 From here to glory, shield of faith will show you the way. Hallelujah. So come on, join in. Savior, hallelujah. Father, in the name of Jesus, hallelujah. We come into your presence. I thank you because you came into our church this morning. Your presence is here. We feel in hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. We came to praise you and glorify you. We came to lift you up and exalt you. What a wonderful Savior you are. You're the king of kings and the Lord of lords. Besides you, there is no other God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, because you bless us in so many ways. We just want to say thank you. Thank you. Ha ha ha. In the name of Jesus, bless our service today. We came to worship you. We came to honor you. We came to lift you up. We came to exalt you, Lord. In the name of Jesus, be exalted. Hallelujah. Turn your word to our hearts this morning. Your word. Thank you, Lord. It's a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our pathway. Your word illuminates our heart. Your word keeps us going. We look forward to your coming. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Please send more people to this church, Lord. Let them hear the word. Thank you, Jesus. Be among the worship that they can fill your presence, Lord. Our desire is to see other people say that they can go to heaven, too. In Jesus' name, be exalted. We glorify you, oh God. We honor you, oh God. In Jesus' name, thank you, Jesus. Amen. Romans chapter number 12 verses 1 and 2 and then 1 Corinthians chapter number 6 verses 16 and 17. So, I'll read and you just follow along with me. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not 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. Amen. Now, second Corinthians verse number 6, 16 and 17. And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, be ye separated, said the Lord, and touch not the unclean things, and I will receive you. Let's make the Lord add a blessing to the reading of the word. Let's give the Lord a hand clap for the word. Amen. Hallelujah, hallelujah, highest, hallelujah. And our God, he rose with all power, right? Hallelujah. There's nothing in no one that can defeat our God. Sometimes we might feel defeated, but we are not defeated. We are victorious in Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Psalm 3, this is Psalm 3. Amen. We're singing. Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? Many there be. It's me. Many there be. Honest left eye for me. My glory and the lifter up of my head. Hallelujah. Yes, glory. Hallelujah. The best thing that I ever could have done was to fall in love with my Lord and save your Jesus Christ. Amen. Hallelujah. Ever since that day, my life has never been the same. And I thank God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Bless you, Lord. Falling in love, falling in love with Jesus. Falling in hallelujah. It was the best thing. It was the best thing. It was the best thing. It was the best thing. Hallelujah. It was the best thing I've ever. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. At this time, we're going to have Bishop Alexander come forward. Somebody's got to do. I'm the Sunday morning solo for today and singing my solo. Here it is right here. Here it is right here. This is Pentecost Sunday. Anybody know what Pentecost Sunday is about? Anybody been affected by the Sunday of Pentecost that came to the world? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. What a privilege it is. What an honor it is to walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. He provides strength when we're weak. And the value of His strength is that the road that we must travel if we want to see Jesus is difficult and more than any human being could. But Jesus said, my strength is made perfect in your weakness. When you're weak, He said, I'm strong. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank God for the strength He provides for us. Thank you, Lord. Now, Pentecost Sunday, we're encouraging everybody who has the Holy Ghost to keep in tune. Amen. Continue your walk. That's right. And for those who have not found Jesus, we want to introduce this to you as the day and the time of the hour that is available to you to find the Savior we've found. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And my subject for my message today is I want to be a follower of Christ. Amen. Amen. Let me be a follower of Christ. So I found a song that says something like that. All right. I want to be a follower of Christ. Oh, I want to be one of His disciples. I want to walk in the newness of life. Oh, so let me be a follower. Oh, I want to be a follower. I feel like the message is just about in this song that I want to be a follower of Christ. I want to be a disciple. I want to walk in a new life. So I say, let me be a follower of Christ. As we found in our devotional scripture in Romans chapter 12, those of us who have been called unto Jesus, the Lord has done a work in us for holiness. We're instructed, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, so I beg you, brethren, by the mercy of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Now pause right here to say you can't be a disciple of Jesus Christ unless you live a sacrificial life, one that is holy and is acceptable to God. You can have the Holy Ghost not be acceptable, not doing things that are acceptable unto God. And He said, it's just your reasonable service to live right. We live in terrible times. Anybody witness to that? The anti has completely fallen off of their rocket, shootings every day, killings every day. People doing their own thing, not concerned about what ought to come to them as a consequence. This