Well we're in Haggai chapter 1 and Haggai is a message that was given to the remnant of Israel that had returned from their captivity in Babylon and about 50,000 returned. Far less than ultimately were exiled out of Babylon. Some probably 56 years prior to that. Haggai now is appearing and it's 16 years after they've been sent back to Jerusalem and returned to Jerusalem and they had gone back with an initiative or a call to rebuild the temple but 16 years later the temple hasn't been rebuilt and Haggai goes to remind them of what it is they've been commissioned to do and the message of Haggai comes in four separate declarations or prophecies that he gives and we'll be looking at each one of these over a period of time here in our fellowship together over the next few weeks. But now we have the people gathered together, they're in Jerusalem, they're returning from the exile that had taken place for a long time. Many of these individuals had never been to Jerusalem before, before they had actually been born in Babylon. Zerubbabel, who is the leader among them, his name actually means out of Babylon, which means he probably was born in Babylon and he's returning with them to lead them to go and restore the house, the temple of worship in Jerusalem. He's appointed because he's a direct descendant of David and he's sent out to provide this leadership. But there are some that have returned. They would have maybe been in their teens and early 20s when they had left the temple and left Jerusalem when it had been overcome by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon at the high point of the Babylonian empire and the city had been torn to the ground and the temple had been torn to the ground and they had been led away into captivity. Now they've returned to be a part of rebuilding the temple and they see what it looks like and what the condition is and we're told that they wept. when they saw those things as they remembered what it was like. So there were some elder ones that came as well. They would have rather brave because they would have had to travel hundreds of miles just to return to be a part of this remnant that was called upon to reconstruct the temple in Babylon. I'd like you to take your Bibles and go to Ezra chapter one. The first six chapters of Ezra actually correspond with the time in which we are considering here in Haggai, in which Haggai came and spoke. In Ezra chapter one, Ezra first records basically the first group of the remnant that returned with the Zerubbabel coming back into Jerusalem and into Judea to rebuild the temple. And then the last half of Ezra is like 60 to 80 years later when Ezra himself returns to work with the remnant that are still there in Israel but that first group that returns we read about in the very first verse and second verse of Ezra chapter 1 and there we have recorded for us actually the first three verses we have recorded for us the edict that was given to them to send them back Babylon has fallen in 536 BC King Cyrus, the head of the Medo-Persian Empire, has conquered Lydia, and Media, and then Babylonia, and he's established, and he's taken over the empire that Nebuchadnezzar had established under Babylon, and he's set up his rule as the Persian Empire for the Medo-Persian Empire now, and the Babylonian Empire now has been superseded by the Medo-Persian Empire. And Cyrus, now having taken over this empire in 536, gives, at that time, this edict that we read about in Ezra chapter one, verses one through three. In the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be filled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, the king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing. Thus says the king of Persia, The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. And so King Cyrus, as soon as he takes over a position of reigning over all of the nations and establishing this Persian, this Medo-Persian empire, which by the way, from this point forward, lasts for over 200 years, and it doesn't cease to be the dominant empire in the world until Alexander the Great comes along and establishes his Greek empire over the same region. The first thing we see that Cyrus does, or one of the first things he does is give this edict to send this small, fractured, unpowerful group of Jews back to Jerusalem because he says, actually the Lord God of Israel has provoked me. to send them back to build a temple in the place, and he says that this God is God, he is God, calls me to send them back to Jerusalem. Now understanding how that happened, how Cyrus would make that kind of determination is an expression of the great miracle that took place here. It's a tremendous miracle that God would return the Jews back to Jerusalem by this edict of Cyrus. We need to understand how that happened. It's actually explained to us by Josephus, who was a historian during the time of the Lord Jesus, some 500 years after this event. Josephus shares with us something of the oral tradition that was passed down to explain why it was that Cyrus did this. After Cyrus came and had finished his conquest and taken over Babylon, Josephus tells us that he was led and presented with the holy scriptures that are found in the Old Testament or the books of the Hebrews. And there he was taken and shown the prophecy of Isaiah that was made 200 years, 200 years before that time, where Isaiah prophesied of a time in which the nation of Israel will be led away into exile in Babylon. And Isaiah prophesied that there would be a moment in time in which they would be returned and they would be called upon to return. You'll find it in