Unto Us a Child Is Born — Isaiah 9

0:00 I tell you, that's it's a great time of the year. I really I really enjoy this time. It's probably the best time to tell somebody about the lord Jesus Christ. I mean, hands down. The best time And probably the only other time that was better than this was especially in New York City was 10/11/2001.

0:24 And when we were at Ground 0, Barb and I and JC and a friend, Gordon Franz, were in Ground 0 when they were still bringing out one beam at a time and you could still smell it and it was still 1,800 degrees at Ground 0. And it was just... And people were lining up to get gospel material. I mean, they were lining up, you know. It was just amazing.

0:52 And that was the best time. But Christmas every year, it's a great time. And praise God for that. I remember we we were doing some evangelism on the subway in New York City, a whole bunch of us and we were having ties on and and our jackets and that kind of thing and we would get on a subway train about six six or seven evangelists, six, we'd get on a subway train and we're you know how New York City subway is or maybe you don't. It's just amazing.

1:28 So we started singing, Hark the Herald Angels Sing glory to all of us, six of us, six or seven of us. And, you know, they're still looking, drinking their coffee, looking at the newspaper, and all this kind of stuff but then they started looking up and we would sing and then as we were toning it down, some of us started passing out literature and to our surprise, people were taking it. And they were looking up and going, and we'd say, we need to put the Christ back into Christmas. That's right, sir. You're right.

2:02 Can I have one? Can I have one? And, like, we're shocked. New York City, this was happening on a subway. So, it's the best time.

2:11 Best time of the year. Really is and a little girl one time, a little girl came home from Sunday school triumphing. You know, she was really like victorious waving a paper. Mommy, she said, my teacher said I drew the most unusual Christmas picture she had ever seen. The mother studied the picture for a moment and concluded that indeed was a peculiar Christmas picture.

2:40 She said, this wonderful draw... This was wonderfully drawn, but why have you made all these people riding in the back of an airplane? The mother gently asked. It's the flight into Egypt, the little girl said with a hint of disappointment. That picture, you know, she didn't get it.

3:02 The mom didn't get it, obviously. Oh, the mother cautiously said, well, who is this mean looking man in the front? That's Pontius the pilot, the girl said. Now visibly impatient. I see.

3:21 I see. Here you have Mary and Joseph and the baby, the mother volunteered, studying the picture silently for a moment, then summoned the courage to ask, but who is this fat man sitting behind Mary? The little girl sighed. Can't you tell? That's round John Virgin.

3:52 So says John MacArthur. When I look at this and I say to myself, it is cute. It's really cute. Kids think very literally, and obviously, she did. Flight into Egypt, and I think, you know, some people, you know, at least she had some semblance of what Christmas is all about.

4:14 We went to my friend and I, John Gorman and I went to the Great Lakes Mall yesterday. I'm doing it online next year. That's for sure. It was just unbelievable. Unbelievable parking, unbelievable.

4:37 You're moving around. I felt like I was in a basketball game or something. And I I think to myself, what is what is this all about? So, I I don't care what the stores would say. I go around if if I know that the store is saying, you know, it's a holiday season, it's winter season or whatever there, you know, you can't say merry Christmas, I do it.

4:58 Arrest me. You know, this I'm going to say it. Merry Christmas and we need to put the Christ back into Christmas just like we did in New York City subways and people people respond to that. They really have responded to that and it's it was really good. Really enjoyed that.

5:15 People go, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, man. You're right. That's right. Yeah.

5:25 Who is this person? And I like us to look at a passage of scripture that is very familiar. And if you have... Are you a... If you're a devotee of TV and you have watched Peanuts Merry Christmas, you've heard this verse from Pigpen.

5:45 Okay? And if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, we'll talk about it later. But but this is a verse and I'd like us to look at Isaiah chapter nine. Isaiah chapter nine and this is a this is a great passage. You know, I look at, you know, when we preach in the open air and we talk to people about Christ frequently in terms of defense of the faith, prophecy comes into play.

6:15 You know, you talk to people. I remember at Kent State University one time, I was preaching not in the open air but I was between two buildings. They had a a causeway between two buildings, a general like living room area and they were mocking me out which is not hard to do and they were mocking and all this kind of stuff until I got to the issue of prophecy and then they stopped laughing because prophecy is just amazing. I like us. We're going to look at Isaiah nine six but look at Isaiah chapter 48.

