612. Pastor Lloyd Bertine Shares his Personal Testimony - August 6, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast, we will be exploring the book of Proverbs. Let's open and pray. Father God, I thank you for everyone listening to this podcast today.

[00:00:26] Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them. In addition, I pray that as they hear the wisdom offer today,

[00:00:38] that it would take root in their heart. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. This is Proverbs 6, beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:48] My Son, if you become surety for your friend, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger, you are snared by the words of your mouth. You are taken by the words of your mouth.

[00:01:03] So do this, my Son and deliver yourself. For you have come into the hand of your friend. Go and humble yourself.

[00:01:13] You have come to your hand with your friend. If no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

[00:01:29] Go to the ant, use slugged, consider her ways and be wise, which having no captain over say your or ruler provides her supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest.

[00:01:45] How long will you slumber, oh slugged, when will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So show your poverty come on you like a prowler and you're need like an armed man.

[00:02:05] A worthless person, a wicked man walks with a perverse mouth. He winks with his eyes, he shuffles his feet, he points with his fingers. Perversity is in his heart. He devises evil continually, he soes discord. Therefore, his calamity shall come suddenly, suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.

[00:02:35] Six things the Lord hates. Yes, seven are an abomination to him, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feed that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies and one who soes discord among brethren.

[00:03:02] My son, keep your father's command and do not forsake the law of your mother. Bind them continually upon your heart, tie them around your neck. When you roam they will lead you when you sleep, they will keep you and when you awake they will speak with you.

[00:03:24] For the commandment is a lamp and the law a light, reproves of instruction are the way of life to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattering tongue of a seductress.

[00:03:38] Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, nor let her allure you with her eyelids, for by means of a harlot, a man is reduced to a crust of bread, and an adulterous will pray upon his precious life.

[00:03:56] Can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned, can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared? So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife, whoever touches her shall not be innocent.

[00:04:16] People do not despise a thief if he steals the satisfy himself when he is starving, yet when he is found he must restore sevenfold. He may have to give up all the substance of his house, whoever commits adultery with a woman, lacks understanding.

[00:04:38] He who does so destroys his own soul, wounds and dishonor he will get, and his reproach will not be wiped away.

[00:04:49] For jealousy is a husband's fury, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will accept no recompense, nor will he be appeased, though you give many gifts.

[00:05:06] Friends today I have a special treat for you. I have Pastor Lloyd Bertine, and he is a returning guest. We have to go all the way back to November 1st of 2022.

[00:05:20] I would invite anyone to go back to that previous testimony which he gave, I'm going to build off of that.

[00:05:29] But Lloyd I'd like to thank you for coming back on and I appreciate you so much. The job you do, the walk that you have with God, how you lead us and guide us the congregation.

[00:05:41] I just it's an honor to have you on. So thank you for taking the time. Thank you.

[00:05:46] You know Lloyd we just went over Proverbs 6 and there are so many ways we could go with this Proverb, but was there one that particularly spoke to you that you'd like to share today?

[00:05:59] I think it would probably be the admonition I'm trying to find here in verse 14. It talks about selling discord and then he talks over in verses 16 through 18 or actually 19.

[00:06:19] It says that again under the things that the Lord hates is someone who serves discord among brethren and I've got to note in my Bible that says,

[00:06:33] see chapter 8, 13 and it immediately says the same thing the forward mouth that the Lord hates. And I think sometimes you know as you were reading that I'm thinking, you know we really jump into the adultery thing and the committing adultery and we don't pay as much attention to showing discord.

[00:06:59] And I think that has been and probably still is a biggie in a lot of churches today. I thank God that in 29 years of our church here that we have had very very very little of the sewing of discord. The few times that that happened, the people on their own as we prayed with their own way to

[00:07:29] have their own desire satisfied that they felt like we're not getting satisfied a year. So I guess that's the first one that jumped out at me and then along with that was after talking beginning in verse 20 about avoiding adultery, he talks in verse 25 to me about the heart of it. He says, do not lust after her beauty in your heart.

[00:07:55] And my mind then immediately goes to Jesus saying, if you look at a woman to lust after her in your heart, you've already committed adultery.

[00:08:07] And I listen to focus on the family a lot of times, you know several times a week. And one of the programs that I listened to that comes on about one o'clock is a guy named Steve Arderburn.

[00:08:25] He wrote a book about this thing of lust. Oh, every man's battle. And you know, really, I really do believe that all of us. I don't care how long we've been walking with the Lord in my own life. I know when you're a man, that's a biggie is to avoid that when you see when the culture talks so much today about sexual things.

