Pastor Ralph Douglas West - Looking Backward And Marching Forward - Joshua 1:7-9

0:00 Joshua chapter 1. Allow me to read verses 7 through verse 9. And I want to hang a tag on this text, looking backwards and marching forward. it. I'm not as much interested in today being the first Sunday of a new year because I try to be faithful to God's witness every week. But this text seems to be tailored neatly for today. For those of you who have been reading through the Bible through the year and maybe you're following the pattern where the historical books land on Tuesday, that's what happened to me. I had a whole nother sermon for you. I was going to get after you on money today. But these words grabbed me.

1:02 Let me ask those of you, are there any of you here that you need to get out of here by 1130? No, I'm serious. To go to work or something? You got to be at work? One of you? No problem. So I know you will. So when you leave for work, that's not an indication for the rest of you to leave. I'm going to ask you now. I'm speaking to you now as your pastor. That is, if I'm your pastor. Because I'm aware that a lot of people go to churches and the pastor is not their pastor. I'm speaking of my members now. I'm going to ask you for the integrity of worship. We'll be done. It's 1051. We'll be finished 1130-ish, 1133, 1135. I'm just asking you.

1:54 I'm glad everybody think this funny. If you could stay in church and receive the benediction. The final blessing is what that word means. Some of you have never heard the benediction because you're running out. And listen, I'm not mad at you. I've been in a lot of prayer about that, how to say that. And I mean this lovingly. Many of you did not grow up in churches with a strong discipline. And there's only one letter difference between disciple and discipline. And you can't be a disciple if you won't be disciplined. And I don't know anybody who's successful in any endeavor that does not exercise discipline. I don't care what it is, you know.

2:51 and mom and dad I'm asking you because when you stand still you help your children at school with their teachers in the world where discipline is demanded and so that's one thing I wanted to say and thank you choir for blessing us today when I look at all of our young people one of the prayers that I've had for years is, Lord, help us to always have a worship where our young people, when they go away, when they go away in Philadelphia, gone away, glad to have you home, and go away to different places, very seriously. Whatever church they go to, they can say, I enjoy that, but I grew up in a church where we heard the best church music, where we were exposed to the best kind of preaching and worship.

3:50 And that's real important to me for our young people to be exposed to that. So a lot of what I'm doing is not old, fogey, mean, musty Pastor Wes. It is for a generation to say, I grew up in that kind of tradition. I know what great church looks like and I know what great church sounds like. Glad to have Cap Apple Siah with us today. Thank you, brother, for being here. Thank you for worshiping with us and for your contributions that you're always making. I really mean that. Thank you for that. You thought I was gonna say something else, didn't you, Cawson?

4:36 I know you thought I was getting ready to say something else. I'll say that when I take the picture. Joshua 1 a look backwards and a march forward. Let me begin at verse seven. Be strong and be very courageous.

5:04 Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left that you may be successful wherever you go. keep this book of the law always on your lips, meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.

5:29 Then you will be prosperous and successful. This is the word of God. You may be seated. During the Great Depression, When the economic institutions and businesses

5:56 have been strangled and the life of finance have been depleted and families have fallen on hard times, Pliny Wingo made the decision that he would do whatever he could to draw attention, popularity, and flame and fame to himself. And so he started walking. He walked 8,000 miles backwards, beginning at San Monica and ended in Istanbul, Turkey.

6:35 You can find him anywhere now. He made the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest walk backwards looking forward. This morning I want us to walk forward by looking backwards. For that's what this text is tailored about, that for those of you who are looking for clues to understand the scriptures more, is to keep in mind that Israel's history is always God's invitation to them to look in the rear view mirror, to retrace the steps where God has brought them from. Joshua begins at verse one with the word in the NIV after.

7:29 And this is the connection between the previous five books, the Pentateuch, the law, and this book, Joshua, the Hexateuch, for those of you who like Technical terminology, the first five books, and then the sixth book. This book, Joshua, begins after the death of Moses. Moses is gone now, and the stage has been rearranged, and that one word, after, implies not just a continuation of what God had done in previous chapters, but now God has rearranged the stage and he's putting another player to dramatize redemption to the earth. All the world's a stage and all the men and women are mere players.

8:25 They have their exits and their entrances and one man plays many parts. Moses played his part. he was the emancipator the liberator but now the courageous Joshua is playing his part he's central to the scene of the theme of the story he's central to the theatrical movement this theater is around Joshua salvation is the Lord a nickname that we sometimes use for Jesus Yahshua, salvation is the Lord. And now Joshua is central in the story after the death of Moses.

