 Alrighty. Well, thank you for having me here. Just real quick, I want to give Pastor Jimena as a thanks that he deserves for giving me the opportunity to preach here and the opportunities given us to have this church plant here. I also want to thank Brother Jared for stepping up and, you know, taking command of this and, you know, actually putting forth the Everett to come down here and start this. So, bear with me, I do have bad allergies when I come to Fresno and we'll talk more about that later. But we're here in Nehemiah 8 and before we get to Nehemiah 8, I'm going to read real quick verse 10 here. Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy unto our Lord. Neither be ye sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength. You see, what I'm going to preach to you guys tonight is on finding your joy in the Lord. But turn real quick to Nehemiah chapter 1. Before we get there, I need to give you a little bit of background of what's going on here. You see, in Nehemiah chapter 1, look down at verse 2 if you could. Verse 2 says this, that Hannah and I, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. You see, the inhabitants of Jerusalem at this time, they were at a place of no hope. You know, they were okay with their wall being broken down. In their eyes, this job of repairing this wall was like some kind of massive feat that they would never attain. You know, as a people, even ourselves, we could get there too. We could get to that kind of place where we're just like without no hope. We're broken down. Look at verse 4. And it came to pass when I, that's Nehemiah, heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Flip over to chapter 2. Look at verse 2 real quick. Wherefore the king, that's our exerces, said unto me, why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid. You see, Nehemiah, as a person, he had a heart for the people of Jerusalem. He felt the need to help them, and he purposed in his heart to take action to do something about this. Look at verse 13. And I went out by night, by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the Dungport, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Not only did Nehemiah have a heart and feel a need to help these people, but he actually journeyed to Jerusalem, and he viewed the walls that were broken down. He actually viewed the reproach of these people for himself. Look at verse 17. Then said I unto them, ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more reproach. Then I told them, the hand of my God, which was good upon me, as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me, and they said, let us rise up and build, so they strengthen their hands to this good work. Ye see, Nehemiah had this vision to rebuild, and by purposing in his heart to serve the Lord, by purposing in his heart to serve this people of Jerusalem, the hand of God was upon him, and through this he was able to get the people to strengthen their hands to accomplish this great work. Look at verse 20. Then answered I them, and said unto them, the God of heaven, he will prosper us, therefore we his servants will arise and build. Ye see, Nehemiah was a person that said, Lord, what good can I do? Lord, he didn't look at what he couldn't do. Nehemiah didn't look at what he couldn't accomplish. He looked at the glass half full. He looked at what God can do through him for these people. He yielded himself to the Lord, and he trusted God to help him to do this. Ye see, when I read these passages, it brings to mind Verity Baptist Church Fresno. Ye see, it brings to mind Brother Frank, who's a Hananiah that journeyed up to Sacramento, and he told us about the reproach that these people were in. It brings to mind Brother Jared, who's a Nehemiah who had a vision. He heard the words that Brother Frank told him. He had a vision. He had a heart to come help these people. So he came to Jerusalem, and he viewed these walls that were broken down. Ye see, that brings us to Nehemiah chapter 8. You know, these walls have been built up. We have this church. We have these people. We've learned some things. We've built up a wall. Look at verse 8, Nehemiah 8, chapter 8, or 8 verse 8. So they read the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. The word of God is being preached here, and the people are understanding the word of God. And Nehemiah, which is the Tershitha, that's another word for like a governor or the person that's in charge. Nehemiah was the one trusted to teach these people. And Nehemiah, which is the Tershitha, and Ezra the priest described in the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, this day is holy unto the Lord your God, more not, nor weep, for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. You see, as Nehemiah is preaching and teaching the word of God, these people begin, they begin to sense their sin. They begin to sense and understand some things. You know, they weren't listening to God's word before this. They were content with their walls being broke down. You know, but then they start hearing that word of God and they start recognizing the things that they've done wrong. They start realizing that it's God's goodness and his words that start leading to these people to repentance. All right? The people begin to feel sorrowful because of that. Look at verse 10. Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy unto our Lord, neither be ye sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So what's Nehemiah saying here? All right? He's saying this. He's like, look, don't be sad about what you're realizing that you're doing wrong. Don't be worried about that. This is a day to rejoice. This is not a day to mourn and weep. You see, he's saying for the joy of the Lord is your strength. And when we think about strength, what do we think about? We think about like physically strong people, right? We think about being able to take care of ourselves. We think about, you know, things that we could accomplish. You know, we don't usually think about being happy when we think about strong people. Now the people in Jerusalem, they were beating down people. They were not physically strong. They were a weak people. You know, they were not strong at all by the world's standards. You know, they weren't thinking of having joy in this. They weren't happy about it. But what Nehemiah was saying is the joy of the Lord is your strength. All right? So if we want that strength, if we want to be strong in the Lord, we need to realize something. We need to realize that there is a God in heaven, all right? He knows our beginning from our end. He knows what's ahead in our lives, right? He knows our coming blessings and our coming tribulations. He knows our victories and our failures. All right? He knows everything about us. So if we want to be strong and we want to have victory in our Christian life, then what do we need to do? We need to get in that race, that Christian race, and we need to finish that race. We need to get in that battle. We don't just start that battle. We need to finish that battle. You see, in second Timothy four seven, Paul says this, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. You need from the point of Paul's salvation to the end of his life, he was in that battle. He was doing things for the Lord. He was serving God. He never quit. You know, from this point in our lives, our only job should be and what we have to make sure that we do is that we need to get to the end of our race. You know? So if the joy of the Lord is our strength, you know, we have to figure out how to get that strength, right? We have to figure out how to have joy in the Lord. So we know that there is a battle that we have to face and we know that we can't do it on our own. So when I think about battles in the Bible, I think about things like David and Goliath, right? And first time of seventeen, David says this, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine. So what's David saying? He's saying, look, I know I can't win this battle on my own. On my own. I know that I can't accomplish this task. But it's the Lord that's going to do this for me. It's the Lord that's going to work through me to accomplish this battle and deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. You know, I think about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel chapter three. They said this, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning and fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of line hand. You know, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were facing certain death. You know, there was no way that they're going to get out of being thrown in this furnace. And they said this, they said, look, if we're going to win this fight, we're not going to do it. It's God that's going to do it for us. You know, I think about Moses in the book of Exodus chapter three. Moses, Moses says this and Moses said unto God, who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, that's God saying this, certainly I will be with thee and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee. So, Moses is saying, you know, who am I, Lord? I can't do this. You know, how am I going to do this? You know, God tells him, he's like, look, you don't have to worry about that. I'm going to be with you. At the end of verse chapter 12, it says this, when now has brought forth the people out of Egypt? You see, God already knew that Moses was going to do this and he knew that he was going to accomplish this. He's like, don't worry about that. I'm going to do this through you. You know, you see, we don't know what's coming in our future, but God does. And you know what, if we're not careful, you know, we could get like these people in Jerusalem. You know, they can have no hope. Are they had no hope? You know, we could get to a point where we might have no hope. You know, they had no joy. You know, we can have no joy in our lives either. They were defeated. We can be defeated too. You know, they got to a point where they were discouraged and we could get there too. You know, they were at a point where they were just existing. They were just doing whatever they can to keep going to the next day. And you know what, if the devil could get us just to exist, just to like live, you know, and do nothing for the Lord, not go soul winning, not go to church, not do anything, you know, what does he have to do to us? You know, we're doing nothing. We're not furthering the gospel. We're not furthering God's kingdom. We're doing nothing. He's not going to come try to put us in jail or attack us or get us arrested or anything. You know, this reminds me of the battles that me and my own family, we faced, you know, transitioning from the liberal fund center church to a new IAP church, you know, much like the inhabitants of Jerusalem. You know, we were content with our walls being broken down. You know, we had no hope. We didn't even know there was another hope, you know, but there was this Nehemiah. You know, we found him on YouTube. His name was Pastor Stephen Anderson, right? You know, we start hearing the word of God. We start hearing that word preach. We start understanding that word and what we do. We started