Thank you, brother Cy, for the music, and thank you for that song. It was a blessing to me as you sang it. Reminds me that not only did Cy sing in a choir, but we're all going to sing in a choir one day, aren't we? When we gather around the throne and sing his praises throughout all eternity, won't that be exciting? I play the violin, and I don't get to play it very often, but I hope he's going to let me play it when I get there to help the choir do its singing. I couldn't help resist the temptation to wonder why all you dear people that come here at Park of the Palms leave and go north this time of the year. I came down here forty one years ago, and I've never gone back north. Bill McNeil will tell you we came from Philadelphia forty one years ago, and I've given strict orders to my family. Should the Lord tarry and I be buried in the ground, please make sure it's nothing north of the Georgia line. I want to stay right here. This is paradise on earth. But we wish you a safe journey and hope you all come back again, and I'm sure you will. And for those of you that like the warm climates, in the summertime, starting on June fifteenth, we start with our CIT program at camp, that's counselors in training, and we go through to the seventh of August, and that's where we'll be, ninety five degrees or not. We're going to be at Camp Horizon most of the summer with our motor home and work with the young people there at camp and help out with the maintenance, and we love the work of the Lord there. Turn with me, if you will, to John, the Gospel of John, chapter five. I've been recently doing a study on the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ, and John, in his writing of the Gospel of John, only picked out eight different miracles. And so as I studied them, I wondered if there's something that practically I can apply to my life through the Lord Jesus' miracles, and also something that perhaps you could use as well. And if there's someone here that doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, I hope you will see the revelation of these miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ, the need of a Savior and who Jesus is. John, in writing these miracles and selecting these eight miracles, many miracles Jesus did, but John just chose eight of them for a particular reason. And I just read you a verse from John chapter twenty before we read our text. It says, and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus Christ is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name. That's why John wrote about these miracles of the Lord Jesus. And he indicates to me that there was many things that Jesus did that could not ever have been written, because it says on the very last verse of the gospel, and there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Isn't that an amazing statement? While I was in my working career, I used to have to go to the Library of Congress on many occasions for special books on standards that I was working with, and it would amaze you how many millions of books there is in the Library of Congress, and that's just one library. And John says that all the things that Jesus did, if they were all written down, the world couldn't contain, the libraries of the world couldn't contain the books that could be written about the life and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, keeping in mind he was only actively involved for three years in his ministry. It's amazing thing. We have a great leader in the Lord Jesus Christ. So turn with me to John chapter five. We're going to read some of this about the healing of the lame man. Someone asked me this morning about why did I have a motor home. I said, well, I've been studying about the lame man. He picked up his bed and walked, so I thought that's appropriate. So I put my bed on wheels, and I bring it with me. I can't carry it, but I bring it with me. It says, after this, there was a feast of the Jews. Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew, tang Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For no angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he said to him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man. When the water is troubled, they'll put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked. And on the same day was the Sabbath day. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said to me, Take up thy bed and walk. Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk? And he that was healed wist not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. Afterward, Jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. We'll refer to some more of that chapter a little later on, but it's interesting to see that this miracle that the Lord Jesus did just followed closely after the one that he where he healed the noble man's son. If you remember the, the Cana of Galilee, the wedding, he was invited to that wedding. The noble man came to Jesus and said, you know, unless you come, my son will surely die. But this is a case where the sovereignty of God is revealed. This man didn't petition the Lord. The Lord out of, out of a merciful heart saw this man's condition, and he came and singled this man out. It was unsolicited entirely. There's, remember those that sat by the road said, Jesus, thou son of David, had mercy on us, the blind people. This was an unsolicited act of grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I