 up to you. We're going to be looking today at Romans 1, 24 through 32. Let me begin reading at verse 24, and as is my normal way of teaching, I'm going to give to you some a little reminder of some of the things we've looked at. I'm going to detour for a moment and address something that some may be interested in. I'm going to try and just read some of these things that I've written because if I don't do that, this study will go much longer than I plan on on keeping you captive here. So let me begin reading at verse 24. I'll read verses 24 and 25. Get into my introduction through giving you context and background and make some comments and then we'll move into our study. So Romans chapter 1 verses 24 and 25. Paul writes, therefore, God also gave them up to unclean us in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. And so Paul has been establishing a case, a case against the entire sinful humanity. He had said in verse 18 that God's wrath is directed to those who have rejected him. So as he had said that in verses 18 through 23, those verses show that man has willfully suppressed the truth in his unrighteousness. He said that they hold back the truth through wicked efforts and they reject it. Now Paul had stated that God has revealed himself. He has done so through the gospel. That's a very important point. The gospel is the message that he had been entrusted to give and it is a message he was faithful to the liver. He had pointed out that the gospel is the power of God into salvation for all who believe because it's the gospel that reveals to us God's plan of salvation. It's the gospel that when embraced reveals God's power for transformation in our life. We'll be getting to Romans 12 verse two says it like this. He says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Transformation comes through the gospel through the renewing of your mind. Now in Jesus's early part of his ministry, he went to the synagogue in Nazareth. He was handed the book of Isaiah. He opened it and he read a portion. Luke 4 18 and 19 tells us the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. So it's the gospel that heals the broken hearted. It's the gospel that brings liberty to captives. And it's this gospel that Paul has been entrusted with. And it's this gospel he intends to proclaim faithfully. When he was writing to the Thessalonians, first Thessalonians two verse four, he said it like this. He said, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, not in order to please men, but God who examines our hearts. So as a steward in God's house, Paul knew that he had to be, he must be faithful. And with that in mind, he proclaimed the gospel. He proclaimed proclaimed a message of life to those who were spiritually dead. In 1 Corinthians 1 18, he said the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, he says, it is the power of God. So the gospel is God's word and it's God's word that gives life. Jesus in Luke four verse four said it like this. He said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Now why am I bringing it up and developing that? Well, some of you are familiar with this. I believe I've mentioned this recently. Recently there's been a report of a revival. Breaking out in a place called Asbury Seminary. It's in Kentucky. On February 8th, the seminary held a chapel service, but the students refused to leave. They remained to worship. The group, which was a few hundred, grew to thousands and last weekend between 15 to 20,000 people were there. Now there's a fellow named Greg Gordon. He's the founder of Sermon Index and he tweeted an update. He said over 20,000 people came to Asbury last night with five overflow buildings and a grass lawn filled. There's a two and a half mile backup of cars going into Wilmore. Cry out to God for your first love to be renewed. He later tweeted, Lord, let the fire of your spirit fall like ladder rain. And he went on to say, don't be a spectator. God change me. God is doing a deep work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives to prepare us for what is ahead. Now it was sparked by a sermon on Romans 12 entitled Love and Action. That sermon took about 20 minutes. I could never do that. But people came from around the country. Some came from Finland. Others came from the Netherlands. The city has a population of 6,000. So they moved the services off campus. The school officials have moved the quote unquote revival off campus. So I guess they wanted to move God off campus. That's interesting. Now I obviously pray that what is happening is a genuine work of the spirit. There are those though who are saying if anyone questions if it is God, there's simply being a judge or critical. Now that concerns me. This obviously ignores scripture's command concerning this. Some say 1 Thessalonians 5 19 and 20. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies. But they need to remember 1 Thessalonians 5 21. Test all things. Hold fast to what is good. One thing needs to be kept in mind when wondering if this is genuine revival. A fellow by the name of Bill Muhlenberg of Culture Watch wrote, what would it look like if the church were to experience a true revival? What must the body of Christ do to get there? First and foremost, the word of God is crucial. And we will not see God moving in glorious revival if we do not put the highest priority on scripture, its proclamation, its reading and its obedience. Somebody said every revival in the Old Testament rested solidly on a new and powerful proclamation of the word of God. It's the faithful proclamation of God's word that needs to be the center of all movements. Now when you read your Bible in 2 Kings chapters 22 and 23 and 2 Chronicles chapter 34 and 35, those chapters speak of a revival that came during the time of a of a king by the name of Josiah. Josiah had become king of Judah at the age of eight. He ruled for 31 years. Now the temple was being repaired and the book of the law had been discovered. The priest, he found the book and he brought the book to Josiah. Now when it was read to Josiah, he tore his clothes and he mourned. He knew God's wrath was being poured out on them for neglecting his word. So he gathered the people of Judah and Jerusalem together. The people, the priests, the Levites had all been gathered and he read the law to them. 2 Chronicles 34 verse 33 says Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord, the God of their fathers. The year mark of a revival is a return to the word repentance and holiness. Worship is being promoted at Asbury. Clear teaching isn't. God can move but changes that last is proof that he did. So when people are asking me about that some are saying well it's like the Jesus movement and I have to say no it's not. The Jesus movement was built on the word of God. It always has been. Pastor Chuck would teach verse by verse. He taught the word. It wasn't emotionalism. For those of you who perhaps were there you might remember I was there and so it wasn't an emotional thing. It was more of a because we were hippies it was more of a sense of just mellow and peace. We would go, we would fellowship, we'd hear the word of God. There'd be great worship but it was the word of God that we were interested in. It wasn't Holy Ghost goose bumps. It wasn't any odd and weird things sadly to say. Lonnie Frisbee who was the one who was teaching the Bible studies I was going to began to move off into hyperpentecostalism while I was there. I still remember I was seated there and and he had said we're gonna have an afterglow. We stuck around. Not everybody would stick around to just wait on the Spirit. A few did but he was saying in that study I still remember he was saying how somebody had he said God can do miracles we all agree. He said I still remember him saying that he had heard of a guy who had a cavity in his molar and that God had healed that cavity and made it made the the molar into the shape of a cross and I'm a brand new Christian. Why not? So I had a cavity. Anyway that tooth was pulled out years later but see so it what began through the word eventually began to move in a direction it ought not to have gone and that's part of the reason why Lonnie was not there as long as he could have been moved into a different direction. Pastor Chuck was not a hyperpentecostal. Pastor Chuck never taught us to be hyperemotional. It was always a solid walk with Christ. He had said it doesn't matter how high you jump it's how straight you walk when you land and that comes through the word of God and so somebody like me I'm being you know regarded as oh you're just critical and you're a judge and and one young man was saying well this is a Gen Z thing so you old people should stay out of it. I'm gonna slap that baby in the face. No no if it's truly of the spirit of God it remains and lives are changed and an earmark keep this in mind is going to be holiness. It's the obedience to the word of God and transformed lives that is the heart of the Jesus movement always has been and so Josiah was somebody who saw that he brought people back to the word of God. Now getting back that was just a veer here we come. So Paul made it clear that man is without excuse because evidence of God is present. We saw this verses 19 through 23 provides and God provides an inward which is our conscience and outward which is nature. He provides these witnesses but in spite of this he makes it clear that people still willingly are rejecting God. The result of rejecting God is ungodliness produces unrighteousness. Now ungodliness is living as if there is no God and the fruit of this is an unrighteous life. So creation and conscience reveal his existence but he also has revealed himself through the incarnation. Jesus Christ took upon himself human flesh and dwelt amongst us. In Hebrews 1 1 through 3 in the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the universe. The son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word. And so the meaning of the incarnation. Why did Jesus take upon himself human flesh is found in the Gospel. In the Gospel God reveals the way of salvation to all who believe and in spite of all efforts the majority of men reject God's invitation to them and because they refuse to believe the message they create something that they will believe in. You see man was created with an impulse to worship. So if he doesn't worship God he creates a God to worship. In rejecting God he said they become idolaters and they actually worship creation. Verse 22 says professing to be wise they became fools. So instead of worshiping God they chose to worship their own wisdom they became philosophers. Word philosopher simply means a lover of wisdom. So instead of