Isaiah chapter 44. And I want you to take your Bibles there. I want you to imagine that you're Cyrus, and you've just completed this massive conquest that historians write about as one of the greatest conquests ever. With a small band of, a small army of Persians, Cyrus lays down the Mede Empire, the Lydian Empire, and the Babylonian Empire, and establishes this world-wide rule that's so powerful and so dominant that it lasts for over 200 years. Cyrus has finished his conquest, he's established himself in Babylon, and at this time, the scriptures of the ancient Jews, or the Jews, are opened before him, and they're read to him, and shared with him, and this is what he reads. A prophecy 200 years before that time. In verse 21 of Isaiah 44, and we're going to read on through verse 45, so I'm going to read quite a ways into the prophecy here. I want you to read it as if you're reading it from Cyrus' perspective for the very first time. This proud man who feels that he's the one who's brought about this conquest, who feels the authority of his power and his might, that no one can stand before him. Remember, that was the attitude of Nebuchadnezzar before that. No one can stand before me. Everybody has bowed before me and God humbles Nebuchadnezzar. to such an extent that Nebuchadnezzar comes out of this profound humility where he goes raving mad for seven years, and when he finally comes out to it as humility, he says that the God of Israel is God of all the universe, of all the world. He is the one true God. The same way now Cyrus comes in. He's conquered. He's defeated the Babylonian empire. He's the one now who's triumphant and powerful, and now he comes before this scripture that was written 200 years before. Here's what it says. Remember these things, O Jacob and Israel. You are my servant. I formed you, you are my servant. O Israel, you shall not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like a mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it. Shout, O depths of the earth. Break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it. For the Lord has redeemed Jacob and will be glorified in Israel. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb, I am the Lord who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish, who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says to Jerusalem, she shall be inhabited, and to the cities of Judah, they shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins. who says to the deep, be dry, I will dry up your rivers, who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose, saying of Jerusalem, she shall be built, and of the temple, your foundation shall be laid. What a shock to a system, 200 years before. Isaiah had pronounced and proclaimed and prophesied the return of the nation of Israel from their bondage in Babylonia back to Jerusalem at the decree and command of Cyrus. And his name is given and written 200 years before his name, the great Cyrus, is written by the prophet Isaiah. He goes on to read, thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed. I did this. I decreed it through Cyrus. I will go before you and level the exalted places. I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places. No one was wealthier, nothing more wealthier than the mysterious wealth of Babylon, and I'll give all of that wealth to you. God had decreed it 200 years before. that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name." 200 years out of the past God is now speaking directly, directly to Cyrus. for the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen. God does all of this for the sake of Israel. I call you by your name. I name you though you do not know me. I am the Lord and there is no other. Beside me there is no God. I equip you though you do not know me. That people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me. I am the Lord and there is no other. I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all things. I encourage you to go on and keep reading it. If you go on and keep reading this chapter, 1st chapter 45 to the end, you'll see it's like a gospel track. It's like an expression of God's salvation and God's redemption that is made available even to Cyrus, and it comes to a conclusion in verse 22. Turn to Me, it says, and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn, for My mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return. To Me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear allegiance. Only in the Lord it shall be said of Me, Our righteousness and strength to Him shall come. and be ashamed all who are incensed against Him. In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory." Cyrus reads it. At the pinnacle of his conquest, God humbles him and reveals to him that 200 years before, he had planned it in order to use him as an agent to restore the nation of Israel to their place of worship, that God might be exalted, and so that in all the nations of the earth, he might be glorified and lifted up, and that an invitation might go out so that every knee in every place should bow to his glory and his honor and worship him. How miraculous, how wonderful. And so now, The remnant that are in Israel at this time, because of the forceful decree of Cyrus, must know. They must know of these miraculous events. They must know of how this turned and how this took place and how this was fulfilled. It was during this time in which Israel was in captivity in Babylon that they learned to preserve and care for and watch over the sacred scriptures. It was there that the various scribes rose up and the class of the scribes rose up to gather together and preserve and watch over those scriptures and teach them and instruct them. It was there that the nation of Israel learned to turn away from idols, to worship the one true God and to forsake those idols. They would have known of this great miraculous event that brought them back for the purpose of rebuilding, rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. And yet, when the time came, they didn't do it. When they first arrived, the first thing they did was they established the altar so that they might offer sacrifices before God. And then, immediately, they began to build and to lay the foundation for the temple, and they were quick in doing all of those things. But there were a group of individuals who had taken up residence in Jerusalem and in Israel at that time that we call the Samaritans. They had been brought into Israel, into Samaria, during the reign of the Assyrians that came before the Babylonian Empire. Assyrians had a way of dealing with the people that they conquered. They took them out of the land they lived in, put them in another land, and then they took people from another land and brought them into the lands that they conquered. And they had brought in this people that we would now call the Samaritans. And the Samaritans had then gone to, because Nebuchadnezzar, the empire that overtook the Assyrian empire, Nebuchadnezzar followed their same practice. He would take those he conquered and take them to another place and he took the Jews out of Israel and the tribe of Judah and Benjamin out of Judah and he took them into Babylon. The Samaritans came up and filled in that place and occupied it, and they were there when the remnant returned. They wanted to help the remnant to rebuild the temple, and the remnant said, no, this is something that God has given to us, and by decree of Cyrus, God has given to us to rebuild, and you can't help us in this task, and they resented that. So they began to write letters to the various ministers within the nation and within the rule of Cyrus' kingdom seeking to bring accusations against the Jews. They resisted him in a number of different ways and they slowed down the work by this protest and this discouraged the Jews that were there at that time and so the Jews stopped They stopped the work that they had begun in rebuilding the temple. This miraculous awakening where God had so tremendously set them apart for that work And they're laid aside from the work because they're pestered by the Samaritans. And by the way, there is no evidence in scripture that Cyrus ever rescinded his commandment. In fact, we know that the law of the Medes and Persians can't be rescinded once they're declared even by the king. It was established. but because of being pestered in this way, they decided not to continue the work. And so now, only two years after they had gone back under this miraculous event, only two years after they had initially laid the foundations and built up the altar sacrifice and laid the foundation for the temple, only two years after it, they've stopped the work completely, and now for 14 years, The work is not continued on the temple. And Haggai returns now to speak a prophetic word to the people. There's a little bit of the background of where we're at when we come to the book of Haggai. And out of that, let's make some applications and see how it applies to the life of the church as well. And the first thing I would want you to see here is the tremendous miracle of God's work and God's kingdom and for ourselves of God's church. the great planning and orchestration of a sovereign God working upon the ages too and working throughout all history and working through these massive empires and these great egos, Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus and God weaving it all together in such a way that he would fulfill his purposes. His design was first and foremost to bring the nation of Israel into exile to punish them but at the same time in that punishment to establish a basis to bring his message and his fame and his name to the ends of the earth. And he did it. He brought two great kings. The greatest king of the Babylon empire was Nebuchadnezzar. The greatest king of the Medo-Persian empire was Cyrus. Both of them are brought to acknowledge that there is only one true God, the God of Israel. God orchestrates it, God puts it all together. And then after all of that, God has a plan after he's dealt with his people and brought them into correction of bringing them back so that he might establish this place of worship in Jerusalem and all of it by his miraculous sovereign orchestrating. What a miracle. And the same is true of the church. Our existence was prophesied as well. The outpouring of the Spirit upon the body of Christ was prophesied by Joel. It was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 after Jesus Christ had risen and ascended. And after he told his disciples to tarry until they were filled with Holy Spirit, And that moment the church was born as the Spirit came upon the church and they were filled with tongues of fire and they began to speak in all the known languages that were there present in Jerusalem at that time, not in their own language, not in the Aramaic that they had all learned and knew as simple fishermen in the region of Galilee, but now these Galilean fishermen went out on the streets filled with the Spirit and then they began to speak in the language of all the people from all the different countries that surrounded Israel. Why? Because God was still interested in the nations. And God was to be exalted through His church that He was creating in that moment. And their job from that point on was to fulfill the mission that He gave the church, which was to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was to establish the presence of people worshiping in every place, knowing God, finding God, discovering God, and making Him known. The mission of the church is to make disciples. Jesus Christ had given the commission 10 days before this outpouring took place. Go into all the world and make disciples. Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What did he commission? He commissioned a great endeavor of world evangelization. He commissioned to the church a great purpose or great duty to instruct people in his teaching so that they might become knowledgeable disciples and growing disciples of Jesus Christ. And He'd teach them that they would immerse themselves in the life of God, which is the essence of our worship. Every time we worship God, we are giving expression that our life is immersed in Him. And all of our life comes from Him and it flows back in worship. But you cannot get to that expression of worship until you've been obedient in the effort of evangelism, until you are moving forward in the call of God to grow up believers in the faith, disciple them, learning what Jesus has taught and instructing one another. That's the purpose of the church. And then out of that rises our worship. We say we are immersed in this God of salvation and this great Redeemer and this great miracle took place 2,000 years ago on the day of Pentecost. Much more profound than what happened when Cyrus sent those remnant back to begin the work of rebuilding the temple. But along the same lines. The principle is the same. Never forget this. Never forget this. Last night when I looked at the video image in the middle of the night of eight to 10 people praying and singing together in some dark little village in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, was witnessing the miracle of the church that God has created and raised up in order to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth and raise up disciples and out of that discipleship and out of that commitment, offer to God the fruit of their labor, rejoicing what God had been enabled them to discover for themselves and realize for themselves but also to share with others and worship Him and glorify Him. We are here because of a great miracle. We are here because of something God has done that's tremendous. Ever since the church was born, Satan has sought to resist it and destroy it and stamp it out. He sought to destroy the church while it was in its cradle. Through tremendous, untold, unimaginable persecution, and yet here we are. And then when he couldn't kill it, he tried to drown it in a sea of diluted and evil men who took their positions of leadership in the church by entwining it into the political intrigues of the nations, and yet here we are. And our commission hasn't changed. And it was established in that great moment, that great miracle in which he gave birth to the church. To us has been extended the sovereign work of God that God was giving to the people of Israel and He gives it to us as now. We are the people in this day and age that are bringing the message of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth so that every mini would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. We're here as a miracle. We exist as a miracle of God. It doesn't matter how big you are. It doesn't matter how many people are attending. We're here as a miracle of God, but we're here with a mission and a duty that God calls us to and that we're to follow and we're to obey. Let me simply say this now. This is something that needs to be recognized as well. There was a reason why The nation of Israel, the small band that had been sent back to Jerusalem was discouraged and stopped their work and it's this, they discovered after initial excitement, after the excitement of arriving there with their decree from Cyrus that had been written out and having been able to establish the altar and then laying out the foundation of the temple that they were gonna rebuild, there's a reason why they stopped and it's that they experienced resistance. They discovered that it was going to call upon them a sustained work in the midst of resistance and temptation and those who would come against them and threaten them and hardship and they became discouraged. It became discouraging to them and for other reasons. but we have to admit and we have to acknowledge that there was a danger coming, but eventually, when Nehemiah will come later to help them rebuild the walls around Jerusalem, as they rebuilt the walls, they had to rebuild the walls while they were each holding spears in one hand and doing the work with the other hand, because there was such profound resistance against them. And we have to believe that that's the kind of resistance that this remnant was facing as well, and they were vulnerable. There weren't very many of them, and there were a lot of the Samaritans in the land at that time. The Samaritans didn't seem to want to listen to the decree of Cyrus. Instead, they were telling lies and sending it back and bribing people in his administration, trying to do everything they could to halt that work. They became discouraged. They stopped, after two years they stopped. But here's another lesson to learn. We exist as a great miracle. The church rises up because of a great miracle that God has done in giving birth to us. And we are, in every place, we are, in every place where you find the church, we share this legacy of this miraculous work of God. And Christ has decreed, what did Jesus say of the church? I will build my church And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. You know what that means? The gates of hell are pressing hard against it. I'll build it. The ministry of building God's church is hard. And where Satan has thought that he was successful in stopping the progress of the church, At the point of time in which we're trying to, in a sense, reconstruct or rebuild the church, it's harder still. Once he somehow gains an advantage and he thinks he's brought down the flag of the church, he resists all the more in letting it raise itself. I have a burden for the church today, and I'm not just speaking of our church. I'm speaking of the church here in North America, but actually it's the church worldwide. I have a burden that I think is ongoing. COVID-19 has brought about, and I think it's a master stroke of the enemy, unwillingly or willingly, it's brought about the limitation and even the complete restriction of the body of Christ gathering together regularly for worship, for instruction, and for prayer, the very things that we were commissioned to do. For the last year almost, there are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of churches that have not met to learn the teaching of the apostles together, to fellowship together, to break bread together. to pray together. That's the pattern that began on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2 verse 42 tells us that the church after this gathered regularly. They continued in these things. The apostles doctrine, the fellowship with one another, the breaking of bread, the fellowship that was based on rejoicing in the common life they had in Jesus Christ together, the breaking of bread that is the rehearsing and remembering of the body that he offered up to bring the forgiveness of sins and the blood that he shed for the forgiveness of sins and It says for prayer. They didn't all discover that they could go to their homes and just do church online. They didn't all discover that they could all go to their homes into their closets and that their prayers would be just as powerful in their closets. They were drawn together to worship and pray and seek God's face. And even before Pentecost came, they tarried together in one place. As much as they could, they wanted to be together because they understood that there was power and there was energy and God's Spirit was present in the united prayers of His people, the united instruction of His people, through tremendous persecution. The church held so dear this fellowship that at the risk of life and limb, they gathered and met. At the risk of being thrown to the lions, they gathered and met. They met in caves and they met in the catacombs or graves of people and they met in secret groves and they met in hidden places. I've met people who've met in that type of situation. who've been forced to meet in those situations. Forced, I say, because they were determined to meet. Forced to meet in those situations in countries in Africa where there was aggressive persecution against the Christians. I remember sitting down with an old man who had been in a gulag for years because he was the leader of a church, a Baptist church in Russia. And he had only recently been released. But he shared with me how they gathered together in secret groves, and people would gather together and come at separate times, but it was all arranged that they might meet together in order to fulfill their great desire to be instructed together, and to pray together, and to worship together. It's gone on out throughout the history of the church. But in the last year, Because of our fear, or the fear that we've been made to have, that some among us might become, fall prey to a sickness that falls upon a small percentage of individuals, the church has ceased meeting, and not simply here in America, but all over the world. It's not simply that we've not been gathering at churches, we've not been gathering at our homes. God forbid, we thought, that we should take the chance of bringing this contagion into our homes. and we've not been praying together. Around the world, they've not been praying together. And you have to imagine and think that this has had a tremendous negative impact on the work of God. God is still working. Christ has said he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it, but the enemy must think that he's laid a master stroke against us. We've not been in Babylon in exile so long, but we've been exiled from one another, evacuated from our places of worship. But we're coming now to that time in which the government is gonna blow the horn. The government is gonna say, now it's safe for you to go back to your bars, it's safe for you to go back to your sports venues, it's safe for you to go back to your concerts, it's safe for you all to go back to your restaurants that you like to eat at, and so the faithful in the church will also say, it must be safe for us to go back and meet together, worship together, and pray together, and we'll gather again. I'm so thankful that our church has been able to find a way to keep meeting since May. But they'll gather together. But there are churches, I know, there are thousands of churches, not only in America, but around the world that are still not meeting. Many of them are waiting, and most countries around the world look to get their cue from America. So when we blow the horn, they'll start blowing the horn, you'll see. And what I fear is that less will return that went out. It will be a remnant that will be brought back together. But when they gather together to worship again, it still will be a great miracle of God. It will still be a great orchestration of God's hand. And before them will be a profound work. The work will be to reconstruct the church so that it might raise up people who know the faith and live the faith and bring others to the faith and so bring glory to God. The church will have to renew its hand and its purpose of why they're designed to be together. It wasn't simply that we might enjoy one another, it's nice. It wasn't simply so that we might boost ourselves once a week with some good singing, which is nice, but it's so that together we might be a part of the great commission to lay the foundation and build up the temple of God in this place and in this land and around the world. That would be our call. And when we come to that point, here's what I want you to see and we'll talk about it next week. We're gonna discover that it's hard. It's hard to reconstruct those things that we've left off for whatever reason, for whatever the reason the enemy has caused. We'll need the Spirit to come upon us and help us and aid us. We'll need to have Him give us courage and resistance, and we can't be dissuaded from our task by the resistance or the lack of progress because it'll be slowed. We can't say, as the Jews said at that time, now is not the time, and go into a delay in the things that God has given us. We'll have to be faithful to carry on. We'll talk about the great encouragement that Haggai gave to the people at that time. We haven't got there yet. The great message that Haggai was sent to give to the people, but it was a call for them to remember the miracle of their rising up, and the great honor and privilege that God had given them, and to resist the temptation to retreat and back away from that work, which even as they retreated and backed away from that work, they didn't back away from seeking the progress of their own lives. They were still busy at building their own house. They had found a reason to say, well, we can't be about God's work, but we can't be about our own comforts. That's gonna have to be shed, what Haggai shares with them. You consider your ways, he says, in verse seven of Haggai chapter one. You consider your ways and see what has been your priority over the last 14 years. You remember what God has miraculously done. You remember the body that you're a part of because of the great miracle that God has performed and the great commission that God has given you to do. Get back to it and get back to it. Go up, he says to the mountain. Go up to do these things again. And I think this is where we're at in our church. It's time for us to go up. Go up to the service that God has given us, to rebuild, to reach individuals, to reach lost people, to pray for them and our seed for them and bring our witness before them, to call them to a place where they can grow and know him. to find those who have wandered away, who we've not seen for some time, to seek to compel them to gather once again together in this place to worship, to go out to seek more and more for the Savior. It's our great privilege. We're here because of a great miracle of God, a great miracle of God, and we want to be obedient to Him. Let's bow our heads and let's pray. How wonderful, how glorious are your works and your ways, O God. How true to yourself and your goals to be exalted in all the earth. What a great honor and privilege that in the pursuit of your own glory, which by the way is the only thing that brings a blessing to the nations. The only thing that brings a blessing to our world, the only thing that begins to allow it to function with any sense of balance is when God, you are at the center of all things. And we in your church have been commissioned to bring that message that puts God at the middle of all things and calls all men to return to him that There is forgiveness to be found in Him, there is redemption to be found in Him, that a provision has been made to cover and wash their sins and make them new. That there's a great work to be done to glorify Him among all people that gives us meaning and purpose and wraps us up and brings us into the movement of a God who rules over all the ages. And we, your people, are a part of this. We're at the center of it, how we glorify you, how we praise you, how we thank you for the opportunity to work with Ignacio Morelis and Maylene and with Mark and Cheryl and the work of that little mission institute in Huatacoche, Ecuador, in the Nino Huache Mission Institute. where indigenous young men and women are coming and learning how to serve the church and how to plant churches and how to reach lost people and then are being sent back after only a couple of years to do that work in dark, remote places. Oh God, how we thank you for that. Lord, help us to take as seriously the work that you've given us, to stand for you and represent you in this neighborhood, in this city, in our nation. and realize that we're here by a great privileged miracle that you've bestowed upon us. And that at every place where we gather, we reflect that miracle. And so let us be found faithful to you. glorying in the salvation that comes to us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, glorying in such a way that we give ourselves to His priorities above our own. We ask this in Jesus' precious name. May this govern the decisions we make for our lives, answering the great miracle of our salvation and the great mission that you've placed upon your church. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.