In Remembrance Of Me

To my shame, Jesus didn't mean much to me for the first 20 years of my life.

Though I had grown up in church, though I had heard the gospel, though my mom was a faithful Christian, I really had no use for Jesus.

Now I didn't have anything against him.

I just didn't think I needed him.

I didn't think he was very important at all.

But my how after getting saved and beginning to grow in the word, Jesus began to increase in importance in my life to where he eclipsed everything else.

He became truly the most important thing to me in life.

And so as I prompted you this morning, I asked you to think about what Jesus mean to you?

Because I'm going to give you an opportunity to share your testimony if you want to in just a moment.

But to start us off, Brother Pat is going to come and tell us about what Jesus means to him.

That's always been a part of my life.

When I say always, I I mean always.

I mean I came, my parents brought me here uh as an infant.

And uh it's hard for y'all to picture really this this area.

But picture picture no No 81.

Picture this being Route 11 that comes that comes straight through here, right what was in front of the church, and goes out obviously before Merlat, but this hill back here wasn't wasn't there.

That was the main thoroughfare through here.

Uh and there our church was a little white building on the other side of the road, and we had the women's restroom outhouse on one side and the men's on the other.

Do y'all remember little churches like that?

Yeah.

Uh we had a uh we had an evangelist named uh Jimmy Hubbard, and uh Jimmy came for revival.

Uh Jimmy was from Matoka High School, and uh he was uh he was uh a teenager and actually he he started preaching as a teenager, but by the time he got here he had had his his classwork.

I I don't believe he had had a pastor yet.

And uh he preached a revival and and this was mid-60s.

I was nine years old, and uh I remember he he gave an invitation that night.

And uh my son asked me a a while back, he said, Dad, he said, you you've never said much about you know the the the the night that you got saved.

And you know, I thought a lot about that.

Uh I've got, you know, I mean I was nine years old, how much, you know, and you get all the salvation, but at nine years old, the depth of what you get.

I mean, I've been to conferences and and got more depth than I than in that conference than I got that night.

But uh praise Lord, those were the seeds that needed to be planted.

And um kind of even my salvation, even that that night was a little was a little strange, at least to me.

Uh I came forward with with my brother, and I suppose everybody in the church thought he, you know, I but I would do whatever Dale did.

And so I followed Dale, and you know, and I I really I want to be saved.

And when Jimmy, when when Jimmy prayed, he prayed with everybody, and and he skipped me.

And uh I couldn't figure it out.

I'm like, you know, hey, I I wonder what they got.

You know, I don't feel I don't feel like I got what they got.

So the next night I went back, and that night there were fewer people, and and and Jimmy prayed with me.

Uh not knowing that probably about five years later he would come and be our pastor.

Um you know, when I look at how God has set the stage for my life, I mean it's really incredible.

What Jesus means to me comes from Colossians.

Colossians 1, 13 through 20, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood.

Even the forgiveness of sin.

I love this one.

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.

For by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be of thrones, dominions, or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him.

And there's a verse 17, and it says, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

And the verse really means, and in him all things hold together.

I've seen him hold it together.

And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things, you might remember this, he might have the preeminence.

We had a whole we had a whole series on that.

But that's who Christ is to me.

Uh, just to take you through some of the things that I particularly remember, and I told the deacons the other night, uh, my first deacons meeting was was when I was three years old.

Uh the deacons used to meet in in the homes, and and the deacons would go around to each of the homes and they'd meet in the homes.

Well, in our house, you know, our our biggest room was was the living room, which wasn't that big, but but we had an opening between the kitchen and and and the living room.

And I remember, you know, that every you know, mom said, and and I didn't know what was happening, you know, said, hey, listen, some people are coming, you've got to be real quiet, and you whatever you do, you gotta stay out of the living room.

And so we didn't have a curtain or doors.

So they hung a mom hung a curtain rod up, and she didn't have curtains, but she hung a sheet on that.

And now you know uh a sheet's gonna keep a three-year-old out.