6:50 Chapter 48 just for a brief moment. I love this passage because chapter 48, it says, I have declared the former things from the beginning and they went forth out of my mouth and I showed them and I did them suddenly and they came to pass. Verse five, 48 verse five, I have even from the beginning declared it to you. Before it came to pass, I showed it to thee, lest thou should say, mine idol hath done them and my carved image and my melted image hath commanded them. And so what god is saying in Isaiah, seven hundred and fifty years prior to the birth of Christ.

7:31 Seven hundred and fifty years. See, States is how old? We go at 1776 and The United States is not how old? Two thirty something. 30 what?

7:48 38. 38? Am I right? Anybody want to nod? You're just as bad as me.

7:56 Okay. So, two hundred and thirty eight years. Okay, so double that. And so you're in the 500, over the 500 range. Mid five hundreds, maybe a little...

8:07 Almost six hundred. And then add another hundred and eighty years. Seven hundred and fifty years. We gotta get perspective on this. We gotta get perspective on this.

8:20 That's a long time. Seven hundred and fifty years is a long time. And that's when Isaiah prophesied what we're gonna look at, among other prophecies in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 52, Isaiah seven fourteen, Isaiah nine six and seven, Isaiah... I mean, you know, you just go on.

8:39 Isaiah 48. You just go on. And what God is saying through the prophet... Just just through the prophet Isaiah, you think you're gonna... I'm gonna do something that's gonna happen.

8:49 It's gonna happen. You will not be able to deny it. You will not be able also to say that your carved image who has no breath, can't... Has eyes but can't see, has a mouth but can't speak, has ears but cannot hear. You're not gonna be able to say that image did it.

9:08 You're gonna have to say, I did it. That's what you're gonna have to say. I love this. I love this. Praise god because it's absolutely factual and accurate and true.

9:21 And so this is what he's going to do, and this is what he... Over 300 just talking about the Lord Jesus alone, three... Over 300 prophecies. Just talking about the Lord Jesus alone, over 300 prophecies is staggering. Now we've talked about this here before, but just for...

9:42 By way of remembrance, if you do if you do 48 of the 300 plus, the statistics of those, the probabilities, let me put it that way, the probabilities of that being fulfilled in one person, just 48, is 10, one times 10 to the one hundred and fifty seventh power. That means this, that's one times 10 with 157 zeros. The probability of just 48 being fulfilled in one person. And I have a friend of mine who has a PhD from University of California Berkeley in applied mathematics. And he told me one time...

10:27 Oh, applied sciences. We were talking about this at at a camp, Camp Pine Bush by... Pine Bush Bible Camp, and we were just doing five. And he he he was a counselor. This guy's got a PhD, right, from Berkeley.

10:42 They have more more PhD programs than anybody else on the planet at Berkeley, even more than Harvard, Yale, and all that. This guy, you know, very smart man and works for three m, and he comes up to me after after one of the sessions, and his hair was all stuck out. And he had just gotten up. He he he stayed up all night in his cabin with a flashlight with all his kids asleep, and he's figuring it out long hand long hand on on notebook paper going page after page, and he looks at me with his wild eyes and, you know, sleep deprived eyes and he goes, Chris, we talked about 20 of those or... I mean, we talked about five of these and then you said 48.

11:27 He said, you know, for 333 prophecies, the number represented for that, he said there's not a number. There's not enough molecules in the universe to represent that number. Of that being... Of those 300 plus prophecies being fulfilled in one person. I took his word for it.

11:52 I really did. And I thought to myself, wow. Not enough molecules and so god did this and this is the thing and I I love this. I love this. We preached it at different places.

12:05 We preached it. NYU at Columbia, UCLA, UC Berkeley. I I double dog dare those guys to come up and disprove this. Just disprove it. Oh, you might not wanna believe it but try to disprove it.

12:24 Can't do it. Not legitimately. You don't want it? Okay. That's a near another story.

13:03 And peace, there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with justice, with righteousness. From henceforth, even forever, the zeal of the lord of host will perform this. I love it. I love this. You know, we can we can say it's the most wonderful time of the year.

13:36 That's every day. That is every day. It is just incredible what god has done for us and we don't have to make Christmas time the only time we really celebrate this. I hope in your heart you say, amen. So, maybe at Westlake in July, when that baby is born, we can sing Christmas carols.

14:00 You know, we can we can sing. Well, I I never listen to Christmas carols until after Thanksgiving. I never do. It's just a rule in my house. It just...

