And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told him all things, both and what they had taught. And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while, for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. and they departed into a desert place by ship privately. And when the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and out went them, and came together unto him. And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were a sheep. not having a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far past. Send them away, that they may go into the country roundabout and into the villages and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. He answered and said unto them, give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred penny worth of bread and give them to eat? He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? Go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties. When he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven and blessed and break the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before them. And the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments and of the fishes. and they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men. And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. And when he even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land, and he saw them toiling in rowing, for the wind was contrary unto them. And about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out, for they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them. and saith unto them, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. And he went up unto them into the ship, and the wind ceased, and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure and wondered, for they considered not the miracle of the loaves, and their heart was hardened. And when they had passed over, they came unto the land of Gennesaret and drew to the shore, And when they were come out of the ship straightway, they knew, and ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was. And with us, wherever they entered into villages or cities or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch, if it were but the border of his garment, and as many as were touched, as touched. We're made whole. May God bless to us the reading of his precious word. We'll seek his face again, shall we? Blessed God, our Father, we thank thee for another Lord's Day morning. We thank the Lord that throughout this land today, at this hour, hundreds, multiplied, hundreds and thousands of people are gathered in various religious buildings. ornate churches and chapels and mission houses and prisons by the bedside in the hospital. Oh God, we pray that on this Sunday morning thou speak to many hearts. We ask, Lord, that in these last days when things are so bad and getting worse that the message of thy word might go forth, we thank thee for every radio speaker today. Take thy word, Lord, and thyself do the work in many hearts, we pray. We thank thee for our meeting here. We thank thee for the peace and quiet and calm and tranquility of Park of the Palms. Separated from the world without, we thank thee for it. But, O Lord, what privileged people we are, and what a people we ought to be. We pray, Lord, that we might hear thy voice speaking to us this morning, saying, Come ye apart, alone, that we might hear thy voice. Speak to us, we pray thee. We ask for thy blessing upon this meeting, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, in our studies in Mark's Gospel, We considered last time how the Lord sent the disciples out to preach. The twelve disciples whom he had chosen and trained, remember we emphasized back in our previous studies, in the third chapter, he went up into a mountain and called unto him whom he would and they came unto him and he ordained twelve. And he ordained them for this purpose, that they should be with him, one. And that he might send them forth to preach, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach. And they were with him a long time before he sent them out. He showed them how to do it, you know. He taught them the story of the sowing of the seed, and he told them of the various results of the sowing of the seed. Now some seed would fall into good ground, very little in good ground. Others would fall into on the wayside, some in thorny ground, some in stony ground, and he told them the results of the sowing of the seed in the various hearts of men. And he trained them. And finally there in the The sixth chapter, verse seven, he called unto them the twelve and began to send them for two by two. And they went out and preached. And in the thirtieth verse, which we read today, they came back. And in the thirtieth verse, they are called apostles. And this is the only time in Mark's gospel that they are called apostles. On every other occasion they are called disciples. But it seems now as if they were qualified, you know, they'd gone out and got experienced. They'd been preaching, casting out demons, healing the sick. And they came back now, fully fled, shall I say, apostles of the Lord. And so he called them the apostles. The apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. Now, apostles... We have two Greek words here. Apple means from and stelno means to send. So apostle means to send out from. Or stelno means I send. So to send out from. An apostle is one who is sent out from God. That's what he is. And these twelve apostles were sent out from the Lord with their message, and now they come back and gather themselves unto Jesus and told him all things both what they had done and what they had