And I remember, you know, and she said, Don't go, don't go back there.

Well, I didn't keep me from looking.

But you know, I remember uh those men sitting around our living room, and I was telling the deacons I knew the difference between when they were talking to each other and when they were talking to God.

There was a it was a different type.

It wasn't a discussion, it was it was a praise.

It was something that I really couldn't put together at the time.

But you know, I I look back and I'm thinking, well, gee, you know, 23 years later, you know, I I was ordained and became a deacon.

So I guarantee you, some of those same guys who were in there that night, I got to serve with.

And uh these names don't mean anybody to anybody harley at all.

But you you might remember Ed Moore, uh Doc Catron, Shorty Buck, Herb Perkins, and my dad.

My everybody uh my dad was nicknamed Skeeky.

And uh and there was a guy, one of the most humble people I've ever met, was Henry Lee.

And uh I uh I've seen God set the stage and orchestrate the things in my life that I just I didn't think that I would still be in this area.

I had some, I went through course school and you know, my growing up was on was on the farm, you know, uh Roy Treat was the cabbage capital of the world.

I I was a big part of that in cabbage raising.

I mean I hoed cabbage.

Where where Russell is, that was part of my granddad's farm.

And uh, Russell, you you were part of that.

You were part of the you know the cabbage generation, don't and uh I was so little that it brings dump trucks through the field and I was cutting the cabbage off and leave them in a row because I wasn't big enough to throw them on the truck.

We we actually made hay on some of that.

I would drive, you know, be riding uh through Roy Treat by the old mill, uh hauling hay into granddad's farm.

And uh I've milked uh cows in a log barn.

And uh I remember those days I'm just hoping that uh God would bless me enough that I could just get a car.

And uh boy, you know, he's blessed me.

And uh so after college, well, but before that, between my junior and senior year of uh of high school, I met I met Gill.

Our our part of our first date was coming to Cedar Bluff.

That was July 1st, uh, 1973.

And uh, you know, there was there was a time when there almost wasn't a pat in Gil.

I gotta tell you, and I I don't know she's not gonna like me.

She's not gonna like me saying this.

But uh, you know, we we had a fight.

You know, and uh so you know we'd been dating, you know, at least two or three times a week.

Well, you know, I didn't call her Friday night, I didn't answer the phone.

Saturday night, I didn't answer the phone.

And Sunday morning, I went to Sunday school and she she wasn't there.

Can I show them something?

Sure.

And the the church was the the church was turned like this.

This was the the choir loft.

This would have been you know where the pulpit was.

This was the back door, and and and the seats were turned like this.

And and she came in, she came in that door.

I believe she came up.

And she came over, and she walked up, she walked up, and she walked up this line.

And I'm sitting in the wall here, I'm sitting right here.

And she she leaned over.

But the next part was she said, scoot over.

If you ask me, I'll tell you what.

She said the first part of that later.

Uh I was a machine shop operator for about six months.

Then uh then my my you know started my classes at WCC.

I was working, you know, till seven o'clock in the morning, and I was getting uh, I was tasking came for eight o'clock class, and Gil would bring me breakfast.

Uh, you know, and y'all y'all won't believe it.

I mean, back in the day, you know, there weren't there weren't fast foods everywhere.

I mean, if it wasn't for her bringing me breakfast, I I don't I don't know.

It wasn't like you could go out and get something.

But she would bring uh she would bring me breakfast every morning.

I I remind her what a good investment I was.

I I had an uh interview in Iron to Know High, and I thought I was going there.

I had Transformer Experience and and so they were needing a designer, and I went for an interview.

It was probably I was scheduled to go.

I I had I was getting ready to call them money and accept an offer, which meant that a week after that I would I would be leaving.

Uh and you know, to set this up a little bit more.

I I don't know if y'all realize, but in in Gail and I's youth group, you know, all these years there was nobody in that youth group here until Beverly Hall came back, and uh Pam Slim came back, and uh James and Teresa came back.