[00:08:55] Promotes everything from food to cars using sexual in you windows. That is every man's battle, you know, and some of the greatest men that I respect without mentioning their names now, but that I follow and listen to.

[00:09:15] They said, you know, we struggled with that. That you've got to be so careful to walk with the Lord and to remind yourself, don't let that thought keep going.

[00:09:29] I think it was, I want to say it was John Wesley who said, you can't keep the birds from circling your head, but you can keep them from making a nest in your hair.

[00:09:40] And that's what I think when I read that. You know, that's such a good point and and Lloyd, I'm going to reach out to you know, a possible he wrote almost half of the new testament, but one of his proJays were the young man named Timothy.

[00:09:56] And he wrote first and second Timothy near the end of his life. He knew that he was going to be executed, and he was awaiting that and one of the last things he said to this young man Timothy is to flee youthful lusts.

[00:10:12] And that is an issue and I also want to make a mention you talk about me and men's battle Lloyd, that goes to women also. I do not want to exclude them because they have the same issues that we do and they lust after men just like we do.

[00:10:29] So you have to be careful. I was just reading in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, it says that any temptation that you have, God will give you the ability to overcome that.

[00:10:42] And you know, I was talking about this on a previous podcast is that you know, flip Wilson used to say the devil made me do it. But the devil doesn't do that and that verse explains that is God will give you away out of any temptation that you enter into. So never blame God.

[00:11:03] It's always up to us as a whole to figure out whether we're going to do something wrong or not. Lloyd, I want to pick up where we left off last time and this way back in November first.

[00:11:16] But anyway, you mentioned that you were called into the ministry and I apologize. I want a different direction.

[00:11:24] But in the book of Ephesians chapter 4 it says some are called to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and some teachers. Now you said that you had a call from God to be a pastor.

[00:11:41] If you would spend some time, I really want you to take all of the time you need share with us your call into the ministry.

[00:11:52] Well, it that call began in September of 1971. My father died of a massive heart attack in my arms and my dad was a believer.

[00:12:09] He was a very quiet man. You could sit with him for hours and he would not speak unless he had something to say, well this devastated me when my father died.

[00:12:23] He was only 61 years old. I was 20 and about two months after my father died and bills you may know or not, no, I'm not one that puts a lot of, I don't talk about what I had a vision.

[00:12:42] God said this to me, I think we have to be very careful in doing that. I absolutely believe he does speak to us through dreams visions mainly through his word but he does speak to us in miraculous ways.

[00:12:59] And Bill, what happened was one night I was sleeping and I had a, I believe it was a vision not a dream.

[00:13:10] My dad walked up the road where we lived in Christopher. My dad walked up the road as he walked up the road, this was too much after you died. I ran out to meet him.

[00:13:25] I was so excited. I just, and Bill, I've had 10,000 dreams since then. I don't remember them. I don't remember what I dreamed last night but this I will remember till the day I go to be the Lord.

[00:13:42] And even the details, my dad walked up the road came up to our old house and I was so happy and I said oh daddy I'm so glad to see you.

[00:13:52] I was so proud of the cross the road from where we lived was a church and they were putting a new roof on the church. My dad had a Bible in his arms and he, all he said the whole this whole dream.

[00:14:07] And one thing, I've got to go tell those men about Jesus. He went over, got up on the roof with him and I watched him and see you can see him speaking. He came down. He walked into our house.

[00:14:20] I sat down where I always set to eat mama was at this end. He was at that end. I was just looking at him his eyes were way far away. He got up, he walked into his bedroom. He laid down on the bed.

[00:14:35] He started holding his heart because he had died of a massive heart attack and I watched that. He looked at me with his eyes like do you see this? And after that, he got up. He walked out of the front door, walked down the road towards the middle of town and the church that we attended and built maybe 50 yards away. He was gone.

[00:15:00] And I didn't know what to make of that. And here's the thing, when that stopped, I was sitting up in the bed. That's why I don't believe it was a dream. I believe it was a vision. I was actually sitting up in the bed.

[00:15:14] I didn't do anything about that. I didn't know what to do about that. I was not in a church that was very strong. I didn't have anybody and I didn't tell anybody about it other than my mother.

[00:15:30] So I then proceeded with my own life to doing things. I wanted to be a coach in a teacher. I wanted to have summers off to play, you know, and travel around the West.