suggest to you, beloved, that's how we're saved, is it not? By grace. It's through an act of mercy, unsolicited by us most of the time, because it said no man seeketh after God at any time, and I'm sure we were no different in, in our original state. And so the Lord of his compassionate heart says to the man, wilt thou be made whole? That's an interesting question. Here's a man laying on a bed thirty eight years, couldn't get to that pool, and the Lord asked him, what is your will in the matter? What do you want? What is your will? I just thought that's a critical point in God's dealing with us, is it not? We have to be in his will. The question he asked is to see if the man's will conforms to the Lord's will, and if it does, then something can take place. And beloved, we that know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we're in that same position. We have to be in the will of the Lord for any miracles in our life to take place, as this miracle took place in this dear soul's life. You know, God has a perfect will. He has a sovereign will which cannot be changed. He has a perfect will, and in his perfect will, he's, he doesn't want anyone to perish. That's his perfect will. He wants all come to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he has a permissive will, and he allows us to make our own decisions. Adam was the case. The perfect will for God for Adam was that he would replenish the earth, and he would live in that beautiful place forever. But Adam, he gave Adam a will, a permissive will, and Adam failed because he took things upon himself and disobeyed the, the laws that God had laid out for him. But, you know, I thought about this, and sometimes things happens to us when we're not in the will of the Lord. And I think of two scriptural references to kind of prove the point. God has a perfect will for our lives, each one of us. It's up to us to find out what it is by subjecting our will to the Lord's will. Thy will be done, we should say, as the Lord's prayer does. But in his permissive will for us, sometimes he puts us in a position where we have to consider our options. I'll illustrate that. Jonah. What was the perfect will of God for Jonah? Go to Nineveh and preach. Jonah's permissive will said, I'm not going. He went and he bought a ticket and he'd go in the opposite direction. What did God do? God sent that storm, we know the story. He prepared that great fish, we'll call it Shamu, to relate to a great fish. He sent Shamu along to gobble up Jonah. Now there's Jonah in the belly of that great fish, and God's saying to Jonah, Jonah, consider your options. I want you, my perfect will is for you to go to Nineveh and preach. But if you don't want to do that, Shamu just had lunch. But if you do what I say, I'll have him get sick and throw you up on the beach, and it took Jonah, if you remember the story, seven verses in the book of Jonah to say to the Lord, Nineveh is a great place to preach. I'm on my way. And you know the rest of the story. Then I think of the Apostle Paul when he was still Saul and he was on the road to Damascus. God's perfect will for him was he struck him down and blinded him temporarily at least. And he said to Paul, my perfect will for you is to write most of the books of the New Testament from a jail cell and to preach the gospel for the next thirty years and turn the world upside down. That's what I want you to do. But here's your options. If you don't want to do that, you can get yourself a white cane and a tin cup and sit on a corner for the rest of your life. What did Paul say? Who art thou, Lord, and what wilt thou have me to do? I'd love to preach. And so he did. And so we need to be in the perfect will of God. And so to this man, God, Jesus said to him, wilt thou be made whole? He didn't force it upon him, but this man's like we all are, like we all are. He's earthbound in his outlook and his understanding because he don't know who it is that he's talking to. It says so in that chapter. He doesn't really know who it is, or he would have answered differently, I'm sure, if he'd have known it was Jesus. He looks around and he says, but I have no man. You see, he was thinking like we do, earthbound in our earthbound state, we think that same thing. The Lord didn't ask him if there was anybody to help him. He said, do you have anybody to help you get in the pool? He didn't say that. He just said, wilt thou be made whole? And the man gave him that answer. And that's how we operate so often, is it not? When we get into these situations, we look around to see if there's any practical way or if there's somebody that can help us. If we can only see somebody in sight, maybe you can believe the Lord a little easier. And I think we're all bound to do that. He doesn't need any visible means whatsoever around to do what he needs to do for us, because the Bible tells us he hangeth the earth upon nothing. And if he can do that, certainly he can do anything that his will is for us to do. I'm a one that studies a lot about history and, and the stars and things about the Earth, and you know, he holds it all together. He hangs the Earth on nothing. This Earth is traveling at three thousand six hundred and sixty miles per hour. That's several times the speed of sound, and yet we don't spin off into infinity. He holds it all together. He needs nothing. The Earth's rotation would slow down just slightly. We