Uh but it was just us.

And I I'm like, why am I here?

You know, how did God you know orchestrate, believe me?

We were uh, so I was scheduled to go.

And uh Claude Slim, Pam's dad, asked me, was what I just walked in the car, happened to walk past me.

He said, he said, hey, before you before you take that job up there, he said, I want you to interview.

And uh and he was in he was in the defense industry.

Uh and when I went to HR at Brunswick at the time, they had two interviews lined up, and I'm like, well, who's the other interview with?

And it was Paul Vander.

Uh so I went to Paul's interview first, and and you know that that went well.

I mean, you know, they wanted me, and I went to Claude's interview next.

And he told me at the end of the interview, he said, I want you to know that he said, I want you to come.

He said, and and Paul's interview don't mean a whole lot right now because I had my requisition in first, and so you know, you're you're coming up here.

And so that that got me in at least to Brunswick.

Uh a year later, where Paul worked, commercial had closed, and he actually came to work for us.

And and years later I became a uh and worked with him for years, and years later, after he retired, I became a program manager, and I was able to call Paul back as a uh as a contractor.

But I've seen these things come full circle in my life, and everything gives me faith that's that's like that.

Um then, of course, uh Seth was born.

I'm thankful that Seth grew up here.

Oh boy, it was uh quite a quite a deal.

He was he was one of the ones that was in such a small youth group, Brian, that he didn't he wasn't one of the kids that would come in and said, Where's everybody at?

He was one of the kids that come in and he was excited to learn, had the Bible, and he said, What are we gonna do?

And he was wanting to to learn like that.

Interesting how God has used him.

I I can't I can't get into that right now, but uh we weren't sure that uh we were gonna have any grandchildren.

Uh you know, we didn't realize, you know, we we Seth and Amanda were saying, hey, you know, we we want to have children, and and you know, if it works out, and I'm like, how how much trouble is that?

And uh we didn't realize that they were having trouble having children.

And uh the day that we found out that Dale was only gonna have a couple, my brother was only gonna have a couple of uh days to live, they showed up at uh Cracker Barrel in Woodfield and had this bag and had a a teddy bar in it and had you know a a picture and uh we realized it.

And uh, you know, emotions are a strange thing, you know.

And uh I was just weeping at the table and he said, Dad He said, are you crying because of Dell, or are you excited that we're having a child?

I said, I don't know.

But has your life ever been that way?

So that, you know, you could experience the greatest joy and the greatest sadness at one time.

He was there.

He was there through it all.

He does whole things together.

That's my testimony.

Thanks.

You know, we just live our lives, and sometimes we think things just happen and we don't realize that God is orchestrating things.

And the local church is such a collection of miracles that every person that God brings into a church makes it who it is.

And I am thankful for the people that God has brought into this church and the difference that you have made and that we're making together.

And maybe there's somebody else that has something on their heart, they want to share what Jesus means to them.

I've got Wyatt and Cooper with microphones.

And so go ahead, fellas, and stand up and turn those on.

And uh, if you if you have a word that you'd like to share a testimony, would you just signal to those guys and uh they'll bring that microphone to you?

All right, here we go, Cooper.

Brian Thompson.

I'm gonna grab up the petition here.

Pat got me weepy eyed over here.

Um you know what what what what Jesus means to me, how can you follow up Pastor and Pat here?

He he means everything, and and that's how you know that he is your Lord and Savior, that he means everything to you.

But I want to go down a road of how good God is.

Yeah.

Um, you know, uh, lost my dad.

I think it's uh the month to the day.

I lost my dad.

He'd been going downhill.

Um, so it wasn't a surprise, it wasn't just out of the blue, but he started to go downhill a little bit faster.

My sister called me that Tuesday and said, Mom called me and said, Dad hadn't been out of this chair in three days.

I don't, I don't, he's not doing well.

He might want to come up.

And it's about a five and a half hour drive.

That was at lunchtime.

Got there and made the decision to go home and just check, see dad.