next verse said, be not conformed to the world. He said, don't be conformed. Don't do what the world is doing. Don't be conformed to the world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind because you need to prove something. That you may prove what is not good and acceptable, acceptable and perfect will of God. I want to be a disciple. I want to be a follower of Christ. And I understand that it is my duty and responsibility to meet the acceptable standard that has been set by God. Oh, I want y'all to say amen. Amen. This is as well. But it's right. This is the second sentence, chapter 6, verse 16. It causes us to take a look at the world and its action towards religion, their religiosity. These two verses said, what agreement have the temple of God with idols? So you can't serve God and idols too. The temple of the living God. He said, you're called out, you're chosen and you are the temple that God lives in on this earth. You're the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God. They shall be my people. He said, I'll be their God and they can be my disciples. He said, I'll take them, I'll honor them, I'll bring them into the family. 17th verse, wherefore come out from among them and be separate, said the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. Now it's about being received into the body. Received where the Lord claims us as His own. Let me just digress for a minute. Let me take you back to St. Louis, Missouri back in the 40s and the 50s, Dr. Sykes. We had enough people in our family to have our own baseball team against each other. And when we would have family techniques, we'd have a baseball game. Usually dad would be the leader on one side and mother would be the leader on the other side. And when I was chosen, I was proud to be on whichever team I was on. But after I was chosen, some others came along and I wasn't happy that they were chosen to be on my team. Come on somebody. You see because we're all interested in our own personal interests. And so now being chosen by the leader is a great honor. Being chosen by God is an honor. It's not just a great honor, it's a great, great, great honor. And we need to understand and appreciate the fact that He would choose to bother with us as no good as we are. I have to clap for myself. I'm clapping for myself, but I'm clapping for the Word of God. We were born in sin and we were shaping in iniquity. And we were no good for anything until Jesus came to turn things around and bring us back to Him. Because He did that, my soul rejoices. I'm happy. I'm happy to be a child of the King. Now I'm going to take you to the text for today in Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8 finds Jesus on His way to the cross. And Jesus along the way, He stopped and healed a man who was blind. He laid His hands on him, prayed for him, and He healed him. And He told him, go his way and don't talk about it. Then when it gets to verse 27, Jesus went out and His disciples into the town of Caesarea Philippi. And by the way, He asked His disciples saying unto them, whom do men say that I am? They began to say to Him, they said, John the Baptist. Some said Elias and others, one of the prophets. And Jesus said to them, that's good enough for that. Now I want to know, who do you say I am? Who do you say? What do you know about me? He said unto them, whom do? He said unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Peter answered and said unto him, thou art the Christ. Peter didn't come with that on his own. In another place where this is brought to us, he said thou art the Christ. And then Jesus returned and said Peter flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you. He said, but that came straight out of heaven. He said, so all right. Then verse 30 said, and He charged them, they should tell no man of Him. And He began to teach them that the sons of men must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again. So Jesus began to unload on them after Peter gave him that little bit of who he is. He said, yes, that's who I am. He said, and I'm going to tell you what is going to cost you. He said, I'm going to go. I'm going to suffer. He knew what was before him. He said, I'm going to suffer many things and I'm going to be rejected. When I go among the elders and the chief priests and scribes, they're going to kill me. And after three days I'll rise again. And he spake that saying openly and Peter took him and began to rebuke him. And when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter saying, get thee behind me Satan, for thou savoth not that, not the things that be of God, but the things of the world. Jesus said to him, it should be something in this that you're very satisfied with. Now when we are involved with food, some things are okay and other things are just great. They meet the appetite perfectly and we want to savor that. So I want to hold on to that. Jesus said to Peter, he said, you're not savoring, you're not appreciating the things that are of God. He said, all you have come to do is you're thinking about the things of men. And so now we get to verse 34. We're addressing issues of God and issues of men. Verse 34 said, and when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, whosoever will come after me. Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now I want to dissect this verse right here for a minute. He said to the people and his disciples, first his disciples were following and others began to join with them. And so he said unto his disciples and the people whosoever will come after me. Now where Jesus said come, he said, I'm going to the cross. I'm headed up to Calvary and I know what's going to take place at Calvary. He said, I'm not afraid. He said, I am called to destiny. I'm called to bring man back into relationship with the God who created them. So he said, if anyone wants to be my disciple, he said, you're going to have to walk the same road that I'm going to walk. He said, I'm not afraid. I've already settled with God in the garden and I've decided that I'm determined to do what I've been sent here to do. He said, I'm going to Calvary and it's going to cost me my life. He said, but I'm going to do it in spite of what it takes. And everybody who's going to be a follower of me, he said, if you're going to be my disciple, you're going to have to lose some of stuff. You're going to have to give up everything that you have a desire to hold on to. He said, you can't follow me. You can't walk with me and be doing all the crazy stuff you started out doing in your life. You got to stop it. Stop it now and follow me. You got to walk too. The devil's alive. My voice is coming back. Come on somebody. He said, whoso will come after me, let him deny himself. The problem with all of society today is people are selfish. They only want what they want and they don't care about anybody else. He said, you must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. I want to be a disciple. I want to follow Jesus. But tell me what does it cost? What does it cost? It's going to cost you everything. Everything is going to cost you every desire that you have for your human flesh. I talk about things that I know and you all have to excuse me if it makes it uncomfortable for you or something like that. But I don't have to talk about what happened yesterday to get my point across. You talk about old stuff in the 40s and 50s. Yeah, that's where I came from and that's what I know. I know back in those days they had a bargain basement down under the store for people who weren't willing to pay the price for the main floor. And they say, can I get a bargain? Go down to the bargain basement. There's a different price. I want to tell you there's no bargain basement here. Come on somebody. There's no other way other than doing what God called you to do and giving yourself, give your life to following Christ. You've got to struggle every day. If you're not struggling you ain't making it. You're not proving what is acceptable. No, you're not proving what is good nor acceptable. Certainly not the perfect will of God. You've got to get it perfect. You're scared. You're scared. You're scared. You can't be perfect. Yes you can. Yes you can. You can be perfect. God wouldn't call you to perfection if you couldn't accomplish it. The thing that is exciting is we don't have to do it alone. Oh, there's a helper. God provided a helper. He sent a paraclete to stand by us, to strengthen us in our weakness, to make us strong in our mind and in our desire to walk with Him. Oh, we can make it. What do you think the Holy Ghost is about? The Holy Ghost is the power of God. You're walking around with the power of God and you don't you know who you are? Don't you know how precious you are? Don't you know you've been called out, come out from among them and be separate from the world. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Then he went on to say, Jesus went on to say, for whosoever will serve will save his life. She'll lose it. He said, you don't even know what you're doing. You want satisfaction. You want to save your life. You walk around thinking, well I'm not going to do that one. That's too hard. I'm going to save myself. Jesus said, whosoever will save his life, that's the one who's going to lose it. But whosoever shall lose his life for my sake. Come on, my sake. And the Gospel, the same shall save. When he talks about saving your own life, you want to have the best of everything. You don't want any rules or regulations. You want to be like the songwriter that says, I did it my way. That's one of the dumbest songs I've ever heard. Anybody who's foolish enough to think that they can do everything the way it ought to be done on their own strength, on their own wisdom, they're fools. Scripture said, in the multitude of counsel, in the multitude of counsel, there's safety. But no, we got egos that are tall as the Empire State building. And we refuse for anybody to say anything that disagrees with what you say. Well, I tell you, you might have it going for a bit, but one day, most of y'all don't know. One day you're going to have trouble with your voice when you preach it. You're going to have trouble with your voice when you used to be a sanga-sanga. Always find a way to put this in. We used to be very proud to say, we're the young people. We're the young people. Well, I tell you what, I used to be the young people. You're not a permanent fixture here. You're a pilgrim and a stranger, and you're passing through here, and you got to get it right. You got to get on the right road and stay on the right road until you reach the kingdom of God in heaven. But if you seek to save yourself, you're going to lose it. If you're going to keep everything that you want to do and do what you want to do, you're going to hell. And who seeks to save his life, he's certainly the one that's going to lose it. But he said, whosoever shall lose his life, for my sake, Jesus said, Jesus said, quit it. This is Pentecost Sunday. We're talking about what Pentecost can do. It's not an imagination. This is proven. He says, when you put yourself headlong into service to the king, he said, that's what's going to save your life. When you get to the place where you can prove the good and the acceptable and perfect will of God in your life, you got it made. Come on, somebody. You