taught. It must have been a very interesting time, eh? I like a testimony meeting. Nothing cheers my heart more than to hear men and women tell of what God has done for them. We shall hear something about that next week when we hear our brother, Mr. Conrad Baer. I don't know whether you sisters will be able to arrange a meeting for Mrs. Baer. If you do, it'll have to be something Sunday afternoon because they're here one day. But Mrs. Baer has also worked with her husband many years out there in China, amongst the Chinese. They came and told what they had done. What joy must have filled their hearts? What thrill it must have been to tell the Lord of the victory is won and the work done in his name. But they had told for him, and a terrible tragedy had taken place just at this time. And we've left it out purposely because I want to get down into the chapter. But there's a parenthesis. And in all these Gospels, there's a little parenthesis there telling us about the execution of John the Baptist. It comes in there at the fourteenth verse and finishes up there in the twenty-nine. John's disciples heard of it, and they came and took up his corpse and laid it in a tomb. Poor John, he was the forerunner of the Lord Jesus. He wasn't one of the apostles. He had a unique business, a unique job to do as the forerunner. And he said after he had presented the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God, not as the King of Israel as he preached and said he was coming as the King, but presented him as a lamb that was going to die and bear away the sin of the world. Then he said, Now I'm going to decrease and he's going to increase and truly the Lord Jesus increase and John the Baptist went down into prison and then we know the sad story of how his head was taken from him and he was executed in the prison there. The disciples took up his body and buried it and came and told Jesus. That's how it's put in the other verse, that the disciples of John came and told Jesus. Now in the other gospel. Now when the Lord looked upon his disciples after they worked for him, he realized that they were tired. He realized that they've labored. He realized that they needed a rest. And they told the story of all they'd done. And he says, now what you need most of all now is to come apart with me. So he says to them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while. For there was much coming and going and no time not so much as to eat bread, it says. Don't live here, not so much as to eat. And he said, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while. How necessary is the desert place? I sometimes wonder what we do with our time. We're so busy, you know. Here we've come to a place of relaxation. Here we've come to a place of retirement. And it seems to me some of us are just as busy and more so than we were before. There's so much to do. And it's so wonderful to see everybody busy. It cheers my heart to see all you ladies so busy in all the projects. And when we think of all the lists of things that Brother Harvey gave us on Thursday night, the things we ought to be doing and we intend to do in God's will, we're going to be a busy people. And there comes times when it's necessary to have a little rest. And sometimes when we won't take that rest, the Lord gives it to us, you know, and lays us aside sometimes and makes us lie down in our bed for a good long while and rest a while so that he can deal with us and talk to us and speak to us. Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while. And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. Now I'm not too sure in my mind where they went. Bethsada is mentioned, but there are two Bethsadas. There was a Bethsada very near to Capernaum, just north of Capernaum. When I was in Palestine some years ago, and I was in the district of Capernaum, they took us out on a hillside near the lake, a very big grassy place, and they said, that's where the Lord fed the five thousand, quite near to Capernaum. Well, of course, they tell you all sorts of things out there in Israel. some of which they can prove and others they can't prove. But there's another Bethsaida, a way across in the northeast corner, on the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee. Bethsaida Julius, I think it was called. Maybe it was there. But in any case, they went by ship. What makes me think it was the nearer place is the fact that the people, they got knowledge of the fact that Jesus was going off in a ship privately to rest a while. They didn't know he was going to rest a while. They didn't let him, as a matter of fact. The people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all the cities, and out went them and got their first." Now that's why I think it was the sata that was nearby. They ran out of all the cities, and they got their first. And it says, when the Lord came out, when Jesus came out, came out of what? I think when he came out of the boat, don't you? He'd come along by sea along the coast a while and came in to shore, and all the crowds were there waiting. He said, come and rest a while. But there wasn't much chance to rest. How this is like our lives, isn't it? We plan to have... time alone with the Lord Jesus, which is absolutely essential for you and me as Christians, we must have time alone with Him. And we plan it. Think, now I'll give this time, I'll give that time. But my experience is that it's one of the most difficult things to get alone with the Lord. Life is so full. And when you think, now you've got everything organized and now I can have time alone, No, the telephone rings or something and there's this to do and that to do and you just