feeling sad about all the stuff we're not doing. You know, we were like, oh man, this is what the Christian life is. We're doing none of this. You know, so instead of letting that get us down, keeping us down, keeping us discouraged, just going back to our, you know, Jerusalem without any walls, you know, we stood up. We said, you know what? We have this wall built up on YouTube. We've understood. We've learned these words. We know what we're supposed to do. So we started getting things right. You know, we started making changes in our lives. We threw away our false Bibles. You know, my wife, you know, she took her pants off and she put on a skirt. I told her I would, you know, not just say she took her pants off, she put on a skirt. We turned off the TV. We started throwing out all that worldly music, right? You know, we found a new church to go to. We started rebuilding our lives and as the Lord prompted us, as we started learning things, we started making changes in our lives. You know, we got in our battle and we started fighting it. So what I have is I have about five points for you and I want to go over them with you on how we can get the joy of the Lord in our lives. All right, point number one is this. Go back to Nehemiah 8 if you're not there already. Point number one is we need to remember our salvation, all right? Joy is a strength and if we want that strength, we have to have joy in our daily lives. So we can start daily by remembering the fact that we're saved. Look at Nehemiah 812. And all the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions and make great mirth because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. You see, the people understood the words that were declared unto them. You know, when we got saved, somebody preached the words of God to us, right? And we understood those words. You know, and if you understood those words and put your faith in God, you know, there should be some joy in your life for that, right? There should be joy about the day you think or when you think of the day you got saved, there should be joy in your lives. You see, this comes to my testimony here. You see, this is where Fresno comes into play. I was down here, I was working in Fresno on the day I got saved. It was about 10 years ago. I was working at Fresno and I have, like I said, I have really bad allergies. Every time I come to Fresno, I get really bad allergies. So, on the way home, we stopped in Madeira at some Quikimart, right? And I got one of those, like, I thought it was a single serving of Benadryl, right? So, I took what was in that pack and I drove all the way home. By the time I got home, I was kind of OD'ing on Benadryl, right? So, I'm in my living room and I pass out cold. I come to and I'm like, no, this is it. I'm going to die and go to hell, you know? And then I started remembering the walls that were built up in my life. I started remembering the gospel that my wife preached to me. I said, you know what? I don't want to die and go to hell. I don't want to leave my family and my kids without a dad. I don't want to be somebody, you know, I was saved by fear. I was pulled out of the fire by fear. I put my trust and faith in Jesus Christ that day on my living room floor. And you know what? I'm, I am happy about that. That brings me great joy to think that I had a wife, a Nehemiah, that came into my life and that preached me the words, caused me to understand the gospel. You know, my sins are gone and you know what? We need to rejoice in that. Psalms 103 verse 12 says this, as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. You see, do you understand what it means when it says, as far as the east is from the west? Think about this. If you start going north, what are you going to do? You're going to eventually start going south, right? But if you start going east, are you ever going to start going west? No, you're going to always be going east. That's how far away your sins are from you if you're saved. All right? Jeremiah 31-34 says this at the end, and I will remember their sin no more. You see, God says, look, I'm not even going to remember your sins. Your sins are forgiven. They're gone. They're so far gone from you that it's like they don't even exist anymore. You see, whether you were forgiven much or you were forgiven little, you're just as saved as the next guy. You see, 1 Timothy 1-15 says this, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of who I am chief. This is Paul saying this. He says, of who I am chief. So what did Paul do before he got saved? He was called Saul, right? What did he do? He persecuted the church. He went after the Christians. He had them killed. He had them thrown in jail. He was a terror under these people. In Paul saying, look, I am a sinner who is forgiven much. You know, my sins were forgiven. I am the chief of sinners right now, yet I am doing a great thing for God. You see, on the other hand, who do you have? You have Timothy. 