got it made. 36 says, for what shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world? I have to posit that because that's unfathomable. I can't fathom a man gaining the whole world. But Jesus said, if that would be possible for a man to gain the whole world, he said, what would it profit him to gain the whole world and then lose his own soul? Now there's foolishness in the thought of trying to go out with the most marvels. The one who dies with the biggest account behind his name, he's the winner. That's wrong. That's a lie. It's a faulty economy. When one who has gained the whole world and loses his soul, then to hell he goes. Jesus said, if you choose to save it, you're going to lose it. If you're willing to give it up, give that stuff up. I feel like I'm talking into a vacuum. I'm going to say it anyway, huh? Because this is what the Lord gave me for the day. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? What is it that society has to offer that you're so excited about, think, I'll trade my soul for that right there? That's looking pretty good. Yeah, I could have a great time with that. Whatever that is. Chasing? I'll just say it. Drinking? Smoking? Any kind of drug? Whether it be male or female drug? All of it, all of it, all of it. None of it is worth losing your soul over. None of it for a temporary fix. One that cannot satisfy. It will not. It cannot and will not satisfy. And so that makes you a chump. You pay a big price. A huge price that is going to be the end of you. And you don't know, you don't have sense enough to say, I won't take that. I'll take Jesus for mine. You can have the whole round world, but give me Jesus. Lord, when I've done my best. Lord, when I've stood my test. Lord, when I've done everything, I can't give me Jesus. Jesus will hold me. He'll take me in His arms. He'll embrace me. He'll claim me as His own. And I'll come before Him and say, well done. I'm good and faithful servant. Come on, enter into the joy of thy salvation. Hallelujah. I want to be a disciple. But let me tell you, just because you want to be a disciple, don't mean you can be a disciple. You got to give it up. Turn the news. Give it to God. And it's appointed unto death. The destination of everybody in this room is death. You're not going to live forever. You don't know how long you're going to live. You don't know the day or the hour or the way you're going to leave here. When people went to this grocery store to get their groceries, they didn't know they was on their way out. When those kids got up and went to school and stood in line and received their awards and all that, they didn't know that was the end of their life. With that, what the Lord is saying is, don't try to half step. Don't try to half do it. Don't try. Well, I'll try. You're going to try. Yeah, I'll try my best. How about trying more than your best? Your best ain't good enough. You can't please God with your own ability. You got to have the power of the Holy Ghost that lived out on inside of you and tell you what's wrong. And it caused your conscious to not leave you alone when you acting crazy. I had to turn to my wife. That was the rule in the house. She said, stop acting crazy. All the kids, all three of them, stop acting crazy. Y'all stop acting crazy. The Lord is saying there are idols in temples. And he said an idol is of no use to you. An idol can never serve you in any kind of way. Buddhas and all. It pricks my heart. When I see maybe innocent people with a Buddha sitting up somewhere in front of them, I can't understand that. Buddha has never done anything that cost anybody to get to heaven. So he said, what agreement has the temple of God with idols? He said, there's no agreement there because you are the temple of the living God. You're not called to be the temple of Buddha. You're called out of darkness into a marvelous light. And you're called to be a temple of the Holy Ghost. The Lord said, I'll put my spirit down in you and cause you to walk right. It'll give you the ability to say no to yourself and all kind of other distractions from God. He said, there's no agreement between you. God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out. Come out with your hands up. Come on, throw your hands up. Don't hold on to none of it. Come on out. Come on. This is the law out here and I know you in there and I know what you're doing. Drop what you're doing and come on out. Come up from among them and be separate. Who said it? The Lord? The Lord said, you ought to be different than the rest of the world. He said, you can't represent me doing what the world is doing. What kind of foolishness is that? What kind of witness is that? Wherefore, come out from among them and be separate. Who said it? The Lord said it. He said, and touch not the unclean thing. He said, if you'll do that, you can be my disciple. It may be the greatest gymnast in the world. That doesn't give you an opening for the position of a disciple. Maybe to dribble with both hands and shoot from under your leg. But that's not an entree into discipleship. The entree into discipleship is, hold on now, put your seatbelt on. Suffer it. Suffer it. Suffer it. Y'all ain't never heard this before because this is old time preaching. When we were growing up back in the 40s, we heard it all the time. It's a suffering way. We understood that it wasn't going to be a cake walk. Come on, you run to Jesus and the Lord dump his spirit in you and you don't even show up the next service. Because you've got to watch something on TV. Your favorite show is coming on. I want to be one of his disciples. What do I have to do? Is it something I have to say? How am I supposed to walk? Eating every day? I