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What a blessing. Thank you, choir. Thank you so much for leading us. What a joy to see every one of you look at someone and just smile at them. Say, I'm so happy to see you today. And then let me do what we always do. Not only do we welcome you here to New York City. Some are visiting, some this is your home. Welcome to Times Square Church, right in the heart of New York City at 51st and Broadway. Love telling people every time I invite him to church, go to Wicked and turn right and you will find hope. And so what a joy for us to do that. We want to welcome all those that are watching from around the country and around the world and even the universities that are watching. I mean, you take the time, you watch. So let me just read to you at. Some 70 plus nations are live with us right now. So we want to welcome all those. Let me read to you who's watching with us. We say hello to South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Nigeria. We say hello to Tanzania, Malawi. Eswatini, Namibia, Ethiopia. We say hello to Zambia, Liberia, Rwanda. Welcome to Asia. To those from Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Sri Lanka. We say hello to India, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates. We also say hello to New Zealand and Australia. To our friends in Europe, we welcome the uk, Wales, Northern Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Poland. We say hello to Sweden, Bulgaria, Belgium, Malta, France, Denmark, Austria, Albania, Ireland, Switzerland, Finland, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Romania, Norway, Greece. We also welcome Russia. We are believing that God will stop this war in Jesus name. We're believing for an end to. Thank you for supporting, helping us feed so many of the refugees. Last Tuesday night we had. And I'll read the rest of the nations in just a moment. We had some, if I, if I could remember right, they, they worked and I think played for the national Ukrainian Olympics, for the Olympic team that were here on Tuesday night. And they were telling us there's now some 12 million refugees that have had to leave Ukraine. And so we thank you for helping us support in just a small way for those that now are on the border in Romania. We say hello to Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Jamaica, Costa Rica. Saint Lucia, Panama. French Guyana. Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago. Cayman Islands, Trinidad. Oh, I just said that one. St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Belize, El Salvador, Suriname. Colombia. Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Ecuador. And the other two, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. We welcome all those that are watching. Some 47 states are tuned in with us from around the US but we also want to say hello to some of the universities. We have just started announcing universities all the way we welcome all the way from, from Greece. We welcome the Greek Bible College there. We welcome Eastern Wyoming College. We welcome University of Delaware. We welcome Biggy Binghamton University. I was going to be upset. Usually we see another university where my daughter's from and it's not up there because she has a volleyball game today. So we're going to let her slide on that one. Let me just say this to all of you today. Don't miss next week. What a blessing we're going to have. For the very first time, he's not preaching, but you're going to get a chance to hear from our general overseer. Pastor Carter is going to be here next week, so it's going to be a great joy. He's gonna get a chance to greet you just for a few minutes. He is recovering, he's doing great. We've been texting this morning, prayed, talked together on Friday and then we'll talk again tomorrow. Just what a joy to have my friend that will just greet you on Sunday and it'll be an absolute blessing to see him. He has gone through, he has been through the battle with open heart surgery. Two valves and what was the other thing they did? The two valves and what is it? Oh, it was big and so I just couldn't, couldn't remember what it was, but it was big. And so we're gonna, we're gonna continue to pray for him. I want us to pray. I feel like God's gonna do something very special today. It's been, it's always a fight to open the curtain. We've, we've battled in so many different ways from people being stuck in elevators, traffic, everything you can imagine. That's just the easy stuff, not even counting the big stuff. So let's pray. Let's ask God just to come in. Especially Father, in these next few moments. I'm just asking that you'd help us. Speak by your word. Today let the Bible speak. Today, let the word of God speak. There are people here that have sensed that God's presence is here. God is here in this place. They may not understand the joy that's here all the time, but God let them know it's not something from happenstance or happenings or because everything's together in our lives, but we have a deep seated joy. It's because Christ is with us. To know that God is with us in every situation. So, Father, in these next few moments, come speak to us in a special way. We thank you, we bless you in Jesus name. And everybody said Amen. You may be seated. Thank you, choir. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. What a blessing. I have to tell you why this is true. But the Book of Psalms saved my life. The Book of Psalms saved my life. Something happened when I was going through one of the darkest seasons of my life. And I happened upon three people from the Bible and I adopted what they would do. And it was something that I have to tell you for almost three years has been something that came in and did a work for me and felt that it even brought hope to me in one of the darkest seasons of my life. I have a Bible that I use. When I first discovered it, it was in Acts, the book of Acts, chapter four. You don't have to turn there. I'll read it to you. And the way it looks in my Bible, but in Acts Chapter four, this is when I came across it. I have a Bible that when the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, it puts all the letters in capital letters. It put all the words in capital letters. So when I was reading through in Acts 4, the church had its first run in with the law and that were really against them preaching the Gospel. They put Peter and John in jail for preaching and a lame man being healed. And the very first prayer of the early church came from the Old Testament. In fact, when they started to pray, it all came in capital letters. And this is what it said. One of the part of this prayer, it says, who? By the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our Father David, your servant, said, why do the Gentiles rage? And the people devised futile things and the kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. That was part of their prayer. It wasn't the whole prayer, but it was in that prayer that the Acts 4 Church prays Psalm chapter 2. Those capital letters are from Psalms chapter 2. And then I thought, wait, this happened again at even a more intense time. It was intense for them. It in Acts 4, the church just gets birth and all of a sudden you're in trouble with the system and they don't want you to preach anymore. So they pray. This prayer from Psalm 2. But even more intense, as I kept thinking about this, was Jesus on the cross. Remember these words about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice. And remember them? It's in capital letters. Eli Eli lama Sabathanai. This is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Those words. That was a prayer from Jesus from Psalm. Jesus prays Psalm 22 on the cross you could find that in if you went through Psalm 22, the first three verses. He begins by Jesus in his darkest moment, quote Psalm 22. And then all of a sudden, it dawned on me one other place. And in fact, this place is one of the most amazing places. It was Jonah in the belly of a whale. Jonah is in such disarray. Jonah in the belly of a great fish. In Jonah, chapter two, jot this down. Jonah prays eight psalms in the belly of the fish. When you start reading Jonah 2, 2, he's praying Psalm 18, Psalm 120, Psalm 86. Read verse 3, he's praying Psalm 88, Psalm 42. And you get to verse 4. He's praying Psalm 31, verse 5, Psalm 69, verse 6, Psalm 30. How many know when you start praying eight Psalms, you're in real trouble? And so he starts praying eight psalms in the belly of a whale. And all of a sudden, I began to think to myself, if Jesus prayed the Psalms, and if the early church prayed the Psalms, and Jonah prayed the Psalms, man, it is. It is good ground for me to be when I'm on the Psalms and to turn these into prayers. The book of Psalms is 150 chapters. And I would read five chapters a day and finish the book of Psalms once a month. That literally, for two and a half years, that's reading through the book of Psalms 30 times. I would take the verses and turn them into prayers. I would pray the Psalms. I would walk the streets or walk in a sanctuary and pray these things. I said, jonah did it, Jesus did it, the early church did it, and God, I'm doing it too. It's giving myself prayer language. There's. But there's something else that I want to point your attention to that happens here. The Psalms are not just Bible verses. They're also lyrics to songs. The word psalms actually means songs. Psalm 107. Where I Want to take you today is a song. In fact, it's one song with a four part story. See, in the church, we know lyrics of some gospel Jesus songs that have become universal. You know these songs? Many. Remember this one. You finish it for me. Jesus Loves Me. See, you already know that song. How about this one? No, don't continue it. Just stop right there. This section was a little rebellious, but just stay with me. How about this one? Amazing Grace. What's the rest? Perfect. Stop right there. This section? Stop. How about this? It is. Well, that's it. You know those songs. You know all of them. And if you were to speak the beginnings of these words of Psalm 107 to any Jewish believer. They knew the lyrics to this song. These were songs just like you knew Amazing Grace. It is well Jesus Loves Me. If you start from Psalm 107 through Psalm 119, something amazing happens. Because those psalms were lyrics just like you would know these songs that a Jewish believer would know those songs. Because when you would start those words, they could start doing exactly what you did today. Because those words connected them to something. It connected them to a historical moment that was life changing. It connected them what they would call the. And I'll just give you a little bit more detail. It was what they would call. It was the second temple. What that meant was that the Babylonians came in, destroyed that first temple. In 586 B.C. they came in and ravaged the nation of Israel. They began to take away thousands of young people as POWs. They were prisoners of war, brought back to what we would read in the Bible as Babylon would be Persia or even Iran that would be brought back there. There we would read the stories of the Daniels, the Meshach, Shadrachs and Abednegos. We'd read the stories of Esther. But they would remember that those psalms are connected to a song. Those songs are connected to an event in history that literally their hearts would be absolutely thrilled. Because it was the building of the second temple. It was the building that when they would come back after 70 years, as Jeremiah prophesied, they'd come back to a devastated city in Jerusalem. And