would alternately freeze and burn. The sun has a surface temperature of twelve thousand degrees, and if we're just a slight bit closer or farther away, we would also freeze or burn. Our globe is tilted exactly at twenty three degrees, and if it wasn't at that exact angle, vapors from the ocean would move north and south and pile up massive forms of ice. We'd go through another ice age, so to speak. And if the moon didn't remain in this exact orbit, the tides would inundate the Earth twice a day. You see, he doesn't need anything to carry out his will. And if the oceans would just slip a little bit in depth, just a few feet, carbon dioxide and oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere would be completely absorbed, and no vegetation could exist, and we'd all starve to death. You see, the Lord doesn't need any help. He holds it all together, because he was the creator of all things. If the atmosphere that we live in didn't remain consistent in the Earth, it would be thinned out just a little bit. There's millions of meteors out in outer space that would then be released to bombard the earth and would devastate us all. He holds it all together. It says the stars are a work of his fingers. He holds the mountains in the balance of his hands, so he doesn't need any help. So he said that a blind, that a lame man, wilt thou be made whole. The Lord said to him, rise up, take up thy bed and walk. It's exciting what happened after this. It's amazing to me. The Jews reminded the man, when he saw this man walking down the street with his bed, that it was the Sabbath day, and it's not law for you to do this. Can you imagine what the man was thinking? I'll put it in my own words, if you'll permit me to do that. I can imagine this man, having laid there thirty eight years, picked up his bed, he was all excited about the new legs that he had under him. He's walking down the street, and these Jewish leaders, religious leaders, accosted him and say, you know, it's the Sabbath day. You're not allowed to carry a burden. I can imagine he said to him, you got to be kidding me. I laid here for thirty eight years, and you're telling me now, just because it's a Sabbath day, I can't walk down the street? Get lost. Can't you see that? I would think that's what I would say to the man. He said this in verse eleven, if he can make me walk after thirty eight years, in essence, he can tell me where to go, what to do, and what to carry. He can tell me all about my life. He's good enough for me. I think that's what the man would say, and that's what he was thinking, basically. See, the one that brings the blessing into our lives, and he should have the authority to tell us how we should live it, should he not? The Savior that keeps our lungs functioning and breathing and our hearts pumping blood and keeps us on our feet ought to have something to say about how we use that strength, should he not? Where these feet go, what these hands do, what this tongue says, what these eyes look at, and what these ears listen to. To be in his will, the one that created all things, the one that took us from that lame position and made us sons of God, ought to have that authority over our life. But there's an insight here of the wickedness of human nature. The religious leaders were so concerned about their petty rules, about carrying burdens on the Sabbath day. And I notice in this verse fourteen, the man is sought after by the Lord, and where did he find him? That, that was an exciting thing to me to see as I was studying this. He found the man in the temple. Now, if you've been laying still for thirty eight years, not able to walk, and suddenly you got your strength, I think there'd be much more exciting places to go than church, if you permit me to say that. I'm a golfer. I think if I hadn't walked for thirty years, I might, by nature, want to go out and try to walk on the golf course. I also love to walk on the beach because we live near the beach, and I'd love to walk four or five miles down the beach, which I do now quite regularly for exercise. But if I hadn't been walking for thirty year- years, that'd be something good to do. But where did the Lord find this man? In the temple. Praising God. That's exciting to see. He would s- be presuming he would do something else. He sets us an example because he went to the house of the Lord to give thanks for God's goodness to him. And what happened there, you'll see, it says that that's where Jesus met him, and Jesus revealed himself to him because it was after that when the, when the Pharisees asked him who it was, then he said it was Jesus. Remember before that? He didn't know who it was when they asked him the first time. They asked him the second time, he said it was Jesus. He came to worship Jesus because of what he did for him. What follows is kind of hard to believe in this story. They start to persecute Jesus and slay him. Now, isn't that a ridiculous outlook? They gave no credit for this miracle that they had seen. They didn't rejoice with the man who was rejoicing in his newfound ability to walk. No glad- no gladness at all about the man's good fortune, if you will. They were more worried about the little rules. It's the Sabbath day, you cannot carry your bed. But, you know, on the other hand, they couldn't see anything wrong with trying to slay Jesus. Now, to me, that doesn't make sense. It doesn't add. On the one hand, they criticized