being wise he says they became foolish in their opinions in their way of life. They became fools. They had no understanding. No sense of what is right or wrong. No sense of morals. No sense of God. He had said in verse 23 that they changed or exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God. They turned to idolatry in other words as their alternative. Now he speaks of the incorruptible God. The word incorruptible speaks of immortal unchanging imperishable undecane. They exchanged the glorious God for images of men. Now the Greeks had idols that were made in the likeness of human beings. Notice how verse 23 says it says they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. And so the Greeks made idols in the likeness of human beings. You can go and still see them. They're in many museums to this day. These idols that they would worship that depicted their gods. But the Egyptians used images of animals. And if you look into the different gods that ancient Egyptians worshipped, they worshipped a falcon. They worshipped four-footed animals. One of their goddesses was a cow. Anubis is a jackal. The goddess Bastet is a cat. So they had creeping things. One of them was Amit. He had the head of a crocodile, the four quarters of a lion, and the hind quarters of a hippopotamus. So they worshipped creeping things, four-footed animals. The creeping things would have been the cobra that they worshipped when they worshipped raw. The wajjat was a snake goddess. And so that's what he's referring to, the ancient idolatry that was part of humanity. And so he speaks about that. And as he's done so, we'll begin our study now, verse 24. Introductions go along. I'm sorry. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. God gave them up. The word gave up. God abandoned them. He actually repeats this three times of variations. He does so in verse 24, 26, and 28. You see, when men persistently abandoned God, God abandoned them. He gave them up. He gave them up to the desires of the impure and rebellious hearts. In verse 25, it says, who exchanged the truth of God, noticed for the lion, worshiped and served the creature, the thing that was created. They exchanged God who is true and blessed forever for an idol. That is a lie. Interestingly enough, when you read your Old Testament, idolatry is called the lie because it produces a false hope. In the book of Jeremiah, one of the prophets, chapter 10, verse 14, everyone is dull-hearted without knowledge. Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image. He says, for his molded image is falsehood. And there is no breath in them. His molded image is a lie. It has no life and cannot give life. So the heart of idolatry is rejecting the God of truth and pursuing the lie. Now, that gives us insight into why commanded us to reject idolatry. When you look at the commands that God gave in the book of Exodus in chapter 20, verses four and five, he said, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. There is a there is such a thing as love that is jealous. It isn't a sin. When God says I'm a jealous God, he simply says you're mine. You belong to me and I protect and love you. I have a love for my wife and I would call it a jealous, a jealous love. I have a love, a devotion for that woman. And it's something that that is very real and it's not a sin. I'm supposed to have that love. But he says in verse 26, for this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. The word vile. I started doing a lot of word searches. I want to know, okay, what is vile? It means disgraceful, disgraceful passion. Paul says the fruit of this is uncleanness. Uncleanness is the impurity of living in a lustful way. In other words, man's rejection of God leads to a pursuit of personal pleasure. And the result inevitably will be the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. That's what Paul is saying. His body reaps a consequence of such activity. Again, verse 26, he says, for this reason, God gave them up to vile passions, even their women exchange the natural use for what is against nature. God gave them up or surrendered them to degrading passions. And these being among the most disgraceful and repulsive of all passions. He speaks concerning sexual impurity. And the passions, and this is something that that unless you go through your scriptures, you may not hear this or read this for that matter. But the passions he's speaking about sexual passions include lesbianism and homosexuality, which incidentally are heading the list. Because notice in verse 26, how he says, for even their women exchange the natural use for what is against nature. The natural use, what is the natural use he's speaking concerning the ability to produce children. The natural use is an inborn instinct. It's what is agreeable to nature. Now I'm going to say something people may get upset about none of you, but maybe someone watching. There is something I can't go along and this it just it just is interesting how when I'm preparing studies sometimes I see something nice and also that couple days ago we had my my granddaughter over the house, my Elena. Elena is three years old. And so she and I are kind of tight a little bit. And Marie works hard. So so we have a little room set apart for the kids. We have a number of grandchildren, some of them small. So we have a little room for