Believing Is Not Necessarily Seeing

I want to go to a couple of very familiar scriptures for a text this morning, this afternoon, today, whatever it is. Hebrews 11 chapter and verse 1 and then also John 6:36. We pastored in Cincinnati for a while and we inherited a tradition when we came in there that as whoever the speaker was getting ready to get up and speak, one of the men in the church would always go down into the basement to the kitchen and bring up a glass of water. Our middle son, Christopher, Mr. mischief if ever there was one. He got into the serving role and I was appreciative of that. And I can remember one Sunday night preaching a very intense message and had gotten into some intense places in the message, reached down to grab my glass of water, grab a drink, and Christopher had filled my glass with Sprite. Yeah, there was nothing that Yeah, there was just something about. So I'm thankful, brother Aaron, that that is water. Thank you very much. Not this brightly bad. Hebrews 11:1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. John 6:36 says, "But I said unto you that you also have seen me and believe not." And for just a little while today, I want to speak to us on this subject. Believing is not necessarily seeing. Believing is not necessarily seeing. Miriam Webster defines the word believe. says a it's to have a firm religious faith to accept as true, genuine or real. It gives an example as ideals that we believe in. Second, it says to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, the efficacy or the ability of something. The ex and the example it gives here is believe in exercise. Now I believe in exercise. don't necessarily take part, but I do believe that it probably is helpful. Third, to hold an opinion or to think. I believe so is a transitive verb. Webster says, whatever that means. to consider to be true or honest. Believe the reports. Or you wouldn't believe how long it took. And I'm hoping no one says that when they leave here this afternoon. B. to accept the word of evidence of I believe you or I couldn't believe my ears or lastly to hold as an opinion suppose I believe it will rain soon. Now I would submit to all of us here today that in our humanity in order to believe in something we require some sort of tangible evidence or proof. And as generations have come on, today's generation is much more in a requirement place of that proof than my generation probably was. I can think of a lot of things that, you know, if someone in authority or someone with some responsibility said something, I just took it as true. But now the generation and whether it's good or bad is a topic for another night. they require a little more understanding. They're more willing and asking questions. But the word of God challenges our carnal thinking because the writer of Hebrews said that our belief that our faith is the evidence of things that have not been seen. See the atheist, the one that says there is no God, asks us today, "How do you know God is real? How do you know the Bible is his word? How do you know he created the earth? What makes you so sure? But perhaps we should ask back, how do you know he isn't real? How do you know the Bible is not his inspired word? How do you know he didn't create the earth? What makes you so sure? See, when I look into the word word of God and I see what the future holds, I have made a conscious cho choice that I would much rather believe the word of God and be wrong than to not believe and find out I was wrong. Let me say that again just so you catch it. I would much rather choose to believe that what is found in the word of God is real and then find out I was wrong rather than to believe that this is all just a fairy tale and find out I was wrong. Because as long as I believe in what this word says, I know that things are going to go well in my life. I know that things are going to go well when I leave this life. See, it's much easier for me to look at the complexities of this world and the universe, the intricacies of life and believe that God in his infinite wisdom and dominion created all of this than to believe that out of chaos and disorder, some super cat cataclysmic explosion that then that the world just inexplicably emerged and life began to exist. It's a lot easier today for me to believe that a supreme being, that God spoke into existence and light was created, that God spoke into existence and life was created, than to believe that just some sort of big explosion happened and all of a sudden here we are. And even science as it tries to refute the Bible proves the Bible because science tells us that the earth is in the absolute perfect rotation. that if we were just a little bit farther from the sun, the earth would just be a frozen ball of ice. If we were just a few miles closer to the sun, it would be too hot for life to exist. So, you want me to believe today that this just happened out of chance? I'm sorry. I've been around life way too long to believe in coincidences like that. See, just because I didn't see God create the world doesn't mean he didn't. Just because I wasn't a witness to him reaching down into the dust of the earth and forming Adam or taking a rib out of Adam's side and creating Eve doesn't mean he didn't do it. Brother Taylor, just because I've never seen that get up out of a wheelchair and walk doesn't mean that God hasn't done it. Just because I've never seen the dead raised back to life doesn't mean that he still isn't doing it. Just because I've never seen the sun stand still, just because I've never seen the empty tomb, doesn't mean that those things have not happened, believing is not necessarily seeing. You see, the carnal mind says, "I believe because you have shown me that 2 + 2 equals 4. You have proven to me