2 Timothy 3-15 says this, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. It's my opinion that Timothy, he was a man that was saved as a young child. We have 2 Timothy 1-5 says this, when I call to remember it's the unfaith faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also. You see, Timothy is a person that had what's called a goodly heritage. You see, he had a family that was doing for the Lord, that were saved, that were teaching and raising him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Timothy was saved young. You know, if you were saved young, if you were saved as a young boy, you need to be thankful for that. If you were taught the things of God as a young child, be thankful for that because, you know what, you don't have to do. You don't have to renew your mind as much as someone like myself who was saved when they were in the 30s or as much as somebody like Paul who was saved when he was older. You see, when we got married, me and my wife got married. I was unsaved at the time. I was very worldly. So, what we did is we created this thing called the 50% rule. All right? My wife created this. I didn't. The 50% rule is this, Nate only gets to say 50% of what comes to his mind. All right? You know, I had no filter. I would say whatever. It was embarrassing. All right? So, some days it was 50%. Some days it was 65%. You know, I had to think about what I said before I said it. I said, you know what, that's not right. Sometimes I was like 5%. You know? Now it's like 95 to 99%. You see, your salvation is the best thing that happened to you. Don't lose sight of it, all right? The best thing that is ever going to happen to you is to get saved. Turn to Luke chapter 10. In Luke chapter 10, we have the story about the 70 disciples that Jesus sent out. Look with me real quick at verse 17. Verse 17 says this, And the 70 returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. You see, these 70 disciples, they come back. You know, God gave them power over the devils. They come back and they're saying, Lord, the devils are subject unto us. Look at what we're doing. Look at what we're able to do about these devils and do all this stuff, right? And then what does Jesus say? Look at verse 18. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you. You see, these 70 disciples, they were focused on themselves when they came back. And then what does Jesus say? He's like, no. He's like, look, I beheld Satan fall. He's like, I gave you guys this power. Look at me. Don't look at yourselves. Look at me. Look at verse 20. Notwithstanding in this, rejoice not. He's like, don't rejoice about the stuff you're able to do with these devils. He says, rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Jesus is saying, look, don't worry about that stuff. You need to look at me. I am your salvation. I'm the one that saved you. Rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven. So turn to John chapter 15. So real quickly to review. Point number one is this. Rejoice in your salvation. Excuse me. In John chapter 15, we hear this word. It's called abide. This is my second point real quick. We need to abide in Christ. The word abide means this. Accept or act in accordance with a rule, decision or recommendation. John chapter 15, look at verse four. Abide in me and I and you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more can ye accept ye abide in me. I am the vine. Ye are the branches. He that abide within me and I and him the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. So what's being said here in these passages? You hear this word. Abide in Christ. Abide in Christ. Abide in the word of God. We need to conform ourselves. What we need to do is we need to conform ourselves and align ourselves with the word of God. That's what Jesus is saying here. He's not talking about salvation here. He's saying, look, you need to do what I say. You need to abide in me. You need to follow my rules that are in this book. He says, if you do that in verse four, if you do that, if you abide in Christ, you're going to bear fruit. You're going to get people saved. You're going to see things done in your life. What happens if we abide not in Christ? Look at verse six. If we abide not in Christ, what will happen? We will be pruned. Our works, our worldly works that we do, our works that are not for God will be burned up in the end. You see, there's an example of this. Turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 10. We see this in the Old Testament with King Saul and King David. 1 Chronicles chapter 10. Look at verse 13. Verse 13 says this. What did Saul do? Saul decided, look, I'm not going to abide in Christ. I'm going to go against what God wants me to do and I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to consult the spirits or whatever. And what happened? God burned him. God had him killed. He was dead. His works were burned up. Saul decided to abide not and he was pruned. Flip over to chapter 11. Look at verse two. And moreover, in time past, even when Saul was king, thou, that's David, was he that let us out and brought us to Israel. And the Lord thy God said unto thee, thou shall feed my people Israel and thou shall be ruler over my people Israel. Therefore came all the elders of Israel to the king to Hebron and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord. And they anointed David king over Israel. According to the word of God, a word of the Lord by Samuel. You see, you have king Saul and then you have king David. What did king David do? He decided to abide in the Lord. He decided to do what God wanted him to do. And as a result, he brought forth fruit. He got people saved and he was made king instead of Saul. You know, what these two chapters are saying, you know, it's not saying that when we decide to abide in Christ, we're always going to do things right in our lives. You know, once we recognize what we do wrong, then we need to change and we need to align ourselves with the word of God. Flip over to chapter 13. Let's look at another example of king David here. You see, in 1 Chronicles 13, David wants to bring back the Ark of the Covenant. You know, he has good intentions, but when he does it in chapter 13, he does it wrong. He