can do it for a while, but I can't do it every day. You know what? I want to know. Tell me what it costs. Tell me what it costs to carry the cross, to follow Jesus. You tell me what it takes and I'm going to do it. I'm going to determine that I'm going to be in the number when the saints go marching in. I'm going to turn my back on sin and I tell the devil, get out of my face. You ain't my boss no more. Come on somebody. Now I belong to Jesus and Jesus belongs to me not for a year or time alone, but for all of eternity. You can get your kicks right here and now and go to the lake. It's a different route. I'm choosing another way. I'm choosing the way of holiness. Holiness. I want to be a disciple. Stand on your feet. Let's just sing a round of that song one more time and then I'm going to turn you into the hands of minister Marilyn Alexander. Oh I want to be a follower of Christ. Oh I want to be one of His disciples. I want to walk in the newness of life. Let me be a follower. I want to be a follower. It costs you something. Come on it costs you something. It costs Jesus something. Hallelujah. Hey man, we can't just walk through here willy-nilly. Hallelujah. Just doing whatever we think we're big enough to do. We have to submit to the Lord. We have to. We have to. We have to. He was our example. And He said that greater works. We'll do even greater works. Hallelujah. If we submit ourselves. But He has called us to do. Amen. Does anybody want to be a follower? Come on, anybody want to be a follower? Hallelujah. Come on if you haven't accepted Him as your Savior and your Lord. Hallelujah. We want the salvation sometimes but we don't want the Lord. Come on now. Come on. Hallelujah. Come on if you want Him to be the Lord of your life. The one that governs your actions. The one that tells you which way to go. And which way not to go. Come on if you want Him today. Hallelujah. Is everyone in here a follower? Come on if you want to even recommit yourself. Hallelujah. You say Lord I need your help even more. Amen. You need Him to touch you. Hallelujah. Amen. And stir up the gift that's already in you. Hallelujah. Come on. Come on. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lord we surrender. We want you. Hallelujah. We want to be a follower. We want to submit our ways to you. Hallelujah. We want to do what you are asking us to do. Hallelujah. So that we'll reap the benefits of following you. We'll be a witness of you. Hallelujah. Amen. And when we get to heaven. Hallelujah. We can hear you say well done. Thy good and faithful servant. Enter. Hallelujah. Into the joy of the Lord. Come on. Hallelujah. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Amen. Everybody's alright. Everybody's alright. Alright. Amen. Amen. Amen. You better come on while you're getting. Come on. It's okay. It's okay. Sometimes we need a little more strength. Sometimes we need a little encouragement. Amen. That's what the word is for. That's what the word of the Lord is for. God gives the man of God. Amen. A word for his people. Come on. What do I have to do? What do I have to say? How do I have to walk? Each and every, each and every day. Tell me what it cost. Hallelujah. Oh. Let me be. Come on. What do I have to do? What do I have to say? How do I have to walk? Each and every day. Tell me what does it cost. Just to carry the cross. Oh. Let me be. Father we thank you. God we thank you that you called us out of darkness. You translated us into your marvelous life. You filled us with your precious Holy Ghost. And we thank you because it is the power. It is the power. It is the power to live right. And we submit. Hallelujah. We submit. Hallelujah to your leading. Hallelujah. We know that you know the way. Hallelujah. And so we submit to follow. That's all we have to do is follow. And we thank you in praise you. Hallelujah. For making the difference in our lives. We thank you God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. For being the best thing that has happened to us. Hallelujah. We bless your name. And we give you all the glory. It's our reasonable service to present our bodies to you. And we do it willingly. Hallelujah. Lay ourselves on the altar. Hallelujah. Sacrifice. We thank you in praise you for all that you do. Each and every day. We are helpless to carry the cross. Let me be your follow. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Thank you God for calling us out of darkness. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord everybody. Praise the Lord. I'm up here too. We worship God in music, prayer, scripture. The great word of God. All to call. And a lot of times people when it's time for the offering, they think that's the end of service. But that is not the end of service. Because there's one place only in the Bible where the Lord said prove me. That means test me. See if I would do this. There's only one place in the scripture that you would find that in. And I'm going to read that for you. He said bring you all the ties into the storehouse. Y'all stop writing while I'm talking. I want you to hear me. See all the ties in the storehouse. That there may be meat in my house. And prove me. Or test me. Or do this and find out what I'm going to do about it. Then he tell us prove me now. There we have sent the Lord of hosts. If I would not open up you the witness of heaven and pour out your blessing that there shall be not room enough to receive it. And the Lord tell us to bring all the tithing. A tithing is a 10%. And the thing about God, he made it equal. If I make $100, how much tithes do I pay? That's right. If I make $1,000, all right. If I make $10,000, how much I pay? So he made it equal. So we all have an