And I told her, go go, she hadn't been to see dad just yet.

Um and I said, when you get there and you see him, call me and tell me what's going on.

Because we've kind of had a little of a scare here and there.

Um, don't want to waste a day of uh vacation going up there and not, you know, nothing's going on.

And uh we were about halfway home or uh back to my mom and dad's house.

And she said, Dad, I went and saw dad, he perked up, he looked okay.

And it was kind of that decision point.

And I'm telling you how good God is because he gives you those intuitions of what you should do.

Yeah, um, could have easily turned around, drove back home, gone back to work on Wednesday.

But decided, well, just better go on up.

So we went up and saw my dad uh uh Tuesday night, and you know, saw what I was what I was expecting to see.

And then Wednesday he kind of perked up a little bit more, and the whole family came over.

So it's me, my sister, and her kids and my kids.

And we all were there in the house.

And dad didn't move much, but he sat in his chair, but he enjoyed every second of it.

And that night it got, I won't say it got rambuctious, but it kind of felt that way.

A lot of noise, a lot of activity going on.

And my mom walked in there and said something to my dad.

He's like, Do you want them to go outside?

He's like, No.

He's like, I just I I sorry.

He's like, I enjoy hearing them.

Yeah.

And he sat there and he listened to all the activity of his children, his grandchildren.

And uh we all said goodnight, and that that morning, the Thursday morning, uh my mom woke me up and said, Dad's dad's breathing fun.

Went down there, and as soon as I looked at him, I knew he was gone.

He was still breathing.

But the goodness of God to give me the opportunity to go up there and be with my dad when he passed.

And I tell you what, I was talking about this this morning.

He he wasn't he was my compass on this earth as a spiritual man.

I mean, he was a man of God, and uh he always kept me pointed northward.

A lot of times I went I wanted to go right or left, and uh he knew it, and he would bring me back.

He always had those words to get me back on track.

But the goodness of God, it's really amazing how good he can be to us when we don't deserve it.

And I'm gonna tell you how good God is to allow myself and my family to be a part of this church.

It's this church is so amazing.

And uh I'll I'll dote on the pastor here a little bit.

Uh my dad.

Uh he'd been here probably a dozen times, maybe.

And but he he he's he see he saw everything that we see in Pastor Pastor Justin, the man of God that he is, and how he speaks the truth.

And he asked if Pastor would do his service.

I asked him, and he graciously said, yeah, I'll drive up there.

So last Saturday, Pastor came up and did my dad's memorial service.

And I'm gonna tell you, it was more, it was more about the message of salvation that the pastor spoke to all those people in that room that meant so much, Pastor.

There were there, I have family members, I have friends in that room that needed to hear the message of the gospel.

Kind of the same message you you you said this morning.

Don't wait till the last second.

Don't wait till the last second.

You know, if your heart's not right, and this is the the one of the stories I said is that my dad had a saying say, if your heart's right with God, what do you have to worry about?

And you know what, and honestly, in everything in my life, you can boil it down to that.

If your heart is right with God, what do you have to worry about?

Amen.

And he he spoke a message that I think my nephew, I think my I think it reached him.

He's asking questions.

He's he grew up in the church just like I did, and he's asking questions, he's searching.

And I can tell you that, you know what?

Praise be to God if He if He comes to salvation because of that.

But that's just the goodness, you know, out of death, you know, we're all sad that my dad, my family's sad that my dad's gone.

But we praise him because of who my dad was and what he what Christ meant to my dad, and that you could come down and preach a gospel and possibly change multiple lives.

And I'm gonna leave it at that.

How good God is.

God is good, He's always good.

This church means so much to me.

My wife got saved, my children have gotten saved here.

Um this this church family is amazing, and I'll leave it at that.

Amen.

Thank you.

Thank you, Brian.

Somebody else with the testimony tonight.

Willa.

Why it'll bring the microphone to you.

We just wanted the microphone so everybody gets a chance to hear.

And the more we need God and the more the more time we have, the more it we have not too.