that at 212 degrees Fahrenheit water boils and that at 32 degrees water freezes. It's been demonstrated to me that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. See, these are all things that science has proven and shown me, and I understand, I grasp, I believe that. But to the spiritual mind, the word says in Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding." In John 20 29, Jesus said unto him, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. But blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." And 1 Peter 1:78 says that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ whom having not seen you love in whom though now you see him not yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. I submit to us today, child of God, that there are some things in my relationship with God that I need to quit worrying about trying to grab hold of in a tangible sense. And I just need to trust in him. I just need to put my faith in him. I need to keep my confidence in him and know that he will take me through whatever I need him to take me through. The writer of Hebrews describes what faith does. says, 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Substance, talking about the essence or the reality. Faith treats things hoped for as reality. Then it uses this word evidence which means proof or conviction. Faith itself proves that what is unseen is real. So see if we would if we would use language for today. Now faith is the essence or the reality of things hoped for and it's the proof of things not seen. I've got to stand here today and give honor to a man that that that several years ago took my realization and my understanding, my journey of faith into a whole new realm. This man put his fingerprints all over my life and all over my ministry and pulled me out of just someone that was that was just going through life that was just going through a relationship with God and opened my understanding that that there's so much more to faith. this man that has preached I'm in all six continents across this globe that has seen miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle happen through his ministry not because of him but through what God did through him that that that that pulled me out of that realm of just kind of going through and helped me to realize and understand how much there was to faith and the operation of the gifts of the spirit. Now, of course, when when when you when you hear about somebody like that, you you you you you think that, you know, their life is just was just always filled with so many great and glorious things that that there's not a problem in their life, that there's not a thing that they have to deal with, that that every morning they get up and that that that no matter what's happening in everybody else's life, that the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the grass is green, and the birds are singing beautifully. But the reality is this young couple, not long after they were married, answered the call of God to a remote part of the world to do missions work. And it was there during the very early stages of their time in the ministry that they were unwittingly exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl meltdown. radiation that caused his beautiful wife to become sterile, to not be able to have kids, and to deal with all sorts of health issues. This man that literally has seen thousands upon thousands of miracles preached faith and preached the miraculous even though his wife hadn't received her miracle yet. And it helps me to know and understand that I can ask God. I can put my petition before God. I can hold on to my faith. But that's all that God asked for me to do. And that God I can put the rest of it in his hands. How do I know God's still a miracle working God? Because I see him doing the miraculous. I watched our little grandson last night on FaceTime that should not be here. I watched him as he interacted. And as he began to talk, he's starting to take food in now. And God continues to do the miraculous day after day after day. And you all have seen it in your life as well. But I'm here today to challenge and encourage somebody that God's wanting to do something in your life. And all you need to do is step out on faith and believe that God can do it. Matthew 17:20 said, "Jesus said unto them, because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you shall say unto the mountain, remove hence the yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing nothing nothing shall be impossible to you. I've seen a mustard seed. I've talked about a mustard seed here before. I could hold a mustard seed right here between my finger and my fat little thumb and none of you, not even me, could see it. I've seen mountains. I've never seen a mountain literally moved. But I still believe because the word of God says that if I have faith that even I cannot see that faith is enough to move the biggest obstacle, the biggest detriment, the biggest thing that could possibly stand in my way. And even though I have never witnessed it, I still stand here today and believe it can be done. Not because I am something special, not because I am something unique, but because God's word says it can be done. Believing is not necessarily seeing. In John chapter 6, we find it opens with the miraculous feeding of the 5000. Then the chapter follows with the account of Jesus walking to the disciples as they were on a boat in the midst of a terrible storm in the sea. And then that's followed up with the description of the Jews who had no doubt been present at the miraculous feeding. Then they took notice that wait, there was only one boat there at the seashore and we watched all the disciples get in it and leave, but we never saw this man called Jesus