them to play and so Mama Marie took Elena in the other room to play with her. And then I hear Marie say, you know, Elena wants you to come in. So okay. So I get up and I walk in and there's this little baby, you know, those little teeny tables that are like in the teeny little chairs that she's playing with. Now I have to sit on one of those. But you know what? I was watching her. And she's she's going to the to the stove and she's cooking pretend cooking. She gave me like 10 cups of coffee. And she's giving coffee to Grammy and all of this, you know, and I'm watching her. Nobody taught her to do that. Does my my daughter not never taught her to do that. There's something in her. There's something within her. Now, I don't know what to say other than I that was true with all of my my children. My boys were a certain way. Girls are a certain way. There's something innate. That's true. You put you put four, we'll say four, five year olds around a tree. Five year old boys, four of them. And before you know it, every mother knows this before you know it. They've got sticks. And they're hitting each other with them. They are. That's what they do. You know, they're playing their heroes and this and that. And so they're playing, they're fighting. You put four girls around the same tree. And when one gets up, they talk about her. No, but they they have a different thing going normally, not all of course. But overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, there is something within as it's God given. There's no doubt about that. And so he's speaking about that they're going against nature. They're going against that which is the order of nature. And he's saying homosexuality and lesbianism is against nature and natural instincts. Because of their insistence on pursuing the rejection of God, Paul says he gave them up. He surrendered them to their sinful cravings. It's revealing how Paul said even their women exchange the natural use. That's intended to emphasize how terrible this is. Now, these were passions, the Greeks and Romans were well known for temple prostitution, sexual immorality, lesbianism and homosexuality. There's an island off the coast of their Greece called Lesbos. That's where lesbianism, that's where the word came from. So they were well known for that. But he also goes into verse 27 and says likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due. The natural use of woman speaks of the purpose of her creation because she can bear children. She can model modesty and purity and virtue. She can exemplify faith, but those who don't know God live lives that are entirely different. But the men, the men also leave, he says they abandon the natural use. Natural use speaks of physical relations. It speaks of an insatiable perverted lust for men and even for boys. Now, we have an example of this when Lot harbored the angels. You remember the story in Genesis 19, the angels who had come to Sodom. It says in Genesis 19, four and five. Before they, before the angels lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter surrounded the house. And they called the lot and said to him, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally. We want to have sexual relations with them. You see that in the book of Genesis. He says in verse 27, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving the result. They're going to reap the consequences. You say in, you see, I'm not repenting. They're never going to be delivered from the lust. That's what he's saying. And they never will find peace because that comes in realizing sin and confessing and turning from it. Now, I'll say this quickly. There are those I've, this argument has gone on for a long time. Some of you may be familiar with that. There are some who say, well, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not sexual. They will say, and there are quote unquote homosexual churches and they preach this. This is something they preach. I've heard it. I've read it. They say it was not the sin of a sexual impropriety. It was the sin of inhospitality. And that's what they'll say. But in Jude, verse seven, it says, in a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffered the punishment of eternal fire. Scripture is very obvious about that. Now today, and I'm going to develop this with you for a moment, homosexuality is presented and seen as a normal orientation. We know this is presented as genetic. It's presented as a natural condition. It's something you're born with. But that's not verifiable through any unbiased scientific studies all the way back in 1948. Alfred Kinsey published a work claiming 10 percent of the population was homosexual. Some of you read the Kinsey report. I had to do it when I was in school. But experts debunked his claim by pointing out that his data is flawed. In that much of his work was done through interviewing sex offenders, pimps, male prostitutes and prisoners. That's where he got that inflated number. 