there they would not only build a wall that Nehemiah we read in the book of Nehemiah, but in the book of Ezra we would read about the building of a temple. They knew this song because it was their journey to seeing the temple that was destroyed, being rebuilt. The temple to them was the place that God would dwell with man. Some were 107 tells this journey and tells four stories, four biographies of the people to get back to God, to get back to that place, to see the temple, the dwelling place of God raised up again. And as I started to read Psalm 107, get this with me. Their stories in this are becoming our stories. It was the rebuilding of a different temple that you're going to see. A similarity of their story to your stories. Because the temple that God has recovered today isn't made with hands of men. It is made by God. In fact, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit today. Listen to these words from the Apostle Paul. He says, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, who you have from God, and you're not your own. And he says, and you need to understand that you've been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body. It's about a journey in Psalm 107 of people coming back to God and where God dwells. Just like a journey that we have today is God coming and doing a work inside of us. Christian author Philip Yancey, whose books have encouraged so many, including myself, said these words. He said, in my lifelong study of the Bible, I've looked for an overarching theme, a summary statement of what the whole sprawling book is about. I love this part. He said, I've settled on this. God gets his family back. That brought joy to me. That's what it is. The journeys that all of us are here that we have gone through, Yancey says, from the first book to the last book, tells of a wayward children, the torturous lengths to which God will go to bring them home. Let me give you one more song to see if you remember this. How many remember these? Finish these lyrics. Blessed assurance. What's next? Okay, perfect. Then when you get to the chorus, you start to say these words. This is my. This is my. That's it. See, this is a story and a song right here. I want to tell you about that, what you just sang. In a few moments in Psalm 107, you're going to hear not just a story. You're going to hear your story. You're going to hear a story because it's your journey back to God. And for some of you, you may be still stuck in the story and haven't had the journey today. This is how the song starts. This is my story. This is your story. This is my song. This is going to be your song as you read Psalm 107. Here. Here's how it starts. Let everyone give all their praise and thanks to the Lord. Here's why he's better than anyone could ever imagine. Yes, he's always loving and kind and his faithful love never ends so he says so go ahead, let everyone know it. Tell the world how he broke through Delivered you from the power of darkness Gathered us together from all over the world he has set us free to be his very own. Hallelujah. What a story. He says, tell that story. In fact, New American Standards says, tell it from the east, from the west, from the north and from the south. David is saying, tell the whole world, Tell the four corners of the globe that this is our story, this is our song. That's why we do this every Sunday. We. When you see that map behind me, we're doing exactly what David says. We're going from the north, the south, the east and the west. And right after David cries to the four directions, he tells four stories within a song. Four stories happen within this psalm that and they match, I believe what happens in all of our lives. Some of us may find ourselves in one of those stories today. Some of us are sitting here going like, I'm a four story man. Those are all me. I've been messed up in my life, but thank God he has brought me home. So stories about people in the wilderness, in a jail, in a hospital and sick on a rocky journey yesterday, while many of the men that were here don't know what was happening, this place was popping yesterday. It was. I don't know if I'm allowed to use that word in church, but it was yesterday. What a joy to see, see all the women gathered from all over with Beth Moore from Houston, Texas was here and oh my goodness, it was amazing. What made it amazing for me was, is that while while all the leaders were backstage getting ready to come out and music and Beth Moore to minister to some, all of these women that were here, I had the opportunity 30 minutes before service, I got a chance to go and greet people. I had a chance to go pray, greet, and what a blessing it was for me. But to walk through this place was incredible because in the middle of greeting and there would be laughter and hugs, I would get the chance to hear the stories. And some of these stories, these very stories from Psalm 107, the stories of those that are battled sickness, those that have battled bondage, those that have battled wandering, those who have battled rocky journeys. And you're gonna hear those stories. Psalm 107 are not just their stories, they're our stories. And you're gonna hear them today. The stories are gonna be sad, but just hold on, don't go. This is a depressing church. There is good news at the end because every one of these stories ends with joy. They all end with such an amazing, an amazing plot twist that you're gonna see it now. Read what happens in each of these stories at the end. But. But let me tell them to you. Get ready to write down a number of these four stories. Number one, the story. Number one. It's the story of wanderers, people that have lost their way. Listen to it. Verse 4. Some of us once wandered in the wilderness like desert nomads with no true direction or a dwelling