[00:15:41] The Lord allowed me to fulfill what I wanted to do. We moved to Colorado. I was married at the time, then we moved to Colorado and I was allowed to be a teacher in a coach and I was miserable.

[00:15:59] And I just could not fight that dream. I couldn't that vision. I couldn't fight it. It would keep popping back in. So I started going to a strong Bible believing church.

[00:16:11] And it got to the point, build to where I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep and on July 4th of 1979, I said, okay, I give up Lord. I give up.

[00:16:25] I surrendered to preach. Whatever you want me to do wherever you want me to go, that's how that started. So I then resigned what I was doing went to Liberty for two years. I've already had three four years of college.

[00:16:39] So they're the Bible, their Bible degree and came back and within three months I was pastoring the church. I just, I really, I'll never forget it. It was absolutely a vision from God and I knew the most important thing in the world was you tell people about Jesus.

[00:17:01] That's an amazing thing and my dad loved me. I loved him, but it wasn't about me or him. And he let me know that through that vision. It wasn't about us.

[00:17:13] It was about the Lord and the Lord showed me that I would be jealous, not jealous but I would be resentful in wanting to have my daddy back.

[00:17:27] That's when I saw him in the band, it was like, do you want him back hurting and in pain or do you want him with me? When I realized that, that's when he got it and walked out. It was, I never forget it.

[00:17:41] Wow, you know, that is just so powerful. And I'm going to go back just a little story of my personal testimony of my grandmother.

[00:17:51] And she was really suffering. She was on morphine. She was 91 years old at the time and, and you know, I actually woke up one morning and I said, father, God let this be the day that you take her home.

[00:18:07] That was my prayer because I was just tired of seeing the suffering. And she ended up dying that day. But before she died, she told me she wanted to see my daughter. And my daughter was three hours away in Gainesville. She's going to university of Florida.

[00:18:21] But I remember she said she wanted to see her and she was not going to die until she saw her.

[00:18:27] And you know it's the same type thing but anyway, you know, I told my daughter, I said, I don't care what you're doing now. You need to get in the car.

[00:18:35] You need to get in the car. You need to get ready to die. She wants to see you. So she immediately came in the car and as soon as she got there, when she saw her when she held her hand, when she kissed her, she went to be with a Lord. I'll never forget that because when she gave her last breath, she had a tear flowing out of her eye and she said, I love you.

[00:18:55] I was in the last words, but things like that, Lloyd, they never leave you and they're there with you. And what I really admire about you is you get this across.

[00:19:07] So one of the things I really want to bring up is the fact that many people, Lloyd, do not know what their call is.

[00:19:15] And we all have something that we are called to do. So what would you say to people who have received Jesus as a Lord and Savior? And yet they don't know which direction to take. I think you actually answered that a lot of good.

[00:19:33] And you mentioned before we ever actually went on the air here about the book of James. And I think for a believer, if they if they are sincere and they really want to know God's will,

[00:19:45] if they will pray, if they will stay in the Word of God. And then James says, if you let wisdom ask him, he'll tell you, he won't resent it. You know, he's not going to,

[00:19:58] God's not trying to play hide and seek with us. You know, find my will. I dare you to try to find it. No, he, he will systemo his will.

[00:20:07] And so I believe if a, if a Christian would seek the Lord with all their heart, he will let them know what to do. But if like James says, if you're not settled in your mind, if you got doubts about it,

[00:20:22] you're, don't expect the Lord to answer that. So that would be my, my, Edman, is you the Lord with all your heart. Ask him. Ask him. That's so good. And I'm going to give a couple other scriptures because I don't know who's listening today.

[00:20:37] But I'm going to go to Psalm 374. It says delight yourself there for in the Lord. And he will give you the desires of your heart. And if we go way back to the German Jeremiah in chapter 29 and many people know 11, it says, I know the plans.

[00:20:53] I have for you. But if you go a couple verses later in verse 13, it says, if you will seek me with your whole heart, you will find me.

[00:21:04] It's a promise that God and friends he always wants everyone to know his will. But we all have something to offer.

[00:21:13] Lord, I'm going to go back to our previous podcast and what you did is you mentioned the fact that all you want to do is that people to realize who Jesus really is.

[00:21:25] And I'm going to go to the fact that some churches really try to almost like post notches on their belt, like how many people they killed.

[00:21:34] But how many people are saved in this church and they say the sinner's prayer, but then they don't back it up. The Bible tells us we're to make disciples of people.

[00:21:45] So what does that mean to you, Pastor Lloyd and what have you instigated in our church that people do have a program where they can get into deeper connection with God?