the man for carrying the bed. That's wrong, but it's not wrong to try to slay Jesus. Doesn't make sense, does it? Even in the, from a human perspective, it doesn't make sense. That's why Apostle Paul, I think, in Thessalonians said this. He wrote in Second Thessalonians chapter three, he prayed for them that God would deliver us from unreasonable men. Beloved, sometimes we can be unreasonable as we deal with people. We have to guard against that. We can't have such petty rules. We can't deal with legalism in the body of Christ, and there's some of that creeps in from time to time. We've got to guard against that. The apostle saw this, and he said, God, deliver us from unreasonable men. It's interesting to note that these same people that criticized the man for carrying his bed and tried to slay Jesus later at the trial of the Lord Jesus saw no crime in paying for false witnesses to tell lies about the Lord Jesus. But on the other hand, it was a Passover time, you remember? And it was a Gentile court. The Roman court was a Gentile court, and it was against the Judaistic rules for the Jew to go in a Gentile court on the Passover, lest they defile themselves, the scripture says. No sense of reasoning. You see the folly of man. But we get to read verse seventeen and eighteen, we can see the, what happened here. But Jesus answered them, my father worketh hitherto, and I work. Now we see their real attitude. Therefore the Jews, on verse eighteen, sought the more to kill him, though he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father, making himself equal with God. And in verse twenty three, we also see had equality with God, that all men should honor the Son even as they honor our Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. And so we see that he indicates he has all the prerogatives of deity in his person, functioning in his life. And that's how he indicates who he is. And that's what John was trying to say when he wrote these miracles, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He talks about his mir- miraculous works in verse nineteen. In verses twenty one, twenty four, and twenty five, and twenty six, he, he claims regenerating power as well. And verse twenty one says, for as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. You, we s- see here he has not only life-giving ability, but he has the power, life-giving power from Jesus Christ as well as the Father. He talks about raising the dead in verse twenty eight and twenty nine, and it says his voice. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, the voice of the Son of God, it tells us that. So the power of raising the dead is given unto the Son as well. Then he says in verse twenty he has the Father ra- for the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. The power of the judgment is given to the Son as well. You see, beloved, it's before the Lord Jesus Christ we will stand and answer in that coming day for the things done in his flesh. God has given all judgments into his hand, therefore honor him, it says in verse twenty two. He has given him authority to execute judgment, verse twenty seven, because he is the son of man, it says. It's interesting to note that, because he walked this earth, yet without sin. He was tested and tried in all points, yet without sin. When he judges, will base- be based on all the facts that he learned while in the flesh here on the earth. You see, we could have been judged by angels, but they never experienced the things that we experienced, did they, or do they? But Jesus did. He was tempted in all points, like we are, yet without sin. So God has given his son, the son of man, because he was the son of man, the right to judge, because he was tempted, yet without sin. And so it will be fair because it comes from the son of man. Then there was four reasons for their unbelief that I can find in verses forty through forty seven. In the disbelief of Moses, it says in verse forty five, do not think that I will accuse you to the Father, but there is one that accused you, even Moses, in whom you trust, he tells them. Why did he say that? For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words? You know, in today's society, I hear people trying to disclaim creation, that God was a creation. If you can't believe the first five books of the Bible, you're going to have great difficulty when you get to the words of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and that's what Jesus was saying. If you can't believe what Moses said, you can't believe me because Moses wrote about me. I can't believe about the creation and we are created in the image of God and sin entering the world and the fall of man, the promised redeemer. In the first five books of the Bible, you're going to have trouble with the four gospels as well. And these people just couldn't accept who Jesus was. Remember at the cross they said, away with him, away with him, we will not have this man to rule over us. After all his ministry, all they could associate him with is a man. They didn't recognize him as God, and that they should have known who he was. Remember John the Baptist, when he was in prison, he asked one of the messengers to go to Jesus and say, ask Jesus, is the Messiah, is he the Messiah, or shall we look for another yet to come? Remember that? And Jesus sent the messenger back with this that came from Isaiah. When the Messiah comes, this, this, the