get in the boat. So the next morning, the Jews found some other boats there. They went across the sea to see if they could find Jesus and the disciples. And as was so often the case as we read through the Gospels, they got there, they found Jesus, they began to quiz him, trying to catch him in that aha moment. How did you get here? They asked, "What what must we do to do the works that God requires?" And Jesus just simply responded back that they were to believe in the one that God had sent. And of course, you know, they're trying to find this way to catch Jesus in a in a moment. Well, what signs will you give us that we can see and believe in you? They were always wanting a sign. Even though the signs were all around them, they chose not to not to accept the obvious. They chose not to accept what they could see, but they wanted to manipulate the entire situation to fit their narrative. What what what can you show us? What can you do to help us believe in you? Now, I mean, keep in mind here that these people had just witnessed less than 24 hours ago Jesus taking a little boy's happy meal and fed what was likely more than 10,000 people and still had enough to cater a small feast left over. Yeah, they had to understand that somehow supernaturally Jesus had gone from one so side of the sea to the other. Yet they still wanted some sort of out of this world sign. And that's when Jesus says in verse 36 of John 6, "But I said unto you that you have seen me, but you don't believe." You have seen the miraculous, but you choose to discount it. You have seen the super. You have seen the sign that you ask for, you just choose to cast it aside because it doesn't fit what you want it to fit. Kind of sounds like 21st century, don't it? Kind of sounds like it could be written today. Believing is not necessarily seen. Hebrews 11:7, "By faith, Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear." Now, this is a different kind of fear, Sister Bran. Moved with respect, moved with awe, moved with an understanding of who was giving him these instructions. prepared an ark to the saving of his house. Now, it had the potential to save the world, but sadly the world chose to disregard and so it wound up just saving his house by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Noah had never seen an ark. Noah had never seen it rain. Noah had certainly never seen a flood. Now, stop and think about that. Let that sink in for a moment. If God were to step down in the middle of August 2025 and tell you, "Hey, I'm going to send rain upon this earth. It's going to rain for 40 days and 40 nights. It's going to rain so much that it's going to cover the entire earth." We would be able to understand that because we have witnessed massive rainstorms and we have witnessed floods. So, we might be able to embrace to some degree. Now, when he told us he wants us to build a boat big enough to house two of every animal on the earth, some of us at that point in time would check out. no, I don't how we going to accomplish that, God. I mean, some of the world's most renowned zoos don't even have two of every animal. But stop and think, Noah had never seen an ark. He'd never seen a raindrop. He had sure never seen a thunderstorm or a flood. Yet, we don't read anywhere in this account where Noah began to bargain and question and say, "Wait a minute, God, let's let's get this straight. God, where in the world are you come? What are you talking about?" But the writer of Hebrews just said it like this. by faith Noah. Now, it wasn't that Noah just worked on it for six months or a year or two years, but well over a hundred years, Noah stood out in the middle of that field, most likely miles and miles and miles from the nearest creek that wouldn't even have floated that boat, much less an ocean that might have floated it. No. What are you doing? What are you building? I'm building an ark. What's an ark, Noah? Do you know how far you are from water? You're going to do what? What a crazy old man. Noah, you have been out here in the sun way too long. It has done baked your brain. But he was the agent that God chose to use to save his family and all of creation from the destruction of the flood. Not because of his intellect, not because of his intelligence, not because of his master building ability, not because he was the most competent. But the writer says it was because of faith. It was because that even though he had never seen anything that God laid out before him, he believed that even though he didn't have to have tangible proof set before him of what was about to transpire, he believed because God was the one that said it. Believing is not necessarily seeing. This building in which we sit right now is filled with sound waves. If I had brought an oldfashioned transistor radio in here today, I could have flipped it on and I could have began to change that dial. And in this building, we could have listened to a baseball game, probably listened to a car race. We could listen to country music. Not long, but we could listen to it. We won't even talk about some of the other. We won't even But it's here. It's here right now in this room with us. I can't see it. I can't touch it. I can't feel it. But it's here. And if we were to bring in the right equipment, we could prove to each and every one of us that it's here. How do we know? Because our experience in the classroom and our experiences of life have proven to us that they are here. They are anywhere. They are everywhere that we go. We believe even though we cannot see. The area that I grew up in and most places we've lived until we moved here to Middle Tennessee were very susceptible at times to dense heavy fog on occasions. Usually most prominent in the fall and the spring seasons where there could be