Pastor Jerry Zepnick's sermon, titled 'Unbelief,' focuses on John chapter 7 verses 25 through 36, exploring the pervasive theme of unbelief among Jesus' contemporaries. He highlights the different reactions to Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles, noting the boldness of Jesus in teaching despite growing hostility. Pastor Zepnick identifies three groups among the people: those who hated Jesus, those who doubted Him, and those who believed in Him, emphasizing that only true belief leads to redemption. The sermon discusses the practice of unbelief, exemplified by the rejection and hostility Jesus faced, which was foretold in biblical prophecy. Pastor Zepnick warns of the grave consequences of unbelief, urging listeners to seek a genuine transformation in faith. The sermon concludes with a call to examine one's relationship with Jesus, highlighting the eternal stakes involved in belief and unbelief.

P.S. We are going to continue where Pastor Rick left off last week. And so I believe that he did John chapter 7 verses 10 through 24. And so today we're going to continue from where he left off. We'll be on chapter 7 verses 25 through 36.

And so if you want to follow along in the Word. So today we will be in John chapter 7 verses 25 through 36. And this is a picture of unbelief. As we read through it, I kind of want you to have that overlaying understanding. While it's a handful of people who do believe, the underscore of not just this chapter, but chapter 8 as well, is the unbelief of his contemporaries, those people around him.

So, let's read 25-36. Now, some of them from Jerusalem said, is this not he whom they seek to kill? But look, he speaks boldly and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? However, We know where this man is from, but when the Christ comes, no one knows where he is from.

Then Jesus cried out as He taught in the temple, saying, You both know Me, and you know where I am from, and have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you do not know. But I know him, for I am from him, and he sent me. Therefore they sought to take him. But no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. And many of the people believed in him and said, when the Christ comes, will he do more signs than these which this man has done?

The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. Then Jesus said to them, I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to him who sent me. You will seek me and not find me, and where I am You cannot come. Then the Jews said among themselves, Where does he intend to go that we shall not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?

What is this thing that he said? You will seek me and not find me. And where I am, you cannot come." Father, we thank you today for your Word, the power, Lord God, that it held then to transform hearts, lives, Lord God. We lift it up to you today to do the same thing, Father God, that this is our prayer. Thank you for your love and your care for us and for your preservation of your holy, perfect Word, Lord.

Help us to rightly divide it. Help us, Lord God, to have the faith that would change our lives and our hearts in Jesus name Amen and so today we're continuing on from where pastor Rick was last week when this text tells us how how Jesus went up to the temple in the middle of the week. In the beginning of the chapter, his brothers wanted him to get up to the temple right away. You're going to be famous. You need to go up there, do some miracles, do your preaching, your teaching.

Everybody will be in awe. You will have a huge following. That's what his brothers wanted in the beginning of this chapter. And he just said, no, I'm not, my time has not yet come, I'm not going to go. And so He did go up in the middle of the feast.

He waited for the perfect timing as as he always did and he went up to the temple in the middle of the week after the feast had already started and So we can already see their hate Building there's this this growing seething hatred for the truth that Christ brings that they want to deny. And they are already starting to want to just damper this thing down. They were looking for him at the beginning of the festival. They couldn't find him. And then when he comes to the festival, what does he do?

He goes right up to the temple, he goes right into the temple, and he starts teaching right in the temple. And so this is for me something that says, he wasn't afraid of the hate of other people. The hatred, The despiseness of other people did not stop him from going right into the temple and telling them the truth of the Word of God. And we can't do that either. We have to stand strong in the Word, in the truth of it, no matter where we are.

If it's from a pulpit or from a chair behind a booth at a fair, we need to stay strong in the Lord. And so their hate didn't prevent His teaching, His preaching, and we can't allow the same thing with us. So, we have to be reminded as we go through this too, in the purpose of this. And I'm going to go back to this because the word, and I want you to remember the word believe is in here. And it says, and truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book.

But these are written that you may believe. These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, believing you may have life in His name. If you don't have life in His name, you don't really believe. And life in His name looks different than the life that you used to have. And so, all of chapter 7 and all of chapter 8, they come across as high intensity hatred.