Amen.

Thank you, Willow.

You know, the Bible says in Psalm 107, let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

And uh so here's your opportunity to tell us what Jesus means to you.

Is there somebody else that has a testimony this evening?

Right here, Cooper.

Stanley.

Let's stay on.

What a act of follow, guys.

I tell you, I've seen this, and a lot of you don't know it, but we're cousins.

And a lot of the same stuff he told you about I saw when I was here.

And you know, I remember the little church over here, and I remember the dates and all that stuff.

I guess my love story started when I was just a kid.

And uh my mother and father both died.

And after my mother died, my sister looked up at me and she said, Stanley, what are we gonna do?

And I looked at her, I said, Billy, I don't know.

And she said, I think we ought to pray.

We were just kids.

And we thought to our man, what are we gonna pray for?

You know?

Our mother, we had been told our mother died, we come back to the house, they bring us to the house, no boys there, just me and my sister.

And we're like, where is everybody?

We don't know what's what we're gonna do.

You know, and she asked me, and I'm like, I don't know.

And then she says, I think we ought to pray, and like, what do you pray for?

Um what?

You know?

So we started quoting Psalm 23, and within probably two hours, uh, a lot of you remember Annie, Annie and Jack.

Um that was my mother's sister.

This car pulls up in the road, and of course, over in West Virginia, there wasn't too many cars, and you took notice and thought, who's that in that car right there?

And just as soon as they opened the door, it's just like, you know, we're okay.

Yeah.

You know, and my sister looked at me and says, Well, we didn't pray, but we quoted some Bible and said, it's working.

And I guess really then that showed me at a young age I'd done been saved and baptized in a river, but it showed me that, you know, um the Lord loved me.

And I loved him.

I mean, he was taking care of me.

And then later on, we come to Virginia and we start coming to church, and like I said, me and Pat down there rings the bell, across the road, and all that good stuff, you know, as a big thing, cook stove or the heating stove over in the corner.

And then we come up here, and of course, um I wasn't up here very long till Joe Hall and Ed Moore and um Doc Catron come to me and said, Stanley says, uh, I think we need you in a Sunday school class.

And I said, Well, I am in a Sunday school class.

He said, No, we need you to come over here and teach this Sunday school class.

And I said, Well, I'm I'm no older than they are.

I said, I can't teach that class.

They said, Yeah, you can, come on.

So Joe Hall took me under his wing and we started teaching Sunday school.

Well, then I'm here and I'm singing in the choir and everything.

Next thing I know, uh I'm sitting back there in the choir.

Of course, it was over here then.

And I'm in the choir, and this would have been over here.

Uh, this young lady is sitting over her, and this was years before I ever got married, and she told her mother, said, see that dark complexed boy back there with a scar on his face?

She said, Yes, says, I'm gonna marry him one day.

And this was like four years before I even knowed her name.

So that that proceeded on, but in between that I went to the Holy Land.

And I guess my love affair for God just really, how good he's been to me, just bloomed in because I when I went over her, you go to the tomb.

And I'm telling you what, guys, you take and you walk in that tomb, and it's just like something comes over you.

And at the time I was over her, you can't do it now, but you could actually lay your hand right in the tomb.

And guys, you just take and you just lay your hand in that tomb, and it's just like I tell you, if it don't make you happy, you you would sweat it.

I mean, it you just say something comes all over you, and I done been baptized, and I'm like, you know, if it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me.

I'm gonna be baptized again in the Jordan River.

And I go to the Jordan River and uh Grady Bird and uh Ruby Parks.

Well, we're the only two, I guess, that's left.

Everybody else has died that's went with us at that time.

And uh he was standing out there in the water and I took, and it was cold, golly, it was cold.

And I stepped in that water and I'm like, yeah, that's pretty cold.

But when I put the other foot in, it was just like the coldness went away.

I had on a pair of shorts and a shirt, you know, and it's just like I felt this warm sensation.

I can't explain it.