dramatic temperature fluctuations on any given day. Now, I know here in Tennessee, we can experience that as well. You know, we can wake up in the morning with a parka and by noon we need sunscreen. I get it. But trust me, southern Indiana, Ohio, Northwest Missouri, Estonia, Latvia, a lot worse. Just trust me, it's everyone says it where they are. But it could happen at any time. Fog. I remember in the year that I worked the tower at Cincinnati airport, I remember very distinctly driving in one day and it was foggy. I could see driving in, you know, I could see half 3/4 of a mile. It's fine. Pulled into the parking lot. I noticed it when I pulled in. pull in the parking lot, went in the lobby, got in the elevator, went up to the tower cab, got out of the tower cab, nothing. We were in the clouds and we controlled airplanes, not being able to see them. Thankfully, we had radar, but I mean, you had to be more keenly aware. You had to be more sensitive. But fog Fog's a the fog made life a little difficult. Many times you couldn't see very far in front of you. It made driving perilous. But just as in the natural, that fog can cause us to become disoriented and confused. We can be in very familiar surroundings but feel as if we have never been there before. See, in the spiritual, sometimes life has a way of getting us in a place where it can seem like God is absolutely nowhere to be found. It's as if our prayers are reaching just so high and then the heavens have become as brass and our prayers are unheard much less answered and can make us feel so all alone. But I want to surmise today that it maybe was a situation just like this that caused Paul to tell the church in Corenth in 2 Corinthians 5:7 that we walk by faith, not by sight. Now, all of us men know there's no more frustrating thing in the world that can happen that you've had a difficult day at work. Maybe you had to stay late and so you didn't come home till late at night and you didn't want to wake anybody, so you you didn't bother flipping lights on. You just made your way through the house toward the bedroom in the dark. So, you didn't bother anybody, only to find that your loving bride had decided, I think today's the day I'm going to rearrange the living room. Someone some man said, "He's preaching now." And you wind up just sprawled out on the floor because something that wasn't there before is there now. See, there are times in life that it's very good to walk by sight. But I have found in this 65 nearly 66 years that sight is not always available in my walk of life that that sometimes I I've just got to I've just got to kind of try to feel my way around. Now, to set the record straight, first of all, my wife has never done that to me. So, I'm not talking from experience, talking from hearing other people. And secondly, I am perfectly capable of tripping over something that has been there for years without even realizing that I forgot it was there. So lest you think that I'm railing on wives or women, I'm not. See, sometimes I've just got to depend on my relationship with God to get me through the day. Especially here in Murreey'sboro. Traffic. Traffic. Yeah. Sometimes God and I need a very personal relationship as I'm trying to get across town. Sometimes he's very close to me, but I choose not to listen to him. Obviously, probably sometimes, and that's to my detriment, but he is there. But sometimes I've just simply got to trust God to help me navigate through the difficult places. And then sometimes as we talked before live class this morning, sometimes I have chosen out of my own stubbornness or stupidity or whatever to just set him aside and try to make my own way through it. And usually that ends up in a mess I have found. But then there are times that I have got to become oblivious to my surroundings. in order to really see all of the things that God is trying to show me. Living on the farm, we lived way back off the road. I had to walk out early every morning to catch the bus uphill both ways. Okay, I won't go any further. The majority of the time during the spring and the early fall, the hay fields on either side of the driveway would be very disconcerting to a young man, boy, kid, cuz they were tall, the tall stalks of hay. I never knew what kind of creatures might be lurking. I remember getting off the bus one afternoon and coming home and I'm just a happy golucky skipping down the driveway when all of a sudden I heard something rustle in the hay right beside the driveway. I glanced caught a glimpse of something and terrifyingly made my way to the house screaming the entire way. And I said, "The biggest snapping turtle in the world is after me." Ne never in my life had I seen a snapping turtle. Why I even thought of a snapping turtle was beyond my comprehension. But my mother, God love her, took me by the hand, walked me back out the driveway, and as sure as I'm standing here, it absolutely was a big massive alligator snapping turtle sitting there at the edge of the driveway. She says, "Go back to the house. We'll let your dad take care of this when he gets home." That sounded like a great deal to me. But I never knew what might be lurking in that tall grass. Lions and tigers, bears. Oh my. Reality of it was it was probably more like groundhogs, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, or snake. I could handle the other four, but the last one, no. No, not for me. Didn't have any desire. But I mean, it was it was traumatizing as a young child to have to put myself every day in that situation. Thankfully, I got to the place where I realized that up from my second story bedroom window, I could look across the neighbor's hayfield and I could watch for my bus to go across the road there and because I could see the lights when it was