goes about it incorrectly. He decides to not do it according to the word of God. Look at verse two. And David said, unto all the congregation of Israel, if it seemed good unto you, and that it be of the Lord our God, let us send abroad unto our brethren everywhere that are left in all the land of Israel. And with them also the priests and the Levites, which are in their cities and suburbs, that they may gather themselves unto us. And let us bring again the Ark of our God unto us. If we inquired not at it in the days of Saul, and all the congregation said that they would do so for the thing was right in the eyes of the people. You see, what is David's mistake here? His mistake is this. He inquired of the congregation. He, rather than relying at the word of God said, rather than relying on what God had already laid out for the Ark, he says, look, do you guys think we should bring it? You know, should we bring it to ourselves? That's what he's saying. You know, the thing, and it was right in their eyes. They were like, yeah, let's bring it. You know, but they go about it the wrong way. Look at verse seven. And they carried the Ark of God in a new cart. Out of the house of Abinadab, and Uzzah in Ohio drove the cart. And when they came under the threshing floor of Chaedon, Uzzah put forth his hand to hold the Ark for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah. And he smote him because he put his hand to the Ark. And there he died before God. See, this is the result of David's mistake. This is the result of not abiding in God. You know, he fell to abide and Uzzah was burned. The branch was thrown in the fire. All right. It was a seemingly good work with good intentions, but he decided to do it not according to the word of God. Look at verse 12. And David was afraid of God that day saying, how shall I bring the Ark of God home to me? You see, David at that point realizes that he did wrong. He realizes that he wasn't bringing the Ark for God. He was bringing that Ark for himself, rather than for the Lord. Flip over to chapter 15. In chapter 15, we see that David has decided to abide in God at this point. You know, he's getting things right in his lives. And he starts reading his Bible, right? Look at verse two. Then David said, none ought to carry the Ark of God but the Levites. For them hath the Lord chosen to carry the Ark of God and to minister unto him forever. For because we, because ye did not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order. You know, in other words, David's saying this. He's saying, look, we decided to not do it the way God wants us to do it. But now we're going to do it the way God wants us to do it. We're going to do what the word of God says. Look at the end of verse 15. And Moses commanded, as Moses commanded, according to the word of the Lord. You see, David's like, look, we're going to do this God's way. You know, he abides in God and as a result, he's able to bring the Ark. Dropped down to verse 25. So David and the elders of Israel and the captains over thousands went to bring up the Ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the house of Obeded and with joy. You see, because they decided to abide in God and because they were doing this for the Lord, they now had joy in that fact that they were doing it for God. They were doing what God wanted them to do. So David at this point decides to align himself with the word of the Lord and joy, you know. And we ought to align ourselves with the word of God. We ought to take joy in this. You know, how about our dress standards? Deuteronomy 22.5 says this. The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man. Neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, you know, for all that do so are in abomination of the Lord thy God. You know, how about our hair standards? You know, 1 Corinthians 11 says this. If a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory unto her. You know, we ought to have our hair right. We ought to do what God wants with our appearances, with how we dress. How about our work? Second Thessalonians says this. That if any would not work, neither should he eat. You know, how about, what about a man? I mean, are you going to go work and provide for your family? Are you going to go work and do the work of God? You know, if you do that, yeah, you'll eat. But these guys that don't do that, you know, they shouldn't be allowed to eat. These bums out here that are panhandling stuff, don't give them any food. They should not be allowed to eat. They need to go find work. They need to start doing things right. Now, what about homeschool? Deuteronomy 6.7 says this. Teach them diligently unto thy children. That if thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou lieest down, and when thou riseest up. You know, we shouldn't be sending our kids off to the public school. You know, out there, that's where they learn all the world stuff. That's where they get corrupted. Then their minds have to be renewed. You know, you should keep them at home, and you should teach them the word of God at home. You should teach them the things that they need to grow up and be successful people at home. What about church? Hebrews 10.25 says this. Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as a manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching. You know, we shouldn't be skipping out on church, you know, when we have other things we want to do. You know, we need to come to all three services. This is where we get edified. This is where we hear the word of God. This is where we learn. This is where we find the things we need to do to get things right in our lives. You know, what about soul winning? Mark 16.15, go ye unto all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I mean, how clear is that? Go. You need to go out and preach the gospel to people. You need to go out and try to get people saved. If we don't do it, nobody else is. You know, renewing our mind. Romans 12.2, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You know, you need to start changing the way you think. You need to start reading the word of God and changing the way you view things. You need to start throwing away the TV. Get the trash out of your mind. You know, you need to breathe in. It's called brainwashing. You know, you need to wash your mind with the Lord, with the word of God. So, we have remember our salvation. We need to abide in Christ. Turn to Matthew chapter 25. Point number three is this. We need to learn to serve the Lord. You know, the definition of the word service is this. The action of helping or doing work for someone, not for yourself, for somebody else. You know, our service for God is to serve one another. Matthew 25.37 says this. Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered and fed thee, or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in, or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, and as much as ye have done it unto one of the least, of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. You see, Nehemiah understood that there was going to be some trials in his life. He knew he had a job to do. He knew that he was going to serve the Lord by doing this work. You see, working day and night, he was able to accomplish something for the people of Jerusalem. He was a servant for God under these people and helped them build this wall. You know, just sitting here in church, you're not serving God, just sitting in church. Coming to church three days a week is not service for God. You know, church is for the edification of the believers. Just existing is not serving God. You know, Jesus said, I came not to be ministered, but to minister. He came not to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for many. You know, how about us? Can we purpose in our lives to be of service to those in need? You know, can we purpose in our lives to help our fellow brethren that are in need? You know, can we do it not expecting something in return? Can we do it, you know, just wanting to have a heart for these people, just wanting to go out and get people saved, show them the truths of the Bible? You know, the service that we need to do for God is soul-winning. You know, I think back to that soul-winning marathon we had a couple of years ago in Yuba City, right? I'm from Yuba City. And what I did is I wasn't even planning to do a soul-winning marathon. I was just making soul-winning maps in my spare time. I had nothing better to do. So I approached pastor about this. I said, look pastor, I go, let's do a soul-winning marathon in Yuba City. I said, I'll cover the cost. I'm like, let's just go do it. You know, we had 80 soul-winners come out to Yuba City that day and we had only something like 13 salvations. We were out here with 80 soul-winners all day long and only 13 salvations. Those are horrible numbers if you look at soul-winning marathons. It was expected. I expected this because, look, as a Nehemiah, I looked at my Jerusalem and I said, look, I go, these people are reproached. There's no good churches out here. There's nobody doing soul-winning. I had a heart for the people in my community in my Jerusalem. I'm like, look, if nobody's going to preach the gospel to them, I need to preach the gospel to them. So what did I do? I approached pastor. I said, you know, let's do this. Let's go have a soul-winning marathon. Nobody else is preaching to these people. Nobody is going to get saved. I knew the neighborhoods that were out there. I knew what they were like. I knew the demographics. I knew the numbers were going to be low. But, you know, if I didn't do it, who was going to do it? You know, whether it cost me resources or money, I decided I'm going to serve these people. I'm going to try to build up some walls in this community. I'm going to flip over to Ezekiel chapter 3. So we need to remember our salvation. We need to abide in Christ. We need to serve the Lord. So this is my fourth point. We need to share the gospel. Our service for the Lord is sharing the gospel. At work, you know, I try to make it a point to try to preach the gospel to my co-workers when the opportunity presents itself. In Ezekiel chapter 3, you have this parable of the Watchman. And this correlates with, you know, this experience I had at work. I have this guy at work. His name is Norman. Now, if you go over to Norman's Cube, you can tell he's from China. He has the cat waving at you, all the stuff on the cubicle walls. And when I walked over, I'm like, you know, this guy is not going to listen to me about the gospel. He's not going to want to hear what I have to say. Well, we were out working one day. And on the car ride back to the office, I'm like, Norman. I'm like, I start preaching the gospel to him. I start giving him the gospel. I'm like, and in my heart, I'm like, this guy is not going to listen. He's not going to care. But I start giving him the gospel. And I go all the way through it. And at the end, I'm like, Norman, what do you think about this? And he was quiet the whole time. I'm like, what do you think? And Norman goes, you know what? My mom just died a couple of weeks ago. She was a Christian. She's been telling me this stuff for a long time. Norman's