Thank you, Normawell family, for that. Take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We started a series as we work our way through the book of 1 Corinthians, and really I believe the overriding or overarching theme of this book is that we, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, We bring glory to God. That's really our purpose for living, is to bring honor, glory, to lift Him up, to promote Him. Not us. Bring glory to God. And that's certainly a theme that's developed here. In fact, really, in the verses we're going to be looking at this morning, verses 26 to 31, we're going to be seeing that, really, this is the motive. Why should we be glorifying God? we're going to be finding out why because basically God called us when we were worthless and also God gives us everything we need for salvation so let's take a look here this morning at these verses verses 26 to 31 first Corinthians 1 and verses 26 to 31 and I guess I should also start here verse 24, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. And now we have an illustration of that. In fact, one commentary by Gordon Fee entitled verses 26 to 31, this way, God's foolishness, the Corinthian believers. God's folly, the Corinthians. And we could say the same thing today. We'd say, why would God choose me? Why would God choose us? Why does God have a people's Baptist church that seems folly to us, especially when we consider how far short we fall, how weak and frail and disobedient, how often we must disappoint, in fact, grieve our Father in heaven? And so here's an illustration of what the world would look at as absolute foolishness. We saw an example of foolishness earlier when it comes to preaching. The preaching of the cross, in fact the cross itself, is foolishness! Why would God die? The world doesn't understand that. It's foolish. Why would God take somebody who's worthless and elevate them to a child of the king? That's foolishness. So our word for in verse 26 is going to now give an example of what the world would consider foolishness. But really is marvelous, it promotes the glory of God for ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are. Why? And here you see the purpose, that no flesh should glory in his presence, God's presence, but, verse 30, Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, giving us these three things righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Why? That for this purpose, according as it is written, he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. And so here we see an illustration not just of the Corinthian believers, but really this is an illustration with you and me as the main characters. You know how it is when you have one of those stories of like the prince and the pauper? And you have two boys who look very similar. And one is a prince. And he's been spoiled and given everything. And he's just kind of a brat. And then the kid who grows up in the slums, he really doesn't have anything. He's kind of abused and mistreated and malnourished. And then they're swapped. And the kid who's had nothing and been abused, and now he's treated royally. He handles that so well. I mean, he recognizes from where he's come. He's very thankful and grateful. And hopefully the prince, who's now in the other set of circumstances, learns just what he's had and what he's lost. It's almost as though Paul here is taking a moment to show us where we have come from. Because ultimately, he wants to promote God. He wants to show us how great the sacrifice was that Jesus made in our behalf. And it really gives us the motivation then to glorify God. You see, folks, it's not about your life. It's not about your rights and your ambitions. If you're a child of God, if you've been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross, if you've been given new life because of his resurrection, then it's really all about Jesus Christ. Your life, your pursuits, your ambition, your goals are all to further his great name. And here's the remarkable thing. Though you are worthless, though I am worthless. He's given me great value because he's put me into the great one, Jesus Christ. And I have value. I have honor even. I'm a child of the King because I'm in Jesus Christ. And so we want to look at this this morning that we are to boast in the Lord. In fact, the word translated in the King James is elsewhere translated boast. You'll see that in verse 29. He humbles us. And why? Verse 29, so that we wouldn't boast in ourselves. But rather, verse 31, that we would boast in the Lord. And so this morning, we ought to be boasting in the Lord. And I want to see, first of all, in verses 26 through 29, the reason we ought to be boasting in the Lord is this fact. God selected us when we were worthless. God selected us when we were worthless. And I use that word selected because that's the word that's used, verse 27, God hath chosen. Verse 27 again, God hath chosen the weak. God hath chosen the foolish. It's implied in verse 28, and God has chosen even the base things. And so this word chosen, or elect, some people use that, God has chosen us. God has selected us when we were worthless. Look again at verse 26. For ye see your calling, brethren. By the way, that's not a vocational calling. Sometimes