can't do it. And the Lord Jesus planned this, took them off, come into a desert place and rest a while and they departed into a desert place and when He came out of the ship He was moved with compassion because there were crowds of people there and didn't get the rest. And we need this rest. Beloved, I believe we need, I speak for myself. I was only telling the Lord this morning as I talked to him, because before I go to the Lord's table, I like to go over the week. You see, when we come to the Lord's table, we come as priests. We come to worship. And long ago, when the priest went into the holy place to put incense upon the altar, for that's what we're here for Sunday morning, some of us don't understand and don't realize that, sad to say. we're here to worship. But before the priest went into that place, he went to the labor and washed his hands and feet before he went into the Lord's presence. And I believe before we come to the Lord's table, we should wash our hands and feet. If there's anything on our mind, we should confess it before him if there's been any sin We should be cleansed and clean and pure to enter His presence so that we might worship Him. As I was talking to the Lord this morning before I went to the Lord's table, I said, Lord, the greatest sin in my life is that I don't give you enough time in my life, and I believe that. He needs to take us into a desert place. He needs to have us all alone sometimes that He might speak to us. May he search your heart and mind, that we might plan and organize and plan our lives so that we can give him more time. I'd love to think of some of you here who have that wonderful knack of getting up early. and spending time with the Lord the early part of the day. I believe this is the essential and the best thing of all. It's so necessary, coming apart and rest a while. Well, instead of resting, the Lord was busy. He saw much people. He was moved with compassion toward them because they were as a sheep not having a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. Multitudes of people. There were many rulers in the synagogues in Israel at that time. There were many rabbis and many priests, but the people were like sheep without a shepherd. What a picture we have here of our day in which we live. supposedly shepherds, many pastors, many leaders, many religious leaders, priests and ministers and so on. But how many people there are wandering around today with no knowledge of the things of God at all. They don't know the way. What can we do for them? The Lord taught them. It seems to me this is a good thing to teach them. Today, all over this country, God is greatly blessing the coffee, what they call the coffee meetings, you know, where somebody opens their house and invites somebody to come along and teach the Word of God and invite their unsaved friends in, perhaps one morning a week or one morning a month or something. And God is greatly blessing it, and people are being saved. People who don't know anything about the ways of the Lord, somehow they're getting them apart, and they are sheep without a shepherd, they don't know. I've just been reading and greatly enjoying and very much interested in the reading of a little book about Tom Skinner, The Colored Evangelist. It's called Black and Free. It's just come out a new book, and I think perhaps we might get some here for you, Black and Free. And he tells the story of how he was saved. And to me it's amazing. You probably know the story. But he was just like this, a sheep without a shepherd. His father was a colored minister in Harlem. He was born in Harlem, brought up there. And at sixteen years of age was a gang leader. And the leader of the conquering gang of Harlem, the one that beat all the other gangs. And they waged real warfare. He used to sit down like a general and work out all the strategy of an attack. How this gang could fight that gang. And they'd hear the other gang was coming in. He'd sit down and arrange all the plans, put the other boys... for some boys to be down in the basements of houses, others hiding behind the trees, all worked out just like an attack, and then draw the enemy in and surround them and fight terribly with brass knuckle-dusters on their hands and knives and broken glass bottles and just to kill people. This is where he was brought up. But he didn't know any better. went to school, went to Sunday school, went to church and sang in the choir every Sunday. And secretly was the leader of the most vicious gang in Harlem. And he tells of the messages he heard in the services on Sunday. And he never once heard the gospel. Never heard it. He said it was just a religion. And there were people there, led astray, sheep without a shepherd. And one day when this boy was planning a great campaign, three thousand several gangs had got together and there was going to be a battle up there of three thousand boys on each side fighting. And he was the one that was planning all the strategy. And he had his maps on his table, all the plans of the houses and streets. He was working it all out and had the radio turned on listening to the jazz, you know. And suddenly the jazz stopped and a gospel message came on. And he cursed when he heard the gospel. But somehow he couldn't turn it off. And God spoke to him. And there alone God saved Tom Skinner. Within twenty-four hours he led his assistant, the assistant chief of the gang. He led him to Christ. Within a week or two, he was out there and led twenty-five in an open-air meeting of another gang to Christ. And he's become a great evangelist, preaching the gospel amongst the colored people. I look upon the colored people like