I'm just going to use that. It's a harsh word, but it's real. A hatred for Jesus and for the truth that he carries and so here Jesus is is at the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Tabernacles is a celebration of of God's preservation and provision for them for the 40 years in the wilderness. And they're celebrating that. When they come to Jerusalem, they live in wooden little shacks sometimes just to remember and commemorate what Christ did for, what God did for them through that.

And so, he's at this feast right now, and this feast will happen again in six months. And in six months at this feast, he will go and there will be what is the false coronation, you remember that, where they put him on a donkey and he comes into town and they throw palm leaves down and then they crucify him shortly thereafter. And so that is what will happen at the next feast. And so John 7, the gospel, is recording of the reaction of the contemporaries of Jesus to the Son of God, to what He has done, what He has saved. And we study it today because we are studying what unbelief looks like.

This picture of unbelief. And in the middle of all of that, we have a reminder. And that reminder is John 14, 6. Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.

And so, as he comes and he's going to give these messages and he has started, there is a hatred for him. And there's a hatred for him then, there's a hatred for him today. People don't want to walk in the truth of the light of God's Word because They don't want to set aside what their own will is. They don't want God's words to supersede what their words and their life is. And even this text that Jesus is the only way.

No one goes to the Father but through Him. That is true today. Many people hate Him because of that. And many people that call themselves Christians. So it's very contrary.

But I want us to identify something today. So we're going into this text of basically there's three kinds of people kind of here. There's those who hated Him. There's those that doubted him that didn't really know a lot and they kind of doubted him and they still put him on a shelf. And then there's those who believed in him.

So as we go through this text, we all fall into one of those three categories. And only one of those categories is going to be redeemed in the end. And I want us to be very cautious and very alert as we walk our way through this. So to not respond to Christ's lordship is to show a person's unbelief. It's just you can say you do, but if you don't respond you're showing that you do not believe.

So today I want to look at our passage for two major points. I'm gonna make it three points by the time we're done, but the first point is the practice of unbelief. The practice of unbelief and that's verses 25 through 32. So in this group here we have the city of Jerusalem teaming with hundreds of thousands of people that have come to visit, that have come to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. Hundreds of thousands of Jews.

You had the population of Jerusalem, which was a lot of people, plus those from Galilee, from Judea, and all the rural areas, big and small towns, and all the Jews that came from the far-reaching corners of the country, of the world, wherever they would have come from. But it's a big celebration, once every six months. And it took place under the massive Herodian temple. Now, if you remember, we were going through the book of Daniel, and then Nehemiah, remember? Okay, they rebuilt the temple, right?

They rebuilt this temple, well, shortly before Christ, Herod, he tuned it up and added to it, remodeled. It was a giant, a giant temple. And so it took place under this massive Herodian temple. It was made of cedar, marble, gold, laid on it. It was just this massive, shining, humongous building on the eastern side of Jerusalem.

And so this huge temple, it took up about 35 acres. Now I have a 40-acre field that I can look at, and it's big. Well, This temple would have taken up most of that field. And that's, it's just unfathomable and how big and tall it was. And so this massive temple had huge courtyards And they were packed out with people that were celebrating, standing room only.

And this went on for a week. And so in the middle of this week, and these hundreds of thousands of people, comes Jesus. And according to the book of Isaiah, he was not much to look at. He was not a handsome man and he was coming into Jerusalem and he walked all the way through this huge group of people and he walked right into the temple. In the middle of the week Jesus came.

He was waiting until then to avoid the hatred of the evil intentions of those that wanted to kill Him, all the leaders, until everything had settled down, until the timing was perfect. And Upon arriving, he went right to the temple and he started to teach. Even while the trend of rejection and unbelief was escalating, he went aside from all the mini celebrations that happen at the beginning and whatnot, right in the middle, and he walks right into the temple and he starts to teach. And so, this is a reality for us that we need boldness in our teaching, in our preaching, in our testimonies for Christ. The reality is that rejection and unbelief marked Christ's whole ministry.

This wasn't just part of His ministry. This wasn't just near the end. This was his whole ministry. And if we think that we can go out and give the Gospel to people and not be made fun of or persecuted, we're giving the wrong Gospel out. If you're giving the real Gospel out, you're going to get hammered.