dark. That was the worst when time changed and it got dark early or it stayed dark late. But I could watch that bus go across and I knew that I had just enough time to dash out the door, dash out the out the driveway and meet the bus before anything had a possible chance to come out of the hay and get me. That worked really really well on a clear day, but on a foggy day, I just had to suck it up and take my chances. It was on those mornings of heavy fog that the thoughts of lions and tigers and bear completely left me left my thought process because the fog brought a completely new predator to life. The heaviness of that early morning fog and dew brought alive literally thousands of spiders and spiderw webs all throughout the hayfield. Now, these weren't just your average little bitty spiders, but these were these gigantic, multicolored, big as your hand spiders. Spiders that could easily swallow me up had they made that choice. I may be a little evangelistic right now, but to a six-year-old, that was reality. There enshrouded by the heavy fog, not being able to turn around and see the safety of home, nobody back at the house able to keep a an eye on me, I felt extremely vulnerable. I knew I could be eaten alive without a trace and nobody would ever be the wiser to what had happened. The bus driver I knew was going to pull up to the end of my driveway like normal, lay on his horn, trying to prompt me to run faster to catch the bus only to finally give up and pull away because I didn't show up. He was oblivious to the fact that just a few moments ago, I'd been standing right there waiting on him when the massive spiders launched their diabolical attack. See these same spiders and those same webs when the sun was shining and the sky was blue. They were there. But you know what? I didn't see them. I didn't see a one of them. All I had to worry about then was the lions and tigers and bears. It everything was great. Everything was fine. They weren't visible. They weren't visible at all. But you know, you you've been there. You know the frustration of walking through the yard or walking through the words woods and all of a sudden, oh man, if only I could have seen that spiderweb. You know, you wonder why people walk through the woods with a stick going like that. It's because they're trying to get rid of the spiders in front of them. There's nothing more aggravating than trying to pull spiderw webs off of you as you're trying to walk. If only I could have seen it, certainly I could have done something to avoid it. But now in the midst of the fog, see when when everything else had become lost in the mist, suddenly those spiderw webs have materialized. See, in our walk with God, there are times that we find ourselves walking in a spiritual fog. It's not that God's punishing you. It's not that he's forsaken or forgotten about you. He has not turned his back on you. But Paul said it like this. We walk by faith, not by sight. You see, I wanna I want to challenge you this morning that maybe, just maybe, if you find yourself in that kind of a position today, maybe God is trying to get your focus off of circumstances or things that are overwhelming your natural sight. And in order to help us become aware of the spiritual help that he has for us that was around us and available all the time, he allows us to get into a spiritual fog bank so that our senses can become keener to what God is trying to do in our life. I'm thankful that I've never had to experience a physical handicap and lose one of my senses. But again, science tells us that a person who is blind, a person who is deaf, that that their other senses become more keen, become stronger in order to help make up for that sense that is not there. And so I would submit to us here today, this afternoon, that that that if you find yourself in a spiritual fog, if you find yourself in a place where where where where you're looking all around and you you're just thinking that that God has left you or forsaken you, that no, it could be that God has allowed you into that place. So you're not looking at those big ugly things that maybe can bring fear into your life, but that you can become focused on his presence. You can become focused on what he desires to do. you can become focused on his voice and hear what he's trying to tell you. Those spiders did not care at all that I was in their world. But I didn't know that. I didn't understand that because they were vicious and menacing looking. They weren't that big. They were that big. But dad began to question why at the end of our concrete driveway, the eight or 10 feet that he had left gravel, he began to question why every spring when we did the first mowing of hay that that particular corner of both sides of the hayfield were littered with big rocks. And I said because Sandy Kofax, Tom Siver, Bob Gibson were at the end of the driveway when it was foggy and they were practicing their fast ball and they were taking out every spider they could possibly take out with the biggest rocks I could find at the end of the driveway. Dad concreted the rest of the driveway. take care of that. See, believing is more than just acknowledging, but true belief brings action to substantiate that belief. If I believe I know a hot stock in the market, I'm going to invest in it. If I believe that a certain product is the best available, I will purchase it. If I believe that a certain individual is the best qualified, I will promote them. But Jesus said in John 6:47, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." Now, sadly, this broad world of religiosity that we find ourselves in today relates translates this to say that all you have to do to obtain everlasting life is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior. That's not what the