equal part in bringing our tithes to offering. We don't. We don't bear tithes anymore. They used to but they stopped doing it. When the pandemic came, they stopped doing it or they forget to do it. God want us regardless. That's no excuse. He said prove me. Test me. Try me. If I would not open up the witness of heaven and pour out a blessing there shall not be room enough to receive. Then it goes to verse 11. and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the times in the field, said the Lord of Hosts. And we know we need God's blessings right now, His financial blessing, because gas is $6 in summer gallon, one gallon, eggs are $3 for 12. So you know we need God to open up the winners of heaven. In order for him to open up the winners of heaven for you, guess what you got to do? You got to give him 10% of your earning. He said, it belongs to me anyway. It's not yours to spend. It belongs to me. And then when you do that, give me an offering. I want an offering also. And guess what? He said the cattle on the side of his belongs to him. He owns all the money in the world. He owns all the land in the world. Everything is God. So he just made you stewards over what he has given you. And if you so stingy that you don't want to give back to him, guess what he can do? He can take it back away from you or have a basket where it could be eaten up. So we got to give God what's to him. That's all part of worship. We love to worship in songs. We love to do this and we love to do that. But finances also a part of worship. So if you're one of those who have not been pantized, now is the time to start because God knows when gas get up to $8 a gallon, it's one of my, somebody asked me, well, how do you and Bishop just go to church? I mean, somebody this morning asked me that. Say, how do you all just afford to go to church now as far as you go? I said, we don't even think about it. Because we know that God is in charge of a gasoline. Cause we know just like the widow, the widow who didn't have meal and the Prophet told her, and the Prophet told her, give me what little you have. She gave him what little you have and she never went hungry, her and her son. You know what? God is our provider. That's what the preacher preached last Sunday, Jehovah Jireh. He is going to provide for you. Not your job. You might be making a lot of money. You might have a lot of property. You might be doing this and might be doing that, but that's not what your provisions come from. Your provisions come from God. So I want to challenge everyone today to start paying tithes and giving an offering because it's not only tithing, you have to give an offering. He told us how much tithing it gives, but he said tithing is free will. You give what you want, but offering is free will. Be a cheerful giver and don't regret giving it. I don't regret giving to God. That's why we're blessed because we don't regret giving to God. And that's what God wants us to do, amen. And those in media land, if you want to send monies to this ministry, which is a great ministry, none of it goes to the pastor, none of it goes to the musicians. None of it goes to me. It all goes to the work of the Lord. You can send your money in. You can give a fine. And when you go to give a fine, make sure that you click Shilafate Christian Center of Long Beach because there's other Shilafate churches. But we want to make sure you give to Long Beach Church, amen. And also, if you want to mail it in, you can mail it in at 4934 4934 Long Beach Boulevard. Long Beach, California, 90805. Or if you want to just stop by church and drop it into our mailbox here, just slide it through the slot. We'll get it, amen. Because God want you also to be blessed. And you know the thing about this scripture? It's not only for the believers. It's for the unbelievers. There's many musicians top making top money. They pay their tithes in offering. I hope the Lord saved them one day because it's more than giving. It's also being, having salvation. So without further ado, you can stand and bring your tithes and your offering and put it in. We're gonna pray first. Oh, you're offering up before the Lord. Bishop got our offering. Father, in the name of Jesus. Lord, got your word. Tell, you tell us in your word that we are to test you and prove, and you will prove to us what you can do. You will open up the witness of heaven. And we all need the witness of heaven open now, Lord. Will the prices going up the way they are? The food going up the way they are? The gasoline. We need your blessings right now. Property the way it is. We need your blessings, Lord God. And we're asking you, Lord God, to give unto us. And we will give back to you in the name of Jesus, bless every offering that comes forth. Double it, triple it. Oh God, we know that you're able to do it right now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Bring your offering in. And do it with joy. Do it with joy. Let's sing our offering in. Come on, give us a joy song. Give us a joy song. My service, I want everyone to repeat after me. May the Lord watch The Lord watch Between me and thee Between me and thee When we're absent When we're absent One from another One from another May the Lord bless thee And keep thee And keep thee May the Lord make his face shine upon thee May the Lord make his face shine upon thee And be gracious unto thee And be gracious unto thee May the Lord lift up His countenance. May the Lord lift up His countenance. Unto you. Unto you. And give it peace. And give you peace. In the name of Jesus, we're gonna have Pastor Minister Maryland to sing us out with our favorite going out song, amen. And hallelujah. Yes. Make you shine, hallelujah.