And this is what was happening. And so this is the same with us. And this marked His entire ministry. And this is told us in John 1, 10, and 11. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. His whole ministry is one of rejection. And this is his story. He came, he was rejected, he was crucified, and we see it in the Bread of Life discourse. And a series of how many times he was rejected, 656.

From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. It was written about his brothers, or really his half-brothers, right? For even his brothers did not believe in him." John 7, 5. And definitely the leaders in 7, 1 and 19. After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee for he did not want to walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him.

In 19, did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? And then most recently in the general population in 7 and 20. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify of it that its works are evil.

And 20, the people answered and said, you have a demon who is seeking to kill you. See, he was rejected by the people, he was rejected by his brothers, he was rejected by the leaders. So by the time his work on earth was all over and Jesus ascended to heaven, in Acts 15, Acts 1-15, it tells us he had a meager following of 120 people in the upper room. 120 people on the day of Pentecost. His is a story of progressive rejection.

And this was prophesied in Isaiah. Isaiah 53, 3 and 4. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised and we did not esteem Him.

Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. This is the prophecy of our Savior Jesus Christ. It was foretold what His ministry would be like. And now as we're going through it, we see firsthand here how He was rejected, His suffering on behalf of humanity.

And we go back to John 3.16 again. For God so loved the world. For God so loved humanity. He so loved us, you, me, that He gave His only begotten Son. That He sent His Son to earth to be rejected and crushed for us.

See, his story is of progressive rejection. It's growing. Of what is the most wonderful person, with the greatest message, with the greatest gift that humanity could ever have. The single greatest event to ever happen in the history of humanity from the beginning to eternity came and walked among them. The greatest message to ever walk and he was rejected.

They don't know God. They said that they knew God, but they did not know God. And that is the heart of the problem. Today's passage really speaks deep and profoundly to the wretchedness of the sin of unbelief. And we can go, you're right, it really does.

Yes, unbelief is a huge... It's a morbid, wretched sin. But what about us? What does belief look like? What does faith in Christ look like?

What does belief look like? Does it look like what we walk? Because belief, you've got to look at your feet. Because your feet, when your heart believes, your feet are going to walk in belief. Your feet are going to walk in faith.

Your heart is going to belong to Him. Your actions, your life, your prayer life, it all belongs to Him. That's what belief is. It's not just speaking it. It's not just coming to church on Sunday.

It's living it. So today's passage really speaks about the wretchedness of unbelief. And from here on after being rejected, Jesus spends the last six months of what will be his life walking in the shadow of the cross. He knows it's coming. The people are going to cry for his blood.

After they praise him as king, they're going to cry for his blood and send him to the cross. And they'll take Barabbas instead. Except for perhaps his blood brothers, his half-brothers. And for sure, some of them do come to believe in him after his resurrection. And there's a handful that believe now and we'll see that.

So in this picture of unbelief, the view commonly held is that believing or not is a matter of opinion or matter of preference. But unfortunately this isn't how it really works. How we treat unbelief when we're evangelizing people. They're telling other people how to be right with God. And they weren't right with God.

They didn't even know God. If we're going to tell anybody about Jesus, we have to know Jesus. It's the same today. And so, we think of unbelief to be The same as someone differs in opinions if it's, I don't know, I like to drive such and such a truck. I can't even say now because I'm driving a Chevy.

I like Fords and it's all over the place really. Okay, so you like, I like Mountain Dew. Well, some people like Mellow Yellow, Coke, Pepsi. Okay, politics, music, hobbies, taste in food. We think that a choice in those are the same as what somebody believes or not in Jesus.

And it's not so. There's one Jesus. There's not the Sicilian pizza and the stuffed crust pizza Jesus. No, there's one Jesus. And you receive Him as He is, not as you want Him to be.

But the problem with that view is that it's not mere intellect. It's not just thinking or reasoning. Believing in Christ is altogether the deepest of who you are. It's at the center of our being. A life of belief is going to be a changed life.

You can say, yeah, I believe. Of course, the devil believes and he trembles, right? It's a changed life. Not just a sort of an intellectual, yeah, I understand it. I received that.

This belief I agree to and I receive this belief. No, if it hasn't changed the place your feet go, It doesn't mean diddly squat. It doesn't mean a thing. It's a belief that wakes you up spiritually because you are dead. It brings you to life spiritually.

