Gentleness: Strength Under Control

Praise the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters. To start our service today, I'll be reading from Galatians chapter 2, verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And there's also this uh great quote that I came across from A. W. Tozer, and it says, And the Christian is on the throne till he puts himself on the cross. If he refuses the cross, he remains on the throne. Brothers and sisters, is Jesus Christ on the throne of your heart? Or is it the world? Is it yourself? That is the question that you have to answer for yourself. Are you living for Christ every day? Are you crucifying yourself so Christ can sit in your heart because everything in this world is completely replaceable. There's nothing in this world that can't be replaced. The only thing that cannot be replaced is Jesus Christ. So that being said, brothers and sisters, let's let's carefully listen to what the message says today, the words that are being saying, and so we can listen to what God wants to say to our hearts. And let's stand up and pray for the service. Lord God, we thank you for everything you've given us, Lord God, for this beautiful morning and for allowing us to come to your home today, Lord God, the church. Lord, we thank you so much, Lord. For Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins, our transgressions, iniquities, and diseases, Lord. We thank you so much for the blood that was spilled on the cross. Lord, bless the service, bless the preaching and the singing, Lord. Fill this place with the Holy Spirit in the name of the Father. And the Son and the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen. Speaker 2: Today we'll be singing, There is a fountain filled with blood. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from me, manual space. Lose all their guilty sex Lose all their guilty Says lose all their guilty states and sinners launched in that flood. All their gifts rejoice to see his day and there And may I go by last year? Wash all my sins away Wash all my sins flow away. All my sins away And there may I see wash all my sins away Dear dying limb, thy precious blood shall never lose its time till All the rest sanch of God, be safe to sin no more, be safe to sort. No be safe to sin no more till all the ransom church of God be He safe to sin no more Ear since by faith I saw the stream I flow with wood. Redeeming love has been my feet, I die and shall be till I I die and shall be till I die. Reaming love has been my thing. And shall be so I mean And now we'll be singing count your blessings Your tempest tossed when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost. Count your many blessings, name them one by one. And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God has done. Are you ever Burden with the load of care, does the crossing heavy you are called to bear? Count your many blessings, every day will fly. And you will keep singing as the days go by. Count your blessings, save them one by one. Count your blessings, see what. God hath done, count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God hath done. Amid the conflict, whether great or small, do not be discouraged, God is overall. Count your many blessings, angels will lie. And help and comfort give you to your journeys. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings. See what God has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God hath done. Praise God for this morning, my dear brothers and sisters, that we can all come here together today. to listen to his word, to worship his name because he's worthy. And I'd like to do our Bible reading for this morning, which is going to be in Psalms uh 55 and many uh for you guys It's going to be page uh 819, I'm pretty sure. 819, which is all the Bibles in the pews. It's going to be in Psalms 55, page 819. And this is a pretty interesting Psalm because pretty much David is asking for God to hear him in prayer and not to uh hide himself from his supplication because when Jesus, when he was praying to God, God was silent when he was going up on that cross and he was asking Lord Lord, God, give me mercy. Don't hide yourself from me. And we can begin to read right here: give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide yourself from my supplication. Attend to me and hear me. I am restless in my complaint and moan noisily because of the voice of the enemy. because of the oppression of the wicked, for they bring down trouble upon me, and in wrath they hate me. My heart is severely pained within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me, fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me. So I said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove, I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go around it on its walls. Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it. Destruction is in its midst. Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets, for it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it, nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me. Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man, my equal, my companion, and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked to the house of God in the throne. Let death seize them, let them go down alive into hell, for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them. As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. evening and morning and at noon I will pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice. He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many against me. God will hear and affirm Afflict them, even he who abides from of old, because they do not change, therefore they do not fear God He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him. He has broken his covenant. The words of his mouth were smooth. Smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. Cast your burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain you. He shall never permit the righteous to be moved, but you, O God, shall bring them down to the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half the days, but I will trust in you. Praise God. And now we'll have uh Pastor Tim come up and say a couple announcements for this morning and then right after that we're going to be discussing a topic. God bless. Praise God, Church. Good morning. This is a very powerful psalm because Sometimes in our life we have moments where we just don't see God. It feels like we're praying, but the prayers are not getting. answered. I was actually driving to to church and there was a story on 88. 1 that uh a woman shared she was in those Muslim nations, I forgot which one it was, and she came to Christ, but she was getting severely beaten because Because she came to Christ and she would call out to God, but it was actually getting worse. And she said that uh every time she would pray, it's as if it It got worse. So she was afraid to pray. And it came to the point that she almost lost her faith. And she said one time she was just reading the scripture. And there was one Bible passage, and it said, The Lord God, I will never leave you nor forsake you, I will protect you. And she said, that verse so encouraged me and it rebuilt my faith. It rebuilt my faith. And she said, I told God, Lord, from this moment on, I don't care how much I have to suffer, I will stay faithful to you. And she said, and now my house and my relatives are all saved. You know Like only God can do this, but we have to trust in Him. When we pray, we don't see, but we still have to trust. Just because we don't hear his voice doesn't mean he doesn't hear us. He has a purpose for it all. And he has a purpose why he's not answering your prayer, too. Because maybe he wants something that we don't see just yet. So be faithful in your walk with the Lord. Do not give up, but keep On seeking his face. We're going to go into our topic for today. It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We're almost done. Today we're going to be talking about gentleness. And self-control, but I think I uh I had so much for gentleness that I don't even know if we're gonna get to self-control. Um and Before we do that, I know we always run out of time, so I'm gonna say my announcements right now. Next week, next week we're going to be we were invited to a different church. We're going to be serving there. So our church Is invited to another church in NAMPA. In NAMPA. I will put the address on the church Viber, our church viber. Those who don't have the church viber, you can download it. But if if you still need the address, just come up to me. I got the address and I will send it over to you. So next week is from 10 a. m. at the church in Nampa. Just remember that we will not be picking up the people from the shelters because that is just going to be too far of a drive. So 10 a. m. next week Also, this this Saturday we're going to be doing our final cleanup in the gym, preparing it for the future services. So I invite everybody to come help from 2 p. m. We're going to be here cleaning up, doing the final touches. wiping everything down and setting it everything up because we're going to be moving there the first week of October. And There was another announcement, but I forgot because my memory is just so amazing. But let's take a few minutes to meet and greet each other, and then we will go into our topic Amen. Praise God. I don't remember mine. Okay, Church, we're going to be starting And those who are new, these discussions include everyone. So if you have a question or if you want to share something, you are welcome to you. Just raise your hand and you will get a mic. do you have people who watch us online so they can only hear you through the mic. If uh like I said if you have a question we will give you a mic Because we want those people online to also hear your question or your stories or whatever you want to share. But we've been going through the fruits of the Holy Spirit for the past I would say three months or so, and we are coming to a close on this topic. And this morning we're going to be talking about gentle I'm going to read from Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. Longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law And those who are crucified and those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. So we see that the fruit of one of the fruit of the spirit that God tries to grow in us is gentleness. And when I was preparing this topic, I had to be repenting because I'm like, Lord, Lord, like why am I not this fruit? Please make me this fruit. Um and in Colossians three twelve In Colossians 3:12 it says this: Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another If anyone has a complaint against one another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. And in Colossians it talks about put on Meaning that wear it. Just the way you walk out of the house clothed. Over here, Paul he writes to the church that where these uh fruits in your life that when you walk out of those doors people can see the image of Christ. And gentleness it's in Greek it's called uh produs, which is also referred to as meekness. Meekness. And meekness, the definition of meekness is meekness is the quality of being quiet, gentle, and patient. Often shown a willingness to defer to others instead of arguing. And also meekness The famous the famous version or the famous quote, meekness is not weakness, but it's a spirit of strength. And uh uh what you will see when when we go go through these um s spiritual points, you will see how I put strength, strength, strength, because meekness is the spirit of strength, not what the world tells you The world tells