this, sheep without a shepherd. And I believe one day you and I, beloved, have got to answer to the Lord for what we have not done in this age. the greatest problem in this land today. One of the greatest, perhaps the greatest problem is this, and we're doing nothing. Who may God help us to do something? I believe the greatest thing of all we can do is to pray. We can't save souls. God can save, but if we pray, God will save. But we don't make contact. Here at Park of the Palms, what a wonderful life we live, and yet we're separated from the world, and we don't make any touch with them. And we need some outreach. We need to, the Lord, he was moved with compassion when he saw sheep not having a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. Oh, let us pray somehow that God will open up doors for us here. We're not too old to do this. That God will open doors somehow that we might teach them many things from the Word of God. It could be done. We could have meetings in homes all around here, some of you brethren here, some of us together perhaps. We could go and be in these places, teaching and showing them the Word of God and leading men and women to Christ in these days. He had compassion on them. He began to teach them many things. And when the day was far spent, his disciples. Now they did a wonderful job out there preaching and came back. They've cast out demons and so on. They came back now when they saw the multitude and the day far spent. They were so different to the Lord. He had compassion upon them. What did they do? Oh, they were so proper. They said, now we mustn't have the meeting a bit too long. We mustn't go five minutes over. We finish at twelve o'clock. We must finish at twelve. We mustn't go over. The day was far spent. He said, Lord, send them home. It's time for us to finish this meeting. Now it's all over. No grace. No stretching it a bit because there were souls that needed to be one to him. The disciples came to him and said, the day is far spent. This is a desert place. The time is now far past. Send them away that they may go to their country and buy some food and look after themselves. How like my disciples, eh? How like you and me? The disciples were tired and they wanted to get their rest. I've often been impressed when I've been preaching the gospel in this country for the last twenty years, in various places, and sought to win souls to Christ. And I've often, at the end of the meeting, come to the conclusion that It seemed, let me say it very humbly and graciously, it seemed as if I was the only one interested in winning souls to Christ. Because as soon as the meeting was over, when I knew they were unsaved, and we knew God was speaking, as soon as the meeting was over, it seemed as if all the Spirit went, and all the people did was laugh and talk, and yet there are some souls unsaved. We don't want to send them away and clear off. If there's work to be done, let's do the work. They wanted to drive them off and the Lord said, no, stop there. He said, you give them something to eat. The disciples give them something to eat. You give them something to eat. And they said, what do you want? You want us to go and buy two hundred pennies worth of bread? That wouldn't be enough anyhow. He said, how many loaves have you? Go and see. What a wonderful question, eh? How many, what have you got when God sent Moses to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, and he sent them to Pharaoh. Moses had five separate excuses, you know, why he shouldn't do it. He said, Who am I? And then what shall I say? And then I'm not eloquent. What can I do? And then finally he said, Lord, you send somebody else, not me. And the Lord was angry, but the Lord said to this. He said this to him. What is that in thy hand? He said, Lord, I'm a shepherd. All I got is a shepherd's rod. All right, throw it underground. He became a serpent. Pick it up. It was a rod. And you know, whenever you find Moses working for the Lord, he does it with that rod. He stretches out that rod over the Red Sea, and the water has disappeared. And when he wanted to bring water out of the rock, he struck the rock with that rod. What is that in thy hand? Let me ask you a question. What is that in thy hand? Well, you say, Lord, I'm not a great preacher. Well, I can do some knitting. Was that me good? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I can do some knitting. And that knitting can go out to tell the gospel. He can go out to the missionaries. What is that in thy hand? Let's do it for him. You say, well, I can write, you know. All right, then let's write for him. I can use a typewriter. Let's type for him. I can play a piano. Let's play the piano for him. What is that in thy hand? He said to them, how many looms have you? What have you got? Lord, we can't feed the people. We have to go and buy something. You don't have to buy a thing. You see, that's how we are. When we're going to do something for the Lord, we say, well, I'm not ready. I've got to go and get prepared. The Lord says, now come just as you are. And all you've got lay down at my feet, and that's what I'm going to use. What have you got? Go and see and bring what you've got to me. Can we do that, beloved? I believe we can do that here at Prakash. Our various talents and gifts, what we've got and what we haven't got, we can bring it to Him. I love to put it this way sometimes, you know. We can bring our homes to Him. I like to think of a Christian home, a house being used for the Lord, where there's a prophet's chamber, where you can entertain a missionary or a preacher sometimes when he comes around, and where you can invite unsaved