9:14 Here now we move into a commissioning, a speech from God to Joshua. It sounds like a general speaking to his lieutenant, which Joshua had served for over 40 years with Moses, has that kind of role as the lieutenant in the service of Moses. But now, at age 85, and Moses has been buried, his tent has been folded, and God folded it and placed him in Nebo's mountain. and one day you and I if you're curious enough we'll find that burial plot but not on this side of the grave and Joshua is on stage Joshua now is our central character you and I know you don't have to write me an email I I know that behind the whole scene the whole story is God's redemptive drama. But one of the beauties of God is that he uses ordinary people like you to fulfill his goals.

10:29 And Joshua is one of those persons. Moses is gone now and now the transition has taken place. Moses the emancipator, Joshua the encourager. The courageous one is there, verse one. And now God is about to give land to Israel. This is no strip of land. Canaan is promised land. Canaan land is the very terminologies denominologies that blacks would use when they would migrate from the south to the north or during those antebellum years when they would escape and go to Canaan land, Canaan land, freedom land, land with milk and land with honey. They were on their way, preach Pastor West, on their way to Canaan land.

11:34 Joshua now is receiving a message from God what he is to do as a leader to the nation of Israel. And he stands there between tears and celebration as it reflects upon old Moses, 120 years of age. His strength had not abated. He did not lose his sight. Wouldn't that be beautiful for you to come to the end and the Lord said you never weakened out. You never lost your vision and buried him and now Joshua and in these instructions God says something in verse four and five to Joshua. He says now remember this as a message of encouragement and that is as I was with Moses so I'll be with you. I wish time permitted.

12:30 It does not. It does not. But can you just imagine hearing God? Well, you can. It's here in the scripture. You can apply these to your life. You can simply say, as God was with Moses, as God was with Joshua, now God will be with you and with you and with you.

12:50 While he's standing at that very place, between verses five and six is where God says to Joshua, now you're going to need encouragement to face the uncertain possibilities that are in front of you. And this is what I want you to remember is this, be strong and be courageous. At that moment, those words sound like God is saying, be Herclean, be Titan, be Olympic in your behavior. It's really a different device that means rely upon the faithfulness of God. And if you were taking notes, I give you it this way, that if you're writing down, sketching things out, and I would say the first thing that this text is tailored to teach us about this morning is that when you are looking backwards, make sure that you look back to retrace the faithfulness of God in your life.

14:03 That's what this text is tailored to teach us is that when you look in the rear view mirror, see if you can retrace God's steps in your life of how faithful God had been to you. That's what Joshua was doing Joshua was first looking in the rear view mirror And he was looking at the steps that God had taken with Moses And how faithful God had been to Moses from the very beginning That when he was born and there was a genocide exacted Upon the first male-borns of Israel how God allowed Moses to be reared in his own house and then put in a basket and the right breath of wind and the right gentle breeze pushed him to the back of the palace of Pharaoh's daughter's house while she was out bathing and he cried at the right time and it was the cry that was heard around the world.

15:09 reaching out to grab Moses and drawing him out is how he got his name my name is Moses for God drew me out of the water but he didn't know that it would be another body of water out of which God would draw Israel out of called the Red Sea he followed the steps of Moses and the faithfulness of Moses and how God had been faithful to Moses. He thought about how Moses had told him, speaking of Joshua, about a burning bush. There had been a lot of bushes that burned. They combust in those desert places. The difference was those bushes burned and they burned out, but this was a bush that could not be consumed. He remembered when Moses told him, speaking of Joshua, about how God had called him and how God had summonsed him. And now Moses is dead. And Joshua now is not reflecting over the faithfulness of God to Moses. He's thinking of the faithfulness of God, what he witnessed with his own eyes. He thought about how God had crossed them over the Red Sea. He was in that. He thought about how in a dry place with no water, God gushed water out of a rock. He remembered when there were no instructions how God sent Moses up into the mountains and with his own finger wrote down his law for the nation. He remembered how when they were hungry, God sent quail and manna and then gave him dessert. He remembered how God preserved their sandals. He remembered how they never had to have their clothes taken in. He remembered how they drank from wells.

17:06 They did not dig and eat from trees that they had not planted. He remembered. Now, now, now, now, I notice you're not real excited, so let me flip it now. I ain't talking about Israel. I'm talking about how God has preserved you. Somewhere you have to spend some time looking backwards in order to faithfully move forward and look at how the Lord has brought you. There are times you get in church and even when you're older, you look and you look at people and you sit down. I could point some of them out now and you begin to say, It don't take all of that. Well, that's true. It doesn't take all of that for you.