2019 science news reported in 2019 the science news reported there's no evidence that a single gay gene exists. You need to remember this. A study published on the research of genomes of nearly 500,000 people confirm that there is no single gene that affects sexual behavior. Andrea Ghana, a geneticist at the Broad Institute of MIT, Harvard, and the University of Helsinki said there is no gay gene that determines whether someone has same sex partners. Now, Scripture presents homosexuality as a chosen lifestyle. It is a chosen rebellion that results in judgment if not repented of. It is the fruit of rejecting God and His giving them over to their desires. That's what Paul is saying here in Romans. The Bible presents homosexuality as a sin that deserves His judgment. In Leviticus 1822, you shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It's an abomination. In the New Testament, 1st Corinthians 6 verses 9-11 says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate. The word effeminate speaks of, and this is a word I don't use often at all, catamites. It speaks of having sexual pleasure with children, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. Such were some of you, not such are some of you. Now, notice in verse 27, they receive in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due. So yesterday, I went to a web page called health. It isn't a Christian web page, it's not a conservative web page, it's simply a web page. A 2022 report from in this magazine Health said that homosexuality, 68% of those who are diagnosed recent with HIV, 68% are homosexuals. Gay and bisexual men are at the higher risk for other STIs than others. Chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhea significantly increased the risk of getting or transmitting HIV. Evidence suggests that LGBTQ plus people are more likely to have the human papillom papillomavirus HPV. Gays and bisexual are 20 times more likely than heterosexual men to develop anal cancer. Certain strains of HPV cause this cancer. Also, some strains of HPV are the cause of cervical cancer. It's also a risk faster for anal genital cancer. HPV links to head and neck malignancies due to transmission of the virus via oral sex. Research has found that people who identified as lesbian or gay are more than twice as likely as people who identify as heterosexual to abuse alcohol or tobacco. People who identify as bisexual are three times as likely. Smoking increases the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and other health conditions. In 2016, the national health interview survey found that 20.5% of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults smoked. Homosexual and transgender people tend to be more prone to anxiety, depression, suicidality, eating disorders, substance dependence. Evidence suggests that eating and body image disorders may be more common with LGBTQ plus people. They receive the new penalty. That's what God said. That's what happens. Those are very serious things. I read somebody's response. Actually, somebody who wrote this, who is pro this and said, well, it's because they're not accepted by people and that's why they're more prone to depression, etc. No, it's because they know what they're doing is wrong. And what has happened, and I'll be careful not to go long on this, but what has happened is one time was recognized for what it is. It's something that we lovingly and concernedly say to people, there's a better way. That's what we do in the gospel. You can have joy, you can have peace, you can have forgiveness, you can have it. But now people say, no, you're a bigot because you're saying these things to them and you're not accepting them for what they are. We've seen that in our own time. And it's simply increasing all of these disorders and pain. It's not going away. It's part of them receiving what is the new penalty of behavior that they're living. Notice in verse 28 how it says, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Even as, when it says even as they did not like to retain God get when it says even as that speaks of the degree of the rejection of him is resulting in the degree of the penalty. They have completely rejected him and he is completely rejecting them. They want nothing to do with God. He has nothing to do with them. He says he gave them over. Notice to a debased mind. That word debased is a word that was actually used of mentals that were rejected because they were impure. The word debased really spoke of that which is worthless. They refused to hold the truth of God. So God gave them over to their evil instead of desiring what is pure and excellent. They desire that which is not. He says and finally verse 29 I'll read to verse 32 and Leviticus. Close being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil mindedness, the whispers, backbiders, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, undercerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, they sound like junior hires, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. Well, I just read to you a list of descriptions, just a couple of things here. In verse 29 he says they're evil-minded. That word evil-minded speaks of them being malevolent, their evil and their behavior. When he speaks of whisperers, he says they're gossips. In verse 30 they're backbiders, which is another word for slanderer. Verse 31 is interesting, they're inventors of evil. They're inventors of new forms of evil. They contrive new ways to do evil. I don't know how many of you may know this. I've said this in the past, perhaps you've heard it elsewhere. In the early days when movies were being actually invented, and we're talking about so many years ago, you know, moving pictures and all, there