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Today I'll be preaching on the value of a great pastor. And I truly believe that we have a great pastor in our church. I'm not just up here saying it, I mean that with all my heart. We have a pastor that's on fire for God, that loves God, loves souls, loves you, loves families, young men, women, children, and his wife also. So this message is just I want to, number one, lift up the Lord. He is above all. Then number two, lift up the man of God. The Bible says, give honor to whom honor is due. Give him double honor. So I don't think I'm doing anything wrong by telling you how much I appreciate my pastor, how much I love my pastor. And he's been such a blessing to me. So first of all, uh I I got this walking stick so that I can go hiking. And if a coyote comes at me, I'm gonna jab it in the face. Or if a courage comes at me, I'm gonna stab him in the gut. You know, so it's good to have a walking stick with you. But today I'm gonna repurpose it. Today it's gonna be used as the rod of Moses. So if I kind of have a volunteer, can I have Moses come up here? Where's Moses at? He's I know he's somewhere. He was here he is. Come on up here, brother Moses. When Moses was uh fighting the Amalekites in the Old Testament, Moses came up with an idea. I am gonna get the rod of God and I'm gonna hold it up above my head. And when I hold this rod up above my head, then the Israelites will win. So that's exactly what they did. Moses went up to a hill, the Bible says. Something fell. Moses went up to a hill, and Aaron and her were with him. So let me give the rod of God to Moses. If you could hold that up above your head. Okay, spread it out a little bit, because you're gonna you don't know what time the battle started. It could have been four o'clock in the morning, it could have been six, seven, and we don't know how long this battle was. So we'll go we'll get back to Moses in a few minutes, but Moses, let me know if you if you if you get a little tired, we'll give you some help, but I think you'll be okay. So I'd like to start off saying that Jesus is the great shepherd. If you go to Hebrews chapter 13, verse 20, I have a lot of scriptures here, so keep up with me if you can, okay? It says Hebrews 13, 20 through 21, and it also is on the screen, too. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep. So Jesus is considered the great shepherd, okay? Through the blood of the everlasting company covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. So Jesus is the great shepherd. He's at the top. Now, since we're getting close to Pastor Appreciation Day and celebrate, he celebrates his anniversary today. I just want to prime the pump for our church just to love our pastor and to show our appreciation to him. I should have an image up there of Jesus being uh under-shepherd. So if you look at the image, there's Jesus walking with a lamb, and then you have a pastor of a church. So that's kind of the picture of what a pastor is. He's he's the under-shepherd, under Jesus, working with Jesus to serve the Lord. You're doing okay over there, Moses? So far, so good. So far, so good. All right. Uh 1 Peter 5, 2 says, feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint. So God doesn't want a pastor to be a passion, not because he has to, or he's like, oh man, I don't want to do this, and this is horrible, but hey, it's a job. I'm a pastor, I'm doing it, you know, whatever. That's not that's not the heart God wants to have. It says, but willingly. You should, pastors should have a willing heart, wanting to serve people, wanting to love people, wanting to win souls, and most of all, wanting to honor God. And it says, not for filthy lucre. Pastor shouldn't do it for money. Should pastor shouldn't do it to get rich. And believe me, our pastor, he could be rich if he wanted to. He was a very successful uh realtor, uh broker, and literally, I without a doubt in my mind, if he was to be doing it full-time, he would be a multimillionaire. So he's not doing it for money. He's doing it because he loves the Lord. And it says, but of a ready mind. And trust me, Pastor has a ready mind. I'd like to remind you that Pastor and his wife have given their life to Victory Baptist Church, to the people in this church for 16 years now. So we should. Another illustration. In the Bible, it talks about uh Jonathan and an armor bearer. Do we have that illustration to put up there? Jonathan, uh, at this at the background of this is the Philistines had control of everything. Okay, so there's a picture. Uh and they weren't supposed to fight. And everybody was standing down. And Saul, the king, was just, I think he was probably just hiding, you know, just chilling out underneath a pomegranate tree, relaxing and afraid to do anything. And his son Jonathan, he was a man of God. He was not afraid, and he was like, Man, we gotta do something. So guess what? Jonathan had an armor bearer. Uh the Bible says he was a young man. He wasn't an old guy, he wasn't a seasoned veteran. He was a young man that Jonathan had his armor bearer. He carried the helped him carry his armor and stuff like that, and he supported Jonathan. And Jonathan said, Hey, let's see what God will do. With little