14:11 I just don't understand why people do that. Come on. You can sing Hark the Herald Angels Sing. You can do it. Actually, they don't sing.

14:20 They just say. Anyway, but you look at that and you say, man, I can do this. I can sing this. Don't sing like, you know, sleigh bells ringing. You know, don't sing those songs.

14:31 You know, but just sing the the hymns and you can do that. Because every day, every day is fantastic. I remember when I first came into the assemblies, it was Willow Bible Chapel in Willoughby, Ohio near Ridge Acres. And I remember, I... And I've not been introduced.

14:53 I was... I got saved at 18 and my wife and I were already married and we got introduced to the assemblies. And I remember sitting way in the back and we had this speaker. And he was... I was familiar with this speaker because his name was Dick Florence.

15:09 And Dick had this baritone voice. I don't know if any of you remember Dick, but Dick, he was in the assemblies down in Akron area. And Dick had this big voice, but I remember first time I ever met Dick, I remember listening to him on WCRF. He was a station radio manager for the WCRF one zero three point three FM. Okay?

15:31 So he he has a horn horn. So he's in the... He's preaching. He's a skinny guy with his bow tie. He's a skinny guy with his bow tie with his mustache, and I'm going, man, that does not match the voice.

15:45 You know how you think of somebody? You know? I'm going, oh, wow. You know? And he said something that was, you know, I didn't know the protocols of of the assembly life or anything like that.

15:58 And he said, and isn't it a shame? He preached on Christmas time. He goes, and it isn't a shame we don't let the baby Jesus grow up. I'm sitting in the back. I went, nobody else laughing.

16:15 And everybody went, looked at me like, but I thought the point was well taken. In the sense is we don't let the baby Jesus grow up. We don't let him grow up and become a man after thirty three years and die on a cross for us. That's the meaning of Christmas. And notice what it says, unto us a child is born.

16:40 And so we look at this. We see three aspects of Messiah which means Christ. In the Greek, it's Christ. If we were to say, Messiah in the Greek, we'd say Christ. If we were to say, anointed one.

16:53 In Hebrew, we would say, Messiah. So, Messiah and Christ are the synonyms are the same, you know, one's Hebrew, one's Greek. It means anointed. Both mean anointed one And when we look at this, we look at these aspects of Messiah in which we can trust, take comfort. Boy, what a great god we have.

17:17 Amen? And we look at the person of Messiah because I... Isaiah shows us aspect of this person. And then also we see the purpose of Messiah and then the power of Messiah. The power.

17:33 Wouldn't it be nice? I mean, really. Wouldn't it be nice if somebody came up to you and said, listen. I just wanna let you know something. I've got a 100,000 check.

17:43 It's a cashier's check, and it's in your name. I'm gonna give it to you. How would you feel about that? 100,000. Just a 100,000.

17:55 Oh, let's up it. How about a million dollar cashier job? Okay. Okay. A 100,000 is a little light.

18:01 Sorry. Okay. So we go with a a million dollar cashier check. Somebody come up to you and go, hey. Here's cashier's check for you.

18:09 This is this is like legal tender. I'd hire bodyguards immediately. You know, you got this you got this, right? You you feel pretty good about that. Right?

18:22 No wonder Paul said, thanks be unto god for his unspeakable gift. We couldn't even speak about this and in terms of the depth of what god has provided for us. Unto us, a child is born. Oh, Simeon wanted to see this child. Lord, don't let me die until I see this child.

19:11 Advent. You have you have, you know, born of a virgin And, you know, the the Hebrew is clear as well as the Greek translation of the Hebrew using the word Parthenos, which means an unmarried woman, a married... A woman that never had a child. She's going to bear a child. Seven hundred and fifty years before he ever came on the scene.

19:35 Unto us, a child is born. I just wanna let you know something. Think of it this way. If it never happened, if he never sent it, if he never came, think about that. What would it be like?

20:06 You know, we have It's a Wonderful Life. We watch that. Sometimes it's played. I remember flipping one channel, it was on. Flipping another channel was on almost the same time.

20:16 You know, you just... You don't even miss a beat. Don't even miss a line. George, Mary, or Mary, or whatever. You know?

20:26 You go back and what... What's the the main theme of that? Beautiful. It's a great movie. What's the theme of that?

20:32 And that's hope. Right? And what would it be like if if George Bailey wasn't around? Let me show you. What would it be like if Jesus never came?

