WEBVTT 00:00:00.170 --> 00:00:02.810 I'm going to jump right in. I think most of us 00:00:02.810 --> 00:00:05.030 have had the opportunity by now, as I look around 00:00:05.030 --> 00:00:07.309 the room, to have experienced evil to some extent. 00:00:07.389 --> 00:00:09.369 It's possible that the kids have not. I pray 00:00:09.369 --> 00:00:12.529 that that is the case. But evil doesn't always 00:00:12.529 --> 00:00:14.550 look like the big bad things that you see on 00:00:14.550 --> 00:00:17.429 TV or in movies like murder, rape, or drug dealing, 00:00:17.550 --> 00:00:22.390 that kind of thing. Thank God. Through the Southside 00:00:22.390 --> 00:00:23.850 Life Station, we've seen quite a bit of that 00:00:23.850 --> 00:00:26.030 over the years, but not necessarily firsthand. 00:00:26.230 --> 00:00:28.089 We've seen four drug dealers that got saved and 00:00:28.089 --> 00:00:31.170 walked away from dealing drugs, and all four 00:00:31.170 --> 00:00:32.969 of them were disowned by their families because 00:00:32.969 --> 00:00:34.450 previous, while they were dealing drugs, they 00:00:34.450 --> 00:00:36.310 were paying everybody's bills, and then as soon 00:00:36.310 --> 00:00:38.670 as they started to no longer do that, they couldn't 00:00:38.670 --> 00:00:42.149 do that anymore. But I never saw that. I've never 00:00:42.149 --> 00:00:45.070 seen anybody, the whole time I've been serving, 00:00:45.149 --> 00:00:46.750 I've never seen anybody actually sell drugs to 00:00:46.750 --> 00:00:49.799 another person. We've seen untold criminals come 00:00:49.799 --> 00:00:53.179 to Christ. I do know that there's at least one 00:00:53.179 --> 00:00:56.280 murderer. He spent 20 years in jail. He was convicted, 00:00:56.359 --> 00:00:59.079 and he openly admits what he did. But I wasn't 00:00:59.079 --> 00:01:00.640 there when he did that, so I've never seen that 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:05.799 firsthand, thank God. I did do the funeral of 00:01:05.799 --> 00:01:07.939 a young woman who was dating a gang member, and 00:01:07.939 --> 00:01:09.599 she used to beat on him, and he'd beat on her. 00:01:09.659 --> 00:01:11.420 One time he beat her too bad, put her in a hospital 00:01:11.420 --> 00:01:13.939 for 10 days. The day that she was released from 00:01:13.939 --> 00:01:15.540 the hospital, she was sitting on the bed waiting 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:18.409 for her friend to go get the car. and she got 00:01:18.409 --> 00:01:21.150 up and fell over dead. And they said that she 00:01:21.150 --> 00:01:24.150 had a brain bleed, and they said it was miraculously 00:01:24.150 --> 00:01:28.689 unrelated to the beating. So we did her funeral. 00:01:28.810 --> 00:01:30.730 We waited to see if the gang members would show 00:01:30.730 --> 00:01:33.109 up and cause trouble. They did not. It was a 00:01:33.109 --> 00:01:35.170 tense day. That's about as close as I've come 00:01:35.170 --> 00:01:39.590 to seeing that kind of evil firsthand. The call 00:01:39.590 --> 00:01:41.510 center ladies that work at the life station, 00:01:41.709 --> 00:01:44.689 they get a lot of stories. We had a woman call 00:01:44.689 --> 00:01:46.349 the life station. She said that her son that 00:01:46.349 --> 00:01:49.010 day had been shot in the head with a firearm. 00:01:49.189 --> 00:01:50.810 Some kid thought it would be a good idea to shoot 00:01:50.810 --> 00:01:53.109 him to a crowd. And she called and asked us to 00:01:53.109 --> 00:01:54.969 pray for her. And we circulated through the prayer 00:01:54.969 --> 00:01:57.769 group. An hour and a half later, another woman 00:01:57.769 --> 00:01:59.689 called. She said that her grandson, whom she'd 00:01:59.689 --> 00:02:01.670 been raising, who was a little bit developmentally 00:02:01.670 --> 00:02:03.730 delayed, some of the boys in his class had talked 00:02:03.730 --> 00:02:06.430 him into firing a handgun into a crowd. He shot 00:02:06.430 --> 00:02:08.310 a kid in the head. Now he was in jail and was 00:02:08.310 --> 00:02:09.830 looking at possibly spending the rest of his 00:02:09.830 --> 00:02:12.129 life in jail. And she asked for prayer for him. 00:02:12.620 --> 00:02:14.879 So they hear a lot more than I do, the first 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:17.280 -hand stories, but I do get a chance to kind 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:19.520 of experience some of that at some of the worst 00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:22.419 times when people are on drugs and they're literally 00:02:22.419 --> 00:02:26.960 addicted or they're off their medications and 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:28.719 so their schizophrenia is going kind of wild 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:32.639 or whatever it might be. But evil is not always 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:35.419 loud or dramatic. The fact is that sometimes 00:02:35.419 --> 00:02:38.500 evil looks like empty cupboards, silent homes, 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:43.419 isolated hearts, crushed hope. I'll tell you 00:02:43.419 --> 00:02:45.599 the story of three guys named Ron. It's interesting 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:47.639 because in the life station, I've been there 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:50.780 for 15 years, and names reoccur. And I go like, 00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:52.300 oh, that's the third guy. And actually, I have 00:02:52.300 --> 00:02:53.620 a fourth guy right now that I'm working with 00:02:53.620 --> 00:02:54.699 named Ron. But I'm not going to tell you his 00:02:54.699 --> 00:02:58.180 story today because he's still greatly in process. 00:02:58.419 --> 00:03:00.039 He just gave his life back over to the Lord last 00:03:00.039 --> 00:03:03.419 week. And in seven days, he's lost 20 pounds 00:03:03.419 --> 00:03:05.080 by changing his diet. So we'll see where that 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:08.699 one is. But he might be fourth Ron. These three 00:03:08.699 --> 00:03:11.669 guys, the first guy is 99 years old. I ministered 00:03:11.669 --> 00:03:14.330 to him this last week. He had, to my knowledge, 00:03:14.490 --> 00:03:16.310 he had heard the gospel young, became a Christian 00:03:16.310 --> 00:03:18.710 young. But at about 50 years old or so, he and 00:03:18.710 --> 00:03:20.870 his wife became fairly successful, and he sort 00:03:20.870 --> 00:03:25.030 of walked away from the Lord. At 99 years old, 00:03:25.069 --> 00:03:27.969 he had not a friend in the world. His wife had 00:03:27.969 --> 00:03:29.409 passed away. His mother -in -law, they had a 00:03:29.409 --> 00:03:30.530 mother -in -law apartment on the back of her 00:03:30.530 --> 00:03:32.909 house. She passed away. Everybody he knew. He 00:03:32.909 --> 00:03:34.430 was 99 years old. Everybody he knew had passed 00:03:34.430 --> 00:03:35.710 away. Everybody he went to school with, everybody. 00:03:36.229 --> 00:03:38.870 And his sons had moved out of state and not talked 00:03:38.870 --> 00:03:42.189 to him in over 15 years. His grandson had come 00:03:42.189 --> 00:03:43.469 over to live with him for about two months. Then 00:03:43.469 --> 00:03:45.189 he moved back with his dad and didn't talk to 00:03:45.189 --> 00:03:47.129 him from that point on. That was about 15 years 00:03:47.129 --> 00:03:50.430 ago. The only person that Ron knew who cared 00:03:50.430 --> 00:03:53.770 about him at all was a Southern Baptist deacon 00:03:53.770 --> 00:03:55.509 who lived next to him in the house next door. 00:03:55.629 --> 00:03:56.949 He would come over and make visits and stuff. 00:03:57.370 --> 00:03:59.229 All the time he ministered to him over about 00:03:59.229 --> 00:04:01.870 20 years, he never shared the gospel. Never talked 00:04:01.870 --> 00:04:03.610 to him about Jesus. I don't know for sure that 00:04:03.610 --> 00:04:06.159 Ron was saved. But when he slipped into a coma, 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:07.879 they called me and I went and prayed over his 00:04:07.879 --> 00:04:10.479 bed and I shared the gospel. He had not responded 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:14.060 in the least for about 36 hours. He didn't say 00:04:14.060 --> 00:04:16.259 a word, hadn't made a move. His jaw was down 00:04:16.259 --> 00:04:18.300 and slack to the left. His breathing was eight 00:04:18.300 --> 00:04:20.519 times a minute. He was breathing eight times 00:04:20.519 --> 00:04:25.639 a minute. And when I shared the gospel, his facial 00:04:25.639 --> 00:04:28.439 expression changed and his jaw shut for a second. 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:31.019 And it looked like he was saying something. We 00:04:31.019 --> 00:04:32.500 never did figure out what it was he was saying. 