friends into the home and use that home. We got the home in our hand, that's what it is. What is that in thy hand, Lord? I've got a home, I've got a piano, and let's sing some songs and bring some people in and use it for his glory. I've got a car. All right, then use the car for him. Many souls have been saved in a car. What is that in thy hand? What have you got, he says. Go and see. And when they knew, they said, well, now this is all we got, Lord. Too much. We got five loaves and we got two small fishes. And when we turn over into the sixth chapter of John, we find that it was a boy that had a lunch basket, you know. And in the lunch basket he had five loaves and two small fishes. When I was in Capernaum, a group of us We got up early in the morning and went down for a walk along the lake at the Sea of Galilee, and I had a swim, an early swim. It was pretty cold too, an early swim in the lake. I was the only one in the group that swam and came back. Then we were walking back to breakfast. And as we went along, there came a little boy, and he had a basket under his arm. Now this is actual fact. He had a basket under his arm. And he couldn't speak English, but we got often to find out what he had in his basket. And this is true. He had the loaves they have are flat loaves, like a pancake, you know. And he had five loaves, and underneath the loaves two small fishes. And that was in the year in nineteen forty three, I think it was. When I was in Palestine on the shores of the Sea of Gaelic, that's what I saw. A little boy, my wife was with me too, a little boy and in a basket he was going out for the day and he had his lunch and he had five flat loaves and two small fishes after all those years. And that's all they had. And the Lord said, give it to me. Now Lord, what are you going to do with that little bit of stuff? Two loaves, five loaves and two fishes. He said, well, make the people sit down. What faith they had to have to do this, eh? Make the people sit down in fifties. And there were five thousand, and the Greek word here where it says five thousand men, the Greek word is andres, and andres means men, not men and women, but men. If you'd be men and women, it'd be anthropy. But andres is men, man, and ear. And so there were five thousand men, and it says in... Matthew, besides women and children. So how many were there? The women were home looking out to the home and so on, I expect. But if there were five thousand men there, there were probably five thousand women there too. Women and children, I mean. And he said, now make them all sit down, and how orderly the Lord did it? A hundred, and sit down by companies. It sat down, they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifty. It took a little bit of organizing to get this crowd to do this. But that was all arranged. The Lord's power was in it, and they got all organized, sat down properly for the Lord's blessing. Now let me put a little word in here, and this is the... I just want to get a point over here. I believe we should do this. How much easier... Now they were going to distribute the bread. See? How much easier it would have been this morning... at the Lord's table, for those brethren that were helping to move the bread and the wine around, how much easier if we'd all been sitting up to the front with full ranks, full ranks. How difficult it is when you've got a stretch by the cross. How disorderly. The Lord likes to see things decently and in order, and he arranged that they should be seating in fifties and a hundred. No stretching your cross. It was all, it could pass up and down the ranks. You see what I mean? And I say Sunday morning when we come, we should start in the middle, in the front, and fill up the rows. From the middle, outwards, and from the front, backwards, and let's all be up as near as we can to the Lord's table. And then the thing goes to all things. The Lord's up over there looking down upon it, you know. And when Balaam looked down upon the tent of Israel, he said, How beautiful are thy tents, O Israel. Perfect symmetry, everything laid out. The Lord does it that way. He lays it out, and he laid it out here. in groups of fifties and hundreds. And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven and blessed and break the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before them. And the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments and of the fishes. And they did eat of the loaves We're about five thousand men. What a miracle. And this is the only miracle, the only one that's recorded in all four Gospels, the feeding of the five thousand. It's in all Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And it's the only miracle that's in all the four Gospels. What a miracle. What wondrous power the Lord could take that little thing, five loaves and two fishes, and feed ten thousand people. It's called the feeding of the five thousand because there were five thousand men without women and children. What could God not do with the gift and the talent and what we've got? What could God not do with the money we've got? You say, well, we're retired. We don't have much money. No, we don't. But what can God not do with what we have got? The five loaves and the two fishes. If we can only give it to him, He can use it for His glory. I believe there's a great lesson here for all of us at Park of the Pound to bring what we've got to Him, lay it at His feet, and then go out to use it for His glory. May God lead us here and bless us. Now, finally, let's look at the rest of the chapter. Straightway, verse forty-five, He constrained His disciples to get into the ship and go to the other side