[00:21:58] Well, that's a big let me tell you that is been a biggie for me for 42 years of ministry. And Bill, there's a, there's a disconnect on both sides on me and the church and on the people who trust in the Lord.

[00:22:17] We, when a person comes to know the Lord here, that's why we asked him, please give us your name. If nothing else, your name and number, and we give them a booklet on now that you believe what's next.

[00:22:33] And then we encourage them, we call them or we write them both. And we ask them, look, we have a class, you know, that we'd like for you to go one, that would love for you to take. It just talks about how to become a wise, deeper believer.

[00:22:52] It's really the habits, prayer, reading your Bible, quiet time, tithing, it covers all those things. And Bill, here's where it gets sticky. We reach out to people like that, but so many times they don't respond back.

[00:23:12] And so are they really a believer? Did they really make a true profession of faith? Well, only God knows that.

[00:23:20] I know when I look at the fruit or the lack of you wonder, you know, did they just go through the routine of, I won't say this pattern of this prayer?

[00:23:32] That's why I try to remember, I don't always do it. But I try to remember to tell people, hey, it's not a certain set of words that you say that God's impressed with. And now being a boon you hit the right button, it's your heart.

[00:23:48] And if their heart is really changed, and I hope no one takes us the wrong way. And you can jump in and clarify it. But how can someone as big as God do the Holy Spirit live in me?

[00:24:05] And I know at least have the desire to know more about him. Well, Lloyd, you know, I think I kind of hit on that in the two previous things I said is that God will give you the desires of your heart.

[00:24:18] And if you seek him with your whole heart, the fact is for anyone listening today. And you are struggling with this or you know of someone dear to you that is struggling with this.

[00:24:32] The fact is it has to change from simply being head knowledge that Jesus died for me in your head. But Lloyd, you hit the nail on the head because as opposed to being in your head, it has to get into your heart.

[00:24:54] And until it gets into your heart, it's just like a book. The Bible is just like a book. And I often talk about that is the fact that a lot of times many people don't read the Bible.

[00:25:07] But when they do, they're looking at that Bible as a novel. They're just looking at it as a regular book. But the Bible tells us that the word is breathing. It is a living being. And the word of God literally is Jesus manifest in words.

[00:25:30] It's like we're listening to the very words of Jesus. Every single word, it says in 2 Timothy chapter 3, is inspired by the Holy Spirit. And it's useful for instruction, for correction for this. What are your thoughts on that? Exactly the same.

[00:25:52] The word of God is so precious to me. I absolutely do love it. And as you were saying, it was there in the beginning. The word created because the word was Jesus. And the Holy Spirit, God, the Father, the Holy Spirit, the Son.

[00:26:15] They're all revealed in the Word of God. And when I read this book now before I go into my daily Bible reading, I will just briefly say, oh God, please speak to me through your word. There's something that I may need to know, change, be challenged, correct.

[00:26:35] But Lord, I believe that you, this is as if you are sitting in front of me, saying this today. And build that to me is an amazing thing. I can read and it's just like if you were Jesus was sitting in that chair next to you

[00:26:52] and he's speaking to me, it's that real. It is that real. You know, again, everything we need is given us. He sure has. And Lord, this is what I'd like to do.

[00:27:06] I'd like for you to talk about how do you get revelation of what it is that you are to speak on Sunday mornings and reveal to the church. Well, that usually comes about through reading the Bible. And I will read a passage.

[00:27:25] It may be, it may deal with salvation. It may deal with commitment. But something in my heart and I'll say, I need to, I need to preach on that. You know, I need to develop a series on that.

[00:27:43] And so then I'll take that and then I will start looking up scripture. As you know, we've got so many helps today. I can take that good coordinates right there and I can start looking up everywhere in the Bible that that word or is used.

[00:28:00] And then you can start, you can see like, okay, it's talking about this. Now this now this and you'll say, hey, there's three sermons right there. And then of course, I'm not saying this to be humbly proud or proudly humble.

[00:28:19] I'm not smart enough to come up with a 30 minute sermon. So I've got pastors that I read constantly several here, several over there on my bookcase. And I'll look up what they've said. And maybe they had a great illustration. I'll put that in my message.

[00:28:39] They had a different scripture. Oh, put that in my message. And as I was telling the folks on a wisdom, I don't know if you were there. I said, we're not that brilliant. Some more, I'm not. But I have two books that are nothing but outlines.

[00:28:54] That's all they are. And so I can look up a scripture and then go to these outlines and they'll get me. There may be a hundred outlines that I can choose from. And I can look at them.

[00:29:06] Say, that's the one that fits me that I can speak to. I can give personal illustrations about that. So that's kind of how that works right now. I'm looking at doing a whole series. Starting the second week of February on the book of Corinthians.

[00:29:25] Because I was reading that book and I thought, man, there's a lot for churches in here. This was a church that is like a lot of a day. They had gifts, they had callings, they had problems. They fought. You know, people were trying to infiltrate with heresy.

[00:29:46] You know, liberty getting along with one another, spiritual gifts. So I'm going to be doing a whole series on that. Well, that's good. Second tell just by the words you just said is the fact that you hear the word of God and you pay heed to it.

[00:30:06] And Lloyd, that's what some people don't do is they hear and yet they are not obedient. But it says way back in the book of Samuel that obedience is better than sacrifice. If God tells us to do something, we are simply to do it.

[00:30:25] We are here for him in Corinthians. It says we have been bought at a price by the precious blood of Jesus and we've been bought. We no longer are our own. And that's another concept that a lot of people struggle with.

[00:30:43] But the fact is, Lloyd, we are here basically to commune with God and to do what he has asked us to do. To worship and to praise Him. Your thoughts on that. Yeah, that's the most important thing I believe is worship him. What was that?

[00:31:05] One of the old reformed statements that were here to glorify God and enjoy him, something like that. That's what I've been trying to do now for about five years. It is focused more on that enjoying God and worshiping him.

[00:31:25] And while I'm finding that worship or Sunday morning, I love it. But that's just a little bit. It's all the time driving down the road, sunset sunrise, a fox squirrel runs across. Across I love them. You know, how God created that.

[00:31:43] To me, as I was mentioning, I think Sunday, you know, how in the world can you look at this universe. Build, there's no way to understand it. And yet it's in perfect timing.

[00:31:57] And as I said, didn't going to be able to the smallest microchip that can't even be seen with a microscope. Man, you just want to fall down and worship and say, oh my God.

[00:32:12] And sometimes it overwhelms me, this God that created the universe and the sales trailians in my body. That God loves me. And that God wants me to be with him forever. That God shows me unbelievable forgiveness, grace, mercy. It's too good.

[00:32:35] I just keep telling like, it is too good to be true. But it is true. It got you. God can't be, you know, it's like I tell in Lord, can you give me another word saying I love you or I worship you.

[00:32:50] You've done the same adequate, you know, because of who you are and what you're doing for us. It just amazing. It really is. And I'm just going to work. We're nearing a close but what I'd like to do is is for you to share how

[00:33:08] important it is that you and Nancy, your precious bride of almost 30 years now. How important is it that she is walking with you in this journey and as part of the church and worshiping and fellowshiping with you all of the time as well?

[00:33:27] Well, if you were here saying that you heard my story. I don't know if you were here heard that of how we met. And it was like, as I said, I can't say that I immediately loved her or she loved me. I don't think we weren't.

[00:33:45] We weren't going to be an omit to have for two weeks. But it was like God said this is going to be your partner. This is going to be your partner in ministry. And you'll have to tell you that her faith is probably greater than mine.

[00:34:01] Whenever I face something like I did with my health issue or something else, I have to really be careful because I can immediately head to the despondent side, rather than God, what do you want to teach me side? She seems to go there quicker.

[00:34:20] And I'll tell you she has been, I didn't even know she was doing this for a while, but she takes the notes that I give to my secretary that we're going to put in the bulletin. She takes those notes, looks at them and reads the Scriptures

[00:34:35] and tries to find songs that have that message that she can't get it every time. But a lot of times the songs match what I'll be teaching in the message. And she's been there. It's not being easy.

[00:34:51] I don't know if you're familiar with this but when both of you were married into the ministry and in the same church and you're the boss, so to speak, it's hard. It's not easy, but I'll tell you it's been good.

[00:35:08] It's been a blessing and there's been a few setbacks but not many. Her faith is so strong. You know, I was thinking about this on the way here about some of the things that we were going to talk about

[00:35:24] you know, having been in ministry for over 40 years and being a pastor. What I'd like for you to just share is how blessed you are when you have the opportunity to do weddings and funerals and sharing with the family the most important things that we have in life.

[00:35:46] Well, weddings number one, we don't do many of those anymore. I believe I've had one wedding in the church. Everybody wants to do what they call a destination wedding. They go to a barn. There's places, you know, venues and they're beautiful. They're set up for it.

[00:36:07] Cousin a lot of money. I try to talk the bride and groom and do not do it. To save the money, you know, but they won't do that and the bride wants it. So I don't really see a lot of the weddings today, but the funerals.

[00:36:25] I'm now on number 625 funerals that I've actually presided over. I almost never reject doing a funeral because that is such a time that I have to witness to that family. When they are at a tender moment in their life. So I get calls from brown striplains.

[00:36:52] Can you do this funeral? I don't know the people. They don't know me. They just said, can you get a pastor to come in? And I'll do it because I get to witness to that family.

[00:37:02] And I get to tell everybody that's there about the Lord Jesus and how he loves them and cares about what they're going through. And I always use the script during I believe it's Psalm 34. The Lord is close to the broken hearted,

[00:37:20] and to those who are crushed in their spirit. I don't know the time has more adequate than a funeral. So that's, like I said, I am in bliss. Use that word to be able to do a lot of the enrols.

[00:37:35] And probably a lot more to come, just having a grown up here and knowing so many people. That's a blessing. Well that's so good. And what I'd like to do, Lloyd, this is the end, but what I'd like for you to do is just share

[00:37:48] for a couple moments of with people who still are on the fence. They've never made that decision to receive Jesus. If you would just share about that and if you would close us in a prayer inviting people into the kingdom.

[00:38:05] Well, if there's anyone at all that's listening to this podcast. And you do not know for sure that you have trusted Christ as your Savior. Out of nothing but care and I know Bill does or he wouldn't be doing this podcast thing. Jesus loves you.

[00:38:28] And we want you to come to know him. We've been around enough in life to know that nothing you put in that void in your life is going to satisfy you except the personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

[00:38:48] I wish that I could somehow convey to you how much he loves you. I don't know that we can do that just through our voice, but that would be my prayer

[00:39:02] is that the Lord would reveal to you and you would accept and receive just how much he loves you. The most familiar verse in the Bible for God so loved the world. That's you. And he wants you to know him. Jesus said, what is it profit a man?

[00:39:24] If he were to gain the whole world but in that process would lose his soul. Folks, there's nothing more important. Life is going to come to an end. Please listen to someone who has been at the grave side of babies of one year old, five year olds,

[00:39:45] fifteen year olds up to 96 year olds. And nothing matters at that moment, except that you have received Christ as your personal Savior. And I would love to encourage you to do that.

[00:40:02] So having said that if you would let me pray with you and if you would be willing in your heart to voice these words from your heart, you can even repeat them but again it's not the words. It's not the pattern, it's your heart.

[00:40:19] You know in the Bible a man beat on his chest and said, Lord, be merciful to me, I'm a sinner. And Jesus said that man went home justified. And if you will believe that's enough.

[00:40:36] You know, I believe it was the guy I love to hear from Ireland that speaks on the radio all the time. I listen to him every day. I'll think of it a minute. But I love what he said.

[00:40:52] The man that committed his life to Christ on the cross. The man that in the last moment said, I believe Lord, remember me. He standing in heaven and they're saying why are the world you hear? You didn't know this, you don't know about justification.

[00:41:13] You don't know about salvation. You don't know all the words redemption. You don't know what any of that means. You didn't get baptized. You didn't join a church. How in the world are you here? And here's all he said.

[00:41:25] That man hanging on the middle cross said I could come. That's the whole issue. That man on the middle cross, Jesus said you could come. So Father, I pray for anyone listening that they might right now know how much you love them

[00:41:43] and you want them to be with you just like the thief on the cross if they will just turn to you and believe in you with all their heart. You will receive them. You promise that. We ask it in the precious name of Jesus, Amen. Amen.

[00:42:03] We're Lloyd has been a pleasure and I want to offer an open invitation to you. I mean, I'm trying to have people on every week. And so I'm hoping that you will consider being on again.

[00:42:17] I'd like for you to be a regular guest, maybe once a year or maybe twice a year. But I want to leave that open to you because I think Lloyd, we continually are growing. The Bible tells us we grow from glory to glory. We don't have it all.

[00:42:33] We attain but neither one of us are where we need to be. We just are aiming in that direction. Paul tells us we need to finish the race. And we start strong and we're strong right now but we need to see it to its completion.

[00:42:49] So thank you for coming on and thank you. Thank you, the audience for paying attention. And you know I'm going to close with a blessing. May the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

[00:43:04] The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Friends, please join me again, Martin. As we further explore wisdom today.