00:04:33.170 --> 00:04:34.910 So I don't know for sure if Ron went to heaven 00:04:34.910 --> 00:04:37.110 or not, but I say to you that being 99 years 00:04:37.110 --> 00:04:38.629 old, not having a friend in the world, not a 00:04:38.629 --> 00:04:40.529 family member around you, nobody at all. He didn't 00:04:40.529 --> 00:04:43.449 go to church. He talked to his doctor every so 00:04:43.449 --> 00:04:46.029 often. He would talk to the mailman when he came 00:04:46.029 --> 00:04:47.230 around. Other than that, there was nobody. That 00:04:47.230 --> 00:04:49.009 kind of isolation and loneliness, that is an 00:04:49.009 --> 00:04:53.790 evil. That is an evil. Second Ron, he was in 00:04:53.790 --> 00:04:56.689 his late 50s, and he spent most of his life on 00:04:56.689 --> 00:05:00.259 drugs and alcohol, and he was dying. The doctor 00:05:00.259 --> 00:05:02.199 had already told him that because of cirrhosis 00:05:02.199 --> 00:05:06.779 of the liver, he was not doing well. And he reached 00:05:06.779 --> 00:05:08.319 out to the Life Station and said, I've been receiving 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:10.620 your encouragement call. I've gotten food from 00:05:10.620 --> 00:05:12.139 you multiple times over the last several years. 00:05:12.220 --> 00:05:13.600 And I want to tell you that as far as I can tell, 00:05:13.720 --> 00:05:15.720 the staff and the volunteers at the Life Station 00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:17.240 and you personally, because I had talked to him 00:05:17.240 --> 00:05:18.800 personally a couple of times, gone to his house. 00:05:18.899 --> 00:05:20.759 He said you personally and the staff and volunteers 00:05:20.759 --> 00:05:22.519 may be the only people in the world that love 00:05:22.519 --> 00:05:24.420 me. And I want to know, will you give me a Life 00:05:24.420 --> 00:05:26.480 Station shirt with a logo on it so I can be buried? 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:29.079 I've already paid for an open casket funeral. 00:05:29.220 --> 00:05:30.959 I don't think anybody's going to come. That wasn't 00:05:30.959 --> 00:05:33.860 true. One of his friends did come. So he was 00:05:33.860 --> 00:05:36.360 buried in a Life Station shirt, a Life Station 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:42.459 logo, at like 59 years old after dying from his 00:05:42.459 --> 00:05:47.079 addictions. The last one, Ron, he was a very 00:05:47.079 --> 00:05:49.259 active businessman, very successful. He had a 00:05:49.259 --> 00:05:51.199 nice pickup truck that he bought, and it was 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:53.040 full of tools, and he was running his own business. 00:05:53.339 --> 00:05:55.620 And he was working all under the table, making 00:05:55.620 --> 00:05:58.560 all the money without paying taxes, and he was 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:00.699 making pretty good money, $6 ,000 or $8 ,000 00:06:00.699 --> 00:06:03.259 a month doing that with no taxes paid. He was 00:06:03.259 --> 00:06:05.819 living in a house in East Toledo. One night, 00:06:05.899 --> 00:06:07.500 he and his buddies were getting together drinking. 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:09.279 They were always doing that about five, six nights 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:11.480 a week. He was a little hopped up on whatever 00:06:11.480 --> 00:06:14.199 he was into that particular night. And he hit 00:06:14.199 --> 00:06:16.839 a patch of water or ice in the expressway, totaled 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:20.519 his truck. It was impounded. That meant all of 00:06:20.519 --> 00:06:22.279 his tools. And overnight, he couldn't make any 00:06:22.279 --> 00:06:25.399 money. And overnight, he lost all of his friends. 00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:27.959 They kept on drinking, but they did it at somebody 00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:31.000 else's house. So Ron called the life station, 00:06:31.079 --> 00:06:32.639 started getting groceries. Eventually, I wound 00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:34.360 up on his driveway, shared the gospel. He got 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:37.899 saved. He began to live for the Lord, started 00:06:37.899 --> 00:06:39.879 going to church. About two years later, he passed 00:06:39.879 --> 00:06:43.189 away from cirrhosis of the liver as well. These 00:06:43.189 --> 00:06:45.649 are all men who saw evil firsthand that most 00:06:45.649 --> 00:06:48.110 of us have never seen. The kind of isolation, 00:06:48.569 --> 00:06:51.829 the kind of loneliness and sorrow that they faced. 00:06:51.889 --> 00:06:54.790 The third Ron I told you about, he had no food 00:06:54.790 --> 00:06:57.930 in the house for two weeks other than a five 00:06:57.930 --> 00:06:59.850 -pound bag of rice and a few cans of green beans. 00:06:59.949 --> 00:07:02.009 He had no food in the house for two weeks before 00:07:02.009 --> 00:07:03.629 the first time we delivered him emergency food. 00:07:03.750 --> 00:07:07.250 That is evil. In the urban America, there's a 00:07:07.250 --> 00:07:08.490 lot of good things that happen down the road. 00:07:08.589 --> 00:07:09.810 I don't want to paint a really dark picture and 00:07:09.810 --> 00:07:11.069 make you think that America is a horrible country, 00:07:11.129 --> 00:07:12.370 because America is the greatest country on the 00:07:12.370 --> 00:07:13.970 face of the earth. And you can disagree with 00:07:13.970 --> 00:07:15.550 that. I'm not preaching that. I'm just telling 00:07:15.550 --> 00:07:19.649 you that's how I feel. That being said, in Toledo, 00:07:19.670 --> 00:07:21.449 there are free food deserts where a person has 00:07:21.449 --> 00:07:23.329 to walk over a mile to get to a grocery store 00:07:23.329 --> 00:07:25.970 that sells groceries at a normal price. I wonder 00:07:25.970 --> 00:07:27.509 why people with food stamps don't have enough 00:07:27.509 --> 00:07:30.509 money. The in -town urban grocery stores that 00:07:30.509 --> 00:07:32.209 are not Grover's or Walmart are like that. They 00:07:32.209 --> 00:07:34.430 sell grocery stores at over 200 % of what you 00:07:34.430 --> 00:07:36.189 and I would pay going to Walmart or Grover's 00:07:36.189 --> 00:07:38.189 or whatever. So their food stamps run out by 00:07:38.189 --> 00:07:40.189 the third week, and the government, if they give 00:07:40.189 --> 00:07:41.769 more food stamps, the prices in those grocery 00:07:41.769 --> 00:07:43.750 stores just go up all the more. So it doesn't 00:07:43.750 --> 00:07:45.769 actually work. And they can't really walk the 00:07:45.769 --> 00:07:47.649 mile to buy groceries, so they go to the carryout. 00:07:48.050 --> 00:07:50.329 So that results in a thing called malnourishment. 00:07:50.670 --> 00:07:52.430 Malnourishment is when you're taking in food, 00:07:52.550 --> 00:07:54.290 so you're not actually hungry, but the food that 00:07:54.290 --> 00:07:56.480 you're taking in isn't any good for you. And 00:07:56.480 --> 00:07:58.300 so the children and a lot of people living in 00:07:58.300 --> 00:08:01.139 urban America are living off of Doritos and Gatorade 00:08:01.139 --> 00:08:03.500 that they can buy at the convenience store. There 00:08:03.500 --> 00:08:05.899 was a young lady who started attending New Heights, 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:08.339 which is my Southern Baptist Church in East Toledo 00:08:08.339 --> 00:08:11.240 there. And she started attending when she was 00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:13.279 six. At that time, she was babysitting her three 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:15.259 younger siblings, doing all the diaper changing. 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:17.759 She was the responsible person in her house 50 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:21.240 hours a week. Her mom got involved with a boyfriend 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:25.399 who was an addict, and then she started babysitting 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:28.050 him. his two kids. So now she's got five kids, 00:08:28.149 --> 00:08:30.149 three of which are in diapers, and she's babysitting 00:08:30.149 --> 00:08:32.269 them starting at six years old. She would walk 00:08:32.269 --> 00:08:33.809 to the convenience store with her food stamp 00:08:33.809 --> 00:08:36.690 card, buy them all a bag of Doritos and a bottle 00:08:36.690 --> 00:08:38.450 of Gatorade to have for lunch and dinner every 00:08:38.450 --> 00:08:40.850 day. She did that from the time that she was 00:08:40.850 --> 00:08:44.230 six to the time that she was 10. We got involved 00:08:44.230 --> 00:08:45.809 somewhere in the middle there, started delivering 00:08:45.809 --> 00:08:48.809 emergency food to the house, but we cannot provide 00:08:48.809 --> 00:08:50.990 all the food for one family. So there were many 00:08:50.990 --> 00:08:53.450 days a week where that was still going on. When 00:08:53.450 --> 00:08:55.610 she would have graduated high school, she was 00:08:55.610 --> 00:09:00.009 17 years old. She was just over 4 foot tall and 00:09:00.009 --> 00:09:03.330 75 pounds. Because she had not developed when 00:09:03.330 --> 00:09:05.190 she was young, she never became a full -fledged 00:09:05.190 --> 00:09:07.370 adult in size. And I said would have graduated 00:09:07.370 --> 00:09:09.429 high school because she became pregnant at 17 00:09:09.429 --> 00:09:11.570 and a half and is now living in a similar situation 00:09:11.570 --> 00:09:14.169 and has a child that she's raising in a similar 00:09:14.169 --> 00:09:18.409 way. The reality is these are evils. They don't 00:09:18.409 --> 00:09:20.590 come with a gun in hand. They don't come with 00:09:20.590 --> 00:09:24.080 blood, usually. Sometimes maybe, but not usually. 