Bible says. See, if I truly am going to stand here today and believe that Jesus Christ is God and that he is my savior, then I'm going to take stock to invest in his every word. Mark 16:16 says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." James 2:19 says, "Thou believest that there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. I made a choice long long long ago when I was old enough to understand this word that belief is not just enough. If belief is all it takes. James tells me, great, you're on a level playing field with the devil. Now, I'm convinced the devil's not going to make it to heaven. So, I think I need to be a little bit further along than that. See, it's more than just believing in who God is. It's more than just acknowledging that he is the savior, but he says we've got to act upon that belief. And then Jesus clarified a little bit more in John 3:5 when he said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." So, as we stand here today, I don't know who this was for today, but God unequivocably put this word on my heart to deliver here. And I've already shared with you that as things unfolded throughout today, throughout this service, God has reiterated to me that somebody here in this place today needs this word. And I've been around long enough to believe that there's probably, if we would be honest with ourselves, there's probably more than one. And it may just be me. I don't know. But I know God told me. And maybe somebody here today, you're in this place and you're uncertain. You're unsure of your relationship with God. You're unsure of where you stand right now. You're not completely certain of where your relationship stands in accordance with his word. Peter, our very first. The most act of faith that we can ever do is to act upon our need for salvation. I don't care if cancer has riddled your body. I don't care if your heart is about to give up. I don't I don't care if the doctor has given you the worst diagnosis ever. And understand when I say I don't care. I do care. But listen to where I'm trying to get to. Yeah. I want to see I would love to see God perform the miraculous healing in this place today. But more important than any miracle of healing God could do is to is to encounter the miracle of salvation in this place. And Peter made it so very clear in Acts chapter 2:38 when he said, "Repent to just tell God," I'm sorry for my life and I don't want to go back to it. Please forgive me. And it doesn't matter how gross or how deep and depths of sin you are, God has already made it clear that he'll forgive you. All you have to do is ask. And he doesn't just forgive, but he takes that sin and he casts it as far as the east is from the west. So Peter said, "Repent and then be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission for the payment of those sins." I dare say if you have never been baptized in Jesus name, my friend, there is no better day than today. The baptistry is full. It's got warm water. We've got clothes you can change into because there's no guarantee. Hey, I don't know if you've read the accounts of the of traffic this week, but you have no guarantee that you're going to make it out of this parking lot. I don't say that to scare you. That's just the reality of life. So, I would want to make certain today that before I walk out of here, I'm in the right place with God. And then God says, "Hey, when you step out on faith and you do what I'm asking you to do," then he said, "Once you've done that, I'm going to miraculously pour out on you the gift of the Holy Ghost." But maybe you've already got that issue settled. Maybe Acts 2:38 was taken care of long ago, but you're here today and life has seemingly put you in the worst of fog. That you walked into this place and you saw everybody. You shook their hand. You hugged their neck. You say, "It's good to see you." But you you really didn't comprehend that they were there. See, I want to challenge you because it could be that God is trying to bring you through a place to get you to let loose of your preconceived notions of what you want God to do in order for him to show you the reality of what he wants to do in your life. every head bow and every eye closed in this place right now. I just want every one of us in the way you know how, the way that you're comfortable, just begin to talk to God. And if that's where you find yourself at in this place today, I need to make sure my relationship with God is right. I need to make certain that my calling and my election is sure. Preacher, I came here today in such a fog that I don't know which way is up where left and right is. God's here and he's wanting to do the miraculous in your life. God is here today. He wants to forgive sins. God is here today and he wants to fill people with his spirit. God is here today and he wants to do the miraculous. But it's going to take your faith. I don't have enough faith. You do. Because Jesus said, "If you've got faith that you can't see, but I don't have faith, you do." Because Romans the 12th chapter in the third verse says that unto every one of us is given a measure of faith. So I'm here to tell you today, I don't know what your need is in this place, but you've got enough faith for God to do what you need him to do. All you need to do is put works with that faith to step out from where you are to make your way down here to this altar and begin to pour your heart out to God and let him do the miraculous in your life right now. Let's begin to church. Let's make our way in and pray. And I invite you today as you're here with us if you would come up with us and pray. Let God do a miraculous work in your life. Let God do what you need him to do in this place today. That's why God's here. That's why you're here. Join up.