Serve God On Purpose

John Wesley said,  “One of the principal rules of religion is, to lose no occasion of serving God. And, since he is invisible to our eyes, we are to serve him in our neighbor; which he receives as if done to himself in person, standing visibly before us.”

Pastor Ray continues his series “On-Purpose” with a message titled, Serve God—On Purpose.

What is Ridgecrest Baptist Church - Sermons?

Ridgecrest Baptist Church is located in Dothan, AL and exists to Reach the lost, Build the believer, and Connect people of God to the mission and purpose of God.

In Yorkshire, England, during the early 1800s, there were two boys that were born to a family named Taylor. And the older son set out to make a name for himself. He entered Parliament and gained a lot of public prestige during his years in Parliament. But the younger son chose to give his life to Christ. And then he committed himself to serving God all of his life, unconditionally and with all of his heart. And with that commitment, Hudson Taylor turned his face toward China and to the obscurity of the gospel in China. And you may know the story of Hudson Taylor. As a result, he is honored today on every continent and recognized as one of the greatest missionaries of all time and the founder of the China Inland Mission or the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. By the way, as for the other son who entered Parliament, there's no lasting monument. In fact, when you look in the... In an encyclopedia to see what the other son has done, these are the words you'll find. The brother of Hudson Taylor, the one who served God so effectively. And by the way, if you've never read a biography on Hudson Taylor, pick one up. There are lots of them. And it will bless you and inspire you to live your life for God. But if you want to succeed in life, you have to commit your life to serving God.

Now, there's no speculation. Any longer. Any longer that our world is full of chaos and dysfunction. I think you'd agree with that statement. And I believe that much, if not all of it, really gets down to the simple problem of not really listening to what God has to say. Not really listening to God's Word. And it's not unusual today, as I've told you many times, to hear people say things like, Well, I don't believe in absolute truth. Or, I follow my own truth. These are just another way, really, of saying, I don't really care. I don't really care what God says or what God thinks. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to believe what I want to believe. And if it happens to match up with God, all the better. But if not, so be it. But the Bible says this in Proverbs, There's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it is the way to death. I think we're living the truth of that right now in our world. And I believe that much of the mess in our world today, and in our culture in particular, is because we've tried to make the Bible adjust to us, instead of us adjusting to the Scriptures. I believe that aligning our lives with God's Word and God's will is the most important thing you can ever do. I did a series about a year ago on God's will and its importance, and told you, you know, two things. That the most important thing in the world, in the universe, is doing the will of God. And then the second part of that, you may remember we said, So the most important thing in my life, if the most important thing is the will of God in the universe, the most important thing in my life, is that I'm aligned with the will of God, and I'm practicing and doing the will of God. Because if you read the Bible, it's pretty clear that we need to align ourselves with God as we are racing toward the end of the age. That's why Jesus said in John 9, as He looked ahead for His disciples, He said, We must do the works of Him who sent us while we can, while it's still day, because the night's coming when we can't. I'd say that's become more real than we could have ever imagined. I wonder, do you believe that Jesus is coming back? Do you believe that Jesus is coming back? If you believe Jesus is coming back, say amen. do. And we see the evidence around us. And if that is true, and it is true, because He said it, if it is true, then we need to live our lives with a greater sense of urgency. Would you agree with that statement? If we look and say Jesus is going to return, we're closer than ever before, whatever that means. We're closer than ever before. We don't know exactly when, so we can look and we can see the seasons and what's going on. And it should cause us to say we have to live our lives with