or few, let's see what God's gonna do. And so they went climbing up the hill and his armor bearer after him, and they started killing the Philistines by faith. So that's that story. Let me read you this story in 1 Samuel chapter 14, if you want to turn there. Uh Jonathan's armor bearer was willing to follow him against all odds. It was just those two fighting. They didn't have a regiment behind them, they didn't have a platoon behind them, it was literally just Jonathan, his armor bearer, and faith in God. You know what? And the Bible doesn't even say what that armor bearer's name is. If you're going to serve the pastor, if you're gonna serve a man of God, or you're gonna be assistant, you don't have to have notoriety. You don't have to be, you don't have to be famous, you don't have to be puffed up or nothing like that. You just be a humble servant, doing the best you can for God and to help the man of God. But the Bible says in 1 Samuel 14, 67, and Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, Come and let us go over into the garrison of the uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us. So he's just stepping out in faith. Maybe God will help him, maybe he won't, but he says, I'm gonna give it a shot. For there is no restraint to the Lord for to save by many or by few. And his armor bearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart, turn thee. Behold, I am with thee according to thy heart. Now to me that is an amazing armor bearer. That's an amazing servant. Says, What you're gonna do, I'm with you. I'm with you. The Bible says in 14, 13, 1 Samuel 14, 13, and Jonathan climbed upon his hands and upon his feet, and that's because they were going up a hill, and his armor bearer after him, and they fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer slew after him. I would like to say that Jonathan was successful because he had a strong man that was willing to follow him and support him. He fought behind Jonathan. He was a true soldier and a true friend to Jonathan. John, Jonathan had a follower who was willing to support his leader. And that's what every pastor needs is his church members, not just his deacons, not just his staff, but every single church member to support their pastor. If God has called you to be in this church, your heart should be, I am going to do anything I can to help my pastor, to serve my pastor, and basically just to serve the Lord with all my heart in this church. So Jonathan, he trusted, the armor bearer, he trusted in Jonathan. He was loyal to Jonathan, he was dedicated to Jonathan, and he was willing to follow him when he could have been killed. He was willing to follow even if he knew he could have died because it was just those two. And he was willing to do whatever Jonathan wanted him to do. Very few things will encourage a pastor more than having church members that love him and that want to support him as he follows God. That's the main thing. Pastor need men and women of God to encourage them to serve the Lord and to reach people for God. Pastor can't do it by himself. And he doesn't want to do it by himself. He wants his church to get involved. He wants, our pastor wants you to have a great judgment day. He wants you to love God, to love the Bible, to love souls, to tell people about Jesus, to love your Bible. And when you get when you die and go to heaven, you're going to have a great reward. That's what Pastor wants for you, okay? You get a little tired? Oh, okay. So uh I didn't think you're gonna get tired so fast, Moses. But uh I'm gonna, well, actually, Moses was uh 80 years old when he was up there, and Moses didn't realize that he was going to be uh fighting, holding that rock up. You may sit down, Moses. Uh actually, uh the Bible says that Aaron and her got a rock for Moses. So trust me, it was not as comfortable as that. So you got it made, Moses. All right, so I I need uh Aaron and her to come on up here. Where are you at? Aaron, there's there's Aaron. Where's her at? Hers right here. Okay. So Aaron, we'll say, we'll say you're Aaron, okay? Because you're a little bit younger than Moses here. So Aaron and her, they got him a rock and they decided to help him hold up his hand. Because the Bible says that take your hands off for a second. Take your hands off for a second. The Bible says that that Moses holding the rod up, after a while he got tired because he probably thought they were just gonna defeat those Amalekites in a couple hours, but it probably ended him hour after hour. He started getting tired, and then Moses and Aaron said, hey, let's get him a rod, let him sit down, and let's hold him. So he's sitting on a rock, and then they're they're holding his arms up, okay? That's a lot better, right? That's better. Okay. But I'm sure even these guys got tired, but since they're younger and you know, strong and got big muscles, I'm sure that made it real easy for them to hold him up. Okay, so we're gonna go back to that story in a minute. Um I should say we should be thankful that we have such a dedicated pastor. Uh, did you realize I I looked this up yesterday, 10 to 20 percent of churches in the United States do not even have a pastor. Can you believe that? 10 to 20 percent. And the uh the it's the