people say, well, I'm called to be a garbage collector. I'm called to be a pastor. I'm called to be Now, we're talking about a calling that's far grander even than that. Verse two talks about how the fact that we are called to be saints. Verse nine, we're called to this fellowship with Jesus Christ. So this calling here, even verse 24, but unto them which are called, this is a calling to salvation, calling to a relationship, calling to a transformation into the likeness of Jesus Christ. In other words, God wants to make us into what He made us for. And that was to have a relationship with Him. That means we have to be holy, because He's holy. It means we have to be righteous, because He's righteous. That means we have to be related to Him. We have to be part of His family. And that's where Jesus Christ comes in. Note, for instance, first of all, verse 26, our condition in God's eyes. God, as I just mentioned, selected us when we were worthless. God did not choose you. God did not save you because of what you're going to offer to him. It's not like God's putting a team together and he's looking for the best one who can field or bat or somebody that will bring value to God somehow. No, in fact, if anything, we're a liability, not an asset to God. Notice who are the ones that he has chosen. Verse 26. Not many wise men after the flesh In other words, God has chosen those who are foolish by human standards. And by the way, if we were foolish before we were saved, we're certainly considered very foolish by the world after we've been saved. But here's the stark reality. All of us were born very selfish. Do you have to teach a baby to be selfish? No. They just are, right? Now, by the way, it's cute when they're one month old. It's not so cute when they're 41 years old. I want my food! You know, that's not very cute. they get older. And so what we do as adults is we mask it better, we hide it better, we make it look a little better, but deep down we're all supremely selfish. You know, living for self apart from establishing or apart from going after God's purpose for our life is extremely foolish. Why would you live for material things when it's all going to burn away someday anyway? Why would you live for your life here and now when eternity is just around the corner? And so every man who's living his life apart from God is extremely foolish. But they might have a PhD after their name. They may have several patents to their credit. But you know what? Who cares? 100 years from now, 300 years from now, 1,000 years from now, how about 1 trillion years from now? Who cares how many degrees or how many patents or how many houses or how many years you served as president? If your life is not lived, with God's purpose, with bringing glory to him, that's extremely foolish. Because it doesn't last very long. It's kind of like the young person who's been saving up money for college, maybe. Or maybe they've been given a lot of money for college. And instead, as a 21-year-old, they spend it on a Lamborghini. And you think to yourself, that is so foolish. It's so short-sighted. And then, of course, they don't know how to drive it, so they wreck it the next week. And yet, all of us are so foolish when we live our lives apart from God's purpose for us. But you know what? Even in that condition, in that self-centered, selfish condition, God chose to save us. Not only that, notice it continues in verse 26, 1 Corinthians 1, 26. Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty. The idea here is of influential. the Greek word Dunitas get our word dynamite, but the op the ability to influence to change to alter All right, God chose to save us when we were Not influential. In fact, we were hopeless See, here's the sad reality Not only is everybody born selfish and sinful but there's nothing you can do about it. You can't change. You can't transform your heart by yourself. This is why it's so frustrating, right? When you say, you know what? I really ought to be doing this or I shouldn't be doing this. And does it ever change? No, it doesn't. Now you can maybe exercise more, maybe can diet better, but that fundamental condition of the human heart, you can never be like Christ. Selfless, loving like Christ, in and of your own strength. You are totally powerless to change yourself, and God still selected you. Wants to save. those who are foolish and weak by human standards. Not only that, but notice, and not many noble are called. It's interesting, the word for noble here is the Greek word for which we get eugenics. So well, good genes, well-born, high-born, blue blood, noble family. You know, here's the fact of the matter, too. You know, when that little baby is born, you say, oh, she's an angel. Now, by the way, my granddaughters are. I think grandchildren are angelic. Your children are never angelic. But grandchildren, now that's a different story. But the fact of the matter is, when we are born, We're born, yes, selfish. We're born sinners. And we have no power to change ourselves. But here's also the sad reality. You know, when you are born into the human race, you are a child of the devil. Because the devil says he is a liar. He's a deceiver. And when you lie, you do the works of your father, the devil. Have you ever noticed