20:47 What would it be like if god didn't think about this and before the foundation of the world? Peter tells us, what would it be like for you? Christian, what do you say about that, bro? Be disaster, wouldn't it? Be disaster for me.

21:06 I would have taken my own life. No questions about it. I would have taken my own life. No wonder people take their lives. No wonder people wind up in such despair and such darkness because they have no hope.

21:21 The tragedy about this is that he did come to bring that home and they have not heard it. A light has shined in darkness. That's exactly what Paul describes it. Light has shined out of darkness, have come into our hearts. Let the light and the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, Right?

21:50 The glory of god in the face of Jesus Christ. Unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. There's nothing like having a kid. I'm telling you, Barb and I, when we had JC, I was 37, Barb was 36.

22:15 I just went crazy. It's been crazy ever since. I just can't believe it. I can't believe that we have a son. Now he's married to Kelly and they have a son.

22:28 And I got pictures. And to hear that and to hold that kid as a grandfather is just stunning. I mean, I just can't I can't tell you to see that type of thing. Unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son.

22:50 I can't believe that our god gave his son to die. I cannot fathom that. Scott, you said that today at the breaking of bread. I don't wanna even think about a child dying. I don't even wanna think about that.

23:10 I don't I don't wanna even imagine. I got a great imagination. I don't even wanna go close to this in terms of imagining. And that sounds just like Matthew. He sound...

23:22 Nate, he sounds just like my grandson. And I love that sound. And don't ever take him out. I'm used to heckling. I'm used to interjecting.

23:34 Don't ever take him out. Seriously, I don't care. And the thing about it is this, when we hear that, when we hear the cry of a babe, when we hear this, it reminds me of what god has sent his son not to live a great life. He did but to die. To die.

23:57 Unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. Islam can't even come close. And we've talked about this before, the... That quote, one of the greatest quotes I've ever read.

24:15 That Christianity has its its center of its of its, you know, of it is the the humiliation of its god. And that god would send his son to be humiliated, to suffer the way he suffered. Unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. The light is going to break in.

24:39 The light is going to no more darkness. It's gonna be in the person of Jesus Christ. It's gonna be in this person seven fifty years prior. You're not gonna be able to say anybody did this except me. And this is how great a god he is.

25:26 The second advent, the second coming of Christ, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. He came once, he's coming again. He came once, he's coming again. As sure as he came once, he's coming again. That's what Paul writes to the Thessalonians.

25:46 As sure as he did, we believe that Jesus Christ came and died. He's coming again. He's coming again and the government when he comes after the after the after the period of time called the tribulation, he's gonna sit on the throne of David. The government shall be upon his shoulders and we see this in verse seven and the increase of government and peace shall be to no no end in the throne. Upon the throne of David, he will sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem and rule the world for a thousand years.

26:22 No open rebellion against him. None. He is going to rule literally on that throne. Wow. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of god the father.

26:43 No open rebellion against him. None. Oh, there'll be rebellion in the hearts. We'll see this at the end of the tribulation. With a big battle.

26:55 At the end of the thousand years, Revelation 19 but we look at this and we say, wow, how how this this great god and he was highly exalted, highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. That Jesus is lord to the glory of god the father. He will rule the world with a rod of iron. He will sit on David's throne.

27:26 Unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. By the way, he is the eternal son of god. He wasn't made the son. He is the eternal son of god.

27:42 Always has been, always will be. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews tells us, the writer to the Hebrews. And we look at this and we say this this this same god who thought about us and has loved us with an everlasting love took action in sending his son. When everything was perfectly lined up in terms of the way god wanted it to be with the intellectual capacities and with the, you know, with with Rome taking...

28:18 Having control over over the known world at that time, all these kinds of things. And when the fullness of time was come, god sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, to buy us out of the slave market of sin. Wow. Don't you wish this stuff could be true? Don't you just wish this could be true?

28:50 This is all pie in the sky. Right? This is all the good and well, but I mean, we can live in the real world. No. No.

28:59 No. Let's get this one straight. This is the real world. The real world according to a lot of people is just disgusting. It is disgusting.

29:13 Even to those who don't know the savior, it's disgusting. It chews you up and spits you out, lose fortunes, disease, death, no hope, insecurity, all these different types of things that that's what the world will give you. God has given us an incredible gift. I've trusted Christ as my savior at the age of 18. I wasn't five.

29:41 I wish I was. I wish I had trusted Christ at the age of five. I didn't. 18. And I still carry with me in my heart and my mind some scars from that.