statistic statistics say that 15,000 churches closed their doors in 2025. And that doesn't even include the the independent Baptist churches or community, uh, independent community Baptist community churches, whatever. They don't have records of that. But the churches that have records, 15,000 closed in 2025, which is so sad. Uh another thing is there's some pastors who don't have a clue in what they're doing. They don't spend time in prayer, they don't read their Bible, and if you had if I had a paper bag in front of me, they they couldn't preach your way out of a paper bag. So you want to have a pastor that that's on fire for God. And uh so I'm I'm thankful that our our pastor he is on fire for God. He loves people, he loves souls, he loves God's word, and he is a soul winner. That's amazing. And you know the cool thing about our pastor? I've been in church over 50 years. I know I don't look that young. I've got my Sammy Davis Jr. coat on here, and I got my United States Marine Corps haircut. I'm ready to roll. But I've been in church over 50 years, and there's not very many churches where your pastor is willing to get down in the trenches with you and spend time with you, spend time with your family. Most churches that I've been to, the pastor's way up here in a cloud. And you're lucky if you get a chance to talk to him for a few minutes and get a few words of advice, uh, or they're in their office or stuff like that, you know. So we need to be really thankful. We have a pastor because he loves you, he wants to invest in you, he wants to help you, he wants to bless you, he wants to pray for you. To me, that's amazing. That kind of reminds me of Jesus. That's what Jesus did when he walked on on this earth, his ministry for three years, just loving people and helping people, helping sinners. You guys okay over there? Aaron, heard, you alright? Praise the Lord. All right, now, the Bible definition of a great pastor. 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 3 and 4. No, 1 Timothy 3, verse 2 through 4. A bishop, which is another word for pastor, a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy, a filthy lurker, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. And to me that that fits Pastor perfectly. He is all those things and more. Now, let me tell you the purpose of a pastor. I'm I'm I don't I I I want to get out of here on a decent time here. Uh number one, to guide the flock with a willing heart. 1 Peter 5, 2 says, Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not put by constraint, but willingly. Um and I will say this Pastor Rochal, they willingly do a lot of things for our church members. They'll go to teen camps, they'll go to family camps, they'll go to vacation Bible school. Pastor will go to vacation Bible school and play with the kids and act funny for the kids and invest his life in the kids. It's crazy. I've never seen another pastor do that before. And that's why our kids love our pastor. And a lot of those kids. My matter of fact, my son was telling me the other day, yeah, I remember going, I remember going to camp and it was such a great time and having pastor and everybody preaching, investing, and just spending time with them. Uh he goes, they go to youth conferences, they go to men's prayer groups, not Miss Rochelle, just pastor, uh men's men's breakfasts, and so much more. Uh they and they do that so they can invest in your family, so they can invest in your kids. And I will say, if if if you have kids, and or you have gonna have kids, which I hope some of you young ones will are gonna have some kids, because it is wonderful having kids. Me and my wife have five of them, and it's amazing. But what I would say is this is a great church to raise your children in, so that they can hear preaching, they can get involved in church activities, and they can grow in the Lord. Um He invests in our lives, or they invest in our lives so we can be better Christians, have better marriages and families. And then, pastor is to protect the flock from wolves. Uh the wolves are a metaphor for false prophets, false teachers who come try to sneak in the church and destroy the church. Uh to me and uh uh to me, a wolf is somebody who comes to church and they try to act good in church, but when they're out of church, they're acting like the devil and they try to take other Christians down with them. So, you know, the pastors to be very pastors to protect the church. Matthew 7, 15 says, Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. So the next thing, pastor, is to strengthen the flock. Ephesians 4, 11 through 12 says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So to strengthen the church, right? And then a pastor is supposed to impart wisdom through the preaching of the word of God. 2 Timothy 4 2 says, Preach the word, be in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. I remember the first time I came to Victor to Victory Baptist Church. I I I lived in in uh Indiana, or I lived here, not Indiana, that was a long time ago, but I lived in Lakeside and we were going to a church that was far away, and it was just too far to really get involved. So I wanted to go somewhere close. So I started going to these different churches. One church you you