It sets your feet on a different path with different affections, with different intentions. We have a different life. We're all new. We're recreated. Not like the crowd in our text, and not like the multitudes today.

We have a small group here. People don't like hearing this stuff. They don't want to come and hear it. It's the only way we're going to grow. Real growth.

See, belief in the Jesus of Nazareth who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, worked miracles, died in the sinner's place, died in your place. He was bodily resurrected, described in Acts 4.12, where it tells us, nor is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. There's no other way. There is no other way.

You can't be a good enough person. You can't associate yourself with the right people and forget other people enough to say, I belong to Him alone. That doesn't do it. We are sold out unto Him alone. He is our life.

So this is according to the Bible, this is God's holy word. So what we're seeing here is man's estrangement from God. This is a picture of man wandering away from God. Their unbelief is in God's Work, their unbelief is in God's perfect plan in Jesus Christ, and it's not a matter of opinion. It's a matter of fact.

It's a matter of truth from the Word of God. It's deep, and unbelief is part of the fall of man from the beginning. You see, the message of the four Gospels is summarized in these verses right here, John 1, 11-13. He came to his own, and his own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.

To those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. But of God. It was because of this ignorance that they refused to listen to Him. They didn't want to submit. They couldn't come underneath the authority of Jesus Christ.

They refused that. They didn't receive Jesus because they didn't know God. Even though He was giving them the truth and he was giving them the hope, the only hope for redemption for all of humanity. They rejected him. They didn't get it.

They rejected him. They rejected it. They rejected him. They rejected Jesus. And that's the same thing people do today.

They reject Jesus. And it's not okay. And so they remained instead of being glorified, instead of being redeemed, they remained in their misery of unbelief. And people today remain in the misery of unbelief. People that go to church every day, people that read their Bibles every day, people that that don't read their Bibles, people that reject Him openly.

What they're rejecting is Christ and they remain and they walk in the misery of unbelief. In verses 25 and 26 Jesus spoke boldly and I love this but look he speaks boldly and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the man? He spoke boldly. And do we do this with those that are lost?

Do we plead with them? And in verse 27, I love this, it says, however, I'm sorry, verse 28, then Jesus cried out as he taught in the temple saying, you know me, I am from God. But he cried out in the temple. He didn't hold it back. He cried out because people were nodding off, people were gossiping, and people were whispering in the corners.

And he would have none of it. He cried out and he said, Hey, I am from my father. You believe in me or you reject me?" He cried out. Jesus wanting so badly for those who were listening, those that were on the fringes, the doubters that were whispering, the people that were division, that were dividing the people, the knuckleheads. He's crying out to them and He's hoping that they would listen.

Why? So that they would live. So that they would have life in His name. That they would believe in Him. That's why He was crying out.

Hoping that they'd listen, that they'd have life. But they didn't. For the most part, they were more hell-bent on not believing and causing problems than to hear the truth and submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And it's terrible. It's a horrible thing.

It's a devastating text. We're creeping through here. There's a picture of hope right here in the middle in verse 30. It's not a second point, it's a point 1.5. So I sneak it in between points 1 and 2.

Point 1.5 it says in verse 30, "'Therefore they sought to take him, but no one laid hand on him because his hour had not yet come." The promise to the faithful. It's the promise to the faithful. The plans of God are going to come about. It's inevitable. He doesn't tell us His plans.

He doesn't let us know ahead of time what His plans are. Dave didn't know His plans or he wouldn't have tripped on the concrete, right? Dave is home with him now. We don't know his plans. He knows his plans.

And if you think about it, if God wanted them to know his plans, he could have told them his plans. He didn't tell them his plans. If Satan had known God's plans, would he have entered Judas? And had Jesus crucified? No.

He would not have. We do not know God's plans. But he does. The Lord isn't interested in us knowing his plan, but in us trusting in his plan. So I get and I find great comfort and encouragement at the same time reading this text.

The unbelievers who rejected Jesus sought to take Him. They wanted to kill Him. More than anything, They wanted to kill him. But God's sovereign timetable would not allow it. It was not going to happen.

I was studying on this and Matthew Henry had a quote. He said, the Faithful preachers of the truths of God, though they behave themselves with ever so much prudence and meekness, must expect to be hated and persecuted by those who think themselves tormented by their testimony." See, that's a fair description of what's happening in the passage here in this text. There's also the reality that God often has wicked men planning things, but God holds them back. God uses wicked men as well. He uses their efforts, he uses their whatever it might be, funding, whichever kind of way, I don't know.