that children look like their parents? Now, it's interesting. People will say to me, oh, I could tell they're a rambler. Like, I don't think they look anything like that. My growing up, we were five boys. I'm the oldest of five boys. And we were stair-stepped. So we'd be waiting for dad, who was always talking really long at church, after church. We're standing there waiting for dad to finish talking. And we're standing in a row, stair-stepped down. And people looked at us. I have one blonde-haired brother. Blonde-haired. He doesn't look anything. And they said, no, no, no, no. He looks just like a rambler. See, children look like their parents. You know what? When you lie, when you're deceptive, when you have anger and hatred and bitterness, you look just like your father, the devil. You see, when we're born into this world, we're foolish. We are hopeless. We are lowborn. were a child of the devil. And it's in that condition that Jesus Christ came to save you. You! Me! In fact, Christ even said, I came to bring the gospel to the poor! I think we have to be careful, too, not to domesticate the gospel. Well, you know, if we're going to really preach the gospel to professionals, we don't really want to emphasize, like, the sin or maybe the judgment, how, oh, that's not really very, that's really not politically correct to talk about that kind of stuff today, so we'll just talk about love. But you know what? Jesus Christ came to dig us out of the miry clay, the pit that we had been sunk into. He's there to just throw the lifeline. And you know what? When you're going down for your last breath, you really don't care what that life preserver looks like. But you do want a life preserver. And so it is that God selected us when we were worthless. Our condition, foolish, weak, insignificant. By the way, one caveat here. In fact, there was a well-known wealthy English woman. Her name was Lady Huntington. She made the observation that she was saved by an M. Let's look again in our text. verse 26 for you see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called she made a comment at least it doesn't say not any saved by an M but the fact the matter is it really doesn't matter whether you are a duke or duchess or of some European country, or the heir of some industry, captain of industry, or the lowest of a third world country poor family on the Serengeti Plains, all of us, by birth, are foolish and hopeless and of low birth. But note God's reason for our choice. Verses 27 to 29, first of all, to shame the world. See, here's the fact. I guess I really can boil it down to this. The Bible teaches us that God's grace goes to whom? Who gets God's grace? God gives grace to the humble. Right? God gives grace to the humble. All right, so if you're proud, do you get God's grace? No, in fact, the Bible says just the opposite. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. and salvation, being saved from our sins, receiving God's forgiveness, receiving a relationship with Him, receiving redemption. All of this is only available to those who know they need it and are willing to repent of their sins and cry out to God for help. So why is it that God chooses the weak, the foolish, and the low born? Well, to humble. But God hath chosen, verse 27, the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound or shame the things that are mighty. base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are." And so it is. Maybe as a kid, did you ever have this situation happen where they were picking teams? And of course, you had the two best people out there. And they're, OK, one team, one team. And usually it was, OK, you get to pick the first guy. And then the next guy gets to pick the next two, right? Got to make it fair. Were you ever the kid that was like the last one picked? Oh, we got one right back there. OK. Not even ashamed to mention it, right? As a kid, I was never the last one picked. But I've noticed as I've gotten older, I'm falling down the pecking order. I'm not the first one picked anymore. It's usually out of pity that they pick you, you know? And it's kind of shameful a little bit, right? You're kind of judged against everybody else, and you're down here. Well, what about those that? In this world's eyes, they're kind of considered wise. They've got their professorships. They've got their position in the company. They're looked to. They're asked for wisdom and advice. And those people aren't picked. But what about the people that are influential or high born? God's not picking them. He's putting them down. Boy, that's awfully mean of God. No. That's to shame them to the point where they're finally so low, spiritually speaking, that finally they're ready to turn to God because it's only the humble that get the grace. This is more than just a subjective feeling, too, on the part of these people, like, oh, I feel so low. It's also a reminder that one day, we're all going to stand before God. It doesn't matter who you are. You will stand before Almighty God. Even people who don't believe God exists will stand before God. It really doesn't matter whether they believe He exists or not, because He exists, and they're accountable to Him. And so God does this choosing. He reminds us just how worthless we are so