But I waited out in the water to where he was at, and he talks to me a little bit there, and then I go and up I come and woo! And from that time on, it's just like I've had this love affair and this fire, this go, go, go, go, and try to help anybody and everybody I can, love everybody and like he loves me.

And, you know, then I come back from that and I'm I'm, you know, pretty much on fire.

And I'm singing in the choir and uh teaching Sunday school, and I meet my wife.

Well, then y'all know what went on then.

We got married and had two kids, and they both were come to this church and sang in the choir, both uh come here and got married.

Now I have six grandchildren, and uh uh my son-in-law, he's a pastor, and I mean I've been so blessed.

And uh my wife was a driving force behind a lot of the church going-on that we've been involved with.

But I've just loved the Lord, and I mean, if it hadn't been for the Lord, I mean, guiding, like Pat said, putting people in position where they're at and opening the door for me, I mean, I would probably grow up in a uh boarding school or something, you know, because I didn't have nobody.

I mean, that day sitting on that little smokehouse porch, and my sister looked up at me and she said, you know, hey, um, what are we gonna do?

Yeah.

And she said, pray.

And And that was probably the start of my love affair, like he said, in death, the joy of seeing, you know, what the Lord has a plan for you.

And, you know, I sometimes question, you know, my dad died when I was nine, my mom died when I was 12.

Then my sister, she was 15 when she passed away.

And I really struggled with that for a lot of years of how to cope with all that death knowing, you know, that's gone.

Yeah.

You know, and then later on, Jack and Annie passed away, and then everybody that really had a part of raising me was gone.

Well, then my wife, she gets cancer, and she died.

But you know, through all that.

God is good.

I mean, I saw my wife lay in the hospital and her arm was that big around.

But she always, Maxine sheets, she always say, how's Maxine?

Maxine's in the hospital.

How's she doing?

And I mean, she had a list of like, you know, don't you?

She had a list of people that she prayed for every night, and she was dying, guys.

They done told her that she was going to die.

I didn't have but a few days.

But she she laughed and said, Them doctors told me that I was going to die, and said, I pointed right in their face.

I said, You was her.

And she did.

When they told her she had two days, maybe a week at the most, she couldn't raise her right arm, but she took her left arm and pointed right in his face.

And said, You're not gonna sit there and tell me when God's done with me.

And I'm like, boy, that's right.

Seven weeks later, I was there.

She started laughing.

I mean, laughing, just so funny.

I said, honey, what can you be laughing so about in everything we're going through?

She said, That doctor don't know what God's plan is.

I said, Do what?

Said, here it is seven weeks later, and I'm still here.

And then the evening she died, like you, I had the privilege.

I was there with her, spent a lot of time with her.

So did Pat and Gail and a lot of the rest of y'all spent days and nights so I could keep working, keep insurance, so uh she wouldn't be by herself.

I mean, the whole church, I mean, they was everybody come, spent nights and days.

And the day she died, his granddaddy, or his daddy, Mike, called me and said, Stan, said, I feel like I need to come see you.

And he is our when she passed away.

And I mean, it's just so amazing the people that God will put in your life, because he loves you, you should love him.

And from that, you're like, okay, you know, why do you love me?

You know, and why does he love us?

So much that he hung on the cross and bled and died for our sins.

But he still loves us so.

So the least we could do is love him back, you know.

So, guys, I'm I'm gonna cut it off at that because Pat took all the time.

Somebody else with a testimony this evening.

Uh Jenny Grace back here, Wyatt So um.

The question is what's going on and what's hard.

My brain is scattered around the side.

I'm half asleep and half away.

The grass on my road is never released all the time.

I mean my I mean the only person who is willing to carry this away with me.

I mean the only one who knows all the truth.

I mean the only one who can run on the clock and put the back in my place.

I mean the only alarm that can wait.

I mean the gardener who will take the cornbush away for the air calls.

I mean the only one who can brought all things is not the life in my head.

I mean, I'm listening.

So in short, Christ is my medicine.

So thank you, Jenny.