you that meekness is weakness. But the Bible tells you that meekness is actually a spirit of strength. Also, the biblical definition of meekness is meekness means strength under control. Representing power, gentleness, and deliberate humility rather than weakness or timidity. So this morning, let's not just take this information, but let's see where we need God to work on our hearts. And if there's this fruit in your life you see as lacking, this is where you ask the Holy Spirit to build it. in you so you can be fruitful in this um in this uh spirit in this spirit So I do wanna maybe at first so we understand what meekness is, I do wanna um ask you, all of you, a question. In your eyes, how do you see the spirit of meekness or the person that is meek? How do you see that person? Or gentle Is there a lad wants to say something? Yeah I would say meekness is putting others above yourself. And when you see that in another person, when they're lowly of heart and meek in spirit. It's almost like their face kind of radiates because you can see that they do not walk pridefully. They know that Jesus Christ is Lord over their lives and that humility and meekness um it it shows up different in the world. Like in the world you'll see pride and selfishness, people cheating, people killing, stealing, everything that uh Satan is about. But when you're lowly of heart and meek It's a whole different image. It's almost like looking at an image of Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ was meek. He died for our sins. And he went on the cross, even though he is God. And so that's the ultimate form of meekness. Okay. Yeah, I also have something to say. Um I think it can also like maybe a good example in our lives is maybe if you get into some kind of debate or argument with somebody in your life. And um a meek person when he sees maybe an argument already starting to get heated or enraged by the other person, he's willing to even step step down uh just so he can keep peace between uh the discussion. Okay. So he's he becomes meek, he he's willing to accept uh to step down so there's peace in between both of the people. So and what already Pastor T mentioned is that see the world sees that meekness is a weakness. Yeah. They sometimes would just That a meek person is a timid person. In some ways, sometimes they would say it's a cowardly person, but it's actually completely opposite to that. Who is the second Micis or Gentile person after the Christ? Who is the second person after the Christ? Who knows? It's from the Bible actually. Eli, Eli, you can say it and this is This is just a guess. Isn't it Moses? Yes, a good guess. So the Moses Moses was the the second after the Christ meekest person. But if you will take a look at his character, he was a very strong person. Sometimes at certain point we read when uh People went away from God and the way that Moses conducted himself, you would not say that he's meek. But he still was mixed. So today we're gonna explore what the truly biblical and Christian meekness is. For sure it's not a weakness. Because Moses was not a weak person. Moses actually led a huge nation. Moses, uh, when people sinned against God. He he very strongly rebuked them. Moses rebuked the second person who was Aaron. And then we gotta figure out then what is the meekness, what is the biblical gentleness. is. That's what where the secret is gonna be. And I will maybe uh give you um like A spoiler to that, but you just gotta and I know that TASER team prepared. The meekness, and it's already been mentioned, is where you actually can control yourself. self and emotions. And sometimes it could be opposite to actually not doing anything. Sometimes it could be where met. And I doesn't feel like I love those people. They're close to me. They're my family. I don't want to say anything to them. But I have to say it. And if you don't say it, that's not not self-control because self-control you do things not what you wanted but as we heard what Jesus Christ wanted It's not about always a spirit, a timid spirit, but it's something I don't feel like doing it personally. It will hurt me, hurt my reputation. But for For the God's sake, for the Christ's sake, I need to do this. And you control your desires, you control your emotions, and you do something that's gotta be done for the sake of Christ. And uh before I want to ask our audience if they have any stories that They felt or they can share how they felt maybe they needed to say something and they did and how that changed. the situation, but uh before we go there I want to also share what's the opposite of gentleness. The opposite of gentleness is aggressiveness. Aggressive. So we can get an idea what is the opposite of gentle. It's aggressive. And exactly how Pastor Henry just mentioned and the the others mentioned, I'm just going to read off what I put down. They're like uh an unmeek or ungentle person is there to prove their point with shouting and stomping and I personally in my life had many times where I was trying to prove my point and it's like you know you start shouting, trying to prove your point. And it actually what you realize is that it turns people away. Even if you're right, but the shouting, it just turns people away. Like also, what's the opposite of gentleness? It's hot-headed. for your own sake. Can't control his or her temper. That's another f form of aggression. aggressiveness like you can't control yourself. Everything kind of ticks you off. Instead of just letting it fly by, you have to comment. You have to say something, you know. Um another is defender of their own image or their own name. Like hold on, what does she say about me Oh, I'm gonna go tell her, right? Or a defender of their own fleshly desires. There could be somebody saying, sir, you shouldn't dress like that or you shouldn't say those things like who are you to tell me what to say or how to dress? We're defending our our own fleshly desires, right? Um constant uh constantly like throwing fits and that's a s uh That's the spirit level of a child. They're constantly throwing fits. They didn't get what they wanted. That's it. It's the end of the world. You know, you go through a grocery store with your kid. Yeah, those that don't have kids. You guys will know when you go shopping. Ten seconds later they forgot about it. They already want something else It's constantly throwing fits when you don't get what you want. That's a spirit of childness. And also uh um just like all around just a bad example Just a bad example with these attitudes. You're trying to prove your point. You're trying to save your name. You're trying to save your image. But when we do look. . Through the men of meekness, and we already heard about Jesus Christ and the other one is Moses. What you will see is They are fine. They are okay with people thinking bad about them. They just want to do the will of God. God as long as God doesn't look at them from the negative eye. But a a person t whatever, you're mad at me, I'm moving on. So um to give you an example from nature, like let's say a strong horse like a wild horse, a stal a stallion or some kind of other horse. Has a lot of energy, has a lot of strength. and can do whatever it's wanted. It can run in the wild. And uh but when that horse has a lot of strength and energy and running in the wild, is it good for for to do good things? It's not. It's only when you get that horse and you're able to tame it. When you're able to tame that horse, then all of a sudden all that energy is strength. It's forwarded for the good Same thing with us, we can be very strong people by nature, but when that strength and energy, it's not Not tamed by God and God does it through us, then all that energy as you heard, it's forwarded toward me, me, me. And if someone heard in me, I'm gonna do something about it. So the same person with the same strength, why the meekness is not a weakness but a strength Strength, all the sudden that person goes, Well, I'm a same person, I'm very strong person. Uh I maybe have a strong opinion of what's right, but I able to tame myself for the good of others and God himself. So that's why you gotta be strong to do that. Yeah. Yeah. And when we're talking about meekness is not a weakness because you tame yourself, not because you're afraid of someone. It's opposite. You afraid of yourself that you can do harm to other people and all of a sudden you want to actually do do good for to other people. people. You want to do good for God. And in order to do good, God gotta tame us. So we can be under not people's control, under God's control. That's what mean me meek people actually when I I preach on that uh topic and I would actually put that meek person it's a tamed person by himself and by God. We tamed our desires. and and and our uh self person and that's the strength uh when we have that in ourself And is uh does anybody want to share maybe like in your life how you were able to tame your emotions or maybe you just outburst? And how it affected. Anyone want to share? Because I have plenty of stories, but I ain't gonna go there. Um so the the world sees that strength is like you have to be yelling. You have to show your power. You have to prove your point. You have to stand your ground. And Jesus teaches us the opposite. He actually in Matthew 11, 29 says, this is Jesus says, take up my yoke upon you and learn from me. Look at that. Learn from me. But how do we learn from Christ? Friends, we can never learn if we don't take the textbook. What kind of doctor will you be if if you don't read the book? You ain't doing surgery on me because you haven't learned And Jesus says, learn from me. And he gave us this Bible to learn from how to be meek and saying, Lord, please help me. If we are not in his textbook, basic instructions before leaving earth, Bible, then we won't know like what God expects from us. But over here it says, learn from me. And he says, For I am gentle and lowly in heart. And check this out. And you will find rest for your souls. So, okay, so learn from me because I'm the guy who set the example for gentleness. And I know how it is to to with the power of meekness or gentleness to find rest for all of you. For your souls, well let's let's explore on this verse that you just read How did Jesus why did Jesus say when you will be lowly in heart and meek, you will find rest in your soul? That's very important. You see, when difficult times come in our life, plus maybe someone likes to hurt us, our soul is troubled. Our soul is storming and there is no rest. It's only when we have a meek spirit When we actually are able to control ourselves and say, you know, it's okay, it's all right. Maybe this is actually controlling our emotions in the difficult times of our life. Then we start finding rest. Without that, there is no rest. Without that, we waking up and in our minds we we fighting. We in war with other people. Yeah. We wrestling. We cannot find the rest in our souls. It's only when we become in meek in our spirit and we say It's okay. All the sudden we start finding soul. And that's a rest. And that's why telling us, learn from me. Be like me, and you will find the rest in your souls. It's um it's very hard when you are trying to be gentle and somebody is just I'll just kind of say it bluntly, uh pissing you off. And uh the the fruits of the spirit they're not there f for you to have when everything is good. The fruits of the spirit are shown when things are going south for you. And over here, this is where God is teaching us, hey. You know, yeah, when everything is going good, you're at peace. But I'm gonna teach you how to be at peace when everything is bad. And I'm going to teach you how to cruise