blind shall receive their sight. And it was right after the blind man was healed, and John knew that. So if you can't accept the things that are written aforetime, how can we do that? And you know, they really needed to know who Jesus was. The Pharisees were like that. They never did accept him for who he was. And you might be here today, and you might have a Bible. And I hope there's someone here that's in that state that hasn't yet accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior because you can't really accept, perhaps, the New Testament. You can't accept the things of the Old Testament, and you have a little confusion. There are people that say, uh, the Bible contradicts itself. I have a message on that subject that proves the Bible never contradicts itself. It's just a matter of people taking things out of context, and they think it sounds that way. But this Bible reveals who Jesus is from cover to cover. In every book of this Bible, we can see some form or type of the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you just own a Bible, you're responsible for the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus? Genesis, he's the seed of the woman. In Exodus, he's the Passover lamb. In Leviticus, he's the high priest. In Numbers, he's the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. In Deuteronomy, he's a prophet, just like Moses. In Joshua, he's the captain of our salvation. In Judges, he's our diligent lawgiver. In Ruth, he is a kinsman redeemer. In Samuel, he's a trusted prophet. In Kings and Chronicles, he is a reigning king. In Ezra, he is our faithful scribe. In Nehemiah, he is the rebuilder of the broken down walls of our lives. In Esther, he is our Mordecai. In Job, he is our dayspring. In Psalms, he is the Lord, our shepherd. In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, he is our wisdom. In Song of Solomon, he is the lover of our souls and the bridegroom. In Isaiah, he is our prince of peace. In Jeremiah, he is a righteous branch, and in Lamentations, he is a weeping prophet. In Ezekiel, he is that wheel turning, and in Daniel, he is that fourth man in the fiery furnace. In Hosea, he is that bridegroom who's married to the backslider. In Joel, he is a baptizer with the Holy Spirit and fire. In Amos, he is a burden bearer. In Obadiah, he is a mighty savior. In Jonah, he is a great foreign missionary. In Micah, he is the messenger with the beautiful feet carrying the gospel. In Nahum, he is the avenger of God's elect. In Habakkuk, he is that great evangelist crying out for revival. In Zephaniah, he is the restorer of God's inheritance. In Haggai, he is a cleansing fountain. In Zechariah, he is a merciful father. In Malachi, he's the son of righteousness, rising with healing on his wings. Matthew said he is the Messiah. Mark said he is a wonder worker. Luke said he is the son of man. John said he is the son of God. In Acts, they all declare that he is the ascended Lord. In Romans, Paul said he is a justifier. In Corinthians, he's the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians, he's the one that sets us free. In Ephesians, he is the Christ of riches. In Philippians, he's the God who meets our every need. In Colossians, he is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Thessalonians, he is the soon coming king. In Timothy, he is the me- mediator between God and man. In Titus, he is a faithful pastor. In Philemon, he is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. In Hebrews, he is the blood that washed my sins away. In James, he is a great physician. In Peter, he is the chief shepherd. In John, he is everlasting love. In Jude, he is the Lord coming down with ten thousand saints in his hand. And in Revelation, he's the King of kings and Lord of lords. That's who Jesus is, and it's in this book from cover to cover, and if you haven't read it, you're guilty. Before that judge, then verse twenty two says, God has given him the right to judge because he was here and he experienced everything that life has to offer that we experience, yet without sin, so his judgment will be fair. So I would encourage anyone that hasn't, doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ, I like to say my Jesus, you need to find him in this book, and he's not hard to find. He's there in every book. Suppose this man had not accepted the will of God. It would have been amazing thing. The second factor that Jesus told these people why they didn't accept it, the verse forty two says, because you don't love God. You don't love God. And the third factor, verse forty one and forty four, and I think there's many of us in that character, he says, I receive not honor from men, and verse forty four says, how can you believe with receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? I think there's a lot of us like that today, perhaps there's somebody in this room like that. You have a lot of friends that don't know the Lord either, and because of your popularity with your friends or your acquaintances, you want to be popular with the crowd. You want to receive honor from men. And Jesus said, the reason you don't believe in me is because you want to receive honor from one another instead of from my Father. And that's the third factor. And the fourth factor, and lastly, is our will. And it started right out with that, in that story of that lame man. There's many people that go to church in favor of