back to the wilderness, I may have to take your garments away, I may have to strip you naked and bare again and humble you, but I will not forget. I'm glad God doesn't have the same memory problems that we do at the end of the day. In verse number 61, see there was a reason for the judgment, there was a reason for the captivity. In verse number 61, he skips right to the end of their captivity, he says that then thou shall remember thy ways and be ashamed. Go to verse number 63. That what? Why are they going to go into that captivity? Why are all those horrible judgments going to happen to them? That thou mayest what? That thou mayest remember. See I started out this sermon, I kind of, I kind of tricked you. I said we're a young church and we're changing and things are changing in your lives, which is true, but here's the, here's the, here's the deeper truth. Your life is always going to be changing. There's always going to be things going on in your life. The key is this, and this is the reason for a sermon like this. The field may change, the scenery may change, but don't forget the rain and where it comes from, and what it is like without the rain. Remember, remember what it's like without the rain. I want to end with a, with a story. I want to end with a story tonight. Here's really what it comes down to. When I moved from North Dakota to California, I was at Verity Baptist Church, I think it was about two years, and we started thinking and praying about going into the ministry, and I was out soul winning with a friend of mine. I was out soul winning with a friend of mine and that, that friend is in the room tonight, his, his brother Jeff in the back. And I was out soul winning and, you know, just to, just to show you that we all forget. You're like, man, pastor's really ripping on me tonight. Yeah, I'm ripping on you. And if you felt like you got ripped on, like it was on purpose. We all forget. We all forget. I told brother Jeff, I told him that we were, we were, I was praying about this, and I really was being drawn in this direction. I was just praying that I didn't want to do something, somebody that took so long to get to the right place. I didn't want to do something hasty for my own personal reasons or whatever. So I was very just, and I just, I told brother Jeff, I said, look, I said, I, I dropped everything to come here. I dropped everything to come here. And look, it's a, it's a story I can tell another time, but I dropped everything to come to California. And I didn't even have a job when I quit my job and we were moving to California. And I was, like, I had plan B and plan C and plan D, and my plan C was, I was, if I couldn't find a job, I was just going to go work at Home Depot. I always kind of wanted to work there anyway. I was just going to go work at Home Depot. And I told brother Jeff, I said, I said, brother Jeff, you know, I know that, you know, I'm really praying about this and I'm really compelled about this, this decision to go into the ministry. I said, but I finally got my family in, in this great, correct place. And I was like, God has great, look, I didn't, I didn't have to go work at Home Depot. God blessed me greatly. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. I got, I fell into so many things there. The clouds opened up when I got to Sacramento. I ended up on a, I ended up on a project, on a project that's anybody in my field would have envied a project that, there's not been a project like that in almost 50 years in this country. Because we don't build anything anymore. That's another story in itself. But it was this profound blessing. And just boom, there I was. And boom, there I was put. And just boom, this happened. And boom, this happened. And I was like, I just, I've been blessed so greatly. I told brother Jeff and, and I mean, I'm in the right place and all these blessings. And you know what he said? You know, when you have profound friends, you will have profound conversations. You know what he said to me? He said, he said, would this decision be easier or harder if you worked at Home Depot right now? You have profound friends. You have profound conversations. You want to talk about iron sharpening? We all forget. It starts raining. And it rained down on me. It rained down on me. But we have to remember where the rain comes from. And ultimately what it's all about. And who it's all about. Let's pray.