that we can finally humble ourselves and turn to God and ask Him for help. Not only to shame the world, but basically to silence man's boasting. We see that in verse 29, that no flesh should glory in God's presence. Here's God's ultimate purpose in all of this choosing. Now this word, to glory in or to boast in, certainly it means to take pride in. But often this word also has a concept of trust. All right, have you ever watched an NBA game and they're interviewing the superstar after the game? and he's all full of himself, right? Not always, but often, right? Some professional, yeah, did you see, I bet they're gonna die and I'm the best, you know, I'm the greatest. They're boasting in themselves. In other words, what or in whom are they trusting? Me, themselves. They're trusting themselves. And what God is doing is He is stripping us of everything we hold dear and would boast in so that we no longer trust in ourselves. Because He wants to replace the person we're trusting in. He wants us to trust in Him, not ourselves. And so it is that in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, it says, for by grace are you saved. OK, you can't get God's grace unless you're humble. So it's by grace that you're safe. We'll say, well, wait, wait. Saved from what? Saved from a truck hitting you? Saved from a storm? Saved from your sin. We just talked about the fact that everybody, when they're born, has sin naturally within. We're selfish by nature. We're sinners by nature. For by grace are you saved from that sin. By the way, the wages of sin, what you deserve because of your sin, is death in hell, separated from God forever. For by grace, God's grace, that undeserved favor that he shows us, that goodness he gives that we don't deserve, that forgiveness of sins that we receive. Not because we're somebody. But because we're nobody. And we're crying out to him for by grace, are you saved through faith? In other words, you got to believe and you got to trust him. And that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." You see, you cannot get to heaven by your good works outweighing your bad works. Because then you get to heaven and you're like, huh, whew, I did it. No, you can't do it. You're hopeless. I'm hopeless in and of myself. I'm born a sinner. That's who I am. I'm of my father the devil. I have no right. I have no hope. No way to get to heaven in and of myself. And then Jesus Christ came. He was born 2,000 years ago. He lived on this earth for 30-some years. died on the cross and he rose again the third day he fulfilled the righteousness of the law and he died to pay for my sin as my substitute the Bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved saved from their sin saved from the penalty of their sin which is separation from God forever Romans 3, verse 27, where is boasting then? It's excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. In other words, what do we have to be boasting about? We can't earn our way to heaven. In fact, there's nothing we can do except trust in God. Call on Him. Look to Him. Really, what Paul is doing, he's not trying to demean the Corinthians. Yes, by and large, the people in the Corinthian church were gonna be the slaves, and the ignorant, and the ignoble. Yes, that is true. But really what he's trying to show them, not is how bad they are, but how good God is. God chose them. And what's interesting, Paul is really building off two verses in Jeremiah's prophecy. Let me read to you these two verses from Jeremiah 9, verses 23 and 24. Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth, or let him that boasteth, boast in this that he understands and knows me that I and the Lord which exercise loving-kindness judgment righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight sayeth the Lord you see it's not how much you own or how much know Or how many people know you that make you a success? It's knowing God that makes you a success. That's what pleases Him. Having a relationship with Him. I thought it was interesting, I read back about 1,800 years ago, there was a guy by the name of Celsus, who hated Christianity. And this is what he said about the Christians of the early church. Their injunctions are like this, he says, speaking of the Christians. This is what the Christians say. Let no one educated, no one wise, no one sensible draw near. For these abilities are thought by us to be evils. But as for anyone ignorant, anyone stupid, anyone uneducated, anyone who is a child, let him come boldly. By the fact that they themselves admit that these people are worthy of their God, they show that they want and are able to convince only the foolish, dishonorable, and stupid, only slaves, women, and children." Guess he didn't have a real high opinion of women there, right? And so there's this, oh, Christians, they're just, ah, they're terrible people. They're fools. Yeah, and that's the kind of person that God saves. God selected us when we were worthless to silence our boasting. But second of all, seeing this passage, God saved us so that we would worship. God saved us so that we would worship. Notice verse 30. But OK, here's God's plan for you. But of him, of God, in whose presence we were just talking about. But of God, are ye in Christ Jesus? In other