29:56 I wish it was... I wish my family was a Christian family right off the bat. I wish my mom and dad had trusted Christ and then went to an assembly like this. I wish we had Awana. I wish we had all that kind of stuff that I could grow up and have that, gone to a Christian school, didn't have to have fights, Didn't...

30:18 I went to a non Christian junior high, fought all the time. Went to high school, you know, fought different battles. Just, you know, you just think to yourself, what a what a waste. What an incredible waste. And then I trusted Christ as a freshman at Lakeland Community College.

30:38 I praise god. I really praise god. And you ought to praise god that you trust... If you trusted Christ when you were young, you ought to really be praising god. And not wondering if you should backslide just to juice up your testimony.

30:58 Because it is that is really horrible. It's all because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Unto us, a child is born unto us. His son is given. The government shall be upon his shoulder.

31:39 It's modifying. And and I believe that Kyle and Dilich agree with that, that this is talking about what kind of counselor is he. He's a wonderful counselor. Some people will translate this in the Hebrew mystery. And we say, well, wonderful means mystery.

31:57 We're really... I I agree with EJ Young and his commentary regarding the issue that he is the wonderful counselor. There is no one that will give us wisdom like this person. There is no one like him. In fact, Paul writes this in Colossians, excuse me, in Corinthians, he says about the lord Jesus Christ himself.

32:22 Look at look at first Corinthians chapter one if you would please. First Corinthians chapter one because we look at this and it really agrees with that in the sense that we talk about this. Verse 28 chapter one and the base things of the world, the things which are despised, hath god chosen, yea, the things which are not to bring to nothing, the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him you are in Christ Jesus, who if god has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according as it is written, he that glorieth and glory in the lord. He is our wisdom. He is our righteousness.

33:11 He is our sanctification. So, if you think to yourself and he is our redemption, if you think to yourself that you're really a great Christian, you've gotta give glory to god for that. You can't take it because I've read my Bible to 85 times this year or because I did this or because I did that. It's the glory of god. It's to him because he is everything to us.

33:39 Christ is all and in all. Paul writes to the Colossians. And this is the person that was given. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. And he would be called wonderful counselor, Wonderful counselor.

34:06 Wow. He brings stability to our lives, and he's god in the flesh. He's wonderful counselor, the mighty god. The mighty god. You know, I've heard people say, I hate god.

34:28 Are you kidding me? God loves you. You have no idea what you just said. You have no idea. This god who could wipe you out with a thought.

34:41 And that's exactly what he's gonna do. He's called the word of god in the Book of Revelation. When he comes and defeats the armies and the Armageddon, he's gonna do it by speaking. A sword will be in his mouth but he's gonna do it by speaking, wiping him out, by speaking, and we're going to say to him, I hate him. You don't know him.

35:05 I don't want to discuss it with you. I don't want you to be real. We watched at in class at the Ezekiel Project School of Evangelism classically called Pepsi and Apologetics. We just finished our first semester and we do... We did...

35:21 We watched a movie called Expelled. Do ever see it? Expelled with Ben Stein. Not even a believer. You know?

35:29 And these guys that are just these atheists, you know, getting on there and talking about how things began and how things are gonna get continue and all this kind of stuff. It's a joke. It's an absolute joke. You ought to get it and watch it. And it's it's just a it's a joke with these guys, these big famous atheists.

35:48 There's no god, you know? Then how do we all get here? Ben Stein asked him. Well, it's aliens. That's how this big guy, not Hitchens, what was the other guy's name?

35:58 Can't remember his name. Who? Richard Dawkins. Yeah, Richard Dawkins. Aliens!

36:06 And Ben Stein, excuse me? Exqueeze me? Are you kidding? You actually hold to that? Yep.

36:16 Duh. I'm brilliant. But there's no God. He could just wipe us out with just like that. The mighty god.

36:28 He's not the big man upstairs. Trust me. For us, even us believers, when we go and see him face to face, I I... Just mark this one down. And when we go get to see him, I hope you know Jesus as your savior because when we get to see him, just say, Chris was right.

36:49 We ain't gonna high five him. We're not gonna be calling him, oh, you're the big man upstairs. No. No. No.

36:58 Because arguably, the scripture say, you know, he was he was... John was arguably the closest to the lord Jesus while on earth and he fell at his feet as dead. And the lord said, be not afraid. We will be down. We will be so down.