You know, one of the powerful witnesses of Christianity is the testimony of millions of changed lives.

I remember reading about an evangelist once who issued the challenge.

He said, For every man that you bring me who tells them that atheism has changed their life, I'll produce a thousand Christians who can tell you what Christ has done for them.

Somebody else wants to share a testimony this evening?

All right.

Well, let's go to the Lord's table at this time.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Mark Neal.

Let's see, let's give Mark a test a microphone.

I'm sorry, Mark, I didn't mean to pass you over.

Uh just wanted to speak for a short minute.

Uh you know, a lot of you've probably heard me give my testimony, how I came to salvation before, and when I was really young, I made a false profession of faith, and you know, I didn't really know what I was talking about.

I didn't know what it meant to have a relationship with the Lord, but what I'd like to speak on for just a minute is what God was doing in the background.

It's a good caution about tissues.

But uh, I don't know.

Thank you.

I don't remember now, you know, what made me start telling people I was saved that night when I made my false profession.

It was a VBS service here at uh Cedar Bluff, and you know, it could have been a friend that went and got saved himself.

I felt like I need to do it too.

It could have been just because it was what you were supposed to do, but there's one thing that I will always remember for that night.

And Eddie Beck walked me out to the car to for my dad to pick me up, and he told my dad that I'd been saved.

And what I'll never forget is the look on my dad's face.

And you know, years later, I know what that look is now.

It's you know the Lord gets you in his fist and he's squeezing.

Yeah.

And you know, that moment I can remember is you know, I was always in church as a kid.

This church has always been a part of my life, but it was at that moment that following the Lord and going to church went from being an obligation, you know, to keep Libby happy to uh being the direction of my family and the way we've oriented ourselves at God.

He became the focal point of our life.

And just what I've been thinking about is you know, from that mistake I made, God has built every good and beautiful thing in my life.

You know, without that moment, you know, and the changing my father's heart, the reigniting of my father's faith, you know, I don't know that I would be, I know I wouldn't be where I am today.

You know, that was I don't know that, well, first of all, you know, I'm thinking of all the kids my father might have impacted, all the seeds he might have planted, and you know, I don't know that he would have served as youth pastor if that night hadn't happened.

And you know, I don't know that I would have met and fell in love with my wife at this church.

I don't think I would have been as big of a part of this church if that didn't happen.

And if he didn't use my mistake to get a hold of my father that night.

I don't think I would have been here ten plus years later over in that gym at a youth lock-in when you know the Lord finally got a hold of me and he brought me back and I gave my life to him for real.

So I just want to praise the Lord this evening for using broken people and using mistakes, even the mistake of a five-year-old kid, to change not just my life, but who knows how many.

Only the Lord knows.

You know, we all have a story, but very few of them are clean and straight, right?

It's a crooked path.

It is mistakes, it is unintended repercussions, and yet God is so masterful that he takes those broken pieces and he makes this beautiful mosaic that is more beautiful than anything we could have ever crafted on our own.

Anybody else that has a word tonight before we move to the Lord's table?

All right.

As Jesus said that night to do this in remembrance of him.

We've done our best to remember him.

And to remember him in a very personal way.

Though we know that Jesus died for the world, and that all who believe in him are saved.

Salvation is always meant to be taken personally.

It's not real until it's personal.

You can witness somebody else getting saved, you can be very close to somebody else who gets saved, but it's not real until you get saved.

And this sharing of testimonies tonight is just us remembering that God saved us.

And that he has been with us and he is with us and that he's guiding us through.

And so we remember him tonight.

And as we come to the Lord's table, we remember his sacrifice that made all of it possible.

The Bible says that if there would have been any other way for us to be saved, that God would not have sacrificed his son.

This was the only way.

And Jesus, that night before he's crucified, gives us a memorial.

He takes the bread and he breaks it.

He gives it to his disciples and he says, Take it, this is my body which is broken for you.

And so at this time, I'm gonna ask our deacons if they would give out the bread.