But God knows. There's a reality that God has often held back wicked men and whatever harm They would want to do, they can't do, any more than God will allow them to do. And so we need to take encouragement in this. To stay the course, to be faithful. Matthew Henry said also, when Satan fills their hearts, yet God ties their hands.

See, Christ has set His hour and that hour would be the end of His earthly ministry, not a second before and not a second after That appointed time. And just as Jesus had a designated hour, so do all of us. So do His sheep. So do His children. Those whom He has set His affections on, those who He loves.

He has set His plan, His schedule upon us in that same way. But until that hour comes, for each one of us, the attempts of our enemies fall in the pickers. They do no good at all. They're futile against God's plan for our lives. Now, God's plan for Jesus was that Judas should betray Him.

That Jesus should be scourged. That He should be tortured. That He should be rejected. Smitten of men. Hated.

Ultimately crucified. But we want better than that, don't we? We deserve better than God's only Son, right? No, we don't. We do not.

We think we do, because we think a lot of ourselves, don't we? I do. And just as Jesus had that designated hour, we all have our designated hour. And so take confidence in God's timing, in God's promises, knowing that all the powers of hell can't turn it or stop it. All the powers of earth, co-workers, bosses, crazy drivers, None of that can turn it.

It cannot stop our work for the Lord until our testimony is complete. When our testimony is done, He takes us. That's that. Our testimony, you think of it as people will say, well what's your testimony? Okay, well you think right away, well that's how I got saved, right?

And so you go into the story about how you were a lost sheep, and how people witnessed to you, and then how you got saved, and the Lord lives in you, and so we're done with our testimony. No. Our testimony won't end until you croak, they kick you in the box, and they throw you in the ground. That's the end of your testimony. When you quit breathing, that's the end of it.

And so this is something that is ongoing. And God is at work in your testimony from the moment you're saved to the moment you die. So even when some in today's text practiced unbelief to the point of wanting to take hold of Jesus, they couldn't. It wasn't allowed. It just didn't happen.

Yet since they continued to reject Jesus, He warns them. He is in the center of the hornet's nest, completely protected. And so are you. He warns them with what is the payment of their unbelief. And that's the last point that I have today.

The payment for unbelief. Verses 31-36. And this is where He talks about, they heard the crowd murmuring, but in 33 Jesus said to them, I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to him who sent me. This got really under their skin. You won't be able to find me.

What does he mean? I won't be able to find him. You don't know the people I got on my side. I think I could find him anywhere. You can go to the dispersion among the Greeks and I'll find you, dude.

You don't have a chance." No. What does this mean? A time when they will seek Him and not find Him. See, this is a grave sentence that Jesus is placing on them. This is very real.

A time when they will seek and not find Him. This really stuck in their minds and they were perplexed by it. They couldn't get past it. What it basically means is that there will come a time for each when it will be too late to believe in Jesus. It will be too late to receive Him as your Lord and Savior.

If you haven't today, know it today. Make it today. If you know somebody that doesn't know them, know him, you go and you be bold to them. You tell them they're gonna spend eternity in hell if you don't. There will come a time for everyone when it's too late to believe in Jesus that doesn't believe in Jesus here.

And for us today, I say what Isaiah 55-6 says. It says, seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Hell is a truth that's discovered too late. You don't want that.

You don't want it for you. You don't want that for your family. You don't want that for friends that don't know Him. So verse 34 of today's text records two points. This is a grave text.

Verse 34, it says, You will seek me and not find me. Two points, right? You will seek me, you will not find me. You will seek me. They will desire the Lord.

They will look for the Lord Jesus. They will recall his words. They will recall his warnings. And in remorse, they will be looking for him. And the second point is they will not find him.

Will not find him. Part of what hell is, is eternal suffering for sin. It's resentment. It's eternal regret. Yet without It's eternal regret, yet without any remedy.

Hell is everlasting. It's without any hope. It's weeping, it's wailing, it's gnashing of teeth. Hell is not where Christ is forgotten. It's where Christ is unavailable.