a great sense of urgency. We must work together for the purposes of God while we can until He returns, which means we must serve God now on purpose. That's what I want to talk to you about this morning. If you're physically able to stand with me, do so as we read and honor the Scriptures, beginning in verse 38 of Mark chapter 9. This is what the Scripture says. John said to him, that is Jesus, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water, to drink because you belong to Christ, will by no means lose his reward. Father, help us to serve you. Help us to understand the urgency of the moment that we're living in. And Father, help us to use our lives, whatever we do, wherever we are, in our homes, in our workplaces, Father, in the body of Christ, wherever it may be, Father. Help us to understand now more than ever before our relationship to you matters and our service to you matters. And that we are to live and to serve you on purpose. Help us to get it. Help us to understand it. Father, I pray that all who today hear your word, Father, will be challenged by it. Some convicted to change their lives. Some, Father, who need you to come to you and offer themselves to you. And Father, others that need to be reminded and encouraged and inspired to keep on faithfully serving and enduring for the sake of the gospel. Amen. And we pray. Speak now. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Jesus addresses in this passage, just these few verses, he addresses a common misconception. It existed then. It exists to this day. And it is the idea that you have to have some special vocational calling in order to serve God or to minister in his name. Now, I would add that this passage is not, and Jesus is not, affirming or legitimizing anything or everyone simply because they invoke the name of Jesus. There are a lot of the, the Bible says the spirit of the Antichrist has already gone out into the world. Jesus, John, Peter, I'll make it clear that there are many false Christs and false prophets operating in the world. We know that to be true. So everything that uses the name of Jesus is not of Jesus, all right? But if that wasn't the case, that's not what he's talking about here. He's not legitimizing everybody that just stamps Jesus on top of something. In fact, John told us, to test the spirits to see whether or not they are real or they are genuine. In fact, Jesus' point here is that ministry is not limited to the, quote, professionals. The fact is all of us who belong to Christ are responsible to serve God. It's not a vocational issue. It's a relational issue. If you are related to him, you are responsible to serve him. Whatever you do in life, is to be used as service to him. Whatever your platform is, that's your ministry. That's your opportunity to serve God. And God has provided, of course, another platform for all of us, and that is the body of Christ and we're to function as a healthy body by serving him in a variety of roles. That's his church. As I told you, 127 people tomorrow will begin working with all these little ones that'll be here. It's an opportunity to serve the church of Christ. To serve the church of God and to serve the kingdom of God. But to serve the church of God, you gotta be connected to the church of God. I love the story I read about a certain family in a Southern Baptist church, as it would be. They had been inactive for years. The family had just stopped going, never went to church anymore, and every effort to get them to return and to attend had failed. But on one day, one of the sons named John was bitten by a rattlesnake. And the father immediately called for the pastor asking that he come by and pray for John. So the pastor did. He went to the house to offer a prayer for John and this is what he prayed. Oh, wise and gracious father, we thank you that you have, in your wisdom, sent this rattlesnake to bite John in order to bring him to his senses. He has not been to church for years. It is doubtful if he has ever before in all his life felt the need of prayer. Now, though, we pray. And we pray that this will prove a valuable lesson for John and that it will lead to his repentance. And, Lord, we also pray that you would send another snake to bite Sam and another to bite Jim and another to bite the old man. We've been doing everything we could, Lord, for many years, but all our efforts could not accomplish what this snake has done, none with one bite. We thus conclude, oh, heavenly father, that the only thing that will do this family any good is rattlesnakes. So, Lord, please send them bigger and better rattlesnakes. Amen.

Listen, you get it, don't you? Don't wait until a rattlesnake gets your attention. Now's the time to serve God. Now's the time to be faithful to God. On purpose, until he returns. And until... Until he returns, God's given his people some responsibilities. What are they? Let me suggest three to you. Number one, God has given us a ministry. He's given us a ministry in order to show his love and care to a lost and dying world. Paul said in Corinthians, he says, that God has entrusted to us a ministry of reconciliation. That is, that we should be reconciled to God first, he says, and then to others. This is our ministry, and whatever you do, whatever your vocation, whatever your relationships are, your platform and your purpose is to serve God by helping people be reconciled to God first. By the way, you can't reconcile man with man until you've reconciled man with God. One of the problems in our world today is we believe in reconciliation. We just think we can reconcile with each other and that'll fix everything. We see it happening right now in the political stage. We see it happening across the globe. Let's just reconcile. Let's just make peace with everything. Until man makes peace with God, he'll never be at peace with his fellow man. And this is the ministry that we've been given, a ministry. It's the work of our church. It's the work of all believers to bring reconciliation, to point people to God, to help them understand the love of God. Reconciliation. We've been given a ministry. The second thing is that we have been given a message. Our message is a message of hope. And by the way, can you imagine, can you imagine there is a time worse than where we are right now needing hope? We need hope. This world needs hope. Our nation needs hope. Our community needs hope. And I want to tell you something. Hope isn't going to be found in the judicial system. Hope is not going to be found in the government. Hope is not going to be found in economics. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, our living hope. We just sang that. Jesus Christ, our living hope. That's where our hope is found. And that's the message that in Jesus Christ, there's hope. There's hope for a world that's struggling, a world in chaos. And it's our responsibility to bring hope into the darkness. God has given us a ministry of reconciliation. He's given us a message of hope. The Bible doesn't say that Jesus is an answer for the world. It says Jesus is the answer. He's not a answer. He is the answer. Some say that he's just one among many, but the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible says he is the one and only. John 14, 6. He is the one and only. Now, when I was a teenage boy, I used to listen to the music of, at then, what was considered a contemporary artist named Andre Crouch. Anybody remember Andre Crouch and the Disciples? I had all of his albums. And he had some great songs. And by the way, I still listen to Andre Crouch. I have his greatest hits on my phone. And he had some great songs. My Tribute, we've sung that here many times. Jesus is Coming Back, Just Like He Said He Would. We've sung that. And then maybe my favorite is Jesus is the Answer. Jesus is the answer for the world today. Above him there's no other. Jesus is the way. That's a simple song, but it's a profound truth. And that's the message. The message that we have, Jesus is the answer. Jesus is the answer. It's true. It was true when it was recorded in the 70s. It's true today. Nothing has changed. Jesus is the answer. And the Bible teaches, not only do we have a ministry and a message, but listen, God has given us a mandate as well. We have a ministry. We have a message to deliver to the world. And we have this mandate. All of this is about serving him. It's our responsibilities. We are to go. We are to go into all the world and make disciples of everyone. We call it the Great Commission. Matthew 28, 19. Go into all the world. This is our responsibility. This is our mandate. We have a ministry. We have a message. But we have a mandate. This is in the imperative. You know, I tell you that a lot. I love to point out in the scripture when we're looking at a passage when it's imperative in the Greek language. Because an imperative is a reminder that it is not an option. It is a command. Jesus isn't saying, think about going into the world. Think about making a difference in the culture. Think about being light and salt and all of that out there. Think about taking a message to the world of hope. Or think about being reconcilers with God. No, it's not saying think. It's saying do it. Command. An imperative. And we must see ourselves as servants of Christ if we're going to do that. And so this morning, let me give you. Let me give you three things from our passage I think will help us understand the importance of not just our responsibilities as we've talked about, but our role of being servants for God on purpose, intentionally servants for God. Number one, let's be occupied with our service for Christ. You might even say let's be preoccupied with our service for Christ. Verse 38 in our passage, John addresses Jesus. He says, Jesus, let me just tell you something. We saw someone casting out demons in your name. There was this unknown follower. We don't know who he is. He's not named in the passage. But he's a follower of Jesus Christ, and he was making a difference in his world. He was doing ministry. He was serving God. He was serving the kingdom of God. But he wasn't one of the twelve. And John raised a concern with Jesus about this man who was serving Christ and doing God's work. Purely because he wasn't one of them. He hadn't been handpicked by Jesus. And so John says, Teacher, do you know there's this guy out there, and he's casting out demons in your name. And if you notice in verse 38, that John says, and we, we tried, that is the disciples, we tried to stop him from serving you. But he refused to cease. Good for him. Why? Because he, he was preoccupied with the things of God over the opinions of people. And so even with the twelve, and said, no, no, you can't do that. That is ministry reserved for us. Thank God Jesus understood ministry is not reserved for the professionals.

And, and they said, so Jesus, we tried to stop him, but he wouldn't. What do you want to do about this? That's really what John is doing. He's tattling on this servant of God. And, and what they were doing were arguing over the qualifications to serve. Jesus, he's not, he's not one of us. He's not qualified to do ministry in your name. You know, people will tell you that you're not qualified to be used by God. But if you're on this planet, and it looks like two-thirds of you in this building today are, and you're alive, God has meaning and purpose for your life. And part of that is to serve him, and to serve him on purpose with your life. And people will tell you, you just, you're not qualified to be used by God. But I tell you, the primary qualification of service to God is your ability, your availability, not your abilities. And we know God needs us to serve. In John chapter 4, Jesus said this, look, look out at the fields. The fields are white unto harvest. Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send laborers. The fields are ripe, but the laborers are few. Now, if you, if you let up the opinions, if you let up the opinions of other people set your agenda, you'll do very little for God.

I have a prayer closet off of my office, and I have a little altar in there, a prayer altar in there, and I can go and I can shut myself in there and be alone. And in there I have some plaques that I kind of have stationed about in various places. And one of the plaques in that little prayer closet that I have says this, if you are afraid of criticism, you will die doing nothing.

If you're afraid of criticism, you'll die doing nothing. And that's particularly true in the kingdom of God. If you're afraid of some people's response or opinion, you'll, you won't serve God. I grew up on what some people might call the wrong side of the tracks.

And because of where I came from, I have to tell you, as a teenage boy, after I'd given my life to Christ at 12 and then recognized the call of God in my life at the age of 14, as a teenage boy, I was told that I had to have certain qualifications if I was going to serve God with my life. Frankly, there were qualifications that I never had, and I still don't. I was told that I had to associate with certain institutes, and I had to affiliate with certain people, or I wouldn't be able to serve God effectively. I was even labeled a fanatic by some in my own family. And some of my family actually said that I was so preoccupied with religion that it would drive me insane. Well, they were right about one thing. I was preoccupied, but it wasn't with religion. I was preoccupied with Jesus and serving Him with my life. And by the way, all these years later, I still am. Now listen, there are people that will tell you that you don't have the right stuff, or the right fluff, or the right connections to make a difference for God. Don't you believe it. Just occupy yourself with Jesus. Preoccupy yourself with Jesus. He'll handle it from there. One of the best things you can ever say to Jesus is, yes. Yes. Jesus, what do you want in my life? I'll show you. Yes. I've had young men call the ministry, come to me before and say, well, I don't know what it is. I just sense the call of God on my life. I say, the key is to say this. Say, yes, Jesus. He'll work out the details. You say yes. You obey Him. You follow Him. He'll work out the details. And He'll take you on. On the journey He created to take you on. You say, well, that's for guys going into the ministry. No, that's for all of us. If you came and said to me, how should I serve God in my life? I'd say, get before Him and ask Him. And then say, God, I'll serve any way I can. I'll start wherever I can. Don't wait for God to drop it on you, okay? Sometimes here's the mistake we make. Say, well, I'm waiting for that special word. Do this. Sometimes God does that. Don't wait for that. Say, God, I'm going to serve you. There's a place I can serve you. Here's a way that I can serve you. I can always serve you out there in my family. I can serve you in my vocation. Whatever it may be in the church, I can do this. I may not feel like I have the gifts or bills, but I can start here. And God can move you where He wants to move you, okay? The key is to say, yes, yes, yes. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Here am I. Send me. You remember, that's what Isaiah said. When God says, I want to use you, Isaiah said, Lord, I'm a man of unclean lips. I have an unclean life. But, Lord, if you can use me, yes, here I am. That's what we all should say. Jesus, yes. In fact, let's practice that word. It's a hard word. You ready? On the count of three, let's all say yes to Jesus. One, two, three. Yes. That was pretty good. Let's do it again. One, two, three. Yes. Now let's do it this way. Let's say, yes, Jesus, whatever you have. One, two, three. Yes, Jesus, whatever you have. Now, see, God can use that. And God can take you on the journey, no pun intended, of a lifetime. If you'll learn to say yes. Preoccupy yourself with Jesus. We can be like this follower of Christ. We don't know his name. But this anonymous disciple was being used by God to bring deliverance in the name of Christ. And listen, Jesus was pleased. He said, if he's not against us, he's for us. He said, if he's not against us, he's for us. He said, if he's not against us, he's for us. Let somebody be doing ministry in my name and speak evil of us. The Bible says, whatever you do in word or in deed, do all for the glory of God. Jesus changes everything. So let's be preoccupied with Jesus. Number two. Let's be unified in our service for Christ on purpose.

Again, verse 40. For the one who is not against us is for us. D.L. Moody, the great evangelist, said this. He said, there are two ways of being unified. united one is by being frozen together and the other is being melted together and what christians need is to be unified in brotherly love love for one another by this shall all men know that you are my disciples that you have love for one another unified that by brotherly love he says and then they may they can expect as the people of god to have the power of god and here jesus is telling his followers that the anonymous healer this anonymous uh servant was not their enemy but he was their fellow servant he was doing the same work that they were doing for god and in that work they were to be united now there's a difference between being united and and and having union there's a difference between union being united you can have union without being unified just tie the tails of two cats together and hang them over a clothesline and you'll see the difference between union and unity listen god's people should have more than union they should be unified in christ they should be the most unified people on the planet because the most unifying force in the universe is jesus christ that's what the cross was all about paul writes in galatians 3 and says for in christ jesus you are all sons of god through faith for as many of you as were baptized into christ have put on christ there is neither june or greek there's neither slave nor free there's neither male and female for you are all one in christ jesus now i hope you i hope you note that it is in a relationship with christ that we are unified i'm not talking about some generic kind of unity it's it's unity in christ that changes the world and in that passage i just read galatians 3 paul is saying that we are all one and we are all one that there's one thing that breaks down the the disunity uh in in life between believers between believers and the world is it is jesus christ jesus christ is the greatest unifier of all of humanity in all of history nothing or no one unifies better than jesus i've had the privilege i've had the privilege in my life and ministry to travel all over the world i've spoken in many different lands and to many different peoples i've spoken in many different churches and here's what you discover when they are believers in christ when they believe them practice the bible that no matter what their nationality no matter what their social position no matter what their background is those in christ jesus no matter where they are all over the globe those in christ jesus are connected there's a kinship you sense it you feel it there's a a unity unity uh because we're unified not by our our nationality not by our ethnicity we are unified by our relationship to jesus christ our identity in him there's a lot being said today about identity isn't there let me just give you one word if you want to identify with somebody other than just yourself say i identify with jesus christ my identity is in jesus christ the bible teaches that friend let me tell you hell trembles when the people of god unite behind the biblical truth of god in order to accomplish the eternal purpose of god that's why jesus said of his church the gates of hell cannot and will not prevail prevail over a unified people of god a unified body of christ the church of christ so let's be unified in our service to god but last let's beED fortified by our service for Christ. Verse 41, whoever gives you a cup of water will by no means lose his reward. Let's be fortified by our service for Christ. He says, whoever gives you a cup of water. Did you get that? Jesus is taking note of even the smallest kind of service rendered in his name for his people. It's the smallest kind. It just seems like a little thing, but he called attention to the small thing. Let me tell you what gives you strength to serve God. It isn't the rewards and accolades in this life because sometimes you don't get them here. You can serve and you can even serve God and it seems like nobody knows. God knows, but the reward is ahead. You know, Jesus, said to the Pharisees, let them do their, their religious thing because that is their reward being seen by men in this world. Sometimes we, we want to be seen by others and recognized by others when our focus should be, what does Jesus think? Sometimes you get your reward right here and right now. That's what he said to the Pharisees. They do their, they practice their deeds in order that men may see and applaud them and affirm them. There's nothing wrong with affirmation, appropriate kind of affirmation, the right kind of affirmation. The Bible says, tribute to whom tribute is due, honor to whom honors do. Nothing wrong with that, but we don't live for that because sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't. What you want it from is to hear from your master, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful a little now, enter into the joy of your master. I will entrust you with much. Sometimes you just don't get it here. You don't get that kind of affirmation. You don't get that kind of affirmation. Don't live for that affirmation. Fortify your soul by serving Christ and knowing that even if others never see or never notice what you are doing for God, God does. If God can see the smallest deed, like a cup of water being offered in his name to his people, he sees everything. That's the point of that. All the little things that nobody else sees, behind the scenes kinds of things, God sees and God is honored by those things. Our world is full of injustices, hello, and inequities, hello, and sometimes it feels like God is completely unaware, but friend, here's what I've learned, and again, it fortifies my soul to know that God doesn't settle all his accounts in this life. Don't miss that. I had to learn this years ago. God doesn't settle all the accounts in this life. He doesn't settle all of them in, but he does settle all accounts, and Jesus is telling us here that our king is, by watching the cup of water that he talks about here, is the idea of service in ministry, of being a servant, and when you do this, you remember Jesus talked about this act of service, when you do it to the least of these, he says, you've done it to me, and it equals and leads to a kingdom reward, a kingdom reward to come. Paul understood that, 2 Timothy chapter 4, not too much, he wrote those words, not too much. earlier from the day he would be executed and this is what he said i fought the good fight i've finished the race i've kept the fate and now there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness with which the lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day but not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing in other words the implication is he says look i've i've finished my course i've run my race and he said i've kept the faith i haven't faltered he didn't say it was perfect roman 7 he talks about his imperfections but he says i've stayed the core i've kept the fate i've fought the good fight and he said and my time of departure is at hand he says that in that chapter he knew his his beheading his execution was soon to follow and he said but well here's what i i know because i finished my mission my task i've done what god put me on this world in this world to do i've served god on purpose he said now i know there's a crown of righteousness waiting for me that's fortified us doesn't it because it helps us here and now say wait wait am i running the race that god has put me in you know you have a race if you're here you have a race to run in here's the good news you're not competing with anybody around you you're not competing with other christians what what you're doing is running a race that you can win by keeping your eyes fixed on jesus the writer of hebrews says so that when it comes when it comes that time when god will call you home or jesus returns you can you can say i fought a good fight i've kept the faith i have finished the course my course the course that god designed for me when i came here 23 plus years ago the first message i believe the very first message i preach on my first actual sunday in the pulpit as a pastor was based on second timothy chapter four where i talked about i fought a good fight i kept the faith and i the title of that message was beginning with the end in mind beginning with the end in mind how do i want to finish if i if i want to finish right i've got to start right and stay the course and you and i have that same kind of responsibility to keep running that race running that race as long as we're here so that we like paul can say hey look i i have i have kept the faith i fought the good fight i finished the race paul knew what awaited and so he served he labored on and he did it all for god for the coming crowned of righteousness that was his that's why he served bill broadhurst was running in the omaha nebraska pepsi 10k race it's a race of 6.2 miles and broadhurst who is a christian has been slowed because of a brain aneurysm that he suffered as a young man that left him partially paralyzed on his left side but he wanted to run in this 10k race and despite his his limitations and he was determined to run because bill rogers who was one of his heroes bill was a very good runner bill rogers was going to run in that race a day and so bill broadhurst wanted to run in the same race that one of his running heroes ran in rogers as i said is a great runner and he ran in that race and he finished it 29 minutes and 37 seconds he won and he received a gold medal the other runners in the race finished some 30 minutes to 50 minutes the joggers crossed the line in 60 or 70 minutes but it would take bill broadhurst because of his limitations and a bit of paralysis it would take him much longer and as he ran there were kids along the route who didn't know his condition and they made fun of him hey mister you you missed a good race he said as he ran his left side got so numb that he wanted to quit he wanted to drop out and after two hours of running he was able to run and he was able to run and he was able to run and he started releasing the cars back onto the roads and the streets it was getting dark it was on a saturday afternoon and he was running through intersections and it became difficult in fact one policeman saw him and stopped cars to let him cross at a at a traffic light while a lady happened to see him and handed him some water at the two hours and 20 minutes mark bill broadhurst said the pain was so bad and so