was a great movement amongst Christians because they wanted to use these movies, the movies, to be preaching the gospel. The movies were actually, many of the movies were to tell you about God and Christ and they saw how the movie could be such a profitable thing, but now we know that movies are no longer like that. Radio used to be used, there were many Christian teachers and ministers who had radio in the early days, we're talking about the 30s and 40s and all, that would preach the gospel. The most listened to broadcast on a Sunday night was a minister who was preaching the gospel. The most listened to. Music was used in early days in radio, much of it was used to bring glory to God, but we've seen the changes over time and that's what happens. They take something that was intended for good and they twist it to something that is no longer. They find new ways to do evil. The social media that could be used to reach so many people has become something that is used to destroy so many people. In verse 31 he speaks of them being undiscerning, that just simply speaks of them without wisdom, but he goes on and closes and I'll close with this in verse 32, who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. They're aware that there's a judgment being preached, but they don't care. It's like 2 Peter 3, 4, he speaks of these who are rejecters of God. They will say, where is this coming, he promised, ever since our ancestors died everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. And so there are those who they know that judgment is coming, but they deny it. This is verse 32, they not only do the same but approve of those who practice them. That's interesting to me and I thought, they approve. That means they give them high ratings. So they approve. What do we do? What does our society do? Well, we give them Pulitzers, we give them Nobel prizes, we award them Oscars, we give them Emmys, we give them Tonys, we give them billboard awards and we give them Grammys. We reward them. We approve of them. The message of Christ is rejected, but a message that rejects him is rewarded. And that's what he's saying. He's saying, and they know that judgment comes because judgment ought to come, but they don't care, they're not afraid, and they actually encourage others to continue in and even get worse at what they do. That's what's taking place. And so chapter one closes with that upbeat list of sins, but it also gives to us a picture of two things. One, as you go through the list of those things, ask yourself if that's anything like you. Does that describe anything about you? And if so, turn away from it. Two, that reveals to us our mission field. I've had people more than a few over the years who are so caught up with how bad things are, and I'm not one who pretends things aren't bad. They are getting worse. I could talk about that for a long time, but I'm not without hope. Because I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is a power of God into salvation, to anyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. I believe that God still has a power and God is still transforming people, and that's why we don't veer from teaching the word of God. We don't want to get into emotionalism. We don't want to get into something that is like a Fourth of July skyrocket that goes up, explodes, and there's all this ooh and ah and look, and then it's gone. And there's just smoke left and nothing of substance. And that happens when you get away from the word of God and you put your heart on emotion. That's what happens, because your emotions can only take you so far. But the Spirit gives you peace. He gives you love. He gives you joy. He gives you a sense of presence with God, the power of the Holy Spirit. He gives you things that you don't have without Him. So that's why I think that the study of the book of Romans, I'm going to do the best I can to keep it down, but because I could go a long time on a lot of these things, and that's really, it's hard for me not to, but it's because I really believe that God does want to do a revival, but He's going to do it based on His word, knowing Him through His word. Not my feelings, but what He says. That's very important. So we do test things and see whether they're of God. If they're not based on the word of God, I take a wait and see, let's see what happened. Like I shared with John the other day and made it a statement, I'll close with this. I was saved in a revival. And it wasn't because some kids from Asbury in 1970 came to Costa Mesa. That was said recently. I don't remember Chuck ever saying that. It was because the Holy Spirit visited us in Costa Mesa. It's a work of the Spirit based on the word of God and a desire to do that which God says. Every Jesus freak I knew and still know had one thing in common. It was all about Jesus. It wasn't about Costa Mesa. It wasn't about the worship. It was about the word of God that revealed to us Jesus Christ. And for 52 years, I've walked straight with the Lord because I've tried to keep my eyes on that one thing. It's the Spirit of God and the word of God that transforms the people of God. And if we understand that, we'll see God move. I don't have to go to a place in Wilmore, Kentucky called Asbury. God visit us here. God fall on us here. Work on us here. Work on us here. Father, we bless you and we thank you.