37:16 We will be worshiping him. We will be down in terms of our heart and down in terms of our posture. And we will look up and we will see his face. What a beautiful thing that will be. When my mom died in 1985, I got so jealous.

37:40 Here's your body, zeros across the board on the automatic blood pressure cuff, no pulse, no nothing. And the oncology nurse was on the other side of the bed checking manually with the blood pressure cuff automatic cuff was doing. And she's checking manually. I looked at her just like, just as far as I am from Dot. I said, she's with Jesus.

38:07 She sees his face. I think she probably is going, the guy's grieving really weird right now. He's really grieving really weird, but I got so jealous. My mom, one of my best friends is seeing his face right now because she trusted him at the age of 54. I was at 18.

38:53 He authored. He spoke eternity. He authored eternity. You say, I cannot wrap my mind around that. You're not called to wrap your mind around it.

39:03 You're called to believe it. And that's exactly what he says about himself. The prince, everlasting father, the prince of peace. He authored eternity and he, the Bible says in John five that he gives eternal life. Only god can give eternal life.

39:26 Jesus is god in the flesh and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. We look at Jesus. We see god. That's exactly what he told Philip.

39:42 You see me? You see the father. Not that he's claiming to be the father. No. He's god in the flesh.

39:50 He's the author of eternity. The father of eternity and the prince of peace. I look at that and I say, wow. The prince of peace. The prince.

40:09 I wanna ask you a question. Can I? I'm gonna anyway. Permission or no permission? I'm gonna ask.

40:18 Do you have that piece? I mean, really. Come on. No, it's just, you know, we're all here. It's Sunday before Christmas and all that but do you really have peace?

40:29 Do you have the peace of god? Do you? For those of us who say, yeah, I do. I know I'm going to heaven when I die. I've trusted Christ as my personal savior, Chris.

40:40 I've done that. That's great. That is fantastic. But do you have peace? Or is there turmoil in your heart even as a Christian?

40:54 I can understand. See, here's the here's the deal with this. We do have turmoil all the time. It's, you know, it's binds up and bounds and we just can't... I don't know how to handle it sometimes.

41:04 I don't know about you. The way god tells me to handle it as a believer is to trust him. Seems simple, doesn't it? Oh, you've got such complicated problems, But the answer is not that complicated. Turn it over to him and trust him.

41:29 Psalm 37. Roll it upon him. Commit thy way unto the lord. The Hebrew is clear. Roll it upon him.

41:39 Peter tells us to deposit it and trust him. We don't worry about a lot of stuff. He wants us not to worry, be anxious for nothing, but to trust him. Just commit it to him. Leave it with him.

42:00 And for those of us who have never trusted Christ as our personal savior at any point in our life, you definitely don't have peace. You say, how do you know why you... Why I'm gonna get you in the parking lot. Line up. I mean, that's just...

42:19 You know, I wanna get me too, so maybe we'll both beat me up. I tell you, folks, you don't have peace and you know it. Only Jesus can bring that peace. When I trusted Christ at the age of 18, you know how I felt? This is existential a little bit, but here's how I felt.

42:41 Wow. The war is over. Fantastic. My hair didn't straighten out. My pimples did not clear up.

43:19 And when we have this eternal life, having that relationship with him, you know, is really fun. You know, I don't know if... You know, I I really respect the elders here, and, I really do. I mean, they're faithful. They're tremendous.

43:39 So I'm in the restroom today. I'm in the restroom, and Don comes in. We start talking about the word of god and how powerful the word of god is. It's like no other book. It's like nothing else.

44:00 And the spirit of god taking his word and driving it to our hearts and minds and speaking to us personally and making his word so alive and so relevant to us. It's incredible. And God wants to do that for us, every one of us. As we read his word, he wants to speak to your heart, speak to your mind, teaching us not only the material that is in this precious book, this precious book, but applying it to our lives in every moment. And when I read this, he's telling me to trust him.

44:47 You just trust me? Trust in the lord with all thine heart. Lean not onto your own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. I wanna know where to go, lord. What do I do?

45:00 Trust in the lord. I will guide you. I will minister. I have loved you with an everlasting love. Don, that's for you.

45:10 That's for you, and that's for me. What a great God. Amen? Father, I just thank you so much for thinking of us, caring for us, bringing that hope when darkness was so pervasive, so awful, like a feeling, living thing around us. And then Jesus broke through that darkness an incredible light, and he's broke...

46:16 And we thank you that you have in Jesus name. Amen.