you go in and they just like stare at you because you're a visitor. Everybody's staring at you. I was like, whoa, this is kind of awkward. And so I just started saying hi to everybody, shaking everybody's hand, and it's like, okay, that's the way you do it, folks. Um anyway, and then I went to another church, and it's like you didn't even exist. Nobody was friendly, nobody was happy, they were just, you know, doing their thing. I was like, okay, nope, no problem. And finally, uh, I I visited three or four different churches, you guys okay? I promise not to be too much longer, okay? Okay, but could you imagine Moses and Aaron and her if you think you're tired? I mean, the Bible says they went down to the sun, they they were holding his arms until the sun went down. So, man up, okay, guys? That's right. Toughen up. It's okay, you'll be alright. We've only been doing the five minutes. Um anyway, uh, forgot what I was saying here. Let me go back to my notes here. Okay. Uh anyway, I'll just keep going here. So, anyway, pastor's a preacher. I came to Victory Baptist Church and I heard Pastor preach for the first time. I said, holy cow, this guy's on fire for God. And I sat through the whole service and says, you know, this is where I'm going to church, because this guy he's on fire for God. I brought my family to church. That very Sunday, we joined the church. And the funny thing about it, that same Sunday we joined the church, Brother Daniel, my son-in-law, joined the church. You know, so God knew that someday we would join the church, and our future son-in-law would be in that church, and we joined the same day. Amazing. And by the way, he's preaching at the uh 11 o'clock service, so that's pretty cool. Um anyway, another thing Pastor's supposed to do is to help people in time of needs. Galatians 6.2 says, Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. I don't know how many times Pastor has helped people. Another thing is pray for the sick, James 5.14. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. So, Pastor, if somebody says, Hey, can you pray for my son? Can you pray for my daughter? Can you pray for my dad? Can you pray for my uncle? Can you pray for my friend? And Pastor sometimes will go over there, he'll take somebody with him, and they'll pray. And I I went with him a couple of times. When Pastor prays, he brings down the power of God. And just to just to be with him and to pray with him, to pray for those people, and Pastor anoint him is just absolute, absolutely amazing and a privilege. And the times that I that I went, God raised those people back up. It's a blessing. Um, another thing, he's constantly praying for the people. Pastor's a prayer warrior. He is seriously a prayer warrior. I don't know how many times he's just texted me and said, Hey, I'm praying for you and praying for your family. And I know that he's done probably done that for a lot of you. Obviously, he can't do it for everybody because he's got a big church. And next responsibility of pastor is to counsel the flock. And it says here 1 Thessalonians 2, 11 through 12, as ye know we exhorted and comforted and charge every one of you as a father doth his children, that you would walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. So pastor is constantly counseling people, counseling marriages that are struggling, struggling, uh, teenagers that are struggling, young adults that are struggling, uh, you know, always counseling. Next thing, pastors should preach the truth in sound doctrine. Titus 1 2. Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the names mean slayers. Okay. And then he's supposed to be an example, which I know he is. 1 Peter 5 3. Neither is being lord over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flocks. So pastor's not like all puffed up, like, I'm the pastor, you do what I say, I'm the boss, I'm the man. Uh that's what that's not what the Bible says. A pastor is to be an example. And Pastor truly is an example here here in our church. He ain't gonna ask you to do something that he's not willing to do. Um, then he's to lead the church to be soul winners. Pastor is always soul winning. I know right now he's going out like three times a week, and then whenever he gets a chance, he's soul winning. Uh and in in church, somebody wants to get saved, they'll come up to him, he'll lead him to the Lord. So he's always setting that example of being a soul winner. And he wants the flock, uh, he wants to help the flock to love him. That's what that's what we're supposed to do. And then uh pastors to serve God and man. I should have an image up here of Jesus uh cleaning the feet of his. Disciple. So Jesus set the example. The Bible says that they had the Last Supper, and Jesus, he probably had a robe like that, but the Bible says that he he took his robe off. And he went to get a container, a basin, the Bible calls it, and filled it up. And I'm sure the the disciples are like, What the heck is he doing? They're probably just watching him as he got the water ready and took his thing off and he sets it down and then he started to wash their feet. Now, those feet are not like our feet. We have shoes, we have streets, we have carpet. They walked around Jerusalem and all the dusty roads and all the bricks and pavers, and their feet were probably disgusting. And I imagine that water was probably like black after a cup after the first guy, probably. But he set the example of being a servant. And that's what our pastor does. He set the example of cleaning their feet. I'm just gonna hustle up here because I don't want to take too long. And then he's supposed to model a godly marriage. He's been married for uh how many years? 