How can we play around with this? How can we not know and be sure? This is a devastating passage and it's a warning in the day of this text and it's a warning to us today. It's a warning to a culture and a society that is walking on a fence that doesn't care, that takes God's Word nominally, that are cultural Christians or carnal Christians, there is no such thing. You believe in Jesus Christ or you don't.

If you believe in Jesus, you're going to live for Him. There's two groups, the general population in this story of the people and also the Jewish leaders. And they are both given the same sentence. It doesn't matter who you are, what status you've achieved, or title that you have, there's no class separating unbelievers. They're condemned.

There's only this fixed chasm, right? Believers and unbelievers. Abraham and the leper, right? And then there's the rich man on the other side. In the text you have you have those who are are confused about who Jesus is and they ignore Him.

Then you have those that that hate Him. They have those that despise Jesus. And they both get the same sentence. You know what? So-and-so was a good person.

They'll probably go to heaven, right? They're in a better place now, right? Hell is full of good people. The question is, have they received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior? Was their life so radically different than this culture that you could see Jesus in them?

That's a Christian. Matthew 12.30 says, "'He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad." It's two kinds. But in our culture, it's way too easy to live comfortably. Like in between. I can have the riches of this world and the fame and the fun, and I can do whatever I want on this side, and I can say that I love Jesus over here.

And I can live this squishy, squishy, fun Christian life, right? Christianity is fun. Those that are sold out for Jesus. Revelation 3.16, I'm going to throw that out there again. I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot.

I wish, I could wish that they were cold or hot, so then because you are lukewarm and either cold or hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth." He knows our works. We can't fool Him. It says so right in the Word of God. He knows our works. He knows what we are, what we're doing.

He knows our hearts. He sees right through us. But now let's go back to John 1, 12 and 13. It says, But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Lorenzo read that starting out today. This is the assurance that we have.

John 3.3. Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. This is placing your faith, your belief in Jesus Christ. And what does that look like? What does that look like in your life?

What does that look like in your family? What does that look like in your church? Is it walked out? See, The payment for unbelief is eternal. It's not like you're going to go there and then they're going to say some masses for you and you're going to burn off some sins and then you're going to spend eternity with God.

That's nowhere in the Word of God. The payment for unbelief is eternal. It's real. And no one will want it. No one will want it.

You might think that you have time, But do we? I've had reminders in the last week, last few days. Thursday I got the call about Dave Castile. And I can still remember them sitting right here and talking and the fellowship we had. He's gone now.

And it was like that. I had a job, two jobs I had to check out. They're down on Doty Island, down in Menasha. And so this is what was the heart of what is the tornado that went through Menasha. I got to drive through and see the devastation.

I got to walk through houses and see how this storm ripped roofs right off of houses. I got to see the few houses that are damaged, not too bad, that they can't be repaired. I'll be doing some work on. I drove through it, it reminded me of videos and pictures that I've seen of Nagasaki, Hiroshima. It is treacherous.

Ten minutes before that tornado landed, They didn't know it was coming. And it was there. It was there. They barely had time. There was one man that I talked to, his neighbor across the street.

She heard the rumble, she ran to the bathroom and laid in the bathtub while the roof of her house was ripped off and she looked up at the tornado. We don't know when this will happen. This is a wake-up call for us. So many things have happened in my life that I have seen of people here as well. There have been wake-up calls.

We need to wake up. We need to see God's hand working through us. Come together in unity and love and care one for another. This payment for unbelief and the life it's lived is too great and we don't have time. And we need to know these groups, these three groups that I explained before, where do we stand in here?

Where do we stand in belief and unbelief? Seek the Lord while he may be found. And today I'm going to close, but I'm going to beg you this morning. I'm going to beg everybody here and everybody watching to search. I'm going to beg you to know this today.

God's Word is clear. Eternity is forever. Father, I thank you for Your Word. Thank you for the way that Your Word in this text can shake us, Lord God, and make us new, it can wake us up. Father, before it's too late, it can do this right now.

I thank You for this. I pray for my heart, Lord God, to be one with you. I pray for a submission, Father God, that would lift up your name and not mine. Lord, I pray for faith and for boldness and for truth in all of our hearts, Lord, to draw nearer to You. Nearer, Lord Jesus, nearer.

I love You and I thank You for this day. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen.