Once again, I would invite you to open up in your copy of God's Word, this time to First Thessalonians. First Thessalonians chapter one. And as you were doing so, I would invite you to stand once more for the reading of God's Holy Word. You will recall last week, we began a new sermon series through First Thessalonians. And so of course, we're gonna pick that up this morning. We find ourselves in chapter one, verse six. First Thessalonians chapter one, verse six. And I'm going to read in your hearing through the end of the chapter. As I do so, I would remind you that this is not the words of men, particularly not my words, but this is the very word of God. So let us hear it as it is. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction. with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you. and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. And thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant word. Please take your seats, brothers and sisters. One of the things that we've been learning through the catechism over the last couple of weeks is that the triune God is glorious in his being, and he is also glorious in the creation that he has made. What I mean by that is that the world that we live in, the universe, the cosmos, it really is a stage for him to display his wonderful wisdom and creativity and power and love. And I should add, the more that we dig into this world, the more that we realize that this world is riddled with mystery and magnificence. Consider for a moment what we discover among the animal kingdom. Did you know, for example, that butterflies can taste with their feet? Doesn't sound all that attractive to me, but I'm sure it's a pretty cool party trick. I also learned rodents are unable to burp or vomit. This happens to be why rat poison is so effective. They can't throw it up. Also, and quite remarkably, did you know that honeybees can flap their wings 200 times every second? Think about that. That's remarkable. And if we were to step back and ask the question, well, how do they do that? How do all of these critters do all of these rather peculiar things? The answer is this. It's part of them. It's built into them. It's the DNA that God gave them. What about us, though? What is our DNA as Christians and as a church? And to be clear, I'm speaking here now about our spiritual DNA. Well, like I said, we started looking at 1 Thessalonians last week, and as we continue to look at it here this morning, what we are going to see is something of the DNA of this church. And by God's grace, it will be something of the DNA of our church. More specifically, and if you are a note taker, here are a couple of the big ideas. What we're going to see is that a faithful church hates, honors, hopes, and heralds. Let me say that again. The DNA of redeeming grace should be one that hates, honors, hopes, and heralds. I assume we should probably begin with the most controversial. I just said that a faithful church is one that hates. Perhaps some clarification is needed. Put your eyes once again on verse 9. We're told that they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you. And how you, that is you the church, here it is, how you turned to God from idols. So what does this church do? Well, they turn to God, but in turning to God, they turn from idols, which means that they turned from their sin. from their false worship, from the emptiness of life apart from Jesus Christ. And of course, they did this by the sovereign work of the Spirit of God, opening the eyes of their hearts to see how ugly and how heinous their sin is. The point that I'm trying to get you to see is that they were made to hate their sin, and therefore they turned from their sin. Mark my words, what you hate, you will flee. And what you love, you will flock to. Beloved, the same ought to be true of us as well. faithful churches hate, meaning we should hate sin. And first and foremost, we should hate our own sin. It is easy, is it not, to spot the sin of others and immediately recoil. But how often do we loathe our own sin? Be honest. How quickly does your own sin somehow fly under the radar, undetected, all the while the sin of those around you is more than visible? We ought to pray that God's Spirit would spare us from our blindness and our hypocrisy. It's clear then that what verse 9 is describing is repentance. We read that they turned to God from idols. He's really describing their conversion experience, which I should add, implies not simply a change in attitudes, but also actions. We have to be clear here that that is what repentance is, right? Repentance is a hatred of sin and a turning from sin. And we know from the Scriptures that repentance is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian. So much so that there is no faith apart from repentance. Beloved, there is no genuine spiritual life in the soul of a person if it is not accompanied by repentance. And that's because evangelical repentance is a gift given by God along with faith in the miracle of regeneration. The beautiful flower of new life. Well, it sprouts up from the soil of repentance and faith. Which means there is no saving grace apart from repentance. Since this is the case, we would do well to make sure that we understand what repentance is. And I confess the best explanation that I have found is by J.I. Packer. He unpacks repentance under the heading of five R's. Let me share them with you. First, realistic recognition. That is to say, repentance includes a realistic recognition that we have wronged God. This is the training wheels, not just of repentance, but also reformation. It begins here. It begins with having our eyes open so that we can see that we have wronged God. We've undergone, as it were, the deep and invasive surgery of the law exposing us for who we really are. Our eyes have been opened to what Van Til called the utter bankruptcy that we have before God. That's why we, verse 9, turn to God from idols. is because part of being a Christian is coming face to face with the uncomfortable reality that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans 3.23, and that includes me. In fact, it begins with me. Second, regretful remorse. Beloved, true repentance involves regretful remorse at having dishonored God. This is important. It's not just that we know that we have wronged God. It is that our souls are wounded that we have wronged God. This is what the Psalms commonly refer to as contrition. Think of Psalm 51 and David. After Nathan, the prophet, points his bony finger in David's chest and says, you are the man. David responds, Psalm 51, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh, God, you will not despise. So baked right into repentance is contrition. A contrition over having dishonored God. Maybe think of it along these lines, and you moms with littles will immediately begin to be able to relate. When little Johnny, yes, it's always little Johnny, gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar before dinner, is he sorry? Is he really sorry? I mean, tears are streaming down his face, right? But tears don't automatically mean that little Johnny is repentant. Truth be told, it's altogether possible that little Johnny is sorry that he got busted because now he knows not only does he not get the cookie, but he gets a hand slap. You see, he's not actually sorry that he sinned against mom. The point that I'm trying to make is that we recognize there's a vast difference between being sorry for getting caught. And being sorry for actually sinning. The whole thing reminds me of something A.W. Pink said. He observed, thousands acknowledge they are sinners who have never mourned over that fact. You see, spirit-wrought repentance is actually being sorrowful over the fact that you have dishonored God. In fact, one of the birthmarks of a Christian is heartfelt sorrow and grief over our sin. The third mark of true repentance now, reverent requesting. Redeeming grace, true repentance is marked by reverent requesting of God's pardon. In other words, the default attitude of repentance is not, I repeat, not, well, it's not my fault. I'll try harder. I'll do better next time. Well, it was the environment I was in, or the upbringing I had, or the propensity to this, or the predilections for that. You know what else? Repentance is not working extra hard at your so-called quiet times the next day to somehow balance out the scales, as if, if we redouble the Bible tomorrow, that we'll be forgiven for the sins of today. True repentance is not hiding behind fig leaves like Adam did in the garden. Instead, it is, as our Lord taught us to pray, forgive us our debts. Let me go after it this way. Repentance gives birth to faith. Meaning that repentance, true repentance, always runs to God. It runs. It doesn't walk. It runs to Christ. It runs to the cross. And it runs because it knows that in the blood of the Savior, there is mercy and forgiveness for this sin, no matter how heinous it is. It doesn't walk. But it runs. And as it runs, it sings. It sings, nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to the cross I cling. Naked, come to Thee for dress. Helpless, look to Thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly. Finish it with me. Wash me, Savior, or I die. Repentance runs to Jesus. Fourth now, resolute renunciation. Repentance involves a resolute renunciation of sin. That is to say, true repentance entails truly turning away from sin. As our passage says, you turn to God from idols. There's a turning. Again, we can say it this way, that repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of behavior. It's not just attitudes, but also actions. And here's the question. If new actions don't result from these new attitudes, then have you actually adopted new attitudes? Consider this. Let's say all of a sudden I announced the building was on fire. It's not. Relax. But let's suppose for a second that it was. What would you do? Would you hear that news and would you just sort of sit there very casually and remain idle? I think not. I suspect you would immediately begin to move out of your seat and Lord willing, in a calm fashion, head toward an exit. Why? This is important. Because your mind has changed about your current situation and your behavior inevitably follows suit. In the same way, Christian, true repentance involves a daily resolve to live more obediently to Jesus and to His commandments. Or, as John the Baptist would say, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Fifth and finally now, requisite restitution. Repentance means requisite restitution to those whom we have hurt. In other words, when we repent, we will seek to make things right. For example, if we have wronged our wife or husband, we will go to them. If you have cheated on a test at school, you will tell your teacher about it. If we have stolen something, we will pay it back. If we have wounded someone, we will ask for their forgiveness. In all of this, we might think of Zacchaeus, that rotten tax collector whom Christ saved. We're told that upon coming to Christ, he made restitution. to those whom he had defrauded. That ought not to strike us as remarkable. That's what Christians do. And the reason that Christians do this is because true repentance isn't just a me and Jesus thing. True repentance is so often a me and Jesus and those around me thing. Which brings us to another aspect of our spiritual DNA. A faithful church is not only one that hates. But also honors. More to the point, we honor God by serving him. Verse 9 again. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols. To sit on your hands and do nothing with the rest of your lives. You turn from idols to do something else. To serve the living and true God. Let's not miss this. Conversion to Christ is, at its core, a radical transformation of religious allegiance. Christians in general, and churches in particular, we don't just turn from sin and from idols, but we must turn to God. or to use the language of Paul in other places, it is not just that we are called to put off, but that we are also called to put on. So yes, idols are thrown in the trash heap where they belong. But God also must be exalted to his rightful place. Now, with that being said, I suppose I should clarify something about verse nine's idols. We may be tempted, I suppose, given our heightened Western sophistication, to think that idols are nothing more than a thing of the past, and therefore we don't have anything to worry about today. Or worse, that we ourselves don't have any idols that we need to turn from. Here is the fatal flaw with that line of thinking. By nature, we are worshipers. It's our DNA. God built us in this way. He created humanity to love and adore and trust and worship and serve. Problem is, since the fall, we have been turned in on ourselves. And now we are prone to worship anything and everything other than the true and living God. This is why Calvin famously said that the human heart is an idol making factory. And the point that I am trying to make is that those idols are so much more than these little wooden figures that might sit atop a mantle. Truth is, we are bent toward worshiping just about anything. For example, we worship money, or security, or happiness. We can worship our jobs, or power, or sex. We can worship approval, whether it be from our parents or our friends. We can worship entertainment. We can worship success. We can worship leisure. And about a million other things that occupy our hearts. And here's the problem. They can do all of this without ever you putting a little statue of them on your mantle in your living room. And that's because long before idols make it to the shelf, they reside deep in the recesses of our hearts. Let me tackle it this way. And in so doing, I hope it helps you and I to be ruthless in the slaying of the idols of our own hearts. Here's what we need to remember about idolatry. It can be and often is quite subtle. So subtle, in fact, that even the good things in our life can actually become idols. You don't have to just worry about the rated R stuff. Even the G rated stuff can become idols. And they will rob our affections from Christ. And that's because idolatry, please hear this, this is very important, the very essence of idolatry is really less about statues and more about building your life or finding meaning or self-worth on anything, even a very good thing, more in God. It has to do, idolatry has to do with our identity. It has to do with our hopes. It has to do with our dreams and our nightmares. One of the most helpful litmus tests is this. You wanna know what the idols of your heart are? The idols of your heart are the things that you dream about getting and the things in your nightmares taken from you. Those are your gods. So given these dragons that need slain, what does it look like for us to serve God and to slay these idols? In short, it means our time, treasures, and talents are given over to God. Another way to say it, we are in the business of pursuing not the kingdom of self, but the kingdom of God. When the rubber meets the road, it will mean that our lives give priority to God and to worship and to His church and to righteousness. Remember what Jesus taught us? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness rather than chasing all of these things that glitter. More practically speaking, it will mean we recognize Sunday as the Christian Sabbath, or as it's often called today, the Lord's Day. And by that, I simply mean that we set aside this day as holy, committing to rest from our labors and committing to worship God with His people. This is something that modern day Christians have all but entirely lost. And that is this, it all starts here with worship. Everything else in your life is downstream from corporate worship. And I say that because it is here when we gather together as God's people on God's day to receive God's word and to experience God's presence. It is here, beloved, where God promises in very unique and yet ordinary ways to meet us and to pour out fresh grace upon us. This is also why, incidentally enough, you can always tell the Christians that are the most immature and the most struggling in their lives. It's always the same ones. It's the ones who are never at church. Then, what begins in the church on Sunday spills over into the rest of the week. Energized by the grace of God that we receive on Sunday, come Monday, we work hard in the various callings and stations of our lives, both out of the home and in the home. men and women, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, all labor diligently to glorify Christ in all they do. That means from balancing spreadsheets at the office to changing diapers in the nursery, Christ is served. Young people will strive to serve God by attending to their homework. recognizing that Christ is Lord over all, even cursive and algebra. And those who are retired don't spend their days collecting seashells or chasing golf balls, but instead leverage their extra time for the kingdom of God. It is those with gray hair and no hair who are to be leaders in Christ's church, leaders in prayer and in discipleship and in evangelism, teaching and training the next generation in the church. Redeeming grace to honor God. It means that we gather for worship. expecting to receive from him. And then after we have gathered for worship, we scatter. For discipleship and evangelism. As Pastor Justin said, we pray together and we open God's word together. We aim to one another, each other, if I can put it that way. And then we lock arms and we engage the hostile world around us with the Scriptures, standing on the authority of God's Word as we head out into the highways and hedges to proclaim Jesus Christ as all-sufficient for pardon and peace. If I can continue to say the same thing just slightly differently, to serve God, verse 9, and not idols, is to recognize the supremacy of God over all things, and then to live accordingly. So that whether we are talking about church or work, home life or vacation, finances or hobbies or entertainment, in all things, Christ is given priority. and He has given priority because I am His, and He is mine. And so I live my life quorum Deo, before the face of God. And we do so, brothers and sisters, not out of guilt, as if thinking if we serve God good enough, that we will somehow merit His favor. But we actually serve God out of a spirit of gratitude. for the grace that we have already received in the gospel. Let me mention still another characteristic of our spiritual DNA. A faithful church hates, a faithful church honors, and a faithful church hopes. Notice what our text says. Verse nine once more. We're told that they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and, verse 10 now, to wait for his son from heaven. This idea of the return of Christ, it is a theme which will occupy the bulk of chapters four and five of this letter. Here at the front end, it is merely introduced. But as it is introduced, it does sort of reveal something about this church's posture, doesn't it? How would you describe this church in Thessalonica? Well, among other things, it appears they were joyfully awaiting the return of Jesus. You see, their hope was wrapped up, not just in His life, death, burial, and resurrection, but it was also wrapped up in his promised return. Verse 10 is clear. They waited for his son from heaven. And that wait here has a massively positive connotation. It's not like they had been pulled over by a police officer. He has taken their license and registration and headed back to his car, and now they are waiting for him to return ticket in hand. No. This verb here, to wait, is a special one. And I say that because it is used only here in the entirety of the New Testament. And it carries with it the idea of patient expectation and trust. So it's not like waiting for a ticket. It's more like the seven-year-old on Christmas Eve waiting for Christmas morning. There's a bubbling up. There is an anticipation. There is something of a contagious joy. Why, you ask? Why such joy and hope and expectation? Because Christ has promised to return. And when that happens, Christ and His bride will be together forever. That's our hope, isn't it? Christians before us refer to this whole thing as the beatific vision. we will see, we will behold, we will actually dwell with God. You realize that's your future, right? That's your destiny, one that was secured for you by the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you are convinced of nothing else this morning, I pray that you would be convinced of this. Christ shed His blood to live with you forever. So let me ask you, does your heart long for Jesus? Don't mishear me. I don't mean do you long for peace or health or financial freedom. I'm not asking if you love the prospect of heaven, the idea of sin being removed, or if you look forward to being reunited with the loved ones that you have lost. That's all great. I'm not minimizing any of that. That's all great. That's not the question. The question is deeper. Do you long for Jesus? To see Him. To be seen by Him. To actually be in His presence. To enjoy Him forever. We could ask it this way. Would you be joyfully satisfied if all heaven was? was Jesus. Would He be enough? Now, I want to add that there is a particular context at play here with our text. We know from other places in Scripture that being a follower of Jesus had cost this church something. They really were suffering for their faith. The hostile world in which they lived had put their head in a vice, and they were being squeezed. As just a small piece of the puzzle, consider the reality, again, of verse 9's turning from idols. We might skate past that. But there's actually something very significant taking place. Back in Acts 17, which gives us a snapshot of this church's founding, it is revealed that this church was planted in the fires of persecution. We are told, owing to the hot gospel preached by the Apostle Paul, that a mob of wicked men formed, seeking to do violence to these Christian missionaries. After being unsuccessful in sinking their claws into Paul and Silas, this mob eventually assuaged their desire for rage by attacking a man named Jason. Apparently he was harboring these Christian fugitives. Now just pause for a moment. I want you to do your best to sort of get in a time machine and go back to the first century. And I want to have a little thought experiment with you. Let's say that you are living in Thessalonica. Are you going to join that church? You know, the one where the city and its magistrates are opposed to you? The one where the pastors are maligned, parishioners are beaten, and when you walk into Walmart, everyone's gonna know and look at you and take their kids and shield them because you're one of those awful, judgmental Christians. You gonna join that church? Every time you go home at night and you lay your head on your pillow and you open your social media and you look at the local headlines, it says stuff like, religious zealots let loose on our town. Fanatics threaten our way of life. Christ causes chaos downtown. That's the atmosphere. I hear Christians talk all the time. We need to get back to the Bible times. We need to get back to the New Testament. We need to get back to the early church. Most of us wouldn't make it through the weekend. It was rowdy. They actually believed this stuff. And they actually like did stuff because of the stuff they believed. It was rowdy. You see, after the harrowing events of Acts 17, just a few chapters later in Acts 19, Luke records what happens just down the street in Ephesus. You see, by the time you reach Acts 19, Twitter has blown up. Rumors have spread that Paul and Christianity have come to town. And a man named Demetrius has no patience for this, so he spearheads an opposition campaign. You see, the reason that Demetrius was the leader of this pack is because he felt the pinch financially. You see, back in that day, idols were a big deal. In fact, you could apparently make a decent living for you and your family by merely fashioning these trinkets. But now, all of a sudden, Demetrius and the whole local idol-makers union has found themselves out of work. People are laid off. The factory has come to a screeching halt. And what's worse, worship at the pagan temples around town has declined rapidly. So you can imagine, tensions are high. So high, in fact, that one of those mostly peaceful riots of 2020 breaks out right there in Ephesus. Except this time, it's all because of these pesky Christians. Here's my point. When the Christians, verse nine, turned to God from idols, they were turning their back on more than just idols. By embracing Christ, they were rejecting their pagan surrounding culture. And by doing so, they were immediately ostracized. More than that, Demetrius and the idol-making guild was disenfranchised. I want you to think about that. Because of the Christians and the gospel message, the wallet of the unbelieving community was lighter. And spoiler alert, people do not like when you mess with their money. That's a long way to say this. The church suffered affliction and persecution. But, and this is key, they suffered gladly. They suffered gladly because they were looking forward to Jesus. They knew something that we need to remind ourselves of, and that is that the crown of thorns always precedes the crown of glory. You see, they were willing to play the fool as long as they could have Jesus. And they knew that when Jesus does return, that they would be vindicated. Their suffering would eventually give way to glory. And they knew that when they stood before Jesus, they would hear, well done, good and faithful servant. To which you might scratch your head and go, well, how could this church even know this? Well, they know this because all of this is baked into the heart of the Gospel. Remember verse 10? Christ was raised from the dead. The implication? We will be too! In other words, this life isn't all there is. This life, Scripture says, is a mist. It's a vapor. It's here today and gone tomorrow. Which means that if you are a Christian, right now, by definition, you have one foot in this world and you have one foot in eternity. And we ought to be leaning a certain direction. That's why Christians can suffer. Because we know that this life isn't all there is. Even more glorious? When Christ returns, He will, end of verse 10, deliver us from the wrath to come. You see, that's how you can suffer for the faith, faithfully. because you are utterly convinced, because you have staked your life on Jesus. And so you preach to yourself, my sin has been paid for in the cross of Christ. All my righteousness is not actually mine at all. It's all His. And I belong to Him. He has joined Himself to me so that Jesus and I are so tight that we are inseparable. Before your feet hit the floor in the morning and before your head hits your pillow in the evening, you are persuaded, my debt has been paid. The law's barking has been muted. The accusations of Satan answered. My conscience cleansed. Death has died and Christ is my Savior, not my judge. So many Christians get all tied up in knots and anxious over the idea of the second coming of Christ because they think that Jesus is coming to smack them around. Jesus isn't coming to smack His bride around. He's not a wife beater. And you are persuaded of these gospel truths, not just because they give you warm fuzzies, but because they are clearly taught to us in Holy Scripture. They are bought for us in the death of Jesus, and they are sealed to our souls through the Holy Spirit, and all of this by grace. All that to say, because Christ was exposed to the wrath of God already, for me on the cross. I can confidently and joyfully await his return. Key words being confidently and joyfully. Christian, you will not be subjected to an ounce of wrath on that day. When Christ returns for his bride, he comes not as a warden, but a husband. He comes not with a cold heart and steel handcuffs, but with a warm heart, full of love, pouring out grace upon us. Unless we miss the forest for the trees. Here's the anchor for your soul. You ready? Because you have Christ, and because you have eternal life to look forward to, you can endure, right now, in this life, the temptations, and the trials, and the terrors. Beloved, next time you suffer for the faith, next time you're harassed at school, or you're picked on, or you lose your job because you won't disobey King Jesus, Next time you face opposition from the world for being a committed follower of Jesus Christ, here's what I want you to do. I want you to get in your car, and I want you to drive as fast as you can to the nearest cemetery. I want you to park, I want you to get out, and I want you to walk around. And I want you to walk around without your phone. Walk around and read the headstones. Particularly, look at the numbers on either side of the dash. And I want you to stand there. And I want you to stare. And I want you to ponder. And I want you to meditate. And you are not allowed to leave until this truth is burned into your soul. Life is short. Eternity is long. Hope in Christ. Give up chasing the carrot that is dangled out in front of you. Hope in Jesus. Hope in a new heaven and a new earth. Find your joy in him. I know it's getting late. Let me mention one final thing here about this spiritual DNA. I'll be very brief, I promise. It's also more than apparent that this church was a gospel heralding church. Verse six keys us in. We are told that they became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction. We've already mentioned something about that and what they experienced. The point is they received the word despite that affliction. So the gospel was preached to them, and they embraced Jesus. That much, I trust, we can all relate to. But notice, their receiving of this gospel word reverberated out from them into the community. Look at how verse 8 puts it. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you, in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything. Do you realize what Paul's saying? Paul as a missionary is saying you're putting us out of business, dude. Right, there is a gospel witness in Thessalonica and everyone knows it. How do they know it? How do they know? Because the church is being the church. You see, embedded in all of this is a deeply important principle we need to grasp, one that is part and parcel to the DNA of a healthy church. Here's the principle. What we receive, we release. What we accept, we announce. Beloved, what we hear, we herald. or to cut to the chase, the gospel was never intended to live and die here in these four walls. Rather, the faith is to be nurtured and nourished here, but then it is to grow and move out like teenagers. But in all seriousness, the gospel is meant to be received and then passed on. Let me ask you this, and I really have no intention of dumping on you or of burdening you with guilt. I'm genuinely asking. When is the last time you shared the gospel with someone? I don't mean when is the last time you said that you would pray for someone or when is the last time that you offered to invite somebody to church? You should do those things. Don't get me wrong. You should do those things. But we know that's not the gospel, right? I'm asking, among your family, or your neighbors, or your co-workers, or your mom's group, or whatever the thing is that you are a part of, when is the last time you proclaimed the life-giving message of Jesus Christ? Beloved, it is both my prayer and my plea that we would cultivate an ethos here among ourselves where we recognize our responsibility and that we rejoice in this reality. That Christ intends the gospel not just to come to us, but to go from us, to go forth from you. Could be your school, your in-laws, your neighborhood, the park you frequent, the cubicle you occupy, or the coffee shop you patron. But here's the point. In a very profound sense, that is your mission field. Christ has placed you there to be a gospel witness. And brothers and sisters, that will require us to open our mouths. Let me go after it this way, and then I promise I'll be done. If Paul were alive today, and he was writing a letter to us, would verse eight make it in that letter? Could Paul write, for not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Kennewick and Richland and Pasco, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything." Would that part of the letter make it? Well, beloved, we've spent the morning looking at the DNA of this church. So the question before us is, well, is this stuff true of us? What does our DNA reveal? By God's grace, We are a sin-hating church, a God-honoring church, a Christ-hoping church, and a gospel-heralding church. And here's the good news. Where we're not, we can grow. And even greater news, where we are not, we have a Savior who saves imperfect people. and imperfect churches. Praise God. Join with me in prayer this morning. Our Father, we humble ourselves before you this day, asking that in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son and our Savior, that the proclamation of your word would take root in our hearts. We pray that you would comfort those among us who are disturbed and that you would disturb those among us who are comfortable, that you would do all of this for our good and for your glory. And God's people said, amen.