24? Something like that in the 20-something years. And he's raised two godly children, and they're both doing really good. And uh I admire each of them so much. But we should pray for them all the time. Pray for your pastor every single day. When I start my day in prayer, I pray for my family, and then I pray for pastor's family. Are you guys okay? If you need to, I'll get some other guys to replace you. Alright, okay. All right. Uh and then another another uh purpose of the pastor to preach against sin. Pastor's not afraid to preach against sin. Most pastors would be afraid of offending people because in today's society, everybody's coming out of the closets. You know what I mean? They're this it, best eight, this it, social light, all the ice are coming out at the same time. It's such a wicked generation. But pastor's not afraid to preach against that kind of stuff because it's against the Bible. It's wicked stuff that our society does now today is an abomination to the Lord. Pastor ain't afraid to preach against sin. But I will say, he loves the sinner. He loves the sinner. So if somebody screws up in our church, pastor will say, Okay, you need to stop your sinning. And then he'll give them a timeout. And then he'll say, Okay, you're gonna have to prove yourself if you want to continue to be uh serving the Lord, and then they'll have a time where they prove themselves, and then he'll let them get back in the battle. Because the truth is, every single one of us in this house today deserved to go to hell for our sins. Whatever you thought, whatever you said, your attitudes, and because we're all sinners, we all deserve to go to hell anyway, right? So don't cast a stone at somebody else that might have made a bad mistake, might have made a bad decision, and then you're not gonna give them a chance. So, Pastor, he strengthens people, he builds them back up, and he puts them back in the battle for the Lord. So I'm I I really appreciate that so much of our of our pastor, uh, that he doesn't throw people away. Some churches they will kick you to the dirt, kick you in the head, and throw you out into the desert. So you can. So a lot of a lot of Christians, they when they screw up, they they don't get it, they never come back to the Lord. They just end up having some crazy sad lives. Uh and uh just a couple of examples, real quick. Um Peter, he repent, he Jesus says, You're gonna deny me three times. And Peter said, No, I'm not gonna deny you. And he was following Jesus, and they says, Are you with Jesus? No, no, no. Three times Peter denied Jesus. And then at the third time, the cock crew. And Peter remembered, Jesus said that I'm gonna deny him three times, the cock is gonna crew. And when that cock crew, or crowed, whatever you want to call it, Jesus turned around on the cross, and Peter, he just wept. He just started crying, just broke his heart, and he went, wept bitterly, and went away. However, God didn't give up on him. Do you know in Acts chapter 2, uh Peter preached to 2,000 people, or three over 3,000 people, 3,000 people got saved and baptized and joined the church that day. Doubting Thomas, he didn't believe. He said, I'm not gonna believe until I see, until I stick my hand in his side and touch his hand. I'm not gonna believe. Jesus came back. He says, Thomas, here I am. Put your hand in here. And he's like, Oh, I'm so sorry, Lord. Next one. The woman caught in adultery, ready to be stoned. Can we have an image for that one there? A woman caught in adultery. Um, it was a setup. They they wanted to, they they brought this woman. They knew she was going to commit adultery, they set it up, and they were ready to stone this woman here. And they told Jesus, what are you gonna do? The law says to stone her. And Jesus, he's just kind of ignoring him, writing on the ground. He gets up, he says, He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone. And the Bible says, From the eldest to the youngest, they started walking away one by one. And then it was just Jesus and the lady by themselves. And what did Jesus say? He says, So when they continued to ask him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without sin, let him first cast a stone in here. When they're all alone, Jesus says, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. So he told her, Hey, you're forgiven, don't sin anymore. That's the warning. Don't sin anymore, don't go back to your sin. Okay? So the next thing, pastors give account for our souls. And I'm gonna hustle up, okay? I promise I'm I'm almost done, okay, guys? Uh so uh he's on got pastor's wife, she does so much for for the Lord, she helps the ladies get for for weddings. Hundreds of hours helping ladies get ready for weddings, counseling ladies, loving ladies. She helps with the kids' class, she