that ship through the waters, bless you. When the storms are crashing over you, I'm gonna teach you how to cruise. And that's why, friends, this gentleness, this meekness Jesus is teaching us not when everything is good, but when you're going through your hardships. This is when you need it the most. And over here we see that Jesus, he was shown his meekness through the strength of submitting to a greater purpose. the strength of submitting to a greater purpose. We have to think, okay, a certain situation happened in my life. It's bad. It's bad. But if I take this route, will it make things better or may will it make when we take it into our hands we go and we say things and we do things That we'll later regret. One, two, three years down the road, we're like, man, I have to apologize to that person. For what I said. Because now that person is holding that that pain in their heart against you But if you had the strength to control, that's why it's strength. If you had the strength to control that tongue. There would be no apologies two, three years later. You wouldn't have to. Right? So that's why it actually takes a bigger man. To to control yourself takes a bigger man. Yeah. So I know we probably uh running out of time but anyway so I do wan ask you uh now the difference if it would say that the gift of the spirit Win the fruit of the spirit meekness. What would be the difference between a gift and a fruit? Even though there is no gift of meekness, but anyway I'm gonna ask that because that's very important. So well I'm gonna answer then. So gift, it's something just given to you by the Spirit. Fruit, you have to work for it. Fruit is something you bear in your life by commitment. By hard work, asking Jesus Christ, asking Holy Spirit to give you strength to accomplish that. That's why it's called fruit. When a plant producing fruit, there is a lot of work done to produce that fruit. That's why it's called the fruit. And that's why in here we read the gift of the Spirit, not a gift but fruit of the Spirit is meekness. It telling us this is something we have to, with the help of a Holy Spirit, to work in us. Because the same features is in a God's spirit. Now God wants us to strive for it as well. well. So we have the same qualities, same attributes that the God Spirit have. But remember that's why there is a word, it's called the Nara gift. It's called the fruit. It's something you have to work towards. And also Jesus, he showed the strength of patience. To who? To those people who are like, come on, man, you still didn't get it. Like how many times do I have to tell you? And we're like already running out of patience, getting mad at them But gentleness does not mean ignoring what is wrong. You know, if somebody does something wrong or They're not listening to your advice, they're not listening to those things you're telling them. It's just patiently correcting them until they get it. It's patiently correcting them. And we see that Jesus showing that with his disciples because man, his disciples, James and John. They got tired of those people that are like Lord let's just send fire from heaven and burn them all down. Jesus like whoa whoa whoa whoa hold on a sec buddies And then he starts. There was another instance where like what else did I write? Oh yeah, Peter, you know. You know, Peter, he's already on his high horse. Jesus says, Peter and I will build the church on you. You are the rock. And then Peter's like, whoa. Okay, cool. And then Peter starts telling, like rebuking Jesus, starts teaching Jesus, and Jesus puts him in his place. Puts him in his place out of love. Not oh Peter, you're a nobody. Who are you two telling me no? Actually in this in this case Jesus Christ told him depart from me Satan when when Peter actually gave him suggestion not to go to a cross. And Jesus Christ, he loved Peter. And for Christ to do that, maybe we would say it's hurtful. And I probably would decide not to do this. That's not a meekness. Meekness, it's when you know it's gotta be done. Doesn't matter if it's actually will taint your reputation, you take control of your emotions and it's gotta be done And when Jesus said to Peter, depart from me, Satan, uh they understood it's not like Jesus called a Peter a Satan. He just said that whatever you suggesting to me. Me, it came from a Satan. But that's how Jesus Christ patiently would get their attention and would teach them little by little. And plus to that, I want to add that when Jesus Christ actually was telling them that I will be crucified, and it seems like he tells them a hundred times and they're like at the end, they're like, crucified? It has to be done. And they just cannot get it. And Jesus Christ did not give up on them. He was teaching them. He was teaching them. he was teaching them. And at the end, see that the meekness of Jesus Christ, what kind of fruit it bear in those disciples, that when they went and started proclaiming the good news, practically they took the world by storm. Same disciples. Why? Because Jesus Christ had mixed spirit and was teaching them and teaching them. I'm just gonna run through this The strength of not seeking popularity. So we saw that strength of patience. Do we have that? If not. not we gotta work towards the strength of not seeking popularity jesus was healing people i mean he was the man He like the crowds were following him because nobody could do what he did. But when he heals somebody, he's like, don't tell nobody. Don't tell nobody. Right now we see these crusades and uh these healing things and uh Um like everybody's flocking them and this guy is just like well I'm not gonna say that all of them seek popularity, but you could for sure see some. You know, they're they're they're seeking, you know, for their their own glory, for their name. But Jesus wanted, he came to save the lost, you and I. That was his mission. And our mission when we carry the fruit of gentleness is that when those people around us that don't know Christ See how we talk to others, how we take care of our problems, they can see Christ in you and through those actions come to Christ. And I will end with a story. And it was said last Sunday by one of the brothers at the 11 a. m. service. He said there was a Christian lady and they were in a subway. And there was a drunk man in back of her and she was sitting and she was going to church. She was going to church. And this drunk man, he's drunk and he hits her in the back of the head. And everybody's watching this scene. And she doesn't do anything. And he's drunk, he's swaying, and he smacks her again the back of the head. And she's just like kind of you know, patient. And again, the third time. And then she stands up and she's like, sir, would you like to have a seat? Please have a seat. I mean me, if some guy is smacked me in the head, I'll be like, bro, what's your problem? But look at this. So then when that bus stopped, they're all giddy city. And she said, you know, I was watching you. How you're going to react to the situation. And I kind of forgot the story, but then what happened is that she came to Christ, the mayor of the city. The mayor of the city, through this action, through this gentle meekness response. So for all of us this morning, friends, When somebody ticks you off, what should you do? How should you reply? How should you carry yourself? Let this settle into our hearts and ask for God to give us the strength to control our strength and our tongue. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for this morning, God, that we could study the lesson of gentleness and meekness, Lord God. Oh Lord, I repent, God. There's so many times, Lord God, where I just couldn't control myself, Lord. And please forgive me, Lord. God, please, God, help us all here this morning. to grow in the spirit in the fruit of gentleness, Lord God, that through this, God, we could show your image to this lost world, Lord, and that more and more people could come to know you through our action. Bless each person here. May we take these lessons with us home and wherever we are and apply them in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen. Speaker 2: Today we'll be singing He Will Hold Me Fast. When I fear my faithful fail, Christ will hold me fast when the tempter will prevail. Well he will hold me fast. I could never keep my wall through life for God. For my love is often called He must hold me fast, He will owe me fast, He will owe me. For my savior loves me so He will be fast, He will be fast. He will be fast, for my Savior loves me so He will hold me fast most he saved. Christ will hold me fast, precious in his holy sight, he will hold me. His promises shall last, but by him as such a cause. He will all be fast, he will hold me fast, he will hold me fast for my sake. He will hold me fast He will hold me fast He will hold me fast For my Savior loves me soul, He will only last For my life He let it die Christ will hold me fast. Justice has been satisfies, raised within to endless life. He will hold me fast till our faith is turned to sight. When he comes at last, he will hold me fast. He won me fast, for my savior was we song. He won all me fast. He won be fast, he won't be fast, for my savior loves we so he won. He bled and died for me. Friend, if this morning you still don't have Jesus again Your life, you can accept Him and make Him your Lord and Savior. And He will forever eternally save you from damnation, from eternal hellfire. He will hold Hold you in his hand. Make that decision this morning. Make that decision this morning. Does anybody have any needs or any thankfulnesses before we end our service? Yes, Melvin. Yes, um a few months ago um I was diagnosed with cancer. Um and I was there. So I turned it over To my Lord. Amen. And uh I went back and uh God retouched it. Praise God. Amen. Amen, brother. God heard your prayer and he heard your need. And that's our God we serve. Amen, friends. That's a beautiful testimony. For those who are watching us online, uh Brother Melvin said that he had cancer about two months ago. He was diagnosed and he gave it to the Lord. And uh just just recently he went to get retested and they found no trace of cancer. So we're gonna praise our God for this wonderful miracle and the love that he shows on our brother Melvin. Amen. Our God is great. Anybody else? Yes, Vlad. Pray for God to protect her. Okay. Okay. Okay, cool. Okay, let's pray. Lord God, we are so grateful, God, for your love and for your mercies that you show on us daily, Lord Jesus. Oh God, you are wonderful. Oh God, you are wonderful. You hear our prayers, Lord. I pray, God, that you help us, God. To grow into the spirit of gentleness, Lord, that we could be the light, the example to this dying world, Lord God. Help us, God, to carry that torch of salvation, Lord, to this world, God, because there are many perishing without knowing you, Lord. And God, we are thankful for this Thankfulness from Brother Melvin, Lord God, that he gave his need over to you, Lord, and that you answered because you have the power to heal, Lord God. And his faith has healed him, Lord God. We are so grateful of your mercy, Lord Jesus. God, we are also, God, praying for the needs of uh uh brother Vlad's mother in law and for Kayla Lord may you protect them on their way back home uh back here Lord God. May you protect their flight, may you protect their drive. May your angels be with them, Lord. God and Lord, we just glorify and praise your holy name because you are worthy, Lord. We are not worthy of anything, Lord God. We give all glory to you, our Savior and our King May your name be praised and glorified in Jesus' name. Amen. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us.