in his 60s at this point. You know, and praise God, because I'm like, I'm going to preach the gospel to my coworkers, whether they want to hear it or not, whether I think they're going to get saved or not. Norman got saved that day on that car ride. So in Ezekiel chapter 3, we see this parable of the watchman. Look at verse 17. Verse 17 says this, Son of man, I have made thee a watchman under the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning for me. When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die. In other words, what he's saying, look, you're going to die and go to the hell. If you do not believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, he's saying, and now give us to him not warning, nor speak us to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, to get him saved. The same wicked man shall die in his iniquity. But his blood will I require at thine hand. So what he's saying, look, if you don't go and preach the gospel, and this person dies and goes to hell, he's like, they're going to die and go to hell because they didn't trust in Jesus. But their blood I'm going to require at your hand, because you chose not to preach the word to them. Verse 19, yet if thou warned the wicked, and he turned not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity. But thou hast delivered thy soul. You see, when we refuse to preach the gospel, we have blood on our hands. There's people that die and go to hell every day. There's people that die and go to hell that you chose to not go preach the gospel to. And because of that, their blood's on our hands. You know, the blood's not on God's hands. It's on ours. We are commanded to preach the gospel. The primary work that God wants us to do is to go out and preach the gospel. He wants us to be a watchman for him. He wants us to warn. You know, if we refuse to warn, the people simply die and go to hell, and it's our fault. It's not God's. We have failed in the Christian life if we refuse not to preach the gospel. You know, the joy of the Lord is doing the works. And the Lord's work, Jesus Christ's work when he came here on earth was the gospel. The death, the burial, and resurrection. That was his work. And just like him, that's our work too. We need to preach that gospel. We must be soul winners. Point number five is this. We need to maintain an eternal perspective. You know, we have what's called eternal security. When we are saved, we are forever saved. We understand that. You know, when you have joy in the Lord and you know you're saved and you know your salvation is eternal, you know where you're going when you die. You know, you should not be afraid of anything else in your life. Any of those trials and tribulations that come, even if they kill you, you're going to go to heaven when you die. You know, we need to be happy about that. That should cause us to no longer have fear to do anything for the Lord. Whether he wants us to go do something that we are deathly afraid of, have no fear. You know, that should give us strength. You know, you should not be fearful to go preach the gospel to some thug-looking guy. You know, go up and preach the gospel to him. Chances are, he won't even care. They'll probably love you for it. They'll be okay with it. You know, we also have an eternal God. We have that God that knows our beginning from the end. He knows what's coming and he knows what's going in our lives. You know, have strength in that. He knows what's going to happen to you and you know what's going to happen to you. At the end of your life, you're going to go to heaven. He knows whether you're going to do things for him or not. He knows the beginning from the end and he knows what he wants you to do and whether or not you're going to accomplish it. Don't worry about it. Just do what God wants you to do. Do what the Word of God says. So in conclusion, you know, we have some walls built up in our lives. We have the Word of God being preached here. We have this Jerusalem. We have a Nehemiah that's here to teach and preach the Word of God unto you. When you hear that Word of God, you know, remember your salvation and learn to align or abide yourselves in Christ. You know, when you hear Brother Jared preach something that you're doing that's wrong, change. That's all you have to do. It's not that hard. It's not that complicated. Just change what you're doing. Do what God wants you to do. Learn to serve the Lord. Go soul winning. Start soul winning. Be a silent part. You just have to stand there. You don't have to do anything. Just stand there and a soul winner that is a talker will talk. Learn from them. You know, let's purpose in our lives to push forward. Let's get in that battle and let's stay in that race. Let's preach that gospel and let's always learn to keep our eyes on the Lord. Don't start looking at what you're doing because it's not what you're doing. It's what you're doing for God. It's what God is doing through you. It's getting people saved. That's the bottom line. That's what we're here for. So let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father Lord, I pray that the words that I spoke, that they edified this congregation, Lord, I pray that you continue to do a mighty work here. I pray that you continue to work in Brother Jared's life and help him to be the preacher that you need him to be for these people. I pray that this church grows and I pray that we all continue to learn to abide in Christ and to learn to change as your word spoken, Lord. And above all, let's all be soul winners, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.