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:27.840 Evil is not always loud or dramatic. Sometimes 00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:30.179 evil looks like empty cupboards, silent homes, 00:09:30.379 --> 00:09:34.379 isolated hearts, crushed hope. But I think these 00:09:34.379 --> 00:09:37.340 subtle evils are the ones that get me the most. 00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:41.259 I despise criminal behavior. It vexes me deeply 00:09:41.259 --> 00:09:44.080 when I see people do things wrong against our 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:46.779 laws. But at the same time, I can't stand the 00:09:46.779 --> 00:09:49.440 evils that are not illegal, for which there are 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:53.179 no court sentences. CSB was involved multiple 00:09:53.179 --> 00:09:55.379 times in the life of that same lady. That's children's 00:09:55.379 --> 00:09:56.820 services involved multiple times in the life 00:09:56.820 --> 00:09:58.240 of that same lady who had her six -year -old 00:09:58.240 --> 00:09:59.759 daughter changing their diapers every day, all 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:01.919 day. And they never took the kids out of the 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:04.200 home. They never determined that the kids were 00:10:04.200 --> 00:10:06.940 actually unsafe by federal standards. And so 00:10:06.940 --> 00:10:08.659 they didn't. Even though all they were ever eating 00:10:08.659 --> 00:10:10.320 was mostly, you know, their mom would get them 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:12.399 one meal a day plus Doritos and Gatorade. That's 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:15.299 what they ate. It was terrible. I made a house 00:10:15.299 --> 00:10:17.539 visit. There were literally a thousand Dorito 00:10:17.539 --> 00:10:19.649 bags sitting everywhere. And when they didn't 00:10:19.649 --> 00:10:21.049 have something, they would just go and find one, 00:10:21.090 --> 00:10:22.710 stale maybe, but they'd just go and find one 00:10:22.710 --> 00:10:24.990 and eat out of it. And that was not considered 00:10:24.990 --> 00:10:28.429 criminal behavior. And they stayed in the household. 00:10:29.350 --> 00:10:32.590 I can't stand that. It drives me nuts. I often 00:10:32.590 --> 00:10:36.190 think these very things are the reason for so 00:10:36.190 --> 00:10:38.429 much of the other things that go on. You and 00:10:38.429 --> 00:10:40.590 I know that God is not mocked. God is present. 00:10:40.710 --> 00:10:42.730 God is real in the world. God is active. God 00:10:42.730 --> 00:10:45.009 hates these things that I'm talking about today. 00:10:45.429 --> 00:10:48.090 And he does not fail to act in the face of evil. 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:50.879 So let's take a look for a moment at a short 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:53.840 passage of scripture that speaks about a time 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:56.919 through the prophet Isaiah, which God would intervene. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:59.720 He would act to deal with those evils. And let's 00:10:59.720 --> 00:11:02.120 see how that goes. So grab your Bibles, if you 00:11:02.120 --> 00:11:03.799 would. Give me a little amen, maybe, as we go 00:11:03.799 --> 00:11:07.039 to Isaiah chapter 19. Thank you very much. That 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:08.500 was kind of weak compared to New Heights, which 00:11:08.500 --> 00:11:12.740 are now. They hoot. One guy says Yahtzee when 00:11:12.740 --> 00:11:14.580 I say the Bible verse. I don't know. He's kind 00:11:14.580 --> 00:11:17.899 of goofy, but I love him. Okay. So Isaiah 19, 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:19.679 we're just going to read verses 1 to 4. We're 00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:23.399 going to really focus in on verse 3. It goes 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:28.120 something like this. Isaiah wrote a lot of oracles 00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:30.840 to different countries. And you know Israel's 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:33.240 history with Egypt probably a little bit, how 00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:35.419 all the false gods of Egypt have already been 00:11:35.419 --> 00:11:37.860 deposed, including Pharaoh himself. God did that 00:11:37.860 --> 00:11:39.820 in a miraculous way. Versus destroyed the country 00:11:39.820 --> 00:11:43.419 to extricate his people from Egypt. The oracle 00:11:43.419 --> 00:11:46.710 concerning Egypt, Isaiah says. Behold, the Lord 00:11:46.710 --> 00:11:49.289 is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come 00:11:49.289 --> 00:11:52.789 to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at 00:11:52.789 --> 00:11:55.950 his presence and the heart of the Egyptians will 00:11:55.950 --> 00:11:59.090 melt within them. God was going to come and you 00:11:59.090 --> 00:12:01.149 can believe that when people are involved in 00:12:01.149 --> 00:12:03.370 evil, that means God's wrath. God's wrath does 00:12:03.370 --> 00:12:05.389 not mean God's anger. It means God's opposition. 00:12:05.649 --> 00:12:08.269 So God was going to come in his opposition and 00:12:08.269 --> 00:12:11.769 deal with the false gods of Egypt, show their 00:12:11.769 --> 00:12:15.539 worthlessness. Verse 2 says, so I will incite 00:12:15.539 --> 00:12:19.700 Egyptians against Egyptians. And they will each 00:12:19.700 --> 00:12:22.379 fight against his brother and each against his 00:12:22.379 --> 00:12:24.679 neighbor. City against city and kingdom against 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:27.419 kingdom. Do we not kind of see this today? Like 00:12:27.419 --> 00:12:28.940 people against people. Everybody thinks everyone 00:12:28.940 --> 00:12:31.059 else is the reason there's a problem. Everybody 00:12:31.059 --> 00:12:33.519 thinks that somebody else is the problem. And 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:37.580 there is a lot of... striving, fighting, pushing, 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:40.139 especially in large urban environments to try 00:12:40.139 --> 00:12:41.559 to find. And I'm not saying everybody's involved 00:12:41.559 --> 00:12:43.340 in criminal behavior, but everybody's trying 00:12:43.340 --> 00:12:45.440 to find their way, work their strategy to get 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:46.980 ahead. And a lot of times it's to get up over 00:12:46.980 --> 00:12:49.340 on top of somebody else in order to do well. 00:12:50.279 --> 00:12:51.940 And God said, that's what's going to happen. 00:12:51.980 --> 00:12:54.720 God would incite the Egyptians against Egyptians. 00:12:55.600 --> 00:12:58.320 Verse three then says, then the spirit of the 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:01.879 Egyptians will be demoralized within them. Their 00:13:01.879 --> 00:13:04.820 spirit be crushed, broken up like the internal 00:13:04.820 --> 00:13:07.720 strength of the Egyptians just giving out. He 00:13:07.720 --> 00:13:10.500 says, and I will confound their strategy. That 00:13:10.500 --> 00:13:12.419 means nothing that they would try to do to solve 00:13:12.419 --> 00:13:13.519 the problem is going to work. It's going to bring 00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:15.000 them to the point of going like, what is going 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:17.039 to do this? What's going to work? There is nothing. 00:13:17.100 --> 00:13:18.840 There seems to be nothing that can actually solve 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:23.059 these problems. So that they will resort to idols 00:13:23.059 --> 00:13:26.899 and ghosts of the dead and to mediums and spiritists. 00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:29.419 Now, gosh, I mean, did that catch you like it 00:13:29.419 --> 00:13:32.059 catches me? Like, is that what you expect? God's 00:13:32.059 --> 00:13:34.500 wrath comes in and they realize that the idols 00:13:34.500 --> 00:13:36.659 are worthless. All the false gods of Egypt are 00:13:36.659 --> 00:13:38.379 worthless. All the priests and magicians, they 00:13:38.379 --> 00:13:41.179 can't do anything, right? They really have no 00:13:41.179 --> 00:13:44.299 solutions whatsoever. And instead of them going, 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:46.179 oh, you know, we need to turn to God. We need 00:13:46.179 --> 00:13:47.899 to repent and turn to God. Instead of that happening, 00:13:48.139 --> 00:13:52.019 they resort to what? To the idols and the ghosts 00:13:52.019 --> 00:13:54.279 of the dead and mediums and spiritists. And the 00:13:54.279 --> 00:13:56.399 King James is neat there. It calls it wizards. 