helps with the teenagers, she helps in the nursery. Um, she does so much, so it's not just pastor, it's his wife. Next one, pastor loves missionaries. Now, what's our responsibility towards our pastor? But one, to follow the man of God. He needs prayers. Being a pastor is not easy. You go through ups and you go through downs. Somebody could love you one minute, you say one thing, one thing, and next thing you know, they're talking bad about you and they're gone. You do one thing that they don't agree with, then they're gone. They're upset. Now, I've been in this church about 13, 14 years. Pastor said some things that I didn't agree with, but I didn't just say, oh man, I'm out of here because I don't agree with this one thing that he said. I'm like, okay, that's fine. Little differences. But it's not, I'm not talking about the important doctrines of the Bible, okay? I'm just talking about little things. But people get offended so easy and then just give up on the on the pastor, give up in the church, go somewhere else, but that's a huge mistake. Um then pray for our family every day. Now, another one, Elijah being taken away in a chariot of fire. So, uh, you got that one? Elijah taken away in a chariot of fire. So Elijah and Elijah, Elijah had a servant, his name was Elisha, and he told him, Hey, if if you're with me when I go away, then you're gonna get God's power. And Elijah even tested him, hey, I'm I'm going somewhere, and why don't you stay here? God told me to go. He said, No, no, no, no. If you're going, I'm going. And so he just, no matter what, he stayed by his side. And then the Bible says that the the chariot of God and fire came, and the and the horses of flames came, and they got Elijah and took him away in the chariot, and Elisha was like, Oh, my master. It was uh pretty amazing. Uh let me see if I can read the verse here. Okay, and it says, uh it says, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof, and he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. Okay, so now we're back to Moses and the rod of God. And so uh the Bible says that they held it up till the end of the day, till it got dark. So you could imagine how exhausted they were. They were just literally probably just shaking, you know, and all of them just, you know, whatever, but as you could imagine. But if Moses didn't have Aaron and her to help him to hold that rod of God up, because when he put it down, the Israelites lost. So every pastor needs an Aaron and a her. Okay? And each one of us in this room can be an Aaron and a her to our pastor. Uh let's give them guys a big hand here. Amen. We're done. You did it. Hallelujah. Man, they definitely need a big hand. Uh uh, thank you, brother. I appreciate you. You're numb. I fingered a job. Now you know what Moses felt like, brother. Amen. All right. Thank you, guys. I didn't know I was gonna hold you up there that long. But anyway, uh, so anyway, yeah, so that's awesome. And I only got 20 more pages, but I'm gonna I'm gonna cut it short, okay? Uh the last one. Women also supported Jesus. And um finish up here. The Bible says that at the at the uh, what is it uh Matthew 27, 45, now from the sixth hour there's darkness over all the land into the night. That's 12 o'clock in the 12 o'clock in the afternoon. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, it got totally dark. For three hours, from 12 to 3, which is a miracle in itself. And and and the Bible says that uh when Jesus was dying, there were some women who loved Jesus. And they were following Jesus from afar. So it's just not just men that need to follow the man of God and God, it's women also. Some of the greatest Christians in the Bible were actually women. Some of the most dedicated people in the Bible were women. Um let's just go to 55. And many women were there, beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him. They were helping Jesus. Among which was Mary Magdalene. She was the woman that had been cast, seven demons were cast out of her. And she gave her life to Jesus and she followed him. And Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, and mother of Zebedee's children, of course, his mother Mary was there also. Now, to bring it all down, Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. Throughout his ministry, he had men and women that loved him and followed him and supported him. So we should have a church full of people, men, women, boys, and girls, that not only love God, but also love our pastor and support him and follow him and want to bless him. 1 Timothy 5, 17 through 18 says, Let the elders that rule well, and that's another way of saying pastors, be counterworthy a double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the labor is worthy of his reward. So let's bow our heads and let's pray. If you want to come forward and pray, please feel free to do so. If you want to make a commitment to God and to yourself, and you're you're gonna support our pastor, you're gonna love our pastor, uh, you're gonna appreciate his wife and him and his wife, and and if you want to just be a strong pillar in this church, lifting up our pastor's arms and being a servant and and helping him, and and essentially you're helping the Lord, uh it's a good thing to do.