place. Starving, thirsting, staggering. We became desperate. We were filled with despair. This is an amazing story because these are those who've walked away from God looking for happiness in every other place except in God alone. They've wandered. Listen to this. They've wandered into dead ends. They made it to a place everyone told them to go to and never found what everyone promised them. Let me say that again. They finally made it to where parents or friends or professors have said, get to this place. And they made it there. But it never delivered what everybody promised. I've read the stories of athletes who have won and have achieved and gotten to the highest spot, whether it's in the NFL with the super bowl or the World Series. That's happening now, a Stanley Cup, NBA Finals. And you'd hear the stories of these men and women who have made the money but have finally made it through all the decades of practice dieting. Finally make it. And you'd hear these words. Is this all there is? Is this it? You get a bonus check and a trophy. That's it. They went on a lifelong journey, finally hoisted the trophy and thought that none of this. When they say, is this all there is? They were saying that none of this has fixed my emptiness, my joy, my marriage, my health or my eternity. Is this all there is? Because it seems to be a dead end. I was amazed to read this article called Unhappy News for Americans. It says the United States is no longer on the list of the 20th happiest countries in the world. We got kicked off the list. Here's what it said. It said the US has dropped out of the top 20. Let me tell you, we're number 23 now. We were 15, but we've gotten more depressed in our country. And here's. Listen to the top five. The top five are this. Finland are bass players from Finland. I can't believe it. Finland, Denmark, Iceland. Who's happy in Iceland? There are. They're happy people in Iceland, Sweden. And you know what the fifth one is? This is what blew me away. Israel. Israel is under attack. But yet they know their joy is not what's here. It's who's up there, there that looks out for them. The unhappiest thing. And thank God. Can we just take a moment? Thank God that we're going to believe for the return of those hostages today. We're going to believe that those 40 are going to come back. But the unhappiest nations are those that try to find peace without the Prince of Peace. You get the dream job, you get Accepted to the university, you get drafted in the first round, you get the cast call here on Broadway, you get picked first round, you get the bonus, you get to be a homeowner, you get the girl, you get the guy, you get nothing fixed. You may get a buzz, but nothing is long term because you're wandering to find something that can only come from God himself. We have wandered from job to job, relationship to relationship, religion to religion, even nation to nation, city to city. We have people that are sitting here today thought, if I can just get out of my. If I can get to New York City and a city that never sleeps. Can I just say something about the city that never sleeps? That's not a compliment, that's a dysfunction. I just want you to know that today I'm serious. We've got problems, but we've got God. Here's what's amazing. You think that you could find it here and then you find out it's not in a place. I was reading the story of the great Bible teacher, Dr. Andrew Bonar, who told how sheep would often wander off into the rocks and get into places that they couldn't get out of. The Bible calls us sheep that have gone astray. Wandered, he said, on. The grass on these mountains is so sweet in some drop offs that sheep like it and will literally jump down 10 or 12ft to eat that grass but can't get back up. And they said the shepherd will hear them bleating in distress. He said they may be there for days after they've eaten all the grass. And he says that the shepherd sometimes wait. Wait until they've eaten everything, their stomachs are full and they realize they've eaten and now they're in a place that there's no more food, there's no way out of this. And what do we do? He says. The shepherd says, that's when I come. That's when I come. When they realize that if they don't follow me, they're going to end up in a spot they can't get out of and they've wandered that way. It's story number two. It's the prisoners. David tells the story of losing their freedom. The first one lost their way. This group loses their freedom. Listen to it. Some of us once sat in darkness, living in the dark shadows of death. We were prisoners to our pain, chained to our regrets. We rebelled against God's word and rejected the wise counsel of the most High God. So. So he humbled us through our circumstances, watching us as we stumbled with no one There to pick us back up. Our own pain became our punishment. Boy, those words really got me. It says prisoners to our pain. And he says chained. Chained to our regrets. You know, Cindy and I were talking about regrets the other day. Something came, something, we heard something and we just started to ask, and we started to ask each other if you can go back and change something in your life. If you can go back and change a season, if you can go back and change a moment that happened and redecide something. And we would call that when growing up, get a do over that you would be able to go. I'd like to have those college years, that decision that I made there. And we started to talk about that, we started to talk about those things that would try to chain us to regret. There's so many regrets and people that are chained to them. And he tells us we got them from rebelling against God's words, trusting our word, our feelings over what God was directing us to do. The nature of sin is to captivate and then capture, to involve you and then enslave you, to