00:13:57.049 --> 00:14:00.110 Right. And the idea is people who seem to have 00:14:00.110 --> 00:14:02.730 an otherworldly connection. So there are people 00:14:02.730 --> 00:14:05.870 that live in urban environments that are authority 00:14:05.870 --> 00:14:07.450 in their community. And a lot of times they're 00:14:07.450 --> 00:14:10.429 drug dealers or gang people or there or whatever. 00:14:10.590 --> 00:14:13.470 They they seem to have it together in some way. 00:14:13.570 --> 00:14:16.950 And people are turning to them rather than turning 00:14:16.950 --> 00:14:18.970 to God at that moment when everything that they've 00:14:18.970 --> 00:14:21.649 been trying to do is confounded. Just like the 00:14:21.649 --> 00:14:23.529 Egyptians are being shown that Isaiah said that 00:14:23.529 --> 00:14:26.090 they would do. They'll turn to anybody, to anything. 00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:29.899 Verse four says, moreover, I will deliver the 00:14:29.899 --> 00:14:33.379 Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master. Now, 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:35.399 you and I know who that cruel master is, right? 00:14:35.559 --> 00:14:38.820 For the people who don't know the Lord. And a 00:14:38.820 --> 00:14:41.100 mighty king will rule over them, declares the 00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:45.340 Lord God of hosts. So just a real quick summary. 00:14:45.559 --> 00:14:48.299 God's presence and accordingly his wrath will 00:14:48.299 --> 00:14:51.139 be visited on the Egyptians who already have 00:14:51.139 --> 00:14:53.379 a proven past that their idolatry is worthless, 00:14:53.500 --> 00:14:57.639 right? The Egyptians would fall apart in that 00:14:57.639 --> 00:15:00.419 moment. The Egyptians would then turn to their 00:15:00.419 --> 00:15:03.860 false gods and idols all the more, and they would 00:15:03.860 --> 00:15:06.019 turn to people who seemed to have otherworldly 00:15:06.019 --> 00:15:09.480 attachments. The idols have nothing, are nothing, 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:11.620 and yet they have become the center of modern 00:15:11.620 --> 00:15:15.360 Egyptian society again. And now they're going 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:19.039 to get even more prominence as God tries to redirect, 00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:22.980 God does enact his justice, and the people instead 00:15:22.980 --> 00:15:26.679 turn again to the idols. Because their false 00:15:26.679 --> 00:15:29.340 gods could do nothing, God would then turn them 00:15:29.340 --> 00:15:31.639 against each other. They begin to think it's 00:15:31.639 --> 00:15:34.000 everyone else's fault. And God will make their 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:36.399 plans, ideas, and strategies come to nothing. 00:15:37.059 --> 00:15:39.259 Ultimately, God will give them over to a cruel 00:15:39.259 --> 00:15:41.379 ruler. This kind of makes God seem kind of harsh, 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:45.580 right? The key verse of the life station then 00:15:45.580 --> 00:15:48.840 is Romans 12 .21, which says, Be not overcome 00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:51.740 by evil, but overcome evil with good. The context 00:15:51.740 --> 00:15:53.519 of that verse is talking about your enemies. 00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:56.360 So it's basically saying when your enemies are 00:15:56.360 --> 00:15:59.399 coming against you, do good to them, right? Like 00:15:59.399 --> 00:16:01.120 we might want to do bad, but we actually should 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:03.559 do good because you can't overcome evil with 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:05.700 evil. And when you do bad to people, that's evil, 00:16:05.799 --> 00:16:07.879 right? So you can't overcome evil with evil. 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:09.519 You have to overcome it with good. So Paul is 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:11.179 calling them out in the book of Romans. He's 00:16:11.179 --> 00:16:14.340 writing to Rome saying, do good. Do good to them. 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:16.460 And he even goes so far as to keep coals on their 00:16:16.460 --> 00:16:17.899 heads because they're going to realize how stupid 00:16:17.899 --> 00:16:19.240 they're being because you're doing good to them 00:16:19.240 --> 00:16:20.659 when they're trying to do evil to you, right? 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:25.559 So that's the kind of God that we serve. The 00:16:25.559 --> 00:16:28.379 life station verse then leads us to a strategy 00:16:28.379 --> 00:16:33.500 where we desire to war on behalf of God to do 00:16:33.500 --> 00:16:36.600 good in the areas of hunger, poverty, loneliness, 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:41.600 and hopelessness. God says these in his word. 00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:45.620 These are paraphrases a little bit. You might 00:16:45.620 --> 00:16:47.000 want to look up the verses if you want to get 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:48.279 the exact wording, but I'm just going to kind 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:50.720 of go through them real quick. Isaiah 55, 6 -7, 00:16:50.740 --> 00:16:52.940 it says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. 00:16:53.019 --> 00:16:55.480 Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked 00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:58.120 forsake their ways. Let them turn to the Lord, 00:16:58.179 --> 00:17:00.600 and he will have mercy on them. Acts 3, 19 says, 00:17:00.740 --> 00:17:03.159 Repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins 00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:06.700 may be blotted out. Joel 2, 13, Rend your heart 00:17:06.700 --> 00:17:09.380 and not your garments. Return to the Lord your 00:17:09.380 --> 00:17:11.900 God, for he is gracious and compassionate. 2 00:17:11.900 --> 00:17:14.839 Chronicles 7 .14 says, If my people, which are 00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:17.059 called by my name, shall humble themselves and 00:17:17.059 --> 00:17:18.880 pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:21.279 ways, then will I hear from heaven. And he goes 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:24.200 on, of course. James 4 .8, Draw near to God, 00:17:24.380 --> 00:17:27.900 and he will draw near to you. Malachi 3 .7, Return 00:17:27.900 --> 00:17:29.799 to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord 00:17:29.799 --> 00:17:33.380 of hosts. The process... as described, goes exactly 00:17:33.380 --> 00:17:36.259 this way for many people who are in the world 00:17:36.259 --> 00:17:38.839 and even believers who are not putting God first. 00:17:39.299 --> 00:17:42.900 God sees the idolatry, shows up to confound, 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:45.619 to demonstrate their weakness and their worthlessness. 00:17:46.059 --> 00:17:50.119 They run all the more to worthless idols and 00:17:50.119 --> 00:17:52.480 turn to those who claim to have some power or 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:58.880 connection. I thought, why? What's our role here? 00:17:59.559 --> 00:18:02.859 And then I realized people need an option. People 00:18:02.859 --> 00:18:06.519 need a herald to know that they can turn back. 00:18:07.019 --> 00:18:11.700 Where's Ivan? Right? That they can turn back. 00:18:14.119 --> 00:18:17.660 You see, it happens this way. In that moment, 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:19.460 there's kind of like three major ways. The first 00:18:19.460 --> 00:18:21.599 one is that they are ignorant. See, I was 25 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:23.220 years old. I'm going to tell you, I was ignorant 00:18:23.220 --> 00:18:24.940 of the gospel. I believed that there was a God 00:18:24.940 --> 00:18:26.359 generally. I didn't know anything about Jesus. 00:18:26.539 --> 00:18:28.680 I'd never heard the truth. I was given a Bible 00:18:28.680 --> 00:18:31.599 when I was young, but my mom, who was not a Christian, 00:18:31.740 --> 00:18:33.119 thought everybody in the church was looking at 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:34.559 us when we came in, and so she wouldn't let us 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:36.640 go anymore. And so occasionally I would poke 00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:38.039 at the pages of the Bible. I didn't really know 00:18:38.039 --> 00:18:39.799 anything about Jesus. I didn't know anything. 00:18:40.220 --> 00:18:42.460 And I got to the point where I owned a house 00:18:42.460 --> 00:18:44.039 where really the bank owned it, and I could barely 00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:46.799 afford the mortgage. I had two cars, both with 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:49.460 loans. I could barely afford that. And I started 00:18:49.460 --> 00:18:52.690 thinking, What I'm doing kind of isn't working. 00:18:52.970 --> 00:18:55.710 I still feel empty. I don't feel alive. I don't 00:18:55.710 --> 00:18:58.269 know what. I was confounded. And one day I was 00:18:58.269 --> 00:19:00.349 riding back from BG after buying a ride in Longmore, 00:19:00.410 --> 00:19:02.109 which was like the last thing on earth. I had 00:19:02.109 --> 00:19:04.289 a motorcycle, two cars, a house, a kid, a wife, 00:19:04.470 --> 00:19:07.710 beautiful wife, a child on the way, a job, a 00:19:07.710 --> 00:19:10.230 career. I had literally all the trappings of 00:19:10.230 --> 00:19:12.549 life, but none of them were of any value internally 00:19:12.549 --> 00:19:16.430 to me. I just felt empty. And I thought, I got 00:19:16.430 --> 00:19:18.930 to know. Well, there was one, exactly one person. 00:19:20.159 --> 00:19:22.160 grandmother who had ever said anything about 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:24.000 god or jesus in my life she was the only one 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:26.720 and i and i probably fortunately did not know 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:30.019 a drug dealer i didn't have the opportunity to 00:19:30.019 --> 00:19:33.119 join a gang right i there was no way i could 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:36.299 steal large sums of money at work and get ahead 00:19:36.299 --> 00:19:38.519 right so i didn't have those opportunities but 00:19:38.519 --> 00:19:41.339 i had a person who told me something about god 00:19:41.339 --> 00:19:43.440 so i started going to church and then i was ignorant 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:45.779 and eventually after six months i became less 00:19:45.779 --> 00:19:48.740 ignorant And then God called me, and I ignorantly, 00:19:48.740 --> 00:19:50.940 foolishly said no two weeks in a row after I 00:19:50.940 --> 00:19:52.319 was sure. And then the third week, I thought, 00:19:52.380 --> 00:19:54.440 well, God might not call again. And I finally 00:19:54.440 --> 00:19:56.400 gave in and surrendered my life. It happens that 00:19:56.400 --> 00:19:58.579 when people are confounded and in that moment, 00:19:58.680 --> 00:20:00.960 sometimes they're just ignorant. They just don't 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:04.730 know. Some people actually are programmed. Programmed 00:20:04.730 --> 00:20:07.210 by culture, parents, school, media, social media, 00:20:07.349 --> 00:20:09.809 popular culture, icons, everywhere you look. 00:20:09.910 --> 00:20:11.990 There is programming to tell you that you don't 00:20:11.990 --> 00:20:14.569 need God. God is not real. God did not create 00:20:14.569 --> 00:20:17.009 everything. That the story of evolution makes 00:20:17.009 --> 00:20:19.769 more sense, etc., etc., etc. All of which is 00:20:19.769 --> 00:20:23.559 lies. I get that. But I was programmed. By my 00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:25.519 parents, who never went to church when we were 00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:27.759 kids, never read the Bible, never prayed. My 00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:29.259 dad was a backslidden Christian. We never did 00:20:29.259 --> 00:20:30.980 any of that. I was programmed to think that God 00:20:30.980 --> 00:20:33.420 was just some fairy tale that other people believed 00:20:33.420 --> 00:20:36.160 in. And there are people who are in that place. 00:20:37.460 --> 00:20:39.400 And then thirdly, there are people who arrive 00:20:39.400 --> 00:20:41.779 in that place where they see what they have been 00:20:41.779 --> 00:20:44.420 trying is not working. And it happens that no 00:20:44.420 --> 00:20:47.200 one is there to offer them a chance to turn to 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:50.299 God. And they then turn to whatever seems to 00:20:50.299 --> 00:20:52.180 be working for somebody else, whatever seems 00:20:52.180 --> 00:20:55.700 to hold promise. So this is our role. We show 00:20:55.700 --> 00:20:59.619 up at that particular juncture, at that moment 00:20:59.619 --> 00:21:01.440 where they are thinking they need to do something 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:04.339 differently, and we offer them a biblical solution, 00:21:04.619 --> 00:21:09.460 which is nothing less than turning to God. This 00:21:09.460 --> 00:21:13.680 is our role. Now, what does it look like, actually? 00:21:13.859 --> 00:21:15.160 Well, first of all, you realize that people in 00:21:15.160 --> 00:21:16.480 that situation, they're confounded, they're hungry. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:19.480 Right. So it's got to look like food. If people 00:21:19.480 --> 00:21:22.220 come to you and they're literally starving. Guy 00:21:22.220 --> 00:21:24.759 told me we've only had a bag of rice in the house 00:21:24.759 --> 00:21:26.019 for the last four days. We don't know what we're 00:21:26.019 --> 00:21:28.180 going to eat. We had refugees from another country 00:21:28.180 --> 00:21:30.660 living in Toledo. And the woman's breast milk 00:21:30.660 --> 00:21:32.279 dried up because she and her husband had not 00:21:32.279 --> 00:21:34.059 eaten in three days. They gave all the food they 00:21:34.059 --> 00:21:36.119 had to their nine year old son. So her breast 00:21:36.119 --> 00:21:37.680 milk dried up. So their seven month old baby 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:40.359 would not stop crying. City of Toledo, just north 00:21:40.359 --> 00:21:43.779 of Maumee. So we delivered food within 45 minutes. 00:21:44.959 --> 00:21:47.000 And they barely spoke English. We got them connected 00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:50.259 with somebody locally that that spoke both languages 00:21:50.259 --> 00:21:52.400 so that he could begin to find employment and 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:55.799 get back on his feet. If you don't offer food. 00:21:57.200 --> 00:22:01.940 Why not? Right. And so we offer food. When I 00:22:01.940 --> 00:22:03.900 started working, the first month I worked there 00:22:03.900 --> 00:22:06.559 15 years ago, we did six, six houses of emergency 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:08.940 food. The next month it went to 60 because the 00:22:08.940 --> 00:22:10.839 rumors that we were going to be closed died down. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:17.480 Now it's. 1 ,700 families a month, 50 % of which 00:22:17.480 --> 00:22:20.460 is delivery. If you look on the page that I handed 00:22:20.460 --> 00:22:23.759 out, there's a thing that looks all blue. So 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:26.559 that's the city of Toledo. The Maumee River runs 00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:29.539 through it from the lower middle to the upper 00:22:29.539 --> 00:22:31.880 right. And every one of those pins represents 00:22:31.880 --> 00:22:34.059 a household that the life station has provided 00:22:34.059 --> 00:22:37.180 emergency food for. We have now reached a place 00:22:37.180 --> 00:22:39.579 where we have provided emergency food. Wait for 00:22:39.579 --> 00:22:44.259 it. on every city block in the city of Toledo. 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:46.579 Either they came to us to get it or we delivered 00:22:46.579 --> 00:22:48.740 it to them. So we deliver because when people 00:22:48.740 --> 00:22:50.740 are isolated, they are disabled, they're mentally 00:22:50.740 --> 00:22:54.359 health problems, keep them from going to pantries 00:22:54.359 --> 00:22:56.660 or whatever, they still need the food. So our 00:22:56.660 --> 00:22:58.460 driver goes there and while he's there, he can 00:22:58.460 --> 00:23:00.819 share the gospel and he gives the material and 00:23:00.819 --> 00:23:02.160 they get signed up for our encouragement calls 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:03.240 and everything like that. I don't want to get 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:06.200 ahead of myself. I'm trying to summarize. So 00:23:06.200 --> 00:23:10.099 food and clothing. And then we talked about malnutrition. 00:23:10.099 --> 00:23:12.059 We started food and nutrition training, three 00:23:12.059 --> 00:23:14.740 lessons where they can learn what foods are actually 00:23:14.740 --> 00:23:17.019 good to eat and how to put together a meal and 00:23:17.019 --> 00:23:19.700 how to cook a basic dish with very basic supplies 00:23:19.700 --> 00:23:22.660 that you can literally do stir fry on a couple 00:23:22.660 --> 00:23:25.059 bucks for a family of four. And you don't have 00:23:25.059 --> 00:23:28.119 to eat Doritos, even though the rice costs 200 00:23:28.119 --> 00:23:30.400 times or 200 percent as much as it does anywhere 00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:33.759 else. Those classes are available for people 00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:36.500 to do from their homes for free. We pray with 00:23:36.500 --> 00:23:38.140 people on their porches at the life station. 00:23:38.680 --> 00:23:41.359 We share the gospel, ask people, are they professional 00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:43.779 Christians? Do they have a church home? Every 00:23:43.779 --> 00:23:45.660 client who ever signs up at the life station 00:23:45.660 --> 00:23:48.140 is asked, do they know Christ and do they have 00:23:48.140 --> 00:23:50.500 a church home? And if they don't and they're 00:23:50.500 --> 00:23:53.069 willing, we share. And we help them find a home. 00:23:53.130 --> 00:23:54.750 On our church hunting page, we point them to 00:23:54.750 --> 00:23:56.309 Southern Baptist churches and other churches 00:23:56.309 --> 00:23:58.569 of like faith. We describe what a good church 00:23:58.569 --> 00:24:01.109 is. We provide Right Now Media, which has over 00:24:01.109 --> 00:24:03.769 10 ,000 Bible studies taught by pastors all over 00:24:03.769 --> 00:24:06.029 the country. So they can literally watch hours 00:24:06.029 --> 00:24:08.190 and hours and hours of Bible taught in their 00:24:08.190 --> 00:24:11.710 homes. We have the I Can Pray group, which any 00:24:11.710 --> 00:24:14.109 of you can sign up, where you actually get the 00:24:14.109 --> 00:24:17.269 names of your neighbors so you can pray for them 00:24:17.269 --> 00:24:19.950 specifically. The people near you get their names 00:24:19.950 --> 00:24:23.299 based on... Recent census material. So they recently 00:24:23.299 --> 00:24:26.519 moved. It's not the right name. We've got now 00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:29.539 112 households who have agreed to pray for their 00:24:29.539 --> 00:24:31.839 neighbors across the city. We anticipate that 00:24:31.839 --> 00:24:33.779 it will take probably 4 ,000 households to get 00:24:33.779 --> 00:24:37.579 every name in the city prayed for. Got a long 00:24:37.579 --> 00:24:40.960 way to go. We've got the call center where they 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:43.460 can call every day for prayer, to order their 00:24:43.460 --> 00:24:45.039 emergency food because someone just can't use 00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:48.460 a computer. Then we started a publishing arm 00:24:48.460 --> 00:24:50.779 where we published books. that go out over the 00:24:50.779 --> 00:24:53.200 entire world. And the gospel is presented in 00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:55.079 this book four times. A person can get saved 00:24:55.079 --> 00:24:57.460 four different ways, basically, in this story, 00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:00.400 which is what happens to be about the first of 00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:02.180 the last 12 Christians who will get saved before 00:25:02.180 --> 00:25:07.400 Christ comes again. We started a website called 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:09.660 ameldan .com, which sells fun and light products 00:25:09.660 --> 00:25:12.539 like Lammy here. And when people buy this, all 00:25:12.539 --> 00:25:15.079 the profit goes to the life station. We don't 00:25:15.079 --> 00:25:17.079 make a lot of money doing that. In fact, Google 00:25:17.079 --> 00:25:20.490 blacklisted us because, wait for it, Our website 00:25:20.490 --> 00:25:23.890 is too Christian. So you can Google, you can 00:25:23.890 --> 00:25:25.910 find it, but it will never be advertised on Google 00:25:25.910 --> 00:25:29.430 because our website is too faith -based. We started 00:25:29.430 --> 00:25:31.430 a cell phone app in which all of the products 00:25:31.430 --> 00:25:34.690 and all of the services of the Life Station are 00:25:34.690 --> 00:25:37.670 laid out in there. And we ask people, wherever 00:25:37.670 --> 00:25:39.349 they are, when they get food from us, to think 00:25:39.349 --> 00:25:41.809 about how they can overcome evil with good where 00:25:41.809 --> 00:25:45.849 they live. I told you about the... The encouragement 00:25:45.849 --> 00:25:47.650 call, just briefly, the encouragement call goes 00:25:47.650 --> 00:25:51.049 out now to 1 ,900 households, 1 ,900 different 00:25:51.049 --> 00:25:53.230 phones. They receive a call two to three times 00:25:53.230 --> 00:25:56.130 a week. All it is is 90 seconds on Bible. It's 00:25:56.130 --> 00:25:58.430 one or two verses, 90 seconds about one or two 00:25:58.430 --> 00:26:00.109 verses, and it goes out as an automated call. 00:26:00.410 --> 00:26:04.410 Since that began now, 362 ,000, you see the big 00:26:04.410 --> 00:26:09.369 red number, 362 ,108 times somebody has received 00:26:09.369 --> 00:26:11.250 a message from the encouragement call just talking 00:26:11.250 --> 00:26:13.869 about a verse or two of the Bible. It's crazy. 00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:16.180 But that's not even as crazy as God wanted to 00:26:16.180 --> 00:26:17.880 make it. It baffles me that that's even possible. 00:26:18.220 --> 00:26:20.799 But if you look at the bottom down here, you 00:26:20.799 --> 00:26:24.500 see this little ring? So as I stand here today, 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:26.779 I pulled this up a day before yesterday, so it 00:26:26.779 --> 00:26:28.980 probably has grown a little bit. That encouragement 00:26:28.980 --> 00:26:33.619 call has been listened to in 106 cities across 00:26:33.619 --> 00:26:36.819 the globe. So that podcast, we take that encouragement 00:26:36.819 --> 00:26:38.960 call, then we repeat it on the podcast, and then 00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:41.599 people can listen to it. It's called Life for 00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:46.059 Toledo. You can get it on. Google, Siri, Alexa, 00:26:46.299 --> 00:26:49.140 on your phone, wherever, it's all free. And then 00:26:49.140 --> 00:26:52.319 now it plays ads on there that are just, we've 00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:54.900 blackmailed or blacked out all the bad kinds 00:26:54.900 --> 00:26:56.539 of ads. You shouldn't hear any ad that's not 00:26:56.539 --> 00:26:58.799 godly, right? But it plays ads and we get pennies 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:00.059 when people listen to it. I would encourage you, 00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:01.480 if you need encouragement or you know somebody 00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:03.000 does, share that with them. When they listen, 00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:04.400 we'll get two or three cents. I'll actually get 00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:05.740 two or three cents every time somebody listens 00:27:05.740 --> 00:27:08.630 to a 90 -second encouragement message. But not 00:27:08.630 --> 00:27:15.509 only has it been in 106 cities to represent 50 00:27:15.509 --> 00:27:18.970 countries. That's world missions arising out 00:27:18.970 --> 00:27:21.349 of God's desire to reach people when they are 00:27:21.349 --> 00:27:24.450 confounded, when they are stuck, when their hearts 00:27:24.450 --> 00:27:25.690 are melting within them and they're trying to 00:27:25.690 --> 00:27:27.049 figure out what to do to make sure that somebody 00:27:27.049 --> 00:27:29.029 is available to tell them about Jesus and to 00:27:29.029 --> 00:27:33.309 say to turn. But listen, that message, this message, 00:27:33.369 --> 00:27:36.210 everything I'm talking about is too bold. Because 00:27:36.210 --> 00:27:39.339 just as the... just the same as these people 00:27:39.339 --> 00:27:41.640 who are in that situation need to hear and respond. 00:27:41.799 --> 00:27:45.619 There is another situation that people sometimes 00:27:45.619 --> 00:27:48.819 find themselves in that they also need to hear. 00:27:51.880 --> 00:27:55.799 Generosity, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and 00:27:55.799 --> 00:27:58.920 when necessary, self -control, right? The Bible 00:27:58.920 --> 00:28:02.039 says about generosity, Proverbs 19, 17, whoever 00:28:02.039 --> 00:28:04.680 is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and he 00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:06.980 will reward them for what they have done. And 00:28:06.980 --> 00:28:09.839 1 John 3, 17 questions how God's love can abide 00:28:09.839 --> 00:28:12.079 in someone who has worldly goods but closes their 00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:14.940 heart to a brother in need. In Matthew 19, 21, 00:28:15.180 --> 00:28:17.099 Jesus tells the rich young ruler to sell his 00:28:17.099 --> 00:28:19.279 possessions and give to the poor. That's not 00:28:19.279 --> 00:28:20.420 a principle, by the way. You don't have to go 00:28:20.420 --> 00:28:21.859 sell everything you own and give it to the poor. 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:24.660 But what is a principle is if your money, if 00:28:24.660 --> 00:28:27.160 your generosity is lacking and your money is 00:28:27.160 --> 00:28:28.519 standing in the way of you doing what God wants 00:28:28.519 --> 00:28:29.779 you to do, then you do need to get rid of it 00:28:29.779 --> 00:28:32.819 so you can get right with God. And so Jesus was 00:28:32.819 --> 00:28:35.460 saying, let's get ourselves right with God through 00:28:35.460 --> 00:28:38.079 him. And then that man could not do that. He 00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:42.200 couldn't give up his money. Leviticus 19, 9 -10 00:28:42.200 --> 00:28:45.460 and 23 -22 instructs farmers not to harvest the 00:28:45.460 --> 00:28:47.480 corners of their field, but leaving a portion 00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:51.339 of what they sow for the poor and the sojourner. 00:28:51.759 --> 00:28:54.779 Proverbs 31, 8 -9 commands leaders and the fortunate 00:28:54.779 --> 00:28:57.119 to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves 00:28:57.119 --> 00:29:01.049 and to defend the rights of the destitute. Proverbs 00:29:01.049 --> 00:29:03.710 28 .27 warns of neglect when it says that those 00:29:03.710 --> 00:29:06.970 who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those 00:29:06.970 --> 00:29:09.569 who close their eyes to them receive many curses. 00:29:09.950 --> 00:29:12.529 Generosity is not a check with a big number and 00:29:12.529 --> 00:29:17.789 a dollar sign. It's a state of being. Poor men 00:29:17.789 --> 00:29:21.210 who have little often give as much as they can 00:29:21.210 --> 00:29:23.910 and never miss it, while wealthy men often count 00:29:23.910 --> 00:29:25.769 the dollars and cents and fail to give what they 00:29:25.769 --> 00:29:28.990 could. It's happened many times that we've ministered 00:29:28.990 --> 00:29:31.589 to people on their way down. What do I mean by 00:29:31.589 --> 00:29:33.950 that? I mean, I'm talking about people who had 00:29:33.950 --> 00:29:37.990 a nice house, cars, family, and they fell for 00:29:37.990 --> 00:29:40.890 a scam or they were beset by a huge medical bill. 00:29:41.109 --> 00:29:44.049 They were robbed or got addicted to painkillers 00:29:44.049 --> 00:29:46.589 after a surgery, which can happen to anybody. 00:29:48.390 --> 00:29:51.490 Now they've lost all that prosperity that they 00:29:51.490 --> 00:29:55.220 had. See, God has to get his glory, and in order 00:29:55.220 --> 00:29:57.859 for God to keep being God, people will endure 00:29:57.859 --> 00:30:00.039 hardship on this earth. We are called to consider 00:30:00.039 --> 00:30:01.660 it great joy when we face tribulation because 00:30:01.660 --> 00:30:08.299 of the fruits that it presents in us. This is 00:30:08.299 --> 00:30:10.160 especially true of people that think they have 00:30:10.160 --> 00:30:12.380 it all together, people that think that they're 00:30:12.380 --> 00:30:15.400 doing well, those who think it's okay to let 00:30:15.400 --> 00:30:17.440 someone else handle the day -to -day kingdom 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:21.740 work and kingdom cost. which you've heard about 00:30:21.740 --> 00:30:26.119 today, I could not have orchestrated. In my wildest 00:30:26.119 --> 00:30:27.819 dreams, I couldn't have done it. I couldn't even 00:30:27.819 --> 00:30:30.960 have stood in front of you. I missed 38 days 00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:32.940 in my junior year of high school to avoid every 00:30:32.940 --> 00:30:34.700 time I was supposed to stand in front of the 00:30:34.700 --> 00:30:37.160 class and give a report. My mother didn't mind 00:30:37.160 --> 00:30:38.980 if I lied about not going to school, and so I 00:30:38.980 --> 00:30:40.519 was sick or hurting. We had to go out of town. 00:30:40.599 --> 00:30:42.839 Everything you can imagine to miss every report 00:30:42.839 --> 00:30:44.539 in front of class. And they still got me for 00:30:44.539 --> 00:30:47.160 one, but I was so badly trembling that the teacher 00:30:47.160 --> 00:30:51.529 let me sit in my desk. to give the report. When 00:30:51.529 --> 00:30:53.230 God said, you're going to preach the gospel, 00:30:53.450 --> 00:30:56.250 I said, no way. A man in my church said, I want 00:30:56.250 --> 00:30:57.950 you to preach at the Toledo Gospel Rescue Mission 00:30:57.950 --> 00:30:59.630 coming up. I believe God's calling you to do 00:30:59.630 --> 00:31:01.049 that. I said, oh, no. He said, you won't even 00:31:01.049 --> 00:31:03.130 pray about it. I said, no, I will not. I will 00:31:03.130 --> 00:31:05.730 not. I was a young Christian, a year, year and 00:31:05.730 --> 00:31:07.329 a half. I said, I will not. There's no way. I 00:31:07.329 --> 00:31:08.589 know who I am. I know who God made me to be. 00:31:08.630 --> 00:31:09.869 That's definitely not me. I'm not going to do 00:31:09.869 --> 00:31:13.630 it. 48 hours, I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat. 00:31:13.769 --> 00:31:15.750 I felt sick. I didn't have a fever, but I felt 00:31:15.750 --> 00:31:18.000 so terrible. And at the end of 48 hours, I asked 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:19.700 the Lord, I said, is this about that pray thing? 00:31:20.519 --> 00:31:22.559 About that preaching thing? And he said, why, 00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:24.740 yes, it is. And I said, do you want me to call 00:31:24.740 --> 00:31:27.099 him right now? And he said, why, yes, I do. And 00:31:27.099 --> 00:31:30.180 I said, and you want me to tell him that I'll 00:31:30.180 --> 00:31:35.240 preach? And he said, yes, you will. So I made 00:31:35.240 --> 00:31:36.640 the phone call, told him I would preach. I had 00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:38.569 no idea what that would look like. When the day 00:31:38.569 --> 00:31:40.430 came, I stood up in front of the Toledo Gospel 00:31:40.430 --> 00:31:42.369 Rescue Mission with my sermon written out exactly 00:31:42.369 --> 00:31:45.210 as I would say every single word on 23 note cards 00:31:45.210 --> 00:31:47.089 front and back. And I stood there and I read 00:31:47.089 --> 00:31:49.190 them until about the 11th note card. And there 00:31:49.190 --> 00:31:51.049 was a guy sitting in the aisle about where you're 00:31:51.049 --> 00:31:52.829 sitting and he was falling asleep. And if they 00:31:52.829 --> 00:31:56.849 fell asleep, they weren't allowed to eat. And 00:31:56.849 --> 00:31:58.509 they had warned me of that. I tried raising my 00:31:58.509 --> 00:32:00.630 voice and he didn't respond. And so I took the 00:32:00.630 --> 00:32:02.609 last 12 note cards front and back and I went 00:32:02.609 --> 00:32:04.529 down and I stood on the aisle in front of him. 00:32:04.970 --> 00:32:06.630 about three feet in front of him, and I read 00:32:06.630 --> 00:32:08.890 the note cards directly to him so he could stay 00:32:08.890 --> 00:32:13.230 awake so he could eat. Now, I've been preaching 00:32:13.230 --> 00:32:20.730 for a few years now, almost 20. So that's an 00:32:20.730 --> 00:32:24.329 old story. But the bottom line is, what I brought 00:32:24.329 --> 00:32:28.049 to this whole program, it wouldn't fill a bucket 00:32:28.049 --> 00:32:30.450 of dirt. And if it did, it would be God's dirt, 00:32:30.509 --> 00:32:35.410 not mine. If we will take all that we are and 00:32:35.410 --> 00:32:37.630 put it into God's hands, he will make of it something 00:32:37.630 --> 00:32:40.809 amazing, like a podcast that plays preaching 00:32:40.809 --> 00:32:43.829 the gospel. The New Heights podcast, just a little 00:32:43.829 --> 00:32:45.230 side note, by the way, the New Heights podcast 00:32:45.230 --> 00:32:47.490 is very similar. It also plays in many countries. 00:32:47.549 --> 00:32:51.829 In fact, the number one country, Vietnam. More 00:32:51.829 --> 00:32:54.029 people listen to my service in Vietnam than come 00:32:54.029 --> 00:32:58.710 to my church in a week. I don't get it, except 00:32:58.710 --> 00:33:02.660 I do get it. Somebody has to be standing at the 00:33:02.660 --> 00:33:04.880 moment in time at which people are confounded, 00:33:04.900 --> 00:33:06.579 their hearts are melting in them, and they're 00:33:06.579 --> 00:33:08.180 reaching out for money. Somebody who's not a 00:33:08.180 --> 00:33:10.559 demon worshiper, somebody who's not a drug dealer 00:33:10.559 --> 00:33:14.180 or a gang member will jump them in. Somebody 00:33:14.180 --> 00:33:16.519 will not belittle them and tell them how worthless 00:33:16.519 --> 00:33:18.960 they are, but somebody who will offer them an 00:33:18.960 --> 00:33:24.880 opportunity to turn to God. God chooses to use 00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:27.599 us as ministers of reconciliation. Reconciliation 00:33:27.599 --> 00:33:29.960 chooses to use us at the moment in time when 00:33:29.960 --> 00:33:34.700 men lost in evil would turn to evil for supposed 00:33:34.700 --> 00:33:38.859 solution. God would like to use us to present 00:33:38.859 --> 00:33:42.980 an alternative. If you're here and you've never 00:33:42.980 --> 00:33:45.000 turned to the Lord yourself, even if people thought 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:46.839 you did or whatever, you've never taken, when 00:33:46.839 --> 00:33:51.680 I got saved, my wife asked me, the second day 00:33:51.680 --> 00:33:53.559 that I refused God after he called me, she said, 00:33:53.660 --> 00:33:55.700 I said to her, I think I'm going to accept Jesus 00:33:55.700 --> 00:33:57.670 Christ. And she said, well, what does that mean? 00:33:57.750 --> 00:33:59.210 I said, to tell you the truth, I really don't 00:33:59.210 --> 00:34:01.309 know. I said, but I do know just exactly one 00:34:01.309 --> 00:34:04.849 thing. It'll change everything. I said, it's 00:34:04.849 --> 00:34:05.849 going to change everything. It'll change who 00:34:05.849 --> 00:34:07.809 I am as a man, and if after that you don't want 00:34:07.809 --> 00:34:10.269 me, I'm terribly sorry, but I'm going to have 00:34:10.269 --> 00:34:11.650 to do it. I'm going to have to live for Jesus. 00:34:13.030 --> 00:34:16.309 And in her lost person way, not knowing Jesus 00:34:16.309 --> 00:34:18.510 herself, but believing God was some person in 00:34:18.510 --> 00:34:20.769 the sky, she said, well, you do what you got 00:34:20.769 --> 00:34:24.030 to do, and I'll do what I got to do. And I'm 00:34:24.030 --> 00:34:26.380 like... Well, okay, that's what I was going to 00:34:26.380 --> 00:34:29.460 do. So we'll see what happens. Praise the Lord. 00:34:29.519 --> 00:34:31.460 Two weeks later, she gave her life to the Lord 00:34:31.460 --> 00:34:33.940 under the same principle, which was that whatever 00:34:33.940 --> 00:34:35.900 God wants to make out of this mess that we are, 00:34:36.059 --> 00:34:39.119 that's what it's going to be. Now my wife, praise 00:34:39.119 --> 00:34:42.639 the Lord, we give to the ministry and serve in 00:34:42.639 --> 00:34:45.519 the ministry and donate in all kinds of crazy 00:34:45.519 --> 00:34:48.320 ways that we never expected. But she has a job 00:34:48.320 --> 00:34:50.260 which a person cannot have without a master's 00:34:50.260 --> 00:34:54.309 degree. This is unheard of. And she's never had 00:34:54.309 --> 00:34:57.929 a day of college in her life. So that's how we 00:34:57.929 --> 00:35:02.429 survive. I'm not a good fundraiser. So if you're 00:35:02.429 --> 00:35:04.849 here today and you feel like the Lord is asking 00:35:04.849 --> 00:35:08.190 you, you know, like, hey, give to the life station 00:35:08.190 --> 00:35:10.710 or give to some cause that you know of that's 00:35:10.710 --> 00:35:12.909 here in your church or give in your community 00:35:12.909 --> 00:35:15.469 or step out and work and serve and sweat a little 00:35:15.469 --> 00:35:17.530 more and things like that, then definitely do 00:35:17.530 --> 00:35:24.119 that, right? Overcome evil with good. I just 00:35:24.119 --> 00:35:26.400 keep thinking God's going to provide. And so 00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:29.960 far, he always has. I drove here today in a van 00:35:29.960 --> 00:35:33.619 that's got 283 ,000 miles on it. And it runs 00:35:33.619 --> 00:35:37.539 great. That van was given to me 12 years ago 00:35:37.539 --> 00:35:39.820 by a church in Mississippi because my wife needed 00:35:39.820 --> 00:35:41.739 a car to get to work. And we didn't have one. 00:35:42.329 --> 00:35:44.849 And it's still running, 283 ,000 miles. Since 00:35:44.849 --> 00:35:47.989 then, we bought a new, to us, it's a used car, 00:35:48.110 --> 00:35:50.869 which she's driving, and now it's reaching 250 00:35:50.869 --> 00:35:54.150 ,000 miles, and it still runs great. God just, 00:35:54.269 --> 00:35:56.929 I believe he's going to take care of it. But 00:35:56.929 --> 00:36:00.289 it is our great blessing to realize that he might 00:36:00.289 --> 00:36:03.989 choose to make us the person that stands at that 00:36:03.989 --> 00:36:07.159 junction. You could later today, you could be 00:36:07.159 --> 00:36:09.039 talking to a waitress. I've had it happen. I 00:36:09.039 --> 00:36:10.619 went to Tony Paco's, this is my closing story. 00:36:10.739 --> 00:36:12.380 I went to Tony Paco's with a couple of guys who 00:36:12.380 --> 00:36:14.900 wanted to bring a youth group to Toyota. Met 00:36:14.900 --> 00:36:18.760 a waitress there. Her name was Kendra. She's 00:36:18.760 --> 00:36:22.820 one of four. In 25 years, she's one of four Kendras 00:36:22.820 --> 00:36:23.860 that I can tell you about. I'll just tell you 00:36:23.860 --> 00:36:27.400 hers. And she come up to the table and I basically 00:36:27.400 --> 00:36:28.699 started talking to her, shared with her about 00:36:28.699 --> 00:36:31.400 fear. I'm not a good evangelist either. I just, 00:36:31.420 --> 00:36:33.579 like, people, if they start giving me the idea 00:36:33.579 --> 00:36:34.719 they want to talk about Jesus, I just kind of, 00:36:34.719 --> 00:36:36.719 like, spew all over them. It's not neat. It's 00:36:36.719 --> 00:36:38.599 not professional. It's nothing like that. And 00:36:38.599 --> 00:36:40.840 I just started sharing the gospel. And she started 00:36:40.840 --> 00:36:43.880 crying at the table. And she was bartending and 00:36:43.880 --> 00:36:46.719 also waiting on our table. Like, the one section, 00:36:46.860 --> 00:36:50.099 they do that. And she had to go and come back 00:36:50.099 --> 00:36:52.099 and go and come back. And finally, she stood 00:36:52.099 --> 00:36:53.980 at the table at one o 'clock in the afternoon. 00:36:54.219 --> 00:36:57.019 These two teenage kids who came with their youth 00:36:57.019 --> 00:36:58.139 pastor to find out where they're going to bring 00:36:58.139 --> 00:37:00.059 the mission team up. And both of them, and I 00:37:00.059 --> 00:37:01.440 didn't know this, but both of the kids were only 00:37:01.440 --> 00:37:04.639 Christians for like two months. And she stood 00:37:04.639 --> 00:37:06.639 at the table bawling like a baby and gave her 00:37:06.639 --> 00:37:08.340 life to Christ. And everybody in the restaurant 00:37:08.340 --> 00:37:10.039 looking at her like she's some kind of freak. 00:37:10.199 --> 00:37:11.480 I don't know, maybe they were looking at me. 00:37:13.300 --> 00:37:17.250 Anyway, the point is, you could be the one. Who 00:37:17.250 --> 00:37:19.210 shows up at the moment when they're confounded 00:37:19.210 --> 00:37:21.730 and you just need to, whatever you can do, however 00:37:21.730 --> 00:37:23.989 you can get it out. Jesus is everything to me. 00:37:24.150 --> 00:37:27.050 Just turn to God. Like, how do I turn to God? 00:37:27.090 --> 00:37:29.090 Through Jesus. What does that look like? I don't 00:37:29.090 --> 00:37:32.070 know, but it'll change everything. You just did 00:37:32.070 --> 00:37:35.010 everything you need to do. If you run into somebody 00:37:35.010 --> 00:37:37.469 who's stuck in a Catholic religion, for example, 00:37:37.469 --> 00:37:40.079 or in another faith where the gospel is... kind 00:37:40.079 --> 00:37:41.980 of muddied by a lot of things, then just say, 00:37:42.039 --> 00:37:43.900 you need to be born again. You need to have a 00:37:43.900 --> 00:37:45.440 fresh start. Did you ever have a fresh start? 00:37:45.579 --> 00:37:47.059 Oh, I've been a Christian my whole life. Listen, 00:37:47.139 --> 00:37:48.219 if you've been a Christian your whole life, you 00:37:48.219 --> 00:37:51.219 ain't saved. Because the Bible says, Jesus said 00:37:51.219 --> 00:37:53.980 to Nicodemus, you will be saved when you're born 00:37:53.980 --> 00:37:57.860 again. When you have a fresh start. So if you're 00:37:57.860 --> 00:37:59.179 here today and you never had a fresh start, get 00:37:59.179 --> 00:38:00.820 one here today right now while you're here. And 00:38:00.820 --> 00:38:01.900 if you're here today and you did have a fresh 00:38:01.900 --> 00:38:03.599 start, I want you to think about how you too 00:38:03.599 --> 00:38:05.500 can be involved in overcoming evil with good. 00:38:06.529 --> 00:38:08.369 And if that doesn't involve the Southside Life 00:38:08.369 --> 00:38:12.210 Station, that's okay. But if it does, we need 00:38:12.210 --> 00:38:16.210 all the help we can get. We're moving tens of 00:38:16.210 --> 00:38:18.269 thousands of pounds of groceries. That was never 00:38:18.269 --> 00:38:21.670 in my plan. I hurt my back a couple years ago. 00:38:21.750 --> 00:38:23.550 Now, whenever I lift a can, it doesn't matter 00:38:23.550 --> 00:38:25.469 if it's four ounces, I wear a back brace. Like, 00:38:25.469 --> 00:38:26.889 I'll pick up one can, I'll put it in my back 00:38:26.889 --> 00:38:30.429 brace first, right? Because I learned. And there 00:38:30.429 --> 00:38:32.969 is work to be done. And there are people being 00:38:32.969 --> 00:38:35.309 reached, and some of them are in Afghanistan. 00:38:36.219 --> 00:38:40.900 Which is crazy. You have the details. You can 00:38:40.900 --> 00:38:43.239 look at the paper. Thank you very much for having 00:38:43.239 --> 00:38:48.920 me today. Let us work together to overcome evil. 00:38:49.659 --> 00:38:52.659 Let us work together to overcome evil with good. 00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:53.619 Thank you.