church, in fact, like our brother that sang the song. He was in a choir, but he didn't know the Lord. He admitted it himself. And I think there's a lot of people like that. We all were at one time, sh- surely. They're in favor of the church and its programs. We want to see it grow. It's a nice group of people, want to fellowship with them, but you really don't understand. But because of the fear of man, perhaps we haven't accepted. But suppose this man had said to Jesus Christ in an answer to him, said, look, why should I change my lifestyle now? I've laid here for thirty eight years. Now, you know that, Lord, this is a sealy posturpedic mattress I've got here. This is a first class bed. I just don't like to get up and leave it. I'm comfortable here, and after all, I'm getting old. I've been here thirty eight years. Why should I change now? You see, he could have said that, couldn't he? For the Lord asked him, wilt thou be made whole? And the man, of course, responded in the proper way. He said, Lord, I will. Make me whole. And I think that's the key. We need, as Christians, to surrender our will to the will of the Lord, for fear he might put us in a position. We have to consider our options, as Jonah and the apostle did as well. But as, if you're here and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and you're still in your sin, the Bible says you need to say like the layman, Lord, I will heal me. The Lord himself set the example about the will of God in that when he always did the will of the Father, even to the cross. Remember in the garden when he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He was troubled about the scene that was about to take place. The burden of your sin and mine was upon his heart, and it says he sweat as it were great drops of blood. I've never seen anybody do that, and I'm sure you haven't either, but he did. That's how the anxiety he had anticipating the cruelty of the cross, and more than that, the brother said it this morning in the worship service, his, his inner feelings was much deeper hurt inwardly than it was outwardly, the things that men did when he realized God, his father, would turn his back on him in that dark hour from the sixth to the ninth hour. But he did back up a bit. He said, not my will, but thine be done. And so may it be for the glory of the Lord this day that if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as a Savior, you need to find out who he is, and he's in here from Genesis to Revelation. I just gave us a little sketchy outline of the facts that are about Jesus referred to in all sixty six books of this Bible. And those of us that know the Lord, no matter what our age, young or old, there's something we need to do for the Lord. Remember what he said? Occupy till I come. Now, I'm retired from the secular world, absolutely, and most of you might be too. Some of you at least are. Doesn't say we can retire from God's work. We got to be doing that till I come, he says. There's no retirement from the Lord's service. We need to be his servants. We need to have the servant's heart and be able to serve him, and may it all be to his honor and glory that we do so. This evening, we're going to talk about the fourth miracle of the Lord Jesus, which I think there's a lot of lessons in there about feeding, uh, this group of people, this multitude, and I think there's many things we can learn, apply to our lives there, and I'll reveal to you through some of these things, some of the stories at camp that shows that we can count on the Lord to intervene sometimes when we're at our wits end. And I'll tell you an interesting story that'll thrill your heart about what happened last year that we could have gone bankrupt trying to overcome, but the Lord intervened and on our behalf. Let us pray. Father, we thank thee for thy word. We thank thee for these eight miracles that John wrote on our behalf, that we might understand that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living. We thank thee that most of us and gathered in this room are members of thy family. We thank thee for bringing us into that, that family and making us heirs and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. But perhaps there's someone in here who has not yet understood the need to say, thy will be done, as this lame man did, and as we did, as we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. They might find the Christ of the cross and the Christ of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, the one that hangeth the world on nothing, and it controls all things, and all things are held together by the word of his power. And be careful to give you to praise for all thy mercies and goodness to us. Be with those that are leaving this beautiful place and returning to the north to visit families and friends. Give them a safe journey there and bless them on their way. May they be a blessing as they travel to those they come in contact with, and bring them back safely to us again next fall. And be careful to give thee the praise and the honor and the glory, for thou alone art worthy. And we would say, as the one that ended the word of God when he wrote, even so come, Lord Jesus. We would say that with him. We thank thee for thy soon return, and we look forward to that day when we'll all gather around that throne and sing thy praises throughout all eternity. We'll bless Thy name forever, in Jesus' name. Amen.