words, the father has placed you in Jesus Christ, who, speaking of Jesus Christ, of God is made unto us wisdom. And note, because of this wisdom, because of this salvation, because of this grand plan God has for you, there are certain things He gives. What is it that He gives? I think wisdom is kind of synonymous with the salvation that he's giving here. It's a reference to God's plan, this wise plan. It certainly indicates that Jesus is the source of wisdom. By the way, this thought struck me today, this morning, as I was kind of thinking on this. Have you ever had a computer where well, of course you have, okay? You have a computer and you're going to take a file that's on your computer and you're gonna put it on like a thumb drive. You're gonna move a file and copy it somewhere. When you take that file and move it and copy it on somewhere, do you lose the file on your computer? No. Think of Jesus as the source of all wisdom, okay? When he takes wisdom and gives it to you, he doesn't diminish his wisdom at all. He is the fount of all wisdom. And so if I need wisdom and you need wisdom and he needs wisdom and she needs, that's okay. You're never going to exhaust the wisdom of God. And this is why it says, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally. Well, why can he give so liberally? It never diminishes his wisdom. By the way, when a child comes to the parent and asks for help in understanding something, and that parent imparts wisdom, does that parent now lose that wisdom? Of course not, right? There's an unending supply. Sometimes as father, we think we have too many, too much wisdom, right? So we've got this, so Jesus Christ, who is wisdom, is a part of this wise plan of God. provides three things. It's interesting, I was talking to my son the other day, and I think I have the details of this story right, but there's a theologian in the United States called D.A. Carson, and he was getting some training over in Cambridge, England, and he's talking with his well-thought-of professor who was very knowledgeable PhD you know just teaching at Cambridge and they come to John's Gospel and Jesus I think it was in John chapter 3 Jesus talking to Nicodemus he says you must be born again and this professor of religious studies at Cambridge says the DA Carson he says I wonder what that means. I wonder if this is a reference to Zoroastrianism and this rebirth cycle, you know, of death and rebirth. Now, D.A. Carson was witnessing to people and just recently had met a man that had been a drunkard, just life destroyed, and he trusted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, and it totally transformed his life! And DA Carson says, sir, I don't think that's where that came from. I don't think that's what it's referring to. I don't think that's what it means. Shares the testimony of the life transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. New life, new birth. You see, Jesus Christ is the life. And if you have Jesus Christ, you have life. You're born again spiritually. And so it is that these benefits that come from this incredible plan, this wise plan of salvation that God has offered, what is the result when you come to a point in your life and you say, God, I deserve to go to hell because I'm a sinner. But I know that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for all my sins. I know he rose again the third day, and I want to place my life in your hands. God, forgive me and save me. You know what you get? Paul says here, you get righteousness. You get sanctification. You get redemption. Righteousness, this idea of being made right, or justification. Paul will talk about this. Being declared righteous, I think more of a forensic term than an ethical term. In other words, you are declared, like in a court of law, you are declared not guilty. By the way, let me ask you a question. Has there ever been somebody in a court of law that was declared not guilty, but they really were? It happens, unfortunately, more often than not, probably, than we'd like to think. But let me ask you something. Though they may be guilty, how does the law look at them now? Not guilty, right? I mean, if the law says, not guilty, then are they guilty or not in the law's eyes? They're not guilty. This is what justification is. You see, when you come to Jesus Christ, though you are a sinner, you are guilty. You've broken God's law. Yeah, you've lied. Yeah, you've stolen. Yeah, you've lusted. Yes, you've not obeyed God and loved him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Yeah, yeah. Though you are guilty, according to the law, when you trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're declared not guilty. Oh, you're guilty, all right, right? You're a sinner! But in God's law, in God's economy, in God's court, you're not guilty. Why? Because all the crimes, all the sin, all of the lawlessness, Jesus Christ had it charged to his account. Righteousness. Where does this come from? Romans 4, 5. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him, Jesus Christ, who justifies, declares to be righteous, the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. And here's the startling reality. You cannot earn righteousness. All you can do is cry out to God, repent of your sins, and he gives you the righteousness. say how can that be I could never deserve that that's exactly the point that's why it's by grace through faith the salvation comes righteousness sanctification now this is an ethical term Christ not only declares us to be holy But then he makes us holy, and he does this work in our heart to draw it. This is why some dear saint who's been with the Lord for many, many years, he's been studying God's word, he's been obeying God's word, he's been growing, you just look at him and say, wow, that guy looks like a Christian. That's that sanctification process that's taking place. And God will do that work. But then redemption. Ah, what a term. Last word of verse 30, redemption. This is drawn from the metaphor of slavery. Now we can't really identify with this today. None of you are sitting there wondering if maybe tomorrow you're going to be a slave. Well, maybe mothers, you already think you are a slave, but I know how that goes, right? So, but, you know, really, we're not really fearful that Canada is going to come down, conquer our nation, and you're going to be carried off to Toronto as a slave. That's usually not a real concern of ours. Probably don't lay awake at night worrying about that. But when Paul was writing, this was a real concern. Lots of people's lives had been upended, and they had been conquered, and people had been killed, and then the rest taken and dragged to Rome to be sold as slaves. And you understand that when you are sold as a slave in that economy, you become the property of the slave owner. Now we know this even from our own history, American history, right? And so the slave owner, even more so back in the ancient world, they could do anything they wanted to their slave. It was their property. Just like, you know, you can kick your car. Nobody puts anybody in prison for kicking their car. You could kick your slave. Nobody puts people in prison for smashing their car. You could smash your sleeve. You could do anything you wanted. It's your property. So again, picture yourself having been conquered, dragged hundreds of miles. You're standing on the auction block in the city of Rome. And of course, people want to see what they're getting. So they've stripped you completely naked. And you're standing there, viewed by all. And you really know that your life is dependent upon how kind the person who buys you is. Because if they're mean, if they're wicked, your life is basically over. And imagine if you're standing there, and I've used this illustration. Those who've been in our church a long time remember this. But you're standing there, and you're kind of surveying the crowd to see who's going to buy you. There's some people that look kind of nice and some people that don't look kind of nice. And all of a sudden you lock eyes with a man that's the most wicked person you've ever seen. You just tell. They've got beady little eyes, maybe greasy hair, maybe they're, you know, fat and rings on every finger and just you could tell that kind of a leer on the face and they lock eyes and all of a sudden your heart sinks and you realize oh no, no, no, no. And maybe there's a glint in that evil eye of theirs and they begin the bidding process and they begin to bid and the bidding goes up and finally everybody's dropped out and they're the ones with the highest bid. And you know it would actually be better for you to die right now than to enter his service. And maybe he rubs his greedy little hands together. What he's going to do to you. And then from the back of the crowd comes a bid for you at the last moment. that is astronomical. In fact, nobody could match or exceed that purchase price. In fact, you look back at the man who thought he was going to buy you and you can see the anger and rage to realize he's just lost you. Of course, you didn't maybe see who that was in the back of the crowd that just offered this enormous amount to purchase you. And they take you and they throw you in the dust at this man's feet who is now your owner. And you rise and you look into the eyes of this one who's just purchased you. That's the kindest eyes you've ever seen. In fact, you know your life is going to be far better than it ever was. In fact, maybe you can fall to your knees and you say, this is somebody worth serving the rest of my life. But see, the story doesn't stop there. That man, you find, is actually the wealthiest man in the entire Roman Empire, wealthier than emperors themselves. And he reaches down, he says, oh, no, no, no, no. And he picks you up. He says, I didn't buy you. I didn't purchase you to be my slave. I purchased you to be my heir. That's what God has done for me. For you. And that's why we end with our last verse. that according as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. And so we praise God that he's taken us out of the mire and the pit and the slime. He's ripped us from the kingdom of darkness and transplanted us into the kingdom of his dear son. And we're made joint heirs with Christ. Imagine going from total hopelessness to life and light and liberty. That's what a personal relationship with Jesus Christ does for a person. And that's what Jesus Christ offers you. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. Let's pray. Father.