18:00 But when you know, that there's a word that I always enjoyed. I like these words. And I was a philosophy student, epistemology. They throw epistemology into educational forms to know. But a fancy way of understanding epistemology is this particular device when you say you know that you know, that you know that you know. And there comes a time that all you might know about God is what the preacher say or what your mama or daddy say or what the choir say. But let me ask you to do something. Keep on living. And if you walk with God one day, you won't have to say what Pastor West said or what the choir said, you'll say, I know what God can do because I've watched him do it in my own life.

19:01 Look back to your past. Keep notes of it. Write it down in the margin of the leaf of your Bibles. If you journal, write it down sometime. every victory, each victory, some other will help you to win. Write it down when God gives you a victory and when God allows you to overcome, when you champion something, so that when you face a difficulty, when you come up against a insurmountable odd, you don't have to crumble like other folk. You're able to say God did it last year. God can do it this year. One of my members this morning said those very words to me. She's a cancer survivor. And she said, I got news.

19:54 I got to go check out some other stuff. Looked like this cancer might be back. I said, I'm touching and agreeing with you. She said, I just wanted you to know. And then she looked at me and said, but thank you for the message. On watch night and thank you for the word today. Because the one thing I'm aware of, that God who did it in the past. Preach Ralph West. Don't let these people throw you off now. They ain't got to listen to you. What God did in the past, I know he's able to do it again. I can tell a lot of y'all, you ain't been through that yet. But you just keep on living. Wait till you got to bury a mama, a daddy, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister. Lose your job. Battle with your help where nobody can help you. And you say, Father, I stretch my hands to thee.

20:52 You'll come running down the aisle saying, I know now that God who did it in the past, God can do it. Now let me give you one more thing And I'll be through But on your way On your way to wherever you're going If you're taking notes Here's a second thing that you might want to write down And that is Don't Stop. allow fear to prevent you from crossing when you come to the edge of future possibilities.

21:44 Yeah, I like that. Let me say it one more time. Don't let fear life or people prevents you from marching forward when you're at the edge of future possibilities, uncertainties. And that's what happens really from verses 5 to 11, and that's the rest of the story. This is where God is commanding Joshua, and this is where he says, already you've read it in verse 5. in verse 6 where he says be strong be courageous and then when you come to verse 7 he says be strong and be very courageous let me let you in on another device in understanding how these Hebrew minds work, Israelite mind.

22:53 Whenever, you know, when we write, our teachers tell us, say, now I was writing an article recently and I used this word, meet, met, meeting. And Elizabeth Flowers said to me, now Ralph, we know it was at the meeting, but it got to be another word to meet, met, meeting. Because these editors tell you when you're writing, you know they say use your thesaurus to find other words other words to say what you're saying come here apparently God didn't get that editorial memo because in verse 6 he says be strong and courageous verse 7 be strong and very courageous. Now that sounds more like the church I'm used to preaching to.

23:55 So the device that they use is that when there is an emphasis on a particular word, then they are stressing something. And remember earlier, the stress point was not on being titanic, Olympic, strong. It was to rely upon God's faithfulness. And so now when Joshua is at the edge of the Jordan, he comes to this point and he has to face this uncertainty of the Jordan if he's going to get into Canaan. Because you can't get to Canaan without going through the Jordan. I'm trying to help somebody.

24:51 Listen, if it's anything that has irked me as a Christian and as a preacher and one who is trained in it, is this kind of easy believism, this sophomoric Christianity that turns God into some genie. that if you say the right word, quote the right verse, rub the Bible the right way, that everything's going to turn out all right. Come here for a minute. Whether it turns out right to you or not does not make God any less God than who he is. I wish that life turned out in many places the way I want it to turn out.

25:51 And yet it had not. And I believe I can handle it if it had turned out the way that I wanted it to. But in every situation that God brings you through. It is always to make you a better you than you are right now. And so you have to be careful not to freeze. I like that word. At the edge of future possibilities. Don't freeze. Don't freeze. Don't freeze because there's always more in front of you than that's behind you. when Joshua gets to that point and God's telling him what to do, that becomes chapter three and four, to cross it over.

26:49 He's going to cross over because they are camped out now on the east side of the Jordan trying to get to the west side of Canaan. This is no strip of land south of them. is the negev the desert the land east of them is the euphrates west of them at the great sea the mediterranean north of them is lebanon you just look at you don't have to know geography you just look at the map and say that ain't no small piece of territory for them to go and god said that's for you but you can't have it without crossing because a lot of us we want the blessing we just don't want to cross it No, no, no.

27:45 You want the blessing. You want the favor. You want all of the goods and the prosperity and the success. And God says it's on the other side of the Jordan. You got to ford the river in order to get that. You got to brave the weather and the storms. I know what's behind you, but I got something better that's in front of you. please pass the whip Possibly hundreds, yea thousands of lives

28:20 could have been spared in the Civil War. If one of the most gifted generals didn't freeze. For those of you doing American history, I'm gonna give you some cheat sheets right here. You can mess your professors up, your teachers in high school up. After the Battle of Bull Run, Lincoln goes and he says, I know who we're going to get to lead this campaign. And so he gets the brilliant George M. McClellan. McClellan is a West Point graduate. They nicknamed him Little Napoleon. He was a strategist. Some even said he was a military genius.

29:14 He was brilliant. He could work at that table and he could strategize. He had mapped out the perfect plan. Come here. Look on the desk. He worked it out. You see it? And when it was time to execute, he froze. You missed it. George B. McClellan was a brigand strategist, a military general. At West Point, he had been nicknamed Little Napoleon.

29:51 Abraham Lincoln tapped him himself to lead the Potomac. He had mapped it out. This is how we're going to do it. and when it was time to go, he froze. Well, I see y'all ain't, so let me just hit you over the head with it. Some of you got the map in your hand, got all of the strategy and all God says is move and for whatever reason, you just freeze. You will never conquer greatness if you're not willing to move forward. Well, I want to, but I don't write good enough. That's why you practice and write.

30:49 And you write and write and write. And everybody who's a good writer would tell you, his hard work is not easy. Go get shrunk and white and just go read it, read it, read it. And read it and get somebody to work with it. And they'll help you along the way I want to do it But I'm too old. Joshua 85 What you mean you too old Did you wake up this morning Y'all don't want to help me you gotta cross it you gotta cross it trying to help you now you gotta cross ain't nobody gonna give it to you you gotta cross you got to want it enough that you willing to cross it It ain't the right time.

31:55 When is it going to be the right time? I could tell you story after story, but I got to quit. I got eight minutes left. Look back Don't freeze Don't freeze Richard Jackson was a preacher He passed in North Phoenix Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona And Richard Jackson Richard Jackson used to tell this story His church was really big in evangelism Winning people for Jesus just by the thousands. And he said, church, I pray, and I want to borrow this, I pray, using his word, that we don't become like the fire station that polished the pole.

32:49 fold holes Put the uniforms on the rack, helmets, gas up the fire engine, got the Dalmatian ready. and then when the fire alarm rings, nobody moves.

33:19 Nobody moves, and if you're not careful, that's the image. Come here. I'm not talking to your neighbor. I'm talking to you now. If you're not careful, that becomes the picture of the church of saying we got everything we need, but when the alarm sounded, we froze. Last thing. You're the last one. Look back To God's past What faithfulness Don't what? Don't freeze In the face of future possibilities And the last thing is just this March forward March forward When you read verses 1 through 5 You see it in there What are we to do? Arise and let's move. Let's go. That's it. Arise and let's go. I'm going to go when my friend goes. You probably will never go. You just go.

34:38 I'm not waiting on anybody. I'm not talking about being no preacher now. I'm just a person. I'm going to do it. No excuses. I'm going to do it. Joshua had come to this point. Behind him was Egypt. In front of him was Canaan. Behind him was the death of Moses. In front of him was new leadership. Behind him was the wilderness. in front of him was the promised land. There are some things you got to leave behind if you're going to go into the future. And there might be even some people That you have to leave behind If you're going to go into the future Look I mean you don't have to be told repeatedly If people are not propelling you forward They're probably pushing you back and this is not a message just our children you know what I want to tell my children now some of you got some faulty friendships Call me whatever you want.

36:02 I want to be around people that's going up. Say whatever you want. I don't care how you feel about it. Call me snob, elite, anything you want. I want to be around people that's going up. I want to be around children, young people, Young adults, adults, old folk, me I want to be around people that say I still got some going up left up in me I'm done now I'm done Israel will cross over. But let me finish with this one last line. I just got to throw it in there. I'm in chapter three and four now. But this is preparation. But notice now going forward requires one thing. Not just crossing over.

36:54 What you discover is that the priests are going to go ahead of everybody and all this. You can do all of the talking you want until you start moving forward. And you know you've moved forward when one thing happened. When you put your foot in the water. When you put your foot in the water. When the priest stepped in, the water divided. Let me just say this, actually, how you know what God won't do? And you ain't never stepped in the water. I'm through now. I got two minutes left. I'm going to use them all. But I'm serious about that. I'm asking you up there, how you know what God wants? How you know? You've never tested or tried God. Don't tell me what God won't do.

37:51 And be careful of listening to people that's telling you about what God will or will not do who have never trusted God for themselves. They build their faith or their faults on what they've heard somebody else say. it's like you hear people go around talk about the church we had a people in the church they business you don't know everybody in the church You don't know. How you know and you've not been there.

38:30 Some of the most loving, kind, caring, sensitive, benevolent, and crazy people I've ever met have gone to the church. But I'm right there in that number with them. And I probably started crazy first. That ain't never stopped me from going to the hospital. because you know everything in that broke up, tore up, sick, and all that, but it ain't stopped me from going. It's never stopped me from going to a football game, basketball game, baseball game, nutcases all around it, but that ain't what I'm going to. I'm not going to check that level of intellect. I'm going to see if we all on the same team, and when we're here together, we ought to be on the same team. I'm done with the sermon.

39:23 I finished two minutes ago. I'm just talking and edifying now. So my message to you from reading through my scripture in the last 30 seconds, and I want to open up the doors of the church with the 30, and I don't want you waiting and all that because we got people got to leave. I want you to get up, run down this aisle today, and say, I've looked back at God's faithfulness. I'm not going to freeze. I don't care who don't go with me. I'm not freezing at the possibility and I'm going to cross over into the new prospect because there's more in front of me for me than what I'm leaving behind me. That's it. See, I've used 30 minutes up. Come on, the door of the church is open. I'm waiting on you. Come on, choir.

40:15 Yeah. Without debate, negotiation, discussion, or dialogue, you get up from that seat one time, come down the aisle and say, This is my day. I'm crossing over the day. I'm putting my feet in the water. I'm stepping in. I'm not waiting on nobody. I see you coming, you and you and you and you and you coming and you coming. Yeah, get on up and say, I ain't waiting on nobody. I'm not letting nothing get in my way. I'm not letting what people say about me or what they think about me. I'm getting up doing my business today. Yeah, that's right. Come on. I'm waiting. I see you coming. Come on down here. And let today be your day that you start brand new with Jesus Christ. Yeah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

41:07 He's waiting. I see you. Yeah, we're waiting on you. Come on. I see you. Come on. Yeah, we're waiting on you. We love you already in the Lord We love you already in the Lord Come on and believe in your heart you shall be saved I see you there you go come on Take He wants to turn your life around He wants to give you your rest If you've lost and passed Come to Jesus Come to Jesus Come to Jesus He is my what it said when it says be strong, be courageous.

42:42 Then it says obey, meditate, and then talk about what success and prosperity is. I think I'm going to preach this again next Sunday from a whole other angle just so you can see what's going on. So let me say that before I pray for them. Are you sure you're saying, Pastor Wes, I'm good? Okay, there you go. I'm waiting on you. There you go. Yeah. Somebody else. I just want to give you time. Over here, Pastor Wes, I'm good. You sit down. Now, if you're that person and you know that the Holy Spirit's been pushing you, don't quench the Spirit. Don't grieve him now. Because you don't know what God may have up for you. That's what I'm getting to. You don't know what the Lord may have for you today. You know, this is a whole lot more than just name on the road.

43:38 This is sad And this is more than I'm going to start The new year off right Because it could be July You started off right You follow me? I see you coming Come on We're waiting on you While she's making her way I see you coming There you go There you go There you go And let me tell you, one of the reasons I'm at the church and I love the church is because the church loves people. And I want y'all to hear this now. The church loves all God's children. Let me say it again. Because you know, you hear people say that, but they always put a qualifier. and there's some of you here you say but how could you love me when when when how could you love me and tell me i can love you because i can tell you god love me and at the end of the day i'm the one got to stand before the lord and answer so so i don't know who you are i want to make sure i'm getting ready to pray because my members they they've been real nice to me today all right so so you're good you're not i see one or two okay here you go to help them do it do this real quick talking to my members now because people need encouragement like joshua did you don't know you can when people haven't grown up in a particular place are they new in a place this is a frightening experience it's like lord i want to go but i am scared to death.

45:18 And so I'm telling my members, just turn to the left and right. You may even know who they are and just ask them, is Pastor West waiting on you? But what you really want to get to is, if they are, tell them, say, I'll walk with you. If you're afraid to walk, I'll walk with you. God bless you. Thank you for whoever asked you. May God bless you for that. Yeah. Whoever asked you, whoever asked you, if you got that, God bless you. Thank you. Thank you for asking. Thank you for asking me about that. Thank you. God bless you. God bless you. Yeah.

46:00 God bless you. Whoever asks you, I see a whole family coming down. Whoever asks you,

46:31 I see you. That's why you don't want to miss it. God bless you. I see you coming. Yeah. What a blessing. What a blessing. Thank you. Wow, God bless. God bless.

47:03 God bless. God bless you I see you over there God bless you Now while you're doing Let me pray for you And pray for you Our leaders are going to Get some information from you Give it to them Give them the right number That's the way we follow up But nobody's gonna solicit nobody's going to call you talking about Pastor Wes Tate nobody's going to do that alright nobody's going to do that to you now I will ask you one question I think that's real important do you have a friend that you know I'm just asking you right now you got a friend that you know that you would say I got a friend she or he they need to be here today you do I want you next Sunday to invite them. Would you do that? What about you?

48:07 Do you have somebody that you know? They say, I know somebody. Just invite them. You? I know you know somebody. I can tell you know everybody. Now I'm saying, you have a friend or somebody that says, I know somebody in this city and I'm close to them and I would love for them to experience what I have experienced today. Just the love of Christ. Any of you have somebody? I'm serious. I want to challenge you. Challenge you. Remind me to ask next Sunday, okay, AD? And all of you. Same question. You say, I know somebody. I know somebody. My prayer has been not to look back anymore.

48:53 Where we live out here is, do you not know the area we're in if it was a city along it's large enough to be like the 13th, 14th largest city in Houston just on West Houston. And think about all the people you know that you say how many people need the grace of God. And these are people that we say I love these people. I love them. I just want them to experience the grace of God. And we know why many people don't come to church. They feel like they're going to be judged. People are going to look at them strange. tell them to say, oh Lord, no. Not at the church without walls. Because all of us, let me tell you what God does. This is what God does. He meets us where we are. And then he lifts us to where he wants us to be. How about that? There you go. All right, come on, let me pray for you.

49:46 You've been nice. Father, thank you for our new family members. And let the day be our day that we begin reaching new people for Jesus Christ. It's in your name. May they find home in this church. In the strong name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Praise the Lord. Alright. While they're leaving, let's prepare to give our gifts. Hang on in now. If you give me three minutes, we're out of here. You ready? While they're going, let's say it. Where there's a temple, there's a need. Where there's a need, there's a provision. Where there's a provision, there's God and where there's God he'll supply in miraculous ways it's offering time praise the Lord now the one lady that says she had to get to work she's still in here and the rest of y'all ain't supposed to go nowhere alright come on let's give we got one announcement or two and we out of here we're gonna leave out of here together one time in our life how about that church almost doing alright You letting one or two people throw you off now Hey, you want to know this today These are our new deacons in our ministry Yeah, Letha Moore If you'll stand And Alonzo Watson Belinda Ather Who's that Belinda? I saw Belinda, there you go Marshall Alexander Anthony Milligan I Aisha Raff she's probably with the new oh that she is all right then for Zsa Zsa Zsa Ruby branch Tim Whetson Marcellus Mason come on Marcellus

51:51 I'm going to throw the sign with you today. Terrell Garvey. Where's Terrell at? There you go, T. Now, we have others, but they're on our Eldridge campus, and we'll do that. Congratulations. Thank you for your service. Shall we stand? Church, I'm so proud of you. Lord, we land the plane. We only lost a couple of people. My goodness, you feel better. Now, this is called the final benediction. That's what somebody say. Why do y'all do that? Say this word, benediction. Sounds good. That benediction. And benediction means the final blessing. And it is what we believe as Christians that when that is announced over us, that we ask God to protect us until we meet again.

52:47 and so I always ask you look this way and let me bless you the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to smile upon you and be gracious unto you the Lord lift the light of his countenance upon you and grant you his peace and may the Lord bless you when you go out and come in when you rise up early and settle late in your labor and in your leisure, in your laughter and in your tears until that day when we shall stand at the feet of Jesus where there's no sunrise or sunset. God bless you church. I love you. Have a great day.