before unto Beth's side. Now, he's either going to the Bethsaida way over there, what I said, over on the north, east corner, or else he's been over there and coming back. I think he's been to the first one, and now he's going over to Bethsaida over on the other side. He sent the people away. He said to the disciples, you get into the ship and go to the other side to Bethsaida, while he sent the people away. He'd send him away differently to what the disciples were, wouldn't he? You see, the disciples wanted to get rid of them before they fed them. The Lord had compassion and he fed them. Now he says to the disciples, you go away. Let me do the job now. And there comes a time when this has got to happen, you know. You and I can't save souls. We can preach the gospel. We can plead with men and women, but we can't save souls. There comes a time when the Lord says, now, You get out of the way and let me do it. He put them in the boat and sent them off. And then he dealt with the people and he sent them away. And I guarantee they went home feeling more comfortable and more satisfied and happy than if the disciples had driven them off home, don't you? And I have learned this lesson. No, let me put it this way. I have made this observation in life. that when God deals, when the Lord Jesus deals with the soul, the work is done properly. It was the Lord Himself that saved this man, Tom Skinner. It was the Lord Himself that saved that Mullen, Mr. Mullen, whose conversion we heard about on the tape the other night, that Irishman. God did it, nobody else. And when God does it, He does a wonderful job, and they turn out big men of God when God does it. God dealt with Saul of Tarsus, nobody else. and he made a man of him. We can pray. We can bring them to Jesus and let him do the work. And he sent them away. When he sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea and he alone on the land. Now let's get a quick picture here. Because there's a little prophecy in here. There's a little dispensational truth here, you know. You see, the Lord has broken the bread and given it to them. He lifted up his eyes to heaven and broke the bread. And then they were all scattered. Then you find him alone on the mountaintop. Can you see a picture here? When you get to the upper room, the Lord broke the bread. In the Garden of Gethsemane, going down to Gethsemane, Luke, John fifteen, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and prayed. He went to the place called Calvary, that's what the bread talks about, tells us about his death for us. And then they were all scattered. And where is the Lord Jesus today? It says he went into a mountain to pray. And today is our high priesties up there in God's presence. And where are we? Are we down on the sea, toiling and rowing. Toiling and rowing. Look at them. He saw them toiling and rowing. He was alone on the land. They were toiling and rowing, for the wind was contrary unto them. And about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea would have passed them by. Can you see prophecy here? He's up there as a great high priest. We're down here toiling and rowing. And about the fourth watch of the night, that was between three o'clock and six o'clock in the morning, the darkest, coldest, loneliest hour of the night. And I think we've reached that hour in church history, don't you? Two thousand years nearly now the church has been toiling and rowing. And we're getting down to the end of the chapter and it's cold and dark and lonely and the Christians are few today. The real ones. Sometimes you think the ship's going to go down. It's not going to go down. Don't worry. The Lord's up there and he's looking down. He had his eye on them in all this thing. And the storms were tossing. And what happens? Just before the day breaks, the fourth watch of the night, it cometh unto them. That's what we're waiting for. The Lord Jesus is going to come back in the darkest night and call us to be with himself. And what happened? When he came into the boat, he says, immediately they were the other side. That's just what's going to happen. Immediately we're going to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and we should be on the other side. It'll be all over as far as this earth is concerned. Who may we learn the lessons today? The Lord is coming back soon, but we've a little while left. I don't know how long. Maybe hours, maybe days, maybe months, maybe years. But may we give him what we can. What is that in thy hand? Let's bring it to him. See what you've got, he says. Bring it to me, and I'll use it. We can do that at the top of the palms for his glory. May the Lord give us a wonderful week this week, doing what we can for him and for his glory. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we acknowledge thy great goodness to us. We thank you for this beautiful chapel thou has given us. We thank you for the wonderful fellowship we enjoy. Fellowship which we have never known excelled in all our lives. We thank thee for it. And we pray, Lord, this might go along for thy glory. Give us to have grace and patience with one another. And give us, Lord, to bring our gifts and talents. And meager as they are, bring them at thy feet. We pray that thou use them for thy glory. We do ask thee, Lord, that Park of the Palms might be a center. from which the Gospel will go forth, and men and women will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. We commit us to thee now. We seek thy blessing as we part, and pray thou be with us during the other service of this day. And may this day bring glory to thine own name. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.