bring you to a place. The goal, the goal of hell is to enslave you, to capture you, to put you in chains, chain you to regrets and be a prisoner to your pain. Painful decisions that all of a sudden you're finding yourself not just wandering, but finding yourself with so many regrets. I couldn't believe this when I read this just recently I was reading about one of the great writers of literature, Leo Tolstoy, the man who wrote War and Peace and Aaron Kanina. And just when you're reading all of these books and he was reading the story that at nine years old he was con, he was convinced that God made him to fly. Let me just. Yeah, you heard it right. He said at nine years old, God made me to fly. And he jumped head first out of the third floor window of his apartment building. Head first. Well, the story is God didn't make him fly. And he dropped, hit the ground and thank God he was still alive, this nine year old kid. And it was just like this giant disappointment that you're sitting there trying to figure out, jumping into all these things, jumping into all this stuff. Well, God didn't make him to fly. God made him to be a believer. God made him to be a Christian. God made him for other things, but God didn't make him fly. And what happens is we find ourselves jumping out of windows trying to make something work, trying to make something happen in our lives and we find out there's nothing but Pain and, and sorrow. Three stories down. And if you're from New York, it's a lot more stories down. It's just unbelievable because people jump into situations without God being part of their lives or even part of the decisions. And when it's all said and done, you hit the ground and you're chained to regrets. You're in bondage to pain. And so you go from wandering to prisoners. Let me read to you the third thing. These are called strugglers. This is the one that got me. I didn't realize this. These are the ones that were losing their health. Sickness. Sickness has a despair to it. A disease has a despair to it. Despair means that you lose hope. The greatest mind battle that I've watched in my own life and with other people's lives is when you struggle with health. Why? Because it reveals our mortality that you aren't. You won't live forever, at least here. And when you face that, listen to what he says in verse 17. Some of you were sick because of. You lived a bad life. Your body's feeling the effects of your sin. You couldn't even. He said. He said you were so sick you couldn't stand the sight of food so miserable you thought you'd be better off dead. Look at this, folks. There are some listening that have no assurance that God is with them in their sickness. They even maybe feel that God has abandoned them. They're sitting here today on this journey. That sickness has brought despair. This week one of our staff had a health scare. It was rather intense because we didn't know what it would turn into. And we talked and we prayed together. And I remember praying with them and I texted them before the test. I said, I want you to remember these words. I said as I was praying for you because I wanted to make sure I was lifting despair or lifting anxiety, lifting discouragement. And this is what I told him. I said as I was praying for you, this is what I want you to remember. God did not call you here for Satan to kill you. God didn't call you here for you to begin to face. This is not the battle. This is more spiritual than physical. And thank God the test was clear. Thank God that everything was clear. But it's the mind battle that goes on there. Story number three are those whose bodies are failing and they've even given up. And there is a happy ending to all of this. And finally, let me read to you story number four. These are the storm tossed. They've lost all options. Remember, it was the first group when you read it there's wanderers, they've lost their way. Story number two are the prisoners who have lost their freedom. Story number three are the strugglers that have lost their health. And then finally the storm tossed that of losing all options. Let me explain that. He's talking to fighters that are fighting to pay rent, fighting for a marriage, fighting for their kids, fighting to stay alive, maybe even fighting God. This is what he says. He says some of us have set sail upon the sea to faraway ports. Transporting our goods from ship to shore. We were witnessed of God's power out in the ocean deep. We saw breathtaking wonders upon the high seas. But when God spoke, he stirred up a storm. Lifting high the waves with hurricane winds. Ships were tossed by swelling sea, rising to the sky then dropping down to the depths. Reeling with drunkards spinning like tops. Everyone look at these words at their wits end. Until even the sailors despaired of life, cringing in terror. Since you've. You embarked on a journey, you thought this is right, this is God. And then you find yourself storm tossed. You find yourself in a. In a place that you have no more options. Wits end means there's no more options. I'm. I'm exhausted. I can't fight anymore. I can't fight for this anymore. You started out on a good journey and then the storm hits and you find yourself at wits end end. Because I thought this would work. This thing would work, this thing would work. Think of it for a moment. Their story is our story. You started as wanderers and you're trying to find something that can only be found in God. You've wandered all over and somehow you've wandered in here today or wandered online. That you're watching from Manila, you're watching from, from Peru or that you're watching from Suriname. You may be watching from Puerto Rico and you may be watching from Los Angeles to London and something. And you don't even know why because someone sent you a link to a church in New York City and now you're listening to some guy who both speaks and spits at the same time. And you're going what is going on here? But he's telling my story and I'm really not. The Bible is telling your story because God is on a mission to get his family back, to get his people back is what he wants to do. I have to tell you, it has to be the best story I've ever heard of. Someone who experienced what David talks about in this last section, the storm tossed. It's the story of a signal man, third Class Elgin Staples. That name won't mean anything, but I read this story, I thought, I have never heard of anything like this. I was reading it. It's from the book Finding your Way. And he tells this amazing story from the United States Naval Institute after World War II. Listen to this. Just kind of focus for a second. He said that the USS Astoria engaged the Japanese during the battle for Savo island before any other ships from the US naval fleet arrived. During a crucial night of battle, August 8, the Astoria scored several direct hits on the Japanese vessel. It was badly damaged, sank the next day. And here's how the book tells the rest of the story. Said about 0200 hours, a young Midwesterner signalman, third class Elgin Staples, was swept overboard by the blast from the Japanese vessel. Their last blast. And the Astoria's number one 8 inch turret exploded. He was wounded in both legs by shrapnel in semi shock, but he was kept afloat by a narrow life belt that he managed to activate with a simple trigger like you would see on an airline that you just pulled something and he's floating, semi shock, shrapnel in his leg. Your boat is. You've been swept overboard in the middle of the night and there you are in the ocean, he says. Around 0600, Staples was rescued by a passing destroyer and returned to his old ship, whose captain was attempting to save another cruiser. But in their failed efforts, Staples was wearing the same life vest. Found himself back in the water from another explosion. Talk about a bad day. You got thrown over the ship in the first one. Now you're back in the water after you got rescued and. And it said he's over again. He's rescued by the USS President Jackson. And he was one of the only 500 survivors of this battle. So on board the transport, Staples said he was hugging his life vest with gratitude. And as he's hugging it, he sees like a tag. Like we would look at it as a tag that says what this garment is made of. It would you know, and give you the ingredients. But this tag, tag was different. Been manufactured by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. And we had a registration of it was just an odd tag on it. When he got home, Staples told a story and asked his mother who worked at Firestone about the purpose of the number. And this is what she told him. She said, when we made these life preservers for the sailors, every one of us had to put our number on there because we wanted to know that represented us helping a sailor Stay alive. And so he said, so you're telling me that that number on my life vest was somebody, man or woman, whoever it was, that took careful, careful attention to make sure that would work. And for him, twice it would work. And then he started to read the number. And in a moment of stunned silence as he read the number of it, the mother goes, that's my number. She said, I'm the one who made your life vests, that you have been rescued twice. That not only did I birth you, but I saved you. I'm reading this and I'm going, I can only imagine the emotions that went on between mother and son as they began to ponder this convergence of responsibility from Firestone and the impact that just took place. Here's the good news. God has made you and here it comes. And God will rescue you. God is the one that he made you and he is going to rescue you. So here's the question as the musicians come, how did all of these stories end? Here's what's amazing, because the way out for all of them was the exact same way. And you're gonna see it. You're gonna hear a cry and a praise, a cry and a. And a praise. Let me read it to you. Remember the wanderers cry, they lost their way. Look what happens in verse six. Then we cried out, lord, help us, rescue us. Aren't these great words? And he did. He led us right into a place of safety and abundance, a suitable city to dwell. And then he says this. So we will lift up our hands and thank God for His marvelous kindness and for all of his miracles of mercy for those he loves. That's the tag. They put the tag on there. How about this one for the prisoners cry? Remember the prisoners said, we've. We've rebelled against what God said. We found ourselves just chained to our regrets. We found ourselves chained to our past. And look at this. Then we cried out, lord, help us, rescue us. What are the next three words? And he did. His light broke through the darkness. He led us out of in freedom from death's dark shadow snapped every one of our chains. So lift up your hands, give thanks to God for His marvelous kindness and for his miracles of mercy for those he loves. And then he adds one other thing. For he smashed through heavy prison doors, shattered the steel bars that held us back just to set us free. How many have been set free by God in this place? Listen to this. It's the prayer of the sick. Then we cried out, lord, help us, rescue us. What are the next three words? And he did. God spoke the words, what be healed. And we were healed. Delivered from death's door. So what am I supposed to do? Lift your hands. Give thanks to God for His marvelous kindness and for his miracles of mercy for those he loves. He rescued the wanderers, he rescued the prisoners. He rescued and healed the sick. And then what about finally the storm tossed cry? Psalm 107, verse 28. Then we cried out, lord, help us, rescue us. Next three words. And he did. God still the storm, calm the waves, hush the hurricane winds to only a whisper. We were so relieved, so glad as he guided us safely to harbor in a quiet haven. So what am I supposed to do? He said, lift your hands. Give thanks to God for His marvelous kindness, for his miracles of mercy for those he loves, us he loves. Folks, this is a good moment to lift our hands and say, God, thank you, thank you, thank you for what you've done. Listen to what Tozer said. He said no one ever got anything from God on the grounds that he deserved it. If God answers prayer, it's because God is good. That's why it happens. So if you hear today going, man, I'm not good enough for God to even hear me. Good news today, you'll never be good enough. God answers prayer because God is good. As I read Psalm 107, I thought of those lyrics. Stand with me. You remember it? Blessed assurance Jesus. Come on, you know it. Oh, what a foretell oh, what a fort of glory divine. And he says, this hair of salvation purchase of God born of his secret washed in his blood. Could you just lift those hands and just declare, this is my story. Tell them that's Psalm 107. This is my song. Praising my Savior. Praising my Savior. Come on, declare it. This is my story. This is my song. Okay, that song, what you just did, that song comes from. This is the second part of I cried to the Lord for help to rescue me. And he did. And here's what's amazing. The second part says, so lift your hands and thank God. It says that in verse 8. It says that in verse 15. It says that in verse 21. It says that in verse 31. And as I was reading this, that hymn is written by a New Yorker who lived right in this city, right in Manhattan, a blind New Yorker who got messed up because of malpractice of a doctor at six weeks old, had an infection and the doctor back in the 19th century decided to put mustard plaster on her eyes that blinded that little baby at six weeks old. Six weeks old. And for the rest of their life. Their story was number three. Until they realized, if I cried to him, if I cried to him to rescue me, he will. And he did. But God had another purpose. He said, I won't heal the eyes, but instead I'm going to do something different. You ready for this? Look at me for a second. Instead of healing your eyes, how about I give you 9,000 songs? Fanny Crosby writes blessed assurance. 9,000 songs. God goes you in people's eyes. On paper, they're gonna go, God didn't hear your prayer, she says, I thank God that he didn't restore my sight. She said this. She said, I saw things that I couldn't see with my natural eyes. And then she. Then she said this. And when I penned those 9,000 songs, she said, I was able to because I was raised in a Christian home. They said, Fanny Crosby memorized the entire Bible. The entire Bible. And she said this, she said, and I have an advantage over all of you, she says, because the day I go see Jesus, she said, the first person these eyes ever get to see is the one who rescued me, the one who set me free, the one who worked miracles, the one that did it all. Listen to this. Here's the verses. Let me just say these words. This is how David ends the psalm. He said, good people see this, the four stories and are glad. Bad people are speechless, stopped in their tracks that a blind woman can write 9,000 songs. And then the next verse, if you're really wise, you'll think this over. It's about time you've appreciated God's deep love. It's about time. There was a research firm did a test on the devices that you're holding in your hand right now that some of you are texting when you shouldn't be. When is this over? When is this guy done? Hurry. When Ricardo starts singing. Get to the garage. Get archive. Listen, I know. I get. Listen. I know you're going like, is he reading my phone? You're texting. Here's what they said. They said when we started to look over the interaction that people have with their phone every single day, they said that every phone, the average that you'll have of touches on that phone is about 2,600 times a day. Your fingers will touch that screen 2600 times a day. Think about it. They said it will even go up. They said even the biggest users will swipe, click, tap, push 5400 times a day. But it's on average is about 2600. And they said, what that kind of Comes to is about a million times a year you are touching those phones for once. Can we put that down and say, God, touch me. Let me touch you. Let me, let me for once stop going. Know what that phone does? It'll make you a wanderer, it'll make you a prisoner, it'll make you sick. And some of you going, no, no, I wipe it down every single time it's all relaxed. And you find yourself thinking that if I can run this business, run this thing, do all this stuff and you keep coming to dead ends. Psalm 107, that's your story. It's my story. And what he says at the end, he says this, you read these stories. It's time now to get wise and go, God, it's time for me to think about your love with your heads bowed and your eyes closed for just a second. Here's how we close. For the wanderers that keep finding dead ends, it's time to find God. For the prisoners that seem to be chained to the regrets, shackled to their past because they wouldn't listen to even what God's word said. That's what it says in Psalm 107. Some of you are going, that's my story. There's a life preserver for you. For those that have found despair and sickness, despair on a diagnosis, despair because all of a sudden you've heard the words, you have. And then they will say it. And then you will even ask the question, how much longer do I have? And everything you thinking about those that are watching around the US around, around the world and what you're thinking about is this, is that this is all there is. I'm here to tell you God didn't come simply to fix this. He's come to fix your forever. To change your forever. And there are those that have started journeys like that storm tossed boat and you found yourself hitting the depths and even at wit's end, dead ends and wits end. And I'm here to tell you, just read the tag, read the tag. The God who made you is the God that wants to rescue you today. The God who made you is the God who wants to rescue you today. That's what he's come to do. Here's the Good news. The 107 may be your story. You may go, I'm number two, I'm number three. Some of you would say, don't raise your hand, I'm one through four, I've been in all of them. But here's the good news, he's about to change your story. Today, some of you have wandered maybe into here. And this is not a dead end. This is just the beginning. It's not that this place is anything special. It's God that's special. I want you to know how much God loves you. And God can change you today. And if you're here today, here's how we close the service in these last few moments, with every head bowed, every head bowed and every eye closed. If you're here today and you go Tim Psalm 107, that's my story. But I haven't taken the journey of having God come in and change me from the inside out. To the Jew, the journey was back to Jerusalem to see a building. But now that's changed. It's not a building, it's not a mosque, it's not a temple. And I hate to tell you, it's not even a church like this. It's when God comes and lives inside of us, changes us from the inside out. Some of you have been looking at religion and been greatly disappointed, and you should be. But I'm here to tell you about a relationship with Jesus himself, the one who sewed that tag on there and said, you're mine and I'm going to rescue you. You've been wandering. It's time to stop. You've been in chains. It's time to stop a soul that's been even been sick and in despair. It's time for you to be healed. And even those that are at wit's end, it's time to find the Master. It's time to find the one that made you and rescued you today. And if you're here in this place with every head bowed and every eye closed and say, tim, I want God in my life. I want to be rescued today. I want God to come in and change me from the inside out. I love that the Bible calls that relationship born again. You know what that means? You get a new story. That's what I love about that. Jesus said, no man can see the kingdom of heaven unless they are. Here are the words born again. And that's not a Times Square church word. It's not a Protestant or religious word. Those are Jesus words. What he was telling us is this. He rewrites the stories. He changes the narrative. From wanderers to those who have found life, from prisoners to those who are set free, to the sick that are healed and the storm tossed. And those at wit's end finally find once again in their life the peace that can only come from God himself. If you're here Today with your heads bowed and your eyes closed and say, tim, I want to be born again. How does that happen, Tim? It's as simple as abca. It's admitting we're all sinners. We're all broken on the inside. I'm the first to start to be at the head of the list. And you can't fix yourself with a prescription or a program, a priest or a pastor isn't a promise you can make. I'll never do this. There's none of that. We don't need a second chance. We need a second birth. How does that happen? B believe that God sent his son 2,000 years ago to fix my sinful condition. He was. He would die the death I was supposed to die, live a life I couldn't live, and give me a reward I don't deserve heaven and forgiveness. And finally, it's confessing him as Lord, saying, you're in charge now. Religion says, show up once a week to church. Relationship says, I'll talk to you every single day. Think of it for a moment. Do you actually think that God sent his son 2,000 years ago to be beaten, hung on a cross to get you to sit in church? That doesn't even make sense. He didn't die and resurrect to get you to church. He died and resurrected and descended to heaven not to get us to church, but to get us to heaven and get us there forever. If you're here today, whether you're watching from around the world, around the country, Jersey Annex, or right here, I'm going to pray a born again prayer. And if you're here today and say, pastor Tim, would you put me in that prayer? All I'm going to ask you to do is this. If you say, would you put me in that prayer? Right now? I want to start a journey with God. I want to be changed from the inside out. I want a new story. I want to be born again. If that's you say, include me in that. Is that any hesitation? Just hold your hand up. Just say, put me in that prayer. Hold your hand up as high as I can because I want to see those hands. Yep. See? Keep them up. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Thank you. Keep them up. Yes. I want to make sure I see all those hands are up. Yes. Got you up there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Yes. All the way back there. Gotcha. All the way in the back corner. Gotcha. Those that are online, just type in. I'm making a decision today. Listen let's all pray this together. Come on, say these words with me. Dear Lord Jesus, I believe you're the Son of God. I believe that on the cross you took my sin, my shame and my guilt and you died for it. You faced hell for me so I wouldn't have to go. You rose from the dead to give me a place in heaven, a purpose on earth, and a relationship with your father. Today, Lord Jesus, I turn from my sin to be born again. Come on now, say this loud. God is my father, Jesus is my Savior, the Holy Spirit is my helper, and heaven is my home in Jesus name. And everybody said amen and amen. Come on, let's thank God for that. You got to break. New story today.