throbbing i didn't want to make it i didn't want to make it i didn't want to make it i didn't want to go on but then he looked and he saw the end of the race there was the end of race but he said they'd already taken the banner down that's how far back they'd already started cleaning up they'd taken the banner down the finish line banner but broadhurst ran down the street on the sidewalk seeing that the banner was gone his heart sank a bit because everybody had left there was nobody there at the finish line everybody had left and he thought what's the use but he decided he'd come that far he was going to finish the race And when he got to the end, when he crossed what had been the finish line, out of the alleyway stepped Bill Rogers, the man who'd won it, and a gang of people who had waited for him to finish the race and had slipped out to the side to surprise him. They were waiting for him. And Bill Rogers, the man who won it all, this hero of Bill Broadhurst, opened up his arms, and he welcomed Broadhurst as he came across the finish line. He hugged him, and after Broadhurst wheeled his partially paralyzed body the last few steps to the end of the race, Rogers then took off his gold medal, and he put it on Bill Broadhurst. And he said to him, Broadhurst, you're the real winner. You take the gold. Listen, until Jesus returns, stay in the race. Even if you think you're alone, keep serving Jesus. Fight the good fight. Finish the race. Keep the faith. Be preoccupied and occupied with Jesus. Be unified in service to Christ. And be fortified in your soul to keep going because you know that there's a finish line you can cross, and on the other side of that line is the crown of righteousness that will be served. It's bestowed on you. Keep serving. Keep running. You can get across the line. Father, help us to be faithful servants. Faithful servants. Keeping our eyes fixed upon the author and the perfecter of our faith. Serving you, running with endurance the race that's been marked out for us. Knowing, Father, that it's not about our qualifications. It's about our relationships. It's about our relationship with you. And, Father, I pray for any that are under the sound of my voice today that are listening on live stream or television, radio, right here in this audience. Father, I pray that if they've never put their trust in you, that today they will call on you. They will cry out to you, and they will say, Lord Jesus, save me. Come into my life. Forgive me of my sins. Give me eternal life. Replace the old with the new. I call on you. Father, I know you're here. You hear that prayer. For others, Father, are here or listening. Father, they've lost the will to go on. They're discouraged. They're tired. They see this battle raging around them and don't know if they can make it. Would you fortify their souls this morning that this race is not just their strength. This race is run in the power of the Holy Spirit. Father, would you reinvigorate them? Refresh them. Get them back on course. Father, thank you that we can finish, and we can hear, well done, good and faithful servant. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Would you stand? Well, I'm so glad that you have tuned in to the broadcast today. I hope you've been encouraged by God's word. It sure has been a joy to share it with you. And even now, people at Ridgecrest are making decisions for Christ. Perhaps as you've watched this broadcast, you've recognized the need for your own decision for Christ. The prompting of the Spirit has caused you to recognize that you need Christ as your Savior. And the good news is you can receive Him right where you are. The Bible says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Right where you are, you can call on Him. Say something like this from your heart to Him. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me. I know I'm a sinner, and I know that you came into this world and died on the cross for my sins. And right now, I invite you to come. Come into my life. Forgive me and be my Savior. I can assure you if you'll call on Him, based on what God has already told us in the Bible, that He'll hear that prayer, and He'll answer that. And He wants to begin this new journey in your life with you, transforming you into His image. We'd love to help you with that decision as well. You'll see a QR code on your screen. And if you would scan that, or you'll see contact information, or if you'll contact us about your decision today, we'd love to help you take next steps. There are no strings attached. No fees involved. We'd just like to help you begin that journey with Christ. You may be watching this broadcast today and say, I need a church family to belong to. I already know Christ as my Savior, and I'd like to be a part of the Ridgecrest family. Also, if you will, scan that QR code. That'll take you to a location, and we'll be able to help you make those kinds of decisions like becoming a member here, or if you've never been scripturally baptized, those kinds of things. So contact us through that QR code, or through the contact information on the screen. Well, again, it's been a joy to have you with us today, and I hope you've been encouraged by God's Word. Whatever decision we can help you with, by all means, contact us. May the Lord bless you.